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So, you know, they are seeing him as a good ally in this fight. Also, you know, echoing the message we heard from joe biden in that Rare Oval Office address. You know, i think those lines of communication remain open, but i think this is something that Mitch Mcconnell just believes in a similar fashion to joe biden, and theyre happy to have someone from the other party be a spokesperson and advocate for this significant aid package. All right. Well see what happens in the capitol today. White house reporter for the Washington Post, tyler pager, thank you, as always. Thanks to all of you for getting up Way Too Early on this tuesday morning. Morning joe starts right now. Welcome to morning joe. It is 6 00 on the east coast, oz yau take a live look at washington, d. C. It is tuesday, october 24th. This morning, for the first time, were hearing from a hostage freed by hamas. Well play for you comments from one of the elderly women released yesterday by the Terrorist Group. Meanwhile, the efforts to free more hostages appears to be the main factor in delaying israels Ground Invasion into gaza. Well go through that new reporting. Also ahead, the very latest from capitol hill on the speakers race, which now stands at eight republican candidates, all of whom in the past supported overturning the 2020 Election Results. Terrific. Along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, jonathan lemire. President emeritus on the council of Foreign Relations, Richard Haass. Special correspondent for bbc news, katty kay. Before willie launching into the top story, cant they come up with someone who believes joe biden won the election to be speaker of the house. Eight Election Deniers, seriously . Now its down to six, so a healthy margin in 2023. Six of eight, healthy margin. We thank god for Tender Mercies. Speaking of thankfulness, two more hostages released yesterday. Of course, so many still held. Axios reporting this morning that israel is willing to hold back on possible invasions while these negotiations still move forward. You know, well take whatever good news we can get out of this grim, grim situation and story. Its just extraordinary that this Terrorist Group is Holding People in their 80s, releasing these women, and leaving their two husbands in their 80s behind. So brutal. Yeah, thats reportedly been the counsel from the United States government to israel, too, is wait a little bit. Lets see if we can get the hostages out before you go in. Hamas did release two more civilians who had been held the last two weeks and more now in gaza. Two elderly women freed yesterday. They were handed over to Israel Defense forces, taken to the hospital, and then reunited with their families. The womens husbands, as joe said, who are both in their 80s, are still being held captive. They were kidnapped from their homes when hamas first attacked on october 7th. In a Press Conference moments ago, one of the women, with the help of her daughter, shared details of her capture. Shes saying that many, many people, a swarm of people came through the fence. The fence cost 2. 5 billion she can shackles, and it didnt help even a little bit. My mom was taken on the back of a motorbike with her legs on one side and her head on another side. She was taken through the plowed fields with men in front, on one side, and a man behind her. While she was being taken, she was hit by sticks, by yeah, people. Until they reached the tunnels, there, they wanted for a few kilometers on the wet ground. There are huge network of tunnels underneath. It looks like a spider web. So this is the second hostage release since the war began. An American Mother and daughter were freed on friday. Still, israeli officials believe more than 200 people remain captive inside gaza. Hamas, qatar, egypt, and israel have been Negotiating Proposal to release a larger group of hostages in exchange for a steady flow of humanitarian aid into gaza. Thats according to three officials familiar with the talks who tell the Wall Street Journal. Hamas is demanding israel allow Fuel Deliveries into gaza, but israel fears the Terrorist Group may divert the supply and use for their own Military Purposes or to launch attacks into israel. Lets bring in nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel, live in jerusalem this morning. Richard, what more do we know about the release of these two women, one 79 and one 85, and this broader strategy by hamas . Reporter so you just played some of that extraordinary Press Conference that we just heard. An 85yearold woman, tough woman, who just was released last night and is already speaking to reporters, describing her experiences, speaking through the help of a Family Member. She described how she was taken on the back of that motorcycle after hamas fighters broke into her kibbutz, started looting. She was thrown on the back of this bike and then taken into these tunnels. She said she was kept there with other prisoners. That hamas seemed well prepared. They had shampoo and other toiletries ready. They replaced and cleaned the toilets. They chose not to discuss politics with her. She even shook their hands when she left, not because she liked them or enjoyed this experience, of course not, but because they treated her decently. An extraordinary account of her ordeal. Of course, israel says there are about 220 hostages who remain in gaza, still in captivity, including the husbands of these two women. I know that negotiations to free more hostages are ongoing. There had been some hope yesterday to free a larger group, and those discussions are continuing through the mediation of qatar and egypt. Overall, the military and humanitarian situation is still heading toward escalation with israel continuing its air strikes, talking about 400 targets, more than 400 targets struck in the last 24 hours in gaza. Aid workers in gaza say unless they can get that fuel in of course, there is a concern itll be diverted to hamas but aid workers from a variety of organizations are saying unless some fuel can get in, generators are going to run out of their Reserve Supplies at hospitals, then incubators, respirators and other equipment wont be able to function. Diplomatic efforts under way. French president macron arrived, so we are seeing diplomatic activity. So far, no breakthroughs. Richard, publicly anyway, the Biden Administration is saying the idf, Prime Minister netanyahu, they make their own military decisions. At nbc, were reporting Behind The Scenes, the Biden Administration is advising israel to hold back on its Ground Invasion, to get these hostages out first and to get humanitarian aid in there. Whats your sense of those negotiations, and how long will israel really wait . Well, i think were seeing a bit of posturing here. The israel military, if it wanted to go in and was fully determined that it needed to go in, it would. It would not listen to the United States. It would not be held back if it had a plan and it felt the time was right to execute it. It would go ahead. I think the United States as its closest ally is urging caution, is doing so in a way that is publicly acknowledged. That does give the Israeli Government a little bit of breathing room. The people here are angry. They are furious. They want to see a Military Response, and they want to see it now. Now, if this government can say, we are attacking, we are working, we are freeing hostages, and our allies are pushing for time, it does give them a bit more space to come up with a plan. Going into gaza the not going to be easy. Just going back to the tunnel story, where these hostages are being held. I spoke to a senior hamas official yesterday who said the hostages are being held in multiple locations. I personally have been in tunnels in gaza, not these Fighting Tunnels and smuggling tunnels, but the entire gaza strip is flat. Its along the sea. The ground is quite soft and sandy. For years, palestinians have been Digging Networks of tunnels. They are extraordinarily deep. You have one tunnel leading to another. There are many different layers to them. It is an entire labyrinth under gaza. In order to deal with that, it is going to take not just two weeks of planning, like israel has had right now in response to these attacks that took place on october 7th. Theres nothing quit and easy about this. Thats for sure. Nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel in jerusalem. Thank you so much. Mika . As richard reported, the Biden Administration is advising israel to delay a Ground Invasion of gaza to allow for more time for Hostage Negotiations and humanitarian aid to reach there. Thats according to four u. S. Officials. However, officials stress the u. S. Is not dictating operations for the Israeli Defense forces. Yet, the pentagon has sent a three Star Marine General and other officers to help advise the israelis on the challenges in fighting an urban war. This comes as Senior Administration officials tell the New York Times, the white house is concerned there is a lack of military objectives in gaza and the idf is not yet ready to launch a Ground Invasion with a plan that can work. Of course, thats the key, richard, a plan that can work. Weve been hearing so much about how difficult it would be for israel to go into gaza, to achieve what Military Goals they end up having, which takes us really back to your Wall Street Journal oped, where you talk about a twophased approach. The fact that theyre not quite ready to do that, the fact that negotiations continue to move forward, the fact that joe biden went to the region and said, hold on, dont make the same mistakes we made after 9 11, it really whats happening right now, thus far it could change in an hour fits into your twophased approach, which is, first, stabilize the situation, make sure that a bad situation doesnt deteriorate further. Secondly, you do that with peace in mind. Do it in such a way, David Ignatius has also said this, where peace with the saudis is possible, peace with palestinians who want to turn their back on terrorism also possible. So given what you wrote this weekend, where we are today, how do you think things are moving forward . Its interesting, joe. Things have slowed down a little bit. What were seeing is that the hostages by the way, the hostages were not somehow a sideshow for hamas. Hostages were an integral part of their strategy. What were seeing is the slow release of them. Hamas is trying to buy time. Thats one situation. Obviously, israel is loathe to go in while hostages are being released in decent health. The United States is worried about american hostages. That slows things down. Theres all the negotiations, as you said, about aid. But i think what quietly is happening, as u. S. Defense officials are spending a lot of time with their israeli counterparts, theyre saying, do you understand how hard this is . Theres two phases, and youve been talking about it here, the military phase of urban, closehand combat. Its a nightmare, particularly since hamas will know the terrain better than anybody. Then what The Americans are saying, its a little from our experience in places like afghanistan, just say were wrong in youre right. Say things go a little better than we anticipate. What then . To whom do you hand off authority . Theres no other authority right now other than hamas. Theres no one else in gaza. The idea that the people who cant run the west bank are going to run gaza is preposterous. The egyptians dont want a part in it. The u. N. Is feckless. The idea you can walk in, hand it over, and walk out, its a pipe dream. Thats the israel problem. My hunch is, emotions are intense, but whats happening, i think, is the hard thinking of Foreign Policy has kicked in. Think about it. Could you imagine anything worse than israel than it went in big, then three weeks or three months later, they said, this isnt working . That would almost add a failure on top of a failure. I think youre having a little bit of slowing down here. Well, i mean, the guarantee, even if they have a, quote, successful Military Operation in gaza, theyre guaranteed to find themselves back in the same situation they were in in 2005 where they said, we dont want to govern this place. Theyll have to leave. Again, this goes back to what we have been talking about, fight the war with peace in mind. Right. They have to fight the war against hamas in such a way that other arab countries will come in with the United Nations, with the United States, with other parties, and have a Peacekeeping Force there if thats possible. Katty, there is a real give and take, though, here. Lets say a push and pull. You have the israeli people, rightly, enraged by the rapes, the mass atrocities, the beheadings, the execution of babies, the burning of children. You have that. Where the israelis dont want to sit back and wait, they want justice. Then you have on the other side the World Community thats sort of pulling back at israel, telling them to wait, telling them to be patient. Things, obviously, are going to get even more frayed right now, arent they . Yeah. I mean, it is interesting. You have president macron of france flying into israel today, the latest in a string of World Leaders to go and try to do two things. Talk about hostages and try to put some restraint on the israelis, particularly when it comes to those images in gaza. I spoke to General Petraeus last week, and you discussed him on the show yesterday. He lays out that challenge of, you know, clear, hold, build. Each one of those three steps in the case of gaza is infinitely harder than it was even in mosul for General Petraeus. Clearing gaza is really difficult. Holding it, again, what do you do with this . They dont want to hold on to this. Building it. I think its interesting, you have a coordinated message publicly and privately coming from The Americans at the moment. That statement by barack obama last night was very clear to the israelis, that, you know, we stand with you, but if you have all of these images of, you know, potentially, im hearing, Tens Of Thousands of people being killed in gaza during a land invasion, then that could set back the israeli cause, echoing Tom Friedmans column. President biden himself saying, listen, are you really ready . Are these achievable aims . The message from The Americans and the europeans at the moment, be careful, as you plan your next steps. Right. Quick followup on that, katty. It seems that, obviously, europeans have always been further away from the israeli position than americans have taken. That said, post isis, isis attacks in paris and whats happened in the uk, i find it fascinating that you actually have rishi sunak, the british Prime Minister, actually pushing hard to stop pro hamas demonstrations in london that are chanting, jihad. Things that, you know, weve all seen. I know youve seen when youre in london before, but it seems to me that at least that government is moving a bit more aggressively toward the israeli position. Yeah, and the brits have moved naval assets into the region, as well, so theyre very much in lock step. The government is very much in lock stop. There is some disconnect between the governments and the people. Youve had very Big Pro Palestinian demonstrations in france. Youve had Big Pro Palestinian demonstrations in london. If you look at the Domino Effect of this, of any kind of big scale invasion of gaza, even the atrocities, you know, the killings were seeing and the suffering were seeing in gaza at the moment, it gets much ive just come back from london. It gets much more play in the European Press than it does in the American Press even. The americans are trying to cover it, too, but the dominos will be the arab world gets impatient with the israelis, loses faith with the israelis, the europeans lose faith with the israelis, then the fear would be The Americans do, too, if this Ground Invasion were to go on for a long time and we were to see, night after night, images of palestinians being bombed in gaza. Right. Certainly, those images could further sway public opinion. Administration officials in washington ive spoken with the last couple days, they note that israel has built this 300,000 plus reservist forge near the border, and theres only so long you can keep them there. There are logistical and economic impacts. At a certain point, they have to go. But israel is listening. U. S. Officials tell me theyre very careful, theyre not dictating Military Strategy. They want to make that very clear. There is a three Star Marine General over there now, and other top officials advising israel as to what the fight may hold ahead when they do go in and how difficult it will be. There is a sense here, senior biden aides tell me, because the president has been so forthright with his support for israel, going to telaviv, delivering speech after speech here in the United States backing the israeli cause, hes bought some currency there. Israel may be more inclined to listen to him. They feel like hes bought in with them, and, therefore, theyre more willing to listen to his message of take it slow. Be patient. Do the right thing. Of course, the decision to go and how big to go, itll be israels and israels alone, joe and mika. There would have been a time when the United States would not have felt itself to be in a position to sell the israelis how to fight wars in urban centers because of their experience and the problems with gaza. Over the past 20 years, of course, in iraq especially, afghanistan, when you look at what happened in our battle in mosul to clear out isis, out of mosul, that is something that we understand. General petraeus talked about it. You know, youre Talking Street By street, building by building, room by room. Experience and lessons learned. Also with the french president coming in, we have the american officials there, it doesnt its helping the slowdown. Thats not going to happen with them there, the invasion. That its done right. As richard has said, David Ignatius has said, that with a goal, with a purpose. A war against hamas is done with two objectives. One, to not destabilize the entire region and to destroy hamas, and, two, with an eye toward peace after it is over. Were back in 60 seconds with the very latest on the speaker mess on capitol hill. Also, some more very strange comments on the Campaign Trail by donald trump. Is he okay . Not sure. Morning joe continues in just a minute. With fastsigns, Brew Signature Flavor into every sip and sign. Fastsigns. Make your statement. He hits his mark center stage and is crushed by a baby grand piano. Youre replacing me . Customize and save with liberty bibberty. He doesnt even have a mustache. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. We wasted three weeks, and this was a dumb move by the members of congress. Many are on my committee. I like at least six of the eight. At the end of the day, they had no plan. They had no plan. Larry, this could stretch out another two or three weeks. This is unfortunate, and, you know, im ashamed that were in this position. Hopefully well find someone that can get 217 votes soon. Now, ive gotta say, willie thats experience and insight. If james comer is saying its a dumb move, like, he trademarked dumb move. Mmhmm, got that. Hes talking about a paton on dumb moves. You can scan it. Its a mess. I like how he said, i like six of the eight. Quick math in the head. Theres two names he couldnt bring himself to give false praise about. Yeah, to say this is a mess is an understatement. Weve been over two weeks now without a speaker of the house, with important business in front of us. Now, at 9 00 this morning, short time from now, republicans are going to have an internal vote again to see who they want to be the next nominee. Thats three weeks to the day after Kevin Mccarthy was kicked out of his job. Candidate forum held last night. Nine republicans vying for the speakership were given the opportunity to answer questions from fellow lawmakers, after which one dropped out. Were down to eight. Six of the remaining eight candidates voted to overturn the 2020 president ial Election Results. Only congressman tom emmer and austin scott did not, though they signed on to a texas lawsuit to decertify, so theyre not totally clean on this either. That was a brief supporting the texas lawsuit that would have invalidated the Election Results in four key states. Lets bring in congressional investigations reporter for the Washington Post, jackie alemany. Jackie, where are we as we wake up now three weeks after mccarthy lost his job . Yeah, were here again waiting for the third round of the speaker candidacy to take place. Youre going to see members today, after they made their pitch last night, these eight members up for an actual vote Behind Closed Doors. These events, this house gop conference is what they call it when everyone meets in the house basement in a closed door meeting, the entire conference. Usually rare events but now theyre common occurrences, where we wait in the hallways to see who might emerge as the speaker designee. It is unclear who it is going to be. Right now, we have tom emmer, the congressman from minnesota, the fifth highest Ranking Member of the house conference. He is the likely frontrunner. He has a little bit of baggage. He is one of the few members in the running who is not an Election Denier, which has dismayed former President Donald Trump who called him out in a rally over the weekend. Then theres people like Byron Donalds, austin scott. Byron donalds is a younger 44yearold lawmaker from florida who is also actually caught a surprising amount of traction. Some lawmakers are worried he is a bit too green. This is only his second term. He has gained some support across the idealogical spectrum. All of these member, these candidates, the eight of them, have signed a pledge from congressman mike flood, that theyre ultimately going to support whoever the winner is today. Well see if that ultimately is able to take the house to the floor vote, to vote on one of these candidates. That still feels pretty far away, so were taking it meeting by meeting right now. You know, let me bring in Mike Barnicle. Mike, this is such a crisis. Its a crisis not only for the republicans in the house, its a crisis for americans. Its a crisis that has global implications. You have chairman mike mccaul, who knows something or another about world events, saying this. Quote, the world is on fire. This is so dangerous what we are doing, what his party is doing. It empowers and emboldens our adversaries like chairman xi of china, who says democracy doesnt work. What mccaul says his fellow republicans are doing right now by being this reckless is, theyre proving xi right. You know, joe, its interesting. Chairman mccaul, the past month or so, even longer than that, has sounded like someone who does not belong to the existing, very public Republican Party that we witness each and every night and each and every day on tv, with their chaos. With all due respect to, what did we call him, Dumb Moves Comer, i was speaking to a couple of people yesterday, both whom are back from europe on Business Trips in the past ten days, and Richard Haass would probably have more information on this sort of thing than i do, but anecdotally, they were talking about fielding questions from respected european businesspeople, wondering about the foundations of our democracy here, given all thats going on with just the speakership in the house. I dont know what youve heard, richard. Its what you hear all the time. Its the trump circus. Its the speakership. These are countries that theyve put their eggs in our basket, economically, more important, their security. Theyre now asking increasingly, can they count on us. The fact they have to ask the question, mike, is bad. How theyre beginning to answer it is even worse. Theyre beginning to think, what do they do, whether its ukraine, what do they do about nato, middle east, if the United States is no longer there for them or with them. This is the first time its happened so fundamentally, literally in this era. Right now, this white house, of course, cant move to support the way it wants israel and ukraine because of a lack of a speaker. There is the possibility that donald trump could return to office a year from now, which, of course, worries global capitals. Jackie, there is a Government Shutdown looming. A few weeks away from that, as well. That would further cripple washingtons efforts, both domestically and overseas. Walk us through what we think is going to happen the next couple days. The role donald trump is going to play. Hes no fan of congressman emmer, going after him in recent days. Is there anybody you talk to that thinks this is something that could get done today, tomorrow, on a full floor vote, or is this going to stretch on for weeks to come . I want to address the Government Shutdown portion of your question first because its something that i think is not a priority right now, even though it is looming and could potentially be disastrous. The continuing resolution expires November 17th. Right now, i mean, lawmakers have done nothing to move towards an actual agreement, which means that theyre most likely going to have to pass another continuing revolution, which a lot of these house gop Conference Members in principle object to. At the end of the day, congress has one job, theyre appropriators. Right now, theyve only passed four appropriations bills. There are eight left and theres literally not enough time to get those done. Whoever they do support for speaker is going to have to consider some shortterm bill with help from democrats once again. Were likely going to see a repeat of what happened with Kevin Mccarthy this last time around, which leads me to the trump factor here. You know, i think it really remains to be seen how much of an influence any sort of outside player can have. At the end of the day, mccarthy did have the support from trump. Jim jordan had a lot of support from trump. That did not make some of these members budge. As Dusty Johnson told us yesterday, you know, it takes a lot to have these guys and gals moved by these external factors, even Death Threats, as we saw. Emmer does not necessarily have the support of trump, but it remains to be seen whether trump is actively whipping against him. I think were nearing the point where theres going to be severe political consequences for people if they continue to hold out and we go further with no speaker. I mean, trumps influence not necessarily making a difference, but there is a lot of consequences if they dont get this done. You mentioned the world being on fire and the threats from around the world. Right. Theres also the u. S. Economy to think about. The economic consequences are terrible. If you look at it, if you look at the instability, mika, of whats happening when you not only have a looming Government Shutdown, but you have congress shut down. You have tenyear Interest Rates bumping up against a 5 margin, which it hasnt been, i guess, since the mid 90s. That means were paying a hell of a lot more interest on the 33 trillion National Debt that we have, that cuts more and more into not only our budget but also the strength of the dollar, the strength of the american economy. Theres so many things going sideways right now. The republicans in congress have to get their act together, or else its not just going to be israel and ukraine and taiwan paying for this, its going to be american taxpayers and people with jobs. Things will get sideways really fast. Congressional investigations reporter for the Washington Post, jackie alemany, as always, thank you very much. Now this. Donald trump gave a Campaign Speech in New Hampshire yesterday. Lets just say, in all seriousness, by the way, this is not a joke, if joe biden had said the things that trump said, most republicans would be calling for him to be put in an old age home. Im for us. Im for us. [ applause ] you know how you spell us, right . You spell us, us. I just picked that up. Has anyone thought of that . I picked that up. Couple days im reading, and it said us. I said, you know, if you think about it, us equals us. We had that all set to go, but then we had a little election that went astray, so we have to be careful. You have to get out there and watch those voters. You dont have to vote. Dont worry about voting. We have plenty of votes. You have to watch election night. Used to be election day, election night. Now, its election month. Now, its election period. Some of these things going for 53 days. Its terrible. Viktor orban, did anyone ever hear of him . Probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. Hes the leader of right . Hes the leader of turkey. Yeah. So, willie, first of all, i just picked that up. Us and uus, interesting. Yeah. Dont worry about voting, secondly. Third, orban, of course, maybe hes never visited turkey, i dont know. Maybe the leader of hungary has visited. But its troubling to me, he calls orban one of the strongest leaders and says it in a wonderful way. Orban, of course, shut down all of his opponents politically. Hes tapped reporters phones. Hes destroyed independent news agencies. Hes led phony Tax Investigations into reporters that were critical of him, chased them from the country, brags that he is an illiberal, that they have illiberal democracy and not western style democracy. Again, this is a guy who keeps thinking he is running against barack obama. Not doing well. No. As mika said, if that were joe biden, theyd be running wall to wall on Certain Networks, with medical experts, describing what was happening here and why he needed help and why he should probably step off the stage. I would add in, joe, to the collection of comments he made yesterday, he compared himself to Nelson Mandela, who, of course, spent nearly 30 years in prison for Fighting Apartheid In South Africa, saying if he goes to jail, hes happy to be just like mandela. Also, promised in his next term to build, like israel, an iron dome over the United States. Israel, of course, is the size of new jersey. Thatd be a heck of a project for the United States to undertake. Katty kay, this is the man who has been, frankly, marginalized by the war, by the gravity of what has been happening the last couple of weeks. He said hezbollah was, quote, very smart. Again, blaming israel yesterday for what happened to them, a Terrorist Attack against them. Periodically visiting court r rooms across the country in between. Telling your supporters to not worry about voting is a novel strategy, not one ive ever heard on an american president ial election before. I mean, itll be interesting to see how much Donald Trumps die hard supporters have any of their views changed by the comments he made about hamas, which i think probably will have hurt him more than the kinds of things he said last night. As we all know, this election is only going to be decided by about 100,000 people in five states. If some of them are watching that kind of thing and seeing him confused, the leader of one country with another, at a time when we are at a critical situation around the world, that could give pause to some of those people who may have been wavering in the middle to think, actually, this is somebody who we cant trust with the security of global affairs. Well, again, a guy who thinks he is running against barack obama, who hasnt run for president in 11 years. Kind of frightening, listening to him. Coming up, our next guest examines the Hamas Terror Attack On Israel and other conflicts around the world through the lens of barbarism. Well break that town. Later, u. S. Capitol Police Officer harry dunn joins the conversation to discuss his new book that gives an inside look on the ground at the capitol on january 6th. And then the aftermath that followed. Well be right back. New emergenc crystals pop and fizz when you throw them back. And who doesnt love a good throwback . [sfx video game] emergenc crystals. vo no matter who you are there are times it can be tough to be yourself when you have severe asthma. Triggers can pop up Out Of Nowhere and lead to an asthma attack. But no matter what type of severe asthma you have tezspire can help you be you. 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Driving in five more runs to set a record for rbis in a postseason series. Has 15 of them just in the alcs. Garcia earned mvp honors for the series that saw the road team win every game for just the second time ever. Astros also were on the wrong end of the other one, dropping four home games in a loss to the Washington Nationals in the 2019 world series. The rangers now await the winner of the nlcs because the diamondbacks and phillies also, tonight, will play a Decisive Game seven, after Phillies First loss at Citizens Bank park in seven home playoff games. Gurriel provided a lead in the start. Merrill kelly was great. Phillies biggest bat, schwarber, turner, bryce harper, going for 9 with four strikeouts. Dbacks beat the phillies, 51. Game seven is tonight in philadelphia. Joe, that stadium in philly tonight is going to be absolutely insane. A game seven of the nlcs. How about the Texas Rangers . Most people had written them off after they won the first two, lost the next three. They figure astros are going home. Itll be easy work. But, wow, defending champs, Houston Astros going home. The astros have been part of history in all the wrong ways, including a crazy series this year, alcs, where the home team lost all the games. Just like the 2019 world series when they were playing the nationals, it was just crazy. Mike barnicle, you do wonder, you look at these rangers and kind of wondered it from the beginning, whether theyre a team of destiny. They struggled off and on. I remember they were going through, like, five, six, seven game losing stroking streaks in. Looked like they werent going to make it. They squeeze in there, then they sweep a very good rays team in the wild card part of it. Then the alds, they sweep the orioles. I mean, orioles also, obviously, one of the better teams in baseball. Now this against the astros. Certainly look like they could be a team of destiny. They could well be a team of destiny, joe. I think part of that, a lot of it, goes on the shoulders of bruce bochy, their manager. Hes been around a long time. You watch him shuffle out to take pitchers out and think, i hope bruce makes it to the mound and back. But, you know, yesterday was a key example of bochys importance to the rangers, jonathan. He goes out and hooks max scherzer off that mound in the third inning. Scherzer, you could tell, was disturbed about being taken out. Youre not going to fool with bochy. Coming back from injury, scherzer hasnt been effective. Jacob degrom also missed a lot of the season. Out of the houston metro area, most people happy the astross and their baggage are out of the playoffs. Heres a stat. The philadelphia phillies, who are one of the oldest teams in the league, have never played in a game seven before, ever, because their history, frankly, has been so suspect. They havent made the playoffs all that often, until recent years. Theyve never played in a game seven. A friend of mine, who is a philadelphia fan, notes the Philly Sports Teams are 06 in game sevens when you count the sixers, count the flyers in the last decade or so. So the crowd going to be excited tonight. The crowd is also going to be nervous. Should be a great game. You know, in their first 80 or 90 years of existence, mika, this is the part that freaks you out. Yeah. The phillies only made it to the world series in 1915. [ laughter ] why does he know this . Beaten by the red sox. Hes not well. In 1950, when the yankees took them down. So this is a team that, can you believe that, 1915 and 1950, in the entire 20th century. A little bit better in the 21st century. You know, mike, i look at this rangers pitching staff, and i look at somebody like nate eovaldi and think, if only the red sox could get their hands on that . Why cant we get players like that . Nate eovaldi. For those unfamiliar, he would take the ball any time you give it to him. Im surprised he didnt demand to be put back in. He is a former member of the boston red sox, but the red sox, of course, the little engine that could, didnt have enough money to set aside to resign nate, which is not true. But he ends up where he ends up. He pitched inning after inning in the thriller of the 2018 world series for the red sox. Terrific pitcher. Good for him for being there. The Texas Rangers also never won a world series. Theyve been in two and lost both. Maybe we have a fresh champion this year, as well. Its going to be exciting. Never know. I have to say, in the defense of the red sox front office, we got two proof of Purchase Seals from kelloggs cereal for eovaldi. That was pretty good. Of course, as always, you know, we got the all you can eat from barnhills buffet in pensacola, florida. We got two, two tickets for that. Really . I cant wait to go. Bargain. Ahead on morning joe, well get another live report from israel as negotiations to get hamas to release more hostages intensifies. Plus, Wall Street Journal reporter still remains in a russian prison with no release in sight. His sister will join us on his latest condition and the efforts to get him home. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Switched to shopify. It gave me so much peace of mind. If we make a change, my sites not going to go down. And just knowing that i have a platform that we can rely on, that is gold to us. Start your free trial today. I work at the end of the Production Line with metal that weighs 600 tons. I never thought id be a welder but i cannot think of a better job. Were currently working on ships to train our merchant marines. And ships to transport cargo and supplies. Joe biden is bringing manufacturing back. Creating good jobs and standing up for workers. Pretty much everyone who i work with got their job because of joe biden. Every day im out here working with the team, i know hes out there working for us. Im joe biden and i approve this message. I told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms. With my Psoriatic Arthritis symptoms. But just ok isnt ok. And i was done settling. If you still have symptoms after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. Rinvoq is a oncedaily pill that can dramatically relieve ra and psa symptoms, including fatigue for some. It can stop joint damage. And in psa, can leave skin clear or almost clear. Rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. Serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. People 50 and older with at least one Heart Disease risk factor have higher risks. Dont take if allergic to rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. Tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant. Done settling . Ask your rheumatologist for rinvoq. And take back whats yours. Learn how abbvie could help you save. upbeat music constant contacts advanced automation lets you send the right message at the right time, every time. constant contact. Helping the small stand tall. You want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. With reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. Fellas, fellas. Thats how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. We wanted to give yall the necessary skills to compete with the future. Kevins now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. Youre probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. But what if we told you its possible that comcast Business Mobile can save you up to 75 a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers . Have we piqued your interest . You can get two unlimited lines for just 30 each a month. There are no Term Contracts or line activation fees. And you can bring your own device. Oh, and all on the most reliable 5g Mobile Network nationwide. Wireless that works for you. Its not just possible. 52 past the hour. Yesterday, the Israeli Military held a screening for journalists, showing unedited footage of the October 7th Hamas Terrorist Attack. According to the bbc, 43 minutes of footage was viewed by foreign journalists at an Israeli Military base. The video included footage recovered from the body cameras worn by hamas attackers. Along with cell phone videos. It reflected a frustration among senior ranks of the Israeli Military, that the Media Coverage of hamas brutal attack was being overshadowed by coverage of israels air strikes against gaza. It is an effort to remind the world of the brutality on the attack against israel two weeks ago. Joining us now, professor at Johns Hopkins, also a contributing writer at the atlantic. Also, a new book, the hollow crown, shakespeare. Elliott, in your atlantic column, you write, in part, quote, theres a place for geo political and strategic analysis of israels war with hamas and its allies and associates, how it affects poll sks in the gulf, whether it will reduce american aid to ukraine, how russia may exploit the situation, and so forth. But such discussion will miss an Essential Element of this war, a conflict that is not solely or even primarily about politics or desperately conceived purpose. Its about barbarism. Baarians fight because they enjoy violence. They do not only kill and ma, but go out of their way to inflict pain, totorture, to rape, and above all to h humiliat they exult in their enemies suffering. That is why they like taking pictures of their weeping, terrified victims, why they make videos of slow beheadings, and why they dance around mutilated corpses. All of us, not just israelis and ukrainians, are in the fight of our lives, and it is about time we recognized that, and acted with the vigor and courage the times demand. Id like for you to tell us more about how this could very well spin Out Of Control and toward the rest of the world and, specifically, barbarism. Well, there are a number of ways in which it can spin Out Of Control. There is a geopolitical element, of course. Iran could decide this is the moment to try to unleash hezbollah and so on. There is another way this is already metastasizing. There is a demonstration in sydney of quite a large mob screaming, gas the jews. Your previous reporter talked about some of the demonstrations and some youve had throughout europe, which really have a murderous feel to them. Weve seen this in the past. I think one thing we need to remember is that from the Point Of View of hamas and people like hamas, who sympathize with it, this has been a glorious success. The cruelty is very much part of it. The problem with thinking about this in terms of, how do we get to the next ceasefire or how do we get hostages released is, how do you beyond that, to the point where people think, you know, Barbarism Works and barbarism is the way to go . I dont really hear a whole lot of people talking about that. Eliot, good morning. It is Richard Haass. Barbarism, from your Point Of View, reflects the lack of character, the depravity of the individuals involved, but also, you write, its a strategy. What do you think the purpose of it is, other than simply people who are that way . What do you think their definition of success is . What are they hoping it leads to . Well, you know, we dont have to go very far, richard. Look at the hamas covenant of 1988. It is very clear, they want to not only destroy the state of israel, they want to exterminate it. You know, exterminate the people there. I think, you know, we have trouble we can understand barbarism as individual behavior. We have trouble understanding it as collective behavior that is driven by irrational hatred and grievance. Thats why we had so much look, its why we had so much trouble understanding hitler. Its why we had so much trouble understanding what happened in rwanda. It is why we were so slow to act after the massacres. Its because nice, liberal, progressive Liberal Democrats like us, and i include myself very much in this, find it very hard to wrap our heads around this as a mass phenomenon as opposed to that of a, you know, some psychopathic individuals. But it is a larger phenomenon, and thats the point i wanted to make in that piece. Professor cohen, i think our audience would like to hear your views on the following, the coverage of what has been going on thus far. The inability among some University President s to distinguish between what is a terrorist and who is a militant. The fact that we continue to claim that hamas is after israelis, when hamas really is after jews, to be specifically clear. Yeah. The third element of it is the coverage of the Hospital Bombing that almost immediately, almost immediately in this second Media Explosion that we live in, was blamed on israelis. Well, you know, theres always, it seems to me, a lunge for moral equivalence. You know, people have a brief moment of sympathy with the israelis and say, yes, its terrible that civilians were targeted, but Palestinian Civilians are dying, too. Of course, that is tragic. But, you know, there is an enormous moral distinction, as well as an enormous legal distinction, between civilians getting killed in war, which happens all the time, but when it is unintended, when you take whatever precautions you can to avoid it, and the deliberate, cruel targeting of civilians to include torture and rape. One of the points people need to remember, and i believe the images make clear, this wasnt just about the killing of civilians. This was about their torture, their rape. This was about defiling and mutilating their corpses. Thats something thats very, very different. I think a lot of us just dont feel comfortable, unless you can somehow create some sort of sense of equivalence. A lot of the University President s who chose to speak out and from some of the greatest universities in the land, including the one where i received my education, just muffed it. They were unable to face the truth as it is. Maybe thats the key point, you know, the motto of harvard is truth. The motto of Johns Hopkins is the truth will make you free. Your job is to tell the truth, and its a moral truth as well as intellectual truth. Professor at Johns Hopkins International School of studies, thank you. We have to have you back to talk about your book, the hollow crown, shakespeare, on how leaders rise, rule, and fall. Thank you very much for being on this morning. It is exactly the top of the hour. The second hour of morning joe. Hamas released two more civilians being held hostage in gaza. Two elderly women were freed yesterday. They were handed over into Israeli Defense forces custody, taken to the hospital and then reunited with their families. The womens husbands, who are both in their 80s, are still being held captive. They were kidnapped from their homes when hamas first attacked october 7th. In a Press Conference moments ago, one of the women, who is 85 years old, shared the details of her capture with the help of her daughter. Shes saying that many, many people, a swarm of people came through the fence. The fence cost 2. 5 billion shekels, and it didnt help even a little bit. My mom is saying that she was taken on the back of the motorbike with her body with her legs on one side and her head on another side. She was taken through the plowed fields with a man in front on one side and a man behind her. While she was being taken, she was hit by sticks, by yeah, by people. Until they reached the tunnels. There, they walked for a few kilometers on the wet ground. There are huge network of tunnels underneath. It looks like a spider web. 85 years old, snatched from her home on the back of a motorcycle, and now, thank goodness, one of the few israelis back home safely. Joining us now, nbc news Foreign Correspondent kelly cobiella. She is live in telaviv. Kelly, whats the latest there . Reporter well, willie, good morning. All of the talk, of course, this morning is about those two hostages who were released overnight. Both are israeli citizens. Both grand mothers. Nurit cooper is 79 years old, still in the hospital this morning. Shes been reunited with family. Yocheved lifshitz, right there, 85 years old. Her family said she and her husband were very active in helping the people in gaza, Palestinians In Gaza to make medical appointments to get over to israel. They were very familiar with gaza. Yocheved, you saw her there, able and very much willing, wanting to talk about her story, about her experience. She said that she was taken on this motorcycle, that she was beaten with sticks, taken through the tunnels in gaza. She said that the hostages that she was with were split into two groups. She still doesnt know where her husband is. Same with yurit cooper, her husband is still being held in gaza. The one thing she did say about her time in custody was that she was fed, that she was given medical care, and that she was treated somewhat well while in custody, but she said her ordeal was like going through hell. Just remarkable, this 85yearold woman was able to come out and speak about her experience this morning, not even 24 hours after being released. She did say, look, this is not over. This is something that weve heard from a lot of the families of the hostages who have been released. This is not over until everyone out, not just her husband, but all of those more than 200 hostages still being held. From the Military Point of view, there were more air strikes overnight, more bombardments. The Israeli Defense forces saying they hit some 300, if not more hamas sites inside gaza, and the situation in gaza once again incredibly, incredibly difficult for people on the ground. 54 aid trucks getting through, but its just not even close to enough to take care of the humanitarian needs there in gaza. Willie . Kelly, we were talking to Richard Engel in our last hour about this idea that the United States is suggesting to israel to hold back on the Ground Offensive, to give time to get the rest of the hostages out, to get the humanitarian aid, as you just said, into gaza. Richards point, effectively, was, if israel wants to go in, its going to go in. It doesnt need permission from anyone else. What is your sense of how theyre preparing for a Ground Invasion of gaza and when that might be coming . Reporter yeah. Its absolutely true. If they want to go in, theyre going in. They are amassed at the border, and weve been talking about that now for days. Several hundred thousand troops amassed along the border with gaza. We regularly hear military helicopters going back and forth between telaviv down to the south. On the other hand, there is a lot of pressure coming from israeli society, as well. Most of israel, most of the people weve spoken to, do want to see something done. They say they will not feel safe until hamas is gone. However, there is a lot of concern for the lives of those hostages, not just among the families, but also among the population in general. People want to see that something is being done. Some dont feel their government is doing enough. As a matter of fact, they think theres too much of a focus on the military side and not enough of a focus on the humanitarian side or on the effort to free those hostages. Families are desperate to see their loved ones back. They want they are very concerned that if the Ground Offensive comes first, their loved ones will be in grave, grave danger, willie. Nbc news Foreign Correspondent kelly cobiella, live for us in telaviv. Kelly, thanks so much. Mika . All right. Lets bring in former u. S. Senator, now an nbc news, msnbc analyst, claire mccccaskill. Richard haass, katty kay, jonathan lemire, and Mike Barnicle are still with us, as well. Senator mccaskill, served on the Armed Services committee, these are the issues you would be not only very familiar with but that you dealt with when it involved the u. S. Forces. Im curious, youre hearing from the New York Times, Senior Administration officials, saying that, right now, it doesnt seem that israel has an achievable Military Goal in gaza. A lot of calls for them to sit back, wait while the Hostage Crisis is resolved. What would your recommendation be, not only to the Israeli Government but also to our government . What should we be advising them to do . Well, certainly, we have experience with trying to clear and hold territory, frankly, that is maybe not as densely packed as gaza in terms of population and places that didnt have all of the tunnels that allow such an asymmetrical warfare. I do think they have got to figure out if the objective is to destroy hamas, theyve got to put more on that. Because i certainly support Destroying Hamas. I think most americans do. But when you destroy hamas in a war, it isnt as if the sentiments of hamas magically disappear. Theyve got to be thinking beyond just the destruction of hamas. How do they stop other Terrorist Organizations from popping up . How do they check the influence of iran and proxy wars that are going to perhaps intensify with hezbollah once there is a Ground Invasion . So this is really complicated for the military. Its complicated logistically. It is complicated in terms of resources. Most important, it is complicated with what do you leave behind once you have accomplished Destroying Hamas . Thats really hard stuff. Im glad theyre maybe taking some time to think about it. I think its inevitable that they will invade. I just hope they are trying to put some meat on the bone. Because if they dont, they are going to be in terrorist wars in their own country for as far as the eye can see. Richard, sitting above this decision of when, where israel goes into gaza and what kind of invasion it is, is it surgical or mass 100,000 troops or so, sitting above all of that is the problem and i say problem specifically of bibi netanyahu. How long is he going to be there . What is the strength of his government now . What is his own personal strength . Two things. Bibi netanyahu, he is there so long as were in this phase of things. He is in charge of a wartime cabinet. It is not a government to govern, needless at all to make peace. When the crisis somewhat settles, these investigations, those inquiries into how october 7th ever could have been allowed to happen, he is extraordinarily vulnerable. Right now, hes lost confidence in the israeli people. Joe biden is the most popular man in israel. Much more so than bibi netanyahu, who lost in some ways what chinese call the mandate of heaven. His ability to lead is suspect. Let me circle back to what claire was saying. You get in trouble in war, mike, when there is a gap between your ends and your means. In ukraine you have it, the idea of liberating your territory. I think it is beyond ukraines means. In israel right now, gaza, quote, unquote, Destroying Hamas, beyond the means of a traditional military. You get in trouble in those situations. What israel needs to set are achievable goals. This idea of going in with heavy ground forces, i dont think there will be a return on way, heavily involved. Theyre doing 300, 400 missile attacks, what have you, a day. Theyre beginning to achieve some of their Military Goals. But to set a goal of Destroying Hamas is setting themselves up for failure. Youll have a lot of civilian casualties. Itll create space between the United States and israel. United states cant dictate to israel, but we are right to be advising restraint against a large Ground Operation where i fear its setting israel up for failure. Thats the last thing israel needs given the events of october 7th. It is important they have something that looks like a victory, that reestablishes deterrence. Given President Bidens unequivocal support the last couple weeks, his visit to telaviv, he has capital with Prime Minister netanyahu and certainly the people of israel. What is your sense in your reporting about how hard or not hard President Biden is leaning on netanyahu about how to prosecute this war . Yeah. Aides have been saying to me for a few days now that part of the plan here from the president in being so fullthroated in support of israel, is to give him space to then, Behind The Scenes, quietly deliver some words of caution, even warning, suggesting to them, to israel, that when they go into gaza, depending on how that goes, that could really cost them a lot of support globally. They should be careful. Take your time. Allow us to get hostages out. Allow us to get humanitarian aid in. They believe its been effective. Thats part of the reason why israel delayed. Israel, of course, is operating on its own timetable. The u. S. Would not suggest to that that they dictate when they decide to go in or even how they decide to go in. Though, as we mentioned last hour, there are now some u. S. Military personnel on the ground there. Katty, the one thing that the president wasnt able to do, though, when he visited last week was to meet with any of the arab leaders. That summit in jordan was pulled down in the wake of the hospital explosion, which initially was blamed on israel. Turned out not, of course, to be true. What is your sense, though, of the rest of the region . You spent a lot of time there. How do they view this coming moment . If israel goes into gaza and goes in big and is this terrible urban fight we all described this morning, how does that play out in the rest of the region . The two areas that seem most vulnerable in terms of an uptick in violence just in the last couple days are obviously the lebanese border and the west bank itself, where weve also seen more demonstrations than we had seen. I actually had some conversations with people in the region. Places like morocco, which signed on to the abraham accords, there has not been a big outpouring of demonstrations in favor of palestinians or against israel. People seem to be still in favor of the government policy there. There is some reporting this morning that the saudis are still obviously, that Saudi Alliance with israel is on ice at the moment, but it doesnt mean it is going to be on ice forever, depending on how this turns out. Theres still some desire to have that normalization relationship. I think it will depend on how the images play out, if there is a Ground Invasion of gaza. If its true, as ive been hearing, and General Petraeus told me last week, the Casualty Numbers could really be quite catastrophically high, then those countries have to watch out for their populations, as well. The leadership in those countries will also have to listen to what their populations are saying. So this has the capacity to draw in a far broader area, and thats one of the things The Americans are so concerned about. If this becomes a fight for the very survival of the existence of israel, then america has to get involved. Which is why functioning government would help. This morning, the Republican Caucus on capitol hill will hold yet another vote on who it wants to be the partys nominee for speaker. There are eight candidates, six of whom voted to overturn the results of the 2020 president ial election. Only tom emmer of minnesota and austin scott of georgia did not object. However, all eight supported a texas lawsuit that would have invalidated the Election Results in four key states. That lawsuit was rejected by the Supreme Court because it lacked legal standing. At least one republican is on the record saying the next speaker must publicly support the 2020 Election Results to get his vote. Ken buck of colorado made that comment at a recent interview with msnbc. Joining us now, former strategist and veteran to the mitt romney and george w. Bush campaigns, stewart stevens, an adviser for the lincoln project, and author of the conspiracy to end america, five ways my old party is driving our democracy to autocracy. Thank you for being with us. So many questions to have you. Why dont we start with the obvious one, about how a party turns so inward on itself that it cant even upside down. Cant even run the House Of Representatives. Yeah. I mean, it is extraordinary, joe. You think about it. The party, its most consistent trait was to be the main antagonist to the soviet union, to russia. Now, the group of conservative republicans, is now the heart of proputin pollpolitics. You cant unify a Party Without a governing philosophy. Its important to elect a speaker so we can get about the business of what . Helping stabilize the world, taking a role in the world that america usually does. Theyre not saying any of this. Theyre saying, we need to choose a leader so we can investigate Hunter Bidens laptop more thoroughly . Where are they getting that from . You look at the jim jordan vote. Its a perfect reflection of whats happened over the past seven years. You have people who hate jim jordan and donald trump who voted for him publicly, voted against him privately. Which leads to something you talk about in your book, about the use of propaganda. We have mika and i have friends who are really bright, brilliant. Theyve got, you know, masters degrees. Theyve got law degrees. You talk to them, and they spit back january 6th conspiracy theories. It was all Nancy Pelosis fault, and it was a setup. You talk about donald trump stealing Nuclear Secrets from the white house, and they talk about a weaponized doj. If the Justice Department can do it to him, they can do it to anybody. These are reasonable, rational people in most aspect of their lives, but politically, just disconnected from reality. How did that happen, not just to the people in congress, but to our former party from coast to coast . Well, look, joe, you know, i blame the party. These people that we know, had they come out and spoken the truth about donald trump, what they really knew in their heart, and it started with the muslim ban in december of 15, 2015, and they just said this, what they were telling you and telling everybody. Instead, they collapsed for donald trump. They made this terrible deal for power. Somehow, donald trump in his Animal Instincts sensed that the Republican Party really didnt believe in anything except power. If i will give you power, you will enforce me, somebody who has stood for everything you opposed, and this is how you end up. Every time the party has had a chance to turn against donald trump, its turned toward donald trump, including the last time when they could have just voted to convict the guy. If youre not going to vote to convict a guy who sends people into your office to try to kill you, i mean, you think it is going to be some point of principle theyre going to stand to . It is a historic collapse. I dont think weve seen anything like it, certainly in modern american history. No. Stuart, good morning. Congrats on the book. To pick up on that point, there have been so many offramps. Youd think an attack on the United States capitol, attempted coup against the government would get people out. Maybe stealing Nuclear Secrets and taking them to maralago. Hes not even in office anymore. What is the sense of why republicans never do, and the cost of speaking out against donald trump . Somebody like brian kemp in georgia, who is a conservative republican in the sense that we used to understand them, and has at least said, i supported donald trump, but he is lying about what happened in georgia. It is complete garbage and nonsense, and were moving forward. Were not going to look backward. Why arent there more republicans who can say that . You know, i think that question is going to be studied for a long time in history. It is a great question. Probably at the root of this, it has to do with whats happened to the Republican Party and how it refused to change to a changing america. 85 of trumps coalition is white in a country that is 60 white and less. The majority of americans 16 and under are nonwhite. They are a minority majority county. They look at this, and they dont know how to appeal to these voters. We, when i was still in the party, we never did the hard work that was necessary to appeal to those voters. A lot of it is fear. They see this country that they dont understand, that democracy is now become their enemy because theres not enough of them to win a majority of the vote. You have this increasing minority rule phenomenon. I think its extraordinarily toxic to a civil debate. The idea of compromise, i mean, at the root of democracy is what . You have to be willing to lose. You have to be willing to admit you were wrong, which is the essence of a Democratic Civil society. Both of those have become, really, just, you know, shooting the fences inside the Republican Party. Stuart, the fear that many people fear feel about whats going on around them is understandable. Grocery store, gas station, if you talk to them, you understand their fear. Might be unreasonable but its there. The fear that politicians have for donald trump is something entirely different, though. What do you attribute that fear to . I think its cowardice. What were seeing is courage is contagious and cowardice is contagious. If everybody is doing this, It Opportunity make me look like a coward. How many people do we know that are good people in the senate and the house, who, you know, all they had to do was get a statement out, congratulating the president of the United States. The defense of democracy, its a pretty low bar, right. Theyre not charging a machine gun, not out like my dad, fighting in the pacific, and they failed the moment. Once it became acceptable to do that, you know, once Mitch Mcconnell doesnt direct the vote to convict him, but gives a speech about why he should have convicted him, theres nothing there in the party. I think it is going to be studied for a long time. We have to live in the reality. I think that the reality is that this party isnt going to change until they are defeated. Fear, as you know very well from all your days in politics, is the best teacher in politics. Thats whats going to drive them. Stuart, im curious about, you talk about the Republican Partys failure to appeal to black and brown people in america. Lets talk about women for a minute. There are no Women Candidates for speaker. By the way, all the candidates for speaker, this is amazing, all of the candidates for speaker voted against guaranteeing the right of women to Birth Control. They all voted against reauthorizing the violence against women act. They all voted against trying to codify some kind of equality when it comes to wage discrimination based on gender. What is going on in the Republican Party around women . Those three votes are so out of step with america. I bet 90 of america wants to guarantee Birth Control for women. What is happening on that front in the Republican Party . Yeah, theres a pattern here, isnt it . I think this is one of the reasons that the Republican Party is drawn to putin. Look inside of russia. How many women do you see in power in russia . As putin says, theres no gay people in russia. Theres a sense that this is a world that is changing that we can stop time, where men, predominantly white men, like us, are in power. We dont want to deal with this changing reality. You know, i think it is increasingly unlike america. You end up with theres five senators in the history of america that have been confirmed to the Supreme Court, with repry of the country. All five of those senators are on the court today. Thats part of the schism here. You have larger states getting larger, and smaller states getting smaller, and they have the same power in the senate, creating a disparity. There is some hopefulness. I dont think Younger Voters feel this way. Joe bidens best group in 20 were Younger Voters. I think when you see how theyre turning out, they dont feel this way. They look at this, and it is completely out of touch. Its one of the reasons, if i were in the democratic party, i would wake up every day trying to get in the culture war. Theyre winning these culture wars. How did it work out when they took on nike and Colin Kaepernick . Nike paid 9 million. They took on the nascar over the confederate flag, you know, Republican Party, and nascar won. Its just a sense that they are not in touch with where america is, and that creates fear. One thing that republicans had, we like to believe we had, was an optimism. You could embrace the future. There was some that were flawed now, were all flawed, but theres some sort of sweeping vision that could unite us. That has been completely lost. It is an angry party now and a party of grievance. Theres a limit to how appealing that is. Really is. The new book is entitled the conspiracy to end america, five ways my old party is driving our democracy to autocracy. Stuart stevens, thank you very much. Congratulations on the book. We appreciate your sharing it with us. Thank you. Coming up, u. S. Capitol Police Officer harry dunn is our guest. Well hear about his fight for the January 6th Insurrectionists to be held accountable. Plus, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is turning 32 years old this week. Hell be having his birthday inside a russian prison. His sister will join us in just a few moments to give an update on his condition and how the family is coping. Morning joe is coming right back. Were traveling all across america talking to people about their hearts. Ooh, take this exit. Hows the heart . I feel like its good. You feel like its good . How do you know when its time to check in on your heart . How do you know . Let me show you something. It looks like a credit card, but it is the Kardiamobile Card. That is a medicalgrade ekg. Want to see how it works . Yeah. Put both thumbs on there. That is your heart coming from the Kardiamobile Card. Wow with Kardiamobile Card you can take a medicalgrade ekg in just 30 seconds from anywhere. Kardiamobile card is proven to detect atrial fibrillation, one of the leading causes of stroke. And its the only personal ekg thats fdacleared to detect normal heart rhythm, bradycardia and tachycardia. How much do you think that costs . Probably 500. 99 oh really . You could carry that in your wallet of course you can carry it in your wallet, right . Yes, yes. Checking your heart anytime, anywhere has never been easier. Dont wait. Get Kardiamobile Card for just 99 at kardia. Com or amazon. More insurrectionists were pouring in the lobby near the Speakers Office in the rotunda, wearing maga hats and shirts that said, trump 2020. I told them to leave the capitol, and their response, they yelled, no, man, which is our house. President trump invited us here. Were here to stop the steal. Joe biden is not the president. Nobody voted for joe biden. Im a Law Enforcement officer, and i do my best to keep politics out of my job. But in this circumstance, i responded, well, i voted for joe biden. Does my vote not count . Am i nobody . That is capitol Police Officer happy dunn, testifying back in the summer of 2021, about his experience on january 6th of that year, when rioters stormed the u. S. Capitol attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 president ial election. Two years after the attack, President Biden honored dunns bravery with a president ial citizens medal. Officer dunn is out now with a new book titled standing my ground, a capitol Police Officers fight for accountability and good trouble after january 6th, and he joins us now. Officer dunn, always great to have you with us. Want to get into your book deeply and your account of the day, but you talk in the title about accountability. I want to ask you about what we have seen in the last couple of months, which is, 22 year sentence for the head of the proud boys, 18 year sentence for the head of the oath keepers, more than 800 people convicted for what they did that day, and more to come who have been charged with crimes. Does that feel like vindication to you . Morning, willie. Always good to talk to you. I wouldnt necessarily say it is vindication, but i struggle with celebrating people being charged and imprisoned. Its a sad moment in our countrys history, so i dont know if i can, you know, celebrate or anything like that. All ive ever wanted from the start is accountability for anybody who had anything to do with the failures of that day, whether that be the people who attacked us, whether that be the people who planned it, who empowered it, or, you know, anything. But i dont know if i can say its necessarily vindication. Its a sad day in our countrys history. You write, officer dunn, in the book about your decision to go public with your story, not in the book, but way back when, when you sat down for your first interview or when a reporter reached out to you, as you write in the book, on linkedin. You made a conscious decision, this is probably going to be tough. Im putting myself out there. Im exposing myself to these people who clearly are volent and dont care about injuring Police Officers. Tell our audience about why it was important for you to go public and to tell your story. You know, i just think its a continued part of public service. If more people stood up and did whats right, followed their conscience, followed their moral compass, then i think we wouldnt be where we are in this time period in this country. Yes, it is difficult. You open yourself up to a lot of the potential for attacks physically and on your character. You know, ive been fortunate, blessed to not have the physical attacks on me, but theres been some threats. Theres definitely been attacks on my character. But its all worth it. At the end of the night, i can sleep well, knowing im following my moral compass and doing what i think is right. We should note, part of following the moral compass is youre still on the job. Youre still in the u. S. Capitol each and every day. Tell us a little bit about some of the lessons you hope to impart from this book. What do you want readers, your fellow americans who have seen the news footage, which who made up their minds long ago on what happened january 6th, some choosing to downplay what happened, what are you hoping to tell them . Im asked, how do you do your job with members of congress who are denying the election, denying what happened on january 6th . My book isnt really for them. The American People, thats who my book is for. It needs to give an accurate representation and an account of what happened that day. Just my thoughts of where we are in this country and what Everybody Needs to do, thats why i included the good trouble, an ode to john lewis in the title. Its not easy doing whats right, which sounds crazy when you think about it. Its not easy to do whats right, but my message is to the American People, the most powerful thing, tool you have to protect democracy is your vote. People need to be engaged. People need to be educated about whats going on in this country, and not just listen to sound bites. Do research. Find out what really happened. And make a decision, vote with your heart and your conconscien we are three years from that day, as you describe it, that day. Youre still going to work nearly every day as a capitol Police Officer. Do you carry any baggage from that day when crowds come into the capitol these days . Do you think about that day, and your daughter, who was 11 then, now a little older, she called you in the middle of everything . How does this rumble around in your mind . You know, its interesting. I used to think of the capitol, i still do, it was before january 6th. I viewed it as this ultimate pinnacle and symbol of democracy. You know, i was so honored to work and protect that building that was built by slaves. It was an honor, and i cherish that building. It was revered. After january 6th, it became a crime scene and a symbol of one of the darkest days in american history. So walking through that building, i dont want to necessarily say that i, you know, cringed every time im there, but there are times im walking through and i think, i cant believe that that happened in this hallowed space, you know . Yeah. It is traumatic. Im in a good place right now, all things considered, but there are times when you see crowds, yeah. I dont it doesnt deter me from being able to do my job, you know . Theres so much to process. Mike mentioned your 11yearold daughter at the time. You write in the book about the moment you were in the middle of defending the capitol from the rioters when she facetimed you, your little girl. She had no idea what you were experiencing. You write, in part, this, i took my jacket sleeve and tried to clean off my face so she wouldnt see me looking all crazy when i turned on my video. I had forgotten that my jacket and most of my clothes were covered with pepper spray and other irritants. I was in pain, but i had to hold it all in and take the call. Hey, baby, i said in my daddy voice, as though everything were normal. How are you . She didnt have a clue what was going on. She was telling me a little bit about her day. She was just talking. She was telling me how she made homemade ice cream. I was screaming inside from the pain, but i had to hold it together for her. That is unbelievable. And i wonder if you could talk more about the trauma that you and many others experienced that still lingers, really, that perhaps needs to be talked about. Good morning, mika. Yeah, thats one thing that january 6th has been turned into political talking points, has been turned into election issues. What people need to realize, that day, there were real victims. I still think about brian sicknick. I think about jeffrey smith, the officers who fought bravery that day and are no longer with us. In addition, i think about the individuals, the human side of me comes out. Ive sat in courtrooms where individuals were sentenced, you see their Family Members crying, begging for the judge to have leniency. That tugs at your heart. Im not saying they dont deserve it and shouldnt be held accountable, but there were real life victims that day. There was a person sentenced who may have been their parents sole caretaker, and now the parent is left to fend for themselves. Like i said, im not suggesting in any way that, you know, we need to not hold them accountable, they made a decision, but there were real life victims that day. I think, you know, the talking points of january 6th and it becoming an election issue which, you know, sure, there are aspects of it, but there were real peoples lives that were forever changed that day. The new book is entitled standing my ground, a capitol Police Officers fight for accountability and good trouble after january 6th. Capitol Police Officer harry dunn, thank you so much. Thank you. For being on with us this morning and for the book. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has spent more than 200 days in russian capticaptiv accused of espionage, which he, the journal, and the u. S. Government vehemently deny. His family has been fighting for his release since the beginning. His sister will join us, along with the Wall Street Journal assistant editor. Morning joe will be right back. 45 past the hour. It has been almost seven months since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in russia. Last week, the u. S. Ambassador to russia visit td reporter and released a statement, saying he remains in good spirits. The move came just days after a Russian Court upheld an extension of gershkovichs pretrial detention. It was supposed to expire in may but will now continue through november 30th. Gershkovich was arrested in march on allegations of espionage. Both he and his employer have denied the claims. The u. S. Government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. Joining us now, evans sister, danielle gershkovich, and Wall Street Journals assistant editor, paul beckett. Thank you, both, very much for coming on the show this morning. Danielle, its always hard to find the right words and to be validating in a question about a situation like this with your brother, but how are you doing . How are you being forced to cope in this situation, and what do you know about your brothers condition . Im sure you can imagine, it hasnt been easy for any of us, but evan is doing amazing. I look up to him so much. He works very hard to keep his spirits up. He does what he can, you know, writing. We write letters to each other to stay positive and focused, and thats so inspiring for my parents and i. We really are able to stay strong to seeing him. How much contact . You say you write letters. Are you able to communicate with him . Yes. We write letters about once a week, and i summarize everything going on with their family, daily life. I try to make him smile, so we do a lot of jokes, a lot of sibling kind of jokes. Yeah. The impact on the entire family must be indescribable. Is it evan who drives you all to continue to function . Its got to be so hard. Evan has always been an Emotional Center in our family, and so its really hard without him. But we had to step up and be that for him, so im really proud of us, despite the circumstances. I think were all holding on, and its really a testament to how amazing and courageous evan is. Danielle, good morning. Thanks so much for being with us. Were grateful for you to come on and share your story. Im curious, listening to you talk about writing letters back and forth with your brother. I was going to ask you how youre communicating, how often you hear from him, and does he give you a sense oftreated . Is he allowed to describe how he is being treated there . Im sure you can understand i cant get too much into the details about that, but i know that he is doing his best to eat well, stay healthy. He medicates. He writes a lot. Hes reading at a breakneck pace. Thats very impressive. I really enjoy writing letters to him, receiving them. I get to hear his voice in my head, and its like were talking together. That keeps us all going. Hes an extraordinary guy. Paul, from your side of it at the journal, what are you hearing, and what are negotiations to the extent you can tell us even, negotiations like to get him back through the state department . Do you have any contact with the russians themselves . We have seen now over the months various statements from each side, saying theyre serious about talks or the prospect of a prisoner swap or things like that. We would like to see more action, to be honest. We feel that its so outrageous that evan has been jailed on these false charges, that i think it is incumbent on the u. S. Government to deal with the russians in a way that will bring him back to the family and back to the newsroom. Ultimately, itll be a government to government negotiation that solves this. Wed like to see that happen sooner rather than later, obviously. Paul, in the case of brittney griner, the russians were adamant they wanted the trial process to go through and have some kind of verdict so they could say, process then she was released a few months after that. Is it your understanding thats what, if there is going to be any timetable around some kind of swap or deal, is it your understanding the trial would have to take place and have a verdict first in evans case. That may be the case. Thats one way in which this could be solved and russians have can keep him pretrial detention up to one year. As you mentioned earlier, the latest extension was november 30th. Wouldnt surprise us if that was extended through to march. At some point they have to produce some evidence, whatever evidence they claim to have at trial, so it is possible and the russians have said before that if its going to be a prisoner swap, it would have to come after trial but remain hopeful it wouldnt have to get that far and the u. S. Government could find a way to bring him home. Danielle gershkovich and stint editor for the wall journal, paul beckett, we appreciate it. Jonathan lemire, what have you heard from the white house about the efforts to get evan home . This is a subject any sort of prisoner situation the white house does not like to say much publicly and dont want to endanger anything going on. There have been off and on talks. We do know that from Administration Officials since evan was imprisoned wrongly. We know from the state department that these bogus charges, nothing to them. We know that the president has signaled that hed be willing to entertain a prisoner swap to get evan home but its not quite clear what the russians would want in return. The one name that had been floated out there, someone the u. S. Does not hold, hes in german custody, not clear whether that kind of arrangement could be made but even as the Ukraine Russia conflict slips from the headlines with so much focus on the middle east and, indeed, the hostages currently being held in gaza im assured by u. S. Officials they have efforted to bring evan home and certainly send our thoughts to his family. This is his Birthday Week and his family is doing as much press as they can to make sure his situation is not forgotten. Turning 32. All right, still ahead, we have continuing coverage of the israel hamas war. Nbcs Richard Engel will bring us the latest from jerusalem. Also ahead, Donald Trumps bizarre comments yesterday from the Campaign Trail. He compared himself to a Nobel Peace Prize winner and told his supporters, they dont need to vote on election day. Thats all ahead on morning joe. Today, my friend you did it, you did it, you did it. Centrum silver is now clinically shown to support Cognitive Health in older adults. Its one more step towards taking charge of your health. So every day, you can say, youuu did it with centrum silver. You founded your Kayak Company because you love the ocean not spreadsheets. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. Indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. Visit indeed. Com hire a few of the other headlines were following this morning, a federal judge in texas has ruled that conspiracy theorist alex jones must pay more than 1 billion in damages to families affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in connecticut despite the fact that he filed for bankruptcy. Jones filed for chapter 11 protection last year after he was ordered to pay compensatory and punitive damages for repeatedly defaming the families by claiming for years that the 2012 killings of 20 students and 6 Staff Members was a hoax. However, the judge ruled that such protections do not apply over findings of willful and malicious conduct. An attorney for jones did not immediately return a message for comment. In a video posted online jones claimed that he was in debt and would continue to appeal the verdicts. Former Maryland Governor larry hogan is withdrawing from harvard fellowships following the universitys response to the hamas terror attacks. Hogan sent a letter to harvards president yesterday writing that he cannot condone the dangerous antisemitism that has taken root on the campus. The universitys president has been heavily criticized for failing to call the attacks terrorism in her initial public statement. It came after several student organizations signed a letter blaming israels government for the violence. And up next, well hear from one of the two hostages released by hamas yesterday as she shares details of her captivity. Plus, in just over an hour, House Republicans will vote again for who will be the partys next speaker nominee. 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Try these. Theyre noise cancelling earmuffs. I stole them from an airport. Its always something with you, man. Great solid greek salad . Exactly dont delay the game with verizon or tmobile 5g Home Internet. Catch it on the xfinity 10g network. Well go through that new reporting. Also ahead, the very latest from capitol hill on the speakers race, which now stands at eight republican candidates, all of whom in the past supported overturning the 2020 Election Results. Terrific. Along with joe, willie and me we have the host of Way Too Early, jonathan lemire, president emeritus of the council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass and u. S. Special correspondent for bbc news, katty kay. Cant they come up with someone who believes joe biden won the election to be speaker of the house literally . Eight Election Deniers . Thats the choice. I think its six so thats a healthy margin six of eight. Healthy margin. We thank god for Tender Mercies but speaking of thankfulness, two more hostages released yesterday, of course, so many still held. Axios reporting that israel is willing to hold back on possible invasion while these negotiations move forward. You know, well take whatever good news we can get out of this grim story but its extraordinary that this Terrorist Group is Holding People in their 80s, releasing these women and leaving their two husbands in their 80s behind. Its brutal. Yeah, thats reportedly been the counsel from the United States government, wait a little bit, lets see if we can get hostages out before you go in and hamas did release two more civilians who had been held for the last two weeks, more now in gaza. Two elderly women freed handed over to Israeli Defense forces taken to the hospital and then reunited with their families. The womens husbands, as joe said, both in their 80s are still being held captive. They were kidnapped from their homes when hamas first attacked on october 7th. In a Press Conference moments ago one of the women shared details of her capture. She is saying that many, many people, a swarm of people came through the fence, that the fence cost 2. 5 billion shekels didnt help even a little bit. She was taken on the back of a motorbike with her legs on one side and her hide on the other side. That she was taken through the plowed fields with the men in front on one side and the men behind her and that while she was being taken, she was hit by sticks, by shabaab people until they reach the tunnels there, there they walked for a few kilometers on the wet ground. There are huge, huge network of tunnels underneath. It looks like a spiderweb. So this is the second hostage release since the war began. An American Mother and daughter were freed on friday. Still israeli officials believe more than 200 people remain captive inside gaza. Hamas, qatar, egypt and israel have been negotiating a people to release a larger group of hostages in exchange for a steady flow of humanitarian aid into gaza. Thats according to three officials familiar with the talks who tell the Wall Street Journal. Hamas, however, is demanding israel allow Fuel Deliveries into gaza but israel fears the Terrorist Group may divert the supply and use for their own Military Purposes or to launch attacks into israel. Lets bring in nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel live in jerusalem this morning. Richard, what more do we know about the release of these two women, one 79, one 85, and this broader strategy by hamas . Reporter so, you just played some of that extraordinary Press Conference that we just heard. An 85yearold woman, tough woman who was just released last night and is already speaking to reporters describing her experiences, speaking through with the help of a Family Member and she described how she was taken on the back of that motorcycle after hamas fighters broke into her kibbutz, started looting, she was thrown on the back of this bike and then taken into these tunnels. She said she was kept there with other prisoners that hamas seemed well prepared. They had shampoo and other toiletries ready. They replaced the and cleaned the toilets that they chose not to discuss politics with her. She even shook their hands when she left, not because she liked them or enjoyed this experience, of course, not, but because they treated her decently. So an extraordinary account of her ordeal but, of course, israel says there are about 220 hostages who remain in gaza, still in captivity including the husbands of these two women. I know that negotiations to free more hostages are ongoing. There had been some hope yesterday to free a larger group and those discussions are continuing through the mediation of qatar and egypt. Overall, the military and humanitarian situation is still heading toward escalation with israel continuing its air strikes, talking about 400 targets, more than 400 targets struck in the last 24 hours in gaza, and aid workers in gaza say unless they can get that fuel in, of course, there is a concern that it will be diverted to hamas, but aid workers from a variety of organizations say unless fuel can get in, generators are going to run out of their Reserve Supplies at hospitals and then incubators, respirators and other equipment cannot function. Diplomatic efforts under way. French president macron arrived so we are seeing diplomatic activity but so far no breakthroughs. So, richard, publicly anyway, the Biden Administration is saying the idf, Prime Minister netanyahu, they make their own military decisions. At nbc were reporting Behind The Scenes the Biden Administration is advising israel to hold back on its Ground Invasion, to get these hostages out first and to get humanitarian aid in there. Whats your sense of those negotiations and how long will israel really wait . Reporter well, i think were seeing a bit of posturing here. If the Israeli Military, if it wanted to go in and was fully determined that it needed to go in, it would. It would not listen to the United States. It would not be held back. If it had a plan and felt the time was right to execute it, it would go ahead but i think the United States as its closest ally is urging caution, is doing so in a way that is publicly acknowledged that does give the Israeli Government a little bit of breathing room, because the people here are angry. They are furious, they want to see a Military Response and they want to see it now. So now if this government can say we are attacking, we are working, we are freeing some hostages and our allies are pushing for time, it does give them a bit more space to com ea back to this tunnel story where these hostages are being held and i spoke to a senior hamas official yesterday who said the hostages are being held in multiple locations. I personally have been in tunnels in gaza, not these Fighting Tunnels, in smuggling tunnels, but the entire gaza strip is flat, its along the sea so the ground is quite soft and sandy and for years palestinians have been Digging Networks of tunnels and they are extraordinarily deep, you have one tunnel leading to another. There are many different layers to them. It is an entire labyrinth under gaza, so in order to deal with that, it is going to take not just two weeks of planning like israels had right now in response to these attacks that took place on october 7th. Theres nothing quick and easy about this. Thats for sure. Nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel in jerusalem this morning. Richard, thanks so much. Mika. As richard rothed, the Biden Administration is advising israel to delay a Ground Invasion of gaza to allow for more time for Hostage Negotiations and humanitarian aid to reach there. Thats according to four u. S. Officials. However, officials stress the u. S. Is not dictating operations for the Israeli Defense forces, yet, the pentagon has sent a threeStar Marine General and other officers to help advise the israelis on the challenges in fighting an urban war. This comes as Senior Administration officials tell the New York Times the white house is concerned israel lacks achievable military objectives in gaza and that the idf is not yet ready to launch a Ground Invasion with a plan that can work. Of course, thats the key, richard, a plan that can work. Weve been hearing so much about how difficult it would be for israel to go into gaza, to achieve what military what Military Goals they end up having. Which takes us back to your Wall Street Journal oped where you talked about a twophased approach. The fact that theyre not quite ready to do that, the fact that negotiations continue to move forward, the fact that joe biden went to the region and said, hold on, dont make the same mistakes we made after 9 11, it really whats happening right now, thus far, it could change in an hour, fits into your twophased approach which is first stabilize the situation, make sure that a bad situation doesnt deteriorate further and, secondly, you do that with peace of mind. David ignatius said this where peace with the saudis is possible, peace with palestinians who want to turn their back on terrorism also possible, so given what you wrote this weekend, where we are today, how do you think things are moving forward . Its interesting, joe, things have slowed down a little bit and what were seeing is that the hostages, by the way, the hostages were not somehow a sideshow for hamas. They were an integral part of their strategy and what were seeing is the slow release of them. Hamas is trying to buy time so thats one situation and obviously israel is loathe to go in while hostages are being released in decent health. The United States is worried about american hostages. That slows things down. Theres negotiations about aid but i think what quietly is happening u. S. Defense officials are spending a lot of time with their israeli counterparts and basically saying, do you really understand how hard this is . Theres two phases. One is actually and youve been talking about it here the military phase of urban close in combat, its a nightmare particularly since hamas will know the terrain better than anybody then what The Americans are saying its a little bit from our our experience in places like afghanistan just say were wrong and youre right, just say things go better than we anticipate, what then. To whom do you hand off authority . Theres no other authority right now other than hamas. Theres no one else in gaza. The idea that the people who cant run the west bank can run gaza is preposterous. The egyptians want to part of it. The u. S. Is feckless. What else do you have to work with . The idea you can clean them out, hand it over and walk out, its just a pipe dream and thats the israeli problem. So my hunch is as emotions are intense but whats happening, i think, is the hard thinking of foreign policies kick in, there would be nothing worse, can you imagine anything worse for israel than it went in big and then three weeks or three months later they said this isnt working and then that almost would add a failure on top of a failure so i think theyre having a little bit of slowing down here. The guarantee, even if they have a, quote, successful Military Operation in gaza, theyre guaranteed to find themselves back in the same situation as they were in 2005 where they said we dont want to govern this place so then theyll have to leave and, again, this goes back to what weve been talking about, fight the war with peace in mind. Right. They have to fight the war against hamas in such a way that other arab countries will come in with the United Nations, with the United States, with other parties, and have a Peacekeeping Force there if thats possible. Katty, there is a real give and take, though, here. Lets say a push and pull. You have the israeli people rightly enraged by the rapes, mass atrocities, beheadings, execution of babies, the burning of children. You have that where israelis dont want to sit back and wait. They want justice and then you have on the other side the World Community thats sort of pulling back at israel telling them to wait, telling them to be patient. Things obviously are going to get even more frayed right now, arent they . Yeah, its interesting, you got president macron flying into israel, the latest in a string of World Leaders to go and try to do two thing, talk about hostages and try to put some restraint on the israelis particularly when it comes to those images in gaza. I spoke to General Petraeus last week and you discussed them yesterday. He lays out that challenge of, you know, clear, hold, build, each one of those three steps in the case of gaza is infinitely harder than it was in mosul for General Petraeus. Clearing it is difficult, holding it, again, what do you do with this . They dont want to hold on to this and building it. Its interesting you have a coordinated message publicly and privately coming from The Americans at the moment. That statement by barack obama last night was very clear to the israelis that, you know, we stand with you, but if you have all of these images of, you know, potentially im hearing Tens Of Thousands of people being killed in gaza during a land invasion, then that could set back the israeli cause echoing Tom Friedmans column then, you know, President Biden saying, listen, are you really ready . Are these achievable aims so the message from The Americans and europeans at the moment, be careful as you apply your next step. Fick kwolup on that, katty. It seems that obviously europeans have always been further away from the israeli position that americans have taken. That said post isis, isis attacks in paris and whats happened in the uk, i find it fascinating that you actually have rishi sunak, the british Prime Minister, pushing hard to stop prohamas demonstrations in london that are chanting jihad and things weve all seen. I know youve seen when youre in london before, but it seems to me that at least that government is moving a bit more aggressively toward the israeli position. Yeah, the brits have moved naval assets and the government is in lockstep but there is some disconnect between the government and people. Youve had very big propalestinian demonstrations in france. Youve had big propalestinian demonstrations in london and if you look at the Domino Effect of this, of any kind of bigscale invasion of gaza and atrocity, killings were seeing and suffering were seeing in gaza at the moment, it gets ive just come back from london, it gets much more play in the European Press than it does in the American Press even, The Americans are trying to cover it too but the dominos will be the arab world gets impatient with the israelis and loses faith with the israelis, the europeans lose faith with the israelis, and then the fear would be The Americans do too if this Ground Invasion were to go on for a long time and were to see night after night images of palestinians being bombed in gaza. Yeah, certainly those images could further sway public opinion. Administration officials in walk i spoke with note that israel has built this 300,000 plus Reservist Force near the border and said theres only so long you can keep a group of that size there because there are economic impacts, logistical impacts and at a certain point the order needs to be go. Theyre careful, not dictating Military Strategy and want to make that very clear. Theres a threestar general over there. Other top officials advising israel as to what the fight may hold ahead when they do go in and how difficult it will be and theres a sense here, a senior biden aide tells me, the president has been so forthright going to tel aviv, delivering speech after speech here in the United States backing the israeli cause, hes bought some currency there and that israel may be more inclined to listen to him, that they feel like hes bought in with them and therefore theyre more willing to listen to his message of take it slow, be patient, do the right thing, but, of course, the decision to go and how big to go, thatll be israel and israels alone, joe and mika. Three weeks after Kevin Mccarthy was ousted, the house remains without a speaker. Well have the latest on the republican chaos and whether theres any consensus on a choice among eight candidates vying for the job. Morning joe will be right back. I want a speaker in the chair so we can move forward and govern. My issues, my committee of war and peace, its too dangerous right now. The world is on fire. This is so dangerous what were doing and most importantly its embarrassing because it empowers and emboldens our add ver says like chairman xi who says democracy doesnt work. Limu emu doug [bell ringing] and doug says, you can customize and save hundreds on Car Insurance with liberty mutual. he hits his mark center stage and is crushed by a baby grand piano. Are you replacing me . With this guy . Customize and save with liberty bibberty. He doesnt even have a mustache oh, look a bibu. [limu emu squawks. ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Thanks to skyrizi im playing with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90 clearer skin at 4 months. And skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. Serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. With skyrizi, nothing on my skin means everything nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. Learn how abbvie could help you save. Weve wasted three weeks, and, you know, this was a dumb move by those eight members of congress. Many of them are on my committee. I like at least six of the eight but at the end of the day they had no plan. They had no plan and, larry, this could stretch out another two or three weeks. This is unfortunate and, you know, im ashamed that were in this position. Hopefully well find someone that could get 217 votes soon. Now, i got to say, willie. Thats experience and insight. If hes saying its a dumb move like he trademarked dumb move. And hes patent. You can literally scan it. Such a mess, isnt it . It is. I like how he said i like six of the eight. He did some quick math and had two names in mind that he bring himself to give himself give false praise upon. To say its a mess is an understatement and have been over two weeks without a speaker of the house with important business in front of us and now so at 9 00 this morning short time from now republicans are going to have an internal vote again to see who they want to be the next nominee. Thats three weeks to the day after Kevin Mccarthy was kicked out of his job. The candidate forum, nine republicans vying for the speakership were given the opportunity to answer questions from fellow lauls after which one dropped out. Now down to eight. Six of the remaining eight candidates voted to overturn the 2020 president ial Election Results. Only congressman tom emmer and austin scott did not though they signed on to a texas lawsuit to decertify so theyre not totally clean on this either. That was a brief support it would have invalidated the results in four key states. Lets bring in jackie alemany. Jackie, where are we as we wake up three weeks after mccarthy lost his job . Yeah, were here again waiting for the third round of the speaker candidacy to take place. Were going to see members today after they made their pitch up for an actual vote Behind Closed Doors. These events, this house gop conference is what they call it when everyone meets in the house basement in a closed door meeting, the entire conference, usually rare events but now have become common occurrences where we wait in the hallways to see who might emerge as the speaker designee, and its unclear who that is going to be. Right now we have tom emmer, the congressman from minnesota who is really the fifth highest Ranking Member of the house conference. He is the likely frontrunner. He has a little bit of baggage. He is one of the few members in the running who is not an Election Denier which has made former donald trump who called him out in a rally over the weekend and then theres people like Byron Donalds, austin scott, Byron Donalds is a younger 44yearold lawmake they are florida who is actually caught an amazing amount of traction. Are woried he is too green but gained support across the ideological spectrum. All of these members, these candidates, the eight of them have signed a pledge from congressman mike flood that theyll support whoever the winner is today. Well see, though, if that house to floor vote to vote on one of these candidates. That still feels pretty far away so were just taking it meeting by meeting right now. You know, i want to bring in Mike Barnicle. Mike, this is such a crisis. Its a crisis not only for the republicans in the house, its a crisis for americans and its a crisis that has global implications. You have chairman mike mccaul who knows something or another about world events saying this, quote, the world is on fire. This is so dangerous, what we are doing, what his party is doing. It empowers and emboldens our adversaries like chairman xi of china who says democracy doesnt work. What mccaul says his fellow republicans are doing right now by being this reckless is theyre proving xi right. You know, joe, its interesting, chairman mccaul the past month or so even longer than that has sounded like someone who does not belong to the existing very public Republican Party that we witness each and every night and each and every day on tv with their chaos. And with all due respect to what did we call them Dumb Moves Comer . I was speaking to a couple of people yesterday, both. Whom have come back from europe on Business Trips in the past ten days and Richard Haass probably has more information on this sort of thing than i do, anecdotally they were talking about fielding questions from respected european businesspeople wondering about the foundations of our democracy here given all thats going on with just the speakership in the house. I dont know what youve heard, richard thats what you hear all the time. These are countries that put their eggs in our basket economically and their security and they are now asking increasingly can they count on us . The fact they have to ask the question is bad. How theyre beginning to answer it is even worse, and theyre beginning to think what do they do, whether its ukraine, what do they do about nato, middle east if the United States is no longer there for them or with them . This is the first time its happened so fundamentally, literally in this era. Right now this white house, of course, cant move to support the way it wants israel and ukraine because of lack of a speaker. There is the possibility that donald trump could return to office a year from now which, of course, worries global capitals and theres a Government Shutdown looming, a few weeks away from that as well. And that would further cripple washingtons efforts domestically and overseas. Walk us through what is going to happen, the role donald trump is trying to play. I know hes no fan of congressman emmer. Is there anybody you talk to that thinks this is something they could get done today, tomorrow on a full floor vote, or is this going to stretch on for weeks to come . Yeah, i want to address the Government Shutdown portion of your question first because its something that i think is not a priority right now even though it is looming and could potentially be disastrous, the continuing resolution expires November 17th and right now lawmakers have done agenda to move toward an actual agreement which means that theyre most likely going to have to pass another continuing resolution which a lot of these house gop Conference Members are in principle objecting to but at the end of the day, the house has one job. Theyre appropriators and they right now have only passed four appropriations bills. They have eight more left, and there is literally not enough time to get those done. So, whoever they do support for speaker is going to theyre going to have to consider some shortterm bill with help from democrats once again. Were likely going to see a repeat of what happened with Kevin Mccarthy this last time around, which leads me to the trump factor here. You know, i think it really remains to be seen how much of an influence any sort of outside player can have. At the end of the day mccarthy did have the support from trump. Jim jordan had a lot of support from trump. That did not make some of these members budge. As Dusty Johnson told us yesterday, you know, it takes a lot to have these guys and gals moved by these external factors even Death Threats as we saw, so emmer does not necessarily have the support of trump but it remains to be seen whether trump is really actively whipping against him and i think were nearing the point where there will be severe political consequences for people if they continue to hold out and we go further with no speaker. So, i mean, trumps influence, not necessarily making a difference, but there is a lot of consequences if they dont get this done. You mentioned the world being on fire. Right. The threats from around the world but theres also the u. S. Economy to think about. The economic consequences are terrible. If you look at it, if you look at the instability, mika, of whats happening when you not only have a looming Government Shutdown, but you have congress shut down, you have Interest Rates, tenyear Interest Rates bumping up against a 5 margin which it hasnt been, i guess, since the mid 90s, that means were paying a hell of a lot more interest on the 33 trillion National Debt that we have, that cuts more and more into not only our budget, but also the strength of the dollar, the strength of the american economy. There are so many things going sideways right now, the republicans in congress have to get their act together or else its not just going to be israel and ukraine and taiwan paying for this, its going to be american taxpayers and people with jobs, things will get sideways really fast. Congressional investigations reporter for the Washington Post jackie alemany, as always, thank you very much. Still ahead, donald trump is telling republicans not to vote. Well have his latest comments from the Campaign Trail next on morning joe. If you want to challenge the result of an election, they hound you. Look what happened this weekend with two good people. They hound them, and they scare them and but we dont get scared. We dont get scared. Ill tell you what. I dont mind being Nelson Mandela. A enhance select. Its a smart hearing solution that makes hearing aids more convenient and less expensive. It connects with your phone so you can stream calls and music. With jabra enhance selects premium package, better hearing doesnt have to start in a doctors office. It starts with a free online hearing test you could take almost anywhere, so you can get your hearing aids custom programed for you and delivered in days. From there, you can fine tune your settings with your remote Audiology Team seven days a week, so your hearing aids work when it matters most. notification dings in fact, more than 95 of enhance select premium customers report hearing better with their friends, family, and colleagues. The same advancedng better Hearing Aid Technology and professional care you expect from a clinic at a fraction of the cost. Try at risk free for 100 days. Visit jabraenhance. Com. Donald trump gave a Campaign Speech in New Hampshire yesterday and lets just say in all seriousness, by the way, this is not a joke, if joe biden had said the things that trump said most republicans would be calling for him to be put in an old age home. Im for us. Im for us. [ applause ] you know how you spell us, right. You spell us us. I just picked that up. Has anyone ever thought of i just picked that up a couple of days im reading and said us, and i said, you know, if you think about it, us equals u. S. We have that all set to go but then we had a little election that went astray, so we have to be careful. You got to get out there and watch those voters. You dont have to vote. Dont worry about voting. We got plenty of votes. You got to watch election night. It used to be election day, now its election month. Now its election period. Some of these things go on for 53 days, its terrible. Victor orban, probably one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world and hes the leader of right . Hes the leader of turkey. Yeah, so, willie, first of all, i just picked that out. Us and u. S. , thats interesting. Yeah, its good. Dont worry about voting, secondly. Third, victor, of course, maybe hes never even visited turkey. I dont know. Maybe the leader of hungary has visited, but its troubling to me he calls him one of the strongest leaders and says it in a wonderful way, he is a person who shut down all of his opponents politically. Hes tapped reporters phones and destroyed independent news agencies. Hes led phony investigations into reporters that were critical of him, chased them from the country, brags that hes a liberal, that they have ill liberal democracy and not westernstyle democracy and again, a guy who keeps thinking hes running against barack obama, not doing well. No, as mika said, if that were joe biden theyd be running walltowall on Certain Networks with medical experts describing what was happening here and why he needed help and why he should probably step off the stage. I would add in, joe, to the collection of comments that he made yesterday he compared himself to Nelson Mandela who, of course, spent nearly 30 years in prison for Fighting Apartheid In South Africa saying if he goes to jail hes happy to be just like mandela. Also, promised in his next term to build like israel an iron dome over the United States. Israel, of course, is the size of new jersey so that would be a heck of a project for the United States to undertake. But katty kay, this is the man who has been, frankly, marginalized by this war, by the gravity of whats been happening for the last couple of weeks. As he said hezbollah was, quote, very smart, again, blaming israel yesterday for what happened to them, a Terrorist Attack against them and periodically visiting courtrooms across the country in between. Yeah, i mean telling your supporters they dont need to worry about voting is a novel strategy. Not one ive ever heard of in a president ial election before. I mean, it will be interesting to see how much Donald Trumps diehard supporters have any of their views changed by the comments he made about hamas which i think probably will have hurt him more than the kinds of things he said last night but as we all know this will only be decided by 100,000 people in five states and if some find him confused, the leader of one country with another, that could give pause to some of those people who may have been wavering, you know, in the middle to think actually this is somebody who we cant trust with the security of global affairs. Coming up, donald trump will be back in a new york city courtroom this morning for his civil fraud trial to hear testimony from his former fixer, Michael Cohen. Well get a live report straight ahead on morning joe. And to. Fastsigns. Make your statement. jennifer the reason why golo customers have such long term success is because the golo plan takes a holistic approach to weight loss. 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Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. Thanks to skyrizi, theres nothing like clearer skin and better movement. And that means everything. Nothing is everything nows the time to ask your doctor about skyrizi. Learn how abbvie could help you save. Today, my friend you did it, you did it, you did it. Centrum silver is now clinically shown to support Cognitive Health in older adults. Its one more step towards taking charge of your health. So every day, you can say, youuu did it with centrum silver. Puberty podcast. Thats got to be the most awkward podcast out there and i would listen to that, theyre out now with a new book this is so awkward modern puberty explained. Vanessa, its not two years and it often in rather dramatic. So, it lasts longer. It starts earlier and it happens with the cell phone in hand. Vanessa and i talk a lot about how puberty begins earlier than you think, between 8 and 9 for the average girl and between 9 and 10 for the average boy. We also talk a lot about brain very many and how long it takes the brain to mature, to be able to send messages all around equally quickly so the different parts can be accessed just as effectively and that takes until someone is in their late 20s. For some people its probably 30. The distance between when puberty starts and when the brain is fully mature and can consistently make good consequential decisions is two decades. Okay, so theres a million Different Things that we can talk about here but im stuck on did you say 30 . 30 years old . 30. Doesnt that explain everything about your 20s, right . Also sexuality. Theres different types of sex that are down and up and i know that weve talked about this. Actually even politically in the age of bill clinton and Monica Lewinsky we noticed an uptick in certain behaviors and high school, junior high school. Now what are they doing . So, we really encourage people to expand their definition of what sex is, and not to just assume its one kind because theres a lot of different stuff going on and people are making different choices. The issue is that kids are actually not having sex earlier, even though puberty is starting earlier. Puberty and Sexual Activity are not one and the same and so even though puberty is starting earlier, Sexual Activity is being delayed and theyre up to other things activity is being delayed. Theyre up to other things. These kids, unlike when we were growing up, theyre exposed to porn and they have access to things we never had access to or barely had access to. Now they have it 24 7. Thats right. Common sense media came out with a study earlier this year that codified what weve known for a long time, which is that the average age of first porn viewing for a kid in this country is 12, and 15 of 10yearolds are seeing pornography. These are huge numbers. To put it into context, before a kid ever has their first kiss, they are seeing videos of often violent or aggressive or nonconsensual sex. This is why we need to talk about all of it. It is awkward and its hard for the adults in kids lives. Yet, if we dont step in and have conversations and start explaining what sex is, what consent looks like, how to make your own independent choice in this path to becoming a mature and grown up person who will one day be in a great loving relationship. If we dont help them do that, then were outsourcing it to porn online. What are some of the other implications of this phone being in kids hands all the time . Porn is one side of it. Theres body image. Kids think im having a meaningful relationship because im snapping with someone or playing a video game. Theres also sleep disruption. When you charge your device in your room, it keeps people up at night. All of us as well, right . I dont want to overly demonize the Digital Communication that goes on between people. We know the data is very clear that especially marginalized communities have built supportive relationships through social media. If you talk to kids who are lgbtq plus, they will say they have Found Community online in a way they never could have found it in person. We dont totally dismiss the benefit of these devices, but weve got to know some of the down sides and weve got to talk to our kids about it. If youve got something going on at home that just feels ironclad, that is a moment that your child will evolve, something will change and youve got to restart and do it all over again. My wife and i have seven children. I cannot tell you how gratified i am that theyre all grown and adult after listening to this conversation. My question to you is asked on behalf of a lot of 25 to 35yearold young parents screaming silently probably for help in doing this. What do you tell them . So thats why we wrote the book, because people need a road map. They want to know what to say. They want to know the Science Behind all of the guidance that people offer them. We also tell them you are going to mess up. You will mess up over and over again on this journey. Cut yourself some slack. Its fine. You go back, you try again, you apologize. Mike, im sure youve messed up more times than you can count. Oh yeah. You go back, im so sorry, i gave you the wrong piece of information. Im so sorry that i lost it with you the other day. Can i get another chance . That is the number one most important thing of caring for kids through this stage . The book is titled this is to awkward, modern puberty explained. Everybody should get the book. We can learn. Well be right back with much more morning joe. Back with m more morning joe. Ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. As we say goodbye to the speaker of the nothing jim jordan, were left exactly where we started 20 days ago. As former speaker Kevin Mccarthy said, its back to the drawing board. I believe we have a picture of that drawing board. Flak . Thats it. Welcome to the fourth hour of morning joe at 6 00 a. M. On the west coast, 9 00 a. M. In the east. We begin right there on capitol hill where a closeddoor meeting of House Republicans is getting under way right now. Hopefully they wont be drawing pictures. Theyll soon vote by secret ballot to select a new speaker nominee. Three weeks to the day after Kevin Mccarthy was kicked out of the position, this morning there are eight republicans running for the speakership. Lets bring in ali vitali. How are they going to pare this down to one choice . Reporter round by round by round inside the room behind me. This is going to be a secret ballot. Its going to be a bit of a lazy process. Before anyone casts any votes, theyre going to be doing nominating speeches. When you have eight candidates in the race, we probably wont see them voting until at least 9 30. Hopefully ill bring you something new by the end of your hour here. Most of the candidates are in the room already. Weve seen tom emmer and kevin hern walk in. The thing thats important to remember is weve seen them being able to get a speaker designate before. Thats not the problem. Earning the votes means you have to count to 110. Thats not difficult. Whats difficult is counting to 217 on the house floor. Thats where the party has struggled in the past. Theres still very much a real question on whether anyone out of that room can get 217 votes they need to become speaker. We heard from congressman james comer yesterday who said on the air on fox news, it could be a couple of weeks before we sort this out. He conceded it was embarrassing to the party and to his caucus. What is the solution here . If jim jordan couldnt get 217, if Steve Scalise couldnt get to 217, is there someone in that room thats going to change this dynamic in the caucus . Reporter i truly dont know. I dont think members fully know. Thats why there is so much frustration. Theres been in shortage of that, but the thing there has been a shortage of is urgency and efficiency among these House Republicans. Their majority is being squandered and theyre aware of that. They dont look like the party in charge. They look like the party of chaos. Frankly, when i talk to democrats, not that theyre thrilled about this, their point is being proven time and again when you look at republicans who cannot even organize themselves and have to continuously go back to the drawing board here. Theres another school of thought, though, that while scalise and jordan and mccarthy are well known names in this conference, maybe the antidote here is someone whos not well known. Maybe its someone who the National Consciousness is not yet aware of. I have no idea. I think its going to be hard for that person, once we do get a speaker, is going to have to do the job, which is extremely difficult with this specific republican conference being as wideranging and factionalized as it is. But they have to go to donors nationally and try to get money in the coffers. Kevin mccarthy was a prolific fundraiser. Whoever is next speaker of the house is not going to be long on experience given th candidates were seeing now. Ali vitali, thank you so much. So Mike Barnicle, you have republicans who are equally worried with democrats and others like mike mccaul about how this looks in the world. You have gerard baker, who is the editor emeritus of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, who writes, a modern de Facto Alliance of tyrannies advances across the globe. China, russia, iran, you can probably add north korea. They dont see the triumph of the west and its values. They see a weakened and declining west and america at odds with itself over its identity and its leadership in the world. Nowhere do those words ring more hauntingly true than in this spectacle of this house gop doing something that no other Political Party has ever done before, and that is vacate the chair of the speaker of the house, the third most powerful person in American Government and not fill it for three weeks and not have a way forward. Joe, 21 days when one of the two Major Political parties in this country, the Republican Party, have refused to govern, have ignored the needs of this country, this nation and the world aflame with danger, both in the middle east, ukraine, around the world. Our opposition to what china is trying to do in the south china sea, all of that is on the table. And a handful of republicans, no the entire Republican Party in the house, but a handful of republicans are refusing to do what people stood in line and voted for them to do, and that is govern. We have over the past several years been given some heinous examples of just the dangers out there when russia invades ukraine, when we see what hamas did to babies, to children. The atrocities are a heartstopping reminder of what is at stake, a brutal warning that we take for granted what we have earned and fought for at our own peril. It isnt our values and our ideas that may ensure we prevail in this struggle, but the terrifying recognition of how fragile those values and ideas are. If hitler had not invaded the soviet union in 1941, yeah, exactly. A large portion of europe may be speaking german right now. So nothing is guaranteed. We only need the events of the last two weeks to remind us how much we dont know what we dont know. We think the world is on one trajectory, and then an event can happen and things can change terrifyingly fast. Things that threaten the United States, a rising china, a declining russia and ourselves. He meant americas political dysfunction. Its not like countries dont have other countries to turn to. There are tensions in europe and have been for a long time, but theyre acute at the moment about how closely to align themselves with the United States when one of germanys biggest trading partners is china, not the u. S. They are being courted and there is a new confidence in the global south in some of these countries saying, hold on a second, that american system, are you sure you want to align yourself with that american system . They may reelect donald trump in 2024 and who knows what happens to nato then and they cant even keep their own congress open. After 2020 the country was downgraded to a fragile democracy. I dont think thats a state of being that benefits anyone in the United States or people around the world either. Willie, i was talking to a powerful member of the government from the socalled global south. They have a ton of money to invest. He told me if you all would just get your act together, americas economy is so superior to any other in the world, he said, hell, we would pile all of our money into microsoft stock. Thats how powerful america is. We dont know whether we can trust going all in with a country that is as dysfunctional as the House Republicans are making the United States look, a january 6th riot makes the United States look. Suddenly theyre thinking, okay, well, china is not free and their economy will never soar like the United States, but at least we know when we talk to their leaders whats going to happen. Thats the thought process going through their minds right now as they look at this House Of Representatives chaos and think we just cant depend on the United States. Everything you just said is true. The sad part is there is a group i dont think its a huge group, but a group of republicans in the house who dont give a damn, who are happy to see this chaos. It benefits them in some ways. They can be the insurgents and prevent anything from happening and raise a whole bunch of money and get elected with 80 of the vote in their small district and they can be famous and Everything Else they crave. The stakes are incredibly high, whether were talking about ukraine or israel or the economy or getting a budget passed or avoiding the debt crashing. Yet, there is a hard group inside that room thats meeting right now that doesnt care about any of it, because theyre going to become more and more well known in the quarters where they want to be famous and thats all they really seek. Turning now to the latest from israel. Hamas released two more hostages yesterday. This morning one of them is describing her ordeal. Richard engel has more. Reporter hamas freed two more hostages, this time two elderly israeli women, 79yearold and an 80yearold. They crossed to safety in egypt last night. The medical teams say theyre in good condition, one even speaking at a Press Conference this morning. She said she was hit during her capture and taken into tunnels in gaza that looked like a spider web and that a doctor saw her during her captivity. The releases are bittersweet because there are still, israel says, about 220 hostages to go, including children and americans. Hamas claims to be releasing civilians for humanitarian reasons in an apparent effort to improve its image. Israel says dont believe it. The Israeli Government released footage it says was taken from body cameras worn by hamas fighters reportedly showing them killing civilians in cold blood during the october 7th attacks that left more than 1400 israelis dead. Israel remains shaken and furious. Its closest allies are cautioning the country not to be blinded by revenge. The gaza strip is at a breaking point. Hospitals are running out of even reserve fuel. Without gas for generators, lifesaving incubators and ventilators will soon stop working. Hamas seems to be weighing its option, a Senior Leader telling nbc news theyre willing to negotiate. So where do we go now. Negotiate. So where do we go now. Reporter at the white house, President Biden was asked about a potential cease fire and said hamas has it backwards. E fire a hamas has it backwards for now, talks are still in early stages as air strikes flatten more of gaza each day. Nbcs Richard Engel with that report. Joining us now, the cofounders of axios. They write a column for axios entitled behind the curtain which is based on their regular conversations with white house and congressional leaders. Its good to have you both on board this morning. You all had some breaking news early this morning that we talked about. Fill us in. Yeah. Our reporter covering the middle east from israel tells us from israeli sources that israel is willing to slow down on the invasion of gaza if there could be a largescale negotiation on getting some of those hostages released. I think america is numb. I think america is sort of like, we had covid, we had afghanistan, we had january 6th. Its hard to get people to think clearly about all of these threats you just mentioned. I think thats why last week, this week most nerveracking of this presidency for biden and hi team, but bob gates told us its the most dangerous time in 78 years. Step back and look at the various threats. You have russia and china. You have Vladimir Putin meeting with the leader of china at the very moment that we were in israel. You have the north koreans continuing to play games with their missiles. You have iran that clearly hates america, is clearly hell bent on stirring up trouble both funding hamas, funding hezbollah and all these things are taking place simultaneously. Thats why the white house is so worried about this spreading fast, not just in gaza, but it can spread into lebanon and if we find out that iran is behind some of these attacks, it can spread into iran. Theyre trying to buy time. They need to get military supplies there and troop there is in case it does spread. And they want to hold back something that becomes much worse of a humanitarian crisis in gaza. Thats a lot. Were talking as jim brings to the forefront about the gaza strip. The gaza strip could lead to a regional war, a war with iran. That regional war can be going on while theres a regional war in Eastern Europe with russia expanding into ukraine and trying to take kyiv. And while that chaos is going on and all of the money is being spent on trying to protect u. S. Interests across the globe, a green light goes to china, who sees two regional wars and thinks, now is an opportune time to go into taiwan, something theyve been wanting to do since 1949. Its easy to see why this white house would be so concerned about this war spreading beyond gaza. The u. S. Is trying to engage in some diplomatic efforts with china right now. In fact chinas foreign minister is in washington this week trying to pave the way for a summit between President Biden and xi jinping next month in san francisco, which they hope will ease some of the tensions there. Of course, we know from the pentagon that they believe china does have longterm interest in taiwan, no question about it. Right now the white house is watching whats happening in ukraine, though that conflict has faded from the headlines some. The fighting remains fierce here before winter sets in and things slow down. And certainly concerns about what could happen in the middle east. Weve already seen an uptick in violence in northern israel, towns evacuated. Weve seen hezbollah and the Israeli Military exchanging more rocket fire. Tell us more if youll dig in deeper on the reporting for us about what the u. S. Is particularly concerned about there if israel goes into gaza and it goes bad, how that could pull others in. Thats the key point we make in our column for axios, is that all these crises could converge. For the moment were thinking of them as separate issues, but the situation room could be dealing with these all at once. What do they have in common . None of the crises that jim checked off from the middle east to iran to north korea to russia cozying up with china. None of those are like checked off and solved. Those are all our new reality. And were dealing with them at the very time that much of our government isnt prepared to deal with anything. You have the house locked up. You have a toxic election coming up. At the same time that all that is going on, you have the government not being able to act or come together. So could the United States in an emergency deal with a true homeland domestic emergency . People we talked to inside, very woried and doubtful. To that point exactly, given whats happening right now in that caucus room where republicans are trying to arrive at someone who could get to 217 votes, theyve been unsuccessful for the last three weeks in finding that person. You guys are plugged in on capitol hill. How are they going to find that person . Youd have to be a hell of a lot more plugged in than any of us to figure that out. My theory is its going to end up being Kevin Mccarthy at the end of the day. He made a mistake. Power is intoxicating. Sometimes it actually makes you drunk. The idea that you would allow one person to be able to bring a motion to the floor to remove you, im ceo of axios, i have roughly the same number of employees as congress has members. I would never take this job if one malcontent could just call for a vote and needed five people to oust me from power. Theres no way you can operate in that. So whoever wins this is going to have literally the worst, hardest job in american politics. Ask newt gingrich, john boehner, paul ryan, Kevin Mccarthy. Its no way to run a Political Party. Its no way to run the house. I dont know who gets it, maybe emmer, maybe mccarthy. But their hands are tied until they kill that ridiculous rule and allow themselves to have the power to get your party to do the things you need to do. Like you said, big things are happening. At some point, we have to authorize money to help israel. At some point, if Congress Comes together on it, they need to authorize more money to get more money and more machinery to ukraine. You cant do it when you dont have the house operating. Thank you both very much. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in gaza could soon become even more dire. The United Nations says efforts to distribute aid will grind to a halt in the coming days when the groups trucks inside gaza run out of fuel. Israel is allowing food, fuel and medical supplies to enter but its barring humanitarian groups from bringing fuel in for fear hamas will use it for terror attacks. With us now, the spokesman for the International Committee of the red cross. Thank you very much for joining us. Tell us about the intricacies of the efforts to try and get aid to people who need it. The intricacies are that the trucks that are filled with humanitarian items, medical supplies, food, water, things like chlorine tablets to purify water, right now were not getting in as many trucks as we want to. The red cross has 60 tons of medical assistance and chlorine tablets waiting just outside. Were eagerly awaiting to get that aid in. We have a Surgical Team and we have weapons specialists to help protect civilians who could stumble upon an unexploded ordinance. Were just waiting to get more of that aid in. Its clearly desperately needed for the hundreds of thousands of people undergoing the effects of this conflict. Could you spell out a little bit more the red crosss role in getting hostages out. The two women released last night were released into your care before they were handed over to the israelis. How dangerous are these moments when youre trying to transfer hostages . The unique role of the red cross is we are the new tropical intermediary. Were assigned this task in the geneva convention. Weve been doing it for 160 years. We have a longstanding relationship with hamas specifically to further humanitarian goals. We of course have a relationship with israel as well. In a situation like the two operations weve seen over the last couple of days, first of all, weve asked hamas to release all the hostages, bar none. Weve also asked to be allowed to visit the hostages. Specifically in the operation last night and the one on friday we were the neutral intermediary, the trusted party between the two sides to meet hamas and the hostages at a given point and to transport them to the other side into the hands of israeli officials. You asked how dangerous is that. Its an extremely sensitive job. Its a role that any one of us could do, put on the red cross vest, get in the car in the middle of an active conflict zone and drive these people to safety. The problem is you never know who might be lurking around a Street Corner who might want to prevent an operation like this from happening. So you plan it as carefully as you can. You share the information with as few people as possible. Your number one goal is maing sure its successful from point a to point b. One of the concerns from israel and other nations is sending all this humanitarian aid in, its going to be intercepted by hamas and used for their own purposes, not getting to the people who need it. How do you assure people that this aid is going to get to the people who need it most . I mean, thats a really understandable issue and question. It is difficult to work through. I dont have a magic answer. All i can say is we know that the assistance that we bring in, medical supplies and chlorine tablets, are intended to keep all the civilians suffering the effects of the conflict safe. By the way, when were talking about medical supplies, that couldnt include they would be used for fighters. When were supporting a hospital, that hospital is intended and designed to help anyone whos injured on any side, no matter if theyre civilian or a military fighter. Thats what the rules call for, to protect humanity even in these issues that are quite sensitive. Now, specifically the aid were bringing in, we would know because weve had an office in rafah and gaza for many years, we know there are hundreds of thousands of people who dont have enough food and water and thats where our assistance would go. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. G up on Donald Trumps former fixer gets a chance to face him in court today. Well go through that legal case, plus updates on the two big labor strikes. More autoworkers are off the job this morning, while Hollywood Studios are hoping to salvage next years box office. Andrew ross sorkin joins us next with that. Its been just over a year since my mother Emily Brzezinski passed away at the age of 90. She was a sculptor with her massive pieces of fallen tree trunks seen around the world. Starting today, one of my moms favorite pieces entitled sprites will be featured at the Frederick Myer gardens and Sculpture Park in grand rapids, michigan. I remember wating my mom make this piece 15 years ago with her chainsaw and ax. She loved the process. The finished product is magnificent. I couldnt think of a better way to celebrate her memory. We also have a website, brzezinski art, where you can find out whats next. News coming about a massive permanent installation coming to bentonville, arkansas, and mclean, virginia. Morning joe will be right back. Morning joe will brie ght back i have moderate to severe crohns disease. Now, theres skyrizi. Things are looking up, ive got Symptom Relief. Control of my crohns means everything to me. Control is everything to me. Feel significant Symptom Relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. Skyrizi is the first il23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. And the majority of people experienced longlasting remission at one year. Serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. Liver problems may occur in crohns disease. Nows the time to ask your gastroenterologist how you can take control of your crohns with skyrizi. Control is everything to me. Learn how abbvie could help you save. The first time you made a sale online with godaddy was also the first time you heard of a town named dinosaur, colorado. We just got an order from dinosaur, colorado. Start an easy to build, powerful website for free with a partner that always puts you first. Start for free at godaddy. Com another chamber of commerce day in new york city today, where it is 9 30 in the morning. Former trump fixer Michael Cohen set to take the stand today as a key witness in the new york civil fraud trial against the trump organization. Former President Trump is expected to be in court for the highly anticipated testimony, which originally was scheduled for last week, but delayed after cohen cited a health issue. Cohen said it will be his first time seeing donald trump in five years. Joining us now is former litigator and msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin. Theres what Michael Cohen knows, what hes going to testify to and the personal dynamic of Michael Cohen, who was the fixer for donald trump for so long, staring him down in court. Reporter its going to be a crazy day, willie. I know that you guys are huge sports fans. I cant think of any match or rematch more anticipated in my own life as a legal observer than this one. Michael cohen is expected to testify to his communications with both trump and Allen Weisselberg about trumps net worth. He has previously testified that essentially trump communicated to them what he thought he was worth and expected them to work backwards from there to arrive at values for individual properties and statements of financial condition. Weisselberg on the stand said that never happened. Cohen wasnt someone who had Carte Blanche to walk into Trumps Office as Allen Weisselberg did. There are helicopters whirring over head and a new Security Apparatus in terms of all the barricades here indicating that the former president is expected. Weve seen Letitia James enter the courthouse. Michael cohen calling media and all kinds of people to do trumps bidding, now testifying against him. We have some breaking news that just came through out of georgia, moving to a different criminal case, where jenna ellis, one of trumps former attorneys now joining Sidney Powell in pleading guilty. Reporter you know, willie, weve seen four pleas so far in that Fulton County case. Three of them came from people who have behaved in a legal capacity. Going back to Michael Cohen, theres a lesson trump doesnt appear to have absorbed. Hell hath no fury like a lawyer whose legal fees were unpaid and who was left to hang in the wind while that person is being investigated. Three lawyers are believed not to have had their legal fees paid by trump and as defendants and people under investigation, their own legal fees in terms of their roles as defendants werent being paid. The poverty that caused for all three of these people could have been a major factor in their decisions to plea. Jenna ellis obviously leads further up the chain to Rudy Giuliani. That remains to be seen how that will unfold. The dominos certainly falling in the state of georgia against donald trump. Lisa, thank you so much. Joe, another one. We had Sidney Powell last week, now jenna ellis. When you think back to november, december of 2020, january of 2021, these were the key players playing the game in an attempted coup and now facing the possibility of prison time, deciding theyre not going to jail for donald trump. Once again, i must say while all this was going on, how could lawyers be doing this . How could they go into courtrooms, saying things that are lies, making a mockery of the judicial system and not pay a price for it with at least the bar . They are now. Were seeing one at a time take that plea deal. Jonathan lemire, you wrote the book on this. You know all of these characters extraordinarily well. Jenna ellis was somebody that, unlike giuliani and even the lady from the kraken, jenna ellis really didnt have a legal background that would have suggested she would have been working with a president in this situation. But not completely surprising that shes taken this deal given what he said about donald trump being a narcissist a few months ago. Lets recall the infamous News Conference at the rnc where Rudy Giuliani appeared with hair dye dripping down his face. He was flanked by Sidney Powell and jenna ellis. Those two women have now both taken these deals in georgia. This was probably the least surprising of the plea deals. Ellis has been openly critical of trump in recent months. She really soured on him and broke from him in the aftermath of january 6th and the like, perhaps some selfpreservation on her part. In terms of the legal case, this is another domino to fall, another person who could be used to testify against someone else further up the food chain. We know this is a huge case with a lot of defendants, nearly two dozen. The top of the list is donald trump. Theres no question his legal team will try to discredit whatever jenna ellis has to say, but its a blow to the former president. You look whats happening to these people, again, people that spread all of these lies, the kraken lady, mr. Pillow, rudy. Gravity does seem to be returning at least for now. Lets move onto business. United Autoworkers Union is expanding its strike to a stellantis plant in michigan as negotiations drag on. Nearly 7,000 workers walked off the job yesterday in suburban detroit at a plant that produces ram fullsized pickup trucks. Lets bring in andrew ross sorkin. I saw a stat about the number of people on strike in 2023 compared to a number of years ago. Its staggering. Any progress to talk about on any front . Make more on the actors strike than the uaw. What youre seeing in the Auto Industry is remarkable. General motors coming out with earnings today that looked quite positive. They said theyre losing effectively 200 million a week as strikes go on. The longer they go on, arguably the more pressure will be brought to bear on the companies. Here you have stellantis suffering a new fate with its vehicle, one of its most popular that they wont be able to continue to produce. The other thing very interesting on the automobile front before we even get into the hollywood actors strike piece of it, is you actually have less people wanting to buy evs than we thought. That is a huge part of the debate even around how much some of these employees should be paid in part because evs are lower margin cars for the automakers. The automakers are saying were going through this big transitionary period and if we pay more money and have lower margins on cars, were going to get into a crunch. Of course the autoworkers are pushing back on that. Similarly in hollywood also going through its own transition around streaming. The good news is theres going to be a conversation thats going to happen today, a meeting between the striking actors and the ceos of the big Hollywood Studios. It seems like there might be some progress there. The last time the writers were striking and they finally got to a deal, it happened because the ceos stat down with them in the negotiating room. The big Sticking Point is streaming and streaming revenues for those actors. I see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal talking about how amateur investors have come up really big, made a ton of money in the stock market over the past couple years. Great news. But also great fears. I never understood credit default swaps. I talked about it on this show. Id read article after article. Never made any sense to me. Same thing with crypto. The New York Times a year and half ago had an entire section trying to talk to people like me who just would say, i dont get it, i dont get it. I never got that. I must say i dont understand the stock market continuing to rise with all the pressures on it right now. When i see this and know how many amateurs are invested in the stock market, i start to get really worried. How is the street feeling about the Fourth Quarter . I think this is one of the most Uncertain Times weve had in a very long time. That was a fascinating article. I wouldnt take too much away from it. There are people who have made extraordinary amounts of money, but theres also probably just as many, if not more, that have not, that have ultimately lost money throughout this period, especially those day trading and the like. I would caution folks around just how much to think about the stock market as a Lottery Ticket. Obviously crypto has been considered a Lottery Ticket for many. Interestingly, its up 10 or 12 in the past day, up 25 in the past week. It was sitting around 28,000. Now its up to 35,000 just this morning on very little news. A lot of these things move in ways that are unfortunately very hard to explain and some people are making money. For everybody whos making money on one side, of course someones losing money on the other. Andrew, thank you so much. We want to go back to capitol hill where ali vitali has a new development in the Republican Partys vote for its next House Speaker designee. Whats going on . Reporter willie, no vote totals yet because were not sure the process has started. Now theres only seven candidates, down from nine yesterday. The congressman from alabama gary palmer dropping his bid, tweeting a statement saying if him dropping out can expedite this process, hes going to do that. He feels after hearing from the other candidates last night, many of the ideals and traits that he himself wanted to pitch to lead this conference are embodied in the other candidates. So at least one less round of voting, at least one less candidate for folks in the room to consider. But theres still the question we were asking at the beginning of the house, which is, even as tom emmer, the current whip whose job it is to literally count the votes and know where all the votes are, whether or not he can count and get the votes that he needs in this room Behind Closed Doors and then should he parlay that frontrunner status into a speak speaker designate bid, can he get the votes on the house floor . Former speaker Kevin Mccarthy is now an endorser of emmer. He said when he goes to the floor, emmer will know if he has enough votes to put him within striking distance. I dont know if anyone in the rank and feel files they will get a speaker today. This is the earliest they could possibly do it. They are now one man down with gary palmer dropping out. I guess were closer, but im not sure were close to the finish line. Im curious about what youve heard about Byron Donalds, the florida congressman, a guy whose name was put out there a good bit when Kevin Mccarthy first ran to be speaker earlier last year, i guess. Its been a long time. From what i hear, he hasnt made a lot of enemies. Again, hes had a lot of people putting him up in the past. Im curious what are his prospects right now compared to the others. Reporter he is one that im watching really closely and not just because hes a fellow florida native, but largely because the members ive spoken to say while emmer is the frontrunner, donalds is bringing in new perspective. Hes literally a freshman here. That being said, hes someone who has worked the inside outside game well when it comes to playing in congress by going along with leadership but also being in touch with the more fringe and factionalized elements of this conference. Hes taking this whip operation seriously. They have a war room in effect. He has been making calls all weekend. I think hes spoken to almost everyone within the conference. They are aware that emmer is the likely favorite here. But the donalds folks believe he can reach into the different factions of this congress maybe in a way that emmer cant. I think theyre well aware there is a dearth of experience, a big lack of Institutional Knowledge for donalds because he is so new here. The reality is when you look at most of the people running right now, the person whos served the longest is congressman sessions of texas. The rest are fairly new members. No matter what, the person whos likely to be nominated to speaker ship is not someone with deep and veteran roots as a congressperson. Weve tried all of the known quantities here, scalise and jordan and certainly mccarthy. This is an operating theory that maybe someone unknown can do it. Donalds may not be peoples first choice, but hes definitely second choice. He could benefit from that as the balloting rounds go on. Its so interesting that you talked about the inside outside game. Thats something ive never understood. I was seen as obviously playing the inside outside game. I was going after gingrich. I was always talking to people on the committee saying am i going too far. Thats a thing i picked up with donalds that he does play that inside outside game. If anything else comes up, please keep us updated. Reporter you got it. Willie. I think i speak for the American People when i say call me when this is over. Coming up next on morning joe, a star studded push to turn out the vote for this off year election. Well talk to two people involved in the hometown project, the founder of the organization musician peter salis and piper perebo. D piper o welcome back to morning joe. This year may be an off year election, but there are a number of important races to Pay Attention to. From the gubernatorial races in kentucky and mississippi, to handful of local Ballot Initiatives that could affect your daily life, now there is a new addition of hard at work to inspire voter turnout at the ballot box in just two weeks. Joining us, peter salet and piper perabo who serves on the board and is supporting candidates in her home state of new jersey this year. Thank you so much for being here, both of you. Lets start with you, peter. Tell us what the hometown project is and how it came to be. Yeah. Im a musician, by trade, and after the 2016 election, kind of sitting in my studio thinking what could i do to make a difference and ive seen so many of my well known friends tweeting to the wind, this unfocused energy, everybody is angry wondering what to do. I came up this idea for the hometown project, to get well known people to support local candidates in their hometowns. So, state legislative races that are decided often by 500 votes, if we could get a well known person to support those local candidates, raise the profile, we could make a real difference and in a way make a, you know, a concrete effort and not just have these kind of angry tweets that went that went nowhere. So, piper, how does this work . How did the activists that you get involved with in this project, what did they do . Did they show up in person . Do they cut ads . Do they raise money . They cut ads and show up in person sometimes. Hometown puts together a list of influencers who want to talk about races where they grew up so that the influencer feels like an authority. Were all an authority on our hometown, we know the community and the issues there. People feel more empowered and more inspired to speak up. Hometown helps us put together ads that are geotargeted to be just in the district. So it is not just being shown all over the place, it is just in that legislative district, where the person is from, and where the race is happening. Piper, new jersey is your area of expertise, your hometown. Tell us about the issues at stake there and what drew you to the project. So, new jersey is an off cycle state. So this year, november 7th, were doing state Legislature Races and other down ballot races and the state legislature is really a place that affects your day to day life, the laws that are passed there affect you specifically all the time. Like, medicare expansion or raising the minimum wage. And so i am working on legislative district 11, which is monmouth county, and margy donlan is running for the legislature and i want to make sure my community where i grew up knows that these races are coming up and how they can be ready to vote and make change that can work for our community. Peter, how does the recruitment process work, finding people willing to do this . We partner with statebased local organizations. We dont want to come in and just, you know, were a small organization, based in brooklyn, so, what we do is right now were working both in virginia and new jersey, so sometimes well work with an Advocacy Organization like clean virginia and sometimes with a state party, like in new jersey were working with the new jersey state democratic caucus. They give us a list of their high priority state legislative candidates where they think the races will be tight and well look at those areas and then well do the research, and figure out who is from that particular area, and then i the Entertainment Community is a pretty Small Community when you break it down, and if mark ruffalo has a good experience and we want to get to wanda sykes, maybe wanda, you know, will respond to an email from mark and then it just kind of moves from there. We identify the people that are from the local area and then we use our rolodexes to get to them. All right. For more information, visit the hometownproject. Org. Piper perabo and peter salett, thank you for being here this morning. Joe, off year elections important in their own right but can tell us what to expect the following november. Theyre so important. They really are. Katty kay, final thoughts this morning . Well, im watching virginia. I spent most weekends there. It is absolutely packed with Election Campaign signs at the moment. The rest of the country may not be noticing it, but virginia, again, suggests there is going to be high turnout in this off year election. And willie, from off year elections to baseball, game seven tonight in philadelphia. There is. And the astros will not be in the world series. Texas with a huge win on the road last night. D tonight you cannot ask for a better atmosphere. Philadelphia fans, a game seven at home, should be a thriller tonight. Mike, who is going to win . Philadelphias going to win, joe. I got to tell you, if you were standing in the Columbus Circle in new york city, you could hear the crowd in philadelphia tonight. Okay. That does it for us this morning. Ana cabrera picks up the coverage in two minutes. Ana cabrera picks up the coverage in two minutes. Infinitely better. New emergenc crystals pop and fizz when you throw them back. And who doesnt love a good throwback . [sfx video game] emergenc crystals. Heres why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built n engine like google, but its pi and doesnt spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. And theres no catch, its fre. We make money from ads, but they dont follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. Hello. Im ana cabrera reporting from new york. I want to get right to breaking news this morning in georgia. Another one of Donald Trumps codefendants in the election interference case taking

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