win, you will be their next target. that's why israel's victory will be your victory. but make no mistake, regardless of who stands with israel, israel will fight until this battle is won. israel will prevail. >> just part of a defiant speech yesterday from israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, where he rejected calls for a cease-fire and his resignation. we'll have more of his comments and get a live report from the israel-gaza border straight ahead. meanwhile, aid for israel is a top priority on capitol hill, but the two chambers have very different plans for delivering it. we'll go through that potential funding fight. also ahead, an update on the expected testimony from donald trump and his three oldest children in his civil fraud trial. plus, why a tentative new deal for auto workers is a win for the union and president bide biden. and the continued support for actor matthew perry, with his friends, co-stars, releasing a statement following his passing. we'll read for you their emotional comments. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, october 31st. happy halloween. >> happy halloween. >> yeah. along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of -- >> that's it? >> that's how we do it. >> where are you going as? the kids? >> no. >> willie, you have to do the "today" show thing. >> i can't tell you. >> don't tell anybody. >> you have to watch us at 10:00. watch the west coast feed of the "today" show. >> what are your kids doing? >> the youngest is going as shoeless joe jackson. >> wow. >> old school white house jersey. >> gambling on the game? >> he has the draftkings app on his phone. then the oldest is -- you know how you drive by a car wash or car dealership, they have the things. >> sure. >> hilarious. >> he has an inflatable thing. >> sounds great. >> not bad. >> two really good costumes. >> i'm going as a tired person. >> again this year? >> again. it's a staple for me. >> poor thing. >> rev, any? >> i've been telling my daughter i want to take my 4-year-old grandson trick-or-treating to trump tower. i want the donald trump costume. >> yeah. >> one of my daughters was polly pocket. cute. do you know what it is? >> i don't know what that is. >> anyhow, former chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele, is with us, as well. good to have you, michael. let's jump to the news. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is rejecting the growing international calls for a cease-fire in its war against hamas. instead, at a press conference yesterday, netanyahu asked other nations' support for israel's fight. >> just as the united states would not agree to a cease-fire after the bombing of pearl harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, israel will not agree to a cease-fire with hamas after the horrific attacks on october 7th. calls for a cease-fire are calls for israel to surrender to hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. that will not happen. this is a time for war. a war for our common future. today, we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. it is a time for everyone to decide where they stand. israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. i hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight, because israel's fight is your fight. >> netanyahu also defended his own actions surrounding the war. his political opponents have called for his resignation over his failure to prevent the october 7th attacks. some have also accused the prime minister of punishing innocent civilians by cutting off electricity, food, and other supplies to gaza. >> the only thing that i intend to have resign is hamas. we're going to resign them to the dustbin of history. that's my goal. that's my responsibility. that's what i'm leading the country to do. not a single civilian has to die. hamas merely has to let them go to the safe zone that we created in southeastern gaza strip. there's a safe zone there. not a single civilian has to die. but hamas is preventing them from leaving, keeping them in the areas of conflict. i think that you should direct your questions to hamas, but i can tell you one thing, we're going out of our way to prevent civilian casualties. >> willie, i think for many supporters of israel, right message in many ways, wrong messenger. certainly, him defending himself in the lead up to the attacks, that's not a message that the overwhelming majority of people in israel believe. there's no way they could believe that. he left israelis completely vulnerable to the most vicious attack since the holocaust. again, i think it's wildly inappropriate for him to -- but, of course, it's what he is going to do. but to somehow try to tangle, entangle israel's survival with his own. but, again, many things he said, true. we wouldn't have talked about a cease-fire on december 8th, 1941, or september 12th, 2001. also, very true that hamas has hidden behind civilians their entire career. we said this the day after the attacks. we said, when a jew dies, that's a victory for hamas. when a palestinian dies, that's a victory for hamas. they are just excited about palestinians dying, maybe even more than they are when jews die, because they consider that a victory. that's why they hide in hospitals. that's why they hide in apartment buildings. that's why they hide behind civilians. again, i think most supporters of israel would agree with benjamin netanyahu in many ways, except the benjamin netanyahu part. he was responsible for that. not just directly by israel sleeping and the defense forces sleeping and him obsessing over wars against the courts instead of war against hamas. also, because what he did for well over a decade, doing everything he could to avoid peace talks that would lead to a two-state solution. he was so obsessed with the west bank and so obsessed to allowing religious extremists to bulldoze down palestinian homes for political purposes, because he knew that would help him with the far right, the far right religiously politically, that he took his eyes off the terrorists who promised to kill jews. took his eyes completely off of it for political reasons. yeah, that speech last night, a little discordoned for a lot of people, and i'll say including myself, that are fierce defenders of israel. you can't be a fierce defender of israel and listen to what benjamin netanyahu said and go, "yeah, yeah, that sounds about right." 80% of people inside of israel think he is responsible. >> well, that's the thing. in this moment of national unity inside of israel, there is dissent about the man leading the country right now, big dissent. you hear it in the questions he's asked in the news briefings. he has built his reputation as a national security hawk, as the man who can protect israel from all the aggressors that surround it, every minute of every day. >> right. >> october 7th, that all fell to pieces. the fact that people could walk across the border, effectively, and murder a couple thousand civilians, that fell away for him. he is vulnerable to that. his argument now, joe, is there will be time to talk about who is responsible. there will be a time for that. right now, we have to crush hamas. >> well, jonathan, willie is exactly right. >> i wouldn't want to put off that conversation. >> why? you'd want the same people that allowed the attacks to happen on october 7th to lead this war? no. because he put clowns around him. i have friends in israel that told me for a year that he was taking out the pros and bringing in idiots and clowns. >> what does that sound like? >> yeah, what does that sound like? sounds like donald trump in the united states. again, they didn't tell me this on october 8th. they were telling me this in june and july. they were telling me it's a certain kind of show over there. and i had warnings time and time again, people saying time and again, "he's dividing the very people who protect our existence." willie is right, you know, he's built himself up as this hawk through the years. he will be remembered as the man who was responsible for the greatest slaughter of jews worldwide since the holocaust. i'm not saying that. israelis are saying that. the ones who were there. the ones who lost sons. the ones who lost daughters. the ones who lost kids, who lost parents, who lost grandparents. they're the ones saying it. that's why he can't go out and answer questions from israelis. that's why the cabinet ministers won't go out to the people. they know they're responsible. >> yeah, his legacy will be that he took his eye off the ball. the number one job for an israeli prime minister is to keep citizens safe. his focus was the battle of the courts, settlements, appeasing the far-right members of his coalition, and he lost the -- you know, he lost the ability to keep those israelis safe. he's facing a lot of questions now. there's real sense in the biden white house that his days politically are numbered. they suspect he'll keep his position through the first wave of the war, but polls suggest israelis want a new leader. >> let's go to the israel-gaza border. chief foreign correspondent richard engel is there. weigh in on this topic of prime minister netanyahu and also the latest on the israeli push inside gaza. >> reporter: so the prime minister's career is definitely in trouble. there is anger building against him. every time he speaks to local press or foreign press, he is facing questions, whether he should resign, whether he will accept responsibility for failing to anticipate the attacks of october 7th, and failing to respond in a timely manner. these attacks that took place on that day took place over the course of several hours, where hamas was able to go from community to community butchering people, taking hostages. now, some israelis are saying that he is doing this campaign to both attack hamas but also to try and save his own political career, potentially at the expense of the hostages. there are, every night in tel-aviv, vigils by the families of the hostages. they're trying to stay apolitical, trying not to criticize the government, butne. they say, "one day when this is over, we will express our opinions about the prime minister and what needs to be done." in a major development, the first hostage has been freed by israeli troops. israeli troops operating in gaza. a young israeli woman, she was taken by hamas from a guard tower in a kibbutz. 12 soldiers were killed in the attack and several others along with her remain as hostages. but inside gaza, one thing that cannot be mentioned -- is important to mention, he talked about a safe zone in southern gaza. our reporters in gaza say there is nothing like a safe zone. israeli strikes continue all across the gaza strick, including in the south. the idea that there is some safe haven where palestinians can go and not come under attack is simply -- >> nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel, thank you for your reporting, as always. good news, the 19-year-old soldier was released, but 14 remain, according to the israeli government. >> agony for the families. we'll be returning back to this story throughout the four hours of "morning joe." let's get to politics here at home. in his first major move since becoming speaker of the house, mike johnson has taken the bipartisan goodwill of providing aid for israel and is launching a fight with president biden over his signature achievement, while setting up a clision course with the senate. house rubcans released the details of their aid package for israel yesterday. it includes $14.3 billion in emergency fundin here's the catch, the bill rescinds that same amount of irs funding from the inflation reduction act. the act is the major climate health care and tax law that president biden signed into law last year. the gop bill also focuses solely on israel, despite president biden's request for aid to both israel and ukraine. the measure is set to be considered by the rules committee when the house returns tomorrow and a vote in the full chamber could happen later this week. speaker johnson spoke about the bill to fox news in an interview set to air later this afternoon. >> we understand what's at stake here, and i hope that everyone will put politics aside, get that bill over the line. we're going not just printing money and sending it overseas. the other concern we have overriding this is our own strength as a nation, which is tied to our fiscal stability. that's a big problem we have, as well. we have to keep it in mind as we try to help everyone else. >> if the bill passes, the republican controlled house, the irs provisions are all but guaranteed to be rejected by the democratic-led senate and the white house, setting up a clash over how to approve the aid to israel and, of course, leaving ukraine out of the conversation. >> leaving ukraine out. michael steele -- >> great start. >> -- it's remarkable, remarkable how tone deaf, how tone deaf my former party is. >> i know. >> they are actually putting billionaires between the protection of israel and the united states congress. they are slashing funding for the irs to go after billionaire tax cheats. let me say that again. they're taking the money that was passed, they're taking the money and they're gutting the irs' ability to go after rich pl billionaire tax cheats. they think this is the solution. i'd say, i have a solution. why don't we just have a billionaire tax? like, all the parts of the trump tax cuts that were giveaways to billionaires and multinational corporations, why don't we take that money from the multinational corporations that got massive windfalls and did the stock buybacks, take all of the billions that billionaires got from the trump tax cuts, why don't we take that money and help the israelis instead of having the republicans in the house try to help billionaire tax cheats? it's breathtaking, michael. it's breathtaking. >> at this point, it is beyond breathtaking. you just realize the crass political nature of it. you know, all of the soft tones and the, you know, new look of the speaker belies the fact that, at the end of the day, they're going to try to do the all set game. now, we're concerned about the cost of things. now, we're concerned because, oh, some people in the base are upset we're sending money overseas. those weren't concerns before. they spent $8 trillion under donald trump. to your point, go back and look at all of that money. go to that budget that you set up that really allow for the wealthiest of the country to benefit. if you're really that concerned, this idea of setting up a fight with the president right as the critical juncture of israel, ukraine, and just the general thrust of where the global setting is going, to me, is an unnecessary fight. but this is what it's all about, joe. this is not about the seriousness of budgeting, budget policy, the seriousness of economic and fiscal health of the country. it is about, okay, you want money for israel, then pay for it out of the program that we disagreed with but, oh, we voted for it in the first place. >> yeah. it's fascinating. we have this mike johnson guy who was part of a congress that spent more money and drove us deeper into debt over a four-year period than any congress in the history of the united states of america. in fact, mike johnson and donald trump, together, ran up debt more in four years than america did in its first 210 years of existence. that's how serious mike johnson was. oh, we have to pay for it. did anybody -- i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i don't follow the news. i don't have to with the job i'm in. did anybody ever hear mike johnson holding up a bill under donald trump because it wasn't paid for? in all of the $8 trillion, he just opened the door, "here, just drive the trucks through of debt." 1 billion, $2 billion, mike johnson, $3 billion, $5 billion, $7 billion, $8 billion. $8 billion mike johnson and donald trump gave america in debt, and suddenly, he won't even help jews protect themselves. it is so gross. and, making it even grosser, he says, this is what we're going to do. we'll protect the jews if you protect the billionaires. we want billionaire tax cheats to get away with stealing more money from the american people. we'll let you protect the jews, joe biden, but you have to let us protect our donors, our billionaire donors that are tax cheats. i've never, truly, heard of a dumber plan to start a speakership than to put jews' lives in danger so you could protect billionaire tax cheats. and he knows. he knows this is never going to pass. they're not going to let billionaires continue to cheat on their taxes. he knows this. yet, that's what he said. "we'll let you, joe biden, protect the jews, let democrats protect the jews, but you have to let us republicans protect billionaire tax cheats." it's just so grotesque. >> it is not only politically dumb and grotesque, this is a guy who professes to be this ardent, practicing, moral christian. so you're saying that we are not going to vote to protect not only israelis, we are still having 240 people hostage there while we have this debate, and the debate is we're going to take care of our billionaires, or we're not going to give the money you want for israel. and, by the way, democracy, we're not even going to discuss ukraine. take that off the table of dealing with fighting to protect democracy in terms of ukraine and russia. this is his opening act. >> i didn't even get to ukraine. he's basically said, let put putin have his way. >> that's right. >> let vladimir putin have his way. if hamas wants their way with the jews, if we can't protect our billionaires, let them have their way with the jews. he is lying through his teeth when he talks about, we have too big of a debt. he didn't care when he and donald trump were running up the largest debt in american history. >> it's their debt. >> it's their debt. >> it's the debt they created. now, you want to deal with your debt that you and donald trump, who is clearly his hero, that you created by saying, "hostages, don't worry about it. i'm not worried about the safety of israelis. and i'm not going to even deal with democracy to ukraine. we have to protect our billionaires, and you take care of the israelis and hostages, and putin can have his way." this is his opening act as the speaker of the house. >> this is the new speaker, jonathan, saying, look, we're defunding the irs, just like we chanted and talked about. he is doing it as a condition of giving support to israel. we should point out to our viewers, this isn't how this works typically. >> yes. >> emergency funding or aid to an ally, you can negotiate the number up and down, that's reasonable and responsible, but to say, "hold on a second, you're not getting that unless i get what i want on a pet domestic issue on taking money away from the irs." it is a new thing for a new speaker. >> truly is. we're hearing pay fors and offsets. that's not what this is. this is another effort to undo the debt ceiling deal that president biden struck with kevin mccarthy earlier in the year. it is trying to undo part of the biden signature legislation from a year ago, which republicans opposed. it is also politically foolish, to joe's point, not just on national security issues, which is paramount, endangering israeli lives and ukrainian lives, but also in terms of the political side. if they simply said, vote on israel, then you put democrats there a box. are you going to oppose israeli funding because there's not ukraine attached? they didn't do that. instead, they connect it to this, the irs defending billionaires. it is political malpractice. also, it gives democrats an easy way out, oppose it no problem. the white house can say, this is not okay. we have to go back to the drawing board. >> that's what i don't understand, michael st