Who is wearing a wig . Were talking about who is wearing a wig. Who is wearing the rig. Rig . Rig. Now my ears are going. Lets get a check on the day ahead before we toss it over to morning joe. Vice President Joe Biden announces new funding to help train americans for jobs in cyber security. Oscar nominations come out this morning at 8 30 eastern. The 87th Academy Awards take place february 22nd. Will the Golden Globes have been an determination for who gets nominated . What do you think, gang . Maybe. Oh, my gosh. The energy is here in palmable. Can you feel ill at home . Morning joe starts right now. Good morning. It is thursday january 15th. Welcome to morning joe, emp. ,, everyone. With us onset is Foreign Affairs columnist and editor at large for Time Magazine ian bremer. And associate professor at Columbia University school of international and public affairs, Dorian Warren. In washington, msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the Republican National committee Michael Steel joins us. In san diego, editor of bloomberg politics, Mark Halperin halperin. Its surprisingly like willie geist at 3 00 in the morning. He is up early. Lovely background. Gorgeous. That is gorgeous. You know mika these ohio people are just crazy. Like whats the matter with ohio . Im going to write a book called whats the matter with ohio. Who do you mean . Whom the gods would destroy,
they first make mad. The second thing they do is give them a national championship. They burn down the campus. Burn a couch. Youre thinking okay thats not bad. It happen right . We, of course dont do that in alabama because you kind of get bored by winning championships. Big ten here. But then willie i see where this is going. But then but then they get a bartender who wants to poison the speaker of the house. The orange americas first orange speaker. And they hate him just because of the color of his skin. But theyre going to kill him for that. Right . What . Then another ohio dude decides hes going to blow up the capitol. I think theyre one in the same, but whatever. Was it the same dude . No. Its not. Its a different dude. Im telling you, these buckeyes i think its too early, joe. No this is serious point. I know. You can draw a Straight Line to urban meyer going to ohio
state and all of these terror plots. Did you take your meds . Am i the only one surprised . Did you take your meds . Hold on a second. Dan dan, alex is this not happening . Its happening. Its a coincidence, they say. Do we take over flyover states, do we do that . Only only if i go there. And then its the center of the world. Then i come back to the coast and we just talk about the coast. And barack obama. Yes, yes, yes. Those poll numbers. I know. Theyre going high. Theyre getting up there. Im not surprised. Thats good yes. You know what they say. What . Whom the gods will destroy, they give a majority in congress. Its always a surprise how president s do so much better when the opposing Party Controls congress. Yeah. The dynamic, yes. It always happens. Americans start looking at that president who they didnt really
like when he had a monopoly and they go wait a second we need him there to balance out the republicans, or vice versa. Well get to that as well as other political news in just a moment. But first, on a serious note there are that was very serious. Yes it was. There are new concerns about homegrown terrorism after Authorities Say they thwarted a terror plot against one of the countrys most iconic buildings. An ohio man now facing charges for allegedly plotting a military style attack on the capitol capitol. Officials say he was inspired by Islamic State militants and anwar al awlaki. The u. S. Born spokesman for al qaeda. This is the man now in custody. 20yearold Christopher Lee cornell. Koert documents say he wanted to plant pipe bombs around the capitol and then shoot officials who tried running away. Investigators say he came to their attention last august when he used an alias to post proisis messages on twitter. Court documents also say he discussed his plans with a man that he thought was sympathetic. The man was actually working undercover for the fbi. Officials say cornell was arrested after he bought two semi automatic rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition at a gun range. The fbi says the public was never in danger. Cornells father says his son did recently convert to islam but cant believe what hes being accused of. People that really know chris, they know hes a good guy. I dont think like i said you know i was completely blind sided by this. This came as a complete surprise, you know . Chris is i mean he never leaves the house. Hes a mommys boy. He never showed any any signs of any any kind of violence or anything. I mean quiet, shy, good kid. You feel bad, so bad for dad. But, willie if he hasnt left the house in 20 something years, thats a good warning. Hes not that good a kid, dad. I understand dad is not feeling great about what happened. The police say hes hardly a model terrorist, reenforcing what the father said. You cant leave the go i untouched if hes talking to informants and blowing up the capitol youve got to do something. Great work by the fbi, unlgds cover, used their intelligence and took him down at a gun shop yesterday. Now to france where police may be on the verge of a big break in their investigation into the paris terror attacks. Police confirm that amedi coubali rented a small home and filled it with weapons the week before his siege at a kosher supermarket. A french newspaper reports a scooter was found that could identify a possible accomplice. Theres also new Security Camera footage from inside the grocery store. The gunmen can be seen ordering a hostage to put his hands against the wall and in another image a worker is forced to
stand on a stool to disable a camera. Meanwhile, since last weeks attack france has arrested more than 50 people after prosecutors ordered a crack down on hate speech antisemitism and individual supporting terrorism. It comes as the first issue of Charlie Hebdo since the massacre sold out across france within hours. The paper is so sought after that companies are going for more than 1,000 some of them are going for 1,000 on ebay. French president Francois Hollande says the magazine has been reborn and, quote, you could murder men and women but you could never kill their ideas. Ian obviously france is having to focus mainly on antisemitism right now. That seems to be where theyre focused. This is such a big problem in france and across europe isnt it . Its doing to become much larger. I mean the fact is that the economic environment continues to be incredibly poor in these countries for large swaths of
the population. Theres a very Great Division within these societies. Treatment of jews. You look at surveys. One just came out recently from britain britain. Some 45 of respondents promoted antisemitism in some direct way. Over 50 of jews responded felt like they did not have a clear future in britain. Youre an european expert. It is just absolutely fascinating to me and horrifying to me how antisemitism has played such a large role in the history of europe over the past thousand years. Theres always a reason and always an excuse given to hate jews in europe. Of course now its the palestinian conflict. But you could go back you know you could go back to the days of Martin Luther. I mean the people that we revere Martin Luther was a raging antisemite. You could look at the magna carta, yes, freedom for
everybody but jews. You dont have to repay debt to jews. You dont have to treat jews equally. This strain of antisemitism reached the climb maxax when 6 million jews were murdered in europe while a lot of anticommunisms stood there and watched. I just wonder how this continent has after hitler and after the holocaust, how 50 60 years later they have collective amnesia. Its interesting. Its one of the reason, of course, you do see a backlash in many European Countries against the motions of the kind of expansive free speech that we support in the United States. Its not because they dont care about individual liberties but because precisely theyre concerned ability reopening these boxes that can lead to hate speech and hate crimes against any minorities. This has been the year where pecetti has been the man for europe. Much less so in the United States. Hes not become the kind of celeb he has in europe and he has in france. The fact that the european economy is not rebounding the fact that theyre not going up you dont see the productivity. Energy prices are higher. People are not benefiting. If youre in these countryiescountries, you feel youre a peasant work for you, you go back to your lowest common denominator which is about the individual nations. Thats the problem. Can you explain for everyone watching quickly. Its telling we were talking about a couple of years ago, the french and german lecturing barack obama and his administration on economics. Can you explain the difference between americas economy and dont worry, republicans, im not giving barack obama the credit, im giving america the credit and i always said were going to rebound and be strong. Can you explain the difference between americas economy, as imperfect as it is and the state of europes economy . As far as attitudes go and vitality and. Tlb a lod ophere are a lot of factors here. The revolution, we are the Worlds Largest producer of calories in terms of food. Right. The demographics are great. Yeah, yeah yeah. Just tell us why were winning. Those are reasons why were winning. Youre supposed to say manifest destiny and were great. We took lots of greatertory. Thats certainly true. You also have enormous support for entrepreneurship in the United States. Much easier to start your own company. And theres no question that the general attitudes of americans, youve consistently had Pugh Research and the rest that 90 of americans polled believe they will end up in the top 10 or their kids will over the course of the next although thats clearly not true. Its not true in europe. Right. That is the essence, mika of the American Dream and that is the essence of this countrys economic greatness that i can grow up in a small house and belief that i can either live in
a small house when i get older or i can work really hard and live in the biggest house on the hill and blah blah, blah. Whatever. You have that feeling, but you talk to people from france aroundand you talk to Business Owners in france and they constantly talk about their frustration, that if they work hard and work around the clock and are entrepreneurs, theyre actually looked upon with suspicion. And even though upward mobility has really collapsed in this country glad you just said that because i was there is still the belief here and i believe were going to fix that that theres never been dorian, in great britain, that theres never been in france, this class structure that muslims feel trapped by a lot of middle class and lower middle class frenchmen and brits have felt that for centuries. For centuries. America was at one point especially in the mid to late 20th century the democracy of
equal opportunity. As weve just mentioned, a lot of those ladders of opportunity have closed in the last 20 30 years. But i was reading an article this morning about french immigrants and outer rings of paris where unemployment rates are at 20 and for many french or immigrant youth are at 40 . So theres a sense that there is no Economic Opportunity at all in many of those communities. That gets us to a conversation about what are the underlying causes that drive people towards radical ideologies in certain place sdpls place. You can drive through those suburbs and you can see it immediately, just the difference. Really quickly, one final thing on unemployment, 40 . I saw a stat last week that unemployment in america for people with bachelors degree is like 2 . Isnt that remarkable . Well, and also just really quickly, we were going to get to
these polls and i think well have time. But according to a new poll americans, 27 of americans say the economy is excellent for good. Up 11 points from a year ago. So attitudes are changing. The Republican National committee has announced dates for 2016 convention. The event will be held in cleveland, in mid july about six weeks earlier than 2012 convention. Party chairman ryan moved up the convention as part of a strategy in ohio. Do they really want to go there . The nominee gained earlier access to the general election funds. He has sought to strengthen it by scaling back the number of debates as well. Mark halperin, youre in san diego covering the republicans winter meeting. What do we expect to hear from that . Announcement later today the first day of the convention will be devoted to capturing terrorists and murderers. He brings it. Never been done before. Going to be hard getting back to the Buckeye State for me. I love that place. The delegates are going to
fan over ohio and capture people and bring them back to the convention. Governor romney will be here tomorrow night but you will hear ben carson and scott walker speaking today, rick perry is speaking tomorrow. All the buzz here is about the 2016 race and a lot of surprise and question about what governor romney is doing and whether its a little bit of a mirage that he might not even run or if he does run, collapse before he gets ahead of steam, or has he transformed the race . Michael steel, its been a remarkable ten days maybe two weeks in the party that you once led. Chairman of the rnc with jeb bush effectively announcing hes getting into the race. For all intents and purposes and mitt romney being pressured by the pace of jebs announcement to do the same. Right. What do you make of the developments over the last two weeks . Do you think mitt Romney Jeb Bush do run . Are they standing on the stage of those late debates . I do. I think that mitt romney has done a reassessment of the caliber and quality of the potential challengers and said because you recall he said, you know im not going to run unless i see that theres someone or no one that can do this. I think hes looking at you know, his position on a number of issues whether it was on russia or the economy as being correct and hes got this new mojo. Yeah, i think hes going to be there. Hes going to be in play the same with jeb bush. I have to tell you, willie the exciting part for me is yet to come. That is the republican governors. When the republican governors begin to throw down on this thing and get in this race thats when i really think the dynamics change because youre talking about two former governors who have been out for 8 and 12 years respectively. Youre talking about versus governors who served through the recession, who had to deal with barack obamacare, who had to deal with the changes in our economy and govern through that. So when they engage this this conversation, thats when its
going to be a real test of wills within the gop, this whole establishment versus tea party. I think that kind of goes away. Its really going to be about who can govern this country and who has. Mark halperin really unside baseball where politics and media collide. But i found it fascinating, you know you always hear the stories about how tabloids back in the 1800s would pick a party or bash this candidate and bash this. Its fascinating the little sort of back and forth when the Washington Post which has actually become mitt romneys newspaper and New York Times which officially trashes mitt romney for the benefit of jeb bush. Every day theres a antijeb story and a promitt story in the Washington Post which is then followed by a projeb story and an antimitt story in the New York Times. It has played that way out for the past couple of weeks. Its fascinating. Of course the wall street journal editorial page breaks the tie and votes against
romney. The jeb people and mitt people are behind the scenes. The candidates would be candidates, are doing a ton of stuff but very little in public. Jeb bush is in california as well. Hes not doing Public Events. The press right now is consumed as you suggested, not just those two papers but a lot of political media with this question of will we see a romney bush faceoff. What will that mean for christie and the current gov vers Michael Steele recoverferred to. What happens right now will determine the contours of the race even if theres two dozen candidates besides those two guys. One more big story. Secret service is undergoing a massive changing of the guard at the top with six of eight top officers leaving. Already julia pearson, the agencys first woman in charge, stepped down in october. Now four of the agencys assistant directors are being forced out. Two others retiring. The Washington Post was the first to report that the departures follow a series of security lapses in november a security contractor with an arrest record rode an elevator with the president in tlant while carrying a gun, and in the same month an iraq war veteran with a knife was able to climb the fence at the white house, making it into the building before being subdued by an offduty agent because a number of security precautions failed. So lets bring in Washington Post reporter kara who has been leading the coverage and breaking all the stories every step of the way. Your reporting has been absolutely extraordinary. Tell us whats happened here. And is there more. Thanks joe. Thanks mika. There is probably going to be more but at least yesterday we were learning early in