Congressional gold medal today. Specializing in explosives in hand to hand combat the unit made up of americans and canadians helped lib rat this years flu vaccine is 12 effective in adults. I got it and it laid me out. Given the big political debate over vaccines happening right now. Thats it for way too early. Morning joe starts right now. Good morning. A live look at times square. The snow here. I think this was bigger than the actual storm that was supposed to be the storm of the century. Uglier with all the ice. There were parts of new england that did not need more snow. Steve ratner is joining us along with willie and me. I have 21 news stories. Set a record. Do you dare me . Lets do it. Speed read. Lets just stuff a sock in joes mouth and make him be quiet. Governor Chris Christie is on a threeday trip to england but he stirred up a big debate over the safety of vaccines back home. Did you guys hear about this . Yeah. Yeah. I think i think kasie hunt started this. Good for her. With her sweet questions. As long as it ends well. She always asks these innocent little questions. Here is morning joe correspondent kasie hunt. Chris christie came to cambridge to highlight the close tie toss bio science touring a company that makes vaccines. But he ended up injecting himself into an american debate as measles spreads in the u. S. I understand that there are families that in some cases are concerned about the affect of vaccinations. The science is, you know pretty
indispute indisputable. Are you telling parents to get your kids vaccinates . You should. Do you think americans should vaccinate your kids . Is the measle vaccination safe . We vaccinate ours. But i understand that parents need to have a measure of choice as well. Reporter back home kentucky senator rand paul weighed in, too. Did you really just say to Laura Ingraham that you think most vaccines in this country should be, quote, voluntary . I guess being for freedom would be unusual. I guess i dont understand the point. Ive heard of many tragic case of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaks screens. Im not argues vaccines are a bad idea. I think they are a good thing. I think the parent should have input. Reporter Christies Office was quick to walk his statement back saying, quote, with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated. The comment pulled the focus away from the planned messages and photoopes. Touring historic cambridge,
paying aspeths at saexpects at the cemetery. These trips can help build Foreign Policy credentials but so far christie hasnt talked much Foreign Policy. Whats your view of the world of nato playing in the world today . Im not going to get into that. Reporter even as youre here in the uk . Even as im here in the uk. No, not now. Reporter but he didnt leave politics at the waters edge. He wants the u. S. To accelerate a trade deal with the eu. President obama supports it. Christie says thats not good enough. The president has not proved himself to be the most adept negotiator in on my opinion on beof half american interests. Thats the first hurdle. You know somebody in the white house who is going to be a good effective negotiator. Kasie huntcaseykasie hunt joins us now from london. Kasie, it started with a simple question. As he backtracked it seems like
he tried to cover all issues. Its a dicey issue, the vaccines. Reporter i think its interesting in part because Chris Christie is someone who has dealt with this issue for some time as governor of new jersey. New jersey is a state with some of the strongest rules that man late vaccinations. So theres sort of long been this vocal group of people who have expressed concerns about whether or not vaccines cause autism, et cetera. And this was in many ways the stock answer that hes given when asked about this in previous incidents. I think it sort of goes to show you how the context can change when you are actually you know overseas taking a trip that makes you look like a president ial candidate. You know essentially all of these overtones, you cant you have to calibrate. I think thats what you saw happen yesterday on this issue. Yeah. All right. It happened all over the place. Kasie hunt, thank you so much. It definitely stirred up a debate across the board. Fascinating how it has. Of course, for some reason
politicians stumble on to this. John mccain did in 2008. Barack obama did in 2008. And its happening again now. But this is strange, steve ratner. Ive talked about this before too. There is a small study in england in 1998. I have a son that has aspergers. Ive brought this up and discuss discussed it before. Several years ago there still was a debate. There is not, at least in the Science Community, a debate about this anymore. This is not even close. This is not even close there is still a debate on Climate Change, the effects of Climate Change, how quickly Climate Change is coming on us. How much man contributes. There are a thousand different variables in that debate. This debate there is one small study that said vaccines cause autism. It was debunked. The journal that put it out actually went back on it. The man who wrote it is no longer a doctor. Hes been stripped of his
medical license. This is not a close call. I dont think its a close call. Why do politicians were in the middle of a Measles Outbreak right now. By the way this is not red sea, blue state. Some of the states have the toughest laws requiring vaccines are the reddest of red states. Right. But it has become somewhat politicized and somewhat gots ten bound up in republican ideology of choice and things like that. Actually its far right, far left. You cant say republican because thats not accurate. Who on the far left is on that camp . Its a lot like its a Civil Liberties issue. Its just like nsa where you will have people extreme libertarians, extreme liberals. I get the far left far right thing. Barack obama 2008 is not a republican. Well, but today what is he saying . Today he said in the super bowl interview, he said this is settled science. Its sad because hes not running for election anymore. When he was running for election in 2008 this is what he said. Weve seen a skyrocketing autism rate. Nobody knows exactly why. Some people are suspicious its connected to vaccines and triggers. But this person included. The science right now is inconclusive but we have to research it. 2008 the science was not inconclusive but he was run for president of the states so he said the science was inconclusive. Rick perry in texas had a mandate everybody had to be vaccinated. When Michele Bachmann went after him and said everything that the far right is saying he backed off of that. Yeah. Stop saying far right because this is a far right and far left issue. Okay. I think though at the moment youre hearing more about this from the republican side than the democratic side. Would we agree on that . I mean theres just Hillary Clinton right now running on the democratic side for president. Okay. Actually ill switch sides a little bit on you. Scott walker has been very outspoken on the side of the
fact that there should be mandatory vaccination. Are you surprised by Chris Christie christie, willie . Are you surprised by what Chris Christie and rand paul, a doctor . Well, that i found disturbing that a doctor would come on and say that hes a doctor. But if you look at the republicans, theyre outliars. Scott walker, rick perry, mike huckabee. You go down the line they came out strongly and said vaccines are one of the greatest parts of Human Progress in the last 50 60 years. The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963. Its not that hard. You look at the chart of how many people had measles, how many people died. Skyrockets down. And so in this day and age to hear someone come out and say that and then christie backtracked on it, no we think measles, that vaccine is good but he was eluding to the fact that perhaps there are other vaccines that we need to be more careful with which he did not provide any evidence for. If its a political strategy its an odd one, i think. If he feels like hes appealing to a group that might doubt
vaccine or doubt government being in our lives, perhaps that is what it was. And rand paul saying what rand paul said again as a doctor is very surprising but this sort of reminds me willie, of the flourite debates in 50s and 60s, that fluoride being put in the water would cause all of these things. I will dispense with the far right comment. But big government, little government, personal liberty discussion. That is the overarching theme. Yes. Personal liberty, i say whether youre talking about this or nsa or whatever youre talking about, you have libertarians and liberals coming together as strange bed fellows. Rand paul also you were talking before about rand paul. We showed a piece of that interview, senator rand paul with kellity evans on cnbc. Another moment that got attention. They were talking about a different issue of taxes. And he had sort of an not a beautiful moment. He sushed her. He sushed her. Most of the research on this indicates that these actually cost more money over the long term than they save. Are you saying that thats incorrect. Youre oh, lets go back again. Your premise and your question is mistaken. All right. Okay. Most of the research doesnt indicate that. Let me kelly, hey, shhh. Im sorry. Go ahead. Calm down a bit here kelly. Let me answer the question. I can tell youre fired up. I apologize for the extent to which im the reason for that. But what about 2016 . I mean is this here a with an eye towards you entering 2016 as a president ial candidate or maybe getting drafted boo one of the campaigns . Were thinking about it. And were looking around the United States and seeing if the message resonates. Part of the problem is is that you end up having interviews like this where theslanted and full of
distortions that you dont get useful information. I think this is what is bad about tv sometimes. Frankly, i think if we do this again you need to try to start out with a little more objective objectivity going into the interview. Kelly evans asking some tough questions. Ive never known kelly evans to be slanted. Ive certainly never known cnbc ive never heard of cnbc being accuse of being a left wing liberalism. Its a very conservative outlet. The Washington Post said who is this in the Washington Post . Erin blake with the Washington Post said well, this rand paul interview with cnbc didnt go well. One he reiterated is his contention on vaccines two three, actually sushed the anchor and, four he concluded the interview attacking cnbc as being biassed. Very strange. Yeah. And his point is one that you heard about the vaccines which is that as a doctor hes saying its more important to have less
government in our lives. In other words, government forcing itself on our kids with vaccines, than to have the responsible vaccine. He will take Less Government over responsible vaccines. Terrific. Okay can i say one thing . Somebody tweeted the rest of that obama quote from 2008. We showed a little sound bite of it. Do you want to hear the rest of it . Sure. After he said that he said part of the reason i think its very important to research it is those vaccines are also preventing huge numbers of deaths among children and preventing debilitating illnesses like polio so we cannot afford to junk our vaccine system. He said in 2008 it was inconclusive. Thats what he said before. Inconclusive. Keep reading. Now can i get to my 21 news stories . New record now belongs to super bowl xlix. Sundays game was the most watched Television Show in history pulling in over 114 million viewers. The previous record was held by last years big game which drew 112 million. The only show in the top seven
that isnt a super bowl the Series Finale of m. A. S. H. In 1983. Which was terrible of course. American sniper is now the highest grossing war movie of all time. The film has made almost 250 million after playing for just three weeks nationwide. Surpassing Steven Spielbergs saving private ryan. The film made another 57 million overseas bringing it to 300 million worldwide. Willie geist, some many hollywood not happy with this. Huge hit. Huge hit. For a while they thought it might push the passion of the christ for highest grossing rrated movie. It may not catch it. But close. Liberals in hollywood. Those two fall in together. Message to hollywood. Yes. But i think another good example of sometimes what you hear in washington and new york and certain conner rs about pol culture is not reflective of how the country is feeling. Not close. Lets talk about the super bowl
really quickly. Talk about how the season started. Mr. Goodell in trouble and now the nfl, if he were doing a state of the Union Address would say, its not only strong its the strongest ever. The biggest audience ever in the United States of america. Great game. Part of his calculation. When everyone said goodell must go goodell must go hes bad for the game. Everyone came to the games that sunday after ray rice. The ratings were big. Now you have this super bowl number. People separate what happens off the field to a couple of the guys. When sunday comes around you want to watch their games. Did you see what happened on their film . New yorknew York Daily News had a picture of Bill Belichick . Im not sure i want to see this. You dont agree with that one . No. This is just thats his sister. Sister. What . Sister. He kissed his sister. Whats the problem . The daily news said it was his daughter daughter . My bad. I dont know. Can we take that down . You dont kiss your daughter. No, in the with your eyes closed. Take that picture down. Its one frame. Its one frame. Those are the worst. Those freeze frames are the worst . Stop. Dont look at me. Im looking at you. You are the one that said this is creeping me out. Joe is bright red. Maybe we should move on. New report in the New York Times that could pose problems for governor Chris Christie. Apparently how he portrays himself if he chooses to run for president is the problem because the paper says he has a history of letting others foot the bill as he indulges, quote, in a taste that runs more towards champagne at the four seasons rather than a cheesesteak on the boardwalk. Every man, im quoting the paper here. The times details numerous luxury trips taken by the governor involving Expensive Hotels, private planes high price car services among the trips the paper outlines casino owner and israel supporter
sheldon sheldon aidleson let christie use his private plane for a trip. Jordans King Abdullah then paid for a family weekend at the end of the trip. The hotel rooms costing about 30,000. Christie signed an executive order in 2010 allowing new jersey governors to have travel and related expense paid any foreign governments. He said it was a matter of opportunity saying, quote, i relish these experiences and exposures, especially for my kids. I try to squeeze all the juice out of the orange that i can. Um, well i guess the question is those are all splashy details. Yeah. Is there impropriety there, conflicts of interest . Some of the i read that story. Some of the people who provided planes likes, for example, sheldon had a dog in the fight on this bill on online gaming. Right. That christie was trying to keep from getting passed. Thats an issue. There are some people doing favors for him who had interests. You saw me winsing, i because i just know if you look at i dont know everything from the road from little rock to washington for the clintons. I cant imagine they talk about one night that Chris Christie was around bono. I mean would we like to count the nights the clintons have been around bono beyonce, rock star kings, queens have lived an extraordinary lavish life that very few people not only in america but on the planet they have lived like queens and kings. You have to make a parallel. Im just curious if the New York Times is going to write a story about Hillary Clinton and the lifestyle that she has led over the past 30 years along
these lines. Actually theres a story on Bloomberg News right now at Hillary Clinton and her private jets when she was a senator. There you. Theres that. Will the New York Times follow up with a big splashy front page story there . Tons of stories when the clintons first came to the white house where it was it was and then theres the lincoln. I think part of the point of the New York Times story was to contrast what christie does with what he says he is. Portrays yeah. Did you guys see we had the next story that was up on wr shultz, what she said. I wanton careful with it. There were reports from florida coming out of florida of some candid comments made by dnc chair wasserman schultz. The congresswoman broke with the Obama Administration saying parts of the attacks carried out by islamic fundamentalists should be said to be from islamic fundamentalists. She also sided jewish culture in america reportedly saying we have problem ofs a simulation. We have a problem of intermarriage. We have the problem that too many generations of jews dont realize the importance of our institution strength institution. Strengthening our community. Maggie haberman comment wed the New York Times she surprised this story has not picked up more traction. I would be very surprised over the next day whether this story as Maggie Haberman