Elrod and associate editor of the Washington PostEugene Robinson will be joining us in just a moment. Weve got a lot to get to. Wow. New poll numbers in virginia. What it means more the states leadership. It looks like the governor might stay but fairfax might go. Plus saudi arabia denies any involvement in a blackmail attempt. And President Trump sends a glowing tweet about north korea. No mention of that countrys nuclear arsenal. Well get to all of that. First, joe, another busy weekend for the president ial field of democrats. Another busy weekend. It continues. Michael bennett on meet the press yesterday suggesting he may jump into the race, a colorado senator who recently took on ted cruz on the showdown of the Government Shutdown, with the showdown on the senate floor would be a very impress of candidate, certainly occupying a more centrist vision of what the Democratic Party should be going up against donald trump. But im just curious, Nick Confessore, why go with the Washington Post i think put it best that it was a curious selection for Amy Klobuchar to announce her run for president in 2020. How did she do . It was a truly minnesota moment there for Amy Klobuchar and true to form she powered right through. In some ways it was a photoop for twitter, but the announcement previewed the themes that well see. Shes going to run as a moderate progressive so to speak, a midwesterner, somebody who can play nice with both sides but push for important priorities on the left, will be perhaps a little more bipartisan than some people on the left have been in the last few weeks. I think her lane is going to be sort of center left compared to some of these candidates. What has really struck me, im just going to say this, there are now a collection of candidates for this nomination and i think theres only a single straight white guy in the entire bunch, which is a real shift from any election past that weve seen a. For sure. Another person announced this weekend, Elizabeth Warren. Im just curious, adrienne, how do you think her announcement was and am i the only one in a doesnt think the native american will continue to be a thing . I think youre right. Shes stayed on message, bridging the gap between the middle class and wealthy, cleaning up washington and corruption has stood out in every one of her aspects for rollout. Your rollouts really do matter. You have to communicate your message and hone in on what is causing and driving to you run for president. I think both Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren succeeded in that. And i want to give credit to Amy Klobuchars advance team for putting things together in 4 degrees temperature. She may want a temporary roof. I liked it. It showed grit. It seems to me Elizabeth Warren needs to stop explaining whats mind her and stoort expla start explaining whats in front of her. Let bloggers write about what she wrote on applications 25 years ago. Tell americans where were going to go. Ive run a few times on a small level. Voters are interested in their future, not so much your past. And shes got a solid past in terms of her work, her heart, her message, that saying i live by comes behind, doesnt trip offer whats behind you, move forward. Were starting off the week with a threat of another Government Shutdown looming as a real tangible possibility. Last friday aides and lawmakers appeared optimistic they could reach a deal by today. Now negotiations has stalled. One of the main sticking points is the number of beds to give to immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants who come across the border. In interviews yesterday, senator Richard Shelby, the lead republican negotiator, didnt appear optimistic about the chances of reaching a deal ahead of fridays deadline. I think talks are stalled right now. Im hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning because times ticking away. But weve got some problem with the democrats dealing with ice, that is detaining criminals that come into the u. S. And they want a cap on them. We dont want a cap on that. The thought is you have to make a deal and announce something by tomorrow. Do you feel thats a deadline . How confident are you that you can reach a deal by tomorrow . Chris that, is a deadline. Im not confident were going to get there. Im hoping well get there. So is it fair to say whatever Congress Hands him, hell sign. He just may not be enthusiastic about it . I dont think so. We cannot definitively rule out a Government Shutdown at the end of this week. You absolutely cannot. Mike barnicle, a little confused here, which is nothing new, the democrats seem to have dra donald trump backing down on the number, how much money he wanted for the wall and we started to hear a deal was going to be done. Then sunday the democrats started about limiting the number of Illegal Immigrants that could be detained. The republicans asked for an exception for criminals and democrats said, no, 165,000 betbeds will be enough. It seems to me thats an easy political fight for democrats to win but now theyre adding new conditions, suddenly it gets a lot murkier doesnt it . A lot murkier. At the end of the week if there is no deal, if we have another shutdown, in addition to the lives of the people who will be unemployed and going without paychecks, youre talking about the Ripple Effect within the National Economy and the added incentive of people, average voters, to say none of these people can govern and the lack of faith in the system of government which is already at an alltime low is going to increasingly dip. Eugene robinson, sometimes you need to know when to take a win. Giv again, just my opinion, it doesnt know like the democrats know how to take a win. If this government is shutdown offer Donald Trumps stupid, phony wall that is a fight that democrats win every day. If its about democrats refusing the republicans exception to be able to detain criminals who are Illegal Immigrants as well, i dont think that fares as well in the cross tabs. Do you have any insight as to whether the democrats are going to shut down the government on friday over that . I dont think the governments are going to shut down the government or being seen as shutting down the government. I do think when you say criminals as opposed to Asylum Seekers, i think theres a good and legitimate interest in curbing this administrations ability to arbitrarily put Asylum Seekers in detention when what theyre doing is perfectly legal. If you talk about criminals and define that word, then obviously if theyre criminals, they should be detained. But i read this whole thing as democrats seeing just how far they can push this. They know theyre in a strong position, they have apparently republican negotiators talking about numbers that donald trump says are unimaginable, unimaginably low yet theyre there. Republicans are not the only ones who can move the goalpost and see how far they can push things. Im not convinced this breakdown in talks was so much a break down as a sort of lastminute wrangle. But well see. Ive been surprised before but well see. And nancy pelosi is such a gifted legislator. It sort of reminds me what lbj said. He never wanted to win a vote with 75 votes. He wanted to withn with 53, 54 votes. Maybe this is just a negotiating tactic and we see what happens but this government cannot be shut down given. Again. Nanother governor is pulling back members of states of its National Guard. Californias governor will reveal plans to redeploy the troops to fight wildfires calling the praeoperation at th border a manufactured crisis, which it appears to be. Of course it is. This comes days after new mexico governor withdrew her states troops while ordering Services Members from other states to leave new mexico. Governor grisham said new mexico will not take part in the charade by misusing our troops. But this morning the president is sending more troops to the bored are. Hes getting pushback from all sides, even where hes sending the troops. Senior military officers are voicing concerns that troops are not conducting the train willing needed for their regular missions while other military units must now pick up the routine duties on behalf of their deployed colleagues. So theyre sending the troops to an imagery conflict and in doing so theyre not getting the proper training and you have other troops having to fill in other troops on Real Missions that are trying to make do without all the troops down at the border. This a real readiness crisis and im glad some military officials are starting to speak up but it seems we need to hear testimony on capitol hill from or generals about the problems this is causing. Youve got the readiness angle. Youve always good a third roughly of your actively forces there, you have a third who are prepared to be deployed and a third recovering from it. I think the worst is the politics of it, the idea that our men and women in uniform are essentially being used for political purposes rather than for Real Security purposes seats terrible precedent. The other thing thats really ironic here is if you these governors arguing a states right position, but you have democrats essentially taking their troops out of a federal mission saying a state mission is more important. It just another sign of just how our politics have been turned upside down this. In addition, the public, the average citizen would be stunned by the cost of this mission. We are now talking hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy United States army troops, coast guard, whatever, to the border at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when its crazy. It is really crazy. Nick confessore, deploys troops to the border despite the fact that border crossings are at a 50 year low. The entire problem with this debate from the start, joe, it has been built on exaggerations and lies and not real problems. There is already a wall it southern border for a lot of the border. It possible the borer patrol would look to add a few more miles here and there, improm prove some of the text around the soft border wall. But it not a crisis as we have in the past defined a crisis and the president has created one. I think the answer in the end for a Budget Shutdown and deal on the wall is going to be the same as it was six months ago, a year ago is that theres some money in there for some form of security on the border and the president can call it a wall or anything else and that is how you get out of this. We are sitting here talking about a president who is so conflicted and joe mentioned the data of the bored are crossings happening. The public, the polls show people dont want the walls. The general saying this is weakening the military, our readiness. The governors who are redeploying the troops are sending them back. At what point are we not talk about our military readiness or the president s fitness. This president in terms of sending troops to the border to try to protect us from these incoming caravans the president is talking about, unless theres some reason for it, this president is pushing the boundaries, the norm, but the boundaries of his presidency, hes doing something political. I agree. What it going to take, mika, it would be for leaders in uniform or some recent lip retired military leaders to stand up and say just that, to basically say theres no legitimate, theres no pressing National Security reason to do this, that its hurting us, we ought to be keeping these troops in syria and thinking about other parts of the world where we have Real Security threats or just reduce the operations tempo on these forces. American troops have been stretched, theyve been overdeployed for recent years, families have paid an enormous price. So unless something really meets the test that its essential and vital for these troops to be put in harms way or put in the field, we ought to basically look for ways to restore the american military. Its going to take, i think, military leaders, active or retired to make this argument. Gene, think about how bizarre this. The commander in chief is sending troops down to the border where military chiefs will tell you we dont need it. Then you have donald trump saying, well, syria, were going to remove troops from syria. Russia, you know, we need to be allies with russia. Just look at tapes of helsinki to say theres something seriously wrong with that relationship and this past weekend north korea where donald trump talks about his economic miracle in the state of the union and then he talks about the economic miracle of kim jong un in a country that if you look at Satellite Photos is black at night compared to a very well lit up south korea. I know. About the border, this is a bigger deal than we have made it thus far. The president of the United States is using the military as a prop, as a political prop. And that is totally outrageous. That should never be done. Theyve been sent on a Useless Mission that they know is useless. It to its totally unneeded. Its beyond absurd. It malfeasance of the worst kind because of what it does to these military families. It using them as props. Thats ridiculous. As for north korea, im just at a loss. Im totally at a loss. Whatever he says nice things about kim jong un, who executed his uncle with a missile in the middle of pyongyang and hundreds of other people also, gene, beat to death an American College student from the university of virginia whose parents in ohio have to listen every day that donald trump says hes in love with kim jong un. You wonder what theyre thinking. Again, fitness comes to mind. I mean, arent we here . Its outrageous. Its crazy. Theyre going to have another summit. It will be in that sort of weird dimension in which north korea is actually cooperating and going to give up their Nuclear Weapons. But thats not our reality. Thats never going to happen. Still ahead on morning joe, virginia residents are split on whether government Ralph Northam should resign over the blackface scandal but a clear majority of black voters want hmm to say. Plus a new white house leak shows President Trump still has a lot of executive time on his hands. He says thats a good thing. First, heres bill karins with a check on the forecast. Bill . A very active week ahead. We have 17 Million People under flash flood watches, its already pouring, the area south of st. Louis. We had ice and snow from dncht c. To baltimore. We have School Delays in that region. We have about 80 Million People with some sort of Winter Weather headlines. One storm is exiting. This one is going to spread snow this evening into iowa and washington. Air travel will be very difficult tomorrow in the northeast. This is 8 p. M. This evening. Chicago, youre clear for your evening rush hour. Overnight the snow is pretty good in wisconsin, id say ten central portions in michigan gets a good dose of snow. Tuesday morning in areas of the northeast, 8 a. M. , almost this time tomorrow, philadelphia, d. C. Youre all rain, a heavy burst of snow, new york city from about 9 a. M. Tomorrow until noon or 1 00 and the evening commute tomorrow boston will be getting some of that heavy snow. 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