Today. Good morning, welcome to morning joe. It is monday, january 20th, Martin Luther king day. This morning, our guests jonathan lemire, and a former director of Strategic Communications for Hillary Clintons president ial campaign, Adrienne Elrod, shes an msnbc contributor. Host of Msnbcs Politicsnation and president of the National Action network reverend al sharpton, nbc news Heidi Przybyla is with us and nbc news and msnbc law analyst and editorinchief of law fair Ben Minh Wittes joins us, coauthor of a new book unmaking the presidency, Donald Trumps war on the worlds most powerful office. That in a moment. Three years ago today donald trump was sworn into office. Tomorrow the senate will consider removing him. With the impeachment trial looming the white house is now laying out the president s defense amid yet more revelations about the ukraine saga. The democrats, meanwhile, are just days away from the first votes of their primary fight. This as the New York Times endorses not one but two candidates for the nomination. As Steve Kornacki joked on twitter, now you know how to cast both of your votes for president , and in just a few hours, trump heads overseas for another runin with world leaders. Safe to see were kicking off and extremely busy week on morning joe including a live interview with joe biden on wednesday which we really look forward to. Yeah. So just to start the morning, reverend al, talk a moment about Martin Luther king and his extraordinary legacy, but i think its important to note that for younger americans who didnt realize how the last five years of his life played out, after that speech that were all so aware of, that it was it was very tough. At times he went through the political wilderness, king was not, he was not followed by younger black activists. They turned their back on him. They believed he was you know, believed he was not radical enough at times. Didnt like his peaceful resistance approach, and he was a man in april of 1968 that was still struggling to to make a difference, but struggling with many people inside his own movement. I think that you raise a very critical point. Dr. King in his last four, five years had become more unpopular than popular, according to polls of black americans. Yet he remained steadfast and he remained loyal and faithful to his core beliefs of nonviolent and directaction tactics. I think that that is something that we miss today as people that will take a moral stand based on what they believe, not based on what is popular. And on king day i think that becomes important. And he believed in trying to reconcile society. He believed that there ought to be social movements but they ought to end in reconciliation, which is why it is representative of his dream that on today we see such polarization. What may happen in virginia at a gun rally, extremists already arrested, and where we see a Washington Post poll where the sitting president of the United States, 83 of black americans think hes a racist. Not just that hes negative but reighist. This is where we are 52 years after kings death and why we must struggle. The good news is, you and i, joe, disagreed 20 years ago share a real friendship this morning Martin Luther king iii and i will represent president clinton we agree with but never agreed with in the past. The reconciliation around what is right is what is great about Martin Luther king day. It isabout reconciliation. And eddie cloud jr. Has a good book coming out called begin again talked for James Baldwin and so many others, Martin Luther king in 65, 66, 67, 68 wasnt aggressive, combative enough, and yet after kings death, baldwin spiraled into depression and understood what a great man was lost, and thats something that all of america understands all of these years later, and i love what reverend al said. Theres no better way to honor dr. Martin luther king than working together in a spirit of reconciliation. Not just in politics but in your church in your synagogue, in your home. In your community. Thats the message. Got to have your heart open to it. Now to our top story President Trumps longawaited impeachment trial resumes tomorrow and the president s Impeachment Defense Team will see white House CounselPat Cipollone and personal attorney jay sekulow playing leading roles. But with the adix of Alan Dershowitz and ken starr, they are hardly the most highprofile members. Dershowitz and starr among the president s staunchest Cable News Networks were two of the biggest legal names of the 90s. Dershowitz helping with o. J. Simpson the murder trial and starr who prosecuted bill clinton. They found a common client in disgraced billionaire and pedfire Jeffrey Epstein. Dershowitz a friend of epstein until his suicide sued a victim for defamation after she claimed she was trafficked to the attorney while under age. Starr, meanwhile, played a role in the controversial plea deal in which ep spoostein avoided fl charges and served only 13 months in jail with work release. Starr defended his role in a march 2019 letter to the editor of the New York Times in which he and other lawyers for epstein argued that the deal was fair. Also on the Impeachment Defense Team former Florida Attorney general pam bondi, and former independent counsel robert ray, who succeeded starr in the clinton investigation. The Washington Post reports that starr, dershowitz, bondi and ray were selected personally by President Trump for their celebrity and vocal defenses of the president in the media, despite the baggage that we just told you about. Here is dershowitz yesterday arguing that the president should not be removed from office, even if these guilty of the house charges. As you know, the house materials cited crimes that, that were committed they werent elements. They are not articles of impeachment. The articles of impeachment of two noncriminal actions namely obstruction of congress and abuse of power and those are what have to be voted on by the senate. Is it your position President Trump not be impeached even with all the arguments and evidence laid out by the house are accepted as fact . Thats right. Benjamin wittes, so much to talk about here. I think we can talk first about what Alan Dershowitz said yesterday and through the weekend on his victory tour. It is opposite of what he said throughout 1999 on larry king live and other shows, but i first lets talk about the selection of a legal team, and talk about a president who has such trouble finding legal representation that he actually got the legal team that helped put together the plea deal and helped represent Jeffrey Epstein, one of the most disgraced figures in modern american popular culture. Its i cant imagine another president at any time having to select a team that would be associated with a pedophile who according to recent reports trafficked young girls as young as 11 years old. Yeah. I mean, this is not just a choice of a legal team to make a, an argument on behalf of the president. In fact, if you were going to do that, you would probably want a legal team without the baggage of having argued the opposite side of a bunch of these issues, not that long ago, particularly ken starr who, of course, argued that obstruction of congress was a, or obstruction of an investigation and including of congress was an adequate basis for impeachment and argued against the, the idea that sort of the assertion argued against, you know, robust assertions of executive privilege and even suggested that those assertions could be an Impeachable Offense. That said, this is a legal team that was chosen not for its legal acumen, though it certainly has some skills and, you know, no lack of talent. It was its a group composed in order to make a statement, and the statement is one of unswerving loyalty in public to the president , no matter how awful the circumstances, and the statement is also a big middle finger stuck up to people who care about metoo issues, because, of course, not only is there the not only is there the Jeffrey Epstein stuff, but theres also, you know, ken starrs history at baylor university, and there are, you know, some other, what you might call metoo issues associated with this group, and so i think the group makes a statement in a number of ways, but the most important way is that they are people who no matter what their histories are willing to put their names on documents like this outrageous statement that the white house issued the other night in response to the articles of impeachment. An outrageous statement and, of course, jonathan lemire, if you look at ken starr and Alan Dershowitz own words from the last impeachment of a United States president , those words undercut Donald Trumps defense as much as anybody. That he should not be impeached. That, of course, dershowitz own words then undercut his arguments now, but, again, following up on what was just said from Ben Minh Wittes, who, by the way, has a great new book out we need to talk about, but its its not only insulting on the metoo front but imagine, you actually have one of these two lawyers who has been accused of being involved in epsteins crimes, and, of course, hes fighting that, but the accusation remains out there, and its been reported on by the miami herald, and you just, give us some insight on the white house. Why in the world would the president of the United States, after being caught in videos with Jeffrey Epstein at maralago and after saying really nice things about Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s, why would donald trump then get Jeffrey Epsteins lawyers that allowed this pedophile to continue to roam free and prey on young women . So both you and ben outlined the baggage that both dershowitz and starr bring with them to this moment. Significant accusations, and as well contradictory legal stances. Alan dershowitz in particular really reversed himself on this issue. For the president , his handpicked choices to go along with his other legal team because they play well on television. The president told people around him for weeks he is concerned about the spectacle this trial will be on television. He hates the idea that its going to be six hours at least every day of programming that all networks are going wall to wall and why he pushed for having a really showy defense and still wants witnesses like hunter biden or the whistleblower, perhaps, to be involved. Short of that, though, he wants to have these recognizable baldfaced names people know. People who defended him on Cable Television pushing this outside of the senate. Is anybody concerned in the would us . These guys would never, ever, be selected by any other president to do anything after their association with Jeffrey Epstein, one is a friend and a running buddy, and the other is a guy that was part of a plea agreement that allowed this serial raini irapist of girls t some laxed house arrest inside his mansions, and then set free . A strike against is anybody in the white house concerned about this . How many times have we had that phrase . Would any other president do this . The answer is usually, no. But theres no one in the white house to push back. To be fair, jay sekulow and Pat Cipollone, less wellknown, the president s personal attorneys during the mueller investigation. S cipollone is someone not a lot of people know but hell take the front role. And members of his cabinet, former members of his cabinet involved in the epstein plea deal and lost his position because of it. Its not something trump is sthiisthi i shying away from. They argue the president should never have been impeached, the accusations are not worthy of impeachment, certainly not removal, which democrats push back strongly saying thats an invalen e invalid and nonsense. And pushing back against alan dershowitdershowitzs appo that abuse of congress is not an impeachable fence, obstruction of justice. Only criminal offenses are impeachable died 1,000 deaths on the writings of all experts. But goes on like a vengeful zombie. Not that high crimes and misdemeanors were understood in the 1780s to mean indictable crimes. Any number of such violations of the public trust, such as working with Foreign Government in ways that make the president beholden to their leaders or cooperating with those governments to bolster the president s reelection clearly must be impeachable, even though they might violate no criminal law and indeed no federal statute at all. The president is entitled to robust legal representation, tribe continues, but his lawyers should not be allowed to use bogus legal arguments to mislead the American Public or the senators weighing his fate. And, in fact, heres Alan Dershowitz making a similar argument himself back in 1998. It certainly doesnt have to be a crime if you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you dont need a technical crime. To impeach a president is line a nonviolent revolution. The most dramatic act of undoing democracy that is possible. Thats why the framers used the term treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors to suggest the english analogy to great offenses of state. We look at their acts of state. We look at how they conduct the Foreign Policy. We look whether they tried to subvert the constitution the way iran contra did by going behind the back of congress. Hmm. Yeah. Heidi przybyla, new reporting this morning on how the Biden Campaign is gearing up for the impeachment trial. What can you tell us . Right, mika. In an unusual memo issued by the Biden Campaign obtained first by nbc news, we see that they are issuing a preemptive strike against what they say is disinformation about the heart of the president s defense. That is that joe biden did anything in ukraine that is corrupt. This is coming a day before the trial, mika and joe, and it is a reminder to all of us that the accusations at the heart of the president s defense here, that it was merit that they had merit to investigate joe biden has any credibility to it. Three things theyre emphasizing that are important to remind people. Number one, the prosecutor general who joe biden pushed for removing, it was a priority of the entire west, the imf, the eu, even senators ron johnson and rob portman, republicans, to remove him from office. This was were the policy of the United States of america. Secondly, that prosecutor general was not investigating burisma, the Energy Company linked to joe bidens son hunter. And, third, hunter biden served on that board two years after the issues of corruption at iss issue werent an issue. So he came two years after all of those things that were alleged bad to have happened, happened. Its important to get that information out there as well, joe and mika, because as this moves from the house where democrats control the process to the senate, the Biden Campaign is concerned about an effort to confuse the public and to go after hunter biden when, in fact, in the house when republicans had a chance to actually call hunter biden and get information if they thought he really was material behind closed doors they didnt do it. Afraid now that it moves to the senate the president and his allies will attempt to go after hunter biden even though some republicans are already coming out on the record, including senator cornyn saying, look, im a judge. He is not material to the main issue here and i want to read one quote i think is powerful from this memo. It says to the media, a reminder. It is not sufficient to say the allegations are unsubstantiated or that evidence, no evidence that emerged to support them. Not only is there no evidence for republicans main argument against Vice President , against the Vice President tls, there i mountain of evidence that activity debunks it and it is malpractice to ignore that truth. So, joe and mika, a note to the media, reminder. These allegations are not only unsubstantiated theyre completely debunked. Well, completely debunked, actually a term that the wall street journal wrote not on their opinion pages but wrote on the front pages months and months ago. About the debunked theory that you were just talking about. Heidi, thank you so much for that report. And we greatly appreciate you being with us. Adrienne, bring you in, and talk about whats happening in iowa. We go from biden and his plans for impeachment to, again, in the final days of this campaign and i just i have to ask the logic of one of the candidates. The strategy. You dont really get it. Bernie sanders has been firing away obviously at Eliza