You know i agree with secretary pompeos assessment. It certainly appears to be the russians but i wont discuss it beyond that. Apparently, there is a bridge too far even for william barr. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. It is tuesday, december 22. Along with joe, willie and me, we have White House Reporter for the associated press, Jonathan Lemire, learning to get up way too early this week. And washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay is with us. Well get to the slowmoving coup in just a moment. But first, overnight Congress Passed one of the largest stimulus packages in the countrys history. It totals 2. 3 trillion and it includes not only the 900 billion Coronavirus Relief bill, but a full government funding package as well. The combined bills which include direct payments and Unemployment Benefits tops out at nearly 5,600 pages. It was only given to lawmakers to read yesterday afternoon, due to some technical issues. In the house it passed 359 53. In the senate, it passed 926. Two republicans missed the vote while six voted against it. Many of them citing the cost of the bill. Mercy. We have deficit hawks now. Oh, my goodness, where have you been all my life . How cute is that . They run up the biggest deficits in u. S. History. Even before covid. The biggest debt in american history, mika, now theyre deficit hawks. Well, how convenient that theyre deficit hawks again with a democrat coming into the presidency because they werent deficit hawks when george w. Bush was president. Now they dont like mean tweets. And they dont like it when anyone uses naughty language. Dont like curse words. No. I have some breaking news, guys. Theres going to be a lot of hypocrisy from the very people who brought Us Donald Trump and aided and abetted the last four years. You have ron johnson the other day saying, guys, we cant give people 1,200. Were not a piggy bank. All of a sudden they found their fiscal discipline. Jake sherman is with us, also an msnbc contributor. Good morning. How did this come together in the final hours and why did those six republicans who voted no vote no . Well, you put it well. They are regaining their religion lets say on debts, deficits and discipline which i imagine will be a will sweep through the Republican Party over the next couple of years. But listen, i will say this. This does show i mean, to the extent if we could take anything good from this, the last eight months it does show that the congressional leadership is still working in some way, shape or form because at the end of the day if you think about it its tuesday. Last tuesday was Mitch Mcconnell and Nancy Pelosis first meeting. So they were able to over the course of a week put together the second largest stimulus package in american history. Only second to the one that they put together just before that. So its a massive package that will deliver much needed but delayed relief that joe biden has termed only a down payment for whats going to happen next congress which will be just really quickly the most busiest legislative session that i think we could ever any of us can imagine with the slimmest margins in the house and the senate. You know, jake, its very interesting. We got information last week that this was moving forward. And been following some of the key players for quite some time who have been were going to get this done. All while Mitch Mcconnell was sending signals that it wasnt going to get done. And you look at joe manchin, mitt romney, Susan Collins, even Lindsey Graham in there, Jeanne Shaheen, while mcconnell were saying no no no, the moderates in the Republican Party and rep republican and Democratic Party were going well get this done. It ends up that, you know, the majority and minority leaders dont have a complete strangled hold on their parties. If they decide they want to move together and forge consensus, theyre going to do it in the last couple of week and the last couple of weeks prove that. It did. It proved there was a center of the senate that still works like you just indicated and what the center was able to do better than anything was create a menu from which the leadership was able to eventually choose. And i think that is an important thing here. They showed that there was support for a variety of proposals that then Mitch Mcconnell and nancy pelosi got into a room and narrowed down. So i think i mean, despite it being very late and not including everything that anybody wants, this is a good sign that shows that there is some functionality left in the institution in the post trump era. I think in i think the New York Times wrote this on the front page today. It does show for the first time that there is a road map for joe biden, which is to create some heat and some action in the center among the people you just mentioned. Joe manchin, Jeanne Shaheen, some of the moderates and functional members of both parties, create some sort of action from which the leadership could then build upon. And katty kay, lets go over the names again. We have talked about it here for a couple of weeks. You have mark kelly coming from arizona. Kristen sinema who may have a different image, a different constituency, but she and joe manchin vote together about 95 of the time. Hickenlooper is coming in. You have mitt romney, youve got Susan Collins who seems like she has something to prove this year. Which is shes pretty powerful and can forge consensus if she wants to. Lisa murkowski whos always been very independent. Pat toomey who has struck compromises before with joe manchin on some difficult issues and you have Jeanne Shaheen jumping in and Lindsey Graham. They overwhelmed their own leadership and one thing i noticed in these negotiations, oh no, its going to be dead because theres not the state and the local aid. Oh, no, its going to be dead because they dont have the liability shield for the corporations and time and again, these well just call them the solution caucus said no, no. Okay, listen, well just put those to the side, lets talk about the aid and then we can address those other issues. They really are not to be too glib here, but it is a problem solvers caucus. They actually were focused on getting something done instead of just bitching about the other side and we wake up this morning and actually they got something done. Regardless of discouragement from the top. Yeah. And they met separately. They went away from capitol hill to have their meeting in one of the senators house and we said, well come up with the bill, we wont come up with the concepts or principles, but come up with the legislation. Sometimes congressional leadership doesnt love the gangs because as we have seen they can get themselves a whole load of power by being solution oriented people that can get things done. They can act in a bipartisan way. We thought bipartisanship was totally out of the window in this congress. We just had our first demonstration of it. It will be interesting to see two things. If democrats were to win the georgia and have the slimmest of majorities, do we still see some of those republicans coming over in that situation . And once joe biden is president do we still see as many of those republicans again coming over and working with democrats. Does that caucus manage to hold because either way, whether the democrats take georgia or not theyll have a tiny majority. That caucus could have a huge amount of power as joe biden goes in to a legislative session that is going to have massive hurdles and need to do big, substantial legislation of the kind of infrastructure and second stimulus bill hes already talking about. No way he can get that done without this centrist group from the other side as well. Well, you know, even with georgia, if for some reason its highly unlikely, i still believe its highly unlikely, even if both of the senate seats go democratic, youre sitting at 5050 and then you have Chuck Schumers worst Case Scenario a month before the election and that is a 5050 senate where the tiebreaking vote is not the Vice President. Tiebreaking vote is joe manchin. So regardless of how this shakes out youll be hearing a lot of the exaggeration it will be tend of the world if it breaks one way or the other. No, youll have the ten moderate conservatives in the center and theyre going to be striking some compromises over the next two years if this country is lucky at all. If we actually get some legislation passed instead of just having executive orders signed. Just get through the next 30 days. Lets turn now to the ongoing trump coup. Still desperately seeking ways to overturn joe bidens election win. Heres how the lead in the Washington Post describes things, quote, with his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud rejected by the judges, he has turned to the rag tag group of conspiracy theorists, media hungry lawyers and other political misfits in a desperate attempt to hold on to power after his election loss. The president s orbit has grown more extreme and his more mainstream allies including attorney general william p. Barr have declined to endorse his plans to overturn the wills of the voters. Trumps election Advisory Panel includes a felon, a white house trade adviser and a russian agents former lover. So willie, these are a confederacy of dunces that you would not want around your basic Household Appliances and certainly wouldnt want them cleaning your shotguns on the back porch. They really are a rag tag group of misfits. What a mess. Yeah. Thats putting it kindly, i think, a rag tag group of misfits. I mean, you have a qanon congresswoman, so qanon officially is in the office, sitting next to the president in the white house, offering her counsel. By the way, can you explain the underlying theory for those who dont understand qanons theories on cannibals and whatever else . Bottom line, it believes there are elites, members of the media, democrats mostly, members of a satanist cabal that engages in pedophilia. She got elected to the United States congress and gets meetings with the president. Sidney powell appears to be at the right hand of President Trump, even though Rudy Giuliani is saying on tv, no shes not on the team. Well, she has been to the white house three times in the last four day and the island is shrinking and President Trump is bringing on whoever will join him in the final charade to overturn the election. One person who is not, attorney general general william barr. He refused to support the president in his quest to overthrow the Election Results and he announced new charges in the bombing over scotland. He began with this comment on the hunter biden investigation. I think to the extent that theres an investigation, i think that its being handled responsibly and professionally. Currently within the department and to this point i have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and i have no plan to do so before i leave. Okay. So no special counsel on hunter biden. Then this from the attorney general on the reported push to seize Voting Machines. I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. Do you believe that theres enough evidence to warrant a special counsel to investigate that perhaps Sidney Powell or somebody else . If i thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, i would do i would name one but i havent and im not going to. So no special counsel, not going to seize the Voting Machines and finally this on the claims that russia may not have been behind the massive federal attack on agencies. From the information that i have, you know, i agree with secretary pompeos assessment. Its certainly it certainly appears to be the russians but im not doing to discuss it beyond that. So attorney general barr there. Jonathan lemire, agreeing with secretary of state pompeo and most cyber experts say it was russia, something that the president has declined to say, suggesting in a tweet the other day that maybe it was china. We should point out tomorrow is attorney general barrs last day in office so that really was his valedictory News Conference and he took all of the questions to make the points. I think for attorney general barr theres an attempt to sort of reshape or defend pieces of his reputation and legacy on his way out the door and attorney general of course for most of his tenure was seen as being an extreme loyalist to the president from his first days in the job when he shaped and colored the Mueller Report findings in the most favorable way possible for President Trump, allowing the president to claim falsely he had been fully exonerated. But we saw a clear break with the president on a number of subjects that did not go over well, we are told in the oval office. The president had several heated meetings with barr. Last time he accepted the resignation and now the question is what comes next . Jeffrey rosen is the acting attorney general and its not clear how he will respond. The pressure surely coming from the white house to appoint a special counsel about Election Fraud and theyre not inclined to do so but dont know how hell respond to the demands from the oval office and the potential that rosen could get dismissed if the president wants to install someone else in that post. But we are seeing also, willie, this legal team thats this rag tag group of advisers, i mean, theres divisions within that as Rudy Giuliani suggesting that Sidney Powell does not speak for the president right now, but yet powell has been in the oval office in three of the last four days. All of the legal challenges have been met with defeat and theyre attempting a last ditch effort when congress meets to certify the Electoral College votes they were trying to get the republicans to do the president s bidding. Theyre underlying some at least in the minds of some americans the legitimacy of bidens election thats whats dangerous here. And it is really important for georgia republicans to remember as you go to vote, my fellow georgia natives, understand that Kelly Loeffler who was on the ballot right now, sydney powell who is with the president in the white house every day now it seems, she says stay with me. That Kelly Loeffler was involved in a conspiracy with Governor Kemp to illegally push off and to steal the election from doug collins. All right . So according to the president s closest Legal Adviser right now, Kelly Loeffler shouldnt even be on the ballot. She stole the election along with brian kemp. She stole the election from doug collins. So since the president is working with this woman again, just understand that. That you have been cheated and they have stolen the vote from you and you should get your retribution by not letting somebody like Kelly Loeffler who is involved in this Conspiracy Theory get elected. Anyway, thats what Sidney Powell would want you to say. As far as rosen at the white house, mika, after barr leaves i cant imagine the strain that is going to be on him, the pressure that hes going to be under when hes running the justice department. Its going to have to be crushing to his soul to endure that day after day. My god, he may even have to put up with ugly tweets for 16, 17 days. What . Really . Thats a long time. Well see if hes man enough to be able to do that. But seriously, pressure . You call that pressure . 16 or 17 days in a nut house . 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Try not to screw it up. Not that much pressure. Follow the constitution. Well, Pat Robertson who at one time had been one of the president s most ardent supporters called on him to face the reality that he lost the election. You know, with all his talent and the ability to raise money and to grow large crowds, the president still lives in an alternate reality. He really does. People say, well, he lies about this, that and the other, but no, he doesnt lie. To him, thats the truth. He had the biggest crowd on inauguration day. He had more people than ever. He was the most popular [ indiscernible ]. Go down the line of things that really arent true. And, you know, people keep pointing to them, but because they loved him so much and he was so strong for the evangelicals, evangelicals were with him all the way. But there was something about him that was good and that god placed him in the office for the time. Hes done a marvelous job for the economy, but at the same time, he is very erratic and hes fired people, hes fought people and hes insulted people and keeps on going down the line. So its a mixed bag and i think it would be well to say you have had your day and its time to move on. Pat robertson also said that the president shouldnt run in 2024. Saying that it would be a mistake. Well, willie side show. I have to say, i have been talking about a lot of evangelical preachers i grew up with and certainly Pat Robertson came into my grandmoms house every day in pensacola, florida. 700 club. We watched pat day in and day out. Every time i was ov