supervised release. as for manafort, he, too, was convicted of schemes. he is free, of course, because donald trump pardoned him right before he left office. nice work if you can get it. that does it for us tonight, we'll see you tomorrow, "way too early with jonathan lemire" is up next. ♪♪ the split in the republican party widens. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell denounces the rnc censure-two republicans committee as the chairwoman defends it. the question is the gop rift too far to be bridged? plus, the latest from eastern europe. the president of france said he received assurances from vladimir putin that russia would not escalate the crisis with ukraine. the question is, but what is the kremlin saying? and new york is expected to join the growing list of states ending mask mandates as covid cases fall.

the question is what about the separate mandate for schools? it's "way too early" for this. good morning. and welcome to "way too early." the show that thinks that kevin mccarthy may have a future in olympic speed walking. we'll show you that gold medal moment just ahead. i'm jonathan lemire on this wednesday, february 9th. let's start with the news. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is adding his voice to the handful of republicans criticizing the rnc following a censure vote against fellow gop members list chaenz and adam kinzinger. here's what mcconnell had to say yesterday. >> well, let me give you my view of what happened january 6, and we all were here. we saw what happened. it was a violent insurrection with a purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election.

with regard to the suggestion that the rnc should be in the business of picking and choosing republicans who ought to be supported, traditionally, the view of the national party committee is that we support all members of our party, regardless of their positions. on some issues. the issue is whether or not the rnc should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. that's not the job of the rnc. >> mcconnell's comments were a marked contrast from house minority leader kevin mccarthy who has dodged the issue. here's what happened yesterday when he was questioned in the halls of congress. >> sir, do you know -- another time, okay? >> he is setting records there. that is quite the pace set by kevin mccarthy who was notably

not present at yesterday's news conference for house gop leadership but congresswoman elise stefanik who became the third ranking house republican after the party booted liz cheney last year, she defended the rnc censure. >> rnc has any right to take any action. and the position that i have you're ultimately held accountable to voters in your district. voters you represent. and we're going to hear the feedback and views of voters pretty quickly here. >> rnc chair mcdaniel is also defending in an op-ed, she claims that they have distorted what the censure is about. mcdaniel writes, violence has no place in our political discourse and those who do should be held accountable but the awful events of that day do not justify cheney or kinzinger enabling a

partisan committee whose real purpose seems to be the prospect helping democrats electoral prospects at cost of potentially ruining innocent people's lives. elsewhere, the crisis in ukraine shows no signs of letting up and russia is denying reports that russian president vladimir putin told french president emmanuel macron that the kremlin would not further escalate tensions. a russian spokesman said, quote in a current situation, moscow and paris can't be reaching any deals. macron and putin held a high-stakes meeting on monday that lasted five hours. macron also met with the ukrainian president yesterday and said it would take time to find diplomatic solution. adding he doesn't believe this crisis can be settled in a few hours through discussions. meanwhile, the kremlin continues with its military buildup. six warshipped yesterday sailed

from the mediterranean to the black sea where they will take part in military drills. this comes agency presidential advisers, in ukraine, france and germany will meet in berlin tomorrow to discussion the next steps. as president joe biden navigates that, one of the thorniest challenges of his administration, nbc news has learned about the president's thoughts about some of his european counterparts involved in the ukraine crisis. according to sources in closed-door sessions, russian president vladimir putin is quote a guy with nukes and no presents and german chancellor olaf scholz is know merkel. and saying emmanuel macron wants to be charles de gaulle. and it offers a window into his thinking into the headwinds he's

spaced gathering response to russia's aggression towards ukraine. joining us now, one of the recorders who helped break that story, nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli who no one has described as blustery. mike, thank you for joining us, it's a great story and we're glad you're here to talk to us. give us more insight as to how biden views the world leaders. much has been made as biden as a senator ahead of the formations committee had been on the world stage for a long time. but with the exception of putin, these are relatively new leaders, the other ones dealing on the world stage, angela merkel just stepped away as he's getting to know them, how does he feel about them? and do we think this information could impact those relationships? >> well, jonathan, it's really interesting, thus dynamic as president biden faces one of the biggest foreign policy tests of his presidency. you've heard him say this

before, all politics is personal, even foreign policy. since his days on the committee, biden's staff has kept a list of world leaders, all of the travel he's done internationally to catalog and keep track of the relationships. and it is really is striking as you look around at all of the key leaders at the moment, most of the european leaders, especially on the side of our allies are ones he's less familiar with. you have emmanuel macron who took office in 2017. boris johnson more recently than that. olaf scholz has only been in office, as you say, just two months. g7 leaders, justin trudeau of canada is the one he has a relationship the longest. but he's really not a player in these talks in the same way. and so, when biden was running as a candidate, he talked about the fact, how he was trying to restore american credibility and leadership on the world stage he would lean on those relations. but it's actually vladimir putin to the extent you could say anybody has a relationship with

vladimir putin that he knows the longest in this situation. so behind closed doors biden is trying to get all of our european allies on the same page, he's expressed this kind of frustration. but white house officials say he's been empathetic because he knows domestic politics is one of the issues. boris johnson is eager to play a bigger role in this crisis to distract from things at home, emmanuel macron faces re-election in just a few months. so he's trying to use this to bolster his position as the new merkel, leader of europe. olaf scholz is limited in his ability to make the same assertive steps that angela merkel did 16 years in office. biden understands this, but it doesn't mean he's not frustrated to get this resolved. >> and we had the new german chancellor at the white house earlier this week but so many of these relationships are difficult to do in the era of

the pandemic. but with the summits, that's about it for biden to get to know the world leaders. obviously, this crisis on the ukraine border looms large over the administration right now. and presidential advisers of russia, ukraine and germany set to meet tomorrow in berlin as we mentioned. you know, it seems like they're exploring every avenue for diplomacy here. what can we expect to come out of that meeting? >> well, jonathan, it's been expressed, this sentiment, as long as russia is talking they're not invading. and it's been really remarkable to see the pace of the diplomatic pace that's happening. some among the allies. and there's been a question raised as we saw macron with that extended meeting and boris johnson has been meeting with vladimir putin recently. whether putin is trying to use the meetings with everyone but

biden to show that u.s. is not the key player. jen psaki downplaying that the normandy form mitt from the minsk agreements, it's interesting to see that. actually talking yesterday, they were look for a readout of what's going on. the u.s. happy to see the talks go, but clearly they need more insight of what's on the table. >> and strikingly like that meeting from that crohn and putin, progress is being made here but the french are not going along with that. ahead, a clergy of sex abuse has retired pope benedict asking for forgiveness for what he didn't do. and a visit of the first

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retired pope benedict asked for forgivens for any, quote, grievous fault in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases but he admitted to no personal or specific wrongdoing, after an independent report criticized his actions in four cases while he was the archbishop of munich. nbc news correspondent tom costello has more. >> reporter: from rome, former pope benedict's personal secretary reading benedict's request for forgiveness, amid allegations he failed to take decisive action against abusers decades ago. the pope emeritus denying any personal wrongdoing insisting he only served as archbishop of munich for less than five years

in the late '70s and '80s. offering his heartfelt request for forgiveness. i've had great responsibilities in the catholic church he writes. all the greater is my pain for the abuses and errors that occurred in those different places during the time. benedict's letter follows an independent german investigation that found then cardinal cats zinger failed to act against abuse in munich. some survivors of abuse say the letter wasn't enough. >> how quickly he wanted to demonstrate that he was only an administrator in munich for less than five years. almost to say, this wasn't my problem. >> reporter: benedict's attorneys insist at the time he did not know about the predator priest history in munich. >> in the letter today, he speaks about the fact that quite soon he'll be at judgment's door. and he personally feels clear of

conscience. >> reporter: nine years after retiring, a still evolving and controversial legacy. >> our thanks to tom costello for that report. virginia state senate is expected to vote today on a measure to end school mask mandates by july. nearly half of the senate's democras signaled support for the amendment yesterday after weeks of pushing back from an executive order from the governor to do just that. that order from republican glenn youngkin gave the parents power to override school policy and choose for themselves whether their children wear masks to school. but it's been temporarily blocked pending a lawsuit from seven virginia school boards. although the new measure is supposed to lift the mandate in july, a yunkkin aide kels "the washington post," the governor may add an emergency clause as a way to end the measure as soon as this month. meanwhile, new york governor kathy hochul is expected to announce an end to the state's

indoor mask mandate today. according to the "the new york times," the governor will let the mandate expire this week without renewal. currently businesses must ask customers for full prof of vaccination before entering and require mask wearing at all times. it's unclear, though, whether hochul will decide to extend new york's school mask mandate which is set to expire in two weeks. some of these measures seem a little quick. second gentleman doug emhoff yesterday was evacuated from a black history event in washington, d.c. dunbar high school after a bomb threat was called. >> the school. emhoff was ushered away by secret service agents minutes after he arrived to speak. katie peters, the communications director for the second gentleman issued a threat about the evacuation. she announced that emhoff was safe and students as well. a secret service confirmed the warning in a statement indicating, quote, at this time,

there was no information to suggest that the threat was directed towards our protectee. meaning the second gentleman. still ahead, olympic dreams are turning into a nightmare for team usa. meanwhile, we might have the first gold of the games to celebrate. plus some court storming of basketball. right there. it's all straight ahead on "way too early." "way too early. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ copd may have gotten you here, but you decide what's next. start a new day with trelegy.

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low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto for heart failure. entrust your heart to entresto. when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... our bargain detergent couldn't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. they need a score. number one auburn, ten seconds left. here's green. off the mark. loses control. with two seconds left and this will finish it. in style! >> now, that's how you close out a game. unranked arkansas stuns number one auburn, snapping the tigers' 19-game win streak with an 80-76

overtime victory last night. punctuated by that dunk that sparked a massive celebration on the court. please be careful. speaking of courts let's go to nba and los angeles. giannis scored a game high, 131-116 win over the lakers. l.a. splits three games over .500. after losing the last five of seven. oh, that's a shame. >> russell westbrook cheering up lebron. that's a renaissance painting. i would watch that clip of the three sad lakers over and over. meanwhile in philadelphia, the suns rallied to win 14th time in 14 games. beating philadelphia, 114-109.

phoenix best in the league right now, and the record shows it. they're 44-10. now, to the competition at the winter olympics in beijing and more struggles on the slopes for u.s. skier mikaela shiffrin. the 26-year-old recorded a second straight did not finish yesterday after skidding out of control and missing a gate about five seconds into her run on the women's slalom course. it follows a similar scene two days before when she crashed 11 seconds in the opening rund of the giant slalom race in which she was the defending gold medalist. it was a heartbreaking image there, she sat there on the crash staring off into space in the snow, clearly confused and hard broken as to what happened. but hearings the good news, she could compete until three more games. we're rooting for her. team usa has captured its first gold medal. lindsey jacobellis is finally

golden. sliding in the women's snowboard cross. and more olympic hardware won by team usa yesterday, skier colby stevenson added a fifth silver to the u.s. count, soaring to second in the men's big air freestyle event. and the first u.s. bronze of the games was captured by jessie diggins now the first american woman to win olympic medal in individual cross-country skiing. our congratulations to all of the medal winners. also in sports, the super bowl countdown continues. a strange lack of hype between the game. guys you're running out of time. time for weather and let's go to meteorologist bill karins. bill, what do you got? >> we've got a little warmth and a little rain. not too much snow in the forecast. we'll take you to the weekend but starting in florida where it

didn't feel like florida, cloudy and rainy. continues heading towards miami today. it's an umbrella day for naples and ft. myers, possibly even through the afternoon in miami. out west, temperatures are going to continue to be well above normal. this could be in the 90s in areas in los angeles, long beach, everyone getting ready for the super bowl. it almost feels like midsummer. today in downtown l.a., 84. we have the possibility of record highs in the west. this is not a one-day event, it's going to continue right through the weekend. how about the february thaw. d.c., 55 degrees. new york city, mid-40s. st. louis at 50 degrees. the only coolish-type weather, heads through the great lakes. tomorrow, chicago, at 30. notice the east coast, even new york city hits 50 degrees on thursday. the west coast looks nice too. taking you into the super bowl weekend, staying sunny and nice in the southern half of the country but winter will return in the great lakes.

that's where the cold air will come down, snow squalls on saturday. one last warm day on saturday, d.c. into the low 60s. then for super bowl sunday, reality sets back in as temperatures will be cooler for a chance for light snow in the east. doesn't look like a huge snowstorm or anything like that on sunday. a little mood flicks for your super bowl in the northeast. >> i like it. looks like 87 degrees in los angeles for the game on sunday. that's remarkable. bill karins, we'll stay on that. we appreciate it, sir. still ahead, members of congress behaving badly what a republican said to an ohio democrat that has him issuing an apology. but before go to break, we want to know why are you aware, email your reasons to waytooearly@msnbc.com. or tweet me @jonathan lemire. me

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♪♪ welcome back to "way too early." it's precisely 5:30 a.m. on the east coast. 2:30 out west. i'm jonathan lemire. congressman hal rogers of kentucky has apologized to congressional caucus chair joyce beatty after he made a controversial comment after her asking him to put on a mask. tweeting today while heading to the house floor for votes i respectfully asked my colleague represent hal rogers to put on a mask while. he then poked by back demanding

i get on the train. when i asked him not to touch me, he responded kiss my -- blank. folks, he didn't say blank. >> here we are in our place of work, we talk about preventing workplace harassment. this was harassment of a woman. a black woman, and a woman in leadership because he put his hands on her. he told her to kiss his -- part of his butt. and i can tell you, being a little black girl from the east side of detroit, i would not take that standing or sitting. and i'm not going to take it standing or sitting for one of our own to be disrespected. >> who does hal rogers think he is? how dare he put his hands on anyone, man, woman or child. how dare he assault joyce beatty. how dare he jab her aggressively in the back. how dare he verbally attack her.

>> rogers tweeted an apology writing this afternoon, i met with representative beatty to personally apologize. my words were not acceptable. and i expressed my regret to her first and foremost. joining us now, someone who never traffics in course language the co-founder of punchbowl news anna palmer. she san msnbc contributor. what else are you hearing about this? is it mass fatigue? or does it perhaps point to larger tensions right now in a body of congress that seems deeply divided and, frankly, kind of broken? >> just when you thought things couldn't get lower on capitol hill, it does yesterday. i think it's to your point, it's a broader reflection of, one, tensions between democrats and republicans post january 6th

world. and i think it's fatigue with mask wearing, forcing mask wearing all over the place. so it is to me really just shows you ground zero of how bad things have gotten. and i'm not sure how we come back from this problem. >> setting this incident aside which we hope is over and done with, with the apology, let's move on to what we heard from senate minority leader mitch mcconnell breaking with the republican party and taking the party really to task for censure of two congress members, cheney and kinzinger, as well as this investigation of january 6th. where do you see this going? are we going to see more of a divide among republicans on january 6? or something we will hear from mcconnell now and then, largely, the gop will support the effort to diminish what happened that day during the insurrection? >> this is something we've been seeing for the last several months before you have a growing

trump wing trying to have a lot of revisionist history of what happened on january 6. i do think we'll see mitch mcconnell and others coming forward in the republican party saying this was not political discourse, this was a regular day on capitol hill. clearly it was not. i think this is the fight of the future of the republican party. including mitch mcconnell. if you want to have a broader tent than just not trump supporters because he's not going to win the majority in the senate, or return to the majority, if that is the only people running and voting. >> anna, give us a sense of state of play on the hill right now. we have a government shootdown looming. give us an update on that. and we've heard there are pieces of the biden agenda that could be revived but it seems pretty stalled at the moment. yeah? >> yeah, everything is the moment of the day on capitol hill.

certainly, it appears we're not going to move toward that stop gam for a month as they continue to hash out of top line numbers. there does seem to be movement, although slow coming together on some russian sanction package that members in the senate have been working on for the last couple of days. we're going to be reporting to you this morning about kind of an effort in the house that's really going fast here in terms of trying to actually ban members of congress from what we've seen quite a bit of republicans and democrats actually coming together on that. it's something to watch really closely. we'll have some news on that at the top of the hour. >> all right. we will certainly look for that in the punchbowl newsletter where moments of bipartisanship potential on stock as well as on the electoral count act. anna palmer, punchbowl news, we appreciate it. still ahead, we're live with cnbc to look at the markets as wall street tries to shake off a slow start to the week. plus, a major start for

peloton, how the company is reacting to the plan to get back on track. "way too early" is coming right back. "way too early" is coming right back ♪ ♪ add downy to your wash for all the freshness and softness of home. even when you're not at home. feel the difference with downy. living with metastatic breast cancer means being relentless. because every day matters. and having more of them is possible with verzenio.

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may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your asthma specialist about a nunormal with nucala. time now for business. for that, let's bring in cnbc's rosana lachlan who joins us live. good morning. u.s. stocks rose as investors continue to digest earning and anticipate economic data. how are the games impacting the economy right now? >> well, gains in the company, jonathan, gains for shareholders, when we see gains in the company, what we're talking about mostly is inflation. the rising cost of everything everywhere. we have the latest cpi data that's going to show how many inflation in january will drop tomorrow. the markets are poised expected to show that prices rose had it the 2% from january, for a 2.2%

gain from a year ago. that's the highest level in almost 40 years. however it could be a surprise with the downside. the key is whether we're going to see more buying of equities or selling of equities but that is impossible to predict. for today, it's fair to say we'll probably see stocks in a holding pattern but they been affected with a lot of green across the board from asia and europe this morning. >> the arc falling throughout the pandemic, the fitness, peloton which we can safely call beleaguered. it's replacing its ceo and co-founder john foley and slashing 20% of its workforce. what's the latest there? >> yeah, just when you think we're done talking peloton there's another headline. the winner at cfo barry mccarthy is stepping in fill john foley's shoes. it's a long to-do list. if i were him, i'd start with communications, the slashing of 20% of the workforce.

2,800 employees. it came the news that they were also offering a carefully based and meaningful severance package from the company which included a year's membership to peloton. that did get a lot of heat in the markets, around the world and news as well because it just seems a little heavy-handed when you're letting those employees go. part of this is to save efforts of $800 million annually because of the fallen sales in exercise bikes with the recovery from the pandemic, many gyms opening, et cetera. of course, you've seen a lot of interest from outside buyers as well but this could be seen a bit true for activists asking for the chair to step down for a time. he'll remain as executive chair. >> a good move to say you're fired but use our bikes for a year. rosana lockwood, appreciate it. the nominations for the any of 95th academy awards are out.

the power of the dog leads the pack with 12 nominations including the night's top prize of best picture. the filmmaker jane campion was nominated to be the first woman twice nominated in that category. lady gaga's house of gucci was let off the list for all but one category, best hair and make-up. also snubbed, the aretha franklin biopic. and my kids upset by the snubs to sing 2. still ahead, russian warships are on the move in the black sea as moscow prepares for military drills. we'll have the latest on diplomatic efforts to des is de-escalate at the ukrainian border. "way too early" is coming right back. "way too early" is coming right back

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in eastern europe as the crisis between russia and ukraine shows no signs of letting up. this as moscow continues with its military buildup, while ukraine is preparing for a possible invasion. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent richard engel has more. positive signs from french president's macron's marathon diplomacy, meeting for five hours with president putin. macron arrived in ukraine meting president zelensky and sounding optimistic. saying putin had told him he won't be initiating an escalation of the crisis. and that russia will pull its forces out of belarus soon. though, the kremlin says no deals were made. a breakthrough, maybe. but according to the pentagon, russian troops are still increasing on ukraine's borders. especially now in crimea in the south.

intelligence estimates, ukrainian forces would fight back but likely have to go underground within days of an invasion to former resistance. nbc's matt bradley is with ukraine an forces who are urgently preparing. ukraine is with the tanks, to refurbish them and turn them into sophisticated weapons of war. >> reporter: nbc news is told that russia has enough in force to invade all of ukraine in the next two to three weeks. >> joining us reporter for "the wall street journal," my friend vivian solano. vivian is on the story and just got back from ukraine. vivian, great to see you. in your latest reporting you talked about the ukrainian president's stance in ongoing relations with russia. give us the details. what's your sense of why president zelensky is downplaying the threats of

russian invasion when intelligence seems to show otherwise? >> jonathan, it's good to see you. yeah, president zelensky obviously has a lot of internal factors to take into consideration with all of the these external factors taking place. so, he's obviously very concerned primarily about the economy. we sat with him a week ago before i left ukraine. and he talked extensively how he wants the u.s. and other nato allies to keep calm and sort of dial down their rhetoric, because he believes it could have a detrimental effect from the economy. that folks would rush the banks, withdraw money and try to flee the country. so he's clearly, genuinely worried about that. but also this idea that there's a lot of political pressures against him, too. the former president was in the streets while i was there, essentially calling hill an illegitimate president and calling on thousands in the streets to take back ukraine. which sounds oddly familiar to

those of us covering politics as well. that's what was facing him even as secretary of state antony blinken secretary of state was there meeting with him, you had the predecessors saying he should be removed. all of those things taking place that factor into his calculation that you should he hob addressing the situation. he keeps telling everyone, i've got this. it's my country. i know what the threats are, we've been facing them eight years. nothing is different. president biden and others as sigh noted in the story say otherwise. troupes are placed close to belarus, close to the capital, that's a significant factor, a game-changer. >> let's go to the russian side. putin's motives remain uncertain. will he actually go in and invade. we don't know.

or is this an effort to essentially make russia a central focus on the world stage. to be an ominous presence again, get attention from the west. i was struck by a quote in "the new york times" story today about an analyst saying that people are spoiled by an overlonging piece. thinking that is the thesis behind putin's thinking here that he just wants to be a menace. how do you see this playing out? >> that is part of his m.o., to be a menace. and the ukrainians are constant ly raising that. consconstant ly raising that. you know, it's definitely an issue that they see as something they shouldn't panic about, whereas other countries say at this point, as you mentioned he's moved warplanes to the black sea.

he's moving medical units to the eastern border with ukraine. he essentially has now the capability to launch an attack. nobody really wants to test that, will he or won't he? because he has long believed that ukraine is essentially part of russia. and getting it back into russian orbit is part of his legacy. and he's not going to rest until that happens. and so, a lot of u.s. officials, european officials i speak to, tell me it's not a matter if he invades. it's a question of when he invades. so we have to take that of course seriously. e have to takef course seriously

dan, what do you have back there? >> speaking of nice places, rebecca sends this lovely lovel. >> the shot there looks lovely. my commutes these days, you know, back and forth between new york and d.c. another viewer is up for an important job. i'm up to prepare 600 lunches at our local high school in ohio. go bengals. yes, super bowl almost here. sunday, we'll be excited. i think the bengals are the nation's sentimental choice. up next, a look at the "axios" 1 big thing. coming up on "morning joe," we'll hear from the chairman of

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♪♪ joining us now with a look at axios a.m., the co-founder of axios, mike allen. mike, good morning. what is the axios 1 big thing today? >> good morning, jonathan. the axios 1 big thing is the next culture war, and that is vaccines for toddlers. so this month, federal regulators are looking at a pfizer proposal that would let the vaccine be used for kids under 5. axios has new polling from heart harris, showing parents are leery of this. the science is moving in the way of saying that this is fine. this is very much the arc that we saw with boosters, right? the science was ahead of

people's willingness to go. the new harris polling we have shows, unsurprisingly, vaccinated parents, fine with it. unvaccinated parents, only a third would have their toddlers vaccinated. so we have a quote from the ceo of the harris poll that says, "watch out ptas. this is the next big fight." >> certainly, there were some divisions. i know some parents of young kids who are so anxious to get those vaccinations as well. certainly, we're hearing a lot of viewpoints. mike, let's shift gears here. president biden seems to be close to losing the window that democrats have to pass legislation to address climate change. the clock is ticking. it's a midterm year. what can you tell us about this? >> yeah, this is another supreme court case to watch. we've been focusing on abortion, but here is another potentially tectonic change. west virginia versus epa. you can't make it up. it's the name of the state. oral arguments february 28th. why this matters is that this may be a chance for the court's conservative majority to narrow

the ability of the epa to regulate greenhouse gases under the clean air act. the reason that matters is that when president obama couldn't get climate action out of congress, he turned to regulatory and executive actions. but that might be a tool that's not available to president biden based on the core rulings. that makes the stakes even higher in these pieces of build back better that are going to be returning. the democrats perhaps last month controlling the whole capital, as you look ahead to the midterms, a real race to do something on climate. because after that, it could be a decade before the democrats have the whip hand to do something big. >> democrats believe they still have a shot this november, but historical trends working against them. you and your colleagues at axios also have some reporting on a new way that america is being divided. what can you tell us about that?

give us a quick sense. >> yeah. america is splitting apart, and the latest front for this war is children's books. so there is a new series of books, "heros of liberty." books on john wayne, amy coney barrett, ronald reagan. they're coming out monthly. the publisher a delaware-based start-up, saying it was in response to kids books are progressive heros, including rbj, former supreme court justice. >> now we have amy coney barrett, another justice. mike, thank you for joining us today. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early on this wednesday morning. how is it only wednesday? "morning joe" starts right now. tune in. can i ask about the -- >> another time, okay? >> house minority leader kevin

mccarthy looks to be training for the summer games as he is speed walking away from questions. >> just do it. >> yeah. >> just do it. >> about the fallout of the attack on the capitol. >> just do it. >> let's take a look at that again. ♪♪ >> it's exciting. there's that music. china this year. willie, i'm not sure where the summer olympics will be two years from now, probably north korea. i don't know. >> what is he thinking? >> i'm expecting to see steve there with his -- >> it's kevin. >> kevin with his speed walking. impressive. breathlessly saying, "i don't do interviews in the hall." after doing interviews in the hall for 2