favorable, any it's congressional seats, gubernatorial races. for republicans messaging around and having a conversation on this issue, what byron donalds did was exactly right. you've got to come out in favor of a strong effort on ivf and that's where they've got to be. >> and all of this the backdrop to michigan on tuesday. thanks, folks. that is all for today. thank you for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." i'm not giving up the fight

when americans disapprove of both donald trump and joe biden. south carolina has spoken. we're the fourth state to do so. in the next ten days, another 21 states and territories will speak. they have the right to a real choice. not a soviet-style election with only one candidate. >> that's nikki haley on why she's staying in the race following her primary loss to donald trump on saturday in her home state of south carolina. we'll have much, much more from that contest as well as a look ahead to tomorrow's primary in michigan. meanwhile in washington this week, president joe biden is set to sit down with congressional leaders on two important items, avoiding a government shutdown and past funding for ukraine. and also ahead, we'll bring you the latest on negotiations

to free hostages still being held by hamas, a deal that could bring a cease-fire and much needed humanitarian aid to gaza. ♪♪ good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this monday, february 26th. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day and week with us. we will begin this morning with donald trump's victory in south carolina's republican presidential primary. the former president won nikki haley's home state on saturday by more than 40 points. despite her defeat, haley is promising to stay in the race. >> today in south carolina we're getting around 40% of the vote.

that's about what we got in new hampshire too. i'm going to count it. i know 40% is not 50%, but i also know 40% is not some tiny group. there are huge numbers of voters in our republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative. i said earlier this week that no matter what happens in south carolina, i would continue to run for president. i'm a woman of my word. >> haley has pledged staying in the race until super tuesday. at least that's a week from tomorrow. now, despite trump's win on saturday, it was a decisive win,

but there were some worrisome signs of campaign, exit polls showing concern over a rematch with joe biden. many said their vote was a vote against trump than it was a vote for haley. haley also beat trump with college educated voters, 54% to 55%. college educators making more and more a piece of the electorate every year. 60% also said they would consider trump unfit for office if he were to be convict odd of a crime ahead of election day. and despite trump's continued efforts to push the big lie, 36% of republican primary voters said that joe biden was legitimately elected in 2020. that's still a disturbing number that 61% were not, but still that could point to a weakness for trump come november.

joining us now, shelby talcott. shelby who had been in south carolina much of last week ahead of the primary but on o the ground reporting now joins us live from washington. shelby, let's be clear. this was a win for donald trump. he won by 20% in nikki haley's home state, but as we just went through, there are seemingly real warning signs going for trump straight ahead. talk to us about how you perceive these potential warning signs and how does the trump campaign see them? >> well, listen. if you talk to the trump campaign, they sort of argued, hey, guys, we have won this overwhelmingly, sort of why are you focusing on these kinds of numbers when there is still a primary going on. at the same time, this really encapsulates nikki haley eason tire argument, which revolves around electability.

she's gone around arguing that she's more electable than donald trump, and that's what those numbers sort of suggest. but the republican voters, based on the results of iowa, new hampshire, and south carolina, you know, don't necessarily buy it, and as much as nikki haley might argue that she is the more electable person in a matchup against joe biden, she still has to win the republican primary. >> now, it's certainly possible, shelby, that some of those voters by november when seeing a trump/biden race will come home to the republican, but not all will. and what is to be -- expected to be extremely close election, you know, just those along the margins could matter. tell us a little more. the trump campaign, you know, they've vowed they're not going to talk about nikki haley anymore, they're going to focus on the general election. tomorrow nikki haley might put up an additional vote there,

too, no? >> even if she does do really well in michigan -- which they're arguing she will not, of course -- but even in that best-case scenario, they have sort of laid out the math and said regardless of michigan, donald trump still has the clear path to the nomination, which is likely accurate. at the same time, as you just said, they really started tamping down on focusing on nikki haley and donald trump's acceptance speech. he didn't really directly mention her, and that's intentional. they want to pivot to the general election now that south carolina is over. >> trump is almost certainly going to be a nominee. but some weaknesses in his case are certainly emerging. shelby, you also have some reporting on how the issue of immigration is playing into this primary race. why don't you tell us about that? >> in nikki haley's super pac in south carolina, it's started hitting donald trump over immigration, over the fact that

in 2011, 2013, he voted for the -- he donated to the current vice president while nikki haley was signing tough immigration laws in her home state of south carolina. so i think that's notable because donald trump has also tried to hit nikki haley on the right over immigration, and it sort of lets me know broadly how it's affected general voters, but really generally in this country. >> we'll have much, much more on the results later in the show as well as the future of nikki haley's campaign. shelby tall kott, thank you for starting off this morning. we really appreciate it. before his south carolina victory, donald trump took the stage at the cpac conference over the weekend outside of washington. he devoted a large chunk of his rambling, a 90-minute speech on

saturday, to defending his own cog nizability while mixing in ominous threats about the future of america. >> i stand before you today not only as your past and hopefully future president but as a proud political dissident. i am a dissident. 2024. if we don't stop it -- this is our last train. if we don't stop it, we'll have a country that won't even be a country. if you want to know the truth, we won't have a country. it's breaking up. in beverly hills, you're paying lots of taxes. you can only brush your teeth once a day. i want to say my uncle was the long oeft serving professor at mit, dr. john trump. he had a lot of aptitude. he rambled. nobody can ramble like this. they call me raisin. i said, what?

they're very informative stories, very important stories. that's no cognitive problems. if there was, i would know about it. i said, mr. president, you're going to have to give us 28,000 soldiers, a caravan. that was another name i came up with. a really smart person can give various stories and come back and conclude everything. i want to win the best award for whatever they call it, the best speaker. i won it nine years in a row. they'll say he rambled. he's cognitively impaired. no, it's really the opposite. it's total genius, you know that. >> he did announce the other day he would much rather see biden as president. i agree with him. i agree. >> most of that didn't make sense. he was referring to vladimir putin there at the end. i think with fact-check that one quite a bit. still ahead here on the

latest potential cease-fire between israel and hamas and what benjamin netanyahu is saying about a potential ground invasion in rafah. plus, republicans are scrambling to respond after an alabama court ruled embryos can be considered children under state law. we'll take a look at how some members of the party are rapidly trying to distance themselves from that decision. those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. orts and weather whe right back

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welcome back. we'll have more from the south carolina primary in a moment, but now we turn to the morning's other top headlines. the united states is hopeful that a new deal to release the remaining hostages in gaza could be reached in the coming days. white house national security adviser jake sullivan made those

comments yesterday but declined to give any specific details about the potential agreement. on friday negotiators met in paris to discuss a new framework that would include a temporary cease-fire. talks had stalled after israel had called hamas's demands tee lugsal. negotiations are continuing today in qatar with mediators from the united states and egypt. meanwhile prime minister benjamin netanyahu tells cbs news a hostage deal will not stop a ground invasion despite humanitarian concerns. take a listen. >> once we begin the rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion. not months. weeks away from completion. but understand, too, i've asked the army to submit to me a double plan, first to evacuate, enable the evacuation of palestinian civilians in gaza, and, secondly, to destroy the

remaining hamas battalions. that gets us the real, real distance toward the completion of our victory, and we're not going to give it up. if we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. if we don't have a deal, we'll do it anyway. meanwhile back here stateside alabama's attorney general said he does not intend to prosecute those seeking ivf treatments or families supporting them. the decision led to several fertility clinics suspending their ivf treatments over fears of prosecution, and much of the republican party is now trying to distance itself from that ruling. senate campaign committee leaders warn that democrats might use this for electoral gain and suggested that candidates express support for ivf. it appears that donald trump is also following that advice.

he broke his silence on the ruling over the weekend ahead of the south carolina primary. take a listen. >> like the overwhelming majority ofamericans, including the vast majority of christians and pro-life americans, i strongly support the affordability of ivf of couples who are trying to have a precious, beautiful little baby. i support it. and today i'm calling on the alabama legislature to act quick will i to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of ivf in alabama, and i'm going to do that. they should also be on the side of beautiful birth and mothers

and fathers and beautiful little babies. >> president joe biden responded to that. still, we'll turn to sports in sunday's action in college and probasketball. plus the fallout from another court-storming incident. this one turned ugly. we'll have all of that and a check on the forecast to start the workweek as we take a look at predawn new york city. we'll be right back. predawn ney we'll be right back.

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izzo and michigan state. after a lashing from st. john's coach rick pitino, they closed out a quality conference beating creighton under the best hall of fame coach. st. john's has now won two straight after dropping eight of ten. but whether it could be enough to earn an ncaa tournament bid remains to be seen. pitino later apologized to his team. there could be a newish ranns regarding court storming. blue devils star was left cobbled after a collision with a fan when the demon deacons were

stormed. the incident comes a little over a month after iowa women's superstar caitlin clark collide odden the court with a fan during an ohio state victory celebration. absolutely these court stormings are way too common. they've lost any sort of novelty. they're not special and they're dangerous. we turn now to nba and the nuggets and warriors. jokic with a terrible double that leads the nuggets past the warriors. the nuggets now off to a 3-0 start after the break. knicks also remain hot. meanwhile miami heat star jimmy

butler is one of five players suspended without pay during their scuffle against the pelicans. they were each suspended one game for instigating and engaging in an on court altercation. two others were given three games' suspension and a forward was also suspended one game for stepping off the bench. time now for the weather and let's go to meteorologist michelle grossman for the forecast as we begin yet another workweek. michelle, how is it looking o it there? >> they just keep coming, right? we're looking at another nice day in portions of the central plains and east. we're going to feel temperatures that are springlike and even summer-like in the southern plains. we're going to see temperatures in the 90s. in the west, more wintry.

that's what it could look like. we could see snow showers in portions of the upper midwest. take a look at the numbers. we're going to be in the 90s in dallas. that's the forecast high. warm in chicago, 69. right around the 70 degree mark. near 80 in kansas city. we're looking at paducah, 78. that warmth stays in place tomorrow too. we could break a number of records. meantime we're looking at temperatures cold out west, below the freezing mark. again, we'll be measuring that snow in feet and we could see winds gusting up to 60, 70 miles an hour. this storm system will move to the east and then we'll see the threat for severe weather in portions of the midwest, the ohio valley, great lakes, and we could see tornados and large hail with any of these storms. jonathan? >> michelle grossman, thank you as always. still ahead on "way too early," we're going to dig into

new reporting how the cia is secretly helping ukraine fight russia. "way too early" will be right back. russia "way too early" will be right back age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. (crowd cheers) sore throat got your tongue? mucinex instasoothe sore throat medicated drops. uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. that's my babyyy! -ow! get mucinex instasoothe. it's comeback season. [coughing] copd hasn't been pretty. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had.

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welcome back to "way too early." it's just before 5:30 a.m. on the east coast, 2:30 out west on this monday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. in a show of support for

ukraine, five democratic senators traveled to the state's western stiv of lavish on friday with an eighth held up in the lower chamber. chuck schumer said the main goal of the trip was to help those in the house make up their minds. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy posted this video on friday thanking americans for their visit saying the americans are on the side of truth and they share that in common. saturday was the two-year anniversary of russia's invasion. and over the weekend "the new york times" reported on the intense coordination between the cia and the military. the times reports the ca has helped disrupt one assassination plt against president zelenskyy but also talks about how the cia

helped support ukraine from the beginning of the war. in march 2022, the cia team gave a tip. that same month the cia warned ukraine of russian plans to launch missiles at various cities. apparently the information was so precise it already knew russia plugged in the cruise missiles that were going to be used. with the future now unclear, the times reporting some intel officers are now asking their american counterparts whether the cia will abandon them. we should note the help occurred long before the invasion, back in 2014. joining us now is mark.

i have a feeling you know a little about this effort in ukraine. tell us what you can and the impressions from the pretty blockbuster reporting over the weekend and what it says about the alliance? >> i think the reports does give the american people an inside into what the cia accomplishes overseas. i call it putting in the pulping. that's whelp the u.s. intelligence community will go in at the country's request and do things such as establish relationships, start training programs so when a policy decision is made after the invasion of ukraine, we can turn the spigot on and provide targeting assistance. i think it goes to say the cia never comes home. it's those personal relationships -- i'll tell you, right after the invasion, i asked a friend of mine, who's the nerve center, the combat

pant command which is the ufab michl of which is in charge? he said, nothing right now except lang guy, which is where my colleagues of the cia went. the cia will not abandon u kay. >> the story details ups and downs in the relationship between kyiv and washington right now. again, we recommend the piece. let's turn to the state of play and the combat. it's been well documented ukraine has been in desperate need of help. if it's significantly delayed or does not come at all, what do you think happens in the war? >> you know, in talking to some journalists actually on the front lines, they painted a very dire picture. these are individuals in essence embedded with ukrainian units,

and they're saying the shortage of artiery is so acute there's going to be hundreds if not thousands of ukrainians who are going to die. they're going to lose territory against russia. it really is a race against time. when you think about everything is focused on events in washington, i guess mike johnson is having a meeting with the president today, we've got to get this settled. if it's not, ukraine's going to suffer some losses. in essence, it's going to hurt ukrainians pretty badly. >> lastly and briefly, what's your sense of the russian capabilities that if they continue to run out of a moe, how much do they make or is it more about consolidating the gains they already have? >> that's a great question. we don't want to be too hyperpollic here. return's not going to sweep across moving west. i think they're going to make

some territory miami gains. russia has its own problem. ukraine has killed many of the russian military. 6,000 battleships. it's a battle of defense for ukrainians. >> terrific inside from retired cia officer. thank you. still ahead, we'll turn to cnbc for a look at the business headlines and take a look at the markets which appear to be moving lower ahead of the "opening bell." we'll be right back with that. e "opening bell. we'll be right back with that.

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we bring in arabile gumede. it should be known arabile and i made a cameo. investors are looking to key inflation and investor earnings today. how is wall street shaping up in the morning's early hours? >> yeah. swiftly moving along then as you made note of there. look, the market has a little bit of weakness, and this follows on what was a bump a week. all of the three major indices move significantly high. even the nasdaq finding a 52-week high in some of last week's trade. the s&p 500 notching on, but only managing to eke out a gain of 0.3% on friday. you saw video climbing. it's really about where to duo from here. the bull run is moving higher.

again, the tech players being key to the optic. this week we have key data. it's the fed reserve's most important. they deem it to be one that's very important. it's the personal consumptions expenditure data. we'll look on to that number. it's expected to ride 0.4%. >> berkshire hathaway posted a big rise. what drove that surge? >> yeah. so the surge actually comes from the fact that they decided to sell off a few of the shares. there were net sellers of a lot of equity across the board, so warren buffett's company deciding to sell a few more stock. this was interesting to note. he said he doesn't see a compelling case for new purchases or deals, particularly

outside of the united states. this is where we've seen ai become a predominant player. he's sitting with cash at 1876 billion u.s. dollars. a heavy cash pile there. >> lastly, some major u.s. airlines have raised their checked bag fees in the last couple of months since the start of the year. tell us the latest on that, and is there any way, we the flying public, can avoid them? >> yeah. you're going to have to find a way to do so. the best way to try to avoid them is have them a little cheaper. if you're able to make a purchase of that baggage fee just 24 hours before your flight or at least online at the very least, then you be able to pay a little left. the united airlines are the latest to increase their baggage fees. all the others have been able to do so. united airlines now raising the checked baggage phoebe $5.

for your first check-in baggage, $40. 35 if you pay online or at least 24 hours before your flight. that's an increase of $5. the second luggage bag, $50. the numbers are getting a little bit stock. as i said, you had jetblue and american airlines as well as alaska airlines have raised their baggage fee as well of late. >> all right. arabile gumede of cnbc in london. thank you, sir. still ahead, a big blow to nikki haley's presidential campaign and now moving forward after losing one of the biggest donors after she lost south carolina over the weekend. we'll dig into how that impacts her future bid for the campaign. we'll be right back. the campai. we'll be right back. 12 hours!! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any cough, day or night.

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welcome back. we've got a bit of breaking news

this morning. we just learned rnc chairman ronna mcdaniel will be resigning her post next month, march 8th. she'd led the committee since 2017 having been recently re-elected to the post last year. the rnc has not announced a new chair, but trump has backed a north carolina republican party to replace mcdaniel. in a statement mcdaniel says this, the rnc has historically undergone change once it has a nominee and it's always been my intention to honor that tradition. remain committed to winning back the white house and electing republicans up and town the ballot in november. in other politics, conservative billionaire charles koch and the super pac americans for prosperity action are now suspending funding to the former

south carolina govern's campaign following the loss to donald trump in her own home state over the weekend. the pac's ceo said in an email to staffers that the coke-backed group no longer believed it could make a material difference to wind haley's path to a dream. joining us now, brendan buck. he is an msnbc political nachlt brendan, let's start with this breaking news about ronna mcdaniel. it seemed like her fate was sealed as soon as trump said a few weeks ago he wanted leadership change including putting his daughter-in-law into prominent trump position. tell us what you think mcdaniel's legacy is. >> in her statement, she's not wrong. there are people in place. what's interesting there is she

was his person to begin with, and this is clearly the president trying to stack the rnc, but i think it just shows you, she was hardly the person who was anti-trump to begin with or standing up against him to begin with. we should imagine if donald trump becomes president again, the entire ecosystem is going to be built up in his image. that's what's happening there. he's talking about his daughter-in-law. it's something we should consider extending far beyond that into the administration, congress. it's going to be the most trumpiest party you're going to see. she's had ups and downs. she's always struggled figuring out whether she's a natural trump person in this role. but i think she's probably more than anything probably quite glad to have this part of life behind her.

>> the question that per sits is how much of the money from the party will go to trump's legal bills. trump won south carolina by 20 points. let's start with how this impacts nikki haley. koch brothers announcing they're not going to fund her anymore. she's vowing to stay in until super tuesday. what do you think? do you think she'll stay in the rate just in case. >> i think people are surprised she's still in it. she wants to give people a choice. losing this money, you can argue, is devin stating for her. but on the other hand, when you look at what it is for her at this point, it doesn't make a difference. she's really a protest candidate. i don't say that de-riisishly.

i think that's what she believes is needed right now. she's doing what is right in her heart. i think she knows she's not going to win. i think donald trump note i she it's not going to win. running for president is hard. running when you know you have no chance to win is really hard. it's a tough slug, but i think she believes that's what voters deserve. >> brendan, we opened the show carrying a lot of warning signs, 40% of the vote went to haley. a significant percent said it would never go to said they'll never vote for trump. how concerned should trump be, though he'll be the nominee, about some of these findings in the early states? >> quite concerned. now, i will say, we have seen

poll after poll show that the vast majority of people who are choosing nikki haley in the primary will still vote for donald trump. it's not as though none of those 40% of people will be able to get his vote, and i think it kind of shows the party is actually a little more united than we think. however, if it is only 15%, 10%, maybe 20% of those voters are not going to vote for the republican nominee, that could be a huge problem with the margins that we are expecting. that's why i think donald trump needs to be relatively careful not to go too hard after nikki haley. one, it is smart to ignore her and move on, but he needs the voters at some point. if he makes himself so toxic in their mind that he can't come around, then biden will actually -- biden will clearly be the beneficiary of that dynamic. >> yeah, even though a smart percentage of republicans opt not to vote for trump, it'll be

meaningful in a close race this november. brendan buck, thank you. we'll talk again soon. up next on "way too early," lawsuits on capitol hill are running out of time to avoid a partial government shutdown. we'll go over what republicans are now demanding ahead of friday's deadline. coming up on "morning joe," after a disappointing loss in her home state of south carolina, nikki haley is off to michigan. why she says she still is staying in the race even though the end of her campaign may be rapidly approaching. plus, a breakdown of donald trump's rambling, gaffe-filled, cpac speech where he called himself a political dissident and gave a bizarre explanation for why he feels he now appeals to black voters. also ahead, award-winning actor martin sheen will be a guest this morning. you'll want to see that. "morning joe" just a few moments away. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face,

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cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. welcome back. with the deadly quickly approaching, congress is still without a deal to fund the federal government. with just a little less than five days left, those crafting

the funding legislation missed their deadline yesterday to release the bill's text. in a letter to his democratic colleagues, senate majority leader chuck schumer says the fault lies with house speaker mike johnson. he wrote in part this, "it is my deep hope that speaker johnson recognizes the weight of history is on his shoulders, and he shuts out the political and self-motivated demands of donald trump and rises to the occasion to meet the moment. if republican leadership succumbs to the demands of the hard right wing of their party, it'll be very detrimental to the american people and those around the globe." johnson released a statement, criticizing the leader for counterproductive rhetoric. joining us with the latest, julie tsirkin. good morning. give us the lay of the land for this week over there on capitol

hill. you have some new reporting on johnson's plan and hope to avoid a shutdown. >> yeah, hope is the right word here, jonathan. good morning. we're five days out from the first deadline. those bills yesterday never came, as you outlined. a couple days before that, on friday night, johnson held what was described to me as a vague call with his republican house members, laying out his plan for this week. included in that was a plan to vote on the four bills separately, but to do that, he'd need democratic votes to get it over the finish line. you had hard liners speak up against that. they want a full year stopgap government funding measure because of the deal mccarthy made with biden in the spring of last year. the problem, once it hits april, a 1% cut kicks in across all agencies, including defense. republicans, including speaker johnson, spoke against that on the call, teeing up this showdown over political policy. now, we have a situation where we're days away from the first government deadline. johnson floated the possibility of a short-term shutdown, but he

also said they might need a stop gap measure to get from the first one to the second. johnson is perhaps facing the biggest challenge of his speakership so far. >> are those on the republican party who want to shut the government down and perhaps come after johnson's job? >> that is exactly it, what johnson is contending with. you have the hard liners who want the full year funding bill with the stopgap measure. johnson was against that. others don't care if the government shuts down. they say their base is for it, wanting to focus on the policy writers which don't move the needle much. johnson said they didn't get any huge policy wins out of this. you also have the group who doesn't recognize the fact there is a divided government. there are democrats in control of the senate. yes, you have republicans who are still willing to kick johnson out from the job, even

months ahead of the election, which certainly is worrying some republicans, i'm told, who are basically conceding now they may very well lose their very fragile majority and end up in the minority next year, jonathan. >> i have some new reporting out this morning about the utter lack of relationship between president biden and the new house speaker. when johnson assumed the speakership, a number of top white house aides called around to lawmakers they knew on capitol hill. they didn't know johnson and asked the lawmakers if they knew johnson. many didn't either. the white house doesn't know he has the ability to get a deal done. johnson and congressional leadership will be hosted at the white house tomorrow to talk about ukraine funding. what are the expectations that could come from the meeting? >> exactly. i had reporting a couple weeks ago that johnson was demanding a one-on-one meeting with the president. clearly, biden doesn't want that to be happen. he's been more favorably dealing with mcconnell in the senate. he needs to work with johnson

and know him, though. biden hosting the four congressional leaders tomorrow. that's after the meeting that happened in january where he tried to convince johnson, where he had other congressional leaders, key leaders up on the hill, to try and hammer out a plan for the foreign aid package, funding ukraine, you've been talking about that, the whole show, funding israel. you still have republicans, though, demanding the policy changers to the border, even though johnson and the hard liners killed the senate bipartisan deal a couple weeks ago. tomorrow's meeting will be telling, but it is a tight rope that johnson has to walk on. certainly, whatever the president tells him, hard liners will keep pushing him in the opposite direction. >> white house aides not giving the one-on-one meeting, for fear johnson will try to use the president as a political prop. they're not going to let that happen. we'll have complete coverage tomorrow. nbc's julie tsirkin, thank you for joining us. thank you to you for getting up "way too early" on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. senator rubio, of course, have a