that is it for us. we will see you again tomorrow. way too early with jonathan lemire is coming up next. my brother was the most peaceful person, the most. he's never lifted a finger to nobody. >> got a long fight ahead of us, and we're going to stay strong for it. so justice for tyre.

>> justice for tyre. >> the family of tyre nichols on the eve of his funeral. it comes as there are more accusations against the police unit that beat him to death. meanwhile at the white house today president joe biden will meet with kevin mccarthy for the first time since he became speaker as to try to find a compromise on the debt ceiling. and the most talked about freshman member of congress says he can't get a fair shake not because of the many lies but because of the media's coverage of him. we'll have the latest in the george santos saga just ahead. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, february 1st. february already. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we'll begin in memphis where tyre nichols will be laid to rest later today. vice president kamala harris and other white house officials will attend his funeral.

nichols' mother and stepfather invited the vice president after speaking with her on the phone yesterday morning. nichols family also said the mother of brianna taylor and the mother of george floyd will attend the funeral. reverend al sharpton will deliver the eulogy. last night the family gathered with reverend al sharpton at the historic church of god and christ in memphis and where martin luther king jr. delivered his final speech the night before he was assassinated. >> because we will continue in tyre's name to head up, that's why we wanted to start this right on this sacred ground. this is holy ground, and his family now is ours, and they're in the hands of history. >> reverend sharpton will be a guest later on morning joe. meanwhile there are new details about the immediate medical response of the violent beating of nichols by police officers.

also more questions about the now disbanded unit and what those four officers once belonged to. correspondent priscilla thompson has more. >> reporter: new questions about the disbanded memphis police department's scorpion unit, whose officers violently beat tyre nichols. nichols family attorney, ben crump, says there's more victims. >> there's a brother who said four or five days before this happened to tyre that same scorpion unit confronted him. and he said that they used all kind of profanity against him, they threw him on the ground and put a gun to his head. >> reporter: five officers now charged with second degree murder with two others on administrative leave as investigations continue. lawyers for two of the men charged say they will plead not guilty. >> all of these officers were under a duty to prevent the

other officers from taking illegal actions that caused tyre nichols' death. >> reporter: this as first responders are also under fire. two medical workers and one lieutenant have been terminated. officials writing their actions or inactions on the scene that night do not meet the expectations of the memphis fire department. after an internal investigation, the department says they failed to conduct an adequate patience assessment of mr. nichols. video shows emts walking away from nichols and leave him on the ground in distress. the frustrations growing as around the country people honor the life of tyre nichols. >> his smile would light up the room. >> joining us now from memphis "the washington post" reporter

emily dave uz. you've been in tennessee the last few days. give us a sense of the mood there in the city as we approach tyre's funeral later today. >> i would say residents here are frustrated and they're angry, but more than anything they're really sad and disappointed that this type of violence would unfold in the streets by people meant to protect and to serve them. >> so certainly there are a lot of questions about this unit that has now been disbanded. we just raised concerns with theirtictics throughout and there will be at least some after action investigations in some of the cases they've been involved with. how would you categorize at the moment the relationship between the community and police? >> that's a great question, and it's complicated. some people here say that the action of those officers did not surprise them at all, that they've had themselves negative or aggressive interaction with police here in memphis, and this seemed like the incident that

simply took off nationally. others say that this -- this action by police officers here really did surprise them, that they have experienced the police here in memphis as overall civil and supportive. many of them have friends and relatives which is majority black here in a city which also majority black, a point of pride for many residents. >> emily, for your latest piece you and some off your colleagues spoke and many of them voiced a disappointment with the public's reaction to the release last week of the police body cam footage. explain why that is. >> some have a real feeling of disappointment that the action didn't draw more to the streets, didn't draw more attention to memphis and put more pressure on the police department to reform, to make real systematic changes

here in memphis, but others feel proud of the way that the city responded, that they're embodying the spirit of late dr. martin luther king jr. by keeping it peaceful and they want people to know their furious but they're focused, as somebody said yesterday. >> we heard a lot of warnings from public officials last friday before the tape was released concerned there would be violence in memphis and elsewhere. thankfully that was not the case. long day ahead of you. thank you for starting it with us. we appreciate it. meanwhile to washington. president joe biden and house speaker kevin mccarthy will have their first in person meeting today since mccarthy took the gavel as speaker. their focus, ending the standoff over the debt ceiling. ahead of their sit down top biden advisers sent mccarthy a memo asking him to make a commitment the u.s. will not default on its debt. also they want a pledge to release the budget proposal laying out the fiscal goal. it also reaffirms the consistent

messaging. the white house wants a clean debt ceiling raised with no concessions. in response mccarthy had this to say. >> we know the best way they can do that is to say they're willing to noeg because the only irresponsible way is to play a political game and say we're not going to talk about it. >> well, it's off to a good start. in the 13 days since the u.s. reached its borrowing limit republicans have given no concrete plans on what they want to cut to bring down the country's debt. congress still has a deadline of june 5th to raise the country's borrowing limit or the u.s. will officially default on in its debt. this story is not going to go away anytime soon. as the special counsel investigates president biden's mishandling of classified documents we're learning what actions the doj immediately took after learning about thesation. two senior law enforcement officials tell nbc news back in

november the fbi searched the offices of the penned biden center in washington, d.c. the officers say no search warrant was issued and biden's team cooperated with the agents. the exact date of the search is unclear at this point but it came at some point after november 2nd where the president's lawyers say they found a small number of documents inside an office previously used by biden at the think tank. it's also unclear whether the fbi search turned up anymore sensitive material. also the white house has not clarified as to why they did not reveal the search when it happened. we didn't learn about it, of course, until media reports months later. still ahead here on "way too early," we're going to get a better idea of what the 2024 republican presidential field could look like soon. plus florida governor ron desantis response to recent criticism from former president trump. those stories and a check on weather and sports when we come right back. d sports when we com right back

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the 2024 republican presidential field is starting to take shape. nbc news has learned that former south carolina governor nikki haley is expected to formally announce her presidential bid later this month. two source say she plans to invite -- to an event. >> i'm certainly giving it very serious consideration. we've been really successful 30 miles outside of washington where everything appears to be broken and nothing but divisiveness and dysfunction. i'll in one of am bluest states in the country with a 70% progressive legislator and had the biggest economic turn around in america, so we're taking a close look at it. >> the only declared candidate at this point, of course, is donald trump. there's a lot of speculation about florida governor ron desantis. yesterday desantis responded to

former president trump's criticism of himself and florida's approach to covid. desantis was asked about trump's comments. take a look. >> well, look, what i would just say is this. i rollout of bed, i have people attacking me from all angles. it's been happening for many, many years. and if you look at the good thing about it, though, is that if you take a crisis situation like corid, you know, the good thing about it is when you're an elected executive, you've got to make all kinds of decisions, you've got to steer that ship. and the good thing is that the people are able to render a judgment on that whether they re-elect here or not. and i'm happy to say in my case not only did we win re-election, we won with the highest percentage oof the vote than any republican governor or candidate has in the history of the state of florida. >> wait a minute, i see what you did there. that's a bit of a subtweet.

meanwhile the republican national committee is urging gop lawmakers to double down on anti-abortion stances and, quote, go on the offense. on friday the group passed a resolution calling on republicans to push laws that ban abortions once a heartbeat is detected. that would outlaw the procedure at about six weeks of pregnancy before many women even realize they're pregnant. the resolution also expressed disappointment in candidates who did not publicize their abortion views during the election. quote, instead of fighting back many republican candidates failed to remind americansoffs our proud heritage of challenging slavery, segregation, and the forces eroding a family and the sanctity of human life thereby allowing democrats to define a long time position. the stance ignores polls that shows abortion was a major issue in the november mid-terms and benefitted democrats. still ahead we'll turn to sports. lebron has made history at msg

while the owner of the new york knicks tries to cleanup the controversy he's created at the iconic arena. we'll explain all that next in sports. 'll explain all that nexn sports reach for the really good stuff. zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. its non-habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. (cecily) what's up, einstein? (einstein) my network has gone kaput! (cecily) oh, you tried to save a buck on it? (einstein) i got what i paid for. not so smart. (cecily) nah, you're still a genius. but, there is a smarter way to save. (einstein) oh?! (cecily) switch to verizon! for a limited time, get welcome unlimited for just $25/line. (einstein) $25?! (cecily) and it's guaranteed for 3 years! (einstein) brilliant! (cecily) well, you would know. (einstein) i'm switching! (cecily) i think the bike's probably faster. (vo) now is the best time to switch to verizon. for just $25 a line. guaranteed for 3 years. the savings that last. on the network you want. verizon. power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools, and paper trading to help sharpen your skills,

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vicks vapors for fast-acting relief you can feel. vicks vapocool drops. fast relief you can feel. here we go on msg knicks looking for the win, randall drives in, stops, and it's blocked. and we've got overtime. >> lebron james blocks the knicks last second try in regulation and his lakers go onto win 129-123 in overtime. james is now the first player ever to record a triple-double in his 20th season in the league. lebron's 11 assists last night move him into fourth place on the nba's all-time list and his 28 points put him just 89 away from passing through jubar's all-time scoring record. meanwhile knicks owner has reportedly hired former trump white house communications

director hope hicks as a public relations consultant. the punch lines write themselves. according to the new york post dolan hired hicks to keep adversaries out of the arena. the daily news reports dolan has also used a controversial tech to identify and confront critics at the arena. wnba free agents can now officially sign with teams starting today raising questions about the sate of brittney griner as she returns to the league after being traded in a prisoner swap back in december. the league will need to address special travel privileges. we're very cognizant of bj's unique situation. we've been planning and thinking it through with security experts. adding we'll find the right time to comment on it when she signs

with the team. griner has previously said she'll return to the phoenix mercury for the upcoming season. turning now to the nfl and we've got two new head coaches set to lead teams next season, big names. in denver the broncos have reportedly agreed to a deal with the new orlen saints that will make their former coach sean paten, the broncos new coach. the saints will receive the broncos first-round pick in this year's draft as well as a future second rounder. denver will also reportedly get a third-round pick in the trade, because payton walked away while still under contract. in houston the former texan linebacker has been hired to be the team's new head coach. ryans led the 49ers this season will replace smith after smith's lone season in houston. now to the nhl, go to raleigh, north carolina, where the hurricanes came back from a 3-0

deficit in the second period and scoring four straight including in overtime right there to beat the los angeles kings. it's time now for the weather. another tough day down south. >> yeah, definitely. especially places like texas where we have icy conditions on the roadways. ice storm warning in effect and 30 million people are under winter weather alerts this morning and you can see why. most of it the higher amounts at least in parts of texas where you see the blue up to a quarter of an inch so more downed trees, more downed power lines and of course those road conditions are going to be difficult once again today. how about the rain? there's also some rain with this on the warmer aspect of the system. it is going to eventually stretch to the east and bring heavier amounts of rain, but today the flooding threat remains for the eastern parts of texas and into parts of louisiana. so be careful with that as well. the cold, that is something that will get your attention maybe not so much today for a wide area of the country, but

definitely as we get into the weekend, check out these alerts up now for parts of the northeast. we could see wind chills in boston minus 30. in maine they could be as low as minus 60. so it'll be a bitter cold couple of days as we get into the weekend for folks up there. waking up in places like bismarck where it feels like minus 9 and into the 20s in places like lexington but feeling more like the teens. so the layers are going to be a must as we go through the day today. now let's look ahead to saturday morning. this is when you wake up in new york city and 8 degrees but feeling much colder than that. scranton minus 13, so widespread area is going to be dealing with the bitter cold temperatures as we go through at least the next couple of days. not just a saturday kind of thing. notice what happens as we get into the early morning hours of sunday. we'll still be into the teens in buffalo. monday we're starting to make some improvements in places lick williamsburg, new york, ending up back into the 30s. those temperatures are about

normal for this time of year, but by the way we started the year, january, with the second warmest january on record. really it's been the warmest, rather, it's been in new york city since the great depression. that, of course, may change in february. we'll see if we can get some snow, not likely at least right now, jonathan, doesn't look like we're going to see a whole lot of snow in the forecast, but that cold is going to be something people need to be careful of here as we get into the weekend. >> and i'm heading to boston this weekend. still ahead republican congressman george santos sits down for an in-depth television interview. what he had to say about the many, many lies he told on the campaign trail. we'll be right back with that. campaign trail we'll be right back with that.

welcome back to "way too early." it's a few minutes before 5:30 a.m. on the east coast. 2:30 a.m. out west. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being here. republican congressman george santos is step down from his committee assignments in the wake of multiple ethics probes. he put out a statement yesterday reading in part "with the ongoing attention surrounding my personal and campaign financial investigations, i have submitted -- >> did mccarthy tell you to step away. >> nobody tells me to do anything. i made a decision on my own.

>> i met with george santos yesterday, and i think it was an appropriate decision to clear everything up in the committees right now. >> is that something you asked in an interview? >> we had a discussion and i think it was an appropriate decision. >> these days we usually see santos running from reporters trying to answer their questions, but yesterday he actually sat down for a tv interview and he blamed the media. while he did so a new york republican sat down with right-wing news outlet yesterday and hit back for those calling him out for his own lies. >> i think it's important that america understands, you know, that a lot can be said, a lot can be done, but that people should be judged on their actions and not by trial by fire through the media which is what i've experienced for the last couple of weeks. i've come from a humble

beginning. i've always said that. i grew up in abject poverty in jackson heights in queens, new york city. people like me aren't supposed to do big things in life, and when we do it disrupts the system. and i know that a lot of people want to create this narrative that i -- i faked my way to congress, which is absolutely categorically false. i've worked hard. i've built ground up a career through experience and through knowledge and through self-education. and, you know, i think it's amazing that i have to sit here and be spoken down to on a regular basis yet again by the media. >> actually, he faked his way to congress. santos then responded to a question about the multiple exaggerations and lies he told on the campaign trail. >> i'm just going to say it, look, it was a bad decision, poor judgment. i felt the need to do it because i thought without the diploma i'd be looked down as lesser

than the other people. i don't think lying is excusable ever, period, right? there's no circumstance especially if you're legislating for the american people right now. so what i might have done during the campaign does not reflect what is being done in the office. i've said i was sorry many times. i've behaved as if i'm sorry. look, if you want to compare emotions, people show emotions differently. i am sorry, deeply sorry. i feel the calls, i've been calling supporters to apologize directly to them for that. and, you know, i don't know what is asked of me right now when you ask, oh, you have not shown remorse or you don't seem to look sorry. i don't know what looking sorry looks like to you. i've made my sincere apology multiple times. i earlier said it that i

thoroughly apologize for lying about my education and embellishing my résumé. i've made that very, very clear. i don't know what more can be said other than admitting is there anything more humbling, humiliating than admitting that on national television? >> santos ended the interview by saying he learned his lesson and everything he does going forward will be, quote, above board. joining me now is congressional reporter for "the hill." you have been closely covering the controversy surrounding santos, my apologies for that. what is the reaction from the hill, though, on what was surprising yesterday on the step down from committee assignments and what is also the feedback we're getting from that absurd tv interview? >> lots of surprise from george santos stepping back from his committee assignments, johnathan, but also hapinacy about it. i spoke to a few republican lawmakers yesterday after this decision broke news, and they

said george santos made the right decision, that he was a distraction to different legislative business and investigatory hearings on capitol hill. nevertheless, though, really important and significant move right there, sort of the first indication that we've seen from santos of taking note of what has been going on and sort of recognizing that he is under scrutiny right now. and he specifically said in a statement that he wanted to recuse himself from these committee posts because he's currently under investigation for both personal and financial situations. so there's a lot of surprise there at the timing that it came and that it actually did come down the wire because, again, we were all following this to see if santos would actually be sat on committee. and then once kevin mccarthy said he will receive those assignments and once the gop seating committee went aed and gave him small business, science and technology, it was sort of believed to be a done deal.

nonetheless, though, george santos came out yesterday and said he'll recuse himself temporarily until he said he is cleared. it remains to be seen when that'll happen and if it'll happen, but definitely surprise and acceptance from santos yesterday. >> pure defiance from santos to this point so this was a startling change of tactics. let's set aside that sideshow, and you've got new reporting on the meeting scheduled today from president biden and house speaker mccarthy. top of the agenda the debt ceiling. what have you learned? >> that's right. finally after a couple week of haggling and statements in the press regarding the debt ceiling and after the u.s. hit the debt ceiling and those extraordinary measures took place, biden and mccarthy are finally going to meet face-to-face today at the white house this afternoon. it really comes at a significant time, a little bit after those extraordinary measures were first implemented and still a

solid amount of time until they're expected to expire. that's expected to happen in the beginning of june. nonetheless, though, this is big task that congress has ahead of itself. in order to hash out these negotiations to raise the debt ceiling and up to this point both democrats and republicans have been digging in their heels. democrats and biden have said they want a clean increase to the debt ceiling and no spending cuts, but a number of republicans specifically hard line republicans will say they want to use raising the debt ceiling as a way to negotiate some of those spending cuts. we saw a lot of talks about this during the speakers race. this is all going to come to a head today during the afternoon when president biden and mccarthy meet. and they're expected to have some conversations about what to do and they mentioned there's about five months until what has to do in washington, and nonetheless both sides said they want to do this in a responsible way and have conversations and advance. we're seeing the first step

towards that. whether or not we see any developments from this meeting remains to be seen, but nonetheless it's good the two sides are talking because they definitely have a lot to discuss. >> yeah, my money says not much gets done until much closer to the deadline. michael, the house is also set to vote on a series of pandemic related bills. what can you tell us about them? what's their future? >> just yesterday the house voted on legislation passed along party lines that would approve it and end the public health emergency for covid-19. that was first back in 2020 under the trump administration. it's since been extended 12 separate times. house republicans this was an interesting dynamic. last week house republicans put this on the calender notifying capitol hill this bill would come to the floor on tuesday, and one day before the white house put out a statement saying that in may it would actually end the public health emergency in addition to the covid-19 emergency declaration, essentially getting ahead of this republican bill.

if the republican bill were to pass the senate, which is unexpected to do because it is controlled by democrats, and if it were signed into law by president biden another thing unexpected it would likely receive his veto, that would end the public health emergency immediately right when that bill went into effect, which would have some significant implications. one thing the democrats have said today it would end title 42 which is a trump era policy that allows asylum seekers to be turned away because of the public health emergency. so essentially the biden administration said on monday we are going to do away with two of these pandemic related conditions, though we need to ease it out, we need to phase it out, and those will end on may 11th. that was, though, not enough for house republicans who said they are going to go away with their bill to end the emergency and that passed the house and unlikely to move further in congress, but it was a really interesting dynamic there between house republican and the

biden administration coming out in defense and get ahead of that bill. >> lots of good stuff there. congressional reporter for the hill thank you as always. still ahead we're going to switch to business news and i'll be joined by cnbc what to expect today from the federal reserve. right now markets are in the red ahead of an important decision on rate hikes. we'll be right back. on rate hikes. we'll be right back. ♪ today my friend you did it, you did it, you did it... ♪ good news! a new clinical study showed that centrum silver supports cognitive health in older adults. it's one more step towards taking charge of your health. so every day, you can say...

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month indeed for wall street. the s&p ended up 6%, its best january since 2019. the nasdaq up 10%, best january since 2001. as you say corporate earnings have been a focus yesterday we had results out of general motors, very robust earnings out of the car company and also good outlook for 2023. stock was up 7 percentage points. today the focus is going to be on meta. if you remember back in september after the company released their q3 results the stock plunged 25 percentage points because people were so concerned about their expense outlook. since then meta has announced about 11,000 layoffs jump cuts and get those expense growths under control. worth pointing out as well the stock is still down about 50% from where we were this time last year. >> probably the biggest head lean of the day for the financial world is the federal

reserve starting to wrap up its two day policy meeting with another rate hike. what should we expect? >> yeah, that's right, so markets are pricing in a 25 basis point hike. at this point it's pretty much set in stone they're going to go for that 25 base point hike with their eighth consecutive rate hike, and does show the fed has started to slow down the pace of rate hikes towards what we were getting to the end of last year with those 50 and 75 base point increments. but we're getting closer to the end of the rate hiking cycle. we're about 50 basis points away if they do hike 25 basis points where they see terminal rate. so investors are very much focused on the messaging going to come out of today's meeting, what chair powell has to say about the state of the economy, whether there are further views on a possible recession and the fed forecasting it and how they're doing in that fight against inflation. >> seems to be growing hope on a soft landing at least here in

the united states. we'll have complete coverage on the federal reserve decision later on. paypal, the latest tech company to announce thousands of layoffs following the lead of google, microsoft, salesforce, and others. what prompted the company to take this action? >> that's right. so paypal is just another company added to the list that announced layoffs up to 2,000 employees. that's about 7% of the totalwork frs. the ceo of paypal says the company is working to address the challenging macro economic environment, but, again, it is just another tech company has has gone through a round of job cuts. we've had google announce earlier this month it was going to layoff 12,000 work wrrz, microsoft 10,000, and salesforce 7,000 workers. it will require a restuckturing process we're witnessing in the tech space right now. >> live from london, great to see you. thanks for joining us this morning. still ahead a preview of tomorrow's meeting on police

reform between president biden and members of the congressional black caucus. plus the head of the national urban league marc morial joins me. "way too early," we'll be right back. me "way too early," we'll be right back see cousin jimmy over there? his girlfriend just caught the bouquet so... he might need a little more help saving. for that engagement ring... the groom's parents. you think they're looking at photos of their handsome boy? they're not! she just saw how much they spent on ballroom dance classes... won't be needing those anymore. digital tools so impressive, you just can't stop banking. ♪3, 4♪ ♪ digital tools so impressive, ♪hey♪ ♪ ♪are you ready for me♪ ♪are you ready♪ ♪are you ready♪

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members of the congressional black caucus will meet with president joe biden at the white house tomorrow to discuss police officer in the wake of the deadly beating of tyre nichols. the new chair of the caucus is calling on members of the house and senate to jump start negotiations now and work with us, he says, to address the public health epidemic of police violence that disproportionately affects many of our communities. joining us now the president and ceo of the national urban league, marc morial. marc, thanks very much for being with us this morning. we're glad to have your voice today. you released a statement calling this tragedy in memphis, quote, violence for the sake of violence. and you wrote the larger problem is the culture of brutality and

sense of impunity that still pervades law enforcement 30 years after the videotaped meeting of rodney king appalled the nation. as you look at this particular case in memphis much has been made out of the fact that most of the officers involved were black as was the victim. tell us what can be done to change the root of this culture? >> thank you for having me this morning, jonathan. to change the culture is going to require a multidimensional approach. i think what's so critical is that the congress of the united states weigh in with a strong policy response. that policy response we believe is the george floyd justice and policing act. that bill by itself is not going to fix the culture. but thus far congress notwithstanding great effort has not been able to since george

floyd make a powerful policy statement and send that policy statement to the thousands of police departments and the hundreds of thousands of police officers across the nation. in terms of what the standards ought to be when it comes to policing. there's a role for mayors and police chiefs and city councils and local community activists, those that hire police chiefs, hire police officers and set the policy to play as well. we think that congress, we think the president and the justice department who provide guidance as the practices. i like an approach where police departments are required to be accredited so there's some, if you will, transparency about the methods. as a precondition to receiving federal dollars. there are many things that need to be done today as we mourn tyre nichols and we'll celebrate his life as well in the tradition of the black church. i think it's so important that

we seize this moment. i understand that there has to be balance between police reform and the fight against violence. i can tell you based on my long experiences in this work, that a police department that is not trusted by its own citizens will not be effective preventing violence or in response to violence. we have to understand that these two elements work together. they're not separate elements of this work and this fight and this battle we have in america today. >> you mentioned of course today is the funeral, a celebration of tyre nichols's life. his family has spoken so eloquently so bravely about what they want to see happen. what's your message to them in their quest for justice? >> i think we should show them love and respect and appreciation. there's nothing more damming, more tragic, more painful than to lose ones own child but to

lose a child in to violence, to law enforcement, in such a violent way, it grates us, it pains us, and yes, it angers us. so we have to remember that while this discussion around change takes place, this is also a day to mourn tyre nichols but the family, as i understand, wants reform. and they're aligned with many of the other families saying to the congress and to the president, we need a response. so there's a dual purpose today. the funeral and the recognition, respect are paramount. however, it is also about what the next steps are going to be. >> and the eyes of the world will be on memphis today. mark, thank you for being with us this morning. up next on "way too early" new reporting on the president's plan to drive demand for electric vehicles. and on "morning joe" we go back to memphis for live reports ahead of today's funeral for tyre nichols.

plus the reverend al sharpton who will deliver the eulogy will join our conversations. and a speak with president biden and house speaker mccarthy over the debt ceiling. and hearing from becca balint ahead of the first congress on federal pandemic spending. "morning joe" is just a few short moments away. " is just a short moments away tudent. i'm getting my doctorate in clinical psychology. i do a lot of hiking and kayaking. i needed something to help me gain clarity. so i was in the pharmacy and i saw a display of prevagen and i asked the pharmacist about it. i started taking prevagen and i noticed that i had more cognitive clarity. memory is better. it's been about two years now and it's working for me. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription.

joining us now with a look at axios a.m. the co-founder, our friend mike allen. good morning. what is the axios one big thing today? >> good morning, jonathan. welcome to february, the one big thing is a scoop. biden's ev surprise. biden's electric vehicle surprise. in washington there's always a catch. when something is working, it can become more expensive. so in president biden's inflation reduction act, there were big incentives for both

consumers and auto companies on electric vehicles. and part of it was to increase domestic battery production for electric vehicles. part of this is to counter the china advantage. guess what, jonathan. that's working. the auto companies are taking great advantage of it and as a result figures from axios show that that incentive could be as much as four times as expensive over ten years as was advertised when the bill was being debated last summer. this could be tens of billions of dollars. and the reason is that the -- for this act, battery plants have been built all across the country. axios did a map of the battery belt turns out it's almost every place across the country. all across the country there are

places helping make electric vehicle parts much like the space program which was divided across all 50 states. we showed these figures to the white house and they said it's no surprise that this act is spurring investments, it's working as advertised. >> so mike, axios also reporting about the republican parties deteriorating alliance with the nation's leading physicians group. what's behind that change? >> this is a fault line change in washington. we learned there are certain alliances like republicans are generally aligned with the u.s. chamber of commerce. democrats generally aligned with labor. this is a shift in one of those sort of permanent cast of characters. the american medical association had long been associated with republicans. going back many decades. the american medical association had warned about socialized

medicine and doctors and a more rural america tended to be more conservative. now we have a big change and the american medical association is taking changes on climate -- is making statements on, and taking stands on climate, transgender treatment, and other issues that are putting them at odds with republicans. now you have republicans who are complaining about the doctors and their views. so this is both a societal change and it's a financial change. we see the change in the money that's changing hands both ways. it's a little bit like the change with the chamber of commerce, a republican ally and as you know and viewers know, tensions between republicans, especially house republicans and the u.s. chamber of commerce. >> i have to assume that the medical group unhappy with the

anti-vaccine and anti-science positions adopted by so many republicans in recent months. mike allen, thank you as always. >> thank you. it's a significant day today, eyes in washington later for the meeting between house speaker mccarthy and president biden. most importantly the world would be watching memphis, the funeral of tyre nichols. "morning joe" starts now. >> if he runs again in 2024 will you support him? >> yes. >> if he decides he's going to run would that preclude any sort of run that you would make yourself? >> i would not run if president trump ran. >> so that was former south carolina governor nikki haley almost two years ago. but it seems she changed her mind a bit about taking on the former president. she's now expected to challenge donald trump in the race for the republican nomination and she's not the only former governor eyeing a presidential