! call, click or visit an xfinity store today. thanks for being with us tonight after the big eclipse day. i'm still kind of excited from having seen it. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. many states will be different. many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that's what they will be. at the end of the day this is all about the will of the people. now it's up to the states to do the right thing.

like ronald reagan i'm strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. you must follow your heart on this issue, but remember you must also win elections to restore our culture. >> donald trump with more mixed messages on a statement on abortion yesterday leaving key questions about the issue unanswered. we'll have more of his comments and show you how the biden campaign is responding. meanwhile, the president was out on the campaign trail yesterday announcing another major effort to bring student debt relief to millions of americans. and it could be a chaotic week on capitol hill as lawmakers return from a long break with a key vote on ukraine aid in the house, which could threaten mike johnson's speakership. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this tuesday,

april 9th. i'm jonathan lemire, and thanks for starting your day with us. we'll begin this morning with the race for the white house where donald trump is facing backlash from both sides of the aisle for his position on abortion. after months of teasing a statement trump finally spoke about the issue yesterday in a 4-minute video posted to truth social. here's a part of it. >> many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights especially since i was proudly the person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars both sides wanted and in fact demanded be ended, roe v. wade. they wanted it ended. it must be remembered that the democrats are the radical ones on this position because they support abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month. the concept of having an

abortion in the later months and even execution after birth -- and that's exactly what it is -- the baby is born. the baby is executed after birth is unacceptable and almost everyone agrees with that. my deal now is we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint. the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. in this case the law of the state. >> despite trump's claims we should note that polls continue to show overwhelming support for keeping abortion legal in most or all cases. and that statement about democrats executing babies after birth, that's simply a lie. elsewhere in the video trump expressed support for ivf and abortion exceptions for rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is at risk. afterwards democrats criticized the presumptive 2024 republican

nominee for his blanket endorsement of state abortion laws, which include 14 states that totally ban it. on the other hand, many anti-abortion rights groups and some prominent republicans ripped trump for not endorsing a national abortion ban as many have called for. that included senator lindsey graham, a former trump ally, who said, quote, the former president was making a mistake. and former vice president mike pence who called trump's statement a slap in the face to millions of pro-life americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020. indeed, let's dig a little deeper into how trump's statement yesterday caused a rift between the former president and one of his most faithful allies, senator graham. after he called it a mistake and said he respectfully disagrees abortion is a states right issue, trump simply unloaded on

the south carolina lawmaker. in one social media post trump wrote, i blame myself for lindsey graham because the only reason he won in the great state of south carolina is because i endorsed him. graham, of course, has been senator since 2003 when trump was still a registered democrat. another post read this, senator lindsey graham should spend more time focusing on all of the many people being killed because of our now nonexistent border and the millions of people dying in senseless, never ending wars. and then in a third post trump wrote graham is doing a great disservice to the republican party and to our country and that people like him were handing democrats full control and governments. real tension there and frequent golf partners.

president biden blaming his predecessor for the, quote, cruelty and chaos tat has enveloped america since the dobbs decision, adding trump is scrambling on the issue because he's worried voters will hold him accountable. president biden then made an appeal to voters in a video posted on social media. >> donald trump just endorsed every single state ban on reproductive care nationwide all across the country voters are being turned away from emergency rooms, being forced to travel hundreds of miles or ask a judge just to get basic care they need. that's donald trump's vision for this country? he said it himself, to punish women who seek out the care they need. if maga republicans put a bill on his desk, he's sign it. i'll be the reason why it's restored. >> we'll have much, much more on this story later in the show including a devastating new ad released by the biden campaign about abortion rights. elsewhere in washington,

house lawmakers return to capitol hill today after a two-week easter break. the top priority will be ukraine aid with speaker mike johnson providing a moment of truth when it comes to seeking assistance for the war torn ally. he now faces a potential vote over his ouster over the matter. also this week we could see the house and senate articles of impeachment against homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. lawmakers will also discuss federal funding to review the collapsed bridge in baltimore. right now congress is awaiting a supplemental request from the biden administration. joining us now congressional reporter for the hill

mychael snell. how serious is the threat to his job if he proceeds to trying to aid ukraine? >> johnman, look, on the situation on ukraine aid on capitol hill, the situation hasn't exactly changed for the past week and a half. speaker mike johnson said the topic of ukraine but as the house gets ready to reconvene tonight we have no indication what speaker johnson has said on this front, what that legislation will look like, if he'll add any policy provisions to that. a lot of folks are in the dark right now what this will look like. speaker johnson floated some possibilities he may make this as a loan, he may include a provision that will roll back a biden administration energy policy, but again we don't have any concrete details. and you note the motion to vacate threat against speaker

johnson, that is still very real right here. congresswoman marjorie taylor greene held a town hall in her district last night and railed on government funding to this issue of ukraine aid. in an interview with another outlet last week she said putting ukraine on the floor is one of the most egregious things he could do. so there's a lot of tension and pressure between these two individuals right now, and this is all going to come to a head this week, again as johnson looks poised to finally move ahead on that foreign aid supplemental. >> if he pushes forward especially that senate bill to get ukraine aid on the floor, do we believe democrats would step in to try to save him? >> that's what sources have been telling me, jonathan, is that ukraine aid is the key issue here when we talk about a motion to vacate.

congresswoman greene said that motion to vacate right now is a warning. now, if he were to go ahead with that senate supplemental, which you mentioned would likely receive widespread bipartisan support in the house, i've spoken to a number of democratic house members who say they would come in and support johnson. look, this will probably not look like a vote for speaker johnson on the house floor. it'll be a procedural thing. democrats didn't actually vote for johnson, but they prevent this chaos from ensuing. and again it's because democrats have been very adamant and a number of republicans have been as well ukraine has beleaguered forces right now. they need this support immediately in its battle against russia. essentially democrats are thinking if speaker johnson does the right thing here, it passes, president biden signatize, we don't have a reason to oust him because again at the end of the day he did the right thing.

>> we'll have more on the ukraine situation in a moment. lastly give us anpidate what you think will happen for the funding on the bridge repair in baltimore. >> this as right now we're still awaiting that formal request from the biden administration. estimates have put the possible rebuilding effort at $2 billion, so it's going to be a large chunk of money. we're seeing already conservatives voice concern about using federal funding for this rebuilding effort. the freedom caucus putting conditions on the federal funding for rebuilding the bridge. again, we're not going to see any movement on this front until we get that supplemental request from the biden administration. >> that should be coming in the days ahead. the hill, thank you for starting us off this morning. the latest on prime minister benjamin netanyahu issues a new vow to carry out an invasion of rafah. and another legal loss for former president trump as we move closer to jury selection in

his upcoming hush money trial here in new york. those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. sports and weather when we come right back [coughing] copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler,

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welcome back. as we turn to developments now in the middle east, cease-fire negotiate asians between israel and hamas remain at a deadlock. despite the rising optimism that had been voiced by israeli officials, negotiators have left cairo with no deal in sight. hamas says the latest proposal still does not meet its demands. the terror group wants israel to withdraw its troops from the gaza strip, but prime minister benjamin netanyahu refuses to do that. still, hamas has not yet completely rejected the proposal. the group says it's still reviewing it and will inform mediators of its official response. no timetable on that. meanwhile, prime minister

netanyahu says a date has been set to launch a ground offensive in the southern gaza city of rafah. netanyahu made the announcement in a brief video statement yesterday saying that an invasion was needed to ensure victory over hamas. but he did not reveal when the operation would begin. it comes just a day after israeli defense forces withdrew troops from southern gaza's largest city, further shifting its presence in the enclave. the biden administration has repeatedly been warning israel not to launch an offensive in rafah say it will worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, this as more than a million people have sought refuge in the city. this could be a real flash point between biden and net hew. those two men had a contentious call just a few days ago. we will keep you posted on developments in the days ahead. meanwhile, back state side former president trump has lost another last ditch effort to delay his upcoming hush money

trial. trump's legal team filed an 11th hour request to halt the proceedings arguing that an impartial jury can't be selected because of pretrial publicity. the judge denied trump's request for delay without explanation in a one-sentence order issued yesterday. trump's team is also pushing to move the case out of manhattan. yesterday's ruling does not affect his underlying change in venue motion. of course, the person responsible for most of the pretrial publicity, donald trump himself. meanwhile the judge overseeing the hush money case sent a letter to trump's lawyers and the manhattan d.a.'s office. he provided a list of 42 questions potential jurors will be asked including whether they've ever attended a trump rally or if they belong to groups like the proud boys or antifa. trump's attorneys wanted to ask potential jurors, whether they, quote, like the former president

but the judge called that question irrelevant. but potential jurors will be asked about media consumption, and whether they read "the new york times," watch fox news, or use truth social. the question air does not ask about party affiliation, political contribution lgz or voting history. that trial, again, slated to begin monday. next up here we'll turn to sports and a wrap up of march madness with a recap of the men's national title game, a game that ended with a feat that hadn't been accomplished nearly 20 years. plus, we'll share with you the record number of viewers who tuned in to watch the women's championship game on sunday. we'll be right back with all that. sunday. we'll be right back with all that

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>> congrats to yukon who is the first team since 2007 to win back-to-back men's basketball titles after beating purdue last night in the ncaa national championship game. purdue's star zackedy did score a game high 77 points but the huskies eliminated the boilermakers to just 23 combined. yukon also held the second best three-point shooting team in the country to make just one of seven shots from behind the yard. the huskies took control of the game for good with about 6 minutes remaining in the first half, building a 6-point lead by the break and pulling away for a 75-60 win. once again all six of yukon's march madness victories came by double digits making that 12 ncaa wins. this year might mark the first time the women's title game had a bigger audience over the

men's. it drew a preliminary average audience of 18.7 million people on espn and abc making it the most watched in the nba since 2018. the only sport in the united states to attract more viewers in the nfl games, the world cup, couple of football games and olympics. and the women's audience numbers are expected to grow when nielsen releases its final figures later today. turning to major league baseball we'll begin in cincinnati when elly de la cruz the first was a 450 lefty solo shot launched to deep center. and he stepped up again in the seventh. >> absolute bomb. first pitch center field. he slides and gets by. de la cruz can fly. he storms to second, gathers

into the track, windmill is on, relay to the plate. de la cruz, safe! >> this time hitting from the right side his sinking liner to center field turned into his first inside the home park run. he is one of the most exciting players in baseball. to san diego now. the padres came back from an eight run deficit against the chicago cubs last night going ahead on this, fernando tatis two-run homer. padres stun the cubs 9-8. meanwhile in atlanta the braves celebrated their 50th anniversary of hank aaron's record breaking 715th career home run in a ceremony before taking on the met's last night. beautiful moment there, but new york spoiled the party, snapping atlanta's three game winning streak with an 8-7 victory to take the first win of the season between the nl east rivals. time now for the weather.

first, michelle, all everyone is still talking about today, the eclipse. the front page news here on every newspaper here in studio. the boys and i, the whole family, all four of us went up to the roof in brooklyn, put our glasses on, watched it, the unanimous verdict from the floor, it's pretty cool. >> yesterday wasn't going am i going to lover this, is my 11-year-old going to love it, it was truly amazing. and my 15-year-old had a little party, she had moon pies and milky way bars. it was an experience to remember. we had really the world come together and look at these pictures, and it was alarming and just realize how small we are in this whole universe. so, so gorgeous. we had i think the best coverage out of any network out there. so beautiful. let's talk about the weather. this is going to be a big weather day tomorrow, the next day because we have a three-day event where we're looking at the

chance for strong storms. tomorrow we could see a pretty significant tornado outbreak. right now we're looking at heavy rain and it is heavy, causing some flooding. you see lightening and thunder. that's just an indication how heavy it is out there. even when we get the sun's energy we're going to see this spark later this afternoon. 22 million people at risk, a few tornados, winds gusting up at 26 miles an hour. especially when you see these yellow and orange shaded areas. you need to pay attention and have your tornado plan in place. we're looking at very heavy rain locally and even have flooding in texas. and that's going to be the theme throughout the day. >> next full eclipse more than 20 years off i believe. >> i know. 2044. mark on your calender. next up here on "way too early," just hours after former president trump said the

abortion law should be left to the states, the biden campaign released a new ad that really hit the gop nominee on the issue and take a look at that and the politics of abortion when we come right back. e politics of abortion when we come right back. he thinks his flaky red patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. otezla can help you get clearer skin. don't use otezla if you're allergic to it. serious allergic reactions can happen. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts, or weight loss. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. live in the moment. ask your doctor about otezla. shingles. the rash can feel like an intense burning sensation, and last for weeks. shingles could make it hard to be there for your loved ones. over 50? the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside you. don't wait. ask your doctor about shingles. try killing bugs the worry-free way. not the other way. zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects

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welcome back to "way too early." it is precisely 5:30 a.m. here on the east coast, 2:30 out west on this tuesday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. hours after trump said he

believes abortion laws should be left to the states, president biden's re-election campaign released an emotional ad featuring a woman said she almost died because of texas' restrictive abortion ban. >> this is one of our little boxes. this is just filled with some of the things we'd started gathering for her while i was pregnant. >> yeah. >> here's her little baby book. this was the outfit she was going to maybe wear home from the hospital. all of those. this is the blanket that she was in.

her little footprints. >> it's okay. >> i'm joe biden, and i approve this message. >> the caption there at the end was "donald trump did this." biden set to air the new ad in key battleground states ahead of the election. joining us now politics reporter for the news outlet the 19th grace pinetta who's been covering this issue closely. good to see you this morning. let's start with that ad. it was up within hours after donald trump's statement in which he declares what he thinks about abortion. truly powerful. give us your reaction and tell us how do you think it will resonate now it will be the first presidential election since roe v. wade was overturned? >> absolutely, john, yes. it's an incredibly powerful ad and it's the kind of person, the kind of story that the biden campaign i think really wants to highlight. she desperately wanted -- wants

to be a parent. had not only a devastating pregnancy loss, but her trauma was compounded she said by texas' abortion ban, and that ad and she's vulnerable spokesperson on the issues. donald trump wants to say leave it to the states, here's what will happen in the states if he's re-elected. >> the biden campaign saying, yes, he's saying leave it to the states but that means he's leaving these blanket abortion bans in these states and could go to others. certainly, though, the biden team was slamming trump for that. trump was also taking some heat from the right. tell us more about trump's efforts to thread the needle here and at least in its initial hours it seemed like it didn't quite work. >> yeah, trump really tried to be a chameleon on this issue and he's he has threaded the needle in a way no other gop elected

officials really can't. he did not rule out signing a ban if one comes to his desk, and he also didn't rule out more importantly executive actions his administration could take in a second term to limit things like medication abortion access, and i think that's the key point here. he didn't rule any of that out, and it could still very much happen, and i think that's what a lot of anti-abortion groups are focused onto begin with. >> let's talk about more how this could play out. as you say there could be mechanisms there they could look to. i guess possibly they could stay home, but talk to us about how the biden campaign feels, that they think abortion -- look, abortion is undefeated at the ballot box since dobbs. they think this is going to be such a key issue going forward. tell us more about it. >> absolutely. i think as long as these lieus are in place we're seeing new

movement in the states, in the courts virtually every week. now, what the biden campaign needs to do is to try this issue to trump. there's been polling indicating a lot of voters do not blame trump or credit trump depending how you look at it with these abortion bans. that's going to be their messaging challenge and opportunity from november is close that gap and make the connection if trump appointed justice, abortion is banned, and these stories are happening as a result. >> well, they can use trump's own words to make that case as he said in a video yesterday he was proud of employing justices to overturn roe v. wade. grace, thank you for joining us. still ahead here we'll take an early look what's driving markets this morning as major indexes close flat yesterday. plus, apple is working on the best big thing that involves robots. we'll discuss the new product the tech giant is now exploring when we come right back. en we c.

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time now for business, and for that let's bring in cnbc's silvia amaro who joins us live from london. good morning, silvia. so stock futures are flat this morning as investors await the upcoming inflation data for the month oaf march. what seems to be driving the market here early on a tuesday? >> well, good morning, john. at this stage futures do suggest it will be a flat start to the trading session on wall street, and this is after we got basically mixed signals from equity markets as well. nasdaq and s&p 500 did post

back-to-back. they're trying to piece together what the federal reserve will actually do this year. and when it comes to potential rate cuts, i have to tell you, john, that over the last 24 hours we have seen investors reducing their expectation in terms of rate cuts this year. just to give you an idea, just to share some numbers with you, after that strong payroll report, fed futures are now anticipating 60-basis points of cuts for 2024. and at the start of the year they were expecting 150 basis points. so a lot lower expectations when it comes to potential rate cuts this year, and of course that inflation print will be critical to understand what the fed might or might not do throughout the rest of the year. >> yeah, that roaring economy looking to be holding off those rate cuts. wells fargo raised its year end target to the s&p 500 to more than 5,500 points, which is the highest among any wall street

brokerage. what prompted the move? >> exactly. so despite uncertainty i was just mentioning over what the fed will do this year, we are seeing wells fargo very bullish on the u.s. stock market. as you mention their expectation for the s&p this year is now at 5,535, which is the highest among any of the brokers on wall street. and there are two main reasons for that. it is the a.i.-boom. it is the a.i. hype, and at the same time the talk and anticipation, really, that the fed at one point inevitably will be cutting rates. but as i was mentioning earlier, a lot of uncertainty about that because when you listen to some of the commentary from fed officials, some of them are suggesting maybe we'll get one rate cut or no cuts at all. >> and lastly, as we just teased, after ditching its electric vehicle project, apple is reportedly eyeing a new product line. tell us more.

>> exactly. so we did see apple ditching their projects, however, there's now reports from bloomberg suggesting they are looking at personal home robots. now, the report does suggest that what they're trying to do is a robot that can follow users around their homes, and at the same time having a tabletop device that will essentially use robotics to adjust a display screen. now, all in all, though, this is still very early stages of research and development. let's see what will come out of it, whether apple will ditch this project, too, or perhaps on the on the other hand whether this could become an important product also for their profit line. >> a personal robot may be beyond my reach. thank you as always. next up here volodymyr zelenskyy warns ukraine could lose the war against russia if the country

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welcome back. with aid to ukraine still stalled on capitol hill, president volodymyr zelenskyy is issuing a new warning about the ongoing war against russia. a french news agency reports that in a video meeting zelenskyy said he believes his country will lose the war if ukraine doesn't receive additional funding from the united states. he also predicted that if ukraine falls, russia will move to invade other states next. joining us now retired cia officer mark paul muropilous, he's an nbc news security and security analyst. pretty sobering assessment there from zelenskyy. in the tinseitute on the study of war sites the spymaster

saying that it's bracing itself and may even mount a new offensive. tell us what you know about that. how worried should we be? >> jonathan, the ukrainian military chief who's sort of become this legendary figure in the espionage world, he's made these statements, and i think we should take them seriously. i think it's the notion ultimately we've talked a lot about the cost of a aid bill going through, the cost of ukrainians not having correct amounts of air defense or ammunition. but i think what we're going to start seeing now is the human toll on this. in fact, kharkiv, a ukrainian city that's been hit repeatedly by russian strike. i think in the past while we talked a lot about doom and gloom for the right reason we're going to see this translate into a human cost. a group of former intelligence officers just returned from kyiv, and i asked them as they were traveling back what was it like, and the response was pretty calm.

they just said sobering. >> certainly we've seen russia pick up the amount of air strikes as well in recent weeks on the ukrainian cities. this will be a pivotal moment on capitol hill to see if a ukraine aid bill is finally passed. mark, let's turn now to the situation in the middle east. we said earlier in the show prime minister netanyahu declared he has set a date to move into rafah, but he didn't declare what that was. give us a sense what do you think he's up to here and talk about the backdrop to this as talks seem to be stalled yet again and we know the biden administration is very apprehensive of a full invasion of rafah. >> right, jonathan, it's a great question. everyone took notice of what prime minister netanyahu has said, a date has been set. some could question this is part of the hostage talks and he's trying to put additional pressure on hamas to reach a deal, and despite considerable israeli concessions and a lot of pressure put on the united states by the united states not only on israel but also in qatar

to push hamas for a deal. but it does seem to be potentially unlikely now. the question was netanyahu actually using this as a negotiating plow, or is it locked in? i think u.s. officials certainly have not seemed to okay a future move on rafah. that's a significant point of contention. and i think at the end of the day we have to ask a question what is plan "b"? i mean the u.s. has put so much effort into these hostage talks. what if they don't succeed, and what if the plan "b" for netanyahu is a move on rafah? we've got to wait for the official hamas response to the israel and u.s. proposal. >> brief follow-up up there. if israel does go into rafah do we think that's the final where the u.s. will with hold or condition aid to israel? >> that's a tough question. and it's not pending additional

civilian casualties, there's also the possibility of israel and iran engaged in conflict mchb we're of course waiting for the what the iranian response will be to the israeli attack in syria a week or so ago on a iranian diplomatic facility and killed some irgc officers. it's difficult i think for biden to with hold aid if israel has a fight with iran. at the end of the day this is nightmare scenario that netanyahu goes forward and the rafah operation goes forward. democrats are furious at this. g a threat from iran, as well. >> retired cia officer marc polymeropoulos. you can see on his shirt, he's in boston for the red sox home opener this afternoon. thanks for joining us. go sox. up next, president biden announces new plans to provide student debt relief for millions of americans as he works to fulfill a campaign promise. we'll go over what's in his latest proposal and his effort

to win over young voters. then, coming up on "morning joe," a slap in the face and a mistake. that's how former vice president mike pence and gop senator lindsey graham are responding to donald trump after he said abortion restrictions should be left to the states. where the debate over reproductive rights is now headed, and how democrats are reacting. plus, former house speaker nancy pelosi will join the conversation live in studio. you won't want to miss that. also ahead, we'll hear from u.s. ambassador to japan, rahm emanuel, ahead of this week's state visit by the japanese prime minister to the white house. "morning joe" just a few moments away. sthma's got you going through it? grab nucala for fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred.

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ahhh! with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily gives you long lasting non-drowsy relief. flonase all good. also, try our allergy headache and nighttime pills. welcome back. president biden was in the battleground state of wisconsin where he announced a plan for student loan forgiveness. it'd eliminate accrued interest, and it'd forgive the debts of public service workers, borrowers who have been paying roughly 20 years, and those

experiencing financial hardship. the white house says that more than 30 million americans would see their balances reduced under the plan. biden addressed the importance of such a move during his visit to madison. >> i will never stop to deliver student debt relief for hard-working americans, and it's only in the interest of americans we do it. again, it's for the good of our economy. it's growing stronger and stronger, and it is, by freeing millions of americans from the crushing debt of student debt, it means they can finally get on with their lives instead of their life being put on hold. >> a good college town setting for the announcement. joining us now, elections editor for politico, stephen shepherd. great to see you this morning. let's start right there with the plan. it's clearly aimed at young voters. biden knows he needs them to be part of his coalition. to this point, student loan relief effort blocked largely by the supreme court. do we think this push will work? >> well, that's certainly the plan. look, we had a primary in

wisconsin just last week where a significant number of voters chose an uninstructed delegation option, including 15% of voters in dane county, home to madison. this was the center of president biden's weakness among democratic base voters in that totally uncompetitive primary. he and marianne williams are the only two left running. we know every vote matters. to the extent he can shore up support in what has to be democrats, you know, base of backing in a critical swing state, that was the subtext of the announcement yesterday. >> frustration by the bidn administration that it's the courts blocking this, not him backing off his promise. this next story got a lot of attention.

it's how polls are showing a shift in key groups for both biden and trump, with older voters breaking for biden and younger voters, in some ways, for trump. which would be a giant shift if true. tell us what you found. >> well, as i talked to pollsters over the past couple months, since october and the war in the middle east beginning, that i seen this big shift. younger voters are abandoning president biden in the polls, whether choosing donald trump or, when offered the option, a third party candidate like cornell west, jill stein, kennedy. trump defeated biden nationally. there appears to be the possibility of some realignment happening. that has big implications for the different coalitions that joe biden, donald trump, and the third party candidates i

mentioned are going to try to build for november. >> this is fascinating stuff. on the older voters, what's behind the shift to biden? >> the president talked about protecting medicare and social security. we've seen democrats and president biden go after donald trump and other republicans on this issue. looking at, you know, traditional republican plans that seek to reform some of these longstanding entitlement programs aimed at seniors. there's also, you know, the reality that joe biden is 81 years old and facing attacks on all sides about his age and fitness for the job among a group of voters who, you know, might have something similar going on in their own lives. you know, i'm not sure we can ignore the fact. it is a micro issue that gets down to individual voter psychology, but that's certainly beneath all of this. >> let's talk about the younger voters. it defies logic that somebody would go for trump, but the

danger here, i would assume, they would potentially seek a third party candidate, as you said, or even stay home. biden can't afford to lose those. >> absolutely right. that's exactly why he was in dane county, wisconsin, yesterday. looking to shore upmadison. you mentioned staying home. in 2018, 2020, 2022, in the midterm elections when folks thought the young voters might not participate when they were seeking to oust trump from the white house or republicans from other offices, we didn't see it. we saw young voter turnout remain strong. obviously, this isn't 2022 anymore. there's a war in the middle east that's unpopular with a lot of young voters. there are some of these other issues around student loans and other things, the economy, inflation, that affect young voters, in particular. so, yes, it's certainly something that the president's re-election campaign and democrats are worried about.

when you have the third party candidates on the ballot in swing states, that's certainly a place where you can see some of the support siphon off. >> the polls had real misses in recent cycles, but this is a fascinating piece. stephen shepherd for politico, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. and thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. former president trump compared himself in a truth social post over the weekend to the late south african president nelson mandela. if there is anything truth social users hate, it's when you make them google something. former president trump attended a fundraiser over the weekend at the home of john paulson with melania trump, where she finally got to meet an annual billionaire. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, april