This is the Dec. 19 edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
Welcome to the weekend!
This time next week, millions of Americans will be cleaning up Christmas decorations, trying out their presents and starting their pre-New Year diet. But for now, let’s enjoy the coming weekend and the buildup to Christmas Eve.
Let’s hope Santa brings you what you want or need the most. I’m really looking forward to having time with my children, family and friends through the holiday week, and I hope you find time to relax and unplug a bit from the steady stream of challenging news we’ve been hit with of late.
There are more than a few places you can go to get your Christmas week started off right …
Near New York City, theater lovers and history buffs are in for a treat, as the Cradle of Aviation Museum and Broadway musical “Operation Mincemeat” host a World War II-style code-breaking scavenger hunt through the galleries of the museum.
In the nation’s capital, people can attend the Washington National Cathedral’s Gospel Christmas Service, featuring music, poetry and Scripture.
It’s not only about skiing in Aspen, Colorado, where performances begin for Theatre Aspen’s fifth annual holiday cabaret series, with two family-friendly shows on this year’s program.
Folks in Iowa can head to the Ames City Auditorium for the ”Holly Jolly Holidays with Howie and Jenn” concert. If you attend tonight, you’re encouraged to wear a festive sweater.
In California’s Sierra Madre, performances of ”A Jet Set Christmas” begin, featuring holiday classics, Christmas carols and audience sing-alongs.
The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball tour continues in Miami, with performances from some of the year’s chart-topping artists.
Among the big new releases in theaters is the third “Avatar” movie, starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña.
But let’s face it … this weekend is all about football. The first round of the College Football Playoff kicks off tonight in Oklahoma, with the eighth-seeded Sooners hosting No. 9 Alabama. It continues tomorrow with a triple header, alongside two great NFL matchups, including the rematch of two of the league’s most storied franchises, the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers.
Now … on to your questions!
MAILBAG
Thank you again to all our readers who wrote in this week. As always, you’re welcome to write to us anytime.
Joe, can we get accurate status on the state of the Ukraine-Russia war? The main media storyline is about how Russia is successfully attacking Ukraine. Are the Ukrainian success stories I see on YouTube exaggerated? What’s the real story? Thanks. — Mike B., Arlington, Tex.
Great question, Mike. It is an inquiry that our negotiators are also working to answer. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has been spreading propaganda throughout the West that the Ukrainians are battered and about to collapse, and that Russia can keep fighting indefinitely.
After reading your question, I asked David Ignatius for the real story today on “Morning Joe.” David agreed that while Ukraine is in for another long, brutal winter, their forces are holding the line against Russia and are in no danger of imminent collapse.
As Ignatius said, Putin’s armies have absorbed as many as 1.2 million casualties. The Russian leader is having trouble replenishing his troops on the front line, and he has an economy that has been shattered by the war the Russians started with their illegal invasion. They are in a much weaker position than Putin would like the world — and our negotiators — to grasp.
As Winston Churchill said of the old Soviet Union, the Russians are never as strong or as weak as we think they are.
Only time will tell if Putin is willing to face up to the inconvenient truth that he needs a peace deal as much as Volodymyr Zelenskyy does in Ukraine.
Donald Trump said millions of illegal immigrants came into the country from prisons, mental institutions and insane asylums. Where are these people now? And how many have been arrested? Wouldn’t they be some of the worst of the worst? — MAGA Family, Columbus, Ohio
Despite his promise to conduct “bloody deportations” during his 2024 campaign, the president told me during the transition period that he wanted to avoid the type of images we saw in the first term of babies being ripped from the arms of young mothers.
Just the opposite has turned out to be true. Far from deporting the “worst of the worst,” the majority of those who have faced the most brutal repression and deportation have been immigrants (and some American citizens) with no criminal record.
Here are the facts, according to the libertarian Cato Institute:
- 93% of all people taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no violent convictions
- 65% have never been convicted of a crime, and those who were convicted were mostly guilty of traffic violations or nonviolent vice offenses.
- Almost 9 of 10 people taken into custody have never committed either a violent crime or a property crime.
President Donald Trump’s failure to focus on removing the “worst of the worst” has led to the collapse of his approval ratings on his strongest issue: immigration.
While most Americans give Trump high marks for securing the Southern border, his numbers plummet when the question turns to his administration’s handling of immigrants and deportations.
These ugly images of mothers being taken out of middle school car lines and a day care teacher dragged out of a classroom in front of preschoolers have only damaged the president politically while leading to untold pain and hardship to immigrants who are far from being the “worst of the worst.”
How much of incoming email from constituents actually gets to members of Congress themselves? — Darlene A., Vail, Ariz.
Darlene, thanks for the question. During my four terms in Congress, we made sure that all letters that came into the office were read by our staff members. I would work with the team to make sure that answers to issues that were front of mind reflected my exact thinking on the topics.
I would usually review the letters going out and add an extra line or two on the bottom. I doubt most members still do that, but I always found that reading correspondence from the district was a great way to keep engaged with how my constituents were feeling about the key issues.
I keep hearing Trump talk about inheriting a terrible economy from Biden. There is never a mention of the economy Biden inherited from Trump. Who inherited the worst economy? Biden, after all, had to deal with the disaster left by the pandemic. — Pam S., Henderson, N.C.
Great question, Pam. As we have noted on the show this week, Donald Trump has not made great progress on the economy that he inherited from Joe Biden.
The jobless situation is more distressing, with the unemployment rate ticking upward. Inflation, which most recently dipped to 2.7% (though economists believe that number was affected by the government shutdown), has nevertheless remained steady at around 3% over Trump’s first year, which is the rate he inherited on January 20. The national debt keeps exploding; housing, heating and health care costs have continued to shoot up; and the high price of groceries still takes too much of Americans’ paychecks.
On January 20, 2021, the U.S. economy was still stumbling out of the Covid-19 pandemic, which Trump spent months downplaying and declaring it to be much ado about nothing. By the time Covid’s effects were fully felt, America’s economy had cratered in part because the White House was simply wishing it would go away. It did not. By the end of the pandemic, 1.1 million Americans were dead, the largest number of any country in the world.
Joe Biden inherited Donald Trump’s economy, weighed down by high unemployment, record federal deficits and a jobs deficit that would take years to fill.
Ironically, the one great success of the Trump administration during Covid was the launch of Operation Warp Speed, which got a vaccine to Americans faster than any expert predicted.
What stands as one of Donald Trump’s great achievements cannot be mentioned by Mr. Trump because of anti-vaccine extremists in his MAGA base.
SLEEPY-TIME TEA
Last week, we asked Tea readers what helps you get a solid night’s sleep — and many of you responded with your best tips for the best “zzz”s! Here are a few things the Tea community does when it’s time to tuck in.
Riding my bike 10 miles a day, drinking tea and wearing a smile every day … I’m months away from 80 years old and won’t give any of them up!
Jane S., Long Island, N.Y.
I start lowering the lights in my living room as evening falls. I will light a scented candle and then, every little while, turn off another light until there is one or two soft lights remaining and the candle.
Deborah, Santa Fe, N.M.
Turn off the TV, watch yoga YouTube videos, and before you know it, you are asleep.
Doug B., Rochester, N.Y.
I stop watching TV around 8:30 and then try to read in bed until I start nodding off. Pillow over the head if I wake up in the night and try not to look at the clock.
Trish F., Fairfield, Iowa
As much as possible, practice consistent sleep hygiene: Do all the things Joe mentions, plus 1) avoid talking about or watching stressful subjects several hours before bedtime; 2) don’t drink alcohol, drink water or herbal tea instead; 3) use a white noise machine; 4) and don’t set an alarm on weekends. You will probably wake up at the same time anyway, but no sense blocking a chance for an extra 30 minutes.
Susan B., Larchmont, N.Y.
ONE LAST SHOT
An activist holds a sign during a vigil in memory of Rob Reiner outside Trump Tower on December 18, 2025, in New York City.
That’s all the time we have, folks!
Thanks so much for your questions and for reading The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe!
Have a great weekend!
Joe
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
SPILL IT
The “Morning Joe” family is getting into the Christmas spirit! We’d like to know:
What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?
Share with us, and we’ll feature a few of your stories in an upcoming holiday edition.
Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW's "Morning Joe" alongside Mika Brzezinski — a show that Time magazine calls "revolutionary." In addition to his career in television, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book is "The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again."