Are you ready to vote for him?

Well, I am, I give him the benefit of the doubt.

I am ready to be supportive of getting him to that point.

Senator, is he currently drinking or is he just said he's not going to drink, touch alcohol if he becomes?

Well, I didn't ask him if he's had to drink today or if he's currently drinking.

My commitment that I was looking for was that he won't drink, you know, he won't touch alcohol, and that he'd be ready for a phone call at

three in the afternoon or three in the morning and every hour in between.

That's Republican Senator Kevin Kramer of North Dakota yesterday, offering some support publicly

for Pete Hegseth. Those comments come as Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary spent a third day on Capitol

Hill meeting with Republicans to address years of troubling allegations against him.

We'll show you what other lawmakers had to say about Hegseth's meetings.

And Hegzeth was going around making the John Tower pledge. If I'm Secretary

of Defense, I will not drink. Inside reporting suggests that the key meeting was Joni Ernst that

didn't go the way Hegsus team wanted it to go or the Trump, the Trump team. So heavy,

questions laying over whether he's going to make it

through or not. Right now, most Republican insiders and Democrats that I'm talking to and others

are talking to on the Hill still believe this is a nomination that will not make it through.

We shall say, as for the president-elect, he is lashing out

at the Wall Street Journal for its reporting on a cabinet pick that withdrew their name from

consideration earlier this week. We'll dig into that. Also ahead, the manhunt continues this morning

for the suspect who shot and killed the CEO of United Health Care yesterday morning in Midtown Manhattan.

We'll bring you the very latest in that investigation. Good morning. And welcome to Morning, Joe. It is Thursday, December 5th, along with Joe, Willie and me. We have the host of way too early.

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