Its a signing. Didnt want to do it. At the last minute he decided were going to do this signing inside but he didnt tell anybody. Im just saying i saw it, then im thinking, this reminds me of a show, my favorite show. Lets watch this quickly. Very, very quickly. Thank you very much. Mr. Trump, are you trying to tell the Justice Department to grant immunity to Michael Flynn . Were you trying to do that . Was that your intention, mr. President . Was that your intention, mr. President . Was that your intention, sir . Thank you, guys. They literally didnt have to edit a thing. That happened. Its like a metaphor for he was supposed to sign but he didnt. Hes supposed to behaving like a president but hes not. How many days in are we, donny . Suddenly feels like year six. Everybody goes how do you not how could you not have known listen, weve known this guy for 10, 11, 12 years. We had our misgivings about him. I think its safe to say neither you nor i thought it would be this bad. Definitely not. We were concerned, really, really concerned. Never thought the guy wed known for 10, 11, 12 years would be that much of a petulant brat that when somebody would ask him a question. Leave his entire signing service. It hurts, like he takes a hammer every day. We didnt think he would get a hammer every day and pick it up and hit his hand. Quite the opposite. The day after he got elected i came on your show, maybe whistling in the dark, said you know what, maybe his need to be loved, ego to be successful, pull the left side to the middle and all the above, its quite the opposite. I also think its time, and i know in the post goldwater era theres the unwritten rule in the Psychiatric Community that nobody diagnoses from afar, but i dont think hes a well guy period. When you start doing things, mark halperin, that are against your best interest. During the campaign he did all these horrible things, right . But you could say they are horrible things but theres going to be a segment of his base that will actually vote for him because hes talking about the birther stuff or hes talking about this or hes talking about that. The walls. The wall. In that respect he would do these things that were offensive to all of us but wouldnt say, this is actually like him hitting himself on the hand with hammer. What he is doing now is not in his selfinterest. Thats when you start saying wait a second, how well is he . If hes doing these things that any rational human being would know would hurt him politically. Those things we did that a lot of us found repugnant before are effective. Say, you know what, they offend me but unfortunately its effective among some members in the primary. The glass half empty story is pretty intense. Low approval rating, failure of the health care initiative, disarray in a lot of the government, a lot of tension, and no clear ability to move forward. Glass half full, probably not half but the full part of the glass, last week five dates in five days, people are willing to give them a chance. They are not as impatient as washington. Huge week, can he got gorsuch through . Hold a second. Hold a second. Mitch mcconnell will get gorsuch through just like Mitch Mcconnell conservatives are going to see that as Mitch Mcconnells accomplishment for good reason and not Donald Trumps. Can he get through in the way he gets credit. What does he turn to now . What are the big issues the president wants to put before the country . This week is wide open. Is he going to talk about trade, health care, taxes. So Great Questions to start the show on. Good morning, everyone. Good segue. Its monday. How was everybodys weekend. Mark halperin is here, Donny Deutsch is here as you saw. Also with us in Washington National reporter jonathan swann. Good to have you on board. Baseball started. Baseball season started. All right. Im concerned about the red sox. I wish barnicle was here but i would you know why barnicle is not here . Of course. Im heading out there with my boys. Are you really . Very excited about it. Just like in connecticut, there as special buzzer i cant walk into fenway park. Different reasons. Wow, tries to get off the exit in new canaan. What happens . Red lights but its a long story. Turn around. You cannot have that much cologne combined with human growth hormones. High karate isnt really a cologne, its an after shave. With that mika ready . Okay. Were ready now. Three, two, one. Yes. Well do this later. The president of the United States, the leader of the free world, the Worlds Largest economy, the man who controls the Worlds Largest nuclear arsenal. Powerful man. He spent most of saturday morning tweeting about fox news. Thats a shame. Let that breathe for a second. Think about that. Think about the scope of that problem right there. Can i ask you a question, when did it start . The tweeting . Maybe it started saturday morning around 8 43. I always tell you i was playing your straight guy. I always tell you saturdays are going to be excited. 8 43 tweeted when will sleepy eyes chuck todd and nbc news Start Talking about the obama surveillance scandal. Can i stop you here . I never got that sleepy eyes chuck todd thing. Do you make fun of chuck todd. His goatee. Im used to his goatee now. His eyes are awake. Who has really sleepy eyes . Huckelberry hound. Theres sleepy eyes. But not chuck todd. Why are you saying sleepy eyes chuck todd. If youre going to insult somebody, make it work. Like paul manafort. Little chucky todd. Little miller, tiny dictator. Okay. About 20 minutes later adding same Fake News Media that said theres no path to victory to trump now pushing a phony russia story, a total scam. And around noon he started tweeting parts of a column about health care writing, the failing New York Times finally gets it, adding, o care is dead. Good things will happen either with republicans or democrat. Throughout the afternoon and into the evening he tweeted praise for fox news. Quote, wow, fox news reporting big news. Source, official behind unmasking is high up. Known intel official is responsible. Some unmasked. Can i just ask, i thought the white house said you should never do any stories with sources, with unnamed sources. Im confused. Only when it benefits them and this very powerful leader of the free world tweeted all day. Finally reading the treats. I read them trump speak. Trump team spied on before nominated. If this is true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad for u. S. And around 6 21 p. M. , the president tweeted, thanks for a fox segment about consumer confiden confidence. This is very small behavior that is so unbecoming its hard to even describe. Hes president of the United States and all he does is watch tv. Hes like a little kid. All he does is watch tv. And comment on it. And comment on it. Those two things. Donny deutsch. All these two things people want him to do, all these condescending womens events he has all week, he just ruins them with his stupid tweets. Why doesnt he watch billions. Thats good this season. A lot of people talk about hes 0 and a billionaire, hes not doing to change his behavior. His entire life, this is man who does not travel, this is a man who does not read, a man not in electially curious. The only information hes gotten is like a 12yearold eating cereal, hes not going to change now. Spent all weekend watching fox news. Were not knocking fox news. I definitely wat judge piro now. Oh, my gosh. 9 00 p. M. Wow. Obviously no selfcontrol. Again, this guy is literally bumping around the white house, wherever he goes, with nobody else around minding him. This gets to problems with scheduling. You hear when you talk to staff theres sort of a flat level of people competing for his time. Donald trump just decides on a whim i dont want to do this or i do want to do that. Hes very impulsive. He changes very rapidly and the staff sort of scramble around to do that. He might Say Something in a meeting and they scramble out. Were going to change this because the president said that. It creates a very unstable working environment. They are all trying to adapt to it. Amend disclosure form shows former National Security adviser Michael Flynn did not originally disclose payments he received from russianlinked companies. In the new filing he names tv network rt and two other russia linked firms as sources of income. Documents released by House Oversight democrats last month showed rt paid flynn 45,000 to speak at its gala in 2015. An attorney for flynn said bundled together speaking fees and draft disclosure process ended because of his resignation. Meanwhile the Congressional Committee said they are not at the stage of granting former security adviser Michael Flynn immunity he offered. House tells nbc news the discussion with flynns lawyer did not include immunity. Sources close to the Senate Community saying immunity is not on the table at this time. It doesnt make sense, would not make sense for them, mika, to do that right now, because the fbi is conducting an investigation. If hes broken the law, then immunity from the senate gets in the way of that. A long way away from that. Not clear what crimes might be being investigated. The committees have to decide if they want to bring him in and take the fifth. Thats a big decision before them. It appears he wont testify right now. The broader issue, what are these two Intelligence Committees going to do . We dont know at this point what direction they are headed. Senate made a big show, house more divided. What are they going to do next if they dont hear from flynn. White House Press Secretary shawn spafr said he spoke with the president s about his friday tweets saying flynn should ask for immunity. The president is very clear he wants mike flynn to go and be completely open and transparent with the committee. Whatever it takes to do that hes supportive of. Not trying to suggest to the fbi or Justice Department that it grant immunity. I think he was asking im not entirely sure of the process whether the congress does it or doj or both in this case. The point i get it. I understand. Right. The bottom line not instructing his Justice Department instructing mike flynn to do everything he can to cooperate with committees he asked to look into this. The president tweeted yesterday, the real story turns out to be surveillance and leaking. Find the leakers. So here we are. Deep throat was the real story on watergate. I thought they missed it. It was. It wasnt actually the burglary of the dnc. History will tell that. Jonathan, this is their story and they are sticking to it nonstop. Yeah. And the staff has absorbed this. Its the donald trump message of this is the real story. This is whats happened. Of course thats what started this scramble to justify, rationalize, find the evidence which has got devin nunes in all that trouble. Mark halperin. You look at the history of this, at least a distraction for them and he brings on a lot of it himself, the most famous tweet about president obama. The most constant tweets, keeps it alive in the media. It does it does, jonathan said, its so hard for this white house staff trying to learn how to do their jobs under the media and legal pressure of these investigations. Again, we talked about this before, how well the guy is off mentally. Any sane, rational person would know if i keep bringing attention to something, then im going to to keep churning up attention on something, and it is not going to be in my best interests. Nothing to do with jobs and the economy, which is all he said he wants to focus on. Its got nothing to do with hes repeated this over and over and over again. It really is like picking the same scab over and over again. Im sorry to say that, but thats what hes doing. His staff, like any sane, rational staff would be pulling their hair out right now saying, my god. Instead, they keep making excuses for it. An article overtime weekend about election night. Right after his triumph he was focused on a threeday old negative article they literally couldnt get him off of. Thats what this is. I dont know what the disorder is. Im not glib. Regardless of whats wrongf hes been pricked in some area, theres an inability physiologically to move off of it, even if its selfdestructive. Hes president of the United States, and he starts lying about 3 million votes being illegally cast. Hes obsessed on that from the day hes elected president of the United States in the most shocking political upset of our lifetimes. Or maybe ever. Probably ever. Most people go, im good with that. You know, what im going to kind of just take that to the house and relax and golf and smile. Then the day hes inaugurated, mika, he is now the 45th president of the United States. What does he do . He starts obsessing about crowd size and starts lying about crowd size. Im sorry, that is not a healthy, normal, well functioning man. And he obsesses and he lies about crowd size for another three or four weeks. Still does. Until he starts lying about barack obama. Not healthy. Something is deeply wrong with this man that he cannot show hell, hes not even a day trader, hes a minute trader. He keeps again, here is the critical thing. Dont say, please, on twitter, stop being stupid. Dont be stupid and say you should have known this was coming because of what he did with the birther stuff. I will say it again, donald trump cynically knew if he played the birther card that 45 of the Republican Party would be in support of him and say, hey, thats our guy. Hes saying what nobody else will say. That was in his selfinterest. It was offensive. It was a lie, and it was racist, but his political selfinterest was cynically forwarded like a bigot in the south back in the 1940s would do that. In this case, mika, everything he is doing just as offensive, but it is against his political interest. Thats where you start saying, okay, wait a second. Theres no rational reason he should be doing this every day, even if you think hes a cynical, horrible human being, this hurts him. Right. Joe, what you and i are dancing around here and going back to, yes, there was logic, but everything now points to certain disorders. My hair is not on fire, and im not a clinician. Once again, doctors dont diagnose, hes not well in many ways. Anybody who is behaving this way, if a school teacher, your friend was behaving this way, youd be concerned. If any ceo behaved this way, they would have been fired by the board 60 days ago. Thats what i wonder about the administration, this incredible Foreign Policy team. We never get to talk about. The advisers are all too afraid to say anything, even members of the family. They just cant do it. They get in the room with him. They talk to people who have really good advice, talk to you sometimes, and you give really good advice, same stuff you say on the air, better, maybe even more clear, then they get in the room and they cant do it. They just cant do it. The question, mark halperin. They just cant do it. What are republicans doing on capitol hill in the house . The senate is standing up. What is Jason Chaffetz doing . Whats paul ryan doing . Were going to have jason on today and see what he says. Paul ryan, whats paul ryan doing . They know this is not sane, rational behavior . What are they doing and at what point do they start speaking out . They were willing to as they were in the campaign compartmentalize, look, we want republican president to move republican agenda, were going to avoid dealing with this other stuff. The point at which they intersect and hes not getting things done, cant move legislative agenda, thats what happened on health care in the shortterm, then they are going to Start Talking about more aspects of his personality they dont get. Jonathan swan, thank you very much. Still ahead on morning joe, talk about National Enquirers connection to this. Why the newspaper sold at every Grocery Store leveled broadside. Oversight Committee ChairmanJason Chaffetz and chamber of judiciary Richard Blumenthal. Over the weekend my dad spoke and was honored at the Global Leadership award. Tell you what he says including a warning on president ial focusing on entertainment. Bill karins with a check on more Severe Weather. We cant get to break. Active start to april, two fatalities in southern louisiana. In all 11 tornadoes reported, most in louisiana, a few in texas. This unfortunately was where a mother and young daughter were killed as the tornado went through southern louisiana yesterday morning. Not much left there. As far as what they are dealing with now, we have a lot of flash flooding problems. Interstate 20 across mississippi and jacksonville near jackson, mississippi, a lot of roads flooded, water going into homes, evacuations taking place as i speak. Tornado watch, strong storms through new orleans later this afternoon. Threat from mobile to tallahassee to atlanta, isolated tornadoes. 20 Million People at risk. Once again the deep south into the southeast. Then if you have plans on tuesday, any travel plans from washington, d. C. , to new york to boston, heavy rain coming in late tonight, early tomorrow morning at this time. Heavy rain around hartford to albany headed for boston. A lot of airport delays possible on tuesday morning, areas around new york city especially with airports. A very active weather pattern, once every two or three days, a lot of big storms rolling across this country, new york city included. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Looking for clear answers for your Retirement Plan . Start here. At fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your Retirement Plan, youll always be absolutely. Clear. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. Youll always be absolutely. Clear. My insurance rates are but dad, youve got. Allstate. With accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. Indeed. Its good to be in, good hands. May not always be clear. But at t. Rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. So wherever your Retirement Journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. Call us or your advisor t. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Imy moderate to severeng crohns disease. I didnt think there was anything else to talk about. But then i realized there was. So, i finally broke the silence with my doctor about what i was experiencing. He said humira is for people like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. In clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. If youre still just managing your symptoms, talk with your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. It is important that we cultivate the kind of relationship that has endured the last 20 years with china. If possible, if possible, as russia changes from a militant communist state to a corrupt capitalistic state, which is a major step forward for it, that would require patience and intelligence. And among others on this end, a president who doesnt use public appearances for entertainment but is prepared to address the serious global problems that we now confront. That was a great that was a great night. Dr. Brzezinski being really honored at columbia university. I thought it started out really badly because mark, his son. Ambassador brzezinski. Ambassador brzezinski. The first thing he said was the low point of my fathers life was when he was denied tenure at harvard. Why is he doing that . This is not going well. Fathers and sons in these type a famili families. He got up and had a great story talked about leaving there, coming tol columbia and realizig he found his home and then offered at harvard. Not in a million years, i found my home at columbia. Very moving night. Beautiful night. Global Leadership Award from school of International Public affairs and we thank you. Watching that clip, you go, theres a guy who really knows what hes talking about. Grownup. Where are those people, where are the jim babe ekers, people this white house. It was something. Beautiful, just wonderful to see. Speaking of grownups. Carls jr. Dropping racy and Controversial Television commercials for ones that put the focus on the food again. Remember the commercials with the girls in bikinis eating the big burger . For 15 years Cke Restaurants ran ads featuring the likes of paris hilton and kate upton and kim kardashian. In 2011 press release ceo related we believe in putting hot models in our commercials because ugly ones dont sell burgers. Swear to god he said that. We target 100 guys and get young kids who want to be young, hungry guys. What a gross person. He was nominated to be president s secretary of labor, had to withdraw his name and be replaced next month by a new ceo. Yes. Now they are trying to get the pudzer era behind them. We saw this ad this weekend and thought it was great on so many levels. First of all, were getting the kids out of here, the punks exploiting women. It was great not only turning the page but also looked an awful lot like this is a message from americans, can we get grownups back in place. Looked like this. You still talk to stacy . Yeah. Finally replied to my pm. Where are you, babe . Over next to the barn. Im about to pet that cat. Where is the cat. The tiger. Go for junior. Junior, i think your dad is here. What . Tell him im in a meeting. Daddy, youre back. Yes. Take that down. Put that up. That was supposed to be fresh ingredient and that lady got in there and her clothes flew off and it was windy. Miss, would you please dis. That bull . Who is this . This guy, i dont know him. Shut up, junior. Yes, sir. Hello, friend. You know when i started this company it was about one thing, pioneering a new way of food. Cut no corners food for you to eat with your mouth. Walk with me. Keep the bull . Were keeping the bull. Then i passed it to the boy. He sowed his wild oats and got a little hoo hum distracted. Yeah. Things got real weird. That video was for charity. We actually raised a lot of money. Im back doing what we do, what weve always done. Take a little flash back with me. We started out the way things started with meat and fire. We pioneered the char broiler. People in cars need to eat, so we made the drivethrough a thing. Made a girl, made a boy. Well, we did things our own way. We brought your food straight to your table. We brought all natural beef to the burger. Guess what, daddy . Brought bacon to damn near everything. See this is what ive been talking about. Food not boobs. Shut up, junior. Yes, sir. Were pioneers of the Great American burger. The Great American made from scratch biscuit. What Great American thing will we think of next . Thats a promise from carl hardy, sr. But daddy, i just bought that car. Buckle up, son. Good kitty. Youre a good kitty, ha ha. What . Oh, gosh. So good. Love it. Donny, youve done this for a very long time. I saw that ad and it hit on just about every level. First of all carls with a company, also with a country. People yearning for a grown up to come back in charge. Shut up, this is how we do it. You sent me that over the weekend. You and i generally exchange cat memes over the weekend. Hang in there. Thats beyond brilliant marketing, a company that can make fun of themselves for whats going on but a metaphor for whats going on. The kid silliness represents childlike manner, misogynist manner, burgers versus jobs. Lets get back to business. I do think the parallel are stunning there. The irony of a company that used to be run by cabinet nominee. Stunning advertising, stunning metaphor of whats going on in this country and what people are going to be longing for. That is what thats the bigger point out of this. How does this extend beyond carls junior, hardees. Mika, you watch, over the next three or four years, as long as donald trump remains in the position hes in right now, theres going to be a longing for the restoration, for competence, for people who actually know what they are doing in their jobs. When that dad comes in. In three or four years . I think were there now. We are. I think that is going to drive tv shows we watch, the movies we watch. You know, the ads that we see on television right there. To that point. The irony of make America Great again, people really do want to make America Great again. Not like that. What youre going to start to see are things about nice and good, the opposite. Youre going to see you just saw what advertisers do, they will use a mirror where the world needs to go. Were going to have movies, tv shows about authenticity, human decency, yesteryear. I dont agree. You dont agree . I think well have more and more books and tv shows about apocalypse, catastrophe and failure and the country coming to a terrible end. Nick, i couldnt disagree with you more. There are 500 channels. We can have both. What do you think, mark . I think the trump phenomenon exploded, they are catching up to the implications of trump. That ad, youre right to identify it, the leading edge of how one strand of people are reacting. I dont think thats the only reaction. As nick said i think were going to see a thousand flowers blooming as people adjust to the reality of this presidency. I think 65 of americans who may not be supporting him right n now, the overwhelming majority of americans see whats happening and there is going to be a strong reaction to it going the other way. Whether youre a republican or democrat, this happens all the time. Just like trump was a reaction to obama, were going to see a pretty dramatic reaction to donald trump. I think were going to like what we see. Obviously successful. Were so monumentally obsessed the new live action, whats more decent, real, a story where the good guy underdog wins at the end, the opposite. I think thats the first little window. The astounding success, thats where people want to go. Coming up President Trump tells Financial Times hes ready to tackle north korea alone. Plus he weighs in on his twitter habit. Lets just say he doesnt feel the least bit sorry. Morning joe is coming right back. You totanobodys hurt, new car. But there will still be pain. 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When you look at all the back and forth and charges and tweets that have been in the last few weeks, hasnt he already succeeded in doing that . None of my colleagues in other countries are talking about d. C. Chatter. What they are talking about is the fact they are relieved the United States is starting to lead again. The president s own u. N. Ambassador isnt paying attention to his tweets but he still has no regrets about them telling the Financial Times, quote, i dont regret anything, because theres nothing you can do about it. You know, if you issue hundreds of tweets, every once in a while you have a clanker thats not so bad. New york times author joins us with her interview with the next on morning joe. Remember when you said men are superior drivers . Yeah. Yeah, then howd i get this. Allstate safe driving bonus check . Only allstate sends you a bonus check for every six months youre accident free. Silence. Its good to be in, good hands. I was thinking around 70. 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Tell your doctor about any side effects and about medicines you take. Movantik may interact with them causing side effects. Why hold it in . Have your movantik moment. Talk to your doctor about opioidinduced constipation. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. 46 past the hour. Joining us now the u. S. Managing editor for Financial Times. Good to have you back on the show. You guys have a big interview with President Trump. We certainly do. Were thrilled. The headle speaksor itself. If china is not going to solve north korea, we will. What else did the president say . Well, he said a number of things. Its interesting north korea was actually top of his mind because theres been so much discussion about russia and middle east and iran. Those are frankly side shows on the national state. North korea is critical. He talked quite a lot about trade as you would expect, saberrattling on that front. Talked about health care bill, talked about the fact hed reach out to democrats if the republicans at the Freedom Caucus were not going to play along. We also asked him i asked him almost as a joke, there is anything about your tweeting that you regret . This is not a man who does regrets. He said absolutely not. If youre going to keep issuing tweets over the odd clinker, to create a new word there. Hes convinced his style is basically not only did it win him the race last year but essentially its what enables him to reach out to people directly and to connect. In increase when he says that we will solve it, what exactly did he mean . Well, we dont actually know. Thats a crucial cliffhanger, actually. One of the things thats very important is National Security council completed its review of north korea. They rushed it through to make sure of the crucial meeting. Essentially given that north korea has been accelerating its preparation for being able to launch a missile at the west coast of america with nuclear warheads, theres recognition that something needs to happen brf mark. Centerpiece is twoday summit with chinese president. Is there a trump doctrine on china. By threat or association make china work with us more closely on things. If youre going to be optimistic whats happening now is a lot of saberrattling, preparing the way for a grand deal. There is talk about a grand bargain between u. S. And china which would involve trade and involve a sweeping deal to deal with the Korean Peninsula. What does china want in return for all the things the u. S. Wants on trade in korea. Essentially china would like to have trading with the u. S. It would also like to have recognition Korean Peninsula is influence, chinas martial plan for the peninsula. Theres talk about recognition for north korea by the u. S. Theres a burge of ideas floating around the background. Getting to that sunny land of some kind of deal for north korea is a long way away. So if youre being optimistic this is saberrattling, laying down the marker, trump being aggressive before he then strikes a deal. Weve seen this tactic before. If youre pessimistic, this is a sign of a president who has come into office realized as per barack korea is the top security challenge right now, and hes basically lobbying quick ideas at the chinese to try to indicate hes not going to take it lying down, but he doesnt actually know what hes going to do. So what happens surprised you the most in your time with him . Is there any chagrin . Absolutely no chagrin. He absolutely thinks his tactics of tweeting, being unorthodoxed we called him imperialist in our piece. He doesnt think his tactics are not working one little bit. He actually thinks his tactics are working very well. We said in our piece we think theres a method in the madness but what looks like sheer craziness to the outside world, very often, actually does have a strategy or instinctive strategy of sorts. There is no doubt this is not a man who is about to stop tweeting, and not about to stop shocking us all. Goodness gracious. Then theres health go ahead. I wanted to know if there was any regret at least of how health care went down. I think the recognition basically he essay deal maker. He put his deal on the table. Said im going to walk away from it. He doesnt like to lose, he says. He doesnt like to lose. Didnt he lose on this . We spent a bunch of time in the white house talking a range of people and they are stressing theres still a lot of negotiations going on. If the Freedom Caucus wont work with us, well go to the democrats, have a bipartisan deal instead. The fact that hes stressing that is that these negotiations are still under way. It was my idea to not hold a vote on the health care bill. Yeah, i dont like to lose. So i pulled it. That flies completely in the face of all other reporting, which was that he and steve bannon wanted to force a vote to have them lose and it was paul ryan who basically said, we just cant have a vote on the floor. So even in recounting Something Like that, he just apparently just makes things up. Well, the line coming out right across the board consistently from everyone in the administration is that we did see pretty much the whole range of people in the administration. Uhhuh. The line coming out very much is we didnt hold the vote because we want to leave the door open for negotiation. Theres still negotiations going on. Who knows. Like many things this is a cliff hanger. Do the South Koreans have anything to worry about . Would trump sell them down the river at a time of weakness to get a grand bargain . South koreans just lost their leader in a scandal. Thats one thing to worry about. If theres ever a bad time to have this crisis, its now. At a time when their former leader is going to jail and theres chaos, do they have any fear of being sold down the river in some sort of grand bargain . If i was sitting in south korea right now, i would be terrified. Frankly, if there is one of the things that is very important is that not only have the North Koreans gotten very close to having this missile, but through 3 1 2 of the four stages they need to have this thing and the pattern of testing appears to have changed, with deployment not with testing, per se. Taking out the north korean missiles would be extremely hard for the u. S. Theyve done it very cleverly. That point has been known for some time in the intelligence communities on both sides of the atlantic. So they actually have a big problem right now. If the u. S. Was to suddenly try to attack north korea, the chances are that one of the first things they would do is attack south korea and you would end up with an absolutely devastating brutal war in the Korean Peninsula. The bigger problem, if youre South Koreans, the administration who believes that the world began on january 20th, 2017. And im serious. They dont care about any treaties. They dont care about nato. They dont care about any treaties with the South Koreans. Their bigger danger would be the Trump Administration saying ill tell you what. Well give you south decreea. Well bring all the troops home. You take care of the nuclear deal in the north and were fine. Thats the problem that our allies have to worry about every single day. There is an entire department in the south Korean Foreign ministry these days dedicated to just monitoring trumps tweets. It gives an indication of how the whole game has changed internationally. Others say if you want to be optimistic what you can say is the sheer gravity of the situation, the fact this is on the table means that maybe, just maybe, we are seeing the beginnings of some grand deal, grand bargain. But, you know, thats hard to be optimistic these days. Jillian, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Ahead this morning, well bring in nbcs lester holt, who is reporting from south korea this morning, about the major tensions on that peninsula. Plus House Oversight chairman Jason Chaffetz and senator Richard Blumenthal will be our guests. And critics say that president obama was being too isolating. Is President Trump making the same mistake . Its a total gamechanger. So now the whole family can binge,. Surf, shop, navigate, listen, game, stream and more. All without the hassle of worrying about overages. Or running out of data. Its less than 40 per line per month with 4 lines. And remember, its at ts best, unlimited data deal ever. 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Hello, donnie. Hello, mika. Hello, newman. Good to have you all on board this hour. Top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is calling for the white house to show members of congress the documents that President Trump says back up his allegations of wire tapping by president obama. Congressman adam schiff saw the same files friday that devin nunes during that secret white house rendezvous. Nunes then presented that information back to the Trump Administration. Congressman schiff released a statement reading in part, this, nothing i could see today warranted a departmenture from the normal review procedures and these materials should now be provided to the full membership of both committees. Schiff elaborated on his takeaway while republican senator Lindsey Graham suggested that the house investigation is simply off the rails. If these were produced either for or by the white house, then why all the cepterfuge . Theres nothing ordinary about the process at all. The answer may come from the president himself. You can say a lot of things about the president. One thing you cannot say is hes not subtle. And i think his tweets tell the story. And the story is, look over there at leaks. And look over there at anything the obama administration, we can claim, did wrong on its collection or anything else. But whatever you do, under no circumstances, look here, at me or at russia. I think thats really whats going on. Nunes, the house, theyre off in a ditch. I dont know iont know where he who invited him to look at the evidence in the white house. All i can say is, why do you show it to the chairman of the Intel Committee if you got it yourself . So that never made sense to me. Mark halprin, im with lindsey. Its off the rails. What happened that this guy would go running, scampering off to the white house . No one will say who called him. I guess anybody anybodys guess is that its bad that he went there. And he still is chairing the committee . This is still an investigation . Its impossible. Is it . He keeps giving explanations and theres still so many Unanswered Questions and the white house is not repudiating him or questioning him. Theyre referring to him. The senate Intelligence Committee will step up, run an investigation and i think this chairman is going to have to decide whether he wants to even try to proceed, given that the democrats in the committee dont have the confidence in him anymore. Theres a question about the republican leadership, mika. They have a responsibility to remove this man, if for no other reason, than because of the press conference he held when he first was talking about going to the white house. Oh, my gosh. He lied. Its on videotape. He said i have information and i dont know if the white house has the information or not, but im going to the white house because if they dont have the information, they need to get it. We then find out that actually he didnt have the information. He was lying to america, lying to members of the Intel Community who were watching, lying to members of his own committee. And then he went over to the white house. And was read in on some information. Then came out and pretended that he so, im sorry, i dont know this guy. But if youre paul ryan, if youre Kevin Mccarthy, if youre running congress, the house of representatives, you hav to remove a man w lied to the press, who lied to the Intel Committee. Who clearly is not up for the job. Who lied to everybody. This is cut and dry. As chairman of the Intelligence Committee this is not some committee. Its the Intelligence Committee at a time when russia tried to interfere with the american elections. Look, if paul ryan wants the oversight function to have credibility in his house it has to be a change. Right . He has destroyed the credibility of the investigation. And to pull back for a second, this entire episode, this whole thing starts with a tweet from donald trump to get people off of the russia stuff. Its amazing. Its like a month later, were still talking about it all over the place. Theres two tragedies here. Number one, to your point, he lied, automatic. As were seeing in this presidency, truth and lying are no longer the same binary situation. But, donnie, it should still matter. Of course. To paul ryan. Of course it should. When paul ryan and Kevin Mccarthy and my friends in the house need to understand is that there will come a day when donald trump is no longer in washed. Where are you going to be . How many scars do you want politically for what they did not do . It doesnt matter to donald trump. But does the truth still matter to paul ryan . The speaker, do you think he knows the facts here or hes just not engaging . The speaker . The speaker knows. Paying attention. Knows that his intel chairman lied. Lied to the press, lied to the Intel Committee. By the way, this is not ambiguous. We can look through my twitter feed. I played it, alex. Lets find the part where he out and out lies and says i dont know if the white house has this information or not. If the white house doesnt have this information, i need to go over there, to see if they do. Because if they dont have it, i need to tell them that. At that point when he said that, paul ryan, he didnt know what the white house was going to tell him. It was theater. You have to remove him as your intel chair. It is one of the most important chairmanships you offer every two years. There is mika, there can be no ambiguity here. I cant believe that one has to even say this. Its sort of thats a little bit, you know, a sign of where were at right now. And some republicans better understand that this is not about right, left. This is not about all your policies that you want to push through. This is about actually your reputation. Theres a virus in the white house. Joe, we all have raised most of us have raised kids at this table. Some of us are starting to raise kids. We say whatever you got in trouble for, i will forgive but one thing i cannot forgive is you lying about it. Thats the baseline. More than anything else going on in this country, thats the one thing under siege. Paul ryans reputation, our reputation as a country, presidency. That is the one thing more than anything else thats happening because that is our bedrock of who we are as human beings. Bob costa, you obviously report from the hill an awful lot. Theres such a big difference right now between how the republican senators are responding to trumpism and how members of the Republican House are responding to trumpism. Can you explain, perhaps, is it just the sixyear terms versus the twoyear terms that makes such a difference . Why are we seeing such independence from the senate side and so little independence from the house side . There is a gap between how House Republicans are looking at all of this. Senate republicans are looking at it. Senate republicans think senator warner, of virginia, the democrat, and senator burr have formed a partnership in the senate when it comes to intelligence, that has a more bipartisan core, veneer even that they think is more helpful to this entire investigation. Whats also notable is that inside the house i was there late last week theres not a push to get rid of chairman nunes. Speaker ryan considers nunes to be a close, personal friend. Theyve worked on tax reform going back near aly decade. There is not a push to get him out even though there a many critics of the chairman in the media and the broader community. So do you hearny concern, even off the record, that nunes lied . He lied to the press. He lied to the Intel Committee. He lied to everyone about having information he was going to take to the white house when, in fact, he was just taking part in some mystery theater charade for donald trump. Theres some private grumbles, to be sure. Theyre really taking their cue, as youve been saying yourself, joe, from the speaker. And the speaker has not broken with the chairman. And theres not this move against nunes. The senators are unhappy with how nunes has handled this and they want burr to take the lead on numerous fronts. The white house, in this dynamic, is close with nunes and somehow has sideline d democrat in the senate as they try to take hold of this process. Is it a loyalty to nunes or is it a fear of trump . People tend to forget about nunes, hes not just this random player who emerged on the House Intelligence Committee. Top ally of speaker boehner, top ally of speaker ryan, major player inside the house gop. Theres not a movement within the leadership to get rid of someone who has always been reliable. Amended disclosure form shows former nna security adviser michaellynn did not originally disclose payments he received from russianlinked companies. He names kremlin sponsored tv network rt and two other russianlinked firms as sources of income. Documents released by House OversightCommittee Democrats last month show rt paid flynn more than 45,000 to speak in 2015. An attorney for flynn says the initial draft form bundled together his speaking fees and the disclosure process ended because of his resignation. Meanwhile, the congressional intelligence Committee Said they are not at the stage to consider granting flynn immunity. The House Intelligence Committee tells nbc news its discussion with flynns lawyer did not include immunity. And sources close to the Senate Committee say immunity is not on the table at this time. He wants immunity. They wont give it. Nick, what is this . First of all, not listing 45,000 that you get from rt. Whats the significance . Its important. It doesnt matter if you resign. You still owe those forms. So have you a duty to report all your income on there. If you leave it off, that means youre trying to hide it and trying to minimize, in flynns case, his connection to the russians and to a russian propaganda network, which is what rt is. Right. Its a bad thing. It can be a crime. Well see if it goes that way here. The immunity part. How significant what seems to be flynns biggest danger moving forward and why is he offering to testify if he gets an immunity granted . What we know about what mike flynn did, not just in terms of failing to put things on his disclosure form but in terms of his relationship with russia, presumably theres a lot more to know. Sort of the same with chairman nunes. We know some things with you its suggested there are more things to know. I think the guy has lawyered up in a way that suggests he feels vulnerable. You talk to some people in washington. This, they say, as the biggest wild card right now on the ledger for the Trump Administration. Michael flynn now feels like he has something to lose and hes going to try to protect himself. You know whats sad . What is the one word, one thing that donald trump ran on . Jobs. We want to talk about job. He doesnt talk about job. Thats the drantragedy of al this. He doesnt talk about job. Thats my point. Its tragic for the american people. The very thing that he he ran on, was inarguable. Look, im moving jobs. That word doesnt even exist he doesnt have message discipline. If you have message discipline, then when youre in politics, i dont care what you say. I know what im going to i would always say to my staff, what do we want the headline to be tomorrow . If we were moving into something big. Thats where you start, with the headline. Dont give me all the details. Whats the headline you want tomorrow . Were going to work backrom that and well get to that headline but thats where we t. Star two, three, four days ahead. He never does this. Once every eight days they remember theyre supposed to be talking about job. Right and they talk about access to capital and women running the economy. You want to distract . Talk about jobs. The very thing thats going to help you is also going to distract. You have to stay on it. Do something. Dont talk about russia, talk about this, talk about that. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Bob mcdonald. All bob talked about was jobs. They said he was horrible because of his they said women should do whatever in his district. He kept talking about jobs. They attacked him kept talk taug about jobs. The year after barack obama gets elected he wins virginia by, what, 18, 19, 20, 21 points in what was supposed to be a blue state . Because he stayed on jobs. Thats something this guy cant do. I talked to scores of people in five states last week and to a person they said he has to stop tweeting. Even his most ardent supporters said he has to stop tweeting. Even a lot of liberals said i like him for infrastructure spend iing, tax reform. Theres a setup for him to have a broader coalition, but no one likes the tweets. I heard the same thing. I came on after he got elected two, three weeks and every single trump supporter i talked to still loves him. Still loves him. Doesnt care about the judges. Doesnt care about the press. Four, five weeks later, its changed. A lot of people are saying im just not watching tv anymore. Why cant he stop tweeting . I still support him. Why cant the guy help himself . Why . Why . Four weeks ago, it was like its all the press fault. Now im starting to hear them all say the same thing. Why does he have to tweet . Im just not watching tv anymore. Its so depressing. Every time i think hes about to do such and such, he distracts. Now they still support him. They would still vote for him against Hillary Clinton. Thats not even a close call. Right. But, mika, that just underlines what we say for a long time. This election was not about donald trump. It was all about hillary and bill clinton. All about americas reaction that, we saw coming. To hillary and bill clinton. This election was not about donald trump. Yeah. He was a bit player. My brain went like 100 miles an hour when those access hollywood tapes came out i thought this is bad for hillary. Everyone was like, this so bad for trump. No, i can believe it, number one. Ive heard it before. It doesnt make it any better. But its not a surprise. And, two, this will highlight exactly what the clintons dont want anyone to remember. And then you saw what happened at the debate. They brought all the women out. The very thing that maureen dowd had been writing about through the campaign about bill clinton and sofrustrating. By the way, my pet rock could have gotten 45 against Hillary Clinton. Maybe if my pet rock didnt make any gafs in the three debates, my pet rock could have beaten Hillary Clinton. To your point, donnie all about donald trump, though. Exactly. All about him, his jobs record and accomplishment in office. If he keeps tweeting and cant get things done and this, mika, is why we say to my friend, since he was 22, paul ryan, there will come a day of reckoning for everything that donald trump has said and done. Yeah. Start planning for that day now. And people like devin nunes, who lie on tv, youve got to get rid of them. Everybody talks about 2006 being about iraq, being about this. People dont remember. There were a lot of little scandals that happened right before the election. And one scandal not so small for a father and his son was mark foley scandal and how that was handled was sort of the Tipping Point. Do you remember . Theres a Tipping Point where people were like it wasnt so much about mark. It was more like, wait a second. These republicans, theyreust protecting each other. Yeah. So were going to drive them out. Very sad situation. And jobs. Paul ryan. To your point, i was i keep hearing from people now. Is he okay . Yeah. Is he okay . Like dead serious, they look at me and say, is he okay . And i dont have a good answer. I have the answer. Hes not. We all know that. We need to stop talking about it. I will. Right now. Still ahead on morning joe, President Trump warns if china wont help solve the problem with north korea, the u. S. Will go at it alone. Lester holt joins us from seoul this morning. Jason chaffetz and senator Richard Blumenthal. Youre watching morning joe. What powers the Digital World . Communication. Like centurylinks Broadband Network that gives 35,000 fans a cutting edge game experience. Or the network that keeps a leading hotel chains guests connected at work, and at play. 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And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . So yourhow nice. A party . Ill be right there. And the butchery begins. What am i gonna wear . This party is super fancy. Lets go. Im ready. Are you my uber . [ horn honks ] [ tires screech ] hold on. [ upbeat music ] the biggest week in tv is back. Doorbell rings ] whos that . Show me watchathon. Xfinity watchathon week now until april 9. Get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. Oh, my gosh. Okay. The u. S. Is ready to solve the Nuclear Threat posed by north korea alone, if needed. Lots of luck with that one, fellow. If china is not going to h p help when they host president xi jinping at maralago adding china has great influence over north korea and china will either decide to help us with north korea or they wont. Yeah. Wow lester holt file this had report from seoul. Reporter ready to fight. Its fighter jets, a threeminute flight from the north korea border. Jets are ready for combat mode. We train to it all the time. Even on regular Training Missions were training to those combat sets. Reporter also a rare peek inside the air Operation Center where operators are the first to detect the norths Ballistic Missile launches. Their missiles already putting millions in the region at risk, including tens of thousands of American Military personnel and u. S. Civilians, like teacher steve and leah rigby, who live in seoul. So, do the threats from north korea, do they rattle you or do you take them with a grain of salt . Weve heard these threats so many times. Its spring. Were going to hear another threat that south korea will be turned into like a fire. Weve heard it before and nothing has happened before. Reporter seoul is a modern metropolis of 10 Million People. It hardly looks like a place under militant attack but shelters are plentiful. We sit well in range of north korean artillery. North koreas claim to be working on International Missile and a smaller war head capable of reaching the u. S. Rhetoric and growing capability. It appears to be going in a very reckless manner. Reporter secretary mattis will get no argument from this highranking north korean diplomat who defected last year. I was asked, i always tell them that kim jongun is a person who did not even hesitate to kill his uncle, even his half brother. So he is a man who can do anything. Reporter in addition to missile development, activities spotted on this commercial satellite photo suggests north korea may test another Nuclear War Head soon. Think of this as two streams that are moving toward each other. You never want the streams to cross. When they do, the u. S. Will be forced to make a decision, whether or not to do a preemptive strike. Coming up, he is sai to h his hand in white house tal over middle east peace, chin mexico and, late last night, news that the president s Senior Adviser and soninlaw, Jared Kushner, travelled to iraq. Well get the latest from the white house on that, next. I use whats already inside me to reach my goals. So i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating whats within me with onceweekly trulicity. Trulicity is not insulin. It helps activate my body to do what its supposed to do release its own insulin. Trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. I take it once a week, and it works 24 7. It comes in an easytouse pen and i may even lose a little weight. Trulicity is a onceweekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. Trulicity is not insulin. It should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. 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E trades powerful trading tools, give you access to indepth analysis, and a team of experienced traders ready to help if you need it. Its like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. Its your trade. E trade one of President Trumps most loyal allies leveled the broadside against Michael Flynn last week. Cover of the National Enquirer declare aid world exclusive. Trump catches russias white house spy. Insider shocking revelations about kremlin spies on u. S. Soil that are backed up by Top White House officials who claim that flynn was, in essence, the russian spy in trumps midst. President trump has cited the National Enquirer in the past. For instance, in discredited stories linking ted cruzs father with the Jfk Assassination. He has legitimatized the news organization. Advocating for david pecker to take over Time Magazine in 20 2013. And flynn knows trump is Close Friends with enquirer owner, who effectively hammered past trump opponents. Nervous. Bob costa, people will joke about it, but would have his friend attack all his opponents, whether it was ted cruz or whether it was ben carson, talking about what a horrible surgeon he was. And you could always tell, it was trumps friend helping trump against the opponent at the time. And so last week, if youre general flynn and youre around trump and youre hearing him talk about the enquirer as much as he talks about the enquirer and knows the relevance it has to him, it should make general flynn nervous when the National Enquirer starts calling him a russian spy. Perhaps. Yeah. You talk to donald trump a lot. Let me throw it out this way. Youve talked to donald trump an awful lot. Has he talked to you about the National Enquirer and tried to push stories on you that the National Enquirer was talking about . Its been some time since i have had a conversation with then candidate trump where he mentioned the National Enquirer. Look, when you look at the past, you are right, President Trump has cited the National Enquirer in the past. He is friends with its publisher and he has looked to some of its conspiracy theories as things worth exploring going back, as we know, to the Jfk Assassination i would caution im not sure theres some kind of conspiracy here to send a signal to flynn. I have no reporting on this particular angle. And this idea that flynn was a spy or that the white house is using the National Enquirer i dont have any reporting on this. No, im not saying hes a spy. Of course hes not a spy. Written about exNational Security advisers. This is nothing new for them. Of course hes not a spy. Im not saying that. What im saying is he is this is a turn on a post type thing. Michael flynn, mo most National Enquirer readers are much interested in writing about Michael Flynn unless somebody wants to send a message. Yeah. It signals the next line of attack. The National Enquirer attacks ted cruz when hes a risk to donald trump. Donald trump takes that and goes. And when ben carson was the greatest threat to him and he was going around, talking about what a great surgeon he was, what did the National Enquirer do . They printed a story say iing h left a sponge in a babys brain or childs brain and destroyed the child and donald trump took that out there. This is not about him being a spy. The National Enquirer has telegraphed Donald Trumps attacks for the past 15 months. If you look, though, at what sean spicer, the Vice President and others have said about flynn, theyve actually been given what we know about flynn, relatively supportive. Now that he has asked for immunity and now that theyre beginning to learn what he did and maybe didnt tell them, he assess s a threat to them. By the way that, happened at the same time. I think it happened at the same exact time. The National Enquirer comes out and suddenly flynn goes im shopping a deal. Its a warning shot. You can read the enquirer for the directionality of the white house. Its not news necessarily but its the thinking or the way theyre going to go on a line of attack sometimes. Joining us from the white house, nbc News National correspondent, Peter Alexander. A diagram diplomatic week ahead as President Trump welcomes several World Leaders to the white house, including chinas president. By the way, we can find out what hot spots along the mediterranean where Peter Alexander is going in the National Enquirer. They always sort of signal that. A map. I think theyre talking about monaco next, right, peter . Reporter if only that were true, i will start leaking it in hopes it will come true. Maralago, his property in florida, where he will host xi jinping of china. President assisi of egypt, meet with the egyptian head. Series of highprofile meetings for this president on this week. Whats also striking, we talk about Foreign Policy right now, reporting from nbc news that, Jared Kushner has now arrived in iraq. This is the president s soninlaw. Ivanka trumps husband. We talked about his broad portfolio before. Hes not just an intimate member of the inner circle of the president as a relative, in fact, his soninlaw, but one of the most influential right now, expanding his position. There with the joint chiefs chairman general dunford right now. The lens support where america has been assisting, aiding iraqi forces versus isis in that region, specifically mosul. It speaks to the unique dynamic that exists right now where the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has yet to go to iraq yet already kushner has been there. He has taken on this unique role where he played a role in the conversations with mexico. He has been given the sort of vague assignment by his fatherinlaw to try to find peace in the middle east between the israelis and the palestinians. Beyond that, he recently got put in charge of this new office of American Innovation here at the white house. It really speaks to Jared Kushners responsibilities. Going forward, he is also playing a role in this china meeting that is set to take place again friday in maralago. Just a matter of days ago, tweeting about the issue and what many people are describing as the summit of the year so far. Well put up some of those tweets from you a couple of days ago on thursday where he said specifically the meeting next week with china will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American Companies Must be prepared to look at other alternatives. All this as the president looks for his first major victory with judge gorsuch. The white house also looking abroad for Foreign Policy situations as well. Nbcs Peter Alexander. I need to ask you both a question. You have inside knowledge on this. Peter is reporting, very accurately. Always good. That Jared Kushner is the guy in charge of negotiating the middle east, iraq. Rex tillerson, who has run a global, huge company for the last 30 years, is not. I know Jared Kushner and ivanka. They lived in my building. Lovely young people. He has been in his fathers real estate business for ten years. I know my competency after working for my dad for ten years. Does this person have any qualifications . Lovely guy, im sure level headed. Should i be frightened or feel better that Jared Kushner seems to be our de facto chief adviser, secretary of state, on and on and on . A lovely guy who has worked at a family real estate business for ten years. Period. He is the de facto secretary of state. And i think that was always the plan. Youre seeing this now, that he was always the de facto secretary of state. Does he have experience to do this . No. No but neither does donald trump, or the people that donald trump has around him, who trust him. Is he more temperamentally balanced and in a better position to represent america in a way that will not embarrass us . Yes, is hhe is. Theres a great story, and its a small story. But in the age of steve bannon and donald trump, its a story that matters. I think it was a time story perhaps, maybe Washington Post where dunford, sat in the back row chair, immediately jumped up, was embarrassed he was back there went back to sit against the wall. He is defferential in a way steve bannon is not. No. If you have meetings with Jared Kushner, he listens. He doesnt talk that much. He absorbs it. Again, is he james baker . No. The answer is no. Is he steve bannon . No, hes not steve bannon. I agree with everything you said. So, having said that, should i feel better or should i be frightened . Compared to what . Look having somebody in there who knows what the hell theyre doing. Yes, hes temperamentally sane, versus the president. Got it. Having said that, what has this guy done in his life ever . He has spent a lot of time trying to convince all of us that Michael Flynn was a great choice and so was rudy giuliani. Thank you, your honor, no more questions. And he is a lovely guy and his wife is, too, but they get in the room with the president and they cant get through it. They cant cut it. They cant get him to listen. Its not a knock on them at all. Im just saying theres nobody in the inner circle that can do anything to help this process along in a more productive way. There just isnt. So its not about them. Its about trump. I will say with jared, i think its too early to tell. I think we will know more in the future. I will just tell you again, based on the cast of characters around there, i mean, the question is, nick, what are your choices . And at least from everything ive seen, if somebody needs to fly to iraq in the middle of the night right now, i sure as hell would rather it be Jared Kushner than most of the other people in the white house. Well, it depends. If you want a secretary of state to be secretary of state, like Rex Tillerson, i would imagine it would be troublesome to have the soninlaw fly everywhere instead of the secretary of state. By the way, why is Rex Tillerson putting up with this . I dont know. Its a great question. It is. Incredible Foreign Policy. Why would any man or woman of any substance put up with this . I would have left after the first week. With all due respect, my wife told me i needed to do this to help america but mr. President youre not letting me help america. Your management style its hard to know how he conceives of his own job. The press cant come with him on these trips. He makes few of them. Its hard to know what his tenure will look like. I think this whole thing is very discomforting. Of course it is. Still ahead on morning joe, our next guest to donnies question, i think the whole thing is not it does not bode well. The whole administration is discomforting. Im not comfortable. Something is off in a big way. Our next guest calls Hillary Clintons loss a huge wakeup call for feminism. Tina brown joins us. The new piece in the atlantic says these are confusing times to be a republican. Can i ask im sorry. I was thinking back to the top of the show. What cologne do you use . High karate for those kids at home, aftershave lotion in the 70s. And it was so strong that you had to use karate chops to keep women away. It was the 70s. Go on youtube and look at the ads. Do you wear cologne . I actually do not. Who wears cologne . It work. I get a headache. Thats awful. Man jewelry with cologne at the same time. I dont get fragrances. You would have it was always they kept it it was high karate and sex panther. Eww and eww. And we leave you by the way, thats a reference to anchorman, in case we leave you with one of the president s tweets from just moments ago. Quote, did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate . Are you kidding me . Just asking. Swear to god. This guy is tweeting. Leader of the world, has his fingers on the button and is tweeting about hillary. Are you kidding me . Hillary and the debate . Nobody cares. Nobody care. Nobody on the planet care. There goes that hammer again. Theres one person. Mika, you can say it. I can . The amendment thing. Oh, its time for article 25. 25g9 amendme 25th amendment. People need to think about that. How long do they want this to last . How bad do they want things to get . Were in the middle of a crisis with north korea, who is going to have by the way, not being melodramatic. But theyre going to have Nuclear Weapons that can reach seattle. In three years. And kill millions and millions of people. Theyre going to have weapons, very soon, most likely how bad do you want this to get . Los angeles can kill 20 Million People right now. Were in the midst of discussions about how to stop that and we have this guy tweeting nonsensical tweets about things that are irrelevant. I wonder at what point does somebody around him step in . And youre asking if were comfortable that his 36yearold soninlaw who is a real estate person is going to be the secretary of state. Let me answer your question now. No let me answer your question. Mika may disagree with me that. Is the least of our problem. Oh, totally. Thats true. By the way, Jared Kushner is the least of our problems in this white house. Thats fair. Thats a good way of putting it. We can all agree on that. Were back in a moment. This guy right here is tweeting about debates right here, that were over ill just say it again. Its like tom brady at the beginning of next season bitching about a call in the call in the super bowl when he came back and had the most unbelievable comeback in super bowl history. This guy right here, he ran the most Shocking Campaign in american history, pulled the most shocking upset in the history had the most unbelievable opportunity. And all he can do is look back. And tweet. While were worried about seattle being obliterated by a nuclear attack. By the way, go seahawks. So how old do you want to be when you retire . Uhh, i was thinking around 70. Alright, and before that . You mean after that . No, im talking before that. Do you have things you want to do before you retire . Oh yeah sure. Ok, like what . But i thought we were supposed to be talking about investing for retirement . Were absolutely doing that. But theres no law you cant make the most of today. What do you want to do . Id really like to run with the bulls. Wow. Yea. Hope youre fast. I am. Get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change. Investment Management Services from td ameritrade. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. When this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. What . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty Mutual Insurance. Except when it comes to retirement. At fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. And well help you make decisions for your plan. To keep you on track. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. Hi, im frank. You on track. I take movantik for oic, opioidinduced constipation. Had a bad back injury, my doctor prescribed opioids which helped with the chronic pain, but backed me up bigtime. Tried prunes, laxatives, still constipated. Had to talk to my doctor. She said, how long you been holding this in . laughs that was my movantik moment. My doctor told me that movantik is specifically designed for oic and can help you go more often. Dont take movantik if you have a bowel blockage or a history of them. Movantik may cause serious side effects, including symptoms of opioid withdrawal, severe stomach pain and or diarrhea, and tears in the stomach or intestine. Tell your doctor about any side effects and about medicines you take. Movantik may interact with them causing side effects. Why hold it in . Have your movantik moment. Talk to your doctor about opioidinduced constipation. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. A lot of the selection was turned by you rise up and say i dont want to do it. Seeing them nude is not uncommon. Not as clear and women of the world summit. Tina brown. And tinas latest piece in the New York Times is titled after an historic march, whats next. For women and in it she writes in part, this. Women, who took steady linear progress for granted are experiencing an unfamiliar and unsettling sensation. A scary feeling of real and present danger. Meanwhile, daunting on millennials who thought a tweet was the same as showing up. Hillary clintons ultimate loss in the lek Electoral College is motivating women in a way her Campaign Never did. Tina joins us now. It is so true. There is something really big happening. Start where had the march. People are realizing it cant end there. So interesting. So many Millennial Women are showing up now at forums to see how they can learn to run for office. Surge in women running for office. Tripling and quadrupling. Their forums are overwhelmed. Young women seeing if they can see how to run for office. Which is very good. This is practical. Im not going to just talk about this. Im going to figure out how i run for liberal counsel or anything out there to run for. Unless we get more women doing that, it isnt going change. I do think there was a slap in the face for women. Even if they didnt like hillary, they still felt, this is incredible. Because it was like the paradigm of the man who knows nothing getting the job. Versus whatever you thought about the woman a highly qualified woman. Super qualified. And she loses to a guy who literally, you know, his knowledge of World Affairs is ten minutes watching cable news and out the door. Its incredible. He has been holding these events at the white house. There have been at least three that ive noticed. I think there have been more. Where he has room full of women talking about access to capital and i think ivanka is well, i know for a fact ivanka is trying to set up a real arm of the white house that will focus on these issues. Does that make a divs at all. You cant talk about empowering women and lifting women up and at the same time taking away their ability to go to a clinic and have a mammogram. Which is what happens if you defund planned parenthood. If you cant get yourself checked out at a local clinic which is what is going to happen to all the hard pressed women who use the planned parenthood facilities to get womens checks. This is going 20 end. Except trump is not going to let them defund that. I mean, again, thats one of the gray this guy has so many opportunities to reach out to the other side that he has to work overtime to get in his way. Like in the South Carolina primary. He defended planned parenthood. It is the most shocking thing ive ever seen in my life. We see the reverses at every turn. Every way. Its as if in his case, you know, a tweet is literally erases the brain cells once hes done it. He doesnt understand that you can join the dots. The interesting thing i think rabbit this entire administration. All of these rich guys have just said stuff and its unchallenged. Theyre all being fact checked to death. They are not used to that. Thats what is wonderful about the press. Fact checking everything to death. He does a tweet and has the entire Intelligence Community looking at it and saying no it didnt happen. Its not true. Theyre not used to this, these guy sgls no, theyre used to what theyre saying going. Why is ivana trump so polarizing. Everyone has said ivanka is going to be the liberal one that is going to have influence. Were waiting, when does that influence start. Its great and shes most impressive and poised woman. No question about it. When is it going to play into what is actually happening, you know, in washington. I think you know, were all waiting. Were waiting. Theres a paragraph in news story. Ivana trump tried to adjust this, tried to stop this. Couldnt do it, right. Perhaps she doesnt have any influence on her father. We keep telling her she does. Maybe he is in fact employing her as a photo op. I think its in the middle. I think the mild where time she has like everybody else has trouble getting through and sometimes she and jarred are ab jared are able to get through and have an impact. New administration, everyone is trying to figure out what their roles are. They have you neek roles. Not in every day fighting for influence. Theyre doing other things as well. Sometimes what they want happens, other times through chaos and coincidence, it doesnt happen. Theyre not like steve bannon, glued to the president. Got pots and pans hanging from. So he never has to leave the white house. Dont forget, washington inside is always really brutal. The tough times condoleeza rice had with rumsfield acheney. On what basis is she polarizing. Im not sure she is. There are some women who think she has more influence than shes exercising. Thats a strong word. The contrast between with her and father and views and expectation for roles she would play versus is playing. And also a woman of her views of woman empowerment. Also working white house for her dad. Thats why its controversial. We have to leave it there. Thank you so much. Women in the world this week we have nikki haley. Love her. Justin trudeau. Good. Hes a great feminist. Were happy to have him. Still ahead. Chairman of House Oversight committee doesnt appreciate the president calling the ties to russia a witch hunt. I was very critical of president obama before we had all the facts. I dont think donald trump should be weighing in at this point. While the president tweets the Oversight Committee waits for the white house to satisfy request for documents on Michael Flynn. Congressman jason chafts joins us with more on the set. So tell us your big idea for getting the whole country booking on Choice Hotels. Com. Four words, badda book. Badda boom. Let it sink in. Shouldnt we say we have the lowest price . Nope, badda book. Badda boom. Have you ever stayed with Choice Hotels . Like at a comfort inn . Yep. Free waffles, cant go wrong. I like it. Promote that guy. Get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed. When you book direct at choicehotels. Com. Book now. Gives you a reason to slow down and pull up a seat to the table. Thats why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. So that you can spend time on what really matters. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. Are you trying to tell the Justice Department to grant immunity to Michael Flynn. Were you trying to do that . Was that your intention mr. President , was that your intention sir . It is another big week on tap for President Trump. Hes got critical meetings with leaders of china, jordan and egypt. What just happened there. He walked out of a he didnt want to do it. At the last minute, he decided were going to do this signing inside. He didnt tell anybody. Im just saying i saw it and then im thinking, this reminds me of a show. Yes, my favorite. She tweeted. Lets watch this. Very, very quickly. Thank you very much. President today. Going to tell the Just Department to grant immunity to Michael Flynn. Were you trying to do that, is that your intention, mr. President. Was that your intention. Was that your intention . They literally didnt have to edit a thing. It happened. Behaving like a president. How many days in are we . 70 feels like year six. How do you not. How could you not have known he would have listen. Weve known this guy for 10, 11, 12 years. Weve had misgivings about him. Neither you or i thought it would be this bad. Definitely not. We were concerned. Really, really concerned. Never thought the guy weve known for 10, 11, 12 years would be that much of a petulant brat. When somebody asked him a question, move his entire. Its like hes getting a hammer every day and just and we didnt think he would get a hammer every day and pick it up. Actually quite the opposite. The day after he got elected i came on your show and i was wis lg in the darkwhitling in the s i know theres an unwritten rule in the Psychiatric Community nobody diagnoses from afar. I just dont think hes a well guy. Period. When you start doing things that are against your own best interest, see. Because during the campaign, he did all of these horrible things, right . But you could say they are horrible things, but theres going to be a segment of his base that will actually vote for him because hes talking about the birther stuff or hes talking about this or hes talking about that. The wall. The wall. In that respect, he would do these things offensive to all of us, but you wouldnt say this is actually like him hitting himself on the hand with the hammer. What hes doing now is not in his self interest. Thats when you start saying wait a second, how well is he. Hurt him because those things he did a lot of us found repugnant before. You can say, know what, they offends me, but its going to work among some members in the primary. The glass half empty story is pretty intense. Low approval ratings. Failure of health care initiative. Disarray within a lot of government and a lot of tension. No clear ability to move forward. Glass half full and probably not half, but full part of glass. Patient as washington. Huge week. Can he get gorsuch through. A lot of Foreign Policy. Hold on a second. Mitch mcconnell will get gorsuch through. Conservatives are going to see that as his accomplishment for good reason and not Donald Trumps. Can he get gorsuch through in a way he gets credit. What does he turn to now . What are the big issues the president wants to put before the country. This week is kind of wide open. Is he going to talk about trade . He is going to talk about health care . Taxes . Great questions to start the show. Good morning, everyone. Its monday. How is everybodys week . Have you on board. The president of the United States of the United States. The leader of the free world and largest economy. Man who controls one of the Largest Nuclear arsenals. Spent most of saturday morning tweeting about fox news. Safety eyes chuck todd. I never got that sleepy eyes chuck todd thing. Did anybody do you look at chucked to and make fun of his goatee. I like it by now. If you want to go somewhere. Theyre awake. Who has really sleepy eyes. Why are you saying sleepy eye. If youre going to insult somebody, make it work. Paul manafort. Perfect. That was good. It is the same Fake News Media that says theres no path to victory for trump. Told scam. Started tweeting parts of a column about health care writing the failing New York Times fanlly getting it adding o care is dead. Good things happen however with republicans or dems. And throughout the afternoon, and into the evening, he tweeted praise for fox news. Quote, wow, fox news just reporting big news. Source, official behind gun masking is high up. Known intel official responsible. Can i just ask because i thought the white house said you should never do any stories with sources. Without named sources. Im confused. Only when it benefits them and this very powerful leader of the free world tweeted all day. Finally a leader that tweets. Whats the word i want to use. Trump team spied on before he was nominated. If this was true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad for u. S. And around 6 21 p. M. The president tweeted, thanks for a fox segment about consumer confidence. This is very small behavior that is so unbecoming. Its hard to even describe. President of the United States, and all he does is watch tv. Its like a little kid. All he does is watch tv. And comment on it. And comment on it. Those two things. Donny deutsche. All of these good things. All these condescending women events he has all week, he ruining them with stupid tweets. Why doesnt we watch billi billions. Thats good this season. A lot of people talk about hes 70 and a billionaire. Not going to change his behavior. This is a man who does not read. Not intellectually curious. The entire life, he is not going to change now. By the way, we have talked on the set. Spent all weekend watching fox news. Which again were not knocking fox news. I definitely watch judge pirro now. 9 00 p. M. Obviously. Its amazing. No self control. And, again, this guy literally is just bumping around the white house or wherever he goes with nobody else around minding him. Well, and this gets to problems with scheduling. You hear when you talk to staff that theres sort of flat level of people competing for his time. And, you know, donald trump just decides on a women, i dont want to do this or i do want to do that. Hes very impulsive. Changes rapidly. Staff stamable around to deal with it. He might Say Something in a meeting and they scramble around and have to change it. Creates a very unstable working environment. All just trying to adapt to it. Jonathan, thank you very much. Still ahead, the chairman of the House Oversight committee calls Michael Flynns request mysterious. Congressman joins us onset. Later talk to senator Richard Blumenthal to vote against the president Supreme Court nominee. First, bill karens with a check on the forecast. Still in the himiddle of the Severe Weather outbreak. Continued on sunday. Louisiana hit hardest yesterday. Tornados reported. Unfortunately had the fatality of a mother and young daughter. Trailer toppled over. Big tornados that was in the distance there for a while. Very scary times in louisiana. That was all yesterday. Heres where we stand now. In all, 11 tornados reported. 77 large hail. All through texas, louisiana, mississippi. This is current radar. This pink box that just popped up. Brand new tornado watch. Includes panama city, pensecola. Montgomery, alabama southward. Not in it. Still in severe thunderstorm watch. Plowing through the southeast. This will include atlanta later in the day. Even areas of all of South Carolina could have the pablt of a strong thunderstorm. Can have a tornado in it. All heading late tonight and early tomorrow morning. A lot of travel delays. That will not be severe. A lot of problems at the airports especially watching the tornado along the gulf coast. Cherry blossom looking gorgeous. Washington, d. C. Enjoy today. Rainy morning coming at you tomorrow. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Growing up, we were german. We danced in a german dance group. I wore lederhosen. When i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasnt finding all of these germans in my tree. I decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. The big surprise was were not german at all. 52 of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. 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At pnc investments, we believe youre more than just a number. So we provide personal Financial Advice for every retirement investor. Amended disclosure for Michael Flynn did not disclose payments he received from russian linked companies. In the new filing names kremlin sponsored network rt and two other firms as sourcings of income. Documents released by House OversightCommittee Democrats last month show rt paid flynn more than 45, 00 45,000 to sp n anniversary gala. Speaking fees and draft disz closure process ended because of resignation. Meanwhile, congressional intelligence Committee Said they are not at the stage to consider granting former National Security adviser Michael Flynn immunit immunity. He offered. House Intelligence Committee tells nbc news discussion with flynns lawyer did not include immunity. Sources close to Senate Committee saying immunity is not on the table at this time. It doesnt make sense. Would not make sense for them to do that right now anyway because if the fbi is conducting investigation, if hes broken the law, then immunity from the senate gets in the way of that. A long wawa from that. Not sure what crimes may be being investigated, but the committee has to decide. Want to bring him in and take the fifth. Thats a big decision before them because it appears he wont testify with that immunity right now. The broader issue is what are the two Intelligence Committees going to do. We dont know at this point what direction theyre headed. The senate have that big show bipartisanship that has committees more divided. What are they going to do next if they dont hear from flynn. White house press ser take sean spicer says he spoke with the president about his friday tweet saying flynn should ask for immunity. The president is very clear he wants mike flynn to go and be completely open and transparent with the committee and whatever it takes to do that, he is supportive of. He was not trying to suggest to the fbi or Justice Department that it grant immunity. Im not entirely sure the process whether the congress does it or doj or both in this case. The point that i get it. Right. I understand. Right, but the bottom line is no, what he is instructing mike flynn to do everything he can to cooperate with the committees hes asked to look into this. The president tweeted yesterday the real story turns out to be surveillance and leaking. Find the leakers. So here with are. Steve throat was the real story on watergate. It was. It wasnt actually the burglary. History will tell that. This is story and theyre sticking to it. Nonstop. Yes. And the staff is absorbed. Its the donald trump message of this is the real story. This is whats happened. And, of course, thats what started the scramble to justify rationalize and find the evidence which has got devin nunes in all that trouble. Mark. I mean, you look at the mistery of this. At least a distraction for them. He brings a lot of it on himself from the most famous tweet about president obama, but the constant tweets picking and continuing to pick a fight keeps it alive in the media. It does, jonathan said, its so hard for white house staff trying to learn how to do the jobs under the media and legal pressure of investigations. How well the guy is off right now metaling. Any sane rational person would know if i keep bringing attention to something, then im going to keep churning up attention on something. And it is not going to be in my best interest. Nothing to do with jobs in the economy. Which is all he says he wants to be focused on. Its got nothing to do with drk hes repeated this over and over and over gep. Its like picking the same scab over and other again. Im sorry to say that. Thats what hes doing. His staffer like any sane rational staff would be pulling their hair out right now saying oh, my god. Instead they just keep making excuses for him. Fixing on three day old negative article. They literally couldnt get him off of. Thats what this is. I dont know what the order is. Im not being glib. Regardless of whats going on. If hes been pricked in a certain area, theres an inability physiologically for him to move off of it. Coming up. New commercial from carls jr. And trust us. It has a connection to the age of trump. That is next on morning joe. I cant wait for her to have that College Experience that i had. The classes, the friends, the independence. And since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, im glad shell miss when you have the right Financial Advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise when a fire destroyed everything in our living room. We replaced it all without touching our savings. Yeah, our insurance wont do that. No. You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty Mutual Insurance when liberty stands with you™. Wanna get away . 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For 15 years Parent CompanyCke Restaurants has run ads features the likes of paris hilton and kate upton and kim kardashian. In 2011 press release, stated we believe in putting hot models in our commercial because ugly ones dont sell burgers. I swear to god he said that. We target hungry guys and we get young kids that want to be young hungry guys. What happened. What a gross person. How did that end up. He was nominated to be the president secretary of labor. What a gross person for saying that. Replaced next month by a new ceo so now theyre trying to get the pud ser error behind them. We saw this ad this weekend. And thought, it was great on so many levels. First of all. Saying, okay, were getting the kids, out of her. The punks that are trying to exploit women. It was great. Not only for the company saying were turning the page, but also it looked an awful lot like this was a message to americans who were saying, can we get people back in charge of the entire country. The millennials, you guys are, you know. Watch this. You still talk to stacey . Yeah. Finally replied to my dm. Where are you . Right here next to the bar. Shoot the tiger. Who go for junior. Junior, i think your dad is here. What . Tell him im in a meeting. Youre back. Refreshing ingredient than that lady got in there and her clothes flew off. It was windy. Please dismount that bull. Who is this . This guy, i dont know him. Shut up, junior. Yes, sir. Hello, friend. You know when i started this company, it was about one thing. Get the bull. Were keeping the bull. I passed it to the boy. Well, he got a little who hung. Who hung. Distracted. Yes things got real weird. I think it was the charity. Do what we do. What weve always done. Take it back with me. Started out how all great things started. Meat and fire. We pioneered the board. And people and cars were made so we made the drive through thing. And met a girl. Made a boy. And, well, we did things our own way. We brought you food straight to your table. Brought all natural beef to the burger. And brought bacon to dam near everything. See this is what ive been talking about. Food. Not booze. Yes, sir. Were pioneers of the Great American burger. Great American Made from scratch biscuit. Made american. What you think of next. Just bought that car. Buckle up, son. Oh, my god. So good. Donny. You have done this for a very long time. I saw that. Loved it on just about every level. Karls with the company, but also with the country, people yes , honoring youve got to see this. This is your insight. I couldnt agree more. A metaphor for whats going on in the country. That kidding and silliness represents the child like manner of distracted on the the white house versus burgers or jobs. Lets get back to business. And i do think the power is stunning there. The irony of the company that used to be run by a cabinet nominee. Starting advertising stunning metaphor of whats going on in the country. President trump calls the russia investigation a witch hundredth. The Top Republican on the Oversight Committee disagrees. Talk to congressman jason straight ahead on morning joe. Discover card. Im not a customer, but im calling about that credit scorecard. Give it. Sure its free for everyone. Oh well thats nice and checking your score wont hurt your credit. Oh im so proud of you. Well thank you. Free at at discover. Com creditscorecard, even if youre not a customer. Various shouting heigh ho its off to work we go woman on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. And each job created by the Energy Industry supports two others in the community. Altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. These are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing americas emissions. Energy lives here. Can i get some help. Ing americas emissions. Watch his head. Im so happy. Whatever they went through, they went through together. Welcome guys. Life well planned. See what a Raymond JamesFinancial Advisor can do for you. Nunes, the house, theyre off in a ditch. I dont know where or who invited him to look at the evidence in the white house. All i can say is why do you show it to the chairman of the Intel Committee if youve got it yourself . So that never made sense to me. That is vexing. Vexing is a word of the morning. Chairman on House Committee and government reform congressman jason from utah. Good to have you this morning. Tell us about flynn, asking for immunity. Will you guys give it to him. From whale first of all. Open active investigation. By the fbi. Dealing with that our committee is looking to what we do for the white house. Payment that he received from these types of payment. What youre concerned about and what. Youre coming out of the white house saying as a former military officer, youre required bid law if youre going to take payments directly from these countries you have to not only seek, but get permission from the secretary of state from the secretary of defense. It appears as if he didnt do that. Were prepared then for later in the week as early as tuesday to send a letter for final determination to the gao. Its not a criminal referral. Its a referral to the gao. And then the penalty most likely at least based on precedent would be to have to repay all of that money that he did take. Are we talking about a great deal of money. Depends on perspective. Tens of thousands of dollars. Yeah. Are you saying theres not theres not a crime attached to that type of. Its not a statute. There is a statute that says you have to seek this permission and begranted this permission. Thats true for all military office officers. Even if they left work at the pentagon. Still on call, so to speak. Is it a crime not to report. Its a violation of the statute. Thats what we found out. Maybe theres a letter out there. We think someone would have produced it by now. I want to ask you about your colleague chairman nunes and what hes done. I know house members are reluctant to criticize other house members. Can you explain his actions and defend his actions and not telling the truth about the investigati information and where he got it. He said he was sorry about that. I think he did make a mistake. He said as much. What were focused on is the underlying facts and now adam sch schiff has gone over and looked at information as well. The rest of the committee should look at this. I think much more concerned about the underlying facts and questions about process when you say he made a mistake, what was his mistake. Should have done it with a democrat intel as well. I went up to white house last week with the democrats and we looked at the got a briefing in the situation room, classified about maralago and situation. Didnt read a thing about it. Lets talk about the underlying question. What is his concern. What is the concern you have about what went on with the president apparently is concerned about. If youre looking. I mean, again, its another committee. Were each gore towiing to do t different way. If hes seeking facts. Need to go find the facts. If they happen to be in the Old Executive Office building, have a look at them. You need to also do it with democrats. Following breaking news out of russia. Reports of one, possibly two explosions at train stations in Saint Petersburg. According to reports, an explosive device was set off in train car at a station. Reports ten people have been killed and several others have been hurt. Continue to follow and bring you the details as they develop again. This is in Saint Petersburg russia. Speaking of russia, the president of the United States has called your investigation and other congressional investigations, quote, a witch hundred hunt. How do you respond to the president. I dont see it that way. I dont think its a witch hunt. If the president thinks tlgs information we should have, were happy to receive it. Theres a swirl out there that we need to get to the bottom of. Wait, what is the question that you and your constituents would like to know . The number one question if you could get one answer from the white house, what would it be. We want to get all the information. I dont know where exactly the conclusion is, but what is all the information . I mean, who else is involved. Now, the senate and the House Intelligence Committees are going to lead out on that. We play more of supportive role. In the case of general flynn, were going to be looking at obviously the payments that was taken. I want to go back to general flynn. You called it mysterious. My history of watching law and order and csi and all the shows i like to watch when someone is asking for immunitimmunity, sug theyve done something really wrong. Have really good information about people more power for them. That word doesnt get uttered. Is that a safe assumption. Position that general flynn took last year. The position that then candidate trump took. It does beg the question, okay, what are you trading for. I was highly critical of president obama and the department of justice. When they gave five people, five people immunity on the email investigation and we got nothing for it. So you dont just give immunity to hand it out like candy. The fbi made that mistake in the past and i dont think they should do it again. What does it say about the president s judgment that three or four months ago he thought he should be National Security adviser. Im glad he got him out of there very quickly. Came in and figured out he wasnt telling the truth. At least best i could tell and dismissed him. A mistake in retrospect. Im glad he got rid of him fairly swiftly. Im going the change topics really fast. Last week you were quoted on a great profile in the Atlantic Monthly saying trump is already rich. Youre not worried about him enriching himself in the presidency. I want to clarify that more. A rich person cant be corrupt or is not in danger of trying to enrich themselves at all. Shouldnt be a worry. Is that your review for the oversight of the trump white house. You cant summarize everything in one sentence. Were going to keep a watchful eye. My job is not a cheerleader for the president. Hold them accountable. Of course youre always going to look at it. Now its the Trump Administration. So theres two million plus people work ting there and alwa somebody doing something stupid. Let me ask you something, you talk about all the people working there. For is always somebody doing something stupid. Especially when im around. Are you concerned about the number of appointments that trump has made or the lack of appointments for these agencies whether its state or across the government. I think what youre going to see longterm is a lot of them that theyre not going to fill because they have no intention of funding those types of things. Particularly in the department of education. That whole process of all these thousands of appointments that need to go through the process and Senate Confirmation process, its a huge story, but i know there are a lot of agencies where theyre not going to put in specific people because they just dont believe that function should even be there. Congressman, jason. Thank you so much. Quote of the morning. Up next, the battle to confirm Supreme Court nominee neil gorsuch steamrolls to showdown this week. Richard blumenthal joins us next. Plus, are we witnessing the end of europe. Next guest takes a sobering look at how antisemitism populist nationalism, dictators and dem kb gogs are shattering europes post cold war order and what can be done about it. Continue to follow breaking news out of russia, one possibly two deadly train explosions in st. Petersburg. Reports ten people have been killed. Others hurt. Well be right back with much more. Remember here at ally, nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. Whos with me . Were like a Basketball Team here at ally. If a Basketball Team had over 7. Im in. 7,000 players. Our plays are a little unorthodox. But to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. We know what you want from a Financial Company and well stop at. Nothing to make sure you get it. One, two. And we mean nothing. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . And we mean nothing. Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. 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When a nominee doesnt get 60 votes, you shouldnt change the rules. Change the nominee. Lets sit down and come together. Republican friends are acting like a cat on top of tree and have to jump off with all the damage that entails. Come back off the tree. Sit down and work with us and we will produce a mainstream nominee. Actually, i think that was the wrong illustration. They are the people with the bulldozer at the bottom of the tree trying to figure out if the cat is coming down on their own. Chucks eyes are not sleepy. Hes adorable. Dreamy. Almost has dreamy eyes. Chuck todd. I was talking about schumer. I think schumer is dreamy. Trump calls him sleepy eyes and tweets about him. He has nothing else to do, just nothing. Then he goes golfing. You know who else is dreamy. Please help me with awkward segue. Very dreamy. Certainly is. Sorry about that senator. Only segue we had at the time. You heard the comments. You heard, are the democrats going to force the republicans to fill to go nuclear with the option here . What i sense, joe, is an increasing determination on the part of my democratic colleagues. Theres been a palpable shift since the beginning of those hearings because neil gorsuch was so evasive. I put to him very clear opportunities to confirm that he agrees with brown versus board of education on desegregation. Griswold versus connecticut. Right to use continue septemberives. Roe v. Wade. Are you saying he didnt confirm these were the law of the land. He refused to say he greed with them. Unlike many predecessors. Robert, kennedy, they responded they thought those decisions were correctly decided. So, i think that were left with the inescapable conclusion that he agrees with the trump litmus test that he would automatically overturn roe v. Wade. Strike down gun prevention with conservative groups that screened and suggested his name like the Heritage Foundation skprks that he would not be a neutral caller of balls and strikes, that in fact hes an al colite of the hard right groups and has a record of antipathy as well as privacy. Nick has a question. Senator, seems at this point you havent got the votes to stop him from becoming Supreme Court justice gorsuch. So whats the end game here with all the fighting over the filibuster and senate rules . And what do democrats hope to accomplish if they cant stop him from joining the court . First there is a significance to principle and conviction. And to seeking to fight against a nominee who would overturn a strikedown many of these protections that are embodied in rules keeping our water clean, workers safe, consumers with rights, Financial Markets abuses stopped, but also i think that a lot of my republican colleagues are having misgivings about such a destructive act. Neil gorsuch came across as awe shucks, i just follow the law. But they know and understand the reasons that we oppose him. And i think they have reservations about embarking on a course that could change forever the rules and practices of the United States. And the shoe may some day be on the other foot. A Supreme Court nominee ought to be approved by a razor thin majority. Senator, in order to preserve the ability to in order to preserve the 60 votes required, would you be willing to strike a deal vote for cloture on gorsuch but the maintain throughout donald Trump Presidency . I believe that neil gorsuch should be declined, should be disapproved as a nominee. I will vote no on neil gorsuch. Right. But would you accept that deal . I would not accept a deal that preserves the 60vote threshold at the cost of having on the court someone who refuses to say whether he agrees with core constitutional resets. Protecting privacy, equality under the law and protections for workers and consumers and clean air and water. I think we need to fight on this nominee because as bland and nonthreatening as he may be, he will be a swing vote. All right. And he will help to sway others. Senator Richard Blumen that will blumenthal, thank you so much. Turning overseas, huge shakeups in europe from brexit to the rise of nationalism. Those changes along with the power struggle between russia, china and the u. S. Triggered this morning from former National Security advisor over the weekend. Im convinced the next 20 years will decide that in fact beyond the next two decades there will be an International System capable of maintaining peace and stability and cooperation. That was my dad at columbia getting the Global Leadership award. Joining us now, author jamie kirchick. Jamie, nick would like to congratulate you on the timing which he says. Is perfect. May be the greatest timing for a book. Amazing. This is a welltimed book. Youve been following whats been happening. And tell us a little bit about what you see happening over the course of the Trump Presidency and in europe and how he can contribute to or negate well, its really unfortunate. If you look at the two main institutions post war europe, its been the eu integration and nato and two donald trump seems not openly apathetic but weve had all supporting european integration coming together more politically in nato and this for the first time questioning article 5 saying one attack on one member is an attack at all. Its really not good. Do you see brexit as a part of this process . Yeah. Britain, they werent one of the founding members only been in it since 1975, thats 40 years and its coming at the worst time when the west needs to be rising against these authoritarian powers. So ive got friends from the north of england who are labor, members of the labor party. Loathe margaret thatcher. Loved nothing more than to disparage margaret thatchers memory in front of me because they know it gets such a rise out of me. And yet even they said were voting brexit. Were voting for brexit. Because we ought to be able to control as a country our borders. And we ought to be able to control immigration. We have sat here, we have patiently watched one wave after another wave and weve been liberal about it. But at some point we need to control our country. Right. Most of the integration in the uk comes from noneu countries, like india and pakistan. If they wanted to limit immigration, there are ways they could have done it domestically without leaving the eu. The eu immigration they were concerned about was mostly from poland and czech republic. Romania. And those places. So i have to say those people work very hard. Its similar to mexicans in this country. They actually contribute more to the society in terms of what theyre paying in forms of taxes than what they take out. Where does it say you had torres in london opposing brexit. You had a lot of people that were laborites in the north it became sort of a city and a country vote. And you had, you know, london was overwhelmingly staying in the union. And then scotland and then basically the rest of england was against it. Its similar obviously to the city. Very similar. So what happens next, jamie . In europe and with trump . Well, theres two major elections coming up. Theres france later this month with Marine Le Pen obviy. And th theres germany in the fall. And i think youre going to see the russians do a very active Information Campaign in favor of their candidate saying both countries, similar to what we saw in this country and maybe hacking and leaking and disinformation. The German Parliament was hacked in the summer of 2015. They havent really released that information yet but its sort of hanging like a cloud over germany. I was just there last week and they are expecting something might happen. Dont forget Angela Merkel is really the only one holding this all together right now. Shes the toughest one on sanctions against the russians. And they are going to try their darnedest to unseat her, i think. If you look at the members European Union with a few exceptions, their economies have not done great. No. Heavy cost for social welfare programs and not a lot of vibrancy s. There a potential spark in that . A solution for that turning around. A lot of people blame the euro and i actually think its a problem with National Governments. I think the reason why france has high youth unemployment or greece has the problems it has, its not because of the euros, its bad decisions being made by National Governments to not deregulate their economies, not to make it easier to fire people because that makes it easier to hire people. But yes, theyre getting older, the populations. Is any member countries moving more towards new solutions to try to revive their economy sns. Germany has a very strong economy. Poland i think is actually the one country that didnt go into recession during the last eight years. So theres definitely models. And youve looked at the baltic states, the three little baltic states, they were in a tough spot too and they turned around really fast, took them just two years. So theres definitely hope. All right. Amidst a lot of despair. James, thank you so much. The book is the end of europe, dictators, demagogues and the coming dark age. Thank you very much. Thank you. Also, we continue as we close out the show this morning to follow the breaking news out of russia. Reports of one, possibly two deadly explosions at train stations in st. Petersburg. This is video just in to us. According to reports an explosive device was set off at a train car at the station. At least ten people have been killed. Several others wounded. Again, this is in st. Petersburg, one possibly two explosions. Russian president Vladimir Putin who was in st. Petersburg earlier this morning says officials are looking at all potential causes for the blasts including terrorism. All train stations in the city have reportedly now been closed in the wake of this incident. Well be following that. Stay with msnbc all day for the latest on that breaking news. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie picks up the coverage right now. Thanks so much. Good morning. Im stephanie rule, much to cover. We have breaking news this morning. Multiple explosions rocking two russian train stations leaving at least ten people dead. The big question now, is it terrorism . We are live in russia with the latest. And a Senate Showdown here, a key vote on Supreme Court nominee neil gorsuch one hour from now sending him to the full senate where democrats vow to filibuster. Its highly, highly unlikely that hell get 60. And republicans threaten to go nuclear. Neil gorsuch should be confirmed this week. How that happens really depends on our democratic friends. And a surprise visit, Jared Kushner in iraq with the chairman of the joint chiefs kicking off a huge week for President Trumps Foreign Policy. As trump threatens unilateral action on north korea if china does not help. Were going to begin this morning with that breaking news from russia. Reports of at least one major explosion in the metro system in the city of st. Petersburg. It is very, very chaotic and a fluid situation. Right now there are reports of multiple deaths and injuries. And the russian president , Vladimir Putin saying they are considering all causes including terrorism. Nbcs carlo is live monitoring latest developments. Carlo, what exactly, and i know its fluid, do you believe happened . Good morning, stephanie, as you said theti