Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170516

Reuters alleging President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian Ambassador in a facetoface meeting. According to the paper, the information considered so sensiti sensitive, details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the u. S. Government. The foreign partner had given the u. S. Permission to share the information with russia, and trumps decision to do so reportedly endanger z cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. Officials told the post trump revealed the city in the islamic States Territory where the intelligence partner detected the threat. The Washington Post is withholding the information at the urging of officials within the Trump Administration who warned it would jep diesz important intelligence capabilities. U. S. Officials said this is code word information, terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels. White House National security adviser h. R. Mcmaster appeared before the cameras to try and push back on that report. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior officials who were present including the secretary of state remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Theyre on the record account should outweigh those of anonymous services. I was in the room. It didnt happen. Didnt take any more questions. Talked for 60 seconds. Greg miller, the ambassador talked for 60 seconds. The general didnt answer any questions, and even conservatives last night were saying it was the classic nondenial denial, straight out of the annals of watergate. Hes giving a head fake at a men um, saying the president did not reveal sources and meth those. Thats who what our story alleges. But instead what those sources and methods had obtained, had collected, the information that came through those sources and methods. And in all of the statements from the white house last night, none of them could answer why if this was so ordinary and not a big deal, why was it necessary for mcmasters own staff to come out of that meeting, call right away, place calls to the cia director and director of the National Security agency that really is the key. Its like when the white house a couple days ago is pushing back on the story of the Deputy Attorney general. The next day it ended up not being true. Last night they do the same thing, they push out, they put general mcmaster out there. Of course, the information provided will lead back possibly to those first two issues that he actually did bring up. But why did they rush and go to the director of the cia and the head of the nsa and say this very Important Information has been spilled out . Why did they ask you at the Washington Post not to disclose this information because it was so highly sensitive. Again, the denials fall flat in the face of the information that we had last night when your story came out. So it really doesnt add up. It doesnt make sense you call the cia director to give him a headsup that the president had overstepped in a serious ray in a meeting with senior russian officials, calling the nsa director. Those two officials are the ones dealing most directly with this partner. Theyre the ones that would have to deal with this partner to try to keep this intelligence channel open, to try to protect it and try to contain whatever damage was caused by this disclosure. David ignatius, as somebody who covers the Intel Community and has for a long time, can you explain why this is so troubling, even if its one nugget that the president let slip to the Russian Ambassador and foreign minister, why this could be such a problem . The intelligence business works on trust and works on the confidence that intelligence partners have, the information they provide, information often obtained through very risky collection methods, will be properly held, that it will not be disseminated at a whim. An incident like this, even on the h. R. Mcmaster version, that he didnt disclose sources and methods, but trump did share the information is what we infer, has got to be shattering to the people that provided that information on the understanding it would be held in the strictest confidence. The idea that the president would share it in a kind of boisterous way, almost bragging about how much he knew with the Russian Foreign minister and Russian Ambassador adds a particular sharp pinch to this because of all thats happens with russia and trump, to me, willie, this was just one more example of trumps steep learning curve in these areas where he is so inexperienced. Lets put it in context here. The meeting that took place we talked before that most americans were shocked enough that he had a meeting with the Russian Foreign minister and the ambassador for the United States for russia the day after he admitted firing the fbi director for having an investigation against the Trump White House into his dealings with russia. What we find out even worse the next day, he reveals highly Sensitive Information to the russians, boasting, and you compare that meeting with his meeting with Angela Merkel, perhaps our most important ally, doesnt even shake her hand. That meeting with lavrov, actually part of it happened during our show and on live cameras lavrov appeared and he was asked by whoever was in the room. Andrea. Andrea, a about the firing of comey and he scoffed and laughed der rye sively. David ignatius, an unidentified official with the knowledge of the exchange quotes the president saying this, i get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day. This is what trump said in his meeting with lavrov when speaking about the top secret information he reportedly divulged. He was boasting, he was flip and they were jock lular. Not only one persons life but a lot of peoples lives, rick tyler. Lets talk about the republican response. You actually saw one last night. Bob corker came out very strongly talking about how this is a white house that was in free fall and even paul ryan came out last night finally and is demanding a full explanation from the white house. Lets listen to bob corker, chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee first. Obviously theyre in a downward spiral right now and have got to figure out a way to come to grips with all thats happening. The chaos that is being created by the lack of discipline is creating an environment that i think makes it creates a worrisome environment. Rick, yesterday we talked on this show about panic inside the white house, about how the president is doing worse than ever before, how hes isolated, hes screaming at television sets, that if he had a condition our an issue during the campaign, people close to him say it is now getting very, very troubling and very worrisomworr. Lets talk two quick examples. Just over the past week he fires the fbi director, he has a communication strategy with his staff, blame it on the Deputy Attorney general. The next day he comes on television and forgets the talking points, lays waste to his entire white house staff, does not remember what he told them yesterday and then here we have the next day a story about him not remembering that youre not supposed to give the most highly classified information to your enemies. This is, again, were hearing this from inside the white house. This is a precedent isolated and out of control and in decline. This is all the worse because under the comey firing, and there was mixed messages coming out. He undermined all the circuits, all his staff. Initially he said it was because of the Deputy Attorney yen. It never stops, says one white house official, basically its ayos at all times. The talking point coming from mcmaster is there was no sources or methods revealed. The fact is the president has compromised seriously methods and sourcing in the Intelligence Community. So in one sense theres this strike back at the Intelligence Community. Notice whats not happening, theres nobody going out in the Republican Party repeating mcmasters talking points. Theyre not going to do that. The reason is because trump could come out at any moment and say, yeah, i told them, and completely undermine what they said. Thats what they did on our show, followed trumps talking points with if Deputy Attorney general and they were made fools on this show, they were made fools the next day. The Vice President made a fool of seven times, lying seven times, just not knowing seven times. Sean spicer, the president made him out to be a liar. Sarah hauckabee sanders, made ot to be a liar. What a terrible position to be in the youre a staff member in that white house being put in that position. Its even more complicated because mcmasters denial wasnt really a denial. It was this incredibly, carefully parsed statement that wove its way through the facts and managed to try to get out alive without mcmaster having lied but without denying that trump did what he did. The question is why did trump do it . Is it because he doesnt have selfcontrol, trying to cozy up to the russians. The answer to all three of those is yes. It also highlights the hypocrisy if you compare it to campaign managing, what he said all during the campaign. Do we have that clip . Willie, you were up cutting this. I was. I handedit everything im a throwback guy. This is the lock her up chant we heard all through the campaign, based on the exposure of classified information with a private server, thats about Hillary Clinton. So the handling of that classified information was one of the attack lines for donald trump during the race. Msnbcs the 11th hour with Brian Williams put together this look back. Bad things came out today, classified. You know the word classified. This was not just extreme carelessness with classified material which is still totally disqualifying. This is calculated, deliberate, premeditated misconduct. The secretary of state was extremely careless and negligent in handling our classified secrets. She lied about passing on classified information, right . In my Administration Im going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. She said she sent nothing marked classified, a total lie. We cant have someone in the oval office who doesnt understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified. Classified information in the reach of our enemies. Classified, confidential. Theyre so classified, theyre beyond classified. Maybe classified at the highest, highest level. How sad. Again, that was talking about Hillary Clinton potentially disclosing classified information. What were talking about in the Washington Post and now several other newspapers, the explicit relaying on classified information with someone who has at the least competing interests. We were worried that the chinese or russians may have hacked Hillary Clintons home server in chappaqua. He went straight to our enemies and adversaries and gave them classified information. He called what hillary did is disfall kauaiing. What about this . This reminds me of what al gore said in march of 1997, there is no Controlling Legal Authority which didnt really work very well for him, but i dont see how they get out of this one and i dont see where this is going to come. This is too clean cut. The republicans i dont think are going to try to defend him on this one. Greg, could you highlight how sensitive the information what . How did the white house implore or ask for you all not to reveal it, and secondly what was the president s tone when he was discussing this . Was it kind of on the side, kind of in a boastful tone, or was it passing something on in a surreptitious way . What did this look like . We characterized in our story he was doing this in a boastful manner. At least he launched into this part of the conversation in a postful way and was bragging about i get the best intel, i have these amazing great briefings every day, you wouldnt believe the stuff i hear. He goes through the discussion and the particulars are highly sensitive. Hes talking about the ways that the Islamic State is putting together this threat, the ways that it is pursuing this plot that has to do with bringing laptops, using laptops as explosives on an airplane. Beyond that he reveals the specific city inside the islamic States Territory where this intelligence was gleaned. So that was the real source of alarm. Then he wraps it up by saying talking about the Counter Measures, the u. S. Military operations under way to suppress this threat, the other Counter Measures including the laptop ban that could be extended and kind of jokes his way out of it saying, can you believe the world we live . 25 years ago you didnt have to worry about this stuff. David ignatius, it makes isis job so much easier to now seek out, track down what the Intel Community has long said is the most extraordinarily valuable asset, and that is a human resource. We were not able to get human intel in iran for years that led to the iranian hostage crisis, our inability to move past that. Time and time again, you hear this is the greatest challenge. Donald trump just gave somebody up out there who will end up dead, and thats not hyperbole, by the way. He and other people, whoever that source was inside of isis, i guarantee you a lot of people are going to get shot in the head today by isis because theyre going to indiscriminately start killing people that they suspect leaked this information. So where does that put donald trump with the Intel Community now when they have this type of information in the future, do they reveal it to the president of the United States . I think thats one of the hardest questions. Your viewers need to understand why this is so serious. This isnt just more criticism of donald trump. This kind of intelligence is what keeps us alive. There are people out there in the world, isis and other groups, who would kill thousands of americans today if they could. The reason we have generally been safe is that we have very aggressive intelligence operating with our closest allies whose secrets we share, to find out the most Sensitive Information, sometimes through human sources, sometimes through very subtle technical collection systems which may have been involved in this case. Those are real secrets because they keep people alive. When the secrets are blown, the people who do the collection have to ask themselves, if i share this with the United States, is it going to end up with this kind of garl laos, inexperienced, undisciplined man in the oval office being retail to some visitor. Thats the issue. Do they stop sharing the information . Our intelligence agencies work for the president. Its hard to imagine them cutting off the flow. Its really the foreign partners who are absolutely crucial in this fight who may say we just cant share as much now with the United States as before. Greg, since you do have obviously a good source in the National Security community who shared with you their concerns about the president leaking this, did he say anything else to the russians thats important for our viewers or for american to hear . Did he, for example, admonish them for interfering in our election as all the intelligence agencies have confirmed . Thats another one of the big issues here. Our story touches on that a bit. There is a lot of frustration within the administration. There are professionals who are deeply knowledgeable about these regions around the world and they take time, they put together pages of preparatoriry material for the president , two to fivepage papers, for instance, were prepared in advance of his meeting with these russian officials. What he was supposed to stick to in terms of a script and what he could expect to hear from them and what their questions were and how to handle those things, the president has insisted all of this material be boiled down to less than a page of bullet points. In this case he just again goes off script. Not dissimilar to how badly he went off script in describing what he had done and why to the fbi director james comey. He didnt raise the russian interference in the president ial election with the foreign minister and the ambassador . I have no indication that that issue came up. I would regard that as highly, highly unlikely. All we no know is the white house official version of what was said in this meeting asserts that trump raised the issue of ukraine and a couple other things. Theres no mention in the official white house account of this conversation of raising what russia did in the election last year. What youre pointing to is one of the fundamentally shocking aspects of this. Revealing classified information to anyone under any circumstances by the commanderinchief would be a big problem. But doing so in this case with russian officials including the Russian Ambassador whose presence in this meeting is astonishing, he is already an individual linked to the departure of trumps first National Security adviser mike flynn. He has already linked to the attorney general Jeff Sessions forced recusal from anything related to the russia investigation. Now hes in the oval office with trump. Lavrov said the meeting didnt cover the absurd claims of russian meddling. Greg miller, thank you for your reporting. Before we go to break, in terms of republicans, we heard from bob corker. Obviously theres a big problem at the top of this administration and perhaps an uncon tanable one. What should republicans do at this point . Charlie sykes editorial in the New York Times came at a really important time because i started seeing yesterday for the first time these conservative hucksters who make money going to a niche audios called out not for supporting trump but for their anti antitrumpism. Its not enough to just attack Donald Trumps enemies, not enough to just attack the press. When you have the commanderinchief revealing the most sensitive secrets to one of our great elf rivals, if not outright enemy, who imposes our interest across the globe, it is not enough for paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell and conservative talk show hosts to simply attack the Mainstream Media or nancy pelosi. Americans will not buy that. Thats a cowardly act, and its intended to hold on to as much of the audience they can hold on to without embracing trump. At this point, if you do not call him out for risking american lives and doing things that most intel people i spoke with last night said will lead to the death of americans in the future or lead to the death of critical allies in this Counter Insurgency battle against isis, then you are doing a grave disservice to your voters or to your listeners or to the United States of america. There is no middle ground here anymore. There just isnt. This is about National Security in the United States of america. I was going to ask, have we heard from hugh hewitt lately . I dont know. Im sure we will today. I was reading some articles yesterday afternoon. Again, i go back to that Charlie Sykes article. s so clarified. Wait, theyre not defending trump, but attacking media and nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. Whats the heart . There is no heart of the article. They simply attack people as overstating it. I know were really late here, i would like, David Ignatius, one more time please underline it for americans briefly. Why is this such a critical, critical issue, perhaps the most dangerous thing donald trump has ever done. These are the secrets that keep us alive. President s have to be careful with him. Theyre entrusted with the National Security secrets we have. This is onthejob training in the most important, sensitive job in the world. Were watching an inexperienced, undisciplined person deal with this very sensitive material. This is why we have talking points, why president s have protocols for what they say and dont say when they meet with foreign leaders. Its because things like this can happen if someone is inexperienced. The only thing you can say is, please, please, donald trump learn from this experience if youre going to remain president. Dont do this again. Here is the problem. The a arc of this narrative keeps getting worse. People on the inside say he keeps getting worse and mentally keeps getting worse. This is not unfortunately a learning curve. This is a man in decline. Back in 1947 when we started this, we said we need to have a desk specifically focused on hugh hewitts tweet. Lets go over the hugh hewitt tweet. Willie geist, what do you have . Ill be his voice. He tweeted and said if it happened the way the Washington Post said it happened it is, quote, very, very bad, and general mcmaster should take questions on it. This story will fester all day long, and thats not good for this administration. If you look at these pictures and look at him yucking it up. These pictures did not come from the American Media because they were not allowed in. They laughed together, shook hands, hugged, laughed, boasted and the president shared secrets that keep people alive. This president cannot be stopped. He is not well. With a man responsible, as greg miller said, for the National Security adviser being sacked and for Jeff Sessions recusing himself. He was in the white house with the president hearing about state secrets. We have a lot more ahead on this story. Well bring in former deputy National Security adviser, former senior director of the National Security council, ned price, jonathan the early, senator ben sasse, joe manchin and member of the House Intelligence Committee congressman Eric Swalwell. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Thats heard throughout the connected business world. 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I said i will see him. During that discussion with lavrov, i think we had a great discussion having to do with syria, having to do with ukraine and maybe that discussion will lead to a lot less people getting killed and will lead ultimately to peace. President trump disclose his meeting with Sergey Lavrov came at the suggestion of russian president Vladimir Putin in a phone call two weeks ago. So putin wanted it. Joining us now, senior National Security adviser for nbc news and chairman and cofounder of Financial Integrity Network juan zarate, former spokesperson and senior director for the National Security council ned price and law professor from George Washington university, ned turley. What are the ramifications within the Intelligence Community . What are their possible deresponses and state of mind right now . Probably a bit of confusion. They want to understand the context, theyre going to be in damage control. They want to make sure the source of this information doesnt get compromised. They want to make sure they continue to get that information. As you heard David Ignatius say a few minutes ago, they want to make sure the ally supporting us on the ground is not spooked and certainly will continue to provide that information. How in the world would they not be spooked when you have the president of the United States telling the Russian Foreign minister its important just to give people context, our side trying to kill isis, their side trying to kill rebels trying to kill isis. The russians are on the opposite side of us in syria. The aims are completely opposite. The russians have proven over time when weve shared information with them they used that against us. In 2006 we provided information to the russians about where some of our sites were. They went ahead and bombed those sites. There is a real concern here that the russians arent trustworthy. Certainly you dont want to compromise that information which, frankly, is of the up most importance and security. Gets passed on to hezbollah, iran, syria, gets passed on to all of our enemies. Absolutely. This is the nightmare scenario for the Intelligence Community in many ways because it undercuts the assumption thats at the core of all our intelligence relationships. We share information with you if you share information with us with a reciprocal understanding well safeguard each others information. Theres no passage of that information without explicit consent. By doing this, what President Trump has done is betray that core premise that allows us to have relationships around the world with friends, allies, even some adversaries. The real danger beyond infuriating this close ally is our friends and partners will think once, will think twice, maybe wont share information with us at all. If we hold back threat information, that could cost american lives. The president has unique authority to declassify information. President s can disclose information if they believe its in the national information. Truman told stalin about the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. Turns out stalin already knew that. Hopefully you dont do that just to impress the russian guys. Where you can get into trouble is the aftermath. The issuance yesterday of that denial while carefully parsed is still a denial. It was conveyed to the Republican Congress that these stories are demonstrably false. Thats where you get into a serious problem. Theres a requirement to brief committees about developments of this kind. If you repeat that type of denial to members of congress, it can be a crime under usc 1001 that. Was one of the issues in iran contra, even an unsworn statement to Members Congress or their staff can be a prime. Youre saying if mcmaster says to congress what he said last night, he could be in jeopardy. Right. The way the public heard that and the way it was certainly sought by the white house was to convey that this was a categorical denial. They said these stories are false. It didnt happen. Thats really reducing that space that washington lives in. Washington lives in that whole murky area between truth and lies. Its a wonderful place to be. Thayer rad kated that space in the view of many viewers. Jonathan, can i ask you quickly, and i know this was an old story, only on the front burner 12 hours ago, what about the obstruction of justice talk around what the president of the United States admitted and what the white house admitted, that they fired the fbi director to end the Russian Investigation which donald trump admitted to lester holt and Sarah Huckabee sanders admitted as her role as white house spokesperson . Frankly, i think were short of any compelling obstruction case at this point. The president has the right to fire comey. He can be fired for good, bad or no reason at all. Hes at atwill employee. He shouldnt be. Thats not what congress wanted setting up this tenyear term. Its clear that rosenstein did believe he could and should be fired. Whether the president did it for the right reason i dont think is going to factor into a true obstruction case. This white house is floundering. This is where you get into serious jeopardy, is when youre floundering around, issuing category denials. Its one thing to spin the public. This stuff is hard wired into congress. If those statements start to be made in congress and theyre lies, someone is going to get indicted. Arent we at the point where we have a presidency that is floundering so much that almost every move he makes there are calls for investigations and calls for hearings and calls for the media is going crazy. Think about what has happened can anyone even remember sally yates . That triggered something, and then that triggered something and then that triggered something. To the point where this is chaos to the point of a meltdown. I think its unforced error after unforced error. I think its lack of zis plin in terms of how the white house is operating, how the president talks about it, his lack of precision. This case is a case in point where youve got to be very precise in how you talk about intelligence. Otherwise youre going to compromise sources and methods. I think the lack of discipline and unforced errors, not only a huge distraction. President erdogan from turkey is in town today. Oh, my god. Whats he going to say . These are bigticket issues. We or not even talking about the underlying terrorist threat. The distractions are enormously harmful i think to the country. Ned, you worked for the nsc and cia, were seeing an Intel Community pushing back, whether after the firing of director comey. We heard a lot from the fbi and unnamed sources there. Yesterday the nsc saying wait a minute, we cant let this pass, talking to the Washington Post. This is not a president who has ever had a Good Relationship with the Intelligence Community and, in fact, even before he was president as the republican nomin nominee, he casually dismissed the findings of all 17 agencies that russia meddled in the election. As the president elect, he compared the Intelligence Community to nazis, accused them of leaking. On his first full day in office we went to cia headquarters and stood in front of cias Memorial Wall that marks the 117 officers who lost their lives and bragged about crowd sizes, talked about going back into iraq and taking their oil. They covered iceal, syria, north korea, i think we have to ask ourselves at what point does this administration itself become a threat we have to be concerned about, a threat not only of foreign agents in the white house, for example, but a threat because our adversaries like kim jong un and others will take advantage of this administration, test this administration knowing they caused utter chaos. I want everyone to think about the question you just asked, ned price. Thats where were add, where we dont know whether this presidency can sustain itself. Thank you very much. Ahead well bring in senator joe manchin, congressman Eric Swalwell. Morning joe is back in just a moment. A naturally aspirated 5. 0liter v8 engine. A 10speed directshift transmission. A meticulously crafted interior. All of these are feats of engineering. Combining them with nearperfect weight distribution. Is a feat of amazing. Experience the firstever 471horsepower lexus lc 500 or the multistage hybrid lc 500h. Experience amazing. I count on my dell small for tech advice. With one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. Youre going to be hanging out in here. So if you need anything, text me. Do you play . Use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. You got next . Chase. Helping you master whats now and whats next. Istart at the new carfax. Comar. Show me minivans with no reported accidents. Boom. Love it. [struggles] show me the carfax. Start your used car search at the allnew carfax. Com. So we sent that sample i doff to ancestry. I was from ethnically. My ancestry dna results are that i am 26 nigerian. I am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. I put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. Because its a hat, but its like the most important hat ive ever owned. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. Up next, hes holding high stakes meetings with the u. S. Secretaries of state, defense and commerce. Willie, remember Chrystia Freeland of morning joe . Shes now canadas minister of Foreign Affairs. Krista joins the conversation, well get her governments perspective on President Trumps disclosure of crass fied information to her russian counterpart. Well be right back with much more morning joe. 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E, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. With an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. Itbut one i think with quesa simple answer. We have this need to peek over our neighbors fence. And once we do, we see wonder waiting. Every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. Bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. So, the question you asked me. What is the key . Its you. Everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. Canada did to our dairy farm workers is a disgrace. What happened to our Dairy Farmers in wisconsin and new york state, were not going to let it happen. We cant let canada or anybody else take advantage and do what they did to our workers and to our farmers. Again, i want to also just mention, included in there is lumber, timber and energy. So, were going to have to get to the negotiating table with canada very, very quickly. Again, just to tell you, this is another nafta disaster. Lets just do this. No. Score card. You cant keep up. Theres not a score card big enough. Hold on. Canada. On the enemys list. Russia. Russias on the friends list. Hold on. Hold on. In the gossipy lets connect by exchanging info list. Dont kill hamlet in the first act. I now move to our second ally. So, lets see. Germany, they have been our closest ally in many ways since 1945. Germany. Dont shake hands with germany. Enemies . Not hostile but dont want to touch. Not an enemy but hostile. Germofoeb. Germofoeb. But theyre close. All right. Mika, now heres your time. Russia. Chatty kathy list. Chatty kathy list. I dont have a list for this. It would be funny if it wasnt. Friend of trump, f. O. T. Major friend of trump to the point where people could die. It would be very confusing to friends of ours across the border and across the globe. So, lets go to capitol hill right now and talk to canadas minister of Foreign Affairs. Good friend of ours from way, way back. Way back. Always good to see you christia. Before we dive into it, congratulations on your engagement. I was so happy to hear about that. Thank you. Its all right. Joe, i think youre looking younger already. I take it this is mikas fashion influence. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. We should take a trip to canada. Lets do that. You are invited. Thank you. Very good. Come visit us. How do you sort through all of this . We are worried about what our friends across the globe are thinking. And certainly you have the president attacking canada, one of our closest allies and juxtapose that with the chummyness with the russians. How do you sort through that . Reporter a number of issues on the table. Ive had really good meetings in washington, i had supper with the canadian minister of defense. We had supper last night with secretaries tillerson and mattis and we had a really good conversation about all the areas that canada and United States are cooperating around the world. I had a good conversation with secretary ross as well. The reality, if you stand back, the reality is that we have a really strong, deep relationship with the United States. A big part of it is our trading relationship. That is mutually beneficial. Its a balanced trading relationship. And i think americans really understand that. We are actually your biggest client. There can be a lot of talk in the United States about china, but the reality is that you sell more stuff to canada than any other country in the world. When it comes to Foreign Policy and security, you are our closest ally and partner. And we cooperate a lot around the world. And i know were going to continue to do that. David ignatius has a question. David . Chrystia, in addition to canada being our trading partner, key intelligence partner. One of the five eyes that famously shares intelligence. Are you troubled by what weve been talking about this morning, which is the apparent disclosure not of sources and methods but highly secretive information about Counterterrorism Operations in a way thats going to hurt, perhaps, the Intelligence Service that gathered it . What do you, as a foreign minister, think about that . What would you say if someone from the white house asked you . Great to see you this morning, david. Ive been enjoying your columns. Look, we are, in addition to our bilateral relationship with the United States, were a five eyes partner. And thats a very important relationship with us. On the story this is morning, i dont have any specific information, so i really cant comment right now. Hi, chrystia, its steve rattner. How are you . Hi, steve hi. Tarri i tarrifs put on softwood imports, to ascribe that to trumps protectionist nature or is that the outgrowth of a whole process thats been going on for years over those imports . That is a great question, steve. Youre absolutely right, that this is a very longstanding dispute. When weve looked back, we see lumber frictions between canada and the United States going back to the 19th century. And its important to bear in mind, this is just 2 of canadas exports to the United States. So when we talk about this as being a small irritant in a much larger relationship, its important to see that in context. You know, having said that, we believe really strongly that we are in the right and, historically, in past lumber disputes at nafta tribunals, we have won every single time. Were strongly supporting condition aidi canadian workers. A great editorial, calling this a housing tax. From an american perspective, the people i would be really concerned about are middle class americans who want to buy a house. The reality is the United States does not produce enough lumber to build all the houses that americans should be living in. You need our lumber. And, by your own decisions, you are making it more expensive for people to buy houses in the United States. Chrystia freeland, thank you very much. Always great to see you. Great to see you guys. The Washington Post Eugene Robinson joins us with what he says is the only realistic way to stop trump. Well be back with more morning joe. Americas Beverage Companies have come together to bring you more ways to help reduce calories from sugar. With more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels, and signs reminding everyone to think balance before choosing their beverages. We know you care about reducing the sugar in your familys diet, and were working to support your efforts. More beverage choices. Smaller portions. Less sugar. Balanceus. Org. Welcome back to morning joe. Tom watts, David Ignatius and Eugene Robinson, who said he thought of this scene from the film doctor strangelove when he first read of yesterdays explosive reporting by his newspaper. Am i to understand the Russian Ambassador is to be admitted entrance to the war room . That is correct. He is here on my orders. I i dont know exactly how to put this, sir, but are you aware of what a serious breach of security that would be . I mean, hell see everything. Hell see the big board. That is precisely the idea, general. That is precisely the idea. Wow all right. So, gene robinson, you say you have the plan to stop this madness. What are we talking about, a billion dollar payoff . Might work. Billion dollars to get him out of the white house . That might work. Yeah, yeah. I guess that might work. The only look, people are waiting for some sort of magical event to suddenly end this. Its not going to happen. What i think democrats, frankly, need to take control of one or the other houses of congress to slow down this oneway train. They just have to do it in the next year. Lets take a look at the gps of where this runaway train is right now. Multiple outlets have confirmed the bombshell story that the Washington Post broke yesterday with anonymous u. S. Officials saying the Trump Administration scrambled to clean up an intelligence spill after President Trump allegedly volunteered highly classified information in a meeting with the Russian Foreign minister and ambassador last week. According to the paper, the information had originally been provided by a u. S. Partner through an intelligence sharing arrangement, consideri iningcon sensitive details have been when would from allies and so tightly restricted within the u. S. Government. They had not given them permission to share the intel with russia and trumps doing so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. Most alarmingly trump revealed the city in the islamic States Territory where the u. S. Intelligence partner detected the threat. The post is withholding most plot details including the name of the city at the urging of officials who warned that revealing them would jeopardize importance intelligence capability. Stop right there. Last night we got pushed back nondenial denials on things that werent even asked by the Washington Post or other newspapers. So now we have gotten that pushback again and yet it was the white house that alerted everybody to the fact the breach had taken place by calling the cia and the nsa. And, incidentally, there was no actual denial of the fundamental story here. When you listen to what mcmaster said and what tillerson said and i think dena powell was also quoted as saying, they acknowledge he had this discussion with kyislyak and lets remember, he was thumbing his nose at everyone any how. The first line of defense when i called over to the white house yesterday was that the president the information in the Washington Post story seems too specific for the president to have mentioned. In other words he speaks in generalities. He wasnt smart enough to not that he wasnt smart enough but wasnt read in on the specifics enough that he could have regurgitated them. National security adviser, general mcmaster, trying to clean things up yesterday. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation. At no time at no time were intelligent sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. On the record accounts should outweigh those anonymous sources. I was in the room. It didnt happen. General mcmaster did not take any questions, walked away after making that statement. And the Washington Post and others were quick to point out that his denial was pointed at something the story was not about, at no time were methods and resources discussed. Senior white house officials seemed to recognize quickly that trump had overstepped and moved to contain the potential fallout. Thomas bossert, Homeland Security and counterterrorism placed calls to the directors of the cia and nsa, services most directly involved in the intelligence share iing arrangement. The drkters of the cia and the nsa and the white house is trying to tell us nothing to see here. Move along. Move along. If it was the white house itself, not after the Washington Post story came out and not after glenn thrush did all his reporting. What does that tell you . General mcmaster is saying it didnt happen this way in the oval office. But something happened or they wouldnt make those phone calls. That gave it credibility to me. If theyre going around, trying to seal up the gaps based on something that happened during that discussion, we have a huge problem. Why did the president feel the need to impress the russians . He has Angela Merkel come over. He insults her. Hes yelling at canada. He sells out our allies to serve our enemies. Why do that . Theres no reason to do this. It doesnt make sense to me. If there wasnt anything to it, they wouldnt go around trying to cover their tracks. And, look, his entire 2016 campaign was predicated on the notion that Hillary Clinton was sloppy with secrets. So, i mean, it is the absolute convergence of absolutely every doubt that people had about donald trump. We talked about that last hour, willie. Hillary clinton was not qualified to be president of the United States because hamered away at it. She was sloppy with classified information. In fact, he said it was, quote, disquali disqualifying. Locker up chants are about that. This, if the report something tritrue, not the potential exposure but direct relaying of secret. Lock her up chants led not only by trump but National Security adviser, then his protege or whatever, buddy on the road, general flynn, who has now been fired. For meet org communicating with the ambassador kislyak. Ultimately the president s words are now going to chew him up. Take a look. Some bad things came out today. You know, those classified you know the word classified. This was not just extreme carelessness with classified material. Which is still totally disqualifying. This is calculated, deliberate, premeditated misconduct. The secretary of state was extremely careless and negligent in handling our classified secrets. She lied about passing on classified information, right . In my administration, im going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. She said she sent nothing marked classified. A total lie. We cant have someone in the oval office who doesnt understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified. Classified information in the reach of our enemies. Classified, confidential. So classified theyre beyond classified. And maybe classified at the highest, highest level. How sad. No, they werent. But what donald trump just told outright to the russians actually was classified at the highest level. Just think about this as well. Is he bragging in the quote, i absolutely believe in the paper, i get great intel. He is bragging to two russian officials who just did the biggest hacking, the most Successful Operation ever about, his great intel. They must have just been laughing, hearing him say this. The europeans, back in january, it was noted, israel as well, were nervous about giving Us Intelligence anymore because it could get leaked, specifically to the russians. That was the european fear. David ignatius, how much worse does this make it . Well, this dramatizes precisely what people were worrying about. Imagine for a moment what the cia chief of station in the country that was the source of this intelligence is having to do this morning or yesterday morning in talking to his counterpart and saying, sir, i have some terrible news. Theres been a release of some information that came from the very sensitive just the most horrifying moment you could imagine for an intelligence chief. And, again, think of how long it took to put this operation together. These operations take months or years to put the person in place so that person can gather the secrets that will keep us alive. That source may just have been blown. We dont know that, but its possible. And that could be years of work down the drain. So, gene robinson, im going to read from your column, which really kind of characterizes where were at right now with this president. There are those who entertain the fantasy that trump will get bored or frustrated and eventually resign. But hes already bored and frustrated with the drudgery of governing and he has developed coping mechanisms. He stages campaignstyle rallies, chews out his hapless staff, vents on twitter. When he invited house members to celebrate that awful Health Care Bill he interrupted the speech to say, hey, im president. Can you believe it, right . Hes not going to voluntarily give that up. If news reports are correct, is he mulling a substantial shakeup of his white house staff. But no Communications Team is going to look good while having to defend the crazy, indefensible things trump regularly says. He is not going to change. We are where we are. Democrats need to flip one or both houses of Congress Next year to slow this runaway train. It wont stop itself. Is that at are we, though, at the point where things are even more grave than that, gene . Uhhuh. Yeah. That column was written before the blockbuster Washington Post story came out. You know, i would have written a different column and probably my hair would have been even more on fire, whats left of my hair. Its like hes driving the runaway train and the American People are the passengers. Well, exactly. And, you know, what is one of the things that particularly is disturbing to me about this incident, in addition to just the central fact thats the most disturbing thing, that he just blurted this stuff out. These transparent word games that the staff and general mcmaster are playing after the fact. And that so shortsided. Theyre trying to win a fraction of a news cycle when its clear to anybody who parses the sentences that theyre not denying the substance and eventually theyre going to have to fes up to the Intelligence Committee. Its going to come out. That started day one, though. It started day one with sean spicer being pushed out, telling something that he knew was a lie, putting pictures up, talking about crowd sizes. Then they came out with a lie about 3 million votes stolen. This has been going nonstop. Then you have the obama lie on twitter. It goes on and on. I was thinking, its like a perfect circle. The first day, people not taking questions is the theme here. First we have spicer out on the first day on crowd size, comes out and yells at everybody. Doesnt take questions. Now rolling down the road we have mcmaster on matters of grave National Security come out and not taking questions. Every surrogate this man has winds up getting pulled down with him. Mcmaster has a sterling reputation. These guys are now being forced to defend a guy whose judgment is really in question. And after thats exactly what i was going to say. One week ago, if you were an american watching this, why would you take anyone at his or her word, even an honorable man like general mcmaster . He may not be going out there saying something that he knows not to be true but the next day or the day after, the president could come out and Say Something that would blow it up. As president i wanted to share with russia at an openly scheduled white house meeting which i have the absolute right to do. Facts pertaining to terrorism and Airline Flight safety. Humanitarian reasons. Plus i want russia to greatly step up their fight against isis and terrorism. So he says he has the absolute right to do what he did in that meeting, sharing the information with the russians. Clint, does that wash . No. He only does this with russia. Who else does he share with, compliment or try to help . Maybe turkeys leader when he comes today. He only responds to authoritarians. He grandizes them. He wants to hurt those who help us and help those who hurt us. It doesnt make sense to go to the russians to try to impress them to help us in that fight. David ignatius, whats your response to the president s latest tweets . I think he does have the right to share, declassify intelligence. Thats what president s get to do, as he chooses it. There are very few limits on it. We trust in his discretion. On that point, youve got to give it to him. On the larger point, President Trump is trying to partner in some way with russia and syria. There are deep doubts about whether thats a wise policy for the United States. Trump, in that amazing series of pictures that we saw, smiling, kind of smirking with the russian leadership, seems convinced that its the right thing to do. Among other things, i think theres a need for real debate about whether thats good policy before it goes too far. I also maam concerned that aa very base level this president gets excited when someone is powerful, no matter whether the person is destructive, a murderer, a dictator, an authoritarian. He just loves the power and thinks its cool, like some fifth grader. Its not just power. Actually, gene, he admires au autocrats. Why is turkeys leader coming to the white house today . The leader of the philippines. He admires murderers, people who murder journalists, people that jail journalists, people that go out and randomly kill people in the street and brag about it. This is who donald trump looks up to as leaders. You know, it is. He obviously conflates power with virtue in a way that is just wrong. Its like money. Thats just plain wrong. I would just point one thing out about those tweets. The story just changed. The story just changed from he didnt do it to he had a right to do it. The story just changed. So, mcmaster lied . So, general mcmaster is already hanging out to dry. Im just asking, was he put out there to not tell the truth . Huh . What did you say . Was general mcmaster put out there like all the others . Lets be exact. It was a nondenial denial. And so did he lie . No. Did he state something very carefully to put up a smoke screen . Yes, he did. Great. Does that reflect just as poorly on him . Yes, it does. So we see this again, gene. Again, you have the Vice President of the United States, have you all the president s Communication Team go out last week, Say Something. The president made them out to be a liar the next morning. This is what he has done once again. A denial, nondenial denial last night from, i think, a man that probably is one of the most respected people in the white house. And this morning donald trump chops him off at the knees. Were just seeing whats amazing, were seeing a repetition one week later of exactly what happened last week on the comey stuff. Sarah Huckabee Sanders coming out, weaving this story, giving the president clearance or telling him to fire comey and then the sight of the Vice President up on capitol hill doing that as well. Then he sits down with lester holt and blows them up. This is going to be a pattern that he has. And, let me ask you something. He will do a reset. My reporting shows its going to be very hard for this man to get a really competent new better team in because who is going to want to walk into this firestorm . Who in washington its not the team that needs to be replaced. Of course not. Its donald trump. But donald trump blows his team up and then is angry at his team for being on fire when hes the one that keeps lighting the match. And what is general mcmaster thinking right now . I went out last night, put my reputation on the line. I had a carefully worded statement, a nondenial denial. And donald trump this morning has just gone out and said yeah, i did it. Hes thinking the same thing the Vice President has thought several times in the first four months. Ive been sent out on two major stories to tow the line and tell a story that turned out not to be true. How long do i put my reputation at stake . Do the right thing. Glenn thrush, gene robinson, tim watts, thank you all. Glenn, i have to say in person, youre very thin. Youre very healthy. You take care of yourself. Its like an hourglass figure this guy has. So what they do to you on saturday night live is not nice. Its not fair. Ahh. Same guy. You think hes stuffing the shirts. Do you think im going to talk about this . Because, look, i mean, look hes saying maybe send out a spokesman. Glenn, you need to eat. Everybody, stop. Well talk to senator joe manchin and representative Eric Swalwell. First, a republican who is not oh afraid to speak truth to power. Look at this. While juggling. Senator ben sasse joins us, more than a year after urging his party not to nominate trump. Churchill could do that, speak truth to power while juggling. He joins us to talk about what he says is an endangered species, the american adult, as he juggles. Well be right back. Well explain that next. Tech when your windshield needs to be fixed. Trust safelite autoglass. For these parents, driving around was the only way to get their baby to sleep. So when their windshield got cracked. Customer we cant drive this car. Tech . They wanted it fixed right. So they scheduled with safelite. Our exclusive trueseal Technology Means a strong, reliable bond, every time. At safelite, we stand behind our work. Bye, bye. 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Yasss queen what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the National Medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity . [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today. ] [. Rumors of the new discovery. ] what if we lived in a world like that . crowd applauding we know a place thats already working on it. Whats the story behind Green Mountain coffee and fair trade . Lets take a flight to colombia. This is boris calvo. Boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm and invest in his community to make even better coffee. All for a smoother tasting cup. Green mountain coffee. President trump gave a commencement speech. It actually reminded me of elwoods speech from legally blond. See if you can tell what i mean. We take the next steps into the world. You must go forth into the world. It is with passion. Passion. Courage of conviction. Courage of your conviction. And most importantly. Most importantly. Have faith in yourself. Be true to yourself. We did it i did it. That was great. No way. Are you serious . Senator ben sasse the vanishing american adult our coming of age crisis and how to build a culture of self reliance. I had no idea this was about donald trump. Perfect timing. But the headline, the vanishing american adult. Youve been strong, independent and youve stated how you felt, issue by issue by issue. We had more republicans last night come out, bob corker talking about how the white house is going down a dangerous path. How concerned are you with the news of the headlines today . You know, sources and methods are the lifeblood of the Intelligence Community. The world is a broken place and we need spies around the globe. You want to be sure that cia station chiefs around the globe, that their word is taken seriously. Theres a lot we dont know about this story yet. Try to express how concerned you are that this white house comes out with a narrative, firing of comey, it was the Deputy Attorney generals fault. Next day the president says no, i made the decision myself. So he makes the entire team, including mike pence, good man, all liars. He made mcmaster a liar. I havent been on twitter in the last seven minutes. Thank god. And the world seems to turn every seven minutes. You standing upside down or whatever you do on your twitter thing is impressive. Wrestling coach, walking on our hands was a prerequisite to driving in our house. You had to walk on your hands before you got the keys to the car. We live like a people without a history. Without a history and a future. Were always in the moment and act like were not going to accountable for our actions three days, three weeks or three months ago or three days, three weeks or three months into the future. What message do you have to send to the president about the importance of telling the American People the truth from the start . First of all, there are a lot of really good people that work for the president. He has appointed a number of really strong, honorable people. We dont seem to be tending those of us who are supposed to be public servants. Its not supposed to be the center of the world. Its a place for public servants. We need to be tending to the public trust. We need to be asking five and ten years from today when all of our Public Institutions are so distrusted, are we going to do more to restore that trust or erode it . Both of these Political Parties stand for so little thats long term right now. Your phrase was day trading all the time. It feels like the Political Class is always day trading. Theres polling recently when you ask the American People are you a republican or democrat . Do you identify with the republicans or democrats . You dont give them the choice, none of the above. 46 of the public interrupts to say none of the above. The public wonders whats wrong with these people, where are the adults . Not trying to pivot to the book but if it work. Well get there in a second. Expertly done. Good call. Good call. But well get there. Whos word to take out of the white house. Whose word do you take in the white house . A lot of people when i speak to them privately, i believe theyre trustworthy. Right now when people are trying to figure out how to manage the media frenzy that they often create and exacerbate on a threehour basis, i dont watch a lot of that stuff. When general mcmaster came out and said, quote, it didnt happen, should the American Public take him at his word . General mcmaster is a really, really great public servant, honorable man. I havent been in the skiff yet. I havent had a classified briefing about what happened. I only heard from my team on the phone late last night. Theres a lot i dont know. Its a pretty technical quote, mcmasters quote, something quite different from a full rebuttal of the story. He tried to weave his way through it but trump tweeted, basically admitting that he did it this morning, to joes point, undermining everybody. Youve been forthright and outspoken about what trump has done. Where arer your colleagues . Why are we not hearing more about jim comey, the allegation that he was tape bid obama, the allegation that he may have taped comey. Now this. Why are your colleagues not being more forceful in their views . Im not sure how a lot of people make their decisions. Im a newbie, one of five who have never been a politician before, third or fourth conservative in my voting record but im not very partisan. I dont start with my party label anywhere near the core of my identity. Both of these parties have contributed to inoculating the public against lying for quite some time this isnt a new thing in the last 120 days. No, its not. The erosion of public trust is accelerating but this isnt new. Both of these parties going back decades now regularly act like your main duty is to if here is the truth and you think the other side is going to say this, youre supposed to say this to counterbalance it. I think thats a bunch of hooey. Thats not how we were raised in nebraska. Say what you think is true and persuade people to come alongside of you. Dont counterbalance one falsehood with another. Lets talk about the vanishing of the american adult. Youve expressed things like, for instance, civics isnt taught. Were detached from our heritage. You have protests on campus, people screaming and yelling. And if its middlebury, beating up professors if they dont like what theyre going to hear. Whats happened . When do you believe this phenomenon started . Were the richest people at the richest time in all of history. Working class folks have extraordinary resources in human history. Thats a great thing to be insulated against deprivation. Were raising our kids without clear distinction in our gut between production and consumption. On consumption we dont distinguish between need and want. We dont teach our kids that scar tissue is something to be celebrated. If you get stitches, dont hurt your neck and have permanent damage to your spine, we think we got away with something. Theres a characterbuilding moment that came from that. Scar tissue is the foundation of character and were not doing enough. This book is beating up on millenials. Were all for beating up on millenials. I have heard complaints from Family Members and friends, especially young women, talking about how their boyfriend or their fiance is with his friends and ive heard this time and again. Playing video games for three, four, five, six hours a day. When is he going to look for a job . What a mess. I dont know when hes going to look for a job. This actually is its not just anectdotal. Males 18 to 34, the same group of people that liberated europe from hitler are now at home, playing video games, by and large. Immature and stunted. Its been interesting. Just like this book isnt about politics, 100 not about the president or politics. It wasnt at all about gender. The book comes out today. The vanishing american adult. As ive been talking about it the last three or four days, ive had 20 something young women come up to me and say some version of that. 18 to 34yearold males spend half their waking hours on video games and ive had a bunch of young women say i have had 15 dates in a row and every one of them is a man baby. Theyre not ready to be husbands. Anything. Equals. I dont think thats universally true but we have to recognize tds hard to tell 10, 15 and 20yearolds apart and theres new in history. Do you think there should be National Service or something across the board for all Young Americans to serve for a year or two . We should have a big debate about that. Im not there yet. But its interesting. I was in israel two years ago. And i was at an iron dome installation. I was expecting these hul can king 35yearold warriors would come out of the installation and it was two 17yearold girls, soldiers. Long brown hair. My daughters are 15 and 13 and im thinking these are warriors, explaining to me the way the missile installation works. That night im at a dinner party in tel aviv, and im asking, how are you going to pick where you go in military service and what do you think of americans . And they ended up in this long story where they said we play video games with our cousin on long island. We know that video games are video games. Since we have to go to war next year, we would never think that video games might be near the center of life and our cousins sometimes talk in a different way about this being where life is centered. I want our kids to go to the mountain top not just see the mountain top on their friends instagram. Its unbelievable. David ignatius. I am just over the past year i have so moved to the direction of supporting National Service as a way to unify this country. 100 . To bring it together to get 18 to 20yearolds working hard and, yes, i would have my children do it as well. David ignatius. Senator, to return to the topic weve been discussing this morning, the president took an oath of office on january 20 to faithfully execute the office of president. Those were the words he spoke. As we look at the behavior in this meeting with Russian Foreign minister ambassador and what appears to have been the disclosure of intelligence information, do you think that he is faithfully executing the office of president . Are you beginning to wonder that . Its not helpful that this was with the russians. Its just weird. They want to exacerbate our internal distrust of each other. Putin is the enemy of the freedom of speech, press and assembly, the beatinging heart of what america means. Theres technical stuff that happened in this meeting we dont yet know about. One of the basic duties of someone in a Public Office and has a public trust responsibility should be to be celebrating what america is about and to be telling that story. Right now, washington isnt doing any of that. The vanishing american adult our coming of age crisis and how to rebuild a culture of self reliance. Senator ben sasse, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for what you do every day. We have much more on the president tweeting moments zblag and saying i appreciate what hes doing every day. Willie, of course, you know im talking about juggling. The juggling was amazing. Impressive. Very good. Can you walk on your hands . I dont think im allowed to do that. My wife would be angry about that if i did that in public. The way i got out of the fields was becoming a lifeguard and prerequisite to lifeguarding is juggling. And walking on hands before driving. Fields. Birth some cattle. The whole thing. All right. While were at it. Thank you very much, senator sasse. The president tweeting moments ago that he had, quote, absolute right to share that highly classified intelligence with russian officials that the white house is begging the Washington Post not to divulge. And please feel free to call your National Security and two scholars about that. Morning joe is back in a moment. Tomorrow, why dont we drive up the coast to that little seafood place and whats the matter . My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. Were bombing the at 1800, coming in from the north below the radar. When will you be back . I cant tell you that. Its classified. How to win at business. Step one point decisively with the arm of your glasses. Abracadabra. The stage is yours. Step two choose la quinta. The only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free nightinstantly and win at business. I needed something more to help control my type 2 diabetes. My a1c wasnt were it needed to be. So i liked when my doctor told me that 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 suppose to do, release its own insulin. 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. Do not take trulicity if you or a Family Member has had medullary thyroid cancer, if youve had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to trulicity. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have a lump or swelling in your neck, severe pain in your stomach, or symptoms such as itching, rash, or trouble breathing. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis, which can be fatal. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin, increases your risk for low blood sugar. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite and indigestion. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may make existing kidney problems worse. Onceweekly trulicity may help me reach my blood sugar goals. With trulicity, i click to activate whats within me. If you want help improving your a1c and blood sugar, activate your within. Ask your doctor about onceweekly trulicity. We actually have some footage of the president talking to an adviser. Lets roll it. Lets run it right now. Tomorrow, why dont we drive up the coast to that little seafood place and whats the matter . My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. Were bombing the storage depots at daiquiri at 1800 hours. Were coming in from the north below their radar. When will you be back . I cant tell you that. Its classified. Ted striker. Oh, my god. Up next we have to get mike our producer, mike. Up next, congressman Eric Swalwell. And that minor detail about the firing of the fbi director. Hes on the Intel Committee trying to pull the thread of it all. Well be right back. With the fbi, theyve already found the string. And theyre pulling on it, based on my contacts inside the fbi and theyre starting to tug on that string. All right. Theyre going to keep tugging. Theyre going to keep going and its axccelerated because o the way he fired comey. Im going to find it. Whatever it is, whatever thread you left behind, however small, the one that threatens everything you are. We both know its out there. You know exactly what it is. You were talking about sleepless nights. Its what youll wake up thinking about in the dark, shaking, because im going to find it. You know i will. And im going to pull on it, and im going to pull on it until your whole [ bleep ] world unravels. Weve done well in life, with help from our advisor, we made it through many market swings. Sure we could travel, take it easy. But weve never been the type to just sit back. Not when weve got so much more to give when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. New neutrogena®first accident. Rapid wrinkle repair wrinkles . Your time is up with the proven power of retinol. Reduces wrinkles in just one week. Neutrogena® but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. 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 . But weve got the get tdigital tools to help. Now with xfinitys my account, you can figure things out easily, so you wont even have to call us. Change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. Add that premium channel, and watch the show everyones talking about, tonight. And the bill you need to pay . Do it in seconds. Because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. Go to xfinity. Com myaccount thats what the president s position is. Given that you refuse to confirm or deny any of this, how is any senior official supposed to feel comfortable having a conversation with the president . As i said, hallie, the president has made his position clear. Hallie, i answered the question over and over again the same way. How has the president made it clear what his position is . Ive answered that several time. How has he made it clear . Thats his position. He said he has nothing further to add. Lord. Sean spicer yesterday, not answering questions on whether the housemaid secret recordings. Why cant they answer that . Why cant they answer that . Because they cant answer anything. Basic question. And im not exaggerating. Donald trump has secret recordings . Does he . Does he or doesnt he . They taught news law school he who does not deny admits. Right . On Something Like this, this is like, again, nixonian. Why cant they deny this . Its like the tax returns. When you play coy, you leave open the possibility that you are hiding something. Just say whether or not you are doing it. This is a simple one. Either there are or there arent. If there are, he should say there are and get on with it. Joining us now, House Intelligence Committee, democratic congressman Eric Swalwell of california. Good morning, gang. Wow so where do we begin . I honestly dont know where to begin. What most concerns you about this white house that appears to be in meltdown mode . What concerns me is that the cost of this president s ties to russia is becoming our National Security. And thats a price that we just cannot afford to pay. Its very hard to explain why russias interference in our campaign this last election should be something we cant tolerate and affects all of us. But people have a pretty easy time understanding why the president should not be disclosing National Security secrets to an enemy when those secrets could affect american lives. So i think a line was crossed and we need to know now, in congress, just exactly what was told and what does this mean for the future of information sharing with allies and for the troops are serving abroad. Congressman, its willie geist, good to see you up early for us in california this morning, good to see you. Youre on the house Intel Committee. What are your specific concerns about what President Trump admitted to doing, which is communicating this information to the Russian Foreign minister and the Russian Ambassador to the u. S. . Willie, when i look back, when we all look back on this a few years from now, well first say, why were the russians in the white house . And i mean that seriously, willie. They had just attacked our democracy the day before the meeting the fbi director investigating their interference campaign was fired. Why was it okay for them to be there . And their being there is exactly what we have all feared all along, is donald trump would Say Something to them that is not really in line with u. S. Policy. They are not our friends. Whether its what they are doing in ukraine, syria, what they are alleged to be doing in afghanistan and supporting the taliban and killing american soldiers, they are not our friends. We should share nothing more than pleasantries, certainly not National Security secrets. Good morning, congressman. What do you think the it is that mcmaster didnt say happened during the meeting . I dont know, this is another example of the president s team trying to help him out and then being undercut by the president s very own words. We saw this last week over the firing of director comey with Vice President pence and sean spicer and others trying to put forward a reason that the president ended up saying wasnt true, so what we want now is for the people who were in that room to come to congress and tell us just exactly what was exchanged with the russians, what programs that the u. S. Had right now are affected and compromised, and what were going to do to protect Intelligence Officers and american troops who are in the battlefield and could be affected by this. Congressman, steve ratner. Democrats are, obviously, in a minority in the house and the senate as well as, of course, not having the white house. This talk about independent councils, commissions, discharge petitions, all these different ways of trying to get to the truth, but how can the democrats given their position actually influence this outcome and getting the truth out . Steve, were not powerless, and the founders actually envisioned this scenario where you would have an out of control president , so thats why congress cant act as a check, so this week we are calling for the independent Commission Vote to be forced. This is legislation that Elijah Cummings and i wrote back in december, foreseeing that the president would be a real impediment to getting to the bottom of what happened. We also in the Judiciary Committee where i served can call and ask for a special prosecutor. Eliot engel and i have written legislation weeks ago calling for a freeze in relationship changes with russia, meaning there should be no russian reward and until the investigation is complete we shouldnt do anything to help the russians. We are not powerless and were supported by the American People, whose concerns are being more and more amplified every day. Three out of four people support this country, an independent commission to get to the bottom of whats going on with russia. Were following breaking news. Moments ago the president defended his quote, absolute right to share highly classified intelligence with russia. The Washington Post reports trump tweets seem to admit he revealed classified information to russia, contradicting white house staff statements last night. That just now broke from the Washington Post. The question now is, did his National Security adviser mislead the American People last night when he denied the report, or did he leave just enough room for the president to do what he did this morning, change the story . Were going to break it all down, were going to speak live with a member of the senate Intelligence Committee, senator joe manchin. Eric, thank you very much. Well be back live right after the break. Anything, text me. Do you play . Use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. You got next . Chase. Helping you master whats now and whats next. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams. Theyre handing us more than mail. Theyre handing us their business. And while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country we never forget. That your business is our business. The United States postal service. 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The chaos that is being created by the lack of discipline is creating an environment that i think makes it creates a worrisome environment. The chairman of the Senate Foreign relations committee, bob corker, reacting to another damaging report from the Trump White House. Mika, he talked about the chaos. Its constant. Downward spiral and how its worrying. Lets talk about what we have learned in the last 30 minutes. Once again, another selfinflicted wound by the president. And an undermining of a member of his cabinet. Once again cutting the knees out from under one of the most respected people, not only in this white house, but all of washington. He sends out mcmaster, general mcmaster yesterday, a man who has served this country honorably for decades to go out and say, you know, this storys false, we really didnt do anything. It was a very artful dodge. This morning the president of the United States tweets out confirming that he did pass along sensitive intel, and he says as president i wanted to share it and i had the absolute right to do so. So the advice for the president needs to be stop talking and stop tweeting. Literally, stop talking. But he did stop talking. Again, he did the same thing last week where he told everybody were going to blame this on the Deputy Attorney general, they all go out, mike pence is basically told a lie, which he repeats on capitol hill seven times. Sean spicer repeated it. Sarah huckabee, they all repeated it, and the president then burned them. He has thrown everybody in the white house under the bus, and he did it again this morning. With us to break it down, former special assistant to president obama, former spokesperson and senior director for the National Security adviser rick price, msnbc contributor rick tyler, former aide to george w. Bush white house and state departments elise jordan. So the president is weighing in on a the Washington Post report revealing he revealed highly classified information to the Russian Foreign minister and ambassador in a facetoface meeting last week. According to the paper, the information had originally been provided by a u. S. Partner through an intelligencesharing arrangement considered so sensitive details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the u. S. Government. The foreign partner had not given the u. S. Permission to share the material with russia, and trumps decision to do so reportedly endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. Officia officials told the post trump revealed the city and Islamic State s territory where the intelligence partner detected the threat. The Washington Post is withholding that location, along with most plot details at the urging of officials within the Trump Administration, who warned it would jeopardize important intelligence capabilities. A u. S. Official said this is code word information, terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels. So, ned price, first of all, the white house actually showed its hand last night when they quickly and desperately reached out to the head of the cia and the head of the nsa, alerting them to the facts that some highly classified information had been released. The white house at the same time furiously pushing back, calling the Washington Post liars, saying this never happened, sending out general mcmaster, who does a nondenial denial, and this morning, the president undercuts everybody and says, yes, i did pass along classified information. Case closed here . Well, joe, the other thing the white house did yesterday is they requested that the Washington Post omit key details. And in doing so, the irony here is the Washington Post showed more discretion than President Trump did in his discussion with the russians over this threat. So, look, i think what the president has done this morning is absolutely undercut the denials and the carefully worded statements we have heard yesterday. Not only from h. R. Mcmaster, not only from dina powell, not only from secretary tillerson, but all of this administrations surrogates claiming that theres nothing to see here, this is more fake news. Look, h. R. Mcmaster is one of the most respected voices in our National Security establishment. He wrote a book called der election of duty and the sub head is the lies that led to vietnam. I think in light of all of this we can envision a book written 20, 30 years from now that will involve this whole cast of characters that will tell a very sorry tale. The president tweeted last hour this, mika . As president , i wanted to share with russia at an openly scheduled white house meeting, which i have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and Airline Flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus i want russia to greatly step up their fight against isis and terrorism. Compare that to last night when the National Security adviser appeared before the cameras to push back on the report. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time, were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known. To other senior officials were president , including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Their accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources, and i was in the room, it didnt happen. Again, a nondm denial, but the president of the United States this morning said it did happen. Now, if youre a republican on capitol hill, elise jordan, if you are a member of the conservative media class, why do you keep setting yourself up to let this guy knock your head off . We saw last night some conservatives saying, okay, hold on, wait a second. Now, this sounds a lot like the Deputy Attorney general last week. Im not so sure im comfortable going out. This is an erosion of support and confidence that is sure to follow with his own base. Unless you are one of the most pathetic craven apologists whose name i will not repeat on this air, why would you ever believe this guy again, or this white house again . I mean, and you can see the deterioration of support among republicans. It started. You did not have people coming out last night in robust droves saying, oh, were being President Trump on this one. It started, and the sad part of it to me is just watching someone like h. R. Mcmaster get up, make a Statement Like that, say he was in the room and it did not happen, then gets immediately undercut by the man in charge. So it just, you know, someone is lying here. Who is it . Trump once again, we dont have to have a special prosecutor on these things because trump tells you. Yes, i fired, killed the investigation. Yes, i revealed top secret information. Willie, why would his press people, why would any general anymore put their neck out on the line to have their ros rosenstein, from what i hear, one of the great reputations of any lawyer in washington, d. C. Got it sullied in a week. Trump trashed his reputation in a week. Whats interesting about mcmaster, too, he was there, he was in the room, so he doesnt have to decipher or hear ten versions of the story and figure out what he believes to be true. He was sitting in on that conversation, so by going out there, hes saying a firsthand account this does not happen. He did say the president didnt reveal sources or methods, which gives him wiggle room and doesnt really answer the charges made in the Washington Post that donald trump exposed by saying what he said intel. I think mcmaster can certainly be true. The problem is were caught in legalisms and the president has a legal right to reveal classified information. He said he had the absolute right, but i would question that. He doesnt have the absolute right to compromise National Security. He doesnt have the absolute right to compromise intel sources and personnel around the globe, and thats what hes done. Mcmaster is right saying he didnt name the person, but sbemgt people can find out who these people are, and if i were that person, id be getting out of dodge. If were debating semantics here and whats true and parsing language, then hes lost the argument. Just because the general thrust and what is being put out there isnt true and people right now are saying, listen, this is wrong, this is messed up. Lets get to the bottom of it. Theres just no tolerance. This administration has credibility. The second part is hes shredding people who have integrity around him and who is going to get on the Television Like this morning, i dont know whos defending the president this morning. By the way, for republican friends on capitol hill watching this, i notice something happened here at msnbc thats never happened before. We have three people registered republicans. I dont know if any of yall have voted for a democrat in a president ial election. I never have. None of us ever have. We are the ones that are talking to you about donald trump. And by the way, Donald Trumps a democrat, i didnt vote for him either, so i still have a perfect record of never voting for a democrat for president of the United States, and yet three republicans right here. Is it not time for paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell and republicans in congress to step up and do the right thing for the sake of this country . Even corker wasnt full throated. He was really struggling. He was really struggling. Corker was tougher tougher than the rest of them. Its horribly overdue. Im just going to go back and say this is the fault of the rnc for letting donald trump into our nominating process in the first place. Hes a democrat. He wouldnt have been able to run on his own as an independent and win the presidency. We own this and we need to fix it. We need to do something and to force this president to behave with integrity. So who is going to do it . I dont think he can. Who has the authority . Barry goldwater walked down to the white house and told Richard Nixon this is over. Im not saying this is over, but whos the republican that steps out and goes down to the white house and says, you either start putting people around you that control your worst impulses, or were going to make your life a living and breathing hell on the other side of pennsylvania avenue, and we will constrain you ourselves. And we will take the chance next year when we run for reelection and explain that we stood up to a lifelong democrat that had a hostile takeover through the Republican Party because our commander in chief was divulging secrets to our biggest enemy across the globe, putting peoples lives at risk, putting our National Security at risk, and firing fbi directors that started to expand investigations into russia. Why cant they do that . Think about what youre protecting, republicans right now, by standing with donald trump on this. This is not politics, this is not to piss off the left. This is protecting a president leaking classified information to as you said, our greatest enemy. After you spent a year and a half, the entire thrust against Hillary Clinton was she had a home brewed server and may have exposed intelligence to hackers, perhaps to russia. Now we have a direct example of the president speaking to russia. Boasting. Are you going to stand up and defend that . Has any republican done that yet . I havent seen that. Criticized him . No, come out this morning and said im standing by the president. No, but their silence is telling. Thats true, i agree. Mika, you spent a year and a half getting abused by democrats going after Hillary Clinton because shes so recklessly handled her server. Its not like were picking on donald trump for doing this. You hammered Hillary Clinton for a year and a half for being reckless with classified information, as did donald trump, as did republicans. This takes reckless to a whole new level. If you look at the pictures and see them chumming it up, shaking hands, grabbing each others shoulders. He thinks this is a country club and this is a bunch of stooges selling them land and he can give them Little Information to get a deal going. This is russia this is russia and today you meet with turkeys leader. God knows whats going to come out of his mouth. Republicans need to be a little worried about their president. Members of the president s cabinet might want to talk to each other. You guys might want to think about it. Elise im dead serious. Elise, context matters here. Mika, lets show these pictures again. Donald trump meets with the Russian Foreign minister and with the ambassador from russia to the United States, a man whose phone call led to the firing of a National Security adviser, a historic moment, and whose meeting with the attorney general led to his recusal. This meeting in the oval Office Without u. S. Reporters, with only russian reporters, with with cameras and other equipment that caused great concern to National Security experts, that they could go into the most sensitive room in the United States of america, all of this happened the day after donald trump fired the fbi director who is requesting an expansion of an investigation into Donald Trumps ties putin asked for that meeting. To russia. Why was he there . Do we have the clip . Well play this clip and then elise respond. Why did they have this meeting . Donald trump tells us. When i spoke with putin, he asked me whether or not i would see lavrov. Now, should i say no im not going to see him . I said i will see him. During that discussion with la r lavrov, i think we had a great discussion having to deal with syria, having to deal with ukraine, and maybe that discussion will lead to a lot less people getting killed and will lead ultimately to peace. Tie those things together over a 48hour time period, i will say it, hes not well. No. He does not understand the consequences of his actions. He does not remember from one day to the next what his narrative is. And he doesnt care. He blows everybody up around him. He doesnt care. He doesnt care, because i dont think, again, from people ive been talking to inside the white house, especially over the weekend, they say the situation has gotten much more dire over the last three weeks. Well, hes behaving like a loose cannon who has no idea of the gravity of the power he holds. He doesnt care. Its not important to him. Its absolutely mind boggling. Cool being popular and shaping the truth to make it look like lots of people watch him on television and come to his rallies. Thats important to him. He doesnt care. You know what bothers me about those photos . Those are russian propaganda photos. That photo right there, thats russian propaganda photo. Thats a huge asset right now. Putin is opening up the vodka and champagne, they are having a great time. These are russian propaganda photos. Hes made the presidency a joke. This happened because hes boasting, because he was bragging, he couldnt control his mouth for the preservation for american National Security, and someones going to die. And most likely, if you talk to the Intel Community, ned price, someones going to die. I mean, ive had friends in the Intel Community through the years, who have talked about how painstaking it is to find somebody who might be a human resource, and then you have to take them and be with them for six months in an isolated location sometimes to make sure they get their story right. To make sure they dont mess up. To make sure they have their cover. And you keep going. And so much money, millions and millions of dollars put in to this person, this human resource, and then they are sent in. And sometimes the first time they go in, its not a natural fit, they have to come back out. So then theyll send them in a second and third and fourth time and maybe if they are lucky theyll meet a friend of a cousin of the target and they will wind their way there through a mosque or some other way. Its one of the most difficult things, the great men and women in our Intel Community do, and donald trump blew it all up, this operation. And most likely has cost lives just to boast in the white house. Talk about the impact, the shattering impact on our Intel Community. Its absolutely shattering. Look, theres a sacred covenant between clandestine assets and their handlers, whether its a cia or any other relationship in the world, that covenant is based on the fact that we provide them safety and security and perhaps financial remuneration. They in turn commit treason, they commit treason against their governments, against the terrorist organizations which they belong. They put their lives at risk, quite literally, in fact, and if it becomes known or suspected that the u. S. Government is careless, that we are reckless, that we are not living up to our end of the bargain, no one is going to work for us any longer. We are going to lose valuable intelligence that has over the years, and especially since 9 11, saved american lives. All right, ned price, thank you very much. Thank you so much, ned. Willie, again, context. We have to keep this in context, because things move so quickly, and he is so reckless. This is a president that trashed the men and women of the cia, compared them to nazis. Trashed the men and women of the fbi. Humiliated their director. He found out while speaking to a group of fbi agents in l. A. , and hes been at war with the Intel Community from his campaign forward. Even as you speak, hes begun to tweet to go into who the leakers are in the Intelligence Community. Its not the fact he said something in that room, its the fact he wants to know whos behind this inside the Intel Community. Hes actually the leaker. Hes the one that leaked this Sensitive Information to our number one enemy. Stop watching tv and stop tweeting. One more question, if general mcmaster can get up before the press today, whoevers up before the press today, if you werent worried about what was said in the room and sources and methods were not revealed, why was the white house furiously calling around to the cia, to the National Security council, head of the cia, to warn them that the president had said something in that room that he shouldnt have said . To save lives. Coming up, well hear from the the Washington Post reporter that broke the story and the member of the senate Intelligence Committee, joe manchin joins us live. Youre watching morning joe, well be right back. Whats the story behind Green Mountain coffee and fair trade . Lets take a flight to colombia. This is boris calvo. Boris grows mindblowing coffee. 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Because she knows that when its cold outside. Its good food and good company that keep you warm inside. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. But weve got the get tdigital tools to help. Now with xfinitys my account, you can figure things out easily, so you wont even have to call us. Change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. Add that premium channel, and watch the show everyones talking about, tonight. And the bill you need to pay . Do it in seconds. Because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. Go to xfinity. Com myaccount at least he launched into this part of the conversation in a boastful way. He was bragging about i get the best intel, i have these amazing great briefings every day, you wouldnt believe the stuff i hear. He goes through this discussion and the particulars are highly sensitive. Hes talking about the ways that the Islamic State is putting together this threat, the ways that it is pursuing this plot that has to do with bringing laptops, using laptops as explosives on an airplane, and beyond that, he reveals the specific city inside the Islamic State s territory where this intelligence was gleamed, so that was the real source of alarm. Then he wraps it up by saying talking about the countermeasures, the u. S. Military operations under way to suppress this threat, the other countermeasures including the laptop ban that could be extended, and kind of jokes his way out of it saying can you believe the world we live in . Boy, 25 years ago you didnt have to worry about this stuff. Yeah, we didnt. That was the Washington Post reporter greg miller speaking with us early this morning. His story about the intel that the president shared with the russians has wiped all other news off the front page today. So, i mean, think about that, though. The waterfall of news stories caused by this president stepping on each story with a worst story about himself. Look at this, the boston globe, president linked to classified release. I think were in a situation the Washington Post, trump revealed secret intelligence to russia. We have a presidency melting down. Heres the headline from New York Times, trump is said to have exposed allies secrets to russia. The wall street journal nothing there above the fold. Lets see there, hold on. Lets see. Innovators dilemma hit higher ed. Heres an important one, teaching your children sun protection. Joining us now from capitol hill, member of the select committee on intelligence. Hold on, hold on. The wall street journal put a story on the front page about teaching children thats got to be yesterdays paper. Got to be. Tuesday, may 16th. They had a good followup story. Is this an Early Edition . This happened, this broke last night at 5 00 or 6 00. Maybe its on the inside. Lets check. Seriously, all right. Hold on a second. Im going in. Great story. They did have a good story. Posted later. Its online . Okay, they didnt want it in the paper. They must didnt get to it. They might have printed that at 5 00 in the afternoon, you dont know. Its top of their website. Okay, all right. Very good. Senator joe manchin is with us from west virginia. Senator manchin, weve been asking questions of republicans, but this isnt about being a republican, this is about being an american first. Tell me, its ironic that donald trump talks about america first, but seems like hes putting russia first when he reveals some of our allies most sensitive secrets about our fight against isis. First of all, good morning to both of you and the entire set. Its good to be with you. Lets put it in perspective, joe, mika. I was on the Armed Services committee for six years prior to this year. I went on the Intelligence Committee. When i went on the Intelligence Committee, they gave me kind of the guidelines and rules to abide by. When you think about it, theres 15 of us then we have two ex officios, which makes 17 members, then you have the majority leader, senator mcconnell, and the ranking minority, which is senator schumer. There are 19 of us that have access to this type of information. That means theres 81 senators i cannot speak to when they ask me a question, i cant talk to them. Even my own staff i cant talk to, so i know the sincerity and also the gravity of what were dealing with here, and i take that very serious. If i breach that, i know ill be thrown off the committee and maybe even more. So, with that being said, i cant even explain the what happens from there, i really cant. Youre at a loss for words . I am. I mean that with all due respect, because we are, as well. Were all americans, and you would think basically we have allies around the world, trusted allies, we have our best trading partner in the world is canada with 35 states being number one. You have basically our ally, the uk, whos been with us in all the wars that weve been involved in and every territorial dispute weve been involved in and you have one of our greatest friends and ally in israel, so we have good friends, allies, and people. Russias not one of them. Russia is not one. They do not have our best interests at heart. We have the leader of turkey coming to visit the president today. Are you at all concerned . Well, you know, we have to have that relationship, but also i understand weve got the kurds over there who are fighting isis. We want to defeat isis, so for the turkey government thinking that their kurds is the number one enemy, not isis, there has to be some, lets say, some negotiations going on there, so we have the same direction. Do you think, i wonder, willie, ill toss it to you, im worried the president wont understand how to conduct a conversation that has complexities to it. Im hoping the security staff around him understands it. It appears that way. I want to ask you, as a democrat whos given the president a chance, saying lets give him some room to learn and some space to learn what it means to be president , have you lost your patience with President Trump . Well, there needs to be better coordination, i can tell you right now, whoevers working or whatever they are doing, they are not doing the job they should be doing to make sure hes understanding the gravity. Senator, they actually go out and deliver the talking points that the president gives them and his staff gives them, then the next day the president runs over them, changes the story. This appears to be a president and by extension a white house thats out of control. Well, joe, basically what we see coming out of the white house is not an orchestrated, basically, movement that they are talking. Its correlated, the security of our nation is first and utmost importance to all of us. With that being said, i can tell you how we operate in the senate, i can tell you my responsibilities as a member of intelligence with my colleagues and staff. I cant tell you what the president can and cant do and cant say the president declassifies anything he deems declassified, and we cant. With that being said, im concerned about the safety and well being for an awful lot of people around the world that work with us in many different ways. Senator manchin, elise jordan here. You made the really good point that you would be kicked off the Intelligence Committee if you shared this information outside of proper channels. Correct. So what kind of repercussions are there when the president of the United States chooses to share classified information that is harmful to american interests . Whats the congressional check on this kind of behavior . Well, first of all, the rules of the senate and the rules of the executive branch and president is much different from what you have been reporting. With that being said, the security of our nation is put at risk any time these types of things, no matter who says them. I know what penalties i face, but also the president s repercussion is the safety of the United States of america, and also the ability for us to gather information to keep our country safe. That is first and foremost and should be from the executive to the president on down. So im not defending, i am not basically jumping on, if you will, but the bottom line, i would say, mr. President , this country depends on you, 330 Million People depend on you to keep it safe and secure. That means having the best flow of information that allows us to protect ourselves and making sure we can stop any attacks that might happen anywhere to an american. This is not the way to conduct that. Senator joe manchin, thank you very much. Still to come, well dig into the potential legal blowback from all of this. Morning joe is coming right back. Sorry about the holdup, folks. We have some congestion on the runway and im being told itll be another 15, maybe 20 minutes, and we will have you on your way. Runway models on the runway . Surprising. Whats not surprising . How much money evan saved by switching to geico. I would not wear that lace. Hmm, i dont know . Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. 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What . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Almost 40 past the hour. Joining us now, professor of constitutional and International Law at harvard, noah feldman, in washington, senior fellow in governance studies at the brookings institutd cofounder and etor in chief of the law fair blog. Thank you for coming in, no news story. We were going to talk about what you all were saying a couple of days ago, lets address whats happened, though, over the past 12 hours. Okay. Benjamin, jump in. Breathtaking story, and its a very grave matter. You know, during the break you flashed on the screen an image of law fair. The last time you put an image of law fare on your show, the president tweeted it and inadvertently tweeted a story that was actually contained sort of devastating and harsh criticisms of him, and i was reminded of that today, because, you know, thats essentially what he did in the oval office with this russian intelligence, only a much, much graver matter. He seems to have blown a major classified program to an adversary foreign power, and thats just a breathtaking breach of faith with the men and women of the american Intelligence Community, so, mr. President , you know, if youre watching, think before you tweet, and really think before you talk about Intelligence Programs to foreign adversaries. Professor feldman, you say that trumps classified disclosure was shocking, bad for the national interests, bad for our National Security, but legal. Explain. Completely legal, because the president is the classifier in chief. That means hes the declassifier in chief and that means if he decides somethings not classified, boom, its unclassified and he couldnt be prosecuted as a result the way you or i would be if we disclosed it. Theres an interesting tweet, say the white house wants to go after whoever disclosed this information. I dont think they could go after this person for having committed a crime because the president s now declassified the information, so leaking it couldnt be a crime since it wasnt a crime when he did it. Benjamin, lets go back to the comey situation. Of course, putting proper context in all of this, that russian meeting happened right after comey was fired. Correct. You guys have written a good bit about that firing, about the president saying that he fired him to end the Russian Investigation, as did Sarah Huckabeesanders. Is that a possible obstruction of justice charge moving forward . Well, so, you know, lets pause and consider the two things you said in connection with one another. Within apparently 48 hours, the president fires the fbi director for reasons he considers, has said, is related to the russia investigation and then meets with the Russian Ambassador and foreign minister and discloses a major Intelligence Program of an allied foreign Intelligence Service. So, you know, if people people should, you know i dont know whether those two facts are connected or not, and, you know, whether removing the fbi director could be considered an obstruction of justice to me really depends how corruptly it was intended to be done and whether it was done with specific intent to obstruct an investigation. Because i dont trust a word the president says, its very hard to know how to take his own comments about it. I would add, however, that within a few days of removing the fbi director, he had apparently threatened him with a tweet about tapes from the oval office. And so i do think theres a series of questions that that the president s conduct with respect to the removal of director comey raises, and we should insist that those questions be answered in a serious way. And one of those questions is whether theres a pattern of obstructive behavior here. So, i want to go back and underline your point that the president did not commit a crime by sharing this information with the russians. How does that process of president ial declassification work . Is it by virtue of it coming out of his mouth that its declassified if he wants it to be, or is there a process in place which it would be declassified first . There is a process and its a bureaucratic one and the president has the authority but doesnt bother to do the declassifying. You could imagine because he didnt follow that process he did something wrong here, but the process is in place because an executive order. An executive order is whatever the president says. So if the president says thats what i did, i declassified it when i said it, thats probably sufficient for it to count as an act of declassification. I know it sounds absurd, but its based on the idea the president has the inherent Constitutional Authority to decide whats classified. The traditional protocol wouldnt matter, necessarily. Exactly, and thats also why we need other kinds of oversight. The bottom line is, where the Constitutional Authority blocks you from prosecuting the president , you need congressional oversight and ultimately you need to think about the possibility of impeachment if you think the president s behavior is incompetent over a long enough period of time. Benjamin, looking at your law fare article and you point out that if this information was given away through carelessness or neglect, this could actually be a violation of the president s oath of office . Yes, i think it is very likely, assuming the stories are correct, of course, that this is a grave breach of the president s oath of office. The president takes an oath to preserve and protect the constitution of the United States, and to in good faith execute the office of the president , and i think a reasonable member of congress or member of the public should really be asking themselves is turning over our most sensitive secrets to an adversary foreign power really acting in good faith in preservation of the constitution and in execution of the president ial office. I think its very likely a grave breach of the president s oath of office. Quickly, how worried should we be about the president s behavior and the lack of reining him in, short of the extreme impeachment measure . We have a structural challenge in place. As long as the president does things that are outside his authority, the courts are working. They are stopping him. The public is making noise. Civil society is working. So to some degree the constitutional system is working. Where we should be really worried is where theres no one to check the president and Foreign Policy is a good example of that. If he makes big mistakes, theres nothing really we can do about it. Noah feldman, benjamin wittes, thank you both. A couple important points, number seven, which is trumps screwup with the russians in the oval Office Raises the stakes for whether he records conversations there. Yes, it does. If there are tapes, we now have a National Security reason to get control of those tapes. Are you listening on capitol hill, republicans . Okay, gentlemen, thank you very much. Thank you so much. We have much more ahead on this developing story. Stay with us. Alright, and befor . 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 . 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Priority you the Top Commander in afghanistan general nicholson has called for more troops to end what he calls a quote stalemate in americas war. In june of 2010 we learned the Top Commander at that time general Stanley Mcchrystal went off script in an interview of Rolling Stone criticizing his commander of president obama and the story unfolded in real time on morning joe. Willie, man, we got some news coming out of afghanistan. Remarkable. The top general over there. Stanley mcchrystal. Trashing the president. Apologizing this morning for a Rolling Stone profile. Crystal appears to react with exasseparation when he receives an email from hol brock. Trashing the ambassador. He rips the obama administration. The lone wolf on the outs with important figures in the white house. There is no alternative. This general has to be fired, he has to be gone by the end of the day. In front of a reporter, willie geist. Its shocking. The executive editor of Rolling Stone. You could argue off record, on record, were there any lines blurred. They knew when we were on the record. They said a lot of stuff off the record thats not in the story. We respected all those boundaries. This is when they knew they were on. Okay. Wow, unless he can tell petraeus and gates he was misquoted they need to fire him today. And by the way yeah. Trip down memory lane. Whoa. Wow. A lot of things i want to say about that. Valerie jarrett said at time in politico, we saw a Mushroom Cloud rising over morning joe and knew we had to do something. That was one of the mornings the story broke, got eric bates, unfolded on tv. General Stanley Mcchrystal resigned the next day. That story is the basis of the new Netflix Original film war machine brad pitt plays a fictional general inspired by the book the operators written by the late journalist Michael Hastings and loosely based on gener general mcchrystal. Heres a clip. You boys are where it actually happens. I would go so far to say you boys are the only things that counts. Doesnt happen here, it doesnt happen, end of story. Yes. What doesnt happen, sir . It, son. Thank you, sir. Does anyone here know what it is . Anyone . Anyone . To secure the area, sir . To protect people from the enemy so they can go about building their lives. Okay. Okay. Thank you, sarge. Okay. But i cant tell the difference between the people and the enemy. They all look alike to me. Im pretty sure theyre the same people, sir. I understand but thats the job. Joining us now is the writer and director of war machine david, along with elise jordan whose late husband Michael Hastings wrote the piece which became this book. Good to have you with us. Thanks for having me. What was so compelling about the story to you as a director . What did you want to say . I had been looking for a way in to one of these modern theaters of war for quite a while. I mean i had assumed it would probably be something akin to all the other movies that seem to get made about modern american war these days. Something about troops on the ground. The experience of men under incredibly trying circumstances and bonding with one another and that kind of stuff. I just i couldnt find the story. It wasnt until brad Pitts Company put michaels book in front of me i suddenly saw a different way in. It was about a much larger machine, all the strat tus of the military and the thing that was most striking to me about michaels book and i was saying this all the time, anyway, in my the research i had been doing for years, none of this made sense, you know. It was just what is the grand illusion at the center of all of this. And, you know, as soon as i started seeing that, i started to i started to see a movie about hubris and vanity and ambition and kind of then, you know, very naturally kind of just moved into the world of comedy. Which is where the movie sits. Elise, i cant help but ask you how youre doing and what youre thinking as you watch michaels work get played out on the big screen, and the story get dug into the complexities of it, the confusion of it . What is your reaction. Im just so incredibly excited the film got made and made with michaels original vision still intact. I feel like david did a really incredible job of capturing michaels humor but also, you know, how he looked at this chaos that he saw on the ground and making some sense of it. I think that that scene you saw with brad pitt asking with the soldiers, with well what is it and no one can still say so many years, 16 years, our longest war and were still considering yet another troop surge in afghanistan and thats why im so grateful that this film got made, that it can reach that michaels book message can reach a broader audience, but also that it can perhaps be influential at a critical time yet again for the debate about wart in afghanistan. I was telling the story eight years ago, eight years ago, when talking about tripling the number of troops in afghanistan, eight years ago, 2009, i told a story of flying with a guy in special ops in 2003, or 2004, and i asked him, are we going to win this thing in afghanistan and he goes, nothing to it. All you got to do is send a million troops into pakistan. Yeah. And he just sat there looking at me like 2004 said basically, we will never win this war because we are fighting the wrong enemy. Its not on the afghanistan side of the boundary. So were chasing ghosts still. Yeah. I mean, its the its it has been said its like wow, its incredible given what seems to be sucking up all the bandwidth these days that this movie is kridsbly timely and for me this movie has been timely for 16 years. And if the election had gone the other way, i think it would still be timely. You know, its this this same pathological inability to admit failure, that there is that there is a great delusion at play and it is it is being perpetuated. I think its unsettling that given all there is a proposed troop surge, that you have youre in a situation where that becomes like second and third and fourth item on the news. This is were in this state of perpetual and the war is the new normal. Desensitized to it. Michael hastings warned in the operators of some of this hubris, but he also painted a portrait of general mike flooin that holds up flynn that holds up really well. This quote about mike flynn joking how he lied to get this security clearance and this book was written in 2010 and then you can see his mission and what mike flynn, as, you know, the fictional depiction of him but this is all in the operators. I feel like michael was ahead of the curve on at lot of this. Thank you, guys, so much. David, thank you. Elise. War machine. We appreciate it. Willie, 30 seconds, where are we right now . The story has wound around again. We got the story from general mcmaster and Rex Tillerson that there was nothing to worry about in that room between the president and the Russian Ambassador and Russian Foreign minister and trump said, in fact, i did say those things in the room and were hearing from the National Security spokesperson who told cbs news, nothing donald trump tweeted this morning reveals that he said anything classified in the room. In other words, we stand by what general mcmaster said. When he says, i revealed classified information basically and i had the right to do that, it continues. It does. And its going to get more complicated for this white house and this country and this world. And that does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Thanks, mika. Good morning. Im stephanie ruhle. We have breaking news to report. Damage control. President trump defending sharing information with the russians. Perhaps even contradicting his own National Security adviser. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. I was in the room. It didnt happen. On capitol hill, shock and anger as members of Congress Search for answers