Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170525

Trump advisers. U. S. Spies picked them up talking about what easy targets trump had around him. A lot to go with, but that first story, isnt that incredible . A guy assaults a reporter, which i guess shouldnt be too surprising in an age of trump where he calls press enemy of the people, these reckless words have consequences. What an amazing story that is. Well hear this candidate in the missouri special election. The vote is today. Excuse me, montana. This candidate also said things sort of trumpian along the way about the press. With us veteran columnist msnbc contributor mike barnicle, executive producer and cohost of the circus john heilemann, nbcs Mark Halperin and former aide to the white house and statement, elise jordan. Willie, can i say the only other thing thats almost as disturbing is what happened out in montana. Mike barnicles tie selection with that shirt. Its an American Flag tie. Oh, is it really . Okay. It just looked like a lot of stuff was going on. I love the flag so much. If you were here, joe, id body slam you. Its a busy look, but it works for barnicle. Today in montana, the states only seat in congress election. Things turned violent. Now one of the candidates has been cited for assault. Ben jacobs is a reporter for the guardian, approached republican candidate Greg Gianforte. Then he says he body slammed him and broke his glasses. Here is the audio the guardian released. The cbo score, youre waiting to make your decision about health care. Ill talk to you about that later. Theres not going to be time. Speak with shane, please. Im sick and tired of you guys. The last guy that came in here, you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. You with the guardian . Yes, you just broke my glasses. You just body slammed me and broke my glasses. Get the hell out of here. Id also like to call the police. Can i get you guys names . He just body slammed me. Quickly after that gianfortes campaign said, tonight as greg was giving a separate interview in a private office, the guardians ben jacobs entered the Office Without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in gregs face and began asking badgering questions. Jacobs decliepd. Greg attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs gregs wrist and spun away from greg pushing them both to the ground. Its unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign barbecue. Joe, why dont i pause there for one second . Its insane. The guy is asking about cbo scoring for a Health Care Bill and how hes going to vote and he completely explodes, beats this guy up, pushes him to the ground. You have fox knew camera crew there verifying thats exactly what happened. Fox News Reporters verifying that. Mike barnicle, im sorry. Yesterday we joked about having to draw a Straight Line from donald trump to some of the things hes being investigated for. You can draw a Straight Line from republican candidates thinking that sort of behavior is okay when you have donald trump berating reporters throughout the entire campaign, suggesting terrible things, calling them using the stalinist term enemy of the people, so offensive that khrushchev outlawed it. You have katy tur, you have cnn, its dangerous for cnn reporters to go into these areas because trump is whipping them into a frenzy. This is not a big leap from what the head of the Republican Party is saying every day and what happened last night in montana. On that Straight Line, joe, you can track all the candidates prior statements about the media, the media is against us, the media is against you, the people. And it leads inevitably to Something Like this and also leads inevitably to such a pathetic statement that the campaign released which discounts the one thing that the media, the press is after, truth. It completely discounts the truth of what happened. He still hasnt answered the question. John heilemann, we knew the cbo score was going to be tough for republicans. We didnt know it was going to be this tough. Already it looks like the First Political casualty. You and mark went across the country t Trump Campaign. You saw the open hostility towards a lot of reporters and how donald trump fanned the flames from up top. Does it surprise you that some hot head trying to be trumplike would have this sort of reaction . I dont want to drift away from the question of root causes, but i will just for a moment. Think about this candidate. Lets focus on him for a minute. Its the evening before his special election. Hes ahead in almost every poll, some narrowly, some by a slightly larger margin. The guy should be in a great state of mind, right . And in the face of a journalist who comes in and asks him some questions relatively innocuous about the cbo score, not about some scandal, not about some personal issue, not some kind of explosive charge, this guy gets physical with the reporter. I dont want to discount the larger context, but this guy obviously has some mental problem and some serious problem of temperament if given everything thats at stake for him and his place in the race, that he couldnt maintain enough composure that he didnt actually physically assault a reporter a few hours before the vote in his election. Theres something wrong with this candidate in a really deep way. Remember, the Campaign Statement said this is a result of aggressive behavior from a liberal reporter. Here is the account from fox news journalist who was in the room with a producer and photo journalist preparing to interview gianforte. She wrote the guardian reporter, ben jacobs walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it into his face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released cbo report. Gianforte said he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted. He told him to talk to his press guy. At that point gianforte grabbed him by the neck with both hands and slammed him to the ground. She and her team watched and gianforte began punching the reporter. As gianforte moved on to be of jacobs, he began yelling Something Like, im sick and tired of this. Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. He asked us or names. Gian for say looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized. Fox News Reporter here went on to say, at no point did any of us show any physical aggression towards gianforte who left the area after giving statements to local sheriffs deputies. Jacobs was examined at the hospital and released. The sheriff did donate 250 to the Gianforte Campaign. So far state Republican Party officials have yet to comment. Mark halperin, lets go back to the fox news account, thats as direct as it gets sitting in the room watching it happen. Well have to wait for the investigation. Its pretty clear that the guy behaved in a horrible way. Theres the gee whiz factor of this, a candidate on the eve of an election attacking a reporter. Theres the issue of politicians verbally and in this case physically attacking reporters. In terms of national politics, this guy probably will still win based on the polling, based on the early vote, and in a weird way that could help republicans. If he wins after this, it suggests in a race where the democrat spent a lot of money, the National Tide is not dead set against him. If he loses, republicans are a little off the hook. The big thing is they recruited a candidate in this race that should not be in the race, a firsttime candidate. This is a bad thing for the Republican Party. The underlying caution he was asked a question about a matter of Public Policy in a perfectly respectful way. Where is the assault charge . Thats what i want to know. And will it be filed today . Its opening up pandoras box with this guy, if hes so unhinged that the night before hes about to win an election he assaults a reporter. Whats going to happen when theres new National Scrutiny put on his background which is inevitably going to happen. Hes been in a relatively minor race in montana. He hasnt had a tough probe yet. Someone who acts like that on a very important night of their career, theyre are going to be other incidents, i presume. You know, elise, we also, as two republicans i think youre still a republican. I am for now. I try to be, but behavior like this tolerating behavior like this, we cant. And the fish rots again from the head. At what point do republicans start criticizing donald trump for attacking federal judges . At what point do republicans start criticizing donald trump for using a stalinist trick calling the press enemies of the people . At what point are republicans going to come out today and distance themselves from a candidate they endorsed and gave money to that beat up a reporter . At what point does our party say enough . I will tell you this is not the party i grew up in. Im not just talking about now. Im talking about the brutish behavior from the top. I want to hear republicans speak out against it starting with paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell and say this is not acceptable and, no, we do not want his vote here. We want no part of this guy. Joe, the cowardice of so many republicans being petrified of the 20 , 30 of hard core Trump Supporters and supporters who are not moving no matter what donald trump does, the party has to get over it if they want to have any viability after 2020. Mike, to your question, the Sheriffs Office did site gianforte for assault. Connecting the dots between trump and this montana candidate, quote, at an event lasted by the advancing conservatism society. An audience member reportedly said, gianforte said, we have someone right here. It seems like theres more of us than there was of him. The republican later told the Billings Gazette that his comments were a joke. Joe. Republicans have always felt like theyve been treated unfairly by the press and usually certainly a lot of them have a great point here. Again, this is that sounds like vintage donald trump. When Newt Gingrich was running for speaker of the house, you had a lot of people running in 1994 that were sounding like Newt Gingrich. When Ronald Reagan ran in 1980, you had a lot of people talking like Ronald Reagan. It has an impact. Unfortunately you have this guy who was a democrat all of his life until 2011. He discovered birtherism. He started waiving the bloody flag of race iism and disrespec the First Amendment, disrespected checks and balances. If the Republican Party follows him over that cliff, things are going to end very badly. We need courage on capitol hill. We need Republican Leaders that will speak out against this sort of thuggish, abhorrent behavior. Imagine if he wins and comes to washington as a congressman. This is the thing thats going to follow him. If that incidentn montana is any indication, republicans are not thrilled to be talking about the Health Care Bill, the millions of americans who will likely lose coverage. The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found under the legislation passed in the house earlier this month, the ranks of the uninsured will grow by 23 million, including 14 million losing Health Insurance in 2018. Down slightly from the 24 million uninsured under the version supplied in march. Seeing instability in onesixth for americans that seek waivers on Health Benefits that obama care guaranteed or those that have a preexisting condition without continuous coverage. Premiums would significantly and less Healthy People would face extremely high premiums. Benefits likely to be excluded include maternity care, treatment for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Rehab Services and childrens dental care. There could be large increases in outofpocket spending because annual and lifetime limits would be allowed. It would reduce spending by 834 billion and cover 14 million fewer people by 2026. Overall it reduces the deficit by 119 billion over the next decade. An important procedural development, since it means the house will not have to vote again on the bill. Mark, the top line number that we will hear next year, well hear this year, well hear during the campaigns of 2018, 23 Million People losing Health Insurance over a decade. The current House Republican Congressional Republican image on health care has three political problems. One is that top line number, the fact that so many people would lose coverage. There are two other big problems. One is it also cuts taxes substantially for the wealthy. Thats a big political problem. The biggest problem is, how Many Americans are looking at this coverage of this plan and saying this is better, this is a better plan. There are aspects republicans think are better. The senate is going to have to try to address all three of those problems. Until the Senate Passes a bill which will be different than the house bill, the Republican Party has a huge brand problem on health care. I just dont know what the senate does, john heilemann. I dont know how they get from here to there. Theyre starting to understand that now. Privately i think a lot of senators would say we would keep things the way they were. If we could, we would make modifications, but we wouldnt completely rip the bandaid off. Is custommade for a 30second attack ad that will absolutely skewer lets say youre in miamidade and youre a republican running for reelection. Youre trying to win an illiana ross slaton seat. The massive cuts in dade county because of this proposal. The same thing happens if youre in missouri, if youre in kansas. Again, the headlines, even republicans trying to push back on 23 Million People do not have Health Care Coverage after this based on the status quo. And then there are the massive medicaid cuts on top of that, up to 850 billion in medicaid cuts that disproportionately impact the elderly. And then finally, just to make sure that they get Nancy Pelosis speakership and put a neat little bow on it, all the money theyre taking away from rural hospitals and indigent care and from senior citizens, theyre giving to Donald Trumps friends, the richest 1 of americans. This monstrous political bill to defend. Yes. Youre talking about those ads. Youre already starting to see them. In the ossoff special election in georgia, the air is already filled with precisely those kind of health care ads youre talking about. It could be the dominant issue of the entire 2018 cycle. That double barreled element to it, the unpopularity of the Health Care Bill coupled and the redistributed elements of it coupled with the tax cut is killer politics for republicans. You can see the House Republicans on some level are hoping the senate is going to come along and save them. You can imagine a senate bill, but the likelihood of that bill will be anything thats reconcilable with the current house bill is pretty small. Youve now got the possibility of all these horrible politics and then ending up without even accomplishing anything to make good on the longterm promise of republicans to try to repeal and replace obamacare. This could be a giant cluster of the worst kind for the Republican Party. It seems more likely than not, thats where were headed. Elise, your party, republican, joes party, republican, what is the mindset of people drafting this bill that has popped out of the house and is over in the senate, what is the mindset that, among all the kwuts theycuts theyve mad programs, drug abuse programs, opioid programs have been severely cut, what are they thinking about there . Yesterday john kasich was on Nicolle Wallaces great new show, deadline, he was talking about opiate abuse. Its such a huge issue sweeping the country outside the enclaves that basically voted for Hillary Clinton. I dont understand the reticence to attack this problem head on and bring in Treatment Solutions theyve cut it. I know. You can say in terms of the looming threat of the health care crisis, that is it. Ha is what this country needs to be concerned about. And even beyond that, willie, even beyond just the four corners of this bill, you have Donald Trumps proposal, and the House Republicans proposal to slash cancer research, to slash r d, to slash lifesaving measures that the federal government is teaming up with doctors and hospitals and universities and Research Labs to make huge advances. Ann romney was on our show a month or two ago and she said, were raising a lot of money for the sort of research, medical research thats important to my family, important to me, important to millions of americans, but we cant get this done without the nih being a partn partner. She said we can raise all the money in the world. Without the federal governments involvement, we would not have made almost any of the great advances that we have made in medical research over the past 20, 30 years. And at this point in history, not to go into it too deeply, but i know youve heard from medical experts, as have i. Were just on the cusp of extraordinary discoveries, whether were talking about preventing cancer, certain types of cancer, stroke research, alzheimers research, you go down the line and everybody i talked to in the food chain in the medical Community Says were just on the cusp of some great discove discoveries. What does donald trump and this Republican House do . They slash the funding and make it impossible for people like ann romney and others that are trying to raise money to cure, bring these cures about. It makes their job impossible. If these budgets are moral documents, the Republican Party over the last months since they passed that bill and stood in the rose garden and now with this budget have expressed some things that dont speak very well of them in the way theyre treating americans and a lot of people, by the way, who voted for them. Theyre doing it for bills and budgets that are not going to go anywhere in the senate. You have Lamar Alexander and other republicans coming out yesterday all but flicking this thing aside and saying anything that passes through the house is going to look completely different, were drawing up our own Health Care Bill, all the things the house is doing, sticking their necks out for, are not going to become law. To what end did you put yourself out there . Thats the question. Still ahead, senator dick durbin will joined us, Ranking Member of the Armed Services committee, senator jack reed and well as West Virginia democrat joe manchin. First, was jim comey lured into politics by a fake document . The former fbi director may have been duped into commenting on the clinton investigation after reviewing false information planted by russia. An incredible story in the Washington Post when morning joe comes right back. The classes, the friends, the independence. And since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, im glad shell miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise whos the new guy . They call him the whisperer. The whisperer . Why do they call him the whisperer . He talks to planes. He talks to planes. Watch this. Hey watson, whats avionics telling you . Maintenance records and performance data suggest replacing capacitor c4. Not bad. Whats with the coffee maker . Sorry. We are not on speaking terms. Whats with the coffee maker . 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. And its also a story mail aabout people 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. Priority you rumor confirmed. Theyre playing. What . We gotta go. Where . San francisco. When . Friday. We gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. Any hotel. Any time. Go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. Blue monday by new order. Cheers. ] [ music and cheers get louder ] the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. Its travel, better connected. Welcome back to morning joe. Lets bring in New York Times reporter michael schmidt. Michael, one month ago you cowrote a piece for the times on james comeys potential influence on the election. You reported early last year fbi agents received a batch of hacked documents, one caught their attention. The domment written by a democratic operative who expressed confidence that attorney general Loretta Lynch would keep the clinton email investigation from going too far. This caused comey to forcefully denounce the document had complicated comeys calculations, believing if lynch announced the case was closed and russia leaked the document, it would raise doubt about the independence of the investigation. Well, this morning the Washington Post is building upon your reporter, michael, finding that the document potentially was a fake and potentially was planted by russian intelligence. The post reports the fbi later determined the document was bad intelligence, possibly even fake sent to confuse the bureau. The americans mentioned in the russian document insist they do not know each other, do not speak to each other and never had any conversations remotely like the ones described in the document. Investigators have long doubted its veracity. By august the fbi concluded it was unreliable. Michael, what more can you tell us about this . This document is something folks at the fbi really provides a rationalization for why comey did what he did, that he was actually going to hold the press conference before Loretta Lynch had the tarmac incident. Now, we wrote this story by the post casts even more doubt on the document than when we wrote our piece a month ago. If you talk to Justice Department officials, they say this is not a big deal, this didnt really do didnt say what the fbi thought it was going to say and this is just the fbi trying to reverse engineer and explain why comey did what he did. The interesting thing here is we may actually get some answers. Theres a doj Inspector General investigation into how comey handled the email investigation. This is one of the issues that the Inspector General is looking at. The issue is that a lot of this is classified, and its not clear how much the Inspector General is going to be able to say publicly about it. If the document dubious, we will probably learn more about it, and it will hurt comeys argument for why he held a press conference. Mark halperin, lets bring you in. You have enjoyed telling us why james comey has been making horrific mistakes for years now. Theres been an effort on record and on background by major news organizations to explain and justify what he did last year in interceding in the election, a clear violation of the policies that are supposed to govern federal criminal probes like the one he was conducting and the counterintelligence probe. I dont understand, based on what the Washington Post reported, how it is that they ever thought bringing this document up was a good idea. The post reporting seems pretty clear, not only does the document on the face of it seem like a very weak justification and rationale for doing what they did. The post asserts the fbi pretty much knew at the time that this document was not the basis to make a serious claim. That comey needed to deviate from policy in coming out and denouncing Hillary Clinton unilaterally without coordinating with the Justice Department. Michael, pursuing the fbis involvement in this, the timing of the document. Its an email from Debbie Wasserman schultz to someone who supposedly works for an Organization Funded by george soros. Why did it take so long for the fbi to conclude that this document was not authentic, that it was a roos . Sources, they know the source, Debbie Wasserman schultz. Why did it take so long to conclude it was a fake . In the post story they say they werent even interviewed by the fbi, werent even contacted by them. If the fbi was so worried about this document, why didnt the fbi go out and talk to them about it. The other thing thats interesting about this document that we learned when we were reporting on it is that lynch didnt know about it at the time. Instead, comey had his deputy go to the senior most career person at the Justice Department and talk to them about this, but that lynch and the political folks that were running the Justice Department didnt know what was going on here. My sense is theres probably some other stuff here that went on that we dont know about, and there were some interactions between comey and the Justice Department that we dont know about on this, but, as it stands right now, this doesnt really help comeys argument for why he did what he did. Also this morning, the New York Times reports american spies collected information last summer that senior russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over highlevel advisers inside Donald Trumps campaign. The officials they discussed influencing, general Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, both of whom had indirect ties to russian officials. According to the times report, some russians boasted ability how well they knew flynn while others discussed leveraging ties to viktor yanukovych, the deposed president of ukraine living in exile in russia. He at one time worked closely with Paul Manafort. Elise, ties between the campaign sand russia, no evidence of collusion as donald trump is quick to point out. One story after another where they keep going back to russia. The drip isnt stopping. This goes back to the disastrous decision of President Trump of deciding to move forward with Michael Flynn. Its interesting he did get rid of Paul Manafort at such a critical time during his campaign, august, managed to cut ties with im. Whatever really went down was bad enough where they decided to make that decision in the middle of a Heated Campaign season. The decision to still proceed forward with mike flynn is dogging this administration. Its going to continue to be a huge story over the next couple years as the investigation proceeds. Michael, just to go back to the recent report about the email that influenced director comeys decision to hold the Critical Press conference about Hillary Clinton, this almost seems as if the fbi, they decided to go forward with the dossier written by former british spy chris steele, something unsubstantiated and a lot of people had concerns that large parts of it are patently false, while parts of it may be true, may still be proven true. But there was a decision not to go forward with that document. How can you what do you know about that . About the dossier . Yes. I think that the fbi takes the dossier probably a little more seriously than the media has taken. I think the fbi has done a lot of work to try and find out whether the facts in it are true. The fbi was willing to pay the investigator, the private investigator that worked on it some additional money to come up with more information that backed up what he had. I think the fbi has looked for some of the sources that he used in his piece. And i think the fbi has used it as a rationalization to open up and look at other avenues in the russia investigation. And i realize that the dossier on its face wn i first read it, i found it very hard to believe and it is very salacious and can be seen as ridiculous. The fbi i dont think it was dismissed in the way that as many people did in the media. I think they continue to look at that document and look at that information as a basis for leads, and as they move forward with their investigation the problem is that a lot of this stuff is about things that happened in russia. And the fbi cant just go over to moscow and set up shop and say, hey, were going to work from here and find out whether this stuff is true. So mike, lets talk about another story that broke yesterday, and that is the Jeff Sessions, the attorney general failed to disclose meetings with russia, with russian authorities on his disclosure form. This is an ongoing habit, an ongoing trend by members of the trump administration. Why cant these people truthfully, truthfully fill out disclosure forms . Again, you always have to put all this in context because so much has happened over the past week, let alone the past year. But its not as if this russian story and russian influence and russian hacking and meddling in american politics wasnt a critical issue when Jeff Sessions was filling out that disclosure form. It wasnt a pro forma thing. This is an issue when he decided not to list russian contacts on the disclosure form. It just keeps continuing with this administration. As many people would say, if russia is not really a problem for the administration, they have certainly created the appearance of it being a problem. Theres this continual drip, drip about documents in which they havent disclosed things. This gets to the tension in the heart of the russia story. Was this just sort of lackadaisical carelessness in terms of the way they approached the campaign, the way they approached filling out government documents and dealt with the russians. They allowed the russians to come in and get close to them. They didnt take filling out the government documents seriously and now its created a bad perception. Or is it because they havent disclosed these things because there is really something to hide here . Mike, why is it always russia . Its not meetings with german ambassadors or German Foreign secretaries or german officials or french officials or officials from sudan. It always is for some reason, theyre meetings with russian officials they lie about, plik misstatements about, screw up disclosure forms about, sessions goes before the Judiciary Committee and under oath doesnt tell the truth about meetings with russians . Why does it always happen to be the russian contacts that they forget . I dont know. Thats the thing that still continues to puzzle people. I think thats why the media has not wanted to let up on this story is because day in and day out we just learn about new things. You cant lie on one of these forms its against the law. Its a felony to do that. The Justice Department rarely brings those cases, but when you fill out one of those forms, they expect you to get it right. Time and time again there are documents and disclosures and things like this. Youre right, it is always about russia. But the thing just to come back on the other side of this, here we are a year into this investigation, and theres all of this smoke and all these weird things like this, but we still dont have any direct evidence including in our own story today that there was collusion and that there was direct coordination between both sides. Willie, again, its context, context, context. Jeff sessions is a senator from alabama. Hes on the was on the Judiciary Committee and i believe the Armed Services committee. He was the only member of his committee reaching out and taking meetings with russian ambassadors, if im not mistaken. Hes never in his past, until he got involved in the Trump Campaign been interested in making contact with Russian Diplomats or other russian officials. Again, its all context, and it just doesnt add up. Remember, the entire reason he recused himself from the russia investigation is because of those two meetings he had with ambassador kislyak, he admitted he had two meetings in 2016 as a United States senator. Michael schmidt, thanks so much as always. Appreciate having you on. Thanks for having me. Still ahead on morning joe, another Congressional Committee digging into Donald Trumps finances. They want one of the Worlds Largest banks to show them where the money is coming from. Those details coming up on morning joe. At lincoln, were all about making things simpler for you. Like, imagine having your vehicle serviced. From the comfort of your own home. Introducing complimentary lincoln pickup and delivery servicing. Because the most important luxury of all. Is time. 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Our average customer could lower their monthly bills by over three hundred dollars. Go to lendingtree. Com right now. Dry mouth can affect how your mouth feels and how you feel. Discover act dry mouth, specially formulated to soothe and moisturize your mouth. And try new act dry mouth spray for relief when you need it. And try new act dry mouth spray 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. Sfx engine revving silence welcome back to morning joe. President trump is meeting with nato leaders today, an organization he once denounced as, quote, obsolete. Joining us from capitol hill Ranking Member of the Armed Services committee, democratic senator jack reed of rhode island. Thanks for being on this morning. Why is this an important visit given what he said in the past about nato . Given what he said in the past, this is an opportunity for the president to appreciate and communicate that nato is a Critical Alliance for the United States. It has been for decades and decades. Nato has been with us in afghanistan from the very beginning. With the emerging russian threat we need a very cohesive and capable nato. Its important for him to move clearly away from his comments during the election. Do you believe, senator, maybe based on conversations youve had yourself with the president that hes changed his view of nato and americas role in the world . I think he may say theyre a much more coherent and much more complementary to the facts of the relationship that nato and the United States has enjoyed for many years. I hope it represents a shift. I think hes being advised by general mattis and general mcmaster about the critical of nato. I hope hes listening to that. Its an important effort, particularly now as we look at not only the revival of russian aspirations, but also the terrorism attacks that have happened recently in manchester, have recently happened too often. Senator reed, general dunford, secretary mattis, supposedly when the president returns, theyre going to present him with options for afghanistan, 16yearlong war. Youre the Ranking Member of the Armed Services committee. The supposed advice is going to include a suggestion for an additional 5,000 american troops to afghanistan. Could you tell us what is the objective behind additional troops at this point in time . And what would your position be on the assertion of additional troops . I think we have to look very carefully at the recommendations. Frankly, theres been a lot of talk in the press about the proposal. We have not heard any formal briefings i think because the white house has not made a decision. But the primary effort in afghanistan with respect to the United States security is preventing it from being a source of attacks against the United States or our allies. Our counterterrorism position there is critical, not just within afghanistan itself, but also being able to operate and cooperate with pakistan in suppressing some of these terrorist units. In additional, afghanistan itself has been battling for years, and theyve seen attrition of their forces, theyve lost territory. We have been trying to assist them to build a Strong Military force. I think any request for additional troops would not be combat troops, but will be advisers, going down to the core level, perhaps the brigade level. There is i think an important value in the United States being able to help afghanistan stabilize. Ultimately it has to be done by a Peace Process that brings together the parties. Continued indefinite warfare i dont think is going the lead to a satisfactory outcome. I particularly want to look at the proposals, the justification and also the conditions they met set on it. Senator jack reed, thanks for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Still ahead, well talk to senators dick durbin and joe manchin. Stay with us. My business was built with passion. 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 . Bp uses flir cameras a new thermal imagining technology to inspect difficulttoreach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans can see them. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. And the wolf huffed like you do sometimes, grandpa . Well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. 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And its also a story mail aabout people 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. Priority you the cbo score because youre waiting to make your decision about health care until you saw it and it just came out. Well talk about that later. There wont be time. Im sick and tired of you guy s. The last time you came you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here get the hell out of here last time you did the same thing. Are you the guardian . Yes, and you just broke my glass. Your last guy did the same damn thing. You just body slam immediate and broke my glasses. Get the hell out of here. I will call the police. Can i get you guys names . He just body slammed me. Youve got to leave. So, willie, i cant believe how quickly that escalated. He was just he asked about a cbo score and he said we may not have time later and attacked him, according to fox News Reporters, after he threw him to the ground, started punching him while he was on ground. The campaign has one account, which well hear in a few minute s, who says this reporter was too aggressive, jamming a microphone in his face, all the greatest hits came out. Fox news crew had a completely different account. Well hear it. Where that republican candidate in montana, special election there allegedly attacked a reporter asking about the health care overhaul. And the president s spending plan hits a snag with his partys budget hawks. You have said that the foundation of your budget is 3 growth. And i have looked every which way at how you might get there and you cant get there. And, as a consequence, i think it is disastrously consequential to build a budget on 3 budget. The bible says you cant build a house on a sandy foundation. What it does, it perpetuates a myth that we can go out there and balance the budget without touching entitlements. Its not only a myth, its frankly a lie. Those stories and the star of the hit new show deadline white house, nicolle wallace, joins our table next. I guess i was born with a crayon in my hand. I decided to see if there was a way for design to play a. Positive role in what was going on in the world. Theres a jacket thats reflective for visibility. A sleeping bag jacket, jackets that turn into tents. I usually do my fashion sketches on the computer. I love drawing on the screen. Theres no lag time at all. It feels just like my markers. With fashion, you can dress people and help people. Its really cool to see your work come to life. New neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair wrinkles . Your time is up with the proven power of retinol. Reduces wrinkles in just one week. 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That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you dry mouth can affect how your mouth feels and how you feel. Discover act dry mouth, specially formulated to soothe and moisturize your mouth. And try new act dry mouth spray for relief when you need it. And try new act dry mouth spray 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. See you around, giulia melania made news when donald tried to hold her hand in israel and she seemed to slap it away. I dont know. Take a look. No, get away. Stop. Stop with the hand. And yesterday after they landed in italy, he tried reaching for her hand again and watch this. The election when, as we remember thats not all. What . Check out what happened with trumps meeting with pope francis today. Even the pope, joe. Even the pope. Hes got no luck. I guess fame doesnt really do all for you that he told billy bush that it did. Thats pretty amazing. Cant even get them to hold your hand. The pope even. The pope loves everybody. I dont get it. Welcome back to morning joe. We have so much to talk about, willie. I seriously am confused as always, for a good reason. I dont know where to start. Let me help you out. You got this jackass in montana, right . Im on a roll. Im sorry. Im just going to sit. Wow no, no, sit back. Sit back. Youve got this jackass in montana. He is asked a question about the Congressional Budget Office. And he loses it. And like hes charged with assault. You got the cbo score that comes out. 23 Million People kicked off the obamacare roles. Youve got comey being duped by the fbi, during the Campaign Tracking down sources making contact with the Trump Campaign, another absolutely crazy busy day. Yes, it is. We have new help to talk through these. Really . Mike barnicle. Yes. And Mark Halperin, john heilman. Thats big. Huge. Joining our conversation, host of msnbcs deadline white house. Wow former Communications Director for president george w. Bush, the nicolle wallace. Wow stop it. Stop it. Your show is awesome. So nice. Hit the ground running. Are you having fun . Yes. Fun is had between 4 00 and 5 00. Its the other hours. Its a civilized hour. Its a lovely hour. You should come visit. Do i serve tea . If you come, i will serve you tea, brew it myself, steep it six minutes. Well start again with what happened last night in montanas special congressional election. Ben jacobs, reporter for the guardian, approached gian forte. What could go wrong . Gian forte body slammed him and broke his glasses, he says. Here is an audio that the guardian released. Cbo score. You were waiting to make your decision about health care before you saw the bill. Well talk about that later. There might not be enough time. Speak with shane, please. Im sick and tired of you guys. The last reporter did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. Last guy did the same thing. Are you with the guardian . Yes, and you just broke my glasses. The last guy did the same damn thing. You body slammed me and broke broek my glasses. Get the hell out of here. You would like me to get the hell out of here. I would also like to call the police. Can i get you guys names . You got to leave. He just body slammed me. Youve got to leave. Quickly after that, gi a. Nfortes campaign release this had statement. Tonight, as greg was giving a separate interview in a private office, the guard yns ben jacobs entered the Office Without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in gregs face and began asking badgering questions, jacobs was asked to leave. After asking jacobs to lower the recorder, jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grabt phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed gregs wrist and spun away from greg, pushing them both to the ground. Its unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our Campaign Volunteer bbq. Then the fox news crusade that jacobs walked up to gianforte and put a microphone up to his face. He said he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy. At that point, gianforte grabbed jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, keith and i, the fox news crew, watched in disbelief as gianforte then began punching the reporter. As gianforte move on top of jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of im sick and tired of this. Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. He asked for our names. Jacobs then said he wanted the Police Called and went to leave. Gianforte looked to us and apologized. Jacobs was examined at the hospital and released. Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault. State republican officials have yet to comment. Nicole, theres a lot to sift through there. Conflicting accounts. We heard what we heard on the recording. You have the Campaign Statement but then the third party with that fox news crew who was actually in the room. Yeah. I dont know what there is to sift through. This is a candidate on the eve of his election, acting like a lunatic. And i saw joes tweets last night. And this animalistic behavior out of our politicians that theyve become jo want to reveal too much of my viewing habits but its something you see on reno 911, lunatic pulled over for swerving and acting belligerent at a traffic stop. Its not the behavior of anyone who wants to represent constituents. A direct line between donald trump calling reporters enemies of the state and people beating up a working journalist is ridiculous. And the fact that you have a fox crew bearing witness is just beautiful, exquisite irony, sort of defending the account of the guardian. I think its time for all journalists to stand together. And i think that its that the white house thinks these are separate or isolated incidents, that they dont think theyve created a climate where Something Like this could happen is an unsustainable position. What is an unsustainable position. Mark halperin, ive had some people this morning text me and say how can you even try to connect this in any way with Donald Trumps behavior over the past year . Its very easy. You see somebody thats elected president of the United States that called the press enemies of the people several times, including in front of cpac, who repeatedly verbally abused reporters, recklessly and irresponsibly in large arenas, calling out peoples name. Recklessly and irresponsibly tweeting specific attacks about those journalists. And, again, generally having a thuggish behavior. And having people go out to the media, yelling at them, even in the press corps. What do we expect . This guy already had a brush with the media before where he seemed to be threatening a reporter a couple of months back when somebody said, hey, what do we do about the press . How can we stop the press . One person in the press area pointed at him and said in a menacing way, theres more of us than there are of him. Basically weve got him outnumbered. To suggest if you were a conservative, if youre a trump supporter and youre suggesting that the thuggish behavior from the president of the United States does not have an impact on people who are trying to emulate him, then you are clueless as to how politics work. You can blame it on Barack Obamas tan suit if you want to but there is a Straight Line to this thuggish behavior. If trump wants to prove me wrong, call this guy out. Say hes a punk. He should go to jail and he should never be seated in congress. Theres no doubt that the Republican Party is going to have to answer for this, including the leader of the Republican Party whose rhetoric and bafr toward freedom of the press and journalists have created an environment where this kind of thing is not only echoed but has appeal for a lot of supporters in the conservative movement. This kind of thing has appeal even what this congressional candidate did, unfortunately, will have appeal for some people who dont like the press. I will say, just as a matter of sheer political reality, its probably better for the Republican Party if he loses today. Because if he wins theyre all going to have to answer for it. Theyre all going to be asked about it. He will come to washington as a symbol not just toward the media but out of control behavior, disrespectful and dangerous and not paying proper heed to the importance of First Amendment in our society. He may win. Hell probably win but theyre better off if he loses. Yeah, yeah. And this trump thuggishness, he will represent the thuggishness of donald trump toward the press, the thuggishness of donald trump toward the First Amendment. The thuggishness of donald trump toward courts. The thuggishness of donald trump, john heilman, toward anyone who dares to challenge his ultimate authority. I agree with mark. I dont think thats something that this Republican Party wants to be any part of and, please, again, for conservatives youre not conservative if you support this sort of behavior. For trumpists that are out there right now saying you cant connect this with Donald Trumps abuse of the media over the past year and a half, please, thats a joke. This sort of stuff didnt happen when george h. Wncht bush was president of the United States. You didnt have republicans beating up members of the press. Yeah, its true. Look, whats interesting, of course, the campaign i like there is a telling that the response, the insertion of that liberal journalist comment in their explanation. Obviously the explanation, again, what we know from the audio and from theon for what happened, their account is obviously, or at least seems to be, a blatant lie. And then throwing in the liberal journalist thing, which kind of speaks to the way in which these campaigns now think, that by attacking the liberal press in a reflexive way that you can get away with anything. The notion is for our base, as long as we remind them this guy is a liberal journalist, even works for a british liberal newspaper the guardian, that somehow that allows assault and battery to be acceptable is a disgusting symptom of where we are right now with respect to how all too many republicans in this era treat the state. It really is depressing to track the coarseness of language as it has gone down the drain over the past 10, 12, 15 years. I was thinking about this the other evening, watching Mitch Landrieus speech in new orleans. Amazing. An antidote to what were talking about here. But the coarseness of language in politics, its a huge turnoff to so many people. The west best sign of what youre saying is that you had president obama in one of his last interactions before leaving office, doing that press conference and defending the First Amendment and george w. Bush in one of his first public statements since the election defending a free press. Two president s who had plenty of rows with the media who covered them. But they were always on substance, media fixation of a topic they didnt like. I cannot fathom a scenario where either one of what people dont understand is that the press that work or cover a president , they work at the white house. When a president goes overseas, it is the white houses job to protect them, to advocate for them. They go into meetings with foreign leaders and you go in as team usa, the president and the press that cover him or her. So the whole idea that at the top is where its going to break down is the most ironic of all for me. Because at the top, the press that cover the white house, they work in his home. And they travel on his plane. And it is the job of the white house to protect them, to advocate for them and to get them in the room so that american democracy can flourish. Not to be too cheesy. But this is just a deterioration of everything. And if the president wants to, you know, sort of make a statement overseas about who we are, he would weigh in on behalf of a free press and against this republican lunatic. I predict he will apologize today. Willie, he hasnt even spoken out against turkish bodyguards beating the hell out of americans. In america. On the streets of washington, d. C. Thats right. He praises the brutal leader of the philippines for gunning down people with no cause. This is the sort of behavior that donald trump has not only supported, this is the sort of behavior he has encouraged remember his speech where he said i wish it was back in the old days where we could just beat them up and carry them out . Words have consequences. And republicans cannot run from the words of that man right there. As you pointed out a minute ago, this wasnt just a campaign gambit for donald trump to set up the press as the enemy. Cpac was three months ago in february where he reminded the audience in that room that the press, as he said, is, in fact, the enemy of the people. Some candidates, politicians across the country are taking a lesson from donald trump saying hey, maybe that works. Set up the liberal media, as they call it. Knock them down and become a congressman from the state of montana. Literally knock them down. Literally. Physically. No doubt about it. John heilman, fiebl thougnal th . There was cross talk about what donald trump might do. Nicole had a proposal for him. Mark suggested he might apologize. No, the congressional candidate i predict he will apologize. A lot of damage has been done here on this front by the president over the course of the time that he ran for president and has been in office as we all pointed out. As nicole said, it would be a really welcome thing if donald trump were to stand up overseas at some point today or while still abroad and make a statement about this and condemn the action of this candidate. Again, it wouldnt solve all the problems or make up for Everything Else thats been said but would be a very welcomed thing and would get a lot of positive reinforcement for that. If the ugly incident in montana is any indication, republicans dont want to talk about that Health Care Bill and millions of americans likely to lose coverage under the plan. Well talk about the cbo score with dick did yourbin. And from congressman jim himes tweeting it would create, quote, a modern day sparta, in which all people sacrifice painfully for a superb and richly provisioned military. He is our guest next on morning joe. Its not how fast you mow, its how well you mow fast. Its not how fast you mow. Its how well you mow fast theyre not just words to mow by, theyre words to live by. The John Deere Ztrak z345r. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. 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. I just want to find a used car start at the new carfax. Com show me used trucks with one owner. Pretty cool. [laughs] ah. Ahem. Show me the carfax. Start your used car search at the allnew carfax. Com. Rumor confirmed. Theyre playing. What . We gotta go. Where . 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Member of the select committee on intelligence, democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut. Good to see you, congressman. Good morning. We read a bit of your tweet as you came in, saying that the president s budget would create a modern day sparta in which all sacrifice painfully for a richly provisioned military. We love a good sparta reference. Thanks for that. The budget really unbelievably demonstrates two categories of things. One is a future. Its investment in roadways, medical research, technical research, things that create prosperity down the road for our kids. Remarkably here is the thing i cant get over. Weve been talking since the election about those communities and places like michigan and wisconsin, midwest, communities where maybe the not doing so well that voted for donald trump. He relies for a period of time on food stamps when hes out of a job, those communities with the opioid epidemic. It says to every Single Person in those communities, youre on your own because weve got tax cuts weve got to do for some very wealthy people. The president made a statement putting out his budget, whether it ever comes to fruition is an entire matter. The white house s a budget to congress and congress instantly declares it dead on arrival. If a budget is one thing and theres no way the white house can escape this fact, it is a statement of your values. Guys like me get to sort of say what we think we believe in until we have to put numbers on paper. And speaking of numbers on paper, lets set aside the budget. Cbo report on the Health Care Bill you were making reference to. 23 million americans off of their Health Insurance because of a hastily passed bill of several weeks ago that very few of the republicans even read. I have to tell you, the numbers coming out are absolutely devastating for nine out of ten americans. Congressman, if this gentleman, gianforte becomes the congressman for montana, should he be seated for what he did . I dont think so. I was listening in on your previous conversation. Our political environment has become so bare knuckles, so ugly. As you said from the top of the president United States encouraging violence in his rallies, theres a moment of clarity for the Republican Party this great party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. We talked about the budget. We talked about what would happen in the Health Care Plan. Are they the party of lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt or are they the party that welcomes and celebrates people who call the media an enemy of the state, people who physically assault somebody who asks them a tough question . Would you call on the majority to not allow him to take office . You know, i think that would be appropriate. In this building look, ill be the first to say the media is sometimes annoying. They hold your feet to the fire, confront you with facts. Most americans understand that the president is wrong, that the media is one of those key mechanisms for accountability for elected officials. When a candidate physically assault ace member set aside what that says about the media. What does that say about the character that have individual . That is not somebody who has or should have the privilege of serving in this building. Congressman, its nicolle wallace. Ill try not to be annoying. I want to ask you to switch gears and put on your intel hat. Not just for him but for his businesses. I dont want to start speculating about where the investigation may or may not go, as you know, there are very clear questions about Michael Flynns behavior. Every week theres a new report about money that was not reported, about a country that was work for in exchange for that country. Deputy general going to the white house saying this guy could be compromise bid the russians. Obviously, this is a guy where we need to both talk to him but build that whole story so that this overall investigation can get to the bottom of what, if any, links existed with the effort to hack our election. Congressman, you were just talking about some of the skeletal aspects of the Health Care Bill that passed the house, basically going without additional monies for research into cancer, ms, alzheimers research, anything having to do with the brain, things like that, opioid abuse clinics being shut out. Has it ever occurred to you perhaps to ask some of the people on the other side of the aisle who are in support of positions like this, how were they raised . The question that comes to mind, for me look, im not going to get into the personal histories of the colleagues that i hopefully will be some day in a position to work with. Lets just ask the guy on the street out there. If we were to make America Great again ive always been a believer that the country is pr pretty great to begin with but if we really want to make this country great we know how to do that, its investment in infrastructure. Its coming forward with unbelievable technologies like the one thats in my pocket right now that had a lot to do with investments by the federal government and things like the gps that gives us location tracking. Making America Great involves in investing in the things that america cares about, not slashing those things so that the military can have yet more money and so that, you know, my constituents in pairfield, connecticut, some pretty affluent people can have a tax bill. That doesnt even come close to resembling making America Great again. Its interesting. You talk about fairfield, connecticut. If im not mistaken, your district also has the greatest income disparity. Certainly Fairfield County does, of any county in america. Because you start at greenwich, go over to bridgeport. This is a state thats hurting. And politically, i just read something. Governor malloys poor Approval Rating may actually risk the democrats majority in the state. I want to ask you, congressman first time ive ever asked. Just curious. Would you consider running for governor in 2018 . Joe this is so not the first time youve asked that. And to save the state and save the Property Values of the good people of this state . I know nicole also a connecticut resident would like to know the same thing. Keep my lights on when it rains. Ill just ask you one time. One time. Are you thinking about running for governor . Joe, you know, when i used to be a banker, this is what was called talking your book. Hey, you know, i actually think, joe, connecticut probably needs a media savvy moderate republican who might have the personal wealth to actually fund a campaign. There you go. There you go. Im just saying. Let me tell you something. I think nicole would be a great governor. No, no, no, no, no. But this question is directed at you. Would you consider running for governor, congressman . I am not ready for governor, joe. Ive got an awful lot on my plate down here. You do raise some important poi points. Connecticut, as you know because you lived there, is a great place to live. Economically weve not made progress that some of our surrounding states have made. All too often, particularly in an election season, thats the republicans fault or democrats fault. We have challenges about building an economy that used to overrely on defense. Youre right. Weve got some challenges in connecticut. Not answering again. Thank you. General election right there. Nicole, though, you and i both know people are leaving the state. Earlier this morning on way too early, or whatever were calling it now, theyre talking about how illinois, Something Like 40,000 people left illinois last year. You know people are leaving connecticut. Yeah. There are for sale signs up everywhere. Yeah. Its almost like a false bubble in the opposite direction. Its a tale of two states. Look at the listing of the best places to live in america, best education, health care, quality of life, connecticut is in the top three or four in every one of those surveys. Worst place to live for starting a business, keeping a business, running a business, its connecticut. This is oorks i hate to sound like the republican that ive always been, but this is a direct correlation of democrats and republicans giving public unions too much money and then having to tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax because of horrible negotiations over the past 30 years. Mainly republican governors have screwed up the negotiations and democrats that have raised the taxes. I live in a part of the state. My county went 53 for trump and im not good at math but the rest for hillary and cain. It is a state, such a microcosm of what happened in this election, not too dissimilar from pennsylvania. Working class pockets of the state who were really exasper e exasperated with exactly what you describe. Connecticut is beautiful but it is also sad. You drive through the cities, which were once great magnets for manufacturing and theyre dead cities, from a time long past. And it does have a lot of room for improvement in making it a good place for Small Businesses and new businesses to relocate. We have to take care of our pension crisis, willie, that so many states have in a lot of Companies Like gm have. And then we have to have a tax system of taxes actually draws people back to this state. And thats all for connecticut today. Willie, what do you have in new york city . We like to have elected representatives so that the garbage collection was a little slow. Lights never come back on. California, it comes back on faster after an earthquake than in connecticut after a wind storm. Mighty wind shuts you down for a week. Still to come. Go to brussels, paris. Go to different places. Theres something going on and its not good. Gu to br you go to brussels. 20 years i was there. So beautiful. Its like living in a hell hole right now. That was donald trump, january of 2016. Comments like that ensured him a tough welcome in brussel this is morning. Kr Kristen Welker joins us and explains how the day could get even chillier when he meets with Prime Minister theresa may. You do all this research 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. Due to your first accident. Whimper yap yap yap yip is your dog trying to tell you something . 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Bark 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. Queen elizabeth took some time to visit some of the more than 100 people who are injured in the manchester attack. Police in england have made more arre arrests. To more men have been arrested, bringing the total number to eight as the hunt continues for possible accomplices to bombing suspect salman abedin. Stills from a Security Camera of a man that broadcaster says British Police say is abedin walking in manchesters Shopping Center on the friday before the attack. The man who is seen carrying a blue backpackith the sales tag still hanging off of it. And remnants of a blue backpack similar to the one seen in that Security Camera footage. Senior official who reviews these pictures, british authorities to the u. S. And that is straining International Relation this is morning. Now from brussels, belgium, nbc news Kristen Welker. She will raise concerns to President Trump today about that leaked intelligence. What more can you tell us . First of all, willie, the backdrop to all of this is that nato allies have been encouraged to increase intelligence sharing and you have mounting tension between british and u. S. Officials. U. S. Officials havent responded yet. White house official is telling me theyre working on a statement about all of this. But theresa may accusing the u. S. Of leaking information about the investigation into that manchester terror attack. She spoke with itn earlier today. Here is what she said her message to the president will be when they meet on the sidelines later today. Shortly, i will be traveling to the nato summit where i will be working with International Colleagues on defeating terrorism. I will make clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our Law Enforcement agencies must remain secure. Reporter so, a stern message there from theresa may. Of course, it comes amid other tensions and more skepticism because remember President Trump shared information with russian officials that the u. S. Had gotten from the israelis . That is adding to the friction. He also, as a candidate, called nato obsolete. Thats a statement he walked back once he was in the white house. Still, nato allies want to hear him reaffirm article v, which says an attack against one is an attack against all. It was only invoked once after the september 11th attack. A lot of focus on whether President Trump does, in fact, reiterate the u. S. Commitment to article v. In terms of what he is going to be asking for, he will ask nato allies to step up their fight against isis and ask them to increase their defense spending. Right now they are expected to spend 2 of their gdp toward nato and only about 5 out of 28 member countries actually meet that benchmark. When the president touched down here yesterday he was greeted by thousands of protesters. A lot of them have concerns about what they feel is an isolationist agenda. And we go back to that sound bite you played just before you got to me. Remember, President Trump called brussels a hell hole after their terror attack here last year. So, certainly a very tense backdrop as the nato summit does get under way. President trump meeting with having lunch with the newly elected president of france as we are speaking and, remember, during the election, President Trump seemed to support his farright opponent. A lot at stake here at nato. Willie . A lot in the air there, kristen. Nbcs Kristen Welker. Appreciate it. Want to point out reports from some more of the victims. Chloe was 17. Her boyfriend, liam, was 19 years old. They were both killed in the attack. And a 14yearold scottish girl has been named as among the 22 dead. Up next, will President Trumps budget hit his own voters the hardest . Joe manchin joins us next on morning joe. Its not just a car, its your daily treat. Go ahead, spoil yourself. The es and es hybrid. Experience amazing. 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. Priority you for patients like lynn, advanced Genomic Testing may lead to other Treatment Options that can work. Learn how Genomic Testing is changing the way we fight cancer at cancercenter. Com genomics how to win at business. Step one point decisively with the arm of your glasses. Abracadabra. The stage is yours. 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How do you begin to work across the aisle when that seems to be the posture of the leader . Nobody talks theres 100 members of the senate. Were all part of the same club, United States senate, all there to help United States of america and we have leaders from both sides. I talk to our group. Im not going to talk to the other side. Thats the problem were in now. Thats what i keep harping about. And there are those of us, mitch, im sorry, that want to work. We want to get a Health Care Plan that works for all. We dont want to throw the baby out with the bath water. We want a tax reform thats fair and equitiable and basically takes care of the United States of america, bills we have, military strong, our priorities but also starts paying down a 20 trillion debt. Somebody has to pay. The American People understand that. I dont know why we dont get it here. You have arrived in washington as a chief executive, a governor from the state of West Virginia. And i think, at times, maybe correct me if im wrong youve been frustrated by the pace of progress there, the willingness of people to sit down and work together. What is the current state of congress in terms of bipartisanship, in terms of working together . Its challenging. Ill be the first to admit that. Its still challenging. So many good people here. So many great friends on the republican side, colleagues on the democrat side and weve got a big tent. You can imagine. Look at our tent. We still sit down and respect each others differences even if were miles apart. Theres got to be a reason were here. The purpose were here is for america. The good people of the state of West Virginia want me to do my job. Im not here, casting stones at people. It is frustrating. I was governor i said listen, West Virginia comes first. Were here to do a job, take an oath to the people of West Virginia. Lets do our job. We can have fun with politics but cant let it get in the way. It has gotten in the way of us doing our job in the United States congress and United States senate. Good morning. Your colleague, marco rubio, said another thing getting in the way is the dark cloud of this russia investigation and scandal. Mike flynn has taken the fifth. Your committee and the House Intel Committee have subpoenaed now more documents from him. Are you of the same mind as marco rubio . Do you think we need to get to the bottom of russian meddling in the 2016 election or do you think that the senate can sort of defy expectations and walk and chew gum . Do the governing youre talking about this morning as well as get to the bottom of russias role in our 2016 election . I agree 1,000 percent, we need to get to the bottom. Marco and i both serve on the intelligence committee, made up of democrats and republicans that will put their country first, that will follow the rule of law. The rule of law says if you hit hard times, youre homeless, or the number one person in the country, which youre not the president of the United States, youll be held to the same type of justice. You know what i cant understand, nicole, is that we have people that if theyre being accused and these are horrible accusations. They truly are. Paul manafort has been trying to prove his innocence and been cooperating. Mike flynn has not. Why do you think that is . I dont know. I really dont know. Anything i can tell mr. Flynn is, mike, work with us. Its like extracting a tooth. It is painful, i know. Its something you dont want to do. I understand. But come and work with us. Help us prove your innocence. Dont make us dig and dig and dig like were trying to find youre guilty. We want justice to be done, we want the people of the United States of america to look at our findings, what weve come up with through the i inform tel that gives us the facts. Youre entitled to your opinions just not your own facts. Well decipher the facts and come up to whatever conclusion we need to. But help us. Dont continue to drag this thing on. The American People deserve is. If i made a mistake, i didnt intend to. If somethings wrong lets fix it and get on with it but if youre trying to hide something because you know you did something wrong, you took money and compromised the United States we are not going to let that happen and get by with that. Your name has been on the ballot for quite some time in the state and local level, youre not a member of the state senate, i side alone your state is afflicted with some problems, rural poverty, drug addiction, when you look at the bill that came over from the house, the Health Care Bill and think about people in need of basic health services, basic human needs, food stamps things like that, is your level of frustration with public life at its height right now . Has it ever been higher . How do you handle it . Ive never seen this kind of insensitivity or not carrying if you will. Let me make sure you understand West Virginia. We have done the heavy lifting our entire life. Weve got more military per capita. Our people fight and die for this country. They work in the mines. They make the steel. They do it all. They work in the factory. All the heavy work. And with that they got a lot of preexisting conditions. With that we have an older population thats given their all and theyre being thrown in per ill. We have children that have challenges and a lot of opioid addiction. Just assist me. Work with me not against me. We are throwing every category in West Virginia under the bus. Im not found a category that was left untouch or nook and cranny or a creek or any area where people live that havent been affected by what theyre sending to us and what the house of representatives passed and ive said this to my friends on the republican side, i think the democrats made a grave mistake in 2009 when we had no bipartisan support, only 60 democrats passed the piece of legislation called the Affordable Care act. It split the United States of america, it split us politically. It just split us. Now, if they didnt learn from the mistakes that i think that we made, we couldve reached out and made changes to that bill, they just passed it with 217 republicans and you just heard Mitch Mcconnell, im just trying to a way to get to 50. Mitch, why dont you work with us. I believe you can get to 60. Dont throw the baby out. Dont talk about repeal, talk about fixing, making it better, helping people, holding them accountable and responsible. Ill work with you and other democrats will too. It is hurtful. Im just not going to stand back and let them attack the state of West Virginia whose done more as much as if not more than any other state in the nation to help this great country. Senator, it looks like for a variety of reasons that Joe Lieberman as a potential next head of the fbi is now a dead possibility so im curious about two things from you, one, what kind of person do you think should be put in that job and two, do you have any specific ideas about who might take that post . Let me say this about Joe Lieberman, ive not met or worked with a finer individual and he is my friend. With that being said, i wish the joe the best with whatevers hes done and been doing. I think were looking for someone like a bob mueller. Every time i talk to democrats and republicans it would be great, nonpolitical, noncommitted either side. We know the rule of law is all they care about. We know someones whosen ultimate professional and will do their job. Thats what i think were looking for. We would like to see that type of a person come forth and well see, well evaluate them when they come because theyll be coming before us for confirmation. Senator, thanks so much. Tell everybody we said hi. We will. More on the republican congressional candidate in montana who attacked a reporter who had the nerve to stick a tape recorder in the candidates face. Some hill staffer wondered on twitter how that candidate would handle working in washington amid quote threatening scenes like this one, a picture of hatch surrounded by tape recorders. Well talk about the alleged assault and why many are drawing a direct line between the incident and Donald Trumps treatment of the press. Plus the Washington Post report that bad russian intel may have influenced jim comeys handling of the clinton email probe. All that and more when morning joe comes back. 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Other side effects include gas, stomacharea pain, and swelling. Talk to your doctor about managing your symptoms proactively with linzess. Im proud to make dog chow in vodavenport, iowa. An. Dog chows been a part of my familys life for over 40 years. My grandfather made it and now im making it. As a microbiologist i ensure that dog chow leads with high quality ingredients. Rumor confirmed. Theyre playing. What . We gotta go. Where . San francisco. When . Friday. We gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. Any hotel. Any time. Go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. Blue monday by new order. Cheers. ] [ music and cheers get louder ] the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. Its travel, better connected. Welcome to morning joe. I dont know where to begin you know what i mean . This is like a variable cornucopia. We can start with the story that happens every day but you never get tired of it. A guy is asked about Congressional Budget Office scoring and so what he does is, he punches a reporter and throws him to the ground. That happens all the time especially on the last day actually it doesnt but that happened all three papers overnight that took their endorsements away from this republican guy. We can talk about the cbo score itself which is i guess its causing havoc in the street, people going crazy over this. Whether comey is russian for dupe and thats not the end of it. The the New York Times headline, russians talked of ways to sway trump advisors. They were u. S. U. S. Spies picked them up talking about what easy targets trump had around him, so a lot to go with, but that first story, isnt that incredible . A guy assaults a reporter, which i guess shouldnt be too surprising in an age of trump where he calls the press enemy of the people, these reckless words have consequences, but what an amazing story that is. Well hear this candidate in a missouri special election, the vote is today so thats excuse me montana this candidate also said things sort of trumpian along the way. Veteran columnist mike barnicle, executive producer john heilman, and mark hal prison and former add to the george w. Bush alyss jordan. Willie, the only other thing thats as disturbing or almost as disturbing as what happened out in montana, Mike Barnicles tie selection with that shirt. Its an American Flag tie. Oh, is it really . Okay. Now, now. It just looked like a lot of stuff was going on. I love the flag so much it would have a why not here dont body slam me for it. Its a busy look. So today is the special election in montana for the states only seat in congress but last night on the eve of voting things turn violent and now one of the candidates has been cited for assault. Gianforte body slammed him and broke his glasses. Heres the audio that the guardian released. You were waiting to make your decision about health care until you saw the bill. Well talk to you about that later. Theres not going to be time. Speak with shane please. Just im sick and tired of you guys. The last guy that came in here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here get the hell out of here you with the guardian . Yes. You just broke my glasses. Get the hell out of here. Youd like me to get the hell out of here, id like to call the police. Can i get you guys names . He just body slammed me. You got to leave. Gianforte released this statement, tonight as greg was giving a separate interview the guardians ben jacobs entered the Office Without permission aggressively shoved a recorder in his face. Jacobs was asked to live after asking jacob to lower the recorder. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face jacob grabbed gregs wrist and spun around. Its unfortunate that why dont i cause there. Why do you make of the statement put out by the campaign there . Its insane that this would happen. A guys asked again about cbo scoring for a Health Care Bill and hows hes going to vote and he completely explodes. Beats this guy up and pushes him to the ground. You have fox news camera crew verifying that thats exactly what happened. Fox News Reporters verifying that. Mike barnicle, im sorry, yesterday we joked about being able to draw a Straight Line from donald trump to some of the things that hes been investigated for, you can draw a Straight Line from republican candidates thinking that sort of behaviors okay when you have donald trump ber raiding reporters throughout the entire campaign saying suggesting terrible things, calling them using the stallin term enemy of the people, a term so offensive. You have katie tur being berated by trump. You have a cnn, all of cnn, its dangerous for cnn reporters sometimes to go into those arenas because trump is whipping people into a frenzy. This is not a big leap from what the head of the Republican Party is saying every day and what happened last night in montana. On that Straight Line, joe, you can track all of the candidates prior statements about the media, the medias against us, against you the people and it leads to Something Like this and it also leads inevitably to such a pathetic statement that the campaign released which discounts the one thing that the media, the press is after, truth. It completely discounts the truth of what happened. He still hasnt answered the question, john hooilman, we knew the cbo score would be tough for republicans. We didnt know it would be this tough. The First Political casualty. You and mark went across the country, the Trump Campaign. You saw the open hostility towards a lot of reporters and how donald trump fanned it, fanned the flames from up top. Does this surprise you that some hot head trying to be trumplike would have this sort of reaction . I dont want to drift away from the question of root causes but i will just for a moment. Just think about this candidate. Its the evening before his special election. Hes ahead in almost every poll. Some narrowly, some more slightly, he should be in a great face of mine. In the face of a journalist about the cbo score, not like about some scandal or personal issue, not some kind of explosive charge, this guy gets physical with the reporter. I dont want to discount the larger context, but this guy obviously had some mental problem and some serious problem of temperament if given everything thats at stake for him and his place in the race that he couldnt maintain enough composure that he didnt actually physically assault a reporter a few hours before the vote in his election, theres something wrong with this candidate in a deep way. The Campaign Statement said this is result of aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist, heres the account joe mentioned from fox news journalist who says she was in the room with producer and photojournalist preparing to interview gianforte. She worked that the guardian reporter walked in the room with a voice recorder put it up to his face and began asking if he had a response to the new cbo report. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy. At that time he grabbed him by the neck with both hands and slammed him to the ground behind him. She writes. We watched in disbelief as gianforte began punching the reporter. He began yelling something to the effect of im sick and tired of this. Jacob scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. In shock we did not answer. He wanted the police call and wanted to leave. Gianforte looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized. Fox News Reporter went to be clear at no point did any of us see jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward gianforte who left the area after giving statements to local deputies. He was examined at a hospital and released. The sheriff did donate 250 to the Gianforte Campaign but says its not material to the investigation. Three newspapers as joe mentioned have retracted their endorsement. So far state Republican Party officials have yet to comment. Lets go back to the fox news account. Thats as direct as it gets sitting in the room watching it happen. Well have to wait for the investigation but its pretty clear that as john suggested the guy behaved if a horrible way. Theres a gee whiz factor of this a candidate on the eve of an election attacking a reporter. Theres politicians verbally and physically attacking reporters. This guy probably will still win based on the polling, based on the early vote and, you know, in a weird way that could help republicans because if he wins after this, it suggests a race for democrats the national tied is not set against him. Republicans are a little bit off the hook but i think the bigger thing for them, they recruited a candidate in this race who was should not be in the race, first time candidate. This is a bad thing for the Republican Party and theyre going to all have to speak up to it because the swrund lying cause he was asked a question about Public Policy in a perfectly acceptable way. Wheres the assault charge . Will it be filed today . Its opening up pandoras box with this guy if hes so unhinged. Whats going to happen when theres really National Scrutiny put on his background which is inevitably going to happen. Hes been in a relatively minor race in montana that no one is been he hasnt had the tough probe yet. Someone who acts like that on a very important night of their career, theyre going to be other incidents i presume. Still ahead on morning swroe, new reporting shows just how effective the russians were sewing disrespect into the republicans. James comey may have been duped by it. Heres a look at the forecast. Go find barnacle a good book. I know hes heading to the airport. Reporting two hour and a half delays at newark and jfk. La guardias got a four hour delay. The rain in new york city causing a ton of problems. Its not even raining that hard, all three new york city airports really struggling this morning. The forecast for today, dry in the middle of the country, really heating it up, 90s and even 100s to be found. So lets take into tomorrow as we start our getaway day for the holiday weekend. Rain earlier in the daily and proving weather in the northeast as the day goes on. Southeast looks fine. So now lets talk about the holiday weekend. Saturday unfortunately looks like a dangerous day in the middle of the country, Severe Weather outbreak is possible, even tornadoes. Areas of greatest concern oklahoma, arkansas, missouri, illinois and those storms will head into the tennessee and ohio valley saturday night. Keep that in mind for yourout door plans. Bill the time we get to sunday all that Stormy Weather is arriving in the east. Scattered storms in areas of the northeast, afternoon storms in the southeast. We recover in there in the middle of the countries. Were not seeing problems in the west all weekend long. Tracking that storm system from the middle of the country to the east coast on memorial day. New york city i mentioned the delays, the low ceiling is the Biggest Issue and along with the light rain. Check ahead with your air carrier flying in and out of new york. Well be right back. Youre watching morning joe. We, the entertainmentloving people, want all our rooms to be tv rooms. 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New Flonase Sensimist changes everything. 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 lets bring in the conversation the New York Times reporter michael schmidt. One month ago you cowrote a piece for the times on james comey potential. The document was written by a democratic operative who expressed confidence that attorney general Loretta Lynch would keep the clinton email investigation from going too far. According to the report, this prompted comey to forcefully denounce clintons conduct when clearing her breaking with fbi protocol to say nothing when closing a case. The document had complicated comeys calculations believing that if lynch announced the case was closed and russia leaked the document it would raise doubts about the independence of the investigation. This morning the Washington Post is building up your reporting, michael, finding that the document potentially was a fake and potentially was planted by russian intelligence. The post reports the fbi later determined the document was bad intelligence, possibly even fake sent to confuse the bureau. The americans mentioned in the russian document insist they do not know each other, do not speak to each other and never had any conversations remotely like the ones described in the document. Investigators have long doubted his veracity and by august the fbi had concluded it was unreliable. Michael, what more can you tell us about this . This document is something that folks at the fbi say really provides a racialization for my comey did what he did, he was going to hold the press conference before Loretta Lynch had the tarmac incident. Now, when we wrote this story by the post cast even more doubt on the document than when we wrote our piece a month ago. If you talk to Justice Department officials they say this is not a big deal, this didnt really do what it didnt say what the fbi thought it was going to say and this is just the fbi trying reverse engineer and explain why comey did what he did. We may actually get some answers because theres a doj Inspector General investigation into the how comey handled the email investigation. And this is one of the issues that the inspector skrn was looking at. A lot of this is classified and its not clear how much the Inspector General is going to be able to say publicly about it. If the document is dubious we will probably learn more about it and it will hurt comeys argument for why he held the press conference. You have enjoyed actually telling us why james comey has been making horrific mistakes for years now. This one seems to be keyed up very high for you. Go. I mean theres been an effort both on the record and on background with major news organizations by supporters of comey to explain and justify what he did last year in intercreeding in the election and clear violation of the policies that are supposed to govern in federal probes like the one he was conducting and the counterintelligence probe. I dont understand based on what the Washington Post reported how it is that they ever thought bringing this document up was a good considered because the post reporting seems pretty clear that not only does the document on the face of it seem like a very weak justification and rationale for doing what he did but the post asserts the fbi knew at the time that this document was not the basis to make a serious claim that comey needed to deviate from clear Fbi Department and coming out in denouncing Hillary Clinton unilaterally with the Justice Department. Pursuing the fbi angle and the fbis involvement in this, the timing of the document, its an email from Debbie Wasserman schultz to someone who supposedly works for an Organization Funded by george soros. Why did it take so long for the fbi to conclude that this document was not authentic . Sources, they know the sources. Debbie wasserman schultz. Why did it take so long for them to conclude that it was a fake . The facts here dont look good for the fbi in the post story it says they werent even interviewed by the fbi, they werent even contacted by them. So if the fbi was so worried about this document why didnt the fbi go out and talk to them about it. The other thing thats interesting about this document that we learned when we were reporting on it is that lynch didnt know about it at the time. Instead comey had his deputy go to the senior most career person at the Justice Department and talk to therapy about this but that lynch and the political folks that were running the Justice Department didnt know what was going on here. My sense is that theres probably some other stuff here that went on that we dont know about and there were some interactions between comey and the Justice Department that we dont know about on this but as it stands right now this doesnt really help comeys argument for why he did what he did. Thanks so much as always. Senator dick durbin has been asked a lot of questions over the years and hes never body slammed a single one of them. What the violent incident in montana says about the state of politics today. Well be right back. Clr just like the people who own them, every business is different. But every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. Whether it be with customer contracts, agreements to lease a space or protecting your work. Legalzooms network of attorneys can help you, every step of the way. So you can focus on what you do and well handle the legal stuff that comes up along the way. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. Wearing powerful sunscreen . Yes neutrogena® ultra sheer. Unbeatable protection helps prevent early skin aging and skin cancer with a clean feel. The best for your skin. Ultra sheer®. Neutrogena®. And its also a story mail aabout people 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. Priority you. Welcome back. Joining the table now we have steve cor knacky and phillip bu. Welcome to the table. The future of Republican Health care is uncertain after a tough nals determined millions likely would lose coverage. The nonpartisan found that under the legislation passed in the house the ranks of the uninsured would grow by 23 million in the next decade, including 14 million losing Health Insurance in 2018. The ten year estimate is down 20 from the 24 million who would have been uninsured under the version proposed in march. The cbo found costs would depend on where you live seeing instability for 1 6 of americans in states that seek waiver on Health Benefits or those that have preexisting condition without continuous coverage. Premiums would very significantly and fewer Healthy People would face extremely high premiums. A white house official reacted to the score saying, history has proven the cbo to be totally incapable of accurately predicting of how Health Care Legislation will impact Health Insurance coverage. Senator dick durbin, good to see you this morning. Your reaction to the long awaited cbo report. Now we know why the Republican Leadership in the house moved forward with this repeal of obamacare and wouldnt wait for the Congressional Budget Office. The Congressional Budget Office Congressional Budget Office tells us that this approach passed by the house of representatives by two votes without any public hearing and barely after the ink was dry would be disastrous. 23 million americans as you mentioned would lose their Health Insurance but it gets worse. Premiums are going to go up instead down, up 20 next year. People with preexisting conditions are going to find themselves with unaffordable insurance or no insurance at all. Its back to the bad old days under this republican approach. Eliminating things like coverage for Mental Illness as well as Substance Abuse treatment at this moment in history is a definite step backwards. I want to read you something because clearly obamacares not working for every state in this country. Missouris Health Care Exchange was dealt another blow wednesday when Blue Cross Blue Shield announced plans to leave the marketplace in 2018. Citing a loss of more than 100 million since 2014 for the reason behind the cancelled plans. United health group and aetna left the missouri marketplace after 2016 and anthem has said it will consider pull backs and premium increases in cost sharing are not improved. The blue cross decision effects about 67,000 customers, most of whom receive federal sbis to purchase Health Insurance. Clearly there are flaws in the system. Do you believe obamacare as is working for this country . I can tell you its working for the overwhelming majority of americans. Are there parts of it that need to be changed and improved, of course and its in the individual market that we have the problems that you just outlined here. People most americans get their insurance through their employment. Many get it through medicaid. But its the private Insurance Market on the insurance exchanges where we definitely need to come together and change the approach we have. I hear this phrase, death spiral, Affordable Care act is in a death spiral. Its in a death spiral because the republicans have their hands around its throat. If they would sit down with us and work to improve the system we can cover more americans, we can enlarge these insurance pools so we can spread the risk and keep premium costs under control. Joe . Senator, obviously there are a lot of problems with the Affordable Care act with obamacare and weve heard a lot of states offering insurance from one company, from one provider. So weve all been very, very clear. We think the republican approach in the house just wont work for 23 million reasons, but if you can wave a magic wand and get the president to sign a compromised bill, what would that bill look like . It wouldnt be obamacare but it also wouldnt be trumpcare. Susan collins is my friend and she is really trying in good faith to come up with an approach that we can work on and a bipartisan basis. Shes looking for three things, to protect and expand the number of americans with Health Insurance, to bring the cost down and to build into this system incentives for quality and Affordable Care. If we sit down at a table take repeal off the table and sit down with those as our goals, i think we can reach it. But you cant reach it by starting with a tax cut of almost a trillion dollars for the wealthiest people in america. That isnt how you move toward more and more Health Insurance protection. So i would agree with you. If you asked me what i would put on the table, id like to see us have medicare type Program Available for every american to choose. Medicare is a very good program, tens of millions of americans count on it and if we offer this as the public option everywhere across america i think its a step forward. Deal with the cost of pharmaceutic pharmaceuticals. Affordable care act does not do that effectively now. We got to find a way to reign in these costs and the individual market, thats where we see these disparities in premiums. Thats where we need to focus our attention. All right. Senator, i heard you mention there the idea of the expanding medicare. Followup on that, what would you say to a democratic activist somebody in your party, all this subsidies and exchanges and tax credits, youve had seven years to explain the very complex workings of obamacare to the public, Public Opinion is still luke warm at best on it. This republican alternative is not getting anywhere with polling. The idea that Single Payer Universal Health Care is the easiest thing to explain, the easiest thing to understand and thats where democrats should move, what would you say . Im not going to argue with them. Lets see what happens. I think overwhelming americas going to like that option and move toward it. I think the last chance for private Health Insurance in america to prove that it works, that it can be affordable and effective. Thats what were trying to achieve but ultimately do i believe that we should move toward a National System at least as an option, yes. I would support it and i think most americans would if it looked a lot like medicare. My question is, obviously single pair is something thats been a dream of democrats for some time now but the question here is a political one. Youre in a situation now where the house passed a bill theyre hoping to move with the reconciliation, they only need 50 votes from the republicans. How do you combat that . What is the political strategy if the democrats are going to use in the senate to try and change this bill at all . This gets into the ar cain procedures of the u. S. Reconciliation. The obvious question is will the Senate Parliamentarian sit down and say can they pass their by a simple majority. That i believe is the right way to approach it. Take repeal off the table. Ill pull up a chair to that table. I want to sit down and work to make this a more Effective Health care system so we have more americans insured so premiums are not rising as fast and we Start Building into the system the quality care that senator collins and many others agree need to be part of it. Always appreciate your perspective. Thanks, senator. Well get a love report from montana after a reporter ends up hospitalized after trying to interview a candidate for congress. Could the incident help democrats pull off a win in todays special election there and what about the one from georgia one month from now. Well give steve in to break down those numbers and a congressman cites the internet in defense of a Conspiracy Theory involving slain dnc staffer seth rich. Why what he said is just the tip of the iceberg. Talk about that and more when morning joe continues. Got it. Rumor confirmed. Theyre playing. What . We gotta go. Where . San francisco. When . Friday. We gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. Any hotel. Any time. Go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. Blue monday by new order. Cheers. ] [ music and cheers get louder ] the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. Its travel, better connected. Are you one sneeze away fromrd being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. A mihappy birthday, sweetie oh, millies. Trick or treat were so glad to have you here. What if we treated great female scientists like they were stars . 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. You tolde one tim that President Trump referred to you as a boy scout. What did he mean by that . I took it as a compliment. I dont think it was meant that way. Yeah, were just different people. Im just im a midwest guy of a devout catholic. Im from a small town. I live on the block i grew up on. I just have a different upbringing background. Were just very different people. Thats House Speaker paul ryan speaking yesterday with mike allen of axios. Allegedly slamming a reporter to the ground after being asked about the cbo score of the Health Care Bill. Lets go live now to montana and bring in correspondent garret hake. Great to see you today. Do we have any indication of the incident last night well impact the vote today . Reporter well, we dont know yet but i want to show you this is the headline of the paper in bozeman, the entire above the fold here today, gianforte charged with assault. This is not a headline you want to wake up to on election day but he was in the lead in most of the polls weve seen in this state anywhere from 2 to 8 points depending on who you ask. Theres a big chunk of votes that happen early here in montana either absentee or by mail. And now theyre going to be counted regardless if they change their mind about this race. Its been fascinating to watch because the Republican Party has really been all in in montana. Donald trump junior was here, campaigning for gianforte a few weeks ago, mike pence was here about a week and a half ago and donald trump himself recorded a robe bow call on gianfortes behalf. I think we have some of that audio. We have Great Health Care coming. We cant afford anotherancy pelosi and the liberal democrats and taking over congress and really hurting our country. So you have to get to the polls tomorrow to vote for my friend, republican, Greg Gianforte for congress. Hes a wonderful guy. He knows how to in. Hes going to win for you and ill tell you what, the people of montana are going to be happy. Reporter so just a sampling of the republicans basically going all in to defend this seat. Theres been about 17 million spent trying to hold what had been a very safe republican seat here one of the other interesting things is, if gianforte loses it gets republicans off the hook here a little bit. Bad candidate and wash their hands of this and that may not have been the case if quist made it close or one this thing outright without this incident. What appears to be a snowy may election day in the state of montana. Good to see you. Steve kornacki lets talk about this race. Perhaps the best thing that could happen for republicans in washington is that gianforte would lose the election today and they dont have to answer questions about him and his behavior. Also as he said too this would give them if they lose the race or even if the headline is theyll point to it it was only because of this but do keep in mind what garret was saying there about the early votes, the votes that have already been case. Early voting is a major part of elections in montana. I think we expected to that at least 70 were basically already cast before this happened. Youre going to have at least twothirds that come in by mail. They sent out 350,000 mailin ballots, they got 250,000 back as of close of business cred. So many of that are in the mail right now. That might be the saving grace for republicans but the Bigger Picture thing here if gianforte does win this thing, again, you have to look at the pattern. We saw out in kansas, we saw in a very republican district in kansas earlier this spring a 20 point spring in the direction of democrats. You see that district in georgia, the democrats came within a point of taking it out right. If montana finishes in the Single Digits that doesnt just mean that this incident caused an otherwise blow out race to turn into a closed race. That could be part of a pattern thats taking shape here. Thats the 20 point flip that steve was talking about from trump to the republican candidate only winning by seven points and the state of montana donald trump won by 21 points. A lot of people looking at this as a referendum on the president. Theyve been looking since he was inaugurated for that key brace theyve been looking for. This was looking like it might be one of those races but this incident yesterday definitely mixes things up. Its going to be very hard to say right now how its going to effect the race because its so last minute and so unusual to have something that dramatic happen right before election day. It also mixes up what the response is going to be. We dont know yet the extent to which donald trump is effecting politics outside of the president ial race. It seems pretty clear that something has shifted toward the democrats over the past few months. But today is not going to be the litmus test that people were hoping it might be. Joe . Im just wondering weve been reading articles over the past couple days talking about how Donald Trumps most intense supporters actually are starting to slip away from him, not in large numbers but it is beginning to happen. Do you see the evidence of that out there . I guess what with im trying to figure out how much of it is donald trump slipping away or their intensity is fading. It might be the thing where if you had another election next week and it was trump versus clinton these sort of reluctant trump voters come back and theyre with him. Youre seeing more intensity on the democratic side, more engagement on the democratic side. I think that was a big part of the story in kansas. Its another reason why this montana race today is a bit of an interesting National Test because if you go back a decade when george w. Bushs presidency went off the rails, montana became a very competitive state in that 20062008 window thats when john tester got located, obama came within three points then it exploded into these 20 point wins. If it comes back in that direction especially given the early vote i think were seeing that bush climate again of the republican president getting very unpopular and the Democratic Base getting very energy jivesed. Well montana be able to tell us about that 70 , how the 70 broke . Will we be able to find out how the 70 voted before hearing of this incident . No. I imagine whats going to happen here, if gianforte wins this thing by a couple points the conventional wisdom is going to be, he was saved by all the votes that were cast early and if the democrat does somehow pull us out everybody will say thats what sunk him. Well never be able to know. I want to talk about your piece a new one the Washington Post titled the internet cites the internet in defense of his bad argument. Hell get you to explain it. Here is republican congressman of texas speaking yesterday with cnn. Our constant focusing on the russians is deflecting away for some other things that we need to be investigating. Theres still some question as to whether the intrusion at the dnc server was an insider job or whether or not it was the russians. Im sorry. The insider job, what are you referring to here because i hope its not this information that fox news just refused to be reporting . Theres stuff circulating on the internet. Circulating on the internet. The death of dnc staffer seth rich who was killed in the Early Morning hours of july the 10th walking near his apartment in washington, d. C. , shot a couple of times in the back and killed. What is the congressman talking about there . So what hes talking about is the slue of conspiracy theories that have arisen following the death mostly it seems as an attempt to try and blunt questions about Donald Trumps relationship with russia because the dnc hack was the first incident that the federal government pointed to as being direct russian interference into the election. If there is some way to undercut the idea that russia was behind that, maybe then the theory appears to be that russian wasnt involved in the extent that was believed in the first place. Its all very complicated. That statement there is fascinating because it winds a lot of political themes together, the fact that the internet is now seen as being trust worthy in a way that people wouldnt have expected. Random cites can be cited as authoritative. Particularly in light of what happened in montana its a reminder of how Strong Negative partisanship is. Blake is not making a strong case there. Republicans here is a way to defend donald trump by casting questions around this issue that essentially been settled. Republicans this is our out. Thats the argument that hes making and were seeing that more and more in contemporary politics. The Law Enforcement itself has said that theres no connection between rich who worked at the dnc and leaked emails to russia. And there are consequences to this, and this has unfortunately been around for quite some time. This is of course this sort of madeup internet trash that is now being promoted on a National Scale but you have sean hannity on a National Scale and his advertisers are actually starting to leave him. Hes starting to feel the pressure. Especially when you have this young mans parents pleading with hannity and all the other conspiracy theorists to stop doing these things that are causing immeasurable pain for the family of a young man who was gunned down and killed. Exactly right. There is this great article in the the Washington Post asking that people stop political sizing his death. Its a total reasonable request for the parents to make. The fact that this is seen as providing cover for President Trump is enough reason for sean hannity to keep theres no evidence for it. Theres nothing substantial behind it but because it does provide that political cover and is very partisan moment is something thats seized upon. Sean hannitys not going to talk about it on his show anywhere but hes still talking about it on social media. Exactly. Part of the problem here theres a large group of people who wants this to be true and wants to be the smart group that was in on the conspiracy before it became revealed. Theres always that i am pulse that people have and hannitys playing to that piece. Our next guest says were living in a time thats not unlike the 1930s when fake news also was an issue. Well talk about that and more on morning joe. Its something thats always present. Youre always thinking about it. What if my cancer comes back . Ive been working on this therapy for 5 years now and were getting ready to go to the clinic. My son definitely keeps me fighting. I want to be there for him when he needs me. Thats what motivates me. I want to see patients have gray hair. I see myself growing old with my pink hair. That to me, is enough to keep going. How to win at business. 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Cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in Blood Pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. To avoid longterm injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis. This is the original, folks. This is the original, in many ways. P in many ways. Its a great honor to have Winston Churchill back. Thats President Donald Trump speaking about Winston Churchill back in january when uks Prime Minister theresa may visited without. Churchill is the subject of our next guests new book churchill and orwell the fight for freedom its author tom ricks joins us now and writes the blog the best defense for Foreign Policy magazine. Great to see you. Talk about the link churchill and or well, why no one has written a book that links them together. Whats the connection between the two men. 1930s, the time not unlike now of great political turmoil, these two guys stood out, churchill on the right, orwell on the left, for two things, first they said no, facts count more than opinions, dont subdue the truth because it conflicts with your political views, and the second thing, this is really important, they were willing to criticize their own side. Churchhill, a conservative, splits with the conservative party over the rearm morement of nazi germany and stands up in the house of commons and say the fact of the matter is germany is rearming. Official policy was appeasement and we dont want to talk about that. He was put in the political wilderness, exiled in his party. Orwell is equally critical of communists who want to suppress the truth and believe the important thing is to support the party line and suppress information that contradicts it. Churchhill, a fan of orwells . Fans of each other surprisingly. Churchhill was the only conservative orwell admired and orwell actually names the hero of his novel winston. At a time when in britain there was only one winston. Churchhill read 1984 twice, loved it, recommended it to people. I just wish they had met. Actually, because they never met, for my own entertainment wrote a short little drama that was posted yesterday on the internet, having churchhill and orwell meet and what their conversation would be. Joes got yeah for you, joe . Tom, this is fascinating. Of course weve all seen Winston Churchhill as the indispensable man of the 20th century because what he did in the fall of 1940 but what about orwell, you talked about, obviously, churchhill saw the danger of hitler coming in the mid 30s even when british elite and british arrest toe crates actually were suddenly progerman. Why didnt orll fit into tt class, sort of the social strat ta around him . What made him every bit as cantankerous as Winston Churchhill when it came to hitler and stalin . Orwell was a leftist but he was shocked by what he saw in the spanish civil war in the late 1930s. He was shot through the throat, nearly killed, came back to england and picked up newspapers while recuperating and read them all and said, my god, nobody is telling the truth about this war. Not the right or the left. And he has a little essay that really is a description of fake news. So i think churchhill helped save the world during world war ii. Orwell then describes the world that might be coming, the world in which intrusive government is all surveilling, all knowing. What orwell didnt see was the intrusiveness of corporations we have in the 21st century, combined with the intrusiveness of government surveillance. And i can see and hear you starting to touch on some of them, but what do you think some of the lessons are from that era and these characters for today . Fascinating because i think the best example is mar tin luther king jr. From jail, that applied the lessons these guys have, have principles, observe the facts and insist on figuring out what the facts are before you come to any conclusions and apply your principles to those facts. The principles are important. Ive been thinking about this a lot with the montana situation yesterday. We have principles stated in our country, a lot of countries are just sort of a culture and ethnicity. America has a constitution which lays out what it is to be american, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and when you knock down a reporter you are acting in an unamerican way. I think thats how to apply churchhill and orwell today. Apply the principles to the facts to understand the situation. And for me, that candidate knocking down a reporter, crossed a bright line yesterday. Political violence from the left or right is unacceptable. I totally get that point. You have atalked about leaders, king, churchhill and orwell, what is the trend that reversed what was happening in the 1930s . Wasnt just churchhill and orwell and world war ii played a role, what is it about americans that are concerned where they are right now. What can they look for to suggest were moving away from the moment were in right now . I would look for people of principle on both the left and the right. The people i find particularly interesting right now, and im kind of shocked to hear myself say this, is conservatives who are against trump. Im thinking particularly people like the john hopkins professor el let cohen, charles krauthammer, william crystal of the weekly standard. There are really eloquent things being written right now and were finding these people are in many ways closer to Bernie Sanders than a republican president. If you use this, principles and facts, you will see trump is not a conservative, he has no loyalty to traditions, he doesnt even know our basic facts this country, the basic traditions of this country. In many ways hes more a destabilizing revolutionary that he is a true conservative. Tom, thank you so much for being with pus. Greatly appreciate it. Would love for you to come back and expand on what you were saying about corporations, anybody that looks at the internet ads that pop up out of nowhere, big brother is watching and its not just our government or other governments. Please come back. But churchhill and orwell, cant wait to read it. Looks absolutely fantastic. Thank you. Willie geist, final thoughts of the morning . It was all said here about montana, the votes a lot in early, but well see if theres impact and see what it means for donald trump and if its a reflection on him. That does it for us. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. Happy anniversary. Good morning. Im stephanie ruhle. Much to cover, body slammed the republican candidate in a house race in montana accused of attacking a reporter. Speak with shame, please. Im sick and tired of you guys. The last guy that came in here you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. That was for real. While voters head to the polls today could the democrat come from behind and win. Theres a Strained Alliance overseas, the president meeting with european leaders right now, amid reports that the bris