Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170825

A lot to talk about. A Senior Administration official tells nbc news, President Trump is serious about his tuesday night threat of shutting down the government unless the spending bill includes funding for a wall along the mexican border. The president made a similar threat last spring, but relented on a shortterm funding bill to avoid a shutdown at the end of his first hundred days. This as the white house repeatedly dodged whether or not the president had abandoned his Campaign Pledge that mexico would pay for the wall. Sarah, the president promised over and over again during the campaign that mexico would pay for the wall. So why is he now threatening a Government Shutdown if Congress Wont pay for it . The president is committed to making sure this gets done. Matthew . Why is he threatening a shutdown over paying for it . Again, he said over and over again, he talked about the campaign, over and over again. He said, mexico is going to pay for the wall. He asked people, his crowds chanted back at him, mexico is going to pay for it. Now hes pushing, threatening a shutdown of the government. Once again, the president is committed to making sure this happens and were going to push forward. On this threat of the Government Shutdown if congress doesnt secure funding for this wall, how is that not a concession from this white house that mexico isnt actually going to pay for this wall and american taxpayers will . Again, this is something the president s committed to. Hes committed to protecting american lives and doing that through the border wall is something thats important, its a priority, and were moving forward with it. Noah . But hes not saying that mexico is going to pay for it. He hasnt said theyre not either. Hasnt said theyre not either. So susan, during the campaign, obviously, build that wall, mexico is going to pay for it was number one on the greatest hits at a donald trump rally and we heard it again tuesday night. Is this an idle threat or do you think hes going to shut down the government over the wall . I dont think he will. The markets will tank, the one success he goes to at the beginning of every rally, every address is he talks about the economy. The markets will not respond well to this. And plus, you know, he is until he isnt. Thats donald trump. Hes definitely going to do this, until he doesnt. And he seems to get away with that. But i dont think he will be able to make that threat. Theres some bloomberg reporting this morning that this was sort of Steve Bannons dying political wish, as he left the office, he said, dont forget the wall, dont forget the promise you made on the wall. How far do you think, governor dean, the president s willing to go here . Im with susan. I dont think he can he could shut down the government. He would have to veto what would be a bipartisan bill in order to do that. I mean, i dont see it happening. But this is a guy who can do anything crazy and who knows what hell do. So what does it look like, mark . It is a continuing resolution, kind of in two pieces, we pass a spending bill to avoid the shutdown by october the 1st and attach the wall to a larger spending bill down the road . I think theres the debt ceiling fight and the budget fight. And i think theyll both probably be kicked down the road a little bit, at least until maybe the end of the year. Theres all this talk of republicans saying, ah, were fed up with the president and well go it alone. I dont know what it means to go it alone. They still need a signature on things, theyll have to override his veto and theyll need democratic votes. Theres no way Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan will get democratic votes without the white houses involvement. And everybody believes this is going to involve a fair amount of democratic votes. There are so many unanswered questions, and the notion that the president is going end to this by vetoing things and by trying to shut down the government, i just think i agree, its implausible, but theres no other obvious outcome, so its as likely as anything. Mark mentioned the debt ceiling. The treasury says the debt ceiling must be raised by september 92 for the government to make its payments and congress has until september the 30th to pass funding through both chambers. Otherwise, the government runs out of money on october 1st. Yesterday morning, the president tweeted that Republican Leaders on capitol hill had missed an opportunity, accusing Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan of ignoring his request to tie raising the debt ceiling to a ver Veterans Affairs bill, saying theyve allowed democrats to hold it up. Quote, could have been so easy, now a mess. And even though speaker ryan was named in the tweet, he told cnbc, he didnt see it as criticism. I dont really take it as going after me. Look, thats an option we were looking at, but the v. A. Deadline came up and we werent able to do that then. Im really not that worried about this. We have plenty of options ahead of us and we will pass a debt limit increase before we hit the debt limit. President trump sent a third tweet at Republican Leadership yesterday morning writing, quote, the only problem i have with Mitch Mcconnell is that after hearing repeal and replace for seven years, he failed. That should never have happened. But at the white house, press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders denied any friction between the two. Sarah, there seemsymptom acr president and republican congressional leadership. How do you repair this relationship going into the fall . I think the relationship is fine. Obviously, there are going to be some policy differences, but there are also a lot of shared goals. Were disappointed that obamacare, they failed to get it repealed and replace, but mcconnell has worked with other members to work on those shared goals and well continue to do that when the senate comes back from recess. Noah, that was a pained, scripted response to try to explain away the problems that are right there for everybody to see, whether its donald trump going after jeff flake and Mitch Mcconnell tweeting out support of jeff flake or donald trump as reported by politico yesterday, calling up senators and pushing them to back off certain russia bills, bob corker for one, thom tillis for another. The relationship is not good, as Sarah Huckabee sanders says. Yeah, that was one of many pained responses to many similar questions. I feel for congressional staffers who are on background in reports were tripping over saying, were on our own, were bereft of leadership. Its theyre sending a lot of mixed signals from the white house. At one time, they want a bill, any bill, that theyre consigned on health care. Now theyre going to let them do tax code reform, just get us something. But at the same time, they intervene in little piddling measures, like now we want this funding for a wall. They had many opportunities to claim a victory there. They had the opportunity to go for a border tax. Whatever you think of the border tax. It would have paid for the wall, and mexico sort of would have paid for it. They had a couple of billion dollars for border security. They could have claimed victory there. But instead, theyre robbing themselves of victory and saying, we want more. So, john, a Senior Administration official told nbc last night that the trump and mcconnell havent spoken in weeks, to use their terms. So despite what Sarah Huckabee sanders is saying there, theres obviously a deep divide. Look, i mean, if you think about the story, the story that got a lot of attention, rightfully so, in the new york time times, that had the leaders fingerprints all over it a few days ago, with mcconnell, its not that i dont think that a the relationship is chilly or frosty, the leaders waging a war on the president , the president is waging a war on the leader in open view. The president in open view of his twitter stream, and the leader, in very obvious ways in the press, his allies. I dont really im looking at this Washington Post story on the front page today, a good story that President Trump is distancing himself from the congressional leadership, trying to see if he can create some political space for himself, apart from the partys congressional wing, i dont really understand how that works in the context not of a president ial election year, where i could understand how it would work, but in the context of a Midterm Election year. Whos whos on team trump . The democrats are not . And what, hes going to run against republicans when theyre running for reelection in a Midterm Election, and his name is not tonight ballot . I dont understand the logic of this. Again, in 2019, i could understand the logic of this. I dont get what hes trying to accomplish here in the tangible way in the shortterm, because if they lose control of one or both houses in 2018, its really bad for donald trump. And in some cases, susan, hes willing to unseat sitting republicans, like jeff flake. Hes willing to risk losing that seat to a democrat, potentially, by making a point to jeff flake that he should try to undercut the president. Well, in so many ways, this president has said, i am president and i am loyal to myself only. Im not president of this country for all, i am here its all about me. Im not anywhere interested in uniting it. All i care is about me. So when you see him making those attacks, its just a gut reaction at this point. Now its time for the republicans both on the house and the senate side to bear down, get their agenda down, treat the president as a neutral fact. If they want to bring something forward and go into the 2018 elections and get it, they better show some results. And i think at this point the president will sign anything. He really has no deep caring about any particular issue. So jeff flake, who we just mentioned, running for reelection was asked in an interview yesterday about the future of President Trump and perhaps a primary in 2020. Heres what he said. Do you think the president is going to get a primary opponent in 2020, the way things are headed right now . And then well let you go. You know, i dont know. I dont know. I think that certainly depends on him. I think he could govern in a way that he wouldnt, but i think that the way the direction hes headed right now, just kind of drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base, you know, i think hes inviting one. Governor dean, just think about the fact that anyones even asking that question. Ion i know. That thats even in the atmosphere about donald trump. I think theres a lot of interesting stuff to dissect. John was talking about the Senior Administration, who leaked, i thought van wubannon gone. So whos the Senior Administration thats doing this leaking . This stuff is still going on. Secondly, who knows if trump is going to be around in 2020, of his own volition, i think its unlikely hell be impeached, even if the democrats take over. Although mueller could unleash some stuff that could lead to that. I think this is unpredictable. I do think that if jeff flake doesnt win his primary, the democrats have got a great shot at picking up that seat. I also believe, and im probably the only person in america or at least in washington who believes this, that if roy moore wins the democratic primary in i mean, the republican primary in alabama, we have a good candidate with a long history in alabama and we could take you think a democrat could win i think a democrat would beat, if its roy moore, whos somewhat unhinged, as we know. So despite saying that relationships between the president and congress are fine as we just showed you, Sarah Huckabee sanders also hit back at comments made by senator bob corker of tennessee earlier this month, criticizing the president. Here first are corkers comments followed by Huckabee Sanders at the white house yesterday. The president has not yet has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful. He also recently has not demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation. Do you have any response to that from a republican senator . Uh, i think thats a ridiculous and outrageous claim and doesnt dignify a response from this podium. So, mark, senator corker was one of the guys who was open to the possibility of President Trump. Was open to working with him. Every time hed come on this show and there would be pressure for republicans to condemn donald trump, he was one of the guys who always said, im going to give him some time. Went out of his way hes learning the job, he bent over backwards. Those comments were from last week in the wake of charlottesville. And really, i think the breaking point for bob corker. But not saying anything extraordinary, with right . He was saying that hes got to better understand the character of country. Thats actually a pretty kpoo extraordinary thing to say. I just meant as a human being. Senator corker is unusual and in some ways unique as a way to measure the president s standing with capitol hill. Hes been an ally, as youve suggested. Hes gone out of his way from candidate trump to President Trump to give the president the benefit of the doubt, to try to be encouraging both publicly and privately. Has lots more communication with the white house than Many Republican senators. He said that in a way that clearly got everybodys attention. And Sarah Sanders reaction is just another indication that september is going to be a crazy time, when the president Needs Congress to do difficult things, he needs his party to do difficult things. And his relationships right now are at a low point with members of his own party, including people like corker, who have been as reliable allies as the president has had, up until now. Corker hasnt given up on the president , because corker, ryan, a lot of members of congress say, lots has gone wrong, we dont like a lot of what happened at the white house, we dont like a lot of what the president does. But hes the president , hes our president , were in washington to get things done. Hope springs eternal for them. But if theres if they default on the debt or if theres a Government Shutdown, its going to test a lot of the relationships that are frayed right now, as i said, to an absolute low point. And lets just be clear, to your point, willie, i think he was making these comments in the wake of charlottesville. Because those comments were not directed at charlottesville. As mark suggested, bob corker chooses his words carefully. And when he says the president has not demonstrated the stability, that is a that is, for corker, the equivalent of where others would say, hes a raving lunatic . Im not trying to put words in his mouth, but corker chooses his words carefully and they were designed to get peoples attention, he was making a much more sweeping and fundamental critique of trumps fitness, at this moment, maybe hope springs eternal, but what hes seen so far from him, a devastating comment from bob corker. Especially since hes the head of the Foreign Relations committee and we were talking about north korea not too long ago and look at the instability of the world that were looking at today. And that, i think, was really a message from corker to the generals, saying, you better get your guy in check, because youre going to come in front of my committee and well have a lot of talking. This also comes from corkers gut. One, his leader has been attacked, thats a big deal, you dont do that. Two, corker was a mayor. And he actually had a job where you really did have to bring people together and you had to make some tough decisions. And three, i think corker has probably on the Foreign Relations committee seen the mayhem that trump has you know, this guy is in a better seat than almost anybody to see the mayhem and the decline in the opinion of america, as a result of trumps presidency. That response from sanders yesterday, noah, was just another case of donald trump cannot let any slight go unanswered. The madness of all of this, as mark suggested, is that these are precisely the people that donald trump will need to get anything he wants to get done. If he wants to be sackful president , he needs bob corker, he needs Mitch Mcconnell, he needs jeff flake. But the personal animus that he may feel or the instinct to respond over comment or every criticism that comes his way overrides even his own selfinterest. I dont think anybody in the Republican Senate conference appreciates what the president has been doing to jeff flake, undermining him both in public and in private. And the prospect of the sharron angling in fact Republican Party is something that the gop should view as an existential threat. They think they can keep their heads down and weather the trump storm. But if the president is going to go out there and start endorsing people with fringe views to undermine the republican presence both in the senate and out of it. And its one thing to have a roy moore elected by the primary electorate. But its another thing to intervene in that process and say, i want this person who had, you know, hearings on ken trails. Talking about arizona. Yeah, thats something they should think about as being an existential threat and treated as such. In the abstract, i think there was once a legitimate notion that the president could threaten some republicans, he could get their attention, he could make them fear for their jobs. And they could say, you know what mr. President , i understand youve got this huge coalition, this huge grassroots movement, im going to work with you. In theory, that could have happened. Theres a rally around Mitch Mcconnell, a rally around jeff flake. Theres now unity within the republican conference to say to the president , stay out of our primary, stay out of our politics. We dont appreciate this at all. So that experiment is done. And if the president thinks that threatening incumbent republicans is going to get better legislative results from his point of view, i think hes wrong. You cant threaten people as president when youre at 35. You cant. Its like, its math, right . If he was at 45 or 55, obviously, these threats could be effective. 3 35 . Not effective. And to go back to your earlier point, we shouldnt be that surprised when were talking about primarying trump. Its early, but in our history, in both parties, sitting president s often get primaried. Jimmy carter gets primaried. A president at 35, even if theyre not creating chaos and mayhem, are people going to Start Talking about prey primar that person. The president s on pollster put that out. He put out the president is doing 50 ish and people are getting double digits, seven months in. Theres another view on all of this, by the way. Senator lyindsaey graham believ theres a method to the madness in in all the strategy. But now, the massive storm set to slam into the gulf coast. Hurricane harvey intensifying rapidly, now a category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of up to 100 miles an hour. The storm is expected to become a category 3 by the time it makes landfall, make it the strongest storm to hit texas since 2008. The National Hurricane center is warning of life threatening and devastating flooding and issuing storm flood warnings for parts of the texas coast. Up to 35 inches also possible in parts of Southeast Texas through next week. Mandatory evacuation orders in effect for multiple cities in texas and louisiana where harvey is threatening to be the biggest storm to hit new orleans since katrina 12 years ago. Lets bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins with the latest on harvey. Bill, good morning. Good morning. Everyones waking up, things are just as serious now as when we went to bed. The storm is still strengthening and now were only about 18 hours or so away from landfall. It does look like this will become a major hurricane at anytime this morning. You can see the welldefined eye on radar. Heres the path its taken. A general northwest motion towards the Corpus Christi area. And the Hurricane Hunters are finding that the pressure has been dropping pretty rapidly lately. Thats the sign its still growing. The latest update had it as a category 2. 105 Miles Per Hour. To get to major stuatus, well get up to 115. Population numbers, about 8 Million People are in a Tropical Storm warning, including the houston, galveston, san antonio areas. The hurricane warning for the Corpus Christi area and port lavaka and victoria. Those population numbers are just shy of about a million. Heres the latest forecast. This is the 5 00 a. M. Update from the hurricane center. The next update will come out 11 00 a. M. They have it going to a category 3 this afternoon. They have landfall some time around 10 00 p. M. Until about midnight tonight with winds about 125 Miles Per Hour. That will be enough for significant wind damage to the right of that eye, when it comes onshore. Were hoping its in a very unpopulated area. We would like to avoid the eye going through Corpus Christi. They have a population there of over 300,000. We want to keep those structures safe. At this path, it would be on the backside, still very strong winds, but we would avoid the category 3 winds. And then it rains itself out as we go throughout the next week. Yes, i said week. Storm surge is going to be another concern as we go throughout the night, storm surge warnings, about 6 to 10 feet from Corpus Christi to port lavaca. This is the cruelest map of all. This is my european longrange model, takes it back offshore monday, tuesday into wednesday, lingers it off the coast and a second landfall possible as we go through wednesday of next week. That would be absolutely almost unheard of and ridiculous. And thats why were saying, as you mentioned, isolated totals up to 35 inches of rain in widespread, 15 to 20 from houston to victoria to Corpus Christi. Thats why were telling the people in this area, if you have the resources to get out of town for the next week, get out now, while you can. Wow. Looks like almost a weeklong event. To quote bill karins, unheard of and ridiculous. Precise meteorological terms. Bill karins will be watching this all day. Thanks so much. Still ahead on morning joe, a powerful new column in the New York Times asks, president obama, where are you . Well talk to his author who says its time for the former commander in chief to start speaking out against his successor. She joins u. S. Just ahead. Plus, the former secretary of Homeland Security jeh johnson will be here with us on set. And Adam Kinzinger joins our conversation. Youre watching morning joe on a friday morning. Well be right back. Looking for clear answers for your Retirement Plan . Start here. Or here. Even here. And definitely here. At fidelity, were available 24 7 to make Retirement Planning simpler. We let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your Retirement Plan, youll always be absolutely. Clear. Time to think of your future its your retirement. Know where you stand. I knew at that exact moment. Im beating this. My main focus was to find a team of doctors. 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Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Just managing your symptoms . Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Welcome back to morning joe. When john kelly was hired the three weeks ago, he inherited a white house in disarray, rife with leaks, infighting, and a president tweeting content sometimes of erroneous origin at all hours. The New York Times reported that kelly, quote, told his new employees that he was hired to manage the staff, not the president. He will not try to change mr. Trumps twitter or tvwatching habits, but hes also said he wants to closely monitor the information the president consumes, quickly counter dubious news with storiies with verified facts and limit the posse of people urging mr. Trump to tweet something they feel passionately about. That was three weeks ago. Flash forward to this week, politico reports that kelly has instituted a system familiar in other white houses that gives himself and staff secretary rob porter the last word on material that crosses the resolute desk. That system was laid out in two memos that reportedly were distributed isnt the last few days, that includes rigorous verification, signoff by kelly himself. The New York Times reports that Reince Priebus once issued similar gliuidelines, though th were rarely followed. And though the president long courted kelly to be chief of staff, his influence only goes so far. The report says that are kelly wanted trumps remarks to be more somber and aides prepared copies about unity. That, of course, did not happen. And then theres twitter. The president yesterday retweeting this laeeclipsethem people of him overshadowing president obama. The person trump retweeted has a twitter feed that has several antisemitic posts. So mark halperin, was it always too much to expect that general john kelly, as great as an american he is, is able to control donald trump . Whatever that means. To control what goes out through his twitter feed, to keep the reins on him at a big political rally in phoenix. Veterans of the white house laugh that the stuff that is being instituted would be instituted several months into an administration. This is basic stuff about flow to the president and controlling access to the oval office. They can change the system, but kelly cant control the president watching tv. He cant control the president tweeting. Hes just he cant. Hes not going to try. And the reality is, fixing the process will help, but the president dominates the situation through his own communication. And i think that its going to not end well. I think eventually, the process part will be overwhelmed, and i think kelly is either going to have to make another try to institute control over the twitter account, or hes going to have to leave the job. But the problem, noah is, if you say hes going to watch tv and hes going to tweet, i cant control that. Thats the thing that overshadows Everything Else you do. Even if you do some good things over here, he sends out one tweet or has one rally in phoenix where hes offscript and its all undone. Yeah, the president clearly resents being controlled. You can bet that the day he gives a scripted speech, the day after, hes going to do something reckless. The president s defenders bristle at the notion that he has emboldened these elements in the country that are racist or antisemitic. When the president retweets somebody without vetting, who has a history of making antisemitic remarks, these individuals are emboldened. They feel legitimatized and come out of the wood wok. It is, in part, the president s fault. And the president s defenders do him no service by pretending its not. They have to be honest about what hes doing. So what do you do with it, susan . Youre a strategist. What would you do if you walk in this is an easy case for you, ill give you a layup, right . You walk in and say, mr. Trump, mr. President , you need to probably stop tweeting or at least let us vet your tweets before you send them out. And he says, oh, come on, this is how i got elected. People love this stuff. It mixes it up. Can you convince this man that its not in his best interest to make it about him and his presidency . Well, i think Kellyanne Conway probably approached it the best. And she is it should be noted, the only political person he actually has left in the white house. Which was, she kind of maneuvered, she knew he had to do what he was going to do, but at the same time, she tried to say, carrot and stick, and a little like, heres your reward if you do something do. And thats really what you need to hope that he at least does, is kind of bring it in a little bit. But kelly is also the other thing that he has to move on is getting a government operational. Besides the fact that theyre just worried about paper flow into the white house, which as mark said, is months overdue, thats just absurd. But governments not functioning. Posts arent being filled. This test in texas is really or the storm in texas could be a big test for him. How does the government respond to basic needs of people . Youve seen lots of articles about hud, about the state department. These are essentially hud is not being run at all, because ben carson is sort of in lala land. But tillersons trying to run the whole state department out of his back pocket, because they havent bothered to fill some of the positions. Tillersons agenda is the same as trumps. That is to decrease the number of employees of the state department by a big number. But tillerson is all alone in doing this. And he can donat do it. The state department is essentially functionless at this time. Mattis is really the de facto secretary of state. What is the explanation for that. How are not basic state department posts being filled . The trump people will say, the senate isnt confirming our nominees, but that simply is not true. Because theres about 250 positions that there arent even resumes for to vet. I mean, yes, they are a little bit behind, but theyre not getting the applications for dep secretaries all across the government. And thats the bigger problem is theyre having a hard time finding people to work in this administration. And theres one cabinet member, well talk to you about in a second, who is speaking out now, a week or so later, gary cohn, about what happened in charlottesville. A pretty striking interview. Well talk about that in a moment. Coming up, law professor, jonathan turley, making waves in the Washington Post. He says, even if you hate the president , the only thing worse than leaving him in office would be removing him from it. Professor turley joins us next on morning joe and governor dean has already weighed in on that proposition. During our made to move 2017 clearance event, you can do endless online research. Or, you can take advantage of our best offer ever on an xt5. Dont wait. Our 2017 models will be moving fast. You can drive a car. Or you can drive a cadillac. Come in now before the end of our made to move 2017 clearance event and leave with the perfect cadillac xt5 for your next adventure. Choose a low mileage lease on this xt5 for around 339 per month. Buried just under the surface, the answer to it all. We want to need each other. And when youod sugar is a replace one meal. Choices. Or snack a day with glucerna. Made with carbsteady. To help minimize blood sugar spikes. You can really feel it. Now with 30 less carbs and sugars. Glucerna. Its our back to school beeone cent evente. At office depot office max. 10 pack pens, one cent. Composition notebooks,scissors, and plastic folders all one cent each hurry to office depot office max. Taking care of business. Hey. Hi. Hi. You guys going to the Company Picnic this weekend . Picnics are delightful. Oh, wish we could. But were stuck here catching up on claims. But we just compared historical claims to coverages. But we have those new audits. My natural language api can help us score those by noon. Great. See you guys there. We would not miss it. Watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. I love to learn. Welcome back to morning joe. Joining us now, law professor at George Washington university, jonathan turley. Professor turley, good morning, good to see you. A new piece in the Washington Post has a lot of people talking. Its titled, whats worse than leaving trump in office . Impeaching him. Professor turley argues that the chatter about ejecting the president is dangerous for america. Okay, well let you explain a little bit and then well pass it around the table. Reading through your piece, it seems to me the idea of impeachment isnt impossible for you, its the idea of lowering the standard for impeachment that would be dangerous for this president and for future president s. Thats right. I mean, its become a Cottage Industry of people who are arguing for impeachment. Newsweek said, you know, that the president is just six votes away from impeachment. You have impeachment meters and people promising that now were almost at that point where we can remove him. Thats dangerous. Because what people are really describing is what you have in Great Britain with a noconfidence vote, that is, you can remove a Prime Minister and his government with a simple vote of no confidence. People dont have confidence in this president. That standard was rejected by the framers. And i think people need to understand how dangerous this really is. The democrats spent eight years giving almost unilateral authority and creating this sort of uber presidency. And now many of them want to create a type of temp presidency, that they can remove this president for what one article described as political disagreements. And so, you know, you have somebody like steve cohen, congressman steve cohen coming out suggesting that impeachment should be on the table because the president didnt take on farright groups strong enough. If that were the standard, what would the implications of that be Going Forward . Well, just imagine that. I mean, that were going to now impeach president s because they have, you know, they dont have the values that we want. That theyre that their thoughts are not in line with the thoughts of the majority. I mean, if you want a presidency like that, understand this is not going to be the last president. And that standard will be applied to the next one. Maybe therell be a democratic president where the majority doesnt think that that president has the values that it takes to stay in office. Mark halperin . Professor, if the president wants to head this off, if he agrees with you that this is deleterious to the interests of the country, what could he do . Im sorry, that who who would the president. If the president reads your piece and agrees with you, what could he do to try to counteract whats going on . Well, i mean, first of all, obviously, the president needs to focus his attention on other things, like the reason people lack confidence for him. But the constitution itself is a protection. The problem is that theres no real judicial review of this decision. Gerald ford famously said that the impeachment standards is what we say it is. Thats really not true. That as the framers indicated what was the basis for impeachment, they limited it in a departure president english model, high crimes or misdemeanors, and that does have meaning and historically its been respected. Weve only had two impeached president s in our history. Susan . Good morning, professor. Good morning. Im just wondering, the things that these folks are talking about, doesnt that fall under the line of censure more than impeachment . It does. I mean, this is the type of disagreements you can have with the president. What really worries me is that many of these people who are saying, we should be there are bills for impeachment that have been submitted in congress. And many of them are citing the Andrew Johnson impeachment. But most of us who write in this area view the johnson impeachment as an abuse. That was a political disagreement. Now, there are a lot of similarities between johnson and trump and how they are carrying out the white house. But to see the johnson impeachment being cited by so many is very troublesome. I agree with you, but it seems to me that the issue here is the president s impairment. He seems incapable of governing. Hes erratic. He says many things every day that arent true, knowing that people or hoping i hope that he knows that people arent going to believe him. Soy agree with you, we cant lower the standard from impeachment. What do you do . What about the 25th amendment . People keep talking about that. I personally think thats probably hooey, but i would love to hear your views on that. Yes, indeed, that falls under the constitutional doctrine of hooey. Im glad you mentioned that. No, the 25th amendment is a fascinating amendment, in that, in the system that it sort of kicks in, its never been used in the sense of there have been temporary removals, essentially, of authority of president s, but not to actually remove someone deemed as unfit. And so what happens is that you have to have a majority of the cabinet and the Vice President to sign off. Thats a very high standard. The president , if you get that stage, the president is technically removed you have an acting president. But the president can send immediately word to congress that i am fit, and he immediately becomes the president again. And then those people that tried to remove him tell congress, we still think hes unfit, and congress then has to vote. Now, obviously, as you know, being a seasoned political figure, thats a lot of votes, and you need in terms of the number, youre going to need twothirds. So the 25th amendment is not a really good option. And i think part of the problem here is that people want this lifeline in the constitution. They want, how can we sort of rid ourselves of this meddlesome president. The constitution is designed not to really allow that, because they dont want impulse by removals. Well, theres your way to rid yourself of a meddlesome election, and that and that is election. Fascinating piece, jonathan turley. Its in the Washington Post. By the way, the president of the United States was watching our discussion about jogeneral kell. He tweeted, general john kelly is doing a tremendous job as chief of staff. Theres tremendous spirit and talent in the white house. Dont believe the fake news. Thats the tweet from President Trump. Up next, a new column says that president obama deserved a break after he left office but now that his vacation needs to be over. Well bring in the author of that piece whos calling on president obama to start speaking out about the actions of his successor. 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Although there are all kinds of issues that i care about and all kinds of issues that i intend to work on, the single most important thing i can do is to help in any way i can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world. That was former president , barack obama, at the university of chicago in april. His first in just a handful of public appearances since he left office in january. Our next guest says while the president did deserve a break from the spotlight, the country needs him to start speaking out again. Caroline Randall Williams writes in the New York Times a piece entitled, president obama, where are you . It reads in part, president obama, now is the time to Start Talking. I recognize and respect your deliberate approach to navigating these fraught times, was this relentless subtlety has become wearisome. Mr. Obama, now is not the time to follow the keep quiet ruleso much aghast nation. I love that you after you posted on twitter after cha, but using quotation, even one from nelson mandela. I look to you for your good words. Ill keep waiting, because i know they will be worth it, but where are they . And author caroline Randall Williams joins us now from nashville. Caroline, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Fascinating column. George w. Bush famously had a policy and still has a policy that he doesnt come out publicly and condemn the man sitting in the oval office, because he knows how tough the job really is. Why do you think its different this time . I think its different this time for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons i think its different is weve never been in a climate where, you know, the turnover has been so rapid. People in authority positions are continuing to question the president and whats going on on capitol hill and in the white house, eight months into the presidency. In ways that make us feel very unsettled. And so i think that, you know, passing on the baton, when you do that, you assume that the person who youve passed it to is going to carry on running the race in the same manner or within the same parameters that you had done it. I mean, i think that that is not happening here. So, president obama privately is not happy with whats been happening in the country in the seven months since he left office, but what do you think he would accomplish by going out and lets say making a speech, Something Like mitt romney did during the campaign, condemning the sitting president of the United States . Do you think theres a risk that that would further tear apart the country . So, heres the thing. I dont think that im not asking for condemnation. What im asking for is some insight, you know, from those of us who are sitting here bewildered. Some insight into what we can do. From somebody who knows how the machines of politics work, more informed ly. I am a private citizen who tries to be civic what tries to be what he thinks we need to be doing. Theres also so much language of chaos thats you seem to be like you wistfully want him to be a pundit. You want his take, but do you feel kind of almost agitated or angry about the fact that the president is on the sidelines at this point in the Trump Administration . Well, what i will say is yes. Im frustrated, because i think when as i said, i only ever voted for president obama until november of 2016. I was not able to vote before that because i hadnt yet turned 18. I was raised up in the political space where he was the president , and he is saying he wants to enable young people to take on their civic responsibilities. Part of that is coming back in and giving us the tools to navigate a situation that we were not prepared to navigate. Theres talk about the 25 th amendment being pulled out. The president after obama being a president where people are questioning his fitness and genuine terms is not a normal circumstance in which to move into your next chapter of navigating a navigating a political space. The president over the course of his presidency from 2009 two 2017 lost 1,042 democrats their seats. We all remember what happened with congress and we all remember what happened with the governorships. 25 states are in 100 republican control. The president made 150 down ballot endorsements in legislative races where you have the democratic foreign team. The result was they lost chambers in iowa, minnesota, and kentucky. The democrats are already engaged in the trump era. Republicans are a little diskurned. Do you think that getting president obama off the seat might be counterproductive . Might the president getting off the rest gauge engage republicans in a way theyre currently not engaged . I dont think we can be afraid of engaging with people of opposing views in fact i think part of stepping back and not having these conversations is whats bred things like what happened in charlottesville. Things that we havent seen in generations, because we havent pushed all of this up and out. There is no way around this. We have to go through it. So i think that we have to have the conversations. Carolyn, Randall Williams. Appreciate you being onto talk about your piece in the New York Times. Thank you so much. Thank you. Governor dean, what do you make of the idea that president obama needs to be doing more . Would that be helpful in this moment . From a political point of view, no. You only have one president at a time and to violate that would give a trump to target. Trump loves to have a convenient whipping person, and that would be obama. There is a way to do this, but you have to really thread the needle. The other thing i think carolyns generation is fantastic, but they have to make their own way now. Its our job to coach. Its our job to lift up. I think the former president is trying to do that as are a lot of us. Im hoping the next president ial candidate is under 50 or at least under 55 in our party. We have a transfer this over to the next generation. The trump election, i think, was in a sense, their generations edmu Edmund Pettus bridge. Theyre going to have to fight through this by themselves. Obama cant do it. Hes not the president anymore. I think if he gets into this big time, he makes it easier for trump, not harder. Do you worry about progressives and democrats making some kind of assumption in their minds that trump is so bad as a president , this is their point of view, that theyre going to win 2020 just on the basis of that . Absolutely not. I think we might win 2018 that way. But you worry about that perception . I dont talk to anybody who thinks were going to walk in in 2020. Theyre mostly agonizing about which one of a ga still yan candidates we have that are all great its more than that. But you my morning was made with constitutional principle. Governor, always good to have you onset. Thank you. Were tracking Hurricane Harvey. The sights set on texas. Its set to be the strongest storm to make land fall in more than a decade. We have the latest trek and its a long one. Jeh johnson joins us here in the set in new york. The Trump Administration says the president is serious about shutting down the government if congress does not fund the proposed border wall, and what about the part where mexico was supposed to pay for it . Morning joe is coming right back on a friday morning. Mail and packages. Mail and its also a story about people. 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There seems to be ak ri moanny between the president and the congressional relationship. How do you repair this relationship going into fall . I think the relationships are going to be fine. Theres policy differences but a lot of shared goals. Thats what were focussed on. Were disappointed they failed to repeal and replace obamacare. At the same time President Trump has worked with leader mcconnell to reach out to other members and to work on the shared goals. Well continue to do that when the senate comes back from recess. Welcome back. With us we have senior political analyst for nbc news and m nbc, mark hall pren, john hileman, noah rothman, and joining the conversation Washington Bureau chief for usa today susan paige, and political analyst for nbc news, phillip. Good morning. Good morning. The president is renewing his pressure on congress. If Senate Republicans dont get rid of the filibuster rule and go to 51 majority, few bills will be passed. Eight dems control the senate. The Treasury Department says the debt ceiling must raised in order for the government to bake mamts. Congress has until september 30th to pass funding through both chambers. Yesterday morning the president tweeted Republican Leaders on capitol hill missed an opportunity. Accusing Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan of his request to tie raising the debt ceiling to a Veterans Affairs bill. Saying it could have been so easy. He told cnbc he didnt see it as criticism. I dont take it as going after me. Look, thats an option we were looking at, but the va deadline came up and we werent able to do that then. Im not that worried about this. We have plenty of options ahead of us. Well pass an increase before the debt limit hits. Meanwhile, President Trump is serious about his tuesday night threat of shutting down the government unless the spending bill includes funding for a wall along the mexican border. The president made a similar threat last spring but relented on a short term funding bill. This as the white house dodged whether or not the president abandoned his Campaign Pledge that mexico would pay for the border wall. Reporter the president promised over and over again during the campaign that mexico would pay for the wall. Why is he now threatening a Government Shutdown if Congress Wont pay for it. The president is committed to making this get down. Why is he threatening a shut down over paying for it. He said mexico was going to pay for the wall. He asked people, crowds chanted back at him, mexico is going to pay for it, and now hes threatenings a shutdown to the government. The president is committed to making sure this happens and were going to push forward. On the threat of the government shut down if congress doesnt secure funding for the wall, how is that not a concession from this white house that mexico isnt actually going to pay for this wall and american taxpayers will . Again, this is something the president s committed to. Hes committed to protecting american lives, and doing that through the border wall is something thats important. Its a priority, and were moving forward with it. But hes not saying that mexico is going to pay for it. He hasnt said theyre not either. Phil, you are above the fold in the Washington Post this morning. Trump distances himself from gop. Obviously going after Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan by name in the tweets yesterday. Although paul ryan didnt view it as a criticism of him. Is this a deliberate distancing from the Republican Leadership and if so, why would a president do that at this point . Well, i think the president believes that his own political brand is stronger than the political brand of the congressional leaders in washington and hes trying to prepare for a situation where there could be a difficult fall. Things could not get done this fall. We were heading into brinksmanship on capitol hill and the president wants to be able to blame anything that goes wrong on capitol hill in congress. We saw it tuesday night in his speech where he campaigned as the president against all of them. And is trying to create distance between himself and the republicans on the hill. Does he fully understand that Mitch Mcconnell is the one who really controls washington and not the president of the United States . Mitch mcconnell is the one who can either stop his agenda or help him promote his agenda . His staff are trying to impress that upon him, and at the staff level, they are working together, the white house and the Leadership Teams on congress, but, look, the president wants to make this personal. We saw all through the campaign that he thrived when he had a personal villian. He could run against any number of the primary challengers. Hes been running against the Fake News Media and he views it as easy to go against mitch m. And paul r. , as he put it. It sounded like an offhand threat, maybe well shut down the government if we dont get the border wall. This seems like another case where he staff ran in behind something he threw it at a rally and said no, actually he meant that. In the spring they convinced him ending his first 100 days with a Government Shutdown wasnt a good thing. There are congressional leaders who think they can get a shortterm resolution through this time and push it to the end of the year. I dont think theres any guarantee about what the president will be willing to go along with. When you hear Sarah Huckabee sanders say relations are fine, its like saying things are frank. We had a constructive conversation. I want to read trump divorces the gop congress. Thats the headline. A biographer says donald trump once told him he informed his second wife who was seeking a divorce by leaking it to the new york post. He seems to be saying hes seeking a trial separation and for his own selfpreservation, the gop congress will have to find different living arrangements. Bashing republicans wont help him pass his fall agenda, but he may think he needs to protect himself political meaning republicans in Congress Need to think of themselves as governing with an independent president. This doesnt mean joining democrats as the retis answer the, but it means acting on their own to fulfill their legislative promises with or without the support of mr. Trump. How do you get through an agenda without a president working with congress . You dont. I dont know what the pathway is here. But there is sort of a cosmic kind of a element. This is their payment for not separating. Its hard to feel sorry, but at the same time i understand their position, and there was a little element at the end of the op ed that i think is going to end up being something we look back on as foreshadowing. There might be an opportunity for donald trump to have an affair with nancy pelosi. Republicans should keep in mind this president is a newfound member of the Republican Party. He wasnt a republican for most of his political life. His instincts are not conservative. Hes going to be playing ftse with democrats in the event they have capacity to retake the chambers, and republicans should be aware of that. This president isnt a republican and doesnt have their best interest at heart and theyre going to have to steward their interest. We were talking earlier today about just these questions, practical terms, whats going on. Susan, youre looking at the trump. Youre look agent the way theyre trying to scapegoat congress from the white house. Again, before, im mystified by what donald trump thinks is the game here given that we have midterms before a president ial election. Whats going on in the white house . I think the president continues to think about it as a campaign and not an issue of governing. The approach is energizing his base. Theres been a sign of a little bit of enthusiasm lagging with supporters. But it doesnt get him to deliver. And it seems at the end of the day after youve been president for two years maybe and youre facing the first mid terms which would be brutal. Ask president clinton and president obama about what first midterms can be like, your own voters dont want you to disrupt. They want you to have done some of the things you talked about. Senator Lindsey Graham sees a well laid plan behind the president s escalating attacks on republicans in congress. Take a look. Trump is making a political decision here. To be president ial, listen to the generals, then to go back to his base and fire them up. Hes making a conscious decision to let his base know when i said i want to build a wall, i meant it. Hes running against Mitch Mcconnell and Lindsey Graham and others. The congress is very unpopular, particularly with the republican base. Theres nothing unhinged about it. Its a political strategy and its thought out. Its interesting, susan. Lindsey graham as he points out has been one of the recipients of the fire over the last several months. He says i may not agree and it may not be a good one, but heres what hes doing. I think its prettymuch an egodriven strategy. Hes not looking to governor right now. He likes a win. The problem is a win is actually getting legislation passed when youre president. And he has really let the last seven months evaporate. Not that he had much good will, but now he has none. If we think about the 80,000 votes in three states that is how the president became elected, hes done nothing to ensure that he could even keep those 80,000 votes, never mind expanding upon them. Heres two metrics by which the president is the dominant figure in american politics. Hes moving faster than anybody else, and he can on any given day be the story as much as he wants to be. Paul ryan cant do that, Mitch Mcconnell cant do that. Theres not a democrat in the country who can do that. Those are the metrics the president likes as a business person and as a president ial candidate. And as long as no one is touching him on those two things, he cares a lot about that. Does he not care that nothing is getting done and in order to get things done he needs the very people hes attacking . I dont think hes convinced himself that if you dominate in those two metrics, it doesnt lead to legislative progress. I think he thinks theres a way to leverage them to bend congress to his will. And i think by halloween he may have to rethink it. Heres another metric, survival. What this indicates to me is again, i dont know who is right about this but the president is apparently does not think hes facing a threat in his presidency. If he did, he would be saying i must maintain republican control of congress in the Midterm Elections, because if you see impeachment of other kinds of threats coming down the pike, thats what you would do. All i got to do is make sure republicans keep control of the house and senate because if democrats get water in the chambers that increases the odds that my presidency is in peril. This reflects he does not think he has an existential threat ahead of him because hes willing to play with fire and burn republican seats in this by waging this strategy. Again, he may or may not have an existential threat. I think underlying all this, he still thinks hes in political good health. President trump tweeted a few minutes ago, quote its nice to see you having a dialogue with the president all morning. No. In fairness this came minutes before my comment. Few if any administrations have done more in seven months than the Trump Administration. Regulations killed, border, military, isis, supreme court. Thats from the president. Theres the tweet there. Phil, how does this phil r. Yes. Phil, how does this border wall question did resolved . Because it is a priority for his base. It was the chant at the campaign rallies. It was the promise he made in addition to repealing and replacing obamacare which didnt go so well over the first seven months. Does it get done this way . Is this his leverage point to shut down the government . Its what hes trying to do right now, but its in conflict with what he campaigned on which was mexico was going to pay for the wall. In january he had the phone call with the president of mexico where the mexican president made it clear that mexico would not be paying for the wall, and trump seemed to understand that and said thats okay. I get it, but just dont tell your press that. It seem like he understands this is never going to get paid for my mexico. He Needs Congress to appropriate money to begin any kind of construction. Its a fixation for this president. Hes been talking about scheit. He wants it rolling and he needs money to do it. He needs a lot of money. Depending on the contractor, you get your estimate from, its 15 billion, Something Like that. Democrats arent going to vote for it. Is he going to get his wall . 1. 6 million as a down payment just in the funding bill. Its hard to imagine he gets it in the funding bill. Theyre going to get zero help from democrats. And you have any number of republicans concerned about it. If theres a shutdown, who gets blame. In the history of the shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 with clinton and then again with president obama in 2013 is Congressional Republicans have gotten blamed. In this case, youve got united control of the government. You know republicans are going to get blamed you just dont know whether its President Trump or the gop and congress. Although it makes no sense. Certainly on the debt ceiling and probably on the budget, its more likely its done with more democratic votes than republican votes. The deals for both those things which will shake up even further the president s relationship with the republicans. Although i think the Republican Leadership will probably be happy because they want these two things solved. They said donald trump may start to talk to democrats to get his agenda through. I want to talk to gary cohn. He said the Trump Administration must do better in condemning neonazis. Hes speaking publicly for the First Time Since the violence in charlottesville. It was seen as an insufficient response from the president himself to disavow the actions by White Supremacists. Gary cohn was reportedly considering leaving his post. He said i have come under enormous pressure both to resign and to remain in my current position. As a patriotic american, i am reluctant to leave my post because i feel a duty to work on the behalf of the american people. As a Jewish American, i will not allow neonazis ranting jews will not replace us to cause this jew to leave his job. I feel deep empathy for all who have been targeted by the hate groups. We must all unite together against them. Noah, a lot of people were looking at gary cohn last week to see if he was going to respond, the director of the Economic Council because of his position in the jewish position. Theres been some talk he could become fed chair someday. A job hes reportedly interested in. Are those comments as significant this week as they would have been last . He wants us to know hes anguished. I feel for him. We have to look to somebody who is a Jewish American to say marching by torchlight and saying jews will not replace us is a bad thing. Thats a universal value we should probably all share. The thing is that we dont want everybody in this administration to resign. We need a competent administration. They are facing a crisis next week. We need a competent administration. People saying people should resign havent thought that position through. At the same time speaking off the record to reporters or even on the record and saying how deeply and emotionally hurt you are by the president but youre going to soldier on, i dont care. This is little to do with your feelings. It has everything to do with competency in the white house. And we didnt see steve bannon left for perhaps different reasons. We havent seen the unmasked resignation. I thought we may have gotten closer after senator corker made his comments but i think with bannon leaving the white house, it gave an excuse to republicans to kind of offer a reset. But also lets not forget that the markets went down 250 points on the rumor that they were going to resign. I think the statement was not a profile that he wanted put out there but more of a stabilizing factor for the markets. Does the white house feel like its weathered the charlottesville storm such that it was. Bannon is out. Gary cohn is on the record. They havent had the mass resignations, theyre turning to other things. The white house feels like theyre in a new era. They feel like they moved past that. Theyre looking ahead to the fights in september. They claim publicly to be feeling good about the kellys leadership. I feel like cohens interview is striking. We havent seen a member of the president s inner circle yet come out publicly on the record to criticize his leadership the way cohen did in saying the Administration Needs to do more to condemn the groups and to speak openly about resigning is unusual in an administration where the president demands such an intense personal loyalty to him. He talked about the pressure he came under to resign in the last couple of weeks and staying where he is. The Washington Post, phil, thank you. His piece on the front page of the Washington Post. We want to turn now to the massive storm set to slam into the gulf coast by the time Hurricane Harvey hits the texas coast, it could be a category 3 storm. Now its a category 2 and growing with sustained winds up to 100 Miles Per Hour. Theres warning of devastating flooding thats issued storm surge warnings for the texas coast. Up to 35 inches of rain possible in parts of Southeast Texas through next week. Mandatory evacuation orders in effect for multiple cities and counties in texas and louisiana. Harvey is set to be the biggest storm to hit new orleans since katrina. We just got the update. The 7 00 a. M. They sent out a special advisory. The aircraft flying through it found the max winds are up to 110 Miles Per Hour. Thats up from 105 at the 5 00 a. M. Adviser. If it gets any stronger from this point, its then a major hurricane. Major hurricanes go from 111 up to 130 Miles Per Hour winds. You can see it looked impressive. Look how much more yellows and reds are on the map in the last six hours. The storm is breathing and sucking in the warmth of the ocean right now. And its kind of flexing its muffles a little bit. Again, were watching the eye to see if it redevelops. If it becomes more circular and more with the eye wall, then it would be a stronger wall. Were about 12 to about 15 hours away from land fall. The red on this map shows you the center of the storm. 110 Miles Per Hour winds. Moving northwest at 10. The motion is going to slow down in the days ahead. Land fall tonight somewhere is a category 3 major hurricane from Corpus Christi to victoria. Throughout saturday it weakens down to a category 1. Through saturday afternoon its no longer doing wind damage. Then its a huge rainmaker. This is unbelievable what our longrange computers are doing with the storm. Here it is today. This is our most reliable long range monday. This is monday. Comes back off the post, and redevelops. A second land fall is eve an possibility by the time we get to about wednesday. All interest throughout the area staying on the storm for at least the next week. With a forecast of a strong hurricane coming on shore, coming back, coming north, thats why we have a sevenday rainfall totals. This pink is 20 inches of rain. Thats a huge section. Houston even is in the 15inch range. Isolated amounts. Upwards of three feet possible. And the other thing well deal with tonight at land fall will be the storm surge. Were most concerned with areas north. A little bit to the south. But that Corpus Christi section north, a 12foot storm surge will be damaging houses and possibly destroying some. How unusual is it for a storm to hit land fall, bounce off, reconstitute, and hit the coast again . Weve had little ones do it. Usually the second one is weaker. Its rare for a major to come on shore, come back, and then regenerate again even into a hurricane. If it does come back over the gulf, it would most likely be a Tropical Storm. It shows you seven days from now we still could be talking and tracking this storm. What are people going to do . They cancelled schools on monday. This storm will linger through wednesday, and maybe thursday of next week. A lot of peoples lives are being interrupted and hopefully not devastated . Getting ready to make land fall. Thank you so much. Still ahead, former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson joins us. And Adam Kinzinger weighs in on the president s afghanistan strategy and also the growing rift between the president and Congressional Republicans. We want to mention joes band has a gig tonight at the vinegar hill music theater in maine. It kicks off at 7 00 p. M. It will be live streamed at facebook. Com scarborough. Tickets are available at vinegarhill. Scarborough tonight up in maine. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. I do outrank my husband, not just being in the military, but at home. She thinks shes the boss. She only had me by one grade. We bought our first home together in 2010. His family had used another insurance product but i was like well ive had usaa for a while, why dont we call and check the rates . It was an instant savings and i shouldve changed a long time ago. Theres no point in looking elsewhere really. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. Its our back to school beeone cent evente. At office depot office max. 10 pack pens, one cent. Composition notebooks,scissors, and plastic folders all one cent each hurry to office depot office max. Taking care of business. Youre searching for something. Whoooo. Like the perfect deal. On the perfect hotel. So wouldnt it be perfect if. There was a single site. Where you could find the. Right hotel for you at the best price . There is. Because tripadvisor now compares. Prices from over 200 kin zinger. 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. Welcome back to morning joe on a friday morning. Joining us republican congressman Adam Kinzinger of illinois. Also a pilot in the air national guard. Always good to have you. Welcome to new york. Lets talk about the announcement of the new policy in afghanistan. Inserting more troops. Whats your view, first of all, of the way were approaching afghanistan coming up on the 16th anniversary of 9 11 . I think the president s approach is good. One of the things that was so successful in iraq during the surnl. I was part of that. It was not necessarily the addition and a half troops but also sending the message that youre not going to beat us. Youre not going to outlast our will. This announcement on monday said that to the taliban. What it did in iraq and theres good lessons to learn. Thats what led to the sunni awakening. The sunnis said were not going to be able to defeat the United States on the battle field. We may try to join them. I dont think thats going to happen with the taliban, but every solution to a war always comes from a negotiation with the exception of world war ii. You still have the japanese and germans sign on the surrender. Thats how we can get to the taliban to the table to negotiate a favorable end of the war or defeat. I think the problem that past administrations have made that i think this Administration Needs to be clear about, this is a war for a whole generation. This is not going to be done any time soon. Im talking about afghanistan. Im talking about the larger war on terror. Weve had people like richard hoss say this week finally we have to start looking at afghanistan the way we look at korea or germany. To say there will be an American Force there for generations to come to stabilize it. Does that sound right to you . I think so. And kosovo too, stiffening the spine, providing incentive for people to get along. Look at iraq. Without looking back to blame people over iraq, the reality is when we left in 2011, we found ourselves with an iraq infected with isis. Its the same in afghanistan. The hope is to get to a point where were not continually in combat operations but stiffening the spine with the afghan military. 80 of the Afghan People are supportive of an enduring american presence. Were going to be there a while. I said theres a microwave answer. It will be out in a year. The issue with leaving would be just almost unthinkable. Congressman, whats your preferred outcome for the debt ceiling problem and whats the most likely outcome . The most likely i think is were going to end up raising it. I think flirting with the debt limit. This is something people need to remember. I was around in 20 i guess 2011 the last time we were flirting with it. The stock market dropped significantly right as we approached it. We didnt even touch the debt limit. You dont screw around with this. This is paying your credit card bill, not adding more bills. I think it will be a clean debt limit increase. I think it will happen. What do you hear when you head back to illinois for your recess . Whats the tenor of the meets . Whats their greatest frustration . People are angry right now. On both sides, everywhere. This is my biggest concern with the political discussion and dynamic. Weve got to get back to a day, and i sound like a broken record, where we can debate issues passionately but not hate each other. It doesnt ruin thanksgiving dinner because uncle john supported trump or aunt cindy supported hillary. Everybody is just angry. And we have this continual rising climate of passions being inflamed. This is not going to lead to one side saying you got so angry, i agree with you now. I see the light. It will lead to places this country has been before that we never want to go to again. Ask. Is the president responsible for that. I think everybody shares the blame. And to an extent, me too, in terms of the past when ive made fiery rhetoric. When the president makes a great speech, what i thought was a great speech on afghanistan and then goes to the rally and it turns into an us versus them, i think we all have a responsibility to debate our issues passionately, but also kind of say, look, this is the greatest country in the world. We shouldnt be seeing riots on the streets because of political disagreements . You like paul ryan, right . Yeah. When you see a story like this in the Washington Post, trump distances himself from the gop and you see him on a regular basis taking pot shots at your speaker, at your leader and at leader mcconnell. What do you think about that . Its hard for me to see the strategy in it. You need whether you like the leadership of the Republican Party or not, you need the Republican Party leadership to get the things done you want to get done. We talk about the health care bill. Very obviously controversial issue as were going through it. Paul ryan worked with House Republicans to get the repeal and replace passed. Mitch mcconnell came just one vote short. The president in the last few days attacked enough senators that if they vote against his repeal and replace, theyll never get it done between jeff flake and john mccain. We have all got to as a party come together. We can disagree on things. But lets try to Work Together, unite the party and then the country. When it turns into the president versus gop, thats not a good place to be. How would you grade the president s grasp to the legislative process on a normal curve . F being the worst and a the best . Thats hard to do, and i hate putting grades to stuff. Scale of 1 to 10. I hate that too. Hes a pass fail guy. Ive seen two sides. Ive met with the president when we were negotiating the health care bill, and he was actually very engaged. He knew what he was talking about. He was hey, whats your concern . How can i fix that . That impressed me, his ability to do that. What hasnt was just attacking your own party at a time when we all have to be kind of working together, and so im not going to put a grade or 1 to 10. I wish you would. I wish i would too, right. Hes got to do better at bringing folks together and just calming we look to the president for leadership right now. Whether youre a republican or a democrat. For leadership, for calmness, and for our agenda as republicans, we look at him to spend his time out there selling things like tax reform, repeal and replace. What makes you think that will change . This is the donald trump everybody has known for 45 years from new york through the president ial campaign to seven months as president. Why would he change his temperament now . I dont know. Will he change . I hope so. Theres great things hes done. I was talking about afghanistan strategy. I think its very smart. General kelly, i think he respects generals. General kelly is a gate keeper and will be great. Maybe hell learn that youve got to Work Together with your party. If not, its going to be a difficult four years for us. Adam kinzinger of illinois, great to talk to you. Still ahead the president hits back at former director of National Intelligence James Clapper who questioned the president s fitness for office. One of clappers colleagues in the Obama Administration, former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson joins us next onset for reaction to that and much more. Morning joe is coming right back. Electric Light Orchestra ] sailin away on the crest of a wave, its like magic rollin and ridin and slippin and slidin its magic introducing the all new volkswagen tiguan. Higher and higher, baby the new king of the concrete jungle. Start here. At fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your Retirement Plan, youll always be absolutely. Clear. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. Youll always be absolutely. Clear. But their nutritional needs vremain instinctual. D, thats why theres purina one true instinct. Nutrientdense, proteinrich, real meat number one. This is a different breed of nutrition. Purina one, true instinct. When this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. 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Common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. Ready to let go of hep c . Ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. I dont know when ive listened and watched Something Like this from a president that i found more disturbing. Are you questioning his fitness . Yes, i do. Thats former director of National Intelligence James Clapper doubting whether the president is up for the job following the speech and the rally in phoenix tuesday night. President trump responded yesterday tweeting this. Quote. James clapper who famously got lying to congress is now an authority on donald trump. Will he show you his beautiful let tore me . End quote. Its a reference to a congressional testimony in 2013. Clapper denied the nsa willingly collected documents on american citizens. Meanwhile about the beautiful letter the president tweeted about. Clapper said he wrote one to trump and one to Hillary Clinton on behalf of the intel committee. Whoever won the election would receive it. He said it was a simple congratulatory note with almost identical wording in each of them. Joining us jeh johnson. Always good to have you here. Good morning. Good morning. Do you share James Clappers concerns about the fitness of this president for office . Well, first i have to revert to my old job just a little bit. As we watch this hurricane approaching in south texas, its important for those who live in that region to Pay Attention to what local authorities tell them to do. If they tell you to evacuate, evacuate. There is always somebody to stays behind. They think they can avoid it, its not going to happen to me. Follow the directions of the local authorities in a situation like that. Jim clapper is a good man and a great american, in my opinion. He was actually a political appointee in the Bush Administration and a holdover into the Obama Administration at the pentagon where i served together with him. I think i thought jim was a great dni. He made that dbureaucracy. Hes about as apolitical as they come. So i have high regard for his judgment and assessments. To you share his assessment that this president may not be fit . Well, no, im not prepared to make judgments like that. I am, obviously, concerned about a number of things this president has said and done as are a number of people. Republicans and democrats. And i hope that with the new staff, the new chief of staff, we might see some more order in the white house. Johns a good friend of mine from the pentagon. And we have a lot of issues that we need to deal with. A lot of us are caught up in the politics of this. Its good for ratings, but its not very good for the welfare of the country. The politics and your line about ratings is were covering the russia investigation which i think you would agree is worthy of coverage, and were covering charlottesville which i assume you think is worthy of coverage as well. Absolutely. These are problems of the making of the president , not created out of thin air. Would you agree with that . A lot of it stems from things he has said, correct. Charlottesville was a real tragedy. Charlottesville was an alarming situation, and in that type of situation, we depend upon our president to bring us together, to lower the temperature, not raise the temperature. And so i hope that this president has the ability to learn from episodes like that or at least call upon people were advice about how to deal with complicated situations like charlottesville. For former officials like yourself or clapper and others, if you, in fact, if former officials have concerns about the fitness of the president , whats our obligation . What should they feel they are obliged as patriots to do, if anything . I think people should make their views known. Republicans and democrats. And those of us who have been in national security. Those of us who have been in the situation room, those of us who are familiar with governing with the presidency, i do believe have an obligation if we see something going in the wrong direction to inform americans about what we know, what we see, what our own experience tells us are the warning spots and the trouble signs, absolutely. How safe is the homeland now under this administration . Well, first thing that comes to mind when i think about that is barcelona. Barcelona was a coordinated attack. It was planned. A lot of deliberation apparently went into it. The leader of that plot blew himself up. But 14 people were killed, and it looks as though it was a plan to attack several locations. And we watched this, and we have to remember that the vehicle, the car, is becoming the weapon of choice for a lot of terrorist. Terrorist organizations. And we also have to remember though there has not been such an attack in the United States for a while, we should not become complacent in this country. Theres no reason to believe that isis, isis directed or isisinspired attacks have receded or gone away. We should not in this country, in this homeland become complacent. Theres a role for Public Awareness and theres a role for Law Enforcement and Homeland Security in this environment. We had in the show earlier this morning a Young African American Woman writing about president obama in a piece where she expressed her desire to see him speaking out more actively on the situation as its unfolding in the Trump Administration. You obviously are now out in public. You come on shows like this and having a public voice. What do you say to that columnist and whats your general view about your former boss, president obama, and what kind of role he should have as an expresident in terms of specifically in terms of talking about President Trump and the Current Administration . I think consistent with history, consistent with best practice, president s are entitled to recede from the stage and give their successor some space. And that certainly was the approach of george w. Bush before president obama. And im sure president obama feels very strongly about the issues. He has chosen to lend his voice from time to time since january 20th. I believe he will continue to do so. But former president s occupy, i think, a unique role, and im sure that there are things that president obama will want to pursue on the national stage, on the world stage that are important to him. And he should, therefore, be careful and selective about when he chooses to inject himself into our politics and into our national conversation. I totally respect that and agree with it. The argument from carolyn, the come lum nis we had on earlier who is a big supporter of president obama. Thats why she wants him back on the stage. Is this time is different. I cited the george w. Bush example. He said i know how tough is job is. It doesnt do anybody any good for me to criticize a sitting president. Do you feel like this time is different . Well, yes, and there is no shortage of critics already. So but his voice would be more powerful. Any former president s voice, someone who occupied the chair and occupied the office has a role, but im quite sure that president obama feels that as a former president , he should be selective when he decided to inject himself into the conversation as have his predecessors. I totally understand that. All right. Former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson. Great to have you on this morning, especially with whats happening as you mentioned at the top off the coast of texas. Coming up next, when did the president s relationship with Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell sour . We have the definitive time line of events just ahead. Morning joe is coming right back. What powers the digital world. Communication. Thats why a cutting Edge University counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected. And why a Pro Football Team chose us to deliver fiberenabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans. And why a leading car brand counts on us to keep their Dealer Network streamlined and nimble. Businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. Chances are, the last time yoyou got robbed. An, i know i got a loan 20 years ago, and i got robbed. Thats why i started lendingtree the only place you can compare up to 5 real offers side by side, for free. 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They should have approved health care last night, but you cant have everything, boy, oh boy. They have been working on that one for seven years, can you believe that . The next morning, july wipe theth, President Trump tweeted the very outdated filibuster rule must go. Bucket reconciliation is killing rs in senate. Mitch m. Go to 51 votes an win, its time. It irked the majority lead worry responded in the senate and again a few days later back home in kentucky. I mean, its pretty obvious our problem with healthcare was not the democrats. We didnt have 50 republicans. There are not the votes in the senate as ive said repeatedly to the president and to all of you to change the rules of the senate. Now, our new president , of course, i have been in this line of work before and i think had expectations of how quickly things happen in the democratic process. Excessive expectation the president reportedly did not like that line. Mcconnell also said it would be helpful if the president would be a little more on message f. New york times reported trump spoke by phone with mcconnell in new jersey to express his disappointment in the senators comments, according to a person with knowledge of that call. Just this week, it was reported trump berated leader mcconnell in a phone call that quickly deinvolved into a profane shouting match. The predecessor accused him of bung himming the Health Care Issue and he was more animated about what he intimated was the Senate Leaders interference in the 2016 election. Later, the president tweeted, senior Mitch Mcconnell said i shh had excessive expectations but i dont think so, after seven years of repeople and replace, why not done in swooen sweemd repeal and replace seven years, mitch, get back to work, followed by these comments. They lost by one vote, for a thing like that to happen is a disgrace and, frankly, it shouldnt have happened, for that i can tell you. Well, ill tell you what, if he doesnt get repeal and replace done, and if he doesnt get taxes done, meaning cuts and reform, and if he doesnt get a very easy one to get one infrastructure, if he doesnt get them done, then you can ask me that question. As the nation turned it attention to charlottesville. Reporter the president turned to infrastructure alongside mcconnells wife, elaine cao. Mcconnell responded afterwards, quote, there are no good neonazis, he broke to say most news is not fake t. New york times reported mcconnell privately doubts whether the Trump Presidency can be saved leading up to this latest round of tweets. Whew. So thats a starttofinish. Thats just a few weeks there, susan, you wonder why there is a rift between those two men, there it is, how do you heal this . Yeah, i dont see how you heal this, maybe you get a working relationship going, lets hope for the sake of the country, the u. S. That happen . But isnt this remarkable . I cant remember a time in modern history where there has been this kind of rift between the president and his partys leadership on capitol hill. I mean, Albert Barkley resigned for a while when he got into a fight with fdr over policy, but this is a fight over the president s leadership, its not over vietnam. Does the president you think know he will bring the majority leader to heel by humiliating him on twitter and going out and say, well, consider whether or not i think he should step down or get rid of him . Do you think thats going to work on mitch mcconsnell. I dont think thats the point. He has a natural ability to speak to the popular base. Thats who he wants to appeal to, he knows theyre not popular. It works for him. Its a terrible governing strategy, its a good political strategy. Still ahead, where things stand now as the president looks to congress to get through his legislative agenda from tax reform to that proposed border wall. Plus, texas braces for Hurricane Harvey as weather officials warn of a lifethreatening storm surge, wind and flooding. Bill karins has the latest track. Its a long one next on morning joe. 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 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®. 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. Is everything ok . Adt, i could hear crackling in the walls, and my mind went totally blank. All i remember saying was, my boyfriends beating me and she took it from there. When a fire is going on, youre running around, youre not thinking clearly, so they called the Fire Department for us. And all of this occurred in four minutes or less. Within five minutes. I am absolutely grateful we all made it out safely. Its kind of one of those things you cant even. You cant even thank somebody. People you dont know actually care about you. To protect what you love, call 1800adtcares start here. At fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your Retirement Plan, youll always be absolutely. Clear. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. Youll always be absolutely. Clear. Its our back to school beeone cent evente. At office depot office max. 10 pack pens, one cent. Composition notebooks,scissors, and plastic folders all one cent each hurry to office depot office max. Taking care of business. Hi. Can you tell me about these new Social Security alerts i keep hearing about . Sure, just sign up online. Then well alert you if we find your Social Security number on any one of thousands of risky websites. Wow. Thats cool. How much is it . Oh, its free if you have a discover card. I like free yeah, we just want you to be in the know. Ooh. Hey sushi. Ugh. I smell it youre making me. Yeah, being in the know is a good thing. Know if your Social Security number is found on risky sites. Free from discover. For doing so much, folks, like the wall. We all love the wall, dont we . Its my favorite album. Thats right. What do we want . The wall . Whos going to pay for it . Mexico. Thats right. You are the american taxpayer. Good morning, its friday, august the 25th. Joe and mika have the morning off. Tail be back with us on set monday. With us we have political analyst for ms nbc news and casual summer fridays for mark halperin. Analyst affairs, John Heilemann and noah rockman, republican strategist susan dell persio and former governor of vermont and Democratic National Committee Former member howard doan. Good morning. We have a lot to talk about a. Seniored administration officia says President Trump is serious about his tuesday night threat of shutting down the government unless it includes a wall for the border. He made a similar remark last spring and relented at the end of the first 100 days. This as the white house repeatedly dodged whether or not the president abandoned his Campaign Pledge that mexico would pay for the wall. Sarah, President Trump over and over again during the Campaign Said mexico would pay for the wall. So why is he now threatening a Government Shutdown if Congress Wont pay for it . The president is committed to making sure this gets done. Why is he threatening a shutdown over paying for it. He said over and over, he talks in the campaign over and over again, mexico will pay for the wall. He asked people, crowds chanted back, mexico is going to pay for it. Now hes pushing, threatening a shutdown about the government. Once again the president is committed to making sure this happens and we will push forward. On this threat of the deposit shutdown if congress doesnt secure funding for this wall, how is that not a concession from this white house that mexico isnt actually going to pay for this wall and americas taxpayers will. Again, this is something the president is committed to. Hes committed to protecting american lives and doing that for the border wall is something thats important. Its a prior did and were moving forward with it. Hes not saying mexico is going to pay for it. He hasnt said theyre not either. He hasnt said theyre not either. Susan, during campaign, obviously, be i would that wall, mexico is going to pay for it. It was not number one in the greatest hits at a rally. We we heard it tuesday night. Is this a idol threat or will he sheet down the government over the wall. It would be difficult the one success he goes to at the beginning of every rally, every address is he talks about the economy t. Markets will not respond well to this. Plus, you know, he is until he isnt. Thats donald trump. Hes definitely going to do this until he doesnt and he seems to get away with that. I dont think he will be able to make that threat. There is some bloomberg reporting this morning there was sort of Steve Bannons dying political wish as he left the office, he said, dont forget the wall. Dont forget the promise you made on the wall. How far do you ung the president is willing to go . I dont think he could he could shut down the government. He would have to veto what would be a bipartisan bill in order to do that. I mean, i dont see it happening, but this is a guy that can do anything, crazy and who know what is he will do. So what does it look like, mark . Is it a continuing resolution in two pieces we pas the spending bill to avoid the shutdown october the 1st and attach the wall to a larger spending bill down the road . I think there is the debt ceiling fight and the budget fight. They will be kicked down the road a little bit. At least maybe until the end of the year. There is all this talk of republicans saying, we are fed up with the president. Were going it alone. I dont know what it means going alone, they will feed democratic votes. There is snow way Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan are going to get the votes without the white house involvement. Everybody believes this will involve a fair amount of democratic votes. So there are so many unanswered questions, the notion the president is going to ends this by vetoing things and shut down the government. I agree, its implausible, there is no other obvious thing happening. Its as likely as anything. Mark mentioned the debt ceiling t. Treasury Department Says it must be raised by september 29th for the go st to make payments. Congress has until september 30th, otherwise the government runs out of money on act 1st. Yesterday morning the president tweeted that Republican Leaders on capitol hill had missed an opportunity, accusing Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan of ignoring his request to tie raising the debt creeling to a Veterans Affairs bill, alleging theyve allowed democrats to hold it up, say, quote, it could have been so easy, now a mess. Speaker ryan was named in a tweet. He told c nbc he didnt see it as criticism. I dont really take it as going after me. Look, thats an option we were looking at. But the va deadline came up. We werent able do that then. Im really not that worried about this. We have plenty of options ahead of us. We will pass a increase before the debt ceiling limit. He wrote, quote, the only problem i have with Mitch Mcconnell is that, after hearing repeal and replace for seven years, he failed that should never have happened. At the white house, Sarah Huckaby sanders denied any friction between the two. Sarah, there seems to be some acrimony between the president and the congressional leadership. How do you repair this relationship going into the that ul . Look, i think the relationships are fine. Certainly, there are going to be some policy differences but there are also a lot of shared goals, thats what we are focused on. We are disappoint thad obamacare they failed to get it repeal and replaced. But at the same time, President Trump has worked with leader mcconnell to reach out to other members and to work on those shared goals and were going to continue to do that when the senate comes back from recess. That was a pain scripted response to try to explain away the problems that are right there for everybody to see, whether its donald trump going after jeff flake and Mitch Mcconnell tweeting out support of jeff flake or donald trump by politico calling up senators, pushing them to back off certain russia bills, bob corker, tom tillis for another. The relationship is not good as Sarah Huckaby sanders says. One of many pained responses to similar questions. I feel for congressional staffers on background, reports were tripping over saying were on our own, were bereft of leadership. Theyre sending a lot of mixed signals, at one time they want a bill, any bill, that theyre consigned on health care, now they will let them do cash carry reform, get us something. At the same time, they intervene repealing measures, like now we want the funding for a wall. They had many opportunities to claim a victory there. They had the opportunity to go for a border tax, whatever you think of a border tax, it would be paid for the wall, mexico sort of would have paid for it. They had a upical billion dollars for border security. They could have claimed victory, instead they are robbing themselves of victory saying, we want more. John, a Senior Administration official told npc trump and mcconnell havent spoken in weeks, to use their terms. Despite what Sarah Huckaby sanders is saying there, there is a deep divide. Look, if you look at a story that got a lot of attention the new york sometimes i times that had the leaders fingerprints all over it a few days ago with mcconnell, i dont think the relationship is chilly or frosty. But the leaders are waging war on the president t. President is waging warp on the leader in open view. I mean, the president opened view with his twitter stream and the leader, in very obvious ways in the press, his allies i dont really, im looking at this Washington Post story on the front page did a food story of the notion that trump is distancing himself from the congressional leadership, trying to see if he can create political space for himself apart from the partys congressional link. I dont think i ever understand how that works in the context not of a president ial election year, or i could understand how it would work. In the context of a Midterm Election year, who is on team trump . The democrats are not. And what hes going to run against republicans when theyre running for reelection in midterm elect and his name isnt on the ballot . I dont understand the logic of this. Again in 2019 i can understand the logic of this. I dont get what hes trying to accomplish here in a tangible way in the short term because if they lose control of one or both houses in 2018, its bad for donald trump. Some cases, hes willing to unseat republicans like jeff blake. He is willing to lose that seat to a democrat potentially by making a point to jeff blake he shouldnt try to undercut the president. In so many ways this president said i am president and i am loyal to myself only. Im not president of this country for all. I am here, its all about me. Im not anywhere interested in uniting it. All i care is about me. So when you see him making those attacks, its just a gut reaction at this point. Now its time for the republicans both on the house and the senate side to bear down, get their agenda down, treat the president as a neutral fact f. They want to bring something forward and go into the 2018 election and seek reelection and get it, they better show some results. At this point i think the president will sign anything. He really has no deep caring about any particular issue. As to jeff blake, who he mentioned was asked in an interview yesterday about the future of President Trump and perhaps a primary in 2020. Heres what he said. Do you think the president is going to get a primary opponent in 2020 the way things are headed right now . Then well let you go . No, i dont know, i dont know, i think that certainly depends on him. I think he could govern in a way that he wouldnt. But i think that the way the direction hes headed right now, just kind of drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base i think hes inviting one. Governor dean think of the fact that he is asking that question on a sitting United States senate, if thats even in the atmosphere of donald trump. I think there is a lot of interesting stuff to dissect. John is talking about the Senior Administration who leaked. I thought bannon was gone. Who is in the Senior Administration doing this leak something this stuff is still going on. Secondly, who knows if trump is going to be around in 2020, of his own volition . I think its unlikely he will be impeached if the democrats take over. Although mueller could unearth some stuff. I think if jeff flake doesnt win the democrats have a great shot of picking up that seat. I also believe and im probably the only person in america or in washington who believes this, if roy moore wins the democratic primary the republican primary in alabama, we have a great shot. We have a serious good candidate with a long history in alabama politics. We can take that do you think the democrat could take that . If its roy moore, who is somewhat unhinged as we know. Still ahead, it was never going to be easy, just ahead, chief of staff john kelly tries to bring order to chaos in the trump white house, three weeks into the job, we will talk about what thats going, what the president is saying about it this morning. First, heres bill karins saying about Hurricane Harvey bearing down on the texas coast and settling in for a while. Good morning. We saw those live pictures, water will be coming up along with large waves shortly in the day. We are already seeing the center of the storm on radar. There is the eye of the storm. You want to avoid going through the eye. You know we will get a storm surge no matter what. You know we will get this historic rainfall. This is the added rainfall. In the general vicinity, well wait to see what goes through there. Corpus christi has a third of a million of people that live there. That creates the possibility later on tonight. So right now, we are about as strong as we can get with a category 2 storm. It goes up to 110 Miles Per Hour. Thats exactly what we think will happen. Still pressure is still dropping a. Category3 likely this afternoon. As we go through the overnight, by 10 00 p. M. To midnight, it includes Corpus Christi, that center line is to the right of you. You want it to be the left of center. To the right is the worst. Then the storm will weaken to a lower end Tropical Storm tomorrow afternoon. Now the storm surge, we got the wind problems. We will deal with that. The storm surge as we get the landfall, south of Corpus Christi, wont be too bad. You shouldnt get a lot of damage t. Worst sixto12 feet, smr i to the north and to the east of where the center makes landfall is of greatest concern. How about this . Our long range computers think this storm will go inland, come back off the coast, could possibly regenerate and maybe make a second landfall wednesday of next week. That is why we are predicting these incredible historic rainfall amounts. Thats 15 to 20 inches from houston almost to san antonio, Corpus Christi, someone in that range could get three feet of rain from this storm. Again for tonight, the thing to watch, where the eyewall goes, will it head through Corpus Christi . We will be moderating that throughout the day. You will watch morning joe. Well be right back. Who knew that phones would start doing everything . Entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Welcome back to morning joe. When john kelly was hired three weeks ago, he inherited a white house in disarray, a president tweeting content, sometimes content sometimes of erroneous origin at all hours t. New york times reported that kelly quote told his new employees he was hired to manage the staff not the president. He will not try to change mr. Trumps twitter or tv watching habits. He said he wants to closely monitor the information the president consums, quickly encounter dubious news and stories with verified facts and limiting the passe of mr. Trump tweeting about. That was two weeks ago. Kelly instituted a system and gives himself the last material that crosses the resolute desk. The system was laid out in two memos reportedly distributed in the last few days, it includes rigorous verifications and signed off by kelly, himself. The president long courtedically to be chief of staff. His influence goes so far, the time reported kelly wants remarks at this arizona rally to be more somber, aides prepared a copy about unity, that, of course, did not happen. Then there is twitter. The president tweeting this thi overshadowing president obama. So, mark halperin, was it always too much to expect that general john kelly as great an american he is to be able to control donald trump, whatever that means to control what goes out through his twitter feed, to keep the reigns on him during a big political rally in phoenix or a press conference at trump to youer . 58 rans laugh at the notion of the stuff being stud would be instituted many months. This is basic stuff about a low to the president and about controlling the access to the oval office. They the change the system, but kelly cant control the president watching tv. He cant control the president tweeted. He cant. He will not try. The reality fixes the process. The president dominates the process through his own communication. I think its going to not end well. I think eventually the process will be overwhelmed. Kelly will have to make another try to substitute control over the twitter account or leave the job. The problem is if you say, hes going to watch tv and tweet, i cant control that, thats the thing that overshadows Everything Else you do, even if you do good things over here, he sends out one tweet or has a rally where its off script and its all done from the president clearly resents being controlled the day he gives a scripted speech the day after he will do something reckless the president s defenders bristle at the notion he has emboldened these elements in the country that are racist and antisemitic. When the president retweets somebody without vetting who has a history of making antisemitic remarks, these individuals are emboldped. They feel legitimized. They come out of the woodwork. It is, in part the president s fault t. President s defenders do him no service by pretending its not. They have to be honest about what hes doing. So what do you do with it, susan . You are a strategist. What would you do . Is it an easy case for you . Ill give you a layup. You walk in, you say, mr. Trump, mr. President , you need to probably stop tweeting or let us vet your tweets before you sends them out. He says, oh, cmon, this is how i got elected. People love this stuff, it mixes it up. Can contrast\vince this man its not in his best interest, make it about him and his presidency . I think Kellyanne Conway probably approached it the best. She is the only political person he has left in the white house, which was she kind of maneuvered to new heads to do what he was going to do, at the same time she tried to say, you know, carry a stick, heres your reward if you do something good. And thats really what you need to hope that he at least does is kind of bring it in, but kelly is also the other thing he has to move on is getting a government operational, besides the fact that they are worried about paper flow into the white house which as mark said is months overdue, thats just absurd, governments arent functions, this storm in texas could be a big test. How does the government respond to bake needs of people . Coming up, axios is saying the president is senioring ending daca, it protected undounlted immigrants brought to the United States as children. As President Trump undoes much of the work of his predecessors, millions of americans are wondering, when will barack obama return to the political arena . Morning i dont is co morning joe is coming right back. Hey. Pass please. Im here to fix the elevator. Nothings wrong with the elevator. Right. But you want to fix it. Right. So who sent you . New guy. What new guy . Watson. My analysis of sensor and Maintenance Data indicates elevator 3 will malfunction in 2 days. There you go. You still need a pass. Whyoure not thinking clearly, there you go. So they called the Fire Department for us. I could hear crackling in the walls. My mind went totally blank. All i remember saying was, my boyfriends beating me and she took it from there. And all of this occurred in four minutes or less. I am grateful we all made it out safely. People you dont know care about you. Its kind of one of those things where you cant even thank somebody. To protect what you love, call 1800adtcares youre searching for something. Whoooo. Like the perfect deal. On the perfect hotel. So wouldnt it be perfect if. There was a single site. Where you could find the. Right hotel for you at the best price . There is. Because tripadvisor now compares. Prices from over 200 booking. Sites. To save you up to 30 . On the hotel you want. Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Tap one little bumper and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Welcome back. We continue to give you updates on what eventually be major hurp harvey. Right now, its a category 2 on the verge of being a 3. We will focus on the first destruction with this storm as we go throughout the evening. It gets closer to rainfall. We have our shortterm range computer models. These are pretty accurate. They update every twotothree hours. This is our hrr forecast model. This clearly shows the eye. It is saying it will get near the coast. At about 4 00 p. M. Local time here. In the center of the storm, then as we go through the evening, it goes just barely to the southeast or east of Corpus Christi. This puts it on the northern eyewall and the northwest eyewall. This area here to the right of the eye. This is where the storm surge would be. This is where the strong effort winds would be with the land falling or the storm system. This is mostly unpopulated. So this is a pretty decent forecast. We will have a major hurricane making landfall. We have a thousand people devastated and also to the north. They have about 10,000 people that live there. This would put Corpus Christi on the weaker back side of the eye. You would be in the eye of a hurricane from 12 to 18 hours. You can imagine over time the damage it would do to the trees and structures, this is a squiggly line. Into saturday and sunday, almost all bring it back out over the water. Could it generate back into a hurricane . Maybe. Would it be anything huge or major like it is now, maybe not. Just the fact that it continues to bring rain over the region, why we have a flood watch from san antonio to houston. We havent included yet areas from louisiana and northeast texas. That may come as we go through the end of the weekend for that second loop around if that does happen, the forecast rainfall total, you can save this, it will be a long time until you see one like this, 15 to 20 inches. The next week, widespread from Corpus Christi to san antonio and houston and everywhere in between t. Rivers, i cant believe how high it will get. Thats why we tell everyone get out of there if you possibly can. Corpus christi as we mentioned, its looking more leak you will go through the eye of hurp harvey laha Hurricane Harvey. I didnt know where i was from ethnically. So we sent that sample off to ancestry. My ancestry dna results are that i am 26 nigerian. I am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. I put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. Because its a hat, but its like the most important hat ive ever owned. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. 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. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. Its difficult and a former president doesnt need to make it harder, as far as im concerned. Other president s have taken different decisions. Now thats moon. Weve never been in a climate where you know the turnover has been so rapid. People in authority positions are continuing to question the president and whats going on, on capitol hill and in the white house. Eight months into the presidency. In ways that make us feel very unsettled. And so i think that, you know, passing on the baton, when you do that, you see the person you carry it to will carry on running the race in the same manner or within the same parameters that you have done it. I moon i think that that is not happening here. That was Caroline Randle williams earlier this morning on morning joe. Her column in the New York Times is written directly to president obama calling on him to take a different approach than president george w. Bush took and to speak out about the actions of his successor. She writes, part, in part, this, to the last president , quote, dont get me wrong, ive enjoyed your few public engagements so far this year, you spoke meaningfully n on Climate Change in milan and you eloquently repudiated the continuing attempts to repeal the Affordable Care act. It was heartening to see the people or berlin receive you have warmly. Its very trumpy, yelling at the tv monitor. I think the next thing is to the elvis and shoot the tv. Joining us rich stengel. Shannon pettypiece the president of the Action Network the reverend al sharpton, John Heilemann with us. Let me start with you, get your reaction to that idea that president obama should step forward. Hes come out a few times, hes chosen his spots so far through the first seven month, should he do more . I understand miss williams frustration, but everyone that has known president obama knows hes always been very measured and hes not financial to change personalities because of the trump hysteria. But politically, i think that the best thing that could happen to donald trump is he get a back and forth with barack obama. He would want that. He wants for his base to make this about him and obama rather than his policies. So even though i understand frustration and i u. P. S. How panic when she hears somebody says the apocalypse is upon us, she should look at the fact that all donald trump needs to do so people will ignore these kind of catastrophic moves hes making is for him to get on a battle like mayweathermcgregor with he and barack obama. Whats the he wants. Howard dean made that point earlier, exactly your analysis of it. Shannon, somebody pointed out to us Hillary Clintons book comes out for a good time for donald trump, shes back on the scene, he has his spoil back. I think the man is desperately searching for an enemy, for someone to punch. Why done i try pittsburgh connell, why done i try James Clapper, paul ryan. He needs an enemy, it was very successful for him in the primaries, its successful for him in the general election, i think hes sal rate ising for someone oels to come. Why he doesnt punch up at Corporate America or the russians or find an enemy outside of your own party, i dont know, but thats what hes looking for. Hes got the media, he always had the media, you showed tuesday night, john. He does, for sure, donald trump is not short of enemies, some of which are real, some of which are imagined. I think the analysis, howard deans analysis are right. I have talked to a fair amount of people about this its actually even a different, he understands this thing. He also understands another thing, which not only does trump want to foil, but that obama is the perfect foil t. Moment he starts criticizing and president obama is very aware of this he starts to criticize trump, trump then fights with obama and very quickly, that becomes the most conventional kind of political fight. Donald trump is the republican, barack obama is the democrat. And for trump, whos greatest risk is being categorized as unusual, as extreme, as out of the ordinary, suddenly this looks like the same old fight, democratic president and former republican president at the same time, rick stengel. I talk to liberals all the time, powerful ones, rich ones, influential ones, on the west coast the east coast, we say i understand the subtleties of this analysis, dam, president obama is the only one with the moral standing to do this. To wage the fight who has the kind of credibility to really stands up to donald trump. They sometimes include the other former president s and say, lets get them all towing to challenge trump, what do you say to those people . Well, you know, president obama really respected the fact that george bush left him alone, he thought that was an honorable thing to do. Hes a guy that wants to be if private life. Then the world changed when donald trump was elected. So i generally agree with the view he shouldnt be a foil for trump and it sort of works for trump, at the same time just as trump is sui generis has a cataclysmic effect on the body of biotics, barack obama is the first sui generis, hes the first democrat elected with more than 50 of the votes two times since fdr. I think as much as it might torque trump even more, i would like to see barack obama out there more. President obama has no obligation to do this its his prerogative, completely. He can go into private life however he chooses, the argument we heard from Caroline Williams in the New York Times and others, this time is different. It requires a figure of his standing to step forward to be a counterweight to donald trump. Yeah, i will probably disagree with most on the panel here i dont think the president is stepping out of his private sphere out of a sense of civic and moral obligation. He has a reputation to rehabilitate. He left the Democratic Party if at that time teaters. He has to reestablish that. The second that the will of the voters, democrats felt in 2009 and 2010. They felt things were going off the rails and somebody had to speak up about it. It would be a dereliction of responsibility no do so and would demonstrate a lack of tait in the system. President donald trump has a lot of republicans who are pening him in as a result of our constitutional checks. People who demonstrate a lack of faith in that are demonstrating a lack of faith in the constitution, itself. It raises the question if he did step forward, if president obama stepped forward, what does that mane . Does it mean he delivers a speech or tries in some way to rally democrats in congress against the president . How far would he be expected to push it and again is that an undermineing of the presidency . And i think then and then what . Those of us that are engaged now in trying to deal with where are we going with this debt ceiling . Where are we going with the Justice Department dealing with a lot of issues . He comes out, he makes a speech, then what . Its not going to sway the Republican Senate. Its not going to sway the congress. And one of the things that president obama established throughout his presidency, we that were leading civil rights organizations would meet with him. Itsoi make a dramatic move and whats next . And i think that someone would have to convince him of where it would have an impact for him to do it, otherwise, its just another day, big headline, obama spoke. Then what . He may unite the senate and the House Republicans around trump, because they dont want to look like theyre voting with obama. So the question is, do we have an objective or do we want somebody to make us feel better for 24 or 48 hours . It would be counter productive. You have a big event. Its the 54th i was in of dr. Kings speech and the march on walk. Significance of that day to you, where we are now 54 years later. 54 years ago monday, dr. King did his famous i have a dream. People read the dream parts. They dont read the contents of the speech. We talked about voting rights. We talked about things like criminal justice and poverty. So on this monday, were doing something different. We always bring out thousands. Weve only asked for 1,000 minsters, clergymen, rabbi, priests, minsters of the christian faith, male, female, gay, to come together as faith leaders and march from kings memorial to the Justice Department. We want lay people can join in if they want. 1,000 minsters who is one of the leaders of the jewish leadership that has said to the president they were not going to participate in the traditional call with him before the jewish holidays. It was on the front page of the new york sometimes, martin king, iii, will be one of the major speeches. We want to show the world 54 years later the dream of dr. King the substantive part is at risk with some of the things that are now being offered in terms of suppressing voter rights, in terms of not dealing fairly, looking at this tax bill, what will happen to working poor people. In terms of criminal justice reform. The substance raised by moral leaders and faith leaders, because thats what dr. King was. He was never a legislator. He is a moral leader. Moral leaders will raise the contrast can charlottesville. They went to robert e. Lees monument. We are going to jews, plaques, latinos, muslims together can make a moral statement. That will be on monday in washington. Join in. Are wasps what do you mean . Just kidding. I was asking you to sign off. Will willie go . Its a big tent. Hey, noah, thanks, man. Appreciate it. Still ahead the president s chief economic adviser waited for the charlottesville controversy to die down a bit before this morning calling on the Trump Administration to do more to condemn neonazis. Well have the new remarks from gary cohen and a potential response from the president of the United States next. As we go to break, a look back at this date if president ial history with this story. This day in 1944, Franklin Roosevelt welcomed the allied liberation of paris from the tyranny of the nazis, it was less than three years after the attack on pearl harbor and less than three months after the allies moved on europe. Now stars and stripes was flying in paris. Some americans were called at the time, but lafayette helped the United States get it independence, they said, now we are returning the favor. We want a very big tax cut but we cannot do that until we keep our promise to repeal and replace the disaster known as obamacare. We can get this bill passed, in massive tax reform. But do you have to do health care before tax reform yes. When i speak with Business Managers they say tax reform is so much more impactful to moving the needle on economic growth. Because im saving a tremendous amount, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars were saving on health care. And all of that saving goes into the tax. If you dont do that, you cant put any of the savings into the tax cuts. I think after Health Care Taxes are going to be so easy, really. So tax reform was going to be the award for getting through the repeal and replace of obamacare. Of course that never happened. Sara eisen joining us. Gary cohn making a lot of noise setting out a time line for tax reform but also criticizing the president s response to the Charlottesville Violence and not really offering a counter or support or saying hes a good man but said the wrong thing, he should have done more. Well, willie, this is exactly emblematic of why the white house has had trouble changing the message to tax reform because gary cohns comments on charlottesville and the response to charlottesville were more powerful than made a lot of news. I picked out one quote in particular which i thought was personal and passionate and explains why hes staying on. As Jewish American i will not allow neonazis chanting jews will not replace us to cause this jew to leave his job. Hes also seen as an important figure on wall street. Just the mere mention he was distressed about those comments about charlottesville last week caused some jitters in the market. Saying hes staying on, i wouldnt call it overtly critical of his boss, didnt mention President Trump by name, but said the Administration Needs to d more to condemn neonazis and White Supremacists was a step farther in terms of rebuking the administration than say treasury secretary mnuchin, who is much more supportive of his boss when he came out. Now you mentioned tax reform. Cohn clearly wants to change the conversation on this. The president will be giving a speech next week on wednesday in missouri on this. My colleague saying were not expecting the white house to present a bill we thought originally, hell let the hill take the lead on this but clearly gary cohn and the treasury secretary are going to be very involved in this. They originally thought they would be able to do tax reform by august. Clearly that time line is a little ambitious because when Congress Gets back to work, they have to figure out how to keep the government funded through next year and prevent a shutdown, also ratz the debt ceiling, and then they can really work on tax reform, which is going to be tricky, but the white house thinks it will be easier, heard the same message from paul ryan yesterday on cnbc. They also thought repeal and replace was going to be easy but it wasnt. Sara, thanks so much. Back to the gary cohn interview. He said, this Administration Must do better in condemning neonazis, no white supremacy, bigotry, hate, pointed out he was under enormous pressure to resign and also under enormous pressure to stay and grappled be that and as an act of patriotism hes staying. Not because he believes in the president s agenda or had a conversation with the president that reassured him that this administration cares about this issue. I read this and thought gary cohn is not long for this white house. I almost feel like maybe get tax reform through, something he started and will finish but will he be here next year, this was not a ringing endorsement for the president , not a man who sounded happy in his job. I dont think this is an interview the president will see and be like, great job, gary. And they had a close relationship, to my understanding and gary is an important part of this administration. Well sue how the president reacts. It shows something theres been a dearth of in this administration, moral leadership, somebody taking a moral opinion about something. I feel sorry for him in his position but hes showing some moral leadership and trying to reckon with this. And some selfrespect. I mean, youre talking about people marching with torches saying jews will not replace us. How do you look in the mirror and not Say Something . Thats why were marching monday. If there ever was a time you have to do a real selfreflection, to no matter where you are, now is the time. Some people will see this as a week beard, though. I agree, theres some moral issue, but people wanting him to quit, people wanting him to speak out last week. He didnt say anything about the president. He said the Administration Must do better. People will say this is the minimum he could have done. The strongest we of heard. Im saying some will stay. Randall lane, editor of forbes magazine, just off the streets of havana joining us on the set. Good to see you. Gary cohn, this is an area you cover at forbes, obviously, you think he stays in, hangs in . Theres a lottalk hes interested in the job as fed chair. Sara was talking about the markets. The markets want him to stay. And talking about tax reform, a lot of the markets have the idea theres going to be some kind of tax reform is already baked into a lot of the euphoria in stock prices now. That just amps up the pressure on the white house and pruch because hes touting record Stock Performance all the time and the markets have already baked tax reform in and gary cohn is key to that. When there was even talk of him stepping down, the markets went down. The adult in the room so to speak. Explain the way wall street, the way Business Community views gary cohn. Former president of goldman sachs, this is somebody who theyre very familiar with, he has a bipartisan reputation, a democrat, somebody who understands markets and is a grownup. So as long as hes there, theres a fundamental belief that the right things will get don. Part of the reason youre seeing these record stock prices because theres a fundamental belief that business will continue to thrive. Again, there will be some kind of tax reform coming in the next few months. Does the talk about donald trump shutting down the government over the border wall, the threat of the debt ceiling approaching yet again, what you saw hiccups yesterday. The funny part is unless theres a budget resolution you cant have tax reform so its directly related. You cant get to tax reform without a budget resolution. So all these things were talking about the end of september, early october, directly affect the longterm and the next ten years and beyond. Okay. Lets talk about the global citizens week and what youre doing with this gentleman at the end of the table. It will be great. Global citizen is something where during u. N. Week it brings everyone together for 60,000 people in central park and extreme poverty for a day, now it will be an entire week paralleling with u. N. Week weather a dozen events around the city so the idea of these World Leaders getting together at the same time, anybody can take part now in trying to end extreme poverty, do the right thing. Forbes, our 100th anniversary this september, were bringing together the 100 greatest minds to try to solve the problems of the next hundred years. But there are over a dozen amazing events including one with reverend al. It will be quite a week. There was a piece on the front page of the wall street journal we talked about yesterday that showed despite all the chaos and turmoil we talked about in the United States that the largest economies in the world are actually doing as well as theyve done in a decade, all of them, actually. What is that trend . Why is that happening . Fundamentally, what youre looking at is, you know, youre looking at Global Economy that still is coming out of recovery and its taken a bunch of years to get strong but we are finally hitting a proper recovery. Again, that was starting even before President Trump was electricitied but he is enjoying the whole world is enjoying the benefits of that. When you are on the floor, its very easy to kind of look at where we are now. Again, were looking at 2 , 2. 5 , which, again compared to where we were six, receiseven y ago isgreat right now. That also has to d with barack obama and coming out of the recession of 2009. We were the harbinger of everything thats happened in new york and around the world since then. Just want to say that. Does President Trump get any credit for that as he claims . Hes taking a lot of credit for it. The six months of the dfsh the last six months of the Obama Administration the job growth and the gdp growth were stronger than the First Six Months of the Trump Administration, but the fact is that just like bill clinton inherited a recovery, got a lot of credit for it, donald trump is absolutely getting a lot of credit for recover that was already in place. The biggest tax reform, he can take credit for all this talk of helping the economy, but if he doesnt high stakes. Hell take credit for the eclipse but had nothing to d with its occurrence. He checked it out, was able to look up and see it. Had to get his shades. First he looked without them. John, final thoughts. Whats going on in washington right now . Debt ceiling, border wall, shutdown, where are we headed . With all due respect to my panelists focused on this matter, talking about a few months tax reform, gary cohn may be sticking around till tax reform, guys, if it happens it wont happen until next spring so i dont think gary cohn is going anywhere. Different time line. All right, guys. Thank you all. Everyone have a good weekend. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up our coverage right now. Thanks so much, willie. Im stephanie ruhle. This morning out of nowhere, Hurricane Harvey could become the first major hurricane to hit the United States in 12 years. A massive e fact on the state of texas and on gas prices. Thedictable about the storm, its unpredictable. Get out of dodge. Gary cohn talks for the first tomb after charlottesville saying the Administration Must do more in condemning neonazis, White Supremacists, and the kkk. You