Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170912

Florida this morning, we are beginning to get a sense of the damage left behind by Hurricane Irma as the storm continues. Its assault on the southeast. It has weakened to a posttropical cyclone. Millions in georgia and South Carolina are without power and are cut off from their homes. In jacksonville, entire streets were swallowed by record flooding as heavy rain and storm surge hit the city t. Mayor and local authorities asked people to hang white flags outside their homes as a signal for help. Everglades city remains largely under water at this point. As of yesterday the main road in and out of Everglades City was still impactable for anything but a big truck or boat. And much of the florida keys remain cut off from the mainland this morning as the National Guard deploy search and rescue mission, Hurricane Irma made landfall in the keys sunday morning bringing 130mileperhour winds, according to department of defense, as many as 10,000 people who sided to stay and ride out the storms may need to be evacuated. 8. 8 Million People are without power in florida. Residents should be prepared for weeks without power in some cases. Once irma moved past florida the storm made its way into georgia and South Carolina, where at least deaths are blamed on the storm, mainly because of fallen trees. Elsewhere, there was serious flooding. River streets in savannah saw the Savannah River spill out its banks in the street usually bustling with stores and restaurants and charleston, which is usually prone to washouts because of its drain annual system saw its iconic market area downtown under water. Lets bring in morgan radford, live from jacksonville. How does it look there this morning . Reporter joe, mika, good morning. You can see here where the storm surge has moved in the streets of downtown jackson victim. This is the st. Johns river. It kreftd over the river waters flowing into the streets this is as millions of people wake up without fire. People are wake up to no electricity, as the mares and governors were passing through, they were urging people to be especially careful today because of the downed power lines, downed debris. In puerto rico, we saw similar aftermaths. People were walking through, seeing things have been completely destroyed around them. Then we moved to atlanta. People were opening emergency shelters. We moved to gainesville, people were stranded if their homes. Finally in jacksonville, people are looking forward to how they can move through the week ahead without power and water and to not be able to move through these impassable streets. Bill. The st. Johns river was ridiculous, it was like trifecta. Here we are a day later. They are sitting at what would normally be their record flood level. This shows you how extremely high it was, never seen before by anyone alive in the jacksonville area. It was because of a foot of rain a. Fivefoot storm surge by a Tropical Storm. Remember, it wasnt a hurricane. And it was also at high tide yesterday right around noon and just those three things all applied to the same time there in the st. Johns river, heres the rainfall map. It was one to two feet. We were focused on the st. Johns river. There is numerous other rivers that have problems there in northeast florida. Even a couple outside of tampa. The water heights have reached their peak in all cases, its one of the richs there along the border with florida and georgia. That will drop. Florida is kind of flat. It takes a while for it to go down like that. You can still see, we also talked about jose in the next couple days. Sometimes in the 04 and 05 storms, it was one after 00 this one will not be a problem. It looks like it will curve out and head out to zee sea. 48 hours of damage from irma we can go back and stay at this journey, it was a hurricane for 12 day itself, of course, it was 185mileperhour winds for 37 hours when it went through the leeward islands. The strongest ever. St. Maartin and all of the hor risk images that weve seen, up to 80, 90 of the structures destroyed on those islands. Reports as of yesterday, people searching for food, searching for water. Then the storm as it went through the caribbean, nailed the turks and kay cost. Then it went into a cat 5 into northern cuba. The First Time Since 1924 cuba was hit by a cat 5 hurricane. Florida can be thankful. If it wasnt for going into cuba, florida would have been hit by this as a cat 5 storm. It went through the keys as a cat 4. It was the first time in our recorded hurricane history, which goes back to 1851, we had two cat 4s make landfall in the same season in the u. S. So some amazing stats with the storm that will never be forgotten and that finally is done doing damage. So bill, obviously, this was one for the ages. That said. Early sunday morning, where you saw it starting again to move towards the west coast of florida. Anybody that knows florida knows the worst Case Scenario would have been if it had gone up into tampa as a cat 3 cat 4 but it wasnt as bad. It wasnt as nightmarish as id could have been, right . We know they had a storm surge of 10 to 1514 feet. They had a possibility of a 10 to 1515 storm surge. That 10 to 15 feet if it had a jog would have headed into naples, sarasota and possibly the tampa area. Yes, joe, it was literally a shift of 30 miles when the storm was a little further inland that saved the devastation we see in the keys from happening in the highly Populated Areas from southwest florida into tampa. Bill, in your experience, do you recall a storm with such a damaging shelf life extending through days and hours and still in a sense, you know, walloping, you know, georgia and South Carolina . The fact might. It was a category 5 for three days. In the 185 mile winds we had. We never had a recorded storm that stayed at that intensity for 37 straight hours. Thats kind of like off the chartstype stuff. The fact, i still dont think we heard all the stories an heartache that will come out of the caribbean. Now that its finally done doing damage in our country. Now some of our resources can go towards showing you the stories of these beautiful resort towns that so many of us have visited to and been to dont exist the way we know them or knew them. We will check in with you later this morning. Later this hour, we will be speaking with the mayor of jacksonville and the record flooding in his city. Around the table, we have veteran columnist and ms nbc contributor mark barnacle, professor at michigan, democratic congressman harold ford jr. , cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vand high and author of the book a world in disarray, richard haase. And in washington, senior political analyst for ms nbc Mark Halperin, a lot of politics to talk about this morning. Ly start with the interview that ousted white house strategy steve bannon gave to 60 minutes. We played a few clips last week. Cbs running the bulk on sunday night. Perhaps the most interesting part of the sitdown was material they left for a web extra, where bannon said President Trumps decision last may to fire fbi director james comey is by far trumps most damaging self inflicted wound. Someone said to me that you described the firing of james comey, you are a student of history, as the biggest mistake in political history. That would probably be too bombastic for me but maybe modern political history. I dont think there is any doubt if james comey had not been fired, we would not have a special counsel, yes. We would not have the Mueller Investigation. We would not have the Mueller Investigation. We would not have the Mueller Investigation in the breath that clearly mr. Mueller is going. I dont believe that the institutional logic of the fbi and particularly in regards to an investigation could possibly change by changing out the head of it. It has been reported that Jared Kushner was in favor of firing james comey. Is that correct . Youd have to you will have to find that out through the media or investigation. I dont know. Over, bannon would not say directly whether he, himself, was against firing comey out of respect for private conversations. Instead, pointed to media reports that he was quote adamantly opposed. Yesterday, when asked about bannons criticism, White House Press senior ra Huckaby Sanders stood firmly behind the president s decision. Certainly, i think it has been shown in the days that follow thad the president was right if firing director comey since directors firing, we have learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing, including giving false testimony, leaking privileged information to journalists. He went outside of the chain of command and politicized an investigation into a president ial candidate. So, mark, its hard to tell exactly who Steve Bannons comments were aimed at. Perhaps, if not the president , Jared Kushner, who was also reportedly the only other person other than the president in support of fearing james comey. I thought it was also interesting steve bannon said he would be against the firing of muller. Probably for the same reasons, he was correctly against the firing of james comey. Whats it all mean . Look, there are a lot of similarities between bannon and trump. Two things that they share, one is they like to become, they like to be seen as smart political analysts. I think a lot of what bannon said in that interview was his view of the truth and smart analysis. A lot of reporters would agree the president s decision to fire comey the way he fired him, in particular, was a big mistake t. Other thing about bannon and trump they shared i think is sometimes overrated. They are both ideological in a sense. They are at times practical. They dont roll boulders uphill if they cant get to the top of the hymn. I think a lot of what bannon said in that interview reflects as realistic. Some of that stuff was realistic a. Realism he shares with the president in some cases. And jim, you have, again, the only two people and we get these reports in real time, we didnt have to see steve bannon talk about this in 60 minutes, this was the case t. Only people that were for the firing of james comey, the way he was fired, was donald trump and Jared Kushner. No doubt. An there was lots of tension between bannon and kushner that at that point. It was the breaking point in their relationship. So bannon is probably say, you are where you are today with mueller, mr. President , because you listened to Jared Kushner. Im one of the reporters who would agree with that mark hal perr halperin said. Now you have mueller with the firing of james comey, one of the reasons mike pence hired a lawyer. Its the reason that six or seven white house officials had to hire lawyers, because they were in and around those conversations at that time and maybe donald trump wasnt trying to cover something up by firing him, but there are so many conversations he had with people about the investigation around that time and his frustration with comey. Thats where mueller is intensely focused at this moment. It could become probably problematic, that bannon is fearing that it could end the presidency. This news comes, all of this is about Jared Kushner. When i say that, im saying steve bannon talking about comey and saying that decision led to mueller and is leading to all the problems donald trump has is steve bannon saying, you should have listened to me instead of listening to the guy who is still in the white house. You listen to him and now you got this, you are trapped in this legal hell. A family thing. This comes as there is more news this morning. Right. About Jared Kushner. So a new report claims that lawyers representing President Trump in the russia probe wanted his soninlaw Jared Kushner to step down as Senior Adviser earlier this summer. The wheat journal cites anonymous people familiar with the matter said some on the liam team worried about complication from the special counsels russia probe. The concerns included kushners dealing with russian officials and Business People during the campaign and transition, some who are now being examined by federal investigators and congress. Also included, kushners omission of contacts with foreign officials from his security clearance form, which he amended twice. And there was worry about the spread of risk that if kushner mentioned the probe, even casually in a meeting, aide was heard his remarks could face inquiries from Robert Muellers agents. And there was reportedly concern that kushner might discuss the probe with the president , without a lawyer present. The report claims that press aides to the legal team went as far as drafting a statement to explain kushners resignation. The trump attorney john dowd, who joined the legal team in june leads it says he felt the proposal absurd and he never to his knowledge has taken to the president. Marc kasowitz who led the legal team until july said in a statement, i never discussed with other lawyers that Jared Kushner should step down. I never recommended to the president Jared Kushner should step down. Aam not aware other lawyers made such recommendation. All the president s lawyers are denying it. Denying a lot. There is something theyve denied a lot there they are kind of in in between sending inappropriate emails. And curse words, so, yeah. So, mike, this is something that people have talked about for some time in the white house, Jared Kushner may be better for Jared Kushner but everybody in the white house if he went back to new york and got out of the white house, because of, of a lot of things that have gone on since the transition. Well, never mind what mueller is probing about Jared Kushner, just the public paper trail of Jared Kushner in 669 madson avenue, the building he paid too much for, he has been trying to refinance for some time now. Thats just one item. The other item is, you know, who has he spoken to about these difficulties from the meeting with donald judgment trump jr. , with the woman from russia, to talking to the president when he was president. I mean, what is going on here . Everybody having to lawyer up after they talked to Jared Kushner . I mean, harold, hes not good at disclosure, disclosure forms, not with people hes met, with financial stakes he has in things. Hes been very sloppy and in part because everybody was shock thad they won and donald trump basically said here, charge everything, go off here, charge the world, you are in charge of redoing government. Are you in charge of these other things, going 24 hours a day, not making any excuses for him, im just saying it was just sheer chaos. But in that chaos, a lot of stuff was overlooked. A lot of stuff that has very dire complications legally. I dont know of a campaign in history and richard can give some perspective on this that had repeated conversations and outreach to russian government officials. I cannot think of a benign reason during a campaign. I can be wrought. Id love to hear the fact. We will learn that through muellers investigation. To your point, you and i have had a lot of disclose years in government. I dont know how you forget that many meetings. You dont forget, though. You purposely omit them. You dont forget. Okay. I met with somebody from chad. Like at a Cocktail Party four months ago, i might have forgotten that. Nothing against chad. But its into the in the newspaper every day, right . Right . But at trump tower. A russian conference table. If have you russia. Come to you. In the broad pages of the nurngs during the campaign, if people are accusing russia of trying to steal the election, if afterwards you get a National Security adviser, a guy thats going to be National Security adviser in trouble because he didnt report russian meetings. This is like, weve heard more about russia than like we have been sitting through a constant james bond movie. You dont forget that harold. These are difficult things to forget. Not only that, there were several dozen contacts and breaches. In addition, mike pence was lied to about mike flynn about russia. At the end of the day that led to his ouster. Just to reenforce your point. I will say on september 12th, 2017, mike pence tells us. Correct. He was lied to about russia. And i think from now on, any time somebody says mike pence was lied to, if we dont want to look really stupid in the future, we should say mike pence says. He was lied to. He was lied to. You know, you put your finger on part of this solving the equation, because gary kushner and a lot else in the sense when he was meeting with several of the russians, when they had these meeting, we dont know who he was talking to from russia. They didnt think they were going to win. Right. They didnt think they were going to within. They didnt think this would be an issue. Theyd cash in on their moment of fame running for president and physical out a way to get themselves out of trouble. Out of financial trouble. Again not that we have working knowledge of this. But everybody now knows 666 fifth avenue is under water. They need money. They have been going around hat in hand trying to get money. Chances are very good. They didnt think they were going to win. They are going around building contacts. Donald trump wanted to build a big building in mass co. I dont blame him. Hes a developer. Not in the middle of the campaign. Lets switch subjects. We have to go to break. Quickly, i want to get your take, its fascinating, everywhere ive gone, people have talked about Donald Trumps sort of shift with what happened last week. The tweets have slowed down. They are even keeled, if you compare them to tweets in the past. Organization inside the white house seems to be steadier than it has been in quite some time. And the president meeting is it tonight hes meeting. Tomorrow night. Heidi jim manchin. Democrats you can get over to your side. Its fascinating. What do you make of the shift that is at least lasted for five, six days now . Plus the two trips to texas. In many ways, its been the best and almost normal. A week, ten days of the Trump Presidency and what everybody is asking is whether it was you know a onetime thing a one off or whether this is the shift the pivot whatever you want to talk about that people have been talking about for years on whether this can be institutionalized on taxes on infrastructure, on essentially the entire again da that awaits them . And thats the question thats sitting out there. I dont know. You dont know. But people are hoping, because he clearly cant govern the old way. I think health care showed. That so people are hoping this is more than that. My apology the denner is tonight. Can you also add in this could be the kelly factor, which may be unsustainable, but it certainly appears to be the best turn of events. The past five, six, seven days i think have been not only for a lot of americans, but a lot of people across the world has been a chance for people to catch their breath. And i loved. I think it was saturday morning, maybe it was friday or saturday, i love the quote in axios in the newsletter, donald trump looked around and he said, man, everybody hates my guts. Hates my guts. And he came to the conclusion, im going to stop doing things that make people hate my guts, like i can say this, though, this is really important for everybody to know, you know my Republican Party. You were there in 94, 95. We would constantly be junk off the cliff, constantly driving the car into the wall, constantly dying at every barricade. That is a food way to get to 33, 34, 35 . I think donald trump looked at the Republican Party and said im not going to keep jumping off the cliff with them. At the same time their solution is always fight, fight, fiemt, fight. The one important caveat, who knows if the new trump sticks. He was able to do it on two things, one, there is only one thing you do when there is a disaster. You spend the money necessary. Right. Its not hard. Then two the deal he struck with democrats, he gave democrats 100 of what they want. You will not have opportunities where you fully surrender and declare victory. Maybe he can do it on taxes and infrastructure. The democrats are under tremendous pressure to fought give him any wins, now he got himself in a box where he and mcconnell really, really dislike each other. I heard people will be saying that donald trump is in a box. Donald trumps out of the box. Donald trumps out of the box where. A different box. I have to go to repub no, hes a free agent now. He doesnt have to go to Mitch Mcconnell, hey, id really like an infrastructure bill, is that okay . No, you got 535 people on capitol hill. Can you start picking them off. Thats a big if. You are assuming democrats will vet for something democrats will not follow nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer blindly, they will do whats in the best interest of their district f. There is an infrastructure bill that helps them in their district. Heidi hydecamp, Claire Mccaskill. There are a lot of people that say give me legislation i can vote with the president on so i can go to my voters next 84 and say i was with the president when he has good ideas. Its good for red state democrats, dont understand the pressure they will be under to not give donald trump there i dont disagree with you, if his poll numbers go up, he will get more of what he wants. People talk about tip oneill and Ronald Reagan got along. One of the reasons is Ronald Reagans numbers were high. It was one of the great smart polls. If you see the gorsuch coalition, they will work particularly on tax reform. I agree. Still ahead on morning joe, china and russia joined the u. N. Security council if slapping north korea with a new round of sanctions after its latest nuclear test. We will talk to richard haase. Also, congressman jim jordan joins us after freedoms are looking for a new speaker. J. R. Peters with his reporting on the gop could be on the verge of shattering and spawning a third party. We continue to follow the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. We will talk to the mayor of jacksonville, florida, in his city and get an update on efforts to restore power there. You are watching morning joe. Well be right back. The United Nations has passed a fresh sanctions on north korea. In a unanimous vote the Security Council passed a vote that didnt include oil assets both of which russia and coin objected to. What does it do . It bans pyongyang from natural gas and crude imports. Heres what ambassador nikki halle told the council yesterday. These are, by far the strongest measures ever imposed on north korea. They give us a much better chance to halt the regimes ability to fuel and finance its nuclear and missile programs. But we all know these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively. So, richard, do you agree with nikki haley, were those the toughest sanctions imposed by the u. N. . They are the toughest sanctions imposed against north korea. They wont make a difference. They wont make a difference . No, for all sorts of reasons, they were watered down, they have the ability to substitute domestic production, if you have it cut off, they can liquify coal, there is a story how russia is end running sanctions, increasingly filming in some of the gap that china has left. But north koreas entire psychology the dna as self reliance, so the idea that you will sanction them into giving up what they think are the most important assets for the regimes survival, aint going to happen. Even if this were much more, it would not make it a strategic richard, it sounds like you continue to say and by the way i agree with you, others do not. We dont have a thousand different options, there is into the me third way. By me saying that, im not saying im for the military option. But i am saying youre either for north korea having the ability to strike seattle, San Francisco and los angeles with Nuclear Weapons in the next year or two or youre for military intervention to take the weapons away or to change the regime. It seems to me the sooner we get to that. Okay. With all due respect, with others talking about the glorious things that will happen in afghanistan, if you trip testimony number of troops, you knew it was garbage back then. You knew it would be a holding pattern, here, there is no neat, clean third way. There is not a third way and the time line of the north Korean Missile dance is far faster than the time line of every impact of sanctions kicking in. So were kidding ours if we think whats going on at the u. N. Is somehow going to solve this problem. Will the chinese ever step in . They will step in, in part, not enough. China will not step in to the point that they risk destabilization. What if china thinks we will go in militarily, will that then mean . They understood that the United States was coming in militarily if they didnting a. Will china then act and remove him . I dont think so. I think they will try to manage this situation. They would have certain limits on what they will be willing to sit aside for. I do not believe at the end of the day they would solve this. So china would rather us be in there militarily than take out a guy destabilizing the whole region . It would be like us wanting the chinese to come into mexico . The idea that chosen has this option that you are talking about, to put in someone more to their liking, they dont believe as best as i can tell they have that option. Richard, richard, richard, you dont believe that a country that controls 90 of the imports to north korea and gets 90 of their export, you dont think they have every general and leadered around that guy bought and paid for . Proof that they dont. It was his uncle chinas man in north korea. China is very frustrated about what they cant control in north korea. This is a typical relationship between unequals where the chinese despise north kreerns, they see them as a liability not an asset. They cannot control whats going on there. Coming up if there was regime change is there they would like a north korea just like china. They would love that if they could bring that about i expect they will. Okay. Coming up, Hillary Clinton says there is no doubt in her mind that russian president Vladimir Putin wanted donald trump to win the election. She says she is quote convinced that there was collusion by trump associates. Usa today susan page spoke exclusively with the 2016 nominee. Susan joins us next on morning joe. Havent you ever wanted something more barry . Watch your step. A pilot like you should be flying for the c. I. A. Holy shh. You are an airline pilot. Thats how you support this family. This is gonna be good for us. Based on an incredible true story. We need you to deliver stuff for us. Just dont get caught. Of c. I. A. s biggest secret. I helped build an army, defend a country and create the biggest drug cartel this world has ever seen. That sounds made up barry. Tom cruise. Stop now if you want. It gets crazy from here. Woo american made. Rated r. So we know how to cover almost almoanything. Hing even a swing set standoff. And we covered it, july first, twentyfifteen. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum every year we take a girls trip. Remember nashville . Kimchi bbq. Kimchi bbq. Amazing honky tonk . . I cant believe you got us tickets. I did. I didnt pay for anything. You never do. Send me what i owe. Ive got it. I mean, you did find money to buy those boots. Are you serious . Is that why you dont like them . Those boots could make a unicorn cry. Yeah, tears of joy. The bank of america mobile banking app. The fast, secure and simple way to send money. The forces that were at work in 2016 were unlike anything that ive ever seen or read about. It was a perfect storm. 11 days before 11 days before the election. It raised the spectre that somehow the investigation was being reopened. It just stopped my momentum. Now remember this, too, jane, at the same time he does that, about a closed investigation, theres an open investigation into the Trump Campaign and their connections with russia. You never hear a word about it. So joining us now, walk bureau chief for usa today susan page who spoke exclusively with Hillary Clinton. Good to have you on board, lets keep the first question to Mark Halperin. Halperin. Susan, you lead this story with a Hillary Clinton suspicion or certainty that associates of donald trump colluded. What everyday did she offer for that . She offered the tangle of Financial Relationships that have come to light, the meetings now being disclosed. She says she has come to this conclusion with more certainty since the book was written, since she had to send the book into the publisher. She also says that there is more to learn that we will find out more between the russians in this campaign. She says this is possible. She says it may be true, that even voter rolls were affected or revised by hackers or voting returns affected. Those are things she says deserve more investigation. And susan, from a macro point of view, did she write the book for attention, to make money, to have her voice out there . What is motivating her to do this . I think she wanted to settle some scores with Bernie Sanders and others and i think she was also wounded by the result of this election. She thought she was going to win this election and be president elect and president. She said it was catharctic to go through the process of writing this book in this house they bought this guest house they bought with the idea of it willing used by the secret service for the president. Did she offer advice moving forward . She offered advice, done Pay Attention to Bernie Sanders, he is not a democratic and doesnt have democratic interests at heart, there are two people that get under her skin, one is Bernie Sanders, the other is james comey. Oh. What is it . Im surprised in the coverage of the book how she comes youve as so anythingly, Bernie Sanders, think deeper into that, what is it theyrerytates her about him. How can she come to the conclusion hes not the face of the Democratic Party within it seems to be the face of the Democratic Party often exists . I think for one thing, she believes that his ahacks on her integrity for giving those wall street speeches during that period of time before the campaign. She gave them. It was bad optics. How does that reflect on bernie . What did he do . He attacked her. What is wrong with Bernie Sanders . What is wrong with him as a candidate that she had to say, because that really is talking about something she did that was perhaps poorly reflecting on her choices, what is it about Bernie Sanders that bothered her . Two things, Donald Trumps attacks on crooked hillary. She says the proposals he made were appealing to voters didnt add up, couldnt be implemented. It made him the school mom and her the democrats can propose more, it is true whatever she proposed, bernie would say, oh, wait, oh, no, we are giving it to you for free and a few car. So what say this . That i would take issue with is policies. Which is where the Democratic Party seems to be going. So what does she do next . We herd she was talking about ministry, is she going to write more books . What is she looking at . She says she will not run for office. Which is a relief some thought it was a comeback strategy. She wants to be a part of the debate. She is starting this groups, work with grass roots organizations. There are, in fact, an awful lot of americans who voted for her and might want to hear her voice. A lot of people love her. Maybe want her to run again. She says she wont run again, i dont think thats an amgs,b some parts of the book are poignant, like having to put away the outfit she had chosen for her victory speech, because there wasnt a victory speech. But its clear she sees, once again, Eleanor Roosevelt as her modem. Which is something that goes back to her days as first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt continued to speak out even after fdr died and she declined to run for office. Was there sing e anything she shed she should have done differently . Yes, not having a private email server. Sheing a only ins that was pretty much a mistake. That it was, usa today susan page, thank you so much. We gaitly appreciate it. Still ahead this morning, we got the Washington Post john costas, he will join us with his latest recording. We will speak about the citys mayor talking about flooding from irma. We are back if just a moment. Have you ever seen anything like this . No. Not this bad. Ive been through some hurricanes. I was born and raised in florida, but this is i have never seen the river like this. It was cresting through here like we were out in the ocean. I did not expect to see this at all. Okay, flooding. Okay. No big deal, but these were waves. I was like is this the ocean or a river . Joining us, the mayor of jacksonville, florida. Give us an update on the situation facing your city right now, mr. Mayor. Sure, good morning. We had a Tropical Storm irma that came through. Data we got yesterday morning, the information was we were facing category 3 hurricanes now storm surge. So we had mandatory evacuations underway for the areas heavily impacted. Unfortunately some folks were still in the areas. We moved quickly yesterday morning and deployed rescue teams, our First Responders, secured state assets and they were able to go in and do their jobs. 15 neighborhoods, no fatalities reported at this point. Mayor, the waters will recede eventually, but the damage done to jacksonville and other cities in the state of florida, how long do you anticipate realistically it will be before the city is able to get back up on its feet and sustain it the way we are used to seeing jacksonville . Look, we went through matthew last year. This is much more widespread than matthew. There was a much bigger Public Safety risk in this given the day after the storm began to leave, but we are tough. The federal government, the president reached out to the governor, the president s team reached out to us on the front end to ensure that we get the federal help that we need and the state help that we need. I would just say the way our people acted quickly yesterday to save peoples lives is how were going to respond to recover and rebuilding. So you got you got what you needed from the federal government, the state government, everybody has been responsive . On the front end we got the commitments up front from the president and his team, and i me hes spoken to the governor and Governor Scott has been just unbelievable in managing this and setting expectations, and frankly, delivering results through the crisis. All right. Hard . Mr. Mayor, i listened to the governor who has done a really good job here. He talked about prepositioning assets. In light of the fact in order to be able to help with the recovery, did you have enough prepositioned assets to deal with the record breaking and surprising amount of water . Yeah. As we begin to rebuild, assets were secured on Power Outages well in advance. The efforts yesterday, frankly, were all about rescue. We did not shift to recovery yesterday. And i am so proud of our First Responders to say that the city delivered on the rescue efforts. And part of that was securing assets via the governor. They sent in rescue assets to help us as well. They were here yesterday morning on a moments notice, and now the assets to rebuild and recover. Im just grateful and thankful that everybody stepped up and we were able to get people out of those zones that had chosen to stay when the flood waters came in. The jacksonville mayor, thank you very much. Good luck to you. Thank you. All right. Let me ask richard and jim, how you guys have to head after this. What are you looking at today . Whats the story people should be focussed on . What are you going to be focusing on . I want to watch what this administration does with iran. If you look at nikki haleys speech, theyre suggesting ch j charging iran with noncompliance and they could open up a new crisis in the middle east. Does that mean theyre going to try to break the iran deal . Or find a way to introduce a new wave of sanctions saying iran is not come plying. Whats the purpose of that . Whats the strategic advantage of that . Zl there is no strategic advantage of it. Iran is for the most part complying with the nuclear deal. The problem is Everything Else iran is doing. Even if you hated the iran deal, there is no strategic reason, you believe right now, to undermine. I dont think theres a legal or strategic reason, the conversation we had five minutes ago about north korea. Every once in a while you have to show discipline. And domestically . If you put aside the storms, lots to sort through in terms of donald trump. You have the dinner including some democrats. Steve bannon in china continuing to go at the president of the America First side. Mitch mcconnell gave an interesting interview south New York Times where hes saying he got suckered on the deal with the democrats. Its a big moment for the Republican Party as it sorts through what does it mean to be a republican in the age of donald trump. How fascinating bannon. If bannon hadnt gone on 60 minutes, steve bannon is driving negative coverage. Jared kushner. He wants kushner out. But hes hurting the president at the same time. My understanding is he was playing to the president. He was defending the president. The president loves that stuff. His whole happy trump stuff. He loves the warrior in bannon, and bannon knows in the long game youre out one day and youre the hero the next. Hes still talking to bannon, right . Yes. The white house said one yesterday, its more extensive. Thank you both for being on this morning. Ahead well talk to republican congressman jim jordan of the white House Freedom caucus. He is blaming his own party for President Trumps debt ceiling deal with democrats. And Peter Alexander with more on the president s bipartisan dinner at the white house tonight, and well check back in with bill karins as he assesses the lasting effects from irma, a 12 day hurricane. Morning joe is coming right back. But if thats not enough, we offer our price match guarantee too. And if thats not enough. We should move. Our home team will help you every step of the way. Still not enough . Its smaller than id like. Well help you finance your dream home. Its perfect. Oh, was this built on an ancient Burial Ground . Okay. Then well have her cleanse you house of evil spirits. Well do anything, spiritual chatter seriously anything to help you get your home. Ally. Do it right. baby crying fly me to the moon elegant music and let me play bell rings can we at least analyze can we push the offer online . Legacy technology can handcuff any company. But yes is here. The new app will go live monday . Yeah. With hewlettpackard enterprise, were transforming the way we work. With the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. You know win control . Be this guy. Check it out selfappendectomy oh, thats really attached. Thats why i rent from national. Where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. Which makes me one smooth operator. Ah still a little tender. vo go national. Go like a pro. Welcome back to morning joe. Its tuesday, september 12th. It will be weeks until power and order will be restored to florida. The pentagon warned last night that they may need to evacuate 10,000 people who road out the storm in the keys. With the island cut off and the National Guard deploying search and rescue missions. Yesterday floridas two senators did a flyover together with the coast guard over their home state looking at the scope of the damage. The storm has weakened to a post tropical cyclone, but 7. 5 Million People in florida, georgia, and the carolinas are without power this morning. Tab by island was rendered unreachable as the storm surge surpassed that of mast ytthew l year and the towns 911 system is not working. The mayor tot had to helicopter in. And in South Carolina with the stately houses, water splashed over railings flooding out the historic streets. Lets go straight to bill karins for the latest. Were done with the damage. Thats the good part of this. And now we can sit back and see where all the worst images, who needs the most help. That includes our island friends because the path of destruction was incredible as it moved 11 to 12 days over a hurricane. For three of the days it was a category 5 hurricane. Thats when the worst damage was. I havent even seen that many pictures of the turks and caicos. They went through the northern eye for about eight hours. Those are the pictures from barbuda. Thats when the storm was at its stronger. Gusts probably 220 miles per hour. The island looks like a strong tornado ripped through it. And just you cant even imagine what living in those conditions day after day is going to be like. Its been about a weekend since the storm hit there, and they were lucky jose didnt make it worse, you can see the pictures. Incredible. Those images are from the vir v virg virgin islands. Its incredible. And then i mentioned the turks and caicos, and then the storm went into cuba. Weve seen the damaged pictures from florida and how bad it was. Cuba took a direct land fall from a category 5 hurricane for the First Time Since 1924. If it wasnt for a weakening over cuba, i have no doubts irma would have removed a strong category 5 straight into the southern portions of florida including fort myers and naples. The only reason we dont have pictures like barbuda is because what it did to cuba. And we havent even seen all the pictures. The cuba keys where it made land fall, we havent seen the pictures yet. The last report i heard the one bridge that goes out there was destroyed and theyre going by boat to try to get to people. T stiits still a developing situation. As we get updates here, georgia about 1. 5 Million People lost power and about 5 Million People lost power in areas of florida. And i still get a lot of people asking a ton of questions. This is jose. Still a hurricane. The forecast looks ominous. It looks like its heading for areas of the east coast. Our long range computers are taking it out to sea. Im not concerned with jose at this time. Now we just have to deal with the recover in florida and georgia. Thank you. And later well go live to the florida keys to see the damage firsthand. With us now onset, we have Mike Barnicle. Harold ford junior, alise jordan, nick confisori, Mark Halperin, and robert costa. Mark, were going to dive into all the political news, but first i want to ask you what i actually asked jim before he left at the end of last hour. What what are you looking at at the beginning of this week . Its a fascinating time. Republicans are trying to recover from the deal struck last week. Donald trump actually seems to have his head down more than he has in the 7 1 2, eight months hes been in the white house. And actually hes taking a meeting with Democratic Senators from red states tonight. This looks like his effort to keep reaching across the aisle and actually turning his back on Mitch Mcconnell. It looks like thats continuing. I think the most important thing for the president is the most important thing for real americans which is can washington do anything to make the real lives of real people better. It starts with is there a formula on tax reform. One of the first times the president has tried to actually build a reaganlike coalition of most or all republicans bridging two more centrist democrats. Is there a formula for a tax plan that can actually satisfy the needs of conservatives but also win some democratic votes. It doesnt look like hes trying to make a tax deal with lots of democrats and go to the kind of coalition he hinted at last week, but rather what president reagan did. Republicans and a new symbolic democrats. President bush did the same thing. I believe that theres still solving a lot of things. Revenue neutrality. Are they going to cut the top rate for the wealthiest americans as much as the president onlily proposed. And what are they going to do about deductions. Can they pass a tax bill . If they dont this year, i think republicans go into the midterms into an unprecedented situation. And bob costa, it sounds like donald trump is really, again, tonights another example of how hes basically telling the republicans i gave you seven and a half months, you had seven years, and i sat back waiting for you to establiaccomplish so. You got nothing. Im going to do this myself. Is that his mind set. One of the interesting things here is the process for tax reform hasnt caught up with the dynamics capitol hill. The president and allies are trying to move forward and reach out to red state democrats. When im at the capital talking to leader, they say only the republicans are dominating this process. Theyre not including democrats into the tax reform process in the same way the president is in the early conversations with democrats. If the dynamic changes you may see a deal. But ryan and his allies want to really protect their own approach at this point. And nick, the thing is if he can get most of the republicans on a tax bill, and then you even give somebody like Claire Mccaskill an opportunity to run for reelection saying yeah, i voted for Donald Trumps tax bill. I dont like all the tweets and all the crazy stuff he does, but if hes going to give me a bill that helps Small Businesses in missouri, or missouri, depending on what siede of the state youe campaigning on, then yeah, ill support the guy. There are ten democrats this that position that would love to have a bill that they could say were going along. Theyre not going to do it if its a bill that paul ryan drafted or mitch mccconnell, because its not going to look like anything a democrat could support. Look, after six months of white nationalists and deportation and north korea tax reformers like the valium of politics right now, its so much less toxic in so many ways. There arent thousands of people who are going to march on washington over tax reform or protest on tax reform. Theres a chance for democrats to try to work with them on the margins without getting totally slammed by their own party. I think if it was any other issue, it would be very hard to do that. The challenge of handling Hurricane Irma is having an impact on the schedule in washington. Tomorrows senate knew dish ri committee on daca shielding young undocumented immigrants is being postponed indefinitely due to the executive branchs request to deal on hurricane response. Meanwhile the white house chief of staff has responded to democratic congressman of illinois who called him a, quote, disgrace to the uniform he used to wear. Over the daca decision. In an email to fox news he wrote as far as the congressman and other irresponsible members of congress are concerned, they have the luxury of saying what they want as they do nothing and have almost no responsibility. They can call people liars but it would be inappropriate for me to say the same thing back at them. As my blessed mother used to say, empty barrels make the most noise. The congressman has a right to his opinion. Mike barnicle, where do we begin . I served with the congressman and like him personally, but where do we begin . He should be ashamed of himself. Talk about the disgraceful outrageous words used against a man who has given his entire life and his son to this country in service and uniform. He should be ashamed of himself and should apologize j but he wont because of the polarized nature of washington d. C. The chief of staff kelly resides. Hes right. The congressman belongs to a body of people who work maybe two hours a week. Theyre going to work legislatively, i think, what . Four days this month. The remainder of the month to get things done. Theyve had daca on their desks for over a year and have done nothing. And thats his rhetoric . Please. Stop it. Mean white in the interview weve been discussing steve bannon is claiming that President Trumps decision to, quote, revisit the order protecting undocumented people up to six months will create an uprising during next years republican primaries and put the republican majority at risk. Im worried about losing the house now because of daca. And my fear is that with the six months down range, if we have another huge if this goes all the way down toward logical conclusion in february and march, it will be a civil war inside the Republican Party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013. And to me, doing that in the spring board of primary season for 2018 is unwise. Well, 2013 actually led to almost all the Tea Party Candidates challenges in 2014 losing. It was the most moderated 2013 and the shutdown led to the most moderating election in 2014 for the republicans. So, alise, steve bannon says that if the president moves forward on daca, hell create a revolution inside the Republican Party despite the fact that 75 of donald Trump Supporters actually dont want him to deport d. R. E. A. M. Ers, and 80 of americans dont want him to deport d. R. E. A. M. Ers. Him going along with democrats again on daca . Thats good politics even inside Donald Trumps party, isnt it . And its what the country wants. Steve bannon trying to create this civil war within the Republican Party, and challenge republicans. You look at what happened with paul ryan, and i think the last time they tried to do this, ryan won by 64 points or something ridiculous. And so i just dont think that steve bannon is going to carry as much juice going into all of these primaries as he thinks he will. And Mark Halperin now steve bannon is targeting a lot of republicans, apparently bob corker and i dont know, the list goes on. Right . Yeah. I mean, look. The relationship between the president and Mitch Mcconnell is going to have to have some basis to go forward if hes going to get anything done. Mcconnell controls the senate floor, and theres probably literally nothing that would make Mitch Mcconnell more angry than the notion the president s Political Team is trying to create primaries for incumbents. Republicans are in a good position to keep the senate because of the seats are up. That would be complicated by primaries. It would be expensive and in some cases republicans could lose to less electable candidates. What bannon is talking about, that alone is just a huge problem for republicans in the short term and maybe for the second half of Donald Trumps term in office. Look, i agree with mark. I think that bannon is a lot smarter than we think. I hear the numbers and i hope the numbers are i hope the numbers are what youre saying. Theres something to what hes saying. Hes either going to be proven right about what . The civil war . Yes. Right or wrong. I hope hes proven wrong. I think the path the president is on could make it where hes proven to be wrong. There are a number of republicans outside of the enclaves that we love and live in, and we understand other parts of the country, but he has to be proven wrong before we can say that he is wrong. I hope that he is. Im not convinced yet he will be. Bob costa, how does the daca fight play out . Does it lead to a civil war in the Republican Party . I was doing a call around yesterday to my sources. If you step back and think of this bannon statement on 60 minutes, hes laying down a marker for where the republicans stand. Self deport, they have to leave. By having bannon articulate the position, it makes it almost easier to cut a deal. Now the leadership say bannon is out there saying this. We have to at least include Border Security to keep the base happy, maybe not a physical wall. This is how deals are made. Bannon always starts at the extreme. That doesnt mean thats where daca will end up, but they know where the marker is for the republican base. We know President Trump probably really likes what we heard from steve bannon the other evening, his defense of the president and the president s actions and the president s behavior. But you followed the president now for a long, long time. You have great sources within the administration. Do you think that President Trump trusts steve bannon . Its not so much a relationship about trust. Its a relationship of mutual power, mutual power share, and they both know they represent this element of the base. The president is aware that bannon channels his own base. That doesnt mean bannon is someone who is a confidant on every issue hes calling every night. Its a different type of relationship. This relationship is not personal so much as political. And the president as much as he can be distracted on different fronts, he is a Political Animal who understands who he needs to get his objectives done. The thing is, and i think people have made the mistake from the beginning of puffing steve bannon up. Steve bannon exists as a public figure, and is on 60 minutes because shes known how to ride in Donald Trumps wake for five, six months, nine months. Maybe its been a year. I dont know how long. He got there at the end of the campaign. I just steve bannon will be out front for as long as steve bannon sort of gives everybody the perception that hes strong and powerful and that he has this huge base. The second he crosses donald trump, he will find out like everybody else that they follow donald trump. Donald trump, that fifth avenue thing that he said about shooting somebody . True. If steve bannon shot somebody on fifth avenue, hed be in jail in two minutes. And t one of the craziest things. Steve bannon was the architect of donald trump. No. He didnt need him until the end of the campaign, but steve bannon would say im going to give you access, and im the architect. Even people inside the white house. Its like well, you know, its Steve Bannons idea to get working class americans that was donald trump. I mean, Donald Trumps been speaking this way since 19 88 and steve bannon still has people believing that he was the great puppet master. Its one of the most remarkable con jobs ive seen in modern american history. And i salute him for that. And there are a lot of con jobs going on here. I think bob costa is right. He said it better than i can. This is the marker and democrats and others, if you dont want to go down the crazy lane, you have to negotiate with them. At the end of the day President Trump knows that he doesnt owe his election to steve bannon. I think that says it all. President trump has the political judgment to know that he alone got himself elected to the white house. Paul manafort might have secured the nomination, but he got himself to the white house. And roger stone calls steve bannon a paper tiger with all the threats that whats actually ever going to materialize . Steve bannon is a smart guy. Theres no doubt about it. And he has a following. But when you Start Talking about how donald trump has to follow steve bannon or else, thats when it becomes a con job. I agree. Finally, i do just want to say, mark, bannon could be helping the president putting more pressure on the right to actually come up with a deal that, yes, the president will do a deal with daca, with the democrats, and a lot of republicans, but youre going to have to have tough border enforcement, not a wall. But youre going to have to get tough border enforcement and other things that not only conservatives but a lot of independents and moderates in the country want. You dont see a lot of calls for high minded compromise on breitbart. Bannon has ideas. And policy positions about being a post republican, post democrat. His source is a strength primarily are the money of the mercers who are big donors. I think his biggest leverage is even with minority views on things like daca, if youre a house republican, breitbart, more than drudge, more than fox news, can stir up things in your world and create the impression that if you dont do what breitbart wants to do, youre going to have trouble. To me, thats the main source of his strength right now. It differentiates him from lots of people with ideas ant populism. The white house will have to grapple with it if there are primaries . I dont think hes picking a fight with trump. I think hes pushing himself as the keeper of the true faith for trump followers, and his job in his mind, i believe, is to try to remind the president of who hes supposed to be in bannons eyes and to make the agenda steve bannon has the president s agenda. With breitbart and the interview on 60 minutes. His job is not to say the president is making a mistake. The true thing the president should be doing is this. And hes pretty effective at this. The problem is that thats the only direction the president went for 6 1 2 months. Its why hes sitting at 35 . If hes a pull toward that, thats fine, but if thats all donald trump does, hes going to be sitting in the 30s. All right. Our thanks to robert costa. Thank you. Still ahead on morning joe, the president continues his outreach to red state democrats. Well go live to the white house for a preview of tonights bipartisan dinner. Well also ask congressman jim jordan what he thinks about the president dining and dealing with democrats. 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You must become invisible. [hero] ill take my chances. A lot of people notice that during his interview steve bannon was actually wearing two button down shirts at the same time. Is that a move . Do people do this . Look at this. This is real. Watch what happened during the whole interview. Watch this. The president made the wrong decision . I think i think you wanted him to go full boar. I think we have to focus on american citizens. What do you think we have to do. I think what were going to do as the work permits run out, they self deport. Nick, you were just asking. Why does he wear two shirts . Im all for it. You want to wear two shirts, i think thats cool, be a trend setter. Its the popped collar of the altright. Its the move. I dont know. Josh green asked on twitter why does steve bannon wear all his shirts at once. Nick responded you get the answer, ill dress bannon style on morning joe. Oh. Okay. Joining us from the white house, Peter Alexander. Only wearing one shirt. Only one today. Thank god. Yeah. How are you, peter . Peter, the president s meeting with democrats tonight. Hes continuing his outreach, his bipartisan outreach. What can you tell us . Reporter i was going to say steve bannon should wear the popped up double collars to the hamptons and see how that goes. Lets talk about the president s plans at the white house. Theres a working dinner specifically on tax reform. We confirmed the six senators expected, they include highly heitkamp, joe donnelly of indiana. On the bottom you see the Senate Finance committee chairman, pat toom toomey, john thune as well. Whats notable about these democrats is that these are the three democrats that did not sign on with Party Leaders outlining basically what they needed to see in tax reform, the conditions for tax reform. Theyre the only democrats that supported neil gorsuch, and they all come from states that the president won. There may be value. The president floated the names for possible cabinet members. This is an effort to try to kick off this conversation in real terms with the bipartisan senators on tax reform. Gary cohn and Steve Mnuchin meeting on the hill today with Mitch Mcconnell and others to have this conversation. Peter alexander, thank you very much. The wall street Journal Editorial Board is calling on mark med koadows to run for spe of the house. Writing if the Freedom Caucus is upset enough to condemn nate a leadership coup, lets get it on now. Congress is entering a critical few months. Force a debate and vote while theres still time to save the day. Its time for mr. Meadows to step into the spotlight and take responsibility. The honorable act would be to announce an immediate challenge to mr. Ryan surrounded by his supporters and the breitbart staff. Lay out the strategy for passing tax reform, for raising the debt limit, and for passing the Freedom Caucus budget through the house and senate this fall. Then the members of the house gop conference can hold a debate and vote, and mr. Meadows and the country can see how much support he has for his political strategy compared to mr. Ryan. Lets bring in Founding Member of the conservative House Freedom caucus, republican congressman jim jordan of ohio. Congressman, whats your reaction to the Journal Editorial Board . Well, first of all, its completely inaccurate. The patriotic thing and the right thing to do is what we told the voters we were going to do. Lets get focussed on election time. Nobody is talking about change in leadership, and frankly, instead of the wall street journal using six unnamed sources to write something that is not accurate, and this is not the first time, why dont they call us. You know how many times theyve called up mark meadows in his tenure in congress . Zero. Why dont you just call us . Well be happy to give you the truth instead of using false story after false story. This is not helping us get done what we told the American People we were going to do, and, in fact, 202 2256576 is our office number. Id be happy to talk to you. You could set the record straight here. Republicans seem to be having a hard time getting things done when the president is turning to democrats. And what the main argument is with the wall street journal is mark meadows and other members of the Freedom Caucus made some demands. They got their demands fulfilled and the second they got their demands fulfilled, they started going around attacking. Is that not true . We made the Health Care Bill bill better and 32 of 34 members of Freedom Caucus voted for it. We put it over the top. We made the bill better. Even though im not a huge fan of cbo, they said premiums would come down because of our changes. That was our objective. We didnt sop the Health Care Bill. It was six republican senators who voted different than 18 months ago. Thats the problem. Lets get focussed on doing what we told the voters we were going to do on health care, on the Border Security wall and tax reform and tax cuts. Get focussed on that and not have stories being written about those things. Focus on what we were sent here to accomplish. Mark has a question. How do you escape the reality that even on health care something republicans promised for even years to do, theres no bill that apparently can pass the house and senate with republican votes . How do you solve that problem on other issues . I think you got to keep talking. One of the best things you can do is not take a sixweek break. We just took the longest august recess thats happened in a decade. The Freedom Caucus said dont leave town. We have to figure out what to do to appeal obama care and cut taxes. We didnt do that. We went home for six weeks. We should have stayed here, focussed on getting done what we told the American People we were going to get done. Longest nonelection year break in over a decade. Thats not how you solve the problems we were sent here to solve. Good morning. Your critique of the long break, it was the republican leadership, you guys could have come together and probably changed that. I think this is part of the reason the journal may have written what they wrote this morning. Around the debt saling and tax reform, you talked about the improvements to the Health Care Bill. Whats the most important thing the Freedom Caucus wants . Great question. On the debt ceiling, cap spending as a percentage of gdp. Get spending back down to the modern times historic norm down around 20 or lower. Right now its almost 21 , as high as 24 gdp in the obama years. Ill vote for and increase, the debt hit 20 trillion today. How can you raise the money on the credit card borrow as much as you want without repercussion, how can you do it when you have a 20 trillion. Revenue neutral is an idea with the tax burden stays the same. Were going to shift around who pays what. Under that scenario, and joe knows that. Under that scenario what always happens is the connected class gets a good deal and middle class families get the shaft. Lower taxes for families and conduct a tax program thats good for economic growth. You point out that the debt hit 20 trillion. Do you support this deal that President Trump made with democrats . Because the debt went up in the aftermath of passing in deal with nancy pelosi. I voted against it. When you increase the borrowing limit, raise the limit on the credit card and do nothing to address the underlying problem, thats not good. We didnt give the president any options or choices. The choice was do you want a longer term debt ceiling increase that doesnt address the underlying problem, or do you want a shorter term debt ceiling that doesnt address the problem. Thats why we said put a cap on spending. Ill raise the debt ceiling if we address the problem. I think taxpayers would prefer that. So congressman, final question. Its sort of out of not left field, out of right field, i guess. Should be out of center field. At what point are republican congressmen, congresswomen, senators, any democrats that actually dont deny math, are they going to start coming on the show and talking about our 20 trillion debt and unfunded liabilities instead of cutting 13 from sesame street. Start looking at the entitlement crisis that is stealing money from every young person in america. When is that going to happen . Ive been waiting for that to happen for 20 years. Whens it going to happen . Nothing else really matters fiscally. Im hear talking about it because i think its important. The American People understand t important. We had some real entitle. Savings in the health care legislation. We had changes to medicaid that were going to be helpful long term to beginning to deal with the debt burden. Unfortunately, that bill didnt get to the United States senate. But youre right. This is like the collegeage kid who says i want to raise the limit on the credit card even though im spending more than i have, and we say okay. That just does not make sense. For the future of our country, we have to deal with it. Congressman jim jordan, thank you. Coming up, why Chris Christie says Steve Bannons have a minutes of fame is almost up. Plus her front row seat to the Craziest Campaign in american history. Katy turs first president ial campaign happened to be Donald Trumps first too, and she captured it all in a new book. Shes joining us next on morning joe. So, i was at mom and dads and found this. Cds, baseball cards. Your old magic set . And this wrestling ticket. Which you still owe me for. Seriously . 25 . I didnt even want to go. Ahhh, your diary. Mom says its totally natural. 25 is nothing. Abracadabra, bro. The bank of america mobile banking app. The fast, secure and simple way to send money. Hi. And i know that we have phonaccident forgiveness. Gent, so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With accident forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. Has gotten to know our business so well that is feels like hes a part of our team. With one phone call, he sets me up with tailored products and services. And when my advisor is focused on my tech, i can focus on my small business. A dell advisor can help you choose the right products with powerful intel® core™ processors. Everybody knew it was false. Theres a media group that calls the media. The next day they did a story about what a lie it was from nbc. Shes back there, little katy. What a lie it was. What a lie. Katy tur, what a lie it was. Does that not give you pause . No. To have a Foreign Government able to you know what gives me more pause . That a person in our government, crooked Hillary Clinton, be quiet. I know you want to save her. Theres something happening. Theyre not reporting it. Katy, youre not reporting it, katy, but theres something happening, katy. Oh, yeah. There is. Its unbelievable. Joining us now katy tur, her new book out today is unbelievable, my front row seat to the craziest company in u. S. History. Welcome. I want to go back at first. How does it look now compared to how unbelievable it was during the campaign, which we will get to, but do you see a difference . No. Its exactly the same. Its as unbelievable today as it was back then. You dont see in the past two weeks, a different trump . Maybe if that continues, but i think theres been a lot of disasters that have kacaptivate the attention to the american public. He hasnt had room to revert back to how he normally behaves. I dont think theres enough evidence to say that this is donald trump. I dont disagree. Im not saying that cant happen. Im saying whatever weve spoken about the changes in tone that he might have had, hes always gone back. Im on the campaign trail, he was always calling on you and singling you out, katy tur from the mike. Its a strange and rare thing for a candidate to do that. In the course of writing the book, have you figured out why he would come specifically after you . I have not personally figure odd out why it was me. It started from the beginning. It could have had something to do with me being the First Network correspondent that was assigned to cover him. I was the first one there taking the campaign seriously at a time when there were headlines that said donald trump is running for president. Its going to be so hillarious. I show up at this event around the backyard pool in new hampshire, and im taking notes and he calls me out. He says katy tur, youre not paying attention. I had never met him. I knew him from the social scene and the tabloids, the aparrente accounts apprentice. I did not know he knew me. If it was a guy who was the first reporter to cover donald trump doing everything you did, do you think it would have happened . I think thats a really good question. I dont think so. He did single out other male journalists along the trail. He called tom of abc a sleaze. He did it to me consistently. I think it was push and pull. I think he expected somebody to give him more favorable coverage. I was young. Maybe he thought he could change the change my coverage, make it more favorable to him. Maybe he thought he could intimidate me. The reality is if he knew anything about me, anything at all, one quick google search, youd find out its not easy to intimidate me. Im a little bit upset with you this morning, because my kindle download of the book came right around midnight last night and kept me up way too late. Its a real page turner. Good. Starting with the first line which i im about to throw up. I feel the same way with the launch right now. Can you talk about that . If you read one of the line book, t not a political commentary. This is not me saying im about to throw up because somebody from a particular party won and i am not of that party. It was a commentary on what had happened in that last year and a half. I covered him for 500 days. 50 da 500 days of being on the road and not only having to understand what he was saying but also hold up facts. He did not tell the truth on the campaign. His supporters were extraordinarily angry. It was a surreal and unbelievable experience, and it seemed at that point that it was never going to end. A lot of us felt like we didnt have solid ground to stand on. We didnt know how to cover this any longer. We didnt know what mattered what we said. When did you get the sense trump could win the election, and did you ever call that . I got the sense i will say the first interview i did with him, he came after me and he said you could never be president. And the first thing i thought many my head was neither can you. Luckily i didnt say that at the time. But i thought that and i think this was part of the reason this worked so well is because i wasnt a washington or political person. I was able to see his support and the devotion that he found himself getting. For what it was, very early on without any predispositions or preconceived notions. When we went after john mccain, an american war hero, you can see the conservative party wasnt so happy with john mccain here and there, but this was an american war hero who was a p. O. W. When he went after him and his poll numbers went up, nothing else is sacred. He can go after anything. Mark halperin, last question. Katy tur, congratulations. Who should buy this book . Anybody who is waking up and wondering is this real life . Anybody who is trying to figure out what happened the past year and a half. Why his support was so devoted and then also for those who are just curious about what it was like day in and day out. Its darkly comic at times and i think most people would find it enjoyable, even the president. Katy tur, thank you very much. The new book is out today. Its unbelievable my first row seat to the Craziest Campaign in american history. Katy, thank you. Congratulations. Up next the aftermath on Hurricane Irma. Some 2000 people are in shelters in florida. And it may take weeks to restore power around the state. Plus well check in with Kerry Sanders who while covering his 60th hurricane found time to return two dolphins of the water. He joins us next. When this bell rings. It starts a chain reaction. Thats heard throughout the connected business world. At t Network Security helps protect business, from the largest Financial Markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyberattacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. Keeping the world of business connected and protected. Thats the power of and. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you wheyou wantve somto protect it. E, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. With an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. Kevin, meet yourkeviner. Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. Kevin, hows your mom . Life well planned. See what a Raymond James Financial Advisor can do for you. 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. Its a warm blanket. Its a bottle of clean water. Its a roof and a bed. Its knowing someone cares. Its feeling safe. Its a today thats better than yesterday. Every dollar you can spare helps so much more than you can imagine. Please donate now to help people affected by hurricane harvey. Your help is urgently needed. New jersey governor Chris Christie is responds to Stephen Bannons claim that he lost his chance to the surf in the Trump Administration for a lack of loyalty, after the president s comments about grabbing women. On that infamous access hollywood tape. Heres what bannon said followed by christies response to pbs news last night. You took names on billy didnt you . You know im irish, i got my black book and i got em. Christie because of billy bush weekend was not looked at for a cabinet position. He wasnt there for you on billy bush weekend, therefore, he doesnt get a cabinet position. I told him the plane leaves at 11 00 in the morning. If youre on the plane, youre on the team. Didnt make the plane. That conversation that mr. Bannon references in his interview, never happened. Never had any conversations with him. I didnt need to convey those kind of feelings to staffers. I was speaking to the principal, the man now president of the United States. Second, i was there the whole billy bush weekend. I was there leading debate prep for the second debate both friday and saturday. And by the way, if i was off the team why did i lead debate prep for the third debate . Third, i was offered accountant positions for this president. Its been wildly reported its true that i offered cabinet positions that i turned down so i suspect this little black book that mr. Bannon is talking about, the only one who read that little black book is mr. Bannon himself. I dont even know where to begin. Pop some popcorn, neighbor . Yeah is he okay . I dont think hes okay . Bannon on the outside now. Chris christie on the outside now. Neither of them actually ended up inside the administration. Im curious what happened after Chris Christie leaves the governorship if he has a zone to go to. Right. But its fascinating kind of watch them duke it out after the fact while theyre both basically been pushed to the inner circle. Yeah, he doesnt seem okay. It seems from watching that interview and the excerpts from the extra excerptses that they released. Is steve bannon such an individual contributor, its unclear why he wouldnt last also, Chris Christie was right about the billy bush tape. It was terrible. He was there. President trump apologized. Yeah, correct. I mean quite an ax to grind still at this point. Yes. Chris christie. Yes. Why go back and relitigate it at this point especially when Chris Christie i think thats what i find striking. Hes holding on tight. He seems so angry. God, dude, get over it. Not okay. A lot of not okay going on. Well go live to the florida keys as thousands of residents who rode out the storm there may need to be rescued. And the u. S. Virgin islands reports this morning the president may visit there in the days to come. And the New York Times Jeremy Peters with his report on donald trump perhaps clearing the way for a Third Political party. Morning joe is coming right back. 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The water is coming along the wall in the past couple of hours, its only getting worse as high tide continues to come in. I mentioned earlier, ive been through a few hurricanes and was not expecting this today. The water is going to actually come up into downtown charleston. If i can have my photographer show you right here, its almost as if the ocean has come into downtown charleston, this is incorrect. Theres not even a way to drive through this area. Good morning, its tuesday, september 12th. Did you see them walking up there . No, welcome to morning joe, the entire state of florida this morning, were just beginning to get a sense of the damage left behind by Hurricane Irma as the storm continues its assault on the southeast. It has weakened to a posttropical cyclone. Millions in florida, georgia and South Carolina are without power. And many are cut off from their homes. In jacksonville, entire streets were swallowed by record flooding as heavy rain and storm surge hit the city. The mayor and local authorities asked people to hang white flags outside of their homes as a signal for help. Everglades city remains largely under water at this point. As of yesterday, the main road in and out of Everglades City was still impassible for anything but a big truck or boat. And much of the florida keys remain cut off at the mainland, as the National Guard deploy search and rescue missions. Hurricane irma made landfall sunday morning bringing 140mileperhour winds. And as many as 10,000 people who decided to stay and ride out the storm may need to be evacuated. At least 8. 8 Million People without power across florida. Authorities say residents should be prepared to stay for extended outages including weeks without power in some cases. Once irma made it past the storm, it made its way to South Carolina and georgia. And elsewhere, there was serious flooding, river streets, tourist haven in savannah, saw the savannah spill its banks into the streets, usually bustling with stores and restaurants. And charlesston which is usually prone to washouts because of its ancient drainage system saw its iconic market area downtown under water. Lets start with a check with the latest on irma from meteorologist bill karins. The First Time Since 48 hours since landfall, were not seeing irma doing any more damage. Were calling it a posttropical system. Theres still bands here in eastern north carolina. Well watch out for isolated flooding there. But again no longer tracking the storm as its now postpatrol. The remnants will head up to western tennessee and not cause any issues. The another correspondents are spreading across the region to the hardet hit regions. Lets go to gadi schwartz. Gadi is right near the eye where the cat 4 made landfall in cudjoe key. Gadi, whats it look like today . Reporter these are some of the first images were able to get back. This is ground zero for where the hurricane hit. This is what irma did. You see the winds whipped through this home. This is called jolly roger road. But you see, thats a washing machine over here. As you take a look there are two other, a washer and dryer here. Showing you how strong the winds were. Heres another one. Over here, in the marina, if we take a quick little walk, there are coaches floating in this marina. S floating in this marina. And there are boats on their side. Weve got a drone flying overhead. Most of the homes are concrete. Theyre Still Standing, there are some exceptions, obviously. But those seem to be wooden structures. The concrete structures that weve seen dont seem to have very much structural damage. Its mostly railings and sidings torn off and theres heavy roof damage. When it comes to withstanding the storms even houses close to the bay that took the direct impact are Still Standing here. Residents are not being allowed back here right now. There are some residents who chose to weather out the storm. They are going house to house, checking to make sure everybody cleared out. And theres no one there. Right now, were still waiting for emergency crews to come through and do the checks as well. Back to you. Gadi, when you look around, can you see how high the storm surge was, you can look at the trees to see what levels on many houses . Reporter from what weve been told, around here, we dont see any clear water marks what weve been told around here, it was three or four feet. There are some of these houses that actually have basements. Those were flooded out. Things floated to the top and made their way out. This is maybe ten feet up from the sea. Another three or four feet above that where all the debris field came out. Thats 14 feet from the surge. One of the things that mariners keep on insisting they dodged a bullet because this came when tides were low. If this would have come during high tide, things would have been absolutely catastrophic. Fortunately, that water was able to subside. Weve also seen video water going up and coming down pretty rapidly throughout the storm. Particularly, during the eye of the storm. Most of this was completely under water. Mariners thanking the tides and the timing of the storms saying thats why were not seeing wider devastation. Gadi schwartz from the lower keys. Thats where the center of the landfall. Very impressive stuff. Further in the keys in south florida, two days ago, marco island, this is a picture yesterday from Kerry Sanders. This is his live shot. That was the baby dolphin that was stranded on the beach, live tv. It was iffy for a little bit. We werent sure what was going to happen. Kerry came in and helped the animal that was in distress. And does what he does best. The internet went ablaze, too. Kerry, youre joining us from marco island in florida. Any further reports on that dolphin, or any others you helped save or others on the coast . Reporter well, i can tell you that the baby dolphin was exhausted. It was found initially by mark long, one of the residents here, about half a mile in. It was on a sidewalk. He took the dolphin and brought it down to the waters edge here. Thats where we met him and helped him and eventually, i took the baby dolphin out into the gulf of mexico. Exhausted as you can imagine. It had been out of the water for who knows how long. It got washed in with the storm surge three or four feet. Then when it went out, the dolphin was left high and dry. The problem is the wave action. We have a drone shot up right now. The waves are really calm. Yesterday, it was really rougher, it was certainly tough for that little guy to make it out there. Eventually took it all the way out past a couple of wave breaks. Held it for 10, 15 minutes, seemed to catch its breath. Let it go. It started to go out, a wave hit. Eventually helped it out. We felt really good. Went up the beach a while later, sure enough, bill, came across a much larger dolphin. That took a group of us to get it out there. Much more difficult. We eventually gotta dolphin into the deeper area of the gulf of mexico to release that dolphin. She made it, too. If i could write the story, id like to think this is the baby to that being the mother. They reunited. As we look at the live picture in the gulf of mexico that somewhere theyre out there together. That was pretty awesome, kerry. A great moment. We know youre all fearful how badly that area got the storm surge. You caught a break there. Kerry sanders coming to us from marco island. Appreciate your work. 142mileperhour wind right where kerry was. Standing now, he was in the middle of that during the storm. Thats pretty incredible stuff. Everyone has been asking what is next. You may have heard theres hurricane jose on the heels of irma. Its still sitting here. This is florida. Its not that far away. Its going to do a loopty loop. Its going to spin and come back up. It does take it as a hurricane and almost brings that cone of uncertainty into areas of eastern north carolina. The thing that im happy to say, all of our longrange computers take it and take it back out to sea. This would be large surf, rip currents but not a storm on the east coast. Still four or five days to watch that. We need a break after the two category 4 storms, first that have ever happened in our country. Back to you. Bill, thank you. Back with us around the table with have Mike Barnicle. Howard ford jr. , cofounder of axis, june banderhi. And Richard Haass. And Mark Halperin in washington. A lot of politics to talk about. Lets talk about the interview ousted white house advice steve bannon gave to 60 minutes. Cbs running the bulk of it, of course, on sunday night. Perhaps the most interesting part of the sitdown was material they left for a web extra. Bannon said President Trumps decision to fire fbi director james comey is by far trumps most damaging selfinflicted wound. Someone said to me you that described the firing of james comey, given the history, as the biggest mistake in political history . That would be probably thats probably would be too bombastic for even me but maybe modern political history. I dont think theres any doubt if james comey had not been fired that wed have a special counc counsel. So wed not have the Mueller Investigation . Hed not have the Mueller Investigation. I dont believe that the institutional logic of the fbi, in particular, in regards to an investigation could possibly change by changing out the head of it. It has been reported that Jared Kushner was in favor of firing james comey. Is that correct . I have you guys will have to find that out either through the media or your investigation, i dont know. However, bannon would not say directly whether he himself was against firing comey out respect for private conversations instead, pointed to media reports that he was opposed. When asked about bannons criticism, White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders stood firmly behind the president s decision. Certainly, i think its been shown in the days that followed that the president was right in firing director comey since directors firing. Weve learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing, including give false testimony, leaking privileged information to journalists. He went outside the chain of command and politicized an investigation about a president ial candidate. So, mark, its hard to tell exactly who Steve Bannons comments were aimed at. Perhaps if not the president , Jared Kushner who also was reportedly the only other person other than the president in support of firing james comey. I thought it also was interest that steve bannon said he would be against the firing of nobody, probably for the same reasons, correctly against the firing of james comey. Whats it all mean . Well, look, there are a lot of similarities between bannon and trump. I think one thing two things that they share. One is they like to become they like to be seen as smart political analysts. I think a lot of what bannon said in that interview was his view of the truth. And i think a lot of reporters would agree that the president s decision to fire comey, the way he fired him, in particular, was a big mistake. The other thing about bannon and trump that they share that i think sometimes overrated theyre both ideological in a sense but at times practical. They dont roll boulders uphill if they dont think they can get to the top of the hill in most cases. Again, a lot of what bannon said in that interview reflects as being realistic. At times, hes far from realistic, but a realism that he shared with the president in some cases. And jim, again, you have only two people, we get these reports in realtime. We didnt have to see steve bannon talk about this on 60 minutes to know this was the case, the only people for the firing of james comey for the way he was fired was donald trump and Jared Kushner. No doubt. And there was lots of tension between bannon and kushner, at that point, the breaking point in their relationship. Bannon said okay, youre where you are with mueller, mr. President , because you listened to Jared Kushner. Im one of the reporters who would agree with what bannon said. It was one of the dumbest now not only do you have mueller, you have mueller looking at obstruction of justice around the firing of james comey. Its one of the reasons mike pence had to hire a lawyer. Its why six or seven officials had to hire lawyers because they were around those conversations around that time. Maybe donald trump wasnt covering up something by firing him. But theres so many conversations that he had with people about the investigation around that time, about his investigation with comey, and thats where mueller is intensely focused at this moment. And it could be problematic. It could ended presidency. Still ahead, with more bucking the party, is the Republican Party on the verge of practi fracture. Tech when you schedule with safelite autoglass, you get time for more life. This family wanted to keep the game going. Son hey mom, one more game . Tech with safelite, you get a text when were on our way. You can see exactly when well arrive. Mom sure. Bring it tech im micah with safelite. Mom thanks for coming, its right over here. Tech giving you a few more minutes for what matters most. Take care family bye kids singing safelite® repair, safelite® replace. When this bell rings. It starts a chain reaction. Thats heard throughout the connected business world. At t Network Security helps protect business, from the largest Financial Markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyberattacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. Keeping the world of business connected and protected. Thats the power of and. Will people know it means theyll get the lowest price guaranteed on our rooms by booking direct on choicehotels. Com . Hey badda book. Badda boom mr. Badda book. Badda boom book now at choicehotels. Com dad molly, can you please take out the trash . sigh dad molly trash whoo mom hey, molly . Its time to go bell ringing class, lets turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. Who would like to read . molly i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. Its running much faster now. See . Its amazing, molly. Thank you. thank you. [car tires screech] [bell rings] been trying to prepare for this day. And im still not ready. The reason im telling you this is that there will be moments in your life that. Youll never be ready for. Your little girl getting married being one of them. A new report claims that lawyers representing President Trump in the russia probe wanted his soninlaw Jared Kushner to step down. As Senior Adviser earlier this summer. The wall street journal cites some anonymous people familiar with it, said some of the legal team worried about complications from the special counsel russia probe. It was with the dealings of the Transition Team and people, some examined by federal investigators and congress. Also included, kushners admission of contacts with the Foreign Security which he omitted twice. And the probe even casually in a meeting, aides who heard his remarks could face inquiries from Robert Muellers agents. And there was reportedly concern that kushner might discussion the probe without a lawyer present. The lawyer claims that press aides from the legal team went as far as drafting a statement to explain his resignation. But now he says he thought the proposal absurd and that it was never, to his knowledge, taken to the president. Now Marc Kasowitz who led the team until july said i never discussed with other lawyers for the president that yajared kushr to step down and im not aware that any other lawyers made such recommendations. Okay, all of the president s lawyers are denying it. But Mike Barnicle theyve denied a lot. This is kind of like sending inappropriate emails. Yeah, and curse words. So, mike, this is something talked about for some time in the white house, Jared Kushner, it would be much better if even jar Jared Kushner and everybody in the white house if he would go back to new york and because of things in the transition. Never mind what theyre blogging about Jared Kushner, just the public paper trail of jared, 660 madison avenue, for the building that hes been trying to refinance for some time now. Thats just one item. The other item is who has he spoken to with these difficulties, from the meeting with donald trump jr. , with the j woman from russia, to talking to the president when he was president. I mean, what was going on here. Everybody having to lawyer up after they talked to jarod skusher iskus kushner. Well, harrold, hes not good with disclosure. And people hes met. And donald trump basically saying youre basically in charge of everything. Go off, youre in charge of redoing government. And of course, the guy is going 24 hours a day. Im not making any excuses for him. Im just saying it was just sheer chaos. And chaos, a lot of stuff was overlooked. A lot of stuff that has very dire complications legally. I dont know of a campaign in history, sand riand richard can perspective on this that had repeated conversations to russian government officials. I cannot make a benign issue in the campaign, and i could be wrong, id love to hear the facts and were going to hear that through muellers investigation. To your point, joe, i dont know how you forget that many meetings. You dont forget them. Or just omit them. You dont forget them. You know, i met with somebody from chad like at a Cocktail Party four months ago, i might have forgotten that. Nothing against chad, but its not in the newspaper every day, right . But you have russia come to the front pages of the newspaper during the campaign, if people are accusing russia of trying to steal the election, if afterwards, you get a National Security visor, its going to be a National Security adviser in trouble because he didnt report what he needs. And just to say, we learned more about russia, you would have been sitting through a james bond movie. You dont forget that. These are difficult things to forget. It was several dozen contexted breaches. In addition, mike pence was lied to by mike flynn by russia. At the end of the day. So i will say, reinforced at this point, on september 12th, 2017, mike pence tells us, he was lied to. Thats about russia. And from now, anytime somebody says mike pence is lied to, if we dont want to look really stupid in the future, we should say, mike pence says he was lied to. He was lied to. You know, you put your finger in on part of this solving the evasion with regard to Jared Kushner. And a lot else. In the sense when they had the meetings as they were talking with whomever from russia they didnt think they were going to win. They did not think they were going to win. They didnt think this would be any issue. Okay. They cash in on the moment of fame for president and figure out how to get themselves in trouble. Out of financial trouble. Again, not that we have any working knowledge on this. Everybody now knows 666 fifth avenue is under water. They need money. Theyve been going around hat in hand, trying to get money. Chance are very good. They didnt think they were going to win and were going around making contacts. Donald trump wanted to build a really big building in moscow. I dont blame him, hes a developer. But not in the middle of campaign. Coming up on morning joe, Ambassador Nikki Haley discusses north korea. But were they too toothless to actually stop the north korea program. Well talk about that with Richard Haass next on morning joe. What started as a passion to make something original. Has grown into an enterprise. Thats why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. Now, im earning unlimited 2 cash back on every purchase i make. Everything. Which adds up to thousands of dollars back every year. And helps keep my passion growing. In every direction. Whats in your wallet . When you dont get enough sleep, and your body aches, youre not yourself. Tylenol® pm relieves pain and helps you fall fast asleep and stay asleep. 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Its handson training actually turning valves, turning systems off, looking at different wire systems all that training is crucial to keeping our Community Safe and our firefighters safe. Together, were building a better california. The United Nations has passed a pressure wave of sanctions on north korea being thought as as watered down. It doesnt include a ban on all oil imports and interNational Asset of which both russia and china objected to. What does it doey it bans pyongyang from importing natural gas and caps crude imports. And still, heres what u. S. Ambassador nikki haley told the council yesterday. These are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on north korea. They give us a much better chance to halt the regimes ability to fuel and finance the nuclear and missile programs. But we all know these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively. So much of with nikki haley, do you agree with that with sanctions on the u. N. . The tougher sanctions posed against north korea, they wont make any difference. They wont make any difference . No, for all sorts of reasons. Theyre watered down. Even if you have the oil cut off they could liquiwhy goal. How russia in the Washington Post, how russia filling in some of the gaps that china has left. But north koreas entire psychology, the desire dna society is one of selfreliance. So, the idea that youre going to sanction them for giving up some of the most important assets they have for the regimes survival, aint going to happen. So, richard, it just sounds like you dont say, and by the way, sigh agree with you, others do not, that we dont have a thousand different options. There is not a third way. By me saying that, im not saying im for the military option. But i am saying youre either for north korea having the ability to strike seattle, San Francisco and los angeles, with Nuclear Weapons. In the next year or two. Or youre for military intervention. To take the weapons away or change the regime . I mean, it seems to me, the sooner we get to that with all due respect, you know, others that came on this show back in 2009, talking about all of the glorious things that were going to happen in afghanistan if we tripled the number of troops, you knew it was garbage back then. You knew it would be a holding pattern. And it will be in a holding pattern. Here, there is no neat, clean third way. There is not a third way and the time line of north korea in Nuclear Advance is far faster than the time line of any impact with sanctions kicking in. So, were kidding ourselves if we think whats going on at the u. N. Is somehow going to solve this problem. Will the chinese ever step in . They will step in in part. But not enough. China will not step in to the point that the they risk destabilizati destabilization. What it china means we will go in militarily, what that then mean if they understand that the United States was coming in military, if they didnt act, would china then act and remove him . I dont believe so. I think they would try to manage the situations. Theyd have certain limits of what theyd be willing to sit aside for. But, no, i dont think at the end of the day so china would rather us be in there militarily than take out a guy who is destabilizing the whole region . It would be like us wanting the chinese to come into mexico . The idea that china has this option that youre talking about to somehow get rid of one leadership and put in one to their liking they dont believe, as far as i can tell they have that option. Richard, richard, richard, you dont believe that a country that controls 90 of the imports to north korea and gets 90 of their exports, you dont think they have every general and leader around that guy bought and paid for, and could rid of him tomorrow if they wanted to . Proof that they dont, getting kim jongun assassinated. China is very frustrated what about they cant control in north korea. This is a typical relationship between unequals where the chinese disguise north koreans, they see them as a strategic liability, not an asset. They cannot control what goes on there. Coming up on morning joe, were waiting big updates from apple. And apparently, ted cruz likes porn what . He likes it. He likes it. Thats kind of a mean tease. Thats a mean tease. 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. When i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. I just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. My Insurance Company definitely doesnt have that. You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Can i get some help. Watch his head. Im so happy. Whatever they went through, they went through together. Welcome guys. Life well planned. See what a Raymond James Financial Advisor can do for you. There has been a divide in this administration from the beginning. Its quite obvious. Theres one group of people that on the campaign, by the way, its all basically the campaign, some additional came on that said, all you have to do is do what you said you were going to do in these major areas. Lets punch out one thing after the other. Youre going to keep your coalition together. And were going to add to it over time as youre successful. Theres another group that has said, lets compromise, lets try to reach out to democrats. And lets try to work on things that we can do together. You were isolated inside the white house . Thats not absolutely true. I was still i had the same influence on the president i had on day one. Were back with Mark Halperin, Mike Barnicle, and joining me now, the New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters. Jeremy, youre reporting that President Trump is clearing an opening, intentionally or not, for a new party. Jeremy. Right, steve bannon was speaking exactly to that split in the party thats now been years and years in the making. And its more than just the kind of leadership, washington ruling class, versus the renegade antagonistic, antiestablishment types. I mean, this is basically a fight for whether or not the ideas that donald trump ran on, these kind of nationalistic, populistic, America First ideas are sustainable and have a place in american politics going forward. Now, i think part of the problem is, and this is what steve bannen is kind of sorting out over the next few months, is donald trump the leader of that movement. Does he continue to have the role hes had in leading the voters who got behind him . Right. I dont think thats a guarantee. And i think steve bannon realizes thats not a guarantee. So, kind of building out what remains of that movement, keeping it sustainable is a big question going forward. So, Mark Halperin, the Republican Party is divided right now. So the Democratic Party. Only difference is the Republican Party owns everything in washington,d. C. Is this more of the same . Or does donald trump become the First Independent president weve had since washington . The republican water had great years below the president ial years was mostly successful. But its turn out to be an antiobama party. Its been a failure for the first eight months of republican rule. And the issue where the president differs from the orthodoxy of the Republican Party, trade in particular. Maybe on tax cuts, maybe on Government Spending like infrastructure. On those things i think the president is right, where there is a constituency for some of his views it may not be a majority in many cases but theres a constituency. And its up to other people in the Republican Party to not just be an antitrump party which a lot of members of congress are privately and publicly. What do they stand for, theyre actually better ideas to fit the brand. Right, this past week showed that so many of Donald Trumps voters are trumpists. Theyre not republicans. Theyre not conservative voters. Theyre trumpists first. You can see that with the strongest supporters, even after he struck a deal with nancy pelosi. And Chuck Schumer, they almost uniformly blame Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan, not donald trump. That should have sent a message to donald trump that hes got as much running room as he needs. Yeah, so pick your numbers is it 22 , 32 , trump voters only . If youre likening them, that specific trump block to the blocks of ice removed from the polar ice cap from noble waglob warming, cutting them off from the basic ice floe, what is happening to the political system in this country . Its blowing apart. And on both sides. In a new interview, senator majority leader Mitch Mcconnell says he will have the last laugh on the debt ceiling deal. Mcconnell tells the New York Times that he wrote the deal to invoke extraordinary measures that would allow the country to shift the need and delay the need for increase in the debt limit well below the december deadline. Speaking for the democrats, he said, they might have spiked the ball in the end zone a little too early. But if youre in the end zone, you still scored a touchdown. I mean, look, the debt ceiling debate to me is kind of a nondebate. Yeah. And im not sure its a very meaningful moment, even though it seems like one. Its Congress Voting to authorize to pay the bills that congress has already done. Right. But if it had not done that deal, we would all have our and people would be coming on the air this morning going, and the greatest responsibility they have, to pay off debt. Theyre not even doing. This is a shame ive heard it nonstop. Joe, all im saying is this is the shame of washington. Now, they got it done and everybody saying this is not a big deal. But we would have had to talk about the budget. We would have debated are there any priorities are there actually spending cuts. Im saying its a deal that does not require the democrats to move our their principles on any given way and its a deal thats possible. They need three more deals like that. And republicans are going this is terrible because now the democrats are going to get daca for free. Donald trump wants that. So, its good for donald trump, again. Yes. So how long are the republicans going to keep going, oh, no, now and then its an infrastructure deal. I dont know, maybe im wrong alise, but it seems like donald trump wants to be responsible for something that 80 of americans like with daca. Thats all republicans say. Oh, no, now, he get a clean shot at daca. Well, he also is going to get a clean shot at spending a lot of money it looks like, too. Right. You know, with infrastructure, and then with tax reform are republicans going to go for tax form that isnt debt neutral . Oh of course, they are. That is why exactly. Its not going to end. What do you think happened during the Bush Administration . Medicare part d. Does that mean we should keep doing it . No, it doesnt mean we should keep doing it. Everybody knew that donald trump was a big spending republican. I wrote columns about it. We talked about it nonstop on this show for the past 18 months. Anybody that is surprised that donald trump is a big spending republican . And thats where he wants to go, that he sees himself like a teddy roosevelt. Like this big bigger than life, bigger than washington figure thats not going to sit around with congressman jordan going, how do we shave point 2 , 3 , off of discretionary growth in outyears . Thats not what hes going to do. No. And conservatives worst fears were confirmed all last week when he went and cut this deal with nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer. He didnt have the convictions of a purist. They looked at they would get a little here and there. Know i think its exacerbating the split that has made the conditions for a third party, for a real rupture in the gop so ripe right now. Because they just cannot both sides of the equation here will never be able to see eye for eye, they havent for nine years . I dont mean to sound cynical Mike Barnicle, but there would be a rupture in the Republican Party if there were still conservatives in the Republican Party that cared about balances but when george w. Bush went in there was a surplus, by the time he left a deficit. 5. 6 trillion National Debt when he left. Republicans have doubled it. They havent cared about small government since we balanced the budget back in 2001. Well, jim jordan from the Freedom Caucus was on earlier. Thats what he said, you have to balance the budget and reduce costs but Mark Halperin, with that thought in mind, the big issue with the president and tax reform, got to passion a budget before you get to the intricacies of tax reform. And in passing the budget, theyre now confronted with two things that they werent confronted a month ago texas and florida. The hurricane caused some damage. So what happens now . Well, because theyre red states. I think well see more republicans inclined to not worry about offsets, not try to pay for all of the new spending but in the context of the budget deal, a lot of that is symbolically important. And people have very Big Decisions to make. And joe keeps suggesting and accurately, this is not a president who is going to have green eye shades on saying where can i cut this thing . Hes going to want to get a deal. And if the deal involves democratic support its going to be big spending and the members who have a conception theyve got a republican president who wants to fight for lower taxes and less spending theyre not going have an eye on the white house. I will tell you again, the institutional Republican Party, the kay street lobbyists, the heritage foundation, most of the republicans their in a bygone era, theyre in a fantasy world for what the republican stood for in eight years of barack obama. Thats not what it stands for. The symbol is a different cat. Hes a different beast and hes not on their agenda. And theyre largely powerless to compete with him on the playing field. All right, now, the most important story of the day, right . Yeah. What story is that . Survey after midnight last night, the twitter account of senator ted cruz oh, come on its not that important. Why did he do this . Can someone else mike, you read that. I dont want to know that. Shortly after twitter last night, the twitter account of ted cruz liked an extremely explicit posted at the account sexual posts. To like the twominute long video within minutes cruzs like went viral on social media. According to the verge cruzs account unfazed cruz spokesman offensive tweet posted open the ted cruz account earlier has been removed by staff and reported to twitter. As you may recall, this isnt the first time cruz and his staff have crossed pathings with adult interstate. Back during his president ial campaign, everyone remembers that, cruz released an ad hitting marco rubio over immigration. There was just one problem. It was soon revealed the woman who delivered the key line in the spot was a former adult film actress. The Campaign Later former, come on, former. Saying the actress responded to an open casting call and was not vetted by the production call. They later pulled the ad i just got past. All right. Im bored. Yeah, were bored. Hey, it happens. Okay, alex, if you think theres a most important part of the story were going to have you take a little vacation, okay . The actress in question later endorsed donald trump, but thats all right, lets talk about important things. I really wish we had not read all of that. Yeah. The dodgers, again, they were playing it seemed funny this morning. And they lost. The dodgers lost 11 games. This is Sports Illustrated called them the best team ever. Yes. Just a month and a half ago. And the indians won their 19th game in a row. The indians a couple games away from setting the alltime record. Two games away. Tie at 20 and break it at 21. So they play tonight. Do indians play tonight . And theyre playing the tigers . Whos pitching . Kluber. Okay. Why does he know all that . Thats another w. Jeremy, thank you. I got to ask mike this question. Really . It has nothing to do with ted cruz. What do you think is the more extraordinary story, and im serious here. Is it the indians winning 19 in a row or is it the dodgers that were on pace to be one of the greatest baseball teams of all time, collapsing and losing what, 15 out of 16, losing 11 in a row . Yeah, my thing is theres nothing more interesting than the losers locker room so i vote i would vote for the dod dodgers collapsing. How could this happen . Who know, its baseball. Who knows. Up first, first, the class action lawsuit, now regulators and lawmakers are getting involved in the major equifax data breach. That storys ahead. Keep it on morning joe. This is not a cloud. This is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. This is a financial Transaction Secure from hacks and threats others cant see. This is a skyscraper whose elevators use iot data and ai to help thousands get to work safely and efficiently. This is not the cloud you know. This is the ibm cloud. The ibm cloud is the cloud for enterprise. Yours. The ibm cloud is the cloud for enterprise. I kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. I thought i was doing okay. Then it hit me. Managing was all i was doing. When i told my doctor, i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of moderate to severe Crohns Disease even after trying other medications. In clinical studies, the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Just managing your symptoms . Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Bp uses flir cameras a new thermal imagining technology to inspect difficulttoreach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans can see them. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. 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®. All right, lets bring in Cnbcs Sara Eisen live at the new york stock exchange. Sara, big news in the apple world today. As always, theres a lot of hype going into these big Apple Unveils but todays is generating even more buzz and for good reason. That is because apple this afternoon is set to unveil three new versions of the iphone including what is set to be called the iphone x which is the tenth anniversary. The others will be upgrades of the 7 from last year. The focus is on that new high end one. Number one, because its supposed to be priced at around 1,000 which is substantially higher than other iphones. Its supposed to have new features. Getting rid of the home button for instance. Being able to unlock it with facial recognition instead. A whole new display. Wireless charging. So clearly there have been a lot of leaks in todays unveil. But still this is a company, the most profitable and biggest in the world, where twothirds of sales are still iphones so this is the key product to watch. Also wanted to bring you the latest on this mindboggling equifax disaster. Where 143 million americans Sensitive Information including potentially Social Security numbers were compromised. Leaders of the Senate Finance committee are now demanding answers and details as to how this happened and specifically also asking about those executives, including the cfo, that sold stock after the breach was uncovered but before it was released publicly. And thats not all. Eric schneiderman, of course, new York State Attorney general, is all over this. The sec and the new york and the federal trade commission are also expected to open investigations. Were also expecting a lot of class action lawsuits. Equifax stock continues to fall as, guy, the question and the outrage around this continues to build. Cnbcs sara eisen, thank you. Lets go to our all things apple desk and Mark Halperin. The iphone x what say you, sir . 1,000. More than a phone. More than a smart phone. Its a way of life. Do you know anything about this other than youre excited and you buy all new apple products . I always just care about the camera upgrade and the faster processor. All the other stuff, whatever so yeah, i mean, ive been saving up and im prepared to pay what pay any price, bear any burden to get it. Are you going to stand in line you cant blame him. Its not a rational thing. Am i going to stand in line . No, ill do what i do for most things in life that i want that are difficult to get. Im going to rely on mark barnacle. Mark barnacle . Im going to get one from mark. Im just afraid that the iphone x with the facial recognition aspect, that i might scare the phone, you know what if were playing outdoor hockey in newton and were wearing ski masks . That would be a problem. Im actually trying to move away from phones as much as possible. Putting them in drawers as much as possible. Reading books again. I think thats a great idea. I wish that they would make an iphone that is cost effective. You just know they can. You know they can make one for can they . Yes. For the people. A peoples iphone. Yes, what about the apple watch though . How about make one that doesnt break . Anyone have that . Does anyone use the apple watch . I tried it, it was totally i have. You guys are ridiculous. Do you still have it on . I have one. Like everybody else, you use it for a couple months. Then you dont. Waste of money. What is that, a i think its two or three models ago and its served me well and im going to stick with it. Its an ipod. Make an iphone that doesnt break, okay, worry about that. Stop charging so much. That does for us this morning. Stephanie picks up the coverage right now. Thanks so much, mika. Im stephanie ruhle. Were in the dark or at least 5 Million People are without power after irma and now its the flooding that is threatening thousands in the u. S. I did not expect to see this at all. Like, okay, flooding, okay. No big deal. But these were waves. I was like, is this the owiceanr a river . More republican retirements and talk of retirement. Is the house up for grabs . Is the senate safe for republicans . Im worried about losing the house now because of doca. After that bombshell interview with steve bannon in which he declares war on the republican establishment. The socalled establishment