Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20171207

Defined by this day this sunday morning in 1941 that really shames everything, it started a war that changed the world we live in today. It really created the modern world the universe we live in, to some extent, ive always thought of world war ii as the second largest event in human history. I think the first if you look at in terms of the impact on culture in life is the passion of jesus of nazareth in the year 33 a. D. The second largest event is arguably the second world war. By the end of it. By 1945, we had the capacity to destroy life as we know it and unimaginable power. And what happened today sunday morning in hawaii, sunday afternoon in the United States was the end of something called America First, which was a compelling National Movement to try to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and what we learned at pearl harbor is history has a way of intrudings itself on us whether or not we want it. Of course, church hymn, after the nazis attacked and started world war ii kept talking about the new world the new world would come and help the old world and you like, mika the life that your father lived and your mother shaped by escaping hitler and coming to this country and your father helping to rebuild, actually help bailed postwar order and his life work and the life work of so many others right now being challenged and we actually saw yesterday 70 yearshistory being undercut. Its that most war world and that frame that actually made America First. Right. Thats right. That itself great irony, steve i see you want to get in, thats the great irony, all of these treatys, all of these conventions, all of these trade deals the effect was the United States wasnt among the first of equals. The United States was first and so the lunacy of having something called America First as when we are already first what you are doing is under mining the foundation osf a world that actually the United States dominated is lunacy. Its lunacy. I wanted to get in, in part, because coincidentally over the weekend we took our kids to hyde park to see roosevelts home. The first president ial lie braemplt i dont want to break territory. I want to say as we went through this, we were constantly struck by the contrast of roosevelt and another president. When you look back at what he accomplished. You talked about world war ii, yes, we were attacked by surprise, roosevelt was ready. He knew this was coming. He had a world view. He had done as much as he could do to help our allies even before pearl harbor happened and he was amazing, you go back to the trams he introduced, Social Security for the first time, he was a visionary, then you contrast it to certain other things. We dont want to turn this into the history channel, womanly, as far as leader scholarship goes, one of the moments that talks about the type of leader fdr was the whole country is obviously panicked. The United States has been attacked be i the japanese the son came in to see how his father was handling it. He is going through his stamp collection. Meacham can tell the sorry more than i can. His father was sitting at the table. I went last year, take your children to hyde park, remarkable strong steady leadership. He wrote about churchill and fdrs relationship, in it you read these letters, churchill is pleading to help western europe in the war. Fdr is reluctant. Its not until pearl harbor the hat is tipped. So when you talk about the most significant days, people are too young to have a direct connection to it. It reshaped the world entirely. Speaking of tipping hands, neither are lawyers. Donald trump is signing Attorney Client privilege to keep details of a july conversation with his father. According to an nbc news source, the conversation happened the day after the New York Times reported that don jr. Attended the june 2016 meeting at trump tower with a russia lawyer. The president s eldest son originally said it was about russian adoptions the New York Times obtained emails in which don jr. Was offered dirt on Hillary Clinton. Nbc news has sense learned the russian lawyer told the Senate Judiciary committee don jr. Was seeking incriminating information on the clinton foundation. Back in july, citing deliberations reported it was actually donald trump, himself, who dictated the misleading statement that don jr. Used about the russian lawyer was about adoptions, yesterday, don jr. Told the House Intelligence Committee he spoke to white house adviser hope hicks the day the story broke and that she acted as an intermediary to the president. Don jr. Says he didnt speak to his father until the next day. As we mentioned is refusing to tell lawmakers about the substance of the conversation saying it is provoked under Attorney Client privilege because both their lawyers were also on the call. Ah. The top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee disagrees with that. He acknowledged having discussed the june 9th meeting and emails that went into establishing that meeting after those emails became public. He acknowledged discussing it with his father, refused to answer on that discussion on the basis of a claim of Attorney Client privilege. In my view, there is no Attorney Client privilege that protects a discussion between father and son. Heidi, i will let you break this one down, where do we begin . Well, were not lawyers, neither is hope hicks or don jr. Or donald trump, those are the people among whom this discussion took place, the congressman has a great point. This is one of the key parts as we all know of the obstruction case here that mueller is looking at. But i guess my big take away here, mika and joe, is that this is an example of just what a difficult time this congress is having in terms of gets answers. You combine this with what we saw yesterday as well from the committee in the house trying to get answers on tray gowdy and some of the other trey gowdy and other news information in the case. You combine this with Jeff Sessions and other members of this administration invoking executive privilege and previous testimony before congress. And i go tess take asway that bob mueller will have to get to the bottom of this its not going to happen in congress. Theyre having too hard of a time in getting information out of the main defendants in this case. You know, we are talking Attorney Client privilege. When donald trump draft thed th lie, which obviously mueller will be looking at for intent. Why would he lie and say its about adoption, his lawyers were stuck oak. That was donald trump trying to get everybody in and taking it all upon himself, so it causes so many problems for so many reasons. Hes not going to be able to point to a lawyer like he did with john dowd, he did it, himself. Again,ke Elijah Cummingss says the whistleblower flynn on Inauguration Day minutes after donald trump was sworn in communicated with a former business associate about plans to work with russia to build Nuclear Reactors in the middle east. Flynn reportedly said one of the first acts would be quote ripping up the economic sanctions against russia cummings asked gowdy do check the plans related to the plan. Gowdy responded in a letter on wednesday writing, if you have everyday of a crime, you should provide it to the special counsel immediately. He went on to say this last night. Reporter . I want to know everything about flynn and russia. But i will not interfere with mueller. I dont think every committee in congress, i gave the letter to adam and mike conoway and whatever they want to do with it im all for it. Yeah. So here you have. Lets put this in context. Donald trump has been sworn in, lowers his right hand. He is speaking for theres a huge crowd. 11 minutes. Huge crowd. Amazing i mean since surmon on the mount . Yeah. So he does this and 11 minutes into Donald Trumps inaugural speech. According to a whistleblower Elijah Cummings, hess texting to a business associate, haip, we will rip up those sanctions and a lot of people will make a lot of money. Its breath taking. We said the other day on this show that whats so remarkable donald trump didnt think he would win, its about money, even though theyre in power, its still about making. And there are a lot of shady things in here, first of all the trump family owns a lot of businesses overseas and they are talking to their Business Partners overseas in the name of not in the politics, now were seeing a lot of shady discussions in here. This can actually be a bicker story. Second, middle east, nuclear that tilt sil facilities in the middle east, are you kidding me . We are fighting isis. Its a threat still, every day there is a bomb, an explosion, you want to put a Nuclear Facility in the middle east . Third, from a middle eastern perspective, they like donald trump. We will talk about it more. They said we want america to follow russia. Thats what they are saying. We want america to follow russias lead in the middle east actually. And so this is almost working into that hypothesis that actually we want less power for america. We want more power ofor russia. So its just all, this nk weve heard so far is against Americas National interests overseas and the middle east at large. 11 minutes in, he has National Security adviser, hes talking to his Business Associates about how much money theyre all going to make on Nuclear Power plants because Donald Trumps first thing hes going to do is rip up the sanctions, which of course goes back and might explain why he lied about talking to kislyak about the listing of sanctions, he had an mick interest in it. Yeah, he was sitting up on the podium in front of the capital, this crowd larger than any in history, hes sitting there doing business deals that would have been a personal benefit to him and as we talked about, not great for the u. S. , now we have a better idea of why he has pled guilty to a crime. John meacham you would think in the moments after the inauguration, there is a sense of awe and the things, the huge responsibilities youve just assumed. But to see this testimony, to see this whistleblower suggest that Michael Flynn was thinking not about plans for the country in the minutes after the president was inaugurated but plans for his Business Partners. This was a completely act of self interest, not an act at all of national interest. Reporter no, it wasnt about the National Security of the country. Was it . It is, as i felt as though last year or so i have been shocked by the naivete about the presidency, some of us see how former president s make money and build their postpresident ial lives, we cut out the middleman. This is how the trump circle has basically attempted to line their own pockets at a time within theyre supposed to be managing and marshalling power on behalf of all of us. We said eight couple days ago, donald trump didnt expect to win. Basically told us as much. He won. But they were looking it was all about money. They were making money, billing the trump brand, making it huge, maybe start a tv network. What was going to happen after this, then they won. The remarkable thing is its still about making money. I think we are all a little naive about how far theyll push the envelope. And that is epitomized again two days after we say that some people were critical, two days after we say that, you have Michael Flynn 11 minutes in, talking about doing deals, tearing up russian sanctions, a lot of people will make a lot of money. The point meacham made is underscoring, you are sitting there, 11 minutes in, all these problems in the world, will you from there to the west wing and the new National Security adviser and fix these problems. Instead of thinking about all of problems and ba we will do about them. He is thinking about how to make money for himself. Yes, congressman Elijah Cummings will be joining us. Senator al franken is set to hold a press conference, we will go live to the west bank for reaction to President Trumps new israel policy. It looks like the idea is another brain child of Jared Kushner. Plus, why the republican tax plan may be one big revenge bill, steve ratner is charged to explain that. First, bill kierans with a check on the raging wildfires out west. Bill. The fires continue to spread. The dangerous winds will lit the region throughout the Early Morning hours. I got to show you a video. A guy was driving down the highway near the thomas fire, saw this man on the side of the fire and flames. He was jumping up and down concerned about something. Then he bends over, he will try to rescue something, you wont believe it until you see it. It actually comes to him. He bends over, and it looks like a baby rabbit on the side of the road. The man refused to be identified and didnt want to be interviewed, but hats off to him, ricking his own safety there for that rabbit. Well the fire continues to burn, more evacuations overnight the thomas fire is the huge one, thats up to 90,000 acres up here, extreme fire danger today, the winds this morning will lit he was of 50 to 60 Miles Per Hour in the mountains 70 to 80 Miles Per Hour. The fire chief for los angeles said this will be the most dangerous fire day hes seen in his career t. Reason being, we had a lot of wet weather, that dried up. It hasnt rained in months. Its been a hot summer and hot fall. So thats the problem. We expect these fires to possible rapidly form and spread during the day today. We will give you updates, so far, so good. We havent heard of new structured burning, the worst of the winds are a couple hours away, you are watching morning joe. Well be right back. You can do it. We can do this . We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. 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President trump has officially announced that the United States recognizes jerusalem as the capital of israel. While also for the time being signed the congressally mandated six month waiver keeping the embassy in tel aviv. I have determined that it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israeli. While previous president s have made this a Major Campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today i am delivering. I have judged this course of action to be in the best interests of the United States of america and the pursuit of peace between israel and the palestinians. Acknowledging this is a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace, consistent with the Jerusalem Embassy act, i am also directing the state department to begin preparation to move the American Embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. This will immediately begin the process of hiring architects, engineers and planners so that a new embassy when completed will be a magnificent tribute to peace. The move has received near universal condemnation from world leaders, both friend and foe and including the vatican with the a. P. Reporting that israel has publicly supported the decision afternoon. A few report in politico says Jared Kushner was a forceful voice, privately encouraging his fatherinlaw to recognize jerusalem as the israeli capital. According to report, kushner is quote banking on the hope that opposition is a facade and privately after a cooling off period arab allies will continue to work with him on a peace plan he still expects to announce at some point in the early months of 2018. Please, god. Please. Stay away. That is just not going to happen. Poor secretary of state Rex Tillerson opposed this. The fed secretary jim mattis also against the move and successfully petitioned the president to hold off in making announcement for a week, they needed to beef up embassies abroad. John meacham, this is a divide from american, well, so many years of history, we have understood, those of us who are extraordinarily positive within it comes to israel and pro israel, this comes at a time where there actually is more of a chance to bring sunni arab nations and israel together than ever before. It is a historic opportunity. Yet this throws all of that into chaos. Jared has to know these saudi leaders. They cant be a part of the Peace Process now, because theyve done the thing thats the most unimaginable for those sunni arab states. Well, you are right, ever since the president recognized israel courageously this has been a perennial flash point. Obviously not only in american politics but the balance of power around the world. We have a deep National Security interest, a deep cultural interest in the fate of the region and i think a lot of people have watch ed this proces from decade to decade, seeing so many remarkable people doing all they could to resolve something that seems irresolvable. I remember once asking george h. W. Bush whether he thought there would be an overall settlement of the kind that every new Administration Seeks and we all hope for and he just honestly said in a world wary way, oh, gosh, i just dont know. One thing we do know as you say this is not a step towards bringing these parties to a conversation that could be productive. All right. Lets get a feel on the ground now, joining us live from ramallah and the west bank, ayman moheldin. How are they reacting there . There are two reactions, one in times square and the occupied west bank, people taking to the streets, condemning the decision, calling on the Palestinian Authority to walk away from the socalled oz low Peace Process there is that anger on the street. Overnight, there were israeli raids in some detentions, israel is going to see if there is a Security Threat in the coming hours. You guys are talking about this. The Palestinian Authority, itself, now, under tremendous pressure from the crowds behind me to walk away, they are calling on the United States to no longer will involved in mediateing between these two sides, were hearing Strong Language from the Palestinian Authority. Somebody is saying that the United States is no longer an impartial broker, they can no longer be trusted to mediate this process and interestingly enough saying that yesterdays decision was a death blow to the twostate decision. It is time to call for equal rights for all citizens, that would be at that time strofk depending on who you ask. That goes to does the timing undercut the stated objective of establishing a Peace Process, have you two simultaneous pressure and the Palestinian Authority and on the street level, were starting to see an increase with these protests and rallies and demonstrations, there was a general strike today, students have been let out of school. So we are expecting the situation to develop ahead of tomorrows friday prayers. Thank you so much. Stay with us. So talk about the impact across the middle east and talk about actually the historical opportunity that we had been seeing over the past three or four years with the rise of iran, what that meant for sunniarab countries who suddenly did not see israel as the greatest threat. Its true. Well, a few things here. First, we have to remember that actually it was president obama who did acknowledge jerusalem as the capital of israel. He never activated the moving of the embassy to jerusalem and he didnt do that for security reasons. It is not an easy job to move the embassy to jerusalem. This actually jeopardized the security well being of our personnel. So one thing. Second, second thing is here, a lot of israelis are against what President Trump said actually. A lot of it. This served the right wing government of netanyahu. It doesnt serve israeli. So lets remember, it jepp diesz their interests and american interests. It immediately took america as a neutral player that can bring all outside together and it just eradicated americas credibility in that. So i dont know what Jared Kushner is thinking about, about arabs trusting him, getting back on the table. This has a ways in here. He is actually thinking about doing what he thinks she doing what israel wants. We have to remember. This issue, israel. Jerusalem, all of that is constantly placed by fundamentalist regimes in the region. They knew to justify their militia, hezbollah, that feeds into the fuel to the fear they already used to mobilize the public. You know, what is for a man who claims to understand deals and leverage, he actually gave away all leverage. You have netanyahu, not negotiate income good faith. In fact, he has been one of the most obstinant israeli leaders meeting the israelis halfway. If thats his politics, if its worked for him. Thats fine. Hes there. Were here. That is his judgment call. But for an american president to give this huge negotiating clip to a guy who has been obstinant and given up nothing in middle east peace negotiations shows such an extraordinarily weak hand and inability to understand the bakes of negotiating a deal. Well, thats what i was going, he has done something nobody would do, putting aside an incredible amount of complexities, you dont say, i will do what you want. I will throw it out there, put it on the table. It doesnt, it makes no sense, so for trump and kushner of all people that think they are such great deal dies. Trump is lying, say, quote, today, i am delivering, talking about a campaign promise. Yes. To me its satisfying the donors who pushed him. I dont think he understands what the implications of this move are. His secretary of state, his secretary of defense were against it. They advised him not to do it and delay it a week to beef up security. Its almost like the tax bill, rushing it through by the end of the year, because he wants to get it done, deliver on a campaign promise. What about the implication osf that prom sunny skies. It is important to note, people like jeb bush came out in support of this move, there are a lot of people who supported this move. I know back when i was in congress, im sure i signed one resolution after another to move the embassy to jerusalem. So much of that, to, for me was and by the way, my chief of staff joked, joe, any time you apt key to the city of stooef tel aviv, we can handle that part. I was always as pro israel, the thing i did was to push the two sides together. By the way, the palestinians at some point need ed to move to a point where they recognize israels right to exist. Theyre not going to do that now you have hamas who has been in a weakened state for years and every time llamas has their back up against the wall, every time hamas has its back up against the wall and maybe be more main stream so we can bring peace to the region, the United States or israel does something that feeds into their power, strengthens their base and allows them to keep saying, we will never recognize israels right to exist. Also, President Trump, they wanted East Jerusalem. Which is significantly important emotionally for the 350 arabs muslims and christians and 1. 6 billion muslims around the world. It fuels the emotions, what you said, working into the psyche of the people that wants that. It also goes back to something we have been talking about for some time the lack of nuance. The ignorance the inability to say, wait a second, we will sit back and handle this with nuance and understand what are the pre67 borders . . Right. What part of jerusalem matters to the palestinians . How do we give them East Jerusalem . Instead, you do out, you make an announcement, which and set the middle east on fire. The sixmonth waivers, all president s have been sign, often, he simply said, i dont want to sign this waive again. There was something stark about the president s performance, which we will talk about few all want, coming up, british Prime Minister teresa may slammed the president s israel policy. She is hardly the first u. S. Allie to publicly rebuke the president from Angela Merkel, questioning americas leadership to president macron on climate. There is a theme emerging on americas oldest and closest partners, we will run through with Andrea Mitchell. First, Senate Democrats are calling out one of their own, al franken is under withering criticism from his colleagues amid Sexual Misconduct allegations, she set to speak today from the senate floor. Does he still have a future on capitol hill . Morning joe is coming right back. Heres the story of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets go to sumatra. Wheres sumatra . Good question. This is win. And thats wins goat, adi. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. Making the coffee erupt with flavor. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. That erupts with even more flavor. Which helps provide for wins family. And adi the goats family too. Because his kids eat a lot. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Packed with goodness. 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In the wak of this latest accusation, at least 35 Senate Democrats are calling on him to quit. Senator Kiersten Gillibrand of new york was the first woman to call on franken to resign, writing in a Facebook Post enough is enough. Senate majority leader schumer said he personally called franken yesterday morning and had a meeting with the senator and his wife in the afternoon urging him to step aside. There are a number of reports suggesting that franken will anuance he is, in fact, resigning during his News Conference today but his office denied that on twitter yesterday writing any reports of a final decision o are inaccurate. Heidi, what are you hearing . This really was a coordinated attempt, mika, by the women of the senate. If you saw how this went down yesterday, yes, senator schumer did call franken after that politico story. It seemed to be the Critical Mass of the number of people coming forward accusing franken. But few look at how all the statements came out. They were within an hour or two of each other, seven Democratic Women came forward and said time to go. So there was a sense this just reached a point where it was no longer possible for the conference to turn the other way and say that franken should continue to serve. I think the Democratic Party here is if you look at whats going on with john conyers, with franken. Even the member of congress mr. Kunen from nevada, now nancy pelosi calling for his resignation, that i are trying to clean house, once you get so many accusers coming forward here on the record. So, mika, let me ask you, youve said over the past several weeks and had incredible discussions with other women on the set. You said, this is an extraordinarily important time and will clang the way our daughters are treated in the work force, hopefully. But, how do you balance everything . You talked about the danger of comparing glen thlush, thrush, to kevin spacey, this a flattening that concerns you . You know first of all kearse sten gillibrand was great in some ways, enough is enough him and you have to true the line on a number of levels. And i do understand politically the very uncomfortable position thats democrats are in in the age of roy moore so i think in some cases you can understand whats happening. I will be honest, like a number of stories we are covering over the past two months. Can you believe it since harvey ween stein, the story broke. Some are different than others. There is a difference, even though maybe members of the senate cant afford to look at the difference, they really cant. And that is fair. I said yesterday, i am writing a piece about your value website for think about this being a see change or the worry this is the tsunami, which will wash away all the progress that women are making, because we dont make distinctions. Crime versus distinctions. I am so worried. Really . I am really worried. As a womans activist defending womens rights, there is a big distance between rape and big violence which women, one out of three women still faces some kind of violence, Sexual Violence and between incidents that are violating but not rape. We need to have due process. We cannot fire people with an act ation is. Exactly. Thats what, there was going to be due process here. They were gentleman to have an ethics process. They were going to go through it and finally because i remember, i i this i read in the new yorker maybe the New York Times, somebody we havent said, said we will have due process. We will have a Senate Ethics committee. Suddenly, boom, everybody says, throw him out now. Because theyre saying corporate marc are just firing people, so thing needs to do this. Thats what theyre saying. I think its a little different. I think the problem is they need their house to be pure in order to go after republicans. By the way the same thing is true for the media. Two very popular hosts on the nyc public Radio Station were suspended yesterday. I think the media feels for them to hold another people accountable, they have to have their house in order. A higher bar. Lets look at the sequences, you said it will get better. It doesnt get bet fer we say, he did this then i get fired. We have to have a due process. What is happening, men are afraid, word on the street men are not going to hire women because theyre afraid if they hire women what they do in all of these things, i am afraid, i am afraid for our girls, for our daughters, they need to distinguish between when they say this and this. And they need to make sure for our boys and girls there is a due process that protects everyone in the system in here, not just fire people automatically. So i am really worrieds a a womens rights activist. I think mika is right, there are also cynical politics buried in here the name roy moore has to be a part of thisf can. What about republicans to say, how dare you get on your high horse with us about roy moore when you have al franken in your mitts, john conyers in your mitts. Is that what you are hearing on capitol hill as well . Already, willie. Now it frees up democrats, they have publicly called for the resignation of all three of their guys, who have been accused of Sexual Harassment or assault. It comes right as we are coming up on this special election with roy moore, it allows the democrats to create this bright contrast at a time when the president just days after the president now endorsed roy moore, after so many members of his party said i believe the women. He has to go. You have the rnc also jumping on board and giving a cash infusion to common who didnt just try and kiss somebody in a radio booth but is an accused child molester, it also allows them to create a contrast with donald trump f. You look at the accusations against trump about groping around cornering women, also very similar, so the democrats do think that on policy within it comes to womens issues, they have the moral high ground. They support issues look equal pay, like womens right to choose. So now this helps them eeshlly be the pureer pert pa here. They are cleaning their house. You can tell senators are twisted in knots over the question we would put to them. How can contrast\dem roy moore when you have allegations against al franken. Although, theyre different allegations, it was an impossible question. I understand the politics, i think when we look at the details of all these stories, its far more complicated and possibly damaging to the movement. Still ahead, after canceling on the president last week, chuck and nancy are heading back to the white house today. It comes one day ahead of a deadline to pass a funding maish to keep the government opened. Chuck and nance. Well talk about that. It could be a show, coming up on morning joe. We come into this world needing others. Then we are told its braver to go it alone. That independence is the way to accomplish. But there is another way to live. A way that sees the only path to fulfillment is through others. That our time here can be deep beyond measure. No one who chose interdependence ever found despair. Because what the world taught as weakness, is in fact our greatest virtue. John meech m, if you could. Im already snoring. Bore us with a final thought this hour. I mean, just, if you could, come up. Weve done sheas rebellion, french and indian war. Have we done the articles of con fred ration recently . You know, lets do that. Whats your favorite story from your it was the first phrase the United States of america was used but lets do that next week. Very quickly on today, when fdr was deictating his four freedom speech, there was a phrase he said, we should devote ourselves to protecting freedom from fear everywhere in the world. His aide said, mr. President , i dont think the American People are going to give a darn about everywhere in the world. And fdr came right back at him and said the world is getting too small now. Theyre going to have to care. What we saw at pearl harbor is that because of c power and air power sea power and air power and now the interlocked economies, the world is incredibly small. We have to care, and we were lucky enough in 1941 to have a president who spoke to our hopes instead of fears. Even in 1941, we were geographically blessed to be isolated by two massive oceans. Now the North Koreans are moving to a position where they could obliterate seattle, los angeles, san francisco. And which is why this America First idea that were going to retreat is the last thing that america need to be doing right now. We have to understand these alliances save us. John, thank you very much. Coming up, special Counsel Robert Mueller asked the top democrat on the House Oversite Committee to hold off. Now that mike flynn has pleaded guilty, congressman cummings is going public about a potential Major Development in the russia investigation. He joins us to talk about it. Plus bob woodward and Andrea Mitchel join the conversation. Morning joe will be right back. Time to open the laptop. And compare Medicare Health plans. Why . Because plans change, so can your health needs. So, be openminded. Look at everythinglike Prescription Drug plans. And Medicare Advantage plans from private insurers. Use the tools at medicare. Gov. Or call 1800medicare. Open to Something Better . Start today. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. And the United States Postal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. Because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Its a lot easier to make decisions when you know what comes next. If you move your old 401 k to a fidelity ira, we make sure youre in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Oh and at fidelity, youll see how all your investments are working together. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. Just remember what i said about a little bit o soul things are just clearer. Was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government . Sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. Im tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. Its why i left my Investment Firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. But here we are nine years later and this president and the Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse. They wont tell you that their so called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. Its up to all of us to stand up to this president. Not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. Join us. Your voice matters. Us. Its what this country is made of. But right now, our bond is fraying. How do we get back to us . The y fills the gaps. And bridges our divides. Donate to your local y today. Because where theres a y, theres an us. Welcome back to morning joe. Its the top of the hour. Its thursday, december 7th. With us former treasury official Steve Rattner, mike barnicle, White House Reporter for usa today, heidi przybyla, and joining the conversation, analyst Steve Schmidt and associate editor of the Washington Post, bob woodward. Andrea mitchel will be with us in a minute as well. Steve, you have one Christmas Holiday wish . I said i hope one time in my life i get to be in a business deal with someone like donald trump when we were seeing what a bad negotiator he is on this issue of jerusalem. You get everything you want out of the deal . What did we get for it . What was the deal . What was americas interest that was advanced . Talk about what you worked for on campaigns. Everybody says lets move the capital to jerusalem. Both sides. Its a symbolic issue. The president ial candidates, democratic and republican, they go out and say we should move the capital of the United States from tel aviv to jerusalem. But then when they come in contact with the actual real world and have actual real responsibility at noon on january 20th, they come to understand a unilateral action that moving there across all the currents of history of religion, of culture, is dangerous and destabilizing, and it would lead to people being killed. So for sure the president s unilateral action will get people killed. The question is how many, how high will the fire get, how hot will it get . And how destabilizing will it be . And importantly, its going to stop any hope of middle east progress in the peace talks. Okay. Im not going to be sarcastic. Its too serious. They dont care or else they wouldnt do it. Its that simple. We know he has no understanding of the risk cal currents of the gee dprographic lines, the religion. They dont want to talk about history. They let us know from the very beginning theyre not interested in history. People have been talking for years. Forget about the talk. They dont know history. Theyre ignorant of history. This basically is people having more influence on middle east policy than the president of the United States. Then the secretary of defense and the secretary of state who both warned him this will be destabilizing. President trump has officially announced the United States recognizes jerusalem as the capital of israel while also for the time being signed a mandated six month waiver keeping the embassy in tel aviv. I have determined that it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. While previous president s have made this a Major Campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today i am delivering. Ive judged this course of action to be in the best interest of the United States of america, and the pursuit of peace between israel and the palestinians. Acknowledging this is a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace. Trumps move to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel has received near universal condemnation from friend and foe alike including the vatican. The ap says only israel has supported that decision, this includes macron, theresa may, and their public rebuke of President Trumps israel policy is hardly the first from a u. S. Ally. The british Prime Minister also criticized President Trump late last month for retweeting antimuslim videos from a uk extremist group. Justin trudeau said refugees are welcome in canada and publicly greeted some at the airport. In may Angela Merkel reportedly her supporters, quote, the times when we could rely on others are a bit finishes, she said. In june french president macron had a stinging rebuke to the decision to withdraw from the paris agreement. In august the Mexican Government insisted it wouldnt fund a border wall, quote, under any circumstances. Calling it an issue of national dignity. With us now, lets bring in Foreign Affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchel. We dont overstate this. We dont know whats going to happen in a day, week, or month, but certainly this is a break from history, and as steve suggested, just a complete lack of understanding about the dominos that are set off by making such a unilateral move at this time. It does, and its really clear to me that there are Political Considerations for this that are trumping Foreign Policy and strategic considerations. If those were even well understood by the key players involved, the president and his soninlaw and the Vice President. This is pleasing the evangelical base. This is something the Vice President strongly wanted. Hes going to be going next week. Also something endorsed by nikki haley despite mattis and tillerson. We have not seen alerts to consulates or embassies in fact to the military facilities in the region as severe and serious as this since 2003 on the eve of the iraq war. Thats why they needed the time. On top of which the white house and some in the israeli camp are putting out the fiction, i believe, based on my reporting that the saudis bless this, quietly, while criticizing it publicly and that there was the meeting with the crowned prince and jared a month or more ago and this was privately communicated as part of a grand deal. We havent seen the grand deal. If there were part of something worked on brick by brick and getting everyone lined up and there was some American Peace proposal which we have yet to see, that might be a little different. In fact, there is no such saudi blessing. Overnight i was in touch with them again, and the Saudi Embassy said clearly we condemn this. The ambassador here conveyed this, that there were warnings and that the kings denunciation of this was clear to the president after it happened, and as he was about to announce this. They are saying absolutely that they are not siding with israel. They have against iran. Iran is their biggest problem. The other piece is this was timed because of the waiver, but they wanted to get this out before alabama. Theres a large evangelical vote down there. This is basically going to the evangelical republicans. Bob woodward, andrea mentions Jared Kushners name. Were talking about a guy in Jared Kushner who is a real estate person and someone who owned a newspaper now running the middle east Peace Process. He says he makes this move, the smoke clears in six months and gives time and space to bring the parties to the table. I dont understand that logic particularly. Do you see any up side to this move yesterday . Well, President Trumps rationale yesterday was, i think the quote new challenges need new approaches. And its true. Lots of people have failed in this mission, but ive been off doing the book on trump for next year, and its caused me to reflect on president s ive tried to understand going back from nixon through obama, and theres a common theme, and it connects to this jerusalem decision, and that is they sit around and they talk about we should do x or y. They what are the Political Considerations . The budget implications . What are the allies going to think . And the difficulty is what rarely comes up, no one asks what are we trying to accomplish . And if you connect the dot here and the Mueller Investigation policy, china, north korea and so forth, what is missing is an organizing principle. And john meacham was just talking about fdr developed an organizing principle. We dont have it here. We dont. The top democrat on the House Oversight committee detailed whistle blower evidence against Michael Flynn. In the letter couplings said the whistle blower had evidence that flynn just moments after donald trump was sworn in communicated with a former business associate about plans to work with russia to build Nuclear Reactors in the middle east. Flynn reportedly said one of the first acts would be, quote, ripping up the economic sanctions against russia. Lets bring in the man who sent that letter, Elijah Cummings of maryland. He joins us on the phone. Elijah, the whistle blower came to you . How did this come together . Good morning. I didnt hear your question. Im sorry. Tell us how this came together and how credible is the witness . The witness is very credible. This is a person who came to us back in june, and she came only because she felt duty bound as an american citizen to provide this information. She was sitting at an event, and they met mr. Cobson, who, of course, was a business associate of general flynn at one time, and he began to just talk to her about these things, and thats how we thats how she came to us. Shes very credible. Ive practiced law for a long time. Interviews hundreds and hundreds of witnesses over the years. I found them to be quite credible. Congressman, its our understanding the special prosecuter asked you to withhold public sizing this information until a certain time and now youve released it. Whats the reaction and what sort of counsel are going to be able to get going with the chairman, the majority chair gowdy, and the committee . Thats a great question. Weve been trying to get documents from the white house since march. As a matter of fact, when chairman chevy iaffetz was a chairman, we tried to get any communications they may have had with various companies he worked with before. And then the white house has not sent us one syllable, and so when chairman gowdy took over, i said will you help me do this, and basically the republicans have done everything in their power to make sure that we dont pursue this and get the information we want. In other words, they have not been helpful at all. And so now we are just asking with this prebl witness coming forward, were just asking that weve asked chairman gowdy that he take a moment and she finally agreed to talk to him as long as the identity is kept secret, and i want him to listen to what she has to say, and then after that hopefully well be able to issue subpoenas to get the documents that we need. Now, some people will say, well, suppose the whistle blower is not accurate or whatever . Well, thats what we do in our committee. What we hear from whistle blowers, and most of the time is information is very credible, we look into it. The way to look into it is to get documents that we simply have not been able to get. All right. Elijah cummings, its great having you on the show. Thank you so much. Greatly appreciate it. Hope to see you onset sometime soon. This story that came out yesterday, and i suppose bob muler is probably already deep into this. Pretty remarkable, this whistle blowers story, if its accurate, that 11 minutes into the inaugural speech, the new National Security adviser to the president of the United States was texting in the middle of that speech not about the massive inbox that our country had but instead to a business associate saying, hey, trumps going to lift. Tear up sanctions, were all going to get rich. Were going to find out what happened here, but im impatient to connect the dots. I dont understand quite what it is that were looking here, and what i would have asked the congressman is whats the insinuation hes making in the letter . Is this a corruption issue or is it that the National Security adviser to the president of the United States is a russian asset. Is this a treason issue . There was an economic incentive for him to lie about his meeting with kislyak when hes talking about lifting a week before when hes talking about lifting sanctions, theres a reason to lie to the fbi, because he might have business deals on the side. I think it could be either, but i guess my instinct was it was a corruption issue in the sense he had business dealings. We also know they sent the letter after they took office to try to get that nuclear deal approved. Look, i think one thing you have to take away from these kinds of interactions is that mueller is the game. These committees are just not willing because the republic republican its going to fall to mueller to figure this out. If mueller has this and is in the middle, do you want to be stepping on muellers toes here . Id say no. Theres another aspect to this. We had a presidency for eight years, barack obama, theres not a senior official around the president who is indicted by every objective measurement. Its not controversial free, but it is a clean and ethical administration. They conducted themselves the proper way. Were 11 minutes, 11 minutes into this administration, and you have the National Security adviser engaged in some type of nefarious business dealings to build russian Nuclear Reactors across the middle east . 11 minutes in. Its just extraordinary. Consider this as well. In terms of how things have changed over time, we begin this program this morning with a snippet of the address that fdr made to the nation on december 8th, the day after pearl harbor. Can anyone imagine Harry Hopkins sitting there 11 minutes into the speech saying i need to get shipbuilding stock . Yeah. Were going to make Andrea Mitchel, why dont you weigh in . Theres so many different sort of directions this could go in in terms of what exactly was going wrong. Let me follow up here. Mika, lets think back to january 20th th, 1977. The new National Security adviser is sitting behind jimmy carter. Do you think they would have been texting a former Business Partner about doing a nuclear deal in the middle east with the russians . Its unconceivable he would not be looking at the new president who has just been sworn in that he campaigned with and supported and advised looking at the crowd, thinking of the moment. Thinking maybe of his family and his children of what their future might look like. I am just stunned by this. And pointing out that Elijah Cummings held this back until after mueller had cleared him to release that letter. Mueller had already looked at that. Thats likely part of the pressure that they are holding over the head of mike flynn, because mueller okayed the release of this. Its just all pretty amazing. Bob woodward, this is one more piece to the puzzle that bob mueller is putting together and will take his time doing so. Youve had a little distance from this. Youve been able to step back and look at the day today operations of the Trump Administration as you write your back. Book. Have you reached any conclusions of your own . I have not, but whats interesting, and youve got to kind of look at what trump says hes doing in that hes this disrupter in chief. He wants change. And thats reasonable, and he can argue on many grounds that thats how he won. But change is fine, but not surprise. And the more you look at this, it will be were doing this, were doing that, tweets come out that seem to set policy or contradict policy. This issue of flynn allegedly 11 minutes in to the administration talking about money and i think its a greed issue, but then you have to look where does that come from . And that comes from you have a president who really has not disengaged from his own business interests. And ideally, when somebody becomes president , when theres a new administration, i go back to this concept, the organizing principle should be we are here to govern and do things right. We have to cut ourselves off from our past. And these business opportunities. But that is not happened, and i think thats one of the giant problems here. Heidi, jump in. My observation is doesnt this revelation make it all the more astounding that mueller gave flynn the sweet heart deal he did on this minimal crime of light to the fbi . So it raises the question of what information flynn has also about people above him and to that financial interest point, this is also around the time or just before, or just after, rather, that flynn was helping to organize that meeting with russian bankers and the trump family. The question is to the financial interest, what connections can flynn offer also about the trump family . We dont know the answers but we know he clearly was acting on his own financial interest what additional was going on with the trump family and Jared Kushner behind the scenes. So many questions. Bob woodward, thank you. Andrea mitchel, well watch Andrea Mitchel reports at noon eastern on msnbc. Still ahead on morning joe, well talk to Jackie Speier about what she wants to hear from al franken as he addresses the senate today. Shes also part of the committee that questioned donald trump junior yesterday. Well get her thoughts on his use of Attorney Client privilege to keep his conversation with his father a secret. And well look into the concerns that some had yesterday with the president was slurring his words at the end of his speech on jerusalem. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. The ford yearend sales event is in full swing. you are going to be a big surprise. whining aww, i see a big puppy. I see a biig puuppy. Hey greg thats ford, americas bestselling brand. Now get exclusive holiday offers, with 0 financing for 72 months across a full line up. For a limited time, get an additional 1,000 cash back on top of 0 financing for 72 months. Get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. The updates you made to your plan strengthened your retirement score. So, that goal youve been saving for, you can do it. We can do this . We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. Nana, lets do this aye aye, captain and as you go through life whoo tryin to reach your goal 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. bob woodward, youve been studying donald trump and the Trump Presidency even during the transition for quite some time. Youre writing a book about it. A year into the presidency when people are trying to put it into proper context, so far what is your thesis . Whats your big idea . Whats your take away of year one . Its easier to describe the creation of the universe. Well, it is. Its complex. I think the whole Russian Investigation is very, very serious. You theres much talk about obstruction of justice and so forth, and what a president can be charged with with. Quite frankly, my judgment on this at this point is if you go back to the nixon case, the grand jury and the obstruction in water gate voted to not indict richard nixon. Then a sitting president , but to name him an unindicted coconspirator, and all this information was sent to congress. So the action, if that leads anywhere, and im just not sure. I havent seen the evidence, is going to be in some sort of impeachment investigation. If the republicans still control the house, that probably is not going to happen. But there are so many moving parts in this, and we forget and people remind me regularly the big issue may be north korea. How is that going to be dealt with, and there have been lots of threats, and now there are talks, and so forth, so the creation of the universe question has not been answered by me, quite frankly. Well, we tried. Bob woodward, thank you. President trump caused controversy and perhaps concern yesterday as he appears to have had probably making it through the entirety of his jerusalem speech. Let us rethink all the assumptions and open our hearts and minds to possible and possibilities. And finally, i ask the leaders of the region political and religious, israeli and palestinian, jewish and christian and muslim to join us in the noble quest for lasting peace. Thank you. God bless you. God bless israel. God bless the palestinians, and god bless the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. And without comment, heres donald trump what was the today show, 1987. I see whats happening in this country where our socalled allies are ripping us off left and right with saudi arabia and kuwait. Theyre ripping this country off. I could tell you if i ever was in office which is unlikely, because i dont want to be, that wouldnt happen. We wouldnt be taken advantage of the way we are. This country is a great nation. But we borrow money from japan to defend japan. We pay interest on that money. The country, the United States is being ripped off, and it shouldnt happen. Thats stark. Thats 30 years. You see a real diminishment. You say thats 30 years. Your father at 85 was speaking in complete paragraphs. Winston churchill at 71 was at the top of his game. You dont that was stark. Ronald reagan at 73 years of age. Look, this is worse when you listen to the president on radio. Absent of visuals of tv, and its not the first instance. Hes clearly slurring his words. I dont know the cause of it, but when you combine it with bob corkers critique that the president of the United States is unstable, that hes dangerous, when you look at the private comments that are made by members of congress around his stability, you look at his actions in recent weeks. We look at the reality that on this day we talk about the rurj Hill Roosevelt relationship where the president of the United States is not welcome in the united kingdom, where there is a consensus among both parties in Great Britain that his presence next to the queen is an assault on her dignity by him standing next to her. When you look at all of this, this is worthy of discussion. The question of his fitness, of his stability, is in the air. And it doesnt get better when you see clear impairments. I dont know. Is that a tooth problem . Is that Something Else . President s ever here typically to a Naval Hospital for a checkup. This president , to my knowledge, is departing that. We dont know whats going on, but this is a legitimate issue worthy of consideration. This is the man who commands Americas Nuclear arsenal. That video, that speech, that impairment is chilling. If this isnt the time to talk about it, i dont know what is. At the beginning before the slurring started, i said mika, look at him. This is not the person that we knew even three years ago. And you can go back. We showed you a clip from 87. We could show you a clip from 2007. Theres a remarkable change. He seemed like he was almost hanging on to the prompter and hanging on to the words. Something i dont know. You could definitely see the difference in the video we showed you, but in the entire presentation, there was a struggle happening. I think thats true. One thing, two weeks ago in the same room where he had the moment where he had to reach for the water because he had such dry mouth. As i watched him perform there, i think his mouth was dry and he didnt want to have another water moment. Thats one explanation. There is that. And that was noticeable on that clip we just showed, but when you consider his age, his physical condition, he does not look in great physical shape, and hasnt for some time, the anxiety, the worry, the burden of knowing that bob mueller and the special prosecuter is out there investigating nearly every aspect of his life and his familys financial life, and the fact that he doesnt really know the mechanics, the nuts and bolts of what hes talking about a lot of times. Its scary. Last week the president tweeted something about me. Thats the other thing, joe. Remember, you dont respond. Tweeting at 5 30 in the morning. I understand. A lot of people, every time he does that, people want to know why im not angrier, why mika and i werent angrier when he did the bleeding tweettweets, w werent angrier in the middle of the campaign when he called you what . Neurotic. Low i. Q. I cant remember that. I have such a low i. Q. , i dont remember. Sipsycho joe. It rhymes. I wish i would have called my band that. But we dont take it personally, and we dont take it personally for a reason. Im going to be careful with what ill say here. Ill just say, you know, there are many things that you dont take personal from people who are struggling with certain issues, because their person mall alty changes. Thats something ive dealt with in my family. You just sit there, and youre like thats not the same person i knew, and im not going to judge them for what theyre doing. Unfortunately, in the case of my mother, i could move that to the side at the beginning, and im totally fine with it. In this case, donald trump has control of nuclear weapons, and listen, if we cant talk about this now, and trying to be as careful as we can, i dont know when we can talk about it. Its not just about this speech. Its about so many things that are happen. At the beginning of the speech, i said look at him, hes just not the same person. Yeah. And one final thing here. People might be upset, some donald Trump Supporters that im saying this i remember barack obama supporters were very upset when mika and i talked about the senior Democratic Senators that would constantly trash barack obama. And they did from 2009 forward, they would come and say the man doesnt understand washington. He doesnt this or that. Its just what they are reporting. The complaint was from the most senior Democratic Senators he didnt know how washington worked. And mike heard all the complaints. We all heard all the complaints. Now its republicans that are coming to us and saying the president of the United States is not mentally fit. And were hearing it time and time again. At some point somebody has to go in front of a camera and say that if were in the middle of a nuclear stand off, there are so many republicans that have said that behind the scenes. I think for the good of this country, we need to have a public discussion and republicans other than bob corker need to Start Talking about it. Up next in september, chuck and nancy seemed to get the better of the president on the deal to raise the debt ceiling. Today theyre headed to the white house with a threat of a Government Shutdown looming over the talks. Were back in just a moment. as a person who loves the finer things, this Holiday Season, ive asked for a luxurious new buick suv. fingers crossed. ring in the holidays with buick. Get up to 20 below msrp on most 2017 luxury suv models. 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Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. Heidi, jump in on the conversation we were just having about President Trumps performance. My talk on the hill about where were going here very carefully . I just wanted to make a factbased observation. Not only are we not getting updates on the president s health, but we dont really have eve an baseline of his health. If you recall during the campaign, dr. Harold bornstein the manhattan doctor who drafted that letter on his health, it took about five minutes while a limo was waiting. During that time he said he had astonishingly good numbers. Thats all we have. We dont have a baseline. I like that guy, the dude. Is he your doctor too . Yeah. I like that guy. I thought he was a dead ringer for the doctor in the back of the ambulance in cannibal run. I love him. And the hair. The whole thing. The healthiest president in the history of the country. And he should know. Hes treated them all. The president may have invited Top Democrats back to the white house today, but he did not tone down his criticism. It could happen. The democrats are really looking at something that is very dangerous for our country. They are looking at shuttingdown. They want to have Illegal Immigrants in many cases, people that we dont want in our country. What . Hes set to meet with a goal of hammering out an agreement on the yearend budget. While the republicans dont need democratic support to push the bill through, they actually do need it to pass a spending bill to avoid a Government Shutdown. Pelosi and schumer backed out of a white house meeting after the president tweeted meeting with chuck and nancy today about keeping government working. Problem is they want Illegal Immigrants flooding into our country unchecked, are weak on crime, and want to substantially raise taxes. I dont see a deal. Meanwhile the senate voted to meet with House Republicans in a Conference Committee to discuss tax reform. Lets bring in Steve Rattner now to show how the elimination of state and local Tax Deductions will affect those who live in those states. Im too young to know what it was like when a new beelatles album was released. But rattner, every time your charts come out, the kids go crazy. The kids love it. I get all the letters. Look, its ironic that he said chuck and nancy want to raise taxes, for many in blue states, hes the one raising taxes. If you live in california, youre currently paying 13. 3 of state tax, and you have a total effective rate because you get the deduction on that against your federal, your top marginal rate for high wage earners is 47 6 . If you eliminate it, it goes to 52. 9 . Every Small Business owner in california that makes a dollar of everything they make, they have to give 0. 52 back to the government . Well, a wage earner. This whole issue is Small Business, but someone who does what we do is going to pay 53 at the margins. Ive never seen a tax increase of 5 Percentage Points on anybody for everything. The same is true in new york. In new jersey 49. 1. And these are all increases of 3 three, four, five . If you live in connecticut and work in new york city, bingo. I dont know who does that. You win the grand prize. These are for high wage earners. Lets look at the average resident of one of these places. Its not a coincidence. The top five increases are all blue states and the same exact five places we just talked about. . If youre driving in a car, thats new york, new jersey, connecticut, and d. C. And california. You see at the bottom the increase is four out of the five are in red states. Nevada slips in with 1,000 increase mostly because of property taxes. Let me make a point about this tax bill that hasnt gotten as much attention. Tax bill is generally supposed to help people at the bottom more than the top. Not necessarily in dollars but in raising the after tax income. This tax bill does the opposite. If youre in the top 20 , your after tax income goes up 2 in 2019 under this bill. If youre at the bottom 20 , your after tax goes up. In the middle it goes up 1. 4. People at the top get the biggest perrer is taj increase. People at the bottom get the smallest increase. The argument in the white house is this is a middle class tax bill. What do you say . The middle class gets something, i think its about 8 800 on average. Its regressive. And the corporate cut is permanent but tax cuts for middle class disappear . They had to comply with the complex senate rules, something had to be made temporary. The corporates got it permanent. Coming up, issues surrounding Sexual Harassment are part of a relatively new conversation, but not for congresswoman Jackie Speier who has been leading that discussion for years. 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Now were talking it gets you wifi here, here, and here. It even lets you take a time out. No no yes yes, indeed. Amazing speed, coverage and control. All with an xfi gateway. Find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. Joining us now from capitol hill a member of the house intelligence and Armed Services committee, democratic congresswoman Jackie Speier of california. Thank you for being on the show this morning. Thank you for having me. I know this is the senate were talking about, but id like your opinion. Do you think al franken should resign . I do think he should resign. Its a pattern of behavior that cannot be tolerated. Whenever you have someone who enfringes on another person as he has done repeatedly, he does not have the right to be a member of the congress of the United States. Heidi przybyla has a question for you. Congresswoman. Congresswoman, this latest report which is based on an anonymous accuser seems to be the Critical Mass that is potentially forcing the senator into resignation. Im wondering in this new cultural moment that were in, how do we balance the need, also, for due process for these members of congress who may be accused by anonymous accusers. Secondly, based on my own reporting, some male members of congress are already very nervous about this situation and talking about, well, maybe do i need to have a witness with me whenever im alone with a young female staff member . Just wondering how concerned you are, as well, about the potential for this to have a Chilling Effect on the hiring of women. First of all, if there is an office that refuses to hire women thats a violation of title vii of the Civil Rights Act there. In terms of al franken, a great senator, no question about it. But he now has eight accusers. You have many members of the senate now asking him to resign. In terms of due process, were not talking about a criminal act here. Were talking about a violation of the Civil Rights Act. There is the investigative arm that needs to be beefed up within the house certainly. Right now its the house Ethics Committee. We need an independent authority to do this kind of investigation and review. Were going to have a hearing this morning in the House Administration committee to start to look at what should the new system look like. Right now the system we have provides all the protection for the harasser and none for the victim, a 90day period of time before you can even file a kplaept, and you have to continue to work in that harassers office. Of course, the funding of settlements comes from the taxpayers which is in many respects just untenable. Congresswoman, Joe Scarborough here. When are we going to find out about everything about that system . And are we going to find out everybody that was protected under that system . How deep are we going to get into being able to shed light on it . I know a lot of people are comparing this possibly to what happened the year before i came in with the Senate Banking scandal where suddenly nobody had people just opened doors and there was cash there. Oh, my god, how did that ever get set up . I think most americans are asking the same thing about this system. So when do we find out about everything . Well, whats peculiar about this system is because the office of compliance, which is the authority to which one had to go was such a difficult process, oftentimes these were negotiated behind closed doors with the person who was victimized being able to stay on the members budget for a period of time. So its called the mra, the members represent terribationa w allowan allowance. What we foushd with john conyers and others, they continued to pay this individual even though they were no longer working there. Its going to require a lot of investigative strength to kind of go through all of the mras. Were not going to be able to go back and probably find out how much money has been spent on this. Moving forward, its got to be far more transparent. Congresswoman, its willie geist. Its good to see you this morning. Youve talked openly about your own experience on capitol hill with Sexual Assault as a capitol hill staffer. I commend you for all youve done on that. I want to ask you in terms of senator frankens case, why shouldnt he be allowed to go through the Ethics Committee process, a process he volunteered for . I know you want him to resign. Can you ask him to do that after this process has played itself out . Well, its an interesting question, willie. I would say that this process does exist for that kind of conduct. In this case, because the numbers have just been rolling in, and there is a pattern here that is truly unacceptable. What we do know is that 70 of those that are victimized by Sexual Harassment dont ever even report it because theyre fearful about losing their jobs. Theyre fearful of retaliation. And so in all likelihood, thats probably just the tip of the iceberg. I take your point, congresswoman. I guess im asking whats the point of having an Ethics Committee if you dont allow that process to play out, if thats the only system you have right now of due process, shouldnt that be afforded to senator franken in this case . Well, he certainly can pursue that. There are members asking for him to resign. He will make that decision himself. Congresswoman Jackie Speier of california, thank you. Thanks for being with us. Thank you. Still ahead on morning joe, while facing questions from the House Intelligence Committee donald trump jr. Cites attorneyclient privilege to avoid answering questions about the conversation he had with his dad. Are they attorneys . Also new claims involving Michael Flynn, russia, Nuclear Power plants. A whistleblower. A whistleblower. Its all coming up next. We continue to follow the breaking news from the middle east. This is video from the west bank just moments ago as clashes erupt in the wake of President Trumps decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. Who could have ever seen this come . Well have the latest coming up on morning joe. Everybody actually. This is a power plant. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. This is the potential. Reducing co2 emissions by up to 90 . While also producing more power. This could be big. Energy lives here. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. 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If you move your old 401 k to a fidelity ira, we make sure youre in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Oh and at fidelity, youll see how all your investments are working together. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. Just remember what i said about a little bit o soul things are just clearer. What if we could keep more amof what we earn . D. Trillions of dollars going back to taxpayers. Who could possibly be against that . Well, the National Debt is 20 trillion. As we keep adding to it, guess who pays the bill . Him. And her. And her. Congress, we should grow the economy. Not the debt. December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of america was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of japan. Good morning. It is thursday, december 7, welcome to morning joe. With us is Pulitzer Prize winning historic jon meacham, White House Reporter for usa today heidi przybilla. Economic analyst Stephen Rattner and founder of women for Women International and women in the world editor at large, zaned salby. Jon meacham, we started with the famous shot of fdr going before a joint session after the pearl harbor attack. My parents, im sure your warran, parents, their early lives defined by this day, this day in 1941 that really changed everything and changed the world that they lived in then, started a war that changed the world we live in today. It created the modern wourld the universe we live in. Ive always said world were ii was the second largest event in human history. The ikt pact of the culture on life, the passion of the jesus of nazareth. The second largest event is the second world war. By the end of it, bi19 are 45 we had the capacity to destroy life as we know it, and unimaginable power. What happened today, this sunday morning in hawaii, sunday afternoon in the United States, was the end of something called America First which was a compelling National Movement to try to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. What we learned at pearl harbor was that history has a way of intruding itself upon us, whether we want it to or not. Whether we want it to or not. Ment churchill, after the nazis attacked and started world war ii talking about the new world, the new world would come and help the old world. If you look, mika, at the life your father lived and your mother, shaped by escaping hitler and coming to this country, and your father helping to rebuild actually help build a postwar order, and his life work and the life work of so many others right now being challenge challenged. We actually saw yesterday 70 years of history being undercut. Its that postwar world and that framework that actually made America First. Thats the great irony steve, i see you want to get in. Thats the great irony that all these things we did, all these trea treaties, all these convention, all these trade deals, the net ef foshlgt was that the United States wasnt first among equals. The United States was first. And so the lunacy of having something called America First as your when were already first. To make America Great again when what youre doing is undermining the foundations of the world that actually the United States dominated is lunacy. Its lunacy. I wanted to get in in part because coincidentally over thanksgiving weekend we took our kids the hyde park to see roosevelts home. That is great. At his museum and library, the first president ial library, i dont want to break union rules by getting into meachams territory about roosevelt. I would just say as we went through this, we were constantly struck by the contrast between roosevelt and a certain other president. When you look back at roosevelt and what he accomplished and talk about world war ii, it wasnt yes, we were attacked by surprise, but roosevelt knew this was coming, he was prepared, he had a world view, he had done as much as he could do to helm our allies even before pearl harbor happened and he was amazing. You obviously go back to the depression and all these innovative programs that he introduced, Social Security. He was a visionary and you contrast it to certain other things. We dont want to turn this into the history channel. Wiley, ive got to say, as far as moments that talk about the leader, the United States had been attacked by the japanese, his son came in to see how his father was handling it and he was going through his stamp collection. Meacham can probably tell the story better than i could and certainly make it far more boring and intricate. But his father was sitting at the table at hyde park which, by the way, i went through last year, take your children to hyde park. Its remarkable. Strong, steady leadership when we needed it the most. Jon meacham wrote a book about franklin and churchill. You read letters where churchill is pleading with fdr to help Great Britain, help the western world. Hes reluctant. Doesnt want to enter america into this war. Its not until pearl harbor that the hand is tipped and fdr has to get into the war. When you talk about the most significant days in history, this is one of them. For people who are too young to have a direct connection to it, this was 9 11 for so many people in that it reshaped the world entirely. A lot of news to get to. Lets get the our top story. Neither of them are lawyers, but donald trump jr. Is citing Attorney Client privilege to keep from disclosing the House Intelligence Committee details of a july conversation with his father. According to an nbc news source, the conversation happened the day after the New York Times reported that don junior attended the june 2016 meeting at trump tower with a russian lawyer. The president s eldest son originally said the meeting was about russian adoptions. The New York Times obtained emails in which don junior was offered dirt on hen. Nbc news has since learned that the russian lawyer said don junior was seeking incriminating information on the clinton foundation. Back in july the Washington Post citing multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations reported it was actually donald trump himself who dictated the misleading statement that don junior used, claiming the meeting with the russian lawyer was about adoptions. Yesterday don junior told the House Intelligence Committee he spoke to white house adviser hope hicks the day the story broke and that she acted as an intermediary to the president. Don junior says he didnt speak to his father until the next day. But, as we mentioned, is refusing to tell lawmakers about the substance of the conversation saying it is protected under attorneyclient privilege because both their lawyers were also on the call. The top democratic on the House Intelligence Committee disagrees with that. He acknowledged having discussed the june 9th meeting and emails that went into establishing that meeting after those emails became public. He acknowledged discussing that matter with his father, but refused to answer questions about that discussion on the basis of a claim of attorneyclient privilege. In my view there is no attorneyclient privilege that protects a discussion between father and son. Heidi, ill let you break this one down. Where do we begin . Well, were not lawyers, but neither is hope hicks or don june yo junior or donald trump. Those are the people with whom the conversation took place. The congressman has a great point. This is one of the key parts, as we all know, of the obstruction case here that mueller is looking at. I guess my big takeaway here, mika and joe, is that this is an example of just what a difficult time this congress is having in terms of getting answers. You combine this with what we saw yesterday as well from the committee in the house trying to get answers entron trey gowdy, combine this with Jeff Sessions and other members of this administration invoking executive privilege in previous testimony before congress, i guess the takeaway is bob mueller is going to have to get to the bottom of this. Its not going to happen in congress. Theyre having too hard of a time in getting any information out of the main defendants in this case. Whats so interesting is theyre talking about attorneyclient privilege. When donald trump actually drafted that lie which obviously mueller is going to be looking at for his intent, why would he lie and say it was about adoption, his lawyers were stuck on the ground. That was donald trump trying to get everybody in and taking it all upon himself. So it causes so many problems for so many reasons. Hes not going to be able to point to a lawyer like they did with john dowd. He did it himself. Yesterday, top democratic on the House Oversight committee Elijah Cummings september a letter to chairman trey gowdy citing whistleblower evidence against former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. In the letter couple mings said the whistleblower said flynn on Inauguration Day minutes after donald trump was sworn in communicated with a former business associate about plans to work with russia to build Nuclear Reactors in the middle east. Flynn reportedly said one of the Trump Administrations first acts would be, quote, ripping up the economic sanctions against russia. Cummings asked gowdy to investigate the claims including subpoenaing flynns former company and the white house for documents, emails and Text Messages related to the plan. Gowdy responded to cummings request in a letter on wednesday writing, if you have evidence of a crime, you should provide it to the special counsel immediately. He went on to say this last night. I want to know everything there is to know about flynn and russia, but im not going to interfere with mueller, and i dont think every committee of Congress Needs to investigate the same fact pattern. I gave the letter to adam and mike conway. Whatever they want to do with it, im all for it. Here you have lets put this in context. Donald trump has been sworn in. Lowers his right hand, is speaking for theres a huge crowd. Biggest crowd ever. Amazing. Most incredible speech since sermon on the mount. He does this. And 11 minutes into Donald Trumps inaugural speech according to a whistleblower. Hes texting to a business associate, hey, were going to rip up those sanctions and a lot of people are going to make a lot of money. Its breathtaking. We said the other day on this show that whats so remarkable is donald trump didnt think he was going to win. It was about money. Even now that theyre in power, its still about making money. It is still about making money. A lot of shady things in here. First of all, the trump family owns a lot of businesses overseas and they are talking to their Business Partners overseas in the name of not in politics. Were seeing a lot of shady discussions in here. This can blow even a bigger story. Secondly, Nuclear Facilities in the middle east. Are you kidding me . Were fighting isis in the middle east. Its a real threat still. Every day theres a bomb, an explosion somewhere. You want to put a Nuclear Facility in the middle east . Third, from a middle eastern perspective, they actually liked donald trump well talk about it more, because they said we want america to follow russia. Thats what the middle easterns are saying. This is working into the hy hypothesis that we do want less power for america, more power for russia. Its just all everything weve heard so far is against Americas National interest in the middle east and overseas at large. 11 minutes in, his National Security adviser is talking to his Business Associates about how much money theyre all going to make on Nuclear Power plants because donald trump, the first thing hes going to do is rip up the sanctions which, of course, always goes back and might explain why he lied about talking to kislyak about the lifting of sanctions. He had an economic interest in it. Yeah. He was sitting up on the podium in front of the capital of this crowd larger than any in history and hes doing business deals that would have been a personal benefit to him and, as we talked about, not great for the u. S. Now i think we have a better idea on why he has pled guilty to a crime. Jon meacham, you would think in the moments after the naug ration, 11 minutes, theres a sense of awe of the offense and the responsibilities youve just assumed. But to see this testimony, to see this whistleblower suggest that michael flen was thinking not about plans for the country in the minutes after the president was ininaugurated, but plans for his Business Partners. This is completely an act of selfinterest and not an act at all of national interest. No. It wasnt about the National Security of the country, was it . I felt as though, almost in the last year or so, ive been shocked by my own naivete about this, about the grifter factor with this crowd and the attempt of trying to profit in realtime from the presidency. A lot of us are accustomed to seeing and perhaps questioning sometimes how former president s make money and build their post president ial lives. Weve just cut out the middle man here. And this is example 7,000 of how the trump circle has basically attempted to line their own pockets at a team when theyre supposed to be managing and march shashaling power. Donald trump didnt expect to win. Basically told us as much. He won. But it was all about money. They were making money, building the trump brand, making it huge. They were going to maybe start a tv network. What was going to happen after this then they won. The remarkable thing is, its still about making money. Again, i think were all a little naive about how far theyll push the envelope. And that is epitomized, again, two days after we say that and some people were critical, two days after we say that you have Michael Flynn 11 minutes in talking about doing deals, that donald trump is going to tear up russian sanctions and a lot of people are going to make a lot of money. The point meacham made is worth underscoring. You or sitting there 11 minutes in, all the problems in the world. Youre going to go from there to the west wing and take your new office as National Security adviser and start fixing these problems. Instead of thinking about all our problems and what were going to do about them, hes thinking about how to make money for himself. Still ahead on morning joe, Jared Kushner has big plans for middle east peace. Its not entirely clear yet how inflaming the arab world ties into that. Well talk about the president s new israel policy next on morning joe. First, bill karins with a check on the wildfires out west. Bill . Dangerous day today. Its already been horrendous with over 100,000 acres burned with just the thomas fire alone. Maybe as much as 300 structures burned. Evacuations of more than 100,000 people. Today is more a dangerous than the last two days. This was 24 hours ago near bel air. This was a fire burning along the 405. At one point it shut down the 405. It looks apocalyptic. Lets show you other pictures from the region. Thats the 405 one from yesterday. This for the most part has been contained. That was good news on that fire. Have to watch for flareups as we go throughout the day today. Today here is where we sit. This is the thomas fire, the big huge one that is near Santa Barbara. That fire has closed the 101. You cant get between Santa Barbara and ventura right now. Critical elevated to extreme fires today. The strongest winds from now to noon today, 50, 40, 60mileperhour gusts. The mountains could get up to 70. Hopefully no new tragedies or rapid fire spread. The other story well watch is what happens in the southeast. Tomorrow, theres the potential for snow, it doesnt happen often, Winter Weather advisory from areas of louisiana into portions of georgia. Snow in the south before its even snowed here in the northeast. Scratch your head on that one. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. What . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Another day at the office. Why do you put up with it . Believe it or not you actually like what you do. Even love it. And today, you can do things you never could before. Youre working in millions of places at once with iot sensors. Analyzing social data on the cloud to create new designs. And using blockchain to help prevent fraud. So get back to it and do the best work of your life. You can do it. We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. Whoo while saving for the things swho live within five miles of custyour business . 54, like these two. And that guy. Or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness. Namaste. Whichever audience youre looking for, well find them were the finders. We work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. Anywhere, any way your audience watches. Consider them found. President trump has officially announced that the United States recognizes jerusalem as the capital of israel. While also for the time being signed the congressionally mandated sixmonth waiver, keeping the embassy in tel aviv. I have determined that it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. While previous president s have made this a Major Campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today i am delivering. Ive judged this course of action to be in the best trts of the United States of america and the pursuit of peace between israel and the palestinians. Acknowledging this as a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace. Consistent with the Jerusalem Embassy act, i am also directing the state department to begin preparation to move the American Embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. This will immediately begin the process of hiring architects, engineers and planners so a new embassy, when completed, will be a magnificent tribute to peace. The move has received near universal condemnation from world leaders, both friend and foe and including the vatican with the a. P. Reporting only israel has publicly supported the decision. A new report in politico says Jared Kushner was a forceful voice in privately encouraging his fatherinlaw to recognize jerusalem as the israeli capital. According to the report, kushner is, quote, banking on the hope that opposition is just a facade and that privately after a coolingoff period, arab allies will continue to work with him on a peace plan. He still expects to announce at some point in the early months of 2018. Please, god. Oh, that is just not going to happen. Please stay away. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson opposed this. Defense secretary jim mattis against the move and encouraged the president from making the announcement for a week because they needed to beef up forces at u. S. Embassies abroad. Jon, this is a divide well, 70 years of history. We have understood, even those of us who are extraordinarily positive when it comes to israel and are pro israel, this comes at a time when there actually is more of a chance to bring sunni arab nations and israel together than ever before. It is a historic opportunity. And yet this throws all of that into chaos. Jared has to know that these saudi leaders, the egyptians, you go down the list, the jordanians, they cant do anything with israel now. That cant be part of the Peace Process now because theyve done the things thats the most unimaginable for those sunni arab states. Youre right. Ever since president truman recognized israel quite courageously, this has been a perennial flashpoint, observes not only in american politics but in the balance of power around the world. A deep National Security interest, a deep cultural interest in the fate of the region. I think a lot of people have watched this process from decade to decade in seeing so many remarkably good people doing all they could to resolve something that seems irresolvable. I remember once asking george h. W. Bush whether he thought there would actually ever be an overall settlement of the kind that every new Administration Seeks and we all hope for. He just honestly said in kind of a world weary way, oh, god, i just dont know. One thing we do know, as you say, is this is not a step toward bringing these parties to a conversation that could be productive. Talk about the impact across the middle east, and talk about actually the historical opportunity that we have been seeing over the past three or four years with the rise of iran, what that meant for sunni arab countries who suddenly did not see israel as the greatest threat. A few things here. First, we have to remember that actually it was president obama who did acknowledge jerusalem as the capital of israel. He never activated the moving of the embassy to jerusalem. He didnt do that for security reasons. Its not an easy job to move the embassy. This jeopardizes the safety and security of our personnel. Second thing here, a lot of israelis are against what President Trump said actually. This serves the right wing government of netanyahu. It doesnt serve israel. It serves a very particular right wing government. Lets remember that. It jeopardizes their interest, americas interests. It immediately took america as a neutral player that can bring all sides together, and it just eradicated americas credibility. So i dont know what Jared Kushner is thinking about, about arabs trusting him and getting back to the table. Hes actually thinking about doing what he thinks hes doing what israel wants. Hes not thinking about right wing israel here. We have to remember this issue, israel, jerusalem, palestine, all of that is constantly being played by fundamentals regimes and parties in the region. They use it to justify and legitimize their own militia, whether hezbollah, iran, all these things. That feeds into the fuel feeds into the fire they already use to mobilize the public. Coming up on morning joe, what happens if al franken leaves the senate and roy moore joins it . Well break down the latest on a conversation echoing across capitol hill. Morning joe is coming right back. So, that goal youve been saving for, you can do it. We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. Whoo [ click ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ clacking continues ] good questions lead to good answers. Our advisors can help you find both. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. Trump was talking about the house and senate coming together on the tax bill, and he used a very interesting word to describe it. Listen to this. We had a choice. We could have gone directly for a vote and we decided lets put it into the conference and lets come out with something with everything that is perfecto. Looks like that Rosetta Stone is probably paying off. Perfecto. With us on capitol hill, member of the house ways and means committee, Republican Congresswoman kristen nome of south dakota. Hes currenthost of the podcast friend anna marie cox, Political Columnist for scifi. Mike barnicle and steve smith back with us as well. Congresswoman, as you try to blend these two plans together, what do you say are the top one or two sticking points . Thank you for inviting me to talk about tax reform this morning. Were really talking about blending these two plans and making sure all the benefits are focused on the low and middle income folks in the country struggling right now. We know the status quo isnt acceptable and we know we werent called here to just change the tax code, that we actually have to fix it. What were working on is making sure we lower rates for folks, keep more money in their pockets, grow the economy and make sure were pushing those benefits to those Everyday Americans who work so hard that need their paychecks. Whats the biggest disagreement, congresswoman, between the two plans, the one in the house and the one in the senate. Where do you think will be the biggest fight . Im not sure. Weve got a lot of agreement between the plans. Were going to try to consolidate and find agreement on the different income levels and brackets. We also are going to find a solution for the salt states, find a provision working on things that leaving some exemptions in place that really do encourage growth but also help folks out the most that are out there working every single day and dont even have 400 in their account for an emergency situation. Thats one of the things i think shocks the most people is that almost half of americans dont have 400 in their account they can use for an emergency expense that they might have today. So thats what we recognize, is status quo isnt acceptable. We have to come to agreement and get a bill passed so we can bring relief. Congresswoman, how much money will this tax relief, tax cut put in the pockets of half the country that doesnt have 400 in funds for an emergency . What do they get out of this . From all the Economic Analysis and the research that weve done over the last several years on this, and weve had 12 formal hearings in ways and means as well on different tax proposals. We believe it will at least put 1,000 in the average familys pockets. If my home state of south dakota, it could be a 1200 to 1400 tax cut plus their wages would increase almost 4,000 per household. In south dakota the average income is 54,000. Thats not per individual. Thats for a household. We pay double the National Average in energy cost because of where were located and its pretty chilly this time of year. If you put that kind of money in peoples pockets, thats life changing. Thats what were focused on, is what is going to benefit folks. Being a farmer and rancher myself, a Small Business owner and a mom, i know the experience ive had in my life is the insight we need. Anna marie cox. Speaking on being a Small Business owner in addition to a congresswoman, what do you think should be the circumstances that a Congress Person should resign, with the allegations of Sexual Harassment coming up. Ive made a lot of decisions in my life. I have two girls that are 23 and 20. So i think we obviously have house rules. Theres congressional rules and theres laws in this country. When theres verified reports, there needs to be consequences. Thats the focus and the qualifiers that ive always used at every situation that were dealing with, not just in congress, but its happened for years in businesses and communities and state legislatures. We need to change the culture in this country. Its not acceptable. Would you make a distinction between the fact that someone might misbehave and have consequences on the job and someone suffering legal consequences or criminal consequences . I think whats important is that we look at verified accounts, that we need to make sure were not dealing with situations that are retribution, revenge, political attacks, these verified accounts, when people have come forward and told their stories. In certain circumstances weve had perpetuators admit to that. Like the president. We have senator franken who has admitted to some of these assaults that have happened. Thats a situation where he should step down. Thats some of the discussions weve had today. Theres a hearing on the house side in the Admin Committee about what we should take as members of the house as far as training. My staff has gone through Sexual Harassment training, ive gone through Sexual Harassment training. Thats a standard ive set in my office and into encourage every member to set that standard and follow it up with action, too. Thats one thing where you cant take a training and think things are going to change. The leader in the office needs to hold people accountable. Congresswoman, thank you very much. Ann marie your column is titled al franken isnt being denied due process. None of these famous men are. You write whether he resigns or not, his hesitation in leighing office has given way to one of the most pernicious half truths dragging down the me too movement. What aboutism has taken up residence in the west wing, but let him resign when your guy does isnt an argument, its a tantrum. As a constituent of his, at least for a few more hours, my hope is that franken faces consequences that are appropriate to his mistakes. To go by what we know now and even metaphorical death sentence does seem too much. Franken leaving office and moving on to reconcile his ideals and his voting record as a politician with his behavior as a human being could be more than enough. It could be the start of our society disentangling the consequences of being a harasser with ones rights under the law. Also we heard from senator kerr sten gillibrand yesterday and other senators on capitol hill, democrats saying that its enough is enough. Its too hard to make a difference between a butt grab and an assault. I think there is a difference. Of course theres a difference. My column tries to point out that stepping down from the senate is not the same as being charged with a crime. Its also not something thats going to necessary ruin frankens life. I hope it doesnt, is what i say in my column. I actually think it would be a real gift to us to have an ally who takes responsibility for what hes done in the past and says im going to do something about this, look at my behavior, im going to reconcile, make amends. I think franken in particular could be a great voice in the me too movement for saying, you know what . What i used to think was right isnt right. What i used to think was funny isnt funny. Hes better doing that out of the senate than in the senate . Yes, yes. Willie was asking last hour about actually let franken run again. Let me him do this kind of advocacy and run again. I might vote for him. What about the argument that he should they set up an Ethics Committee, why dont they let it go through the Ethics Committee . He could do that. Thats obviously theres now laws governing this. But thats not going to happen. Im not arguing either way. What willie was saying, wait a second, you said you were going to give him due process, go through an Ethics Committee. And suddenly it wasnt suddenly. More women came forward. There was more evidence put in place. But this is about politics right now. I dont think its about politics. I think its about womens bodies and womens rights. Which i do, too, so dont suggest that i dont. We all know theyve spoken about it openly. This is about the democrats living in the age of roy moore and wanting to set themselves apart from republicans i understand that. As do i, not wanting the republicans to say, well, look at al franken, well, look at this. The only question is why not go through the ethics process . Okay. Im going to if the question is why not go through the process, because i think the right thing to do is step down. The question about the politics of this, its a bonus. The right thing to do is for him to step down. It also provides the democrats a position to argue from, and i think thats great. I think if roy moore wasnt in the conversation, it would also be the right thing to do, to step down. As a constituent of his, he turns out not to be the guy i voted for. So i would like him to hit the pause button, to talk to people, to talk to to confer with his people in his life and figure out what happened. This is fascinating. What youre saying is i voted for this guy. Hes not who i thought he was. Step down and then lets have the conversation and give you another chance. Yes. To vote for him down the road. Yes. I think that should be an open conversation. I dont think people moan, oh, moral flattening. Losing your 25 million a year job and stepping down from the senate is not the same as getting punished. None of these people are going to starve. None of them have to disappear from public life. People like al franken should not disappear from public life. I dont want hem to. I want every man who has maybe done something that he realizes may have stepped over a line, i want him to feel free to say, you know what . I own that. And there are consequences for it. Mika, what shes talking about is what youve been talking about for the past couple weeks which is we have to have a conversation. We have to have a dialogue. It just cant be black and white. There has to be a middle ground. This sounds exactly like what youve been talking about. Its definitely part of the conversation. It gets closer to the gray area. I feel like well go to break and leave it here. I feel like i havent been able to have a completely honest conversation about roy moore or al franken and the specific cases because its so complicated and even like you feel like youre taking a big risk saying what youre saying, and i understand completely how you feel. But thank you for starting that one. Were going to go to break. Shes staying. Im ready. Talking about Mitch Mcconnell says steve bannon is a specialist, a specialist in nominating people who lose. The latest from their simmering feud next on morning joe. You cant predict the market. But through good times and bad. At t. Rowe price. Weve helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Bp is taking safety to new heights. Using drones and robots offshore so engineers can stop potential problems before they start. Because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. We are the driven. The dedicated. The overachievers. We know our best investment is in ourselves. We dont take no for an answer. We fight for what we want. Even for the things that were once a given. Going to college. Buying a home. And not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. But were only as strong as our community. Who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. Sofi. Get there sooner. Were not going to lose any nominations to the kind of candidates that guy you were talking about endorsed. What hes a specialist is nominating people who lose. Last night steve bannon launched into an attack on mitt romney. I can tell you what i think about mitt romney. I think hes a Great American and has had an outstanding career and is a truly remarkable republican. Im glad hes a member of our party. Mitch mcconnell hitting back at steve bannon after bannons fiery tuesday night stump speech where he slammed mcconnell among others and former republican president ial candidate mitt romney. A number of republicans have come forward to defend romney including utah senator orrin hatch and also mike lee. Meanwhile republican senator ben sasse in a series of tweets criticized the rnc for backing roy moore. Quote, this is a bad decision and a very sad day. I believe the women and rnc previously did, too. Whats changed, or is the party just indifferent . Sasse went on to threaten to leave the committee if it decides to also support moore. Wow. Cant anyone else stand up . Hello . What is it going to take . I also will leave. Any decent person out there, small dollar donor to the Republican National committee, they send in 5 a month, 2 a month, to the big corporate donation that go into the committee, the committee now is a vehicle he preyed on outside of a courthouse on a custody hearing. This brings shame to the United States senate and shame to the United States senate should he win anna. There may be people out interest that dont believe the women. But guess what the republican senators do. And they said it several weeks ago. They did. So how do they square believing the women several weeks ago but now getting behind roy moore . Theyre saying youre the former Congress Person. I do yoga but i cant no, no, im just saying, is that not the same as them saying yes, we want the seat so badly that we will support somebody that we said harassed a 14yearold girl . Of course its the same. Also what i am concerned about in this situation is that im not sure how much lower you go. You cant go much lower. I thought that when we elected the president. We thought that a long time ago. I thought the serial sexual predator that got into the white house was going to be the low bar. Turns out theres lower. I almost dont want to speculate about what this would be. Clearly the republican partys decided, but for tax cuts. Yeah. Like, we will do this. I do wonder what its going to be like if he gets elected. Who will be on a committee with him. Like who will coauthor, cosponsor a bill with him . Hes going to be the lonelyist powerful senator in america. I hope actually. Al franken, this is going to be im going to have to leave this out because my phones going to explode on twitter. No, no. Because people are really going to hate me for this. But theres a lot of Democratic Senators who are huge supporters of both bill and Hillary Clinton who want al franken to step down. Help me understand. You guys are i live in minnesota. Im a plainspoken gal, you know, i dont know plainspeak this to me. Isnt there a double standard . My washington to midwest translator got broken. Because to me this looks like lying and hypocrisy. I dont know how else to explain it. Political exspeeden i. I hope bill clinton becomes someone we no longer have speak at national conventions. I look back at my behavior during that time and look at the things that i was saying and im ashamed. I cant make it right. I cant unargue what i argued then. I can say i wouldnt do it again. Things are changing. As with al franken, bill clinton could do a lot of good to Start Talking more, if he wanted to. It would be a big deal. And hes not going to he probably wont do it. And well never make him. Were going to make sure al franken is we cannot avoid the political calculus in all of this with regard to al franken, your senator. Sure. Whats your instinct on whether al franken, everybody will be calling for his resignation, if there were a republican governor of minnesota . Fewer people would be calling sure, fewer people would be calling for his resignation. I dont really want there to be a test case for this because i would prefer we not have more allegations come out in the sense that i hope behaviors not out there. I do hope if al franken resign, that gives a sign to some women they can be brave enough to come forward, even if their political alliances are with the person theyre accusing. Even if someone from the opposite party is there. There are more important things than party. A coalition that will be needed to put a check on trump. Were going to have to start working together over things, right . Right. This is a great place to Start Building some alliances. Thats such a great point. Benjamin wittess at law fair last week wrote a great thread. Basically the lincoln argument. The ideologies of the past are insufficient to address this. Republicans and democrats, conservatives, liberals, we understand, we may be facing a constitutional crisis. Weve got to come together. I remember john mccain voted for the tax cut. I was very disappointed. I know you were, right. Im not going to call him a traitor. Because john mccain will be the first republican to stand up to Donald Trumps abuses. I say that to my democratic friends too. Donald trumps assaults on the rule of law, the institutions of the country, these things, by orders of magnitude, are bigger and more important than a debate over what the top marginal tax rate should be and we sit here on this day, on pearl harbor day, that we think about this event, and the enormous sacrifice that it triggered by generation of americans who saved the world. Who understood that they could be each others opponents, but they were never each others enemies. Because they had faced a real enemy. The light had confronted the darkness. And so americans i think of good faith of different Political Parties will soon find themselves in this moment of political realignment on the same side of some pretty fundamental existential questions about the country. I think one of them is Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment, i hope. Yes. Annas going to be back with us tomorrow. Thank you very much all of you for joining us. Make sure to read her column in the Washington Post. Fascinating, an important part of the discussion. All right, that does it for us this morning. Msnbc will continue this conversation with senator al franken set to deliver remarks from the senate floor just a short time from now. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage in three minutes. We make sure youre in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. 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Because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Hi, i need your help. S for ive been trying to find. A knee specialist. But nobody has an opening for months uuuggghhh uuurrrggghhh mr. Powers . You cant always control your feelings. I found one innetwork next tuesday. But choosing unitedhealthcare can help you control your care. Thanks, stephanie. I see on your preventive checklist, youre due for a colonoscopy. Its covered at no additional cost to you. Great no green. Unitedhealthcare you can do it. We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. Whoo hi there, im stephanie ruhle. This morning, enough is enough. 3 dozen senators call on al franken to resign as two more accusers come forward. We need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay. Franken set to take to the floor soon for a major announcement. Or so he says. Don jr. Tells house investigators he went to hope hicks when reports of his meeting with the russian lawyer surfaced. But he invoked Attorney Client privilege when pressed on conversationings with his dad. In my view, there was no Attorney Client privilege that protects a discussion between father and son. Maybe because neither father nor son nor hope hicks were lawyers. And california burning. Hundreds of homes burned. Citizens racing for their lives. As a 100,000 acre fire envelops the golden state. Our whole lives were wrapped up in that house. Everything. Its all gone. We begin this morning with al franken set to make a major announcement on the senate floor. Amid new Sexual Misconduct