Watts and in washington, msnbc special correspondent, kasie hunt, host of kasie d. C. We have four stories, well show you how the gop is reacting to the story that trump sought to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. And Stormy Daniels is cooperating with the feds in their probe of Donald Trumps personal attorney. Is a frontpage story in the times, the fbi drilling down on payments to women who claim they had affairs with donald trump. Thats reportedly one of the reasons agents raided Michael Cohens office. Meanwhile, russia moves to sideline American Drones in syria. Plus hes not promising fire and fury, but President Trump is signaling a tough response to the chemical weapons attack there last weekend. But when will he pull the trigger . A lot of questions this morning, joe. A lot of questions. Its interesting you start with the Richard Nixon donald trump mashup. Its interesting when Richard Nixon was sitting there saying its time to bring this investigation to an end. That was in january of 1974. That investigation would go on another seven or eight months. And when nixon was saying nothing to see here, move along, move along, saying that this is nothing more than a witch hunt and nixon was saying that in july of 1973. That was a year, that was a year before we even learned of the nixon tapes. Which of course eventually made the Supreme Court demand that he turn over the tapes and thats what nixon did. Knowing that it would bring an end to his presidency. So we have a long way to go in this investigation. There are things that were learning every day. There are only, only the most partisan donald Trump Supporters are suggesting that Robert Mueller not complete the investigation. I think it was good yesterday, mika, that there were republicans and Republican Leaders like Mitch Mcconnell who stood up and put the rule of law above their own Political Party, or above protecting the president of the United States. Saying Robert Mueller should be able to finish his investigation and the American People are with Mitch Mcconnell. Even the majority of americans who call themselves republicans, are with Mitch Mcconnell. I want to though, well talk a lot about donald trump, though. I wanted to talk briefly with willie about, do you think, willie, its a problem that most of you know where its going. Do you think its a problem when you have most of the senators that are asking Mark Zuckerberg about his his, about his newfangled fancy machine . Do you think its a problem that these senators are so old that were asking him the question and so out of it, that perhaps they should have focused more on the inessential of the cotton gin than of facebook . Because they were so clueless. This really, on a serious note, willie, we were reporting on it i remember when we were asking ourselves, reading the wall street journal, what are these credit default swaps . What are cdos . Whats going on here . You had an industry that, had moved beyond the working, grasping knowledge of those who were supposed to regulate it. And here the senators are woefully illequipped. They made fools of themselves yesterday. Their staff let them down. We need to start again and we need to get people questioning Mark Zuckerberg who actually understands a technology past the cotton gin. I would like toe see illi whitney brought before congress to talk about the cotton gin, joe. Eli whitney has a lot to answer for. What is he hiding . Joe, i had the same thought as i watched the hearing. I watched a lot of it. Which was it felt to me like a missed opportunity. You had Mark Zuckerberg sitting there for five hours. In a critical conversation about who we are and what we do and how we give our data. And how we live our lives now on online and the questioning was at such a basic level, i thought there were some Good Exchange from some of the senators about you know, what, whats censorship and what is hate speech . But those are sort of these philosophical debates. Important ones, but philosophical debates. I thought really, a glove was not really laid on zuckerberg yesterday and you saw that reflected in the markets. The stock price of facebook went up. They said this was the most important two days in the history of facebook and a lot of people on wall street, anyway, who are looking at the future of the company felt like after yesterday, they were much more comfortable after zuckerbergs testimony than they were before. Now hes up there again today in front of the house, maybe well get some new line of questioning there. Might get some younger members, perhaps asking questions . Mika yesterday, they can say he did a great job. It was basically mike tyson at his peak, against princetons boxing champ. It was not a fair fight. It was not a fair fight. Not that princetons boxing champ, whoever it is, is not a great boxing champ. But he boxgs like this. It wasnt a fair fight and they need seriously to figure out a way. I hope they figure it out in the house, how to ask the guy some actually competent questions that will push facebook to start protecting our privacy and protecting our rights. Well get to clint in a moment about that. Donny deutsch will be joining us later, talking about the whole pr mess. Now to the New York Times reporter, that President Donald Trump sought to fire special counsel Robert Mueller last december. According to interviews with eight anonymous people. Including advisers, people close to the president and others. The second reported instance in which the president moved to push out the prosecutor charged with investigating russian interference in the 2016 elections. After reportedly ordering his white house counsel, don mcgann to ask the Justice Department to dismiss him last june. Mcgann threatened to quit. The episode was in december was allegedly sparked by reports by bloomberg, reuters and the wall street journal, that mueller issued subpoenas involving trump business records. That report from the times comes as cnn reports that the president is once again weighing whether to fire Rod Rosenstein after earlier reports said trump had considered removing his Deputy Attorney general last year. However, white house staffers reportedly do not take trumps word seriously. Quote the venting has usually been dismissed by his advisers. Many of whom insist that they have come to see the statements less as direct orders, than as simply how the president talks. Interesting. One former adviser said that people have become conditioned to wait until mr. Trump had raised an issue at least three times before acting on it. He did say it out loud the other day. That, is that number one, two, or three, willie in. There was the same reaction we got from the white house when the New York Times reported this in january. Is that the president says a lot of things in the course of a day, we dont take them seriously all the time. New york times reporter Michael Schmidt joins us now. He contributed to this report. Michael, theres a ton in here. Weve said time and again on the show, as people have said, hell never fire bob mueller. If for nothing else, than for his own selfinterest. As he knows this would lead to a crisis and could cost him his presidency. It appears time and again in your now second report that he is entertaining the idea of firing bob mueller and in fact Sarah Sanders said from the podium yesterday, he believes, the president does, he has the right to fire bob mueller. Youre right this is something that he thinks he has the right to do. Something he has thought a lot about. This is not a new thing. The president has thought about getting rid of sessions, rosenstein and mueller since last may. When the special counsel was announced. Actually when it happened, the president going immediately to try and get rid of sessions, sessions surviving. The biggest question now is, is maybe not mueller as much as it is rosenstein. Rosenstein someone who comey had called the ultimate survivor. Now once again, under the president s you know, the president coming after him again. Really wanting to get rid of him, seeing him as the person who oversees mueller if trump were able to install someone more loyal to him. That would, that could have a more of an influence over the investigation. Thats the thing that the, that we heard yesterday repeatedly was something the president was looking at here. Look, the president does say a lot of things. And he does get very angry. This incident in december was significant to us, because there had been this report that deuts Deutsche Bank had sent subpoenas related directly to the president s finances. The question over this, the red line whether mueller looked into his finances, is violating it. This incident showed us how the president reacted to that. And its only after the president learned that the reports werent true, that he backed down. Hey, so Michael Schmidt, im wondering who is around donald trump explaining to him, what a disaster it would be if he fired, if he fired bob mueller. Or possibly even Rod Rosenstein. You have Mitch Mcconnell coming out, saying what he said yesterday. Weve been critical of paul ryan for not speaking out against the constitutional abnormalities of this president. But even paul ryan consistently has said dont fire mueller, let him finish the job. Jonathan turley on yesterday, he was actually defended the president at times throughout this process. Said it would be the most foolish thing to do, it would be the end of his presidency. We have a poll out this morning that says seven in ten americans support bob muellers investigation and say that he has to be able to finish it. The majority of republicans are saying the same thing. 69 say he should not be fired. The latest quinnipiac poll, 7 in 10 supporting the completion of this only 13 saying that bob mueller should be fired. These numbers have changed radically. Is the president just blowing off steam from what you can tell . Or is he really going to triple down on the mistake he made when he fired comey . I think youre right on the comey thing. Thats the question. How big and bad is the comey skaska scar on trump . Trump thought he was doing something bold and politically savvy in getting rid of comey and it turned out to be a massive miscalculation that unleashed mueller and cast this cloud over his presidency. Does trump still feel the burn from that, or does he think this is just such a thing he can go forward. Looming in the background is comey once again, because comeys book will be coming out next week. As weve seen with the president , when books come out, he cannot help himself. Hell engage and lash out about them. So youll have a comey factor closing in as this stuff is kicking up around the president. So michael the talk around town has been for some time, mika and i have heard it for a few years from people, our friends and people with friends in the finance community. Everybody says about Deutsche Bank, if you want to to know about trump and his financial misdealings, go to Deutsche Bank. You have a report about how donald trump was ready to fire bob mueller because he had heard reports that mueller was going to investigate his holdings and his actions in Deutsche Bank. And it wasnt until his aides said well wait, thats false, hes not going to Deutsche Bank yet that donald trump relented and decided not to fire bob mueller. Any idea, any reporting on what activity donald trump engaged in, with Deutsche Bank that is so horrific that it would make him risk his presidency . To try to stop Law Enforcement authorities from finding out exactly what he did wrong in dealing with Deutsche Bank . Deutsche bank, we havent had a lot of insight, in part because congress has not been willing to subpoena Deutsche Bank for records that they have. Thats one of the things that why not . Because its a Republicancontrolled Congress and i dont think theyre willing to push that far. Thats something that i think if you saw a change in you know, the democrats came into power, at the beginning of next year, that may be different. They might fight harder and push on a subpoena on Deutsche Bank to get at what information they have there. We dont know a lot about Donald Trumps relationship with Deutsche Bank. We know that hes relied on a broker there, a wealth manager there that has access to different pools of capital. Is someone that has a bit of a different style in portfolio. Beyond that, i certainly dont know a ton. But we do know that this was something that he had thought crossed that red line. This area of looking at his finances beyond russia. And regardless of that, regardless of the Deutsche Bank loan it looks like sort of the Justice Department in and of itself, aside from mueller, if the prosecutors in new york were working without mueller, sort of walked up, if not crossed that red line with the going into, executing the search warrant in Michael Cohens office. I hope people appreciate what an extraordinary move it is for fbi agents to execute a search warrant at the office of the president s lawyer. I mean the bar to clear for that with rosenstein signing off on it, is very high. Rosenstein knew exactly what the, what the impact of this was and what an aggressive move it was. So doing that and with no apparent tie to russia. Because if it had a tie to russia it would be run by bob mueller. Michael, in prior reporting you indicated that don mcgann, the white house counsel, played a criminal role influencing the president s decision or his decision not to fire people around the white house. Whats don mcganns role today . Well thats a real question. Don mcgann has this interesting place at the white house. One of the very few people that was around for the campaign, and is still at the white house. Maybe dan scovino being the only other one in a senior position. Mcgann has tried at least sort of tried to leave several times. And the president has stopped him from doing that. Theres some republicans in town, i think you know, on capitol hill that really like the idea of don mcgann being at the white house. I think they think of him as sort of an adult in the room. At the same time, don mcgann is not supposed to at least directly engage with the president on questions of russia. Because don mcgann is a witness in the case. Don mcgann being interviewed several times by mueller as part of the obstruction investigation. Mcgann there for the comey firing, for all of the pushing on, pushing and pulling on sessions, the efforts to fire sessions and in all of the, obviously the incident in june where trump wanted to fire mueller. So the question is, is that how much is mcgann around and how much power does he have . Or who else is around . President trumps desire to get rid of Robert Mueller was apparently no secret on capitol hill. Weeks after the second demand to fire mueller came, senator mark warner, vice chair of the intelligence committee, gave a speech about protecting the special counsel. Last night Warners Communications director tweeted when mark warner delivered his red line speech to warn against firing mueller back in december, a lot of people asked why now . This is why. This, as Senate Republicans see no need to pass legislation to shield the special counsel. Mueller should be allowed to finish his job. I havent seen clear indication yet that we need to pass something, to keep him from being removed. Because i dont think thats going to happen. He shouldnt be removed from the office, he should be allowed to finish the job. Removing mueller creates more problems. Hes been advised against it by a lot of members of congress and frankly, i think a lot of people on his staff. I have confidence in mueller, the president ought to have confidence in mueller. It would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing mueller. Im not concerned that hell fire mueller i dont think hell fire rosen stein, that would be the beginning, end of his presidency, hes not going to do that. I think the president is too smart to, to fire mr. Mueller. If he did, it wouldnt end the investigation. Look, this is painful. But weve got to finish it. Hes too smart . Kasie hunt, to fire mueller . Is that what theyre going on here . Because theres legislation that would make sure that he cant fire mueller. If these republicans so r so sure and so confident to step out in front of the cameras for the first time for some of them in a long time, why dont they just pass the legislation and make sure he cant . I dont know anybody who really with a straight face, can trust that this president means what he says after the patterns and the track record we have seen throughout his entire presidency. Do i need to make a list . I mean, my god. I think that list would not be hard to make. It would be long. And it would be very long. I think you should read my read on senator kennedys comments there, is that there are people who learned how to try and convince the president to do things. And one way to do that is flattery and putting the frame, hey, hes too smart to do this, is something that i think they believe will appeal to trump. So wait, let me get this straight. Theyre going to trust flattery and thinking they can get him to do things, over legislation that would make sure he cant . Im not sure that they feel like they have a good option here. First of all, there are some questions about whether or not legislation would actually be effective in preventing the firing of Robert Mueller. Theres so many legal questions. There are statutes on the books about rosenstein, who is a i loued to fire mueller. Does trump have authority to fire somebody in the executive branch. The courts have not weighed in on that. You should think of the legislation more as essentially a way to send some serious warning shots in trumps direction. And there are a couple steps that they could take to kind of escalate this. The first one would be potentially a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. If that was something they allowed to go forward that would send a signal to the white house that hey, were more serious about this than maybe you think. I hate to be the cynical political analyst on this. But they are facing a difficult situation. If Mitch Mcconnell and miss vulnerable republicans are in congress, essentially pushing legislation that makes the president potentially look bad or puts him in a difficult position, thats hard for them as they try to motivate their base Republican Voters, who are Trump Supporters to get out and vote for them in november. So it you know what would be hard, joe, a constitutional crisis. But okay, they dont want to do it. Well listen, thats give credit where credit is due. Weve, richard haas, weve been very critical of republicans on the hill for not standing up to donald trump. And when it seems like constitutional norms were being shaerted. But lets look at what happened yesterday. You had a day when a poll came out that 70 of americans want mueller to finish his investigation. And including a majority of republicans. But you had Mitch Mcconnell come out again, saying the president must allow mueller to finish the investigation. You had the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the senate come out calling it quote, suicide, political suicide for donald trump to fire Robert Mueller. Thats about as strong of a warning shot as youre going to send across some, a politicians bow. Lindsey graham also a Senior Member on the Judiciary Committee and somebody who has spent a lot of time with donald trump, said it wouldnt be the end of the investigation, it would, though, be the beginning of the end of Donald Trumps presidency. Hard to be more direct than that to the president of the United States. And then you did have kennedy saying, hey, that wont end the investigation. The investigation will go on. I mean if they fire bob mueller then you can expect the senate to probably hire bob muler to run an investigation there. There is, there is no out for the president. So, so dont you think yesterday, that the republicans, did a fairly good job delivering a clear warning sign to the president of the United States . Absolutely. You know my view is that they do it on about a dozen policy issues, id be even happier. From trade to deficits and all that. But thats exactly what you want the Republican Leadership to do, to step up and act like the leadership. So i thought that was, that was a good day. And i slightly disagree with mika. I dont think legislation is the answer here. It would get things really embroiled in all sorts of questions about the legal and Political Rights of congress to do that. This is a clear set of political warning shots across the president s bow. It was couched in ways that politicians speak to other politicians. So i thought yesterday was a pretty good day, all things considered. So again, willie, you have the judiciary, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee saying, you better not fire bob mueller. If he fires bob mueller, that will be political suicide. By the way, any impeachment hearings or any hearings, impeachment in the house, any hearings about removing the president because of that . Would start in the chairman judiciarys committee. So there couldnt be a more important republican to send that warning shot to President Trump. Than chuck grassley. And Lindsey Graham said something similar as well. Sarah sanders from the podium said the president believes he has the Legal Authority to fire bob mueller. She didnt explain exactly how that worked. But she said hes been advised by legal experts that he could do it somehow. And the way to do it, if you read through Michael Schmidt in the New York Times report this morning is to get rid of Rod Rosenstein, who authorized personally the raid on Michael Cohens offices and hotel room monday. Rod rosenstein, so it gets Donald Trumps ire up. He is mad at Rod Rosenstein. He moves him aside and perhaps with the help of Jeff Sessions installs someone who might be more friendly to the idea of getting rid of bob mueller. One problem with this theory, i think it is a good theory. I think rosenstein is in far more jeopardy than mueller. It will be a domino effect. But who is going to walk in and fire bob mueller. You put somebody in there and go fire director mueller. Do you want to be the american thats going to walk in there when you saw the polls, both sides of the aisle, thats the end of your political career. Youre going to go in and fire bob mueller. You might get to hang out at the department of justice and deal with an erratic president for the rest of your term. Youre going to try to a initiate an agenda for Law Enforcement, which is really Jeff Sessions agenda who was recused from the mueller investigation. I think republican senators have the smart strategy if they are to legislate against firing mueller, they will make the swamp look like theyre trapping the president. You know again, you know the swamp is trying to control me. I know whats right. I think theyre setting a smart trap, they have to have cause to abandon President Trump if they go in and they say, hey, you fire mueller you know thats the end of your presidency, let the president walk into his own fight. Joe . Well the challenge comes from a couple of different directions, clint. Youre exactly right. It would be difficult for a politician to go in, and be the person who would be remembered forever for firing somebody that is 70 of americans wanted to stay on the job, to continue an investigation into russian wrongdoing and United States elections. So thats your first problem. Your second problem is, youre right, anybody that did that would see their political career end. But it goes far deeper than that. Anybody who is an officer of the court. Anybody that is connected to the law. Anybody that is connected to Law Enforcement. Anybody thats connected to the f federal bureau of investigations or anybody who wants to work in the field lauf again for their entire life. And i do not overstate this and i would not say this about any other man or woman in washington, d. C. But if you were the one that fires Robert Mueller, the man who guided america through september 11th, running the fbi, you will have the mark of cain on you for the rest of your life. And you might as well move to bismarck and try to start a Convenience Store there. Because you will never work in washington again, will you . It is suicide in that town. Weve seen lots of people that were, will march out for trump. And take it on the chin. But at the same point i think the Senate Republicans are smartly playing this. Which is they you know, in their campaigns going into elections this year, being called the swamp. You can look at the trump advertisements, d. C. , i got to clean up this town. Wont let me do what im supposed to do. Its the victim narrative. This is the smart play by the Senate Republicans and i would, im very curious, i saw some of the names thrown around as to who might be person to fire mueller. Maybe we move pruitt over there. Sending these people around the d. C. Orbit to do what the president wants. It ultimately i think will fall back on the president and will hurt him in a devastating way. Wow. Still ahead, russia moves to block a u. N. Resolution on syria. As President Trump considers launching new military action in the wake of a chemical weapons attack. Former secretary of state madeli madelima madelieine albright joins us. Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. At t gives you more for your thing. Your getting the best but paying way less thing. Now get 50 off a smartphone. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit att. Com heres the story of Green MountainCoffee Roasters sumatra reserve. Lets go to sumatra. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. Which helps provide for wins family. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. 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Attorney for the Southern District of new york, jeffrey berman, was not involved in the raid of President Trumps lawyer and has been recused from the Michael Cohen inquiry. Nbcs tom winter points out that according to the manual this can only happen after a u. S. Tore notifies the Justice Department of a conflict of interest. As rita chiolli writes for newsday, no explanation was given for the more. Its rare for a u. S. Attorney to recuse himself unless he has a personal or financial relationship with the subject of the probe. Although trump took the unusual step of personally interviewing berman for the job. President trump interviewed replacements for the u. S. Attorneys he abruptly fired, particularly those in new york. With jurisdiction over his businesses. So you could wonder, you could ask the question, joe, it just some might say that trump had a special interest in the jurisdiction in new york, because it pertained to himself. But perhaps interviewing him might have been a little bit of a bridge too far. Because now the gentleman had to recuse himself. Well you could ask that question, mika. But that question, that question answers itself, of course donald trump took the highly unusual step of interviewing a u. S. Attorney. Because that u. S. Attorney would of course be deciding cases that involved him. And Michael Schmidt when you have the president of the United States taking that extraordinary step to inter viview preet baras replacement. Especially after having preet barara come to tell him he would never get rid of him. The gentleman gave donald trump 5400 campaign, Rudy Giuliani protege, taking all that together, is that your understanding on why he recused himself . Why we had this very unusual step of him recusing himself, so his office could move forward with these actions . Yeah. Its the same problem, time and time again, with this whole story. Is that the president controls the Justice Department. The president has the power to put in whatever u. S. Attorneys he wants. Whatever attorney general, Deputy Attorney general that he wants. At the same time, those are the people that have to oversee the investigation. Theyre the ones that are supposed to go out and follow the facts. And thats the whole issue that surrounds all of this. The thing thats been unusual about the Justice Department, through all this, is that despite trumps anger and frustration with the investigation, he hasnt moved on firing anyone in that area. He could easily replace sessions, he could put in an attorney general that he wants. Its a political thing, he runs the executive branch. Its the same question on firing mueller when the white house says, can the president fire mueller. He runs the executive branch, he can do whatever he wants. He can ask comey to end an investigation. These things may be politically problematic, but on the legal side, a lot of folks say if it went to the courts, the courts would support him and say he can do whatever he wants within his branch. But at the same time, willie, what donald trump can never seem to find, is, is a political stooge that will take a legal position and then not recuse themselves, when everything demands in the law, the code of ethics, demands that they recuse themselves. So here we have donald trump, he now has another target, somebody to be angry, angry with. The u. S. Attorney for the Southern District, who did the right thing, recused himself. So his office could move forward with this investigation. This just goes with the theme, the expectation from the president is loyalty to him. Not loyalty to the rule of law or loyalty to the constitution. He was just railing against Jeff Sessions for recusing himself two days ago again, something thats annoyed him for a very long time. Michael schmidt in, ive got a tweet for you, directed at a piece you wrote two days ago. The president catching up on yesterdays paper. He tweets a minute ago, quote, the failing New York Times wrote another phony story. It was political pundit doug schoen, not a ukrainian businessman, who asked me to do a short speech by phone, skype, hosted by doug in ukraine. I was very positive about ukraine, another negative fake story, the fake russia collusion story is what he means by that. Thats your story, with Maggie Haberman a couple of days ago. Explain the story a little bit and your reaction to the president s tweet. The question isnt who arranged the speech. I believe the story, i believe the president inaccurately describes our story as sort of a common thing that he does where he sort of says it says one thing, when it doesnt. I believe the story does acknowledge that schoen was the one who set up the meeting. The question isnt necessarily who set up the meeting, but why did the money come in. The president gives a 20minute speech, not really a speech. Its basically a talk with a lot of awkward delays, on to this conference in ukraine. And after that, because of something arranged by Michael Cohen on his end, 150,000 is moved into his charity. Now we were writing about this in the context of a mueller subpoena that had gone to the trump organization, in response to this, they produced documents related to this. As mueller sort of looks at the larger question of foreign mol money that moved towards the trump organization, trump the campaign, in the months before the election. Thats the question. The question is, is where did the money come from . The money came from an ukrainian steel magnate, who had given millions of dollars over the years to the Clinton Foundation and who was making donations to trump for a very short speech. 13 150,000 for 20 minutes. The piece does acknowledge that doug schoen set up the speech. The question is who paid the money to the foundation. Maybe the president will do a followup tweet. Im sure hes not watching cable news avidly right now. Im sure hes concerned that he actually may have misstated something about the story. Im sure hell correct that. Michael schmidt. Thank you very much. Coming up, nikki haley takes a tough tone at the u. N. , but it doesnt mean much for the actual policy as russia continues to prop up Bashar Al Assad. Is a American Military action just hours away . Well bring in Nbc News National Security reporter next on morning joe. I have to tell you something incredible. Capital one has partnered with hotels. Com to give venture cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. All you have to do is pay with this. At hotels. Com venture. 10 miles per dollar . That is incredible. Brrrrr. I have the chills. Because youre so excited . Because ice is cold. And because of all those miles. Obviously. Whats in your wallet . Im not sure. Whats in your wallet . The full value of your new car . Youre better off throwing your money right into the harbor. Im gonna regret that. With new car replacement, if your brand new car gets totaled, Liberty Mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. Liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. The record will not be kind to one permanent member of this council. Unfortunately russia has chosen the assad regime again over the unity of this council. Its a travesty. They have now officially vetoed resolutions that would hold these barbaric uses of chemical weapons attacks by assad six times. History will record that. History will record that on this day, russia chose protecting a monster over the lives of the Syrian People. That was Ambassador Nikki Haley responding to russias sixth veto of a u. N. Resolution regarding syria us use of chemical weapons. It comes as nbc news has learned that russia has been jamming the gps systems of some u. S. Military drones in syria. According to four u. S. Officials, it has seriously affected American Military operations in the country. Joe, do you think that the u. N. Ambassadors statements will have an impact . Well i think they do have an impact. They certainly have an impact around the United Nations and are heard across the globe. You know mika, you never know how governors are going to make the transition from running a State Government to being thrust on to the international stage. You and i heard some very unkind things from inside the Trump White House early on that suggesting from National Security staff that she may not be up to the job. It seems to me its just the opposite is the case. Nikki haley has been doing an extraordinary job at the United Nations. And richard haas, it seems to me that nikki haley also at the United Nations, has promoted american values, as well as any u. N. Ambassador, we could hope to have. And seems to me, that despite what the commanderinchief is saying in the white house, at least in new york, at the u. N. , nikki haley seems to be fighting to continue down the path of more traditional u. S. Foreign policy. Postwar Foreign Policy. What are your thoughts about the job shes doing there, at least in the words that shes saying and condemning these heinous acts . Well shes been very tough on russia, as we heard. Shes been effective at getting new sanctions against north korea. Shes been strongly defending of israel. But going back to mikas question, you know will this have impact on russian behavior, visavis syria . The short answer is no. Thats probably an unfair test for the u. S. Permanent representative at the United Nations, thats too much to ask. But russia is clearly unconditionally siding with Bashar Al Assad. And its going to significantly complicate u. S. Military planning and this is part of a larger narrative, where Vladimir Putins russia is essentially saying in every way he can and every language he can, that we are not part of quoteunquote the west or the International Community. We are pursuing our own narrow National Interest as we see it in ukraine, in syria, using cyber. And essentially we dont care what you say, we dont care what you think, we dont care what you do with sanctions or anything else. Russia is an outlier, its that simple. So if youre drawing up a plan for the president , if youre talking with james mattis or john bolton or anybody on the president s National Security team, what is the best step forward to put russia back on their heels in syria . I think the best step forward we took were the very serious economic sanctions. Thats an area where russia cant respond. Theres no symmetry thats available to them as opposed to example kicking out diplomats, which is a big mistake. I think in syria, what it does is it means youve got to think twice or three times before ever using u. S. Aircraft. You cant now discount the possibility of russian defensive reactions. And youve got the complications against drones or even Cruise Missiles. It just complicates what it is youre going to do. Going back to the conversation you and i had earlier this week, what it does is it raises the importance not simply of how we respond in a punitive way, but it raises the question of what we do Going Forward. I think the most significant thing we do in syria is we find a way to keep the few thousand u. S. Troops there in an openended way, and we work more closely than ever before with the syrian kurds to help them and look for ways to help the Syrian People. So we dont just think about a shortterm punitive response, we think about a longterm response that affects the future of syria. From Vladimir Putin and rash in the middle east for the First Time Since 1973, 1974, is there any option for the United States to remove those 2,000 troops out . Or would it be catastrophic . Or would it be ceding the entire region to russia, to iran, to isis, to assad . To actually or three or four greatest enemies on the globe. It would not just be a moral stain on the United States, probably more than anything else this would then become the equivalent of Barack Obamas red line. If right now donald trump after everything thats happened, after everything he said, after everything hes tweeted, after everything the russians, the syrians, the iranians have done, if he were to take u. S. Forces out, it would be fair to say this is his red line moment, he has blinked and the United States cannot be taken seriously in the middle east. Joining us now, the author of the report on the russians jamming u. S. Gps, Nbc News National Security and military reporter courtney cubey. Lets pick up this conversation about syria. You have russia saying weve gone in and checked, there were no chemical weapons used in that attack that killed at least 60 people. Thats the russian and syrian position. Theyve said if the United States launches missiles at syria, the missiles will be intercepted and the source of those missiles will be attacked by russian forces. With all this in play, what is the white house, what is the Defense Department considering in terms of a response to the alleged chemical attack in syria . Theres several different options on the table. One of them of course is similar to what we saw last april in 2017 after the devastating first chemical weapons attack when the u. S. Launched about 60 tomahawks in. That was really more of a, a strike that was to send a message to the assad regime. The u. S. Was saying, we know where the attack came from. We know what aircraft carried it out. They pocked up the runways, but it did have a big operational or Practical Impact on the ground or in the Syrian Militarys operations. Another option would be, something slightly more aggressive. The u. S. Officials that offensive been speaking with seem to think that this is this is where this International Response is going to fall is some sort of a slightly larger response, more broader response, which would include, you know, other u. S. Allies being involved. It would include probably going after maybe some Bashar Al Assad command and control. So something that would actually have more of an impact than halting operations at one Syrian Military base for one day, which is what we saw in april of 2017. And, of course, the most aggressive option would be for the United States and france, britain, whatever countries were willing to go in on this to actually go after not just Syrian Military but iranian and even Russian Military targets. Now, weve seen some pretty aggressive language out of the Russian Military. When they talk about going after the u. S. Any kind of a u. S. Asset responsible for this, theyre talking about u. S. Military ships in the med and u. S. Military aircraft. That is very aggressive language and its something that the russians can actually back up with action. They have an advanced antiair Defense System called the s400 sitting on the top of a mountain in aleppo. Its an integrated with russian and Syrian Military all over the country. So they can actually take out an aircraft or Cruise Missile coming into the country pretty reliably if they wanted to. Thats exactly what theyve threatened to do and go after the source of the missiles, the ships youre talking about. Great reporting. Thanks so much. Real quick, richard, as you listen to those options laid out, is there a concern about a confrontation with russia and iran . Theres so much in the stew in syria. Theres concern about that. Theres also concerns about getting drawn into the mire, the muck that is the syrian civil war. And its one of the reasons that people ought to be really careful about taking getting rid of assad or weakening him. But what courtney just laid out is the u. S. Options. Theres punitive options that even twice what we did last year, we shoot off 100 Cruise Missiles. They want to use chemicals again they will in a week or two. Theres not a great target set. Theres the risk you talk about again, i say dont just think punitively, think longterm. Think about ways we can make a difference in the longterm future of syria forces on the ground against terrorists, things to help the Syrian People that may not be as dramatic but may be more significant. A warning about fascism. Former secretary of state Madeline Albright is here with her new book. Morning joe is back in a moment. Bps natural gas teams use smart App Technology to share data from any well instantly. So they can analyze trends and stop potential problems in their tracks. Because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. Whoamike and jen doyle . Than i thought. Yeah. Time for medicare, huh. I have no idea how were going to get through this. Follow me. Choosing a plan can be supercomplicated. But it doesnt have to be. Unitedhealthcare can guide you through the confusion, with helpful people, tools and plans. Including the only plans with the aarp name. Well that wasnt so bad at all. Thats how we like it. Aarp medicare plans, from unitedhealthcare. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens brown paper packages tied up with strings these are a few of my favorite things that seth meyers story is amazing. We have to talk about that. Were just getting starting this morning. The white house says the president has been advised he has the power to fire bob mueller. He reportedly tried twice already. Will Congress Step in to protect the investigation . Raided on monday, talking about it on tuesday. The reporter will be here on set. Stormy daniels is now cooperating with the feds and her lawyer says they may be close to identifying the man who she says physically threatened her to stay silent about an alleged affair with donald trump. Plus, Mark Zuckerberg gets ready for round two on capitol hill, but are lawmakers prepared for the right questions . And Madeline Albright, former secretary of state, will join us on set. Morning joe is coming right back. Your brain changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. If your adventure keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips you may have overactive bladder, or oab. Ohhhh. Enough already we need to see a doctor. Ask your doctor about myrbetriq® mirabegron . It treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. Its the first and only oab treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions. If you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or difficulty breathing. Stop taking myrbetriq and tell your doctor right away. Myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. Myrbetriq may affect or be affected by other medications. Before taking myrbetriq, tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. Common side effects include increased blood pressure, common cold symptoms urinary tract infection, constipation, diarrhea, dizziness, and headache. Need some help managing your oab symptoms along the way . Ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you, and visit myrbetriq. Com to learn more. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you believe he has the power to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, does he believe thats within his power . Certainly believes he has the power to do with. Most legal experts believe he would have to have rod rosin stine and he could refuse. I know a number of legal individuals said he has the power to do so, but i dont have any further announcements. They said its Rod Rosenstein and only he has the power to fire the special counsel. Again, weve been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision. I cant go anything beyond that. Wow. Mika, they have been advised of that, but don jr. May not be the best person to talk to if you want advice on firing the special counsel because they can go ahead. The president can try to fire Robert Mueller, but then its going to be appealed to the Supreme Court and hes going to lose and it will be really, really embarrassing for him. It felt like the reporters had more information than the press secretary seemed to not i dont know. I dont know what happens in there exactly. Except for a plot of well all due respect to the press secretary, not only this press secretary but past press secretaries often so many things they say end up just not being true. Yeah. And what was said yesterday whoever is giving them legal advice, i dont know if its a bookie or if its ivanka, don jr. Someone out of Atlantic City or a fixer inside Deutsche Bank, i dont know who it is, but yeah. Might be a caddy thats saying, boss, use a 4 club and you can fire mueller. Definitely. Its wrong. Its wrong. Also, they cant fire mueller. The president cant fire mueller. If he does, then it will be appealed to the United StatesSupreme Court most likely and the court will reverse it, making matters much worse. But mika, lets look at what happened yesterday. Yeah. I think it was an important day. We criticized republicans for not saying enough, standing up to the abuses of power and the incoherent statements of policy that the president makes or the violation of constitutional norms, but lets look at what happened yesterday. If the president wanted to go after rosenstein and then get mueller out, we have a poll out showing now theyve been going in this direction for a long time, almost 70 of americans say they want Robert Mueller to finish his investigation. Only 12 of americans, only 1 in 10 americans want 13 , want Robert Mueller to be fired. Thats an extraordinarily low amount. The majority of republicans also believe Robert Mueller should finish his investigation. Now, beyond that, in the area that i think a lot of americans have been looking to for leadership where leadership has been sorely and sadly lacking, Senate Republicans did begin to speak out yesterday. Mitch mcconnell once again saying that Robert Mueller should be allowed to finish his investigation. Paul ryan has said the same thing. We have many issues with paul ryan, that has never been one of them. He has always stood up for the rule of law when it came to Robert Mueller finishing his investigation. You had the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, no small thing. This would be where any hearings would be on an impeachment trial were that to ever happen, the chairman of the senate Judiciary Committee said for donald trump to fire Robert Mueller would be, quote, suicidal and the president s own golfing buddy and another Senior Member of the Judiciary CommitteeLindsey Graham said it wouldnt be the end of the investigation, but it would be the beginning of the end of Donald Trumps presidency. Again, not the first time that lindsey said that. And that is very significant. Or as they would say, where lindseys from in south carolina, beautiful area, that aint nothing. That aint nothing. Thats significant. And bless his heart. Something donald trump has to understand. He listened to jared if you believe reports to fire comey. And he is where he is today because he fired comey. Uhhuh. If he fires if you believe these republicans, if he fires Robert Mueller, as lindsey said, it will be the beginning of the end of his presidency. So the ball is in his court. All that comes amid new reporting that the president sought to fire the special counsel last december. Thats according to interviews with eight unanimous people, including advisers, people close to the president , and others. This is the second reported instance in which the president moved to push out the prosecutor charged with investigating russian interference in the 2016 elections. So Donny Deutsche joins the table to talk about this and Stormy Daniels and facebook along with Senior Reporter at vanity fair and nbc news and msnbc contributor, Emily Jane Fox who spoke with Michael Cohen yesterday. That should be interesting. Washington bureau chief for usa today and host of kasiedc on msnbc kasie hunt. Laser rock. Now msnbc contributor, clint watts. We must now, though, stop what were doing and head out to hong kong where willie geist is standing by at the tweet desk. I dont know if we have a delay here, but willie, jump in. Sounds clean to me. Good. We were just talking in our last segment about the potential of an attack from syria and potential russian response. Well the president wait, can i ask something. Hold on one second. Willie, if youre in hong kong, why are you looking to your right . Im looking at my producer right here, my Hong Kong Based producer. Listen to this tweet, from the president of the United States, russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria, quote, get ready russia, because they will be coming. Nice and new and smart. You shouldnt be partners with a gaskilling animal who kills his people and enjoys it. Okay. So either previewing or perhaps announcing an american missile attack. Lets look at the good here, joe. I was going to say, is Richard Haass still with us. I dont see richard. Its all on you. Richard is taking a smoking break with you. Hes got his pipe. You know, this is actually, mika, this is very significant. Be curious to think what you and willie think about it. The fact that he is calling assad what assad is, hes a barbarian and he does violate all International Norms. So, listen, lets just take a quick turn here and say that donald trump, while this sounds like saber rattling and maybe frightening to certain people, ive got to say the fact that donald trump is now calling out Vladimir Putin and calling out the fact that hes an enabler for a man who continues to gas and kill children in the most heinous way and mothers and grandmothers and the elderly, the most heinous way, that actually is positive. Mika, are you calling richard back from the set. Yeah. I brought him over. I dont know if hes miked. Does he have a mike . Hes got a mike. I have a mike. And we have clint. Pretty remarkable thing when mika is motioning they can actually just show me and willie talking to each other. But thats okay. Alex is mad at me for doing so. We want to show you the president s tweet. Did you see it just now . I heard you talking about it. Well, he at least is focussed on russia. Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. Get ready, russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and smart. You shouldnt be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it. Richard haass. Its refreshing that the president is being so direct about rush sharks but this really raises the stakes. We dont want this to turn into a u. S. russian confrontation. We want to be able to use military force effectively to accomplish whatever our goals are in syria. So i dont quite i just dont think the president or people around him are thinking this through two, three steps at a time. Because this is going to increase the odds that putin is going to want to do something. Right. And that is not in our interests. We do not want this to turn into a u. S. russian standoff. Joe . Richard, i disagree that vladimir the last thing what Vladimir Putin has been very effective at doing is taking what limited power he has and projecting it as aggressively as possible whether its trying to impact our election or the elections in france or the elections across central europe. The last time that russians tried to get in our way, 20 of them were shot down and killed. Do you really think Vladimir Putin wants the Russian Military in syria to have a confrontation with the u. S. Military . Because thats just not going to end well for him, is it . He would like to show that russia can be an effective partner in ways the United States can. This just raises the stakes, joe. He does have effective air defenses. This is a onedimensional country. Look, the rubles have been in free fall this week. Things are going terribly at home. The only area where russia can compete at all is when it comes to Foreign Policy. Im not going to say theyre in any way our military equivalent, but they do have assets on the ground here and they can make it more difficult for us to use military force effectively, particularly because we ourselves are going to put limits on what we are prepared to do because we dont want to get caught up in the future of syria. Right. So trump but you have, though, Vladimir Putin in syria for a reason. He went into syria because he saw that america did not follow through when barack obama said that there was a red line there that couldnt be crossed. He saw that america backed down time and time again. He saw a void and he went in to fill it. If you have not only the United States now in syria trying to beat back isis and trying to check iranian expansion as much as possible, again, is this not an opportunity for the United States if putin believes that we are there and were threatening now, the president just did, to flex muscles to actually sit down and say you guys dont want a hot war. Lets talk about the future of syria. But that future will not what you will not what we will not allow that future to be is a future where your puppet, assad, gases 5yearold children and you stand between us and the possibility of stopping those attacks in the future. So, if we want to talk about the future of syria, we can do that sitting down talking together. But understand, that when International Norms are violated to this degree, we are going to come in and you best not get in our way. Is that not an opportunity to actually have a meeting to sit down to talk constructively about the future of syria . Yes. But the russians want to get a high payoff with a very low investment. I hear you on that. But this is almost the opposite of teddy roosevelt. I would rather speak more softly and carry a bigger stick. Its the same thing applies to china on trade and things like that. I dont think this makes it easier for the putins of the world to back down. I would just rather have us do what were going to do militarily. Create some new facts. Create a new context. And basically say to putin, the era in which you could accomplish a lot in syria at a low cost is now over. Lets have the conversation you want. I think the risk of the way the president is going about it, joe, is that he in some ways forces putin to probably be more active than he might otherwise be and that increases the military difficulty and raises a bit more political risk. All right. Right. And of course, mika, we dont want the president tweeting that way. No. But given the alternative which in the past is never be critical of Vladimir Putin, at least you have a president now drawing his own red line and that red line has been drawn and now the International Community is going to need to come to the aid of these victims of assads war crimes. Weve really lowered the bar. Richard haass, youre dismissed. Thank you. Appreciate it. I want to go to clint on this next question appreciate it the president always said he doesnt want to tell people what his intentions are. He wants to leave everyone guessing. This kind of doesnt leave anybody guessing. And im thinking that instead of a tweet that sounds like, you know, kids bullying each other, perhaps a carefully worded, carefully prepared, vetted by his National SecurityTeam Statement delivered at 4 00 eastern time on National Television or Something Like that would be far more dignified, far more careful and far more thought out because they would actually take the time to do that. Of course it would. Its funny he puts smart in quotation marks it sure wasnt. Rule number one, dont get into a twitter war with russia as weve seen the last four years. Their kremlin is way better at it than the white house. Second part is, if i remember right, the gop and the republicans were always very hard on president obama for telegraphing his actions in afghanistan or iraq. Well, this would seem to be that. I think the third thing is now hes put himself in a trap where he has to deliver on something. He has to deliver on his tough talk. And, yeah, who is the best person to really deal with this . General mcmaster. We were talking about drones earlier. He was the one before becoming the National Security adviser who was really focussing not on iraq and afghanistan but hybrid warfare. How do we deal with what we saw russia do in ukraine and what we saw them doing in syria. Hes not there now. Now we have the new National Security adviser in bolton. He doesnt have the best team to handle this situation. He just had them. Now hes sort of picking a fight and putting out promises that im not sure that he can deliver on. As Richard Haass and other people mentioned, just firing missiles into syria, they come up with air Defense Systems to block those missiles, it will make us look more weak. Hes put himself in a trap. General rule on warfare is act first and talk afterwards. This is a tough position. Your thoughts on this and john bolton, day three on the job, you come to work and just find tweets that you didnt approve, had nothing to do with and had no idea the president was thinking or maybe hes right, theyre over his shoulder. I dont know. Here we see the president s inflicting come pulses when it comes to syria. He saw the pictures of little children being gassed. He wants to strike back and look decisive as he did a year ago. On the other hand, he wants to get us out of syria, as he said last week. That was last week. And that was last week. Madeleine albright among others suggested that the president s words last week emboldened assad that they was free to launch this chemical weapons attack. The scary thing, every decision he is making now is against the backdrop of this donald trump right now. And thats particularly frightening. Yes, it is. Yeah, but you know, though, willie, again, nobody is defending the president s language. Nobody is using defending the president s use of tweets. At the same time, this is who this president is. And well see how the policy gets fleshed out. But for two years we have been complaining about the fact that the president has never stood up to Vladimir Putin. That he had some very strange behavior towards him. Hes been on seek wees you. Hes kowtowed to him time and again. At least for those of us who have wanted the president to speak out and stand up to the abuses of putin and putins government, this certainly beats the alternative. Again, it is not perfect. Its far from perfect and we shouldnt be having a president that makes threats over, you know, in a tweet storm. But at the same time, we have now seen two negative tweets towards Vladimir Putin in a week. Something may be changing inside that head of his. Yeah. I think its good that hes criticizing putin. I also think its pretty obvious place to criticize him when you talk about the gassing and the Chemical Attacks on as you said on young children. It would be hard not to criticize him at this point. Kasie, we had senator tim kane on and his concerns over syria that it should go through congress. This shouldnt be unilateral action coming out of the oval office. There should be renewed mission for military force and go through the way wars used to be prosecuted which was to be approved by congress before they took place. Does that run through the mind of this white house at all or is he just going on his own here . Willie, i think the tweet speaks for itself in that regard. You know, i had talked to one senior senator yesterday, one key senator on this, who said that they were expecting a private briefing from Senior Administration officials on what the plan would be in syria as early as this morning. It seems as though that may have come across in these tweets instead. There has been some progress on the authorization of use of military force fronts. There was something of a deal or at least an agreement in principle struck yesterday to try to do something about this. But dont forget that last time this happened when president obama was in office, he went to congress and he said, do you guys want to do this . Youre demanding that you have a voice here. Of course obama had been scarred by iraq and that really defined his political legacy. But he went up there and at the end of the day the members of congress didnt want to take the vote. They didnt want to have to be on the record saying yes, we should go to war here. A similar dynamic could play out in this case if the president were to take that step, which again, not clear hes the kind of president who would do that. Well have senator chris coo conns on to talk about this. I have to say that joe was staying that something might be changing in his head. I dont think anything changes. He tweets to deflect. Emily jane fox and donny, youre here to talk about the Michael Cohen raid and whats going on with the mueller probe. I think a lot of the president s actions often can be seen as a massive deflection. But we have only deflected for ten minutes. Were going to take a break and well, but ive got to say, though, mika, on the deflection front, i would much rather the United States of america and its leaders be focussed on whats happening in syria than Stormy Daniels. So if this is a deflection from Stormy Daniels, hes deflecting in the right direction. What is happening in syria will impact this country, will impact the region, will impact the world for years to come. So i understand the legal challenges he faces in the Stormy Daniels case. Im just telling you that right now as it comes when youre looking at policies that are going to impact this country for a long time, whats happening in syria today will be one of those things. So, yes, president has to do more than one thing at a time as larry kidlow said a couple days ago. Syria is not a deflection. Syria is actually a critically important issue. Im not saying syria is a deflection. Im saying a childish tweet that sounds like a second grader trying to bully somebody in talking about syria. Is not productive, its a deflection. Wants to have a cabinet meeting, wants to have mattis put out a statement later that really draws out our strategy and makes us understand the import of the problem and how were going to address it, i will take that. I will not take this. This is not good for america. Were going to turn right now to bill neilly standing by in beirut with more. Bill . Yeah, good morning, mika. Well, this is an extraordinary tweet from President Trump from any press, not just signaling his intent but signaling weapons and directly threatening russia. What it came from was an interview here on Lebanese Television last night by the Russian Ambassador in which he said that any u. S. Missiles fired at syria would be shot down. And the launch sites would also be targeted. Now crucially he didnt say that russia would engage in that kind of retaliation. He also said that he was simply repeating the views of president putin and the Russian Military chief of staff in moscow. But clearly that was an interview that has got under President Trumps skin and resulted in that extraordinary tweet. And this goes to the heart of that calculation here. You know, in this region especially in syria, all eyes are on the skies at the moment. There are reports of syrian troops fleeing headquarters and air bases reports that syrian aircraft are moving to more secure locations, but the key question is, for example, are those aircraft moving to russian bases which would make the whole calculation of a military strike much more difficult for the u. S. And france . And what will russias response really be . And in moscow this morning, Russias Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told nbc news there are large numbers of russians in syria and russia will do everything to protect its people in syria. So again, how far does that pledge go . Will russia engage . And obviously, you know, its one thing last year to have one Cruise Missile strike or 59, one strike on one target on one night, this everyone is suggesting will be different and has to be different, but does the u. S. Is there any possibility that the u. S. Would target even by accident any kind of russian base or there would be russian casualties because that would change the calculus completely mika. Thank you very much bill neely. We have a lot to get to. Well get back into the conversation about Michael Cohen. And what he thinks about trump and mueller and whether he should fire him. A lot more ahead on morning joe. Well be right back. This year, were taking it up a notch. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Nobody glows. He gets it. Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com hais not always easy. Severe plaque psoriasis its a longdistance run and you have the determination to keep going. Humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for over ten years. Its the 1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists. 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And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Emily jane fox of vanity fair is here and you spoke to Michael Cohen yesterday. Youve been talking to him a lot recently. What did he sound like yesterday . What did you hear . He sounded like Michael Cohen typically sounds. I think this is obviously a different situation. He understands the weight of whats happening. It was a really rough way to start his week. And this is certainly not what he expected. He was fully focussed on the Stormy Daniels stuff. And monday did come as a surprise, but i did learn that its not like they came the agents came to the regency and broke down his door at the crack of dawn. It wasnt a breakin . They broke into his office. They broke the lock in the office. When they came to his hotel where he has been staying, they about a dozen agents came at 7 30 in the morning. He was already awake. He stressed how polite and courteous and respectful the agents were to both him and his family as well as his property, at least in his home and the hotel as well. And he said that he thanked them on the way out. So its interesting. He said that on the record. Uhhuh. Donmy deutsche, you know him very well because the president called it not only a breakin but attack on our country. It appears Michael Cohen wants to make sure he is very polite to the people that hes dealing with now, which does not include the president. Clearly. I thought that was actually very smart of him after the fact. It made it seem a lot less sinister and he was much less threatened. I do know michael very well and michael every time i talked to him, i am loyal to the president. I am loyal to the president. I can say, michael, you got to protect yourself and your family. Michael at this point, for whatever his emotional, legal, personal reasons is devotely, devotely, devoutly loyal to this president where i cant understand it candidly. I will see it as this unfolds, two days ago it was not about russia. It was not. It was about banking and finance. When you scratch that scab, theres a lot of puss coming out of it. Thank you, donny. Donny, i dont know if you know this or not and maybe its because nobody comes up to you and talks to you in public spaces. Never. People tell willie, mika and i they love watching the show and sit there and watch it with their family while theyre eating breakfast before the kids go to school. If you can check the language there, that would be great. Lot of people not eating. It is interesting i heard people say time and again that michael is very loyal to donald trump, but you know michael. He has children. He has a wife. He has a family. The man has to be awfully isolated by now. And i just cant imagine that hes willing to sacrifice the well being of his children for the well being of trumps children. Thats those words i used exactly. I also i think michael has a chance to be on the right side of history, frankly. Michael if you go on the premise i think in every instance they raided a lawyers the fbi raided lawyers, theyve ended up in jail. Michael can have one of two legacies. Michael can have a legacy of spending time in jail and being one of all the president s men, the man. Or he can have a legacy in the history books that maybe changes the course of history and brings down this presidency. Thats obviously very heavy on michaels shoulders and decisions he has to make. To your point, joe, i cant go ahead. Im sorry, donny. Forget about bringing down this presidency. Just tell the truth. Just tell the truth. That would bring down the presidency. Well, but just tell the truth so you can go on and live your life. Tell the fbi the truth. That seems to me to be the easy, simple way forward. Yeah. I think the calculus clearly changed for his story arc with what happened a couple days ago. There is going to be that cross road. That is why donald trump was sitting there the other day like this. Fuming. Donald trump knows whats there. And earlier in the show we keep talking about hes not going to fire. Hell get impeached. Donald trump will do anything but allow this rock to be peeled open. So even if it means i truly believe this him quitting or getting impeached. He is not going to let this process go forward. He cannot. But hes got no choice. Willie, at this point, this is what he has to understand. If he fires Robert Mueller, the investigation will continue on that level, somehow, some way. While that investigation is going on, there is a separate independent investigation in the Southern District of new york. That will move forward regardless. He can fire mueller and it doesnt impact that. Even if those two investigations went away and they never will, eric sneiderman, the attorney general for the state of new york, is investigating now and people are going to most likely go to jail. Thats actually the worst case scenario. He fires mueller, all of these state actions begin and he cant pardon anybody that is sent to jail. But youre gaming this out in a rational way. You thought this through. You see you watch the dominos fall. I think to donnys point, President Trump we learned over the years is impulsive, obviously and just looks at that first domino, the first thing thats in front of him, the thing thats in the way, the thing that he thinks could hurt him get rid of that thing and then deal with whatever comes after. Back to Michael Cohen, though, emily, because you covered him so well and you know that the people who are in that inner, inner circle with donald trump, going back years from the trump organization, people like Michael Cohen and keith sheeler, his longtime body guard and friend, the loyalty is deeper than i think anyone watching understands. But, we had frank on yesterday, former fbi official and i asked him, if were talking about in the case of Michael Cohen and that raid, why are fraud, bank fraud, campaign finance, whats the prison sentence . And he said decades. Its decades. So whats the breaking point for Michael Cohen . You know, ive asked him this a number of times. And ive never gotten a straight answer about that. You have to understand if we want to jump inside Michael Cohens head here and donny knows this as well, there is such a twisted psychology there that Michael Cohen for a decade has been known as one thing and that is Donald Trumps fixer. And so this is kind of an identity crisis that hes facing right now. Monday morning youre raided in your hotel room, your office is raided, your family is there. That is a impossible thing to even imagine, but also imagine that everything that you believe about yourself could now change and it has changed in an instance. And also since the Stormy Daniels story broke, i mean, ive heard from several people that its been tough for him, personally, tough for his family is not happy for him, whatever. This whole year. At some point dont you have to make a decision between being able to look at your wife and your daughter in the eye and being loyal to trump. To emilys point, though, to emilys point, though, this is who he as much as well see Something Like the fixer. He loves that. Im being honest with you. Its a similar thing ive talked on the show that i met monica lewinsky. She cant let go of being bill clintons mistress because thats brought her down, thats her identity. Theres a similar thing with michael, as detrimental and raiser blade sharp as it, to emilys point, once he lets go of that, who is Michael Cohen. Michael cohen has to deal with that. Emily and i talk a lot. When you see him as a character from a distance, hes thuggish. When you know him, hes very likable. Very gentle. Very likable about him. This is bizarre to say ive seen him. He seems like a good guy. What are you talking about . And i do think a lot is going ive spent hours with him, a lot is going to rest on Michael Cohens shoulders. Thats one man thats got a lot of thinking to do. Yes, Emily Jane Fox, thank you very much. Donny deutsche, thank you as well. Still ahead on morning joe, europe is quite literally stuck between the u. S. And russia and is surely watching the president s twitter warning to moscow. Up next, well bring in retired ambassador and from the Foreign Relations committee, senator chris coons and Richard Haass will rejoin the table. Well get him a chair. 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Bp is taking safety glasses to a whole new level. Using augmented reality so engineers in the field can share data and get expert backup in the blink of an eye. Because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. 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. Look how much coffees in here . Fresh coffee. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Do you wear this every day . Everyday. Id never take it off. Are you ready to say goodbye to it . Go go ta da a terrarium. Thats it. We brewed the love, right guys . all yes. Joining us now, chris coons of delaware making news on his efforts protect special counsel Robert Mueller many. Also with us, americas former ambassador to the organization for security and cooperation in europe, ambassador daniel bear is with us. But first, joe, we go to hong kong. So just to follow up on the president s tweet f youre joust joining us, the president tweeted get ready, russia. The bombs will be coming. Nice and new and smart. You shouldnt be partners with a gaskilling animal who kills his people and enjoys it. That was several minutes ago. He now followed up with this. Our relationship with russia is worse now than it has ever been, that includes the cold war. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do. And we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race, the president asks. Joe . Yes. Richard haass, that is the carrot following the stick. Again, and its what i had said, what we were talking about before that, yes, there is a possibility for us to sit down and actually improve our relationship with russia, but certainly we cant do that if donald trump seems as ill say the word again, on seek wees you to Vladimir Putin and desperate for a relationship or a friendship with Vladimir Putin that i will say it and people will get angry. Its just the truth. Barack obama was starting to 2007 at the end of 2007 talking about the possibility of an iranian deal. If the president shows some toughness, there is the possibility of an arms length agreement with putin and syria that could make a difference. What would that agreement look like . Joe, let me just push back a little bit. The president can accomplish his Foreign Policy ends of his naive use about Vladimir Putin or anybody else. He can accomplish it if hes overly confrontation. This is a dangerous time. U. S. Commitments in europe are far greater than our capabilities. We still live in an era the United States and russia each have thousands of nuclear weapons. Russia has greater military assets in syria than we do. So weve the president s dial is always to confront and provoke and he creates a context of compromise. This is a dangerous game. Its a dangerous game given that russia is now essentially a onedimensional power. Its one dimension is military power. All Vladimir Putin has going for him is nationalism. Its as if nobody in the white house ever read anything about 1962 and the cuban missile crisis. The president s right, we have less of a relationship with russia now than we did with the soviet union at the height of the cold war. But that also is an argument for little bit of caution. We need to be tough with them, but discipline tough. This is not discipline tough. This is the reason weve created a National Security council to make sure when we confront our adversaries, we do it in a careful, disciplined manner. This ought to make people take pause. Well, i agree with you richard. We, though, are in the middle of Trump Administration and you are exactly right that a lot of negative, harmful rhetoric towards china was matched with the president building a relationship with the president there and well see what comes out of that. Again, im not defending p president s approach at all. My question, though, remains and let me go to senator chris coons. A relationship with russia is as bad as it has been probably since the early 1980s, maybe 1980 when we refused to send our athletes to the olympics in moscow. So the question is, how do we move back from that position . And what does what is the first step in that process . And what could we agree to in syria with the russians that would actually help us move towards a more constructive relationship with a country that we have to have a constructive relationship with . Well, joe, ill agree with richard that the only thing thats worse than a bad plan is no plan. And it is unclear to those of us in the Foreign Relations committee or the leadership of congress exactly what the president s plan is with regards to syria and more importantly right. Russia. I understand that. You both are saying that. My question to both of you is what does a constructive plan look like . What should we have people inside the white house advising the president to do . What does that plan look like Going Forward . We understand donald trump is a hot head. We dont want him to be our commander in chief. He is. What should james mattis be recommending to the president this morning that he do to make this relationship more constructive . First, the president just two weeks ago was saying that we should withdraw fully from syria. I think that partly created this crisis. The president should not withdraw from syria abruptly. It is our presence on the ground. It is our on going engagement with the Kurdish Forces that helped take out most of isis that gives us the presence in syria that also gives us leverage on the diplomatic table. Senator, all due respect, i understand, senator. I wrote a column in the Washington Post about that this past weekend. I agree. I go back to my question for you and for Richard Haass, what does a constructive path look forward between the United States and russia . How can we leverage this crisis and use this crisis to actually make a constructive step forward in american russian relations. Its a given that donald trump is making a terrible mess of things. What should we be doing instead . Joe, i would be totally in favor of the United States joining the international talks about the future of syria. These have been quietly going on behind the scenes. We have essentially been a nonparticipant. And this is the only path i can think of where one day, not any time soon, you would actually see a successor government. I would be more than happy to have as soon as we have a secretary of state for him to sit down with Sergei Lavrov and talk about the future of syria. In the meantime, though, we need to as the senator said keep control of the 25 of syria that the syrian kurds have. If anything, i would potentially maybe even slightly increase the u. S. Force presence there just to send a message. Whatever we do punitively now is a message sender. But the real question is lets begin to reestablish a diplomatic relationship with russia. For example, there hasnt been a congressional delegation there in four, five years. Lets begin those again. So lets be both tougher with them, with sanctions, with our military force, but also more interactive with them diplomatically. We need to get both sides of this right. I agree. Senator, i ask you what do you think . I agree we need to have congressional delegations engage with the russian president and President Trumps ambassador to moscow specifically urged that. Russia blocked the most recent delegation of senators that tried to go to moscow for meetings. We also have to hold russia accountable for assads murderous actions against his own people. He cant just use chemical weapons against his own people without consequences. So we need to commit to staying in the country. We need to hold russia accountable for the crimes being committed by assad, and actively engage in a diplomatic strategy, which includes being willing to commit to helping rebuild syria if there is a future transition in government post assad. So why dont we bring you in this way. Holding russia accountable, obviously easier said than done. What are you pit falls . Obviously easier said than done. And also the obvious point and one point that i am sure richard would agree on is that were not going to solve u. S. russia relationship on the ground with syria. Or on twitter. Or on twitter. I think with respect to the president s tweet this morning, we have this very disturbing once again an action without a strategy. So we need a strategy for syria and when with theres a kinetic element on of that that exists in a broader context, separately from that our related to that, we do need to do hard work on engaging with russia. But we have to have engagement with toughness. And, you know, one of the things obviously there was the exchange of diplomatic expulsions which have huge consequences on our diplomates based in russia. But we need to go after russia oligarchs. The people who hold up putins mobster style regime and we need to make sure that we are ready to do that. But we have to to do that had in the context of a broader strategy. The onus is on President Trump now to show that he has a plan. Last year he took action and he kaem out for two months, but he had no plan to use any other tools than 59 tomahawks. And we dont know that his tweets move there is a plan. Susan, you spoke with Madeline Albright this morning. One of the concerns madeleine expressed to me yesterday was who is giving the president advice . From Stormy Daniels to secretary on of state to to syria. He seems to be cleaning house. And i think theres concern by both domestic and Foreign Policy advisers that is the president hearing smart voices and is he hearing from people who say you dont want to follow instinct on this. You need to do this other smart thing. And i wonder what you think about that, the power of the advisers around him to affect what it is hes going to be doing. And one, is he capable of listening to smart voices . Obviously we talk about the nominee for the new secretary of state. Who dont believe in diplomacy but who are likely to be yes men. Senator, in the back drop of all this as the president devices a work plan, is the russia investigation bringing concerns about where he will be headed. New this morning and some have joined forces with republican senators, cory booker on board for this legislation. The special counsel independence and integrity act. This is the much discussed law. Why do you believe specifically that legislation like this is necessary . I think it is in our best interest of the country, our republic, the rule of law, its in the president s best interests to make sure Robert Mueller is able to complete his investigation uninterfered with by the president. And the threats that the president has been making on twitter and in his press comments earlier this week. The way he characterized the socalled breakin to Michael Cohens office and hotel room and the way hes dismissed the investigation as a witchhunt has many in congress concerned that the president may, mak, abruptly fire either Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general, or try and fire Robert Mueller directly, which would cripple his presidency. We are trying to step up as congress and take action. Im going on to be urging judiciary chairman grassley and majority leader mcconnell to take this bill up promptly back to the russia context. The senate and the house acted in a strong bipartisan way to enact a law that pushed the president to put sanctions on russia after they interfered in our last election. This is another moment where strong bipartisan action could prevent the president from doing something abrupt. So as you know, senator, there is great resistance among Senate Republicans including from the majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell who said this law is not necessary. Our republican senators say it may be, in fact, unconstitutional. What do you say to the majority leader who says we dont need had this law because the president would never take the step of firing bob mueller . The d. C. Circuit just confirmed an opinion in january that it is still good law, that it is possible for us to move forward with a law that prevents the president from firing the special counsel for other than good cause. It upheld a long had standing decision in in that case. More importantly, i think that the events of this past week may have changed some minds in the Republican Caucus that there is a moment here for the senate to stand up and to save the president from himself. It is called the special counsel independence and integrity act. It is bipartisan. Well see how far it gets in the senate. Senator, thanks for your time. Still ahead this morning, much more on the president s tweet about russia with former secretary on of state madeleine allbright. Plus, the average age of a member of congress is 57. For senators, its 61. With that said, some lawmakers, perhaps, a bit dated by facebook ceo Mark Zuckerberg and facebook itself at yesterdays hearing. Well see how senators prepared for round two later this morning. And the white house says the president has been advised that he has the power to fire bob mueller, but where is he getting that advice . Morning joe is coming right back. Come to my window ohh crawl inside wait by the light of the moon applebees to go. Order online and get 10 off 30. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. And get 10 off 30. When it comes to strong bones, are you on the right path . We have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture, so with our doctors we chose prolia® to help make our bones stronger. Only prolia® helps strengthen bones by stopping cells that damage them with 1 shot every 6 months. 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Really . vo feed their fantasy. Friskies. When this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. Hold on dad. Liberty did what . Yeah, Liberty Mutual 24hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. My dad says our insurance doesnt have that. Dont worry i know what a lug wrench is, dad. Is this a lug wrench . Maybe . You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. To an issue that has been of great alternative to americans over the past year. For over 12 months now. I refer, of course, to the investigations of the socalled watergate affair. Russia. I have provided to the special prosecutor voluntarily a great deal of material. I believe over a million pages worth of documents. Times come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter toen an end. There was no collusion at all. No collusion. But i was elected for the purpose of doing a job and doing it as well as i possibly can. Weve done a fantastic job. And i have no intention whatever of walking away from the job that the people elected me to do. Has the president at any time thought about stepping down . No, and i think thats an absolutely ridiculous question. The white house says the president has no intention of are resigning, but today he is openly considering the firing of an independent investigator in what could be the most sequential political decision since five men broke into dnc headquarters more than four decades ago. Welcome the to morning joe oh. Its wednesday, april 11th. We have mike barnacle, president of the counsel on Foreign Relations and author of the book a world in disarray richard haas. Former fbi special agent now an msnbc contributor clint moss and in washington nbc capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie d. C. You start with the Richard Nixon donald trump matchup. And its interesting, when Richard Nixon was sitting there saying, its time to bring this investigation to an end, that was in january of 1974. That investigation would go on another seven or eight months. And when nixon was saying nothing to see here, move along, move along, its saying that this is nothing more than a witchhunt. And nixon was saying that in july of 1973. That was a year. That was a year before we even learned of the nixon tapes which, of course, eventually made the Supreme Court demand that he turn over the tapes. Thats what nixon did knowing that it would bring an end to his presidency. So we have a long way to go in this investigation. There are things that were learning every day. Theyre only the most partisan donald Trump Supporters are suggesting that Robert Mueller not complete the investigation. I think it was good yesterday, mika, that there were republicans and Republican Leaders who stood out and put the rule of law above their own Political Party or above protecting the president of the United States. Saying Robert Mueller should be able to finish his investigation and the American People are with Mitch Mcconnell. Even the majority of americans who call themselves republicans are with Mitch Mcconnell. Lets get to the New York Times reporting. The President Donald Trump sought to fire Robert Mueller last december. Thats according to interviews with eight anonymous people include advisers, people close to the president and others. This is the second reported incident in the investigation of the 2016 elections after reportedly asking don mcgaun to decides miss him last june, again, threat. Enned to quit. The episode in december was sparked by reports by bloomberg, reuters and the wall street journal that mueller issued subpoenas involving trump business records. That report from the times comes as krn reports that the the president is once again weighing whether to fire Rod Rosenstein after earlier reports say trump considered removing his Deputy Attorney general last year. However, white house staffers reportedly do not take trumps word seriously. Quote, the venting has usually been dismissed by his advisers, many of whom say they come to see the statements less as direct orders than as simply how the president talks. Interesting. One former adviser said people have become conditioned to wait until mr. Trump raises an issue three times before acting on it. He did say it out loud. This is the same reaction we got from the white house in january which is that the president says a lot of things. New york times reporter Michael Schmidt joins us now. Michael, there is a ton in here. People said hell never fire bob mueller if for nothing else than his own selfinterest because he knows this could cost him his presidency. But it appears time and again that he is entertaining the idea of firing bob mueller and, in fact, sara sanders says he believes the president has the right to fire bob mueller. Youre right. This is something he has thought a lot about. This is not a new thing. The president has thought about getting rid of them since last may. The biggest question now is maybe not mueller as much as it is rosenstein. Rosenstein, someone called me the ultimate survivor. Now under the president s really coming after him again, really wanting to get rid of him, seeing him as the the person who oversees mueller if trump were able to install someone more loyal than him that could have more of an influence over the investigation. That is the thing that we heard repeatedly yesterday was something the president was looking at here. The president does say a lot of things. This issue was significant to us. And the this sort of looming question over all this is this sort of red light if mueller looks into his finances he is violating that. This shows us how the president reacted to that. So, Michael Schmidt, i am just wondering who is around donald trump explaining to him what a disaster it would be if he fired bob mueller. Or possibly even Rod Rosenstein. You have Mitch Mcconnell coming out and saying what he said yesterday. Weve been very critical of paul ryan for not speaking out against the constitutional abnormalities of this president. But even paul ryan consistently has said dont fire mueller, let him finish the job. Jan than turley on yesterday who has actually defended the president at times throughout this process it it would be the end of his presidency. We have a poll out this morning saying 7 in 10 americans support bob muellers investigation and say he has to be able to finish it. The majority of republicans are saying the same thing. 69 say he should fought be fired. Only 13 saying that bob mueller should be fired. These numbers have changed radically. Is the president just blowing off steam, from what you can tell, or is he going to triple down on the mistake that he made when he fired comey. . I think youre right on the comey thing. How big and bad is the comey scar on trump . Trump thought that he was really doing something bold and politically savvy in getting rid of comey and it turned out to be a massive miscalculation that unleashed mueller and has now cast this cloud over his presidency. Does trump still feel the person from that. Loom egg in the background is comey once again because commys book will be coming out next week. The president cannot help himself but usually engage and lash out about them. So, michael, the talk around town has been for some time from our friends and people who have friends in the finance community, everybody says the secrets at Deutsche Bank. If you want to know about trump, if you want to know about his financial misdealings, then go to Deutsche Bank. You have a report about how donald trump was ready to fire bob mueller because he had heard reports that mueller was going to investigate his holdings and his actions in Deutsche Bank. And it wasnt until his aide said, wait, thats false. And donald trump decided not the to fire bob mueller. Any reporting on what activity donald trump engaged in with Deutsche Bank that was so horrific that it would make him risk his presidency to try and stop Law Enforcement investigators from finding out what he did with Deutsche Bank . We have not had a lot of insight because congress has not been willing to subpoena Deutsche Bank for records that they have. Thats something that i think if you saw the democrats come into power in the beginning of next year, that may be different. They might fight harder and push on a subpoena on Deutsche Bank to get at what information they have there. We dont know a lot about Donald Trumps relationship with Deutsche Bank. We know hes relied on a broker there, a wealth manager this there that has, you know, access to different pools of capital, is someone that has a bit of a different style and portfolio. Beyond that, i dont know a ton, but we know that this was something that he thought crossed that red line, this area of looking at his finances beyond russia. And regardless of the Deutsche Bank loan, it looks like the Justice Department in and of itself and the prosecutors were working without mueller walked up if not crossed that red line with the going into skieting the search warrant and Michael Cohens office. The bar to clear with rosenstein signing off on it is very high. Rosenstein knew exactly what the impact of this was and what an aggressive move it was. So theyre doing that and with no apparent tie to russia because if it had a tie to russia, it would be run by bob mueller. Up next, how republicans are reacting to all this. They seem convinced the president wont fire mueller even though white house says he can if he wants to. What it means for politics and more importantly the country. Straight ahead on morning joe. So we swapped your car out for the allnew chevy traverse. 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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. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Desire to get rid of Robert Mueller was apparently no secret on capitol hill. Weeks after the second demand to fire mueller came, senator mark warner, vice chair of the intelligence committee, gave a speech about protecting the special coup. Last night, Warners Communications director tweeted when mark warner delivered his red line speech to warner against firing mueller back in december, a lot of people asked why now . This is why. This as Senate Republicans see no need to pass legislation to shield the special counsel. Mueller should be allowed to finish his job. I havent seen clear indication yet that we needed to pass something, to keep him from being removed because i dont think thats going to happen. So he shouldnt be removed from the office. He should be allowed to finish the job. Removing mueller creates more problems than it solves. Hes been advised against it by a lot of members of congress and frankly, i think a lot of people on his staff. I have can confidence in mueller. The president ought to have confidence in mueller. It would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing mueller. Im not concerned that hell fire mueller. I dont think hell fire rosen sateen. Hes not going to do that. I think the president is too smart to fire mr. Mueller. If it did, it wouldnt about end the investigation. This is painful, but we have to finish it. Hes too smart, kasie hunt, to fire mueller . Is that what theyre going on here . Because theres legislation that would make sure he cant fire mueller. If these republicans are so sure to step out in front of the cameras for the first time for some of them in a long time, why dont they just pass the legislation and make sure he cant. I dont know anybody who really, with a straight face, can trust that this president means what he says after the patterns and the track record we have seen throughout his entire presidency. Do i need to make a list . I mean, my god. I think that would not be hard. It would be long. And it would be very long. But i do think you should read my read on senator kennedys comments there is that there are people who learned how to try and convince the president to do things. And one way to do that is flattery and putting the frame, hey, hes too smart to do this is something that i think they believe will appeal to trump. Theyre going to trust flattery and thinking that they can get him to do things over legislation that would make sure he cant . Im not sure that they feel like they have a good option here. First of all, there are some questions about whether or not legislation would actually be effective in preventing the firing of Robert Mueller. Theres so many legal questions. There are statues on the books about rosenstein, does trump have the authority to fire somebody in the executive branch. The courts have not waited on that. So you should think of the legislation more as essentially a way to send some serious warning shots in trumps direction. And there are a couple of steps that they could take to kind of escalate this. The first one would be potentially a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. If that was something they allowed to go forward, that would send a signal to the white house that, hey, were more serious about this than maybe you think. I hate to by the cynical political analyst on this, but they are face ago difficult situation. If Mitch Mcconnell and his vulnerable republicans are in congress essentially pushing legislation that makes the president potentially look bad or puts him in a difficult position, thats really hard for them as they had try to motivate their base Republican Voters who are Trump Supporters to get out and vote for them in thoef. Coming up on morning joe, the first woman to serve as americas secretary of state is standing by with her important perspective on Foreign Policy from syria and north korea to the creeping thread of fascism around the world. Well be right back. 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Utilizing pg es talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. The things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harms way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldnt ask for a better partner. We are following breaking news on House Speaker paul ryan and his future in congress. Axias is reporting ryan has told confidants that he will announce soon that he will not be running for reelection in november. That report is citing sources with knowledge of the conversations. Axios adds after Congress Passed tax reform, he was ready to step out of a job that has many become endlessly frustrating in part because of President Trump. Joining us now on the phone, National Political reporter for axios. How did this go down . Paul ryan is planning to tell colleagues today that hes not going to run for reelection in november. This decision has been long rumor heed, but has been kept extremely closely. Paul ryan told a few, a very small group of confidants last night and he plans to tell the staff this morning and his colleagues today. We just broke that on axios a few minutes ago. What is behind this decision . As you said, this has sort of been out there for a while. It was ordered back in december and the speaker had to come out and refruit that story. What dives his decision here . Well, talking to to friends of his and people who worked with him for a long time, look, paul ryans driving goal ever since he joined congress ever since he drove the tax cuts and he very much saw that as a crowning achievement when they passed it. He didnt want that job as speaker. Its actually not a very pleasant job. He has to content with a gop congress, he will constantly trying to knife him. Theyre staring down the barrel, frankly, of potentially losing the house in november. So i dont know that paul ryan minority leader is a particularly appealing title. So i think a lot of those factors came into play. Hes still very young, so he may end up coming back to politics at some oint. But this is a long if the works how much of this, jonathan, is about President Trump . Obviously theres a possibility of losing the house this fall. Weve watched spooker ryan being asked about a tweet coming can out by President Trump and asked to xhen on it. Is he exhausted by the president . Its no mystery that those two have never really bonded. They have incredibly different in terms of personality, in terms of their policy priorities and at different times theyve been at war. But, look, i thinklty of other factors have played into it. Again, its an unmanageable conference. Running that republican conference is almost an xwok job. You dont have a unified artery. You have a bunch of conservative half members who have really been actively plottediing to ge rid of paul ryan. His daily job is quite difficult. Do you know if he is planning to go make this a public announcement with a statement or i guess hell have to. Right . I dont know that there are plans, but for the rollout, i suspect that we spoiled their rollout somehow. But, look, its a very small group of people who knew about this. So there are people on his staff who didnt know about it this morning. My gosh. Jonathan swan, thank you very much. Keep us posted. Im trying to figure out where you are as youre talking to us on the phone. I think hes getting out of his apartment and putting his tie on. Speaking of putting his tie on, joe, what is your gut . Paul ryan announcing at this point that hes or he hasnt announced it, but hes going to, say, today that he is not running again. Hes done. As we said before, mika, i guess earlier this week when we were talking about the possibility of paul ryan making this announcement in the coming days or weeks, this is a job that he had to be pushed into. He had been he had gotten the job of his life, at least his public life, when he became chairman of the ways and means committee. Hes always been focused from, you know, the time i first met him when he was in his early 20s and then when i went out and campaigned for him in 1998, which really was seen as a swing district then. Paul ryan was focused on taxes. He wanted on to pass a sweeping piece of tax legislation that looked a lot like the bill that was passed earlier this year. And for a guy who struggled with coming back into the fray and being speaker of the house, complaining privately at the time that it would mean that he would spend too much time away from his children, oovp time away from his wife, too much time away from his home in janesville, wisconsin, this is not really much of a surprise. I am sure, if paul ryan had known that taking the speakership would require him to have to deal with a president like donald j. Trump, he would have never taken that position in the first place. So i suspect theres a lot of relief for paul, pore his wife, and for his family. So well see what he has to say later today when he potentially announces this. Joining us now, formerees secretary of state Madeline Albright. Shes out with a new book, fassism a warning. And your timing is incredible. Thank you very much for being on. I wonder who youre warning, ultimately, with the title of this book. Well, im warning the American Public because this book and the timing of it i hadnt had this plan. I would have written this book no matter what. But the book gives a historical picture where fascism was and how different it is in every era. Well, i do think there are certain steps that are there and we are seeing the kinds of things that ive been warning about, which is a maligning of the press and talking about the presss the enemy of the people, a president who thinks that hes above the law. The use on of slogans and the meetings to really generate even more a division in societies and a lack of sense of what Democratic Institutions are about. So i didnt think that it was going to be as timely as it is. One of the people that i quote in the book is mussolini. One of the things he said which is so telling is if you pluck a chicken one feather at a time, people are less had likely to notice. I think that whats been happening the last couple of days, there are a couple of feathers that have come out of the chick en. I totally agree. Joe has a question for you. Joe. Madam secretary, thank you very much for being with us. Tell us, if you will, lets talk about your personal background, with obviously. You are detroitly close with the minister who has been chased out of poland. Talk about your own personal story and why this warning from you is so personal to the people of America Today in 2018. It definitely is, joe. I was born in 1937. My father was a czechoslovak diplomate. When the nazis marched into prague, he escaped. My mother and i moved to england. When we came back, my parents found nobody alive. I never quite understood what that was about. I was a little girl and i didnt know my grandparents. My father was chased out again when the communists took over czechoslovakia. I think the closeness that i had with the breshinski family has to do with a common background. So we all saw the horrors of fa fascism. I understand this and i understand when we dont Pay Attention. The country that i was born in was sold down the river because of appeasement and the munich agreement. And i think that thats what im warning about. Its these steps that people think dont matter examine its normalizing the abnormal. And thats why i think it was a warning. And joe and mika and willie, you know that statement, see something, say something, ive added to that do something. And thats what im advocating. And lets talk also about the widespread belief in america for so long it cant happen here. That was the belief in germany and the early 1930s. That was the believe in czechoslovakia throughout the 1930s. Explain how it can happen here, as you said before, one feather at a time. Well, i think because we have a tendency to not Pay Attention to these kind of small steps. And we always i can americans are optimistic. I certainly am. But when asked about my optimism, i say yes he with, imen an optimist, but i worry a lot. So i think its important to do this as a warning. So we need to Pay Attention. And i was thinking this morning about all the things going on and how they go together. The discussion you all have been having about whats going on with mr. Mueller and the law and trying to say that its illegal to do the variety of things that theyre doing to find out whats going on is exactly what ive been talking about. A president who has no regard for the law and who is basically saying that all that you guys say is made up and so that and the combination of whats going on in syria is that truly this is one of the most complicated times. And we need a free press that can tell et like it is. And the mule her investigation, as you you point out, is the nexus of the concerns where he undermines the fbi and the press and all in within story. You wrote an oped in the New York Times which was will we stop trump before it was too late. I know you dont write the headlines, but that was the spirit of the piece. How do you mean that . I think that we have to watch whats going on. I think that i have been also saying that its article one time. The first article of the constitution is about the power of congress. I would like to see them be more proactive and to be more supportive of the kinds of investigations that are out there. Im not a lawyer or a legal expert, but i think on my todo list is we need people to go on out and vote and young people and older people to go out and run for office. And then the other part that ive really been talking about, i would like to see some civil discourse. People, i think, that know me know this. I spent a lot of time with jessie helms. I respect republicans. I may not agree, but i think what we need is some kind of civil discourse and i think we need to listen to to those young people that were marching so that they didnt have to wear flack jackets to school. So all those aspects is what i was talking about. So article one time means nor investigations of the russian relationship in addition to the ones that are already taking place or how do you mean for congress to be more aggressive . Well, i think on the russian relationship is very important and the part we clearly know the russians did something. Theres no question. And because President Trump is so concerned as to whether he was really elected, he will not look into that. And so it is very undermining of our legal system. And so i do think that is one of the things that needs to be investigated even more. Im almost embarrassed to have you comment on this, but the president tweeted this morning about syria. I would like to just show them to you. Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. Get ready, russia, because they will be coming. Nice and new and smart. You shouldnt be partners with the gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it. He followed that tweet up with our relationship with russia is worse now than its ever been and the that includes the cold war. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy. Something that would be very easy to do and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race. Your comments on that and especially as we are focused on your book. Well, i do think that it is very important to understand what the russians are doing in syria. I do think that there needs to be some kind of a plan, not kind of one offs. You do not have tweets about something that is this serious. And that is what worries me. There have been crises before. They were done by resolve and worked on by diplomates that knew what they were doing and not just tweeting. We cannot afford this. This is a dangerous situation. I find interesting that trump is finally saying something to to recognize who he is but not this particular way. We need a plan. It doesnt seem very well thought out. Almost, in my opinion, knowing him seems like a deflection. Your book, i will always remember when you tracked me down in georgetown years ago. It was right in the run up to the campaign. And you just were so angry about trump. And in your eyes was a fervor or a fear that i had never seen before in general. And im wondering if this is what you were concerned about and if your background played a role in your insight. It was what i was concerned about. And you, better than anybody, knows how much your father, mother and i were grateful to be in america and to understand that this was a country that understood the resilience as well as the fragility of of discovery that you had to support it and that you had to explain what was going on and that you all were really such an important part of this in terms of telling the story to the American People. But watching the feathers one at the same time, i thought it was really important. This is a warning. That is the deliberate part about this. And i am going to speak out and, again, because weve known each other so long, it took me a long time to develop the public voice. And now that i have it, its not going to be quiet because i have something to say and i have my todo list and i hope others will join me. I love it. Joe. Madam secretary, i just want to thank you. Something happened this year that hasnt happened. That is mika remembered my birthday. She has a terrible time. She cant even get the season right let had alone can i explain this . I am really is such a good friend. I used to call mika every day the day before her fathers birthday, march 28th. So after he died, i changed. I decided she needed to know when your birthday was. So i did call her. So thank you, you happen. You have me to thank, joe. Otherwise this will be a serious problem. He wouldnt have gotten a present this morning. And, joe, you know what i got you . Thank you. What is that . Fascism, a warning. And you need to read it. Its really important. These are great times, i think. Madeline albright, thank you. Its always good to see you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Up next, its one of those days when wall street is paying close attention to washington. Mark zuckerberg will be back on capitol hill today as the facebook ceo tries to stop the bleeding from a damaging scandal. Keep it right here on morning joe. Last years ad campaign was a success for choicehotels. Com badda book. Badda boom. This year, were taking it up a notch. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Nobody glows. He gets it. Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com 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 my secret visitors. Hallucinations and delusions. The unknown parts of living with parkinsons. What plots they unfold, but only in my mind. Over 50 of people with parkinsons will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. If your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinsons specialist. There are Treatment Options that can help. My visitors should be the ones i want to see. I say this gently. Your user agreement sucks. You can spot my 75 iq points. If i can figure it out, you can figure it on out. The purpose of that user agreement is to cover facebooks rear end. Its not to inform your users with about their rights. Now, you know that and i know that. Im going to suggest to you that you go back home and rewrite it. And tell your 1200 an hour lawyers, no respect. Theyre good. But tell them you want it written in english in nonswahili so the average american can understand it. That was good. I think the problems, though, go beyond the user agreement. Thats just me, but maybe not. Facebooks ceo Mark Zuckerberg testified before lawmakers yesterday to address the companys troubling scandals and he is is set to appear on capitol hill again today for another round of questioning. Former fbi special agent clint watts rejoins the table. Lets bring cnbc former contributor tom watts into the conversation. He now serve aes the executive chairman of wind view. He also served as counsel to a Congressional Committee so he knows the ins and outs of technology and the congressional world. Also at the table, we have with chief content officer at hurst magazine. Joe anna coal, friend, author of the new book love rules. At the end of this segment between my friend, tom, and my friend, joe anna, were going to find a way to connect that love rules with the facebook story. Were going to do it somehow. Were going to make it happen. I think we can. But tom, lets start with Mark Zuckerberg. How did he do . Well, it was 43 to 1 set up with a firing squad. And he avoided the bullets. It was a couple of gotcha moments. What were the bullets . There wasnt all that much fired at him. I used on to produce congressional hearings like this because hearings like this are set up to be political theater. And somebody like that is supposed to take a lot of lashes. But he got through it very, very well. And i think that with almost half the senate there, it was looking like most of them went to the george w. Bush institute of the google internet education. There was not a lot of substance there. Joe anna, he seemed like he has seemed all along here, a tad bit maybe this is all they can do at this point. You know, we were naive. We apologize. Im not sure that makes it okay, though, when you have a massive breach of trust. Do you know, one of the most fascinating things, i think, is to go back and look at Mark Zuckerbergs own Facebook Page when he was doing his tour of america. And he goes to all sorts of cities and he talks to all sorts of pages and he sort of engages with people. He goes and visits firemen. He said this officers do such important work and it meant a lot to me to thank them in person. He goes and he says hes sorry to Police Departments when theyve had problems with riots. What are you doing . Why arent you running your company . Its the most fascinating document. I think he spends a lot of time fighting against the image that was portrayed of him in on the social network. In whole, we dont know they will. Mark zuckerberg was exposed via fiction brilliantly and i think hes wrestling with coming out from under that. Wow. Okay, joe. Yeah. But, tom, you say nobody laid a hand on him. He was never even forced to disavoi what their Standard Operating Procedure was. I mean, you look at the notes that were leaked out, you his t. And as one cmo told me from a fortune 500 company, they dont sell ads. They sell people. And they sell really invasive information about people that help other corporations microtarget and reach out and touch them. So he could have said he was sorry, with us he didnt say they were going to change anything, did he . He said hed agree to a lot of changes. But there werent many specific there is. You have the etc. Pence of their business down. What he needed to do here is get facebook out of the hot seat. This is an industry issue. And facebook is a player and a major player, but i think he was pretty successful in getting this into a broader stew with a lot of stakecan holders where facebook can kind of get out of the way. I think even if there is regulation here. Facebook is likely to be the winner of that because the more you tighten up the rules on the kind of microtargeting youre talking about, where you have to go through facebook even more because their sharing of data with other apps is limited by some kind of privacy regulation. Thats going to magnify their role as the ultimate marketing player. By getting this into a broader discussion where facebook isnt at the center, i think he wins and even if if theres regulation, i think et he wins. And keeping instagram out of the fray where most people dont know that inn sta glam is owned by facebook and facebook on terms of usage is declining, he was able to keep instagram pristine which was another win for him. I was watching this and actually excited to see what kind of debate would take flas that room. They are such critical questions about how we live our lives now online. Youre somebody who is in cyber security. I felt a missed opportunity to have that conversation with some of the the line of questioning. What would you have liked to have seen come out of there that didnt. The senators boiled it down to core issues. One was durbin said, zucker beberg, do you want to tell me where you were. That hits home with the users. People are fascinated with this hearing because everyone is on facebook. More than the senators. The thing that zuckerberg had as an advantage is he understands his platform so much better than the senators do. With the exception of kennedy, graham and durbin, it was really hard to see what they were going at and they went in so many angles. No one said the pot and the kettle argument. The number one manipulator after the russians was lit call campaigns and politicians. They are the ones that seek out this microtargeting. They are part of the problem. I would have liked to have seen a little bit more tension and debate. But the senators across the board need to understand the systems better. It seems like this year especially since the election so many of us are just waking up as individuals and also as a society waking up to the dangers, to the threats from facebook from alexa, whatever technological advances that we have made we are waking up to the threats that our world has changed. And so much about us is now known and passed around and even the government tells us. If we make a cell phone call chances are very good that other governments are listening into us. Your book, which wed love to have you back on tomorrow or the next day to talk about it. Talks about how tr those of us with 13 or 20yearold daughters, we have very much to fear because this technological revolution disrupted normal dating and in many ways that are very chilling. Well digitalists have a huge impact on how we communicate with each other. One of the reasons i wrote the book is i was hearing from women who were grow iing their value all aspects of their lives apart from their love life. And dating apps, which have et enormous strengths in terms of impacting and expanding your social networks also make love feel very transactional. Then you have the quite aggressive and violent porn on cell phones. And you have an entire generation growing up with this porn as their default sexed. So people are growing up in a really different environment than they were. Even 10, 15 years ago. They cant talk to their parents about it. And i felt we needed rules around our behavior. Other people have written about how for men especially, you went from traditional norm to the 40s, 50s and even the early 60s where sex was not. Cheap. Sex was for a man he would go to college, he would go to work, he would fight hard do everything to earn a job and. Be attractive to somebody else who would marry him, go through this long process. Now others talk about how sex is cheapened. Ive got older boyings, but hes playing video games, can go on a dating app, swipe and either choose quick relationship or just pornography. And it puts younger women and especially difficult positions. I think whats happened is the talk of love has fallen out of the conversation. The talk of passion has fallen out of the conversation. The idea is relationships feel super transaction until. Women feel utterly int interchangeable as you swipe across apps. The book is not antidigital. Digital is here to stay. Its not a seetzero sum game. We love our phones. But its impacted the way we communicate and also you have a millennial generation who would rather stick needles in their eyes than talk to anybody on the phone. So people have lost the ability to communicate oneonone. They would rather retreat behind the screen. And i really think our sort of communication between each other, we see it at large with the president , its in a cry sets mode. On friday were going to go over these rules that include you do not hold back. Alcohol is not a food group. Hookups are like french fries. Look for relationship mo role models. And were going to have you back. You wanted to bring this all together back to yesterday. Its on you. Sex, porn, and legislation, the worst of the worst use of the internet. Sex trafficking and it took congress three years to finally pass something this r year related to the misuse of the internet when it came to sex trafficking sites. That tells you how hard it is to get consensus on legislation thats going to pass and. If you think what came out of yesterday and todays hearing represents any kind of consensus on massive issues chrks are a lot hard tore get. People on than antisex trafficking, we have a long way to go. Should we just wake up now to the reality that if you put something online, if if you share your data, like facebook or tinder, its out there. And the idea that its protected and the idea that your closely guarded secrets are yours and yours alone just doesnt make sense. We have ab ad model. The reason we have an ad model is we dont want to charge subscription because we want everybody to have access. That means people et get to know what you like and follow you around facebook. Thats just the way it is. Of all the enemies on social media, the number one enemy is you and your friends. You dont understand what youre doing on the app. You dont understand the information youre sharing. These dating apps, the backbone of them is facebook. You usually have to have facebook or another application to have these supporting apps on it. They are mining your preferences so they can get to these relationship hookups or build preferences across platforms. Watch europe. Europe in two months is implementing some really harsh privacy regulations that draws the line totally differently. The number one thing they are going to do over there is when you go on an app and youre asked to cob tent, if you say no, you can still get on the app. Here if you say no, thats it. You cant play. And if that goes into practice there and creates a workable line between commercialization and privacy, i think youre going to see some momentum for that same approach here. Fascinating. Before we go, final thoughts for the day. Joe, take it away. Were used to being bombarded with so much news. Obviously, facebook hearings were important yesterday, but and once again strikes out against Vladimir Putin. Something that he had not done in his first year and a half in office or during his year and a half running but its done now. And secondly, the associateds are and New York Times in the past 30 is seconds verified what was reported to us. The speaker of the house paul ryan will not be running for reelection. Two big stories. Thats yet another busy morning. Yes, it is. And also two great books on the show this morning. On tomorrows show, former secretary of defense, former director of the cia and former white house chief of staff leon panetta joins us onset. And the the big implications from paul ryans announcement to retire. Will the gop be looking for a new House Speaker or perhaps a new minority leader. Chris jansing has more coverage on that right now. Im chris jansing. And as you just heard, two big breaking stories this morning. Nbc news confirmed paul ryan will not run for reelection this fall