Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20180830

Statement, you saw joe just 24 hours ago and it took how long . Just over two hours for joes prediction yesterday to come true. While it wasnt the president using that language, it was his handpicked candidate in florida. So, just how closely do the views of donald trump lineup with those of ron desantis . Ron loves playing with the kids. Build the wall. He reads stories. Then mr. Trump said, youre fired. I love that part. Hes teaching madison to talk. Make America Great again. Wow. Good morning, it is thursday, august 30th. Joe is off. With us we have msnbc contributor Mark Barnacle former aide to the george w. Bush white house elise jordan and msnbc political contributor rick tyler and columnist and associate editor for Washington Post David Ignatius and White House Correspondent for news hour and ceo of axios jim and rogers professor of the presidency at Vanderbilt University, john meacham. He is an nbc news and msnbc contributor. We will be joined by eddy cloud, jr. Just before we get started and we look forward to having willie back tomorrow. Before we get started. Check your twitter and just make sure you all havent been fired because, apparently, thats a thing. You can get fired now on twitter apparently everybody will be the first to know, but you. Especially if you have a crucial job in the white house. So, well get to that coming up. Unbelievable. But, first, congressman ron desantis is facing, like most people who study the issue of race in this country, many people are calling racist language against his opponent floridas governor race. Here is, again, what he said and listen to him ramping up to get to that statement he clearly practiced in his mind during an interview yesterday morning on fox news. He is an articulate spokesman for the far left views and i watched the debates and none of it was my cup of tea but he performed better than the other people there. We need to make sure that we continue florida going in a good direction and build off the success of Governor Scott and the last thing we had to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. After being accused of using racist language, Desantis Campaign issued a statement writing this, ron desantis was obviously talking about florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that andrew xwgillum expouss. Why didnt he just say that . Shortly after the statement, fox news issued a rare onair rebuke of the Republican Congressmans remarks. A little while ago we had ron desantis the republican nominee for florida on to discuss the florida election. During the interview he made what some are calling an inappropriate comment about his democratic opponent. We do not condone and he has since clarified his statement. Gillum, who would be floridas first africanamerican governor responded to desantis comment the gop nominee has taken a page out of trumps 2016 playbook. Its very clear that mr. Desantis is taking a page directly from the Campaign Manual of donald trump. But i think hes got another thing coming to him. If he thinks in todays day in age florida voters are going to respond to that level of division, theyre sick of it. What were trying to offer in this race. Was that racist, was that racist or a figment of speech . Well, in the handbook of donald trump, they no longer do whistle calls. Theyre now using full bull horns. Meanwhile, President Trump was asked about desantis comments during an event at the white house yesterday. I mean, i have been actually working on the deal with canada, so i have not heard. I tell you what y know ron desantis, he is extraordinary, harvard, yale, brilliant, ran an incredible campaign. Okay. Lets go around the table, but, rick tyler, ill start with you. As you work on campaigns and you work on messages and work on wording and work on really trying to help push the candidate forward any way you can. Any way possible in your mind that the term monkeying around came out of his mouth by mistake and ill used and poor form or do you think this candidate took that statement and used it racially because he knew it would be a siren or a dog whistle or anything else that would have a negative, racist tone to this campaign . Well, mika, theres no question that the juxtapose articulate and whatever that is supposed to mean was maniacally stupid. I dont know how ron desantis or any of his team sent him out there to say that. I think the democrats got a big boost yesterday. I think they have a leg up. By the way, this is just politically speaking, because he is viewed as a more far left, supported by bernie sanders, i think in this case because this is a base election and this election will be about donald trump, that this was a very smart move by democratic voters in florida to pick gillum and i think hes going to give ron desantis a tough race. There is no reason why ron desantis teed this up in a way to generate all these negative publicity and the fact that as you saw in the election with the ads you played, he so closely tied himself to donald trump who has been linked to saying very inappropriate things after the colossal tragedy in charlot charlottesvil charlottesville. Just as a reporter covering this and following trumps impact on candidates as they try to move themselves forward and sometimes use some of his darker tactics, if you would call them that. I would say that somebody was playing that on their phone, that soundbite in my home. And i stopped in my tracks. I heard it right away. And i didnt hear it it any other way than the way i heard it, which was racist, planned, prepared and really ugly. Well, i think that as a reporter who has covered race for a long time and you use monkey up and talking about the mayor of tallahassee, you have to understand that youre going to be accused of using racially charged language. The president talked about the fact that desantis has a degree from Yale University and hes been hauonored as an outstandin alumni of that university and the fact that you would call him articulate and say he was performing is in and of itself racially charged because youre saying a black man with a degree could speak well which is something historically africanamericans can be called when you want to say black people have not speaking as well. I think that ron desantis didnt know what he was doing, he should have known better. You want to get to your base and start pointing out this could be the first africanamerican governor of florida. So, john meacham, historically, does this type of racial undertone, overtone work . And id love to hear from David Ignatius, as well, after john meacham. And if he didnt mean it, why wouldnt he retract and say, im so sorry, i didnt know. At least that would stop this conversation from happening. Clearly, he meant it. Yeah, i think he diddant say he didnt mean it because he meant it. Im guessing. Sometimes, you know, if it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, its a duck. Historically, i dont want to make everything this week about senator mccain, but it was very hard yesterday not to the images of the man who ran against the first africanamerican nominee for president and did so whether you agree or disagree with him did so with an incredible sense of care and concern to keep this kind of thing out of the Public Square ten years ago. So, and never forget. I recommend people have five minutes, ten minutes today, go look at john mccains concession speech in 2008. Just go watch it. And he mentions a hugely important moment from nearly a century before. Booker t. Washington was invited to dinner at the white house by Theodore Roosevelt and the press goes crazy, north and south. Particularly in my native region in the south saying that this was an outrage and that a black man was being entertained socially as an equal at the white house and Theodore Roosevelt should be ashamed. Roosevelt wrote a letter after this happened saying to a friend, saying it was clear to him that the verosineed for the gesture itself. Which means if things are so bad that we cannot, the peoples house cant receive an american, then something has to be done about it. John mccain cited that moment in his concession speech to obama saying, here we are in less than a century, really. Weve gone from a black man not being able to go into the white house to one being president of the United States. This is, you know a long history and race is the great flash point in american life. I personally believe that the trump reaction to the changing demography of the country is in a very strange way an affirmation of the inevitability of that change. I think this is the last gasp, the last stand for this kind of prejudice, frankly. And i think well get through it. History is not on desantis side on this. Its not. But David Ignatius, this is a candidate Whose Campaign is lined up with the president and this is a presidency that had charlottesville in its first year. A president who would not, in any way, white supremacy. I guess i ask you, where does this break down and leading us and does it impact our strength internationally . Well, jon meacham raises a wonderful question or way of thinking about this. Is donald trump telling us where weve been as a country. As opposed to a leading indicator which tells us where were going and tells us which country were going to be in the future. I think that will be determined by the voters in elections ahead. But i think in the short term, what were seeing from trump is what were seeing from ron desantis which is as Andrew Gillum said, using not just dog whistles but the bull horn on race on divisive racial issues. I fear the Desantis Gillum race will be a snapshot of our future in which racial issues are more polarized and a history in the Republican Party, certainly in the last 20, 30 years of playing the southern card and being subtly exploitive and sometimes not so subtly of racial divisions and trump understands that and is playing it and is part of his appeal to his base. Andrew gillum is going to be an interesti ing candidate. He is progressive and also, as has been noted, a Hillary Clinton delegate and his views are not on the extreme side on some issues in the party. So, as i say, i think this is for the near future a snapshot of where were going. My gut is it will backfire. Ive seen it before. I could be wrong. Elise jordan, i want to get you on the next story, but just really quickly. Sort of a leading question. How is your party, ill back up and say, President Trump, refused to criticize david duke. Candidates are taking a cue from this president and are they finding that racism works and fires up the base to the point where they could find success maybe even in the midterms . Well, i think this is the problem with republican candidates with sitting republicans. You know, fully embracing donald trump because of Donald Trumps blatant and sustained racism throughout the campaign, throughout his presidency. Anyone who tries to separate from that element of donald trump still is staying with it. And they cant scrub away what they have attracted from their association with donald trump. So, i think that this is the big picture conundrum that we need to look at as a country because we can be told constantly, oh, that wasnt what he was saying. Youre the one making too much out of it. But lets just look at this on the face and it is what it is and were not idiots here. And you can see what the intention was and, you know, perhaps it was inarticulate language but language a candidate for governor of, i think, the third most populous state in the country felt comfortable using in the day after what was a resounding victory and there was just no need for it. I, you know, i listened to it several times and i really, what i heard was someone sort of revving up thinking, working toward trying very hard to build up to get to that statement so he could say it and emphasizing the words, i mean, to me, it was carefully thought out and planned and if it wasnt, where is he today . Where is he today . Are you a racist or are you not, sir . Thats the question he needs to be asked because he hasnt taken it back. If you listen to had sound bite, you can see him working to get to it. Im in the communications business, weve seen this before and well see it again. Yesterday we told you about the warning yesterday to evangelicals. So, were going to beat you up if we lose . He told religious leaders during a closed door dinner on monday night that his opponents are violent people who will overturn the gains made during his administration quickly and violently. Yesterday the president was asked about those remarks. Well, i just hope there wont be violence. I can tell you that because thats the way, i guess, if you look at what happens is a lot of, theres a lot of unnecessary violence all over the world, but also in this country and i dont want to see it. Mike barnicle, ill let you take it from there. I mean, first of all, the opponents are violent. And what do you make of the president of the United States really, is he predicting or is he insigcitininciting. This has been an interesting few minutes listening to all of this around the table. Lets not act surprised by this. This has been going on for months, at least 18 months and if you include the campaign of 2016 for a couple of years. And here are the themes. Crime, immigration, muslims, ms13, border security. The larger theme, unfortunately, for us right now in this country, culturally is this. The bottom line is, put all of those together as articulated by the president of the United States and various candidates from various offices, including mr. Desantis down in florida. The larger, overriding theme is, look, your world is being taken from you. Be careful. Listen to me. Because you are going to be swallowed up by a cultural tsunami. So, follow us whe. Well, jim, i do agree the shock is exhausting. But it is also a worry, a fear in, well, ill just say in my opinion, that we become desensitized. I think what happened in the Desantis Campaign, those comments that he made were wrong and they should be shocking at this point. But this is the direction of the Republican Party being led by this president. How does that, how does that really show us aforebothe midte. You go back to the ad where hes reading from the trump book to his kid. You keep asking about the Republican Party, the reason why this is happening it is the trump party. If you go and talk to Desantis Team and his pollsters, the vast majority consider themselves Trump Supporters first and not republicans first. Thats holding true in almost every race. Youre talking about a trumpbacked conservative who no one thought could win on one side and a liberal, minority woman on the other side. Youll see a lot of politics in georgia as youre seeing in florida which already is a swing state. And i do think this is a preview of what youre going to see in 2020. It is what you guys were talking about in terms of, its defining the Republican Party right now. We have a new post up on axios this morning looking at immigration. I think this is immigration over the last 100 years. A huge dip in the number of immigrants coming into this country in terms of the total number of the population. Over the last 10 to 20 years it surged back up to where it was 100 years ago. A lot of republicans who were uncomfortable with that and trump has used that issue, well, in a political context to be able to giet his party fired up scared. That linkalize the isss all thi. It plays on peoples fear and fear is such a motivater in politics. I think its one of the very unfortunate things about this moment in politics. A large number of people who are scared and shouldnt be scared and isnt happening in their neighborhood or even in the country. We have eddy with us and i want to play for you, again, the statement by ron desantis on fox news. This is a United States congressman. And listen to the words he used and then ill give you the stage to speak. Here it is. You know, he is an articulate spokesman for those farleft views and a charismatic candidate. I watched the debates and none was my cup of tea but he performed better than the other people there. We need to work hard and make sure we continue florida going in a good direction and build off the success we had on Governor Scott. The last thing we need to do is monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. Eddy, what is your take . Well, mika, look, we are at this extraordinary crossroads in this country. You know, ive been called ar c articulate. Ive never been described as monkeying up anything but were at a crossroads. I said this on the show before, we have to make a choice. We have to make a choice as a country whether or not were going to be. Civil war reconstruction, the new deal, the Civil Rights Movement and each moment in which were at a crossroads, something changed but weve always doubled down on our prejudices. So, here we are, once again, we are right back where weve always been where we have to make a decision whether or not were going to be a racist nation. This is the key. We have to make a choice. Whether youre a republican, democrat, independent whatever well have to make a choice in the upcoming days whether or not this is going to be a racist america. Will we still be racist and it cant be you simply choose the sideline in this moment. We will see. Buckle up. Its about to get really, really ugly here. I want to get a sense of how the democrats should respond at this point, especially given Mike Barnicles point. This has been a long road and this is not a surprise in many ways. Still ahead on morning joe the white house says counsel don mcgahn is out and he learned about it over twitter. The implications of this latest departure. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. The smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. And now theres a new way to smooth. Introducing new venus platinum. A premium metal handle boosts control. To reveal up to 100 smooth skin. Venus its a revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now, from 899, during sleep numbers biggest sale of the year. It senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. It even helps with this. So you wake up ready to put your pedal to the metal. And now, all beds are on sale. Its the last chance to save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus, 36month financing. Ends labor day. Sleep number. Proven, quality sleep. They wont hike your ratest foover one mistake. See, Liberty Mutual doesnt hold grudges. For drivers with accident forgiveness Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty this wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. Don mcgahn is a really good guy. Been with me for a long time. He will have been here two years and hell be moving on probably the private sector, maybe the private sector and hell do very well. But hes done an excellent job. Any concern what he said to the mueller . I dont have to be aware. We do everything straight and by the book. Thats President Trump giving a few more details following his tweet that White House Counsel Don Mcgahn will be leaving his job this fall. He tweeted, the president made the announcement on twitter yesterday morning saying mcgahn will stay on until Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed. The move comes less than two weeks after New York Times reported that mcgahn spent 30 hours talking with Robert Muellers team. Now republicanis are warning whoever replaced mcgahn be ready for political battles especially if democrats take control of capitol hill. If i were the president , id pick somebody who understand the legislative branch because if the democrats take over the house, hes going to be subpoenaed to death and investigated. Joining us now, law professor at George Washington University Jonathan turley, good to have you onboard. What does mcgahns departure mean for President Trumps defense against possible mueller legal charges against him . Well, theres no question that president s choose the white house council. They to have a good, working relationship. This was within the purview of the president to make this change. But its a dangerous time for a change like this to occur. This entire matter is moving into a different phase. Mcgahn performed marvelously in restraining the president. He put himself between the president and the worst possible path, including possibly firing mueller and sessions. Im not even sure the president appreciates how much mcgahn probably did for his legacy in taking that stand. But the big concern that many have is whether as we get into this new stage where you could have a storm of subpoenas. Whether hes going to pick someone in the mold of mcgahn or maybe in Michael Cohen. He selected two very different types of lawyers here. Cohen seems to have resonated well with the president. But he was a perfectly dreadful lawyer. Mcgahn at the critical moment was willing to stand up to the president and say, look, im not going to let you do this. Ill stand in your way because this is not where you or the country need to go. You know, with a special counsel closing in with lots of guilty pleas, with, i mean, local, state, legal challenges, its just to me. It seems really kind of not very helpful to ones self to discard someone unceremoniously on twitter. Seems like you could find more of an elegant way to do this. Jim, it might have been your reporting that spurred all of this. The president , you guys were hot on this story. You heard this would be happening. We have heard it would happen after the kavanaugh hearings and the president confirm it and New York Times maggie had a good scoop and said the president was frustrate woud wit and made it final. Its not just that mcgahn is leaving Washington Post shows four of his five deputies are leaving. This is a really big problem inside the white house. And id say its a big problem that your viewers should Pay Attention to that youre losing lots and lots of talent at all the various levels inside the white house and theyre having an impossible time filling it. People dont want to come in if they think theyre going to be discarded. People dont want to come in if they think its constant infighting and lawyer up to take a job for government. It doesnt matter when things are rocking and rolling, but once there is you need smart people in the right seats or you have big problems. Youll see this for the president. If democrats win the house, hes going to be impeached and you need lawyers who understand the impeachment process and put a lot of prior planning into it. If you dont, you make mistakes. Mcgahn is interesting because he testified for 30 hours and the president said, i wanted him to testify. Maybe that is true, but did he really want him to testify for 30 hours when he didnt know what was actually said which is why mcgahn is a character that you can pay a lot of attention to because he was the architect of this whole effort to get tons of conservatives planted into all these judicial jobs that will last a lifetime and he is a witness in this probe, who knows what he told mueller and what consequences thats going to have for the president he served. So, whos left . Mike barnicle emmett flood may replace him but where does this go from here . You know, mika, jonathan raised this issue that don mcgahn at critical points in the administration he knew his role was to represent the institution of the presidency and not donald trump as an individual, which is a critical thing. And then jim just raised a host of issues led by the fact, at least, that don mcgahn testified for 30 hours before the mueller special prosecutors. Theyre not exactly asking, then what did you do for lunch . 30 hours is a long time. But the larger issue i would like you to address is this. If the democrats take the house, the House Oversight committee is going to be able to issue a subpoena an hour for weeks on end. This administration already under siege every day seemingly because of their own mistakes and the own verbal miscues by the president. I dont see how they sustain the Administration Just because of what theyll have to respond to coming from the hill. The administration has had a problem attracting talent in general to the white house. And to the various cabinets. But think about the talent gap where it really matters and is so critical. The lawyers. Why would a lawyer come aboard this train wreck and just be a glutton for punishment with an unruly client who is never going to listen to what you say and cares more about the Public Relation strategy than actually, tactically taking the steps to protect himself. It is an absolute disaster and i just do not see it Getting Better at all. First and foremost because the president cannot show the discipline to listen to good lawyers. Jon meacham. I want to ask jonathan a question of sort of where these two tracks legal and political time intersect. Lets say, hypothetically, the house falls in the democratic hands in november, by january when the new congress convenes, they begin impeachment proceedings on some grounds because they can define it as they wish. How does the mueller report, if there is a report, how does the Mueller Investigation in your view unfold over the next four to five, six months . I think mueller is likely to be the driving force on that schedule. I would be surprised if they moved down the road of imputs impeachment formally until they got the mueller report. Mueller has some problems to deal with himself. The report would have things in it like grand jury information coming from this long investigation. Its not clear that mueller can actually put that into a report to congress, even though its going to be the most material evidence in some cases that he could share. There is a case in the d. C. Circuit on that very issue and its the Justice Department thats arguing that that type of information cannot be so widely shared. And, so, mueller has to resolve that issue before he gives it to congress. The more likely scenario, jon, is that youll see oversight committees moving aggressively and putting forward some subpoenas to get information. The question is whether the president is going to change his strategy. Up until now, if you distinguish his rhetoric from his actions, hes been fairly cooperative. They have actually turned over a lot of information and theyve turned over people like mcgahn. Thats actually a fairly good record in comparison to some prior administrations. The question is now will that change and will they become more aggressive. Emmett flood was previously worked in the clinton impeachment and that strategy was largely a muscle vote going to the senate, which ultimately prevailed. Jim, thank you very much for being on this morning. Jonathan turley, stay with us. We want to ask you about the latest development in the Paul Manafort trial and also about your column which is entitled 2018 is the year of lawyers living dangerously. Well be back with much more morning joe. Roxy sure is having fun. Partys over, six legs, shes got simparica now. Simpariwhat . Simparica is what kills tick and fleas, like us. Kills . Kills studies show at the end of the month, it kills more ticks in less time than frontline plus and nexgard. Guess we should mosey on. See ya never, roxy use simparica with caution in dogs with a history of seizures or neurologic disorders. The most common side effects are vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. Say goodbye to ticks and fleas. With monthly simparica chewables. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec®. Its starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. Dinner date. Meeting his parents dinner date. Why did i want a crest 3d white smile . So i used crest. Crest 3d white removes. 95 of surface stains in just 3 days. For a whiter smile. That will win them over. Crest. Healthy, beautiful smiles for life. Mom okay we need to get all your School Supplies today. School. Grade. Done. Done. Hit the Snooze Button and get low prices on School Supplies all summer long. Like this case of paper for only 29. 99 at office depot officemax. Yes or no . Gin. Do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet . Do you want 4. 95 commissions for stocks, 0. 50 options contracts . 1. 50 futures contracts . What about a dedicated service team of trading specialists . Did you say yes . Good, then its time for power e trade. The platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. Looks like we have a couple seconds left. Lets do some card twirling twirling cards e trade. The original place to invest online. Attorneys for Paul Manafort are looking to have his next trial moved out of the Nations Capital claiming that Media Coverage of his prior conviction has compromised the pool of new potential jurors. Jonathan, what does this mean and is there a place on earth that doesnt have Media Coverage blaring on this Trump Presidency . I would be astonished if that motion succeeded. I brought those types of motions, theyre very difficult to make out. I thought i had a much stronger case in a very small town involving missing vials ofilatiof plague. If you could imagine how damaging that was to a jury p l pool. We are in a media saturated environment and no where where Paul Manafort can go where people wont know who Paul Manafort is. The defense will try a new Defense Strategy in d. C. Which is to actually put on a defense because in virginia, most of us were astonished that the defense really did very little to defend manafort, as opposed to attacking his former aide. This is going to be an even more grueling experience for manafort. These charges are a true parade of horribles. It is the worst aspects of manaforts life and i dont expect any different result in d. C. Well, i want to move now to your piece on lanny davis in 2018 being the year of lawyers living dangerously. Well get to our political analysts a little later and see if that, perhaps, your answer to this question could be applied to democrats, as well. But what are the concerns you have about what has transpired so far in the legal response to President Trump . Part of the reason that were in this place is that lawyers, when i say living dangerously, its due to the fact that theyre mixing their roles in a dangerous way. And lanny davis who is a friend of mine has strong straddled that line between being a political flack and being a lawyer. And those roles sometimes can be handled brilliantly. But when they are not, they cause a great deal of problems. In this case, lanny davis has admitted that he lied. He said he was not the source of a story that many people believe could be false. That President Trump had a meeting before the trump tower meeting and gave approval or at least was briefed on that meeting in advance. That allegation was a bombshell. It implicated donald trump jr. In a possible crime and, obviously, implicated the president , as well. Ultimately, hes just in terms of lanny davis, hes the last of a long line of lawyers particularly on the trump side, theres a pile of them in the wake of all of this and its because theyre mixing this role in such a dangerous way. David ignatius has a question. Dave snud. Jonathan y just want to ask you in this sea of lawyers there is one figure who appears to remain calm and someone who continues to have public respect and growing publicate respect and that is special counsel robert mueller. I am wondering whether you think there is chipping away at muellers credibility in instances like this case of lanny davis being shown apparently to have made misstatements about what Michael Cohen was prepared to testify to. Well, i think that lanny davis controversy has worked greatly to the advantage of President Trump. First of all, it has destroyed what residue of credibility his client had, Michael Cohen. It makes us all look, frankly, just another hustle. But its interesting to see what the polls are showing about mueller. That, in fact, he is losing ground with the public. People want to see the investigation over some of what the president has done clearly has hit the target with citizens. Its quite surprising. Because mueller has, as you know, remained out of the fray and not made political comments and he is feeling some erosion in that sense. At the end of the day, none of this really matters. Hes going to issue a report. That report is likely to be damaging and its likely to come at the worst possible moment when the house representatives is in the hands of a different and hostile party. Mike. Jonathan, david raises s an interesting point about bob mueller. He has known bob mueller for some time and i have known mueller for some time and i was stunned to find out lanny davis was a lawyer and not just a Public Relations guy. What do you think about this premise that the lawyers, including lanny and several other lawyers, they get themselves in a bit of trouble by acting as spokespeople instead of lawyers. Bob muellers client is different. Bob muellers client is the country. It always has been. And it is today in differentiation from other lawyers who represent an individual like donald trump. I think thats the correct distinction. Obviously, trump really does like this sort of bruiser type of lawyer that he valued in Michael Cohen until he became one of his leading critics or accusers. Its not a very good model for a lawyer because its not very effective. Rudy giuliani has had nothing but a series of missteps and catastrophes. What donald trump will need from this point on are real fulltime lawyers. Because were moving into an area now in which he is facing serious legal threats. And it will be interesting to see whether the president understands that. Whether he changes the model of lawyering that he has used in the past. Because he is in serious need of fulltime, focused lawyering. Jonathan turley, thank you. Really good to have you on the show this morning. Still ahead, despite the massive spike in the number of deaths, President Trump is still touting his administrations response to the devastation in puerto rico after Hurricane Maria. That is coming up on morning joe. So you have, your headphones, chair, new laptop, 24 7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I think he might need some support. Yes. Start them off right, with the School Supplies they need at low prices all summer long. Now save 150 on this dell notebook at office depot officemax. If your moderate to severeor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio®, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio® works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract, and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio® may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. Tell your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms, or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio®. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. Entyvio®. Relief and remission within reach. Sleep number 360 smart bed. It senses your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. And now, all beds are on sale. Its the last chance to save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Ends labor day. No matter how much you clean, does your house still smell stuffy . Thats because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. So, try febreze fabric refresher. Febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics and cleans them away as it dries. Use febreze every time you tidy up to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. Fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. Make febreze part of your clean routine for whole home freshness. Lets do an ad of a man eating free waffles at comfort inn. They taste like victory because he always gets the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed, when he books direct at choicehotels. Com. Or just say badda book, badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. Reon friday, sept 7th, tonijoin stand up to cancer for all the inspiration all the laughter kevin heart if you change one letter in cancer it becomes dancer, what . All the stars tom hanks keep this movement going strong. Every Network Every star kevin bacon dream big with us. One night to save lives get ready to see it all tune in live, september 7th 8 7 central yesterday we told you about a new study that says nearly 3,000 people died in puerto rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The president of asked about the new number, that is drastically higher than previous estimates. I think we did a fantastic job in puerto rico. Were still helping puerto rico. The governor is an excellent guy and hes very happy with the job weve done. Dont forget their electric plant was dead before the hurricane. If you look back on your records the plant was dead, shut, bankrupt, out of business, they owed tremendous amounts of money. They had to close up. When the hurricane came people said what are we going to do about electricity. That was gone before the hurricane. We put a lot of money and effort into puerto rico and i think most of the people in puerto rico really appreciate what weve done. Most of the people in puerto rico really appreciate what weve done. This is a president who visited the safest spot he could get to and threw paper towels at volunteers and then left. The numbers speak a lot louder than this president who thought this was the compassionate way of dealing with an unbelievable crisis, an epic crisis. Again, its hard not to get emotional when you hear a president lying about facts and reporters are in the same bind that in some way lawyers are, or politicians can be, because our job is to get the facts. We crave for the truth. We value the truth. Yet this president is lying about exactly how well puerto rico has fared. How do we cover this fairly and how do we look at this moving forward for this president in term of how he address this crisis and how he describes how he addressed it. I think its by doing more reporting. Journalism is the reason why we have these numbers. For months reporters of the New York Times and other publications have been saying its definitely, the people who died in this hurricane and aftermath was way over 64, the New York Times was saying it was over 2,000. Now finally you have the federal government saying what journalists knew for months that this was a catastrophic crisis, that this island, this United States, part of the United States, that this was something that hurt so many people and the fact that you have the president saying we did a good job there it sounds like george bush back in the day when he was talking about Hurricane Katrina where hundreds and thousands of people died then. Puerto rico is still dealing with infrastructure issues. They will be dealing with it for some time. There were people who didnt have electricity for more than a year, young generation that look at lights and wow whats that i havent seen it in a year. Thats striking in a place thats associated and part of the u. N. I think that when the president is saying that we did a good job in puerto rico, maybe he doesnt understand the scale of what happened in puerto rico but i think reporter need to keep on that story. Thats why we have these numbers. Just like the family separations, we have to keep on it. Well talk more about this at the top of the hour. The Washington Post robert costa has a reporting on the upcoming exit of White House Counsel Don Mcgahn. The texas gop tries to embarrass ted cruz challenger. But it backfires as one user asked sarcastically your strategy is to make beto orourke look cool . Morning joe will come right back. T back i was just finishing a ride. I felt this awful pain in my chest. I had a pe blood clot in my lung. I was scared. I had a dvt blood clot. Having one really puts you in danger of having another. My doctor and i chose xarelto®. Xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Xarelto® is a latestgeneration blood thinner thats. Proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. In clinical studies, almost 98 of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. Xarelto® works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your bodys natural bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase risk of blood clots. While taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. Learn all you can. To help protect yourself from another dvt or pe. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. Happy anniversary dinner, darlin. Can this much love be cleaned by a little bit of dawn ultra . Oh yeah one bottle has the grease cleaning power of three bottles of this other liquid. A drop of dawn and grease is gone. Douglas were running dangerously low on beans. People love your beans, doug. They love em. Doooooooooug you want to go sell some tacos . Progressive knows Small Business makes big demands. Doug, where do we get a replacement chili pepper bulb . So well design the insurance solution that fits your business. Its a very niche bulb. Its a specialty bulb. I think we did a fantastic job in puerto rico. Were still helping puerto rico. The governor is an excellent guy. And hes very happy with the job weve done. Dont forget their electric plant was dead before the hurricane. If you look back on your records youll see that plant was dead, it was shut, it was bankrupt, it was out of business. They owed tremendous amounts of money. They had it closed up. Then when the hurricane came, people said what are we going to do about electricity. That really wasnt the hurricane, that was gone before the hurricane. But we put a lot of money and a lot of effort into puerto rico and i think most of the people in puerto rico really appreciate what weve done. Welcome back to morning joe. Joe is off today. Willie is back tomorrow. We would like to continue the discussion we were just having. The president s reaction there to the new study that puts puerto ricos death toll in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria at nearly 3,000 people. Still with us we have msnbc contributor mike barnacle. Professor at princeton university, former aide to the bush white house, communication strategist, columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post David Ignatius, White House Correspondent for pbs news hour, historian and rogers professor of the presidency at Vanderbilt University john meacham and joining the conversation editorinchief of the atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg. Good to have you all on board. John meacham, what is the forward thinking question for a man whose job it is to look back on the puerto rico crisis, the facts versus the president s words . Well, will we ever learn is the cry. We went through a not entirely dissimilar crisis in 2005 with hurricane on the mainland United States. The fundamental function of government, there are really two. One is to protect us from enemies abroad, and the other is to guarantee, as jeerfferson pu it, life, liberty and pursuit of happy ne. If you cant provide that basic service theres no wonder that people distrust institutions so much. This is a critical moment in the life of the republic, i dont mean to sound overly grand. But it really is a critical moment in Building Trust in institutions. We have a president who likes to undermine institutions, except himself and so just as the broadest possible point we have to figure out how can we restore a basic level of competence, not just for the natural humanityian reaso humanitarian reasons but the health of the public depends on that. Eddie, this really plays into some of the nuclear i was the, the theme of this presidency, where the president shows such callousness to the facts as it pertains to people who are suffering and also to people of color. I think absolutely right. Two quick things. One, when you listen to the president , he seems to approach the disaster that was Hurricane Maria in puerto rico as a charitable enterprise. As if the folks of the United States should be thankful to him and to his government for doling out the resources they did in the aftermath of the disaster. He approaches this fl philanthropically. Donald trump actually done believe that puerto ricans, those people that are on the island are americans, against the backdrop, at least thats what i feel. Against the backdrop of his claims about the changing character of the country, against the backdrop of his claims around immigration, against the backdrop of u. S. Border officials checking the passports of americans as they reenter from south of the border. Fundamentally donald trump does not believe, at least his actions seem to suggest this. Mike barnacle, before we get to the next story about fbi rebutting the president. Mike barnacle, whats the opportunity here moving forward for democrats. I see one. I think there are a lot of potholes ahead for demonstrate as they overreact to the president. Its hard not to for a lot of reasons. But as it pertains to the crisis in puerto rico and the suffering of people still today in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, is there an opportune for democrats looking ahead to the midterms . Oh, mika, i think theres a huge opportunity for democrats here and its basically, you know, dont overstate your case because they have a very compelling case when you think about everything we talk about and a lot of things that are in the minds of americans each and every day and its basically this. Whose country is this . Who does it belong to . Does it belong to you, the citizens, or does it belong to this fellow, mr. Trump . Thats a question that can only be died this fall. Jeffrey, john meacham raised the idea that this is a critical point in our democracy because of the lack of faith that already exists about certain institutions, and the president seems to be building on tearing down these very same institutions each and every day. I for like it when john meacham gets overly grand early in the morning. I look forward to it. Hes exactly right. You know, the president doesnt feel the same sense of responsibility to stewardship that other previous president s have. Stewardship of american institutions, government stgss. St institutions. Stewardship of the idea that the government is in service to you. I thought it was very interesting, something he said. He talked about the governor of puerto rico as an excellent guy. Personalizes everything. If the governor of puerto rico likes him, hell pay slightly more attention to puerto rico. If he doesnt like the mayor of san juan, then its off. This is not the traditional pattern. The traditional patterncy have responsibilities, i have bureaucratic responsibilities, i have leadership responsibilities regardless of individual personalities involved and this president is all about the individual personality. Hes not about the big question to me is does he understand the role of the president . That underlies everything. Are we talking about somebody who is willful lie rejecting well understood model or doesnt understand the model exists. Theres so many questions there. A loaded one. We could go on. The fbi, though srebutting the president s unsubstantiated claim that cline hacked Hillary Clintons private email server. The president made the claim in a tweet posted after midnight on wednesday. Again i ask something keep you up . He also warned the doj and fbi to do something or else in his words their credibility will be forever gone. An fbi official tells nbc news that the bureau has not found any evidence that clintons servers were compromised. The official also pointed nbc news to a june report from the Justice Department Inspector General stating the same thing that theres no evidence to back up the claim that the president repeated from the daily caller. John meacham, and then i want to hear from David Ignatius on this story. I smell a political trap being set by the president that democrats better tread very carefully on but i appreciate the fbi sticking up. The only history donald trump is interested in is hillarys email. Thats it. Right . He knows nothing else that happened before yesterday. No, this is it. Its an answer to what jeff just said. Does he not care . Does he not know . Does he not know or understand . He just doesnt care. Thats the distinction here. Woodrow wilson once said and you really havent lived until you had Woodrow Wilson thrown at you at this hour is that the president bylaw and custom is able to be as big a man as he can. As big a man as he can. And what donald trump has done hes made the presidency as small as he can in terms of the broader scope because, and we know this, because of the New York Times. Which is not failing. The New York Times reported in december of 2017 that trump had said to the staff lets treat every day in the white house as an episode in a tv show where i vanquish my rivals. So the governor is a good guy, the mayor in san juan is bad. Hes casting every day. Hes scripting everyday. Enot leading. This isnt about substance. This is about his own stylistic vision of the world as a reality tv show. I dont think its more complicated than that. Its not. His obsession with hillarys emails my god i thought they were important but theres no need to lie about the facts but the president steels like setting this political trap. Do you see it as one . You know, hes been trying to set this trap for two years. He keeps coming back to it regardless of evidence. Sort of like benghazi. You had report after report from congressional committees saying that the argument that there was willful effort to prevent rescue of people incorporate benghazi was false and it never died on capitol hill, kept coming back. Same with hillarys emails. This latest business, turns out china may have been inside the server and gotten those emails. There apparently is absolutely nothing to the story, but that doesnt prevent the president from returning to that, from returning to the steel dossiers. Spin a new Conspiracy Theory involving bruce orr and his wife nelly who one time worked for people involved in the steel dossier. Just amazing how each of these kind of favorite lines of Donald Trumps, benghazi, hillarys emails, steel dossier, just never goes away. They are impervious to actual evidence or fact. Ill Say Something thats not very popular but i think bringing up hillarys emails brings up the very weaknesses that the democrats had in the last president ial election and as to why we are here today with the president that we have today. So, i would say its an effective ploy even though the president is being rick tyler and elise jordan, disingenuous on the facts. Hes touching on the issue where the democrats had a massive weakness and thats their candidate. Rick . Let me go back to something, i want to look smart so i agree with john meacham that he said in the very first segment. Its a very important point. We were talking about Andrew Gilliam and the lastgasp of racism he referred to but the lastgasp the way we look at women, muslims, jobs and the economy in this country. Remember donald trump is always talking about the past, hes talking about theres nothing about manufacturing jobs, dont misunderstand or coal jobs but they are the jobs of the past and its a fantasy to believe that well return to some 18 century industrial model. Its not going to happen. The narrative here for someone who wants to feed trump is do we want to go back to the past or as john meacham said do we want to look to who we want to be in the future. The future jobs are not coal jobs. The future jobs are not manufacturing jobs. The future attitudes about women and muslims and race are buried in the past and we should leave them in the past. I believe Donald Trumps adherence are afraid to move on from the past. They want to stick with the status quo. You can talk about whether they want to preserve for white people or not, we can talk about that all day. But they want this world to be stagnant because the future scares them because the future is uncertain. But that is what has made america the greatest of america is its ability to selfcorrect. Its a set of principles that we follow that keep us selfcorrecting and in pursuit of a more perfect union. Its just the language is brilliant. Thats where were going. If we had a leader who could frame that narrative as this is a choice, this is a break as eddie glaad said earlier, will we continue with these old ideas in the past will we make for a better break for future. Elise thats the question for your party. As we look towards the midterms can your party selfcorrect, or i dont know if i would call it my party any more. I think the rnc decided to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into roy Moores Campaign is not really a party that stands very much for elise jordan believes in very much. Are you leaving the party . Im independent now. Im not going support a Political Party thats engaging in actively funding men who have been credibly accused by multiple women of sexual assault. No. But, i think that we frequently overestimate Donald Trumps hold. I think that you look back to 2016 and back to your point, mika, the very unpopular point oh, maybe Hillary Clinton wasnt that great of a candidate for the democrats, so many of the voters who knows to vote for donald trump were voting for what they considered the lesser of two evils and this is a phrase i heard countless times in over 50 focus groups across the country. And i know it really upsets Hillary Clinton supporters but thats just what i heard frequently from men and women who actually voted on the campaign trail. And so are those voters going to be motivated enough to go out and vote for other republicans in the midterms in support of donald trump, a man that they really didnt support all that much in the first place, thats the big question that im looking to be answered with these midterm elections. Still ahead on morning joe were joined by Republican Congressman carlos corvella and the race in florida that went low. President trump took to twitter to denounce the use of Anonymous Sources in journalist reporting. Of course trump himself has frequently cited Anonymous Sources to amplify his claims including the birrer conspiracy. And Maggie Haberman noted how in the 1990s trump often tried to serve as his own anonymous source. Other times it was john miller doing the talking. She call and wanted to go out with him, that i can tell you. And one of the other people that youre writing about by the way, im sort of new here. By the way, im sort of new here. What is your position there . Well, im sort of handling pr because he gets so much of it. And frankly i mean, i could tell you off the record. Can i get to know you, off the record, i can tell you that he didnt care if he got that pr. Take prilosec otc and take control of heartburn. So you dont have to stash antacids here. Here. Or, here. Kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. One pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec®. Its starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. This wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. President trump is now blaming china for his administrations stalled talks with north korea. At the same time he says things between himself and kim jongun couldnt be better. I think china probably has a great influence over north korea. I have a fantastic relationship with chairman kim, as you probably know. And well just have to see how it all ends up. Frightening. In a statement from the white house posted exclusively to the president s own twitter page reads quote president donald j. Trump feels strongly that north korea is under tremendous pressure from china because of our major trade disputes with the chinese government. At the same time we also know china is providing north korea with considerable aid including money, fuel, fertilizer and various other commodities. This is not helpful. None theless the president believes his relationship with kim jongun is very good and a warm one. The president also through the future of join u. S. South korea military exercises into confusion just a day after defense secretary jim mattis said they are likely to resume. The statement from president s twitter account continued, quote, there is no reason this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint u. S. South korea war games besides the statement continues the president can instantly start the joint exercises again with south korea and japan if he so choose. If he does, they will be far bigger than ever before. Jeffrey goldberg, where do you want to begin . Where do i want to begin . I was contemplating this language, this kind of macho bluster to mask the confusion and weakness of the series of statements. You have the defense secretary who, obviously, is someone who is respected around the world, respected in washington, and is seen even by serious opponents of donald trump as a source of stability in this administration. You see him saying one thing. You see the president undercutting it, the very next day. You know, theres two separate levels. Lets separate out two kinds of stories. Theres stories with domestic consequences and stories with global ramifications. The ones with global ramifications are the ones that worry me more quite obviously. You know, japan and south korea are two allies, our two main allies in east asia. They are seismograph sensitive to the way the president talks. Things can go sideways in that region in a quick a catastrophic way if people dont understand the president s long term intention and strategy this assumes if theres a Long Term Strategy and intentions. David ignatius, the other element that official policy statement by tweet to be found on twitter where he says, you know, i, the president at the snap of my fingers can institute, you know, the war games immediately. Never mind what jim mattis says. Seemingly having no understanding or certainly no knowledge of the intricate details and plans required to move elements of the Pacific Fleet off the coast of korea and japan. I mean this is just one more glaring example of the president s tendency to react in a unanimouso second with very little knowledge of global and sometimes quite perilous incidents. Mike, the great disrupter as we sometimes call donald trump really has managed to disrupt both his own pentagon and state department which have been wrong footed on just where korea negotiations are heading, but also our south korean allies. South korea is engaged in extensive bilateral engagement with north korea, they are planning to have a meeting between president moon and kim jongun within the next month. I found the president s latest tweet almost bizarre, referring to himself in the third person in this regal way. Elaborately gratuitously flattering xi jinping and kim jongun, even as he was making sharply critical comes about chinese and north korea policies. Whats happening here in reality is that theres an impasse on the sequencing process for these negotiations to go forward. The North Koreans want a statement declaring that theres an end to the state of war, the u. S. Is resisting that, fearing it will undercut the u. S. Position and thats where we are for the moment. And the president s tweets in a sense sort of distract, i think, policymakers from that reality. Thats what the issue is right now. Yeah. And talking like a dictator and paralleling himself almost to kim jongun. Its hard to read without getting incredibly nervous. Joining us now, political reporter for the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst robert costa. Hes the moderator of Washington Week on pbs. And robert, youre looking at don mcgahns exit among other things. What your hearing from insiders in the white house . White house officials tell me that emmett flood an impeachment specialist working for bill clinton is the likely replacement for don mcgahn. He hasnt been off terrified job. The white House Counsel is facing an exodus. Its almost like tumbleweeds up stair. Flood is best position to take that job after mcgahn leaves this fall. Eddie, whats your take on all the disruption here . I wanted to ask bob costa a question. In some of the reporting theres this question theres this concern that Jared Kushner and ivanka trump were forces behind pushing mcgahn out. Somehow the story was a push on their part to make donald trump make this decision. Does that sound true to you . It sound true to a point. We know don mcgahn had friction with Jared Kushner and ivanka trump, not only the president s family and his senior advisors because mcgahn is the one to say no. When youre the counsel and you have to tell the president no and his family no on policy front on personal front you dont become peoples best friend. So mcgahn was never well positioned to be close with kushner or ms. Trump and thats the case for the last two years from the campaign through the white house. Its a relationship thats been cool, strained, not entirely at war with each other but mcgahn sees himself as a lawyer first not a trump family ally. It makes you wonder if especially with this being announced on twitter without mcgahns knowledge that the president might have been a little surprised at how much time and cooperation don mcgahn gave to the mueller probe. Well, we know from sources inside the white house is that don mcgahn definitely sat down for 30 hours but not everyone is clear about what he actually said. Because of that whether or not the president im pretty sure the president knew likely how long he had been talking to investigators and talking to people on Robert Muellers team. The president himself is saying he had to approve it, he knew he was going in. Theres some nervousness there because they realize that don mcgahn is someone representing the white house, representing the american people, not President Trump personally. I think that from my understanding that they are very much more worried about Michael Cohen and other people and what they might have to say. So im not sure if this white house is as worried about don mcgahns testimony. With that said the president obviously had some friction there and wanted to tell people and confirm that hes leaving. I dont think it was that much of a surprise even though don mcgahn didnt know it would hit social media but it was an open secret around washington that don mcgahn would be leaving. Lets get back to the tumbleweed factor your raised. According to your reporting can you give us an assessment of what the lack of a better phrase i would call the fear factor in the west wing, people working at the white house, in the west wing, who are fearful of what fight be about to occur around the presidency, and the fact in their minds probably that they will go up in flames along with a lot of other people. What they are facing right now, not only a collection of staffers that is wary, wary by the political and legal challenges that have faced this Administration Since january of 2017. They also look ahead. When they are talking to people informally about what do you think about joining the white house, joining the white House Counsels office. Many lawyers in washington, the white shoe type say no thanks because they know House Democrats can take power in november and come swran that subpoena could be flying over to you at the west wing. If you decide to join the west wing as a lawyer you may need a lawyer. Thats whats causing those empty offices upstairs in the west wing. So who is left, robert costa . Who is left in the president s inner circle helping him deal with the tsunami of challenges coming his way. Name them. Inside the white house its pretty sparse. You have kellyanne conway, john kelley who is beleaguered not a political chief of staff. Looking perhaps for the exit. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has made it clear she may not stay forever in this term. You now see, mika, which is interesting. The outside legal team is looking at expanding. Giuliani, jay sekulow, probably not enough if youre facing more challenges hide. You need to bring in more lawyers on the outside team so the white house can function as a white house and have a more sprawling bolstered legal team on the outside. John kelly who he doesnt respect, kellyanne conway, sarah Huckabee Sanders, Rudy Giuliani and jay sekulow. Thats who hes got . Well, mika, the way its described to me by trump source the president is isolated. That he has these aides and advisors he counts on but hes watching television and relying on his own gut instincts. Thats caused some alarm inside the president s circle as he becomes more besieged by political and legal problems he relies more on the fiery types around him and his own gut instincts than bringing in established republicans. These are not people that can stand up to him. Robert costa, thank you very much. What a picture you paint. Coming up on morning joe the subway system is seasoned by new york city. The subway it has been controlled by the state since 1965. Can you stop interrupting . Can you stop lying . As soon as you do. Wow. That is Governor Andrew Cuomo in last nights debate saying hell stop lying when his opponent does. His primary challenger Cynthia Nixon joins us live in the next hour. In a few minutes another new yorker mayor bill de blasio. Morning joe will be right bac5 this is not a bed. Its a revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now, from 899, during sleep numbers biggest sale of the year. It senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. It even helps with this. So you wake up ready to put your pedal to the metal. And now, all beds are on sale. Its the last chance to save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus, 36month financing. Ends labor day. Sleep number. Proven, quality sleep. This wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. Joining us now Republican Congressman carlos kurbelo. Very good to have you on this morning. We want to get to your race and the issues that are very important to you in just a moment. But first the person running on the republican ticket in the race for governor of florida made some controversial comments yesterday. Here they are. You know, hes an articulate spokesman for those far left view. Hes a charismatic. He performed better than the other people. We got to work hard to make sure we continue florida going in a good direction, lets build off the success weve had on Governor Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. Congressman, do you support that statement . Do you think it was racist . Mika, first ill tell you i know ron, and i dont know him to be a racist. Ive never heard him say anything disparaging about any ethnic group or any person for that matter, but ill also say that was just a stupid comment to make. One that was, obviously, offensive to a lot of people. I know ron has clarified that it was in no way intend to be racist, but i think he should also apologize because a lot of floridians and americans were offended by it given the circumstance. I happen to know ron and andrew. Andrew and i served together on the executive border of Florida Student Council when we were seniors in high school. They are both very he low queen, very talented, very articulate men. They are both men of my generation, something thats exciting for me personally and a lot of floridians and as younger elected officials, they should both set an example of what a healthy debate can look like in our state and i dont think ron did a good job of that yesterday. Do you think donald trump helped and i appreciate, by the way, let me just back up, i really appreciate what you just said. I know its a difficult time and very difficult time to navigate politically and that brings me to my next question. Is donald trump an important part of your race, of your message . Is leader you would like to emulate. Well the president , whoever the president is, is always an issue in races for congress. And a lot of people ask me, mika, how do you deal with donald trump . And, obviously, i have a lot of disagreements with him. But i tell people that ideal with this president the same way i dealt with the last president , president obama, when i served while he was in the white house. When the president does something right, i will support it. I will get behind it. If the president is doing something wrong that i disagree with, i will be outspoken about it and thats how ive handled donald trump every single day. I will, for example, commend his administration for some of the work in venezuela and cuba, nicaragua, holding those dictatorships accountable. Thats something thats important to my community. A lot of people here are behind that. But when the president says things that are inappropriate, does things that are inappropriate, attacks the mueller probe, for example, ill push back against that because we see our democracy being undermined in a number of ways and i think sometimes the president contributes to that. And for members of congress, party aside, we have to be willing to represent our communities to a assert ourselves as a coequal branch of government and to always pursue the truth. Im going to washington this afternoon to be there tomorrow morning to receive senator mccains remains and his family. And i think all of us should find the john mccain that we all have inside and emulate him and seek the truth, no matter how difficult it can be sometimes. Elise jordan. Congress mapp, elise jordan here. The Trump Administration child separation policy has separated countless Young Children and teenagers from their parents, and around 528 children and teenagers are still separated at this moment from their parents. What is happening to reunify those children with their parents and how is this not ever going to happen again . This is an important issue, especially here in south florida. We have two of the shelters in southern Miamidade County that are caring for some of these children. Not just them, by the way, many others who arrived at the border by themselves. And we have been urging secretary azar to do Everything Possible to bring these families back together. We know that because of the public outcry, because many members of congress from both parties spoke out when Jeff Sessions had this horrible idea and started executing it, that the president signed an executive order ending this policy forever. Now, thats not enough. We in congress have to pass legislation to make sure that this never happens again. To allow the government to enforce our immigration laws in a humane way but to never use family separation as a deterrent especially when were talking about children would are as young as 5, 6, 7 years of age children i saw and visited at these shelters. We put a bill on the floor and ill say this, criticize colleagues on both sides of the aisle, we put a bill on the floor and forced speaker ryan to bring bill to the floor two months ago that would have ended this policy forever. A minority of republicans joined every single democrat to bring that bill down. There are a lot of colleagues on both sides who prefer the politics of immigration over the solutions for immigration and its time to put an end to that and get some real Immigration Reform passed that will create a humane, decent immigration system, but that will also uphold the rule of law and protect our citizens from illegal immigration. Jeffrey goldberg. Congressman, a question about something that is happening, happened, still happening in your backyard in puerto rico. The president of your party believes he did a fantastic job in handling the hurricane and its aftermath. Do you agree with him . Can you assess for us his performance in puerto rico . I think we could have done better. But i also recognize it was a very difficult situation. We know hurricanes here in south florida. And this was a category 5 storm that hit a small island. I dont think anyone should think that it was going to be easy or smooth for puerto rico to recover. I think that just do you blame the electric authorities for this like donald trump does . I think all of us are responsible from local leaders in puerto rico to the islands, territorys government, to United States officials. But i will tell you i was with the coast guard immediately after the storm because we were recovering here from Hurricane Irma, and despite the fact that there was a lot of to work to be done here in south florida i know that many resources were dedicated to puerto rico. We in congress had appropriated billions upon billions of dollars for recovery in puerto rico. Could we have done better . Definitely. Should the administration be looking at its own actions and figure out how it can respond better in the future . For sure. But for people to just assume that everything could have gone perfectly in puerto rico and that it was is going to be a seamless recovery, i think thats also unfair and unreasonable. I dont think anyone was assuming that. It was a very difficult situation. Rick tyler has a question for you. I want to challenge you on this notion, after Hurricane Maria, it was reported the government accepted figure was 64. Now it may have been more. I dont blame donald trump for those 64 deaths even if hundreds of deaths that occurred directly from the hurricane. He have the number of 2975. Those are people who died after the hurricane. That means those deaths in my estimation are largely preventible. You live in florida. Florida will be hit by a hurricane. How much confidence do you have in this administration for recovery effort in florida . Well, i can tell you that we were hit by Hurricane Irma last year. My district, the florida keys, an island chain similar to puerto rico in many ways has suffered a lot of over the last year. Thankfully were recovering. The response from federal government was not perfect, but i can say that most people in our community are grateful for all the federal resources that were immediately available to help in recovery. Teen military had an Aircraft Carrier off our coast making sure that people had all the basic needs immediately after the storm. So we did go through the experience here. It is always difficult when you get hit by a strong storm. Those of us who live here know that. We one that. Its part of our lives. Every Hurricane Season as we look at all the different models. Could we have done better . Always. There are always lessons to be learned after storms. Its also very easy to point the finger and assign blame when its a difficult situation and i think here in florida, the federal government has done everything that they can to help our community recover. Are there lessons to be learned . Always. Could we have done better in puerto rico . For sure. Is it disturbing that apparently the islands government juni underestimated the number of deaths for months. Thats where we have to figure out how well account for the damage after these storms. Congressman carlos corbello thank you so much for being so candid. Thank you. And as for the child sprays story theres now this story. A toddler who crossed the border with her guatemalan mother seeking asylum in this country died after receiving what success reported as inadequate medical care while in i. C. E. Custody according to lawyers for the woman. The mother and her lawyers now plan to file several lawsuits alleging negligence and inadequate medical care when they were held in detention led to the toddlers death. The mother and her 18monthold daughter were transferred a facility in texas on march 5th. Few days after they crossed the border and requested asylum. A statement from the law firm representing the mother says the toddler had no health problems. At the detention facility she became swik a severe conspiracy infection that went undertreated for nearly a month. The firm also states that the girls mother continually sought attention from medical staff, was prescribed medications that did not improve the childs condition and her daughter continued to get worse. The girl was reportedly diagnosed with an acute upper respiratory infection. According to the lawyers, she and her daughter were released from i. C. E. Detention a plane to her mothers house in new jersey. Juarez took her daughter to the hospital the next day and the little girl remained hospitalized at different locations for six weeks before dieing on may 10th. I. C. E. Declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but said in a statement that it takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care. Well be right back. Back. I love you, basement bathroom of solitude, but sometimes you stink. Febreze air effects doesnt just mask, it cleans away odors. Because the things you love can stink. Mom okay we need to get all your School Supplies today. School. Grade. Done. Done. Hit the Snooze Button and get low prices on School Supplies all summer long. Like this case of paper for only 29. 99 at office depot officemax. Regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing and russia is a made up story. That was President Trump more than a year ago in that headlinegrabbing interview. With Nbcs Lester Holt admitting that he fired former fbi director james comey because of, quote, this russia thing. Now the president is claiming out of the blue on twitter this morning that the tape was, quote, fudged. Hes been tweeting all morning, by the way, too hard to keep up with him and most of them are too stupid to keep up with, including this one. But this one is important. Importantly stupid Jeffrey Goldberg because not only is he attacking nbcs chairman andy lack, our boss, with stupid rumors, but also hes going after the truth. Attacking nbc news saying that lester holt got caught fudging the interview. Hes trying to shape the truth around the reality that he wants people to believe and, yes, i will get it. This is a leading question. But how dangerous is this . Its dangerous. How about that for an answer . Its very dangerous. In ordinary times, a president who made an unfounded assertion, an assertion that he had not supported would be called upon this morning to say show us immediately the proof that a leading television network, a leading news caster and his people quote unquote fudged a tape. That will happen, but the white house is and the people who are protecting the president from certain realities will not respond the way others traditionally respond which is come up with a proof or apologize for an unfounded and dangerous assertion. Were in New Territory territory here. There are no checks on the president s unbelievable willingness to turn the media into the, quote unquote, enemy of the people. Thats where the Republican Congress has come into play, but so far hasnt. And when you look at countries around the world that are less than functional, David Ignatius, what does this look like to you . What does this parallel . Well, we see countries in which leaders attempt to manipulate the press, deny reports, alter what people clearly see in their own eyes and it is shocking to think that we may be entering a period like that in the United States. We all watched lester holts interview with President Trump. Fudge the tape. We watched a continuous flow of comments. When the president this week said that he was bothered by Google Search results and he thought that they were being spun against him, i had a shiver down my back thinking, this president means now to challenge the way in which we get information from the internet. So i think were entering a dangerous territory. The president calls the media the enemies of the people. Where is he going to stop in this campaign . News organizations need to hold tight and hold on to the truth and stick to the facts. Still ahead, the candidate from florida for the florida governorship who styles himself after donald trump says he wasnt being racist with his monkey remark about his black opponent. Plus, White House Counsel Don Mcgahn reportedly surprised by the president s tweet saying his tenure was coming to an end. Well discuss mcgahns exit on the russia investigation, the impact there and on the administrations ability to keep up if Democrats Gain subpoena power. More on the new reporting from the Washington Post after sourcing 26 white house officials, president ial advisers, lawyers and strategists close to the administration. Morning joe is coming right back. Morning joe is coming right back youre turning onto the street when you barely clip a passing car. Minor accident no big deal, right . Wrong. Your Insurance Company is gonna raise your rate after the other car got a scratch so small you coulda fixed it with a pen. Maybe you should take that pen and use it to sign up with a different Insurance Company. For drivers with accident forgiveness Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty stop fearing your alarm clock. With new zzzquil pure zzzs. A drugfree blend of botanicals with melatonin. That supports your Natural Sleep cycle. So you can seize the morning. New zzzquil pure zzzs. Its a revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now, from 899, during sleep numbers biggest sale of the year. It senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. It even helps with this. So you wake up ready to put your pedal to the metal. And now, all beds are on sale. Its the last chance to save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus, 36month financing. Ends labor day. Sleep number. Proven, quality sleep. We need to be on guard as a nation. Many will openly root for candidates in georgia and florida and across the nation and donald trump will almost certainly use that and his attacks against the media to make this a racial battle, a racial political war. Lets build off the success weve had on Governor Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda. That was before you saw that statement you saw joe, just 24 hours ago, and it took how long . Just over two hours for joes prediction yesterday to come true. And while it wasnt the president using that language, it was his hand picked candidate in florida. So just how closely do the views of donald trump line up with those of ron desantis . Ron loves playing with the kids. Build a wall. He reads stories. And then mr. Trump said youre fired. I love that part. Hes teaching madison to talk. Make America Great again. Wow. Good morning. It is thursday, august 30th. Joe is off. With us we have msnbc contributor mike barnacle. Former aide to the white house and republican communication strategist and msnbc political strategist rick tyler been columnist David Ignatius, yamish alfendor, jim vandehye and jim dorian, author of the soul of america john meachum. And, everyone, before we get started and we look forward to having willy back tomorrow, as well. Before we get started, check your twitter and make sure you all havent been fired because apparently thats a thing. You can get fired now on twitter. Apparently everybody will be the first to know except you, especially if you have a crucial job in the white house. So well get to that coming up. But first, ron desantis, congressman, is facing criticism for hwhat some are calling racit language. Here again is what he said and listen to him ramping up to try and get that statement, that clearly he practiced in his mind during an interview yesterday morning on fox news. You know, he is an articulate spokesman for those far left views and hes a charismatic candidate. I watched those democratic debates. None of of that is my cup of tea, but he performed better than the other people there. So we have to work hard to make sure that we continue florida going in a good direction. Lets build off the success weve had on Governor Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. After being accused of using racist language, Desantis Campaign issued a statement, ron desantis was obviously talking about florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillums spounss. To characterize it as anything else is absurd. Floridas economy has been on the move for the last eight years and the last thing we need is a far left democrat to stop trying to stop our success. Really . Why didnt he just say that . Shortly after a the statement, fox news issued a rare onair rebuke of the Republican Congressmans remarks. A little while ago, we had ron desantis on for an interview to discuss the florida election. During the interview, he made what some are calling an inappropriate comment about his. Opponent, Andrew Gillum. We dont condone this language and wanted to make the viewers aware that he has since his comments. Gillum saying the opponent took a page out of the trump playbook. Its very clear mr. Desantis is taken a page directly from the Campaign Manual of donald trump. But i think he has another thing coming to him. If he thinks that in todays day and age florida voters are going to respond to that, theyre sick of it. Was that racist of a figment of speech . Well, i well, in the handbook of donald trump, they no longer do whistle calls. Theyre now using full bull horns. Meanwhile, President Trump was asked about desantis comments during an event at the white house yesterday. I mean, ive been actually working on the deal with canada, so i have not heard. Ill tell you what, i know ron desantis. Ron desantis is extraordinary, harvard, yale, brilliant, ran an incredible campaign. Okay. Lets go around the table, but rick tyler, ill start with you. As you work on campaigns, you work on messages, you work onner wording, you work on trying to help push the candidate forward any way he can. Is there any way possible in your mind that the term monkeying around just came out of his mouth by mistake and it was just by mistake, ill used, poor form, or do you think this candidate monkeyed this up, took that statement and used it racially because he knew it would be a siren or a dog whistle or anything else that would have a racist tone to this campaign . Well, mika, theres no question that the juxtapose articulate and monkeyed up, whatever that is supposed to mean, was monically stupid. And i dont know how ron desantis or any of his team would have sent him out the there to do or say that. But it did come out of his mouth. I think the democrats got a big boost yesterday. I think they have a leg up. And by the way, because he is and this is just politically speaking, because he is viewed as more far left, supported by bernie sanders, i think in this case because this is a base election and this election will be about donald trump, that this was a very smart move by democratic voters in florida to pick gillum and i can hes going to i think hes going to give ron desantis a run. Theres no reason ron desantis should have teed this up in a way thats going to generate all this negative publicity and as you saw in the election with the ads he played, he closely tied himself to donald trump who has been linked to saying very inappropriate things after the colossal tragedy in charlottesville. All right. Yamish and john meachum. Yamish, just as a reporter covering this and following trumps impact on candidates as they try and use him to move themselves forward and sometimes use some of his darker tactics if you would call them that. I would say somebody was playing that on their phone, that sound bite in my home and i stopped in my tracks. I heard it right away and i didnt hear it any other way than the way i heard it, which was racist, planned, prepared and really ugly. I think as a reporter who has covered race for a long time, when you use the word monkey and ar the particular ewe lat and talking about an educated black man who is the mayor of tallahassee. Andrew gillum has a degree from florida a m university. Hes been honored as an outstanding alumni of that university. Its a historically black university. So the fact that you would call him articulate and say he was performing well was of course in and of itself is racially charged because youre saying a black man with a degree can speak well which has historically been something africanamericans have been called when you want to say black people shouldnt be speaking this well, im surprised that youre speaking this well. So i think that ron desantis in this instance, if he didnt know what he was doing, he should have known better. Theres no other way to read his language than to say you want to start pointing out this could be the first avenue can american governor of florida. So john meachum, historically, does this type of racial undertone, overtone, work . And id love to hear from David Ignatius, as well, after john meachum. And if he didnt mean it, why wouldnt he just retract it and say my gosh, i am so sorry. I didnt know. Which would be unbelievable, but at least that would stop this conversation from happening. Clearly, he meant it. Yeah, i think he didnt say he didnt mean it because he meant it, im guessing. Sometimes, you know, if it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, its a duck. So historically, i and i dont want to make everything this week about senator mccain, but it was very hard yesterday not to juxtapose the images of the man who ran against the first avenue can american nominee for president and did so, whether you agree or disagree with him, did so with an incredible sense of care and concern to keep this kind of thing out of the Public Square the ten years ago. And so and never forget, john mccain i recommend if people have five minutes, ten minutes today, go look at john mccains concession speech in 2008. Just go watch it. Yes. And he mentioned a hugely important moment from nearly a century before. Booker t. Washington was invited to dinner at the white house by Theodore Roosevelt. The press goes crazy, north and south, but particularly in my native region in the south saying that this was an outrage, that a black man was being entertained socially as an equal at the white house and thee door roosevelt should be ashamed. Roosevelt wrote a letter after this happened saying that it was clear to him that the ferocity of the reaction underscored the need for the gesture itself. That is, if things are so bad that we cannot actually that the peoples house cant receive an american, then something has to be done about it. John mccain cited that moment in his concession speech to obama saying here we are in less than a century, really, weve gone from a black man not being able to go into the white house to one being president of the United States. This is a you know, theres a long history of race is the great flash point in american life. I personally believe that the trump reaction to the changing demography of the country is in a very strange way an affirmation of the inevitable of that change. I think this is the last gasp, the last stand for this kind of prejudice, frankly, and i think well get through it. History is not on desantis sooim side side on this. First, President Trump warned that everyone will go broke if democrats push for impeachment. Then he warned about violence in the streets if democrat win control of congress. He was asked to explain that yesterday and well talk about his response, straight ahead. But first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. Were going to get to the labor day forecast in a second, but first our end of summer heat wave is almost done. One more day today in areas of the northeast. Notice were 87, heat index already in d. C. Look back at the great lakes, chicago at 64. Rapid city at 48. So there is some cooler stuff that is going to the arrive. We have 19 Million People under heat advisories. Mostly because we have about 10 Million People around hartford today. Doing any early travel for the holiday upcoming weekend, scattered showers in the southeast. Were still hot in texas. Not many problems in the southwest although we have a chance of showers in seattle. Saturday, looking at a chance of thunderstorms, maybe heavy rain possible. Illinois around chicago. West, were just fine, no problems at all. The beaches actually dont look too bad, especially the first half of the day on the east coast. Notice were in the 80s, upper 80s even so. Cooler on saturday and the northeast will warm up by the time we get into sunday. Temperatures will jump from the 70s into the 80s in most cases. Sunday should be 83 in boston, 88 in d. C. Hit and miss showers if theres any chance of severe or rainy weather. Finally, we end our weekend forecast on labor day. Were warm on the east coast, mid to upper 80s just about everywhere. It will be a chance of afternoon showers and storms. Again, its not going to ruin your day. I wouldnt cancel any of your vacation plans this upcoming holiday weekend. Washington, d. C. , you have one of the warmest heat indices in the country right now. Kind of looks like it right there. 87 degrees already early this morning. Rning. At t provides edgetoedge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your healthcare business. So that if she has a heart problem the staff needs to know, they will theyll drop everything can you take a look at her vitals . Share the data with other specialists yeah, im looking at them now. Theyll drop everything hey. Take care of this baby yeah, that procedure seems right. That one too. At t provides edge to edge intelligence. It can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. Thats the power of. When your patients tests come back. So you have, your headphones, chair, new laptop, 24 7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I think he might need some support. Yes. Start them off right, with the School Supplies they need at low prices all summer long. Now save 150 on this dell notebook at office depot officemax. Olay regenerist wipes out the competition; hydrating better than 100, 200 even 400 creams. With our b3 complex, Beautiful Skin doesnt have to cost a fortune. Olay. I can do more to lower my a1c. Because my body can still make its own insulin. I take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release its own insulin, like its supposed to. Trulicity is not insulin. It works 24 7. It comes in an easytouse pen. And i may even lose a little weight. Trulicity is an injection to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. Dont use it as the first medicine to treat diabetes, or if you have type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Dont take trulicity if you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, youre allergic to trulicity, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of a serious allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck or severe stomach pain. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your low blood sugar risk. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and decreased appetite. These can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. To help lower my a1c i choose trulicity to activate my within. Ask your doctor about onceweekly trulicity. Yesterday we told you about President Trump talking to evangelicals, that there would be violence if republicans lose the midterms. Okay. So were going to beat you up if we lose . He told religious leaders during a closed door dinner on monday night that his opponents are violate people who will overturn the gains made during his administration quickly and violently. Yesterday, the president was asked about those remarks. I just hope there wont be violence. I can tell you that i can tell that because thats the way, if you look at what happens, theres a lot of unnecessary violence all over the world, but also in this country and i dont want to see it. Mike barnacle, ill let you take it from there. First of all, the opponents are violent. And what do you make of the president of the United States really, is he predicting or is he inciting . Lets not act surprised at this. This has been going on for months, at least 18 months. And if you include the campaign of 2016, for a couple of years. And here are the themes. Crime, immigration, muslims, ms13, border security, and the larger theme, unfortunately for us right now you in this country, culturally, is this. The bottom line is, put all of those together as articulated by the president of the United States and various candidate for various offices, including mr. Desantis down in florida, the larger overriding theme is, look, you white people, your world is being taken from you. Be careful. Listen to me. Because you are going to be swallowed. Up swallowed up by a cultural tsunami. So follow us. Were the party of white people. Well, jim vandehye, i do agree the shock is exhausting, but it ises also a worry, a fear and ill just say in my opinion that we become desensitized. I think what happened in the Desantis Campaign, those comments that he made, were wrong and they should be shocking the at this point. But this is the direction of the Republican Party being led by this president. How does that how does that really show as a foreboding for the midterms, how ugly this could get . Right. You go back to that goofy ad that desantis did where hes reading from the trump book to his kid. Why is he doing that . You keep asking about the Republican Party. It really is why this is happening is because its the trump party. So if you go and talk to the Desantis Team and talk to his pollsters, what theyll tell you is that the vast majority of republicans said they consider themselves Trump Supporters first, not republicans first. And thats holding true you in almost every race. Youre talking about virginia, you have the exact same dynamic in georgia, in a Gubernatorial Race there where you have a trumpedback conservative who no one thought could win on one side and then you have a liberal minority woman on the other side. Youll see a lot of the same politics in georgia which could become a swing state as youre seeing in florida which already is a swing state. And i do think this is a preview of what youre going to see in 2020. It is what you guys were talking about in terms of it is defining the Republican Party right now. We have a new post up on axios this morning looking at immigration. And i think this is immigration over the last hundred years. There was a huge dip in the number of immigrants coming into this country in terms of the total population. Over the last 10 to 20 years, it surged back up to where it was a hundred years ago. And i think there are a lot of republicans who are uncomfortable with that. And i think trump has used that issue well in the political context to be able to get his party fired up, scared, and its what you were talking about before. Thats what links off the issues together, immigration, gangs, why would ms will have 13 be an issue in some districts when they dont have ms13 present . It plays on peoples fear. Fear is a motivator in politics. I think its one of the very unfortunate things about this moment in politics is that you have a large number of people who should be scared who are scared about things that arent even happening inner their neighborhood and that many cases actually isnt happening in the country. Coming up on morning joe, first Michael Cohen, now don mcgahn. The attorneys around President Trump keep being shown the door. Who is going to replace them . Jonathan turley joins the conversation next on morning joe. Joe. My moms pain from moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis was intense. I wondered if she could do the stuff she does for us which is kinda, a lot. And if that pain could mean something worse. Joint pain could mean joint damage. Enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop further damage enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma other cancers, nervous system and Blood Disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. Tell your doctor if youve been someplace where fungal infections are common. Or if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for Heart Failure or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Since enbrel, my moms back to being my mom. Visit enbrel. Com. And use the joint damage simulator to see how joint damage could progress. Ask about enbrel. Enbrel. Fda approved for over 18 years. With pg e in the sierras. And im an arborist since the onset of the drought, more than 129 Million Trees have died in california. Pg e prunes and removes over a Million Trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees cant impact power lines. And since the onset of the drought weve doubled our efforts. I grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly its heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. What guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. Don mcgahn before this, he represented me. Its been almost two years. A lot of affection for don. Hell be moving on probably the private seconder, maybe the private seconder and hell do very well. Hes done an excellent job. Any concern about what he said to the mueller team . No, not at all. I knew he was going, also. I had to approve it. So we didnt claim no, i dont have to be aware. We do everything straight, we do everything by the book. That is President Trump giving a few more details following his tweet that White House Counsel Don Mcgahn will be leaving his job this fall. He tweeted the president made the announcement yesterday morning saying mcg a ihn will stay on until Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed. The move comes less than two weeks after the New York Times reported that mcgahn spent 30 hours talking with Robert Muellers team. Now republicans are warning that whoever replaced mcgahn better be ready for some political battles, particularly if democrats take control of capitol hill. If i were the president , id pick somebody that understood the legislative branch because in the democrats take over the house, then hes going to be subpoenaed to death and investigated to death. Joining us now, jonathan turley. Good to have you on board. Thank you. What does mcgahns departure mean for President Trumps possible mueller charges against him . Theres no question that president s choose the white House Counsel. They have to have a good working relationship. And this is within the purview of the president to make this change. But its a dangerous time for a change like this to occur. This matter is moving interest a different phase. Mcgahn performed marvelously in restraining the president. He shutly put himself twn the president and the worst possible path including firing mueller and sessions. Im not union sheer how much mcgahn probably did for his legacy in taking that stand. But the big concern that many have is whether as we get into this new stage where you could have a storm of subpoenas, whether hes going to pick someone in the mold of mcgahn or maybe in the mold of Michael Cohen. Hes selected two very different types of lawyers here. Cohen seems to have resinated well with the president , but he was a perfectly dreadful lawyer. Mcgahn, at the critical moment, was willing to stand up to the president and say look, im not going to help you do this. Im going to stand in your way because this is not where you or the country need to go. With a special counsel closing in with lots of built pleas, with, i mean, local, state, legal challenges, its just, to me, it seems really. Kind of not very helpful to ones selfto discard someone unceremoniously on twitter. Jim, it might have been your reporting that spurred all of this. The president lunched out a tweet because you guys were hot on this story. You heard that this would be happening. Yeah. We had heard it was going to happen after the kavanaugh hearings. The New York Times, i think it was maggie had a good scoop that after seeing that report, the president was frustrated and said the hell with it, lets make it final. And its not just that mcbegan is leaving. I think it was the Washington Post that shows four of his five deputies have left or are leaving. This is a really big problem inside the white house in that youre losing lots and lots of talent at all the various levels inside the white house and they are having an impossible time filling it. People dont want to come in if they think its going to be a constant in fighting. People dont want to come in if they think theyre going to have to lawyer up just to take a job for government. And it doesnt matter when things are not rocking and rolling or the economy is fine, but once there is, you need smart people in the right seats or you have big problems. And if democrats win the house, hes going to be impeached. They are going to try to impeach him and youre going to need lawyers who understand the impeachment process and put a lot of prior planning into it. Mcgahn is interesting because he testified for 30 hours and the president says i wanted him to testify. Maybe that is true. But did he wants him to testify for 30 hours when he doesnt know what was said . Which is why mcbegan is a character you should pay a lot of attention to. He was the architect to getten conservatives planted into these judicial jobs that is going to last a lifetime and he is a witness in this probe. Coming up on morning joe, new york city mayor bill de blasio is standing by and joins the conversation next on morningo. Conversation next on morningo everything was so fresh in the beginning. But that plug quickly faded. Luckily theres new febreze plug. It cleans away odors and freshens for 1200 hours. Breathe happy with new febreze plug. If your moderate to severeor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio®, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio® works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract, and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio® may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. Tell your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms, or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio®. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. Entyvio®. Relief and remission within reach. The New York Times reports this morning that in 2016, then candidate donald trump along with his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, devised a plan to buy up all the dirt. The National Enquirer and its Parent Company collected on the future president dating back to the 1980s. The plan, which was never finalized, indicated just how concerned they were about all the information amassed by the company, american media, and its chairman, david pecker a loyal trump ally for two decades who has agreed to cooperate with investigators. It is un clear whether the plan has attracted the attention of federal prosecutors in in, who last week obtained a guilty plea from cohen over a 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and payments to karen mcdougal. It is not known how much of the material on trump is still in american medias possession. Lawyers for both trump and cohen declined to comment on the times article as did american media. We will just let that sit there, just think about that. Joining us now, though, democratic mayor of new york city bill de blasio along with parkland shooting survivor and cofounder of the march for our lives david hog. They are here to announce a new partnership between student activists and mayors across the country to get Younger Voters more engaged. Mike barnacle, eddie glock jr. , yamish alsendoor and rick tyler with us, as well. We want to ask you a few broader picture questions and then we want to focus your plans and your new partnership here. Yep. The tone of politics as we lead up to the midterms and look toward the midterms, i want to ask from a democratic perspective with the president warning of violence if the democrats win and the race for governor in florida already being tinged with racism and getting ugly, what are some of the challenges . What are some of your concerns about how democrats move forward and try and win . Well, i think what democrats are doing this year more and more is acting like real democrats. And being bolder, being more clearly progressive, speaking to working people and every day peoples lives, i think that is why gillum won in florida. I think thats why cortez won in queens and the bronx. I think thats why youre seeing something happening all over the country. The reason i say that is because i think thats the pertinent reality is what is going to move people in their hearts emotionally to come out and vote. That energy is on the democratic and the Progressive Side right now. And thats what i think cant be tracked. Polling is not picking it up. The reality of turnout is beyond the reach of traditional polling to analyze. And we keep seeing things happening that were not predicted. This is going to be an extraordinary change election in my view and things are happening in grassroots that none of the experts can possibly say. That is not unusual that happens. David, what is your objective . What are you going to do . And site specifically what impact would mayors for our lives have in the gubanatorial race . Right now, we have voters in 25 states, including d. C. In terms of mayors and i think the impact on the florida election lk the fact that florida elections is that polls do not take into account young people and a lot of times people of color and different communities that historically speaking, even my ap govern the textbook, it talks about the latino population and the fact that they dont turn out in terms of demographics. If young people turn out, its not registered. Explain who he is. So let me ask two different questions. So i want to hear more about the role of young voters in gillums demographics, what role did they play, particularly in orlando and broward and other places where he surprised folks. And the second question is to you, mr. Mayor, remember that story a while back saying that the progressive wing, bernies army was in disarray, that this talk of the progressive more or thrust within the party was a big much, that cortez didnt signal something, but something has happened. How would you characterize that alongside of the dnc reform with regards to superdelegates . What is happening in the dkic party right now . The change is happening in states across the country. You can see progressive candidates who won all across the country. You can see the energy they do create among a whole swath of the election. Younger voters will be the differencemakers. And change the whole dynamic and are choose to go run, too. This is another big x factor. More and more younger candidates. So i think it fits perfectly with this amazing initiative. I have to say mayorser for our lives, 50 plus mayors united in the concept that were going to reach younger folks, students, even at the High School Level getting ready to vote and beyond and theyre going the be Game Changers in our society. And ill tell you you something, when it comes to gun safety, what i hear from Younger Voters is uncompromising. I believe it they believe its a matter of life. And what david and his colleagues have done is change american politics and brought in Younger Voters. The issue of gun safety is an American Issue that we face as a country. In terms of more developed countries, we face the highest gun deaths per capita. The only way we can solve that is working together as democrats and republicans and as americans in solving this issue. On the topic of the what happened in the Gubernatorial Race, the reason they didnt expect him to win is the fact that we had aer florida team going across florida to every congressional district, all 27 in florida throughout the summer registering thousands of new voters. In orlando, our team helped promote Voter Registration so much that it went up t90 in florida. To the those people are not taken into account on polls. Young people are angry, but more importantly, they want to see people that bring people together and dont divide us more. They want to see democrats and republicans that make this country unified and not even more divided than it is. So let me ask about another Gubernatorial Race and that would be in the state of new york, mr. Mayor, the democratic primary for governor has gotten kind of spicy. Andrew cuomo accused Cynthia Nixon of being a phony who concealed her tax returns. I dont think thats true. And that she would run the state into a debtdriven chaos. So i guess two questions. Would Cynthia Nixon be a good governor for the state of new york and are you concerned that the race has gotten too negative . Well, first of all, i have not made a public endorsement in this race and it is something im still looking at. But theres no question in my mind Cynthia Nixon is an extraordinary human being, activist who has made a huge impact, particularly in terms of education and fairness for our children. I thought she more than held her own last night in the debate. I thought she got a lot of very powerful ideas out and a lot of very powerful critiques out. And i found some of the governors counterpoints a little desperate, honestly, the notion of calling her a corporation that sounded like a Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court that the the corporation is a person. So the look, i think the bottom line here is just like weve been talking about, this race is unpredictable here in new york. Theres a lot going on on the ground and theres a lot of people who are thinking very independently and anyone who thinks they know where this is going is not watching what is happening in current politics. And i think one important factor is the fact that when it comes to voting for people, young people, we are starting to see this shift in america that not only around voting for young people, but around the fact that when wealthier people are running, younger people arer starting to think, why would these people want to fix the world that quite frankly a lot of us think that they messed up. Like the president being a billionaire. Why would somebody that these people that are creating a lot of the problems we he face as a nation right now you are coming back into politics and saying they want to solve them when in reality theyre in it for themselves and thats the truth. Thats why its so important that we vote. No matter what your opinion is, you get out there and you vote on november 6th. You get out there and register on september 25th in a bipartisan effort. You can say what you want about politics. But if you dont vote, you have no right to. Fair enough. Thats the x factor in elections this year. Mayor de blasio, david hogg, thank you for both being on this morning. Before we go to break, the president is posting about his outgoing white House Counsel this morning. He tweeted, quote, i am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of don mcgahn as white House Counsel. I liked don, but he was not responsible for me not firing bob mueller or Jeff Sessions. So much fake reporting and fake news. Wow. So much to get to. Well be right back. Wow. So much to get to. Well be right back. A hotel can make or break a trip. And at expedia, we dont think you should be rushed into booking one. Thats why we created expedias addon advantage. Now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. Addon advantage. Discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. Only when you book with expedia. [stomach gurgles] when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Girl, pepto ultra coating will treat your stomach right. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Try new pepto with ultra coating. I love you, basement guest bathroom. Your privacy makes you my number 1 place to go number 2. I love you, but sometimes you stink. Febreze air effects doesnt just mask, it cleans away odors. Because the things you love the most can stink. And try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. Breathe happy with febreze. Mom okay we need to get all your School Supplies today. School. Grade. Done. Done. Hit the Snooze Button and get low prices on School Supplies all summer long. Like this case of paper for only 29. 99 at office depot officemax. It was always our singular focus. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. The texas Republican Party fired off a few tweets yesterday, looking to embarrass ted cruzs senate challenger, democratic congressman beta orour orourke. Including this picture of the democrat when he played in a punk band back in the 1990s. But the plan seemed to backfire somewhat on twitter with many people saying things like yeah, definitely dont want to vote for this cool guy who did fun stuff and had friends. Twitter can be not useful sometimes. Now to the Gubernatorial Race. Used the mta like an atm and we see the result. He has had 7 1 2 years to avoid this very avoidable crisis in our new york city subway, and he has done next to nothing. Why would the next four years be any different . Governor, would you like to respond . My owe opponent lives in the world of fiction, i live in the world of fact. The subway system is owned by new york city the mta has been controlled by the state since 1965 excuse me, can you stop interrupting . Can you stop lying . As soon as you do. Wow, some of the more heated exchanges there from last nights debate between new yorks incumbent governor, andrew cuomo, and democratic challenger Cynthia Nixon. Cynthia nixon joins us now. Welcome, great to have you on the show. Thanks, mika, great to be here. So i want to get right to it. Andrew cuomo called you a phony who concealed your tax records and would run new york into a debtdriven crisis. Have you ever concealed your tax records . And then i want to ask you about the how. How would you adequately fund the programs youre proposing . But first, the taxes. So yes, no, i have not. Ive not concealed my taxes. At the beginning of the campaign, i leareleased one yeaf taxes which i really think is important for new yorkers to understand, is more than andrew cuomo did when he ran in 2010. He did not release his taxes until after the election. Then a few weeks ago, i released another four years. The governor was really hoping to find something. It was a nothing burger. Reporters came and pored over our taxes and mostly didnt write stories about them because there was nothing to say. Is he right about the funding . How would you fund the programs youre proposing . Wheres the money come from . How does it work . So, you know, i voted for andrew cuomo eight years ago because i remembered his dad and because i believed he was a democrat the way he said he was. But since taking office, hes governed like a republican. Hes handed over massive amounts of power to the Republican Party. He slashed taxes in his first year in office on corporations, on banks, on the super rich. And i think that we can afford, in, new york, to have our corporations pay a little bit more and our wealthy people to pay a little bit more. Andrew cuomo has so Many Republican and so many corporate donors, hes really leaned on that side. As a result, weve lost 25 billion worth of revenue. We have things like the new york city subway, the defunding of it. We have our system run into the ground. I really got in this race one of the chief reasons is because of education funding. Because for 17 years, since my oldest child entered kindergarten, ive been fighting for the billions of dollars that the highest state in new york says that our school kids are owed in high needs, low Income School districts, 4 billion. We can do that by enacting a millionaire tax and by increasing our Corporate Taxes which is less than half they were when Andrew Cuomos father was governor, and we can do it by closing corporate loopholes. Okay. So plainly and simply, youre saying you would raise taxes on the wealthy and on corporations . Thats what im saying i think theres also a lot of programs we have billions of dollars being spent on Economic Development, a lot of which has gone directly into the pockets of cuomos biggest donors with little job creation and no oversight. Thats what the trials were about this spring. Its why cuomos chief aide is headed to prison. Its why his chief Economic Development czar is heading to prison, along with some of his big donors. We have so yes, sorry, mika. Yes, as a question for you, but just really quickly, are you surprised an incumbent governor attacked you so personally during the debate . I think that andrew cuomo was looking to attack anything about me that he could think of because he has a record thats very hard to defend, particularly when you talk about how he has handed over control of the state senate to the republicans for the last 7 1 2 years. Basically what hes done is hes incentivized a group of Democratic State senators to vote with the republicans and give them the majority. This is as if barack obama had said to some democratic senator, hey, will you go and vote with the republicans and make sure that Mitch Mcconnell is the head of the senate . And what thats meant in new york is we havent done almost any of our progressive priorities, whether youre talking about funding your schools, whether youre talking about fully fully funding them, whether youre talking about Single Payer Health care, what youre talking about real Justice Reform, we need such Justice Reform in new york. We need to end cash bail. Because twothirds of the people sitting in our jail on any given day are there because they cant afford bail. Theyre there because theyre poor. And we have to put an end to that in new york state. Lets get to yamish. Miss nixon, you and Governor Cuomo argued yesterday about or argued during your debate about who was the biggest donald trump critic. You also said that Governor Cuomo should return some of the donations that donald trump made to his campaign. My question to you is how effective do you think it is to run an antitrump campaign, given that democrats did that in 2016 and lost . Thats exactly why im running. Because i feel that democrats this year, if we want to win and if we want our voters to turn out, democrats have to understand what we stand for. We cant just be a kinder gentler more diverse version of the democratic party, of the Republican Party. We feed to elect more democrats this year, but we need to elect more democrats, and we need people to speak about the economic and racial and gender inequality thats swallowing our democracy whole and actually do something about it, not just Pay Lip Service to it. Rick tyler, jump in. Cynthia nixon, you want to tax millionaires and billionaires and thats all well and good and Corporate Tax but new york is not its own nation state. The companies and millionaires and billionaires can choose to leave to go to other more tax friendly states like florida, like texas. If you were successful in imposing a millionaire tax or Corporate Tax, what makes you think those companies and wealthy people would stay in new york . So i think that wealthy individuals have the liberty of choosing where they want to live. And if high taxes were the thing that were going to make wealthy people move, we wouldnt have so many wealthy people in new york. We wouldnt have so many wealthy people in california. But when you talk about businesses, about being a business friendly environment, one of the main things that businesses care about is having an educated workforce, and in order to do that, we really need to invest in education. The other thing that businesses really care about is infrastructure. And weve so divested not only from our new york city subway but from our roads and our transportation in general. If we want to create jobs for new yorkers, investing in infrastructure is the most effective way to do it. And its a way to prepare our state for the future and make it more business friendly. Cynthia nixon, thank you so much for being on this morning. We invited Governor Cuomo to be on the show as well to discuss the race. We hope to have him back on soon. Final moments of the show, eddie glaude, ill give you the air waves. Final thoughts. We have a chance to be otherwise. America has to make a choice. Will we be racist or will we actually live up to the promise that is the country . Well see. Okay, thank you, eddie. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Thanks so much, mika. Hi there, im stephanie ruhle, excited to be back this morning because weve got a lot to cover, starting with the west wing exodus. Another lawyer to leave the white house just hours after the president confirms don mcgahn is leaving, much to the surprise of mcgahn himself. But now trumps inner circle is worried that without the proper support around him, President Trump may lash out if the