Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20190215

February 15th, National Emergency day, along with joe, willie and me, we have National Affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc and cohost and executive producer of showtimes the circus john heilemann. Donny deutsch is here with us, and also susan del percio. Editor of commentary magazine. Just keep on talking, mika. We have John Podhoretz with us as well and msnbc contributor joyce vance. Theres so much to talk about. Big day. I would like willie to Start Talking about the president s physical, but i guess we can get to that a little bit could live to be 200 from what i can tell. Weighs 199, runs a 4. 75 40. Theyre lying about his health. He cant stop lying. I know a guy whos 64 and weighs close to 240 pounds, he does not look look that. No. No. If hes fighting an obesity crisis, theres no doubt he is obese guys, its not funny. Hes dead serious. Look up the stats. This guy is either obese or medically, morbidly obese. Its something hes obviously battling. I think he should talk about it with the American People. Listen, i dont care if he weighs close to 300 pounds. I mean, thats something that he should talk about. Mika, you wrote a book about this. I did. And we talk about americas fight with american diet with obesity and food addiction and this is something that really connects the president with much of the country and the struggles that we face and he should be honest about it. It is a shame that he is not taking this opportunity to not only connect with the American People but maybe do something look governor hickenlooper, for example, lost weight and really worked on creating a city that was healthier. The president clearly has a very big problem. Its very sad. He could be a leader here. Yeah. Speaking of leaders, donny deuts deutsch, im curious of what up call leaders in new york city who Carol Maloney, unfortunately her district was robbed of this amazon opportunity, but she talked about 25,000 good paying jobs that were lost. She talked about massive Infrastructure Improvements that were lost. The fact that when somebody like amazon comes to your area, that that attracts other tech giants. For people who dont even understand basic economics, they actually think all that money and tax incentives if the jobs were brought and all the other great things happened in that area, you know, he said theres a Financial Literacy epidemic in america. Quick lesson new york city wasnt handing cash to amazon. It was an Incentive Program based on job creation producing tax revenue. There isnt a 3 billion pile of money that can now be spent on subways or education. And the problem is by people who didnt understand that and ignored over 80 of latinos in the new york area and 70 of black americans in the new york area who needed these jobs, who wanted these jobs. End of the line, the people who wasnt the jobs the least to come to the area were white elites in manhattan, according to all of the polls. White morons in manhattan. Who would have thought on a day our portly president declared an emergency this would be the second inane move of the day. When you have alexandria ocasiocortez, i hope she doesnt tweet, donnie, who are you, to basically come out and point out that we can take that money and give it to teacher, it doesnt exist. 27 billion, we put down 3. Thats what happened. You attach this to the green deal and President Trump now gets to go, oh, the democrats dont want jobs, the democrats doesnt Want Companies coming to your neighborhoods, the president wants green deal, tuition handed to you, socialism. We are in a dangerous place and if people in the party doesnt start to speak up against people like alexandria ocasiocortez who is young and dynamic but does not know what shes talking about, theyre going to hand the presidency back to donald trump. I want everybody to understand that. Willie, this is something that i talked about yesterday at the top of the show about how a lot of our overreach back when i first got into congress as a freshman in 1994 running against bill clinton helped bill clinton get elected two years later. The important this evening ng t here is there are politicians in new york city opposed to this still its just aoc was the most vocal and was cheering that 25,000 highpaying jobs that most of the people in her district and most of the people in new york wanted. 25,000 jobs promised as part of the deal by amazon but the ancillary flow. Would there be some gener gentrification . Sure. That was part of the concern. Think of what comes out of that and all the businesses that are built and the people that are hired and the dry cleaners and restaurants and everything that flows out of 25,000 jobs coming in. Susan, youve worked in new york City Politics for a very long time. Whats your view of this and did some of the progressives have a point in some of their protests about what amazon wanted out of this deal . No, because the protests that we saw were to get on the aocs bandwagon. Whats shocking to me is once again she shows how little she understands not Just Economics but even unemployment. Shes the one who said the reason unemployment is so low is because a lot of people have two jobs. She needs to learn basic things about what it is to be a representative. When you look at what happens in new york city and new york state, were losing people like crazy. We are going to lose our influence in washington during the next redistricting because well lose one to two congressional seats. Now were telling business dont come here. Just because she has a progress of jaagenda, which some people like, does not man she has the citys best interest. She showed me she only cares about herself and not about her colleagues and Carol Maloney and not about the people she represents because those people would be getting jobs themselves. And its also the Infrastructure Improvements that would make peoples commute from her district and also all around new york a bit easier, a bit less onerous, the commute is so long and so difficult for so long working class new yorkers, its a real problem. This is the sort of thing that, again, i found when i first got to congress, younger members of Congress Just didnt know what they didnt know. And i put myself on the top of that list. Thats something that you actually write about in your new book. Yeah. In earn it, which we Just Announced yesterday, i focus on Millennial Women in their 20s and 30s, that zeal, that energy, that new thinking is all great but you still dont have the experience. In this case its the political experience. Obviously the issue is complicated. Obviously there was a lot of support for what she was talking about on the local level. It is always more complicated but in politics its clear and she needs to follow some of the more successful, more mature members. I suggest nancy pelosi would be a great example but you dont know what you dont know and youre going to step in it and they have a few times. I watch aoc with a lot of hope but im cringing, and i would love to give her some advice. Weve all stepped in it. We still do. And we all didnt nope whkno we didnt know. And i promise were rrning eturo the emergency. We are. That movement ended up costs 25,000 jobs, the overwhelming majority in queens wanted, and again, even if the ultimate responsibility is not laid at her feet, you dont celebrate the loss of 25,000 jobs on twitter. Thats something that donald trump would do. Its that fervor that brings us to potentially another Trump Presidency, that fervor. A brand new battle for the white house as President Trump barrels toward a fight with congress over a National Emergency to fund a border wall. The white house confirmed the president will make the declaration under the 1976 law intended for moments of disasters and security threats. But President Trump is using this one to reappropriate money for even more new wall at the border, just days after a congressional compromise on where barriers were needed, last night the house followed the senate in approving the bored are security deal. 300 members in favor, 128 opposed with 110 of the votes against coming from the republican side. The deal gives the president less than 1. 4 billion for the wall, but at 10 a. M. This morning, an Administration Official says the president will announce he has secured 8 billion for the wall with his National Emergency declaration. Its hard to say because this is so unfathomable. Trump gets the money appropriated by the Border Security compromise bill and adds 3. 5 billion out of the defense departments military construction budget, 2. 5 billion out of the dncht. O. D. g intradition program and 6 money million out of the treasurys drug forfeiture fund. There were some like marco rubio and Susan Collins who expressed concern about this because after the next School Shooting when there is a democrat who is president , that will be a School Emergency and gun rights they consider constitutionally protected will be taken away. Or Climate Change. That will be declared a National Emergency and theyll actually have the science for that. So here were looking i guess mainly at Mitch Mcconnell, who has seemed to completely cave and collapse to the president , seems to be supporting it. Where does this end up . Where i think it ends up is with a legal challenge that strikes it down and my guess is thats mcconnells ultimate end game. Mcconnell on one hand basically stood up to the president on one side, which is to say were going to pass this thing, the time has come, were not going to shut down the government given, were going to pass a bill, make a law and youre going to eat it. And in that sense, i think mcconnell is reflecting the will of his members and their political negotiations were able to have some back bon. His view is that this is going to end up in court and most likely get struck down. Although for mcconnells point of view, its a costfree exercise in some sense, let trump have his victory here declaring hes going to have a National Emergency when he knows its not going to go into effect immediately. I will point out aside from all of that, which i do think the course of this is going to be, you look at where trump is proposing to take this money to get his 8 billion to help him build the wall, if my math is right, saw 6 billion there, 2. 5 billion coming out of the defense departments drug Interdiction Program. Youre going to take money out of the Interdiction Program thats targeted on stopping drugs coming across the border, and another 3. 5 coming out of the military construction budget. If this were actually going to go into effect and we had to live with it, it would be very interesting to see where those military bases are that are going to lose dollars out of the d. O. D. s military construction budget because ill bet if it were actually to happen, it would be a gargantuan political loser for the president. 6 billion seized from the pentagon, an awful lot from the milcon budget and a good question, any time we had base realignment and closure process, you could see members of congress, including myself, scramble, that would be a big political loser. John podhoretz, for donald trump, this is a nolose situation. He gets to sign the funding bill to keep the government open and this is a figure leaf he can hold up so his talk radio handlers wont be attacking him over the next couple days, even though he knows and hes been told it will be overturned in the courts, he can then start running against the liberal court. Im not so sure it is going to be overturned by the courts. The courts have traditionally been very, very hesitant to question the president s interpretation of what constitutes a National Security crisis. Pt question is politically whether or not the house and senate can block this and theres a whole procedure where they pass a resolution that says that this shouldnt happen under the Emergencies Act and Supreme Court rulings in the 80s meant because of those, the president has to sign or reject that resolution, sort of like any piece of legislation, at which point it has to be overturned by a twothirds vote of the senate. I think it unlikely that you can get 15 republicans to join with the democrats and overturn that resolution, but its not impossible. You know, weve seen i dont know how many people, some number of republicans voted against the bill. The bill as it stands yesterday in the senate and mcconnell himself, given what trump did to him on the shutdown, mcconnell himself might theoretically vote to overturn trumps refusal of the banning the emergency to make a point. And mcconnell said the thing in 2013 that is going to haunt republicans forever. When harry reed killed the filibuster for lower court judges, mcconnell said you are going to regret this one day and that day came four years later when republicans had the senate and trump was the president and they barrelled through hundreds of judicial nominations, just like this, as you said. The train has already left the station. Democrats take over in 2021, they declare dozens of emergencies whenever they dont get their way on the hill and we have a new political reality. And by the way, willie, let look at guns on the anniversary of parkland. Polls out showing that 85 of americans support expanded background checks. 60 of americans support the banning of militarystyle semiautomatic weapons. 65 of americans support well, again, just a lot of gun control laws, a lot of gun safety laws that republicans would despise. If there as nor School Shooting, the nexus is very clear, its very direct, the numbers are far more persuasive than the numbers here. And you have another problem with donald trump as far as National Emergency goes. You look at all of the National Emergencies that have been declared under this act, none of them come close to fitting this situation and you also have once again, as weve seen over the past two years, Donald Trumps own words tripping him up, saying if i dont get from the democrats what i want, if these negotiations dont turn out well, then ill just declare a National Emergency. I dont know a single federal judge that would allow that to pass, what my old torts professor called the straight face test. Its just a joke. You make an important point. A lot of defenders on the republican side of this declaration are pointing to the fact that we are currently under 31 National Emergencies dating back to president carter. But as you say, those are very different from this perceived National Emergency where the president didnt get funding and hes using this as a Political Tool to get what he wants for a perceived National Emergency. Joyce vance, im curious what you think about the potential legal peril the president might face or how long this could be tied up in courts. Do you believe that a court will uphold a National Emergency in this case. You know, im going to go out on a limb here and predict that the Supreme Court will not uphold trumps declaration of National Security here. The power of the executive to act in this manner is broadest when congress hasnt considered an issue. But here congress has considered and rejected the idea of funding this wall and theres pretty good precedent going back to the 1950s in a case called youngstown steel, i dont think the court will have any trouble finding that this is a slippery slope we shouldnt go down. Well, ahead were going to talk to gene about your column, about what the real National Emergency is and some would say, you would say thats trump. Still ahead on morning joe, Andrew Mccabe is out with a new book critical of the white house, which of course means president cant resist tweeting about it. He is one of the best book publicists. He always calls attention and helps book sales. And secret conversations to remove donald trump from office. That is ahead. First here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. Yesterday we talked about california and this huge storm that was going to hit them yesterday. It delivered, too. We had mud slides. Palm springs had their third rainiest day in history. Heres one of the mudslides and thats a lot of cleanup thats going to need to be done. All springs, that was the rainiest day going back to 1880s. This was historic rainfall in california. Well track that storm across the country, oklahoma into kansas, theres an area of ice and snow. And st. Louis and baducah later on tonight. So todays forecast, the east coast nice and warm, no travel concerns. A little bit of rain possible in areas like atlanta. Remember we were saying maybe d. C. A little bit of snow saturday morning . Its not going to happen. On sunday more snow in iowa towards chicago but overall it looks like a pretty mild patterns for areas especially in the east coast. New york city will enjoy a nice warm friday. Not a lot of sunshine but temperatures could approach 50 degrees. Youre watching morning show well be right back. Hear those words. Stage 2 breast cancer. I have three little kids. I cant have cancer. So we decided to travel to Cancer Treatment centers of america. Dr. Fernandez was wonderful. He said it was up to me to do whats best. Its about giving her options, where amy has all the information to make a decision thats best for her. We left on day one feeling like were gonna beat this and this is the place thats gonna help us do it. 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During a speech yesterday, President Trump claimed that migrants hoping to illegally entry the country through the southern border would have to be in extremely good shape to get over his proposed border wall. That makes sense. Hes in terrible shape and he cant seem to get over it. I love how trump says you have to be in extremely good shape like its hard to achieve. Thats just because he cant imagine it. He may as well say youre going to have to have undereye skin thats the same color as rest of your face. Oh, my gosh, funny. Joining us, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and associate editor of the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst Eugene Robinson. You have a new column entitled we have a National Emergency, all right, his name is donald trump. You write, to pretend to build an unbuildable border wall is not only an act of constitutional vandalism, its also an act of cowardice, a way to avoid the wrath of ann coulter, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the farright commentariat. It gives congress, not the president , the authority to decide how public money is spent. It does not give trump the right to Fund Projects that congress will not approve. Ill pop in there everyone is so shocked that there might have been a conversation about the 25th amendment. I dont understand why a conversation at this point isnt on the table as a possibility, just a conversation. You can have your conversation all you a wanwant. I can talk about the red sox and why i should be batting cleanup this year. And the issues that impact the presidency and make the American People unsafe, why is that bad . When i brought it up, it was a no go. This is america. If you want to talk about the 25th amendment, you can. But donald trump, a lot of really smart progressives that i know say the way to get donald trump out of office is to beat him at the ballot box i agree. And to send a message to future generations, if you run the white house this way, youre going to get trounced. So, gene, the president of course is talking about decla declaring this National Emergency. Even ann coulter is saying now, she still turned on him and said you cant declare a National Emergency for a bill that you sign you declare a National Emergency to overturn some things that you signed into law 24 hours before. Its over. Shes really not having it. She wants him not to sign this bill. He is going to sign the bill, apparently, though it early. Watch the twitter feed. Assuming that he does, shes going to have a fit. I think the rest of his amen c chorus, sean hannity and probably limbaugh will go along with this and pretend hes going to be able to build the wall with this emergency declaration, which i dont think hes going to be able to do. I think it is going to be challenged probably in court, probably with a resolution of disapproval that would originate in the house and have to be voted on in the senate. And tied up for years. And as you said earlier, hell claim that hes being stopped from defending you against these rapists and ms13 members by the liberal courts and the dastardly democrats and this and that and that will be his big theme in the campaign. And John Podhoretz, im curious what your thoughts are about the trajectory of Donald Trumps political fortunes over the past couple weeks, two, three weeks ago i would have put his chances at getting reelected at maybe 10 , maybe 15 . You dont get reelected when you bounce between 35 and 40 , 41, 42 . You just dont. But i must say, you look at the sorry performance of some democrats on capitol hill, in virginia, you look at the blackface scandal in virginia and the democrats inact to handle that, you look at the antisemitic remarks on capitol hill, democrats came out strongly against that, i get it. But now you look at Long Island City, you look at queens, you look at all of this and suddenly you look at new York State Legislature applauding lateterm abortion bills and suddenly you have given donald trump and more specifically Steven Miller their Closing Argument that would make them competitive in 2020 if the democrats keep acting this way. Well, i think as done donni in the beginning of the show, we see a road map, which is the leftwing democrats cost 25,000 jobs in new york city and extrapolate that from the 8 million in new york from 330 million in the country, these are the jobs theyre going to kill if you get them reelected. I think that trump, you are see a huge missed opportunity for trump over the last couple of weeks and a misreading of the polls. The shutdown is over, all the polls have him going back up. You read that and you say maybe he shouldnt have listened to ann coulter and Rush Limbaugh on the shutdown. If he listens to them hes in the 30s, if he doesnt listen to them, hes in the 40s. He would have used that wisdom to say im signing this bill, were going to fight for this wall, were not stopping, im going to mention it every day. Going back and even though she hates the bill and hates that he signed it, but continuing his fight with the National Emergency, keep the conflict between trump and the hill going, it makes him look divisive and he need to Start Building up from 42 to 47, 48 if hes going to win the presidency. And i dont think hes reading his polls right or reading the National Mood right. Joe, speaking of the National Mood. I love to bust your chops. The first five minutes of yesterdays show i think sums of everything when you talked about the overreach of the democrats. It was only a few months ago that the democrats trounced the republicans by 9 and those were not the crazy not crazy those are not the extreme progressives, those were the more traditional candidate. This which is still 31 central right. The Democratic Party has gone from 25 to 50 liberal but they are still outmanned. And at the end of the day if theyre not talking to those in the suburbs of philly and the suburbs of milwaukee, theyre going to lose. There is this overreach and handing it to trump. I could write trumps entire Campaign Going forward and it an unbeatable proposition. You know, willie, what we were talking about last week, as offensive as the el paso speech was and you listen to the last five minutes and you thought hes got his Closing Argument for 2020 already, a lot of it is based by unforced errors by democrats, who dont listen to nancy pelosi. This lks like all elections is going to be determined in places like wisconsin, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, virginia, North Carolina and florida. A lot of those states went for barack obama a couple times and then went for donald trump. And the candidate who gets that will be the candidate who becomes the nominee and perhaps the candidate who can beat donald trump. It been interesting its been interesting to see its been nancy pelosi who has pulled back the most progressive wing of her party, whether its been questions of impeachment or the new deal. I just want to ask you, joyce vance, on this National Emergency, for the president it gives him cover. Ill fight this all the way to the Supreme Court, thats how important that wall is to me. If i get turned away at the Supreme Court, at least i went all the way to the wall, if youll forget the pun there. Whats the first step but it may even get to the Supreme Court . So this will have to go first to a trial court, one of the federal districts on to a Circuit Court and then to the Supreme Court. There are already multiple groups looking at filing initial lawsuit. In california, the attorney general has referenced it. Nancy pelosi has said Congress Might have some claims because of violation of congresss power of the purse. And then some of the civil Rights Groups are looking at filing on the border. There may be people who will lose funding who will file over that. The question isnt how will it progress but how many places will it progress in and which of those cases will end up in the Supreme Court to tee the issue up for decision. Obviously a lot of people are going to be watching that. Just to wrap up the segment, it important to note that this isnt about progressives versus moderates in the Democratic Party, even though most recent polls show that a majority of democrats want the Democratic Party to go in a moderate, a more moderate direction than a progress of direction. Its always important to remember barack obama was the second most progressive democrat in the senate when he ran for president in 2008. This is a progressive party. Theyre going to most likely nominate a progressive leader, but its got to be a progressive nominee that does not commit the sort of unforced errors that open the Democratic Party up to donald trump and give him a pathway to reelection because i cant tell you how many senior democrats ive spoken with over the past week who now fear that donald trump has a better than even chance of getting reelect reelected. A lot of it is temperament and discipline, which was why i was so impressed by Pete Buttigieg on the show yesterday, a contrast temperamentally. Joyce vance, thank you very much. Coming up, much more on amazons decision to scrap plans for a new york city headquarters. What one of the companys top policy officials is telling nbc news next on morning joe. Everyones got to listen to mom. When it comes to reducing the sugar in your familys diet, coke, dr pepper and pepsi hear you. Were working together to do just that. 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Thats how we reimagined wifi and created xfinity xfi, internet that brings your home together. This is beyond wifi. This is xfi. [ joyful laughter ] simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity the future of awesome. I think its incredible. I mean, it shows that every day Americans Still have the power to organize and fight for their communities and they can have more say in this country than the richest man in the world. Reporter what do you say to those who criticize by them pulling out, the district is going to lose 25,000 jobs . A, we were subsidizing those jobs. So for the the city was paying for those jobs so frankly if we were willing to give away 3 billion for this deal, we could invest those 3 billion ourselv ourselves, we can hire more teachers, fix our subways and put a lot of people to work if we just wanted to. Susan, whats your reaction . Nope, its not like you have that money. You cannot fund schools with money that does not exist. She had her agenda. She wanted to make something for herself. She didnt look at the district, she didnt speak to the member that represents the district. This is a stunt for herself. And the fact that she chose to make it about rich versus poor, her conclusion was that workers beat the richest man on the earth. Thats not a good argument. You want to have a conversation about tax incentives doing good and do corporations deserve it, thats one thing and she went there because thats part of her shtick and theres no substance behind it. The argument behind the amazon deal is its a conservative argument, you dont go company by company hand being out tax breaks, you lower the tax burden in the state and the politicians doesnt pick winners or losers, make it a more hospitable place to do business and amazon comes naturally and get the 3 billion tax incentive from a reduction in overall tax rates. Thats a conservative argument. The liberal argument is give me that money so i can use it for Something Else. But as usesusan said, there is money. This is not like building a stadium. Its true that cities and states build stadiums, pay for the stadium and then hand it to a team. Thats horrible corporate welfare and everybody in the country is sort of learning of the egregiousness of that. This is Something Else. So theres going to be no business in Long Island City that creates 25,000 new jobs because amazons gone. With reporting on amazons decision, the cofounder of axios and dillon byers. You spoke with the head of amazons policy communications. What stopped the deal . This was about a sustained opposition over the course of three months. Efforts by amazon to go into the community, to have conversations, what jody told me is that often times state and local officials wouldnt even come to the table to meet with them. What she said and she name checked some of these officials, including alexandria ocasiocortez. She said we came in with a plan to bring 25,000 jobs into the area and grow the economy and what we heard day in and day out was never amazon, never amazon, never amazon. I think for them theres just in sense certainly for the leadership at amazon, for jeff bezos himself, thats not the environment they want to be in. There was a vote on this that wasnt scheduled to happen until half wave throuway through 2020. Amazon moves faster than that. At the end of the day, dealing with that opposition and dealing with that push back is not what jeff bezos feel like they signed up for. This financialily l illiteracy, fact that 80 of latinos wanted this, the fact that queens on the whole wanted amazon there, there is just this sort of disconnect there that i think began to frustrate bezos and the members of his Leadership Team and ultimately they pulled the plug. Williwillie, if youre amazo you bring in 25,000 new jobs to the district and youre going to improve the infrastructure and improve the quality of life there, out of 50 states, how many do you think would beg amazon to come . 49 maybe . They already are. When this news broke yesterday, just about every state threw their hand up, including newark across the river that said remember us, we can just move you across the river and be done with it. Mike allen, whats the reaction on capitol hill and where youre covering . Willie, as someone who has been at ground zero of new york politics, explain to me the bezos thinking. He said i stood up to National Enquirers blackmail, im not going to be pushed around by every politician in queens. He said i made this deal with the governor and the mayor. I reasonably assumed they could deliver. They couldnt. They didnt. Im out of here. If youre the mayor and the governor, you really m miscalculated. Mayor deblasio thought he had enough hold over progressives, Governor Cuomo, he didnt. So the takes pairs will not have these jobs or this income. There were questions about gentrification, questions about why amazon wasnt putting more money with the mta and help with the subway but thats all part of a negotiation that will not happen now. Correct. Ill say having looked in brooklyn at the time that the Barclay Center was getting build, there was similar gentrification, theres complexities, a lot of people like the housing values going up, others dont like the disruption. You have a fight and in many cases, the arena is now a part of the fabric of central brook length. Although there are still people unhappy about it, by and large most people are happy about it and the Economic Development it brought. Jech bezos got the deal done with the mayor and the governor. To me it reads an awful lot like a degree of kind of naivete on the part of the amazon ceo on this case. They conducted more than a yearlong audition process around the country, cities making their bids for this where headquarters is going to go. One would have thought that a company that is a smart and large and enmeshed in various communities is that bezos would have gone a little deeper on the political analysis. His team, that is, that up could have foreseen this was not going to be the slam dunkthethought it was. So i guess my question is whether they were totally blindsided by this or l they recognized there was going to be trouble but they thought they had enough political muscle to overcome it. Thats a fascinating question. Theres certainly a lack of foresight. You should know going into new york city what the politics on the ground are. You should know what youre dealing with. My sense based off the conversations ive had is that they felt as though de blasio and Governor Cuomo were going to carry that ball for them. I dont think that jeff bezos and his team thought they would have to be the ones coming to the table with state and local officials. Maybe they should have thought that. Maybe it was arrogant not to think that. But going back to mikes point, there is answer here for bezos that he doesnt deal with extortion. And i think he might see the way that local officials are treating this decision, the same way ami came after and tried to blackmail and extort him, hes look im coming at you with a gamechanging investment in the local community, fine, im go elsewhere, amazon is going to be just fine. Anybody who saw the barclays experience but prior to that the walmart, these two big examples of giant developments that took place in communities that were mixed race, mixed economies and where gentrification has been a longterm concern, both of those companies, walmart and the barclays, it was complicated. There are no slam dunks in new york local politics. There arent. But in both of those cases they had the City Council Speaker on board. And basically they dropped this bomb on the new york city speaker and said here you go, you better accept it and that was the play they werent planning on. Dillon byers, thanks for waking up early. John podhoretz, i greatly appreciate you being here. You know, mika, whats also lost here is just the reality in american capitalism. It is messy, it is difficult. In this case jobs create jobs. You cant just look at amazon. You look at what happened with the nationals ballpark went in. The fabric of both of those neighborhoods in washington, d. C. Have changed and most people would say have changed for the better. And thats something thats not its just like the Government Shutdown. It wasnt just the 700,000 employees missing the paycheck. It was allle vendor the vendors drivers, the cafes. This could have helped not just the 25,000 people there but so many other people in that area. And as Andrew Ross Sorkin said, theres just a basic ignorance of economics 101 here and its cost queens 25,000 jobs. And the many layers of the conversation are much more complicated. The conversation that we were having earlier about aoc is more about the politics when up deal with a situation like this. This is not a win, win, win. And she put it out that way. We have a lot more still ahead, including bob mueller. He has a new boss who has vowed to let him finish his investigation. But the question now is whether the new attorney general will make the Mueller Report public. Well talk about that ahead on morning joe. What if numbers tell only half the story . At t. Rowe price, hundreds of our experts go beyond the numbers to examine Investment Opportunities firsthand. Like a biotech firm that engineers a patients own cells to fight cancer. This is strategic investing. Because your investments deserve the full story. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. We pray in the most holy name of christ jesus our lord, amen. Youre telling me that the president would have wisdom to sign the bill so the government doesnt shut down. Were going to pass it and we all pray that the president will sign it. Reporter is the Republican Party used to praying for the president to do what you want him to do . It never hurts to pray for the president. Welcome back to morning joe. It is friday, february 15th. We have National Affairs analyst john heilemann. Donny deutsch is here today. Wait a minute, hold on. Donny deutsch is an advertising and branding legend. Can we get an icon willie, we need to write this up and get it to alex. What do we call donnie . Is it an advertising icon . I think icon and guru have to be in there somewhere, whatever word you choose. Im a man without a tight. Whatever the title is it needs to include the fact that sometimes highly inappropriate things comes out of his mouth. Guru, legend. Thank you. Next time branding and marketing guru. Geriatric gomer. Tough. Im sorry, what did he say . The geriatric gomer. Gomer. Just like madonna. Just one day donnie. Lets just go with donnie. Thank you. Perfect. Do donnies here. And Eugene Robinson join us. And columnist for the New York Times Brett Stevens and Senior Adviser at moveon. Org and msnbc contributor, core iine jeanpie. The white house confirmed the president will make the declaration under the 1976 law intended for moments of disasters and security threats. But President Trump is using this one to reappropriate money for even more new wall at the border. Just days after a congressional compromise on where barriers were needed, last night the house followed the senate in approving the Border Security deal. 300 members in favor, 128 opposed, 110 of the votes again coming from the republican side. The deal gives the president less than 1. 4 billion for the wall and i believe it makes sure its not concrete, but at 10 a. M. This morning an Administration Official says the president will announce he has secured 8 billion for the wall. Where is this money coming from . With his National Emergency declaration, trump gets the money appropriated by the Border Security compromise bill and adds 3. 5 billion out of the defense departments military construction budget, 2 at any time 5 pl o 2. 5 billion out of the defense departments drug Interdiction Program and 600 million out of the treasury. Where is this emergency going to play out for the president . P ground zero will be at maralago. Hes going to palm beach. Hes leaving for maralago this weekend. His resort. You know what, maybe well thats an emergency. Oh my god. Gene robinson, this case is going to lose in the courts. We grew up learning about youngstown steel, which of course we heard joyce talk about last hour where harry truman in the middle of a strike tried to take control of the Steel Companies during war, during an actual war because he needed the steel to fight the war and the Supreme Court said you cannot seize private property, even in a time of war by declaring a National Emergency. It has limited a president s power to do that ever since. Since 1976 they havent seized property from anything but enemies of america, whether they be in iran, in russia, where they be. We dont really think the United States Supreme Court is going to allow donald trump for political rans to seize farmers property and americans property and Small Business property in texas, do we . No, i dont see it happening. I think, first of all, there is no emergency. And its obviously ive never seen a slow motion emergency where you start musing a couple of months ago, well, maybe ill declare an emergency if i dont get what i want and then declare an emergency thats not a real emergency. The president s powers here are limited and as joyce vance pointed out in the last hour, congress has already ajudic adjd this question of whether were going to spend billions and billions on this wall and congress has said no. So i think the court, even if it goes all the way up to the highest court, i think the courts will say the president cant do this. Congress is clear that Congress Gets to determine how money is spent and the president is trying to get around congress. The president is trying to make a political point. On some level he may realize hes not going to build any wall with this, hes not going to be allowed to but he is going to have a Campaign Issue and thats what i think he wants. He wants to satisfy the base. Legal questions aside, part of what is astounding about this again is the willingness of Senate Republicans or republicans in the house to go along with something they previously would have found unfathomable. Mitch mcconnell, supporting the idea of the president declaring a National Emergency when there is no National Emergency at the border. What precedent do you believe this sets . A lot of people have pointed to a democratic president coming in declaring a National Emergency on gun, on Climate Change. Do you think this opens it up to future president s . Absolutely. It does set the precedent for the next democratic president to say, hey, theres a Climate Change emergency, or theres poverty, poverty is a real emergency in this country. It really unfortunate to see this. Whats happening is as we know congress a coequal branch of government, we keep hearing congressional members talking about the power of the purse and Mitch Mcconnell is handing the keys over to donald trump. He doesnt work for donald trump. He works for the American People. Theres one more thing i want to say. A year ago Chuck Schumer offered 25 billion to donald trump for his wall. And a lot of us opposed it. We were not happy when Chuck Schumer did that. Donald trump rejected it. And now what is he getting . Hes getting 2 billion not for a wall but for fencing and now it going to call for a National Emergency declaration. It just shows you how bad of a deal maker donald trump is. He is not a masterful negotiator. Hes essentially a fraud. He bankrupts his businesses and now he wants to bankrupt our country. This is not normal. We have to keep saying to ourselves, this is not normal. He had two years where he owned washington with a Republican House and republican senate, he could have easily had his wall. The republicans didnt want it. The republicans didnt want the wall. Paul ryan didnt want the wall. Lindsey graham, mr. We must declare a National Emergency because i have a primary in North Carolina that i think im going to lose because i call donald trump saying he has middle problems and the Republican Party will die if he gets the nomination, and john cornyn said its a bad idea. He still says a National Emergency is a bad idea. The republicans didnt want this wall for two years. All they want is the issue. But speaking of issues where republicans change their mind, look at these two clips, willie, for great moments in hypocrisy. Its sort of a tired game. We used to play. With her when we used to go what if a republican did this, boy, the press would kill them. Now its what if barack obama did this. But we dont have to really play that game because heres donald trump and mike pence attacking barack obama for just signing executive orders. Watch. The whole concept of executive order, it not the ws way the country is supposed to be run. Youre supposed to go to congress and make a deal and go and talk to people and get the guys there. Whether youre republican or democrat, youre supposed to all get together. Youre supposed to make a deal. But he couldnt make a deal because its not his thing. It would be a profound mistake for the president of the United States to overturn American Immigration law with the stroke of a pen. Signing an executive order, giving a speech, barn storming around the country defending that executive order is not leadership. I would implore the president to reconsider this path and demonstrate the kind of leadership that the American People long to see and that is that this administration would sit down with this newly minted Republican Congress and find genuine common ground. If the president of the United States, if he were to go through with this, i think hes acting outside the consent of the government and hes not providing real leadership to solve this intractable issue facing our country the way the country would expect a leader to do. Wow. Things happen. You forget stuff. Does Vice President mike pence forget that he says that . No. Does he forget thats what he believed . No. Does he forget thats him talking about leadership and how it should be properly used as president of the United States . Does he forget he said that . What has happened to him . By the way, things hes believed his entire life have been thrown away because of donald trump things that conservatives have believed their entire lives i have to say it is cute watching socalled conservatives who are actually just in this personal cult of Donald Trumps, about not being a conservative when i believe the same thing i believed 25 years ago, while a lot of these bloggers were having their diapers changed by their mothers and fathers. But its not conservative. The party has completely changed what they stand for. I guess we have to play that game, what if barack obama . And this weeks question for you as our special guest star and our audience, is what if instead of just signing an executive order, what if barack obama declared a National Emergency on an issue that was actually at a better place than it had been in half a century but used that National Emergency to seize private property from texas ranchers, texas farmers, texas families and texas small property Small Business owners . What in the world do you think that mike pence would say shaking his head they republican governors association. Joe, this is a game i play all the time. What if barack obama had gone to kim jong un hat in hand, and then declared at the state of the union peace had been achieved. What if barack obama had seized the notes of his translator following his secret meetings with vladimir putin. And the number of heads exploding at the heritage foundation, and other conservative think thanks would ha have. What bothers me most as a constitutional conservative is the way in which republicans are squandering Congressional Republicans are squandering their birth right. Up said it so well. A coequal branch of government. We do not gleef believe as conservatives that too much power out to be concentrated in the hands of one particularly because sauce for the goose is sauce for the ganders. The pows are that Trum Associates himself with now are powers they are going to seize using this as a prs dent and real conservatives already rue the day but these up in faux conservatives are going to reu. When Liz Beate Warren starts seizing banks or Kamala Harris calls a National Emergency over climate chang, id love to see that. That is a real National Emergency. Mika, after the next the next tragedy, if there is another tragedy and a democrat is in the white house, this terrible precedent being set by Mitch Mcconnell today, his words today will be used against him by a democratic president to go after what many conservatives consider to be their constitutional Second Amendment rights. Corine, what shut democrats do . In some ways, it such a blatant act where can you just start rubbing your hand together going i cant wait to respond today. But what should be the strategy of the democratic response here . I think nancy pelosi laid out a really brilliant response yesterday during his press conference as you guys were alluding to with the National Emergency where she said there is a real National Emergency. Just think about it, just yesterday we remembered parkland students, 6 20, 14 kids died last year february 14th, and that was a travesty. That was a disaster. And just last week the house held in those eight years, 300,000 people died by guns. I think that is what they need to continue to do, to put how do they see the future of this country. How when they talk about important issues like gun reform. I think thats one of the things that nancy pelosi was trying to say, there actual she said shes going to take a look at what they can do legally and to see what donald trump actually does at 10 00 this morning. John higheilemann. Theres not going to be a Government Shutdown, the president will sign the bill, declare a National Emergency and there there be an Immediate Court challenge. Those things seem baked into the cake. Theres some dispute because of the courts, the president will maybe get his way and then well have a reality to deal with on that. Some people think the courts will look at this related to spending power and smack him down. What does trump make of this now . Theres been some speculation around the terrible this morning, all the price trumps kind of in a nolose situation right now. Trump sees everything through the prism of how this works for his base, how it works for him m 2020 . Does this the establishment in order to get what he wants done. So this is really whats so grotesque about the situation, which is that this is for him a terrific political move. It races the is, a, search racial of powers and, b, the future interests of the Republican Party. It reminds me when harry reid started to do away with. Lets pick up the word grotesque and lets not forget what this is all about. There really is an emergency here for this base. Donald trump ran on make america great, make America White given. He ran on the wall and the muslim ban. This is about the year 2045, when whites will be a minority in this country. Its not about mexico, its not about a wall, its your fear, the 42 that youre the minority, that neg that is not they are going to permanently alienate their hispanic base and become an embittered party like they are in california. Donnies point is spot on as always because you know he is an advertising theyre talking about an emergency at a time when illegal border crossings are at a 50wreer low. Theyre talking about drugs when over 90 of the drugs that kill americans come through legal pords of. So you say what is this about . And donnie just said it, its about brown people. Its about black people. Its about the others, which Donald Trumps campaign has always been about those who are no white, theyre coming to take the country over is what donald trump is telling those people in el has hes telling those people in osh kosh, wisconsin. Hes telling those people in lancaster, pennsylvania, thats his message. So its. And again, they could have gotten it when they had the power. They could have done it. They didnt. They didnt want it. What theyre doing, many would argue, and as you just did, theyre using it as a platform for hate. I mean, you have lawmakers that go to hearings on gun violence and then start randomly bringing up the wall and using shortstop, they just wanted the issue to spew hateful rhett wreck. They cold a monopoly of power in washington, d. C. For two years. Donald trump was offered 25 billion for his wall. He said no to it. Because he didnt this guy went bankrupt himself and now hes bank rupting america. Hes added 2 trillion to the National Debt with a tax cut that only help the lech i feel like theyre voming up more short with the back. At weve got to stop those latin American People from coming up here into america. Again, he doesnt even try to hide his racism. A lot of these Republican Leaders are trying to do their best. When you feverishly ush. Locke graduated from harvard in 1918 and became the first africanamerican rhodes scholar. During the 1920s, his work in the new york laborbury give him the ability to smock and many more. Gene, tell us more about locks legacy. Well, he was a fascinating, complicated man. He was born in philadelphia, grew up in philadelphia. Was, you know, went to harvard, then became a rhodes scholar, weld that eventually was put in the practice of using africanamerican cultural traditions as the raw and later refined tear for of uniquely africanamerican forms and recognizing that, like jas dp frchl especially in the 20s, called the he was their encourager, he was their operate tron and thats whyies a very important figure. Eugene, thank you very, very much. Still ahead. We have not declared an emergency because this has not been con tn shus. The. And im going to support the national situation. And that was Mitch Mcconnell and after it was effectively secured, Senate Democrat tina smith weighs in on all of it next on morning joe. If your adventure keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips you may have overactive bladder, or oab. Ohhhh. Enough already we need to see a doctor. Ask your doctor about myrbetriq® mirabegron . 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Its making them do hard work. And getting paid for it. vo snap and sort your expenses to save over 4,600 at tax time. Quickbooks. Backing you. Because they let me to customize my insurance, and as a fitness junkie, i customize everything. Like my bike and my calves. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Check in from afar with remote access, and have professional monitoring backing you up with xfinity home. Demo in an xfinity store. Call, or go online today. I know the republicans had some unease about it, no matter what they say, because if the president can declare an emergency on something hes created as an emergency, an illusion he wants to convey, just think of what a president with different values can present to the American People. You want to talk about a National Emergency . Lets talk about today, the oneyear anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in america. Thats an emergency. Why dont you declare that a National Emergency. Joining us, democratic senator tina smith from minnesota. Good to you have here. Its good to be here. Let me ask you about the president s declaration of a National Emergency. Whats your reaction to that procedure as a way to attack what he hopes to be a new wall lo longand is announcing hes looking for billions in extra spending for the wall. Theres not billions of dollars behind the couch cushions in the federal government. This was money that was appropriated by congress in order to be spent on thanksgiving that congress thinks is important. Thats the way our constitutional democracy is supposed to work. The president just doesnt get to say theres an emergency and change the way that money ought to be spent. So i think its a real problem. Its interesting how these republicans who have beencying they dont think do you support the idea for the next president , whoever that is, republican or democrat, lets say its a democrat if you get your wish because, by the way, there is the option of not low aring yourself from do you think the next president should use what is happening is this president is undermining the rule of law. Thats exactly what hes doing with emergency. The constitution tells us that so i think it just wrong. So for pop watching from home, is there going to, i think theres going to be a bunch of lawsuits and there should be. Then i think it would be a very good idea for the house sending a resolution over to the senate and make senate the senate would be required then to vote on it. That o paul. The founders were profoundly cognizant of this, u when they gave to the congress the powers of the purse because they knew the danger that was presented to free government when you had an executive who also had the purse. That is a road to despotism. If you ask any conservative who has thought about this, talked to george will, anyone who has really thought about these issues, transcends the question of 2019. It is about constitutional government. I would argue in some ways, this represents Donald Trumps most direct attack on our system of checks and balances. Ion the majority leader of the United States the die deof a National Emergency. I thought of the story mignons there hes behaving as if he is a foot soldier in the senate arms he is the nat smarjt leader. It looks like a mignon right now as im looking at those pictures. Id like to, given the benefit of the doubt and assuming the prns in exchange for you a lettering the be to put the emergency dk laration aid well, in deal that we voted on yesterday is the exact same thing this we voted on december. Theres additional money for the census and thats a good thing but it 1. 375 billion, which is what i president threatened to im really unhappy that this gay does not who lost 35 days worth of wajs and lft and to your credit, frrmt ands that a lost piece of the shutdown that all these people are not getting their money. Youre talking about contract workers will no get paid. It is really devastating to see. We should all rightbecause the president of the United States decided he was going to shut down the government for 35 days for lets not forget a wall that will be a failed policy. Thats what experts tell us is that it is not going to work. Republicans dont want it, democrat dont want it. So this is where the president is taking us to, down it really incredibly dangerous path. Theres Something Else i want to say that mika and joe were talking about, which is the politics of fear, politics of racism, politics of bigotry. We have to remember what this all about you it will mike i dont see as he thought african nations were as po then there we are today and the fact that republicans continue to support that, thats scary. Lets not forget in 2013 there was a postmortem that was done after the election that republicans had that said, you nope what, the party needs to reach out to people of color, the latino community, the Africanamerican Community and theyre not doing that. Theyre doubling on this really bigoted, racist identity politics of protecting white folks, older white folks who feel like theyre losing again, this wasnt some accident the president s fallen into. It was his very first speech in june of 15. And donald trump now proposing building a wall alongside the Canadian Border to keep the drug smullers out. President ial Campaign Manager in minneapolis. Incredible events. I have a very specific that s did and she got hit with a Couple Stores the situation with the high turnover in her office and how shes treated underlings, and like you to address that specifically and what you know about her in that regard but also then just the broader question, which is that so far every democrat that has announced so far has been hit with these kinds of stories, what i would think of as oppositionresearch driven stories. Not unusual for president ial candidates but a little unusual to get them at or before your announcement. Usually those kind of stories come when youre starting to rise and people are starting to worry about you. In this race right now, democrats are getting generally hit with these things right out of the gate. So on the specific and on the general, please. Ive known amy for and all the couldnt oos in between it sounds like a simple formula but it is lacking. What that i amy said when schoofs did are dirt, though, in this competition of a primary, people are tested to see how well they can stand up to the good things and the bad things. And it kind of a shoes in your fate her and senator gillibrand, why is Elizabeth Warren you know i love all my colleagues. I want to be clear about that. But senator klobuchar has a strong royce from the heartland of the country. I think her demonstrated ability to win in red counties and blue counties and all the counties in between, i think they set her apart. Coming up, well give kb live to the richard joins us next. Jt i call it my comfortable future plan. Its our confident forever plan. Welcome to our complete freedom plan. Its all possible with a cfp professional. Find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan. Org. Find your certified financial planner™ professional ala m goes off wake up sweetie. Doctor dave. See ya. Heres your order. Hey. Applebees to go. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. If you look at the rhetoric out there, do you think theres a risk that there will be some kind of war, some sort of military clash between iran, the United States, israel . There are some people who were successful in creating the war last time, but i think at the end of the day, some sense will prevail and people will find out that its suicidal to engage in a war with iran. Iran is different from other countries. You see, the United States is used to dealing with countries that rely on outside as their source of legitimacy, as their source of strength. If its our peop it is our people that are the source of our strength. That was part of richard sharif on the sidelines, the 209 eunuch security conference in germany. So we sat down and discussed a lot of subjects. Iran has taken notice of the increasingly hostile tone that trump Administration Officials are talking about when they cuss iran that was specifically aimed at Gathering International consensus against iran at that conference Vice President , who is due here in munich, and when you get to the support for or confront iran, depending on which translation of the hebrew you use. So the iranians are certainly taking notice of this it rhetoric. Just two weeks from now, President Trump who likes this unorthodox style of diplomacy in two weeks will be meeting with the chairman of north korea. So i asked the iranians, would they like to do something similar and have a diplomatic [ through consid breakthrough considering they are suffering so much from u. S. Sanctions which were tightened after the u. S. Pulled out of the new deal and he said, frankly, not really. President trump has said hes hoping to meeting one day with your president , the irani president , potentially to renegotiate the iran deal. Why should we negotiate a deal which we spent not just a couple of hours meeting but 13 years to negotiate. And we negotiated with the United States. Why should we trust President Trump, that he would abide by his own signature . Were talking about a country that has withdrawn from every known treaty from, imf, if unionunion from unesco, from nafta. You name it, theyve withdrawn from it. So it came down to credibility. While they dont want to suffer under these sanctions, they dont think it would sit down, have a to the owe if you remember there was a bit of exclusive reporting that the Trump Administration has intensified its tab saj that iran has had two, not one but two unsuccessful missile launches and said they are investigating to see if they were, in fact, sabotaged and he said, quote, its a possibility. Nbcs richard engel, thank you very, very much for that report. Willie . But while the ground both si next guest said it still aims at failure. At the age of 17 chris wilson shot and killed one of two men that corn erred him, he was sentenced to 17 years behind bar. And he tells his story of the new book, the master plan and chris joins us now. Its great to meet you. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Your story is incredible. I want to make sure people understand your life a little bit. You grew up in washington d. C. In the late 80s, early 90s, in the thick of the cocaine epidemic. Yes. Talk if you would, just a bit, chris, about the night that has shaped your life since. I remember it was about 24 years ago, i was walking to the store and some men were following me and i remember them threatening me and surrounding me. And i had a gun on me. I was carrying a gun for protection. And i ended up taking a persons life that night. How old were you . I was 17. You also lost your father the same night. I lost my father two months after that, while i was in there. My father was killed while i was awaiting child. You were given life in prison without the possibility of patrol. I had the possibility of protoc parole, but in the state of maryland you dont get parol. I knew in my heart i was a good person. Around the time i was sentenced, i want today prove to myself and the world that my life was redeemable. It was around this time i wrote up the master plan, and it was a pledge to turn my life around and do the same. How did you convince a parol board that life in prison was not what you needed. I had to demonstrate it through my actions so first thing i did was educate myself, a high school diploma, College Degree and went through therapy to prove my life was salvageable. What do you say to people when they ask you what the master plan is . What is that exactly . The master plan is about someone who thinks about how they want to be remembered when theyre gone, what they want to do with their life, how they want to make the world a little better and the steps you do when you get there. One of the things you mentioned is you had to keep updating this master plan, itses a process. Right. Just to transition into one of the things we wanted to talk about today is the reform of criminal justice, we are in one step in our master plan perhaps what other steps do you see us taking Going Forward . Thats a good forward. Even with the latest legislation that was passed, which is great but that was passed a at a federal level and most of the people that are suffering in the criminal Justice System are on a state level. So i think theres a lot of work we have to implement, especially solitary confinement, men, women, and children are still being subjected to that on a state level and thats one issue we need to address. The u. S. Leads in the world as the top jailer of their own people. And theres also a really just devastating racial divide in whos incarcerated. You have 1 in 87 white men are incarcerat incarcerated, 1 in 36 hiss panic men incarcerated and 1 in 12 black men are incarcerated. I wanted to ask you, what can we do in our community for the young people like you who went through everything that who are going through something similar that youre going through. When you see them out in baltimore, you see young folks, what do you tell them . The first thing i try to do is operate and lead as a positive example. But some things you can do is vote. Pay attention to legislation that people are trying to pass. Call your local representatives. Or just find someone in your community and pay some extra time and help and mentor them and showing them theres a better way to life, to live. There isnt just theoretical for you. Youre living it. Tell me about the bar clay Investment Corporation you started. I started a Construction Company out of frustration. Many people who made mistakes 20 years ago employers wouldnt hire them. So i decided to start this Contracting Company and give men and women the opportunity to work. Good for you. And good for you writing this book, its called the master plan. Chris wilson, thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Coming up on morning joe well talk about the winners and the losers after amazon decides to do away with a headquarter in new york city. And President Trump set to fly off to margotlago today after declaring a national energy. After months of wearing only a tiger costume, were finally going on the trip ive been promising. Because with expedia, i saved when i added a hotel to our flight. So even when she outgrows her costume, well never outgrow the memory of our adventure together. Unlock savings when you add select hotels to your existing trip. Only when you book with expedia. In your gut, you feel confident to take on anything. 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And have professional monitoring backing you up with xfinity home. Demo in an xfinity store. Call, or go online today. Executive order, its not the way the country is supposed to be run. Youre supposed to go through congress and make a deal and go and talk to people and get the guys in there, and, you know, whether youre republican or democrat youre supposed to get together and youre supposed to make a deal. But he couldnt make a deal because its not his thing. Like so much in the Trump Administration, you have to pretend like history started at the 2016 election to believe much of anything he says. And even that, he plays around with. Mike pence did the same thing when he was governor of indiana, shaking his head. I think he should, work, i think its a weak president to you know, attacking barack obama. Just a disappointment. For issuing president ial orders. This order goes so far beyond that. This is a direct violation of Constitutional Rights that our founders gave members of congress. What a way to start friday. Happy friday, everybody. February 15th, National Emergency day. Along with joe, willy and me we have cohost and executive producers of the circumstance cuss, john hileman. John deutche is here with us, and susan dell persio i think don was surprised i didnt make fun of me. We have john here as well. And joyce vance. Theres so much to talk about. Big day. I would like willie to Start Talking about the president s physical, but i guess we can get to that a little bit. Well talk about his hes 199 runs a 4. 75, 40. Hes lying about his health. Hes lying about his health. Its crazy. He cant stop lying. I know a guy whos 64 i do, too. And weighs close to 240 pounds. He does not look like that. No. If hes fighting an obesity crisis, which he is, no doubt hes obese guys, its not funny. Its dead serious. Look up the stats. This guy is either obese or medically morbidly obese, and something hes obviously battling. I think he should talk about it with the American People. But you have to listen, i dont care if he weighs close to 300 pounds. Thats something that he should talk about. Mika you wrote a book about this. I did. We talk about americas fight with diet and obesity and food addiction. This is something that really connects the president with much of the country and the struggles that we face, and he should be honest about it. It is a shame he has not taken this opportunity to not only connect with the American People but maybe do Something Like governor hickenlooper he lost weight and worked on creating a city that was healthier. The president clearly has a very big problem. Its very sad. He could be a leader here. Yeah. Speaking of leaders. Donny, im curious what you think about certain people who are called leaders in new york city that, in the words of carolyn malone, who unfortunately her district was robbed of this amazon opportunity, but she talked about 25,000 goodpaying jobs that were lost. She talked about massive Infrastructure Improvements that were lost. The fact that when somebody like amazon comes to your area that that attracts other tech giants. The opportunities lost there are extraordinary for people, as andrew ross said, who dont understand basic economics, they think all that money in tax incentives if the jobs were brought and all the other great things happen in that area, he said theres a Financial Literacy epidemic in america. Quick lesson, new york city wasnt handing cash to amazon. It was an Incentive Program based on job creation and how much tax revenue they created. There isnt 3 million that can now be spent. And unfortunately this project was killed by people who didnt understand that, and also who ignored over 80 of latinos in the new york area and 70 of black americans in the new york area, who needed these jobs who wanted these jobs. End of the line, the people who wanted the jobs the least to come to the area were white elites in manhattan. Who would have thought the day the president declares an emergency when there wasnt one that could be the second inane thing of the day. When you have alexandria ocasiocortez, who i find extremely dangerous at this point, basically she has a twitter following, i hope she doesnt tweet who are you, donny, to basically come out and say what a great thing it is, we can take that money and give it to teachers. It doesnt exist. 27 billion, we put down 3. Thats business. Thats what happens. And you attach this to the green deal and you are handing President Trump President Trump now gets to go, the democrats dont want jobs. The democrats dont Want Companies coming to your neighborhoods. The democrats have a green deal that wants a 70 tax rate, wants jobs for everybody, tuition handed to you, socialism. We are in a dangerous place and if people in the party dont start to speak up against people like alexandria ocasiocortez, who is young and dynamic, but does not know what shes talking about, and her and her cohorts, some of these new fresh progressive faces are going to hand the presidency back to donald trump. I want everybody to understand that. You know, willie, this is something that i talked about yesterday at the top of the show about how a lot of our overreach, back when i first got into congress as a freshman in 1994, running against bill clinton helped bill clinton get elected two years later. The important thing to remember here, though, is there are a lot of local politicians not a lot. But some local politicians in new york city also opposed to this deal. Its just aoc was the most vocal and was actually cheering. Which i do find remarkable. Cheering on twitter the loss of 25,000 high paying jobs that most of the people in her district and most of the people in new york wanted. Yeah, 25,000 jobs promised as part of the deal by amazon. But obviously the ancillary jobs that flow out of that, businesses built around there, would be there some gentry few indication, of course there would have been if you have these jobs move in there, and that was part of the concern. But think about what comes out of that, the businesses built, and the people hired and the dry cleaners and restaurants and everything that flows out of 25,000 jobs coming in. Susan, youve worked in new york City Politics for a long time. Whats your view of this . Did the progressives have a point in their protests about what amazon wanted out of the deal . No. The protests were to get on aocs band wagon. Once again she shows how little she understands not Just Economics but even unemployment. Shes the one that said the reason unemployment is so low is because a lot of people have two jobs. She needs to learn basic things about what it is to be a representative. When you look at what happens in new york city and new york state, we are losing people in crazy. We are going to lose our influence in washington because well lose one to two congressional seats. Now were telling business dont come here. Just because she has a progressive agenda, does not mean she has the citys best interest. What she showed me today is she only cares about herself and not about her colleagues and the people she represents, because those people would be getting jobs as well. Its not just the jobs. Its also infrastructure improvement. That would make peoples commute from her district and all around new york a bit easier. The commute is so long and difficult for so many workingclass new yorkers its a real problem. This is the sort of thing again this is the sort of thing that, again, i found when i first got to congress, younger members of congress, just didnt know what they didnt know. And i put myself on the top of that list. Thats something you actually write about in your new book. Yeah. Which we Just Announced yesterday, i focussed on Millennial Women, women in their 20s and 30s. And that zeal, that joy, that energy, that new kind of thinking all great, but you still dont have the experience. In this case, its the political experience. Its the ham fistedness of that tweet. Obviously the issue is complicated, obviously there was a lot of support for what she was talking about on the local level. Its always more complicated, but in politics its clear, she needs to follow some of the more mature members, i would nancy pelosi would be a great example. But you dont know what you dont know and youre going to step in it if youre not careful. They have a few times. I watch aoc with a lot of hope but im also cringing because i would love to give her advice. You did. Weve all stepped in it and weve all didnt know what we didnt know. And unfortunately this case did promise were returning to the emergency. We are. We have to get to the big news of the day. But in this case that Movement Cost 25,000 highpaying jobs that over 80 of latinos in new york wanted, 70 of blacks in new york wanted. Again, even if the ultimate responsibility is not laid at her feet, you dont celebrate the loss of 25,000 jobs on twitter. And we havent even dug deep yet on the Government Shutdown fight. The immediate fight may be over but a new standoff is just taking shape. How democrats plan to counter in the courts the president s emergency order. Thats next on morning joe. Im 53, but in my mind im still 35. 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With 110 of the votes against coming from the republican side. The deal gives the president less than 1. 4 billion for the wall. But at 10 00 a. M. This morning, an Administration Officials says the president will announce he has secured 8 billion for the wall with his National Emergency declaration. Its hard to say because this is so unfathomable. Trump gets the money appropriated by the Border Security compromise bill and adds 3. 5 billion out of the defense departments military construction budget. 5 billion out of dods drug Interdiction Program and 600 million out of the treasurys drug forfeiture fund. The president will leave then for maralago. There were some like marco rubio and Susan Collins who expressed concern for this for good reason because after the next School Shooting when theres a democrat as president , theyll call that a National Emergency and gun rights will be taken away. Or Climate Change, therell be declared a National Emergency and theyll have the science for that. So here were looking mainly at Mitch Mcconnell, who has seemed to completely cave and collapse to the president. Seems to be supporting it. Where does this end up . Where i think it ends up is with a legal challenge that strikes it down. My guess is thats Mitch Mcconnells end game here. Mcconnell has done two things, he basically stood up to the president on one side saying were going to pass this thing, the time has come were not going to shutdown the government again. Were going to pass a bill. Were going to make a law and youre going to eat it. In that sense, senator mcconnell reflecting the will of his members and their political calculations was able to have some selfinterested backbone. On the question of the emergency declaration, his view like many peoples view, is this is going to end up in court and likely get struck down. Even though from mcconnells point of view, let trump have his victory here, declaring that hes going to have a National Emergency when he knows its not going to go into effect immediately. I will point out, aside from all of that, which is what i think the course is going to be. When you look at where trump is proposing to take the money to get his 8 billion to build the wall, i saw 6 billion there, 2. 5 billion coming out of the defense departments drug Interdiction Program, which is supposed to be what the wall is about anyway. So you take money out of the Interdiction Program thats targeted on stopping drugs from across the border, the place the majority of them come, which is not across the border but through ports of entry. And you have another 3. 5 billion coming out of the defense departments military construction budget. If this were to actually go into effect, it would be interesting to see where those military bases are that are going to lose dollars out of the construction budget because i bet theres going to be a budge of the places where if it were happen it would be a political loser for the president. Its still tough to reconcile the word emergency with preplanned and highly orchestrated media event fuelled by politics. When the president warns today about a threat at the border at a time when border crossings are at a 50year low. What it means politically now. And when perhaps the next democrat sits in the oval office. Val, vern. Im off to college and im not gonna be around. Im worried about my parents retirement. Oh, dont worry. Voya helps them to and through retirement. Dealing with todays expenses. Like college. While helping plan, invest and protect for the future. So theyll be okay. Without me . Um. And when we knock out this wall. Imagine the closet space. Yes oh hey, son. 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Society associate editor of the Washington Post, eugene column you have a new column entitled we have a National Emergency, its name is donald trump you write, the president s decision to declare an emergency to pretend to build an unbuildable border wall is not only an act of vandalism, its also cowardice. Its an end run around congress and as such constitutes a violence of his oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States, which gives congress, not the president , the authority to decide how public money is spent. It does not give trump the right to Fund Projects will not approve. Authoritarian leaders do that sort of thing. The puffed up men living in the white house now want to give it a try. Ill pop in there, everyone is so shocked that there might have been a conversation about the 25th amendment, i dont understand why a conversation at this point isnt on the table as a just a conversation. You can have your conversation all you want. I think its fair to have. You know what, we can also talk about the red sox and why i should be batting cleanup this year. But a lot of people think that he is driven by perhaps some issues that impact the presidency and make the American People unsafe and, therefore, they discussed the 25th amendment. Why is that bad . Like i said i brought it up, it was a no go. It is america. If you want to talk about the 25th amendment, you can. But donald trump, a lot of really sport progressi really smart progressives i know say the way to beat donald trump is to beat him at the ballot box and send a message to future generations if you run the white house this way, you are going to get trounced. Gene, the president , of course, is talking about declaring this National Emergency. Even ann coulter is saying now. She still turned on him and said, you cant declare a National Emergency for a bill that you sign and you declare a National Emergency to overturn some things that you signed into law 24 hours before. Its over. Shes really not having it. She wants him not to sign this bill. And he is going to sign the bill, apparently, although its early. Watch the twitter feed. But assuming that he does, you know, shes shes going to have a fit of pique, i think the rest of his chorus, sean hannity and probably limbaugh i think will go along with this and pretend that hes going to be able to build the wall with this emergency declaration, which i dont think hes going to be able to do. I think it is going to be challenged, probably in court, probably with a resolution of disapproval that would organize nate in the house and have to be voted on in the senate, and tied up for years. And as you said earlier, hell claim that hes being stopped from defending you against these rapists and ms13 members by the liberal courts and the democrats and that will be his big theme in the campaign. And john, im curious what your thoughts are about the trajectory of Donald Trumps political fortunes over the past couple weeks. Two, three weeks ago, i would have put his chances of getting reelected at maybe 10 , maybe 15 . You dont get reelected when you bounce between 35 and 40 , 41, 42 . You just dont. But i must say you look at the performance of some democrats on capitol hill in virginia, you look at the blackface scandal in virginia and the democrats inability to handle that, the antisemantic remarks on capitol hill, democrats came out against it, i get it. But now you look at Staten Island not Staten Island, you look at Long Island City, queens, you look at all of this, and suddenly you look at new York State Legislature applauding late term abortion bills, and suddenly, you have given donald trump, and more specifically, stephen miller, their Closing Argument that would make them competitive in 2020 if the democrats keep acting this way. Right. I think as donny said at the beginning of the show, we see a road map in the amazon cancellation on Long Island City, which as you say, the left wing democrats cost 25,000 jobs in new york city, and now extrapolate that from the 8 million in new york to the 300 million in the country, these are the jobs theyre going to kill if you get them reelected. I think for trump you see a huge missed opportunity for trump. He goes down to 35 during the shutdown. The shutdown is over, all the polls have him going up 6 to 7 points, hes back at 42, 43. You read that and say maybe he shouldnt have listened to Rush Limbaugh and ann coulter on the shutdowns. If he listens to them, hes in the 30s. If he doesnt listen to them hes in the 40s. And he could have used that wisdom to say im signing this bill, were going to fight for this wall, were not stopping. Im going to mention it every day. But going back, even though she hates the bill and hates that he signed it and said its over and all of that, but continuing this fight with the National Emergency keeps the conflict between trump and the hill going. It makes him look divisive and he needs to Start Building up from 42 to 47, 48 if hes going to win the presidency. And i dont think hes reading his polls right or reading the National Mood right. Coming up on morning joe, an update on whats really happening at the border. We have that reporting next. We have that reporting next. Only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. 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Ask your dermatologist about humira. This is my body of proof. I do not believe the president of the United States should use his executive authority to overturn american law concerning immigration. The American People just sent a message to washington d. C. About a change of direction. The president of the United States has the absolute authority, under the constitution and by statute to declare a National Emergency. And reposition resources. You know, it really is sad for me, you know, ive known mike for a long time and its really sad that he shamed himself the way he has. Really hes just turned himself into a mouthpiece hes soiling his reputation. For propaganda. To see him humiliate himself that way like he does all the time, its really sad. He actually said, mika, that what barack obama did in these executive orders was actually i wrote it down last time he said it. Its outside the consent of the governed. Outside the consent of the governed. Here you have donald trump doing things that only a small portion of the governed want done yeah. And thats why the negotiations went so badly for him in congress. And now hes actually not trying to do what barack obama did. Hes actually trying to go beyond that and do what harry truman did, which is to seize private property because a, quote, National Emergency except his problem is for harry truman, he did that in the middle of a war and the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional. Donald trump is trying to do this when actually the border situation is at its best i know. That its been in 50 years. Theres no way the courts are going to uphold this. He knows that. He must. He knows that. This is a fig leaf so talk radio people remember he and his wife came to the studio and they were talking, theyre always together, sort of like us, she says they talk about everything. What is she saying to him . Honey, you are lying. This is you then and this is you now. And thats two different people. There have been reports who knows. Im trying to think of how that conversation goes, because that conversation is happening. You know what, i just i dont i dont understand it, and its very sad. That, of course, was the change in Vice President mike pence before, when barack obama was president and then after when he started to work he took the loyalty oath. For donald trump. Joining us National Security reporter for nbc news, Julia Ainsley and at the London School of economics, author, brian clasp. Julia, start with you. Take us behind the scenes to the thought process that got us to todays big announcement. Mika, it goes back to the shutdown. There were many plans the president was briefed on. We reported in january about a plan using army corp. Of engineer funding, funding for projects for Disaster Relief in california, wildfires, and hurricanes in puerto rico. What came of this there was so much blow back from the Disaster Relief plan, they started honing in on other areas. We understand there are about 21 billion in unobligated funds the president would be able to use through a National Emergency without going to congress. It seemed until the last minute there wasnt a decision made. There are a lot of people at dhs asking the president to pull back. Some of his senior Administration Officials saying this is going to head to the courts. We can see push back, see people using the same playbook that republicans used to stop daca saying that was an overreach of executive order. People told the president perhaps he should sign this bill, hes getting 55 miles of new barrier. But in the end i think he caved not to his advisers not to nancy pelosi, but to the people you pointed out before, the conservative commentators that can get under his skin, and thats what drove his decision. Unbelievable. Brian, i was struck yesterday after hearing mike pence and donald trump talk out of both sides of their mouth, attacking barack obama for doing something far less intrusive and undemocratic than what theyre now doing. And a tweet by Garry Kasparov stood out, the propaganda is not only to push an agenda its to exhaust Critical Thinking to annihilate truth. We see it every day with donald trump and we see it now in the declaration of a National Emergency. We need to be clear about this. This is an authoritarian power grab or attempt by one, by a president who has had authoritarian impulses since the day he took office. A president that attacks the president , violates ethics rules, calls to jail his opponents, firhires his family friends, violating the constitution in order to build a vanity project. I think the real danger is even if this gets blocked in the courts its creating a culture in which republicans are happy to discard the constitution and political checks. That is what im afraid is going to lead to us being dragged closer to Banana Republic with the help of Banana Republicans. Julie, its john hileman here, the reporting that youre doing now, the decisions that need to get made here, lay out what the opposing, what the varying points of view are on this within Donald Trumps council, advisers, how they think about the cost and benefits of what they might or might not do over the course of the next 12 hours . I think as we know, there are a lot of people part of that loyalty oath who have been scrambling to come up with different options. As i heard yesterday right at this time this decision was made is there could be six or seven different pots that could be chosen more of a backlash than others. I think right now the one furthest from political reality would be able to take from the Disaster Relief. Think about how that would affect republicans in california if they had to say money was taken from wildfire relief. So i think that one has been tabled. Theyre trying to find funds that were put in a pot for construction and a lot of that is from the defense budget, of course, but they havent been promised. Theyre kind of in this limbo, so they think they can pull from that. But really from a legal perspective, the chance of being enjoined is high. Understand there have been a lot of drafts about what the president can say today. Some have been torn up and tried over and over again. Well see exactly where he walks this line at 10 00 a. M. From what we know, there has been some disagreement and then there have been people who are more candid about that disagreement i think behind closed doors and maybe not at a table with the president going over these options. Joe, i have a question. We all talk about how donald trump is so affected by ann coulter and sean hannity and laura ingram. Theyre basically performance artists, i like when i see sean hes a nice guy. But where does he think his base is going . Ann consuulter tweets . She doesnt have a television show. I dont understand why he has this fear against these people at the end of the day have no claim on what hes going to be able to do or not do . For me this remains the central mystery of Donald Trumps presidency. The central mystery, even more than the putin relationship. And it is why donald trump has chosen to limit himself to a 33 base. The hardest the hardest right and the conspiratorial right, the talk radio right. And i havent understood that because his supporters would stay with him as he moved, not to the middle, but if he just took traditionally conservative positions, if he didnt make up crises at the border, if he supported free trade, if he supported balanced budgets. If he supported a strong stance against russia, if he supported fighting against iranian expansion and isis expansion and russian expansion in syria. Like if he did all of those traditionally conservative things, well, he would be even more popular. So it is a fear, but i think, susan, the fear comes from the fact that he and im not saying this im not being glib. Hes not a conservative. Hes a lifelong democrat. He has supported democrats through his mid60s, gave them hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in political contributions. Always supported democratic candidates. And he just thinks this is what you have to do if if youre going to play the role of a republican. Right. And because the president has no core values, hes also now proven that hes basically a simpleton when it comes to governan governance. I dont think hes gotten beyond schoolhouse rock in understanding how things get done. And the only lens he can look at it through is a political lens. Thats really whats so frightening about what hes trying to do now is that hes not saying this is a policy i believe in. Hes trying to do something to help him with his political base. Yes, all elected officials worry about, you know, their voters. But the way that the president is doing this, he almost doesnt care because if it goes to the courts hes fine with that. Hell say, look, i tried. You need to reelect me so i can get it done. Thats the most disgusting part. Im interested to see what republicans stood up to him. I remember mitt romney wrote hes going to stand up to the president when hes not right. Im curious to see what mitt romney does today. Its important for mitt romney to stand up and speak out against this manufactured emergency. Its going to be turned over in the courts. We saw marco rubio appear to speak out, Susan Collins speak out, good for them. I would expect the freedom caucus, if theyre about the constitution to speak out against this, because this is such a constitutional violation. Brian, i really dont think they have any other option. And since were pretty sure the courts are going to overturn this phony emergency crisis, what is, brian, the longterm impact on not only the Trump Presidency but on democracy . I think you have a series of impacts that are going to last for a long time. First off there is the normalization of authoritarian style behavior in the Republican Party. Voters are demanding this. You have people cheerleading President Trump for doing the National Emergency for you as you wering usurping checks and balances. And we have the risk this comes back when the democrats are in power. Some democrats might be excited by that idea but its a breakdown of norms. Its a vicious circle where every president chips away at the institutions that are a bedrock for democracy. Even if he floats this, gets blocked, it still does damage. It creates the normsizatializat authoritarian practices in the u. S. Thank you so much. Julia and brian, thank you. Brian, the twins are looking good this year. Im hopeful. Pitchers and catchers just started. Hearing good things about their pickup off season. Should be interesting. Just in this hour, President Trump could soon be getting an official republican primary challenger. Former Massachusetts Governor bill weld is in New Hampshire where he is launching a president ial explore toy committee. He was the Vice President nominee in 2016 but switched back to the gop last month as he moves towards challenging trump. John hileman, what do you think . I think its a super interesting thing on its own. I think bill weld obviously is a guy whos had considerable political success. I wouldnt necessarily think hes a man for Donald Trumps Republican Party. This is a party much more populist. Hes a classic brohmine character. When the history is written, is bill weld the crack in the dam . Is he the first republican who steps forward and says, yes, donald trump is challengeable from within the party and does this give courage to other republicans, whether they be john kasich or larry hogan or others who have it in mind right now they might want to take trump on in the republican the republican primary, they see bill weld and think, welling look, it looks like the waters may be warm enough to dive in. Coming up, our producers apparently think we need a little extra help. They brought in someone to speak english. The socalled guardian of grammar joins us next on morning joe. Next up, wig ham wealth. I won, i won. No. It means youre failing english. Me failing english . Thats impossible. Glish. Me failing english . Thats impossible. Not cool. Freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting . Now thats cool coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime and no surgery. Results and Patient Experience may vary. 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And i dont add trup the years. S. But what i do count on. Is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. Boost® high protein. Be up for life. President trump says he has the best words. Whether or not thats true, our next guest says most people dont or they dont use them properly. Joining us is benjamin dreyer. The New York Times calls him the guardian of grammar who wants to help you be a better writer. He says he sees language the way an epicure sees food and he finds sloppiness everywhere he looks. Benjamin, good morning. Theres immense pressure, grammatical pressure. Weve all composed ourselves and hope we dont screw up in front of you. How are we doing so far . So far, so good. Hes mostly the one who was speaking and has a prompt ter. Thats unfair. Ive been crafted for hours. What do you do for a living . What i do for a living and do every day is try to help writers make their work the best possible version of itself that it can be. I think one thing thats important to note particularly as were sitting here talking is that i dont well, i dont blees anything, but i certainly dont police speech. If im going to stop and count up the times im going to say very in the next 20 minutes, this conversation is going to grind to a halt. You have a list of words you could would. Very, rather, really, sort. Whats wrong with those words . Theyre packing peanuts. I dont detest the word very. I certainly write it and lord knows i speak it but it encases a word that weakens it. If you want to say somebody is brilliant, say theyre brilliant. If you say very brilliant, youre pleading. Say the word, mean it, and go on to the next word. Joe has one for you. Joe. I like it. Whats the most troubling trend, ben, in the world of grammar . What do you think . I dont really see troubling trends in grammar or writing. We speak in different oh, i do. We speak in different languages in different places. We speak one way on twitter, texting, and when we write. When we write, it has a different tone. Writing has hundreds of different tones depending who the brighter is and who the audience is. You dont see tags saying social media or smartphones dumbing us down when it comes to grammar. No. I think if anything theyre making our language more vibrant and more fun, and i think words should be more fun. As for someone who has a 20yearold and 11yearold, boy, i beg to differ. I mean call it fun, but just basic spelling and grammar is gone. The word you is not you. Its u. Its a whole different world. I see writing thats intended for publication. I cant really speak to how teenagers write because i dont know a lot of teenagers. One thing i wonder and donny just touched on it. When youre in school, you dont need to learn how to spell, for example. Its true. Everyone has a compute e so they dont check your spelling. Grammar is on autocorrect. How much does that affect the way we actually know how to use our words . I think its important to know how to spell. Maybe thats because i take pride in all the little gold stars i would get when i took spelling tests. I didnt get those. I do have a section in the book of course, we all have spell check and have it turned on. I do think its important to know how to spell and how to punctuate. There are sections about words youre not spelling correctly that it would be nice if you did. By the way, for the record, i have two grammar children kid, and theyre still drilling it into them. I have two questions. How do you feel about adverbs . I love them. There are a lot of people in your business who dont like adverbs. I have a big honking adverb in my title. And you like emojis. I love emojis. This gra marian says its all good. You sent him hearts and you know it. The monocle. Ben, you say the semicolon is under appreciated. Why . I think semicolons are snobbish. I love semicolons. They do a wonderful job of Holding Together two complete thoughts that shouldnt be separated by a peared yriod and shouldnt be separated by a comma. Oxford. Of course. Thank you. Correct answer. Dreyers english. Why dont we lob it to donny deutsch. Oh, wow. Five seconds. How bad of a week was it for democrats . It was as bad as it gets, but the good news is the yankees are 61 favorites to win the world series. Joe, i know you like to hear that because basically that means youre underselling the red sox. Oh, boy. Here we go. Dont start. And you guys dont start a fight there. It was a great week. Everyone have a great weekend. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. Good morning, stephanie. Thanks. President trump is