Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20190802

Richard haass. White house reporter for the Associated Press, Jonathan Lemire. Washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay is joining us. White house correspondent for pbs news hour yamiche alcindor. So the president was in cincinnati last night. I of course since the red sox have completely tanked and thrown in the entire season because dombrowski didnt want to buy a reliever the you two. I can watch the rally and i did. Very interesting. Ill talk about what i saw. I think hes now moving into this sort of new different sort of autocratic in waiting pose, but well talk about that in a minute. What did you see there last night . After two months of the political world focusing on the democratic debates in detroit, last night all eyes were watching the president. This was his first rally since the one a few weeks ago where the send her back chants broke out about the congresswoman omar, the somali born congresswoman who moved here and she cease a u. S. Citizens. As it turned out, early on in the first minutes he made a mention of the four radicals the left wing congresswomen the four congresswomen of color but that was it. He didnt mention them by name, there were no chants. However, what he did go on further was a long, long attack at urban centers and cities of this country. Wow. Particularly those run by democrats. He didnt mention Elijah Cummings by name. That was clearly the subtext here. And sort of well, also, by the way, the cities that were run by black leaders or predominantly black urban centers. It reminded me a lot of the whole quote shole countries. So if youre a city thats predominantly black or run by a black leader, then he is now putting you in the same categories in the countries run by black leaders. At one moment when a protester was being moved out of arena, he asked jokingly if the mayor of cincinnati was a democrat. This is something that he feels like is a winning issue for him going into the election. There were lots of republicans and white house staffers were very nervous about the send her back chants. The white house before leaving indicated he didnt want his supporters to say it but he said, well, if the chant starts out well see what happens. He wasnt going he was loathe to ever criticize his base. Its the kind of tension that trump loves. Just going right to the edge. Lets take a look at what happened last night in cincinnati. Its been total one Party Control of the inner cities. For a hundred years its been one Party Control and look at them. We can name one after another, but i wont do that. Because i dont want to be controversial. Look at los angeles with the tents and the horrible, horrible disgusting conditions. Look at San Francisco. Look at some of your other cities. The homicide rate in baltimore is significantly higher than el salvador, honduras, guatemala. I believe its higher than give me a place that you think is pretty bad. Give me a place. The guy says afghanistan. I believe its higher than afghanistan. In our country, think of that. You know, there were a lot of protests, trump was sort of walking across the stage. Sniffing, you know how he does. Breathing it all in. Willie, he sort of he had this thing down that hes actually amping up his onstage performances. He actually reminded me you see the austin powers movies . Yeah. Did you see the austin powers movies . He reminded me at times of the fat bastard, its a character. Its a character in austin powers. And hes sniffing and looking around thank you, thank you. I thought he was going to say, get into my stomach at one point. Hes just really starting to take on this role of dear leader. You can see it last night more than usual. Hes amping it up. Hes amping his audiences up, amping up the racial attacks and the demagoguery. This is a guy he is as david brooks said in the New York Times, hes a force and the only way the democrats are going to beat him is with an equal force. Well, i mean, we have become so numb to the way that donald trump behaves and when you watch a rally its worth pausing to recognize that the president of all the United States and all of these cities is trashing the cities over which he presides. Whether its los angeles or San Francisco or baltimore. But he knows politically hes not going to win those places so hes made a calculation he can go after it to stoke up the people in the crowd and stoke up the people who voted for him last night. I think its interesting to mention how low the bar has gone for trump. Lets see if he asks the public the the group in front of him to chant send them back. About the United States citizens, about United States congresswomen and when he does dont that everyone says oh, good, at least he didnt do that. Thats the president of the United States and people are acting grateful that he didnt let the crowd chant send them back. A good point. In some ways this is what has made trump to be able to survive scandals and controversies because right when you think hell hit the lowest he pulls back a little. You know what, i wont go for the racist chant of send her back. Instead what ill do is make light of the suffering of families and of american citizens in places like baltimore and chicago which happened to have majority black cities and centers. But then not make not talk about the suffering thats going on in the state that hes in. Which is ohio. I just came back from ohio. Theres a place called masonry, ohio, and its nicknamed misery, because people are suffering from drug overdoses and the president didnt say anything about that. Addie phillip of cnnsaid, can you imagine a president going on the opioid riff and you cant. You cant imagine the president focusing on the counties that i visited which are 95 white, 91 in a lot of areas that went for him overwhelmingly in ohio he does want to talk about the struggles theyre facing because theyre run by republicans. Yeah. When hes Walking Around like that, donny deutsch, if im a kid, ill get worried. Get in my stomach, well show you the clips later. So Jonathan Lemire and the Associated Press wrote an article this past week about how donald trump keeps lowering the bar. That every time you think he has gone as low as he can possibly go, which is of course over three years, has been a great deal. Even the most cynical white house observers before he started attacking elijah and started attacking these women of color in congress thought that trump had gone as low as he could go. As jonathan reports a lot of people inside the white house are shocked that actually the frantic sort of management lifestyle has become even more detached and even more dangerous. Yes. We dont know where the bottom is. We do know that he continues to shock by the day. You used the austin powers rather light metaphor. The mussolini when mussolini is standing up on the terrace like this, with a face like that, to me, the parallels with trump in terms of that selfsatisfaction at the chaos hes creating, the parallels are stunning there. You know whats so ironic coming off of to me pretty poor debates both nights for the democrats if trump stood up and basically talked about the economy, talked about hey, by the way, two benchmark strong holds, obama deported more people than i ever did, i passed the most comprehensive criminal Prison Reform act, strong hold democratic bench marks that he could own, of course he does dont there. The scary thing for me and joe, you and i talked about this last week as him being a transactional ideologue is hes going to keep lowering it. Keep digging, digging into the base and then some time around april or may of next year pivot and start acting somewhat normal and to the whole premise of the segment that because this is normal. So, so low. That when he starts just giving a normandy speech and talks about why dont we relook at health care a little bit, people are go wow. A mad irony that worries me. Hes going to keep going there. I think i shoulds the i think its top it is, i think hes going to dig and dig and then pivot and then be tough to peat. Hes not proven himself capable of being disciplined for more than a day or two. He can give the normandy speech and then give an interview on fox news with the crosses of the dead from dday behind him and launch the most inflammatory, terrible political attacks against people in the United States. So he cant hes incapable of doing that. I will say the thing that last nights rally showed it was a great i think it was a great comparison with what the democrats were doing. It showed here is a guy that strutted across the stage. He was he was being a demagogue. Picking at racial resentments and then you go like the previous two nights you have democrats going, you know, i have looked at subsection three of page 487 of your medicare for all plan and i fear that after the third deductible that the coverage may not be as satisfactory if you are in medicare zone three instead of medicare zone one. Of course you have to weigh that with a brookings i could go on all night. Because the democrats went on all night. They did. They never theres not a democrat on the stage that understands how to take it to a higher level, that understands the bigger things. I think most importantly, something that trump understood from the very beginning they need to get you dont have to play by the rules. If cnn or msnbc sets up a question to say, senator harris, joe biden is a jerk and he thinks youre a jerk. How do you respond . You know what . They dont have to play by the rules. They can go i think joe biden has served this country well. Very proud of everything hes done and i stand with joe biden. He stands with me. Now lets talk about the man who is changing america for the worst. Donald trump. They dont have to take the bait, but they always do. And there doesnt seem to be a democrat that understands where we are right now in history against this man. Yeah. I was laughing, so im glad i got lost in the whole Health Care Debate too. At one point i was thinking do i not know my Health Care Policy enough, if i dont understand this, im covering this every day, what are the voters making of this . Youre right. Look, if theyre going to try to go high as a party in a sense these debates are certainly not the best opportunity to take on barack obama as you have been saying, joe, over the last couple of days the most popular living democrat at the moment and they dont need to do that game of taking on each other. Thats why that second night in particular of the debates was so dissatisfying and why it makes the field look so weak. I struggled by the end of that three hour long second debate to see joe biden up against donald trump on a debate stage. I mean, donald trump will change the facts, ignore the facts, reverse himself. But hell do it with the phenomenal bluster and confidence the whole time through. And against that if joe biden with the nominee were to put in the performance he was lookinged toerry and not in control. The only reason that biden is ahead in the pack is because people think he can win that belief can disappear pretty fast. Once it does what are the democrats left with . Joe, can i say one it one way other way saying it and ill go one step further. The democrats have become the party of nerds. I mean, thats what goes on there. The republicans are the party of strength and reprehensible many, many times but people follow strength. Theres a nerdiness thats happened to the Democratic Party where your voice did it perfectly. And thats it. We have become a wimpy party. And people dont follow wimps. I know ill get a lot of oh you know, youre talking no, no. I actually heard that last night on chris hayes. Again, because im not watching the red sox anymore. So i was watching chris hayes. I think the red sox were already losing 42 by that time. By they were saying the same but they were saying the same thing on chris hayes. Listen, donald trump is a strong leader. Democrats need a strong leader. That can stand toe to toe with him and it wasnt just chris saying that. It was a very diverse panel. Everybody seemed to agree. Richard haass, they also agreed on something else, getting down in the weeds. Jonathan alter said, stop leading with your chant. Like dont talk about decriminalizing illegal border crossings because youre never going to get to that. Like thats going to be like the 12th thing you get to. You put your you know, comprehensive Immigration Reform plan together. Democrats should say were for a comprehensive Immigration Reform. We think dreamers should be able to take part in that american dream. Were for universal health care. We dont know exactly how well get there. We just know well get there together as a party and well try to bring in independence and republicans and everybody and thats our goal. And stop fighting each other over these small exaggerated differences that they think might help them get one or two Percentage Points from the far left democratic base. Its a losing proposition. Focus on trump. I agree. This ought to be this election ought to be a referendum on the fitness of donald trump to have four more years as president. Whats quite remarkable, these two sets of debates have increasingly made this a referendum on the fitness of democrats to replace him. Democrats ought to be on the offensive here not on the defensive. At least the two sets of debates i think have hurt all of them rather than helped them and youre right, you know, to take the narrow approaches. Whether its to immigration or health care that may appeal to elements of their base wont set them up at all. I think this youre the politician, im not, but theres a limit to how much you can reposition yourself after the primaries for the general election. Because theres going to be an awful lot of clips showing what people said in the debates and my sense is going to come back to haunt them. Well, those clips are forever and willie, as they were saying on chris hayes all in last night, you take Julian Castro talking about the difference between him and joe biden on whether illegal crossings into the United States becomes decriminalized. Its such a small marginal issue that actually has nothing to do with the fact that donald trump decided he was going to put children in cages. Again, its an exaggeration of an issue. Its actually creating a conflict out of thin air. And then trying to beat up an opponent out of it. Again, focusing on attacking other democrats on the stage and attacking barack obama and instead of going against the guy who made it a focus of his policy to separate children, put them in cages and have his attorney general say, yeah, were doing this on purpose to discourage people to come to america. It accomplishes something if youre a democrat running for president of the United States. Attacking barack obama and giving trump red meat. They dont want to prosecute those coming in illegally anymore. Probably not the way to go in the democratic primary and joe biden was out yesterday talking about the debate. Even he was surprised by the way some of his competitors went after the obama legacy. Check it out. I must tell you i was a little surprised at how much there was about barack, about the president. I mean, i im proud of having served with him. Im proud of the job he did. I dont think theres anything he has to apologize for. And i think, you know, it kind of surprised me the degree of the criticism. He focused on immigration and what he did was serious. The idea that its comparable to what guy is doing is absolutely bizarre. Theres nothing moderate about what barack did in obamacare. Nothing. He covered 100 Million People who had preexisting conditions. He allowed kids to stay on their parents policy until theyre 26 years old. I hope the next debate, we can talk about to fix the things that trump has broken not how barack obama made all the mistakes. He didnt. I was watching the socalled debate last night. And i also watched the night before. That was long, Long Television. And the democrats spent more time attacking barack obama than they did attacking me, practically. So Jonathan Lemire, thats donald trump at the rally where you were last night talking about the debate which he of course watched. What was his big picture takeaway from that debate besides what he said right there . Well, despite being our number nations number one tv critic, and suggesting that it was Long Television he made that two key points. One, you played about the attacks on barack obama and then a few moments later he said the democrats have never been out of step with the mainstream. I think thats the point that joe was saying. The idea in those debates it seemed like the democrats were bogged down on some issues that are not necessarily that popular among the wide swath of the electorate, like the borders and how to pay for health care and of course the president will use this as a divide. Hell do what any opposing politician will do. But he makes a point thats unnerved some democrats, the idea they can be seen as playing too much perhaps to certain quarters of their liberal base. And maybe are missing what a wide swath of the middle of america might want. There are arguments either way, theres a lot of liberal energy and democrats have to be mindful of that but thats where the president is going. As mitch as we dont want to overpraise him because of his discipline. At any moment of course he can wake up and go on twitter and revive his send her back attacks but last night as he did stick to the script outside of he did make fun of Robert Muellers appearance at the hearings suggested he was he sarcastically said he was sharp as a tack. But outside of that long riff about the American Urban Centers those are people he represents as well and seems to ignore. He largely stayed on his points about talking about his administrations accomplishments and more than that, how well the economy is doing. And that is what his advisers have been urging him for months and months to be disciplined, to stay on that. Its anybodys guess how long that lasts. Speaking of the lack of discipline, the democrats had decided to attack Barack Obamas immigration plan. And be really pushy about it, suggesting he was heartless like donald trump on immigration. The ones that kept trying to say that the Affordable Care act was moderate and came up far too short and was a disgrace and part of the republican talking points, those people played right into joe bidens hands. You saw joe biden as the lone defender of barack obama good lord. And obamacare. Thats worth ten points for him. By the way, if im a democrat and im not, so democrats, you dont have to tell me on twitter im not, im not. But if im a democrat and i have heard donald trump riding barack obama into the ground since hes been president of the United States and i hear democrats on stage doing the same thing, those people never get my vote. Never. Never get my vote. It was a stupid move on their part. And they better recalibrate because this is a big, big plus for joe biden. Yeah, i talked to some democrats that night who said it felt like we were living in a parallel universe. Are we really going after the legacy of the man we love, this historic figure in our party and in the country . It felt wild to a lot of people, Richard Haass and allowed joe biden to go out yesterday and he said without the subtext of what he was saying, did you hear all those guys last night, did you hear all those women what they were talking about . Im the guy still who is going to win you michigan. Im going to win wisconsin and win pennsylvania. Im going to get back all of the people. Theres some wild liberal ideas and you heard them last year. Im going to take back the states that cost you the last election. And let me say another point. How little i that talked about National Policy and who do they sound like . They sound like donald trump. Lets get out of afghanistan within our first year. Were against all trade agreements so i think Foreign Policy is one of the great vulnerabilities of this president and rather than attacking him on it theyre ignoring him or actually saying where they agree. Theyre isolationist and protectionist in how theyre coming off. Again i dont see how that helps them. Well, richard to your point, i wish every democrat running for president and every chief of staff and staff member for all those democrats would watch the first block of this show this morning. And really think about the state of this election because its bad for democrats. Its really bad. Look at that rally last night and then think about how youre going to present yourself to the American People. When youre talking about our Foreign Policy, talk about the dangers of trumps Foreign Policy, okay . When youre talking about medicare for all, if thats going to be your platform, have them go to your website and talk about how are you going to take on trump. When you talk about anything else, focus on trump. And trumps racism. And youre missing like a National Emergency happening right now because youre going after obama who joe and i can have a long conversation about here on this show and say, you know what, there are some issues with the Obama Administration which was the presidency that handed off to trump there are definitely some problems. But were like missing a huge moment right now in terms of the democratic platform and how theyre presenting themselves to the American People and getting more votes against trump. Youre going to let him win again and its a frightening moment, in my opinion. If you take the democratic debate and you played that two or three years from now, you would have no idea that that democratic debate was set right in the middle of Donald Trumps amping up of racial hostilities, attacking Elijah Cummings. The head of oversight. Calling him a racist. Attacking the city of baltimore. Attacking black leaders across the United States of america. Attacking urban centers where there are a majority people of color. Attacking women of color who are in congress, leading chants youre going after obama . Leading chants in North Carolina to send her back. This again, this is straight out of a fascist playbook and yet, theyre sitting there quibbling over what barack obama did wrong . They need to wake up. Because they just you know what . They just handed joe biden an advantage between now and the next debate. They need to wake up and i said it before. They didnt listen. Thats fine. Nobody listened when we said that trump could win. Everybody mocked us and ridiculed us, we got this in the bag. So a lot of people stayed home. So ill say to the Democratic Candidates again, focus on donald trump. Okay . Repeat after me. I will not attack barack obama. I will focus on donald trump. And the dangers his presidency brings. Its really easy. You can read it slowly five times before you go to bed at night. Well get the sound of bubbling brooks in the background and i will whisper. Like, focus, youre focused, youre focussed. Be present. See whats happening right now. Thats what ill do for you because i care about you so m h much. But really, youre letting yourself down youre letting the country down. Your focus should be on donald trump. Do your deep breathing so i can go to break. Another shakeup in congress. A surprise retirement from will hurd leaves the gop without a candidate in a pivotal swing district and since joe made the reference our producers had to do the fact check. Heres the austin powers character on the left and the president on the right. Oh, they dont look anything alike, but theyre both scottish. Well i kind of see trump is a son of a scottish immigrant. I think the emperor had no clothes. Youre watching morning joe. Clothes. Youre watching morning joe. 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Before leaving for his rally in cincinnati President Trump spoke to reporters outside the white house and questioned former special counsel Robert Muellers assessment that russia is interfering in the election. Did you raise that with Vladimir Putin . You dont really believe . That did you raise it we didnt talk about that. Do you believe that russia is interfering in the elections. I watched mueller, im not sure that mueller knows whats going on if you want to know the truth. Its not just mueller of course. Heres what his own fbi director Christopher Wray told Lindsey Graham just last week. Are the russians still trying to interfere in our election system . The russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections. We have heard it again and again, Richard Haass. It is overwhelming, we have heard that russia is meddling, has meddled and the president denied it again yesterday. Another piece of russian news here, the United States pulling out of the inf treaty signed by president reagan and gorbachev back in 1987. Whats the significance there . Its one of those important achievements of the cold war that stabilized the nuclear competition. But i think it shows two things. One, the russians have clearly not complied with it in some ways. Rather than really trying to keep it together, we have decided were going to break it. We dont have new systems that we particularly need to field that you know, the treaty precludes. Whats interesting is the china angle. This is a bilateral treaty and its a sign of how the old arrangements increasingly are inadequate to the world were moving in to. So this wont be unique. And the architecture of what people like me do for a living hasnt kept up. You mentioned china, the president escalating the trade war yesterday. Announcing a new round of tariffs on china. Where is this headed . I dont see how this leads to a big agreement. I think this Administration Still has to decide whats their definition of success with china. We wont get them to change their economic model but the question is if you can get a limited agreement that each side can live with. Again, new tariffs didnt come into effect for another month but both sides have decided rather than looking to compromise, theyd rather tough it out. The president may not want to be outflanked so hanging tough to make the hit and maybe hoping this will pressure the Federal Reserve lower the rates again to compensate for the economic slowdown that the tariffs are causing. So katty kay, there was a trade delegation sent to negotiate just this week and obviously they walked away with not much and the president s response was to escalate the trade war. Yeah. One of the things that happened in shanghai was that President Trump came to the realization that all of the things that china had been promising in exchange for relief from the tariffs were not actually happening. Things like flooding the american markets with fentanyl and the white house had wanted them to stop doing and theyre not. This round could hit the American Consumers more than all of the previous rounds. These are the ones that the people who are trump voters might start feeling. Theyre going to be there are tariffs on things like kids clothing, toys, computers, smartphones. The things that americans are buying every day. Its only 10 , but a 10 hike on your smartphone or kids clothes if youre struggling to pay for already and in the states that he wants to win, this is something that the americans can feel. It does suggest that the trade war is not ramping down. Look at the stock market yesterday, it had been going fine and then it started to fall fast after the tariffs were announced. These trump tariff taxes will most certainly hurt working class americans, the middle class americans which concerns me and the economists. Working class people who are having enough trouble making it from paycheck to paycheck and small farmers. Farmers on smaller ones are getting hit disproportionately since trumps socialist redistribution and his payoffs because of the tariffs those socialist payoffs are actually going to the biggest farm agriculture conglomerations in america. Richard haass, im really concerned about really concerned and im curious what our allies are thinking about this. What Foreign Policy leaders like you are thinking about the fact that even yesterday after the fbi director said last week russia is still trying to interfere in our elections, after the director of National Intelligence said it, after the United States military has said it, after the cia director has said it, after the director of Homeland Security said it, Kirstjen Nielsen when theyre all together at a press conference these were all people loyal to donald trump, appointed by donald trump. They all say that russia is still trying to interfere in our election and just think about this. Think of how surreal this is. We have a commander in chief who is denying it. Despite the fact that the entire Intelligence Community and the pentagon is saying russia is interfering in american democracy. And you have a majority leader of the United States senate who is killing every single measure republican and democratic alike, to protect american democracy from this threat that all of these republican intel leaders are warning us about and the president of the United States and moscow Mitch Mcconnell are all swatting away even proposals by marco rubio. Which simply says if we can catch you interfering in american democracy, then were going to hit you with new sanctions and moscow mitch kills even that. How are we how are American Allies how are we supposed to get our arms around this fact that the president and the majority leader seem to be aiding and abetting Vladimir Putins attempts to undermine american democracy . Its curious in so many ways. We were just talking about the inf treaty and despite the president they have been tough on russia. We havened nato. We just talked about getting out of the missile treaty. Yet here we give the russians a plank check so my hunch is they continue to do it. This is one of the ways that russia they can still be a great power. They can still influence events in the United States. And in europe. Which by the way will make the europeans uncomfortable because this essentially says its free. Its open to the russians to influence whatever events are in the uk because of the future of brexit or the european elections. Plus i think chinese, maybe iranians or North Koreans we have outside impact on the United States. So i actually think symbolically and substantially, joe, this is a form of disarmament. We spend over 700 billion a year on defense and yet here we have decided to unilaterally disarm in the face of obvious threats. Our next stop on the Richard Haass world tour is north korea. North korea has launched short range ballistic missiles. Here was President Trumps response yesterday at the white house. North korea they apparently Just Launched their third missile in a week. Is kim testing you . I think its very much under control. Why do you say that . Under control. Short range missiles we never made an agreement on that. I have no problem well see what happens. But these are short range missiles, theyre very standard. Can you still negotiate with kim after what hes done now . Sure. These are short range missiles. What we talked about is nuclear. Those are short range missiles, sure. A lot of other countries test that kind of missile also. So richard, the president has said he has everything under control and quote, he has no problem on the missile launches. Since the president has had the two summits, north korea has increased the inventory by more than a dozen Nuclear Weapons and things are not under control. When they test short range missiles they can put into the missiles technologies that can then be introduced into intermediate and long range missiles so this violates the letter if not the freeze. And it violates the u. N. Obligations which we and others have supported. This situation is not in control. We keep talking about denuclearization. In the meantime, north korea is increasing the scale and the quality of the Nuclear Threat they pose. This administration admittedly inherited north korea and theyll hand it off to someone else a far tougher in box in the case of north korea. Richard, what has all of the flattery, the love letters the step into north korea gotten the United States . Absolutely nothing. Again, this is a bad situation that has gotten worse. And just to draw contrast, were ignoring the north korean threat and were far tougher on the iranian and now were banning talking to the foreign minister. Were throwing out a diplomatic option with iran and that leaves with us iran moving towards Nuclear Weapons we dont want that. We dont want to have a war with them. I dont understand the logic, so were giving north korea a pass. Weve gone a long way from fire and fury and now north korea can get away with everything and with iran were doubling down in the dynamic that can lead us to the war around the region. The president says everything is under control. Finally, the ongoing peace attacks between the United States and the taliban could be on the verge of a major break through. An initial end to end the war in afghanistan is 80 or 90 of the way there. But significant challenges remain. The u. S. Could withdraw thousands of troops in exchange for concessions from the taliban including a ceasefire, and requirement that the taliban enter into negotiations for a larger peace deal with the Afghan Government. Richard, you look skeptical. Look id love for this to work but going back to vietnam its a deal to get americans out that we get an agreement with the taliban. We start to pull out troops and then does anyone think that the taliban will make it work, push out the terrorists. I hope so. But im wildly skeptical. The sequencing to get the u. S. Troops out early in the process it would leave the Afghan Government on outs own to face the taliban. Theres nothing in history to suggest theyd be successful. Do you have less skepticism or no . No, i agree with richard. Theres no indication that the taliban have any other desire other than to take back control of the country which theyre doing through military means anyway. I think the stark thing here was again the weakness of the democratic field on the debate stage when it came to this particular issue. Where was the democratic candidate saying this is a complicated issue of course everybody would like to see all of those troops home within the first year of a new democratic administration. But if we do that, we leave our allies vulnerable and we leave intelligence in the area vulnerable and we leave our National Security more vulnerable. So we have to take a new nuanced complex at that, yeah well get them out in the first year. But its not realistic or perhaps sensible. Wheres the democratic candidate saying about north korea we need to get much tougher on north korea . With the sound policy on iran. It was remarkable to me the degree of weakness even from joe biden who has a long history on Foreign Policy affairs. This is an area where democratic candidate could stand up in the interest of american National Security and point to the weaknesses of the president s programs around the world and they missed that opportunity on both nights. All right. Coming up, two weeks after send her back chants broke out at the president s rally, congresswoman ilhan omar seems to be trolling trump on twitter and nancy pelosi is lending a big hand. Well be right back with that. Fact is, every Insurance Company hopes you drive safely. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Applebees all you can eat is back. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. You mighyour joints. Ng for your heart. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Most people think a button is just a button. That a speaker is just a speaker. Or that the journey cant be the destination. Most people havent driven a lincoln. Discover the lincoln approach to craftsmanship at the lincoln summer invitation. Right now, get 0 apr on all 2019 lincoln vehicles plus no payments for up to 90 days. Only at your lincoln dealer. There has been for really since 1945 only one clear, strong voice in the world for democracy and for liberty. And that has been the United States. And look, im as much of a realist as anybody. And the reality is the United States has done business with some of historys greatest monsters. But franklin d. Roosevelt never pretended to be in love with josef stalin. And so in the real world, we have to deal with these people but we dont have to embrace them. That is former defense secretary robert gates. Friend of my fathers. At a roundtable discussion with nbcs Andrea Mitchell and joe, there are so many reasons why people like gates and like my father if he were still with us who are beyond concerned about what this presidency has done to our place in the world and our National Security and it just feels like its falling on deaf ears. Even with the candidates is. Yeah, well, robert gates obviously worked by your fathers side for a very long time and the two and understood the dynamics of geopolitics. An extraordinary relationship. Robert gates understand working with people like your father and knowing Madeleine Albright, knowing these are people who escaped their homelands after adolf hitler and fascism swept through their countries and so people should not roll their eyes when they get warnings from people who survived that time when somebody like Madeleine Albright draws a parallel or you have robert gates talking about the real concern he has about Donald Trumps affinity for strong men. Trump is a strong man. He is playing the role of a strong man. That is incompatible constitutionally with the madisonian form of government this country has had for 240 years. 240 years, we have been a system of checks and balances. In fact, our constitution was put together specifically and it was a genius of madison and hamiltons constitution that it was put together specifically to thwart the evil designs of strong men. And right now, mika, of course, the constitution is being challenged because as we have said for some time on this show our Founding Fathers foresaw the rising of an autocrat or a wannabe strong man. They never foresaw though a compliant congress that was completely just toss away blindsided completely submit, completely forget about the article one powers that are given to them to keep this strong man in check thats the real danger right now for this country. And people are so blind sided by everything its passing us right by. Thats how it happens. Lets get back to trumps trade war with china. Joining us from bloomberg news, sara mcgregor. What do you make of the additional tariffs coming after Jerome Powell who says that the tariffs represent the biggest threat to the u. S. And global economies . Yes. So far, the trade war has mainly engulfed the u. S. Businesses who are obviously paying the tariffs and American Farmers who have been hit by retaliation. They have been the biggest losers from this trade war in america, but come september 1st with the 10 tariffs well see american shoppers pulled into the trade war. These last batch of goods, the remaining 300 billion of chinese imports, the cell phones and the toys and headed into can Christmas Holiday coming up, this is where it will get tricky for trump, in trying to help the economy and getting the trade deal with china. I want to know how this plays to the consumers. A friend of mine texted me yesterday, im going to have to raise prices. I dont think people understand how this trickles down and bangs the consumer. Just pick a product and kind of do a little bit of math for us and show how the guy going into walmart gets spanked on this. Absolutely. We saw basically every type of industry you can imagine, retail industry, trade group yesterday come out and slam the Trump Administration for this move. If you want to look at footwear, the Footwear Industry has been really vocal about this. You know, a lot of the manufacturing for american retailers is done in china. And thats just one example, you know, the cost of shoes going up 10 or 25 if the Trump Administration pulls through on the threat to go as high as the 25 and trump said even beyond that. My own view on that, donald trump and the tariffs are the biggest threat to his ability to run on the economy. How do the chinese how retaliate . What might they do and what impact might that have . If we look at whats happened previously, china and others who retaliated have targeted the politically sensitive areas. China knows better than anyone hitting the areas like i just said, hitting the farmers or other politically sensitive states really will hit trump where it hurts. So well expect to see some of that. We know that china takes sort of other tactics not necessarily hitting back with tariffs but perhaps organizing things like consumer boycotts or putting up investment restrictions. So we could see even smaller ways that they seem smaller by china hitting back but which will hit businesses big time. All right. Sarah mcgregor, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. Very good to have you and coming up our conspiracy theories. The now domestic terror threat. Well get the warning from the fbi as the election cycle heats up. And narrowing the field. The Democratic Candidates, activists and grass roots leaders are ready to see them leave the stage. Just a few of them. Morning joe is back in a moment. Were reporters from the New York Times. This melting pot of impacted species. Everywhere is going to get touched by Climate Change. And this is me now i got Liberty Mutual. They customized my Car Insurance, so i only pay for what i need. Then i won the lottery, got hair plugs, and started working out. And so can you only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. But in my mind im still 25. Thats why i take osteo biflex, to keep me moving the way i was made to. It nourishes and strengthens my joints for the long term. Osteo biflex. Find our coupon in sundays paper. Right now, congress is working to end surprise medical billing. Thats when patients are hit with medical bills they thought would be covered by insurance. But what congress is considering would cut money that vulnerabe patients rely on the most. That means seniors, children, and americans relying on medicaid would be hurt. Its already too hard for people to get basic medical care with hospitals closing and a shortage of er doctors. Tell congress we can end surprise billing without shredding the safety net. Paid for by physicians for fair coverage. Laso you can enjoy it even ifst youre sensitive. Se. Yet some say it isnt real milk. I guess those cows must actually be big dogs. Sit i said sit all right. A pretty shot of new york city. Sunny, hazy day. Welcome back to morning joe. August 2nd. We have the host of saturday night politics on msnbc, donny deutsch, from the Associated Press, Jonathan Lemire. And White House Correspondent for pbs news hour, yamiche alcindor. Also joining us is the former aide to the george w. Bush white house and state departments elise jordan. And Time Magazine editor at large and nbc political nall anand giridharadas. His new book is called winners take all and its out now. Its a difficult time. Great to have you on. President trumps rally in cincinnati, ohio, last night, was his eighth Campaign Stop this year. He had a pretty big crowd. The first since a racist chant of send her back broke out in North Carolina two weeks ago. We all remember that. The president avoided mentioning the four minority female democratic lawmakers by name. But continued his week long attack on americas cities. Its been total one Party Control of the inner cities for a hundred years its been one Party Control and look at them. We can name one after another, but i wont do that. Because i dont want to be controversial. Look at los angeles with the tents and the horrible, horrible, disgusting conditions. Look at San Francisco. Look at some of your other cities. The homicide rate in baltimore is significantly higher than el salvador, honduras, guatemala. I believe its higher than give me a place that you think is pretty bad. Give me a place. The guy says afghanistan. I believe its higher than afghanistan. In our country, think of that. So donny, while he didnt hes gone from attacking individual members of congress who are people of color to attacking entire cities. He attacked San Francisco last night. He attacked baltimore last night. Hes attacking cities where he knows hes not going to get any votes. And dividing what he come on. Lets just stop. I mean, i hope nobody is suggesting that donald trump is doing anything other than telling that largely white crowd in cincinnati its us against them. I will attack people of color who run cities, who run urban centers that are predominantly black its us against them. We are lilywhite and they of course live in rat infested, crime infested parts of america. Yeah, joe, you know, look he it can be the four congresswomen, shole countries, any metaphor for people of color hell use. We normalize all his horrific behavior with the chants and we normalize what he did you see this color of this . His hair has gone to glow in the dark yellow. I dont know whats going on there. Its particularly flat and particularly yellow. And it just to me i think somebodys colorist, we have to get on that, i know its not an important issue but for donald it is. But joe i want to pick up where you started last hour, because with all of his heinousness, he did bring up two points last night and Jonathan Lemire pointed it out. That the democrats are going after obama instead of himself and are out of touch with the main stream. And that to me is the big takeaway. That if the democrats cant get the message from their consultants, if they cant get the message from pollsters or get the message from folks like you and folks on this air about the enemy is donald trump, not barack obama, we need to refocus them and one quick branding lesson. I want to bring up Ronald Reagan and Michael Jordan. What the republicans have done for decades, they understood they had a base brand to build off of. Ronald reagan. And they lionized him, year after year. Thats a base brand. Nike has understood that Michael Jordan and air jordans are the base brand and even when they come out with a new sneaker they build on that success, they dont destroy it. Message to democrats the enemy is not barack obama but donald trump. You saw him on the stage has night. And the base brand right through is barack obama because of the Affordable Care act and hes the only democrat to receive the majority of americas votes since Franklin Delano roosevelt. Hes a 95 hes got a 95 Approval Rating inside the Democratic Party. And the majority of americans support now the Affordable Care act. So build on that base brand. Youre exactly right. As i have been saying on this show for months now, when it comes to obamacare, amend it, dont end it. Jonathan lemire, it is interest, we keep wondering how low donald trump can go. We said it during his campaign and after his carnage speech, after charlottesville. We kept saying this is as low as donald trump can go. I think it was you and zig miller with the Associated Press that reported that actually people that have been concerned by Donald Trumps management style, both inside and outside of the white house, have actually noted over the past two weeks that if its possible hes become even more mercurial and that his management style has become even more dangerously erratic. Well, joe, what we have seen is the utter disappearance of any guard rails around him. And in first year or so of his term there were the grownups in the room whether it was defense secretary mattis or mcmaster or secretary of state tillerson for a time who would try to keep the president on track. Try to keep push book on some of his more out there directives or ignore them altogether, something that mattis would do time after time and dni coats stepping away is the latest example of that. Where on the Foreign Policy side there are few willing to say no to this president and we are seeing it in his campaign. We are seeing it in his domestic policies as he really gears up for reelection. You know, his campaign is being managed by brad parsekill who is close to jared kushner. It will be a Family Affair again, theyll be running it. Those are people who are not going to push back on the president when he wants to escalate certain issues. Lets be clear. The fact that he did not incite the send her back chants last night does not negate the racist comments and tweets hes issued time and time again and he happened to be more disciplined for one night in cincinnati. That can change on twitter at any time and hes told people that he thinks the attacks on the congresswomen of color are a good issue and also on congressman cummings. There was real concern in the white house about attacking cummings who is well respected on capitol hill. Painting an entire American City as being, you know, crime infested and hell holes. But no one there challenged him and the president afterwards when he want win to the senior staff meeting he asked how he thought those tweets played on television. He did not ask for their permission to do it again or whether he thought they were a good idea. Hes going to keep doing what he wants to do with very few very little resistance inside the white house or at large within the Republican Party. Well, anand, he believes i think wrongly, but he believes he can run the 2020 campaign the way he ran parts of the 2016 campaign but as the New York Times wrote earlier this week can do it with just racism thats out in the open. Even more open, openly racist than George Wallace was in his 1968 or 1972 campaigns where wallace would talk about pointy headed pubureaucrats and you ha trump attacking people of color and telling them to go back to where they came from. Yeah. I am less comforted than you maybe that this is not going to be effective. I actually think it will be effective for the following reason. I think if we step back and you think about what are some of the big themes that about thats going on in this country that you talk about on the show all the time. I would say the inequality plutocracy, rich people gaming the system for themselves whether thats donald trump or Jeffrey Epstein or others or Silicon Valley and the other is the racial identify transition, the gender identity transition. And if we are talking if the dominant conversation in america is about economics, plutocracy, america not working for people thats a bad conversation for donald trump because he embodies that problem. If he can through chants, through tweets, through these dog whistles, through normal whistles make the conversation we are having the identity conversation, maybe the explicit conversation about race, about gender, about people who want to stay on top fearing theyre losing ground, if he can make us have that conversation i think hes in a way more favorable environment. Its not a good republican strategy for 20 years to be the party of male resentment, but maybe for one more go and hes determined to have that be his ploy. Well, anand, thats a great way to put it. And mika, that is the question that americas history hangs in the balance for for the next four years, whether this can work for one more go because this because the demographics show you that the next 30 years are going to be shaped not by the electorate in 2016 but by obamas 2008 coalition of the ascendant. You have White Americans who are getting older. The average age of White American is in the i think the 50s. Average age of nonWhite Americans are in i believe in the late 20s. And you just look at all the demographics and they line up in such a way that again, we know how this ends in 2024. The question is whether donald trump and white resentment will have their final curtain call from 2020 to 2024 and thats why this moment is so critically important and perhaps its why Donald Trumps thinking he can run out the clock and maybe get elected by pushing those racial resentments towards a White America who just 30 years ago was 75 of the population and in the next 30 years will actually be a minority. Well, some think this is a race for quite frankly his future and what he might be facing if he leaves the white house after are you saying a second term or a jail term . Facing the second term or a jail term, facing the Second District on host of issues hed be facing the moment he walks out of the white house. You know, i think democrats need to look at donald trump as a man with nothing to lose. Because walking out of that white house after the first term, there are many who believe is walking right into jail. You know, Robert Mueller we can talk about Robert Mueller and we had said the day before the rally not to the day before Robert Muellers speech before congress, his testimony before congress, not to expect much from that. Said we were expecting nothing from that. I will say one of the most shocking answers came when Robert Mueller was willing to say to a republican. To a republican, that donald trump donald j. Trump could face an indictment for obstruction of justice the day he walks of out of the white house and if everybody doesnt think that donald trump didnt hear that and will not be motivated by that over the next year and a half, they dont understand donald trump. The president rallied last night in a state that has him trailing joe biden in a recent poll. The former Vice President defeats trump by eight points in ohio, a state that the obama biden ticket won by three points in 2012. And by nearly five points in 2008. At a restaurant stop in detroit, biden argued that a small improvement in swing states will defeat trump next year. If i get the nomination, i will win michigan. I promise you that. I will win pennsylvania. I will win ohio. I will win these states that he got 72 extra thousand votes on him to give himself the election. Look, folks, its not the great migration to him. It didnt occur. Were talking about 72,500 votes in three states that changed. And again, you know, if you look back at the voting totals, elise, in 2016, you had black turnout at its lowest point in 20 years. That aint going to happen in 2020. Well, no, joe biden talks about michigan and in an election that he won with barack obama. Wayne county, michigan, there were 76,000 more voters, democratic voters that turned out just in one county in michigan. So if you have a democratic candidate who actually excites africanAmerican Voters and turns out voters who otherwise in 2016 for whatever reason just werent excited, democrats are going to stand a chance based on the simple numbers and the fact that donald trump is already so unpopular and just barely eked into office in the first place. Yamiche, the other argument that joe biden can make when it comes to michigan he was part of the Obama Biden White house that helped save the Automobile Industry that plays very well in that state. But i want to ask you about this. Of course when theres so much discussion about how biden in particular of the democrats would appeal to sort of the White Working Class voters who defected from the Democratic Party to donald trump in 2016 but do you think biden, you know, we know his poll numbers with the africanamericans are still very strong. Would he what other democrat can also energize sort of the more urban voters . Increase that black turnout that did fall off in 2016 as we were discussing . First, i have been talking to the democratic consultants who caution democrats from chasing this mythological voter whos this White Working Class man who has not been voting in large numbers for the democrats for decades. Very few if only only two modern democratic president s won the white male vote. So most of the people that i talk to are saying what you need to do is give africanamericans and people all over this coun y country, latinos, white women, other people, a reason to really energize you. I think in that regard, democrats because they have b n been they had so much support from africanamericans, whatever democrats against President Trump is likely someone who energized the democratic base. But of course you think of people like senator harris and think of senator booker, pete buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren is making large inroads with africanamerican women. Some i think the question so i think the question is democrats once they get it together, once they start to focus on just donald trump will be able to energize their bases. I just came back from ohio talking to a lot of Trump Supporters and i think whats lost on a lot of people when they say oh, the president is going after is using this kind of racially charged racist tweets at times, thats somehow an embarrassment to republicans and people dont like that. In fact, the voters i talked to that excites them. They think the president is being not pc when hes doing those things. Other people think of it as racist. They think of it as him punching back against democrats and really giving a voice to the Republican Party. And i came back from dayton, ohio, there was an incident that an immigrant couple was walking down the street and someone screamed go back to your country. And the mayor there is pretty horrified. They have been pushing pro immigrant policies for more than two decades. The population has more than doubled and now because the president is tweeting you have people in that city having to reckon with the consequences of his speech. And yamiche is exactly right. So many of trumps voters arent horrified or even embarrassed by some of the racist tweets or some of these racist chants. Theyre energized by it and think thats him quote shaking things up is unbelievable as unbelievable as that may be to you and me. Donny, yamiche talked about that democrats need to be careful chasing this sort of fictional voter and i have talked to democratic consultants over the last couple of weeks and said lets top talking about the obama trump voters. The voters the democrats need to focus on are the trump Tammy Baldwin voters. Baldwin got more votes in wisconsin in 2016 than donald trump. Or in michigan the trump whitmer voters. The very popular governor of michigan. Here you have people splitting their tickets, voting for Democratic Women and donald trump. That provides a real opportunity for democrats. Yeah. I see it very much women and suburban voters. I dont break it out were looking for the old white male that were losing but i want to go back to two things biden what he said in there, such a big word. And its been Donald Trumps and the democrats win. I will win in michigan. I will win in pennsylvania. And the democrats have got to start using that word win. People follow a winner. Win, win, win. The other thing that were forgetting, why joe biden will get this nomination and i was kind of takeaw taking knockst the rest of the democrats, but hes likable. Who do i want to invite into the living room for next four years so the combination of win, baby, and i like that guy in a simple, guttural way and you will see biden getting a big pop in the polls after the last debates. While the president was Bashing American cities and trying to steer clear of another round of send her back chants, congresswoman omar posted on twitter they said send her back, but Speaker Pelosi didnt make arrangements to send me back. She went back with me. The speaker joined omar to travel to ghana and marked the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. Going through the final portal through which many slaves passed on their way to the americas. Boy, mika, so moving. Incredible. Shows that nancy pelosi has i think i mean, a woman who was greatly respected in washington, d. C. , but this second the second speakership for her i think she has exceeded all of the High Expectations that were already set for her. She is putting together a speakership that will be remembered forever. For some time to come. Yeah. Still ahead on morning joe judging by one metric, Elizabeth Warren is running away with the democratic nomination. Can the senator turn her grass roots support into real votes at the ballot box . Well run through it, neck on morning joe. On morning joe. Maria ramirez . Hi. Maria ramirez mom maria Maria Ramirez. Mcdonalds is committing 150 Million Dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs. Prof Maria Ramirez mom and dad Maria Ramirez to help more employees achieve their dreams. Mom and dad Maria Ramirez you may have gingivitis. When you brush, and the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums, and possibly. Tooth loss. Help turn back the clock on gingivitis with parodontax. Leave bleeding gums behind. Parodontax. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes background checks on guns. E that we should have but Congress Wont act because the nra and gun manufacturers have purchased our government. Thats just plain wrong. We know how to solve many of the challenges facing us. A majority of americans agree on the solutions. But corporate money is standing in the way. Im tom steyer. I approve this message. Because our democracy should work for the people. Has four levels of defenseremium gasoagainst gunk, wear, corrosion and friction. That helps keep your Engine Running like new. Great riches will find you when Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Wow. Thanks, zoltar. How can i ever repay you . Maybe you could free zoltar . Thanks, lady. Taxi only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Heres a good question. Is President Trump profiting off the presidency . This weeks american swamp investigates the potential conflicts of interest presented by the president s various companies and properties. Msnbcs katy tur and Jacob Soboroff travel from new york to washington, d. C. To palm beach, florida, to explore whether the president s businesses are contributing to the swamp that he promised to drain. Take a look. The Trump International hotel opened two weeks in the capitals old post office. A renovation estimated to cost 2 million. The Trump Organization is six years into the 60year lease of the building from the federal government. With the notable exception of 1600 pennsylvania avenue this is the most coveted piece of real estate in washington, d. C. I have been here multiple times. Its almost hard to believe that it that its explicitly illegal for foreign governments or foreign entities to stay here. I think thats the question. Even us. Like People Like Us who the sit here and pay for coffee or potato chips, that ultimately the money goes into the pocket, there are so many issues. Why would you want to put yourself in that position . Its uncomfortable to give money to the president of the United States in this way. This is a donation to his wallet. The new episode of american swamp premieres this sunday at 9 00 p. M. , right here on msnbc. Now to a surprise retirement in congress yesterday that leaves republicans suddenly without a candidate in a pivotal swing district. Texas congressman will hurd, the only africanamerican in the Republican Caucus and the only gop member to represent a district on the border announced he will not seek reelection next year. In a district thats about 70 latino and which Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Hurd is one of six republican incumbents to retire in the last two weeks including congressman pete olson whose district is in the houston suburbs. Also a top target for democrats. Joining us now columnist at the Washington Examiner Kristen Soltis anderson and maria urbina who is part of the groups that engage in progressive advocacy. Maria has a look at where the 2020 democrats stand among the progressive voters after the debates. Joe, your reaction to will hurds retirement. Well, its big news. I mean, i have always noticed because in 1993 the year before i first ran i noticed democrats were retiring all over the country. It started slowly, it picked up. We saw it again in 2018 a lot of republicans just did not want to defend donald trump and all the madness that was going on there. Kristen, that may be the case here with will hurd and some of these other republicans that are announcing their retirements. I think far more interesting is of course the state of texas which democrats believe when that finally swings democratic, whether its in 2020 or 2024 or 2028 thats look an Electoral College check mate. The question is where does texas move in the next the next year . And talk about that, looking at the polls, at the fact that beto is ahead of trump in his home state of texas and looking at the fact this is something that democrats had been looking forward to for a very long time. Yeah, i mean, donald trump won the state of texas by nine points which is about the same margin he won ohio by. So i think republicans at least for this coming president ial election i still think that its a pretty safe red place for now. But individual congressional districts are an entirely district story. You saw in the last midterms a number of places, houston and dallas suburbs, the suburbs that surround the cities, in these red states behaving like blue state suburbs. Thats going to create a challenge. I dont think in 2020. But certainly further down the road. While im very sad about hurds retirement because i think hes an excellent member of congress, hes always been someone whos been able to make you know, criticize the president when he feels that its justified but sort of sticks to his own guns. Is his own person. Im hopeful that hell stay engaged in the National Political conversation. He has signalled this is not the end of his political career, that he fully intends to use a new platform from outside of congress to be able to bring the message of what he thinks the republican message ought to be, to communities that really need to hear it and may not be hearing from the gop theyre particularly interested in. I completely agree. Will hurd should be a rising republican star in any other administration he would be. And im glad hes talking about staying on the national stage. Elise, donald trump has shaken up in a way that is not really positive for the Republican Party at all. But shaking up yes, republicans are doing better in the rural districts who are losing, whose population is going down. But you look at those suburban districts even in places like houston and dallas that were rock solid republican and you look at people like Pete Sessions who i came in with in 1994. I thought pete would be in congress for the rest of his life. He was in the safest dallas seat possible. Donald trump gets elected, two years later hes voted out of office. Joe, just look us at all of the blue dots in red states and in texas in particular. The whole foods theory anywhere theres a whole foods and a democrat starts to win and pick up the seat. I just want to mourn representative hurd a little bit. It is its so incredibly depressing that such talent is just fleeing the Republican Party and you look at someone like congressman hurd with experience at the cia and focus on Cyber Security and National Security and brought so much intellectual heft to congress on the republican side and its just tragic that hes not the kind of individual that leadership is begging to stay and begging to elevate to leadership roles. You look at how much stronger of a pick congressman hurd would have been to be the next director of National Intelligence. But no, look at who donald trump chooses to go with. Okay. So maria urbina, i want to ask you about the sort of the view of the candidates from the progressive voters especially in liability of the debates. What are you hearing . Out of detroit we are seeing that warren is doing really well with grass roots communities. She is leading far and away and both in our polling and our membership surveying of who would you pick if you had to pick someone today and more importantly she is leading when we asked folks are you considering . And 91 picked more than one candidate and she is leading when we look ahead. I think thats an important distinction as well. Jonathan lemire . A followup to that about Elizabeth Warren. She has been touting even got praise on the show yesterday from her rival, cory booker, about the organization she has particularly in the early states like iowa. We have see we are seeing this grass roots surge for her. Shes picked up in the polls but yet theres a significant gap between where she is, in second or third depending on which poll youre looking at and where joe biden is. Who has a pretty significant lead. What sort of obstacles does warren face to cut into the leads particularly among minority voters . So i think its slow and steady, right . I think if youre senator warrens team, youre six months out from iowa. You have plenty of time to grow the coalition and Vice President biden came in, he had a ton of name i. D. And folks knew him, but its important to look at the ceiling. In our and our memberships of indivisibles he does not do very well when they look ahead and saying who are you looking at in this entire field of candidates . The polls seem to reinforce that coming out of the debates, the primary on the democratic side seems to have a very focused question which is is this precisely the moment for caution, neutrality, sobriety, not wanting to restructure society as warren said, is this the time to laser like focus on trump, or is this precisely the moment for a big, exciting, bold vision of the kind that i think warren and sanders both offer in their own ways. And i think its a really you know, we were just arguing about that at the table off camera. You know, is this the moment to kind of shelve that or as im inclined to think is this precisely the moment to answer the kind of negative electricity that donald trump is so full of, with the positive electricity of a vision of transforming fundamental things about this country. But, you know, i wonder though whether that answer to that question is an ideological answer or not. I think there are so many people that are looking at the candidates and saying, who can beat donald trump . Who is going to be strong up on that stage facing off against donald trump . And my sense is at least this year ideology is taking a back seat. Not only to democrats, but to independents and to former republicans who really believe that the defeat of donald trump is the most important task at hand and they would vote if they knew a progressive would beat trump. As for me, you know what . People are concerned about Bernie Sanders. Bernie sanders at least respects constitutional norms. Bernie sanders understands that we have three branches of government. Bernie sanders understands what article one means, what article two and what article three means. So we actually would return whether its Bernie Sanders or the most conservative democrat out there, we would return to a system where there were checks and balances and as always, we would not dart too far right or dart too far left. I agree with you. Its not about ideology. I think what its about is simplicity. Because what the president offers is dark negative simplicity. The wall is simple. Its a terrible idea but its simple. Its eloquent, everyone can understand it and it tickles the reptile brain and makes everyone feel something. Bad but it does that. But if you counter that, Elizabeth Warren i did an interview with her earlier this year. Right before we walked on stage together, she has we have to be the party that stops talking about block grants. Like medicare for all is walllike in its simplicity. Forget the politics. But its everybody can understand what it is. But the democratic version of the wall. Heres the simplicity of it. Oh, donald trump says they wants to take away 130 million hard working americans your insurance. Like the electricity and the excitement of warren versus the electricity of trump, to me you sometimes fight negative electricity with comfort food neutrality in a certain way. I use the example many times on this show, many times id push a client to do a crazy car ad donny, let me stop you. Anand brought up the wall. What do democrats need to bring up . Hope and change. Im not saying they use hope and change but im just saying when you thought of barack obama you thought of hope and change. He made sure your did. His people made sure you did. When you think of donald trump, you think about the wall. Right . So there needs to be a democrat that when you think about congress, what do you think of . Moscow mitchell. When you think about where the democrats are going to take the country over the next four years, you know, whats this years version of hope and change . Its got to be stripped down. They have to carry it in the front of their mind every second of every day. And it does need to be stripped down. We need to go to the moon, we choose to go to the moon not because its simple. We choose to go to the moon because it is hard. Thats what the democrats need to do, they need to strip down their language. More economical and hit people between the eyes. Im going to strip it down. As long as you dont strip down. Decency. Were going back to who we are. We are decent and we are hard working and we have were going to make sure that the 25 Million People dont lose their health care and that the minimum wage gets where it needs to be. We are for the many, we are for decency, not evil. Thats the stripped down message. You know, Kristen Soltis anderson, i believe that using the republicans words against them would actually be the most effective thing. I remember whenever i ran and id be giving speeches, i would quote de tocqueville and they say, it may not have been de tocqueville that said this, i said, credit to me. When america ceases to be good, then america will cease to be great. Make america good again. I await the moment when a democrat walks through that door and takes old republican lines that worked for every administration before donald trump and apply them in a fight against donald trump. I think what youre more likely to see over the next 17 months or 15 months or how ever long it is until the election is republicans using democrats words against them. I mean to this question of what is the what is the thing that these voters in the middle who are frustrated and exhausted what are they looking for . When i do focus groups the first question is what is a word about describing about whats going on in the country, people feel unsure, confuse and uncertain. And i feel the problem sr. To democrats up on the debate stages hay they had the fellow partisans saying your policies are too extreme and wont work and what voters are frustrated about, washington is too extreme. Everyone is too extreme. Nothing is getting done. Things arent working. So i think what youre more likely to see instead of seeing the republicans using the words against them, but the opposite. I think the republicans will go after if its a bernie or Elizabeth Warren someone who is supporting the policies kind of the democrat version of the wall. Thats the direction i think thats more likely to go. Kristen soltis anderson, thank you. Maria urbina thank you as well. You sparked a great conversation. Come back, please. Coming up, the fbi has a new kind of domestic terrorism threat to look out for. And it says with the upcoming 2020 elections the violence stemming from the threats is expected to escalate. Thats next on morning joe. My experience with usaa has been excellent. They really appreciate the military family and it really shows. With all that usaa offers why go with anybody else . We know their rates are good, we know that theyre always going to take care of us. It was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. It was funny because when we would call another Insurance Company, hey would say oh we cant beat usaa were the webber family. Were the tenneys were the hayles, and were usaa members for life. Get your usaa Auto Insurance quote today. How do you like it, how do you like it more, more, more how do you like it, how do you like it all you can eat is back. How do you like that . Applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Right now, congress is working to end surprise medical billing. Thats when patients are hit with medical bills they thought would be covered by insurance. But what congress is considering would cut money that vulnerabe patients rely on the most. That means seniors, children, and americans relying on medicaid would be hurt. Its already too hard for people to get basic medical care with hospitals closing and a shortage of er doctors. Tell congress we can end surprise billing without shredding the safety net. Paid for by physicians for fair coverage. Here, hello starts with hi mple. How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. A new exclusive report from yahoo news says the fbi is for the first time identifying fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat. Previously unpublicized 2019 fbi intelligence bulletin from the bureaus Phoenix Field Office obtained by yahoo news describes quote Conspiracy Theory driven domestic extremists as a growing threat. The document also states the fbi believes Conspiracy Theory driven extremists are likely to increase during the 2020 president ial election cycle. For more details on the exclusive report lets bring in yahoo news contributor jana winter and with us state attorney for Palm Beach County john aronberg. How long has this been looked at as a threat and more specifically what kinds of threat might we see during the next election . Well, we know that this bulletin was dated may 30th, so since then the fbi has been tracking Conspiracy Theory groups or people who interact with them and calling them a domestic terrorism threat. And so explain what you know, this the driven Conspiracy Theory driven extremist threat looks like. How does it work . How might it work in the next election . Well, according to this bulletin, the increasing political rhetoric, theres all sorts of basically the fbi is now defining what is and what isnt a Conspiracy Theory. And as the race heats up for 2020, they are looking out for potential Conspiracy Theory type things that will result in violence. Basically it really expands the ability of the fbi to monitor what people are doing. So i know one of the organizations you write about in the piece is q qanon is one of the groups. I noticed that the that last night in cincinnati there were a number of people wearing q shirts there. Some are doing it as sort of a joke but others are more believing in it. So walk me through a little bit as to what would the fbi do . What sort of threshold would the conspiracy theories have to cross for the fbi to step in . It was a Conspiracy Theory that led to the pizzagate incident in washington which was real violence and could have claimed some lives. Right. I mean, theres a lot we dont know. I read the document. So did you. And you, and the fbi doesnt really outline exactly what line can be crossed before they are investigating someone, but they do mention qanon, and they mention President Trump by name in association with the motivations behind that group, and we have to see what else is going on. The thing is we dont know what is really happening behind the scenes, and this is a real change that can affect the next administration and for years after. All right, dave aronberg, chime in on the legal implications here. This show is why we need a statute on domestic terrorism. You know the rahatham case, a White Nationalist with a manifesto and target list and he was nearly granted pretrial release because there is no separate charge of domestic terrorism. The reality is domestic terrorism is on the rise and according to Christopher Wray that a majority of it is motivated by white supremacist violence and as such we need to recognize this new reality, and we need to pass a new law that mentions domestic terrorism specifically in the law because if that Christopher Hasan guy was charged with International Terrorism theres no doubt he would be kept behind bars until trial, but domestic terrorism is not treated the same way. Jana winter thank you for bringing light to this for your report. Appreciate your being on this morning, and dave aronberg, i want to touch on a couple of other stories, have you weigh in. A federal judge has signaled Jeffrey Epstein wont stand trial on sex trafficking charges until at least june of next year. A subdued epstein appeared in court on tuesday for the First Time Since he was found injured in his new york city jail cell last week. Apparently semiconscious with marks on his neck. There was no mention of the incident during the brief hearing, and the 66yearold displayed no outward signs of injury as he sat quietly while his lawyers and the prosecutors discussed a possible trial date. Epstein was arrested, of course, on july 6th on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to this. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that epstein was reportedly hoping to cede the human race with his dna by impregnating women at his new mexico ranch. The report by the paper based on interviews with more than a dozen of his acquaintances and public records detailed how epstein planned to develop an improved super race of humans using genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. Nbc news has not verified this report. They also report with his fascination on an unproven science in which peoples bodies are frozen and to be brought back to life in the future. He shared his plans with prominent scientists like Stephen Hawking at multiple lavish dinners and gatherings. The paper writes that the lure for some of the scientists was epsteins money. Quote, the prospect of financing blinded them to the seriousness of his sexual transgressions, and even led them to give credence to some of mr. Epsteins half baked scientific musings. There is no evidence epstein ever set his plan into motion. Let me back up here. I understand theres going to be like a million pages of discovery for his trial. I mean, its not going to be until next june. Explain what the logistics are here. Theres so much thats going to come out. When is it going to come out . Its going to start filtering out, especially as the federal prosecutors start disclosing what kind of information they have. If epstein is found to have been in possession of child pornography in his manhattan mansion, that will be additional charges and additional years to his possible sentence. Youre right, mika, the real reason why you wont see a trial until at least june 2020 is because the federal government just disclosed that they have more than 1 million pages of evidence against epstein. That came out on wednesday, and as far as that New York Times article you mentioned wow. Yeah. That was a crazy article. It talked about how the Scientific Community bought into some of this stuff because of epsteins money. You had Stephen Hawking traveling with epstein at some of his parties. It really is kind of disappointing to hear. The to me the craziest thing about that article was his belief in cryogenics which is where you freeze your body after you die. I know its an Early Morning show, so ill be clean on this one. He wanted to freeze two parts of his body. You can guess one of them. The other one was his head. Oh, my god. Just ew. I mean. Yeah. Ew. Okay. Ew. So i just want to since he has gone for so long, for so many years, basically doing horrible things allegedly, since he was already convicted of something and people still hung out with him, what are the chances he skates and information does not come out . Please help me understand how the law has him surrounded here, or are there possibilities that Jeffrey Epstein could are strike again in any way . I dont think hes going to ever see the light of day again. I think this these charges are serious enough and more charges will likely be forthcoming because you have the Southern District of new york, which has appealed to the public for additional victims, and there are a lot of potential victims who have allegedly come forward. Plus, you could see additional charges such as the child pornography charges which can be added. I think there are a lot of People Associated with epstein who should be sweating right now because there are a lot of documents out there, a lot of photographs, and a lot of videos perhaps that can implicate other individuals. I do not think, however, that the federal prosecutors would entertain a plea deal with epstein, they probably wont need it. Do they want to go down that road after entering a plea deal with epstein after the nonprosecution deal blew up in their face. Lets stay on this, thank you very, very much. Thank you. Still ahead President Trump said at his rally last night that he didnt want to be controversial, but then he ramped up the rhetoric about baltimore ask extended his attacks to chicago, San Francisco, and los angeles. Well show you the key moments. Plus, joe biden pushes back at the criticism he faced about president obamas legacy during this weeks democratic debate. Senator chris coons joins us with his thoughts on the former Vice President S Performance. Morning joe is back in just a moment. Caught in a cross fire that i dont understand when i was diagnosed with breast cancer, i went straight to ctca. After my mastectomy, i felt like part of my identity was being taken away. My team made me feel whole again. Cancer Treatment Centers of america. Appointments available now. Cancer Treatment Centers of america. Its just the way things are. When youre under pressure to get the job done, it seems you have to accept the fact that some equipment will sit idle, or underutilized. But it doesnt have to be that way. Thats why United Rentals is combining equipment, data, safety and expertise to help your worksite perform better. United rentals. A better worksite is here. I spoke with president putin of russia yesterday. Theyre having massive fires in the in their foirests. They have tremendous ive never seen anything like it. I just offered our assistance because were very good at putting out forest firefighters. Californias a mess. Were giving billions and billions of dollars for forest fires in california. Theres no reason for those fires to be like they are. They are leaving them dirty. Theyre its a disgraceful thing. Better get your act together because california, which is not going to continue to pay the kind of money that were paying. So Disaster Relief for california or puerto rico, not so much. For russia, aok. Good morning, its friday. Can you believe it . Its friday. Welcome to morning joe. Its august 2nd. Along with joe, willie and me we have the host of saturday night politics donny deutsch. President of the council on Foreign Relations and author of the book world in disarray richard haas. White house reporter for the Associated Press jonathan la mere, and White House Correspondent for pbs news hour, yamiche alcindor. Jonathan, the president was in cincinnati last night. I of course since the red sox have completely tanked and thrown in the entire season because dombroski didnt want to buy a reliever. Come on now. You know what . I could actually watch the rally and i did. Very interesting, and ill talk about what i saw. I think hes now moving into this sort of new different sort of autocrat in waiting pose, but well talk about that in a minute. What did you see there last night . Well, after two nights of the political world focusing on the democratic debates in detroit, last night all eyes were trained on cincinnati watching the president. This was his first rally since the one a few weeks ago where those send her back chants broke out about the congressman omar, the somali born congresswoman who moved to america as a child and is a u. S. Those chants would, whether the president stop them. Early in the first minutes of the rally, he made a mention of the four radicalists, the four congresswomen of color that some have dubbed the squad. There were no chants. However, what he did go on further was a long, long attack at urban cities, urban centers and cities of this country, particularly ones run by democrats. He didnt mention Elijah Cummings by name. Theres also by the way, cities that were run by black leaders or predominantly black urban centers. It reminded me a lot of the whole quote shole country. So if youre a city that is predominantly black or run by a black leader, then he now is putting you in the same category that he puts countries in the caribbean and in africa that are run by black leaders. At one moment when a protester was being moved out of the arena he asked jokingly whether or not the mayor of cincinnati was a democrat. This was clearly a new line of attack for him. This is where this is something he feels like is a winning issue for him going into the election. There were lots of republicans and white house staffers were very nervous about the send her back chants. The president himself at the white house leaving had indicated that he didnt really want his supporters to say it, but he of course as he always does, if the chant starts out, well see what happens. Hes certainly loathe to criticize his base. Its the kind of attention that trump loves, just going right to the edge. Lets take a look at what happened last night in cincinnati. Its been total one Party Control of the inner cities. For 100 years its been one Party Control, and look at them. We can name one after another, but i wont do that because i dont want to be controversial. Look at los angeles with the tents and the horrible, horrible disgusting conditions. Look at San Francisco. Look at some of your other cities. The homicide rate in baltimore is significantly higher than el salvador, honduras, guatemala. I believe its higher than give me a place that you think is pretty bad. Give me a place. The guys say afghanistan. I believe its higher than afghanistan. In our country, think of that. You know, there were a lot of protests. Trump was sort of walking across this stage sniffing, you know how he does, breathing it all in. He sort of he had this thing down that hes actually amping up his on stage performances. He actually reminded me you see the austin powers movies . Oh, yeah. He sort of reminded me at times of a fat bastard. Its a character. Its a character in austin powers, and hes sniffing, and hes looking around. Hes like thank you. I thought he was going to say get into my stomach at one point. He just is really starting to take on this role of dear leader, and you can see it last night more than usual. Hes amping it up. Hes amping his audiences up. Hes amping up his racial attacks. Hes amping up the demagogue ry. This is a guy, as david brooks said in the New York Times, this is a guy thats a force, and the only way the democrats are going to be able to beat him is with an equal force. Weve become so numb to the way donald trump bhaiehaves. When you watch a rally like that, the president is trashing the cities over with which he presides, whether its los angeles or baltimore. He knows politically hes not going to win those places. Hes made a calculation he can go after that to stoke up the people in the crowd, to stoke up pee the people who came out and voted for him last time. How far the bar has been lowered for donald trump. When everyone was crossing their fingers and saying lets see if he asks the public, the group in front of him or encourages the group in front of him to chant send them back about the United States citizens. About United States congresswomen, and when he doesnt do that, everyone says oh, good, okay, at least he doesnt do that. Thats the president of the United States, and people are acting grateful that he didnt let the crowd chant send them back. In some ways this is, i think, what has made President Trump be able to survive scandals and controversies because right when you think hes going to hit his lowest, President Trump pulls back just a little and says you know what . Im not going to go for the racist chant of send her back. Instead what im going to do is make light for several minutes of the suffering of families and of american citizens all across this country in places like baltimore and chicago, which happen to have majority black cities and centers, but then not make not talk about the suffering thats going on in the state that hes in, which is ohio. I just came back from ohio. Theres a place called masery, ohio, its nicknamed misery, ohio, because people are suffering so much between economic devastation, and drug overdoses and the president didnt say anything about that. Abby phillip had a really smart tweet, can you imagine the president going on an extended riff about the Opioid Crisis and overdoses in rural areas across the country, and you probably cant. You probably cant imagine the president focusing on the counties that i visited, which are 95 white, 91 white in a lot of areas that went for him overwhelmingly in ohio. He opportunity want to talk about the struggles that those places are facing because a lot of them are run by republicans. Yeah, and when hes Walking Around like that, donny deutsch, if im a little kid, im worried. Im worried. Get in my stomach. Its an austin powers joke. Jonathan lemire and the Associated Press wrote an article this past week about how donald trump keeps lowering the bar, that every time you think he has gone as low as he can possibly go, which is of course over three years, has been a great deal that even the most cynical white house observers before he started attacking elijah and started attacking these women of color in congress thought that trump had gone as long as he could go, and as jonathan reports a lot of white house observers and people inside the white house were shocked that actually the frantic sort of management lifestyle has become even more detached and even more dangerous. Yes. And we dont know where the bottom is. We do know this he continues to shock by the day. You know, you use the austin powers rather light metaphor. With all seriousness, mussolini, when hes standing up there on the terrace like this, the face like that, to me the parallels with trump in terms of the selfsatisfaction at the chaos hes creating, the parallels are stunning there. You know whats so ironic, coming off of to me pretty poor debates both nights for the democrats, if trump stood up and basically talked about the economy. And hey, by the way two benchmark democrat strongholds criminal reform and immigration, they brought up that obama deported more people than i ever did. They were arguing about critical refrm. I passed the most comprehensive political reform act, stronghold democratic benchmarks that he could own. Of course he opportunity go ther he doesnt go there. I talked about him being a tractional ied owe log. Hes going to keep lowering it, keep digging into that base, and sometime around april, may, next year pivot and start acting somewhat normal, and to your whole premise of this segment. I dont think thats possible. None of this is normal. So, so, so low that when he starts just giving a normandy speech and starts talking about why dont we relook at health care a little bit. People are going to go wow theres this mad irony thats happening here. Everybody goes hes going to keep going here. I think hes digging, digging, digging, and then hes going to pivot and really be tough to beat. There are a lot of people concerned about that, but he has not proven himself capable of being disciplined for more than a day or two. He can give the normandy speech, but then he will go and give an interview on fox news with the crosses of the dead from dday behind him and launch the most just inflammatory terrible political attacks against people in the United States. So he cant he just hes incab incapable of doing that. I will say the thing that last nights rally showed, and it was a great i think it was a great comparison with what the democrats were doing, it showed that here was a guy that strutted across the stage. He was being a demagogue. I would say mussolinilike. Just picking at racial resentments constantly, and then you go, like the previous two nights and you have democrats going well, you know, i have looked at subsection 3 of page 487 of your medicare for all plan, and i fear that after the third deductible that the coverage may not be as satisfactory if you are in medicare zone 3 instead of medicare zone 1. Of course, of course you have to weigh that with a bookings i could go on all night because the democrats went on all night. They never theres not a democrat on the stage that understands how to take it to a higher level, that understands the bigger theme, and i think most importantly something that trump understood from the very beginning that they need to get, you dont have to play by the rules. If cnn or msnbc sets up a question to say, senator harris, joe biden is a jerk, and he thinks youre a jerk. How do you respond, you know what . They dont have to play by the rules. They can go i think joe biden has served this country well. There you go. Im very proud of everything hes done, and i stand with joe biden. He stands with me. Now lets talk about the man who is changing america for the worse, donald trump. They dont have to take the bait, but they always do. Yeah. And there doesnt seem to be a democrat that understands where we are right now in history against this man. I was laughing, im so glad i got lost in that whole Health Care Debate, too. At one point i was thinking i do not know my Health Care Policy enough. I was thinking if i dont understand this and were covering this every day, then what are the voters making of this. Youre right, look, if they are going to try to go high as a party, in a sense these debates are certainly not the best opportunity to take on barack obama as youve been saying, joe, over the last couple of days, the most democrat living at the moment, not take on his Health Care Plan which has Something Like an 87 Approval Rating among democrats as well, and they dont need to do that game of taking on each other, and that is why that second night in particular of the debates was so dissatisfying and why it makes the field look so weak. I struggled by the end of the that threehour long second debate to see joe biden up against donald trump on a debate stage. I mean, donald trump will change the facts, ignore the facts, reverse himself, but hell do it with his phenomenal bluster and confidence the whole time through, and against that if joe biden were the nominee and were going to put in that performance, hes looking kind of slightly distracted and not in control of himself and not in control of the surroundings, ask thats just not going to be a good look for him. The only reason biden is ahead 19 points in the polls in that pack is because people think he can win. That belief can disappear pretty fast, and once it does, what are the democrats left with . Still ahead on morning Joe Joe Biden hits the trail with a new layup of a docking point, reminding folks that former president obama is still hugely popular, and democrats probably dont want to spend their time attacks him. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Hmm. Exactly. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Nice. But, uh. 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How do you like it, how do you like it more, more, more how do you like it, how do you like it all you can eat is back. How do you like that . Applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Well be right back. Well be right back. New shell vpower nitro premium gasoline has four levels of defense against gunk, wear, corrosion and friction. That helps keep your Engine Running like new. Its fuel for thought. You thinking what create some pain. . Brace yourself. I got him. No i got him. No i got him. I got him. Joe biden was out yesterday talking about the debate, even he was surprised by the way some of his competitors went after the obama legacy. Check it out. I must tell you i was a little surprised at how much there was about barack, about the president. Im proud of having served with him. Im proud of the job he did. I dont think theres anything he has to apologize for, and i think, you know, it kind of surprised me the degree of the criticism. And he focused on immigration, and what he did was serious. The idea that somehow its comparable to what this guy is doing is absolutely bizarre. Theres nothing moderate about what barack did in obamacare. Nothing. He covered 100 Million People who had preexisting conditions. He allowed kids to stay on their parents policies until theyre 26 years old. He covered 20 million more people. I hope the next debate we can talk about how we fix our answers to fix the things that trump has broken, not how barack obama made all these mistakes. He didnt. He didnt. I was watching the socalled debate last night, and i also watched the night before. That was long, Long Television, and the democrats spent more time attacking barack obama than they did attacking me practically. So jonathan la mere, thats donald trump at the rally you were last night talking about the debate which he of course watched. What was his big picture take away from that debate besides what he said right there . Despite being our nations number one tv critic, he made two key points. One you just played about the attacks on barack obama. More than that, a few moments later he said this, the democrats have never been so out of step with the mainstream. I think thats the point that joe was just saying is that the idea of in those debates there seemed like the democrats were bogged down on some issues that are not necessarily that popular among the electorate, of course the president is going to use this as a divide. Hes going to what any opposing politician would do, but he makes a point there that i think has unnerved some democrats, the idea that they can be seen as playing too much perhaps to certain quarters of the liberal base and maybe are missing what a wide swath of what Middle America might want. There are arguments either way. Theres a lot of liberal energy, rightly so. That is where the president is going. As much as we dont want to over praise him because of his discipline, because at any moment he could wake up, go on twitter and revive his send her back attacks, but last night as he sort of did stick to the script outside of he did make fun of Robert Muellers appearance at the hearing, sarcastically said he was sharp as a tack, but he largely outside of that long riff about the American Urban Centers, which of course those are people he represents as well, and seems to ignore, he largely stayed on his point about talking about his administrations accomplishments, and more than that, how well the economys doing. That is what his advisers have been urging him for months and months to be disciplined, to stay on that. Of course its anybodys guess how long that lasts. You know, speaking willie of a lack of discipline, the democrats had decided to attack Barack Obamas immigration plan and be really pushy about it suggesting he was heartless like donald trump on immigration. Thats nuts. The ones that kept trying to say that the Affordable Care account was somehow moderate and came up far too short and was a disgrace and was part of republican talking points, those people played right into joe bidens hands. Yeah. You saw joe biden actually as the defender, the lone defender of barack obama. Good lord. And obamacare. Thats worth ten points for him, and by the way, if im a democrat and im not, so democrats you dont have to tell me on twitter im not. Im not, but if im a democrat and ive heard donald trump riding barack obama into the ground since hes been president of the United States and i hear democrats on stage doing the same thing, those people never get my vote. Never, never get my vote. It was a stupid move on their part, and they better recalibrate because this is a big, plus for joe biden. I talked to some democrats that night who said it felt like we lived in a parallel universe. Are we really going after the legacy of the man we love. It felt wild to a lot of people. Did you hear all those guys last night, did you hear all those women last night, what they were talking about . Im the guy still whos going to go win you michigan. Im going to go win wisconsin. Im going to go win pennsylvania. Im going to get back all the people. Theres some wild liberal ideas out there, and you heard them last night. Im the guy right here whos going to take back the states that cost you the last election. That ultimately is the best path for the democrats to win not just their base but the center. The other thing that struck me is how little the democrats talk about Foreign Policy and National Security. When they do, who do they sound like, they sound like donald trump. Lets get out of afghanistan our first year, were against all trade agreements. I think Foreign Policy one of the great as a ruvulnerabilitie protectionist on the way they come off. I dont know how that helps them. Bob muellers testimony failed to change two things. One, President Trump is still lying, and two, russia is still interfering. Well run through the president s latest comments about Vladimir Putin next on morning joe. Most people think a button is just a button. That a speaker is just a speaker. Or that the journey cant be the destination. Most people havent driven a lincoln. Discover the lincoln approach to craftsmanship at the lincoln summer invitation. Right now, get 0 apr on all 2019 lincoln vehicles plus no payments for up to 90 days. Only at your lincoln dealer. I switched to geico and saved hundreds. Thats a win. But its not the only reason i switched. Geicos a company i can trust, with over 75 years of great savings and service. Now thats a winwin. Switch to geico. Its a winwin. Switch to geico. If you have moderate to thsevere rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. Ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. Humira can help stop the clock. 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Rapid wrinkle repair® pair with new retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. Neutrogena® Xfinity Mobile is designed to save you money. Whether you use your phone to get fit. Or to find the perfect gift. Youll use less data with a network that auto connects to millions of wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. Saving you hundreds of dollars a year. The best network. Best devices. Best value. And now get 250 dollars back when you buy an eligible phone. Its simple. Easy. Awesome. Click, call or visit a store today. Before leaving for his rally in cincinnati, President Trump spoke to reporters outside the white house and questioned Robert Muellers assessment that russia already is meddling in the 2020 election. Robert mueller said last week that russia is interfering in u. S. Elections right now. Did you raise that with Vladimir Putin . You dont really believe this, do you believe this . We didnt talk about that. Said right now he believes russia is interfering with the election. I watched mueller. Im not sure mueller knows whats going on if you want to know the truth. Its not just mueller, of course. Heres what President Trumps own fbi director Christopher Wray told judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham just last week. Are you russians still trying to interfere in our election system . The russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections. Heard it again and again, its overwhelming. Weve heard for years that russia is meddling, continues to meddle, has meddled. The president denying it yesterday. Another piece of russian news, the United States pulling out of the inf treaty signed by president reagan and gorbachev in 1987. Its one of those important achievements of the cold war. It shows you two things, one is the russians clearly not complied with it in some ways. Rather than really trying to keep it together, weve decided were going to break it. We dont have new systems that we particularly need to feel better the treaty precludes. Were worried about the emergence of china on the global scene. This is a bilateral treaty and its a sign how the old arrangements are inadequate into the world were moving into. We had a bilateral u. S. soviet world. We now have something very different, and the architecture of what people like me do for a living hasnt kept up. You mentioned china, the president escalating the trade war yesterday announcing a new round of tariffs on china. Where is this headed . I dont see how this leads to a big agreement. I think this Administration Still has to decide whats their definition of success is with china. Were not going to get them to change their economic model. The question is whether you can get a limited agreement that each side can live with. These new tariffs dont come into effect for another month. Theres still another chance to do it. Quite possibly both sides have decided that rather than looking to compromise to get an agreement, theyd rather tough it out. The president may not want to be outflanked by democrats on trade or china so hanging tough to take the hit maybe hoping that the Federal Reserve, this will pressure them to lower rates again to compensate for the economic slowing down that the tariffs are causing. The white house they walked away with not much and the president s response was to escalate the trade war . Yeah, one of the things that happened in shanghai was that President Trump came to the realization that all of the things that china had been promising in exchange for relief from these tariffs were not actually happening, things like flooding american markets with fentanyl was something that the white house had understandably wanted china to stop doing and now theyre not doing it. This new round of tariffs, though, this is actually the round that could hit American Consumers more than all of the previous rounds. These are the ones that the people who are trump voters might start feeling. There are going to be tariffs on things like kids clothing, toys, computers, smartphones, the kinds of things that americans are buying every day. Its only 10 , but you know, 10 hike on your new smartphone, a 10 hike on your kids clothes if thats something that youre struggling to pay for already in some of the states that donald trump wants to win, if they come into effect, these could be the tariffs that actually American Voters start really to feel, and it does suggest that the trade war is not ramping down. You look at the stock market yesterday, it had been going fine. These tariffs were anunsed anoud it started falling fast. Coming up on morning joe, were going to bring in senator chris coons of delaware. Will he list off all the reasons why democrats think president obama was terrible . I dont think so. Probably not. Morning joe is back in a moment. You try hard, you eat right. Mostly. You make time. When you can. But sometimes life gets in the way, and that stubborn fat just wont go away. Coolsculpting takes you further. A nonsurgical treatment that targets, freezes, and eliminates treated fat cells, for good. Discuss coolsculpting with your doctor. Some common sideeffects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. Dont imagine results, see them. Coolsculpting, take yourself further. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance, so you only pay for what you need. I wish i could shake your hand. Granted. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. If you have moderate Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. This melting pot of impacted species. Everywhere is going to get touched by Climate Change. Breaking Economic News now with the release of the july jobs report. Lets go to Cnbc Sara Eisen for the numbers. Jobs continue to paint a healthy picture of the u. S. Economy. 164,000 jobs added in the month of july. That was pretty much what economists were looking for. They were looking for a headline of around 165,000 jobs. The Unemployment Rate stays at 3. 7 in this country, and that is just about at a 52year low. It shows the strong gains we have seen in employment over the last few years. Wages also a bright spot in this report, rising 3. 2 from this month last year, and that was actually a little bit better than economists were looking for and shows some progress in terms of the employers paying their employees. So what i can tell you now is if you smooth it all out because you know how volatile every single months report is, if you look at the first seven months of 2019, it looks like the u. S. Is averaging about 165,000 jobs per month, which is definitely decent. Its a step down from what we saw in 2018, though, last year when we saw more than 200,000 jobs added. But keep in mind, were past ten years into this recovery. It is prolonged, and it continues to show healthy job growth. In terms of where the jobs were, health care was a nice bright spot, financial industry also showed jobs but not so much in the mining, retail, and Information Technology sectors. What i can tell you is were getting a lot of mixed messages on the economy right now. Jobs still looks good, the economy is still growing. The last gdp report we got was about 2 , not the 3 growth we got in the beginning of the year, but still decent, and yet there are increasing signs of weakness like manufacturing. A lot of the industries that touch global trade and that touch the Global Economy are really starting to weaken, which is why we saw the Federal Reserve cut Interest Rates for the first time in more than a decade this week. Yes, we did see that. Yeah, we did. Sara, joe here. Talk about the concerns this morning as wall street wakes up and comes to work about an escalating trade war with china and the fears that china yesterday is saying something that i had heard from International Diplomats that they were simply recalibrating their economy and were saying, well, if its going to be this difficult to deal with the United States, were going to turn more of our focus to europe. Were going to turn more of our focus to other parts of the world and figure out how to retool our economy without as big of a focus on the United States. Its already something we have been seeing, china reefg out reach ing out to other countries. Yesterday we were rallying more than 300 points in the dow, and bam, President Trump tweets not enough progress on the trade talks, were going to have an extra 10 tariff on the remaining 300 billion worth of chinese imports, and as you guys have been discussing this really hits at the heart of the u. S. Economy, and that is the consumer. So far consumers been inlatsuld from the tariffs. Now were talking about apple iphones, apartiapareapparel, fo accessorie accessories. Will that 10 be raised on the consumer, or will the companies absorb it. Wall streets pretty nervous about it, and youre seeing the selloff that we saw yesterday, that 300 point rally turned into a nearly 300 point decline in the markets. Sharp moves in treasuries, signaling really strong growth concerns. It does look to extend this morning with a lot of pressure on the entire stock market this morning. All right, Cnbcs Sara Eisen thank you so much. Lets bring in a member of the senate Foreign Relations and judiciary committees democratic senator chris coons of delaware, and we should note this he is backing joe bidens bid for president. What a shock coming from delaware. Just completely, i almost fell out of my chair. So senator, you know, the arrogance of donald trump and the arrogance of a lot of people in the United States to believe that we can continue this trade war and escalate this trade war with china without china looking elsewhere, you know what, we just we will just trade more with the e. U. Countries. Well trade more with canada. Well trade more with other countries across the globe suggests that some people think that we are still in 1999. The world has changed dramatically, and china once they reinvest, once they retool, we lose a lot of that capital and a lot of that investment for decades to come. Thats right, joe. This is exactly my core concern with how President Trump has approached our trade issues with china. Look, i have supported President Trumps initiatives to make evening the Playing Field, leveling the Playing Field between the United States and china a central focus of our Foreign Policy. China has been ripping off our inventions ask intellectual property for decades and forcing our companies to transfer technology in a way that has helped fuel their rise, but what trump got wrong was to first take the club of tariffs and swing it at our closest allies, at canada, at mexico, at all of our vital allies in europe and asia before taking that tool to china. So we face china in an America First posture, which tragically as you just said may end up being america alone, rather than having brought together all the free societies, all of the countries that have been so wellaligned with us for 70 years, which has led to our prosperity and security. President trump has been distancing our allies from us. I was at the Munich Security Conference last year when chancellor Angela Merkel of germany said america is no longer a reliable ally. That sent ripples throughout the room and frankly the ways in which trump and his administration have pushed and challenged and tested our alliances has left us in a weaker position. His bold move now to add 300 billion in Chinese Consumer goods to the goods subject to tariffs had a big effect on the market yesterday, and i think we all need to remember that tariffs are taxes. These are taxes that have so far been paid by farmers, by manufacturers, by exporters. Now theyre going to start hitting consumers in september, and im hopeful that were going to be able to stay the course, get a good deal, and get out of this trade war. Senator, its Jonathan Lemire. The political event this week was the pair of democrat debates in detroit. You have indicated you have endorsed joe biden. Two questions for you, there were a lot of concerns coming out of the Vice President S Performance in the first debate. He did still have some stumbles this time around too. My first question is do you feel like he has alleviated those worries that people feel like he is perhaps not up for this race . And my second question is were you as surprised as weve been discussing today and all week about the number of attacks on the biden obama legacy . And do you think thats effective for democrats Going Forward . Absolutely i think joe biden did what he had to do in detroit. I was there. I was grateful to have the opportunity to be with him and to see him perform so well. The first debate in miami i think he was genuinely taken aback that colleagues who he considers Close Friends came after his record and president obamas record so pointedly and forcefully at times, and i was surprised to see that on the debate stage in detroit. President obama is the most popular, most unifying recent twoterm democratic president. He has a very strong record of moving our country forward on things from health care to Climate Change, and joe biden impact on detroit and the state of michigan. I frankly think what we should have heard on the stage in detroit is how we are all united in advancing health care at a time when President Trump and republicans in the senate are trying to take away health care, take away preexisting condition protection for millions of americans. Senator coops, elise jordan here, if we could switch gears a bit and talk about the rising tensions with iran, the Trump Administration announced new sanctions on the Iranian Foreign minister calling him the chief prop began dis, which of course is true but also the foreign minister as the chief negotiator for iran. How does this move increase the likelihood that the relationship will end up in a military conflict and not a diplomatic solution . Well, you raise an excellent point. One of my core concerns is the lack of open channels that would allow both our dip mats and our military to avoid an unintended conflict with iran. Theres been a lot of debate and discussion in the senate about our policy in the middle east, the lack of a clear strategy. The Current Administration has a very aggressive Pressure Campaign against iran, and again, ill say iran is a dangerous regime that does spread terrorism and support destabilizing proxies throughout the region, but for us to put them under greater and greater pressure without the sort of back channels or opportunities for negotiation that would allow them to say uncle and to come back to the table, which i think this latest move to sanction foreign minister zarif indicates is not wise and may well lead to an unintended conflict, the costs and the duration of which we really cant predict. All right, senator chris coons, thank you very much. Up next, joes moscow mitch inspires a new song by ben folds. Keep it right here on morning joe. That a speaker is just a speaker. Or that the journey cant be the destination. Most people havent driven a lincoln. Discover the lincoln approach to craftsmanship at the lincoln summer invitation. Right now, get 0 apr on all 2019 lincoln vehicles plus no payments for up to 90 days. Only at your lincoln dealer. I didnt have to shout out i didnt have to get you a lift. And i didnt have to call your wife to meet you at the doctor. Because you didnt have another dvt. Not today. We discussed how having one blood clot puts you at risk of having another,. So we chose xarelto®, to help keep you protected. Xarelto®, is proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. In Clinical Trials, almost 98 of people did not have another dvt or pe. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of blood clots. While taking, a spinal injection increases the risk of blood clots, which may cause paralysis the inability to move. You may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. Enjoy every moment and help protect yourself from an unexpected one, like another dvt or pe. Are you doing enough . Ask your doctor about xarelto®. To learn more about cost and how janssen can help, visit xarelto. Com. Applebees all you can eat is back. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. [upbeat music ] you got this. You got this. You got this. You got this. Can i ask you something . Did you coin moscow mitch . Was that you know, i actually did. Yes i did. That is great lyric writing. So yesterday joe interviewed renowned musician ben folds. A great conversation about music and politics that well be playing for you in the coming days. As you heard, folds brought up joes recent moniker for Mitch Mcconnell, moscow mitch. Folds was impressed by the term and said it inspired a new song which he debuted last night. Mmmoscow mitch pretty good. So now to i love it actually sounds very good. So we have to hear more of that. Well be back in touch with ben and will play his interview next week. We need a full recording for moscow mitch and it is going global. Speaking of global, lets talk about the Global Citizen festival. It is once again returning to central park on saturday, september 28th. Heres who is taking the stage this year. In the street gonna be a big man some day you got mud on your face a deep disgrace kicking your can all over the place we will we will rock you we will we will rock you i cant hear you say it we will we will rock you and joining us now the ceo of Global Citizen, hugh evans. Hugh, it is always good to have you on the show. This event is really a must see for everybody as the close of the summer comes. What are you highlighting this year . What are some of the changes that you might be adding to the event as it evolves and grows every year . Well, thank you so much, mika, and great to see you, joe. Thank you for having me on this morning. Were so excited this year marks our tenth anniversary as an organization and movement and over the last ten years close to 40 billion has been pledged for the eradication of extreme poverty around the world. This year marks a critically important year because in our tenth anniversary we want to celebrate the every day heroes, the Global Citizens around the world, the millions of them who have been taking action year in, year out, to see a world free from extreme poverty. What better way to celebrate them than to bring everyone together in central park, headlined by queen, headlined by alicia keys, ferrell williams, together with one republic with her, carole king and hosted by the amazing hugh jackman and debra lee finesse. We are so thrilled this has come together for our tenth anniversary. This is a really important year. Well be fighting for really important issues this year including combatting hiv aids and ensuring quality education for girls and young boys all around the world. So thats what were working on this year. So, hugh, talk about the progress made over the past decade on extreme poverty. Well, its a great question, joe. When i was born in 1983, 52 of the worlds population lived in extreme poverty. That is now down to less than 12 of the worlds population today. Weve seen amazing progress in the eradication of extreme poverty but as we reach the final 10 of the worlds population living in extreme poverty about 720 Million People, progress has been slowing. In some parts of sub saharan africa, for example nigeria, and the drc, actually poverty is now on the rise. In fact, nigeria just overtook india with more People Living in extreme poverty in nigeria than india despite the fact it has a much smaller population. We need to accelerate progress across west africa and sub saharan africa, and now is the time to really do that. We need to step up in our tenth anniversary. We have ten years to go now to achieve the Sustainable Development goals that were laid out by 193 World Leaders to eradicate extreme poverty to tackle Climate Change and now is the year to do it. Hugh, youve mentioned some of the very important goals of Global Citizen. This year, what is the most important goal youre hoping to achieve . Well, i think this year in particular, we want to achieve one thing above all else. In october this year the global fund a fight hiv aids, malaria, tuberculosis is trying to raise 14 billion to save 16 million lives. There are 27 Million People alive today thanks to the work of the global fund and we want to see the g7 nations all step up and increase investments by 15 across the board. That means the u. S. , we want to see canada step up. Justin trudeau is considering a proposal on this as we speak. So Global Citizens can take action right now to call on him to take action. The norwegian government. Weve already seen the japanese government and the uk have already announced their pledges so they are already leading the pack. There is so much that can be done and given that queen is going to be headlining this year and Bohemian Rhapsody follows the journey and his battle with hiv aids we have an enormous opportunity to stamp it off the face of the earth and that is what the global fund is working to do. Hugh, thank you so much. We greatly appreciate it. We are very excited. A great lineup. We are very excited that our friend carole king will be there as well. It is going to be so special. So msnbc is going to exclusively be airing the Global Citizen festival live on september 28th beginning at 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Please go to nbc news. Com Global Citizen and you can learn how you can take action and actually earn points for free tickets to the concert in new york city. And now lets end this week with a news segment, mika, were just starting. Its called lambeers lament. Well, joe, my first lament is i didnt see the independent counsel of funk on the roster of bands playing the Global Citizens festival. I hope it can be rectified. That is amazing. Yeah, hugh. By the way, that is going to happen. Whats with hugh . We wanted to do an unveil in september. Thanks for ruining for the kids, jonathan. Thats my lament. Lift me up. Lift me up. Well be singing it. Go ahead. I think that should be happening. What is your next lament . Obviously i lament the red sox fourgame losing streak. That is certainly the news of the day. Actually switching to one serious topic for a second the president just tweeted, really bad news. The baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad. Which certainly feels like a sarcastic comment about a sort of very sad event. To be fair, the robbery reportedly happened a few days ago, prior to the president s tweet storm about the congressman. But it seems as if the president is gloating about something that happened to cummings home, which goes to show you once again there are very few lines that he is not willing to cross when it comes to trying to score points against political enemies and how he wants to make the fate of urban cities, democratic controlled cities, part of his reelection campaign. Elise, final thoughts . I just cant deal with it, joe. What kind of human being rejoices over someones home getting robbed . It is absolutely disgusting that this man is the president of the United States and the republicans are standing behind this kind of morally reprehensible rhetoric thats an ongoing, minute by minute occurrence. All right. Well, lets just keep our eye on the ball and not avoid the obvious, which is right in front of us and what this president is doing to our democracy. That does it for us this morning. Hello, everyone. Im in for stephanie ruhle. Here is what is happening this morning. The 2020 picture is becoming clearer and not just at the top of the ticket as another republican incumbent announces that he will retire at the end of this term. Threeterm texas congressman will hurd, the only africanamerican in the Republican Caucus announced he will not be seeking reelection. At one point hur