Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20200218

Uninterrupted Economic Growth. It started with the majority through the Obama Administration and if you just take the three years that donald trump has been in office, you take that time period and you compare it to Barack Obamas final three years, by just about every measure, Barack Obamas economy was much stronger than Donald Trumps economy. Its whats fascinating is the media runs around all the time and theyve been doing it for years, talking about parroting what donald trump says about how great the economy has been. Yes, this is a recovery that began 11 years ago. If you want to just look at growth, Economic Growth, because donald trump was promising four, five, 6 in terms of Economic Growth and gdp, you look at the last ten president s and their gdp growth throughout their administrations, six in ten of those president s according to axios yesterday, just according to government statistics, actually had stronger economies than donald trump. Let me say that one more time for people in the media who keep parroting what donald trump says that this is the strongest economy ever. Six out of the last ten president s have had stronger economies, bigger Economic Growth, bigger gdp growth than donald trump which means that once again, donald trump to start with breaking news. Michael bloomberg will be on the debate stage tomorrow night in nevada qualifying with the national npr pbs news hour marist poll that crossed this morning. It showed the former mayor surged 15 points to second place. Now at 19 among democrats and leftleaning independents. Bernie sanders took the top spot at 31 , up nine points. Joe biden is in third place but dropped nine points since december, now at 15 . Followed by Elizabeth Warren at 12 . Amy klobuchar at 9 . Pete buttigieg at 8 . Guys, yeah, im sorry bloomberg is well hes making a difference here. He really is. Guy cecil, we heard like we heard with donald trump back in 2015, you know what, his ceiling is 5 . His ceiling is 9 . Hell never get into double digits. According to this latest National Poll hes close to 20 and again, it would be easy to say National Polls dont matter, were about to have a National Primary on super tuesday and depending on what happens in nevada and South Carolina, if these numbers hold or if bloomberg gets even stronger, well, suddenly National Polls like this among democrats do make a difference. What do you make of the bloomberg surge . You know, i think there are only two questions remaining in a primary that has gone on for quite some time. The first is, when do Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg start attacking each other on the airwaves and the second is, is there a chance for a third candidate to make it into a top three that actually matters . What were seeing from this poll is that joe biden and Elizabeth Warren are flirting with that 15 mark that qualifies you to get delegates by Congressional District and state and we see Amy Klobuchar rising. From my perspective, the question is whether or not its biden or klobuchar or warren that make it into that third spot . Really, the big question is whether or not we see Michael Bloomberg direct some of his millions of dollars and frankly Bernie Sanders directing some of his on the airwaves in these states towards negative advertising. Ultimately thats the only thing that will change the trajectory that both bernie and bloomberg are seeing over the course of the last couple weeks. So guy, are we being unfair to joe biden when we look at the first two contests, overwhelmingly white contests in iowa and New Hampshire, you couldnt have picked two states really that suited joe biden worse as the first and the second. Should we wait until after nevada and South Carolina to see how he does in more diverse states, or do you think the dye is already cast . I dont think theres any question that joe biden needs to come in the top three in nevada and needs to come in first in South Carolina, even to survive to super tuesday. You know, we had a poll out yesterday from data for progress that had him in fourth or fifth place. This really is a do or die time for the Biden Campaign from my perspective. Placing in the top three in nevada is probably a must. Placing first in South Carolina is an absolute must. Weve been seeing a pretty steady decline across the board nationally but also in super tuesday states. This is his opportunity to turn it around and in order for him to do so it has to starts in nevada. So, joe, just kind of a question pulling back a little bit, obviously everyone knows im a huge fan of joe biden so the focus of this question might be interesting to some, but just when everyone looks at the strategy of Mike Bloomberg joining this race, of maybe thinking oh, boy, what happens if biden falters, i could jump in and save the party, but isnt there a huge possibility here that equation will be that he helps bernie . We dont know what hes going to look like on super tuesday, if hes really going to come through. It could be Bernie Sanders because of Michael Bloomberg, does that make sense . That depends on what happens in nevada and South Carolina. If joe biden scores strong and comes in second in nevada which he said he has to do, if he wins South Carolina and wins it convincingly, which is going to be difficult yeah. But he could do it, if he does that then yes, you will go into super tuesday and bloomberg could be taking from joe biden, could be taking from Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. Pete buttigieg. Could actually be locking it down for the socialist democrat. That being said, if biden doesnt do well in nevada, if he doesnt finish second in nevada, if he doesnt finish first in South Carolina, youre going to see a flood of defections moving away from joe biden and likely from what all my sources are telling me going to Michael Bloomberg and that includes a lot of black legislators, hispanic legislators all moving to Michael Bloomberg. And if he has a weak showing in nevada you will probably see that between the nevada caucuses and South Carolina. So joe biden, his back is up against the wall an he has to do really well in nevada and really well in South Carolina and, gene, even if he does that, joe biden is going to still be short on money and is going to have to hope that the name i. D. That hes accrued from being eight years of Barack Obamas Vice President , carries him through super tuesday. Money certainly wont. Yeah. The best Case Scenario for biden is that he goes into super tuesday, as you said, hoping that name recognition and familiarity and the fact that hes been around for a long time and that people like him, takes him to a reasonable finish in super tuesday. Its not clear that would happen against the torrent, the tsunami of bloomberg ads in those states and bernies, you know, bernies appeal in the same. If you look at the numbers in the marist poll, number one, you always have to give props to the candidate whos ahead. And Bernie Sanders seems to be consolidating a lead, you know, to my conventional political brain it looks like sanders has something of a ceiling, maybe 35 or Something Like that, but guess what . Conventional political brains thought that donald trump had a ceiling in 2016 and hes the president of the United States. Thats true. So we keep that in mind. But, you know, the second thing is bloomberg. I mean this is really quite extraordinary and at the moment bernie and bloomberg are kind of helping each other because each scares the others voters so much that it sort of increases that loyalty to the candidate, so i think theyre both kind of pleased with the dynamic working right now. I dont know why either would want to change it by going immediately to negative ads. I think they will let it play out this way for a while because theyre both theyre the ones rising. You know, mike, ive heard Something Interesting over the past several weeks, especially over the past several days from Business Leaders who have told me listen, i dont like trump, i dont like his tweets, i dont like him personally, but im going to support him, im going to support him because the economy is doing extremely well. A lot of those same Business People are now saying, you know what, trumps been good for me, i think bloomberg would be better. I think it would be better on trade, i think he would be better on stabilizing the not only the u. S. Economy but also stabilizing the World Economy. Its very interesting for the first time with bloomberg in the race youre suddenly hearing these Business People, these cynical Business People, who were probably a lot of them lifelong democrats, suddenly saying well, i actually have more confidence in bloomberg when it comes to the economy than a reality tv host. What you just said is very interesting because the people that youve clearly been talking to, once you have that much money and in the game with your own money, with your companys money, you realize that economy now is uniquely global. The evidence is on the front page of the papers today, huawei, building a network now, has got germany going along with it, england, the United States is opposed to having the 5g network bill coming out of china. Our allies, our allies in europe, will not cooperate with the United States. People with money know where money goes. Its they know that money is global. The interesting thing about tomorrow nights debate is going to involve a guy with more money than god, Mike Bloomberg. The assault on Mike Bloomberg that will take place tomorrow night will pivotal between Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg on that stage. I think its going to be one of the dominant stories of american politics this year and is going to last for a long, long time, more so than just tomorrow night. You know when it comes to Michael Bloomberg, it reminds me of an old story of henry fords grandson came to him and said, granddad, you dont understand the modern age. He said, boy, i created the modern age. When it comes to Michael Bloomberg thats true if you think about bloomberg units, bloomberg not only understand the International Global economic system, for better or worse, depending on what side youre on and this may actually work against him if he gets to a general campaign. I mean his units ed luce ed his here for the financil times. In a strange way, bloomberg and his data and what he sold to traders across the world helped shape and define the modern financial age, much in the same way i dont think im overstating this henry ford helped to define the early industrial age. Thats absolutely right. The bloomberg terminal is as mandatory on most Financial Trader desks, you know, 20,000 or so a month today as it was 20 years ago. He invented the business and he continues to dominate it. In terms of his youre absolutely right, unparalleled experience of and sophisticated grasp of the global economy, thats mostly a plus, but his fondness for china and for chinas political system in general is an achilles heel and thats probably going to show if not tomorrow night, than at some stage as this Campaign Starts to develop. He has praised xi jinpings chinas president , said hes not a dictator, says he has to respond to Public Opinion which at some level is true, but it doesnt sound good if youre canvassing to be president of the largest democracy in the world and to reboot that democracy agenda. The only other thing i would say about tomorrow night is i think its the target isnt going to be sanders tomorrow night. The target is going to be bloomberg. Theyre going to bring up all this stuff, maybe the china question, but certainly the stop and frisk, certainly the record with women, certainly the fact that hes put a lot of money into elections before, so hes dealt with all of this. I think, you know, to extend that, sanders 2020, trump 2016 analogy, youre going to have a circuit of firing squad at everybody but sanders all attacking bloomberg to be the moderate candidate. Sanders, if hes smart, just carry on with what he says and staying above the fray. This could be fascinating. Were going to have much more on really the communication between bloomberg and sanders become morgue pointed coming up a little later. A lot more to cover here. That bloomberg story, i dont think weve given what hes accomplished enough credit and we have to take a deep dive into some of the stories coming out about him. Now to this, the National Association of federal judges will hold an emergency meeting today to address growing concerns about the intervention of Justice Department officials and President Trump in politically sensitive cases. Philadelphia u. S. District judge cynthia roof, who heads the independent federal judges association, told usa today that group, quote, could not wait until its spring conference to weigh in on the issues under attorney general William Barrs watch. The judge, who was nominated to the bench by president george w. Bush, added, quote, there are member plenty of issues that we are concerned about and we will talk through all of this. According to usa today the group of more than 1,000 federal jurists called for the meeting last week after trump criticized prosecutors initial sentencing recommendation for his friend, roger stone, and the accident f of department of justice overruled them. Joining us now, msnbc legal analyst danny sa val los. First of all, how i guess how impactful is it that this meeting is being called . Has this ever happened before . Im not sure if its happened before. Its interesting. Keep in mind the fja is a voluntary association of article 3 judges. It doesnt speak on behalf of the judicial branch. While these are very influential jurists, they are not the voice of the judiciary so to speak. They are primarily concerned with advocating for the interests of other federal judges. When they advocate on behalf of judge Amy Berman Jackson and defend her against trumps attacks, theyre acting in their role. To the extent that theyre challenging the ways the attorney general runs the department of justice, its certainly important to know their opinions, but its not really as we would call mandatory authority. All right. In a new oped for the atlantic entitled bill with barr must resign donald aer, former u. S. Deputy attorney general under george bush writes the attorney general is working to destroy the integrity and independence of the Justice Department in order to make donald trump a president who can operate above the law. He write in part, barr has appeared to function much more as the president s personal advocate than as an attorney general servings the people and government of the United States. The fundamental problem is that he does not believe in the central tenant of our system of government that no person is above the law. In chilling terms, barrs own words make clear his longheld belief in the need for a virtually autocratic executive who is not constrained by countervailing powers within our government under the constitutional system of checks and balances. Indeed, given our National Faith and trust in a rule of law, no one can subvert. It is not too strong to say that bill barr is unamerican and now from his perch as attorney general, hes in the midst of a root and branch attack on the Core Principles that have guided our Justice System and especially our department of justice since the 1970s. Bill barrs america is not a place anyone, including trump voters, should want to go. It is a Banana Republic where all are subject to the whims of a dictatorial president and his henchmen. We need an uprising demanding that bill barr resign immediately, failing that the impeached really strong words unamerican. Very strong words. You look at bill barr and what hes done and you look at the fact that he has started a search and destroy mission against all of the president s perceived political opponents that the president concocted when he talked about barack obama tapping the phones at trump tower back in march of 2017 and he is chasing down every Conspiracy Theory that the president is putting forward. At the same time, and more disturbingly, bill barr is providing aid and comfort to the president s allies. Roger stone, one of the president s longest political allies, the two have been politically inseparable through the decades. So for the attorney general to intervene in sentencing when were talking about one of the president s closest political allies, its just beyond the pale. It is an Impeachable Offense, but, of course, lying to congress is also Impeachable Offense and bill barr did that a very long time ago. Mike, the federal judges that are getting together who called the emergency meeting, the Washington Post reported that they never they went through their files and never seen this happening before and theyre going to talk about a president who has launched a war on the article 3 branch, the judicial branch. He did it a long time ago with judge curiel when judge curiel ruled against him in a hearing involving his scam institution trump university. He did it, remember back in february of 2017, when a bush judge appointed judge actually put a stay on his muslim ban, and now, of course, hes not only attackings the judge in the roger stone case again, a guy who has been his political adviser for decades, but also attacking u. S. Attorneys, independent u. S. Attorneys, and is also attacking jurors. I dont see that the judges had any choice but to call this meeting and i really dont think chief Justice John Roberts has much of a choice but to speak out if this attack on article 3 powers continues. Yeah. Joe, i mean youre absolutely right on everything you just said, especially about john roberts, who you just mentioned. We must remember he sat there during the impeachment proceedings in the United States senate and he heard a couple of the president s lawyers working for the president of the United States lie, actually lie. He heard that. Danny, on this case, with the federal judges meeting, it should be pointed out that first of all that the author of the atlantic piece don ayer was the former Deputy Attorney general under george hrjt w. Bush, not some partisan. But the president of the United States reaching down into the Justice Department to inflict his opinion on active cases, unheard of . Is its not necessarily unheard of, and you could make the argument that if the president has the pardon power, the power to commute a sentence to nothing, then theoretically he has the power but not the right to reach down to the doj and ask them to give leniency to a defendant facing sentencing. Its probably not correct for the president to do that, even if he may haves the constitutional power. It may be more culpability lies with attorney general barr, who as you saw in the letter by over a thousand former federal prosecutors, they got it exactly right when they said the a. G. Sets policy, thats what political appointees do. Prosecutors go out and execute that policy. Its very improper for the a. G. To reach down to line prosecutors who have spent so much time and effort in prosecuting a case and preparing a sentencing memorandum, using sentencing guidelines calculated by the Probation Department and to go in there and say hey, this technically correct application of the sentencing guidelines, we just think its not fair and so we want leniency. Thats what makes this so improper. It is a breach of protocol that evinces a political leaning and in the judiciary and among lawyers, it is not actual impropriety, its the appearance of impropriety that we are concerned with. Well, and, you know, gene robinson, this isnt a close call. Yeah. The president is especially compromised because he is intervene, not just on some death row case, not just on some generic case of somebody that may have been illegally or improperly prosecuted and imprisoned, were talking about a guy who has been trumps political hack for decades. Were talking about a guy who was at the center of the wikileaks scanned whole was communicating with russian agents, who knew when all of that information was going to be leaked. Were talking about a guy who showed contempt for the court and for the judge throughout the process who threatened the life of a witness. Yeah. This isnt a close call. I mean, donald trump is getting involved in his own conspiracy with his own political hack. This is so beyond the pale that this is an open and shut case. If bill barr cant come out and explain that to the american people, he is not worthy to be attorney general of the United States, which of course we know by his own words and actions already that hes not. Yeah. I think we have some actual impropriety here and i think thats very clear. I mean, the two big problems with bill barr from the standpoint of this nonlawyer, number one is, that he absolutely is acting as the president s sort of personal lawyer and political avenger in his official duties and its outrageous. He didnt ask that sentencing guidelines for the crimes that roger stone was convicted by a jury of committing be looked at again nationwide, that theyre too tough. He didnt ask you know, threatening a witness and all that. Maybe the guidelines are just too tough for what he did. No. It is one case hes involved in involving President Trumps corny and his other corny Michael Flynn and, by the way, sets up a process for his other corny Rudy Giuliani to pass conspiracy theories into the Justice Department for investigation, this sort of stream of poison that rudy is pouring in. Thats all one big problem. The other big problem with barr is this kak ka may my view of the presidency he has which is incredibly destructive to the idea we all have of the president s role in our system and he really does believe that a president has kingly powers and thats not the idea, thats not what a president should have according to the constitution. Those two things i think make him unqualified and unsuited to be attorney general. All right. Thank you, danny, for staying on this morning. Appreciate it. Still ahead on morning joe, john bolton is looking to sell books through public appearances and, of course, he could have appeared before congress would have helped, but anyhow, well run through the big news he made last night. Thats next on morning joe. You can jump into the fire but you never r bothered me. Until i found out what it actually was. Dust mite droppings eeeeeww dead skin cells gross so now, i grab my swiffer sweeper and heavyduty dusters. 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Former National Security adviser john bolton spoke at Duke University last night, his first Public Comments since trumps impeachment trial ended. Nbc news correspondent cara lee was there and joins us from raleigh. He had plenty of criticism for trumps Foreign Policy. What did he say . Yeah. Well, mika, he criticized him on a number of policies and said his iran policy is a failure, his north korea policy is a failure, his venezuela policy is a failure. He said he should be tougher on russia. But the main thing that takeaway that i had from his comments was the level of frustration he has with the white houses handling of his book. You know, he used words, its under review, National Security review at the white house saying theres classified information in there that cant be published and bolton saying theres not, but he called this essentially censorship and at one point said he hopes his book is not suppressed. Its supposed to come out march 17th but i spoke to a bolton aide yesterday who said its very unclear if that actually will happen. In the meantime hes sprinkling a lot of bread crumbs around about whats in it and teased that the ukraine piece, with which weve all seen reports of, is just a beginning of what he writes in there and said he write about the president s meeting with Vladimir Putin in helsinki and a number of other things and so, you know, generally hes he seems to be creating enough creating a lot of buzz around his book and offering a lot of criticism of the president s Foreign Policy. Ed luce, the president said john bolton said of the president that his venezuela policy was a failure. He said of the iran policy, that the president , who he worked for as National Security adviser, that his policy towards iran was a failure. But i thought most dammingly was his assessment that President Trump wasted two years with north korea, which seems fairly obvious that he did, trying to push them towards denuclearization when we had people on our show from the very beginning, experts, saying they were never going to denuclearize and only used these two years to further expand their program. Bolton confirmed all of that and eviscerated the president s policy when it came to his love letter strategy towards kim jongun. Yeah. I mean i think weve got to consider the possibility that rather than dumping a lot of new damaging revelations about ukraine and trumps collusion there by giuliani with ukrainians, that actually this is bolton taking revenge on trump for not being an interventionist, for dealing with dictators for not standing up for the most part to iran and for, you know becoming sort of a valentine lover of kim jongun. The moment that, you know, bolton had here was he was being offered a stage, a place on the stage of history on capitol hill, to contribute to a situation of extraordinary importance to the future of the republic and what he essentially said is no thanks, i only do paid speeches. We should never lose sight of the fact that this that john bolton is taking a path saying wait until chapter 14. The book is only 32. 50. Using this not as an opportunity to intervene in an issue of overriding importance to america, but as an opportunity to monetize himself. As i say, possibly to take you know, to take it out on trump for not pursuing that aggressive agenda. For carole, i have a question, did he give any impression of how much he would deliver in terms of his book, assuming its published, on that side of sort of the right wing critique of donald trump . Did he talk at all about that last night . Well, he talked a lot about it was broadly on, you know, the what he teased and i have to say like a lot of what he said last night was teasing, it wasnt necessarily meaty details. He said he couldnt talk about that, to your point, he said his argument is his book is understand review and hes under the threat of possible legal action by the white house and so he cant speak freely. Thats his reasoning on why hes speaking and hes talking in speeches but not necessarily appearing elsewhere. You know, he is his critique, he hinted his critique of the president is pretty broad and that he there were a number of things that he said that hinted at the idea that he thinks the way that President Trump conducts business in the white house and how he runs Foreign Policy is just not on the up and up. He talked specifically about the helsinki meeting, for instance, and he said when he was asked about that in the context of that at one point he said he was willing to put up with a lot to get policies that he thought he that were good for the country advanced and he thought he knew what he was going into when he took the job but hinting it didnt go the way he thought it would. In terms of china and how this administration does business and so i think youre going to see a mix in his book, at least potentially if he ever speaks before the house which he did not rule out if theres a subpoena coming from the house, but a mix between policy criticisms and the way the president conducts himself in the office. All right. Nbcs carole lee, thank you very much for coming on this morning. Still ahead, Mike Barnicle mentioned earlier, the big story on the front pages of todays papers, a growing rift between the u. S. And europe. Richard haass will explain whats behind the tension next. 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Well go around the world now with richard haass, the president of the council on Foreign Relations and author of the book a world in disarray. Richard, thanks so much for being with us. Lets start, of course, with the u. S. taliban negotiations. Whats happening right now and would this mean a complete withdraw of u. S. Troops out of afghanistan . Looks like theres going to be a deal announced pretty shortly, joe. I was with the president of afghanistan over the weekend in munich. What will happen is there will be a couple days of a reduction of violence that will probably lead to this u. S. afghan u. S. taliban agreement. The next phase will be conversations between the government of afghanistan and the taliban. Over the next few months you will probably see the u. S. Troop level get down to about where it was, 8,600, when donald trump became president and then after that everything is unclear. The real question is, is there anything that begins to look like a ceasefire . Do we continue to withdraw troops . I think a lot depends on what taliban do. Its one thing to reduce violence. I see nothing in this agreement that deals with the reduction in taliban capabilities and the danger for us, obviously, is once u. S. Forces get out, they aint never going back. The taliban live there and we dont. The Afghan Government is a little bit uneasy about where this goes, but theyre willing to go along for the moment. Is it still the goal of the Trump Administration to remove all troops from afghanistan . I think theres a split there. I think its pretty clear its the goal of the president. The military would like to keep a residual force. I think full withdrawal might be somewhere down the road. Thats the tension. At the end of the day the Afghan Government is worried about conditions within afghanistan. We are more worried or concerned about one, getting use troops out, and afghanistan not being used as a global launching pad for terrorism. Theres a slight disconnect between the interest of the Afghan Government who have been our partners for two decades and the interest of the United States. Theres obviously a disconnect with pakistan and the taliban. So richard, of course yesterday we had latebreaking news that apple was going to be recording a loss because of the coronovirus and the impact it had on its supply chain in china. You could say that about quite a few companies this coming quarter. Talk about the impact of the coronovirus not only on chinas geopolitical situation, but also on the World Economy . Yeah. Clearly china is heavily integrated into the World Economy. Its one of the reasons, joe, all the comparison between china and the soviet union during the cold war, the soviet union was removed. China is integral to the economy and as china slows the rest of the world will slow because of supply chains. Apple is a perfect example, the market futures are considerably down this morning. But all that said, at some point china will recover. I actually think the most interesting thing going on are the political implications of this. Over the weekend, the Chinese Government released a speech by xi jinping and theyre scrambling for a defense of the of xi jinpings behavior here. Theyre basically saying he was on top of this earlier in january and theyre scrambling for a narrative. Clearly he is under criticism for the first time in his tenure, people are saying something is wrong here. If you consolidate all this power in your hands its then hard to turn around and say its the fault of lower officials in this province. We know its hard to read but something is clearly going on inside, if you will, the chinese equivalent of the kremlin, that were seeing i think for the first time push back against this consolidation, the greatest consolidation in power since now. Less talk about the United States and europe and the divisions there. Possibly at the worst in maybe 40, 50 years. Yeah. The Atlantic Alliance aint in great shape. Theres any number of reasons we disagreed obviously about iran, we the u. S. , you know, views rather the president s views towards putin. Whats emerged recently is china. The secretary of defense was in munich this last week and he basically said this is going to be a defining issue. Richard grenell, our ambassador to germany, who is close to trump, basically said if you go ahead, anyone in europe, with 5g from china, we are going to stop sharing intelligence with you. This didnt work with Boris Johnson. He basically told the president to take a hike and johnsons trip to washington has been indefinitely postponed. Theres a fundamental split where the United States wants to isolate china, europe does not. Again, its a sign that United States and europe increasingly see the world in different ways and when the europeans look at us, they increasingly see us as unreliable and look at whats going on inside this country and they go, thats not the United States we thought we knew. This transatlantic drift is deep and wide. And i wonder, ed luce, how much it has to do with the rank amateurism of our of the people that donald trump sends over. You have Rudy Giuliani running across europe. Of course sondland had no idea what he was doing. He was going into areas he shouldnt have gone into. Richard talked about Richard Grenell who seems to embarrass himself every time he opens his mouth. He goes to germany saying hes going to get involved in local german politics and makes a fool of himself and a fool of himself again here. How much of europes disdain right now for donald trump and the people donald trump is sending across to europe, how much does that have to do with serious damage being inflicted upon these key alliances . And, of course, you have ambassador Woody Johnson in london doing very much as you described with grenell and Gordon Sondland as having done. Look, i think for the american president and the british prime minister, so closely aligned in other respects, Boris Johnson and trump, to have a telephone call in which the american president hangs up on boris, he ends the call after having been described as being apop lettic, lots of salty language there, over boris decision not to ban huawei, that takes quite a lot of bad will, bad blood and incompetence to bring about. Boris is actually desperate to get along well with trump, and so he hung up on boris and boris is now indefinitely postponing a trip that he desperately wants to undertake to washington, d. C. I think is a good measure of the bad blood. With regards to huawei, look, i think that germany and britain and others have been berated to get a different 5g supplier. I would suspect if other options had been teed up and sort of more conventional diplomatic approaches to them, that we wouldnt be getting into this polarized situation, that its not prebaked that britain and germany are going to be pushed like this into chinas arms. Pu arms. Richard haass, thank you so much. Up next, Mike Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders and joe biden lead the field in a new poll from battleground virginia that crossed just moments ago goi. B but the report is anything but solid with the super tuesday primary now just two week away. Well dig into the numbers next. Plus well talk to former Senior Adviser to president obama who says that democrats need to stop banging their heads against the wall about what went wrong in 2016. And focus instead on what happened in 2012. The last year a challenger took on an incumbent. Well be right back. Oh, hi, samantha. You look more like a heather. Do you ever get that . Its nice to finally meet you in person. Youre pete nocchio . Oh, the pic . That was actually a professional headshot. Im sure thats it, yeah. I, uh, i think ive lost a few pounds recently too. Im actually doing a juice cleanse. Wait you dont. glass breaking gasp ah oh. with geico, the savings keep on going. Just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on Car Insurance. Every year, our analysts visit thousands of companies, in a multitude of countries, where we get to know the people that drive a companys growth and gain new perspectives. Thats why we go beyond the numbers. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. What . I think i forgot to lock my buick. Got it. I bet you lunch you cant make it in there. Im thinkin sushi. Alexa, ask buick to start my suv. You can do that . You can do that . You can do that . Yeah, with a buick. What . At the heart of every buick suv. Is you. Find out why buick is number one in dealer sales and service satisfaction. Pay no interest for 72 months on most buick suv models plus current eligible gm owners get 750 purchase allowance. Were he less than a month away from super tuesday and monmouth has a new poll showing a three way statistical tie in the state of virginia. Michael bloomberg, Bernie Sanders and joe biden are all tied for first. Pete buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar are tied for fourth. While senator Elizabeth Warren comes in sixth with 5 . Joining us now with more on that new polling and director of Monmouth University polling institute, patrick murray. Great to have you on. Obviously screaming headline here, Michael Bloombergs advertisements appear by themselves to have propelled him to first place in virginia. Tell us about the findings, what you learned. Yeah, were trying to look ahead to super tuesday because that is where Michael Bloomberg is going to start playing. And the case there is he is doing really well in Northern Virginia in particular. But he is doing well across the board. And i think that those advertisements have really bought him some play there. While joe bidens numbers have dropped across the country. And weve seen that because of what happened in iowa and New Hampshire. I mean, so right now Bernie Sanders has a national lead, but when we start looking at the super tuesday states, there is a possibility for Michael Bloomberg to make a play. A lot will depend on what happens in nevada and South Carolina. Well see how the numbers change because right now we only have one in four virginia democratic primary voters who say that they are definitely set on their choice. I know see asylum wiyou liket of people have ben oen wonderin whether all the money and athds propel him in the super tuesday states. What is your reaction to this poll that shows he is in first place along with Bernie Sanders. I think this is the tip of the iceberg. I think as more polling comes out in the south and really across super tuesday states, you will see similar results for two reasons. Number one, voters in super tuesday states are not the same as iowa and New Hampshire and it is not just about demography. They arent as tied in or paying as much attention to these races as caucusgoers and frequent primary voters in the first two states that have the tradition. These are folks that are living their lives, not fully engamgted in the primary process, not super volunteers or caucus precinct leaders. So television will have an out sized effect. I think the real question comes when the two campaigns engaged on the airwaves. I think this is just the canary in the coal mine for what we will see in the debate and online going forward. The question i have is whether or not this flexibility in the race is whether we will continue to see it. And my guess is that there is a lot of flexibility in this race not just because of the money being spent but because people arent paying that much attention yet. And how much flexibility . There is a lot right now. As i said, only 25 in virginia are firmly decided. They are waiting to see what happens in those first two states. Michael bloomberg will be debate stage this week. That will have an effect. And right now we ran some head to heads against Bernie Sanders against these other candidates. Bloomberg and biden beat sand, but bloomberg and klobuchar basically a tie. They have not been able to introduce themselves to virginia voters or anywhere in super tuesday yet whereas bloomberg has basically owned the field there. And so that will change once those voters as guy said start tuning into this because they havent been 35iipaying as much attention. And the internals of the monmouth poll, some of the response to questions are interesting. Firmly decided on your 2020 choice, 62 are open to a different candidate. But for Bernie Sanders, there is a real heads up in one of the question, when posed i would rather have a candidate who unites the kcountry or brings about change, 67 would prefer a candidate who unites the country as opposed to 27 who brings about change sg. And that is xwad nis bad new Bernie Sanders because he has his ideology and his ideas and there are a lot of people who support him, but he is not exactly reaching out across the aisle. This will be fascinating. Those numbers in virginia surprising that Elizabeth Warren is way down at 4 . She had been anecdotally quite popular in have a swra. Have a swra. It shows the impact that bloombergs ads are having. And this is on. This is really on. It will be fascinating tomorrow night. We got a game. Patrick murray, thank you very much. Guy cecil, thank you as well. And gene robinson, well be reading your new post today entitled Democratic Candidates are doing trumps job for him. You can explain that for us . Well, they are do be the oppo and negative attacks. It is not all on television now, but there is a lot of increasingly bitter not sniping, but attacks among the candidates. And i urge them to keep their eye on the ball. Somebody will emerge with this nomination and the party if it is going to win will have to unite behind that somebody. And so tearing each other to shreds at this point, you have to compete, but tearing each other to shreds does not seem to me to be a constructive thing. All right. We know this morning that Mike Bloomberg will be on the debate stage tomorrow night. And weve been getting a preview of what it will be like as the battle between Mike Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders kicks into high gear. A day after sanders accused bloomberg of trying to buy the presidency, bloomberg hit back yesterday with this dramatic new ad ripping the online bullying of socalled bernie bros. The Bloomberg Campaign then released a statement entitled bernies new bro, donald trump. Accusing the Sanders Campaign of using trumps tactics against the forger mayor. One instance involves video of bloomberg talking about farmers that the Campaign Says was completely out of context. The video was circulated by the president s supporters. But bloombergs camp says that the Sanders Campaign also pushed it out. Bloombergs Campaign Manager said at this point the primary is bernies to lose and ours to win. Bernie knows this. Trump knows this. That is why they are united in the campaign against mike. Senator sanders hit back by tweeting this photo of bloomberg and trump together on a golf course looking friendly. That was followed up by these remarks at a Campaign Event in california a few hours later. Now, mr. Bloomberg like anybody else mahas a right to r for president. He does not have a right to buy the presidency. Especially after being mayor of new york and having a racist stop and frisk policy. Especially after opposing imagine a multibillionaire asking for cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid. Letsd bris bring in nationa Political Correspondent steve kornacki. And one of Barack Obamas longest serving advisors, former white house director of communications, dan pfeiffer, author of untrumping america, a plan to make america a democracy again. Also kasie hunt is with us. And chief Public Affairs officer for move on, carekarine jeanpi. And steve, a lot of polls to go over. We just saw a virginia poll that showed Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg tied for first place. Joe biden right behind him within the margin of error. And you look at this National Poll that shows that Michael Bloomberg is up at 19 . Bernie sanders up 9 since his good showings in iowa, New Hampshire joe biden trailing, dropped 9 pirnlg points. That is a National Poll. Obviously it will have some impact on super tuesday coming up. But of course nevada is not in the mix yet. The results of South Carolina not in the mix. That will obviously also shape what super tuesday looks like. But lets look at that National Poll and i wonder if like me you are having deja vu all over again where we heard that Michael Bloombergs ceiling was 5 . We heard it was 10 . We heard it never would get into double digits. And hes now at 19 in one National Poll and 22 in virginia poll. Is this just a sign of more things to come . Well, im having deja vu i guess with both candidates. And that would include Bernie Sanders. The deja vu im having with sander, i think there was a tendency to look at him in this race as somebody who had a ceiling of his own. And i think wong of the things that are you seeing in this National Poll, you see that 9 point jun point jump, whatever you call what happened in iowa, he won the popular vote there, no one really declared a winner, but he did something in iowa, he won New Hampshire, and you can see he has moved up nine points. Joe biden has fallen. I see so many ingredients we were talking about in 2016 with donald trump and Bernie Sanders. When you look inside the numbers, he is broadly liked by democrats. This is somebody who will have a 70 to 75 favorable score among democrats. I also look inside that National Poll here and Bernie Sanders for the first time is within three points of joe biden among africanamerican voters. We talk about when you get to South Carolina and beyond, one out of four votes in these democratic primaries will be cast by black voters. We had biden up 40 points and all of a sudden it is a three point race. If sanders can put up a solid win in nevada, key roll it into South Carolina and do far better there than weve been talking about. And if he can put those two together to move up further nationally, but with bloom burpg the one wild card and the one difference when you draw comparisons with sand ertz and trump, trump did not have a candidate running against him who had the unlimited truly unlimited resources that mike blooflbu bloomberg has. And that is a wild card that we cant compare it in the past. We havent seen selffunding dhit candidates willing do it at this scale. So takes Political Science experiment in some ways. So lets put these numbers back up again if we could put the National Poll up again. You talked about Bernie Sanders jumping up nine points after iowa, New Hampshire. Look at mayor pete though. Heers in the first two states. He is down to 8 . And it is a tale of two campaigns. Why did Bernie Sanders explode upward after his positive showings and mayor pete who did just as well has dropped . It is what weve been talking about since mayor pete got in this race. He has failed it demonstrate consistently any ability to make significant inroads with nonwhite voters. He is still basically an asterisk with black voters. I think he is running at 4 with black voters. And that is the best showing eat had in any poll. And weve talked about the past year for the chan challenge may make a splash in iowa, but the polls were saying that he would hit a wall when the electorate got more diverse. And that is what you are seeing and that is the difference between a sanders and a buttigieg. Sanderses a i said is able to run almost even with joe biden among black voters. And in every poll ive seen recently, sanders is running ahead of everybody with hispanic voters. And that looms large in nevada, california, texas, colorado potentially some of the super tuesday starts. And that is just a breadth of support dem graphically that buttigieg has not been able to demonstrate. And casey manhunt, a rekasie questions. How does the Biden Campaign survive and does the Bloomberg Campaign help or hurt the Democratic Party in the long run if they see Bernie Sanders as the wrong candidate . So this is really probably the longest 10 so days of joe bidens political life if you will. You know, his legacy is on the line here. You know, he limited through iowa and New Hampshire. And it schbt juisnt just the c himself. He has struggled in some ways on the stump, but also i think that we learned that there are some problems in his Campaign Architecture that frankly we didnt expect. You know, his organizational showing in iowa, you know, was poor compared to some of the other candidates. And i think there had been a sense that as the frontrunner, he had perhaps inherited the clinton infrastructure. Say what you will about her campaign, but they organized the heck out of iowa in 2016 which is why they were able to come neck and neck with Bernie Sanders there. Joe biden simple live didnt do that a and that doesnt bode well for him going forward. Live didnt d and that doesnt bode well for him going forward. A big part of the issue too is mayor bloomberg who is doing the opposite. And i think a lot of us wrote off what bloomberg was doing because weve never seen a Campaign Work before when you skip the early states. There has also been evidence in the record that spending mimg i dont knows of dollars is ineffective. See the Jeb Bush Super pac of 2016. Buff mike blo but Mike Bloomberg is clearly buying something, he is ticking upwards in the National Polls. And he has hired a staff of people. The numbers dont quite capture it. Yes, he has hundreds of staffer, but if you look at who he is hiring, he is picking up people who know how to run campaigns and he appears to be trusting them to do their jobs in a way that they know how to do it. And there are a number of super tuesday states that are already voting. If you are not banking early vote in california already, you are behind the 8 ball. And Mike Bloombergs campaign has shown so far that they have the kind of infrastructure to wrap that up. So i think that there are a lot of factors at play that is turning it into something unprecedented. And you happen to be involved in two campaigns working for barack obama. I remember him, yes. Who won a majority of the vote both times. Weve seen iowa, New Hampshire, Pete Buttigieg not to pick on Pete Buttigieg, but in New Hampshire and iowa, he literally became president of twitter universe. So put yourself in position now to be handling the democratic nominee, whoever it might be, do you focus exclusively on donald trump, nobody is undecided about him, what do you do running that campaign . Id say three things that you need to do. The first is dont be obsessed with donald trump. Most people will tell you in a race against an incumbent, you should make it a referendum. I say make it a choice. I would build myself up. People know who trump is. They will not be surprised by that information about him, so focus on yourself. Second, you have to take on the economy and you have to reframe the question from how low is the unemployment right or how high is the stock market as to how fair is this economy. And focus on what i think is trumps glareatest vulnerabilit because he is proposing cuts to pay for the tax cuts. And we learn lessons from how trump has run his campaign and think creatively about how you communicate. And not the same old playbook. It wont work. Were operating in a trump media environment and we need a strategy to get our message out. And do you find it being on the verge of political malpractice to speak about the economy, your second point, that you really have to Pay Attention i havent heard any of the candidates really focus on the american average weekly paycheck take home pay hasnt changed a lot. And on a macro level, it seems like the economy is strong, but for the average family, their wages have barely budged while the cost of college, housing and all the other things that faekd thas th middle dallas life haclass life. Barack obama had to make it about how were helping individual families. And the democrats will have to do that the second they have the nomination and should probably start right now. All right. Some of the democratic president ial candidates are also hitting senator Bernie Sanders over how his supporters have attacked members of the Culinary Union online. The union which represents 60,000 workers in flef nenevada that sanders supporters have viciously attacked their members after Union Leadership circulated a flyer criticizing sanders medicare for all proposal. I know youve sign what has been online. The vicious, vicious threats and things that they have said, the mass sonlg mi misogynistic things against the workers of the Culinary Union and they received death threats. I mean, this is way, way this is thumplike. Way over the line. And i think bernie has to be he has to disavow this. Ive said before that we are all responsible for what our supporters do. And i think that bernie has a lot of questions to answer here. And im particularly worried about what happened to the attacks on members of the Culinary Union. That is not how we build an inclusive Democratic Party and it is not how we build donald trump. We do not build on a foundation of hate. Is Bernie Sanders trumplike . So there are two things here. First, the behavior of some of Bernie Sanders supporters on twitter, the way that they are attacking people who do not agree with their candidate or their candidates policy is not okay. And here is the thing. If this continues, and im sure it is currently happening right now, this will hurt bernie with voters. It will turn them off. And this is not the way to play this out. It is not about the other candidates, not attacking other candidates, it should be about donald trump. The second thing is i do think that it is wrong to connect Bernie Sanders to donald trump. They are not the same people. Donald trump has so many issues that are just vile and it is just not the same. And i think candidates should not make that connection either. I think the focus here should be for bernie supporters and for all the other candidates should be on donald trump. And, yes, Bernie Sanders needs to disavow this behavior. Not all of his supporters, but a good chunk of them, who go on twitter, who attack, who are nasty. Why isnt he . It is just not okay. I dont know, mika. I think he just doesnt go far enough. And i think he needs to go a little further. And i think that we cannot somewhere this in this time. We cannot be donald trumplike, his supporters cannot do that. And better are any nernie needs clear to his supporters. Not all of them, but many of them. So dan, less talk about your book and how do we detrump america . Well, it certainly begins with winning this election in 2020. So my book is about two things. How do we win in 2020, but then what do democrats do after 2020 to fix our politics and reform our democracy and make sure that we never have anyone like trump again. Too Many Democrats think that trump is the result of a broken democracy when in fact i think that we have trump because our democracy is broken. And so lets talk about any major structural changes that you see that we need to im usually hands off, usually say the constitution will work things out, it has worked for over 240 years. But even before barr came in, i started wondering about the attorney general and whether that should be a ten year appointment, that two thirds of the senate approved. Are there any structural changes that we need to undertake or is it more of a basic civics course that we need to teach American Students . No, i think that it is absolutely stwrukt aructural be were currently on a path we saw this during impeachment. Where a shrinking mostly White Conservative majority will govern for decades. And so that begins with fixing the snap. I think we should get rid of the filibuster. I think the first thing that democratic president and Democratic Senate should do is make d. C. A state and if puerto rico would like to be a state, we should be open to that. I think that we have to begin steps to undo the Electoral College to fix our courts. And to your point about the attorney general, we need to we have to recognize that norms and traditions are not enough. Because trump has proven that you can break every norm, every twra decisi tradition and even break the law. Our political system is not set up for that. And the attorney general judged you float is excellent, but also that president s should be required to release their tax returns would i laby law, that that president cannot be indicted should be taken away. So in some ways trumps sort of attention deficit disorder, his ability to be easily distracted by twitter is something that we should be grateful for because the president who scares me the most is the next authoritarian leaning president who is smarter than trump and were headed that direction if we dont make changes. And as i try to warn my former republican colleagues, and my republican friends, we dont know who that next authoritarian president may be. Maybe it is a conservative. Maybe it is a liberal that figures out how to play on other hostilities like 2ru6r7trump. Here we are how many months out from the election, and im curious, do you think democrats are whining a bit too much about this election already being gone . Because i talk to so Many Democrats who throw their arms up in the air and say, well, weve lost. Donald trump will get reelected. Everybody knows it. I remind them there is nine months to go, first of all, but secondly, i say this guy still is a 43 president. That is exactly right. Look, trump has a lot of advantages. Incumbents tend to get reelected, but this is an incredibly winnable election. Any democrat will start within spitting distance of winning the presidency. And so if we do the right things, if we unify, if we take the lessons of 2018 and focus on the issues people care about and do the grass roots work, we can win this election. If we tell ourselves in february that we cant win, that is what we said in 2016 and look where that got us. So we have to be realistic of the challenges. It is fascinating that the very same people that said that there is no way that donald trump can win in 2016 now seem to be saying there is no way that he can lose. I said that they were wrong in 2016. I think they are wrong in 2020 right now. But my question to you, based on all the polls that youve seen, and again, it is very early, is there any evidence that Bernie Sanders is less likely to beat donald trump than say joe biden or Michael Bloomberg . So take a look inside the new National Poll we were talking about this morning, they matched them all up against trump. You tilly have joe biden performing the best against donald trump. Six point advantage for biden. The margin for bloomberg is four. Margin for sanderso erers over s three. Buttigieg two, klobuchar two, warren by one. This is largely what weve been seeing for months now. That trump number as you say, his Approval Rating seems to be in the mid40s. And standing against democrats seems to line up with that. And the trump recipe if there is one for 2020, it will have to look like it did in 016. He will need an awful lot of people to be holding their nose when they vote for him. He was able to do that in 2016. He was able to get people who simultaneously told exit pollers that they did not think that he was qualified to be president , they didnt think that he had the temperament to be president , they didnt think that he was honest and they didnt like him personally and oh, yes, by the way, they are voting for him for president. He is president because a significant of number of people fit that criteria. If he will get reelected, Something Like that will have on to happen again. Steve kornacki, thank you very much for being on this morning. And dan pfeiffer, thank you as well. The new book is untrumping america. A plan to make america a democracy again. And coming up, code red. Our next guest outlines how progressives and moderates can unite to save the country. Washington post columnist will join us with his new book, next on morning joe. [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. Tmobiles new offer on iphone 11 is even better on our newest most powerful signal. Switch to tmobile now, and get 2 lines of unlimited for only 90 and 2 iphone 11s on us. Only at tmobile. sensei a live bookkeeper quickbooks for me. Tomize live bookkeeper okay, youre all set up. sensei thanks that was my business gi, this ones casual. vo get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. I need all the breaks, that i can get. At liberty butchumal cut. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The corporate elites, all you got to do is turn on the tv. Corporate elite, wall street and the Drug Companies getting very nervo nervous. And they should get nervous. Trump and the Republican Party are getting nervous. And they should get nervous. And the democratic establishment is getting nervous. And they should get nervous. And i hear the establishment saying, oh, bernie cant win the election. Take a look at this crowd today and tell me we cant win the election. Wow. Bernie sanders with that message to a fired up crowd in california last night. Joining us now, columnist ej deone. Author of code red. They seem pretty divided right now. Of allel the ull the applaus loudest was when he was attacking the democratic establishment. Sounds familiar. Sure does. And i like the point you made earlier that this is a very winnable election, trump is in fact a weak incumbent facing the voters. And what can blow the election is if progressives and moderates are at each others threats. The reasen throats. I think that progressives and moderates have more in common than they want to realize. If you take the core issues, whether it is health care or Climate Change or access to training or hiring after high school, they all want to move in a progressive direction. The differences are a matter of degree. And i think that the country is crying out for a message that at times bernie does extremely well. But so does some of the other candidates. People want to hear about solving problem, dignity, the idea of equal dignity, and i think dignity should be a central theme of this election. It is a lauck of dignity is wha people in innercity baltimore feel and people like pennsylvania. Remedy, dignity and empathy. In the book i put a lot of stress on that beautiful first word in the american constitution, the word we. We didnt have a sense of we in the country right now because Donald Trumps whole strategy is to divide us as a country. And so i think that there is a potential for unity here among all of the forces against trump and im trying to make a case that they need to come together at the end of this thing and not leave themselves so tattered that weak president manages to limp to reelection. So you talk about a National Emergency, the National Emergency is such that these two wings of the Democratic Party should be able to come together and they certainly have in the past. Usually. Im wondering though how much more difficult does that become if you have Bernie Sanders running against a guy worth 55 billion, 56 billion who is a former republican, who unit s d ed supported stop and frisk, who opposed minimum wage and against a lot of things that the rank and file Democratic Party are for. Even if he has become a champion of progressive causes. I was thinking about that very thing watching the show earlier this morning. And could imagine a nightmarish situation in the independent,en democratic socialist, you really dont want the final conflict of the Democratic Party. Youve got on the one hand, bloomberg has been progressive on issues where the country is moving in a progressive direction. Notably guns and Climate Change. But i think that if the party is torn between somebody who is spending enormous sums of money on very effective ads, that tag line mike will get it done is really ill beat trump, and on the other hand, Bernie Sanders who could really rally people as you saw in that clip, it could work the party into the very division that im trying to avoid. Yeah, lets go to casey hunt. She has a question. And ej, so i guess my question for youhunt. She has a question. And ej, so i guess my question for you, premise of the book is fascinating. Create some sort of supermajority. But im not convinced that there is such a thing as a moderate voter in america anymore. It seems like the middle of the country has been so turned off by our politics. A lot of people are just shutting it off and deciding not to go to the ballot box. Do you think that there is such a thing as a swing voter anymore or have we moved into a model where it is all about just getting out as many of your people as possible . That is a good question. And by the way, the word 340d r moderate i agree it can refer to all kinds of things. But i think that you saw a yearning for someone to lead a center and left united in the swings back and forth between candidates like Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. What the book argues is that it is a mistake, a kind of false choice, to see campaigns either about mobilization or about persuasion. Youve got to find ways to bring them both together. And i use the 2018 midterms where democrats got 25 million more votes in 2018 than they did in 2014 by doing both, by mobilizing a strong antitrump constituency, but by persuading what looked like 10 or 15 of trump voters from 2016 to switch sides. I tell the story of a more mad r moderate member who took on the tea party and then a progressive democrat who took the seat in boston. Each needs the other. There is no democratic majority in the house without spam about the berger, but she profited from the energy on the Progressive Side for all the people who volunteered for her. I did a book event where somebody said im more progressive than spamberger, but i work my heard out for her. When these two sides come together as nancy pelosi put it at the time, they win, baby. That reminds me 1998 after being in congress for four years and being a hardcore small government conservative, which i still am, it always seemed like we were fighting againsted m modera moderates. And it drove me crazy. It wasnt until 1998 when i went out and campaigning with Steve Largent to illinois, to washington state, to oregon, to help some of these people who were this for the fight of their lives, political fight of their lives, i came back to washington and i said, oh, man, were only in the majority because of people like this. They have it a lot tougher than we do. Im going to just keep my mouth shut moving forward. And that is a lesson i think democrats can learn, that you need the conservatives that won in or the moderates that won in 2018 just like you need the progressives. It is this party has to unify to defeat donald trump. And ill ask you as somebody who worked for the Obama Administration and now works for move on, is that possible with a 55 billion, 56 billion tycoon . I think that you are right, we need a coalition, democrats are going to need a coalition to get that 3450u6789 that movemen to beat donald trump this coming november. It will remain to be seen if bloomberg is going to be able to do that, to bring that coalition. We do not know yet. He hasnt really been tested. He is a contender, that is what the polls tell us, he is clearly a contender in this race. And pretty soon, you know, well get a sense of how he is contrasted with the other candidates when we see him on the debate stage tomorrow. And clearly in super tuesday states. We just dont thoug know. But whoever is the nominee like you said will have to bring everyone together. And there is actually more that brings us together than separates us. Even on health care, yes, there are dividing not dividing, but different thoughts or thinking about how we should move forward with health care, but every democrat in the Democratic Base basically wants to expand health care, they basically want to be affordable. And there is gun control that people pretty much majority of americans agree on. There is Climate Change. So there are things that bring us together. So the question is, how do we move how is the nominee going to move us forward. Excite the base. Get people out. Bring people from the other side. And actually create that coalition that obama was able to do in 2012, obama was able to do in 2008 and he is the last democratic president that weve had that has been incredibly successful. So we have to take that lesson and not relitigate 2016 but move forward. Ej, no matter what happens in the primaries, there will be a democratic candidate on the ballot this fall running for president of the United States. We heard Bernie Sanders coming into this segment, you heard the clip bernie was talking about wall street billionaires an democratic establishment, decrying all three to great applause. So two questions. One, if you go back to the region that you grew up with, new bedford fall river, massachusetts, how many people are decrying billionaires and the democratic establishment and off of that do you think that there is a room in this campaign for a democrat to campaign in poetry part of the time talking about the values of this country that have either been lost or disappeared . You know, in fall river where i grew up, it was an ardent kennedy bastion. I used to joke that the turnout slogan was vote for the kennedy of your choice but vote. And when you come back to kennedy, he was someone who talked very john kennedy im talking about. He talkedpractically about a lot of problem solving but there was a lot of poof poetry there. And i think it is the poetry of dignity. There is a dignity did he sefic the country in the way that the president handles his office but also a lot of people feeling that somebody somewhere is looking down at them. Is whether it is a working class person in my hometown or in towns like mine in the midwest, or whether it is a person in the innercity who feels the sting of racism orren a immigrant who feels the sting of nature timmism. And i think that the country does his pratt desperately wants to come together. We dont like being divided like this. Trump thrives off it. A lot of media thrives off it, but i dont think the americans like our country to be. So yes, i think there is room for poetry and i think people in places like my hometown like to hear it. Yep, i tell you what, you can tell when two massachusetts guys get together, giving each other a call the night before and they color coordinate. Very exciting. You look sharp. Thank you so much. God bless you, joe. The book is code red, how progressives and moderates can unite to save our country. Ej, thank you very much. And coming up, President Trump supporters are taking on Mike Bloomberg would you pushing out a video where he appears to disparage farmers. But bloombergs Campaign Says there is a lot more to the story. That is ahead on morning joe. Nyquil severe gives you powerful relief for your worst cold and flu symptoms, on sunday night and every night. Nyquil severe. The nightime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. Can it help keep me asleep . Sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. Absolutely, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. Its the final days to save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus 0 interest for 24 months. Ends sunday. The best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. 44 past the hour. The Opposition Research continues to come out against Michael Bloomberg. This time with the release of a video that appears to show bloomberg making disparaging remarks about farmers. President Trump Supporters started circulating the video on social media. And now bloombergs campaign is hitting back saying the clip of him speaking at the university of oxford was cut short and doesnt give the full context of what was said. Here is part of what Trump Supporters were pushing out online. I can teach anybody even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer. It is a process. You dig a hole, put a seed in, add water, up comes the now comes the economy. You have to have a different skillset, you have to have a lot of gray matter. Bloombergs Campaign Saysten. And so if you think about the society that lasted 3,000 years and we could teach processes, so there you go. And it really is. Obviously he was talking about the agrarian age and then moved on to theville age and th viind then the information age. So yeah, he was talking farmer s 3,000 years ago. So those farmers may not want to vote for him in an early democratic primary. But kasie, this is in a way in i actually think if Mike Bloomberg survives this, it is good to him. I always say it is better to get all of this out a year ahead of time than a week or two before the final campaign. Right. I mean, you dont want to be an october surprise. I think in the older school parlance of campaigns, you know, the question i think, bloomberg has been able to essentially run his version of himself unopposed and unchallenged to americans. I dont know about you guy, but my son who is almost six months old has seen more Mike Bloomberg tv ads in his short life than ive seen of tv ads for any other candidate. I mean, he is literally blanketing the airwaves. And this is why things like thisi think it thi this i think it is a test, does this thing kind of matter anymore. And the test is the debate. Bloomberg will actually have to face potentially these attacks from police rivaye his ryan riv debate stage and i think that how he handles those attacks potentially does have an i78 pankts. Im not convinced yet. Yeah, i dont think that these attacks that come out day after day are going to have an impact on him. We report on it, other news channels report on it. But you look at all the ads that are miling up one after another. That is what is going to influence voters. And certainly in super tuesday states. And the question is, how does he respond on the debate stage. It will be fascinating. Obviously if he flop, it will have an impact on those numbers. If he survive, well, that is advantage Mike Bloomberg because the ads start up right after the debate. You feel like this debate is one that really matters. Still ahead, our next guest is following the money with a look at Deutsche Bank and what many see as shadowy ties to President Trump and his business empire. That is next on morning joe. We have like 40 years of data thats incredibly valuable . I. I dont know. When did we introduce siracha . Not soon enough. These are our sales. By product, by region. Set against evolving demographics. You can actually see taste trends. Since when can we do that . Since we started working with bdends. announcer people who know, know bdo. [wood rolling] alexios, add toilet paper to the shopping list. [chiseling on stone] oh, and camel milk. And a chicken. And moisturizer. Alexa thanks, guys. Ill take it from here. A former army medic, made of the we maflexibility to handle members like kate. Whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. So when her car got hit, she didnt worry. She simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said. I got this. Usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it easy. She can even pick her payment plan so its easy on her budget and her life. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. And with the sXfinity Stream app, screen is your big screen. Which is free with your service, you can take a spin through on demand shows, or stream live tv. Download your dvrd shows and movies on the fly. Even record from right where you are. Whether youre travelling around the country or around the house, keep what you watch with you. Download the Xfinity Stream app and watch all the shows you love. To your knowledge, did the president ever provide inflated assets to a bank in order to help him obtain a loan . But you may answer that question. These documents and others were provided to Deutsche Bank on one occasion where i was with them in our attempt to obtain money so that we can put a bid on the buffalo bills. President trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen testifying before congress about his former clients financial assets. And joining us now finance editor for the new york times, david enrich, the author of the new book entitled dark towers Deutsche Bank, donald trump and an epic trail of destruction. Wow. So, david, thank you for being with us. Maybe you can answer a question i know a lot of people want to know. Why would Deutsche Bank work with donald trump and extend a guy credit who had failed casinos, failed airlines, one failed business after another, and also had the rejection letters from every other major bank in america and across the world. Why did Deutsche Bank say yes . In a word because they were really greedy. And they were desperate to establish a business presence in the United States. And that meant going for clients that were basically off limits to other more mainstream financial institutions. And so they went for the scraps. They picked up clients like Jeffrey Epstein and picked up clients like donald trump and jared kushner. Its really as simple as that. And so, werent they concerned with trump that they would lose money on him or did they just say it was worth it to have him as a client, even if they knew that the guy would probably default on his loans . Well, they structured the loans in ways that were designed to prevent the bank from getting hurt financially f he defaulted, as he was want to do. And you know, he ultimately did default on a number of occasions with Deutsche Bank and the bank suffered some losses but kept plunging right back into the relationship with donald trump over and over and over again. And its a little bit hard to understand why they were so determined to do that. Its really unlike anything ive ever seen in covering finance for 15 years. So david whats your theory . Im sorry, mike. Whats your theory on why they did that . Banks like Deutsche Bank dont just do things for inexplicable reasons. Did you have any operating theories on why they did something, as you said, you had never seen any other bank do . Look, dont underestimate the power of ineptitude and dysfunction. Deutsche bank is the death star of modern capitalism and everything that went wrong in the finance industry over the past 20 years Deutsche Bank generally was at the center of it. I dont think you should write off the possibility that they were just greedy, reckless and not paying enough attention to their clients reputations. And part but part of it and i think one of the other big things to look at is, this is a bank that was doing business all over the world in the most aggressive, reckless way possible. That meant that not only was it the Jeffrey Epsteins and Donald Trumps of the world, it was also russian oligarchs, it was businesses and companies and governments and places that were sanctioned by the United States. This was a bank that was running roughshod over the rule of law and over ethics. So its really not that surprising that donald trump, who had this very Clear History of defaults and stiffing his Business Partners ended up as one of the main clients of this bank. So david, within the internals of Deutsche Bank, theres paperwork having to do with Donald Trumps loans, his income tax returns, what he put down in order to get these loans. And that greed of the bank and that client, mr. Trump, are now before the Supreme Court in terms of people like you and others trying to get that information. Whats the status of the case, do you know . Yeah. The Supreme Court is scheduled to have oral arguments next month in this case whether deutsche needs to hand over all of its financial records related to trump to these congressional committees. And two federal courts have already ruled in favor of the congressional committees and against trump who is suing to block Deutsche Bank from complying. And so there will be oral arguments next month and a decision probably early in the summer. And this is something trump has been fighting tooth and nail for many years to avoid. And its a little unclear why, but what is clear is that there are secrets inside Deutsche Bank and in the president s finances and in the documents that are at the bank that he is desperate to avoid having to become public. What language are the secrets in, german, russian, epg lish . Certainly not russian to my knowledge. I talked to a lot of people inside the bank as i was reporting on this book, some of whom have seen the documents and some of whom produced the documents. One of the things i think is really interesting and that donald trump is presumably very eager to avoid is that a number of employees inside the bank raised concerns about potential Money Laundering that was going on in donald trump and Jared Kushners bank accounts. And so, thats something that there are records of that inside the bank and i would imagine thats not something trump is eager to see in the light of day. The new book is dark towers Deutsche Bank, donald trump and an epic trail of destruction. David enrich thank you very much for being on the show. Thank you. Still ahead, donald trump gets triggered by Barack Obamas tweets about the Strong Economy he left behind. Plus, more on Mike Bloomberg taking the democratic debate stage for the first time tomorrow night. Politico reports that his own team worries that an unsteady performance alongside the other candidates could stall his momentum. Morning joe is back in 90 seconds. Alexa, tell me about neptunes sorrow. Its a masterstroke of heartache and redemption. The lexus nx. Modern utility for modern obstacles. Lease the 2020 nx 300 for 359 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. The best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. Its an honor to tell you that [ applause ] thank you. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. I love you only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Today does mark the beginning of the end. The beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs. The beginning of what we need to do to provide relief families worried they wont be able to pay next months bills. The beginning of the first steps to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to longterm growth and prosperity. Back in 2009, president obama outlined plans for longterm Economic Growth. 11 years later, the Unemployment Rate is down the stock market is up and President Trump is raging on twitter. Hes not happy. Doesnt like facts. He doesnt like numbers. Its good for america. He should be happy about america doing well. Exactly. I would think so. Good morning. Im happy about america doing well. Are you happy about america doing well over the past 11 years, mika . You would think so. Hes upset because its obama. Welcome to morning joe. Its tuesday, february 18th. With us we have mark barnacle, Eugene Robinson and edward luce is with us and chairman of priorities usa guy cecil joins us as well. Mika, the facts are the facts. Of course, facts are stubborn things. John adams may have said it first, Ronald Reagan loved talking about how facts are stubborn things. Here are the facts that recovery act was signed 11 years ago. We had 11 years of uninterrupted Economic Growth. It started and the majority was through the Obama Administration. If you just take the three years that donald trump has been in office, you take that time period and you compare it to Barack Obamas final three years by just about every measure, Barack Obamas economy was much stronger than Donald Trumps economy. Its whats so fascinating is the media runs around all the time and they have been doing it for years talking about, parodying what donald trump says about how great the economy has been. Well, yes, this is a recovery that began 11 years ago. And if you want to just look at growth, Economic Growth because donald trump is promising four, five, 6 in terms of Economic Growth and gdp, you look at the last ten president s and their gdp growth throughout their administrations, six in ten of those president s, according to axios yesterday and well, just according to government statistics actually had stronger economies than donald trump. Let me say that one more time just for people in the media who keep parodying what donald trump says this is the strongest economy ever. Six out of the last ten president s have had stronger economies, bigger Economic Growth, bigger gdp growth than donald trump, which means that once again donald trump is in the bottom half of his class. Its something that hes all too familiar with. Well, were going to start this morning, though, with breaking news. Michael bloomberg will be on the debate stage tomorrow night in nevada. Qualifying with the national npr pbs poll that just crossed this morning. I shows the former major surged 15 points since december to second place. Now at 19 among democrats and leftleaning independents. Bernie sanders took the top spot at 31 , up 9 points. Joe biden is in third place but dropped 9 points since december now at 15 followed by Elizabeth Warren at 12, Amy Klobuchar at 9 and Pete Buttigieg at 8 . Guys, im sorry, mika. Wow, bloomberg, hes making a difference here. He really is. Guy cecil, of course, we heard just like we heard with donald trump back in 2015, you know what, his ceiling is 5 . His ceiling is 9 . Hell never get into double digits. According to this latest National Poll, hes now close to 20 and again, be real easy to say National Polls dont matter. Were about to have a National Primary on super tuesday depending on what happens in nevada and South Carolina. If these numbers hold or if bloomberg gets even stronger, well, suddenly National Polls like this among democrats do make a difference. What do you make of the bloomberg surge . You know, i think there are only two questions remaining in a primary that has gone on for quite some time. The first is when do Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg start attacking each other on the air waves . And the second is, is there a chance for a third candidate to make it into a top three that actually matters . And what were seeing from this poll is that joe biden and Elizabeth Warren are flirting with that 15 mark, that qualifies you to get delegates by Congressional District and by state and we see Amy Klobuchar rising. From my perspective the question is whether or not its biden or klobuchar or warren that make it into that third spot. But, really the big question is whether or not we see Michael Bloomberg direct some of his millions of dollars and frankly Bernie Sanders directing some of his on the air waves in these states towards negative advertising because ultimately thats the only thing that will change the trajectory that both bernie and bloomberg are seeing over the course of the last couple of weeks. So, guy, are we being unfair to joe biden when we look at the first two contests, overwhelmingly white contests in iowa and New Hampshire, you couldnt have picked two states really that suited joe biden worse as the first and the second. Should we wait until after nevada and South Carolina to see how he does in more diverse states or do you think the die is cast . I dont think theres any question that joe biden needs to come in the top three in nevada and come in first in South Carolina even to survive until super tuesday. We had a poll out from data for progress that had him in fourth or fifth place. This really is do or die time for the Biden Campaign from my perspective. And placing in the top three in nevada is probably a must. Placing first in South Carolina san absolute must. Weve been seeing a pretty steady decline across the board nationally but also in super tuesday states this is his opportunity to turn it around and in order for him to do so it has to start in nevada. So, joe, just kind of a question pulling back a little bit. Obviously everyone knows that i am a huge fan of joe biden, so the focus of this question might be interesting to some. But just when everyone looks at the strategy of Mike Bloomberg joining this race, of maybe thinking oh boy, what happens if biden falters, i could jump in. I could save the party. But isnt there a huge possibility here that the equation will be that he helps bernie . We dont know what hes going to look like on super tuesday if hes really going to come through. It could be Bernie Sanders because of bloomberg. Does that make sneense . That depends on what happens in nevada and South Carolina. Joe biden scores strong, second in nevada which he said he has to do, wins South Carolina and wins it convincingly, which will be difficult. Yeah. But he could do it. If he does that, then, yes, youll go into super tuesday and bloomberg could be taking from joe biden, could be taking from Amy Klobuchar. From Pete Buttigieg. From Pete Buttigieg and could actually locking it down for the socialist democrat. That being said, if biden doesnt do well in nevada, if he doesnt finish second in nevada, if he doesnt finish first in South Carolina, you are going to see a flood of defections moving away from joe biden and likely from what all my sources are telling me going to Michael Bloomberg. That includes a lot of black legislatures a lot of hispanic legislatures all moving to Michael Bloomberg. So, and if he has a weak showing in nevada, you will probably see that between the nevada caucuses and South Carolina. So joe biden, his back is up against the wall. He has to do really well in nevada and really well in South Carolina. And jean, even if he does that, joe biden is going to still be short on money and is going to have to hope that the name id that hes acued from being eight years of Barack Obamas Vice President carries him through super tuesday because money certainly wont. Yeah. The best Case Scenario for biden is that he goes into super tuesday as you said hoping that name recognition and familiarity and fact that hes been around for a long time and that people like him, takes him to a reasonable finish in super tuesday. And its not clear that would happen, you know, against the torrent the tsunami of bloomberg ads in those states and bernies appeal in the same. You look at the numbers in the poll, number one, you always have to give props to the candidate who is ahead. And look, Bernie Sanders seems to be consolidating a lead, to my conventional political brain looks like sanders has something of a ceiling maybe 35 or Something Like that, but guess what, conventional political brains thought that donald trump had a ceiling in 2016 and hes the president of the United States. So we keep that in mind. But the second thing is bloomberg. I mean, this is really quite extraordinary and at the moment bernie and bloomberg are kind of helping each other because each scares the others voters so much that it sort of increases that loyalty to the candidate. So, i think theyre both kind of pleased with the dynamic thats working right now. I dont know that either would want to change it by immediately going to negative ads. I think theyll let it play out this way for a while because theyre the ones with a bullet. Theyre the ones who are rising. You know, mike, ive heard Something Interesting over the past several weeks. Especially over the past several days from Business Leaders who have told me, listen, i dont like trump. I dont like his tweets. I dont like him personally. But im going to support him. Im going to support him because the economy is doing extremely well. A lot of those same Business People are now saying, you know what, trump has been good for me. I think bloomberg would be better. I think would be better on trade. I think would be better on stabilizing not only the u. S. Economy but also stabilizing the World Economy. Its very interesting for the first time with bloomberg in the race youre suddenly hearing these Business People, these cynical Business People who are probably a lot of them lifelong democrats suddenly saying, well, i actually have more confidence in bloomberg when it comes to the economy than a reality tv host. Joe, what you just said is very interesting because the people you clearly have been talking to, once you have that much money, once youre in the game with your own money w your companys money, you realize that the economy now is uniquely global. The evidence is on the front page of the papers today. Huawei building a network now got germany going along with it, got england going along with it, United States is opposed to having that 5g Network Build coming out of china. But guess what our allies in europe will not cooperate with the United States. So people with money know where money goes. And they know that money is global. And the interesting thing about tomorrow nights debate is going to involve a guy with more money than god, Mike Bloomberg and the assault of Mike Bloomberg that will take place tomorrow night probably pivotal between Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg will be one of the dominant stories of american politics this year and will last for a long, long time, more so than just tomorrow night. Still ahead on morning joe, the state department has struggled with stay craft. Now the Justice Department is struggling with justice. A new look at bill barrs legacy next on morning joe. Adts been asking you to watch the big game for the past few weeks because, fun fact, a recent Study Suggests crime goes down when people tune in. And football is awesome. Win, win. To thank you for watching, were kicking off adts pass the protection contest. Its your chance to win a 250,000 home makeover from adt, designed by us. And a new adt Smart Home Security system. Visit adt. Com passtheprotection and tell us what you want to protect. Wheres the truck . Hes a systems what . Erback. Parked it right there. Male voice what did i tell you, boys . Tonight we eat like kings chuckling youre a genius, gordon brake hit the brake uh, which ones the brake . crash, bottles smashing stop stop stooop brakes squealing whats happening . What . Theres a half of cheesesteak back there. With geico, the savings keep on going. Just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on Car Insurance. Raccoon i got the cheesesteak the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. In august 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, near point comfort, virginia. It carried more than 20 enslaved africans, who were sold to the colonists. No aspect of the country we know today has been untouched by the slavery that followed. America was not yet america, but this was the moment it began. [sfx typing] we cant calculate our total taxes . Moment it began. Do you realize how many different taxes we pay . Sales tax, different pos systems in all seven countries. And online sales . Thats a whole other system. And different regulations. Therererealal eate e crits,s,. And we have no way to integrate all that . No. But bdo does. Peopopleho k kno knonow o. In a new oped for the atlantic entitled bill barr must resign former u. S. Deputy attorney general under george h. W. Bush says the attorney general is working to destroy the integrity and independence of the Justice Department in order to make donald trump a president who can operate above the law. And he writes in part barr has appeared to function much more as the president s personal advocate than as an attorney general serving the people and government of the United States. The fundamental problem is that he does not believe in the central tenant of our system of government that no person is above the law. In chilling terms, barrs own words make clear his longheld belief in the need for a virtually autocratic executive who is not constrained by countervailing powers within our government under the constitutional system of checks and balances. Indeed, given our National Faith and trust in a rule of law, no one can subvert. It is not too strong to say that bill barr is unamerican and now from his perch as attorney general, hes the midst of a root and branch attack on the Core Principles that have guided our Justice System and especially our department of justice since the 1970s. Bill barrs america is not a place that anyone, including trump voters, should want to go. It is a Banana Republic where all are subject to the whims of a dicker to yal president and his henchmen. We need a Public Uprising demanding that bill barr resign immediately or failing that be impeached. Really strong words, unamerican. Very strong words. You look at bill barr and what hes done. And you look at the fact that he has started a search and destroy mission against all of the president s perceived political opponents that the president concocted when he talked about barack obama tapping the phones at trump tower back in march of 2017. And he is chasing down every Conspiracy Theory that the president is putting forward. At the same time, and more disturbingly, bill barr is providing aid and comfort to the president s allies, to roger stone, one of the president s longest political allies, the two have been politically inseparable through the decades. And so, for the attorney general to intervene in sentencing when were talking about one of the president s closest political allies its just beyond the pail. It is an Impeachable Offense but of course lying to congress is also Impeachable Offense and bill barr did that a very long time ago. But mike, the federal judges that are getting together who called the emergency meeting, the Washington Post reported that theyve never they went through their files. Theyve never seen this happening before. And theyre going to talk about a president who has launched a war on the article three branch, the judicial branch, he did it a long time ago with a judge when judge kurial actually ruled against him in a hearing involving his scam institution, trump university. He did it, remember, back in february of 2017 when bushappointed judge actually put a stay on his muslim ban. And now, of course, hes not only attacking the judge in the roger stone case, again, a guy who has been his political adviser for decades but is also attacking u. S. Attorneys, independent u. S. Attorneys and is also attacking jurors. I dont say that the judges had any choice but to call this meeting. And i really dont think chief Justice John Roberts has much of a choice but to speak out. If this attack on article 3 powers continues. Yeah. Joe, youre absolutely right on everything you just said, especially about john roberts, who you just mentioned. And we must remember he sat there during the impeachment proceedings in the United States senate and he heard a couple of president s lawyers working for the president of the United States lie, actually lie. He heard that. And danny, on this case, with the judges, the federal judges meeting, it should be pointed out that first of all the author of the atlantic piece was the former Deputy Attorney general of the United States under george h. W. Bush, hes not some partisan. But the idea that the president of the United States reaching down into the Justice Department to inflict his opinion on active cases, unheard of . Its not necessarily unheard of and you could make the argument that if the president has the pardon power, the power to commute a sentence to nothing, then theoretically he has the power but not the right to reach down to the doj and ask them to give leniency to a defendant facing sentencing. So its probably not correct for the president to do that, even if he may have the constitutional power. It may be that more culpability lies with attorney general barr who, as you said in that letter bio over 1,000 former federal prosecutors, they got it exactly right when they said the a. G. Sets policy. Thats what political appointees do. Line prosecutors go out and they execute that policy. So its very improperly for the a. G. To reach down to line prosecutors who have spent so much time and effort in prosecuting a case and preparing a sentencing memorandum using sentenciing guidelines calculatd by Probation Department and go in there and say this technically correct application of the sentencing guidelines, we just think its not fair. And so we want leniency. Thats what makes this so improper. Its a breech of protocol that invinces a political leaning. And in the judiciary and among lawyers, it is not actually impropriety, its the appearance of impropriety that we are concerned with. Coming up on morning joe, talk about a slow rollout of breaking news. John bolton says his new book is packed with critical information of national importance. You just have to pay to get it and wait until it comes out. Nbcs carol lee has new reporting on that next on morning joe. [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. Depend® silhouette™ briefs feature maximum absorbency, with trusted protection for all out confidence. Beautiful colors and an improved fit for a sleek design and personal style. Lifes better when youre in it. Be there with depend®. Dealing with our finances really haunted me. Ttle cranky. Thankfully, i got quickbooks, and a live bookkeepers helping customize it for our business. live bookkeeper youre all set up janine great vo get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. Former National Security adviser john bolton spoke at Duke University last night. His first Public Comment since trumps impeachment trial ended. Carol lee was there and joins us from raleigh. Carol, he had plenty of criticism for trumps Foreign Policy. What did he say . Yeah. Well, mika, he criticized him on a number of policies. He said his iran policy a failure, north korea policy is a failure, his venezuela policy is a failure. He said he should be tougher on russia, but the main take away that i had from his comments was the level of frustration he has with the white houses handling of his book. You know, he used words its under review, interNational Security review with the white house saying theres classified information that cant be published and he called this censorship and at one point said that he hopes his book is not suppressed. Its supposed to come out on march 17th, but i spoke to a bolton aide who said thats unclear if it will happen. Hes sprinkling bread crumbs around whats in it. He teased the ukraine piece which we have all seen reports of is just beginning, the beginning of what he writes in there. He talks he said he writes about the president s meeting with Vladimir Putin in helsinki. And a number of other things. And so, you know, generally hes creating a lot of buzz around his book and offering a lot of criticism of the president s Foreign Policy. The president said or john bolton said of the president that his venezuela policy was a failure. Said of the iran policy, that the president who he worked for as National Security adviser, that his policy towards iran was a failure. But i thought most damningly was his assessment that donald trump wasted two years with north korea, which seems fairly obvious that he did, trying to push them towards denuclearization when we had people on our show from the very beginning, experts saying they were never going to denuclearize and they have only used these two years to further expand their program. Bolton confirmed all of that and eviscerated the president s policy when it came to his love letter strategy towards kim jongun. Yeah. I mean, i think weve got to consider the possibility that rother than dumping a lot of new damaging new revelations about ukraine and trumps collusion there by giuliani with ukrainians that actually this is bolton taking revenge on trump for not being an interventionalist for dealing with dictators, for not standing up for the most part to iran and for becoming sort of valentine lover of kim jongun. The moment that bolton had here was he was being offered a stage a place on the stage of history on capitol hill to contribute to a situation of extraordinary importance to the future of the republic. And what he essentially said is, no thanks, i only do paid speeches. You know, we should never lose sight of the fact that this that john bolton is taking a torchry path and say ill wait until chapter 14. The book is only 32. 50. And using this not as an opportunity to intervene in an issue of overriding importance to america but as an opportunity to monetize himself. As i say, possibly to take you know to take it out on trump for not pursuing that aggressive agenda. Carol, did he give any impression of how much he would deliver in terms of his book, assuming its published, on that side of sort of the right wing critique of donald trump . Did he talk at all about that last night . Well, he talked a lot about it was broadly on what he teased and i have to say a lot of what he said last night was teasing. It wasnt necessarily meaty details. He said he couldnt talk about that, to your point, he says his argument is his book is under review and hes under the threat of possible legal action by the white house. And so he cant speak freely. Thats his reasoning on why hes speaking and hes talking in speeches but not necessarily appearing elsewhere. You know, his critique he hinted that his critique of the president is pretty broad. And that he there were a number of things that he said that hinted at the idea that he thinks the way that President Trump conducts business in the white house and how he runs Foreign Policy is just not on the up and up. He talked specifically about the helsinki meeting for instance. And he said that when he was asked about that in the context of that at one point he said that he was willing to put up with a lot to get policies that he thought were good for the country, advanced. And that he thought he knew what he was going into when he took the job. But hinting that he didnt really go the way he thought it was and talking about china he said something similar in terms of, you know, how this administration does business. And so i think youre going to see a mix in his book, at least or potentially if he ever speaks before the house, which he did not rule out if theres a subpoena coming from the house. But its a mix between policy criticisms and the way the president conducts himself in the office. All right. Nbcs carol lee, thank you very much. Coming up on morning joe, Mike Bloomberg will be facing plenty of questions in tomorrow nights debate. Well talk to one of the people who will be asking them when political reporter jon ralston joins us next. Plus, new poll numbers on nevadas latina vote. Thats next on morning joe. beep the ups and downs of frequent mood swings can plummet you to extreme lows. crying lift you to intense highs. muffled arguing or, make you feel both at once. Overwhelmed by bipolar i symptoms . Ask about vraylar. Some medications only treat the lows or the highs. Vraylar effectively treats depression, acute manic and mixed episodes of bipolar i. Fullspectrum relief of all symptoms. With just one pill, once a day. Elderly patients with dementiarelated psychosis have an increased risk of death or stroke. 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Ameriprise financial and with the sXfinity Stream app, screen is your big screen. Which is free with your service, you can take a spin through on demand shows, or stream live tv. Download your dvrd shows and movies on the fly. Even record from right where you are. Whether youre travelling around the country or around the house, keep what you watch with you. Download the Xfinity Stream app and watch all the shows you love. If you win South Carolina r you ready to take on Bernie Sanders, edge and Online Fundraising and social media activity r you ready to take on Mike Bloombergs money in the super tuesday states should you win in South Carolina . Well, the answer is should we win in South Carolina were going to super tuesday. Every one of those states from North Carolina to georgia to the whole range of them have significant minority populations. Right now that polling data shows im doing incredibly well in all those states including texas and florida as it relates to the primary but also as it relates to the general election. With regard to Michael Bloomberg, with 62 billion can buy every ad he wants, but he cant, in fact, wipe away his record on everything from dealing with stop and frisk to his Foreign Policy assertions and the like. Joining us now editor of the nevada independent jon ralston will be comoderating tomorrows president ial debate. Also with us, former spokesman for the congressional hispanic caucus, christian ramos, the founder and principal of the Public Relations and Consulting Firm autonomy strategies. Hes out with a new piece in the atlantic entitled latino support for trump is real. Mike barnacle and kareen jean pierre are back with us as well. Lets start with your article. You say latino support for trump is real. How so . Well, hes actually overperforming with the latino vote right now. If youre looking at where he landed at the end of the 2016 cycle, he only had 28 approval coming out of a bruising election. Today, his national Approval Rating stands at around 30 . If youre looking at the telemundo poll that was just released this morning, in nevada he stands at 40 Approval Rating with latino voters. Help us understand obviously thats a number that republicans would love to have. You talk about that 40 . George h. Bush got 42, 43, 44 in his 2004 reelection and thats long been held as a model of how to be inclusive and bring hispanics on your side. Donald trump obviously has taken another route. Hes called his panispannics breeders. Hes run a harsh campaign against migrants coming to this country. What is it about donald trump, what is it about his persona, what is it about his policies that are polling over more latino support than most analysts would expect . So, more than anything what were looking at is an underperformance on the democratic side. Speaking to donald trump, the reality is the most important to all latino voters is the economy. And if youre looking at the same telemundo poll and youre looking at nevada voters, they think that theyre doing pretty well as far as their economic realities are concerned. That is part of it. The other piece that i explore in my article is theres an intergenerational rift that is occurring. First, second, Third Generation latinos overwhelmingly identify with their latino heritage. Fourth, fifth, sixth identify more as americans. This conversation about immigrants and barbs doesnt affect these voters. The reality is im sorry. I was just going to say 40 of men in nevada support donald trump. 32 overall. But i was going to follow up on what you said about the difference between generations. But there are also differences regarding religion, differences regarding what countries his panics may have immigrated to this country from. Thats certainly the case in the state of florida. Isnt it a mistake, ive noticed, democrats especially make looking at hispanics as latinos as single monolithic group. When there are 1,000 undercurrents cutting through all of those poll numbers. Listen, this is a real opportunity for democrats right now. The most important issue to latino voters is the economy and health care. Democrats have an incredible issue on both of these issues. We need something positive, affirmational. Latinos are the most optimistic, the most positive about their American Experience in chasing the american dream. If we really want to get this thing back on track, democrats have to talk about what were going to do on these Kitchen Table issues that will make their life better. How are we going to help them get better coverage in their health care. How are we going to help them get a better job . How with regoing to help them pay for their mortgage. Those things are wildly popular with this community and present an Incredible Opportunity to grow democratic support. We need 70 support from latinos to win a president ial election. This is a real opportunity to really build that contrast between our record, which is very positive and the president s, which is very negative. Listen, hes trying to get rid of the Affordable Care act which overwhelmingly benefits the latino community. Hes trying to get rid of the ability for people to be protected on their preexisting conditions. His economy is terrible for latinos. We have seen the single biggest growth in disparity between the middle and the upper class in generations. His tax cut hurts this community. Democrats need to have smart advertisements, digital advertisements in spanish and english targeting these audiences on these issues. Its critically important and could be the difference between winning and losing this election. So, jon ralston, the political worlds eyes will be on you and on the Democratic Candidates tomorrow night. N a debate. Of course, im sure you thought, like many people, that the shape of this field would be defined in great part by what happened in iowa and New Hampshire. But fate has dealt us a different hand. Speaking of a lot of cross currents, you have so many cross currents that youre going to be having to address tomorrow night from biden and the problems hes having to obviously bernie sa sanders rise as well as Mike Bloomberg. What are you hoping to accomplish with the candidates tomorrow night on the stage . Of course i know its the oldest cliche in the book, joe, but elections are about choices and contrasts and hopefully were going to be able to establish some of those. The entrance of bloomberg, though, suddenly on to that debate stage in some ways i think at least he thinks is a dream come true for Bernie Sanders . He wants that contrast even though bloomberg isnt on the ballot in nevada, bernie has spent the last few days in nevada going after bloomberg, trying to draw those sharp lines between himself and bloomberg. And so i think thats going to be a really interesting dynamic to watch tomorrow night. Meanwhile, as you know, biden having that disastrous showing in New Hampshire, hes been doing well here. He really is putting it all out push on to salvage his campaign here, getting endorsements from some prominent africanamerican leaders, campaigning in the Africanamerican Community and ap ra po2 latino vote is huge here in the Democratic Caucus and they have all been appealing to the latino voters. Im not sure i believe that telemundo poll. I have seen trumps numbers here. Theyre upside down. Hes upside down from anywhere from 12 to 15 points. If he is, if those polls are right, he is not that strong with latinos here. Yeah. John, you have been doing this for years. Im just curious about the bloomberg factor, which as you point out, will be fascinating. What are you personally most interested in learning about him as you see him on the debate stage . I think im interested in learning about him, what most people are interested in learning, how does he reconcile his public life as a threeterm republican mayor and having made statements and implemented policies that are antithetical to what the Democratic Base might like. How does he reconcile that now with running for the democratic nomination for president . And the real question i think is how are people going to react . Democrats so desperately want to beat donald trump, are they willing to invest, so to speak n a former republican, who is now seeking the democratic nomination and how well does he make the case that im the guy that you need, that Bernie Sanders cant win, that joe biden is weak, that these others are untested. You need to put your faith in me. No one has ever tried to essentially buy their way into a race like this by spending a significant portion of what anyones fortune might be but not Mike Bloombergs. 2 billion or so to try to win the presidency and skip the first four states. So it will be really interesting to see how people react to him trying to essentially remake himself for this race. So, jon, every poll thats taken shows the number one priority for vast majority of democrats is indeed beating donald trump. In terms of nevada, can you give us a read in terms of turnout, how big do you think it will be, is it going to be average or do you think it will be a blowout in terms of turnout and who has right now the best organization on the ground in nevada . Well, let me answer the second question first, mike. The answer to that is that Bernie Sanders has probably the best organization in the state. Hes got the most people on the ground. But mayor pete and Elizabeth Warren also have formidable organizations theyve been building for months. Now, whats going on here this time and, yeah, i have been doing this for years, but its very, very much in flux. The only thing i can say for sure is that most of the campaigns believe that Bernie Sanders has the advantage based on that Field Organization and based on the momentum that he has accrued from the first two states. But weve never done this before. I mean, caucuses are nuts to start with, right . But then. Right. Theres four days of early voting and then you have the caucus. Turn out, though, has been very, very robust the first three days of early turnout has been robust. We dont know what impact the debate will have, how much enthusiasm there will be to turn out on caucus day after what happened in iowa and fears about the process. 80,000 people turned out, 84,000 turned out in 2016, probably had 30, 35,000 turn out in early voting. If they get good turnout caucus day, it will show enthusiasm. Bernie sanders is confident the large turnout benefits him. Who would you say has the best operation in reaching out to the latin community. That is without a doubt Bernie Sanders. He invested a ton of money there. Whats interesting about the telemundo poll we mentioned earlier, if you look at it, Bernie Sanders and joe biden are statistical tie for the latino vote in nevada. Bernie has been there for six months. They spent a lot of time on the latino vote. Campaigns are making different bets what the electorate will look like saturday. Bernie is betting on a younger, Diverse Group of voters, biden is hoping it will be the over 40 mixture of people of color and white voters that will carry him over the finish line. The question will be who can get their folks to the caucus and through the various ballots that occur there. This is a new opportunity, well see what happens. Thank you so much. Well read your piece for the atlantic. And jon ralston, well be watching the debate tomorrow night. Breaking news overnight from the boy scouts of america as it takes a page from the play book of other organizations rocked by lawsuits over sexual abuse. Thats next on morning joe. [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. With hepatitis c. I. Best for my family. My. In only 8 weeks with mavyret. I was cured. I faced reminders of my hep c every day. I worried about my hep c. But in only 8 weeks with mavyret. I was cured. Mavyret is the only 8week cure for all types of hep c. Before starting mavyret your doctor will test. If youve had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. 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Im happy to give you the tour, i lohey jay. It. Jay . Charlotte oh hi. He helped me set up my watch lists. Oh, hes terrific. Excellent tennis player. Byebye. I recognize that voice. Annie . Yeah she helped me find the right bonds for my income strategy. Youre very popular around here. Theres a birthday going on. Karl he took care of my 401k rollover. Wow, you call a lot. Yeah, well its my money were talking about here. Joining us for karaoke later . Ah, id love to, but people get really emotional when i sing. Help from a team that will exceed your expectations. Officials from china suggest the coronavirus is 20 times d d deadlier than the seasonal flu. According to the chinese cdc, the outbreak is 2. 3 higher than mortality rate for seasonal flu which in the u. S. Is around 0. 1 . Meanwhile, more than 300 americans evacuated from a contaminated cruise ship in japan, including 14 who tested positive for the coronavirus at the last minute were flown home to military bases in california and texas for a two week quarantine after two weeks of already being under quarantine off japan. The u. S. Government decided to let the infected evacuees who werent exhibiting symptoms board flights after consulting with health experts. The number of confirmed chases in china surged past 73,000, with the death toll now standing at nearly 1900 cases. Well be talking a lot more about that. Cnbcs dominic chu is following the continued economic fallout from the virus outbreak. Dom, whats the latest . Mika, what we have is apple. Add them to the list of companies that said there will be a big impact on their business due to spread of the deadly coronavirus as you pointed out. They said they do not expect to meet financial targets and goals for the Current Quarter because of the coronavirus, saying theres a, quote, slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated. It is a big deal because china at least provides an estimated 15 of total sales at apple, gets that from the Greater China region, including places like taiwan, hong kong. Moodys is lowering the forecast for this year, it is having wide ranging ripple effects, apple is the latest company. Stories of financial distress dont end there. Boy scouts of america, bsa filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it faces fast growing legal costs tied to defending itself against lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of boys. A spokesperson for the bsa said the move aims to help equitably compensate victims harmed during time in scouting as well as to continue carrying out the mission of the boy scouts of america into the future. Bsa says only the National Parent organization has filed for bankruptcy protection, local units and councils are financially independent, are not bankrupt. And also talk about big tech and facebook. Those particular headlines come together. Founder Mark Zuckerberg is touring europe, meeting with European Union anticompetition or competition chief. What theyre talking about is the role of Big Technology and Artificial Intelligence in the future for european regulators. This is a big deal because facebook is among a host of companies, not just u. S. , big tech overall, facing increased scrutiny from regulators, not just across the atlantic but home in the u. S. With regard to use of technology and privacy and data concerns. This will be a big deal for facebook. It is in brussels now meeting with the competition officials, guys. Back over to you. Cnbcs dominic chu. A few moments left for final thoughts. Yeah. So Mike Barnicle, a lot to choose from, from the coronavirus to the nevada debate to the latest polls out of nevada, latest poll Shows Bloomberg tomorrow night, showing bloomberg in first place, and the thousand judges coming together to condemn barr. Whats the big story for you . Im going to brush those aside, joe, suggest that later prep show meeting we have each morning that we put Major League Baseball players speaking out in unison against what the Houston Astros did in terms of cheating. Mike trout, best player in the world, formerly a mute, speaking out yesterday against the cheating scandal. I suggest we talk about that tomorrow when mr. Geist is back. Okay, fine. Quick ten seconds. Final thoughts. As a political junkie, i am going to stick with politics. You started the show with breaking news about bloomberg being part of the debate stage. I think it is a good thing. Time for the American Public to hear from him live and be held account for his record as mayor. That does it for us. Stephanie ruhle picks up coverage now. Hi there, i am stephanie ruhle. It is tuesday, february 18th. Here is whats happening this morning. Just one, one day away from the democratic debate in vegas, and theres a last minute additio