president donald trump. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is thursday, august 25th. i m willie geist. with us, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments, elise jordan. the president of the national action network and host of politics nation, reverend al sharpton. and white house editor for politico, sam stein. let s dive into the story that has everybody talking right now. 43 million people in line to have at least a chunk of their student loan debt erased. as many as 20 million people could clear all of their student debt. those are the figures from the white house following an executive action yesterday by president biden. the president pushed back at criticism that debt cancellation will make inflation worse. by resuming student loan payments at the same time as we provide targeted relief, we re taking an economically responsible course. as a consequence, about $50 billion a year will start coming
mystery in idaho where it s been more than a week since four college students were killed. police have still not made an arrest. we ll get the latest reporting there. plus, what we know about the prosecutor with decades of experience in corruption cases who now will oversee the two ongoing federal investigations into donald trump. we ll be joined by former acting solicitor general amill. welcome to the fourth hour of morning joe. it is monday, november 21st, just after 9:00 here on the east coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. jonathan lemire, mike barnicle still with us. we do begin with that deadly mass shooting at an lgbtq nightclub in colorado springs. five people were killed, 25 wounded in the saturday night attack, which came to an end thanks to a number of heroes who stepped up to take the gunman down. nbc news correspondent morgan which he is key has details.
democratic lawmakers, many of them wanted more, but generally happy yesterday with the president s move. let s just celebrate. because, understand, 20 million americans got the news today that they will never have to pay another nickel on student loan debts. young people, people who are trying to make end s meet, they as it is are struggling. so to ask them to be paying back their student loans right now with a difficult economy is just wrong. this is an unprecedented step to alleviate the burden people are feeling. director of polling at the institute of politics at harvard university, an msnbc political contributor, john. correspondent for the washington examiner david drucker. and correspondent morgan rad radford here with us. morgan, we want to bring this
isn t fair. you know, life may not be fair, but that s where our politics is today. just a note on this, as somebody who did go to school and has children that will one day go to school, this may be ultimately a necessary policy, a good policy, but it puts no pressure on colleges and universities to lower the cost of tuition. because somebody, yet again, is footing the bill that enables them to keep their prices right where they are. john, this discussion, and specifically morgan s piece we played the top of this discussion, the ramifications of this issue are literally endless. there s a lot of resentment that can go into this decision and a will of applause that can go into this decision. the president of the united states, some people are going to say $10,000, it s great, but it is not enough. others are going to be saying, no, nothing. no repayment whatsoever. but my question to you is, in your focus groups, among largely younger people, does it ever come up or do you ever talk