that we have not drawn with putin many a while. and we have a encourage emerging fronts in which those lines have to be drawn. hopefully there ll be a note taker. you never know. apparently, the precedent was set for no note taker. another thing i realized being here in washington, elizabeth, i guess i have to brush the back of my hair now. what s that? it was so easy, just that one shot. you want to tell them who texted you kasie is like, comb your head? it s all right. this is how it s going to look and i don t care. and wear long pants. i m fine with messy hair. still ahead on morning joe, the latest with the pandemic. california is set to lift coronavirus restrictions today, as one specific variant keeps the uk from reopening, as had been planned. plus, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell signals another possible supreme court showdown if republicans win back the majority in 2020. also ahead, assistant house
collapse of the soviet union and he lives that out every day. and it seems one president after another underestimates vladimir putin. does this one? we ll have to see just how the meeting goes. but it s been really striking to me the demeanor of the two leaders in the run-up to the summit. putin in the interview that keir simmons from nbc did with him seemed to me almost truculent. this man carrying all of this resentment, a chip on his shoulder, a take-me-seriously, this anger that russia has been displaced from a prime position that s part of putin, but i ve never seen it more sharply defined. and here s biden, and he s, we ll see what happens. we want to make agreements if we can. but we ll make clear what the red lines are.
down with biden. you had a difficult leader like president erdogan of turkey, who was, you know, ranting before the meeting. this or that. zipped it. said nothing. biden gave a bland statement about how it was productive and, you know, whatever by the way, like so many other leaders on the world stage, he has a long-time relationship with erdogan. so he has a longtime relationship, but i think the point is that this theme america s back, now has a practical face. and that s biden. he s calm, he doesn t take the bait, people say, you know, is putin a killer? he wants to just refuses to repeat that on the eve of his meeting with putin, because he s a lot calmer and more comfortable in his position as a leader. so, on the eve of the meeting with putin, which really does matter, i think biden can say he got everything out of this trip
and every step of the way we had boris johnson. he s going to meet with putin. g-7. he s going to meet with putin. you start adding up. i m a dork. i start thinking, what was our gdp last year? we re $21 trillion. the eu is about $19 trillion if you add great britain. they re still our allies. that s $40 trillion of wealth a year. $40 trillion of wealth a year. the chinese, $14, $15 trillion. that s pretty good. that s almost the japan that can say no. you remember that book from 89, the japanese were going to turn us into their granary, right? russia, $1.4 trillion. now, it seems to me, if we just take care of the home team together this is what i wish politicians would explain, that s $40 trillion of strength and wealth and you look at our defense spending, it dwarfs, like, china s, russia s, all of
de-emphasize putin, despite this meeting, which everyone is focused on, the fact that biden is not having a joint press conference with putin is really significant. he was advised not to do that. what s the strategy of not the strategy is just don t put them together on the world stage. don t bring putin up to your level. and biden can control the message afterward, as can putin, of course, himself. but don t just i can t forget trump and putin in helsinki midway through the trump administration, it was one of the most astonishing performances i ve ever seen of an american president where trump basically agreed with putin over his own intelligence agencies. and this is a far cry from that. it s completely different. and i think they want to sort of de-emphasize putin, you know, show that biden is strong. can i deal with him. but i m not going to get all worked up over this guy. i think that s the strategy. he can send a very clear message if he wants on a number of levels,