early on this tuesday morning. morning joe starts right now. i don t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair, i can t speak to that. right. ouch. left hook. yeah. you know, also, i can t answer any questions about playboy stars. i can t answer those questions. oh, and i know nothing about having businesses that go bankrupt after you inherit $400 million from your father. i can t speak to blowing that money that quickly. can t speak to being creepy. come on now. come on. boy, that was quite the defense, wasn t it, willie? it was. it actually was the first time really with any strength we ve seen governor desantis speak out. i guess that was indirect. and amid some other things. it quickly spun to an attack on the investigation, an attack on the manhattan district attorney, as a soros-backed leftist, everything you expect, but he dipped his toe in the trump criticism. i saw it. let s hear
records in connection with a hush money payment trump allegedly made to porn star stomy daniels in 2016 to keep her quiet about an affair she says the two had a decade earlier. trump denies any wrongdoing. charles coleman, for those who say this is the weaker case and, oh, there s a problem here, what say you to that? i m assuming that those who are investigating donald trump for possible crimes committed are not interested in the level of the crime, they re interested in whether it s a crime. that s exactly right, mika. this is not the home run that some people may be looking for. at best, it is maybe a double. at the end of the day, accountability is accountability. you cannot have a conversation on one hand about a two-tiered justice system in america and then, on the other hand, say, well, this is not worth a prosecution. if the law has been broken, then the law needs to be upheld. that s really what we re talking about.
that s the way the law works. right. get in front of the sherman tank, be my guest. they keep doing it, mika. of course, just for people at home, if you re keeping score, when gene is talking about i fought the law, and the law won, eddie cochran version. mika, she goes, it s a good song, she s thinking of the clash version. you re a huge fan. i am. oh, please. name three clash songs. the politics of this, it s hard not to laugh on if you re a former republican, you might be crying at this point because of their obsession with losing. jeh johnson, there are some dangers here. from anti-semitism all the way back to the beginning of this story when it broke, trump s truth social post. can you talk about what homeland security is dealing with now? what thoughts are going through your mind as you watch this play out? several things. first, it s revealing to me that, while desantis is trying
screenwriter john ridley joins us for that. ridley is back. he s back. plus, former democratic senator al franken. hold on, mika. i thought when you said one of our morning joe originals, you were talking about chris licht. he was on the set. he was typing. our man. john is such an original. he was in new jersey with us. i know. that s going way back. og status. with the fake brick. way back. he was in the fake brick building near a strip mall. you loved the fake brick. i know. i liked the stores nearby. they were, like, outlets. yeah. ours was a former outlet. once i parked at the outlet by mistake, got lost. walked into liz claiborne? no, it was 4:00 a.m., willie. i got confused. former democratic senator al franken who kicked off a week-long stint as daily show host last night, he s our guest
good morning and welcome so hmm. good morning, mika. why, thank you. that s very nice of you. yes. good morning. morning. you know, it s tuesday, march 21st, and you are, of course, watching the ron desantis variety hour. willie, it is interesting. so the arrests keep coming for january 6th. yup. trump the trying to get them to do another january 6th today or tomorrow. the justice department is going to have to get a bigger boat or at least hire more attorneys if they do it. because, again, i think we re all supposed to be panicked and freaked out by the stupid things republicans do. it ends up losing them elections. if people go out and do this in the streets, just going to get arrested, thrown in jail and stay there for as long as if they want to follow donald trump and break the law, you know, they do that, they just end up in jail like all these other people. well, there is a link between the two stories we just read, which is the reason, perhaps, or