morning. "the washington post"'s eugene robinson, thank you, my friend. and thanks to all of you for getting up with us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. 225 came here. after two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms. behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. before me are the men who put them there. these are the boys. these are the men who took the cliffs. these are the champions who helped free a continent. these are the heros who helped end a war. >> that was ronald reagan in 1984, iconic d-day speech, about the brave young men who climbed the cliffs of pointe du hoc, to reach a suspected german gun in placement 100 feet up. that is where we begin this morning. normandy, france, for the 80th anniversary of the d-day landings, the invasion that propelled the end to world war ii. right now, president biden is meeting with global leaders and the veterans who sacrificed their lives. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, june 6th. along with willie and me, we have the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire. msnbc contributor mike barnicle. president emeritus on the council of foreign relations and commander of nato, james stavridis. he is chief international analyst for nbc news. also with us, author and nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss. willie, if possible, this d-day 80 years later, also so poignant but also so current to our own challenges today in ukraine, in israel, and even in america's own elections. >> it is. we'll hear those themes in a speech from president biden at normandy in a short while from now. 80 years, think about these young men, and they were mostly men, you know, 17, 18 years old on d-day. now in their late 90s. it is incredibly moving to see them return to this sacred place. we have a great group assembled to talk about the meaning of this day. as you say, 80 years ago. we'll do that in a moment. let's begin in paris where we find kelly o'donnell traveling with the president. what theme do we expect to hear from president biden in just a bit here? >> certainly, we'll hear how the history folds over into a relevant, new way for the times we live in now, and history teaches lessons about what was at stake then and what could arguably be at stake now, especially here in europe where there is a war in ukraine. obviously, there is a war in gaza and israel. and the president will talk about how the young men who have come back here as senior citizens, many in wheelchairs, but back. 200 american servicemen who were here at d-day are back for this celebration. they represent the thousands who fought during that operation and many who sacrificed their lives. the white crosses that cover the grasses of normandy represent young men who were 17, 18, 20 years old. no old men are buried at that cemetery. the sacrifice their made are relevant in today's world for countries that believe democracy is worth fighting for, worth preserving, and, in fact, it must be preserved because there are forces in the world that test it. expect those kinds of themes from the president. we have watched this morning as he's been meeting with some of the veterans who have come back. personal conversations, taking photos with them, sharing stories. in one instance, we saw them singing happy birthday to one of the veterans who is celebrating what must be a notable birthday when you consider how time has passed. 80 years is so significant because it connects to those past moments of ronald reagan, of bill clinton, of george w. bush, other american presidents who have come here with other world leaders, sort of fortifying alliances that created a new world order to protect democracies from the kind of conflict where borders were seized and changed at force. the world order that was created because of the sacrifice of those veterans, those young men who were fighting for a cause greater than themselves, really saving the world at that time, but that created a new way for nations to organize themselves. that is very relevant today when the president has done so much to try to, from his point of view, work on building the alliances that support ukraine. it is a harder sell in some ways with israel, given the nature of the way gaza has gone, but these alliances matter. the values underpinning them very much matter and feel relevant today. that's what we expect from the president as he participates in these ceremonies. where you see the faces of those who were here 80 years ago and the leaders who represent these nations today. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell in paris for us this morning summing it up very well for us. kelly, thanks so much. we appreciate it. admiral stavridis, as a military man yourself, i'm curious, on a gut level, what you're feeling this morning as you look at the faces of these men who did nothing short of saving the world beginning on d-day. >> pride. pride in the united states of america. that we produced young men and women who do all of this. on the 50th anniversary of d-day 25 years ago, i was a young destroyer captain, and i was honored to be ordered to anchor my ship off the beach at omaha the morning before the ceremony you're about to see. my crew got up at dawn, unrequired. every crew member, 350 men and women, average age 25 years old, stood, watched the sun come up on that beach, paying homage to the young men of pointe du hoc. we were anchored not far from there. that's first and foremost. secondly, to pick up a practical theme of today, which i think you'll hear repeated, recall 15 allies, 15 different allies were participating in that landing. the british, the canadian, many of the european nations, some of them fighting in exile after their countries had been conquered. as i looked left and right, i saw ships from a dozen different nations. alliances matter. they mattered that day. on hitler's side, there was one nation. it was germany. he had to stand against an alliance. i think those are the two salient themes for me on this morning. pride in young americans and the power of alliances. >> michael beschloss, admiral stavridis just said something that all of us can agree with, probably share the same feeling, that when we watch these pictures from normandy, we feel pride. pride as americans. pride in the job done. pride of what was accomplished. there is another word that comes to my mind, having been to normandy many, many times over many celebrations, and it's history. our history as a nation and the fact that we have forgotten so much of our history here in the 21st century. we have forgotten that when those landings occurred on the five different landing spots on those beaches along the normandy strip, and the boys who climbed pointe du hoc, colonel rudder led them. he once told me the feeling he had was the men, the germans up in the pill box, had to be looking out at the armada, on the channel, and thinking about the men who were about to climb a sheer cliff. they had to be thinking, the germans thinking, they're coming up this cliff after us? wow, that was a point of lethal danger for them. the men that were there, they joined the army. they went voluntarily. they came from small towns and big cities across the united states of america. we seem as a nation to have forgotten what it is to be together. we were all together on that day. i'm wondering what your view is of the history that we shared then and the history that we see now, just forget. >> that was mike barnicle poetry. i hope i can do as well. you know, let's look at it through the lens of 2024. you know, what is meaningful to us right now? number one, we live in a world -- we live in a free country that is not dominated by dictatorships because of the huge sack are i ficrifices made americans that day and the others of the allied armies fighting in world war ii. if d-day had not worked, if that invasion, if that incursion had collapsed, let's say the boats had been driven back into the sea, perhaps, because there had been bad weather, which was, as you know, a very great chance that there might have been, that might have broken the morale that ultimately won that war. this was one of the crucial days in american history, number one. second of all, they were fighting for democracy. you know, just before world war ii, 1940, franklin roosevelt was running against wilke. in october of 1940, wilke was just about beating franklin roosevelt. that was because he was making the argument fdr is going to drag this country into an unnecessary war after election day if he is elected. someone even said, fdr, if re-elected, will plow under, if you can believe a politician said this, every fourth american boy. republican leader said that. that's how divided this country was. yet, in the world of 1941, almost instantly after pearl harbor, the country almost completely united behind the goal of defending freedom at its hour of maximum date. the ultimate general of the army, dwight eisenhower, wrote out a famous memo that wasn't released until long afterwards, to be released if the invasion failed. eisenhower took the blame, which is something i wish every american leader did in that kind of case. he said, if this invasion should fail, the blame will be mine alone. >> to build on the words that come on this day from mike and michael beschloss, pride and history. part of the history is a lot of pain. the losses endured that day. i wonder, looking at the faces of these survivors, the weight of those losses that they witnessed firsthand, they must feel pride but also so many other emotions. living with the memories of those who died on d-day. richard haass, i wonder if president biden will draw that line between the pride of our history and the pain endured for freedom to what we confront today. facing an election that could reshape american leadership around the world. >> he is sure to do that, mika. history, as mark twain mentioned, doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. i think what president biden today will be doing is highlighting the rhymes. once again, a world challenged by aggression. once again, questions whether the united states will rise to the occasion. the obvious place to think about is ukraine, where, for several months, the united states failed to rise to the occasion. isolationism is a virus that never disappears from the body politic. i expect the president will make a powerful argument that the united states still needs to rise to occasions. we can't pursue the folly of isolationism. we've got to work with othes. that's the great comparative advantage of american foreign policy. we have this pool of partners, these allies to work with. i think he's going to be speaking in many ways to the american people. you know, several people here around the table, we talked about the lack of history, the lack of historical awareness. we don't teach this in our schools. you can graduate from most american high schools and many american colleges never having taken courses in world war ii or learning about d-day. i think the president is going to do something that presidents have to regularly do, which is turn the oval office -- or, in this case, he is overseas -- but turn the presidency into a teaching institution, into a classroom. >> jonathan lemire, you think about president biden. he was a united states senator on the 30th anniversary of d-day. he's seen the 40th, the 50th, the 60th, 70th, 80th as a public official. back when we started in office, this wasn't a distant memory, 30 years prior to d-day. he feels a connection to it. i know this will be an emotional speech. jen psaki was saying don't expect to hear from the cemetery attacks specifically on donald trump, but, as richard said, getting to the importance of democracy and protecting alliances. what do you expect to hear a short time from now from the president? >> yeah, president biden born during world war ii. this is a sense that this will be the last major anniversary to which there will be veterans still in attendance, maybe five years from now, a few still may be, let us hope. an important moment and a solemn moment. we are going to hear from president biden shortly. we should note, today, he's just one of a number of world leaders who are going to speak. his remarks will be relatively brief and focused on d-day. tomorrow, though, he delivers a more significant speech, one the white house will be previewing for weeks, where he'll address the broader themes, connecting what happened 80 years ago to our current situation, particularly as war, the largest land war since world war ii in europe, continues to rage just a few hundred miles to the east there in ukraine. he's certainly not going to use donald trump's name, but he is going to implicitly talk about the threats to democracy aprod abroad and also at home. making the case that america needs to be secure at home and fulfill its obligations to the rest of the world. president biden from his first moments in office stressed the need for alliances. alliances no more vividly on display than 80 years ago on the beaches. france was liberated, and the tide of war turned throughout europe. i think president biden will be using this as a teaching moment, not a campaign moment, but he'll play out the stakes of history back then and also for the future. >> we will carry today's ceremony live, set to begin in just moments. president biden will speak shortly, and u.s. secretary of state antony blinken will join us live from normandy. first, we will dig into new reporting on how some republicans are seeking payback following former president trump's conviction in new york last week. you're watching "morning joe." we're back in 90 seconds. your own. make it easier on yourself. with shopify, you have everything you need to sell online and in person. you can have your inventory, payments, and customers in sync across all the places you sell. it doesn't have to be lonely at the top. join the millions to finding success on their own terms. start your journey with a free trial today. why choose a sleep number smart bed? 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>> welcome, what's happened to me has never happened in this country before. it has to stop. >> wait a minute, it has to stop? >> it has to stop. we're not going to have a country -- >> if you are elected, what does that mean? define that. >> look, what i've gone through, nobody has ever gone through. i'm a very legitimate person. i built a great business. >> focus on those that want people to believe that you want retribution. that you will use the system of justice to go after your political enemies. >> number one, they're wrong. it has to stop. otherwise, we're not going to have a country. look, when this election is over, based on what they've done, i would have every right to go after them. and it's easy because it is joe biden. you see all the criminality. >> will you pledge to restore equal justice, equal application of the laws, to the ending of the weaponization? >> it's awful. i know what you want me to say. >> i'm just asking. >> what they've done to the republican party, they want to arrest on no crime. i will do everything in my power not to let -- but there's tremendous criminality here. what they're doing to me, if it is going to continue, we're really not going to have much of a country left. >> okay, willie. help me out here. first of all, no criminality. this was not biden's justice department in the criminal trial in new york city. it was a jury of donald trump's peers, 12 people and alternates. just to fact check him right there. also, hannity, mr. softball, setting him up, saying, come on, come on, you wouldn't actually have retri -- you're not, you don't mean that? he's like, of course i do. just like with the documents. when hannity was like, come on, you didn't actually take the documents. donald trump is not messing around. he promises retribution. as he even told hannity, when hannity gave him a chance to semi cover it, he will serve it up. so with that, i mean, i'm not sure what more people need to know given a lot of things that donald trump has promised have come to pass. >> yeah, i'm not smiling about the substance of what the president said. i'm smiling at what you put your finger on, which is this entire genre of interview now where sean hannity embeds the answer into his question and tries to lead donald. i wish my oral exams in high school and college were like that, where the teacher would nod along and give you the answer. >> me, too. >> but that's the way they do it. yeah, donald trump in the remarks we played right before the interview clip, he said, a lot of people are saying they're going to want retribution. he likes to separate himself, but, obviously, he means himself. obviously sending cues to others about what should happen. again, he was charged. he was tried. he was convicted by a jury of his peers in new york. the fact that he took classified documents back to his beach club is not some imagined conspiracy against him. it is a thing he did. we'll see what happens in the trial as it moves forward. he wants retribution against people, the justice department, the fbi who are actually bringing him to justice on things he did or is alleged to have done. let's bring -- >> yeah, and -- willie, one thing before we get to our guests. >> yes. >> it is interesting to me he said this has never h