joe." with us onset we have mike barn call. former communications director for george bush. and nicole wallace. and senior political editor and white house correspondent for "huffington post" sam stein along with me and joe. good morning, joe. >> where do you begin? new york has always felt like when washington hasn't been working, at least we figured out how to run the toughest, biggest city in the world with giuliani and bloomberg. >> he's doing a good job. >> everybody is saying he's doing a good job. it's the unmanageable city, the ungovernable city, that's what we have heard. but now new york is on the verge of turning into a laughing stock politically with more anthony weiner revelations. you have mayor bloomberg strike out against spitzer. this seems to be a political campaign that could new york city into a laughing stock. >> could? i don't know. some might think -- i don't want to see the front page. >> you don't want to see. >> what's it it say? >> i won't read it to you, joe. so if you don't have return, you don't get to see. the front page of the new york daily news. look at "new york post." i can't even believe it it. this is what you're talking about. put it down. imagine this. it's new york city. this is new york city, home of 8 million people. most popular city in the united states. the economy leads the country. it's symbolic around the world. but wall street influenced not just america, but the world. and the person that leads this city will wield global power as we look a those headlines. could that person be considered to be mayor anthony weiner? on monday he was the front runner. one more sexting scandal later, he's dropped 9 points. weiner has forfeited his lead among women voters as well. and his favorable ratings which surged early during the campaign plummeted 22 points. one number that is growing for weiner, the amount of women with whom he admits to exchanging these messages with. that includes those he messaged after he resigned from congress. >> it's not dozens. just like i told "the post", it's not dozens and dozens. it's six to ten, i suppose. i can't tell you absolutely what someone else is going to consider inappropriate or no. >> were they sexual? how many conversations did you have with women after you resigned that were sexual in nature? >> i don't believe i had anymore than three. >> joe, he just needs to say, i had a problem. i sought help. i had a problem. >> you know what he needs to do, i'll tell you what i'm going to do. i'm going to go off the campaign trail or a year or two and i'll calculate it and get back to you. come on, mika. as you were saying before the show, one of these people that he was texting with said it's pornography. >> yes. not that a that's good, but i think there's a real disconnect. >> i'm not saying it's good. i'm saying the guy is running for mayor and -- he's still doing this. any way, it's just unbelievable. >> okay. there are a lot of people commenting on this. we'll see where it goes. and if he stays in the race. house majority leader nancy pelosi is among his public critics. >> let me. be very clear. the conduct of some of these people that we're talking about here is reprehensible. it's so disrespectful of women. what's really stunning about it is they don't even realize it. they don't have a clue. it's really -- if they are clueless, get a clue. they need therapy, do it in private. >> blast through this. >> we'll move on. we're hearing for the first time the woman who reignited the scandal. her name is sydney leathers. >> it's too perfect. >> she's 23. she's a democratic activist from indiana. she said he asked her to delete logs of their graphic chats as recently as april. she said by then she was also aware he was planning to run for mayor. >> he was making these campaign promises that he had totally changed and he was a better man now and he learned from his mistakes and i am proof that is not true. >> do you think he was trying to pull one over on the voters of new york? >> absolutely, or he wouldn't have went on the whole, i'm a changed man. he wouldn't have said those things if he wasn't trying to be someone he wasn't. >> anthony weiner admits his sexual escapades continued until recently. >> you realize we're giving massive coverage for a candidate for mayor who is a mental patient. >> a flasher. >> elliiot spitzer on the other hand admits -- it is tough. when asked by a reporter if he had been with prostitutes since resigning as governor, spitzer said flatly absolutely not saying i'm done answering this question. still his campaign for comptroller faces obstacles. mayor bloomberg took a shot at candidate for boasting about fighting wall street. one of the things that's not very helpful, one of the candidates for the city wide offices takes great pride in being able to go after wall street. this is our industry. that doesn't help. thank you very much. we'd appreciate it if someone recognized that this is our tax base. this is how we pay our firefighters and police officers and provide services. joe, i have one other story that's sort of related. but what do you make of mayor bloomberg's statements on wall street? >> i think it's very e legitimate. i think this is actually going to be eliot spitzer's bigger problem there's going to be a lot of people he went after on wall street that are going to be trying to get back at him and try to defeat him. there are a lot of people that believe he went after them in an unjustified way. bloomberg would agree with that as well. i do think that this will be an issue at the end of the day. i think he still wins, but this is a very legitimate issue. wall street brings in so much money for new york city. it's at the heart of its tax base. it funds so many programs. it it it keeps schools open that would normally be closed if wall street weren't there. look at detroit and that's basically what happens when you have the heart of a city ripped out. i'm not saying that's bha -- i'm not saying that's what spitzer wants to do. i'm just saying everybody hates wall street. but in new york city, that's the heart of your tax base and that's why the city runs as well as it does as far as all of that revenue going in there. it is a delicate balance. >> delicate is the right word because also it should be subject to scrutiny. should it not? >> yes, it should. this is just a question of whether eliot spitzer was overly zealous or not. that's up to the voters and i think they are going to come up on spitzer's side. >> you ask why i'm going on to the next story, mike bar na kl, because perhaps if we expose these situations maybe we'll see less of them. we have in the past. there's so many people in power. san diego's mayor is facing real backlash. i'm going to san diego now, joe. accused of sexual advances by a growing number of women. >> this is the trifecta. >> i got them all right here. three women initially accused bob filner of making inappropriate comments and contact. among them his former communications director, the mayor acknowledged transgressions earlier this month. take a listen. >> i am embarrassed to admit that i have failed to fully respect the women who worked for me and with me. i have begun to work with professionals to make changes in my behavior and approach. >> now four more women all prominent members of the san diego community have come forward including a e retired navy admiral who says she was filner's former congressional office when he made an advance. she describes it it. >> all the guys left. i was the last one in the room. and bob stepped between me and the doorway and stopped me. he got very close to me. he ran his finger up my cheek and whispered, do you have a man in your life? i said, yes, i have a man in my life. >> you know, this is the curse, mika, of being born beautiful. bob filner, i mean, he's the robert redford if you just look at the good looks. it's sort of the rugged west coast good looks. who does this? and why does bob filner think anybody. s -- wants him to do that to them? >> i'm dead serious here. this is why we need more women in power in politics. because we level the playing field and give guys who are driven by one thing and driven by the need to prove to themselves that that one thing works. >> to make san diego a better place. nicole, i mean, come on, nicole. what's wrong with these people? they are talking about i need help. then get out of office, man. it is a tough enough job. >> i don't e know. mike need help over here next to me. i take my dog to the dog park every day. and there's always a male dog with the same issues. he needs to dominate all the other dogs in the park. men, some of these political men seem to have the same issues. i don't think we. to be in a place where we have to get our daughters out of the capital. it's serious. hundreds, thousands of young women go to washington, d.c. to intern. if you watch these stories, if you're a parent of a young girl, i can't imagine being too enthusiastic about sending my daughter. >> i'm not saying any one of these is more e predatory than the other, but away what the mayor did was disgusting. it's just reprehensible. it's fun to joke about, but it's really serious stuff. >> i'm laughing because i'm really uncomfortable. >> let's just say also. if anthony weiner is sending you pictures of himself, you can turn off your computer a thousand miles away. if you're working for a congressman and they trap you against a door, or if you're work i working for a mayor and you're in that same room, that is a far more egregious and serious, far more dangerous and raises a question why is he still in office in san diego when retired admirals and all of these other women are coming forward saying he did all of these things. >> these aren't women off the street. these are prominent women coming forward. >> who would be as competent as he to run the city. they are always held back. somebody like this ends up where he is. i don't get it. i really don't get it. all right, we have done 13 minutes of this so i'm moving n on. this is an incredible story. i'm going to hold back on what i thought when i saw this, but i was riveted. another juror on the george zimmerman trial is speaking out. the 36-year-old woman said she was hoping to deliver a different verdict than not guilty. >> my first vote was second-degree murder. >> second-degree murder. >> it was hard. a lot of us that wanted to find something bad, something we could connect to the law. for myself, he's guilty. because the evidence shows he's guilty. but as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can't say he's guilty. >> as a mother, juror b-29 says she owes trayvon martin's family an apology. responding to that interview, martin's mother said she was devastated to hear those remarks before adding she believes zimmerman literally got away with murder. the juror in that interview not only said that he got away with murder, but then talking about the reality that the law didn't allow her to give a different verdict. but ultimately, he has to respond to a much higher to god about this. >> a lot of people looking at this may be depressed, should be depressed. what george zimmerman got away with, chasing trayvon martin down when the dispatcher said leave him alone, go away. chasing him down saying they always get away. again, the fact this guy was carrying a gun chasing through the neighborhood and killed him, obviously, the fact that the guy is walking now is just mind boggling. mind boggling. and yes, there are so many racial overtones and the reaction of many people really have been depressing. i'll tell you what's not depressing though. and i say all of that as a precursor to this. it it says so much about these jurors that they actually took their instructions from the judge and they followed the law. they did what the law told them to do, even when it didn't feel right. even when it it wasn't right. they followed the law. and they should be commended for that. and you know what, it was tough for them. it was tough obviously for this young woman and she's going to have to live with that pain of knowing that she had to let a guy off who killed trayvon martin and was completely responsible for this, for these series of events because he ignored the dispatcher and acted of an abhorrent fashion. but the juror, that juror did the right thing. and i think they should be commended for it it. they followed the law. there was not jury nullification. they followed the law. >> i think it also confirms a lot of our instints about what happened in the trial and what really happened in the night. and that these jurors were in a horrible position. i think -- >> it's the law of florida. if you don't like the laws in florida, change the laws in florida. this wasn't even stand your ground. this had to do with self defense. but stand your ground frames so much of the investigation leading up to the trial itself that these stand your ground laws do need to be addressed. but at the end of the day, mike, they did what they had to do. i heard jimmy carter getting bashed by a lot of bloggers on the left. jimmy carter is right. and we said it at the beginning of the trial. even though we were so angry at zimmerman, the law is the law is the law. and you have to follow the law. and that's exactly what the jurors did. jimmy carter said it, and he was right. >> he was right. the construct of the law literally left the jurors handcuffed in terms of decision making. they had no option. listening to the judge's charge to the jury, they had no option. you heard that juror say she would have liked to have voted for manslaughter but couldn't do it. >> i'll tell you this though, mi mika. i hope that after what george zimmerman did, racially profiling a guy, a teenager carrying nothing but skittles and profiling because he was black, chasing through a neighborhood, calling a dispatcher, the dispatcher saying back off, i think all of these things add up to a massive gap in the law where a u guy like this does get away with, i think, murder. other people, manslaughter, whatever up to call it. there needs to be new laws passed that stop this sort of vigilante justice. it's exactly what happened. if you were carrying around a gun in a neighborhood and you're chasing somebody down looking for a fight when the police are telling you to back off and somebody dies, guess what, maybe you're not guilty of first-degree murder, but you're going to jail. >> yeah, i don't disagree at all. i think there are laws out there in the books and policies that breed resentment and racial tension and we've seen a lot of that in this. we'll leave it it there. we have one more story we need to get to. moving overseas to europe's deadliest train crash in decades. the problem may have everything to do with speed. kyra simmons reports from spain. >> reporter: a closed circuit camera captured the moment the train hurdling off the rails at high speed with more than 200 people aboard. amateur video shows smoke pouring from the wreckage. my god, the cameraman says, this is a nightmare. first responders rushed to help. some passengers were trapped. casualties lufted through windows carried away by pair medics. the toll was staggering. scores dead including one american. among the injured, five americans including ro pert of houston and his wife. in europe for their daughter's wedding. >> our car flipped over. it became chaos. there was sudden darkness. i was kind of thrown on one side of the train. my wife, unfortunately, she was sitting on the side where the train flipped over. so everything kind of fell on her. and two other people. >> reporter: his wife was badly hurt and is in intensive care tonight. >> all she. ed was for e me to hug her. that's all i could do. and screaming for help to see. they could take her in here. pause i knew the sooner the better. >> reporter: giant cranes hulled the wreckage from the track. this is one of eight cars from the train and every one looks the same. windows smashed. the very seats inside thrown around and in places its metal shredded. this town has been preparing for a festival. instead people gathered to give blood. firefighters on strike went back to work to save lives. spain's king visited the hospital. the prime minister who's from here declared three days of mourning. an investigation is focusing on the train's two drivers, both survived and the train's speed. an analysis by the associated press of the crash video estimates it was going more than double the 50 miles per hour speed limit. >> coming up on "morning joe," the moderator of meet the press joins us. also joining us jenna bush haeger. the we'll also talk to david axelrod and barry elevenson will be here onset. up next, the top stories in the political playbook. first bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> we got rid of summer in a hurry. it's cold, it's chilly in new england. e let me start with the good news. tropical storm dorian, the one heading towards the bahamas or maybe cuba over the next seven days, it's really strug thlg. that's good news. it's still expected to be near the bahamas by the middle of next week. but if it survives. there's a chance it could dissipate before that. as far as new england goes, yesterday was kind of cold. it was chilly. it's 63 and rain right now in boston. it's ugly through connecticut and rhode island. the state of maine is going to get drenched today. we have thunderstorms bringing beneficial rain to oklahoma. those are your two travel trouble spots. the weekend forecast, thunderstorms in the middle of the country. we're going to warm up nicely this afternoon from d.c. to new york. saturday, some afternoon storms in the east. look at what happens in the middle of the country. chicago, minneapolis, many areas from the great lakes, it's going to be a chilly weekend with highs in the 70s. you should be in the mid-80s. we leave you with a nice, beautiful sunrise. it it looks like a much warmer day in d.c. than yesterday. enjoy the low humidity. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. 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"dedication: that's the real walmart" [ tap ] ♪ 'cause tonight [ tap ] ♪ we'll share the same dream ♪ ♪ at the dark end of the street ♪ ♪ ♪ you and me ♪ you and me ♪ you and me ♪ i guess. did you download that book i sent? yah, nice rainbow highlighter. you've got finch for math right? uh-uh. english? her. splanker, pretend we're not related. oh trust me, you don't want any of that. you got my map? yeah. where you can sit can define your entire year. and what's the most important thing to remember? no face to face contact until we're off of school property. you got this. sharing what you've learned. that's powerful. verizon. get the samsung galaxy s3 for $49.99. at 27 past the hour, time now to take a look at morning papers. "new york times" halliburton will plead guilty following the gulf oil spill in 2010. halliburton ran tests on the incident but destroyed the findings. the company will pay a $200,000 fine and make a donation to the national fish and wildlife foundation. $55 million. >> and l.a. times recent study shows tall women are at a dpraeter risk of cancer. the survey of 145,000 females shows that each four inch increase in height is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. scientists are unsure of the coalition between height and cancer, but they believe e geneti genetics can be a factor. "washington post" in an attempt to soften its image, al qaeda held an ice cream eating and tug of war competition in syria. >> really? you know what, seriously, maybe if they stop killing grandmothers and -- oh, i don't know, blowing up brides at their wedding. maybe that's a little bit better than giving out ice cream. >> i don't know, joe. chunky monkey is pretty good. >> oh, they are doing chunky monkey. >> yeah, everything is forgiven. >> what's happening today? >> i don't know. >> i think this an incredible story from the "the new york daily news." >> rescued after spending 12 hours at sea. he was found drift iing 40 mile from the site where he fell off his boat in the early hours of the morning on wednesday. aldridge placed one of his rubber boots under each arm and was able to stay afloat for hours, a method that saved his life and helped him conserve energy. he sustained minor injuries and was released from the hospital yesterday. >> all right. "usa today" at a charity event, prince harry spoke about meeting his new nephew prince george of cambridge for the first time. he also gave insight for the plans for the newest member of the royal family says he plans to be the fun uncle. >> he's about that long and that wide. he was crying his eyes out like all babies do i suppose. it's fantastic to have another addition to the the family. i only hope my brother knows how expensive my babysitting charges are. >> don't go to vegas with your uncle. it gets a little older, be like going with teddy down to palm beach. you don't want to do it. bad things happen. this sunday's magazine, behind the scenes with the robertsons, the stars of the hit show "duck dynasty" profiled. you have been waiting a long time for that cover. >> nicole has been. >> i'm not embarrassed to say that as far as reality television goes, this is quite profound television. there's a father figure. he's religious, he brings his bible with him to duck blind. it's an impressive show. >> really? >> yes. >> that sounds absolutely fascinate i fascinating. i'm glad that you and your family enjoy it. mika, let's go to politico. >> that tells me so much. i'm going to take a look. joining us is editor in chief john harris and john, we'll start with the gop on obama care on capitol hill. it's republican versus republican when it comes on how to defeat obama care? marco rubio, one of several senators threatening to use government shutdown as a leverage issue to defund the affordable care act. rubio said this, if we're not going to have a red line in the sand on obama care, what will we have a line in the sand on? for those saying it's not achievable, i would say to them, if it's not achievable, it's because they are conceding defeat before they even try. and some republicans like senator richard burr fear such action would create a pr nightmare for the gop. >> i think it's the dumbest idea i ever heard of. >> why do you say that? >> as long as barack obama is president, the affordable care act is going to be law. >> you were around in '95. >> i was around in '95. some of these guys need to understand that you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it it that's achievable. >> senator tom coburn also weighed in calling a government shutdown, quote, a failed strategy. john, what's going on in the gop? >> it's an ideological fight. >> this is so ridiculous what marco rubio is doing. he stuck his neck out on immigration. he's been called out for sticking his neck out by conservatives. and now he's doing everything he can do to madly try to go as far right as he can and look like as much as a conservative as he can. and even to talk about a government shutdown right now over obama care? it's ridiculous. this is him covering his backside. >> that's a big part of it, joe. one sign that that's the case is this is not really just an ideological battle. you have richard burr from north carolina, i don't think of him as a rhino or a squish saying this is nults. the republican party right now is not so much as a divide. imagine two high school kids on a big gorge and one of them is goating to jump. come on, the water is right down there. the others, are you nuts? and i'd say at the moment, the majority sentiment in the republican party for the first time in awhile is with, are you nuts? it's clearly the smart political money irrespective of moderate or conservative thinks what rubio is doing, tleening to shutdown is nuts. >> sam stein, let's call this out. marco rubio is doing the same thing on the budget. he's doing the same thing talking about shutting down the government. hey listen, i was in the room. you got an issue, shut down the government. it's not going to break my heart. i have done it before. but here, i am so offended by how crass of a political move this is that he's willing to put out bad headlines that will hurt the entire republican party just because he's trying to cover his backside. >> it wasn't just the budget he's been saying he's going to support these restrictive anti-abortion measures as well. with respect to drawing a line in the sand here, the problem season the line. it's the sand that's the problem. shutting down the government over the repeal of obama care seems like an incredibly foolish thing to do knowing full well the president would never support it. you're inviting a government shutdown. >> the president would love this, sam. the president would love this. >> yeah, and it plays into obama's hands as well. what's happened in the past couple days is a bunch of senior republicans have sort of shied away from this. john cornyn was a signature on this letter to do this and then took his name off of it. so you're actually seeing an unexpected change here, which we wouldn't have seen a couple years past. >> john harris, let's call this out for what it is. you have three senators specifically that are talking about running for president right now. marco rubio, ted cruz, rand paul. now mike lee is sometimes in this group, but mike lee is not talking about running for president, but he got elected by tea party members that kicked out a republican. you understand his political motivations. but in this case, we've got certainly with marco rubio who has never in the past, i've never known him to cut sort of this libertarian, harsh streak he's trying to cut right now. you have presidential politics in play here. and again, republican party be damned. >> right, and you raised the point as to whether this really helps him. anybody with hard core conservatives is so unprinciple, so obvious calculation for 2016 politics. typically there's a huge price to be paid in either party for politicians once they are seen as phoneys, more about political ar if itist ifs than principle. i would say rubio is flirting with that line if this narrative takes hold. >> all right. john harris, thank you very much. coming up, a showcase night for nba talent. sports is next. i think farmers care more about the land than probably anyone else. we've had this farm for 30 years. we raise black and red angus cattle. we also produce natural gas. that's how we make our living and that's how we can pass the land and water back to future generations. people should make up their own mind what's best for them. all i can say is it has worked well for us. wi drive a ford fusion. who is healthier, you or your car? i would say my car. probably the car. cause as you get older you start breaking down. i love my car. i want to take care of it. i have a bad wheel - i must say. my car is running quite well. keep your car healthy with the works. $29.95 or less after $10 mail-in rebate at your participating ford dealer. so you gotta take care of yourself? yes you do. you gotta take care of your baby? oh yeah! we're so choosy about the cuts of beef that meet our higher kosher standards that only a slow-motion bite can capture all that kosher delight. and when your hot dog's kosher, that's a hot dog you can trust. hebrew national. that's a hot dog you can trust. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... you need brushes... you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. refresh your home inside or out with behr premium plus ultra. interior flat starts at $31.98 a gallon. we replaced people with a machine.r, what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally. time for sports. the evidence piling up against new england patriots aaron hernandez. these photos were taken from hernandez's home security system the night oden lloyd was shot to death. the images released along with 100 pages of court records appear to show hernandez holding a handgun. the murder weapon has not been recovered. they have objected to the court's decision to release the photos to the public saying it undermines his right to a fair trial. he pleaded not guilty to the charges of first-degree murder. let's go from the police to the baseball field. nationals and pirates facing off in washington. nationals blow a 4-run lead. but in the bottom of the inning, bryce harper gets a chance to be the hero. >> 1-1. harper, deep left center, heading for the wall, it is gone! and the nationals win it! >> he's got a violent swing. he's unbelievable. >> strong kid. huge superstar. i thought they were going to be there every year. it's hard. >> that was his first walkoff of his entire career though. padres and brewers. milwaukee with a chance to tie it, but i love defense, mika. sometimes more than offense. how do you feel about that? >> mika is always on offense. >> offensive is away they call me. >> they won 10-8. team usa men's basketball team held a scrimmage in las vegas showcasing some of the best n a young talentalent. the highlight was not from an nba player. this was during one of the time-outs. >> that is airman nathaniel mils in fatigues and army boots. that's unbelievable. a little love from carmelo anthony. fantastic. finally this one is barnicle's favorite of the day. the key is you got to talk about what he wants to talk about. one caller tried to actually pop the question to his girlfriend. >> that's nice. that's so sweet. >> so nice. let's see what happens. >> moe in new jersey, what's up, moe? >> what's happening, mike? >> what's up? >> good. i'm hanging out here with my girlfriend cindy. we're both big fans of the show. and i'm a little nervous, but you know what? i'm going to ask her in front of the whole new york -- >> jimmy in. paramuscle, what's up jimmy? >> what? >> he went to jimmy quickly. >> why did he do that? >> moe was dragging it out. that's why you got to get up there and swing. >> he was going to ask his girlfriend to marry him. >> this is all about -- >> what kind of lasting relationship starts on a sports radio show? >> what happened? did she say yes? >> we have no idea. it's a mystery. he loves it. it's so great. >> we should find them. >> i'll do the best i can. >> i want to know what happens next. it's like a cliff hanger. what happened when they got cut off? did he continue to ask? did he call back? ng out of pipe. sfx: birds chirping. a quarter million tweeters musicare tweeting.eamed. and 900 million dollars are changing hands online. that's why the internet needs a new kind of server. one that's 80% smaller. uses 89% less energy. and costs 77% less. it's called hp moonshot. and it's giving the internet the room it needs to grow. this ...is going to be big. it's time to build a better enterprise. together. from capital one... boris earns unlimited rewards for his small business. can i get the smith contract, please? 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[ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ hing, helicopthierhis hibuzzing, andk engine humming. can help you do what you do... even better. sfx: birds chirping sfx: birds chirping 47 past the hour. two very different must-read opinion pages. we'll start with the "new york times." fast food, low pay. this is mark bitman. a number of retail workers are now fighting for basic rights, halfway decent pay, a real work schedule, a right no organized health care, paid sick days, vacations and respect. next week organizers say we'll see a walkout of thousands of workers at hundreds of stores in at least seven cities including new york and chicago. something is happening here, though exactly what season clear. fast food was never a priority of organized labor. it's difficult to imagine a union of fast food workers and 200,000 locations. but dozens of organizations are now involved including to its credit the service employees international union, which is provide i providing financing and counsel. the upshot, workers with nothing to lose are demanding a living wage of $15 an hour and gaining strength and confidence. and i fully support this effort. i hope it grows even more. the other must-read is, i'm not sure i'm comfortable with this. this is from the wall street jumpbl. if huma and hilary were e-mailing, this is some of the exchanges you'd see. you were masterful. our phone's ringing off the hook with donors asking when weiner's dropping out. if he understood politics, never let a marital crisis go to waste. more soon, i'm bingeing on house of cards again. dearest hill, what can i say? i learn from the best. your interview with "60 minutes" was my game tape. anthony's communications team thought it it would be best for me to stay home this week, but i realized what i needed to do for myself. i believe in him. say hi to big dog for me. curious if he has any advice. gratefully yours, huma. i don't even want to read anymore. i don't like it. >> people are wandering what these conversations would be like for these women who have gone through this. but the one piece i hear, people have always known that huma is of grace and discretion and stature, but now they have seen her humanity. whatever she. s to do in the future is available to her because people have seen really, i think all sides of her now because of what she's been through. now they have seen that she's been through very difficult things and people like to be automobile to grab on. >> if you should write that column, you should try to be funny. >> it's just whole thing is not funny. there's a couple different prevailing themes going on here. a lot of people have been talking to me online about this and saying she's strategizing this whole thing. anyone could think what she's going through is contrite and some sort of strategy is ludicrous is sick. >> she's a mother trying to keep her family together. coming up -- >> let me play in. i thought it was an extraordinary job as a mother, to be a mother to try to protect your family. but let me ask, when she was talking there, you had had to be thinking of the 1992 super bowl interview going, holy cow, the parallels between what she's saying today and what her boss said back in 1992, i kept thinking of that tammie whooi net line. i'm not saying it was calculating, but the parallels are pretty stunning, aren't they? >> they are. can you imagine how upset both clintons about being linked to this all these years later. hilary, i thought in 1992, though, was much more assertive, much more strategizing, much more combative than huma. you just felt crushed for her looking alongside weiner the other day. >> we're going to talk more about this at top of the hour. coming up, david axelrod joins us. also how george bush cons to give back. we'll be back with more "morning joe." >> i'm not sitting here some little woman standing by my man. i'm sitting here because i love him and i respect him and i honor what he's been through and what we have been through together and if that's not enough for people, then heck, don't vote for him. of dollars on their 401(k) to hidden fees. thankfully e-trade has low cost investments and no hidden fees. but, you know, if you're still bent on blowing this fat stack of cash, there's a couple of ways you could do it. ♪ ♪ or just go to e-trade and save it. boom. ♪ because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet. cheryl burke is cha-cha-ing in depend silhouette briefs. for charity, to prove that with soft fabric and waistband, the best protection looks, fits, and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try for yourself. should have disrupted man. instead, man raised a sail. and made "farther" his battle cry. the new ram 1500 -- motor trend's 2013 truck of the year -- the most fuel-efficient half-ton truck on the road -- achieving best-in-class 25 highway miles per gallon. guts. glory. ram. by eugene robinson, david gregory. "morning joe" will be back in a moment. peoi go to angie's listt for all kinds of reasons. to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angie's list and look for pediatricians. the service providers that i've found on angie's list actually have blown me away. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. ♪ even superheroes need superheroes, and some superheroes need complete and balanced meals with 23 vitamins and minerals. purina dog chow. help keep him strong. dog chow strong. bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. your skin can grow more beautiful every time you wear it. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% of women saw improvement in their skin. neutrogena® cosmetics. welcome back to "morning joe." live look at new york city on this friday morning. mike barnacle and nicole wallace are still with us. and joining us from washington, msnbc political analyst ir ir eugene robinson. and here onset with us jeff greenfield. good to see you again. joe, we'll lead with this again, but we do have some gop news to get to. on monday anthony weiner was the front runner to become mayor of new york city. one more sexting scandal later -- >> what a comeback. americans are so forgiving. what could go wrong. >> actually, the lead is gone. he blew it. christine quinn now leads the former congressman 25 to 16. he's dropped nine points from last month. he forfeited his lead among women voters as well. >> you're kidding? i never saw that coming. >> his favorable rating, which surged early during the campaign plum ets 22 points. one number is that growing, mike barnicle is reading into everything i am saying. stop, there's no double -- stop. it's like there's nothing -- >> we're all 11 years old when it comes to someone named weiner and his proclivities. >> wow, okay. so the number that's going up is the amount of women with whom he admits, stop, to exchanging messages that includes those he messaged after. oh, my god, eugene. he resigned from congress. >> it's not dozens. "the post" made a big headline out of it. it's not dozens and dozens. it's six to ten, i suppose. i can't tell you absolutely what someone else is is going to consider inappropriate or not. >> were they sexual? how many conversations did you have with women after you resigned this were sexual in nature? >> i don't believe i had anymore than three. >> oh, my god. >> holy cow. >> i'm sorry. >> all right. we're going to hear for the first time now -- >> look at joe. >> -- the show. we're hearing for the first time from the woman who reignited the scandal and her name is -- >> what's her name? >> sydney leathers. >> this story just grows and grows. >> making these campaign promises that he had tolely changed and he was a better man now and he learned from his mistakes. and i'm proof that is not true. >> do you think he was trying to pull one over on the voters of new york? >> absolutely or he wouldn't have went on the whole, i'm a changed man, i learned my lesson he wouldn't have said those things if he wasn't trying to be someone he wasn't. >> let's move on. >> can we? >> what about this? >> hands off the weiner story and let's move on to some other almost here. >> joe, i actually need you here. you wouldn't believe these people. they can't help themselves. they are too tired. >> you know what, let's do this, okay? in the past, whenever things started to get a little grim on east coast, go west, young man. what's happening out in the west coast? >> there's got to be better news out there. >> this is not -- the idea that we have mr. weiner, eliot spitzer back in race, this is some kind of evil east coast thing. you've got a guy from south carolina back in the congress, mr. sanford, who hiked the appalachian trail. we have a senator from louisiana who got reelected after his involvement with a prostitute. i think this is a case of, you know, trying to find a frame where there season one. this is about people who are compulsive and can't help themselves and how they survive politically. >> let's leave the east coast. the most wonderful climate in the world, san diego. let's go there. >> let's go west. >> thank you, jeff, for trying to make this sound elegant. san diego's mayor is facing backlash accused of unwanted sexual advances by a growing number of women. three women initially accused bob phfilner of making inappropriate comments and contact. among them his former communications director, the mayor acknowledged transgressions earlier this month. take a listen. >> i am embarrassed to admit that i have failed to full ri respect the women who work for me and with me. i'm humbled to admit that i need help. i have begun to work with professionals to make changes in my behavior and approach. . >> okay, now four more women all prominent members of the san diego community, have come forward including a retired u.s. navy admiral who says she was in filner's former congressional office when he made an advance. >> all guys left. i was the last one in the room. bob stepped between me and the doorway and stopped me and the got close to me. he ran his finger up my cheek and he whispered to me, do you have a man in your life? and i jumped back. i was very startled. i said, yes, i have a man in my life. >> you know, mika, it it reminds me of the all greek saying. those whom the gods would destroy would bless with bob filner. i can't seen say it with a straight face. what is he thinks? it's compulsive. i'm going to say, why is he still in office? >> i'm going to go -- >> eugene robinson, we worked with this guy in washington. i had no idea. i'm sure you had no idea. but why is he still in office out there? >> it's a good question. >> the women aren't safe in city hall. they had to put a restraining order on him. he can't be alone with a woman in the same zip code. >> this is the mayor of one of our major cities who is now forbidden to be alone with a woman. it's just incredible. the whole thing -- first of all, that bob filner is mayor of san diego is pretty incredible. he's a democrat. that's almost unheard of for a long time in that city. the city hall is kind of a republican stronghold. that, i suspect, is one reason why democrats were a bit slow to kind of jump on the obvious band wagon here and ask the question why is this guy still in office? he's warring with the head of the city council, also a democrat. they don't like each other. i think forces are coming together and i think he's probably going to have to go. >> really quickly. i want to ask jeff greenfield and mike this question. people are saying this is the worst politics has ever been. u wonder, what if we had twitter in the early 1970s on the campaign trail or instagram or sn snapchat. it would have been pretty ugly back then too. >> we have more ways for people to exercise that grip of sexual compulsion. i guess i don't find this a new shocking phenomenon. the idea that powerful men feel entitled this is part of the perks of their job or driven by compulsion. you had to at least make a phone call in the 1970s. now you think you can do this and get away with it because you're in the privacy of your home. and you somehow have this delusion that other people aren't going to catch on or if you hit on every woman around you, that's not exactly a new story. >> i think technology has given a place to a lot of these problems that people have and give it is a new domain that allows it to even get worse. having said that, we're talking a lot here about men and there are women involved in these situations as well. women who are taking a part of it. and we see this in a lot of industries with powerful people. and in politics, i grew up in washington. i met a lot of men who think they can take whatever they want from women and have sex with whoever they want and a lot of women who are willing to, who troll for power in washington. who go there for that reason. so there is this sort of politics, power, getting elected, this sense of self and lack of self awareness that gets proinvestigatored in politics. >> but filner's victims, we wouldn't say that about them. these are employees. it's deadly serious. i think those women certainly exist pup lived and worked in washington and saw that too. but it's something so different and sinister when you're preying upon employees in your office. that's very, very troubling. and strewly sinister. >> eugene, did you want to jump in? >> i wanted to say the filner case. that's physical. that's a different dimension and it's very old story. >> yep. let's move on to capitol hill. it's republican versus republican there when it comes to defeating obama care. marco rubio is fighting over how to appeal the affordable care a act. some believe is to demand the health care law be defunded as a condition to keep the government running. rubio took a hard stance against the plan saying if we're not going to have a red line in the sand on obama care, what will we have a red line in the sand on? i would say to them if it's not achievable, it's because they are conceding defeat before they try. some fear such action would create a pr nightmare over the threat of another government shutdown. >> i think it's the dumbest idea i have ever heard of. >> why do you say that? >> listen, as long as barack obama is president, the affordable care act is going to be law. >> you were around in '95. >> i was around in '95. some of these guys need to understand you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it that's achievable. >> exactly. you better have a specific reason to do it that's achievable. of course, richard burr remembers crazy people like me carrying torches around when we shut down the government in 1995. we had a specific reason to do it. we got something out of it. eventually we were able to bring president clinton to the table. nicole, you have said some nice things about marco rubio. i know him, i like him. i have known him for some time in florida politics and admired him from afar when he was speaker of the house. this is insulting. i don't mind when politicians play for the cheap seats. but marco rubio has been scrambling so much, playing for the cheap seats so much that it has become a come pumgs. it's become a habit since he got exposed on immigration reform. and he got too far out there. so now we have marco rubio being one of three senators that were talking about completely shutting down the budget process. we have marco rubio in this case, talking about something that he knows is not achievable, that republican senators knows is not achievable and damages the republican brand just getting this word out there. this is the sort of thing where people play for the presidential race three years down the road and hurt people, hurt the republicans, hurt the conservative movement. all of us that want to see conservatives win next year in senate races, it's just, are you disappointed with what he's been doing? >> yeah, because when you get to the presidential political game, it unfortunately is play like a game these days. i worked for both guys. you may not always agree with me, but you'll always know where i stand. that provided a winning contrast to john kerry. then i worked for senator mccain who felt like he was carrying a burden on his back, his position for comprehensive immigration reform when he stood with the late senator ted kennedy and george bush and he was for comprehensive immigration reform. i think it damaged senator mccain ip rep ra bli to back pedal and politicize the stance. i think voters are not stupid. when you calculate a position based on what you perceive to be the politics of the time, you pay a price bigger than sticking to your guns and say you may not agree with me, but i thought doing something about the 11 million people who are here was a good idea. i understand you weren't with me, but i did what i thought was right. he'd been in a better position if he owned it and stop pd scrambling to get to the right of rand paul and ted cruz. it's ridiculous. >> exactly because that's not who he is. he's a conservative guy, but he's not ted cruz. >> we shouldn't want him to be. he sont want to be. >> no. let those guys occupy -- rand paul is very comfortable in that area. ted cruz, obviously, very comfortable as a superrepublican, super conservative. that's not marco's brand. whoever is telling him to act this way is geing him off his game. you have to know who you are. i believe in the same things today they believed in the 1994 positions and moved a little bit, but my governing philosophy is the same. and marco, you just don't change it. let's go to david gregory. david, obviously, this immigration reform fight has put marco rubio in a position he doesn't want to be in. everybody is whispering to him, run in 2016. run for president. he's now putting himself in a position where he's going to be out of the mainstream in a swing state like florida. you name the issue. if you talk about background checks, if you talk about him being one of three or four senators that stopped the budget process dead in its tracks after we finally got democrats to do what they did. now we're talking about shutting down the government. as richard burr said, not only is it stupid politically because democrats would love that, it's going to be ineffective. we won't get what we want any way. >> i think the white house is guttering for that fight. they would like to have the potential shutdown fight with the republicans this time around. and i'm with you. i think that's a dangerous game to play under these circumstances given where we are. and i think what's striking to me about rubio's position is, yes, he's now paying a price for being so out front on immigration, but that can change. we have forgotten that it wasn't very long ago when the imperative for the republican party was not just to get right with its base, but to get right with hispanics in this country who are the fastest-growing voting bloc for immigration is a huge issue. it's other independents, it's suburban or moderate voters who will certainly come out in 2016 and be a factor. so i actually, nicole is right as well. i think rubio may take some of these positions. they may look dangerous now. he's going to have to ramp up if he's preparing for a run that robust defense of putting his neck out there, standing on principle on the issue of immigration, and having that debate between now and even if he's standing up there with conservative opponents that are a primary fight on a debate stage to say this is the stand i took and this is why it matters to the country and economy and our party. >> by the way, what i just said about mario rubio applies to the entire republican party. you don't completely transform on a single issue because you got pounded in the last election. it's not -- americans aren't going to believe -- if republicans are only going trooiing to pass immigration reform and moving millions and millions of illegal immigrants to citizen status because they got pound ed in the demographic group, that's not going to help in 2016. it's not that narrow. they don't have to be that extreme going from one extreme to another extreme. so what i just said about marco rubio, if it's not in your dna, don't do it. that fits with the republican party too. everybody is panicking now on immigration reform. they need to relax and they don't need to listen to manhattan. they don't need to listen to washington. they need to listen to their constituents and look at the larger issue of what's best for the country. there's a lot of panic in the republican party and it starts on this immigration issue with marco rubio. >> so taking a more broad per speckive, let's go to eugene robinson and then jeff here. you wrote the new normal in washington. is it? >> well, i think it might be actually, if you kind of look at the longer term trends. it's dangerous to e predict. but democrats do seem to have a sort of building advantage in national elections in the presidential years because of demographics, because of immigration reform, because of a lot of issues. and republicans are in safe districts and safe house districts. so you could envision, if you. ed wants to go out on a limb, of a period of divided government where it has impact by obstructing and not so much by doing. but marco rubio thing is really interesting because he is eloquent. if you sit down with him across a table, he's eloquent on the subject of immigration reform. he's very smart about it. he's thought about it a lot. e he explains it it very well. >> he says one thing in english and says another when he's talking in. spanish. >> i do speak both languages and that is true, joe. but it's as if he's taking advice right now from mitt romney and is forgetting the lesson of authenticity. he is who he is and needs to be who he is rather than who people want him to be. >> jeff greenfield? >> when you look at what happens to a party with electoral problems, someone shows up and challenges the party. bill clinton challenged it it on everything from the death penalty to welfare. george bush on the federal role in education. by contrast, mitt romney, there was not a single moment in 2012 where he said to the party, i disagree with you on this. it was a constant effort to sort of, if you don't like the word pander, placate. that's part of the problem. the republicans can do fine in 2014 because of what eugene robinson talked about. the same in 2010. obstructionism deny hurt them, it it may have helped them. a presidential race, if one of these people dun begin laying out an argument for saying here's where i am and i disagree with you, you could even go to tony blair in great britain where they say we have to change. you almost have to win that battle among your own people before you take it to the country. that's one of the challenges. >> jeff greenfield, one thing the party doesn't need to do after it faces electoral disaster is listen to the pundits. go back to 1964. everybody said that barry goldwater and the conservative movement. he si delawa he destroyed the conservative movement. you look at what was written after the '64 demolition. . you look at what happened after republicans lost in 1976. there was all of this advice that at the end ended up being completely wrong. republicans rebounded in 1966. reagan won and they were off to races. it happened naturally. it didn't happen with them call claiting going we lost in '64 so e we need to be more moderate in '66. i'm not saying that republicans need to bolt for the right. all i'm saying is it it doesn't need to be calculated. we lost the hispanic vote by x amount, so we're going to have to create new legislation that completely changes our position on that issue. that doesn't work either. >> so guys, i want an update from spain. we're talking about one of europe's deadliest train crashes in decades. apparently the problem, as we reported earlier, had everything to do with speed. we have nbc's kier simmons live in spain. >> reporter: hi, mika. this is one of a number of hospitals where the people are being treated. the investigation is underway looking at the trains black box and focusing on the driver and the speed because reports suggest the train was traveling at more than twice the 50 miles per hour speed limit. so the question today is, was the driver to blame or was it some kind of a system failure? is this the man who caused europe's worst train disaster in decades? he was the driver now under investigation for driving too fast. on his facebook page, he has boasted about speeding posting pictures of the speedometer 200 kilometers an hour. that's more than 120 miles per hour. on board, 18-year-old steven ward from utah, a mor mom missionary describes the crash as like a scene from hell. he believes the train was going through fast. >> it said about 100 kilometers per hour. right before we crashed, i looked up and it said 194, which is about 130 miles per hour. >> reporter: in the broken cars, anna maria from virginia was killed. her husband and daughter among five americans injured. back home in virginia, neighbors are heartbroken. >> she's a phenomenal person. anyone that knew her, knew she had god in her life. >> reporter: another injured was robert from houston. >> it became chaos. things flew. it was sudden darkness. i was kind of thrown on one side of the train. >> reporter: his wife was badly wounded. >> she was sitting on the side where the train flipped over. so everything kind of fell on her. and two other people. she was under about three people and about five chairs and maybe about three or four luggages. and so i couldn't see her the at all. i'm screaming out for her name. >> reporter: amateur video shows smoke pouring from the wreckage. my, god, the cameraman says. this is a nightmare. in the chaos, robert was debt des prattly calling for his wife. >> i was hysterical and screaming out her name to make sure she's conscious to know we were still looking for her. >> reporter: spain is in mourning. the king visited the hospital where robert's wife is now critically ill. >> all she wanted was for me to hug her. >> reporter: i just spoken again to robert and doctors say that his wife while she is critical, she is now stable. he says that doctors say when he's by her hospital bed, she responds. her heart rate increases. she knows he is there. he says that the two of them were in europe for their daughter's wedding. now he and his daughter are sitting in there by his wife's bedside. >> keir simmons, thank you for the report. we'll be following that. before we go to break, david gregory, what do you have coming up this sunday on "meet the press"? >> a lot to talk about in termsover the budget. also a debate over these nsa surveillance programs. congressman of michigan who nearly with an amendment was able to overturn the surveillance programs. and mike rogers of the intelligence committee. >> david, thank you so much. eugene, thank you as well. and jeff greenfield, great to see you. up next, has american exceptionalism run its course? new york magazine's benjamin wallace-wells says it's crazy to expect another revolution to break the slump. you're watching "morning joe," brews by starbucks. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal worker's union. and you know what i walked out with? 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and that leads to the suggestion maybe economic growth is almost over. >> okay. that was world renowned economist robert gordon in february sharing his doubts about american economy. now from baltimore, benjamin wallace-wells who writes about robert gordon. is american exceptionalism dead? that goes against the fabric of the ways americans think, but is it? >> well, i think when gordon is most compelling, he's making an argument ab the past. he's saying the period from 1870 to 1970 in the united states was completely exceptional. the levels of growth that we were able to achieve year after year for a century is something that hadn't been achieved, you know, any time before, even imagined anywhere else in the world. what he's saying is that period of growth was due to a very specific thing. it was due to the spooling out of the innovations of the second industrial revolution. the internal combustion engine, electricity. if you look at the period we're now in, the post 1970 period, it's the year of computerization where that's the big technology that spooled out. it it doesn't have the juice to match it it. with the exception of this internet boom from 1996 to 2004, the year over year productivity improvements don't match what we had for a century. >> i'll bring joe in for the next question, but we made unbelievable gains you saw in the small clip. the incredible leap that we made in transportation and innovation. season it it easier to look back than to look forward? >> yeah, sure. but the bottom line is we're now entering a decade -- and i think we all agree from 1884 and at least through the 1950s, early 1960s, the united states exploded at unprecedented rates. we're not going to explode at those rates. but as we move forward, you look at a couple fund m ls. the top ten universities, research yuuniversities of the world. we have an energy boom coming up. manufacturing is changing. the outsourcing that was the fad over the past decade coming back. it seems to me in the age that we're in that's going to reward talent, reward imagination, it seems the united states is well positioned as anybody to thrive in the coming century, are they not? >> i think there's two points to make to sort of mitigate that. one is the generation of americans who are now in their 20s are the first generation that will not be anymore educated than their parents in american history. so we're flplateauing. even though we have harvards and stanfo stanford,s we have a high infrastructure for innovation, we done have the kind of growth in human capital that we've been able to see for a long century. >> why is that? >> why are we seeing that plate plateauing? i think there's problems with paying for college. i think we have demographic issu issues. but the bottom line is that, you know, the kids who are coming out now are not, you know, getting --. their parents didn't have a bachel bachelor's degree, they are not getting a bachelor's degree. we're not seeing that improvement that we saw for a century. >> benjamin, thank you. jenna bush hager explains how her grandfather is still breaking bare yers. keep it here on "morning joe." when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... you need brushes... you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. refresh your home inside or out with behr premium plus ultra. interior flat starts at $31.98 a gallon. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's a golden opportunity to discover the heart-pounding exhilaration beyond the engineering. ♪ come to the golden opportunity sales event to experience the precision handling of the lexus performance vehicles, including the gs and all-new is. ♪ this is the pursuit of perfection. still ahead, david axelrod joins us. how a young boy is fighting cancer with the help of a former president. jenna bush hager explains how her grandfather is still giving back. keep it here on "morning joe." oh this is lame, investors could lose tens of thousands of dollars on their 401(k) to hidden fees. is that what you're looking for, like a hidden fee in your giant mom bag? 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[ female announcer ] oil free moisture. wi drive a ford fusion. who is healthier, you or your car? i would say my car. probably the car. cause as you get older you start breaking down. i love my car. i want to take care of it. i have a bad wheel - i must say. my car is running quite well. keep your car healthy with the works. $29.95 or less after $10 mail-in rebate at your participating ford dealer. so you gotta take care of yourself? yes you do. you gotta take care of your baby? oh yeah! 41 past the hour. here with us now, correspondent jenna bush hager. she got some one-on-one time with her grandfather, president george h.w. bush. thank you for coming on. >> of course. good morning. my grandfather's always inspired us, but this time it's a little boy that's inspiring him. i started off by asking him, why the new haircut? when othering as heard of his cancer diagnosis, like a band of brothe brothers, they rallied around their own. >> a wonderful group of people. . they are like family with us. >> and so just two days ago after more than 20 secret servicemen shaifd shaved their heads, it was my grandfather's turn. >> you. ed to see that little boy smile. >> just kind of identify with him. >> and when you held that little boy on your lap -- >> that was fun. cute little guy. >> do you think he knew you were once the president of the united states? >> no. >> do you think he cared? >> he's so young. >> and though patrick saw him as just another bald comrade, his parents saw something more. >> and i heard that his wife, john's wife, when she pulled in she started crying. >> weeping. there she stood. she hadn't seen them. there were 20 or so people. i mean, everybody practically had shaved their heads. and i mean she was really touched. >> a statement released by patrick's parents, they say, we're humbled and honored by the support and generosity that president and mrs. bush and our secret service family have shown towards our son. and we are so very grateful for the outpouring of love and support from all over the country. the nauch of their jobs prevents the secret service from speaking publicly, but their actions speak volumes. encouraging even my grandfather's staff to pick up their razors. >> what does this prove to you about how these men are? >> they are very supportive group. they go above and beyond the call of duty. they are not just there to protect. >> how does this look with the ladies? still working out? >> good character building getting shot down more often. >> you're getting shot down? >> not me. >> my grandmother seems to like it. >> away did you think about the haircut? >> i was shocked and surprised and thrilled. i think he looks beautiful. he looks younger. >> but this is more than a haircut and it is deeply personal for my grandparents who lost a child to leukemia. robin was just 3 when she died almost 60 years ago. >> what did robin use to say to you? >> a lot of things. i love you more. >> you loved it when she would say that. >> yeah. >> he always answered, i love you more. >> it makes you think about her when you say it now even. >> absolutely. >> i may be biassed, but i agree with robin. >> you're the cutest. >> and this band of brothers was actually trying to raise awareness and funds for little patrick through a website called patrick's pals. >> i bet it will. jenna bush hager, that's an incredible story. nicole, we were talking about how beloved he is. >> does your grandfather, i know your grandmother does, but does your grandfather realize how moved people are, of every age group, people who were 5 years old when he was president and wonder why she's so extraordinary. does he have any idea? >> no, and i asked him that question. i said were you surprised by the attention this got? his socks, everything he does seems to get attention. he said, i don't think it gets attention. he's truly one of the most humble men i have ever known. >> jenna, what a great honor and opportunity for you. >> it was just to spend time with him. >> it was great to watch. >> thank you so much. to learn more about how you can help patrick, visit patrickspals.org. up next, she broke through with more than 20 appearances on the oprah winfrey show. now she has a show on oprah's network. life coach iyaanla joins us next. you're watching "morning joe." with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. 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"dedication: that's the real walmart" i experience my mother as a bully. can you own that? >> yes. >> let me hear it. >> i experience my mother as a bully. >> and that makes me feel what? >> it makes me feel hurt. it makes me feel hurt. >> yeah. go right there. it makes me feel hurt. >> i don't know. i don't know where it starts. i just don't want it to end. >> okay, so how does she do that? that was a clip from "iyanla fix my life" on oprah winfrey network. here with us, the host of that show, spiritual life coach iyanla vanzant. that looked like a really powerful -- i want to know how that an ends now. >> i can't tell you, you have to watch. >> in the break, we were talking about different sex scandals going on. we said, how would you fix this person? you said, first, they have to want it. so that's where it begins? tell us about the show. >> even though the show is called "iyanla fix my life" it's actually the guest who does the fixing. i give them tools and information. only the individual can fix their own life by having a clear vision of what they want. >> what types of problems do you tackle on your show? >> human problems, you know. everything from breakdowns in families. breakdowns in relationships. people with lack of vision. folks who need to move forward. because we live in a world where people don't know how to be people anymore. they know how to be what they do. but just to deal with the normal everyday challenges. how to have a clear complete conversation. how to create a vision for yourself. how to redirect your life. we don't learn this anywhere. and so we have so many challenges in our families, in our communities. because we don't have people skills. >> really? >> i'm curious, what do the people who are on your show what do they want more? do they want to be fixed or do they want to be on tv? >> they want to be fixed. the problem that they're facing whatever is going on for them has created so much pain that they're willing to expose themselves personally, which is something that many people really aren't willing to do. and we don't do the kind of show that's going to make anybody famous or being bad behavior. i do not tolerate bad behavior. they want to really end the pain and how courageous of people to step forward and reveal the most sacred places of their life publicly, you know, most of us want even tell our partner how much we weigh. >> and while you -- i know, everyone, their weight -- we would criticize being overly sharing, i will say i wrote a book about food addiction, and i was so horrified by it, but the reason i did it was to call myself out and to stop, you know, you can't really do it alone. >> and that was my question i guess for both of you now. i was thinking about corey monteith, this bright young star of "glee," was drug addiction. is it a single switch that must be flipped? >> absolutely. you cannot heal something unless it's witnessed. you can't get your hypertension lowered. until the problem is witnessed, it cannot be healed. >> what's the most common thing people come to you for? >> relationships. relationships. on the verge of a breakdown. i mean, on the verge of a divorce. trying to get the other person to see, feel, honor your pain. so relationships i think are the biggest things. >> how did you become a fixer? >> actually, i'm a minister, that's number one, and i'm a life coach. i'm a spiritual life coach. i've trained life coaches. i've been a minister for 30 years. and just understand the essence and the spirit of people not from a religious place but from a very broader perspective and the power that we have as individuals. and i became a fixer because i had so many broken parts of my own life. >> like what? >> like what? dysfunction. raped at 9, teenage mother, lived on welfare. was dismissed as a poor black woman. welfare recipient in the projects. and then went to college. went to law school. wrote my first book. now i have 15. so how do you do that along the way? >> how do you do that? how did you get through that? >> for me, spiritual grounding. that means i don't care what's going on. because when you're a black woman on welfare in the projects, there's not much in the world that's going to lift you up. you've got to draw it up from in here. and that's what i had to do. so i had to develop a deeper relationship with something stronger than a human being. and for me it was the spirit. and i took copious notes about the mistakes that i made and how i fixed them and what i was telling myself and what was going on. and then i began to share those notes. >> you can catch iyanla fix my life on own this saturday at 9:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. central. it is an honor and pleasure to meet you. i think i want to -- up next, speaking of, the leaders who simply can't control themselves. how new revelations are impacting anthony weiner's standing in the pollings. and it's not just here in new york. we're hearing new accusations about the mayor of san diego. it's not pretty. it's not pretty. 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on monday, he was the front-runner to become mayor of the big apple. one more sexting scandal later he has apparently blown his lead. christine quinn now leads. he's dropped 9 points from last month. weiner has forfeited his lead among women voters. his favorable ratings which surged early plummeted 22 points. one number that is growing for weiner, the amount of women with whom he admits to exchanging these messages with. that includes those he messaged after he resigned from congress. >> it's not dozens -- just like i told "the post" and they made a big headline out of it. it is not dozens. it is 6 to 10 i suppose but i can't tell you absolutely what someone else is going to consider inappropriate or not. >> were they sexual? how many conversations did you have with women after you resigned that were sexual in nature? >> i don't believe i had anymore than three. >> okay. so, i mean, joe, he just needs to say, i had a problem. and i sought help. >> you know what he needs to do, he needs to say, i'll tell yowl wh you what i'm going to do, i'm going to go off the campaign trail for a year or two and i'll calculate it and get back to you. >> if he stays in the race, which i think is a legitimate question, house minority leader nancy pelosi is among his public critics. >> let me be very clear, the conduct of some of these people that we're talking about here is reprehensible. it is so disrespectful of women. and what's really stunning about it is they don't even realize it, you know, they don't have a clue. and it is really -- if they're clueless, get a clue. they need therapy. do it in private. >> we're hearing for the first time, the woman who reignited the scandal. her name is cindy leathers. >> come on, come on. >> wow. >> and she's 23. she's a democratic activist from india indiana. she said he asked her to delete logs of their graphics chats as recently as april. she said by then she was also aware that he was planning to run for mayor. >> he was making these campaign promises that he had totally changed and he was a better man and he learned from his mistakes. and i am proof that is not true. >> do you think he was trying to pull one over on voters of new york? >> oh, absolutely, otherwise, he wouldn't have went on the whole, oh, i'm a changed man, i've learned my lesson, he wouldn't have said all those things, if he wasn't trying to be someone he wasn't. >> well, anthony weiner admits his sexual escapades continued until recently. i know, stop. it's just -- no, no. >> you realize we are giving massive coverage to a candidate who is a mental patient, a mental patient. >> a flasher. >> okay. eliot spitzer on the other hand insists -- all right. it's tough, it's tough. when asked by a reporter if he had been with prostitutes since resigning as governor, spitzer said absolutely not, add, i'm done answering this question. still, his campaign for city comptroller faces obstacles. new york citier mayor bloomberg took a shot at the candidate for boasting about fighting wall street. one of the things that's not very helpful, one of the candidates for one of the citywide offices takes great pride in being able to go after wall street. this is our industry. that doesn't help. thank you very much. we'd appreciate it if someone recognized that this is our tax base. this is how we pay our firefighters and police officers and provide services. and, joe, i've got one other story that's sort of related. what do you make of mayor bloomberg's statements on the wall street? can we try and keep it away from -- >> well, i think it's very legitimate. i think this is actually going to be eliot spitzer's bigger problem. there's going to be a lot of people out there that he went after on wall street. they're going to actually be trying to get back at him and trying to defeat him. there are a lot of people that hate greenberg and others believe he went after him in an unjustified way. certainly the wall street editorial page would agree with that. bloomberg would agree with that as well. so i do think this will be an issue. at the end of the day, i think he gets all the money he needs and he still wins. but this is a very legitimate issue. wall street brings in so much money for new york city. it's at the heart of its tax base. it funds so many programs. it keeps schools open that would normally be closed if wall street weren't there. i mean, look at detroit and that's basically what, you know, happens when you have the heart of a city ripped out. i'm not saying that's what -- i'm not saying that's what spitzer wants to do. i'm just saying everybody hates wall street but in new york city that is the heart of your tax base and that's why the city runs as well as it does. >> san diego's mayor is facing real backlash. i'm going to san diego now. accused of unwanted sexual advances by a growing number of women. >> this is the trifecta. >> i've got them all right here. okay. three women initially accused bob fillner of making inappropriate contact. among them, his former communications director. the mayor acknowledged transgressions earlier this month. take a listen. >> i'm embarrassed to admit i have failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me. i'm also humbled to admit that i need help. i have begun to work with professionals to make changes in my behavior and approach. >> good lord. >> now four more women have come forward, including a retired u.s. army major who says she was in his office when he made an advance. >> all the guys left. i was the last one in the room. and bob stepped between me and the doorway and he stopped me and he got very close to me and he ran his finger up my cheek like this and he whispered to me, do you have a man in your life? i jumped back. i was very, very startled. i said, yes, i have a man in my life. >> oh. you know this is the curse, mika, of being born beautiful. bob filner i mean, he is the robert redford actually, if you just look at the good look, sort of the rugged western good looks. who does this! and why does bob filner think anybody wants him to do that? what is wrong with these people? >> this is an incredible story. i'm going to hold back on what i thought when i saw this but i was riveted. another juror who sat on the george zimmerman murder trial is speaking out. identified as juror b-29. the 36-year-old woman said she was hoping to deliver a different verdict than not guilty. >> my first vote was second degree murder. it was hard. a lot of us wanted to find something bad, something we could connect to the law. for myself, he's guilty. because the evidence shows he's guilty. >> he's guilty of? >> killing trayvon martin. but as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can't find -- you can't say he's guilty. >> as a mother, juror b-29 says she owes trayvon martin's family an apology. trayvon martin mother says she was devastated to hear that, saying she believes zimmerman got away, quote, with murder. the juror in that interview not only said that he got away with murder, but then sort of talking about the reality that the law didn't allow her to give a different verdict. but ultimately he has to respond to a much higher -- to god about this and that's what she lives with. >> a lot people looking at this may be depressed. should be depressed. what george zimmerman got away with, chasing trayvon martin down, when the dispatcher said, leave him alone. chasing him down, saying "they always get away." again, the fact this guy was carrying a gun, chasing through the neighborhood, and killed him, obviously, and the fact that the guy is walking home is mind-boggling. there are so many racial overtones. the reaction of many people -- really have been depressing. i'll tell you what's not depressing though. and i say all of that as a precursor to this. it says so much about these jurors, that they actually took their instructions from the judge and they followed the law. they did what the law told them to do, even when it didn't feel right, they followed the law, and they should be commended for that. it was tough for them. it was tough obviously with this young woman. she's going to have to live with that pain of knowing that she had to let a guy off who killed trayvon martin. and who was completely responsible for this, for these series of events because he ignored the police dispatcher and he acted in an abhorrent fashion. but the jury, that juror, did the right thing. i think they should be commended for it. they followed the law. it was not jury nullification. they followed the law. >> i also think it confirms a lot of our instincts about what happened in this trial, about what really happened out there in the night. and that these jurors were in a horrible position. i think in some ways -- >> well, it's the law of florida. if you don't like the laws in florida, change the laws in flori florida. this wasn't even stand your ground. this had to do with self-defense. but stand your ground framed so much, mike barnicle, of the investigation leading up to the trial itself that you -- these stand your ground laws do need to be addressed. but at the end of the day, mike, you know, they did what they had to do. i heard jimmy carter getting bashed by a lot of bloggers on left. jmy carter was right. we said it at the beginning of the trial. even though we were so angry at zimmerman. the law is the law is the law. you have to follow the law. and that's exactly what the jurors did. jimmy carter said it and he was right. >> he was right. the construct of the law following the trial, the construct of the law literally left the jurors handcuffed in terms of decision making. they had no option. listen to the judge's charge to the jury. they had no option. you hear that juror say she would have liked to have voted for manslaughter. >> i tell you this, mika, i hope that after what george zimmerman did racially profiling a guy, a teenage er, carrying nothing but skittles, and profiling because he was black, chasing through a neighborhood, calling a dispatcher. the dispatcher saying back off. i think all of these things add up to a massive gap in the law. where a guy like this does get away with i think murder. other peep, you know, manslaughter, whatever you want to call it, there need to be new laws passed that stop this sort of vij lanlty vick lagilante ju. if you're carrying and following somebody and somebody dies, maybe you're not guilty of first degree murder, but you're going to jail. >> oscar director barry levenson is standing by. he's producing "copper" set in 1865, in new york city. up next, david axelrod and michael crowley. will it translate into action on capitol hill? first, here's the forecast. >> staring at the weekend straight ahead. we're still watching doria. but i'm not as worried about this storm as i was yesterday. it is heading in our general direction but it is very weak. winds are struggling. it's bringing in some dry air it it's a very small system. even if i had plans down in the bahamas or the caribbean in the next week or two, i wouldn't be too concerned. it's going to be a very weak-type storm. we'll keep tracking it as long as it keeps heading our way. how are we doing this morning? if you chose this last two-day period to be out on cape cod, it's ugly. temperatures in the 60s. it's raining. all of that is heading into the beach of maine and new hampshire today. some of that rain trying to make its way down to dallas-ft. worth and that's good because it's going to cool it off after a hot period. today, a shower and storm, we're tracking cold canadian air. only 68 in minneapolis today. saturday in the great lakes, highs upper 60s to low 70s. it's like an early taste of fall. some of that will make its way to the southeast and east coast by the time we get to the end of the weekend. kind of crazy weather out there. washington, d.c., i know everyone's enjoying the break in the humidity today. lots of sunshine, low 80s. doesn't get much better than this. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbuckings. a quarter million tweeters musicare tweeting.eamed. and 900 million dollars are changing hands online. that's why the internet needs a new kind of server. one that's 80% smaller. uses 89% less energy. and costs 77% less. it's called hp moonshot. and it's giving the internet the room it needs to grow. this ...is going to be big. it's time to build a better enterprise. together. cheryl burke is cha-cha-ing in depend silhouette briefs for charity, to prove that with soft fabric and waistband, the best protection looks, fits, and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try for yourself. to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? 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[ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. and now there's ocuvite eye + multi. an eye vitamin and multivitamin in one. and now there's ocuvite eye + multi. wi drive a ford fusion. who is healthier, you or your car? i would say my car. probably the car. cause as you get older you start breaking down. i love my car. i want to take care of it. i have a bad wheel - i must say. my car is running quite well. keep your car healthy with the works. $29.95 or less after $10 mail-in rebate at your participating ford dealer. so you gotta take care of yourself? yes you do. you gotta take care of your baby? oh yeah! to save big during sleep train's triple choice sale.chance for a limited time, you can choose to save hundreds on beautyrest and posturepedic mattress sets. or choose $300 in free gifts with sleep train's most popular tempur-pedic mattresses. you can even choose 48 months interest-free financing on the new tempur-choice with head-to-toe customization. the triple choice sale, ends sunday at sleep train! ♪ sleep train ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ i'm laying out my ideas to give the middle class a better shot. and if the republicans don't agree with me, i want them to lay out their ideas. come on. let me know what your ideas are. i'm listening. repealing obama care and slashing our budgets on education and research and infrastructure, that's not an economic plan. threatening that you won't pay the bills in this country when we've already racked up those bill, that's not an economic plan. that's just being a deadbeat. >> you know, the president pivoted this week to jobs as he has been known to do on occasion. under the president's leadership, our country has fallen under the new normal of slow growth, high unemployment and stagnant wages. i think it's unacceptable. but his speech turned out to be all sizzle and no steak. that's assuming that there is any sizzle left after you've reheated this thing so many times. >> sizzle? >> oh, my gosh. joining us now from chicago, former senior adviser to president obama, now director of chicago's institute of politics and nbc con tritributor david axelrod. on set, senior "time" correspondent michael crowley. nicolle wallace still with us as well. i'll let you respond to the criticism that the president's speeches are all sizzle and no steak. what say you? >> i've seen this commentary, people saying he's been saying this for years, this is what he said eight years ago. yeah, this is what he believes. i heard the conversation the last hour about marco rubio and how there's inconsistency. je said, i believed what i believed in 1994. the president believes certain things. the president believes if we're going to preserve the middle class in our economy, we have to invest in education and reso i and development and infrastructure. and do certain things to secure the future. he's been saying that for a long time. his budgets reflect that. those are the principles he's fighting for. it may irritate speaker boehner to hear it because he doesn't agree, but the american people voted on it. this is what the president ran on. he won a solid victory. now congress is sitting on its hands. so the president's going out there and making its case. >> joe, jump in. >> so, david, we've been friends for a long time. i like you -- >> oh, that's not good. this is like the "bless your heart." >> all due respect, my dear friend, you know, and jay carney, i cringe, you know, but he yelled at me the other day so i wonder into this with trepidation, i'm a little worried. but the president and -- i don't know where they get this word from but it's crazy. they both say the same thing. phony scandals. phony scandals. do you believe, as the president believes, as jay carney believes, that let's say what happened at the irs is a, quote, phony scandal? because it happened in the past, right? >> no, what i believe is what happened at the irs was stupid and disturbing. i don't think it was a scandal. i think the behavior was something that needs to be corrected. i don't think it was the political scandal. i don't think that's the big issue, joe. the big issue is are we gonna have a reasonable discussion about how to move the country forward or simply sit on our hands? he said last week before the president made a speech he's going to be judged by the laws he repealed not by the laws he passes. if squeal and repeal is your approach to government, then we have a problem. so i think that's the -- >> squeal and -- you know what -- david axelrod, if i had known you in 1994, i would have had my campaign slogan. "squeal and repeal." so let me ask you this, so let's just go down the check list really quickly. you believe, because i want to get to the economy, you believe people that have real concerns about what happened ped with the irs, you think that's legitimate, right? >> i think the president had concerns about it. he replaced the management of the irs. he charged them with what was done there. i don't think searching for the smoking gun of a political scandal, with the white house or someone in a high place ordered this, think that is a phony deal. i don't think that is the real issue. >> but we're finding out now, again this is the last question i want to ask on this, we're finding out now though you actually had the president's chief counsel, who was having all of these conservative applications kicked up to him while other applications were not being kicked up to him. that obviously is something that should concern americans, isn't it? >> well, i think it's also true. we've learned subsequent to the original, you know, bombshell and despite the fact chairman issa tried to subdue this information or secret this information, there were organizations -- >> -- didn't get kicked up to the chief counsel, it was only the tea party, patriot applications that were instructed to be kicked up from cincinnati to the chief counsel who the president appointed. two appointments in the irs. >> we've had these discussions back and forth. i think what happened there was insane. i've said before ifs there was political involvement there, you wouldn't have had this, because it was so patently ridiculous on the face of it. i think what happened was you had a bunch of bureaucrats who were short-handed. in their minds, finding short cuts, using key words, was a way to cut down the load. the response is cut the irs another 19% or in ted cruiz's case to eliminate the irs. i don't think that's going to solve the problem. don't think there should be short cuts on something this sensitive. but we ought to move on. this is a big issue. there's a concern that has to be addressed. there are bigger issues facing this country. we shouldn't let that be a distraction as we try and deal with these issues. >> michael, as we look at the irs situation, we shouldn't let fumbling republican leadership on this matter be a distraction from the fact. we did find out last week for the first time that actually there were instructions -- that this wasn't just cincinnati and a local office and bureaucrats, there were direct instructions if these applications said tea party or patriot on it, that got kicked up to washington, the chief counsel, the irs, who is one of two appointees that president obama appointed. that is -- that is at lead something that journalists should follow, right, to see exactly why that is. do you agree with that? >> joe, at the risk of incurring your wrath, i don't fault you for taking the story seriously. i think it's totally valid for reporters to get as much detail about what happened here as possible. but i think that, you know, if you fault the president for trying to dismiss the story like this and turning back to the economy, i think it's hard to fault him. i think people get a little bored about the debates about what to do about the economy. weem heard him say most of it about 1,000 times. but we still have millions of people unemployed. more important, we're coming up against potentially crossroads of enormous consequences -- >> i agree with you 100%. no, you're not going to incur my wrath, i just asked you a question. this is a question from me to you as a journalist. should journalists, after we found out last week in a hearing, found out that there were instructions to kick any applications that said tea party or patriot up to the president's -- one or two of the president's appointees in the irs. the chief counsel. should journalists be interested in investigating that? >> some should but i don't think all of washington should be completely consumed with -- >> nobody's suggesting that. >> because i'm a journalist who actually did follow this. it's a little complicated. joe's right. there were instructions to put out more guidance for these tea party applications. and that's a story. however, it's a little bit more complicated than this. what happened was one of the two appointees has an office of about 1,600 personnel. these applications weren't being kicked up to the chief counsel, they were being kicked up to the chief counsel's office. so it's a little bit tough to tie to the accounts themselves. the other allegation is this guy met with obama in april of 2012. and after that, they revised the be on the lookout guidelines for these organizations. there's one or two problems with this. one is he actually met with obama on matters totally irrelevant. in fact, it was a photo op, rudimentary photo ops. secondly, april 2012 -- >> watered down -- >> -- that's when they were whispered to each other -- >> they what? >> -- to be on the lookout lists -- it doesn't make sense they would scheme up this thing and then -- >> but joe's point is so big i'd hate to see us gloss other it. there is a divide in this country, maybe outside of washington, d.c. and manhattan, but there's a divide in terms of elite journalists in the media who think, eh, they bribe -- this notion that somehow these are phone you scandals. and there are millions of americans, i'd say almost hatch the country who think this is huge impeachable stuff. i'm not saying they're right either. oom just describing the divide in the country. >> but there was a study that said sequestration, the budget cuts, could cost 1 million jobs next year alone. we spend very little time talking -- >> i totally agree with you. >> squeal and repeal, irs. >> you'll also remember, nicolle, when ever anybody tried to bring up any phony scandal regarding george w. bush, journalists would say let's just talk about the economy. because the economy -- >> right, there was an insatiable desire to keep -- >> david axelrod, so since we have sam stein, he's -- no, hold on, hold on. he's talked so now his mother's happy. let's move on to the economy. what did we learn from the president this week on the economy? sam's mother, by the way, if you're just tuning in, sam's mother gets very angry at me for not letting sam speak in the three hours and that was the first significant thing we let him say but it was good. sam did a great job, mom. david axelrod. >> you said reporters should look into it, i have, i just wanted to report, okay. >> all right, so tell us, david axelrod, what new -- because this is a criticism of the president's critics, that he says the same thing. dana millbanks said he gave this speech in 2005, he's exhausted, no new ideas, blah blah. what do you say? >> well, first of all, i'm going to use this just a little bit of my time to say to nicolle, i'd love to see a total of the column inches that have been devoted to this irs story. i suspect it dwarfs many of the major issues of the day. so i don't think the elite media has ignored the irs story. i think that's a preposterous -- >> i was simply describing the divide in this country where people think -- many americans think this story, a lot of journalists except your former boss is lying about these being phone you scandals. that in and of itself is disd n disdainful. calling them phony scandals is an insult. >> this will be my seque back to joe's question. i think the vast majority of people in this country are far more concerned about their jobs, their kid, the future -- >> but it was your boss who said we have to walk and chew gum. i agree with president obama who said we have to walk and chew gum. >> he's replaced -- the irs -- >> withe can agree, we have tha- >> it's getting chilly in here. >> on the economy, the president believes certain -- that there are certain fundamental things that we have to do if we're going to maintain the quality of life for the middle east in tcl this country and invest in education, investing in research and development, infrastructure, new energy. yes, he's said this before, it's what he fundamentally believes we have to do. i saw the dana milbank column and i was kind of puzzleld by i. should you stop fighting for the things that you believe are essential to future of the country? i think that would be crazy. >> david, how can we fix washington, david, because republicans are going to be in charge of the house. probably going to win the house most people are suggesting. nate silver suggest they win the senate. how does the president fix washington? how does he go back to 2004 when he talked about, you know, i don't see a red state america, i don't see a blue state america, i see the united states of america? we've got no choice. we've got to get back to that point. >> i couldn't agree with you more, joe. i think that it is essential that we do that. it may take structural reform ultimately to get there because of the way we elect members of congress and because you have a whole caucus there on the republican side who are only concerned about the most strident voices in their own party and not concerned about winning national elections. many of the positions the president's taken, the majority of people support then, but within the republican caucus, there is political gain to opposing everything that he does. but at some point, you have to adhere to the truman adage, which is if you can't make them see the light, make them feel heat. you have to bring the american people in to demand action on some of these issues. you look at where the republican party is now, and where congress has the lowest rating in history. how much evidence do you need this is a bad idea? the squeal and repeal approach is a bad idea? >> i love that line. >> it's a buzzword. >> for an bumper sticker. i'm going to put it on the back my pickup truck. i love it. that's great. squeal and repeal. >> i'm going to see how many times i hear that today. david axelrod, thank you, michael crowley as well -- >> have a picture of ned beatty with the bumper sticker, it's great. >> this is exhausting. all right, up next, the oscar for "rain man." now the civil war. inside his latest project when "morning joe" comes right back. members of the american postal worker's union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal worker's union. innocent or no, there is, and always has been, only one reason to kill -- money. why didn't the union allow the confederacy to secede? money. cotton. money. what happened next? killing. hundreds of thousands dead because of washington's ever ambitious empire, detective. they institute a federal currency. ruining state's rights. independent bank's rights. only one party wins, the federal government. if they have the power to print money, then so do i. >> this is madness. >> for some of us, madness is the only place in which to make our fortunes. >> that was a scene from season two of the bbc america drama "copper." joining us now, the show's executive producer and friend of the show, academy award winning director barry levinson. a look at new york in the 1960s. 'dark twisted side of the big apple. >> i love it. barry, one of the most fascinating parts of the civil war, obviously, new york city. and you dig right in there. few americans realize that there were the riots, the pushback against lincoln. we're asking where's abraham lincoln today? in new york city in the 1860s, lincoln wasn't even lincoln. >> no, it was a pretty, you know, wild absurd crazy period of time and in many ways, those issues then are the issues we face now in quite a few of those areas because the prejudice, the racism, the corruption of government that took place, the problems that lincoln was facing, all of this against the backdrop of the 1860s. >> the biggest parallels. what surprised you the most in researching this? >> one of the fun things about doing a show is you suddenly have to inmers yourself and try to find information beyond what we're sort of familiar with about lincoln. so you get into more of the personal things that went on and the smaller things that you look into. but you find that, for instance, there was the migration of the slaves who finally came north. facing, you know, prejudice, you know, during the war, they came north. and an enormous adjustment for those now free slaves to new york because they were once part of the farmland, and now they're facing a very tight crazy confined city. >> nicolle. >> we were talking about how audiences seem pretty polarized these days. you've got a block buster movie theater audience who if it isn't based on a comic book or transformer, you don't see it in the theater. then this incredibly high-quality class of work. what is happening? >> the shorthand of it all is hollywood in terms of films has abandoned 75% of the audience and chasing 25% of the audience which is literally the comic book, superhero kind of movies and everything else has now moved into television. >> what does tv do for you as a format? >> it's much more -- it allows for much more of personal kind of stories. i don't mean personal -- they're more human, there's characters, there's behavior, there's relationships. most of those things have moved out of the theatric aal arena. >> you can catch it on bbc america. great to have you on the show. up next, the federal government takes aim at a group of alleged hackers accused of stealing millions of credit card numbers. if your moisturizer leaves an oily finish behind imagine what it's doing to your pores. 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[ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ this is an incredible story. john aldridge, a lobsterman from long island, new york, was rescued after spending 12 hours at sea. the coast guard found him drifting how miles from the site where he fell off his boat in the early hours of the morning on wednesday. aldridge placed one of his rubber boots under each arm and was able to use them as flotation devices for hours. a method that clearly saved his life, helped him conserve energy, as he treaded water, waiting and hoping that someone would find him. he sustained minor injuries. and was released from the hospital yesterday. >> he said he wanted a cheeseburger. >> well, he can have one, okay. thank god. up next, the "morning joe" week in review. my daughter right there. we'll be right back. ging hands . that's why the internet needs a new kind of server. one that's 80% smaller. uses 89% less energy. and costs 77% less. it's called hp moonshot. and it's giving the internet the room it needs to grow. this ...is going to be big. it's time to build a better enterprise. together. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... you need brushes... you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. refresh your home inside or out with behr premium plus ultra. interior flat starts at $31.98 a gallon. 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(laughing) now during the ford summer spectacular, get a blockbuster deal... an escape with $1000 matching down bonus cash. now playing at a ford dealer near you. every time a royal baby is born, we get a carton of cigarettes, we go over to the holiday inn -- because it was such a happy story. then this anthony weiner story. >> he's like, we've all been there, when the weiner thing came up. >> duchess of cambridge gave birth to a healthy baby boy yesterday who is now third in line to the throne. you have charts on the baby, that's what you're telling me? >> we have charts on the baby. >> well, this is different. can you see the dilemma this program poses? >> stop and frisk specifically bringing crime down, there really is no data to back that up. >> we are engaging in our judgment in life saving practices and it's made a difference. >> is that the way to start your morning? >> yeah, afternoon -- >> there you go. >> we framed you up there. >> stop it. take a look at the guy behind me. >> this is like tv without a net. >> it's danger. danger is my middle name. >> speaking of danger. >> oh, i'm sorry, i just realized that. i feel like such a weiner. >> as mika read that, i said, i hope they don't call on me because i can't think of anything to say. >> whoa, whoa. hold on. >> we're looking at you. no, that's not the dance. 1.7 billion times. >> so i just had to borrow money from barnicle. i asked him, what's the interest rate, golden sacks or fha? >> fha. >> i asked for 10 for the parking lot attendant, not a 1. >> i'm not playing your games. i'm not somebody you talk down to from your pd yoodium. answer my question. you baiting me into saying the "f" word on national television. >> i didn't mean to bait you, joe, you bounced back. >> you know, i will somehow get by, i don't know how. >> is it because you care just a little too much. >> there you go. >> all right. >> well, mika, i think willie's certainly learned from working with me that my problem is i care too much. >> yeah. >> it's a fault. >> i know i'm so tired right now. >> sometimes my heart breaks. anyway, let me -- i don't like talking. i'm uncomfortable when it's all about me. what did you learn today? >> i'm going to save that for last. why don't we start with shackman. >> giuliani, bloomberg, i don't know what's going on in new york. >> if you're drowning, take off your rubber boots, put them under your arms, you can float for 12 hours. >> if president bush 41 can shave his head, i can certainly make a donation. >> these are children from haiti, tibet, iraq and amelia, my daughter. we'll have a full report on their incredible stories coming up later this summer. that is what i learned today. joe. >> fantastic. a great organization. guys, thanks so much for watching this week. we greatly appreciate it. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." but stick around. chuck todd is next. >> have a great weekend. violence keeps chicago on edge. the congressional black caucus convenes an emergency summit on guns and crime in the city. we'll go live to chicago with one of the events leaders about what they can do to stop the killing. me