favorite. about 150,000 fans are expected at churchill downs in louisville tomorrow evening. that's going to do it for "way too early" friday edition. "morning joe' starts right now. not only has donald sterling been banned from the nba for life, he's he's also been planned from the bunny ranch brothel in atlanta. >> if you want to have a good time at the bunny ranch, don't be a racist or animal killer. >> dennis hoff wants nothing to do with donald sterling. dennis hoff says the main reason why he is banned for life is out of respect for the nba players that come here to the bunny ranch. >> he has that respect. >> good morning. it is friday, everybody. it's friday, may 2nd. >> what a wonderful day may 2nd is. >> with us on set -- it is friday this year. >> it's mika's birthday. >> happy birthday. >> i love a taurus. that's her sign. >> i'm 47. am i to be happy about this? >> of course you are. >> national holiday in at least three countries. >> it is. >> best you've ever been. have you seen pictures of her at 27? best she's ever been. >> that's nice. >> i've seen that hair. >> no, i'm three years from 50. that's the way i look at it. >> is that a positive way to look at it? >> that's not a positive attitude. >> why not? why not? i think 47 is just fine, thank you. >> you're thriving. >> i'm thriving. and i know my value. >> yes, you do. >> i remember when i was 47. >> yeah. i do too. msnbc, "time" magazine analyst mark halperin is here. former treasury official and "morning joe" analyst, my travel agent, steve rattner. and in washington, pulitzer prize winning columnist of "the washington post", eugene robinson. >> what are you going to do for your birthday? >> i'm going to go to sleep. hopefully nor a long time. >> that's a good present. >> i'm going sleep for a very long time. maybe more like a putting a dog down kind of way. >> 21st version of timothy leary. >> i like how your arianna and dr. brzezinski is the same. >> yes. one is a female voice. >> it's very zsa zsa gabor. >> your zsa zsa is very good. >> you are stunning. >> we had fun last night -- moving on away from the birthday -- at the national magazine awards. have you ever been to that? it's really a great event. so well organized. great crowd. i think they were all drunk. >> they were not drunk. >> i do, i think they were. our friend was there. >> it was a great night. national geographic took some home. >> bon appetit magazine cleaned up. >> the new yorker cleaned up. i mean, these guys, i almost -- there's steve. columbia. the school of journalist. >> cindy leavy, glamour. then in a huge category -- >> shocker for people. big win for them. >> they had eight. and cosmo won. >> and magazine of the year. best company. >> that was awesome. that was fun. >> yeah. >> very exciting night. >> the award -- that's a big thing. >> i had no idea what it is. >> bunch of boomerangs put together. >> let's get to the news, shall we? >> sure. >> "the new york times" is reporting this morning that u.s. sanctions over ukraine are having a limited impact on russia as vladimir putin demand troops withdraw from part of the country. the russian ruble and stock market are actually stronger now than they were before the first wave of u.s. sanctions were announced. >> that's not really the idea. >> meanwhile, an operation is underway in eastern ukraine to reclaim the city controlled by pro-russian militants. gunfire and explosions could be heard as ukrainian forces claim they regained control of at least nine check points. the militants shot down two military helicopters. at least three people have been killed including a ukrainian pilot. separatists loyal to moscow are building barricades in an attempt to keep ukrainian forces away. it has been a violent week in the region with pro-russian militants seizing control of government buildings. yesterday the men overpowered to storm a building. they are fighting. >> they are fighting. you know it's not a good sign when vladimir putin tells you to withdraw troops from your own country. and the sanctions are having unfortunately limited effect. so we will obviously keep a close look on this. >> this is also when you see scenes like this, you are going to wonder at some point if we need to help them in a more tangible way. >> i think most people when they look at the fact -- they look at the fact that the ruble is doing better, the stock market is doing better than when the president issued the first round of sanctions, not a good sign. also not a good sign when your donors that are going to help you get elected president start talking about moving to another candidate. that's exactly what seems to be happening and according to reports to chris christie. >> we'll go there. chris christie was leading early polls and considered a top contender to a hillary clinton run in 2016. but now a report says some republican fund raisers even some in the new jersey area with considering jumping ship from christie for jeb bush as the former florida governor looks at a bid. jeb is also getting some support from his brother. >> i hope jeb runs. and i think he would be a great president. i have no clue what's on his mind. we'll talk when he's ready. i notice he's moving around the country quite a bit. >> doing well in polls. >> yeah. that's fine. they don't mean anything. for him i can guarantee he's not looking at a poll to decide whether or not he wants to run. it's internal. he's checking his core. as he said publicly, i'm thinking about my family. and he knows full well what a run for the presidency can do on family. after all, he's seen his dad and brother run for president. so jeb, if you need advice, give me a call. >> okay. it is worth noting according to a new quinnipiac university poll, jeb easily leads the rest of the 2016 pack in his home state. that includes marco rubio who i think people are talking about as well. >> people are talking about marco as well. it's going to be interesting to see what's going to happen there. mark halperin, this is something we've been talking about for quite some time. the only reason jeb's thinking about even running in this case is because chris christie started to fall. and when that happened, there's no establishment gop candidate and he figures perhaps maybe why not. >> the gop establishment, the money people play in the process. and jeb still has as that story suggests, a large hold on them. and governor christie's troubles have only exacerbated the search. there's 30 people talked about as running. that was true even when chris christie looked strong. >> it's also true in 2012 and jeb didn't take the jump in for a lot of the same reasons he's thinking of not taking the jump in right now. but, you know, we have said from the very beginning this chris christie story is important. and it does have a direct impact on who may be elected the next president, tom. as chris christie goes down, that fills a void and that looks like that void right now is going to be filled by jeb bush. >> there certainly are establishment republicans that have a long history with the bush family and like what jeb bush represented when it comes to his history in florida. it also means because of jeb bush's family ties with his wife and his kids and the fact that they have a deep connection with the latino and hispanic community, that they might be able to be the bridge that can help usher in a new wave of people to the gop. get them back interested with other people that are currently in elected office have been scaring off that demographic. >> they have. and jeb was as good or better than anybody i've seen. certainly better than any republican i've seen with latino voters. >> all right. here's an issue that could definitely impact the 2016 elections and become a little problem for potentially one candidate. overnight at least five people were killed in a militia attack at the libyan security headquarters in benghazi. the situation in that area, in that country still far from stable. 19 months after a raid on the u.s. consulate there left four americans dead. held its latest hearing yesterday in the 2012 attack. the focus around a recently released e-mail of talking points that aimed to underscore the idea that the protests were triggered by an anti-islam video. critics say the message rees looed this week is proof there was a political agenda at play in the white house. but the administration says it was about the wider middle east and not specifically about libya. >> the e-mail was about protests around the region. if you want to tell me today that the protest and, again -- >> but benghazi was part of it, right? >> right. i want to refer you to the cia talking points on that. most people remember there were demonstrations around the region that were in reaction to what people felt was an offensive video. >> you were being cautious. you're saying there's an investigation there. that's 9/12. why on 9/14 is ben rhodes writing an e-mail saying judgments this was inspired by a video. why wasn't it we don't know. >> do you need a copy of the cia report? >> i've read them. >> it is a cut and paste from the talking points which much to your disappointment turned out to be produced by the cia. >> mark halperin, that's just not true. first of all, here's nancy pelosi. i think she said it best right here when she said benghazi, benghazi, benghazi. >> what i will say is benghazi, benghazi, benghazi. why aren't we talking about something else? whatever was in that -- what i know of what i've read in the press about the -- those e-mails were very consistent with what was put out there before. i don't think there's anything new there. >> we're talking about it because the white house has been caught in a lie with benghazi. and one commentator yesterday said who's often critical of republicans, it wasn't just a lie, it was a stupid lie. because it's obvious they're not telling the truth. the documents, the lawsuit that ordered them to release these documents, what did they ask for? not information pertaining to white house records involving the middle east. information involving all discussions involving benghazi. so the white house released this e-mail which clearly shows they weren't telling the truth earlier and that jay carney was spinning for whatever reasons. also, you know, the cia document they kept talking about, the acting cia chief said they weren't the ones that supplied it in the first place. this is what the white house has been doing and they've been caught. wouldn't it just be better for them to say, yeah, to come clean at some point or are they just going to keep lying? >> are you saying they can't have it both ways? >> i'm saying that, first of all, jay carney needs to understand -- and by the way, he should understand. i'm taken by people that go in the white house and thinks the history ends when the white house ends. on the other side of the obama administration, he's going to have to come out and he's going to have to piece together his reputation. i say that as a guy i liked. i liked as a journalist. i respected him as a journalist. i still like him as a person. but i've seen this. i am getting old enough -- older than 47. >> oh yeah. >> that was doing the same thing. in 2005 i called her up. i said you know what? this administration's going to end, and you're going to have decades to deal with your credibility after it ends. stop lying to me. because you're going to have to deal with me on the other side of the bush administration. bush is going to go back to texas and i'm still going to be here. when you wonder why jay carney is doing what he's doing, i think shattering the reputation, a well-deserved, good reputation he built at "time" magazine doing this when everybody knows he's lying. >> from the beginning, the posture of everyone around the president's been there's nothing to see here, move on. when they do stuff like this, it em boeboldens critics. how can you ask us to trust you when you say there's nothing here and then you do this? >> if benghazi's not a big deal, if people think benghazi's not a big deal -- chuck todd seemed to think yesterday benghazi wasn't a big deal. that's fine. have that debate. but if there's an e-mail directing susan rice to go and push a line and they don't reveal that, well, they've got to come clean. >> when we look at what exactly was in this specific e-mail that was released and the bullet points given to her to use as reference points to go on these shows, that was in there. to underline the fact this was not a broader policy failure. gene, when we look at this and the ramifications that come from it, let's not forget as we get caught up in the benghazi conversation, we lost four americans. we lost four americans committed to the state department. we lost four americans that were in libya that was a rat hole after muammar gadhafi was out. so this is an embarrassment for the white house. but how do they reclaim the narrative so jay carney doesn't look like just a big liar in trying to remind everybody from that lecture the history of the time, which is okay to do, but how do they look like they're not lying about what was done? >> you know, if there are any other e-mails, just put them out. just put everything out. because in the end, this is a scandal without a center. you know, what's at the center of this is -- was the real -- if there's a scandal, it is a state department security preparations prepositions of forces, the assessment before the attack as to what sort of danger the ambassador and the cia facility might have been in in benghazi. that's what went wrong there. and, you know, to expect there to have been a clear narrative of exactly what the motivations were of the miscreants who did this, a couple of days after the attack is ridiculous. it's absurd. nothing ever happens like that. so if the criticism is that the white house is dragging this out and is making it a bigger deal, a different kind of deal than it ought to be, i think that could be a valid criticism. just put everything out there, because really the issue is what allowed benghazi to happen? not whether what the talking points said. what the talking points said, it's just a ridiculous sideshow. >> and by the way, go back for liberals who have been watching the show the past couple days and friends of the obama administration who have been frustrated what i'm saying about jay carney and the talking points, see what i said the monday morning after benghazi when i absolutely tore mitt romney to shreds for jumping to a conclusion. just following what gene said, for jumping to a conclusion and trying to politicize this. yes, when you hold a press conference after a u.s. ambassador is dragged through the streets without knowing all the information, you're politicizing it before knowing what's going on. i think both sides tried to immediate politicize this. obama administration, oh, this has nothing to do with our policy. it's just an internet video by a crazy person. then you have mitt romney in the middle of a campaign saying this is the worst thing ever, blah, blah, blah. now as things get revealed, maybe mitt romney was right. but he didn't know at the time he was right. but the problem with the white house is that they're the ones sitting there now still having to clean up for some really stupid things they did and some misleading things they did. >> former national security council spokesman looked to down play his role in changing the talking points saying it's difficult to remember because it was so long ago. >> according to the e-mails and the timeline the cia circulates new talking points after they removed mention of al qaeda. then at 6:21, the white house, you, add a line about the warning of september 10th of social media reports calling for demonstrations. true? >> i believe so. >> did you also change attacks to demonstrations in the talking points? >> maybe. i don't really remember. >> i don't remember. >> dude, this was two years ago. >> dude, it is the thing that everybody' talking about. >> we're talking about the process of editing talking points. that's what bureaucrats do all day long. >> okay. listen, if you want to keep me off your back, do what he just said. say "dude." i love the guy, but there he knows exactly what he did. we've all been in that situation. i can remember as a lawyer editing things. i can remember as a business person we can remember -- >> that was like eddie haskell there. >> come on, he knew. he remembers everything about that. this white house -- >> dude, that was like two years ago? >> that was a very long interview. it was a small part. >> when you cut through all this, there's two basic points or questions. one, obviously the white house should come clean. we all know the coverup is worse than the crime. drip, drip, drip. just get it all out. >> and we also know on that part, the cover up, it was the president was trying to be i'm the tough guy. we won the war on terror. they wanted to make this a spontaneous demonstration. but the fact is it's just not true and everybody knows. why don't they clean this up, steve? >> right. but the second question is is this really going -- you said at the beginning of all this 2016, is this going to become a national issue or is this inside the beltway? >> for hillary it will be an issue. because she talked about the telephone call. she got her own 3:00 a.m. telephone call and four americans are dead because of it. and if you think these are just republican talking points, talk to the family members of the four americans who gave their lives for this country. it will be an issue. and hillary clinton and her supporters and any democrats that want to say, oh, this is just right wing -- a right wing -- to borrow one of hillary's phrases, a mass right wing conspiracy. wait until the end of the campaign. still ahead on "morning joe," bill clinton a 2:00 a.m. phone call and cursing. >> you just don't want to get 2:00 a.m. phone calls. >> congressman jim clyburn was on the other end of that call. he'll be here to explain what happened. what? >> i'm also going to ask about what a congressman had to say about clarence thomas being a, quote, uncle tom. also what he had to say about mitch mcconnell being a racist. some extraordinary things. >> plus new details that the inmate in the oklahoma execution had to be tased before the execution. up next, new cell phone video just released from on board the south korean ferry as it began to sink. the reason why the video was actually released at this point. but first, bill kairns with a check on the forecast. bill? >> mika, i did my part. it looks like a beautiful birthday weekend for you. >> nice. happy birthday, mika. >> thank you, bill. >> last week was miserable around the country. now we're going to start to see spring taking over. warmer temperatures, too. there's a few scattered showers out there around cape cod. also some light rain around buffalo, syracuse, and rochester. temperatures are more mild today than they had been this past week. we're at the 50s in the big cities, 40s in the burbs. as we go throughout the afternoon, a gorgeous friday afternoon. low 70s to mid-60s. i know yesterday was nearly 80. it was kind of humid. today's more springlike, less humidity, plenty of sunshine. florida's the exception. we've got a lot of rain coming your way. not the flooding stuff we just dealt with, but scattered showers and storms friday, saturday, sunday. so here's your forecast for your weekend. we're finally ending the horrible warmth out wed. it was 95 in san diego of all places yesterday. wier finally watching everything averaging out. of course the kentucky derby is on saturday. looks to be about 73 degrees. no problems there in louisville. looks beautiful and much of the country even into sunday should be looking pretty nice. there's really not any horrible weather. no severe storms, no tornadoes, nothing like that. mother nature is giving us a break as we go throughout our first may weekend. looking at a nice day across the country. more "morning joe" when we come right back. ♪ avo: wherever your journey takes you the expedia app helps you save with mobile-exclusive deals download the expedia app text expedia to 75309 expedia, find yours so i tri ed depend so i it really made the difference between a morning around the house and getting a little exercise. hi-ya! and i tried a baking class. one weekend can make all the difference. unlike the bargain brand, depend gives you the confidence of new fit-flex® protection. it's a smooth and comfortable fit wi more lycra strands. it's our best protection. take your weekend on with a free sample at depend.com add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ all right. it's time to take a look at the morning papers. look at the front page of "usa today." 8 million people have signed up for the affordable care act. 8 million. >> that's great. >> 8 million. just saying. >> that's great. what are you saying? >> i'm just saying 8 million people have signed up. that's pretty good. they need more and they need to get young people still. >> they do. >> that's a demographic they're still focusing on. why are you behaving so nicely? >> that's great. >> bill de blasio and the city's largest teacher's union agreed to a contract yesterday ending a five-year labor dispute. teachers will receive back pay of 8% of their salaries and bonuses for teachers with positive reviews. the union agreed to reductions in health care saving the city $1 million. >> from our parade of papers, the oregonian, cell phone video recovered from one of the young victims aboard the capsized south korean ferry is giving new insight into what happened in that doomed ship. the student's father released the video to give it to the nation and let them get a glimpse into the disaster. at first the crew warns of a possible accident over the loud speaker. the video shows the students fooling around. but as the ferry begins to tilt, the mood changes to panic. towards the end of the video, you can actually still hear the crew telling passengers to stay in place. it's just outrageous. >> why would you do that? >> it's just outrageous. >> the los angeles times, the president of the naacp in los angeles has resigned in the wake of the scandal involving donald sterling. leon jenkins has been heavy criticized for his plan to present sterling with a lifetime achievement award. the group also granted sterling an award in 2009, the same year he was accused of refusing to rent apartments to latinos and blacks. >> jeah. it was probably the second award they were giving to him. i wonder how much money he gave the naacp in return for that award? >> you've got to look at the money you're given when you're in an organization like that. because it can't be dirty money. it's not worth it as one just learned today. >> the houston chronicle is reporting 55 colleges and universities are being investigated by the department of education for their handling of sexual assault complaints on campus. such an important story. among them, elite schools like emory university and harvard law school. also florida state and ohio state university. move comes as the obama administration announces new guidelines to prevent incidents and improve reporting on campus. such an important, important story, mika. >> related news from "the wall street journal," reports of sexual abuse if had the military have skyrocketed. the pentagon says confidential reports were 50% higher in 2013 than 2012. now, there were 86% higher among marines. the pentagon suggests it shows victims are more comfortable coming forward. but it didn't account for how many actual crimes were committed. >> i was going to say, actually, those numbers have gone up and skyrocketed. there's two ways to look at it. of course the number is going up always causes alarm, but maybe it means that people are starting to get comfortable coming forward in the military. which they've never been comfortable doing before. >> it's difficult in real life let alone the military. >> especially in the military. >> absolutely. >> and also the previous story, in college, so many young people go away from home. something traumatic like this happens -- >> all in muddled circumstances that make you embarrassed to come forward. >> they're embarrassed, there's shame. there's all these things that hopefully the obama administration, the push is going to actually make it easier for men and women but mainly young women to come forward. >> absolutely. this weekend's parade magazine features an exclusive from mariano rivera's where he recounts his journey from poor panama kid to world series mvp. >> all right. thomas? >> thanks, guys. with us now the chief white house correspondent for politico, mike allen, here with the morning playbook. give it to us, mike. >> happy friday! and happy birthday not only to mika, but also "morning joe" jesse rodriguez. 3-0 today. spotted last night celebrating. >> ooh, jesse. really? >> we shouldn't be texting jesse early this morning then. he might have a headache. let's talk about what else is this weekend because we've got the white house correspondents dinner. and looking at president obama and his sense of humor and why he may be hesitant to poke fun at himself. what have you learned? >> todd is pointing out here that president obama likes to make fun of other people more than himself. his self-deprecating humor doesn't go very deep. yes, the president jokes about his big ears and about his bad polls and about his birth certificate, maybe his gray hair. but doesn't really go after himself in the way that some other presidents have. a more typical joke by this president is, you'll remember when he said despite the rumors that he was born in a manager, he was really born on krypton. whereas president bush really went after himself. he talked about what the intelligence briefing for him actually meant. but todd discovered that president obama has some company in this. another president who's very thin skinned at the time, bill clinton. talked to some of clinton's writers and the writers would get the jokes and clinton would be like, these are about me. they should be about the other people. and one of the drafts that was released in this most recent clinton document dump, one they tried out that clinton liked was the white house press corps was the opposite of lake woe be gone. that all were below average. >> we'll see how it goes. joel mchale is the host, right? >> people are excited about that. the weekend is growing and growing and growing. >> it's a big weekend. mike allen, thank you, sir. coming up, he said it was an honest mistake, but now there's a good chance you'll see jameis winston king crab legs in a grocery store near you. that's right. and later, a suspected carjacker getting the ride of his life while holding onto the side of a new york city cab. "morning joe" straight ahead. ♪ just take a closer look. it works how you want to work. with a fidelity investment professional... or managing your investments on your own. helping you find new ways to plan for retirement. and save on taxes where you can. so you can invest in the life that you want today. tap into the full power of your fidelity greenline. call or come in today for a free one-on-one review. wanted to go and see a lion up close. this zoom lens is amazing. go and smell the roses! ♪ you have to let me know [ female announcer ] when sweet and salty come together, the taste is irresistible. sweet and salty nut bars by nature valley. nature at its most delicious.
♪ all right. pay attention. it's take a peek time. it's time for sports. >> okay. >> three teams on the brink of elimination last night in the nba playoffs. warriors and clippers. golden state's steph curry led the way with points. 14 of which scored in the first quarter. the clippers come up just short. the warriors hang on for the 100-99 victory. game seven on saturday. memphis/thunder looking to stay alive. 104-84 win to force game seven. also on saturday. to atlanta, the hawks looking to end the pacers season. david west with the go-ahead basket right there. he led the pacers on a 16-4 run to close things out with a 95-88 victory and even up the series. game seven in indy tomorrow evening. and another set of game six matchups tonight. the raptors and nets, spurs and maveric mavericks. >> all three of those pushed to seven. >> it's fantastic. >> agreed. >> we get to the ice now. round two of the stanley cup playoffs. canadiens leading the bruins. johnny boychuk scores the equalizer right there. this one ends up in double overtime. montreal on the power play. next the game winner. take a 1-0 lead in this series. game two saturday in boston. another round of matchups tonight. the pens host the rangers. and the wild visit the blackhawks. finally for you, yesterday we told you about heisman trophy winner jameis winston being busted for shoplifting seafood. now there is a store catching in on the hype around this. a marketing gem in alabama. jameis winston king crab legs. unfortunately the shellfish, they are not for sale. this is just an in-store joke taking a pinch at jameis. >> what's he saying? he accidentally -- >> he walked out after -- >> accidentally walked out. how do you do that? >> who amongst us has not accidentally walked out with king crab legs. >> when it falls in your pocket and you don't know, what do you do? it's just like the time -- no, i never actually -- >> look. if you're going to shoplift crab meat, do the already packaged kind. >> i don't think he meant to do it. >> whatever. >> he was framed. >> he was framed. still ahead, mika, what do we have on this special birthday edition of "morning joe"? >> the ukrainians are fighting back. explosions, barricades, and downed helicopters as ukrainian forces are fighting back. the state department's rick stengel will be here on set live in our 8:00 a.m. hour. >> also we'll have the monthly jobs numbers released live at 8:30. also tina brown is going to be here for the must read opinion pages. you're going to want to hear about this one. it's about hillary clinton with surprising advice. we'll be right back. ♪ and it feels like your lifeate revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your gastroenterologist about humira today. remission is possible. we cannot let the fans down. don't worry! the united states postal service will get it there on time with priority mail flat rate shipping. our priority has always been saving the day. because our priority... amazing! ...is you! the amazing spider-man 2 delivered by the united states postal service. ♪ time now for the must read opinion pages. with us the founder of tina brown live media and the winner of the world summit. >> good morning and happy birthday. >> thank you. i'm 47. it's okay, right? >> she's so young. she's so young. so have you seen tina's -- and she wrote this especially for your birthday because she knew it was a special day and this would be an op-ed that would get a lot of attention. this one is going to get a lot of attention. >> okay. you wrote a piece in the daily beast about hillary clinton being president you may have more power than anyone else in the country, but you quickly discover you have much, much less than you thought you'd have going in. so knowing all this, why indeed would hillary run? now that chelsea is pregnant and life for hillary can get so deep deep deeply familial and present, she is as adored as any ex-president already. it will be another press-on slot from hell and such a hog tied two terms. only the delights of hip replacement surgery will await her by the time she gets out. leave the presidency to the people who don't know what it's really like. >> jeb and hillary discussed both of them have seen what hell this is on their families. >> it's hell, but i even think that hillary is tough enough to deal with that piece. but what you're also seeing more and more is what a static, frustrating, tied down institution the presidency now is. what can you really achieve? in a way running for presidency now is what you can do in your post-presidency. you have to get through the complete sort of hog tied status of the oval office. get beyond it, then you're free. what was great to see at our summit was jimmy carter who i've never seen a happier guy. i mean, he sat on the stage and he just wowed the audience talking about $1 toilets in west africa for women. this is his initiative. how he's creating these for west africa. here's a guy who can talk about toilets for 20 minutes on a stage with a spell bound audience. he never seemed happier. he couldn't do anything when he was president as we know. >> has that platform to help the world. >> she has a platform already. usually you have to have the presidency to have the platform. she's got it already. why do it? >> so why do it? gene robinson, a lot of democrats will push hillary clinton to move forward. but 2008 was brutal for her. no reason to think 2016 would be any less brutal. plus she's got the fights from the clinton administration, brutal ugly fights. she's got the fights from arkansas. she's been at this a very long time. why put yourself out there again? >> well, it's a -- that's a good question. i mean, i've always thought that -- i'm disagreeing with a lot of my colleagues -- that she has not made a decision to run and she won't make a decision whether or not to run for some time. and she's got to really think about this. that said, you know, look at the position she's in. and look at the history she could make. and i think that will really weigh heavily on her. she, by all odds are that she could have the nomination if she wants it. and she'd have an even or better than even shot according to the polls. much better than even of becoming president. as tina says, then, you know, you're president. and you've got the four years and then eight years of misery ahead of you. but through that misery, maybe you can accomplish something. so i think she is an optimistic person. if she decides to run, it would be with the idea that she's going to get stuff done. >> and, you know, both of these races are so wide open, mark halperin. much wider than any race you've covered. if hillary doesn't run, what democrat does? if jeb doesn't run, what republican steps up? there are not any establishment candidates other than those two. >> yeah. those two are the big pieces. the missing element to me for her and whether or not she runs is what would she run to do? what would the presidency be like? >> what's the message? >> what gives her the burning desire. when her husband ran in '92, he had stuff he really wanted to do. she's been part of washington now for a long time. what is her vision? i'm not saying she hasn't had one, but she needs to make clear what it is. there's plenty she can do without being a presidential candidate. >> there's an insatiable drive as a human being that hillary clinton has to achieve. and i think this could be a really bad analogy, but we all know when we have spoiled milk in the refrigerator, we know it's spoiled but we smell it anyway before we throw it out. i think she would know what she's getting into having been the first lady and being, you know, secretary of state. but she, i think, has a desire to achieve this and can. >> i feel there's an evolution happening somehow on that. she cease what her husband has created, realizes she wants to focus i think so much on her passion really for ending gender inequality globally. and this has been such a focus of hers. is f that is what her big passion is which i believe it is, then you can achieve more of that in your post-presidency. >> totally. >> i also think that with jeb, it's like, we cannot expect this thing to just remain static. everybody said it's hillary's nomination last night. being a black president trumped her exceptionalism in president barack obama. she was supposed to be the first woman president but first black president was more interesting. >> tina brown, thank you. >> good column. thank you. coming up, why residents in a small michigan town are up in arms over this city-approved public statue. >> that's art? i don't know what that is. >> i should call my mom. >> you're just not going to want to miss some of the other. >> what was that? when salesman alan ames books his room at laquinta.com, he gets a ready for you alert the second his room is ready. so he knows exactly when he can check in and power up before his big meeting. and when alan gets all powered up, ya know what happens? i think the numbers speak for themselves. i'm sold! he's a selling machine! put it there. and there, and there, and there. la quinta inns & suites is ready for you, so you'll be ready for business. the ready for you alert, only a laquinta.com! la quinta! stick with innovation. stick with power. stick with technology. get the flexcare platinum from philips sonicare and save now. philips sonicare reckless seeding... ...failure to disappear. a backyard invasion. homeowner takes matters into his own hands. ♪ ortho weed b gon max. with the one-touch, continuous spray wand... kills weeds without harming innocent lawns. guaranteed. weeds killed. lawn restored. justice served. weed b gon max with the one-touch wand. get order. get ortho®. i'm taking off, but, uh, don't worry. i'm gonna leave the tv on for you. and if anything happens, don't forget about the new xfinity my account app. you can troubleshoot technical issues here. if you make an appointment, you can check out the status here. you can pay the bill, too. but don't worry about that right now. okay. how do i look? ♪ thanks. [ male announcer ] troubleshoot, manage appointments, and bill pay from your phone. introducing the xfinity my account app. oh, it's time for news you can't use. >> this is exciting. >> thomas, what do you have? >> we start with crazy video from here in new york city. police say the man holding on for dear life was trying to carjack a taxi in the early morning in the bronx. >> that's the way we do it here. >> they topped speeds of 70 miles an hour. the cob driver hit the gas when he tried to take over the taxi. this taxi hit traffic and the carjacker jumped off carjacking another vehicle. he was arrested a short time later. why not hit the brakes fast and that dude would go flying? catlike reflexes. this is good. a small town in michigan, this is what i think we should do around here. a small town in michigan is looking to promote the arts. the importance of art in the community. i get tongue tied because it's so exciting. the skulltuculpture is called b human. living today we can't do it alone. we rely on other people to try to survive. >> rely on people why? >> neighbors in the town disagree. >> not just one. >> they've taken to calling this the orgy statue. >> for good reason. >> the artist said there was no intentional sexual assault in it and the harsh comment shows that the critics are thinking about it. >> well that would be -- if it's not intentional sexuality, then that just happened. >> it takes a village. >> sometimes it just happens. >> the town is going to be moving this to a less prominent location. >> let's buy it and put it on set. >> it's awful. >> that's unbelievable. >> i know. but the other big news today -- >> what? >> it's your birthday mika! >> whoo! >> oh, my god. >> i was told we have a birthday in the house today. big birthday. >> thank you, bill kairns. >> yea! >> look at this. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday dear mika ♪ happy birthday to you >> wahoo! >> are you one? are you two? >> you got a bear. i got bill kairns. >> this is great! i love it! >> the birthday suit comes later. >> no thank you. he always goes too far. always. >> happy birthday. >> come here. come here, bill. thank you. and louis, don't touch me. get out of here. >> well, happy birthday. what's your favorite birthday memory? >> speech! speech! >> what's your favorite birthday memory from growing up? >> i don't really have any. we didn't do stuff like this. >> was it that bad? >> we just didn't do, like, parties or anything. >> how about the year they gave you that sled? >> what sled? >> what are you talking about? >> this cake looks amazing. thank you. >> i need to blow some of the stuff off the top here. >> all right. very good. >> that way we can clean off the confet confetti. >> we'll be back with more of "morning joe." at the top of 7:00, we have much to talk about but i forgot everything because of this birthday. my. tongue. finally. 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[ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. make a my financial priorities appointment today. i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. ♪ according to the e-mails an the timeline, the cia circulates new talking points after they removed mention of al qaeda. then at 6:12, the white house, you, add a line about the administration warning of september 10th of social media reports calling for demonstrations. true? >> i believe so. >> did you also change attacks to demonstrations in the talking points? >> maybe. i don't really remember. >> you don't remember? >> dude, this was like two years ago. we're still talking about the most mundaoneundane -- >> dude, this is what everybody is talking about. >> we're talking about editing talking points. that's what bureaucrats do all the time. >> tommy v., dude. >> i like it. >> joining us from washington, david gregory. but now we have chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "daily rundown," chuck todd. and editorial director of the journal ron fournier. >> i like the tiara it's impressive, isn't it? >> yes, it is. >> whenever she goes and weekends in south of france, she has a tiara with her. >> one day i'm going to the south of france. >> you should. >> thank you. wear that the rest of the day. >> all right. so obviously a lot of discussions about benghazi yesterday, just the political side of it. but a deadly incident last night. >> yeah. let's get right to it because there's politics all around it as well. overnight five people were killed in a militia attack at the headquarters in benghazi. the situation in that country is still far from stability 19 months a a raid on the u.s. consulate there left four americans dead. the house overnight committee held its latest hearing into the 2012 attack. it focused around an e-mail recently released. critics say the message which was only released this week is proof there was a political agenda at play within the white house. the administration, however, says the e-mail was about the situation across the wider middle east and not specifically about libya. >> ed, the e-mail was about protests around the region. if you want to tell me today that -- >> benghazi was part of it, right? >> right. i would refer you to the ca produced talking points on that. most people remember that there were demonstrations around the region. that were in reaction to what people felt was an offensive video. >> why then on 9/14 is ben rhodes writing an e-mail that is making judgments that this was inspired bay video? why is it not -- >> ed, do you need a copy of the cia talking points? >> i've seen them. read them out all you want. >> from the talking points which much to your disappointment turned out to be produced by the cia. >> house minority leader nancy pelosi says there is nothing to see in the new e-mails. >> what i will say is, again, diversion subterfuge. benghazi, benghazi, benghazi. why aren't we talking about something else? whatever was in that -- what i know of what i've read in the press about the -- those e-mails were very consistent with what was put out there before. i don't think there's anything new there. >> and ahead of the white house correspondents dinner, politico is out with a survey of 60 members of the press corps. nearly 60% have covered the president for ten years or fewer. 61% say press briefings should be changed from their current form calling for fewer talking points, more questions from different journalists, and they should be shorter. many journalists scored the briefings as more lame than essential. when asked if they interviewed someone who wasn't in the communications office in the last week, more than half said, are you kidding. half of those surveyed say they've been lied to by an obama white house official. nearly 40% say they have been sworn at by an official. >> it happens. and it happens, the swearing at least, happens in lots of different administrations. ron fournier, you wrote a great column about -- and i love -- if you look at the bottom of the screen, man. this is murderer's row. this is like the 27 yankees. you've got chuck todd at the white house, ron fournier at the white house, david gregory -- >> moderator of "meet the press." >> these guys all know the white house. ron, you wrote a column about this yesterday. you look at someone like marlon fitzwater, tony snowe. they were able to deliver bad news in a way that i'll just be blunt, this current white house is not been able to deliver news. there's a hardening, it seems, of the press corps. right now the white house press corps in there and for somebody that's known jay carney for a long time and liked jay carney, it's tough to see himself conducting himself in the way he's conducting himself. what's going on inside the white house? >> thanks, dude, for having me on. >> dude, you're the one that asked to be on, dude. i'm joking. >> dude, it's been two years. >> tommy v. breaking out the northwest florida slang. i love it. >> good lord. >> joe as you know any great corporate communications staff knows the difference between winning a news cycle and winning the public's trust. the problem with this white house is they're good at winning news cycles and in doing so they lose the public's trust. there's not a better example to illustrate that right now than benghazi. if you want to set aside for a second the important national security issues. what did the president know, what did he do, what happens when you get involved in a country like this, what's the fallback. set those aside for a second and look at the communications team that's paid a lot of money to communicate to the public. we now know beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the communications team treated this as a political crisis. not a foreign policy crisis. and in doing so put out information really quick that was really long, then didn't correct it until there was a lawsuit. they were fine having a bad narrative out there. didn't want to correct it because they were only worried about winning one news cycle at a time. and in doing so, they've hurt their credibility. these issues splash over to the president's credibility across the board. and i think this credibility issue is why not just on benghazi, is why his numbers have been coming down. >> david gregory, we've all had the conversation at one time or another with pres people for republicans and democrats alike i remember telling a mccain person in 2008 after he'd lied to me the night before. i think i said, hey, dude, did not not think the sun was going to rise tomorrow? and mika remembers me saying that the next morning. i wasn't yelling at him. i said did you not think the sun was going to rise. and i was going to find out about your lie. am i going to trust you for the rest of this campaign? the answer is no. and we've seen it. we've seen it in a lot of different administrations. i'm just curious if it would be best for the white house to cut its losses now and get this behind us. it's only a big deal if they keep covering it up. >> well, i'll make a comment about benghazi in a second. but i think the larger point is all of these press secretaries have their brief. when ron and i were in the front row during the bush years, we understood that ari fleischer at that point had a lot of limits put on him in terms of what he could do. they wanted him to take tough questions, but be limited in what he could say. that's part of a pr machine that comes to sell the president's agenda and the president. there's always limited terms of what you can get. look. ron said put aside some of the security concerns. the real story about benghazi is what are the consequences for having a light footprint in a chaotic country post-invasion. that's the ongoing story. and by the way, a story that candidate clinton if she becomes a candidate will have to face. those are the big policy questions at work here. we know to ron's point that the white house had a political interest in advancing a story about this video really being at the core of all of these protests. because anything that was spontaneous and happening fast is to their benefit in the situation opposed to being caught unaware about a terror attack which they didn't know about. we don't know. we know they were interested in the politics of this. we didn't know they were somehow telling any untruth. and we know that the intelligence community was saying, in fact, that this was a spontaneous eruption that happened in cairo and then evolved into a direct attack on the consulate. so we know there was an opportunity to sell it. we don't know what all the facts of this are. but this particular memo, for instance, why did they hold that back? of course it was related to benghazi. i think it creates more problems. >> one of the ways we know it was related to benghazi, the white house admitted it was related to benghazi before it was denied that it was related to benghazi as it was only released because the lawsuit said release documents related to benghazi. chuck todd, now to you, my friend. so we were having this discussion before, chuck, and mark halperin and i were talking. i said well, why doesn't jay carney, a guy like i an awful lot, why doesn't jay just say no? i'm not going to go out here and be put in this position. somebody said you can't do that. well, mike mccurry did it. other press secretaries have done it. it's a real balancing act, i understand. and it's extraordinarily difficult. but does jay not have a fairly tough relationship with the press corps that he has to stand in front of every day? >> i say yes, but it's not jay's doing that it's a tough press corps. this is sort of six years, honestly eight years of sort of dealing -- look. i think there has been in the worst development in white house staffs over the last two decades has been i think the entire press office is too big. i think there's almost too much. and so when you have so many individuals dedicated to press communications, right, and communicating with press, then you're going to slip into over-spinning. you're going to slip into what they did here with these benghazi e-mails which is so paranoid about giving an inch to their opponents that they withhold too much. you know, everything about all of their -- some of these political crises if you want to call them that that the white house has bungled all has the same root issue. which is they have been reticent to engage. they say we're not going to give in, we're not going to give them more material. had they flooded the zone, had they just dumped everything out that they had including this e-mail, had this e-mail been sent out at the same time that we got that entire booklet of e-mails from state, cia, and white house. this would be much to do about nothing. the e-mail was withheld. the e-mail itself isn't that damning. there's no smoke in this squirt gun, but it's because they didn't release it at the time and their credibility is why -- >> why didn't they release at it the time? >> everybody agree no smoke here? >> i disagree. >> i think there is smoke. >> it makes it clear at a minimum that they did what no one was surprised they did. they looked to contain the political damage. >> ron fournier? >> i agree with mark. i don't think that's a small thing. i think when you get caught spinning like this, when you get caught being incredible with the information, that's a big thing that splashes into other issues. as someone who has worked with jay and wants my white house to succeed, it was painful yesterday watching that briefing and get baghdad flashbacks. >> are we drilling down here on benghazi in a time period where i think tommy v. used this phrase in his interview, he said collective amnesia. there was a lot going on with the arab spring in a lawless libya at the time. >> we knew the day it happened, when mitt romney went out and held a press conference that he held wsh david gregory i think it was an unfortunately press conference to say the least. he didn't know what was going on. nobody knew what was going on. and it was sort of shoot first, ask questions later on both sides. on both sides. >> and mark halperin and i -- >> they knew from the very beginning this was a huge deal. >> right. mark halperin and i were together at the moment when mitt romney started reacting. and by the way, he was reacting to the apologetic statements coming out of the cairo embassy related to the video. but i think to thomas' point, the key questions here is we look back now and understand this was an attack on benghazi. and there was at the time information that was flowing out of there that was quite clearly a pre-planned attack. so part of it is why didn't they know? why didn't the administration know? why didn't the services know? why did they move forward to talk about a video? again, a lot of things can be true at once. the intelligence community saying this was a spontaneous attack even though they didn't use video. it's not an illogical leap to make biased on what the belief was. david petraeus is telling folks on capitol hill this was not terrorism initially. but it's also true and don't forget we lived there u an area here with how much grief did the bush white house take for the politicizing national security when this is what's going on here when you have ben rhodes saying, look, we've got to make sure this video story people understand. and this president is steady. of course. they don't want to be seen as weak on terror. that's an obvious thing to do. >> joining us now republican representative from oklahoma, congressman tom cole. tom, good to see you. >> great to see you as always. >> happy birthday, first of all. >> thank you. >> from a fellow taurus. joe, you're a lucky man to have a taurus as a partner. >> and we're stubborn. >> so i've heard. so i've experienced. so congressman, let me ask you -- let's switch topics here and talk about minimum wage. it was voted on in the senate and voted down. there's some republicans -- we had tim pawlenty on the other day and others that believe the minimum wage should be increased, not to 10.$10.10, but should be. but that it could be raised for compromise of keystone. >> i think you hit the formula. to put something that creates jobs with something that frankly is clearly going to cost jobs. you raise the minimum wage, you're going to lose tens of thousands of jobs across the country. second, you do have to realize in this case that, look. individual states can act on this as they choose to. 19 already have minimum wanls that are higher than the federal start. the point i made before, there's a big difference between the cost of living in new york or san francisco or oklahoma city. so whether a one size fits all minimum wages makes a lot of sense is worth thinking about. and again, states have the ability to act if they think it's in their interest. >> chuck todd? >> congressman, how you doing? >> hey. doing great. >> let me ask you this. do you think the minimum wage should be raised at all right now? would you raise it at all nationally? aren't we at one of the longest periods ever we haven't raised it? >> we're also at one of the lowest inflationary periods too. but the point is worth thinking about. i'm go i think to address it from a oklahoma standpoint. do i think the we need to raise the minimum wage in oklahoma? no. other states have the ability to act on this on their own. would i look at a minimum wage increase if i thought there were other things attached to it that would create jobs like keystone and additional things? yeah, i think i would consider that because i think job creation is a very important thing. >> steve rattner. >> congressman, you're right we're in a low inflationary era, but we haven't raised the minimum wage since 2009. it's now lower in real terms than it was in the 1960s. so isn't there a -- and historically the federal government has been involved in times like this. >> i'm not telling you there's not a case to be made here. but there's also a case on the other side. one, individual states that want to move can move. two, we know according to cbo and other economists that raising it is going to cost a lot of jobs. losing half a million jobs is no trivial matter in an economy that still has an unacceptably high unemployment rate. i suppose the president is supportive of doing this, but let's be real. he's using this as a political weapon to put something else on the table that would attract republican support. he hasn't done it. i think he enjoys the rhetoric of the debate. >> there is a compromise to be made here. we'll see if the president comes to the table with something other than $10.10. but put in keystone and something to create jobs, i bet he can get support. mark? >> what significance will be signed into law before the midterm elections? >> i hope a lot of appropriations bills as i'm the appropriator and we're actually doing the normal work of congress for a change. i would expect an infrastructure bill. i think we'll do something in terms of transportation issue. because transportation fund is going to run dry this fall. don't expect a permanent fix, but i would expect an extension into early next year. but to your basic point, look, not a lot. you know, i think we've done some important things since the ryan-murray budget agreement. but i think the big things largely are being pushed past by both sides. i think that's unfortunate, but the political reality. >> all right. congressman tom cole, thank you very much. >> and again happy birthday. >> fellow taurus. taurusian, whatever you said. >> we have at least that in common. thank you very much, tom, for being on the show. david gregory, thank you as well. what's on "meet the press" this weekend? >> we'll have governor rick perry, fallout from the sterling story. and will.i.am will stop by to talk about his political involvement. >> chuck todd, we'll watch "the daily rundown" at 9:01. >> i don't know. we'll see. >> i'm going to make joe be quiet. >> you get it before 15 i'll be impressed. >> all right. ron, if you can stay with us, that'd be good. coming up live at the top of the 8:00, rick seng el -- >> hold on a second. it is rick stengel's birthday as well. >> get out. >> rick stengel and you and jesse. >> i need more confetti. >> what a great eight. >> and white house correspondent for the a.p. julie pace. and brian sullivan. still ahead, are we being taught to love strangers and is that a good thing? but first, hillary clinton if barack obama would answer a 3:00 a.m. phone call. but it was a 2:00 a.m. phone call from president clinton that congressman jim clyburn wishes he didn't answer. >> screaming and yelling and cussing. unbelievable. >> "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ hey there can i help you? (whispering) sorry. (whispering) hi, uh we need a new family plan. (whispering) how about 10 gigs of data to share and unlimited talk and text. (whispering) oh ten gigs sounds pretty good. (whispering) yeah really good (whispering) yeah and for a family of 4 it's a $160 a month. what! get outta here! (whispering) i'm sorry are we still doing the whisper thing? or? (whispering) o! sorry! yes yes! (whispering) we'll take it.
♪ welcome back to "morning joe." live look at capitol hill and a beautiful day in washington. it's may, and i think the sun is going to come out now. may 2nd. here with us now, assistant democratic leader, democratic representative from south carolina, congressman james clyburn. he's out with his memoir "blessed experiences: genuinely southern, proudly black." and i can't wait to hear about the book, but first i want to hear about a blessed experience you had at 2:00 in the morning. tell us all about it. it was a phone call you got in the middle of the night. >> yes, yes. and the book sort of starts with that. >> how did that go? >> it was an interesting morning. it was the morning after the south carolina primary back in 2008. of course i received a phone call. of course i'm always up late. >> you were sleeping. >> no. i was up watching all the returns coming from around the state. that was a much-watched primary. my wife was asleep, but i was awake. and sure enough, the former president was on the phone. >> bill clinton. >> yes. >> my goodness. what was he calling to say, hey, how you doing, jim? >> not exactly. >> no? >> he was a little upset about the results that day. because hillary lost to barack. he was not pleased with that. >> so he just wanted to share his feelings or was there a message in what he was saying? >> there was a message. he thought i was involved in the. >> reporter: in losing it for hillary. >> yes. i was not. i was neutral in the race. of course i had personal preferences, but i stayed out of the race. >> let me read about this blessed experience. i think the way you describe it in the book crystallizes it. this powerful voice came on the phone. if you bastards want a fight, you damn well will get one. i needed no help identifying that voice. it was bill clinton. the former president of the united states, my longtime political friend. his wife hillary suffered a major defeat in south carolina's primary. obama had whipped her. and bill clinton wanted me to explain why. i told him i had pledged neutrality to the rules committee of the democratic national committee as a condition of their authorizing a primary in south carolina. and i had kept that promise. i asked him to tell me why he felt otherwise. he exploded using the word bastard again and accused me of causing her defeat and injecting race into the contest. that is your blessed experience at 2:00 a.m. the morning after south carolina. that's -- >> i've had quite a few blessed experience. a few with joe. >> we've never raised our voices at each other. >> no, we haven't. >> always had great respect for each other. >> that's true. although the experiences were not always that pleasant. >> democrat on democrat violence here, this makes me so sad. so what was it like being shouted down and sworn at by the president of the united states? >> it was a very uncomfortable experience. but i've had a few of these. >> what do you say back to him? >> well, i listened for awhile. i was really caught off balance. and i told him i had pledged neutrality. there was a big contest over who would get that primary. there was a fight against michigan, south carolina, and alabama. >> right. >> south carolina had won. but i was asked to remain neutral in the race. >> i remember. >> and i did. >> mark halperin? >> congressman, i know you'd love to talk about bill clinton more, but i'm going to switch to the title and subtitle. genuinely southern. in this big day and age, the big national media is becoming more interactive, the south is still distinctive. what does it mean today to be genuinely southern? >> the south is in transition today. i think we've seen that south carolina maybe behind georgia, but if you take a hard look at southern states. florida, take a look at arkansas. kentucky's not exactly a southern state, but a border state. you will see in north carolina that went for barack obama in 2008 and was a close race in 2012. i think the south is changing rapidly. a lot of my classmates that left when i graduated, over 80% of my class when i graduated college left the state. they're not coming back. a lot of young people are staying. all three of my children remained in south carolina. that was not the case when i was coming along. i think it's changed because we're getting much more progressive. we're getting more jobs and the kind of jobs that young people are being trained for. now, the reason i put that in there is because i want people to understand that being southern has a broader connotation than being very conservative or being white, for that matter. i don't want people explaining away what they said saying i'm a southerner. what does that mean? my mother and father were southerners, but they treated me with dignity and respect and everybody else. and that's why i put that in there. >> a lot of different experiences from the south, no doubt about it. let me ask you about something that's been making news this week. a fellow democrat, a fellow southern colleague vinny thompson has called clarence thomas, a quote, uncle tom. he doubled down again on that yesterday. suggested mitch mcconnell was a raci racist. said a lot of inflammatory things. does that cause you any concerns? >> no. i think thompson as you know is a very close friend. we knew each other for 20 years before he ever came to congress. >> you think it's all right to be calling a supreme court justice an uncle tom? >> all of us have ways of expressing our disappointment. i am very disappointed in clarence thomas. >> do you think he's an uncle tom? >> i don't know. >> you don't know if he's an uncle tom? >> he's not the only supreme court justice there. >> but he's the only one being called an uncle tom. i think that's at extraordinary insult. >> you'll have to ask thompson. there are certain words and phrases i did not use. and i will never back away from this. i am extremely disappointed. you know, joe. we come to congress and these appointments, we are to bring tho toez bodies our experiences to broaden the application of justice in this country. >> well, clarence thomas has had an experience of being genuinely southern and being proudly black just like you and his experience led him to a different philosophy about government. and i don't know that he should be castigated because his experience as a black american is different from thompson's experiences as a black american. can't we disagree with each other without calling each other names? >> sure we can. i talked to someone yesterday who told me they were highly insulted by some of the expressions that clarence thomas has made in his writings, in his opinions. a lot of african-americans find his opinions very insulting. he has a right to that. >> thompson though? you have no problems with him calling him an uncle tom? >> he is a close personal friend. we don't always use the same words and phrases. >> is mitch mcconnell as thompson thinks he is -- >> i don't know. ask him about that. i'm not going to get into that. >> you know what? you're going -- >> no. >> -- around in circles. >> i am not going around in circles. >> it's time to wrap. >> no. why should i read this book? >> because it's a blessed experience. >> because i think you would learn a lot if you were to read this book. you will understand a lot of what it's like to grow up black in the deep south, to have no aspirations beyond being a teacher, a preacher, or an undertaker. and you will see how a little black boy growing up in that environment with a mother and father who taught him that you can break through this, and he did. and he got the hall of the house of the house of representatives with joe scarborough. >> you would have been better to be an undertaker if you knew that was going to happen. but it's also important to remember also one of the most powerful members of the united states congress, it's an extraordinary story. you're a great guy. thank you for being here. >> thank you so much. i appreciate you. >> thank you. the book is "blessed experiences." congressman james clyburn, thank you so much. coming up, malaysian officials have released new documents on why they waited so long to search for flight 370. tom costello has that story ahead. and congressional cautions. we crunch the numbers next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪
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♪ all right. it is almost 40 past the hour. >> it is. you know, big question about the election that's coming up in november. we're six years into the obama presidency. a lot of people are looking at it going, it's goingng to be a t like 2010. that's what republicans hope. >> yeah. >> but there are some that look back to 1998 -- >> you never can tell, can you? >> they're hoping to make big gains but history suggests this november is not a sure thing for the gop. derek has more in the latest edition of mojo place. >> president obama's job approval has the gop eyeing potential takeover in the senate and adding to the house majority. they point out in 2010 when the president's numbers were even stronger, republicans picked up a whopping 63 seats in the house and five in the senate. >> i'm not recommending they take a shellacking like i did last night. >> however, if they're relying on the president's poll numbers as an indicator, a look at history shows the six-year vote can be problematic for the gop regardless of what party's in power. in 1986 ronald reagan saw his highest numbers of his presidency with 68% approval. still the gop went on to shed five seats in the house and eight in the senate. losing control of the upper chamber. after the revelation of his affair with monica lewinsky, bill clinton was still flying high at 64%, again the gop was unable to capitalize while losing five in the house and stagnant in the senate. in 2006 george w. bush approval was down. >> look, this is a close election. the -- if you look at race by race, it was close. the cumulative effect, however, was not too close. it was a thumping. >> november should serve as a cautionary tale for the gop considering dating back to 1958 republicans have lost seats in each of the six-year midterm elections. time will tell if history repeats itself. guys, back to you. >> all right. thank you. >> six-year itch not good for republicans. mark? >> it has not been. they've made errors. they feel they're on track. they're raising money. they're doing decent on candidates in terms of the primaries. i think the democrats have to change the dynamic or republicans will have a good midterm. >> and there were three in one election once. >> i think we're doing well. i think we're doing well. >> so far so good. still ahead, forgot the partisan divide in washington. reverend jim wallis talks about faith on fridays. but first trusting strangers to watch our pets, sleep in our bed. >> and the whole tinder thing. >> no. the new economy of trust. >> actually, it's not just trust. it's trusting strangers. >> it's weird. i think it's weird. but apparently is a good business model. we'll be right back. ♪ honestly, i'm pouring everything i have into this place. that's why i got a new windows 2 in 1. it has exactly what i need for half of what i thought i'd pay. and i don't need to be online for it to work. it runs office, so i can do schedules and budgets and even menu changes. but it's fun, too -- with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, 'cause a good playlist is good for business. i need the boss's signature for this. i'm the boss. ♪ honestly ♪ i wanna see you be brave [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. feel like a knot. how can i ease this pain? (man) when i can't go, it's like bricks piling up. i wish i could find some relief. (announcer) ask your doctor about linzess-- a once-daily capsule for adults with ibs with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation. linzess is thought to help calm pain-sensing nerves and accelerate bowel movements. it helps you proactively manage your symptoms. do not give linzess to children under 6, and it should not be given to children 6 to 17. it may harm them. don't take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain especially with bloody or black stools the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach-area pain and swelling. bottom line, ask your doctor about linzess today. ♪ thomas, you want somebody going through your underwear drawer? >> no. >> not at all. >> no. well, depends. >> correct answer is no. >> but paying to be there. does that make a difference? >> no. no. >> it's a business strategy. >> thomas would clean out his underwear drawer before somebody was coming. >> i would. >> we're talking about a gazillion dollar business, tinder where people throw themselves at the mercy of others for the purposes of dating strangers. and talk about this, because a lot of companies making a lot of money with a lot of crazy people. we got the executive editor of wired magazine. we wrote the magazine's cover story. how they finally get americans to trust each other. jason writes this, the economy has come on so quickly that economists are still grappling to understand the impact. but one consequence is already clear. many of these companies have unengaging in behaviors that some would think as unhardy years ago. where hopping in strangers cars -- >> into our master bedrooms. >> dropping our dogs off at their houses, eating their food -- >> using their forks and knives. >> we are letting them rent our cars, rent our boats, rent our houses, and -- this is ghastly -- even our power tools. >> yes. >> we are entrusting complete strangers with our most valuable possessions and our very lives in the process. we're entering a new era of internet enabled intimacy. you said people are making lots of money doing this. >> they are. bnb is the one you get to stay in other people's houses and go through thomas' underwear drawer just raised money at a $10 billion valuation.academics are low trust threshold. >> when you engage in a trusting behavior, you do an analysis. is the benefit going to outway the risk? and what a lot of companies are doing are lowering that risk. they're linking to a facebook account. this isn't like hitchhiking. they have a rating next to them based on their previous@on these services. it's linked to a credit card like it's paid before anybody gets in the car or goes to the house. and there's also insurance or some kind of -- if the worst should happen and your place gets trashed, there's a million dollars of insurance that they'll pay you to make up for damages. it's not just like throwing open your door to whoever comes by. there are systems in place. >> as a lawyer, thomas, though, seriously the liabilities here just making me flinch. >> the valuation that recently came out for air bnb, $10 million? there is that recourse that people can enact if they feel they've gotten a bad service. but it is really offputting to think that someone could be in your house or going through your things. logically. >> reporter: apparently not. >> instead of working from my apartment, make my apartment work for me. >> people are deciding to do it. and people are deciding they're willing to have people in their house in order to make money. >> ebay seemed totally bonkers. like you're going to send a check to somebody you don't know and they're going to send you beanie babies. that seemed nuts. but eventually they built enough systems in place and it became common enough it doesn't seem so shocking anymore. enough it doesn't seem so shocking anymore. >> ron, would you do that? >> ron, by the way, i've got two dogs for rent this weekend and a cat as well, if you'd like to rent my dogs and cat for a weekend, let's talk after the show. >> no thanks, no thanks. i'm fascinated about this whole topic. you talk about low trust, the public has no trust in the old financial institutions. where will the sharing economy be in five years and how much of the traditional fik system that people aren't trusting is replaced by a shared economy five years from now. >> jason? >> if you're talking about faith in financial institutions, the economy right now is not poised to replace that. it's poised to replace the taxi and hotel industry. those are the industries it's competing with. i honestly don't think there is going to be some whole scale replacement. it's a different kind of experience. it's less consistent, right? >> do you think that the hotel is going to allow air b & b to get away with stealing their clients and not be regulated and not taxed properly? >> we're seeing it in new york. the question is what kind of restrictions are they going to put in place. i think honestly at this place this ship has sailed. i don't think regulators can just shut them down. >> tons of money. >> all right. the issue, the latest issue of "wired" is out. >> jason tanz, thank you so much. for more jason time, visit the afternoon session of our mojoe. >> >> i'm going to have to tune in. i'm intrigued. >> we're about a half hour away from the april jobs numbers. and all the kids, mika, they've been aflutter about this. >> it's crazy online. it's trending. >> it is trending. than the reviews said. captain obvious: this is a creepy room. man: oh hey, captain obvious. captain obvious: you should have used hotels.com. their genuine guest reviews are written by guests who have genuinely stayed there. instead of people who lie on the internet. son: look, a finger. captain: that's unsettling. man: you think? captain: all the time. except when i sleep. which i would not do here. hotels.com would have mentioned the finger. a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but now, with once-a-day xarelto jim's on the move. jim's doctor recommended xarelto. like warfarin, xarelto is proven effective to reduce afib-related stroke risk. but xarelto is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. so jim's not tied to that monitoring routine. [ gps ] proceed to the designated route. not today. [ male announcer ] for patients currently well managed on warfarin there is limited information on how xarelto and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. xarelto is just one pill a day taken with ening meal. plus, with no known dietary restrictions, jim can eat the healthy foods he likes. do not stop taking xarelto, rivaroxaban, without talking to the doctor who prescribes it as this may increase the risk of having a stroke. get help right away if you develop any symptoms like bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. you may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take xarelto with aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. talk to your doctor before taking xarelto if you have abnormal bleeding. xarelto can cause bleeding, which can be serious and rarely may lead to death. you are likely to bruise more easily on xarelto and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. tell your doctors you are taking xarelto before any planned medical or dental procedures. before starting xarelto, tell your doctor about any conditions such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. xarelto is not for patients with artificial heart valves. jim changed his routine. ask your doctor about xarelto. once-a-day xarelto means no regular blood monitoring -- no known dietary restrictions. for more information and savings options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com.
not only has donald sterling been banned from the nba for life, he's also been banned inexplicably from the bunny ranch brothel in nevada. >> the message is if you want to have a good time at the bunny ranch, be a nice person. don't be a racist or animal killer or we won't allow you in here. >> dennis hof says the main reason why donald sterling is banned for life is out of respect for the nba players that come here to the bunny ranch. >> i'm sure they appreciate that respect. >> wow. >> oh, my god. the efforts to remove donald sterling from the nba is officially under way. >> he's got cancer. fighting cancer. >> a special committee voted unanimously to expedite the process. the group plans to meet next week. the clippers play at the warriors tomorrow in a game seven tie-breaker. >> ron fournier, thank you so much for being here. >> ron, call me. you'll love my pets. just this weekend, i'll let you aren't them this weekend. >> and that's, dude. >> ronnie f., he's one of the good ones. >> aw, dude. >> man, huge top of the 8:00 hour straight ahead. >> ukraine is fighting back, launching a new offensive this morning in the eastern part of the country. the state department's rick stengel awill join us. and it's been slow and steady when it comes to the economic recovery. but will that still be the case after today's jobs reports? the expert, steve rattner -- >> he's got charts. >> julie pace will also join the conversation. what? >> just a few minutes, we are back. ♪ wipe the tears from your eyes ♪ and it feels like your lifeate revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your gastroenterologist about humira today. remission is possible. for $175 dollars a month? so our business can be on at&t's network yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. new at&t mobile share value plans. our best value plans ever for business. red and seventy-seven thousand dollars per minute. that's what big oil made last year... now they're spending it to rig the system against you. pushing washington to cut american-made biofuels... bullying gas stations to use more of their oil... all so they get richer...and you pay more. truth is, biofuels are cleaner, better for your engine and less expensive. washington, don't let big oil rig the system any more. protect the renewable fuel standard. ♪ ♪ >> i can't believe you just said that to me. t.j. told me to talk about this chopper shop and then said -- >> all i said was happy birthday. >> thank you, chopper 4. chrysler building. by the way, spring, it came yesterday out of nowhere. >> beautiful day. >> may the 1st, may day. >> finally. may 2nd. >> joining us, chief national correspondent for the "new york times." seriously i was looking up symptoms of a stroke yesterday, but it's really just you interrupting me. >> she was. the whole thing am i having a stroke? she just kept looking and i said you've had it up for a few hours. she said my vision is blurred, i'm slurring my words. but it's all better because mark leibovich is here. >> and i'm a year older and so much better. mark leibovich, author of "this town," now out in paperback and from washington, julie pace and of course we still have rattner at the table. >> stuck with rattner. >> it's perfect timing for you to be here, steve rattner. the employment numbers are here in less than half an hour. we're hoping for good news. >> you never know which way it's going to break. we had a very flat first quarter. a lot of people concerned about that, but the market's exploding. i guess they figure it the weather. what's the jobless report going to look like? >> we don't know but we'll find out in half an hour. i can give you background and color on what we might expect. for the last year if we look at this chart, we've had a pretty steady picture of about 190,000 jobs a month being created. but for this month the economists a little built moit optimistic for the reasons you say, joe, we're coming off a winter and hoping we're going to be more in the 220,000 range. the unemployment report did come down gradually last year but it has been pretty flat since then. you need certainly like 200,000 jobs a month just to keep the unemployment numbers from going up because of people coming into the labor force. but people should also look at the long-term unemployed. we really have a problem. this is the percentage of the total unemployed -- >> that includes people not participating in the job market? >> doesn't even include them. >> so the situation is much worse? >> much worse. because a lot of people have dropped out. this only shows you the people who have stayed in. the percentage of total unemployed that are long-term unemployed is the highest it's ever been in history. it's come down from the highest 45% but even this number is the highest it ever been in our history. so it's a real problem and economists are increasingly worried. there was a study that just came out that a third of these people will probably never find job, a third of them will drop out of the labor force and only a third will be employed. but let's look at something that relates to washington. last december extended unemployment benefits expired for people over 26 weeks. 1.3 million people lost their unemployment insurance last december. we're talking about $286 a week, not talking about a lot of money. by june 30th, 3.2 million, by the end of the year, it's going to be 5 million. the republicans and democrats not surprisingly are fighting about this. the democrats passed a bill to extend this and the republicans won't extend it until they get what they want. >> the job participation rate is as low as it's been since the 80s and the situation looks bleak. >> first of all, i have massive telestrator envy. >> he is the john madden of -- >> if i knew he was going to be a tablet -- >> don't bring a knife to gun fight. >> or telestrator pen apparently to a tv show. two things to add to your excellent analysis, labor force participation rate, we want it see the number go up. if it goes up, it means people are looking for a job, which means they think they can find a job. obviously the underemployed is also a number to watch, 7.4 million people working part time that might like to work full time. i can't get a full-time job so i'm going to take the work that i can get, often without benefits as well. those are two other numbers. >> minimum wage jobs. >> unbelievable. mark leibovich, what are you writing about this week? >> i actually have a column next week. bits the merging of broadcasts and politics. you have people like mike rogers leaving the house intelligence leadership to go into television. directly. who else would do something like that? it's a bizarre, trail blazing move. he actually is going directly, though. >> going rogue. >> i've got to say, this kid show as lot of plock and fight and determination to do this. who would do that? >> it's amazing -- he had an amazing amount of -- i mean, you have an immense amount of power. >> what does that say about what it feels like to be in washington? maybe it doesn't feel so powerful anymore. >> there's that but it talks about the melding of the media world and political world. the realms are so interlocked that we have this one big people in the green room sector, which we all are. >> you talk, you tell people what they want to hear. what's the difference? >> money. you get paid a lot more money to be in the tv business. >> i'm not getting actually paid for this. they give me some coupons. >> your food truck is bringing in plenty of money. >> i'm not getting paid. i understand why. >> hey, chris christie back in the news. it looks like some donors are thinking about dumping him for jeb. >> well, it wasn't so long ago that chris christie was leading in the polls and considered part of the contender among the republicans to challenge hillary clinton in 2016. now the "new york times" reports some establishment republican fund-raisers, as joe mentioned, even ones in the jersey area, are considering jumping ship from christie for jeb bush. meanwhile, jeb is getting some support from his brother, who knows a thing or two about running for the white house. >> i hope jeb runs. i think he would be a great president. i have no clue what's on his mind, and we'll talk when he's ready. i notice he's moving around the country quite a bit and -- >> doing well in polls. >> yeah, it's fine. it don't mean anything. for him, i can guarantee he's not looking at a poll whether or not to run. he's checking he is core and as he says, "i'm thinking about my fami family." he knows full well what it means to run for president. he knows the toll it takes on i don't family. so, hey, jeb, if you need some help, give me a call. >> does he seem happy or what? he seems happy where he is. according to the quinnipiac university poll, jeb bush leading in his home state. let's go to julie pace down in washington. julie, this is not in the words of the grateful dead a long, strange trip for chris christie. it has been a short, strange, rocky, turbulent trip for the new jersey governor. and it looks like a lot of his donors are starting to lose patience. >> yeah. this donor battle between chris christie and jeb bush i think is fascinating because they're both playing for money from the same pot, where you have more mainstream republicans, more business-minded republicans, who first were leaning towards chris christie but the second that this bridge scandal popped up, started looking around to see who else was out there, and they really like jeb bush. this is a guy they would love to get into this race. i just also think that the bush family dynamics on this are absolutely fascinating. you have george bush saying i want my brother to run and you have barbara bush a few months ago saying i hope he doesn't run, we've had enough bushes. i'm curious what h.w. has to say. >> h.w. i think has long wanted his son to actually run for this office. you know, mark, a lot of people close -- well, we had tina brown here, who is not extraordinarily close to hillary, but she's always been a big hillary fan, they've run in similar circumstances. she wrote a column this morning saying basically, hillary, you know what it's like, don't run. and barbara bush doesn't want her son to run because of her son and her grandchildren. it's getting more brutal every day to do this. >> i don't know if there's momentum or if it's just chatter, but maybe hillary won't run. people have always been talking with the assumption that this is a fait de comeplete. >> we have christie and jeb bush -- this reenforces the power of the establishment. whenever you have a bush and christie conversation, the tea party are very aggrieved, who are these establishment people? all of a sudden people do sort of line up behind them and it a very, very powerful kind of endorsement. >> it always happens. it always happens. in 1992 you had the challenge of course when pat buchanan, george h.w. bush ended up winning. in '96 it was buchanan, the conservatives hated bush, dole won. john mccain, all the conservatives couldn't stand him, he won, he won. they at least win the primary, even if they lose the war. >> can i ask you a question? >> you certainly can. >> i don't think i want you to. >> by the way, happy birthday. >> what's your question? >> the economy has been getting better for a couple years. i mean, it's slow, right? we're not booming but we've been getting better. do you think the economy is still job one for any candidate? >> oh, my god, yes. >> is it always -- even if it's good times? >> people don't feel like it's getting better because long-term unemployment, as steve talked about. even without the long-term unemployment, real wages have been dropping. >> big banks are still big banks. >> bigger than they were. >> too big to fail has gotten even bigger. you look at working class americans, they've been losing the battle for decades now. yeah, this is -- economy is job one. and it's got to be more than just pointing at the last guy because this is a 20-year, 30-year systemic problem. i think there a lot of reasons to be excited. i'm very excited about the energy revolution, about manufacturing coming back. as steve said, it's not going to be coming back at $35 an hour, it might be $16, $17, $18 an hour, but i'd rather have it here than in china. china is having problems with growth as well, down 7%, 8%. china is not going belly up but at the same time, you're starting to hear people in america to say, wait a minute, it's starting to cost me more to send my jobs over to china. you get the shipping to get back, general electric we're talking about. >> you have the innovatiowvatio. >> i wouldn't trade this economy for any other one in the developed world. that said, as you said, joe, wages aren't going up, huge long-term unemployment, 6.5% for those even looking for work. this is the number one issue. >> but there's two ways, without get too long wonky, there's two problems, cyclical and structural. >> this is structural. >> agree with you. if it is structural, who can fix it? how do they fix it? >> we talk about slicyclical, b look at the last two bump-ups. the late 90s it was fueled by the nasdaq, it went bust, people too excited about it and in '94, '97, you had the tech bubble. as our good friend paul krugman said, he wanted a housing bubble to replace the tech bubble and it did. for the past 20 years, we have been fueled by bubbles. >> this is what worries economists. it's like a heroin addict. each time you need a bigger and bigger dose to get some kind of recovery to get some kind of growth happening. we're still in a cyclical phase but there are structural issues and someone has to take them on. >> so, julie pace, you have an article about pushing for data, and new privacy laws. tell bus that. >> this is something the president called for as part of the larger nsa review. it's what's referred to as big data, which basically means all the information that the government, that private sector companies pull on all of us. and there's a lot of concerns about what happens to this data. and one of the really interesting things in the white house report, which was overseen by john podessa, obama's new counsel, he found there's a real risk of discrimination. as people collect this information, they know an awful lot about us, and they fear this information could be used to discriminate against people in things like financials decisions and housing decisions. it makes a lot of sense when you think about all the information we pump out about ourselves in social media and every form we fill out. it tells people about our age, our race, our gender. it's scary to think how that can be used against us. >> of course, mark leibovich, they follow around our habits on the internet, which is extraordinarily dangerous. >> extremely. no, we would never -- ultimately, this is about disconnect. when you talk about the economic numbers, one of the reasons people are sort of taken aback by this is these economic factors have not really touched washington, d.c. the last couple of decades. >> what state has the highest percentage of millionaires? >> washington is the wealthiest metropolitan area. >> name one major corporation based in maryland. >> lockheed martin. >> d.c. in maryland state. >> "the washington post" post company -- i don't work there anymore. >> d.c. you get my point. the money. >> we have this gilded age going on and a lot has been inflated by the government and a lot of growth around government. i guess this is a good time to plug my back, right? >> do it! >> now out in paperback, "this town" is actually about this gilded age in d.c. we have the white house correspondent dinner this weekend so it's the perfect timing. >> everybody should walk around with "this town" as they walk around to see who is there. >> mark leibovich and julie, thank you very much. and mark, we'll have you back in about 12 minutes when the unemployment numbers are reported, am i correct about that? >> yes. >> and coming up, does separatist really mean russian forces? rick stengel and fred kempe join us. but first here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> let's go talk about what happened this last week as far as the amazing video was concerned, we saw all the devastation in penpensacola, tornadoes. and then there was this out of baltimore. [ screaming ] this was taken from someone's porch. railroad tracks below the little river that turned into a gushing river in baltimore. unbelievable scene there. and there's this opposite view of it. literally, the houses, they're telling people they may not get back in their homes for weeks until they stabilize or literally build a new retaining wall. let me take you to where we are now. we saw not just the east, the west had an unbelievable hot stretch. it was 95 degrees yesterday in san diego. that was the hottest temperature they've ever seen in may by five degrees. and the drought in california continues to get worse. we have a drought that's getting worse in kansas, oklahoma and texas. it's just been a lot of extremes. the eastern half of the country has been wet and stormy ey eve since the winter and the west warm and dry. tampa and orlando, you're going to get rained on in some portion of your day. showers from minneapolis and chicago. as we go into saturday, there's not a lot of bad weather to be found. we're nice even into sunday. there are no more extremes. and the kentucky derby is going to go off as we go throughout saturday. for the derby itself, you couldn't ask for a better forecast. more "morning joe" when we come right back. ♪ run until she's out of breath, ran until there's nothing left ♪ ♪ [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. customizable charts, powerful screening tools, and guaranteed one-second trades. and at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price -- just $7.95. in fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and e-trade. i'm monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. female announcer: sleep train's interest free ends sunday. it's your last chance to get three years interest-free financing on beautyrest black, stearns & foster, serta icomfort; even tempur-pedic. plus, get free delivery, and sleep train's 100-day low price guarantee. but hurry! sleep train's interest free for 3 event, ends sunday. ♪ sleep train ♪ ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ here with us now, undersecretary of state for diplomacy, rick stengel at the table in his new position and president and ceo of the atlanta council, fred kempe. good to have you on the show. >> first of all, happy birthday. as you know, i have so much affection and love for mika, that i changed my birthday to mika's birthday. >> i have a cake for you. have some. >> how's the job going? it's great to you have back in a different capacity. >> i was telling the guys here i was just in burma and malaysia. it's fantastic. burma is a great opportunity for american public diplomacy. you know i'm going to put this in before you go to whatever you want to talk about. it may be mika's birthday and my birthday today but tomorrow is world press freedom day. the united states government is on the side of journalists oppressed everywhere. journalists are more oppressed today than any time in history. >> vladimir putin one of the terrible offenders through the years of press freedom. a lot of reporters who have reported on him have ended up dead. >> 99 journalists were killed in the line of duty last year. what's changed is journalists used to get harmed in the line of duty and now they're targeted by governments. that's disturbing. >> speaking of vladimir putin, we have now a helicopter shot down in ukraine. vladimir putin ordering the ukraine government to get their own forces out of their own country. what's next in this downhill spiral? >> thank, joe. i had a conversation with a pretty senior figure in the obama administration today. i said what's going on? and he just come back from the region and he said, fred, it's just like "jurassic park." he's a history guy and loves preworld war ii history. he said i've been studying bones and now the dinosaurs are awake again, it's so exciting. what's happening in this latest attack is we're seeing the unraveling of something much more sophisticated. putin is not bare knuckled. he doesn't need to invade. he's been oozing across the border with special forces and insurgents. he's been using psychological operations. he doesn't want to send tanks across because that would unify the west. that would really take the camouflage off of him. what ukrainians are doing is they're calling putin's bluff by trying to clear out these areas like in donetsk. if he comes across with more conventional forces, that will unify the west and help them enormously. what we learned today is protesters can't fire shoulder-held missiles. this is definitely special ops, well-trained troops. 25 of them go to the building, take it and bring in local activists, go to the next building, take it and bring in local activists. >> and of course john kerry went to the atlantic council and ripped putin's russia over the ukrainian crisis. what can we do? you look at the "wall street journal" and unfortunately angela merkel is sending a message, "my top corporations don't want anymore involvement." >> i agree with fred, it's russian special operations. they're illegal and violating of the geneva agreement. but there are new sanctions that are potentially being prepared. i mean, i think the u.s. is looking at ratcheting it up to match what russia is doing there, but what we really want is for them to de-escalate the situation. >> but when you look at the record of sanctions, rick, through history, going all the way back to cuba and rhodesia and all these places, when they work, it takes a long, long time. >> i would argue putin is making fundamental errors that in the long run are detrimental to his country. the president has said there's no military solution to this so you have to look at alternatives. >> but you're being rational. assuming putin is rational. >> i don't think we should be irrational because he's irrational. >> no, but we have to find something rational to do. >> one of the problems with sanctions here is reports out this morning that russia is not being punished at all by these sanctions. the ruble has gone up and their markets have gone up since the sanctions were announced. does this suggest we need to send tougher signals to putin's russia? >> there's no doubt there have to be tougher signals. it was interesting, we did have secretary kerry at the council this week, vice president biden and kerry was strong but he was strong prime i recall that we wouldn't give away an inch of baltic's territory as they are nato partners. he didn't go so far with ukraine. the problem with sanctions, it's a total new battlefield now where we are using sanctions not to punish the russian for what they're doing but as military deterrence to stop them from what they might do. it's clear the sanctions aren't sufficient to do that or the threat of further sanctions. part of the problem is how dependent europe is on russian energy. we're looking at this wrong. it's not about the ukraine. it's about the future of russia, a nuclear arms state. this is going to go on for years, it's a long game. we're looking for the future of the international system. we're at an inflexion point that could be just as important as the end of world war i and end of world war ii. if we don't shape the international system, then less benevolent actors will step in to do that and that's what we're seeing in ukraine. >> thank you, rick stengel -- >> i have a gift for mika. this is flashlight held by the great singer of ukraine where she turns it on, thousands of people turn it on and she sings the ukrainian national anthem this weekend. we honored her this weekend and we had about 800 of these in the audience. there's a nice little bow on it. >> huge jobs numbers just came out. >> thank you fred, thank you steve. that is lovely, fred. thank you. will finally this be the month for economic recovery? steve has given us a sneak peek. huge job numbers coming up on "morning joe." ♪ talk about a dream nature lover... people person. ♪ and you put up with it all... because he also booked you a room... at this place. planet earth's number one accomodation site: booking.com booking.yeah! ♪ why do results matter so much? it's probably because they are the measurement of everything we do. for a wireless company, results come down to coverage speed and legendary reliability. so go ahead, stream, game or video chat. that's why verizon built americas largest 4g lte network. because the only thing that really matters are the results you get. so for the best devices the best network and for best results, use verizon. we cannot let the fans down. don't worry! the united states postal service will get it there on time with priority mail flat rate shipping. our priority has always been saving the day. because our priority... amazing! ...is you! the amazing spider-man 2 delivered by the united states postal service.
breaking news. the jobs numbers are a big story this morning. brian, what are they? >> i don't use the word spectacular much, except to describe you, mika. i'm going to use it for this report here. 288,000 jobs. >> are you serious? >> of course i'm serious, and don't call me shirley. unemployment dropped to 6.3. labor force participation rate, the number of people in the workforce or looking for a job rose as well. professional business services added 75,000. >> hold on -- >> labor force participation rate dropped. >> the number of under employed people stayed steady at 7.5 million. >> but 288, can you knock the number? >> it was going to be 220 and this a really good number. and the revisions for february and march were also very good. >> steve, there have been so many reports over the past three years that we've looked at and they've been disappointing, they've sort of been flat. this is one of the best slices of good news at least -- you can always fudge a 6.8 or 6.5. 288,000, that's a real number. that's something to be excited about for middle class people, working class people trying to get back into the workforce. >> it's an exciting number and it going to be an exciting number in the white house and for a lot of democrats trying to get reelected this fall, if the trend continues. >> 250 would help us get out of this quagmire, right? we've been receiving this anemic push up and down in the hundreds. 250 is where we needed to be and above to show that we're in economic recovery, that it's stabilized. >> that's right. 200 kind of keeps us whole because of people coming in the labor force. 250 is actually a move in the right direction. now 288. it's the biggest number we've had in a long time. >> average hourly earnings also creeping up again. it just goes up a few cents. it's saying there's demand for your services. if somebody has to pay you more, it's because they think somebody else might be able to take your job or there's competition for the job so that's exciting. >> it's such good news that we baked a cake because we anticipated a 288,000 number. how is it? >> it's very good. >> you're having a taste? >> wow. >> i'm going to go for a slice. >> since you guys are eating, i'm going to go over the numbers. >> to steve's point, the last month was revised over 200,000 as well here. keep an eye on that. i said that the economy had been getting better for about three years and rattner, you were p pooh-poohing all over me. >> talking about pooh-poohing is not the way to go on the set. >> oh, my god, i love jim gaffigan. and who knows where, joe, the conversation will take us. >> there is the vegetarian hot pocket for those of us who don't want to eat meat but still would like diarrhea. ♪ hot pocket >> it should just come with a roll of toilet paper. there's the lean pocket. i don't even want to know what's in there. imagine the directions, "take out of box, place directly in toilet." ♪ flush pocket ♪ >> have some more cake. ♪ stay with it baby if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me,
and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain. this is humira helping me lay the groundwork. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. take the next step. talk to your doctor. this is humira at work. no more forks left. >> at "morning joe," we are passing out the birthday cake. in washington d.c., we have the editor and chief -- >> of "sojourner's" magazine. and we have jim wallis, author of "the uncommon good." >> jim, always good to you have here. let's talk about a friend. you wrote a tribute to your friend glen stassen, who passed away. >> you write in part, "he taught us all the meaning of jesus and the new order jesus brought into the world. he showed us what it meant to live by the values of that kingdom without ethical equivocation, false dualism or political compromise. no american theologian taught us more about jesus and what it truly means to follow christ than glen stassen. he was a formative influence to students around the world, many of whom are also professors today and all of whom were mentored and not just taught by glen. glen kept calling us all to go deeper into our faith and we will with his ideas, his passion and his spirit." that's beautiful. >> talk about your friend. >> i remember a tall, thin young man came to visit us at sojourner's community in washington, d.c. he wanted to live with us and help us serve the poor. he said i'm a professor of ethics at the seminary. we were very close friends. everywhere he went, he talked about jesus. not just believing in jesus, but following jesus. that was something i loved about glen. he always talked about jesus. this is what it really means to be an evangelical and why pope francis has touched us all so much because he wants to talk about jesus. that's what glen stassen did. no theologian of his time thought us more about following christ than glen stassen. i'm flying taught his funeral and we'll give tribute to a man who taught us what it means to be an evangelical, to follow jesus. >> obviously what you and others were taught by him is probably con it and in your new book "the uncommon good," how the gospel brings hope to a divided world. tell us about that. >> joe, you know this town, you were in congress. we've lost this ancient idea of a common good. the last talk hi with glen is about what i think is the moral test of our politics right now, he and i talked about this, the passage of immigration reform, which is a common good. it's keeping families together. it would help the economy, it would -- all that. but it would keep families together. so john boehner said this week glen would have been pleased with the speaker saying "we elect officials to solve problems." i agree with speaker boehner. that means we have to fix this broken system now. as you know, this week 250 evangelicals, many inspired by glen stassen, came to washington to talk to more than a hundred congress people and they said we have to fix this now, this summer. we can't wait any longer. too much suffering is occurring. that's what glen would have said. he would have said in the middle of left, right, democrat, republican, what does it mean to follow jesus and serve the common good? jesus said love your neighbor as yourself. that's the spiritual foundation for the common good. >> certainly if you talk about a common good, too, you and i probably disagree on a lot of issues and probably disagree on immigration reform and what shape immigration reform should take. but, my gosh, you and i both want what's best for this country, you and i both want what's best for this world. if i'm a progressive and you're a tea party member, you're a liberal, i'm a conservative, i think that's the greatest breakdown is we can't even sit down and have faith that the other person wants what's best for this country, even if we disagree. >> i remember you had myself and richard land on, a southern baptist and sojourner talking about immigration reform. we disagree on many things you but on that issue we had really come together. let's have a debate about key issue, but we don't trust each other enough, we don't trust each other's intentions enough. the nation is looking for its leaders to solve problems, and glen would talk about how jesus inspires us to -- i would say don't go left, don't go right, go deeper. go deeper. that's what glen always taught us how to do. >> and we can follow his legacy and quite frankly also the book, "the uncommon good" sounds like washington could use, or all us. reverend jim wallis, thank you so much. it's really, really nice to you have on the show. >> always a blessing to be with you, always a blessing. >> up next, you wanted it. >> yes, i did. >> that's really a better way of putting it. >> i did, i wanted it. i demanded it in fact. >> we got it, the mojoe week in review, next on "morning joe." >> ask and you shall receive. vo: once upon a time there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water and castles were houses dragons lurked giants stood tall and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real avo: whatever you can imagine, all in one place expedia, find yours the was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com or how ornate the halls are. tall the building is, it doesn't matter if there are granite statues, or big mahogany desks. when working with an investment firm, what's really important is whether the people behind the desks actually stand behind what they say. introducing the schwab accountability guarantee. if you're not happy with one of our participating investment advisory services, we'll refund your program fee from the previous quarter. it's no guarantee against loss and other fees and expenses may still apply. chuck vo: standing by your word, that's what matters the most.
the clippers, are you going to buy them? >> i'm not going to buy them. i'm just under budget. how about you? >> i think barnicle and i are going to get into a bidding war. >> i told you, i'm not getting into a bidding war. >> paula deen live will feature a mix of cooking, interactive games and stories from the chef. >> do you know who this special guest is going to be? >> who? >> this guy. >> stop it! >> somebody said i'm going to set up a camera and get my hamster. >> we'd like to turn to instagram, if we could. what's going on here? what's the hell? >> if most of congress took their shirts off, it wouldn't be something you'd want to see. >> go! >> one got thrown out of a donkey show in amsterdam. >> what do you have to do to get thrown out of a donkey show in amsterdam? >> i didn't get in, i didn't get in. >> he ordered the crab legs and seafood but walked out of the store without paying. >> well, look, he loves crab legs. >> who doesn't? >> somebody is calling it fsu, free seafood university. >> they just litigate the death penalty on and on and on and it costs states a lot more. have a drink. >> and this photo in pensacola, severe flooding in front of my old home, which you can see past the truck. and, no, mike barnicle, it's not a dirt road. it is a very nice road. >> most of america has just become a lot dumber because of all of our associations with t.j. asprayia. how do you say his last name? >> it's your birthday, mika! ♪ happy birthday, dear mika >> i got bill karins! >> i love it! i know! >> the birthday suit comes later. >> he always goes too far. >> he's going to show me his birthday suit. >> that's what he said after. >> i think he's already changing. >> i was going to say, it hasn't been the first time he's mead that offer. >> there's not much to see. >> wow. ♪ ♪ and seventy-seven thousand dollars per minute. that's what big oil made last year... now they're spending it to rig the system against you. pushing washington to cut american-made biofuels... bullying gas stations to use more of their oil... all so they get richer...and you pay more. truth is, biofuels are cleaner, better for your engine and less expensive. washington, don't let big oil rig the system any more. protect the renewable fuel standard. but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about two weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these symptoms to your doctor. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer, worsening prostate symptoms, decreased sperm count, ankle, feet or body swelling, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing while sleeping and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and increase in psa. ask your doctor about axiron. [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. make a my financial priorities appointment today. we've always been] at the forefrontumman, of advanced electronics. providing technology to get more detail... ♪ detect hidden threats... ♪ see the whole picture... ♪ process critical information, and put it in the hands of our defenders. reaching constantly evolving threats before they reach us. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. funny, there was no mention of hail in the weather report. go & smell the roses! welcome back to "morning joe." it's time to talk about what we learned today. >> i learned you turned, what, 26? 27? happy birthday. >> oh, stop. i'm 47. thank you all. >> never looked better indeed. >> 47's looking good. >> thomas, what did you learn? >> i learned that the folks, the good people in michigan hate classic art. >> why do they hate art? >> oh, no, no, that's not art. it's an orgy. it's a bunch of people doing bad things to each other. >> they're holding each other up! >> that's an orgy. >> it takes a village. ♪ the road is long >> thomas, please. >> i have high taste in art. >> high taste in something. >> steve rattner. >> i guess i learned we had a good jobs number for the first time in a long time. >> here's to that, from 1-800-flowers. >> mark? >> i learned i could tweet about mika's birthday forever. i'm endlessly fascinating tweeting about your birthday. and i've done that. even after the show i'll be doing web extra. >> thank you. it is friday. this week is completely over and it's time now to turn a page. ♪ happy birthday to you, happy birthday ♪ >> the princess has left the arena. chuck todd is next with "the daily rundown." thank you, as always, my friends for your patience. spring has sprung for jobs, something we haven't seen in years. this morning's new report shoots way past expectations for once, but the country adding almost 300,000 new jobs in april and the unemployment rate dropping to 6.3%. plus, as the middle east peace push falls to pieces again, is anything possible any time soon? we're going to ask one of netanyahu's chief