Castro will be sworn in today. Castro replacing Shaun Donovan who serves as director of the office of management and budget. And new Los Angeles Clippers owner steve new loirngs clippers owner will meet fans today who is expected to hold a News Conference marking a new era for the team. That does it for way too early. Morning joe starts right now. Sunday started with prayers and messages of unity, peace, and justice. It took a very different turn after dark. And i believe the continued resolve of the good people of this community, ultimately triumph over the few people bent on violence and destruction. Good morning. It is monday, august 18th. Welcome to morning joe. With us on set, morning joe
contributor mark halpern. Former Communications Director for president george w. Bush Nicole Wallace and msnbc. Com germane standing by in ferguson, missouri. He has been on the front lines and community for days now doing great reporting there. Hell have the very latest after another violent night. Plus the executive editor of the Texas Tribune with his reporting on the indictment of Texas Governor rick perry why he is comparing it to a sewer leak during the opening of a new restaurant. We will explain that in a moment. Wow. I dont know if i would have done that. Actually its one way of saying things. If you believe this indictment is weak, its a way to bring someone down, i guess. An indictment is not weak. It is an absolute farce. Okay. It is an embarrassment for the prosecution. You have people on the left and the right saying that this is
just preposterous. I think its fascinating what is happening and we are going to look at all angles of that coming up because if you take a look at both sides closely, its not what it appears. You know, last night, i mean, last night, things got so bad in ferguson that now they are bringing in the National Guard. So we are going to get to that in a second. Lets talk about your weekend. What . Okay. How was mommy and how is daddy and how was baby girl when she was dropped off at college . Did you collapse into tears . I do feel like im missing something, like a limb or something right now. I feel like i left my heart there, but it went well. It was a lot harder than i thought it would be. I hate to be one of those people that it was really a lot harder than i thought it would be. We put together a little piece and we have the president of some universities coming in actually to talk about this. Its fine with the kids. Yeah, they are fine. Nicole is probably i have a 2yearold and i think i say once a week, i cant believe he is going to go to college in 16 years and my husband is like, we hope we overpacked. I think there was some nervous packing going on on the part of all of us. Thats amelia. We will have more on that coming up. Its actually rite of passage for kids and parents for sure. Violence returned to the streets of ferguson, missouri, overnight. Nearly a week after an unarmed black teenager was shot to death by an officer. Hours ago, democratic governor jay nixon ordered the National Guard to the city to, quote, help restore peace and order. For the second night in a row, a curfew is in place and police and demonstrators were involved in heated clashes. Hours before the curfew went into effect police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters. State Highway Patrol captain ron johnson said the contest spiraled out of control and the police had no other choice. Mostly there were actions of violence that clearly appeared not to have been spontaneous or premeditated criminal acts designed to damage property, hurt people, and provoke a response. You know, willie, so the worst night of violence yet. A son of a city brought back in and try to do all of these things. They had a day of moving religious services there and everybody talking about the need for calm. Reverend sharpton said we are not looters, we are liberators, yet it keeps getting worse and worse. So bad that officials have gone
from apologizing to now bringing in the National Guard. The tear gas is back. The National Guard. Reverend sharpton was sitting around the table with us with a night after peace. He said, wait a minute, we are not through this yet. We have a long way to go and he proved to be right over the weekend. Tramaine syouve been on the ground there for quite some time. What have you seen last night compared to a week or so ago . Another hot night in ferguson punctuated by violence and tear gas. Clear we are breaking into two concentrated groups. One group is a group of protesters who are earnest and coming out to fight for the name of Michael Brown and justice and Police Brutality and a long history here. Another group that is emboldened by the escalated confrontation between the police and themselves. Now the police say there seems to be folks planning attacks on police and reports of molotov
cocktails and firing at police. Also reports of protesters who are trapped between police who are firing tear gas and other people who are firing at police. Again, another night in the situation seems to be kind of evolving in a very troubling way. Tramaine, we read reports and im sure you heard it yourself an awful lot there. There were people who came from out of town. The New York Times said one couple came from out of town to pay their respects to the family, to go to these Church Services who actually came out and said they felt like their lives were in danger, and were clearly, like most of the good people of ferguson, just outraged at this violence, that i guess they stormed the the looters tried to storm a Shopping Center. They took over a mcdonalds. It sounds like absolute chaos. Reporter here are the
problem. Early on, the protesters will say at the heart of the problem were the police, right . The more police you have, there is more of an opportunity for confrontati confrontation. The police after the wednesday and thursday and militarization was at its height they tried to step back a little bit and give people some space. In the beginning it seemed like it worse but the later in the evening with the Police Stepping back, there is a sense of chaos and a sense of lawlessness. At the same time, people who are still here trying to protest the name of Michael Brown but trapped by that chaos that is starting to ensue. Mika, at that point, the governor has no choice. I know. And the tension is so ratcheted up. When you have, like i say, Shopping Centers where the police are setting up their headquarters being attacked and you have that mcdonalds being completely taken over, they have to step in. So many different controversies that add to it. The release of the videotape. Now new, overnight, a preliminary autopsy conducted on behalf of Michael Browns family shows the 18yearold was shot at least six times, including twice in his head. Some bullets entered and exited brown several times. The autopsy found no gun paueds on browns pod which could indicate he was not he was not shot from close range. Police have said brown was shot after a struggle. Unfortunately, this autopsy, mark halpern, like every other autopsy, like every other part of this story is inconclusive. They dont have the clothes so maybe there is gun powder on the clothes. He was shot on the top of the head which they believe was the fatal shot. But they dont know whether that was when his head was down and he was charging the cops or when he was giving up. Its still just another big question mark here. Even the gentleman who conducted the autopsy said, as you said, that this is inconclusive and there will be two other autopsies. The president comes back today. I think i try to be optimistic here about where we are. The president is heavily engaged. The attorney general, obviously, is. People need to protest and exercise their First Amendment rights but order needs to be restored. Im optimistic based on the weekends activities i think today is a better day and a real effort to restore order. Why do you say that . Last night was the worst night of violence that there has been. Because i think authority is moving more towards people who understand the right balance between Civil Liberties and order. I thought thats why they brought in, what, ron johnson . Yeah. I thought thats why they brought in ron johnson. I mean, the state officials have been on the apology tour the past three or four days talking about how terrible it is. Eric holder stepped in. Everybody stepped in. Last night was the worst night of looting yet and lawlessness yet. By the way, if youre at home and sitting there thinking the cops are terrible people and they are horrible and what has
happened is horrible, well, i certainly would agree with you that there is such an unbalance but we have taken the ferguson cops out of the equation which is overwhelmingly white and underrepresented. Nicole, i havent seen any polls. I would guess the overwhelming majority of governor jay nixons constituents are saying, bring order to that place. We dont want that in our state. We dont want the lawlessness in our state. We dont want mcdonalds taking over. We dont want Small Business owners shops being looted. I am just injecting a little political reality in this i would expect state officials if this doesnt stop, to get a lot tougher, a lot faster. Because, politically, the danger here at the end is allowing lawlessness to break out in the streets for weeks and weeks. The most compelling figure to me is captain johnson. What an elegant great guy. And passionate man what he
said yesterday. You know, it moved me and i had hoped would move the community members. But i guess the question to trumaine, how much impact are his words having . He talked yesterday so eloquently about his own son. He said thats my baby. Thats my baby with baggy pants and his hat on sideways. I am you. Yet he is so far incapable of quelling all of the violence. What prospects do people on the ground see for his words having an impact . Reporter captain johnson has been a game changer. Every time he steps into a crowd, hes embraced with handshakes and hugs. The people here certainly do love him but the vast majority of the public who loves him but a group of men who are disinfected and had this long and hopeless history day in and day out with the law. I think when you see johnsons face he looks earnest and this is his community and those
people are his people. The people unemployed and dropped and pushed out of schools and have no sense of hope his words fall flat because tomorrow, the next day when we leave they are still going to be in this concentrated poverty. Their lives are going to be dire and their outlook is dim and dismal and that is who we are talking about here. We are not talking about the good church folks, socalled good church folks or the leadership that seems to be so far away from the front lines. We are talking about young men and he women who day in and day out living with the burden and weight of poverty and all of the things we talk about day in and day out. So its hard for them to hear the positive words and see that face and believe is what we are dealing with here. Trumaine lee, thank you very much. To another story that has extremely broad implications in the world of politics across the country. Texas governor rick perry says an indictment issued for him for abusing his power is in itself an abuse of power. He said in part we dont settle political difference with indictments in this country. It is outrageous that some would
use he is making good to threat for veto a state agency that vegetables public corruption. The agency is run by democrat rosemary lindbergh who refused to resign after being pleaded guilty to drunk driving. She served 45 days in jail at the time. During the the time a jailhouse video of her emerged and here is how the reporter chris willis covered the story when the tape was released. Reporter the video confirms what the Police Report states. That the night of her arrest District Attorney rosemary lindbergh was combative and resisting and refusing to imply with Law Enforcement. Turn around and face the wall reporter after repeatedly yelling at jailers and kicking on her cell door, jailers rushed her cell and strapped her into an emergency restraint chair and placed a spit mask over her
head. She laughs and says call greg referring to Greg Hamilton the Travis County sheriff. Did you call . Did you . Did you let him know you had me in custody . Youve been arrested for dwi. That is his problem. Reporter deputies say the District Attorney also attempted to scratch and grab an officers hand and when her blood was drawn she remained strapped in the restraint chair and her spit mask was removed but later put back on. Her Attorney Says the mask was not because she spit on anyone but, rather, to conceal her identity. You know what . Mika puts a spit mask on me sometimes when the show begins. Yes. I just you have people on the left and people on the right talking about how outrageous this is. Willie, this woman i mean, she blew 3. 5, 2. 5, point 6,
something like that. She was gat icombative. Everybody makes mistakes. She made a big one. Threatening im going to put you in jail and acted about as badly you can act under these circumstances and everybody makes a mistake and go to rehab. But i think any governor that ive ever met and ive met a lot of governors who would say, you know what . She is probably not the best person to run the Public Integrity unit after acting that way. Is that an elective job . Because you could argue that the folks decided that. Just saying. Theres two sides. So, any way. But two sides and on all of them stands the republicans plus David Axelrod and legal scholars
and on the other partisan public interest. David axelrod said this is a very sketchy looks very sketchy. And allen said no legal grounds for indicting him for carrying out the constitutionally clearly stated objectives of this office. Lets put in this proper context. Republicans have caught a lot of flak this summer for suing the president , not personally. But having the constitutional question about the powers of the white house. What the white house can and cant do. Then you have impeachment. That sort of is the next level where you try to remove somebody from office but not put them in jail. I said thats stupid. People talk about that being the politicalization of office. In this case, the austin District Attorney is trying to put rick perry in jail for doing
something that i think a lot of other governors would have done at the same time. I want to play out both sides of this. Joiq joining us from austin, texas, ross ramsey. Ross, good to have you on the show. I guess lay out for us, the way you see it and the way you see is personally covering stories and your instincts and intellect at play here, are there two sides to this or does this look slanted . It looks a little slanted. You start these things whenever you prosecute someone in politics. Their first response, you know, its textbook and also often correct is, you know, this is all politics, we shouldnt be doing this. Rosemary lindbergh is impossible to defend here. The problem here is that the governor is accused of coercing her and using a power that was his, the power of the budget and the veto pen to say if you dont quit im going to veto this. She is an elect official and not
in a state agency, a Travis County prosecutor. Shes an elected official. She pled guilty. She did jail time. She survived a civil lawsuit to remove her. And she also said she wouldnt run again. That is how she has dealt with this. Then perry comes in and says, you know, if you dont quit im going to take this fund away from your office. It wasnt her prosecutor, it was a special prosecutor. The prosecution says he cant use that veto in that way. He cant use that to make another elected official do something that the proper course for that would have been to pursue some impeachment or other mechanism. Its not that perry did a veto. Its that he did a threat. Thats where this thing hinges. They are talking about yeah, this has to, because if you look at the statute it cant be the veto because that is a Government Election by a government embody. In this case, they are indicting him because the prosecutor is so desperate to do this, they are
indicting him for political speech which, of course, is the most protected speech under the United States constitution, and hes done it all publicly, right . Nobody is suggesting that hes whispering behind closed doors and saying give me cash. I thought when i first heard this, the news first broke saturday afternoon, i said he must have taken cash under the table. There had to be more to this story. No they were public veto threats that they indicted him for which using this logic, Ronald Reagan could have been indicted when he threw that huge budget down saying if you send it to me, i will veto this budget and somebody lose their job because they said we are going to veto i mean, is there anything else out there that he has done other than make public statements . He did a couple of things. Its not just that he made a public statement. That he said im going to defund this agency or im going to take away the states funding for
this agency if she doesnt quit. Now, one of the reasons that the partisans got involved on the other side and made the original complaint was is hers is the office that investigates state goverts. She is the watchdog over public Corruption Cases and things like that. Perry is in the case of a fox taking away the food supply of the watchdog at the henhouse. And so there