Im betty nguyen alongside louis burgdorf. Morning joe starts right now. His policy has been the same he still says deport thats been the same. Correct. But again you have to start with baby steps. Baby steps . It means setting small, reasonable goals months. Again, you have to start with baby steps. Baby steps. Setting small, reasonable goals for yourself. One tiny step at a time. Baby steps. Baby steps. All right. Good morning. It is baby steps, isnt it, willy . Wednesday, august 31st. Welcome to morning joe. August is almost over, mike barnicle. Its upsetting. Its upsetting. What happened to june . With us on set we have veteran columnist and contributor mike barnicle. The man you saw cohosting all due respect last night donny
deuts deutsch. Hes wearing skinny pants and big boots. Thats a good look. No, its not. Not for donny deutsch. Maybe for like i relish august because it means back to school and i get to get my new 64 box craola crayons. In washington, we have columnist and associate editor for Washington PostDavid Ignatius. Getting a shot up. All right. Lets start with this, donald trump will meet today with his first head of state. Ahead of his speech on immigration. The Washington Post was first to report late last night that trump and mexicos president will meet today in mexico city. New york times reports he will travel to mexico and the post reports the meeting will happen between a fundraiser in california and his major speech on immigration in arizona. Last night, at about 10 30
eastern trump confirmed saying i have accepted the invitation of mexico and look very much forward to being there and meeting him tomorrow. The post reports that he extended the offer to both trump and Hillary Clinton last friday and trump decided over the weekend to accept the invitation and push for a visit this week. Among those advocating the trip, according to reports, were new campaign chief executive Stephen Bannon and new Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Whose 2014 visit was a precursor to his president ial campaign. The mexican president added a personal message late last night saying i invited the u. S. President ial candidates to mexico to discuss the bilateral relationship tomorrow. I welcome donald trump. Promote mexico and the world and mainly to protect mexicans wherever they are. Needless to say, trump has had a volatile relationship with mexicos leaders over the past 14 months of his candidacy. When mexico sends their people, theyre not sending their best. They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. Some, i assume, are good people. Do you remember when fidel castro took over. He opened his prisons and sent everybody over to the United States. In a much, much, much more sophisticated way, mexicos doing that to us. So, i had an idea. I think its good. Every time mexico really intelligently sends people over, we charge mexico 100,000 for every person they send up. The people are saying, oh, its so dangerous what youre doing, mr. Trump. Its so dangerous. I have to do it. Days youre with the illegals
and were discussing that but the illegals coming in. Any evidence to confirm your fears . I heard it. I heard it from a lot of different people. The president of mexico yesterday or the expresident or whatever, whoever, who cares. He said, we will not even consider paying for the wall. You ready . Who is going to pay for the wall . Who . 100 . I declare im not going to pay for that [ bleep ]. He should pay for it. He has the money. Democracy cannot pay. Mexicos current president has also had strong words for trump. In march, he said trumps strident tone was how mussolini got in and how hitler got in. He later said the comparison was only a call for reflection and recognition. Trumps visit comes as a poll earlier this month from the newspaper reforma found the job Approval Rating at just 23 , with 74 disapproving. The lowest level since he took office in december of 2012. One former mexican intelligence official told wall street journal for trump this makes perfect sense. He polishes his image. Half price on the wall. The mexican president has stood firm against trump proposals while seeing the need for a strong relationship in case trump turns out to be the next president. Under no circumstances would mexico pay for that border. There is no way mexico can pay a wall like that. Translator we have to make it very clear that development
and prosperity in the United States is built through neighboring countries. We also have to bear in mind that the security of the United States is linked with the security of its neighboring country. This is what we have been doing with the u. S. Government. We have a relationship of coordination, of collaboration and of cooperation in the area of security. Joe, your thoughts. Well, i guess it makes sense for both. They do have one thing in common, their Approval Ratings are within the margin of error. He said, the mexican president is at 23 . Donald trump at 26 . So, these guys together when they get together theyre going to be very excited because together theyre going to be over 50 for the first time in a long time. They do. Its going to be a fascinating meeting for them. I am wondering, though, David Ignatius, what does the leader of mexico get out of meeting
with donald trump, a man who has pounded mexicans personally and their leaders more generally over the past year and a half . Well, this is the matador gets the bull to come into his arena. I think theres a stature gain for the mexican president. I think for trump, losing so badly, as you said in the polls, heading bike almost every account. This is one more sign that he is an unpredictable politician and he sees a moment that will come out of this revising so many of those statements that we heard in the film library. I think in the end, Mexican American voters are pretty motivated and id be surprised if this was the decisive thing that makes them say, oh, my gosh, i was wrong. Terrible things donald trump has said. I have forgotten all about them. Donny deutsch, is trump going to go hardline, again, or is he
going to come back and soften his position which he has shown hannity a week back. The irony of trump and he will walk it back in certain ways. Were seeing hes using the word softening. He is running his campaign on the quintessential politician. Hillvy the ultimate insider, though like hillary or not. She has not flipflopped too many ways yet, trump, has been mr. Flipflop. I mean, the American People are not stupid. He has already shown his hand and, obviously, you guys have talkeded a no ed a naued nauseu moderate republicans, yet, voters are not stupid. He has played his hand already. You cannot walk it back a step or two and people go, i forgot what happened the last year. Regardless of what hes doing today, he is not showing his hands. Any other candidate would say this is a statesmanlike visit. But donald trump has a record in this relationship with mexico. You just laid it all out. Undo some pieces of nafta and he opened his campaign. The border illegally and sending us racists and criminals. Hard to make the statesmanlike case but hes throwing hail mary passes at this point and this is something he can work ahead of his speech tonight in phoenix. He also has a gift each and every day no matter what he appears in with a few strong beliefs that he adheres to. A form of political amnesia that allows him to Say Something one day that he said the direct opposite of the next day and he still up until 72 hours ago still when the crowd wanes in
terms of its lust for him goes towards im going to build the wall. Democrat Hillary Clinton also received an invitation to visit the president of mexico who she met with in 2014, but so far no meeting is planned. In response to trumps visit, a spokesperson said donald trump has painted mexicans as racist and criminal and has promised to deport 16 Million People including children and u. S. Citizens. He has said we should force mexico to pay for his giant border wall. We should ban remittances to families of mexico if mexico doesnt pay up. What donald trump says to voters in arizona, not mexico and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and the deportation of millions. Joe mika, im just curious what is your take on this flipflop . You know, im absolutely done
with being emotional about this. Im really disappointed and donald trump just as a candidate in general. I dont think that he has proved to mean anything that he says. And i think its almost silly to spend too much time analyzing his moves because theyre nonsensical and with no foresight and theyre made up by somebody else and they wont get derailed because he wont understand exactly what his strategists are telling him to do. Theyre just some strong, lastminute rip on his part. Really almost a waste of breath to put sense into it. I know since Barry Goldwater and im certainly not one. But, yet, hes clearly detached from reality. I think he lives in his own world day to day not understanding that there is the level of mania or even a soc sociopath has no understanding of what the other person is thinking or feeling or understanding. And i think he is just so
detached and the Clinton Campaign has always had two pillars. They had the pillar of unstable and the racist and now pillar of flipflopper. To say the least. Also could be walking into a trap because the president of mexico is in a position, as joe just laid out the numbers. Approval rating is in the 20s. Hes been on the record comparing trump to mussolini and hitler. This is a great moment for the mexican president to bring trump in and tear him down in front of the mexican people and hopefully build up his ratings, as well. Hillary clinton spent last night fundraising for a third day in the hamptons of new york. The final stop was a starstudded affair. According to full reports, Hillary Clinton danced with sir Paul Mccartney while Jimmy Buffett played cheeseburger in paradise at his home. The night ended with the former
beatle, buffett and jon bon jovi singing hey jude. More use about her private email. The state department revealed it found as many as 30 additional emails that may be related to the benghazi attack. Those emails came from the cache of 15,000 the fbi had to recover forensically but some could be duplicates. The fbi may release their report that the Justice Department is not recommending charges against clinton which could include agent notes. Last night donald trump did not miss the opportunity to go after clintons credibility. The only way to learn the full depth of her public corruption is to read the 33,000 emails that she deleted. Theyre gone. She bleached, which somebody said they never even heard of in a very expensive fashion. Used chemical so that nobody
will ever be able to see them. Who does this . Who does this . Now, today, another 30 emails were discovered by the state department that Hillary Clinton failed to turn over. These were emails about benghazi. It just never ends with the clintons. And New York TimesEditorial Board is calling on the Clinton Foundation to stop taking foreign and corporate money right now. They write in part this, just a new bach of previously disclosed state Department Emails to bill, hillary and chelsea Clinton Foundation got special favors from mrs. Clinton while she was secretary of state . Not so far, but that the question arises yet again points to a need for major changes at the foundation now before the
november election. Simply closing the foundation, as even some democrats recommend could kill programs helping tens of thousands of people. Its plans to restrict its Funding Sources only after the election will likely dog mrs. Clinton. A wiser course could be to ban contributions from foreign and its affiliations for the duration of her presidency. Achieving true distance from the foundation is not only necessary to ensure its effectiveness, but ethical imperative for mrs. Clinton laid out, joe, by the New York Times. You know, i dont know how many different ways this can come at the clintons to say, come on. This is causing problems for you. But i guess my bigger question is about the state department. Why cant they figure this out . Why cant they find these things. Where is the state department . Just sort of some place where things get lost . I dont understand. The emails do keep trickling out and David Ignatius a onetwo punch for the clintons this morning. How do you just find 30 more emails regarding benghazi. Conspiracy theories will be swirling for some time about that. But that side the emails keep coming plus the Clinton Foundation. Now you have series of main stream Media Outlets and outlets that are left that are making the same suggestion that the clintons should step away from their found option. Whats your read on it . Do you think they should . And do you think, ultimately, they will . Its a steady drip, drip, drip of these stories that call into question her honesty and reliability. Anybody that knows the state department would not find it surprising that you could lose thousands of documents in that institution, including these emails. Its unfortunate. I doubt myself that unless
theyre major new revelations, either of these issues will move the needle enough in the groups that trump needs to really make a difference in the election. The people who were shocked by emails for whom benghazi is a trigger point. Those people are already trump supporters. On this question of the Clinton Foundation, the New York Times is absolutely right. Its outrageous to have someone running for president of the United States. Have her husband raising money from foreign governments, from wealthy foreign individuals who want to influence the United States, its just wrong. I think anybody can feel that. I dont understand for the life of me why when she said she wont do this, just stop it now. Not because its good politics, because its the right thing to do. Mike . Willie or mike. Mike. You know, off of davids point i fully agree with david
ignatius, the history of the clintons and the history when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state and assumed office in 2009 and they supposedly had an agreement that there would be no conflict of interest with the Foundation Going forward. By april, by april of that year, there was some difficulties with former president bill clinton and the foundation and money and access and the secretary of state. The clintons have always operated under the premise, look, were going to do good things. Just so dont worry about us. Little ripples in the lake, but were doing good things and stop questioning our motive. Theres been so much information over the last year or more about the emails and the Clinton Foundation flooded through every day through the press it becomes this cloud. The american voting public in many ways cant remember exactly what happened this day and what happened the next day. So, it becomes this big thing that you cant really get your arms around. The bottom line is, people need to ask themselves. Common sense test. Was it a good idea as secretary
of state, joe, to set up a private server in your home on which you knew there was going to be classified material passing . Was it a good idea when you became secretary of state to keep your relationship with the Clinton Foundation knowing there would be conflicts of interest . Was that a good idea . Did it pass the common sense test for you as a voter . And, you know, mika, they still have not broken free in a dramatic way to send the message to the American People that they get it. There is a reason why we still have donald trump whos just had a horrific month and a half since the convention. As bad as any Major National candidate in modern american history. And, yet, shockingly, if you look at these polls, these fourway polls, hes still three, four points behind. This race is still within a shot for democrats that say the foundation doesnt matter and
other things dont matter. That clintons integrity doesnt matter, her perception doesnt matter. Perception is reality here and she and the family need to stand before a bank of microphones tomorrow. Some time soon. Do something dramatic. This race should not be as close as it is. Yeah. Hillary clinton should be up by double digits right now against a man who, as you said, is all over the place. Doesnt follow directions. Ignores his staff, ignores his family, ignores his political party. They know hes going down in flames. And, yet, you look at these recent polls and hes within three or four points and Hillary Clinton is losing two, three, four points over the past month in every poll. There is a reason she needs to wake up and understand. Theres a reason, joe. And these are the reasons. Theres no other reason shes prepared. She actually makes sense when she makes speeches. Shes measured. She cares about the country. Shes been serving for decades and saying a lot of the same things about what she thinks is important for this country for decades and fighting for people for decades. Those are the reasons her candidacy is impaired. Those are the reasons. There are no others. And weve been saying this along with many others for years. So,