Ataeng Voter Registration event in that state. Trumps running mate mike pence will attend a rally in virginia. That does it for us on it f monday. Morning joe starts right now. This man is clearly unfit to be commander in chief. Wrong. He is a bully. Shut up. He started the birther movement. You did. He says Climate Change is a hoax invented by china. Its pronounced jina. He hasnt released his tax returns which means hes either not that rich. Wrong. Not that charitable. Wrong. Or not paid taxes in thhis life. Warmer. Amazing. Great writing. Im going to have to go with the somersault. It was a good somersault. Harold ford, jr. , how are you doing . Good. Good morning. University of michigan. Go blue. They looked good this weekend. We got to keep at it. Were not alabama. Were trying. Were alabama of the north. Well take it. The engine that could. You think you can. You think you can. Red sox made it into the playoffs. The indians. Giants. We mourn for Claire Mccaskill. How about the metropolitans making it in . Very exciting. And your chicago cubs, chicago. 102 wins this year. Best team in baseball. Unbelievable. Quick question before we dive into all the crazy stuff that went on this weekend. You need to be on seven days a week is what i think. There was so much. Let me ask something. Something i dont understand. So all throughout december, january, february, march, april, when it didnt really matter, Media Outlets have 30 polls a day. There were polls every single day. We cant get one now. And this is the biggest debate ever. This debate is going to change things forever. So were going to be watching. Nobody has done a poll. Were in a drought. Let me ask you, mark, because if i was a conspiracy theorist, i would think they had taken polls and they didnt like the trend lines. Why would you not take a poll why wouldnt cnnbc, abc, cbs. The Washington Post did a poll on likability. We know theyre all hated. You dont have to waste my sunday morning telling me that everybody hates these two characters. There are some poll numbers coming. Why havent they done them this past week . Its stupid. Its insanity. They spend millions and millions of dollars and we still have no idea what is the answer . There is no good answer. We have no idea how americans really reacted to the debate. Why would that be . It has to do with the fluke of scheduling and budgets. Thats theres some coming. Whoever schedules and budgets should be fired because fox news is the only network that has done a poll postdebate. Okay, listen. This is what were going to do. Were going to get your calendars out. Everybody get your calendars out. Were going to do a poll on march 12th, 14th, 16th, 19th, 1 21st, 22nd. Well run out of money at some point but we dont run out of money until the first debate and then well wait a month and whats up . That was my pet peeve for the weekend. How was your weekend. It is great. Did you see the tennessee georgia game. Tennessee is coming back. Did you see the game . First of all, tennessee won and then georgia had won and ten seconds left georgia penalty on the kickoff and josh dobbins threw one deep. 150 Football Games on the weekend. There really are. I know everybody is really ticked off about donald trump not paying taxes for, like, 78 years. Whatever. Im bummed about the tweet storm. Im going to say what im more bummed about joe scarborough, you like rich people. No. Its kind of like, im not offended by mitt romney paying 14 taxes. Im not offended by barack obama paying 19 taxes. Im noted o offended by donald p not paying taxes for 15 years. Paul ryan, 20 tax rate. I pay a 55 tax rate so im a sucker, right . I share your suckerdom. I need a failing casino or whatever barack obama and mitt romney have. They pay 14 and 20 and paul ryan pays 20 . The thing is, my feeling is i think most americans are this way. If you follow the law, you follow the law. What im offended by is a system that allows people like donald trump to fly around on jumbo jets and live in the most opulate places on planet earth and have the best golf courses and not pay taxes. Am i supposed to be mad at donald trump for that or am i supposed to be mad at government and congress for that . Its a scam. Its like hedge funders that make billions of dollars and are offended if someone comes along saying they should pay more than 14 taxes. That to me seems to be the real scam. People are mad at me for saying this. Most americans are, like, pay taxes that youre legally required to pay and were good. With donald trump, if he would say what you said and said i figured out a way to take advantage of the code. I paid no taxes. I took a loss. Im speculating. I dont know if the New York Times story is true. If theyre true, he should say that. He said all of that. He wont show us why hes such an expert in this. I said on meet the press yesterday the times story was hyped. Great journalism. Glad they did it. Important to get as much information about his taxes as possible. Great story. Story is premised on saying he could have paid zero taxes but premised every year for the last 18 years what he made in the first year and im sure he made more. Im wondering if youre donald trump and your stick is
strength. Im stronger than everybody. Im going to pound everybody. Theyre suckers. Ill make the biggest deal. Is the press, the liberal press, are they focusing on him too much not paying taxes legally, legally, when they should be focusing on him losing a billion dollars. Seriously. So seriously, youre going to do for america what you did for hey, thanks but no thanks. Well go with the lifelong bureaucrat. That seems to be what supporters would be more offended by. I think youre at the rub and where were at another fork in the road. Media will talk probably for ten days about how he paid no taxes. Voters are probably to the degree that people on the fence are struggling with these candidates, theyre probably more upset that he called Miss Universe woman fat than they are about any part of the tax what about his speech the other night . My god. He accuses hillary of the most
outrageous slanderous things. The worst moment as a candidate was physical mockery of a disabled person. Now hes mocked Hillary Clinton where we know she was sick with pneumonia. Press will talk for a week. People are worried about other stuff. The press is going to talk about them not paying taxes when, again, i think the voters that would not vote for trump because of this story would be because he lost a billion dollars in a year. Wait a second. This guy is going to do for us what hes done for himself. Thanks but no thanks. Thats the only tax record we have of him. Then you can go down all of the other stuff. You go to speeches where hes mocking Hillary Clintons pneumonia and having a terrible moment when he makes an assumption about Hillary Clintons personal life and her personal morality out of absolute left field. I think thats, again, if
something happened this weekend to reinforce that donald trump is not fit to be president for people who dont believe hes fit to be president , it was the speech and not the tax issue, i think. What about you . I agree with you on that. I still think that beyond the taxes and the billion dollar loss or billion dollars in of course, whatever it is. The temperament issue is still a driving issue for voters. I think for those voters strongly for or against trump, thats dispositive. They moved on. They know what will give them their support or take the support away. But for those other voters out there that trump are still trying to convince, many of them republicans by the way and women. And women. That temperament argument as displayed against this weekend is going to be a driver for them
for the next 40 less days of this campaign. It is. Im going to ask both of you quickly on the tax issue i brought up earlier. We have three republicans here. This is a world record for msnbc. And, well, any network, actually other than fox. Michael steele, ill start with you. Do you agree with me or not that the real outrage here on this tax story is that youve got guys that can live like donald trump paying zero percent in taxes and hedge funders pay 14 in taxes. For me to say as small Government Conservative that Warren Buffett is right. If you make a billion dollars you should at least pay 30 in taxes of year if your secretary is paying 28 in taxes a year . As they say, dont hate the player, hate the game. If you have the ability to take advantage of i understand that. Im talking about what the game should be . Absolutely they should be changed. No doubt about that. When you set aside in the tax code an ability to sort of hide Investment Income or treat Investment Income differently from regular income when all you get is Investment Income, yeah. Those types of nicole, somebody works their ass off all year and pay 28 in taxes all year. Somebody else comes into the year worth 3 billion and figures out how to be worth 5 billion a year should they pay 14 as americans . Its galling to the public if they can get their brain around these massive sums of money. Its why occupy wall street had legs. Its why elizabeth warrens message about income inequality will resonate with not just the
far left but parts of our base too. You look at Donald Trumps tax policy and its more of the same. I thought that trump surrogates were completely over the top yesterday in saying this is an example of his genius. If it were so, why not release taxes in his opening speech. This is squarely his brand. I figured out how to use it. Lets show clips with giuliani and Chris Christie call him a genius and then Mark Halperin will respond to that. Whats your response to this story . My response is hes a genius. Absolute genius. I rather have a genius that understands the tax code that wants to reform it. No one has shown more genius in their way to maneuver around the tax code and genius of donald trump has been to make sure that he follows the law. The man is a genius. He knows how to operate the tax code for the benefit of the
people hes serving. It was very interesting i thought yesterday in the giuliani interview with jake tapper. I have never seen anybody bring chains to the interview but jake tapper did. Did you guys see that . Rough stuff. Jake has had a great cycle. In that case, as some would say, everybody was a little overboard. I dont know it thrusting it at him it works. The problem is not hiring a great accountant and taking deductions. The real estate lobby gives donations to politicians and gets favorable tax laws. The system is rigged. The system is rigged because of special interest. Its like hedge funders. They rigged the system so they can make billions of dollars and pay 14 in taxes. Theres no indication while i pay 55 in taxes. Theres no evidence that donald trump has a plan to reduce the interest of special interests. Hes not proposed his tax plan is, like, its just the same thing over the past 30 years. Give the rich more. Except for hedge funders. He wants to change that. How much do you think thats going to happen, please. Seriously. Anybody . Ill bet you a pickup truck. If there are any reforms, if donald trump is president of the United States and we have the same congress. Everybody agree . There wont be. None. Its what people are pissed off. And this is, i think, harold, the danger of having donald trump if you get past the foreign policy, youve got a guy that is not going to have the
where with all to sit down with paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell and everybody else and democrats who get a lot of money from hedge funders, too, and say do not even think were going to pass a bill until you reform the tax code to make sure people that make billions of dollars a year pay more than 14 in taxes other that donald trump can fly around in a jumbo jet for 30 years and pay zero percent taxes for 15 of those years. I think its difficult for an average family, working man, working woman in the country, to understand how he has his names emblazened on buildings and if hes taken advantage of these deduction, the people paying it are every day working people. You dont fault trump for having aggressive accountants, do you . At the end of the day as much as christie and giuliani say
hes a genius, hes a genius exploiting every day working people. Everybody you work with does. No, they dont. Majority of people i work with pay the same rate. I pay the rate you pay. Your bosses do. No, they dont. I dont work at a hedge fund. My point is this, this is about trump. My point is that what donald trump is doing i think this is i dont mean to interrupt you. Im obviously way off here as far as i think the problem is that we have the system that allows the richest of the rich to do what donald trump has done. Thats why he is where he is. You ask the top real estate people and top hedge funders, he hasnt paid taxes in years. Good for him. What im saying is nobody is shocked going, my god, he took advantage of every legal tax
loophole he could. Nobody is shocked on wall street about that. They say he would be a sucker if he didnt. Not everybody is saying that. If hes done this, he should share it and we should understand how he did it and constructive for the rest of the country ton understand how hel change the tax code. I havent heard him lay out anything he would change other than to say im a genius and smart not to pay taxes. It you get up every day and you dont benefit from Investment Income, its difficult for you to understand how a guy that wants to be president has paid no taxes. We understand that. Im saying it is difficult for connect these dots. I blame him. Im not going to let him off the hook because hes taken advantage of the system. You and michael and nicole are right. Hes probably filollowed the rules. I dont know. Again, nobody at this table, im sure, and, michael, nobody would fault for taking every
deduction he can take. No am i. I dont know that for fact. This is all speculation. If the times story is right, nobody faults him for that. Again, because i know people get confused sometimes at home because theyre eating cheetos for breakfast and you should not put whole milk over your cheetos, people might be confused. I think its gross. Its the system that we have. I dont mean to suggest its the system that his entire candidacy is animated by. His entire reason for winning was that he was running against a rigged system that he had exploited his entire career. I remember mitt romney started alluding to what might be a whopper if his tax returnsver came out in the heat of the republican primary. He hinted at this. I dont know if it was rumored or suspected. I remember at the time the reason that this is not as
damaging to him as a normal politician is that hes running as a scoundrel and a guy that has worked the system. I agree with that. At the end of the day why do we think if the rules were written to favor the average worker that they wouldnt likewise take advantage of those rules . Thats the whole crux of what were talking about here. Those rules arent written so that they get some benefit as well. Written to their disadvantage and to those that have the means. Our system is so screwed up. You have 45, maybe 45 of americans who dont pay any income tax at all. None at all. Then youve got the people at the very top that pay absolutely no taxes at all. And then you have a family that works hard and maybe a Small Business owner that maybe they make 250,000 a year, sending four kids off to college, if they live in connecticut at least, theyre paying 55 of
their income to state, local and on national levels. People are getting screwed. The middle class is getting screwed. Unfortunately i dont think donald trump is a guy thats going to go in and reform it. He could. Maybe well be shocked. There are three problems. One, he must release his tax returns for the last ten years at least. He must. Its inappropriate to run for president and not. Hes not going to. Weve had this conversation. Two, there are years in which hes paid no taxes. We know that. We dont know how many. He must speak to i dont like government spends its money. Tens of millions of americans pay taxes even though they dont like it. He needs to address failure to serve in the military, pay taxes, how does he feel about that . Third thing, no one is suggesting hes broken the law. Until we see his tax returns, we dont know if accountants were overaggressive in exploiting the tax law. We dont know. Well said. Okay. Kim kardashian is robbed at gunpoint in paris by people dressed as police. Shes okay. You said 45 of americans some dont pay taxes. There are a lot of people at the very low end. I dont know if anybody at this table who would trade with that person. There may be people who would trade at the top end. Low end is people earning between 20,000 and 45,000 a year. Its that part where he says hell exempt that people from paying taxes. We have to be careful. I dont know of anybody that would want to trade im not saying i want to
trade with anybody. Im just making a point that we have a tax system that is really, really screwed up where you have half of americans not paying income tax. Almost half of americans not paying income tax and then people that run the world paying 14 . While secretaries pay 28 and Small Business owners that bust their life their entire life, 50 of their monday confiscated by governments like connecticuts that are extraordinarily inefficient that they cannot one state at random, if you go to get your drivers license youre in line for 2 1 2 hours. Power stays out for a week. If wind blows 15 miles an hour, lights are out for at least ten days. If youre lucky. And were paying for that . Im sorry. I get a lot Better Service in florida when i was paying zero
percent income tax to the state government. Thousand times better. Everybody is, like, poor florida. Bull. Bull. You have a category 4. The lights are on the next day. You want your drivers license. You go in. I would like to renew my drivers license. Whats your name . My name is joe. Who told you to move to a state named after nutmeg. Its a lovely state otherwise. I love the state. I am going to be there the rest of my life i would prefer not to pay 55 taxes the rest of my life. I can handle it. If youre a plumber working there your entire life and you have three kids and you want one them to go to uconn and another