Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170301

Empowered by our aspirations, not burdened by our fears. Inspired by the future, not bound by failures of the past, and guided by a vision, not blinded, by our doubts. I am asking all citizens to embrace this renewal of the american spirit. I am asking all members of congress to join me in dreaming big and bold and daring things for our country. President donald trump, last night, calling on congress and the country to unify. Good morning. Its wednesday, march 1st. Welcome to morning joe, live from capitol hill this morning. The morning after the president s first address to congress. With us we have political analyst and executive producer and cohost of show time the circus mark halpern. Msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the Republican National committee michael steele. Pulitzer prize winning and associate editor of the Washington Post bob woodward. And willie geist joins us from new york. The great willie geist. Who is the brother of the oscar winner. Im proud to say that. That really was. Actually, that was the moment. It was. It snt the dunaway or Warren Beatty moment. At long last. Before we get started this morning a huge show ahead this morning on morning joe. The Vice President of the United States, mike pence who had some impact on the speech yesterday and made some changes, especially when you heard things that sounded more unifying and less concerning. Hell be here on set. First on morning joe this morning. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and republican ted cruz are guests this morning and we will speak exclusively with House Minority leader nancy pelosi. The chairman of the rnc will join the conversation and former Governor Steve Beshear who delivered the remarks to President Trumps address. And key democrats senator Claire Mccaskill and senator joe manchin on the set here as well. You were on the floor last night and i want to hear the reaction inside and then take it around. Its very interesting. Ive been to a lot of these on for all of the president s since clinton, and, you know, sometimes it can get hostile on the floor and you would have expected last night to be one of the more hostile moments. There is a sense of there has been a sense of reboding in washington, d. C. Since donald trump won. And i think what surprised me the most was sitting with Elijah Cummings invited me. We have been friends for a long time. Was the democrats there was not the hostility there. They are very concerned, but republicans, of course, infamously shouted out you lied and critical on barack obama. Actually, last night, it was a quiet, calm and reserved from the democrats that i did not im expect. I sat with elijah. Right. They were laughing and said you said to do family leave, we will call you on it and looking at the republicans. A trillion dollars in transportation . Okay, great, we will call you on it. So it wasnt as harsh and hostile as i expected, as republicans were towards obama. As we work towards clinton and democrats work towards george w. Bush at times. And then trumps tone, of course, was this was the speech. He did a lot of the things that we have been saying every morning he should do and i think for our allies across the globe, this was the most important thing he could have done, mika. We were talking with some diplomats yesterday who were very, very concerned. Item right. Item im sure that what he said about nato reverberated, not only across europe but across the world last night. What did you think . Chuck schumer had a standing ovation to that line. I feel like this presidency is on delay. Like this could have been a pretty good inaugural speech. I think pulling back and looking for openings for the democrats, i think democrats ought to look for those openings or call them up and reach out and not get over their skis and have a lot of horrendous reaction and a lot of things we dont agree with but democrats lost. Mark halpern . In his short political career the best speech he has delivered. It was engaging and interesng and showed his heart and what he cares about and made people think the possibility that knew about him and it didnt change his policies. He changed the way he talked about them and unifying for the country and the world and everybody wants the american president regardless of party to be. Doesnt solve all of his problems and people see if he can keep this up. A striking different way talking about the things he cares about. Finally, the white house was so excited about this speech beforehand. He executed exactly what they wanted him to do and they are very pleased but they know this does not get health care passed or tax reform passed. Willie good night, mika and i have a lot of reporting about what is happening the past week. About the time of the press is the enemy of the people. The president and a lot of people on the inside said, okay, we have gone too far, we have pushed this too far. They had a meeting. A lot of the principals were there and the calmer voices prevailed. I didnt know mike pence was going to be on the show today. I should probably read my notes before i get on set but we heard that mike pence actually was the voice that spoke up in the room and said, youve got to speak to the people that are in that room. Youre not talking to your crowds across america any more. Youre talking to the people in that room. The president , himself, with a lot of different voices coming in for the first time, working with Steven Miller who ive been extraordinarily harsh on who did a very admirable job, i think, in writing a unified speech. The message was sent and the president was the one actually leading it, saying, okay, we have pushed this too far and there is a collective feeling, its time to be president of everybody. We have got to put the Campaign Rhetoric behind us. I think there is no question. As mark said, this was a different president ial speech. Packaging all of the things he has been talking about on immigration, he talked with the wall, repealing and replacing obamacare. Nothing new at the center of. It was the way it was delivered. The tone he says we need to be empowered by our aspirations and not burdened by our fears for a president lying about the murder rate and all of those things and for him to talk about positive uplifting way was a totally different thing for him. Now the question does it stick . Is this one of these trump moments where people go, okay, hes figured it out, this is the pivot, the change. We have been fooled by the pivot many times, many people have been. Lets see if he sticks to this while keeping his core message, keeping his supporters happy, keeping all of the promises he made during the campaign, but carrying himself in a different way and as he said putting those trivial fights behind us. We will see if he can continue that. President trump struck a populace told and heralded a mandate to revest in america. In 2016, the earth shifted beneath our feet. The people turned out by the tens of millions and they were all united by one very simple, but crucial demand, that america must put its own citizens first, because only then can we truly make America Great again. Dying industries will come roaring back to life. Heroic veterans will get the care they so sgraedesperately n. Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airport, and railway bes, gleaming across a very, very beautiful land. Our terrible drug epidemic will slow down and ultimately stop, and our neglected inner cities will see a rebirth of hope, safety, and opportunity. Its been a long time since we had fair trade. The first republican president , Abraham Lincoln warned that the government will produce want and ruin among our people. Lincoln was right and its time we heeded his advice and his words. They have taken advantage of our country no longer. Another republican president , dwight d. Eisenhower, initiated the last truly Great National infrastructure program, the building of the interstate highway system. The time has come for a new program of national rebuilding. Speech had a lot more depth to it and some historical context. Just knowing from the inside, Vice President , along with ivanka, had a lot of impact on what the president did last night, even over a week ago, they were working on him on this speech and trying to get some important issues that they are working on, access to capital. You could hear, bob woodward, at the top of the speech, really the president almost packing into some of the things a lot of people had been waiting to hear about, including dina powell and ivanka trump who have been working on issues pertaining to women. Sometimes i think ive been watching these things back to calvin coolidge. What happened here last night, having seen so many of them. We know this about trump. He knows how to dominate a room. Ive rarely seen a president , even reagan or obama or clinton, kind of take control, im going to steer this ship, the interesting and important thing, i think, he kept pointing over toward the democrats and he realized hes got to negotiate and deal with the democrats here to get some of this through. Thats going to be the test. And there was a kind of silence on the part of the democrats. Yeah, bob. It wasnt as hostile. I think i certainly heard it. There is a realization that donald trump is a product of new york, hes a product of manhattan. He is more comfortable culturally talking to nancy pelosi than, say, paul ryan. I wanted to ask you one other thing, though. The only time ive been sitting there where there was sort of this noticeable shift was bill clinton when he said the era of Big Government is over and we republicans laughed. And clinton got us again and again and again. Last night of course, he didnt mean it. Well, no. But he preached it and then he signed welfare reform a the balance budget came on. But last night, i noticed the first time a shift. I mean, there really was a shift. As the New York Times commented online, if he becomes a president that can work across the aisle, they will look back to this speech as sort of his ship. His pivot that willie was talking about. He was in control and i think it kind of took a lot of peoples breath away. At the same time, the real hard work has to be done, particularly with obamacare. If you look by the way, that is where the democrats werent sneering but they were laughing going, we did this, we tried you want to start with that . Lots of luck. And they were all basically its impossible. And if you the polling shows and journalist shows on obamacare, is it a disaster as trump alleges . Or is itworking . We dont know. People have to make that fit and that is going to be trumps job. And how. There is the how. That is the word i kept hearing. How. How. How. We have been asking. Michael steele, many praiseded the president s tone in this speech. Rich lowry tweeteds ive been trying to teome of my liberal friends we are just five weeks in and they shouldnt discount trump learning as he goes. Which we are seeing. Former george w. Bush speech writer tweeted i had thought trump and team incapable of learning but they learned from a failed inaugural that was a steve bannon speech. Same troubling agenda. Robert costa wrote the following. You know what . Ill take the ivankaism. Mika, there was a lot less bannon. Can you see his fingerprints off this. This was a receding. Lets keep going. Of bannons influence over at least this speech. Nick confessore tweeted the following. Nick christoff tweeted the following. Former National Security adviser susan rice wrote. Why do i have a queasy feeling that wont go away. As wondered if this the real donald trump. Michael steele, what did you think about the tone of this speech . I thought the tone was right on. He figured out that space. I think you put your finger on it. He owned that room in a way that wasnt if wasnt car tyne itoon tvish. I thought that tone was struck in the very beginning when he led with, you know, his conversation about the end of africanamerican History Month and sort of tied that in to this journey that we are all taking, that we still have more to do. To the moment with, you know, navy s. E. A. L. Ryan owens wife and that special moment. This was the line for me when he was talking about how they were talking about how hard it is to do business in other countries. They werent asking for a change. I am. That probably resonated more than anything else across the country because it was thats what im here for. Tre was actually someood speech writing in th. That was you could have heard Ronald Reagan deliver that line. Exactly. What is so interesting about this speech is some people are talking about battle lines between priebus and bannon. This is for a different, because there were a lot of people for the first time flooding the zone, going in. Donald trump pulled in voices. There was ivanka. There was jared kushner. There was mike pence. Foreign policy stalwarts. Ill just say it. This was the grownups walked into the room and will it be a change . We dont know. Will it signal a change . The grownups walked into the room, had an impact and wanted the grownups in the room. As i said before, mike pence. You can see that actually some of the people that by the way, they walked into the room because the president of the United States said come in the room. This isnt like as we always say, this isnt like steve bannon may think he is trumps puppet master. Nobody else in washington thinks that. These people came to the room because donald trump invited them into the room. I think that you saw the impact of jared and ivanka. You saw the impact of Vice President pence, but you really just saw a little less bannon all around. You saw a little tension in the writing if youre going to look closely, but put this up against the inaugural speech and i think those that are talking about a president who is learning as he goes along, what president doesnt . Every president. Bill clinton was learning as he went along. This is a different time. It is. Im just going to be careful. I think its important for those who are democrats and who are trying to get anything done in the next four years, not to lurch to be critical, but to find those openings and at least try because it appears the door has opened in some ways. It aears this president is making an attempt to b unifying and it was a little awkward at times but he did it. Very quickly. We want to go to break. Before we do, i want to really quickly have a lightning round here. Bob woodward, people forget im not normalizing anybody. Im telling history. You dont want to hear history, you can turn the channel right now. Clinton, obviously, had a disastrous first year and took clinton a long time. Reagan wasnt reagan when reagan first got into office. He had a really rough ride too as mika said. President s learn. Its impossible not to be surprised. But the public learns also and what we are doing here covering words. The words matter and the tone matters and if you try to pull back the question mark is what is he really going to do . There are a series of policy issues, particularly in foreign relations. The middle east, russia, china, north korea. What he is going to do with cybersecurity and so forth. Those are the things that are going to define his presidency, not words. And the question that the democrats kept asking. How . Youre going to do that . How . Health care . How . Infrastructure . How. The hard work of how continues and daunting. He improved his chances of getting to how by performing the way he did. He didnt solve everything. The people who hate him still hate him after last night. Right. But what he has done giving the speech, almost every line in there could have been uttered by reagan or clinton or obama or bush. It was normal like a president ial speech and last thing ill just say he wanted to do this because he wants to win. Not just for himself. He wants to get his Approval Rating up and he wants to change the country. He knew he had to do better than he had been doing and he did. By the way, willie geist, the normalization of donald trump is something that critics have feared. I can tell you week ago when he is talking about the press being the enemy of the people, you had a lot of extraordinarily nervous republicans and democrats. This was donald trump normalizing donald trump. Last night, it was nice to be sitting in that chamber again and going, oh, okay. Republicans like this, democrats hate this. Democrats like this. It was almost normal last night instead of going, okay, after the first terror attack, is he going to try to strip freedoms from americans . Is this a bannon play to crush the press . Is this a trump play to crush the courts . Last night was a normal moment and that was relief to a lot of democrats and republicans in the room. There definitely is. Lets be honest. An element of grading on a curve here. It was better than the speeches he has given in the past and we said its normal and could have been reagan and that made it better than usual. That is true. But what i was struck by was that it was forward looking. He has been so mired in an election he won and talking about his electoral margin and fighting with members of the press. Last night, he was a president. He was looking forward in a big grand way. Now the question is can he cute all of these plans . If he can keep his eyes forward and stop being miles an hourredt that is a good thing for him, not just the country. Michael, his aides all said, going into the speech, it hit him and all of us. He is president of all the people and we better start sounding like that. The way he opened the speech solidified that tone and he touched on the things people didnt know how to go there on africanamericans and others. So he set the tone. He has raises the bar for himself which is important and i think to marks point, that reaching o you saw it that olive branch with pau ryan on health care. Sort of adopting that tone and language from capitol hill that says, okay, guys, we are ready to do this and see if he gets it done. By the way, you also had gary cohen. Paul ryan. You had, again, all of the players, ill just be blunt, that we hoped would have more influence over donald trump going in and having that influence. Would have the ear of the president. Had the ear of the president. We are just Getting Started here. The Vice President of the United States mike pence joins us live on the set. Also Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer and senator ted cruz and hive interview with House Minority leader nancy pelosi. But, first, bill karins, with the weather. Good morning. Unfortunately, three fatalities related to tornadoes last night. Areas of missouri and illinois the hardest hit and ottawa, illinois, as the sun was setting and numerous homes just completely destroyed. One fatality in that area. As far as the storms go this morning they are going from strong this morning all the wail to the east coast later on this evening. The worst of it now kentucky and illinois. Also in portions of all of tennessee so watch out in nashville about two hours from now. 105 Million People at risk of severe storms today. The greatest damage threat is areas of the Tennessee Valley but it will sweep to the east coast later today. The timing of the storms as we track through the morning, this is as we get to the noon hour. Storms riding over the top of the appalachians and d. C. , philadelphia, new york, it looks like sometime around 3 00 to about 5 00 p. M. Is your window for the strongest storms. Richmond, raleigh, charlotte and atlanta Late Afternoon and airport delays as the line of strong storms make their way to the eastern seaboard. For washington, d. C. And a lot of cities on the east coast, its not a tornado threat today but a high wind damage threat as the thunderstorms roll allow on the 1st day of march. Sfx engine revving silence how to win at business. Step one point decisively with the arm of your glasses. Abracadabra. The stage is yours. Step two choose la quinta. The only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free nightinstantly and win at business. Its my decision ito make beauty last. Roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. And the longer i use it, the better it works. Retinol correxion® from roc. Methods, not miracles. ™ z2a1gz zx9z y2a1gy yx9y this is not a screensaver. Game. This is the destruction of a cancer cell by the bodys own immune system, thanks to medicine that didnt exist until now. And today can save your life. I just spoke to our great general mattis, just now, who reconfirmed that and i quote ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemy. Ryans legacy is etched into eternity. Thank you. And ryan is looking down right now. You know that. And he is very happy because i think he just broke a record. One of the more powerful moments of the night. One of the very few times the president adlibbed. Joining us is the Vice President of the United States mike pence on the state. As we have been trying to tell people a long time, who is the last person in the room . Donald trump is always the last person in the room. Thats right. I think from everything that we have heard, though, this was a very inclusive process. It was driven by the president who wanted to hear from a lot more voices. Steven miller took all of that and it was quite a different speech. Tell us what was behind that . Well, first off, it was just it was a great speech and a great night for america. What the American People saw last night is the president that i serve with every day. Broad shoulder, big heart, reaching out, focusing on the future. That is President Donald Trump. And to see him get the reception that he got, not only in the chamber last night where you were, joe, but also all over the country as of this morning, it gives me great confidence that the agenda that the president articulated last night is the right agenda for america, its resonating with the American People, and i couldnt be more optimistic about the opportunity to move forward, our agenda, to repe repeal and replace obamacare and trade deals and infrastructure and rebuilding our military. It just struck me as a moment where President Donald Trump stepped up, told the American People where he wants to go and millions of americans said yes. Definitely some openings for democrats there. And some reason for them to maybe step up and try to figure out how to Work Together, which you know the president was concerned about. Very high up in the speech, i heard the president talk about access to capital for women, really high up. I know ivanka and dina powell have been working with that and youve been working with them as well. How much influence did the three of you have on working in getting that in the speech and what is the how with that . I just want to be very clear. Both of you know the president. Yeah. And we havent talked about that too much before. It was all him. All him, right. But, clearly, to note president s leadership style. He lead by asking questions. And not just in the process of putting a speech together, but literally in leading an administration the way he was so successful in business and, you know, many voices, suggestions about things that could be in the speech, but at the end of the dayhe was literally he was literally reiting ts speech on the afternoon before he gave it. Actually, what we heard last night, mark halpern, we heard last night that even 30 minutes before he was going on, they were still redrafting this speech. It reminded me a lot of the stories i heard, willie geist, about bill clinton, where it was fast and furious and they were still changing it on the way over to the chamber. Willie geist, are you there . Yes. Joe, im here. Sorry. We werent connected there. Yeah. Im hearing the same thing you heard as well is that the president was drafting it right until the end and extraordinary that not much of it leaked. That is another side to the story. And that he wanted to control exactly what he was saying last night. Again, the core message was there, but he crafted it in his own way to be sure. Mark halpern . I was going to ask you about policy but i want to ask you about something you said. You referred to the president s big heart. I know in the pence family youve none donald trump forever and its not been very long. Youve scene what you call his big heart people for years have talked about it. I think the three of us have seen that. How does he show that other people over a long period of time . Parts of skepticism in parts of america he has a heart alone let alone a big one. A lot of division in what hes said the last year and a half. One of the great moments last night, the president , right at the outset, acknowledged that we have Great Division on policies but there are things that unite us in this country in the way we condemn acts of hatred and referring to the terrible acts of antisemitism. It was a wonderful moment of unity and i think it spoke about the heart of this man. But i will tell you, mark, i would take a little issue. I think the reason why you saw the movement around the country, the reason why you saw the historic victory that President Trump had, 30 out of 50 states, winning hundreds of counties that president obama had actually won twice, is because i think the American People heard his heart. One of our guests in the gallery, right after the speech last night, looked at the president and we were taking a few pictures afterwards and she looked at him and said, youre so real i said he is. He is every day. Hes a very strong man ven strong leader and broad shoulders and speaks his mind but you saw the heart of this president last night. That is one of our frustration, mika, and we have aired it on tv, that the donald trump that craig melvin said he saw and just, you know, fiveminute interview in the first meeting, a very charming guy. You meet him in person. He is very charming. He hasnt shown that enough. Some people think he showed it last night. To take it a step further, id like to ask, because these are the parts of what we have seen so far that doesnt seem real, is the war on the media over . Are we going to hear the word fake news any more . Or has that page turned . I think what you have in this president frankly, all of us in the administration, is a willingness to call out the media when they play fast and loose with the facts. Its pretty strong terminology. I think you see some of the baseless and fabricated stories come out and its frustrating. Blocking are we going to see that still . Or is that i think you are going hes moving away from that sort of rhetoric . I think one of the reasons why President Donald Trump was elected is because he is a fighter. The American People want a president who will fight for their future, who will fight for american jobs, fight to make america strong in the world again but he sls willing to make his case and to challenge his detractors when unfair criticisms come his way. Amacare, is that going to be the first thing you all tackle . Or are you going tdo tax reform . Its right out of the box. Obamacare is . Obamacare. Kou be walkicould you be wale same trap that president obama walked into . Last night, the democrats i talked to said, you want to tackle that first . Lots of luck. We tried it for a year and a half. Well, the president said the easier political thing to do would be to just let it go. Good heavens. Its imploding in states around the country. But its hurting the American People. Its hurting american families. And so what you saw last night was the president step up. He made the case against obamacare that this is a failed policy that needs to be repealed. But also you saw him do what great president s do and that is he laid out the principles and the framework for replacing obamacare one item after another. That now has created the guardrails. We have been in discussion since the day after the election virtually with leader in the congress about what repeal and replace looks like. The president met this weekend with governors from around the country to speak about the states role in this. And that process is going to continue, but for the president to do what he did last night, to show his determination for a Better Health care system and then tell the congress, here is the framework of what i want you to send me to create Better Outcomes for the American People was exactly the kind of leadership the American People wanted to see. Vice president mike pence, thank you so much for coming in so early this morning. Very nice to have you on the show. Good to see you. Still ahead, the Top Democrats in Congress Join us. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority leader nancy pelosi. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. A Millie Dresselhaus doll happy birthday, sweetie oh, millies. Trick or treat were so glad to have you here. What if we treated great female scientists like they were stars . Yasss queen what if Millie Dresselhaus, the first woman to win the National Medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity . [Millie Dresselhaus was seen having lunch today. ] [. Rumors of the new discovery. ] what if we lived in a world like that . crowd applauding we know a place thats already working on it. Then youre a couple. Think of all youll share. Like snoring. Does your bed do that . The dual adjustability of a sleep number bed allows you each to choose the firmness and comfort you want. So every couple can get the best sleep ever. Does your bed do that . Only at a sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just 899. And right now save 400 on our most popular mattresses. Go to sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. Imposing a fiveyear ban on lobbying by executive Branch Officials and a lifetime ban. Well, not exactly a you lie moment but the president trying some audible scoffs from the democrats on his drain the swamp comment. Democrats were, for the most part, pretty quiet. Oh, my gosh, yes. By the way, he was saying drain the swamp and you looked down at people that had like that worth in his cabinet of about onethird of america so, yes. It was a laugh line. That said, bob woodward. It was a laugh line. I want to go back to the democrats again. Ive heard democrats in past congress hissing a republican president. I think it was very, very striking, again, how respectful the democrats were on the floor, despite all of the nasty things that have been said about them the past year and a half and, more importantly,ive looking for my good friend Maxine Waters. We hug each other on because we think it hurts. You dont mean it. No, we mean it and we love each other, but we know it hurts each other with their constituency and it was always a big joke. I said where is maxine . Maxine said that she was so revved up about this that she thought it would be best, the most respectful thing she could do is stay home. I guess what im saying is there is a seriousness there, even among democrats who have been hammered relentlessly by this president. It has not been a good first month. Its been a rough month. What has happened as you know, on the oped pages for the last number of weeks. There has been this discussion trump is the end of democracy. He is going to come around and he is going to shut down newspapers. He is going to stop people from talking on television. None of that has happened and there is a normalcy. I dont think you could watch that event last night and think its the end of democracy. Its not. I think, mika, that was the big takeaway. The things that we had been so frightened by and ill use the word frightened and we are the ones always telling people everything is going to be okay. But the declaration that the press was the enemy of the people. The questioning of judicial review and judges legitimacy. Steven millers statement that the president s authority was not to be questioned. That, last night, unless that is just a one off and that that is the big question everybody is asking this morning, as bob said, those fears were swept aside, at least for the night, last night. There was a feeling of this sound like a traditional republican speech reaching out to democrats. Our reporting on who was involved with helping shape the ideas for the speech, which, of course, the president is the last person in the room, but they were different this time. And there was much less steve bannon. There was a lot of bannon taken out and other things injected. If you look at the inaugural address which steve bannon had a huge role in it it was a very different speech. A very disturbing, sad moment in history. Steven miller last night crafted again, on the fly a speech that brought in jared, ivanka, gary cohen, dina powell. And maybe less of himself. Mike pence. And, again, it was donald trp who crafted this speech. But a lot of voices that had not had a big impact before and you could tell it last night. And its why donald trump, the speech he made and chose to make is why he is probably getting the best reviews from the New York Times and the Washington Post that he has ever gotten in his life. The question is going to be, if i may say, whether he is going to absorb that and say, this is the track to proceed on and this is the quest we are engaged in in the media. Who is donald trump . Not making any false promises, but a chance of that happening. Up next, because he responds to what is around him. President trump, is he softening his stance on immigration . That new reporting straight ahead. Only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol® whether its connecting one of or bringing wifi to 65,000 fans. Campuses. Businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. 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Our Foreign Policy calls for a direct robust and meaningful engagement with the world. We strongly support nato an Alliance Forged through the bond of two world wars that dethrone fascism and the cold war, and defeated communism. But our partners must meet their financial obligations and, now, based on our very strong and frank discussions, they are beginning to do just that. In fact, i can tell you the money is pouring in. Very nice. Very nice. We expect our partners, whether in nato, the middle east, or in the pacific, to take a direct and meaningful role in both strategic and military operations, and pay their fair share of the cost. That is President Trump speaking before a joint session of Congress Last night. Supporting nato, an organization he is in the past called obsolete and talking about the importance of it in the world, but, again, reiterating his point the one he has made throughout the gain that they are going to have to contribute pay their fair share for the United States for continue to support. We have been talking about what we thought about the speech. What do the American People think as they wat last night in frank luntz had a focus group. Im looking for him on twitter tomorrow and see what he thinks. Great job to the speech writer but i will see donald trump at 12 00 a. M. That is a sentiment i think we have heard from a lot of people and heard it on the set today. Good speech. Step in the right direction but does it hold . Is this the way donald trump comports himself now, the way he talks. Does he talk about unifying the country or get back on twitter and take a shot at somebody who aggrieved him in the past. He has gone past to the old trump time and time again and see what happens this time. Mika, we have been saying here again, repeatedly, when donald trump in the campaign needed to stay off twitter or keep his head down, when he had the wisconsin debacle, he did just that, showed a lot of discipline. One new york state and other states by 20, 30 points. Last ten days of the campaign, he knee w he had to keep his he low, he did. It appears he did it again last night. Again, will this hold . Will it hold . Michael steele, can we get to arguing about policies . Because there was a lot missing. Obviously, for democrats and a lot of things that are, you know, obviously, not going to happen this time around without a fight. Yeah. If at all. But are we going to be called the he mi of the people tomorrow or are we going to be talking about or are these trivial things behind us . Its a fair question, because we have been in this sort of comfortable space before where the president , like after his convention speech, everyone was very, you know, this is good. And thename the inaugural speech. So we will see. I think for donald trump, i think you put your finger on it. Does this resonate with him, oh, okay, this is a good space to be in and occupy, because real challenge, as you said, mika, comes now. This congress has to now take everything that they heard last night and begin to put it in a legislative packages. The white house has to do the same. And they cant be distracted by tweets from the president that undermines the very effort that they are trying to do. Grab the media narrative which inevitably happens every time. Bob, we played the nato clip again. Remarkable shift. How important is that for our allies to hear . Its giant. And here is the question internally with trump. Now he said it and people urging him to say it. Does he believe it . I think he does and he will follow through on it. He sort of showed his hand also, too, when he said, we talk tough and now the money is pouring in. Believe me. So very interesting. He plays bad cop. He is the deal guy that goes in hot. Sends all of his people to europe and saying everything is going to be fine. Jim mattis, if nato didnt exist, we would have to create it. So they are playing good cop and its sort of like, again, not quite as on a grand scale but as you always says, kissinger used nixon to say, i cant control the guy in the white house, help me out here. And so we will see. But the Fact Checkers have pointed out that not much money is really pouring in yet. So, again, all of these things are going to be measured inside trump now, i think, is declaration we are for nato and we are behind. Bob woodward, thank you very much. Still ahead, former republican president ial candidate senator ted cruz. Chuck schumer and nancy pelosi all will be our guests. Morning joe is coming right back. If youre gonna make an entrance. [sfx car driving upon the water]. Dont just eat. Mangia bertolli. Z2a1fz zx9z y2a1fy yx9y its realizing beauty doesnt stop at my chin. Roc®s formula adapts to delicate skin areas. My fine lines here . Visibly reduced in 4 weeks. Chest, neck, and face cream from roc®. Methods, not miracles. ™ but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of america. The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us. We all bleed the same blood. We all salute the same Great American flag. And we all are made by the same god. Welcome back to morning joe. It is wednesday, march 1st. We are live on capitol hill this morning. The morning after President Trumps first address to congress. Political analyst mark halpern is still bus. Joining the conversation senior Political Editor and White House Correspondent for the huffington post, sam stein. Msnbc political contributor and editor of the fix at the the Washington Post, chris saliza and along with willie geist in new york. So, mika, there we hear the president , again, coming in not sounding like the president of the campaign. We have been talking this morning, does this stick . We know donald trump enough to know its not there is not going to be he loves keeping people off balance. He will keep tweeting. He will like if he kept this tone up some of his supporters would say he is sounding george w. Bush. I dont think we are going to have complete consistency. I think the headline, at least for me last night, was, at least for last night, this was donald trump shifting from campaigning mode, as willie was saying, looking backwards toward the campaign and grievances there, to governing mode, saying im going to speak to the people in this room and its time for us to start making deals. You saw a lot of shifting. A lot of settling. Where you get a speech that is important to the world to our place in the world and of historic significance is a question i think we are going to need to ask at some point. The president did strike an optimistic tone in last nights speech. I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart. A new National Pride is sweeping across our nation and a new surge of optimism is playing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp. Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solv. And every hurting famy can find healing and hope. The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us. We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts. From now on, america will be empowered by our aspirations. Not burdened by our fears. Inspired by the future, not bound by failures of the past. And guided by a vision, not blinded by our doubts. I am asking all citizens to embrace this renewal of the american spirit. I am asking all members of congress to join me in dreaming big and bold and daring things for our country. You know, we have been talking, mika, about donald trump is this a shift . Lets just strip this down and talk about the politics of it. I heard line after line after line after line last night where i was thinking, okay, this is what a lot of americans want to hear, the nationalism, the harleydavidson moment talking about we are going to protect our factories. We are going to build pipelines but we are going to use u. S. Steel. A lot of things that would upset the editorial pages, mark, of the wall street journal and the New York Times, actually there were a lot of lines that i know may not have resonated with the political classes in washington, d. C. , but struck right to that out of work factory worker in youngstown, ohio. People are talking about reagan a lot. He reminds me in times of bill clinton people think he is cornered and trapped and nowhere to go and he fights back. Everything he talked about, he believes in but they are issues that test maybe not 80 20 but pretty close it and no powerful thing to use that platform and talk about the style he believes in which na way appealing to more america than a lot of editorial boards and doesnt solve all of his problems and some people think it was an act he didnt show his heart. If he keeps this up, he wont do this 100 he need to discombobulate the Democratic Party. I wonder when he says the time for trivial fights is over, does that mean the fight with the press . By the way, everybody at this table, we are all capable of engaging in trivial fights. No. Especially sam. Actually, sam, yes. You guys putting him on the funny pages. Whoa that was a trivial fight. But, look. He declared a very serious war on the press. One that went way over the line. I really hope that is what he meant by that. Thats what i think the speech for me was more about what it wasnt than what it was, right . Everyone came in and w expecting the donald trump that we have seen for the past couple of weeks someone who picks fights with the media and someone who talks relentlessly about the size of his electoral win and someone who goes down weird rabbit holes. What he did last night was a conventional state of the Union Address and he is being scored for that fairly well. And its funny to watch liberals freak out about people say he did a good job, when the truth is he did. For donald trump, he did a very good job. Sam, wasnt it interesting yesterday . The word leaks out that he tells the anchors, hey, you know what . Im good comprehensive Immigration Reform and sending out the Smoke Signals which would be a radical twist. Im on twitter. Not a Single Person on the left says one thing. Very few media people even say you know what . If he is going to do that, that is actually would be a good thing because i think the reason why is because people have been burned by this before. Back in august of 2016, the leadup to that phoenix immigration speech, there was this moment where he was leaking that he might be open to some sort of immigration compromise. And he ends up going down to phoenix and a barnburner. A bait and switch. Yeah. This is emblematic of everything and wait seen see what the followthrough is. I talked to other speech writers from past administrations. They say this speech is totally forgotable and they are workman like and you have to go through the priorities and no one remembers this. I think you probably will remember it but remember what it wasnt rather than whatwas. Chris, i was sitting next to Elijah Cummings. I saw it. Elijah is a good friend of mine. By the way, can we just say former members of congress have lifetime floor privileges . Like a Million People. Why is joe on the floor . I was like, because you can go on the floor when by the way, i a good thing. Last night was nothing new. I had been on the floor for obama speeches. But 9 11 bush speeches. This is the point. But, you know, elijah is a very interesting study. He comes on the show. He is critical of the president where he need to be critical right where he should be critical of the president. But he is always saying, but i want to deal with you. Yep. He was saying it last night. You know . He told me last night, im going over to the white house and im going to talk about drug prices. The president wants to work with me with drug prices. Then you know what . Im going to work with him. Elijah i think is doing what you said, mika, democrats should do. Critical when he needs to be critical but you want to talk about bringing down drug prices, ill talk with you about that. You want to talk about family leave, ill do it. You want to talk about infrastructure . Ill do it. The worst thing i think for our politics is assumption and you see it over and over again in a speech like this is that donald trump can do nothi good and nothing can be accomplished while donald is president. Its ridiculous. Its bad for politics. Right. It is a bad thing. I will say sam makes a good point. Which is his unpredictability makes it hard for a politician meet him halfway. You never know if he slapping the hand and not be there. You know how they say the nfl is a weektoweek league . You can look great one week and terrible the next. How ive taken trump. Today doesnt mean that much about tomorrow. But i would say what we know about him is this is a guy who leads his press. And he got and will get today the best press you call it the best speech of his life . I really think it was. People say, oh, low bar. What are you supposed to compare it to . He is not a brilliant what he did last night was not apologize for his strong naturalistic message and a lot of steve bannon messaging in this but couched in a way. Tweaked a little bit. Tonally that was, look. You may not agree with me but there are places that we can find Common Ground. If he gave that speech, he would have Congressional Republicans im sure you saw this, if youre a member of congress and youre a republican, that speech is made from heaven. Youve been waiting for Something Like that. In some ways. But then on the other side of it, mika, he celebrates protectionism and does a lot of things. Im looking over at the republicans standing up for things that even bill clinton would have said and im like, wait a second. What . They are applauding protectionism. They are applauding things they fought against their entire life. A fascinating moment. But i always said president s really every president has their strength. Bill clinton. Name hisemorable speech. He like tony blair. Some were so long it was hard to stay awake. He didnt have a kennedy like speech. But get that guy in a room, get him rifting, donald trump has been the same way. Never seen anything like him on the campaign trail. Lights it up and talks over and hour and 30,000 people sometimes go to these events like in michigan and no teleprompter. Last night was a shift to the teleprompter and i think its telling he didnt deviate from it. He practiced, by the way. I think that is important, joe. Usually when he does the teleprompter, its from you can tell he is reading it. He clearly had practiced. This was a teleprompter plus speech. Yeah. You cant really you hope that he learns that, for example, when you go off prompter, you say things like the sweden gaff and you can Say Something incredibly damage. You cant afford to as president. That teleprompter is not a joke, its not a weakness. Not a sign of weakness at all. Willie . No, sam. I was just rude to willie to sam here. Hold on. He is going to talk about his australian rules of football and Fantasy League and then we will go to you. I had such a good draft last night and im so hot right now one thing i noticed about the speech and you tell me if im wrong here but it did seem like finally he was sort of nodding that he Needs Congress to do what he wants. There were was a few lines in there that clearly were put in at the behest of speaker ryans office. I know this because they blasted out thanks for those lines literally snainstantaneously as soon as they were delivered. It seems to me if trump wants to get any of hi agenda done, amace appeal and infrastructure, tax reform, needs a legislative bran. For someone coming into office not knowing how congress operates and the legislative process goes this seemed . Some ways a not to that. Willie, no president walks into the oval office knowing exactly what they are going to do. Donald trump is the first president in the history of this country with no political or military experience stepping into that office. Last night seemed to be a recognition, who his audience was and what he needed from them, and, again, like Ronald Reagan. Anybody that underestimates donald trump usually loses. The only comparable speech and maybe you can correct me on this i could think of as i look through some of them this morning from donald trump was Election Night and talked about unity and threw his arms around the Hillary Clinton supporters and said this is a moment we have to come together. I mean that is the only place i can recall him speaking the way he spoke last night. Within that context, he talked about im going to get rid of the drugs on our streets and clean up our cities. He talked about all of those passionate things that he sprinkled throughout his speeches during the campaign. I think the one line that i think many people are hopeful that hell live up to is putting trivial fights behind us. Remind me of president obamas line about childish things in his first inaugural. If President Trump really can stop having fights on twitter with snl and merle streep and do all of those small things beneath what a president should be doing and live up here, as i said before, that is not just a good thing for him, a good thing for the country and for getting things done. That is a huge open question whether or not President Trump actually can do that. Yeah. Mika, the question everybody is asking is he softening his stance on immigration . Certainly sounded like it yesterday. According to a senior white house official the president is open to legal status for undocumented immigrants who havent committed serious crimes. Without having to first leave the country and then return. The president floated the idea in an off the record lunch with news anchors at the white house yesterday. The New York Times peter baker and Maggie Haberman write, quote. We must restore integrity and the rule of law at our borders. As we speak tonight, we are removing gang members, drug tlers, and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our very innocent citizens. Switching away from this Current System of lowerskilled immigration and instead, ado adopting a meritbased system, we will have so many more benefits. It will save countless dollars, raise workers wages and help struggling families, including immigrant families enter the middle class. I believe that real and positive Immigration Reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals. To improve jobs and wages for americans, to strengthen our nations security, and to restore respect for our laws. So, you know, its interesting there. The first is Union Members have always wondered why democrats werent tougher on illegal immigration because it drives down american wages. Just does. Im sure there is going to be like 20 people that do will show how it doesnt. I think it makes sense that most americans believe it does. And then but the last two were very republican, you know . Rule of law and the other one. You know what is interesting . Mark, it would have been too much of a lurch last night for him to talk about legalizing immigrants. It would not have made since politically but they inside the white house were still debating late last night, do we go there and talk about comprehensive Immigration Reform and do what they ended up doing . Politically, it would have been a politically stupid play to make that much of a pivot this early. I have thought for a long time this is where he would end up. Yeah. And with harry reid gone harry would never have agreed to that. He insisted on citizenship. If you had to vote on this today get bipartisan support and business support and religious and labor support for a deal with legal status but cant happen now, though. You do Immigration Reform once in a generation and tax reform and health care once in a generation. If he can get democratic votes on tax reform i think he can do this before the mid terms next year and broad party support. By the way, this is more than anything, mika, nixon goes to china moment. George w. Bush tried this at the end of his last two years of his presidency. He got wiped out. Had everybody behind us on the hill on his side. Had a chamber on his side. Had the unions on his side. The people rose up and killed the bill. They are not going to do that with donald trump. They are just not. The legal status is different than citizenship. Its a massive ive always supported legal status but n citizenship for people who got in the country illegally. Legal status . Lets be realistic. Yeah. They are here. They are working. Our economy is fueled. Might as well bring them out of the shadows, get taxes from them, and get that legal status. Willie, you spoke with george w. Bush the last republican president to push for comprehensive Immigration Reform. What did you hear . I spent some time with president bush at Macdill Air Force base in tampa this week and we talked about his book portraits of courage. He is painting with the veterans in the war he oversaw. We talked about Immigration Reform and something he battled with toward the end of his presidency. Here is what he said about deportation. Based on what you know about running the country and running the immigration system, do you think its practical to go in and deport millions and millions of people who are here illegally . I dont see how that would work. And im not sure that is the intention of our government. You know . Its i think people who, you know, who are charged with doing that, if that is the charge. Im not sure it is. But say its going to be hard to do. Now the idea of running out rapists and murderers, i think all americans can agree to that. So it was interesting. Its been pitched and portrayed in the press a little bit this week that president bush went after donald trump. He was just restating exactly what he t to do as president , the views he had. He gave a speech, remember, in 2006, i think in may. Laying out, including a pathway to citizenship for people who pay their taxes and learn english and have jobs and have established themselves in the country. He said its impractical to go in and knock on doors and run all of those people out of the country who are here illegally. All right. Willie, thank you. Yeah. So, chris, obamacare first . I think so. Seems like they are walking into a massive trap. I still think they screwed up the scheduling of this. I still i have infrastructure could have been a thing. If you go back and look at Chuck Schumers statements after the election Chuck Schumer is clearly open to being with trump on this. On infrastructure . On immigration . Right. I think they could if they go first and could repeat the same mistake bill clinton did. I always say same mistake barack obama made, health care. If bill clinton had have led with welfare reform. He started with hillary care and he lost the midterm. Sequencing matters. The average person doesnt Pay Attention but the president cannot lead with a democratic youre right. Youre probably right. If there was one, it would be donald trump because he is so outside the norms of republican and democratic politics. Baugh mark is probably right. I think it still would have been an interesting attempt. I think now you saw last night. Joe, youre on the floor. This always happens but there was just no very little democratic applause outside of joe manchin and heidi heitkamp. Democrats willing to do it and i dont know if that is who he is or the six weeks that what went before this. Yeah, its going to be a giant fight and the thing he didnt get into last night, not that this was the place for it, state of the union, but how are you going to pay lets keep all of the things that people like about obamacare and jettison everything else. The money has to come from somewhere. As he said, its complicated. Chris, thank you. A jampacked morning. Do democrats avoid the curse of bad responses . Former kentucky government Steve Bashear joins us live after his late night rebutting the president. Also House Minority leader nancy pelosi joins us exclusively on set. Senator ted cruz stops by as well and, up next, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer who is calling the president s speech detached from reality. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. Your Insurance Company wont replace the full value of your totaled new car. The guy says, you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong Insurance Company. With new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. Liberty mutual insurance. Im on it. Ar does weathertech go to protect your vehicle . Weathertech. Made right, in america z2a1gz zx9z y2a1gy yx9y i realize that ah, that 100k is notwell, a 103fortune. Yeah, 103. Well, let me ask you guys. How long did it take you two to save that . A long time. Then its a fortune. Well, im sure you talk to people all the time who think 100k is just pocket change. Right now were just talking to you. I told you we had a fortune. Yes, you did. Getting closer to your investment goals starts with a conversation. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session today. 27 past the hour. Joining us now nbc news correspondent kristen welker. Wore the white house is shifting around in the wake of last nights spieech. Reporter we were coming the president to unveil his new executive record from banning travel from some countries today. Now we are bng told tha announcement is going to delayed. Not exactly clear why. Its possible the white house doesnt want to step on the messaging from the mpresident s big speech last night and want to have their is dotted and ts crossed. The Associated Press is reporting that iraq is going to be taken off of the list of countries that have been banned. We havent independently confirmed that but we are told the new executive order will include exemptions for people with visa as well as green cards. The president s National Security adviser urging him when he talked about National Security, not to use the word radical islamic terrorism, a real concern that feeds right into the hands of the terrorists. Well, ultimately, the president decided to use the term. Take a listen to what he had to say. Our obligation is to serve, protect, and defend the citizens of the United States. We are also taking strong measures to protect our nation from radical islamic terrorism. According to data provided by the department of justice, the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorismrelated offenses, since 9 11, came here from outside of our country. Reporter and some questions about how many people actually came here from outside of the country. Bottom line, when is the executive order going to be rolled out . No exact timing right now, but we anticipate it will happen in the coming days, possibly by the end of this week. Nbcs kristen welker, thank you very much. Followup on that. We actually heard yesterday from the white house that iraq was going to be excluded from that travel ban. I think that is very significant for a lot of reasons. Lets bring in Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer of new york. Senator, thank you very much for being on bus this morning. Good morning. You have been quoted saying the speech had an air of unreality. Explain that. This president s speech has mean less than about any others because what he says and what he does, how he walks and talks are totally different. We have heard a lot of talk about infrastructure in the campaign, when he was president elect we democrats put together a plan and showed it to the white house and havent heard a peep out of him. Trade, he says he is going to be tough on trade. On the first day he could have called china currently manipulator and said he would do in in the campaign. They have backed off. In his budget he proposed he is slashing education and even spending for medical research which he talked so touchingly about, maybe above all, he has talked about draining the swamp and even mentioned it in the swe speech last night. His cabinet is the swamp. Its billionaires and wall street. He talked to the working people who elected him but his accession are so far away favoring special interests over the working people and why he had a rough 40 days and he is going to have more rough, rough times. He cant just give a speech that has a shelf life and think that is the way to govern. Its just not enough, particularly in an administration that is so filled with contradictions. Senator, do you want donald trump to be a successful president and do you think he can be . The issue is not whether donald trump is a successful president or Chuck Schumer is a successful minority leader. The only issue is are we going to help the middle class people in america and those trying to get to the middle class. Thus far, this administration has done virtually nothing to help them and a good number of things to hurt them. Here is a little metaphor. Gave that inaugural speech and aimed to working people. An hour later he signs an executive order to help the banks and raise the cost of mortgages 500 for new homeowners. This is not going to work and the reason they have had such trouble, halpern, for 40 days and the reason they keep having trouble is they dont walk the walk. You know . Mika, he has talked about infrastructure and trade for months and months. This is nothing new. You guys have a low bar. Senator, let me modify the way i asked you that. Do you think he can be a successful president for america and do you want him to be . Okay. Here is what ive told him. I said when you ran as a candidate, you campaigned as a populace against both the democratic and republican establishments. Since youve been president , you have governed from the hard right. And just done what the hard right wants and the hard right is very far away from what the average, even the average republican is. Thats why his budget is already having such trouble in the congress with republicans. That is why health care is such a mess. There are plans to repeal and replace. Just, yesterday, three republican senators said they will not replace. Only repeal. That kills it in the senate. Willie geist, is in new york. He has a question for you. Willie . Hi, willie. Good to see you. Likewise. I hear your skepticism and i understand where its coming from. Give us one piece of that speech or one issue you heard there where you thought maybe we can work with this president on that . Well, again, no talk the talk. He has been doing that for a long time. Right but what is one issue where you could work with him . We need to see plans like infrastructure. We put together a trillion dollar plan with new funding. The only thing we have heard from infrastructure, nothing from the president or his people but what we have heard from some of advisers is that its going to be tax breaks, not funding. 82 cents on the dollar willing to financeyears not to road build and they will have now tolls on the road. That cant work. Sam stein is here, senator. His mother is very angry at him for normalizing trump on our show this morning. Sam listen to your mother sam listen to your mother hi, mom okay. Private text conversation put on air. The most powerful men in washington you better follow his orders, sam. Senator, my mom wants to know no. Lets talk about immigration for a little bit. I know what youre saying. You have to see a plan before you can actually engage in gorkgork negotiations. We were talking about a path to citizenship versus legalization. Lets say theoretically trump comes to you and wants a talk and i cant get to citizenship but legalization. Do you enter those talks and if so, what do you tell him . Again, we have been through this movie before and you guys fall for the bait. Im not falling for it. Im trying to get a sense of what you would say. I think sam is falling for the bait. I think his mom is right. Exactly. Yesterday, he has these cosmopolitan reporters in. He says maybe we will do something on immigration. Then at night, he gives a antiimmigration speech. And, by the way, this is not the first time. Three weeks ago, joe manchin asked him at the white house could we Work Together on the kind of bipartisan bill that mccain and i put together . He said, sure. The next day, he walked it back. Mark my words. This is going to be walked back. We are going to see no plan at all. Words marked. Senator Chuck Schumer, thank you very much. Great to have you on the show. Nice to talk to you. Sam, give your mom a hug. She is a great patriot sweetie a great patriot what just happened . Exactly. Youre being outnumbered by your mom and Chuck Schumer. Michael steele, the question is do democrats fall into thetrap . And mark said i wonderfully for him. I remember criticizing Rush Limbaugh. He cant root against the country he doesnt serve. Will democrats fall into the same Rush Limbaugh trap on the other side . I think so. They are getting the pressure from their progressive base to do that. Chuck schumer is a guy who wants to get it done and a dealmaker. He is not getting a lot of the wiggle room to do that. You could hear that in his speech. You offered, mark, a couple of ways to come at that question. He stayed on that point that he is he going to fight this president. There is nothing of redeeming value that came out of that speech. He couldnt even mention one thing. And that is consistent with what their base wants them to do. What is the in 2010 you guys took back the house. Yes but, you know, you know how we did it . Its not about elections. Youre talking about you know how we did it . We resonated with the very people out there that gave us that house. If im running the democrats in the senate, the last thing im going to do is show any weakness after what the republicans did in the senate and not even giving Merrick Garland a chance. We are after a brutal year and a half campaign, after Merrick Garland. There has to be space before Chuck Schumer can go to his people and say lets make speech. Like trump on immigration. He could not have gone the whole night and Chuck Schumer cant say its a wonderful speech. No. Because his Democratic Base would rightly kill him. Go after him, yeah. So donald trump is going to have to show more. Chuck schumer has to show more and republicans have to show more. But there were openings in the tone. Coming up, she was among the Many Democrats in the audience wearing white in the capitol to send a message to the president. Just ahead, House Minority leader nancy pelosi joins us live to give us her takeaways from last night. We are back after this. This is the story of Green Mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets take a trip to la plata, colombia. This is boris calvo. Thats pepe. Boris doesnt just grow good coffee, boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even Better Coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. Thats blanca. Yup, pepe and blanca got together. Things happen. All this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain coffee. Packed with goodness. Only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol® nationwide he increased by double and triple digits. As an example, arizona went up 116 last year alone. Governor matt bevat of kentucky just said obamacare is failing in his state, the state of kentucky and its unsustainable and collapsing. The president named kentucky government matt beva in any. The man succeeded in office Steve Beshear will join us coming up. Also joining us is nancy pelosi. So tell us your big idea for getting the whole country booking on Choice Hotels. Com. Four words, badda book. Badda boom. Let it sink in. Shouldnt we say we have the lowest price . Nope, badda book. Badda boom. Have you ever stayed with Choice Hotels . Like at a comfort inn . Yep. Free waffles, cant go wrong. I like it. Promote that guy. Get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed. When you book direct at choicehotels. Com. Book now. Its realizing beauty doesnt stop at my chin. Roc®s formula adapts to delicate skin areas. My fine lines here . Visibly reduced in 4 weeks. Chest, neck, and face cream from roc®. Methods, not miracles. ™ a mihappy birthday, sweetie oh, millies. Trick or treat were so glad to have you here. What if we treated great female scientists like they were stars . Yasss queen what if Millie Dresselhaus, the first woman to win the National Medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity . [Millie Dresselhaus was seen having lunch today. ] [. Rumors of the new discovery. ] what if we lived in a world like that . crowd applauding we know a place thats already working on it. Joining us now congresswoman nancy pelosi of california. In a moment we are going to bring in former kentucky government Steve Beshear who delivered the democrats response to President Trumps address. Leader, we start with you. Your reaction last night. I saw you couple times shaking your head and quiet and resolute and taking it in. I was very proud with the dignity with which our members listened to a speech which is clearly a bait and switch speech. The president a good talk but the fact is that show us three months, almost three months since he has been elected, 41 days since he has been president , and we still havent seen what we are legislators. So you want to talk . Show us your proposal and we go from there. He hasnt had a proposal on jobs, on infrastructure, not even renegotiating nafta which he promised. So many representations made but not too much is there anything hopeful in the speech . Any openings did you see there . Well, it depends on what is going to say, for example, about infrastructure. As you know, joe, that really has never been an partisan issue. We have always come together on that except when president obam proposed it, the republicans rejected it. If he has an infrastructure plan that really is a good plan or that we can Work Together on but if its a tax bill disguised as infrastructure, that is not a place so lets do some inside baseball here. I was commenting on the speech. What was striking, sitting for the first time on the democratic side, Elijah Cummings invited me, was, again, you talked about the dignity, that the democrats showed. Its been a tumultuous divided year and a half. Yet, i think the Minority Party which republicans shouted out, you lie, ive heard democrats hiss republican president s in the past. But last night, quiet, dignified. Was there a conversation about that before you all went on to the floor as far as how the caucus was going to be more respectful . What happens in the caucus stays in the caucus. He knows that. You know what im saying . Even if the best of times, there is always somebody. A ribbing. There will be like laughing and poking. That was absent last night. One of our members who shall remain nameless but probably in the Public Domain said at one of the caucuses, look, if you cant curb your enthusiasm there tonight, dont go. And im not going clam. I was telling the story of maxine. I was looking for maxine. She wast there. And i asked elijah, why isnt Maxine Waters here . Because she is the first person i go up to. They said, exactly that. She was concerned that she would be so energized that it would be better for her to watch at home, that that would be the most respectful thing she could do. Lets just say this. What i was concerned is people might boo because for all of the dignity that we wanted to bring to the address of the president , the fact is i had no idea he was going to make an assault on Public Education that he was going to have nothing positive to say say about immigration, and she was going to blow up the budget, and see the republicans protectionism. Yeah, it was hard to watch. And i was more mystified by seeing their reaction to him. And the fact is this, for the past 40 days now, plus one, the president has put wall street made wall street number one. Two, make america sick again. Three, instill feel in our community, bans and doueportati, and just not giving us information to loosen the grip of russia, and we want to know what his ties are to russia, and he should release his tax returns. The speech wasl delivered, good sale, we know that, but the fact is theres nothing there we have seen so far. Michael . How much given the election of new chairman perez, how are the democrats focusing on the strategy Going Forward after the speech. The president gave a national speech, i think, and independent voters will respond to the speech, and i know republicans will and maybe even democrats in the middle of the country, so how do the democrats now begin to pivot to be the loyal opposition while projecting their own agenda . Let me say this. When we won in 05 and 06, we wanted to make sure people saw the contrast between the democrats and republicans, and as people see what they are presenting, because all we have is rhetoric, and we dont have any legislation where we Work Together, and we have not seen anyplace to Work Together. Make our contrast, and when we believe the time is right we will put forth our positive agenda, but not while people are enamored of what could be a Snake Oil Salesman by some and a messenger of hope by others. Madam speaker, we want to bring in Steve Beshear for a moment. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Tell us what you hope to accomplish in your rebut annutat night. Well, we spoke for Middle America last night, and i wanted to be in that diner in kentucky surrounded by friends and neighbors who are both democrats and republicans for a reason, because folks in washington, and particularly the president need to focus on what all of those ideas and all of those policies, what they are going to do to real people. You know, thats what this is all about in the long run, is that there are people out here that get affected by all the policies that he is talking about doing. With the Affordable Care act, if they pull back coverage from millions of americans, people are going to die out here. That may sound dramatic, but thats the facts. Doctors will tell you that. Its time that he understands that there are real people involved here. We made it work here in kentucky. When i was governor, i brought both sides together and we found Common Ground because i was willing to reach out and find that Common Ground. Hes yet to demonstrate in the confrontational style that he has had up until last night that he is willing to reach out and find that Common Ground, and you know, we had a bunch of general tease, but the proof is in the pudding. President trump won your state on election day, and have you seen any evidence over the last four months his support has diminished there or is it still as intense as that day . Nobody knows where this country is going right now because he has not given any clear direction. Yesterday after induh skreupl nuttily seing people off the streets to deport them, he is quoted as saying i want to come up with an immigration bill that will give legal status to immigrants and then he goes back to the hard line last night, and i dont any anybody knows yet. There are not any details out there yet. He talks about a big infrastructure plan, which would be fine, but how are we going to pay for it. Of course you dodge those kinds of things right now, so were going to have to wait and see what they really come with. Former governor of kentucky, thank you so much, sir, for being with us this morning. Leader pelosi, i want to go back to a report where President Trump let leak he would be open to Immigration Reform and open to legal status for undocumented immigrants in this country, and then he made the speech and made no reference to that and he continued on his usual path on immigration. Do you believe that President Trump is open to Immigration Reform . I certainly hope so. If he were, it would be consistent with president reagan, and president Herbert Walker bush, and w bush was a great president on immigration, and president w. Bush could not convince his party to go down that path, and it could be interesting how the congress disposes of what he might propose, and on the whole subject its about show me your values and show me your budget and in the budget tre are so many things, and would you believe having a comprehensive Immigration Reform is something that reduces the deficit and brings revenue buy the treasury. What is the difference between somebody that has a legal status or its more what our country is about. We criticized other countries that said we utilized you as a workforce, and in my view its important for us to say the path to citizenship is the dignity that these sit simply you mean utilized status . If its something that forbids citizenship, no, i couldnt sign on to that. If we want to talk i think there are plenty of ways we can work in a bipartisan way on immigration, and we have to. This is the life blood of our country, and the constant reinsreug ration of the country. The legal status initially, and down the road a potential path all we have talked about is a path to citizenship. And lets be clear about that. Those people have to get way in the back of the line of everybody else people say, oh, they are skipping over people. No, they are not. They go way in the back of the line, years and decades until their turn comes for citizenship, but to be a country that says we have not even secondclass citizenship, because its not citizenship, its not respectful and worthy of our country. Leader pelosi, thank you so much for coming in. We appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you. Still ahead, the president s new commerce secretary with an interesting take on his bosss performance last night. Do you think he changed minds tonight . I dont know if he changed any minds. My father used to say there are three things you never change peoples minds on, politics, baseball and sex. Wow. Our analysis of the president s speech continues. Were goi to bring in senators ted cruz, and joe manchin and Claire Mccaskill and ask about that sound bite. Joint pain joint pain and clearer skin. This is my body of proof that i can take on Psoriatic Arthritis with humira. Humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. Its proven to help relieve pain, stop further joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. Humira is the 1 prescribed biologic for Psoriatic Arthritis. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. 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Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. And every hurting family can find healing and hope. This american carnage stops right here and stops right now. A new National Pride is sweeping across our nation. What we are witnessing today is the renewal of the american spirit. What we witnessed last night, i really think a white house in transition in a lot of big ways its what we are hearing behind the scenes as well. Yeah, hearing that behind the scenes as well, and you hear the word carnage, a word that caught a lot of people off guard in an atphainaugural address, il just say, you and i loathed, you and i, mika, and there were words coming from the white house they were pushing Steven Miller to put the carnage language in there, and miller pushed back. One of the things this speech may have shown, this steve bannon, the steve miller access we thought was there, its not there. Its miller and donald trump, and steve bannon yesterday, was pushed back. A lot of people like gary cone, and ivanka, obviously, jared, and dena powell they have been working on big issues to get to the forefront. Welcome back to morning joe. We are live on capitol hill, the morning after President Trumps first address to congress. With us we have mark halperin, and msnbc political analyst, michael steele, and White House Correspondent for the huffington posts, anne stein. And willie geist in new york as well. We have been talking about this for a couple hours now, and its very interesting. Democrats coming on saying the proof is in the pudding, it certainly is. And republicans asking how. How are you going to bring american jobs back . How are you going to build the greatest economy ever without driving us into debt . That is the big question, how. But these speeches are all about symbolism. Clinton talked about school uniforms. Symbolically, last night, i dont think we can overstate the significance of the pivot, at hrae least for that nigh i wouldnt call it a pivot. I would call it writirighting t ship a little bit. You saw him closing the door on some of the issues people accused him of in the past, and you saw him at the top of the speech him talking about things that a lot of people have been waiting for him to say, and you felt like he was trying to right the ship on tone and a sense of a connection with the country, and some of it did not feel real and thats because we are not used to it. I think it would be overly shrill to is the donald trump, though, more of the donald trump that you and i have seen over the past ten or 11 years, that nancy pelosi has known, and Chuck Schumer has known, over, 10, 20, 30 years . You talk about real. Was that more donald trump than this figure he played on tv . It was donald trump with far less steve bannon fingertips over everything he says. Thats who it was. I would throw a little caution on what you were saying, joe, to the extent its like a baby who is taking a a toddler taking his first steps. You see that first step, and you go, oh, they can walk. Who are you comparing to a toddler . I am not comparing anybody to a toddler necessarily, but i am saying the idea that the president gave this speech last night and it was great in the moment and did what it needed to do, and the question i think everybody is waiting for now, do we get a tweet today and what is the next response . Thats what i am talking about, taking that next step is what is going to solidify for people whether or not this was a real moment that has Lasting Impact or a transition we will see. How was the question democrats are asking, and the question we are asking and everybody should ask, how long . Right. Sam stein, your mother has sent you some nasty texts. What is the big takeaway from the speech last night . What is the significance of the speech last night . Well, among the great speeches of alltime well, just put it out that you dont get liberals just tweaking everything. What we have to understand, what i said was it was an affective speech but for trump, and yes, he set the barlow, a ld you saw the shear impulse control, and he did it, and its important for us to acknowledge it, and we are all sitting around the table waiting for his next tweet to see if it comes unraveling. Its one thing to say it, and its another thing to do it. For instance, he starts talking about clean air and clean water, and how that is going to be his objective on a environmentally policy front, and hours earlier he signed a order about coal dumping in streams. On the substantive elements of it, where does he go from here . I am curious to see how much moderation there is in the executive order on the travel ban that comes out today or tomorrow, sometime this week. I am curious to see if he takes concrete steps to do comprehensive Immigration Reform, and i am very curious to see what comes next with obamacare, because thats going to determine months, if not the next year of legislative priorities. Willie, the symbolism that he chose to make in other speeches that he has done so far, especially the inaugural address, obviously took, as the New York Times said, a much darker tone. This was a far more optimistic speech, and another question, why . Why did they decide to go this way . Yes. I hope he is being optimistic and not counter punching, and making up the margin he won the election by four months ago, i hope he sees he is lead this way, by playing up higher and not punching people that dont need to be punched by the president of the United States, and i think the presentation was better and different and the message was better, and if you look inside the core of it, these are his pet issues, he is going get drug off the streets and clean up the cities, and the one way he changed, he talked about nato and he said it was an Important Partnership and we need to stand by it and he talked about it being obsolete months ago. We spoke earlier this morning with vp mike pence, and heres what he said about the strange relationship between the white house and the media. Is the war on the media over . Are we going to hear the words fake news anymore, or is that page turned . Well, i think what you have in this president , and frankly all of us in the administration, is a willingness to call out the media when they he called us the enemy of the people. Mika, i think when you see some of the baseless and fabricated stories that have come out and been treated with great attention, its frustrated. But enemy of the people, thats a term are we going to see that still . Is he moving away from that sort of rhetoric . I think one of the reasons donald trump was elected is because he is a fighter, and the American People want a president that will fight for their future and jobs and to make america strong in the world again, and also he is willing to make his case a to challenge his detractors when unfair criticisms come his way. But, mark halperin, he he did not answer that. It didnt get an answer. He was uncomfortable. But anybody expecting mike pence to answer that question doesnt know that mike pence is good he answers what he wants to answer. Sometimes donald trump picks fights, and its like, why did he do that . Last night he didnt pick the fights. I think the distractions, the thing when he picks the fights its a distraction and it gets in the way of the prospect of having a bipartisan legislative agenda. You listen to the democratic leadership that has been on the show today, there is no chance, its dead, and they will not work with him, and how does he draw them working together on some things. You heard pelosi praise george bush, and if trump is going to succeed by the fall, he needs nancy pelosi to say i dont like a. And b. , but i like this or this. You said democrats need to take the opening in some of the areas where its child care, family leave, infrastructure, a lot of these issues that matter to democrats. Yeah, and i think that i thinkt having a very extremely bad reaction to this speech, which, you know, you could have, is just not good strategy. Whatever is going to happen with the presidency, as we have seen, is going to speak for itself. I would look for openings. Try to get something done. Look for the potential opportunities for the small steps in the right direction on issues important to us. He did win the election, and we have seen that he certainly makes his own news and may make his own mistakes, and stay out of the way of that, and dont get ahead of your skis, and we made that mistake before and we got too arrogant and we were too pleased at the potential of running against him and that was a mistake. Okay. Well, still ahead on morning joe my position is very simple. I oppose amnesty and legalization including for forover . Today, tomorrow, forever. That was senator ted cruz during the campaign. Would he support legislation that provides a path for legal status for some undocumented immigrants. Senator cruz joins the set next. You are watching morning joe. vo this is not a video game. This is not a screensaver. This is the destruction of a cancer cell by the bodys own immune system, thanks to mecine that didnt exist until now. And today can save your life. In my johnsonville commercial we open up in the forest. Hi. Im jeff. Im eating my breakfast and all of a sudden a raccoon come up and ask me, what are you eating . I told him johnsonville breakfast sausage, fully cooked. Porcupine comes in and he says, does that come in patties . I said yup wolf comes in and says, howd you learn to talk to animals . And i said books and we had a good laugh about that. [laughter] thats a commercial made the johnsonville way. This is the story of Green Mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets take a trip to la plata, colombia. This is boris calvo. Thats pepe. Boris doesnt just grow good coffee, boris grows mindblowing coffee. And becae we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better cofe and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. Thats blanca. Yup, pepe and blanca got together. Things happen. All this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain coffee. Packed with goodness. Now, when he took to the podium to give the speech, behind him, as usual, were mike pence and paul ryan who took their fiscal responsibility seriously by getting the 2 for 1 suits. Men wearing a blue suit with a blue tie, thats ridiculous. 18 past the hour. Joining us now, a member of the judiciary committee, republican senator, ted cruz of texas. Good to be with you. You said the president accomplished something last night that you did not think could be accomplished. He found a quote in the lincoln speech that made you twitch. Protectionism. That was a curious moment. I think democrats missed the opportunity last night. My assessment of the speech, i thought it was a strong speech, and it was designed to be, and it was a positive and unifying vision of the country. We are asking that question, why now . That sounded you followed this so closely and you have your whole life, and that sounded like an inaugural address last night. Maybe the one we never got . Yeah. It was a different speech from the inaugural, and some of it is six weeks in the job, and the wght of the job anyone, its overwhelming. Absolutely. And theres a reason why every president goes gray in office, and they age 20 years in four years. Yeah. You dont meet with the family of a fallen navy s. E. A. L. And not have it impact you, and it impacts you differently when you are the commanderinchief. We noticed the first time he came back from dover, and there was a look on his face, and in the ten years we have known him have never seen the look on his face. And this was the speech we wanted to see at the inauguration, and it had rough edges, and you saw the fingerprints of bannon being removed, but still a little there. They are playing catchup, and they are figuring out how washington reacts and how they respond to washington, and its going to be important to see how he responds particularly with republicans in the house and senate. I think you make the point, joe, with that line from lincoln, using lincoln, the father of the party to promote protectionism is an interesting for the party to find itself. How do republicans in the house reconcile with this republicanism expect to spend i am not sure where this administration is going. I do think what we saw last night, one of the most important jobs for the president , is to paint a vision, to paint a vision of where the country can go, and so people at home can see this is what we can do. And that i think he did a fabulous job. He did a fabulous job focusing on jobs and working men and women. This president was elected by the reagan democrats, by working class voters and Truck Drivers and mechanics, and men and women with callouss on their hands, and he spoke to them lastnight. You were elected following up on Michael Steeles point, you were elected and were concerned about spending. How do you stop that train . When you are talking about tax cuts, and defense spending, and i love and you love defense spending, and infrastructure we love all of these things, but i wrote a book not to talk about my book, but a book in 2004 thats what joe is saying, buy his book. I will not even say the name, but us a warning in 2004 i was condemning my party for not making tough choices. Can you guarantee the small government wing of our party that that mistake is not going to be repeated again . I can guarantee it still matters. We will see. The details matter. Infrastructure, listen, infrastructure is a legitimate role for the federal government. Do we need bridges and roads . Yes. Matters how its structured. There are infrastructure programs i can support, but if its a trilliondollar boon dog like a obama stimulus, i am not sure. Lets wait until the details come out, and i think they are working on that. The biggest question, and you were talking about the deficit and the debt. The best way and the only way to address the debt is Economic Growth. If you are a numbers person, and a lot of people at the table are numbers people, and Economic Growth has a bigger impact on the economy than anything else, and we have been mired at 1 and 2 under president obama. Repealing obamacare, and the tax reform, if we get this done, and if the economy grown by 5 , i said, mr. President , you will be elected in a landslide, and we can do it with tax reform, and reg reform and repealing obamacare. Some say there have been people hurt and helped by obamacare. What do you say to people in texas that are reliant on the existing law . A lot of things i try to do do a lot of is roundtables, and last week i was in south dallas which is a relatively low income part of the city and i was doing a roundtable with Small Businesses and included a number of minority Small Businesses and they discussed its the biggest job killer in the country, and over and over they talked about not being able to hire people and forcing employers into parttime work, that it was bankrupt. You said a vast majority, and are there people who have been helped by it . Obamacare was designed to have winners and losers, so can you find a specific instance of a person benefited by it, its yes, and if you look, there are 20 Million People that have been covered under some of obamacare and medicare, and those were childless healthy adults and put in the medicaid population, and medicaid was designed for the single moms and they did not increase the numbers of doctors that take medicaid so what people on medicaid are saying, their waiting lists are getting longer and less services, and in order to try and benefit the 20 Million People, what obamacare did was messed up the Health Insurance for 200 million, for the remaining people that. So for people that feel like they benefitted, so under the republican plan, you are saying will be better off . Lets take the medicaid population. It produces worst health comes than private insurance, and i want to see less on medicaid and more people affording private Health Insurance, and thats better people, and what i liked about what trump said about obamacare, we have to drive down the cost of premiums, and families cant afford health care, and thats a message that resinates in the heartland. We appreciate you being on the show. You are a good sport. Its always fun. I will note the last time i was on, i was with lindsay graham, and you extracted an apology from lindsay for the death threats. I try to help you out because sometimes i am hard on you, and we are not enemies, though. No. Ted cruz. Yesterday on morning joe we spoke with the new chairman of the dnc, tom perez, and up next, we will bring in mcdaniel. We have much more ahead this hour. Stay with us. Its been a long time since we have had fair trade. The first republican president , Abraham Lincoln, warned that the abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government will produce want and ruin among our people. Lincoln was right, and its time we heeded his advice and his words. They have taken advantage of our country no longer. Z2a1fz zx9z y2a1fy yx9y we are reminded of our nations path towards civil rights and the work that still remains to be done. Recent Threats Targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of jewish cemeteries as well as last weeks shooting in kansas city remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms. The president addressing the rise in antisemitic threats right out of the gate last night. Welcome back to morning joe. Joining us now, chairman of the Republican National committee. How are you doing . Thank you for having me. Tigers. We have to represent. How did you feel the speech went last night . What did republicans like hearing and what makes them nervous about how they navigate moving forward . I saw the donald trump i saw in michigan, somebody talking to the average american and saying you lost your voice in washington and i will go and be a champion for you and i will talk about how we get jobs back and how we improve wages and how we fix the failure of obamacare and what its doing to your premiums and then he reached out to the democrats and said come and work with us and make our country better for everybody. One of the biggest legislative issue that will happen is the obamacare appeal and replace, and is the Republican Party committed to the idea that whoever has coverage will get coverage we have a hard time getting that clear answer. Lets look at what the democrats did no, but my question is about your replacement plan. You have to look at the context. They slapped something together and threw it through quickly, and they did not Work Across Party Lines to put something sustainable. Obamacare is failing. Its collapsing and people lost their doctors and plans, and now we have humana and other insurers pulling out of it, and its not us getting rid of obamacare, but its obamacare needing to be fixed. A lot of people have gotten coverage, and millions have gotten coverage and you might think the coverage is terrible but they have coverage and a lot of people like their coverage. Is the Republican Partys commitment that everybody that has coverage now will have coverage under the replacement plan . You heard the president say last night we will keep the condition of the preexisting conditions, and a lot of people felt they would lose that with the preexisting conditions. They know its a huge issue, and you know what . Democrats, they broke it. They should be working with us to help fix it. Michael steele, could you give any advice as former rnc i would love it. How to deal with the incredibly aggravating, just a al subset of downers who she will be dealing with in several years. Thats going to be fun. If i could pay for your advice. I will take you out. I want to congratulate you and welcome you to the playground. Thank you. Joe touched on this, and it is you are looking the, despite the success of the party, you are looking at a party going through transition. I said recently the reagan revolution is over, and in fact a lot of what reagan as done is being transformed by this president. For good or bad, that remains to be seen. The challenge, though, that you will have to deal with, and i would love to get your impressions on, is how you keep those desperate pieces within the party focused on the president s agenda while you as chairman is looking beyond it, because your concern is not this election for this president or this cycle but where the party is going to be after this time has passed, and that was one of my concerns and it was reince prieb priebus concern as well. I have seen it already. I go back to michigan every weekend and i am fund raising a lot for the party, and overall at a massive extent we are seeing positive feedback from everybody, and we saw a president when he was not even in office, he started fighting for jobs, and he is rolling back regulation, and thats great, and to see the regulations be lifted and see business potential and job potential be unleashed especially like michigan where the regulations killed a lot of the jobs, and they are pleased with what he is doing. He has a base right now and theres a strong United Coalition behind this president , and we are going to have to pass things and get things done because now we have it all, and i think thats going to be the next big step is to run on what we have done. Proving you are an optimist out of the Reagan School of optimistic thought, you have admitted you were a lions fan . I love the lions. I love them. They went to the playoffs this year, and i thought they are going to make it to the super bowl, and no, my falcons made it and we won the first three quarters. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Still ahead, hes from West Virginia and shes from missouri, and democrats from two states the trump won easily. Senators joe manchin and Claire Mccaskill next on morning joe. Its beautiful. Was it a hard place to get to . laughs it wasnt too bad. With the chase mobile app, jimmy chin can master depositing his hard earned checks in a snap. Easy to use Chase Technology for whatever youre trying to master. Getting heartburn doesnt mean i means i take rolaids®. Rolaids® goes to work instantly neutralizing 44 more acid than tums® for fast, powerful relief of your worst heartburn. I trust my rolaids®. Rolaids spells relief. The full value of your totaled new car. The guy says, you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong Insurance Company. With new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. Liberty mutual insurance. As he was leaving the white house, cameras caught President Trump apparently rehearsing his lines in the back of the limo. Obviously cnns powerful microphones picked up what he was saying. Ill have the clams casino, and i will have a steak, and the lady will have a coke, no ice, and i will have her steak please. In a moment we will be joined live by senators, Claire Mccaskill and joe manchin, but first what we covered this morning. President trump calling on democrats and the country to unify. In his short political career, its the best speech he has given. There was a lot less bannon over at least this speech. You saw a little tension in the writing if you look closely. It was not reality tvish. I dont think you could watch that and think its the end of democracy. The question is, does it stick or does he get back on twitter and take a shot at somebody . This was donald trump shifting from campaigning to governing mode. This Campaign Speech has made less than any of the others. It was a bait and switch speech, and the president talks a good talk. We had a bunch of generalities, but the proof is in the pudding. He spoke to the working class voters last night. Literally rewriting the speech in the afternoon. Is the war on the media over . Hes willing to make his case and challenge his detrackers when it comes his way. The president is open to legal status for undocumented immigrants without having to leave the country and return. Mark my words, this is going to be walked back and we will see no plan at all. But, wait, theres more. Were going to stop the regulations that threaten the future and livelihood of our great coal miners. [ applause ] joe manchin, the strange man in strange land, the one democrat standing up in that line. He is one of the few democrats that seemed to have enjoyed the president s speech, and he joins us with Claire Mccaskill next on morning joe. This is the story of Green Mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets take a trip to la plata, colombia. This is boris calvo. Thats pepe. Boris doesnt just grow good coffee, boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even Better Coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. Thats blanca. Yup, pepe and blanca got together. Things happen. All this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain coffee. Packed with goodness. I just met with officials and workers of the Great American company, harley davidson, and they asked if i wanted to ride one, and i said, no thank you. I asked them how are you doing with other countries, mainly International Sales . They told me without even complaining, because they have been so mistreated for so long that they have become used to it, that its very hard to do business with other countries because they tax our goods at such a high rate, and they were not asking for a change, but i am. [ applause ] all right, President Trump last night on a wide range of issues and joining us now is we have senators joe manchin and Claire Mccaskill. Claire, i will start with you. Give me your reaction to the president s speech last night . I want to compliment him on the tone. You know, i think theres a low bar here and there is grading on a curve because we have become accustomed to the way donald trump has talked to the American People, and this was different, and i want to acknowledge that. I want to say, hey, paid family leave, lets go. A trillion dollars in infrastructure, and i am not sure the way he is doing that will get roads built in missouri, because i dont think they can pencil out bridges and roads in Rural America that supported donald trump, and we have had our plan on the table and heard nothing from him on infrastructure. This is what was weird about the speech to me, and i have to saeurbgs this is a guy in the death struggle with the truth, and he says things that are not true, and we would all be better off if he would stick to the facts and how do we reach a compromise if we dont reach the same set of facts. How did he do well in your state . He was talking to people who saw Hillary Clinton as more of the same and as the status quo, and itas a political road rage, and we are sick and tired of the status quo and want something different. The voters that voted for barack obama eight years ago in your state, and voted for him this time, and voted for you a couple times and then voted for him this time, and how do you bring that together . I think i have to show i am independent and looking out for them, and we have thousands of Truck Drivers that will lose their mention, and this is a time for donald trump to step up, and he talks about the coal miners, and where is he and why hasnt he talked to Mitch Mcconnell about the coal miners pensions and the Truck Drivers . There will be a chance for me to fight for the people who were frustrated for the status quo, and we are looking for donald trump to put the meat on the bones and not just rhetoric. Joe manchin, do you have an answer . By the way, i think you looked great by yourself the only hissing i heard is when i stood. Thats not true. We were not hissing you, joe. The bottom line is, he appreciates him looking at the hard work of the coal miners and what they have done with the country, and when you talk about coal miners are hard working people in West Virginia, and talk about motorcycles, were okay. How much did he win your state by . 43 . Oh, my. There are people that voted for donald trump that voted for you. Right. How do you prove to all of those people, all of those Trump Supporters tt they should vote for a democrat in all honesty, they were supporters of mine before, and i have been there for a long time and my brand is all West Virginia. I am identified as a democrat, and i am a proud West Virginia democrat that does not always coincide with what goes on up here in the National Democratic party, but i am independent and defensive of my country and state so i will fight for that. What i heard last night was this, this man has the ability to correct the unfair trade deals we v. And i truly believe that, and he understands business and can sit down and make a deal, and i always said, boy, i wish i was dealing with the United States government, what patsys they are, and i always felt that, and he understands that and can he right it . I think it will help an awful lot. The family leave was great. And i think he wants immigration, and i think he wants a pathway further, and people read into this, and he is looking into a way where we can have people to be here productive and enjoy life and also dont jump ahead of anybody. Willie geist . Good to see you. Let me ask you about the repeal and replace talk that was in the speech last night and was going on since donald trump became president. John boehner is now liberated and can say whatever he wants to say, and he said they will not repeal obamacare and they will pick away at it and it will take years and years, so for people watching today what is the most realistic outcome for what happens to obamacare tphao i dont know what i do know, is the most applause is when obama said repeal and replace, and they all went crazy, and i am going, where is replace . They have been using this as a politic political slogan for seven years. And several republicans have come out and said they are not going to support it. Exactly. And Mitch Mcconnell had a big meeting scheduled today where they will coalesce, and the meeting was canceled. Heres what the president said last night, going to take care of everybody with preexisting conditions and going to make sure everybody has coverage with medicaid, and going to make sure nobody has any problem transforming into the new plan. You know, thats a pretzel that is not going to twist for them, and you cant have a mandate and do all of those things without spending a boat load of money. Let me just Say Something on that and this whole thing. I always said politically you cannot repeal it and get 60 votes to replace anything with it its just not in the cards, and we agree on twothirds of the stuff, and fix the private market sector, and have health care literacy. I have 172,000 people that never bought insurance in their life that have it for the first time. They dont know how to use it. Nobody has worked with it. They dont know if they should go every week or once a month, they just dont know. Theres so much to be had. Why dont you work on repairing it and see if you get 60 votes first. Mark halperin . Do you think the president is going to have a good heart . Thats an interesting question. I will not say whether somebody has a bad or gd heart. I will say this, he has told countless lies and made promises i dont think he can keep, and now is the time to stop, and with all the divisive rhetoric, and he stops trying to deny agreat the press which is important to our democracy. Lets have him put his power behind the proposel annuals. Its easy to deliver a good speech that has been written for you, and what is hard is finding the Common Ground and thats where he has not shown any capability yet. I am not sure any of those things you mentioned are so easy or else donald trump would not be president of the United States. Are you not making the classic mistake that democrats made with reagan by underestimating donald trump even after he shocked everybody . No, i am not underestimating him. Listen, i am done underestimating him. But i am also not going to stand by i have to fight for these people in my state, and the way i fight for these people in my state that want paid family leave, and we have more structurally deficient bridges than anywhere else in the country, and the way i fight for my country, i say show us, give us your plan, mr. President. I do common sense coffee and Different Things to try and get a feel of it, and i say, we have a 20 trillion debt, and another trillion spent on infrastructure, and how are we going to pay for it . I said would you agree to pay half a percent for an infrastructure ban tok to rebui america . And the people said, yeah, we will pay. Nobody wants to talk about how you pay for it. Guys, thank you so much. We are going to get closing thoughts now. We are going to get closing thoughts from you all as well. Mark halperin, lets start for you, closing thoughts on what you saw last night and what we are seeing today. I think the Democratic Party is reacting in various ways to how the president presented himself last night. Mika . I am seeing a shift inside the president s inner circle and i think we will see that bear out in the coming weeks. Willie geist, what are you saying . The president said last night the time for trivial fights are behind us, and lets hope that true and we will keep our eyes on him. I think its true. We can respectfully disagree, and i see him growing, and the tone i saw i thought was much, much better. I am hoping for a win. I am always wanting that win, and people came out of the meeting last night trying to find out ways we can fail and continue to have the discourse we have, and i think its time to move on, and my state expect that from me and i expect that from other people. And mcclaire, missouri, tough storms last night . I would like to speak to the people in missouri, and we had a deadly tornado with a loss of life and we are thinking about those folks and their families and what we need to do to repair the state, and thank you to everybody who reached out with good thoughts. Joe . I am with you, in that i think you look at the speech, and you have got to see what went behind that, and that was donald trump moving beyond the two people that he has been relying on the most, and you are seeing a lot more people that he wants to come in and give him input, and thats why the speech looked different, and sounded different. And actually provided some people with a little bit of hope that stability is coming. All right, thank you both so much, and that does it for us this morning. Wow, what a day. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Good morning. I am stephanie ruhle, and we are talking about a shift today. A very different president with his first major address in office. I am hear tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength. Or was it still pushing his Campaign Agenda . We will soon begin the construction of a great wall. Obamacare is collapsing. But with a far more moderated tone. I am asking everybody watching tonight to seize this moment, believe in yourselves, believe in your future. We are seizing it, and we have reaction and new reporting on the possible major change on immigration. Plus, a