Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170320

Trump called a judge a very talented legal mind. Fox news drew a stark line in the sand from trump quickly, distancing themselves from napolitanos comments. Fox news cannot confirm judge napolitanos commentator. Fox news knows of no evidence that the president of the United States was surveilled in any way full stop. Full stop. All of this as sean spicer says, they dont regret anything. Why should they . They just lied about americas most important ally. Then, of course, there is President Trumps meeting with german chancellor angel merkel. The situation getting even worse. There she threw a look his way in a joint presser that, lets just say, was filled with subtext. Earlier trump seemingly refused to shake merkels hand when she asked if they that shake hands. Everyone else was asking too, handshake. She was ignored. One president who puts his hands on her shoulders and another president who wont touch her. Lets hope we get a new president that treats the new leader of the free world like the leader of the free world because that is what donald trump is making her every day. The Health Care Bill is set for this thursday in the house. Seven years to the day that president obama signed obamacare into law. But will republicans have enough votes . President trump proudly said he flipped gop s on the bill to yess. But not so fast, mr. Presiden we are still not on board. Amid all of these battles reports in the Washington Post of a huge turf war in the white house. Deep odds with steve bannon and Reince Priebus all battling for the president s ear. And this as kellyanne desperately tries to remain relevant. A new York Magazine profile declaring her the first lady of trumps america. If you thought that cover store would help her inside the white house, it did not. The calls all weekend coming about that were shock and horror from white house insiders. Continued shocking for her. One of whom who said she makes us all look like a joke. By the way, the confirmation hearings for a judge neil gorsuch to be the next Supreme Court justice also get under way today. We have quite a week in washington. Good morning. Its march 20th. With us executive producers and cohost of the circus on showtime, mark halpern who is also a in business and msnbc political analyst and also David Ignatius of the Washington Post and robert costa is also with us. Good to have you back. Its good to be back. A lot of people are saying what is he doing . And then why are you so surprised by it . And i guess that could be a good logic if you look at the birther stuff, if you look at the way trump behaved before his presidency but some people are still surprised by this. Are you . Im surprised by the degree of it. The insanity every day. The insulting. He did this all the time. Thway he does business. Here is the difference. I hear some commentators say we should we be surprised in the birther stuff and all this . There is a difference. As repugnant and defensive and racist the birther, all of those things he did, the rabbit trails he followed down were for a cynical purpose and that was to gain a large chunk of media attention. While terrible or disgusting, it at least served him in some way. It served his political purposes as disgusting and as cynical as it was. What he is doing now and why its disturbing on a incredibly different level. The stakes are much higher. Its on an International Stage and everything he does is hurting himself. So, mark, at this point, you really you cant even attach a dastardly cynical context to this. This is just selfdestruction and selfdestruction of his own poll numbers we saw this weekend plum meted down to 37. 37 . There is a potential motivate ma would be dastarddastardly. Look at that. The job approval 37 approve, 58 disproof. These numbers have been collapsing. Does that mean dont like the job he is doing . You can dig inside it. Its the tweets. Even republicans that support him strongly are saying, hes got to stop. I heard that when i was out with him last week from his supporters who said we want him to focus on the things he said he would do. Ill say again what are people focused on in the hearing today . Not the question of collusion that is aled but on the question was there spying by president obama. He has created a side show that at least at a minimum is diverting attention from the bigger issues as serious as his accusation is and the implications of that. Does he think the Intel Committee cant do two things at once . They can. Think about what people are worried about. Will comey say the president s accusations are false . Not will comey say about russians interference in the election. If you talk to people in the white house, they have been saying for weeks confidently there is no collusion. This is going to end up helping us because the news is going to come out that its just not there. Ive had people ive talked to for a a very long time who are certain of it. It seems that if you follow what mark said that trump is actually stepping on his own good headline because even when they say, okay, we cant prove the collusion there. I dont think they are going to be able to prove it at this point with what they have based on everything i heard but that headline is going to be stepped on. We all will be saying he did lie about barack obama. He trashed britain in pursuit of that lie. He trashed merkel in pursuit of that lie. And paul ryan says there is no evidence behind the wiretapping claim. Mitchell mcconnell, the subcommittee of the intel House Committee and chairman of the senate committee, the Ranking Member of the senate Intel Committee, republicans and democrats awe like all saying nonsense. Hard to imagine why would he introduce an issue in the end he is going to lose . A distraction from other issues. At the end of the day he looks wo worse. This is the way he does business. If you look at his Business Career and he is negotiating, its bluster at first. If you make a charge against him, hell sue you back and never settle and never say i was wrong, i made a mistake, i retreat. Its just not his style. He is now president. He is dealing with problems that he has never encountered. You know what . The cost of this kind of, you know, brash business tactics is declining, poll numbers not just at home but around the world. An amazing german poll that showed in four months since the november election, trust in the United States is an ally has fallen from 55 down to 22 . An extraordinary change and it tells you there is a cost for this kind of behavior on the part of donald trump. Donald trump can do this. Im not even being facetious. He can do this when he he is attacking rosie odonnell. He goes back and friends with a few in the tabloids. Calls her horrible names. He knows in the any news is good news. Helps promote celebrity apprentice. Punching when you control two or three tabloids in town is a fine thing to do. What trump is learning here what we have said before, washington always wins. You dont play by washingtons rules. The courts are going to grab you. The Intel Community is grabbing the other leg. House is going to grab you by the arm. The senate will grab you by the other arm. And he doesnt seem to realize the more he flails, the more he lies, the more he struggles, the deeper he gets in political quick sand. The numbers are horrific right now for him. They are not great. The one question i have about it has been for a while is whether it seems to me that in the long game here, the trump benefits from the notion that he, in some ways, that he just that he i feeding Something Like normal partisan politics. Americans are used to republicans and democrats beating each other up, right . So by trying to draw president obama into the fight what would more reinforce the notion this is partisan politics than get in a fight with barack obama. Americans from a distance saying the two are fighting and what we expect from washington. The real enemy for trump or the real danger he become to be scene as somehow not conventional that he sllike an unprecedented way behaving abnormally and this reinforces cynicism about politics and that benefits trump. Maureen dowd sort of crystallizing what we are seeing on one level. Why trump is doing what he is doing or maybe he doesnt know and doesnt like the job. She says its not unknown, of course. An ancient e gegypt a snake tha eats own tail. Gypt a snake that eats own tail. If robert costa, what are you hearing from people that you talk to . At what point does it become a presidency that has to be interfered with, that has to be stopped by those around it . Well, those who would interfere on this kind of matter would usually hold the majority in both chambers. What im talking about. Right now they are reluctant to have this conversation with me in private and other reporters because they are so consumed by the idea that trump will enable them to get what they want on health care andact and taxes and willing to go along with President Trump on a lot of different fronts as long as he sticks with them and helps enact a republican agenda. First of all, bob, lets talk about the infighting, though, as well. Right now, obviously, a lot of battles going on inside the white house. With we have heard about this for some time but a lot of battles inside the white house. It looks like the new york crew seems to be getting an upper hand on steve bannon. Its a fascinating bit of up ending conventional wisdom. We were poking around the Power Centers the last week. What we recognized is this idea that bannon and priebus are at war with each other that is kind of stale conventional wisdom. The fresh dynamic the new yorkers gary cohen and dina powell battling against priebus and ban none who have this political marriage inside of the white house. Its the new yorkers versus the possib populace and about the whole tempo of the white house. What is so fascinating about the stories im hearing behind the scenes is you have people sort of trying to tip toe around others. One situation where gary cohen was left out of a meeting and instead of sulking at his desk he kicked down the door and said why am i not in the meeting . The man who ran Goldman Sachs is not going to let anybody, including Steven Bannon or Reince Priebus get in his way and we have really seen the last two weeks. Gary cohen and dina powell and jared and ivanka assert themselves. It is a court of people sneaking around behind each other and watch out for the dagger. The tone in the white house the last couple of weeks, ive been trying to talk to cabinet officials who were just a little bit outside this process. If you think of this as a boat cking wildly, you need som out rigors on it to damp that rocking. Those out rigors ought to be our secretary of defense, general mattis and our secretary of state Rex Tillerson. What the heck has happened with Rex Tillerson . I think tillerson does not want to talk to people like us, talk to the media and be highly visible until he knows exactly what his policies are. Very deliberate decision not to take media with him to asia. I think his meeting with xi jinping yesterday was an important one. He got some heat for making nice noises to china but we have a real crisis, a real crisis ahead with north korea. As little distance as possible right now between the u. S. And china and dealing with it is appropriate and tillerson seems to have accommodated that. The question is whether people like mattis and tillerson can steady this boat by working together and having allies in the white house and working with h. R. Mcmaster and crazy rocking and tweeting will be less important. Fantastic. Mark, we are going to get to your exchange with the president on health care in a moment. We lost two people this weekend who were icons in their respective industries. Revolution blues singer chuck berry died on saturday. The singer and songwriter and good tarrist was often referred to as the father of rock n roll as he ushered in new sound that crushed the racial barriers of the 1950s. One of the first impucknductees the rock n roll fame. His first billboard hit maybelline. A tweet on sunday more than by President Trump saying chuck berry rolled over everyone who came before him and turned up everyone who ceafter. We mis you chuc be good, obama wrote. Chuck berry was 90. John, ive always whenever i saw music and gotten back to the 50s music, ive always started the debate on who the real king of rock n roll was. I understand elvis was the icon and guy on ed sullivan and made it okay for white kid to like rock n roll. But chuck berry was rock n roll. I think as new York Magazine said he invented the idea of rock n roll and George Thoroughgood the unbelievable line why would i write any songs about rock n roll when chuck berry was written all of the great ones . John lennon said, if they had to rename rock n roll, they would probably just call it chuck berry. Yeah. Look. You think about the translation, you know, when blues, rhythm and blues and Country Music all kind of came together. A bunch of people at the center of that story and Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis important figures. Chuck berry played the guitar and a lot of those other guys were piano players. He was a Brilliant Writer of incredible lyric. One of the great. A poet of the highest order. I really was. Then the sound. There is literally nothing that any rockuirist has ever pled since chuck berry that is not partly chuck berry. The core rifts of the songs that we have been talking about here are the genetic code for every rock guitarist after. Hes in everything. And in the genetic code of the three bands of the 1960s who changed everything. The beach boys, they just lifted songs straight out. Of course, the rolling stones. And the beatles. Remember live album in 1970 . They had ten songs on the album. Two of chem were chuck berry covers. Then the beatles who, i mean, roll over beethoven. All they played was chuck berry. Just doing chuck berry covers for the better part of their period as a band. It was unbelievable. David . Roll over, beethoven. Tell Chuck Grassley the news. Also, the pugnacious newspaper columnist author and racketeer is being remembered as a fighter for the exploited and d disenfranchised. He shined a lie on the challenges of the times that he lived in. His column saw the story of a man who dug the grave of president kennedy. The new york city cops who comfort a fatally wounded john lennon as he was rushed to the hospital. Breslin got so fed up he ran for office himself for new York City Council president in a Strange Campaign alongside writer norman mayler in 1969. Do you want to be the security councCity Council President . I sat downith a list of people running for the president of city council. I fear victory very much. The question is are they serious . Mike said he wrote from the street up. For more of breslins impact, we are joined by veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Mike, obviously, Jimmy Breslin one of the greats. There wont be another person like him again, certainly not in newspapers. Tell us about him. Well, you know, joe, mika, a century from now, i really believe this. A century from now, historians will look at Jimmy Breslins life to get a handle what his life was like in the early 21st century. Yesterday the New York Times column was so spectacular. One line and sums everything about jimmys writings and how he changed column writing in newspaper and it is that breslin inspired every emotion but indifference. Youre just talking about chuck berry and Jimmy Breslin and chuck berry proved the power of emotion married to language and language handled skillfully and magically. Newspaper writing was never the same after jimmy brings lynn began writing the column. I grew up reading the New York Herald tribune to read him three times, sometimes four times a week in perhaps of one of the greatest newspapers ever published. Everyone in this business. David ignatius and John Heilemann are there. You could not stop reading breslin, no matter what you thought about him or what he was writg, he was addressing issues in a way that, you know, people could become instantly familiar with it in about 900 lines of typewritten words in a newspaper. He was a magical, magical writer. I cannot say enough about him. Mike, we will get more from you on Jimmy Breslins impact on journalism later in the show. Thank you, mike. David . Jimmy breslin was a man who bled on the page if he had something to say. Right. A good way of putting it. He was so visceral. Mike barnicle was one of them and bill from my paper the Washington Post just captured the way cities lived and people read him every morning the way, i hope, people watch morning joe, that wanted to connect with the story. But Jimmy Breslin was a rare man who said everything that was in his heart and found a way to speak and was loved by his readers for that. And he was a new yorker above all else. One of the quotes that came out yesterday said if youre leaving new york, you aint going nowhere. Still ahead on morning joe, unforced errors in International Relations from the awkward photo op with Angela Merkel to insulting the british completely. Former cia director and secretary of defense leon panetta joins the nversation. As judge neil gorsuch confirmation push gets under way, democrat Richard Blumenthal says hell use every tool he has to prevent his swearing in. Hell join us in the morning, as well as republican senator john corn cornyn. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. My ancestry dna results are that i am 26 nigerian. I am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. I put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. Because its a hat, but its like the most important hat ive ever owned. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. Knowing where you stand. 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Everybodys going to be taken care of much better than theyre taken care of now. Announcer 20 million americans gained Health Coverage under the Affordable Care act. Including millions of our most vulnerable citizens children, the disabled and the elderly. Now, under some plans in congress, millions of these americans could lose that Health Coverage. The women and men of americas hospitals urge congress to protect affordable coverage for as Many Americans as possible. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced. Our senses awake. Our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say. If you love something set it free. See you around, giulia did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back . Say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. Comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet thats over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. Say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. And add phone and tv for only 34. 90 more a month. Call today. Comcast business. Built for business. They were all nos or pretty much no, and after 15 minutes. Now in all fairness, its not 15 minutes. But after four or five days. But after 15 minutes, they went from no to all yess. Its a great plan or i wouldnt be involved with it. We have 12 nos and we have rejiggered it and we have done some great things but the nos in every single case went to a yes. Its dying. Its just about on its last legs. If we did nothing, if we did absolutely nothing, obamacare is dead. It will fail. The president on friday saying that negotiations on the republican Health Care Bill are moving along nicely. The first votes on repealing and replacing could be thursday but major hangups remain. Senator ted cruz went to maralago this weekend, along with mike lee and House Freedom caucus chair mark meadows to hash out differences. With the House Freedom caucus tweeting their members still oppose the bill in its current form, mark halpern, here is your exchange with the president on friday. A lot of americans eight years ago the government what to do about health care. I wonder if you can tell people what your lines are and what is negotiatable. We talked about in the past if they cant afford Health Insurance and talk about no cuts to medicaid or medicare. Is that part of your bottom line . President trump has a different style than most recent past u. S. President and im wondering what you think of that style. If you think its good for the world or if youve got any reservation for that thank you both. Thank you, mark. We just have a really Wonderful Group of people meeting later. We met with 12 pretty much nos in congress. You saw that a little while ago. They went from all nos to all yes, s yess and a lot of yess coming in and its coming together. We are going to have Great Health Care. Its going to be passed, i believe, i think substantially pretty quickly. Its coming together beautifully. You have the conservative groups and you have other groups. Everybody wants certain things. In the end we are going to have a Great Health Care plan. Now i have to tell you that obamacare is a disaster. Its failing. I was in tennessee. We had a tremendous crowd the other night. And they have half of the state is uncovered. The Insurance Companies have left and the other half has one Insurance Company and that is probably bailing out soon. A lot of pcesav one and a lot of places have none. Obamacare will fail and close and foldup very soon if something isnt done. Ive often said politically the best thing i can do is absolutely nothing. Wait one year and even the democrats will come say, please, please, you got to help us. But its not the right thing to do for the people. We have a great plan. We have a plan that is getting more and more popular with the republican base, with the conservative base, and with people generally. The press has covered it very n inaccurately and people will be covered well and i think a model to be looked upon. Ill tell you after we are finished. The Congressional Budget Office would disagree with donald trump, as would most analysts, independent analysts that looked at it. So you asked a question that needed to be asked. He promised everybody was going to be covered. Whether they can afford it or not. He said the deductibles would be cheaper and they would have better coverage. And so you asked him in the middle of all this whether basically whether he was going to keep his word or whether he was going to do what barack obama did and said make a broad Statement Like if you like your Health Care Coverage you can keep your Health Care Coverage. That ended up not being true. And his promises on the campaign not being true. You asked him bottom line would he stick to them. I dont think he answered it. I dont think any of us are surprised trump needs a bill and willing to be flexible. Most president s on this have a bottom line. If you cant afford your premiums youll still have coverage, bottom line. No cuts to marked aedicaid and medicare. This is not about making something up about russia or surveillance. This is about tens of millions of americans being really concerned. Are they going to have coverage . Is the person they voted for who said youll are Health Insurance and medicaid wont be cut, is that a person fighting for those bills whether it leads up to his promises or not . History may not be repeating itself but it is rhyming directly with what happened with barack obama on two counts. One, barack obama made promises he could not keep and did not keep. Second, it became obvious six months into the process that barack obama really didnt care what the final bill looked like. He just wanted a final bill. Its taken donald trump a lot shorter time to get to both of those points. What he promised on the campaign, he is not fulfilling with this bill. Not even close. Secondly, everyone around him says he doesnt care what is in the bill. He really doesnt. He just wants a bill to sign. What are you hearing . Its not just about health care. A lot of incredulous talk around the president from some of his closest friends and allies. They are wondering as they talk amongst themselves, as they talk to him why did he start with infrastructure and why didnt he go ahead with tax cuts . Health care they worry is something that will bog him down. They know he is not idealistic. As mark said it was spot on and a lot of trumps base is people from rural states and working class, may have family or they, themselves, on medicd assistance. By having this House Freedom caucus angle to the whole plan of really phasing out the Medicaid Expansion and tweaking it to get votes, how is that going to pass the senate . How is it going to appeal to his voters . Mika, it was a stupid first move. Yeah. To make the mistake. Been a lot of them. To make the mistake that obama made and going to Health Care First when he could have easily passed a bipartisan tax reform plan and bipartisan Regulatory Reform plan and wades into health care and takes a bill from the house that actually hurts his own people. And John Heilemann, over the weekend, another round of those town halls where people seem like they are very concerned about what is happening and they appear to be people who go to voting booths. They dont look like fakers. I dont think you can get 1,500 farks in ofakers in one room. Across the country, if youre denying there is real opposition and there is real energy on the democratic side, youre in denial and youre diluted. Look. I totally agree. I have always thought that doing infrastructure first, which is something that would have challenged democrats and maybe passed a bill put democrats in a bind and broad public spo for might have been the right thing to do. On the other hand, the reality for republicans for the last six years, have been saying their top priority as a party is to repeal or replace obamacare. Donald trump was in this respect, at least a normal republican, he adopted the partys clarion call. But he didnt need to listen to the house. He could have been a president and actually led. All im saying guys, i understand. I agree. Thats not going to work. Youre going to get into political quick sand. Lets pass what we know we can pass first and get momentum and then move. You can see the political pressure the party spent six years saying we will do this on day one and now day 65 and nothing has happened. You can see why he was under pressure to do something that republicans would all want to do. They have been saying they would want to do more than anything the last six years. I understand that. Mark, back to the focus groups you guys did a year and a half ago. The bloomberg focus groups you did. The moment i know everybody watching this show said, my god, wait. Okay. Because there he is one of us. Working class people and one of them memorably said im voting him. He is just like me. Just like me. You go back and look at the focus group. They are getting killed by these Health Care Cuts and getting kid by Discretionary Spending cut after another. This is a budget that will play very well to trumps billionaire political donors. Maybe some conservative think tanks. That is about it. Those working class voters are getting just they are on the front lines getting pummeled. West virginia, which went for like 45 . Appalachian that went for him overwhelmingly. They are the first people who are going to get obliterated. The impact on arizona, 380,000 people in arizona will lose their expanded medicaid coverage. 2. 5 billion less in Health Care Coverage going to arizona because of donald trump. We know hes not ideological. Hell violated his promises. He says im a guy with promises made. In a literal way. Promises kept. Its going to affect people and they are starting to see it. You start to see it out in the country of people saying they are concerned. They say i hate the Affordable Care act but they got coverage through it and wondering are the changes going to affect their lives . Im wondering what he thinks about that. David ignatius, suddenly, you got democrats who are running in two years. Joe manchin who could be in trouble in West Virginia and Claire Mccaskill could be in trouble in missouri. Suddenly biggest newspapers say trump budgets cuts missouri and West Virginia. Claire mccaskill is not going against donald trump but she is protecting missouri. Same with joe manchin in West Virginia. Trump care is on its way to being a bad name. By the way, a bad name in red state america. Correct. Some issues people just watch us in washington and dont really pay attention. Issues like this that affect your health, your familys health how youre going to pay your bills. People look at really carefully. That has happened the last month. I dont think i think trump feels just bring 12 more in and sweet talk him that hell end up in a better place. I think if he should get this passed and people have to live with the consequences, heading towards 2018, he is going to have more problems than he realizes. People are not going to like him. Every single day on the front page of West Virginia and alabama and tennessee and texas newspapers, there will be pictures of not of black babies, there will be pictures of working class white 60yearold men that republicans will look at and go, oh, wait. We are losing our base . Lets be clear. The house bill, if it passes or not this week, the house bill is never going to become a law. The house bill the senate is not going to pass anything close to the house bill. At best, its a failure . No. If it gets passed it becomes the thing that the Senate Passes the billou go to conference and figure out something in the midd. The house bill will not become law. Enough republican senators said its dead on arrival when gets to the senate. Is it where the senate does its thing and a committee there is a compromise reached. That is the end game here. Not is the house bill going to become law. Coming up, making it all about yourself. Remember when Kellyanne Conway said Michael Flynn had the full confidence of the president and then he was asked to resign . Well, that elicited this response from steve bannon. In a new piece, quote, on that one, she was definitely not in the loop. She was never envisioned to be in the loop. More ahead on the infighting and jockeying for position inside the trump white house. And we will have a fact check for you on President Trumps claims about nato. Those were doozies over the weekend as well. We are back in just a moment. Z2a1gz zx9z y2a1gy yx9y actually making your body feel better. Im heather thomson, and thats exactly what tommie copper does for me and my whole family. They call it wearable wellness. And tommie copper has infused it into everything they do. [ male announcer ] experience the difference wearable wellness can make in your life. Go to tommiecopper. Com, enter your email to become part of the tommie copper community, and get 15 off your entire order, plus free shipping. Life hurts. Feel better. May not always be clear. But at t. Rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. So wherever your Retirement Journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. Call us or your advisor t. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Lease a 2017 lincoln mkx for 369 a month. Only at your lincoln dealer. Frankly, unless you can produce some pretty compelling proof, then i think the president , you know president obama is owed an apology in that regard becausef he didnt do it, we shouldnt be, you know, ckss in accusations that he did. It never hurts to say youre sorry. You think the president should say he is sorry . I think so. Not just sorry to the president but also to the uk for the claims or the intimation that the uk was involved in this as well. I dont know the basis for President Trumps assertion and that is what i wish he would explain to us in on the Intelligence Committee and to the American People and i do believe he owes us that explanation. So, joe, the question is, today, the moment of trudge for the president s wiretapping claims and what about the allegations of collusion with the russian government is in the president is up and tweeting this morning. Here is the apology. Want to read it . Sure. Go ahead. James clapper and others stated there is no evidence that president colluded with russia. The store is fake news and everyone knows it. He is going to term from the barack obama story to the collusion story. He is hoping it will go away. Remember congressman jim hines . He is joining us next as he is preparing for his big day on capitol hill. Morning joe will be right back. So how old do you want to be when you retire . Uhh, i was thinking around 70. Alright, and before that . You an after that . No, im talking before that. Do y have things you want to do before you retire . Oh yeah sure. Ok, like what . But i thought we were supposed to be talking about investing for retirement . Were absolutely doing that. But theres no law you cant make the most of today. What do you want to do . Id really like to run with the bulls. Wow. Yea. Hope youre fast. I am. Get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change. Investment Management Services from td ameritrade. Heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho its off to work we go heres to all of you early risers, whats up man . Gogetters, and shouldbe sleepers. From all of us at delta, because the ones who truly change the world, are the ones who cant wait to get out in it. Because the ones who truly change the world, excuse me, are you aware of whats happening right now . Were facing 20 billion security events every day. Ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks. Actually, we just handled all the priority threats. You did that . We did that. Really. We analyzed millions of articles and reports. We can identify threats 50 faster. You can do that . We can do that. Then do that. Can we do that . We can do that. Joining us now is member of the house Intelligence Committee congressman jim himes of connecticut. Good to have you on board this morning. Thank you. Congressman, they love you there. You were big into new canaan. They went forhillary. A big shock. Ill ask you the question that everybody has been asked and it continues. After three weeks and one day, is there any evidence that you have seen in any document that barack obama tapped trump tower . None. None at all. Im only, what, 36 or 40th voice saying that. We hope that this mornings hearings, amongst other things will allow director comey but a stake in that. Doesnt the fbi director have a spoken responsibility to your committee and the American People to get this out . Dont the American People Richard Nixon said, at one point, the American People have a right to know the president is not a crook, something along those lines. Dont the American People have a right to know that barack obama did not commit a felony . Absolutely. In the standard for director comey, we remember this from the last election, is it in the National Interest to talk about something that otherwise might be classified that might deal with fisa warrants or an Ongoing Investigation . You know, i cant tell you how doctor comey thinks about these things but i can tell you very much in the National Interest for him to clear this up. Director comey asserted himself in the middle of the president ial campaign and wont come out and tell us the truth about barack obama not wiretapping trump tower . The hearing is today. This is a man who has never been afraid to do what he thought was right. Youll remember the story with ashcroft and him standing up to the bush administration. I tend to on issues of integrity give him a lot of space and it is time and i hope it happens today for him to come out and say this was plain wrong. David . If director comey today does say flatly there is no evidence that the trump tower was wiretapped, the president s allegations against former president obama are wrong, do you think its appropriate for the president to apologize to say, i now need to say to the country and the world i got this wrong . I think there is two paths. If this is made up out of whole cloth and nothing is there, of course, he should. He wont do nap the one thing we know about donald trump he never has a regret. He never apologizes. The more interesting path lets imagine there was something there and its not a wiretap ordered on trump tower. Maybe its one of his people had an investigation around them. That may not come out today because it might be an Ongoing Investigation, then too the American People have a right to know. Thasks is what my committee is investigating were there connections . Was there knowledge of what the russians were doing by any of trumps people . Congressman, how will we know that . If there is that broader evidence of collusion, not the direct issue that trump cited but people like manafort and others, how will we know that . Remember, its not just collusion. If you had trump people working with the russians, that would be a historical scandal. It could simply be knowledge. What if somebody like roger stone or Paul Manafort or any of the characters here who had these bizarre meetings with russia and most of them disassembled whether they had those meetings what if they simply knew . The frustrating thing if there is an Ongoing Investigation and its quite possible that and likely that dr. Comey will not talk about it today. Mark . The president s accusations, youve got the question whether there was collusion or as you said, communication. What about the question of russian interference in the election . Even they are abandoning the idea that didnt happen. The only other point was there collusion or knowledge the question is why is donald trump acting the way he is . Do the russians have anything on him . Something fangs or if t. Is he acting in a fashion that is concerning . Hichlt heres a guy who will attack everybody. The cast of hamilton to the Intelligence Community to senator schumer. Yet in the face of unbelievable violence and bad behavior, he puts this halo around Vladimir Putin. Why . And will actually attack the United States of america in defense of Vladimir Putin. Exactly. Call our sons and daughters that went off to war in iraq, call them killers, when asked about Vladimir Putin kill people. Well, we have a lot of killers here too. Look what we did in iraq. Do republicans in the house feel comfortable with this present . Behind closed doors, there is a schizophrenia, right . Here is an opportunity to finally do the things we have been promising so long to repeal obamacare and they want to do the things done that they couldnt get done by press obama but a lot of them are scared about the whavbehavior. Can you imagine going back and defend this . This is hard for them. All right. Congressman jim himes, thank you very much. Coming up, senators chris coons and Richard Blumenthal join us ahead of the fbi directors big moment today on capitol hill. The start to the hearings for judge neil gorsuch to become the next Supreme Court justice. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. 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. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Looking for clear answers for your Retirement Plan . Start here. Or here. Even here. And definitely here. At fidelity, were available 24 7 to make Retirement Planning simpler. 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Everyone deserves attention, whether youve saved a lot or just a little. At pnc investments, we believe youre more than just a number. So we provide personal Financial Advice for every retirement investor. Three intelligence sources have informed fox news that president obama went outside the chain of command. He didnt use the nsa or the cia or the fbi. And he didnt use the department of justice. He used gchq. What the heck is that . That is the initials for the british spying agency. On fox news on march 14th, the judge made the following statement. Quote, three intelligence sources have informed fox news that president obama went outside of the chain of command and didnt use the nas or the cia or the fbi or the department of justice he used gcsq. What is that . The initials for the british spy intelligence agency. We did nothing. All we did was a very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didnt make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on fox and so you shouldnt be talking to me. You should be talking to fox. We love the judge. We love him here at fox but the Fox News Division was never able to back up those claims. Fox news cannot confirm judge napolitanos comment. Fox news knows of novidence administrati iin that the now president of the United States was surveilled at any time in any way full stop. Was there any formal apology made to britain . I think we just reiterated the fact we were simply reading media accounts. Do you regret making the allegations . No. I dont think we regret anything. We literally listed a litany of media reports that are in the public domain. Rupert murdochs tabloid, actually, over the weekend, said that napolitano must have gotten this story from a fake russian news site. Fantastic. So putin was trolling. Putin put this out. Yep. Napolitano, maybe somebody read the sun. Who knows. But murdochs site said that this was russian fake news. And so then they just pick it up. Its unbelievable. And if we are fake news, why are you quoting it, mr. President . If its so fake, why are you depending on it . Not to the camera. Here we go. Sorry. Fake news. David, fake news from a putin website and then through napolitano. Then sean spicer. And then donald trump. The british, to use a british phrase, are gob struck. Yes. They arent the only ones. Over the weekend to a british official, it takes a lot to ruffle british official. They are famous for the no comment, i cant confirm or deny. In this case, that went out the window. The reason why is that people at number ten and people in the intelligence agencies in britain felt that if they let this stand without a comment, it would get embedded in this right wing narrative that spins in america and around the world that the gchq British Intelligence are plotting against donald trump and felt this if he didnt immediately come out with a statement that might persist. This is as important partner the United States has. There is one other. There is one other. Great britain and germany. Oh, yes, germany. Gene robinson. That went well. First of all, donald trump refuses to shake Angela Merkels hand which wasout astounding. Amazing. It was outrageous when she asked. Media was asking. You have the German Defense minute ser have to come out yesterday saying donald trump is dead wrong. By the way, its embarrassing that donald trump tweeted out something that showed his complete absolute ignorance of how nato works. There is no big bank account that leprechauns guard at the bottom of the swiss alps that say nato do. They are talking about the 2 of their Defense Department and despite of what they heard. Dah, dah, dah. Lets go to the next ones. It does not work that way. No. A third grader would understand it doesnt work that way. Defense minister is having to correct our president is so ignorant about nato that he tweets something out that makes him look like a fool. Here is the most experienced and important head of state of europe, right . Angela merkel, you know, runs one of the worlds biggest economy and is so key in the whole relationship between europe and russia, the whole immigration crisis. Everything. One of the most important leaders in the world and donald trump waits until she comes to insult her grievasly and insult germany with absolute falsehood. Its just amazing. How can you do that . Well, i think there is a lot of problems here. Number one, a certain president should stop quoting the news if he thinks its fake because he is actually debunking himself. And he is resting an entire premise on something that now he considers a fake news media. Secondly his Approval Rating is going down. Joe, how do these numbers look compared to past president s . Hes at 37 . Is that bad . Lower than president obama ever was. Look. The lines here are the most important thing. Im serious. If you look up, i would guess the high point was around the time of his speech. Right after his speech, he started making up things about barack obama tapping him. Look at the numbers going down. They go up for just a little bit. And then, mark halpern, he starts in attacking Great Britain lying about Great Britain, lying about our closest ally. Then he refuses to shake merkels hand. Then he has to be corrected by the German Defense minister on nato. And those numbers are going straight down unless youre looking at the disapproval. If judge gorsuch looks like he is going to confirmation i think that would help the president s standing with conservatives and a lot of people in the country. Health care is kind of a doubleedged sword. If it fails, a bill that is currently has a lot of questions about it going down, that would be a double loss, a bill and a political defeat and controversial bill. If he passes it, though, and if they can give the country a good eyed i think he can help his numbers. I think its the biggest weak in the president asend sta he loses no matter what happens. That is a problem an certainly his Approval Ratings in the United States of america is going down. He is losing his popularity face. David ignatius, im going to ask you go out on a limb here. In germany and britain, what are the leaders bringing home as stories from abroad after their trip to the u. S. Or their interactions with the u. S. , accusations from the u. S. . Donald trump has succeeded in what may have been a goal which is destabilize the alignment, the traditional liberal International Order that he inherited which steve bannon at least thinks is negative to american interests. I just want to say one thing in his defense. On this issue with germany of defense spending, it is a fact that germany spends significantly less than we do, less than half of what the u. S. Spends, and that it should spend more and that trump is right about that. Germany spends 1. 2 of its and the goal is 2 and they dont need it. We are spending 3 . On that issue, if trump, you know, alienating germans and get germany to face up to spend more, i think we should give him credit for that. Rare moment of speaking up for trump but i think on that one, he is basically right. We will see. He could at least actually explain it correctly to the American People in 140 characters instead of acting, bob costa, like there is a pot of gold. Is there a larger context, though. Since world war ii, generally speaking, the world has believed its okay if european nations are not spending huge sums of money to arm themselves because that, in t past, has not worked out that well. That is a larger context. Bob costa, the people that voted for donald trump, i certainly remember this is one of the things that barney frank and i, one of the few things we always agreed on which was its not 1945. We are well past world war ii. And at some point these largest economies in the world we are competing with they need to contribute more to their own defense. The United States has no responsibility to carry them on our shoulders for the next 100 years. Trump did tap into that correctly and that certainly is, if people are just looking at the headlines and seeing that trump is knocking germany, even if he has all of the facts wrong, is probably playing well if some of his districts, doesnt it . It may. I think what we are seeing with President Trumps Foreign Policy and evolving project and its an unanswered question in many respect. You think about the campaign, joe, that you and i covered. It was very unclear that he it was clear he had these instincts but it wasnt until august and september of 2016 when bannon comes on as trump Start Talking about these on things about there is no global flag and using terms like globalism. For the most part he has latched on to bannonism and he is connected with nigel and how long this lasts and trump has it as a core of his defining part of his presidency. We will have to see. Robert, how does that play out . In talking about the crowd stepping in and that is including suddenly leaders from across the globe understanding that the protectionists are no longer the people, the call, if you want to get moving on a trade deal that you call gary cohen and Jared Kushner. That has changed past couple of weeks, hasnt it . We see with secretary of state tillerson who is out of the picture, at least for now. Youre right, joe. Kushner has become a shadow secretary of state and you looked at that picture of merkel visiting the white house. You saw dina powell, the new National Security adviser, sitting just a couple of seats away from the president. Is this presidency going to go in the kushner palkoen direction more george w. Bush in style in thinking about the world in terms ever being engaged with Global Affairs . Or will it move continually as it has been in this bannon direction some this is a choice the president himself has to make and he hasnt fully articulated where he want to go. The first votes on repealing and replacing bill clinton could be thursday but major hangups with Republican Leaders and right wing house members. Senator ted cruz went to maralago this week with mike lee and mark meadows to hash out differences. Before the president went to florida for the weekend he met with Republican House members and said that negotiations were moving along nicely. It was an amazing meeting because they were all nos, would you say, mike . They were all nos or pretty much no. And after 15 minutes. Now in all a fairness its not 15 minutes after four or five days but after 15 minutes, they went from no to all yess. Its a great plan. And or i wouldnt be involved with it. I wouldnt be involved. We have 12 nos and we have rejiggered it and we have done some great things. But the nos in every single case went to a yes. Its dying. Its just about on its last legs. If we did nothing, if we did absolutely nothing, obamacare is dead. It will fail. Before we move on, the cbo was even disputing that now. That if nothing is done, obamacare would die. Renks remain with the House Freedom caucus tweeting their members still oppose the bill in its current form. Lets stop there. Our new hero is shep smith. The House Freedom caucus still opposes the bill even though donald trump said he convinced them all. They all came in. He sprinkled magic pixie dust on all of them. They all said at the same time we will all vote for this bill. We heard the trump talk to right wring legislators this weekend. Lefting legislators will never vote for this bill. It is up to the republicans. We are looking at the house right now. But i dont see how this passes the senate. Its a threestep process. I think they are going to get close to the votes they have. I think they are going to vote with the majority 216 in hand but if they pass the house they have to make substantial changes in the senate. If you make substantial changes in the senate, you lose ted cruz. If you get too moderate. You lose at least four to five republicans if you keep it conservative. Youre not going to get Susan Collins, youre on not going to get Lindsey Graham or john mccain. Youre not going to get a lot of the i think they will change it to get the moderates. When they go to the house members and say this is your last chance. They dont need ted cruz to pass it. This is not between the house and the senate as far as im concerned. Im assuming since the house is a dictatorship they will pass it in the house. In the senate, again, the more you work to get your conservative members. They are not going to move it that way. They may lose cruz and get Susan Collins if they get the bill out of the house they will so if they lose ted cruz they can only lose one more member. I think they could lose cruz and rand paul but they may get them. In the end their strongest argument this is the vehicle to get rid of the Affordable Care act. You may not think the bill replacing it is perfect. You think it will pass. A long way to go. I remember 2009 and president obama jamming through a bill about which there was not yet consensus in the country. People hadnt read it. I think we are still struggling with the aftermath of that. If trump makes that same mistake, we are going to head into 2018 with a big problem for republicans. There is not yet consensus on they are. Absolutely. They want to mahe mistake. Im serious. Much more quickly tn barack obama made the mistake. Never be in a hurry to make a mistake. That is something a french general said. Dont be in a hurry to own the Health Care Issue and try to do something about it. That is just this is going to be again, its staggering. This is the second time, gene, you have a president who, instead of reaching across the aisle and saying this would have been the easiest call to make. Listen. Obamacare is in trouble. We can debate whether it dies in a year or three years. But three out of five states only one insurer. Its monopoly. Your people dont like it and our people dont like it. Lets sit down around this table and figure out how to get this done. He could have done that if he had started with infrastructure and tax reform or gone to red reform. But he didnt do that. And now youre going to have a bill that even if it does pass, will be overturned the first month becomes take control. Look. Trump is at 37 . Right . I think he made the same calculation that barack obama made which is if im ever going to do health care, i got to do it now. Yep. And its true. Maybe trump gets it through but if trump gets it through the Republican Party is going to pay for it and i think trump will pay for it. I just cant believe they are not hearing those town hall meetings. That along with the president who doesnt seem to be able to keep his word and is getting himself into trouble on a number of levels. Can you imagine the 30second commercial . You had barack obama saying if you want your health care you can keep your health care . Obviously, false. Obviously, horrible. Wrapped around democrats neck, thrown to the bottom of the political ocean and they get destroyed in 10 and 14. If im a democrat im going to have donald trump saying everybody is going to be covered and go for a white coal miner in West Virginia that lost. Absolutely. Its going to be cheaper and then im going to go to hispanic in arizona who voted for trump and actually is spending more money. I cannot think of a stronger 30second ad to destroy the republican mantle than the one that the republican majority and donald trump riches with material. The democrats thought obamacare would be popular right away. They were wrong about that. The republicans know that they are not going to be popular right away. A lot of them are willing to take the risk and vote for it because they think its better policy. The president has to decide if he wants to take that risk for his party or himself. If he does, say goodbye to wisconsin and michigan and say goodbye to pennsylvania. Still ahead, between the middle east and africa and north korea the world has enough problems without picking fights with our allies. Former cia director and secretary of defense leon panetta joins us live. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. Kevin, meet your father. 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Now im mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter. Why dont you sit over here. Something for everyone is awesome. Find your awesome with the Xfinity Stream app. More to stream to every screen. So mika, somebody on the set whet break said things are screwed up right now that even leon panetta could not fix that and everybody laughed because he could fix anything. Panetta can fix it. He can fix anything but its getting bad. Lets call panetta. Joining us now is former secretary of defense and former director of the california, lee on panetta and cochair of the Bipartisan Task force on defense personnel that will be releasing new reporting this morning on how to reform the militarys personnel system. We will get to that in a moment. Mr. Secretary, where do we stand right now with President Trumps accusation about the wiretapping . Is there any shadow of a doubt . Any possibility, any way, obama could have tapped trump tower in any way . I dont think theres any evidence at all to substantiate that and i would not be surprised if director comey, today, basically says as much and, you know, we have both the house Intelligence Committee, the senate Intelligence Committee, both republicans and democrats who are saying there is absolutely no evidence. So i dont think there is any evidence here and i think the president frankly ought to acknowledge that a mistake was made, apologize to president obama and move on. Move on. Hes got too many other issues to deal with. He appeared to try to lump it on the british and his staff is doubling down on it. That really leads to a followup which is talk about the impact of insulting the australians early, a country who fought with us in every war over the past century, the british this weekend, the germans. Did he lie about the british . What is the impact on this country . What are you concerned about and how do we, as a nation, unwind this as we move forward . Look. We are dealing with a world in which there are a lot of flash points and a lot of threats. The only way we are going to deal with the threats that confront us around the world is through our alliances with our friends, whether its nato, whether its britain, whether its australia. Whether its other countries that are important to our ability to confront these National Security issues. And the motherinlaw the president angers our closest allies, the more he weakens our ability to deal with the threats that we are facing in the world. Its that simple. David ignatius . Mr. Secretary, you famously were the person who came into the Clinton White house, disorganized and confused the white house and found a way to discipline bill clinton so he had more effective presidency. Lets imagine. I know its unlikely. But imagine that donald trump asked you to come in and give him some advice about how to be a more effective president with all this chaos. What would you tell him . Well, he probably wouldnt want to hear anything that i said. But the first thing is get rid of that tweeting capability and really rely on speaking on issues where he has backup from a white house staff. Secondly, there are too many points of power in thehite house staff right now. Too many cpeting areas within the white house. Im a believer that you only have one chief of staff and that the chief of staff should be responsible for handling the other staffs. I dont like people wandering around the white house who have no speck, no specific responsibilities. They wind up going to meetings and talk but they really dont have any responsibility. That is part of the problem i faced when i became chief of staff to bill clinton. I think hes got hes got to focus on Better Organization within the white house so that it gives him the support he needs as president. Mr. Secretary, does the United States have a realistic military option to deal with the north korea missile and Nuclear Programs . Well, we, obviously, have lots of options. We have developed a number of plans to deal with threats from north korea. But the reality is that every one of those options does not provide, you know, what i would call acceptable risks at this point. So i think we need to have a good defense. We need to develop those options, but we need to use them, frankly, to push both china and north korea to negotiations. I think ultimately that is the only way we are going to resolve this issue. Gene robinson . Mr. Panetta, have you seen any signs of sort between President Trump and the Intelligence Community, or is that still a difficult relationship . Well, you know, gene, i think the wrun thing that he has done is he has appointed a pretty good National Security team with jim mattis and pompeo at the cia. And, you know, the new director of National Intelligence is also very good. My understanding is that director pompeo is actually having access into the oval office to provide briefings to President Trump and im hoping that they are beginning to repair that relationship. A president s first duty is protect the country and very frankly, he cannot protect the country without getting good intelligence. Mr. Secretary, the past 10 to 15 years protecting the country requires a lot of our men and women in uniform, maybe go out 10, 11, 12, even 15 times on tours. Its unlike anything that we have seen in our lifetimes. So what has your committee, what has your panel, what conclusions have you drawn . What recommendations are you all going to be making today to make our Defense System more flexible for the personnel who protect us . Well, that is why we came together with the Bipartisan Policy Center with this commission, to look at our personnel system. You know, look. We have got the best fighting men and women in the world. But they are backed up by a personnel system that goes back seven years and its outdated. It was developed in order to deal with the soviet union and the potential of a land war in europe. And the problem is we are in 2017. We are in the 21st century. We are dealing with multiple threats. We are dealing with the need for counterterrorism, fo cybercapability and for the ability to use unmanned systems, for the ability to have language capabilities. Those are the needs that we have in the 21st century. And very frankly we are not retaining people that have to have those skills. So what we are saying is lets reach out to develop that kind of skill base that is absolutely essential to a military in the 21st century. All right. Mr. Secretary, thank you so much. Leon panetta, we greatly appreciate it. Still ahead on morning joe the big difference between television and working on newspapers is that here, you got to get people to like you or you wont get paid. Well, walter cronkite. The man goes a quarter century doing Television News and he never makes an enemy. I come out of newspapers, all we do is make enemies. So some call it slander. I call it getting paid. My gosh. That is fantastic. That was renowned newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin hosting saturday night live back in 1986. He passed away yesterday. We will show you how a newspaper columnist grew so much to host saturday night live. 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,to gustavo, happy. Etter coffee 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. 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Together, we are perfectly balanced. Our senses awake. Our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say. If you love something set it free. See you around, giulia what with you . Are you really serious . Do you really want to be the City Council President . Ill tell you how serious this is. I sat down with a list of people who were running the office of president of the city council. And had tremendous nausea overcame me. Not so much from them but i fear victory very much. The question is are they serious . That was newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin in his campaign for new york city City Council President in 1969. He past away yesterday at the age of 88. Joining us is Mike Barnicle with more on the breslin legacy. Mike . Well, mika, he was a columnist of the ages. There was never one like him before really and there will never be another one like him again. That is not really hyperbole. What he did for american newspapers was miraculous. He got people to read them when newspapers thrived. Everyone knows the newspaper business is in difficult shape today financially. But every day you would pick up the paper, especially the old New York Herald tribune which i first started reading Jimmy Breslin. It was like reading a fine novel in 900 words. The electricity of the thought. Just his reporting was remarkable and his writing skill was incredible. And his demeanor, i mean, he ended up hosting saturday night live. This is not a shy guy. How would you describe him . You know, first of all, true description i cant give you it to you this morning because of the profanity would get us off the air. Right. But he was a man a many emotions. He was blunt. He was to the point. He was funny. He was observant. He was really emotional. You could come awa thinking that you had just met a guy who just had no interest in you or what you were doing. But if you were in difficulty, if you got in trouble, if you were ill, jimmy would be there for you. He was a very compassionate guy. He was what life is all about. A huge roller coaster of emotions. Compassionate to also, at times, angry. Sure. But the anger was directed and readers benefited from the anger because injustice angered him. Racism angered him. Double standard and hypocrisy angered him and he would write about them and write about them from sidewalk level. He would climb the stairs and knock on the doors and what color was the persons eyes . And what expression did the person wear . And what happened to that person, he would report it in fine detail, just incredible detail the next morning in the newspaper. And the word yesterday almost always appeared in Jimmy Breslins columns and that art is rapidly disappearing in newspapers. Mike, this is gene. So this is a loaded question. What do you think is a ratio of time he spent in the Office Versus out on the street . And do you think that might have something to do with the disappearance or the virtual disappearance of his style of column . Boy gene, you must work for a newspaper. You must have been in newspapers all your life to ask that question. Because you know, better than most, nothing ever happens in a newsroom. You have to get out of the office. You cant do it on the telephone. You have to knock on that door. You have to walk down the street. You have to go into the variety store. You have to be there at the crime scene. You have to talk to the cops. You have to witness things visually and then report them in the newspaper the next day. And gene, as you just suggested, and its sadly true, thatrt and that technique, thats disappearing in newspapers today. First of all, there are diminishing number of big city columnists. Steve lopez in new york and mike daily still does it on the daily beast. All of us writing in newspapers, a great line in the times about the mate mike mackally who was a gifted columnist. Nis editor once told him youre suffering from breslinitis and youll never get over it. That was a good thing. We lost another legend, a guy that mastered the english language in his own form. Gene, we talked about him earlier. Youre with us now. I was always we were talking about chuck berry and i love music more than anything else. The debates, whenever the debates went back to the 50s and you can call elvis the king of rock n roll if you want to but he was the icon. Chuck berry invented the form. As new York Magazine said he came up with the idea of rock n roll. Everything you hear in beach boys songs came straight from the dna of chuck berrys music. Anything you hear in the beatle you have chuck berryeverything. The chords, the rhythm, the spirit. The joy. He invented rock n roll as far as im concerned, he was rock n roll. He is the source. They all vary explicitly stole it from chuck berry. Yeah. The beach boys, again, they werent ashamed of it. Tribute to the beach boys and beatles just lifted it straight from chuck berry songs. It wasnt other artists in the 60s. Chuck berry used to write music reviews all different kind of bands and punk rock and country rock. He said everything came from what he was doing. Rhythm and blues and rock sensibility he cultivated. A rock sensibility. He added in every Great American music form from blues to Country Music, to rock n roll. You look at its Pretty Amazing to think about it this weekend. David ignatius, you can take what chuck berry did from 1955 to 1959, what buddy holly did from maybe 57 to 59. Those two guys changed western music. In those three years. They not only changed western music, they created the Youth Culture that we have lived in now for the past 50, 60 years. Something amazing happened to measure in the late 1950s and 60s. Chuck berry probably got it started the way the beatles from england picked it up and brought it to america. Listen to the beatles sing roll over beethoven. You see a country coming together. What i always love about rock n roll. It made one america the music of the trump edge, not sure but we could use more chuck berry. The great quotes about chuck berry this past weekend. John lonnen said if rock n roll had to be given another name, they would call it chuck berry. George thorogood always ask why i dont write rock n roll songs . Chuck berry wrote them all. Bruce springsteen talked about the impact chuck berry had on him. And bob dylan calls him the shakespeare of rock n roll. You can tell a lot about a person by their handshake. Yes, you can. I have one story about one president but we will save that one. In this case, lack of a handshake. Up ahead, the president s moment with Angela Merkel. Plus another political battle comes off the back burner today as the confirmation hearings begin for neil gorsuch. Senator chris coons joins us ahead on morning joe. music plays heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho its off to work we go heres to all of you early risers, whats up man . Gogetters, and shouldbe sleepers. From all of us at delta, because the ones who truly change the world, are the ones who cant wait to get out in it. Because the ones who truly change the world, knows how it feels to seeetes your numbers go up, despite your best efforts. But what if you could turn things around . What if you could love your numbers . Discover oncedaily invokana®. Its the 1 prescribed sglt2 inhibitor that works to lower a1c. Invokana® is a pill used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. And in most clinical trials, the majority reached an a1c goal of 7 percent or lower. 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Using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Its time to turn things around. Lower your blood sugar with invokana®. Imagine loving your numbers. Theres only one invokana®. Ask your doctor about it by name. Start here. At fidelity, we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your Retirement Plan, youll always be absolutely. Clear. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. As far as wiretapping, i guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps. The look you knee look as they say in flesh. She gave him that look. David ignatius. No. No. I just i find it spectacularly clumsy, sho shortsided. Buffoon li . Some say stupid to not shake the hand of your most important ally in europe. They say he didnt hear it. It wasnt just her saying would you like to do a handshake. But everybody else was asking for it. It is, obviously, rude but what is American Power . American power is the network of alliances that we have around the world that have been built up over more than 50 years. Right. That give us strength. Its not just our enormous military as powerful as that is. Its the network of a shared power. You dont dis a dealkey ally. What could happen in that moment . What happened . Why wouldnt he shake her hand . . Why do you think he refused to shake her hand . The same reason he made the tweet to stick it to germany. I dont think he thinks that hard. He doesnt want to go back to steve bannon and say sorry, i wasnt tough enough on germany, maybe next time. Bannon will get mad at him . Does he think his base sits around all day thinking about Angela Merkel . They dont. I have a different hypothesis. I think hes thinking about what hes going to eat for dinner. I dont think hes even there, honestly. I think he has a. D. D. Or something and hes not there. He was out of it. It was calculated for a reason. You know a germaphobe or what . Its not for the sake of nato, its for the sake of us. The alliances are for the sake of other countries. We are selfish people when we need to be. Its protesting american interest. I always talk about you know, 1979, i was in high school. That was my first impression, i will always loathe iran. I just will. But you know what . After 9 11, who was it that was working with the United States first of all, who went out into the streets and held a candle light vigil for us . Secondly, who was it that worked with us to help us go after al qaeda in afghanistan . Who was it . I have been with germans, you know it was iran. In the most remote areas of afghanistan, germans special forces taking the fight to our enemies. I remember being in paris in 9 11, the headline was, we are all americans now. That is what we are in danger of losing. Even the iranians, we depended on them to help us with intel against al qaeda. You never know where you need the help. The idea donald trump has that somehow we are doing the world a favor is so ignorant. You dont blow off your allies and potential allies. Chris coons of delaware. Senator, busy day today. Lets start with the Judiciary Committee. Lindsey graham angered fbi director james comey for saying hes not going to testify publicly about whether donald trump had his phones tapped from barack obama. Do you think you are going to get comey, today, telling you the truth about that . I think theres going to be forthcoming testimony. The Judiciary Committee is exclusively focused on the gorsuch confirmation hearing. The Intelligence Committee, the house and Senate Continue moving forward on this. Joe, to your point about the president and Angela Merkel, theres head scratching moments that he repeated his accusation that he had been inappropriately surveilled by the previous president. It was one of those confounding moments. Why he keeps repeating it is beyond me. I hope the fbi director will put it to bed for once and for all. What steps can democrats make to learn more rather than just talking to director comey . Insisting on subpoenas. Republicans and democrats can make sure that they have gotten all the information. Are you going to get cooperation from chair member . I cant predict that. Im encouraged by what im hearing from members of the Intel Committee. Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley insisted on holding, mong ahead with the number two for the Justice Department until comey came forward. I think we will get cooperation from them because we have republicans willing to work with us to make sure we get to the bottom of it. Its in the best interest of the country. Is it anyway possible, David Ignatius, this is actually, this whole lie that was know loaded on to britain and judge napolitano, a fox news commentator and different layers of what appears to be a lie, could it be seen as a massive effort to undermine the media, basing information on fake news and then calling the news media who covers it fake news . I think it blurs the central questions for sure. There are still mysteries here. Is it possible there was incidental collection that caught up people around trump . Thats one of the things thats not barack obama wiretapping. On the specific accusation by the new president against his predecessor, you wiretapped me, which is so vivid. In four tweets, not just one with a quote. Sth that appears to be dead wrong. Its important for the credibility of the president and the United States as a country that be rolled back. If today we get the evidence from comey and he says it didnt happen, its important for the president to acknowledge that. Have we learned anything, senator, about how the president is receiving information . You are a member of the senate and plugged into the issues. People must be wondering is it just the daily intelligence briefing or news information he is picking up on the web . How is he getting information . He is the leader of the free world. Theres a pattern where his 6 00 a. M. Tweets or outrageous tweets are based on cable news sources and not well sourced cable news reporting. Thats whats concerning. As he, frankly, continues to lead our country in important challenges, whether againls north korea or sustaining nato allies, its important that he focus on reliable sources of information, not those that feed into a conspiracy view. He is choosing his sources. Yeah. He didnt make a mistake. Yeah. All right. Well, good luck. This was intentional. You have a busy day ahead of you today. We do. Thank you. Best of luck. Tomorrow on morning joe, our guests are going to be republican senator john cornyn. This morning, British Intelligence is displeased with the president s claim they spied on him and they are waiting for their apology. January brewer supporting donald trump for president and the Medicaid Expansion for her state while in office. She tells the a. P. Court, it weighs heavy on my heart thinking of the plan to repeal and replace the plan will gut that. How could that impact House Republicans on the Health Care Law . We are back in a moment to talk about that. Much more and korea with dad ignatius. Announcer get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. Its league night . saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico goin up the country. Bowl without me. Frank. im going to get nachos. Snack bars closed. Gah ah, ah ah. Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. I just had to push one button wto join. S thing is crazy. Its like im in the office with you, even though im here. Its almost like the Virtual Reality of business communications. No, its reality. Introducing intuitive, one touch video calling from vonage. Call now and get amazon chime at no additional cost. With e trades powerful trading tools, right at your fingertips, you have access to indepth analysis, level 2 data, and a team of experienced traders ready to help you if you need it. Its like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. Its your trade. E trade. Start trading day at etrade. Com frankly, unless you have compelling proof, i think the president , you know, president obama is owed an apology. If he didnt do it, we shouldnt be, you know, reckless in accusations. It never hurts to say youre sorry. You think the president should say im sorry . I think so. Not just the president but the uk for the claims or insummation that the uk was involved in this as well. I dont know the basis for President Trumps assertion and thats what i wish he would explain to us on the Intelligence Committee and to the American People. I do believe he owes us that explanation. Some republicans now saying the president should do something we rarely see, apologize. This, as fbi director, james comey is set to return to capitol hill to shed light on whether president obama called for spying on donald trump and whether donald trump colluded with russia. Meanwhile, the white house is refusing to apologize to the British Government after citing a report made by fox news last week that British Spy Agency gchq gchqs trump was, quote, crazy. Old on. Full stock, just crazy. Just crazy. Full stock. They told the bbc news, a complete lack of understanding how the relationship works between the Intel Community agencies. There was yet another tweet that had complete ignorance on how nato works when the president said while he had a good meeting with Angela Merkel, they still owe the United States and nato back dues. If he hasnt already made a fool of himself internationally, do you think maybe this puts it over the edge . Its a big morning and week here on capitol hill. We are here in washington. With us, we have columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius. Msnbc political analyst, robert costa and joining the conversation, New York Times reporter. Good to have you all on board. The president is seeing his approval numbers head in the wrong direction. The latest poll has Approval Rating at 37 . Thats a 58 disapproval. Look at that. A 17point swing in over a week. Before we go to the next graph, lets just look alt those numbers for a second. They are down. David ignatius, its a massive swing. A 17point swing over the past week. 37 approve. Thats h thats historically low for a president at this stage of his presidency. Look at the trend lines, there is no doubt that the lie he told about barack obama and his continued attempts to cover it. Wait, a lot of people say you shouldnt say th, be careful. Attempts to cover it up by attacking britain, by attacking germany and whomever, only seem to be making things worse for him. The American People want their president to be president ial. Donald trump was elected as a change agent. Yes, people do want change, but from somebody seen as a leader. Adam schiff, the Ranking Member at the hearing at the house Intelligence Committee said the president has been behaving as a wrecking ball. Yeah. A wrecking ball in terms of his statements about key foreign allies, in terms of repeated assertions that his predecessor did something illegal. That wrecking ball approach, i think is upsetting the country. Its the only way i can understand those numbers. Its one thing to be a wrecking ball against business as usual in washington, d. C. As with we found over the past two months, donald trump continues to pick fights with people he doesnt need to pick fights with. Well, ultimately, its selfdestructive. Thats a first. You pointed out at the top of the 6 00 hour, usually he does things, sometimes just utterly horrific or things that you could never support that we would find at this table terrible. He does things because they help him in some way. Whether devious or not. And we have several people that always come back. This is sedestructive. People say how could you be surprised that a president that pushed the birther theory, why are you surprised by what he is doing now . Because as horrific as we thought it was, cynically, he thought was in his best political interest and cynically and unfortunately for my Republican Party, he was right. 45 of republicans actually supported him in a large part because he stirred that pot up. Thats what he thought. So, him behaving badly prerepublican primary actually seemed to make sense for his political future, as disgusting as it was. Now, what he is doing is obviously not only hurting the country he is governing, and the presidency, but more importantly to him, its hurting him. This is selfdestructive behavior that is hard to explain. What are they saying inside the white house . As a reporter, you look at the target for today. Everyone is going to be focused on what director comey has to say. What im interested in is the reaction to the white house to whatever director comey has to say. Talk about political motivation and the things hes done over the years. How is he going to react if they dont like what they hear from director comey . Is he going to attack the fbi, the Justice Department . Its going to be very revealing this week about how he handles comey. We already heard the director of the fbi is going around the weekend after the obama tweet, trying to get the Justice Department to clarify. The question now is, will director comey clarify this . Thats obviously the question that everybody in washington wants to know. I think the idea and what robert is talking about is this idea that his reaction, theres messaging to the fact that the leader of the fbi is likely going to say there is no evidence. If he cant take that and say i have Bad Information and push off. Hes tripled down on it. He doesnt have to say i apologized, i came up with it, say i had Bad Information. Move on. He might not be able to move on might speak values about his personality. I dont know if he thinks this is not going to help him politically. In some ways, the fact he can do other stuff and get away with it and keep people talking about his personality and how he handles issues, not more subs dent things like cutting social programs or other stuff people arent talking about. This can help him politically. We are not talking about health care and how the republicans are trying to mess with the bill to make it palpable. In some ways, it is in his best interest. Maybe he does not like the job. I dont think he likes the job and maybe this is his way of getting out of it. He spends a lot of time at maralago. After criticizing barack obama for golfing, hes setting records of leaving the white house. Theres no reason his Approval Rating should not be at 50 . He should be having the honeymoon, if he played it start. If he just played it. Hes not doing it. 37 , that 37 could go up. But i tell you what, right now, this is a presidency on a razors edge. If he doesnt pass health care, if his budget goes up in smoke, that 37 could become 35, 34, 33. That would be pitiful. Secretary of state tillerson met with xi yesterday. In contrast to the rhetoric, secretary tillerson appeared more cordial. President xi thanked him for the relationship. The meeting follows a tweet from the president on friday where he said china has done little to help the ongoing situation with north korea. President xi is expected to meet with President Trump in the next couple months. Meanwhile, secretary tillerson is responding to criticism over the decision to travel with only one reporter on the trip. In an interview with the reporter from the independent review, tillerson said primarily its driven, believe it or not, we are trying to save money. Adding, im not a big media press access person. I personally dont need it. I understand its important to get the message of what we are doing out but theres only a purpose in getting the message out when theres something to be done. When we are ready to talk about it, i will be able to talk to people. Doing daily ability, i dont have the appetite or hunger to have a lot of things and quotes in the paper or be more visible with the media. One way to save money is perhaps stop traveling to maralago, living in new york and literally wasting the taxpayers dollars with that type of stuff. As a reporter that strikes me to read the quote from secretary tillerson. The state department is not exxon mobile. No. It is a public institution. Yeah. Part of the government. We need more access to this administration. We need to have more open windows and open doors. Whatever argument a cabinet official makes, they have the right to make that argument. One reporter on a major trip to asia is striking to have that situation. When he says i dont want more quotes and be available, the media is the American People. You are in a public office. You have someone, the people you are liable to are the American People. Its not just about having reporters on the trip to have them. Its allowing the American People to understand what they are paying for and understand what your job is. That is the difference between running a company and running the country. Yeah, this is not about him, but he is talking, a lot like an exxon mobile guy. I think people should want their secretary of state to be effective. A lot of what they do, they do in private, in confidential conversations with foreign leaders. I think its important that we learn, we the public, we the journalists to tell the public as soon as we can. I wish we had more reporters on that trip. But, right now, when its so sensitive, we are near military actiit nor korea. Its important for Rex Tillerson, our secretary of state to talk in confidence with the president of china. Its really important in terms of waiting the war, in terms of finding a pathway forward. If the secretary doesnt tell us a lot about what he said, i accept that for now. Are you comfortable with only one reporter . No, absolutely not. Talk about north korea. How serious has that situation become . In terms of north korean developments, they are racing to have a missile that can hit u. S. Territory tipped with a nuclear weapon. They are racing as fast as they can. Once they have that, this is going to be a much more dangerous confrontation. As bad as it is now, suppose they strike us with a nuclear weapon. Within the white house, at the pentagon, everybody i talk to says this is job one for us. When this administration came in, cif briefed them, said mr. President , members of the administration, this is the first crisis to deal with. They are dealing with it now. Thats what the tillerson trip is about. We are focused understandably on the hearings today. What are options . If china does not move . They are bad, bad and worse. But, thats what we heard about syria, bad, bad and worse. Six years later we are. We have an International Refugee crisis. We have to choose. You know, kissinger once said its never a choice between good and bad, its only worse. The only outcomes that are towards not quite so bad are the ones that involve china. China has leverage in north korea, the ability to help create a pathway toward change. If china does nut sng. Then they go down to the bad and worse and much worse. The military options are dangerous because seoul, a capitol of south korea is ringed by north korean missiles. The minute we take action, the missiles fall down. A lot of South Koreans lose their life. A tricky problem. Is there an option, though, for the United States to allow north korea to develop technology to have a Nuclear Missile to hit seattle, portland, San Francisco . President trump said it wont happen. I think Many Americans would agree with that sentiment. The north Korean Leader should have the ability to take out an American City and kill thousands of americans, i dont think thats acceptable to anyone. Its a problem where i think President Trump will have support for what he does and we should hope that in this phase he works on any diplomatic path. Is there reason to believe that china will stop north korea from developing that technology . So far, they havent. They took a stronger step than they ever have, which is several weeks ago to announce they will buy no more coal from north korea. Its a key cash cow. They said thats it, no more coal purchases. They refused to do that before. Thats just a start. Obviously, thats what tillerson is talking to the chinese about. Wow. Bob, what are you looking at today . Wla is the story on the hill . It is gorsuch or are all eyes on comey . I think you have all eyes on comey, for sure. Thats page one. Im keeping an eye on health care. Speaker ryan called the play. We are going to try to have the vote. The votes are likely there, but are they 100 there . I think the whip meetings on capitol hill, trump met with senator cruz and meadows of north carolina. They know this is also another part of his agenda on the razors edge. The freed caucus is saying the votes arent there. The republicans are the bigger group of conservatives in the house. Freedom caucus says the votes arent there. This is a test not only for President Trump, a test for speaker ryan. If they lose the 30 or 40 votes it doesnt pass, right . It doesnt pass. They have a vote internally where they decide whether they go in lock step or go their own way. If it goes in the latter direction, you can split the Freedom Caucus vote. What are you looking at today . Im looking at james comey. I think im looking at the fact hes going to have to answer this question that people, since the day of the election, before that, were waiting to ask and i think his answers on russia are going to be key. I think this wiretapping claim and the idea we are finally going to have someone to give us an actual answer answer this question. Does it put it to rest after comey . Does the buck stop at comey on the wiretapping . If the president says, you know what, i was wrong. Not even i was wrong, i expect i have Bad Information from fox news, this is why. Im going to put this away now. If he comes out and says, oh, no, i have this information and hes just being partisan, then we have a lot longer to go with the subject. Bob, he churned up news from a fake news site from russia that napolitano uses. Fox, the one network he doesnt call fake news, which is interesting because it might bring him down. I say even fox news, even, my friends at fox news came out and said, no, this is not true. Shep smith, hotty totty. He was amazing. He gets fake news churned out by napolitano and sean spicer reads it. The whole spicer story is an entire segment, by the way. Why he doesnt walk out the door, rip it up, forget it, im not doing it is beyond me. What everyone is trying to learn in the reporting industry is how is President Trump digesting information about serious National Security matters. Thats why i asked the question, what has he learned about who is helping the president understand these matters. Is it tillerson, bannon . Is words of breitbart, napolitano . He is watching fox news. Oh, god. When early in the morning which is fine, but he was given information from fox and friends and other cable news shows. Thats completely fine. But, you see though the impact when he gets news thats not filtered. Thats why saturday mornings were always dangerous, he didnt have his apparatus around him. On saturday mornings, he would see or read something and put it out. Again, no problem with him getting his information from fox and friends or new day or morning joe or the New York Post or the New York Times, but hes got to filter it. Call steven miller, they are saying this on fox and friends about x, is this true . Get the answer in five seconds. He has a good National Security team. Can they get to him . That is the question. Thats what they are talking ility amongst themselves. Howo we organize ourselves, work with the National Security adviser, mcmaster, excellent deputy, dena powell and begin to form an orderly policy process that helps the president. At the end of the day, the issue is does the president want that help. They need an intervention. Well, thats they have to do an intervention. An intervention . Yeah. But the person you are intervening with has to let you in the door. The problem is most interventions dont start that way. He set the system up. There is not one person that can walk in there. There are six people. They are all competing and vying for his attention and his support. So, one person, reince isnt going to step out while the other five step back. Jared is not going to step forward. Go all the way to article 25 . With that, we are going to thank you for being here. Mika, come on. No, im just saying. You gave the answer, Jared Kushner is the answer. I think he is. Thank you. Appreciate it. In the midst of this, confirmation hearing for judge gorsuch is coming up. For uber, the Company Built on an easy, smooth ride, another bump in the road with the president jeff jones resigning after six months on the job. Jones telling Tech Industry website, the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what i saw and experienced at uber. I can no longer continue as president of the ride sharing business. 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He outsourced the selection of his nominee to right wing conservative groups that are the foundation, the Federalist Society that are now preparing and rehearsing. So we have a couple things. Lets you said a lot there. The first thing you talked about is the president , and i agree completely, its been disturbing, one of the most disturbing things hes done, questioned the judiciary talking about socalled judges. Its dissipated a bit over the past month, but certainly concerning. Judge gorsuch, talking to you, did something extraordinary. He spoke out against the president who just nominated him, right . He thooz do that now before the committee so the American People can see it, not just Richard Blumenthal sitting in the privacy of his office. He talked about a litmus test. The president is a litmus test on guns, democratic president s have those litmus tests. Even with those litmus tests, for instance, ruth bader ginsburg, she got over 90 votes. Used to be republicans and democrats alike used to defer to the president. That stopped at some point. Why . It stopped because in this instance, donald trump has very explicitly established a litmus test on particular issues. It used to be that judges would be selected based on their intellect and integrity without a president saying will you be on this side of this issue or will you pass, for example, the litmus test on Womens Health care, roe v. Wade, guns, also workers safety and remember in th instance, donald trump boasted. Bill clinton never selected anybody who was prolife. Democratic president s, republicans always mess up and find people who, quote, grow on the court. Democrats are more effective. I cant name the last democratic nominee to the Supreme Court that was remotely prolife that wasnt an accident. If you take white, you can look at justices and i was a law clerk while byron write was there. He had a distinctly conservative view where i dont think president kennedy anticipated he would go there. Right. The growth of justices happen all the time, which is why every justice is so important when my colleagues say wait until the next one to make the fight. Every justice can be a swing vote and everyone can sway other votes. David ignatius, i wish along with my conservative brothers and sisters, just once they would grow more conservative. The growth always seems to go the other way. With kagan has stayed a solid person on both sides. Senator, i want to ask you about the question of the independence of the judiciary. You did get gorsuch to make some commts in private. Since then, President Trump has about breaking up the ninth circuit, which ruled against him on the travel ban case. Are you looking for an explicit statement from gorsuch rejecting talk of breaking up a court that disagrees with the president . I hope that he will be very explicit and direct. He has an obligation, not just because of that litmus test, but because during the campaign, donald trump said in june that he would be picking a justice based on a list and selection by the Federalist Society and the heritage foundation. They have taken positions and know what judge gorsuch thinks about breaking up the circuit that ruled against donald trump in that muslim ban case. He has to be very explicit and forthcoming now. If hes not explicit, will you vote for him . Out of the mainstream, i will vote against him and use every tool, including filibuster. By the way, its not just a matter of 60 votes to block a nominee. I think a nominee to the United States Supreme Court ought to be approved overwhelmingly, not by a razor thin margin. We are talking the highest court of the land, lifetime appointment. It is more than marble pillars and robes. Its the flesh imbodiment of american justice. Donald trump may treat it as a political institution, but it ought to be above politics. Senator Richard Blumenthal, thank you. Great to have you here. Still ahead, David Ignatius, amsterdam, the opera and donald trump. We are going to connect the dots for you between all of those things, comi up on morning joe. Look closely. Hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. The microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn countless points of data into insights that transform their business and will enhance the game for players and fans. The microsoft cloud turns information into insight. If you have moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis isnt it time to let the real you shine through . Introducing otezla, apremilast. Otezla is not an injection, or a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. Some people who took otezla saw 75 clearer skin after 4 months. And otezlas prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. 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Im not going there to fall in the canal, i hope i wont. Believe it or not, im going for the world premier of an opera. Oh, my gosh. Your morning joe friend is going to be wearing a tuxedo friday night as the Dutch National opera. Very cool. David well see, they may take me from the theater and throw me into the canal. Whats the connection to trump . You cant write about it in themes with the philosophy withou thinking about donald trump and truth and politics and governance. To know what i think about this, you have to come to amsterdam. No, we need to play some of that. When is it . The premier is friday. The opera is written by mohammed, a wonderful composer. I invite people to somehow have this streamed. Morning joes to a vendor near you. We would love to stream it. Joining us now, republican congressman, greg of oregon, the chairman of house, energy and commerce. What a small, small world, greg did the exact same thing a year ago. Daytoday on capitol hill behind us. Packed events. Lets start with jim comey. Are you expecting to hear theres no evidence about barack obama tapped trump tower . I have no idea. I have been focused on the health care. So far, what we have heard is theres no evidence. Tom cole and congressman herd said if theres no evidence, the president should apologize. Do you agree with them . Thats up to the president to decide how to handle it. I have a journalism degree. I believe in the truth and getting it out there and letting people decide. Lets talk about the Health Care Bill. Right now, theres a tug of war going on between republicans, not only the house and the senate, how it usually is, but members of the house. Is the president going to have enough votes if it comes up on thursday . I think he will. It will come up on thursday. We are finishing up work on it. We worked on it over the weekend. As you know, the president was engaged on the weekend. There were people going down. Hes been working hes the closer. He knows how to put it together. Hes got great negotiating skills. We are coming together with it. We are adjusting things that came out of cbo. We looked at what they say. How do we fix this and where do we adjust . You made changes on medicaid. If the bill passes in the house because of the changes you made, win over members of the Freedom Caucus, will those changes survive in the senate if theres reconciliation . I think its bigger than that. We have been working with every element of the republican. The tuesday group and everybody to get a package that works for americans. Insurance markets are collapsing. States are begging for more authority and flexibility on the medicaid side. We are working with all these groups to find something to pass. Medicaid has been added on. The tweaks that have been made, will those remain if it goes to the senate . You know, i think they will. I briefed the republican senators a couple times as kevin brady, who chairs the ways and means committee. I think we are getting their feedback and incorporating that as well. We had aouple senators a maralago meeting with the president. Everybody is trying to get this done. I think we are in a very good place. Congressman, top physician runs one of the nations great clinics said to me several days ago, we may be losing sight of the issue on health care, how to lower the cost that we are paying as a country for health care and improve the quality of what we are getting. I want to ask you, are you confident your bill, the house bill is the pathway of getting there . If not, what does it need . Its a good question. This is part of the overall plan. Remember, dr. Price now head of hhs, health and Human Services has 1400 delegated authorities where he could help lower cost and fix the market and the legislative process. We are going to take on medical liability reform. We are going to take on Association Health plans, buying insurance across state lines. They constitute a greater package than this one bill. To look at this one bill in isolation is not to look at the overall project. Its like looking at a construction project where they poured the foundation and thinking the house is done. Its not. We have a lot of work to do. So, the president promised during the campaign all americans would be covered. Promised that it would be cheaper, they would have better coverage. Is it safe to say all those promises are not fulfilled by this bill . This bill in isolation doesnt do everything, correct. Thats what i just said. What we have though, is a big opportunity to get it right. Last year, 225 counties in america where you only have one insurance option on the exchange. Five states where people have one option. As you talk to the insurers that are left, we are seeing big rate increases coming and we may exit the market. We are trying to fix that. We are trying to get the medicaid piece right, get it back to the states and make sure that people are covered. If you are on medicaid today, you will be tomorrow, the next day, the next year. We are not taking it away from anybody who is on it today. More on this. Congressman walden, thank you. Always good to see ya. Yep. President trump blows up the International Trade game. Well get a live report on how hes reshaping free trade with the g20. Safety isnt a list of boxes to check. Its taking the best technologies out there and adapting them to work for you. The ultrasound that can see inside patients, can also detect early signs of corrosion at our refineries. Hightech military cameras that see through walls, can inspect our pipelines to prevent leaks. Remotecontrolled aircraft, can help us identify potential problems and stop them in their tracks. At bp, safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced. Our senses awake. Our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say. If you love something set it free. See you around, giulia you didnt know we had over 26,000 local activities listed on our app. Or that you could book them right from your phone. A few weeks ago, you still didnt know if you were gonna go. Now the only thing you dont know, is why it took you so long to come here. Expedia. Everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. Lets bring in cnbcs saraizen at the stock change. Uber, Key Executives now, the president quit. What happened . The headlines go from bad to worsfor uber. This is the mos high profile and most Senior Executive to leave uber. His name is jeff jones, the president of the ride company. Six months on the job. Hard to understand why he left. Travis, the founder of uber wrote an internal memo to employees saying he made the decision after he said he was looking for a coo. Jones own statement quoted by a number of news agencies, more damming saying his values did not match up with what he was experiencing at uber. This is a big deal because its the back of allegations of Sexual Harassment to uber admitting they used a fake app to circumvent Law Enforcement and regulations. Uber is struggling. Its a private company, but it is a big deal because it is the largest, highest valued private company just under 70 billion. It has been a string of pr nightmares. I wanted to bring you up to speed on a trade spat that is developing in the international community. Finance ministers from g20, the worlds 20 leading nations got together in germany and clearly President Trump is having an impact. He sent the treasury secretary steven mnuchin. The document that came out of the meeting, this symbolic statement of unity changed to take out the promise to refrain from protectionist measures. This is a nod to President Trump promising his voters he is going to be tougher and get fairer trade for the United States. You have countries on the other side, like germany and japan pushing for free trade and the merits of open trade to contribute to economic growth. Clearly, President Trump is havingn impact and leading to a bit of a split of rift in the global negotiations. It is symbolic, as i mentioned. It will be interesting to see whether it opens the door to start with tariffs or rules or enforcement. Sara, thank you so much. Thank you. Joining us now, former defense official and former executive director of the wmd commission and msnbc analyst, dr. Evelyn far kus. Good to have you on board. How significant is taking out the promise of freeing up the markets . Oh, my gosh, its earth shattering. Its funny. They are usually very boring things, nobody pays attention to them. Its a sign of something that has so taken for granted. The reason you have the meetings is so you are not a protectionist. They are changing the fundmental agreement, the reason you have the meetings. Are foreign leaders you talk to diplomats, it seems to me there was thought that hey, maybe we can factor in the tweets, ignore that and see what he does instead of what he says. Are we moving beyond that now . We are getting close. Very telling moment after this awkward visit from chancellor merkel to washington. Trump saying merkel told us things about german economic. She met with shinzo abe of japan and they talked about the importance of free trade, the trade that makes each country more prosperous. Thats the way we always looked at this. I think for good reason. What we are seeing internationally is what steve bannon speaks of as deconstruction, an established global order that has lasted since world war ii is piece by piece being taken down. This is important, i think, as evelyn said because its an example of that. I picked up two pieces of reporting. One, the commerce secretary is moving forward with executive orders on trade this week. Hes really been winning the argument inside the white house to move in this direction, working with, in part, mnuchin and learning gary cohen, the economic adviser for President Trump is more of an academic populous type. This is a key debate in the the west wing, go with cohen or navarro. I read cohen is winning that battle. Is that what you are hearing . Its a muttle. Bannon is in part of the mix and kushner, too. Trump has instincts, but how it gets flushed out in policy remains an open debate. What is the impact if we root for the policies . What is the impact to americans in red state america . I think, first of all, the price of goods will increase. Obviously trade and goods. Especially when people go to walmart and costco or wherever they go its going to cost more. Across the oceans, people arent going to interested in buying american ods. They are going to retaliate ainst us. If we take protectionist measures, it will be more expensive for others to buy our goods. Is that a tax on American Consumers . In effect, yes. Everything from diapers to, you name it. Yes, also a political impact. It gets back to some of the things you were discussing about the meeting with Angela Merkel. What is the u. S. Approach to the world . We are going to wall ourselves off. The world is going to have a reaction to that. It may be one we dont like very much. They may team up against us. Theres a shortsightedness. Everything from diapers to automobiles to steel. You name it, david. The price is for everything go up. This is an economy that was great for consumers because they got low cost products. Labor Union Leaders would say yeah, but there were costs for workers because they were made overseas. Theres no question that there are imbalances in the global economy. It buys more than it sells abroad. Trump is saying that needs to change. I dont think any serious economist would disagree with that. The question is how you do it without blowing up the system that, in the end, is our fantastic global capitalist. In what countries are getting or taking advantage of the United States . In terms of trade, germany is able to export goods with a euro that is much cheaper than the German Economy itself. China, not recently, but for many years had an artificially low Exchange Rate that allowed it to sell goods very cheap. These are issues that many president s have worried about. The fear, i think, is taking a sledgehammer approach and the damage it will do. Its not the basic issue of imbalance is wrong, its that you dont want to go after it with a sledgehammer. Evelyn, how important should director comeys comments be today . Absolutely important. Demonstrate to the American People, clearly as they did in the january 6 report, but orally, russia attacked the United States, russia attacked our democracy. I think there needs to be intervention. Its a huge day. Its a huge week in washington. Neil gorsuch hearings get under way. Comey heads to capitol hill and whether the president ordered spying on his successor. The republican Health Care Bill hangs in the balance as they steam roll toward a vote this thursday. Its going to be a big day. Just on a personal note, good friend of mine passed away last week, blaze adams from pensacola. He and patrice and their family have been friends of our family for years. Forever. It was a tragedy. He was a standup guy, the establishment guy. He was the banker. Everybody knew him and everybody loved him. When i first ran for Congress Nobody wanted to be around me because i was an outsider. Blaze actually sa, hey, w want t have you guys. I said thats not really smart for business, blaze. You are going to offend the congressmen and everybody else. Are you sure you want to do this. He laughed and said, joe, you are our friend, of course we want to do this. I think he was the first guy early on in the campaign when i was 29 and everybody knew i was going to lose. He did that. He offended a lot of his clients. Im sure he offended the congressional office, but he did it for blaze adams, it was very simple, i was his friend. Thats all that mattered. Anyway. Patrice and the entire family. Our prayers and thoughts with patrice and the entire family. Stay with msnbc all day for coverage and the stories. Stephanie ruhle picks up the korage after a quick break. 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