Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20171016 : comparemela.co

mark halperin, "morning joe" economic analyst steve ratner, author of the book "a world in disarray" richard haas. columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. joe, i guess it's good he checked. i don't know. >> i'll tell you why. you start adding up all the people that the president has insulted, we start with the president wanting to get tax reform done, wanting to get something done on capitol hill. you talked about bob corker, a battle with mitch mcconnell. of course, a constant battle with john mccain, susan collins who won't be governor because she's going to stay there to fight the good fight. you can go down the line. ben sasse. the resistance on the republican side against this insanity, this lack of conservative governance is growing. and you just have to -- what can this guy get done over the next 3 1/2 years? doesn't look like a lot with him insulting a new, important senator every day. how was your weekend, by the way? >> our weekend was great. we actually hosted a huge fund-raiser. we'll get to more on that later. worked all weekend on "know your value." we're two weeks away from the big event in new york city. so, it was busy. a working weekend but a really good weekend. we'll have more on that later. let's get back to the issue at hand. president trump punted the next steps for the iran deal to congress. friday he decertificated the deal and the treasury department introduced new sanctions on iran's islamic revolutionary guard core. he bashed the international agreement but refrained from pulling out completely. >> on the iranian nuclear deal, why not just scrap it all together now? you threatened to do so. why not just do it now, withdraw? >> we'll see what happens over the next, short period of time. i can do that instantaneously. i like a two-step process much better. >> you said you were going to rip the iran deal up and called it the worst ever. >> i may do that. the deal is terrible. what we've done is through the certification process, we'll have congress take a look at it. and i may very well do that. but i like a two-step process much better. >> now there are essentially three actions that congress can take. doing nothing would essentially leave the deal intact and kick the decision back to the president. congress could reimpose sanctions, which would violate the deal and essentially blow it up or congress could amend the nuclear review requirements. chairman bob corker already introduced legislation to automatically reimpose sanctions on iran if it hits a breakout period of being able to build a nuclear weapon in less than a year. yesterday on "meet the press," u.n. ambassador, nikki haley, suggested changes will be what keeps the deal in place. >> is it better to keep this deal in place or get rid of it? >> i think right now you're going to see us stay in the deal. we hope that we can improve the situation. and that's the goal. i think right now we're in the deal to see how we can make it better. that's the goal. it's not that we're getting out of the deal. we're just trying to make the situation better so that the american people feel safer. >> but the iranian foreign minister says the united states changing the deal would have a worldwide impact. >> nobody else will trust any u.s. administration to engage in any long-term negotiation because the length of any commitment, the duration of any commitment from now on with any u.s. administration would be the remainder of the term of that president. >> are you thinking of any country in particular right now? >> no. i'm thinking of the entire international community. >> not north korea? >> well, including north korea. >> joe, i know you were not a huge supporter of the deal but what's the -- is there one productive outcome of pulling out of the deal? >> first, it's hard to follow up. the iranian foreign minister giving lectures about people not being able to trust the united states' word. that aside, i want to talk about the foreign policy side of this with richard haas and david ignatius in a minute. first, mark halperrin, i have to go to you. perhaps this is the weakest leadership i've ever seen in my lifetime, in my 54 years. and i've been following politics for almost 50 of those 54 years. you have a president who has three of the most significant issues before him, health care reform. he punts it to congress and then he goes, well, i'm not going to kill it. i'm not going to -- he leaves it in limbo. it's dying on the vine. the most important foreign policy deal, the iran deal, it's the same thing. he won't go all the way. it's a halfway measure. so it's dying on the vine. but he doesn't have the courage to make the decision. and then, of course, you have daca. something that, at first, he says he's going to deport the d.r.e.a.m.ers and then says no, i'm not. i'm going to leave it up to congress. it is now a trend where he doesn't have a courage to make any tough decisions and so we're in a state of limbo in d.r.e.a.m.ers, health care. and health care and iran, candidate trump was pretty clear what he said he would do. i'm baffled by what his supporters think about his hedging and i'm baffled by how the white house thinks they can overload the circuits of congress on this stuff when there are 13 other very big things, half of which must get done by the end of the year or there will be a series of crises. if there's a strategy here, it's hard to see what it is and it's hard to know what the people in the administration think on these issues because they, too, are all over the map. >> the weakness is extraordinary coming out of this white house. truman's famous line "the buck stops here" does not apply to this white house. five different foreign policy officials in the white house sometimes spouting five different competing and contradictory foreign policy objectives. and then you have the president, again, punting, making a bold declaration and then backing off. why don't i add to health care, iran and daca the transgender ban, something he tweeted out and then, again, crossed by his own secretary of state of defense. and then the president backed off into the halfway measure. this does send, again, a horrific message to our allies and our enemies. >> joe, i think the right way to describe this administration is the buck doesn't stop. it gets passed along. and i think one problem that we haven't talked about is that there's a damage to the united states from deferring these decisions, taking these halfway measures. for example, with the iran deal. there are significant new concern among u.s. allies that we are a reliable partner. when you talk to european ambassadors, they say we're used to having the united states as leader of this system. you helped us negotiate this deal. now we're supposed to lobby congress one way or another on what congress is to do. they're confused. for now starving payment to some affordable care act recipients, maybe down the road in a couple of weeks, having some compromise that continues funding for a short period of time under the lamar alexander, patty murray agreement. it's not as if people aren't paying a cost, abroad and at home, for these deferrals of decision. they are. that's one thing that's really begun to bother me. >> richard, we are talking to north korea behind the scenes still. there is still a chance for a diplomatic solution, despite what the president of the united states is saying. if you listen to what rex tillerson and others in the administration have said. but if we do strike a deal with iran and then a year, year and a half later tear up that deal or threaten to tear up that deal daily, having our commander in chief do that, who in the world in north korea, even if they are sane and rational -- i suspect they are more sane and rational than american media gev them credit for being. they want a nuclear weapon because they want to be in the club and don't want to happen to them what happened to gadhafi. why would they sign a deal when in the short term it would be thrown away? >> they wouldn't. secretary of state saying we'll continue talking to north korea until the first bomb drops. call me mad cap but i thought the secretary of state, among others, is to make sure the bombs don't drop. why would north korea have a negotiation with us? why would we want a second nuclear crisis? it doesn't make sense. the iran agreement, nuclear agreement is the one thing iran is complying with. if we want to improve it, the way is not to unilaterally threaten to leave or unilaterally amend it. we go back to the other signature e signators and say this is a flawed agreement. let's do it in a way where we have a chance that something could come of t we're not seeing diplomacy. we're seeing theater. >> you mentioned rex tillerson's statements on north korea. let's take a look at those. >> the president has also made clear to me that he want this is solved diplomatic. he is not seeking to go to war. >> so he doesn't think it's a waste of time? >> no, sir. he has made it clear to me to continue my diplomatic efforts, which we are. i told others those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops. >> wow! you used a phrase diplomatic malpractice on a number of levels and that was chilling. >> if we're serious about having a diplomatic response to north korea, we shouldn't set the goal that they have to get rid of all their nuclear weapons or else. there's zero chance that's going to happen. why don't we talk about thto th some type of freeze on testing? give others something to work with. put it out publicly. i don't think we're doing everything we need and should do in order to avoid a war. why would we want a race to one? >> steve? >> in a way i heard tillerson drawing his own red line, having criticized obama for drawing red lines he almost drew his own red line saying the korean peninsula will be nonnuclearized. that doesn't sound like reality. >> it's not. we're setting ourselves up for failure. basically taken the not crazy lesson out of recent events in libya, ukraine and elsewhere that they need nuclear weapons and missiles for their own security. let's get a freeze on testing so they don't get the ability to threaten us directly. then get a freeze on production so they can't threaten american society at large. but time is not our friend here. the timelines are not working in our favor. >> joe? >> so, mark, what is the reaction on the hill? what has been the reaction on the hill, obviously, to a lot of the crazy things that have been coming out of the white house? rex tillerson this weekend. i mean, channeling freddy finder until the last teardrop falls, until the first bomb drops. i've never heard a secretary of state say that before. i'm just wondering, how are republicans going to respond to this on capitol hill when there are already questions about the president's stability and his ability to manage us through a nuclear crisis? >> as you know, when the house or senate is out you don't get much reaction. the senate is back. it will be harder for republican senators to dodge questions about the flack between the president and bob corker last week. that will happen out in public. what's striking to me is because the reaction both within the administration and on the hill against some of the things the president has done has been so strong it's, in fact, brought a lot of leading members of congress in both parties closer to some of the people in the cabinet. they talk regularly. the relations there are relatively good, brought together by desire to talk about what the president is up to and what might happen in these situations. >> they talk more regularly with the cabinet members, people on the hill because they're fearful of the president's words and actions and confused? is that why they're building better relationships with the president's cabinet? >> and because the personal relationships between a lot of the people in the national security positions and members of congress are actually quite good and some have longer historical ties than they do with the president. >> meanwhile, senate foreign relations chairman bob corker continues to speak out against president trump. the tennessee republican said that trump's hawkish statements on north korea were imposing binary choices that pushed the u.s. toward war, telling "the washington post" friday, quote, you cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state without giving yourself that binary choice. in an interview yesterday secretary rex tillerson spoke about trump's leadership style before responding to corker's statement. >> i think this is an unconventional president. he uses unconventional communication tools. he uses unconventional techniques to motivate change. people in this town get very nervous and get very up tight about having to address serious issues by making decisions. so the president is simply trying to do that in his very unique style. i checked. i'm fully intact. >> and tillerson, again, refused to confirm or deny whether or not he called the president a moron. this time he was asked three times about it. >> as i indicated earlier when i was asked about that, i'm not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff. this is a town that seems to relish gossip, rumor, innuendo and feed on it. they feed on one another in a destructive way. i'm not going to dignify the question. i'm not playing. these are the games of washington. i'm not diagramny feiging the question with an answer. >> denied three times. our new testament biblical scholar did draw experiencompar peter who did deny jesus three times before dawn. alex, i'm sure your parents are very proud of you. david ignatius, david, rex tillerson -- listen, i'm rooting for rex just like you're rooting for rex, just like america is rooting for rex to stay in there and bring some sanity to an insane situation. but he's just being so disingenuous there, when he keeps talking about the ways of washington, the people of washington, the unconventional style makes washington nervous. hey, you know who else that would make very nervous? board members and shareholders of exxonmobil. they would vote out a ceo in five minutes if he spent one day talking the way this president has spoken for the past eight, 8 1/2 months. so that's disingenuous. but what is rex tillerson's game? what is his objective? why is he still there for a president he does not respect, in a state department he has been told to not staff up, running a foreign policy that is circular at best? >> you know, joe, not rooting for tillerson, rooting for the u.s., obviously. >> that's what i mean. >> the only answer you can give is that tillerson is willing to take all this stuff that's being dished out by the president. imagine a secretary of state having to say on television i've checked, i'm fully intact. we're a long way from but he's doing this because he feels if he were to quit now a danger o dangerous war would get more so. he's deep in negotiations especially with china to bring pressure on north korea. he is signaling all he can to north koreans, do not test this week. there's a lot of speculation that the north koreans may test again an icbm embarrassing not just us but the chinese as chinese president xi jinping starts a party congress. that's why he's up there, as embarrassing as these appearances are. i hear -- most people i talk to, i'm sure you hear the same thing, joe, say the same thing. they're glad he's there. foreign leaders have begun to trust him. is he going to find a way to work with this president? he keeps using the word unconventional. okay, that's one way to put it. we know what that means. he's completely unpredictable. and can he work with that president and bring pressure on china and north korea? we'll see this week, one chapter in that. >> and so erratic. basically saying what -- politely saying what bob corker, richard haas, has said on the record. so, yeah, i use that phrase, we're all rooting for rex tillerson as a precursor to say he wasn't telling the truth. i was trying to be polite. but, of course, we don't know who would replace rex tillerson. we don't know if it would get worse. a couple of weeks ago, you had said that rex tillerson should leave but the question is, who comes behind rex tillerson? is it somebody who has completely bought in? is it a complete sycophant, another former caddy of donald trump's? >> the reason i thought he should leave is the president put him in an untenable position when he was meeting with his chinese counterparts and the president was undermining him. i don't see how you can be an effective secretary of state under those conditions. it's whether donald trump is prepared to have any secretary of state to be in a position where he is empowered. you could put henry kissinger or jim bakker in that job and they couldn't succeed. the president goes out the other day on friday, talks really tough about iran. what's happening in the middle east? the kurds are being hammered by two iranian supported governments, one in iraq and one in syria. where is the united states making good on the president's rhetoric? i just don't see a national security operation that matters, where we're connecting the dots. if we want to push back against iran, we shouldn't be threatening to leave an agreement that they're complying with. we should push back against them on the ground, helping the kurds who are being attacked with forces that we gave to the government of iraq. no one seems to be pulling it together. this is a challenge for the secretary of state, defense and the national security adviser. joe? >> and against the backdrop of what's been happening, mika, with donald trump, you have, of course, president obama, who many people were concerned over eight years, didn't have a grand overarching strategy other than don't do stupid stuff. and then you have the eight years of george w. bush who historians, i think almost all historians will deem as a foreign policy disaster. this has been such a catastrophic century, young century for american foreign policy and america's place in the globe and it just keeps getting worse by the day. this is one area where i do agree with you, that there are some things that we will not be able to repair. i do believe our institutions will hold firm against the chaos and the radicalism and the totalitarian responses of this president and his cabinet. but every day -- and i'm sure richard and david will agree with this. every day america loses even more credibility across the globe. and we are in the 17th year of decline in our position across the globe. i don't know that we can afford three more years of this. >> a lot of the work that's been done has taken decades, strategic alliances. and this is what my father feared. the political impact of the president's executive order on health care. new numbers show 70% of those benefiting by the subsidies being killed by the white house live in states that president trump won. new charts on the implications. plus we'll talk to one of the reporters behind a bombshell investigation from the washington post in 60 minutes, how congress weakened the dea's ability to fight the opioid epidemic. >> first, bill karins has the forecast. bill? >> fall is finally moving in in the southeast. you can turn your air conditioner off for the first time since april. cold front through the east. rain showers out there this morning. that's about it. it won't last long. over top of d.c. that soon will be approaching areas like richmond and raleigh. behind that cold front is coolish type air. 34 in chicago, 60s on the east coast. the old air will move into the east on some gusty winds and pattern changes are also beneficial for fighting the wildfires in california. especially at night head down through the mountains. that is going to change. we'll be watching what we call an onshore flow developing, which will get rid of these gusty winds and we even have a chance of some rain. the pacific northwest will get very stormy. if we're going to have any serious weather concerns like river flooding and that sort of thing it will be at the end of the this week in the pacific northwest with those big storms coming onshore. you may have heard about hurricane ophelia, major hurricane, headed over the top of ireland right now. 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts on the south coast of ireland. we wish them well and we'll show you pictures of their damage and destruction of what is post tropical cyclone ophelia. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. bp uses flir cameras - a new thermal imagining technology - to inspect difficult-to-reach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans can see them. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? start here. or here. even here. and definitely here. at fidelity, we're available 24/7 to make retirement planning simpler. we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand. ♪ time tupeace of mind.sfuture we had a power outage for five days total. we lost a lot of food. we actually filed a claim with usaa to replace that spoiled food. and we really appreciated that we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. i left texas and i left florida and i left louisiana, and i went to puerto rico and i met with the president of the virgin islands. >> alexa, who is the president of the virgin islands? >> the u.s. virgin islands president is donald trump. >> oh, my god, that's my instagram. that's hilarious. pretty good. and really sad. >> the virgin islands doesn't have a president. it has a governor or something. >> it does. it has a president. >> donald trump. >> its president is donald j. trump. >> he just doesn't know it. >> he went and met with himself. and he says it was the most remarkable meeting because he says the president of the virgin islands has the most incredible brain and says he's got the best words, the president of the virgin islands does. >> because the president -- >> the best words. >> exaggerates and even lies and muddles the truth about what exactly he has not done in places like puerto rico, thank god for organizations like americare, as you and i hosted, joe, the 30th annual air lift fund-raiser. a plane took off saturday night for guatemala. they also announce adrian newed focus on puerto rico. they provide medical care relief to hot spots around the world and also here in america, where help is needed. and i've been involved with the organization for more than 30 years. and i'm so proud we were able to step up and help and hopefully they raised a lot of money. it was a really good night. >> there are so many people that come up to us and ask what they can do. and, you know, i was on the ground in katrina, right after it happened and there are so many things that are needed immediately but americares is now the answer that i always give. being on the ground and seeing the work that they do, and knowing you've been involved in the organization, again, from the beginning. they do extraordinary work and americares fills in the gap, especially in a place like puerto rico. especially where health care is so needed. they provide health care that governments and governmental agencies sometimes can't provide and how exciting that next year their air lift is going specifically to puerto rico. this is going to be a recovery that will be years in the making, especially if the president turns a blind eye to puerto rico, those american citizens who continue to suffer every day. if this were in the suburbs of dallas, texas, if this were happening in mountain brook, alabama, if that was happening in the northern part of atlanta, oh, my god, we would have an operation going on there that would make d-day look like a spring picnic. but because it's americans on an island in puerto rico that donald trump is not focused on or interested in, he actually is insulting them and threatening to take away support. this is a national disgrace and this is a national shame. one of the ways that you can help and do the sort of things that the president is not doing, whether you're a republican or democrat -- because this is not political, just like katrina. it was mainly republicans that were going with me over to mississippi and louisiana after ka tretrina. whether you're republican or democrat, you need to help americans in puerto rico. you can do that by contributing to americares. coming up, a whistle blower says drug distributors are working hard to pump opioids into u.s. communities and that congress derailed the dea's efforts to stop it. and the congressman who supported legislation that reportedly weakens efforts to beat the epidemic is now president trump's nominee for drug czar. we'll speak with one of the washington post reporters who teamed up with "60 minutes" for this bombshell investigation. 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>> never. in fact, it was my opinion that this made the whole crack epidemic look like nothing. these weren't kids slinging crack on the corner. these were professionals who were doing it. they were just drug dealers in lab quote. >> part of a "60 minutes" investigation with "the washington post." that aired last night on the forces behind the nation's opioid especially dek demic. former dea office of diversion control, responsible for cracking down on doctors, pharmaciys, drug manufacturers and distributors who skirted the nation's prescription drug laws. the dea began bringing in enforcement actions against distributors and the companies ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. then, as "the washington post" reports in april 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in u history, congress effectively stripped the drug enforcement administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics on to the nation's streets. joining us now is "the washington post" scott heiam. who is the whistleblower? who is this whistleblower and what exactly is he alleging? >> good morning, guys. we came across him during the course of an investigation. my partner on this story, lenny bernstein, was trying to get answers to questions about why so many people were dying from opioid overdoses and where were all these drugs coming from. and he began to make a lot of phone calls, kind of gum shoe reporting, checking out court records, calling as many people as he could. he came across this guy who had been forced out of his job at the dea, joe rannazzini. he ran the division that oversees the pharmaceutical industry at the dea. he felt that he could not do his job at the height of this epidemic and he was forced out of his job in the face of intense pressure from the pharmaceutical industry on capitol hill that was reaching into the dea, that was reaching into the department of justice. we began to interview other people out in the field, dea investigators, men, women, very dedicated investigators, who said that their cases were being slowed down. so, suddenly, we found ourselves kind of in the middle of seeing the opioid wars from the front war between the dea and the pharmaceutical industry and members of congress and the dea was losing, shockingly. >> and these pain clinics that were popping up everywhere, tell us how they emerged into the story. >> well, the epidemic began with internet pharmacies. those were quickly shut down. can you literally get a prescription for oxycontin, oxycodone, vicodin, with bogus pharmacies and shipped to your house. as soon as those were shut down these pain clinics began to pop up all over the place. rogue doctors, shady pharmacists. you pay $200, $300 for a prescription and walk out with a vial of oxycodone. parking lots in south florida, all across the country were just filled with drug dealers, drug users, people in vans and beat-up cars and driving down i-75 from west virginia, ohio to get their drugs and bring them back up to their communities and selling them on the street for great profit. >> mark? >> scott, did anybody get rich off of this? >> a lot of people got rich. all the way from drug dealers on the streets all the way up to the pharmaceutical companies. this is a $13 billion a year industry. a lot of people were making a lot of money. a lot of people were turning a blind eye to what was happening. >> did they lobby congress to try to keep that branch from doing anything about it? >> of course. the pharmaceutical industry, we found, joe, spent about $106 million lobbying on this bill and other legislation in capitol hill. and it was also written by an industry lawyer. you know, you were up there on the hill and i imagine you saw some of this firsthand. lobbyists write a lot of legislation. and a lot of times it doesn't have a huge impact. but to write a piece of legislation at the height of the opioid epidemic that takes away the most important enforcement tool takes your breath away. >> so tell us about the bill that exacerbated the problem and who was behind it. >> so, tom merino was the principle sponsor of this legislation. it was written by an industry lawyer. and basically the dea's most effective enforcement tool is something called the immediate suspension order. those are used for times when there are companies that are sending down stream hundreds of millions of pills unchecked and the dea steps in and says enough is enough. we're shutting you down. so this law changes the definition of imminent threat. so companies now -- in the past, imminent threat meant, you know, the dea could go in and shut down a company. now it's an immediate threat. and that's a very, very difficult bar to meet for the dea. >> steve ratner? >> i confess this has not been in my field of vision. just doing a quick search around google a minute ago, it appears that this law passed the senate unanimously, which is not something you see very often in washington. how should we think about that, assuming what i've said is correct? >> a lot of things get passed by -- it's called uc in this town. and so i -- you know, our reporting shows that a lot of members of congress didn't really understand what this bill did. they thought that it would do what the title says and that's ensure patient access, improve drug enforcement. i don't think people read this bill and quite understood exactly what it would do. the lawyers who wrote this knew exactly what they were doing. they changed the language ever so slightly, but language matters in law. and by changing that language they changed 40 years of law under the controlled substances act. >> richard? >> is there any way that you can get the ama or some other body to limit what doctors are free to prescribe in this area if the drug companies can't be blocked, if individuals can't be stopped from buying, can you get doctors stopped from overprescribing? >> that's really where the problem begins, is doctors who are overprescribing and doctors who are selling prescriptions for cash. the problem is that there are so many doctors who are doing that and there are so many pain clinics and pain management clinics doing this, the dea felt like they were playing a game of whack-a-mole. they felt they had to go up footed chain and make a difference by shutting down the companies that were sending these pills downstream. >> joe? >> joe scarborough here, scott. you're talking about these pill clivengs that were pop iing up. also psychiatrist are not reimbursed for talking to people. they're reimbursed for looking at them, writing a quick script, handing it to them and having them go. i heard this story and time and time again about people who were prescribed pain medication when they shouldn't have been prescribed pain medication. i guess what surprises me is that this is so widespread. when my older boys were in college, there were four, five, six kids that they either knew or knew of that died of an overdose of this stuff from so-called good families. this wasn't just happening in darkened vans in south florida. it's happening all across america. that's why it surprises me that congress is actually not going to be more proactive in cracking down on what you've uncovered. >> it surprised us, too, joe. this is an epidemic that knows no bounds. there are very few degrees of separation now. everybody knows somebody who has died or knows somebody who knows somebody who has died from this epidemic. my neighbor's son just passed away. one of the top dea officials, his grandson just died of an overdose. it knows no bounds, no political parties. it's in almost every community across the country. and it is a stunning turn of events for congress to pass a bill that basically protects the drug industry from the dea going after it. and we got access to a law review article that the dea chief administrative judge has written and we obtained that from the marquette law review. you can look it up. he eviscerates this law and says it's the worst thing that congress could do at the height of the epidemic. it weakens other tools that the dea has in its tool box. >> scott higha.mm, thank you ve much. an incredible piece everyone should read. subsidies under obamacare will soon be a thing of the past. of the ten states with the highest percentage of people who benefit from them, nine of them voted for president trump. we'll break down that reporting from the ap and get steve ratner's new charts ahead on "morning joe." liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. hold on dad... liberty did what? 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go! go! ta da! a terrarium. that's it. we brewed the love, right guys? s now to the impact of president trump's executive orders on health care. including the decision to halt funding to cautionary subsidies for low income people on obamacare. analysis from the associated press found that 70% of those benefits live in states trump won including 4 million people in the 30 days trump won and of the ten states with the highest per sen tamg of consumers who benefit, nine of them voted for trump. a coalition of some of the biggest doctors insurerers and business groups are writing millions will face higher premiums, fewer choices and less access to the medical care they need. the president celebrated his decision on friday tweeting health insurance stocks which have begun through the roof during the obamacare years plunged yesterday after i ended their dem's wind fall. >> the cut in the subsidies is one of about 12 things that the president has done to undermine the aca in recent weeks. we're just getting data in. let's look first at the impact of cutting these subsidies. already you can see here these are increases in insurance premiums for next year. you can see they were going up in states like georgia and florida and so on. limiting the subsidies increases the increases by 22.7%. in georgia by 31%. in florida 20%. and utah so on. these are major increases in premiums faced next year by people who buy their insurance in the individual market. so let's take a look at who those people are. in the next chart you can see there's 17.6 people in america who get their insurance through the individual market. about 7.5 million of those do not get other kinds of credits. they're going to bare the full brunt of the increases. the balance of the people do get some tax credits, but their insurance is at risk because as premiums go up and people stop buying insurance, insurers drop out. the cbo estimated e lem nating the subsidies will cause 1 million people to drop out and lose their insurance. let me talk about one other thing the president did recently that will have a big effect on people. under obamacare, if you got your insurance through an employer like nbc and you're a woman of childbearing years, you don't have to pay anything for your contracepti contraception. the percentage of women paying for their contraception dropped over three years. that provision has been eliminated by the president. he's done a bunch of other stuff. he's cut funding for advertising and done a bunch of things that's basically undermining this. we'll see as open enrollment begins on november 1st, how many people still sign up. >> fascinating. >> there was a long list of things that happened previously. what just happened is going to effect real people. it's a game of chicken. a lot of people are going to see their lives affected. it's not clear how it plays out. because republicans are going to be responsible for the health care system, but they are demanding a lot to put this to try to vote to put the subsidies back. >> coming up, we'll talk to susan collins of maine fresh off her decision not to run for governor. her vote helped soync the last obamacare repeal. plus new comments from rex tillerson raises eyebrows, and it's not his refusal to say whether or not he called the president a moron. 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>> i didn't do that. >> with one swing of the bat, turner goes to dodgers' legend, justin turner. walk off roam run. now the dodgers have a 2-0 lead against the cubs in the same position that, of course, the yankees are now against the astros. some incredible games, but mika, you point third down out to me. i didn't even know this. you've got great memory. this happened on the 29th anniversary of curt gibson's extraordinary home run in game one, i think the ' 89 world series. how you remember these things, beyond me. but tommy lasorat was there. what an extraordinary game. thank you for watching making m that last night. >> president trump will meet with his cabinet, the white house later this morning before hosting a lunch with vice president mike pence and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. relations have been icy since they argued over health care reform in august. with the president blasting mcconnell on twitter. but axios says trump called mcconnell ahead of a week when they must work together on a budget or risk losing tax reform. lindsey graham commented. >> if we don't cut taxes and repeal and replace obamacare, we're going to lose across the board in 2018 and all my colleagues running will be beat. it will be the end of mitch mcconnell. >> steve bannon said republicans should go against war against m mitch mcconnell. >> mitch mcconnell is not our problem. our problem is we promised to repeal and replace obamacare, and we failed. we promised to cut taxes and we haven't. if we're successful, mitch mcconnell is fine. if we don't, none of us are. >> that's lindsey graham who golfed with the president last week and apparently this weekend. watched football. unbelievable. do you know what he said the president scored in golf? >> oh, boy, what was that? >> a 3. a 3. they don't know how he did it. it's the most extraordinary. he was in the middle of a lightning storm and a hurricane, hail the size of basketballs, hitting the president on the head. the back swing incredible, but again, a 3. the commander in chief, one of the greats. and he chimed in talking act his dna being extraordinary. the most incredible genetic of leadership he's ever seen. that's all i've got to say about lindsey graham golfing with the president, lying about his golf score. >> despite the president's outreach to mckoj, "the wall street journal" reports that trump called steve bannon to encourage him after bannon appeared on fox news vowing to unseat sitting republicans who don't actively support the president's agenda. this according to unnamed sources familiar with the call. the white house strategist declared war. bannon's speech targeted, it was rich. it targeted a number of republicans for their lack of support of president trump who would never bully anybody or say anything bad about anybody, including mitch mcconnell. he called on republicans worried about their reelection chances not to back mcconnell for leader in 2018. bannon also went onto attack senator bob corker for his recent feud with trump. demanding that republicans condemn the very unusual behavior by the senator. >> well, he said he's leading them on a path of world war iii, that he's not stable, that people have to keep him moderated. that it's an adult center and they took the morning shift off. by some u.s. senator, in a position of that authority? for the first time in the history of our republic has mocked and ridiculed a commander in chief when we have kids in the field. have i seen deb fisher come to a stick and condemn that or heller? you have not. and let me give a warning. nobody can run and hide on that one. >> like the president. joe? >> yeah. steve smith, of course, you have actually that man steve schmidt who actually mocked and ridiculed an american prisoner of war, an american hero who gave his life, his entire life to this country who was given an opportunity to leave hanoi, given an opportunity to stop being tortured and beaten so badly that he can't raise his arms above his shoulders to this day, and that's the person that steve bannon has been getting behind all of this time? him lecturing anybody about attacks against anybody or anything is rich. especially when you look at what donald trump said about barack obama when barack obama was president of the united states. where was steve bannon then? and by the way, another question. who are these people at this so-called voter's value summit that give steve bannon a hero's welcome, and a standing ovation? who are these people, and what is so important to them? what is so important to them that they would let their children, see them standing up at something called a voter's value summit, praising steve bannon? they will be known by their fruits, and steve bannon is what they are known by now. donald trump is what they are known by now. i don't know why, but i do know this. trump and bannon continue to declare war on the republican party. they can't be shocked, steve, when the republican party and the senators there decide not to vote for his latest stupid idea. >> there's no question about it. the nonpartisan cook report now rates the chances of a democratic house takeover at over 50% heading into the midterm. i think it bears mentioning there's only within three elections in the last 118 years with where the incumbent president's party has not lost seats in the first midterm. and constitutionally, it's the house that has the ability to file articles of impeachment, and it would seem to me if you are sitting around donald trump, the last thing in the world you would want to have is house democrats with subpoena power and investigative power over this administration. but we may well see that coming. look, we've seen the hallowing out of the republican party intellectually. the destruction of the conservative movement play out over many years. i think we're at the end stage of it now. we have a political party that is unmoored from any type of principle. you could hold a gun to my head, and i couldn't tell you what the party stands for, what the policies are. you look at the health care debate that played out. it certainly the case that none of these members had any idea what they were voting on, what the bill did, how much it cost. we have tax cut proposals that we're going to fund on the national credit card, increasing the debt onto our children, onto our grandchildren, and so across the board, whether it is the president's rumblings about unraveling nafta, whether it's the every monday it seems now louder and louder beats of the drums of war coming out of washington d.c. it seems each monday that as we start the week, the world's just a bit more dangerous. the administration a bit more unhinged. the president a bit more unravelled, and it seems that we're moving closer to great danger in this country as a result of these policies. >> absolutely. >> and you look at the president, you look at steve bannon, you look at their ideology, the people there the other day, they can't say they're standing up because they're conservatives. there's nothing conservative about what they stand for or the people they praise. there's nothing conservative about steve bannon. there's nothing conservative about donald trump. they're not for a restrained foreign policy. they're talking about the possibility of nuclear war. they have a secretary of state coming out this weekend talking about -- we'll talk to him until the bombs start dropping informal unprecedented in u.s. foreign policy history that that's the way you're talking if you're a secretary of state. there's no restraint there. there's no restraint at home. you look at the spending. you look at the projections, the national debt which doubled under bush and obama. now we're at 20 trillion. it's going to be up to 35 trillion. they're breaking the bank. they're going to blow a hole in the national debt that's going to cripple generations' economic standing to come. there is nothing conservative or restrained there. you look at the power, mark halperin, that the president wants to seize himself. he's going after the press. he's going after the courts. he's acting like a totalitarian want to be, an autocrat want to be. he's got even insignificant secretaries in his cabinet that are acting like they're walking to bucking ham palace. they're flying private jets around like they're members of a band. this is a big, bloated administration, and there's nothing conservative about them. and mark, the thing that schmidt said, steve schmidt said the last thing donald trump wants is a democratic house. that could issue articles of impeachment. i'll tell you a close second would be a hostile republican senate that when the articles of impeachment pass the house, and they really have to look and see if donald trump's fit to be president of the united states, that do you want bob corker? do you want susan collins? do you want mitch mcconnell? do you want ben sass? do you want all these people the president has insulted, jeff flake, all these people the president has been hostile to passing judgment on this republican party? he's not really a republican. he's nothing ideologically. but he's, again, every day, mark, he's declaring war against both sides but mainly the republican senate. >> yeah, we haven't mentioned bob mueller much in the program. he makes a recommendation about what he thinks the president has done. the president is going to be in a lot worse shape with democrats control either chamber. mitch mcconnell will overlook a lot of what president trump does if he doesn't like it. a lot. what i don't think he can overlook is a threat to his majority and when the president's closest political ally is out there saying we're not going to just have our kind of people in primaries but we want to remove mitch mcconnell, i don't see that being approved. >> you mention bob mueller. i guess his team interviewed reince priebus. they also want to interview six current and former advisers to trump including hope hicks and sean spicer. what are they closing in on? >> i think that what you're seeing is essentially them going on a fact climbing mission and look agent the people around donald trump and trying to make it known they are not going to at all pull any punches. i think when i've been talking to sources inside the white house, and the reason why we talk about the chaos inside the white house is the people that are leaving and whether or not president trump is lashing out at his party, but the internal chaos when you're trying to have a meeting and people are joking about hiring their lawyer because they realize that everyone needs -- everyone working in the white house might be subpoenaed, might end up having to testify about what's going on. that tells you there's a level of chaos that's actually internal. when you're trying to have a meeting about how to map out tax reform or how to do something about infrastructure, and you have it in place, they're saying, hey, here's the number to my lawyer. hopefully you can get one. that's problematic for president trump. and when we think about the fact that sean spicer who was fired or booted out took all these notes of how the president was making decisions, of how he was operating in the white house, that's really problematic for president trump, that's why even with jeff sessions doing a lot of stuff president trump wanted, he's angry at jeff sessions because essentially jeff sessions refusal put into effect a domino effect of interviews. >> and richard and david, we're talking about the chaos domestically, but as we discussed earlier today, the chaos diplomatically, and on the foreign policy stage just keeps getting worse. and richard, let's start with you with rex tillerson, his performance this weekend. the kcastrated of secretary stae who says he'll keep talking until, well, the first bombs drop. >> that's a strange formulation for secretary of state. his whole job is to make sure bombs don't drop. and it's part of a larger problem. the administration doesn't respect diplomacy. they don't see it as a serious instrument of national security. we're talking about getting out of nafta. we've gotten out of tpp and the paris climate agreement. we're threatening to get out of the iran nuclear deal. we've dramatically cut back funding for diplomacy and cut back the amount of people who are staffing the state department and embassies. so there's a pattern here which we can't ignore, and here we are facing a truly unraveling middle east, and asia, which has been the most stable part of the world for the last several decades is on a precipice, potentially, of war in north korea. europe, you still have a growing russian threat. this is a time, i would argue, joe, we actually need more resources devoted to diplomacy. we need a tight relationship between the secretary of state and the president, and we don't have it. >> and, david ignatius, this weekend, obviously, a lot of talk between trump and his advisers, and then, of course, what's happening in iran. and the possible unraveling of that deal, and again, sort of the president of the united states putting diplomats and associate or thes in this dead zone that has to have an impact on our talks with north korea. >> joe, i'm so struck between the difference between the trump world where you announce this seeming get tough policy on iran that's got all kinds of problems. you basically kick at the congress, but it causes problems for our allies. we helped negotiate the deal. that's in this sort of headline of the day trump world. in the real world, right now, two iranian-backed groups in iraq are threatening the kurds who have been america's most faithful allies in this terrible mess in the middle east. the u.s. effectively right now is doing nothing that i'm aware of to head that off. and so you have a contrast between the real world where problems are getting worse. the world is getting more dangerous, and then this sort of foosball game in washington where the ball is knocked back and forth every day, and the contrast should concern people. again, can they deal with the real world problems while the president is going back and forth in his, quote, unconventional way? i'm not so sure. >> still ahead on "morning joe," republican senator susan collins joins the conversation. plus israel's ambassador to the united states, ron dermer reacts to president trump decertifying the nuclear deal. did the half measure go far enough for israel's leaders? you're watching "morning joe." he'll be right back. magic...is pretty amazing. it can transform a frog into a prince. but it can't transform your business. for that you need dell technologies. we are transforming jet engines into turbo powered safety inspectors. dairy cows into living, breathing, data centers. and though it seems like magic, it's not. it's people and technology working together. magic can't make digital transformation happen. but we can. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. to keep you on track. bp developed new, industry-leading software to monitor drilling operations in real-time, so our engineers can solve problems with the most precise data at their fingertips. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. i was playing golf love golf.... i used to love golf. wait, what, what happened? 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ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. swho live within five miles of custyour business?-54, like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found. is it better to keep this deal in place or get rid of it? >> i think you'll see us stay in the deal right now. we hope we can improve the situation. that's the goal. i think right now we're in the deal to see how we can make it better. that's the goal. it's not that we're getting out of the deal. we're just trying to make the situation better so the american people feel safer. >> so they're not getting out of the deal? this is hard to keep up with. let's bring in israel's ambassador to the united states ron bedermer. always great to talk to you. what's your take and israel's take regarding the united states move. or did the words of the ambassador concern you that the united states is not going to completely get out of the iran deal sf. >> no, i think the policy is right articulated. we're focussed on the goal, to prevent iran to not make nuclear weapons. and so we believe the president took the right course. if he can fix it, that would be great. if not, he's prepared to walk away. i think the president has it exactly right. >> david ignatius? >> i want to ask ambassador determiner a question not about iran but something -- dermer,ing in we lose track of, the situation between iraq and the palestinians. there's something interesting in gauze gaza where groups are getting together, and two arab countries israel sees common interest with, seem to be trying to help move that process forward. i want to ask, ambassador, is there a chance for something positive to happen in israel's relations with gaza? >> well, that depends. we'll see what the reconciliation is. is it a reconciliation for peace where the palestinian government and the constituent elements support peace with israel, recognize the right to exist, renounce terrorism, accept previous agreements, or is it a reconciliation to continue the war against israel? and so you have to see. has hamas changed it spots? i have not heard anything from hamas thus far that has suggested it's willing to change. it's under a cash crunch. that's clear. i think that's what drove it into the reconciliation process. we'll have to see it play out and we hope the international community takes a stand that any palestinian government to be with israel has to accept those conditions. renounce terrorism, recognize israel's right to exist and accept previous agreements. if they do, we would talk with them. >> there's a story about israel doing a strike against air defense sites in syria. to what extent is the next war in the middle east quite possibly not going to be ones we're talking about, but something involving israel and le hezbollah or syria? >> we've had clear red lines that the prime minister articulated many years. israel is not going to allow syria a permanent iranian bases to be established in syria to act against israel. or to transfer strategic weapons against hezbollah. this is all a piece of the iran deal. the problem in syria is iran. hezbollah is a proxy of iran. it's controlled by iran. so everything has to do with iran in the region, and i think one thing that has been lost in the discussions over the last few days is the united states basically a few years ago when it signed the deal, and even in the interim agreements beforehand, had essentially abandoned a policy of preventing iran from developing nuclear weapons. it was a policy of containment. and what president trump has done on friday, and why this was so important is he shifted back u.s. policy to a policy of preventing iran from ever acquiring or developing nuclear weapons. that's the right policy. that's why it's supported by israel, and it's also supported by the israeli states in the region. people pay attention. we've been the guinea pigs in the experiment of the iran nuclear deal. i think mr. ignatius said that the previous administration was placing a cosmic bet on a positive change in iran. you have not seen that positive change in iran. you've seen a negative change. you spoke about what they're doing to the kurds. think about what they're doing in syria and lebanon and yemen and gau za. iran is the biggest problem of so many conflicts in the middle east, and finally the president of the united states has stood up to iran, and this was a historic day on friday, and i hope it leads to a change in policy. >> i want to push back a little bit. it's not clear what the president did will help. he could do all this pushing back against iran by staying in the agreement, and if he wants, he could gradually talk to the europeans, the russians and the chinese in the agreement for a followon agreement. getting out of it now will not help us deal with the iranian nuclear threat you're concerned about. >> listen, richard, i had a conversation with one of the ambassadors of the p5+1 about two months ago. he said what you're saying now. he doesn't have to walk away from the agreement. we're willing to work with the president on the ballistic missile problem and the sunset clause when all the restrictions on iran's nuclear program that are removed. we're willing to work on fixing that. i said that's great. the only reason why you're having this conversation is that the president, president trump said he's prepared to walk away from the deal. president trump on friday established a credible threat for the united states to walk away from the deal, and that has given him enormous leverage, not just over iran but over europeans and i think over everyone who is interested in shifting this to a policy that can prevent iran from developing nuclear weapons. a lot of the senators who supported the deal, they pointed to a lot of the problems with the deal. this is their chance to fix it. and president trump is giving them that chance. israel supports that effort. we hope that both in congress and the european allies will work together to fix a very, very bad deal. >> mr. ambassador, mark halperin here. lay out your optimistic scenario if president trump continues to per sue t pursue the policy you want him to. >> iran is not going to agree to anything. they were given the deal of the century. it's a deal that enables them to have nuclear weapons. this deal puts them on cruise control twooward num laclear we. people are not focussed about the cliff. we are facing a situation within several years all the restrictions will be removed and iran will not have to sneak in or break into the nuclear club. they will be able to walk into the nuclear club. so the scenario that i see is one where the president, first, took the first step by decertifying the deal or not certifying it. and then he enumerated problems. one was the sunset clause. need to fix those. the second was the ballistic missile program of iran that is only used to develop nuclear weapons, and the third is to actually have an inspection regime where you look at every site in iran. not just where the keys are under the light of the lamp posts but the military sites where iran in the past and future would do nuclear weaponization and other work. are those problems that can be solved outside of the agreement? i think they can. they can be solved through congressional legislation, and they can be solved through follow on agreements. but president trump did the most important thing. this was the most important sentence of his speech. he said if it's not fixed, i will terminate america's involvement in the deal. and that was the most important statement that the president made. he does not need congress to end america's involvement in this deal. what he needs congress is to fix the deal and we hope they will do that. >> ambassador ron dermer, thank you for being on the show this morning. coming up, senator bob corker is heading for the door, but susan collins is staying put. we'll ask the maine republican why she decided to remain in the senate and what she hopes to accomplish with president trump as a partner. we'll be right back. people would ask me in different countries that we traveled, what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm everything. i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder what do i mark? because i'm everything. and i marked other. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. ♪ ♪ everyone deserves attention, whether you've saved a lot or just a little. at pnc investments, we believe you're more than just a number. so we provide personal financial advice for every retirement investor. unfortunately republican leaders repeated the same mistake this year as the democrats made in passing the aca without a single republican vote. the senate republican health care bills were drafted behind closed doors by, by the way, it was a group of 13 men who did it. but that's just another little issue. >> that's more than a little issue. republican senator susan collins in maine on friday where she announced she would not run for governor, and instead work to improve the senate. and senator collins joins us now. it's great to have you on the show. thank you for pg on this morning. >> thank you. >> what was behind the decision to stay in? >> it was a very difficult decision. the attraction of being in maine full-time close oh my family and friends was strong, and governor is a far more hands on job where you can really make a difference on issues like providing more economic opportunities. but in the end, i decided that the issues right now in washington are so koconsequenti. they're so huge, and i am a person who likes to work across the aisle and build bipartisan coalitions, and that's what i decided i wanted to do. in the end, it came down to where i could do more for my state and country. >> joe? >> i remember senator collins, joe scarborough here. i remember talking to snenator mccain in january or february and saying it's extraordinary of all the sacrifices for your country, this may be your greatest contribution right now, because there's so much chaos in washington. do you feel like what you are doing right now is as substantial and as important as anything you've done in your decades of public service? >> i really do. these are chaotic times in washington, and washington reflects the division and the discord that we see throughout our country. the polarization has never been greater, and yet, i remain a congenital optimist that the pendulum will swing back, and if those of us who are in the middle leave, i worry who will lead that effort to bring us back and get things done for the american people in a way that is less partisan and that invites input by both republicans and democrats. i would say, however, i would never begin to compare myself to john mccain who has done so much for our country. >> senator, it's steve rattner. as you well know, there are more than a dozen things the president has done in the last few months that are likely to diminish enrollments in the aca or otherwise, impede people getting health care. you've spoken out against some of them. i assume you're unhappy with most of all of them. what can you do to change the course of what's happening and try to preserve health care that is in jeopardy for millions of americans at the moment? >> what we should do is immediately pass legislation that's been negotiated by lamar alexander and patty murray who had the senate health committee which i'm a member of which would help the lower with premiums, stabilize the markets and give clear authorization for the cost-saving reductions that are essential to help low-income people pay their out of pocket costs. that's a package that i believe can garner support on both sides of the aisle, and i hope that the president would sign it into law. >> yamiche? >> senator collins, i want to ask you about being a woman on the hill. yesterday i was talking to some colleagues about the culture on the hill. with harvey weinstein, and we're talking about the culture of hollywood and women being sexually harassed, have you heard about the culture in d.c.? have you experienced anything like that, and what do you say to people who say d.c. might need to look at it own culture. >> it's always good for an organization to look at its own culture make sure equality exists throughout. i have not experienced it. we know from some press accounts it has happened before, and it is reprehensible regardless of the working environment in which it occurs, regardless whether it's hollywood or washington or main street america, and i believe that these brave women coming forth and confronting one of the most powerful individuals in hollywood will help others speak out about their experience, and send a very clear message that this is not tolerated. i will say that i do think that when women are elected to the united states senate, that we do face an extra barrier that men do not. when a man is selected to the senate, it's assumed that he belongs there. my experience has been that we women have to prove that we belong there. and once we do that, we're accepted. but there is an extra barrier that i've found. >> interesting. steve schmidt. >> senator, good morning. your colleague, bob corker, a man serious, sober, not given hyperbole has talked openly about this administration, worrying about the president's capacity to start world war iii. we have the secretary of state talking about the negotiations will continue until the first bombs drop. how concerned are you and how legitimate do you find senator corker's criticism behaviorally of the administration? how worried are you? >> let me say, first, that i'm a friend of bob corker's. i think he's an excellent senator and a great leader of the formulations committee, and he knows a great deal. i don't think the twitter war between him and the president is productive, and i'd like to see them get back to working on the iran legislation, for example. but there's no doubt that this president's been extremely unconventional in his approach, and that has caused more chaos than i think is good for our country and for our relationship with both our allies and our enemies. i would urge the president to remember that every single word that he says matters. when he was in the private sector in the business world, he could make an off the hand comment, and it really didn't matter. even as a candidate, it could be excused, because he was running for political office. but he is now president of the united states of america. and every word that he says counts. and nthat's why i'd encourage hm to be more careful with his rhetoric because of the signal, the inadvertent signal that it may send not only to americans but to our adversaries and our allies around the world. >> for sure. senator susan collins. thank you so much. >> yamiche alcindor, thank you as well. coming up, new reporting from forbes magazine on how commerce secretary wilbur ross hid money in family assets from the public. "morning joe" is coming right back. listen up, heart disease. you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies, and data without insights. and fragmented care, stop getting in the way of patient recovery and pay attention. every single one of you is on our list. at optum, we're partnering across the health system to tackle its biggest challenges. except when it comes to retirement. at fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. and we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. it's your retirement. know where you stand. dad: molly, can you please take out the trash? (sigh) ( ♪ ) dad: molly! trash! ( ♪ ) whoo! ( ♪ ) mom: hey, molly? it's time to go! (bell ringing) class, let's turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. who would like to read? ( ♪ ) molly: i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. it's running much faster now. see? it's amazing, molly. thank you. ( ♪ ) welcome, kids. it's time to bring on the great roger bennett. we have so much to talk about. >> we do? >> let's start with the city game. they scored a touchdown at the end to win 7-2. >> they did. league winning manchester city. that weekend they played the kind of football that only really ever seen in my dreams. they're trying the highly evolved football of the laker that was worthy to kareem and magic johnson. they tore this team apart wi. that was matt ryan. out of the vulkem mind. kim jong-un's favorite player, the rocket man. emphatic goal. you loved that, didn't you. they won seven. >> thoughts and prayers. chelsea city football club. mighty power house. go to crystal palace. expecting to dominate them. instead, not scored all season. they hit twice on this day. they won 2-1. it was like watching the syracuse clemson tigers. chelsea, always a shock. you always have hope. >> roger, how in the world does that happen? you have crystal palace, a team that doesn't have any points, they had no goals and the difference between clemson, i think, and chelsea is clemson doesn't have bromovich writing $200 million checks. >> they really are the battle of american owners. you're trying to deflenct from s liverpool football. the glazers in florida against fenway sports group. liverpo liverpool. one team couldn't square the other didn't even try. this gentleman with a kick save. modern day terry sword. >> what's you take at this point with him. obviously liverpool fans adore. season is not going like expected. everybody is concerned about the defense. we can't score goals. >> he is like a care bear. incredible charisma. not what he does with his team. it's what he says in the press conferences that just rattle the fan base who have unbelievable hope and the reality is, football is run by money. there's an incredible correlation and elite football between the amount of money that you put into your team and the results that come out of them. a little bit more money and that gentleman will be able to do his job. all a lovely segue into the deboxable that is u.s. soccer. >> i remember 2010. we all went and saw extraordinary match together. you and i were talking about the future of u.s. soccer. nobody expected what happened last week. >> on friday night. >> nobody. >> u.s. qualifying for the world cup needed a point. went to trinidad and tobago. they only needed the draw. they failed to get one for a dark night in this game in america and everybody who cares about it, the u.s. lost 2-1. the reality is our players were not good enough. too many old players who should have been retired awhile ago. too much pressure on a young starlet. no tactical game plan. and they brought back a coach in panic from the 1990s, 2000s, probably the worst sequel since speed two cruise control. >> speed two. >> a movement in panic. and we need to a new president for u.s. soccer. joe, you should run. i did you not. u.s. soccer has a problem. if russia can steel the election in 2017, american soccer can still find a way to win the world cup in 2018. get on it. >> i love it. let's do it. >> yes. >> all right. to mika. >> isaac, thank you for whatever just happened. we'll be watching men in blazers life this morning at 5:30 eastern. you can catch totteham havversu liverpool. president trump saying tax reform is a priority. yet continues to put more on congress's plate. daca and now iran all when his party couldn't repeal obamacare. we'll get a live report from the white house as the president preparings to meet with the cabinet later this morning. morning joe is coming right back. their experience is coveted. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. hi, i'm the internet! you know what's dtj! get a job!ting... hi, guys. i'm back. time to slay! heals, heals, heals! yes! youuuu! no, i have a long time girlfriend. mom! i need my macaroni!!! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. pick a domain name. choose a design. you can build a website in under an hour. yeah! whoo! yes! get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. ...has grown into an enterprise. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. now, i'm earning unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase i make. everything. what's in your wallet? health care, tax reform and every other big ticket item remains in limbo. to get something done, he's going to need mitch and little bob corker. two republican leaders he has attacked in the recent weeks. part of the same establishment that steve bannon is now vowing to destroy. meanwhile, the president's own secretary of state refuses to answer whether or not he called his boss a moron, but he insists he's not been castrated by the commander in chief. >> i checked. i'm fully intact. >> good morning. it's monday, october 16. welcome to morning joe. with us we have senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc. former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst. steve ratter in. world in disarray, richard. "washington post" david. president trump punted the next steps for the iran deal to congress. on friday decertified the deal and the treasury department introduced new sanctions on iran's islamic revolutionary guard core. the president bashed the international agreement, but refrained from pulling out completely. >> because we'll see what happens over the next short period of time. and i can do that instain tanhouse ta illness t. >> the deal is terrible. what we've done is through it will certification process we'll have congress take a look at it. i may very well do that, but i like it a two step process much better. >> now there are essential three actions that congress can take. doing nothing would leave the deal intact and keep the decision back to the president. congress could reimpose sanctions which would violate the deal and blow it up or congress could amend the nuclear review requirements. senate foreign relations bob corker also introduced legislation to reimpose sanctions on iran if it hits a breakout period of being able to build a nuclear weapon in less than a year. yesterday on "meet the press," u.n. ambassador, nikki haley suggested changes will be what keeps the deal in place. >> is it better to keep this deal in place? or get rid of it. >> i think right now you'll sue us stay in the deal. we hope we can improve the situation. that's the geoal. right now we're in the deal to see if we can make it better. we're not getting out of the deal. just trying to make the situation better so the american people feel safer. >> but the iranian foreign minister says the united states changing the deal would have a worldwide impact. >> nobody else would trust any u.s. administration to engage in any long-term negotiation. because the length of any commitment, the duration of any commitment from now on with any u.s. administration would be the reminder of the terms of that president. >> are you thinking of any country in particular right now. >> no, i'm thinking of the entire international community. >> not north korea. >> including north korea. >> joe, i know you were not a huge supporters of the deal, but what's the productive is there one productive outcome pulling out of the deal. >> well, first, it's hard to follow up. iranian foreign minister giviei lectures about people not being able to trust the u.s.'s words. first, mark, i have to go to you because this is perhaps the weakest leadership i've ever seen in my lifetime, in my 54 years. i've been following politics for almost 50 of those 54 years. you have a president with three of the most significant issues before him, health care reform. punts it to congress. then he goes well, i'm not going to kill it. i'm not going to -- he leaves it in limbo. it's dying on the vine. the most important foreign policy deal probably of the last five years, the iran deal. it's the same thing. he won't go all the way. it's a halfway measure. dieing the on the vine. he doesn't have the courage to make the decision. and then of course you have dock camera. something that first he saying he is going to deport the dreamers and then he says no i'm not. i'm going to leave it up to congress. this president is now a trend where he doesn't have the courage to make any tough decisions. so in a state of limbo on dreamers. state of dream er. pretty clear what he said he would do. i'm baffled by how the white house thinks they can overload it to congress when there's 15 other very big things half of which must get done by the end of the year. or there's going to be a series of crisis. if there's a strategy here, it's hard to see what it is. based on the clips we showed, it's hard to understand what people in the administration think of these issues because they are all over the map. >> the weakness is extraordinary coming out of the white house. of course trumatruman's famous does not apply in the white house. five different foreign policy officials in the white house sometimes spouting five different competing and contradictory foreign policy objectives. then you have the president again making a bold declaration and backing off. why don't i add to health care daca. then followed by the horrific message to the allies and the enemies. >> i think the right way to describe this administration is the buck doesn't stop. the buck gets passed along and i think one problem that we haven't talked about is that there's a damage to the united states from deferring these decisions, taking these halfway measures. for example, we are a reliable country. when you talk to yureuropean ambassadors. they say we're used to having the united states as leader of the system. you helped us negotiate this deal. now we're supposed to lobby congress one way or the other on what congress is supposed to do. they're confused. when you look at the consequence of what's been done on health care. for now, starving payment to some affordable care act recipients may be down the road in a couple of weeks some compromise that continues funding for a short period of time. >> richard, we are talking to north korea behind the scene still. there is still a chance for a diplomatic solution. despite what the president of the united states is saying. if you listen to what rex tillerson and others in the administration have said, but if we do strike a deal with iran, and then a year, year and a half later, having the commander in chief do that? who in the world in north korea even if they are sane and ration rational. they want a nuclear weapon because they want to be in the club they don't want to have happen to them what happened to gi daffy. secretary of state saying we're going to continue talking to north korea until the first bomb drops. call me mad, but i thought the job of the secretary of state was to make sure the bombs don't drop. why would north korea have a negotiation with us and why would we want a second nuclear crisis. it just doesn't make sense. the iran agreement. the nuclear agreement is the one thing iran is complying with. if we want to improve it, the way we do it is not to unilaterally threaten to leave or amend it. we go back to the other signatories and say this is a fort lauderdale agreement. let's start talking about the follow on. start doing it in a way where we actually have a chance something could come from it. this is what we're seeing is not diplomacy. we're seeing theater. short-term. we really need long-term. >> you mentioned rex tillerson's statements on north korea. let's take a look at those. >> the president made clear to me he wants the solve it diplomatically. he's not seeking to go to war. >> doesn't think it's a waste of time. >> no sir. he has made it clear to me to continue my diplomatic efforts. which we are and we -- i told others, those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops. >> wow. okay. so you used a phrase diplomatic malpractice on a number of levels and that was chilling. >> well, if we're serious about having diplomatic response to north korea, we shouldn't set the goal. they have to get rid of all nuclear weapons or else because there's zero chance that is going to happen. why don't we talk to them about a freeze on testing. down the road talk to them about a freeze of production. let's get serious and put it out publically and give others something to work with. again, it's almost -- i don't think we are doing everything we need and should do in order to avoid a war. >> steve? >> in a way i heard tillerson saying almost drawing own red line. having criticized obama for drawing red lines. he's drawing a red line saying the korean peninsula is going to be nonnuclearized. it doesn't seem like reality. >> we're setting up for failure. as joe correctly said, north korea basically taken the not crazy out of recent events and libya and ukraine and elsewhere they need nuclear missiles for own security. the real challenge at the moment. let's get a freeze on testing so they don't get the ability to threaten us directly. then freeze on production. time is not a friend. timelines are not working in our favor. >> joe? >> what is the reaction on the hill, what has been the reaction on the hill. obviously to a lot of the crazy things that have been coming out of the white house and rex tillerson this weekend, i mean, channelling freddie until the last tear drop falls. until the first bomb drops. i've never heard of secretary of state say that before. how are people going to respond on the hill when there are questions to his ability to manage us through a nuclear crisis. >> when it's out you don't get much reaction. the senate is back this week. first time it's going to be harder for republican senators to dodge questions about the flap between the president and bob corker last week. that will happen out in public. what is striking to me is because the reaction both within the administration and on the hill again some of the things the president has done has been so strong. it's in fact brought a lot of the leading members of congress in both parties closer to some of the people in the cabinet. cabinet members. people on the hill because they're fearful of the president's words and actions and confused. is that why the personal relationships between the cabinet. >> a lot of the national security positions and congress are quite good. still ahead on morning joe. life to the white house. ahead of a critical week for the administration. can the president put aside attacks on congress long enough to help his own cause. plus an update on the devastating wildfires out west. calmer winds offering cruise a break from the flames, but the damage and death toll continues to grow. you're watching morning joe. we'll be right back. i write them a poem instead. and one for each of you too. and one for each of you too. helen: cool. that actually yours... that one. yeah. regardless, we're stuck with the bill. to many, words are the most valuable currency. last i checked, stores don't take words. man: some do. oh. (alert beeps) not everyone can be the poetic voice of a generation. i know, right? such a burden. pay back a friend day is october 17th. get the bank of america mobile banking app today. bring you more ways to helps reduce calories from sugar. with more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels, and signs reminding everyone to think balance before choosing their beverages. we know you care about reducing the sugar in your family's diet, and we're working to support your efforts. more beverage choices. smaller portions. less sugar. balanceus.org. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise welcome back to morning joe. trump's talk on north korea were imposing choices that push the u.s. towards war. telling "the washington post" on friday, quote, you cannot publically castrate your own secretary of state without giving yourself that by nare choice. in an interview yesterday, secretary rex tillerson spoke about president trump's leadership style before responding to corker's statement. >> i think this is an unconventional president. he uses unconventional communication tools. he uses unconventional techniques to motivate change. people in this town get very nervous and very uptight about having to address serious issues about making additidecisions. so the president is trying to do that in his unique style. i checked. i'm fully intact. >> he refused to confirm or deny whether he called the president a moron. this time he was asked three times about it. >> as i indicated earlier, i was asked about that. i'm not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff. this is a town that seems to relish gossip. they feed on it. pet i'm not going to dignify the question. i'm not playing. these are the games of washington. i'm not dignifying the question with an answer. >> so denied three times. our new testament biblical scholar did draw comparisons to peter who denied jesus three times before dawn. alex, i'm sure your parents are very proud of you. so david, rex tillerson, i'm rooting for rex. america is rooting for rex to stay in there and bring sanity to insane situation. he's just being so disingenuous there. he keeps talking about the ways of washington, the people of washington. the unconventional style makes washington nervous. hey, you know who else that would make very nervous, board members and shareholders of exxonmobil. they would vote out a ceo in five minutes if he spent one day talking the way this president spoke. for the past, eight, eight naturand a half months. that's disingenuous. what is rex tillerson's game. what is his objective. why is he still there for a president he does not respect. in a state department he has been told to not staff up. with a running of foreign policy that is circular at best. >> you know, joe, not routing for tillerson. rooting for the u.s., obviously. the only answer you can give -- the only answer you can give is that tillerson is willing to take all this stuff that's being dished out by the president and imagine a secretary of state having to say on television, i've checked. i'm fully intact. we're a long way from dean, but he's doing this because he feels that if he were to quit now, a dangerous lawyer would get more so. he's deep into the position especially with china to try to bring pressure on north korea. he is signaling every way he can to the north koreans. do not test this week. this week is a crucial week. a lot of speculation north koreans may test again an icbm embarrassing not just us, but the chinese as chinese president starts a big party congress. that's why he's up there. as embarrassing as these appearances are, i hear most people i talk to i'm sure you hear the same thing, joe, on the hill say they're glad he's there. foreign leaders have begun to trust him. is he going to find a way to work with this president. he keeps using the word unconventional. that's one way to put it. we know what that means. he's completely unpredictable. can he work with that president and bring pressure on china andle north korand north korea. we'll see this week. one chapter of that. >> so erratic. he's basically saying plightly bob corker has said on the record. yeah, i use that phrase we're all routing for rex tillerson as a precursor to say he wasn't telling the truth. i was trying to be polite. of course, we don't know who would replace rex tillerson. we don't know if it would get worse. a couple weeks ago you said rex tillerson should leave, but the question is, who comes behind rex tillerson. is it somebody who is completely bought in. is i is it another former caddie of donald trump's. >> the reason i said he should leave is i thought the president put him in untenable position with tillerson was meeting with chinese counter parts and president was tweeting and undermining him. how can you be an effective secretary of state under those circumstances. it's not who succeeds him. it's whether donald trump is in any position empowered and he kuk see succeeds. let's just take this warning as an example. the gap in american diplomacy. the kurds are being hammered by two iranian supported governments. one in iraq and one in syria. where is the united states making good on the president's rhetoric. i don't see a national curt operation that matters. where we're connecting the dots so if we want to push back against iran, we shouldn't be. now are being attacked with u.s. supplied forces that we gave to the government of iraq. no one seems to be pulling it together. the secretary of state, defense and national security adviser. >> and against the backdrop of what's been happening, mika, with donald trump, you have of course president obama who many people were concerned over eight years didn't have a grand overarching strategy. then you had eight years of george w. bush. all historians deem is a foreign policy disaster. this has been such a catastrophic century, young century, for american foreign policy. it just keeps getting worse by the day. i do believe it will hold firm against the chaos and the radicalism and totaltarian responses of this president and his cabinet, but every day, and i'm sure richard and david will agree with this. every day america loses even more credibility across the globe and it is -- we are the 17th year of decline in our position across the globe. we don't know that we can afford three more years of this. >> a lot of the work that's been done has taken decades, this is what my father feared. coming up on "morning joe." wilbur ross and mystery of the missing billions. that story is just ahead on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ you nervous? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ at bp's cooper river plant, employees take safety personally - down to each 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occur. now's your chance at completely clear skin. just ask your doctor about taltz. flames little bit can help. go to bill karins for the very latest on this. bill? >> they needed a break. good morning, everyone. they got it. really fearful friday night that the winds were going to howl. they didn't quite materialize. able to hold the fire lines. though the wind pattern we had over the weekend still exist a little bit today. still very warm. be gusty winds. won't be so horrible. then the good news. finally this week switched the weather pattern. more of a fall like weather pattern. john shore flow. cool humid ocean coming in. next step after this is the rainfall in the area. that could happen by the time we get to thursday and friday. cold front can come through. fires are located shows a chance for a little bit of light rain. not a huge or deal. we'll take anything we can get. other story, wind gusts. this was ophelia. major hurricane. now it is what we call an transition to super storm. the other stories you need to know, east coast say good-bye to warmth. cooler air is moving in. rain is just about hovover. still a little light rain for you. areas like north carolina, south carolina, and florida. little bit of rainfall throughout the day today. minor stories here. story over in ireland will have dramatic pictures to show you within the next 24 hours. up next on morning joe, back in june, president's cabinet had plenty of praise from the boss. >> what an incredible honor it is to lead the department of health and services at this pivotal time under your leadership. i can't thank you enough for the privilege you've given me and leadership you've shown. >> president thank you for the honor to serve. great privilege you've given me. >> thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda and the american people. >> well, clearly a few things have changed in the last four months. we'll go live to the white house ahead of this morning's cabinet meeting. 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the top priority. >> certainly a lot of meetings here. domestic, but also foreign policy in the wake of last week's announcement that he's moving to decertify the iran nuclear deal kicking that issue to congress. objections with north korea and domestic agenda. all eyes are going to be on the cabinet meeting. he's having lunch with senate majority leader mcconnell today along with the vice president. said the budget is going to be at the top of the meeting as well tax reform. initial vote on the budget a little bit later on the week. that has to happen before anything significant can happen on tax reform. the stakes couldn't be higher. the president's legislative agenda is largely stalled. those here in the white house on capitol hill say he needs a win on taxes to essentially show that he can govern. this all comes as behind the scenes over the weekend you have one of his former top advisers steve bannon essentially declaring war on the establishment branch of the republican party including mcconnell. take a listen to what he had to say over the weekend. >> right now it's a season of war against a gop establishment. not my war. this is our war. you all didn't start it. the establishment started it, but i will tell you one thing, you all are going to finish it. >> you have a number of republicans saying that bannon's rhetoric is not actually helpful to moving the agenda forward including senator susan collins who made that point over the weekend. for his part, the president is reaching out to some establishment republicans. he golfed with senator lindsey graham on saturday and also with senator rand paul on sunday. passes to approve that. this is what we've been hearing about health care. this is what we've been hearing about tax reform. this is what we're hearing about legislation from the very beginning. over and over again. where they don't do regular order. they get a couple of people behind closed doors to try to totally restructure one sixth of the economy. totally restructure the united states tax code. without having hearings, without having regular order. without having any sanity and then they're shocked when it doesn't pass. tax cut proposal that's not tax reform. it's massive deficit finance tax cuts, would say joe it is remarkable that the president's cabinet is meeting today. over 80% of puerto rico remains without power. this isn't the focus of the president's cabinet meeting today with his assembled cabinet secretaries to deal with the humanitarian disaster that continues to unfold on american soil, of course the mass of disaster in california. these are all urging issues and just seems to me that the tax reform proposal should be subordinated to that. for no other reason, there doesn't seem to be a realistic pathway forward to passing it. >> mika, again, we had a discussion earlier today about this so-called voters value summit or values voters. doesn't matter what you call them. they aren't what they say they are. praising steve bannon and praising donald trump. they certainly are not conservative. anybody giving a standing ovation for this man is not a conservative. not a conservative in the classic sense. not a conservative. envisioned by reagan or buckley. these people are not conservative standing. now we have their president that they worship talking about a tax reform package that will blow a hole in the deficit and cause the national debt to explode even more. we have a $20 trillion debt. it is -- it will suffocate growth for anybody under 45 or 50. for the next 30 or 40 years. they're talking about digging us even deeper in that hole. >> with that, let's turn to cnbc sara eisen. live at the new york stock exchange. new analysis on the republican tax plan. what are you hearing. >> mika, pretty ambitious numbers on the corporate tax cut and how it will impact workers. this comes from the counsel of economic advisers which is the white house economic advisers. he says americans would see their incomes rising $4,000 if president trump's corporate tax cut goes through. remember, the red line here for the president on corporate taxes is to lower the rate to 20% from the 35% now. walk through it with reporters yesterday saying, look, if companies get more profits, they'll invest more in machines and they'll have to hire more high skilled workers who will be paid more. well, guess what, most mainstream economists say there's no way because the other argument is that if companies get more profits in the form of lower taxes, they'll just buy back stock or reinvest in dividends. give some to worker wages and hire new workers. it's hard to see a scenario where all of that money would go into worker's pockets. clearly the trump administration is trying to counter this narrative that the cuts would only benefit the upper income americans. in fact the tax policy initiative which is a nonpartisan think tank saying middle income taxpayers would only receive 10% of the benefit of a corporate tax rate cut and most of it would go to the upper 20% so that's currently the debate. wall street does remain optimistic. it is boosting the stock market in the form of higher profits. fifth straight weekly gain and near record highs. >> that's the tension right there. cnbc sara eisen, thank you very much. mark, this is you have the white house putting out papers acting like it's 1975 when we've actually seen corporate profits explode. and they don't give them higher wages. there's a reason wages remain fairly flat and why over the past five years employment participation rate es have been historically low in the low 60s. the idea that corporations make bigger profits, they're going to hire more people to look at machines in their factories. is pure fiction. >> it's interesting. look at political handicappers. interesting to break down why do people think that. one reason people think that one big reason i think is because the people who are selling the plant from the president on down haven't convinced the public this is an euurgent need. one of the big problems not just with the filter or democrats, but republicans and some populists like steve bannon a very high proportion go to the wealthiest americans. until they solve that pr problem, their chances of possessing this are a lot lower. >> mika, any time you talk about tax reform, again, so let's go back, if it were 1980 and you were running like ronald reagan was running and top tax rates were in the what, 70s. if there are actually were middle class tax cuts, to be given from income tax cuts, then it would make sense. now any time you're talking about tax reform, you're talking about the top 1%. the top 2%. the top 5% the top corporations because tax rates have been flattened over the past 30-35 years. there's not a tax cut unless you're going to cut payroll taxes. there's not a tax cut that you can put out there that's substantial that middle class voters are going to say wow. that saves me a ton of money unless you do it from state level like california, illinois, new york, or connecticut. >> after that i'm not sure how democrats or republicans at this point negotiate with president trump in good faith given everything that's happened, let alone the public trust. brings us to next story. private planes aside, raising an entirely different set of ethical and possibly legal questions for the trump administration. new reporting just out from forbes, looks goo commerce secretary wi secretary ross's left $2 billion off financial disclosure report. >> wait, i'm sorry. did you say $200,000 that's a lot of money. >> no actually, $2 billion. >> no million with an m. >> no that would be b with a b. >> billion. >> off his financial disclosure. >> 2 billion. wait: wait. wait. he left $2 billion off of his financial disclosure form. >> look, the president's son doesn't put gender on document. why are we surprised. >> that would be like meeting with a bunch of russians and not putting that on your disclosure form. >> yes >> nobody would do that. >> while ross says he followed all the rules, the hidden assets are now raising questions of whether or not he violated federal rules or created any conflicts of interest. joining us now it will author of that report. dan alexander covers the president for forbes making s"f. talking about $2 billion left after the financial disclosure. when was this revealed. how did you find this out. >> the laws are that if you own any assets you have to disclose them 67 them. if you transferred any assets dp they produced income in the previous year, you still have to disclose them. what's going on here is he's saying well, i got rid of the assets and so therefore i don't have to disclose them, but the net effect is that you now have a guy who claims he's worth 2.9, $3 billion something like that w who has the vast majority of assets hidden from the public. >> the question is when did he actually get rid of the assets. before or after he was in the administration. >> right after he found out that donald trump was going to win the election. so right after the, you know, election he probably assumed hey, this is a guy i've been working with throughout the campaign. i've known for years. odds are i might take a roll in government. maybe move some assets around. >> wilbur ross the person who told me about this. what originally happened is we've been tracking wilbur ross's net worth for years at forbes. last year we thought he was worth $2.9 billion. i looked at financial disclosure report. i was tatai tallying up the num i contacted him and said we're going to take you off of the forbes list. he was traveling in asia at the time. when he got back, he called me up and said, look, what you're missing here is that over $2 billion in trusts for me family members which are not on the disclosure report. >> so you're saying he confessed. >> he said that's what he did. >> how did he sound and why did he not disclose it. did he say. >> he sounded comfortable about it i think he thinks he's following all of the rules. and he thinks that because he no longer, quote, unquote, owns this. they're in trust for his family. he does not have to disclose it. the part that he might not have taken into account is that even if he does no longer lose assets. they produce income and hard to imagine $1 million of diversified assets do not produce income he still would have to disclose it. >> is there any sense you've gotten a report. has he failed to meet the disclosure requirement? is it black and white or is it more ambiguous than that. >> the rule is pretty clear. if you made income on the assets over $200 you have to disclose it. what's a little trickier is whether any trillion tcriminali he intentionally did this in order to deceive the public and not disclose his assets. proving intent is very difficult thing to do. in this case, the fact that he told me about it suggests that it doesn't seem to be like he's really trying very hard to hide all this stuff. >> drain the swamp. we're on it. daniel alexander from "forbes" magazi magazine. thank you very much. great report. up next on on "morning joe. >> i love michigan and i must tell you come november to be specific, november 8th, with your help we are going to win and we are going to win big and we are going to the white house -- >> michigan did deliver for donald trump in november but critics say he's not doing much to return the favor. his plan to kill obamacare subsidies could hit his own voting bloc especially hard. we talked to one of the state's leading congressman next on "morning joe." we all want restful sleep. that's why nature's bounty melatonin is made to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. so you'll be ready for whatever tomorrow brings. because mom's love is unconditional. even at 6am. nature's bounty melatonin. we're all better off healthy. looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? start here. or here. even here. and definitely here. at fidelity, we're available 24/7 to make retirement planning simpler. we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand. now to the impact of president trump's executive orders on health care, including the decision to halt funding to cost sharing subsidies for low income people on obamacare. 70% of those benefiting live in states trump won including 4 million people in the 30 states trump won and of the ten states with the highest percentage of consumers who benefit, nine of them voted for trump. joining us now, dan kilde from michigan what are you hearing about constituents. >> they're anxious about it and what they are beginning to understand is that they are going to see significantly higher premium increases as a result of this decision and i think for the president and by extension for republicans it's really going to be a difficult moment to suddenly own what they have been blaming democrats for for eight years and that is these really significant premium increases, this now becomes a pretty significant problem for the president. now we ought to be doing something about this. what we're seeing in the senate is some leadership on the help committee to try to get their arms around this issue. i wish we saw some of that in the house. we ought to get back to -- and this sounds very processy, we ought to get back to legislating the way we are supposed to. >> regular order. >> put these before committees, let them mark up bills, have a real conversation and produce a product that maybe we can all move forward on. >> mark halprin, whether or not you're for or against obamacare, this is politically wrong. >> he's forcing democrats to the bargaining table. i don't think the president thinks that this is good policy except as a gambit to try to force big changes and republicans own this now. they got elected saying they could manage health care. >> i think the president betting that congress is going to act hasn't actually been a very good bet in the last nine months or so, especially doing it the way he does, not offering any leadership, not offering any substantive policy answer but simply throwing it to congress as if we're some sort of jury and come back out and -- >> and to be taunted into those decisions which i mean -- >> it doesn't work that way. >> in fact, i believe it has the opposite reaction when you taunt or threat politician to politician. steve, you would know better. >> how bullish is the democratic conference becoming about the chances of taking the majority back? >> i think there's some optimism. we have to be careful about this. i don't think it's enough not to be them or not to be him. if 2016 taught us anything it's not enough just not to be the republicans or not be donald trump. i think what we have to be careful to do is present an affirmative message, to talk about a plan -- that is more substantive than any sort of slogan. if we do that, if we offer the american people a real alternative and commit that we're actually going to get back to legislating the way that we used to in washington, then i think we have a chance. i don't think it's a slam dunk. we have to work for this. >> do you think your leadership is capable of doing that? >> i think so. first, we ought to make the leadership decisions the way we normally do. after the election, we get the members together and we decide what the leadership should look like for the next year. i think any focus on that, some of my colleagues have raised this already, any focus on that right now i think in some ways is an opportunity for members to call attention to themselves. people who are interested in better leadership should just exercise better leadership themselves. it's up to us as individual members. >> what's working right in your view about how things are going through the trump administration and congress now? >> nothing. nothing. it's an embarrassment for this country to have a president that fails to lead, who is not even leaving up to the promises that he made. just saying it over and over again doesn't make it true. when he goes up the other day saying that he's ahead of schedule, what? ahead of schedule? you haven't even started yet. the only thing they've done that they can take any credit for i suppose is to rollback some of the protections through the congressional review act, the regulatory process that was put in place during the obama era, some of that has been rolled back. beyond that, there's really nothing. the russian sanctions, i suppose. we did that over his objection. >> right. there you go. congressman dan kilde, thank you for your candor this morning. >> thank you. joe, final thoughts this morning. well mika, you listened to the congressman, what he's saying on the record, you have a lot of republicans saying off the record, this is -- we've been talking about it all morning. a foreign policy that doesn't work, a domestic policy that doesn't work, a congress that doesn't work. it's not functioning and what a bitter irony for people that voted for donald trump because their health care system didn't work, because washington didn't work. it's now more dysfunctional than its ever been and we still have three and a half years to go. >> maybe. on tomorrow's show we'll talk to the driving forces behind a new film about lyndon johnson and jfk. it comes out early next month. director rob reiner and actor woody hairson who plays the 36th president will both join us right here on set. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle with a lot of news to cover. starting with president trump and the senate majority leader ready to break bread today. can they break the tension and the dead lock with bannon the bomb thrower? >> there's a time and season for everything and right now it's a season of war against a gop establishment. >> how about that? and a week into the worst wildfires into inn california's history with 40 people killed, now 24 hour shifts for 11,000 firefighters are taking their toll. >> this is my house.

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