Mental gymnastics. Up and down. Ive heard that before. Up and down. Up and down. Donald trump has plenty of love hate relationships. So is Steve Bannons mea culpa enough to bring him back into President Trumps loving inner circle . You have to take the oath, you know. Michael wolffs new book describes a white house in chaos. We also have with us Steven Miller. No, we wont. That was something. Holy moly. I could have told you. The thing is, i dont know if were supposed to be shocked by that, but barnicle no. We saw that last season, in the debut season of trump the presidency. I already saw that Steven Miller episode and was like, wait a second. I dont know what this is. Maybe one of his principle policy advisers sent on to, i mean, embarrass himself, speaking as jake tapper aptly pointed out, to an audience of one. Audience of one. It was horrifically embarrassing. When you worked, elise, for other president s and the state department, we would actually send people that worked for the United States of america on sunday shows to send messages to friends and enemies alike across the globe. Now we send white house sends people out just to kiss up to the president of the United States. Its their opportunity. And whats so remarkable, Everybody Knows that is the only purpose. It is, as jake tapper said, to be obsequeious and humiliate yourself in hopes that the president will be excited. President bush had men and women working for him that were representing the interest of the United States and the American People. It was about the american peo e people, not just about performing for an audience of one. Right. Embarrassingly, which is what we got yesterday with the Steven Miller show. Its a show weve seen before and well see again. Hes playing to a guy with autocratic tendencies. I had friends that went to paris over the holiday. Paris, texas, right . Paris, france. They said they were embarrassed to be americans. They said it was the first time that it was sort of chilling, that they didnt even want to share where they were from. You know, will also this morning hold on a second. I have to Say Something here. Youre not going to like this. Just people being embarrassed. Andrew sullivan, Andrew Sullivan has really i have to say when barack obama became president of the United States, i believed that his column had turned into a cheering section for barack obama, no matter what. And he has somebody told me a month ago you have to start reading Andrew Sullivan again. Every column spot on and important. Listen to this. Good way to start the week, everybody. Andrew sullivan talked about optimism in the age of trump. Part of this, i guess, is because so many other indicators in the world are remarkably good right now. Hes saying in spite of donald trump. Economic growth is now ubequitous, even in japan. In america we are in a record eighth year. Lets say that again. Eighth year of economic growth. Not first year. We are in eighth year of economic growth, bringing peek employment and finally a bump in earnings. Median Household Income is now the highest in history. Let me say that again. Median income for households highest in history. Dow is at 25,000. Medicine has effectively abolished most diseases that used to kill us all in mass numbers. Illegal border crossings into the u. S. Have fallen to record lows. As we were saying every day on this show before donald trump was president of the United States that the wall was a stupid idea because, actually, border crossings were at record lows even at the end of the Obama Administration. Going out. Crime rates are at historic lows. And they were when barack obama was president. This past year, we just saw was new yorks lowest since they started taking records. And they keep declining in ways that simply baffle criminologists. Fossil fuels, global conflict continues its centuries old decline. Isis has been destroyed in its own heartland. I must say, something that we were saying was happening even before donald trump was elected president of the United States. Anyone with a phone has access to more learning and knowledge than at any point in human history. More people live in democracies today than a dozen years ago, something that we said last week, despite all of our concerns. And they kill fewer people wars kill fewer people in a far more populous world and you see the biggest decline in global poverty ever. The point is that Andrew Sullivan believes, and i believe, that we may survive this Trump Presidency in spite of donald trump and so many of the people around, who just arent qualified to be in the white house. But there are areas that we have to remain vigilant on the rule of law. I think its just how he treats great you point that out. There are reasons to be optimistic. You can also be embarrassed at the same time. The fact that the president of the United States is not stable. He is not. You can say whatever you want to say about him. Its embarrassing. Hes not stable. That said, a lot of good things are going for us, not only here, but across the globe. If donald trump and republicans in washington would just do their job and do it in a way that respects constitutional norms and, finally, if the university of alabama wins tonight. That will be Andrew Sullivan so glad you interrupted me for that. Mike, the kids on the upper west side, think about how thrilled they are. Theyre waking up this morning and theyre going, oh, my god, finally, a national, National Championship. I know. This is actually dixies version of the super bowl. Alabama, which is birmingham is an hour and a half, two hours from atlanta, against georgia, whose campus is about an hour from atlanta. Theyre both going to atlanta. This is like dixie youth baseball championships we had growing up. Foss point, mississippi, would play nothing captures the imagination of the people in new york than alabama. To your point about Andrew Sullivans piece, once you get away from what we were doing for a living, what everybody in our industry does for a living which verges on, rightfully so, obsession with the collapse of the Trump Administration and the questions about the president s stability, this is an enormously optimistic country every day. Yes. Every day. People get up, go to work, raise their families, pay their taxes, with a sense of optimism. Not to get too off base here but last night oprah did that, she gave a speech that gave hope and reminded people what is so great about this country and how we still have so much to be hopeful for. Im glad she was given that award and had that platform. And well talk to about all the women. Yes. I disagree with george w. Bush on a lot of things. I had problems with bill clinton. We could go back 50 years and find the weaknesses and the bad policies of this president or that president. But weve had half a century of president s. Weve had over 200 years of president s for the most part, who have put the good of america and put the good of people thats the bottom line. First. And these men who are being booed, john mccain, by republicans at the california gop gatherings, george w. Bush and george h. W. Bush at south florida gatherings, these men are too good for the people who even boo them. Donald trump is just not in their league because he puts himself first. We are seeing at the end of 50 years the results of the post war order that the United States helped put together and lead. And that is what donald trump wants to deconstruct. That is what america must fight against. Also with us this morning, National Political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. New york times reporter, jeremy peters. Lets get this in. The Trump Administration spent much of the weekend fighting back against Michael Wolffs book with a fullon offensive on the sunday shows and tweets by the president. In a string of Early Morning tweets saturday, the president defended his Mental Fitness, claiming now that russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American Public, the democrats and their lapdogs, fake news Mainstream Media are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence. He goes on. Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being like really smart. Like really smart. Why did he put like in there . Like, you know, kind of like. Is he doing valley girl speak in a tweet . You wasted six characters . I guess thats not very smart. In the 1960s, like like should tell him not to put like in there. Crooked hillary also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from very successful businessman to top tv star to president of the United States on my first try. I think that would qualify as not matter but genius, a very stable genius at that. And here is the president speaking at his camp david retreat with cabinet members and congressional leaders, challenging wolffs book that quotes Staff Members who describe his behavior as childlike. This morning you were tweeting about your mental state. Why did you feel the need to tweet about that this morning . Only because i went to the best colleges or college. I went to a i had a situation where i was a very excellent student. Came out. Made billions and billions of dollars, became one of the top Business People. Went to television. And for ten years was a tremendous success, as you probably have heard, ran for president one time and won and then i hear this guy that does not know me, doesnt know me at all. By the way, didnt interview me for three said he interviewed me for three hours in the white house. Didnt exist, okay . Its in his imagination. Said no smart guy. No. In the world. I never met its kind of like war heroes. War heroes refuse to talk about why theyre war heroes. I found for the most part that people who really are smart dont talk about it. Yeah. And thats a guy i dont think not well. That never i dont think ive ever met anybody more insecure. Being elected president of the United States has actually made him even more insecure, which i just can i point out weve met a lot of people who made a lot of money and definitely a lot of people in television who are really narcissistic and stupid. Yeah. So im not sure why that would be on his resume. Correlation here. Unbelievably narcissistic and stupid. I stare at the ceiling paranoid. Stare at the ceiling and go why are those dumb people making so much money . Its incredible. Jeremy peters, donald trump, the president of the United States are tweeting out the i are smart strategy over the weekend. What is behind that i want to say thinking. I dont think its thinking. No. That amoebalike response to outside stimuli . These accusations in the book cut deep, joe. And, you know why they cut deep . Because while bannon is out there, saying, well, this isnt really what i meant to say and other white house officials are denying they said it all together, the fact is that this is what white house Officials Say privately. They are concerned about the president s outbursts. They are concerned, at times, about his childlike impulsiveness and nothing that really is in the general idea, in Michael Wolffs book is irrefutable. That is that people around the president are concerned about his behavior. Why else sent Administration Officials out on National Television for basically what was meant to be a public execution of a former white house aide . Thats what they did. They sent the cia director, Steven Miller, who was, of course, notably Steve Bannons former protege during the campaign and for a time in the white house out there for the ultimate indignity, saying that bannon was vindictive, that he had no role in the president s success. I mean, that was meant to just be the ultimate kill shot. And i think that explains why the white house is acting so savageely and mercilessly. We want viewers to know whats happening behind the scenes that they may not hear on other shows. Like, for instance, during Barack Obamas first two years as president , we all had one senior democratic senator after another come to us and basically say hes a rookie. He doesnt know what hes doing. Its embarrassing. He always thinks hes the smartest guy in the room. It would serve him well to actually talk to us. Then, of course, they would all go up and say barack obama, greatest guy ever. Well, here, weve seen this weekend one cabinet member after another go out and say oh, ive never said hes not a moron on the stupidest person on the face of the earth and not as dumb as a you know, whatever. Rock. But weve all heard it. Weve all heard it from republicans on the hill. Weve all heard it from cabinet members. Weve all heard it from some of the same people. And i can say it, who were lying on tv this weekend. They have all said he is like a child. He has no attention span. He doesnt read and he is getting worse, his ability to focus is getting worse. Look at his schedule. The executive time now that is expanding out, so he spends less time in the office and less time just staring at a tv. We read a piece because obviously the Michael Wolff book came out and was decrcreating a sensation. And one of the things that he did controversially in the book was take off the record conversations and put them on the record. Now for the public who dont really care about the washington inside game, that was quite relevantry. There are deeper truths in that book in terms of what people who work for donald trump say about him privately versus what they say about him publicly. We said this. Were not going to betray offtherecord conversations but we can say that these things ring true in the book. And what rings true is the widespread contempt that a lot of these aides have for the president of the United States. The questioning of his intelligence, competence, experience. All these things, things that weve heard now for the last 12 months, as he has taken office and now were seeing it sort of being aired in this book. Jeremy peters, i thought it was very interesting. Through the weekend you would find somebody say oh, thats not true, as if its going to discredit the entire book. Somebody standing on the top of a garbage pile in the middle of the astrodome and they find one thing. Oh, wait, this isnt when the truth is we all know that the overall portrait painted by Michael Wolffs book is deadly accurate. He said some things that werent factually correct about us. He said some things that were factually incorrect about this show. But he got the bigger points right. Details in some places may be off. Generalliy speaking, there is not anything that steve bannon or other senior aides are saying in this book that weve not heard privately from senators, members of congress, people who used to work on this campaign. That is just a fact. Now, i think the question is, joe, is steve bannon just the only one to get caught here . Is he the only one to get busted . And are we six, 12, 18 months from now going to see kind of a dam break of these similar criticisms of trump . Because i dont think this is sustainable. I dont think you can have this level of chaos and dysfunction in the white house. And, quite honestly, this level of disloyalty to the president. I mean, thats why these allegations are spilling out the way they are now, because people dont feel any loyalty to him because they cant trust when hes going to go off on them. So, i do wonder if this is just the beginning and if steve bannon is the only one right now to get caught saying these things that everyone else has been saying. Its a great point. Theres no need to wonder. Mika, what youre going to find is that as we move forward, youre going to find one person after another person after another person that leaves the white house who are going to want to salvage their reputation and salvage their career. Theyre all going to have their versions of how i tried to save the republican. Right. And, i mean, its going to happen. We are hearing we hear it all off the record. And, i mean, the dam is going to break at some point. Its impossible this continues. Im not sure how it breaks and im not sure if republicans will have the courage to be part of that. I dont think so. Thats amazing. I think theyre going to have to be destroyed in the mid term elections. Its amazing. It really is. Its amazing that Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan we just have to focus on those two right now. Theyre the leaders. Its amazing that those two continue to stand by this man after he has insulted them, first of all. And also after they know hes doing irreparable harm to the party. Thats correct, and to the country. And Lindsey Graham has completely look, completely flipped. And so, Mike Barnicle for dinner at the white house. I guess, and to golf at his exquisitely laid out 18hole he has