Sharing a picture of a champagne celebration last night at trump hotel in washington. How about heartless . Heres the president s former campaign manager, cory lewandoski, about hearing of a child with Downs Syndrome being separated from her parents. Read about a 10 grld girl with Downs Syndrome who was taken from her mother and put in a cage. Wahwah. How dare you. How dare you illegally here are the children. Torn from their families, caged by the american government. Babies, sent to shelters, mothers, begging to keep their kids. Heres capitol hill where members of congress are talking. And debating signing letters, some fighting to end this heinous policy. Others, defending it. And heres the president of the United States. Again claiming he is somehow not personally responsible for this policy, that is representing families apart. As a result of democratssupported loopholes in our federal laws, most illegal immigrant families and minors from Central America, who arrive unlawfully at the border, cannot be detained together or removed together, only released. These are crippling loopholes that cause family separation. Which we dont want. With us we have msnbc contributor mike barn kill. Republican strategist and msnbc political analyst, susan del pursio. Are you at all thinking of walking away from the party . Still holding on there are still people in my party who are willing to stand up for whats right. And morning joe economic analyst Steve Rattner, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie d. C. , kasie hunt and pulitzer prizewinning historian, and author of the soul of america the battle for our better angels. Jon meachum. Well enjoy joe coming back together and hearing his voice on this. In a moment well get to President Trumps meeting with House Republicans on capitol hill. First we think its important to update you on the scene at the southern border. A report overnight from the Associated Press attempts to answer a question that the Trump Administration has dodged for the last few days. Where are the girls . And where are the young toddlers among Migrant Children separated from their families at the border . The a. P. Reports that babies and other very Young Children are being sent to at least three tenderage shelters in south texas. Thats what theyre called according to the a. P. , lawyers and medical providers who have visited the rio grande shelters described playrooms of crying preschoolage children in crisis. The report unconfirmed by msnbc says the government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young Migrant Children in houston. According to numbers from u. S. Customs and border protection, 2,235 families have been apprehended at the border between may 5, when the zero tolerance policy put out by the attorney general and the Trump Administration was put in place. And june 9th, among more than 4500 family members, were 2,342 children, who were designated as unaccompanied. Yesterday the former head of u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told nbcs Andrea Mitchell that some migrant family separations will end up being permanent. How are these families supposed to get back together . Dont forget that just two weeks ago, they revealed they lost track of 15 00 kids. Now you have to keep track of kids and the parents, i can tell you from experience its more difficult than it sounds. You end up with parents on one track, the child ends up on another track. In they dont reunite these kids with their parents right away, the kids will be stuck here in the United States for years and the parents will be down in honduras or guatemala with no idea where their child is and no way to reunite. The politics of this on capitol hill. I dont think anybody reporting on this i dont know whats going on at fox. But its hard, i cant even, i couldnt even read the script, i was beginning to cry. Im note sure how anybody can defend this without feeling a pit in their stomach. You ask susan dell pursio if she was thinking about leaving the party. Steve schmidt who ran john mccains 2008 president ial campaign at 2 41 a. M. Tweeted that hes leaving the Republican Party. That was overnight. Steve schmidt. Not just any republican, a leader in the party has renounced his membership in the Republican Party. Thats where some people are. I think the reality of it is you listen to President Trump well say it again, every time he says its a democratic loophole, the president can end it with a phone call, a stroke of a pen, full stop, period, end of sentence. The question i guess is kasie hunt what to do with the energy and outrage . Whats the productive way to change this . How do you fix this . Theyre trying on capitol hill and the house, theyre trying in the senate to some extent, Chuck Schumer says it has to be done through the president and not legislation. The reality again, is that the president could change this by picking up the phone. This was an administrative policy change, now could congress in theory do something about it . Yes, but theres really no clear path forward. Democrats are arguing that essentially the president is holding these kids hostage and this is a repeat of what he did with dreamers, created a crisis, created a vulnerable population, and then used that as political leverage to turn around and try to push through the other immigration policies that he championed on the campaign trail. That is whats going on in the house. The two bills are much more sweeping. Theyre not narrow, they dont just deal with this question, there is language that would potentially address the family separation that is included in those bills. But they also sharply curtail legal immigration. They change the rules for asking for asylum. It makes it much more difficult to do that. In the senate, the path is potentially a little bit different. But there are so many competing proposals, democrats are saying look, its a snakepits with what one aide said to me about negotiating with republicans on immigration. The congress hasnt been able to do anything about this in literally decades. They could add something very narrow to a mustpass defense spending bill thats on the floor this week. That seems to me to be the likeliest scenario. Where we get something small and narrow to deal with this. And to put an end to it. But you know the reality is, they are not acting right now on this. The political will, i will say much different. What mika said at the top of the show, everybody being on the same page for like the first time in quite frankly from what i can remember, the entirety of the Trump Administration to date, i mean people dont like this. They dont want this. Across the board. Republicans, democrats, the problem is, that its not clear they can get their act together and actually stop it. There were Standing Ovations and backslapping on capitol hill last night when President Trump went up there late yesterday, meeting with House Republicans for 45 minutes. Speaker paul ryan began the closeddoor session by discussing the gops compromise immigration bill that had just been filed. President trump spoke briefly about immigration and reportedly ran through a number of topics, including what he called the hoax russia investigation. North korea, the cost of jet fighters, trade, and mocking recently defeated congressman mark sanford, who was not in the room, before the president returned to immigration. Sources in the room say trump said he is 1,000 with them to pass a sprawling immigration bill. And he told them the burden for getting citizenship would be significant and that it would be linked to the construction of the border wall. He said quote, you have to work work work, then after 10, 12, maybe 13 years, you have to chance to become a citizen, trump went on. So youre talking 12, 13 years out and then you dont even get a green card until the wall is built so this is an incentive to get the wall built faster. People in the republicansonly capitol hill meeting also said the president addressed his controversial policy on Migrant Children. Reportedly saying quote, we got to take care of separation, its too nasty. Will he could take care of it. And members say trump said that he had talked with his daughter, ivanka, about the images of children in cages and she asked him to find a way to put a stop to it. Shes not said that publicly. But in his public remarks yesterday, the president continued to insist that the responsibility rests with democrats, he tweeted this, democrats are the problem. They dont care about crime and want Illegal Immigrants no matter how bad they may be to pour into and infest our country like ms13. They cant win on their terrible policies so they view them as potential voters. President said this at an event in washington as a result of democratssupported loopholes in our federal laws, most illegal immigrant families and minors from Central America who arrive unlawfully at the border cannot be detained together, or removed together. Only released. These are crippling loopholes that cause family separation. Which we dont want. I want to read Steve Schmidts tweet actually. He says 29 years and nine months ago i registered to vote and became a member of the Republican Party. Which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery, and stand for the dignity of human life. Today i renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of trump. And i do, ill just take my knowledge of how donald trump thinks and what i know about him, and i think there may have been some sort of strange backplan in his head where maybe he would blame it on the democrats and sign this away and be the hero to change it. Its too late, its yours, youve done it and there are babies who are hurting right now and that wont end. And that trauma is permanent. This is a massive pr fail. And as far as his daughter saying something to him . Ivanka trump has counseled to the president , you need to step up, i know you wont. You need to step up and speak for yourself. But the way trump works with people close to him, like ivanka and other who is work for him, is those people dont have to step up and take questions, theyre too feckless, too stupid or smart enough not to actually put themselves out there. They get protected by the inner circle. Which is very small around this president. People like secretary nielson, Sarah Huckabee sanders, sean spicer at one point, theyre forced out there to make fools of themselves. Because they have no choice, they think. You do have a choice. And we need more people to step up. We are seeing more republicans, susan del persio, theres a list and its a sign of hope at a time where it really is very difficult to report on a story like this without shaking. And you have republican senators, some who are up for reelection, you have rick scott who is seeking the senate in florida. Who again came out against this. And you even have two republican governors, both up for reelection from massachusetts and maryland, who withdraw the National Guard troops they had sent. Republicans are stepping up. What this is starting to seem like is a lot will charlottesville. An issue that has racial overtones, dividing the nation. The difference is last time they had steve bannon to resign, that kind of blew over and let people kind of go forward. I think donald trump is digging in. And what hes missing is this is bad politics, bad policy and what concerns him the most is bad tv. Thats all that comes through for him. You know, mika, this is well beyond politics. It is. I mean the soul, the character, and the definition of the america we know, the america that we grew up with, the america that the world became familiar with, is now been called into question by the actions of a single man. Donald trump. And his associates. There are 286 members of the Republican Party serving in both the house and the senate. They were elected by individual citizens in their districts and in their states. Where are they . Susan, with all due respect, you say theyre starting to step up and say theyre muted, theyre muted. Whats worse is this is a value decision this is who we are as a valuebased decision. We saw the president , with the g7 and now to even just yesterday, saying it cost too much. This is not a financial issue. This is who we are as a nation. And i have, i stand by that 1,000 . This shows who donald trump is. It goes back to when he said he didnt want people from shole countries and he only wanted people from norway. Youre right this is a time where americans especially republicans, if they want to hold on to any sense of dignity, have to speak out. And i think were going to see what happens in the mid term elections and thats going to change a lot of peoples opinions. Steve rattner and take it to meachum. You said youre starting to see republicans speak out. The question is whether they can get themselves together. This mass of people on capitol hill that kasie was talking about, can actually come together and troy to accomplish something. Whats i think to me one of the more sickening aspects of this is that what trump effectively doing is using these children as pawns. Hes using them as pawns to try as a deterrent to try to get other families from coming here and hes using them from pawns on capitol hill to try to force the passage of some immigration bill that he likes as opposed to what we very simple, a very simple bill that simply said, you dont no longer have to separate parents from children, if you choose to detain them. Which is the source of all this problem. So its really, its heartbreaking to see this happening. But its even more heartbreaking to see our president using Young Children as pawns in a political struggle. And i dont want to get into the weeds, because i truly believe this is larger than just politics, you have three republican members of the senate announce donald, no more federal judges, were shutting you down. Were not going to vote for your reappointees, but anyway, jon meachum, back to the central theme of what i think might be going on, beneath the surface of the politics is the soul of america. The fight for the soul of america. And i cant recall in my memory, which is fading, actually as i get older, but even, even my sense of history, since the mccarthy, in the early 50s, has there been such a dark moment in the soul of this countrys politics . Well one of the things i think we have to confront is when we say this isnt america, in fact, it is. Its the worst part of america. Its the darker instincts, but theyve been with us from the very beginning. And theyre with us now. And what so many of us hoped is that we believed in a kind of idea and reality of progress. And that in fact, you could move forward. And what President Trump represents, i think, is the fullest and most vivid and frankly the scariest manife manifestation of these dark impulses in the countrys soul. And the battle is always for every given era, the battle is account reagan view of im going to keep quoting this until people yank me off when he said, in his farewell address, that part of being the shining city on the hill this is ronald reagan, okay, is to greet all the lost pilgrims from all the lost places hurtling through the darkness towards home. Now if youre hurtling through the darkness toward home, well separate you from your children. I would urge republicans to think about how do you want to be viewed by history . Because i promise, the fox cycle, the breitbart cycle is very quick. History is forever. And if i, if i had three minutes with President Trump, i would say we know you care about success. We know you care about ratings. Why dont you do what other great president s have done, reach beyond your base, talk, surprise us. Whats the one thing we all say about Richard Nixon . He went to china. Trump has the capacity here, and its in his selfinterest. Im not asking him to do the right thing, because i dont think hes capable of that in a moral sense. But i shouldnt say that, we shouldnt cast the first stone, but why not. Why not do the right thing. Why not talk about hope instead of fear . Surprise us and reap the benefits. I dont think that day is going to come. But i want to rephrase mikes question, taking part of your answer, jon meachum. You say that is part of america. There is a part of america that has these elements and i would, i would agree. We have a long way to go, still. When it comes to race. But have we ever seen anything in recent memory that parallels having sexism, racism, white supremacy, thuggery, bigotry, along with complicit men and women within the administration at the top . No, not at the top. Complicity in congress. Weve never seen this. Weve never seen someone with these attributes at the top. Can you tell me that im incorrect in saying that the president of the United States has displayed these attributes in his voice in his words, and in his policies . You are correct. And this is as if George Wallace had won in 1968, thats where we are. If we had been talking 50 years ago today, the level of violence in the country would have been incredibly high, we would have just buried senator kennedy. Just buried dr. King, heading into the Chicago Democratic National convention, you had an immense amount of violence, both on the left and on the right. George wallace carried five states, 13. 5 of the vote in november 68, but he didnt win. And the one throughline here from charlottesville to this issue, is to use your phrase, a return to the mo