next priority. if he wasn't serious about it, i don't know why he would say that. i expect that marjorie taylor greene is going to try to make this motion. it'll be around johnson trying to move money for ukraine. i think it'll blow up on her, in that i find it hard to see democrats doing to mike johnson what they did to kevin mccarthy. it only takes a few republicans to do this if all the democrats are voting with them, but if all the democrats are not voting with them, then this could easily fail. this threat that has been hanging over speakers for a long time could quickly go away, and it may ease passage for ukraine funding. >> it feels we may be approaching a bit of an inflection point. brendan buck, terrific analysis, as always. we'll talk again very soon. thank you for joining us this morning. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this business friday morning and all week long. "morning joe" starts right now.

deep center. he certainly got enough of this one, didn't he? an absolute bomb to straightaway center, his first of the season. >> it's been untouchable. 11 strikeouts for corbin burns in his oriole debut. >> there's a base hit to right field. they're waving him home. here's the throw from solo. here's the play. he's -- oh, they got him! >> infield moves back. to right center, he is going to get the redemption. walk-off. the rangers win the opener. >> a walk-off baseball on opening day. some of the big moments yesterday, including the walk-off win for the texas rangers to begin their world series title defense. you also saw the ninth inning game-saving assist by the brand-new yankee, juan soto.

and the 11 strikeout debut with the baltimore orioles from ace pitcher corbin burns. meanwhile, last night in seattle, tyler o'neil set a major league record, homering in his fifth consecutive opening day game, as the red sox beat the mariners, 6-4. welcome. it is friday, march 29th. like you were saying yesterday, this red sox team may go undefeated. you know, the '27 yankees go through the years, and look at that performance last night. >> i just -- i don't like to -- you know, there is no doubt that jonathan lemire is right. this may be the best red sox team assembled yet. [ laughter ] through the years, and lemire last night called me at 1:00 and said, "you know, i think ted williams might be riding the

pine, if he were around on this team. may not be able to make this team." isn't that right, lemire? >> dream the impossible dream, joe. this is hope springs eternal. this red sox team, as we've been saying all winter long, they spent money, they're committed to winning, they built an all-star roster with a 5-2 player at every position. the sky is the limit for this particular old town team. >> i feel a little guilty, to be honest with you. but i will tell you this, you could not dream the impossible dream last night, lemire, because marc polymeropoulos was texting you, me, and mike barnicle every three minutes, not realizing the game -- >> i kept waking up. >> -- was on the west coast and it was every three minutes. devers, home run, okay. then, he fielded that well, at 10:47. 11:01, what do you think the

next pitch is going to be? now, luckily, luckily, i was up. i don't know if you saw it, but there was a shooting star from devil's lake, north dakota, all the way across to los angeles. a blinding light, incredible player, mr. nelson. grant nelson, absolutely incredible. fourth seed at alabama, going to be in the elite eight now for the second time in school history. crimson tide are the first team in this year's knockout tournament to knock out a number one seed. beat north carolina, 89-87. i'm on two hours' sleep. who would think i can read anything? alabama is now going to take on clemson. willie, i can't read anything.

i can't see anything because, well, right now, i can't even feel my teeth, i'm so tired. but i will tell you, this has been a wild ride if you're not uconn. i mean, this is uconn's tournament. they're massive. congratulations, i think, to illini won. congratulations to your dad. >> yes. >> the fighting illini in there, as well. but, yeah, this is uconn's tournament, but there are teams, like the fighting illini and alabama crimson tide that can still dream that they can get there. and clemson beat arizona yesterday. >> yeah. >> crazy stuff, huh? >> yeah, it was. so alabama/clemson, what looks like a football college playoff, like a national championship game in football, playing for the right to go to the final four. incredible. clemson looks really good. it's funny, the teams you don't think about all year, you see them in the tournament and go, wow, these guys are good,

including alabama. here's the clinching three-point play for clemson to beat alabama. beat north carolina by two points. uconn just rolling. the defending champ, it was a rematch of last year's national championship game against san diego state. they won by 30 points. and, yes, the place where my parents met, champaign, illinois, the fighting illini of illinois, beating iowa state by three points, the second seed. now, great season, they've gone to the elite eight, have the task of playing against one of the best teams we've seen in college basketball in a long time. >> i don't know why that started at 10:00 on the east coast. >> yeah. >> i don't know how many stayed up to see it, but uconn are dominant. in a season in college basketball where it is topsy-turvy, had a lot of teams ranked number one for stretches,

would hold it, then lose and fall down, uconn has come on so strong. it is their tournament to lose. doesn't mean they can't get picked off. it is march madness. but they are the prohibitive favorite at this point. we should note, the women's sweet 16 starts this afternoon. willie, i want to go back to you. your yankees fell after an inning and a half or so, chipped away. there had been panics. we lost garrick cole. but the steady yankees with a $450 million payroll. the new guy with really good throw that, i guess he was out at the plate. i'm not quite sure. >> oh, he was out. >> they called him out, so we'll let ya have it. >> whatever. >> they called him out, confirmed by the replay. yeah, fell down 4-0. nester cortez, the opening day starter because cole is out for a bit. but he pitched well beyond the first inning. it is true, joe, if you look at the -- if the yankees can pitch

this year, this is the open question for any team, if people get hurt, that lineup is brutal. i mean, there is no break in it for the opponent. so if you have soto and judge coming next, they're going to be very tough. but the division, the orioles look great, the jays, it'll be tough. >> i still got to say, when you're watching the yankees play the astros, it is really like, okay, it's hitler versus stalin. who are you going to cheer for? >> wow, wow. >> i guess, okay. >> measles and mumps. >> exactly, measles and mumps might be a better way to put it. that's quite something. but, no, you're right. the great thing, gene robinson, let's get to you because michigan is not in the tournament. >> no, they're not. >> mets lost, welcome. but when you get to the final 16

of these ncaa tournaments, the great thing is you can have kids that come out of nowhere. seriously, last night, you had this grant nelson guy that -- >> incredible. >> -- a couple games before, they handed him a basketball and he was dribbling like this. last night, he was the reincarnation of larry bird. they literally turned the ball over to the 6'11" guy, the point guard stopped bringing it down the court. they literally turned it over to this 6'11" kid from devil's lake, north dakota, who is dribbling between his legs. he's playing point guard. he's shooting three-pointers. he's stuffing the best player in north carolina, one of the best inside players in unc history. it's what's so great about college basketball. any kid at any given time can rise up like that. >> it was amazing. i'm like you this morning, joe, i'm running on fumes, because i stayed up to watch that game and then some of the uconn game, as

well. but grant nelson was amazing. he dominated inside. he dominated outside. it was -- and i'm kind of looking up, you know, googling, like, who is this kid? >> yeah. >> absolutely was just a star. if he can play like that again, there's no telling where this alabama team can go. they just -- you know, it seemed like they wouldn't catch up, they might not catch up, and then when they did, i don't know about you, but i just kind of had this strange feeling that they were going to find a way to win that game. and they did. it was amazing. >> yeah, you know, it was a tough battle up and down the court, and it was really brutal tough. willie and lemire, you ought to see the highlights later on. this kid started, i mean,

dominating inside, rebounds. suddenly, he sinks a three-pointer. suddenly, he is picking and poll ing rolling off the top of the key. he's shooting three-pointers. by the end, they hand the ball to him and said, you take it down. i swear. pass it to the 6'11" guy, dribbling between his legs, and he is running the offense for the last 20 minutes of the game. he, estrada, and other two, three kids you wouldn't have expected were the guys that rose up when the stars weren't having a good game. it was something to see. >> grant nelson turned into kevin durant last night. it was unbelievable. >> he did. >> as you say, the magic of this tournament is a guy like him and a team like alabama or a team even a lower seed that you've never heard of making these deep runs into the tournament. we'll be watching closely. do want to check in with katty kay and see how hard she's rolling her eyes as we're having this discussion. the level of exasperation.

>> i'm actually wondering why i was booked this morning, but, anyway, here i am. i'm reading. actually, look, joe, have you got "the wall street journal" and that great front page on evan gershkovich and his one year in prison? emma tucker has done a great job, reporting on his stolen year. i'm so glad they've done that. >> she really has, katty. what i love about what she's done since she's taken control of "the journal," i mean, it's always a great paper, even though the editorial page loses its mind once in a great while when they write about us. but look at that front page. i'm telling you, we understand what's at stake, but it takes a bold editor to say, "we're going to do this. we're going to make a point of

it." they keep putting full-page ads in. emma tucker is doing a great job over at "the journal" in this ways, but especially highlighting evan gershkovich's unbelievable plight in the former soviet union that is looking more and more like the soviet union every day. >> not to fly the flag, but have you noticed how many brits are at the top of american news organizations? just saying, worth noting. it's a lot of us. >> you're at the top of "morning joe" even though your family is a city fan. >> i'm definitely at the top of your sports coverage. >> well, you're going to be talking about the city/arsenal game on monday, i'm sure. >> i will be. that one, i will. happy son or happy husband, i have to choose between the two. >> good luck with that one. willie, what do we have today? by the way, on this, i guess, happy good friday, let's say blessed good friday to

everybody. >> yes. >> everybody watching today. >> we're going to talk much more about that. we're going to talk about evan gershkovich coming up in a moment. this is a one-year anniversary of his arrest. he's been in prison for a year now. he's been in prison for an entire year. we're going to talk much more about evan in a moment. we do want to turn to the news here with president biden's star-studded fundraiser at radio city music hall last night. the biden campaign says it raised more than $26 million at the event of 5,000 people attending. it was hosted by actor and comedian mindy kaling. special guests, queen latifah, lizzo, ben platt all performed. the highlight, a conversation between president biden and former presidents barack obama and bill clinton. it was moderated by stephen colbert. they talked about the war in gaza and the need to protect the democracy. they took japjabs at the

presumptive republican nominee, donald trump. some palestinian protesters interrupted the conversation among the presidents. a large group marched outside of radio city music hall, calling for an end to the war in gaza. let's bring in white house correspondent for "reuters," jeff mason. he was one of the few reporters inside radio city for last night's event. jeff, good morning. thanks for stopping through on your way out of town after the event last night. take us inside the room if you could. what was it like during that event? >> my pleasure, willie. it was electric in the room. there were more than 5,000 people in radio city music hall, so a lot of bodies, a lot of energy, a lot of excitement, especially to see, i think, the former presidents, and, of course, president biden. they came onto stage by being sort of lifted up with one of those platforms that comes up, so it was a very rock star moment. it was a rock star night for the democrats and for president biden. they had a long discussion with

colbert, everything from peace in the middle east to the economy. the former presidents laid out a case for biden. we've been hearing biden lay out his own case, but last night, what he did, he sort of sat aside and let his predecessors talk about what it is like to be president and why he should get a second term. >> $26 million, jeff, such a staggering sum for one night. it just adds to an already significant and growing cash advantage that biden and the democrats have over trump and the republicans. as willie noted, there were some protests outside and some interruptions inside the hall, as well, about the war in gaza. tell us how the presidents, particularly president obama, handled this, and whether you think that could almost be a blueprint for president biden moving forward. this issue is not going away. >> it's not going away, and it has been dogging president biden throughout the campaign. it was interesting to see how president obama responded. he was giving a response about gaza and was interrupted and said, "look, you have to listen,

not just talk." that was a moment that really resonated with the crowd. he was kind of sharp in a way that we haven't seen biden be sharp. i understand that. the president has tried to show a lot of understanding for the people who disagree with his policy. he's said before, let them talk. they feel passionately about this, and they do. it is an important part of the president's coalition that he is trying to get back before november. but obama and clinton laid out reasons for the people who maybe have moved away from biden to come back. one of them was saying, president biden, in a way that president trump probably would not be, is an advocate for palestinians. he's been pushing really hard for a two-state solution and will continue to do that. president obama also made an interesting statement about saying there can't be a purity test. he spoke about that from his perspective of having been in the white house. >> gene, just hearing about what

president obama did last night, it does remind me how great he is at this. i remember at the -- if there was a sort of height of wokism, and i don't say that to trigger anybody, i just use that term because, you know, 2017, 2018, 2019 was sort of peak wokism. of course, trumpers will say that they're all coming to eat our bones one day soon. but in the middle of, let's just say the most pitched debate, maybe 2020, obama was -- president obama was speaking at a nelson mandela day event. he said, listen, if you don't let somebody debate, talk, and

say their words are invalid because they're white or because they're a man or because they're hispanic or because they're black, well, you really don't have a real debate. you're only hurting yourself. it was a message that, not just because he was black, but because he is barack obama and he can do these things so well. it was a message that only obama could deliver. it's the same thing last night. when obama is telling left-wing protesters, "hey, you know, we have to learn to talk to each other," it resonates. it was quite a moment last night there. >> yeah, it really was quite a moment. he is very, very good at that. barack obama is very, very good at telling you you're full of it in a way that, if not charming, is then something close to it. and getting the message across

and making you pay attention. i've been on the end of that sort of, you're full of it message from obama a couple times, and i know what it is like. what a collection of political talent on that stage last night. you know, if you have barack obama and you have bill clinton, they know a bit about being president. they talked a lot about that, but they also know a whole lot about running for president. about speaking to this country in a way that represents the democratic party views, progressive views to varying degrees, while not sort of turning others off, necessarily.

it triggers -- obviously, obama triggers some people. he triggers donald trump massively. but, wow, what a night. what an event. $26 million is just a staggering amount of money to have raised in one evening. it's just -- it boggles the mind. it gives the sense of the biden campaign as something of a juggernaut while donald trump worries about his court cases and cheats to win his own golf tournament. >> jeff, obama clearly triggers donald trump to the degree that trump still seems to think he is running against obama or has run against obama at some point. there was also that phone call, for the donors who couldn't make it to radio city and be there in person, there was a phone call with campaign managers. the three presidents laid out their theory of the case with

the campaign managers, as well, to donors. give us a sense of what -- there was a bit about personal stories, how they felt that was going to be so important. did you have a sense from that call of what we should be looking ahead to? >> i think it was another, in part, an opportunity for the three presidents to bring in non-big dollar donors. the biden campaign has been proud of saying that a good chunk, i think 80% or 90% of the money they brought in has been from people who donate less than $200. last night was a big, glity event with tickets that cost $500. they wanted a chance for other people to way in and have a chance to see the three presidents. i think that was the goal. personal story is certainly part of it. more broadly, just laying out that case, again, for why biden should have a second term. meanwhile, former president donald trump also in new york yesterday to attend the wake of

an nypd officer killed the other day in the line of duty. trump met with the family of officer jonathan diller yesterday during the memorial service on long island, where hundreds of law enforcement officers were on hand to pay respects. the officer was killed while approaching an illegally parked car in queens. the suspect in the shooting has nearly two dozen previous arrests. after meeting with officer diller's family who invited trump to the service, trump spoke to reporters outside, describing the officer's death as a horrible thing and calling for a return to law and order. trump has accused president biden of not being tough enough on crime, and his campaign looked to contrast his visit with biden's fundraiser in new york city with former presidents obama and clinton. jonathan lemire, a horrific tragedy. officer diller killed, has a 1-year-old child at home. a rally of support around the city, across the country for officer diller, paying off his mortgage, making sure his family

is taken care of. but a reminder that there's no such thing, i'm always reminded by cops, as a routine traffic stop, as this was a pullover in queens. officer diller was shot and killed. >> yeah, each officer starts each day not knowing if it'll be their last shift on the job. i covered the nypd for a long time and covered a lot of funerals just like this. it is an outpouring of support from the community and the nation when something like this happens. because he is donald trump, he is making it political. look, his aides were very clear yesterday, that they liked the split-screen of president biden being at radio city music hall with two other presidents for a big-dollar, glitzy fundraiser, while donald trump was out in queens and then long island, meeting with the family of a slain officer. we'll get into, later in the show, how trump also spent his day attacking the daughter of a judge. but in this moment, he tried to stay on message, jeff mason, and talk about crime. trump and republicans are trying to make crime a central issue

this election. stats show crime has fallen most places in this country over the last couple of years since the post-pandemic high, but just the politics of crime. we should note, president biden called eric adams to express condolences for the slain officer. how worried are democrats that this could be an issue that resonates this november? >> democrats think they have their own case to make on crime. president biden has been very, very active in working on gun violence issues. he started an office at the white house on gun violence. they see that as completely connected to crime in a way that republicans don't like to make that connection. you can also look back at previous elections, 2022, 2020, where republicans were talking a lot about crime ahead of time, and then it didn't resonate as much at the polls as they were expecting. so, you know, i think it's an issue that republicans will see as a vulnerability. you certainly see president trump trying to make it one for the democrats. but i think they're ready. >> white house correspondent for

reuters, jeff mason, we appreciate it. ahead on "morning joe," has we mentioned, it has been one year since "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich was wrongfully imprisoned by vladimir putin. nbc's keir simmons joins the conversation on that, next. plus, speaker mike johnson getting a firsthand account yesterday of the dire situation in ukraine. we'll talk through his conversation with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. plus, we'll show you how liz cheney is warning about a possible second trump presidency, and the reception she got to it. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. the all new godaddy airo helps you get your business online in minutes with the power of ai... ...with a perfect name, a great logo, and a beautiful website. just start with a domain, a few clicks,

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good friday. a beautiful look at new york city. hope you have a wonderful easter weekend. willie, i just want to circle back. of course, our thoughts always, as we say, with the men and women, the nypd, for all they do, for the bravery they show every day. we are truly grateful. i do want to just circle back and there is an nbc article that i just now posted on my threads account. it just shows the facts. i know the facts don't matter to donald trump, but crime rates keep dropping. crime, in fact, the rate is lower now than when donald trump was in office. lower than it was in 2020, even slightly lower than it was in

trump's best year as it pertains to crime, 2019. murder rates over the past year in the big city, said he's constantly harping on, down 20%. rapes down 16%. you can go down the list, on and on. the most serious crimes way down. again, the overall crime rate for 2022, the last year recorded, crime rates lower, again, than donald trump's best year in 2019. certainly, a lot lower than 2020. he'll say what he says. republicans will keep lying. other news outlets will keep lying about it. people whip themselves in a frenzy and say, what about crime? you can show them the facts. seriously, it's like i can show people, you know, maybe they're unc fans that don't want to know that alabama won last night.

i think it was 79-77. alabama beat unc. they go, no, no, no, that's not the truth. it's the fact. it's just the fact. they may not like it, but it's the fact. that's how trump extremists have gotten, and it's how cable news networks run. it's their business model, to lie about the facts. to twist and distort reality for viewers day in, day out, night in, night out. when you talk about crime, it's not as low as i want it to be. it's not as low as you want it to be. we've both said we think the bail issue in new york city is a joke. we think cops aren't allowed to do their jobs enough. we think that's a joke. that said, if you look at the numbers, donald trump is lying when he says crime rates are way up. they're not. they're down. they're lower than they were when he was president. >> yeah, that's just a fact. violent crime, in particular, all the ones you just laid out, are down double digits

year-over-year. they spiked in '19, '20, and the end of last year and beginning of this year, they've come way down. criminologists, law enforcement experts debate why the numbers come down. they debate the '90s, why did this work? the fact is, they are down. it's the perception versus reality thing as we talk about with the economy, right, joe? you say, look at the data. you have number after number showing how strong the economy is, how resilient it is. we know inflation is too high. yet, in polling, just like in crime, people say, the economy is not good, or crime is bad in this country. a lot of times, it's a matter of perception. it's the way you feel walking down a street in new york city. if you see things that, like, is street safety, which doesn't make you feel good, and we all have some of that, but if you want to talk about data, violent crime in america is down significantly year-over-year, that is just a fact. you can bet it will remain an issue with donald trump and many others in this race. let's turn to something we

were talking about at the top of the show. today marks exactly one year since "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich was wrongfully detained in russia for alleged espionage, a charge both his employer and the u.s. government denies strongly. earlier this week, a court in moscow extended evan's pretrial detention for a fifth time, stretching his imprisonment to at least the end of june and perhaps beyond. joining us now, nbc news chief international correspondent keir simmons who has been covering this story so closely. keir, good morning. that very powerful front page of the "wall street journal," a blank white space where the paper says evan gershkovich's reporting should be this morning. what do we know? we know he just had his pretrial detention extended. what to we know about his fate and the efforts to bring him home? >> well, willie, there are huge efforts to bring him home. what we know about his fate is

he's difficult to read. he can be kept in a prison in moscow for as long as the russians want to keep him there. the hearing you talked about, where, again, we asked to be there, our team in moscow asked to be there. the press and media were told they weren't going to be allowed in. that hearing was really about whether he should still be held in pretrial detention. he's not being tried. he's not being -- we don't really even quite know what he is accused of, beyond that it is an accusation of espionage, which, of course, "the wall street journal" absolutely deny and say that he is a journalist. you mentioned that front page. jonathan has that front page there. >> the front page with the blank space where his story would be, and then the back, his face, of course. >> absolutely powerful message from "the wall street journal." i mean, look, this is a story, in part, of how russia is now an

intelligence agency, security agency-run country. he is accused of espionage. there are others, of course, paul whelan, who is jailed there, accused of espionage, jailed for espionage. again, denies it. elsa from radio free europe who is accused of supporting ukraine, again, by the sfb. kesnia karolina of california, again, denies she was supporting ukraine, but accused of making donations. again, it's the former kgb, the notorious former kgb prison. this is really all about the extent to which president putin is in charge of a country where the most powerful organizations in the country are the fsb, the svr.

in fact, it's pretty clear, pretty obvious, what they want to do is swap evan for others held. particularly, at this stage, it looks like a russian held in germany serving a life sentence, a sentence for murder, who is an sfb officer. >> they keep seizing americans. "wall street journal" had a great story yesterday about that, how putin keeps using americans and uses them as pawns, innocent americans, to get the worst actors out of prison. i don't know if you had a chance to see any of the netflix series "turning point," but for those that have not, it is a great reminder, especially for younger americans, to understand just how brutal, how savage the reign of stalin was. the millions and millions of ukrainians he deliberately starved to death in a

government-sanctioned famine. the millions of russians who died at stalin's hands. after stalin's death, khrushchev called out these crimes, and they've been recognized up until recently. the police state he had. now, you have vladimir putin praising stalin. stalin, once again, the figure of adoration in the old soviet union. it lines up with the police state russia has become. as keir said, even more so than before, over the last year or two. >> absolutely. i've not seen that series but read be a lot about stalin, biographies and histories. absolutely one of the worst monsters of the 20th century, responsible for tens of millions

of deaths, intentional deaths, including the horrific famine in ukraine that he engineered and presided over with satisfaction. and this is what vladimir putin looks back on with great admiration and nostalgia. he looks upon himself, i think, as vladimir the great, who is going to restore, let's just say it, the soviet union, stalin's creation, the soviet union to its former glory. so why would anyone think that he would, for example, stop with ukraine if he is successful there? why would anyone think it's not a good idea for the united states and the west to do

everything it can to thwart him in ukraine, to contain this 21st century monster who wants to reclaim the soviet union's former, what he would consider, glory? evan, what he's done to evan gershkovich and the other americans he has cynically kidnapped and is holding as hostages is deplorable. it's disgusting. it is illegal. it is wrong. of course, there is very little we can do about it except keep on the pressure. i so commend "the wall street journal" for what it's done to keep evan's name and situation in the news. other news organizations are doing whatever they can to try to help in this effort.

knowing that this is really out of our hands. >> joe said the top of the program, it's a bold editor who leaves half the front page blank as emma tucker has done in the "wall street journal" today. keir, talk to us a little bit about your understanding of the investigations. the sfb officer who is in jail in germany, he was raised around the time that brittney griner's negotiations were taking place. obviously, she got out in exchange for viktor bout, and the germans wouldn't release the sfb officer. do you get any sense from the backchannels, the reporting you do, that there is a path for evan to get out, that there may -- the americans may be able to talk to the germans and get this sfb officer out? if the germans agreed, would that be enough for the russians to release evan. >> you make a really important point. he's being held in germany. he's not being held here in the states. there is a diplomatic challenge here. it goes to putin's absolute

belief that america runs the west, that america is able to just say to germany, "release this guy," and germany will do it. of course, that isn't the case, although, absolutely, you know, the american government is enormously powerful. those negotiations continue. putin has said -- sorry, dmitry peskov, the spokesman, said they're better behind closed doors. that may be right. i do think there is an aspect of this, though, just listening to the conversation, which i think is worth highlighting, from my trips to russia, i can tell you that that revisionist history that joe is talking about is absolutely embedded now there. it is believed by many, many russians, and i've said on this show many times, made the point that putin does have a lot of support, and i think that should concern us. the combination of that and the military industrial changes in russia, the way it is becoming a kind of military economy, that is going to be a threat over a

sustained period. the point i'm making is this really is a wider lens than just putin. of course, we focus on putin. one other thing on the negotiations. putin, when he spoke at the news conference after his so-called election, he talked about how he had asked for -- he'd agreed for alexei navalny to be released from russia. said just a few days later, navalny was dead. clearly, you can't believe things that putin says, but if that's true, if there is an element of truth in that, what does that tell us about the way russia is run? that the president, president putin, says he wants him released, and a few days later, he's dead, what does that tell us about the nature of that country? again, what does that tell us about the threat from russia that potentially goes beyond just putin and lasts for longer

than putin? of course, at this stage, we're looking at potentially 12 more years of putin at least. >> well, that brings up a good point. we can just look at the character who is looking to overthrow vladimir putin, a man who said he needed to turn russia into a north korea, and they needed to have even more aggressive war, not only with ukraine but also the west. yes, vladimir putin is a problem, but if anybody thinks that removing vladimir putin makes russia a safer, more stable place, well, they weren't alive in 1991, 1992, 1993. it's not always the case. let me read part of emma tucker's letter to her readers at "the wall street journal." "evan has shown remarkable willpower, strength, and even humor during his wrongful

detention. we are amazed at this, and it is family steadfastness in the face of a harrowing ordeal. but their fortitude doesn't change the fact that evan's detention is a blatant attack on the rights of the free press at a time when evidence abounds around the global of the vital role that quality journalism plays in our society's understanding of world events and in bearing witness to history. this one-year anniversary an opportunity to express our admiration for our colleague and his family. it is a reminder of the dangers facing journalists worldwide as they pursue their essential mission, and it energizes us to continue the effort to ensure that this is the last milestone that evan spends in prison. sincerely, emma tucker, editor in chief, "the wall street journal."" jonathan lemire. >> powerful words there.

the sub headline on the page of the "wall street journal," "one year stolen." one year of evan's life stolen, spent behind bars in a russian cell for something he did not b detention is the war in ukraine. house speaker mike johnson had a phone call with ukrainian president zelenskyy, and zelenskyy pushed again the dire situation in his country and the dramatic need, keir, for the u.s. to step up and send that funding, send that money, send the military equipment to ukraine, which is literally running out of ammunition on the front lines. you know, speaker johnson has signalled more positively in recent days that, you know, when the house returns from its recess in a couple weeks, he'll push forward on ukraine. though it may jeopardize his job if he does so. but talk a little more about the state of the conflict right now, what you're aware of of what appears to be a frozen front. >> yeah.

>> and putin who has escalated the air strikes, including a number overnight, just within the last few hours. it seems he is willing to bide his time until november to see if donald trump gets back in. >> he is prepared to take time. you know, that is without question an enduring russian approach to war, frankly, and to this war now. whether or not he is waiting for november, what putin will say, and his spokesman demetri peskov, and other members of the russian government, is they don't care who becomes president in the u.s. is that true? well, just back to what i said at the beginning here, president putin is an intelligence officer. his world view is that the world is about battles between intelligence agencies. his perspective is, and you can hear kind of echoes of a trump

perspective, right, his perspective is it doesn't really matter who the leader of the u.s. is because the u.s. is being run by the intelligence agencies. you know, that's where the real fight is. now, clearly, he's wrong about that, but don't underestimate the extent to which president putin truly believes the things that he says. in a sense, that is -- that's the danger. that kind of puts the focus on where the real risk is. he is somebody who is not just saying these things, he really believes these things. clearly, what happens on the front line is unpredictable. war is unpredictable. will that front line stay fixed? what difference will f-16s make? will putin carry out his threat

to attack even bases where those f-16s are flying from? will he really do that? will he really take on a fight against nato of that nature? it's hard to believe just by him making those threats. we remember that president putin has made many threats and many of them turned out to be just threats. so the issue with the funding for ukraine is that we don't know what happens if the money doesn't arrive, but the risk is that it leaves ukraine deeply vulnerable. >> congress is out for the next week, as well, so there's no urgency from this house of representatives despite that conversation yesterday between speaker johnson and president zelenskyy. nbc's keir simmons, thanks so much, as always, for your insights. we appreciate it. coming up next here, donald trump lashes out against the daughter of the judge presiding over his hush money case, calling her out by name by using

a story that is a lie. we'll tell you about his latest comments coming just one day after a gag order was imposed on him. plus, we have the first clip of the conversation between biden and former presidents barack obama and bill clinton on stage at radio city last night. we'll let you listen in with us. and we'll speak with dnc chairman jaime harrison, live in our studio. he thinks the democratic party is headed now to where he'll tell us. "morning joe" is coming right back. ... of doug and limu. we help people customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual. anyway, we got a bit of a situation here. ♪♪ uh-huh. uh-huh. ♪♪ [ metal groans] sure, i can hold. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty liberty liberty liberty ♪ ghostbusters: frozen empire. in theaters now.

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when i was your age, we never had anything like this.

what? wifi? wifi that works all over the house, even the basement. the basement. so i can finally throw that party... and invite shannon barnes. dream do come true. xfinity gives you reliable wifi with wall-to-wall coverage on all your devices, even when everyone is online. maybe we'll even get married one day. i wonder what i will be doing? probably still living here with mom and dad. fast reliable speeds right where you need them. that's wall-to-wall wifi on the xfinity 10g network. it's like telling a story. people are breaking their necks putting three squares on the table every day, worrying about the kid who may be sick, worried about a mom who may need help or, you know what i mean? it's just -- when i say tell a story, i'm not talking about making up stories. i'm talking about how you feel. people trust you all. your neighbors trust you. >> that's a clip of the

president's pre-recorded interview for donors who could not make the event at radio city music hall. that's the event with president biden, obama, and clinton, as well. we gained access to the livestream of the conversation you heard. they headed a fundraiser in manhattan last night where the biden campaign says it raked in more than $26 million. the presidents took part in a conversation moderated by stephen colbert. the late-night host brought up biden's busy tour of the country lately, while trump has had his eyes on other things. here's a look at the discussion inside radio city. >> donald trump, as far as we can tell, has just been trying to win a third championship at his own golf course. my question to you, sir, can voters trust a presidential candidate who has not won a single trump international golf club trophy? at long last, sir, have you no chip shot? >> look, i'd be happy to play. i told him this before when he

came into the oval, when he was being -- before he was sworn in. i said, i'll give you three strokes if you carry your own bag. >> oh. can't do that. you know, willie, there's been some whining by a few people. of course, gloating by trumpers, talking, oh, this is so terrible. star-studded fundraiser the same day that trump went to the funeral of a slain officer. you know, again, we salute anybody that will go to the funeral of a slain nypd officer. this is an event that has been scheduled for a very long time. this is an event where they had an opportunity to get three democratic presidents together, to explain not only to their base but also to independents, swing voters, republicans that

could be moved, why this election is so important. you talk about the bully pulpit that a president has. this is three bully pulpits on stage, and it was quite a remarkable night. yes, there were protests outside. protests on college campuses. there will be protests at the chicago convention. i think people need to stop the wringing of their hands. the fact is, you know, donald trump has been hiding in south florida or going to courtrooms or playing at club championships and miraculously winning yet another club championship from a club that he's the owner of. so the whiners, you know what? just keep it to yourself. if you really think the setup was bad yesterday, it wasn't.mae success for joe biden, the campaign, not only for the democratic party but pro-democracy forces. >> as you say, in this moment,

important to see the solidarity between the three presidents, particularly with president obama. given some of the splintering in the democratic party, grumbling from certain factions inside the party that are frustrated with joe biden for this reason or that, to show and hear last night in the room, president obama, president clinton saying, "guys, we understand, we're always going to have differences within our party, but this is too important. we have to get on board and keep donald trump out of the white house. re-elect joe biden." that was their message. joining us now, chairman of the democratic national committee, jaime harrison, who was at last night's event. also with us, mike memoli, one of the few reporters inside the room. plus, the host of the podcast on "brand with donny deutsch," our buddy donny deutsch. staff writer at "the atlantic," mark leibovich. cat i can. katty kay, eugene robinson still with us.

what are is significance of seeing the three presidents on stage together, chairman? >> the atmosphere was electric inside the house. there was such unity within the democratic party. you know, those three presidents represent honesty, decency, men of character. you know, men who, as president, understood that america's greatness is not tied into some one body or one individual, but america's greatness is in its people, in the diversity of its people. these are men who understand that, you know, their jobs as presidents of the united states is about having progress over chaos. it's about making sure that we are moving forward in this country. so it was an amazing moment. i call it our beyonce moment because it was the time that democrats were getting in formation. we understand what the task is, which is protecting american democracy from someone who wants to be a dictator on day one. somebody who believes in

political retribution. of course, $26 million, the largest event ever. that money will go straight into the field. we've already opened, willie, over 100 offices across the country. the republicans haven't opened anything. they've opened a line of credit at a bank because they're broke, but they haven't opened any offices. we've been hiring voter protection staff. we are ready because we know what is at stake. america's freedoms are at stake. we're going to do everything in our power to protect those. >> well, i mean, yeah, you're exactly right. american's freedom is at stake. anybody who pretends it is anything like than that, when you have a guy who schemed with fake electors, a guy who went out of his way to intimidate people, katty kay, from certifying election results, a guy who has said he is going to terminate the constitution, a guy who has said he is going to execute generals, a guy who has

said he is going to find media companies guilty of treason and try people, a guy that said he is going to be a dictator on day one, that he is going to immediately jail his political opponents. i could do this all day. yeah, there is so much at stake. democrats, again, they don't need to wring their hands. when they have a great night, it was a great night for the democrats to show a united democratic party, to get more money, to invest in groundwork, to get people out to vote, while donald trump is cancelling events, cancelling hispanic outreach, cancelling so many other things. i've seen democrats when they look out a touch, i've seen democrats when they wring their hands for looking out of touch. this isn't a democratic party that, in this event with barack obama, bill clinton, and joe biden, that look out of touch. those are democratic leaders, those are presidents that have spanned a generation, and the

democratic party, the base that joe biden needs to bring together, needs to hear from them in a united voice. last night, they did. that's good news. if you have people on fox news today and people on newsmax and people across the trump far right whining and screaming, well, it's because they know how good that event went last night, how much money the campaign got, and just what that means when they're cheering on a guy who is spending his money on lawyers and lawsuits. >> yeah, you're hinting at the text that i think lemire suggested he'd had earlier, that i've had overnight from people on the trump campaign, saying that biden missed a big opportunity. didn't call the widow of the fallen police officer who was killed in a traffic stop. donald trump went out to the wake. but you had the cast of democratic political know-how there. those are two presidents who

have both won re-election and who are now lending all of their star power and their experience and their money raising capabilities to joe biden, to help him try to win re-election, as well. they're doing so with advice in private and also in public. it is unlikely after the success of raising $26 million last night we won't see something like this happening again. barack obama made it clear he is going to put all the weight he can behind the biden campaign. there may have been tensions between the two men in the pst, but you heard from barack obama, this is very much making sure that donald trump does not get back into the white house. and, at the same time, not just focusing it on donald trump but realizing they have to sell joe biden's positive story, as well. >> clinton and obama, explainers-in-chief in doing that. we should note for the gloating republicans and trump aides were doing for trump attending the wake of the officer, it's worth

noting that trump didn't attend any wake or funeral for the officers killed january 6th. mike memoli, you were in the room. barack obama fancies himself in his ex-presidency as a closer. he comes in in late october and whips up the enthusiasm, does two weeks of events, drives people to the polls. it's march. he is playing a more visible role this time around. you covered the obama white house, too. talk about the thinking, why he is front and center, and are we going to be seeing more of him between now and november? >> what the biden campaign sees as the former president's biggest value is speaking first, at this point, to young voters and to democrats. you saw that last night. the effort to get the party fully behind him. a lot of that will be on video, on, you know, youtube, social, digital channels, and in the fall, you'll see him on the road nonstop essentially. i thought what was so fascinating last night and probably the most electric moment of the night was, yes, of course, there were protesters. we saw him on the street,

outside 30 rock here, and we saw that in the room. they were prepared for that. what barack obama did, was after president biden laid out the ways in which he is trying to make the best, trying to resolve v the situation in gaza to the best of his ability, barack obama at one point scolded those protesters. to say, listen, if you want to talk, you also have to listen. the crowd erupted. he said, presidency -- and this is something only a former president can testify to -- he said, the presidency is a lonely seat. there are no easy solutions to hard problems. he laid out all the ways in which you can be both, you know, sympathetic, supportive, wanting to do everything you can to support the palestinian people, but also recognize that israel's existence is very much at stake here. he commended not just the president's policy but his person, his empathy, his character in being exactly the kind of president we need at this moment. i was told that was intentional. there's going to be a time for president obama over the course of the fall to talk specifically about issues, the president's

record, but he sees his role now as really about testifying to president biden's character. listen, you talk to the chairman. you talk to senior biden team members. they'll say the poll numbers, sure, they are what they are, don't found president biden out. he's been underestimated his whole career. i've been on the road with him as much as anybody the last 16 years, and i've seen that. they'll also recognize that it is going to take everybody. every democrat, everybody who supports president biden, whether you're a local community leader, whether you're an influencer on tiktok, or whether you're the former president of the united states, to do everything you can to support president biden, to get him over the finish line. we saw that last night. >> mr. chairman, i want to talk about the overall democratic platform. earlier in the show, they talked about how certain numbers don't stick to reality in terms of crime is actually down. economic numbers are wonderful. yet, biden is not getting the points he deserves for that. what does the party aim to do to really get those messages beyond we have to fight for democracy, but the meat and potato issues? >> it is making sure that we are on the ground.

maing sure we are in folks' living rooms, that we're meeting them in churches, meeting them where they are. that is the important thing. that's what the resources will give us the opportunity to do. since the state of the union, the president's numbers have gone up we've seen in polls, but he's also been going around the country, going to all these battleground states. while donald trump is golfing, the president has been working. as a result, in those states, we've seen renewed energy. now, we have boots on the ground in those states. once the president comes, once the vice president is there, then you can continue to have those conversations and educate people about the things that this president and this administration has been able to accomplish. think about it. legislatively, there probably has not been an administration that has accomplished as much as joe biden has. given they had a 50/50 senate on a good day and a five-seat majority in the first two years, they've got an treasure-trove of things done to improve the

quality of the lives of the american people. now, those policies are actually coming into formation. the $35, taking the price of insulin down. let me tell you, in the african-american community, there is a disportion gnat impact of diabetes. you're pre-diabetic, diabetic, or know someone in your family who is. having it drop is a big deal, and nose pol those policies dro starting to percolate in the communities. it's making sure folks understand, that happened because 81 million of us went to the polls in 2020, elected joe biden and democrats in the house and senate. if you want to continue to see policies like that, that improve the quality of your life, you've got to make sure you return the president back to the white house. >> all right. dnc chairman jaime harrison, thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate it. great message. mark leibovich, let's play off of that, if we will.

talk about how, in this case, the medium is really the message. three presidents that span a generation, together, to me, it's something that not only resonates the night of, the morning after, that's something that democratic voters and the base have in their mind as they move forward. kind of like the state of the union. a huge event that you're starting to see in the polls really having a positive impact in several polls. it seems to me last night's event is the same. i'm curious your takeaways. not only that, but also, the boston red sox's miraculous start. >> it was stunning. let's put that off for a little later. i thought -- i mean, that, to me, is the big story this morning, but in case people are tuning in to listen to something else, we'll cover this. i do think the message here, there is a coherence of purpose when you see three presidents up

there. when you contrast that to, i mean, you will not see a living former republican president or nominee anywhere near a trump rally going forward. i mean, this is not a party that has a past, you know, before donald trump came on the scene. >> hey, hey, mark? >> yeah? >> that's such a great point. let me interrupt because you're making a great point. i want to ruin it right now. no. you just said, we have three democratic presidents. you would never find a republican president on stage with donald trump. you also won't find his own vice president of four years. you won't find his first, second, or third secretary of defense. you won't find his secretary of states. you won't find his secretary of treasury. you won't find elaine chao on stage with him. you won't find any cia directors on stage with him.

you won't find 20, 25, 30 of his top people on stage with him. because they all say he is bad for america. what a contrast. what a great point for you to bring up. i will now sit back, look at my baseball cards, and let you finish. go ahead. >> i have some other great points, joe, just wait. actually, i will add to your point. you won't see a former speaker of the house, john boehner, paul ryan, certainly not mitch mcconnell. this is a party that even was in power while donald trump served that want absolutely nothing to do with him. i do think on the democratic side, one important factor that i was struck by was the role of clinton here. bill clinton, certainly, when you look back to 2012 and barack obama's re-elect, was an incredibly important part of the campaign. obama, they campaigned a lot together, but obama referred to him as, i guess, the vice president for explaining stuff,

or something like that. clinton has been somewhat marginalized in recent cycles, obviously gotten older. i'm curious to see the role he plays in the campaign. obviously, at his peak, he is a great explainer, a great communicator. he obviously has some baggage these days, but, i mean, we'll see. i think, you know, he sort of fit seamlessly into the scene last night. >> we should note, a contrast, the democratic presidents standing alongside joe biden. to underscore the point about how alone trump is, the only living person on a republican ticket, president or vice president, who has backed donald trump this time around, sarah palin. that's it. no one else has. mike memoli, there's no doubt that biden has momentum at the moment. state of the union well received. closing the gap in battlegrounds. he has a giant financial advantage. how does he keep it going? what's next for president bidn?

we're a long way to november. >> i was walking out last night and saw julie chavez rodriguez, and said, how do you top this? she said, we have to keep the momentum going. there has been criticism, including president obama privately, saying this campaign needs to show urgency. we have to build up and face the challenge donald trump represents. the biden team always believes that timing is everything. it was after donald trump emerged as the nominee, the state of the union as a setpiece they knew they had an opportunity to seize on, the president delivered on, and what they've been calling the sprint since then to build the momentum going forward. what is interesting, we know they were taping podcasts last night, videos. there was a lot of stuff last night that happened while the three presidents were together that we haven't seen yet. the biden team will be rolling that out in the coming weeks and months. also, they'll try to keep the pressure on donald trump. i was in north carolina with the president, president biden, with other day. it was the finish of eight battleground states in 18 days.

donald trump only held one public campaign event in that time. they want to show the contrast, and that'll be an important part of the strategy going forward. >> i want to contrast -- >> so -- >> sorry, joe. go ahead. >> i wanted you to jump in. go ahead. >> you talked about donald trump and what he is doing. obviously, yesterday, he was with the slain officer's family. but the day before, and a friend of mine happened to be at mar-a-lago. he was describing the scene there, that it was kind of quiet. it was a quiet dinner. all of a sudden, they bring out the velvet ropes. he comes in, and everybody stands up in applause. this is the little bubble that donald trump is living in 29 out of 30 day, while joe biden is out therepunching it and moving and shaking. >> yeah, it really is something. all that adds up, by the way. the fact that donald trump has now gotten to a point where he hides himself in south florida, his campaign events are courtroom events and 10-second press conferences. i have to say, it really helped

him out early on in the republican nomination fight. at some point, it loses its bite. it becomes old hat. you've got joe biden campaigning everywhere. it's just the opposite of what trump and his extreme supporters have said for some time now. gene robinson, i want to talk about the importance of barack obama, though. i have always told people, for 30 years, when they came and asked me for political advice, should i get so and so to endorse me? should i get so and so to campaign for me? i've always said, they don't want to hear from somebody else. they want to hear from you. the endorsement, seriously? it's just like a nice, little bow. if what is inside the package is not something they're going to buy, it doesn't do any good. i make an exception for barack obama. i make an exception for michelle

obama. the fact that those two have gotten out early the way they have, i believe, will make a massive difference. barack obama, the service he is doing by going in to joe biden, having the direct, blunt conversations with joe biden, that's what a president needs. a president getting that from another president is so vitally important. barack obama going out, being engaged. sure, you know, usually, he comes in the last week of a campaign. he'll speak, and you'll go, where has he been? he's so good. where has he been? well, he's here now. i know michelle obama is working hard on getting people to get out and register to vote. man, talk about how critically important that is. i'm just going to say, not just to get joe biden elected president, but to push back

against this orban style fascism that's taken the form of donald trump. >> yes. >> that seeks to end western democracy as we know it, seeks to dismantle nato, seeks to turn ukraine, central and eastern europe over to the russians, seeks to undermine our rule of law. and by doing that, wall street, hello, wall street, listen, wall street, not only undermining democracy, but for those of you who worship money and think you're going to pile it onto donald trump because you may get a tax cut, american capitalism itself will be at risk because the rule of law will not be respected. gene, i turn it over to you. >> well, you know, joe, people do want to hear from barack obama. they want to see him. they want to see michelle obama. the obamas occupy a sort of

special niche in this society. they have history. they made history. they have glamour. they have charisma. they have this ability to communicate with people and to make people want to listen. i think that's enormously important, and it is going to be fascinating to see what impact their coming out this early can have. also, bill clinton, who is not shabby as a politician. he was explainer-in-chief, i think is what obama called him. >> yup. >> he is awfully good at this. so, going forward, you can just imagine the sort of connection they will make with voters, not just democrats but independents and maybe some republicans.

who knows? going forward, if they keep this up. the other thing that is important, something that chairman jaime harrison said, is the fact that democrats are opening offices around the country. they're on the ground. that's going to be so crucial in november. in the end, it is about getting to people individually, getting into those neighborhoods and getting people out to vote. if all the people who worry about what four more years of donald trump would do to this country, worry deeply about that and don't want to see it happen, if all those people get out to vote, then this is no contest in november. joe biden wins. there will be boots on the ground trying to make sure that happens. >> well, you bring up, again,

such a great point, gene. they're investing this by setting up offices, getting political boots on the ground, making sure they have the best grassroots campaign ever. going back to barack obama, i remember when i first heard he was running. i go, oh, there's no way this guy is going to beat the clinton machine. they'll just ground him up. he will get crushed. then i saw the money. i go, well, okay, well, that's good. but, you know. then i saw how he was spending the money early. he was spending it on a ground operation in iowa. at that point, willie, it was middle of the summer of 2007 maybe, and i go, okay, okay. this is going to be a fight. you're seeing joe biden do that right now. also, to gene's point, who is a better explainer-in-chief than bill clinton. what he did in the 2012 convention was awe-inspiring.

he knows better than anybody. he has this reagan-like quality of boiling things down to their bear essence and explaining it to the american people in a way that they understand. >> yeah, and contrast the ground game you and gene are talking about here, that the biden campaign has already been working on, with what donald trump is or is not doing. as donny pointed out, he is comfortable. he believes he can win the presidency from mar-a-lago. that he can do an occasional rally. yeah, he'll go to a couple states here and there, but make grievance speeches outside courtrooms and win the presidency that way. we heard even this week, pete who is now the chair of the michigan party, recently ascending to the position, saying, guys, are we opening an office in michigan? this is an important state. you're starting to hear even from some republicans grumbling that the trump campaign isn't really a campaign, and they're going to need every vote, of course, in states like that. nbc news white house

correspondent mike memoli, thanks for your reporting. as always, we appreciate it. everybody else, stay with us if you can. ahead on "morning joe," a new report shows white supremacist propaganda reaches new levels last year. we'll break it down with the head of the anti-defamation league. also ahead, oversight chairman james comer making another attempt to keep the impeachment inquiry into president biden in the headlines. we'll tell you about his latest hail mary. plus, legal analysis on the long prison sentence for the former crypto king, sam bankman-fried, now heading to prison. it's all ahead on "morning joe." there's nothing better than a subway series footlong.

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we know he tried once not to leave office. and he will have no incentive to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power and to leave office if he is elected again. i certainly have policy disagreements with the biden administration. i know the nation can survive bad policy. we can't survive a president who is willing to torch the constitution. >> well, they probably don't like death threats. we can probably start there. that could be the number one reason. but, ultimately, i think with the general, it has to do with their respect for the dignity of the constitution and not wanting to bring military leadership into the political fray. but, at the end of the day, what liz cheney is saying is so true and is so alarming. if we don't do it, i don't know who will do it. i'm certainly worried about everything that she is saying.

>> that's donald trump's former communication director, anthony scaramucci, who was on "morning joe" last week, explaining why more republicans won't speak out against trump. he echoed liz cheney's concerns, that trump will scorch the constitution if he is re-elected. you know, this is an argument that i've made for some time. that we can survive bad policy. we really can. we have survived bad policy. we survived it for eight years. we have a system that rounds off the sharpest edges. even though there are extremists who love to say that america is terrible and it's this and it's that, we're a great country. greatest economy in the world. greatest military in the world. greatest soft power in the world. greatest cultural exports in the world. greatest higher education institutions in the world.

greatest medical facilities in the world. people come to america. they come to america. i heard a speech a couple nights ago by co-founder of home depot, who said, why do you think -- you know, somebody was, i think, complaining about the southern border. he said, why do you think those people are at the southern border? they're not at russia's eastern border. they're not trying to get into china. they're not trying to get into north korea. they come to america. they're trying to get here. why? because we're better than any other country. the american dream is great. it's great, mark leibovich, because we have had a frustrating, slowly-driven system of checks and balances that have worked and kept us where we are over 240 years. people love to bitch about it, but, again, you know, it's not a coincidence that we have the strongest military in the world, that we have the strongest economy in the world, that we've got the strongest, most power --

you know, soft power in the world, exports, you name it. we're at the top of the list. that's so critically important. we can afford -- i'll even say this, we can afford a president from idealogically, from mike pence, survive a president from mike pence to bernie sanders, the political extremes, as long as they respect the constitution, as long as they respect the rule of law, as long as they respect the checks and balances. liz puts it perfectly. we can survive bad policy. we can't survive a bad heart that wants to undermine, terminate, scorch the constitution and execute, for treason, anybody who disagrees with him. >> i mean, i do think, you know, the role of the liz cheneys in

this election is going to be vital. because what she and people like her do is she kind of takes this election out of the normal template of left versus right, democrat versus republican, and puts, you know, the trump option in a completely different category. i mean, it's constitution versus unconstitution. it is decency versus indecency. you can see the crowd liz cheney got in iowa. it was astounding. i assume she'll continue to do that. like you said, i mean, there are a lot of people who watch that, who pay attention to it, many republicans, many of them haven't voted for a democrat before 2016, and, look, there are others who could do that. i'd be interested to see if someone like mike pence, someone like, i don't know, paul ryan, someone like john kelly, i mean,

there's no shortage of republicans who have seen firsthand, you know, what this could look like or what this has looked like and what it could look like going forward. again, it takes this election and puts it in a completely different context, which is, you know, really quite stark and scary, given the stakes. i also think it is important, that that array of voices speaks out. >> interesting, a week ago today, mike pence, former vice president to donald trump, announced he would not endorse donald trump in this election cycle. "the atlantic's" mark leibovich, thank you, as always. last year was another record-breaking year for white supremacist propaganda incidents in the united states with more than 7,500 cases reported in 2023. according to a new report from the anti-defamation league, it is the second year in a row the record was broken. the adl revealed the figure in its annual white supremacist propaganda report. joining us now to break down the

finding, the ceo of the anti-defamation league, jonathan greenblatt. thanks for being with us, as always. a dubious record to break again this year, of course. what all did you see? what are the areas of greatest concern? >> thanks for having me, willie. indeed, white supremacists and right-wing extremists have a hard time showing up in public places. they actively use propaganda to target and victimize minorities. second year in a row, we broke a new, dubious record. we saw over 7,500 of such propaganda incidents. 141% increase in the anti-l anti-lgbtq propaganda. there is terrible hatred directed at trans people, in particular. a 30% increase in anti-semitic propaganda.

we saw for the first time really out in the open this convergence, willie, of right-wing extremist, white supremacist language, with anti-zionist language. you're seeing the same people who hate jews for a long time celebrating the 10/7 attack. there's this weird and sort of twisted marriage between these, again, right-wing extremists and the left-wing anti-zionists we haven't really seen before. these were happening in all 50 states, with the exception of hawaii and alaska. there's a handful of groups that are driving this. groups with names like national justice party or patriot front, that come off as being pro-american, when they are nothing more than pro-hate. >> jonathan, it's been a couple years since chris wray, the fbi director, testified in congress

that white supremacy was the biggest threat, terrorist threat, to americans. do you get any sense that the federal government is trying to do anything or having any success in combating anti-semitism, particularly from these far-right groups? does anything work? >> katty, it's a really important question. we have found the fbi, federal, state, local law enforcement to be very focused on the problem. indeed, you need to be tracking these people, arresting and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law. when propaganda moves from expressing an idea to inciting violence, there's grounds to do something about it. definitely, law enforcement has a role to play. again, i will tell you, director wray and all of the folks that we deal with at dhs, et cetera, have been really, really vigilant. but i will say, katty kay, their

efforts are somewhat hamstrung by the social media companies. i mean, literally, what we're seeing in places like tiktok -- and, i mean, i get when it is on truth social. i guess i have to accept it is going to be on parlor and these far-right extremist platforms. when it moves to tiktok, when it moves to instagram, when it's popular on facebook, that's when i know we have a problem. the companies seem either incapable or unwilling to do something, to clamp down on this hate. i mean, that's how it's happening, katty. these actors, again, far-right extremists, in particular, part of the radical anti-zionistanti they coordinate online, mobilize the people, spread the flyers, and end up in people's front lawns, in front of synagogues, lgbtq centers. it is loathsome. >> you know, donny deutsch, i'll let you ask jonathan the next question. i'll yield to you. i to want to say, though, we're

talking about far-right anti-semitism. sad fact is, we have it on the far-right. we have it on the far left. we have it, and i hear it all the time, on college campuses. it has gotten so extreme on many college campuses. i've heard firsthand you can't even talk about a two-state solution without being accused of being a zionist. you can't talk about peace between the palestinians and the jews without being called a zionist. this was written for "new york" magazine. "this week, the president of the main pro-palestinian student group at the university of michigan shared and deleted a social media message saying this, until my last breath, i will utter death to every single individual who supports the zionist state. death and more. death and worse. university sent an email

denouncing the message. while she may be an undergrad, she was one of the four to receive the martin luther king spirit award, honoring students who exemplify the leadership and extraordinary vision of the reverend martin luther king jr." it is bizarre. there is nobody that is less in line with the message of dr. martin luther king than somebody that would talk about death and more. death and worse. "last month, "the new york times" jointly profiled here in a pro-israel activist in a story, presenting both the searching for common humanity. walking alone to a nearby building, they sat together on a bench. maybe they could recognize the humanity. he needed to know why anti-israel protesters didn't condemn the deaths of civilians." i think that mystery has been cleared up. donny, you cannot on college

campuses, on elite college campuses, it is hard to even bring up what happened on october 7th without being called a zionist. it is hard for a student to not get canceled if they bring up the horrors of what happened on october 7th. it is -- there is in so many of these groups on college campuses, and i've seen it firsthand, i've heard about it firsthand, there's not just a plea, and i think a plea to save civilian lives in gaza, there is an underlying hatred for israel that has been there for years. i talked about "turning point." you can see other documentaies on netflix, the hatred of jews.

jonathan and i have been talking about this for years. it's been rising from the right. it's been rising on college campuses from the left. i was talking about this in scarborough country in 2003. just such extremism against jews. on the far right and on the far left. >> you know, it's so beyond college campuses. jonathan's group put out a survey. one in four americans say they know someone that dislikes or hates jews, and one in four americans know somebody who is pro-hamas. pro-hamas. that means you are pro annihilating israel, pro killing jews. as jonathan also pointed out, we're getting squeezed on two levels. we're getting squeezed from the right, from the left. there's also another anti-semitism where you get squeezed. on the one hand, people are anti-semitic against jews, the tropes of vermin. then the jews have too much.

they're getting squeezed from the left and right, top and bottom. the numbers are frightening, and it sends chills through me. >> i mean, look, donny, i think joe put a finger on something incredibly important. katty asked, will the threat of far-right extremists -- here's a thing, when a student is honored at the university of michigan, praising and pleading for the death of jews, why isn't she considered an extremist? the fa right -- you know, there is no white supremacist club at the university of michigan who says these things. the white supremacists think that to the zionists. why is it allowed that you have these students spewing this vile venom, making death threats to fellow classmates? everyone on the panel, when the

white supremacists say death to the zionists, everybody says it is wrong. why is it okay when the radical left says death to the zionists? we have got to all ask ourselves this. if you are concerned about white supremacy and that extremism, and you should be, as joe was saying, you have got to be concerned, because the kids on these college campuses, guess where they're going, to your board rooms. they're going to editorial boards. they're going to the assignment desk of news networks. people who say death to the zionists, i wish for that and worse. if you wouldn't tolerate it if someone was wearing a swastika on their arm, i'm sorry, you shouldn't tolerate it if they're wearing a -- >> all right. >> calling death to anyone -- >> all right. ceo of the antidefamation league, jonathan greenblatt, thank you so much.

gene robinson, i brought up michigan, but it is happening at colleges where i've sent my kids, where i'm sending my kids. again, the extremism. i talked to a college student a few weeks ago, explained, asked me about israel. i went back to 1948. i talked about the need for a two-state solution. israel's arab allies who want to come in and rebuild gaza. they want a peacekeeping force with the united states, and the united nations is a part of it, and start moving forward a two-state solution. this student said, i can't say that. i would be canceled. you can't even say two-state solution now on my campus. gene, it's just, the extremism is horrifying. it really is. you see the horrors in gaza. you see the horrors of what

happened on october 7th. we've got to find a way forward. right now, for some reason, there's not space on college campuses to find that way forward together. >> yeah, and there has to be such space. i am ashamed to hear such sentiments expressed at my alma mater. i really am. that's just not -- it's obviously not right. that's dangerous. it's unacceptable, as far as i'm concerned. it's hard for me to imagine, remembering what the campus was like when i was there. it is, i think, not only acceptable but imperative to see what's happening in gaza, to see the suffering, the hunger, turning into famine that's occurring there, to see the devastation.

it's appropriate to react to that on behalf of innocent palestinians that have nothing to do with hamas and who are suffering. but that said, there's a long way between that and between sentiments like, you know, death to the zionists. if calling for a two-state solution means you are a zionist and that's something bad, then i'm certainly a zionist. proud of it. that's the only solution to the israel/palestinian conflict that makes any sense, that has ever made any sense. it has to be a two-state solution. and you have to be able to say that. >> yeah. >> can i jump in? >> sure. >> the word zionist, somehow, i want to reeducate everybody, what a zionist means. israel should exist. that's all a zionist is. israel has a right to exist. there should be a jewish state. somehow, zionist has become this

extremist word where people in this country can actually say, death to zionists and walk free. insane. >> yeah, it is crazy. well, again, we need to find the space. we won't find common ground right now because of the horrors of october 7th, because of the horrors of what's happening in gaza. but we have to find space to have the discussion on how we move there. a two-state solution has to be over the horizon. right now, israelis don't want to talk about it. palestinians don't want to talk about it. that's understandable. we have to find the space because our arab neighbors across the region all want this. they want to step in. our allies, whether it's jordan, talking about the saudis, you go around the region, they want a two-state solution. they want to help rebuild gaza.

they want peacemakers in there, peacekeepers in there, and not a terrorist organization like hamas. who, by the way, was hated by gazans before october 7th. just the truth. so we make space. my god, please, college presidents, please, college administrators, please, college professors, make space for open debate. critical thinking. critical thinking. you actually put yourself in somebody else's position and understand that two things can be true at the same time. donny deutsch, thank you so much for being with us. coming up, a new documentary is going to take a look at the rise of extremism among some of the military community. we have acclaimed war correspondent sebastian younger behind the project and joins us

next. willie, before we go to break, of course, this sunday morning, after alabama plays clemson, you know, jack is excited. me gosh, this weekend, i have saturday, alabama and the elite eight playing clemson. sunday morning, of course, we make up the swiss miss chocolate cocoa, hot cross buns, and little jack runs down the stairs. papa, papa, what does uncle willie have? you know, again, you really hit it with kate winslet. he loved that one. again, a big, big fan of "revolutionary road," can 15-year-old. pretty deep. >> yeah, it's a little dark, but he's advanced. >> little dark. he's advanced. so, you know, he's 6'3", 6'4", whatever. what do you have for jack and all your adoring fans? >> when the smell of the hot cross buns wafted upstairs, he floats down to meet them and get in front of the tv. >> little suspenders and shorts,

he does. it's great. i love it. >> lederhosen. yeah, i think he is going to be happy. i am thrilled to say i had this conversation yesterday. the word legend, icon is thrown out. >> no way! no way! >> carol burnett. >> she's the best! >> carol burnett. >> best ever. oh, my god. this is -- oh! she's awesome. i love her so much. >> she's the best there ever was. a trailblazer, groundbreaking, and she's 90 years old. she'll be 91 in a couple of weeks. >> oh, my god. >> you would you believe sit ag sitting across the table from her for an hour, how funny and sharp she is. you saw a little bit of it there. the awards don't begin to tell the story of what she is. what a warm, charming, funny,

person. carol burnett coming up this weekend. >> she is such an amazing salesperson and you look at what she did. i mean, know your value. you talk about knowing your value. she did things in the '60s and early '70s that no women did, and she took on the execs at cbs, basically told them where they could go. >> yep. >> she did it her way and the rest is history. that's just -- willie, congratulations. i cannot wait to see that. >> she told me yesterday, those -- she told me it was a man's game. she said, just watch. we'll be right back on "morning joe." , just watch we'll be right back on "morning joe. tin. diets and exercise add to the struggle. today, it's possible to go from struggle to cholesterol success with leqvio. with a statin, leqvio is proven to lower bad cholesterol by 50% and keep it low with 2 doses a year. common side effects were injection site reaction, joint pain, and chest cold. ask your doctor about twice-yearly leqvio.

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>> today, domestic terrorism is the greatest threat facing the united states. >> there are levels of insurgencies and if you just apply them to the u.s., we are an incipient insurgency. >> how did i end up within up on one side of the door and my fellow veterans end up on the other side? >> that's the new documentary titled "against all enemies" which explain why some military veterans are drawn to the far-right movement in america becoming a threat to the democracy they once swore to uphold. joining us now, the film's director and producer, charlie sadoff, sebastian younger, and

ken harbaugh. thank you all for being here this morning. ken, the footage of january 6th is interspaced throughout this. talk to us about this phenomenon. what has caused it? >> so the reason so many veterans, and it's not most veterans. i think that has to be said, but it's too many. >> of course. >> they're drawn to these extremist groups like the oathkeepers and proud boys in large part out of a sense of loss and needing to replace that with a community and a mission, because when you take off the uniform, that need for mission and camaraderie doesn't go away, and these groups do a really good job at recreating that, and i think it's incumbent upon us to find other avenues for them to channel that desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. the problem is these groups channel that desire to undermining democracy. >> sebastian, what is the trend line here? why do we think there's been such an increase, an uptick in

this behavior? >> well, you know, i think the society -- western society is going through a lot of changes right now, and for economic reasons, political reasons, and changes like that will bring out extremism, and it happens on the left too. it's just not violent like it is on the far right, and we just had 20 years of war when my father was a refugee from two wars. in '36, he fled spain. the spanish civil war was propagated by veterans who were in the spanish war in morocco, and they harnessed that damage to those soldiers. they harnessed it politically, franco did, and he took over. >> charlie, talk to us about the film itself. what sort of people did you talk to? what access did you have? tell us more about the story you're trying to tell. >> sure. we wanted to get inside some of these groups. we didn't just want to show them firing their guns out in the woods which is a lot of times when you see with these profiles

of some of these groups. we had access to the oathkeepers as you saw in the trailer. we had access to the proud boys, the former leader of the chapter of the proud boys, the -- we have footage of the patriot front and three percenters. we embedded with all of them and took time to hear their stories and gave them a chance to articulate their point of view and they were happy to tell us about that because they think what they're doing is the right thing. they think they are defending the constitution of the united states. they think that they're patriots and so they're not at all abashed about telling us what they think. >> sebastian, talk a little bit more about that sense of belonging that people who are serving in the military get from the military and then perhaps after they leave are looking for somewhere else, and maybe find them -- find that sense of family almost in these groups. >> yeah. i mean, and to be clear, the vast majority of veterans, i believe miss that sense of belonging, sense of purpose that comes with the military, and

then didn't go on to storm the nation's capitol. let's be clear about that, but for those that made that choice, for whatever personal reasons, they had a desperate need to feel heroic, to feel needed, to feel like they had that sense of purpose again, and the sort of military trappings of far-right radicalized groups. they're -- in some ways, they're sort of playing soldier back home in a way that i think feels heroic to them and that is a deep human need. we're social primates. humans evolved of 30, 40, 50 people in harsh conditions, we're wired for that. modern society doesn't require it, and there's a loss there. when people come back to america, there's a real hole to fill, and for some of these people, when i think have other psych issues and in many cases, they fill that hole with insurrection. >> that's an issue the pentagon

is aware of in both current soldiers and veterans. powerful documentary called "against all enemies." it's playing in select theaters now and available for purchase on demand. charlie, sebastian, and ken, thank you all for joining us. congrats on the film. >> thank you. still ahead here on "morning joe," we'll continue our conversation surrounding president biden's major fund-raiser which brought in a record $26 million featuring a discussion with former presidents obama and clinton. plus, donald trump goes after the daughter of the judge in his upcoming hush money trial. this time even calling her out by name. what it means considering his partial gag order and how it might impact his case. we're back in just one minute with that. case. we're back in just one minute with that.

deep center. he certainly got enough of this one, didn't he? an absolute bomb to straightaway center, his first of the season. >> it's been untouchable. 11 strikeouts for corbin burns in his oriole debut. >> there's a base hit to right field. he rounds third. coming home. soto. here's the play. he's out. they got him. >> infield moves back. to right center, he's going to get the redemption. he walks it off. the rangers win the opener. >> a walkoff baseball on opening day. some of the big moments yesterday including that walkoff win for the texas rangers to begin their world series title

defense. you saw the game-saving assist by a brand-new yankee, juan soto. what a throw that was, and the 11-strikeout debut with the baltimore orioles from corbin burnes. meanwhile in seattle, tyler o'neil set a major league record homering in his fifth consecutive opening day game as the red sox beat the mariners 6-4. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, march 29th. it's like you were saying yesterday, this red sox team may go undefeated. the '27 yankees, go through these years and look at that performance last night. >> i just -- i don't like -- you know. poor talk, but there is no doubt that jonathan lemire is right, that this may be the best red sox team assembled yet, and through the years and lemire

last night called me at 1:00, and he said, you know, i think ted williams might be riding the pine if he were around on this team. may not even be able to make this team. isn't that right, lemire? >> dream the impossible dream, joe. this is hope springs eternal. as we have been saying all winter long, they've spent money. they're committed to winning. they've built an all-star roster with a 5'2" player at every position. the sky is the limit for this particular old town team. >> i feel a little -- i feel a little guilty to be honest with you, but i will tell you this. you could not dream the impossible dream last night, lemire, because mark was texting you and me and mike barnicle every 30 minutes not realizing the game's on the west coast. >> kept waking me up. >> and those texts were going every three minutes. devers, home run. that's great. then he would be, like, wow.

okay he fouled that ball off well at, like, 10:47. and, you know, 11:01. what do you think the next pitch is going to be? now luckily, i was up because i don't know if you saw it, but there was a shooting star. there's a shooting star from devil's lake, north dakota all the way across to los angeles, a blinding light. incredible player, mr. nelson. it was just -- grant nelson. absolutely incredible. fourth seeded alabama's going to be in the elite eight now. >> all-time. >> for just a second time. clemson tigers, the first team in this year's tournament to knock out a number one seed, beating north carolina 89-87. who would think, i'm on two

hours' sleep. who would think i can read anything? willie, i can't read anything because i can't see anything, because right now, i can't even feel my teeth i'm so tired, but i will tell you, this has been a wild -- this has been a wild ride if you are not uconn. i mean, this is uconn's tournament. they're just massive, and congratulations. i think the illini won, so congratulations to your dad. >> yes. >> the fighting illini in there as well, but yeah. this is uconn's tournament, but there are teams like fighting illini and alabama crimson tide that can still dream, but they can get there, and clemson beat arizona yesterday. >> yeah. >> so yeah. crazy stuff, huh? >> yeah. it was, and so now alabama/clemson. it looks like a college football playoff, like a national championship game in football playing for the right to go to

the final four. incredible. clemson looks really good. it's funny these teams you don't think about all year, and you see them in the tournament and you go, wow, these guys are good, including alabama. here's the clincher at the end of the game to beat arizona. alabama as you said, beat top-seeded north carolina by two points. it was a rematch of last year's national championship game against san diego state. they won by 30 points, and yes, the place where my parents met, champaign, illinois, the fighting illini of illinois, beating iowa state by three points. so now they, great season. they've gone to the elite eight. they have the herculean task against uconn against one of the best teams this year, i think, but one of the best teams we've seen in college basketball in a long time. >> i'm not quite sure that started at 10:00 on the east coast. it was being played in boston. that said, i don't know how many people stayed up to see it, but

uconn, dominant. in a season in college basketball where it's very topsy-turvy, and a lot of teams were ranked number one, and they would hold it for a week or two, and then fall on, uconn has come on so strong. there's their tournament to lose. that doesn't mean they can't get picked off. it is march madness, but they are the prohibitive favorite at this point. the women's sweet 16 starts this afternoon, but i want to go back to you. your yankees fell down 4-0 after an inning and half or so, and they've chipped away and there was panic on theyankees. we lost gerrit cole, and a stunning win as you know w a $450 million payroll and the new guy with a really good fro that i guess he was out at the plate. i'm not sure. >> he was out. >> they called him out so we'll let you have it. >> he was out. confirmed by replay. nester cortez because he called

him out, very shaky, but righted himself and pitched well beyond that first inning, and it's true, joe. if you look at the -- if the yankees can pitch this year, which is always the open question for any team, if people get hurt, that lineup is just brutal. i mean, there's no break in it for the opponent. so if you've got soto and judge coming next, they're going to be very tough, but there's a vengeance. the orioles look great, and the red sox. >> when you are watching the yankees play the astros, it's really, like, okay. it's hitler versus stalin, like, who are you going to cheer for? >> wow. >> i guess. okay, okay. >> measles/mumps. >> who wants measles or mumps? it might be a better way to put it. >> no. >> that's quite something. we do want to turn to the news here with president biden's star-studded fund-raiser at

radio city music hall. the biden campaign says it raised more than $26 million at the event. >> wow. >> 5,000 people attended. it was hosted by actor and comedian, mindy kaling, special guest, queen latifah, lizzo, and ben platt. the highlight was a conversation between president biden and former presidents barack obama and bill clinton. it was moderated by late night host stephen colbert. they talked about the war in gaza and the need to protect our democracy. he also took some jabs at former president and presumptive nominee donald trump. the event was met with palestinian protesters, some of whom interrupted that conversation among the presidents. some marched outside the music hall calling for an end to the war in gaza. let's bring in white house correspondent for reuters, jeff mason. he was one of the few reporters inside radio city for last night's event. jeff, good morning. thanks for stopping through on

your way out of town after the event last night. take us inside the room if you could. what was it like during that event? >> my pleasure, willie. it was electric in that room. there are more than 5,000 people in radio city music hall. so a lot of bodies, a lot of energy. a lot of excitement, especially to see i think the former presidents and of course, president biden. they came onto the stage by being sort of lifted up with one of those platforms that comes up. so it was a very rock star moment, and it was a rock star night for the democrats and for president biden. they had a long discussion with colbert as you mentioned with -- about everything from peace in the middle east to the economy, and the former presidents really laid out a case for biden. we have been hearing biden lay out his own case, but last night what he did was he sort of sat aside and let his predecessors talk about what it's like to be president, and why he should get a second term. >> $26 million, just a staggering sum for one night and it just adds to an already

significant cash advantage democrats have over trump and the republicans. as willie noted, there were some protests outside and some interruptions inside the hall as well about the war in gaza. tell us how the presidents, particularly president obama handled this, and whether you think that could be a blueprint for president biden going forwards because this issue is not going away. >> it's not going away, and it's been dogging president biden throughout this campaign politically. i thought it was interesting to see how president obama responded. he was giving a response about gaza and was interrupted and said, look. you have to listen, not just talk, and that was a moment that really resonated with the crowd. he was kind of sharp in a way that we haven't seen biden be sharp, but i understand that. the president has tried to show a lot of understanding for the people who disagree with his policy. he's said before, let them talk. they feel passionately about this, and they do, and it's an important part of the coalition that he's trying to get back before november, but obama and

clinton laid out reasons for the people who have maybe moved away from biden to come back, and one of them was saying, president biden in a way that president trump probably would not be, is an advocate for palestinians, has been pushing really hard for a two-state solution, and will continue to do that, and president biden also -- excuse me. president obama also made an interesting statement about saying, there can't be a purity test, and he spoke about that from his perspective of having been in the white house. >> you know, gene, just hearing about what president obama did last night, it does remind you how great he is at this. i remember at the -- >> yeah. >> -- if there was a height of wokism, and i don't say that to trigger anybody. i use that term because, you know, 2017, 2018, 2019 was sort of peak woke-ism.

>> mm-hmm. >> of course, trumpers will say they're all coming to eat our bones one day soon, but in the middle of -- let's just say the most pitched debate, maybe is 2020, obama was -- president obama was speaking at nelson mandela day at an event, and he said, listen. if you don't let somebody debate and talk and say their words are invalid because they're white or because they're a man or because they're hispanic or because they're black, well, you really don't have a real debate, and you're only hurting yourself, and it was a message that not just because he was black, but because he's barack obama and he can do these things so well. >> mm-hmm. >> it was a message that only obama could deliver. it's the same thing last night.

>> yeah. >> when obama's telling left-wing protesters, hey, you know, we got to learn to talk to each other, it resonates, and it was quite a moment last night there. >> yeah. it really was quite a moment. he's very, very good at that. barack obama is very, very good at telling you you're full of it in a way that if not charming, then something close to it, and getting the message across and making you pay attention had been on the end of that sort of you're full of it message from obama a couple of times and i know what it's like. he is -- what a collection of political talent on that stage last night. you know, if you've got barack obama and you've got bill

clinton, they know a bit about being president, they talked a lot about that, and they also know a whole lot about running for president, and about speaking to this country in a way that represents democratic party views, progressive views to varying degrees while not sort of turning others off necessarily, and it triggers -- obviously obama triggers some people. he triggers donald trump massively, but wow. what a night. what an event, and $26 million is just a staggering amount of money to have raised in one evening. it's just -- it just boggles the mind. it gives a sense of the biden campaign as something of a

juggernaut while donald trump worries about his court cases and cheats to win his own golf tournament. >> yeah. jeff, obama clearly triggers donald trump to the degree that trump still seems to think he's running against obama or has run against obama at some point. there was also that phone call for the donors who couldn't actually make it to radio city, be there in person. there was a phone call with campaign managers beforehand which i thought was really interesting where they laid out -- the three presidents laid out their theory of the campaign as well to donors. give us a sense of -- there was a bit about personal stories, how they felt that was going to be so important. did you have a sense of -- from that call of what we should be looking ahead to? >> i think it was another -- in part, an opportunity for the three presidents to bring in non-big dollar donors. the biden campaign has been proud of saying that a good chunk -- i think 80% or 90% of the money that they've brought

in has been from people who donate less than $200, and last night was a big, glitzy event with the tickets that in some cases cost as much as $500,000, and i think to stay on brand, they also wanted to have a chance for other people to weigh in, and to have a chance to see the three presidents. so i think that was the goal, and personal stories, certainly part of it and more broadly just laying out that case again for why biden should have a second term. >> meanwhile, guys, former president donald trump also in new york yesterday to attend the wake of an nypd officer killed the other day in the line of duty. trump met with the family of officer jonathan diller yesterday during the memorial service on long island where hundreds of law enforcement officers were on hand to pay their respects. officer diller was shot and killed on monday while approaching an illegally parked car in queens. police say the suspect in the shooting has nearly two dozen previous arrests. after meeting with officer

diller's family, they invited trump to the service and he spoke to reporters describing the officer's death as a horrible thing and calling for a return to law and order. trump has accused president biden of not being tough enough on crime. this campaign looked to contrast his visit with biden's fund-raiser in new york city with former presidents obama and clinton. jonathan lemire, just a horrific tragedy. the officer killed, has a 1-year-old child at home. a rally of support around the city, across the country for officer diller paying off his mortgage, making sure his family is taken care of, but a reminder that there's no such thing -- i'm reminded by cops as a routine traffic stop as this was just a pullover in queens, and officer diller was shot and killed. >> yeah. each officer starts each day not knowing if it will be their last shift on the job. i covered the nypd and a lot of funerals just like this. it's a remarkable outpouring of

support from the community and the nation, but of course, because he's donald trump, he's making it political. his aides were very clear yesterday that they liked this split screen of president biden being at radio city music hall with two other presidents for a big dollar glitzy fund-raiser while donald trump was out in queens and then on long island meeting with the family of a slain officer. we'll get into it later in the day how he spent the rest of his day attacking the daughter of the judge, and talking about crime. trump and republicans are trying to make crime a central issue which we should note that crime has fallen most places in this country over the last couple of years since its post-pandemic high, but just the politics of crime, and we should note president biden called mayor adams to express condolences about the slain officer. how worried are democrat that is this could be an issue that resonates? >> democrats have their own case to make on crime. president biden has been very, very active in working on gun

violence issues. he started an office at the white house on gun violence, and they see that as completely connected to crime in a way that republicans don't like to make that connection. so i think you can also look back at some previous elections, 2022, 2020, where republicans were talking a lot about crime ahead of time, and then it didn't resonate as much at the polls as they were expecting. so i think it's an issue that republicans will see as a vulnerability, and you certainly see president trump trying to make it one for the democrats, but i think they're ready. >> all right. white house correspondent for reuters, jeff mason. jeff, thanks so much. we really appreciate it. coming up, "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich has been wrongfully imprisoned in russia for one year. keir simmons joins us with the latest on the efforts to bring him home. "morning joe's" coming right back. "morning joe's" coming right back

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good friday. a beautiful look at new york city. hope you have a wonderful easter weekend, and willie, i just want to circle back and of course, our thoughts always as we say with the men and women of the nypd for all they do, for the bravery they show every day, and we are truly grateful. i do want to just circle back and just -- there's an nbc article that i just now posted on my threads account, and it just shows the facts. i know the facts don't matter to donald trump, but crime rates keep dropping. crime, in fact, the rate is lower now than when donald trump was in office, lower than it was in 2020, even slightly lower than it was in trump's best year as it pertains to crime in 2019.

murder rates over the past year in the by city, said he's constantly harping on, down 20%. rapes down 16%. you can go down the list, on and on the most serious crimes way down, and again, the overall crime rate for 2022 the last year recorded rates lower, again, than donald trump's best year in 2019. certainly a lot lower than 2020. so he'll say what he says. republicans will keep lying. other news outlets will keep lying about it, and people will whip themselves into a frenzy and say, what about crime? and you can show them the facts. seriously. it's just like i can show people, you know, maybe they're unc fans and they don't want to know that alabama won last night. i think it was 79-77, but

alabama beat unc, and they go, no, no, no. it's not the truth. it's just the facts. it's just the facts. they may not like it, but it's the fact, and that's how trump extremists have gotten and it's how cable networks run. it's a business model to lie about the facts, to twist and distort reality for viewers day in, day out, night in, night out, and when you talk about crime, it's not as low as i want it to be. it's not as low as you want it to be. we've both said we think the bail issue in new york city is a joke. we think cops aren't allowed to do their jobs enough. we think that's a joke. that said, if you look at the numbers, donald trump is lying when he says crime rates are way up. they're not. they're down. they're lower than they were when he was president. >> yeah. that's just a fact, and violent crime, in particular, the ones you laid out, they're down double digits, and they spiked in '19 and '20, and last year

and the beginning of this year, they've come way down. criminologists and law enforcement experts debate about why those numbers come town. they talked about that in the '90s in new york. why didn't this work? the fact is they are down and it's that perception versus reality thing we talked about a little bit with the economy, right, joe? where you say, look at the data. you have number after number showing how strong the economy is, the number is. just like in polling and crime, people say the economy is not good, or crime is bad in this country. a lot of times it's a matter of perception. it's a way you feel walking down a street in new york city if you see things like street safety that don't make you feel good, and i get that. we all have some of that, but if you want to talk about data, violent crime in america is down significantly year over year. that is just a fact, but you can bet that will remain an issue with donald trump and many others in this race. coming up, ftx sam

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today marks exactly one year since "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich was wrongly detained in russia for espionage. a report the united states gomplts denies strongly. they extended detention for a fifth time stretching his imprisonment to at least the end of june and perhaps beyond.

joining us now, chief international correspondent keir simmons who's been covering this story so closely. keir, good morning. that very powerful front page of the "wall street journal." a blank, white space where it says evan gershkovich's reporting should be. he just had his pre-trial detention extended. what do we know about his fate and the efforts to bring him home? >> huge efforts to bring him home, and what we know about his face is, it's very difficult to read honestly. he can be kept in a prison in moscow for as long as the russians want to keep him there. i mean, that hearing that you talked about where, again, we asked to be there. our team in moscow asked to be there. the press and media were told they weren't going to be allowed -- in, and that hearing was really about whether or not he

would be in detention. he's not being tried. we don't know what he's accused of beyond an accusation of espionage. "the wall street journal" absolutely deny and say that he is a journalist and you mention from that page, and he has that front page there. >> the front page with the blank space where a story would be, and then the back, his face, of course. >> absolutely powerful message from the "wall street journal." look. this is a story in part, of how russia is now an intelligence agency, security agency-run country. he's accused of espionage. there are others, of course, paul whelan who is jailed there, jailed for espionage, and again denies it. another who is accused of supporting ukraine again by the fsb.

ksenia karolina who then denies she was supporting ukraine, and accused of making donations, but it's the fsb running that, the former kgb. they're a notorious former kgb prison. so this is really all about the extent to which president putin is in charge of a country where the most powerful organizations in the country are, the fsb, the svr, and, in fact, we are -- it's pretty clear. putin makes it pretty obvious that what they want to do is swap evan and others for russians held particularly at this stage, it looks like a russian held in germany serve a life sentence for murder who is an fsb officer. >> and of course, putin keeps seizing americans.

"the wall street journal" had a great story. gene robinson, that was yesterday about that, about how putin keeps seizing americans and using them as pawns and he wants to get the worst actors out of prison. i don't know if you had a chance to see any of the netflix series "turning point," but it is a great reminder especially for younger americans to understand just how brutal and savage the reign of stalin was, the millions and millions of ukrainians he deliberately starved to death, and a government-sanctioned famine. some people estimate 20, 30 million russians died at stalin's hands, and after stalin's death, he called out these crimes. these crimes have been recognized up until recently. the police state that he had, you have vladimir putin praising stalin. stalin, once again the figure of

adoration in the old soviet union, and it lines up very neatly with the police state that russia has become, as keir said, even more so than before over the past years or two. >> absolutely. i have not seen that series, but i've read a lot about stalin, biographies, and histories, and it's absolutely one of the worst monsters of the 20th century, responsible for tens of millions of deaths, intentional deaths including the horrific famine in ukraine that he engineered and presided over with satisfaction. it is -- and this is what vladimir putin looks back on with great admiration and nostalgia, and he looks upon

himself i think as vladimir the great who's going to restore, let's just say it, the soviet union, stalin's creation, the soviet union to his former glory, and so why would anyone think that he would for example stop with ukraine if he is successful there? why would anyone think it's not a good idea for the united states and the west to do everything it can to thwart him in ukraine to contain this 21st century monster who wants to reclaim the soviet union's former, what he would consider glory? evan, what he's done to evan gershkovich and the other americans, he has cynically

kidnapped and is holding them as hostages, and it's deplorable, it's disgusting. it's illegal, it's wrong, and of course, there is very little we can do about it, except keep on the pressure and i so commend "the wall street journal" for what it's done to keep evan's name and situation in the news. other news organizations are doing whatever they can to try to help in this effort knowing that this is really out of our hands. >> yeah. joe said at the top of the program, it's a bold editor who leaves the top of the page blank. keir, talk to us a little bit about your understanding of these negotiations. that fsb officer who's in jail in germany, he was raised around the time that brittney griner's negotiations were taking place, and obviously she got out in exchange for viktor bout, and

the germans wouldn't release that fsb officer. do you get any reports in the back channels that there is a path for evan to get out? that the americans may be able to talk to the germans and get this fsb officer out? if the germans agreed, would that be enough? would the russians release evan? >> you make a really important point because he's being held in germany. he's not being held here in the states so there's a diplomatic challenge here. it goes to putin's absolute belief that america runs the west, that america is able to just say to germany, release this guy, and germany will do it and of course, that isn't the case, although absolutely the american government is enormously powerful. those negotiations continue. putin has said -- sorry. dmitry peskov, the spokesman has said, they're better behind closed doors. that may be right.

i do think there's an aspect of this just in the conversation, which i think is highlighting, from my trips to russia, i can tell you that revisionist history that joe is talking about is absolutely embedded now. it is believed by many, many russians and i've said on the show many times that putin does have a lot of support, and i think that should concern us because the combination of that, and the military and industrial changes in russia, the way it's becoming kind of a military economy, that is going to be a threat over a sustained period, and the point i'm making is that this really is a wider lens than just putin, although we focused on putin and we'll just say one other thing about putin, and this goes to these negotiations. putin when he spoke of these so-called elections, he talked about how he had asked for alexei navalny. he agreed for navalny to be

released from russia, and said that just a few days later, navalny was dead. now clearly you can't believe things that putin says, but if that's true, if there's an element of truth in that, then what does that tell us about the way russia is run, that the president -- president putin says he wants him released and a few days later, he's dead? what does that tell us about the nature of that country and again, what does that tell us about the threat from russia that potentially goes beyond just putin and lasts for longer than putin, although of course, at this stage, we're looking at potentially 12 more years of putin at least. >> and that brings up a good point. we can just look at the character who is looking to overthrow vladimir putin, a man who said he needed to turn russia into a north korea, and they needed to have even more

aggressive war not only with ukraine, but also the west. so yes. vladimir putin is a problem, but if anybody thinks that removing vladimir putin makes russia a safer, more stable place, well, they weren't alive in 1991, 1992, 1993. it's not always the case. let me read in the talkers, part of the talkers lette e. evan has shown strength. we are amazed at this. their fortitude doesn't change the fact that evan's detention is a blatant attack on the rights of the free press at a time when evidence abounds around the globe of the vital role that quality journalism plays in our society's understanding of world events, and in bearing witness to

history. this one-year anniversary's an opportunity to express our admiration for our colleague and his family. it is a reminder of the dangers facing journalists worldwide as they pursue their essential mission, and it energizes us to continue the effort to ensure that this is the last milestone that evan spends in prison. sincerely, emma tucker, editor in chief, "the wall street journal." coming up, new reporting on donald trump's plans to use the justice department to go after new york's attorney general if he wins the white house in november. we'll be joined by one of the "rolling stone" reporters behind that piece straight ahead on "morning joe." ers behind that piece straight ahead on "morning joe. okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health.

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right now, i just want to say from the bottom of my heart how thankful i am, not only for today and all of you showing up and supporting us, but for 21 years. [ cheers and applause ] >> you all supported me from the start. i mean, listen, i'm not gonna lie, it kind of sucks that it was my last game here. i lost my first game too, so it's okay. >> that was 13-time wnba all

star sue bird back in 2022 at her final home game in front of a loud seattle crowd. her documentary is entitled "sue bird in the clutch." the film goes with bird and her final season in the wnba and shows a revealing portrait of what drives one of basketball's all-time greats both on the court and as an advocate for the lgbtq community, alongside her fiancee megan rapinoe. sue bird joins us now along with sarah dowd. sue, you've obviously spent a

lot of your life in the public eye, but agreeing to do a documentary is a very different matter, particularly because it captures so much off the court as well. tell us what led you too it. >> i have such a unique experience as an athlete and the trajectory of the wnba and how each part of my career almost paralleled that. who better to have a story told about them? it's important to tell our stories in a way that is nuanced, that showed the detail of what it's like to be in our world. now that women's basketball is booming, the timing of this couldn't be more perfect. as it turned out, i won a lot, so that helps. even though i'm a little more on the private side, i let the cameras in to hopefully continue to propel women's basketball. >> women's basketball is having a real moment right now, both on the college and professional level. talk to us about how you put

this together. you have a challenging subject who's not used to perhaps being so open about some parts of her private life. >> the most important thing for us is we wanted to capture sue's final season. we wanted to enshrine that in the documentary. we knew it was going to be special. we knew the fans were going to turn out to see her play in the final season, so that was important to us to capture as part of her story. and as we go through the final season, we're going through all the highs and lows in her career, mostly highs, just a few spots there with some injuries and things that she overcame. but, yeah, for us the main important thing was to capture her story of that final year and use that as the spine to get to all the things of women's basketball that are so important. >> the touchstone for a lot of

document documentaries, did that provide some guidance? and how is this story different? sue is a very different character than michael jordan. >> yeah, very different. we wanted to make this a very unique story. sue has played for so long in the league, i feel like she is someone who set a path that other players before her haven't done. she has really created that. that was unique to women's basketball and her experience, and that's what we wanted to show. >> you played your entire career in one city, seattle. talk about how the fans and that team is such a character of your story. >> i grew up there in so many ways. i got drafted at 21. i retired at 41. those are formative years.

i got to grow as a player and as a person. the fans were there the whole time. they've seen us raise banners and they've also seen us lose some tough, important games and everything in between. what made my retirement so special was being able to share it with the fans. i don't like to use the word closure, but it gave it a nice little ending point. >> the sweet 16 tips off this afternoon. talk to us about what you're seeing here. obviously caitlin clark is a breakthrough star, this south carolina team undefeated. there's far more buzz about the women's tournament this year than the men's, no question. tell us your predictions and also how it feels to be part of the foundation that led to this big moment. >> i take great pride in knowing that my fingerprints are all over the game. as far as the college game, so

many good teams, so many good players, of course let by caitlin. she's brought the casual fan to women's basketball. that was the fan group we were missing a little bit. we had our die-hards. it was the casual fan and she has broken open that door to let that person in. what they're finding is all the other talent, all the other great teams, all the other past, current, whatever it is, there's a wealth in the wnba. >> the women's tournament on this weekend. so is the documentary, "sue bird in the clutch" available on amazon prime video. thank you both for coming this morning. we are into the fourth hour

of "morning joe" now. it's just past 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. we begin this hour with president biden's high-profile fundraiser in new york city last night that featured two of his democratic predecessors. gabe gutierrez has more. >> reporter: overnight, a trio of presidents inside radio city music hall, presidents biden, obama and clinton presenting a united front. the star-studded fundraiser featuring late night host stephen colbert. >> can voters trust a presidential candidate who has not won a single trump international golf club trophy? >> i told him this before he got sworn in. i said i'll give you three strokes if you carry your own bag. >> the event also included performances by lizzo, queen

latifah and ben plat. the biden campaign says it raised $25 million, a record hall. actress and the comedian mindy kaling joked about the high price tag to get in. >> it is such an honor to be in this room with so many rich people. >> earlier in the day, former president obama arrived with his one-time vice president on air force one. nbc gained access to the live stream early where the three presidents sat down for a pretaped campaign interview. >> we're just getting starts. let's keep going. let's win this november. >> reporter: the fundraiser interrupted a few times by pro-palestinian protesters. while outside the iconic venue, demonstrators blasted president biden's handling of the israel/hamas war. did you vote for him in 2020? >> i did. i would not vote for him this

time. >> reporter: president trump attended the funeral of jonathan diller, meeting with his wife and 1-year-old son. >> we have to get back to law and order. we have to do a lot of things differently, because this is not working. >> yeah. that's the guy that in 2016 ran on building the wall when under president obama and vice president biden illegal border crossings were at a 50-year low. now he's talking about crime. i don't know people don't want to hear it if they are supporting donald trump, but crime is lower now than it was when donald trump was president. it just is. crime rates keep going down in the big cities he's lashing out at. murders are down 20%, rape is down 16%. the crime rate, again, lower

under joe biden than it was under donald trump. again, he can keep lying about it if he wants to. that's all he's got. this is a campaign that's clicking on all cylinders if you want to know why donald trump and all of his allies in the media are freaking out. things are going pretty well, and he's not hiding in south florida most of the time or writing these crazy screeds. here's a tweet from last night. caught up with barack obama, bill clinton and stephen at home last night. i like their style. a lot of people do as well. how much money did they make off of this fundraiser last night? >> the campaign says they raised

$26 million, which is a record for a single night and adds to what is already a substantial and growing financial advantage over donald trump. we should note that tweet, the former president and stephen colbert all wearing aviator sunglasses, much like president biden is fond of doing. >> they're taking that money and doing what donald trump can't do. they're building campaign headquarters all across the most important swing states, across the country. it's the ground game that donald trump can't do, because he's kind of rigged even the rnc so if you give the money to the rnc, his family who he's now put there make sure that the money goes to him and his legal cases first. they're getting out-raised on

all fronts. if you're giving money to joe biden's campaign or the democrats, you're giving money to the campaign, to run a campaign, to win an election. if you give money to donald trump, you know you're giving money to lawyers. you're basically paying his legal fees. if they want to do that, you know -- i didn't like the fact that my grandma gave to jim and tammy faye baker. they're doing the ptl club routine, except it's a guy who does nothing but lose elections. they're going to lose this one too. they're going to lose their money. it's heartbreaking what he's done to middle class americans who support him. >> people who don't have money to afford to give it away are

still giving money to donald trump, although his small dollar donations are down. when you have to slice off a piece of what the gop has raised because it's going to donald trump's legal bills, the advantage is that much greater. the state of wisconsin, arguably the closest battleground state, the democrats and biden have opened up about three dozen offices there. republicans, zero. they don't have the money for it. trump had to pull down a campaign event they were hoping to have in arizona this week because they couldn't afford it. this is a real advantage. republicans are starting to get nervous. this is a skeleton campaign and donald trump is not really out there. they contrast that with how aggressive joe biden on the road, including here in new york last night for that fundraiser. let's take a first look at a clip for that discussion inside radio city. >> here we are in 2024. this election really feels like

the most important election of our lives when it comes to rights and freedom and the heart and the soul and the future of our country. first question for you, president biden, how would you describe what's at stake in this election? >> i think our democracy is at stake. it's not a joke. i think democracy is at stake. look, i wasn't going to run in 2020, because i'd just lost my son beau a little earlier. i watched what happened down in virginia when those folks came out carrying torches and nazi flags and accompanied by white supremacists and they killed a bystander. when the president was asked what he thought of that, he said there were very fine people on both sides. it's an inflection point in history. this guy denies global warming. this guy wants to get rid of roe v wade, which he brags about

having done. he wants to get rid of the right of anyone in america to ever choose. all of the things he's done are so old, speaking of old. a little old and out of shape. anyway. >> let's bring in john heilemann, reverend al sharpton, susan page and sam stein. john, let's back up just one second. we have people on this panel that are such experts in this and have covered this. i remember specifically i believe you wrote an article about the 2012 campaign after it was over. you had said that it was barack obama's goal and the team's goal

to disqualify mitt romney by may, by april, by may, by hitting him hard early. we're seeing the seeds of that here. of course, donald trump ahead in some polls. biden is doing better than before. but you look at what we just heard about wisconsin, the number of campaign headquarters that biden has, where trump's having to pull out. michigan, you have the guy who's running the michigan republican party saying, guys, hey, anybody out there? we're here. donald trump having to cancel events in arizona. it is a tale of two campaigns. i dowonder if republicans are waiting to say, hey, wait a second, maybe that joe scarborough is right. actually, those are words that are never used. but maybe this guy is not as interested in winning the

presidency as he is in using this run to pay his legal bills, something i said he would do in 2019 if he lost in 2020. sure enough, that's what he's doing. talk about the tale of two campaigns. and are we seeing the seeds of a donald trump defeat again this fall because of what's happening in early spring? >> yeah, i wrote that back in 2012. i actually wrote it while it was ongoing. it was like may or june of that year. i think it is important as a parallel, and there's a way in which it's exactly on and a way in which it's not exactly on. the difference between 2012 and mitt romney and donald trump in 2024 is mitt romney was still a largely unknown commodity to most americans in the spring of 2012. the definition that took place, like the defining of who mitt

romney was, the notion that he was this rapacious overlord of the multimillionaire and billionaire class that he could be caricatured as a figure of great wealth and no sympathy. that ended up being the image that helped barack obama to win. when we got to election day in 2012, when you looked at those exit polls, the main thing obama outdistanced romney on was cares about people like us. the gap was enormous. they were close on the economy and strong leader. when it came to cares about people like us, barack obama crushed romney. that was the difference in the election. that was all stuff planted in the spring of that year with this massive onslaught of advertising the obama campaign did then. the difference in 2024 is donald trump is not an undefined character in the american psyche. everyone knows who donald trump

is. there's no thing not known in some sense about donald trump. where the financial advantage is most important in this race is in reminding people what the stakes are. it's not about reminding people about trump himself, but reminding of the stakes in the race and illustrating how much more extreme donald trump is in 2024 than he was in 2016 and even in 2020. how much of donald trump after january 6th has become someone who doesn't hide his fascistic tendencies and what his rule brought in the case of roe v wade and the dobbs decision. those are the things the biden campaign has tried to do. what a flex last night relative to all this that we're talking about. that kind of event with bill

clinton, barack obama and joe biden appearance. that is something we think of as a late october event. it's not a spring event. this is an election campaign saying we're going to do this now and keep doing it all the way through the fall. these ex-presidents who normally will give us a few days on the campaign trail in the fall, they're all in, because they understand what the stakes are too. but it also is showing everybody just how much is at stake here. it's showing the party. it's reassuring democrats. it's also telling republicans, hey, you guys have no firepower that can match this firepower. >> the clear message to trump and the republicans, we're going to bury you financially. president biden has a meeting with his financial director's teams here in new york this morning as well.

the second goal last night was to present democratic unity. bill clinton and barack obama still strike real chords with much of the party. there are still democrats out there supporting president biden but maybe not doing so all that enthusiastically. there are some unsure whether they're going to back joe biden again. they wouldn't back trump, but they might stay home. clinton and obama are saying, look, this matters too much. >> i think that was definitely the subtext. i think it was something that was important to do now rather than later. everyone has mentioned that usually you see obama and/or for that matter clinton coming out late in maybe the fall in the last couple of weeks. i think the need to really say to everyone in all of the different segments of the

democratic party base know we need you to understand now what's at stake. i think last night really dramatized that. $26 million raised is great, but more importantly you had bill clinton, who was a centrist democrat, and you had barack obama, who was considered more progressive, who beat bill clinton's wife. you had them sitting on the stage saying this is what we need to do. as joe always talks about, you're going to have the stream on both sides, but a lot of people had to pay attention, because if you were a democrat or independent, you had to be one that probably supported clinton or obama, even if you were lukewarm about biden. i think it was a good night for biden last night.

>> susan page, what do you think the political impact of this event, having these three presidents on the stage this early in the campaign? >> just to build on something else john said about the fact that donald trump is a well-known figure, it's different than with mitt romney during his campaign, but one of the things the biden campaign wants to do is remind people about what they may have forgotten about donald trump. in our latest usa today suffolk poll we asked do you approve of the job donald trump as president. his approval rating was higher than it ever was during her presidency. i think there are voters who have forgotten about that. that is one task this campaign is facing. >> the biden campaign really taking on the phenomenon of trump amnesia head on. the campaign every day is

tweeting out, hey, four years ago today, here's what happened. yesterday during the first few days of the coronavirus pandemic, donald trump sought out alex rodriguez for his advice. give us your take-aways on last night and what it meant. we were discussing this morning the protesters, those upset about what's happening in gaza. former president obama took one on directly saying it's okay to talk, but you have to listen too. >> i think we should appreciate your sideswipe at a-rod there. >> every chance i get. >> totally gratuitous. back to the point. let me say something on the early attacks and then i'll get to obama. we did a piece on this. if you look back at that 2012

campaign, the real ad campaign from the obama folks came in may, june. we are in late march, and the biden campaign has already outlined a $30 million ad campaign largely directed at going after trump in visceral terms. this is months earlier than obama in 2012. i think that's partially why you have this kind of glitzy fundraisers because you need to fund this thing. $26 million is historic. it's going to go right into negative ads. as to your point about obama and going after protesters, this is the crux of the election. the biden people think they will ultimately have the moderate sort of former republicans and say we just can't stomach donald trump.

where they feel vulnerable right now is getting their base reenergized, getting those voters who have drifted away from the president in large part because of what's happening in gaza. i was not surprised to see protesters last night. every single public event biden has had, he's had protesters. they've had to take dramatic steps to limit the number of protesters. they've got to find a way to get the base reenergized to deal with this issue. if it takes obama speaking out at these events, that may be it, but i don't know that's going to be effective enough. >> they're going to have the event in chicago. of course chicago '68, everybody involved in politics remembers that, either from being there or reading about it. i saw that interview in the gabe gutierrez package, somebody said i voted for joe biden in 2020, but i'm not going to vote for

him in 2024 because of his policy on gaza. oh really? donald trump has told israel, do what you want to do, finish them off. you have the former ambassador under donald trump saying get them out of gaza, drive them out of gaza. a lot of talk in trump world about just clearing palestinians out, sounding like the most right-wing elements of netanyahu's government, saying that israel needs to occupy, take over gaza and drive palestinians out. that's the alternative. the protesters in '68 helped elect richard nixon. will the protesters in 2024 help elect donald trump, who will be the most anti-muslim president ever? >> sam. >> yeah, i didn't realize you were asking me, but yes, there's

nothing objectionable to what you just said. it's absolutely true. trump's policies are demonstrably more pro-israel than president biden. jared kushner the other day was talking about clearing out all of gaza, moving it into the egyptian desert so you can build up waterfront property on the mediterranean sea. that's what he said. if you talk to people who are upset with biden, that is not totally a resonant counter point. they say biden has a chance to affect policy now. he can stop the shipment of aid to israel now, and he's not doing it. to them, that is sort of a moral line they can't get over. biden has clearly moved towards that faction. if you talk to the protesters, it is not enough. they want him to embrace a complete and total cease-fire right now. >> i think that is true, but i

also think you can't overlook joe's point. that is that you can overstep where you are trying to go by beginning to turn a lot of people that are with you against you. that's what happened in '68. i was a kid, but i was already in the movement. the difference in strategies, you had sds, you had the black panthers, you had those of us after dr. king's assassination, everybody fighting, kennedy and dr. king killed that year. the result was a guy who lost for president in 1960 went home and lost for governor of california, beat hubert humphrey. i think you need to be careful that you don't run the whole level of where you're trying to affect policy and you bring in somebody who's far worse on the issue you care about in terms of

a two-state solution. >> sam stein, thank you for being with us. thanks for the appreciation of the a-rod pushback by lemire. >> it was so gratuitous. >> go sox, the impossible dream, 2024. >> we got it this year. >> thank you, sam. coming up on "morning joe," the man who was once known as the crypto king is headed to prison for more than 20 years. plus, new inflation data out this morning and what it could mean for interest rates. "morning joe" coming right back. the "new york times" reported this week that he spent more than $100 million on legal fees. i don't know what trump's current lawyers are doing with all that money, but i can guess what his former lawyers would do with it based on what they're doing without it. rudy giuliani, who recently declared bankruptcy and debts totaling $500 million posted a

video of himself this week behind the wheel of what i can only assume is a convertible or a car missing its roof under the caption, driving with the top down. all right. i think i'm out on this "thelma & louise" reboot. driving with the top down sounds like a euphemism you would use about rudy giuliani. i don't know if you should hire that guy. let's just say he's driving with the top down. th the top down

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hey, captain. what's cooking? >> we're putting a man on the moon. >> are you out of your mind?

i can't even get tuna without celery. nobody go to the moon ever. >> why not? >> it's too far. it's really far. it's far. ♪♪ >> like i was saying, it's ftx. it's a safe and easy way to get into crypto. >> ah, i don't think so. i'm never wrong about this stuff, never. >> it turns out larry david may have been onto something. that was the now infamous ftx commercial which aired during the 2022 super bowl. the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed spectacularly months later and its founder was eventually convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers. yesterday he was sentenced to 25

years in prison. that sentence was shorter than the 40 or 50 years than federal prosecutors sought. he was ordered to forfeit about $11 billion in assets. bankman-fried apologized to the court, saying his decisions haunt him every day. john, it's quite a turn of events for a guy who was on top of the world financially just a few short years ago. >> yeah. a truly stunning and swift fall from grace. let's bring in christine romans and state attorney for palm beach county dave aronberg. just a remarkable fall in just a few short years. ftx with a high-profile super bowl ad just two-ish years ago, and now the founder is sentenced to two decades in prison. talk to us about his personal

story and what this could mean for the crypto industry writ large. >> his personal story is super interesting. he is a math guy, obviously very, very smart, but really not your typical startup guy, not your typical ceo. he wore shorts, barefoot, sort of dishevelled. he would hold meetings after staying up all night playing video games. there was something him that people loved. they thought this guy was the face of crypto and they trusted him. it was meant to be a platform for mom and pop investors to get into crypto in a safe way. it was a scam, it was a con. he was spending the money on his lifestyle. he was spending the money liberally in politics. he was investing in a hedge fund that was just breaking the rules right and left.

people trusted him and kept giving him their money. >> dave aronberg, what do you make of the sentence here? >> it is far less than 40 to 50 years prosecutors wanted, but it is about five times what the defense lawyers asked for. judge kaplan went below the sentencing guidelines. i know that surprised people, because he really seemed to dislike sbf and his conduct during trial. he found that the defendant committed perjury, saying in 30 years on the bench i've never seen a performance quite like that. and yet he went way below the sentencing guidelines. i think it was because he wanted to be in line with some of the other high-profile white collar criminals like elizabeth holmes. jeffrey skilling, the ceo of enron got 24 years, later reduced to 12 years for good

behavior. bernie madoff has no peer. he had a $65 billion scheme. this one was about $8 billion. bernie madoff died in prison. i think the sentence of 25 years is fair. it's nothing to sneeze at. >> christine, we got some new economic numbers. what have we learned? >> we learned that the pce, the inflation gauge that the fed likes to watch came in at 2.8%, right where everyone thought it could be. consumer spending is strong. incomes are up. the stock market had the best quarter in four or five years. the economy is good. still need to get inflation better under control, wrestle it back to 2%. 2.8% is where it sits, but

moving in the right direction. i think for the fed, it's still on hold. interest rates will stay where they are. the performance of the stock market is really good this quarter for investors. productivity is up, wages are up. there's a sentiment number this week that was really interesting to me that showed people over 55 are feeling really good about the economy. people under 35 aren't so much. i can explain that divide by a couple of things. home prices, record high. stock prices, record high. >> that dynamic so central to this election year. christine romans, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. we turn now to donald trump again and how he spent part of his day on social media attacking the daughter of the judge in his hush money case. the former president mentioned her by name in a post, which

included a false claim about a social media account that shares a handle that she once used. trump ranted about a picture of him behind bars that had been posted to the account, and he claimed it proves he can't get a fair trial. but the new york state court says the handle no longer belongs to the judge's daughter according to a court spokesperson. she deleted it about a year ago, and apparently someone else has taken it over, but it's not clear who. trump is under a gag order in the case, but it does not apply to the judge or his family. here's how former federal prosecutor andrew weissman reacted to donald trump's comments. >> it actually is something that could be stopped. the gag order could apply to both the judge and the judge's family. this is one where as a matter of grace, the judges have not imposed the gag order as to

themselves. >> right. >> judges, i think, bend over backwards. but it will be interesting to see whether judge expands it. it is really important not to normalize this. so many people talk about predicting what would a trump 2.0 administration be and should we really think he's going to be a dictator and what will happen? my response to that is you can look right now at what he's doing and saying. and for people who are fair-minded, i would say, what do you say about something who attacks the daughter of a judge? >> that's right. >> is there no depths to which he will not descend? it is so important to not get

enured to what this is. >> the courts allow it. practicing law for the short while i practiced law when i was younger, if anybody, if a defendant, a lawyer, if anybody said something like this about a judge or a judge's family member, they would immediately go to jail. they might be given a really harsh warning. their lawyer would probably be warned. if you do this again, you're going to be sanctioned, and then i'm going to send your client to jail and let him think about it. that would happen to you, to me, to anybody that talked about the judge that way. donald trump, you know, his supporters are right. there is a two-tiered legal

system, and donald trump is a beneficiary of it certainly in this case. you brought up a great point to me, john heilemann. joe biden raised more money in one night than donald trump will probably raise in the entire first quarter of this election year. while joe biden is doing that, donald trump's continuing to engage in the type of behavior that cost him almost $100 million when he couldn't shut his mouth about e jean carroll even after he had a defamation judgment handed down against him. he's doing it now. gag order, and what's he doing? he's going after a judge's family member. >> right. joe, a few months ago when we were on the air talking about this, we talked about the fact

that nothing would stop trump no matter how a gag order, a limited gag order, a sweeping gag order, that he would never shut up and he would keep doing what he does, because he's never paid a real price for saying outrageous, outlandish, threatening things. in fact, he's been rewarded for that in a lot of regards. people would say, if he does this this coming year, they could put him in jail. they could slap a contempt order on him and jail him. my question was, are any of the judges going to have the stones to do that? is it going to happen? of course they have that power. but will they actually do it? con trstrained by either fear o misguided sense of not wanting

to jail somebody who's active in a presidential race. will any of them have the balls to do this? he's going to do things that merit that. so i ask you, because unlike you, i'm not even a simple country lawyer, you simple country lawyer, me, none of those things, right? why not? what is the thing that would constrain any of these judges, but in this case, this judge from basically saying, here's the strictest possible gag order and the first time you violate it i'm going to put you in jail and you can sit there and rot for however long. what stops them? >> i don't know. i tell you what, the judges that i went before would have done it in a second. they would have done it to anybody. i understand he's a presidential candidate. i also understand he's a presidential candidate in large part because he knew all of this was coming. we said it in 2019.

we said it in 2020. we said it in 2021. we've been saying he's going to run for president because he knows he's gotten himself in such legal trouble. so from a judge, i just lay it out straight to the lawyer and to the defendant, in this case donald trump, which is, this is a gag order. if you violate it, let me give you ten examples of people who have violated gag orders in this court and what happened to them, and that's going to happen to you. whatever sanction that is for the attorneys, whatever sanction that is for the defendant, it happens. but this is the sort of behavior, especially in federal court, my god -- in northwest florida, my god, you would be buried in jail for a week. i mean, there's a woman who fell asleep during jury duty who got sent to jail for contempt of court.

so when you have a defendant lying about a judge's family member, because the defendant knows that will put the judge's daughter in danger of imminent harm, it's a pretty easy call. susan page, seems like a pretty easy call to me as an attorney. i'm curious your thoughts about this very unique position that judges find themselves in because donald trump is a presidential candidate. >> there's a question of respect for the court surely in play here. there's another question with these attacks. that is it is dangerous to the judge's daughter to have these attacks levelled at her. we know how violent american politics have gotten. we know how figures on the extremes can be incited to violence by the words of donald

trump. so that is a perspective -- we know what social media can be like, especially in attacking women and young women. from a legal perspective, does that play into this at all? is it not just a question for respect for the court, but also a question for the consequences of the kind of language that we're seeing? >> absolutely. donald trump will say the first amendment protects him, but criminal defendants are always limited in what they can say. you know, after you're arrested and brought before a judge for first appearance, you're told you can't talk to victims, you can't talk to witnesses. my experience has been that if a defendant ever dared to attack one of my family members or the prosecutors, that defendant would be wearing an orange jumpsuit sooner than later. i do think donald trump wants to be sanctioned. at the very least, he wants the

gag order to be expanded, because nothing motivates his base more than grievance and martyrdom. he wanted the judge to recuse himself. he worries this trial is going to go soon. the judge has decided not to give into more delays, but he can impose real accountability here. i agree that there does seem to be a two-tiered system of justice here. they're bending over backwards to protect this guy. judges are worried that they don't want to look political, but if you don't act, that in itself looks political. inaction here undermines faith in the criminal justice system and the rule of law. >> all right. state attorney for palm beach

county dave aronberg, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. john heilemann, thank you as well. always great to have you guys on. coming up, as billions around the world observe good friday, we're going to talk about the importance of the day with the editor in chief of "christianity today" russell moore. we'll discuss his message for white nationalists who are trying to use the phrase "christ is king" as an anti-semitic troll. "morning joe" will be right back. c troll. "morning joe" will be right back

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but, we can do our best to seek the light and the hope and love. >> president biden discussing his faith while attending a church service in columbia, south carolina, earlier this year. and reverend al, easter is at the heart of christianity and for me, i think one moment that happened on good friday that we read about was when jesus was in the center cross of the two criminals who were on both sides, and one was mocking him, the other praising him, and asking, lord, will you take me with you, and jesus said, i tell you this day, you will be with me in paradise. and really, it does show that message right there shows that because of easter, for those of us that are believers, we're

saved by grace, that the ground is level at the foot of the cross and even some -- a criminal who is dying on a cross, who asks jesus for help, who asks for forgiveness, who asks for grace is given that grace and i will just say, for a sinner like me, what an extraordinary, what an extraordinary thing to be able to hold on to, to have as your foundation. >> that is why today is such a critical part of those of us that are believers in christianity. and that is that christ, the only one he really promised today that you will be with me was a dying thief, not even those that were some of his own disciples. and i think it shows the extending of mercy despite all

of our flaws, all of our shortcomings, is what christianity is all about. it also is about that no matter what you go through, jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples, he was tried in an unfair trial, he was persecuted, he was castigated by the leaders of the faith of his day, but no matter what you go through, you can rise again and the burdens that we bear and remember today on good friday, we should never forget a dying thief was pardoned and christ will get up in three days and that's -- that is what we must bear our cross, and do what is right, knowing there is a resurrection behind every crucifixion. >> a dying thief pardoned and i saw a pastor one time telling in a wonderful way, he said the thief went to heaven and went to the gates of saint peter and the

person there said, so why are you here, what position did you hold in your church, and church, i didn't -- i never worshipped, well, do you believe people are saved by grace or do you believe faith without works is dead. the criminal said what? he said, why are you here? he said because the guy in the middle cross told me to come here. and he said, come in. and russell moore, let me bring you in, the editor in chief of "christianity today," who lead its public theology project, that is, of course, the story of easter. nothing to do with politics. nothing to do with political leaders. nothing to do with idols raised, which jeremiah warned us about, it is about the faith. and the grace that we all are given. >> it is. it is a story of grace that

ought to still amaze us. and that's one of the things that christians are all around the world are recognizing today that crucifixion of christ, the resurrection of jesus on sunday, up ends and transforms everything, including all of our priorities, the things we think matter right now. >> russell, you and i grew up, same background, same baptist churches, of course you, of course much better christian than me, but same backgrounds and we have grown older together to see just contortions of christianity by people who are using it for political purposes. and people who are using it to spread hate and i want to ask you specifically about the

antisemitic trop, where they're using jesus, christ as king, as an antisemitic trop. >> here on holy week, we have seen social media erupt, controversy, it started over the firing or leaving of candace owens from the daily wire, but a lot of antisemitic people on twitter, x, other places, using that #christisking. and my response to that is to say, ye christ is king and he's a jew. be careful what you wish for. and also because that slogan doesn't mean what they want it to mean, which is power and humiliation and intimidation. that's exactly what caesar was trying to do, with crucifixion. the cross actually up ends all of that and so the use of christ is king, especially on this week, in order to have hatred toward the very people jesus

belongs to, and belonged to is blasphemous. >> russell, the whole way that some have weaponized jesus for their own ends, whether it is in the case of antisemitism or antiblack or antiwhoever runs contrary to one of the great parables that jesus taught of the great samaritan who stopped and helped a man that his own kind kept walking by. and jesus was telling us that we got to reach to people that are different than us. that is what makes us great because the samaritan helped people that members of his own race kept walking by. isn't that really something we ought to be talking about today on good friday? >> yes, and one of the things i think so often when i think of that parable is what martin luther king said about the reason that so many people passed by the man beaten by the side of the road. they were afraid.

they were able to look and say if this happened to him, it could happen to me and it was easier just to walk on by. there are a lot of people who would use fear in order to have people withdraw into their own enclaves to try to find enemies all around them who are not our real enemies, and to walk in the exact opposite direction jesus told us to walk. >> you know, and we -- the people that are put up for hatred using jesus' name are the very people, if we read the gospels, jesus would be with. he was always with the outcast, wasn't he? he was with the people who were considered just the dregs of society. and he said, and, again this is the message of easter, when people asked why do you hang out with these sinners, he said, i came to heal the sick. i didn't come here to help

people who are well. i came to heal the sick. and isn't that the message that christians need to focus on more? >> yeah, and it is one of the things that is so alarming right now is biblical illiteracy, but not where we were warned that biblical illiteracy would show up out in the world, biblical illiteracy among us, people who aren't spending the kind of time with christ in the bible in order to have intuition shaped and formed to say, wait, what are we doing? what are we saying? what kind of people are we becoming? and that's one of the things that has to be turned around because i'm alarmed when i meet people, secular people, say on college campuses, other places, who reject christ, not because they have seen jesus and are not responding to him, but because they think that jesus is