home. there's consolidation. >> biden campaign with momentum. donald trump, meanwhile, two weeks from today has to appear in a manhattan courtroom in the start of a criminal 2r50i8. white house reporter for "the wall street journal," ken thomas, terrific reporting as always. thank you for joining us, thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. that's right, it's easter. the time of year where i can bear myself to jesus christ. that's just a thing i do now and people seem to be okay with that. many i'm going to keep doing it. and if you think this is a bad look, imagine how weird it would be if i started selling bibles. well, i'm selling bibles. [ laughter ] look at this beautiful bible, made from 100% bible. sounds like a joke, and in many ways it is it's also very real. as you know, i love bibles.

it's my favorite book. i've definitely read it. my favorite part is probably the ending, how it all wraps up. this is a very special bible. and it could be yours for the high, high price of $60. but i'm not doing this for the money. i'm doing this for the glory of god. and for pandering and mostly for money. [ laughter ] "saturday night live's" take on donald trump hawking his own version of the bible. the former president then spent easter sunday ranting for hours on social media, saying things that you wouldn't say on any day. we'll discuss why that matters and how the biden campaign is responding. plus, we'll get legal analysis on the gag order in trump's hush money case, after he repeatedly criticized the judge and the judge's daughter. also, the latest from

israel, where thousands of people protested yesterday in jerusalem, calling for new elections in the country. it is the largest demonstration since the war against hamas began. we'll talk about that for sure. good morning, welcome to "morning joe." it's monday, april 1st. with us we have the host of "way too early," white chief at pretty coates, jonathan lemire, bb news katty kay. the host of the podcast on brand with donny deutsch with us. and deputy manager for politico, sam stein is here. mgs nbc contributor and author of the book "how the right lost its mind" charlie sykes is with us. what a great group to have on this monday morning with so much to talk about, and we're going to take it step-by-step because there's a lot. we begin with donald trump spending another religious holiday on social media on what really you would call a bender.

just -- i mean, like dozens turned into 40, 50, 60, 70 posts, through easter. through the easter holiday, while most people were spending time with their families, maybe in church. we were in church. trump appeared to be glued to his phone, posting 77 times on truth social. from sunrise to sunset, the presumptive 2024 republican nominee spent the day airing his grievances. and sharing far right news coverage that cast him in a positive light. and is customary for trump on the holidays when all caps post wished a happy easter to his perceived enemies including the quote, crooked and corrupt prosecutors and judges that are doing everything possible to interfere with the presidential election of 2024. and put me in prison including

those many people that i completely and totally despise, because they want to destroy america. trump also shared two articles that compared him, him, to jesus christ. one was titled, quote, the crucifixion of donald trump. and the other wrote that something, quote, supernatural was happening with trump, who the author described as a miracle and the chosen one sent by god is. and in typical trump fashion, one of his final posts on the day was a photo of him receiving a golf trophy for a tournament that he created and hosted. chances are didn't win, but that's just me right there. president biden, meanwhile, marked easter sunday with a solemn message that reads. jill and i send our warmest wishes to christians around the world celebrating easter sunday.

easter reminds us of the power of hope and the promise of christ's resurrection. we cherish the blessing of the dawn of new possibilities and with wars and conflict taking a toll on innocent lives around the world, we renew our commitment to work for peace, security and dignity for all people from our family to yours. happy easter and may god bless you. there's so much here, such a contrast. and there's so much more to report. and it's easy to get triggered and to go down a tangent. that's sort of the trump strategy. the shock opera. the constant shock, knowing that the base will be there. they'll accept anything. so what you can do now is mangle the truth, warn people about how

you're going to lead, which he's doing. and trigger the media. go after joe biden. trigger the democrats. threaten what you're going to do. threaten democracy. and i think that, you know, the parallels to jesus, the parallels to himself, being jesus are just the next level. and something is not to be triggered by is to expect. in a cult leader. you know, charlie sykes, yesterday, you know, celebrating easter, we went to church. we heard from a pastor who made this point, there were so many good points in the sermon, but it's that easter is a day for renewal. to think about your relationship with god. to think about your relationship with jesus, because he loves you unconditionally, because it's a

relationship that you have. with your god. with god. and not religion. it's not a relationship with a religion. it's not a relationship with politics. it's not a relationship with a person. it's a relationship with god. and today's your day to -- maybe it hasn't been so good. here's your day to come back. and it was very beautiful. and then, you know, reading in for the show this morning, it was very jarring to see a candidate, the front-runner for the -- the republican nominee. there's a word i want to use, but just tear all over that concept and make it about himself. >> well, of course. happy april fools' day, unfortunately, this is the real world. what you saw over the weekend was not an actual parody, the "saturday night live" episode really sort of nailed it.

but it's difficult to come up with a parody what donald trump was actually doing, peddling the bible in just the crudest possible pandering. again, the split screen between joe biden who is -- whatever you think about his politics is a sincere and committed catholic. he's a believer. and then donald trump on the, you know, 70-plus unhinged rants. but i also have to point out, though, the split screen, what was going on in terms of the alternative reality we live in here. so all week long, donald trump had to answer for the cynical pandering with the bible. but right-wing media was focused on two things over the weekend. and they pounded it, pounded it, and pounded. number one was the very misleading charge that somehow joe biden had replaced easter with trans-visibility day, there must have been a thousand tweets about that.

and then a completely different story how the white house had banned religious symbols on easter eggs. this is a policy that's been in place for decades including the trump administration. you know, in the split screen world, you have donald trump with the unhinged rants, but his base is hearing his other message that is joe biden who is the enemy of god and of faith. and it is donald trump who is the defender of the faith. it's so absurd, but i think we need to understand and come to grips with, the way in which we have this completely alternative narrative out there that has really no relationship to reality, but which is very, very potent in american politics these days. >> we have a fact-check on what you just mentioned in just a moment. and we'll go through it point by point. but trump's social media frenzy yesterday came after he posted a video depicting violence again

joe biden earlier on the weekend. on friday, the former president published a video which appeared to be taken by one of his senior campaign adviser, dan scavino. that's a guy who worked at his country club years ago. driving him around on a golf cart, handling people coming in. and now he's the front guy. please been there and he's lasted, just think about that. we're not going to play it here. but the video shows a truck driving down a highway with a decal of biden on the back, depicting the sitting president hog tied and kidnapped. in a statement, a biden campaign spokesman slammed the post writing in part, quote, trump is regularly inciting political violence and it's time people take him seriously. just ask the capitol police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on january 6.

and, donnie, i'll let you take it from here, there's so much here, especially breaking down the whole story of the funeral that trump went to. but he made easter, a religious holiday, about himself, who has surprised nobody on our set. it's more when our americans, all of them, going to understand this is more of a warning. >> you know, to think that he posted joe biden hog tied in the back of a truck that he wants to send out there, that's more than a warning, that's a complete tell of the violence that he is provoking that could possibly happen or will happen, as a result of him either winning or losing as president. i saw that i had to check with five different people is this real because it's unfathomable.

and at the same time, he talks about him being this christ-like symbol, selling bibles. whatever you are, catholic, jew, episcopalian, and religion, there's this ridiculous irony on the one hand he is setting himself up agency the messiah and the religious figure. on the other hand, he's the stoker of violence, extreme violence. where i grew up, those things don't necessarily go hand in hand. >> and yet, there are some writers on the right who suggested that trump might be a christ-like figure to save nation. the white house is pushing back on president biden for issuing a proclamation in support of transgender people. in a statement released yesterday, biden declared march 31st as transgender day of visibility. now, that day has been

celebrated on march 31st every year since 2009, but this is the first time in 11 years that it has overlapped with easter. despite biden following precedent, republicans ripped the president for his proclamation in a post on twitter x, house speaker mike johnson claimed that biden, quote, betrayed the central tenet of easter. republican congressman marjorie taylor greene also wrote there was no length biden and the democrats won't go through to mock and thumb his nose at god. in a statement, the campaign called on biden to separate them for his blasphemous demonstration. and also took exception for the easter egg roll asking for decorated eggs not to include religious content, overly

religious themes or partisan political statements. but those guidelines -- well, those have been in place for nearly 50 years, katkatty, it's just one bad faith after another. president biden went to a church, no word if trump went to any religious ceremony while republicans are leaning in on trump hawking his own bible and nobody seems to care. and how trump is leaning into images of evangelical christianity, the biden white house is follow tread and yet that's not breaking through. tell us what this means for the state of our politics. >> tackling misinformation and disinformation in this era for us, let alone the campaign, bbc,

we have teams of people doing this. i'm sure in the biden campaign they have teams of people doing it as well. the question is, even if you do correct the record, even if you do say, yes, it was a day recognizing transrights that happened to be on the same day as easter, that is the day it's always planned does that get through to any of trump's ardent supporters? probably not. does it get through to a few swing state voters who are key to the election. that's the key and who the biden campaign needs to reach out to say, the information you are getting, what you are hearing on truth social, other forms of media that you're listening to is not necessarily the facts. it's incredibly hard. we know combatting disinformation is really, really difficult. there's some indication in polling that donald trump's support mock white evangelicals may be suffering. yes, he's still getting 60% of

the latest white evangelical vote in the latest news poll, but that's down. look at the pushback he got from that bible sale of christian leaders. i just wonder if donald trump does something that even they find too difficult. sand it's still a large chunk of evangelical christians and they see him as a messiah figure. i think it's an interesting trend to watch over the next six months, how much they stay with him, if he carries on doing things like this. all right. everyone stay right there. we'll take a one-minute break. in one minute, we'll come back and talk to you exactly what the biden campaign is doing about this. how they're responding. we'll be right back. one minute. one minute that means less stress for you. >> woman: thanks. >> tech: my pleasure. have a good one. >> woman: you too. >> tech: schedule today at safelite.com. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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alliance with rinos, never trumpers. americans for no prosperity. she's sitting there like -- she's gone crazy. she's a very angry person. she's not presidential timber. i don't need votes. we have all the votes we need. she's gone haywire there aren't that many never trumpers anymore. how do you bring nikki haley supporters, i'm not sure we need too many. >> that's donald trump in an effort to attract her supporters, meanwhile, nbc news is learning new details about president biden's new presidential strategy and that is getting under donald trump's skin. in the past few weeks, the president has ramped up the personal attacks against him, targeting trump's financial challenges, campaign tempo and even his rant.

mrult time biden aides tell nbc news that the strategy has been largely driven by biden himself and they're just following his lead. one biden aide said, quote, there's just something about joe biden that gets under donald trump's skin more than anybody. and i think joe biden knows that. in event days, the biden campaign has posted the following attack lines calling donald trump feeble, confused and tired. weak and desperate. broke don. campaign can't raise money. lying about having money he definitely doesn't have. a loser. he must have been injected bleach. old and out of shape. well, there is that, sam stein. the biden campaign has been really good on rapid response. >> yeah. i mean, they clearly want to agitate trump. they want to get him on sort of side pursuits.

they want to get limb to stay crazy things. and i think, you know, you went down the list. one of the more interesting ones, they've accused him of hiding in his basement during the past month which is an inverse of what trump himself is accusing biden of some the 2020 campaign. clearly, there's like a larger strategy here. they're trying to do aversion, psychological warfare against the candidate himself and it's pretty telling because you can see trump's reaction in realtime on truth social. i will say on the rapid response front, i do notice they quickly moved to go after this fake attack around, you know, branding easter trends, gender visibility day. they were very quick up with it. i think they understand what katty was talking about, these stories, these myths can travel in these sort of closed off ecosystems pretty fast. and it's hard to reach these people who do not consume news from traditional means.

they'll get it from truth social, from other avenues where you won't get a correction. so you do have to move fast. i don't celebrate easter, obviously. i thought the whole thing was bizarre, though. what was the actual problem here of having transgender visibility day that happened to coincide with easter? why is that problematic at all? isn't 2 supposed to be a holiday of acceptance. sigh thought that was the fundamentally weird concept of this faux controversy which is why are you actually mad about it, why does it make a difference that the days fall on the same day this year. >> it's so interesting that i think the strategy, charlie sykes, of making a mockery of trump is a good one because he doesn't get jokes. he doesn't like being embarrassed. it will really get to him. when he posted, and this is so little in the grand scheme of things, trump posted about

winning a golf tournament. he did an all caps announcement where he won at one of his own clubs where he probably picked up the ball, put it in the hole, whatever. and the biden campaign posted back, or tweeted back, good job, donald. it was a joke to everybody. donald will not get it. not saying he's stupid. there's something missing from his personality where he does not, and i've seen this first hand, he doesn't get jokes about himself. they are lost on him. >> right. >> but make no mistake, these times that we're in are dead serious. there's no joke about them at all. and if you look, big picture, at trump's twisted strategy that is working on his base, it's to say something but then say the opposite but to get them to agree with folks. you say immigrants are rapists. they are disgusting, they are

bringing in all sorts of diseases. and then you have your politicians in congress who are too weak to have their own minds, you have them block the border bill. >> yeah. >> you say you're for national security, global security, being strong. and ukrainians are dying today. >> uh-huh. >> because aid has yet to come. the list goes on, charlie. >> i know. >> and i guess the question is how the democrats -- because this isn't going to be an election about democrats and republicans. it's going to be an election about democracy. it is no joke, these are dead serious times. how is joe biden and the democratic party going to be able to not get sidetracked, not get triggered by these daily rituals of freaking people out about whatever the issue of the day is, transgender posts that ends up being something that's been done.

>> right. >> making a lie. how do they focus americans on what's at stake? >> well, it's obviously difficult because of these alternative realities out there, but what they need to do is not so much get under donald trump's skin to make him say crazy things because he'll do that on his own, right? it is to point out that he's a fake and a phony. and the things that he claims to be are actually absurd. for example, on friday, his big photo op was to go to the funeral of a new york police officer. i think people need to be reminded that donald trump, you know, continues to promise that he's going to pardon the january 6th rioters that attacked and beat cops, tased cops. that police officers died as a result of the violence he incited. so here is somebody -- and again, this is the juxtaposition, what donald trump claims to be versus the reality. and i think that that can be highlighted. you mentioned this, you know, he's the big patriot but he

kowtow's to the world's thugs. he claims to be for law and order but aligns himself with people who attack police officers. he claims to be a christian but what exactly is the content of his christianity? and the way you highlighted the contrast about easter. you know, people look at donald trump, but donald trump claims to be something, and he has been, for his entire life, a fraud and a phony. to the extent to which they can point this out, that donald trump who claims to be this world bestriding successful businessman and somebody who has defrauded himself. he's not as rich or as successful as he claims to be. i think this is a chip, chip, chip away. because there are people who look at donald trump. this is one of the weird things about our world. i don't know, you've seen some of the online trumpist, where he's portrayed as looking as

this buffed superhero flying on an eagle carrying an ak-47, when, in fact, he is a soft -- you know, he's a soft wannabe. and i think to the extent to which will you highlight the gap between what trump is pretending to be and what he really is, you might make some progress. >> we often say that truth social say window into donald trump's soul as it were. and i think it's reflective of when he's really feeling pressure. we should make sure we note, yesterday's easter screen, two weeks from today is when he has to be in court. jury selection begins for a criminal trial, historic first criminal trial for a former president. that's happening here in manhattan. including weighing on him. he also returns to the campaign trail this week, he's got a couple events. i want to pick up on what sam said a minute ago about transvisibility day. why should is matter it's on

easter. just the calendar as it was, it was an inclusive holiday it shouldn't matter. but, donny, republicans are seizing on it as the go-to issue. we've talked about it, joe talks about the issue how small it really is in sports, high school college sports. republicans think it's this huge, huge deal. we saw them lean in heavily all weekend on this. it's very online right-wing presence. thinking this is an issue that resonates voters. and this is what republicans have? is this the best they have this is not enough. >> here's why the republicans so hanesously seize on the transition. obviously, the numbers aren't there, the number of trans language leasts competing with men and women, it's 00 percent. as things don't make sense to you as far as what what's going on, the country is becoming

white minority and globalization and everything that's happening this is an issue, oh, wait, boys can be boys, girls can be girls. that is this simplistic -- i know, the world doesn't make sense, see what happens, girls aren't girls, boys aren't boys. it's this dumbed down version we'll make sense of the world to you if it doesn't make sense to you anymore. it's a sliver issue. and the irony is it's inclusion. that's what america is all about. but they'll turn it upside down and say, you see, it doesn't make sense, the world is coming to hell. and it doesn't make sense, come with me, i'll make it make sense again. that's the dumbed down issue of why they go after the trans issue and it's tragic. >> charlie sykes, by the way, thank you so much for being on this morning. we appreciate it. coming up, the conversation on the state of the war in ukraine, without new aid from the u.s., the country's president is facing tough

decisions on the next steps for his army. we'll discuss that, with "the washington post" david ignatius who is just back from ukraine. and interviewed president zelenskyy. "morning joe" is coming right back. business. it's not a nine-to-five proposition. it's all day and into the night. it's all the things that keep this world turning. it's the go-tos that keep us going. the places we cheer. trust. hang out. and check in. they all choose the advanced network solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. powering more businesses than anyone. powering possibilities.

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welcome back. 32 past the hour. thousands took to the streets outside of israel's parliament in jerusalem yesterday. to call for new elections in the country. "the new york times" reports it was one of the most significant demonstrations against prime minister benjamin netanyahu's government since the israel/hamas war began. look at this. and it comes one day after

thousands took to the streets of tel aviv in separate anti-government protests. netanyahu himself underwent surgery last night to treat a hernia. but the hospital releasing a video this morning calling the procedure successful. meanwhile in egypt, an israeli delegation held cease-fire talks on sunday, that's according to two israeli officials who spoke to "the new york times," on the condition of anonymity. joining us, david ignatius. you were just there. we look forward to that conversation. can you tell us about stress brewing within israel itself and the middle east about netanyahu's leadership? >> yeah, the sense that prime minister netanyahu is running out of road in israel, he's under attack now from both the left, critics of his policy,

people who want to focus on release of the hostages, and from the right, his right-wing coalition partners are upset with the proposed legislation that would prior ultra orthodox jews who don't serve in the military to serve. that could break his coalition. so, he's increasingly on the hot seat. he's not popular. he is promising a quick ento the war in gaza. it's not coming. we'll see what the latest hostage release talks can produce. the u.s. has placed enormous stress on this thinking that once you get a cease-fire temporarily, for however many weeks, you begin to be able to de-escalate the situation. help the poor palestinians whose situation is desperate. and begin to stabilize the region. but we just got to see whether the first steps are even

possible in those talks, but for netanyahu, this is a pretty narrowing set of options. and, you know, given his basic unpopularity with the public, he's got to be worried. >> david, let's turn the conversation to ukraine. you just got back, you interviewed president zelenskyy. first of all, how did you find him? and how did you find him given that he's having to make choices imposed on him by a lack of u.s. weapons supplies, and what does that mean for his war effort? what's he doing with the little that he has, the too little that he has? >> so, katty, he was very frank, speaking on the eve of congress' discussion, we hope vote, on the ukraine military aid package. he was quite blunt in saying what the consequences would be for ukraine if that aid is not provided. he said that we will have to back up, we'll have to retreat

in our front lines, because of the lack of ammunition, very specifically. he got out a piece of paper, and drew a kind of battle map, i've got only 2,000 rounds of artillery. and i need 8,000. i've got to shorten my lines. that was unusually blunt. he said the lack of air weapons increasingly means that ukraine's cities are vulnerable to russian attack that happens every day, every night. it happened in the south while i was in ukraine during these four days. it's just now a constant fact of life. he said it's going to get worse unless we can get the weapons to defend ourselves. i think the most important thing he said was, look, if you don't give me the weapons to prevent the russians from attacking our cities, we have no choice, but to make them feel a similar price. if we don't have energy, they won't have energy.

and ukrainians have in fact been attacking russian oil refineries. other facilities. he told me that u.s. officials had said they were not happy about that. they fear it's an escalation of war. but in his mind, the only way to put pressure on russia to stop this is to punch back. he's described the strategy. then he looked at me and said, it's fair. and i think that's clearly the way he and his country, men and women, feel. >> and, david, as you well know, the white house has frowned upon some of those strikes within russia's borders. did zelenskyy in your conversation with him suggest, even hint at, or conversely, completely rule out any sort of negotiation? you know, there's been a growing international pressure here as we see as u.s. and uk military officials are really seeing russia is make something progress here. they are advancing into -- further into ukrainian

territory. there's been push to -- at some point, to bring this war to a close around the negotiating table. did he talk about that one way or the other at all while you were with him? >> he expressed, jonathan, no interest in negotiations. i think he feels that putin for now, imagining that he has an advantage, isn't prepared to come to the table. and he made no reference to it either. i think the ukrainian hope is, their plan "b," if you will, if they can't get the weapons from u.s. is to keep developing their own weapons. i met with people who are building ukrainian drones and they're pretty amazing. they're cobbled together with wood and string, you might say, but they carry a pretty potent pack. they can go as far as 1,000 kilometers, well into russia. the attacks on the ukrainian refineries that have done so much damage, those are ukrainian

drones that are making attacks. their naval drones at sea have basically taken back the territorial waters. they're determined to keep fighting. the last time i was in ukraine in october, i sense growing war weariness that described the country as bleeding out. i had less of that feeling this time. people are focused on doing the things they can, hoping and praying that the u.s. congress listens to their pleas for more assistance. but determined to continue. not talking for now about negotiations. >> all right. "the washington post" david ignatius, thank you for coming on this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," politico's jonathan martin will join us with his new piece asking "why hasn't biden called chris christie?" we'll discuss the impact that the andy anti-republicans would have on his campaign. plus, donald trump won't

stop attacking the judge's daughter who is presiding over his hush money case who paid a porn star off for having been quiet, having sex with her and wanting to cover up using campaign dollars. we'll tell you what he posted this time that could possibly violate his gag order. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪♪ some people just know that the best rate for you is a rate based on you, with allstate. because there's a right way to. stop! and the speed limit definitely isn't. 700 million mph. so why would you pay a rate based on. a terrible boss with a terrible haircut! save with, ooh. save with drivewise and get a rate based on you. you're in good hands with allstate

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♪♪ 45 past the hour. beautiful shot of new york city. so, a sitting federal judge took the rare step late last week of appearing in a tv interview to harshly criticize donald trump's

attacks on a colleague. the judge overseeing the former president's criminal case tied to alleged hush money payments calling them assault on the rule of law that could lead to violence and tyranny. republican appointment u.s. district judge reggie walton spoke to cnn following trump's recent attacks on social media against judge juan merchan and his daughter. take a listen. >> i can't get into someone's mind to say whether they are appreciate the impact that they're doing. but i would think he's any reasonable thinking person would appreciate when they say things it can sometimes resonate with others. and i think that's particularly true when you have somebody who has status in our society, and they make certain statements, it can cause people to act on those statements, even if they don't necessarily intend for someone to do so. so i think it's very important

that people in positions of authority be very circumspect in reference to the things that they say, so that they're not causing others to act on what they say and maybe cause injury or death to someone as a result of that. we have had judges who have lost their lives or family members have lost their lives as a result of individuals who have been litigants in their courtroom. and i think it's important, in order to preserve our democracy, that we maintain the rule of law. >> meanwhile, the manhattan d.a.'s office is looking for clarity of the gag order imposed in the new york hush money case against former president trump. late last week, prosecutors sent a letter to judge merchan asking him to confirm that the gag order in the case, not only covered witnesses and staffers, but also stretched to their family members. prosecutors said potential trial

witnesses and prospective jurors could be afraid their families could be subject to attacks similar to trump's social media posts on the judge and the judge's daughter. let's bring in former litigator sand msnbc legal correspondent lisa reuben. lisa, has he crossed the line in this gag order? has he broken the rule that the judge put down? >> in spirit, but not in letter. when asked to confirm or classify that the judge himself and the family members are covered by the gag order i think they have probably not the better of the argument here on the other hand, should this gag order apply to judge merchan and is the family members of district attorney alvin bragg, it probably should. but asking for clarity that is

applies to jump merchan what this is to haurm to the daughter, covers her already so they don't give donald trump further opportunity while that briefing is ongoing to keep doing what he's doing and jeopardize her safety. >> lisa, we watch you report all the time how trump crosses the line and you say the line is fuzzy. when will it ever get to the point that any judge says, you know what, you're going to spend a few days in the clink? you know, what will it take because our judicial system is becoming a mockery, or he's making a mockery out of it? >> yeah, i would say it's a huge action, donee we need a judge willing to put themselves out there and implement the rules. first of all, he's not yet violated the gag order. in order for someone to say he's crossed the line there has to be a line that he formally,

legalistically crosses. however, one of the things that the d.a.'s office did in a letter sent last week was say in the very end, we want you to tell him this violates your gag order. and if he continues to do it, we want you to implement sanctions. anyone familiar with the new york criminal code understand those are the statutes where punishment can be up to 30 days in jail. if there is a time to implement those kind of sanctions, judge merchan may be the first person to take seriously that. >> lisa, it's two weeks from today that jury selection is slated to begin. is there anything that could derail or delay that? and if not, what is the time line of the early stages of what this trial would look like? >> let's talk about what could delay it, i think you can see that trump pull out all the stops here. last week, they filed a motioned to ajournal on prepublicity. basically their argument is donald trump can't get a fair trial in new york county where

their polling shows that predominant numbers of people in the jury poll are dedisposed against him. and they also say the amount of publicity attendant to his trial and prior trial makes it impossible. you're closing your eyes, giving a dubious look, that's because donald trump is responsible for the preponderance of that publicity. we're all privy to the truth social storm that happened yesterday, i think dozens and dozens of posts. so it's very hard to complain that stormy daniels are responsible for the predicament that he's in. we have that motion to which the d.a.'s office is going to respond today. there's also a slow possibility that donald trump will move again to recuse judge merchan on the basis of his daughter. you and i and donny say she's an adult woman. what does her father have to do with the job she has? under a new york statute, you can have a problem if a relative

within six degrees to you has an interest in the outcome of the proceeding, or has an interest that would be substantially affected by the proceeding. >> could we thing this to clarence thomas? >> well, certainly, people have said as much on my x account. the argument that trump folks could make is that the interests that miss merchan has in the proceeding is more manifest festally clear than it was last year when jump merchan first presided over donald trump's case. >> msnbc legal correspondent, lisa rubin, i think we'll see a lot of you in the coming days. we appreciate your insight. thank you very much. >> thanks. so, donald trump's social media platform went public last week, resulting in a possible multibillion dollar windfall that could help pay his legal bills and give his presidential campaign some much needed cash. "the wall street journal" reports, quote, the parent company of trump's truth social

is now worth about $8.5 billion. this for a company with about $5 million in sales, in its existence. the result is a never before seen mashup of stock market frenzy and political financing. suddenly, trump supporters can back his campaign by driving up shares of his company. a form of political expression that goes beyond buying hats or bibles. joining us now, the author of that piece, reporter for "the wall street journal," amrth ramkumar. thank you for coming on this morning. how quickly could he get access of large amounts of money through this? >> well, that's the million or billion dollar question in this case. typically, in deals like this one, people like trump would have to hold their shares or not borrow against them for six

months. but in this case, the trump-friendly board could decide the stock is doing really well. a lot of people are making a lot of money. maybe, we'll give him a waiver to allow him to cash out a bit early. if they do that, based on the stock's crazy trading volume, he could make several hundred million dollars. that's something we'll have to watch. a lot of people have said they'll probably wait at least a month or maybe 45 days because this deal just closed. but it seems like an april fools' day joke, but it's a real story happening on wall street right now. >> so, i think he has a deadline for a week or so for at least half of the money owed in the civil judgment. is there any possibility he could get that money? or you're saying we're about a month away if he can get any? >> yeah, it's unclear for that. a lot of people suggested he would need a bank or insurance money to use stock as collateral or give them a loan.

it's really confusing when the stock goes up and down and fluctuates like crazy. a lot of these companies are not able to do business with trump given the reputation and other issues. he would need to find someone willing to do that. and it's unclear if he could. longer term, people looking ahead to the election, six months in the deal closes would be the end of september. by then he could get his hands on potentially at least several hundred million, if not more. that could really boost his campaign if he decides to put his own money in. it's unclear whether he would. right now, his stake in truth social is worth something like $5 billion. that would triple his net worth, which is really crazy given that his wealth is tied up in properties, casinos, golf, and the stock price is something that everybody is watching. and a lot using it to wager on election outcome. that's something we haven't seen in modern stock market history. >> sam stein here. i guess i have a very

fundamental question which a lot of people wonder is, how does a company with roughly $5 million in revenues -- >> right. >> -- extremely limited growth over its existence get a valuation of a billion dollars? i mean, how does that happen? >> well, this is the mean stock era, right? we've seen at brief times over the years with companies like gamestop where the valuations got crazy. traders banned together on social media to push it up, all of those factors come together. and then you throw in trump and an election year it's all of those on steroids. it's the mother of all mean stock, ultimate mean stock. new go on truth social, you can see some of these groups. there's one in particular that has almost 10,000 traders who banded together to bite stock. they're very loyal trump supporters. they do view it as political expression. what better way to help trump especially with his campaign and buying shares in the company and

showing your faith in him. it's taken on a life of its own. like i said before, you now have a lot of professionals on wall street who can spot this coming a while away. around when the deal was closing a week ago, we saw a lot of professionals saying we know a lot of individual retail investors are going to band together and buy this stock. i want that, too. it's crazy momentum buying and selling. we've seen over time, this tends to not end well. but even if it stays this crazy high that could give trump unprecedented fortune. >> we'll be watching this, thank you for coming on this morning. we appreciate your reporting. coming up, we showed you earlier, the biden campaign's pitch to nikki haley supporters. but politico's jonathan martin argues there's another republican that the president needs to reach out. he joins us to explain. plus, the men's march

madness field is down to the final four. we'll show you what teams are set to compete for a spot in the national title game and we'll preview tonight's championship match in the women's elite eight. "morning joe" is coming right back. every day, more dog people are deciding it's time for a fresh approach to pet food. developed with vets. made from real meat and veggies. portioned for your dog. and delivered right to your door. it's smarter, healthier pet food. there's nothing better than a subway series footlong. except when you add an all new footlong sidekick. like the philly with a new $2 footlong churro. sometimes the sidekick is the main event. you would say that. every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick.

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>> i think there's a lot to be concerned about. i said i believe he's a threat to democracy. and we should be very mindful of that. >> so you'll vote for biden? [ laughter ] >> well, you know -- >> but, but, but -- [ applause ] >> i'm not there yet. i'm definitely not voting for trump, but i'm not there yet. there's no way i'll vote for trump, every day that trump does something crazy, the door to open for biden opens a little bit more. all right.

donald trump's former secretary of defense mark esper making it clear he will not vote for the former president, though he isn't is there yet for biden. welcome back to "morning joe." it is monday, april 1st. april fools' day. katty kay, jonathan lemire, donny deutsch still with us. and joining the conversation, we have president of the national action network and host of msnbc policy nation reverend al sharpton. former msnbc host and contributory washington monthly chris matthews is with us. and senior author politico, jonathan martin. there was a message that read this, jill and i send our warmest wishes to christians around the world celebrating easter sunday. easter reminds us of the power of hope and the promise of

christ's resurrection. as we gather with loved ones, we remember jesus' sacrifice. we bray for one another and cherish the blessing of the dawn of new possibilities. and with wars and conflict taking a toll on innocent lives around the world, we renew our commitment to work for peace, security and dignity, for all people. from our family to yours, happy easter, and may god bless you. beautiful. unfortunately, now, i have to compare that to republican front-runner basically donald trump who spent another religious holiday posting on truth social 77 times, sometimes, unhinged, sometimes, nonsensical, lots of all caps.

definitely very mean, on easter. the presumptive 2024 republican nominee went after his perceived enemies all day. among his many posts, one in all caps, blasting the quote, evil and sick prosecutors looking to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes. he also shared two far-right news articles one titled the crucifixion of donald trump and the other calling him a miracle. and the chosen one sent by god. if you don't think this is a cult, you might want to consider opening your mind a little bit here. in another post, trump claimed his florida home and club is worth as much as $1.8 billion. and this one highlighting a poll that claims he would defeat former first lady michelle obama in a general election matchup. other things he did posted a

picture of joe biden in a very dangerous ugly fashion that was friday, i believe. chris matthews, let's talk about trump's mean easter messages. and i'm curious, especially as, you know, you look at pennsylvania and you look at these swing states. and you look at trump supporters, and you look at who they're supporting. they blindly support a man who was found liable of sexual assault by a jury of his peers, not a crooked justice system as he says. same with how much he needs to pay the woman who will -- say judge says he basically raped. a jury decided how much he should pay of his peers, people who really have to look at him and what he did, and what he said. a man, i don't know, we could randomly pick from 1,000 things, who took hundreds, thousands of documents, many of them classified, evidence showing that he incriminated his own

people, his own employees trying to hide them. a man who told people to go to the capitol on january 6, it would be wild. then go there, go there. i'll see you there. and very people serving time for him. who he plans to free if he wins the presidency. he plans to free them and yet he goes to the funeral of a cop politicizes it over the weekend. but, you know, cops died on january 6th. >> i have so many answers -- >> this man's daily plan, chris, is to hurt people. >> right. >> to tear them down for himself. to fight for himself on easter, think about the message joe biden sent. the message perhaps, if you went to church over easter you might have heard one that was similar to about easter being a day of renewal. a day where you have a solemn moment to look at your relationship with god. and i'm just curious, with this

man, whose every day is a miserable march to what god-fearing christians would call hell, okay, by his actions, why is this lost on people who love jesus and follow the message of jesus? >> well, i think a couple things. i was thinking back to when ronald reagan, the once beloved republican leader and now in second place to donald trump apparently, back when he was shot and nearly killed in 1981, the leader of the opposition who is speaker of the house, tip o'neill, went to see him in the hospital, george washington hospital. and he knelt down next to reagan and they prayed the 23rd psalm together, the lord is my shepherd. this presidential candidate, donald trump is saying i am the shepherd. i am him. i'm god.

it's astounding to me, it's blasphemy, as maureen dowd said in "the new york times" yesterday. that's the way he talks. from a couple things that come to my mind, one is when i was up there in new hampshire, my tenth primary up there, i saw a lot of really poor people waiting in line for two hours to see donald trump. really poor people, white people in most cases. and i said, what's going on here? i don't know if the tabs relate or why it relates, but they really want this guy to be president again. then i saw the florida atlantic university poll that came out in march. and it pointed out that the only economic group in the country that likes trump is under50,000 a year. not 50,000 to 100. only people below 50,000. i can't put it all together. maybe people are hard up, people have a grievance against society, because society has been tough on him.

white, hispanic, black, all kinds of people below 50,000 a year are for trump. somebody has got to get that into their heads that's what's going on here. somebody has to start thinking about why trump is appealing to those people who are hard up. people in the white house like ricchetti and mike donovan, some some of that group of anonymous people have to think who trump is up against. trump has wired himself into people basic needs, they're not rich, going to florida to get that tax break. although that crowd is out there, too. that crowd is going to benefit from these poor people. the people looking to get a tax break from trump. they're going to benefit from that. the people below, in the lower economic groups, they're just going to get left out. and it's so clear. so democrats have got to get to the people they've rooted for, the people at the bottom, with true grievance. they've rooted for the people. they've got to start rooting for themselves, obviously, that means biden has to start talking

to them. trump is talking to them. somebody said about fdr, i didn't know him, but he knew him. trump up there in new hampshire, i heard him say something, people have figured out i should come to this area, laconia, there's a lot of poor people, we went when he beat hillary clinton, he went to luzerne, and philly, hillary was stuck. and they know where to advance him. they're going to advance him to the right places. i don't know if the democrats have really thought through this campaign and what they're up against. this guy is calling himself god. god. >> hello. >> yeah. if he can get away with that, then it is truly a cult. people who have thought through it with them, somebody has to start talking to people and saying this guy is not for real and a secular leader. he's not jesus.

>> chris -- >> the way he has to do it, it by saying under you're siege. and i'm under siege. i'm under siege because the state is coming after me. but this concept of being victimized seems to carry a long way. on the evangelical communities over the weekend, you're right, he does portray himself as a messiah. and it's not a religion in which we worship, we worship god. we don't worship country. we don't even worship america. we certainly don't worship an individual. where are the christian leaders who are thinking what is happening in this slightly cult-like world that trump has built around himself with followers who flock to churches over weekend and have done so

over easter, where are they? >> look sat nikki haley, wherever nikki haley did well, it's moderate areas. if you live in an neighborhood, a moderate republican, maybe 93 just like lower taxes, but they are not crazy. they're going get nikki haley votes. my brother ran for statewide office, i got to tell you, only the doctor in town and a couple other people have any money. it's regular america. they're not in big cities. they're not in silicon valley. they are regular people going to church on sunday. and trump is getting to them in a cultish way. i think he has to get out there. donald trump has to get out there and meet those people. he's got to find them. if you're in the suburbs, votin because of the abortion thing.

it's gone up to 75%. it's a dangerous territory to win states like pennsylvania. biden has got to figure this thing out, i don't know if people are smart enough to do it, but they've got to get smarter. this is really a hard one. and paying for advertising on television is not going to do it. you cannot buy this election. the people have a direct personal relationship with candidates for president trump and biden. and it's very personal. and the one guy that's appealing to them on the most primitive basis, i'm your god. worship me. and the other guy is trying to argue obamacare and infrastructure. it's harder. >> we heard about trump and biden, please do so, but as you're out there, what are you hearing from poor people? to be clear, trump's appeal is more towards white poor and others but not limited to. and polling suggests they're at least more open to trump this

time around than previous cycles. what do you think that's about? >> i think that in many ways you have to address the people and let them know you feel their situation. and avoid that is to open them up toward people like trump that can exploit that. i think that trump going to where he knew and his people guided him to, it wasn't like he had to stand in line. the democrats were not going talking to those people. >> right. >> and i think you got to go -- just going there gives you some points. and then saying something to them that makes them understand that you are understand them means a lot. and it's happening across the board, even in black and brown communities. i told somebody in the white house, i said, you know, i'm not in the campaigns at all. if i was going to do anything in the city, a big beautiful ritzy night with the two ex-presidents, i would have had

biden that morning have breakfast in harlem or brooklyn. or something to connect people. because the average person in new york that's dealing with being afraid of the subway or dealing with a policeman being killed didn't relate to a ritzy thing. balance it out. you got to do the ritzy thing to raise your money but let me feel like i'm part of the concern. and on easter for biden to say all of the right things and trump to say all of the callous things shows who they are differently. but if the only one talking to you is the bad guy who's trying to be a messiah, who is trying to sell you bibles and the other guy is not talking to you, then that's the only one that fills up the area. i would be drumming down every day how this guy wouldn't even let you kind of people rent an apartment in his buildings. he was found guilty of that. talk about, i'm one of you, talk

about is he's not one of you, he wouldn't even let you live in one of his buildings. that's documented in the courts. they're not saying that they're having people validate that statement. >> so true, so true. i mean, there's news max, oannn and fox news that delivers a daily diet of lives or just avoid. ological they cover joe biden's easter message tour will they focus on that the trans day and the entire segment. will they read trump's posts in full and look at them and ask questions about them? no. they won't do any of that, that's just the least of it, and that's one of the biggest problems we have today, in terms of lying developing and sitting with people. jonathan, you have a new piece in politico entitled why hasn't

biden called chris christie, which you write about a possible christy independent run. and republicans who tell you biden is not reaching out to them. >> correct. >> okay. so, tell us what will you think chris christie could do for the biden campaign. >> well, it's bigger than just chris christie, it's really every single anti-trump figure in the gop has not heard from president biden. which i find to be remarkable, given that biden's going to need a coalition similar to what he had, mika in 2020. >> like who, beyond chris christie? >> sure, mitt romney, lisa murkowski, bill casio. the senators, people from the trump administration. >> right. >> he's going to need every oar in the water from that to aoc. that's the fiber of trump. you got to have that, you don't

have to roll them out now, it's only march -- well, it's april, but you do have to line these folks up i can't understand why joe biden of all people does not recognize that these folks need a personal touch. you got to start laying the ground to get them out. not all of them will endorse biden. of course, some of them will never endorse biden, but they will go after trump or at least stay quiet. if it's incumbent on biden, where you think about this as a different election where democracy is at stake, it's incumbent for biden to reach out. >> i just want to go back to donny for a second. and then jay martin. donny, i understand it's all hands on deck, and jay martin makes a really good point. can we sit with this on the day after easter, i think you're a

good person to help me out here. because it's the people who, you know, celebrate the presence of god in their lives. but -- and i understand what chris matthews was saying about the income levels of trump supporters on the base, many of them being very poor. if you look at history, especially the history of europe, there's a lot of very frightening parallels to be made there. but i'm now talking about the people who go to mar-a-lago on a saturday night and church on a sunday morning. and i can't understand the donors on the list they put out, rickets win, whatever, they accept god in their lives. they follow the messages, the parable of the good samaritan. and yet, they follow this man who delivers a daily dose of cruelty and raw politics and self-love to the table. explain it to me.

you know some of these people. >> yeah, and they make me sick, actually. and chris' explanation of poor people, uneducated people, when you say to them, everything sucks, i'm going to blow it up, it's a primal message. the people i can't get through, i know a lot of them that make me sick are the people this country has been good to. and yet, here's a guy that's saying i'm going to change everything. you're not going to have the right to vote anymore, or the right to watch a tv station. everything that they have taken advantage of it makes me sick, and i don't understand these people. is it purely that you know what, this country, i like that this country has been traditionally white. i don't like what's happening to this country. is it that they just so, so insular? they make me sick, the people with money in this country.

any billionaire that's voting for donald trump, do you need a tax break that badly? has this country not been great to you and you want to blow it up? you don't worry about your grandchildren being able to vote? shame on you, anybody. i understand the people that chris is talking about. i understand the primal instinct, i want everything to change. but this country has been good to you. and you listen to this demonic figure. this fascist figure talk about how he's going to blow everything up, shame on you. >> j. mart. let's talk about that messaging, in your smart piece, you note that the biden camp hasn't reached out. >> right. >> what about these voters that we're talking about around this table. does that messaging work? >> look, i think biden can work at the margins, working class voters. i think he's obviously got a challenge trying to keep working class black and hispanic men in the coalition. you'll hear a lot more about

that, that's a serious challenge. but if we're being totally honest, he's not going to reverse the years' long trends among working class white voters in this country. instead, he's got to take advantage of what can be called the nikki haley coalition. look at last week in arizona. the primary been over for a month, all right. 22% of republican voters last week in the biggest county of arizona, around phoenix, didn't vote for donald trump for president. 22%. the primary's been over for a while. those are the kind of voters that biden needs to get back. he had a lot of them in '20. and he can't afford them to stay home or go to trump this time. i just think, talking about, you know, working class white voters, you can try to keep what had you at '20. it's not going to get better. it's probably going to get worse, but you can compensate for that trying to get more center/right voters who didn't stomach trump but have a

reluctance to get behind biden. i think six months saying crazy stuff is going to be the entree. it's important to have validaters, you've got to have people, it's okay, republican voter in scottsdale or buckhead, all right, to vote for joe biden. that's people like paul ryan, like chris christie, liz cheney, mitt romney, and maybe george w. bush who has been awfully quiet for a long time now. >> right. i was wondering about him. city politico reporter, jonathan martin, thank you. >> thanks, mika. >> and chris, i'll close out the block with you. that could help. that could help. but i think your message about americans who are, you know, paycheck to paycheck, they're going to be tougher, i think. i think that this country, especially with the echo chamber of trump's channels, and i

call -- i mean, some of them are direct arms of donald trump. and fox news has not -- has not found its way since it had to pay for lying. it's going to be really hard for the biden campaign to break through and talk about what this is really about. and i think joe biden says it beautifully, this isn't who we are. but the question is, how does he get to those people? go to fox, would they take him? >> there's some history here, john conley was a democrat for nixon back in '72, because they were going to raise a lot of democrats in that race against mcgovern. i look at chris christie as a classic reagan democrat of the old school. he's say nice columbus guy, you know, something regular about him. why isn't he being recruited by biden's people? why aren't they talking about having dinner with him. look, those cops being beaten up

in the capitol, i think of them all time because i used to be one of them. i see the guys behind the speaker's lobby door, fighting for their lives. and the guy that led them in the direction to save mitt romney, these are the good guys. law and order. this is them. those people are law and order. the guys crashing into the building are the bad guys, got it? and trump's on their side, bad guys. you got to find a moderate guy who is hesitant. they're still out there. they're going to be voting for bobby kennedy jr. or somebody. you vote like going to church. you go every year. you vote, you show up. they're not going to vote none of the above. you got to get their vote. i think you got to work both groups, the well-off people that don't like trump. and the regular people in the country, in the rural areas overlooked by the democrats for too many years.

>> chris matthews, thank you very much. it's always good to have you on. >> thank you. now, we want to turn back to the latest on israel's war on hamas, as protesters against prime minister netanyahu. continue to grow inside israel. joining us from tel aviv, rick moore, nbc news correspondent raf sanchez, raf, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, mika, good morning. a new round of cease-fire negotiations is under way in cairo. but as you said here in israel, prime minister benjamin netanyahu is facing the biggest protest he has seen since the start of this war. and in gaza, israeli commandos just pulled out of the largest hospital in the strip. overnight, israeli troops withdrawing from al shifa hospital after a two-week raid, leaving devastation in their wake. israel said it tilled over 100 militants in and around the

hospital. hamas denied using the hospital as a base. this video shows the severe damage left by the fighting. and the world health organization says at least 21 patients died during the siege. it comes as israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is under intense pressure at home. this morning, he's recovering from what doctors say was a successful hernia operation. but outside, his political troubles mounting. anger at massive weekend protests in jerusalem and tel aviv, calling for early elections in a cease-fire deal. hours before the surgery, netanyahu defiant, saying elections would paralyze israel and insisting he would attack rafah, despite opposition from the white house. the u.s. and white house expected to hold a meeting to discuss president biden's options for invasion. in his easter message, pope francis calls for immediate cease-fire and release of the hostages. peace is never made with

weapons, without stretched hands and open hearts, he said. only around 1,000 palestinian christians were left in gaza before the war. now, fears death and displacement will be the end of this ancient community. but in the light of easter morning, the faithful together again. this sister saying i pray for peace. a prayer shared across gaza and around the world. now, mika, you'll remember, that virtual meeting happening today between the white house and the israeli government was actually supposed to happen in-person last week in washington. but it was call off by prime minister netanyahu in an unusually public display of anger with the united states. the fact that it's been rescheduled may be an indication that netanyahu is trying to lower the temperature. mika. >> nbc's raf sanchez live from tel aviv. thank you very much. we appreciate it. and coming up on "morning

joe," a new look at what's known as havana syndrome. a medical condition reported by some government officials and military service members. what one year's long investigation reveals. and how the u.s. might respond. also ahead, the highlights and upsets from march madness, as the men's field is now down to the final four. "morning joe" will be right back. at bombas, we're obsessed with socks. tees. and underwear. because your basic things should be your best things. one purchased equals one donated. visit bombas.com and get 20% off your first order.

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it's the ten-point game, two minutes left. >> got to look ahead. if you they want --! >> it's d.j. burns! >> get it in. and it's over.

this is what dreams are made of. >> cinderella still dancing, number 11 seed, nc state is in the final four for the first time since 1983. when they won it all. in memorable fashion. d.j. burns, the big man, scored a season high 29 points last night to lead the wolfpack over fourth seeded acc rival duke by a final score 66-64. nc state has a date on saturday with top-seeded purdue who knocked off tennessee, 72-66 last night for that school's fifth final four berth since 1980. the another match sunny, alabama, roll tide, congrats to joe, who took down 60 to clemson, 89 to 82. alabama now draws number one overall uconn which continues to roll, defeating number three seed illinois 77 to 52.

that game included a 30-0 run by the huskies. meanwhile, the nc state women are also final four bound. advancing out of the elite eight for the first time ever with a 76-66 victory over top-seeded texas. they'll meet number one overall south carolina in the final four. the gamecocks took care of number three oregon state 70 to 58 last night. that team now making its second consecutive undefeated run into thesemifinals. also the fourth straight trip to the final four. remember, they lost last year in the final four. the women continue number three uconn and usc, and who this game is going to be a barn burner, a championship rematch between third seed lsu defending champs and iowa with caitlin clark. baseball, the new york yankees big star made a big difference on opening weekend.

juan soto had three hips capped off with an rbi single lifting the bronx bombers to a 4-3 win yesterday. and completing a an opening four-game road sweep of the houston astros who usually have the yankees' number. soto now is the first yankees player since 1961 to post a go-ahead rbi in three of the first four clubs. he also helped to save the game with a stellar throw to get a guy at the plate. yankees open up the season 4-0 for the first time in more than two decades. we see the back page of the new york daily news, donny, highlighting yankees the best, mets, 0-3, the worst. i will say, we've talked about a lot of challenging situations on today's show but there's no greater threat to our nation than yankees starting first. >> yankees looking for a much have purchase, obviously they paid a lot of money for the man,

the throw, he's got the tools. i'm a mets fan. they do success. they don't suck like the red sox, but pretty bad. >> the sox managed a four-game series. >> mets, they don't have pitching, i don't know if they hold on to alonso this year as a free agent. before we get excited to yankees. pitching is suspect. new york sports overall, over the knicks it's not been very rewarding lately. >> that's true. yankees, it's a great start without gerrit cole, but there are flaws. you're right, the mets not only get swept at home but to be shown up by reece hoskins. the former philly. >> d.j. burns, talk about must see tv, 6'9", 275. a 30-0 run, 36-2, they look

forward to it. >> well, mika, the one team that has the next shot at them, joe scarborough's alabama crimson tide. >> i know. >> i know you guys are feverish with preparing for this weekend's game. >> we've done late, late nights in the house. this has got to stop. we need to go to bed. >> yeah. coming up, a new report linking the so-called havana syndrome to russia appears to contradict the u.s. intelligence investigation into the origin of the mysterious illness. we'll be joined by a retired cia officer whose career was cut short because of the debilitating symptoms. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

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a live look at the airport in washington, d.c. at 42 past the hour. welcome back. "60 minutes" aired a new report last night about the phenomenon known as havana syndrome, a condition that has physically affected a number of members of america's intel community over the past decade, causing mysterious neurological symptoms. "60 minutes" working together with the german outlet der spiegel, and the russian-focused manage "the insider" believe their investigations into the origins of havana syndrome has potentially uncovered a russian nexus. however, two senior intelligence u.s. officials tell nbc news the cia and six other intelligence agencies have not changed their collective view that it's very

unlikely the symptoms were caused by russia, or any other foreign adversary. joining us now, the editor "the insider," marco weiss and marc polymeropoulos. marc, we'll start with you if you don't mind, if you're comfortable, tell us how this impacted your life and what is havana syndrome. >> so, mika, you're right, it's not easy for me to talk about, because this is really a story about people and u.s. heroes have suffered a lot. i was injured in moscow in 2017 which essentially ended my career. it led me to have crippling headaches, vertigo, ringing in my ears, memory loss. i had to retire in 2019, i couldn't do my job anymore, after a pretty successful

career. this is common what happened to me and other officers, not just in the embassy in havana, even back to u.s. facilities in frankfort, and even before that as well. look, this is a story about the u.s. government not finding medical care. and now, really incredible work from marco weiss who is on with me here, the premiere investigative journalist show in history, and der spiegel, "the new york times" of germany, uncovered data of the russians. i still don't understand why the u.s. government, they're going to dig their heels in again, why they simply can't change the investment that they do. warranted administrative action is warranted. >> as marc just said, the u.s. intelligence review found no evidence linking this to havana

and suggests this even exists. this has been a project a long time coming for you and your colleagues, walk us through. what have you found? >> we approached this from the washington perspective, and the data that we're uncovering is fascinating there's a unit of the russian intelligence agency, 2195, these guys are notorious, for poisoning in salisbury, an amendmented coup. in bulgaria and the czech republic. members have been sanctioned. indicted, so they're well-known. what we have uncovered, relied on call data, geo locations, members of teams are in vicinity

of two operations, one into balisi, georgia, in 2021, when the wife of an official was hit in her home. she gets out of her house and she looks like a guy who looks like a young member of the 2995 but son of the commander promoted to the deputy director of the russian intelligence organization. another tack which marc alluded to in frankfort, and taken over crimea, a victim will has positively identify nord member of 2995, he's stalking around the outside of the u.s. housing facility where this person lived checking out diplomatic license plates. we showed a photograph to this person through an intermediary

and she said that's exactly who i saw. this person confronted him and he went off muttering in russian. and saying, sure, we see gru license plates and car in the same vicinity of alleged attacks. they do not do pure espionage. in russia, it's kinetic military operations. if they're surveilling, it's because they have a target and they're going to commit an act of violence against that target. that is the most compelling. >> so, marc, if it's there, in connection with der spiegel and other operations, why is it that the united states wouldn't want to say, look, we know that 2995 is involved in developing an akuft item weaponry, why wouldn't they then connect the dots and say it's possible they've been using them against

u.s. citizens? >> katty, that's the biggest question, it's something that i've told u.s. senior officials including cia officials when they first came out with the assessments. saying you're making the categorical denials. it seems suspicious. nobody makes analytic calls like this saying nothing is is there. the only thing i come to after all of this, particularly the new data, number one, they don't want to confront the notion that prussia could be undertaking acts of war against u.s. officials. but number two, it also puts a damper on willingness of u.s. officials to actually serve. what michael's investigation uncovered it's not just u.s. government officials, it's their families, it's their children. so the idea to get someone to go out, do the bidding of the american people, go in the front line. these are tip of the sphere officers. if there is some kind of country, weapon, taking them off the battlefield, they're not

going to get them to go. there's just this institutional bias against this. and i think that's wrong because ultimately, you know what is the writ of the leader, it's to protect their people. and i don't think they've done that and that's disturbing to me. >> michael, the objective of you coming forward, this -- these revelations is to really try and get the u.s. government to try and go after this. and how do they go after this kind of, you know, it's not regular espionage. >> right. >> but how do they go after this, without having to deal deal with violating certain agreements with other nations, including russia? i mean, how do they do this in light of the fact it could affect other situations that we have in terms of diplomatic relationships, et cetera? >> i think mark hits the nail on the head, right? one of the things we kept coming

up against in querying members of the u.s. intelligence, ed, one of five people in the american intelligence community who's the most read into this says on camera, it's the russians. if it's not the russians, i'm come back on your show and eat my tie. it might not be copper bottom, but we should look into this further to suggestion that the giu is doing this. there's two reasons. if you say, one, russia is committing acts of war against service members abroad, keep in mind these are top-level people, these are not mid-level functionaries, if they're committing acts of war, what do you do about it? it's terrifying to think about. they have nuclear power. we have talked on the somehow about fear of escalation. if you do acknowledge this,

who's going to want to work for the cia, knowing that you're doing a load of laundry or checking in at the embassy or consulate and you could be so badly medically injured you could be retired. some are suggesting this is a psycho somatic illness. we talked to people. they're not doing this to get money. they would trade anything to get their life back. people have been rendered blind, deaf, they can't walk, they have severe ongoing disabilities. i mean mark can tell you about that himself. i've known him for several years. they're not making this up, and these are well-trained and seasoned intelligence officer who have been through very stressful conditions and then this happens and they've been

diagnosed. >> thank you both very much for your reporting and sharing your story. we appreciate it, and we'd be happy to continue this conversation. up next, we'll have the cleanup efforts on baltimore a week after the key bridge collapse. also ahead, we'll show you the biden campaign's new pitch to nikki haley supporters. "morning joe" is back in a moment. porters. "morning joe" is back in a moment ♪ limu emu ♪ ♪ and doug ♪ hello, ghostbusters. it's doug... ... 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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a few minutes before the top of the hour. crews began removing the first pieces of wreckage from the francis scott key bridge over the weekend. demolition crews used two crane barges to cut the top north side of the bridge, a key step to allow tugboats to reach the disaster side. divers were in the water

surveying parts of the bridge and checking the ship to ensure it could be safely floated away once the wreckage is listed. officials say there's no timeline for reopening the bridge due to the ongoing complex operation as you can see. president biden is set to visit baltimore next week. and still ahead on "morning joe," we'll go through the very different easter day messages from president biden and former president trump. also "the washington post" state of the nation lays out the state of the ukraine war and conditions by president zelenskyy without more aid from the u.s. we're back in two minutes. we're back in two minutes. with so many choices on booking.com there are so many tina feys i could be. so i hired body doubles.

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made from 100% bible. sounds like a joke and in many ways it is, but it's also very real. as you know, i love bible. it's my favorite book. i have definitely read it. my favorite part is probably the ending, how it all wraps up. but this is a very special bible, and it can be yours for the high, high price of $60, but i'm not doing this for the money. i'm doing this for the glory of god and for pandering and mostly for money. >> "saturday night live's" take on donald trump hocking his own version of the bible. the former president then spent easter sunday ranting for hours on social media saying things you wouldn't say on any day.

we'll discuss why that matters and how the biden campaign is responding. plus, we'll get information on the legal side after he criticized the judge and the judge's daughter. and also ahead, thousands of people protested yesterday in jerusalem, calling for your new elections in the country. it is the largest demonstration since the war against hamas began. we'll talk about that begin for sure. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, april 1st. with us we have the host of "way too early," white house chief at politico jonathan lemire. katty kay, the host of the podcast on brand with donny deutsch. donny deutsch is with us. and editing manager for politico, sam stein. and also msnbc and author of the

book "how the art lost its mind," gregory sykes is with us. great to have you all on this monday morning and we have so much to talk about. we take it step by step because there's a lot. we begin with donald trump on another religious holiday on social media on what you would call a bender, like dozens turned into 40, 50, 60, 70 hosts through easter, through the easter holiday. while most people were spending time with their families in church -- we were in church -- trump appeared to be glued to his phone, posting 77 times on truth social. from sunrise to is upset, the presumptive 2024 presidential nominee spent the day airing his grievances and sharing far right news coverage that cast him in a positive light. and as is customary for trump on

the holidays, one all caps post, wished a happy easter to his perceived enemies, including the, quote, crooked and corrupt chief prosecutors doing everything to interfere with the potential 2024 election year and putting me in prison as well as people i know that i totally despise because they want to destroy america. trump also shared two articles that compared him -- him -- to jesus christ. one was called, quote, the cruise crucifix of donald trump. and another was a photo of him receiving a golf trophy for a tournament that he created and

hosted. chances are didn't win, but that's just me. president biden posted a solemn message on easter saying jill and i wishing you a happy easter. eater reminds us of the power of hope and christ's resurrection. as we gather with loved ones, we remember jesus' sacrifice, pray for one another, and cherish the blessing of the dawn of new possibilities, and with wars and conflict taking a toll on innocent lives around the world, we renew our commitment to work for peace, security, and dignity for all people from our family to yours, happy easter, and may god bless you. there's so much here, such a contrast, and there's so much more to report, and it's easy to

get triggered and to go down a tangent. that's sort of the trump strategy, the shock opera, the constant shock, knowing that the base will be there, they'll accept anything. so what you can do is mang tl truth, warn people, which he is doing, and trigger the media. go after joe biden. trigger the democrats. threaten what you're going to do. threaten democracy. and i think that, you know, the parallels to jesus, the parallels to himself being jesus are the next level, something that's to expect in a cult later. you know, charlie sykes, yesterday, you know, celebrating easter, we went to church, we heard from a pace tore who made

this point. i mean so many good points in his sermon, but that easter was a day for renewal, to think about your relationship with god, to think about your relationship with jesus because he loves you unconditionally because it's a relationship that you have with your god, with god, and not religion. it's not a relationship with religion. it's not a relationship with politics. it's not a relationship with a person. it's a relationship with god. and today's your day to -- maybe it has. been so good. here's your day to come back. it was very beautiful. and then, you know, reading in for the show this morning, it was very jarring to see a candidate, a front-runner nominee, that's a word i want to

use, but tear all over that, that concept, and make it about himself. >> of course. and happy april fools' day, but unfortunately this is the reality. what you saw over the weekend was not an actual parody. the "saturday night live" episode really sort of nailed it, but it's difficult to come up with a parody of what donald trump is actually doing, peddling the bible in the crudest possible pandering, but, again, you know, the split screen between joe biden -- whatever you think about him, he's a sincere and believing click, and then donald trump with his 76 unhinged rants. i also have to point out the split screen in terms of the realities we live in here. so all week long donald trump had to answer for this sing cal pandering with the bible, but right wing media was focused on

two things over the weekend, and they pounded it and pounded it and pounded it. number one, that joe biden replaced easter with transitional day. you know n the split screen world, you have donald trump with the unhinged rants, but his base is hearing, you know, this other message, that is joe biden who is the enemy of god and of faith, and it is -- and it is donald trump who is the defender of the faith. it's so absurd, but i think we need to understand and come to grips with the way in which we have this completely alternative nair active out there that has really no relationship to reality but which is very, very

potent in american politics these days. >> yeah. we have a fact-check on what you just mentioned in just a moment and we'll go through it point by point, but trump's social media frenzy yesterday came after he posted a video depicting violence against president joe biden earlier in the weekend. on friday the former president published a video which appeared to be taken by one of his senior security advisers, dan scavino. that's a guy that worked at his briarcliffe country club years ago, driving him around on a golf cart, handling people coming in. and now he's the front guy. he's been there and he's lasted. just think about that. we're not going to play it here, but the video shows a truck driving down the highway with a decal of biden it inning in the

back of a pickup hogtied and bound. michael tyler wrote, trump is regularly inciting political violence and it's time people take him seriously. just ask the capitol police who were attacked on january 6th. donnie, i'll let you break it down. he made easter, a religious holiday, about himself. who is surprised? nobody on our set. it's more when are americans, all of them, going to understand this is more of a warning? >> you know, to think that he posted joe biden hogtied in the

back of a truck, that's the image he wants to sent out there, that's a warning, what the violence he is provoking could possibly and will probably happen as a result of him winning or losing as a president. i saw that, and i had a check with five didn't people, is this real because it was unfathomable. at the same time as he talks about him being this cite-like figure and selling bibles, no matter what religion you are, catholic, muslim, jew, ee miss co-payan, i have yet to find a religion that promotes violence. so it's ridic lus on the one hand he's setting himself up as the messiah and on the other hand, he's the stoker of extreme types of violence. where i grew up, those things don't go hand in hand. >> and yet there were some writers who thought, yes, that

might be that he was sent by christ. we saw that over the weekend. in the meantime the white house is pushing back. in a statement released on friday biden proclaimed march 31st as transgender day of visibility. that day has been celebrated on march 31st, every year, since 2009, but this is the first time in 11 years it has overlapped with easter. despite biden following precedent, republicans ripped the president for his proclamation. in a twitter post, speaker johnson claimed, biden, quote, betrayed the central tenet of easter. marjorie taylor greene wrote there's no length president biden and others won't go to to mock your faith and to thum his nose at god. and in a statement they called

on biden. they took exception to the white house's guidelines for the annual easter egg roll, asking for decorated eggs not to include, quote, any questionable conflict, religious symbols, or anything else. president biden is a catholic of deep faith. he went to church yesterday. where the republicans are leaning in on the imagery that trump was, in fact, semtd from god, he can hock his own bible and no one seems to care. there's a lead story in "the new york times" that he's leaning in to an appeal of supporters,

they're following through but that's not breaking through. tell us what this means right now, the state of our politics? >> tackling disinformation and information in this era is incredibly difficult. we would be spending huge amounts of time. on the bbc we have teams of people doing this. on the biden campaign, they have teams of people doing it as well. the question is each if you do correct the record, yes, there was a day of transcribing. does it get through to trump? probably not. will it get to swing voters? i guess that's who the biden campaign needs to reach out to. that is to say, the information you're hearing, whether you get

it is hard. we know, combatting disinformation is really, really difficult. there's some indication in polling that donald trump's support among white evangelical christians may be softening. yes, he is gettest the most votes from the latest news poll, but that's down from september. look at the pushback he got from some christian leaders. that softening of the support you're seeing, it's still a large chunk of evangelical christians and they ceecee him as a mess annic figure. they're going to look at how much they stay with him if he cares on with things like this. coming up there's new reporting on the rolling stone

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i call him bird brain. >> nikki haley has made an unholy alliance with rhinos and -- >> she's an angry person. >> i don't need votes. i have all the votes i need. >> she's gone haywire. >> there are not many

never-trumpers anymore. that's the new biden am pain ad highlighting trump's attacks on nikki haley in an effort to attract her supporters. meanwhile nbc news is learning key details about president biden's newest campaign strategy, and this is getting under donald trump's skin. in the past few weeks the president has ramped up the personal attacks against his republican opponent in both private and public settings, targeting trump's financial challenges, campaign tempo, and even his weight. they tell nbc news the strategy has larjdly been driven by biden himself and they're just following his lead. one biden aide said, quote, there's something about joe biden that gets under donald trump's skin more than anybody, and i think biden knows that. in the recent days they've

posted the afollowing attack lines. donald trump, finally, confused, tired, weak, desperate, broke, done. campaign can't raise money. lying about having money he definitely doesn't have. a loser. he must have injected bleach. old and out of shape. well, there is that, sam stein. the biden campaign has been really good on rapid response. >> yeah, i mean, they clearly want to agitate trump. they want to get him on side pursuits. they want to get him to say crazy things. i think, you know, you went down the list. one of the more interesting ones, they've accused him of hiding in his basement during the past month, which is an inverse of what trump himself is accusing biden of in the 2020 campaign. clearly there's a larger strategy here. they're trying to do a

psychological warfare against the candidate himself. and you can see trump's reaction on truth social. i did notice they quickly moved to go after this fake attack around branding easter transgender day. these stories, these myths, this disinformation can travel in closed off ecosystems pretty fast and it's hard to reach these people who do not consume news from traditional means. they'll get it from truth social or other avenues, you do have to move fast. let me say, i don't celebrate easter obviously. i thought the whole thing was bizarre though. what was the actual problem here of having transgender visibility day that happened to coincide on easter? why is that problematic at all? isn't it supposed to be a

holiday of acceptance? i thought that was the fundamentally weird part about this whole controversy. what are you actually mad about? why does it make a difference that the days fall on the same day this year? >> so interesting. i think the strategy, charlie sykes, of making a mockery of trump is a good one because he doesn't get jokes. he doesn't like being embarrassed. it will really get to him when he posted -- this sounds so trivial -- where he won at one of his own golf championships. he probably picked up the ball and put it in the hole. the biden administration tweeted back, good joke, donald. he won't get it. i'm not saying he's stupid.

there's something missing from his personality. he does not -- i've seen it firsthand -- he doesn't get jokes about himself. they're lost on him. make no mistake, these times that we're in are dead serious. there's no joke about them at all. if you look big picture at trump's twisted strategy that's working on his base, it's to say something but say the opposite but to get them to agree with both. so you say immigrants or rape ists, they're does gusting, bringing in all sorts of diseases. and then you have your politicians on congress who are too weak to have their own minds, you have them block the border bill. you say you're for national security, global security, being strong, and ukrainians are dying today because aid has yet to

come. the list goes on, charlie. >> i know. >> i guess the question is how the democrats -- because this isn't going to be an election about democrats and republicans. it's going to be an election about democracy. it's no joke. these are dead serious times. how is joe biden and the democratic party going to be able to not get sidetracked, not get triggered by these daily rituals of freaking people out about whatever the issue of the day is, transgender posts, that ends up being something that's done, making a lie. how do they focus americans on what's at stake? >> well, it's obviously difficult because of these alternative realities it there. what they need to do is not get under donald trump's skip to make him say crazy things because he'll do that on his own, right? it is important to point out

he's a fake and a toney. for example, on friday his big photo op was to go to the funeral of a new york police officer. i think people need to be reminded that donald trump continues to, you know, promise he's going to pardon those involved in the january 6th attack where they beat cops. again, here's the juxtaposition. what donald trump claims to be versus the reality, i think that can be highlighted. he's a big patriot, but he kowtows to thugs. he claims to be a man of law and order but aligns himself with people who attacked police officers. he claims to be a christian, but, you know, what exactly is the content of his christianity? the way you high lighted the contrast about easter, people look at donald trump. donald trump claims to be something and he has been for

his entire life a fraud and a phony to the extent of which they can point this out that donald trump claims to be a world striechbing successful business man is somebody who has frauded 4i78s. he's not as rich or successful as he claims to be. i think this is a chip, chip, chip away because there are people who look at donald trump, and then this is one of the weird things about our world. you even seen the sort of online trumpist horn where he's portrayed as looking like this buff superhero flying on an eagle carrying an ak 447, where in fact, he's a soft wannabe. i think to the extent you highlight wahl trump is pretending to be and what he

actually is, you make some progress. >> we often say truth social is a window into trump's soul and it's one in which he's seeing pressure. there will be a first criminal trial for a former president. and he's returning to the campaign trail. i wanted to pick up something that was said a moment ago. it's transgender visibility day. donnie, republicans are seizing upon trans issues. joe talks about it, how small it really is in high school college and spring sports. we saw them weigh in on this all

weekend, thinking this is going to be an issue that really resonated with voters. you have your finger on the pulse of what people care about or not. do people care? if this is it, is it the best? here's why i think republicans so haine usually seize on the issue. the amount of transathletes competing is 0.0001%. it's an issue if you're an american -- and this is sad -- when things don't make sense anymore and you're becoming a white minority and globally everything is happening, this is an issue, oh, wait, boys can be girls girls don't mateny. it's this dumbing down version of we'll make sense of the world if it doesn't make any sense to you anymore. its ooh e slight a sliver irony.

they'll turn it upside down and say, see, it doesn't make sense. the world is coming to an -- it doesn't make sense. come to me and i'll make it make sense. that's why they go after the trans ish. coming up, it's not just democracy but reality too. we'll have more straight ahead on "morning joe." we'll have more straight ahead on "morning joe. well i was on my regular route, when i find this note... bring rings to beach wedding? fedex presents tall tales of true deliveries.

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thousands took to the straights outside israel's parliament in jerusalem yesterday to call for new elections in the country. "the new york times" reports it was one of the most significant demonstrations against prime minister benjamin netanyahu sense the israel/hamas war began. look at this. it comes one day after thousands took to the streets of tel aviv in separate anti-government protests. netanyahu himself under went surgery last night to treat a hernia with suppose persons calling it successful. meanwhile egypt and the delegation held cease-fire talksed on sunday. that's according to two. joining us now, columnist and

associated editor of the washington post davi. first, can you tell us about israel itself and around the mid east about benjamin netanyahu's leadership? >> mika, you have the sense that prime minister netanyahu is running out of road. he's under attack from both the left critics of his policy, people who want to focus on the release of hostages, and from the right. his right wing powe election would rye inquiry require them to serve. he's in the hot seat. he's promising a quick end of the war in gaza.

it's not coming. we'll see what the latest relief talks have produced. you should begin to help the poor palestinians who are desperate and begin to stabilize the region. but we've got to see whether the first steps are even possible in those talks. but for net ya hurks this is a pretty narrowing set of options given his basic popularity with the public. he's got to be worried. >> david, kind of, first of all, how did you find zelenskyy and that he's had to make choices,

what does that mean for his war effort what is he doing with the two litser that he ha has. he was quite blunt in saying what the consequences would be for ukraine if that aid is not provided. he said we will have to back up. we'll have to retreat in our front lines because of the lack of ammunition. hes was very specific. he got out a piece of paper and drew a battle map. he said if i have two dozen rounds and i've got 8,000, i've got to shorten my lines. . he said the lack of air defense winnepeg increase i will means that they're open for a russian

attack. it happens in the south while i was there the four days. he said it ee going to get worse unless we get the weapons to defend ourselves. the most pormts thing he said is, look, if you don't give me the weapons to prevent the russians from attacking our cities, we have no choice but to make them feel a similar price. if we don't have energy, they won't have energy. and ukrainians have, in fact, been attacking russian oil refineries and other facilities. u.s. officials have said they're not happy about it. in his mind, the only way to put pressure on russia to stop this is to pup 67 i. he said, it's favor frmd and i think that's clear the way he and his country, men and women

feel. >> "the washington post" david ignatius, thanks for coming on this morning. >> a sitting federal judge took the rare step late last week in appearing in a tv interview to harshly criticize donald trump's attacks on a colleague. the judge overseeing the criminal case tied to ahedged frp. it could lead to violence and tyranny. take a listen. >> i can't get into one's mind to say whether that i appreciate the impact someone's doing, but i would think any reasonable thinking person would expect when they say things, they can sometimes resonate with others.

i think that's particularly true when you have status in our society and they've made statements it can cause people to act on statements even if they don't necessarily intend for someone to do so. i think it's important for people in positions of authorities to be very circumspect in thing i they say so it's not causing others to act on what they say and it may be causing injury or death as a result. we've seen families lose members of their family as a result of criticism in the courtroom a and i think it's important that we maintain the rule of law. meanwhile the manhattan d.a.'s office is looking for clarity on the gag order imposed on president trump donald trump. last week prosecutors sent a

lunger to judge mer schon. they said perspective trial witnesses and jeurys could be is up. let's bring in foreign litigator and msnbc legal krojt correspondent lisa rubin. has he broken him down? >> in spirit, not little. the judge himself and his family mens will coveraged with this tape. i think they have probably not the better of the feemt up hero. on the other hand should it

apply to justice mer schon and district attorney alvin bragg, it probably should. but asking for confirmation or clarity, what the d.a.'s office is trying to do is promote a lengthy briefing. they want the judge to say it covers her already. >> lisa, we watch you report all the time how trump continues to cross the line. you're saying it's fuzzy. they're saying he's going to spend a day in the clink. he's making a mockery out of it. >> he is. i will say it's a huge problem, donnie, because we need a single judge to be willing to put

themselves out there and to implement those rules. so, first of all, he's not yet violated the gag order. in order for someone to say he's crossed the line, there has to be a line he formally and league lis particularly crosses the line. however, one of the things the d.afrmz crossed him. anybody familiar with the new york criminal code understand those were the criminal intent statutes where punishment could be up to 30 days in jag. if there's a time to implay those sanction, it is ooh pools. coming up, olivia colman. she reflects. "morning joe" is back in a moment. e reflects "morning j" oeis back in a moment

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guilty. >> i can't see why they think it's me. >> i was a bit boisterous once or twice. >> allegedly harassed a pretty young christian woman. >> what's the evidence? >> similarities in the language. >> have you got a pen and paper? >> i'd like to bring you to the light. >> why would i write a letter when i can just say it?

>> i'm not standing for it. >> catch them in the act. ♪♪ >> what would you say? >> you look like queen victoria shoved -- >> that was the trailer from the fantastic new movie "wicked little letters." led by olivia colman, it's set in a seaside town where residents began receiving letters met with uproar and then arrest. once the town's women begin to investigate the letters, they begin to suspect the person arrested may not actually be the culprit after all. olivia colman joins us now along

with the film's director. what drew you to the role? >> i thought it would be fun to play. there's no sort of game plan with things that you choose, but it depends what appears and what's happening in your life when they turn up. i thought playing edith would be great fun. she's one thing on the face, and behind closed doors she's something else. i loved the idea of quite a female strong cast and working with thea. it all just added up to being a few months well spent. >> how much fun you were having comes through on the screen. that is clear. thea, obviously language is at the center of this film, language that you absolutely cannot repeat on our morning television show right now.

what struck a chord with you with the use of words? >> the use of words. you have to be very careful. one of the things i was most drawn to with this project was the fact that it's based on a true story. the letters that we use in film, a very, very few of them were our own creativity. we think about 80% of the letters in the movie are the real letters that were handwritten a hundred years ago. they're innately british. they are hilariously funny. they say so much about somebody who is trying so hard almost to try and find a voice. the use of language within the letters is extraordinary and

both very funny, but also there's a touching quality, i think, to the voice underneath the letters. i was hugely drawn to the project. the language was one of the main things, sort of trying to understand who this person could possibly be. >> olivia, a central relationship in this film is your character edith and rose, played by jessie buckley. talk about that dynamic on and off screen. >> for me, going to work with one of my best friends was an absolute dream. we swear at each other for free anyway. might as well get paid. [ laughter ] >> there's such a beautiful female friendship at the core of this. they're two women who see each other. one who has escaped, i think, who is rose. a modern audience looks at rose

and we all go, that is the woman i want to be. back in the day, she was looked upon with such disdain by everybody, because she was relatively free, outspoken. edith back in the day was looked upon as the perfect woman, quiet and pious and obedient. we now look at that as clearly not freedom. these two women, i love the way they respond to each other. it's quite moving. it's a very funny great night out in the cinema. it's also very moving, this friendship that could have been and goes slightly awry. >> it's very, very funny, but also some big themes here, including the ideas of oppression and freedom of speech. >> it's funny, isn't it? it is a comedy and a light, easy night out in the cinema, but

there is no avoiding there are some really big topics within it. what's interesting is that people seem to take from it very different things. people seem to find quite personal reactions to some of the bigger themes. there's lots to think about and talk about after the movie. the most important thing is it really is joyous. it's very quick. it's 96 minutes. it's like it goes in a flash. to hear audiences laughing and appreciating it in that way is an absolute joy. >> "wicked little letters," thank you very much. >> thank you. " thank you very much. >> thank you

four presidents visited new york city at the same time on thursday, three to do a joint

fundraiser at radio city and one selling bibles door to door. donald trump has partnered with lee greenwood to sell a bible with the lyrics to greenwood's "god bless the usa" and i assume god's letter of resignation. trump's version ends with jesus' disciples storming jerusalem to overturn the crucifixion. >> it is 6 a.m. on the west coast 9 a.m. in the east. we have a lot to get to, including new reporting on donald trump's plans for the department of justice if he wins a second term in the white house. plus, many fast food workers in california are waking up to a pay raise today. andrew ross sorkin joins us with

more on the impact of the new minimum wage law taking effect today. the florida supreme court is expected to release its decision today on whether abortion protections can be on the november ballot. we'll have a live report from miami ahead of that key ruling. katty kay, jonathan lemire and reverend al sharpton back with us. we have john heilemann, adrian elrod and "new york times" opinion columnist david french. his latest piece is entitled "trump is no savior." why don't we go right there right after we tell you about president biden's easter sunday message. "easter reminds us of the power of hope and promise of christ's resurrection. as we gather with loved ones, we remember jesus' sacrifice. we pray for one another and

cherish the blessing of the dawn of new possibilities. and with wars and conflict taking a toll on innocent lives around the world, we renew our commitment to work for peace, security and dignity for all people." compare that to donald trump, who spent another religious holiday posting on truth social. he posted 77 times. is he okay? the presumptive 2024 republican nominee went after his perceived enemies all day long. among his many posts, one in all caps, blasting the, quote, evil and sick prosecutors looking to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes. he also shared two far-right news articles, one entitled "the crucifixion of donald trump," the other calling him a miracle

and take this in, the chosen one sent by god. david you write in part, quote, a significant part of american christianity is spiraling out of control. the maga method is clear. first, it whips up its people into a religious frenzy. it lies to convince them that democrats are an existential threat to the country and the church. it tells worried christians that the fate of the nation is at stake. then just as it builds up the danger from the democrats, it constructs an idol of trump, declaring his divine purpose and spreading the prophecies of his coming return. sadly, all of this spilled into the open on holy week, the very week when the actual example of jesus christ should thoroughly

rebuke maga's will to power. when jesus conquered death and hell and rose from the grave, he didn't come back from vengeance. one does not hate one's way into the kingdom of god. if our hearts are so cold that we fail to exhibit those virtues, it does one no good to respond. but, lord i posted, christ is king to troll my enemies. david, but yet on this day after easter, we're looking at a whole weekend of these types of upside down realities where trump takes reality, twists it and throws it against his people. i have to ask, though, about the people who have the means, whether it be leadership positions, financial means, educational means, who could, if they were invited or donated, go

to mar-a-lago on a saturday night and then go to church and celebrate jesus' love on a sunday morning. >> well, you know, what we saw on easter sunday was a remarkable display of venom and hatred, really to the point where you're right to wonder is he okay, but we know, no, he's not okay. what's been more disturbing than that venom and hatred was the buildup where trump called a post where his supporter compared him to gee sis and the trials he faces in court in new york to the trials jesus faced. he's selling bibles. this isn't just confined to trump anymore. we used to try to comfort ourselves by saying, well, donald trump is the bad guy, and so many good people are fooled. there are still good people who are fooled by him, but it's

become increasingly clear that trumpism and that trump ethic is leaking into american christianity itself. as we saw during holy week, christians all over twitter were posting christ is king specifically aimed at jewish americans, specifically aimed to assert religious dominance in a very gross and ugly way. it is very distressing, but even more than that it is very dangerous. >> it is, i agree. i'm scared. john heilemann, republican leaders, tv hosts, they're not fooled, but they're still doing it. explain. >> well, i don't know, mika. it's a question that we have discussed in so much length over

the past seven years. it feels like longer. the way in which -- and i'm not a scholar of christianity. there have been a lot of things written recently about the state of the modern evangelical movement. i went to catholic church and catholic mass for a long time and catholic school when i was a kid here in southern california. my sense of it -- and i'm not part of the evangelical faith -- but from my own experience and the reading that i do, i find a lot of the things that seem to be happening in the

institutional church in those areas and christianity across the board mirror in an interesting way what happened with the republican party and the way in which they both have been prone -- great institutions historically, the republican party and modern christianity. both seem to have been ripe for the picking by donald trump in some way. what has happened is we've watched both institutions kind of hollowed out in some way and become prone to or prey for this kind of cult of personality that has this increasingly kind of religious angle to it that trump has become an increasingly religious figure. there's a piece in the "new york times" today by michael bender that goes into great length about the way in which trump has worked the tenets of christianity and wrapped them around himself and turned himself into this quasi

religious figure that both the republican party and a lot of christians seem to be attracted to. i don't have a good explanation for that, except to say in the political context the republican party had become kind of hollowed out and had become rotten at the core before trump came along. i won't say that about modern christianity, because it's beyond my expertise. but i do ask the question of whether we're seeing now with christianity and trump's relationship to it something similar to what he did to the grand old party over the last eight years. >> reverend sharpton, you're a man of the cloth. we'd love to get you in on this. it seems like trump stands for all that religion is supposed to be against, the venom, the sins that he commits, but undeniably he has established a real connection, at least with some people of some faiths. i know this is something you think a lot about.

how do you explain that connection? and do you think it's going to keep growing? >> i think the explanation is in the story in the baseball itself of there were those in the temple that jesus challenged that were not doers of the word and not doers of the laws of moses, but that were going through the motions, the money lenders. when i think of the holy week from good friday to easter sunday, you know, given the verdict in donald trump's trial of defrauding banks and lying about his financial status, he would be more in line with one of the dying thieves on calvary than with jesus. david french, i think what troubles me -- and i read your article, and you go right to

it -- is that not only are people in the christian world and the leadership and the clergy there, not only are they bending toward a politics that seems to be antithetical to what we believe of christianity, they're literally altering the scripture. when you have a bible on sale for $60 that's the only bible endorsed by trump, are you saying the other bibles are not valid? are you saying trump is to tell christians what bibles they should have? the disturbing part is how christian leaders are now compromising their own scriptures and beliefs. >> the first thing you have to understand about the effect of trump on the church is that trump is changing the american

church. he is ch actually remolding par of the american church in his image. back in 2016 they told me we are going to be the good influence on him. at this point, it is absolutely clear he is the horrifically terrible influence on the church. he's begun to change the character of it. it's exactly right that the church was ready for this. it had gone off kilter enough to where it was ready for a strong man to come in. it was vulnerable to a strong man coming in to say i'm going to fix this. what he's done is he's changing the church. he's changing the character of the church, the character of the people in the church. and then the religious fervor is only going to increase, because the processes that i talk about in my piece -- there are prophecies where people are

saying he has a special divine purpose. people are hearing these prophecies, believing them and believing anyone opposed to trump is opposed to god's plan for america. that's what's really escalating the religious stakes in the united states. it's very dangerous. >> it's the party and god and the country and god. how does the biden campaign respond to this? how do they try to peel away people on the margins of the christian evangelical movement who may be becoming disaffected with trump? and there are polls that do suggest the share of christian evangelicals who support trump is declining, not massively, but there are people on the edges who may be winnable. should they be mounting a campaign of countering

disinformation? what is their role, trying to win people over and trying to counter the things donald trump says that aren't true? >> i've been listening to the conversation you guys have been having on this. it's a couple of things. number one, i think it's true that we have to keep in mind and the biden campaign is disciplined about this, we have to keep in mind there is a small sliver of voters who are swing voters who will ultimately decide this election. yes, there are evangelical voters who will vote for joe biden and are turned off by what trump is doing and saying. he's not walking the walk. he's not a true follower of faith in the sense that many christians are. we have to keep that in mind. also, keep your eye on the ball, which is who are those voters who are going to decide this election? there are a lot of evangelicals out there that are simply not

going to support biden. they are going to be with trump also no matter what he does. you've got to be disciplined in how you're reaching those undecided voters, those swing voters. secondly, you have to combat misinformation and disinformation. that's exactly what the biden campaign has done. michael tyler, the communications director for the campaign, had a very quick, forceful statement on the incorrect picture trump posted of biden tied up in the back of a truck. that's not going to turn on independent voters. they're not going to say, because he posted that, i'm going to vote for trump. the campaign was very aggressive in terms of pointing out that that was dangerous. you can ask capitol hill police officers who were at the capitol on january 6th how they feel about this violence, sort of taking us back to a place where voters can remember what this

kind of violence and what these kind of posts incite. also, again, using donald trump's words against him. i think the campaign has had many ads where they've literally taken clips of donald trump saying crazy things, putting them all together in a 30-second sound bite and minding people you'll hear trump say this crazy thing. when you see it all together in a 30-second clip, it really demonstrates where his head is, that he's deranged. i think they're being very effective in this. by the way, this is only the beginning. until republican leaders or voters make it clear that this is not something they will tolerate, trump is only going to continue this behavior more and more over the next 7 1/2 months. >> absolutely.

i have to say to add to the 30-second set of clips and let people see what he's like, something very effective is the question, are you better off than you were four years ago and then literally showing video of four years ago. it's unbelievable how much this country has been through. it's easy to forget. adrian elrod, thank you very much. david french, thank you as well. coming up on "morning joe," it pays more to be a fast food worker in california now. we'll talk to andrew ross sorkin about the potential impact of the new wage increase. plus, how companies are planning to keep their businesses afloat in baltimore, where one of the nation's busiest ports remains closed as cleanup crews work to clear the wreckage in the aftermath of the key bridge

collapse. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ht back.

welcome back. new york city is now the first american city to green light congestion pricing after the mta board voted last week in favor of the controversial plan that will charge vehicles $15 to enter certain parts of manhattan. the plan is currently being challenged in several lawsuits, but the mta says it expects to begin collecting the fare in june, charging passenger vehicles entering manhattan below 61st street. the transportation board says charging drivers to enter the city's most congested areas would reduce gridlock and contribute to at least $15 billion toward updating new

york's aging train system. we'll talk about that more. starting today, fast food workers in california can expect to see a pay raise in their next check after the state's decision to increase their wages. however, critics of the change worry about a ripple effect of rising food prices and staffing cuts. david noriega has more. >> reporter: over the last few years fast food workers have been at the forefront of the fight for higher minimum wage. here in california, they won that fight. today, fast food workers across the state will make 25% more than they made yesterday. a pay boost for more than half a million californians. good news for this woman, who after 17 years working for mcdonald's still has trouble making ends meet. we ask how she feels. eager, she says, for that first

paycheck. it will help with bills and maybe she'll get something special for her 9-year-old son marcos. most workers affected are women of color. >> this is a big deal. $20 an hour. >> one of the biggest questions is how will this affect consumers, especially in a state where things are already expensive and people have a hard time paying rent and food. some economists anticipate a 5% raise in goods, others as little as 2%. >> for a $5 big mac, that will be a dime. >> critics say the wage increase will accelerate trends that hurt workers. some pizza franchise owners are

announced layoffs of drivers, switching to third-party delivery services. >> we will, of course, as everyone else is have to increase prices in some way, shape or form. what people don't understand is they say, what does it matter? mcdonald's and taco bell are big corporations. we are family businesses. >> some fast food customers say even if they do pay more, it's a price worth paying. >> i'm okay with it. it feels like everything else is going up. it's about time wages go up. >> this new law applies to only big chains with more than 60 locations. it will have ripple effects. smaller businesses will have to compete with that wage. >> let's bring in andrew ross sorkin on this. i think david really laid out the tension here. what do you make of it?

>> the two stories that you presented are a microcosm of what's happening across the country on two coasts, congestion pricing here in new york and this raise in price in california. these are massive economic tests in terms of what they're going to do to these cities and states. in california, there's no question $20 is going to be a lot better for those workers. it's going to take six months to a year before we see those ripple effects. do we see less hours worked? that's going to be one way a lot of these restaurants that aren't able to pass along higher prices try to deal with it. yes, you might be making more per hour, but you might be working less hours. there's also a question of how quickly this accelerates the shift towards technology. the technology was always going to come. the question is whether this pushes that faster.

having said that, we could see a lot more money back into the system if folks working these jobs are able to take some of that money and use it back into the economy. that is the fundamental question. here in new york, on the congestion pricing, again, one of the great tests. we've seen this test in other parts of the world, in london in particular. there's a question mark about how many people come into the city. the expectation is 17% of traffic will disappear in the city. that could be great or terrible. the fdr and west side highway are not included in all of this. is there going to be a strange traffic jam where everybody in midtown tries to head towards the highways. there's a lot of questions that are still unanswered. we'll be talking about it before

we're able to say was it a great success or a mistake. in california, 25% is a big jump. the goal for democrats is to take this and make it a national one. whether $20 works across the country is also a big question. >> that's a great question. i want to ask you about what's going on in baltimore with the painstaking effort engineering challenge to try to clear the bridge debris, the container ship itself. what's the impact it's having initially on the economy in the area in the port, and also how long before they can get normalcy again? >> i think normalcy is likely months away. the economic impact in that specific area is real.

the question at this point is how do we pay for it and how much is it ultimately going to cost? some of the numbers look like $2 billion, possibly as much as $4 billion. the biden administration has said the federal government is prepared and will be paying for all of this. there's a question mark about whether they should be paying. i think there's a debate in washington about how much gets split up and how much the industry and insurance industry will ultimately have to pay for this. those are the questions on the board. i wish i had answers, but i think it's still too early. >> tomorrow when you come back, we want to talk about trump's stock play, truth social. >> oh boy. we have not talked about that together. that's a big one. okay. i look forward to it. >> we'll see you tomorrow. andrew ross sorkin, thank you very much. coming up, new reporting on donald trump's plans for the

department of justice should he win a second election. plus, florida state supreme court is set to weigh whether to include abortion protections on the ballot in november. we'll get a live report. we'll get a live report.

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beautiful shot of seattle at 35 past the hour. if donald trump returns to the white house, close allies reportedly want to dramatically change the government's interpretation of civil rights era laws to focus on anti-white racism rather than

discrimination against people of color. that is according to exclusive reporting from axios that says the focus would range from decades-old policies aimed at giving minorities economic opportunities to more recent programs that began in response to the pandemic and the killing of george floyd. a trump campaign spokesman told axios president trump has said all staff offices and initiatives connected to president biden's un-american policy will be immediately terminated. rev, help us out here. we should believe him, among many other things. but i think this easter things are moving at a faster pace that is a little frightening. >> i think he has made it very clear. if you look at the fact that his

supreme court -- he appointed three of the five conservatives on the supreme court. they have ended affirmative action. they have also dealt a real blow to the voting rights act. this is what trumpism is, is to reverse everything that happened in the civil rights movement and go back to pre-1950 america. that's what he means by make america great again. if you look at the judges he's appointed and the way he's operated and those of us who knew him in new york, donald trump, as i said earlier, was found guilty of discrimination in his housing. this was done not by civil rights group. the justice department prosecuted him and won on that. this is who he is. if you notice in all of the cases he has been accused of in terms of his financial dealings, you've not seen one black business step up and say i did

business with him. he is basically a person committed to reversing civil and voting rights. when we look at the fact that all of these civil rights were put in place to correct racist behavior, by law blacks couldn't have certain jobs, by law we were slaves, by law we were three-fifths of a man. he's trying to bring us back to that rather than repair the legal damage done to blacks based on who we were born to be. he wants to act like there's discrimination against whites for whites trying to repair the damage done to blacks. >> that is as twisted as it gets. last week, after an appeals court lowered the bond trump has to pay in his civil fraud trial, donald trump alleged with no evidence that both the judge and

new york attorney generally's the -- letitia james are engaging in election interference. "rolling stone" reports various lawyers in the maga upper crust, including several close to the former president, have been crafting novel legal schemes that a justice department could use to go after the new york prosecutor should trump win reelection. joining us now is one of the reporters behind that piece. i'm curious just how far they mean when they say that person should be looked at. >> one thing that is clear about the trump 2024 campaign to anybody looking into things behind the scenes and also focusing on things that trump and his influential idealogical allies are saying openly and

garrulously every day is that revenge and retribution are going to be not an appetizer, but an entree of a second trump term if he returns to power again when it comes to how his people want to wield the department of justice as a wholly-owned subsidiary of trumpism. when it comes to one way in which they would want to do this, the prosecutors who have been going after donald trump in recent years are fairly high on the list of individuals who they would want to go after. this includes not just jack smith, alvin bragg, but of course new york attorney general letitia james. the thing that takes this to the next step beyond just trump raging about it on his social media platform or at campaign rallies and into something they actually want to do if he gets reelected is that attorneys who are very close to him have been briefing him on ideas that they have been cooking up in the maga

legal brain trust. this is something trump is very much aware of, exploiting very specific parts of the u.s. federal criminal code to go after letitia james if the department of justice is truly maga-fied ever again. this includes 18 u.s. code 595, which is specifically about public officials, whether local, federal or state, using their powers or abusing their powers to interfere with an election of a u.s. president, vice president or other candidates or federal candidates. now, someone like yourself may think reading that makes you think, okay, that is more suited for stepping in to keep, say, a segregationist governor in the south from interfering with the election of an american president.

i think that would be something reasonable to assume from that. but in the maga legal orbit, they think they can twist language like that in the u.s. criminal code to apply to someone like letitia james and argue the case against donald trump is a form of election interference. there are various legal experts who think that is an incredibly tenuous interpretation of that part of the u.s. criminal code. >> john heilemann, jump in. >> great piece. your coverage on this stuff is always consistently really strong. the notion that trump, if reelected, is going to use the justice department in a way that we've never seen an american president do before, that there's going to be a kind of

knocking down of the wall with independence with the doj, he wants to politicize the justice department. he did that to some extent in his first term. the idea that he would use it to exact retribution against specific individuals who he sees as having persecuted him is horrifying, but also not surprising. i'm curious about what you think on the basis of your reporting and by casting a slightly broader view is where do you think that goes in broader application? trump has promised to be the retribution president. is the justice department you imagine in a trump administration one that is not merely seeking retribution against some of these high-profile characters that are currently pursuing him, but going after a wider swath of americans that he sees as critics of his, say, in the news media, democrats who have taken

him on, figuring out ways to use the criminal code and the justice department to go after everybody who he sees as an enemy? >> well, i think a lot of things are indeed on the table. as you know, the time has long since past that we say we can't take him seriously or literally. no. we should take him and his people seriously and literally when they're talking about using the federal government, not just the justice department, in ways that are explicitly and emphatically for vengeance. something illuminating about this is he and other attorneys who are very, to use a figurative term, mobbed up in his universe have been war gaming for years now ways to expand presidential immunity for him and to have the attorney general and the justice department office of legal counsel issue a new memo that

essentially radicalizes a sort of nixonian interpretation of presidential immunity once in office. however, there have been discussions about doing that perhaps toward the end of a potential second trump term. the cynicism behind that is because, if you do that, their theory is that it increases the chances to leave the door open to going after someone like former president biden, which is harder to do if your justice department is arguing that presidents and former presidents have an incredibly elastic protection of blanket presidential immunity. when it comes to going after not just prosecutors who have made donald trump's life harder, but going after all sorts of political enemies, all this stuff is on the table. this is not hysterical projections of resistance liberals. this is what trumps and his lieutenants and allies say openly and on the record

constantly all the time. >> 100%. thank you so much for being on this morning. so the florida state supreme court is expected to announce today it will allow a constitutional amendment codifying abortion until 24 weeks to be voted on by floridians this november. republican governor ron desantis, who backs a strict abortion ban, has appointed five of the current justices on the seven-seat bench. joining us live from miami, correspondent marissa parra. what's the latest? >> reporter: i'll start first with expected being the keyword here. we expected to hear about this last thursday. there's an april 1st midnight deadline. the florida supreme court normally release their opinions on thursday. in a very rare move that surprised everyone, they instead said they were not releasing a

decision or opinion, saying later they would do so out of calendar opinions today at 4 p.m. it remains to be seen what exactly we're going to found out this evening. what we're tracking and what many floridian voters are waiting to find out is whether abortion will be on the november ballot, not just because it would have a significant impact on the legality of abortion, but also an impact politically. one of the races that's showing signs of being more competitive is the senate race, currently challenging senator rick scott. we have debbie powell and asked her how important she thinks abortion will be to floridian voters this november. >> i think millions of floridians, regardless of party, are going to come out to the ballot box and make sure they protect their right to choose and their freedom. >> reporter: remember, floridian

democrats have had a problem with voter turnout for some time. democrats are really struggling and fighting to keep florida purple. quickly, i really want to explain the legal impact of deciding whether or not abortion will be on the ballot. there is a separate supreme court decision we are waiting for in florida that decides whether or not the current 15-week abortion ban is constitutional. if they separately decide so, that would trigger a six-week abortion ban 30 days later. it is entirely possible that we could see a six-week abortion ban in florida that if today we learn abortion could be on the november ballot, 60% or more voters, if they decide to pass this, we could see a six-week abortion ban overturned by voters in november, but if and only if the supreme court decides abortion can be on the ballot in november. it remains to be seen, but there's a lot on the line. >> thank you very much for that

report. katty kay, your thoughts? i feel like democracy is on the ballot, but women's healthcare is pretty far up on the list. >> yeah. what's so interesting about states that vote on the issue of abortion, you can have red states voting to make sure that women still have access to abortion. we've seen it happen in kansas and ohio and kentucky. it's interesting this is now taking placeflorida. obviously democrats would love for florida to be a purple state again. it doesn't look like it's going to be a swing state in the november election, but by raising the issue of abortion for florida's women -- we know hispanic women have abortions at higher rates than white women. there are a lot of hispanic women in south florida. is there a possibility it puts florida back on the map? or is there any way the

possibility that you have a red state in effect, voting to enshrine abortion rights in november? >> that would be incredible. coming up, best-selling author don winslow joins us with a look at his acclaimed crime fiction trilogy as well as what's in store for the next chapter of his career. we're back in two minutes. minut. '. spray flonase sensimist daily for non-drowsy long lasting relief in a scent free, gentle mist. flonase all good. also, try our allergy headache and nighttime pills. hi, i'm jason. i've lost 228 pounds on golo. flonase ♪ll good. changing your habits is the only way that gets you to lose the weight. and golo is the plan that's going to help you do that. just take the first step, go to golo.com. norman, bad news... i never graduated from med school. what? but the good news is... xfinity mobile just got even better! now, you can automatically connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go.

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a live shot at 9:52 on the east coast of the white house, decorated in its easter best for the annual's center egg roll, delayed because of thunder and lightning in the area, but now under way. fans of our next guest have been waiting for years for the release of tomorrow's book "city in ruins," the conclusion of a fictional organized crime trilogy from don winslow. it follows danny ryans from a low level gangster to a west

coast power player and finally the casinos of las vegas. it also marks the final book of winslow's distinguished writing career as he pivots from novels to political videos. "new york times" best-selling author joining us now. don, congrats on the book. before we talk about your upcoming shift, let's spend a moment with the book. tell us, without giving away, you know people have been excited about this for a long time. give us a sense as to what's happening next. >> we take danny ryan who we first met as a long shore man, fisherman, in book one. now he's a billionaire casino mogul trying to outrun his past. it took 30 years to write this trilogy. when i wrote the first sentence of this, my son was a toddler. now he's a married adult. it's been the work of my lifetime. i'm proud of it.

it feels like a good way to wrap it up. >> tell us what you're doing next and why. >> in seven months, we're going to decide what kind of country we're going to be, what kind of world we're going to live in. i think democracy is at threat, dire threat. i was watching your story a couple minutes ago about the justice department. i feel it's incumbent upon people who maybe have a little bit of a platform, as i do, to fight in this fight. >> don, would we expect you to do some writing along with that? clearly when you look at the stuff you've written, which has been fiction, it almost has become the reality that we're living in in terms of some of the characters that you've done. there are now those kinds of characters that are major, if not dominant in our politics.

it's not going to be a hard transition. >> i'm afraid not. i don't think i'll do anymore novel writing. i think right now the situation that we're in demands more immediate responses than you can get with a novel which takes years to bring out. by that time, this fight is going to be over. i don't want to write the elogy on american democrats. we do these videos now. they've had over 300 million views, 15 million just for the last three videos alone. i think that's a more effective way of communicating what we want to communicate than a novel would be at this point. >> don, as you said earlier, you already have quite the social media following. tell us a little more about the videos. what sort of issues will you take on? how quickly do you think you can turn them around? >> we can turn them around very quickly. we're a small shop. we do them ourselves. we're responsive to whatever is happening in the news, but we're also proactive. right now the issue is donald

trump. you have a man who tried to overthrow the government of the united states, is going to be the next candidate for the presidency of the republican party. this cannot be allowed to happen. if donald trump is elected again, we won't recognize this country. >> we will be looking for those videos. we appreciate you responding to the call to do something. "city in ruins" goes on sale tomorrow. "new york times" best-selling author don winslow, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. that does it for us this morning. we'll be back here tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. eastern. ana cabrera picks up the coverage after a quick final break. coverage after a quick fil break. my mental health was better. but uncontrollable movements called td, tardive dyskinesia,

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