now? >> yes. that's how i used to do mine. lots of sugar. okay. and then jefferson says we doodled. they google. >> and steve says they the worl libraries in the palm of their hands. quit your complaining! #get off my lawn! that does it for "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ for the first couple of days all i could do was replay memories and under see him and smell the clothes. i think i was in the stage of preparing for the worse because i think we all expected there is to be a crash. my feeling is i think they are still alive. i don't believe the plane has

ever been crashed. i don't believe the plane has ever been crashed. it just doesn't make sense to me and i don't feel like that is the right answer. it's a crazy situation that we consider a hijacking to be a glimmer of hope because somebody had actually used those words base the alternative is that they are just missing, like perhaps forever. at least if it's a hijacking, we have some confidence that there's a reason for it. >> that is the girlfriend of philip wood, an american passenger on board the missing malaysia airlines flight 370. she, along with philip's family, are holding out hope for some sort of miracle ending. good morning be everyone. it is tuesday, march 18th. the missing flight 370 still dominating the headlines. we have new details on what may have happened inside the cock t cockpit. also we are hear more from families of the missing passengers. many are speaking out and many feel the same way that they are still alive. we also will be turning our

attention to president obama who is being put to the test by vladimir putin and the russians. is put it's holding all of the cards or does the president have his own play? he is getting criticism from the right and might be the biggest foreign policy test of his administration. we will talk about that. we have halpern here. hi. >> good morning. >> barnicle. >> good morning. >> and thomas. >> good morning. >> i think eugene is here with us well in washington. am i correct? >> exactly. is there anyone here who isn't equal pay for women, right? right? right. we are all good, right, right? >> we are on the same track in a lot of ways. look at how we dress, like twins here. we are all the same person. >> what is that about? >> equal pay. >> equal pay. it's sort of kind of a concept that is hard not to support. you may not support the way the law was passed. maybe you have different ideas

for it. but you support equal pay, right? i'm going to tell you who is against it. it's a woman actually. a republican woman in texas and she is actually -- her job is specifically to recruit female voters so we will show you her tortured ens franswer straight . someone needs a little advice. all right. so we have -- we have done that. we have introduced everybody. look forward to hearing from you guys in terms of obama on ukraine, equal pay and also we have got some announcements from the white house about plans this spring which are very exciting so we will get to that in a moment. first, the latest development in the search for the missing plane takes us inside the cockpit where officials believe it was no accident when the jet steered far off course. "the new york times" says the changed flight path was

programmed into an on-board computer and the person who did it was likely familiar with the airline systems. that renews focus on the pilot and first officer, as well as anyone else on the plane who may have background in aviation. now, it's still unclear if the jetliner's computerized route was altered before or after takeoff. meanwhile, malaysian officials are facing more and more criticism. this time for backing off their belief that the signaling system was disabled before the final radio transmission from the plane. they now say it could have happened any time within a half hour window and all that uncertainty is taking a heavy toll on the families of the 239 missing passengers and crew. distraught relatives continue to gather in beijing with any word and some are threatening a hunger strike to press for more information. back home in texas, as we said, the family of philip wood who was aboard flight 370 are holding out hope.

his brother says they are praying for a miracle as well. >> i call him a free spirit. you know? in the last couple of years, he had the opportunity to travel to beijing to work for ibm and he took the opportunity and, you know, we get e-mails about him being all over the place. so he loved to travel. this was going to be his last trip to beijing and it just happened to be this one. >> with all of the twists and turns that have happened through the week, it's been -- you know, it's given us hope. >> reporter: tom wood has a much different specht from one week ago. >> i thought it was over, you know? we were just going to have to deal with it. and now it feels like -- it feels like there might be a good ending to this. i mean, we're believing there's a miracle in this. >> reporter: he says he and his family have been overwhelmed by support. there is even a facebook page dedicated to finding philip wood. >> people i never thought i would hear from again have

contacted me and so my friendships have been strengthened and we're just going to have a big party when phil gets back, you know? with everybody. >> reporter: wood says his faith has been growing during this difficult journey and so has his desire to see his older brother again. >> i know he's strong. a strong guy and he's a smart guy and he can survive things, you know? he can survive. he can survive things. he can survive this. >> reporter: wood says if he could tell his brother anything, it would be this. >> hang on, brother, you know? and we will see you soon. >> a lot of the families having the same feelings and i was watching the international coverage overnight and the one child in china. a lot of people are waiting for word on their one soul child and i think it just ratcheted up the hope and the images in their mind of what might have happened in both good and bad ways and

it's just agony. joining us now nbc news terrorism analyst and former fbi special agent, john borelli. you're in the difficult position of trying to figure this out because it's still tremendously ambiguous, is it not? >> it absolutely is. there seems to be so many unanswered questions and now we have got the new revelation about the -- >> the u-turn. >> the u-turn and it was programmed in the computer and that was done deliberately and somebody with knowledge of the system so it goes back to, you know, the question why would somebody do that and who would do it and, obviously, it needs to be, you know, the experts say somebody that is intimately involved and has knowledge of those systems. again, i think you just keep trying to investigate everybody on board, looking for some shred of evidence, some clue in their background that might lead to the motive of why would somebody

do this? particularly looking at the pilots but then you've got to really open that scope of the investigation to look at everybody. >> john, we talk about the knowledge that you're pointing to here about what it takes to fly this plane and what it takes to set up that course correction. we talked about it earlier on "way too early" the fact there are over 600 runways within the search radius right now where that plane could have safely landed with runways over 5,000 feet and a boeing 777 needs 7,000 feet to land but somebody skilled could land it on a lesser runway. is that fueling the speculation for these angry and frustrated families that their loved ones could be somewhere? >> i think it does, but you also have to consider the fact that to land an airplane in some sovereign country without basically, you know, any detection and then you've got 230 plus people on board that

you would then have to manage, you know, so the notion that the plane was hijacked, landed, has hostages and basically done it literally under the radar, you know, it seems highly unlikely. at this point, you can't rule anything out because we are this far into the investigation and there are more questions than answers, but to me that seems very highly unlikely that the plane could land undetected. >> mike barnicle? >> john, it's also the fact is you just mentioned it, we don't know -- is there more that we don't know than there is that we do know. one of the things we do is all of this speculation about terrorism, why is it we haven't heard anything from any group anywhere at least according to our knowledge? >> and that is another good point because the first thought when you hear of missing

airplanes, and i'm a terrorism guy so that is one of the first things that pops into my mind is, okay, look at a terrorism act. but it seems unlikely you have no group that has claimed no responsibility. you have zero information coming from the intelligence community. no chatter as they say, any group discussing this. so terrorism, at this point, seems to be a bit more remote. i mean, i will throw another scenario in there and, you know, i hate to be the guy that, you know, kind of introduces another theory, but when you have a navigation system that's controlled by a computer, i would be asking the question is it only able to be manuel changed or could somebody, you know, override that with some type of malware or under intrusion? at this point, when you have so many questions, you have to

really look at every possibility. is it even plausible? >> we have a couple of different reports throughout the show on this. don borelli, thank you. be back in touch with you. now to ukraine. president obama has made a strong statement against russian president vladimir putin aggression in ukraine to a collective shrug from the kremlin. putin signed a document last night declaring crimea a sovereign and independent state and follows sunday's vote in which 95% came out in favor of ane anextization from ukraine. there weren't a lot of other options i think on the ballot which makes it kind of tough. earlier in the day, the president announced targeted sanctions against 11 russian and ukrainian officials in hopes of putting pressure on vladimir putin's inner circle.

speaking from the white house briefing room, the president said this could be the first step if russia doesn't reverse course. >> we are imposing sanctions on specific individuals responsible for undermining the sovereignty and territorial government of ukraine. we are making clear consequences for their actions. if russia continues to interfere with ukraine we stand ready to impose further sanctions. we continue will make it clear to russia to diminish its place in the world. >> russia is responding to sanctions of its own against their own u.s. senators and congressman. putin is supposed to release his own sanction list as early as today. but it isn't only vladimir putin who is to scuff at the president's move. president obama here at home is facing critics who say he didn't go far enough.

>> i think vladimir putin must be encouraged by the absolute tamidity. the president said we will provide military assistance to ukraine and that will be in defensive weaponry. >> former presidential candidate mitt romney penned an op-ed entitled "the price of failed leadership." writing, president obama and secretary of state clinton traveled the world in pursuit of their promise to reset relations and build friendships across the globe. their failure has been painfully he evident. it's hard to name a single country is respect in admiration for america today than when obama took office. a year into his job, secretary of state kerry can yet to succeed and for the country's sake must succeed. timing is of the essence. over the weekend, kerry was

meeting with lavrov and i think making real headway trying to get people who cannot be negotiated with to actually even come to the table and, by the way, the president himself, mark halpern, said this was the first step. obviously the second, third, fourth, fifth will be providing military assistance to the ukrainians. i just wonder is it this productive to write op-eds and to go on television like john mccain did to talk about a weakened timid president when he is doing exactly what he should be doing? is there anything he should be doing right now that he is not doing? >> "wall street journal" editorial page would like to see more sanctions. >> we will get them, obviously. >> romney criticism is about missed opportunities and not -- >> he would know about that. >> huh. he says timing is everything in life. >> it sure is. right. >> i think that the president would like this off the front pages as much as -- as much as there is a problem now that has

to be dealt with. david axelrod said when the president is in the news talking about foreign policy it's bad for his poll numbers but he must see this through with a broad coaliti coalition. i think the sanctions are not as strong as the president says. if it does change he says he will do more. one point the critics have he is ratcheting up fast enough to intimidate putin from doing more. even though crimea is lost but is there something he could do on the right. >> i think people think putin is a leader and compare to leadship qualities of vladimir putin because he wears no shirt and rides horses. >> look at that scalp. >> they think he has more testosterone than president obama. i think they need to step aside and really look at the issues here instead of talking about cartoon issues and let the president do his job. is it fair? >> well, what they could do for a starter kit is refer to

history and ronald reagan and the soviet pipeline issue. gene, what do you think romney's definition of success as he outlines it is? >> i've read the op-ed too and i don't know what he believes could be achieved at this point regarding crimea, for example, that what could the president be doing that he is not doing? i'm not aware of what that would be. i think the other thing we need to keep in mind when we talk about putin is what has he has done seems to be enormously popular in russia. he has an approval rating of 70% that seems to be a legitimate number. so in terms of his domestic political opinion, he's not at all out on a limb on this.

there was an anti-demonstration last weekend but it does not seem to be broadly representative of what russians think. it's going to take a lot, i think, to convince him to give crimea back. i don't think he is going to do that. i think it is a question of him trying to deter him from further encouragement. >> we know that putin did this in georgia in '08. there is still a russian occupancy in georgia right now and under the bush/cheney administration and we know how sanctions what they tried to do and didn't do how it worked then. is that any indication where we are going now, is the president trying to give putin, for lack of a better term, enough rope in the international community to look bad because of the fact that ukraine, germany, are client states of russia and he wants to keep them as client states to help finance his country. is this just making putin look

bad? he is, again, giving him enough rope to look horrible. >> right. i think the president is trying to take a reasonable step by step approach. there is plenty of room for tougher sanctions and plenty of room for pledging military aid to ukraine. but you don't go to the maximum you're willing to do in the first step. you've got to have some room to escalate this. in fact, there is a limit to what you're ultimately going to do. you're not going to send divisions into crimea to try to take it back. >> look. the bottom line is a lot of people we are hearing from who are criticizing the president and secretary kerry at this point for where we are at this point in this crisis the same people that would like us still to be in iraq and afghanistan and like us to invade syria and

iran. they are always criticizing when we don't do enough and we do too much and we are in endless war. >> under under estimate the degree this is complex because we need russia on every other foreign policy. >> we need collective action which going alone is something we don't need to do at this point. secretary john kerry and president obama are the perfect team of rivals in some way who come together and make real decisions and they should be allowed to do sanction-by-sanction-by-sanction to see just how far they need to go with someone, by the way, who is not a fair negotiator, who doesn't seem like he is in his right mind, who actually has lost a sense of perspective and thinks that he owns the world. this is a frightening person vladimir putin. it's not like we are dealing with -- >> he is frightening in the sense he is literally a prisoner of his own past. >> he is also losing his mind,

barnicle. >> he is trying to re-create the soviet union. you mentioned secretary kerry and president obama. clearly they know the importance of germany in this whole equation. never really spoken to that this morning. i don't know a whole lot about germany, but the other aspect of it is the soviet economy and stock market that is collapsing slowly. >> that's right. >> peggy noonan pointed out putin is tending to be crazy. >> okay. well, i'm not going to take my chances on that because he is doing a fantastic job. >> the oscar goes to? >> i'm tending to be blunt. there you go. among the big topics that play in the race for governor in texas is the issue of equal play in the workplace. you heard of that? i've heard of it. i've worked on it. democratic candidate wendy davis is looking to attack a republican opponent greg abbott for arguing against the lily ledbetter act.

the bill expands the time that women have to file a lawsuit over pay discrimination because women get paid 77 cents for every dollar men earn for the same exact job so it's something that needs to be rectified obviously. one of abbott's supporters head of the red state women got a little tongue-tied, i guess is the way. she sort is grasping here. she was offering the gop alternatives and now that response is part of wendy davis online campaign ads. take a look. >> if you look at it, women are -- are extremely busy. we lead busy lives whether we are working professionally or whether we are working from home and times are -- are extremely -- extremely busy. it's a busy cycle for women and we have got a lot to juggle and so when we look at this issue, we think what is practical? and we want more access to jobs.

we want -- we want to be able to go to -- get a higher education degree at the same time we are working or raise ago family. that's common sense and we believe that that real world solution is a more practical way to approach the problem. >> huh? what? >> she nailed it. >> say what? >> we are very busy. it's a busy cycle for women. are you serious? we are so busy that we don't want equal pay. we're too busy for that. >> she needed someone in her ear. >> here is the deal. let's say you don't want to support all of president obama's policies so you have to find a way around a really good one like the lily ledbetter act. you could say something like -- i agree with equal pay and i think all women should have it. i think the president's approach is a start but actually there might be better policies that we could put in place that would inspire companies to do it themselves rather than penalize them after the fact. that would be a good answer,

right? or i don't know. anything but that. how about that? all right. gene robinson, you want to jump in? >> no. i just think that having all of that extra money would be a half. women don't have time to go to the bank. >> we don't have time. >> we don't have time to do online banking so i think this is an advantage to women. i think that is what they should have said. >> what major companies don't agree with equal pay? i don't know of any. >> i don't know of any either. and it's a complicated situation and i know that i've met people along the way in my career, my boss included, who really, really want to fix it. and they actually don't need to be prosecuted to fix it. they just need to figure it out but what the heck is that? >> mothers today want to raise their kids, especially mothers of boys, to equate women don't deserve equal pay. i think that raising young men in this day and age to understand that women are of equal value in all places of life makes the difference.

so why would a young mother want to go on and say -- >> even in this cycle? >> cycle? what is that word? are you saying that for a reason. okay. coming up on "morning joe" -- i'm sorry. >> it's the st. louis scull. it airs here. >> oh, the cycle, right. >> "the cycle" noon on msnbc. >> maybe it was the cycle that we don't deserve equal pay. we are off the rails. we will talk to chuck todd and ralph reed is here with his new book. dike vitale makes his picks for march madness and global gob winner america ferrara joins the table. a senate bid says a lot about the state of our politics so we will talk with mark leibovich. dylan has our weather. we are talking about more ice and snow in parts of the country but spring still starts on thursday, remember that. we are looking at black ice in

virginia and north carolina where we have winter weather advisories in effect and winter storm warnings through the northern plains and western great lakes because of this snow. it is going to come down heavy, especially later on this afternoon and into this evening. we could end up with as much as 6 to 12 inches of snow especially just to the north of minneapolis. but down near richmond that is where we have freezing drizzle. it doesn't sound all that threatening but it makes a glaze on the roads and makes things slippery for a tuesday morning commute. elsewhere across the northeast we will see increase in sunshine and temperatures looking all right and top out in the low 40s. tomorrow in new york city we should get close to 50 degrees. there is one catch. it comes with a little bit of rain but at this point, i think we will take it. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. salesperson #1: the real deal's the passat tdi clean diesel

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time now to take a look at the morning papers. the detroit free press. general motors is announcing three new recalls of more than 1.5 million vehicles unrelated to the ignition switch issue. the automaker will take a charge of 300 million dollars in the first quarter to cover costs to repairs. the announcement comes after an internal investigation following the ignition switch failure. that problem prompted a separate recall of more than 1.6 million cars last month. from our parade of papers, "the austin american statesmen." more information on the crash of the south by southwest festival and claimed the life of a third victim. sandy lee had been in critical condition since last thursday. six people remain in the hospital this morning. the drunk driving suspect is

accused of plowing his car into crowds as he was fleeing from a routine traffic stop and charged one count of capital murder but could face additional charges. the "los angeles times." a rude awakening from mother nature in the morning. the largest earthquake since 2008 there. fortunately there were no reported injuries. the damage was minor but the tremor took place in the middle of the local newscasts. the reaction by the anchors was mixed. take a look. >> it is funny. >> whoa! >> earthquake. >> big qeearthquake right now. >> big earthquake. >> really strong shake there. >> you can really tell. >> strong jolt and it's still -- >> this is quite a jolt. >> media inside ian rappoport. >> earthquake. earthquake. >> with the chiefs and then kept

negotiating with multiple teams. >> bob, you guys. >> whoa! >> whoa! >> okay. >> whoa! >> all right. that's an earthquake. >> yeah. >> that's a big one. >> wow. okay. >> ginger, thank you. coming up, more problems for -- >> earthquake. we are having an earthquake! okay. it appears to have stopped. >> they are the only ones that got it right. i lived in california three years. that's what you're supposed to do. >> you're supposed to get under the desk? >> if you're live on the air. look at halpern. he is in danger. >> the cameras keep broadcasting. >> you know what? i don't feel safer down here. i feel like the desk -- exactly! what are they doing? >> no. but that is what -- >> why are you supposed to do that, thomas? >> you are supposed to protect yourself and get under a table if there is a door jamb and

especially in studio with lights above us. >> what about the seismic? >> cbs was able to punch that up right away and show everybody was was going on and the stations had it up. >> fine. they did the right thing. >> i just want to defend them. >> i feel bad. they are probably embarrassed a little bit. >> they did the right thing. they were protecting themselves. >> barnicle? seriously, barnicle would have taken the whole desk for himself and not let anyone else in. here with us from washington mark leibovich who say like so many of today's perspective great leaders, scott brown is keeping his options open not ruling anything out and taking nothing off the table. he will never say never and that is the central credo of a modern political breed known as the superhypothetical. those professional noncandidates

whose franchises depend largely on people speculating on what they might run for and their own willingness to engage in public indecision about it. sarah palin is an example that neither will be elected to anything. first of all, if your strategy is correct, why use it? i would i think in some ways it's maybe what jeb bush is doing. >> i don't know if it's a strategy or not. the fact is we live in what is essentially a speculation age. there's so much room to speculate and in lack of anything actually happening, especially in many months before an election year, it just makes sense for people to sort of be in play. i should say that the name joe scarborough does not appear anywhere in this article. this is mainly about the scott brown decision. look. it's an entire breed of candidate and i think the media environment lends itself to it. >> in joe's case, people ask him

all the time if he is running. that does not mean you're hedging but it means people are asking you. mark halpern, don't you think to an extent -- i brought up jeb bush's name. just because the minute you do announce, that is when everybody starts to eviscerate you. isn't it better to hedge? is it a strategy? >> i think over time, sometimes it works out but for some of these people you appear ambivalent and i think it weakens you and keeps you from talking about ideas and message and your story and all about your indecision. sometimes people come out of it well but i think more often than not if you end up running it has a bad effect on you over time. >> mark, the scott brown thing it's been kind of amusing. it's been going on 14, 15 months and began in massachusetts would he or would he not run against ed markey. not only did he walk up to the wire and announce he was not running, then he decides to throw all of his belongings in a

trailer and move to new hampshire and continue this whatever it's going to be, whether he runs or not, it's still going on now. even with his i'm going to take a look at running is what he is doing now. it really is kind of funny. >> not only that. he'll be in iowa a few weeks so that is a whole other flavor of speculation on our great sunday of speculation, right? look. scott brown is also supposedly in play for the massachusetts governor election coming up later this year. a lot of people think he is now running for vice president if he wins this race in new hampshire. so yeah, it's crazy. the fact is it's, again, it's not all his fault. the morning after he was elected in that miracle victory in 2010, he was actually asked if he was going to run for president in 2012. you know? he demurred then. i think the parlor game was in motion at that point. >> i think it makes sense. i wonder about hillary clinton if, in some ways, it's not helping. >> well, look.

people are going to talk about hillary clinton. people are going to talk about, you know, sarah palin and donald trump maybe less so over time. they are actually feeding a marketplace that exists and, frankly, if you want to get yourself on tv, it's a good posture to take because it gives people a question to ask immediately and -- but hypothetically it gives you news to make because you're going to ask, say, sarah palin, are you running for president in 2016, and she will say i haven't ruled anything out and in the next hour there will be a whole bunch of headlines palin rules nothing out and then people talk about that for a couple of minutes. >> i can remember when you were growing up in massachusetts. >> very specific. >> i can remember hordes of us gathering in concord, new hampshire, on a splendid december day awaiting the arrival of presidential candidate mario cuomo. we were told the plane was on the runway inable and it was

filing deadline and then governor cuomo pulled back and never ran but he kept that speculation going for weeks on end. >> so did colin powell in 1996. he had this whole book tour people thought was a proxy rollout for his impending presidential campaign. the difference between the superhypotheticals of the '90s and today is, i mean, these were men -- then they were men. men of real stature. >> real. >> these were two people specifically of great stature and great mystique and, look. donald trump and sarah palin with all due respect haven't done a heck of a lot in the political conversation the last couple of years. >> speaking of stature and mystique, mark leibovich, you are super hypothetical. >> under the desk. >> people are killing me saying i'm making fun of the anchors

and thomas roberts tells you they were just protecting themselves. up next the great dick vitale and a big bowl. >> bowl? >> a big bowl. he joins us for the march madness. i want to bring that closer if we can. "morning joe" sports is next. looks like you started to make something. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] cheerios.

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♪ look at that man. joining us now, baby! espn college basketball analyst dick vitale. dick, where are you whaen is behind you? >> hey, what is going on, mike? having a great time. i'm up at ft. worth. i'm over at the stockyards and i'm getting ready and i need your help. i'm getting ready for a challenge with joe, the longhorn as he is going to challenge me like last year. look i beat the dolphins and i want to beat joe, the longhorn, in my picks against joe. >> your picks? all right. we will go for that but before we get to your picks, dick. the only other place you would want to do today is sarasota or watching a spring training game because you're a baseball nut and many of the reasons i love you. tell me which of the top seeds, we know who the top seeds are but which are not in the finals according to your estimation? >> well, you know, i think when i look at the top seeds, i think

we got some outstanding top seeds obviously, out there. but i happen to think wichita state, i think they could be in trouble. i don't think the committee did them any favors at all. they go 34-0 and have a phenomenal road and now in a region where they probably will have to play as an eight seed kucket in the second round if kentucky beats kansas state. i guess they call it a third round and looking a game with maybe louisville or duke or michigan. i think wichita state is absolutely in a situation that is going to be really challenging even though they got an outstanding team, i don't think the committee did them any favors by being 34-0. >> dick, this is thomas. remind us how the longhorn actually fills out its brackets. >> well, you know, i think the longhorn, man, is going to challenge me big-time. i'm going to respond to the challenge. i'm going to be as competitive as i can be and i'm going to go

after the longhorn like you cannot believe. >> he looks kind of mean behind you. let's look at the upsets in the final four. your championship bracket looks a lot different than other people's. >> well, you know, i think the one beauty of college basketball, i think march madness, to me, i don't know about you guys, i don't mind you're a big baseball guy, but the bottom line to me is that for three weeks, there is no sporting event that captivates america like march madness. three weeks you have grandma, you got grandpa, everybody gets out. they all participate in the bracket to challenge on espn.com which allstate gives $50,000 to the winner. but the bottom line is it is so exciting. you see the little guy challenge the giants, the david's against the goliath's and that is the beauty of march madness. >> i have louisville winning the final.

who do you have winning it? >> i think what we will see is the florida gators. they are number one and so tough and i think they will get to the final four and play michigan state. michigan state is healthy now. thomas, they got all of their parts. all of their components. i love tom izzo. i think they beat florida. i love arizona and love their defense. i think that arizona gets to the final four. they play louisville. rick pitino wins that game and sets up the rigatoni special, izzo against pitino. it's unbelievable! >> there you go. the great dick vitale is joe maddon's bench coach down there for the tampa bay rays. >> thanks for bringing the bull. up next ralph reed is here and why he says america is on the verge of a moral awakening. don't go away. we will be right back with more "morning joe."

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freedom coalition ralph reed. out with a new book, "wakening how america can turn from economic and moral destruction back to greatness." there is a connection between economics and morality, correct? >> i think so. >> is that part of the contention of the book? >> yeah. i think a society that has lost its way. you see different data points of its decline of $17 trillion national debt and 65 trill dollars in unfunded entitlements and sluggish economic growth and our economy looks more like the euro zone now than the economy of the '80s and the '90s. i think on the culture side,

mika, leaving aside the politics of it you got 1 out of every 2 marriages ending in divorce and 40% of the babies who will be born this year in america will be born out of wedlock. in the minority community, that figure hovers between 55 and 70%. drug use is back another rise. 1 out of every 4, 18 to 24-year-olds is a regular user of illegal drugs according to the cdc and i could go on. the point of the book, it's a hopeful book, is that even though a society so configured cannot endure, it need not perish. it can regenerate. we have done it before. we can do it again. >> okay. i'm trying to think of out of wedlock. babies born and human trafficking and legalized gambling and warning signs of a country in decline. you also put divorce in there along with drug use and abortion. what are you saying there? is divorce something that you

still consider completely immoral? because a lot of people that get divorced. it's become a norm in our society. just like a marriage. >> i have a chapter on marriage and i talk about not just divorce. i personally think the no-fault divorce revolutions in the '60s and 'seventh has not been good for society. certainly i recognize that couples are not going to be able to stay together and that has been true throughout society but do we really want to make it easier for a man to subsidiadis wife of his youth than to fire his secretary? to be able to basically go in and say, good-bye, when 40% of all child support is never paid and when we know that 40% of the women and children that are thus cast aside end up in poverty, a woman is far more likely to end up in poverty. a man's income goes up. a lot of the poverty problem in america is a problem of women and children abandoned by the

husbands and fathers that fathered those children. >> thus the need for more federal programs instead of cutting food stamps, let's increase food stamps. >> well, i don't think your vision or my vision of a healthy society is a society where families break up and marriages break up and children end up in poverty and the solution is to have 47 million people on food stamps. i think a better solution is intact marriages and families, husbands and fathers working and providing for the children they brought into this world. not only have i said that, but barack obama said that recently in an event at the white house. and i think there is a bipartisan consensus, again, set aside for a minute the partisan politics if you have a society where children are born out of wedlock end up in poverty and end up as agents and wards of the state, that's not a healthy society. >> but that has been happening before president obama -- you said to keep the politics out of it, but i'm reading here from your book, president obama's

domestic policy is outright hostile to religion. >> uh-huh. >> is that fair? >> well, let's look at the record. in the tapper case that involved a lutheran skill that dismissed a teacher and an administrator, this administration went into federal court and argued the churches in america shouldn't have the right to hire and fire their own ministers. that was such an outrageous and astonishing argument that the court ruled against it 9-0. you look at the hhs mandate forcing religious charities to provide health care services that violate their religious teaching and their conscience. >> talking about contraception? >> i'm talking about board -- as well as contraception. and also the irs harassment. hasn't gotten so much focus because the emphasis on the tea

party aspect of but irs agents were asking christianity questions and asking about the content of their prayer. i met barack obama and met him when he was a freshman senator on the south side of chicago and i write about those encounters. i'm not questioning his faith. i accept hi profession of faith. what i'm questioning are his policies and particularly, this is where i take him to task, he was a remarkable democrat because he got up and gave a speech when he was getting ready to run for president and really took on his own party and said in the past, we have been insensitive to faith. he should have been different in his policies. >> it's fascinating for hear your point of view. the book is "awakening." ralph reed, thank you very much for coming in and talking about the book. >> you bet. coming up, we will talk to the three american hikers who were captured by iran and held prisoners for years. they are telling their hard owing story in a new book ahead on "morning joe." (vo) you are a business pro.

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coming up at the top of the hour, nbc news political director chuck todd joins us. also the daily beast josh roguan on russia's move to slap sanctions on u.s. senators. "morning joe" is back in a moment. aflac.

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♪ live look at the white house as the sun is just about to come up over washington. welcome back to "morning joe," everyone. it's the top of the hour. people are hard at work there and we are hard at work here. look at the snow. >> looks pretty, though. >> it's gorgeous. >> they got a lot of snow. >> isn't it march and aren't we supposed to be done? joining us from washington is nbc news white house chief correspondent and host of "the daily rundown" is chuck todd and joining the table with barnicle and thomas and halpern and me. >> i think i had come to new

york, there would be breaking news and banners and alerts and stories. oh, my god, march snowstorms! what is america going to do? but it happened in another part of the country so you're like, oh, look. it's snow. all right. let's move on. >> you guys have shovels down there. >> we did. >> a lot what happens in washington when there is snow. half an inch. it's cancelled for a week. >> prince william county schools? >> you know what? the last couple of storms, this entire region has done a very good job. they have handled it well. i think that all of this practice we have been getting actually is a little praise. you mock us for the half-inch business but they have done a better job this year. >> there. see? we care. not! the latest developments -- we are going to have a lot this hour include chuck talking about several political stories we have on deck. first, the latest in the developments of the search for the missing plane. the developments will take us inside the cockpit where

officials believe it was no accident when the jet steered far off course. they have new information. "the new york times" is saying the changed flight path was programmed into an on-board computer. the person who did it was likely familiar with the airline systems. that puts the focus on the pilot and the first officer. as well as anyone else on the plane who may have a background in aviation. it's still unclear if the jetliner's computerized route was altered before or after takeoff. meanwhile, malaysian officials are facing more and more criticism. this time for backing off their belief that the signaling system was disabled before the final radio transmission from the plane. they now say it could have happened any time within a half hour wind. much more on this coming up. we will talk to former air crash investigator greg feith in a few minutes. the theories are, as we know,

flying all over the place. we are getting now sound bites and video in from families who are meeting with malaysian officials and some of the americans who are on board, their families as well. and to hear them talking about the potential that their family members are alive is as gut wrenching and agonizing as it gets. you get a real sense of the pain they are in and just how impossible it is for them to imagine that there's no answer. we need answers. we are going to another big story and that is ukraine. president obama has made strongest statement yet be russian's president putin.

blis called that referendum illegal and illegitimate. they may have a point since no other options were on the ballot. president obama announced targeted sanctions to put pressure on vladimir putin's inner circle. speaking from the white house briefing room, the president said this could be just the first step in russia does not reverse course. >> we are imposing sanctions on specific individuals responsible for undermining the sovereignty and territorial government of ukraine. we are making it clear there are consequences for their actions. if russia continues to interfere with ukraine we stand ready to impose further sanctions. we continue will make it clear to russia that it will diminish its place further in the world. >> russia is responding to sanctions of its own against

our own u.s. senators and congressmen. putin is supposed to release his own sanction list as early as today. but it isn't only vladimir putin who is appearing to scoff at the president's move. here at home he is facing criticism. president obama is facing critics who say he didn't go far enough. >> i think vladimir putin must be encouraged by the absolute timidity. the president said we will consider other options. the president should have said we will provide military assistance to ukraine and that will be in defensive weaponry. >> that is an ultimate option. joining us from washington now, josh roguan, senior correspondent for the daily beast. you are reporting on the sanctions imposed on u.s. senators. what could they be? >> right. yesterday, the president told 11 russian and ukrainian officials

that they can't come to america to go shopping and so now putin is going to tell a bunch of u.s. senators they can't go to st. petersburg or where they go to shop in russia. these sanctions are not likely to solve the crisis in crimea but sort of represent steady retaliatory escalation of the crisis over ukraine and russia. the section will have travel bans and asset bans and john mccain says he wants to be on the list. he said he would be honored by it and he said he doesn't really have that much secret money in st. petersburg any way and not worried about it. in the end no matter what the administration does these are the first batch of sanctions. there could be several rounds to follow. never will be enough for those both in washington and moscow believe we need to throw the

book at putin and at the same time, very little the administration could do to force russia to leave crimea. no sanctions will do that. in the end crimea will be more important to vladimir putin than to us so the administration is working through these issues and looking what can we do to hold off the criticism from john mccain and how do we not get so far down this road that we commit to a bunch of economic sanctions that we can't get out of and hurt our own economy in the process and still lose crimea any way. >> there you go. >> chuck todd, once dick durbin gets over the disappointment of not being able to go to over there for a hot tub later this week, the administration is clearly climbing the ladder here in terms of actions woke could take to russia. where do we go here? barring we are not sending the

marine corps over there. >> no. i think the question is there going to be a more aggressive attempt to, say, use nato, you know, do you start the process with ukraine and the nato process more aggressively? do you fully make georgia a member? they have been sort of sitting in this no man's land. how aggressively do you use nato here as a check on putin and that has been, i think, one of the substantive disagreements particularly among sort of the shrinking hawk wing of the republican party that has been very vocal. mccain and bob corker and folks like and that where the administration is going. i think it's -- the administration -- this has just been standard obama for the last five or six years in a situation like this, it's going to be a slow increase in what they do on this sanction front. for some it's never going to be fast enough. it does seem to me the criticism that is coming from mccain and

corker is more stylistic than stubbive and agreeing on how aggressive the sanctions are but there seems to be the administration's point of view this has to be done in concert with the eu and other economic powers so everybody should move together and move as fast as they can together and that has been some of the disagreements. but i think the question is -- i've been surprised at how little the administration has savor rattled on nato. >> mark halpern here. who are the big strategic thinkers in the administration on how to deal with russia? we have seen tactics since this story began but what are the long-term plan for dealing with putin and russia? >> your question presupposes they have one. i guess what we can say here is that the administration's reaction so this krcrisis has bn reactive from the start. the myth of this whole russia

invasion it happened overnight. the fact is the way putin works he does these things quite slowly. they were working in ukraine to undermine, you know, the opposition for a while. we were trying to combat that for a while. in the end, putin put -- unveiled the invasion of crimea sort of in slow motion and keeps pushing to test where the limits are. eventually he reached the limits and the international community responded. if you're looking two or three weeks down the road there is a plan. the plan is move from sanctions against individuals to sanctions against entities against organizations, maybe banks, maybe to go after russia's ability to work in the fnel markets and these are the iran type sanctions the ones that hurt an economy. now that is a problem because if we can hurt their economy, they can hurt our economy or they can respond in iran and afghanistan, in syria and we go down this road of escalation. we don't know where it ends.

what is the big strategic picture? jo biden is going to poland and lithuania and we have a big stick here and if you cross our line which is the ukraine eastern that could would have consequences that would involve a bunch of countries. >> it's hard to know what your end game is when you're dealing with a person who could go from literally a shining olympic moment in sochi to echoes of the cold war in the course of a month. so, i mean, i don't know what an end game with someone like that is. >> the problem is if you keep escalating when is it more important to us than it is to him? >> exactly. >> this is ukraine. this is russia's back door. they have a 400-year relationship. in the end if we played chicken with putin we will blink first because it's not as important to us and definitely not as important as the europeans. >> we are monitoring putin right

now who is addressing the russian parliament so we will let you know if anything comes out of that. josh rogan, thank you very much. dick durbin will be on the show tomorrow and we will talk about this, among other things. let's move to politics. among the big topics at play in the race for governor in texas is the issue of equal pay at the workplace. democratic candidate wendy davis is looking to attack her republican opponent greg abbott for arguing against the lily ledbetter act. the bill expands the time that women have to file a lawsuit over pay discrimination because women get paid far less than their male counterparts in work force across the country. one of abbott's supporters, the head of the red state women got

a little tongue-tied. she sort is grasping here. she was offering the gop alternatives and now that response is part of wendy davis online campaign ads. the ads actually used what this woman says now as part of the advertisement to get wendy davis elected. take a look. >> if you look at it, women are -- are extremely busy. we lead busy lives whether we are working professionally or whether we are working from home and times are -- are extremely -- extremely busy. it's a busy cycle for women and we have got a lot to juggle and so when we look at this issue, be we think what is practical? and we want more access to jobs. we want -- we want to be able to go to -- get a higher education degree at the same time we are working or raising a family. that's common sense and we believe that that real world solution is a more practical way to approach the problem. >> chuck, we have jobs.

we have degrees. what was she talking about? >> you know, i don't know. it's been interesting watching the davis campaign. they have been very aggressive on a lot of these women's issues, almost trying, if you know the history of texas politics, they are desperate for greg abbott to make a williams mistake which is what helped dan richards back in the day when clayton williams was the republican nominee that ann richards defeated in 1990 when he made a horrendous comment about rape at the time. it is almost as if the davis campaign every day is trying to set a trap for the abbott campaign on these issues. i think the abbott campaign hasn't been very nimble on this, hasn't come across very well on this -- on some of these gender issues. i think -- this is -- you know, this is part of the national playbook for democratic campaigns who they believe that there is just a lot of

republicans out of touch, both rhetorically and on policy when it comes to some key women's issues, so it's part of the larger national push, but in this particular case, the davis campaign in particular, every day they have been looking for an opening on this to try to make abbott own these sort of gender problems. >> and they got one would wthat very unfortunate answer and they will probably get more because, you know, we have been talking a lot about the republican party having a lot of opportunity to make gains, especially in the mid terms, as it pertains to obamacare. but couldn't this be turned around, chuck? as it pertains to women, health care is primary. as it pertains to women, equal pay is fundamental at this point. you don't want to be voting for someone who doesn't even see that as a fundamental. the minimum wage issue, you know, predominantly women are working in these jobs and trying

to raise families. this is about women and i think there are opportunities for democrats to still paint republicans as completely clueless as it pertains how to help this country move forward and who the people they need to support to actually support the families to support the economy. >> look. women are more likely to be the financial decision makers in the household than men. >> that's like old news. >> democrats exploited the president's campaign and exploited this in 2012. a lot of successful democratic campaigns exploited these issues where the republican party is just -- you know, acts as if we are in the 1950s and '60s, some of these candidates they have successful used to exploit that. you see it the numbers for the nationally. republicans are underperforming among a lot of key women's groups and when you look at the cross tabs of our polling and of a lot of other polling and this

is -- if democrats survive, it's going to be on gender issues, period. >> i groagree. >> this is texas. what kind of shot does wendy davis have realistically? >> not a great one. it would take a big texas storm to deal with the national mood which is probably anti-democrat to at least some extent, as well as dealing with coming back. you think about how much gap you can close in one election cycle, how big rick perry won the last time. i think her best chance is to, as chuck was saying, to go -- abbott into make ago series of mistakes to make him an unacceptable choice. she is really, i think, more building for the future for the party. if she can close the gap and get close to winning, that's a big step for them down the road when the demographics will make it very hard for a republican to win. >> i think the race in texas to watch is not the governor race but the lieutenant governor race. i think a tea party conservative is the nominee upseting the

lieutenant governor there in this runoff. dan patrick is his name and a hispanic woman as a democratic nominee. i think there most likely you will see an upset. democrats have a better shot in that race than the gubernatorial race and that is your stepping stone if democrats make the comeback in texas. >> so it's just interesting the equal pay issue and how it pertains to republicans. this white house, of course, passed the lily ledbetter act that this president created the white house council on women and girls and obamacare i think is something that women could get their heads around a lot quicker than men, especially as it pertains to getting their kids covered as they go into adulthood. one final thing here. the white house is marking its calendar for an upcoming event aimed at helping working families. president obama will be bringing together americans from all walks of life to continue what the white house calls a year of action. and the focus is on women,

including workplace flexibility, equal pay, discrimination, and early childhood education. the summit is in june and i'm a part of it and i am very, very excited. chuck todd, thank you very much. we will see you coming up on "the daily rundown." up next, surprising new details seem to emerge every day in the search for the missing plane. that doesn't mean we're any closer to finding it. former ntsb investigator greg feith joins us with the latest. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ this body made two amazing little human beings i love this body and what it's capable of. no matter what size. but, this version feels really good. my body, like my life, is a work in progress.

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as the days tick on when flight 370 first van issued the questions about the missing jet continue to grow so here is an updated look at what we do know about the plane's final moments. >> reporter: saturday, march 8th. malaysia flight 370 departs from kuala lumpur international airport set to arrive in beijing six hours later. there were 227 passengers and 12

crew members on board. a half hour after departure, the plane sends its last electronic transmission to air traffic control. the system is later deactivated. 15 minutes later, one of the pilots said, all right. good night, to ground control and the last known words spoken by anybody on board flight 370. there was no indication anything was wrong with the plane at the time. moments before dropping off radar. the pilots were supposed to check in with vietnamese air traffic control next. they never did. at this point, there is still massive confusion over where the plane might be. after several chaotic press conferences, malaysian officials have confirmed the flight veered sharply to the left and changing course from its intended flight path. and now, u.s. counterterrorism forces are actively involved in tracking the plane's location. >> the pilot and co-pilot should have been the focus from the start. that would be ordinary law

enforcement. my understanding is that malaysia is not cooperating at all and very reluctant to laid what they have out on the table. >> reporter: satellite images suggest the plane could be from saks to the south indian ocean. a stretch of 5,000 miles. more than two dozen nations are assisting in the search and rescue operation. all the while there are moments of despair like this scene at the beijing airport. families of the missing still holding on to hope that they will be reunited with their loved ones. >> i hope that they are live no matter how small the chance is. i haven't slept for days. we are grateful for the help from so many countries. >> with all of the twists and turned that have happened through the week, it's been, you know, it's given us hope. >> i thought it was over, you know? and we were just going to have to deal with it. and now it feels like -- it feels like there might be a good ending to this.

i mean, we're believing there is a miracle in this. hang on, brother. you know? and we will see you soon. >> joining us now former senior air safety investigator with the national transportation safety board, greg feith. good to have you on the set bus. >> good morning. >> first, the agony of the families. you were mentioning at some point a decision has to be made and made me stick to my stomach to call off the search. that agony with them will go on forever if that happens. at what point does the search get called off? how much time do we have to work with here? >> you're looking right now the u.s. has scaled back its effort in the search effort and leaving a couple of airplanes on the station and one is down in australia. the other one will be covering probably where they are now in that northern part of the indian ocean. but, of course, india has already pulled out. i think a lot of the other countries will start pulling out because you have to look at the return on investment. you're thinking all of those

assets. you got 25 countries participating and with that going on, eventually that is costing each of those individual countries money. and they may not have that kind of budget to be able to support the effort that much longer. >> could you explain to people, i mean, i think many people are under the assumption that, you know, we have got dozens of airplanes up flying over specific areas of ocean. but the scope, the expanse of the territory being searched, could you explain how huge that is? >> now that they are into the indian ocean and they are moving south, especially down towards australia, that is 28 million square miles of water just in that area because it goes all the way down to antarctica. we were covering the u.s. only about 1,500 square miles a day. >> so never be able to search that all. >> you can't. it's just virtually impossible. at some point the malaysians have to say we have given it our best effort and utilized all of these assets and we have not

found anything. >> look at that 28 million miles, you look at that swath. they have no idea where this is. >> no. and that is the problem. >> none. >> that is why when you look at this event, you have to think it was very calculated, very premeditated because if you want to disappear, that's the place to disappear. you wouldn't take that northerly track because that is all radar covered and because it's a hot spot right now. we have a lot of eyes in the sky looking at that part of the world. so you wouldn't want to go there if you didn't want to be seen. >> can you explain what happens, according to everything we have been told, the plane at one point goes 44, 45,000 feet and then plunges to 19,000 or 20,000 feet before it levels off at 29,000. what happens to the passengers if a plane goes from 45,000 feet suddenly within a minute, minute and a half, down to 19,000 feet? >> let me clarify something. for last three days, a lot of folks have been talking those numbers where the airplane went up to 45 and dove down.

it never happened. >> it didn't? >> what? >> all of those radar points that people have been using and building a story line around are errant data points. in radar, you will have a data track. occasionally, you will have errant data points. because the malaysian radar, the primary radar doesn't have altitude associated with it it's an older style radar, you need height finding radar. it's not very reliable. especially old generation. those data points were declared by the officials to be errant data points. and so whoever leaked the information or gave the information to other people, then ran with it and built this story line that probably never happened. that airplane never went to 45,000 feet. >> we do know the sharp turn was taken? >> it's not a sharp turn. and that is the other misrepresentation. >> okay. >> the turn that was made as the airplane went outbound towards

beijing and shortly after the last radio call initiated a left turn was conducted in a standard rate turn for an autopilot or a flight management system to initiate. it was only 20 degrees of bank which is a normal bank turn. >> is that a u-turn? >> it is a u-turn but the radius of turn was shallow enough you would just think it was a normal turn. >> look at the graphic that we just had up. that is a very severe as we demonstrate severe course correction for the plane to then head out for hours in that other direction. you can see the green dotted line talking about that course. >> it's a course reversal. i mean, those are lines on a screen. but when you actually look at the radar data, there is a rounded hook to that. it's just a course reversal. >> right now, most everyone is thinking this was done on purpose. the plane did not explode in mid air by an accident, right? >> that's correct. >> two things. what is the motive here and what were they trying to do? if you're disabling the communications what does that

get you? second, if it's something purposeful besides motive, what could have happened to the plane? what are the option in your mind right now? >> when you look at the sequence of events, it's obvious that apparently from the time this airplane took off to at least the last radio communication, ground folks, the malaysian air traffic controllers didn't believe anything going on in that airplane. if you're trying to disguise any kind of intentional act you won't draw attention to yourself. you're make normal radio communications and do what you need to do. since it was an outbound track that was straight going to beijing there was nothing to alert air traffic controllers something being amiss. it wasn't until they checked out of malaysian air space going into vietnam's air face is a the edge of the civilian radar coverage, all of a sudden now, they go off frequency. the malaysians aren't monitoring them any more and they are expecting the crew is going to

check in with vietnam. vietnam is waiting for them to check in. this turn occurs during that void or transition period and by the time somebody said, hey, we don't have image 370 checking in, they start making radio calls in the blind. the pilot doesn't have to disable the radio. he just doesn't answer the radio call or he doesn't change the frequency to vietnam's frequency to check in. >> on the turn, do you have to punch it into the plane's computer and if you do, is that noticeable to an air traffic controller back on ground? and is it noticeable? is the turn, the gradual turn as you indicated, would it be noticeable to passengers? >> there's several part answer. you can use the flight management system and reprogram the flight management system to a new track, whether it's to an established what we call way point or you can create a phantom waypoint using a latitude and longitude and you can program that in.

>> you're in flight? >> during flight. you can reprogram the autopilot system. you can basically fly the airplane just with the autopilot. how you use the speed control in your car, how you can just tap the button and accelerate or tap the button and decelerate you can fly the airplane using the autopilot with manual input. if i want to turn to a heading of 310, i dial it in the window and it executes and the item pilot will turn the airplane or i can hand fly that airplane into that turn. a 20-degree bank turn, every day we fly on an airplane when we are flying domestically, that is probably the most that people are very familiar with, those are 20-degree, 15 to 20-degree bank turns. they are very gradual and nonchalant and nothing really exciting and nothing to draw your attention to an oh, my god moment where the airplane is rolled dramatically. >> any shred that this plane

could have landed anywhere? >> i don't believe so. all of the information we have reported we have enough eyes in the skies that are looking for this airplane and have been since day one. this is a 650,000-pound airplane. you know? it has a wing span almost the length of a football field. you can't land that on a jungle strip somewhere or a dirt strip and then cover it up with trees. you have to have a very prepared surface and especially if you're going to intend to use this airplane, reuse this airplane for something nefarious, you have to be able to support the airplane once it gets on the ground. and you got to have a piece of pavement that you're going to be able to fly this airplane. i think that eventually traces of the airplane may be found. based on what i know and where the track went, you're going into the deepest part of the indian ocean down there. the furtherest from any kind of land mass. >> seems impossible. >> absolutely. that is why at some point, the malaysians are going to have to call a halt saying we have done

everything, we have expanded all of our assets and you know what? these financial things. when i did valuejet i had to call a halt after five months and say what is the return on investment? that is the hardest decision and that is the hardest for families because there won't be any closure. >> nothing. no closure. greg feith, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> we really appreciate it. still ahead the latest installment of our "states of play" series and takes us to illinois for the tough fight over governor there. casey hunt breaks it down for us coming up on "morning joe." co: i've always found you don't know you need a hotel room until you're sure you do. bartender: thanks, captain obvious. co: which is what makes using the hotels.com mobile app so useful. i can book a nearby hotel room from wherever i am.

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another couple of inches of rain. as for snow looking at 6 to 12 inches just north of minneapolis so we do have a winter storm warnings there. we also have black ice, that is a huge issue for this morning's commute just to the east of richmond, virginia. the three american hikers captured by iran and how they survived for years in wuveone oe most infamous prisons. keep it here on "morning joe." if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me,

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we are so happy we are free and so relieved we are free. our deepest gratitude goes towards his majesty amman for

obtaining our release. >> who years in prison is too long and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other prisoners in america and iran. >> that was the scene of total elation after shane bauer and josh fattal had been relieved from prison in iran and behind bars for 781 days. they and sarah shourd were hikeing in iraq when they were arrested when we went over the iranian border. they join us now with their side of the story and their new book, "a sliver of light three americans imprisoned in iran. >> what a moment it must be for putting this down on paper and having this story in so many ways behind you.

much of it, of course, will stay with you for the rest of your lives but what does freedom feel like? even after days have gone by, you must think of it every moment after an experience like that, sarah. >> we do. writing this book was so important that these were the two most unbelievable years of my life. i went from being in solitary confinement in a small cell pacing back and forth like an animal and crouched down by the door listening to sounds, to being, you know, propelled on to the world stage, meeting president obama and ahmadinejad and racing through the streets of l.a. with sean penn who helped advocate for our case. he talked to president chavez and the late president chavez talked to ahmadinejad and that helped speed up their release. the book tries to capture a whirlwind of events.

>> the iranians recognized at some point that you're not spies but they keep you, obviously. i want to not talk about specifically, you know, the whole experience, but the mind. your mind. when do you click in? what do you do to survive this mentally? >> so many things. i mean, i think actually when we realized when they told us that they knew we weren't spies after about two months, that was kind of a turning point for us. you know, we realize we were valuable to them and they wanted to get something from the u.s. government and it kind of gave us some power in a sense, you know? we then start advocating for ourselves to get out of solitary confinement. we had an alliance with other prisoners there. other iranian prisoners and political activists and we heard people were being beaten and josh after we were put together

in a cell we would bang on the doors and the guards would come running. we learned ways to relate to them and to kind of influence them. one thing we quickly learned they were very impact by and insulted by was us comparing this prison to guantanamo bay. there is one time there was a prisoner that was kind of -- he would scream whenever his door was open. very frightened man and we heard the guards doing something to him. we banged on the door and we would say, what is this, guantanamo some they were so insulted by that and they just would stop. they stopped beating. >> how were you -- were you physically hurt when you were held in captivity? were you psychologically tormented own how would you describe the experience and the way you were treated? clearly being held hostage for that amount of time is bad enough. >> being hostage is bad enough. and just being incarcerated is bad enough, you know? >> right. >> the way in which i was held, really the problem with it --

the difficulty of it was the psychological aspect. you know? the hardest part was solitary confinement and it wasn't easy after that, but that is where it really -- the torture of it really sunk in. the u.n. says the 15 days of solitary confinement can be considered torture and i was there for over a hundred days. and, of course,, you know, i now know people around the world and america are held for years and decades sometimes. but that was the hardest part because there was no way for me to kind of see myself. there was no way for me to really have -- be clear that i was going to get out, that i had some hope. >> i would think the mind, at some point, sarah and shane jump in, the mind realizes i may never ever see the light of day again. what happens then? do you shut down? how do you survive that? >> you try to get through it one day at a time.

you can't thif of having to endure is longer than that. solitary confinement is like a slow death and it's a horrifying experience but on the same -- at the same time, we were lucky. we had each other. my worse moments my worst momeni screamed and beat at the walls, they started to let me see shane and josh for brief periods. as shane mentioned, other prisoners -- >> like 15 minutes? >> at first it was half an hour, and eventually increased to an hour, which is still solitary confinement. other prisoners reached out to us once i was in the clinic because i had health concerns. one woman tore past the guards and threw her arms around me. for all i know, she could have been punished for that. i don't know what happened to her. she sang michael jackson to me down the hallway "you are not alone." that got us through. >> at one point you were able to see your mothers? i don't know if that's even more torturous or wonderful, or both.

>> good question. >> i mean, it was tough when it ended, but it was days in person. i had heard what they were doing outside because of their letters. and i just wanted to be able to give my mother some things. >> you proposed to sarah? >> i did, yeah. >> in captivity? >> yeah. i realized that i wanted to marry sarah, you know, when i was torn apart from her and, you know, i knew that she was going to probably get out before us. but, you know, there were many kind of times that we tried to conne connect. there was actually one time that i -- the guards left the slot of my door open and i reached through and opened the door. i broke out of my cell and actually snuck into sarah's cell one night. >> it was a very dangerous thing to do. >> weird place to have a honeymoon. >> well, we had our honeymoon later, but -- i mean, we were separated from each other. to be -- to have a wall between

us. we couldn't resist being able to see each other, look each other in the eyes. >> the things you don't -- you don't know what you can get through. we didn't know. just try not to think too far into the future. get through it a day at a time and what we found is, sure, hunger strike, steal a pen from a guard, whatever we could. we didn't have any experience in this before so we were making it up as we go. but we found that somehow there was no other choice but wait and eventually get out. >> yeah. >> quickly, cathartic. did you remember things in the book that you had forgotten or pushed to the back of your mind? >> absolutely. definitely brought things to the surface. it was cathartic, having to go back through this. >> and get through it all. >> it's different between two covers of a book. >> than real life? yes. "the sliver of light," shane

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♪ good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 am on the west coast as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set, we have mike barnicle, who is dressed just like thomas roberts. >> that's right. >> and mark halperin, who's not. and in washington, eugene robinson. first, the latest developments in the search for the missing plane takes us inside the cockpit where officials believe it was no accident when the jet steered far off course. "the new york times" says the changed flight path was programmed into an onboard computer.

and the person who did it was likely familiar with the airline's systems that. renews focus on the pilot and first officer as well as anyone else on the plane who may have background in aviation. now, it's still unclear if the jetliner's computerized route was altered before or after takeoff. meanwhile, malaysia officials are facing more and more criticism, this time for backing off their belief that the signaling system was disabled before the final radio transmission from the plane. they now say it could have happened any time within a half hour window. and all that uncertainty is taking a heavy toll on the families of the 239 missing passengers and crew. distraught relatives continue to gather in bay swring feijing fo. some are reportedly threatening a hunger strike to press for more information. back in texas, the family of philip wood, who was aboard flight 370, are holding out hope. his brother says they're praying

for a miracle as well. >> i call him a free spirit, you know. in the last couple of years, he had the opportunity to travel to beijing to work for ibm and he took that opportunity. and, you know, we get e-mails about him being all over the place. so, he loved to travel. this was going to be his last trip to beijing, and it just happened to be this one. >> with all the twists and turns that have happened through the week, it's been -- you know, it's given us home. >> tom wood has a much different perspective from just one week ago. >> i thought it was over and we were just going to have to deal with it. and now it feels like -- it feels like there's -- might be a good ending to this. i mean, we're believing there's a miracle in this. >> reporter: he says he and his family have been overwhelmed by support. there's even a facebook page dedicated to finding philip wood. >> people i never thought i would hear from again contacted

me. my friendships have been strengthened and we're just going to have a big party when phil gets back, you know, with everybody. >> reporter: wood saider says his faith has been growing during this difficulty journey, so has his desire to see his older brother again. >> i know he's strong. strong guy, smart guy, and he can survive things, you know. he can survive -- he can survive things. he can survive this. >> reporter: wood said if he could tell his brother anything, it would be this. >> how are you doing, brother, you know? and we'll see you soon. >> a lot of the families having the same feelings and i was watching the international coverage overnight. and the one child rule in china, a lot of people are waiting on word of their one sole child. it ratchets up the hope and images of what have might happened in good and bad ways

and it's just agony. former fbi special agent don berelli. you're in the difficult position of trying to figure this out. because it's still tremendously ambiguous, is it not? >> it absolutely is. there seems to be so many unanswered questions. and now we've got the new revelation about -- >> the u-turn. >> -- the u-turn and it was programmed into the computer and that was done deliberately and by somebody with knowledge of the system. it goes back to the question, why would somebody do that? and who would do it? obviously, it needs to be -- the experts say somebody that's intimately involved and has knowledge of those systems. again, i think you just keep trying to investigate everybody on board, looking for some shred of evidence, some clue in their background that might lead to the motive of why would somebody do this, particularly looking at

the pilots, but then you've got to really open that scope of the investigation to look at everybody. >> so, don, we talk about the knowledge that you're pointing to here about what it takes to fly this plane and what it takes to set up that course correction. we talked about earlier on "way too early" that there are over 600 runways in the search radius where that plane could have safely landed with runways over 5,000 feet. typically a 777 needs 5,000 feet to land but somebody more skilled could land it on a lesser runway. is that also helping to fuel the speculation for these angry and frustrated families, that their loved ones could be somewhere? >> i think it does. you also have to consider the fact that to land an airplane in some sovereign country without basically, you know, any detection and then you've got 230 plus people on board that you would then have to manage

and, you know -- so the notion that the plane was hijacked, landed, has hostages and basically has done it literally under the radar, you know, it seems highly unlikely. at this point, you can't rule anything out, because we're this far into the investigation. there's more questions than answers, but to me that seems very highly unlikely, that the plane could land undetected. >> mike barnicle? >> don, it's also -- you know, the fact is, you just mentioned it, we don't know -- there's more that we don't know than there is that we do know. what we don't know, all this speculation about terrorism, why is it we haven't heard anything from any group anywhere? at least according to our knowledge. >> and that's another good point. the first thought when you hear of missing airplanes -- and i'm

a terrorism guy. so, that's one of the first things that pops into my mind. look at a terrorism act. but, again, it seems unlikely. you have no group that's claimed any responsibility. you have zero information coming from the intelligence community. no chatter, as they say. any group discussing this. so, terrorism at this point seems to be a bit more remote. i mean, i will throw another scenario in there. and i hate to be the guy that, you know, kind of introduces another theory, but when you have a navigation system that's controlled by a computer, i would be asking the question, is it only able to be manual changed or could somebody, you know, override that with some type of malware or, you know, intrusion? and that's -- at this point when you have so many questions, you have to really look at every

possibility. is it even plausible? >> right. don borelli, thank you so much. nbc terrorism analyst. we'll be back in touch with you. now to ukraine. president obama has made the strongest statement yet against russian president vladimir putin's aggression in ukraine from a collective shrug from the kem lyn kremlin. last night putin signed a referendum that recognized crimea as a russian state. the white house called that illegal, except since there weren't other options on the ballot, which make it is tough. targeted sanctions against 11 russian and ukrainian officials in hopes of putting pressure on vladimir putin's inner circle. speaking from the white house briefing room, the president said this could just be the first step if russia doesn't

reverse course. >> we are imposing sanctions on specific individuals responsible for undermining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and government of ukraine. we're making it clear that there are consequences for their actions. if russia continues to interfere in ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions. we'll continue to make clear to russia that further provocations. >> now, according to "the daily beast," russia is responding with sanctions of their own against u.s. senators and congressmen. putin is expected to release his own sanctions list as early as today. vladimir putin isn't the only one appearing to scoff at president obama's stance. here at home critics say he didn't go far enough. >> i think vladimir putin must

be encouraged by the absolute tim idity. the president said we will consider other options. he should have said we're going to provide military assistance to ukraine and that will be in defensive weaponry. >> okay. former presidential candidate mitt romney penned an op-ed entitled "the price of failed leadership" writing, quote, president obama and secretary of state clinton traveled the world in pursuit of their promise to reset relations and to build friendships across the globe. their failure has been painfully evident. it is hard to name even a single country that has more respect and admiration for america today than when president obama took office. a chastened president and secretary of state kerry, a year into his job, can yet succeed and for the country's sake, must succeed. timing is of the essence. making real headway, trying to

get people who cannot be negotiated with to actually even come to the table and, by the way, the president himself, mark halperin, said this was the first step. obviously, the second, third, fourth or fifth will be providing military assistance to the ukrainians. i just wonder, is it this productive to write op-eds and to go on television like john mccain did, to talk about a weakened, timid president when he's doing exactly what he should do? is there anything he should be doing that he's not doing? >> you would like to see more sanctions. >> and they'll get them, obviously. >> senator romney's criticism is more about missed opportunities. >> he would know about that. >> he's talking about -- he says time something everything in life. >> right. it sure is. >> but i think that the president would like this off the front pages, as much as there's a problem now that has to be dealt with. david axelrod said whenever the president is in the news talking

about foreign policy, it's bad for his poll numbers but he must see this through with a broad coalition. the sanctions are not as strong as they could be by the president's own admission. if it does not change, he said will he do more. one point the critics have, is he ratcheting up fast enough, even if crimea is lost, is there something the president can do to draw a line? >> some people on the right, mike barnicle, think putin is actually a leader and compare the leadership qualities of vladimir putin, because he wears no shirt, rides horses, tore peed o torpedos fish. instead of talking about cartoon issues, let the president do his job. is it fair? >> well, what they could do for a starter kit is refer to history. ronald reagan and the soviet pipeline issue. >> that would be helpful. so helpful.

>> but, i'm wondering -- i just read governor romney's op-ed in the washington journal. what do you think his definition of success, as he outlines it, is? >> i have no idea. i read the op-ed, too. i don't know what he believes could be achieved at this point regarding crimea, for example, that -- you know, what could the president be doing that he's not doing? i'm not aware of what that would be. i think the other thing we need to keep in mind, when we talk about putin, is that what he has done seems to be enormously popular in russia. you know, he has an approval rating of something like 70%, if that seems to be a legitimate number. so, in terms of his domestic political opinion, he is not at all out on a limb on this. there was an anti-demonstration last weekend, but it does not seem to be broadly

representative of what russians think. so, it's going to take a lot, i think, to convince him to give crimea back. i don't think he's going to do that. i think it is a question of trying to deter him. >> also real quickly, though, past his prolog, putin did this in georgia in '08 and there's still a russian occupancy in georgia right now under the bush/cheney administration. we know sanctions, what they tried to do or didn't do, how it worked then. if that's any indication of where we're going now, is the president, eugene, trying to give putin enough rope here within the international community to look bad because of the fact that ukraine, germany -- these are all client states of russia. he's going to want to keep them as client states to help finance his country. is this just making putin look bad? again, giving him enough rope to look horrible?

>> that's right. >> i think the president is trying to take a reasonable step-by-step approach. there's plenty of room for tougher sanctions. there's plenty of room for pledging military aid to ukraine. but you don't go, you know, to the maximum what you're willing to do in the first step. you have to have some room to escalate this. matter of fact, there's a limit to what you're ultimately willing to do. you're not going to send divisions into crimea to try to take it back. >> look, the bottom line is that a lot of people we're hearing from who are criticizing the president and secretary kerry at this point are the same people that would like us still to be in iraq and fully in afghanistan, i believe they would like us to invade syria, iran and ramp up against russia, which i think would be fantastic. >> easy. >> and separation, too. you know what? i'm just saying. ask them about it. that's what they'll tell you. they're always criticizing and

then we do too much and we're in endless war. >> you can't underestimate the degree to which this is complex because we need russia on every other foreign polish. >> we need collective action, which going it alone is something we just don't need to do at this point. secretary john kerry and president obama are the perfect team of rivals in some way who come together and make real decisions and they should be allowed to do sanction by sanction by sanction to see just how far they need to go with someone, by the way, who is not a fair negotiator, who doesn't seem like he's in his right mind, who has lost a sense of perspective and thinks that he owns the world. and this is a frightening person, vladimir putin. it's not like we're dealing with -- >> frightening in a sense that he's a prisoner of his own past. he's trying to re-create the soviet union. that's what he's trying to do. >> that's right.

>> nationalization. >> clearly, president obama and secretary kerry know the importance of germany in this equation. we haven't spoken to that this morning. i don't know a whole lot about germany. but the soviet stock market. it's collapsing slowly. >> that's right. coming up on ""morning joe," the hypothetical candidate. why mark leibovich prefer to hint at running for office than actually do it. first, dylan dreyer, she's going to hint at some good news about the weather. or not. dylan? >> i'm trying. i'm trying to hint at good news here. spring starts thursday. that's certainly good news. some areas certainly not feeling like it, ice across virginia, north carolina. because of that, we have winter storm warnings and advisories in effect through the day today and into tonight in the northern plains and upper midwest. we are looking at the heaviest snow to the north of minneapolis. that's where we're going to see

some of our higher snowfall accumulations, perhaps as much as 6 to 12 inches. in duluth, minnesota, over 100 inches of snow for this winter season. down in virginia, freezing drizzle. it makes a mess of the roadways. very, very icy this morning. keep that in mind if you are in that area and traveling. it will start to warm up through the midwest. temperatures should get into the 60s. chilly in boston, 33 degrees. 38 in minneapolis. tomorrow, we will see it warm in the south and still pretty chilly in the northeast with temperatures around 48 degrees, but actually that's much better than it has been lately. looking at philly right now, the sun is trying to come out. it will be much better this afternoon with temperatures warming up a little bit, too. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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time now to take a look at the morning papers. "detroit free press," general motors is recalling 1.5 million vehicles, unrelated to the ignition switch issue. the automaker will take a charge of $300 million in the first quarter to cover cost to repairs, internal investigation following the ignition switch failure. that problem prompted a separate recall of more than 1.6 million cars last month. >> from our parade of papers, as

you -- austin american statesman, 26-year-old sandy lee had been in critical condition since last thursday. six people remain in the hospital this morning. the drunk driving suspect is accused of plowing his car into crowds as he was fleeing from a routine traffic stop. he is charged with one count of capital murder but could face additional charges. let's go to the "l.a. times." residents in los angeles got a rude awakening from mother nature yesterday morning, 4.4 magnitude earthquake shook california at 6:26 am. largest quake since 2008 there. fortunately, there were no reported injuries. the damage was minor. the temer took place in the middle of the local newscast. the reaction by the anchors was mixed. take a look. >> it is funny. >> whoa. >> earthquake. >> big earthquake right now. >> big earthquake. >> a really strong shaker right now.

>> very big. >> strong jolt and it's still -- >> right now, this is quite a jolt. >> ian rappaport. steve weinburg agreed to -- >> earthquake. earthquake. >> kept negotiating with multiple teams. >> you know what? bob made all those, you guys. >> whoa! >> whoa! >> okay. all right. that's an earthquake. >> yeah. >> that's a big one. >> wow, okay. >> coming up, more problems for -- >> earthquake. we're having an earthquake. >> okay. it appears to have stopped. >> they're the only ones that got it right, mika. i lived in california. that's what you're supposed to do. >> you're supposed to get under the desk? >> those lights. >> have a camera so you can keep

broadcasting. >> they probably do. >> i don't feel safer down here. >> you don't? >> barnicle would have taken the whole desk for himself and not let anyone else in. >> that's right. here now from washington chief national correspondent mark leibovich. hi, mark. >> hi, mika. >> you say in part this, like so many of today's prospective great leaders, scott brown is keeping his options open, not ruling anything out, taking nothing off the table. he will never say never. that is the essential credo as the modern political breed known as the superhypothetical, those professional noncandidates whose franchises depend largely on people speculating about what they might run for and their own willingness to engage the public indecision about it. sarah palin and donald trump are the prototypes, evergreens of

guesswork despite the implausibility that either will ever be elected to anything. maybe it's what jeb bush is doing. >> i don't know if it's a strategy or not. but the fact is that we live in what is essentially a speculation age. there is so much room to speculate and, in lack of anything actually happening, especially in many months before an election year. it just makes sense for people to sort of be in play. now, i should say the name joe scarborough does not appear anywhere in this article. it's mainly about the scott brown decision. the media environment lends itself to it. >> in joe's case, people ask him all the time if he's running. that doesn't mean you're hedging. it means people are asking you. mark halperin, don't you think to an extend -- i brought up jeb bush's name because the minute you do announce, that's when everybody starts to evicerate

you. >> to some of these people you appear benevolent. it can weaken you, keeping you from talking about your message, your story. sometimes people come out of it well. more often than not, if you do end up running, it has a bad, a necrose effect on you over time. >> mark leibovich, the scott brown thing, it's been musie a watching this, would he or would he not run against ed markey? not only did he walk right up to the wire and announce he was not running, then he decides to throw all of his belongings in a trailer and move to new hampshire and continue this, whatever it's going to be -- whether he eventually runs or not -- for several -- it's still going on now. i'm going to take a look at running. that's basically what he's doing now. it's really kind of funny. >> not only that.

he will be in iowa for a few weeks. that's a whole other flavor on our great sunday of speculation. scott brown was also supposedly in play for massachusetts governor's election. a lot of people now think he's running for vice president if he wins this race in new hampshire. it's crazy. the fact is, again, it's not all his fault. the morning after he was elected in that miracle victory in 2010, he was actually asked if he was going to be running for president in 2012. he demured then. the parlor game was in motion at that point. >> all right. i think it makes sense. i wonder about hillary clinton, if in some ways it's not helping. >> well, lk, it's going to -- people are going to talk about hillary clinton. people are going to talk about, you know, sarah palin, donald trump, whatever. maybe less so over time. but, no, they are actually feeding a marketplace that exists. frankly, if you want to get yourself on tv, it's a good posture to take. it gives people a question to ask immediately.

hypothetically, it gives you news to make. because you're going to ask sarah palin, hey, are you going to run for president in 2016? she'll say i haven't ruled anything out and in the next hour there will be a whole bunch of headlines, palin rules nothing out. and then people talk about that. >> mark leibovich, thank you. america ferrera and director diego join us to talk about their film "cesar chavez." we'll be back with more "morning joe." ♪

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here with us now, political reporter kasie hunt, who has been tracking the 2014 races that matter in our latest installment of states at play. casey? >> hey, mika. this time, we're headed straight into president obama's backyard, where the republican party thinks they can beat democratic governor pat quinn, even though illinois is a deep blue state. >> entered an economic death spiral. we have the most inept governor in america. >> i don't vacation with mayor emmanuel. i did not make mayor emanuel a wealthy man. >> he is tied to more felons in jail than i think rob bla

blagoyvich. >> 90,000 jobs lost. massive tax hikes. thousands of children in failing schools. >> quinn's approval rating is in the low 30s. republicans blame him for the state's economic problems. it all gives the gop a fighting chance to win the governor mansion in president obama's home state. venture capitalist bruce ronner leading state senators. ronner has never been on a ballot before, but he made $53 million last year and has spent $6 million of his own money on the campaign. >> probably.01%. >> rauner's opponents point out

his close relationship with mayor rahm emanual and accuse him of trying to buy the election. >> you can't just come out of the chicago and say i'm going to buy the governor's race. >> he shouldn't be able to buy the tenth one, which is the people's mansion. >> reporter: rauner has taken on powerful labor unions, almost unheard of in illinois. >> the democratic party has sold out to them and many of the republicans in springfield, too. >> reporter: labor unions have spent millions of dollars airing negative ads against rauner. >> remember him, the blagojevich kro croney now in prison. >> against me and mayor emanuel's billionaire buddy. >> reporter: for this commercial where he praises obama, then a pressesial candidate, he spoke highly of his candidate across

the aisle. >> highly intelligent man. he and i immediately formed a bond. >> reporter: in this republican primary, president obama isn't necessarily the worst democratic friend to have. >> and i'll guarantee you mayor emanuel is rooting for bruce rauner to win. i bet you he would punch a hole for bruce rauner over any of the candidates, whether it's me or pat quinn. >> democrats are previewing the general election and cast bruce rauner as a mitt romney style billionaire, a playbook that looks remarkably similar to the president's campaign in 2012. >> kasie hunt. casey is headed to north carolina next. it appears that the weakness that some are imposing on the presidency at this point could play out in the mid terms. could that be turned around? >> it might. illinois is such a special case. >> yeah. >> because pat quinn has inherited a mess and hasn't done

much to fix it. on election night, republicans are expected to have a very good night. if they could win that race, symbolic embarrassment of illinois becoming -- having a republican governor and as the piece pointed out, rahm emanual is very close to the guy. so, there's a little bit of twist on that as well. >> and this guy, bruce rauner, has a chance to beat. does he have what it takes? >> he will probably win the primary today, even a lot of business people, even in chicago, a lot of people want springfield to work better, lost faith in quinn and i think rahm's quiet support for rauner, who he vacations with, will signal to democrats potentially to vote for rauner. it's one state, such a blue state, it could be one of the big surprises on election night. he is a first-time candidate. a lot of these business people running for the first time -- >> i think it's almost impossible for pat quinn to

retain the governorship as a democrat. the pension systems in that state alone are choking his candidacy. >> still a pretty blue state, though. >> it is, indeed. but pat quinn is -- >> amazing he doesn't have a primary today. >> yeah. >> he has minor opposition. bill daly was going to run, the attorney general was going to run. that does give him a leg up. and he does have labor unions on his side. mexican american icon, the new movie "cesar chavez" is set to screen at the white house this week. we'll talk to the director, diego luna and america ferrera next on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] staples has everything you need

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the was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com so who the hell is this cesar chavez? >> i heard he's mexican.

>> seems a safe bet. >> i live in a world where a man food to feed his family. >> we want you back to mexico. get the hell out of our country. >> we have to dictate terms. >> estimates that we have cost them $17 million. >> we're going to break this. >> what if something happened to us? >> there are no laws to stop us. >> what will happen to the kids? >> this is about being a man. >> what are you doing? >> i'm standing up. somebody has to. >> this is the moment, cesar. this is what we came here to do. >> that was a clip from the trailer for "cesar chavez," who is the focus of this movie. here with us now, the film's director, diego luna, and co-star america ferrera.

welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> america, you've come a long way from "ugly betty." first of all, let's talk about the pronunciation of the name. cesar chavez but wants to be known as cesar. >> i think so. i like how he says that because i'm mexican. he was an american, born in arizona and i think he would like to be called cesar. helen calls him cesar. >> helen calls him cesar. >> i say helen, yeah. >> you're the director of this. some will recognize you from other roles. what was it like for you to get this cast, probably people you've known for a while? i saw rosario dawson. what was it like for you to direct a film like this? a passion project for you? >> as you said it's a passion project. it was a chance to do a film in the states that still has a lot

to do with where i come from. a chance to work with a community that i feel part of. i've been going back and forth from mexico to california since i'm 20 and i really wanted to tell the story. i really wanted to celebrate a hero of our community and have a chance to portray our community with the complexity, the dive e diversity, the richness that it has. i think often we see that latinos are represented, falling into stereotypes. and this story gave us the chance to really go deep, you know, in the experience of mexican-americans and it's a beautiful way to talk about what it is to be a first generation, you know. cesar chavez was born in the states, but his parents came from mexico. that experience of wanting to belong into a place that reminds you every time you don't belong. the strug of a community trying to find space. >> america, you play helen.

in immersing yourself in this character and in this film, what do you learn about her as a woman but also what do you discover about cesar chavez that you perhaps didn't know before? >> well, i grew up in southern california so i knew about cesar chavez. >> right. >> but i never heard the name helen chavez. when diego first came to me with the idea to play helen i thought oh, god, it's going to be the wife and she's going to be long suffering and stand by and be very supportive and diego said, absolutely not. to the contrary. this many woulds a huge contributor to this movement. and i'm so grateful that diego made the choice to tell her sorry and to show the contributions that helen made. she ran the credit union. she protested. she was arrested on top of raising eight children. when cesar went back to the fields to organize the farm workers, she went back to the fields to work, to put food on the table to raise their children. she's an extraordinary woman. and all too often women's contributions go unseen.

>> wasn't it nice to highlight an unvisible force like that? >> absolutely. >> she really was an invisible source. obviously we know cesar chavez's name but not so much about helen. >> it wasn't about supporting cesar's commitment but she was in the field working since she was 7 years old. so, she was fighting and standing up for her own dignity and the dignity of her family as much as the farm workers that they were organizing. >> obviously, the movie has political overtones and undertones. you'll be screening this at at white house. >> yes. >> exciting. >> i think it's important that the film doesn't stay as an experience that happens in cinema. this film can get out and make a comment on every day life, you know. i hope audiences come out of the cinema asking themselves what needed to happen for my food to get in front of me. there's a whole debate that needs to happen on the situation of farm workers today. so, we're glad to contribute on this debate, you know.

>> do we all get a pin like this? i'm noticing the pin on your lapel. very cool. >> you like the pin? >> yes. >> you have to watch the film, take at least five people with you. done. >> that's fair. wow! >> i saw a trailer as weerm watching, i think "the walking dead." >> that's cool. >> another movie night for me and you. >> another movie night, date night for us. >> march 28th. make sure you go that first weekend. we have ato send a message that these kind of films matter and they have to exist and we have to celebrate our heroes. we have a great chance. it's march 28th. >> i think it looks fabulous. "cesar chavez" will be in theaters march 28th. diego luna and america ferrera, thank you very much. keep it right here on "morning joe." salesperson #1: the real deal's the passat tdi clean diesel

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very nervous. >> you should be. >> look at that sunshine outside. business before the bell with cnbc's brian sullivan. let's talk about exactly what we're looking for from fed chair

janet yellin today. she'll be speaking. >> yes, she is. in fact, the first fed meeting she will chair. good morning, thomas. good morning, everybody. >> hi. >> two-day meeting starts today, finishes friday. 2:00 eastern on cnbc. >> programming note. >> i don't get paid extra. that's my pay. i tease the show. >> if you had two tvs, you could watch us both. >> you could. >> because comcast offers such a wide variety. >> brian, brian, sully, you do this for free? >> i do these hits for free. >> all right. >> grateful. >> the sarcasm is melting through the television. >> insert you get what you pay for joke here. >> okay. >> good morning, by the way. i wish i was walking through the park just the other day, baby. all right. here we go. >> what? >> janet yellin -- it's a led

zeppelin reference. drawdown from the stimulus to the economy? one thing we are looking for is maybe different measures of how she defines the economy. simple unemployment rate doesn't necessarily reflect how we calculate it. a lot of people are leaving the workforce. perhaps chairman yellen will come out with different metrics there as well. gm guys recalling another 1.7 million cars yesterday. that brings the total to 3.3 million cars this year. the stock has lost six or seven bucks, announcing a $300 million charge. this is make or break time for general motors, guys. this is public trust time. this is a big deal for gm. >> absolutely. cnbc's brian sullivan, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. i think. >> no, we thank you. because that's all you're going to get. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? (knocking)

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officials in crimea published a poll. boris said is smart vote. russia is strong country. you would be a fool not to join.

nikolai smirnov said is smart vote. russia is strong country. you would be fool not to join while marina said is smart vote. russia is strong country. you would be fool not to join. all normal people. seem to love it. time now to talk approximate what we learned today. when you dress each other, make sure you straighten his tie a little bit but otherwise, twinsies. very nice. >> my future flashing before my eyes. how i'll look in ten year. >> wow, okay. thomas, what did you learn today? >> other than that, my future self, i learned that the situation in ukraine, russia and with our issues here in the states about what we're going to do, still important, yet to be figured out. i don't know if the financial sanctions are going to be enough to appease anybody. >> mike barnicle? >> president putin in a state before the entire nation in

russia said he had no great desire to do anything else in ukraine. >> and mark halperin? >> senior adviser to the president tweeting to check my twitter feed for this about mitt romney's op-ed in the washington journal. he didn't seem to like it much. >> okay. if it's "way too early," what time is it? it's time for "morning joe." now it's time for "the daily rundown with chuck todd." have a great day. >> take it away, chuck. definance. russian president vladimir putin says crimea always was and still is part of russia. that declaration comes after president obama and european leaders level some sanctions. so, whose move is it now? >> 11 days of searching for the missing malaysia airlines plane and now frustrated families of passengers are pushing for more answers and action. hunger se