out to african-americans with the the speech at the national urban league. we'll get the urban league's president thoughts. and the oldest leaving female vet will be ouagadougou. witnesses say five explosions tore through this u.n.-run school in northern gaza. >> the playground with shells. >> soaked in blood. >> they thought they were safe here. these days nowhere is safe in gaza. >> the hospital was overwhelmed. most of the casualties are children and women. >> you want to tell me that

netanyahu mailed the responsible thing? are deaths a responsible thing? >> thins incident sparked anger among palestinians. >> air algerie. >> because of a storm. >> the israeli airport -- >> u.s. airlines are starting to fly in tel aviv. >> this decision by the faa, was this a political decision? >> we have not just done this on politics but the facts and everything else. >> the european union is to have 33 new -- >> and unreasonable and counter productive. >> we've seen europe move with us. not always as fast as we'd like, but they get there. >> russia appears to move one step closer towards all-out war.

>> it's that putin may actually light a fire that he loses control of. a lot going on. good morning. it's friday, july 25th. it's supposed to be summer. sort of, like, slow? not at all. mark alperin is with us. chairman of deutsch incorporated, donny deutsch. don't want to see that. see, that doesn't work, donny. >> what did i do? >> everybody's eyes hurt. your jacket is skiing out. look, you're keying out. and in washington, let's quickly get off donny. pulitzer prize winning columnist of t"the washington post" and eugene robinson, looking handsome. hi, willie. >> good morning. and unspeakable news out of gaza and cover the latest plane crash, air algerie. weird question for all of you, start off, though.

donny, you have daughters? >> three daughters. >> willie, yeah. >> yes. >> good. so what would you do if you went to your doorstep in the morning and you found a porcelain doll there, just sitting there, that looked exactly like your daughter? >> i would get kind of creeped out. >> you'd get creeped out? would you do something? >> would i do something? yeah. i'm ignorant. >> it's a surprise doll. >> that looked just like your daughter. >> surprise doll? >> curly hair, just like your daughter. do you have a picture? yeah. these doll, all that look like little girls that lived at the houses showed up on doorsteps. would that freak you out? >> that would freak me out. >> gene? >> definitely freak me out. that's weird. that's, like, in chucky territory. right? >> so what -- is there a point to this? >> there's a point, ah -- ah -- ah, we'll get to that. it actually happened. that actually happened, all over a town, and we'll explain what

happened. okay. i just -- one other thing i want to get to, though, because i have you here, donny, we don't actually have to show him again, can just hear from him. take, maybe, your jacket off. >> this gm story, the recalls have really hurt gm. a report now. their profits. in the second quarter, one quarter, 85% down. that's a staggering fall. after taxes, the troubled car parts will have cost the company $1.5 billion, and gm just outlined six new recalls affecting roughly 800,000 vehicles. they keep coming. they've looked under the hood, so to speak. >> mika, the irony, their profits, their sales are up. >> what? >> their sales are not hurting. i think u.s. consumers have become so anesthetized to

corporate blunders and problems, okay, this was 2004. of course, profits are down -- >> 85%. >> the housekeeping they have to do, to put it nicely, but as far as people going to the showrooms, ironically, they're not stopping. >> yeah. >> front business section of the "times," talking how these big suvs, the sales are so high, as donny says, sales are actually up, but the profits are down, because they've taken such a chunk from all of these recalls. >> so i'm happy for the company, jobs that stay, but how is it possible? i would think that people would -- >> let me ask you a question right now. >> okay. >> if you want to go buy an escalade. by the way, my wife, my kids -- my kids' mom, this jacket is throwing me off. drives them in an escalade and for a reason i wouldn't think twice -- a speck model, that year, recalled, but i think consumer, savvy enough to understand that a car produced in 2013, it's a different model,

although it comes from the same corporation, does not necessarily come from the same place. it's stunning. by the way, toyota. >> right. >> horrible incident, with the false start. i don't know if we've become used to it, i don't know if that's the good or bad news there. >> even with the news, the company is surrive and thrive? >> they will. >> they will? wow. >> and a lot of sales are overseas, too, mika. they have a huge chunk of the china market, gm does. the big news. morning. it's daylight in mauli, we expect to get the first pictures of that air algerie plane that disappeared. 110 passengers, and six crew, killed in the crash over the conflict zone yesterday. right now the cause is unknown, but officials say the pilots did send a final message asking for a change in route because of heavy rain. france, which has been helping

mauli fight al qaeda-linked rebels is now helping with the crash investigation. french president hollande said one black box was found amongst the wreckage. five from canada, media reports four from the same family. a mother, a father and their two children. there were no americans onboard, but with a third air disaster in just a week, u.s. officials are rushing to reassure the public that flying is still safe. here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it's been a rough six months for international aviation, all told, nearly 600 people have died. now another crash. air algerie flight 5017, an md-83 flown by swift air left africa with 116 onboard but crashed 50 minutes later in bad weather. like ukraine, northern maul mali

is a war zone. citing the risk of anti-aircraft fire to include shoulder-fired, man portable air defense systems. it's not clear what happened to flight 5017 but it's the latest in a string's incidents. a fatal passenger plane dplash taiwan wednesday with 48 dead. u.s. flights temporarily suspended into tel aviv. the shootdown of malaysia flight 17 over ukraine. malaysia flight 370 remains missing off the coast of australia presumably. >> the fact we've had a cluster of incidents does not materially affect the fact our skies and the skies around the world are safe. >> reporter: the faa lists 63 countries including cuba, yemen, north korea and pakistan, where u.s. airlines are prohibited from flying or subject to flight restrictions and warnings. the secretary of transportation -- >> as the situation on the ground changes, in some of these parts of the world, our guidance

perhaps will change. >> reporter: in fact, the chances are very good your flight will land safely. according to an m.i.t. statistician, your chances are being killed in a plane crash anywhere in the world are roughly 1 in 4 million, but in north america and europe, that drops to 1 in 25 million. that means you could go 60,000 years flying every day before a fatal crash. the last fatal accident involving a u.s. carrier was in buffalo when 50 people died. that was in 2009. >> in this industry, anybody's accident is everybody's accident, and when there's a mishap, when something goes wrong, the industry works together to figure out why to keep it from happening again. >> and that was tom costello reporting. there is new hope this morning there could be a short-term deal to end the crisis in the middle east after the deadliest day of violence between israel and hamas. we keep saying that every day, and every day it gets worse. secretary of state john kerry is waiting to hear back from both sides about a one-week

cease-fire proposal. the plan would let israeli defense forces remain in gaza as israel and hamas try to reach a long-term deal. the possible progress comes after an attack on a u.n. school in gaza. that left at least 15 civilians dead, including 3 children. about 200 more people are injured. palestinian officials say israeli tank shells are to blame. israel says hamas rockets could be responsible but did not rule out accidentally striking the facility. tragically, the school was serving as a shelter for those trying to escape the violence. >> these are people who have taken shelter in a u.n.-designated area. the warring parties, particularly the israeli, were given the precise gps coordinates. that he knew exactly what was going on there and in spite of that this has happened. we again say, enough civilians, enough women, enough children. they have suffered quite enough in this appalling conflict.

>> the ongoing bloodshed led to large protests in the west bank including clashes between israeli soldiers an thousands of palestinians at a military checkpoint. officials say one palestinian was killed. hundreds were hurt. hurly journalists say one of the biggest protests in recent memory. a total of at least 119 palestinians were killed yesterday. palestinian officials say that brings the overall death toll to more than 800. on the israeli side, 32 soldiers have died as well as 3 civilians. eugene robinson, it's almost as if one would be afraid to watch the news following this story. >> yes. yeah, yeah. it's -- it's, it just seems to get worse and worse and worse, and this outbreak of protests in the west bank, on the opposite side of israel, you know, at the end of this, and there will be an end of this. this is not just a regular israeli mowing the grass in

gaza. i mean, this turned into a pretty major war, but it will have an end, and at the end, you know, depressingly, i think we're just generating another generation of war. you know, another generation of martyrs and another generation of resentment and, and frankly hatred. it's just -- >> incredible. donny? >> depressing. >> hey, gene, you wrote a fascinating piece in the "post" as far as about israel's moral compass and that obviously you're pro-israel and israel has to defend itself, but there are lines. i guess the question is, and as we all watch that as human beings, as a parent, your heart breaks. you go, okay. there's 2,200 rockets launched into israel, and obviously israel strikes back. how do you draw a firm line, firm lines, as far as more the morality is? >> and the answer is, you can't draw firm lines, because everybody's firm line i think, would be a bit different. i think you have to look at --

you have to look at the situation. you have to try to look at proportionality and realize that, you know, a civilized nation that does not respond to every heinous act in kind. that's just not what we're about. that's not what israel is about, and -- and, you know, so what is the -- what's kind of the moral cost benefit of, of a given strike or a given operation? and you know, i think frankly this has gone too far. it's gone over to the negative side. i think it becomes counter productive. especially given that, yes, all of those rockets are being fired at israel, but you know what? they're all being deflected and shot down by the iron dome system, which is kind of changed the security situation in israel, at least in terms of the rockets. the tunnels are a different story. the tunnels are something new. and you know, we do have to learn more about that, because

apparently there are a lot more tunnels being dug than the israelis even knew about. they hadn't really been used yet, and so -- it's kind of unclear exactly what that's about, but the rockets are n not -- you know, the situation not what it was five years ago. >> let's go to gaza. nbc news foreign correspondent ayman mohaldene, there since the beginning of the conflict. what more can you tell us about the blast at the u.n. school that killed 16 people? what happened there? >> reporter: well i wish i could play for you guys the sound happening behind us now. a juxtaposition of what life has become like in gaza. hearing on one hand the sound of friday's prayers and juxtaposed pierced by the sound of artillery shelling every few seconds. been like that the past half hour. in terms of what happened at the u.n. school, there are two

narratives coming out of this. one from the united nations, one from the israeli military. the united nations says its gps kward nantz were given to the idf, they say they don't necessarily have any hard eford that this was a direct israeli shell. they say all the indications are that it was an israeli shelling, because it was one of several in the area coming from the direction of the israeli military. in addition to that, they're calling for a full investigation, but they're also citing something that's very important saying this is now the third school that has been hit by the israelis, saying the other two schools, they don't have any doubt it was the israeli shells and, in fact, found and inert israeli bomb in one of those schools. clearly marked it was from the israeli side. so for them, they have in their eyes, the evidence they need to believe it was israeli. they are calling for a full investigation. the israeli military is saying something completely different. they are starting to show they could have possibly made a mistake. in fact a spokesperson said, yes, we were firing mortars in

that area. it's possible one of our mortars landed in the school. but at the same time -- >> i think we just lost him. we'll get back to him in a moment. i'm wondering about john kerry -- we are talking about a line that has been crossed with pictures after pictures after pictures of children being killed and children being wounded and children losing their family members. gene's article, it's got a picture of this child at the hospital who's just obviously lost her family or friends. just screaming in agony. there is a difference here. is there not? what are kerry's options when you're dealing with people responsible in one way or another for scenes like this? >> well, the human tragedy, it's horrible, but not to get too mad about this, but i think gene represents a turn in the last 24 hours you see in the miya and opinion pieces and news coverage of people saying, it's gone too far and israelis are keen observers of american media and recognize world and u.s. opinion

matter a lot here but they're not done with military operation and i think what secretary kerry is up against in the private conversations between prime minister netanyahu and american officials are very tough, what they're up against, they want a cease-fire and the israelis are not done. they think their military operation is particularly in the tunnels needs to continue. the big question to me, how long? i don't think they'll agree to a cease-fire unless they're done and they're not done. >> and the other thick ing is, not sure hamas is done either. because hamas was in deep political trouble, right? its patron the government of egypt is gone now. there's a government there that doesn't like hamas. so, you know, and they're getting more popular. they'll get more support among palestinians for standing up to israel. >> the president, gave an exclusive interview on cnbc. firing back, political reez ens,

you heard it from some members of congress, the faa ban on u.s. flights into israel. >> the initial ban that was imposed by the faa was based on israel needing to show us that, in fact, it was safe for commercial airlines to fly in. by the way you the european governme governments in terms of regulating their allianz did the exact same thing. so i think what happened here was in light of some scary moments a couple of days ago, the faa took some prudent action. >> criticism came from senator ted cruz as probably the most vocal critic saying this was a way, essentially, to put some sanction on israel for what it's doing. >> i can officially say, croods is a bliterating idiot. to suggest in any way, shape or form this was done at economic sanctions against israel is a

level of idiotism i haven't seen from republicans. this may push the elections coming up back towards the democrats. >> a blistering criticism for the white house. still ahead on "morning joe," former secretary of homeland security michael chertoff with his thoughts on his questions over the global national security fight. there's michael cherchertoff -- bring the dolls back, our little mystery. >> is this a little doll story, i hope? >> i just want to know what you would do if dolls like that showed up on your front doorstep and they looked exactly like your daughter. plus -- >> something happened on the way to the 2008 election. because there's so much more to do. the franchise is under siege, both civil rights and economic rights and the aftermath of the great recession.

>> joining us from the site of this year's national urban league conference. and later from the talents of this 6-year-old don't impress you -- i'm not sure what -- oh, my god. that looks like it hurts. his quest for the guinness book of world records, in news you can't -- and the doll story. it's freaky. >> freaky. >> speaking of freaky, let's go to bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> that story is cute. the dolls we do not need to show. go back to like the "chucky," the "poll ttergeist"poltergeist. no trespassing and other signs to scare people away. >> we'll explain very soon. >> i know. it's creepy, though. good morning, everyone. east coast, the northeast, getting ready for our eighth, ninth, tenth, maybe great weekend in a row, but yesterday morning, just about this time, 8:30 a.m. in the morning, in virginia of all places, coastal virginia, a tornado happened. it was a random tornado way thunderstorm that went through.

and unfortunately, it killed two people. just over the chesapeake bay. this was the radar from it. it wasn't much. it wasn't even a big advertisement for severe weather. just goes to show you even at 8:30 in the morning, you have to take these thunderstorms seriously. a couple was killed trying to hide out from the thunderstorm in a tent. 20 other people were injured in that storm. what are we dealing with right no? in minneapolis, a lot of you up early this morning. these thunderstorms are rolling through town crossing through minneapolis and going into areas around saint paul nopt sevet se. give yourself a half hour and continue with your morning routine. storms later around chicago, indianapolis and over the weekend, if we have one stormy spot, indiana looks to be it. severe weather, damaging wind, possibility of flooding, maybe your afternoon plans are rain the out saturday and sunday right there are in the ohio valley. hot, too, throughout much of the inner mountain west.

next week, looks like another polar invasion. polar plunge. whatever you want to call it. it's going to be a chilly summer forecast once again for the great lakes and into the ohio valley where they're saying, what summer? we leave you with a shot of washington, d.c. what a beautiful sunrise, and just an unbelievable weekend coming your way with low humidity. enjoy it. we'll be right back with "morning joe." kid: hey dad, who was that man?

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all right. it's time now to look at the morning papers and in that we will answer the creepy question. the "l.a. times," police tracked down the person who totally freaked out a bunch of parents in southern california by leaving on their doorstep porcelain dolls that resembled their young daughters. look at these dolls. you were right, donny, to be creeped out. it's okay. that was everybody's reaction.

almost all of the homeowners used the word creepy to describe the toys dropped off early in the morning before people woke up. the dolls had the same skin tone and hair color as the girls who live in the neighborhood in san clemente. >> at the home of one of the targeted families, thursday night's sheriff deputies joined parents of the girls who received mysterious porcelain dolls. 11 of the figurines left on the front doorsteps of each family and look eerily similar, parents say, to the girl whose live at each residence. >> the dolls resemble their daughters. >> reporter: the sheriff department collected all dolls as evidence in hopes of determining the manufacturer, retail origin and personal person behind the unwanted doorstep drop-offs in the gated community where parents are taking extra precaution. >> telling them to, you know, never go with strangers, watch out for each other. you know? don't answer the door. >> reporter: the girls are around 10 years old and several attend the same elementary

school. amp the group meeting, the parents and kids left as next door neighbors are worried. >> it's just hard to know what to make of it. >> reporter: the first porcelain doll reported was left at a home last week and the most recently placed figurine left in front of a home on tuesday. no crime has been committed, but not knowing if it's the prank or the handy work of a sexual preside president -- predator have police on the hunt. >> on vacation. i think it was t.j. >> sending us -- >> un10678ed mystery into the weekend? >> here's the thing. i feel so bad, because everyone was saying those words like, creepy and -- they had police. the motivation of the person who left the dolls has been discovered, and it's not so bad. turns out it was an elderly woman. >> ah. >> still creepy, though. >> no. she attends the local church. and she was clearing out her doll collection, and she wanted

to surprise her neighbors. >> right. right. are we sure, mika? it was -- >> yes. it's true. >> an elderly woman as in, tony perkins' mother in "psycho"? >> where's mike barnicle? >> he was here yesterday. couldn't have been him. >> what about one of the doll's heads turned around? >> no. so sad. so sweet and how other society is so depraved and -- awful. blaming it on this poor little lady. her doll collection. >> her doll collection was so big that she could match up one for one every kid in the neighborhood with a doll? >> it's sweet. better than cats. it's okay. >> it's right on par with cats. >> oh, my goodness. i feel so terrible. >> did you see how they put the woman's name up in the pack? whatever her name was, received creepy doll. >> ah -- >> a description. >> i want that as my lower

third. one day. >> let's move on. >> is this a slow news day? i don't think so. >> seems there's a lot going on. >> but the creepy doll is important, too. >> of all people i shouldn't be -- i just posed the question at the top, because it's friday. >> we might want to check the medicine of that lovely old lady. >> let's check my medicine. that's what you really want to do. all right. the "weekend update" -- willie -- >> the cdc is resuming transferring dangerous b biological material anthrax and bird flu, several lab remain closed. the cdc has an advisory committee to help improve its lab safety. plagiarism fallout for senator john walsh continues today. united states army war college informed the senator an investigative irpanel will meet in august to determine if he is guilty of copying the work of others and decide how to move forward. he's accused of heavily taking a

thesis he wrote from masters in 2007. walsh doesn't believe he plagiarized. the "seattle times" tumbled yesterday following news of a $126 million loss in the second quarter. despite revenue growth of over $19 billion. analysts believe ceo jeff bezos is overplaying his hand expanding amazon's product line too fast including the new firephone. more streaming services and unlimited e-books. >> i want to say something about this company. to makes 20 $20 billion a quart and you can't figure out -- think about stunning companies on the forefront somehow can't manage with $20 billion of revenue to be on the positive side of the ledger. it's stunning. >> will they? >> some day -- they might. >> wow. >> some day they might. >> and one of the five wealthiest companies in the

world. market cap wise or something. the cincinnati inquirer. vice president joe biden spoke to national league dell guilt at the 104th conference. the message throughout the address, an optimistic one. biden believes the united states is currently better positioned than any country in the world when it comes to future job creation, and earning a living wage. the veep closed his speech praising the urban legal consistent history and dedication to working towards economic quality. equality. >> folks, i don't believe the american people are divided. i think it's the american political system that's broken and dividing them. [ applause ] so, folks -- do what you've always done since your founding. expose the american people of the realities of the circumstances we're concerned about, and they will be with us like i am with you. god bless you all. >> and speaking of the national urban league, joining us now,

that group the president. mark morale, in cincinnati, the site of the group's 104th anniversary conference. great to have you on the show this morning, mark. >> hey, good morning, mika. good morning. >> are you as optimistic agency the vice president, especially about the way forward in terms of wages and jobs? >> i'm optimistic, because we're eternally optimistic, but we face a divided and broken political system, and we face a seeming inability to act on things like minimum wage, but i would say that last week, earlier this week, the new workforce act, which was signed by the president. >> uh-huh. >> and passed with overwhelming majorities in both houses of congress is a rare example of bipartisanship, which goes to improving anden strengthening our ability to prepare and train the workers of today for the jobs of tomorrow. so we should underscore that notwithstanding difficult and

challenging times, there was a victory earlier this week. >> really. >> mark, it's willie. good to see you. congratulations on another successful conference. >> good morning. >> so much talk at the national and municipal level of income inequality. what are some of the best solutions you've seen coming out of your conference, and beyond, about attacking that specific problem? >> you know, we had eight mayors who participated here in cincinnati, and a panel of seven yesterday. mayors from places like memphis and jacksonville. gary, indiana. and i think what i would point to, willie, is the local initiative, programs which are working in specific neighborhoods to increase job training, to increase incentives so that small businesses can grow. i think that what we see now is a frustration with some inaction in washington, and many local

elected officials, local community leaders, local business leaders, taking matters into their own hands. that's good. but i think passing a minimum wage increase would be one of the most important votes of confidence. it won't solve the problem of the great income divide, but what it will do is demonstrate that washington is listening, and they heard the challenges that people at the local community level face. >> mark, eugene robinson is in washington. he's got a question for you. gene? >> mark -- >> gene? >> unemployment is down to 6.1% or something like that. among african-americans much higher and coming down much more slowly. i wanted to know, do you have specific ideas about what would bring that down further and faster? and, second, are you hearing any ideas not just from democrats but also from republicans these days? >> let me add to what you said,

gene. we have identified ten cities, ten cities, where the african-american unemployment vat in excess of 20%. this is a national crisis. when you've got high unemployment in cities like chicago, and that's just one example where it's over 20%. and if you juxtapose that to the fact that small business lending, to african-american businesses, is really down across both, from the sba to many of the banks, there are many solutions out there. many steps that we need to take. you've got to fix schools and education. that's long term. you've got to get the workforce training system better calibrated so that we're preparing people for the many vacancy and job openings in advanced manufacturing, in technology. the new jobs in the health care sector. we've got to calibrate the preparation system so that we're

preparing people for the jobs of tomorrow, not the jobs of yesterday. >> mark halhalperin? >> you heard from the chairman of the republican party yesterday, hearing from rand paul today. how open is your membership to hearing from republicans? cast sometimes as a bit of a stun, but are they open to the ideas? open to the notion of, listening to republican ideas as opposed to democratic ideas? >> you know, we are deliberately working to send a very strong message with the lineup of speakers we have here, from vice president biden to senator paul, to reince priebus, to debbie washerman schultz. the first step we have to take is a step of having dialogue. i thinking rance priebus and rand paul creates an opportunity for many of our delegates to hear from rance priebus and rand

paul for the first time, because what we're trying to do is start with this dialogue, and i think there's a lot of curiosity, particularly since rand paul has taken some interesting positions on things like criminal justice reform. so i believe people are open. the test, mark, is going to be whether this is the beginning and not, if you will, a drive-by set of events. we are open to the dialogue, and we want to send a message that even if we find that there are differences of approach and differences of opinion, we've got to work to try to find common ground, because these intractable problems are not going to go away easily. >> mark morale, always great to see you. thank you very much for being on this morning. take care. >> thank you. good morning. have a great friday. >> thank you. need that. coming up, what are you doing, donny? >> told me to take the jacket off. >> not on the air. >> i want to warn young viewers at home i'm only doing it because it's hard on the camera.

nothing to do with my workout regimen. >> oh, my god. how are you so -- >> a bit over today. >> yeah. >> kickboxing? what are you doing, donny? >> they literally said high to, it was on the screen. i'm going to be casual on the rest of the show. phil griffin gets upset when i wear t-shirts. a reason. to save our viewers' eyes. >> are you holding your stomach in now? i can tell you are. just stop. just stop, donny. it's awful. >> does anyone have a vet by the way? these puppies are sick. i learned that from my friend six years ago. >> take it off him. take it off. the nfl comes down on ravens running back ray rice. what's wrong with his, willie? seriously, he's lost -- is this a crisis? this is a crisis. >> tcheky green, right here. i'm moving on now to serious news. this is over the ray rice story, the domestic violence incident with his then fiancee as the team stands by his side.

>> i stand behind ray, he's a heck of a guy, done everything right since. they makes a mistake. all right? he's going to have to pay a convince. >> we'll tack about this. was it a two-game suspicion enough of a consequence or what he did? "morning joe" sports is next. [ man ] adventure, it means taking chances. it means trying something new. [ woman ] that uncertainty of what's to come. ♪ ♪ and cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right.

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i just want to first off awe apologize to steve bisciotti, and coach harbaugh, you know, and also i want to apologize to my fans, my, to the kids, to everyone who was affected, you know, by this situation that me and my wife are in. i won't call myself a failure. failure is not getting knocked down, it's not getting up. >> that was ray rice back in may. not a great choice of words, perhaps. a running back for the ravens. >> i don't think so. >> a press conference for the ravens. nfl handed down a ruling that left some critics scratching their heads. the ravens star was suspended two games by commissioner roger goodell for violating the league's personal conduct policy. raempted in the off season you know for an incident at an atlantic city hotel. tmz released this footage showing rice dragging his apparently aun conscious fiancee

out of an elevator following an alleged altercation. rice la not served jailtime and the two are now married. yesterday baltimore head coach john harbaugh reacted to rice's suspension. >> it's not. it's not a big deal. it's just part of the process. we always said from the beginning that the circumstances would determine the consequences. there are consequences when you make a mistake like that. i stand behind ray. he's a heck of a guy. he's done everything right since. he make as mistake. all right? he's going to have to pay a consequence. i think that's good for kids to understand it, that it works that way. that's how it works. that's how it should be. >> rice will be fined more than $500,000. losing a couple of game checks but a lot of people saying the fine and suspension don't go far enough as the "new york times" points out under the league collective bargaining agreement, players who test positive for substance abuse or performance-enhancing drugs receive a mandatory four-game suspicion. that includes marijuana use. that's twice what it cost ray

rice. the suspension increases to eight games for are the second offense on the drug violation. some are comparing rice's punishment to that handed down to vikings special teams coordinator suspended three weeks for making a homophobic remark. >> something's got to give to use the movie phrase, to have a less severe penalty than a guy smoking some weed, something's upside-down there. >> very complicated circumstances, i'm sure. sitting there in that, you know -- i don't really want to know. but when you have video that backs up that he knocked a woman out? am i missing something here? >> by the way, that's a horrific video. you don't know whether they had an altercation, whether she was drunk. whatever it is, is merited more than that. >> much more. >> the nfl has to get behind that. violence against women. so many battering and abuse against women by nfl players and there is no gray area there.

>> there's another player named robert mathis, suspended this season for the first four games plays for the colts for taking what he said was a fertility drug to help his wife get pregnant. he didn't know it was banned. on the ban list. >> okay. >> missing four games for that and ray rice gets two games. >> not sure how they did the math and how it will come off well. not just for ray rice, whoever this player is, it's for everybody to understand what is right and what is wrong. that was -- way over the line. >> ugly scene. >> not enough. up next, must-read opinion pages. we'll be right back with "morning joe."

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piece in the "washington post" is really great. losing the high ground. it's on the israeli government's motivations in gaza. deserve to be taken seriously, but they do not justify the onslaught that is now in its third week. for israeli military action to be justifiable, it must be pror portion it. what we're witnessing is not. how many civilian casualties are needed to guarantee another generation of hatred and war? the scale, of death and destruction, appears to be aimed at not just, at lessening the actual threat from hamas but also at punishing gazans for elevating hamas to power in the first place. n netanyahu seemed determined to teach them a lesson. the people of gaza were already we'ry of hamas. netanyahu to have offered them economic and peace. instead he gives them no choice, and, earlier this week, we heard netanyahu talking to brian williams about a man's got to do

what a man's got to do. i think there is growing concern about his use of words and actions. >> yeah, gene. he said that to brian talking about what would you do, united states, if these rockets were being lobbed at you? a man's got to do what a man's got to do, to use his words. a terrible cycle. israel says, if hamas continues to lob rockets at us we have to defend, respond and defend ourselves. hamas says if you're going to continue to kill our children at u.n. schools we're going to fight back. how do you break it? >> exactly right, willie. there's a point, i think, there's a line, beyond which this whole thing becomes counterproductive for israeli security in the long run, because what you're -- the people of gaza really were fed up with hamas. i mean, you know, they had -- elevated them in power. hamas behaved in a more sort of dictatorial way than a lot of people would like, and they

weren't getting anywhere, and so if netanyahu -- sure if there was military action, some military action that was necessary, fine, but if he were also offering the people of gaza an alternative, look, it doesn't have to be this way. there are -- other directions we can go in to have, you know, a more productive relationship for both sides. this might have been a moment when the people would have responded. but now, i think, wee past th wt and gaining legitimacy. demonstrations with hamas yesterday and today and those are growing. in a sense, this is great for hamas in a weird way. >> yes. we're going to talk to david gregory about this at the top of the hour. a lot of politics to talk about as well. coming up, a 6-year-old

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netanyahu made the responsible thing? is death a responsible thing? >> this incident sparked anger among palestinians. [ chanting ] >> yet another commercial airline disaster. >> air algerie left south africa with 116 people onboard. >> the pilots of the plane was asked to change route because of the storm. >> american security measures have only two settings. indiffer and total panic. the israeli airport is -- >> the u.s. airlines are starting to fly into tel aviv. >> this decision by it's faa, was this a political decision? >> we have not made decisions based on not just politics we have to just look at the facts. >> the sanctions send the wrong message. >> european union is to have 33 new companies to its sanctions list. >> we've seen europe move with us, not as fast as we'd like, but they get there. >> russia it moving one step closer towards all-out war. >> putin may actually light a

fire that he loses control of. all right. welcome back to "morning joe." donny deutsch, mark halperin, eugene robinson still with us and the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. good to have you all onboard at this hour. start with the middle east. hope there could be a short-term deal to end the crisis in the middle east amp the deadliest day of violence yet between israel and hamas. secretary of state john kerry is waiting to hear back from both sides about a one-week cease-fire proposal allowing israeli defense forces to remain in gaza and israel and hamas try to reach a lng-term deal, this after an attack on a u.n. school in gaza that left at least 15 civilians dead including 3 children. about 200 more people injured. palestinian officials say israeli tank shells are to blame. israel says hamas rockets could be responsible but did not rule out accidentally striking the

facility. tragically, the school was serving as a shelter for those trying to escape the violence. >> reporter: these are people who have taken shelter in a u.n.-designated area. the warring parties particularly the israelis were given the precise gps coordinates. they new exactly what was going on there, and in spite of that, this has happened. we, again, say, enough civilians. enough women. enough children. they have suffered quite enough in this appalling conflict. >> one way of putting it for sure. the ongoing bloodshed led to large protests in the west bank including clashes between israeli soldiers and thousands of palestinians at a military checkpoint. one palestinian was killed hundreds hurt. israeli journalists saying it was one of the biggest protests in recent memory. a total of at least 119 palestinians were killed yesterday. palestinian officials say that brings the overall death toll to more than 800. on the israeli side, 32 soldiers

have died as well as 3 civilians. all right. meanwhile in an exclusive interview on cnbc, president obama fired back against allegations that there were political reasons behind the faa's ban on u.s. flights into israel. >> the initial ban that wa imposed by the faa was based on israel needing to show us that, in fact, it was safe for commercial airlines to fly in. by the way, the european governme governments in terms of regulating their airlines did the exact same thing. so i think what happened here was in light of some scary moments a couple of days ago, the faa took some prudent action. >> all right. here is what republican senator ted cruz of texas had said about the ban earlier this week. >> yesterday we saw the faa make an unprecedented decision to ban all air travel to the nation of

israel, and i've asked today the very simple question, did president obama just unilaterally launch economic boy caug boycotts? driven by the white house, by the state department? if it was based on airline safety as they said, why did they single out israel? why not ban travel to pakistan, yemen or ukraine where a commercial airliner was just shot down? instead they targeted israel. >> i want to ask david a question. david, you know, clearly what the senator was saying is ludicrous. howling at the moon. no matter which side of the aisle you're on. doesn't this rit rick start to backfire getting towards november you? listen and tilting your head, is he actually saying this? if i'm reince priebus running the party, i want to put a muzzle on theirs character. >> look, there's obviously a lot of support in our political system on both sides of the

aisle for israel and so you know, you can have actually bipartisan views against, you know, this faa decision, which has now been dialed back, separate from the allegations he's making in that particular clip. but, look, you know, this become as sayy issue. the president's defending it. i don't think it goes far beyond where we are today. doesn't become a political issue. obviously, the administration is in a tough position now of being very supportive of israel and now in a position where it wants to end this war, but also help israel think about what is an actual prudent end game here. what do you get off all this by the end? especially if hamas is still in power and maybe even strengthened. >> mark halperin, this role is important, but as eugene robinson pointed out in his piece it has to be in perspectives, does it not, to reality? >> as i said before, they want to complete the military mission and are very savvy how to play

for time. i don't think there's any doubt that both sides would like to limit the loss of life, but the israelis want to complete the mission, and you know, the world's pretty folk -- the focus is pretty spread out on europe, focused on russia as well, and i think the united states is unable to exercise, push israel and true for most of the obama administration. this administration is unable to influence israel i think beyond where prime minister netanyahu wants to go. >> mark to your point, the one thing that has been israel's -- we will do whatever it takes to protect ourselves. the iron dome is one thing. but these tunnels what this is all about. until they can close the tunnels they do not feel safer and that's the end game here. >> for sure. >> gene, take it to david. wondering what you think the challenges are to have a positive impact alongside israel? >> yeah. my question for david is, do we

have -- does the united states really have leverage at this point on either side? is there an effective way, really, even for us to try? we don't talk directly to hamas, but egypt, which was the intermediary before between the u.s. and the palestinian side in most of these situations doesn't -- doesn't get along with this egyptian government doesn't get along with hamas. therefore, are we really able to have much influence either way? >> well, i don't think so, and i think that's a key point, that hamas is a lot more isolated. whatever gains hamas thinks its made in the course of the last couple of weeks, it is still more isolated. even iran doesn't, has backed away a bit from hamas, especially with everything that's happening in the region. i think that's one of the reasons you've seen so much support for -- from the administration for israel, and what it's doing. and for the fact that hamas has started this, with firing

rockets and discriminately and israel has an ability to intercept those to prevent loss of life. you have a peace process that's unravelled. i think they've staked out ground. we understand what you're doing. especially trying to degrade what donny was talking about. tunnels, the capacity to strike israel. israel tends to be more pragmatic about this, to neutralize threats that are immediately around it, and i think the administration has given them a fair amount of room now in incidents like yesterday, force the administration to clamp down a little and say, look, you've got -- we've got to draw this to a close, and with whatever leverage they have, which i think is mostly just, you know, the power of talking to them very loudly in their ear. >> david, talk about the power of that leverage, specifically. because we know that the u.s., there is no better friend to israel than the u.s. we give in aid billions of dollars annually to israel. so if we don't have any type of proper channels of communication

to discuss diplomacy and to ask -- excuse me -- israel to maybe calm down some of the encouragement going on in gaza what leverage do we have at all? >> this is presupposes america agrees with what israel is doing, and it doesn't. >> you don't think the u.s. disagrees with killing swirls in gaza? >> of course. everybody disagrees with killing civilians in gaza. i don't believe the u.s. feels that's what israel's intent is. i don't believe people believe that, except for enemies in the united states and the region believes when there is civilian casualties in afghanistan or pakistan from drone strikes that that's the u.s. intention. the goal here, neutralize hamas, deal with tunnels and rocket fire is something the administration clearly supported israel doing. you've ladder it from the president and secretary of state and others, but you've obviously seen a level of frustration with how extensive the military

operation is, that leads to these kinds of incidents. >> right. >> that absolutely want them to then say, look, we've got to limit our scope. we may be supportive of what you're trying to do, but this has now gotten out of hand. moving on. former secretary of state and possible 2016 presidential candidate hillary clinton is admitting she may have work to do when it comes to media relations. clinton has frequently clashed with the press including during her 2008 presidential campaign. and her recent book tour. former "new york times" executive editor jill abramson believes the former first lady expected the press, especially female journalists to be loyal to her. hillary clinton is responding saying, "i think maybe one of the points jill was making is that i do sometimes expect perhaps more than i should. and i'll have to work on my expectations, but i had an excellent relationship with the state department press that followed me for four years and enjoyed working with them, and whatever i do in the future i

look forward to having the same kind of opportunities." mark halperin, your thoughts? >> i don't ever like to overstate the media's role, but a pretty big role in the president's process. i think she's talking about the most important issue determining whether she'll are president right now. she'll raise the money, have policy positions. she needs to find way to change the narrative how she's being covered. right now she's destined to get horrible coverage if she runs for president. >> how did that happen, david gregory? >> you know, i just think this goes back a long time. one of the down sides to being in the public eye as a political figure for so long is that there's just a lot of baggage associated with that, that goes back now 20-plus years. and relationships and views about the press and situations you've been in. i think that's very difficult to get out from under. there's always been, go back to her presidential runs what has surrounded her is the idea that

she's this formidable and perhaps unstoppable force. and i think the media will always look to kind of pick that apart, especially if there's vulnerability, and if you don't live up to expectations. that's part of what happened in 2008, and i think if you don't make -- if there's open disdain for a lot of the media culture, and members of the media, you're not able to kind of forge new relationships. the only way that can change is there's a real effort to sort of create new relationships, and i think there, i think a kind of a deft comment. almost like, i'm sorry i care so much. i'm sorry my expectations are so high. you know? that -- >> there's a need for a reset which she talked about as well. the reset with russia. verdicts are coming in for her book tour, we've talked about as part of this conversation. critics say the book is far from noteworthy except for some with the media. others say, no impact on voters. sales numbers show also a

different kind of sign. a troubling sign. possible 2016 dr. ben carson's book sold 60% more copies than clinton's last week. hard choices has sold about 192,000 copies so far compared to 183,000 for parson's one nation, about 1 million copies, donny, of clinton's book was shipped to bookstores. still really good steales. >> what i would hope, if i was the clintons. it wasn't a personal memoir, about her time at the state department and academic reading. pure marketing point of view, to sit down seems work. if the book was about her marriage to bill clinton, what she's gone to, you would have had 2 million copies. kind of readers' appetites kind of thing. the troubling thing, and what was laid out articulately, her problem is simple fatigue. it's just, you see her picture,

and you want to turn the page? is it 22 years and beyond the fact of her very, very, very contentious relationship with the media, it's just, are americans just tired of looking at her. i don't mean from a physical point of view, and i think that's the big issue. if that is the issue people are not picking up the book, that's going to be difficult. couple that with the media laying in wait because she is so formidable and laying in wait, because there is no story if she just continues this march, on top of consumer's fatigue, the right republican candidate can beat her. >> and the reality in washington -- sorry, mark -- where people are really disappointed with washington and the big question in there minds when voting will be, who can cut through this? >> she's from arkansas. not washington. >> i know. true. >> the book is -- the book's relative lack of sales is a caution for anyone who wants her to be president. a book tour is like a presidential campaign. you package the product and try to get people excited about it.

as donny suggests, the book tour and the book's failure to sell as many copies as a publisher suggests she needs a different repackaging. still the front-runner for the white house, but you've got to be about the future and about being forward-looking and she is not right now. >> that traditional plan? >> that traditional-style plan of putting out a book, having a foundation, getting out there. is hillary clinton that type of candidate that needs ththat -- >> opposite. >> i'm surprised it didn't. >> she needs her bill clinton-arsenio sax -- >> yes. she needs to do that. >> by the way, do the, a great thing with jimmy fallon. >> you're done. >> shallow, david? david -- >> i just wondered what mark thought about this? in a strange sort of way i feel the democratic party is -- is much more like the republican party in the sense that, a sense

that, women, this is now her turn. and so that fights against the idea that she really represents the future. and it comes at a time when there's -- all of the action, all of that energy i think in the democratic party at the grass roots level is about disappointment with president obama. what was left unsaid. what was left undone. and there's no as much excitement about hillary clinton, because it's altogether uncertain where she distance s herself from president obama. sorry? >> is there someone else, david, who does that? fills that void of excitement they feel was left undone by oba obama? >> elizabeth warren in certain sectors, i don't know if it's big enough to challenge the institution right now of hillary clinton but, again, that's part of the problem, which is, where's the energy? where is the excitement? especially when well awe look at

this knowing hillary clinton is very much in control of a process. we think we know the end point of her returning, but it's kind of are very slow rollout. >> yeah. okay. all right. david gregory, thank you. what's coming up on "meet the press" sunday? >> more on the issue in the war on gaza, also, paul ryan on 2016 and his view of the future of the republican party, and dealing with issues of the economy and entitlements. >> david gregory, thank you. still ahead on "morning joe," been to some of the most remote locations on the planet. and now he's taking celebrities along for the ride. a look at a new show. plus, crisis on the border. exclusive look at the situation in the south and what is washington doing about it? up next, there's a crisis of confidence in the skies as international flights are under more scrutiny than ever. we'll explore how safe it is to fly, after a week of flight tragedies. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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the crash of an air algerie plane that mali, the latest in a series of airline tragedies this year creating growing concerns how safe it is to fly. nbc's tom costello reports. >> reporter: it's been a rough six months for international aviation, alltoured, nearly 600 people have died. now, another crash. air algerie flight 5017, an md-83 flown by swift air left africa with 116 people onboard but crashed 50 minutes later in bad weather. like ukraine, northern mallsy a war zone. in june the faa warned pilots to avoid plying below 24,000 feet over mali citing a risk of anti-aircraft fire to include shoulder fired, man portable air defense systems. it's not clear what happened to flight 5017 but it's the latest in a string of incidents. a fatal passenger plane crash in

taiwan wednesday with 48 dead. u.s. flights stemp rarery suspended into tel aviv. shootdown's malaysia flight over ukraine, and 37 a 0 remains misg presumably off the coast of australia. >> the fact a cluster of incidents does not materially affect the fact that our skies and the skies around the world are safe. >> reporter: the faa lists 63 countries including cuba, yemen, north korea and pakistan, where u.s. airlines are prohibited from flying or subject to flight restrictions and warnings. the secretary of transportation -- >> as the situation on the ground changes in some of these parts of the world, our guidance perhaps will change. >> reporter: in fact, the chances are very good your flight will land safely. according to an m.i.t. statistician, your chances of being killed in a plane crash anywhere in the world are roughly 1 in 4 million. but in north america and europe, that drops to 1 in 25 million.

that means you could go 60,000 years flying every day before a fatal crash. the last fatal accident involving a u.s. carrier was in buffalo when 50 people died. that was in 2009. >> in this industry, anybody's accident is everybody's accident, and when there's a ms. happ, something goes wrong, the industry works together to keep it from happening again. and joining us, michael goldfire, thanks for being with us this morning. >> good morning. >> first of all, the restricteded skies over war zones, there are restrictions out there. there are rules. do pilots always follow them? >> well, mika, start back with tom costello's report how long it would take, 60,000 years flying every day, to be involved in a fatal accident. so it certainly doesn't feel safe with everything happening over the last several weeks and it's because of that, that some changes have to be made in restricted airspace. they're probably going to make decisions to redraw those maps

so over the ukraine or other hot spots, that restriction will go to a higher altitude or be avoided, were ut it was that crisis of confidence you mentioned that drove the faa to do the responsible, not the political, thing at tel aviv. in fact, the israelis should be thankful the faa came in. think about it for a moment. had delta, united, the other carriers going in there had to have made that decisions themselves whether or not it was safe to fly, they don't have that kind of information. the flight ops doesn't get that, pilots don't get that. it ought not be a decision by individual airplanes. the governments need to step in and take over that. faa went in, did a quick re-assessme re-assessment, convinced it was safe given the rockets and resumed flight. and monitoring it on an ongoing basis. >> talk about that monitoring, do you recommend the use of that going forward? the example we just saw this week with what the faa did with the flights into israel? obviously, there was a lot of reaction to that, but do you feel that was the right choice

and we should see that more in the future? >> absolutely the right choice. the faa gets criticized for being slow on a lot of thing, not moving quickly enough to put satellite in the skies, on safety, a continual vigilance. other times when navigational ads have gone down. there is their job. most of the public welcomed that as opposes to a knee-jerk political reaction to make an advantage in the situation in israel an gaza. >> mark halperin? >> let me ask you about the case in ukraine, and whether there are things that should have happened differently in terms of, from beginning to end, in terms of the flight and then in terms of the aftermath of the flight? that's an investigative issue, but i'd like to hear what you think. did something go wrong? how can we live in a world where a plane like that goes down and the international community has no ability to come in, collect the remains and do an investigation? >> two things on that. malaysia air should have never

been flying in that airspace. not a decision of malaysia air. faa restricted some of the airspace, not the one where the accident occurred. number one, no one should fly through that, for all carriers, no competitive edge for any one individual airline. first point, redraw that map and find our routes. will it cost more fuel or take a little longer to get to destinations? maybe. that's a tradeoff i think the flying public would make. second point is important. because we do not have the capability internationally to do search and recovery in war zones, in troubled areas. we don't have an investigation going on in ukraine. it's a disaster of second order. so there's no normal -- there's no normal in this. it's a new normal, and i think the international community has to work together. they've been very slow in doing that, to change the way they handle that search, recovery and rescue. >> michael goldfarb, thank you for your insights this morning. up next, the crown joel of

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[announcer] healthful. flavorful. beneful. from purina. as the politics of the crisis at the border rages on in washington, the number of immigrant children crossing the border may actually be dropping. joining us from mission, texas, nbc news correspondent mark porte, who got an exclusive look at the southern border and the troubles there. mark? >> reporter: hi, mika. we've been down here actually about a month and we've noticed that it's true what you're saying. the numbers of people coming across the rio grande, right behind me here, seems to be going down. the flow across the river is steady. people are coming in here every day. we saw six men arrested, apprehended right down here about 150 feet away at high noon yesterday. the border patrol is working

looking for people. still come ago cross but the vine is diminished. hearing from officials the average number of unaccompany the kids coming across the rio grande, this whole sector, 300 mimes of winding river, down to about 120 kids per day. still a lot, but down from the 300 range a month ago. the total number of people coming across this river area in the rio grande valley is down to about 900 a day now on average. down from about 1,500 a few weeks ago. many reasons are being given for this. it may be the white house messaging, the start of deportations. the fact that the beast train bringing people up broke down for a while. a lot of people were told by smugglers they had to be here by june 30th. that time has passed. it's the summer months. a lot of things could be a factor. in fact, last night we can out here on an embed with game

wardens and a firefight, a gun battle, sounded like on the mexican side of the river, may have involved the military seemed to have tapped down the smuggling in that area. nothing happened there last night, but this morning, activity here in the area of this public park. it ebbs and flows but in the main, numbers are down right now, and we saw the one thing that it up, and we saw this from the chopper ride we took yesterday, and from talking to state officials, is, they believe that drug trafficking and other criminal smuggling across the river is definitely steady, if not rising, and they're saying that the drug traffickers are now taking advantage of the human trafficking to hide their loads. works like this. send a group of people down the river here and run their load -- drawing all the attention, because there are kids there, and then run the drug loads a few miles up river this way. coordinated. the state officials are worried about that, mika. >> all right. nbc's mark potter. thank you for that. here with is now from capitol hill, democratic

congressman luis gutierrez of illinois. congressman, good to have you on the show. >> thank you so much. >> very, very complicated crisis. >> sure. >> let's try and pick apart what's possible here. i know the white house is looking at a plan, a part of it might involve's pra perhaps giv these children refugee status, screening them to see if that applies. what do you make of that or what is actually possible given the gridlock in washington as well? >> first, mika, we had a really good meeting yesterday with the presidents of honduras and guatemala. many public awareness campaigns now. they are prosecuting the human smugglers and they're going and tightening up their own laws. that's a good thing, because we need to put out information that the children should not come to america through this pathway. there is really very little in our law, as you suggest, unless we declare them refugees, and i

don't see that happening. doesn't mean i don't think it should happen. it's just i don't see that happening. and so first thing is protect the children and they're beginning to do that in their home countries so adults start taking responsibility in the home countries as we take our responsibility here. i think, look, let's follow the laws. the laws are in place for a good reason. we still know many of these little girls have been violated and been abused and they need our care and attention now. as we deal with the broader humanitarian crisis on the border. so let's do that, and i think we're going to stem the flow. your reporter just said it's about 1,000 a day. mika, that's about what it is. it's about between 300 and 400,000 a year that cross the border undocumented into the united states. that's down from a high of 1.6 million during george bush's administration. so there are fewer coming but more needs to be done. >> congressman, mark halperin here, we all admire and really

praise you, not just in the current crisis but your long-returning concern about the humanitarian aspects of this. tell people the dirty little secret with the democratic -- would not like the president to take the executive action you've been urging them to do because they think it will hurt the party in the mid-terms? >> there are in the party, more in the senate than anywhere else concerned about their own political viability, either of the party or their own candidacies in the democratic party. and that's fundamentally wrong. when you use -- when public policy is defined through electoral goals and the goals of a party, then human rights and civil rights always suffer. we must put the rights of the people ahead of benefits that we might construe come to our party. let me just say in about an hour, i'm going over to the white house. i'll be meeting with jeh johnson and the chief legal counsel to

the president of the united states. we're going to sit down and we're going to negotiate additional terms and avenues the president can use and prosecutorial discretion and i think we can get 3 million, 4 million, maybe 5 million names. >> who said to you privately, look, if the president does this it could inflame the party in the primaries? who are saying that? >> no one tells me that privately because they know better. they just know better. seriously, it's not something you want to have a conversation with me about, because just as i've been clear with you this morning, i would be very -- i would be clear and even more stern with them if they approached, bust i have heard it. it's not something i haven't heard. it's always a political consideration. let me say this, the democrats in the house are very clear. the hispanic congressional caucus is very clear. nancy pelosi, steny hoyer and i are going with republican colleagues down to the boarder

next week. we're clear. do not change the law and let the president use his prosecutorial discretion to set aside. i believe the president of the united states has the authority under the law and should, because for the good of the nation, stop deporting low priorities, not criminal, undocumented in this country who have american citizen children. between 2010 and 2012, deported parents, hurns of children left without r without parents? i think the president should take action and i believe the american public understand if the congress doesn't act, the president should act to put children and families first to suffer these devastating effects. >> this is thomas roberts. i wanted to ask you about that meeting with the central american leaders, on the president's schedule to meet with him today.

did you talk about what we can do as a country to help them to engage their own people, to tamp down on drug trafficking? to try to create better lives for their own people? obviously, these people are trying to come here to seek out the american dream. risking their lives to can do that. kids put through horrendous conditions, some facing sexual assault an on the way to get here. what can we do to help those suffering in central america? >> have a program that allows central america to thrive and that we invest in those countries. they are -- look, i think your question is excellent, because everything we do to stem the tide of children coming and people coming to our borders, we can do that. but in the end, severe violence and severe poverty are going to bring people to america to seek refuge here, and the way you stop that by happening is creating conditions there. so we did talk about how we train people for jobs.

how we deal with the devastating effect that's had on the coffee industry and agriculture in guatemala. how it is we strengthen civil society and the rule of law and stop the impunity with which not only government officials but the crime element in general deal with there. yes, we did talk about that but also talked about the responsibility. the first thing is, protectal children, have them not come. they should not be coming to america. >> okay. >> our laws are not here to address their needs. >> congressman luis gutierrez, thank you very, very much. good weekend. still heal, survivalist bear grylls embarks on what may be his most daring adventure, taking a group of celebs into the wild. he'll join us, next.

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pull that rip cord. >> okay. >> all right? >> where's the rip cord? >> it's time to rock 'n' roll! >> oh, my gosh. i would be scared. that was a scene from nbc's adventure reality series "running wild with bear grylls." it's not an actual bear, it's

bear grylls. the host of the show joins us now. >> good to be here, guys. >> this sounds like so much fun. that was zac efron. my daughters know who he is. ben stiller, channing tatum, deion sanders, tamron hall. who was the biggest wimp? >> they all had their moments of real terror. i remember even with tamron we were repelling off this canyon wall and i could feel her body physically shaking. but we all have moments like that in the wild. what i love about this show is you see these hollywood stars overcome that. at the end of it, that real sense of pride, big smiles. tamron, she had a big smile the whole time. >> what did ben stiller do? >> i took ben to scotland. there was like horizontal wind and rain and it's hard to be cheerful up to two days when everything was soaking wet. >> what was some of the drop you did. >> we got dropped off high in

the mountains, extracted down to the coast, sleeping in a cave, a lot of repelling off things, climbing up things. i remember climbing up, we did this technique like 150 foot up and it's one line. this is zac. >> oh, that looks like fun. >> but the thing is he's great. they have got such physicality from their day job of all that dancing and this sort of stuff. he loved it. he just wanted adrenaline. >> do they have any idea about what the agenda was going in, the certain type of courses or chores they would be exposed to? >> they said how do we prepare and i said just come with a big bag of enthusiasm and another sack of fortitude. i'll say we're going to get dropped off here, picked up there. we just wing it. >> tamron was the only woman. i have to say that makes her very brave. how did she do?

>> she is brave. she was kind of a fish out of water. by her own admission, she's a city girl, she's never done anything like this. what i loved about tamron, she arrived looking perfect, you know -- >> gorgeous. >> just like you, all prepared. i dragged her in, her hair is a mess and it was like welcome to the wild. but she did brilliantly. >> this is the big question. i want to be on a close-up for this. did you make tamron drink her own urine. >> of course. off camera. >> wow. oh, my gosh. no, you didn't. no. tamron wouldn't do that. there's no way. >> i'm going to protect you. why did you ask that question? >> because as a survivalist bear teaches these type of skills. >> people come up when i go in a bar, oh, do you want a pint of

urine. tamron was amazing. we came across a rotting squirrel and i was trying to pull its gut out through its anal vent. >> did you say anal vent? oh, my god. >> the series premiere of "running wild with bear grylls" will air on nbc monday, july 28th, at 8:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. central time. >> for round two could you book mika? >> i'm tough. >> you've got more of a chance of getting her than scarborough. >> oh, no, joe would be very brave. >> would he? >> yes, definitely. >> i would not. is there a four seasons anywhere in those areas? >> all right. thank you so much, bear. good to have you on. a lot more ahead on "morning joe." a touching gift or really creepy? >> creepy. >> why these dolls are appearing on the doorsteps of homes in one california community, and they

look like the kids who live in the homes. and officials are following new leads to determine the cause of the air algerie crash which was the third crash in the course of one week. and the conflict between israel and hamas spills over into the west bank as a protest turns deadly last night. much more when "morning joe" returns. vo: this is the summer. the summer of this. the summer that summers from here on will be compared to. where memories will be forged into the sand. and then hung on a wall for years to come. get out there, with over 50,000 hotels at $150 dollars or less.

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witnesses say five explosions tore through this u.n.-run school in northern gaza. >> the playground peppered with shells. >> an outdoor class was soaked in blood. >> they thought they were safe here, but these days nowhere is safe in gaza. >> the hospital is overwhelmed. most of the casualties are children and women. >> you want to tell me who is responsible then? >> this incident has sparked anger among palestinians. >> yet another commercial airline disaster. >> air algerie left africa with 116 people on board. >> the pilot on the plane asked to change route because of a storm. >> american security measures have only two settings, indifferent and total panic. >> u.s. airlines are starting to

fly into tel aviv. >> this decision by the faa, was this a political decision? >> we have not made decisions when it comes to airline safety based not just on politics, we look at the facts. >> this sends the wrong message to kiev. >> the european union will had 32 new companies to its sanctions list. >> we've seen europe move with us. not always as fast as we'd like but they get there. >> russia appears one step closer toward all-out war with the former soviet state of ukraine. >> if i have a fear, it's that putin may actually light a fire that he loses control of. it's 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast as you take a live look at new york city on this friday morning. it's finally friday. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set we have mark halperin, donny deutsch. and in washington, eugene robinson. the recalls have really hurt gm. we've got a report now their profits in the second quarter,

one quarter, 85% down. that's a staggering fall. after taxes, the troubled car parts will cost the company $1.5 billion and gm just outlined six new recalls affecting roughly 800,000 vehicles. so they keep coming. i guess they have looked under the hood, so to speak. >> but mika, the irony of this is their sales are up. >> what? >> their sales are not hurting. i think u.s. consumers have become so anesthetized to corporate blunders and corporate problems, okay, this was 2004. so of course their profits are down -- >> 85%. >> all the housekeeping that they have to do, to put it nicely. as far as people going to the showrooms, ironically, they're not stopping. >> the business section of the "times" talks about how these big suvs, the sales are so high, as donny says, sales are actually up but the profits are down because they have taken such a chunk from all these

recalls. >> so i'm happy -- i want the jobs safe but how is it possible -- i would think that people would -- >> let me ask you a question right now. if you want to go buy an escalade. by the way, my kids -- my wife -- my kids' mom drives them in an escalade and for some reason i wouldn't think twice. if it was a specific model that year recalled. but i think consumers are savvy enough to understand that a car produced in 2013 that's a different model, although it comes from the same corporation, does not necessarily come from the same place. it's really stunning. and by the way, toyota -- >> right. >> a horrible incident with the false start, so i don't know if we've become used to it. i don't know if that's the good news or the bad news there. >> even with these numbers, you say the company can survive and thrive. >> they will. >> okay. >> a lot of their sales are overseas too, mika. they have a huge chunk of the china market, gm does, which i

don't think is terribly affected by all these recalls. okay. let's get to the big news of the morning. it's now daylight in northern mali where at any moment we expect to get the first pictures of the wreckage of that air algerie flight that disappeared. 110 passengers and 6 crew were killed in the crash over the conflict zone yesterday. right now the cause is unknown but officials say the pilots did send a final message asking for a change in route because of heavy rain. france, which has been helping mali fight al qaeda-linked rebels is now helping with the crash investigation. the french president said this morning one black box has been found in the wreckage. most of the passengers on board were french. others were from africa, the middle east and europe. five from canada. media there reports that four were from the same family. a mother, a father and their two children. there were no americans on board. but with a third air disaster in

just a week, u.s. officials are rushing to reassure the public that flying is still safe. here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: it's been a rough six months for international aviation. all told nearly 600 people have died. now another crash. air algerie, flight 5017, an md-83 thrown by swift air left with 116 people on board, but crashed 50 minutes later in bad weather. like ukraine, northern mali is a war zone. in june the faa warned u.s. pilots to avoid flying below 24,000 feet over mali, citing the risk of anti-aircraft fire to include shoulder-fired, man portable air defense systems. it's not clear what happened to flight 5017, but it's the latest in a string of incidents. a fatal passenger plane crash in taiwan wednesday with 48 dead. u.s. flights temporarily suspended into tel aviv. the shootdown of malaysia flight 17 over ukraine.

malaysia flight 370 remains missing, presumably 1500 miles off the coast of australia. and a terror watch for all u.s.-bound flights. >> the fact that we've had a cluster of incidents does not materially affect the fact that our skies and the skies around the world are safe. >> the faa lists 63 countries, including cuba, yemen, north korea and pakistan where u.s. airlines are prohibited from flying or subject to flight restrictions and warnings. the secretary of transportation -- >> as the situation on the ground changes in some of these parts of the world, our guidance perhaps will change. >> reporter: in fact, the chances are very good your flight will land safely. according to an mit statistician, your chances of being killed in a plane crash anywhere in the world are roughly 1 in 4 million, but in north america and europe, that drops to 1 in 25 million. that means you could go 60,000 years flying every day before a fatal crash. the last fatal accident involving a u.s. carrier was in buffalo when 50 people died.

that was in 2009. >> in this industry, anybody's accident is everybody's accident. when there's a mishap, when something goes wrong, the industry works together to figure out why to keep it from happening again. >> and that was tom costello reporting. there is new hope this morning that there could be a short-term deal to end the crisis in the middle east after the deadliest day of violence between israel and hamas. we keep saying that every day and every day it gets worse. secretary of state john kerry is waiting to hear back from both sides about a one-week cease-fire proposal. the plan would let israeli defense forces remain in gaza as israel and hamas try to reach a long-term deal. the possible progress comes after an attack on a u.n. school in gaza that left at least 15 civilians dead, including three children. about 200 more people are injured. palestinian officials say israeli tank shells are to blame. israel says hamas rockets could

be responsible but did not rule out accidentally striking the facility. tragically the school was serving as a shelter for those trying to escape the violence. >> these are people who had taken shelter in a u.n.-designated area. the warring parties, particularly the israelis, were given the precise gps coordinants. they knew exactly what was going on there, and in spite of that this has happened. we again say enough civilians, enough women, enough children. they have suffered quite enough in this appalling conflict. >> the ongoing bloodshed led to large protests in the west bank, including clashes between israeli soldiers and thousands of palestinians at a military checkpoint. officials say one palestinian was killed, hundreds were hurt. israeli journalists said it was one of the biggest protests in recent memory. a total of at least 119 palestinians were killed yesterday. palestinian officials say that brings the overall death toll to more than 800. on the israeli side, 32 soldiers

have died as well as three civilians. eugene robinson, it's almost as if one would be afraid to watch the news following this story. >> yeah, yeah. it's -- it just seems to get worse and worse and worse. you know, this outbreak of protests in the west bank on the opposite side of israel, you know, at the end of this, and there will be an end of this, this is not just a regular israeli mowing the grass in gaza, i mean this has turned into a pretty major war. but it will have an end. at the end, you know, depressingly i think we're just generating another generation of war. you know, another generation of martyrs and another generation of resentment and, frankly, hatred. it's just -- >> it's incredible. >> it's depressing. >> gene, you wrote a fascinating piece in the "post" as far as

israel's moral compass and obviously you're pro-israel and israel has to defend itself but there are lines. i guess the question is, as we all watch that as human beings is apparent, your heart breaks but then you go, okay, there's 2200 rockets being launched into israel and obviously israel strikes back. how do you draw firm lines as far as where the morality is? >> you know, and the answer is you can't draw firm lines because everybody's firm line i think would be a bit different. i think you have to look at -- you have to look at the situation and you have to try to look at proportionality and you have to realize that a civilized nation that does not respond to every heinous act in kind. that's just not what we're about, that's not what israel is about. and, you know, so what is the -- what's kind of the moral cost benefit of a given strike or a

given operation. you know, i think, frankly, this has gone too far. it's gone over to the negative side. i think it becomes counterproductive, especially given that, yes, all those rockets are being fired at israel, but you know what, they're all being deflected and shot down by the iron dome system, which is kind of changed the security situation in israel, at least in terms of the rockets. the tunnels are a different story. the tunnels are something new. and, you know, we have to learn more about that because apparently there are a lot more tunnels being dug than the israelis even knew about. they hadn't really been used yet. and so it's kind of unclear exactly what that's about. but the rockets are not, you know -- the situation is not what it was five years ago. >> let's go to gaza. nbc news foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin has been there from the beginning of this

conflict. ayman, good morning. what more can you tell us about this blast at the u.n. school that killed 16 people? what happened there? >> reporter: well, i wish i could play for you guys the sound that's happening behind us right now. it's a real juxtaposition of what life has become like in gaza. you're hearing on one hand the sounds of friday prayers and it's juxtaposed pierced pie the sound of artillery shelling every few seconds. but in terms of what happened at the u.n. school, there are two narratives coming out of this, one from the united nations, one from the israeli military. the united nations says its gps coordinants were given to the idf. they say that they don't necessarily have any hard evidence that this was a direct israeli shell. they say all the indications are that it was an israeli shelling because it was one of several in the area that were coming from the direction of the israeli military. in addition to that, they are calling for a full investigation. but they are also citing something that's very important.

they say this is now the third school that has been hit by the israelis. they say the other two schools, they don't have any doubt that it was the israeli shells. in fact they found an inert israeli bomb in one of those schools clearly marked that it was from the israeli side. so for them they have the evidence they need to believe it was israel. they are calling for a full investigation. the israeli military is saying something completely different. they are starting to show that they could have possibly made a mistake. in fact the spokesperson for the israeli military said, yes, we were firing mortars in that area. it was possible that one of our mortars landed in this school. >> we are talking about a line that has been crossed with pictures after pictures after pictures of children being killed and children being wounded and children losing their family members. gene's article, it's got a picture of this child at the hospital who's just obviously lost her family or friends just screaming in agony. there is a difference here, is there not? and what are kerry's options when you're dealing with people

responsible in one way or another for scenes like this? >> well, human tragedy is horrible. but not to get too meta about this, but i think gene represents a turn in the last 24 hours you see in the media coverage and opinion pieces and news coverage of people saying it's gone too far. and the israelis are keen observers of american media and recognize world and u.s. opinion matter a lot here, but they're not done with the military operation. i think what secretary kerry is up against in the private conversations between prime minister netanyahu and american officials now are very tough because what they're up against is they want a cease-fire and the israelis are not done. they think their military operation is particularly on the tunnels needs to continue. the big question to me is for how long. i don't think they'll agree to a cease-fire unless they're done, and they're not done. >> frightening. >> and, you know, the other thing is that i'm not sure hamas is done either, because hamas was in some deep political

trouble, right? its patron, the government of egypt, is gone now. there's a government there that doesn't like hamas. and so -- and they're getting more popular. they'll get more support among palestinians for standing up to israel. >> the president gave an exclusive interview yesterday to cnbc firing it back against allegations there were political reasons, you heard this from some members of congress, behind that faa ban on u.s. flights into israel. >> the initial ban that was imposed by the faa was based on israel needing to show us that in fact it was safe for commercial airlines to fly in. by the way, the european governments in terms of regulating their airlines did the exact same thing, so i think what happened here was in light of some scary moments a couple of days ago, the faa took some prudent action. >> criticism came from senator ted cruz, probably the most

vocal critic, saying this was a way to essentially put some sanction on israel for what it's doing. >> can i officially say that cruz is a blirting idiot. he's a blithering idiot. i love that chris matthews started comparing him to mccarthy, to suggest in any way, shape or form that this was done as economic sanctions against israel is a level of idiocy that i have not seen out of any republicans and this kind of rhetoric is the kind of thing that may push the midterm elections back in favor of the democrats. still ahead on "morning joe," the new fear of flying. why after a week of deadly crashes, officials are taking a second look at global air security. former secretary of homeland security michael chertoff will explain what can be done. plus senator maria cantwell is leading the charge on capitol hill to make sure female entrepreneurs are getting the resources they need. she'll join us ahead in just a bit. and still ahead, those dolls that mysteriously turned up on people's door steps who look exactly like the real children that live in the house, awkward

and totally creepy? we'll tell you who was responsible next. but first, bill karins with a check of the forecast. bill. >> thanks, mika. how creepy is that, middle of the night you wake up and see that on your front porch. just deliver it during the day. as far as the forecast went yesterday, horrible news out of southern portions of virginia. this is across the chesapeake right along the coastal areas. they have only had like five tornados in the last 60 years but they had one yesterday morning at 8:30 in the morning. it was over a rural section. it went over a campground. so they really had no warning. they knew the skies were getting dark but there's no tornado sirens in this region and they got nailed. it was only an ef-1. but you see those big, huge trees, they fell on a tent with a couple in it and both have perished. 25 people were also injured and brought to hospitals. let's talk about what's happening as far as today. we continue with the heat. it was 116 yesterday in phoenix. i don't care if they call it a dry heat, 116 is hot. as far as the wet weather goes,

thunderstorms continue this morning. they dove all the way from minneapolis now straight down through iowa, and now they're starting to head right over the mississippi into areas of illinois. also that northeast corner of missouri. we'll have to watch you in st. louis to see if those storms can make it all the way down to your northern sections this morning. chicago a chance of storms, a beautiful day from pittsburgh all the way through the northeast. saturday looks pretty nice on the east coast, hit and miss shower around new york, but we could have severe storms, especially indianapolis all the way through the ohio valley. isolated strong storms late in the day and the heat really gets turned up in the west as we go through your sunday. we have 34 uncontrolled large fires burning. 18 of those in oregon. and it's going to be very hot in oregon. boise at 97. you get a feel for those hot shot fire crews on the ground fighting those blazes this weekend. it's going to be brutal to be out there on their front lines. we leave you with a shot of washington, d.c. it's a friday, it's the

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all right. it's time now to take a look at the morning papers. in that we will answer the creepy question. the "los angeles times" police have tracked down the person who totally freaked out a bunch of parents in southern california by leaving on their doorsteps porcelain dolls that resembled their young daughters. look at these dolls. you were right, donny, to be creeped out.

it was okay. that was everybody's reaction. almost all of the homeowners used the word "creepy" to describe the toys, which were dropped off early in the morning before people woke up. the dolls had the same skin tone and hair color as the girls who live in the neighborhood in san clemente. >> reporter: at the home of one of the targeted families, thursday night sheriff deputies joined parents of the girls who received mysterious porcelain dolls. 11 of the figurines were left on the front doorsteps of each family and look eerily similar to the girls who live at each residence. >> the dolls resemble their daughters. >> reporter: the orange county sheriff's department has collected all dolls as evidence in hopes of determining the manufacturer, retail origin and person or persons behind the unwanted doorstep drop-off in the debatgated communities with parents are taking extra precaution. >> telling them to never go with strangers, watch out for each

other. >> reporter: the girls are around 10 years old and several attend the same elementary school. after the group meeting, the parents and kids left as next-door neighbors are worried. >> it's just hard to know what to make of it. >> reporter: the first doll reported was left last week and the most recently placed figurine was left at a home on tuesday. no crime has been committed but not knowing if it's a prank or handiwork of a sexual predator, detectives are on the case considering children are involved and the underlying motivation unknown. >> terrible. >> please tell me mike barnicle had nothing to do with this. >> i think it was t.j. >> you're sending us to the weekend with an unsolved mystery? >> i feel so bad because everyone was saying those words like creepy and they had police. the person who left the dolls has been discovered and it's not so bad. turns out it was an elderly woman. >> still creepy, though. >> no! she attends the local church and

she was clearing out her doll collection and she wanted to surprise her neighbors. >> right, right. are we sure, mika? >> yes! >> are we sure it wasn't like an elderly woman as in tony perkins' mother in "psycho"? >> where's my article this week, seriously. >> he was here yesterday. >> one of the doll's heads spun around? >> no. it's so sweet and so sad how our society is so depraved and completely like awful for blaming it on this poor little lady. >> here's the thing, her doll collection was so big that she could match up -- >> yes. >> -- like one for one, every kid in the neighborhood with a doll. >> that's so sweet. it's better than cats. it's okay. >> it's right on par with cats. >> oh, my goodness. i feel so terrible. >> did you see how they put the woman's name up and said whatever her name was, received creepy doll. let's go to the "cincinnati

enquirer." vice president joe biden spoke at the organization's 104th conference. the message throughout his 40-minute address was optimistic. he said he believes the united states is currently in better position than any other country in the world when it comes to future job creation and earning a living wage. the veep praised the urban league's consistent history and their dedication to working towards economic equality. >> but folks, i don't believe the american people are divided. i think it's the american political system that's broken and dividing them. so folks, do what you've always done since your founding. expose the american people to the realities of the circumstances we're concerned about and they will be with us like i am with you. god bless you all. >> and speaking of the national urban league, joining us now, that group's president, marc

morial, he's in cincinnati, ohio, the site of the group's 104th anniversary conference. great to have you on the show this morning, marc. >> hey, good morning, mika. good morning. >> are you as optimistic as the vice president, especially about the way forward in terms of wages and jobs? >> i'm optimistic because we're eternally optimistic, but we face a divided and broken political system and we face a seeming inability to act on things like minimum wage. but i would say that last week and earlier this week the new workforce act, which was signed by the president and passed with overwhelming majorities in both houses of congress, is a rare example of bipartisanship which goes to improving and strengthening our ability to prepare and train the workers of today for the jobs of tomorrow. so we should underscore that notwithstanding difficult and challenging times, there was a victory earlier this week.

>> mark halperin. >> mr. mayor, how open is your membership to hearing from republicans? it gets casts sometimes as bit of a stunt or are they open to ideas and open to the notion of listening to republican ideas as opposed to democratic ideas? >> you know, we are deliberately working to send a very strong message with the lineup of speakers we have here from vice president biden to senator paul to reince priebus to debbie wasserman schultz. the first step we have to take is a step of having dialogue, so i think reince priebus and rand paul coming here creates an opportunity for many of our delegates to hear, hear from people like reince priebus and rand paul for the first time, because there's been a disengagement over the past four to five years by many republican leaders. and so what we're trying to do is start with this dialogue, and i think there's a lot of curiosity, particularly since

rand paul has taken some interesting positions on things like criminal justice reform. so i believe that people are open. but the test, mark, is going to be whether this is the beginning and not, if you will, a drive-by set of events. we are open to the dialogue and we want to send a message that even if we find that there are differences of approach and differences of opinion, we've got to work to try to find common ground because these intractable problems are not going to go away easily. >> marc morial, thanks. after the most deadly week in recent aviation history, officials are now rethinking the paths of some international flights. former secretary of homeland security michael chertoff addresses those safety concerns next. "morning joe" will be right back. you owned your car for four years.

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all right. welcome back to "morning joe." 32 past the hour. joining us now former secretary of homeland security michael chertoff. mr. chertoff is now in the private sector serving as the executive chairman of the chertoff group, a global security and risk management advisory firm. he has a piece in "politico" magazine titled "our new fear of

flying" about the need to revamp global air security. michael, very good to have you on the show. >> good to be on, mika. >> mr. secretary, first of all, what are the biggest concerns in terms of global air security, not just in light of the recent aviation disasters that we've seen, but in terms of your knowledge of the situation? >> well, actually the terrible events involving the ukrainian shootdown are actually the least of our problems. it's not completely unknown to have a plane at altitude brought down by an airplane or a missile, but that's usually something that occurs when a nation state is involved. the bigger danger we face now are attacks on aircraft landing or taking off at a lower level that's within the range of a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile, or else the kind of attack on an airport that we've seen in karachi, pakistan, tripoli as well.

so the focus has to be on the lower altitude aircraft and the safety of the airport itself. >> what about flying over unstable areas or even war zones, and do pilots actually follow that all the time in terms of restrictions or warnings? >> well, they do get warnings. when you're flying at altitude over 30,000 feet, you're not really within the range of the kind of missile that you find in the hands of terrorists. so there have to be either a military mistake, for example we had a shootdown of an iranian airliner a couple of decades ago, or there'd have to be something along the lines of what happened in the ukraine, where apparently one country gives a bunch of rebels or insurgents sophisticated weapons and then they use those weapons. but that's still relatively low risk, compared to when you're taking off or landing in a battle zone. that's what i would focus on. >> mark halperin? >> secretary chertoff, let me

ask you a general question based on your experience on the international stage. can the united states have a productive, useful relationship with russia as long as vladimir putin is in charge or does the u.s. need to wait until he's gone? >> if we're going to wait until he's gone, we're going to be waiting for a long time. i don't have the sense he's looking to leave any time soon. look, he is testing us and he is testing the west and he is testing the relationship among nato and european countries and the united states to see if there are weak spots or if we're going to go soft. and he's going to continue the pressure. sometimes he'll back off, then he'll turn it up again. so i think we need to make sure we are resolute, that we are all basically operating off the same page. i know in europe there are a variety of views, but i think we need to make sure we send a clear message that there are some red line that say we will not allow him to cross. if we need to turn up economic sanctions, if we need to ask the

question whether the world cup ought to be in russia in a few years, then maybe those ought to be issues that are on the table. >> thomas, go ahead. >> so secretary chertoff, i know you're now in the private sector taking all the valued experience that you got serving all of us, which we appreciate and thank you for. what do you think about the recent conversations that make our country is at a fork in the road about complacency, that we're far enough away from 9/11 that we feel a little more relaxed or that we're not being as sure of ourselves in the type of security that we're providing ourselves domestically? >> you know, we've done a good job up to now with our security and we've had -- you know, obviously events like the boston marathon, but they have been relatively rare and the casualties, while tragic, have not been what we saw on september 11th. there is a risk that whether it's fatigue or complacency or distraction with other issues that we will stop adapting ourselves to new threats. and here's the challenge, tom.

we are now facing maybe the worst threat situation since the period after 9/11. we have a very active, extreme and violent group in syria and iraq, isis, that has made some significant strides in getting control over part of a territory in those countries. they have gotten their hands on military grade weapons. they have apparently gotten into bank vaults. they have money, they have battle experience. they are recruiting westerners to come and fight. there have been estimates of several thousand westerners, including americans, getting experience and getting indoctrine atd. some of those folks will come back. we ought not kid ourselves that somehow they're not going to be looking to do some damage in the united states and in the west. norway is predicting they may have an attack soon because of returning fieghters. this is not the time to drop our guard. some of the debate about the intelligence needs to consider these threats. >> switching to immigration,

which has a huge national security component, there's a short-term crisis being dealt with this week but obviously a long-term debate about what to do. do you believe there should be a path to citizenship for people in the country who are here illegally now? >> i still subscribe to what we argued for when we had a bipartisan agreement in 2007. we need to have tough border security, tough enforcement against illegal work in the united states, but we also have to find a way, a path to legalization for those in the country who have been here for a while who are willing to pay their taxes, perhaps to pay a penalty, so that we don't labor under the illusion that we're going to deport 11 million people. i do think we need to have a comprehensive approach, and part of that means legalization for those who are willing to play by the rules and a path to citizenship, provided that they're not ahead of the line for those who have been waiting patiently outside the country.

>> to michael chertoff, thank you very much. it's always good to have you on the show. >> good to be on. still ahead, addressing the gender gap. it's something everyone in washington talks about. our next guest actually doing something about it. senator maria cantwell standing by, next on "morning joe." when folks think about what they get from alaska, they think salmon and energy.

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that women business owners get just $1 for every $23 in small business lending. i'd like to talk about this disparity. first of all, putting on the table that we women are bad at this, asking for money thing. that's one part of it. but there's many other aspects as well. what have you found? >> well, i don't know if we're necessarily bad at asking for money. >> i think we are. >> i think the issue is that when you look at the statistics, you definitely see a gender gap. >> yeah. >> what we want to make sure is that there is access to capital because we're 51% of the population, and i guarantee you, we have a lot of great ideas. >> i think not only that, there's studies out there that show that when women are running places, running things, involved with running businesses, that the productivity, profitability is added to as well. but i talk about the struggle women face kind of asking for a loan or asking for money, and there are kind of personal,

psychological aspects to this. we'll put that aside and let me ask you what you think can be done, what you are doing to try and fill this gap from the other end of it with the other problems, with perhaps the fact that women perhaps get less money for other reasons. >> well, i think to put it in simplest terms, if i was doing a pitch today in front of you and in front of joe, do you think there might be a difference in how we would be perceived? and i think the issue is, is that we need programs that are tailored to women and we need to have women's input in the decision-making. a great product that's out there on the marketplace now is a pillow for newborn babies called boppy. this woman tried to get traditional financing. she ended up going and getting a small business microloan that very much suited her and she took that $25,000 and turned it into a $10 million business. >> that's incredible. >> so there are ideas out here

and as barbara corcoran said, who is appearing at our hearing, she said sometimes men don't understand the value proposition of products that women are pitching. but secondly, what we need to do besides getting more women entrepreneurs in training and getting women to help them is that we need to tailor products, the financial products, to women. and what we're finding is that women really like the microloans, the $50,000 and less, because that's the way they want to approach the market with their products. they're less, you know, capital intensive, but great ideas. and then they need a second step. they need an intermediate loan that isn't really available in the marketplace. so say between $50,000 and $250,000, and that's what we're really going to focus on, putting capital there. >> let me just -- i'm going to turn it over to mark halperin, but joe would give you the money. i would be difficult. mark halperin, go ahead.

he would. >> senator, i want to ask you about some news of day. do you think that the time has come for israel to stop its military action in the region or do you think they need to continue doing what they're doing? >> well, i think i'm very appreciative of secretary kerry being there on the ground and i hope we can reach a cease-fire agreement. so we'll see how the rest of today plays out on that point. >> but again, just in general, do you think -- do you trust israel to make their own judgment about when they should stop or would you call on them to stop now? >> well, i think israel has a right to defend themselves, but i think as we can see from the region, we need to continue this dialogue. obviously secretary kerry's presence there has put something on the table, so let's see what comes of that. >> all right, senator maria cantwell, thank you very, very much. up next, recently there's been increased talk from certain people about impeaching president obama. a new poll is out just this morning asking people's opinions

of that idea and the numbers may surprise you. keep it right here on "morning joe." as long as i've lived in iowa, there's always been wind. (strauss' blue danube playing)

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50 past the hour. arizona officials are hitting

back at claims that wednesday's nearly two-hour execution of a convicted murderer was botched. this comes after witnesses reported seeing joseph wood snorting and gasping for air more than an hour after the lethal injection. the director of arizona's department of corrections says the autopsy shows that wood was comatose three minutes after the drugs were administered and that he was never in any pain. however, arizona senator john mccain disagrees, telling politico that the two-hour execution amounted to torture saying, quote, the people who were responsible should be held responsible. house speaker john boehner's plan to sue president obama is moving forward after being approved by a house committee. the house rules committee gave the go ahead in a 7-4 party line vote. speaker boehner says president obama exceeded his legal authority by delaying the employer mandate in obamacare without congressional approval, but democrats say the lawsuit is simply an election year stunt which led to a heated exchange at the panel's hearing.

>> this has everything to do with trying to manage some of the extremists in your party, some of the cuckoo clocks who are talking about impeachment. this has nothing to do with the law. >> mr. chairman, i object to some of the language being used here. >> and would not like to see this committee on my side refer to people who might be on your side as cuckoos. and i do not believe that that's appropriate. >> the republican-controlled house is expected to vote on the resolution next week. and a new cnn opinion research poll finds just 33% of americans agree with republicans who want to impeach president obama. two-thirds of voters do not want to see barack obama impeached, but 33% do. slightly more than president obama's predecessor. at the same time in his presidency 30% wanted george w. bush impeached, 32 exact wanted

bill clinton impeached. the majority of voters, 57% believe they should not file a lawsuit against the white house. mark halperin, anything interesting in those numbers? >> that's a big number. it seems kind of big. let's repoll it. let's make sure. >> no. i trust it. all right, up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? vo: this is the summer. the summer of this.

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the new poll found that most americans have a higher opinion of darth vader than of any potential 2016 presidential candidate. than any candidate. >> what? >> in fact things are looking so good for vader that he's actually decided to run for president. he's released a few campaign slogans. first we have cheney 2.0. next there's the only candidate who can actually scare putin. and finally, still less dangerous than biden. he makes some great points. i hope he comes on the show if he decides to run. >> time now to talk about what we learned today. if you want to know about background stuff going on in this studio, check mark halperin's twitter. it involves a window watcher and a crotch. that's all i'm going to say about that. >> i don't mean to alarm people. >> it's alarming. >> but there's a giant window washer in times square.

>> what did you learn today? >> two things. that bear taught tamron a new trick on running wild, which is going to be on nbc. >> very impressive tamron. >> which i hope everybody watches. and graham, it's graham's last day. >> get over here, graham. >> graham, our intern. >> graham let mark halperin steel by jamba juice. so today is his last day. >> ask the newsroom, john tower in the control room, how did he do? >> he was a total diva. >> diva? >> diva. really? graham! you're going to have to come back another week. >> i might have to. >> okay, great. i think you did a great job, it was great to have you. also i have guests in the newsroom. head mistress, the head of the madera school, heather kirby, great to have you. greatest school ever. that does it for us, everybody. have a great weekend. if it's way too early, thomas, what time is it? >> it's time for "morning joe."

>> but now it's time for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. have a good weekend. the border crisis front and center today at the white house. he'll meet with three central american leaders. meanwhile with congress running out of time before recess, can they get anything done? i'll also talk to house budget committee chairman paul ryan about his new anti-poverty plan. meanwhile protests overnight in the west bank after an attack on a u.n.-run school in gaza. as secretary of state john kerry tries to get just a temporary, week-long cease-fire. can we even get that done? plus the other side of the effort to woo women this november, republicans recruiting women candidates to see if they can stem the tide of this gigantic gender gap that favors the democrats. good morning from washington, it's friday, july 25th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown." let me get to my first reads of

the morning. if you thought gridlock on capitol hill had sunk to an all-time low, congress confirms it can go lower. the 113th congress is shaping up to be the least productive on record. it will pass just 127 laws. that's even worse than the last one, which was one of the most unproductive and unpopular congresses in popular history. but the 112th congress was more productive than this one. by this point in 2012, that congress had passed 147 bills. with just five legislative days to go before members head home to their districts for a five-week august recess, it's looking less and less likely that lawmakers will do anything to solve a couple of problems that a few weeks ago had every member saying needed to be dealt with. they were crises of the moment that needed action. first, there was the situation on the border. this afternoon president obama will meet with the presidents of guatemala, el salvador and honduras. he spoke with the president of mexico last night and w