3 to 6 demographic. >> school of international public affairs dor yan warren and washington post editor and and senior foreign affairs correspondent for politico, michael crowley. they all confirm the world's not on fire. >> it's kind of on fire. just a little. >> come on. >> if there are any young kids out there, no don't listen. >> the little girl was so cute. >> it's sort of. i know she was. >> the world is on fire? >> ted cruz is coming today, right? >> he's on the show today. >> today. good. i knew i was he was on some time this week. we start this morning in israel at this hour more than 10,000 polling places are open across the country. nearly 6 million israelis can vote in the elections for parliament and it's expected to be the highest turnout since 1999. this is israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu casting his ballot just a few hours ago. he's seeking a fourth term in

office. but netanyahu is fighting for his political life this morning as polls show him and his likud party behind. the man who could replace him, the zionist union herzog. voters are dealing with a series of last-minute bids to sway support as they head to the polls. netanyahu is now vowing that there will not be a palestinian state as long as he is prime minister. that goes against what he said in his speech in 2009 and promises made to the united states. the move is seen as an attempt to win support from voters on the right. meanwhile, zionist union coleader tzipi livni said she will rotate as prime minister with herzog. each serve two years. some voters oppose that deal. netanyahu argues the reversal shows the opponents are panicking and would insist he would not form a unity

government. >> it's important to note that we're not going to know right away who the prime minister will be. in fact, the winner is not the party with the most votes. but it's the party you can cobble together the most parties into a coalition. remember, benjamin netanyahu came in second place in 2009 but he still became prime minister. i know that makes you excited because that gives you hope that even though he is behind right now, mika you still could have him as prime minister. >> anything could happen since he's doing that last-minute wild swings to the right. >> i want to bring in david ignatius about that. certainly at least from here it smacks of desperation that netanyahu would say this and go against what he's promised in the past. i'm sure it also causes concern in the international community. tell us what's your reaction and what's reaction across the middle eastern world? >> to be honest joe, i think this is more an attempt by netanyahu to consolidate his right wing base by saying absolutely no never on the palestinian state. those are the votes he's got to pull together in large numbers

if he's going to have any chance of having a total that's big enough to think about forming a coalition. the last week has been a reminder to me that in israel as in most places politics is local. and in particular it's been a reminder the israeli economy -- when you travel to israel you hear about high-tech israel, it's booming where people are making a lot of money. top 1% is richer than it ever dreamed. and another israel where people are not doing so well. that's clearly been a factor. >> are we overreading say, for instance, things like netanyahu's speech to the united states congress? are we looking at that from our point of view and is that skewing things? is it really a lot more about the economy than it is whether he spoke in america or not? >> it turns out that it looks like it's more about the economy in this israeli election than we thought. i don't think we're over interpreting the importance of

netanyahu's speech in terms of u.s. politics and decisions. that was a really major moment where an israeli leader comes on the floor of the congress. they don't appear to be driving this election from what we can tell so far. >> all right. let's bring in michael crow willy. you asked the question whether bibi's speech hurt his chance here when he addressed congress. what do you think? >> i think what david said squares with what my reporting found and that you know bibi's allies here in washington said, which is that this is an election that -- this was a pocket book election in israel and i think ultimately although there are some people who argue including i had one pretty conservative sort of friend of israel in washington say he thought the speech could have been a distraction. in other words, some people were saying that it took his focus

away from these kind of kitchen table issues that the election is revolving around. it was hard to find people who said this really backfired, this really blew up, this cost him. what you did see immediately after the speech is a slight bump in the polling and netanyahu's likud party picked up a couple of speech. some analysts contributed it to he was commanding all the attention over in israel will then he trailed off. i think people thought in the end it was probably a wash. >> interesting. meanwhile, the white house says the gop's controversial letter to iran about a possible nuclear deal is putting secretary of state john kerry in an awkward position during the latest round of talks which are taking place right now in switzerland. a top administration official says iran confronted the u.s. about the letter for two days in a row. the official says quote, these kinds of distractions are not helpful when we're talk about something so serious. meanwhile, the "new york times" reports iran sent advanced weapons and missiles for iraqi forces to use against isis.

iran has not launched any of the weapons but the u.s. is concerned it could increase tensions in the area. this all comes as iraqi officials admit they're offensive to reclaim saddam hussein's hometown stalled after two weeks. iraq is reporting a large number or casualties leading to questions of whether it needs military training or at least more military training at this point. >> david ignatius, the last line, i'm sorry but you can't help but crack up. tragically, whether you're iraqi army needs more training. damn we've been doing that for 20 years now. >> that project doesn't seem to be going very well. >> no it doesn't. >> but this is new training. >> new training. new and improved training. >> that old training may not have worked very well. this is new training. >> if it's not work og -- >> are you saying that the new train willing suggest that these soldiers not drop their weapons and run home at the first sound of firecrackers in the distance?

>> the idea is to have more disciplined, better officers. i think they do have a little bit better in both those categories. the problem in the battle for tikrit is that it reveals the fundamental conflicts and contradictions in the u.s. strategy. tikrit is a sunni place. it's saddam hussein's hometown for goodness sakes. it's been retaken largely with shiite militia men. the problem is that that creates resentments, rivalries that will last well after the battle is over. the battle isn't going all that quickly quickly. but i think that's the underlying issue that we should think about. somehow the u.s. has got to train both the iraqi military largely shia and sunni militias who can play a role in the fight. they haven't really so far in tikrit. >> willie, training iraqis is tough. i mean we have mcarthur i shall return. you know they have is that a

firecracker? i don't know. i'm not taking any chances. >> stop. >> they dissolved in '91. forth largest army ever they will destroy us. and then we show up and they just -- they head to doreno for the weekend. >> joe. >> you look at 2003 and on and on and on. and then the same thing happened this past year. rise of isis. >> we're counting on them. if we say we're not going to send more american ground troops in, the ground troops who are going to do the fighting are the iraqi troops. >> the iranians. >> that's what i was going to ask, this front page story in the times about iran sending arms, two different types of missiles to fight isis. reason for concern there for you, john mccain and others have come out and said it's a bad thing to have iran leading the fight and not the united states against isis although it is a common enemy. >> i think it is a concern in large part because the greater the iranian role the more reluctant iraqi sunnis who view iran as their enemy will be to take part in this fight.

and if it doesn't involve the sunnis, it's not going to be a stable outcome. iranians were first in to help. we have to admit that when your bill, the capital of our kurdish friends was being overrun it was the iranians that came in with big artillery. we came in a couple days later with air strikes but when i i was in erbil kurds were grateful for their iranian support. the question is whether their help will overwhelm the other aspects of the coalition. >> you guys did not lock at the first part of that story. it's funny you latched on to the second part. that's the part dorian where the letter is actually getting in the way of negotiations. >> what letter? >> brought up twice now. a letter about the 47 senators tom cotton's letter. >> oh, yeah. >> which i had some choice words for yesterday. >> you sure did. >> it appears that i'm not the only within. >> do you want to take that back saying he needs to have a binky? >> no you needed a bimpgy. >> okay. >> i don't take that back.

go ahead. >> i think the secretary of state has said and others have said that letter is undermining what has been intense negotiations for nine months. >> literally, it is. >> it's coming up. it doesn't excuse the iranians for using the letter as an excuse not to advance negotiations but clearly undermining the role of the secretary of state and president in leading the negotiations. >> we'll have ted cruz about that letter. there are new signs that hillary clinton and the e-mail controversy may be impacting her likely bid for president. a new cnn opinion research poll shows americans are split over how serious her use of a private server really is. but a majority do not believe she's done enough to explain why she used it. and clinton's favorability has fallen six points since november. she's down six points from a year ago. when it comes to whether americans find her honest and trustworthy. but clinton has better marks in other questions. 57% say they would be proud to have her as president.

meanwhile, "usa today" reports clinton spent more than $300,000 on charter flights in the four years before her 2008 presidential campaign that made her the top spender in the senate. and the state department spokeswoman is struggling to answer the question as to whether or not clinton signed a separation form when stepping down as secretary of state. >> human right resources department presumably has a file on every employee. it can't be that difficult. >> i don't think former secretaries are standard employees. >> they don't have files? they might not be but how hard can it be to find it. >> i understand why you're asking. i don't have an answer today. >> do you know if -- has anyone -- where do these form once they are signed go? >> where in the building do they go? >> yes. if i asked for the form of someone else who left say -- >> i'm not sure how many forms we would be willing to give you

access to. >> well, i mean -- >> wow. you know so fascinate that question came up yesterday because a couple days ago i had a friend until intelligence community call me. tell me what you think about this. you know what it's the clintons. it's going to be split 50/50. if you like the clintons then everybody is after them. if you don't -- he cut me off. he said said everybody in government has to sign this separation form. on the separation form you make guarantees that you're turning overall relevant information including any classified documents, any other, et cetera et cetera, et cetera. and my friend in the intel community said this is a big deal. whatever, we'll see. and sutdly somebody is asking this question. apparently a lot of people in government are asking about that separation letter because you make guarantees when you sign these separation letters, dorian, that you are turning over material and, as he said i'm not saying it i don't believe it's going to happen

but he said if i signed the separation paper making guarantees and i had a server at home i promise you i would be in jail for five to ten years. >> this goes to what i think is the bigger issue of this story which is now week two of this story and that is one set of rules for the clintons another set of rules for everyone else. it's not that there might be something about the e-mail cop tro controversy itself that's going to blow up. i think it is the accumulation of all of these events the charter flights, the e-mail that leads to clinton fatigue and especially among democratic primary voters. there's this broader sense of fatigue with whatever the scandal might be whatever the details may be there is a sense of clinton fatigue i think among democrats. >> for people watching at home the form is called of-109 and as you point out, it opens up secretary clinton to personal charges potentially because if she did release classified information two years after agreeing that he would separate

and not release, she's in trouble. >> that would settle it then if we got the answer. maybe we would be able to put this away for her. >> david, i guess some of the troubling questions that linger out there, not so much about hillary clinton but the state department, the bureaucracy, the white house, how -- if she didn't sign a document -- >> we don't know. >> maybe she did. but why would she be allowed in this straegs to live by a standard that nobody in president obama's white house would ever live by? they would never presume to be able to do this. >> i think that's the heart of the matter here is are the clintons treated as special since the beginning of bill clinton's presidency, there's been a perception that they are, that they want to be it's part of the public resentment to them. it's something that hillary clinton is going to have to deal with and as each of these new little mini scandals comes along, it raises i think, that core issue. she's going to have to come out and deal with it if she's goes to be a candidate.

i have to say, i'm still not certain she's going to be a candidate. >> willie i heard this last night. i was talking to -- very interesting. just sort of my political instinct tells me she's going to run because she's running against, for the most part no credible big challengers. so she's going to win. but i'm hearing more and more people in the inside maybe they're just on the inside, but saying what david is saying is they don't think -- they're not so sure she's going to run. a that this is going to continue to brew up and then another scandal and then another scandal. i still think she's going to run. when you have 57% of americans say they would be proud to have something as president, that's a higher number than anybody else out there. >> especially within the democratic party. her numbers are still huge. you have to imagine not just from the american people but from her. don't you think at some level she's sitting and watching this do i want to go through this through the next decade? i think the answer is yes but it's tough. >> you've seen what her husband has done since leaving the white

house and the clinton foundation. he's done pretty extraordinary things. i wonder if she thinks i could do that but i could do extraordinary things without dogs yapping at my ankles for the next -- >> for my ankles. pretty amazing story. talking about the nfl and problems with brain injuries. san francisco 49ers linebacker chris bor lan has retired from football at age 24 citing concerns over the long-term effects of head trauma. bor borland who is not currently suffering from symptoms said he's being proactive with his decision. he sold "outside the lines" quote, i just thought to myself what am i doing, is this how i'm going to live my adult life i think baing my head especially with what i have learned and know about the dapgers. more than 70 former nfl prayers have b diagnosed with brain damage after their deaths. >> ichb credible. >> he was a rookie for the 49ers last year. their star linebacker patrick willis got injured. he got a lot of playing time. nfl defensive player of the week

one week. votes for nfl defensive rookie of the year. this isn't some guy who took this lightly. he had a bright career ahead of him. made a lot of money and he said it's not worth it. i'm stepping aside right now. >> do you think we will see more of that? >> yeah. if you get a guy like this, he said he looked through a all the data. he's seen guys retired, seen what happens to him. i could have the world. i could own san francisco, but i'm not going to do it because i'm worried about my brain. >> that is a statement. >> remarkable story. still ahead on "morning joe," fresh off his first trip to new hampshire this year senator ted cruz will be here onset for an exclusive interview. also ahead, former congressman barney frank with his revealing new memoir. from the hit show "the americans," actress allison wright, just for you, joe. >> that is so awesome. >> and in just a few minutes the great dick vitale with his march madness picks. >> he's also "the americans"

season 4. >> i need to watch a little bit. >> unbelievable. >> you have a lot of time. have you watched all of "the americans"? >> i've been traveling a lot. i am through about halfway through season 3. i have about two more and then i'm caught up. >> i'm on season one of "house of cards." >> the latest in the robert durst case as the real estate hear now faces a charge of first degree murder. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you drop 40 grand on a new set of wheels, then... wham! a minivan t-bones you. guess what: your insurance company will only give you 37-thousand to replace it. "depreciation" they claim. "how can my car depreciate before it's first oil change?" you ask. maybe the better question is why do you have that insurance company? with liberty mutual new car replacement, we'll replace the full value of your car. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

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welcome back to "morning joe." politico congressman elijah cummings said it took five days for the director of the secret service to learn of the latest embarrassing incident involving agents. they are accused of crashing into a white house barrier during a suspicious package investigation after they were drinking allegedly. director clancy is scheduled to testify later today and to meet with the house oversight

committee tomorrow. from the "him miami herald ", charlie crist said he will not jump into the race for the senator in florida. he ran as a democrat losing to governor rick scott in 201. the herald said the fact the democrats were considering crist as a candidate is sign of the party's political bench. from buzz feed aaron schock may have shelled out $5,000 on a replica of president obama's podium. >> come on. >> what? last month "usa today" reported schock paid more than $5100 to the industries whose general manager tells buzzfeed he quote, very likely sold the presidential model to the illinois republican but would have to check his records to confirm. this is not the first time schock's spending habits have raised red flags after allegations the congressman had spent more than $35,000 of taxpayer money on a "downton

abbey" style office decor. he repaid the expense from his personal checking. >> i like your podium willie. >> i model it after joe scarborough. >> wow. >> that look. >> the associated press, oregon is officially the first state to automatically register its residents to vote. under new legislation every adult in the state who is not registered to vote but has interact we'd the dmv since 2013 will receive a ballot in the mail 20 days prior to the next election. 17 years ago oregon also became the first state to hold all its elections by mail-in ballots. state officials predict the new law will add 300,000 new voters. and perhaps your story of the day, guys. from "the washington post," former governor mitt romney presidential candidate mitt romney is set to step into the ring with former heavyweight champion evander holyfield. i'm serious. this is for charity now. proceeds for the match go to charity vision, organization that provides surgeries and medical services to people with vision problems around the

world. the bout is scheduled for may 15th in salt lake city. >> all right. that will be something to see. >> willie i don't even -- i don't even know what to say. >> unhand me. >> the vanilla, something like that i don't know. >> there are going to be two distinct punching styles. always come up here. right? right? and then. >> okay. >> you go kind of boom boom. >> stop. >> because that will look -- willie, he's got it. exactly. boom. >> old time myy boxing definitely i think it will work. i like it. >> thank you willie. nice podium. >> cellphone goes off, hold on a second. call my people with that punch. >> all right. moving on now. real estate heir robert durst could face the death penalty in connection of a murder of a friend a decade ago in los angeles. he was charge with first degree murder after waving extradition following his arrest in

louisiana over the weekend. he was booked in new orleans. the arrest came just hours before the finale of an hbo documentary series about durst and his connections to two deaths and his wife's disappearance. his attorney says they're ready to go to court. >> bob durst kent kill susan berman. he's ready to end all the rumor and speculation and have a trial. but we're frustrated because the local authorities are considering filing charges on him here and holding him here. we're ready to go to california and to have a trial. >> i should have worn a hat like that. >> that would have helped. legal experts -- >> made a big difference. >> legal experts say the shocking finale -- final scene of "the jinx" where durst says he quote, killed them all, would likely be allowed as evidence. the director of the series said it took months to realize the open mike moment was recorded and denyingies the arrest was timed

to coincide with the finale. can you imagine sitting in the edit room and being like -- >> oh, my god. >> what did they just say? >> unbelievable. coming up the atlantic's new cover story asks an agonizing question of european jews, is it time to get out of europe? author jeffrey goldberg weighing in on the antisemitism there and extraordinary cover story in "the atlantic."

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i don't know what i can say. i'm american. i'm really not very jewish. my mother hadn't died having me i could have been merrillarilyn instead of rachel and no one would know the notice. >> what is the difference? >> look jews have lived in exile for a long time. first in babylon and then all over the world, shanghai brooklyn, and we've managed to make ago of it. maybe it has something to do with the fact that we thrive with doing business with people who hate us. >> i don't hate you. >> no individuals are wonderful. >> that's not what i meant. >> i don't know.

a country, but those people as you call us seems very important. >> why aren't you there? >> my life is here. my grant father came from russia. now i have a store on fifth avenue. i'll visit but i don't have to live there. just has to be. >> wow. that was a scene from amc's "mad man" on the significance of israel. joining us now from berlin is national correspondent for "the atlantic," jeffrey gold with berg, latest piece is the cover story for the magazine asking the question is it time for jews to leave europe? in it he describes the attack on the jewish deli in paris in january and talking with a friend and philosopher who lives there. jeffrey writes i asked him a very old jewish question. do you have a bag packed? we should not leave, he said but maybe for our children or grandchildren, there will be no choice. >> jeffrey, thank you so much

for being with us. this is an extraordinarily important story that you've win. the timing could not be more important. >> thank you, joe. >> you of course were reporting from france during the heinous "charlie hebdo" attacks. you write that france's 475,000 jews represent less than 1% of the country's population and yet in 2014 51% of all racist attacks targeted less than 1% of the population. and that was, of course jews in france. we've talked about it for some time but this has become more virulent. what is happening in europe? >> well, you have a number of factors. one, you know you have a growing distance from the holocaust, so people don't remember it as much. and the taboos against antisemitism are dissipating. you have within the very large

european muslim immigrant population you have a small subset of people who are adhere wrens of a antisemitic ideology. these are people we know them also as the people who are drawn to the syrian conflict drawn to isis style ideology. some of the worth attacks on jew ishtar gets were committed by people in that isis orbit. you have old ideas about jews merging with new ideas about jews. you have far right ideas and far left ideas coming together with come muslim judea phobic ideas. it's a toxic moment in a way. >> willie? >> jeffrey, how did we get to this point on a continent where only 70 years ago world war ii ended and europe and the world said never again? how did this happen? how did we get to this point? >> you know i don't know what the explanation is. i would say that one explanation

is inattention. you know when you don't pay attention to prejudice, you don't pay attention to the development of it it's allowed to take root. obviously with the internet and other means of communication you can spread -- bd ideas spread as well as good ideas in very fast way. you have this wearing huh of this. i call it the post holocaust inoculation. people said, oh, this is not a healthy thing to think anymore. one other point is that, you know, you have a lot of the most violent acts are committed by these young muslim extremist jihadist orsorryoriented guys who are drawn into that kind of syria model. and you know, you have a big problem in europe with a disenfranchised muslim population. you have european countries not very good at absorbing immigrants from different

cultures. and so you have these large pools of people who are diseffected, disinfranchised, not connected to the mainstream economy. and obviously they are more -- more subject or they're more -- less immune to radical ideas that explain the world and explain their frustrations with the world. >> jeffrey, this is dorian warren. joe read that statistic about france, 1% of the population are jews 51% of the race hate attacks against jews. what explains why it's beyond france, it's great britain has more numbers, there are other european countries. what is it about the continent? why is it so broad in terms of the antisemitism? >> first of all, there's nothing surprising in a way about antisemitism in europe. i mean antisemitism in europe is a thousand year old story from the crew aidusades to the imposition to the holocaust.

we shouldn't be surprised. i guess we should be surprised that it wasn't made -- antisemitism wasn't eradicated after world war ii. hatreds are viruses in a way and it's very very hard to eradicate viruses. look, you know, europe what is the story of europe? the story of europe is the challenge of building a liberal order not based on nationalisms and based on particularisms but based on these kind of universal eu ideas. but it's -- the way i describe it is as follows. it's very easy for us americans to understand what it means to be a moroccan-american, jewish american, turkish american. when you talk about a turkish-german or a more moroccan-frenchman. absorption of people and dealing with that is a much different situation than we have in our own country. >> david ignatius has a question. david? >> jeffrey, do you see any

difference between older and younger european jews and how they look at these antisemetic acts? is there any sense that one group or the other feels the more acutely, is making different life choices because of them? >> that's an excellent question. and the answer is kind of a practical answer which is that in my reporting and i travel through about ten countries to do this to do this article for "the atlanta atlantaica do this, to do this article for "the atlanta atlantaicatlantaic" what i found is it's young couples grappling with the should i stay or should i go question because they mobility and they don't have to choose in a way where their kids are going to be raised. they're all -- the people i met are patriots. they are the ones who live in france, love france. the up withes who live in belgium want to stay in belgium. when you get into middle aged that's where it becomes difficult. older people are more hesitant to pick up and move to another

place, whether that's israel or canada or the united states. so i think it's a practical answer to a kind of almost moral question in a way. people who can move think about moving more easily than those who really can't move. >> jeffrey, to paraphrase my late grandmother from the deep south, why don't we just pull the rag off the churn and talk about it like it really is? antisemitism, like you said in europe has been around now, you say a thousand years, i say 2,000 years. even in magna carta, a glorious document for everybody in the west. there were exclusions. you had all of these rights unless you were a jews. and jews were hated because they were merchants. jews were hated because they were bankers, international bankers now because of the palestinian conflict. there is always a convenient excuse for europeans to hate and

loath jews. i mean 2000 years, the palestinian conflict is just the latest excuse. why don't we just call it like it is and i know you talk about it a lot in here. europe has had a 2000-year problem with hating jews. >> well, you know and i appreciate that. you know it is very -- when you look at the logic of antisemitism, it's -- historical christianity blame jews for killing jesus. voltare blames jews for inventing christianity. you kind of get it going and coming in a way in this scheme. but i think, you know i think -- look,er in in the epilogue in the jew wish story anyway. by 1945, two-thirds of the jews were dead, murdered. what we're dealing with is the kind of slow aftermath of that. but i have to say this in europe's defense, it's very different than it was in 1939.

you do have leaders now cameron in britain, hollande in france who are concerned about this issue in a way that older european leaders weren't. >> all right, the new issue of "the atlantic" is out now. coming up before isis was even on the map one terror expert literally wrote the book on what drives recruitment to jihadist groups in the u.s. grin jenkins will testify to congress today on how that threat has evolved. but before that he joins us right here on "morning joe."

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on capitol hill. mr. jenkins, good morning. what are you expecting to be asked this morning on capitol hill? >> i think this concern right now is on the number of foreign fighters going to join isis in syria and iraq. in particular about 3,000 or so who have western passports going from european countries, australia, and the united states. >> what can western governments, whether it's the united states or european countries, do to stem this? we've seen it. there have been high profile incidents where you have teenagers going over to fight but there are many more than that of course. what can we do as a government here at home to stop that? >> there are a number of things that have been taking place. especially in europe since the attack on the offices of "charlie hebdo." they have increased their efforts to reduce radicalization. they've increased their efforts to improve intelligence to

enhance information sharing, to criminalize joining these terrorist groups abroad and to impose administrative controls such as picking up passports to prevent people from traveling abroad. >> michael crowley has a question for you. michael? >> hi brian. thanks. president obama led this big counter radicalization summit several weeks ago and it's hard to find a lot of tangible action items that came out of that but do you think that these sort of broader, longer-term programs to fight radicalism really have any prom mission or does it have to be much more on the law enforcement side and fighting them out in the field? >> well, it is certainly a long-term problem. i mean we've been dealing with it for a couple of decades at least now and i suspect we will be dealing with it for the foreseeable future especially the affluent from the conflicts in syria and iraq. fortunately in the united states we don't have anywhere near the

numbers going to syria that we see going from europe. we're talking about something between 100, 150 individuals, which is really a tiny turnout. >> all right. brian jenkins, thank you so much. greatly appreciate you being here. good luck today on capitol hill. >> thank you. >> i guess, david ignatius the question is and does our intel community know the pacing of it? are more being recruited? are less being recruited? is there a slowdown to what we've been seeing coming from europe? what are you hearing? >> in terms of radicalization online, the quality of the material that's on social media is so high there's concern that it's keeping the pot boiling every day with tens of thousands of tweets. in terms of the actual foreign fighters moving into the battle zones, i think there's been a lot of effort to slow that. also, one very interesting development is that there does seem to be increasing friction

in syria and iraq between foreign fighters coming in to do the fighting there coming in to help, and the local people increasingly resent them and the u.s. is working as hard as it can on the intelligence front to exploit those tensions to get this one fighting against that one. >> we keep hearing, mika about how great their online presence is and social media and you look at the editing. that doesn't just happen out of dust or thin air. somebody is funding them. >> yes. >> in a very very big way. >> especially the editing on certain events they put out there is frightening. guess who we have up next. >> who is that? >> the great dick vitale, picks for march madness. putting up his predictions against another famed forecaster, the college basketball legend explains why punxsutawney phil might want to stick to his day job. we'll be right back. moderate to severe crohn's disease is tough but i've managed. except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. and when i finally told my doctor,

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♪ am i left former coach at rutgers, detroit university and for the detroit pistons in the nba, dick vitale. >> welcome gaen to the espn network. >> down the lane. he missed. it's over. kaurl carol wins. >> it's over! it's over! >> dance to me baby. dance, baby.

>> send it back to you in new york. >> this is your captain, baby. hey, come with me. we're going to charlotte, baby. it's going to be awesome. look who is flying this thing. >> now, that's scary. >> that is awesome. >> great moments from a great lifend great are career from dick vitale. joining us live from the ncaa hall of champions in indianapolis is the college basketball analyst dick vitale here with his tournament picks and all-state mayhem. >> it's not a dolphin. it's not a longhorn. this is big. >> this is big. >> what is that behind him? >> i tell you one thing i've got a challenge on my hands. i'm going to tell you, joe willie mika, i'm going to need you people to help me because they tell me this we legend phil never ever loses. i beat the dolphin easily.

i beat the longhorn easily. i'm a little nervous right now because phil they tell me is mighty tough. >> i like how he's bragging about beating a dolphin. i took care of that dolphin. explain a little bit here dick. do you make your picks punxsutawney phil makes his. what happens in the end? >> well, in the end we find out who the winner is but it's all part of the allstate march mayhem challenge. the beautiful people of allstate is donating money to the "v" foundation, right after we do our media tour today i will go and i will help the challenge with mr. phil right here and i'm going to tell you this. punxsutawney is going to be in trouble because i promise you i am not letting a groundhog beat me. >> he's a tough one. he's a biter. >> phil is a biter. >> they're an aggressive animal. dick, let's get to the pick to make sure you beat punxsutawney phil. who is the one, two, or three team that can beat kentucky in this tournament? >> that's a great question joe. i think when you look at it

kentucky can beat themselves if they don't play to their level. if they play to their potential, the beauty of college basketball when you think about it it's not four out of seven. can you imagine if this was four out of seven like the nba? nobody would have a shot against kentucky. one bad night, team make a three. you make a great question joe, who can beat them? right now you look, notre dame in their region is a threat. the reason the irish would be a threat is they're a ability to shoot the basketball. any team, any team that can beat duke and north carolina in 24 hours -- and we're not talking football with the irish, they beat them in basketball. they're capable of beating anyone. gonzaga poses a threat, wisconsin, arizona. i would think those teams jump at me as teams that have size. you better have some size to negate their great size and you better have some people that can

make the three ball. >> willie? >> so dick give us -- we're filling out our brackets last second here. a lot of people doing that today and tomorrow. what's a good sleeper team? it seems like there's always a 10 11 12 13 seed that seeks its way into the sweet 16. who should we be looking at? >> over the last three years the 12th seeds that beaten the 5th seat 66% of the time. >> wow. >> but i tell you this i always pick a sleeper. somebody that's not in the top four seeds. a team to watch as a seven seed are the spartans and michigan state. very dangerous basketball team. capable -- they could get beat in the first round by georgia but they could also beat georgia and beat virginia. they are that good. that well coached. that talented. so they're a team to keep an eye on. and i'm going to tell you something else. when you look out there, it is really difficult. we know we're going to find some team like a vcu who is going to go on and create havoc.

>> i think maybe it's northern iowa. >> northern iowa? >> dick before we let you go i've got to ask you about the photograph that's really been front page everywhere the last couple of days. you know hey, willie if you have an open shot you take it. he had one. >> dick what's going on here? you and ashleigh judd? >> no no no. let me tell you this. ashleigh and i have been friends for over a decade. we know each other really well. ashley said yesterday, when we win our ninth championship the first thing i'm going to do she put it on twitter. i'm going to run and plant a smooch on dicky v. i standing there. ashley comes running out of stands gives me that kiss gives me a hug. we laugh. my wife is laughing crazy. and we just had a blast. you know what? i've got a funny feeling, mika that joe and willie are jealous, are jealous. >> listen, i'm not going to -- i'm not going to -- i'm not

going to deny it. >> hey, let me tell you this. allstate march mayhem challenge is special. as i said they're donating money to the v foundation and there's nothing dearer to my heart, guys. they're raising money for kids battling cancer. we have a gala dick vitale gag la. my goal this year is $2 million. we can do it. we did $2.1 million last year. we can do it again. there's nothing worse than a mom and dad putting their child to rest and it really breaks my heart. so again, allstate march mayhem challenge. punxsutawney phil is in trouble, baby. is in trouble. punxsutawney phil has no shot. joe, willie mika you're awesome, baby. >> all right, thank you, dick vitale. >> thanks, man. >> appreciate it. coming up in our next hour "morning joe" exclusive, senator ted cruz joins us right here on the set. you pay your auto insurance premium every month on the dot. you're like the poster child for paying on time. and then one day

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welcome back to "morning joe." top of the hour. dorian warren and david ignatius are still with us. joining the conversation political columnist for "time" magazine, joe klein. we have a lot to talk about this hour. we'll start in israel this morning. at this hour more than 10,000 polling places are open across the country. it's expected to be the highest turnout since 1999. this is israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu casting his ballot just a few hours ago. he's seeking a fourth term in

office. but netanyahu is fighting for his political life this morning as polls show him and his likud party behind. in an apparent bid to win last minute support from voters on the right netanyahu is vowing there will not be a palestinian state as long as he is prime minister. the man who could replace him, zionist union isaac herzog whose party appears to be on the way to pick up the most seats. joining us frou from israel itv news correspondent. the polls are open. what are voters saying this morning? >> well, the big message from voters here is that there are plenty of them as of 10:00 this morning. nearly 14% of the israeli electorate had turned out to vote. that is 20% up on 2013 in the last israeli election. i spoke to the opposition leader isaac herzog this morning. he told me that israelis are coming out to vote for change

and to vote for a government which is going to bring down the cost of living which has been a central point of his campaign. the incumbent prime minister benjamin netanyahu meanwhile has gone back to his core support, his base and his core issues which are based around the stout defense of israeli security. as you mentioned, in an interview last night he made it clear that on his watch, there will not be the establishment of a palestinian state. he's hoping that a hard line on that will help him get across the line in this vote. >> all right. thank you very much. do you think that's possible? >> well, i don't know. joe klein, if what we've been hearing for the past two days is what's happening on the ground that this is about the economy, this is about keeping prices lower, you've been in israel and understand it much more than we do. from a distance to me at least, talking about no palestinian state smacks of last-minute desperation. and usually that sort of ploy backfires if people really do

want to talk about the economy. >> yes. big desperation. i mean you know that plus the speech to congress these are acts of someone who really thinks he's going to lose. as you point out, though that last time he lost. he lost by one seat last time. and tzipi livni was unable to put together a coalition. the problem -- >> what's the difference this time? >> this election begins tonight. >> right. >> it doesn't end tonight, it begins. >> there's not going to be any two-state solution so he's just blocked himself off from an awful lot op allies. >> absolutely right. and that statement makes this probably the most crucial election in israel in a long time because right now he cannot -- he has really made it more difficult for him to form

the centrist coalition that he's been saying that he wanted all along. >> let's talk about another issue and it has to do with the art of the deal something you wrote about for "time" magazine. we've been talking a lot about the 47 republicans that signed the letter that went straight to iran. you wrote this. despite the cheesy political context of the moment i love joe because he's not afraid to write cheesy as we are talking about possible nuclear holocaust. despite the cheesy political context of the moment there are aspects of netanyahu's speech to congress that should be cheered to him by those of white house believe president obama's is pursueing the right course in seeking a nuclear deal with iran. netanyahu's blustering threats have been invaluable in negotiating process. he's been a great scary tough cop to president obama's or did tough constable. netanyahu's speech was at least a useful reminder about the art of the deal in the middle east. then you add on top of that the 47 republican lawmakers, again, playing bad cop. president obama, i don't -- i'm

not excusing anything. i've been in negotiations as a lawyer in congress certainly in business i always love to have a couple of bad cops. phil and i play it perfectly all the time. hey, scarborough is absolutely crazy. we need this. it helps that i am crazy. >> i was going add that. >> but bad cops actually can help get a deal done. >> yes. there's a difference between what netanyahu has been doing throughout, which i believe has been valuable to negotiating process, and the 47. >> what's that? >> 47 were speaking prospectively. you know, after the deal is done, we're going to kill it. what netanyahu has been saying throughout is that i want a tougher deal. and there's a difference between those two things. >> you agree with the white house then in fact, that the letter of the 47 was actually druthive to this process? >> i think it was disgraceful. i think it was absolutely outrageous. >> on the art of the deal was it destructive to the end deal?

>> it helped to empower the hard liners in iran. i mean i think that you know that there probably will be a deal and we're going to have to -- >> why do you say that? because i said it yesterday. i think the president is desperate for a deal. >> it's not that he's desperate for a deal. what we have right now is better than what we've had with iran for a very long time. because of the deal in place now, the interim deal they are not enriching, they stopped enriching 20%, there are really serious -- >> how do we know that? >> because there are really serious inspections going on. the iaea say they're getting access to everything. iran, if you talk to people involved in this who actually look at what's happening on the ground as opposed to the people who are looking at nuclear, you know holocaust and things like that i don't mean you -- >> just a cheap line for your cheesy. >> right. >> but the world is on fire.

>> but, you noekserknow, if you look at what's happen og the ground now it's the best situation we've had with iran in a long time. if we throw that awe -- >> do you trust iran? do you trust the supreme leader? >> i don't think he's the key figure here. >> who? >> the revolutionary guard. >> do you trust the revolutionary guard? >> some of them. it depends on -- i think they have an economic stake in not having their country blow up. >> do you trust the revolutionary guard to keep the deal? >> i -- as long as it's verified. i'll go to reagan. >> yeah. >> david ignatius, do you share that trust? are you as optimistic? >> by the way, can i just say, i'm sorry i set you up. the conservative blogs today, i have just written all of your headlines today, guys. you can go back to bed. joe klein, i trust the revolutionary guard. it's a serious question david. if we're going to make a deal we've got to know who we're making a deal with. joe's right, it's trust and verify. >> it is trust but verify.

that's why in the -- these typal weeks of bargaining the precise inspection measures the precise details of how we will limit research and development on next generation iranian centrifuges that are much more efficient than the ones they have now, those are the key technical issues. on this question of the letter by the 47 senators what bothers me about is it gave iran in the final weeks of negotiation all kinds of new things to raise, new things that we would have to buy back. you know they can say, well, what about the warning in the letter that this isn't going to apply for the next president? you have to argue and sell that point. then you have to sell another point. so i think in a sense it gave ammunition to our adversaries. that's what the republicans really, i think, should say to themselves. shame on us. >> david, when we get through this israeli election if prime minister netanyahu is in fact out and it's a prime minister herzog, what does that do to

change the american/israeli dynamic as it pertains to the iran deal? >> well, i think the new herzog led government will be almost as intense on the iran issue as prime minister netanyahu has been. there's less of a split among israelis about that than you might think. the big change will be in the palestinian issue. netanyahu said he won't go into the new round of negotiations. herzog is as much of invited them and livni negotiated the last time around. that issue is going to come back big time. and we could see in the final year of the obama presidency a real effort to make some ground on the palestinian issue and a return of many of the things secretary kerry has already negotiated. >> real active role for the saudis and the egyptians and the other sunni nations going forward in this peace process. >> got to be yeah. >> we have to move on to hillary clinton. >> dorian quickly. >> it seems like we've learned

more in this conversation about what exactly is at stake in the deal and what the discussions are, and it only shows just how destructive that letter was to the process. >> do you think it was destructive? >> it was destructive to the process because now iran can raise new issues that as david mentioned, can raise new issues in terms of the negotiation. and undercuts the president's bargaining power. remember we also need iran -- iran is sending weapons to iraq to help defeat isis. so it's -- that's another issue in place here. it's not just about containment of their nuclear capacity but we're not putting boots on the ground in iraq. >> i can't believe somebody didn't say, whoa whoa whoa do we want to think twice about sending this thing? corker did not sign it. all right. there are new signs that hillary clinton e-mail controversy may be impacting her likely bid for president. new cnn opinion research poll shows americans are split over how serious her use of a private

server really is. majority do not believe she's done enough to explain why she used it. clinton's favorability has fallen six points since november. and she's down six points from a year ago when it comes to whether americans find her honest and trustworthy. clinton has better marks on other questions. 57% say they would be proud to have her as president. meanwhile, "usa today" reports that clinton spent more than $300,000 on charter flights in the four years before -- why are you chuckling? >> because in israel one of the big issues is that netanyahu spent 40,000 bucks on takeout food. >> well, there's that. >> state department spokeswoman struggled to answer a very basic question on whether hillary clinton signed a separation agreement when she stepped down as secretary of state. >> human right resources department presumably has a file on every employee. it can't be that difficult --

>> i don't think former secretaries are standard employees. >> they don't have files? they might not be but how hard can it be to find it? >> i understand why you're asking. we're looking to have an answer. i don't have an answer today. >> do you know if -- has anyone in -- where do these forms, once they are signed go? >> where in the building do they go? >> yeah. is there -- if i asked for a form of someone else who say -- >> i'm not sure we would be willing to give you access to. >> all right. yesterday mika asked top adviser jarrett about the report she's the one who leaked the clinton e-mail story. >> yeah. >> another headline is the story that we've seen circulating that you leaked the hillary clinton e-mail story. did you leak the hillary clinton e-mail story valerie? >> no mika i did not. as you know it's preposterous. >> is it fair to say she didn't follow regulation though?

>> as the president said last week he really prides himself on having an administration that's transparent and he was glad to see that she's turning over her e-mails to the state department. so, yes, that's very important. >> let's bring in our clintonologist emeritus joe klein. you've written about bill clinton and hillary clinton in so many ways. disseth this for us. i've been through this enough and you've probably been through this enough where i go okay this just happens with the clintons. they're going to figure out a way to get by and at the end we're going to look back and say it's much ado about nothing. people on the inside though are starting to whisper, she may not even run. what do you think? >> i think she's going to run but i'm continually amazed by their ability to impretzel themselves in relatively simple situations. >> why do they do it? >> i think that she is very very cautious and having been burned so many times.

all of the way back to white whitewater and before. in 1993 she was the one who said, no, we're not going to release all of the documents. if they had released all of the documents and if she had said i'm going to have aconference ask me anything you want it would have been over i think. >> well, you had the rose law billing records disappear for two years and then show up magically. >> yes. >> and so it seems after that when -- >> there is a fair amount of magical realism. >> when you have -- yeah when you have the evidence disappear for two years and they say they don't know where it is and it shows up in their house on a table, it's kind of hard to say, well, that was much ado about nothing. here it's just bizarre. 35,000 e-mails have disappeared. the question is this -- somebody posed this question to me last night. we all know the clintons give up nothing they don't have to give up. why did hillary clinton volunteer that she had deleted

35,000 e-mails when we would have never known that she deleted 35,000 e-mails. >> might have known. >> on the server. >> at some point someone may getting access to that server and it's going to be on the hard drive. to me the amazing thing politically right now is she doesn't change the subject. we haven't heard anything substantive from hillary clinton about issues that people really care about in months. with the exception of women's issues. >> i would say years. joe klein, thank you so much. greatly appreciate, still ahead on "morning joe," barney frank joins the conversation. also from the hit show "the americans," actress alison wright. and retired mark kelly. up next senator ted cruz of texas is standing by in the green room. we've got loss toalso to talk with him about. the volkswagen jetta is really fun-to-drive. go for it. okay. wow... woohoo! i'm dreaming... pinch me. no, not while you're driving. and, right now, you can get a one-thousand-dollar

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this is a cheap shot. senator ted cruz is walking in and he looks at us and he says

i was trying to find green in the gift shop and mika immediately panicked and said go get my green scarf. >> we're good. >> i think we should give that to ted. >> would you like to borrow joe? >> no. >> with us now, member of the armed services committee and potential presidential candidate and man who makes little children cry. >> little girls. >> republican senator ted cruz. we were just talking about willie geist, a similar situation. willie talked about it with the pie in the face. >> on the "today" show friday i got a pie in the face and someone sent us an iphone video falling and crying. the senator up in new hampshire. we've got a clip. he's doing a town hall meeting. >> listen to her voice. >> check it out. >> obamacare is a train wreck. and the obama/clinton foreign policy of leading from behind the whole world is on fire. >> the whole world is on fire?

>> the world is on fire yes. your world is on fire. but you know what? your mommy is here and everyone is here to make sure that the world you grow up in is. even better. >> good recovery. a little late i tell you, a little late. >> a little laughter around there, everything. >> for the record the little girl's mother called in and said she's a big ted cruz supporter and said the girl was not crying and said the world is on fire and ted cruz is going to put it out. >> you're a fireman. >> i actually talked to the mother yesterday, called her because she was very dismayed. this is blown up in the media. every reporter has written about it. it's gotten worse and worse. it was first girl startled. then it became girl terrified. by tend of it i'm freddy krueger like torturing this girl in her nightmare. and i'll tell you, it was funny because julia, the bill 3-year-old, she was in the background and her mommy said

ted cruz is on the phone. who is ted cruz. julie at the top of the voice said, the fireman. >> it's all good. so talk about new hampshire, how crazy it is. getting to new hampshire, iowa. you get there and everything you said something this weekend and i just saw a quick shot. there are like 30 or 40 photographers. you sneeze and they come. how crazy is it up there? >> new hampshire is fabulous. what's great is you -- >> i'm talking specifically about the press, everywhere you go. >> the press is everywhere. it's interesting, there's a big divide between local press and national press. and so, you know i spent two days in new hampshire. the local press all covered the substance of what i said the reactions of what happened. national press, it was all about the little girl and me terrifying her. you can literally read the story side by side as if they're covering mars and venus. and, look what i respect about new hampshire is the men and women there they take this very seriously. the whole country really relies

on them to look people in the eyes and ask the hard questions. >> what is the hard question that's asked of you? what's the tough question that you keep hearing over and over again out there? >> the toughest question that i think every candidate is being asked is how can we trust you? people are so fed up with politicians, frankly in both parties, that sound great on the stump. they tell pemople what that it want to hear and then go to washington about don't do what they said. you get a variant of that question over and over and over again. people with cynical and tired of being lied to and looking for someone to tell them the truth. >> let's talk about what some politicians find out there. the republicans are not so good at handling but you seem to go there. you know republicans are against big government, but a lot of people on main street are getting more and more concerned about big business about crony capitalism, about the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, too big to fail getting biggers about billionaires paying 14% tax rates while their secretaries are paying 28% tax

rates. will you talk about those issues? do you talk about thoser erissues and how do people respond in the republican party? >> i think a lot of times the biggest lie in politics is that republicans are the party of the rich. the truth of the matter is the rich, big business does great with big government. it gets in bed with big government. they have armies of lawyers and lobbyists and accountants. the top 1% today earn a higher share of our income than any year since 1928. what we've seen for the entire into course of the obama administration is the rich are getting richer. people are doing well are doing even better. but working men and women millions of people are hurting. >> that's a 30-year trend. how do we reverse that? >> i think the only way to reverse it is to get back to booming economic growth growth is what drives everything. growth comes from smale businesses. two-thirds of all new jobs come from small businesses. and i try to approach every domestic issue through the prism of what i call opportunity

conservatism which is what we should focus like a laser on opportunity, on easing the means of a set up the economic ladder. i try to look at things from the perspective of my dad who in 1957 came from cuba with nothing and washed dishes making 50 cents an hour. >> give us an issue where a piece of administration the cruz administration would push first to make sure that the rich didn't keep getting richer the poor didn't keep getting poorer and the middle class didn't keep getting squeezed. >> what drives economic mobility is growth. two historic levers government has had for growth have been tax reform and regulatory reform. every time we have employed those, whether in the 1920s, 1960s, or the 1980s, we've seen a enormous growth. every time on the other hand we explode taxes and spending and regulation we see stagnation and malaise. >> specifics. >> specifics. >> what are your tax reform look like and then i'll pass it over to everybody else who has a lot of questions.

what would ted cruz's tax reform package look like? >> the perfect, ideal, and what you would expect. the perfect and ideal is a simple flat tax where every person can fill out his or her tax's an postcard which would enable you to abolish the irs. >> what's the rate? >> you know that -- we're still working on numbers. i haven't rolled out a specific tax plan. and there are tradeoffs you have in terms of you have a standard deduction, how high it is impacts the rate. >> big picture, flat tax. >> flat tax guy. low and simple. now, that's not easy to do. a lot of forces in washington a lot of lobbyists don't want it. a lot of folks have -- like to me as someone who doesn't compromise. my attitude on compromise is the same on reagans. reagan asked what do you do if they offer you half a loaf? you take it and then come back for more. on tax reform i would agree to

tax reform fa broadened the base, that lowered the rates, that simplified the code, that moved towards a flat tax even if it didn't go all the way and once we passed it i would try to go back and say, okay let's finish it. >> it's interesting. you're talking about the art of a deal and we have negotiations going on with iran and it doesn't seem like that approach applies the way that you have signed this letter along with 46 other senators. so i guess the question i have first is was the intention of the letter to get in the way of a negotiations as it is proved to? >> look the intention of the letter was two things. number one, to defend our national security. i think this deal that is being negotiated by the obama administration is profoundly dangerous, both to the security of our friend and ally israel but also to american national security. i believe this deal -- >> so it was intended to get in the way of the deal? >> it was intended to stop a bad deal. absolutely. and beyond that it was also intended to defend the constitution. look, i'm a constitutionalist. you ask a person on the street

if president obama negotiates an agreement with iran, does he have to submit that to congress? everyone says, of course. if you ask a seventh grader who had civics. you can either sign a treaty and have it ratified by two-thirds of the senate or -- >> the fact that the twice now it's come up and caused problems in the negotiations and hard liners are using it, that was the intention? you wanted that to happen? >> the idea that hard liners are using it is utter silliness. listen i have -- >> why? >> -- previously helped negotiate a treat by. i was part of the team that helped negotiate the treaty on cyber crime in the counsel on europe. i will tell you as part of the u.s. delegation we used all the time the simple reality that when other countries press for some provision we said, look this can't get through congress. for this treaty to be ratified it's got to be able to get through the senate. what you're asking for can't get through congress. if we actually had negotiators

that were trying to defend our national security if anything the letter would help them because what the letter makes clear is for any deal to be binding, it has to go through congress, and, mika the letter should not have proven necessary. if we didn't have a president like barack obama who routinely tries to circumvent congress and the senate when it comes to treaties there wouldn't be a need for a letter making clear that our constitution gives congress a vital role in lawmakering. >> i'm still talk about the fact that you are saying to me that what's happening now in terms of the hard liners using the letter to get -- to kind of stall on these negotiations was actually a part of your intention. it just seems extreme himly destructive. >> is it your position that it's inappropriate for congress to rein in the president on foreign policy? >> i think it's not inappropriate for congress to have a say and to have a voice and that's what they are there for. but to interfere with a

negotiation with iran and to actually possibly even undermine a deal in the making, which basically the next step to that is to just get right down the road to war. >> mika -- >> no it's not. no it's not. hold on a second. no it's not. forgive me for interrupting but the choice is not between war and a bad deal. >> well, actually it seems like -- go ahead, ted cruz the choice is to work on this deal -- >> what am i, willie, a potted plant? >> yes. yes. >> should i -- >> no. >> why is it -- we've talked about this nonstop. why is it so hard for you believe that there are a lot of us who think a bad deal is a lot worse than no deal at all? >> well, okay do you know exactly what the deal is to call it a bad deal? do you have all the information? i don't think you do. >> we don't. we have some that the administration has leaked. oddly enough the administration leaks more details about the deal to the media than they actually inform congress. but i can point out the idea you're suggesting if i'm

understanding you'll right, that congress shouldn't be interfering in what the president is doing, from the beginning of our country, congress has done so. in 1987 congress passed the boland amendment restricting the contras in nicaragua. my guess is you probably would have been very support i of the amendment which is literally ripping the carpet out from underneath what president reagan was trying to do in nicaragua. woodrow wilson at the end of world war i negotiated the treaty ending world war i. went back to congress, the senate rejected it. on your view i guess, you know the "new york daily news" would run a story on the front page putting the pictures of all the senators and calling them traitors. look that's how our system works. and i think the constitution is a wonderful thing. we don't have a supreme leader like iran does. we have checks and balances. and if you want to make law in this country, you need both the

president and congress. this is a unilateral president. that's an enormous problem. >> i've got to say anybody who says you can be offended by the letter you you can be offended by netanyahu. but anybody who says this is unprecedented. >> i never said that. >> john kerry said it's unprecedented. john kerry said it's un unconstitutional. >> this is deflecting. the history of this is deflecting which the intention of the letter is what's happening and i'm concerned you're saying you liking it. >> 1984 it wasn't just the boland act 1984 democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to ortega apologizing for ronald reagan's anticommunist views. so this is not unprecedented. you can be offended be eded but, please let's call it what it is. it is unfortunately a long part of our history. >> senator, let me turn and ask you about the next year or so of your life. new hampshire, of course is

beautiful this time of year but i suspect you weren't up there -- >> i think everyone will be vacationing there, particularly in the winter months. it's extraordinary. >> it's a beautiful place but you have other reasons i'm sure to be up there. no secret that you're considering a run for president. when you look at the support you had at places like cpac very popular there. what's the argument against running? why wouldn't you get into this presidential race? >> i'm looking at it very seriously. the support we're seeing on the ground has been phenomenal. about a month ago i was in iowa at a large gathering. one of these cattle calls where you have eight or ten potential candidates. and at the end of my remarks i asked folks to text in their cellphone numbers, if they want to be part of our grass roots army. now, there were 1200 people in that auditorium. how many do you think texted in? >> about all of them. >> 3,600. it was actually 300% -- now, it was live streamed online. we're seeing that.

it was interesting even this weekend in new hampshire, you know, the first story we talked about the media boom led about the little girl. the first story that broke, that was one of your competitors, it was cnn. and i think that article is actually worth looking at very closely because buried down in about the 20th paragraph of that article is a paragraph that said that there were substantially larger groups crowds of voters that came out when i was there than had come out for either jeb bush or scott walker and there was more enthusiasm. you might think in the world of journalism that used to be called news and that's kind of called burying the lead. >> burying the lead. >> that's the 20th paragraph. and it's interesting. what was cnn's headline? cnn's headline was "cruz startles little girl and snubs a goat." >> thanking god -- thank god there wasn't a missing airline. >> you snubbed a goat? >> given that support that --

>> a goat who bites, by the way. jon huntsman got bit. everyone told me be careful of the goat because it will take a finger finger. >> let's put the goat aside. given the support -- >> fraternity. >> given the support you're describing here that you've seen out there, why not run for president? what's the argument against it? >> i'm looking at it very seriously. really measuring our support. right now the support we're seeing is very encouraging. >> so the little girl thing, very cute. i think you're very nice. >> thank you you're going to get a lot of grief from your listeners. >> i am. but i want to look at just how deeply we disagree on something here. john mccain says he's sorry for signing that letter. he cia says he wouldn't have. today would you still sign it? >> i would sign it and, as john hancock said i would sign it in large print. >> there you go. >> so that the ayatollah wouldn't need his reading glasses to read the signature. >> we so disagree respectfully if senator ted cruz thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> good to have you.

>> now as they would say on bullwinkle and now for something completely different, former congressman barney frank will be our next guest on "morning joe." >> yes.

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we got former u.s. congressman from massachusetts barney frank author of a new memoir" trank, a life in politics from society to same-sex marriage." it's great to have you here. i want to talk about the book. read extraordinary things about it. let's talk about, first of all, israel and the netanyahu election. looks like he's in trouble right now. does that surprise you? >> i think that was a desperation kind of move. >> no palestinian state? >> you don't want to do that. it really raises his stakes. and if he gets reelected, just puts a moan against the world. i got to say this about netanyahu. unfortunately the way he's done things, i'm a great believer in israel and supporter, but he's not to make them less popular thannat fanatics on the other side. it takes a lot to have european countries being more critical of israel in some ways than they are and this would make it worse.

he obviously understands these stakes. it does seem he's putting his own political interests ahead of the country's interests, which he's done before. and if he gets re-elected he looks like he might not be it's a serious problem going forward. >> it's interesting you also have egypt and other sunni states that are closer to israel than they've ever been, the opportunity is ripe to strike a deal. >> this undercuts them. >> yeah. >> basically undercuts any of the more moderate arabs of or the less fanatical arabs. it basically says, my re-election is so important, well, this is the time in a metaphor is probably a little out of kilter it's not a hail mary pass, maybe a hail sarah pass mose's wife -- abraham's. if he wins on this platform i worry for israel's future. >> let's talk about your book. the reviews have all been great. >> amazing. >> but a lot of people a lot of

publications, like the atlantic say the most moving parts of the book are not when you talk at your extraordinary life in public life your politics but when you talk about your struggles with sexuality. this is not just about how i won the war in congress book this is deeply personal. >> as i said it's kind of -- when i was 14 which is 60 years ago, i assumed that i would never really be very successful in politics which i was interested in sort of prematurely perhaps because i knew that being a member of this hated minority, by the way, the notion that some 14-year-old decided, you know what i think i'll do i think i'll choose to be a member of one of the most hated minority groups. everyone knows that teenagers likes this. and i said, i'll never be influential in government and i won't be able to accomplish things i want. the irony is as things went on i think the country got more mature, i became more and more influential in government but government became less and less influential in associatity. >> interesting.

>> as i said by the time i left someone polled and told me that my marriage as the first member of congress to involve in the same-sex marriage while in congress polled much better than my chairmanship of the financial services committee. >> wow. >> remarkable scene in the book where you go into tip o'neil's office and you reveal to him that you're gay. can you recap that? >> even more -- maybe i wouldn't make it clear because it was on the floor of the house. we were debating the contra issue, '86, a book was about to come out written ironically by bob bowman a conservative anti-gay republican who got caught and had to -- got defeated. and i said to tip, you know a book is coming out that says i'm gay. he said oh, don't be listening to that bleep, they're always trying to spread that stuff about us. i said well, yeah tip, in this case, it is true. he said oh, barney i'm so sad. he said he thought i had a great cash rear. he had been coming from schroeder, and apparently told

her. and a minute or two later pat said oh, my god, thank god you're here. tip just said to me did you hear the sad news about barney. it's just terrible. he thought i had a stroke. he wasn't anti himself. he was worried for me. when i went back and i thought it was chris matthews. make a correction it was mike barnicle. mike is the one, he said to mike barnicle. they were playing golf or something. geez, mike, it's really too bad about barney frank. throw in politics they tell me he's going to come out of the room. >> come out of the room. >> tip always got the music right in my judgment but the words he sometimes said -- >> that's amazing. amazing how, as a teenager though you -- your entire future you felt wasn't going to be as bright and some of the things you loved to do because of who you were. you knew it. you had an instinct. it was wrong, ultimately. >> it's a sign of how we make progress in this country. i was also concerned that being

jewish that it was going to constrain me. one of the great things in this country and capacity to progress is antisemitism is no longer a factor in people's career choices. it was 60 years ago. as i said i did all right. i'm never going to tell anybody i'm gay but i had already outed myself at the bar mitzvah. >> okay. >> what do you -- looking back on your political career all the things you've done, what do r. you the most proud of today? >> i'm always sound kind of well, i guess your choices between either unbelievable modesty or -- one was the financial reform bill. holding up very well. two, the lgbt stuff. for example, little known but when i got to congress i knew there was a provision in america that said if you were a sec well pervert, actually said if your afflicted with a psychopath thick personality, you couldn't come to america even on visa and i determined when i did the immigration bill i was going to

get rid of that. with the help of alan simpson i was able to do that. the other thing i've done that i'm very proud of that doesn't get a lot of attention, i have always been skeptical as home ownership is the answer for low income people and pushed for rental housing. i had consistent 30 years, that's why i got on the committee in the first place, i think there's more rental housing for lower income people. >> all right. >> the book is "frank former congressman barney frank. thank you so much. >> can you come back sometime soon? we would love to talk to you more about this? >> of course. >> and everything else that's going on. >> okay. >> give you a call. all right. more "morning joe" in a moment.

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married, who loves you more than you will ever know. >> oh, my god. what have i done? >> that was a scene from tomorrow night's episode. >> it's really good. >> with us the costar of the series alison wright. >> he's driving her crazy. >> martha has been used and abused for three seasons. things are about to change. >> it's not over yet, but she had a lot going on last week. it seems like the ax is falling. we'll see tomorrow exactly how. >> back up for the viewers. explain "the americans."

>> it's a cold war espionage spa drama about a married couple who are russians posing as americans and they have an exciting spy lives and not such a great marriage. >> they are working on the marriage, it keeps getting better. there is something about it, too. you actually get pulled back into the cold war here. it's pretty exciting. it's a history that a lot of us live ed lived through. what is it about this show that seemed to have clicked? why does it work so well? >> i think at the heart of it it's the family drama and the struggles. it's impossible for them to get on the same page. the audience wants them to figure it out and bond and work their things out, but their ideologies are so different at this point. as much as they love each other and want to be together, it's impossible for them at the moment. not to mention that he's married to me on the side.

>> by the way not only is he married to you on the side, he's now having to chase an 18-year-old girl. he's got a busy spy life. >> he has more hours in his day for sure. >> i think he does. this is one of your first roles. how did this happen? how did you get thrown into the middle of something this big? >> i got really lucky, i think. my fantastic manager called me one night. i was watching a show. you have this can you get this audition done in ten hours. i think so, quickly read it, watched the rest of the show, went home, started working on it taped it at 10:00 a.m. it was in l.a. within a few hours. they were like okay we're coming to new york to meet you. >> are you surprised how it's blown up? now you have "rolling stone" saying it may be the best tv

drama o out there. did you know from the beginning the writing was so great and the acting was so great? >> you never can tell. shows that are wonderful and the the best things ever are cancelled. so you never can tell. you can only hope it's going to be received well. >> that crazy turnover, that's how it usually happens. alison wright thank you so much. "the americans" airs wednesday nights, check it out. up next he was one of the top nfl rookies last season. so why is san francisco 49er chris borland retiring at 24? plus as voters head to the polls in israel we'll have the last pitch from benjamin netanyahu that contradicts his own promises made to the u.s. oh yea, that's coming down let's get some rocks, man. health can change in a minute. so cvs health is changing

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, with us onset we have dorian warren. and michael crowley. we start this morning in israel. . at this hour more than 10,000 polling places are open across the country. nearly 6 million israelis can vote in the elections for parliament and it's expected to be the highest turnout since 1999. this is israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu casting his ballot. he's seeking a fourth term in office. he is fighting for his political life this morning as polls show him and his party behind. the man who could replace him,

the union oos party who appears to be on the way to pick up the most seats. they are dealing with last-minute bids to to sway support as they head to the polls. benjamin netanyahu is vowing there will not be a palestinian state as long as he's prime minister. that goes against what he said in his speech in 2009 in promises made to the the united states. it's seen as an attempt to gain support from voters on the right. some will drop plans to rotate as prime minister. they would have each served two years but some voters opposed that deal. benjamin netanyahu argues the reversal shows his opponents are panicking and insists he would not form a unity government. >> it's important to note we're not going to know right away who the next prime minister is going to be. the winner is not the party with the most votes, but it's the

party who can cobble together the most parties into a coalition. remember benjamin netanyahu came in sect place in 2009 but he still became prime minister. that makes you excited because that gives you hope even though he's behind right now, you still could have him as prime minister. >> anything could happen since he's doing the last-minute swing swings to the right. >> i want to bring in david about that. it smacks a desperation that benjamin netanyahu would say this and go against what he's promised in the past. i'm sure it causes concern in the international community. what's your reaction? >> to be honest joe, i think this is more an attempt by benjamin netanyahu to consolidate his right wing base to say no never on the palestinian state. those are the votes he has to pull today in large numbers if he's going to have any chance of having a total that's big enough to think about forming a coalition. the last week has been a reminder to me that in israel

as in most places politics is local. and particular it's been a reminder that the israeli economy, you hear people talk about two israelis a high-tech israel that's booming where people are making a lot of money. the top 1% is richer than it ever dreamed. and another israel where people are not doing so well. that's clearly been a factor. >> are we overreading things like benjamin netanyahu's speech to the united states congress? are we looking at that from our point of view and is that screw skewing things? >> it turns out that it looks like it's more. about the economy in this israeli election than we thought. i don't think we're overinterpreting his speech in terms of u.s. politics and decisions. that was a really major moment where an israeli leader comes to lobby against a u.s. president.

the repercussions of that are continuing. they don't appear to be driving this election from what we can tell so far. >> michael crowley, you asked the question whether his speech hurt his chances. what do you think? >> so i think what david said squares with what my reporting found and what bb's allies said. this was a pocketbook election in israel. i think ultimately, although there are some people who argue including i had one pretty conservative friend say he thought the speech could have been a distraction. in other words, some people were saying it took his focus away from these kitchen table issues that the election is revolving around. it was hard to find people who said this really backfired or

blew up which you did see immediately after the speech was a slight bump in the polling. his party picked up a couple seats. what some analysts contributed to the fact he was commanding all the attention over in israel. but then he trailed off. i think people thought in the end it was probably a wash. >> the white house says the controversial letter to iran about a possible nuclear deal is putting secretary of state john kerry in an awkward position during talks chrks are taking place now in switzerland. a top official says iran confronted the u.s. about the letter for two days in a row. the official says quote, these kinds of distractions are not helpful when we're talking about something so serious. meanwhile, the "new york times" reports iran has sent weapons and missiles for iraqi forces to use against isis. iran has not launched any of the weapons, but the u.s. is concerned it could increase

tensions in the area. this all comes as iraqi officials admit their offensive to reclaim saddam hussein's hometown has stalled. they are reporting a large number of casualties. >> david, the last line you can't help but crack up. tragically whether the iraqi army needs nor training. we have been doing that for 20 years now. >> that project doesn't seem to be going very well. but this is new training. >> new training new and improved training. >> that old training may not have worked very well. >> are you saying that the new training will suggest that these soldiers not drop their weapons and run home at the first sound of fire crackers in the distance? >> the idea is to have more discipline control, better officers. they do have a little bit better in both those categories. . the problem in the battle for

tikrit is it reveals the fundamental conflicts in the u.s. strategy. tikrit is a sunni place. it's saddam hussein's hometown, for goodness sakes. it's been retaken largely with shiite militia men. the problem is that creates resentments, rivalries that will last well after the battle is over. the battle isn't going all that quickly, but i think that's the underlying issue we should think about. somehow the u.s. has to train both the iraqi military and sunni militias that could play a role in the fight. >> training the iraqis is tough. we have mcarthur, i shall return. they dissolved in '91. we were the fourth largest army.

and then we show up and they head out for the weekend. you look at 2003 on and on and on, and then the same thing happened this past year. >> and we're counting on them. if we say we're not going to send more american troops the fighters are going to be the iraqis. >> it's actually the iranians splp that's what i was going to ask this front page story about iran sending arms. these two missiles to fight isis. reason for concern for you? john mccain and others have said it's a bad thing to have iran leading the fight and not the united states against isis although it is a common enemy. >> i think it is a concern in large part because the greater the iranian role, the more reluctant sunnis will be to take part in this it fight. if it doesn't involve the sunnis, it's not going to be a stable outcome. the iranians were first in to help. we have to admit when your bill

was being overrun, it was the iranians who came in with big artillery. when i was in irbil, i heard a lot of kurds who were grateful for the iranian support. so they are in this, they are helping. the question is whether their help will overwhelm the other s a pekts of the coalition. >> before we move on, you did not look at the first part of that story. it's funny that you latched on to the second part. that's where the will theletter is getting in the way of the negotiations. the letter by the 47 senators which i had some choice words for yesterday. but it it appears i'm not the only one. >> do you want to take that back? he needs to have a binky. >> i think the secretary of state has said and others have said that letter is undermining. >> and literally it is.

it's comeing up. >> it's coming up. it doesn't excuse the iranians for using the letter as an excuse not to advance negotiations, but it's undermining the role of the president in leading the negotiations. >> we'll ask ted cruz about that later. there are new signs that hillary clinton and the e-mail controversy may be impacting her likely bid for president. a new cnn opinion research poll shows americans are split over how serious her use of a private server really is. but a majority to do not believe she's done enough to explain why she used it. clinton's favorability has fallen 6 points from a year ago. when it comes to whether americans find her honest and trust worthy. 57% say they would be proud to have her as president. "usa today" reports that clinton spent more than $300,000 on charter flights in the four years before her 2008

presidential campaign that made her the top spender in the senate. and the state department spokeswoman is struggling to answer the question as to whether or not clinton signed a separation form when stepping down as secretary of state. >> a human resources department presumably has a file on every employee. it can't be that difficult. >> i don't think former secretaries are standard employees. >> they might not be but how hard can it be? >> i understand why you're asking. we're looking to get an answer. >> where do these forms once they are signed go? >> where in the building do they go? >> if i asked for the form or someone else who left -- >> i'm not sure how many forms we would be willing to give you access to. >> wow. it's so fascinating that question came up yesterday because a couple days ago i had

a friend in the intelligence community call me. you know what it's the clintons. it's going to be split 50/50. if you like the clintons then everybody is after them. he cut me off. he said everybody in government has to sign the separation form. and on the separation form, you make guarantees that you're turning over all relevant information including classified documents and any other, et cetera. my friend in the intel community said this is a big deal. i was like, whatever, we'll see. then suddenly somebody is asking this question. apparent ly apparently a lot of people in government are asking about that separation letter because you make guarantees when you sign these separation letters that you are turning over material. as he said, i'm not saying it, i don't believe it's going to happen but he said if i signed a separation paper making these guarantees and then had a server at home i promise you i would be in jail for five to ten

years. >> this goes to what i think is the bigger issue of this story, which is now week two of the story, and that is one set of rules for the clintons, another set of rules for everyone else. it's not that there might be something about the e-mail controversy itself that's beginning to blow up. it's the accumulation of all of these events, the charter flights, e-mail that leads to clinton fatigue and especially among democratic primary voters. there's this broader sense of fatigue with whatever the scandal might be whatever the details might be there's a a sense of fatigue among democrats. >> the form is of had-109. as you point out, it opens up secretary clinton to perjury charges because if she released classified information two years after agreeing she would separate and not, then she's in trouble. >> that would settle it if we got the answer. maybe we would be able to put this away for her. >> some of the troubling

questions that linger out there, it has to do with the state department, the white house, the administration. if she didn't sign a document maybe she did, but why is she allowed within this administration it to live by a standard that nobody in president obama's white house would ever live by? they would never presume to be able to do this. >> i think that's the heart of the matter here. are the clintons treated as special since the beginning of bill clinton's presidency there's been a perception that they are, they they want to be part of the public resentment to them. it's something hillary clinton has to deal with. as each of these new little mini scandals comes along, she's going to have to come out and deal with it if she's going to be a candidate. i'm still not certain she's going to be a candidate. >> i heard this last night. i was talking to -- it's very

interesting. my political instinct tells me she's going to run because she's running against no credible big challengers. so he's going to win. but i'm hearing more and more people on the inside saying what david is saying. they don't think -- they are not so sure she's going to run. that this is going to continue to brew up and another scandal and another scandal. i still think she's going to run. when you have 57% of americans saying they are proud to have somebody as president, that's amazing. >> you have to imagine not just from american people but from her, don't you think at some level she's sitting watching and saying, do i really want to go through this for the next decade? i think the answer is yes, but it's tough. >> she sees what her husband has done since leaveing the white house. he's done pretty extraordinary things. i just wonder if she thinks, you know what, i could do that, but i could do extraordinary things without dogs yapping at my

ankles for the next decade. let's turn to an amazing story. we have been talking about the nfl and brain injuries. san francisco 49ers linebacker chris borland has retired from football at age 24 krooiting concerns over the effects of head trauma. borland, who is not suffering from symptoms said he's being proactive with his decision. he told espn's outside the lines, quote, i thought to myself, what am i doing? it is this how i'm going to live my adult life? especially i learned about the dangers. more than 70 players have been diagnosed with brain damage after their deaths. he was a rising star. a rookie for the 49ers last year. he got. a lot of playing time defensive player of the week one week votes for defensive rookie of the year. this isn't some guy who took this lightly. he a bright career ahead of him.

could have made a lot of money and said it's not worth it and i'm stepping aside. >> do you think we're going to see more of that? >> i think yeah. a guy who sat down and looked through all the data and seen guys retired, seen what happens to them i could have the world. i could own san francisco, but i'm not going to do it because i'm worried about my brain. >> that's a statement. still ahead on "morning joe," years before he began a courageous relationship with gabrielle giffords, mark kelly was an aspiring astronaut. first, bill karins. >> he said he wanted to do something. that would make people happy. . >> it's going to be a great interview. >> bill don't lie to us. >> it's amazing how the cold and miserable weather is right where joe and mika are all winter long. the rest of the country

continues beautiful. it's gorgeous from the central plains. it was hot yesterday. the air conditioners were on in nebraska while people in the new england area had heaters blasting on full blast. it's not fair. that's the way it's been as of late. we continue with the hot conditions here. also we saw temperatures in the 90s four days in a row in los angeles. that's l.a. in march, that doesn't happen. that's never happened before. we're continuing that trend today. we have cooling things off a little bit. yesterday mccook, nebraska 93 degrees. that was the warmest they have ever been this early in the season. st. patrick's day forecast, the parade is looking good in new york. savannah looks great. just a few showers down there in texas. more "morning joe" when we come back. when account lead craig wilson books at laquinta.com. he gets a ready for you alert the second his room is ready. so he knows exactly when he can settle in and practice his big pitch. and when craig gets his pitch down pat, do you know what he becomes? great

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let's take a look at the morning papers. politico elijah cummings said it took five days for the director of the secret service to learn about the latest situation. two are accused of crashing into a barrier during a suspicious package investigation after they were drinking. the director is scheduled to testify before a congressional panel later today and to meet with the house oversight committee tomorrow. from the miami herald, charlie crist will not jump into the race in florida. he lost to marco rubio in 2010 and ran as a democrat losing to rick scott in 2014. the herald says the fact that democrats were even considering crist as a candidate is a sign

of the party's thin political bench. from buzzfeed eric shock may have shelled out more than dplr 5,000 on a replica of president obama's podium. last month "usa today" reported shock paid $5,100 for a presidential model to the illinois republican but would have to check his records to confirm. this is not the first time his spending habits have raised red flags after allegations the congressman spent $35,000 of tax pay er money on a downton abbey style office decor. he repaid the expense from his personal checking account. >> i like your podium willie. >> how much did that cost? >> the associated press, oregon is the first state to automatically register its residents to vote. under new legislation, every

adult in the state who is not registered to vote but has interacted with the dmv since 2013 will receive a ballot in the mail 20 days prior to the next election. oregon also became the first state to hold all its elections by mail-in ballots. state officials predict the new law will add 300,000 new voters. and the story of the day former governor mitt romney is set to step into the ring with former heavy weight evander holyfield. this is for charity. proceeds go to charity, an organization that provides surgeries and medical services to people with vision problems around the world. the bout is scheduled for may 15th in salt lake city. >> that will be something to see. >> willie i don't even know what to say. >> unhand me. >> the thrill of vanilla. >> there are going to be two distinct punching styles. holyfield always comes up here.

and mitt, boom boom. he's got it over there. old timy boxing definitely. >> unhand me. >> call my people. thank you, willie. moving on now, real estate heir robert durst could face the death penalty in connection with the murder of a friend more than a decade ago in los angeles. he was charged with first-degree murder after waiving extradition following his arrest in louisiana over the windeekend. he was also booked in new orleans on gun possession charges. the arrest came just hours before the finale of an hbo documentary series about durst and his connections to two deaths and his wife's disappearance. his attorney says they are ready to go to court. >> bob durst didn't kill his

wife. he's ready to end all the rumor and have a trial. but we're frustrated because the local authorities are considering filing charges on him here and holding him here. we're ready to go to california and have a trial. >> i should have worn a hat like that. >> that would have helped. >> that would have made a big difference. >> the shocking finale where durst says he killed them all would be allowed as evidence. it took months to realize the open mic moment was recorded and the arrest was timed to coincide with the finale. >> it's unbelievable. >> can you imagine sitting in the edit room and going, what did they just say? >> it's unbelievable. coming up on "morning joe," all eyes will be on the federal reserves meeting later today. it could result in some fire works. what will it mean for wall

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before the bell with brian sullivan. here with us onset, news and finance anchor bianna golodryga. brian, where you want to start? >> we have a couple things to look at. the fed meeting begins today.

for the last eight years, the fed meetings have been wrote. but this is going to be different because there's a real chance that we could see our first interest rate hike in nine years later on this year. people are looking to the june meeting, the september meeting, it's all about the language. we have a two-day fed meeting. the price of oil continues to slide. you have probably talked about the iran deal. we might see iran releasing more oil. another 800,000 barrels a day. the world has too much oil. we're below $43. the good news for consumers is that gas prices are likely to fall again. for the folks in texas, that is not good news because they have been shutting down oil rigs and cutting jobs because of this. >> let's go back to the fed meeting. you mentioned they would be parsing words on wall street. that's where you see the disconnect between wall street and main street. if we see action or hipts of action that means the economy is recovering. yet wall street is not going to

like that. >> i like your point. this is one of these differences. most of us live on main street and not on wall street. the concept is simple. if the fed raises rates, borrowing costs are going to look up. you have to look at the causation. things are getting better. stocks can survive. this is my opinion. they have done so many times over the past 100 years. but to your point, the economy is improving. we actually saw housing data that was weaker than expected. you know what they said? a labor shortage. they are having a hard time finding construction workers. we're going to start to see wages rise this year i suspect. that's good news. >> it's good news. you also have apple, uber and tesla in the news. >> i can get to all three. they are not related. apple may release its own 25-channel box after a falling out with comcast. uber's cfo resigned.

the company is down $40 billion. he will stay on as a consultant. and tesla may release a longer range version of the model s or a software update that gives you more range. the electric car, am i going to run out of juice? there's three stories in 30 seconds. >> pretty good. >> where do you see the future of tesla if oil prices stay where they are? >> it's a great question. i love tesla. the company is spectacular. i don't know if anyone who buys a tesla is gas price sensitive any way. if you're buying a car that starts at $70,000 and goes north of $100,000 i don't know if you're looking at the price of a gallon of gas that closely any way. right now, electric cars and some people are going to hate me for saying this, are third cars mainly for high income folks. i would love to get an electric car that costs $35,000. if you could show it to me i'd

buy it tomorrow but it doesn't exist tomorrow. we turn to this frightening event in the skies when a disruptive passenger caused a flight to return to dulles last night. some of the incident was caught on a fellow passenger's cell phone camera. kristen welker has that story. frightening moments after a passenger had to unruly. >> declaring an emergency due to a disturbance. he's restrained. we need to return to the airport. the disruptive flier attempted to reach the cockpit and then claimed he had a bomb. audio reveals how the other passengers got involved in the

scuffle. >> there's a passenger in the back. he ran forward towards the cockpit and he is being restrained by other passengers. the cockpit is secure and we'd like to return to the airport. >> please stop. >> after the passenger was restrained, the plane returned to dulles around 10:40 p.m. law enforcement officials detained the passenger and was then take on to the hospital. >> luckily no weapons were found. no passengers or crew members were hurt either during the incident. up next from navy pielot to astronaut to author, a man with many hats and helmets. mark kelly joins the table. we'll be right back. it's a significant improvement over the infiniti we had... i've had a lot of hondas... we went around the country talking to people who made the switch to ford. the brand more people buy. and buy again. all-wheel drive is amazing... i felt so secure. i really enjoy the pep in its step... that's the ecoboost...

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now retired astronaut and navy captain mark kelly. he and his wife gabrielle giffords are co-founders of americans for responsible solutions. we're going to talk about that. but first, mark is out with a new children's book "astro twins." bring me back to the summer of '75 and one project blast off that was created by a set of twin twins. >> the true story is my brother and i didn't really build a rocket ship. >> are you sure? you're both pretty amazing today. isn't he planning to go to space next week? >> for a year. >> it's a week from friday he's launching. i will be there. we're beginning to send him into space for a year. >> for research correct? >> yeah, to extend the period of time and the understanding that we have of how you -- what you need to do to live in space. if we want to send somebody to

mars it's going to be a long trip. we have to continue to push the envelope there. >> so this book loosely based off of you and your brother's life, but in this case grandparent says don't watch tv. they go in a barn and build a rocket ship. >> they build a rocketship and one of us gets to go into space as kids. i think i successfully built a go cart when i was about that age, but it's more fun to think of rockets and rocket ships and have kids do exciting things. in the book i have a little bit of math and physics in there to try to push the envelope for kids around this age. >> what age is this? >> it could be read by parents at a very young age, but the kid reading it himself maybe 8 years old up to 12. >> i'm going to read this for jack and kate. >> so how did you and your

brother do it? what was it? most kids grow up and said i'd like to be an astronaut. and mom pats everybody on the head and then they go on and be tv hosts. how did you guys actually do this? >> i wanted to be the shortstop for the new york yankees, but derek jeter had the same idea. so i had to go on to something else. no really, it's about hard work, being focused and like a lot of things, a little bit of luck involved. a lot of people want to be astronauts. you have to be at the right place at the right time. we were both navy test pilots. >> how is your wife doing? >> she's doing really well. she's watching this right now. >> we talk all the time about how that tragedy changed a lot of things that you saw on tv. changed the way that network executives looked at programming. >> absolutely. we were a part of that conversation behind the scenes and in front of the cameras

because we felt like something was really wrong with the tone of everything leading up to that. and when it happened we were on the phone watching everything unfold and really shaken by it. how is her recovery first of all, going given the state of her injuries? i hear it's incredible how she's doing. >> yes, when you consider she was shot from about three feet away with a .9 millimeter in her head, it's remarkable she survived. to see how far she's come and continues to go. just with hard work she continues to improve. but it is a lot of hard work. i really admire her. she reminds me every day not to accept failure and to continue fighting. >> is your fighting on gun safety continuing? >> we have started the super pac to try to effect the political side of this issue. for such a long period of time it was really just the focus of

the gun lobby on this. we need to bring balance into this political environment. we're working very hard on it. >> she's speaking in hartford? >> she will be in connecticut. >> working on legislation there. >> domestic violence state legislation. >> it's obviously -- it's a lot easier said than done. we had such passionate conversations about certain forms of gun control and what you even call it is a controversy. >> background checks mainly. >> very common sense thing that are supported by upwards of 90% of all americans like the idea of getting a background check so you can keep guns out of the hands of felons domestic abusers, gun trafficking too. >> terrorists might be a good idea. >> right now, it's kind of sad that we have all these folks on the terrorist watch list. from what i understand, none of them by accident. it's all deliberate and there

haven't been many mistakes but they can still walk in and buy a gun. they are not prohibited from buying firearms and they really should be. >> is there a chance that you may follow in your wife's footstep footsteps and ever run for office? >> ever is a long time. ever is a long time. it's not at the top of my agenda right now. it's not what i have planned. >> is it a possibility? >> in the future it's certainly possible. it's not something i ever aspired to. gab i was the astronaut. i like technology and space. i have gotten into the political arena here but it's not something i'm planning skblp what's your brother going to do for a year in space? >> he's got to take care u of this $100 billion facility. there are four laboratories now. there's 400 experiments going on at any time. it's a lot of hard work. space station is starting to get up there in age.

>> we saw "armageddon." >> you talk about russia and us relying so much on the russians with our space program. given how icy the relationship is, are you worried about the future of nasa? >> long-term, but our relationship with the russian space agency is great. i was e-mailing a person i flew in space with just this morning in the car. see him in a couple weeks. at that level, we have a really good relationship. at the higher level, you never know. we need -- spacex is going to be a great option. >> this is great. >> the book is "astrotwins." mark kelly, thank you. up next women will sequel pay. the bad news not until 2058.

and even then it depends on where you live and who you are. entrepreneur bobby brown will weigh in next on "morning joe." taxi. vo: after years of being treated like she was invisible it occurred to mindy she might actually be invisible. ♪♪ but mindy was actually not invisible. ooh, what are you doing? can you see me? she had just always been treated that way. yeah. you don't have to look at me like that. there are worst things than an attractive woman touching your body. i'll go. join the nation that sees you as a priority. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ ♪ edith piaf "no regrets" plays throughout♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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are these all your books? all of them? >> there's eight. >> joining us now for our women series, the founder of bobby brown cosmetics, bobby brown.

you're getting up into my dad's numbers here. it's really good to have you on board this morning. new study, i want to bring this up before we launch into all things bobby. a new study conducted by the institute of women's policy research indicates that american women won't see equal pay until 2058. the study says that women in wyoming and louisiana on average make less money than female peers in urban states. it's depressing. there's some silver linings to thrks but it's taking so long. >> i'm curious to see if this is going to become an issue in the election. if you break down the states, the red states are really hit hard. west virginia, 50. the top states is new york maryland and driktd of columbia but if you look at the big picture, the u.s. ranks 65th in

the world when it comes to pay parody for men and women. egypt ranks 12th. 20th of their women are in the workforce, but there's a long way to go. the good news is your daughters are closing that gap. >> i hope so. >> and also the elderly women outlive men so they work longer. >> we just don't last as long. >> we have talked about this for different projects we have worked on together and the know your value issue. how much -- you run a company. do you see women struggling doing it for themselves. actually communicating effective effectively to fix the problem. there's a lot of challenges and that's where confidence comes in. you have to know you're good at what you do. you have to know that too and get people around you that are good at what you are not. >> let's talk about you then. because you know you're good at what you do. >> i know what i'm not good at and have people around me that

are good at that. >> you're at this point number one makeup artist brand founded by a woman. you went from selling lipsticks was the beginning. >> i started with ten lipsticks. i made a lipstick for myself. >> is that the key? ralph lauren was going around with ties. find something you're really good at start there. >> and work really hard and be focused on what you do. i made a lipstick for myself not for anyone else. something i couldn't find in the market. then i luckily met someone who

worked at bergdorf. >> mika talks about the confidence. where did you get. the confidence? >> i have something that has been the most successful for me. i'm really naive. i u don't think something is not going to work. if it doesn't work i'll do something else. >> often exaggerate too. >> how important do you find the support? i find that's key for me. my husband encourages me at times when i want to slow down. >> my husband is the one that says just breathe, you can do it. he'll never discuss anything with me at nighttime when i'm freaked out. we'll talk about it in the morning. he's really right. things look better in. the morning. >> tell me about pretty powerful. >> the campaign is great. it's basically a foundation and a movement that helps women feel good and pretty without makeup and with makeup you're powerful. what we do is we empower women through education. >> we're going to do a before and after picture. >> i love you without makeup. >> i love joe without makeup. >> i found out she helps guys too. and i asked her, can you make me look pretty. she said, it's impossible. >> i did not say that. >> she was very nice.

but guys this is incredible. more guys go to your website than women. >> yahoo! beauty. i'm the editor and chief at yahoo! beauty. guys still want to look good. guys want to booklook good. >> bobby brown, thank you. it's great to have you on. hope to see you again. up next, what, if anything did we learn today. shopping online is as easy as it gets. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list now it is. start shopping online from a list of top-rated providers. visit angieslist.com today.

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welcome back to "morning joe." happy st. patrick's day. what i learned today was mika learned from ted cruz. he told her to get green on and look at that. >> i d i learned that from ted cruz. that was an interesting interview. want to remind mepeople about philadelphia on april 10th. know your value event. but. i really want women to put their video submissions in for the grow your value bonus competition. just tell me why you have value and put it on video and upload it. it's so much fun. >> and win $2,000 for your business. >> the exercise is good. >> i like what bobby brown said. we were talking about being naive and don't think about anything else. >> what you said is a spouse that is supportive that helps you. that's great. >> shout out to peter.

>> you're one of the enlightened one ones. ted cruz told you he didn't regret signing that letter and he was going to sign large enough for the ie toe la to read. "the rundown" starts right now. good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart, developing on "the rundown" a flight headed from dulles to denver turns back after a disruptive passenger had to be subdued on board the flight shortly after takeoff on monday night. let's get to kristen welker. good morning what do we know? >> jose good morning to you. here's what we know. a spokesman for united tells nbc news that flight 1074 returned to dulles here in the washington area after a passenger failed to comply with crew instructions