you can never get enough of it. change the way you experience tv with xfinity x1. . ♪ good morning. it's tuesday, may 10th. welcome to "morning joe." how is everybody? it's a good day. i was talking to my dad yesterday and he goes donald trump, why don't he stop -- i don't understand his strategy. i couldn't explain it. with us on set legendary columnist mike barnacle, the managing editors of bloomberg politics that airs at 6:00 on msnbc mark halperin -- who would

not like that show? >> last night we had jeff daniels on. he was great. >> he drives an rv. yes, he does. >> maybe you should switch from the truck or the rv. >> no. i'm going with the truck. so mike and i had a bet about donald trump winning the republican nomination. i get a truck if he wins the nomination. and i have chosen forest green, just so you know. >> we have an update on that? >> i do. i have an update. it's on order. >> really? . >> seriously? >> it's on order. >> december 20th, 2026. >> no. >> talking about a strike but it's on delivery. >> speakers? >> everything.

dice hanging from the mirror. >> all right. there you go. >> i'm excited. i'll put a broom in the gun rack. joe is sick. hopefully he'll join us. we'll see. >> a lot of people said -- >> oh, please. >> yeah, he wrote an incredible piece for the washington post. it matches the conversation and the events. because the stakes are high for donald trump as he faces a series of pivotal meetings in his bid to unite a fractured republican party torn between the establishment and the outside forces that overwhelm them. on thursday trump will sit down with top republican leaders in the house and the senate including speaker paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. one of the scheduled attendees is senator roy blunt facing re-election in missouri this year. he put out a statement.

mccarthy signed up to be a trump delegate yesterday. but speaker ryan left wiggle room and potentially opened an escape hatch by saying he would step down as chairman of this summer's republican national convention. >> i want to get to him better. i don't know him. we had one conversation a few months ago, and basically with the kind of conversation i'm hoping we can have together, not just the two of us, but all of us how we can unify our party. >> i believe between now and july we will be able to figure out how to unify our party. >> if he asked you to step down? >> i'll do whatever. he's the nominee. i'll do whatever he wants respect to the convention. still the emergency rooms

have their reservations freshman senator shelly moore of west virginia told politico i haven't met him yet. i want to talk to him about some issues and others like senator kelly ayotte are trying to balance handling trump. this is a tough balance. you kind of can't do the balance. it doesn't work. it kind of comes out hallow. trump and preserving their seats in the upcoming re-election. >> do you support, do you endorse donald trump? >> i think each person will make their own decision. i've said that i'm going to vote for our republican nominee, but i don't intend to endorse anyone in this race. >> all right. so either you're for him or not. i guess the problem is they're trying to figure out what is going to happen still. are people hedging their bet to the bitter end? >> she is hedging her bet. she's in tough race against the governor who is also popular. she believes, correctly, that

her fatd of keeping her job or not could depend exclusive or near exclusively how donald trump performs. she wants to be able to win even if he crashes or burns. or if he does well, she wants to grab his coat tails. >> roy blunt, paul ryan, all the people he's going to be meeting with want to be convinced his conservative principles. what could he say in a 15 or 30-minute conversation to undo his record of not having conservative principles? >> i really have no idea. and nothing he's been doing in the last week or so as he shifted around in the various positions. some of the shifts are in some ways time honored. in which nominees try to position themselves in a more moderate direction. trump is in a terrible bind. everything he does to move to the center to look like he would be a more palatable general election nominee upsets conservatives. the ones who liked his tax plan.

>> i thought he didn't care about upsetting people, mike. i don't think he cares. i thought he didn't care >>well, he better start caring. he's the nominee of the republican party. kelly ayotte is a perfect example. we're going to go through several months of various candidates statewide candidates for the senate of congress basically acting as if donald trump is he who must not be named. they never mentioned his name. we have just had the election of a muslim mayor in london. and what happens if donald trump ever becomes president? does he allow the muslim mayor in london? >> he talked about that yesterday. he said he would, perhaps make an exception for the mayor of london. >> i think you're right. he can't erase the past. i think they want three things. they want him to show he's going to race money for republicans and build infrastructure, they want him to be consistent. they don't want every day to be

a different storyline. they just want him to seem like he's got a plan between now and november. they want him to be on the offense against hillary clinton. they want him to make the election about hillary clinton. if he dhau, i think we'll win over a lot of the party. >> there's a piece in the "new york times" about fundraising. donald is self-funded so far. he's the presidential candidate of the republican party. he's trashed vast expanses of the republican party en route to his high fought, and well-deserved win to the nomination. what does he do now? say give me some money? >> it's going to be a mutual thing. they'll join a fundraising agreement. trump wants the party to raise money for him. he has no real fundraising apparatus. he doesn't have a donor network. he doesn't bring to bear that most of the republican nominees brought to bear. they're staring down the barrel according to that story. he has to raise a billion and a half dollars between now and

september, you know, not very many months. and a number of very senior republican strategists said for any republican nominee raising that kind of money would be hard even if you had a full scale fundraising operation. trump has literally none of that. >> look at these, though. some top republican donors did sign on with trump yesterday. anthony scaramucci, national finance chair for mitt romney. that's paypal peter thiel, stanley hubbard. he once gave money to a stop trump pack. he has come around. he told politico -- so, i mean, first of all, wow. if there was a strong independent candidate, this would be the time, it seems. we have to get to hillary

clinton and her responding to trump yesterday. i see a lot of weakness on both sides. >> remember, trump is fundraising from a standing start. he didn't have to do this throughout the republican nominating process. hillary clinton has a network that goes back literal lay generation. he has all the things in motion. and trump is just starting now. >> but he's definitely aggressive and ferocious and how she responds to that, i think, could make him look strong or terrible. i think, again, my gut is hillary clinton needs to be hillary clinton, the one you meet one on one. yesterday she went out and it seemed like a campaign-organized event. it seemed like everybody around her were sort of like positioned and set up almost human shields from the attacks coming to her instead of the issues she was talked about. she was going get asked the

questions about what donald trump said about bill clinton and where donald trump is going on this. she's going to have to just be herself. because herself has always been the best thing for her. this is the event yesterday. we'll get to it later. i think it's an event organized about families. of course, she was asked all the questions about bill clinton. the press was relentless about it. it was a very awkward place to be answering the questions. and all the people there were set up. it just -- it just, at some point, has to be hers to own. she will do an amazing job, if they get out of her way. back to donald trump, though, and what is going on with him? she may have not have to work a that hard. he's not. joe has a piece for the washington post entitled "the art of the deal." he writes --

i guess the point he's making there is he's riffing. it works. it has worked for him through the primary. there's been a lot of red meat you can throw out there. now it's about consistency, as you said, mark halperin. it's about the issues.

she will -- she will just clean up on this, hillary clinton. people will be scared. and they will ultimately not want to make that decision. so inconsistent. >> she's been through tree presidential campaigns, she's been the first lady, she's backed by hundreds -- >> secretary of state. >> secretary of state. she's backed by hundreds of people. >> she's won elections. >> they've thought this through and he's not going against the weakness most overrated field of candidates of all time. he's going against a professional operation. a machine. spot on, improvising, making it up day-to-day, thinking you say one thing on monday and a different thing on tuesday, it's going to make winning for him really tough. he needs to be uncharacteristically disciplined while still being himself. >> and not to mention, willie, we're not denying that what he has done is nothing short of incredible. nothing short of historic. nothing short of just never seen before in the history of

politics. modern day politics, for sure. and speaker ryan, i don't think any house speaker before this has done this. so you can argue he's being careful or a little difficult. but donald trump has to look at his responses. >> he has it going on in his gut and it serves well this far. now he has to start thinking about moving forward in the general election and being consistent in his positions. we saw this week with the taxes the wealthy. his tax plan came out lower out last fall and lower taxes for everybody. now he might raise them for the rich. he can't hopscotch on policy issues like that otherwise people will not take him seriously. he was able to do it in the narrow lane of republican primary voters. but he has to open it now. >> don't be sarah palin. >> we're hearing, like, a couple of different theories at minimum over the past few days.

it's instructive to look at what happened to the trump campaign over the past few days. the idea he takes on elizabeth warren in a twitter war. why he did that is -- no one knows. the idea he's going after bill clinton's behavior a quarter of a century ago. that he thinks this triggers something in voters' minds. clearly he does. you don't hear it from ordinary people. it leads to the theory that the window is still open for some sort of a third party candidacy. an independent candidacy. i don't know about ballot access. what do you think? >> well, you know, it's a very tricky thing to do. >> split it up. >> there are ballot access questions. the deadline for texas passed yesterday. you can't be on the ballot in texas. there are states you get on the ballot. there's a lot of complex legalities around that. and the question of all the huge obstacles to run against a third party or independent candidate

that existed that have kept people like mike bloomberg from running on successive elections. >> you have to be a win per. >> it's hard to win. is there a way for an independent candidate to get on the ballot and get the 270? not impossible, but not impossible but not the most likely or probably scenario you're going to come across, i don't think. >> donald trump spent the weekend branding hillary clinton as an enabler of her husband's affairs. at an event in northern virginia yesterday, clinton sidestepped a response after holding a discussion with young families. as she turns her focus to swing states. the meeting was closed to the public and attendees were outnumbered by the press who repeatedly asked clinton for her reaction to trump. >> i'm going to let him run his campaign whoever he chooses. i'm going run my campaign which is about a positive vision for our country with specific plans that i think will help us solve

problems that we're facing. >> do you think at some point you'll have to respond to these accusations? you saw what happened during the primary when things he said went unanswered. why not sort of -- >> i'm answering him all the time. no i'm answering him on what i think voters care about. i'm answering him on the differences between our records, our experience, what we want to do for our country, how important it is to try to unify the country, and i have been very clear that a lot of his rhetoric is not only reckless, it's dangerous. >> what is your substance? >> i'm running my campaign. i'm not running against him. he's doing a fine job of doing that himself. >> okay. very, very uncomfortable situation. she's being put in. mark halperin, i guess this set up of events because cable news

outlets dip into them all day kbrp still do those? i think i have an aversion that is stronger than others. >> i think trying to get coverage but she wants to be showing herself in situations showi showing unity, diversity, women, and trying to focus on issues. so that tableau is in keeping with how they like to run against donald trump for the next several months. >> right. there's also, i mean, what does it say about us, the media, that we're asking hillary clinton about literally something that occurred 25 years ago and has been resolved, at least legally, and i think resolved -- i don't know anybody who is concerned that one of the top five issues what bill clinton did 25 years ago. i don't. maybe i'm living in a different universe. >> she's banking on that. you can see she's playing the four corners offense, which is you have to hold the ball and ignore the other guy. in the case of bill clinton

indrei indiscretions and affairs i think her best policy is to ignore it and trust the voters aren't interested in it. >> and we have political party in opposition to hillary clinton, the republican party, of which a large percentage of that party seems focussed on who has the right to go to what bathroom. what is going on here? >> no answers? >> well, look, if donald trump were here. what he would say, i think, is he's trying to make this not just about president clinton's personal life and things president clinton did but trying to take to a slightly different place which suggests that hillary clinton was an enabler of that activity and she's never been held to account for that. that's where he's trying to take the argument. whether it finds purchase with the press. it seems a little bit as that cowe

caught on camera. will voters believe that? at least the history has been that people found hillary clinton sympathetic figure over president clinton's indiscretions, you know, in the late '90s. people looked at having been a survivor and supportive of her husband come through with her own identity and made her senator of new york. it worked to her advantage politically then. is there some weird which it can be used against her now? i don't see it but apparently donald trump does. >> yeah. >> what do you think? >> i think that in -- i can't even imagine what it would be like to be in a situation like that, but i just find that when something is being thrown at you, the best thing is to be honest and vulnerable and real. and i think usually the person throwing the mud ends up looking bad. so i don't know if it's fair game. i think in some ways i guess it is. but i think she has to sort of

find her own voice with that. she really does. and i bet you if she gets everybody out of her own way and just kind of speaks from the heart, i bet it would be moving. i bet we would have nothing to say. at all. but we'll see. >> i agree with you. a little authenticity there. that was the worst time of my life played out in public and it was terrible. >> it did my best. i can't imagine how bad somebody would look trying to throw that kind of thing at someone when family issues are so deeply personal and unbelievable ly no anybody's business. >> it's going to get a lot of attention. whenever donald trump talk abouts it it gets attention. he has to raise money for tv advertising, then he has the debates. those moments of messaging and his presentation and how he compares himself to hillary clinton those will matter more

regarding his chances than this stuff. >> and huge challenges in the process of going through those events, huge problems to fix, you know, with large swaths of the electorate now that disprove him. vast numbers of women, vast numbers of hispanics. again there's not a way to become president of the united states when 70% of women and hispanics are against you. can he use the opportunities that mark is talking about to fix those problems? i don't know any of these things he's doing if he's going to stay on bill clinton's personal life and hillary clinton's complicity. if that's a running theme of the campaign, again, maybe i'm blind to it. i don't see how it solves those problems with those huge constituencies he needs to win some big chunk he doesn't have now. >> all right. and just as a working woman, i will just say when you think about those years and you think what she has done beyond those years, senator of new york, secretary of state, candidate for president, to say the least,

people want someone who is capable. and absolutely nothing threw her off. nothing even the deepest heartbreak of her life. she could use this. she could use this to her benefit in a very real and vulnerable way without even -- i just deal with it. it's not that big of a deal. >> to your point, who could not identify with hillary clinton -- with heartbreak. >> talking about what it's like to be wounded and humiliated through a crowd called the nation. >> and go on and raise child and serve and become a grandparent and run for president. i mean, this is -- this can be done but it can't be handled bay campaign. speak from the heart. two conservatives with different takes on donald trump. bill crystal who is serving for a third party candidate and the man behind c pac who said that

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all right. we have new poll number ofs in the presidential race out this hour. nationally the nbc news survey monkey weekly online tracking poll has hillary clinton at 49%. five points ahead of donald trump at 44%. bernie sanders has a 13-point lead over donald trump in that hypothetical head-to-head. 53 to 40. clinton and trump are close in ohio, pennsylvania, and florida. in florida clinton at 43. trump at 42. that's compared to sanders at 44 and trump at 42. sanders at 43 versus trump at 41 in the head-to-head. in pennsylvania clinton at 43 trump at 43. sanders leads with 47-41. >> wow. >> bottom line, they're very tight. >> very tight.

>> that will make republicans really happy. that's the kind of thing they need to feel good about coalescing around trump. because winning or potentially winning will solve a lot of current tension. >> you know trump could win this. right? >> sure. >> too soon to say. >> but he could. but he could. people have to stop pretending. >> i'm getting a truck. you can just keep your pleas. so right now -- >> he has a lot of work to do, but he could win, yes. >> what are the things in his way? inconsistency >>well, the main thing is demographics, as john said. he has to do better with women and hispanics. >> what does that mean better with women and hispanics. how? >> be supported by higher percentages than he is now. he needs a plan to achieve that. he needs to unify republicans, win independents, and hold his

own with hispanic voters. >> what does he do about his clear lack of discipline? message discipline. that would seem to be critical. he has debates coming up in the fall. if he's off his message, if he continues to do things like tweeting wars with elizabeth warren and others, i mean, come on. >> i think he has to prepare what he wants to talk about. >> he figures that out every day. >> yeah. >> a handful of things. >> do you think the meeting with paul ryan -- thursday. what is today? tuesday. day after tomorrow. >> and with the senate. >> see, i think that could make a difference in terms of how he plays it. especially got to make some friends, right? >> the republican party has been hugely successful at winning elections for every office except for president. trump is now a different kind of republican. he's going to have to convince those other republican leaders

that this is a winning formula. but it starts with female voters. hispanics is a separate more targeted problem. he must become more acceptable to women. >> he announced chris christie has a leader of his transition movement. >> bold move. chick magnet. >> what? >> chick magnet. what are you talking about? >> chris christie. >> okay. >> tomekia's point, how do waive a magic wand suddenly and attract women. >> i'll tell you how. >> it's an uphill struggle. the issue of people asked does trump need to unify the party. we talked about the money challenge. that's a big deal. and on top of that running as a head of a party that lost five out of the six votes. there's not a republican nominee who would not be the underdog against hillary clinton. there's not one person that would run that would be the

underdog. republican policies are not that popular in the larger electorate for the policies and the party are not that popular. trump, in some respects, advocates policies that might be more popular that are adverse to what republicans advocated for the last 20 years. in some ways he's way further in the way of unpopularity with women and hispanics. how do you fix it? it's hard. there's no waiving of magic wands. this is going to be a grind it out thing. you're thinking about message comes in, mike. in order do this big huge challenging thing, you got to be on message and on plan every day. >> every day. >> every day because every single day from now to election day is the day where donald trump has to make up ground. that's the reality. and some of these nominees, some of these other candidates were the nominee they would have different ground to make up. he has a lot of hard work to do. it's not nothing you can do by snapping your fingers.

>> all right. does he wake up every morning and say what are the 20 things i need to do to get elected. >> and solve my problems. and solve the current problems i have. >> the way he's behaving that does not suggest how he's waking up. it's how she wakes up. >> yeah. coming up new reporting from nbc correspondent kasie hunt, hallie jackson, and oliva sterns. plus a tornado outbreak, violent storms across the plains killing two people in oklahoma. the latest on the deadly weather ahead. keep it on "morning joe." my school reunion's coming fast. ♪ could be bad. could be a blast. can't find a single thing to wear. will they be looking at my hair? won't be the same without you bro. ♪ when it's go, go to choicehotels.com. the site with the right room, rewards and savings up to 20% when you book direct.

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let get to other stories making headlines this morning. the clash over transgender bathroom access is escalading with the justice department responding to a lawsuit from north carolina with one of its own. the dulting suits come days after the doj demanded the state back away from the so-called bathroom bill which places limits on transgender access to public restrooms. in announcing the doj's suit, attorney general loretta lynch argued that federal civil rights law prohibit discrimination based on sex. this morning dangerous weather being blamed for two deaths in oklahoma. one victim an elderly man who was killed inside home when a fast-moving tornado swept through south central oklahoma. just south of there, six people were trapped beneath debris. look at that.

incredible footage. one person is dead at least three others wounded during a stabbing attack at a train station near munich. a 27-year-old man has been arrested. police were investigating witness reports that the suspect shouted "god is great" in arabic. also in the news, a kansas city, kansas police detective has died after shoot out. the detective has been identified as 39-year-old brad lancaster. according to police, after he was shot, the suspect fled the scene in the detective's unmarked police car, crashed it, and carjacked another vehicle with a mother and two children inside. they escaped unharmed and the suspect was later apprehended after crossing state lines and trying to carjack another car. and, finally, a judge in arkansas has resigned after being accused of swapping sex for reduced sentences. >> it's called a plea bargain.

>> i'm just -- umm, judge joseph beckman's resignation came after a state commission said it recovered about 4500 photos from his computer. many of which depicted nude male defendants. according to documents, beckman would often give male defendants in court for minor violations his handwritten phone number to have them serve what he described as "community service" at his home. beckman denied the allegations saying that the photographs were used to, quote, corroborate participation in community service. >> mike, what can you tell us about the judge. >> please don't. >> no. upnext on "morning joe" bill kristol wanted paul ryan ahead of mitt romney. what happened there? let's think about the news.

let's think about -- >> one less story today. >> maybe. i'm thinking. i'm thinking we could have maybe found a kicker about a squirrel. i'll take it. i'll do anything to avoid that. now he wants mitt romney instead of donald trump. is mitt going to jump in like should y somehow on the outside in the third party? >> it could happen. >> mitt? >> anything could happen. does that mean he wants donald trump over somebody else in 2020? we need someone that can win the election. >> mike, would you be his running mate? >> no. >> oh, gosh. bill chris tot toll is joining next on "morning joe." kristol i on "morning joe." why do some cash back cards keep throwing obstacles at you? first - they limit where you earn bonus cash back.

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can we do fred hyatt first? okay. i want to set it up for you and you do your math thing for us. i get it. you have wishful thinking here. first, i want to ask you a question. it's a question that fred hyatt is asking. he writes in the washington post. when i hear smart people explaining why donald trump cannot win, all i can think is aren't you the ones that told us he couldn't top 30%, 40%, then 50% in the republican primaries. did you predict his nomination? if not. we don't want to hear your certainty about his november defeat. nor is it assuring to read how the clinton camp is facing a weak opponent. i have faith in the american voter. i do. when two-thirds of the country is unhappy a rationstionale out

can't be taked for granted. >> i agree. i think the odds are against donald trump. there is a chance he could win. that would be a bad thing which is one reason i'm interested in getting a third choice. >> there's a very good chance. >> not a very good chance but you can imagine events happening. you were talking about the debate earlier. trump, he's not disciplined. on the other hand he's a pretty quick study and quick reaction. one can imagine in a debate. one can imagine trump hitting having a clever line or two and dominating and suddenly a lot of americans deciding maybe he's the guy. especially if the republican establishment legitimizes him and makes it seem like fine. >> what is the path? >> for the independent? you can get on almost every ballot. texas passed this week. north carolina next month. in the '80s it was thrown out or in a pinch in a write in two states. you get on the ballot with

enough money and organization. anderson got on the ballots. could you win? it would be an inside strength. the key is an attractive candidate who can get on the debate stage in october. you have to be doing 10, 12% that the time and get a debate. hillary clinton, donald trump, and ben zasz. what is he 44-year-old senator from nebraska who has a real vision of new politics going forward. could a lot of americans say, well, you know, we can do better than clinton or trump. i think it's possible. obviously the odds are against it. if it were easy, independents would be running every four years. i think it's possible. >> you know, and that is exactly the focus of your column. sort of looking at these different possibilities and seeing how they can play out. right now we've got trump and clinton, at least that's what we're looking at. you talk about him almost having a zinger. i think it's worst than people

think for hillary clinton on the debate stage unless they think differently. because joe has talked about how the worse thing you can run against, you know, your worst opponent is someone who has no idea what they're doing and doesn't care. okay. because that person will go anywhere. and one thing you notice about hillary clinton is you get the sense that she prepares for everything. and, by the way, it's a woman thing. we're far more prepared than any man in the room. we stay up all night working and getting ready. we are far more organized and far more put together and prepare for any possibility. right. and guys go in there and ram through and it's different approaches and both are valuable. this is a different playing field. there's no preparation for donald trump at the debate. she's prepared on the issues. she'll kill him on the issues. >> right. >> she's got to be ready for that moment when it's just her and him. her and him on deeply personal, difficult things where he just goes after her. and nobody can prepare for her that. she's got to be able to do

something very different. dig deep and go back. >> and if we're in a climate where we are today. donald trump says amazing things whether it's ted cruz's father is involved in the jfk conspiracy theory or maybe let's devalue the default a little bit on the federal debt. >> you can't prepare for this. >> we in the media don't hold him accountable. >> i don't think that is true. >> we try to but he gets away with it. >> that's not us. >> and everyone is in the narrative of, you know, people frustrated. you can't hold trump accountable. if that's the standard going in, and he's willing to attack hillary clinton in a way that others won't have, and this is why the meeting with paul ryan and the senate republicans is so important, on thursday, you were saying, if he gets normalized. if an independent voter said donald trump is a little bit of a wild man but serious people

mitch mcdonneconnell, my senatod they can live with them. i fear that trump could win. that quinnipiac poll is stunning today. the problem is trump might win. >> would you be is disappointed if someone like paul ryan did come around on donald trump and comprise his own conservative principles. he has a lot of pressures on him. of course i would be disappointed. that's is a personal. do you think donald trump meets the minimum requirement to be president? can he be commander in chief? i think that's the core -- for me that's the barrier he doesn't need. the other stuff is irrelevant. what he says about trade and this and that. >> i have a question. you talked to mitt romney about this. put aside ben sasse for a

second. you had a conversation about the possibility of running independent third party candidate. give us the tick to be on the conversation. >> i'll let him describe tomorrow. he said publicly he doesn't want to vote or won't support hill or donald trump. i'm in the same place. we talked about it and talked about the american politics in general. and i think, well, i certainly made the case it's not out of the question, and again, if he could succeed it's very important in my view for conservativism and for the longer term future of the country that someone hold off a decent banner for conservatives and independents to rally behind. i think that's the case for anyone running. even if you can thread the needle. even if the odds are against your threading the needle and running. it's important we not go into the election with hillary clinton, with donald trump being the face of the republican party and conservativism. for someone like ben sasse it's a huge risk. a huge risk. young senator. easiest thing to do is sit on the sidelines and wait for 4, 8, 12 years to run for president.

he can change the character going forward. >> romney open? interested? not at all interested? eager for it? reading his body language, what he had to say. >> i think he really does not think that donald trump should be president of the united states and he knows he has one of the few people who has the stature to possibly step up and present an alternative. >> you've been talking about donald trump's reaction and the media's reaction to trump. media coverage of trump. do you agree with the premise, the theory that trump, given the way he's conducted himself during the course of his campaign, given the success he's had. he's so marginalized the media. made it irrelevant. we can go after him and his inconsistencies it means nothing. >> yeah, i mean, he's shown that so far among the republican primary electorate. you know, he's gotten the minority of the vote l votes so far in the contested primary.

whoever wins gets a week or two where it's a wow impressive and it fades away a little bit. i don't think we can say because of that what others shouldn't say. and the clinton campaign is not going to say he's gotten away with it so far. >> look -- >> i guess i -- >> he's been held accountable. he's been asked the questions. he doesn't answer them. willie -- we've done it a million times. on the show today if you watch the show any day if you see joe paying up on him or get into screaming matches with him and telling him he's not voting if for someone for a muslim ban. that's not someone getting caved in on. but i have to say that i think, willie, to an extent donald trump is going to find himself on a different level now in terms of being held accountable by the american people. because it's not the primary voters anymore. >> right. as bill said it was a sliver of the country. and a sliver of the republican

party and now it's the entire -- >> it's red meat. >> the entire country is watching. his positions on the minimum wage, raising taxes on the wealthy. he's going to be held for account for the positions and why he believed one thing a few months ago and another today. >> i hope so. the quinnipiac poll has me spooked. i was wrong. i was thinking when the primary gets serious they'll get serious. they didn't in my view. and maybe general election voters will be more serious. i hope they will be. i'm little worried, at least starting off, the tolerance for trump i find kind of astounding. >> bill kristol, stay with us. some analyst love making comparisons between donald trump and barry gold water. donald trump isn't the next goldwater. it would be easier for republicans if he was. plus, john stewart comes off the sidelines to weigh in on the election. hear what he said about the republican frontrunner. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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we haven't seen a lot of jon stewart since he left his show last year. sported a new beard. >> like david letterman. >> it's not letterman. he looks like santa claus. >> jon is trimmed up a little bit. proving he hasn't lost his edge. here is what he told david

axelrod about donald trump. >> i don't know that donald trump is eligible to be president. that's not a birther thing. that's i don't know -- look, i'm not a constitutional scholar. so i can't necessarily say, but can you -- are you eligible to run if you are a man baby? or a baby man? see, i don't know what -- look -- i don't know -- again, i'm not here to be be politically incorrect. if they're referred to as american baby americans. but he's a man baby. he has the physical count innocence of a man. and a baby's temperament and hands. >> jon stewart has to be sitting on the sidelines of this. >> a man baby! that is so good! >> he looks good, though. >> he does. >> a man baby. >> he looks great. >> yeah. letterman -- >> david is great.

>> dave is great. >> i'm not saying he's not great but stewart has the nice looking beard he's looking sharp. letterman looks like a mountain man now. >> yeah. >> okay. coming up when it comes to the republican convention, house speaker paul ryan said he won't come where he's not wanted. the latest in his riff with donald trump. and who else might be meeting with the presumptive nominee when he heads to capitol hill on thursday. that's going to be a big day. >> the washington post joins the political round table next. d it. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad. then liberty mutual calls, and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement™, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer

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it's a lost cause. >> it is not a lost cause. [ cheers and applause ] >> check every vending machine change slot. come on! $27. >> hey, wait. aren't you going to -- >> tell you about the west virginia primary tomorrow? >> sure. but at a certain point won't you say i'm not going to get the thing i want. i'm never going to get my candy. you've got to believe, stephen. >> thank you. >> you can't give up on that contested confection! you've got to rock the system. >> got it! >> great! we came together! we did it. now how about we share that 100 grand bar? >> i knew it! >> welcome back to "morning

joe." it's tuesday, may 10th. you know what? he's just -- he won't back down bernie sanders. he's really -- it's bugging her. joe, unfortunately, is out sick this morning. with us we have mike barnacle, steve radner, new york times political reporter alex burns, and msnbc contributor and editor of "the fix" at the washington post chris icillizza. hillary clinton and donald trump are close in florida, ohio, a and -- in florida clinton at 43% and donald trump at 42%. that's compared to sanders at 44 versus trump at 42. meanwhile in ohio, clinton at 39%. trump at 43. sanders at 43 versus trump at 41

in that head-to-head. and in pennsylvania clinton at 43, trump at 42. sanders leads trump 47-41 in that state. so there's a lot going on in the presidential election process. the frontrunners seem to be neck-and-neck in early polls. i think the only other possibility here, steve, is an independent candidate. whether or not because there's so much high emotion about donald trump and clinton and their unfavorables or both so high in such an unprecedented fashion. i think the discussion about a third party bid is really reasonable. we never got to bill kristol's piece in the last hour. getting an independent candidate on the ballot in all 50 states isless difficult than conventional wisdom has it. the only states whose ballot access deadlines before the end of june are texas and north carolina and those deadlines are susceptible to legal challenges that are being drawn up as i

write. of course, putting together a serious independent campaign is a formidable task, but plenty of operatives and aids and donors and lawyers stand ready. the fact an articulate, an independent-minded conservative could make a real race of it. he or she could build enough momentum over the summer to get in the debate and couldn't the debate be a moment when large numbers of our countrymen might awaken with relief and greet with excitement the possibility of liberation from the nightmare of clinton or donald trump. bill kristol is against trump. >> it's a wonderful thing to dream about if you want to have a nice night sleep and imagine a better world for those people like donald trump i'm happy with hillary clinton. i spent a fair amount of time in this because my friend mike bloomberg, as he said, looked closely at it. >> this is why i asked. >> a couple of facts. bill is correct about the ballot situation. you have a problem with texas and north carolina. maybe overcomeble. ballot access is not the biggest

problem. the biggest two or three problems is who is going to do it? ben sasse, everybody says, is a good guy. can he run a national campaign? >> no. >> can he win some states. seems unlikely. you have somebody that needs to do that. you need to raise a billion dollars. you talked in the top of the show about trump's problems of raising a billion dollars. you need an operation, you need a committee, you need people. it's an enormous undertaking. and the third thing is the best i hope for is somebody not get 270 electoral votes for the house of representatives. and the house has to pick. this is one fact people don't know. the house has to pick from the top three finishers. >> you got a conservative -- if you send in ben sasse to pick off a couple of states to keep hillary clinton from getting 270 and end up in the house of representatives. are they going to pick ben sasse to be the next president? >> even paul ryan said yesterday said it publicly and privately.

and independent run will be a disaster for the republican party. they think hillary clinton has a good chance to win. he thinks if a third candidate runs she'll win. >> i think there's one significant circumstance this year that never apply to the past regarding a third party campaign, which is usually every four years in the interest of both parties establishments. the infrastructure on the republican side and democratic side. the big donors, office holders, do sort of teem up to quash and independent campaign and make sure that the ballot access rules are as tough as possible. the debate access rules are tough as possible. for much of the republican party establishment which semibodied in the bill kristol argument they're fine with an independent candidacy. i wonder with paul ryan's claim it would be a disaster is a little bit too much protesting there. there are a fair numbers running for re-election that would love to have somebody on the ball lot to draw out voters on the right who might stay home if they're only options.

>> who can do that better than -- >> it's more down ballot in a lot of ways. >> acknowledging that the presidency is gone. >> wow. the stakes are high for donald trump. he faces a series of pivotal meetings in his bid to unite the fractured republican party between the establishment and the outside forces that so far overwhelmed them. on thursday donald trump will sit down with top republican leaders in the house and senate including paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. one of the scheduled attendees is senator roy blunt facing re-election in missouri this year. he put out a statement saying, quote, the senator will use the opportunity to remind him what we say and how we say it matter in making it clear our common goal is defeating hillary clinton. in a sign of some easing of tensions kevin mccarthy signed up to be a trump delegate yesterday. speaker ryan left wiggle room and potentially opened an escape hatch bying saying he would step down of this summer's national convention if trump asked him to do. >> i want to get to know and

understand him better. i don't know him. we had one conversation a few months ago, and the conversation i'm hoping question have together, not just the two of us, but all of us, how we can unify our party. >> i believe between now and july we will be able to figure out how to unify our party. >> if he asked you to step down. >> i'll do whatever. he's the nominee. i'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention. >> the republicans have their vez rations as well. freshman senate of west virginia told politico, quote, i haven't met him yet and want a chance to talk to him about some issues. others like kelly ayotte are trying to balance handling trump and their own seats. >> do you endorse donald trump? >> i think each person will make their own decision. i've said that i'm going to vote for our republican nominee, but i don't intend to endorse anyone

in this race. >> so let's go to chris cillizza standing by in washington. this is a challenge. a tight rope walk running for re-election. do you mention donald trump's name when you're trying to get re-elected in the state of new hampshire, for example? >> well, i mean, that is like sort of a tortured response. she doesn't want to say on camera i'm voting for donald trump. she's going to say the republican nominee. i think you see in the split of the leadership between kevin mccarthy and paul ryan mccarthy saying i'll be for trump. ryan saying i'm holding out. i think a lot of it is what do you need to worry about back home and what is your political future. mccarthy is probably about has high as he's going to be. ryan has his eye, eventually, on running for president. i think he's mindful of that. that's why roy blunt puts out a

statement. to missouri it's not a state won. it was a swing state in 2000. he has a real race and has concerns about sort of, you know, associating too closely with donald trump. i think people like mark kirk in illinois, ron johnson, the open seat nominee in florida, mccain in arizona. you go down the list. there's a lot of people who are going to have something similar to that kelly ayotte response, which is trying to thread the needle between i'm a republican and i support the nominee without embracing, at least what donald trump presented thus far as a candidate. >> i don't know because i'm not a political expert, but i just feel like one of the great things donald trump has done is sort of ripped the mask off this political game. so i think everyone should do it. why wouldn't -- tell me what would be wrong with her saying,

well, of course i love the republican party. i support the party. i plan to support the nominee of the party. i don't know donald trump. he just started running in the past year. he's new on the scene. i can't wait to get to know him. then i'm going to figure out what i'm going to do. i would love to support him and possibly even endorse the nominee, but i want toeally study what he's about and the issues and see where he's going to land. because this is such an exciting time. isn't that an honest answer? >> no. >> why? >> in a lot of ways -- >> if i were a republican i would want to know a lot more. >> we had nothing but donald trump the past year. don't you people like you know about donald trump? >> i know a lot about donald trump and i have higher hopes than i'm seeing now. i do. i know him pretty well. >> kelly ayotte is maybe in the toughest position for any senator. new hampshire is a moderate, swing state. one of the biggest trump states in the early primaries.

for her to say i'm not ready to get on board with him. i need to know more about him. that would anger a lot of people in her own party in a way this pro forma statement i'll support him but running my own race getting it out of the way and moving on would be dangerous in ab entirely different way. >> to meet face to face and gate sense of your gut feeling? >> donald trump supporters are not known for their willingness to take criticism of their guy or willingness to give people, you know, their own time to make up their mind. >> we're going to watch tortured responses. >> yeah. >> absolutely. >> yeah. >> oh, this is going to be so much fun. >> you've seen the last couple of days the fundraisers that come around. some have been on the stop trump movement going to support him. live interviews say you support trump and they'll say i support the nominee of the party. do you support? i support the nominee of the party. they can't bring themselves to say it out loud even though they're giving their money to him. it's amazing.

>> ah. >> i do think you will see a little bit, not to put too much into a snapshot in one poll, i think you, the polling you ran through in pennsylvania, ohio, and florida, you know, let's see if there's more of that. look, breaking news politicians tend to be somewhat craven about being for people who work for them and not for people who don't. if donald trump is competitive, and those numbers suggest he's competitive. not that he will win but he's competitive including in a state like pennsylvania, which republicans would really like to put into play in a presidential election. i think you'll start to see more people come around on him. the fear is this is a guy who is going to lose the raw popular vote by 10 points. if he does that, can you -- if you're pat tomey. if he's competitive in ohio,

florida, they have competitive senate races. then i think you'll see -- i don't know you're see a bear hug but a more willingness he has a more appeal it's not my appeal but he's our republican and i'll support him. i think there's a worry within the party that this is a guy that will lose every swing state by ten points if it shows overtime. if it's overtime that suggests he's actually competitive in these places. i think you'll see more people be willing. i mean, bill kristol is never going to say i'm for donald trump. lindsey graham is not going to say that. but i think you might see more people. the ayottes, the richard burrs of the world say they are. >> if he wins, isn't the party gone, kind of it? fwlst it the party of trump. the reality situation is all the back and forth of who, you know, it's an establishment. is it the basis. if he wins, in some ways it happened, but if he wins the party will be defined by him.

that's always true in a presidential election. it will be more true now because he's so dominant as a figure in his view. his views and his approach are so different than the way in which the republican party is being defined to date. >> i'm looking at your piece in the washington post. trump as a party nominee creates any number of problems for the gop but none so consequential as this. no conclusion to the latest iteration of the long running fight for control between the establishment and the base of the party. trump is a man without a country in his own party. an island all his own. a big, beautiful, luxurious, classy island but just an island that seems fine by donald trump. if he doesn't win and starts the general election as a major underdog, his lack of associations with the two main tribes within the gop seems virtually certain to make the causam between the two sides wider ran narrower post 2016.

well. >> look, the key thing there if he doesn't win. if he wins then it's his party and the republican party will be remade in whatever light donald trump wants it to be. i think the issue is a lot of people in the republican party believe that they need -- not need may have to have another goldwater from '64, which is conservatives nominated conservative. the conservative candidate doesn't come close to winning and therefore the party is more open to a nixon-like figure down the line. trump is neither a goldwater nor nixon. he doesn't fit into either of those tribes. he just is. he is donald trump. yes, he has an r after his name in this race but, you know, it's hard to fit him into the way in which we have analyzed the ongoing struggle within republican party politics. so i don't think you're going to have -- if he does lose, you're

not going have a clear verdict. we nominated someone to conservative or nominated someone a part of the party establishment. he's donald trump. >> okay. chris sicillizza, thank you. still ahead on "morning joe" the take on the presidential race from the head of the american conservative union. this should be so interesting. i can't wait to hear what matt has to say. plus, will republican women who voted against trump in the primaries join him to stop hillary clinton in the general? you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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the two of donald trump's former rivals are pulling away from their party's presumptive nominee in a post on facebook yesterday, marco rubio says count him out of the vice presidential race. republican voters chosen donald trump my extended preservations about his campaign and concerns with many of his policies remain unchanged. he'll be best served bay running mate and surrogates who fully

embrace his campaign. as such, i have never sought, will not seek, and do not want to be considered for vice president. >> little marco. so that's important. his withdraw from the scene has been remarkable. you think a year ago and handicapping the race maybe jeb bush but marco rubio was there. maybe he comes back four years from now, but the fact ha he went away so quickly and doesn't want to be a part. >> he went away so quickly and so ingloriously. >> it was rough. a world without donald trump we may be talking about marco rubio. >> maybe. donald trump did a great job of defining and he defined himself in a way that seems tough to imagine. >> ted cruz hachbt gone away. >> no. ted cruz is preparing for a fight for conservative issues. cruz held a conference call last night concerned about trump's

concern on social issues. what the trump needs to do to allay the fears. >> i suggest go with what you've got. joining us now chairman of the conservative american union matt schlapp. is it fair to say that maybe conservatives -- conservative republicans might need someone

else, another option. maybe an independent run or somehow to get safe harbor. if they don't feel comfortable with donald trump. >> no. i don't think they need it i think some are fixing it. do you think ted kroourz is the person? >> no. >> yeah. i wonder then how you look at the state of the race now with donald trump as the frontrunner and you see someone like kelly ayotte who is senator from new hampshire really trying to balance a fine line and sort of supporting the nominee but not endorsing. how do republicans get out of this difficult position they're in? >> not the heels of political relationship better than good poll numbers. >> yeah. >> the numbers we saw this morning are really going to get through the blood stream of republicans. they're going realize, hey, i'm very -- look donald trump is has scared all republicans.

he came from nowhere and took over the nominating process and is going to get more votes than any republican who ran for the republican nomination ever in the primary system, and a lot of people don't have personal relationships with him. so it's okay these people are a little still trying to figure out what the next steps are. i think your advice on how you answer the questions is spot on. i think kelly ayotte, guess what. she ought to do what is in the best interest of herself political my. that's what she ought to do. she ought to win the race in new hampshire and figure out a way to win it. i think she's going to realize in a state like new hampshire donald trump has the potential to do very, very well and i think that will help. >> willie geist, you're the chairman of the american conservative union. do you believe that is for donald trump as a conservative? >> you know, the problem, willie, he doesn't a voting record. we listen to what he says. it's clear he's running on conservative themes. we'll find out as he puts more policy down and if he were to win who he picks to be on his

team. i think he tends to govern as a conservative. but, you know, once again when you have an outsider it makes everybody a little bit nervous. you it's easier with a guy of 10 or 20 years voting. >> we have ten years of donald trump speaking in public and meet the press and everything else. based on what you see there, do you see a conservative? >> no. for the last 30 years absolutely not. do i see over the course of the obama presidency somebody who woke up to the fact that these obama policies, these leftist policies are a danger to the economy, a danger to america standing overseas. do i see that candidate? absolutely. do i think obama help prod pell donald trump to run? i do. i think he's helped motivate him and animated him on these issues. as you said, he cares about, like, does america lead overseas? are islamic terrorists winning or are we winning?

what is going on with our economy. why are wages stagnated for 15 years? why can't we do better. i think those are the types of issues that animated him. i think conservatives are really attracted to this message. most republicans who voted on the primaries can conservatives. he's gotten their votes. and, you know, we're going it see what happens. >> alex. >> i'm curious you talk about donald trump running on anti-obama themes. but specifically for christian conservative voters, a lot of whom voted for ted cruz look at donald trump's record on abortion, gay rights, and don't see somebody who has sort of lived his life for 30 years as a man of faith. what does he have to reassure those folks he's not just, you know, telling them what they need to hear for a transient moment in the primary season and forget about it once he's in the white house. >> i think you're right. a a i think a lot are saying i read

about his lifestyle. what does he believe in his heart? let me tell what i hear from christian voters. they feel like the issues they care about, traditional marriage, protecting life in the womb, these basic questions, public prayer in the public square. they feel like they've been pushed back on so many of their policy goals. now they simply want to be able to practice their faith and be protected. i think donald trump has actually done a very good job of stating the fact that, look, if you want to practice your faith as a christian. the government shouldn't make it hard to do that. it should be allowed in america. it's one of the founding principles. i think that's the first thing. the second thing priebus has given him great advice. put the supreme court justice pockets out there. talk about other people you would surround yourself with in government. i think if he does those things and endorses the platform with maybe a few modifications, thing will help a lot.

>> so donald trump clarified his position on a few issues yesterday. including his position on the debt. matt, telling the "wall street journal" he he would not seek to renegotiate the debt and this is the united states government, the bonds are absolutely sacred. he clarified his position on whether or not the rich should pay more in taxes. hard to tell, i guess, where he's going to land. brett stevens writes in the wall street journal this. hillary, the conservative hope, the best hope for what is left of a serious conservative movement in america is the election in november of a democratic party held in check by a republican congress. conservatives can survive a liberal administration especially those whose predictable failures lead us healthy restorations. think carter and reagan.

conservatives need to accept that most conservative wisdoms sometimes is losing sometimes losing as winning especially when it offers an education in an importance of political hygiene. wow. ouch. brett has been on the show. he's not a trump fan. i mean, i'm just saying. >> right. what do you make of what he's written? >> this is very frustrating for me to listen to. imgs this type of elitism is dris stressing. the fact is conservatives from across the country have given donald trump a million more votes to date than mitt romney got. he'll get more votes in the primary process than anybody who has run for the republican

nomination. our turn out is up over 60%. you can disagree, and i do, too. we have to call balls and strikes when these out of the zone. i think that's perfectly fair. but here is the second thing. please, this is a fallacy. the idea that a republican congress will check a progressive liberal president is wrong because, look, i'm a conservative but i have to give president obama his due. on policy after policy after policy he's been able to outmaneuver congress. he's gone around congress. i think sometimes unconstitutionally. he's done it. he created a new model. a new progressive president like a hillary clinton can implement much of her agenda even if we have vigorous majorities in the congress. in is a huge mistake for conservatives to follow. the fact is that losing stinks and it means you don't get to implement your policies. advocating losing the white house is really stupid. >> wow. >> of course, donald trump is not a conservative matt just said. >> steve, i like it when you try to tell me what he is or what he

isn't. >> no, i'm only repeating what you said. you said donald trump is not a conservative. >> i didn't say that. somebody asked me the question whether or not the over course of last 30 years and his reality tv if he's been a conservative and i answered honestly, no. i think during the obama presidency his conservative positions and vaums hardened and became more clear. i think that's why he's running for president. i think all of us would agree he's running on conservative themes. and he's getting the support of conservatives. is he a perfect orthodox conservative in the vain of ted cruz? absolutely not. is he running on conservative themes and putting together conservative coalition? absolutely. >> i think thursday is really important. people have to meet him and decide if they think they can work with him. and, i mean, donald trump will meet with anybody. i think kelly ayotte ought to try to meet with him. i think my answer was ten times better than any hedging. i'm sorry. get to know him.

>> an interesting point if donald trump wins and becomes his party and then what happens? >> got to figure out if you can work with him. >> then you have no party in favor of entitlement reform. no party -- one party that is partially in favor of free trade. you have a lot of core issues, for instance, paul ryan spent his career advocating for. >> does paul ryan want donald trump to take over the party? >> that's a hard one. matt, thank you very much. come back. >> thanks. coming up today is election day and for bernie sanders all roads lead to california. he's turned out 15,000 people there last night alone. look at that. look at that! what other states are in play for him? he tries to hang on. we're back in a moment. [engine revs] ♪

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there are primary elections. west virginia easily against then senator barack obama. now her campaign is bracing for a possible loss there to senator bernie sanders. clinton grappled with comment the she made in march when she said in part, quote, we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business in favor of modernizing industry. she later apologized. bernie sanders looking ahead to future primaries. last night he spoke to a crowd of 15,000 in sacramento, california.

he acknowledged that narrow path he has to the white house but said his campaign is far from over. >> nobody can predict the future, but i think we have a good shot to win in west virginia, in kentucky, and in oregon. it is a steep hill to climb and i acknowledge that. but we have the possibility of walking in to the democratic convention with a majority of pledged delegates. >> there are some signs and pressure for hillary clinton in kentucky after two weeks without running commercials, a democratic source tells nbc news that the clinton campaign reserved ad time in kentucky for later this week. hillary clinton in 2008 did the same thing. she ran throw the finish line. that's bernie sanders' right. she's not spending much. save that little bit in kentucky and if you look at her the way she speaks on the campaign trail you don't hear bernie sanders

name. she's looking at donald trump. >> her lead over bernie sanders in one delegate, not in super delegated, pledged delegates is larger than obama's lead ever was over her in 2008. arguably she's in a much stronger position. but secondly, what seems possibly different this time senators may go all the way to the convention. not just through the primaries like she did and have a fight over the platform to try to make points. it's not ideal from her point of view. i think she's in a very incredibly secure position with respect to getting the nomination. >> she did, too, in alex take her foot off the gas. she ran through the finish line but didn't attack senator obama. bernie sanders isn't quite doing that yet. he's dialled back a little bit but he's going after her record. >> yeah. steve said he's gearing up for a fight around issues. even wants to acknowledge that the nomination is outside his reach. but for the clinton folks, a lot of people across the democratic

party establishment there is a sense of relief he's no longer 15,000 people in california saying release the transcript. it's a corrupt bargain kind of stuff. >> so hillary clinton made that comment about the coal industry and it is literally it has just followed her everywhere. she has tried to rephrase it. she's tried to even go to west virginia and speak to the people there. this is where things are really unfair. completely. donald trump has made major backslides on major issues. the debt, abortion, taxing the rich, and he -- nobody, i mean, we ask him. we hold him accountable it's certainly not us. but, i mean, he gives answers and then completely backtracks on his answers or changes them and i just don't see any backlash from it. she will lose the state that she won in a big way.

am i wrong? >> oh, no. well, look, she was honest. she said what happens to be true that coal is not part of our long-term future from an environmental point of view. and she's gotten punished for it. >> punished. >> and donald trump can say what he wants about immigrants and walls and trade barriers and this stuff and never gets punished. >> i think it's going to change. >> the general election audience where, you know, it's all well and good to play into the coal audience in west virginia in the primary. sanders is doing, trump is doing. in the general election barack obama got hammered on the coal issue in 2008 and again in 2012. and the reality is there aren't that many swing voters in that many swing states who will vote on coal. you had a weird spent kl of romney running ads on the war of coal in northern virginia where good luck finding a coal miner. >> it's become even more of a toxic issue from the standpoint of the democrats. >> i know. >> i'm just saying.

>> it cisite specific here. a state with a principle source of income for a vast majority of families. >> i totally understand. i'm talking about the fairness of it. >> yes. up next is donald trump at risk of permanently alienating, arguably, the most important voting block this fall? women. kasie hunt talks to a group of republican women about trump's comments and hillary clinton. in is going to be a good one. interesting. we'll be right back.

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kasie joins us. >> reporter: i had an interesting morning with these five women who are all what you would normally consider to be reline republican voters. they're registered republicans. in 2012 they were all supportive of mitt romney. this time around talking to them really illustrated the challenge facing donald trump as he tries to move into this general election and change some of the numbers you all were talking about related to how many women have a negative view of him. here is a piece of our conversation. >> for me at the end of the day, donald trump is not a republican. he came out this weekend and said that he's willing to raise taxes. raise minimum wage. those are things that are not republican response i don't feel beholden to vote for him. >> would you vote for hillary clinton? >> if i have to, at the end of the day, i feel it's my duty as the end of an american to ensure that donald trump is not the next president.

even if that means, as painful as it is, vote for hillary clinton, i'll do it. >> i need to hear that. i'll do anything to not have hillary clinton in office. i think she's the worst choice. i think she's dishonest. you know, it's too much of a sheen going on with the clintons and we have know that bill clinton will be in there with her. >> these are new comments over the weekend from donald trump. as we move into this general election he talked about bill clinton's legacy with women and he said that hillary clinton was in some way s an enabler of thi because of the way she treated the women bill clinton is involved with. >> that's ridiculous. it's blaming the women because the husband made a bad choice. >> i don't think we can comment on their relationship. >> absolutely. >> hillary clinton and president clinton have a unique relationship. >> they have a machine. that's why she would never have left him. >> do you think that history or that enabling or however you

want to describe it, does that reflect on the job she would do as president, do you think? >> i just cannot imagine bill clil ton being in the white house again. >> both sides have scandal. it doesn't necessarily impact their ability to be a leader. >> exactly. >> so as you can see, a little bit of divide over this question of the enabling attack that donald trump has been leveling with hillary clinton in recent days. we saw break down a little bit by age some of the younger women stepping up to defend hillary clinton. i will say from a broader perspective, though, that the comments that donald trump has made specifically about women were not necessarily the primary concern that i heard about from these women i talked to. they more often referenced his comments on minorities, in particular, the border wall with something that was brought up as a potential negative. so immigration was a concern. i think that they also didn't respond well to the idea of

hillary clinton talking about her gender as a reason why they should vote for her. they rejected that. i think in some ways this idea that hillary clinton is playing the women's card is something that could resonate there. these women certainly didn't want to be told they should vote for hillary because of their gender. but at the same time, some very clear hurdles for donald trump to get over with this group of people. >> yeah. kasie hunt, thank you so much. this is so -- it's dicey because you don't want to -- you know, as a person covering it or talking about it, you know, churn it even more, especially it's dredging up whatever untrue gossip. fortunately there's some real parts of the story that are going to come up. it's how she handles it and decides to handle it. i remember, willie, i remember us sitting on the set watching her at an event, she was asked a

question, i believe, by a child and she talked about love. she said love is really hard. and i can't remember the context, but i remember it being very real moment that was a kind of step into her soul or very vulnerable. and i don't think there's any other way to deal with this. i don't think there's any campaign strategy. i don't think there's any speech or set up situation or person who can come to her side on this. >> i agree. i think she almost has to only do it once. if she opened up at some moment or somewhere with somebody. as you see with the first woman who spoke the woman in red. there's sympathy for her. why are we blaming the victim for what bill clinton did? other people like the second woman disagreeing saying the relationship is cynical and they stay together for political reasons. there are enough women who look at her as a victim in that that would agree. >> look at the result in the late winter of 2008 when she

broke down and cried in new hampshire. >> yeah. >> and revealed of herself that she is capable of real emotion in public. real honest emotion in emotion . next day she upsets barack obama. >> the generational component is important. you saw trump typically did much better with older people than younger people. a group of young republican women susceptible to hillary clinton's campaign message. these are not people who remember necessarily firsthand the lewinsky scandal and white house communications operation going after bill clinton's accusers and feeling unsettled about that. these are young women who know hillary clinton as a senator, secretary of state and sympathetic figure. >> maybe it's just me that i found unsettling. it's just a short snippet of a larger conversation they had, but these women are sitting in clearly a very comfortable suburban setting, landscaping

outside, a nice kitchen, kitchen table, warm scene and one young woman, one young woman opposes donald trump because he's for raising the minimum wage? i find it -- >> yeah. >> i mean, come on. >> i hear you on that. but on this very, very tough issue, bill clinton's infidelities and the uncomfortable story we're going to be covering when donald trump attacks her, i just think here's the bottom line. you can see it in that focus group. there's something unanswered and unspoken about over decades about that time. and that's why it is such an incredibly -- could be a really -- it will be an incredibly powerful attack on her. and i just think that people need to get out of the way and that she shouldn't underestimate the value of vulnerability and

the value of just really being herself because i have a feeling that that's the only way to deal with it, and it will be incredibly beautiful thing to see. i think we -- none of us can really understand what happened but there is something unspoken about it. something that is unanswered to generation of americans. and he's going to go there. there's no getting around it. he's going to go there. he's going to go there. >> so far her response has been, asked and answered over the last 20 years. i'm not talking about this anymore. let's move forward and she's going to ignore it. >> i understand. i understand. i wish it wouldn't come up. still ahead, facebook ceo mark zuckerberg has been pretty vocal this election, speaking out about some of the policy proposals of donald trump. now there are accusations the social network itself has been blocking entire conservative news outlets. what former facebook employees are saying coming up on "morning joe."

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's tuesday, may 10th. almost the middle of may. 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 out west. joe is out sick this morning. with us legendary columnist mike barnacle. the managing editors of bloomberg politics mark halperin and john heilemann. the stakes are high for donald trump as he faces a series of pivotal meetings in his bid to unite a fractured republican party torn between the

establishment and the outside forces that overwhelm them. on thursday, trump will sit down with top republican leaders in both the house and senate including speaker paul ryan and majority leader mitch mcconnell. one of the schedule attendees, senator roy blunt who is facing re-election in missouri this year. he put out a statement last night. the senator will use the opportunity to remind him that we say -- that what we say and how we say it matter in making it clear that our common goal is defeating hillary clinton. in a sign of easing tensions, house whip kevin mccarthy signed up to be a trump delegate yesterday. but speaker ryan left wiggle room and potentially opened an escape hatch by saying he'd step down as chairman of this summer's republican national convention if asked. >> i want to get to know him n understand him better because i really don't know him. we had one conversation a few months ago. and basically the kind of

conversation i'm hoping we all can have together, not just the two of us, but all of us, is how we can unify our party. >> i believe between now and july we will be able to figure out how to unify our party. >> if he asked you to step down as chair of the convention, would you? >> he's the nominee. i'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention. >> still other republicans have their reservations. shelly moore of west virginia told politico, i haven't met him yet. i want a chance to talk to him about some issues. and others like senator kelly ayotte are trying to balance handling trump. you kind of can't do this balance because it just doesn't work. it comes out hollow frump and preserving their seats in the upcoming re-election. >> do you support, endorse donald trump? >> i think each person will make their own decision. i've said that i'm going to vote

for our republican nominee, but i don't intend to endorse anyone in this race. >> all right. so either you're for him or you're not. i guess the problem is they're trying to figure out what's going to happen still. are people hedging their bets to the bitter end? >> she's hedging her bet. she's in a tough race against the governor who is also popular. and she believes, correctly, that her fate of keeping her job or not could depend exclusively on how donald trump performs over the next few months. she wants to be able to win even if he crashes and burns. or if he does well, she wants to be able to grab his coat tails. >> all the people we just discussed he's going to meet with on capitol hill want to be convinced he has conservative principles. what could he possibly say in a 15-minute or 30-minute conversation to undo his record noft having conservative principles? >> i really have no idea.

and nothing he's been doing in the last week or so as he's shifted around on positions. some of those shifts are in some ways time honored ways in which nominees try to position themselves in a more moderate direction but trump is in this terrible bind because everything that he does to try to move to the center to look like he'd be a more palatable general election nominee upsets conservatives who the ones who liked his tax plan for instance now see -- >> don't care about upsetting people. i don't think he cares. i thought that was trump. >> he better start carryiing. he's the nominee of the republican party. kelly aiot ayotte is a perfect example. are they going to act as if donald trump is he who must not be names. i'm going to support the republican nominee. they never mentioned his name? we've just had the election of a muslim mayor in london.

and what happens if donald trump ever becomes president. does he allow the muslim mayor in london -- >> he did actually speak about him. he said he'd make perhaps an exception for the mayor of london. >> i think you're right. he can't erase the past. they want three things. show that he's going to raise money for republicans and build infrastructure. be consistent. they don't want every day there to be a different story line. they just want him to seem like he has a plan between now and november and on the offense against hillary clinton. they want him to make the election about hillary clinton. if he does those things, i think he'll win over a lot of the party. >> there's a piece in "the new york times" today about fund-raising. donald self-funded thus far. he's now the presidential candidate of the republican party. he's trashed vast expans of the republican party en route to his hard fought and well deserved win to get the nomination. what does he do now?

forget what i said, give me some money? >> that's what he's doing. it's a mutual thing. they'll sign a joint fund-raising agreement. they talk about how they want trump to raise money for the party and trump has no real fund-raising apparatus. he doesn't bring to bear any of the things most republican nominees in the modern era have brought to bear and they're staring down the barrel. he's got to raise $1.5 billion between now and september? not very many months there. and a number of very senior republican strategists who have done this before have said for any republican nominee raising that kind of money would be really hard, even if you had a full scale fund-raising operation. trump has literally none of that. >> look at these, though. some top republican donors did sign on with trump. anthony scaramucci. that's paypal co-founder and prominent ron paul supporter

peter thiel and billionaire broadcasting mogul stanley hubbard who once gave money to a stop trump pac. so he's come around. he told politico, all my favorite candidates dropped out one by one. we're down to my least favorite candidate, and my least favorite candidate is better than hillary clinton. so first of all, wow. if there was a strong independen independent candidate, this would be the time. we still have to get to hillary clinton and her responding to trump. i see a lot of holes on both sides. a lot of weakness right now. >> and trump is fund-raising from a standing start because he didn't have to do this throughout the republican nominating process. headquarter has a network that goes back a generation. >> it's a machine. >> she has all these things in motion. >> the clinton machine. >> trump is just starting now. >> but he is definitely aggressive and ferocious and how she responds to that could make him look strong or look terrible. and i think again my gut is

hillary clinton needs to be hillary clinton the one that you meet one on one. because yesterday she went out and it seemed like a campaign organized event and it just seemed like everybody around her were sort of like positioned and set up almost human shields from the attacks coming to her instead of the issue she was talking about. she was going to get asked these questions about what donald trump said about bill clinton and where he's going on this. she has to be herself because herself has always been the best thing for her. this was the event yesterday. we'll get to it later. it's an event organized about families. she was asked all these questions about bill clinton. the press was relentless about it and it was an awkward place to be answering those questions. and all the people there were set up. it just at some point has to be

hers to own and she'll do an amazing job if they get out of her way. back to donald trump and what is going on with him. she may not have to work that hard because he's not. joe has a piece for "the washington post" entitled "the art of the deal that could seal trump's doom." he writes in part this. on page one of a book written almost 30 years ago, trump's book, trump tells the reader many people are surprised by the way i work. i play it very loose. i don't carry a briefcase. i try not to schedule too many meetings. i leave my door open. you can't be imagine native if you have too much structure. i preforecome to my work every morning and just see what develops. that's the same approach candidate trump has been using from the day he descended the escalators at trump towers to the day he vanquished the last of his 16 opponents. maybe trump will once again prove the world wrong. but it is far more likely that

simply showing up and seeing what develops next will lose him the white house and destroy the republican party in the process. buy a briefcase, donald. i guess also the point he's making there is he's riffing and it works -- it has worked for him through the primary. a lot of red meat you can just throw out there. now it's about consistency, as you said mark halperin and john heilemann. now it's about the issues. and she will just clean up on this, hillary clinton. people will be scared. and they will ultimately not want to make that decision. so inconsistent. >> she's been through three presidential candidates. she's been the first lady. backed by -- >> secretary of state. >> backed by hundreds of people. >> she's actually won elections. >> they thought this through and he's not going against the weakest most overrated field of candidates of all time. against a professional operation

and again improvising, making it up day-to-day, thinking you can say one thing on monday and a department different thing on tuesday is going to make winning for him tough. he needs to be uncharacteristically disciplined at the same time being himself. >> we're not denying that what he has done is nothing short of incredible. nothing short of historic. nothing short of just never seen before in the history of politics. modern day politics for sure. and speaker ryan, i don't think any house speaker before this has done this. so you could argue he's being careful or a little difficult. but trump's got to look at his responses. >> he's gone on his gut so far. that's what joe wrote about and it served him really well this far. now he's got to start thinking about moving forward in the general election and being consistent in his positions.

his tax plan came out last fall. lower tax rates for everybody. now he says we might tax the rich. might raise the minimum wage. he can't hopscotch around the board on policy issues like that. otherwise people will not take him seriously. he was able to do that in that narrow lane of republican primary voters who got him where he is now but he's got to open the tent now. >> don't be sarah palin. >> we're hearing a couple of different theories at a minimum over the last couple of days. it's instructive to look at what's happened to the trump campaign. the idea he takes on elizabeth warren in a twitter war. why he did that, no one really knows. the idea that he is going after bill clinton's behavior a quarter of a century ago that he thinks this triggers something in voters' minds. clearly he does. you don't hear that from ordinary people. but it leads to the theory that the window is still open for some sort of a third party

candidacy, an independent candidacy. i don't know about ballot access. what do you think? >> well, it's a -- it is a very tricky thing. >> split it up. >> it's tricky in the sense there are these ballot access questions. the deadline for texas passed yesterday. you can't be in the ballot in texas. there are states you can still get on the ballot. complex legalities around all of that. then the question of all the huge obstacles to running as a third party or independent candidate that have existed -- that have kept people like ploomberg from running on successive elections. it's really hard to win. is there a way for an independent candidate to get on the ballot and keep anybody from getting to 270 and throwing it to the house? you are trying to get the camel through the eye of a needle. not impossible. not impossible but not the most likely or probable scenario that you'll come across, i don't think. >> donald trump spent the weekend branding hillary clinton as an enabler of her husband's

affairs. and at an event in northern virginia yesterday, clinton sidestepped a response after holding a discussion with young families. she turns her focus to swing states. the meeting was closed to the public and attend ease were outnumbered by the press who repeatedly asked clinton for her reaction to trump. >> i'm going to let him run his campaign however he chooses. i'm going to run my campaign which is about a positive vision for our country with specific plans that i think will help us solve problems that we're facing. >> do you think at some point you'll have to respond to these accusations? you saw what happened during the primary when things he said went unanswered. why not sort of -- >> oh, i'm answering him all the time. no, i'm answering him on what i think voters care about. i'm answering him on the differences between our records, our experience, what we want to do for our country, how important it is to try to unify the country, and i've been very clear that a lot of his -- a lot

of his rhetoric is not only reckless, it's dangerous. >> you're responding with substance? >> i'm running my campaign. i'm not running against him. he's doing a fine job of doing that himself. >> okay. very, very uncomfortable situation she's being put in. mark halperin, i guess the setup events are because cable news networks dig into them all day? why do those? i have an aversion to them stronger than others. >> trying to get coverage but also she wants to be showing herself in situations that show unity, diversity, women and trying to focus on issues. so that is very much in keeping with how they'd like to run against donald trump for the next several months. >> there's also -- what does it say about us, the media, that we're asking hillary clinton

about -- literally something that happened 25 years ago and has bceen resolved, at least legally. i don't know anybody who is concerned that that's one of their top five issues, what bill clinton did 25 years ago. maybe i'm living in a different universe. >> she's banking on that. you can see she's playing the four corners offense which is, you got the lead. hold the ball. ignore the other guy. in the case of the bill clinton indiscretions, i think that's probably her best policy to ignore it and trust the voters aren't interested in it. >> we have a political party in opposition to hillary clinton, the republican party, of which a large percentage of that party seems focused on who has the right to go to what bathroom. what is going on here? no answers? >> well -- >> look, if donald trump were here, what he'd say is that he's trying to make this not just about president clinton's

personal life and things president clinton did that he's trying to take it to a slightly dchbt place which is to suggest that hillary clinton was an enabler of that activity and she's never been held to account for that. that's where he's trying to take this argument. whether that argument will find purchase with the press, it seems to be maybe a little bit finding purchase with the press as that colloquy that we caught on video there. will that catch any perches with voters? at least the history of this has been that people found hillary clinton a very sympathetic figure over president clinton's indiscretions in the late '90s and early 2000s. people looked at her as being a survivor, supportive of her and they made her senator of new york. it worked to her advantage politically then. is there some weird jiujitsu it could be used against her now? i don't see it, but donald trump does. >> what do you think? >> i can't even imagine what it

would be like to be in a situation like that, but i just find when something is really, really being thrown at you, the best thing to do is to be honest and vulnerable and real and i think usually the person throwing the mud ends up looking really bad. so i don't know if it's fair game. i think in some ways it is, but i think she has to sort of find her own voice with that. she really does. and i bet if she gets everybody out of her own way and just kind of speaks from the heart, i bet she would be incredibly moving and we all would have nothing to say at all. but we'll see. >> i agree. a little authenticity. that was the worst time of my life. it played out in public. and, boy, that's was terrible. >> it really hurts to have -- i can't imagine how bad somebody

would look trying to throw that kind of thing at someone when in a -- family issues are so deeply personal and convolute and so unbelievably not anybody's business. >> this stuff is going to get a lot of attention. whenever trump talks about it, it will get attention. trump has the running mate selection, has to raise money for tv advertising and the debates. those moments of messaging and presentation and how he compares himself to hillary clinton will matter more regarding his chances than this stuff. >> and huge challenges in the process of going through those events. huge problems to fix. with large swaths of the electorate that dusisapprove of him. vast numbers of women, hispanics. there's not a way to become president if 70% of hispanics and women are against you. can he use the events to fix those problems? i don't know that he's going to stay on bill clinton's personal

life and hillary clinton's complicity in it. if that's going to be a running theme of the campaign. maybe i'm blind to it, but i don't see how it solves those problems with those huge constituencies he needs to win some big chunk of that he doesn't have right now. >> as a working woman, i will just say when you think about those years and you think what she's done beyond those years, senator from new york, secretary of state, candidate for president, to say the least, you know, people ultimately want someone who is capable. and absolutely nothing through her off. not even the deepest heartbreak of her life. she could use this. she could use this to her benefit in a very real and vulnerable way without even -- just deal with it. it's not that big a deal. be there for yourself. >> who could -- to your point, who could not identify with hillary clinton. >> with heartbreak and -- >> what it's like to -- >> and tragedy. >> wounded and humiliated

through a crowd called the nation. >> and then go on and raise a child and serve and become a grandparent and run for president. i mean, this is -- this can be done. i just don't think it can be handled by a campaign. they'll think too much. you just got to speak from the heart. still ahead on morning joe, new polling shows razor thin margins in some of the most coveted battleground states. plus, 2020 vision. marco rubio, cold water on questions about being trump's running mate while ted cruz tries to shape the convention. are battle lines being drawn already for the next cycle?

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we've got some new poll numbers in the presidential race nationally. the nbc news/surveymonkey tracking poll has hillary clinton at 49%, five points ahead of donald trump at 44%. senator bernie sanders has a 13-point lead over trump in that hypothetical head-to-head. 53% to 40%. in florida, clinton at 43%, trump at 42% compared to sanders at 44%. in ohio, clinton at 39%. trump at 43%. sanders at 43% versus trump at 41 in that head-to-head. in pennsylvania, clinlton is at 43%, trump at 42%. sanders leads 47 to 41 in that state. very tight in the states that matter. >> that will make republicans very happy. that's the kind of thing they need to feel good about coalescing about trump because

winning or potentially winning will solve a lot of the current tension. >> donald trump could win this, right? >> sure. >> absolutely. >> too soon to say, but he could. >> yeah. >> but he could. like people have to stop pretending. >> i could too if i get a ballot act. >> please. so right now -- >> he has a lot of work to do, but he could win, yes. >> and what are the things in his way? inconsistency -- >> well, the main thing -- >> himself. >> demographics. he has to do better with women and hispanics and van electoral college -- >> what does that mean? how would he do that? >> needs to be supported by much higher percentages of them than now and needs a plan to achieve that. he needs to unify republicans, win independents and hold his own with hispanic voters. coming up on "morning joe," election day in west virginia.

can bernie sanders pick off another state after hillary clinton's costly comments about coal jobs? you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. real is touching a ray. amazing is moving like one. real is making new friends. amazing is getting this close. real is an animal rescue. amazing is over twenty-seven thousand of them. there is only one place where real and amazing live.

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call or go online and switch to x1. only with xfinity. the only way we can build our party to get to more than that number so that's we can win is if you don't ask anyone to leave. you don't subtract people out of the room but you build and add and understand that you know, if we can agree with each, on 80% of the issues, i think we're in

pretty good shape. and that's, you know, purity is found in heaven. but it's not found here. and i think people just need to be reminded of that. >> that was republican party chairman reince priebus emphasizing party unity when talking about the vote from four years ago. we have mike barnacle, former treasury official mark rattner and alex burns and radio host kurt anderson and hallie jackson live on capitol hill. hallie, we'll start with you. you're staking out speaker paul ryan this morning ahead of thursday's big meeting between donald trump and congressional republican leaders. this meeting has taken on really, really major importance in terms of how donald trump moves forward. what are you hearing there? >> it's still 48 hours away but it's capturing everybody in

washington. people are looking to this meeting as a pivotal moment for donald trump. it's not just house leadership. speaker ryan, senator mitch mcconnell, the senator leadership. we heard from senator roy blunt now telling us blunt will be looking at not just what donald trump said but how he says it in relation to hillary clinton to make sure blunt is able to support someone like donald trump for the presidency as the republican nominee. so you've got a lot at stake here. a couple of points. speaker ryan is heading back from wisconsin here to washington today. he'll issue meeting with interestingly ben carson coming in as one of trump's allies. and sources say the idea is to warm the room, to warm paul ryan up so when donald trump does get here there's some kind of a slip and slide to the relationship, you could say. this is a real big moment for not just trump but for a lot of folks near washington looking to see how paul ryan will react to

donald trump. ryan has said he wants to see more about trump's tone and get to know the guy a little bit. they've only interacted a couple ever times. it's still 48 hours away and we're already here on capitol hill where we'll be for the rest of the week. >> i get it. hallie jackson, thank you. mike? what do you think? >> doesn't matter what i think. i'm interested in the view from outside. >> i don't live here in manhattan with you guys. >> how does all this strike you, the trump summit with paul ryan? paul ryan. >> we know already politics, presidential politics are theater. this is high theater. this is the kabuki moment where he has to go there and do this. i have to imagine that he's not going to erupt in donald trump craziness in front of the republican leadership of congress and that he can manage to control his cartoon character

impulses when he's in that room. but, you know, on the other hand, his natural mode was the mode of the weekend. you're going to say something mean about me? i'm going to say something mean about you. that is the default donald trump. >> will he tweet about the summit? >> has he never not tweeted about anything? >> i'm sure he's going to tweet. >> i don't know if he'll live tweet. >> look, i think that you never underestimate donald trump. if he wants to do this, he can do this. if he wants to make party unity happen, he can make party unity happen. he's done everything he's wanted to do so far in this election and should not be underestimated. this is what eugene robinson writes about in "the washington post." how do you nail a blob of mercury to the wall?

that's a problem hillary clinton will have to solve running against donald trump. most of whose positions on major issues are elusive, trump may fig fur he does enough flip flopping and zigzagging and blowing of smoke, voters will become injured, a strategy of portraying inconsistency as a virtue, not a failing. then again, this may just be the way trump is. he may have few subtle beliefs aside from an abiding faith in his own brilliance. how does a policy wonk such as clinton run against a policy phobe such as trump? trying to define him as insufficiently studious, overly capricious and fundamentally unserious would be like pangintg a caricature of a cartoon. maybe clinton should focus on delivering an inspirational message. the job of refuting trump is already being done by trump. >> a lot of people do not believe that trump is undercutting himself to disqualify him on policy.

the argument here that is sort of more pertinent to the way the clinton campaign is handling itself now. trump is all over the map on most of the important issues in the election. but he's stepped over some pretty important conventional lines of political discourse when it comes to subjects like the u.s. credit, the use of nuclear weapons and other matters where the clinton campaign is taking his unpredictability as recklessness. you can't have somebody in charge of the largest military of the world in charge of safeguarding america's debt and standing with the global financial community. you can't have somebody just making it up as they go along. >> i agree with that completely. that's the overarching attack on trump. in terms of specifics, what's she can do is pick out stuff he said. doesn't matter whether he's gone back or forth. she can say for example that he's talks about renegotiating part of the u.s. debt. that he wants to cut taxes for the wealthy.

she can ignore the fact he wanders around. i don't think pinning hum do in as a flip flopper will be a successful strategy. >> it's been interesting, and i don't disagree with anything that's been said here but trump in effect with his behavior, his rhetoric, has neutered the media. just by basically doing what he did with george stephanopoulos on sunday. when you raise all of these issues. you said this but he meant that. he said, well, it's just a concept. >> now because he has proven he can get away with saying one thing, not walking it back, but saying, no, either i didn't say that or, no, no, the debt is sacred, even though i said i'd give our creditors a hair cut. among others, that enables his people when he says oh, no, i don't like white supremacists to say, no, he does. he's just saying that now. and the people, the republicans

holding their nose and supporting him can say he's not really a nut. he'll really be flexible. so everybody can believe what they wish about him. and that's -- in his very slipperiness and his very self contradictoriness, he is winning. >> new this morning, the white house says president obama will make an historic visit to hiroshima later this month. the president is traveling to vietnam and japan from may 21st to the 28th. his last stop in japan will be hiroshima. according to the white house, he'll make the trip with japan's prime minister to highlight a continued commitment to pursue peace without nuclear weapons. but according to the ap, while the president is expected to honor the victims of the bombing, he is not expected to apologize. so speaking of the president, mike writes this.

obama's part in the election could be significant. the biggest question could be about barack obama is just who it is he helps the most when it is hillary clinton against trump in the fall. between now and election day, voters will be asked to decide if they think the country is better off today than it was eight years ago when he took office. especially as it becomes more clear and by the day that hillary clinton is running for obama's third term as much as her first. she does this despite the fact that the rise of trump began with a clear hatred of obama that defines donald trump's base as much as fear of and anger about muslims and mexican immigrants and the economy and everything else that has brought him to this moment. truly the greatest unknowable in the campaign, even with the president's approval rating holding at 51% for the past couple of months is this. does he help hillary in this fight or not? steve rattner, what do you

think? >> i think she has no choice. her nature is such that she's not going to walk away from the president in whose administration she served. she's not going to do that. >> can i just interrupt you? >> you can be joe. >> i agree with you. i also think this president has done great things and accomplished things on the economy that people don't remember where we were. so even though they aren't where we want to be, he has, including with your help quite frankly, has done some incredible things for this country and when i hear hillary clinton talk about president obama and really embrace him in her -- i feel uncomfortable for her. it's not that i disagree with what she's saying. it's that i don't think that's what -- i don't think people are that comfortable with things. and i don't feel it works. >> i think running for anybody's third term if you look back at history, has been tricky. we've rarely elected a president

of the same party after someone that's served two terms. it's part of her personality to be loyal and everything else you just said is also part of the narrative that's his popularity is now above 50%. hopefully it will stay there. she can talk about his accomplishments and remind people where we were eight years ago. i don't think there's another way to play this game. it's not a bad hand. >> put it within the context of hillary clinton's own relative unpopularity that critics of the president and hillary clinton use this third term line and for good reason as something that makes voters uncomfortable. right now if you look at where they stand with the electorate, obama would probably van easier time winning a third term than hillary clinton would winning a first. >> his approval ratings are not just higher than they've been in a few months. they are higher than they've been in three years. and again, we're talking there about this swing 10%. sometimes they disprove, sometimes they approve.

that's the very 10% that's going to decide this election. >> kurt anderson, stay with us. is facebook's trending section a sham? which topics former facebook employees said they were told to keep you from seeing. we're back in a moment. hmmmmmm..... [ "dreams" by beck ] hmmmmm... hmmmmm... the turbocharged dream machine. the volkswagen golf gti. part of the award-winning golf family. is caringing because covering heals faster. for a bandage that moves with you and stays on all day, cover with a band-aid brand flexible fabric adhesive bandage.

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stomach pain, upset or burning. go with pradaxa, the only blood thinner that lowers your stroke risk better than warfarin and has a specific reversal treatment. eligible patients could pay as little as zero dollars on co-pay. ask your doctor about pradaxa today. time for business before the bell with cnbc's sara eisen. what are you watching today? >> wall street is looking like it is heading for an up day, but a lot depends on the price of oil. we're still beholden to that commodity, which direction it goes, the market generally follows. also a big earnings report this afternoon from disney. we'll see what that looks like. we're all talking about the facebook story. facebook fighting back this morning. vehemently denying claims that it's suppressing conservative trends. it gets at this question on the front page of "the new york post" and other papers this

morning at whether facebook is censoring politically conservative articles in its trending section of curated news on its side bar. this is sparked by a gizmoto report citing a former facebook news curator saying popular articles from politically conservative outlets on conservative subjects were deliberately left out of the trending news side bar. we should note that even gizmoto described the former facebook worker himself as, quote, politically conservative and there's no evidence in the article that facebook management was aware of this. they also interviewed other curators who deny consciously suppressing any conservative media. and facebook this morning writs writing in a statement, we take allegations of bias very seriously. facebook is a platsform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum. it shows you the popular topics being talked about on facebook. there's still criticism and it's

an important question. 1.6 billion people around the world are getting their content and are users of facebook. more than 222 million in the u.s. and canada alone, and it does raise this question of who is curating this information and hour are they doing it? it's not great for the optics. a few months ago mark zuckerberg warned against, quote, fearful voices building walls, adding to the political conversation. >> sara eisen, thank you very much. up next, hillary clinton goes to coal country even though many voters are less than thrilled to see her. why today she may lose the state she won easily eight years ago. keep it here on "morning joe." intuitive. with the pressure of my hand i can draw lightly, just like i would with a real pencil. i've been a forensic artist for over 30 years. i do the composite sketches which are the bad guy sketches. you need good resolution, powerful processor

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we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business. right, tim? and we're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people. but i don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on. >> i do feel a little sad and sorry that i gave folks the reason or excuse to be so upset with me because that is not what i intended at all. >> that was hillary clinton apologizing for her comments on the coal mining industry during a march town hall. joining us now, business and tech correspondent for nbc news and msnbc, olivia sterns. she's just back from west virginia. the mining community. what did you hear when you were

actually speaking one on one with folks about the election? >> obviously coal is everything in appalachia. this is the life blood of the entire region. >> for generations. >> for nearly 100 years. i sat down with levi holstein. and i sat down with his father who is now disabled. he has black lung after decades working in the mine. levi's father remembers voting for bill clinton back in the '90s. listen to what he had to say today. >> this is a democrat state, a democrat county with all the coal miners. >> and now it's going for trump? >> simple reason, ain't going to vote for hillary. i don't know nothing about her because she stood up here and said she was going to put the coal companies out of business. and that just totally turned people off. turned them against her completely. >> did you ever think maybe

she's being honest? >> i'm sure she is being honest. >> that's just like our president now, president obama. he said about six years ago in his first term, he said i will bankrupt the coal business. he promised it, and he done it. >> and a lot of folks down there also said it was very much the way she said it. i didn't meet anyone who had taken the time to watch a clip of hillary clinton talking about this on youtube. they just said it hurt to hear that and even though they're not exactly sure how donald trump thinks he's going to bring back the coal jobs, they just can't get behind hillary. >> west virginia is such a proud state. it's a state of calluses, cold dust memories, generations of families. kept the lights on in this country for decades. it's kind of over. natural gas and oil. the reality of what confronts the coal industry. are they truly aware of it?

>> it's hard to say. the industry and the region deeply in decline right now. there's this profound ripple impact. schools losing teachers. hospitals having to lay off doctors because it sucks all the air out of the economy. the truth is jobs are just not coming back. i also spoke to a former obama administration energy policy expert. and he was saying, no, look. this is a multidecade decline of coal in this country. look at the market forces, the rise of natural gas in the past couple of years thanks to fracking. then the environmental regulation and everything the obama administration is doing. and even if we do actually get clean coal working which is far from certain right now, it's still cheaper to get the coal out of the ground in wyoming and a lot more up here than in appalachia. west virginia coal is not coming back. >> coal in general is in a very different place than four years ago or eight years ago or 12 years ago. almost a national consensus

against coal. four coal companies in this country. they're all bankrupt. and so i think the one -- wouldn't call it a mistake. the additional thing hillary should have said is those jobs aren't coming back but here's what's i would propose to do for the people affected by it, and there's a lot stuff we can and should be doing which isn't being done because of the gridlock in washington. >> kurt? >> it's an example of a larger problem in our presidential politics that when you tell the truth, not well, too bankruptly and rudely as hillary clinton did, it doesn't play. so what you feed instead to voters are fantasies. it can be just the way it used to be. we don't need to reform entitlements and we'll have manufacturing back the way it was. and you can say merry christmas to strangers. >> she's been held accountable to -- this is a bigger conversation. >> and donald trump -- >> exactly right.

>> olivia, really, really good interview. interesting conversation. olivia sterns. that does it for us this morning. steve kornacki, he's so mean. i can't believe it. he's still on. steve kornacki. he's like -- wait until you see him. he's vicious. mean steve. that's his new name. he picks up the coverage after a quick break. quality servic and that in a new house, you probably don't share the same tastes as the previous owner. ♪ [ dolphin chatters ] so when you need a little house painting or a complete remodel, we'll help you get the job done right, guaranteed. get started today at angie's list, because your home is where our heart is.

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and good morning.

i'm steve kornacki. topping the agenda, the hostile takeover. what will donald trump's republican party stand for? paul ryan says he's ready to skip chairing the convention if he and trump can't get on the same page. >> if he asked you to step down as chair of the convention. >> i'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention. >> that big trump/ryan face-to-face meeting set for this thursday. hints about what ryan may want from trump and what trump may offer ryan. also news of another top republican who is also going to be sitting down with trump this thursday. that's still ahead this morning. also on the agenda, hillary clinton could be on the verge of another loss today against bernie sanders. this one in west virginia. even as attention shifts to a clinton/trump showdown. >> i'm running my campaign. i'm not running against him. he's doing a fine job of doing that himself. i'm running my campaign, what i want to do as