universities a priority for the white house. and they are set to celebrate fat tuesday today in mardi gras as the season comes to a close, but more security is going to be on hand after the truck rammed into a crowd of revelers just this good morning. it's tuesday february 28th. welcome to "morning joe." we're live on capitol hill. >> this is very nice, mika. very nice of mark halperin to let us film from his apartment. it's unbelievable. >> tonight will address congress on the first time with us on set. we have political analyst, executive producer and co-host of showtime's the circus mark halperin. "new york times" reporter,

reporter for "the washington post" robert costa. we are just hours away from president trump's first address to a joint session of congress. >> mika, that's the big setup. a lot of people talking about this. the trump show, i think, was one of the shows last night talked about it, chris hayes. it is going to be quite a show. what are you expecting? >> we can glean what white house aides told us in terms of tone they are trying to put a twist on his carnage of american. tells news themes will focus on renewal of american spirit and optimistic vision for all americans, whatever that means. the president reportedly told local news reporters last night that his message would be the country has enormous problems but tremendous potential adding that theme. he is expected to focus on what he's accomplished so far in his

first weeks in office. here is what he told fox news last night. >> all i can do is speak from the heart and say what i want to do. we have a really terrific health care plan coming out. obama care has been a disaster, way out of control. i'll be talking about the military, talking about the border. remember this, on the border and throughout the country we are getting bad ones out, bad people. gang members, drug lords, in some cases murderers. >> so mark, the question is what tone does he take tonight? i think most of us -- i'll only speak for myself -- were disappointed inaugural address was turgid, wasn't hopeful, wasn't gracious. lots has happened sin then. he can talk a lot about what he's done over this manic first

month. i saw his week ly address talkig about black history month, i never heard a tone like that, a very unifying tone. it was striking. i wonder if we'll see more tonight. >> all signs are we will. one speech won't make or break the presidency, go back to the speech from the primaryish the radio address, he shows he has a sense of being gracious. he shows -- trump doesn't want to just ab polarizing figure. his potential to remake american politics when no one is standing his way is pretty large. if he gives a speech to the inauguration goes back to narrow base, 42% strategy. he has a potential in one speech, including media, will people think about him in a different way, uses a different

tone, talks about him in a different way. >> jeremy, are you sensing despite occasional tweets and of course what happened last friday with the press briefing, are you sensing the waters are calming at least internally a little bit more over the past week or so. >> absolutely. as you said, the key is reigning in the -- reining in and making sure he doesn't go overboard. picking a fight with the media will rile up the base, it's reliable, but after a while it starts looking petty and peevish. he and bannon have taken it too far. i would expect to see some of the aggressive language dialed back and in there sprinkled some optimism. >> there's an audience in the country, also a specific audience at the capital, 535 members of congress. he's had a relatively

comfortable ride as president in terms of dealing with congress. he's had to get his cabinet through. most presidents able to get their cabinet through. he has to speak to the freedom congress. are they going along with priorities, traditional republicans in the house who spent their career looking at ways to pull back medicare and social security spending. is he going to speak to them at all, to these red states democrats in the senate who he needs to get his gandy, a through. give them something that gives them a way to come to the center. >> there's a rubik's cube of what he can do to get different support from different factions. bob put it on the toughest part of the cube, is there a way to simultaneously unite republican party who is divided on spending and a way for the democrats. >> mika, right now the people he's going before are not really that popular.

the nbc wall street poll yesterday, we'll be showing some of these numbers throughout the day, you look at donald trump he's 43-47 upside down. that's better than the republican party, better than the democratic party, much better than chuck schumer or nancy pelosi. so donald trump for the first time since president, paul ryan 34, 45, trump 43, 47. republican party 35, 43, democratic party 30, 46. usually if you're in the minority those go up. mitch mcconnell upside down, nancy pelosi upside down as well. donald trump as he goes in will know he's the most popular politician in that chamber. we'll see if it provides him that touch of graciousness we thought was missing in the inaugural address. >> certainly pushing money doing in different directions. one inspiring way of doing that

is to say we don't win wars anymore, which was the headline of the next story. president trump outlined major shift in priorities, he wants to win wars. $54 billion swing toward defense spending offsetting with equivalent cuts and leaping with the expressionary budget more than a trillion dollars unchanged. the president justified the move while speaking to a group of governors at the white house yesterday. >> we have to win. we have to start winning wars again. i have to say when i was young in high school and college, everybody used to say we never lost a war. we never lost a war, you remember. now we never win a war. and we don't fight to win. it's either win or don't fight it at all. >> i think most people would want the second part of that, don't fight it at all. >> i think we want to avoid war, i guess. i don't know. where are we going here. >> the art of war, the greatest

general, wins without ever fighting a war. you're right, including donald trump who talked about during his entire campaign the fact we fought too many wars and we needed to bring american troops home. >> that's right. he campaigned on no more stupid wars. of course, i would imagine there are -- we're not going to get into stupid wars, we're only going to get into smart wars. >> sounds like they want to go to war. there's an emphasis on winning. >> that is a tremendous amount of money to spend on ramping up military. $54 billion. that does not to me sound like a peace time president. >> just for the record, for our men and women in uniform that might be discouraged, just for the record i want to say most of the war we've fought, most of the military we've done have been successes over your

lifetime, young kids. we hit grenada. >> decisive victory. >> decisive victory. go usa. our falklands. then panama. remember noriega had the sword and said you'll be ensnarled in the jungles, this is going to be -- people were saying panama was spanish for vietnam. we went in. our military get noriega and he's been sitting in a jail since in a couple days. the greatest coalition since war ii, an extraordinary military success. you can talk about the politics of it. the second as tragic as it was, our military troops fought through it all and by 2009 any military history will tell you

2009, 2010 our military stabilized a situation completely under chaos the year before. afghanistan, what was our goal in afghanistan? it wasn't to take over afghanistan. it was to go over and break up al qaeda's network. we did. osama bin laden is dead and the network was shattered in a million pieces. so you look at military operations, it's not to seize oil and plant a flag and sing "we are the champions." it's you lay out military objectives, you give those objectives to your troops. time and time again over the past quarter century, our men and women in uniform have done exactly what their civilian commanders have asked them to do in an extraordinary way. >> i would that's what the commander in chief ought to honor before saying anything about an impending war, which at

this point you would think we would want to avoid on every level given where we've been. when you hear it in its totality from a president who undermines judiciary, president who flouts first amendment and calls the news media fake news, and now is talking about winning wars, i have to tell you, it feels ominous. i don't think it's an exaggeration at this point. i'm hoping we get more measured tones tonight. >> that's why tonight is so important. it's so important, robert, that he moves past his fights with the independent judiciary, he moves past his fights with the press, he moves past these other fights, you could say with hollywood actresses and everybody, and takes the high road and says this is what we've done and this is our vision moving forward. >> i think mika's point about foreign policy is critical. what's he going to say with this

upcoming report on islamic support. he's asked top military officials in the country who prepare a report on how to confront islamic state. this comes as he's asking for $54 billion in military spending and after steve bannon, his chief strategist, as we all know talks in pretty big terms about the west and judeo christian values. is trump going to adopt a military plan that follows in a path that's not nonintervention something he said in his campaign. >> something you hear from trump, sean spicer, everyone in the white house, it's not accidental. trump is keeping his promises. >> putting his money where his mouth is, talk about winning wars, are we going to war? with who? >> they are talking about everything from nominating somebody like gorsuch to defunding plannedarenthoodparen

promises they made to conservative base of voters that got behind donald trump. they want to make sure those people know trump han forgotten them. >> by the way, this has been their goal since before they got in office. we're going to do a lot of the tough stuff, a lot of the controversial stuff early on. they were saying this. they knew twous going to be a rough ride, made rough by a lot of things the president has said. but the fact that any republican president can go before congress with an 85, 86% approval rating in his own party and say look what i've delivered you. i've delivered you a supreme court justice that is as good a supreme court justice as you will find. he actually can say that about gorsuch and it's true. immigration, very offensive to a lot of people but exactly what his base wanted him to do. he can talk about strengthening the military budget. he said he was going to do it,

he's doing it. he's going to have a lot of promises made, promises kept. that's going to be a very strong message, again, for that base. right now that 43% base is rock solid. yesterday you had the house chairman of the intel committee go out on russia and say nothing to see here, nothing to see here. you know why? trump probably has 98% approval rating in his district. we question everything he's doing, i certainly have every step of the way. right now job one is making sure republican red house districts are so pro trump that nobody behind here is going to question anything he does. >> can he hold that together as legislative agenda starts to move while still reaching out to other parts of the congress because there are some things that require democratic votes and live up to the promise he said he had, which is to not

just be polarizing partisan president. a lot of stuff he believes not popular with elites, certainly not popular with democrats but is more popular -- immigration ban we've seen in every poll is more popular than not, even support. i think what he's reflecting on national security has been popular and in line with american people even though a little cognitive dissidence. people want stronger america to deter actions abroad, quick victories but not embroiled in decades long wars. that's what donald trump is for even though it's open to a lot of criticism. >> meekds, we've known donald trump for a long time. what we've said for a long time, what we're finding out before crying mel van, what was donald like? very gracious. mika said to him, uh-oh, you're in trouble. you just said that on the air.

but he is. he doesn't show that side in public. nancy pelosi will tell you he's a very warm, positive person behind doors. chuck schumer will say the same thing. he doesn't show that. i just wonder, mika, you've seen that side of him, obviously you're very critical of him right now, i'm very critical of him right now, what would you like to see him do tonight knowing what he's capable of doing versus what he's actually done in this position of power. >> two things he's incapable of doing would be evuncular, self-deself self-deprecating. >> he can. >> no, could never make jokes about himself. what he can do is have written for him and stick to strict, which is important.

i don't mean that in a demeaning way. this is one of the most important addresses of his presidency to launch it, and he really ought to stick to a program. it should be optimistic. it should be unifying, and it should be helpful. i would leave it at that. that would ab win for this country. >> you saw his weekly address on black history month. >> i thought it was one of the best things he's done. i know we look at things under prism of lower bar but i don't think we need add lower bar for that. i thought it was good. >> there was that weekly address -- >> it was hopeful. >> that wasn't lower -- as i was looking at him, wait a second, i'm not holding trump to a lower standard here, this would be great for any president to be reading right now. there was nothing combative about it. he was talking about the challenges of african-american community. that tone, if they could lift that tone and put it --

>> my gut is those who wrote inaugural address did not write that. >> steve bannon did not write that. >> so whoever wrote your inaugural address, don't have them help you tonight. >> this is a good point. whoever wrote that speech, always the last person in the room, on black history month, that person knows how to get somebody over 50% and how you win wisconsin going away. >> right. i will note as just a little side note here, the official statement that came up from the white house afterwards did say obama had turned his back on historically black colleges and left a lot of historically black leaders angry at him. there was that trumpian dig he couldn't resist taking. however, this reflects the desire to go after african-american votes. it's the same thing you're seeing inside white house with hispanic votes. there's a recognition there are votes in these communities up for grabs that trump did not speak to when he said, what do

you have to lose? this is what he was supposed to be conveying when he said that during the campaign and was so widely ridiculed for it, what do you have to lose? the strategy, and steve bannon was a part of this, telling those communities, look, the democrats have turned their back on you. we're listening to you finally, give us a chance. he's got a lot of work to do but it's not a crazy theory. >> it's not a crazy theory. he's not going to get richard nixon's 33% he got in 1960 but i've heard strategists on the right and left say that especially for males, black men, hispanic men are an opportunity for donald trump. so instead of getting 8% of the black vote, next time he gets 12, 13, 14, 15% of the black vote. and maybe he gets up to 35, 36, 37. he won't reach george w. bush's 33% of the hispanic vote but he

could do more. it will be interesting. >> it takes many drafts and rewrites and collaboration to make a good, unifying speech. it didn't feel like that happened at all during the inauguration. it felt like the first draft someone else wrote. this could be much better. it could if they are listening. >> is this about the deconstruction of the administrative state or working and sticking together, congress and white house. >> i hear about deconstruction, we have to go to break. mark halperin, when you talk about spending $55 billion in the biggest beaurocracy in the world, the pentagon, that's not deconstruction. when you're talking about infrastructure, which i'm sure he'll talk about and i hope he talks about tonight, that's not deconstruction. this president is not about tearing down, this is a president who thinks big. people talk about andrew jackson, they need to go back

and look at ken burn's documentary on roosevelt, as far as somebody who loves to speak, who thinks big, who is not going to go small. >> he's for american exceptionism, america building big things, great around the world. the policies matter most, we'll talk about that. tonight, it's a brand. he looks at his presidency, a month or so presidency, has he reinforced the brand he wants to have? it's ironic, this is a guy who built his business around a brand, the brand for his presidency has gotten for a lot of people, including people in the white house, off track. >> next what mark halperin says is the biggest question in u.s. politics right now. he'll reveal that. we have a big lineup ahead, congressman cummings, john hickenlooper, number two republican in the senate john cornyn and newly elected chairman of the dnc tom perez will join us. tomorrow back on capitol hill for reaction to trump's address to congress.

chum schumer will be among our guests. first let's go to bill karins tracking severe weather across the country. bill. >> unfortunately tonight with president speaking three states residents will worry about tornadoes rolling through their town. rain and general thunderstorms. later this afternoon, this evening, 36 million at risk. little rock, st. louis, south of chicago, indianapolis. greatest threat is northern half of arkansas, southern missouri and southern half of illinois. that's between 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. tonight. this line of storms isn't just going to die off. it is going to continue all the way to the east coast tomorrow. 87 million people at risk of severe storms, middle, d.c., new york, richmond, raleigh area, wednesday evening with storms going through. thankfully everyone in this half of the country, wind damage threat. the tornado threat is primarily just this evening. in total 100 million people at

risk of center storms over the next 36 hours. washington, d.c., in for more record temperatures as we head into march. your thunderstorms will go through wednesday evening. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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i believe in free trade. i want so much trade. somebody said, oh, maybe he's a total nationalist, which i am in a true sense but i want trade. >> an eruption of laughter. >> president yesterday calling himself a total nationalist. >> total nationalist. >> is that the influence of steve bannon, ron rad itch rights in the "daily beast" called himself a believe in vladimir lennon. >> the same soviet state that

killed 300 million people and enslaved -- i'm more comfortable with -- >> john lennon. >> he said i'm a leninist. bannon proclaimed lenin wanted to destroy the state and that's my goal, too. i want to bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today's establishment. >> well, children, that is our words of inspiration. >> this is so bizarre. >> it's disturbing, horrifying. >> disturbing, horrifying. mark halperin, it would be hard to find a more villainous historical figure this side of stalin and hitler. >> pol pot. >> i think lenin was far more responsible killing hundreds of

millions and enslafg. what's really shocking, he wants to bring everything down. he wants to destroy the state. >> you cannot imagine in an normal presidency someone as provocative as steve bannon has been but continues to be. >> this goes far even for the trump crowd. >> we need to win wars. >> guy, what do you hear? i'm not so sure steve bannon, who by the way as seen on the cover of "time" magazine. >> president bannon. >> i'm not sure president bannon flying too closely to the sun. >> he came in a little hot at cpac. >> that's a smidge. >> conservative activists. >> can i correct you? that's donald trump's crowd. steve think it's his crowd, therein lies a problem i can't

believe the white house will handle much longer. >> this all looks like the bannon way of doing thick. >> when president trump said i'm a nationalist, that's the part steve bannon knows and i've seen it up close, can rouse, thinks in broad nationalistic terms. >> doesn't think -- >> doesn't think in ideological lenin terms. first covered bannon in 2010, 2011. he used to be with bannon as a filmmaker, talked about growing up in working class richmond, he thought global elites in his view had failed economically, culturally, political, destroy that consensus. >> he is right, they have failed working class americans. donald trump knows that instinctively. he doesn't need steve bannon. people running around going, it was steve bannon's idea to get the union people on trump's

side. no it wasn't, that was donald trump. steve bannon's idea to push nationalism. i don't know where he was in 1989 but he was talking to debra norville saying the same thing about japan he's saying about china. steve bannon, wherever steve bannon was, donald trump believed this a long time ago. all this press we've been hearing over the past month and a half. it's steve bannon idea donald trump is going to be an economic nationalist, please, pull tapes of debra norville. >> prebannon era, pre, pre, pre. >> bannon comes in and says this guy thinks like me. the press has it the opposite. all the press and steve bannon. donald trump, i'm teaching donald trump how to think this way. no, donald trump thought this way a long time ago.

>> what steve is doing giving trump an ideological vocabulary to suppress these things so they sound pr. >> more dangerous. >> they are in line even though they weren't describing with the same words. >> mark halperin says biggest question in politics, here is what the editorial board writes, donald trump's early weeks in office have been marked by insurgent politics of his aide, stephen bannon and convention gop governance. thanks, steve. the paradox is that while bannonism dominates the media and the public debate, trump's presidency will rise or fall object whether he can pass a conservative reform agenda through congress. what conservative reform agenda? that's the state of play as mr. trump prepares to deliver first address to joint session of congress tuesday evening. the trump-bannon light

deportation ramp up, broad against globalism, rhetorical assaults on media as enemy have produced an approval rating 44% five weeks into the job. thank you, steve. that's a modern low for a new president and a sign that the polarization strategy pressed by mr. bannon, his ally stephen miller and the breitbart wing of the white house has a political ceiling. >> so this "wall street journal" is so dead on. mika and i have been saying for a long time, trump, unleashed without this bannonism is the trump that can win wisconsin by three, four votes instead of 30, can win michigan three or four or five points. you see him reaching out to union members. there's so many people to reach out to. here is a shot. he can even charm the press. i have seen him do it. this steve bannon, we're in

perpetual state of war and i want to drag down everything and be vladimir lenin, deconstruct the state. i want to see everything crashing down. that's not going to happen in america. systems will prevail and it will crush anybody like that and turn them to dust. what do i say? washington always wins. it's just like the zoning commission in new york city. you've got to figure out how to work it. >> don't say it that way. he might have found a way around that. >> i'm saying he had to figure out a way to work the system. >> yeah. >> the same thing in washington, just on a bigger scale. steve bannon has never built a 90-story building. >> i agree where what you said, two caveats. one is trump will not succeed as president unless he changes the way wins and losses counted in washington. he and bannon share a view you have to remake, elites don't

have as much power. you have to play by the rules. we talk so much about bannon as a strategist. clearly he cares about stuff. bannon is a great tactician. he's proven that in every job he has. >> he's at 44% right now. >> what's the success there. >> with all the things going, he could very easily have been at 55%. with the right inaugural speech, right rollout, bannon and miller that push an executive order that set his white house in chaos. >> i totally agree but can bannon put aside the light show and distractions and work with the rest of the white house and president and vice president to pass legislative agenda? >> no. we're all talking about bannon, how outrageous. >> if he contributes to passing tax reform on uniting republican party on repooling affordable care act, he will be doing what the president wants him to do. >> those sound unbelievable, second one, impossible task, talk about being a brilliant

tactician. he's brilliant, able to get the president to say the most destructive things ever in the first 30 days of the presidency. >> let me ask you this. why is it here we are on the president's most important day as president of the united states and "wall street journal," an ally of donald trump, big ally is talking about steve bannon. they are dead right, by the way. it's the bannon light show and it's gone too far. >> do you think trump agrees with it or not? >> yes, he agrees with it. >> steve is very smart about playing these things internally with trump. >> i've seen the president frustrated about the whole bannon thing. >> to maximize press's role. >> tired of getting all the credit. >> the press needs a villain and i'm that villain. that's fine as far as trump is concerned. i wonder how long it can go on and at what point trump says -- >> they don't separate bannon the villain from trump the

villain. bannon's negative energy, bannon's negativism is rolling over on donald trump right now. as "the wall street journal" said he's at 44%, he should be at 58%. somebody who didn't want to go to perpetual war would be at 58%, donald trump would be 58 instead of 42, 44. >> my sources at the white house say there's a reason bannon and breitbart are doing what they are doing because there's a feeling of fear. if they don't have strong populist national right wing message and jeff sessions doesn't rear his head paul ryan, speaker of the house, traditional republicans will roll them, make them into what they want to do on tax reform. they won't get infrastructure, the trump package. >> therein lies the problem with that thinking people are telling you, donald trump doesn't need

steve bannon to stop paul ryan from rolling him. remember him holding up the shirt. yeah, thank you for the shirt. i love you unless you cross me. he doesn't need steve bannon to make him strong. that's what steve bannon puts out there. if i'm not here -- no. donald trump, he's been an economic nationalist his spire adult life. he was talking that way in 1987, talking that way in 1997, talking that way in 2007, talking that way in 2017. the only thing steve bannon is bringing him right now is negative press. >> you look, mr. president, what you have done with foreign policy team, i suggest you do that with your inner circle. make them challenge you. you don't need cheerleaders who will take what you say and make it more destructive. >> he's put together a great foreign policy team. >> it's amazing, unbelievable. >> it's jon huntsman,

possibility number two. >> definitely out there, lots of people talking about it. >> that would be incredible. >> that would be amazing. >> some strange hold bannon has on him. it's not like trump. it's weak. >> not like trump at all. jon huntsman is in line possibly to be number two at the state department. think about this, and i'm not saying this snarkily. you would have one with extraordinary relationship with russia, not a bad thing. your number two person has an extraordinary relationship with china. my gosh, that would be a one-two punch that used the proper way would pay giant dividends. >> at a time when they are proposing cutting a lot of state department budget. >> all right. apparently no one told president trump health care is actually kind of hard. we're going to get into that on "morning joe." >> remember george bush, it's hard. >> it's hard.

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a new promo for the bachelor, nick hints he may not hand out a final rose to any of the remaining women. yeah, after a whole season he won't pick any of them. check out how bachelor fans. >> silly. >> why would he do that. >> he's been doing this for months. why can't he find anybody? what a loser? >> it's amazing. it's 44 past. we're going to tease what's next. i'm face timing with mark's baby right now. give me that baby. it's having breakfast. >> get off the capital. >> seems like it should be easier. here we go. on face time, having a conversation. hi. one eye open. >> that's james paul mccartney halperin. coming up next president trump suggesting president obama is leading the protests against the

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turns out his organization seems to be a lot of organizing a lot of protests these republicans are seeing around the country and against you do you believe president obama is behind it? if he is, is that a violation of the so-called president's code. >> i think he's behind it. i also think that's politics. that's the way it is. >> bush wasn't going after clinton, clinton wasn't going after bush. >> you never know what's going on behind the scenes. you're probably right or possibly right. i think president obama is behind it because his people are certainly behind it. some of the leaks possibly come from that group, some of the leaks which are really serious leaks. they are bad in terms of national security. >> joining us now --

>> hold on. >> i know. get your ovaltine decoder out. what was he saying there? was he saying barack obama behind the protests? >> president sitting up the street here micromanaging protest. he's got spread sheets and color coded maps. president obama is making sure his successor doesn't get off to a successful start, at least that's the view. >> as far as the leaking goes, yes. you always have elements. you had clinton's people leaking about bush. i say clinton's people. people antagonistic. >> toward a more clintonian view. >> entire four but this happens every four years. that's how washington has worked and will work four or eight years from now. >> joining us author of the

playbook, white house correspondent julie pace. good to have you both on board this morning. >> julie, what do you hear now at the white house. is this going to be gracious trump, or is this going to be as "the wall street journal" said, the bannon-trump fire show. >> i don't know if you've heard but they say it's going to be timistic. that's the word of the day, optimistic. i think there's a recognition this is different type speech. we've seen president trump speak in different forums but rarely in a room where half won't agree with his agenda. a different atmosphere for him. he's not going to be able to go out there and get people jumping to their feet when he talks about winning wisconsin. if you talk to republicans on the hill, the one thick they would really like to see is some kind of road map on legislative priorities. i'm not sure they will get that. >> tell them for me tough luck. >> not going to get that.

>> not going to happen. the setting of this is really interesting. everybody that walks in and walks onto the floor, i took people on hundreds of tours, they get in there, look around and go, oh, my god, this is a lot smaller than i thought it was, a lot more contained. he's going to have people all around him. that's interestingly enough when trump is in smaller rooms he wants to be engaging. i don't think he's going to give the type of speech that he gave for his inaugural. it's an intimate setting in that room. >> probably not but he wants affection. i think you're seeing democrats saying we're not going to shake this guy's hand and hug him like we did president obama or george bush. we talk about this optimistic tone but that doesn't erase the fact he's spent the first 40 days signing executive orders the democrats don't like and republicans don't like and rpgs that i've talked to in the last 12 to 24 hours say $54 billion

in military spending, $30 billion we need to pass this year, that's kind of what we've been fighting against for the last six years since we took the majority. no cuts to entitlement spending. this is completely an anathema. >> bust the budget, do what george w. bush did, blew a hole in the budget. after they were fired in 2008 they said when we're in power we have to remember this. we have to be responsible next time we're in power because we failed. next time we're not going to do it again but they are doing it again. if they follow this budget outline a $20 trillion debt becomes a $30 trillion debt and i do predict it will be the end of the conservative wing of the

republican party if they again engage in bush-style deficit spending. >> the other thing we need to remember, for everybody on wall street around the country yearning for tax reform, this budget will not lead to tax reform. this budget is a vehicle that will die and that's extremely important. >> let me ask you real quickly, your morning consult poll. your numbers are higher than most for donald trump. 50% to 45%. a couple of quick questions. you're tying it to registered voters. that makes a difference trump does better among registered voters, adults. sblg a human poll or computer poll. >> it's a computer poll. >> that's another thing. trump always does better when the person doesn't have to admit on the phone i'm talking -- i support donald trump. >> saw this. typically look at these online polls and say they are not as strong as in-person polls. with trump it flipped.

found more people willing to say they supported him if they didn't have to admit it to a live person, which is a fascinating dynamic. >> i guarantee you, those polls trump in the 30s, those are live interviews. >> this poll, one thing before we wrap up, 73% of those polls in the survey say foreign aide is a big driver of the deficit. state department budget shredded entitlements which these people in this poll don't believe is a problem aren't being touched, turns out this budget in tune if i object correctly. >> classic issue where liberal elites, and a lot of elites, not just liberals, will denouncish. the president believes in it and it's more popular than unpopular. >> foreign aide, people always believed that. it's ridiculous. such a small percentage of the budget and such a huge investment in american interest. listen, i'm selfish, i want

what's best for america. i don't want us to give foreign aide to help other countries, i want to give foreign aide to strengthen other countries so they can help us. >> over under on whether he says bigly tonight. anybody know? thank you very much. coming up some democrats feeling deeply bitter over the outcome of the dnc chair race. just ahead the party's new leader tom perez joins us and he'll be in the capital tonight after getting an invite from former opponent. >> keith is really, really worked hard together for party unity after the loss. >> we're coming back with much more morkz. "morning joe." or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie labels, and signs reminding everyone to think balance before choosing their beverages. we know you care about reducing the sugar in your family's diet, and we're working to support your efforts. more beverage choices.

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green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. i'm going to ask congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability. you're going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost. xxx it's going to be onso easy. we have come up with a solution very easy. it's an incredibly complicated subject. nobody knew health care could be so complicated. >> you know, in his defense -- >> i'm not saying anything. you told me not to be snarky, so you shouldn't be as well.

>> i'm not being snarky. >> i think you might be. >> you can ask barack obama, it looks a hell of a lot easier when you're behind that microphone and everything you say gets 10,000 people cheering. george bush is evil and dick cheney is evil and we're going to shut down gitmo on the first day. no, we're not. there's so many things and presidents make this mistake all the tile when they are running. this is a hard job. this town is extraordinarily complicated. unfortunately everybody that wins as an outsider especially that doesn't really know washington thinks they are just idiots. how hard could it be. >> apparently health care is complicated, too. >> who would have thought. >> the productive thing would be to build on what we have and make it better because there are a lot of weak links in it because it is so deeply

complicated. >> the most frustrating job in washington, d.c., for getting things done is president of the united states. you can ask george w. bush. you can ask barack obama. it wasn't so frustrating for bill clinton other than that little impeachment aside, because bill clinton had been practicing this 12 years before in arkansas in a conservative state, rick, and he knew how to work congress. he knew how to work with his enemies. he knew how to work with his enemies even when they were trying to impeach him. that's why bill clinton for all the distractions, all the side shows, bill clinton will be remembered as the most successful president historically in the last quarter century. >> bill clinton took credit for 13 initiatives started by republicans. he announced them in his re-election speech in chicago. democrats were cheering on all the things they accomplished on the republican agenda.

>> by the way, that was our agenda we came to congress with in 1994. >> pretty remarkable. >> shows the brilliance of him. he fought us tooth and nail on welfare reform and balancing the budget. in his 12,000 page biography "my life" in the intro he actually says the two big accomplishments i achieved were balancing the budget and welfare reform. >> that's a win. the whole city is designed, whole constitution is designed against the president, right? it's designed to keep -- >> to frustrate. >> to keep them from being tyranny cal. when you come in you get a legislative agenda. i keep hearing the word optimistic. i think what i'm going to hear is unrealistic. >> let's go there. it's february 28, tonight president trump will address congress for the first time. white house aides tell nbc news the speech will focus on, quote,

renewal of american spirit. an optimistic vision for all americans. the president reportedly told local news reporters that his message would be that the country has enormous problems but tremendous potential. and he's expected to focus on what he's accomplished so far in his first weeks in office. so what would that be? i don't think those are -- i say that in all seriousness as a question, are those optimistic accomplishments? >> yeah. if you're a conservative, if you're a trump voter, what have you seen? you've seen him appoint somebody who politically is bulletproof. >> true. >> kneel goneal gorsuc i couldo pick -- i thought he was going to war. this is an area. he picked a guy like john roberts would make democrats appear foolish to oppose him, also no problem standing up to him when he said what he said about judges. that's success. >> same with for policy team. >> foreign policy team is as

strong a foreign policy team as you'll find going back to george w. bush and that's saying a lot. you can also look at the executive order on immigration. we have been shocked by that. it was a sloppy rollout. but the majority of americans support what he's trying to do. the second one, mark halperin, actually is most likely going to be rolled out, it's going to be ruled constitutional and americans are going to be largely supportive of that. just in a month those three things there, just talking for conservatives. he also has -- >> two pipelines. >> he also has the keystone pipeline that was an eight-year war that conservatives will cheer, even if it's largely symbolic. he's got union members coming in, leaders coming into his office saying, hey, we want to work with you. >> african-american leaders. >> african-american leaders in the office. he's opened that dialogue. and so we on this show and a lot

of other shows have been focusing on things that generally frighten us for good reas reason. if you're a conservative and you voted for donald trump he can list five, six, seven things he's done in a month and a half and say, see, i told you i was going to shake things up in washington. >> down payment on promises and conservatives, gorsuch, the pipelines. presidents fall into the trap after 30 days of saying why am i not getting more credit for what i've done. you've got to be forward-looking on what you do next. legislating on health care and tax reform is so much more difficult than anything he's done so far by the factor on 1,000. so far moment you will on what he's done or exposed low hanging fruit. >> there's so much opportunity tonight tu look at what they could accomplish with the speech. >> if he wants to consolidate support on the right, i would punt on health care reform for a

while. pass tax reform, cut corporate tax rates. i'm not saying that's what i want. tax reform, middle class tax cut, then go to regulatory reform. because what i hear from business leaders -- you know, i'm not calling trump support but business leaders more bush republicans. aren't you concerned about what he's saying the press being the enemy of the people. i'm sorry, sometimes he sounds a little crazy but i'm looking at a president who says he's going to cut our tax rates, cut middle class taxes and pass regulatory reform. if he does that, he can tweet whatever the hell he wants. i don't care. >> obama care repeal, reform, replace, repair, whatever you want to call it is going to be what mark said, amazingly complicated. it's something that's doing to end up likely splitting president from paul ryan. it's likely to anger a lot of conservatives, freedom caucus

types in the house saying, wait a second, guys, we've litigated four national elections on the unpopularity of obama care. how has it taken us this long to do something. that's a political football that has spikes in every direction. >> every direction. rick, isn't the smart move here -- i think it is -- pass tax reform, pass regulatory reform, nail down your base, and then -- i'll tell you what i would do. okay, democrats, you like obama care, you want me to keep obama care, okay, and just lean back. it's going up in flames. all insurers are leaving. then say, listen, if you want me to sit here and maintain the status quo i'll do it and your obama care will go up in smoke. or we can sit around the table and come up with a plan both sides can sign off on. if he wads into obama care it's going to be a disaster. >> senator baucus, one of the

designers of obama care said as much. if you don't do anything it will collapse on its own. it's going to collapse on its own. >> even the democratic senator that designed it is saying if we do nothing it will collapse. >> it will. it's just a fact. i agree with you. they should go for things conference wants to do, republican conference wants to pass tax reform. they want to help businesses, but doesn't seem like they are on the track to do that. looks like they are still going to be mired in health care. >> budget agreement. >> need a budget agreement. that's not going to happen realistically until summertime, maybe later. >> won't be a budget document finalized until may at this point. >> i think the strategy just put out there on obama care is brilliant, a lot more fruitful than what he's doing but latched onto the words repeal and replace as number one priority and i don't know how you walk back from that. although you are going to own it. this president is going to own it. chances of it going well. >> passing major health care reform or major tax reform

happens once in a generation when a president puts all the political capital on the line. >> wasting it. >> i agree abstract doing tax reform would be better first but extraordinary pressure having run on every election, get rid of the affordable care act to do it. procedural regions regarding doing something with 50 votes that mean you have to at least get started on health care. if they put health care off to next year -- >> the base will revolt. >> they have to do it. there's more clarity getting rid of affordable care act -- >> they can't do that. you can say there's more clarity me building a rocket ship outside the back of here with what i find in a dumpster and going to mars and doing the show from mars tomorrow morning. i can promise it, i can't do it. they can't repeal obama care without trump's numbers going in the gutter in the upper midwest states that got him elected. tax reform, regulatory reform and say the democrats -- the

democrats aren't helping us on this. we are going to work with everybody. listen, george w. bush, his biggest mistake on the war on terror in iraq was not bringing everybody on board. it had to be everybody's war. same thing with barack obama and health care reform. and with a stimulus. he should have told his people, listen, we're going to sit here. i know we won the election. we have to bring everybody. i know the republicans say they want to beat me. that's what bill clinton did while we are impeaching him. he was still calling us every day going what are we going to do in iraq in what are we going to do on the budget? what are we going to do -- donald trump needs to make sure he doesn't repeat mistakes of the past two presidents. you have got to get everybody behind us locked in, working object a health care system that is falling apart right now. >> so let's go right behind us on capitol hill, nbc news national correspondent peter alexander is there. peter, what are you hearing

about tonight's speech. >> mika, good morning, just spoke to white house official, told president trump after his dinner worked on his remarks again. he will do so putting final touches on remarks again today. you've been talking about what the white house views as optimistic theme for tonight's speech, the renewal of the american spirit. it's notable that was the same pitch provided to us in advance of the inaugural address that a lot of people, of course, viewed as sort of a darker vision of america. they sort of describe the speech as having several bucks. one will be the promises made and promises kept on what the president they say that accomplished in his first month in office but there will be a heavy focus tonight on the economy, of course, and on security. it's notable some of the guests the president has invited as his special guest for this evening's address before a joint session of congress, they include maureen scalia, widow of antonin scalia. two individuals, three wives and a father of three men who were killed by undocumented immigrants in this country, all

of that, of course, the backdrop for the address we'll hear tonight. the president does have a busy day ahead as he'll be signing a bill and several exercise tiff order. the bill focuses on improving the landscape for women and girls in science as well as some entrepreneurial ventures to give a boost up to young women and women throughout the country. in terms of executive orders, one the president will be signing today is the wotus rule, waterways of the united states. this will be a rolling back of federal protections for waterways throughout united states, an obama era ruling -- rule that was basically held up in the courts right now. the white house insists it will have no real impact and not being enforced at this time. finally an executive order on historically black colleges. the president will basically order they are better prioritized. this comes a day after he welcomed leaders of historically

black colleges to the white house and specifically to the oval office. >> nbc's peter alexander. thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," the newly elected dnc chair tom perez joins the table and we're going to bring in governor john hickenlooper of colorado. also ahead republican congressman jim jordan stops by. he says his party better have the votes to dismantle obama care because his party promised the voters. this morning new doubt from two key house members. up next congressman elijah cummings with what he's hoping to hear from the president. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪

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all i can do is speak from the heart and say what i want to do. we have a really terrific, i believe, health care plan coming out. we have to understand obama care is a disaster, it's way out of control. i'll be talking about the

military. i'll be talking about the border. remember this, on the border and throughout our country, we're getting the bad ones out, the bad people, kbang members, drug lords, in some cases murderers. >> joining us now on set white house correspondent for american "your business" an radio networks, in baltimore committee on oversight and government reform elijah cummings from maryland. great to have you both with us. >> great to see you, elijah, you've been talking to the president about health care prices, specifically reducing the cost of medicine. do you expect the president to talk about that tonight? >> i would hope so, joe. there's so many issues affecting americans. i've been listening to you all morning talking about how happy the conservatives are. there are a lot of people who basically feel left out of the president's formulas for doing

things. i'm hoping he will address that. that's the number one issue, even beyond the obama care for independents, republicans, and democrats. so people paying too much for medicine. >> and april, looking ahead to tonight, given what we've seen so far in some of the president's more important speeches. >> yes. >> what can we expect, what can they change to move things forward in a more unifying way and do you think there's an intention to do so? >> the president knows he's very well aware of the atmosphere and very well aware of the oppose attack in the nation. he's got to take this time to unify the nation. unifying when he's talking about bolstering the military and cutting domestic priorities as well as issues that could be affecting communities underserved. that's a question i have for the congressman, too, particularly congressman cummings. you know, what do you think about the fact this president is talking about unifying this

nation and then at the same time talking about adding money for the military but yet when the budget axe swings, it a lot of times swings on issues that affect urban america. you are part of urban america in baltimore. talk about that if you can. >> what i'm hoping for, april, tonight -- you see she's taken over your show. >> we're not surprised, elijah. we're not surprised. she can. >> what i'm hoping for -- what i'm hoping for is that he will address the issues that go to the heart of america's problems. we spend a lot of time listening to the president talk about how great things will be. we need to know how in the world. >> he has never done that. >> how? how are you going to do infrastructure and at the same time increase spending or military $54 billion.

it just doesn't add up. i always want to know how he's going to deal with the senate and the house. he seems to forget he's got to deal with that group of people. i'm hoping that he will say things that are unifying. i look at a lot of things that have been said. i've got to be frank with you, april, mika and joe, i grew up in a household where both my parents were pentecostal ministers. in my household, a lie is a lie is a lie. i'm hoping the president will be very honest with the american people. yesterday he met with hbcu president and they asked me for my advice before they went in. i said follow the money. nice executive order. when i've got african-american kids who cannot get through school with a 3.5 average in their junior year because they don't have money, i want to know where the money is going. is it moral for them to not have

those opportunities. so i want to know the how and the when. you know, is it moral to throw all these young people, daca kids and others, when their parents have gone come too one country and they are left to fend for themselves. that's immoral. >> mark, that's what was so striking about the speech. again, i would encourage everybody especially if you've been critical like i have on his tone from the very beginning, his weekly radio address this week actually spoke specifically to what elijah cummings is talking about right now. the question is does he do that tonight? >> the more he does that, the more he puts democrats in an uncomfortable position and the more he has the capacity to perhaps expand what -- >> that's the question. does he have the capacity. >> does he want to change his brand, go back to the brand that made him seem like a potent force not just within republican party but politics. he did win the election with the

electoral college. congressman, let me ask you this. the policy matters most. the symbolism of tonight matters. he's not going to be -- are you going to be standing up if he says something you like. >> i don't mind standing up if he says something i like and i imagine he will say things i like. at the same time we've got to make sure -- sometimes i listen to president trump, president i know you're watching, so it's good to see you again, but let me say this, sometimes i listen to him and i feel like i'm in a hocus pocus game. we talk about one thing then distracted to something else. i guess what i'm hoping for is that he will say things that will bring the country together, but more important than that, mark, i want him to do things. throwing people out of the country, hiring 10,000 i.c.e. agents to throw people out of

the country, to me that's -- that may be nice for conservatives but when i go to a church in a hispanic section of district and i've got 16 years old crying out of fear, that's a problem. >> i was going to say, rick, tyler, believe it or not, this plan has been all very deliberate. they said before they got in, we're going to do some pretty tough stuff for the first couple months. we've got to show people that elected us we're keeping our promise. then you watch we're going to expand out, reach out. they said that several months ago. this isn't somebody trying to justify what's happened over the past couple months which we've been critical because it's been so sloppy. i wonder if tonight isn't the perfect time in front of congress with a huge audience to say these are all the conservative things we've done and then make that turn that he made on his weekly address that he talks to people like elijah

cummings about, talks to other members of congress about that -- republicans that may not agree with him specifically but expands the message tonight. it would be a perfect platform to do that, wouldn't it? >> i think it would be. he would have a lot of opportunity to do that. >> go ahead, elijah. >> that's what leadership is. let me tell you something. that's what leadership is all about. leadership is not just catering to your base and making him happy happy, it's about saying to all americans, even the ones i just left in the middle of the inner city a few minutes ago, saying to them and to the people in the rust belt and everybody, look, we've got our differences but these are things we can come together on. i am not going to lie to you, period. period. >> absolutely. >> all right. congressman you talked about some of the people donald trump's immigration plan. he has said over and over again he wants to get the bad guys out.

that means it looks like he's going to leave daca alone. that may change. let me ask you. who gets to stay and who gets to leave? what would be a rational immigration plan? >> i think -- i think put the emphasis on those people who have committed crimes. that's one group. but i basically when you've got daca kids, people law abidinabi. again, a few years ago remember the senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill. i think we need to kind of go back to that. but there are some people that really do need to leave. our committee oversight government reform committee, i've been hand in hand with jason chaffetz with regard to those votes. there are a lot of people that shouldn't be here. let me tell you something, you cannot rule a country that is in total fear. everywhere i go i've got people in fear. they are in fear of their jobs. they are in fear of policies. they are in fear of being thrown out of the country. i'm asking the president to

unite us so that we can go forward and be a leader, not a tweeter. >> that would be helpful. there was, of course, a horrifying story of just an extraordinary man from kansas who was an immigrant from india who was shot in a bar by somebody saying get out of my country. i had somebody yesterday come up to me and said i've been here my entire life, i was born here. yet every time i go to the airport now i'm afraid. by the way, he wasn't being melodramatic. >> things have changed. >> this is something the president really does need to speak to. >> there's a concern about the other. >> you can be like me, a conservative. i believe you get to america the legal way. you don't break laws. i want to help the person in india or pakistan or norway or

sed sudan -- i want them to come to this country. i want them to come here legally. i can have that attitude and still tell america what george bush said, muslim americans are not muslim americans, they are americans. >> it's great to have that attitude. you have to watch how you divide this country. people acting against people because of the rhetoric. it's so hot and divisive. if we are people who believe in a higher being. we call ourselves religious, believing in a higher being, we have to -- >> that's exactly what i'm saying. george w. bush again, we all go back, rachel maddow right after 9/11, some people were striking out against muslims, what did he do? he went to a mosque. he sat there and he condemned the violence, and he said these people i'm standing with are every bit as much of american as i am.

>> that was so unbelievable symbolically important. elijah, before you go -- he was makesing. >> wasn't he amazing on the "today" show. >> you had the office of government ethics to look into kellyanne on that breach. where does that stand? >> well, they made a recommendation. they asked the president to look at it further and they said -- first of all they said it was a slam-dunk, that she definitely violated the law and that he should provide some type of punishment. i don't think that's going to happen. by the way, on another thing, the second person that died in the iraq war was from my district who was a muslim. h he was the second person to die in the iraq war and i went to his funeral. i'm just saying we've got to bring america together. our muslim brothers and sisters, we've got to bring them together, too. as a part of america. i mean, this is a very wonderful

fabric we have here. the president has a chance to lead. i'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say. we need to get on that moral ground. it's not just -- it's bigger than trump. again, i say to americans, all those people who are worried and crying, you better get out there and call your congressman and tell them what you want. >> you know, mika, it was an immigrant that helped us win world war ii. albert einstein. immigrants basically have fueled -- have been given brain power to silicon valley to fuel silicon valley and intel, what an extraordinary story intel was, whether you talk about google, whether you talk about so many of these other silicon valley companies, it has been driven by getting the best and the brightest coming to america and making us stronger. that's the message of love. >> it would be something. >> love to hear the president.

>> incredibly. >> so simple. >> and powerful. >> and inspiring. >> conflict with desire to enforce the law. >> yeah. you can enforce the law and celebrate immigrants at the same time. >> congressman elijah cummings, thank you very much. >> april, thank you for taking over the show. it was very al hague moment, elijah. if you look at constitution april ryan is in charge. >> amen. >> thank you so much. >> all right. thank you. >> coming up another thread, dozens more bomb threats against jewish community centers. the latest reporting about what has become a disturbing trend across america. "morning joe" is back after this. what if technology gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally? microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture

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more than two dozen jewish schools and community centers across the country were evacuated yesterday following a series of bomb threats in at least 15 states. no bombs were found in any of the locations that were evacuated. the fbi and justice department

said ty are looking at possible civil rights violations. in las vegas the local jewish community center was one of those buildings target. a busy section of san francisco's market street is back open after the offices of anti-defamation league there was also the victim of a bomb hoax last night. meanwhile, in the philadelphia area a cleanup is scheduled for today at the jewish cemetery where about 100 headstones were knocked over this past weekend. it comes almost a week after 150 headstones at a jewish cemetery in st. louis were damaged. the white house yesterday addressed the latest wave of anti-semitic attacks. >> the president continues to be deeply disappointed. it's concerned by the reports of further vandalism in jewish cemeteries, rather. the cowardly destruction in philadelphia this weekend comes on top of similar accounts from missouri arched threats made to jewish community centers around

the country. condemn these and any other anti-semitic acts. from the country's founding protecting freedom of rights to worship. no one should feel afraid to follow religion of their choosing freely and openly. >> hillary clinton tweeted yesterday with threats and hate crimes on the rise, we shouldn't have to tell potus to do his part. he must step up and speak out. >> i actually think he's doing that, mark halperin, right? he certainly has spoken up of late. >> extremely symbolically. >> a lot of people said he took too long. he came out when he was at the african-american museum, came out and said something there. mike pence went all the way to missouri. >> ivanka tweeted. >> ivanka trump out on this. that's a strong statement, no winking no dog whistles or not

by sean spicer. >> presidents under pressure in a situation like this to do more and calibrate. >> hillary clinton, if she tweet th -- tweet thad yesterday, what would hillary clinton have him do. >> make a more forceful himself. i think he probably will. >> that's where we are a week ago. i'm just asking. i understand we were critical. i said on the air here, again, just reminding people on the air here he must come out and talk about anti-semitism. he's done that. that was a strong statement yesterday. i'm just saying, do we get the justice department more involved, what do we do? >> i think there's some critics he'll never satisfy. i think the three things that haven't happened yet that people would like to see, a total critic of trump, one to show more emotion about it. not to get more hysterical but more passion about it. two, concrete actions.

at one point i was hope the base will solve it. take more federal responsibility. this is a national issue now. three is to maybe reach out to people in a way to feel inclusive. maybe take this opportunity to call hillary clinton which he's not done, something that gives people a sense he's trying to use this not in a defensive way or political way? i agree, in the administration, hard for president to know when is enough enough, something this important. >> extraordinarily important. >> in that tweet clinton included an article on the shooting of two indian immigrants we mentioned last block. the accused shooter and in court for the first time yesterday as officials investigate whether it was a hate crime. nbc news's blake mccoy has more. >> reporter: making his first court appearance accused shooter was assigned a public defender in a shooting the fbi is investigating as a possible hate crime. it was 7:00 p.m. last wednesday night when police say he opened fire on two indian men at a bar

in kansas. witnesses say he yelled, get out of my country, before being kicked out and returning with a gun. >> two down. >> seren -- one killed, one shot, a third shot trying to intervene. police arrested him 70 miles away after he confided in a bartender who called 911. >> he said that he shot and killed two iranian people. >> what sparked the shooting remains unclear but his family tells our affiliate kshb the navy veteran suffered from ptsd. >> i never in a million years thought he would hurt somebody else. >> he said the shooting has not shaken his desire to come to the u.s. >> that's not what the country

stands for. >> she flew with his body to india for his burial. >> love not hate. >> in a community rocked by senseless violence. >> senseless violence. >> the guy was kicked out of the bar, others came to their defense, the community rallied behind them. this would be something great for the president to talk about. you bring up a good point we can't jump and blame donald trump for every hate crime. i remember detroit rocked in the early '80s, a friend of mine talked about being at a bar when a guy got beaten up for taking all of our jobs. somebody thought he was japanese. he was chinese. >> there will be hateful that live in this country under any president and democrats, including hillary clinton, and

her voice is a bit curious, too. democrats risk looking very cynical if they exploit every problem. >> you can't. you have to be very careful. at the same time we cannot be blind to the atmosphere that has been created by the bannon white house. it's an atmosphere that many fear would lead to danger. >> right. >> we talked about the shooting of gabby gifford in realtime and the political atmosphere then. you and i were worried something like that was going to happen. >> ail say it now before the shooting happened, i called roger ailes and said you have a conservative outlet conservatives across america depend on. what glenn beck is saying right now is inflammatory and is going to lead to violence. specifically calling the president a racist. then i went to phil griffin and said the same thing to phil

griffin. phil, things better cool down because something bad is going to happen. >> target. >> the target visual. you had people in our prime time no longer with us saying hateful extreme things. it was almost like glenn beck and some people in our network that are no longer there were competing to be more -- guess what, gabby giffords got shot and suddenly everybody backed off, beck left, this other person left. you've got to play within the guidelines. there's no doubt steefg. >> little miller. >> bannonization of all this has certainly led to an atmosphere that's encouraging a lot of behavior, certainly on the anti-semitic side. >> why we're disturbed by steve miller's appearance on the sunday morning shows. >> remember breitbart called bill crystal a, quote, renegade steve bannon's leadership at

breitbart led to anti-semitic undertones america is dealing with now. >> worst thing in the white house, not only this white house, when these things come up to say why are we being blamed. this is not our fault. this is the fault of other forces in our society rather than being intro suspect tiff and saying are we doing anything, can we do anything to make this -- >> you're in charge. >> has steve bannon done anything for the atmosphere of anti-semitism. >> he doesn't speak publicly very much. there certainly were questionable things published at breitbart under tenure that inflamed. >> is that on him or not. >> just to follow up, jeremy, that also had a lot of anti-semitic white extremists praising bannon, working the white house, praising breitbart,

praising the election of donald trump because of bannon. >> their praise for him doesn't mean pannon then supports them. >> i'm not saying that. >> enables their ideology. i do think where bannon and others in the white house do themselves a grave disservice and democracy a grave disservice is not defending themselves, speaking out against it. we don't stand for that. people ascribe motives to us but that's not me. >> they never have. >> they never have. >> that's the thing. you know, the old expression, he who does not deny admits. in this case, if somebody is calling me an anti-semitic or making a small suggestion, i'm going to get out and talk about it. bannon sits there quietly. >> the opportunities, the press

conference he was asked about jewish reporter about anti-semitic attacks. donald trump cut him off and took it as if he was accusing him of being anti-semitic and that's the way he answered the question whereas he had perfect opportunity to condemn it. juxtapose what donald trump said at the african-american museum, a little unclear. >> it was better. >> where pence was in the cemetery, in the jewish cemetery saying this administration abhors anti-semitism. >> i'm going to say what you won't like. mike pence has a moral compass. moral clarity requires moral compass. >> donald trump said -- >> he needs a moral compass. >> he said, yes, of course i condemn anti-semitism. i condemn all acts. we can get the exact quote. >> get it. >> it wasn't clear. >> it was --

>> it was not strong. >> i need to say this because i need to say it. it comes out awkwardly because it's not what i really say. >> i don't think you can read that. >> republican rick tyler seems to see it that way. >> i don't think you can read that -- >> tonight is a great opportunity to be elegant, multi-layered, to show depth, to not do kind of this shallow sweep like a cartoon we saw at the inauguration. we need a real speech. we need a real president that's going to give us the how and show us the moral compass that this country is built on. >> more than the how, i think the moral clarity you're talking about is more important. talking about american values. i think that's more important. >> sacrifice. >> than talking about procedurally how am i going to get this through. this is what we've done, this is what i stand for, this is what america has alwaystood for. >> in other words -- >> this is how i'm going to

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joining us now, the democratic governor ofcolorado, good to have you here. on the state level, espially since the president sent republican governors to the white house, what are you looking for from the president's speech or what is the least you can hope for? >> that's a different way to look at it. >> well -- >> we are really hoping to focus on jobs. most democratic governors, all governors are focused on, in our states, good jobs. how do we get good jobs, how does one job lead to a better job and you can have a career? we hope to see a career there. >> what do you think about what the president said on the issue? >> we haven't seen proposals.

he's still, as he said during the entire campaign, talking about really pushing on, you know, talking a good game but he hasn't made a significant proposal, 40 days into the administration. >> as we talked in the last block, hillary clinton has been picking her battles in terms of fighting with donald trump. i guess with more regularity than some of us expected. the democratic leadership now is new. they have elected a new chairman for the party. is it time for new voices? >> i think there is always -- you will always want to look for the, you know, young mare from indiana city or somebody who is rising up. how long did it take you to say that? >> i have been trying, it's difficult. >> he's a rising star. there's always the necessity of

people coming in and having a voice and beginning to go, if you are going to put this money into the defense department, that's great. you are not going to cut it from programs that are critical to states. you are not going to cut pollution protections and education funding. you don't cut everything to make one thing. >> the relationship between this city and the nation's governors, spending time with your fellow governors, spending time with the administration, does the trump administration want to make the relationship between washington and the states? >> they were very engaging. having mike pence from being a governor to the vice president, i mean, he did a luncheon on friday for all the governors to come over. he knows what it's like to be a governor. in many ways, governors aren't like congress. they aren't as partisan. the buck stops with us. >> you actually have to do it. you have to do the job. >> with we have to balance the

budget in the state. we don't get deficits. we take the best idea the neighbor has and make it ours, then they steal it back. i think governors are more collaborative in the way they do business. the bern governors, they all know each other, hang out, call each other and trade ideas. hopefully we can have that relationship with the white house. >> governor, thank you very much. good to have you on the show today. we have a lot more ahead. dnc chair, tom perez, the number two republican in the senate, john cornyn and the founding chairman of the house freedom caucus, jim jordan all join us. we'll be right back on this morning of the president's big address to congress. it's beautiful.

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i voted for trump. i love my popsy from here to knoxville. popsy had to see a doctor. i was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. a lot of people think that people that are on the affordable care act are gaming the system. it's just people like me. the affordable care act saved my life. everybody's popsy should get the care they need. i am still here and i am still fighting. tell congress: save my popsy's care. ♪ with a crust made chfrom scratche and mixes crisp vegetables with all white meat chicken, and bakes it to perfection. because making the perfect dinner isn't easy as pie but finding someone to enjoy it with sure is. marie callender's. it's time to savor. this is the story of green mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's take a trip to la plata, colombia. this is boris calvo. that's pepe. boris doesn't just grow good coffee, boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even better coffee

and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. that's blanca. yup, pepe and blanca got together. things happen. all this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. green mountain coffee. packed with goodness. 8:00 on the east coast. welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, february 28th. >> this is fascinating. >> yes. >> thank you mark halperin for sending this to us. fox and friends how would he grade himself effort, a plus. that's good. nice. >> messaging, c. >> oh. that's self-aware. >> good self-awareness. >> ale had a great idea. >> it's better reading it off

twitter. >> we are live on capitol hill. after the first month in office, the president will try to resell his agenda in front of a joint session of congress. the tone expected to be different emphasizing a, quote, renewal after the american spirit and optimism for all americans. and he's expected to focus on what he's accomplished in his first weeks in office. five weeks into office, president trump talks about how to improve his performance. >> what grade would you give yourself from an "a" to an "f." >> i think i know what you are going to say. let's hear it. >> in terms of effort, i give myself an a plus, effort. results are more important. in terms of messaging, i would give myself a "c" or "c" plus.

>> why? >> my messaging isn't good. in many cases, we don't want to fill those jobs. >> you have 600 open jobs you can appoint. what's going on? >> a lot of the jobs i don't want to appoint because they are unnecessary to have. we have so many people in government, even me, i look at some of the jobs, it's people over people over people. i say, what do all these people do? >> so, listen, i have to say effort. on effort, a plus. fo people who know donald trump, donald trump is where he is today because he's worked 21 hours a day for 45 years. he just has. he never stops working. i'm not going to begrudge him an a plus on effort. you can say it's misdirected effort, whatever you want to say, but effort. messaging, "c." i'm surprised he gave himself a "c" on anything. >> i don't think he's giving

himself a "c" there. >> he's in charge. >> i don't think he's giving himself a "c." >> even on the "a" plus, he said results are what matter. he gave himself an "a" on results. >> what he said before that was interesting, self-awareness was unusual. there was a bit of humility. they asked him about the protesters. many lost the election. with that said, i'm going to try to bring people together, that is through success. there may be some conciliation coming tonight. >> gosh, that would be amazing. with us, we have mark halperin and jeremy peters. >> can i ask you -- stay on this shot for a second. as everybody knows, we are at mark halperin's hideaway apartment. that is strange wall paper. >> he did it for the baby. >> i got it at target super

cheap. >> really? okay. >> got it at yton target. >> okay. >> member of the oversight and government reform committee, jim jordan of ohio. he is the founding member of the house freedom caucus and served as the first chairman. >> congressman, so glad you are here. >> good to be with you. >> i'm a little nervous. for eight years, republicans under george w. bush justified record spending, record deficits. >> yeah. >> he was our guy, we were fighting a war, got the supreme court justice we want and helped move us toward bankruptcy. republicans swore, i know you did, too, when we get in power again, we are not going to repeat the same mistakes. can you tell me the budget we passed that you guys pass that congress passes is not going to make a $20 trillion debt -- >> you are right. $20 trillion is serious. gdp is 1-1. that's a dangerous place to be. nick mull va any is a good guy.

i like what they rolled out. it's exactly what we talked about during the campaign. i think it's the right thing to do. i have a lot of confidence in him and i have confidence that the administration is going to do the right thing. >> most conservatives understand, unless you talk entitlement reform, you are never going to fix what's ailing the country. we always talked about $50 trillion or $60 trillion in ious that we aren't touching. how do we save social security? >> the president is clear, he doesn't want to deal with that first. repeal and replace obamacare. create an environment conducive to economic growth. he's going to talk about that this evening. it's what we want to do in the house and congress. >> moments ago on the "today" show, speaker paul ryan spoke about the future of obamacare. take a look. >> your predecessor made your

job tougher. john boehner came out and said all the talk about repeal and replace is not going to happen. it's happy talk. they are going to fix bad parts of obamacare and wrap it in a conservative box. that is not repeal and replace. >> that is not what we are doing. leapt me say it this way. obamacare is collapsing. we really believe we are in a rescue mission here to step in and prevent the collapse. >> anyhow. >> anyway. obamacare, so, you want to repeal it? >> of course. that's what the voters want. >> you want to repeal and replace at the same time? >> repeal with one bill and replace it. there's one plan. >> you want to own that? are you sure you want to own that. >> we want to do what we told the voters we are going to do. >> you really want to own that? >> did they think about where we are at today. >> yeah. >> obamacare said we are going to have all these taxes and

regulations, drove up the cost of insurance. told americans you have to buy it and if you don't, you are penalized. it's a disaster. everything we were told about the law was false. the architect of obamacare, said they lied to us to pass the disaster we call obamacare. >> let me ask -- >> we have to repeal it because we told the voters we were going to. >> do democrats know that obamacare is collapsing? the architect of obamacare says it's collapsing. why don't you sit back and say, all right, democrats, we can let this collapse on your watch or you can work with us to come up with a solution? >> two things, it's not what we told the voters we are going to do, and families are hurting with fewer choices, higher premiums and deductibles. let's do what we said. we have a plan put forward that empowers patients, doctors, families, takes control from washington, the focus from washington and creates a

marketplace. the only plan out there, is the caucus brought forward. >> do you have the federal guarantee for pre-existing conditions? >> working class families and middle class families to afford it. >> do you have the federal guarantee for pre-exist sng. >> i think it's reasonable. if 26-year-olds want to stay on their parents plan, we think the marketplace will do that. there's a two year window. if you have insurance, you get to keep your coverage. we want to reward responsible behavior. right now, you never have to get insurance, but when something bad happens, they have to issue it to you. it's like saying you can buy homeowners insurance when your house is on fire. we want to bring back insurance that is affordable. that's the plan. >> mark, a lot of problems here, obviously that republicans are going to have to deal with. one, they have to get a house

bill and a senate bill lined up together. then, after they finish that task, then they have to get the president on board. he's not going to be willing, most likely that doesn't have the federal guarantee of pre-existing conditions and a federal guarantee of people staying on their parents health care until they are 25, 26. >> those, i think you can get. the more complicated issues are taxes, how to deal with medicaid, how to pay for the changes. congressman, one of the things president is criticized for by you and others is what his plan would do and there would be losers under his plan, people worse off. who are the losers under the house plan? >> the losers are the people under obamacare. >> no one will pay more or have worse coverage under your plan than the status quo? >> look where we are now. remember they said like your plan, keep your plan. like your doctor, keep your

doctor. >> you are pointing at things they said that aren't true. >> they sold us the caribbean cruise and we got the titanic. >> would anyone in america be worse off than they are now than the house plan? >> how could they be? higher deductibles. >> every provider -- >> we are not going to prok. we are going to promise bringing back affordable health care. the only plan out there says this, put on president trump's desk the exact same legislation we put on president obama's desk that he vetoed. it empowers people, encourages health savings accounts, easier association. >> i know there's upside. you see upside. i'm asking you not to make the same mistake the previous president made. who are people, providers or patient who is will be worse off under your plan. >> i don't know how anyone could be worse off. >> you are saying no one? no one can be.

>> i don't think you can make that blanket statement. i know how bad off people are today. working class and middle class families. i know what they said november 8, we want you to repeal and replace it. >> let's talk about the speech. alex, do you have the poll i sent you earlier, the nbc news/wall street journal poll that shows how everybody was doing as far as favoribility ratings? it's interesting, jeremy peters when the president of the united states goes into the chamber tonight, he's going to be surrounded by a lot of people. there are going to be a lot of press up in the gallery. they are all saying how unpopular he is. >> there's a historically low ratings. look at these numbers. paul ryan, 34 positive, 35 negative. donald trump, 43 positive, 47 negative. republican party 35-43. donald trump is a net minus four. the republican party is a net

minus nine. chuck schumer 17-26. mitch mcconnell, 14-34 a net minus 20. nancy pelosi, 19-44, a net minus 25. listen, it's a tough business. i mean, being in politics is a tough business. i don't -- i don't mock any of those people who are public servants who committed their lives to this country. in fact, i salute them. all i'm saying is politically, when donald trump walks into the chamber tonight, he will know that even if he is the lowest rated president, at this stage in modern history, he is still the most popular man standing in that room. >> that's right. >> that gives you the ability, actually, to be gracious. >> we'll see if he is. he is not shown a tremendous amount -- he did on election night. he said my job is to be the

president of all people. these numbers suggest he has the room to do that. look at his numbers with republicans in the same survey, 87% favoribility of the republicans. that was as high as he had at the pinnacle of his popularity during campaign season. these numbers are not great. let's not gloss or the fact he is at an historic low f a new president and obama's were 20 points higher at this point in his presidency. you know, that said, trump understands what he needs to do tonight and what he needs to do for the next few years down the road is make people feel better. there's reason to believe in these numbers that you see people have a more optimistic view about the direction of the country and the future and if he can deliver that three years from now, we may be looking at a two-term president. >> mika, the question i want to ask you, you look at the numbers we put up there. >> yeah.

>> are you surprised how much better trump is doing versus the democrats, pelosi, schumer? >> no, no i'm not. the democrats are in complete disarray. i think that there isn't a clear -- i think what we saw, even over the weekend with the dnc chair is a sign of a lot of work that needs to be done. it's not that it can't be done. we lost and we lost badly. we have a lot of extremes we need to pull together. >> mark, one of the reasons i'm surprised where the democratic number is, usually all a party needs to see numbers go up is the minority. in this case, the democrats have been put in the minority. there have been all these protests from day one. we and the press have been so locked in and engaged in that, everybody is battling it. this time, the democrats are going to be engaged. look at that poll. we'll say, i'm surprised the democrats have the amount of work they have to do.

30 approved, 46 disapproved. that's a number -- jim will know what i'm saying here. we republicans are used to having those numbers attached to us. we are not used to seeing the numbers attached to democrats. >> as much as they shun energy in the street since the election, that number is the reon why most of president obama's time in the office they lost race after race around the country, because their brand. >> yes. >> there's such a disconnect. >> what does the democratic party stand for except on the coast where they have lost race of race. >> don't underestimate the protests, they met something. they are a great data grab, there are more to come. the mask is off. the whole system is rigged kind of attack was turned on democrats. >> they don't approve of the democratic party or republicans. a lot of bernie sanders supporters don't like the left either. that draws the number way down.

>> i'm not here to give the democrats advice, but the bigger problem is what happened in pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin and ohio. they took a beating in this election. so, appealing to those working class middle class families, i think our party is doing a better job. >> paging joe biden. paging joe. >> touch on that for a second. jim, a lot of people were shocked donald trump won. i was more shocked that in a presidential year, dead serious, ron johnson, a hard line staunch conservative -- >> good man. >> won wisconsin. it's one thing if republicans win wisconsin in '10,'14, '18, an off year. >> you can attribute it to donald trump. >> trump won or state by eight points. no one would have predicted that. >> stunning. >> go next door to minnesota.

trump only lost minnesota by 40,000 votes. >> do you remember when they went flying to minnesota a couple days before, mark halperin? everybody mocked him and ridiculed him. >> you are so right. >> how much the press was off during the campaign. go back, look at the twitter feed -- >> and the democrats. >> -- of the journalists and the democrats and the mocking and ridiculing the trump campaign got for even stopping in minnesota. they almost won. >> and michigan. >> and michigan. >> what was happening with the democrats. weren't they doing a concert with beyonce or something? there was something so arrogant happening. >> they did get beyonce's vote. >> this is probably more trump's loss in those states than it was -- more hillary's loss than trump's win. there were 100,000 people in michigan that left the ballot blank.

they couldn't stomach voting for either one of them. >> in lima, ohio, a guy walked up saying i'm a union pipe fitter, i'm voting for donald trump. i don't care what leadership says. that was important. >> a lot of people felt it. congressman jim jordan thank you so much. always good to have you on. >> thank you. keep the deficit down. >> we will. >> counting on you. i'm looking at you, man. >> okay. >> no big government republicanism. >> good luck with that. still ahead, winning back state legislatures government mansions, tom perez joins us live. >> he has a job ahead of him. >> you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. liberty mutual stood with me

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everyone is talking about the huge gaffe at the oscars. a lot of people, at first, blamed warren beatie for the mistake. in his defense, if you saw the

card he was given to read, it was pretty confusing. [ laughter ] [ laughter ] >> for best picture -- >> "la la land." >> how does that happen? >> it was so painful. >> i think pricewaterhouse cooper's relationship might be over. >> that was so painful. you felt for all of the people involved in "la la land." seriously, it was -- >> they were so elegant. >> the most extreme version of that.

>> yeah. >> then they had a tribute to a woman who was supposed to be dead who is still alive. that's unfortunate. you don't want to do that, either. >> what's going on? >> i do not know. >> producing issues. >> happy ending, she's a alive. >> it's a happy ending. what if you were a friend from college. oh, my god, she died and i didn't know. it's awful. >> surprise twist, she lives. >> joining us now, the newly elected chairman of the dnc, tom perez. hi. >> good morning. >> probably head to florida and take a vacation, you have nothing to do. nothing to worry about for this party. >> i want to go to florida and listen to voters. >> how you going to do this? how are you going to bring the party together? >> 1,000 state legislature seats lost across the country. a huge cultural gap between democrats and most of america. how do you tie that together? >> it starts with redefining the

mission. the dncs mission has to be to elect people up and down the ballot, not simply electing the president. the best way to do that is build strong parties everywhere. we neglected that in recent years. we neglected zip codes. the story of wisconsin, where i got maried, we underperformed in milwaukee. you show up at a church in october and call it organizing. we underperformed in the rural parts of the states. >> i heard there were union members trying to get from iowa to michigan on buses to campaign. iowa was a lost cause and they were ordered to turn around and go back to iowa. >> i'm not familiar with that. >> i'm saying, in general, basic things weren't done. >> that's why i say, joe and mika, we have to get back to basics. let me give you an example of what success is about. last weekend in delaware, there was an important state senate race. the senate is currently tied.

this race was going to break the tie. that's the example of what we need to do at scale. the dnc in partnership with the state party was there, providing help on the ground. they asked for 200 volunteers, 500 volunteers ended up showing up. the energy that's out there across america enabled stephanie hanson to win that victory and keep the senate in democratic hands. obviously, we have to do that at scale. you do that at scale by building strong state parties, by investing and organizing, by making sure when candidates are recruited, the dnc is there to train them. >> why doesn't the dnc have senator sanders e-mail list? >> well, i'm meeting, actually later this week with senator sanders and schumer. we are going to move forward to talk about how we make sure we are all fired on all cylinders. i'm looking forward to that meeting and working tolgt. there's a tremendous amount of

energy out there, mark. i think one of our challenges is, i call it an opportunity, to channel the energy at a grass roots level. the president is a unifier. >> what might you do specifically, senator sanders and supporters feel stronger to make the dnc less reliant on corporate contributions and the contributions of the wealthiest. >> one thing immaterial to do is tap into both senator sanders wisdom and president obama's wisdom. look at two of the most prolific small dollar fund-raisers in democratic history, president obama and senator sanders. one of the things i want to do is tap into that and figure out, can we translate the small dollar passion for an individual into small dollar passion for the party? the best way to do that seems to me to put our values into action, to show that we are there in communities, to show that on the issues that matter the most, protecting the affordable care act.

it's heartening to see the majority of americans understand the affordable care act -- >> you understand, you guys have to go into all communities? >> we need an every zip code strategy. i was in northwestern wisconsin, rural wisconsin. i talked to a voter there who said to me, a democrat, who said i feel politically homeless. i said to him, you know what, i accept that as a challenge. >> let me ask you this question. i'm sure it may be politically incorrect. was he white? >> he was. >> okay. so, it's almost as if the democratic party has been afraid to say we need to target white, male voters. we saw that throughout the campaign. joe biden looked at hillary clinton's final campaign and turned to a friend and said who do you not see in that ad? this two-minute ad. biden said, me. you don't see white, male

voters. in the past, if you said that before the election, oh -- the democratic party, that guy and a lot of working white class voters from wisconsin to philadelphia feel forgotten. >> is that fair? >> is that fair? >> i think we often have a false choice between you target white working class voters -- >> you can't ignore white -- because -- by the way, this is not joe the southern white republican saying this. bell said it. >> okay. >> he said it as the dnc. he said we are not focusing on these white union workers. joe biden said it. >> i grew up in buffalo, new york. when my dad dies, my surrogate father was a teamster. when you succeed, america succeeds. we need to talk to every voter in every community. ten days before the election, i

was at a fish fry with tim ryan. >> that's great. >> congressman ryan is very passionate and effective member of congress. what we need to do is talk directly to their fears and to their hopes. when hope is on the ballot, we win. when fear is on the ballot, we lose. the message of economic opportunity, jobs, good jobs, retirement security, that's a message that resinates. >> this isn't an either/or. you can have a diversified message. it includes white, working class. >> jimmy carter said it. >> trump continued to target a base that is voted democrat. you are hearing this one, he says the pipeline he put online, the pipes have to come from america. you start with carrier. how much can the democratic party afford to be the opposition to trump? it seems like the democrats have

made a choice that their sweet spot is to oppose trump. when you oppose trump, you are opposing the blue collar workers you have lost. >> we are telling the truth about donald trump. he made all the promises, like in business. i'm going to deliver everything. you are going to be richer than you have ever seen and he doesn't deliver. look at what happened day one of this administration. hours into the administration, the guy who said i'm for main street makes it harder for first time home buyers to buy a home by rescinding an executive action from the obama administration. days later, he initiates a process to make it harder for folks to save for retirement. we did a rule on overtime that the department of labor. he led the effort to roll that back. you look at the judge that he's appointing to the supreme court. that judge is poised to be the fifth vote, if confirmed for collective bargaining. what we need to do with working

class voters with folks who are concerned about their retirement security, about their kids future, is to tell the truth about donald trump, which is he's not draining the swamp. when he did away or tried to do away with the retirement rule, he said my friends on wall street are having trouble with this rule. there's no ambiguity about why he protected wall street with the first time home buyer rollback or with the retirement rollback. it's all about helping his billionaire friends. >> thank you for being with us today. >> congratulations. >> joining us from capitol hill, senate majority whip john cornyn of texas. thank you for being on this morning. >> thank you. >> senator, great to have you here. are you buckled up for the night? >> i am. >> what are you expecting to hear and what would you like to

hear? >> well, i'm very excited about tonight. you know, this prospect of four years with the clinton presidency and being in the minority focuses the mind on the opportunities the trump presidency provides. you know, i think tax reform, regulatory reform, trying to get the economy going again, get americans back to work, help restore america's role in the world, where it diminished over the last eight years. i'm very excited about it. >> you brought up the two things that earlier i said i personally believe republicans should do, tax reform and regulatory reform, first, and wait on the affordable care act, which will blow uche. don't your supporters, doesn't your conservative base really want tax reform and regulatory reform first? >> well, they do want those, but they also believed us when we said we would repeal and replace

obamacare. as the president said, it's extraordinarily complicated, but we have to do it at risk of betraying the base that elected donald trump and elected us to the majority. >> we want order. >> pardon me? >> in what order? what order would you prefer? would you prefer to do tax reform first? >> i think we are on track to do obamacare repeal and replace first, then get the tax reform. >> okay. mark halperin? >> senator, when you think about what the trump administration has accomplished so far and what it has done less well, i know you see a lot of accomplishments, what would you like to see them doing better at going forward? >> i'm sorry. could you repeat that? i'm getting feedback. >> what would you like to see the administration do better going forward? >> i would like to see them get staffed up.

unfortunately because of foot dragging, the president hasn't been able to get his cabinet in place, much less the sub cabinet that is important to a new administration. obviously president trump is new at governing and i think message control would be important and i think i'm not the first person to mention that. i think it's clear that staying on message, the president got elected because of a successful message of making america great again. the economy is beginning to grow. we are seeing the stock market at historic highs. i think there's a lot of confidence in this new administration. now we need to deliver. >> senator, rick tyler, donald trump, at least you have an outline of his budget proposed $54 billion that has to come out of discretionary spending. how realistic is it? it is a show budget or dead on arrival? >> i believe, again, this is something the president said he

would do when he was running. it's long overdue, in my book. setting a budget is all about priorities. the number one priority has to be national security. as a result of the budget control act and sequestration, we lost sight of that. it's been one dollar for nondiscretionary spending for every dollar of spending. we are not roadies for the challenges we face around the world. restoring the defense budget is important, too, in sending a message to people like vladimir putin. he understands strength, but he also understands weakness. what we are done by cutting our military and making us less ready around the world is embolden people like vladimir putin. >> you brought up vladimir putin a couple times. as a conservative, i thank you for that.

will you and john mccain and other republicans support passing sanctions that can't be repealed by the white house? >> yeah. i think it's important to send a strong message to putin. obviously, he's been on the march during the last eight years. obviously crimea and ukraine and the middle east and now in libya and elsewhere. so, i think it's important we send a strong message. joe, i would say, the single most important thing we could do is restore our military spending because i think that would send a message of strength, something putin understands more than anything else. >> all right. >> senator john cornyn, thank you very much. tomorrow on the show, senate minority leader, chuck schumer will be among our many guests. stay here with us on "morning joe."

so how old do you want to be when you retire? uhh, i was thinking around 70. alright, and before that? you mean after that? no, i'm talking before that. do you have things you want to do before you retire? oh yeah sure... ok, like what? but i thought we were supposed to be talking about investing for retirement? we're absolutely doing that. but there's no law you can't make the most of today. what do you want to do? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow. yea. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change. investment management services from td ameritrade. it's your tv, take it with you. with directv and at&t, stream live tv anywhere data-free. join directv today starting at $35 a month. no extra monthly fees.

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welcome back to "morning joe." mark halperin, we have been hearing, it seems the safe thing for republicans to do, tax reform and regulatory reform,

first. not actually what they are thinking about in that big building behind us. >> we heard from congressman jordan and cornyn, health care first. that is not the universal view. they think health care will take up the entire year and nothing big gets passed the first year, which is dire the first year of the presidency. tax reform isn't easy either. >> the last thing you want to do, mika, is get into a battle over health care reform first because, like barack obama found out, it's going to take a year and a half. you will burn your cred in the first year. pass tax reform. pass regulatory reform. with that momentum, pass health care reform, is the smart play. mark is exactly right. it doesn't sound like that's what they are going to do. >> it's not. inside the deadly raid in yemen. it casts doubt on the white house claims of the special ops

mission that left children dead. we are back in a moment.

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the white house says last month's raid conducted in yemen was a success. u.s. officials now tell nbc news it yielded no significant intelligence. an official briefed says the administration has not revealed what prompted the rare use of ground troops in that country. navy s.e.a.l. william ryan owens died in that raid. at least 25 civilians, including at least nine children under 13 years olds were reportedly killed. the pentagon did not dispute the numbers yesterday. the $70 million u.s. aircraft was also destroyed. yesterday, white house press secretary, sean spicer reiterated the mission was a

success. >> the mission was successful in helping prevent a future attack or attacks on this nation. it obtained a lot of information that will help us keep safe. when you look at what the stated goal of that mission was, it was an information intelligence gathering mission and achieved its objectives. >> i think this is something the white house will learn as they move forward, as a member of armed service committee for four years. you know what? the greatest generals, the greatest admirals tell you sometimes missions -- in fact, missions rarely go the way they are planned. so, a white house needs to be honest, especially in this area because you obviously had bad intel or you had bad command when they found out they were going into a bad situation they continued going into that

situation. >> you have such terrible losses -- >> children were killed. the tragedy of losing an american serviceman, a very expensive plane destroyed. this wasn't a success. rick, the white house needs to understand that except in extraordinary circumstances, the white house isn't going to be blamed for every military operation that doesn't go well. there are, as don rumsfeld said, unknown unknowns. sometimes we don't know. >> remember what sean's initial response was, if an american service member was killed, it wasn't a success. that apparently didn't go well with the white house. he has to say exactly the right things. we know there was no significant intelligence gathered and people killed and they maintain it was

a success and it wasn't. >> you need to have your eyes wide open, an action report and figure out what went wrong in this military mission to learn from it. i guarantee you general mattis right now knows exactly what went wrong or he's digging and getting to the bottom of it to make sure it doesn't go wrong again. this is something that i guess is on a steep learning curve. they have to understand, every military mission is not going to be perfect. this, unfortunately, had a tragic consequences. up next, another week, another white house aid on the cover of a magazine. this time, it's stephen miller. we'll have that next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪

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y2a1fy yx9y a mihappy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪ yasss queen! what if millie dresselhaus, the first woman to win the national medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity? [millie dresselhaus was seen having lunch today...] ♪ [...rumors of the new discovery...] what if we lived in a world like that?

(crowd applauding) ♪ we know a place that's already working on it. ♪ 54 past the hour. joining us now, correspondent for blookberg week, josh green. >> he turns things up. he does. look at that spark. >> here is the question, does stephen miller speak for trump or vice versa? it's another cover boy. not the president, a minidictator or tiny dictator i like to say. josh gets his moment in the sun. anyhow -- miller gets his. tiny dictator.

josh, you ite, in part, this, steve bannon says miller is targeted by the media to thwart trump. it's just like any opposition party. they will try to take out some of the best young people in any organization. stephen is a tough guy. i can tell you from the campaign, he's used to being absolutely vilified. in a statement scarborough called party hacks, they humiliate themselves of the american history and the institution they declare their big boy voices the president's powers are not to be questioned. >> if you say it right, in their big boy voices. you are a troublemaker. you are a troublemaker. you went to them and said scarborough said -- you are a troublemaker. anyway, bannon, a self-described lenonnist wants to destroy

government like lennen did, very defensive of stephen miller. what is the relationship between them? do they come as a pair or is stephen miller really more of a -- wasn't it jeff sessions that brought miller? >> yeah, but bannon and miller are like batman and robin. >> is he a lenonnist? >> miller and bannon call themselves economic nationalists. they are the guys, collectively driving the center of -- >> steve bannon said he admires vladimir lennon and lennon is his role model to tear down the government. does stephen miller admire vladimir lennon? >> we never discussed lennon. miller is somebody who wants to tear down the american immigration policy, change things along the line of the refugee bans, restrictions of

who can come in the country, that sort of thing. >> he's been more quiet of late since declaring power this week. >> does he believe the president's power is not to be questioned? >> i imagine he does. >> so, that is so disturbing. let me ask you this, did you get the sense that he's learned anything from the horrific miscues of the first executive order that caused a certain type of swarm around the president for ten days? >> no. >> go. >> i don't think he's backed off, at all, his belief that the order was justified. i'm talking what i believe. >> you are talking the first executive order. i'm not talking the policy. >> the tiny time he went on tv since the sunday blunders, he said that this latest draft is just essentially like the first one. >> right. i'm curious if there were lessons learned, not in the

substance of it, but how they rolled it out? >> i saw no evidence. >> oh, my god. that's a fantastic piece. >> do they care, bannon and miller care about how they are portrayed in the media or wear it as a badge of honor? >> that's a good question. i think the reason miller cooperated with this piece is they were rattled and want to say here is what we think we are doing. the piece laid out beside the joe-steve bannon slap fight. >> what are you talking about? he's a lennonist. if you admire a guy that set up a government that killed over 100 million people, yes, it's your business. >> using the power of the state. >> using the power. he said he wanted to use the power of the the state. >> i think the president loved it when miller went on the shows saying the president's power is not to be questioned. he did a great job. >> that's what trump wants to see from his advisers on tv,

this blinding addlation and everything he does is by definition. that's why miller gets a pat on the head when people like sean spicer and kellyanne conway -- >> miller, the background, miller was actually with donald trump the whole way after corey left, before anybody else was, right? he was on the plane with him, writing the speeches. he was -- >> introducing him at rallies. >> introducing him at rallies. so, do you get a sense, i get a sense stephen miller may have a tighter bond, may last longer than even steve bannon. do you get that sense? >> i don't see a lot of daylight between miller and bannon. you probably have better insight in what trump is thinking than i do. certainly, he's somebody with a mind mill with trump and what trump thinks he's doing. >> was the interview in person? did you interview him?

>> yeah. >> how did you feel when you walked away? >> be nice. >> i'm curious, how did you feel walking away. >> as an american. >> to report what -- >> i'm asking how you felt walking away. >> i haven't been comfortable -- >> did you tell your mom you are on today? >> yes, i did. >> what is your mom's name? >> priscilla. >> priscilla, it was good of you to be watching. >> the minister of troops and miller. >> the artwork on that is fantastic. we want toy-to-thank all of you for watching today. >> the tiny dictator. >> can you not be gracious even as we close. we want to thank all of you for being here today. tonight is going to be a big night. josh is very uncomfortable. that does it for us. >> stay with msnbc as we count down to president trump's address to congress tonight. we'll be back tomorrow morning for full