today he's expected to sign a bill into law that helps protect veterans care and also welcoming the new england patriots here to washington. >> tom brady is really terrific. >> fantastic. >> thanks to hallie jackson for that report. >> that's a wrap for us, i'm alex witt alongside richard lui and louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts roit now from d.c. >> there is no doubt that this is already a victory for the ages. we have defied the odds. we have shattered expectations. so bring it on. >> he didn't win outright, and he may not win the runoff, but democrats in georgia think they just made a big statement about president trump. >> no, actually they did not. >> their party's candidate for an open congressional seat in a

deep red district came up just high of the 50% threshold needed to capture victory. this morning we'll talk to dnc chair tom perez. good morning. it's wednesday, april 19th. with us on capitol hill, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" y. >> good to have you all with us this morning. >> first impressions here from last night, gene, i thought they needed to get to 50% last night we've seen too many of these elections where brian bill bray gets 15% in a special in california against a democrat that ends up winning it later. >> that very often happens. do step back, though, this is a

district that the republican would be expected to win by 20 points. >> trump only one by one point in this district. that's the problem. >> and it's a changing district, too. georgia is a changing state. democrats spent something like $8 million on this race which is an incredible amount to spend on a special house race. if you add ossoff's votes plus the other couple of democrats, they came one percentage point sho short. i don't necessarily think the general is going to be as easy as republicans say. >> we'll see. >> let me get the facts in here. finishing with 48.4%. i'm trying to talk. democrat john ossoff fell about 4,300 votes shy of 50% which would have given him an outright victory. voter turnout was high for a

special election, more than 193,000 people casting ballots, near the levels for a midterm election. >> 43%. >> the race was widely seen as a referendum on candidate trump who tweeted about the election six times from sunday to tuesday. his latest just after midnight, despite major outside money, fake media support, big r win with runoff in georgia. glad to be of help. >> glad to be of help. what a dope. >> four times the next closest candidate as the race took on national attention, he now faces republican karen handel in the runoff. >> let's bring in nbc news capitol hill correspondent casey hill live in atlanta, georgia. they couldn't close the deal.

how are the republicans feeling this morning? >> well, joe, i think bgt sides tried to set expectations a little differently and republicans, i think were looking at this as, look, if he doesn't cross 50% that's functionally a failure. the reality here is jon ossoff performed about whether hillary clinton performed, a little better than she did against donald trump. i do think above everything, there is real activation among democratic voters right now. the question i think is still how does that translate. i think we'll learn from the runoff exactly how a lot of these midterm elections will play out. karen handle, the republican who jorn ossoff will face, she is not embracing donald trump. she is running as essentially a generic -- i don't want to quite call it a country club republican, but that gives you a sense of where people are in this district. >> oh, go ahead. >> sorry.

i pushed karen handel on whether or not she thought donald trump was a conservative, whether he belonged on the list. she kept saying i'm running in the mold of johnny isakson, tom price, all these georgia conservatives, and she was very hesitant around president trump. she said, look, i'll support the president, but i'm going to do the right thing for my district. i think this will tell us a little bit about how republicans run toward or away from the president depending on what he's doing at this moment. >> kasie, thank you so much. >> sam and i had an old-fashioned beforehand. >> it is 6:00 a.m. >> a little early i know. >> why is this show so early. >> have the bloodys early. >> i like how you're slurring your words like it's true.

>> exactly. >> sam, he got 8 million you say? >> 8.3 million. >> most of it from outside the district. doesn't it seem he's going to -- if he wants to win this thing, he's going to have to start knocking on doors. he's going to have to raise money locally, small amounts. >> i think it's fair to say this probably was your best shot in the general primary. now he has to run again in june. it's unclear if he can bring out the same level of support. i find it odd 43% were cheering. that's a fairly low number. the truth is it's hard to turn out more people in special elections. it's not apparent it will be easier in june. in some respects, this wasn't a victory for democrats. these elections matter. then again, like gene, i step back and say, wow this is 24%

swing from what the congressional race was in the '16 elections, the same swing as what happened in the last election in kansas. there's something happening here, right. >> i don't know that there is. >> you don't think so? >> i thought there wou be. i thought he was going to get over 50% because of all the things that happened. it was a special election. these are the type of elections, walt walter, that you have shocks, like in massachusetts when scott brown won ted kennedy's old seat because you have an energized small base. that time it was republicans and independents in massachusetts. they go out and shock the political world. scott brown couldn't have won in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 in massachusetts, but he could win that special. that's why this to me i think is so ominous for democrats, all of that energy, with all that money, he couldn't get over 50. >> you know, bye elections in

new england, special elections in the united states, those are the chances you get to send a message. this didn't quite send the message. as sam points out, it really does matter who sits in that seat. i do think we'll see in the runoff, i can't be sure what's going to happen in the runoff. he could win. karen handel is a strong candidate. a decent person. i'm more on your side. we haven't seen the shock we could see. hasn't happened. gene, it seems to me that more than anything that tom perez is going to do this entire year, this june election is going to be a test of his abilities. when you have a special election in june, when the kids are out at school, it's all about organization. it is all about turnout. let me say to my democratic

friends out there watching, if i see any marches between now and june, i'm going to call you stupid idiots. >> stop. >> that don't know how to win in american politics. they don't need to march. they need to knock on doors. they don't need to scream, they need to do phone banks. if you're in berkeley, california, ask how to get on the phone. that's how you win elections. >> exactly. what the democratic party hasn't done over the last ten years and what it had better do, that on the grassroots level, not just in georgia, but they better be doing it around the country because democratic party lost not only the presidency and both houses of congress. it's lost two-thirds of state legislatures, two-thirds of governor ships. that really, really matters. there has to be a base for the party to build on. so i think this period for tom perez is about base building.

>> he's going to be on this morning. kasie wants to jump back in. >> reporter: i was just going to say, joe and mika, there's been some behind the scenes grumbling on the part of democrats. ossoff spent over $8 million on one house seat, almost all on broadcast television. a lot of people think that's an outdated way to win a race like this. that's money that could have been very well invested in party building, exactly what you're talking about. i was getting snarky notes behind the scenes from democratic operatives all night saying are we going to hold out hope and wait for the cleveland suburbs to come in, recalling 2012 what it felt like to be a democrat. >> tv ads, i'm sorry. that's so 1996. >> what year are we in? nobody is watching. >> with all due respect to our

network, that's a stupid way to spend money. barack obama showed us that. donald trump really showed us that. >> we were talking about it a ye ago on the show. i was surprised the understanding of trump's rise that everybody on this panel was talking about. you could see it in yard signs and people sometimes in politics, they would dismiss and say, no, we watch facebook friends and twitter trends. but you go through pennsylvania and ohio. we were driving, upstate new york, trump, trump, trump, those red signs. you think there's a lack of organization going on and there's a lack of passion. >> so then there's this. look at the opportunity democrats have right now. a growing number of republican lawmakers are working to distance themselves from president trump as they face constituents at town hall events. at one event yesterday, senator james lankford of oklahoma called on the president to release his tax returns. according to reports lankford

told voters that, quote, mr. trump promised he would and he should keep his promise. >> hold on. mika, don't all republicans believe that, that if he made that promise, don't all republicans he should keep that promise? what james lankford did, all republicans should believe it. >> they should hold his words to him and not be so fearful. >> all you're asking him to do is just keep his word. >> an amazingly low bar that republicans have for their president about the promises he's made. >> maybe not. if james lankford said that, his republican constituents -- i know republicans more than any party, they value the truth and keeping their word. his constituents have to be awfully proud of him. >> let me tell you something, donald trump is not going to release his taxes? >> what? >> but wait a minute. he said he would. >> the story here is a senator from oklahoma say, hey, you know what, this is pretty simple

guys. this is what you want your representatives to do. you want them to act like they would with their kids. they want their kids to tell the truth, then they want their president to tell the truth. >> you've got a larger point here which is it's a republican senate -- republican senators will be the ones who will or won't hold trump account nl. >> fellow republican senator joni ernst of iowa went even further in her criticisms while answering questions on president trump's policies and even his character. >> i think that we have a president that has a number of flaws. i would say i support more of the policies. i don't support every policy, but there are policies that i support. >> with the trips to florida, i do wish that he would spend more time in washington, d.c. that's what we have the white house for.

we would love to see more of those state department vis nits washington, d.c. i think it's smart he does business in washington, d.c. >> should he be the first one to bring his company back and manufacture his products here? >> i do think we node to bring manufacturing back to the united states. i would love to see that. maybe he puts his money where his mouth is and brings some of those jobs here. so whether it's manufacturing or otherwise, it would be nice to see that investment in american jobs. >> ladies and gentlemen -- >> someone who tells the truth. >> welcome to april of 2017. >> it takes a woman, by the way, to not be -- >> well, a woman who has been in the military, who isn't afraid. >> who makes them squeal. >> who is from iowa. let's unpack what she just said. pretty remarkable stuff, sam

stein, that more people aren't saying that. you criticized obama for going on vacations and golfing. don't do-it-yourse it yourself. stay in washington, d.c. and not mar-a-lago. he has flaws. >> like a line of criticism y. >> this is obvious stuff that all republicans should be saying. >> it's advantageous for republicans to disagree with trump on what are mainly superficial matters and say he shouldn't be traveling, he should be in d.c., and then go with him on the substantive ones. i'm struck by this 100 days in. trump's legislative accomplishments fairly bare. if you have republican senators talking to constituents in this early part of his presidency, what does this suggest about getting things done for the rest

of the term. if i were trump, i would be nervous. >> i think what it says gene is they say he's at 39% even after a popular strike on a dictator, and they go, you know what, we're just not going down with this ship. we'll support him legislatively, but we're not going to support him lying, not going to support him saying one thing about barack obama and doing even worse. >> what's the big legislative accomplishment? >> he has no legislative accomplishment. >> there's the big question. he didn't do health care. he doesn't know how to do tax reform i don't think, even,000 you could do corporate tax reform next week if you wanted to. but i don't think he's going to do it. you know, they see the numbers. they see he got -- this is after the bump from the military strike. >> there was no bump. >> thereas no bump. a couple of points and that always subsides.

politically he's in trouble. >> there are new ethics questions for ivanka trump after the chinese government gave preliminary approval to three brand trademarks on the same day she met chinese president xi jinping. the trade marks gave her company exclusive rights to sell ivanka trump goods and services in the country. on april 6th, she and her husband jared kushner sat next to the chinese president for dinner at mara lago. ivanka trump has pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts. in response, ivanka trump's attorney stated, since she resigned her position, ivanka has had no involvement with trademark applications submitted by the business. the fed rath ethics rules do not require you to recuse from any business because a business you

have ownership interest in has a trademark application pending there. for the second time this year, former president george h.w. bush is being treated at a hospital. he was admitted to highs ton methodist on friday with pneumonia. the 92-year-old was also hospitalized for two weeks back in january and at one point was moved into the icu. the former president's office says the latest case of pneumonia was mild and has been treated and resolved. however, we're told he will stay in the hospital until he regains his strength. we last saw president bush two weeks ago when president clinton tweeted this photo of his visit with his predecessor where he, of course, brought him a pair of socks. still ahead onmorng joe" from capitol hill, we'll speak live wh dnc chair tom pez, his first interview of the morning following last flit's special election in georgia.

"new york times" white house correspondent, glenn thrush, "usa today's" heidi przybilla. tomorrow, valley jarrett, her first interview since leaving the white house. but first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good morning. umbrella weather in d.c. and a lot of other areas, watching murky weather headed through north carolina, all of virginia and west virginia. if we get severe storms today, we're focusing on iowa, kansas city, chicago. these could be big hail producing storms, too. we'll show you those tomorrow. des moines to the quad cities most at risk. in total, 18 million people. the warm temperatures continue for the middle of april, 86 in st. louis, 82 in the atlanta. cooler in new york city, philadelphia and bostoning some of the air coming in off the ocean. got our temperature records in for march. now we're setting pretty impressive streaks here. now going in the last year, it was officially the warmest year

we've had, warmest 12-month period recorded in our country. this goes on top now 24 months, 36 months. three years, four years, a record period, the warmest we've had in the lower 48. that is courtesy of "the washington post" and the climate weather game. we continue with a very warm april. we'll track severe storms later today in the middle of the country. washington, d.c., as i mentioned, hon-and-off showers throughout the day. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative perwork.. your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier,

neither will we. optum. how well gets done.

no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days, that includes on military, on the border, on trade, on regulation, on law enforcement. we love our law enforcement. and on government reform.

>> i've been president almost 100 days and i've already done so much, it's hard to keep track of it at all. read to me again from the list of accomplishmented. >> of course, sir. nominated neil gorsuch. >> god, i love that list. >> with the 100 dash day mark looming, president trump was back on the rode with a swing through kenosha, wisconsin to tout his buy american hire american message on manufacturing. "the washington post" points out the president's own companies often deviated from that principle in the past. the president also signed an executive order targeting the h-1b visa program which the administration says undercuts american jobs by using cheaper foreign workers and driving down wages. president trump also took on other aspects of his agenda, promising tax reform very soon, pending approval of a health care bill. >> we're also working with congress on tax reform and

simplification, and we're on time if we get that health care approval. so press every one of your congressmen, press everybody because we want to get that approval. it just makes the tax reform easier, and it makes it better. it's going to make it steeper, it's going to be bigger. that's what we want to do. we're in very good shape on tax reform. we have the concept of the plan. we'll be announcing it very soon, but health care, we have to get the health care taken care of. as soon as health care takes care of, we're going to march very quickly. you're going to watch, we're gog surprise you. right steve mnuchin, right? we'll be making big investments in rebuilding our military and repairing our badly depleted infrastructure. that will happen soon, also, infrastructure, big infrastructure bill. probably use it with something else that's a little harder to get approved in order to get that approved. but infrastructure is coming, and it's coming fast.

>> you know, we've heard about, mika, alternate facts. this -- you've got to put this more in the basket of an alternate reality, because they lost on health care reform. remember they went back the second time to try again. that ended up even worse. and now he shocked everybody after saying, well, we're going to go to tax reform. no, we're going back to health care reform. there's no evidence on the hill that he will ever pass that. steve mnuchin, treasury director yesterday said no, no, no, we're not going to be able to get this tax reform stuff done before august. these republican members are going to be going to town hall meetings during their august recess having passed nothing. >> that's what i'm wondering. what are the republicans in the senate and the house thinking when they're hearing this, what's the possibility of getting any points on the board? that's what they need, right? >> yeah. >> how, where, when? >> how, exactly.

>> if you do pass it through the house, chances are very good if you do it only with republicans you just passed a bill through the house that you will not get close to passing through the senate. >> the last legislation didn't make anywhere near the senate. there's no way something that could get through the house right now, if it's anything like the first bill, there's just no way it could get through -- >> senators are not going to slash medicaid. >> no, they're not. >> they're not going to slash that part of the program, walter. >> the one thinghey could get passed is an interesting infrastructure bill. what he said yesterday, that would be too easy, so i'll put something harder and attach it to it. that seems like a phenomenal mistake. you might as well go for infrastructure and not say let's try to attach part of health care to it so it will be underpassab underpassable. >> meanwhile, they've got to keep the government running.

eventually at some point they'll have to raise the debt ceiling. there's sthuf that has to get done. they haven't figured out how to get anything done. >> you pif vt to infrastructure, you could do it with democratic support. any inclination to say why don't we get some democrats aboard. >> aren't republicans seeing this as self-destructive. >> they will go into august recess in all likelihood with zero legislative accomplishments. they'll have the neil gorsuch nomination. none of this stuff will happen unless he makes a sharp deviation from his current governing strategy. >> is there anyone telling him -- maybe he's hearing it from us, but is there anybody telling him on the inside these aren't going to work? >> it doesn't really matter because he shows himself capable of getting good advice. he gets to the middle of the

"wall street journal" interview, sam, and he completely changes his position. on health care reform, remember he said, we went to paul ryan's way, now we're going to go my way. we're going to do tax reform. then he changes and goes back and says he's going back to health care reform. >> health care is such a perfect microcosm for the broader strategy. he tried with republicans and failed. he suggested he would go to democrats for a health care bill to cross something in a bipartisan fashion. subsequently he threatened democrats by withholding the insurance payments which are vital to the market. >> the fact is he's not proven himself, mika, yet to have the discipline to be able to carry out a strategy more than 24 hours. with that being the case, he insults the freedom caucus, praises the freedom caucus, he

reaches out to democrats, insults the democrats, and everybody is looking at him. his biggest problem now is, you go to the republican town hall meetings across america, and they're starting -- >> what's going on here. >> we all know the president is getting some good advice. he's also getting some really bad advice. he just yo-yos between the two. >> can you guys remember any time in recent american history where a senator from the party that the president -- that holds the white house, other thanks of course, bill clinton in the middle of impeachment, said the president has character flaws, the president needs to stop vacationing so much? what joni ernst said yesterday is just stunning. >> senator ernst knows -- >> she's sticking to her brand.

>> in my decades covering washington, no. i've been here for decades. >> wow. >> tefs in teletubbys. >> i love teletubbys. >> the howard baker crew doing nixon. >> that was an interesting time to be in d.c. coming up, the trump administration weiing out how to handle two legacy issues from the last administration. simply erases them is proving easier said than done. "morning joe" is coming right back. say hello to the new unlimited data plans from at&t and never pay overages again. so now the whole family can binge,... ...surf, shop, navigate, listen, game, stream and more.

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is that really it? did they get the right one? oh, my, that's freaky. >> oh, my god, it's my apartment. >> it literally is. >> that's so weird. >> anyway, i'm going to try this again while mika looks at her apartment. the white house notified congress it's now reviewing whether to break the terms of the nuclear deal with iran. secretary of state rex tillerson says tehran was holding up their end of the bargain, but the

country remains a leading state sponsor of terror. the review will determine if lifting sanctions against iran is in the national interest. >> shocking. >> what's surprising is these republicans are going to have something to go back and say the white house accomplished something, and that is upholding the iran nuclear deal. >> it's so funny to me. trump was a little ambiguous on what to do with this deal on the campaign trail. the rest of the republican party was condemning this deal as naive and stupid and something you had to break. of course, now that you're in the power and you can control these things, of course, it's much more complicated. >> here is the real complexity. i don't know how trump would think this through, if you start putting more sanctions on and hurting that deal, you help the far radical in the next election which is coming up pretty soon. does the trump administration want to empower the anti

americans in the next iran election or not? now, i know what the intelligence community feels. they're all very, very hopeful that you can have -- not eower these fundamentalists. >>hether thing about the deal is it was frontloaded in tehran's favor. they got the money, the relief, a bunch of stuff up front. the benefits for our side are going forward. to be in there watching the program and sort of kind of minute detail. we get to know all about their program. we get to make sure -- why would you cancel the part of the deal that is favorable -- >> we spent a year and a half where republicans were saying get rid of obamacare, the worst thing that's ever happened to the american economy.

they're going to go on to august recess, and these things, these pillars of the obama foreign policy -- >> obamacare will be the law of the land. the iran nuclear deal will have survived. meanwhile the white house abruptly postponed its meeting to start deciding the fate of the paris climate deal. it was supposed to take place yesterday but was pushed back for at least a couple weeks. administration officials say the delay is not the result of internal disagreement. still, politico notes a number of top cabinet officials are on opposite sides of the issue. >> that would truly be amazing, in addition to what sam said, you had the same climate deal in place in august. >> britain's parliament is set to vote this morning on whether to hold elections in just under two months. the move comes after prime minister theresa may's surprise announcement on the proposal yesterday as britain prepares to negotiate its exit from the

european union. joining us live from london with more, nbc chief correspondent bill neely. what's the motivation behind the prime minister's decision? >> never trust a politician. she said it over and over again. there would be no snap election. guess what? yesterday she called a snap election. she said she did it reluctantly. someone said it was about as reluctant as a pit bull terrier sniffing a pork chop. why? remember she's unelected. she was chosen from within the ranks of her own ruling conservative party. she wants a mandate. she wants an opportunity principally to negotiate britain's exit from the european union in the way that she wants, not in the way that some of the hardliners mostly within her own party wants. secondly she denied it on the radio this morning, but it's political opportunism. she has a narrow majority in parliament, about 17 seats. she sees a great opportunity

with an opposition, chief party labor in total disarray to crush them. the labor leader, jeremy corbyn, is trusted apparently only by about 14% of the british people to be a decent prime minister. this is her great chance. the newspapers this morning saying "may heads for helection landslide." one poll gives her a 17 point lead. another says "blue murder, her chance to kill off labor." you know it's all about brexit, britain's exit from the european union. it's not without risks because this will reopen deep, deep wounds and divisions in a divided britain. >> bill neely, one follow up question, did somebody say she was as reluctant as a pit bull sniffing a pork chop or did you say that to yourself and use it on the air?

it's very descriptive. >> look, i'm a plajerrist. she went for a walk in the welch hills with her husband over easter and came up with this idea. if you see donald trump heading for the blue ridge mountains, beware. >> bill, this makes total sense to me. why wouldn't she do this? it seems like a no-brainer to call this election. >> exactly. she is popular. as i said, the opposition parties are not. she's got two years of tough negotiations ahead. apparently she said privately, look, european union leaders will have me over a barrel if they realize and recognize i have a very narrow majority and i've got no wiggle room, no room to really negotiate a good deal

for britain. the negotiations were due to last two years, her term was due to last until 2020. now it gives her until 2022, assuming that she wins the election. so that will give her a mandate. as someone said this morning, it could make her the most powerful british prime minister since world war ii. with an opposition in disarray and a strong majority, maybe even a landslide, she will be in an extremely strong position. >> we have actually spent, bill, the past year and a half trying to explain american politics and the phenomenon of donald trump to people from outside this country. could you explain to our viewers why somebody as unpopular and out of the mainstream as jeremy corbyn continues to run the opposition party when that can only lead labor? even we can figure it out in

america, and look who our president is. that can only lead labor to a disastrous election result. >> i think there is a belief on the left here, stick to your guns and you may come through. nobody believed donald trump would come through the election and he did. november believed brexit would happen and it did. don't abandon jeremy corbyn. he sticks to his principles, principles he formed in the 1970s and they haven't really changed. the polls speak for themselves. if only 14% of brits think he would be a good prime minister, he's heading for the end of his political career and an election catastrophe. >> i tell you what, it's not a really good sign. i criticize republicans stuck in the reagan era. it's worse if your ideas were formed when t rex was the biggest pop star. >> bill neely, thank you. >> bill, when do you run in your

marathon? >> nice of you to ask, joe. it's sunday. >> good luck. >> we'll be thinking about you and your knees this sunday. >> have fun. coming up, homeland security secretary john kelly has a message for congressional critics. change immigration laws or shut up. that's ahead on "morning joe." when standard cancer treatment no longer works

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breaking news, former nfl star aaron hernandez who is dead. massachusetts prison officials says he was discovered hanged in his cell by officers early this morning. they say he was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead. the former new england patriot was acquitted of murder charges la week for the 2012 deadly shooti of two men outside a bostonnightclub. but hernandez was already serving a mandatory life

sentence for the 2013 murder of one of his friends. gene, a vastly talented star, but so troubled obviously, and that -- those stories those stories went all the way back to college when he was in florida. >> yeah, really went down the wrong path. >> terrible. >> all right. homeland security secretary john kelly has tough words for capitol hill. speaking at george washington university the cabinet secretary blasted congressional critics who say the agency is unfairly targeting certain groups of travelers. >> for too long the men and women in my department have been political pawns similar to treatment suffered by law enforcement over the past few years, they are often ridiculed and insulted by public officials, frequently convicted in the court of public opinion on unfounded allegations testified to by street lawyers and street spokes persons.

if lawmakers do not like the laws that we enforce, that we are charged to enforce, that we are sworn to enforce, then they should have the courage and the skill to change those laws. otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines. >> wow. >> what do you think? >> that's tough. you don't like it, congress -- it's just the truth, like i always said about the irs code. instead of attacking everybody in the irs for doing their job, if you don't like the tax code, shut up and change the tax code. >> the problem is in that building right behind you, they can't change things now. they can't pass anything. >> that's the problem. that's the problem. >> so they scapegoat everybody else. >> yeah, they do. on the other hand it's not generally a great thing for our cabinet official to say shut up to congress of they don't tend to like that. the reality is they can't change the laws. >> such cynics.

>> so here we've had for the past eight years people complaining -- or at least six years, people complaining about gridlock. nothing happens because you have a democratic president and republican congress. i said yesterday, we've got a republican president, we've got a republican house, we've got a republican senate, we've got a republican supreme court, and they can't pass anything. the ineptitude, the level of ineptitude there is pretty remarkable. i'm just wondering when everybody is going to get out of the way and let mitch mcconnell start running the legislative agenda. >> this reminds me of when obama was crafting his own immigration policy he tried to get through congress, didn't work obousl then he started using what thorities he thought he had as an executive and congress was so upset by it. the truth is if you're the legislative branch at some point you need to operate with

institutional, declare war, craft immigration policy, tax policy, investigate a president. what they have done essentially for decades is advocate legislative powers to the executive. >> you know, let me ask you, the reason nothing gets done is everything is so partisan, something we haven't had in 200 years or so. if you were either mitch mcconnell or somebody in the white house, would you say, hey, let's break that and try to get some bipartisan votes? >> sure. >> why haven't they done it. >> i think right now they defer to donald trump for the first 100 days. at some point mitch mcconnell is going to have to step forward and say, listen, mr. president, let me show you how it's done. >> it's doable. the last congress they did the bill called 21st century -- it's a big deal. millions and millions for sooibs research. those are common ground areas where people can come together. it is doable but it has to be

within legislative branch's interest to do it. >> and you've got to start in the senate. you can't start in the house. >> you can't start in the house. it's also sflas is doing, tax reform is doing. >> it's doable if mitch mcconnell wanted to do it in the senate. >> all right. coming up on "morning joe." >> one of the submarines in alpha last reported in the area of the grand banks. we have not heard from her for some time. >> andre, you've lost another submarine? >> did the trump administration -- did the trump administration lose a ship? trump officials suggest u.s. work ships. >> joe is the one doing a break a while back and said, find that clip. >> and here is why -- >> every assistance, all the

help we can give you finding that stuff. you should have told us. >> here is why. trump officials suggested u.s. warships were churning toward north korea when they were actually sailing in the opposite direction. >> it happens. >> who they are blaming this morning for the bad guidance. plus democrats failed to get an early win for the race in georgia sixth congressional district. reaction from dnc chair tom perez joining us for his first interview of the morning. white house correspondent glen thrush, hieidi przybyla and george will. whoa, this thing is crazy.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it is wednesday april 19th. with us here on capitol hill we have pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "washington post" eugene robinson. president and ceo of aspen institute walter isaacson. sam stein and "new york times" white house correspondent glenn thrush with us here on set. >> also seen on "saturday night live." >> glenn. >> how are you doing? >> do the kids rush up to you on the streets asking for your autograph from "snl." >> they do. locks of hair, too, as you can see. >> yes, we can. all right. top of the hour this morning there will be a runoff in

georgia after a democrat came up just short of winning in a conservative district for an open seat in congress. finishing with 48.1%, democrat jon ossoff fell 4300 shy of 50% which would have given him an outright victory. voter turnout was high for special election, more than 193,000 people casting ballots near the levels for a midterm election. the race was widely seen as a referendum on president trump who tweeted about the election six times from sday through tuesday. mostly attacking the democrat. his latest came just after midnight today, quote, despite major outside money, fake media support and eleven republican candidates, big r win with runoff in georgia. glad to be of help. >> wow. >> ossoff -- >> glad to be of help. >> ossoff raised $8.3 million, four times the next closest candidate as the race took on national attention.

he now faces republican karen handel in the runoff, which is going to be on june 20th. let's bring in nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt live in atlanta with more. kasie. >> reporter: mika, joe, good morning, i think the key takeaway here and you hit on it there talking about the president, he really did save himself from some damage here or at least has been saved by republicans who did notice this was going to potentially be a problem and who at least kept ossoff below 50%. i think there are some signs for democrats, you may be very activated, people may be angry and excited, you know what they did here didn't quite get him over the edge. i think as they start to think through, okay, is it actually realistic to take back the house in 2018, it's places like this where they are going to have to make a difference. in many ways the terrain in suburban atlanta should have

been favorable to an anti-trump message. jon ossoff would say that when he was campaigning but not in so many words. he would use kind of coded language. okay. we don't want to be divisive. okay. we want to be inclusive. he had some trouble going after donald trump very aggressively by name by the time we got to the end of this campaign. it started out saying make trump furious. that's when you got the initial reaction from the base of the democratic party. by the time we came around to this point, i felt very much like i was covering a very conventional candidate, somebody who didn't want to stray off message, be too controversial. i think that may help explain why they were able to keep him below 50. one other note, i do think ossoff not necessarily a candidate who was electric or able to kind of grab attention personally. he more played up this idea he was a little bit of a nerd. he was made fun of for dressing

up like hans solo in college. when they were about to have ossoff walk on stage they played that theme on "star wars," a new hope, where luke skywalker and hans solo get medals for blowing up the death star. i thought there was a little arrogance there. >> you're saying as a candidate he was kind of stiff. >> trained. >> last night or the night before you even asked him what he liked doing, what his hobbies were, and he couldn't nam one. >> we do have video of that somewhere, joe. i was just trying to get him to loosen up in an interview. i said, hey, what do you like to do for fun? he said, well, i haven't had a lot of time. this race kept me busy. he was like, i like to go hiking outdoors. i like the solitude. politics is a lonely business, not so much. >> innocent little questions that are the worst for politicians.

she's the best at that. >> kasie, we have like two months until june 20th. that's a long time between, you know, a primary and runoff. so what's that going to do? >> yeah, i think the the sense is it's going to be really hard to sustain the momentum here for jon ossoff. that's going to be a big part of why democrats are discouraged he couldn't get there and republicans think they have a pretty good shot in this runoff. it feels like the energy was potentially expended here. he disappointed. let's see if democrats move to other things. they also spent $8.3 million to get him over 5067. we were talking early, there was disappointment how we approached it. thinking should we actually focus on building lower parties, offices lower down the ballot rather than try to do it all here in one high-profile messaging stand. >> kasie, it sounds like i was

going to ask you, reading body language and talking to people off the record after results came in who felt like they had gotten the better of the other party. it sounds like from what you're seeing here that the republicans were fairly pleased with the results last night and democrats were dejected. >> i think democrats are probably discouraged by it. i think they warranted to see it jump over 50%. for republicans, inguinal republicans did some successful expectations setting leading up to this race. they gave a sense that, okay, we really do think he could cross 50%. if these numbers come in a certain way we're going to be fine. he's not going to get there, and that's actually what happened. i think there was a sense they weren't necessarily spinning things, they were using real facts and providing data they were seeing on the ground. they did a good job of making this seem like this was the all or nothing moment for jon ossoff. >> nbc's kasie hunt, thank you very much. just from pulling back

20,000 feet, democrats need add clean, clean, clean win. >> needed a clean win. they need add clean win. there's so many examples where a part like democratic party, a minority in its district, comes up short and then loses the next round. in this case, and i do think the democrats blew a golden opportunity, spending most of $ million on 30-second tv ads is so straight out of 1996 it's negligence. there should have been a lot more of a ground game. i know some democrats were claiming they had a good ground game. that's not what people were telling me off the record who didn't want to criticizes the party but saying, hey, we've been doing this 30 years. the ground game down there is pretty terrible. the one thing, though, ossoff and the democrats had going for them, in normal years it would be a democrat against a republican. here you have a democrat -- you

look at the republican tallies, which one of those are trumpers? which one said i'm a trump republican but i will not vote for a country club republican like karen handel because there are a large chunk of republicans that will not go out to an election in june when, you know, if they are going on vacation with their kids. if they are going to disney world or something. >> hiking. >> going hiking because that's apparently very big in this district. >> you have like 11 republican candidates. that does say something about the party. >> the question is, are there some trump people there who are not going to vote for a country club republican. and this karen handel, as donald trump struggles even more as we move forward, does she move further away from trump? we don't know what's going to happen two months from now. >> does she invite trump to campaign? >> no. >> this is a district donald trump won by one point. >> exactly.

>> against hillary clinton, which is why democrats maybe should have done better than they did. let's just project forward two months from now. donald trump doesn't look like he's going to have passed health care reform. he said he's not going to pass tax reform until he passes health care reform. if we go two more months from now and trump is still in the 30s, republican senators like they did yesterday are starting to attack the president of the united states, this is not a done deal for the other side. things are very fluid with this administration. >> we have a budget to pass, some basic blocking and tackling they have had trouble with. what is interesting is my in box this morning has been flooded by democrats sort of saying ossoff was a terrible candidate. >> oh, my gosh. >> we're starting, i think, to get. >> trained by the greatest, terrible candidates, i'm sure. >> he was not -- i would say, i agree with kasie, he was not electric, more static electric. but i think in general that is

an issue. look, the other thing is, look how deep the bench was down there. there were a lot of people who wanted that seat. i think the larger issue we're dealing with here right now, the democrats don't have a lot of candidates, not just in georgia but around the country in general. there's not a lot of people to kind of catch this trump wave. as we recall from the presidential election just running anti-trump when you don't have a personality to project or a message that's really going to capture people's imagination. >> exactly. that many seats, you can't idot in one election. it's not going to happen in one election. >> here i'm talking to a guy from south carolina and a guy from louisiana. these seats used to automatically go democratic because you would have somebody who was progressive on economic issues, but that was socially conservative, whether they were pro-life, more moderate on abortion issues.

guns, pro second amendment. they would tout themselves as that that's the sort of thing democrats would have won this going away if they had the type of candidates -- democrats still had in the 1990s. >> louisiana democrat goes right though too what you're saying. it's pretty hard when you have parties that have st of balkanized so they are on very strict ideologies and they can't run the way they used to in the south. >> there's also self-sorting, urban districts that spreads. this is a district that can change over time and become more friendly what is now a traditional democratic candidate. >> then there's this, the growing number of republican lawmakers working to distance themselves from president trump as they face constituents at town hall events.

at one event yesterday, senator james langford of oklahoma called on the president to release his tax returns. according to reports lankford told voters he promised he would and he should keep his promise. fell senator from iowa went further in her criticisms while answering questions on trump's policies and even his character. >> i think we have a president that has a number of flaws. i would say i support more of the policies. i don't support every policy, but there are policies that i support. with the trips to florida, i do wish he would spend more time in washington, d.c.. that's what we have the white house for. we would love to see more of those state department visits in washington, d.c. i think it's smart that he does business in washington, d.c.

>> should he be the first one to bring his company back and manufacture his products here? >> i do think we need to bring manufacturing back to the united states. i would love to see that. and you know, maybe he puts his money where his mouth is and brings some of those jobs here. so whether it's manufacturing or otherwise, it would be nice to se that investment in american jobs. >> wow. >> glenn thrush, that's a wow moment. >> yeah. >> we have a president who has a number of flaws. that's unprecedented. people don't say that about presidents of their own party in the senate. criticized his trips to florida and mar-a-lago. criticized the fact he hasn't visited state department and other agencies and not doing work in washington, d.c. of course said, hey, we're going to keep an eye on this manufacturing job. >> she's a star. >> you watch, those numbers, her numbers, watch, i guarantee her

numbers in iowa are going to explode. >> she has got the ear, doesn't she? you're listening to a politician that really understands. >> nobody is standing up and screaming at joni ernst. >> they are like, i can believe her. this is a woman who came to washington with that commercial, i'm going to make them squeal. remember that? it all seemed so -- i love it. >> the four of us remember it. >> do y'all remember that? >> i do. visceral viscerally. >> this is actually making them squeal. she's going to washington and telling the truth, sticking by it. >> she's just saying things everyone else sort of knows. there's a bloomberg poll, 61, 62% of the people want him to release his tax returns. republicans, a lot of republicans held their noses and voted for this guy. there is that cohort of 20% of trump voters who disapproved of his behavior and voted for him

anyway. >> james lankford, it's important also, james lankford, oklahoma. >> oklahoma. >> now, iowa still is a purple state. >> right. >> for james lankford to come out and say that, that's not as easy for him as it might be for somebody in wisconsin or iowa. >> it's the right thing to do, too. >> hearing things, too. they are not just saying it on their own. these are things people said to them. breakfast and town hall meetings and diners. i think there's a story today which was particularly interesting to me. it shows we're going to have more trouble coming on, which is retail jobs are starting to collapse in this country at the manufacturer. those manufacturing with $36 an hour job, these are $18 an hour job. it's an irreversible collapse.

i think you're about to see another wave of turmoil especially in these suburban districts that depend on retail. >> mika, so, brilliant about the way lankford said it, lankford didn't say, we need to see trump's taxes, to sethe connections with russia. we need to see trump's taxes because of his connections with turkey. >> he told us. >> it was a promise. >> he told us, he promised us he'd let us see his taxes, so we need to see his taxes, because, well, that's the right thing to do. >> and some people do want to know about conflict of interest in places like turkey. we've been following developments in turkey. president trump's call to that country's president to congratulate him. >> wow. >> on his recent referendum. >> stealing an election. >> why would he do that. international monitors -- >> i'm trying to figure that out. why would he do that? the guy stole the election.

he seized control for another decade. i'm sitting here thinking i can't figure it out. >> what's in those tax returns. >> why would he do that, mika. >> international monitor said the vote was plagued by undemocratic behavior and irregularities by the state department. that's raising questions about white house concongratulatory hand toward turkey's iron fisted you'ller. some pointing to this 2012 tweet by trump. quote, turkey, trump towers just opened. magnificent. >> this is what's going to catch up. >> wait. so he's got trump tower -- >> they all were celebrating in istanbul. >> okay. that's all he said about it, though, i'm sure, right? >> reemerged -- one tweet, so you guys can't crucify this guy on one tweet. you've got nothing on him. >> but wait, there's more.

>> you've got nothing on this guy. >> audio reemerged from december 2015 of president trump speaking with steve bannon on breitbart news daily about how he would address an issue like isis with turkey. >> what do you do with turkey in is turkey a reliable partner, another nato ally, are they a reliable paner. >> i have a little conflict of interest because i have a major, major building in istanbul that's a tremendously successful job. it's called trump towers, not the usual one, it's two. i've gotten to know turkey very well, and they are amazing people. >> oh, my god. >> again, no more questions. >> he ended that exchange -- >> wait. >> i've got a little conflict of interest. okay. i never saw that coming. >> also ended that by saying they are incredible people. they have a stroke leader.

>> glenn thrush, what say you? >> first of all, we were on "air force one." i had a lovely flight to kenosha. >> how was the cake? >> we had broccoli and beef. >> was it the most beautiful piece of broccoli you've ever seen. >> we toured snap-on factory, which my late father would have been really happy with because he bought their tools. we had sarah huckabee sanders, we did the gaggle there and we must have asked her ten different ways about his tweet. all she would say is his priority was to fight terrorism. she didn't walk up to the threshold and say the state of democracy in turkey is not our concern. but every time we asked her about democracy in turkey and questions about the validity of the election she turned to the issue of terrorism. >> whoa. this is a -- >> i've got a little conniflictf interest. running around -- they have just basically given the opening, the

first exhibit. >> that was a confession. that's going to come back. >> to steve bannon. >> exactly. >> oh, my god. >> if this is not -- you see those old perry mason shows. >> exactly. >> i'm a lawyer. you never have evidence like that. >> exactly. >> you wait your whole career for evidence like that. but you've got him confessing to steve bannon and the audiotape. i've got a conflict of interest. >> go in dubai, big old signs about trump world coming to dubai. obviously the administration has been very close to uae when it comes to things on yemen. you have to say wait a minute, let's separate these. >> the other thing, though, this is a tremendous departure from u.s. policy of the last decades, right? we really don't care about democracy right now, apparently. we don't care about democratic norms or our president doesn't care about democratic norms.

he cares about the effectiveness of the leader and the leader's willingness to cooperate. >> in his defense, we have been somewhat selective on that criteria, all manner of presidents from all parties have looked the other way over time but he's articulating it and supporting these guys in a way -- >> we've always at least given lip service. >> what's surprising, a call, sam stein, to autocratic leader who stole an election in a nato country at a pivotal time in that country's history. >> it's almost like we're the onion and this is not true. >> yes. there have been presidents in the past that have turned a blind eye to human rights abuses in saudi arabia or egypt or other countries across the globe. no one has been quite as brazen as to offer a ccongratulatory c to five or six authoritarian countries offering praise for this guy. >> i think turkey -- it's sad

because turkey in particular is a sad case. not so long ago it was one of the few countries in the muslim world that seemed to be trending towards democratic norms, and now what we see is an tension creeping authoritarianism in the country. >> right. glenn >> gwen is right, selective outrage over democratic countries. usually the president isn't the one making calls, speaking out in favor of democratic norms and warning against these kind of things. trump is hopelessly conflicted and a lot owes to past business ties. not just turkey, you missed the tweet from ivanka where they said explicitly they met with erdogan in 2012 hotel opening. across the world, panama, argentina, asia, it's in the philippines, it's in dubai. there's all these ties that will forever be a cloud over trump

foreign policy. there's only one real way to have gotten rid of it, the pure divestment. he chose not to do it. >> if he released his tax return. is it brazen stupidity or brazen nefariousness. would the tax returns answer -- >> no. the tax returns wouldn't answer much at all. what the tax returns would show is how much or how little he coributed to charities and how little he paid in taxes. he set everybody up with his 2005 tax returns, played the media like a fiddle. the tax returns wouldn't show anything. we've got the evidence here, glenn. we've got the evidence, him admitting, his own words, when he's running for president. i have a conflict of interest with turkey. >> remember, he said he inoculated himself by saying i'm the president of the united states, i can't have any c conflicts of interest, from a legal perspective. >> again, we're talking about, a lot more people are going to be

looking at the clause going forward. >> glenn thrush, thank you. >> which is basically untested. >> glenn, protect your hair from the teeming throngs. >> still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> let me ask, any big takeaway from your trip in wisconsin? how are the supporters? >> speech on teleprompter. >> i thought he was on his game. when he's talking about those issues, particularly to that group of people. >> he's connected. >> this was funny, i was talking to democrats all throughout the day, senate and congress members, these issues h1b resonate with supporters. if he sticks and makes a deal, he could really make some -- >> i saw that. >> do the supporters seem with him as much, strong. >> it's funny. comparing it to trips i made with him as president early on, particularly one to charleston, it was a more muted wait and see crowd.

>> how about hostility toward the press? >> none. none. in fact -- >> interesting. >> as we walked in, a couple of us got shout outs from people in the crowd. >> interesting. >> very interesting. still ahead on "morning joe," dnc chair tom perez joins us with his reaction to last night's special election in georgia. plus health care reform, then taxes in that order. president trump tries to keep his campaign promises but he now risks ending up with nothing. we'll bring in nbc's kristen welker live at the white house and columnist george will. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> what do you do with turkey? is turkey a reliable partner, another nato ally, are they a reliable partner? >> well, i also have -- i have a little conflict of interest because i have a major, major building in istanbul that's a tremendously successful job. it's called trump towers, two towers instead of one. not the usual one, it's two. i've gotten to know turkey

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no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days, that includes on military, on the border, on trade, on regulation, on law enforcement. we love our law enforcement. and on government reform. we're also working with congress on tax reform and simplification, and we're on time if we get that health care approval. so press every one of your congressmen, press everybody because we want to get that approval. it just makes the tax reform easier and makes it better and it's going to make it steeper. it's going to be bigger, and that's what we want to do. we're in very good shape on tax reform. we have the concept of the plan. we're going to be announcing it very soon. but health care, we have to get the health care taken care of.

as soon as health care takes care of, we are going to march very quickly. you're going to watch -- we're going to surprise you. right, steve mnuchin, right? >> joining us on the set in washington columnist from the washington post george will and from the white house nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. kristen, we'll start with you. president trump once again turning his attention to health care yesterday. what are you hearing? >> i was with him in wisconsin when he made those comments, mika. here is what i can tell you based on my conversations with top officials here at the white hou house, there is a real push to revive health care reform. the reasons are political and practical. it would give him more momentum trying to get something big done on tax reform. the practical side of this, we talked about this all week. he needs to repeal and replace obamacare in order to get some of those big tax breaks past as part of a package. they were relying on that math.

without that math, tax reform comes a whole lot more difficult. so what is going on behind the scenes. top adviser steve bannon and the president have been working the phones. one adviser said they hoped to have something done as early as this week. when you ask who they are working with, what's the coalition, they are still trying to work with freedom caucus. if you recall same caucus sank their chances for health care reform first time around and moderate republicans. still not a real effort to reach out to democrats on this. so that's the sense behind the scenes. in terms of whether this is actually going to get done this week, it doesn't look like that's a real possibility. and also it's worth noting that this white house has been getting a lot of criticism, the president getting criticism for changing his tone on campaign promises. yesterday's comments came as part of a broader kind of return to his populist message, talking about creating jobs, repealing and replacing obamacare and

getting something big done on tax reform. but that remains a real question mark and a real roadblock to getting something done. i should say on health care, that remains roadblock getting something done on health care. >> nbc's kristen welker, thank you very much. george will, if you in congress, member of freedom caucus, doing town halls and you get a call from steve bannon potentially about health care, are you lurching to the phone and desperately hoping for steve bannon's attention and saying yes, i'm in. >> steve bannon summoned freedom caucus to the white house campus and told them there was no choice here. they had no choice. grownups don't like to be told that. if i were in congress i would be a member of the freedom caucus. i would say, i'm elected her to exercise my own judgment. these are splittable differences. the freedom caucus helped sink

the ryan bill but hardly did it alone. the decisive blow came from a new jersey political family that's been in politics since continental congress came out against it. he's not chopped liver, he's chairman of the appropriations committee. there was defects from the right and left, for a bill by quinnipiac had 17% of the americans. >>ave you seen someone dominate power in washington so much and be so ineffective at the same time passing any legislation. >> the problem is they started with something, as the president said, who knew health care was so complicated. the answer is anyone who paid any attention to the debates for the last seven or eight years. they would be better off in some ways if you had divided government because then have you to deal with the other side. when you have a narrow majority,

which the republicans in the house really is, you have a faction and caucus knows. >> if you have a factor blocking you. do you think it's possible to carve out democrats for health care reform bill? >> no. by now repealing and replacing obamacare means stand up to repudiate the last administrati administration. it's asked a lot to ask democrats to do this. >> how do you resolve this. you have democrats fight to the end to save obamacare. you've got republicans who really don't have any option. they have been promising their voters for seven years they were going to repeal obamacare. that's why they picked up most of those 62 seats in the house, why they picked up a dozen or so in the senate, a dozen or so governorships, 1,000 state legislative seats. it's hard to walk away from that

promise. >> hard to walk away from that promise. the only way this works out is if mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer work out a deal. i don't see any other way of doing it. it starts over there. some fait accompli presented to the house and the president gets behind it and maybe something happens. i don't think it's probable, maybe they will play it in the house, i don't see it happening. >> a waste. >> sam stein as you brought up earlier, as steve bannon threatened freedom caucus, donald trump threatened democrats saying i going to basically gut this bill without you if you don't support it. >> yeah, it's just sort of bizarre negotiation standpoint. he threatened freedom caucus and then went to work for them. threatened democrats and said maybe i'll craft a health care bill with them, and then threatened them all over again. maybe i'm naive. if you want to work with people, you don't spend your time on

twitter mocking them and calling them stupid. you try to actually pick up the phone, bring them to the white house, sit down, go over common ground, talk about exchanges and ideas. this white house doesn't seem capable of doing that. i'm not sure exactly when they are going to break out this idea they can just mock people and badger them into submission. it doesn't work that way. >> george will, have you seen any evidence this president is learning on the job how to deal with congress? any evidence at all. >> that's the learning curve. flat as nebraska. the problem is that three elements of obamacare turn out to be extremely popular. one, which isn't that important, is keeping your children on your family plan until age 26. the second is the ban on denying insurance to the people with pre-existing conditions. >> right. >> once you commit to that, all kinds of things follow from that. but most important what we really learn in this debate is the expansion of medicaid is the essence of obamacare.

and whether or not people favored it when it happened, by now all kinds of states had what the court calls reliance interest. they built this into their budgets and people have changed their behavior. it's really hard to unwind. >> is it right they have to start with obamacare repeal? they set it and said we'll move on, now go back. why do they have to do health care first? >> they have to do health care first because, a, they said they would. the president said they would repeal it day one and replace it by something fabulous. details to follow. s.e.c., ty have to do it because it is tangled up with tax reform, which the president really cares about and ought to care about more. it's tangled up because some of the taxes, a great many of obamacare, are related to what you can do to be budget neutral in reforming taxes. so you can't move until you move the immovable. >> and george bringing up the point about medicaid.

it is really the intractable issue. not only as far as obamacare goes but politically because the freedom caucus is not going to support an expansion of medicaid. they are not going to support that part of the bill. but in the senate, good luck getting the republican senate to support anything that guts the medicaid portion of this bill. it's just not going to happen. >> george will, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. good to have you back on. coming up -- >> by the way, you went to opening day again for the nationals. >> did you love it? >> life begins on opening day. >> yes, it does. >> is this the year for our nationals? is this the year, george? >> they will get through october and october is a crap shoot. >> okay. >> there you go. >> honest answer. >> we can sleep until october. >> coming up on "morning joe," how do you lose an entire aircraft carrier? the trump administration seems to have misplaced a 100,000 ton ship. >> it happens. >> we'll explain ahead. >> the carl vinson. it's not a quick fix.

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on saturday in pyongyang they had a big military parade to celebrate what would have

been kim jong-un's grandfather's 105th birthday. look at this. it was major show of force. they do not screw around over there. i guess the point of this is to inspire north koreans and scare everyone else. if you change the music they are marching to, it's not scary at all. ♪ ♪ >> speaking of a show of force, trump officials highlight the heavy firepower deployed to the waters off north korea. it turns out, those warships were actually in the indian ocean, 3500 miles away. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪

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why the carrier strike force to the korean peninsula? >> well, it's prudent to do it, isn't it? north korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative

haor. this is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear capable regime. president xi and president trump agreed that is unacceptable. what must happen is denuclearization of korean peninsula. so the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the american people and to our allies and partners in the region. >> you redirected navy ships to go toward korean peninsula. what are we doing right now in terms of north korea? >> you never know, do you? you never know. >> that's all you're going to say. >> i don't want to talk about it. we are sending an armada, very powerful. >> she's on her way up there because that's where we thought it was most prudent to have her at this time. there's not a specific demand signal or specific reason why we're sending her up there.

>> it's just unusual for us to know about a ship movement in advance. that was sort of what got everyone's attention. so why was that? why was it put out in advance? was it to signal to north korea there would be a show of presence there? >> i believe because she originally was headed in one direction for an exercise and we canceled our role in that exercise. that's what became public, had to explain why she wasn't in that exercise. >> top members of the trump administration and the president himself described the deployment of a u.s. warship to the waters off north korea. we know now that wasn't the case at all. they were actually heading in the opposite direction. it turns out the u.s. never canceled its plans for military drills with australia despite what "the new york times" calls a, quote, partially erroneous explanation by the defense secretary. and so for more than a week, headlines portrayed the strike group as ready to face down a potential threat from north korea when it actually was 3500

miles away in the indian ocean. the trump administration blames bad guidance from the pentagon for the mix-up. joining us now vice president for scholars and director of international security studies it at the woodrow wilson international center for scholars. he served on the national security staff as director for nonproliferation in the first clinton administration and is considered one of the leading experts on rogue states. >> so we found out if there are any connections with the carter administration, proliferations is a word you have trouble saying. >> and he knows my dad. and this book on north korea's nuclear breakout or preventing it is available. >> so, doctor, let me ask you, first of all, about whether they really could have -- do you think they really lost a ship, or do you think they were playing a propaganda game with

the north koreans? >> it sounds too clever by half as the british would say. i think it was a bureaucratic afu. nortkoreis on e verge o a nuclear breakout that would be a game changer. and this crisis has been playing out over 13 days as the cuban missile crisis did. north korea could attain a nuclear arsenal of 100 warheads. that's one half the size of great britain's. and it would master long-range missiles that could strike the united states. so within the context of this altered strategic threat environment, the united states should pivot to a strategy of serious diplomacy to cap the program, to freeze it at its current level. >> could china do that with us? could china really make a deal? and, if so, what do we do for china to get that to happen? >> i think the trump administration hit reset and that's the new factor.

china has long been lackadaisical in applying sanctions, applying a blind eye to conduct. the new situation changes this chinese strategic calculus. they can no longer enable cost free because a north korean nuclear breakout would have adverse strategic consequences for china. japan and south korea, for example, might re-assess their nonnuclear status. >> we've been trying to do that since 1994. it's ended badly every time. they've lied to us every time, and we're at a point now where, as you said, it's likely they can strike seattle in three years, so what do we do? >> well, it's a fair question. why would diplomacy succeed now when it's failed in the past? we have three options of dealing with north korea. we can bomb, negotiate or ak we ses. the military options on the table but it's really off the table because of the catastrophic risk of escalation. and when you can't bomb and you

won't negotiate, you acquiesce to a buildup. >> couldn't there be a regime change with china's help? >> perhaps. >> maybe. >> the nuclear issue, as with all these hard issues, embedded in the broader context of these country's societal evolutions but the time lines are not in sync. it is your jept and immediate but the regime change time line is indeterminant. >> so what does a negotiation look like? how does it even start? does china have to facilitate this? how does it happen? >> what does it look like? >> i think the process can be worked out. the outcome, though, is one -- i mean, i see a diplomatic option that analytically holds up, namely that a freeze agreement would meet all of the -- would optimize the interest of the parties. for north korea they could for

the time being retain a minimum deterrent. for china they'd maintain their buffer, but they would not have the adverse strategic consequences of a breakout. the interim agreement would be what we would characterize as a down payment long term. >> how do we -- and, again, i'm certainly not advocating a military strike. it's not possible with north korea in china's orbit the way it is. that said, an agreement, how can we trust that they won't break yet another agreement when people in seattle are three years away from this mad man being able to annihilate their city with a nuclear weapon? >> look, it's making the best -- the diplomatic option making the best of a bad situation and it should be put to the test. you raise a valid concern. the north koreans have cheated in the past. look at the verification regime we have in place to implement the iran nuclear deal this would have to be intrusive inspections

of a kind that north korea has resisted. but i think the point is that china -- there's a new strategic calculus in play. we should put it to the test. north korea -- there's an old north korea who said north korea does not respond to frepressuret without pressure north korea will not respond. i think china is now positioned -- we'll see it in its strategic interest to place meaningful not to roll back the program, not to change the regime, but to freeze the program which would prevent this breakout possibility. >> robert litwak, thank you for being on the show. still ahead the chairman of the dnc joins us to react to last night's special election in georgia. is his candidate ready for the run-off against a republican in the heavily conservative district? plus, the conflict of interest that president trump admits to having. does that explain his kind words for turkey's autocratic leader?

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tomorrow we start the campaign anew, and it is imperative that all of us as republicans come together in unity. >> the two candidates heading to the run-off in georgia. the democrat the jon ossoff didn't win outright and he may not win in june, but democrats in georgia think they just made a big statement against president trump. their party's candidate for an open congressional seat in a deep red district came up just shy of the 50% threshold needed to capture victory. in a moment we'll talk to dnc chair tom perez for his first interview following last night's election. welcome back to "morning joe." we have in washington pulitzer prize winning come up columnist and editor for "the washington post" and senior politics reporter at "usa today," hieidi.

>> chris matthews -- >> heidi prizba, go! >> he's still doing it. >> go! >> i like it. i like it. you're fabulous. there will be -- we love chris -- a run-off in georgia after a democrat came up just short of winning in a conservative district for the open seat in congress finishing with 48.1%. democrat jon ossoff fell about 4,300 votes shy. voter turnout was high for a special election, more than 1 193,000 people casting ballots for a mid-term election. the race was widely seen as a referendum on president trump who tweeted about the election six times from sunday through tuesday mostly attacking the democrat the. his latest came just after midnight today. quote, despite major outside money, fake media support, and

11 republican candidates, big "r" win with run-off in georgia. glad to be of help. ossoff raised $8.3 million, four times the next closest candidate as the race took on national attention. he now faces republican karen handel in the run-off on june 20th. >> the chairman of the dnc, tom perez, thank you for being with us. some grumbling coming out of georgia according to casey hunt saying democrats are wondering why he didn't put this away, why he spent so much money, so much of that $8 million on tv ads. what do you say to those critics within your own party? >> i would rather be jon ossoff right now than karen handel. you look at this district, tom price won by 23 points five months ago, and here you have, as you know, joe, just a few weeks ago they were saying

democrat can't get over 42%, 43% of the vote. he got 48%. the other three democrats got roughly a point. he's already at 49% of the vote. and there's a heck of a lot of energy out there and karen handel, you have a person who really put the susan b. komen, when she wouldn't fund screenings. she was called a career politician. always spend iing money, losing elections. there's a lot of energy out here right now and that's how we went from tom price winning by 23% to jon ossoff on the verge of victory. >> all right. so let's talk, though, about what our candidate and our party can do, though, between now and june 20th. where can they improve? a lot of media buys for ads seems like he should have done better and it seems like there's some improvement that can be made in terms of the ground game between now and june 20th. what are those improvements that

need to be made? >> we had a darned good ground game and opportunities to do even more. so i'm very excite d about wher things are here. the millennial engagement in the presidential on behalf of democrats. when the pundits kept say iing you're never going to get to 43% and now you're first and goal at the 8 yard line we have to punch it in and we're going to punch it in by organizing, organizing, organizing. >> you know what we're talk iin about. we have a party that needs work, that needs to get back engaged with the american people in a way where they connect with those who feel left out. what does this candidate and this party need to do between now and june 20th to bring it over the top? >> organize. and that's exactly what we're doing. we're going to be out on the street. there's still opportunity out there. there's still voters who didn't vote before that are eligible to vote now.

we've identified them, and we will be out there knocking on their doors and they'll see your vote can make the difference because we're already at 49% when you look at both john ossoff and the three democrats who got roughly 1% of the vote between them and so i'm actually very optimistic. you see this energy everywhere across america. i've been traveling across the kcountry this week and the enery is palpable. we're going to translate that energy into more votes. >> gene robinson is here. he has a pulitzer prize. he's going to ask you a question right now. >> tom, it's gene robinson. so what are you doing? what is the party doing on the grassroots level around the country? the democrats have lost t two-thirds of state lemmings lay tours, two-thirds of governorships. the future stars of the party have to come from the grassroots. what are you doing at the grassroots? >> organizing, organizing,

organizing. we have to get back to basics. we need a 50 state plus the territories. the mission is not simply to elect the president of the you states but to elect people from the school board to the senate. one of the best ways is to build strong parties and to have an organizinging presence 12 months a year. joe knows very well down in florida after 2012 they built an organizing presence on the republ republican side. 12 months a year, four years straight they found about 130,000 republican voters who are off the political grid and that made the difference in 2016. that's exactly what we're doing as democrats, getting out there, getting back to basics, talking to voters, registering voters, working with candidates, with partners who are recruiting female candidates at a remarkable clip, helping them to train candidates. that's what we have to do. the basics of party building, the basics of organizing. when you get back to basics you do well.

when you leave with your values i think we do well, too. >> i want to see how that changes over time. heidi? >> this is a moral victory like in kansas. moral victories are important but look iing at the map where you actually win between now and the midterms that will give us an indication that this is actually going somewhere, that this is translating into electoral victories? i'm looking at montana and then south carolina. those don't look much better. this seems to have been your best shot of actually winning. >> well, we have a run-off on june the 20th and our candidate has roughly 48% to 49% of the vote going into the run-off and we have still votes out there that are moderates because they're going to see this, karen handel is far to the right. she is someone who said i don't support the affordable care act. when that vote to repeal the affordable care act comes up, she's on the side of the tea party. 17% of the american public

supports the repeal of the affordable care act. she has some explaining to do on that. she has some explaining to do to women about why she wouldn't fund breast cancer screenings at planned parenthood. she has explaining to do on why she was going after the voting rights of minorities. when i was at the justice department we were involved with the state of georgia when she was secretary of state. she's way off the mainstream and i'm confident that the answer to your question, heidi, is june 20th of this year. >> all right. dnc chair tom perez. >> thank you for being on the show. >> have a good day. at 9:00 a.m. jon offoff will be here on msnbc, by the way. >> you heard what the dnc chair said. what's your take? >> i mean, there's two ways to look at this. symbolic victories aren't that great. >> it does not matter.

>> you need actual votes in the congress to get stuff done. but on the other hand, i mean, and maybe this is spin on democrats filtering through but it does seem like if you're l k looking at the broader trend here a 24-point swing in kansas, a swing now in georgia, and one last thing -- >> trump won the district by one point. >> that's the presidential level. he spent a ton of money. it is a whole district for them. if that's the type of resources republicans will have to spend to hold these districts, you know, you will see them bleed a lot here. and i don't know -- i honestly don't know if i'm waking up as a republican feeling great about this. >> so i'm a republican and, heidi, i'm feeling like the party held serve. we've got a president who has been a train wreck over the past 100 days. he admitted yesterday that he

had conflicts with turkey. he's questioned the legitimacy of the american federal judiciary system. >> the conflicts he admits to. >> and yet in a district that trump only won by one point, the democrats with over $8 million couldn't put this over the top. if i've running the rnc, i'm good this morning. >> one of the big surprises from last night was the democrats had assumed we'd get a big turnout that benefits us. but what they found out is this is still fundamentally a conservative district and the big turnout helped the republicans. it depends on what happens between now and the midterms and trump's popularity rating because it is at the same time rubbing off. it's rugging off, his unpopularity.

>> let's not get ahead of ourselves. >> gene, you go first. >> i think we need to watch the story. i totally see what you're saying. everybody was like it's going to be the democrats. he didn't win. >> as we said before we don't know how this turns out. i'm glad we have a fight through the 20th. we have two months to fight. at the same time you've got two parties. you have the donald trump republican party and you have the karen handel republican party. people walk around wearing coats like this. the country club republicans. >> exactly. >> you need a little bow tie. the schisms and splits and divisions in the republican party are huge.

we sort of overvalued ossoff's possibility of taking it all in the first round. we may be under valuing the democrats' chances in the run-off. >> there's a bit of a test there, right? >> just to say it's all over and done with. the guy who got 49%. >> this is a district republicans have held for four decades. tom price won by 24 points f. they're spending $5 million -- newt's district. >> there you go. >> spending $5 million to defend it you have to extrapolate what that means for all these districts. >> that's a good question for perez, how does this translate on to the map for next year because they need 24 seats. in 23 districts hillary clinton

won the district. i don't think you can overinterpret this. i think there's a real chance they are going to be competitive. >> here is the bottom line. not to sound like my high school football coach, it's all about blocking and tackling. >> just win, baby. >> it's all about getting them out. when you have a special election like this, it's id-ing your voters, knocking on their doors, getting them on facebook, on text messages, doing everything barack obama did in 2008, and whatever party does that better will win in june. >> and it's not all about tv ads. >> and don't waste your money on tv ads. don't waste $8 million next time running 30-second ads. this is not 1999. "seinfeld" is not on the air. >> i loved that show. >> it is on the air in reruns. >> we have been following developments in turkey. president trump's call to that country's president to

congratulate him on his recent referendum victory. >> i don't understand why he would do that. >> why would he do that? >> international monitors say that vote was plagued by undemocratic behavior and irregularities highlighted by the state department. and that's raising questions about the white house's congratulatory stance to turkey's iron-fisted ruler. some are pointing to this 2012 tweet by trump, quote, just left istanbul, turkey, yesterday where trump towers was just opened. magnificent. at the same time ivanka trump was tweeting, thank you, prime minister erdogan, for joining us to celebrate. audio re-emerged from december 2015 of president trump speaking with steve bannon on brightbart news daily. >> it's just too much. >> it's like a perry mason episode. evidence never lines up like that. why do they make it so unrealistic. he would never admit he has a

conflict of interest with an autocrat to steve bannon. >> here's trump talking to bannon. >> i'm sure the audio is murky. i'm sure we can't even recognize -- >> about how he would address an issue like isis. >> let's see if it's really him. >> what do you do with turkey? i know they're a native ally. are they a reliable partner? >> i have a little conflict of interest because i have a major build iing in istanbul and it's tremendously successful job. it's called trump towers, two towers instead of one. not the usual one, it's two. i've gotten to know turkey and they're amazing people. they have a strong leader. >> they have a strong leader. >> in istanbul. >> my children now -- >> guys, really. >> china. >> your number one, his little hill piece about turkey and defending erdogn.

there was a call to take trump 's name off the tower. you can see -- >> he was a foreign agent for turkey. >> that's right. but you start to draw the lines. and every time something like this happens, you go back to that little conflict of interest. >> what was the michael flynn, getting paid by turkey during the election is this. >> and he placed, i guess it was an op-ed in "the hill" newspaper defending the turkish government. >> he never fully disclosed. >> it was exactly right after the election. and it helped trump. >> a foreign agent retroactively. >> so you don't need to say this because trump himself said he has a conflict of interest. >> he does. >> it's not just turkey, as i was discussing. he's had prior business dealings with public officials in other kcountries throughout the globe. the argentinian president, for instance, who is coming to the white house next week, has a long-standing business relationship with the trump

family. there's dubai, philippines officials, panamanian officials. there's an ex-panamanian president who is in miami. panama wants him extradited back to panama. trump did business when he was doing the beauty pageant in panama. there are a whole host of conflicts that are unique to donald trump because he's from the private world but also he really hasn't taken concrete steps. >> yesterday, gene, was an example of him going out of his way, doing something that no other president in the united states would ever do, congratulating somebody who stole an election in a nato country. >> absolute ly. that's just stunning to me. i mean, yes, would work with erdogan because they think it's in their interest but to come out and say, great job, great job. >> even called merkel.

>> i'm so glad -- >> he won't shake merkel's hand. >> right, right. and i'm so glad, you know, regarding -- i'm so glad the swamp has been drained. >> it's been drained. >> coming up david ignatius says trump needs a dose of daily virtues. and tomorrow our extended conversation with former obama senior adviser valerie jarrett. it's her first interview since leaving the white house.

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what's this thing? it's compelling. >> manly advice, let's get a must read in here. david ignatius writes in t"the washington post" trump needs a dose of manly virtues. he describes what that means writing, quote, this -- the only modern president who rivaled donald trump in his lack of

preparation for global leadership was harry truman. both men took office with little knowledge of the international problems they were about to face, and with worries at home and abroad that they weren't up to the job. what can today's occupant of the white house learn from truman? the missourian had many qualities now celebrated by historians. let's focus on his personal character. truman exhibited what in those days were called manly virtues, quiet leadership, fidelity to his beliefs, a disdain for public braggadocio. he never blamed others for his mistakes. the public stuck with truman for a simple reason. he had built a reservoir of the trust that is essential for a successful leader. >> i think what he means is humility -- >> honesty. >> honesty and self-confidence. trump, for all of his outward displays of self-confidence, seems like someone who is incredibly insecure in his own

standing, someone who constantly needs public affirmation, who feels like he's constantly being attacked and plays victim even with this georgia stuff to have to go out and public ly take credit for what is arguably a close race suggests someone who is really not confident in his skin. it's funny because we treat him as an iconic business figure who is chief of the boardroom, but he seems insecure to me. >> at 70 years old you don't change your fundamental personality and going after his man liphood is something that will really strike where it hurts and get underneath his skin. how many times does mike pence talk about his broad shoulders? that's his definition of manliness. >> having no points on the board domestically and a lot of failures actually up there which is something that he gets embarrassed about this is a president who has run roughshod with the job and thrown out lies

about people, launched investigations, has everyone running around in circles to feed his undisciplined -- >> one of the virtues of what i think is a virtue of the president is the ability to sort of laugh off criticism or not let it get to you because you're going to be criticized. europe t euro you're the president. it's constant. will he get past the criticisms of daily life? >> no. >> he finds it from females far more offend iing. >> really? >> yes. >> he does. you'll have to ask him that. we don't know. it's very interesting, nicolle wallace would talk about george w. bush after he would make one of these statements that everybody was going to mock. he would come into the room and start laughing about himself. that was bad, huh? and he would repeat what he said. i just killed you all. and he just walked off.

>> trump doesn't laugh. he's not a person who laughs at anything really. >> i think it was the alfalfa dinner or somebody wrote him and was putting together jokes and speeches for the alfalfa -- a great team -- and they were hilarious -- i got a look at them. they were hilarious jokes, and they were presented to trump and he -- silence. i don't get it. and he didn't do the dinner. they scrapped it. >> the idea of self-depp re gri humor -- >> effective and useful. >> he doesn't get. and if donald trump doesn't figure out the personal side of how you win in this town, he's going to have a lot more people doing what jodie ernst did yesterday and what senator langford did in oklahoma yesterday which i think is the big news of yesterday. people talking about the georgia race. >> not so much.

>> other republicans, heidi, will be looking at jodie ernst calmly and collectively. >> that's before the results came in, right? and you look at that district. that's exactly the kind of place where democrats need to make gains in midterms. >> they have to. >> and if the republicans wasn't even stand up for trump or take the bait so easily it's telling you something. >> i want to watch that joanie ernst sound bite again and watch the audience which is fascinating. we'll try to get that together. still ahead our next guest wants to see the president's tax returns, wants to know who is visiting the white house, and he wants congress to reimburse taxpayers for the frequent trips to mar-a-lago. the chances of any of that happening. you do all this research

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i think that we have a president that has a number of flaws. i would say i support more of the policies. i don't support every policy, but there are policies that i support. >> shouldn't he be the first one to bring his company back and manufacture his product here?

>> i do think we need to bring manufacturing back to the united states, and i would love to see that. maybe he puts his money where his mouth is and bring those jobs here. whether it's manufacturing or otherwise it would be nice to see investment in american jobs. with the trips to florida i wish he would spend more time in washington, d.c. that's what we have the white house for. we would love to see more of those state department visits in washington, d.c. i think it's smart that he does business in washington, d.c. >> what do you think, mika? >> i think other members of congress who have been facing these angry town halls and tom cotton, the one we covered this week, great that he got out there and put himself out there, i appreciate that. but he went with the canned l e

line. he's being audited. didn't he say he's being audited, and the audience went crazy booing him. nobody here said anything because everything she said made sense. >> she also said i agree with most of his policies but, again -- >> i'll support the policies. >> pretty incredible, heidi, a number of flaws. he needs to put his money where his mouth is. he needs to spend more time in washington, less in florida. he needs to visit the state department. it's pretty shocking coming from somebody, a senator from the same party. >> particularly some of the senators now. >> right. >> not the house members but some of the senators are start ing to feel a little bit less fear because they're seeing that we're not going to necessarily even get to the point legislation moves to the senate because we're having so many problems internally and in our own party which is manifested -- >> let's bring up senator langford really quickly and show you what he said. >> my point is it's not just the

senator, it's the type of senators. this isn't susan collins out there. this is joni ernst, tea party. deep red oklahoma. another tea party darling, a hawk from arkansas who is saying this health care bill is a monstrosity. >> also russia. tom cotton has not cut the white house an inch of slack. >> i think it's -- this is the story because we're not 100 days in and if your own party's base, elected parties from your base, are not with you, what are you going to get done? >> a member of the house foreign affairs committee, ted deutsch of florida. no relationship to donny deutsch. >> no relation. >> i was just making sure. poor donny. >> make sure that's out of there. >> a lot of kids on the street, when is donny coming back? >> he got into a big fight. >> a huge fight. >> he won, too.

>> manly virtues. >> we are looking at a lot of different fault lines in this presidency including the comments he made about turkey's president and issues of conflicts of interest repeatedly coming up. do you think they'll amount to something or is it just continued chaos that will never get anywhere? >> i think they already have amounted to go something. >> what do you mean? >> that's what the clips so when you see senators talking about the issues in town hall meetings saying the same sorts of things i've been saying in my town hall meetings in florida which go over really well because people are so frustrated with the white house that they see being super secretive, they won't release the white house logs, they see a president who won't releases his taxes after he promised they would, and they see the president traveling to mar-a-lago on a regular basis and treating it as some sort of country club situation room. that's a problem. >> they want to save money by not doing visitor logs anymore. isn't that good? >> that's obviously --

>> heidi? >> how much of this is also the shine coming off of the obamacare replacement? and i don't mean that you couldn't get it done, but that the american voters are able to see what the replacement would be and the reason they didn't like obamacare is because it wasn't generous enough, because it didn't bring down prices enough. they don't want to see 2 million people kicked off their health care plans. >> the fact the president is talking about coming back with another health care bill with freedom caucus support when the last one died because it would have kicked 24 million people off, it would have driven up costs on everyone, that's an enormous problem. why does the president -- we know the answer -- the president wants to bring it back because it cuts close to $900 billion that he can then use to give tax breaks to the wealthiest.

the bloom has come off because people see president trump is very different than the guy who campaigned saying that he was going to drain the swamp. it looks a lot like the worst that people think of washington, which is special interests driving an agenda at the expense of the american people. >> sam? >> you mentioned his visits to mar-a-lago, and they are coming fairly regularly, but you -- >> a quarter of his time in office. >> to play devil's advocate, democrats didn't really care, make much after fuss when obama was traveling to hawaii or martha's vineyard. shouldn't the president be able to do things that gives him a sem bhablance of humanity? if trump is more aggressive, where is the line. >> i appreciate you playing devil's advocate but he's going to mar-a-lago every weekend costing a ton of money. i'm the guy that said if the president feels better, works

better, going out golfing once a week, i don't get it but if that helps the president, that's fine. he can do it at army/navy. he can save taxpayers money, right? >> here is why he's not. the reason he likes to go to mar-a-lago is tied back into the other issue of conflicts. every time he goes to mar-a-lago and sits in the dining room surrounded -- you have the president of the united states sitting in the dining room surrounded in some cases by world leaders. in the case of the dinner with president xi with his daughter sitting next to him the same day she got these trademarks approved, these deals approved in china, it drives up interest in mar-a-lago. that's why it costs twice as much to belong there. >> all these clubs. what's the one in washington? >> national. >> his golf club here every weekend. >> she applied for those long before. is that a coincidence? >> i don't know if it's a coincidence. >> could it possibly be a c coincidence? we don't need to lurch -- >> that they were approved the

same day she sat with president xi at dinner. the problem is why is it that this far into the administration they still haven't taken the steps they promised they were going to take to divest their interests and put america's interests first and stop thinking about their own personal issues. >> where do you represent? >> ft. lauderdale up to boca raton. there are a lot of republicans in my district. >> are there? >> look, the issues i'm talking about -- >> i'm just curious. they love "morning joe" in broward county. >> we're big in boca. >> since you visited. >> we went there and it was a mad house. >> there are some places we go and they're crickets. who are you again? we went to boca, man, it was crazy. >> those are my constituents and, you know what, my constituents, the democrats and

republicans, look at what's going on in this white house and they just don't understand it's not a party issue, they don't understand the secrecy, the failure to take action to prevent conflicts. >> congressman ted deutsch, thank you for being on the show. coming up the treasury secretary does damage control after remarks from the president sent the dollar tumbling. >> i hate it when that happens. >> plus, it's not the just fake news that facebook is dealing with. a problem with real news, too. in this case people uploading their crimes for the world to see. is the social media giant doing enough to stop it? you're watching "morning joe."

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the man hunt is over for the so-called facebook life. police say he took his own life as they were closing in on him. now facebook is accused of giving a platform to so-called performance crime. nbc's miguel almaguer reports. she's the reason why.

>> reporter: the killing in cleveland is just the latest horrific crime performed for an audience on social media. among the many crimes the torture of a mentally challenged teen and a shoot-out with police. the world's largest social media platform accused of failing to take action on graphic content. the cleveland murder suspect's video was up for more than two hours before facebook shut it down. mark zuckerberg admitted there's a problem. >> we have a lot of work and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening. >> reporter: the company adding in a statement this is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on facebook. facebook is the largest but not the only social media provider encouraging users to stream live. the newest way to build an audience and boost revenue. they now use algorithms, editors and users to help flag objectionable content.

>> when facebook launched facebook live mark zuckerberg gave an interview he wanted to reflect humanity at most visceral and raw. be careful what you ask for. >> reporter: facebook can be exploited, citizens have also used it as a tool to seek justice. >> please don't it tell me my boyfriend went like that. >> reporter: diamond reynolds showed when her boyfriend was gunned down by police. >> i wanted the people to determine who was right and wrong. >> reporter: violence carried out for a crowd going viral prompting outrage and questions over how to stop it. >> and that was miguel almaguer reporting. >> i have not always been a fan of facebook. i'm not a huge facebook fan, but you do take the terrible -- which we saw there -- with the good where we have seen several times where police brutality or where other things were exposed

and you shine a light on something immediately, and it is -- i guess the key is trying to figure out how to get objectionable content down as quickly as possible. >> and we'll never -- they'll never reach an optimal balance. there will always be people who feel like too much leeway is given to the poster or too much editorial control is given to facebook. it comes down to how fast can their algorithms work but human intervention. if a facebook official is notified that there's a video of a killing on their site it shouldn't take two hours. >> and this is why we're in a dangerous place right now. >> very. >> when i watch that i think back to the start of the school shootings, frips, with columbine. once you got the promotional value out of it, the attention seeking sociopaths are the ones who do the copy-on stuff. here we are with two major facebook live really horrifying

events, point taken we're at the dawn of this, facebook is scrambling to figure out how to address this but there better be a major infusion and figuring out how to track these. >> who has the power to say this should not be seen by the public? this is beyond what the public -- >> google is facing similar issues with reputational information about people that is untrue, that stays at the top of their algorithm. they claim they can't do anything about it. >> it's a tough question. >> they have done things about it at times when they choose to and it's a slippery slope. >> it is very tough and google just a few weeks back had the problem where if you searched white helmets then the top news story that would come up, the top news story, their algorithm pushed to the top was that they were the ones who were responsible for the gassing of the citizens. it's a real challenge. i think algorithms work with words, it's much harder with

video. and this is where facebook is going in the future, where most social content is going in the future is video. they're just, again, going to have to figure out a way to cut two hours down to 15 minutes, it's going to be a real challenge. >> extremely complicated. >> i have to say i think we're all safer as a country, as a community being able to hold up our phones knowing that even if somebody grabs the phone the image you're projecting is going worldwide at that moment. that is a power that citizens, i think, should feel comfortable having. >> let's turn to cnbc's dominic chu with business before the bell. >> reporter: steve steven mnuchin saying the president was not trying to imply strength of the u.s. dollar has gone too far with regard to the remarks trump made last week about our

currency. it's a hot topic as trump moves forward with his agenda on trade and job creation. many argue that a strong dollar hurts u.s. manufacturers that sell goods abroad and leads to jobs going jobs going overseas. stocks also poised to at least open slightly higher but shares of ibm not going to help matters much. the tech giant reported earnings that eat analysts' estimates but overall sales fell for the 20th straight quarter. ibm has been trying to shift towards cloud computing, artificial intelligence and cyber security and away from corporate computing and hardware services. just one other story sticking with tech. a chinese tech company is trying to make its mark in driverless cars. they are going to sell some of its services to application developers for autonomous vehicles. basically what they're trying to do, guys, is turn baidu into the android for driverless cars and allow all designers to use that information. >> sam, are you in a driverless

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congressional race in georgia. quote, dems failed in kansas and are now failing in georgia. great job karen handel. it's now hollywood versus georgia on june 20th. >> the democrat got 48% of the vote. a little early to call it failing. who do we have with us now? >> david leinhart. >> all right. so you've been looking at these races. tell me, are you seeing any discernible trends? >> yeah. dave wasserman who covers these for cook political reports, one of the best out there, he had a tweet last night. he said two things could be simultaneously true. the dems could lose all three of these races and it could be bad for the republicans. so the dems have lost kansas. >> by the way, for people who don't know his work, he is about as nonpartisan as you will ever get. he cares about the numbers, that's it. >> that's right. all he cares about are the

numbers. so look, last night was a disappointment for the democrats because they really did have a chance to win this race and they didn't do it. it's still the case that their better shot at winning this race is going to be in the runoff. >> why is that? >> the drama surrounding it, the attention it will get, right? >> the reason is getting over 50% in an open field for one candidate is extremely difficult. >> right. >> if you look at the history of these special elections, the fact that he got so close to 50%, even though the district leans republican, gives him a shot to get over it now. >> yeah. >> so the larger picture here is the democrats would really like to have one of these three special elections, it would increase their chances. the fact they're doing so well in republican country shows that donald trump is unpopular, which we know. >> and what's the third race? >> montana. >> tell us about montana. >> what's going on there? >> montana is a tough race for the democrats. donald trump won montana by 20 points. montana is a small enough state that the house district is the

entire state. so the democrats would have to win a house seat in a place where the republican nominee won the state by 20. >> it has a democratic governor, one democratic senator. it is a quirky state, they're not averse to liking democrats although on the congressional level it tends to be a republican-held seat. in this case they have a bernie sanders-backing guitar playing -- >> by the way, sam is from montana. >> he knows stuff. >> and that's why he knows about montana. >> clearly. >> he's another connecticut guy. >> it's not out of the question -- >> but he is right. montana is not idaho. >> it's not idaho. >> there are some democrats that have won. >> the way i would think about it is if the democrats want to take back the house, which obviously they do, they would really help their odds by winning either georgia or montana. but they don't need either. >> right. >> they throw down in montana, then we in the media, and it doesn't work, and odds there are less good than they were in

georgia and they lose again, that in itself becomes a narrative as well. >> it does. >> so what calculation do you think -- >> it does become a narrative as well, but let's remember there's going to be a lot of time in between all of these special elections and next year. and so what they really are is a sign at this point of trump's unpopularity. >> right. and not our strength. >> the disappointment of the democrats losing all three will fade by the time the 2018 midterms come along. >> let's look at these numbers while you're talking, david. in both kansas 4 and georgia 6, the democrats had a 24-point swing from 2016. i'm not really good in math, but that's fairly -- a fairly positive swing. >> it is a fairly positive swing. if you're a republican you'd point at those numbers and say trump won georgia 6 by only a couple points, so part of the reason the house margin is so big is boss tom price was popular in his district. so this is a little bit of a

disappointment for the democrats but still it's basically a positive sign. >> i just hate the oversell. oh, we did so well. no, it's not. actually we have a long way to go. we're ahead of our skis again and that's what caught us into trouble in the first place. >> that's right. >> i really hope we take a deep look in and say we have a long way to go. >> when mika says "we" she's speaking of herself and her democratic party. >> i'm speaking for democrats. leading democrats, some who appeared on the show this morning. >> when you look at that 24-point swing, how do you project that onto the map? >> a 24-point swing gives the democrats the house. >> like 100 seats. >> if you look from the presidential election to the special election, it's much less so that's why we just don't know. >> all right, thank you. >> but we've got to say this georgia district is the type of district that democrats really need to win.

>> that's right. >> it's a more highly educated district, the demographics are changing there. this district should be breaking democrats -- >> if they don't win this district, they need most districts that are like it elsewhere. >> okay, thank you very much. and that does it for us this morning. >> what a show, what a show. >> what a show it was. >> if sam says it was a good show, it must have been really good. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. good morning to you. we got breaking news overnight. a near miss. the democrats almost snatch a republican house seat. now it heads for a runoff. does the democratic surge signal a shift? >> there is no doubt that this is already a victory for the ages. >> the candidate joins us live. strong words, the vice president rallying sailors stationed near north korea. >> under president trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stan