special interests dominate the debates in washington in ways that don't match up with what the broad majority of americans feel. because of changes in the media, we now have a situation in which everybody is listening to people who already agree with them and are further and further reenforcing their own realities to the neglect of a common reality. >> three months after jet skiing into the sunset, president obama was back in chicago previewing the very public path he plans to take over the coming months and years. but for now at least, he's steering clear of specific issues, leaving it up to the current leaders in washington to deal with a looming government shutdown. north korea nuclear crisis and syria's civil war. we've got a huge line up to talk about this.

governor john kasich joining us, former mayor of new york city michael bloomberg, city's current mayor bill deblasio, also a joint interview with two senate key voices on foreign relations, committee chairman bob corker and democratic member chris coons join the conversation. good morning, it's tuesday, april 25th. >> we have with us -- fortunately president obama's spokesperson. we're going to ask you some questions, mr. ernest, mr. ernest, josh, josh. >> it was good to see him back. tan, rested, not wearing a tie. i think, mika, i think he actually kite surfed into the sunset. >> he didn't jet ski. somewhere in like poll nearby yeah. >> a lot of democrats looking at the situation saying we need this guy. we know he doesn't want to talk

about trump. that's sweet, but we need to rebuild a party. we've got to win. we've got to take control of the house. we've got to take control of the state legislatures, and there's not a leader of the democratic party right now and people are desperate for him to step up and be that leader. will he? >> he won't. >> how do you like that? >> you get answers. here is why. if democrats are hoping for success in 2018 and 2020, the leader of our party can't be a former president of the united states. the leader of the party shouldn't be a former anything. we need to have leaders both in washington, d.c. and around the country ready to give voice -- >> he knows to win elections unlike most democrats these days, will he at least lend his hand there and get involved with an organization that will teach democrats. for instance, after the election i thought what he said in iowa was brilliant. steve, i know you probably were thinking the same thing as me. yeah, you go to counties where you're going to lose by 50

points, but then you only lose by 20 points. that's what barack obama understood that too many democrats these days, oh, wait, that's red state america. i'm not going there. barack obama fought for every vote. >> the situation you're pointing out, unique to modern history for the democratic party. we haven't had many democratic presidents, carter, clinton and obama. carter left office. no democrat wanted to be seen with jimmy carter. when bill clinton left office in 2000, the clinton name continued seamlessly because hillary clinton was in the u.s. senate. >> except for the fact that al gore didn't want to be seen with him. >> right. and everybody said al gore should have been when he came up short in the electoral college. now you have the situation where you have a democratic president very well liked by his party base. you have a vacuum out there. who is the leader of the democratic party right now?

i can't remember them being in this situation, where you have a popular democratic president leave and then a vacuum. >> you look at the poll numbers. americans really -- everything is still up for grabs, whether you're talking about health care, tax reform, whatever you're talking about. poor paul ryan -- i'm dead serious -- the numbers on paul ryan down to 20%, 21%, which just shows what a thankless job that job is as speaker of the house. they're somehow, even with the republicans in power, there's a big void and americans want it filled. >> it doesn't seem like the democrats are even to begin rebuilding in terms of oh they seem to be floundering a little bit. here are the new numbers overnight from nbc news and "wall street journal," president trump might have more work to do to persuade americans on his agenda. confidence is slipping in the president and republicans' ability to improve health care. half americans have little to no confidence in their plan,

speaking 16 points from february while those who have a great deal of confidence is down to just 8%. asked if congress should continue efforts to repeal and replace obamacare, 40% say keep going, 37% say do not continue. on the subject of immigration, 6 in 10 say it helps more than it hurts in the united states, a nine-point swing in favor of immigration since september. free trade from foreign countries remains popular, 57% to 37%. >> free trade popular, immigration popular. we could go down the list here, but the republican party is swimming upstream on every one of these issues. on free trade, that's a -- six in ten support free trade, six in ten support immigration. they don't have a majority of people saying go after replace and repeal. plurality within the margin of error at 40%.

>> according to "wall street journal," the abc/nbc poll, trump hasn't lost ground with his base. he's in the same place. >> at 40% which will be great if he runs for re-election in the republican primary. how do you get the senate to pass anything if you're a 40% president. >> you can't, and you have a health care bill at 17% approval rating. never going to pass something like that through the house. congress isn't going to pass something that only has 17% support. this bill makes some changes, but there's been no conversation with the country, no vision laid out. if you have a president with low approval ratings, i don't know how you move things. >> steve, he's sort of narr narrowcasting his message. we'll say he's doing a cable -- not even basic cable. he's specializing on a small slice of the public.

he's not going to ever have a big enough audience at 40% -- we'll speak in terms he likes to speak in. he'll never have a big enough audience at 40% to pass anything major through the united states senate. >> he is trying to -- whether intentionally or not, he's trying to play american politics and presidential politician by totally different rules than we've seen before. he's trying to establish that maybe the rules we thought existed about the political durability of somebody playing this game, maybe different rules than we thought existed. back in the campaign hnumbers were record low, they don't like him, don't trust him. we said nobody can have those numbers and get elected president. by the thinnest of margins he gets elected president. he skips trying to reach out and do the honeymoon, has no legislative accomplishments to speak of, because of the prospects of major legislative progress in the next few months aren't that good.

is donald trump playing a different game where he stirs up all this noise in the media, in culture, in the political system and the noise itself generates a backlash, support among his base. can he, even if he doesn't have huge legislative accomplishments to speak of, can he hold on to that base that narrowly elected him and get -- >> let's look at the positive and negative ratings. president trump 39%, 50 negative. republican party 31 positive, 47 negative. paul ryan 22 positive, 40 negative. >> all right. the white house appears to be backing down from demands that the president's proposed border wall be funded immediately. a senior white house official tells nbc news that president trump is open to accepting funding for the project later this fall. the initial $1.4 billion price tag had become a sticking point

in avoiding a government shutdown which could happen still on saturday, the president's 100th day in office. >> how confident are you that there will not be a shutdown? can you guarantee there won't be a government shutdown. >> i can't guarantee. we feel confident the government won't shut down. number two, i think the president has been clear in the past about the fact -- this is not a few thing. he talked about this, that in order to get the ball rolling on border security and the wall, he was going to have to use the current appropriations process but would make sure that promise would be kept as far as the payment of it. >> the four-corner negotiations have been going very well, until a monkey wrench was thrown into them. if the administration insists on poison pill riders or extraneous funding requests, then our talks could get sidetracked,

particularly if the administration demands funding for a border wall. >> josh, it's interesting, the latest is the president has backed off the border funding and has even talked about other alternatives that are making some hardliners on immigration reform angry, talking about drones, blimps. >> no wall. >> sounds like he's climbed down from his big wall. what has always been true about these kinds of budget negotiations, even when president obama was in office, when republicans had the majority in congress, they always required democratic votes. the fact of the matter is there are not going to be a bunch of bills to pass with democratic votes as long as funding for the wall was included in it. they were in a catch 22. the one thing i have to give him credit for, i'm glad he climbed down from the proposal on tuesday morning as opposed to waiting until friday to do it. this is the best way to avoid a

government shutdown which would be embarrassing if you're in control of the house, senate and white house and on your 100th day in power, the government shuts down? not going to inspire a lot of confidence. >> you're going to need republicans, but also some democrats. yesterday chuck shuker was here saying he's actually begun speaking, started talking to president trump. we'll see if that's what happens the next 100 days. >> when you're at 100 days and at 69% which is where barack obama was, 73% where ronald reagan was, you'll ask for all kinds of things. he's blinked on the wall. >> and i think, again, when you looked at even republicans don't seem to support the wall, especially border state republicans. you read the texas survey yesterday where 62% of people in

the state of texas oppose the wall, then maybe adding surveillance, what they're talking about doing here, adding surveillance instead of just building a physical structure might be preferable because we are in the 21st century. that's what lindsey graham said yesterday. >> lindsey was flat-out honest about it. >> there's been a lot of talk about this hundred day thing. the truth is he is never going to be in a position in which he has more political capital than he has right now. in this first 100 days, that's what's significant about the first 100 days. it gives a sense of what has the president done with more political capital than he'll ever have. it's not clear president trump was judicious in using that political capital. i have bad news for them. it's going to get harder from here, not easier.

>> foreign policy, south korea military tells nbc news that north korea held a massive live fire military exercise overnight. the drill took place at an eastern coastal town meant to mark the 85th anniversary of the founding of nrkorth korea's military. during a meeting at the white house, president trump urged members of the united nations security council to adopt new sanctions. >> the status of south korea is not acceptable. the council must be prepared to impose stronger sanctions on north korean nuclear and ball ligs tick missile programs. this is a real threat to the world, whether we want to talk about it or not. north korea is a big world problem. it's a problem we have to finally solve. people have put blindfoldtion on for decades and now it's time to solve the problem. >> amid the rising tensions, the trump administration says it will host a rare briefing at the

white house tomorrow for all 100 members of the senate. meanwhile, china's president is urging president trump to take a restrained approach to dealing with north korea and avoid any back and forth with the regime's unpredictable leader. president xi and trz spoke yesterday by phone, their third conversation in recent weeks. joining us, gordon chang, author of the book's "the coming collapse of china" and "nuclear showdown, north korea takes on the world." thanks for being with us this morning. >> gordon, much to be concerned about. but one thing we can take a little solace in is the fact that the presidents of our country and china seem to be communicating a great deal and it seems again, china applying pressure and telling both sides, just stay calm. >> that is a good thing. if there's a solution, it is going to run through beijing. china has done a number of

things which have undercut the idea of there putting pressure on north korea. on february 18th they announced the ban on purchase of coal for the rest of the year. in february, march and april, north korea ships unloading coal in chinese ports. i think president trump needs to continue to work with xi jinping putting more pressure on china. the one thing that's a real concern is there are reports that china is moving mechanized units to the north korean border. they're not used to defend the chinese border but to go into north korea. there's a real sense that the north korea regime right now is unstable. that could change every calculus. >> you hear the chinese leader telling president trump to be careful of too much back and forth. what is he getting at there and is he concerned about the two interacting too much? >> i think what the chinese are worried about is internal

stability in north korea. we've seen evidence of gas prices shooting up 80% over the last week. that's an indication that the economy is not as good as it appears. so you've got all these things, you put them together, it indicates that the regime is in a state of flux which means kim jong-un could do something to surprise us because the risk is pretty low. that is of course going to change everything if the united states and china have to think about an imploding north korea rather than a strong one. >> steve? >> gordon, you mentioned the north korean regime is unstable and the family running the country for so long and it's so mysterious. do you have any evidence if the regime would fall what could happen next? >> that's definitely a situation where things will get worse. the chinese will drive south. the south koreans are not going to want beijing to control the northern half of the korean peninsula. we could see south korea and the

u.s. move north. everyone wants to secure loose nuclear weapons. i think the chinese also want to take pyongyang because they want the archives. they do not want the world to know about their complicity with the north korean regime and their support of the ballistic missile program there. there's a lot of conflicting skberest. over the course of the last five or so years, china has not been willing to talk to the u.s. about what happens when north korea falls apart. this is a big unknown. there haven't been these conversations we need in beijing to make sure the situation can be manninged. >> gordon chang, thank you very much. president trump has a new plan for fixing the tax code. it's one you might have heard about first yesterday if you were watching perhaps this show. also ahead, governor john kasich stops by the set, former mayor of new york city michael bloomberg is at the table and current mayor bill deblasio will be here as well. >> i'm thinking probably not the

same time. >> why not? >> also a joint interview with chairman of the senate foreign relations committee bob corker and democratic member chris coons. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> unfortunately getting new pictures in from raleigh, north korea, heavy rain and flooding. the crabtree creek has come up enough in the downtown area that now we have water going into some businesses and a few homes there. that's a developing situation in raleigh. the morning commute will be extremely difficult with a lot of road closures down there. here is where the rain is now, through raleigh, eastern north korea, this is heading northwards. d.c. is dry now. rain heading your way about 9:00 a.m. to about noon it will be the heaviest. here is eastern north korea, flash flood warnings around washington. all the red boxes are river flood warnings. let's break down the timing. this is 7:00 a.m., heaviest rain over richmond. 9:00 a.m. to noon d.c. new york city, the steadier rains beginning about noon.

philadelphia, 10:00 or 11:00. heaviest rains in new york city about 5:00 p.m. airport delays this afternoon will be the worst, boston 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. some of the rain continues into tomorrow. we have very warm conditions in the middle of the country. tomorrow is when those problems will develop. severe weather outbreak possible. chicago, st. louis and definitely through areas of arkansas. little rock and memphis included. even the possibility of a few tornadoes. the heavy rainfall forecast moving up the east coast. washington, d.c., the worst for you. 9:00 a.m. until about noon today. >> you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. with unitedhealthcare, you can get rewarded for all kinds of things... like walking. hey, honey. dad, where's the car? thought we'd walk. he's counting steps. walk, move and earn money... goal! dad... hey, we wanna welcome everyone to the father daughter dance. look at this dad, he's got some moves!

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it only takes a minute to take care of yourself, and nothing rhymes with "org"... instead of a massive tax reform package, massive health care reform package, why doesn't he go to chuck schumer and say, i'm going to lower the corporate tax rate to 15%?

>> that's weird. that was joe yesterday on "morning joe." now president trump is ordering his staff to come up with a plan to slash the corporate tax rate from 35 to 15% that. can come at a cost of $2.4 trillion over ten years. the "wall street journal" reports trz told aides he wants a massive tax cut to sell to the public and it was less important to him to add to the deficit. congressional republicans are planning to use the reconciliation process that would allow the legislation to pass with a 51-vote majority in the senate instead of the usual 60 votes. the thrower threshold allows the cuts to be larger, but not make them permanent. on capitol hill this morning, congressional leaders will meet with white house advisers including treasury secretary mnuchin. speaker ryan, lead are mcconnell

and top members of the finance and ways and means committees. >> the idea, rick, what i was talking about yesterday is strip it down. everybody is trying to -- we're going to hit a grand slam. first time in the major leagues, going to hit a grand slam, the longest grand slam of all time with health care reform. no, you're not. not in the short period of time. okay, let's do tax reform. we're going to reform the entire tax code. no, don't do that. you know what? get a single. punch one to left field, get on first base, get the game started, get your fans cheering, pass corporate tax rate cuts. it's not something i care a whole hell of a lot about, but that's something the business community cares about, chuck shum are's constituents care about. >> heidi heitcamp. >> we've been hearing people in the business community complain

that our corporate tax rate is unfair compared to the rest of the world. get that passed. you've got a single, got people cheering and you've got momentum. >> it should be fairly simple. the average corporation don't pay 35%, they actually pay 14%, one pointless than the 15% they're proposing. what it does do and what the big benefit is, it reduces the compliance costs. large corporations don't care about that because they can afford that. it's a barrier to entry into the market. they can lower it to 15 and put everybody in the same playing field, get rid of all the compliance costs, i think it would be a good deal. >> the polling is interesting, too. you see what the democratic attack would be, why is this your priority, not the middle class. the polling shows that. where there's popularity behind the idea of lowering the corporate tax rates matches up with one of trump central promises in the campaign. people across the board say they think it would help bring jobs back to america.

>> we've had people like steve rattner on here who obviously a dyed in the wool democrat. i even saw him with a "new york times" piece saying get rid of the corporate tax rates. i know a lot of democrats aren't going to think that. this is at least -- you wouldn't have to worry about passing by 51 votes. if you do it the right way, you'd get 60. >> the devil is in the detail. even president obama talked about making the code more simple, closing loopholes, allowing u.s. businesses to be more competitive around the world. there should be an opportunity to see some common ground here. it's going to depend a lot on what the details look like. it's not clear to me that the trump white house has thought through the details. maybe they'll start having those discussions on capitol hill tonight. but i think there is an opportunity for them to find some common ground with democrats. we'll have to see if they choose to seize it.

>> i was talking to a business leader in church on sunday who came up and said what's the problem -- this is after church, not during church. what's the problem? they keep trying to eat the entire elephant. they keep trying to do these big things. that's when i said the first time, just pass a 15% corporate tax rate. you will have democrats, republicans, small business owners especially, mid-size business owners. instead of trying to eat the entire elephant, just take a bite. >> baseball metaphor -- >> better than the elephant metaphor. >> walking up to the plate trying to hit a six-run home run, swinging for the fences so hard they don't have a chance of making anything happen. >> breaking things up into a bite seize piece is a smarter strategy. they'll have to think through the details. if it's going to add significantly to the deficit or benefit wealthy corporations or

the largest corporations and not extend the same benefit, it's going to be a tougher sell for republicans. >> still to come, governor john kasich is heading to north korea for his new book about uniting america. sounds like he's thinking about another run? >> maybe he just wants to unite america. >> maybe he does. straight ahead, someone who also thought about the white house, former new york city mayor mike bloomberg here onset. >> have we got confirmation he's passing out money? >> i think so. >> a billion. >> you want a billion? >> he's got a lot of it. he wouldn't even miss it. we, the entertainment-loving people, want all our rooms to be tv rooms.

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we talked about the ap interview the president did. >> remarkable interview. >> every interview is remarkable. the "wall street journal" one was remarkable. >> one portion in particular has caught a lot of people's attention. thement was asked about his relationship with people from the other party. he answered, quote, no i have --

it's interesting, i seem to get very high ratings. i definitely, you know, fox news sunday host chris wallace had 9.2 million people. it's the highest in the history of his show. i have all the ratings for all those morning shows, cbs face the nation, host john dickerson had 5.2 million people. it's the highest for face the nation or as i call it, deface the nation. it's the highest since the world trade center. since the world trade center came down, it's a tremendous advantage. >> thement immediately attacked the feek media. we have a couple rules around here. number one, let's stay away from the nazi comparisons. nazi comparisons are bad comparisons. number two, do not compare yourself favorably in ratings to the ratings after 9/11 or let's

say circulation on december 8, 1941. josh earnest, you're in this business. was that maybe some good guidelines. >> what would you say if the president walked off the stage after saying something like that? >> those are the kinds of things that aren't going to withstand a whole lot of analysis. either on a factual basis or based on what is exactly your motivati motivation. are you suggesting you're similarly a disaster. >> people looking at the television in horror. by the way, that's a horrible parallel to make. it's not funny, not even close to being funny. >> continually evaluates himself and performance based solely on tv ratings. >> the world trade center disaster, comparing himself --

>> that's what this whole flurly reminds me of, all this activity at the white house, almost as if it's ratings week at the white house. >> it's sweeps, right? >> it's sweeps. >> sweeps week. >> he understands the medium for sure. >> time for must-read op eds. the "wall street journal," the editorial board writes about freud's government shutdown. >> congress returns to work tuesday. funding for the government runs out friday. seemingly all of washington is promising high drama and an epic budget battle. a more accurate term is freud's shutdown because the stakes aren't much higher than the narcissim of small differences. republicans now control both chambers of congress and the white house, yet the dysfunction is getting worse. >> let's stop right there. that's unbelievable. i will talk to a fellow republican. >> which part is unbelievable?

>> the fact that we republicans on the white house, we republicans own the house. we republicans own the senate. we republicans now own the supreme court 5-4. we the republicans own the bureaucracy in washington, d.c. and the "wall street journal," art editorial page for the most part. >> last one. >> our last hope is saying correctbly, republicans own everything and yet the dysfunction is getting worse. that's unbelievable. how do you have a monopoly and somehow manage to lose money, if we want to do a business analogy now. republicans have a monopoly of power. how is this happening? >> i said when the story began to emerge about the brinksmanship of a government

shutdown. donald trump used this brinksmanship of the wall. now he's bakcked off of that. at the 100th day, a government shutdown, that's a loser. >> the bigger question steve kornacki, why didn't donald trump, paul ryan and mitch mcconnell get in the same room -- i'll put this on donald trump. why didn't he say to "mcconnell, you've got to get it through the senate. i was a house member. we're cute. it's a dictatorship. talk to mitch mcconnell and say, mitch, let's find ten good size bi bills that our base is going to love, the middle is going to love. what are they? what can you pass in ten days. in about 60 skds you'd have ten bills that mitch mcconnell could pass through his senate.

yet, here we are 100 days in. we're stalking on tuesday about a government shutdown on friday. >> the fact that government shutdown enters into a discussion when you have single party control is amazing. donald trump ran almost as an independent in a lot of ways in the presidential election and got election on a platform that was very different than what his party in washington was talking about. i don't think clearly came in with a real specific blueprint or map. rick was talking about this. you haven't had any real alignment, any real coordination and was he going to start on infrastructure? that seemed like an open question right after the election. that kind of went out the window. >> he doesn't even know though. >> right. there is no plan. >> we're going to put health care behind us. it's now the democrat's problem. then he talks to the "wall street journal" and says we're going to talk about health care now. he doesn't even know. >> he seems so responsive to sort of -- the new eruption in

the media, if he's getting a signal from, hey, maybe you have a chance on health care, then he wants to jump back into that. if he's getting a signal, trump is quitting and lost on health care, then he wants to get back into it. i don't think if you're a mitch mcconnell, a paul ryan, you can't really do much of the planning you're talking about. >> can't trust him. >> the problem is he is a day trader. >> every five minutes. >> it's not that there's not a long-range plan. there's not an even intermediate plan. he's got to right his schedule do down. when you build buildings, you don't say i'm going to build a 90th floor. he's figured out how to build a 90-story building before. you start with the foundation. you have to have a schedule. >> the fact is he's not a details guy. everybody who watched his campaign recognized that. >> reagan wasn't a details guy, but he got people around that

knew how to lay the foundation and build up. >> that's true. the other dynamic here that president trump's weakness has exposed. speaker ryan has alluded to this before, republicans in congress have been stuck in campaigning mode for eight years. the unifying principle of the republican congress in the house and senate was opposing barack obama. barack obama is not around anymore. now we're in a phase where republicans do have a responsibility to govern, they do have a responsibility to put together a proactive agenda, when they go to the cupboard, it's bare. they haven't spent the eight years talking about policy ideas, but talking about why barack obama is a terrible human being. that's yielded a situation where neither the republican white house or republican conference has built any public support or put detailed thinking into what they want to do with their control of the united states government. >> newt gingrich and i have had a spotty relationship. the thing i love about the guy

is he doesn't take anything personal. always a good back and forth with newt. you worked with newt. a lot of the criticisms that we had about -- we're saying about donald trump everybody always said about newt gingrich. newt gingrich was the first speaker in 40 years. when republicans got in power on january 4th, 1995, they had ten huge items that we all campaigned on. we had the plan. newt actually had, as disorganized as people say he was, he had the plan. this is what we are going to do. >> the 100-day plan that donald trump put forward was a newt gingrich plan. to josh's point, i don't think they ever contemplated winning. so they didn't have a ready made staff to come in and implement a plan, which is why i think you're seeing the reliance on

jared. the people he's brought in have not delivered. >> the problem is they're not washington people. >> no. >> by that i say -- people say we don't want washington insiders. that's like you going in to have brain surgery, i don't want somebody that's done brain surgery before. could you get the guy outside, the accountant next door. no, you have to have somebody in there to say, okay, so if you put -- if you pass this through the house with the freedom caucus, you're going to piss off eight republan senato,t will never pass and die in conference. mr. president. this is the way you work around it. jared can't be expected to do that. >> nobody trusts jared. >> that's a problem. >> nobody should expect jared or ivanka or anybody in that inner circle to be able to tell him how to pass legislation anymore than they should expect me to know how to develop a skyscraper

in manhattan. >> if they can change the way he approaches things, wouldn't they have done it by now? they've been living with him for years. >> they're great. let them stay there. you've got to have somebody that knows how to work the hill. >> yep. >> knows how to put it down on the calendar. >> josh earnest, thank you. >> nice to see you. two big city mayors join us, new york's mayor bill deblasio and up next, the mayor of new orleans, mitch landrieu. "morning joe" is coming right back. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the wook. the teacher started creating youtube tutorials for her friends. quit her job, started makeup geek, created a product line and today does more than $20 million in sales each year. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings on msnbc. ♪

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it was the dark of night, workers in helmets and tactical vests tearing down a con federal memorial in new orleans. security so tight, police snipers looked on from surrounding rooftops. the liberty monument was an ob lusk dating back to 1891, the first of four set to be taken down through out the city. >> wow, gabe gutierrez reporting for us.

joining us, the mayor of new orleans mitch landrieu. good to have you on board this morning. >> good morning. >> understand you're meeting with the attorney general today. >> we are. >> tell us what you're going to try to accomplish in that meeting? >> this is the second meeting we're having with them. yesterday a group of mayors from across america also met with aides for the secretary of home land security to talk about how to keep the streets of america safe. i was listening to your earlier segment, the same thing still applies. if congress would get about passing comprehensive immigration reform, a lot of these issues would be settled. what's happening right now is that the attorney general and secretary of homeland security in an effort to execute the president's executive order are engaging in a battle unfortunately with big city mayors about actually how to get this done. now, i think this goes without saying, that the first priority of mayors and police chiefs across 345ir ka is to keep the streets safe. we do this every day. every day we do it in

partnership with our federal partners, the fbi, dea, u.s. marshals, u.s. attorneys. we're interested in getting on the same page with thissed a registration about how to make sure we fight crime irrespective of people's immigration status. we're having a meeting to today to get some clarity around those issues. >> new orleans police department will not be part of president trump's civil deportation force no matter how many times they ask. is that the message you're going to deliver today? >> it's important, again, to think through what it is they're asking us to do. i think everybody can agree that the attorney general, the secretary and the president have not exactly been on the same page about where the priority with immigration is. go back to the point if congress would pass comprehensive immigration reform, this would be clear for us who have boots on the ground, trying to make sure the streets are safe. one thing now that folks are saying is we're not talk about the daca kids anymore, but then there's examples of daca kids

being deported. we're not talking about the 11 million being deported anymore. but there are some examples of going after them and being raids. mayors have always wanted to focus on violent criminals. in new orleans, in partnership with the fbi and dea, we have arrested and prosecuted a large number of gang members. our problem in new orleans is mostly loosely knit neighborhood gangs that have been engaging in really bad behavior for a long time. what we want to do is work with the attorney general. we want to work with homeland security. they need to get clarity between them. there's no clarity between dhs right now and doj about what a sanctuary city is. again, we're trying to sit down at the table, just eye to eye, and get on the same page. but they need to really identify what it is that they're asking us to do. >> right. >> local police departments cannot be civil deportation forces. we don't ask the fbi to write parking tickets. we work with those guys to fight violent criminals. we shouldn't be asking them to

work with i.-- to do the job of i.c.e. but we want to work with them to get violent criminals off the streets. >> group that attempted to overthrow the city's post civil war biracial government. certainly, that seems to be an easy call. but you're also going to be taking down a statue of general robert e. lee. do you put robert e. lee and general beauregard and jefferson davis in the same league as that obliss? >> no. unfortunately some of those supporting the one monument support these, too. the other thin tlooe, interestingly enough, were put up after the civil war by a

group called the cult of the lost cause. they were put up to send a message to the rest of the nation that the confederacy was not coming along, ev. as we rebuild the city, after getting destroyed by katrina, we look forward to our 300th anniversary. the question the people of new orleans began to ask is do these statues reflect who we ever have been? and the answer is no. i think they have the right to put on those particular pieces of property the displays that reflect the entire history of who we are as new orleans. and it's not sending a message to the united states of america we don't belong to you. joe, you're kind of from the south. i don't want to insult you. i know you're from florida. >> no, i'm from northwest florida. we are -- i've got bad news for you. culturally, we are on the gulf coast. we're kind of together there. >> exactly. so you understand what it is i'm talking about. >> so let's talk about

pensacola, florida. we have the city of five flags, little known fact. pensacola has been around for 455 years. and we've got spanish flag, french flag, british flag, confederate flag, u.s. flag. do you think pensacola should take down the confederate flag? that's part of that 455-year history. >> actually, you actually make my point for me. pensacola has the right to do whatever pensacola thinks is in the best interest of pensacola. what you just said was that confederate flag was put in context. in the city of new orleans we only have a couple of prominent circles and in all of those circles we have statues that are not just remembering the confederacy, but revering the confederacy and they were put up specifically to send a message to other folks that, look, we're still in charge down here even though we lost what they call the war of the states, a war to tear apart the united states of america. just as a matter of historical perspective, the city of new orleans is 300 years old and

there were folks 1,000 years before that. the city doesn't reflect that whole history. the second part is that robert e. lee never stepp eped a foot the city of new orleans. he is not from new orleans. he didn't fig we want statues to reflect the city of new orleans. that's what this is really about. current new york mayor bill diblasio sounds off on the attorney general for calling the nypd soft on crime. we're just assuming he's going to do that. maybe he won't. you never know and former mayor michael bloomberg on his decision not to run in the last presidential election. also the governor of ohio, john kasich, on whether he plans to make another white house run. "morning joe" is back in a moment. you totaled your brand new car. nobody's hurt, but there will still be pain. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay

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former president obama leaving on a helicopter, as he looks back on the white house. >> this was the largest audience to ever wins an inauguration period. >> alternative facts to that. >> wait a minute. alternative facts? >> president trump defiant over the battle over his travel ban. >> today we are officially putting iran on notice. >> late-night resignation of national security adviser

michael flynn. >> members of president trump's campaign team were communicating with senior russian officials. >> you look at what's happening, last night in sweden. >> the time for small thinking is over. >> attorney general jeff sessions met twice last year with russia's ambassador. >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. >> if this happened, martha -- >> if, if, if, if. >> president trump is here to do what he does best and that is to close the deal. >> the big bust on capitol hill, failing to repeal obamacare. >> tonight i ordered a targeted military strike. >> appeals court judge neil gorsuch was confirmed. >> steven bannon has been removed from the national security council. >> so, uh, what's been going on while i've been gone? ♪ so what did i miss what did i miss ♪ >> what a perfect song.

thomas jefferson what did i miss. >> not much. welcome back to "morning joe." >> thomas, where have you been? >> where have you been? >> france. >> where have you been? >> south of france. >> south of france. >> and can you come back? >> anyway, that really does tell you since he has been gone, there's so many things that have been coming at us, a thousand miles an hour. >> the chaos candidate turned chaos president. with us, former communications director for ted cruz's 2016 presidential campaign, rick tyler. joining the conversation, steve kornacki and former treasurer and "morning joe" economic analyst steve ratner and eugene robinson from "the washington post." >> i had a friend that went to

see hamilton, new cast. anybody around here see the new cast yet? >> no. >> i haven't seen any. >> haven't seen it at all. >> what are you doing, man? get over there. >> not one of the elites. >> oh, whatever. >> simple new england folk. >> there you go. i'll see "our town." how about that? >> our history books. >> so, it's three blocks from here. you know, there's -- >> you can't get tickets. >> oh, you can get ticket. >> joe scarborough can get tickets. >> the cast yells at you sometimes. >> the ticket booth there in the middle of times square. >> that's sort of not how it works. >> that's not how kornacki works. he goes in his rolls royce. >> so i had a friend who went and said the new cast is fantastic. >> i'll bet. >> look, it's a bit of an ensemble cast. marando was a genius playwright

and i don't know that he was irreplaceable as an actor. >> no. >> i would go see it again. that what did i miss. >> great scene. >> jefferson's extraordinary entrance. >> i get it now. >> a guy that doesn't go to a lot of broadway shows. usually the curtain opens in the second act and it's like i have to sit through another one of these? and suddenly thomas jefferson is coming down the stairs and you're like, this may be the greatest thing i've ever seen. new poll numbers out overnight from nbc news and "the wall street journal" show president trump might have to do a little bit more to persuade americans on his agenda. confidence is slipping in the president and republicans' ability to improve health care. half of americans have little to no confidence in their plan, spiking 16 points from february. while those who have a great

deal of confidence is down just 8%. asked if congress should continue efforts to repeal and replace obamacare. 40% say to keep going. 37% say do not continue. on the subject of immigration, six in ten say it helps more than it hurts the united states. a nine-point swing in favor of immigration since september. free trade with foreign countries also remains popular. 57% to 37%. this, as satisfaction with the economy has hit a high not seen since 2001. 56% of americans say ty're satisfied with it. 43% are dissatisfied. >> let me stop right there. a lot to digest. gene robinson, the line of the day, in part because it does come from "the wall street journal" editorial page, which as rick and i have confirmed as republicans here, it's sort of our page. >> i think it kind of is.

>> yeah. t"the wall street journal" editorial, lead editorial says republicans now control both chambers of congress and the white house, yet the dysfunction is getting worse. >> yeah. >> that is so damning, considering republicans control washington, d.c. it is a monopoly. as "the wall street journal" says, the dysfunction is getting worse. you look at the issues. they're on the wrong side of immigration by 30 to 60 count. they're on the wrong side of -- what was it? >> trade. >> trade, which is really shocking, by 65. and even health care they're tied on a plurality of whether they should go forward or not, around 40. >> yeah. they're bringing america together but not in a way that's particularly favorable to them. the dysfunction is more than remarkable. it's just weird, joe. >> it is weird.

>> i don't quite get it. the party that used to reliably fall in line, at least that was said about the republican party. and, of course, there were interparty, you know, sort of power struggles and fights in the past. but i've never seen anything like this. i've never seen the basic inability to get like anything done. and then try to point the finger at democrats. you have a huge majority in the house and in the senate. you really need to figure out how to pass something. something. >> yeah. i would think. steve rattner, the efforts to pay for the wall. does any of this make sense? >> i think he has backed off the wall as of last night. >> delaying funding or doing something to keep the government from shutting down. still wants the wall. >> the process doesn't make any sense, governing by shutdown every four months and

inevitability they pass some version of continuing resolution and never get into what the real job is, what they're getting paid for, to go tou the budget, figure out what we have that we shouldn't have and what we don't have that we should have. to put a finer point that gene was talking about. the republicans control both houses, which allows them to do a lot of stuff on taxes and some stuff on obamacare with 52 votes. they don't control 60 votes in the senate, which is why we're having this impasse over shutting down the government. have you to get some democrats on board to keep the government functioning. >> joan, you write in the washington post, trump apparently believes we are all hopelessly naive. with his presidency nearing the 100-day mark, he is desperate not to have the acknowledge that

his outrageous, ridiculous, impossible campaign promises were, in fact, outrageous rirks dick will you say and impossible. there was nothing ambiguous about his pledge to build a wall along the southern border with mexico footing the bill. trump also promised a muslim immigration ban, which the courts have not let him deliver. he said nato was obsolete. now it is not. he promised health insurance for everybody but support ace bid by the house republicans to snatch it away from 24 million people. he lied to us, repeatedly and shamelessly. he his supporters may not care yet but history is unforgiving. yelling "fake news" cannot mask a fake presidency. >> soft, gene. >> yeah, you are getting soft. >> could you focus in more? >> were you watching a baseball game? >> i don't really know what you were saying. >> i will try to focus and be a

little more pointed in the future. >> try next time. >> kind of says it all. >> i know this is hard. it is the president who set the false deadline himself. he did it on health care and now he has done it with 100 days. i just remind our audience, it's early. >> sure. >> 100 days is early and 40% approval ratings can become 45% approval ratings, can become 50% approval ratings. we've seen it before. so 100 days is early. most of donald trump's problems right now with this 100-day mark are, like most of his problems, self inflicted, right? >> they're totally self inflicted. look, if you listened to what the president said on the campaign trail, there's some things he said he would never get bipartisan support, that it would be very difficult to get through. those are the things he's proceeding on and running into

brick walls. but look at some of the other stuff he said. he talked about infrastructure. he could get an infrastructure bill through. he talked about corporate tax reform. he could get tax corporate reform through. there are things that everybody or enough people agree on. it seems to me could get done. i do seriously wonder, very frankly, about paul ryan's ability to count votes in the house, which is sort of a basic -- that's like number one on the job description of speaker of the house. >> by the way, he can't. >> right. >> that's not why he came there. he was dragged there, reluctantly. he is an ideas guy. he's not a politician. he's just not. >> yeah. >> that's mitch mcconnell. i wonder if within the next 100 days they actually look to mitch mcconnell and say we're going to go -- >> mccarthy. >> who knows how to count votes.

mitch mcconnell knows how to count votes and knows how to maneuver and operate. he has been keeping -- we'll see if that's the route they choose. who knows. >> i just can't think of many examples over the past 20, 30 years. i'm sure there are a lot, steve, where a bill starts and passes in the senate, which is always more difficult and then it dies in the house. it doesn't happen a whole lot. i'm sure legislative geeks could tell me. 30 times it happened last year. but on these big ones, you pass a health care bill through the senate, then you'll figure out how to pass it through the house. tax reform, corporate tax reform. infrastructure. all these things. >> i agree with that. the senate is tough because of the 60 votes and a variety of other reasons. the house tends, if you're in the majority, to follow the speaker. obviously, of recent years we've had the freedom caucus. they become a bit of an unguided missile in these things.

it's true, the senate can do that. tacks and things like that have to start in the house. that's the problem of getting people together over the tax bill. >> former president barack obama made his return to public life as you saw. but steered clear of any discussion about obamacare, deregulation and the new president's unfounded wiretapping claims. >> what did he talk about, the cubs? >> i know. >> if you're not going to talk about those things -- >> i would actually like to ask -- we'll get to this. i would like to know why he didn't. >> he made news by not making news. >> he did. he said this many times, how grateful he was to president bush for not getting on his case when things started to go wrong. and i think from his own selfish standpoint and probably the country's, taking the high road -- >> he didn't accuse president bush of anything. this is kind of a different level. don't you think? >> you can make that argument. i think the next president within the first 100 days, taking the high road is --

>> there's that tradition, modern tradition. it's interesting how they structured it. instead of a q & a with the audience, they made this a discussion with a few people on the stage. if you open it up to the audience, the first question is going to be what do you think of trump. >> yeah. >> george bush sr. left bill clinton alone for the entire time. there was one exception when he threw sort of a brush back. >> yes. >> at the end of clinton's presidency when george wncht bush was running and bill clinton was making very negative comments and george h.w. bush after seven years of saying nothing said i'm going to give him a warning. if he says nothing i'm going to knock it off but if he doesn't i'm going to tell the country what i think of him as a man and a person. and he backed off. >> that said so much right there. so obama spoke at the university of chicago, giving his assessment of the issues facing

our democracy and appealing to the next generation of leaders. >> although there are all kinds of issues i care about and all kinds of issues that i intend to work on, the single most important thing i can do is to help in any way i can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton. and to take their own crack at changing the world. it used to be everybody kind of had the same information. and we had different opinions about it. but there was a common baseline of facts. and that the internet, in some ways, has accelerated this sense of people having entirely separate conversations. >> well, we've known that. there's another layer about facts. see, eugene robinson, i get it. i get there's sort of a protocol.

>> yeah. >> but it's kind of hard to talk about what's going on without talking about what's going on. is it not? >> well, yeah, it's hard. but i think it's a difficult position for him. >> for sure. >> what's he going to say, right? he's going to slam president trump. >> yeah. >> it just wouldn't come off right, i don't think. >> just can't do it. >> you would recall that george w. bush was absolutely scrupulous in keeping his mouth shut basically, about what president obama was doing. i know president obama appreciated that. and george w. bush felt very strongly about that. and i believe they had conversations about, you know, the proper role and voice of an ex-president. so i would not have expected him to come out guns blazing. >> when you saw former presidents do it, bush, obama,

it's graceful and satisfying. right now, it seems we need anybody with a mega phone to speak truth to power. >> well, except you -- >> i understand. >> -- don't want two presidents. >> exactly. >> shooting back and forth, even if donald trump has gone so far over the line that it's disgusting. at the same time, you want donald trump and barack obama to be able to talk in a time of crisis when donald trump has to make a decision on north korea in 24 hours, and he wanted to be able to call up president obama and president bush and president carter and the other president bush and say, okay, guys, here i am. what do i do? i don't know that he would ever do that. but by barack obama turning the other cheek, he's -- it's in the best interest of america. >> it's the right thing. >> it's important. >> he is doing what is in the

best interest of america just like he did during the transition, when he came in and was graceful and talking to the president, even when his own staff around him was dying. >> yeah. all right. eugene robinson, thank you so much. steve kornacki, thanks to you as well. >> thank you, steve. north korea marked another anniversary with live fire military drills. is that enough to provoke a response from the u.s.? we'll talk to two members of the senate foreign relations committee, republican chairman bob corker and democrat chris coons plus former new york city mayor mike bloomberg joins us here on set after telling world leaders to ignore the president on one issue in particular. we'll ask about that. first, ohio governor and former republican presidential candidate, john kasich joins the table. what if technology gave us the power to turn this enemy into an ally? microsoft and its partners are

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come on. >> john kasich, who i have known since like 1921. >> you said you had to help him. >> you were hotter than bieber at one point. >> yes, he was. >> that's not the best way to start an interview. >> telling the host -- >> you had to help john kasich shake hands with people because he gets distracted. it's like come on, eye contact. >> multiple layers of chess at the same time. what is it? don't you people understand? >> focused long enough to write "two paths." >> mazing. >> my fourth book. can you believe it? >> it's out today. >> you're like churchill. >> yeah. >> this is amazing. i'm glad you did it. it's dedicated to your wife and your girl. >> this book is -- this book is about -- >> you have to answer the question first. >> you guys are looking at the cover. >> what is the book about? there you go. go. what's this book about? >> whenever somebody like me

write ace book, everybody thinks why are they writing it? they must want something and it must all be about politics. it really is a book about my concerns about the country and what we can do to fix it. and the campaign is sort of in here, if you like politics, it will explain it. but it's a lot more than that. >> what's your concern? break it down. >> a close-up look. >> we're all in silos, we know this. we don't communicate with one another. families -- even fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters are fighting with one another. people moving their wedding out of the country because their relatives fight when they go to the wedding. it's just crazy. then we are all consuming that that we agree with and if we don't like what we see, we unfriend somebody or tell them they're crazy. joe, look, think about the things we accomplished in the '90s when we were there. >> right. >> and they're sustained, the balanced budget for a while or welfare reform. it's not just there. when you take a look at this united thing, you know, what the

heck? >> what's going on? >> are people forgetting that we are all connected, that we are all human beings, that we have to look out for one another? we're adrift. >> so what's the solution? >> i think there's a couple of things. one is -- i know you would agree with this, joe. look, some religious leaders have given faith a really bad name. it's like who's sleeping with who. that's not religion for me. religion for me is, you know, you worship god. he gives you humanity. you love your neighbors. you love yourself. you start treating people like they matter, regardless of who they are. that's number one. number two, we need to engage in projects that are common to all of us. you work in a food bank. who is against feeding hungry families? nobody. who doesn't think we should mentor children? who doesn't think we ought to fight the drug scourge in our neighborhoods? if people start to come together and do those projects, thing also start to change.

>> we were both conservatives, considered extreme when it came to budgetary issues. we're look at our own party actually being overly harsh, at least in the budget they presented. going to slash funding for the national institutes of health. best chance, actually, to team up with private partnerships, to cure cancer, to cure alzheimer's. >> look at the health plan. >> look at the health plan, too. i can't believe we're saying this. >> i can. we have a right to define the party. >> spending billions and billions of dollars on tax cuts for the top 1%. and taking away health care from -- >> listen, it's really struggling. they have to look out for them. just kidding, folk. >> taking health care away from the very people -- again, evangelicals are in trump's corner. the very people jesus said you will be judged by how you treat these people. how are we treating those people? >> you need to write a book. >> i know. >> i'm just asking, john.

you brought up faith. let's walk through that door. how are we treating the poorest among us in this latest budget? >> i think it's both parties. you know, i've done 28 years in public life. the easiest people to run over are the weakest people. >> yeah. >> and both parties have done it. you know, if you're a child, you don't vote. nobody cares. if you are drug addicted or if you're mentally ill -- i mean, we -- it is easy for politicians to run over people like that. you have to have some people in both parties that say no, you can't do that. because if people lose hope -- if they don't think they matter, if they don't think that somebody sticks up for them, you know -- and i'll tell you one quick story. i dropped my phone in the swimming pool. i went to verizon to get a phone they made me wait. they gave me the phone. they said it was our fault. we made you wait forever. here is a free phone. i can't believe it. the lady looks at me, the

manager. she looks at me and says last week a lady came in with her smart phone. we fixed it. it was our fault. she said what do i owe you? we said nothing and she started to cry and she said nobody is kind to anybody like that anymore. now that's an overstatement. but it gets down to us being connected in everything, not just politics. >> i agree with you about the problem. i think we all agree, our society is coarsening, our kids are exposed to things at a much younger age. i think technology plays into it. but what about this president and the example he sets? >> well, i think there's -- look, i went to munich with mccain, to make this short, and i think what he did in syria sent a message to people around the world that america is just not going to go away. that was very positive. but when i see an i.c.e. agent knocking on somebody's door, this thing called knock and talk, that's really a weird thing. and i saw somebody say on

television from the administration, well, if we find out that somebody came over here illegally, we can't just look the other way. so they're going to ship these people up and break up families? there's enough broken families in america. i went to see him. you guys see him autumn time. >> it's been a while. >> he doesn't see me. he saw him. >> i learned something. i was a congressman in the governor's office and my wife said, being a smart alec, my wife says you're the father of ohio. why don't you act like it? it's in the book. >> oh, that's good. >> and i changed. when you're running a big job like that, you have to not only use your head, but your heart and they have to work together. and what he needs to know is that he's the father of america and that carries a heavy responsibility. he's tweeting less. he's in less than 100 days.

give the guy a chance is my view. look, there's nobody who has been -- i didn't endorse him. i didn't go to the convention. i want him to be successful. i'm going to give him a chance. >> guess what, a lot of people that as a father, as a good father so that's a good thing to extend -- >> hopeful. >> -- extend forward to the rest of the country. go around new york, for all these years they'll say he has good kids. good father. >> there's another issue. i advanced this thought in here called followship. we all talk about how we need good leaders but we also need good followers. if a leader wants to take us to a better place and we agree with that, then the followers have to work at that. and then we need leaders in the follower group. but if the leader starts to move us in the wrong direction, the followers can't be blindly loyal. >> right. >> it's like it was when we were in washington. you know, when they had a good vision, fine. if you have a lousy vision, we're not going there. >> don't follow it.

>> all of us have to have a sense of standing up at times. >> steve? >> but, you know -- and we all agree, i think, with everything you've said. in the context of united versus divided, there's no other place -- getting people to go to church more, things like that, eventually has some impact. that's not going to solve the immediate problem. >> you mean in washington? >> yeah. we have a president who may be a little more moderate in his tone, may not be. i don't think any of us around this table would call him a uniter. >> neither are the members. >> so how do we fix washington? >> let's talk about martin luther king. he couldn't even get a meeting with the big cheeses so he organized the communities and got republicans, democrats, liberal and conservatives and sent the message up and the politicians started to listen. and then they finally did something. you see, i think, steve, there is no other solution than to get people working together on

common humanity and beginning to drive a message up to the people who are the big cheeses. knock it off. if we're sitting around, waiting for washington to get it right, you're wasting your time. they're not going to figure it out down there. redistricting locks people into their extreme positions. you've got too much money in politics. you've got a handful of people picking a president. all of that. we need to drive it up. i saw trevor noah the other day. he said when you think about united airlines, it was the passengers that drove the change from the bottom up. >> right. >> we have to begin to talk to one another -- >> and technology. >> yes. we need to talk to one another that allows us to begin to heal. i don't think it's going to happen top down. >> "two paths: america divide or united." great to see you. >> great to see you guys. congratulations on continued success. >> oh, thank you. >> thank you. former mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg, joins us.

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welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now former new york

city mayor michael bloomberg. and his senior adviser, former executive director and chairman of the cr club, carl pope. they are co-authors of a new book "climate of hope:how cities, businesses and citizens can save the planet." >> america is going to meet its goals without any help from the federal government and with the only industrial country in the world that is going to be able to do that. >> carl, the united states is actually -- we're so worried about so many different things. we hear about climate change all the time because, obviously, it's a growing problem. but lost in all those headlines is the fact that the united states actually has improved in this area. >> we have cut our emissions more than any other industrial nation. >> how have we done it? >> largely by replacing coal

with cleaner, cheaper renewables and natural gas and by making cars go farther on gasoline. the wholesale cost of electricity in the united states has fallen by a quarter even as we have been replacing coal with these much cleaner fuels. we just have to stay the course. we're already two-thirds of the way to meeting our paris pledge. >> and, again, how did the united states do that? that didn't just happen by accident. how did we do it. >> one of the things was we closed a whole bunch of coal power plants. bloomberg philanthropies funded the sierra club, who got people to say we don't want to breathe the stuff you're putting out and frac natural gas made the economics of switching from coal to natural gas very attractive. and over half of the coal-fired power plants have been closed in the last two years. >> carl, we saw the headlines this weekend about how great

britain, for the first time since the 1800s, went a day without burning coal. how significant is that? again, it's symbolic. >> it's a huge, symbolic benchmark. coal gave us the industry revolution, because britain was full of coal. it was a great 19th century fuel. it's not a great 21st century fuel. when you look what's happening in india and china, in the last few years they have canceled more coal-fired power plants than we have. they are desperately trying to catch up with us in the clean energy revolution. it's the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century. and if we really want to make america great, keep america great, we shouldn't squander our leadership because we invented the wind turbine, solar panels. the chevy volt and the tesla. we still have that leadership and shouldn't squander it. >> mr. mayor, somebody who is

here who has wanted to meet you for a very long time. >> he has been asking us. >> steve rattner. >> you must be mike bloomberg. >> you used to be steve rattner. >> i didn't say you used to be mike bloomberg. >> hilarious. >> do you have a question? >> i have a question. you both were quite optimistic about what we've accomplished so far. we now have an administration in washington that at least says it wants to go in a different direction on coal, a whole bunch of environmental rules and so on. so, how worried are you? how much can they do to roll it back and what are you going to do to keep it from happening? >> number one, i hope that the president will change his mind. i'm told his daughter is trying to convince him to stay in cop 21. when the president sees the progress we've made and companies like exxonmobil please stay in cop 21. he's going to say wait a second, if the people i'm supposed to be protect rg in favor of doing

something, maybe i should ge get on board. number two, in courts, congress and the public he's not going to be able to change much. number three, the federal government hasn't really done anything. it's all been done by local governments, the private sector, meaning people and companies. they're the ones that have made all the difference, pushed for the coal-fired power plants and pushed for cars with -- that go further on a gallon of gasoline. they're the ones that want to put in incandescent bulbs -- get rid of incandescent bulbs and put in l.e.d.s. the public wants to do something. climate change, yes. but the environment today. they're breathing the air today. they're drinking the water today. they want it cleaned up now. and their economics. they want to be able to get cheaper electricity today. the problem we have is that with coal, as with every other industry in this country, maybe even around the world, technology is killing jobs and we have to find ways to do that. you don't do it by bringing back something. somebody said, you know, we have

veterans. we have to take care of them. a lot of them are out of work. we have to do something about that. you don't go start a war to get veterans back to work. you find something elsewhere they can have the dignity of a job and a career path. and that's the great challenge for society. >> carl, how do we get from where we are to where you all want us to be? obviously, for working class americans and for americans struggling from paycheck to paycheck right now, whether it's coal or whether it's oil, obviously those 18th century fuels are cheaper, easier to transport right now. and at least for the foreseeable future will make the most economic sense. right? >> let me ask actually say that's no longer true. the fact is right now in huge swaths of the country, including in the midwest, wind is cheaper than anything else. in the southwest, solar is cheaper. georgetown, texas, a republican

town, was the first city in the country to go 100% renewable and did so for completely economic -- >> the kentucky mining museum. >> right. >> just announced they're switching from coal to renewables because it's cheaper. >> that should tell you something. >> coal burning plants versus the automobiles we drive every day as far as contributing to climate change? >> until two years ago, coal power plants had always been the biggest source of pollution. now they've been replaced by the automobile because we dropped our use of coal from 50% of our electricity to 32% in four years. >> wow. >> we are dhi qar bonizing electricity quickly. that's just beginning to happen with cars. but the chevy volt is much cheaper to buy and drive than its internal combustion equivalent over the life cycle. we have a huge economic opportunity here. and the way we keep the progress

going is actually by saying, let's do what makes economic sense. it is common sense to say if i can get electrons for less money and less pollution, i ought to take those electrons. >> economic opportunities. there's obviously a lot of political opportunities, given the political climate right now. first of all, the front page of the new york papers -- do you miss being mayor? >> my sympathies are with the mayor. been there, done that. >> yeah, yeah. every day, right? every day. >> tough, tough job. >> so one of the reasons new york is great again is because of you. there was talk about you running for president. you were saying it's not in the cards. >> i said maybe bloc association. let me talk about bill diblasio. i painted the roof white in

queens with al gore. white roof reflects off the sun and your electricity bill goes down 25%. next time you fly in or out of laguardia, virtually every house in all of new york that's low and has a flat roof has had its roof painted white now. >> that's cool. >> no. everybody has done it because for the cost of two cans of paint you cut your electric bill for 25% forever. people are doing it. it's being driven, i keep coming back, from the bottom up. the federal government gets all the press. they talk about is it real, isn't it real? it doesn't make that much difference because the public wants to have more, better clean air, water, that sort of thing, lower cost of energy. >> when mike did that, the media made front of him. >> absolutely. i was on the front page just like that. >> blown up like a balloon? >> i was a clown or something, i think. >> nypd, how safe is this city, despite what the justice department is saying? >> if you were -- the day that

bill diblasio, who i don't want to talk about my predecessor or successor. i made that commitment. they don't need anybody else piling in on them. the day he was elected i asked you what was the one thing -- only use one thing to judge him for the next three years. most people would have said crime. and under the diblasio administration, crime has come down three years in a row, continuing the trend it did for the 12 years under the bloomberg/kelly administration and giuliani administration before that. and even a little bit of the dinkens administration. it did start to come down during the dinkens' administration. >> and what would you do about the issue of sanctuary cities, the cities that are saying we're not going to enforce federal laws? >> you cannot, steve, have everybody deciding which laws they should obey. the law is the law. you should obey the law.

if you don't like the law, get your laenlegislative body to ch the law. but society breaks down if we don't follow the law. >> the book is "climate of hope." >> michael bloomberg's successor, mayor bill diblasio will join us on set after making these fiery remarks. >> i would say to president trump and to attorney general sessions, if you believe this statement is accurate, come here to new york city. look our police officers in the eye and tell them that you believe they are soft on crime. see how that feels, and see what the people of new york city will feel about that.

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employees of a syrian government agency that was tasked with producing the nonconventional weapons. >> the united states is sending a strong message with this action that we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons by any actor. we intend to hold the assad regime accountable for unacceptable behavior. >> also, the tensions between the united states and russia just keep mounting because also this morning top u.s. military officials are urging the united states to confront russia over its support for the taliban. military officials say they're seeing an increasingly large number of weapons in the hands of taliban fighters in afghanistan. and when asked by reporters whether russia was providing the weapons, the top u.s. general in afghanistan said yesterday, quote, i'm not refuting that. coming up, a lot to talk about with senator bob corker,

the chairman of the foreign relations committee. we're going to discuss some moral responsibility of the united states abroad, especially in light of this tweet yesterday. a surprising tweet by former ambassador to the u.n. samantha power. she said, quote, i am very sorry that during our time in office we, the obama administration, did not recognize the armenian genocide. i suspect the u.n. ambassador will probably in the coming weeks and months also be talking about regrets regarding her inability to move the obama administration along with a lot of other people in that administration, on the issue of syria. "morning joe" coming right back. stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker.

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stuff like political gerrymandering our parties have moved further and further apart. and it's harder and harder to find common ground. because of money in politics. special interests dominate the debates in washington in ways that don't match up with what the broad majority of americans feel. because of changes in the media, we now have a situation in which everybody's listening to people who already agree with them. and are further and further reinforcing their own realities

to the neglect of a common reality. >> today was the perfect day for a jovial, well-rested former president obama to show up in chicago for his first public appearance after leaving office and say this -- >> so, what's been going on while i've been gone? >> ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. ha, ha, ha. everything! everything has been going on. of course, after that comment, obama threw on some shades, kite surfed out of the auditorium and yelled, somebody give me a mai tai. three months after jet skiing into the sunset, president obama was back in chicago previewing the very public path he plans to take over the coming months and years. but for now at least, he's steering clear of specific issues leaving it up to the current leaders in washington to deal with a looming government shutdown. north korea nuclear crisis and

syria civil war. good morning, everybody, it's tuesday, april 25th. >> we have with us fortunately president obama's spokesperson. so, we're going to ask you some questions. mr. earnest, mr. earn egs -- >> josh, josh, quick! >> we don't do that, do we? >> no. >> it's good to see the president back, right. >> he was tan, rested, not wearing a tie. i think, mika, i think he actually kite surfed into the sunset. he didn't jet ski. >> he didn't jet ski. >> we will fact-check -- we'll safe that for our producers. there are a lot of people, a lot of democrats especially are looking at the situation saying, we need this guy. we know he doesn't want to talk about trump. that's sweet. but we need to rebuild a party. we've got to win. we've got to take control of the house. we've got to take control of the state legislatures. and there's not a leader of the democratic party right now. and people are desperate for him

to step up and be that leader. will he? >> he won't. and the truth is -- >> what? >> how do you like that answer? he won't. >> you get answers. >> here's why. if democrats are hoping for success in 2018 and 2020, the leader of our party can't be a former president of the united states. the leader of our party shouldn't be a former anything. we need to have leaders both in washington, d.c., around the country, that are ready to give voice to the country -- >> but he knows how to win elections, unlike most democrats these days. will he at least lend his hand there and get involved with an organization that will teach democrats? like, for instance, after the election i thought what he said in iowa was brilliant. steve, you were probably thinking the same thing as me. you go to counties where you lose by 50 points but then you only lose by 20 points. that's what barack obama understood, that too many democrats these days are like, oh, wait, that's red state america. i'm not going there. but barack obama fought for every vote. >> also the situation you're pointing out, it's sort as

unique to modern political history for the democratic party, the situation they're in now. think about it. we haven't had since the modern era many democratic presidents. carter, clinton and obama. carter left office, no democrat wanted to be seen with jimmy carter. that wasn't the situation in the early-a 80s. when clinton left, he left seamlessly because hillary clinton was in the u.s. senate -- >> although al gore didn't want -- >> although everybody said he should have. now we have a situation where a democratic party is left, well liked by his party base. you have a vacuum and it's like, who is the leader of the democratic party. i can't remember them being in this situation in recent times where you have popular democratic president leave and a vacuum. >> you look at the poll numbers. americans really -- everything is still up for grabs. whether you're talking about health care, tax reform. whatever you're talking about

the house. poor paul ryan, and i'm dead serious, the numbers on paul ryan down to 20%, 21%, which just shows what a thankless job that job is as speaker of the house. somehow, even with republicans in power, there's this big void and americans want it filled. >> doesn't seem like the democrats are able to sort of even begin rebuilding in terms of -- they seem to be floundering a little bit. here are the new numbers overnight from nbc news and "wall street journal" showing president trump might also have more work to do to persuade americans on his agenda. confidence is slipping in republicans' ability to improve health care. half americans have little to no confidence in their plan, spiking 16 points from february. those who have a great deal of confidence is down, just 8% -- to just 8%. asked if congress should repeal and replace obamacare, 40% say to keep going, 37% say do not

continue. on the subject of immigration, 6 in 10 say it helps more than hurts the united states and nine-point swing in favor of immigration since september. free trade with foreign countries remains popular. 57% to 37%. >> free trade popular, immigration popular. we could go down -- go down the list here. but the republican party is swimming upstream on every one of these issues. on free trade, i mean, that's a 6 in 10 support free trade. 6 in 10 support immigration. they don't even have a majority of people saying, go after the replace and repeal. plurality within the margin of error at 40%. >> according to the wall street -- the abc/nbc poll, trump hasn't lost any ground with his base. he's essentially in the same place. he hasn't expanded. >> he's at 40%, which will be great if he runs for re-election

in the republican primary, but how do you get the senate to pass anything if you're a 40% president? >> you can't. then a health care bill, remember, joe, that was at 17% approval rating. you'll never pass anything like that through the house because kont congress won't pass something with 17% support. this bill makes some changes but there's been no conversation with the country. there's been no vision laid out of what they want to do. if you have a president with low approval ratings, i don't know how you move things like that. >> steve, he's sort of narrow-casting his message, right? he's like -- he's doing a -- we'll say he's doing a cable -- it's not even basic cable. he's specializing on a small slice of the public that is not -- that he's not going to ever have a big enough audience at 40%. we'll speak in terms he likes to speak in. he will never have a big enough audience at 40% to pass anything major through the united states

senate. >> he is just -- he is trying to play -- whether intentionally or not, he's trying to play american politics and presidential politics by totally different rules than we've seen before. he's trying to establish that maybe the rules we thought existed about the political durability ofsome somebody playing this game, may be differenrules tha what we thought existed. what i mean by that is back in his campaign numbers were record low, those who said he didn't have the qualifications, didn't have the trumpment. we said nobody can have those numbers and be elected president. bit thinnest of margin he's elected. he so far has no legislative accomplishments to speak of because of the realities rick talked about. legislative progress prospects aren't that good. donald trump, is he intentionally or not playing a different game where he stirs up all this noise in the media, in culture, in the political system, and the noise itself generates backlash, generates support among his base and even

if he doesn't have huge legislative accomplishments to speak of, can he hold onto that base that narrowly elected him. >> mike pence, 38% positive, 39% negative. democratic party, 34% positive. president trump, 39%, 50% negative. republican party, 31%, 47%. paul ryan, 22% positive, 40% negative. the white house appears to be backing down from demands that the president's proposed border wall be funded immediately. a senior white house official tells nbc news that president trump is open to accepting funding for the project later this fall. the initial $1.4 billion price tag had become a sticking point in avoiding a government shutdown which could happen still on saturday. the president's 100th day in office. >> how confident are you there will not be a shutdown? can you from that podium guarantee there will not be a

government shutdown? >> i can't guarantee. we feel very confident the government is not going to shut done. number two, the president has been very clear in the past about the fact that -- and this is not a new thing. he talked about this. that in order to get the ball rolling on border security and the wall, that he was going to have to use the current appropriations process but he would make sure that promise would be kept as far as the payment of it. >> the four corner negotiations have been going very well. until a monkey wrench was thrown into them. our caution, if the administration insists on poison pill riders or extraneous funding requests, then our talks could get sidetracked, particularly if the administration demands funding for a border wall. >> josh, it's interesting. the latest is the president has backed off the border funding is and is even talking about other alternatives making some

hard-liners on immigration reform angry, talking about drones, blimps -- >> no wall. >> right. >> sounds like he's climbed down from his big wall. what has always been true about these kind of budget negotiations, even when president obama was in office, when republicans had majority in congress, is they always require democratic votes. the fact of the matter is, there are not going to be a budget bill that will pass with any democratic votes as long as this funding for the border wall was included in it. they were in a catch-22. and, you know, this is something -- >> he's been tweeting about it. >> one thing i have to give him credit for is i'm glad he climbed down from his wall proposal tuesday morning as opposed to waiting until friday night. this is the best possible way to avoid a government shutdown, which would be pretty embarrassing if you're in control of the house, control of the state, control of the white house and on your 100th day in power the government shuts down, not going to inspire a lot of confidence. >> you're going to need

republicans. but also going to need some democrats. yesterday chuck schumer was here saying he's actually begun speaking, started talking to president trump. so, we'll see if that's what happens the next 100 days, that he actually tries to build out to democrats and get things done. >> when you're at 100 days and at 69%, where barack obama was, or 73% where ronald reagan was, you can go up to the congress all day long and ask for things and they'll move because the country is behind you. that's not happening here. he's essentially blinked on the wall. >> yeah. and i think, again, when you look at even republicans don't seem to support the wall. especially border state republicans, you read the texas survey yesterday, mika, where 61%, 62% of people in the state of texas oppose the wall. then maybe doing -- adding surveillance, what they're talking about doing here, adding surveillance instead of just building a physical structure might be preferable because we are in the 21st century.

>> it is -- it seems kind of silly. lindsey was flat out honest about it. >> an interesting point. there's been a lot of talk about this 100 day thing that president trump is trying to talk down. the truth is, he is never going to be in a position where he has more political capital than he has right now. in this first 100 days. that's significant about the first 100 days. it gives you a sense of what sort of trajectory the administration is on. it also gives you a sense of what has the president done with more political capital than he'll ever have. it's not clear president trump was very judicious in using that political capital. in some ways it looks like he fettered it away. i have bad news for them. it's going to get harder, not easier. next on "morning joe," if it's your first at-bat in the major leagues, why try for a grand slam. we'll talk about the trump administration's new approach to tax reform. new york city mayor bill de blasio joins us live and we'll

hear from senator bob corker and chris coons. before we get to break i want to update everyone on the situation in the raleigh area. we're under a flash flood emergency for the city. cr crabtree creek rose above flood stage. new video at nc state. can you see major roads around the downtown area. a lot of businesses with water. there have been some reports of water rescues in the region. that continues until 11:00 a.m. because of the heavy rain overnight. that rain will shift north wartd and make its way to the big cities in the east. an hour delay at the airports in new york. 47 minutes in philadelphia. the timing of the rain now moving into the d.c. area. from 9:00 a.m. until noon, the worst in d.c., from noon until about 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. when the heaviest rains over new york city, the evening rush hour will be worse. we'll see airport delays get worse throughout the day. by tomorrow morning, we clear it all out. on the east coast, the slow-moving soaker causing a lot of problems in areas like

raleigh this morning with a flash flood emergency still under way. we're leaving you with a shot of washington, d.c. get the umbrella out. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪ (silence) ♪ with a crust made chfrom scratche and mixes crisp vegetables with all white meat chicken, and bakes it to perfection. because making the perfect dinner isn't easy as pie but finding someone to enjoy it with sure is. marie callender's. it's time to savor.

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and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount instead of a massive tax reform package, instead of massive health care reform package, why don't he go to chuck schumer and say, i'm going to lower the corporate tax rate to 15%? >> president trump is ordering his staff to come up with a plan to slash the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%. that can come at a cost of $2.4 trillion to the federal government over ten years, according to an independent estimate. "the wall street journal" reports trump told aides he wants a massive tax cut to sell to the public and it's important it wouldn't add to deficit. congressional republicans are planning to use the

reconciliation process to allow the legislation to pass with a 51-vote majority in the senate instead of usual 60 votes. lower thresholds allows cuts to be larger but make them expiring after ten years. on capitol hill this evening congressional leaders will meet with white house advisers, including treasury secretary mnuchin, white house economic voluntary gary cohen, leader ryan, and top members of the finance and ways and means committee. >> the idea, rick, strip it down. everybody is trying to -- you know, we're going to hit a grand slam. first time in the major leagues we'll hit a grand slam. the greatest grand slam of all time. the longest grand slam of all time with health care reform. no, you're not, then it's okay, let's do tax reform but we're going to reform the entire tax code and it's going to be -- no, don't do that.

you know what, get a single. punch one to left field. get on first base. get the game started, get your fans cheering, pass. corporate tax rate cuts. not something i care a whole hell a lot about but the business community cares about -- >> if they're -- >> i'm talking about, we've been hearing the business community complain for 20 years that our corporate tax rate is unfair compared to the rest of the world. okay, fine, just get that passed and you've got a single. you got people cheering and you get momentum. >> i mean, it should be fairly -- look, the average corporation doesn't pay 35%. they actually pay 14%. which is one point less than the 15% they're proposing. what it does do, and what the big benefit does is reduces compliance cost. large corporation don't care about that because they can afford that. it's a barrier to entry into the market. if they can lower it to 15% and put everybody on the same playing field, get rid of all

the compliance costs, i think it would be a good idea. >> the polling is interesting, too, because you see what the democratic attack would be if you went for the corporate tax cut. why is this your priority, not the middle class. the polling shows that. where's there's popularity matches up with one of trump's central promises of the campaign. people across the board think it would bring jobs back to the country from overseas. >> we even have people like steve rattner on here who obviously a democrat, dyed in the wool democrat coming up, i even saw him with a "new york times" piece saying, get rid of the corporate tax rate. a lot of democrats aren't going to think that. at the same time, this is one of these -- this is at least a -- you wouldn't have to worry about passing with 51 votes because if you do it the right way, you can get 60 votes easily. >> the devil's in the details. even president obama talked about making a tax code more simple, closing loopholes in a

way to make our tax code more fair. allow u.s. businesses to be more competitive around the world for the kinds of compliance costs rick cites. there should be an opportunity to see some common ground here but it will depend on what the details look like. it's not clear to me the trump white house has thought through the details. maybe they'll start having those discussions on capitol hill tonight. i think there is an opportunity to find common ground with democrats. >> coming up on "morning joe," new york values. mayor bill de blasio joins us live as the justice department picks a fight with the nypd. >> no, no, no, no. you don't do that. >> you don't do that. >> you don't do that. i saw a guy one time outside the lincoln tunnel. >> yeah. >> get out of his car and start to go up towards a new york city cop directing -- bad idea. >> bad idea. >> this guy was screamed at for about 30 minutes. even after he was cowering back in his jaguar. no, you don't pick a fight with the nypd. ever!

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looking at the front page of the new york papers. do you miss being mayor? >> my sympathies with the mayor. been there, done that. >> yeah, every day, right? every day. >> tough job. >> that's former mayor of new york city michael bloomberg moments ago here on "morning joe." joining us now the current mayor of new york city, bill de blasio. rick tyler and steve rattner back with us as well. how are things going? >> breaking news, mayor bloomberg positive towards you, talking about the crime rate going down. >> did you hear that? >> i did hear that. the crime rate is going down. you mentioned facts earlier. mayor bloomberg and i can agree on the facts. that's a good and healthy thing. crime continues to go down in new york city. nypd doing an extraordinary job and working more closely with communities. >> a lot of people are driving in and listening on the radio.

crime rate in 1990 versus 2016 down 85.4%. crime 2016, murder rate -- murder -- >> murder rate. >> murder rate 2016 versus 2001, down 50%. >> yep. and it's been remarkable. listen, this is because the nypd has focused on building a better relationship with communities. we now have a neighborhood policing initiative started by our commissioner, jimmy o'neill, which is about people actually communicating at the neighborhood level and folks in the community sharing information with police so police can do their job. this is part of what's driving crime down. a lot of those people helping the police are immigrants. >> there you go. >> look at that. >> steve, this is a 30-year change. it's hard for people to remember what it was like walking around the city in 1989. >> i was going to say -- >> it was another world. >> i lived here then and it was another world. there were many partsf the cihat were no go zones at

night, there were parts no go zones during the day. >> union square park even during the day. >> i remembereading a "rolling stone" interview of woody allen people saying, i remember new york what it was like in 1965. this is back in the late '80s. 1965 when you can walk around the city at night. it was a magical place. that seemed like a place that was never coming back. >> now it's back. >> and it's here. >> this is why it's important to recognize. this took years of hard work. >> and it's still hard. >> yeah, still takes work. >> what has tied your policies together with the bloomberg administration, with the giuliani administration despite the fact you differ on so many things. something -- there is a constant, though, that the nypd has allowed to police -- what is it? >> look, first of all, the nypd is an extraordinary organization with an amazing ability to constantly grow and improve. the reason, first and foremost, what bill bratton did in 1994

with. >> clay:stat putting nypd to look at what was happening street by street and figure out the best approach to policing. that has pervaded the culture for a quarter century. constant improvement, constant self-criticism about what can can we do better. >> and you talk about culture. my mika was reminding me -- >> walking down fifth avenue. the fallen officer, the incredible story that he has, what he's given to this community. >> and they were just -- just block after block after block of nypd officers out there at attention for a fallen comrade. it was remarkable. >> you're talking about detective steven mcdonald, hero of this city. a man on patrol in central park, shot in cold blood, left for dead. ended up, thank god, surviving, paralyzed. within weeks openly, publicly

forgave the teenager who shot him and went on to lead a life of service to others as an example of love and forgiveness. inspiring nypd officers in their service. we lost him but, boy, talk about someone whose imprint was felt all over the city. look, what he would say to recruits, he would tell them, it's the most noble job you could possibly pursue. he'd tell them to love the people that they served and build a bond with them. you know the history that's pervaded this city, this can country for decades. a lot of work had to be done to bring community and police together. it's finally happening in earnest. what unites the last three administrations is things like the comstat strategy, things like not asking immigrants their documentation strategy. giuliani and bloomberg did the same thing. we're opening a deepening of communication between police and communities and taking away stop and risk policy that creates a

rift. three years our crime is going down. jimmy o'neill says it's going to go down more. >> i lived here in 1989. there's a big difference. it was a little frightening riding the subway back in the middle of the night. it is safer. mayor, you had had conflicts with the police starting your mayorship. any regrets? and what is -- what is the city -- what are the new programs going forward to even have these great results? how do you sustain it? >> i would say very clearly, i always know the difference between a conflict with a union and a conflict with the rank and file. and i had a conflict with the union at that point, first and foremost, which over time we found some ability to move beyond. that's not surprising. you ask any police commissioner in the country, any mayor, they probably have some conflicts with the unions in their police force. but here's what's really happening now. there really is a coming together. and what's amazing is, we've made sure our officers know they

have the tools that they need. we added 2,000 more cops on patrol. by the way, if you want to achieve a better relationship between police and community, i would say any jurisdiction in the country, add enough police so the police can actually work deeply in communities and build relationships and not running from crisis to crisis. more training in things like de-escalating, implicit bias training is part of what we're doing to help people overcome the biases of the past. better hardware, you know, in terms of everything from technology to vests to doors and windows that are bullet proof in our police cars. there's a lot we need to do to protect our officers, to give them the support as professionals. but also a different approach to training that emphasizes actual communication with the community. another thing the nypd looks more and more like new york city. more city residents, more people of color. it's a more balanced force. >> mr. mayor, there's no way i can have the mayor of new york city and the new york post and a picture of the mayor of new york city -- >> that's going to be in the

macy's parade. >> i think it's quite flattering, don't you? >> the new york post says that you're full of hot air. what they're saying is you made grandiose promises like closer rikers island, education, and 100,000 jobs. how they say you're full of hot air. making promises -- >> and you're a balloon. >> i'm a balloon. balloon elected mayor. >> what's your response? >> joe, the new york post is always going to do what it does. it has an idealogical line, it will pursue it regardless of the facts. i said we would change relationship between police and community and bring crime down. that's happened for three years straight. i said we would do pre-k, it's now in new york city. i said we would close rikers island. it's going to take ten years. the way to close down rikers island was drive down crime and have fewer people going to jail.

our police commissioner will tell you crime is going down. we can close rikers. what we announced yesterday -- >> the other thing they said was 100,000 new jobs. >> how? >> right now since i came into office, we have almost 350,000 new jobs that have been created over the last three years. i'm not claiming i did all that. but we helped by creating a safe environment, better school system, et cetera. this is moving in the right direction. we believe we can create 100,000 high-paying new jobs over the decade in tech, film and tv, life sciences, all of which are areas growing new york city. we're making public investment to help them grow. this economy is growing. 4.3 million jobs, the most jobs we've ever had in the history of new york city. yes, it can be done. yesterday we announced giving our 3-year-olds what we're already giving our 4-year-olds. we're a society where kids need more and more support in the youngest years when they can learn the best. why shouldn't parents know, hard working parents, including middle class that they can have

that guarantee their kids will have a place to go that's safe and good for them to learn when they're 3 years old, take a huge economic burden off families. this is what the cities of future should be doing. we're going to do it here. >> mayor bill de blasio, great to have you on the show. >> come back. >> nice to see you. still ahead, the looming government shutdown, the standoff with north korea, reports senate investigation is going about as well as the one in the house. sally yates will testimony in front of the senate coming up in may. some ground to cover ahead with senators bob corker and chris coons of the senate foreign relations committee. we'll go live to capitol hill for the rare bipartisan interview next on "morning joe." look closely.

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joining us from capitol hill, chairman of the senate foreigns relations committee, senator bob corker of tennessee, also

democratic senator chris coons of delaware. good to have you both on the show. >> gentlemen, thank you for being with us. you just took an important trip to uganda to highlight a proposed budget cut that you all think does not -- a program that doesn't need to be cut. tell us about it. tell us what you saw. >> well, it was 274,000 people in a refugee camp. something that i wish every american could experience firsthand just to see what good the united states of america does. so, yes, we did want to highlight the importance of us continuing to support these kind of initiatives. by the way, with 1% of our budget, all diplomatic and aid efforts, 1% of the budget. secondarily, we wanted to focus on food aid reform where unfortunately we're forced to send u.s. commodities overseas with u.s.-flagged ships in many cases that have difficulty getting to these places. sometimes taking six months. most importantly, costing 40% more than we could just buy it

in the region. so, we'd like to use u.s. dollars much more efficiently and feed, by the way, 5 to 8 million more people with the same dollars. but it was great to be with chris coons, who's an outstanding leader on our committee. and someone who's really leading the charge on this effort. >> grateful for a chance to be with chairman corker, to actually hold a child whose mother has just come out of weeks of fleeing violence in south sudan to get them to a safe place, feed them for the first time. to look in the eyes of refugees is a very powerful experience. this was on good friday. one of the main reasons we continue to feed the world is because it's the right thing to do. the more important thing is it keeps us safer by preventing fragile states. i'm glad chairman corker and i have a bill that would allow taxpayer dollars to go farther in more efficiently delivering our food aid to the world. >> chairman corker, let me ask you about russia.

obviously, you have -- even though it appeared to be in vogue for about 15 minutes for some of the republican party, you have maintained a tough line against vladimir putin and russia. straight through. how disturb ready you that we're now getting reports that the russians may be arming the taliban? >> look, i -- you know, they're working against our interests there. they're working against our interests in libya. they're working against our interests in syria. this is just the standard way that russia has operated for years. they're working against our interests in europe, working against our interests in crimea, ukraine. i think we've all done a great job of poisoning the well so no cheap deal is going to be done with russia. i have to say that i think this administration has evolved and grown a great deal in their understanding of what russia really is up to. >> senator coons, do you agree with the chairman that the committee stands shoulder to shoulder in understanding the

russians are not our friends, but, in fact, work against american interests every day? >> i do, joe. putin's russia is an aggressor and adversary and across all these different areas, i think he's only going to stop when we stop him. and i think the senate foreign relations committee under the leadership of senator corker and been cardin have put together strong bipartisan legislation. facing our security like iran's destabilizing actions in the middle east. i think you'll see a number of bills come through our committee. in the last congress we were productive legislatively on improving foreign assistance, on improving health security and food security in the developing world. in this congress i think you'll see us step up and confront the challenges of an aggressive russia and iran. >> senators, steve rattner. tomorrow all 100 senators are going to the white house to be briefed by rex tillerson, jim mattis and other senior officials about the state of affairs in north korea, which is obviously not a very good one

from anybody's perspective. do you expect that you'll hear anything you don't know already? and how are each of you thinking about our next steps there given the incredible constraints around us with respect to any kind of use of military force in that -- much more sensitive area even than syria? >> my sense is just in conversations we've had, steve, coming up to this. i don't think we'll hear a great deal different than what is out in the open press. i do plan to have one more phone call today with someone that matters. then i have dinner tonight with president trump on this topic and others. but i don't think so. look, at the end of the day this young leader believes that if he develops a deliverable nuclear weapon to the united states, he will die as an old man in his bed. very different than the outcome of gadhafi in libya who gave up weapons of mass destruction. at the end of the day, obviously, china is the key. it's almost trite to say that. everyone understands that.

i think that without regime change and i'm not talking about some kind of kinetic activity today or anything else, but the fact is, i think that's what he's bent on developing because he thinks that's his ticket to life. i think it's very difficult to overcome a situation like that. you're right, a miscalculation in the region brings in china, russia, south korea, japan. we have to be very careful as we move ahead. >> rick tyler. >> senator, i think we all agree that a diplomatic solution would run through china. how much do you trust china and president xi to help us get to a peaceful objective in north korea? >> senator coons. >> this really is in president xi's interest. china is the sole life line for north korea. they are critically dependent on chinese support. to continuing strengthen and bring together our long ties with south korea and japan and engaging with china and making

this more their problem than our problem is the only path forward that i see in the short term. we have to have a credible military plan, but frankly, pulling together our allies in the region, with china, to impose significant sanctions on north korea, to make them an international pariah and to circle the pressure on them is the most likely next step. i think that's what we'll hear at the white house tomorrow from the trump administration. >> if i could add in, i mean, china's history has been one of solely focusing on stability. it's a one-party system. that's all they care about. getting them to do something durable is going to be the challenge. they're good at head fakes where they'll do a little of this or that to let the situation ease and go away. getting them to really commit to something that's durable, painful and destabilizing inside north korea is going to be a big challenge. and that's where the administration -- that's the challenge this administration needs to tackle. >> final question for both of you. president trump recently called

the leader of turkey and congratulated him. do either of you -- would either of you have advised him to make that call? or anybody on his foreign policy team? would you advise the president to, perhaps, put calls to world leaders through his foreign policy team first to really prepare for them? i'll start with senator coons. >> absolutely. i think that president trump should be relying more on the career professionals in the state department who often have deep knowledge of particular countries. our nato ally turkey that is a key player in the region and is essential to our strategy in syria, but where erdogan is increasingly tilting toward an authoritarian streak i don't know i would have had the president congratulate him given the conduct of his government internally. i do think he'll do a better job the more he relies on not just his immediate inner circle but also the nonpartisan career professionals. >> senator corker, let me

interject before your answer. actually, senator coons did bring up an uncomfortable point. that is turkey at the same time as lurching toward authoritarianism and a nato ally, they play a pivotal role in that region, extraordinarily pivotal role in that region. how do we balance those two competing interests? >> yeah, i mean, you know, joe, since 1991 when the soviet union collapsed and we had bipolar foreign policy the world has become much. much more complicated. as to the specific question, look, i do think that mattis, tillerson and mcmaster are playing a good role. and i think the administration, from my standpoint, has grown relative to foreign policy to a place that i'm far more comfortable with. i have to say, i think they've done a good job in that regard and certainly have worked with us to get there.

i would not have made the call. you think about turkey ten years ago. what a model, what a model for the muslim world as far as how they were. and over the last ten years under erdogan's leadership it's going in a negative direction. to me it's certainly not something to applaud. it is concerning we have a nato ally that is moving towards a lesser democracy within its own country. and it's not -- in my opinion, it's not something to congratulate him on. >> senator corker and coons, thank you for doing the interview together, honest answers. it's very refreshing. >> take care. up next on "morning joe" -- >> one of my proudest possessions is the flag that the s.e.a.l. team took with them on the mission to get bin laden. >> from fdr to donald trump, american presidents have long relied on special ops for the

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♪ ♪ i'm dr. kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. ♪ energy lives here. there's not a leader in the democratic party right now and people are desperate for him to step up and be that leader. will he? >> he won't. if democrats are hoping for success in 2018 and 2020 the leader of our party can't be a former president of the united

states. >> there seems to be kind of floundering a little bit. >> who is the leader of the democratic party? i can't remember them being in this situation. >> it seems like we need anybody with a megaphone to really speak truth to power. >> by barack obama turning the other cheek, he is doing the what is in the best interest of america. >> poll numbers out of president trump might have to do a little bit more to persuade americans on his agenda. >> the republican party is swimming upstream on every one of these issues. >> trying to play american politics and presidential politics by different rules. >> 40% approval ratings can become 45% approval ratings. we've seen it before. >> they're bringing america together not in a way that's particularly favorable to them. >> he's the father of america. that carries a heavy responsibility. he's in less than 100 days. >> do you miss being mayor? >> the crime rate is going down. bloomberg and i can agree on the facts. >> trump is ordering his staff

to come up with a plan to slash the corporate tax rate. >> get on first base, pass corporate tax rate cuts. >> there should be an opportunity to see common ground here but it will depending on what details look like. >> to look in the eyes of refugees is a powerful experience and one of the main reasons that we continue to feed the world, is because it's the right thing to do. >> just some of the ground we've covered so far this morning. to a book about america's reliance on special ops. it started a half century ago when president john f. kennedy vowed to keep america safe. >> let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, or oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.

>> in his push to oppose any foe, jfk expanded the army special forces and founded the navy s.e.a.l.s. it's part of a long and complicated relationship between american presidents and special ops. joining us director of the center for military and diplomatic history in washington, d.c., mark moyer, he's the author of the new book "oppose any foe the rise of america's special operations forces" and in "the new york times" mark writes this under george w. bush and barack obama special operations forces grew from 38,000 in 2001 to 70,000 in 2016. will president trump follow suit? he has used special operations forces in several middle eastern countries and the units seem custom made for a president intent on both combatting terrorism and avoiding large-scale war. but the history of america's special operations forces recommends caution. they are primarily tactical tools, not strategic options,

nor for all the talent and training, can they always beat the odds. good to have you on the show this morning. >> and mark, you say that president obama was the latest in a long line of presidents to not understand actually what special ops are supposed to be used for. >> right. that's right. and, you know, these are the nation's finest warriors and so it's natural that we, as americans, and presidents, look at them with great admiration. the problem is, we get so impressed by these forces that we expect the impossible from them or we romanticize them and president kennedy was certainly in that group that i think took it a little too far and tried to view them as a strategic instrument, rather than just something that -- >> it's a slippery slope. >> yeah. >> you said president kennedy, you mean president obama? >> starting way back with president kennedy himself had this sort of romanticized view but he had an interest --

>> from kennedy to obama? >> yes. there's other presidents were not as interested as kennedy, but circumstances made them interested. jimmy carter didn't know anything about them but he had hostages he had to rescue and bill clinton needed to solve somalia and delta force, bring them in, but we see usually they haven't brought that strategic winfall they were hoping for. >> and steve rattner was talking about it before, but the disaster in the desert in 1980 was the birth of the modern special ops teams we know. >> in a sense that was a boon for them because it led to the creation of socom which gives them their own headquarters and funding line and ironically the bin laden raid something in the reverse where that was a technical success but led to an overreach where they tried to take too much and led to problems and a fight with congress. >> wow. >> give us an idea of what the tactical application or how should the special forces be used as opposed to how they're being used?

>> right. >> that's a great question. over time they've wrestled with the question what are special operations forces and there is no set definition. they have to keep evolving. they're very well suited to some of these insurgent conflicts we see, but the problem is that wars sneak up on us in ways we don't expect including presidents that don't want wars. truman didn't want korea and johnson didn't want vietnam and george w. bush didn't want to go to iraq and afghanistan. chances are pretty good five or ten years from now there will be another war and we don't know what the special operators will have to do so they will have to adjust. >> the flip side of rick's question which is right now we have a whole bunch of them in the middle east, you know, trying to deal with isis and the efforts in raqqah and mosul and places like that. if you said, we don't really want to use those guys there, how would we be effective the those areas without sending in more formal boots on the ground which nobody seems to want to do? >> that's a great question. one point i make is that some of the things that they're doing there now in terms of supporting

these groups can be done by conventional forces. we've seen marines going into syria because, you know, one of the adverse consequences of this heavy reliance is we're burning out our special operators and that socom leadership has talked about the problems of diverse and drug use and mental illness and so there are ways to shift tasks but given our current situation in syria, it doesn't look like there is an easy solution so using special operations there, as in other places, can be sort of something it looks like we're doing something but not necessarily solving the problem. >> again, i point to the slippery slope and i worry especially about this president and the decision making and the process to executing and getting a special ops force launched as opposed to going to war or doing a different type of military operation. and do you feel any concern looking at his leadership style?

>> well, i think we've had this issue before, that one of the reasons they're attracted to special operations forces, they're easier to keep under the radar. we saw that president obama near the end of his administration put troops in syria that we didn't really know about until one of them got killed and so there is certainly i think we need to be careful that we don't use these simply as a way to hide things from the american people. certainly the american people have to be on board with what we're doing militarily. >> right. >> the book is "oppose any foe" thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> greatly appreciate it. >> final thoughts, rick? >> i think after this 100 days, this 100 days will pass and i do think there's an opportunity for the president to reset. by his own standard, i think the president gets a very low mark on his first 100 days. there was a lot of missteps, a lot of communications missteps, a lot of expectations missteps but he could do much better going forward if he lowered the expectation, brought in more of a professional staff, worked with the congress as you say,

and get some things done. >> and steve rattner? >> 100 days notion is a little artificial but it's not at all artificial to say we've now had him as president for several months, how's he doing and it's been a pretty rocky start. i'm quite -- continue to be struck by these polls that show on the with one hand his base is solid but once you get past that the negative ratings on every other character trait is extraordinary. >> another sports analogy, if you chop it up we're about almost through the first inning. it's a nine-inning game. we'll see how it goes. >> all right. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks, mika. thank you, joe. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning, off the wall, president obama backs down. he is now open to delaying his border wall in order to avoid a government shutdown. as the white house floats a huge tax cut for corporations, but who exactly will pay for it? >> the tax plan will pay for itself with e