alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts now. his tweets speak for themselves. the president was very dealer in his tweet. >> the president was very clear and i think there's continuing to be a literal interpretation of his tweet. >> the president's tweets stand for themselves. >> i think the tweets speak for itself. >> sometimes you don't have to read too much into it. he stated a fact. the tweet speaks for itself. i'm moving on. >> what i just said speaks for itself. >> white house press secretary tactic over the past few months when asked to defend a questionable trump tweet. so i'm wondering what his explanation is going to be this morning of the odd tweet that the president put out last night because apparently it speaks for itself. >> covfefe, if you watch star

wars. >> i thought it was a spanish soft drink company. >> it's down now, if you can believe it. it was up for a good six hours, five hours. >> he posted at midnight. i think he fell asleep in the middle of it. and they took it down. >> who tweets in bed, anybody? >> well. >> good morning everyone. it's wednesday, may 31st. with us we have nicholas come sorry, former aide to the george w. bush white house elise jordan and "new york times" reporter michael schmidt in washington. >> schmidt knows everything. what did that mean. >> the president of the united states, the leader of the free world. >> i was trying to figure out if it was comey or not. >> schmidt sees comey in everything. >> where is the team that would

catch a problem like a mistaken tweet where the president might -- what if he said something really uncouth or what if he said something really dangerous? would it sit up there for five hours, nobody to protect him? >> at what point do you wake up the president to tell him about an awful thing that's happened or tell him to fix or delete a tweet? apparently this was not at that level as it still stands. i guess we have to wonder. >> this is not, willie, the 3:00 a.m. call, mr. president. >> one thing it does prove is donald trump is writing his own tweets, you would think there would be a vetting process and they'd get together, what should the message be? >> think about every word. >> that's somebody lying in bed, tweeting. >> could have been worse. >> i have divided to launch -- >> after this trip, we hear talk, oh, all the tweets are

going to start being vetted by legal counsel. that is clearly not happening. >> unless as a lawyer in his bed at 12:04 at night or in the morning. >> the "wall street journal" reported the president's team is meeting this week to discuss new communications strategies. they may want to meet quickly. quote, one major change under consideration would see the president's social media posts vetted by a team of lawyers who would decide if any needed to be adjusted or curtailed. the idea, one of trump's advisers told the paper is to create a system so tweets, quote, don't go from the president's mind out to the universe. and more potential risks president trump is taking in his communications. a new report alleges he's asked world leaders to bypass protocol and call his cell phone i urging them to call him directly.

former and current u.s. officials tell the a.p. that trump extended the offer to leaders of canada and mexico. the officials say only canadian prime minister justin trudeau has taken him up on it so far. neither the white house nor trudeau's office responded to the request for comments. the report also sources a french official who claims trump exchanged numbers with french president emmanuel macron. >> the problem, willie, is, again, a random tweet. not a lot of harm done with that other than the fact that the president just turned from europe and he's been seen as erratic, unstable, undisciplined. some have said a laughing stock for how he behaved. yes, this errant tweet, not a

big problem except for the fact that -- how many people does he have following? >> 30 million. >> across europe, there were people in europe awake for the last five hours saying, okay, what does this mean? it does matter when you're president of the united states. it doesn't matter if you're a congressman, senator or even ambassador. when you're a president of the united states and seen as erratic, it causes more concern. >> it should go without saying that the tweets are vetted. >> revolutionary idea. >> this is the messaging for the president. i understand it's his private twitter account. no one makes that distinction. he's the president of the united states. i agree, i don't think this is a big deal, it's sort of a side story, this tweet this morning. but the idea that the things he's saying and putting out there are not run through some kind of a system, at least strategically they should want to have a message that's consistent and not be hwhims.

>> it makes it seem that it's advisers talking. >> therein lies part of the problem. you have the president going around and he wants to get rid of people that are working for him. he wants to blame people for the bad decisions he's making. he wants an overhaul of his communications strategy. you can go back and look at so many of the things that have gone wrong over the past couple months, all went back to the original sin of that obama tweet which he did himself. 95% of trump's problems are all self-inflicted. so that tweet actually is pretty symbolic of a bigger problem.

the madness starts at the top. >> any time you're trying to create structures around the chief executive to stop him from being him, it's a problem. you can't really do that. it can't ever really work. this would be his sixth or seventh or 19th shakeup since he started running for president. it's really all about his choices. i suspect the president tweets for the same reason we all do, the instant feedback, the instant gratification of talking to people and getting a response directly. it's not always a good thing or useful thing if you're president. >> the fact that he can't be trusted with less than 140 characters is a very sad reality that the country at some point has to face. >> but, also, though, the reality is that there's some people in his base, the 38, 39%. >> that will like that tweet and understand what it says? >> no. they like him tweeting. they like him getting around the

media and saying fake news even when it's clearly the truth. what something is being reported on, he'll just say fake news. >> the intoxication, he can also create his own alternative reality on twitter, his own set of facts, his own narrative. a guy who is under this pressure and under investigation, it's probably intoxicating. >> willie, he's always created his own reality. even back when he did "the apprentice," he would always send an e-mail around to people, had the number one show this week. you would look and go -- wait, it's number 23. i kept saying, wait, is there a demo? he created his own reality. that's what he does now with twitter. >> he creates a world in which he puts out a statement, that's the basis for how we's going to

discuss this. this is the fact as you should believe it. when, in fact, it's not and it's our job to suss through that. what he did show over the last week or week and a half during his trip abroad, he could on twitter keep a message. he wasn't tweeting randomly when he was on the trip. he was tweeting about meetings he had, what he had done on the trip. the minute he got back on u.s. soil he went back to tweeting the way he did before. there is some mechanism, some system by which someone can sit at his side and say here is the message of the day, tweet that out. >> michael schmidt, there have been profiles over the past couple days suggesting donald trump is increasingly isolated, insulated, upset, realizing that this job is not the job for him, overeating, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. i wonder if he's on a foreign trip and his wife is with him and there's activity and there

are plans, whether if at that point he's more engaged. and if he comes back to the white house and if what everybody is saying on the inside is true, the guy bangs around the white house himself. even if you look at these tweets, it's obvious he was awake after midnight. he took it down a little after 5:00. >> the thing about the tweets i find interesting, in regards to the russia story, he's really hurt himself because what he tweeted about comey saying maybe he should be -- watch out, maybe there are tapes. that motivated some of the folks i was talking to about comey's interactions with trump and how trump told comey to end the flynn investigation. the tweets plant ideas in people's heads and loosen them up to talk about things or motivate them in ways they

wouldn't be before, and in that case it really hurt him because it led to bob mueller being appointed to special counsel. >> donald trump has just tweeted, who can figure out the true meaning of covfefe, enjoy. the fact is, you acted erratic and continue to act erratic and nobody is laughing. what do we have next, mika? >> during our show yesterday, trump tweeted about trade with germany, deepened the chill with that country after the president's trip to europe. the press secretary sought to clarify the president and the german chancellor's relationship. >> i think the relationship that the president has had with merkel he would describe as fairly unbelievable. they get along very well. he has a lot of respect for her. they continue to grow the bond that they had during their talks in the g7. any view, not just nermly, but

the rest of europe as an important mary khan ally. >> how did he view her comments that she felt europe could no longer depend on the united states? >> respectfully that's not what she said. since you're misquoting, let me read what she said. she said the time when europe could rely solely on others is what in the past. as i have witnessed over the past few days europe must take its fate into its own hands. that's great. that's what the president called for. he kald for additional burden sharing. the secretary general of nato said the president's calls are what's moving them in the right direction. the president is getting results to see these individuals heed the call that he has so eloquently put out over the last several -- frankly well over a year. when you look at the comments that the secretary general made, he recognizes that the president's rhetoric has had an extremely positive effect on the strengthening of nato. >> yesterday while burnishing trade with india merkel sought

to cool tensions with washington while still emphasizing that europe had to take its destiny into its own hands. meanwhile nbc news learned german intelligence has told its american counterpart that it does not require any help in monitoring or safeguarding germany's upcoming election. a senior u.s. intelligence official says german officials don't want, quote, any hint of u.s. involvement anymore. adding there isn't much trust in the trump administration when it comes to elections. the germans already have their own intelligence gathering network. angela merkel's main challenger in the election martin schultz told the german broadcaster, quote, we have to make clear that the united states that they are isolated. joe, is it possible what spicy was doing there was spin? do they -- is it possible that they are so unbelievably out of

it or stupid that they don't understand the damage that's being created nationally with the relationship with germany. >> they understand the damage being created. >> are you sure? i don't think he gets it. >> they do understand that. you can talk to the foreign policy community in washington. they will tell you over the past 24 to 48 hours there's been deep concerns about a widening rift between the two. >> i understand others see that. but does the trump administration see what a mess this is creating? >> i do believe they do. i do believe they do. >> they just don't care? >> i'm worried that everyone within the white house is so concerned about their audience of one and pleasing the president that they've completely lost the bigger picture. >> that's what we saw with sean spicer yesterday. that press conference was an absolute disaster except for the fact that he has an audience of

one. the message sent out to the world is a destabilizing message. but he's happy because he's pleased the one guy he needs to please. >> be damd whatever our national interest is and our long-term interest with all these important allies. >> how about the decades of work to strengthen these relationships that is just being unraveled. >> the center of our policy since 1947. willie, you read what's happening in italy. the russians are making inroads in italy as well. this is something that could unravel very quickly. maybe this alliance does not survive the next three years, three and a half years. it's one president, he'll get out in four years and we can

rebuild the relationships that have kept the world safe. italy is unraveling quickly. >> to be clear, in that moment in the press conference where spicer read back the quote. she said in the beginning of her comment, i've experienced this in the last few days, we're going to be on our own, take up our own defense. she was specifically referencing what she called the last few days which is the nato summit g7 and the time she spent with donald trump. that didn't come out of nowhere. that was a shot at the united states. >> it was complete fake news, and you had donald trump yesterday morning, 23 hours ago, attacking germany saying they were very bad. this will change. germany is very bad for the united states. again, the country that stood literally against the wall in defense of freedom in the west from 1949 to 1989, for us.

>> germany is one of the european countries in nato that does pay a pretty big share for the military. i have to say, i think what he's saying on nato and europe is consistent with steve bannon and donald trump were campaigning on for a long time which is the u.s. standing by itself, not entangled instead of a rules-based international order. i think it's good news for putin, but certainly consistent with what trump campaigned on. we're seeing it play out in realtime. >> therein lies the problem, michael schmidt. if donald trump were being equally tough with russia, that would be one thing, but he continues his pattern over the past four and a half months, and we really sawt over the past two weeks, where he embraces autocrats, he embraces leaders

that assassinate journalists, that murder political rivals, that shut down popular dissent and shows contempt to our longstanding allies that actually come from democratic traditions which, at least seems to me, every day that goes by, it seems he has more and more contempt for. >> i think a lot of this early on obviously is rhetoric. what we haven't seen is how he's going to deal with these countries and nato and such in a real crisis. we're four months in. on the international sphere, there's been north korean missile launches and such and problems in afghanistan, obviously an awful bombing today. we haven't really seen him have to do anything. what's going to happen when in afghanistan they have to come up with a new troop level there and he has to work with nato there to try to get them to bring more troops on or if there's issues that continue in iraq and they struggle in mosul. we haven't seen any real crisis

besides ones that have been caused by the inner work innings of the white house. what i'm intrigued to see, when there's a real issue and something needs to be done on north korea, how is his foreign policy going to actually play out compared to what his rhetoric has been? >> still ahead, we'll have the details on the bombing in afghanistan that michael schmidt just mentioned. 80 people killed in kabul in one of the most secure areas of the city. we'll be joined on set by senator al franken, senator tom lee. we had a couple areas in pennsylvania and new york, today's threat through central portions of new england. it doesn't happen that often but from albany, new york, poughkeepsie to newberg back into springfield, mass. the trade threat is pretty low. likely damaging winds and hail with the strongest storms this afternoon. we do have great weather today in the ohio valley, the great

lakes finally starting to worm up a little bit. in the southern half of the country, you're in summer, you'll pop up the afternoon storms in san antonio and new orleans. tomorrow is the first day of june. we had a cool, wet may. the entire east coast. a lot of fog and dreary weather out there today. looks like temperaturewise, we're expecting above average temperatures. the second half will be much warmer than the first half. notice the middle of the country is typical. as far as wet weather goes, the above average wet weather in the northern rockies, everyone looking at a pretty typical june forecast. today drizzly, foggy. things will switch towards the second half of june. so we like that. leaving you with a shot in capitol hill. washington, d.c. finally going to exit with the clouds today looking for a decent afternoon with only a slight chance of a shower. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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breaking news this morning in afghanistan where a powerful blast has left at least 80 people dead and more than 300 wounded. a car bomb exploded near the german embassy and other foreign embassies in the capital's diplomatic district. the u.s. embassy not far from the center of the explosion has not reported any damage. officials say the blast shattered windows in buildings more than a half mile away, and four bbc journalists were injured and their driver killed. the taliban says they played no role in the attack, this after twin suicide attacks in central bagdad on tuesday. a car bomb targeting a popular ice cream shop left at least 15 people dead. just hours later a second bomb hit near a government office building killing at least seven people and injuring dozens more. isis has claimed responsibility for the bagdad attacks.

we'll be following both these stories. an interesting "wall street journal" editorial called "the white house mess." in it the "wall street journal" who has been seen as an ally of donald trump at least through the first couple months of the administration are now saying mr. trump certainly needs to fix the white house mess, but staff changes won't matter unless the president accepts the fact that he's the root of dysfunction. it goes after steve bannon, top the guerilla warfare or get out, talking about a whoups tower of basketball and trump is wasting precious time. >> that's putting it lightly. >> white house aides are leaking that president trump is considering a shakeup to stop them from leaking. the casualty on monday was communications director mike dubke. staff chings won't matter unless president trump accepts the root

of the dysfunction. a shortening window for legislative achievements before the 2018 election. if president trump can't show more personal discipline, the farrakhan collusion is that he likes the chaos. willie, the big takeaway is that there is donald trump himself that has extraordinary built an advantage with republicans owning washington but he's completely wasting that built-in advantage. >> the "wall street journal" says he has to acknowledge that he's the root of the dysfunct n dysfunction. president trump doesn't believe there is dysfunction. >> by the way -- you are exactly right. he thinks everything is going perfectly. >> he thinks everything is running smoothly. imagine you're the new communications director. what do you do with something

like last night? if donald trump is sitting in bed tweeting or sending out a message that completely undercuts the message you came up with or sits down with lester holt in an interview and undercuts everything the white house has said about the russia probe, how do you handle that when a guy at the top is calling the shots and he's putting out his own message however and whenever he wants to. >> i remember the chaotic first week, mika and i went to lunch with the prs at the white house about ten days in. you could hear the protesters outside. it was the executive order that caused mass chaos across the world, and certainly the airports. protests in the street, it was 24/7 news coverage. it was an yourly way to start the week. and i remember donald asking me, how do you think the first week into? i said -- well, i like the union guys. you brought the union guys in and talked about making the steel pipes american, that could

be transformative. well, what about -- it's been kind of rocky. he spent the next hour and a half saying to everybody who walked in the room, can you believe joe didn't think it's been a great week. everybody that would come in. it struck me just what you're saying, willie, nobody around him had told him that he had the most chaotic, crappy first week in the history of modern presidencies. >> downhill from there. >> nobody told him. he was genuinely shocked. >> the most powerful bubble no politics is the bubble in the west wing. it's always been true and it's actually hard to get outside that bubble in the best of circumstances. i think the journal's question he likes the chaos, he loves chaos, the master of chaos in

his mind. he creates chaos in his own staff deliberately because it gives him the outcomes he likes. the executive branch is not a small family business, it can't be run the same way. >> that bubble that you talk about. you put a narcissist inside that bubble and i think what you get is what we saw that day which was a president who is more interested in talking about how cool it was to be in the oval office and how cool it was to be walking down the portico and how cool it was to be in the blue room and how amazing it was that he was president, and look at the crowd size. i've got pictures all over the west wing of how big the crowd size was. can you believe the he said the crowd size was smaller. this is a president obsessed with himself and how amazing things are for him because he's now got the power of the presidency than he is about the

job. >> we aren't the first to say it. it's remarkal michael schmidt that this guy is president of the united states and he's still going out of his way to look for slights. he's still going out of his way to fight. i told him more than one time, you're president of the united states. just go with it. stop looking for reasons to be offended. he's got much bigger problem and one that you're more familiar wit this isn't a family business. this isn't a play thing. he can't create an alternative reality because the only reality that's going to matter to him and other people close to him in the future is bob mueller's relalt and the state of the law. >> we're interesting a very complicated phase of the administration, because if you talk to folks that were around clinton at the time of impeachment and those

investigati investigations, it gets very complicated. there's legal questions, public relations questions, questions with capitol hill, and they'll have to be navigating them all. >> michael, can you look around on the floor? i think you knocked your microphone off. we kind of like the bathroom effect. >> he's a newspaper guy. >> with schmidt took the turn and was about to go to second lap. >> you got it, schmidty? >> the worst moment of my short television career. i made so many great points, too. i had so many great points. >> we heard the first point. it just sounded like you were talking into a shower. let's keep going. >> a very complicated stage of the presidency. dealing with mueller, executive privilege, issues of what mueller wants, dealing with two congressional investigations on

capitol hill which have their own dynamics and dealing with the public relations issue on top of it. this isn't just simple, let's try to get a bill passed. this is let's deal with a guy named bob mueller who is staring us down while trying to keep the narrative of the investigation. we were talking the other day in the office about how mike mccurry would have to step out of certain meetings during the clinton administration because he didn't want to hear certain things about the legal strategy because he had to answer questions about it publicly. this is a very sophisticated thing they're heading into and will require incredible discipline. >> yet, mika, they don't have anybody close to him that understands how washington works. they don't have a leon panetta. they don't with a mike mccurry. they don't have -- certainly don't have anybody resembling james baker. you've got to have that if you want to get through these very

rough waters. >> he does have high quality on his foreign policy team. but what we're hearing be signed the scenes is they want to stay in their lanes and do their jobs. i'm not sure they're going to be able to. >> it's not their job to tell him how to actually get a lawyer that will actually serve him well and how to pass legislation on the hill. he's got to have the self-confidence for the first time in his life to bring in somebody strong around him. >> who can tell him maybe what he doesn't want to hear. that would be a first. coming up, the president wants to reshape the rules of the senate again. plus, don't look now, but the white house is actually getting some of its agenda done. while people are focused on the struggles with bigger fish like health care and tax reform, we'll talk about how they're scoring some smaller victories that will be of big concern to progressives. "morning joe" will be back after this. ♪

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two we have another treat tweet? >> this is important because the leader of the free world is

speaking again. >> this is part one of who knows how many. now it's reported that the democrats who excoriated carter page about russia don't want him to testify. >> dot, dot, dot. >> you know it's bad when there's dot, dot, dot. >> i feel bad for the team that has to try to get him to do anythi anything. >> they must be talking about that on "fox & friends." >> president trump is urging republicans to change senate rules and do away with its legislative filibuster. in a tweet yesterday president trump wrote, the u.s. senate should switch to 51 votes immediately and get health care and tax cuts approved fast and easy. dems would do it no doubt. current rules require 60 votes for a bill to pass the senate. both health care and eventually tax reform are being done under a strategy known as reconciliation. under reconciliation it only takes 51 votes for the senate to approve a house bill. white house press secretary sean spicer expanded on the

president's tweet yesterday. >> i think the frustration he's had with the pace of some of the legislation and some of the obstructionist tactics democrats have employed, whether it's his cabinet nominees or other legislation is well documented. >> he wants to scrap the filibuster entirely. >> he wants to see action done. >> he's talked about scratching it. mitch mcconnell saying no, that ain't happening. >> if you can't get 5 is votes for your thing in the senate when your party krolts the senate, the problem is not the rules. he can't get a majority vote on this stuff. >> it's interesting, though, i actually saw something where you had john cornyn saying that i believe 70%, 80% of the house health bill would pass in the senate. i find that hard to believe. >> as of now, i see republicans being very divided on health care, and donald trump is

certainly doing nothing to help out the process given that he just wants to spend more money on health care. that's really what republicans in the senate want i think. >> which again is baffling at how inconsistent it is that now he's talking about let's just spend more money on health care after, you know, the only way he got things through the house is by slash iing billions of dolla in health care spending. if you're on capitol hill and you're a republican right now, you're panicked because you have an erratic leader who just can't get his act together. >> it's going to -- they're going to pay the price before anybody else does unless something really comes crashing down which as we learn day by day with this chaos, you never know. meanwhile some have been critical that the president has not been able to advance his or his party's agenda on big ticket items like health care reform or tax code overhaul. the white house has been busy rolling back obama-era

regulations. for instance, while divisions over health care took center stage, "the washington post" reports that republicans arrived at a secret strategy to block rules requiring internet service providers to get consent before collecting and potentially selling users's browser history. thank you for rolling that back. quote, while the nation was distracted by the house pending vote to repeal obamacare, senate republicans would schedule a vote to wipe out the new privacy protections. >> can we talk about this for a second? this gets into my running deal. >> i know. this is a real thing. >> my running deal. >> thanks to this administration, they're going to make it more real for you. >> a couple days ago we had tom ricks on saying don't worry about big brother in the form of government alone, also worry about big brother in the form of corporations. you look at me and think this guy must run every day, right? he's marathon man. two weeks ago, i know everybody

is going to have an explanation, but none of them apply. so about two weeks ago i said i've got to start running. i've got a daughter that runs, i want to run 5ks and i don't want to do it in 80 minutes. i said i'm going to get down to nine-minute mile, then 8:30 minute mile. first time i've ever run in my life. i'm a big guy. as i start running, i don't browse, i don't buy anything, i do nothing that would trigger an ad. i just tell mika on the phone. ads are popping up in all my articles saying, are you over 40 and running? what's this about? after i tell everyone how strange it is, still not texting it or tweeting it, i can find it

later in the break. i've got another nine-minute mile. now i'll start going for 8:30 minute mile. we talk about it briefly. the next day i get adds and they're still coming up. are you over 40 and can run a nine-minute mile? this, my friends is not a coinciden coincidence. it's really creepy. again, i have never run before. >> did you search for running shoes? >> did you have your phone on you while you were running? >> no. i didn't have my phone on me. that ad starts popping up everywhere. can you believe that? by the way, you know me well enough to know, i bought all the running gear 20 years ago and never ran. i just started running. >> still perfectly good. >> tom ricks is right.

worry about your deep state and all that, blah, blah, blah, nonsense. this really is -- what corporations are able to get and i'll never be able to explain this, but i started talking to friends and now they're giving me examples of how when they just talked on the phone or talked around the phone, suddenly these ads started popping up. >> this is the best spying device ever invented in the history of man, your own phone. >> lawmakers make you turn it off if you come in the room. >> by the way, when i go and talk to members on capitol hill, they look at my phone. turn it off. the russians are listening. we don't know who else is listening. >> that's what my dad would say. >> your dad said it for quite a while. >> he did. >> the question is, first of all, how are advertising agencies getting this without our knowledge, without our consent, without me -- forget about browse history. secondly, why in the world would

republicans pass any legislation that would allow us to be spied on even more? >> i'll tell you why. millions and millions of dollars of corporate contributions and pac contributions from telecom, one of the most powerful players in washington. they have that town wired in both parties. >> isn't it great they're getting things done? >> i'm freaked out about it. i'm a civil libertarian. this is ridiculous, especially right now at this moment when republicans ostensibly care about spying and oversight and protections for american citizens? they care more about keeping the swamp happy. >> by the way, this is a good example where the president did not run on this. under the cover of his presidency, these things are going to happen. >> making this stranger about the running thing, i never got

any ads like that before, ever. i would be the last guy that you would say, hey, i'm going to targets scarborough for running. >> more like ads for bourbon and atlantic city. >> iced tea, atlantic city. >> off-track betting. >> have you been to a dog track lately? we have we got one for you. still ahead, we're following major advances in the investigation into russia's involvement in the 2016 election. former cia chief of staff jeremy bash joins us when "morning joe" continues. it's time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. niella ellis brown has a detroit-based bottled tea business. local customers love her product but she wants to go national. she asked for a "your business" makeover and now she's about to break through with big-time distribution. watch "your business" weekends at 7:30 on msnbc.

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here is an interesting story in today's "wall street journal." according to a new study americans made over 430 million fewer trips to restaurants at lunchtime last year, a 2% drop from 2015 to 2016 resulting in more than $3 billion in lost business. that 2% drop is the lowest level of lunch traffic in four decades

with workers opting for healthier food. cozy filing for bankruptcy, ruby tuesday and famous days are closing locations. >> that's a generational thing. in our workplaces people don't go out to work anymore. >> they work. >> they don't go out for two hours and catch up and have a drink, they go back to their desk and work. >> is that what you do, millennial. >> i don't have any friends. i'm also a generation xer, not a stinkin' millennial. >> i go to the cafeteria, get lunch, bring it down and work. >> mitty, what do you do? >> i don't eat lunch. lunch eats me. >> wow, michael. >> lunch for weaklings. >> no lunch. >> are you serious?

you just work through it? >> me? >> yeah. >> the thing is, you get stuck in these really long lunches and you look down at your phone and the whole world is falling apart. it's easier to sit at your desk and watch it fall apart from there. >> totally agree with him. >> i will tell you, because of our time schedule, we can't go out to dinner. but go to lunch, but lunch takes so long. >> no. >> it's like, meet us for coffee. >> coffee. >> right? >> coffee. >> but coffee is expensive. >> i will say with all the news doing on, we step out for something, and then all of a sudden someone else has written another story and we've got to go back to the office. it's like playing a baseball game and every time you turn up someone is hitting a home run. >> it is really scary. >> you go into a lunch and come

out. see what happened? no, what happened. the martians attacked, going toward l.a. and las vegas. how did i miss it? moving at a higher pace. >> i missed the kathy griffin news. >> we're not talking about that. gross. not worth doing. coming up, michael, eat some lunch. thanks for being on the show this morning. nourish your self. >> michael, this was a stellar performance. >> i'm just happy i got through it. >> you did very well. >> sort of. >> we'll ask award winning linguist to heaven us practice down the word confefe. plus the president gives out his cell phone to world leaders ♪ used to call me on the cell phone ♪ ♪ call me on the cell phone

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not happy at all. fortunately for pope francis, help is on the way. >> remember when you were care-free, when life was fun? now everything feels like a chore. especially being forced to take pictures with losers you have no interest in knowing. it doesn't have to anymore. with lexi pope. especially formulated for people who are the pope. if you're the pope, ask about lexapope because life should be dealt because being the pope sucks. >> my goodness. welcome back to "morning joe." wednesday may 31st. with us political writer from "new york times," former aide to bush white house. in washington former chief of staff of the cia and department of defense, now an nbc news national security analyst jeremy bash. >> jeremy, we just brought up something we haven't talked

about yet. that was the news that michael flynn, general michael flynn got paid $530,000 to, quote, do a documentary. it's kind of interesting. >> what about? was it a documentary about former national security advisers. >> about turkey. >> about turkey? i'm confused. >> this guy, the more we learn about him, the less we know. and the more baffling his selection as an actual security adviser seems. >> yeah. it certainly served one purpose, which was to take out erdogan's opponents, particularly this guy go gullin. this is what they will be focusing on, was this also a cut out to funnel russian money to

mike flynn. he did do a speech and get payments from other russian entities. i think as the investigations turn toward michael cohen, longtime trump organization lawyer, they are going to be focusing more and more on the financial ties between the trump world and russian federation. i thought it was very interesting that michael cohen came into cross-hairs. he's the guy along with a russian born businessman adviser to the trump organization has been searching for deals in moscow in russia for the trump organization for a long, long time. they tried to get this skyscraper built in moscow in 2015, a deal that ultimately feel but they were pursuing vigorously. i know they are looking to those guys to bring testimony and documents about that effort. >> more on this flynn documentary or i'll put that in quotes because i'm not exactly sure what he was being paid for. elise, was it your late husband

who wrote about flynn actually bragging about lying on security clearances. >> it was a conversation he had amongst his peers. perhaps he was joking but he did say the only reason he got a security clearance was that he lied. this was reported back in 2010. the book was published in 2012. something spending time around mike flynn that was really impressed upon. michael because -- flynn telling michael you have to go in, shake up the system. get attention, maybe god or bad, but shake up the system. that's what he did when he published the report condemning u.s. intelligence for failures and published through d.c. think tank. he was talking in reference to that. it's interesting how years later it seems to be his m.o. while working for president trump. >> half a million dollars for a documentary with turkey. what do you think? >> seems unlikely, right? first of all, if you're turkey

and you want to produce, or you're a turk and want to get a documentary produced about the president of turkey, why would you go to mike flynn who is not known for his expertise in documentary filmmaking. if you look at the federal disclosures you can see, yes, there were payments made through documentary crew but most of the payments went to fund consulting company. it was really not clear -- >> could have been money laundering. >> the client in this case, turkish businessman, he's given different reasons for what he was hiring flip for, provide advice to a gas company or provide advice or turkish-american relations. it's changed a lot over time. >> and it's yet another track for investigators to go down. >> so the president tweeted this morning. now it's reported that the democrats who have excoriated carter page about russia don't want him to testify. he blows away their case against

them and now wants to clear his name by showing the false or misleading testimony by james comey, john brennan witch hunt. i >> i'm confused. does he know carter page or not know carter page? in the past he told washington past that carter page was an adviser. then afterwards backed away and said, we don't -- carter page? who is this carter page you speak of? >> what's going to be helpful. >> who knows carter page? >> nobody tweets except the president. nobody can get into his twitter account. so these tweets will be really helpful in the court of law. >> it's going to be really helpful. every time this president tweets, especially about the investigation, he only helps the fbi. >> these are his words that no one has access to. >> his lawyers have already told him, don't tweet about this stuff. >> that was the feeling before he left on the trip he was doing to rein it in for his own legal

benefit. it does not help the ongoing investigation. he can't help him, last night from midnight to 6:00 a.m. >> which confirms nobody has access to his account. all those words are his and nody else's. congressional probes of the ties between russia and president trump's '6campaign appear to be expanding. the president's personal attorney, michael cohen, tells nbc news he will testify if subpoenaed to appear. cohen earlier said he received requests for information from the senate and house intelligence committees but wouldn't reapply because the request was overly broad and not capable of being answered adding he's waiting for a subpoena. quote, i have nothing to hide. cohen denied claims in a dossier prepared by former spy that he took part in a secret meeting in prague to discuss hacking democratic targets. communication staffer boris epstein to volunteer

information. epstein left after two mondays in the white house. as counsel said he's following up with a committee. a source close to michael flynn says the former national security adviser will provide some personal documents subpoenaed by the senate intelligence committee in its russia probe. flynn refused to cooperate with an earlier subpoena invoking his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. all this as the white house seemed to avoid an answer on the controversy surrounding jared kushner's meeting with russian officials and a russian state banker. >> if he can tell us whether he knew at the time jared kushner was seeking to establish back channel communication to the russian embassy to the russian government. if he didn't know at the time when did he find out. >> i think that assumes a lot. mr. kushner's attorney said mr. kushner volunteered to share with congress about these meetings. he'll do the same if contacted

about any other inquiry. >> did the president discuss it though. >> i'm in the going to get into what the president did or did not discuss. what your question assumes is a lot of facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out. >> does he approve of that action? >> you're asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action. that being said, i think secretary kelly and general mcmaster have both discussed that in general terms back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy. >> jeremy, interesting the white house has really provided no defense for jared kushner over the past several days, certainly didn't provide a defense yesterday. if you're jared kushner and you see six people inside the white house, not two unnamed sources but six piling on in "new york times" stories, it might be a rational approach to begin to

get paranoid. >> the best they have been able to muster is that back channels are a normal feature of diplomacy. that may be true in the abstract. of course in this specific case, there's so many things that make this back channel unusual. first of all going to the russian embassy and using their phones, that's something i've never heard of. second is the timing before the inauguration taking place against long tradition we have of one person at a time. but third, interestingly, the topic that was supposedly going to be discussed, syria, we have troops on the ground in syria. we have several hundred special operations forces conducting missions against isis in raqqa. they are doing other activities on the ground there. the idea that you would be negotiating with a syrian or russian military official affecting what's happening on the ground, that is dangerous. that is dangerous to our troops. that is dangerous to what we're trying to do in country. that can risk lives. without the benefit of career senior professional military advice, it is something that

really needs to be looked at and figured out what happened during that preinauguration time period. >> by the way, syria thing doesn't hold water. nobody believes it. i don't think anybody in the white house even believes they were trying to make contact because of that. as jeremy was talking about, talking to trump's personal lawyer, we may move towards financial contacts with russia, you know it's only a matter of time before don jr. gets called in there as well as eric who have both said that they got a good bit of their money from russia. >> they are interesting figures in all this, because they have sort of been sidelined as the focus has been on ivanka and jared because they are in the white house but don jr. and eric continue to run the family business. as you point out, they said publicly they do a lot of business with russia. they will be swept up eventually. point out in the white house briefing room sean spicer asked

to account for president trump's retweet of a fox news articles which was itself based on a single anonymous source that refuted other reports about jared kushner's meeting with russian officials. just as spicer was decrying "washington post" reporting fof its use of anonymous officials. >> you say first of all the article is based on anonymous sources. >> which it is. >> the fox article the president retweeted was also based on anonymous sources. why was this source they used more credible than the ones in the "washington post" article? >> again, two issues at hand. one is the at the same time that jared's attorney has provided. the second is whether or not the dossier largely the basis of this largely discredited in the first place. most of the publications here refused to even publish it in the first place. i'm not going to get into confirming stuff. there's an ongoing investigation. >> the reporter is correct.

the fox news had no by line and claimed an anonymous source. if you're going to decry anonymous sources you can't use it. >> the article had six, seven, eight white house sources. that's the great irony. every time spicer goes out of there after decrying anonymous sources, you have reporters saying houw many times, spicer, have you talked to us in the background as an unnamed source, which is obvious. >> on a topic, it's a practice out of control that routine matters dealt in the background. if there's a problem with anonymity and blind sources, it's not just the press but the white house as well. >> david brooks writes in the "new york times" about the politics of clan, adventures of jared kushner. jared kushner deserves a bit of sympathy. all his life he's been serving

his father or father-in-law. all his career he's been thrust into roles he's not ready for. kushner seems to have been fiercely, almost self-lessly loyal to family. but the clannish mentality has often ill served him during his stay in government. kushner has made bone headed blunders in the white house. he reportedly pushed for firing of fbi director james comey, even though anybody with a blip of experience could have told you this move would backfire horribly. he's allowed his feud with steve bannon to turn into a public soap opera. we don't know everything about his meetings with the russians but we know that they bea tray rookie naivete on several levels. this turmoil for both trump and kushner was inevitable. we can add to that list he pushed ruddy giuliani. he pushed michael flynn in such an aggressive way that nobody could really reason with him in terms of a choice of national security adviser.

it seems that everything that has gone wrong for this administration has had jared attached to it. >> from what i've learned from people familiar with how the white house operates that jared kushner has been such a problem with the command climate in the white house, just because reince priebus never staked out any authority. >> couldn't. >> any decision that is made always is second guessed by jared. so nothing ever really gets done. since he has such a large portfolio, he has his hands in everything, so you see where we sit today, this completely unstable white house. not only is the president a detablizing force but you've got all these factions literally at war with each other in the press every single day. i cannot imagine a worse place to work. >> you know, jeremy, it seems to me -- by the way, i disagree with you on everything that's gone wrong has been attached to jared. but one thing i have noticed in

this white house is an extraordinary amount of arrogance about the ability to get things done without a regular chain of command. there is no regular chain of command. as elise said, jared's portfolio is pretty massive. always, talk about italy, moving towards russia. one of the reasons italy is moving towards russia is because donald trump has not appointed an ambassador to italy. he hasn't appointed people in the tate departmestate departme to be appointed in the state department. general mattis can't get bake things done because he hasn't appointed under-secretaries donald trump needs to appoint. you can talk about state, d.o.d., every other agency and there's a feeling in this white house, well, we can run it all from here. we don't want to appoint other people in these other cabinet

agencies. we talk about all the different problems, all the different scandals going on with this white house, this is perhaps the post deabiling for this country and for this government because they are so arrogant they think they can run everything from the west wing. >> yeah, i've been talking to folks in the pentagon, joe. i think general mattis, secretary mattis has been putting forward a number of nominees but running into a brick wall with white house personnel system. he does not have under-secretary for policy. he does not have most of his direct reports in place. i think they only have one service secretary there, the air force secretary, secretary wilson. they don't have a navy schenectady, an army secretary. even deputy secretary of defense has not been formally nominated. they are basically stalled out in terms of personnel at the defense department. same thing at state and elsewhere in the beaurocracy as you've talked about. these people are critically important. they do come together at the

white house to hash out decisions to prepare for things like visits toinator other plat ral enga -- bilateral engagements. if they can get him to stick to the script, but without that setting up for disaster. >> insane for anybody to have the size portfolio in the white house jared kushner has, let alone somebody who has no experience in government, no relationships on capitol hill. i remember at one of the inaugural balls that night when donald trump in his tuxedo and looked down in the crowd and said, where is jared? jared is going to fix middle east peace. it's so varied and diverse for somebody who doesn't have experience doing this that it's kind of crazy putting it all on one person. >> joe, you look at the first few weeks of the white house, the muslim ban, it was jar who defended individual medley namie, stephen miller went on

television and said the president's powers cannot be questioned. he defended and pushed for flynn to the point where he was crazy. you couldn't talk to him. he pushed giuliani. i know a number of people who talked to him about russia and said the russia thing is a problem. he would not listen. by the way chris christie is not in the white house because of jared, because of family issues with jared. jared didn't want it. chris christie might have been able to make a difference in there, because he at least understands the law. and he has an ability to stand up for himself. maybe not everything is attached to jared but i think he's been overplayed as a moderating force when he's attached to some pretty serious developments. >> everything is attached to donald trump. everything starts and ends with donald trump. what we have found is donald trump has set up a white house just like a business where he has five or six people around that are constantly viewing for his attention. and all six of those, including

jared, bannon, you name is, know if they step out of line, then he sends them to the back of the li line. so what he gets are people around him who are obsequious, keep their head down. in many cases like, for instance, steve bannon, they actually play to the president's worst instincts. >> i don't see steve bannon -- i don't see jared at the back of the line ever. >> they are all circling around. >> well -- >> if you think jared kushne can waulk in and tell donald trump get off your phone and stop tweeting. >> no, he definitely can't. >> if donald trump thinks jared kushner is more concerned with kushner family business than trump family business, that's where the real problem starts for jared kushner. >> i'm telling you, "there are five or six people around there. they all are in the same exact position. you go in. you speak out again donald

trump, he'll either fire you or send you to the back of the line, which is why this white house is as dysfunctional as it is. >> jeremy bash, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," the hallowed halls of capitol hill have been immortalized by giants of the senate like daniel webster, henry clay and now al franken, the senator from minnesota joins us. >> he's got that look. >> a book by that title. we'll be right back. new bikes aren't selling guys... what are we gonna do? how about we pump more into promotions? ♪ nah. what else? what if we hire more sales reps? ♪ nah. what else? what if we digitize the whole supply chain? so people can customize their bike before they buy it. that worked better than expected. i'll dial it back. yeah, dial it back.

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all right. 23 past the hour. joining us now democratic senator al franken of minnesota. >> self-proclaimed. >> his new book is titled "al franken, giant of the senate." >> look at the picture, really captures. >> speaks of the gravitas of a giant and the burden on a giant.

>> well, quite a burden these da days. >> the globe is impressive. >> there's a fire in the globe behind me. >> impressive. let's get it again. all right, giant of a senate. >> it's an oil painting. >> the trump orb. >> almost as good as trump's self-portrait. >> except al is actually kind of kidding and trump is not. trying to help you out here. >> tell us about the book. >> well, i targeted writing this book to answer the question that i probably get asked the most, which is being a senator as much fun as working on "saturday night live." and the answer is, of course, no. why would it be. but it's the best job i've ever had. >> why?

>> because you get to achieve things for people. you get to improve people's lives. as paul wellstone said politics is not about winning, not about money. it's not about winning for the sake of winning, it's about improving people's lives. >> so do you get -- is it legislation that gives you the greatest satisfaction? >> both of those. sometimes you do one thing for one person that changes this life or kid's life or something like that. my first piece of legislation i passed two weeks from the senate, jonze isaacson from georgia, co-sponsor that paired service dogs with vets from afghanistan and iraq with service dogs. vets that had invisible wounds like ptsd. that was a very satisfying

thing. >> it priced me, i went in as an ideologue in 1994. what surprised me is when i left, of all the things we did, fought to balance a budget, there were a lot of things flying over those seven or eight years. when people came up to me on airplanes doing home and thanking me for was the help with the social security check or helping somebody getting their farm back when the irs had been out there for four years and -- >> very important in the office. >> it's amazing how that actually is what people remember you for at the end, in many ways. >> of course we have huge issues before us like health care. >> of course. i'm just saying sometimes this isover looked and forgotten. >> it is. i told my team, look, if we get nothing done, we've got to have a good, strong constituent server. my people in minnesota are wonderful. >> when are were elected as an

outsider coming into washington. >> yes. >> a lot of people that come to washington having lived outside there and used to making decisions and getting things done very quickly are frustrated by the glacial pace of things. what was your biggest surprise when you came to washington. >> i think the biggest surprise was the lack of debate. i had this image of us talking to each other on the floor of the senate. a couple of times the best debate is when they turned off the tv cameras. this is once in a trial of a judge and once was when we went to the old senate chamber and talked about this is when we invoke the -- you know, when we went nuclear. we were trying to beg them to not let us do it, to get a gang

of 14, and we didn't. those were real debates. but what you work with colleagues more in individual settings. that's monaco that's very satisfying. i write in my book that that's the way things have to work. you have to be able to make alliances and work with people that you didn't think you'd work with. >> is polarization overstated in the press or is it as bad? >> no. on this health care bill, the fact that mcconnell is going to a group of 13 republicans behind closed doors, that to me is the very wrong way to do it. this is a disaster, what came from the house anyway. i think this needs to be opened in a bipartisan way. i don't think they are going to get the 50. he has said that. he doesn't know if they will get the 50. i hope they tastart sooner rath

than later. this is incredibly important. >> why can't we figure out how to do this in a bipartisan way. >> that's what we're urging. i'm on the health care committee. >> this the third time. you had clinton's efforts in '93, '94, obama's efforts in 2009 and 2010. >> we had hearings. so much of that bill was republican amendments. >> it's one-sixth of the economy. why can't republicans and democrats get together and say, let's figure this out together? what is the problem? >> ask mitch mcconnell. >> it's not just mitch mcconnell's fault. >> it is right now. >> i'm talking about since '93. if you believe it's just the republicans' fault, you can say that. i'm just curious. it's frustrating. it's one-sixth of the economy. we've got to get the cost curve down. >> you can't overstate to me the importance of health care. when i started running in '08, i

knew half of all bankruptcies in the country were associated with a health crisis. aid radio show and elizabeth warren would come on and tell me that. but you go around minnesota and you see -- at that time see cafes and vfws all with a spaghetti dinner for a family that's gone bankrupt. >> how do we get together. >> we've had this achievement. talk to mitch mcconnell about this. he is saying, well, i don't know if we can get the 50. what they are talking about, and why this is so awful, we're talking not just about 23 million people losing their health care, which is a cbo score, as you know but talking about pre-existing quconditions losing health care, which is completely backward. medicaid matching with $900

million tax cut for wealthy americans. this is wrong, wrong, wrong. i've gone to rural health meetings at hospitals, nursing homes, clinics. people are crying about this because my woman was crying because her mom gets her home health care through medicaid. okay. she said, she's going to lose that and my husband and i both work. we don't know what to do with my mom. >> it's going to be devastating for a lot of people. so many people in rural communities that voted for donald trump are going to be devastated. their health care, hospitals, hospice care, you name it, rehab clinics all devastated by this. >> this budget. nor, i have a question for you. the president is weighing in on the yort vote rules of the senate, the elusive majority vote. i'm curious about the filibuster, is the filibuster better or worse for the senate? should they abolish it once and for all? >> no. this is something that requires

us to get the sum consensus. no. i don't think mitch mcconnell wants to do that either. i think i don't think there's much taste for that in the senate. >> you were there last night? >> i was. david letterman for my book "al franken giant of the senate." >> does he still have that beard, santa claus beard. >> that beard is a carbon sink. >> he said he's beginning to lose faith in the trump administration. >> is he really? what was the turning point for dave? >> it might be climate. he and i both believe climate change is an existential threat.

i told him last night, look, i have three grandchildren. i don't want them in 50 years saying grandpa, you knew climate change was happening. you were a united states senator. why didn't you do anything? also i'll still be alive because i'll be 110 then. >> i know. what's with grandpa? when is he going to leave. >> the new book. >> when is grandpa just going to die? that's what they are doing to say. >> they won't be saying that. they will be, gosh, we love grandpa. thank you for investments in nih, national institute of health. >> that's what they will be saying. >> they are here. >> they are so cute. >> those are the grandchildren. >> oh, my goodness. oh, my gosh, hi, adrian, very cute. >> cutie. >> very happy. >> that's jacob and his brother

charl charlie. >> that's, joe, my oldest with avery. he's torturing avery there. >> they do. okay, will. >> the news is so heavy and relentless and feels heavy to so pane people because of the health care, what you described, russia. can you give people watching a hopeful note about what's happening in washington right now? >> no. >> giant of the senate, al franken, thank you so much. this morning's senate book club continues. we're going to bring in senator mike lee and tom coburn both with their new books. also ahead master class in public relations at the state department yesterday. we'll play for you one longtime official's very difficult day at the press podium when we return.

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yesterday during the briefing off secretary of state rex tillerson's recent trip to the middle east with the president, acting assistant president of state for near eastern affairs stewart jones, who is a career american diplomat, also served as ambassador to jordan and iraq and to have some difficulties finding the answer to a question

on the trump administration's approach to democracy in the middle east. >> well the secretary criticized iran's election and democracy did so standing next to saudi officials. how do you characterize saudi arabia's commitment to democracy. does the administration believe democracy is a barrier against extremi extremism. >> i think what we say is that at this meeting we were able to make significant progress with saudi and gcc partners in both making a strong statement against extremism and also

putting in place certain measures through this gcc mechanism where we can combat extremism. clearly one source of extremism, one terrorism threat, is coming electric iran. that's coming from part of the iranian apparatus that's not at all responsive to its elector e electorate. >> jones announced his retirement just over two weeks ago. that was hard to watch. i feel a little bad for the guy. having said that, there is a problem with understanding any strategic vision from this presidency. >> that's the trouble with you put out a career foreign service officer. >> diligent. >> to tell the truth.

>> knows history. >> exactly. give an accurate representation of u.s. foreign policy. that is the problem you run into when surrogates are trying to be honest. you look at how this -- under rex tillerson i've been incredibly disturbed by the lack of transparency with the press, by not taking american press on trips, not giving briefings to the foreign press. >> i don't think they are even able to hire. >> exactly. but they still can communicate and tillerson can communicate himself. that's really such a major role of the secretary of state, to be the face of america's diplomacy. he simply isn't doing it. you see nikki haley really filling that void. that's on some level baffling, too. the tate department hstate dep this responsibility. >> up next tom coburn joins the table. what if technology

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joining us now former republican senator tom coburn from oklahoma. out with a new book "smashing using article 5 to restore freedom and stop runaway government." great to have you on the set with us. how are you doing? >> i'm doing great. >> fantastic. tell us about the book. there's a different article i want to ask you about at some point but go ahead. >> i left washington because i didn't see we could fix it there. our founders gave us this opportunity for state legislatures to reexert their authority to restore the constitution to its original intent. to what we've done is we have an application under article 5 of the constitution that has three components. one, forcing balanced budget using general accepted accounting principles. number two, limiting power and scope of the federal government. number three, limiting terms of appointed and elected members of congress. if you do those things, we can actually rebalance and more power back to the people.

what we've done we've lost it. as a u.s. senator and congressman, most of your people couldn't see you or talk to you. as a state representative they can. bringing the power back to where the people actually have an input in it with solve some of the problems facing our country. >> how do you do it. >> how do you do it? you have to have 34 states agree through state legislators to make an application for an article 5 convention. that application has to be the same from all of those 34, essentially the same. then all they do is meet and make recommendations to the states in terms of changing. ask your self why we're not fixing social security. why are we not fixing medicare's unfunded liabilities? why do we have $400 billion in waste, fraud and duplication. $145 billion in improper payments. >> let's talk about the first two. nobody wants to do it. nobody wants to talk about it. donald trump said he's not doing

to touch it. republicans have shown no more bravery towards it than democrats. >> shutly. that's because career poll situations aren't going to solve it and our founders knew that. they never intended for people to serve a lifetime in public service in washington. therefore, the next election trumps anything else, and i don't mean to make a pun. it's more important. how do we actually muzzle the alligators in the swamp? by reducing their authority back to what it was originally intended. >> do you think that gets us? you were on this in the senate as well, people focus on nonmandatory spending, the easy stuff. they nibble around edges and go after nih when they don't tackle real drivers of deficit. does this get us closer? do people have the courage? >> they have to. what career politicians need is an excuse to have a spine. so if you have a balanced budget amendment with general accepted accounting, then they can go home and say, i had to.

here is the balanced budget amendment. it's an 85% issue in america across both parties. this is not a partisan movement. this is about restoring. think about this. what's going to happen to the millennials? you talk about people falling through the cracks. the average millennial will have to pay back $1.7 million over the next 50 years. that's over $30,000 bucks a year. they already have a declining median income. >> when you say they are doing to have to pay back, because of the unfunded liabilities. >> unfunded liabilities plus debt now is $144 trillion. people don't know what a billion is. if you make $40,000 a year you have to work 20 years to make a million dollars. to make a billion, have you to work 25,000 years. now think about it. now we know what a billion is. the average american having to work 25,000 years. that's just pocket change to career politicians.

>> and we have a trillion dollar debt. >> do you think the waste problem in washington is actually getting even worse? you were famous for the waste report where you chronicled the government would spend money on. it seems like it's spiraling out of control and we have republicans controlling both houses and the president and the president tweeting about putting more money in health care spending. >> i think the disease is failure to address the real problems of our country. our founders gave up -- if you want to figure out how to do that, go to cthe book. it will take away your depression of the you'll know there's a way to actually solve the problems. you won't have to pay attention to the garbage going on in washington, all of that that is there that doesn't accomplish anything except make individual politicians look good. >> are we seeing an era of big

republicans again? >> i think you're seeing mass confusion and lack of leadership. white house, senate or the house. americans want the problems solved. they want to see it done. here's a solution as big as the problems we have. >> what's causing the mass confusion right now? >> lack of leadership. >> where's -- if you had to name a leader in the white house or senator house, who would it be? >> if i wanted a leader -- >> you got what you got. >> i put richard burr in charge of everything in the senate. him and ben sass and a few others, then not interested in partisan gamemanship, they are interested in fixing our country. >> it's slim pickings. >> it is. >> you have a unique respective as being a doctor and former senate. you saw the rose garden ceremony that the president led, are we in this country going to live with obamacare as it exists

today or will the senate be able to cobble something together that passes through? >> i think that's all superficial. here's what's important. you're never going to solve health care until you have real competition uniout there. if you have real competition where you have price transparency where people can see what things cost, you can lower the cost of health care % 030%. it will direct people to the cheapest mri, to give you the best deal. outcomes published that says here's the surgery, we guarantee whatever your complications are, we'll do it for a fourth of what you can do somewhere else. real competition with real quality perimeters, americans know how to buy -- >> so why is it health care is one of the few things that has absolutely no market forces in it? if i go get -- if i say my head tb hurting for a couple of weeks

and keep pushing my doctor to get an mri and get the mri, fine, and i walk away after the mri, i don't know how much that cost. >> that's right but you're not paying for it. >> i'm not. >> amish fathers, go look at them. they buy the health care for about a third of what you pay because they go and find the best price. they go and work a deal and they actually are paying for it. therefore they buy great quality at a lower price. all we need to do is copy what they are doing and we can solve our problems and we can reward excellence, which we should be because if you have a price but you're better, you'll get a better price. if you're worse, people won't come to you, that's the other problem. you have self-referrals in this noncompetitive hospital vertal horizontal that needs to be busted up. it doesn't matter whether -- price transparency, you're not going to lower any cost of health care. >> can republicans push for the

transparency? >> they can put it in a reconciliation bill. that would solve health care tomorrow. >> the book is smashing the d.c. monopoly, tom coburn, good to see you. >> god bless you. >> we'll bring in senator mike lee. at the top of the hour, the president's tweeting takes a turn for a surreal. the incomplete tweet that had the world scratching its head and what it says about the workings of the white house. the president tells world leaders -- security implications of that development when morning joe continues. >> i got a number, how do you like them apples.

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i don't think you have to read too much into it. he's stating a fact. tweet speaks for itself. i'm moving on. what i said speaks for itself. >> the white house press secretary tactic over the past few months to defend a questionable trump tweet. apparently it speaks for itself. let's not get ahead of our skis now. >> if you watch any of the star wars movies. >> and nick is a big fan. >> you go -- it's rogue one, right after rogue one, remember? >> actually. >> like a spanish soft drink company. >> it was up for what, a good six hours. >> posted at midnight. i think he fell asleep in the middle of it. it happens and -- >> who tweets in bed, anybody? >> well -- i don't know. >> good morning, everyone. it's wednesday, may 31st.

we have nicholas and former aide to the george w. bush white house, elise jordan and "new york times" reporter michael schmit. what does cofveve mean? >> what does it mean? >> i was trying to figure out if it was comey or not but it didn't look like it was comey. >> where's the team? >> to hatch a problem like a mistaken tweet. what if he said something really uncouth or dangerous, would it sit up there for five hours, nobody to protect him? >> at what point do you wake up the president to tell him about an awful thing that's happened or to tell him to fix or delete a tweet?

apparently this was not at that level as it still stands. so i guess we have to wonder. >> this is not willie, the 3:00 a.m. call. >> no, the one thing it does prove, donald trump is writing his own tweet -- you would think that there would be some process and get together and think about every word. somebody lying in bed tweeting and always -- >> i have decided to launch -- >> but after this trip, we hear talk, all of the tweets are going to start being vetted by legal counsel. that is clearly not happening. >> unless he has a lawyer in his bed at 12:04 at night in the morning. >> the wall street journal report is meeting this week to discuss new communication strategies and want to meet quickly. one major change under consideration would be the president's social media posts vetted by a team of lawyers who

would decide if any needed to be adjusted or curtailed. the idea one of trump's advisers told the paper is to create a system so that tweets don't go from the president's mind out to the universe. and more potential risks, president trump is taking in his communications, a new report alleges he asked world leaders to bypass diplomatic protocol and call his cell phone. he's been urging them to call them directly. former and current u.s. officials tell the ap trump has extended the offer to leaders of canada and mexico. the officials say only canadian prime minister trudeau has taken him up on it so far. none of the white house nor trude trudeau's office responded. it cites a french official,

exchanged numbers with emmanuel macron during his win. >> the problem willie, is again, a random tweet, not a lot of harm done with that, other than the fact the president just returned -- and he's been seen as erratic and unstable and undisciplined and some said a laughing stock for how he -- and this errant tweet, not a big problem except for the fact that how many people does he have following, 31 million. and across europe there are people in europe awake for the last five hours going, okay, what does this mean? it does matter when you're president of the united states. it doesn't matter if you're a congressman or senator or even an ambassador. when you're president of the united states and spain is erratic in the first place, it just causes more concerns. >> i think it should go without

saying that the tweets are vetted. it shouldn't be a news story this morning that the white house -- a message that comes -- >> that it comes out of the oval office. this is a messaging for the president. i understand it's a private twitter account but no one makes that distinction. he's president of the united states. i don't think it's a big deal sort of a side story, this tweet this morning, but the things he's saying and putting out there are not run through some sort of system and strategically they should want to have a message that's consistent and not be his whims as he lies in bed. >> he tweeted people critique my tweets and my use of social media but i'm talking directly to the people right after the trip. it makes me think this is advisers talking and they want to limit him from social media but he is not feeling it yet. >> which there in lies part of the problem. you have the president going around and he wants to get rid of people that are working for him. he wants to blame people for

actually the bad decisions he's making. he wants an overhaul of thinks communication strategy. when you can go back and look at so many of the things that have gone wrong over the past couple of months, all the way back to the original sin of the obama tweet which he did himself. 95% of his problems are all self-inflicted. so that tweet actually is pretty symbolic of a bigger problem that the white house can't -- because the madness starts at the top. >> any time you're trying to create structures around the chief executive to stop him from being him, it's a problem. you can't do that. it can't ever really work. this would be the sixth or seventh or 19th shake-up since running for president. it's all about his choices and i suspect the president tweets for the same reason we all do, the instant feedback and instant gratification of talking directly to people and getting a

response directly. it's not always a good thing or useful thing if you're president. >> and the fact that he can't be trusted with less than 140 characters is a very sad reality that the country at some point has to face. >> but, also though, the reality is there's some people in his base, the 38, 39%, that -- >> people like that tweet and understand what it says? >> they like him tweeting. they like him getting around the media. and saying fake news even when it's clearly the truth, what something is being reported on, he'll say fake news. >> you know, it's also that he can create his own alternative reality on twitter, his own set of facts, the amount of pressure he's under and investigation, it's probably intoxicating. >> for a guy, willie, always

created his own reality. i remember back when he did "the apprenti apprentice", he would send an e-mail around to people -- number one show this week and then you would look at it and go i swear to god, wait, it's number 23. and i'm serious, wait, is there a demo? he created his own reality. and that's what he does now with twitter. >> he creates a world in which he puts out a statement that's the basis for how we're going to discuss this. this is the facts as you should believe it when in fact it's not enough to do that. what he did show over the last week or week and a half on his trip abroad was that he could actually on twitter anyway, keep a message. he wasn't tweeting randomly while he was on the trip. he was tweeting about meetings he had and things he had done on the trip. the minute he got back on u.s. soil, he went back to tweeting the way he did before.

there is some mechanism, some system by which someone can sit at his side and say here's the message of the day, tweet that out but apparently -- >> again, the profiles other the past couple of days suggesting that donald trump is increasingly isolated, insulated, upset, realizing that this job is not the job for him, overeating, et cetera, et cetera. i just wonder if he's on a foreign trip and his wife is with him and there's activity and their plans, whether at that point he's more engaged then comes back to the white house and it's -- what everybody has been saying on the inside is true, the guy kind of bangs around the white house by himself. walking around. it's obvious he was up after midnight and gets up at 5:00 in the morning and took it down.

>> the thing about the tweets i find interesting, in regards to the russia story, he hurt himself. what he tweeted about comey saying maybe he should be watch out, maybe there are tapes. that motivated some of the folks i was talking to about comey's interactions with trump and led to them talking about how trump told comey to end the flynn investigation. so the tweets sort of plant ideas in people's heads and loosen them up to talk about things or motivate them in ways they wouldn't be before. in that case it really hurt him because it led to bob mueller being appointed to special counsel. >> still ahead on "morning joe", senator mike lee joins us. plus, will the need to please an audience of one in the white house jeopardize hundreds of key relationships with allies like germany? we'll talk about that but first bill karins with a check on some severe weather. bill?

>> a minor severe weather threat in new england. we may get sun out on the east coast. you can see gloomy weather continues. airport delays amazingly even with the low ceilings and fogs, new york is doing okay but check heading in and out of philly. severe weather threat, insear y tear yor sections of new england, tlhrough the hudson valley and hartford and springfield, 4 million people at ri of severe storms and 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. event. hail and damaging wind and very slight chance of an ice lasolai. here's the timing on everything, here comes the cold front, these are showers popping up. this is 6:00 p.m., for every one of those afterschool activities, northern new england has the worst of it. here's the best news, it looks like thursday is going to be nice, maybe a hit and met showers in the mountains,

otherwise the beautiful weather today in areas from minneapolis to chicago will push into the northeast tomorrow, for all of our friends in the southern half of the country, hit and miss storms, typical summertime weather and everyone out west incredibly beautiful spring. 91 in salt lake city of all places. a shot of new york city, there will be airport delays later when the thunderstorms roll through. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. liberty mutual stood with us when a fire destroyed everything in our living room. we replaced it all without touching our savings. yeah, our insurance won't do that.

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during our show yesterday trump tweeted by trade with germany, deepened the chill after the president's trip to europe and press secretary sought to clarify the president and german chancellor's relationship. >> i think the relationship that the president has had with merkel, he would describe as fairly unbelievable. they get along very well. he has a lot of respect for her. they continue to grow the bond

they had during the talks in the g-7. any views not just germany but rest of europe as an important ally. >> how do you think about the comments that she thought europe could not depend on the united states. >> that's not what she said. let me read what she actually said. the time when europe to rely solely on others is somewhat in the past. as i witnessed over the past few days, europe must take its fate into its own hand. that's great. that's what the president called for. the secretary general of nato said the president calls are what's moving them in the right direction. the president is getting results to see these individuals heed the call that he has so eloquently put out over the last several -- well over a year. but when you look at the comments that the secretary general made, he recognizes that the president's rhetoric has had an extremely positive effect on the strengthening the nato.

>> yesterday merkel sought to cool tensions with washington while still emphasing that europe had to take its destiny into its own hands. nbc news has learned that german intelligence told its mrn counterpart does not require any help in monitoring the upcoming election. german officials don't want, quote, any hint of u.s. involvement in any way. adding there isn't much trust in the trump administration when it comes to elections and that germans have already had their own robust counterhacking and intelligence gathering network. in addition, angela merkel's main challenger told the german broadcaster, we have to make clear to the united states that they are isolated. is it possible that what spicy was doing there was thspin?

is it possible they are so unbelievably out of it or stupid that they don't understand the damage that's being created internationally? >> they understand the damage being created. >> are you sure? i don't think he gets it. >> i'm positive. they do understand that. you can talk to the foreign policy community in washington, they will tell you over the past 24 to 48 hours there's been deep concerns about a widening rift between the two. >> i understand others see that but does the trump administration see what a mess this is creating? >> i do believe they do. i do believe they do. i'm worried that everyone within the white house is so concerned about their audience of one and pleasing the president that they've completely lost the bigger picture. >> that's what we saw with sean spicer yesterday, that press

conference was an absolute disaster except for the fact he has an audience of one. the message sent out to the world is a destabilizing message but he's happy because he's pleased the one guy he needs to please. >> and play indicating the whims of president trump at any moment, be damned whatever our long term interest with these important allies. >> how about decades of work done to strengthen relationships that is being unraveled. >> it's been the centerpiece, a stable europe has been the centerpiece of our policy since 1947. and willie, you read what's happening in italy and you look what's happening in italy, the russians are actually making inroads in italy as well. this is something that could unravel very quickly. maybe this alliance does not survive the next three years, three and a half years.

it's one president, he'll get out in four years then we can rebuild the relationship that have kept the world safe. >> italy is unraveling quickly. >> to be clear, in that moment in the press conference where spicer read back the quote to the reporter, angela merkel was talking about -- she said at the beginning of her comment, i've experienced this in the last few days when she said we're going to make our own and take up our own defense and these things for ourselves. she was specifically referencing what she called the last few days. >> talk about fake news. >> and all of the time she spent with donald trump. it didn't come out of nowhere. it was a shot at the united states. >> it was complete fake news. donald trump yesterday morning, 23 hours ago, attacking germany, saying they were very bad. >> this will change. very bad for the -- germany is very bad for the united states. again, the country that stood literally against the wall in defense of freedom in the west

from 1949 to 1989. >> coming up on "morning joe", the white house communications director has resigned. is it anybo does anyone want to take his job? >> anybody? anybody? no. >> "the new york times" reports four possible such scessors sai thanks but no thanks. whether anyone can get the white house's message under control. we're back after this. every to be heard... ♪ to move... with you... through you... ♪

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in the wall street journal editorial called the white house mess, in it the wall street journal who's been seen as an ally of donald trump through the first couple months of the administration are saying mr. trump certainly needs to fix the white house mess but staff changes won't matter unless the president accepts the fact that he's the root of the dysfunction and goes after steve bannon, stop the guerilla war fare or get out building a white house terror of bable and trump is wasting precious time. >> that's putting it lightly. >> white house aides are leaking

that president trump considering a shake-up to stop them from leaking and casually on monday with communications director, it won't matter unless he accept the the roots of the dysfunction and he's wasting the precious asset of time and shortening window for achievements for the 2018 election and staff reflect the governing style and if mr. trump can't show more personal discipline, the fair conclusion is that he likes the chaos. willie, the big takeaway there is, that it is donald trump himself that has an extraordinarily built-in advantage with republicans owning washington but he's completely wasting that built-in advantage and wasting precious time. >> the washington street journal op-ed says he has to acknowledge he's the root of the disfictidy.

he thinks it's a well oiled machine. >> you're exactly right. he thinks everything is going perfectly. >> he thinks everything is running smoothly. imagine you're the communications director, what do you do with something like last night? if donald trump is sitting in bed tweeting or a message that undercuts the message you came out with and sits down with lester holt and discounts everything about the russia probe. how do you handle that when the guy at the top is calling shots and putting his message however and whenever he wants to. >> i remember the chaotic first week, mika and i went to lunch with the president in the white house about ten days in. and you could hear the protesters outside. it was the executive order that caused mass chaos across the world and airports and protests were in the street, 24/7 news coverage. it was an ugly way to start the

week. and i remember donald asking me, m how do you think the first week went? i said -- i like the union guys, you brought the union guys and talked about making the steel pipes american. that could be transformative. i said, it's been really kind of rocky. he spent the next hour and a half saying that everybody that walked into the room -- can you believe, this was a great week. and it became a joke. >> which includes michael flynn and reince. >> jared, i vanka. >> holding a book. >> everyone that would come in and it struck me what you're saying, willie, nobody around him had told him he had the most chaotic crappy first week in the history of modern presidency. nobody had told him. he was genuinely shocked. >> the most powerful bubble in

politics is the bubble in the west wing. and it's always been true and it's actually hard to get outside that bubble in the best of circumstances. i think the journalists questioning he likes the chaos answers itself. he loves chaos. he's the master of chaos and creates it on his own staff deliberately because he believes it gives him outcomes he likes. but i'll tell you, the administration, executive branch is not a small family business. can't be run the same way. we're seeing limits to that approach. >> history has its eyes on mike lee and vice-versa. the senator is here with his new book and to warning the country, don't believe everything you see in the hit broadway play hamilton. we'll get him to explain next.

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>> there are rumors that the president is considering a shake upof the staff. the communications director resigned last week and sean spicer, i don't know what sean spicer's situation is but based on his performance today it seems like he's making a concerted effort to stay on someone's good side. >> by recapping the incredible historic trip that the president and first lady just concluded because it truly was an extraordinary week for america. the president's historic speech was met with nearly universal praise. the president went to israel where he was received with incredible warmth. trump carried out a semirevolution. >> semirevolution. even sean spicer covering his as or someone is deeply in love with president trump. >> great semirevolution. >> great leader -- >> fearless leader. >> it's painful. just out this morning, the trump

white house is pulling out of the paris climate deal. and nbc news national correspondent peter alexander joins us to help put this in perspective. >> reporter: good morning to you. 195 countries are a part of this paris climate change accord right now. some of the outliers, the countries that do not join this agreement, nicaragua and syria and it appears you can add the united states to the list. the president is expected to announce that he will be pulling the united states out of that climate change deal. we had heard from a senior adviser during the trip at the g7 overseas last week that his position on climate change had been evolving. you'll remember in the past on twitter he had said the fact this concept was made up by the chinese and for the chinese to try to make them more competitive and make the u.s. manufacturing market less competitive on the world stage. richard hos tweeting about this,

taking the u.s. out of paris pact is unwarranted. we set our own -- and unwise as it signals the u.s. no longer ready to lead. it's worth noting how this will be executed, not entirely clear just yet. they are reporting a small group is trying to figure out how to do this whether it will happen immediately or perhaps over a three-year period of time. that group being led by individuals like the head of the epa, their administrator scott pruitt. this would appear to be a victory for the nationalist wing of the white house, individuals like steve bannon and appear to be in a defeat for jared kushner and ivanka trump who we heard pushed their father and father-in-law to stay a part of this deal. it's notable about a year ago nbc news did do a survey where we asked americans their opinions on climate change and by a margin of 67% of americans

believe there should be some immediate or new action taken in effect to try to combat climate change. joe and mika. >> peter alexander, thank you very much. let's bring in mike lee of utah, a new book, "written out of history." i get a feeling you'll be throwing shade on alexander hamilton. >> no, a little bit, right? >> first of all, let's talk about paris. you wanted us to get out of the paris accords. why? >> when the united states commits to something it abides by the rule of law. when other countries do the same it doesn't have the same effect. when we tie ourselves to an agreement internationally, we know that other agreements might not abide by their limits. when we are -- we know we will to ours. i hate to see us harm our own economy by agreeing to something that other people will fold. >> wasn't this largely voluntary?

>> but in time it becomes customariry international law -- >> it's not now so why get out now? we made a lot of the tough choices over the past 20 or 30 years. it's now time for china and pakistan and india to make a lot of those tough choices. don't we have more leverage if we stay involved? >> and lead. >> it doesn't mean they are going to follow nor does it mean we need to follow a course that says let's regulate. we have costs put on the american economy and not born by big wealthy corporate fat cats born by america's middle class who pay higher prices for everything they purchase. through innovation and technology and free market processes, we managed to reduce emissions and build vehicles and put out fewer emissions. >> again, i want to get to your book but again, these were voluntary. willie, i remember when the paris accords were signed and your former football coach i think you said who was -- who

was a foremost leader in championing regulations that combat climate change, said it was just garbage because there's no teeth to it. >> jim hanson, my little league baseball coach. >> little league baseball coach. >> the greenhouse effect. i would ask you, senator, we heard angela merkel a week or so ago giving the speech, domestic political speech in germany, we're on our own here and that was based on conversations she had at the g-7 and nato and based on paris. if you put the environment to the side for just a second, diplomatically do you worry what this does to our relationships in europe. >> the united states has great relationships throughout europe and will have those with or without this agreement. they are based on the military security we provide to the world and leadership with regard to the rule of law throughout europe and elsewhere in the world. that's not going to change by virtue of whether or not we're in disagreement. she seems to think it does know, merkel? >> i completely disagree.

it's obvious that that is the position she takes. it's obvious that that's a position she agreed with as a matter of policy. not one i happen to share. >> i'm curious though, the president won't talk about article 5 and nato, isn't that a very clear signal that merkel was talking about is true that the u.s. is not ready to play the same role it has? >> the u.s. is going to continue to play a large role. militarily and every other respect. nothing about that will be changed by the agreement prardless of what merkel might say or any other european leader. >> do you think donald trump should have invoked article 5? >> no, i don't think he needs to. and if there is not a need to do it, there's no reason for us to -- >> to reconfirm that nato is still centerpiece of our diplomatic strategy. >> it is. doesn't mean he has to make that choice every single time. my point is he's the president.

smibl h somebody has to be making the judgment call. >> are you not concerned with our relationship with germany and rest of europe right now? >> sure, i'm concerned with it, what i'm saying is it's not going to go away. nothing has happened in the last few days or months that will change any of that. >> is there anything that happened in the past few days or weeks that pertaining to president trump and his trip that gives you any concern at all? >> well, look, at any given moment, there are tngs that concern anyone, some people might just -- >> like what. >> ty might be concerned about the president tweeting. but the fact is they might be bothered by that, doesn't mean we're not heading in the right direction generally. i take great comfort in something he said in his inaugural address, i still believe he means, which is that that day represented a transfer not just from one political party to another or one presidential administration to another, but a transfer of power from the washington, d.c., nation's capitol back to the american people. that's where he wants to head and i support him in that.

>> is the republican party still intact? >> yes, it is still intact. and it is focused on those things. that doesn't mean we always act in conformity with that. there's a big difference between saying that and believing it in your heart and feeling warm and fuzzy feelings in your heart. what remains to be seen, whether we'll do the things we need to do. >> are you concerned with the president seeming more comfortable with ought krauto c in philippines and turkey than democratic leaders in europe? >> i don't know that's a fair characterization of what he feels. i don't think that's a fair characterization of what he's done. i certainly don't think that signals a view that favors auto cratic rule. the president has a million reasons why he might take one action or another. i don't think there's a whole lot we should read into it. >> were you concerned that the leader of turkey came to united states of america and had his thugs go out and beat up american citizens while he's there? >> absolutely.

>> should the president have spoken out about that in strong terms? >> i don't speak for the president. i spoke out against it -- >> should a president -- >> certainly i'm sure there were things that barack obama did that you and i were both critical of barack obama about. >> sure. >> look, i spoke out about it. i would encourage anyone else including but not limited to the president to speak out about it. any time a foreign head of state comes to the united states and has his or her security detail beat up people on u.s. soil, outside the curt ledge of the embassy, that's a problem. >> should we try to arrest anybody we can arrest who doesn't have diplomatic immunity? >> we should consider that as an option but at an minimum demand an official apology from the government. >> let's talk about this book. you keep talking about public events -- come on, dude. written out of history, i take it this is not another tribute to alexander hamilton. >> no, it's not. i like hamilton.

like alexander hamilton but this is a tribute to other forgotten founders written out of history. their stories and backgrounds are inconvenient. they don't necessarily match the modern narrative. >> he sort of had an inconvenient history too. >> you say we look at burr. >> we remember that he's the guy who shot hamilton. what we don't remember is he was the victim of an overly ambitious thomas jefferson who helped political grudge and had this obsession with getting to his political enemies and prosecuting people like aaron b for treason. we don't know that story because it's inconsistent with our message that favors certain historical figures over others. >> aren't you a jefferson guy though? small government? >> jefferson was a good man and this is part of the message written out of history, good

people sometimes do bad things. even revered president and founding father like thomas jefferson and author of the d declaration was himself given to bad behavior once he got into power and power was more or less unrestrained because he was the president of the united states. this is the message that's important for us to remember in history, the whole reason for having a constitution is to protect the rule of law by protecting the american people and limiting government very carefully. >> you have a chapter in here on someone you called the drunk founder. >> yes. >> seems to be kind of ap applicable right now, crazy historical figures. what's the story there? >> luther martin was a notorious drunk, constitutional convention for maryland, the anti-federalist, he was notorious for being drunk all the time. one of the clients hired him with the express caveat during that case that he not drink. he got around it by soaking half a loaf of bread in brandy and

eating from it from time to time. spoken from a mormon there -- >> that's how willie gets through three hours in the morning. >> bad things can happen. >> you have to have the right kind of bread, has to absorb. >> senator, tell me about mercy otis warren. >> a close friend and protége, she was a playwright, prolific in her writing at the time of the revolution. she warned about the constitution. she feared that it would present us with a sort of a monarchy in miniature because of the fact that the federal government would concentrate too much power in the hands of a few. she ended up having a longstanding feud with her friend john adams in a heated - >> ds the president have too much power? >> the federal government as a whole has too much power and too much power to the executive branch. we've seen this accumulation of power in washington in two

steps. >> final question. who is your favorite forgotten founders of the book? besides aaron burr who you're trying to resuscitate. >> the ir could i indian chief, himself responsible for federalism, for this concept that we followed for a long time and neglected in recent decades, most power should be at the state and local level and not in washington, d.c. this is not a european concept this is a native american concept. benjamin franklin got and transferred to the other founding fathers. >> the new book "written out of history" the forgotten founders who fought big government. >> there's going to be a musical in a couple of years on broadway. >> up next, the tale of press overreach in the age of trump. we'll explain that just ahead. e. it's more complete e. allergy relief

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every one of the meetings watch the president with that one ear piece that's been used by other presidents. and yet the president did a great job at nato, building stronger bonds, building stronger bonds at the g-7, increasing america's presence around the world. that's the kind of thing that the bbc and ultimately the reporter that's joining "the new york times" push out and perpetuate with no apology. >> you know, first of all -- >> does he seem a little -- >> the language is just sad. great leader this, great leader that. yeah, it was -- according to the white house, that was a false report. the things, though, that donald trump calls fake news, if you guys if you'd like in the white house, we will name every time he said something was fake news and then we will actually get the content. you don't want us to do that because it would make you look absolutely horrific. >> what about every time the president has tweeted or said something that was untrue. >> he does it all the time. >> it was like five lies a day.

so the promulgator, the chief promulgator of fake news might be, just might be, some say, the president himself. >> he's actually in the white house. >> i agree with everything both of you said, but sean spicer is right, there's such a feeding frenzy online that a story like that is posted and the instinct is to retweet and like. especially if you're a reporter in the news media, you take a deep breath and make sure it's true before you do that. >> you put something out like that, you'll get a ton of hits. when you get the correction, you won't get the hits. something happened also with his trip to the middle east, where again, we need to keep everything in context. the first couple of days actually could have been as a lot of foreign policy people were saying, it was a success. you tweet something out like that, you might get 100 or 200 likes. >> and some attacks. >> and a lot of attacks, which happened to me last week. he goes on to europe and does horrific things and you tweet that out and then suddenly you're getting 2,000, 3,000,

5,000 likes. we have to keep everything in context. >> we have with us the director of polling at the institute of politics at harvard university, john delavolpe and has a special announcement for us. also msnbc contributor mike lupica who just sighed big time. are you feeling sad? >> no. but when you look at that clip of -- >> spicy. >> -- probably the outgoing press secretary, when he focuses on ear pieces, he really does start to sound like the missing quart of strawberries in the cane mutiny. they don't want to talk about the ig issues. they don't want to talk about the false information disseminated from this white house, they want to focus on the smallest things and act like that's part of a greater truth. >> and they create their alternative reality, alternative facts and that's how they have been going. john, let me ask you, you've been in the field with some polling. you say americans right now believe we are in dark times. tell us about it.

>> there are so many things that americans don't agree on. the one thing they do agree on, two-thirds agree that the national mood is dark and that we require a civic reawakening. for example, it wasn't our polls, an economist published a poll last week and 69% with few differences based on party i.d. believe that america today is about individuals, individuals against other individuals, rather than as a collective community spirit. and i believe that the 40 something percent who elected donald trump president, elected someone who could build things and rebuild things. i think that should be perhaps one of the most important things he begins to build, which is a civic reawakening in america. that's what young, old, african-americans, whites, hispanics, all want to see. >> mike, that's what he said. he said he was going to bring people together. he was going to make washington work again. he was going to get things done. >> and now he wants to change the rules. the tweet about 51 votes

yesterday. why does he need -- nick said this before. you've got the whole town right now. >> so, mike, but you've known trump for a long time just like we've known trump for a long time. why is it -- why is trump not acting like a guy that lived in manhattan for 45 years? why is he grabbing hold to the most right-wing, divisive issues possible instead of trying to go to the middle. i say right wing, i mean, you know, you can talk -- i'm not saying right wing is worse than left wing. why doesn't he go to the middle? most of his friends have been democrats his entire life? >> he operated out of the middle for a long time. joe, i was thinking about this the other day. somewhere along the line, he became convinced that his whole presidency was going to be one long airplane hangar rally. that he got so intoxicated by the roar of the crowd that he

somehow convinced himself this was going to be his government and it's just not realistic. >> yeah. so john has an announcement. i'm not sure what's happening with harvard. >> this is horrible. >> i mean that's like harvard, you know? >> it's going down. >> that's where my father -- >> what is going on. >> harvard denied my father tenure. >> they did offer it to him a couple of years later. they tried to offer it to him later on, but now they're making good. >> they're making good? i don't know. >> they are making good in the entire community on behalf of the entire harvard community, we are incredibly excited to offer fellowships to both you and joe for this upcoming semester. will you join us? >> joe? >> we'd love to. when people look at me, they think harvard. >> this is fantastic actually. >> crimson and crimson tide. >> we are announcing it now in our very own special way. that's amazing. we're very, very, very excited

and honored. >> well, we got something. >> how did you chooses the people at the table? >> mika, here you go. >> we've got some harvard gear for you. >> my dad would be very happy and he's laughing right now, at me. >> we've got you, we've got you. >> i'll get you one, willie. >> in 2004, mika, your dad gave an incredible, incredible address at the institute of politics with graham allison. he spoke three times. that's on the website and we can watch that. >> i'm going to look at that, thank you so much. >> i always tell people i went to harvard, and i did, to get a t-shirt and then i left. >> and it's like the miss america contest. if for any reason they can't serve, you guys are absolutely next. >> you will be recharged and inspired for sure once you get there. >> we love talking to students and engaging them. i think this is now a more important time than ever to engage with the future and talk about what's happening. we really are incredibly

honored. >> thank you so much. and speaking of students, talk about millenials. what is their view right now of how things are going? >> well, their view is they are incredibly concerned about the tone and tenor of washington. they want to see a president, they want to see us collaborating. when we think about the response to the foreign trip, they want to see us part of a global community, but they want the white house, they want congress to listen more. they want to engage. at the end of the day, they need to turn out and vote in 2018. >> mike lupica. >> i wanted to ask both of you this question. so far in this presidency, is it worse than you thought it was going to be? >> yes. >> yeah. >> and it's very interesting. we've talked about it before. we've known him, you've known him. everybody that i've talked to that's known donald trump for 10, 11 years -- >> i'm not seeing that person. >> they knew it was going to be a wild ride. everybody to a person says,

willie, this is so much worse than i ever expected. >> because they leaned on the fact that he was a deal maker and put some coalitions together, which he has not done. >> also they leaned on the fact that he also hated losing more than anything, and that he would self correct. this is a man who apparently now is incapable of self correcting. you've got to put on your hat. >> john, thank you very much. we are harvard fellows. i'm not going to put the hat on right now. that does it for us this morning. now i am. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thank you so much, mika. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle with a lot to cover. breaking news, president trump reportedly set to pull out of the paris climate deal. >> ultimately he wants a fair deal for the american people. >> and widening probe. congressional investigators now requesting information from president trump's personal lawyer and his former spokesman