tweet is the same as any of the president's tweet. lot of cable nice shows that reach into hundreds of thousands of viewers and not always fair to the president. i'm proud of the president to develop a twitter and social media platform where he can talk direct try to the american people. in fact he's the most again you opinion president and most nonpolitician president we've seen in my lifetime. he's demonstrated whatever the contents of that particular tweet is or any tweet he's demonstrated a genuine ability to communicate to the people. >> that's what happens when you're homeland security adviser. your boss tweets this moments before your interview. >> on that note good morning. welcome to "morning joe". monday july 3rd. we got washington anchor for bbc

world news, katy kay. an msnbc political contributor. senior political editor at the white house and correspondent for the "huffington post" sam stein. chair of african-american studies and in washington columnist and associate editor for "the washington post". good morning everybody. thanks for interrupt urge wild fourth of july weekend to come in here at 4:00 a.m. and sit down with us and talk about fortunate's tweets. president donald trump continued to focus his attention on the news media over the weekend tweeting a video of himself from wrestlemania 23 in 2007. cnn logo superimposed over the face of the person he's fight. it's now his second most shared tweet of all time behind the one he scene after he was elected.

cnn released a statement that read in part quote it's a sad day when the president of the united states encourages violence against reporters. he's involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of the office. we'll keep doing our jobs. he should start doing his. that's a statement from cnn. tweet comes a few days after white house press secretary, deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said this during a briefing. >> the president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence of anything. quite the contrary. >> tom bossard said the tweet was not a threat. >> is that the communication you want that he's beating up on somebody he's beating up on the media. you're in charge of homeland security there. that seems like a threat. >> certainly not. i think that no one would perceive that as a threat. i do think he's beaten up in a

way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to. >> so sam stein this is on the cover of just beforery newspaper including the "financial times". it's being broadcast around the world. did you perceive that tweet as a threat of violence against the press? >> it's just so weird that every day we get to psycho analyze what trump means by his tweets. i lose the capacity to really care that much. i think it's damaging. it's problematic. i don't know if it's a direct attack on the press but it can be interpreted that way and that's what's important. i would like to say well no one of body slamed a reporter but someone did body slam a reporter. far more interesting to me why he wants to do this with his life. i mean he's president of the united states. there's a lot of stuff going on. he has the capacity to do a whole host of things in the

morning other than watch cable news and tweeting about it. he should do other things in the morning but he can't help himself. that's the bigger criticism. not that he's provoking violence as troubling as it is that he seems so pre-occupied with this stuff this triviality when there's a whole host of stuff he should be dealing with. >> it's small. for the president of the united states to be thinking about these things and this comes on the heels of a tweet a couple of days prior right now i'm thinking of a new nickname for cnn. i wish as president of the united states you weren't thinking about that. >> i think we need to be careful. it's wrestling. if we read wrestling literally to suggest the video is an act of violence it feeds into his base. the base saying look at these liberals they are taking wrestling seriously. i think we sfleebd, very careful in how read with this.

second thing i think we need to be mindful of this is simply an ongoing effort of the president and his minions to destabilize the state. to understand that the free and independent press is actually key to liberty, central to liberty, that's a paraphrase. what does it mean for the president of the united states to engage in a relentless all out assault on an independent and free press? this is just the latest instance of that assault. >> i think the white house says it's a joke, the press can't take a joke. >> liberals have no sense of humor. >> professional wrestling, that's breaking news, cover your ears, is fake. it's fake. fake news. >> it's kind of carefully chosen. he chooses something that you can say it's fake. fake wrestle, just joke. why can't you take it as a joke. if you take just in isolation that whatever 15 seconds, it's hard not to see somebody

punching somebody in the face. that's the image that's being shown around the world. i do have to say on the financial thiejs, this is getting a huge amount of coverage in other countries and looks totally crazy. it really looks like america has gone off the reservation in some ways. i don't the president i mean the whole coverage of it, the fact that this is all that anybody is talking about at a time when there are huge issues going on around the world. this is pre-occupying the country. looks like the country is caught in this vortex of stagnation over kind of crazy tweets and this coverage of those tweets. >> we're kind of desensitized, the country now of what trump does. if you just look at it in isolation, it's insane. it really is. that's the president of the united states tweeting wrestlemania videos. the fact we had a president at

wrestlemania is a whole other thing. what's your reaction? >> well, look, i think the feeling is mutual among the press. also, if it wasn't a threat why did the homeland security seem so frightened. >> because he did not go on that show to talk about that. >> that's the whole point opinion these things, you know, is it a threat? i'm not sure. it is kind of funny, yeah he really there was. the point is if you're look at legislative achievement and what this president is supposed to get done it's another distraction. steals headlines. doesn't explain to people what he's trying do with health care or tax reform. >> trump doesn't hate the press. he loves the press. he's obsessed with the press. >> he's used it masterfully. >> this doesn't seem like -- it's pretty well thought out.

he wants to pick a fight with the media in large part because we, unfortunately, have this terrible approval rating almost like chris christie approval rating and we're a good foe noirm. this is not a new script. this is a nixonian egypt where y you talk about the press as the enemy. what he's doing that's not nixonian he's being blatant about it. >> we need to be mindful might not be the direct tweet, but there are folks who are watching it, who are on the fringes, who may have psychological problems who can act on this -- >> the more the press and we do cover this it's about the press and there's a real question about how much this white house is trying to infringing the rights of the press. the more we cover this, the more separated it makes us look from tanch american. >> we're in a catch 22. >> he tweets about it.

if he tweets about it once and stopped that's one thing. it's the repetitive tweeting about it means every time -- >> i want to go to david ignatius. you have a fascinating perspective. you spent the last week or so in syria. you came home, back to the united states after studying this grave situation over there that has implications for united states as well to find something completely different front page of all the newspapers. >> it was one of the strangest moments in my career as a reporter. i came out of this battle zone around raqqah the capital of the islamic state, coming back with be special operations forces and we turn on our devices and see what's going on in the world. what's going is this huge twitter battle in which the president of the united states is attacking our co-host of the show, mika brzezinski. a surreal sense of what was going on back in our capital,

back in our politics at a time when war was going torngs future of this part of the world was set, very unsettling to feel that contrast and continues over the weekend with wrestlemania stuff. i have to tell you, you know, in the president's book, the only adversary he's gaining ground against is the media. we have to face up to the fact that this is not a popular successful president. he's not getting anything done. punching cnn in a fake recreation of a wrestling match seems to be his best shot, and should be careful about being his fall guy in this scenario he's created. >> david, what's your sense? what do you pick up? are your picking up what katy is picking up. what's the view from the people but also from the leaders of countries where you travel and

what's happening just recently even in the u.s.? >> let me speak specifically to the people, leaders kind of have to be discounted. i'll say something in some ways is sympathic to trump. as i traveled across syria, meeting with syrian fighters who were trying to take down the regime of bashar al assad, every time the name president trump was mentioned there were cheers from the audience. one syrian commander used a vulgar term in spanish to describe what president trump has got and why they like him. more seriously, the big attacks that have taken place around raqqah, one in particular, surprise landing by helicopter, i was told by the top u.s. commanders would not have taken place if it hadn't been for president trump's decision to

delegate military authorities down to the level of command. i mean under obama that would have taken a couple of weeks of white house meetings and still wouldn't have made up their mind. in this case there was not one meeting. they just said general townsend, the commander in baghdad, your decide. three day leaders kurds who had never seen helicopter or airplane were helicoptered across a lake for a surprise attack that's probably the most daring and decisive of the war. so do need to put this in perspective. yeah lot of people around the world are april ppalled but thi image of strength he portrays they like. >> i heard from other sunni countries too they are very happy with this president. i wouldn't be surprised if you could go out and find some people in asia or china in particular also saying they like this projectiontion of strength from president. they like the fact there's a president projecting strength, something they can understand.

so, when i was talking about -- i was really talking about people back in uk and europe that i have spoken into the last few days looking at what's happened over this issue of tweets and media and mika and their sense that america somehow got caught in a moment of inability to do anything because they are so caught in trivia. >> well, if you're in the middle east, american politics suddenly looks like local politics. it's about a straw man leader. it's about vulgar disparagement of your opponents. just need to be careful about how it plays out. just say one more thing before leaving this trip to syria. it's july 3rd. tomorrow is independence day. i had one of those moments where you get to see the absolute best in what our country is and does, traveling with these special force officers, about 500 of

them now in syria. they are living rough. living off the land. this is not an easy assignment. they are doing a spectacular job. working with their allies. they are rolling up the islamic state. this thing two, three years ago we were terrified. how will we get them out. city by city they are being taken down and it was such a peripheral tloeg travel with the men wheernl dhoing, to see that kind of quality is tough fighting but quality of judgment that they are bringing to this battle and the respect they are given from the people they work with. >> good noengts. happening in iraq and afghanistan at the same time as well over fourth of july weekend. let's talk a little bit about health care which perhaps what donald trump want to distract from with that tweet everyone is talking about yesterday with momentum for the senate recognizes health care bill stalled the white house has changed its approach now push forge a repeal only option if a replacement land can't be agreed upon a position the president

once roululed out right after winning the white house. >> we'll do it simultaneously. it will be just fine. we won't have a two day period or two year period where there's nothing. it will be repealed and replaced. it will be repealed and replace. it will be essentially simultaneously. it will be various segments, you understand, but most likely on the same day or same week but probably the same day. could be the same hour. >> that was the president in january but yesterday white house legislative affairs director said a repeal only drive could gain the support of senators who oppose the current replacement plan. >> dean heller voted for that repeal effort. if the replacement part is too difficult for republicans to come together gloets back and take care of the first step and repeal. todd young from indiana vote forward the bill too. you have 50 members on record

having voted for that recently. that's an option. at that point if you repealed it you can come back a replacement effort that's more bipartisan. >> one of those 50 votes is the republican majority leader mitch mcconnell. speaking to reporters he said he intends to continue the negotiations while joking about the president's campaign slogan late friday. the associated press relaying this quote from the majority leader saying quote it's not easy making america great again, it is. meanwhile the u.s.a. today finds there will be over 1370 counties with only one affordable care act exchange insurer next year. 40 counties will have none in all due in large part to the uncertainty in washington. sam u-cover the hill closely. how does this end? mitch mcconnell wanted the end by friday before he left. now he says let's get it in before we leave in august. how does it sneend no one knows how it ends. i don't think what the white

house is doing now is particularly productive from mitch mcconnell's standpoint. he's trying to get this fragile agreement how to replace obamacare. the white house says forget that, go to straight repeal. who knows. i still believe that ultimately will find a path forward. it's very narrow path forward but they will find it. but i think we need to step back too and acknowledge how crazy it is to say we'll repeal and do replacement another day. millions of people significantously losing health care coverage. >> what senator sass of nebraska said yesterday we can do a repeal with a one year delay. we will repeal it but it won't be enacted for another year and over the course of that year we'll find a replacement. >> the sub head is the critical part. there's uncertainty over obamacare and that's what's

causing the fragility of these markets. if you say repeal we'll give it one year, that just creates another element of uncertainty for these already fragile markets. if you're a health insurer and operating in one of these individual markets why would you partake in that market you don't know the market will exist after a years time. there's an underreported element of complete mismanagement of the health care system that's a problematic obamacare individual market making it much worse. >> "the washington post" writes this morning, got an excerpt most surprising aspect of the current health care debate is how republicans have given up on making the conservative case for their billings arguing the free market would lead to hire quality care, efficiency and medical advancements and the gop of might have. instead trying obscure the reality their bills would cut medicaid and increase the number of uninsured americans

potentially 20 million or more. they conceded government involvement in government heart s a good thing or necessary thing. that was not the argument they were making eight years ago. democrats are talking themselves into supporting single payer. their laser-like focus has a lot of people led to the conclusion there's only one way to make sure no one is uninsured. this is not going the way mitch mcconnell envisioned it would go at this point. he hasn't shown the ability to cobble together both sides. people like rand paul say it doesn't go far enough. and portman says you can't mess with medicaid in my state. can you bring those two together? >> no. i don't think you can. suppose we're at the end of the runway and watching a plane take off and one of the engine drops off. that's political capital. as it takes off the other engine

falls off and that's public support. you have to wonder if the plane is going crash. it's going crash. the reason it will crash is because the conservatives in the right have not explained how ooh free market health care system is better. viewers don't library that. that's the debate. we lost that debate. i don't think you're going to get a repeal. sam is right you can't just repeal obamacare. it's too late for that. insurance companies priced for one thing, risk. if there's instability that gets priced in to risk. so they eritrea pull out of market or raise the prices to a point where people can't afford it. we have great health care in america. terrible payment system. i don't hear anybody on our side the republican side articulate how you get if pressures through. >> the republicans go through

this entire exercise without anything to show for it. >> we have three election cycles where haermt was the dominant issue and democrats paid for it. they lost thfds seats all across the ticket. a lot of it was health care. they lost the majority in the house and senate and the presidency. >> there's something to show for it. >> they didn't have a plan when they won. >> right. results. >> there will be results. there will be consequences. because what we will great this process is they are committed to something like choice as opposed to insuring all americans. it's a tax bill not a health care bill. >> on the record supporting that but won't get it. >> right. they own it. >> the repeal only thing teen white house doesn't want this. the president recognizes this would be too challenging. he's put it out there on the table to force senators hands.

he wants to remind them they campaigned on this for seven years. >> here's how they lost the debate. we have repeal and replace and replace means it's another government program. conservatives don't apartment government program. >> the american public does. opinion polls show american people want more not less. president trump is set to come face to face this week with put. what to expect from their first meeting. we'll be on the sidelines of the g-20 in germany. remember workforce development week? what about technology week? energy week rings a bell. a new report details how much the president undercut his own message during the administration's theme weeks. bill karins has a look at the fourth of july forecast. let's get the beach, boating and barbecue forecast. thunderstorms over areas of arkansas. no need to water the grass. today we'll see 2 million people

at risk of severe storms. not many. wichita to oklahoma city and areas of western kansas. strong thunderstorms in the ohio valley. watch out ft. wayne, columbus, pittsburgh, state college, scranton, wilkes-barre, maybe one or two in new york city. here's your forecast as we go through the end of our holiday weekend. there's the showers and storms this morning. afternoon storms in areas of the carolinas. we're fine in new england and everybody in the west looking warm and beautiful. fourth of july thunderstorms in tennessee, areas of kentucky and right through north carolina, may have to dodge some of those storms in the afternoon, the beaches of the outer banks. northeast looks great. great lakes looks fine too. wednesday go home day not bad at all showers and storms lingering in the southeast. finally your fourth of july forecast for fireworks. this is as we go through tuesday evening some isolated storms dying off in the carolinas. much of the country will have a nice forecast including new york

city and macy's forecast looks to be perfect. washington your fireworks festivities will be fine. hot and toasty today into the 90s. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. in its economy, in medicine, in science and in national security. one company designs and builds more supercomputers than any other. an american company. hewlett packard enterprise. leading the way to discover... to innovate... and to protect. hewlett packard enterprise. a national asset in supercomputing. depend silhouette active fit briefs, feature a thin design for complete comfort. they say "move it or lose it" - and at my age, i'm moving more than ever. because getting older is inevitable. but feeling older? that's something i control.

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criticizing in public. joining us now senior national security analyst for nbc news and chairman and co-founder of the financial integrity network. good morning. significance of this meet cigarette obvious. what happens in that meeting is unclear. will donald trump confront vladimir putin about election meddling in a side meeting? >> a great question. what h.r. mcmaster has said is the meeting will have three purposes. one to confront on issues of cyber security, issue of syria and ukraine, whole range much issue that the u.s. and russia are as logger heads about. second try to deter. deter further russian activity, cyber attacks, even provocations in europe against nato allies. finally trying to find areas of common interest, fight against isis. work on north korea. big ticket items where you do

need russian cooperation. the question is, is the president able to do all three at once? and will he feel constrained politically given the controversy around russia. he has to do all three in order to make this an effective meeting. putin will be taking his measure as they have this discussion. >> president trump has been hesitant to accuse russia of meddling, to agree with what the intelligence agency has said has happened. in fact when they were asked in the briefing room, i haven't talked to the president about that. i'm not sure whether he knows russia meddled in the election. do you think he'll confront vladimir putin? >> i hope he does. he has raised some doubt as to the origins of the attack. the tension community has been very clear about that. they not only declared it but put out as much information as they can about digital forensic. russia was behind the french

hacking election. concern about the german election. this is a real and present danger that the russians continue to flirt with cyber attacks. i hope the president not only confronts president putin but reinforces the integrity and credibility of u.s. intelligence and lawmakers assessments because that's important with a russian leader that's played games with this question of obfuscating attribution and try to debate legitimacy of everything around from cyber attacks to what's happened on the ground in syria. it's important for what we think and say and declare what's evidence and proof. >> david ign, the expectation i president trump should confront vladimir putin about russian meddling. what does russia want to get out of this meeting? >> my impression, talking to

u.s. specials on my trip into syria is that the russians are being very well behaved for the moment in syria in expectation of this meeting. for many months the russians have been saying to secretary of state kerry under president obama and then to trump administration officials, rex tillerson, the secretary, most of all, we would like to cooperate in syria. we would like have 24/7 joint military operations that share data, that go after the isis enemy jointly. interestingly the russians have been in secret working to help the u.s. figure out a line between u.s. forces and the forces of our syrian kurdish allies and russia and the syrian regime. and that line that was established overly last weekend in a firm way is now hold, i'm

told. it's 80 mile line roughly in syria. it's the line that caused the shoot down of the syrian policemen. so behind-the-scenes they are preparing for this meeting by doing some business, by saying we're on this side, you're on that side and the question is whether they can build a political phase of this military to military conversation and we'll find that out at the meeting. >> juan, i think i'm right this is the first time the two men have actually met face to face. during campaign there was some object fu obfuscat ovarian n about that. how much will the personal interaction be. how will it change america's position towards russia. >> i think that's a huge part of what president trump has been trying to do, to re-establish relationships, trying to take the measure of leaders, trying to explain that he's not only a

deal maker but can create those kind of relationships. that was one of the criticism s of president obama. he didn't have those relationships. at the end of the day, though, what you have to see are results. can we have a degree of cooperation with russia? can we deter their nefarious activity. can he get cease-fires on the ground in syria. can he get less prointroduce occasion in ukraine. those are the measures of success. you do have to have a personal relationship i think though between tleerds. that's the nature of dploi macy. >> with the chinese he didn't get those results. >> that's right. and although, i think he has some degree, the president has some degree of credibility to go back to the chinese to say look these are things we discussed. you promised me this at mar-a-lago.

you're not pushing hard enough on north korea. we'll take measures into our own hands. i think that personal connection actually then gives him some dana reeve credibility and running room if he needs to take further action. >> as we try to get a window into what may or may not happen here's a hint from h.r. mcmaster. no specific agenda whatever fortunate wants to talk about. we'll see what he wants to talk about. >> the president is commander-in-chief. for every one tweet on infrastructure week there were nine more on the travel ban in the media. president trump is driving the conversation on twitter not just the conversation the administration wanted. new reporting on all that straight ahead on "morning joe".

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welcome backing to "morning joe". the white house communications team in that building often talks about the president's ability to reach voters through social media. while the administration is pushing policy the president often is focused on something else. for example he didn't send a single tweet about energy week

at the white house but descend eight tweets criticizing the media. for more let's bring in mike allen. love the patriotic tie. looking good. let's talk about this. media often criticized for overanalyzing and talk about fortunate's tweets. but they often fly feigns or contradict or overshadow something that the white house is trying to get done legislatively. >> these theme weeks you were talking about were an important part of the white house's part of driving the agenda, put point on the board on capitol hill. they sfad we focus week by week on a couple of priorities we can get something done capitol hill. but then you have energy and technology week when the president didn't tweet a single time about those. and during infrastructure and workforce development week got a couple of tweets in. the white house having communications plan but not

looping in the president or president not being willing to do it. really, i think that's the smartest way to look at these tweets, that we get so much coverage of is the opportunity cost. what could the president be communicating about, what could he be obsessing about, what could he be trying to be to get on front page of "usa today" they call it policy not punch fps president tweeting 73 times about fake news and tweeting one time about opioids. so you have this amazing bully pulpit, amazing method of communication that he's so talented at but then he it frfrs away. >> legislation shard work. hard to put together a infrastructure bill. >> that's the thing, it reflects his upbringing. i know he's known as a product of the business world in real

estate. but in actuality for the past decade or so he's and about product of the entertainment world. that's where his interests are. he's obsessed with tv. my take sane roundabout way isn't this a good thing for people on the hill. i talked to samuel alito republican aides and folks trying to craft health care they don't want his fingerprints on this too much. they don't mind when he's tweeting about other stuff because they then can go do their work. >> folks say democrats should be happy that president could be using these tools at his disposal to move the needle. we can't be reminded often enough of how powerful this situation is of having the white house, both houses of congress, such a rarity in politics and we saw under george w. bush, under barack obama, those were the times that they made a little difference. those were the times that they

made a real change. so day-by-day it ticks by and by 2018 we may well not have that situation. so democrats should enjoy this. republicans who may not want the president tweeting but could use him to move public opinion. we're seeing in the states over this holiday weekend the crucial states on health care, public opinion really against the health care and president trump doing very little to change that. >> there seems to be another tlomt his twe element to his tweeting. then we have the investigations. so it seems every time he tweets it's almost kind of correlating with something bad happening with regards to the russia issue. what do you think about trump's tweets as in some ways a distraction not necessarily theme weeks but what's happening with the headlines with regards to the russia investigation. >> i look at that story way

around and we've seen it again and again the president's tweets have caused him problems with the investigations and the president's actions. so much of what's happened in the russia investigation has been self-inflicted, started with the president throwing out the idea that there were tapes, bizarrely bringing in nixonian imagery something no staff member or consultant would want and we now hear from the testimony of james comey that it was the tweaking him, taunting him on twitter that caused him to take steps that resulted in independent counsel. so the president's tweets not just distracting, just trying to get us to look away from the flames, but pouring on kerosene. >> let me ask you about a different policy issue, that is steve bannon is pushing the idea in the white house on a tax hike

on the wealthiest, something that the president did propose. one thing that election showed us trump supporters are not abhorrent to republican orthodoxy. they want a tax hike on the wealthy. is this going somewhere? >> going somewhere within the white house. bannon is back. one of the few times steve bannon has asserted himself since he was briefly in the dog house. he's back because his skills and his passions are things that the president needs right now. jonathan swann picked up on the fact that inside white house to, pushing this idea of a big tax hike on the rich to get a bigger tax cut to trump voters. so the top bracket is 39 and change. he's talking about a bracket that he says will start with the

word four. the point here is steve bannon is still talking in a very populace terms. not only speaks to trump voters but trump himself. we're seeing again and again bannon reflects trump's sningts much more than jared kushner or ivanka trump does and this is another example of that. that's why this tax cut for trump voters, tax hike for people like. all the people around the table is going to get a big hearing from president. >> what's liberal orthodoxy. >> gary cohen you say may leave the white house, the moment he concludes the tax reform is dead or not possible. a lot to get through. thanks so much. good to see you. >> happy holiday to you and yours. >> still ahead on "morning joe" -- [ inaudible ] >> didn't clog but go ahead. i didn't get any sun today.

>> that sound bite hasn't aged particularly well. local newspaper gets photos of governor chris christie spending time on the beach sunday that was closed because of government shutdown. wait until you hear the explanation from his office. that's ahead on "morning joe". ♪

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time now for the must read op eds. aman amanda riply had a piece about the history of exchanges people have participated in across the country dating back to world war 2 to get to know other americans. she writes every year at brown university there's a host of exchanges connecting a blue

state to a red one not with commerce but with human beings who arrive with duffel bags and stay past the point of discomfort. the world is a big complicated place but so is this country. maybe it's time to treat america as different countries. we need to make america whole again. it's been weakened by our mutual disdain and shared ignorance. you've written about this as well. it's not just in the media we're talking past each other and going to our safe places. it's racially and geographically. >> right. in a recent poll, our survey it shows in some ways we have two societies echoing the current commissioner report. republicans, the majority of white republicans, for example, don't believe that racial discrimination is a serious issue. when you look at it as opposed to democrats.

the same thing with lgbtq. you have serious partisan divides that break down on race, gender, and sexual difference. i don't necessarily think we need to engage in these kind of excursions to get to learn as if we're all anthropologist. we have to begin to kind of understand the shared life that we have together. and that involves seeing the human being in front of you instead of stereo types and assumptions about who these people are but getting to know human beings right in front of your eyes. >> how do you get to that place? it feels like it's going the other direction where we're following media we want to follow and watching tv shows. how do you heal that? >> i think we have to tell a better story about ourselves as a country. we're on the eve of the fourth of july, and i'm thinking in this moment, coming out of the tradition of which i come of frederick douglas's 1852

address, what is to the slave the fourth of july. here in this moment douglas is taking the ideals of the country and mapping them against our practices. what does it mean for muslim americans or those in the shadows? for us to develop our capacity of empathy, to kind of see each other. that's going to require a more robust story. >> what's interesting to me about this is the internet had the promise of helping us do the connectivity that you were talking about. we would be able to communicate with people from different countries and reasonables and have a shared space. it's done the opposite. we're nastier to each other. one of the things i do which is maybe sadistic, every now and then i'll find someone who tweets at me something particularly nasty.

if i can track them down by a phone number, i'll call them up, and i'll say hey, it's sam, you just tweeted this at me. i'd like to talk to you about what you think my problem is. nine times out of ten that person will say, i'm sorry i tweeted that. i did not mean to do that. i had no idea you'd see it. i'm taking it down. i say no, don't take it down. let's talk about why you feel that way. and that's the difference between an internet connectivity and in person over the phone conversation. >> but the interesting thing about it is on the front page of the new york times, they recently wrote a piece about housing policy. about folks who live in a certain part of houston not wanting low-income housing in their neighborhood, and that's the basis of that judgment is that we don't want these particular people here. they're going to drive down our property values and overcrowd our schools. it's not just in our individual relationships. it's structural. where we don't live together.

for the most part america remains a deeply segregated space. and until we undermine that, we find ourselves here again. >> that is a good exercise. i have the same experience. confront somebody with civility and humanity, and they realize there's a person. coming up, we'll go live to the white house on the heels of the president's wrestling match against a cnn logo. plus, why a push to investigate voter fraud is hitting roadblocks, including people who serve on the commission. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪ ♪ award winning interface. award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century.

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to innovate... and to protect. hewlett packard enterprise. a national asset in supercomputing. we won and they lost. the fact is the press has destroyed themselves, because they went too far. instead of being subtle and smart, they used the hatchet, and the people saw it right from the beginning. the fake media is trying to silence us. but we will not let them. because the people know the truth. the fake media tried to stop us from going to the white house, but i'm president, and they're

not. >> well, that's objectively true. >> yeah. >> i didn't know that you were trying to be president. >> a painful reminder here, unsuccessful bid for the white house. >> welcome back to "morning joe." joe and mika have the morning off. with us we have catty cay, rick tyler, sam st ein, david ignaciuos and jake sherman. the president tweeted a video of himself from wrestlemania in 2007 with a cnn logo super imposed ore the person who was fighting. the potus twitter handle also tweet third down. it's his second most shared tweet of all time. cnn released a statement in read

in part, it's a sad day when the president of the united states encourages violence against reporters. he's involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of the office. we'll keep doing our jobs. he should start doing his. before we move on, jake, what's your reaction to that tweet yesterday? >> lord, listen, i was in the green room yesterday at a sunday show on another network with a trump administration official who i showed the video to, tom bo bossear bossert who had to defend it unexpected. i think it will be difficult for the white house to say they didn't encourage violence against the media. i'm not a big wwe fan. my friends who are, and i have a couple who are, say that trump was a huge part of wwe for the better part of the last decade. >> he's in the hall of fame. >> wwe, it head quartered my

hometown, stanford, connecticut, but listen, i think it will be tough for them to make that case. it's ratcheting up his war against the media. talking nothing about what he has to accomplish in the next 61 legislative days before the year is over. time is really running out before an election year, and i'm not sure if the white house realizes that or if they even care. >> i don't think i care, rick. they're basking in it. this is the cycle they enjoy. he puts out a tweet. the media talks about it for longer than they think we should talk about it. it obscures something up and fires up the people who like trump and don't like us. >> i'm having trouble with stanford and wwe. >> stamford. >> oh, sorry, stamford. >> his people do like it. people who don't follow wwe would find the video jarring. i think a lot of his supporters like it. i've heard a lot of them think it's funny.

but it's just the president has to stop being a jerk sometimes. he has to figure out he wants to be president and isn't our entertainer in chief. he needs to get things done for the american people. time will tell if he can get that done. if he runs for reelection, the republicans have to run on something. >> his metrics, this was a good tweet. it got a lot of likes and people talking. >> yep. and the white house feels they have a genuine grievance that cable television has not given him a fair shot. that a lot of people in the cable media they feel would like the presidency to feel and they have a right to hit back. and that's a very firmly-held view within the white house. it's hard to find people that disend from that view. >> except the author of the primary, cable media was terrific to the president. i can remember sitting on my office watching the three tvs

with trump on all three networks. this happened consistently. and then the networks should show the trump empty podium for hours at a time. he used the media and cable -- >> yeah, and now he doesn't like it. >> right. it's amazing to me. >> that's why do we think he doesn't like it? i think he loves using it as a punching bag. someone who doesn't like cable news doesn't wake up every morning and watch cable news. >> he likes to be liked and likes to win. i think he doesn't like the constant criticism that he gets. >> i think he likes to be talked about more than he likes to be liked. >> not being talked about would probably be worse. >> the claim that it's fake news is a claim that's critical of him. when the news is supportive of him, t not fake news. it's hard to take him seriously. remember, it's wrestling, it's

fake. but -- >> you got to stop saying that. >> pizza gate, my great grandfather, i grew up watching wrestling before it became the wwe and wwf. >> are you going to transition from this? >> i'm trying to say there are ways in which these sorts of claims, the wild claims can lead to someone acting in a very violent way. they need to be careful. >> that's a good point. i want to get back to something you said offhand, but i think it's important. it's more significant than trump not being talked about at all. the only power the press has when they are under attack, whether it's through these stupid videos or more significantly, through a white house briefing that puts them to the side, the only power the press has is a collective action of hour. that collective action of power is to not cover trump. >> that's not our job. our job is to cover the president. >> hold on a second. if you have a white house briefing and the white house briefing is under a condition

that it's not broadcast live and there's no audio live, you can make an argument that we will collectively not go to this briefing until you say you're going to allow us to broadcast it live. that's a collective action response to what the white house is doing to the press. to this day, the press has never really acted -- >> it's never going to happen. >> yeah. it's -- >> you're talking about that one specific incident. you're not talking about ignoring the president of the united states. >> no. i would never say you ignore the president of the united states, but you could maybe have a conversation about covering these tweet storms, for instance. i don't know. i think the problem here is that trump has figured out how to manipulate the press in a way that it's difficult for the press to respond. >> trump's responding to criticism of his tweeting, i'm a modern-day president, meaning i'm going to use these tools of communication that never existed before, and i'm going to use them to mobilize my supporters.

push back against criticism. it is an entirely new phenomenon. you can't really fault -- he's right. the reason that he stayed popular through the primaries when everybody thought primary after primary that he was going down was that he understood something about this new social media world. and i think the question is whether in bag modern-day president, he is going to so degrade our political institutions, he's going to make it impossible to govern. you look at america, especially from the lens of overseas and think, holy smokes, this is a country whose political structure is breaking down while the modern-day president puts this stuff up on social media, pretends as if politics is like a wwe wrestling match. something's breaking in the country. think about that, especially the day before our independence day anniversary. >> jake, i think the argument that the tweets are below the dignity of the office, which i

think most of us agree they are is not one that wins over donald trump. he's not concerned particularly with the dignity of the office. he's concerned with the noise created by the tweets and with punching back. they said that last week when he was tweeting about mika. they said when we get punched we punch back ten times harder. >> it was striking. anna palmer and i, we were e-mailing republicans yesterday morning after this came out, and it was just complete silence across the spectrum. mitch mcconnell's spokesman said i haven't spoken to him today. i'll let him know if you do. paul ryan's team did not get back to us. there's no evidence that pressure from them will make him stop either. and there's an argument. can he be using twitter to do something alternative, to push his agenda and explain what he wants to do in office? i'm not sure that would be successful, but i can tell you in talking to people on capitol hill if he does this stuff in

the beginning of 2018 when people are gearing up for congressional elections in tough districts with the president with 30% approval rating who is tweeting violence against reporters, it's going to be tough. it's not going to be a sustainable political tactic. >> all the tweets coming in the context of a health care debate right now, the senators and congressmen and women are home in their districts talking to their constituents. yesterday on sunday today, i spoke with chuck todd about the impact of the president's latest wave of tweets on that battle for health care reform. >> you can see the frustration on the faces of people like lindsey graham and paul ryan and others as they spend two days answering questions about my co-hosts on "morning joe" rather than trying to push through health care. >> he's acting like a spectator when it comes to health care. essentially, the biggest single promise the republican has made for seven years, it's going down

in flames right now in the senate. mitch mcconnell is like a one-man band trying to salvage this for the republican party, and the president is sitting there tweeting ridiculous insults, and mind you, the attack on mika, willie, really offended a lot of women. three of the republican senators most uncomfortable with the health care bill right now also happen to be women and were offended by what the president did. from alaska, west virginia, and maine. so he's not helping at all. he's yet to give a speech. he didn't understand the policy details. that bothered a lot of republican senators when they met, and then he starts this absurd war with the press and undermining his ability to get anything done on capitol hill. >> that's sunday today, every sunday on nbc. >> let's take a moment -- that was great questioning. who was that in.

>> it's every sunday. that's great. chuck makes the important point that the president is not only not only helpful with his tweets but he's not supporting the bill in the way president obama went out and beat the bushes and made speeches and did everything he could to get obama care through. >> part of it is because i don't think trump that has intellectual knowledge of the bill. i don't think he's well versed in health care policy. the bill sucks. no one really wants to defend the bill. at this point roughly in the passage of the affordable care act, barack obama was going out in baltimore and doing a q and a session, hosting a summit, encouraging a dialogue about this, showing he had knowledge of the bill, trying to get it through passage. they are doing the opposite. they're not talking about this. they're hiding it. they barely want to have these types of discussions. there was an offer, it was kind

of a joke offer, but one to do a summit with donald trump and chuck schumer. >> we reported our last hour the idea that the white house is now supportive of repeal now, replace later. senator sass of nebraska said yesterday morning on one show, well, we can repeal it with a delay so it would still be in place for a year while we come up with the replacement. is that effective? is that going to happen? is that even possible? >> yeah. i'm supportive of a rock and roll tour. that's also not going to happen. >> jake, with that chest hair, you'd sell out arenas. >> what? it was only time before somebody said it on tv. listen, i am not -- i don't know where he's coming from with this. this idea was actually the original idea that republican leadership wanted. they dispensed with it after conservatives said no, we want

to do it simultaneously. there are numerous procedural hurdles in the senate that would prevent this from happening. mitch mcconnell, he in kentucky someone asked him about this. he said it's really tough making america great again, isn't it? this is not a feasible option, and to the extent that the president wants to be involved in the discussion, he better check with the leadership in congress to understand what's happening and what's not happening. >> it's not a feasible option, but it's now the official position of the white house that this is how they should go about it. >> i don't think that's true. i spoke to the white house, they said this is plan b. the president recognizing it would be challenging. >> their legislative person was saying on tv this is the way to go. >> they're wanting to put pressure on people that they have to pass it. they're putting out we could repeal almost as like a threat and how disastrous everybody

recognizing it. >> the gop's talking point is we just need one more year. not seven years, but we need eight years. >> we heard senators rand paul and sass talk about repeal only. and the thing is that can they -- just we have the procedural questions in the senate, and then you simply on the ground realities. the health care system that was prior to obama care has been completely dismantled. you have the exchanges. what will happen as the exchanges aren't -- i don't know what they mean. it seems as if trump only cares about a victory. he doesn't care about all of these people who aren't insurable and won't be. >> when we passed the affordable care act, they went through an intense process of hearings markups. they had experts come in to talk about the consequences of what would happen if you did this policy or that policy. we didn't pay attention because that stuff is boring, but if you were to do a repeal only bill and not have experts come in to

say this could happen to the individual market. this many people would lose their insurance five years out, that is almost criminal to think that you could do something like that without actually thinking through the consequences. >> so, jake, would leader mcconnell be happy to say i'm on the record saying i wanted repeal and replace and obama care is not working. i tried some of these rogue republican senators. they abandoned me. i couldn't get it done and move on without a bill and a new law. >> the thing about mitch mcconnell is he's comfortable in his views and doesn't get rattled by external political pressure. we saw that when he held open a supreme court spot for six or eight months. he said when asked, either it's going to pass or it won't. that's just what's going to happen. i want to make one point about the president's involvement which is critical. some people want him on the

sidelines because they're afraid if senators started going down to the white house, folks like rand paul, and said, here's what i need from you, here's what i want in the bill. if rand paul said that to the president, the president would probably acede to the dplaneman and blow up the process. a lot of republic aides are happy to have him on the sidelines because they're afraid he would commit to things that are not possible. his involvement here might not be helpful, and he might just go on the sidelines. but to mcconnell, he's comfortable, it seems from his body language. he wants the law to be repealed and replaced, but he's comfortable that it might not happen, and he could say we tried and it wasn't there for us. >> one of the guys who ran against donald trump last year is making news this weekend. millions flocking to the beach through the fourth of july

holiday, but today marks the third day of a government shutdown in new jersey with state offices like dmvs and courts closed and tens of thousands of state workers set to be furlough. a budget plan while restructuring insurance at issue. the state assembly speaker is blocking a vote because he believes it's bad policy and has derided to shutdown as the governor's shutdown crisis. >> if they sent me a budget today, the shutdown would be over. it is the legislature that's choosing not to send me either bud budget, but i'm frustrated at this point that no one will send me any budget. i'm sitting here waiting for a budget and no one sends me one. i quoted a great american philosophy from pop eye. pay me tomorrow for a hamburger today.

if i'm paying for the hamburger, i'm getting it today. i'm not waiting and trusting someone to do it sometime over the summer. >> it didn't -- i didn't get any sun today. >> are there life guards at the -- >> no. no. there's no one on the state park. there are no life guards. there's no one to pick up the garbage. there's no one providing any services at island beach state park. >> my question is. >> next. >> next. i'm done. we're talking about the closure of government and you're talking about your tmz stuff. >> all right. what's going on there? the journalists sent a plane to fly over island beach state park and photographed the governor and his family enjoying the warm weather before the governor held the news conference you just saw. the site reports, quote, when later told of the photo, brian murray, the governor's spokesman said yes, the governor was on

the beach briefly today talking to his wife and family before heading into the office. he did not get any sun. murray added he had a baseball hat on. the governor has called a special session that gets underway at 10:00 a.m. today to try to reach the deal. once among the most popular governors in the country, christie has seen his popularity crater. his approval rating now about 15% and the worst approval rating for any state surveyed by them in more than 20 years. governor christie describes this as the speaker shut down. there's two sides to the story. hopefully they can get something done for the people of new jersey, but that optics on the beach for governor christie? >> horrible optics. i grew up on the beach. the idea that the beach would be closed down, it must cost more to close down the beach than to let people go, but the optics of christie on the beach. imagine the people, i grew up

there, they spend their whole year looking forward to the fourth at the beach. but they can't go because the state can't get their act together? they should know better. >> the governor has a beach residence there. when asked why he should be on the beach, he said run for governor, you get your own residents>> he's in the honey badger part of his administration. he doesn't care. 15%. he's on his way out. it's an amazing fall from grace. it's an amazing fall from grace to think what he was politically just two years ago to what he is now, it just shows how rough and tumble american politics can be, and why you should not close traffic lanes. >> and then there's the kind of just a serious juxtaposition of the gathering in south hampton with the ivanka and jarod and all of the leaders of business,

all in this -- in the establishment. >> the finger food was fine. >> and then christie on the beach when everyone else can't go to the beach. this is a sign of fat cats, no pun intended -- who stand above everybody else who think they're not beholden to the whole, that they're not responsible to anything other than to their own greed and self-interest. >> and it's the fourth of july. that photograph is almost regal. there he is on his private beach. you don't have anything. god forbid anyone else is allowed to come in. >> can you get below a 15% approval rating? >> it's not a math mat ral emat impossibility. wimp by was quoted. he always promised to pay on tuesday. >> thank you. well done. >> jake sherman, thank you. we'll be reading the politico play book this morning. happy fourth to you. still ahead, diplomacy in

the era of donald trump. the president tweeting we'll be speaking with germany and france this morning. we'll talk about his unorthodox approach as he readies to meet vladimir putin on friday. plus a report from the white house as even some states run by republicans rejected a request for sensitive voter rolls. we'll get hallie jackson to explain that when "morning joe" comes right back. be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara® tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection,

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yeah, and i can watch thee bgame with directv now.? oh, sorry, most broadcast and sports channels aren't included. and you can only stream on two devices at once. this is fun, we're having fun. yeah, we are. no, you're not jimmy. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. xfinity gives you more to stream to more screens. welcome back to "morning joe." as we mentioned this morning, president trump spent the weekend lashing out at the media and lashed out at the growing list of states refusing to turn over voter data to his commission investigating voter fraud. joining us is hallie jackson. let's remind all our viewers what this commission is, this panel, exactly, and how it came to be. >> it's the election integrity

commission. this was created after president trump claimed several months ago that millions of people had voted illegally. he said it without any documentation. it's a claim all voting experts say is not true, but the president created a commission. that's how this came about. now you're seeing a growing number of states, nearly half of states so far, many with democratic voting officials installed, eight with republican ones, saying they're not going to giver some of this data. the commission in a letter we obtained says it wants last four digits of the social security number, information about past convictions, dates of birth,ette. and some states are saying you can take the public stuff but we're not helping you out by providing you sensitive data from people in our state. the pushback is that the backlash is a political stubt.

one official said some states, indiana, are still going to provide, they believe publicly available data, just not all the data requested. one person said we're still in the beginning of this process. let me underscore something that's important. when we talked to the white house about what they are doing to prevent russian interference in the next elections, in 2018 and 2020, because, remember, this has been a real question, what is the administration doing now to make sure this doesn't happen again, the white house points to this commission as one of the two things they're doing, this and cyber security orders they signed. the line i've been hearing for two weeks, we contacted dozens of states fishes across the country who said they've heard little from the administration on how to prevent russian interference again or any kind of election interference. the white house points to this commission. now half the states are saying they're not going to give the data this commission will need to do to do the work.

that is central to the story line, especially as we move forward getting closer to 2018 and 2020. when you talk about russia, i can't help but think about where i'm going to be later in the week which is germany for the g-20 summit where the president will have his first face to face with vladimir putin. the white house so far have been asking officials, they won't preview what's on the agenda. they have dodged when i ask is he going to bring up the president russian mettling in the election, at this point it's not clear how and when and where that's going to work. it comes as the president is tweeting about foreign policy. he has calls with the leaders of germany and france. he mention third dos call with arabia. he talked about the growing threat from north korea. and you can expect the north korean threat to be front and center with asian nations. i'll stop talking now.

>> no. great information. the tweet from president trump about saudi arabia reference, you he said there are, quote, interesting things happening in middle east peace. hallie jackson at the white house, thank you so much. david, let's talk again here. we have a week of foreign policy that's being laid out in front of the president of the united states. he's speaking, he says, to france and germany today. he spoke to the king of saudi arabia today. heads to germany meeting with angela merkel, and then a face to face with vladimir putin. put all these things together. what's the headline? him and putin? >> the headline is trump prepares for a key meeting with russian president putin. the name putin has been toxic in washington now for months. and there is an investigation underway that makes this very tricky for president trump. at the same time, there is a

desire, strongly supported by our allies in germany and france for a better relationship between the u.s. and russia. things are so polarized that there has to be improvement. i think it's interesting trump is talking to germany and france today both of which have said they'd like to see improvement in u.s./russia relations. i think when putin meets trump, you'll see the beginnings of the next steps that they can take together in syria to deescalate and stabilize the situation there. just come from syria, there are all sorts of opportunities that our military commanders say they think would be worth taking. i'd expect there to be real discussion. at the same time, trump has to be super careful that the photos of that meeting don't come away with him kind of smiling too broadly, standing next to vladimir putin who at the time when this investigation by robert mueller is underway into russian mettling. >> a smiling photo and no

discussion of russian mettling would not be good. >> come, a blog with a title the time i got recruited to collude with the russians. we'll talk about why that could have a direct line to michael flynn. stay with us. ♪ ♪

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a followup to a report that suggested a republican operative tries to track down thousands of hillary clinton's missing e-mails claiming he had the support of none other than michael flynn. peter w. smith reportedly was con vised that the 33,000 e-mails were in the hand of russian hackers and told multipresident friend he was working with flynn to obtain then. one of the people he was accused of trying to recruit, matt tate who laid out his interactions with smith that was published friday night. tate wrote although it wasn't initially clear to me how independent smith's operation was from flynn or the trump campaign, it was immediately apparent that smith was both

well connected within the top echelons of the campaign and seemed to know flynn and his son well. he taoffered deep incites. he went onto discuss a research document he says smith sent him that listed senior members of the trump team including kellyanne conway, michael flynn, steve bannon, and more. joining us is a senior reporter at business insider. welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> what do you make of this report. who is tate, exactly, and put these pieces together a little bit? >> tate is an information security specialist. he used to work for the government commune kags head quarters in england. he is an extremely well-established twitter presence. he when the hillary clinton e-mail scandal was unfolding he was going through the state department release of the

e-mails that clinton turned over to the state department. he was desecting them. he has a lot of experience in this area. so this guy, peter smith, who may or may not have been working on behalf of michael flynn, we don't exactly know, reached out to tate and asked him if he could authenticate some of the hacked e-mails that he said that he was receiving from people on the dark web. there is no evidence that hillary clinton's e-mail server was ever hacked which is why he, i guess, wanted tate's advise as to whether the mails were valid. >> the question of may or may not smith being attached to the trump campaign seems to be the central question. was he a freelancer acting on his own because he thought it might benefit the president, or was he directed by somebody, perhaps general flynn? but there's no evidence of that right now. >> right. and michael flynn and his lawyer are not responding to request for comment. tate kind of laid out clearly

that he thought that smith really knew a lot about the campaign about the interworkings. he knew a lot about michael flynn and his son very well. he seemed to know a bit too much to be that far removed from the campaign and michael flynn. >> this is an important story. it could be the first piece in the puzzle that links to some form of collusion between the trump campaign. kellyanne conway and steve bannon denied any links with peter smith, sam cloves has not responded. it's not clear in the reporting that there was any direct link. i think it's worth stressing that point. peter smith may have just been talking up a good game. it may be that. he never produced evidence of that to matt tate. >> absolutely. that's like you said, an important thing to note. it just kind of remind me of the

whole thing that happened with the gop operative in florida named aaron nevens. someone reached out to him with allegedly hacked e-mails, and aaron nevens took advantage of that. it could have been the same thing with smith. he was seeing what he could do with the material he had. >> so david, with that in mind, and there is no evidence right now that peter smith was working on behalf of flynn or anyone else in the campaign, but flynn's name seeps to be at the center of the stories as it relates to russia. >> flynn was a key point of contact going back to the time that he was the head of the dia. he was traveling to russia talking up theed in of improved u.s./russia cooperation. he clearly was the point man meeting with ambassador kislyak, the russian ambassador. he is now under advice of his lawyers not to talk about

anything, so there have been many many weeks of no comment from him. what i found fascinating about this latest story is the reporter matt tate's posting and talking about peter smith's claim that he had sources in what's called the dark web in this very shadowy, sometimes quasi legal part of the internet who might be able to help offer information about hillary clinton, about these missing e-mails, et cetera, and it suggests, again, we don't know a lot about what smith was doing or whether his assertions were real, but it suggests there was a real effort to pull stuff out, perhaps that the russians were working on it as well. if you're robert mueller, the special counsel assigned to this tangled story, i'm sure that it's already rumored that he's

talking to mike flynn and getting his testimony. i'm sure that the things that are discussed in this latest set of revelations are things that people working for the special counsel are working on right now. >> one other wrinkle is we had the reporter on on friday to talk through this. peter smith actually died a month ago in may. he was 81 years old. there's no reason to believe there was anything suspicious about it, but he's no longer around to explain this story. i want to ask about the meeting at the g-20 gene vladimir putin and president trump. you covered this russia story for a long time. do you suspect donald trump will confront vladimir putin about russian mettling and support his intelligence agencies that said russia did mettle in our presidential election? >> no. >> you don't think he'll say anything? >> no. there is no evidence to suggest that trump will all of a sudden start to go on the offensive with vladimir putin. he has shown a reticence to even blame russia for the hacking to begin with.

he shifted the blame to obama for not doing enough to stop russia. there is virtually zero chance that he's going to confront putin directly, and it's not only a russian hawks in the u.s. that are going to be concerned about that. it's also our allies around the world. they're going to be looking at the meeting and look for signs that trump is going to be willing to push back against russian aggression in eastern europe and western elections as we saw in france. they're still doing it. if he doesn't show a signal that he intends to react to vladimir putin as he is, which is a foreign adversary, that's going to send a bad sign. >> it's something -- he twereat vladimir putin different than other leaders. >> he does, and we can't wrap our heads around that. vladimir putin will likely dangle some kind of cooperation in syria or the middle east. perhaps an exchange for trump indicating he might ease sanctions or give back the diplomatic compounds that obama

took away in december. whether or not trump takes the bait, we'll see. >> you covered it closely and it shows. thank you. up next, president trump loves social media. so do millions of american kids. what do you do as a parent when the president acts like a bully online? that conversation is next on "morning joe." liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night,

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you know what's not awesome? when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids. and these guys. him. ah. oh hello- that lady. these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh. sure. still yes! you can get it too. welcome to the party. introducing gig-speed internet from xfinity. finally, gig for your neighborhood too. welcome back to "morning joe." they may not be his intended audience, but plenty of kids are picking up on the message the president puts out on twitter. it's opening a whole new conversation with parents with their children. early last week before the president attacked mika and joe online, we spoke with the ceo of common sense. his organization is dedicated to helping kids thrive in modern

media. mika asked about how kids struggle to make sense of the things they see on tv and read online. >> there was a big study about how kids -- gender roles, boys and girls aregirls, are affecte what they see on tv and movies. over 75% of parents now in the united states are really concerned about the roles that their kids are learning about it and that is a very big deal for everybody. >> so someone watching, a child growing up today watching tv, looking at media, in any way they get it, they see a woman and what are the characteristics they attribute to that woman? >> a princess. how good do they look, what appearance should they have, are they sexually appealing. >> we're still there. >> that's what i was about to say, mika. here we are 2017 and we're still there with all those old stereotypes of how women should appear. it also relates to careers. you don't see women as lawyers and doctors, you see them as fashion models, et cetera. parents of all political persuasions are concerned about this. >> but don't we also see this

breakthroughs happening in media? >> definitely. >> you see women in roles as police officers, in primetime television. >> well, we see you. i'm not kidding. we see really strong, intelligent women in news and stuff like that, but in scripted shows and movies, you're starting to see disney, for example, in some of their last animat animated films have had much stronger thoughtful girl characters, which is really important because a lot of girls and boys get their images really early on. but we really have a long way. it's sort of weird. i think that the current political environment quite bluntly has added to this in a big way. >> i agree with you. >> because of the role models we're starting to see from washington, which are not the best of boys and girls. >> mike. >> i think a lot of parents paid increasingly more attention to what their children watch in terms of programming on tv, but culturally, some of the commercials on tv, their impact on children, i mean the

sexuality of some of these commercials. >> correct. >> is like astounding. >> if you look at what parents say in this study they are concerned about the sexualization of childhood particularly for girls. moms say they're very worried about the roles their girls are being shown. moms are worried about this. they're also worried that boys -- and this is short of old stuff, but it's still there, are learning aggressive behavior. too much violence. it's the sort of stuff i thought we had moved beyond. >> how does social media play into all of this? there's this preening and taking pictures of yourself -- >> i think it's a really big issue, willie. over 50% of girls under the age of 18 photo shop their images on instagram and facebook which shows you that they're concerned about their appearance. so social media is huge. also they repeat it over and over and over and over again. and so that sort of drills into kids' heads this is the image or

this is the persona that i want to have. it's a very big deal because it can start on a tv show or in a movie and they look up to those characters, they model themselves in some ways and then social media just repeats it over and over and over again. >> so how do you if you can, i don't think you can, but how do you slow the pace of an accelerated culture that seems to change every second or every few minutes? >> i think by having a good conversation, by having ongoing dialogue and conversation with your kids. by talking about it. look, i've got four kids. you have to have these conversations. i always say movies and tv and social media are teachable moments. like every day you get really interesting teachable moments to talk with your kids about. the question is do you take advantage of that. i'm serious too about the political example, since you guys cover that a lot. >> tell me more about that. >> i think that's a huge deal. wi remember, the current occupant of the white house talking about grabbing them by whatever. >> it's more than that.

a man who ran beauty pageants. >> our conversation with the founder and ceo of common sense media, jim steyer, and again that was before the president's tweets against joe and mika and had body slam video. up next, we'll dig more into the ramifications of those and will the republicans try a bipartisan option to repeal and replace obamacare but will the white house try to repeal it with no plans for what's coming next. "morning joe" is coming right back. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat! we're so glad to have you here. ♪ what if we treated great female scientists like they were stars? ♪ yasss queen!

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be the you who talks to your dermatologist about stelara®. my first reaction to that tweet would be the same as any of the president's tweets. there's a lot of cable news shows that reach directly into hundreds of thousands of viewers and they're not fair to the president. so i'm proud of the president for developing a twitter and social media platform where he can talk directly to the american people. in fact he's the most genuine president and most nonpolitician president we've seen in my lifetime and he's demonstrated whatever the don tecontent of t tweet is, he's demonstrated a genuine ability to communicate to the people. >> so that right there is what happens when you're a homeland security advisor for president trump, you're booked to talk about fourth of july weekend security and your boss tweets this moments before your interview. >> oh, my god, what's going to

happen? >> on that note, good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it's monday, july the 3rd. we've got katty kay, former communications direct for ted cruz, now an msnbc political contributor, rick tyler, senior political editor at the white house and correspondent for the huffington post, sam stein, chair of the department of african-american studies aprinceton university and columnist for "time" magazine, eddie glaude jr. and columnist for "washington post" david ignatius. good morning, everybody. >> good morning. >> thanks for interrupting your wild fourth of july weekends to come in here at 4:00 a.m. and talk about the president's tweets. president donald trump continued to focus his attention on the news media tweeting a video of himself from wrestlemania 23 in 2007 with the cnn logo

superimposed over the face of the person he's fighting. the official potus twitter handle also shared the video making it part of the archived official record. it is now his second most shared tweet of all time behind the one he sent after he was elected. cnn released a statement that read in part, quote, it is a sad day when the president of the united states encourages violence against reporters. he is involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of the office. we will keep doing our jobs. he should start doing his. this comes a few days after the white house deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said this during a briefing. >> the president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence of anything. quite the contrary. >> but white house homeland security advisor said the tweet was not a threat. >> i want to ask you, is that the kind of communication that you want, that he's beating up on somebody?

that he's beating up on the media? you're in charge of homeland security there. that seems like a threat. >> certainly not, though. i think that no one would perceive that as a threat. i hope they don't. but i do think that he's beaten up on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to. >> so sam stein, this is on the cover of just about every newspaper, including the "financial times" so it's being broadcast around the world. did you purr sooef that tweet as a threat of violence against the press? >> it's just so weird that every day we get in and have to psychoanalyze what trump means by his tweets. i don't -- i'm starting to lose the capacity to really care that much, to be honest with you. i think it's damaging. i think it's problematic. i don't know if it's a direct attack on the press, but it can be interpreted that way and that's what's important is people can interpret it that way. i'd like to say no one ever body slams a reporter, but somebody

did body slam a reporter. far more interesting to me is why he wants to do this with his life. i mean he's president of the united states. there's a lot of stuff going on. he has the capacity to do a whole host of different things in the morning other than watch cable news and tweet about it. and he probably should be doing other things in the morning, but he can't help himself. and i think that's the bigger criticism here is not necessarily that he's provoking violence against the press, as troubling as that is, it's that he seems so pro occupied with this stuff, this triviality where there's a host of things he should be dealing with. >> eddie, for the president of the united states to be thinking about these things and this comes on the heels of a tweet where he said right now i'm thinking about a new nickname for cnn to which people said i wish as president of the united states you weren't thinking about that. you were thinking about health care. >> but i think we need to be careful. you know, it's wrestling. and if we read wrestling literally, to suggest that the

video is an act of violence, it's just going to feed into his base. it's just going to be the base saying look at these liberals. they are taking wrestling seriously. so i think we need to be very, very careful in terms of how we read this. the second thing we need to be mindful of is this is just simply an ongoing effort to destabilize the state. to understand that a free and independent press is key to liberty, is central to liberty. so what does it mean for the president of the united states to engage in a relentless all-out assault on an independent and free press? and this is just the latest instance of that assault. >> and i think the white house says it's a joke. the press can't take a joke about itself. >> liberals have no sense of humor. >> and professional wrestling, i have some breaking news, is fake. so what they're saying is it's fake, it's fake news. >> it's kinds of carefully chosen, so it's a win-win in the

president. he chooses something that you can say is fake, it's fake wrestling, it's just a joke. but i was looking carefully. if you take just in isolation that, whatever it is, 15 seconds of clip it's hard not to see somebody punching somebody in the face. that's the image that is being shown around the world. i do have to say on the "financial times" thing, this is getting a huge amount of coverage in other countries and it looks totally crazy. it really looks like america has gone off the reservation in some ways. and i don't mean the president, i mean the whole coverage of it. the fact that this is all that everybody is talking about at a time when there are huge issues going on around the world. this is preoccupying this country. it looks like the country has been kind of caught in a sort of vortex of stagnation over kind of crazy tweets and then the endless coverage of those tweets. >> we've been kind of desensitized to the things trump

does. but if you just look at it in isolation, it's insane. i mean it really is. like that's the president of the united states tweeting wres it e wrestlemania videos. but what's your reaction just to seeing that, rick? >> vince mcmahon, whose wife is now head of the small business administration. >> right. >> i think the feeling is mutual among the press probably. also if it wasn't a threat, why is the homeland security secretary seem so frightened? >> because he did not go on that show to talk about that. he didn't know what to say. >> that's the whole point. these things -- is it a threat? i'm not sure. is it kind of funny? yeah, he really was there. but the point is if you're looking at legislative achievement and accomplishment and what this president is supposed to get done with a republican congress, it's just another distraction that steals headlines. therefore, nothing is going to get done. >> the irony is that trump

doesn't hate the press. trump loves the press. trump is obsessed with the press. he has used it masterfully to become president. >> this is prethought out obviously. he wants to pick a fight with the media in large part because we unfortunately have this terrible approval rating, almost like chris christie level approval rating and we're a very good foe for him. this is not a new script, this is a nixonian script where you talk about the press as the enemy and they are the elites and the coastals and you are the man of the voice of the people and you're going around the press. what he's doing that's not nixonian is he's being blatant about it. >> and i think we need to be mindful that it might not be the direct tweet, but there are folks who are watching it, who are on the fringes who may have psychological problems who could act on this in a way that could be very -- >> i suspect also the way the press, we do cover this and it's about the press and there's a

real question about how much this white house is trying to stri infringe the right of the press, but the more separated from average americans this makes us look. >> we're in a catch-22 -- >> if he tweeted about it once and stopped, that would be one thing but it's the repetitive tweeting about it means that every time he tweets -- >> i want to go to david ignatius. david, you've got such a fascinating perspective on this because you spent the last week or so in syria, and we'll talk about your piece about that in just a moment. but you came home, back to the united states, after studying this grave situation over there that has implications for the united states, of course, as well, to find something completely different on the front page of all the newspapers. >> i have to tell you it was one of the strangest moments of my career as a reporter. i came out of this battle zone around raqqah, the capital of the islamic state, coming back with special operations forces and we turn on our devices and what's going on in the world is

this huge twitter battle in which the president of the united states is attacking our friend, the co-host of this show, mika brzezinski, and it was just a surreal sense of what was going on back in our capital, back in our politics at a time when war was going on, when the future of this part of the world was being set. very unsettling just to feel that contrast and it continues over the weekend with a wrestlemania stuff. i just have to tell you, you know, in the president's book, the only adversary he's gaining ground against is the media. we have to face up to the fact that this is not a popular successful president. he's not getting anything done. the punching cnn in a fake recreation of a wrestling match seems to be his best shot. should be careful about it being his fall guy in this scenario

he's created. >> so, david, what's your sense? what do you pick up? do you pick up what katty picks up as she travels the world the way you do? what is the view from the leaders of the countries that you travel and what's happening just recently in the u.s.? >> let me speak specifically to the people, leaders come here often and they have to be discounted. i'm going to say something that in some ways is sympathetic to trump. but as i traveled across syria meeting with syrian fighters who were trying to take down the regime of bashar al assad, every time the name president trump was mentioned, there were cheers from the audience. one syrian kurdish commander used a vulgar term in spanish it would be cajones to describe what president trump has got and why they like him. more seriously the big attacks

that have taken place around raqqah, one in particular a surprise landing by helicopter, i was told by the top u.s. commanders would not have taken place if it hadn't been for president trump's decision to delegate military authorities down to the level of command. i mean under obama that would have taken a couple weeks of white house meetings and they still wouldn't have made up their mind. in this case there was not one meeting. they just said that general townsend, the commander in baghdad, you decide. three days later, these kurds, who had never seen an airplane or helicopter, had been helicoptered across a lake for a surprise attack that is probably the most daring and decisive of the war. so do need to put this in perspective. yes, there are a lot of people around the world who are appalled, but there are some people that say this image of strength that he is projecting is something they like. >> david, i hear the same thing from other sunni arab countries too. they are very happy with this president. i wouldn't be surprised if you could go out to asia and find

some people in asia and china in particular also saying they like this projection of strength from this president. they might not like it if we actually get into a trade war but they like the fact there is a president that is projecting strength. it's something that they can understand. so when i was talking about -- i was really talking about people back in the uk and europe that i've spoken to the last few days looking at what is happening particularly over this issue of the tweets and the media and mika, and their sense that america has somehow got caught in a moment of inability to do anything because they're so caught up in trivia. coming up on "morning joe," republicans control the capital and that's proving to be part of their problem. the gop's different factions can't agree on health care and it has major implications for the other big issues coming down the pike. first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. fantastic weather over the weekend for the most part and that continues today. there are some exceptions. some people have to deal with

wet weather and i apologize. in arkansas, you've had overnight heavy rains. one batch of storms heading over memphis and another batch just to the north of shreveport. about 2 million people are at risk of strong storms. it would be from hail damage wichita to oklahoma city. the general green sections here is what we call a marginal risk, dallas even up into kansan isolated chance of storm or two. there's a slight chance of a strong homer in the ohio valley. pittsburgh included, state college, maybe even toward new york city late in the day. it's 93 in d.c. we're pretty much in the 90s across the southern half of the country and all our friends on the west coast very warm for you. 111 for the fourth of july in phoenix, 109 in vegas, even 100 in boise. so the west if you want to call it too hot spot, that's where it's going to be. a few strong storms in the middle of the country on july 4th. what's great about this forecast

talking about afternoon storms, they die off in the late afternoon and that gives you a great fourth of july fireworks forecast. just a slight chance of some showers and storms, charlotte up to d.c. those will be ending. i think just about everybody will get their fireworks shows in on schedule for a great holiday -- well, four-day weekend for some of us if you're lucky. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

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with momentum for the senate republicans health care bill stalled, the white house has changed its approach, now pushing for a repeal only option if a replacement plan cannot be agreed upon. a position the president once rules out right after winning the white house. >> we're going to do it simultaneous simultaneously, it will be just fine. we're not going to have a two-day period or a two-year period where there's nothing. it will be repealed and

replaced. it will be repeal and replace. it will be essentially simultaneously. it will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week but probably the same day, could be the same hour. >> that was the president in january. but yesterday white house legislative affairs director, mark short, said a repeal-only drive could gain the support of senators who oppose the current replacement plan. >> dean heller voted for that repeal effort and it's a way to say if the replacement part is too difficult for republicans to come together, let's go back and take care of the first step and repeal. there's another member, todd young from indiana when he was in the house voted for the bill too. so you have 50 members on record having voted for that recently. so that's an option. then at that point if you've repealed it, you can come back with a replacement effort that could be more bipartisan. >> one of those 50 votes is the

republican majority leader mitch mcconnell. he said he intends to continue the negotiations while joking about the president's campaign slogan late friday. the associated press relaying this quote from the majority leader saying, quote, it's not easy making america great again, is it. meanwhile the usa today finds there will be over 1,370 counties with only one affordable care act exchange insurer next year. 40 counties will have none at all due in large part to the uncertainty in washington. sam, you cover the hill closely. how does this end? mitch mcconnell wanted the vote by friday before he left. now he says let's get it in before we leave in august. how does this end? >> i don't think anyone knows how it ends. i don't think what the white house is doing is particularly productive from mitch mcconnell's standpoint. he's been trying to cobble together this fragile agreement on how to replace obamacare and the white house says forget that, let's just go straight

repeal. so who knows what that does to senate negotiations. i still believe that they ultimately will find a path forward. it's a very narrow path forward but i think they'll find it. but i think we need to step back and realize how craven it is to say we're going to repeal this thing and do the replacement some other date. we're talking about millions of people instantaneously losing health care coverage. >> what senator sasse of nebraska said yesterday was we can do a repeal with a one-year delay, so we will repeal it but it won't be enacted for another year. over the course of that year we will find a replacement. >> i'll play with this for a send. the subhead of that "usa today" article is the critical part. there is uncertainty over obamacare and that's what's causing the fragility of these markets. if you say we'll repeal it and work it out.

that destabilizes these markets further. why would you partake in that market if you don't know if the market will exist after a year's time. so there is an underreported element of complete mismanagement of the health care system happening from the federal government level that is contributing to what is already a very problematic obamacare individual market making it much wor worse. the most surprising aspect of the current health care debate is how republicans have essentially given up on making the conservative case for their bills, arguing that the free market would lead to higher quality care, efficiency and medical advancements as the gop of old might have. instead they're trying to obscure the reality that their biltz would cut medicaid by hundreds of millions of dollars and increase the number of uninsured americans by potentially 20 million or more. they basically conceded that government involvement in health care is a good thing or at least a necessary thing. that was not the argument they were making eight years ago.

democrats are gradually talking themselves into supporting single payer, their laser-like focus on the number who are uninsured and medicare cuts, there's only one way for make sure nobody is uninsured after all. this is not going, rick, the way mitch mcconnell envisioned it would go at this point. he hasn't shown the ability to cobble together those two sides of his own party, people like rand paul who say it doesn't go far enough, it's not a full repeal and people like rob portman who says you can't mess with medicaid in my state. can he bring those two together? >> no. i don't think you can. suppose we're watching a plane take off and one of the engines drops off. that would be political capital. as it takes off, the other engine falls off and that's public support. the plane is going to crash. the reason it's going to crash is because the conservatives on the right have not explained how

a free market health care system is better. i know a lot of viewers don't like that. but that's the debate that's going on. but i think we've lost that debate now. so i don't think you're going to get a repeal. and sam is right, you can't just repeal obamacare now. it's too late for that because what happens is insurance companies price for one thing, risk. and if there's instability, that gets priced into risk. and so they either pull out of the market or they raise the prices to a point people can't afford it. but we have great health care in america actually. we have a terrible payment system. no one has been able to solve that payment system. i don't hear anybody on our side, on the republican side articulating how you get downward cost pressures through market forces. coming up, president trump and vladimir putin are set to meet for the first time, unless you counting their appearance together on "60 minutes." just ahead, we'll go inside the increasingly complex relationship between washington and moscow. "morning joe" is back after this. i no longer live with

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putin hates us. he hates obama. he doesn't hate us. i think he'd like me. i'd get along great with him, i think. if you want to know the truth.

>> well, he does have an 82% approval rating according to the different pollsters, who, by the way, some of them are based right here. i respect putin, he's a strong leader i can tell you that. unlike what we have, we have a pathetic leader. if he's going to say great things about me action i'm going to say great thing about him. >> that's president trump talking about vladimir putin the past two years. he is one of the few people president trump has refrained from criticizing in public. he will come face to face with putin this friday at the g20 summit in hamburg, germany. joining us now, the chairman and co-founder of the financial integrity network, juan zarate. good morning, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> the significance of this meeting is obvious but what happens in that meeting is unclear. will donald trump confront vladimir putin about election meddling in a meeting? what will that look like? >> it's a great question, willie. what h.r. mcmaster has said is that the meeting will have three

purposes. one is to confront. confront on issues of cyber security, issues of syria, ukraine, a whole range of issues that the u.s. and russia are at logger heads about. second, try to deter. try to deter further russian activity cyber attacks, even provocations in europe against nato allies. and then finally try to find areas of common interest. the fight against isis, counter proliferation, work on north korea. big-ticket items where you do need russian cooperation. the question is, is the president able to do all three at once? and will he feel constrained politically given all of the controversy around russia. but i think he's going to have to do all three in order to make this an effective meeting of the and putin no doubt is going to be taking his measure as they have this discussion. >> president trump has been so hesitant to accuse russia of meddling, to agree with what the intelligence agencies have said has happened. in fact when they were asked in the briefing room, he said i

haven't talked to the president about that. i don't know how he feels about whether russia meddled in the election. do you think he will confront vladimir putin? >> i hope he does. i'm not quite sure. he has raised some doubt as to the oernl rigins of the attacks. i think intelligence community has been very clear about that. they have put out as much information as they can about the digital forensics around russian hacking and involvement. there are concerns about the german election. so this is a very real and present danger that the russians continue to flirt with hybrid warfare and cyber attacks. so i hope the president not only confronts president putin but reinforces the integrity and the credibility of u.s. intelligence and law enforcement assessments, because that's incredibly important with a russian leader that has played games with this question of obfuscating attribution and trying to debate legitimacy around everything from the cyber attacks to what's

happened on the ground in syria. so it's very important for the president to be clear about what we think, what we say and the credibility of our own institutions to declare what is evidence and proof. >> so, david ignatius, the expectation is and should be that president trump will confront vladimir putin about election meddling. we don't know whether or not he'll do it, as juan touched on. what do you think from the other side is the expectation? what does russia want to get out of this meeting? >> my impression, talking to u.s. officials on my trip into syria, is that the russians are being very well behaved for the moment in syria, in expectation of this meeting. for many months the russians have been saying to secretary of state kerry under president obama and then to the trump administration officials, rex tillerson, the secretary most of all, we would like to cooperate in syria. we'd like to have 24/7 joint

military operations that share data, that go after the isis enemy jointly. interestingly, the russians have been in secret working to help the u.s. figure out a line between u.s. forces and the forces of our syrian kurdish allies and russia and the syrian regime. and that line, which was established really only last weekend in a firm way, is now holding i'm told. it's an 80-mile line roughly in syria. it's the line that caused the shootdown of the syrian plane. so behind the scenes they're preparing for this meeting by doing some business, by saying we're on this side, you're on that side. and the question is whether they can build a political phase of this military to military conversation and we'll find out after the meeting. coming up on "morning joe" a top corporate crime watchdog resigns. the reason? she says she can't do her job

under the trump administration. that story ahead on "morning joe."

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find out how at sanfranciscodignity.com. we won and they lost. the fact is the press has destroyed themselves because they went too far. instead of being subtle and smart, they used the hatchet and the people saw it right from the beginning. the dishonest media will never keep us from accomplishing our objectives on behalf of our great american people. will never happen. their agenda is not your agenda, you've been seeing it. the fake media is trying to

silence us. but we will not let them. because the people know the truth. the fake media tried to stop us from going to the white house. but i'm president and they're not. >> that was president trump speaking over the weekend at a celebrate freedom concert sponsored by an evangelical christian organization to honor americans veterans. just moments ago the president tweeted this as a follow. at some point the fake news will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with isis, the border and so much else. joining us now from milwaukee, author, conservative commentator and msnbc contributor, charlie sykes and in washington, former republican counsel to the house government reform and oversight committee, sophia nelson. she's a contributor to nbc.com and nbc black, and author of qe pluribus one, reclaiming our

founders' vision for a united america." welcome to you both. charlie, over the weekend you tweeted out a lecture and subsequent piece that bret stephens gave that said don't dismiss president trump's attacks on the media as mere stupidity. this exchange between donald trump and bill o'reilly, let's watch. >> is there any validity to the criticism of you that you say things you can't back up factually and as the president you say, for example, that there are 3 million illegal aliens who voted and then you don't have the data to back it up. some people are going to say that's irresponsible for a president to say that. is there any validity to that? >> many people have come out and said i'm right. >> but you've got to have data to back that up. >> charlie, that's the explanation we hear a lot, many people say i'm right. it's never clear who those people are, if they have

informed opinions about what the facts are. why do you think bret singled that out and why did you highlight it? >> well, i think it underlines this is not just an attack on the media, this is an attack on the concept of truth. what the president is really saying there is that facts don't matter. we get to choose the facts we want. that if a lot of people think something, well, then, you know, i will repeat it. so what you're seeing here is not just an attack on the media. and by the way, his base loves these attacks on the media. it's an attack on the whole idea of an independent check on what the president says and what he believes. by the way, this was the daniel pearl lecture. bret stephens is making the point we cannot give up the truth. daniel pearl was murdered by al qaeda and really is a symbol of that push for truth. i would strongly urge people to go back and read that lecture. >> sophia, president trump has

done this not just with the media, with the tweet about c. -- cnn yesterday but undermining, he's saying consider the source. shifting ideas of what's true and what's not true and create a smoke screen and a cloud of doubt in people's minds, whether it's a judge, whether it's intel agencies, his own intel agencies. this is kind of his m.o. >> yeah. i want to go back to what charlie said, though, because i agree with him that you have to look athese attacks on the media, on cnn and others as an attack on the republic. i had the opportunity to visit james madison's home last week. standing in the room where the father of the constitution, one of our founding fathers, our fourth president, actually wrote many of his famous papers and probably drafted much of our constitution, you know, the free press is sacrosant to this republic. the% that president trump tries to erode, debase and demean the

free press, we've never seen this before, not even richard nixon, and that's saying a lot, didn't attack the press in this way. he didn't have twitter or the social media but even nixon i think had some boundaries until he started to really fade at the end and had to resign because of his behavior. but my point is i agree with you and i think that it's very damaging for our young people to see the president doing this and it's damaging to our republic for the president to attack something that's right in our first amendment, the free press. >> charlie, i think part of the problem here might be that donald trump has what i would say are favorably disposed news outlets that help him do these types of things that debase the truth. so for every show like us that calls him out for these factual inaccuracies, there's a sean hannity out there who is willing to say, you know what, the president is just sticking it to the media and they won't tell you the truth, even though sean

hannity is a rational actor i suppose that knows that he's lying. so is the press culpable here? is the conservative press culpable here? >> oh, absolutely. look, don't underestimate how powerful this appeal is to his base and, frankly, look, he has something that richard nixon never enjoyed which is the alternative reality media that will provide him air cover to all of this. no matter what the mainstream media will do, you can do the best journalism in the world, but his base has been immunized against taking any of that seriously. by the way, i don't -- i don't want to downplay the attack on the first amendment in the media. but also there's a flip side to this which is just the smallness and the pettiness that he is displaying. if you would have said a year ago that the president of the united states would spend his first, you know, july 4th weekend not talking about america and the american tradition, but tweeting out

wrestling memes of himself beating up reporters, you would have thought you were over the top, but that is the reality. so yes, it's a serious thing but also it's just the incredible smallness of this man's mind that we're seeing displayed on a regular basis. >> so this is eddie glaude. sophia, i wanted to ask you a question that isn't so much focused on donald trump. is it the case that perhaps president trump is just a reflection of us. that what we see in him is an exaggerated version of the rot that's in our -- the ways in which we engage one another. how might you speak to that question? >> i agree with you. >> go ahead, sophia. >> were you at my barbecue yesterday? i promise you this was exactly the discussion we had. but it got really heated about this very topic, me and others saying we're going down this abyss of immorality. and i want to read you a quote from one of the founding

fathers, william patterson. he said look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. what does that mean? it's to your point. at some point the president of the united states is reflecting our values, when we say and people at my barbecue were saying oh, it doesn't matter, nobody cares. the overwhelming majority of people at my barbecue think that the rock will be one of the top contenders in 2020. i was mortified because they were very serious because they really think that donald trump opened a door we will no longer elect people who are governors or senators. we're going to go down this celebrity kind of anything goes abyss. i think that's dangerous for this country. i really appreciate your question because i do think this is a mirror for us and i think we're failing this test badly right now as a country. >> sophia nelson, charlie sykes, appreciate your insights on this fourth of july weekend. have a good one.

we'll come to your barbecue next year, boy the way. >> absolutely. let's turn to dominic chu. dom, good morning. what are you following? >> so we've got some stories on the jobs front here. first of all, minneapolis city council members voted to increase the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour by july of 2024. now, that means minneapolis joins seattle, san francisco, d.c. in that $15 minimum wage club. other cities are moving forward with boosts of their own. there's opposition among conservatives and business owners who say those increases put a lot of cost pressure on businesses and lead to less hiring. proponents say that higher wages means more money for workers to spend on goods and services. we've also got tougher news coming out of microsoft. the company will reportedly reorganize its global sales force which will include possibly laying off a lot of workers while the exact number

of job cuts hasn't yet been disclosed, it is expected that these moves are geared more towards helping microsoft shift towards selling cloud-based computer services to its customers on the business side of things, so certainly something to watch. now, one person who's leaving her job voluntarily is justice department lawyer hui chen, who used -- she used to work in the anti-fraud unit of the department of justice. she put a linkedin posting saying she did not intend to stay with the doj after her contract expired. she cited her strong feelings about the trump administration and feeling like she really couldn't effectively police corporate ethics given what she felt were conflicts in the trump administration that she was working for. it's drawn a lot of share of criticism and support on both sides of the equation. according to her post, she intends to do more work on the public compliance and ethics side of things. we'll ending here on a check of tesla stock.

it is moving up. elon musk said the newest version of its model 3 electric car has passed all the regulatory requirements it needs for production and two weeks ahead of schedule. he followed up by saying that production capacity will be about 100 cars a month later on this summer, but could ramp up to 20,000 cars a month later on in december. that means, guys, that model 3, it's closely followed because the price tag starts at $35,000. it sounds like a lot, but it's much cheaper than the model s and model x cars, so it's seen as more of a mass market type of product here. if they can get this out and get it out effectively, they could sell a heck of a lot more cars than they have in the past, guys. >> elon musk also simultaneously boring holes underneath los angeles, building these tunnels to get people around. it's incredible. he's got his hands in everything. >> oh, yeah. >> dominic chu, dom, thanks so much. coming up next, donald trump says his no holds barred approach is, quote, modern day presidential, but another president managed to make his

style timeless. how jfk mastered the television age and paved his way to the presidency. keep it on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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seven days was not mr. kruschev or the presidential campaign. it was the news out of boston that mr. ted williams had retired as an active ball player for the boston red sox. it seems at 42 when he was too old it does show that perhaps experience doesn't count. >> that was then senator john f. kennedy with a joke about his youth as he neared the end of his 1960 campaign. two veteran journalists, tom oliphant and curtis willke joined "morning joe" to talk about "the road to camelot: inside jfk's five-year campaign." here is that conversation. >> curtis, let me start with you. did jfk invent modern politics? >> we think he did in terms of the way you go after a nomination. did any number of things from hiring a pollster to give him guidan guidance. he was the first candidate to do that. certainly nobody else drew ips

participation from the red sox. >> right. >> and many think he ran outside of the party, created his own structure. of course he used the old man's money, which is old, but he disregarded every recommendation the old man had for him. >> until he won. and then he said bob is going to be your a.g. whether you like it or not. let's talk about the campaign, talking about running outside the structure. when i was younger and read about jfk i was surprised the contempt that a lot of giants in the party had for harry truman and so many other democrats thought he was a spoiled young kid. >> the reason he had to invent a new game, joe, was because the old game he'd lose at. >> the powers in the party had an indifferent attitude toward him. he had no particular standing in the senate. he had no record of accomplishment to speak of.

and there's no indication that accept for maybe one or two exceptions he thought very seriously about the major questions facing the country and the world. it all had to start from scratch. and maybe it succeeded precisely because it was the only route that was available to him. >> that sounds a little bit like barack obama, who seemed so disinterested in the sonata harry reid pulled him in and said, listen, you're never going to be a good senator here, you might as well run for president. we heard stories -- growing up i read stories of john kennedy showing up in a rumpled jacket on the senate floor and looked like khakis that he'd slept in. he did not seem that engaged. how do we get from there to a man who as you said is seen as inventing modern politics? >> he was a guy determined to go to top despite his age, despite his catholicism, despite any

number of handicaps that people were told he had. and he began to invent himself as an effective senator. he began to develop a domestic policy, foreign policy. he very early spoke out against the french in terms of colonialism and algeria, groundbreaking speech in 1957, began to establish himself as someone who thought seriously about foreign policy. >> one of the things that we bumped into, joe, was a long ignored -- people didn't even know it existed -- tape-recording of an off the record conversation he had with his friend, ben bradlee and one of bradlee's young correspondents at "newsweek" about his ambition. and it's rare with -- >> what year was this? >> 1960. the thing was tape-recorded a couple days after he announced it was off the record, it went away with the correspondent who

had taped it and didn't come back until a couple of years ago. and in terms of his ambition, he talked about -- he said it's human nature if you're on a ladder to look at the next room, okay? it had nothing to do with agenda or ideology or anything like that. rather, he spock about wanting to be at the highest level of activity, in the center of action, making decisions about the country and the world, you know, with the stakes the highest -- >> remarkable that -- >> teddy roosevelt -- >> yes. it also sounds, mark alpern, a lot like what john meacham pulled out of george h.w. bush. he consumer sentiment asking why, why, why, and he said because i wanted to be the guy that ran hike that. sound a lot like that. >> you talk about the structural things. i'm fascinated every time i see him, including the clip we opened with, he's so modern the way he talks to the public,

humor, irony. it's like went from him to the '90s before we had anybody like him. is that just innate ability, role models? >> made for tv, obviously. >> did he have role models or coaches? >> he had a speech coach who tried to perfect some of his pronunciations, too strong massachusetts accent. he never corrected cue bar and things like that. he did do that. he was a student of television, which was emerging then. and it became very effective. he used that. >> mark, you know, the first what we would call today media consultant was called by kennedy in january of 1957. >> the new book, very exciting, "the road to camelot: inside jfk's five-year campaign." >> you can see that full interview on our website,

joe.msnbc.com. that does it for us this morning. chris jansing now picks up our coverage. thanks, willie. i'm chris jansing in for stephanie ruhle. this morning, health care cross road. are republicans on the same page as they work to revamp the repeal and replace? >> we're getting close. >> i don't think we're getting anywhere with the bill we have. we're at an impasse. >> senators back in their home district facing fireworks from protesters this fourth of july. and is the president using his power to push his health care agenda or is he getting too distracted with his war on journalists? >> the fake media is trying to silence us. but we will not let them. i'm president, and they're not. plus, garden state gall. new jersey governor chris christie shuts down the

government closing jersey beaches for everyone but himself. >> get the hell off the beach. >> but let's begin with the vast republican chasm over health care and lawmakers back home facing nervous constituents trying to map out a way forward. the bill they have isn't all that pop ular in congress or th rest of the country but right now it's all they've got. i have a great team with me. msnbc's headache shagarrett haa live at the white house for us. rand paul says this bill is offensive to conservatives. you have moderates like rob portman, lisa mur cow koc murko. what's the administration doing? what do they believe in? what are they doing to get something passed? >> reporter: all fair questions. the president has been listening a great deal to the complaints of the various actors on this stage here, the senators on both sides of the ideological