overseas today. >> that does it for us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. so you'll like the numbers today. 22,000. the stock market market hit that number. >> you're like the jim kraemer of commentary.

>> sell! >> we need buttons. >> the last person you want to tack advice fr-- take advice fr anything financial is me. >> do you want too kn know what other number is? >> he said sell. >> the other number is 33. ooh, i don't know what that's for. i have no idea what you're talking about. >> jason varitek's number, former catcher of the red sox. >> will he still not sign those pictures? >> won't sign it. >> i need varitek to sign the picture of him shoving the glove in his face.

>> i don't know that number. >> you'd like it for your cholesterol. >> you'd be dead. >> once again, you wouldn't like that number. don't take advance from me. >> 33 is president trump's approval rating. >> oh! >> ooh. >> that's not good. >> how does that happen? >> that's right in the solar flex. >> what? >> 33. that's the new quinnipiac poll. has anyone done that? >> george w. bush, but his poll numbers were as high as jesus. >> after seven years. >> he got to 33 after six months. >> that's because he's a great man. he can do things quickly. >> wasn't bush at like 92 or something at this point. >> good morning, it's august 3rd. with us we have msnbc

contributor mike barnicle. >> organizatih, stop it! >> director of domestic policy studies, lahne chen. let's look at the quinnipiac poll. it has president trump's approval rating at 33%, down 7% since the end of june. 61% disapprove. among voters who made up his coalition, he has a 76% among republicans, 47% among white men and 43% among white voters with

no college grew, this as the gallup poll puts the president's approval at 36%, ranking it among the three lowest days of his presidency. >> so you're starting to see some order brought to the white house since general kelly. and he's now saying the bad news, the fake news from the president makes our jobs harder. >> look, there is a downward curve that is very steady from january 20th until now in, say,

the very low, high 40s and he's now down in that average around 38 and every month it's like this. it's a very plain chart. i'm not sure what we're seeing here is the chaos over scaramucci or whatever. this is the posthealth care meltdown. it's now beginning to dawn on people that he's getting nothing done legislatively and he's got a republican congress and that can't be good. they don't like the tweets. his supporters don't like the tweets. it's almost as if there's a realization finally that the tweets, the lies, the russian investigation, which most americans do not care about right now, just like most americans didn't care about

watergate in 1973. you can go down the list of all the things that we're accused of obsessing on and the one thing voters seem to be boiling that down to is there's a lot of noise and what it's leading to is him getting nothing done in washington, him insulting everybody and him insulting lisa murkowski and lisa murkowski saying go to held, him insulting jeff flake, the boy scouts, the police. he has, as we have said from the beginning, he has declared on washington and washington has answered back. >> the numbers are actually pretty easy to understand once you frame it up in the sense that the vast majority of people in this country don't follow the details of this administration or the politics of this administration as we do, as

people in the news business do, they lead their on lives. so they don't understand the intricacies of the health care thing and what's going on back and forth and everything that you mentioned. what they do stand is chaos and incompetence and nothing getting done and thus you have 33. >> jeremy peters, you're talking about the president prying to keep his base. we're just going to try to play to our hard core, nationalist trumpist base and everybody else be damned. tease what gets you to 36%. now it's getting to 33%. does he keep doing the same thing that steve bannon has been telling him to do, which is to basically chain him to

historically low approval ratings? >> over the last few days what you've seen is part of that strategy that you've just described is going hard at the base. this explains why we've seen president trump announce actions against latino gangs, it's why we've seen his pronouncement that the united states should cut immigration in half. having in the 70s in an approval rating among republicans is not great. and this is something that president trump's aides have raised with him saying this needs to be a lot higher. as john pedora was saying, he's

been unable to recover since firing james comey. the bright spot for some republicans when they look at these numbers in individual states and this is what a lot of republican strategists are focusing on right now. you look at the states where trump did very well in november and his approval ratings are in the mid to high 80s, and let's not forget richard nixon never dropped below 50% until the day he resigned. if mike pence or jeff flake were

to challenge him, people would be like we don't have to have somebody who acts crazy in the white house who actually is a hard core conservative. >> but you're jumping pretty far ahead in time that we're going to have an election next year. if he's got 80% in alabama, it's not like a democrat is going to win in alabama. there is a senatorial race in alabama and no democrat is going to win that now or in 2018. that's not the issue. the plain political issue is democrats need 24 seats to take the house back in 2018, and the table is being set pretty nicely for him to get that number. and if they get that number, he's going to be impeached. i'm saying the house will

impeach him if democrats have a ten-seat majority. if he doesn't right the ship, he's clinton in 1998 and 1999 with no recovery possible. clinton was doing that at a time of explosive economic growth. >> steve rattner, despite that i've seen some really impressive democratic ads out there, the democratic party is -- >> we'll see. >> no, they're clueless. >> that ad gave me a lot of hope yesterday. i think there are some great candidates out there. >> i'm talking about the national party is clueless and they are just as disconnected from working class americans as they've ever been. are they going to blow this advantages that been given to them? is there concern among democratic activists and democratic donors that the

democratic leadership still doesn't get it? >> there are a lot of concerns among democratic activists about what's going on. remember, the republican party as we saw in health care and we've seen in other issues has its own set of divisions within it. you have the progressive wing that has a set of things they want and almost the remnants of the centrist wings, they're hiding in the woods and afraid to come out but they're there. the new democratic platform that have come out in last few days are a bunch of small bore ideas that they could build a consensus around but not a real vision of where they want to go. and we'll get to this on um grags. immigration is one of those issues. >> it sounds like a hardee's ad, a better deal. and the immigration issue,

that's a perfect example. and i'm going to get jumped by saying this because i'm in manhattan. >> no, you're not. >> i'm not? >> no, you're not. >> the democratic party has lost white working class americans because of immigration. that's an issue. and there's such a blind spot that they don't understand, they really don't understand that for a lot of working class americans a flood of immigrants coming to the united states means not on they lose their jobs but they're smart enough to know it depresses their wages. so when they hear donald trump say let's lessen the number of immigrants coming to the united states of america, working class democrats think it's pretty good for wages. >> they have no coherence to the

agenda right now. look at that number with white working class americans, the president being underwater gives the democrats that opportunity but there's no coherence to the agenda. they have a policy challenge, a messaging challenge, a generational challenge in the democratic party. that is a a problem that they're not going to solve by hiring an agency to rebrand a pizza commercial to define their agenda. they need an agenda and they need a generation of new leaders. >> if you go back to 2006, you'll find paul krugman writing immigration and low-skilled workers threat en americans. now the democratic party is firmly, unilaterally, unquestionably on the side of bring us your huddled, tired

masses, we're want all immigrants and that's what cost them the white working class voters. >> and what will continue to and it also does drive down wages for working class americans. >> where i want to push back is this -- the model of the mid-term election is 2010, the republicans win 63 seats in the house and in 1994, they won 52 seats in the house and they won the senate. so here's the key. there was no could heerns to the republican agenda either in '94 or 2010. though co hered around a couple of pretty simple messages and in 2010 that was obama is spending us into the sewer and is ignoring the constitution. when republican win, they get into the house and suddenly because they have no coherent

agenda, it's a nightmare, they can't agree on anything, they shut the government down temperature it may be bad for democrats in 2019 because they won't have a coherent agenda but if they can co here around a couple simple anti-trump messages, one of them being the classic message he's not getting everything done, he's failing everybody and is failing himself own voters, that can get him to election day. >> do-nothing republicans. >> kasie hunt, we often talk about and ask questions especially to you about how republicans are navigating this presidency. what do you hear from democrats about the potential moment of opportunity that is before them? >> reporter: well, i want to pick um on what john was just saying about democrats and the comparisons to the tea party wave in 2010. because it's a good point, yes,

where their messages were leaned up but a reminder that a lot of the candidates that got elected in 2010 came to washington and became massive thorns in the side of republican leaders. these were not people come out of some grand republican plan to tack back government. my instincts is that may be happening on the democratic side here, too. look at the sheer number of democratic challengers. ephs just looking at it, according to within id this time during the last round of mid-term elections, lrp 44 democratic challengers. so it's completely exploded. but i think the analysis that democrats are not positioned well to take advantage of it from a national party pr expectative is absolutely true. and one question i've been starting to ask can you identify

what that is because in that in turn will give you the answer as to how to fix it. and in the populous wing people will say she lost of goldman sachs. >> i washi worked for goldman sachs. i've been begging to work for them for ten years. >> i think the question is can they get away from it? >> great point. >> just as far as on the ground, mike, there's also an ideological problem with the democrats. if you run anywhere in the south from kentucky down to south florida over to missouri and you're a. >> chip: it's easy to say your

first vote will be from -- it's the same thing democrats were able to democrats you're going to go help newt gingrich and dick armey. >> the larger problem is ruled in two things, timidity and elitism. they've been so timid about taking on these, use like immigration. explain immigration to people and when you explain it, you say people coming in are not taking your job, they're not going to lower your wages, automation, technology, globalism, those are your enemies. and they're your enemies because we've let you down. we've let you sit there in the mill that was going to leave, if it hasn't left already, and you're going to be unemployed and macking $le.

but they're so timid about these things and so frustrated by special interests and they've been dragged to the left mainstream of this country. there's no mystery as to why they're losing. >> buts question is how to win again. after such a devastating loss, it's going to be easier said than done. still ahead, steve rat are in brought his charts. he'll explain why the exponential growth the president is claiming may not be accurate at all. >> plus the second ranking democrat, dikembe mutombo joins the conversation. and senator sheldon is with us.

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we've already had the jim kraemer of morning joe tell you sell. sell everything. sell it now. get in gold bullion, bury it in the back yard and run for the hill. >> don't listen to me, seriously. >> don't listen to his advice on cholesterol. >> the stock market shattered another milestone with the dow industrial going above 2,200 for the first time. markets have been on a steady upward trajectory since last fall. envestors are lo investors are looking ahead to today's job reports. the president has been selling economic numbers. steve, you are going to play debbie downer for us and explain why having the stock market offer 22,000 is actually a bad

thing for america. >> that isn't quite exactly what i'm going to say. >> i want to challenge you a little bit. >> i'm going to whip through five charts and show you what the facts are. first the stock market, yes, it is up a lot. if you compare it to other presidents, you'll see trump's 9.1% since his inauguration, puts his below obama, below bush 41 -- >> that is fake news. it also started high, though. >> that is also true. he'd be behind bush 41 but he's above a bunch of other guys. the stock market is for wealthy people. let's talk about what happens with the average american. job growth since the time it turned upward in the obama administration. job growth averaged 200,000 jobs a month. under trump, it's averaged

173,000 a month, even a slightly slower rate. >> how many economists believe that any policies have had any impact on anything. >> zero impact on most of anything. but he's taking credit so let's talk about what's happened. >> he could take credit for the stock market going up because they are anticipating pro-growth policies. >> the world is doing better, not because of trump. . let's look at gdp, the size of the economy. the second quarter grew by 2.6%, which he is quick to tout but just in the third quarter of last year it grew at 2.8%. so it's an okay number but it's not a great number. >> again, i'm just going to say, any economist that tells you that what happens for the first

six months of this administration is based on anything that what obama did probably is reaching a little bit. >> well, you have a president who is telling you that. >> oh, i know that. >> the president is reaching -- >> presidents who say that are reaching a little bit, too. if you are advising a president, any president right now, would you say take 3% growth and run, 3% growth is great given the times? >> under the set of circumstances we're facing, 3% is great. >> lanhee, do you agree? >> when i talked to people, they

didn't say we need tax cuts. they said give me regulatory relief, let me hire people. >> real wages. if you look at what happened to the average wage, under obama it rose by 0.8%, under trump it's up by 0.4%. i'm agreeing with you that he has not changed the economy but he's taking credit for changing the economy so on that basis we're allowed to take him to account. so after election consumer confidence shot up. look what's happened since february. >> why is that? >> why is that? because everybody who watches owe morning joe" knows what's going on out there. >> this is more of a general

question, great chart, i've heard car sales really took a hit. it's like a nightmare. >> but that's not trump's fault. >> the whole point here is he just came in. the one positive is the stock market, right? historic numbers. and all of that is really betting on the idea that there's going to be a beg tax cut that's going to have a stimulative effect. if you don't do health care, you don't get the savings from health care, you got no money to apply to a tax cut if you're going to pass it under this process called wreck silltory. when it doesn't happen and the economy doesn't agree faster than 2.6 or up to 3 or something

like that that's the point. >> so the stock market is betting on what's coming but consumer confidence, the reason i'm keying in on this is this is how people feel now. and you can put that on current occupants of the white house and congress. mike and lahnee -- >> there's not a lot of people ro go and buy apple stock at $155 a share. >> wages are still stagnant for many americans. this is a big problem. if i was the president in the white house i'd be looking very

carefully at what's happening to wages. >> how do you bring wages up? >> some of it is we have a skills match, but we also have policies that need to be more pro growth. i this we need to be very careful about the direction we're growing in there. the wage growth i thought was a challenge for the republican. dp to give infrastructure, sensible regulatory reform, we need to do something, fix our tax system. >> how about adjusting the ratio of highly skilled immigrants to low skilled immigrants and bring in more high skilled immigrants? >> i certainly think we should bring in more high skilled

immigrants. but the fact is we need a whole set of new policies but right now and for the last section years, in fairness, we haven't had any of that. congress has been gridlocked and that's why we are where we are. >> still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> what's your name again? >> john miller. >> and you work with donald trump? >> he's somebody that gets a lot of options. he gets called by everybody in the book in terms of women. >> like who? >> i well, he gets called by a lot of people. >> that's fascinating. i never heard that. >> john, you're a new york are -- >> is there more of that, alex? >> that was someone who sounds an awful lot like donald trump back in 1991 bragging about all the phone calls he receives. >> john miller was bragging about all the phone calls -- >> hot women. >> maybe this was his bowie

stage. >> i need to hear it. >> zig. >> back then a lot of people were calling him. and now you can add the boy scouts and the president of new mexico to the list of phone calls that the white house begrudgingly admits never happened. >> who records that -- >> mika favorite words, "some say."

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. the white house is defending president trump's claims that he received two congratulatory phone calls that appear to have never happened, one from the boy scouts of america and the other from a head of state. the president told "the wall street journal" there was no criticism of his highly

political speech saying that it was the greatest speech ever. the boy scouts say this never happened. the boy scouts say that call never happened, mr. president. and then there's this claim he made before monday morning's cabinet meeting. >> even the president of mexico called me. they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they're not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment. >> that is the ultimate compliment. donald trump has to feel good because the president of mexico called him up. >> nope. the president of mexico, the government of mexico says no call took place.

>> what? they didn't have any mexican boy scouts calling? >> president enrique pena nieto has not recently communicated by phone with president trump, the morning ministry said. >> my thought was i laughed and said why would you lie about something that could be so easily disproved? he's not john miller, he's in the white house. so every call that comes in and goes out is on record. so the question is for us, for the white house, for america, why does a guy lie about things that are so easily disprovable?

>> does his press secretary lie about things that are so easily disprovable? >> no, no, no, no, she said yesterday -- >> nobody wanders in and out of the white house. >> she said yesterday she's never lied at the podium. ever. yesterday sanders said the president did receive the praise, just not with. >> on mexico he was referencing the conversation they had at the g-20 summit where he specifically talked about the issues that they referenced. multiple members of the boy scout leadershipful his speech there that day congratulated him, praised im. >> reporter: the president specifically said he received a phone call from the president of

mexico -- >> they were direct conversations, not actual -- >> so he lied? >> i wouldn't say it was a lie. tease a pretty bold accusation. >> it not a bold accusation, shunned sarah huckabee sanders, it's a lie. we're trying to figure out why the president would lie. >> it's either that or he my not she just said they were direct conversations at not a it would have been our -- they could have face timed. let's bring in pulitzer prize winner john we learn of new lies or misdirections or misdeeds

that just keep accumulating. you know, a yesterday on the show we had very specific lies that were significant, that bob mueller may be be looking at one or two of those. you look at the poll we just put up there, over 60% of americans don't trust donald trump. 6 % sap he's dishonest. we seem to be moving towards nixonian numbers here, don't we? >> well, we do. and, i mean, it's like the old junior high school line, it's always funny until somebody gets an eye put out. at some point he's going to have to go out and tell the world something serious has happened and the united states and he's going to have to try to define our national interests really since washington and adams and

we have jimmy stuart with harvey, the imagery bunny. >> in your study of historical figures, language matters. it matter specifically to north korea, in term of credibility what can he do to retoorp 62% of americans don't believe that he's honest. >> i'm not entirely sure that this president can repair it. it's particular to him but in

trump is an extreme manifestation of forces that sfrk so he has, what, a 62% aperu his tore include in. in many ways, donald trump's poll was poll but why see how donald trump suddenly emerges as a jimmy stewart figure credibility. >> this is serious now, i'm serious now. do you think part of this is that donald trump believes it's not a lie if i believe it? >> i think so. i think what is also remarkable

is the fact that throughout the entire campaign, donald trump had honest and trustworthy numbers like this. the only person who had lower honest and trustworthy numbers in the history of modern politics is hillary clinton. people keep asking how did this i go win? nobody believed him? well, people believed hillary clinton less. this go eand it was he in the biggest mess takes the democrats had was appointing her. >> there's this idea that if he believes that it's true and that's like the famous thing

done in which he could create so tease what independent doing. this is the real world. like when somebody said how can you be a republican and give to hillary clinton? he said that's how the game is played. i'm a kupt person in and that everyone does it. in policy terms, he does these better things. obama said if you like it's not that he about nothing, about everything. >> kasie hunt, can you find someone on capitol hill that thinks the president is an

honest guy, truly? >> you know, i are start asking that question directly. >> what is the impact on legislation when membersi think, joe, you just hit on the main real world impact for members of congress, which is they don't know what the preteven if you look at his own positions, aren't aren't a lie are oprn so they have o rely on the people around him. >> he needs to straighten it

out. >> do we replace donald trump whether he leaves in four years, eight years or two years with a gerald ford, replacing richard nixon? does america -- through history, is that how america rebound or do we just become even more cynical? >> well, that's the tngs. you hope that there's a ford figure who can stabilize the system and one of the ironies here and i think that we're going to be dealing with this for a long time in the political culture is a base of americans who don't trust washington and see washington as fundamentally untrustworthy. >> coming up, an nbc news exclusive report. the president suggested firing the afghan war's top military

commander. we're back in just a moment. >> do you see any circumstances where it's appropriate to lie from the podium? >> absolutely not. i don't think it's appropriate to lie from the podium or any other place. i think that the balance, my job is to communicate the president's agenda, the president's message and answer your questions on that as best i can, as honestly as i can and as transparentally as i can be at any given moment. a millie dresselhaus doll! happy birthday, sweetie! oh, millies. trick or treat!

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i read that 12 officials have resigned or been fired since trump was sworn in. yeah. and to make it easier to keep track of them, trump released a helpful video. i just saw it on sesame street. take a look at this. one, two, three, four, five, six, ssix six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. it sticks in your head.

>> just ahead the president's approval rating. >> what is it? it's great. it's fake news. >> a new low. >> fake polls. >> as low as you think it can go including among key parts of his base. we'll break down the numbers. and he called the russian sanctions bill seriously flawed with clearly unconstitutional provisions. but he signed it. but not in front of the press. >> and he somehow dropped in this, that he was a billionaire. >> well, and that he got a call from a friend of a friend. >> what? about paris not being paris anymore? >> i don't know. plus an nbc news exclusive. we'll take you inside the white house situation room for an extraordinary meeting with the president comparing what to do in an afghanistan situation compared to a restaurant. >> he said it was like renovating 21. >> i would say some marines that have been in afghanistan for 12

years or 13 years would probably not compare it? >> we can ask this morning, senator tom cotton who is joining us. dick durbin, sheldon, and mr. murphy joining us. "morning joe" will be right back. marie callender knows that a homemade turkey dinner can make anyone slow down and pull up a seat to the table. that's why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. so that you can spend time on what really matters.

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a whole new tv show about it. take a look. >> hello, everyone, and welcome to my show, this old dump. today we're talking about this giant shack at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. it has all sorts of problems, believe me. he's the linken bedroom. look at all the junk in here. it hasn't been renovated since lincoln was president 30 years ago. okay? and look at this room. it's a disaster. all right? i've had to call the exterminator five times to get rid of cnn. finally, what about the oval office? there's no corners. okay? where am i supposed to put don junior for a time-out? this old dump, exclusively -- >> welcome back to "morning joe." it's thursday, august 3rd. with us onset we have john padorits, jarod rattner, journey

peters, lon hi chen, kasie hunt, and joining us, a visiting fellow at the american enterprise institute, tim kearny. >> that's a long title. >> wait, there's more, peter baker and national political reporter for nbc news, carol lee. >> there's like 900,000 stars in the morning. who's the trap paez artist. >> the white house is cutting number of legal immigrants into the united states in half and reshape how people come to live in this country. the bill introduced by republican senators tom cotton and david perdue have replaced the current lottery system for issuing green cards with a merit-based system favoring those who speak english and who have higher level job skills. the number of green cards issued

every year would go from just over a million to about 500,000. the white house had senior policy advisor steven miller explain the proposal at yesterday's press briefing. and when it was time for questions, things got heated. >> but this whole notion of well, they could learn, they have to learn english before they get to the united states, are we just going to bring in people from great britain and australia. >> i have to honestly, i am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from great britain and australia would know english. it reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree that in your mind -- no, this is an amazing moment. >> reporter: you're trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country as policy. >> that's one of the most insulting, ignorant, and foolish things you've said, and for you, that's still a really -- the notion that you think that this is a racist bill is so wrong and

so insulting. >> the president claims that the bill is going to reduce poverty and increase wages. what was your take away, tim, from what happened yesterday other than saying why don't we get cameras out of the press room? >> it was a very spirited debate between two very spirited people on the issue of immigration. and one of them happened to be a supposedly objective news reporter for cnn. i thought both of them were too rude and too personal, but this is how we got trump. this is why people hate the press. acosta going in and saying there because of a poem it's un-american to require immigrants to speak english? forget about how steve miller got personal. acosta is putting out an argument few people hold, and miller is standing up there, knows immigration policy much better than any reporter i know, and so i just thought it was

a -- steve miller could have done better. acosta could not have done worse. >> i switch it the other way around. >> on twitter yesterday, i forget your exact tweet, but it was something like jim acosta is doing so horrific today, that i can't believe i'm -- >> i agree with him but he's destroying his own argument with his comportment. >> what do you mean? >> i mean i'm a grandson of immigrants. i find it very hard to take a restrictionist policy because if my grandparents wouldn't have come in, they would have been murdered by the nazis. it's discomforting to me, but having a reporter yammer at a white house official by quoting

the poem at the base of the statue of liberty as though that's the basis for policy, something living in 1883 and we're living in 2017 and keeping going. it was obnoxious. miller is obnoxious, him saying you're ignorant and stupid and foolish. that wasn't -- the moment that acosta went into terrible territory was he was like lecturing miller, quoting a poemt that he doesn't know. he was reading it from his notebook as though he were -- as though there were a debate between him and a public official. as opposed to being a journalist who was trying to tease out the difficulties and problems with the proposal which would have been perfectly fine. ask you asked him a substantive question about restrictions in english and how immigrants, studies show an immigrant can

learn english in six months. >> acosta should meet someone from jamaica. >> 1 .5 billion people on earth, it's said speak english. >> and they're not mostly in the uk. >> where things seemed to really melt down was when jim acosta talked. we're certainly not putting this on jim acosta. you can watch the clip and choose sides. or just say as tim said after, maybe we shouldn't have tvs in the press room after all. but then jim acosta used the language of it seems like your policies are trying to engineer racial and ethnic percentages, or something, it sure sounded like something that you would read out of mine calm of or something. something we would have accused

thor is -- at that point it went off the rails. >> this is all of a piece, the policy the trump administration announced yesterday, the president's trackdown on latino gangs. he's planning from i'm told so to the start talking more about building the wall. trump is pivoting back to the base in a hard and direct way. >> you're saying he's going to build the wall? >> and mexico's going to pay for it, but i know after that exchange with jim acosta yesterday they were high fiving each other behind the scenes. >> jim acosta, that's not only feeding into the narrative about the policy but also about the press. and at the same time i'm going to speak in defense of jim acosta this morning, because i don't think there's anybody on this set who hasn't gotten too personal during this presidency. and i don't think that's just our fault. i think this has been one of the most disturbing moments in

history to watch this presidency and the lies just spilling out every day. and that's on the record. everyone can corroborate it back to themselves, but loft in the conversation yesterday was the policy. it got so personal and emotional on both sides. who learned anything about the policy during this conversation? >> by the way, that was the problem, tim. peter baker, i wanted to hear the policy. i never get a chance to hear the policy because we were hearing speeches. >> and tim, do you think that if, perhaps, general kelly was explaining the policy yesterday, perhaps more people would have listened to him because of his maturity and service and sacrifice. because of the respect people have for him? that is something no one has for miller outside the white house. >> miller was put out there so he could pick a fight and he didn't have to pick it. it came to him. two, he does know immigration policy very well.

i'd love to debate the specifics. some of his specifics, the general idea of shifting from a lottery and the very vague idea of family reunification which you can go out infinitely, shifting from that to skills base is good. the second half, reducing the number, one editorial says we should be skills based and not reduce the numbers. getting democrats on board with an argument, but instead it gets lumped into a policy -- >> i agree. having an immigration policy that focuses on skills -- that's just an 80/20. but you're right. >> it's also a good debate. >> it lumps some others in there that i think a lot of americans would have problems with. peter baker, talk about the frustration that everybody had to feel inside that press room being berated, lied to,

attacked, every day. we've certainly already -- you've heard around this set people talking about how he may have been delivering a speech instead of asking a question. we talked about the negative side. on the other side, how hard is it when you see steven miller going up there with a preconceived notions for reporters sometimes not to let their emotions get the better of them? >> well, there's a lot of tension in the briefing room and has been for a while. there was some hope that after sean spicer left and anthony scaramucci came in in his first day did pretty smoothly at the podium. that that might change. it might be a chance to reset, to use the word used at the time. but i think the tension at the moment is kind of baked in. it's a shame. i don't think it does ill lum nalt. it's not really achieving what reporter i would hope want, which is to gain clarity and understanding and to hold people

in power accountable. that's the function of the briefing. >> it's a credibility issue. >> yeah. >> go ahead, peter, finish up. >> as a reporter in the briefing room, it's our job to challenge, pester, in fact, to ask tough questions. it's not our job to argue or get into a debate. that's not helpful, i don't think, and it is only about getting air time on cable news, not really about helping viewers of readers understand things better. somehow we have to get into the rhythm where we ask tough questions and get reasonable answers or at least answers that defend the policy without making it personal. >> let's talk about the policy. we didn't get a chance to hear it yesterday. you heard what tim kearny said. there were parts of this, skill-based. i've heard a lot of conservatives start to say, hey, we need to move away from just cutting immigration and instead, a lot of conservative policy makers saying we need to start looking at the ratio between

highly skilled immigrants, lower skilled immigrants. change that ratio a bit but don't slash immigration levels. what does this policy that the trump administration is pushing do? >> there are elements of this that i totally agree with what's been said onset. there are elements that are very important. moving away from an arbitrary system right now where we basically allocate green cards according to countries we think might be underrepresented to a system that's more skills based. but then you couple that good change with a slash in the overall number of green cards, significant cuts, for example, to the number of people who can come here seeking asylum. that's really the challenge here. you have good policy that could get a huge amount of bipartisan support, coupled with elements that i think are quite restrictionist and quite a problem. you end up stepping on your own message, but remember, there is an effort here at the end of the day, i think, to jeremy's point,

that what they're trying to do with this policy is really speak directly to a part of the president's base of support. and so it doesn't become the policy that's important anymore. it becomes how the policy is formlat formulated in light of the politics of the situation. >> he puts hard core positions out but when he's allowed to wander, he always moves back to a more expansive immigration reform. you just get -- you just get the feeling by looking at transcript that his heart is not in a restrictive imgreat lakes policy. >> no. first of all, he's from new york. he's seen examples like jaohn ad me who would not be here without an expansive immigration policy. my grandparents didn't speak english. he ran golf courses and hotels. i don't know the last time you went to a hotel and the

housekeeper was born in america. we have jobs americans won't do, and the impact of the so-called low-skilled workers isn't as high as we think. having a more sensible policy, skills based, the idea that people have had of stapling are green card to a college diploma. people come here and then go back. >> why not if somebody has an advanced degree, want to stay here, we don't allow them to stay here? it makes no sense. >> it's crazy. >> again, change the ratio. >> right. another principle would be the idea that people who are coming here should be on a path to citizenship. we have these high-killed visas and low-skilled guest worker visas where you come and go home. i think the whole dream of the american dream is somebody who wants to be here and their grandchildren like john and steve will be here.

too much of what's entering the country are people not put on a path to citizenship. >> that's just a nonstarter with the congress. that's never going to happen in this congress. >> it was announced at this press briefing which i think was the weirdest press briefing i've seen so far. you had the muslim ban guy coming out and talking about immigration policy, and then sarah huckabee sanders giving shoutouts, reading monoatone, i'm going to give a give a shout out to kellyanne conway and ivanka, and then a letter from some kid they're going to let mow the white house lawn, and then she defends the president's lies on the most basic level to the boy scouts. all in one hour. kasie hunt, where is this policy? >> that was quite a wind up, by the way, to kasie hunt. >> it's weird. >> here's the windup. >> we had a more substantive conversation about the policy right here. what happened in the press wr f briefing? >> i'm not sure anybody in

congress would confuse president trump with a boy scout. this is a nonstarter in congress. you have been focussed on the policy here. i think it's frankly irrelevant, and i think the white house knows that. this is a play to the base of their party to president trump's hard core supporters. you see this elsewhere too. paul ryan was tweeting out a video showing himself visiting the border and saying look, congress funded the president's wall. but this familiparticular immig policy is not going anywhere in the senate. lindsey graham came out basically single handedly killed it right out of the gate by saying this is bad for south carolina. what does that mean across the country? this is terrible for states where agriculture is a big deal. that's a lot of conservative places. it's places like california as well. but cutting the number of guest workers would be really detriment tall to a lot of these places that rely on farming as a

primary driver of economics. >> let's get to carol lee's exclusive reporting for nbc news. take us into the meeting room on july 19th where president trump repeatedly suggested that james mattis and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff replace general john nicholson, the commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan, because he's not winning. >> that's right. essentially the president's advisors went into this meeting on july 19th in the situation rooming hoping he would make a final decision on an afghanistan strategy. something delayed for months. what they found was a president who was expressing frustration about the options being presented to him. he was essentially questioning the merit of the advisors sitting around the table. his national security team. and so what ensued is two hours of a series of tense exchanges

where he repeatedly suggested that the commander in afghanistan should be fired. he was complaining that his advisors were moving too slowly on figuring out whether the u.s. could get right to afghanistan's minerals which he said could be the resolution to having a reason why the u.s. is staying in afghanistan. and he compared the process of coming up with a strategy for afghanistan to this renovation of the 21 club in new york. and left his advisors stunned, and ultimately didn't make a decision. >> explain how the 21 club -- >> you lost me. what? >> if you could, explain how the 21 club relates to a country that defeated the british empire and alexander the great. >> the backdrop of this is the president recently had a meeting with veterans of the afghanistan war. and in that meeting, they told him some things that he raised

in the situation room meeting which was nato is not helping and the chinese are making all this money off the minerals in afghanistan while we're fighting the war. and so to sort of channel his frustration, the president started to talk about this renovation of the 21 club in the 19 80s. he said the owner hired an expensive consultant who came in and had the restaurant shut down for a year, and in the end it opened back up. no one was really happy with the result. the message -- he said, maybe if he had gone and talked to the w waiters and the people who worked in the restaurant, maybe he would have gotten a better outcome. the message was we're losing in afghanistan, and you advisers sitting around the table, perhaps you don't know as much as the troops on the ground, or perhaps your advice is not the advice that i should be taking and that's going to get us to a place where we're winning.

>> it remind me peter baker of another story we'd heard from donald trump where they asked him a question about going into a village and he said who's recommending it? and they said a guy on the ground, and he said, well, how the hell am i supposed to know more about it than the guy on the ground. go ahead, do what he's telling you to do. it seems to me the opposite of what ljb was criticized for, hunching over the desk and picking bombing targets over north vietnam. >> this has frustrated three presidents. president obama spent months trying to figure out his strategy. ultimately left frustrated. president bush never finished the war he started there. but i'm curious if i could ask carol a question. the idea of moving john mickelson out, moving the general out seems in concert with the buzz you're hearing about whether or not general mcmaster, the national security

adviser might be moved to afghanistan. do you think these things are connected? is there a bigger shift on the way? >> the way it was described to me was the question about whether the commander would be ousted was left unresolved. so there is talk about replacing him, but if you talk to people about what that impact it would have, they say not really any, and in the meaning dunford, he defended nicholson. he said the president met him. perhaps they should set up a meeting. the defense secretary, mattis, also defended him and said the reason that we're not winning is because we don't have a strategy right now that's a winning strategy, encouraging the president to make a decision on the strategy. i think it's very much a question whether or not the commander could be ousted. he earlier this year had kind of irritated some people in the white house because he publicly said he wanted more troops and some white house officials felt

like that was boxing in the president which is never a good place for a commander to be. i think we just don't know yet. >> carol, isn't it the case that nicholson far from being a consultant who came in from the outside and doesn't know anything, that nicholson has a general has actually designed a strategy involving more troops. the subject of the meeting was supposed to be the impossible implementation of that strategy, a change in strategy in order to do what the president said he wanted which is to win the war? >> right. that was the point that the defense secretary mattis made to the president when the president was suggesting that they fire nicholson, and he said, you know, and the president said we're not winning, we're losing, and according to our sources, the def the defense secretary said we're not losing because of the commander. it's because we don't have the strategy we need. >> national political reporter

for nbc news, carol lee. a great exclusive. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> peter baker, thank you as well. still ahead on "morning joe," the president signs the russia sanctions bill, but only for the sake of national unity, he says. we're going to talk to chris her if i about that. plus tom cotton a co-sponsor of the immigration bill endorsed by the president yesterday. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. hey. pass please. i'm here to fix the elevator. nothing's wrong with the elevator. right. but you want to fix it. right. so who sent you? new guy. what new guy? watson. my analysis of sensor and maintenance data indicates elevator 3 will malfunction in 2 days. there you go. you still need a pass.

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or a little internet machine? [ phone ringing ] hi mom. it makes you wonder... shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. [ laughing ] so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. call or go to xfinitymobile.com introducing xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. sleep number store. president trump yesterday signed the major sanctions pack kalk for russia, iran, and north korea. the congress passed overwhelmingly last week. in a statement the president called the legislation, quote, seriously flawed. and said that it included clearly unconstitutional provisions. the law imposes waiting periods

before he can suspend or remove sanctions first imposed by president obama. until congress can review and potentially even block them. and in a second statement, the president veered off message, doubling down on his attack against congress, saying lawmakers could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking. he says he signed the bill for the sake of national unity adding, quote, i built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars. that's a big part of the reason i was elected. as president, i can make far better deals with foreign countries than congress, and though the president has become well known for his flair at public bill signings, this one was done behind closed doors, a message not lost on critics? >> the fact he does this quietly i think reinforces the narrative that the trump administration is not really serious about pushing back on russia. i think that's a mistake. putin will see this as a sign of

weakness. >> sign of weakness. >> joining us democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. also staff writer at the atlantic, julia yaffi. senator, why -- do you think the bill signing in private was symbolic of something bigger? >> the president is clearly scared of russia, and that's been consistently conveyed by his policy on russia since he was sworn in. it certainly is a sign of weakness. he was being taunted on twitter by the russian prime minister yesterday. and i think you have to put it in context of other things that have been happening in the last few weeks. we got word earlier this week that in the state department's reorganization, they are going to potentially take democracy promotion out of the mission of the state department which is at the heart of what the state department has been doing for 70 years and is probably the

biggest thorn in the side of russia given the fact that we are often promoting democracy in prices that they are trying to influence around their periphery. so, yeah, i think there's a clear message sent to russia by doing this quietly. i think there's a lot of irony in the president saying he's doing it for national unity amid signing a statement where he's attacking the united states congress. i think there's something -- there's a different story here that's not in the statement. >> it is. and senator, obviously he and the state department won't take the $80 million that congress has appropriated to him to actually counteract russian propaganda and isis propaganda. what do you do about that to force the white house's hand? >> that's actually legislation written by myself and rob portman, a republican from ohio, bipartisan legislation that is set up this new center at the state department called the global engagement center that would do counterpropaganda work

not just against russia but isis as well. and it was stunning this week to find out that secretary tillerson is refusing the money. it was set up as a transfer from the department of defense to the department of state. and you just simply cannot win the battle against extremism if you're not pushing back against their online propaganda. you certainly can't win the battle against russia if you're not pushing back against sputnik radio and rtt tv. but right now the state department doesn't want that money. it suggests there's a pattern of behavior in which we're giving a permission slip to the russians to engage in an expansive activity in their periphery without any check from the united states. >> julia, you've been following this story about as close as anybody, and the american press, i got to ask, what's your

reaction to the prooimime minis of russia trolling the president of the united states on the internet? >> it's ironic. other russia watchers have noted it's ironic for him to be calling trump's losing power to the congress humiliating. this is the man who was humiliated repeatedly by vladimir putin when he was not allowed to run for a second term. so that was ironic. you know, he did say some interesting things that, for example, putin didn't say. he was clearly speaking for the government. he says this ends our hopes for new relations with this new administration, so that's telling. and also the head of ros neff, kind of the oil czar of russia said look at the president's signing statement. they know this is bad. they know this is bad for the u.s.

trump's signing statement indicates they know how bad this is. the russians got the message from trump's signing statement and they're running with it. >> what does it do for u.s./russian relations? how much worse can it get? we're hearing talk of troop movements in the coming months. what's next? >> well, there's also talk of a bill that would require the u.s. to develop missiles that were phased out during the cold war and would be in vital of the inf treaty. things can always get worse. never underestimate the capacity for worse. but again, it's crazy that the president came out against the sanctions bill which, okay president obama didn't like it when congress introduced the act that took away his power to maneuver. he was trying to create better relations with russia.

he was not happy about that bill. fine. but the fact that president trump comes out against this but not against the fact that american diplomatic presence? russia has been slashed insanely, the fact that he'll go after a golf magazine but not this is insane. >> senator murphy, you remember the foreign relations committee. let's switch countries again. afghanistan, we just had a report about the national security council meeting a few weeks ago where the president decried the fact that we seem not to be winning in the country where we've been for 16 years. we've suffered 2500, nearly 2500 american casualties on the ground. we've spent perhaps trillions of dollars. have you or anyone else on your committee in the course of all the hearings in afghanistan, have you been able to come up with a definition of what winning is? >> well, i think that's the most important point. winning and losing are

unfortunately, somewhat outdated terms when you are fighting an enemy that simply doesn't go away. and you're ultimately trying to protect the homeland from attacks from those organizations, or organizations that they shelter. listen, president trump isn't wrong in the sense that our policy in afghanistan has failed in as much as that our goal was to rid afghanistan of taliban and make sure it could no longer ever be a place the taliban could use to provide shelter to groups like al qaeda, and the irony of all of this is that i think by now we should have figured out a military only solution in afghanistan will never work. until you purge that government of corruption, unless you give it legitimacy with the afghanistan people, the taliban will always be on the edges of that country ready to come back in. when you're gutting the state department with 40% cuts, there is no way that you can craft a strategy that will stand up an

afghan government that will be able to sustain and push back against the taliban. a military-only solution in afghanistan is essentially what we've been doing for the last ten years. it hasn't worked, and the president -- if he wants a strategy to succeed there, he has to understand the power of nonkinetic influencers in that country. >> there have been a number of polls that suggest the democratic party stands against trump but not more anything. we have a new better deal out. do you think the democratic party stands for something? if so, what does it stand for? >> listen, absolutely. this is a president who is using the white house in order to enrich himself and his friends. he's got the same set of economic policies of republicans before him, trickle down tax cuts that don't end up benefitting the vast majority of the country. we've got to be a party of economic growth, but economic growth for everybody. we've got to be a party of inclusion. a party that support a country

that includes everyone. i'm supportive of the new democratic platform, but i think the most important thing for our party is we focus on an economic message. that's what people want to hear from us. it has not been our focus over the course of the last ten years, and so if this new platform convinces democrats to spend time talking about big economic ideas that deliver for the middle of this country, then i think it's going to give us a really important contrasting message with this president. >> senator chris murphy, thank you. great to have you with us. >> thanks. >> so jeremy, next question? >> a question for julia. julia, yesterday i saw you tweeted, i didn't speak english when i emigrated to the united states. now i get paid po write in it. just saying. >> assuming someone from the white house is watching this program this morning, i'd like to hear you talk about the experience of coming to the united states and assimilating.

because this is something i think you hear a lot from people who oppose immigration policy the way it is, that immigrants come here and don't learn the language and don't try to become americans. so when you looked at the president's proposal yesterday, what were you thinking about how this related to your experience and what this would have done to you if it were in effect at the time you came here? >> well, i just thought about myself, my parents. i was seven. it's very easy to learn a language at that age. my parents were 30. they didn't speak very much english at all. but they were, my mom was a doctor and my dad is a computer scientist. my dad had a job in two weeks. they're amazing, contributing members of american society. they're more american than anybody i know. but i also just think about the massive immigrant communities that came over over 100 years ago from place like germany, italy, poland, that lived in these enclaves that had printed

their own newspapers in their own language in quitish and german and czech, and people worried about their assimilation. people in the lower east side where a lot of jewish imgrants lived. who reads newspapers in german or czech now? english is not a hard -- i mean, i hate to say it. english is a pretty easy language to learn, and it's still -- >> by the way, it's not that easy. i'm still working on it right now. >> no. given the other languages, it's pretty easy to learn. and it's pretty easy to assimilate in the u.s. american culture does its work. after a couple of generations, it's inevitable. i just think it's -- that and the doj proposal about investigating discrimination against whites in colleges is a dog whistle to the base. it's unfortunate.

>> all right. julia, thank you so much. tim, i want to go back to the russian signing bill. we conservatives always saw russia as the evil empire. and with the trump election, you see all these bizarre polls. 75% of republicans think vladimir putin's an okay guy. they'd love to have thanksgiving dinner with him. really outrageous things, but it seems like conservative lawmakers, republican lawmakers, people like tom cotton who we're going to have on, they found their footing on russia, especially, and are not going to ride donald trump's wake. >> especially early on you saw who was most willing to be critical of trump from the republican party. and it was john mccain and lindsey graham who were the two

most hawkish senators in any country. until tom cotton comes in, he's even more gung ho. so it's the guys who sort of like bellicose on the global stage are the ones who are criticizing trump. it's interesting. a lot of liberal criticism for donald trump is it goingtransla. is there going to be a proxy war over georgia or south -- >> coming up, nbc news confirms the news white house chief of staff, john kelly called the attorney general to reassure him that his position was not in jeopardy. that and a report that the retired general is cracking down on the way information gets to the president. john kelly's efforts to right the ship ahead on "morning joe." ♪

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all right. hey -- >> there are more shakeups in the trump administration. two national security council

aids held over from michael flynn's tenure are out. >> were they bannon allys? >> yes. we'll tell you the significance of those moves ahead on "morning joe." during our made to move 2017 clearance event, you can do endless online research. or, you can take advantage of our best offer ever on an xt5. don't wait.

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order. jimmy carter didn't have a chief of staff, he said everyone can report to me. >> some changing, mike, also about the follow of information. it was frustrating some of ronald reagan's chief of staff that he would go out and just throw out bizarre claims and they would say where did you get that and he would say readers dye jest. so they worked very hard to control him. >> it was the last man on the elevator syndrome. you don't want him receiving anecdotal stuff from anyone on the staff. show him the information first. >> he has to see everything that goes in there. just makes it cleaner. >>. >> from what i'm told, the door is closed now and that applies

to everyone except family. and john kelly doesn't tell the president no. so many aides told president trump you can't do this or you can't do that. like anyone he will not respond well to no no no. >> joining us now, a member of the judiciary committee, she'll don whitehouse of rhode island. >> what's your take on the president, russia, the signing statement and the fact that he did it in private. >> i think the biggest news is the call that has been reported on from general kelly to attorney general sessions. .

and i think that lindsey graham's bill from congress saying there is no tolerance for that. that there will be some significant pushback with pushing back any further. the signing payment was kind of od. they had malignant rogue states. . i think that russia qualifies as a rogue state, they're a criminal organization and the president's refusal to engage in that way continues to be a matter of mystery. >> senator, good morning it's jeremy peters.

>> good morning, jeremy. >> the republican led effort for health care has collapsed. there is talk that republicans and democrats are getting together behind the scenes. will republicans stand for that? >> we'll see how it plays out, but the health committee going forward, patty murray has a lot of confidence of people. it is nearly as channelling of an issue as health care. we're going to have to build more confidence in each other. and i think and there are a few counties where they're not fully operating markets, but i think they can go on from there so

other things. people are acquiring infections, why are so many people not getting their wishes heard. i think there is a whole arare of stuff where you can step out of the purely partisan lane and do things that will really help people and you'll just try to get that done. >> senator, good morning it is kacie hunt. i want to go back to the mueller probe. it essentially protects that position. the president can essentially write it out of regulations. what is your sense of whether or not there is an appetite to take up something like this? will they do it in your view? >> i think they are mostly ending up flares saying don't do

this, rocks ahead, take care, be careful. . i think that is very important for congress to be sending right now. the could would plunder into the decision, and you know maybe it is better to head that off and to have that fight. if so, we're ready. >> senator shell don, thank you r very much. and what is being called a tidal wave of bad poll numbers. we'll talk more about the bill that the president endorsed yesterday and we'll be joined by dick durbin and congressman luis gutierrez. so if you need anything, text me.

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>> ask him. >> you're like the jim cramer of commentary. >> sell! >> we need buttons. >> the last person you want to take advice from on anything financial is me. >> all right, 22,000. >> do you want to know the other number. >> he saying sell, i think it is important that i ask the morning joe financial economic analyst. >> the other number is 33. >> that is a low number, i don't know what that is for, i have no idea what you're talking about. >> that is not it. >> well he still not sign those pictures? >> won't sign it. >> i need a signed picture to

shove -- >> i don't know what 33 is for, but i would hate to have it attached to me. >> you would like it for your cholesterol. >> you would be dead. >> maybe not for cholesterol. don't take our medical advice. if we could have a scroll. >> 33 is president trump's approval rating. how does that happen. >> right in the solar flex. has anyone done that? >> yeah, george w. bush after iraq. but that was a high, after seven years. >> so he got to 33 after six months. >> he is a great man and he can

do things concern. >> good morning, everyone, it is thursday, august 3rd. with us, we have a veteran columnist -- >> editor of commentary magazine john podoritz. director of domestic policy studies at stanford, fellow at the hoover institution, lee chen. also steve ratner with us, jeremy peters, and kacie hunt is with us. let's take a look at the new poll taken from july 27th to august 1st. it has president trump's approval rating at 33%, down seven points since the end of june. 61% disapprove among voters that

made up his opposition. 47% among white men, this as the gallup poll puts his approval at 60%. >> you're starting to see some organizer brought to the white house. we don't know how long that will last, but there have been positive firings. they are making our jobs harder, and they're talking about the information flow coming through him. i wonder if trump is moved past believing every negative poll.

>> there is a downward curve. you know he was very low. and every month it is like this. a very plain chart. i'm not sure we're sieg the chaos over scaramucci or whatever. this is a post health care policy melt down. it is now beginning to dawn on people that he is getting nothing done legislatively. he has a republican congress, and it can't be good. >> and it's not just -- what is to be positive out there? >> they don't like the tweets, his supporters don't like the tweets. it is almost as if they are

saying there is a realization finally that the tweets, the lies, the russian information which most americans do not care about right now, just like most didn't care about watergate. all of the things that we're accused of obsessing on, and voters are boiling it down to yes, there is a lot of noise. he insulted people and they say go to hell. >> the boy scouts, the police, the dea chief. he has, as we have said from the beginning, he declared war on washington and washington answered back. >> i think the numbers are

pretty easy to understand. the vast majority of people in this country don't follow the politics of this administration as we do. as people in the news business do. they lead their own lives. so they don't understand the intricacies of the health care thing, all of that stuff. they do understand chaos, incompetence, and nothing getting done unless you have 33. >> you talk about the president trying hard to keep his base, but that has been part of his problem since day one. playing to the most hard core nationalist, trumpist base. everyone else be damned. that is what gets you to 36%,

now it is 33%. does he keep doing the same thing that steve bannon has been telling him to do? chain him to historically low approval ratings? >> over the last few days, joe, what you have seen is part of that strategy that you just described. going hard at the base. we have seen him announce actions against latino gangs. his pronouncement that the united states should cut legal immigration in half. that is still a part of it. but if you look at the numbers in that lead, having it in the 70s is not great. and this is something that president trump's aids have raised with him. and they have noted there is a steady decline in his approval

ratings. first it was hacking into trump tower. and then they just could not govern, and three is when he fired jim comey. he has been unable to right it since then. when we look at numbers in individual states. you look at where trump did very well, and his conservative ratings are still in the mid to high 80s. let's not forget that richard mixson never dropped below -- >> and let's remember, if trump's approval rating in the state of obama is 80%, that is donald trump running against the ghost of hillary clinton, the

main stream media. the people are like wait a second, we don't have to have somebody that acts crazy in the white house that is a hard core conservative. we can vote for him. if he has 80% in alabama, it's not like a democrat is going to win. there is a senate toorial race. that is not the issue. they need 22 house seats. the table is being set pretty nicely for them to get that

number. if they get ten more of that number, the house will impeach him if they have a majority. if he doesn't right the ship, he is looking, clinton in 1998 and 19999. >> despite the fact that i'm seeing some really impressive democratic adds out there -- we'll see. >> there are a couple of great adds. i'm talking about the national party is clueless. they are just as disconnected from working class americans as

they have ever been. are they going to blue this advantage? is there concerns among democratic activists and donors that they still don't get it? >> the republican party as we have seen as their own set of divisions in it. you have the progressive wing, the bernie sanders and elizabeth warren wing. and then the centrists wing. they're hiding in the woods, but they are there. the democratic platform that came out in the last few day are small specific times of -- and

we'll get to the consideration. >> still ahead, senator dick durbin is our guest. and two choices on the opposite sides of the immigration push. the man who presented it, tom cotton, and luis gutierrez. today is the peak of the heat wave. we are going for it today. we have a chance of going up to the all time high. the all-time hottest it ever measured was 107. this is uncharted territory. watch out, maybe an isolated tornado, southern wisconsin, northern portions of illinois, peoria, and the same storm system tomorrow, pittsburgh,

erie, to cleveland, all strong storms possible, i don't think the tornado threat is too high, but we are watching what happens today. i would keep your umbrella handy in new york city today. we'll be right back.

the white house is pushing immigration and reshape how people come to live in this country. the bill introduced by republican senators replaces the current lottery system for issuing green cards. favoring those that speak english and have higher level job skills.

the number of cards issued every year would be just over 500,000. tom cannoten served in iraq and afghanistan. he will be able to tell us about afghanistan's parallels with 21. also steve ratner, jeremy peters, and sam carney. tom, always great to you. have you been to 21 in new york bird before? >> no, i'm more of a mcdonald's guy. >> i'll take you over there. we'll go over there, i'm a chick-fil-a guy. we'll see if there are any comparisons between afghanistan and 21. all right, let's move on to the bill. someone who wanted to learn more

about your immigration bill would have been disappointed. not a lot of facts got out, a lot of posing and shouting, why don't you tell us, what does your bill do. >> this bill is about happying working class americans get a pay raise. our legal immigration system, our green card system. only one out of 15 of those immigrants come here. our legislation would reorient our immigration system so that we are not competing -- not putting downward pressure and forcing works class americans to compete with unskilled or low skilled immigrants, and attracting the most talented immigrants from around the world that will apply their spirit to create new jobs for all

americans. if their families came over on the mayflower or they took the oath of citizenship last week. >> it may be an 80/20 issue if it was just skills, but cutting some republicans, like lindsey graham, would you support a compromise that might keep the one million mark. >> it is an emotional topic. so it doesn't touch on temporary guest workers, it is more about the numbers than the policy. if you look at the numbers that

get you the policy, it makes sense to most americans. so, for instance, over 70% of americans should be about spouses and unmarried children. the diversity lottery privileges europeans over most others in the world. and while still generous, doesn't need to be in the policy alone. >> he said it was a misreading. >> the reality is the foreign workers are hurting the american wages and job opportunities. i think that is not accurate. i think employers can advertise until the cows come home. there is meat packing, tourism,

and you can't find them to do the jobs and you can't keep them from moving overseas. i don't want a economy that can't recognize how diverse we are as a nation. it is ill advised and i can't support that. >> we have the washington examiners tim carney with us. >> why don't you do something about the low skilled guest workers. if you help out the low skilled i'm grants that are here. it seems like they would be the visas that bring in people just temporarily to work for these jobs and making life that much harder and wages that much lower for the americans that have not graduated college. >> so tim, you made good points.

i tend to agree with them about the impact, however, i know it is a big, emotional topic. looking at greencards is the thing we do that is the most valuable thing we can do. opinionated, but uninformed. we don't touch on guest workers or visas. it is false to say that we can't do this. there is not one industry where they do not old authority for any jobs. americans will do any job if you pay a decent wage. but for 40 years, those with a high school degree or less have seen their wages fall and the

number of immigration workers have doubles. >> senator, steve ratner, i think we can all support the idea that having more skilled immigration policy is a good thing, but getting back to the lower skilled people, there are a punbunch of job categories th we can agree a not dominated by immigrants, find someone cutting a lawn, cleaning a hotel room. we have 4.5% unemployment rate. it does not seem to be jobs that americans want. don't we need some immigrants to fill them? >> the statics do not show that.

if you go to little rock, that's not necessarily the case. if you go to holiday in in arkansas, not necessarily the case. americans will do the jobs if they're paid a decent wage and that is what our legislation is focused on doing. >> the rising wages that you presume, that you say the country needs, come from economic growth. and there is an argument to be made that economic growth would be stifled. how do they take into account that the united states is facing a labor shortage and if you don't have people filling those jobs, in m are immigrants, you will stifle the economy. >> economic growth alone is out the only measure of the health of our society. i suggest that economic growth or gdp is important as well. there is no doubt we could bring

in 175 million people from bangladesh and increase our economy, but is it good for us or for them? i would say not. we need to focus on the economic growth for households especially households where people have seen their wages decline for many years. >> the president is tweeting this morning, and i know if i were a republican lawmaker those would be the words that i heard before i took my ear piece out. i would say wait, i'm late for a economy meeting. our relationship with russia is at an all-time and very dangerous low. you can thank congress. the same people that can't give us health care. and the legendary tweeter says

what is your feeling on the president's tweet. >> on russia, our relationship is not maybe at a historic low, but it is pretty low and the responsibility falls primarily on vladimir putin. he has invaded countries that were our partners, he provided weapons, he is the twhaun is violating arms control treaties. i contend that he helped embolden vladimir putin and helped him think he could get away with those things, but it is vladimir putin's fault. >> quick question for you, senator, what would you want the

u.s. government to do after all of these misdeeds? >> i think we need to put pressure on them. he was violating the nuclear range -- the united states and russia are the only two parties of the committees. so we wrote legislation that would begin research and development to show vladimir putin that we take it seriously. i and many other democrats do that. . and he is pushing the united states and the allies and we need to push back. >> all right, and what a great point that it is vladimir putin engaging countries, it is vladimir putin that is

interfering with western democracies, and the president of the united states is blaming congress this morning. senator tom cannoten, thank you so much. >> coming up next, the president was talking about the new immigration plan, and the senate's number two democrat was making a push for getting dreamers on a path to citizenship. dick durbin will join us next. what's critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth? (cheers) what's it worth to talk to your mom?

what's the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. morgan stanley

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joining us now is democratic whip dick durbin, and we also have anna marie cox who laughs at her title. >> i'm not even there any more. >> well, that's her title. so -- >> still at the "new york times." >> okay. >> just a pod cast, but yeah. >> just last week they put me as congressman. dick durbin, i'm sorry you had to go through the stumbling formalities here.

i want to get your reaction to when the president of the united states said this morning our relationship with russia is at an all-time very dangerous low. donald trump was attacked yesterday by russia's prime minister, and donald trump blames you and tom cannotton an the rest of congress for bad relations instead of vladimir putin, who shot down civilian aircrafts. who violates one treaty after another. what's your reaction? >> we saw real bipartisanship on capitol hill when it came to these sanctions. we have to tell them enough is enough, and when it came to the sanctions and trusting the president, we basically said we want to make sure the president will not lift these sanctions, we will impose them. >> yeah, hello senator, do you

think this is something that you can gain even more traction with with voters out there? the president is really beating the drum on these domestic issues. does the issue of russia have traction to get his supporters in the middle? >> foreign policy in and of itself doesn't drive elections, but i think people are genuinely upset and should be about what russia did in the last election. they had to note -- we know that in illinois. we want to say to russia enough, hands off, we don't want you in our next election. >> senator, the -- the economy appears to be doing quite well

at the moment. you have seen the numbers, the job growth continues, does that go well for the republicans? >> i can tell you when the economy is expanding rather than contracting. i think people will ask not only do i have a job, but how long will i have the job. i said corporate profits don't define it for most families. so it it is the purchasing power, the real earning of wagers. >> you may appreciate this, the republicans and president trump have proposed in their tax plan to get rid of the state and local income tax deduction.

steve mnuchin said he is hearing complaints that it will sink them. do you think it will happen? will democrats and republicans ban together to stop or defeat this? and b, what is the likelihood, what do you think of the fact that republicans, of course, must be delighting in the fact that it will benefit red states. >> when you get down on tax reform, should people be taxed on paying taxes? what we believe, most of us believe orn the democratn the d there ought to be basic principals here. not just tax cuts for the highest income categories. we don't want to blow the

deficit up. we want to have a wholesome debate for what the tax cut looks like in the end. they have not shown a great deal of dexterity. >> whether or not you're a small business owner, a successful small business owner in kentucky or illinois, chances are good you're paying 50% or 55% of your paycheck to taxes on the state and federal local level. it will be interesting how many people want to take away that deducti deduction. let's talk about i'm graduation reform. the president spoke about immigration reform, we want to ask you first if you have any objection to the first part of the bill, focusing on the skill sets of the immigrants coming to

the united states. maybe changing the ratio so we help drive the economy, get the technical know how here that some some companies claim are lacking. just working with a ratio. so there is a higher ratio of higher skilled immigrants coming to american. >> we know we have some higher kills not in this country to grow our economy, but we also need and were having immigrants taking low skill jobs. there are not long lines of people waiting to pick fruit, to work in slaughter houses, poultry processing plants, working in a kitchen in the restaurants of chicago and other great cities. i'm grants take these jobs, they're tough, dirty, and they don't get paid a lot. who will replace that labor force.

when we did comprehensive reform, we moved closer to a system, but we took care of the 11 million currently here that could step up, pay their taxes, and go to the back of the line. >> and finally, senator, the most important question. will you, on the floor of the senate, do what the chicago cubs did and recognize the great injustice that is steve bartman and salute him for being -- i'm serious, what that poor guy and his family have gone through, it is just outrageous. you go back and look at those pictures again, he wasn't the only guy reaching out for the ball. 11 other people reaching out for that ball. i said yesterday, a couple days ago, one of the best sports stories i have seen in a long time because it was outrageous how he was treated.

>> a classy move by the clubs organization to give him one of the championship rings. poor steve bartman, a faithful cubs fan did what 90% of fans would do. i would be putting my hands up to protect myself. he did not deserve what happened to him. i hope we have settled it once and for all. i hope he is still a cubs fan and i hope he is enjoying our run since the break. >> my husband is a cubs fan, and i am too. i watched the documentary about steve bartman, and they said he should a bartman day and they

should have everyone dress like him with the headphones and the jacket. so it is like a spartacus moment. >> i remember after the red sox won their world series, i think their first, they brought back bill buckner, and there wasn't a dry out in the house, it was one of the most moving things i had scene. the entire red sox nation supporting him. >> i remember it like it was yesterday. >> i do too, that lady going like this -- this hour, new earnings reports set to start flooding in after the dow crosses 22,000 for the first time. we'll get a live report from wall street, but first, congressman luis gutierrez on his opposition to the merit

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welcome back to "morning joe." democratic congressman luis gutierrez. so you're against the bill backed by president trump, tell us why. >> first, let me tell you about our perspective. my mom had a 5th grade education, but dad a 8th grade education, but they worked really hard. and their son got to become a member of the united states. that's a tradition that i don't want to deny to others. it has given me such great opportunities.

senator cruz's and other people's families would not have been allowed in these standards. in my house, a catholic househo household, we had two pictures in the kitchen, the pope and president ken i can. his great grandson became president of the united states. on the basis of tradition, making america the great country it is, i have to oppose this bill. >> but on the other hand, it wasn't long ago that many democrats, including bernie sanders, raised concerns about low skilled or unskilled

immigrants and what their effect would be on the wages of low skilled americans. >> because the jobs the immigrants are i would say to h the following -- there are 2 million people that work in our agriculture. those are the people that go out in the fields every day. they're dairy farmers too. i want to be and support the american farmer, and american agriculture. and the fact is this -- the food when we walked into our grocery stores at the produce section, that food was picked by foreign hands, has been picked by foreign hands and in the future will be picked, because another thing is true -- no one on the panel today nor this member of congress is sending their kid to school to work at pretty hard back-breaking work in the fields of america. so, look, i'm listening to the

farmers of america. i wish senator cotton and senator purdue would listen to their farmers. here's what they're going to tell them. they're going to tell them, we need those workers and they're vital. i know we talk a lot about energy independence. what about food independence and who makes sure that's what's going on around the country food -- >> right. >> so i understand you want skilled workers. and let me be very clear. 2004 i introduced a bill with senator mccain, senator kennedy, and then congressman flake. it was a bipartisan bill. we made sure that we in that bill introduced and brought workers as our economy needed those workers, right? so i get that. especially high school workers. look at the senate bill in 2013, the one approved in the summer, 69 votes, republicans and democrats. we recognize the need to have skilled workers. but let me add at the same time, i also understand the need of having a department of education that says let's have america

first and americans that are born in the united states fulfill those jobs and let's educate them and create an environment where they can fill those jobs. >> congressman, thank you very much. >> thanks for being with us. >> emotional issue. >> but if you look at what you're hearing on the democratic side and from the republicans like lindsey graham it looks like this proposal is going nowhere. >> i don't think it is. i also think it's interesting if you look at some of the demographic and electoral analysis of trump voters, there are counties where there's very little legal mexican immigrants. it's the people who don't have very much truck with illegal immigrants who seem to be the most upset by it. what you do see one of the biggest issues in any trump county is the opioid epidemic. not doing anything. you know? so this is all rhetoric. i want's not actually delving into the lives of people that supported him.

i think that comes back to hurt him. up next, the white house is poised to open up a two-front trade war in 48 hours. we'll explain that. keep it here on "morning joe." ♪ ouch! new band-aid® brand skin-flex™ bandages. our best bandage yet! it dries almost instantly. better? yeah. good thing because stopping never crosses your mind. band-aid® brand. stick with it™ a trip back to the dthe doctor's office, mean just for a shot. but why go back there, when you can stay home... ...with neulasta onpro?

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>> m rapper's charts. >> doesn't just happen except when it 'causdoes. >> sara eisen at the new york stock exchange. 30 minutes from the opening bell as the dow sits at record, above 22,000. will it continue? >> well, it is another milestone and, yes, the president is right. this is the sixth record close in a row. but i would note that it's also in the middle of an eight-year bull market run that has been fueled by e better corporate earnings, super easy zero interest rate policy from the federal reserve and this idea of a global synchronized recover, which we're seeing all around the world. the latest fuel for the market has really been earnings. apple yesterday had its best day in years on better ipad and i phenomenon growt -- iphone growth. the latest earnings is tesla, another stock that's been on fire, up more than 50% so far

this year. it has 455,000 new orders for its brand-new model 3 mass market electric vehicle. more earnings coming this morning. we of got aetna, allergan, yum brands, after the bell, a reading on kraft, shake shack -- >> sara, tesla's so fascinating. you talk about tesla. we saw reports a couple days ago that the traditional car companies are getting pounded. how do you explain the difference between the two? >> so a few things are happening. auto sales were just relooeased for month of july, 15% declines at general motors. what's happening is we're coming off a multiyear cycle where auto sales were fairly strong. so it's kind of peaked out and the last few months have been weak. on the other hand, there's this big fear that electric vehicles are taking over, volvo is going to it, tesla's on fire, and the traditional carmaker, unless they start partnering, which

they are, with lyft and uber, ride sharing and getting into electric vehicles like google and apple, increasingly crowding in on the space, that they are going to be slower. i also wanted to mention this trade since you guys have been talking about the trade story. russian prime minister dmitry medvedev did call the new sanctions pretty much a full-scale trade war, adding in his facebook post that the trump administration had demonstrated utter powers willness. it's important because it's a day after it was reported that the u.s. is opening an investigation into china unfair trade practices. we could be getting that this week. add that up, you could look at retaliatory trade measures and that global synchronized recovery has been helping the economy, that could be in jeopardy. trade wars are bad for growth. >> steve ratter, trade war with china right as we move towards

an extraordinarily dangerous crisis on the korean peninsula. >> china is a protectionist country and they get away with murder, but a trade war is kind of lose-lose for both of us. >> thank you so much. that does it for us. >> thank you. the work you do every day, mtv, it's as good as anything i've seen since i saw nirvana unplugged. >> thank you, congressman. >> oh, wow. that does it for us for now. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks, mika. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle with so much to hit today. starting with legal immigration. president trump backs a proposal that would change the face of immigration as we know it and his own party was no time mocking it. >> i can't believe that somebody owns a hotel and restaurant and golf courses wouldn't figure this t.