woman killed in charlottesville. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." with us, mike barnicle, associate editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson and katty kay in washington. >> that was amazing, wasn't it? >> i stopped everything i was doing to listen to what that mother had to say, and i was so grateful for her. >> you know, in a time where character is so lacking and seems to be nowhere to be found when you look around among a lot of our top leaders, you find it in the most unexpected places and unfortunately you find it in tragedy and you certainly found it last night in that remarkable statement. >> yup, it was. and during these turbulent, difficult and dangerous times,

we need people to step up. you see that happening in corporate america. the tables are turning. >> i was going to say, willie, that they intended evil. they intended to pull this country back hundreds of years and actually if you just look at the headlines from yesterday, what they have done is something quite remarkable, these neo-nazis, these fascist, these white supremacists have united the community in charlottesville and even united some raspberepus and i'll just say one or two, marco rubio on the forefront. if every republican would show the courage that marco rubio is showing right now, i think the republican party might even be okay, but there are too many

cowards there that are just saying we oppose neo-nazis. guess what? in 2017 it gives you no credit. you have to be courageous enough to do -- i said marco but john mccain and others have shown the courage. >> donald trumpthe coast guard the commandant of the marines coming out saying if the president won't say it, we'll say it ourselves. i was reminded a little bit of charleston two years ago when they talk about this grace, where do the people find this grace when you have the family of the victims of the emanuel ame coming out face to face with the young man who killed their family member saying we forgive you, we have to heal, healing is more important than our gaanger.

you heard that from heather's mom yesterday. >> i'm so glad willie drew a straight line from what happened in charleston to what happened yesterday. isn't it amazing that instead of having tiki torches, as our preacher would always tell us, hold the candles high and punch holes in the darkness. and you just may see the beginning of that happening right now. >> it was very moving and it was i thought yesterday especially sus susan's eulogy began to redeem what has been a shameful chapter

in the history of our government. >> it's not over but. >> mike barnicle, the business community responded almost immediately. there was a domino effect and as the "new york times" said, even one of donald trump's closest business allies, steven swartzman saying enough. and wrote a state for the business council saying we don't want to be associated with racism, bigotry, hatred and disbanded the council. of course, the president showing absolutely no class rushed to tweet that he was disbanding the council that had already disbanded itself. >> you know, joe, in these darkest hours of these truly dark days, america comes out

like the sunshine comes up every morning. it comes out from the pulpit of that church yesterday where a victim's mother speaks as eloquently and as meaningfully as she did about the death of her daughter, something i don't think any of us can comprehend as parents. >> i can't imagine it. >> it comes out when members of the military issue statements about what this country is all about, equality, lack of prejudice. america comes out when you see the business council saying, you know, this is just a bit too much for us and they issue statements. it does not come out, unfortunately, in the words of the president of the united states. but the optimism about this we should reflect i think more on that because the brightness of america, we've seen it displayed in the past 24 hours, we've seen it displayed and it's stronger and more powerful than anything that donald trump has said thus far.

>> and it does seem that at least for now the center can hold, the center is holding and this center will hold. kasie hunt, you're on capitol hill. there was concern before donald trump decided to show moral equivalency between racists and fascists and anti-racists, but i guess from all reports and from what you're hearing on the hill right now and what you're hearing from republicans, it's bleak. they -- they -- they don't know what comes next for the party that a lot of them feel donald trump's destroying. >> i think that there is a very real private, however, sense of -- i don't know if i would go so far as to call it despair but at the very least deep confusion and uneasiness with how to

proceed with this president. i think that a lot of people on capitol hill, look, they care very deeply about this country, that's why they're in politics and i think a lot of them were hoping that they could wait out president trump, but it has g gotten so hard in these particular days -- i think your point about the center is true. it's gotten deeper than a fringe of voices. they have been given a megaphone that is bigger. and that is the difference. george h.w. bush in his response to david duke stood in that deep, wide center and this president is off on the side. >> except for a few voices among the republicans, we're not seeing profiles in courage at all. i can't believe i'm saying this but follow the lead of corporate america. corporate america is doing the right thing. can't believe i'm saying this. >> and the military.

and they're both way ahead, much more in tune. >> yeah, the military, the business community. >> big business. thank you. can you believe i'm -- >> look at marco rubio's tweets, john mccain's tweet, charlie dent's tweets, look at the few republicans that have actually spoken out. you got to say his name in your tweet. just going racism bad, not good enough. you have to say donald trump cannot continue to pre descri p and comfort to neo-nazis, white supremacists and fascists. >> the underlying story right now is the republican party's search for its own conscience. >> they've got to get rid of a certain element.

it's time. >> i talked about marco rubio. i saw a tweet, marco rubio in february of last year saying basically we can't elect a racist. i have retweeted several times throughout a column i wrote for "the washington post" in february of 16, this man is using racism to get elected and talked about him attack being mexicans, talked about him attacking muslims. i mean, everybody knew this. >> i've written it four or five times. >> in december of 2016, i said on the set i can never vote for anybody pushing a muslim ban. this is what bothered me about the republican party, they wouldn't criticize him for

racism for getting ahead. it was racist with judge curial. we said it here. this is what it leads to. >> they would express their outrage and not specific outrage. they sort of pretended it want there. then he gets inaugurated and they kind of pretended that it would go away or he would become a different person or it would get better, better, better. as far as i can see. he wasn't in control when he was inaugurated and he seems to be spinning further out of control. >> on that note, believe it or not, there's a lot of news this morning. the first there was anthony scaramucci and the -- >> have you noticed mooch is looking very statesman-like now.

everybody is making fun of the mooch. the mooch knew when to hit the eject button. >> now the mooch looks not that bad. >> we have a pet we named the mooch. >> yeah, the mooch. starring dean rush. >> now steve bannon has given an interview to a left-leaning outlook. when pressed about his role about the fomenting unrest and the recent violence in charlottesville, he said "he dismissed the far right as irrelevant and sidestepped his own role in cultivating it. eth know-nationalism, it's losers. it's a fringe element. i think the media plays it up too much, and we got to help crush it. these guys are a collection of clowns, he revealed. the democrats, he said, the

longer they talk about identity politics, i got 'em. i want to talk about racism every day. if the left is focused on race and identity and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the democrats." >> bannon made similar comments to the "new york times." "prum by asking where does this all end -- washington, jefferson, lincoln. i can't get enough of it. bannon discussed internal divisions. he said national economic council members opposed to taking hard line on trade with china wrote, oh, they're wetting themselves and then said "i'm

changing out people at east asian defense, i'm getting hawks in. and he said of staking his own territory, that's a fight i fight every day here. we're still fighting. there's treasury and national economic council chair gary cohn and goldman sachs lobbying." >> sounds like he thinks he's the president. >> the white house apparently called to praise him for a recent piece. here we go he said, quote, in kim trump has met his match. the risk of two arrogant fools blundering into a nuclear exchange is more serious than at any time since october 1962. bannon reportedly explained on the phone that the u.s. and chinese economic war approaching an inflexion point and one of

the two nations would emerge as the hedgeman 25 years from now. quote, contrary to trump's threat of fire and fury, bannon said there is no military solution to north korea's nuclear threat, another get it. until somebody shows me the situation where that ten million people in seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes of nuclear war, forget it. they got us. >> let's start where he calls his boss a blundering fool and then undercuts his military strategy by saying that don't listen to him, he's lying when he says there's going to be fire and fury. i've been critical of him for trying to undermine the

president's national security adviser, he's going straight to attacking the commander in chief and -- >> if the mooch had to leave, how does steve bannon stay for this interview when he's undermining directly, katty kay, what the president came out and said last night, when he talked about fire and fury, he said, oh, please, that was all talk. he said there's an economic trade war with china. what is the future of steve bannon now that this is public? >> it's interesting. his firm belief that the only thing that matters is the

economic trade war with china. but criticizing the president directly and going against him effectively saying there is no fire and fury, that is all bluster on the part of the white house, how does bannon survive it? it's clear the president has strong reservations about getting rid of him, or wise he would have done so up until now. whether that's because he fears having him on the outside or because they do genuinely still have this relationship that they have over nationalism. >> ckatty, he called him blundering fool and a liar. the president, like him or not, he is trying to push back north korea from using nuclear weapons and continuing to develop nuclear weapons and you have somebody inside the white house that is undercutting his strategy. what more damage could he do on the outside than he's doing by

calling him an idiot on the inside? >> you've been saying this for a long time, joe, that bannon is exa acting like president bannon and the real president has not got i don't know rit rid of him. there as got to be a reason that trump is very reluctant to let bannon go. maybe this is the test of john kelly. can john kelly demote or fire steve bannon. if it going to happen, it going to happen soon after this interview. >> this is what he does all the time. he leaks to everybody and he leaks as if he is the president. this is what i'm going to do next, this is what i'm doing over here. i don't have to worry about jared because i'm going to wrap the russia thing and his neck so much he's going to sink to the bottom of the ocean. that's how he talks to the media off the record. he is leaker number one. and it is remarkably, the reason

i'm been calling him president bannon is because he talks in that interview like he is the president. >> you can definitely hear that. for more joining us from capitol hill, jonathan swan, who has his own reporting on what happened and what's next for steve bannon. jonathan. >> thank you. well, i do just want to correct one thing. it want actually bannon calling trump the arrogant fool, it was the author of the piece who wrote a column saying that. that doesn't make it that much better because bannon called him to praise the column so it's not like it's a huge difference. really bannon was telling allies last night that he didn't believe it was an interview. and some people are rolling their eyes and others are saying this is some kind of five-dimensional chess. honestly, the looseness of it, if it was just the sort of sum of the economic warfare stuff, i

would totally believe he was doing this to send a signal, but the parts of it that go beyond what bannon would ever say on the record are the bits where he does sound like he's the president, where he's talking about personally moving stuff around and particularly the bit where he undercuts the president on north korea, which is the bit that really caught his colleagues' attention. >> you said he actually called the author and praised him? >> he saw an ally on china. he thought the author and him were of the same view on china. bannon's a china hawk. he thinks that america is in an economic war with china. he sees this as the most important issue. i could actually see bannon almost not thinking of this guy as a reporter but rather an ideological ally, even though ironically he's at a far left publication. i know that sounds crazy but honestly, it my honest reading of what happened here. >> jonathan, there's another

part of this given what we've been talking about all week where bannon says we have to crush the white naggism, he calls it a collection of clowns. my question is why didn't they crush white nationalism when they had a chance on saturday. if presumably he's an al lie, why didn't they come out and say that on saturday when they had the chance and why didn't he say it the other day at trump tower? >> why isn't he celebrating what donald trump said this weekend and on monday. >> i think people give bannon too much credit as an adviser to trump. when he said he hasn't spoken to steve bannon about charlottesville, that's not true. my reporting says they spoke saturday, sunday, monday. bannon cheers it on and thought it was the right response to condemn both sides but this is trump. the idea that bannon is some sort of puppet master directing this, it's not true.

it's trump's core instincts in his gut. >> all right. willy. >> what about the idea that bann bannon, so how does that sound to donald trump? >> i don't know. as we says a couple months ago, oh, did would, it's always i, i, i. >> you remember at the president trump press conference, president trump was pretty icy when asked about steve bannon, he called him "mr. bannon" and he said, quote, we'll see what happens. >> you're fired. >> jonathan ax -- john doud

echoed secession iist ideals. dowd said, quote, you're sticking your nose in my personal e-mail? people send me things, i forwarded them. then he hung up. >> he forwarded something that would have been said by a secessionist after the civil war in 1870. this is unbelievable.

>> michael schmidt in addition to a serious misreading of history, john dowd, who you know as john's work with major league baseball, as a lawyer and all of that, this is really surprising that it would come from him. >> this is the president's lawyer that did this. this is not just a political ally or anything like that. this is the guy who is supposed to be in charge of defending him and dealing with the robert mueller investigation and here he is very early in the morning taking this e-mail and pushing it out to a group of influential people, a guy at dhs, people in the media, people at the wall street journal, people at fox, getting this message out there. the question is even if he didn't read this, he is the president's lawyer and he's pushing this message, a controversial message which secessionists really relied on

and what people used to build up robert e. lee. obviously robert e. lee fought the united states where george washington sort of founded the united states but they put them on the same level playing field. >> here's who are somebody -- >> and then loses his mind. >> loses his mind and may destroy his career. he's done work for imagine league baseball? >> yeah. >> hey, guess what? he's never going to do work for major league baseball again. >> not like this. >> because he has forwarded what many would consider a white nationalist document. >> do they actually think in their brain that relittle gating the civil war is something we really ought to be doing for the next three and a half years? i kind of hope not. it's not going to come out any differently if we start arguing about it again.

it happened and it happened a certain way and you just really can't say george washington, robert e. lee, gee, hard to choose. >> michael schmidt, any someplace from dowd or anybody close to dowd why a formerly respected attorney would send out a secessionist document and something -- a document that white nationalists would cheer? >> the sense that i had last night was that the white house was relieved that there were no white house officials on the e-mail. it not like that was forwardedoning to them. it clear why he would do this nixon's lawyers put a line between policy and representing nixon. they never wanted to get involved, they wanted to stay in

the legal lane han didn't want to have themselves in a situation which they were -- this is clearly a political issue and here is dowd trying to push out the message that what the president had said is. >> hey, michael, what was the source of this e-mail? i'm curious to know where this came from and with why the president of the united states's personal attorney would elevate it to become a talking point that the administration wanted to get out. >> so this e-mail was forwarded to about 30 people, including fay vincent, the former babe economicers and all these other folks as i was try skrooiing. they said this is the

president's lawyer that's doing this and they called me and said, look, i have to send this to, you need to see this, this really bothered them and that's how we got what we did. still ahead on "morning joe" president trump's disapproval rating hates record high in a major poll. and vote him in droves. plus the president flan plans to rally the city's base in phoenix but the city's mayor wants no part of it and why he's telling them to put the politics on hold in the wake of charlottesville. and tonight joe's band will be playing at the cutting room in new york city, marking the release of his new ep "welcome to the monkey house." interesting, what was that written about? come in, listen to the words, they might ring true. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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a tower is all that stands between light and darkness. >> not all of those people were neo-nazis. not all those people were white supremacists. they will be met with fire and fury. death, everyone's going to die, death, death, death. >> oh, my god. >> oh lord. >> willie, i had said, talking about marco rubio and charlie dent standing up.

lindsey graham did call the president out. >> he said, mr. president, i encourage you to try to bring us together as a nation, your words are dividing americans, not healing. >> that's a really positive thing to say and i am shoe that donald trump -- he can handle that. >> no, he can't. >> you got to do that. you got to be able to do that. i'm confident -- >> he's not that big. >> what do you mean? >> he can't tack ke it. the president just tweeted and some experts and historians will tell you this is not normal and this is extremely disturbing -- >> what did he say? this is a long wind-up. here's the delivery. >> this is not normal. publ public -- publicity seeking

lindsey graham falsely stated that i said there is is moral equivalency between the kkk, neo-nazis and white assusupremas and people like ms. heyer. such a disgusting lie. he just can't forget this election trouncing. >> when is lindsey graham, john mccain and surprisingly wonderfulab wonderfully marco rubio going to step up and say the president's name? >> frankly south carolina has been lately leading on race. nikki haley and -- whether this

dynamic can go beyond -- that's really what i've been watching for. were there going to be people aside from these two men that we talk about all the time because they are regularly taking on this president, lindsey graham and john mccain to very little effect within the broader pieces of their party. we did see when we talked about this yesterday paul ryan coming out more quickly perhaps with statements condemning neo-nazis, but as you said, joe -- >> you get no credit for condemning neo-nazis in 2017. but you do get credit even from your own base for standing up to power, speaking truth to power. lindsey graham's been there long enough. what donald trump doesn't understand is the more he engages lindsey, the bigger he makes lindsey. >> lindsey graham has nothing to worry about with the voters of north carolina. they love him, he gets elected

overwhelmingly and maybe that's one reason he feels he can speak out. also lindsey graham often says what's on his mind and there are a lot of people in washington who don't have the courage to say what's on their mind. >> katty kay, i'm wondering what this looks like from the outside looking in. you've been writing about what this looks like from abroad. what does this look like? >> i've been living here 20 years and every year i try to spend time with my family back in europe and this is the first time i've come back and felt america was almost being dismissed by other countries and this was before charlottesville actually happened. there's a sense that other countries feel they just have to deal without america, america is losing its global leadership, the white house is losing moral authority around the world and charlottesville hasn't helped that at all. it's almost an irrel --

irrelevancy. they've rejected the right-wing extremism they saw in elections in netherlands and the elections in france. they don't want that europe. they're doing their own deals. they're looking to other countries to do deals on things like climate chang and trade issues. if anything, the trump wouts and the saga and drama around it looks more like a freak show than anything else. >> it's incredibly depressing to come back to a country that is so despirited and -- >> angela merkel is the leader now around the world. >> that's right. >> and trump's tweet indicates

given his insecurity about the election, at that he lost the popular vote. he references it in almost every tweet imaginable. >> can't stop. can't stop. >> here's what's amazing and we won't suggest that donald trump is disconnected from reality, would never do that. at least the people we respect told us not to do that. but it's very interesting. viewing this "new york times" article, you've got the leaders of the united states military saying what happened was horrific. you've got the leaders of american industry saying what happened was horrific. you have republicans on and off the record saying what happened was horrific. you have most people in america saying what happened was horrific. so that is i think you could

take judicial notice, in fact, at most courts across america, that's the reality. you have donald trump in this "new york times" piece disconnected, the aides inside the white house who thought it was horrific, who were demoralized, said it was the worst thing that happened during his presidency who said that donald trump was energized and excited by his press conference because in his own reality, and this is what's important, just as a matter of fact, in his on singular reality among leaders in america, donald trump, kasie hunt, said this is awesome. this was great. this press conference i did was

fantastic. it energized him. i've never seen any article that shows more effectively without even trying that donald trump is disconnected from the reality that the rest the leadership in america, the military, business and political community where they live. >> look, joe, there's nobody defending what the president did in private conversations, the republican, democrats, you name it. there is one thing thoo bat ban did in the interview -- people aren't dog whistling anymore. he said the longer the democrats tack about identity and we go with nationalism, we can crush the democrats. you talk about people all the

time who have lost things in american life and who are struggling and they don't want to be labeled as racists and bannon is making the naked political calculation that is how those people are going to read what the president is doing. >> you use fear and anxiety to slid fight the white ethnic political and group identity and then you go after that and exploit that. >> what is the one open wound throughout mrk history? >> race. >> so what is the job of any president, to hope soothe and heal that wound or poke it and open it? >> pour salt in it. >> why in the world can't republicans step up? this would be a moment of opportunity for them. it's not like the democratic party has, like, great things going for it. this would be the moment. it's kind of an obvious moment. >> it's not like elizabeth

warren or bernie sanders is donald trump's vice president. >> no. >> it's mike pence, who is actually, unlook donald trump, a conservative, a republican. >> there's tra that. >> and a guy who would know how to pass tax reform, a guy who would know how to work with washington and get things done. so it is very -- as we go to break, another reb. >> i vehemently disagreed with the president's comments on the tragedy? those actions in charlottesville in the strongest terms.

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anyone who believes in kkk ideology should go back to the cave they came from. the president should have immediately denounced the hatred and bigotry he saw in shaw lots vil -- charlottesville. what he did today was wrong and

unacceptable. i've said that loud and clear. >> so cory gardner got out really strongly. you said that's sort of a departure for him. he's a low-key guy. he actually got very passionate. >> i'm reading that as real emotion from him. i covered him during himself reelection, i interviewed him. he's a very even keel guy. he thinks very carefully before he says things. i think that was a remarkable moment for him. >> still ahead, baltimore pulls down confederate monuments under the cover of darkness. mayor katherine pugh said she used emergency powers to, quote, protect her city.

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it is exciting. we have frank here. >> he's with us. thank you. right in the new york times you can't eclipse the american spirit and you write this.

what the first interstate motel has in lieu of an endurable odor is an exalted attitude. they are set to experience a total eclipse on monday. and this eclipse is a total mind employ blower. we americans haven't completely lost our way. true, we failed to sniff out and stop a presidential disaster in the making and we're stuck for now with a morally bankrupt plutocrat. but we still know a prime interplanetary opportunity when we see one. the eclipse is precisely that. i'm not well versed in matters of the cosmos so i'll describe the rareness in the vocabulary that most of us better un. envision a month in which the president didn't golf.

imagine a sentence in which he didn't brag. fantasize a speech of his that made you proud. the eclipse is that rare. >> that's pretty rare, frank. >> very rare, yeah. >> i can't think of one. can you? >> what? >> a moment where he made -- i'm sorry. >> talk about your column. why did you write it? >> i wrote it because i felt -- every once in a while, i think we need an emotional break from what donald trump is putting us through. and on monday we're getting a rare event. it's also, if you look at it, a rare entrepreneurial event. i think we'll talk about it more over the weekend as the eclipse comes. you have seldom seen americans market merchandise, us ploit an opportunity like this. and you look at it and say okay, we're a nation that still has a lot of savvy. we're still the nation we were even though donald trump is doing a good job of making us

feel like we've lost our way. >> we've been talking about military leaders. business leaders, even some republicans. we just played marco rubio, lindsey graham, others. how is america doing right now in the face of this spectacle? >> i think america is in a way that's encouraging saying we don't believe in this. very few people are coming to the defense of donald trump. i was glad to hear you go through the litany. you weren't just talking about the different opinion powers saying donald trump, that's wrong. these are places people donald trump respects. he wants the respect of corporate chiefs, they're taking a step away from him. militaries are taking a step away. the british prime minister has taken a step away from him. what concerns me now is he is more isolated than he's ever

been. he's the loneliest person on the planet. he's not someone who is going to say this is a time for reflection. i'm going to get quiet and do reading and think about where i've gone wrong. in moments like this, he pouts, steams and lashes out. i think what we saw tuesday is not the last of it. i think we're going to see continued episodes. we're in a dangerous place. >> he's tweeting. it's not even 7:00 a.m. >> attacking lindsey graham. >> there's going to be more opportunities. we should talk about this. there are events planned. some of them have been cancelled. donald trump has a rally planned in phoenix on tuesday. the mayor last night said and politely donald trump not to come to the city if he's only going to stoke the hate and the fear that he did after charlottesville. so this is not the end of something. we are glad to hear the words, heather's mom yesterday.

they helped, but this is certainly not the end of anything. >> it is a dangerous time. >> coming up, talk about timing. the president announced his plans to hold a rally in arizona. it's just days after the events of charlottesville and days after he told fox news he's thinking about a pardon for the former sheriff there accused of racial profiling. plus "the washington post" robert costa joins us who says john kelly is frustrated and dismayed at the president's lack of discipline. >> also polls that show donald trump's support among the hard core republicans dropping. for your heart...

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to any of its ingredients. we're fed up with your unpredictability. remission can start with stelara®. talk to your doctor today. janssen wants to help you explore cost support options for stelara®. >> trump was asked if he planned to visit charlottesville. check out his response. >> i own one of the largest wineries in the united states in charlottesville. >> i guess he actually does the commercials for that winery himself. >> really? >> yeah. take a look at the latest ad. >> what separates us from all the others? it's simple. we only make white wine. because let's face it, it doesn't get better than a white. no way, rose, white is all right. drove south and take two alt-rights and an alt-left. trunk winery, because america could really use a drink right now. >> wow. >> yeah. so you know, this morning --

>> welcome back to "morning joe." >> this morning we talked about "the new york times" article. it shows military leaders have come out, remarkable, all the joint chiefs have come out and been highly critical of what donald trump is doing right now. it was an affront to trump. you had the same thing with the business community. donald trump's response this morning has been to attack two republican senators and two republican senators who actually voted for that horrid republican health care plan that like a 15% approval rating. he didn't have the numbers to pass a health care bill. and now he's probably going to have two more defactions. >> let's introduce the table and

then we'll go to kasie hunt and talk about what the president just tweeted. we have with us katie hunt, eugene robinson, frank bruni, catty k, phillip bump, and robert costa. a lot to get to, including new poll numbers, but can we pull up the tweet. kasie hunt left the side and was talking the president might do this and here it is. great to see that dr. kelly ward is running against flake, jeff flake, who is weak on borders, crime, and nonfactor in senate. he's toxic. kasie hunt, what's going on here? >> jeff flake has joined the others who have earned nicknames from this president. we'll see if it sticks.

this is something that is a real sign of donald trump going to war with his own party in washington. jeff flake has obviously been one of the most outspoken here in what criticizing what the president has done across the board. he's been a long-time critic of president trump. he's one of just two republicans who are considered to be vulnerable coming up in the midterm elections, and if he has to go through a bruising primary battle, perhaps is beaten by a challenger who is farther right, somebody who maybe aligns more with president trump, it's a real possibility that arizona could pick a democratic senator in 2018. it would be one of the first real tests of democrats being really engaged and really interested in opposing the president. arizona has been a swing state. this is something i think that's really going to -- it just expands this war between the president and mitch mcconnell in the senate. >> that's what i was going to say, willie.

it's not just jeff flake he's going after or lindsey graham. when you're the president, and you go after one senator, you're going after all senators. that's how mitch mcconnell sees it. and that's how the rest of the republicans see it. if a democratic president went after a democratic senator, that's how chuck schumer would see it. this is not war against jeff flake and lindsey graham. this is war against the republican senate. >> and he spent time going after mitch mcconnell as well. like so many things with president trump, this is not strategic. it's about his feelings. it's because jeff flake has never supported donald trump. it's because jeff flake just wrote a book about what's happening to conservatism in the age of trump and all the bad things senator believes have happened because of donald trump. jeff flake has been on tv talking about why donald trump is bad for the country. this is not about strategy. this is about donald trump's

feelings and him feeling slighted by that man, a man whose vote he will need, and he'll regret doing this if a democrat wins the spot. >> what donald trump supporters don't understand right now, because right now they may be jumping to well, flake's been unkind to donald trump. he doesn't understand that every other grownup president picks up the phone early on. and they figure out. like bush, george w. bush upset republicans because his first phone calls were to democrats. remember, he had ted kennedy come over who totally attacked him. come over to watch a movie, and -- donald trump never did that. he never reached out to anybody. >> no, he didn't. and so these senators went out on a limb. lindsey graham, jeff flake, went out on a limb for this lousy health care legislation. and this is the way he repays people who go out on a limb for

him. this is a look at how he repaid the business executives with people who associated themselves with an administration that looked a little dicey. as soon as they start leaving, he attacks. >> it's very strange, and joe, you bring up past presidents. if we could look at the tweet, this is not about how other politicians act. yeah, the flake one. this is not how you would want kids to act. this is cyber bullying. this is calling people names. this is -- >> if only there were an initiative for that. >> if only there were a platform or initiative for someone in the white house who could talk about the issue of cyber bullying and maybe teach the president this is not nice. it's wrong. >> i think they can do that. >> it's morally unhinged so much. >> it would be helpful. >> bob costa, what is the --

what is the temperature on capitol hill for republicans regarding donald trump right now after this past weekend, after charlottesville, after the chaotic monday presser, after generals, business people, it seems like the entire class of people that donald trump wants on his side, have turned on him. it's different than this conversation in this sense. they're not having this kind of heated public debate about president trump, because think back to the republican presidential primary and say then candidate president trump used the same kind of rhetoric and attacks against his rivals. he won the republican nomination, took over the republican party. they're not making a true move against him because of that. they do not -- a lot of them feel they don't have the metal to endure a public war of words or a political battle that's truly pitched against the

president. >> i believe what you say, but just to summarize, the republican senators and house members that have been elected to represent this country are afraid that the president may tweet something negative about them? >> joe, what's so revealing is when you read a lot of the statements from these republican lawmakers, and they do not mention the president by name. they speak to the issue of white supremacy and white nationalism and condemn it, but they're not trying to actually engage the king of the republican base, president trump. i think in part it's out of fear. in part it's an evaluation of their own political capital. they don't have enough to go head to head. >> it's ridiculous. it's just a tweet, guys. >> new poll numbers for the president shows his summer slide continues. >> a poll conducted tuesday through saturday puts his job

approval at 35%. down two points since june. his disapproval rating at 55% is the highest the poll has measured ever. the poll also found a double digit drop among strong republicans down to 79%. that number was 9 1 back in june and a poll conducted this week finds americans dissatisfied with the president's response to charlottesville. 52% found his reaction not strong enough. 27% said it was, and 21% were ensure. that poll was taken on monday and tuesday. >> phil, there's fill nobody that's going to be jumping out primarying the president. they're saying they're going to primary the president? >> yeah. this is the issue with what we were talking about with the senators. as long as strong republicans still feel -- 79% is still 80%

of strong republicans, and it's those more for vawho will come . >> i talked to somebody in john kasich's world who said as he watched this unfold, they said he has a moral imperative to primary donald trump. you talked about kasich. he has been one of the strong voices. he was on the "today" show spitting fire at donald trump yesterday. to your point, there was a theoretical matchup between the two of them put out yesterday, and trump beats kasich by 40 points right now. when he ran last time, kasich won ohio. there is talk in his world that they want to go out and start building toward running against trump in a couple of years. >> there is talk about it. but ask yourself. in the alabama and mississippi primary in 2020, the florida

panhandle, in phoenix where immigration dominates the republican base, how does governor kasich fair with the republican base? probably not well if you look at the polls. that's why no one is really talking about 2020. maybe your only flash of success could be in the new hampshire primary. >> a long way to go, but when you see his numbers drop, why do they poll? why are they polling right now? because it does make a difference on how people are -- how republicans are going to side with donald trump moving forward on legislation. by the way, we're only seven months in. and he already has a primary challenger, and yeah, the numbers may not be great. he's seven months in. seven months from now let's see what happens. and it bears repeating, donald trump was at 3%. and a lot of people were saying donald trump would never get above 10%. things change quickly. >> we're only seven months in and a week ago the big story was

is mike pence making movements to be in a position to run in 2020. when have we seen a vice president in a presidency in the first term making movements to be ready. here's the thing. this poll number you show, only 52% of americans said the response to charlottesville wasn't strong enough. that means more than 40% thought it was either strong enough or they didn't know. that is why a lot of these lawmakers in congress are saying i don't know that i want to name donald trump in my condemnation, but this is what's going to haunt the republican party for a very long time to come. they're making this a political question. at this point in time, it is a moral question and nothing else. >> it seems like an obvious one, but maybe -- >> the thing is, and you can go through history, phillip. a lot of times you just have to jump. bill county, if he'd looked at poll numbers, he never would have been elected president. he decided to run against george h.w. bush when his approval

rating was close to 90. and time and time again we have seen throughout history, barack obama. barack obama decided to run when nobody other than mika and a hand full of people in the summer of 2007 said he was going to win. i laughed at the prospect. i thought the clinton campaign was going to crush him politically. time and time again that sort of political courage is rewarded. and i just keep wondering, who is going to be the first member of the trump administration to back out and leave and say i can't work next to a guy that embraces white supremacy. >> yeah. go ahead. >> i was going to say we did see one member of the administration do it over a different line. reince priebus or anthony scaramucci being hired. this is a different line. >> well, thank you. i'm going to thank corporate

america, big business for stepping up. i don't know. our worlds are upside down. the latest reporting on the president's staff suggests the situation is grim. the headline says top advisors are numb. the article goes onto say that staffers describe themselves as stunned. "the washington post" reports chief of staff john kelly is frustrated and dismayed after two weeks on the job. though he has implemented new protocols. according to the post in the week before trump departed for his august vacation, the entire west wing team began showing up at the 8:00 a.m. senior staff meetings. get this. even the president's daughter, ivanka who rarely, if ever, appeared at staff meetings led by reince priebus, began coming to staff meetings. >> she was on vacation, isn't she? >> they just finished. >> very good. >> long time trump campaign

associates have reportedly been left out of the loop. >> phone calls go unreturned or handled in a friendly but curt fashion by his top aide who came with him from the homeland security department. despite kelly's -- this is the problem for this president -- despite the switchboard requirement, the president has used his personal cell phone to reach people among other things. >> bob costa, in the immortal words of the who, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. >> exactly right. and as my colleague and i were reporting out the story for today's post, we encountered all these different anecdotes of new systems. you have to go through the switchboard to talk to the president and have different poet comes and new meetings and a new culture, but the president has not changed. and general kelly is focussed on

the staff. >> he's doing systems and trying to get some order. you could see that, but the problem is that you have the problem reading the teleprompter on one day and saying i think what the country wanted to hear at some point about charlottesville, and then the next day going off prompter, going completely unhinged and showing, i think, and i've heard many others feel this way too, what was in his heart. and you can't change what's in his heart, and it may not be good for this country. i think that's where the rubber meets the road and where kelly may have some problems. >> yeah. and you have to wonder where kelly was this morning two minutes to 7:00 when the president was treating what was in his heart about jeff flake and calling him out by name, and being -- >> cyber bullying. >> bullying about him on twitter, you're right. and there's only a certain amount kelly can control in terms of systems when the

president has direct access to millions of followers through his twitter account. i'm not sure the president stood up with national thesis on race relations in the united states. i think he stood up in trump tower, angry because he'd been told he'd given a bad response the first time around, and when he's criticized, he lashes out. this is personal. it's the -- it's to do with the president feeling under attack, and when the president is under attack, this president, he becomes more dangerous. not just to the country but to himself and his own presidency because he lashes out in these bizarre ways. >> and who knows. what happens some have suggested he's extraordinarily insecure. maybe he's so extraordinarily insecure that the very controls that general kelly has put on the white house staff to try to help president trump actually challenged his -- i don't know exactly what -- his ego.

so he decided he was going to act out in the most horrific way and show the world that he was in charge just like a toddler showing that they can put their hand on a burning stove to prove that they were in charge. >> you're going to ground me, i'm going to sneak out of the house. i love the word systems. this president doesn't need systems. he needs a soul. that's what it boils down to. and they can bring in all the adults, and i love that we even talk in that language. we're talking about a president who needs reminders. they can develop these new systems. they can't change the man. they can't change the product. that's the problem here. and that's the problem going forward. that's the problem until this thing is done. >> i think it's time. anyhow. >> in donald trump's inner circle, there's always this kind of line, i've heard that so many people come in, paul manafort and others who think the president is a child who can be controlled. at the end of the day, they learn he's not a child. he's an adult with very strong

opinions, and you can't manage him like a child. that's an illusion. he's going to do his own thing. >> he's an adult who responds to outside stimuli like a child. >> yes. who are these people that we hear the senior advisors are numbed and shocked and stunned by the president's performance at trump tower the other day. how are they shock? they've been around him for more than two years and some longer than that and known of him and watched him publicly. why are they surprised when he goes out and has an impromptu press conference and goes off message? are they really shocked or do they want us to think they're shocked to protect themselvess? >> there's a difference between the veterans. they don't understand how president trump is moving in this racialized direction and talking about white nationalism and white supremacy and the confederacy. who is not shocked and cheering,

the president's confrontational press conferences, steve bannon. >> yeah. when he's not undercutting the president. >> right. >> and his foreign policy objectives. a couple of pop culture references here. alex, you had one. from anchor man. what was it? >> well, when he says we find out the president's not a child, i thought of anchor man when he says i'm not a baby, i'm a man. >> exactly. >> i'm a man who built the eiffel tower of metal and brawn i think is what he says. >> and for a much deeper cultural reference, i doubt anybody remembers the rutls, but it was a joint collaboration, about the beetles by monte python. they all sat around and said how do you feel after the manager died. the first one said we're shocked, we're stunned.

the next one, shocked, stunned, deeply saddened. that's all they say for the next 15 minutes. that's what's happening inside the white house. how do you feel? we're shocked j stunned. >> really? do something. >> they're still there. >> do something. >> you're still there. you're still there. you shouldn't be there. and i don't mean to name anybody in particular, but gary cohn, how can you -- >> i'm not being ugly. this guy, hasn't he contributed a lot? >> he's a great guy. >> he's got a great reputation. why are you still there? you have sacrificed enough to this country, and you have a president who has provided aid and comfort to white supremacists and neo-nazis. >> and has opened the door to violent racial dangerous confrontations. >> why are you still there? i understand you went in because bob gates, a man i have

extraordinary respect for said that if you got talent, whether you are offended by what this president said in the past or not, you must go in, serve america. i think it was written by others as well. ross was really deeply offended by donald trump, but he said we have to come together now. this guy whether we like it or not, has been elected president. if you can serve the country, maybe you can help. maybe you can be a moderating voice. i thought the same thing. at this point, it's just not the case anymore. he can't be moderated, and if you're somebody like gary cohn, get out while you can. >> bob costa, thank you, frank thank you as well. and still ahead on "morning joe," how big business broke up with donald trump. it's not that hard to do, you know. stephanie rule has exclusive reporting on the breaking point between the white house and america's top ceos, but first,

two years ago south carolina state house took down the confederate flag. now baltimore's mayor is confronting her city's legacy, and she joins us next to discuss that. tonight, you want to do something fun? joe's band is going to play at the cutting room in new york city. the show marks the release of his new e.p., "welcome to the monkey house". what's that? awe ought to hear this. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? start here. or here. even here. and definitely here. at fidelity, we're available 24/7 to make retirement planning simpler. we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear.

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yogig-speed internet.me? you know what's not awesome? when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids. and these guys. him. ah. oh hello- that lady. these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh. sure. still yes! you can get it too. welcome to the party. introducing gig-speed internet from xfinity. finally, gig for your neighborhood too. welcome back to "morning joe." joining us, kristen welker. the president planning a rally next week in phoenix, arizona. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning. the president already getting a lot of pushback after announcing

he plans to visit phoenix on twitter. overnight in part because of his response to charlottesville, but also because he has hinted that he may be planning to pardon a controversial former sheriff, telling fox news a week ago, i am seriously considering a pardon for the sheriff. why is that such a controversial move? because he was convicted for refusing to follow a judge's order to top arresting people because he expesuspected they m have been here illegally. the mayor says i'm disappointed that president trump has chose ton hold a campaign rally as our nation is still healing from the tragic events of charlottesville. if he's coming to announce a pardon for the former sheriff, it will be clear his true intent is to enflame emotions and further divide the nation. he's asked the president not to come. pretty unlikely that's going to

happen. this comes as we're learning that mike pence who has been traveling in south america is cutting his trip short to attend a meeting at camp david on friday with president trump as well as the president's national security team, the defense secretary. they'll be discussing south asia policy, particularly the strategy in afghanistan. foreign policy at the forefront while the president deals with the ongoing backlash from his response to charlottesville. >> all right. kristen welker, thank you. it would be remarkable, mika, if the president of the united states allowed an elected official to be held in contempt of court, refused to follow a judge's order, undermine the judge's authority, undermined the judicial systems authority, and then the president of the united states pardoned someone

who completely ignored a judge's orders. >> right. you would think. >> no, it's -- not that i would think. that would be extraordinary, and it would send a very clear message to the judiciary that the president doesn't respect an independent judiciary. >> yep. more and more cities are taking steps to remove confederate memorials from public spaces. in florida they've been called to move them. this map from the new york time shows 12 cities have already done so. at least 13 other cities have introduced proposals to do so. senator cory booker also says he plans to introduce legislation to have confederate memorials removed from the halls of congress. the last attempt to have him removed by the black caucus in the wake of the charleston church massacre ended without success. meanwhile, there's a battle brewing in alabama. the state's attorney general is now suing the city of birmingham

for covering a downtown confederate monument with plywood. the city covered the memorial temporarily after the violence in charlottesville. according to the attorney general, it violates a state law aimed at preserving historic structures. joining us from baltimore now, mayor katherine pew who ordered the removal of four confederate statues in her city and watched overnight on wednesday as crews took them down. thank you for being on the show this morning, mayor. tell us what went behind the decision. did you have a lot of pushback, any pushback, and why did you have them brought down at night? >> well, it's hard to get pushback at 11:30 p.m. at night, but the decision, watching charlottesville, what i didn't want to see happen in baltimore was the same kind of protesting. certainly not the loss of life, and so i begun talking with contractors earlier about helping us to remove the monuments.

he'd already planned that we would do it late at night so we would avoid traffic, protests, crowds. i thought it was the right way to do it. no pomp and circumstance. just get the work done. >> and explain why it was important to do this, especially in baltimore? some see these as symbols of history, right or wrong, difficult or not. but why take them down? >> well, i agree with you that some people see them as symbols of history. at the same time, at this particular point in time in our history, there is just too much protests, and i think what we have to begin to do in this nation is to heal and show that we love and respect each other. i mean, these are salutes to the confederac confederacy. this is the united states of america, and we ought to be united in purpose and causes and moving our country forward. i'm very focussed on how we move baltimore forward, a city that has had many problem over the

years, but a city that is also healing because we have so many great things in front of us. and i think about the fact that we're in the middle of almost at the end of getting our consent decree monitor hired. having gone through so many trials and tribulations. we're also a city that has great communities focusing on how we rebuild neighborhoods that have been neglected. i felt it was the right thing to do. no more speeches, no more pomp and circumstance, and i say if you need to hear a great speech about why the monuments should be removed, listen to a speech in new orleans. >> mayor, baltimore, of course, is also home to the original washington monument, the one built before the one in washington d.c. but was there much pushback at all, or -- obviously not overnight in the wee hours, but

what was the discussion like before removing the monuments? >> well, we had had a study done the previous administration had had a study done regarding the removals of the monuments. there was a process laid out in terms of needed to take place. i just felt when i came in as the mayor, i was confronted with a number of things, whether it was the consent decree, school system issues, and then charting out our course. we had laid out a course for moving the city forward. there wasn't a lot of discussion around it at that particular point in time. there was a resolution by the city council. i believe it was on monday. our discussions had already begun in june, and i spoke very bluntly with the other members of the city about what i thought we needed to do, and then i had a conversation with the president of the city council and told him very clearly, and he agreed we should continue to

move quietly and quickly, and that's what we did. >> mayor, the civil war ended in 1865. 100 years later in august of 1965 linden johnson signed a voting rights act in america. 100 years. the statues are coming down in specific cities, baltimore, cities, but it strikes me, and i'm wondering if it strikes you that it's an amazing indictment of how we do not teach american history what really happened in this country, to grammar school students, high school students, college students and american adults. we just don't teach our own history. >> well, you know, you hear that constantly. that the history books throughout this nation don't really reveal all that has taken place in our nation, and has taken place in our nation, and i remember during the campaign a young man walking up to me at

one of the debates and saying to the panel, what is it we need to do to bring back the fervor in african americans specifically, and what are we not telling folks? what he was really referring to, because we were perplexed by his comments, but i said i think if we realized we were born to kings and queens, but we're part of this american fabric. we helped to build this nation and this country, even when we weren't allowed to go to integrated churches, we created our own. when we didn't go to colleges and universities, we created our own schools the same way. this is supposed to be the united states of america. the statue of liberty says bring me your hungry, tired and poor. to me that means be welcoming to all citizens and we should work together to build each other up. we should focus on equally,

moving cities and states forward and moving the country forward. >> mayor, thank you. thank you very much. and coming up in the wake of charlottesville a biographer encouraged a joint statement calling for trump's resignation. the bushes issued a statement, but it stopped short of that. here is michael bleshlosh with a look back at this date in presidential history. >> this day in 1976, ronald reagan spoke in kansas city. gerald ford beat him for the nomination in a close race. after giving his acceptance speech, ford surprised reagan by asking him to come to the podium to speak. >> i would be honored on your behalf to ask my good friend governor reagan to say a few

words at this time. >> without a single note, reagan gave a spell binding address that eclipsed president ford. >> i believe the republican party has a platform that is a banner of bold unmistakable colors with no pale pastel shades. >> many delegates left the hall saying we nominated the wrong man. deline out on a date, he would call her corded house telephone and get permission to speak to her. today is a lot different. billy just slides into madeline's dm and she'll respond with "oh hayyy! swing by 4 dinnr! smiley face heart emoji" even though courtship has become less strict, hebrew national hot dogs remain strict as ever when it comes to our standards. made with premium cuts of 100% kosher beef, it's sure to please whoever your daughter brings over last minute for dinner. hebrew national. we remain strict.

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>> two of president trump's predecessors are speaking out about the violence in charlottesville. george h.w. bush and george w. bush released a joint statement stopping short of calling out president trump directly. they say in part, quote, america must always reject racial bigot bigotry, anti semitism and hatred in all forms. as we pray for charlottesville, we are reminded of the truths recorded by that city's most prominent citizen in the deck ra l.a. ration of independence. we are all created equal, and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. we know these truths to be

everlasting because we've seen the greatness of our country. a new poll conducted frshow favor rablt among americans at 38%. among just republicans, trump still trails with 79% to bush's 85% and 93% for reagan. phillip, you do have donald trump anywhere between 34 % and 38%. >> right. >> approval ratings. but this is the second poll this morning that shows about 8 out of 10 republicans still support him? >> exactly. that's the thing that republicans on capitol hill are going to watch. they're going to see whether or not the republican base stands by donald trump. donald trump has seen erosion since the beginning of his administration. he's seen significant erosion from people saying they strongly

favor him to somewhat. that shows the base is cracking, but those numbers still suggest there's a price to be paid if you're a republican, potentially, who wants to stand against it. >> right now to explain that, though, it's still donald trump or hillary clinton. donald trump or the mainstream media. donald trump or bernie sanders. that number, i'll say, really means next to nothing, because you don't know what happens if it's donald trump or jeff flake or donald trump or another -- a real conservative. >> there's also a pretty significant difference between 85% which is a more normal number for a president in his own party. when you get below 80%, that's when you start -- that's not like a hair on fire political disaster, but you start worrying if you get below 80% in your own party if you're president. . >> you don't win general

elections in the 70s. or even low 80s. >> thank you for being on this morning. up next, bigots boosted by the bully pulpit. it's the title of a new piece in "time" magazine. he joins us to explain, next. ♪ this is a story about mail and packages. and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries

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yeah, even there. see how much you can save when you choose by the gig or unlimited. call, or go to xfinitymobile.com. xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. welcome back to "morning joe." joining us from washington, michael share, the magazine's new issue tighttled "hate in america". president trump's response to charlottesville was panned as a missed opportunity and massive error. not just by his foes but by scores of republicans. his stance was no accident. it was a reminder that trump says the us against them tones. throughout his business career he used racial and ethnic zigs two his advantage. he says the cultural norms that seek to minimize racial strife

as politically free barriers. he's using the pulpit to tolerate and fan tribal grievance. i think a lot of people this we on this set, that we perhaps shouldn't be surprised this is the posture that donald trump has taken towards this group, this core, this microcore, it's support, whatever you want to call it. because he does have a legacy, whether it's housing in new york or coming auto o'begins the central park 5 in the 1980s of nudgeing towards or inching up towards racism. >> in november of 2015, i went to birmingham, alabama, to one of the first big rallies trump did there, he was atop of the polls. i talked to him back stage, he said to me, my father, gred fred trump said i had great instinct for location. i understood earlier in this campaign, immigration and later

muslim, islamoterrorism were the things i needed to focus, i felt it. just like i do deals. i think trump still feels this. that's why he was so uncomfortable giving this speak, saying what presidents do say in moments like this normally, because it went against what his inc. i instinct is, which is to find ways of exploiting and benefiting from these division. now, he's been able to rally his base very successfully during the campaign and you know to go back now and look at all the times the nation was shocked by things he said about a muslim judge, about banning muslims, about an american judge with mexican parents about banning muslims. but they all fit this pattern. which he has a gut instinct. a gut feeling, she proud of, he credits with his success. that tells him in situations like this, you know the proper

response is to condemn racism, he does that, he says nazis are bad, but also to find ways to stoke the sense of grievance that grips a big portion of the country. >> catty kay. >> mike, one thing that interested me. i saw a poll yesterday that suggested, i think 47 or 48% of trump supporters think that white nationalists do have some valid point. which seemed a very high number and yet we keep talking about trump supporters saying, what do they make of what the president is saying about charlottesville? do they see themselves in that camp of people who support the far right, what's your read on trump supporters more broadly on this? >> i think terms like white nationalists are difficult to poll. it's not clearly defined in the poll. the poll number we put in our story is most telling comes from washington post earlier this year, they asked, do you think preferences for minorities hurt whites, hurting whites is a bigger problem than preferences

for whites hurting minorities? now, nationwide, about a quarter of the country thinks that preferences for minorities are hurting whites is a bigger problem. among strong trump supporters, it's about twice that, almost 50% of strong trump supporters feel whites are essentially the victims. i think that's the number you want to look at. white nationalism means different things to different people. i think most americans would disown, i'm sure the numbers are higher among trump supporters. what is driving all this, is this sense whites are now discriminating against groups and are now the victims and have to stand up. >> michael, one thing that president trump seems to be doing differently, there is obviously a very long and difficult history of people using racial dog whistles in electoral politics. he seems to have taken this to a different level. is that, what is that driven by, if your view? >> i think he has taken a

different level. i think it's driven by a number of things, his background is different than other politicians, he operates by a different set of rules. i think the environment in this country, as john meacham writes in our issue is similar to other incendiary times. it's different in the last 20 or 30 years. it's gotten worse. the anger and frustration from a core base of white working class voters is more so much aware of where it was in the late '60s when president nixon was running than it's been at any point in the last couple decades. i think technology is a third part of that. i think he operates through different mediums. other presidents, other politicians communicated through large media organizations. he communicates directly with his people. >> that allows him to communicate in a different way. >> michael, is your sense, this sort of sense of white racial grievance, can you find

historical precedence for this and how do we figure out, where does this go from here as the country becomes more diverse and people have to deal with that? >> yeah, i think there is precedence for it. the american first stay out of it will work, to movement the silent majority and the anger over tend of t over the civil rights in the 1960s. i think what has changed now compared to then is there is this narrative alone, certain segments of the population that whites because of demographic clang or some sort of existential breaking point, which i think raises this furys, where does it go from here? >> there is a minority view in this country, the most noxious

sentiments are a tiny minority. this is the fringe of the fringe. i think there is enormous potential for that to grow now they are getting attention they have been seeking for so long. i don't think we're at a point yet where there is a real danger of this becoming a dominant view. >> all right. an important issue out this week. hate in america, with a long list of contributors, cluck john meacham, john grisham, after the is smiley. thanks so much, appreciate it. >> thank you. this morning, president trump is pulling out his legislative playbook, the one he used in the wake of the health care failure, attacking republican senators on twitter. >> oh, wow, does that work? >> well, not so far. we'll dig into the significance of those new tweets from the president and much more from that block buster interview of steve bannon, contradicting the president from north korea, sounding a lot like he's the one

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>> i want this to spread. i don't want this to die. this is just the beginning of heather's legacy. this is not the end of heather's legacy. how you are going the make my child's death worthwhile. i'd rather have my child, by golly, if i got to give her up, we're going to make it count. >> we are back the mother of heather heyer, the 32-year-old woman killed peacefully protesting in charlottesville, offered a message of hope to a wounded nation with the words unsaid by president trump, but thank god for her, good morning, everyone, it's thursday, august 17ing, welcome to "morning joe." with us we have veteran columnist and msnpc contributor morocco barnacle, capitol hill correspondent casey hunt, pulitzer award winning column yvette washington post eugene washington and washington anchor for bbc world news america catty kay in washington.

good to have you all with us. >> that was amazing, wasn't it? >> i stopped everything i was doing to listen to what that mother had to say. i was so grateful for her. >> you know, in a time where character is so lacking, and seemed to be nowhere to be found, when you look around among a lot of our top leaders, you find it in the most unexpected places and unfortunately you find it if tragedy. you certainly found it last night, in that remarkable statement. >> yeah, it was. during these turbulent and dangerous times, we need people to step off. you see that happening in corporate america t. tables are turning. >> i was going to say, they intended evil. they intended to pull this country back hundreds of years and actually if you just look at

the headlines from yesterday, what they have done is something quite remarkable. these neo-nazis. these fascists. these white supremacists. have united the business community and the military community. the community in charlottesville. they've even united some republicans. uniting republican, even one or two, like, i'll just say marco rubio on the forefront. if every republican would show the courage of marco rubio is showing now, i think the republican party might even be okay. but there are too many cowards there that are just saying we oppose neo-nazis. guess what, in 2017 that gives you no credit. you got to be courageous enough, what john mccain and several others involved have shown the courage? yeah, it's been fascinating to see, donald trump's own military

branches individually coming out one by one, not donald trump, himself, individual, when there was a coast guard, before they're coming out individually and say if the commander-in-chief is not saying it, we will say it ourselves. i think susan bro' was that unifying voice. i was reminded of charleston two years ago, when we talk about this grace, where do people find this grace? we had the families of the victims at the ea.m.e. face-to-face with the family members saying we forgive you. we have to heal, healing is more important than our anger. you we heard that from heather's mom yesterday. it took your breath away. >> this is something we did see. so glad willie drew a line of what happened in charleston to what happened here. you did see this amazing gra is that actually again pulled the community towing. isn't it amazing instead of

having tiki tore. s, these people had candles, as our preacher would always tell us, the first baptist church in pensacola, hold the candles high and punch holes in the darkness. and you just may see the beginning of that happening right now. >> it was very moving. and it was i talked yesterday, especially susan bro''s eulogy, it began to redeem, fits in, a shameful chapter in the history of our government at least. >> it's not over, but she's certainly a sign of light. >> and shameful chapter in the history of this country. the history of the presidency. mike barnacle, the business community, it's responded almost immediately, there was a domino

effect. the "new york times" said even one of donald trump's closest business allies steven schwartzman, is not enough. and wrote a statement for the business council saying, we don't want to be associated with racism, bigotry, hatred and disbanded the council. of course, the president showing absolutely no class, rushed to compete he was disbanding the council that had already disbanded itself. >> you know joe in these darkest hours of these truly dark day, america comes up like the sunshine every morning, it comes out from the pulpit, where a victim's mother speaks as eloquently and meaningfully about the death of her daughter, something i don't think any of us can comprehend. >> i can't imagine it. >> it comes out when members of the american military issue

statements in support of what this country is all about, equality, lack of prejudice, there is a bit too much for us. they issue statements. it does not come out, unfortunately, in the words of the president of the united states, but the optimism about this. we should reflect i think more on that. because the brightness of america has been, we've seen it displayed in the past 24 hours. we've seen it displayed and it's stronger and more powerful than anything that donald trump has said thus far. >> and it does seem that at least for now the center can hold. the center is holding. the center will hold and casey hunt, you're on capitol hill, there was concern before donald trump decided to show moral

equivalency between racists and fascists and anti-racists. but i guess from all reports and what you are hearing on the hill right now and what you are hearing from republicans, it's bleak. they don't know what comes next for the party that a lot of them feel donald trump is destroying. >> i think there is a private sense, i don't know if i would go so far as to call it despair, at the very least, deep confusion and uneasiness with how to proceed with this president. i think that a lot of people on capitol hill, look, they care very deeply about there country. that's why they're in politics. i think a lot were hoping to wait out president trump. but it has gotten so hard in these particular days. i think your point about the center is true i think it's

deeper and wider than we have to remember are a fringe of voices, that es white supremacists have been given a megaphone in the media landscape we have been given now is bigger and by the president. exactly. >> that, of course, is the difference, george h.w. bush for example in his response to david duke stood in that deep wide center. this president is off on the side. >> except for a few voices. i can't believe i'm saying, this, follow the lead of corporate america corporate america is doing the right thing. i can't believe i'm saying the right thing. >> they're both way ahead. >> yeah, the military, the business community. again, look at marco rubio's tweets, look at john mccain's tweets. look at the few charlie dent's tweets, look at a few republicans who have actually spoken out. you got to say his name in your

tweet. just going racism. >> you got to say not good enough, donald trump cannot continue to provide aid and comforted to neo-nazis, white supremacists and fascists who right now are the only ones in america celebrating donald trump. >> still ahead on "morning joe" another trump staffer unplugged a. proceed by proceed for a steve bannon piece that's forcing the joint chiefs to answer uncomfortable questions with limited options with north korea. tonight, joe's band will be playing at the cutting room in new york city, come join us. it marks the relief of his new e pvr. >> willie what are we going to do there? >> what is he going to talk about? >> he will not fling anything at each other. >> no flinging. >> it starts around 7:30. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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there is another blockbuster interview from the top trump aide, once more, there is a question about whether or not the subject intended for it to be on the record. first there's anthony scaramucci and the profanity interview in the new yorker. >> he is looking statesman. everybody is making fun of the 'much, guess what, he knew when to hit the jackpot. >> a couple weeks ago the worse i.t. can be. now the 'much look, not so bad. the 'much starring dean russ em. >> now, steve bannon has given an interview to a left leaning american outlet, and the reasons why are not fully clear. when pressed about his role in the full arrest among the far right, in particular the recent violence in charlottesville, bannon said, quote, he dismissed

the far right as irrelevant and side stepped his own role in cultivating it. ethno-nationalism, it's losers. it's a fringe element. i think the media plays it up too much. we got to help crush it. you know, help crush it more. these guys are a collection of clourngs he revealed t. democrats, he said, the longer they talk about identity politics, i got 'em. i want to talk about racism every day. if the left is focused on race and identity and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the democrats. bannon made similar comments to the fork times, president trump by asking, where does this all end? washington, jefferson, lincoln, connects with the american people about their history, culture and traditions. the race-identity politics of the left wants to say it's all racist. just give me more, tear down more statues, say the revolution is coming. i can't get enough of it.

bannon also discussed internal division he said treasury officials and national economic councilmembers opposed to taking a hard lean on trade with china, oh, quote, oh,er that wheting themself, bannon said this about changes to other departments, quote, i'm changing out people at east asian defense. i'm getting hawks in. i'm getting susan thornton, acting head of east asian affairs out at state. he says this of staking his own territory. that's a fight i fight every day here, we're still fighting. there's treasury and national economic council chair gary cohn and goldman sachs lobbying. it sounds like he's the president. the white house chief strategist apparently called to praise him for a recent piece in which cutner had written about north korea. here we go. he said, quote, in kim, trump has met his match.

the risk of two ar gant fools blundering into a nuclear exchange is more serious than at any time since october, 1962. quote, contrary to trump's threat of fire and fury, bannon said, there is no military sloegs to north korea's nuclear threats, until somebody solves the equation that ten million people in seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons. i don't know what you are talking about. there is no military solution here. they got us. >> so willie, i don't know where to begin with this. let's just start with the part where he calls the president of the united states his boss a blundering fool. >> that's a problem. >> a blundering fool. then undercuts his military strategy by saying that don't listen to him, he's lying when he says there will be fire and fury. i have been critical of him for trying to under mine the

president's national security in a time of nuclear standoff. he is going straight to the commander-in-chief, calling him a blustering fool in the world. >> if the 'much had to leave, if he was shown the politics inside the west wing, how does steve bannon stay when he is undermining directly catty kay what the president said last week. he talked about fire and fury in this interview, steve bannon says, that was all talk, there is no military solution, basically rolling his eyes at the fire and fury. he says we are in an economic trade war. we need to step up. what is the future of steve bannon now this is all public? >> his relationship with other people in the white house and with the president. his firm believe the only thing that matters is america's trade war and economic war with china. >> that will be the be all and

end all of america's future, whether to get the quick upper hand over china. criticizing the president directly, going against him when he says effectsively, there is no fire and fury. >> that is all bluster effect on the part of the white house. how does bannon survive? it's clear he had strong reservations, whether or not that's because he fears having him on the outside. he generally still had trouble with the nationalism. >> he called am blundering fool on the inside. he se he's a liar when he talks about fired and fury on the inside. i mean the president of the united states, like him or not, he's trying to push back north korea from using nuclear weapons from continuing to develop nuclear weapons and you've got somebody inside the white house that is undercutting his

strategy. so what more damage could he yield on the outside than he is doing by calling him an idiot on the inside? >> you have been saying this for a long time, joe, bannon is acting like president bannon. so far the real president has not gotten rid of him. so there's got to be some reason, whether it's a personal or nationalism that trump is very reluctant to let bannon go. maybe this is going to be the test of john kelly. can john kelly demote or fire steve bannon? we will see over the next few days. if it's going to happen, it will happen soon after the interview. >> this is what he does all the time. he leaks to everybody. when he leaks he leaks as if he's the president. this is what i'm doing next. this is what i'm doing over here. i don't have to worry about jared because i'm going to wrap the russia thing around his neck so much he's going to sink to the bottom of the ocean. i don't have to worry art gary cohn.

that's how he talks to the media off the record. he se leaker number one, remarkably, he's been called president bannon because he talks as he did in that interview like he's the president. >> right. coming up on ""morning joe,"" it's one thing to confront rocket robert e. least and it's another thing to send an e-mail to journalists. >> who kould who you would do that? >> somebody very disturbed, not wants a future with mlb. in the outbox of the president's personal attorney handling the russian probe. >> oh boy. you always pay your insurance on time.

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. another person in the president's inner circle is drawing defense for charlesville. john dowd forwarded an e-mail to journalist, government officials and friends that echoed successionist civil war propaganda, including the subject line, the information that validates president trump on charlottesville. it dedrarst the body black lives matter has been quote totally

infiltrated by terrorist groups. the forwarded e-mail declared rocket e. lee is no differ than george washington, both owned slave, both rebelled against the government and both saved america, declaring there is literally no difference between the two men. contacted by the "time's" yesterday, dowd said you're sticking your nose in my personal e-mail? people send me them, they forward it. then hung up. >> he forwarded something that sound like it wouldn't have been said by a successionist after the civil war in 1870. >> yeah, unbelievable. >> michael schmidt in addition to a serious misreading of history, john dowd, who you know, you know, from john's work with major league baseball, as a lawyer and everything leak that, this is really surprising that it would come from him. >> yeah, this is the president's

lawyer that did this. there is not just, you know a political allie or anything like that. there is the guy who is supposed to be in charge of defending him and dealing with the robert mueller investigation. here he is, very early in the morning, taking this e-mail and pushing it out to a group of influential people, a guy at dhs, people in the media, people at the "wall street journal." people at fox, you know, getting this message out there and the question is, is that, you know, even if he didn't read this he is the president's lawyer, he is pushing this message, which is a controversial mention which successionists really relied on and people have used to build up robert e. lee and rationalize things that went on. obviously, robert e. lee fought the united nations where george walk sort of founded the united states. they put them on the same level playing field. >> gene robinson, this is another example of somebody that

comes into trump another orbit. >> and drys his mind. loses his mind and made the stories clear, i wonder, he's done work for major league baseball? >> guess what, he's never going to do work for major league baseball again. because he has forwarded what many would consider a white nationalist stock. >> do they actuallily the in some rational part of the game like relitigating the civil war is something we really ought to be doing the next 3.5 years? i kind of hope not. it's not going to come out any differently. if we start arguing about it again, you know, it hammond a certain way, you just really can't say george washington, robert e. lee, ilt hard to keket

that white nationalists would share? >> no, the sentence i had last night was that the white house was relieved there were no white house officials on the e-mails. >> that it's not like this has been forward aid long to them. >> that they sort of had dodged a bull net that area. but it's not really clear why he would do this i was talking to a his torn yesterday that said that nixon's lawyers really put a line between politics and representing nixon. they never wanted to get involved in anything political related to them. they wanted to stay in the legal lane and they didn't want to have themselves in a situation like this, where they were defending a political issue that the president had different than a legal one and this is clearly a political issue on the race issues that have come up in the past two days that the president finds himself in, here is dowd

trying to push out the message that what the president said is okay. i think that smacks some people as being unusual. >> what is the source? i'm curious where this came from, why the personal attorney would give it such credence he would elevate it to become a talking point that the administration wanted to get out. >> >> so this e-mail was forwarded to about 30 people, including the former baseball commissioner and all these other folks as i was describing. they forwarded it and someone that got it was so disgusted by it, they were so taken aback they said, well, there is ridiculous, they said, this is the said this is the president's lawyer. i have to send this to you. you need to see this. this really bothered them. that's how we got what we did. >> what era are we in? the "new york times," michael

schmidt, thank you very much. two blue ribbon panels of business leaders fall apart. our stephanie ruhle and c nbc domenic chu join us. "morning joe" will be right back. with at&t you can get your entertainment right here. right now, when you get the incredible iphone 7 from at&t you can get unlimited data and live tv. the channels you love. your favorite shows and movies.

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>> trumps chief of staff john kelly standing off to the side. look at this photo. kelly was just the latest in a long line of people getting stuck, he said something crazy, i think they all feel pretty much the same way. take a look at this.

>> yeah. >> that's a lot of faces. christie is a classic. >> oh, yeah. >> what's that? >> he was the oh gee. facing ceo resignation, president trump resolves two economic councils to head off the wave of bad pr heading his way. yesterday afternoon, he tweeted, rather than putting pressure on the business people of the manufacturing council and strategy and policy forum, i am ending both. >> well, that's surely a powerful thing for him to do. what a big man. >> prior to that, they held a conference call. >> oh, wait a second, willie. >> resulted in a decision to disband. >> wait a second, steve schwartzman actually decided along with the rest of the group, they were going to disband. i'm very confused. i'm very confused. he says -- thank you. >> you can't quit because i'm

firing you. but it had already happened. let's bring in c nbc's dom chu. the latest goes inside by corporate giants to impute president trump in the bottom line, at the press comments, turned way too much heat up on corporate america. there was already no question to anyone on the president's panel or otherwise that that tragic event in charlesville over the 52nd, he was horrific. many of those represented were feeling heat, whether it was employee, customers or otherwise, that the president didn't go far enough to denounce the hate groups. three were high profile leaders to decide the ultimate 78th fate. it was pep kiko, ceo and ibp ceo and general motor's ceo mary barra, lots of phone calls took place, understandably so. in what one source familiar called really temperature taking, the heads of the

consumer product companies were the ones taking a lot of the hit on social media or other platforms. on twitter, there was a trending #for quit the count sim a. lot was directed at these consumer facing ceos. guys, one of the most impactful moments came on the heels of wal-mart ceo, dug mcmillan's muted response to charlottesville. he criticized and said he would remain on the council, when trump went after mcmillan, that's what sent more chills through some of the other ceos in the room, in the end, one of the biggest things that stand out is president trump is this man that is this ceo president, one with a business expertise to run a government like a business, so it begs whether or not this is a huge, huge proceed for a guy that is supposed to be the ceo of our country. >> c nbc domenic chuck, thank you very much. i never thought i'd say these words, i'm never so proud of

corporate america. >> let's bring in ms nbc anchor stephanie ruhle and associate from the associated press. >> the fact that they were waiting for jamie died. remember how america felt about the financial industry. now it's these guys and what's amazing is it didn't bother them the president lied, you're fought breaking up with me. i'm breaking up with you. they're happy to get out of t s this. >> what ceo is running a company like this? >> he inherited a family business. he's never had to be accountable before. that's why he is as reckless as he is. >> this is his entire thesis, i can come up with new solution, i'll surround myself with ceos and this we're how many months in, seven months in, it's

already falling apart a. significant proceed to him, which you hit on, never been accepted in the in club with ceos, he's always an outsider. >> he's always been. these are people that don't understand, i didn't understand when he came to, no. i thought new york was new york. i thought long island was a west chester county was whatever. you get up here and realize very quickly, there is a caste system, donald trump was always from the outer borough, donald trump was always a queens guy, he was never accepted. >> some corporations was never a client to u.s. investment banks, they wouldn't do business with him. suddenly now they went there, they end up with pro business agenda. think what this could cost jamie diamond in deregulation and tax cuts, it is huge. it costs more. >> so many shocking things happen every week, let's talk about the president of the united states trying to

blackmail amazon. >> right. >> he doesn't like what the washington post writes so he tweets that he's going to raise amazon's taxes, now if this happened in any other administration, there will be investigations launched on that tweet alone. >> 30 seconds later, it's forgotten. i covered the campaign last years ago i'm covering the white house now. five times a day he will do something that would have perhaps ended mitt romney's career and here we move onto the next thing t. president we know he was very proud of that first statement on saturday. he felt like when he was in his club in bedminster, he successfully addressed the crisis in charlottesville. he had to be pressured into stepping in later after the news conference at trump tower, he's telling people close to him. i did the right thing. this is how i feel. >> a lot of the ceos dom went through in that report, it came if late when it was headed in the direction, this is the right

thing to do, what are the real profiles in courage? there was ken frazier at merck. he was the only one who specifically drew the ire on twitter of the president. although he said they were all grandstanders as they stepped away. who started this in motion? >> listen at the end of the day, they were all looking for an out. this wasn't the first thing. trump leaving the paris accord. they doesn't have to deal with the travel ban, immigration policy, a lot of them stuck with it on monday. but it was tuesday night when he went at it again, are you kidding me? do you think jamie diamond wants to get a call from me, hi, jamie, how do you feel about the klu klux klan? he has a job to do. that was their point, it's not is gary cohn going to stay or go? his day job. >> i think you look at what wal-mart did. a lot of trump supporters go to wal-mart. that was a significant move. >> that's one that may touch his base.

right. so much of this white house has been trying to protect that base, very little efforts to grow it. most of their policies seem to be the core 30% or so who have been with him throughout, those who he thinks can step out on fifth avenue, perhaps shoot someone and stick with him. the wal-mart one there is some concern in the white house are we heading down the path where maybe a little we might lose some of the core support? >> we set up, gene, if i wanted to, you know, get petitions signed or do something go to wal-mart. >> absolutely. >> that's a lot of the republican base. >> absolutely. >> a lot of trump supporters work for wal-mart or shop at wal-mart. i mean, that's a constituency. on the other hand, it seems to me, if you are a wal-mart ceo, do you want to be the only one left out on that limb? given all the -- the answer is no if you take hit from your examiner base or whatever, take

a hit now, it will be much worse later. >> it seems to me the corporate leaders, wal-mart and big ceos are walking away, turning their back to the president of the united states, clearly see that he shared with the country what was in his heart and what is in his heart could be devastating for this country. i hope politicians follow suit. some have. many haven't. >> larry summers called out wal-mart. he said if you don't walk away. if you need to be on this council to get access to this country, a it is biggest private employer, we are run aqaba nanna republic. >> stephanie, thank you, we will be handing off coverage to you in a few minutes. >> every morning, 9:00. >> i love it. >> it's always itself 9:00 somewhere. >>. >> let's bring into the conversation now, correspondent for the "economist" the latest

cover depicts the president amplifying his voice with an old fashioned mechaphone shaped like a kkk hood. one of the articles is entitled donald trump has no grasp of what it means to be president. it reads in part this defenders of president donald trump offer two arguments in his favor. >> that he is a businessman who will cush the excesses of the state and that he will help america stand tall again by demolishing the politically correct taboos of left-leaning, establishment elites. from the start, these arguments looked like wishful thinking. after mr. trump's press conference in new york on august 15th, they lie if ruins. mr. trump is not a white supremacist. he repeated his criticism of neo-nazis and spoke out against the murder of heather heyer. even so, his unsteady response contains a terrible message for americans far from being the safe your of the republic, their president is politically inept,

morally bar ren and temperamentally unfit for office. >> that is quite is -- >> i would add some are very concerned he has opened the door to violence and more blood being sled in this country based on race. is that fair? >> i think that's a concern. if you look at his response, if you think about his response on tuesday, that what he essentially said was, look, he saw the same footage everyone else did he saw nazi carrying flag, chanting jews will not replace us. in other words you have to judge them by the few among them there for high minded historical reasons and didn't mind associates with nazis and white people sifts. on the other side, ordinary people who came out to the streets to oppose white supremacists and ethnic cleansing and said you have to

judge them by the few who may have been ready for violence. >> that is very dangerous. in the past have you presidents, who whatever their politics understood an obligation to call americans the better angels of our nature to heal the divides that split up and that he just doesn't have those instinct. it's very worrying. >> john, willie gievths i know you aren't the art director, interested with this cover, that will get a lot of attention, a lot of people pointed out the days of dog whistles have gone, it's a megaphone, that is an extreme cover with a clanhood coming in the hand of the president of the united nations. well, i think it points out to which side he is giving suffer raj, we saw that in the campaign, he has taken messages that were perhaps dog whistles before and southed them. i think the cover points that out in a visually striking way. >> yeah. >> i don't know if that's

extreme. >> do you see any profiles encouraged emerging from that building over your shoulder of the capitol? there people are willing to actually stand up and say what you just said? >> we'll see what happens as he tries to advance his again do through congress. we'll see if there is any political costs to him doing what he did. i thought he saw a courageous stand-by-ken frasier of america and corporate america taking the lead. we saw brands associated with that were used by white supremacists over the weekend, rushing to distance themselves from him. we'll see who follows that lead. it will be interesting. >> thank you very much the new issue of "the economist" is out now. john, really quickly, i know you can't speak for the a.p., they announced they will not use

the term all the right. >> the a.p. has a policy going forward, obviously leads to a quote. we're not going to use the phrase all the right. believing it's a euphemism for a racist behavior and thoughts, it sanitizes truthfully better of sanitizes what is truittfully described as white supremacy or white nationalism or racism. it's more of a brndi inbranding to tamp down connotations and in the last 24 hours we decided not to use it anymore. >> thank you very much. up nex, the leader of the naacp is calling on the president to live up to his to responsibilities in 21st century america. derrick johnson's group has been fighting racism since 1909 and he says we're now in a state of emergency. he joins us next on "morning joe." what powers the digital world. communication. that's why a cutting edge university counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected.

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politicians specifically who think that it is enough to say that they're opposed to white supremacists and neonazis? >> obviously it's not enough. we are in a place now we need to address this through policy implementati implementation, the naacp was founded to fight against anti- -- fight for anti-lynching legislation. we are now reviewing the hate crime bill. we have a president who has empowered a group of domestic terrorists, who open licari firearms, who are willing to weaponize their vehicles, harm, injure, and in this case kill individuals. this is a state of emergency and we need to respond appropriately. after ressz we're going to be working with our partners to begin to call on our congressional leaders to sit down with us and talk about how do we strengthen the hate crime bill to ensure that all citizens are protected. >> some republican politicians

have spoken out aggressively, some have not. have you been heartened at all by the strong response from the joint chiefs, from corporate america, and really from a lot of conservative writers who have shown that they are offended by what donald trump has said and what he's done? >> we have to move beyond immediate impact of what's taken place. we greatly appreciate and are encouraged by the statements made. now it's time for action. we cannot allow this to be another situation where we have an incident, people react, we are remorse l, and then we go back to normal. we've soon over the last years that dark politics have grown to open hostility, which has now resulted in the situation in south carolina where a young man goes into a church and murders nine people, an individual drives from ohio, weaponized his vehicle and injures and killed

individuals. the next thing that could happen now is we're waiting for the next timothy mcveigh. we cannot afford in this country to allow the political environment to e deteriorate to a place where we could be on the brink of some type of armed hostile engagement. we should not do that as americans. we need to move, step away from the political dialogue, discourse that's taken place and really talk about policy solutions. >> i think, sir, there's an increasing sentiment that people need to say things for what they are and not overstate them but also not understate them. and a lot of politicians are being asked to say the president's name in their rebukes. i feel -- i'm very worried that his comments during that press conference that everyone's talking about really opened the door for potential violence and bloodshed. am i overstating things? am i overreacting or how would you characterize it?

>> when you empower individuals who are seeking to have some type of engagement, physical engagement, we have three branches of government. the congressman said it best yesterday. we need the congress to step up. if the president refuses to honor the moral values of this country, we need congress to step up. it is not enough just to say we disagree with the president. it's more impactful, more important for congress to say let's review the hate crime bill to ensure that all americans are protected. >> derrick johnson, thank you so much for joining us. greatly appreciate it. gene so, another day. it's almost 9:00. what's going to happen today? what would you like to see happen today? >> oh, lord. i'd like the see nothing happen today. >> amen. >> without crazy news. but what i think i will see happen today is increasingly, you know, people like the business community and the military leaders and civic

society trying to run the country around the president of the united states, not expecting leadership from the president of the united states. >> kasie? >> i'm really -- mitch mcconnell is somebody who has been -- he's put out a paper statement that he is somebody who is very privately proud of his own record on civil rights, as somebody who was there when martin luther king gave the "i have a dream" speech, who worked for an anti- -- you know, pro civil rights act republican when he was originally in the senate. and i just -- i want to know how he is going to lead his republican party. >> and how he's going to -- mika, is he going to defend his members that are being attacked by the president. >> i mean, it really -- it's crunch time. it's time -- >> crunch time. >> time for politicians to step up. i'm really hoping that people who work inside the white house do the hard thing, do the right thing, and serve their country. >> willie. >> i think the overwhelm mag joe torre of this country over the

last five days has made clear there's no place for white supremacists in this country, whether people in the street, people on tv we talk to, the military, his own advisers, donald trump is a lonely man right now. >> the american story is now being told not by the president of the united states but by the american military, prominent business people, by public people who are willing to stand up and speak about what this country is all about. >> now is the time, mika, to be counted. >> step up. that does it for thus morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks, mika. hi, there. i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning we have a lot to get through, starting with the businessman president losing his businessmen, forced to dissolve who two advisory councils to cover the fact that those business leaders already dumped him. >> i'm endorsed by some of the greatest business people in the world. >> more cities, more statues. the calls for removal of confederate memorials drawing protesting around the country. >> those people now