i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin, who is going to be a rich man pretty soon. >> "the washington post," cnn, which is so pathetic, their ratings are going down. abc this morning, they have little george stephanopoulos. these are really, really dishonest people and they don't like our country. and i don't believe they're going to change. that's why i do this. if they would change, i would never say it. the only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news. >> welcome to "morning joe,"

what we were talking about yesterday morning, the president follows up a scripted speech one day with an absolute disaster the next, a rhetorical disaster, not only for this country and also just because he'll never understand it, his long-term political health. frank luntz, who spent a lot of time during the campaign, he teed trump doesn't just criticize the media more than he criticizes neonazis, he criticizes them more than actual islamist terrorists. it's not just that. if you look at who he praised last night, brian fallon's, hillary clinton's spokesperson said trump tonight saluted a racist sheriff, who is a convicted criminal and trashed a war hero who has brain cancer.

of course, willie, this was donald trump at his worst, at his consistent worst. we knew this was coming. i'm sure people around him on his staff knew this was coming. a lot of times it seems that arizona brings out the absolute worst in him. but there's no doubt this was a hateful, dericive speech. he sounded like an auto democrat trying to dehumanize his allies. of the media, he actually said -- he talked with "the washington post," "new york times." said they didn't love his country. he left out -- the border, jeff

flake and sheriff joe arpaio. he genuinely believes he's not gotting a fair shake with charlottesville. how many times do i have to condemn nazis and condemn the kkk. he took a sheet of paper out of his pocket, leaving the scripted remarks and read his own speeches over the last week. here's exactly what i said what else do you want from me. >> we have steve kornacki, the editor of business week, megan murphy, micah has the morning

off. good morning, everybody. coming up in 15 minutes, we haven't first excerpt anywhere from hillary clinton's upcoming book on the presidential race. she tackles a lot including this moment when she and donald trump shared the debate stage. clinton says her, quote, skin crawled while she considered how to react to him." >> well being what would you do? do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly back up you creep, get away from me. i know you love to intimidate women but you can't intimidate me so back up. >> back up you creep, says hillary clinton. we'll play much more from those

revealing tweets. in arizona last night before nows of supporters where president trump spoke for over an hour on a number of issues. he threatened a government shut down over border wall funding. >> we are building a wall on the southern border, which is absolutely necessary. the obstructionist democrats would like us not to do it. >> the president hinted he might pardon sheriff joe a pieia. >> was sheriff joe convicted for having his job? he should have had a juriy but i'll make a prediction. i think he's going to be just fine, okay? but i won't do it tonight

because i don't want to cause any controversy. is that okay? it was the media, though, and its coverage of charlottesville that took about the first half. the president mischaracterized the statements he made following the deadly protest. >> what happened in charlottesville strikes at the core of america, and tonight this entire arena stands united condemnation of the thugs who perpetrate hatred and rye lens.

you this don't report the facts and just like they don't like to report that i spoke out against hatred, bigotry and violence and strongly condemn the neo-nazis and white supremacist and kkk. i got them all in there. let's see. kkk, we have kkkk. i got them all. so they're having a hard time. so what did they say, right? it should have been sooner, he's a racist! >> that's about where the president went off script. he's read almost verbatim here's what the president said the saturday after the charlottesville protest followed by what he said last night. >> we're closely following the

terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. on many sides. >> so here's what i said really fast, here's what i said on saturday. we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. this is me speaking. we condemn in the strong strongest possible. >> mark halperin, the equivocation where he talked about many sides but i think we're digging in -- we can dig in and find all the lies, find all of his stalinist,

anti--press statements, we can dig through a. he's done it before, we will do this is a president who claims he goes to shut down the government if he can't build his wall and yesterdaysong the with they're screaming at each other on the phone. donald trump constantly insulting him. donald trump not om going after jeff lake and insulting him in his home state but insulting a war hero who is battling brain cancer right now. and shows absolutely no compassion, no hom it matters if

donald trump ever wants to pass legislation through the senate, not just about mccain but about mccain, about flake, about mitch mcconnell. i don't see how this moved the ball anywhere but backwards for the president and his hopes of getting nilg done in congress this fall. >> welcome to the heightened discipline and new direction had that event i think exceeded the low expectations we talked about he was in yesterday to do. if you take what he did last night and how that he going to be received in washington and by the media and if you take the new york city story about mitch mckomd.

himself anger is partly based on concern about both the russia investigation and his inact to bend congress to his will and nothing he did last night that i see, even as a bank shot, makes it more likely that the very difficult legislative problems he faces in just a couple weeks are going to be easier to deal with. >> willy goos but our children have more displan than this man has. i don't -- i've never met anybody in politics, i've never met anybody in business, i've never met anybody in athletics that more often dids this just because there was something on the tip of their tongue or the

top of tr head. he's going to continue getting nothing done because of this extraordina extraordinary. he's playing to one third. the electorate and driving two-thirds of the electorate away. >> the rhetoric is bad enough. joe said it's extraordinary. of koushs it's extraordinary for a presence but it's not swiezing as soon as. >> this is the most important guy to trump to get his agenda through and yet he's picking public and private fights with

him. >> it's almost a fundamental s miscalculation of what he has to do to get things done. what i think is more surprising is that anyone wrote articles saying he had a presidential speech onwho talks like that when someone has died at a rally by sympathizers were that kind of abhor nt speech? who talks like that about this kind of situation? but what was so i think revealing about last night was exactly how unsurprising it was in terms of the tone and in terms of what he said. >> let's say who talks like that but here's another question, who cheers at that? who cheers when a man speaks

devid derisively, who has given himself, who has brain cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. people are actually shouting that they want john mccain to die. now john mccain's a tough guy, he can handle that, but, willie, who are these people that act like they're cheering on a pep rally at a high school basketball game when he's saying some deeply, deeply offensive things about this country and about a lot of people that have given their lives to this country. >> yeah, and not much a

reference, if any, of the ten sailors missing. was there anything more than therapy or catharsis of donald trump? he seeps to be his happiest, i think it reminds him of his campaign days. was there anything constructive, there was anything he did to move the ball forward for his agenda, his administration? >> look, i think any politician who has a winning campaign is going to draw certain lessons about that campaign about strategy in the future. the lesson donald trump drew from 2016 is this works. what he did last night works. we're sitting here saying can you believe what he said about jackson last night? one of the first things donald trump said is i prefer heros if

he didn't get captured. there were predictions from political experts that this would begin the decline donald trump as a respectable presidential candidate because the republican establishment, he would be off limits to them and his poll numbers would now collapse and he would fade out by the fall. that was the expectation. everybody who was supposedly smart in poll tex tell now he needs john mccain, he needs jeff flake, he needs nem to get his agenda through. he's president and he's not a candidate. >> he's president and he's not running a reality show. there are other people whose powers and roles he's so mad at

the media. it's like he feels jilted. president coverage is his own way of looking at his presidency. there are other tools in the tool box for president that he does not use. >> that's thing. gene robinson is more okay approximately this is. this is a guy that sucked up to

the media and played the new york print media so much that he'd even have women -- what was it, the new york press said "best sex ever" or something look that. he was obsessed with it and he played them nonstop and wall owed and would lick their feet if that's what was required o to get a good head line. now suddenly he doesn't like the media. you can talk about how horrific this or if you want to, we can just talk about you take that speech and the mitch mcconnell story and the "times" this morning, this is a guy who's not

going to get anything done. >> the thing about the speech last night was how sad and predictable it was. because what did there would be an unhinged donald trump prps. maybe it was a bit heavier on media or enemy of the people than i might have thought. i didn't know he'd spend so much time on that. it was deeply disturbing and offensive the way he spoke of the media. but what donald trump speech is not deeply disturbing and offensive. and he's feuding with mitch mcconnell. he grossly insulted both senators, republican senators from arizona. if anything, of course he made it more difficult for him to get anything done than easier and

this is what we president who nolonger seem interested in getting his agenda passed. if he were, he'd be listening to reasonable people in his administration who tell him not to do this stuff. he either can't help himself or he's decided that for whatever reason, his strat and that's not a winning strategy. >> so gene robinson at the end of this block hit what struck me the most about this speechoned struck me the most about where donald trump is right now he can't be interested in gotting

things done because anybody who is interested in got things done would have flown to arizona yesterday and gone and visited john mccain. let's just be cynical. that's one vote that he needs. would have talked to jeff flake, hey, let's put it behind us, how can we work together? that's another vote he's going to need for a lot of things. would have called mitch mcconnell. again, i mean, this is not about weakness. this is about getting things done. this is doing what abraham lincoln did, talking to a giant in the united states senate over the past 30 years who said abraham lincoln would do whatever it took to get things done. lbj would do whatever it took.

they would go and they would work people. ronald reagan, there's a story of ronald reagan early in the administration, somebody, getting down on his hand and kneeses and picking up the jelly beans for the congressman, putting them back up, continuing talking every second. what if we're just at a point where he doesn't care if he gets anything done, he dividist own path forward to tax reform, deregulatory rereform to health care reform, to building the wall, to doing all the things he want to do. >> "the new york times" story about mcconnell and president is really one of the most important inside game stories of the entire trump administration, because it reflects bit -- that

is turning point for capitol hill and the republican party. and he might feel good about that. he but he leaves today in a worse position than he went in. again, that's not why presidents going on the road. you don't go on the road to make things worse, you try to make things better. he's now made things worse and there's no one i bet you who reads that the "new york times" article and says how dare hitch money or disoos a will the of power and the president's power has receded. >> willie, a lot of people last

night were trying to analyze donald trump's mental health. we won't do that this morning p this morning. i can say he's political community, everybody was shocked and offended by what he did and donald trump, people inside said he was actually very energized by it, was happy all night. it's the same thing last night. what he did last night made him feel good and i'm sure he flew home feeling like, man, i really stuck it to 'em. but he'ses did connected from political reality. he just hurt himself even more with the republican party, with the senate, with the house, with everybody he needs to pass legislation and move this

country forward. >> well, he claims to be worried about get anything done and you watch a performance like that last night and you wonder if he cares about getting anything done. he got some chants going. he setted krnl he's watching the show and analyzing how he's being covered through the media and that appears to be the own thing that matters to him. when he hearse a big crowd like last night, talk to phoenix mayor greg stanton after pleading she's describing him as a, quote, creep who made her

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i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. welcome back to "morning joe." we have obtained an exclusive excerpt from hillary clinton's new book and for the first time we're hearing exactly what she thought about sharing a stage with donald trump. first, here's what the democratic nominee had to say about why she's revisiting last year's losing bid for the white house. >> i don't have all the answers and this isn't a comprehensive account of the 2016 race. that's not for me to write. i have too little distance and too great a stake in it. instead this is my story. i want to pull back the curtain on an experience that was exhilarating, joyful, humbling, infuriating and just plain baffling. writing this wasn't easy.

every day that i was a candidate for president, i knew that millions of people were counting on me and i couldn't bare the idea of letting them down but i did. i couldn't get the job done and i'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. in this book i write about moments from the campaign that i wish i could go back and do over. if the russians could hack my subconscious, they'd find a long list. i also capture some moments i want to remember forever, luke when my tiny granddaughter raced into the room while i was practicing my convention speech and what it was like hours later to step on stage to deliver that speech as the first woman ever nominated by a major political party for president of the united states. >> in the excerpt we have secretary clinton also addressed this moment from october. you'll remember this when donald trump stood directly behind her while the tw candidates debated

at washington state university in st. louis. >> in is not okay, i thought. it was the second presidential debate and donald trump was looming behind me. two days before the world heard him brag about groping women. now we were on a small stage and no matter where i walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. it was incredibly uncomfortable. he was literally breathing down my neck. my skin crawled. it was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, well, what would you do? do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, back up you creep, get away from me. i know you love to intimidate women but you can't intimidate

me so back up. i chose option a. i kept my cool, aided by a livetime of delivfe time dealing with men trying to throw me off. i did, however, grip the microphone extra hard. i wonder, though, whether i should have chosen option b. it certainly would have been better tv. maybe i have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, smiling all the while, determined to present a composed face to the world. >> so that book comes out in just a few weeks on september the 12th. a lot of people are going to be interested for reasons we just heard, some color behind the scenes and just to see how much self-analysis and reflection there is about how she could have lost this race to donald trump. >> certainly those excerpts, willie, it seems like there was a good bit of self-reflection.

and there is just that last excerpt we played was very powerful. and, yes, if she had gone with the second option, it probably would have made a very big difference in that debate, just like when george w. bush stared at al gore when he was trying to invade his space. i think what makes that so fascinating is we all do that, not of course on this huge stage that hillary clinton was on, but we all look back and say, well, gee, what if i had done something a little differently, what if i had gone in one direction instead of the other. what sort of difference might that had made? and actually, this will be good to see what hillary clinton was thinking. also, very moved by what she said at the beginning, that she was concerned through the entire campaign, there were so many people relying on her and she said i was so worried that i was going to let people down and i

did. that's just powerful writing. that is self-reflection and i think that's exactly what people who love hillary clinton and people who want to study this campaign more are going to want to read. >> and obviously, mark halperin, the last seven months have been especially painful for her to watch. you talk to people close to hillary clinton, what might have been for her and what she feels she might have been able to prevent in donald trump over the first several months. >>i've talked to several people who have read the book and they all say it's unlike previous hillary clinton books, it's unlike books of most poll tilits and it does run through the campaign in a way she's never done before. it's already doing well on amazon. i think people are going to look at this book as a different kind of thing and as part of an

historical record unlike anything she provided before. >> mark, you followed the clintons for a very long time. i remember going out and buying bill clinton's autobiography and was about, sighting getting through that as ronald reagan's biography. i ran out to see both the republican and the democratic autobiography were boring because they are both very self-serving. this cuts through in a way that most biographies don't seem to, autobiographies. this is very -- it seems very unclintonesque in terms of books. are we going to see a pretty big departure? >> yeah. i mean, again, i'm pretty familiar with a lot of what went into this and a big part of driven by her. some of it was her aides telling

her things that people were interested in. there's stuff in there about what it like to be a candidate. but i'll say as i understood it, and i haven't read it yet, it is different not just from clinton books or presidential memoirs, it's different than any politician's book and it somewhat surprising because hillary clinton is not the first person you would expect comes forward. there is stuff in there about russia and james comey that's going to get a lot of attention and part of how this book will be received is part of which she takes responsibility and also how outside forces and enemies of her also contributed to her lo loss. it is widely anticipated and rightfully so. >> hillary clinton have heard

from a million different people about why they lost and what she should have done better to win the election. it will be interesting to hear about why she believes he lost to donald trump. >> i think it feels a little bit strange in technical last night to be talking about hillary clinton's lack of self-reflection and taking responsibility for the loss given the situation rear in now. going back to what she said about that incident in slud and i think there were almost gasps of of shock in the press room as he was looming over her. she's write that this is an experience that many professional women, senior women face and wh they do as she did, dig her finger nails into her clenched fist. the anger toward her, the depth

of negative sentiment toward her campaign and how she was unwilling to confront it directly, whether or not that's lasting, what it means for other women candidates going forward, but it is incredibly painful for her supporters still to wake up every day, especially on days like today when we see the kind of rhetoric deployed last night by the president, it is an incredibly painful experience for her personally talking to people close to her and i do think this book will be interesting to see how deeply she goes into that. >> it does sound like she's going to open up her life and put it on the page as well. >> in. did the president just pressure the senate's most powerful member about russia investigation? "morning joe" is back in just a moment. i no longer live with

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i find more disturbing. his behavior and this divisiveness and the complete intellectual, moral and ethical void that the president of the united states exhibits. and how much longer does the country have , to borrow a phrase, endure this nightmare?

>> you know, willie, i think what's so, again, what's so disturbing about last night is not just the president's behavior. we knew that was coming. it was the people cheering for the president as he delivered the speech he delivered and we've gone through the bill of particulars. but also james clapper, what he said. i don't know if chilling's the right word but what he said last night actually in august of 2017, seven, eight months into the trump presidency, is the same conversation we had on this show in august of 2016 with michael hayden, when i talked about -- >> he said the same thing. >> the president was asking about nuclear weapons and if we had them, why couldn't we use them, asking three times to a foreign policy leader. and what james clapper said in august 2017 was identical to

what michael hayden warned about in august of 2016. and you know, you can go back and look at the transcripts. mika was saying watch out, america, watch out republicans, you better not do this, is this what you rae want to do, and i guess what's chilling is that enough americans did want that. they don't care. i mean we keep talking about trump, we're going to have to take a much longer look at what suggests he may be unbalanced and unfit to have the nuclear codes with him. >> i wrote "general hayden" on

my little piece of paper here. last august you asked general hayden to walk us through the nuclear process, the protocol and he said chillingly, and i remember exactly what he said, the system is designed for speed. as if to say if donald trump becomes president, this is last august we're talking, he will have minutes, if he makes the decision to press the button, it will be minutes until the bombs are in the air. that's kind of what clapper was talking about last night and these are two sober, serious men who don't necessarily have political axes or partisan axes to grind and they're generally worried after watching a performance like in phoenix about the country. >> isn't it time for congress, if they haven't already done it, to talk about this possibility, to talk about figuring out how to put some checks and balances even on those decisions? so if a man who even the "new

york times" in reporting or showing is disconnected at least from the political realities of everyone around him after charlottesville, lives in his own world, isn't it time for congress to start having hearings and figuring out actually how we put some safeguards in place? >> well, it may be. it's not clear exactly what they can do with the commander in chief but if you listen to clapper and general hayden, there's general concern there that this man is this close to that much power that could be so deadly around the world. we're going to come back and talk more about this and other issues with jim vandehei. that's next on "morning joe."

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welcome back to "morning joe." we've been talking about that "new york times" report about a profanity laced phone call between president trump and mitch mcconnell. earlier this month the president attacked the senator over health care, according to "the times"

republican sources briefed on the conversation say trump was even more animated about the senate leader's refusal to protect him from investigations of russian interference into the 2016 election. reporter for cnn tweeted sources told him "trump blew up and swore at mcconnell at not just the russia probe but the sanctions bill that overwhelmingly passed congress and trump signed earlier this month. nick, if this is reported out and we can confirm it, another log in the fire for bob mueller. >> that's right, look, the senate investigation is one of the two key probes here into the behavior of the president's inner circle on russia. for the president to say please, shut it down or something like that, again throws more fuel to the fire of obstruction, of trying to stop a legitimate probe from going forward. and look, we see this playbook over and over again with him on russia. it's demand, fail, rage, blame, every time.

it's half of the mess he's in on russia is trying to stop the russia investigations from even starting and you got to wonder why he is so, trying so hard in every avenue to stop these things from going forward. >> you know steve, you read this piece and for mr. art of the deal who knows how to negotiate and pull strings and slap backs and get things done, there's none of that in here. it's calling and berating mitch mcconnell and a fundamental misunderstanding, you're supposed to shield me and protect me from this russia stuff. it's not the negotiator he was advertised to be or advertised himself to be during the campaign. >> yeah and it's a different model obviously than what donald trump worked with for decades before this and i think he's trying to apply we're probably getting a glimpse of how donald trump conducted himself in the business world, not the first business person to come to

politics maybe and find out it doesn't work with the legislative process necessarily but the interesting thing is talking about this earlier in the show he's encountering all theseobstacles and it's not changing. i don't think this is a grand strategy necessarily, but the way donald trump i think effectively has decided his presidency is going to be judged is not on capitol hill and not in the traditional political realm but in the realm of popular culture and that's a a whole other topic but it's an interesting thing because we have seen with him a thing we've never seen with any other president and that is the merger of popular culture with this presidency and he's emerged as a central cultural figure as much if not more than he is a political figure on capitol hill. >> mark halpern, what is the posture, bob corker the chair of the senate foreign relations committee questioning the stability and competence of the president, susan collins, republican of maine in an interview wondering if president

trump even would be the nominee in 2020. what's the vibe right now among republicans in the building behind you there? >> some reporting complimenting and advancing "the times" story. mitch mcconnell i'm told is stunned how destructive the president escalated this and made it personal with mcconnell and going after republican senate candidates, mitch mcconnell must defend has caused him to look at the president and saying why is this guy doing this thing? the ball is in the president's court. the president wants a better and different relationship it's up to the president. >> mcconnell has supported jeff flake, somebody the president has attacked, to your point. coming up next, one step forward, two steps back. the president goes from his afghanistan speech monday to last night's wild rally in phoenix. and fthe phoenix mayor join us with his thoughts on the

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doing his job? he should have had a jury, but you know what? i'll make a prediction. i think he's going to be just fine, okay? but i won't do it tonight because i don't want to cause any controversy. is that okay? but sheriff joe can feel good. the failing "new york times" which is like so bad. "the washington post," which i call a lobbying tool for amazon. cnn, which is so bad and so pathetic and their ratings are going down. [ booing ] abc this morning, they have little george stephanopolous talking to nikki haley, right, little george. it's time to expose the crooked media deceptions and to challenge the media for their

role in fomenting divisions, and yes, by the way -- [ cheers and applause ] and yes, by the way, they are trying to take away our history and our heritage. you see that. >> wow. all right. well willie, it's a busy night. lot of things that he got to check off his list last night. he promised a government shutdown unless he got a wall that not only democrats but republicans don't want, that the country doesn't need for a variety of reasons. again, as we've been saying for well over a year, more immigrants going back to mexico than coming to the united states. he still had time to insult an american hero that has given his life to this country in the form of john mccain. didn't mention all of the sailors who died on the "uss

john mccain," was attacking the press, and every one of these things are shocking, but the thing this morning is, you put all of this speech through the prism of the "new york times" story last night about his war with mitch mcconnell, the most powerful man in washington, d.c. >> you're looking at a man who is politically shooting himself in the foot every single day and yes, trump critics can talk about how, you know, he's doing so many things that make him look like an autocrat, but in this country that doesn't work, and he's -- it's amazing to me that seven, eight months in, this guy is working against his own self-interest every single day, and last night was just another great example of how donald trump is working hard every day to be the least

effective president legislatively in the history of the united states. >> as you know, joe, you've known him long enough, he lives for the cheer. he lives for the affirmation in the room. he was fired up. he was energized, so he was playing the greatest hits, and delivering lines and talking about things that he knew would get a cheer from the few thousand people in that room if phoenix. as you say it often works against him as president, the things he claims he wants to get done you have to wonder does he even care about the legislative agenda? does he really care about getting things done and moving the ball forward for the country or does he just want to right wrongs and fix grievances that he has with people. we've got with us right now political writer for the failing "new york times" nick confessori, national political correspondent steve cor nookie, meghan murphy, mark halperin, columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" eugene

robinson and co-founder of axios jim vandehei and heidi przbilla. mika has the morning off. joe? >> you know, he went after the failing "new york times," which is actually doing better i think than it ever has been doing an extraordinary job. subscriptions are up, online is up, same thing with "the washington post." everybody is doing better in the press than ever before. gene robinson, i just want to go back to how self-defeating all of this is for donald trump. yes, we can be shocked and stunned. it is outrageous, it is deeply offensive but it would be one thing, gene, if donald trump was sitting at 50% using this hatred and spewing this bile, and if he was at 50%, 55%, and was getting no legislation through, then we could say he's balancing things

here, even though he's offensive, at least he's playing to his own crowd so we can understand why he's doing this, even if it deeply offends us. in this case, gene, he's driving away any persuadables. there are no more persuadables. he's driving them away and he's getting nothing done and he has angered the most powerful man in washington, d.c., and i will say one of the few legislative giants, whether you like him or not, remaining in washington, d.c., that in the grand history of lbj and george mitchell and trent lott knows actually how to get things through the senate. >> yes, you know, the speech last night was appalling and we're all in a sense shocked but i don't think any of us are surprised, because that's who donald trump is. >> right. >> this is what he does. he's not going to change, and so

i think you know, months from now, years from now, when we look back at last night, we might focus more on that "new york times" story about those interactions between donald trump and mitch mcconnell, because what the sources for that story did, and i think probably knowingly is make mitch mcconnell someone that robert mueller now has to interview in terms of a possible obstruction of justice case against the president, make him a potential witness against the president if such a case is developed by mueller, and it just, you know, we have to be at the point where people start looking for an exit ramp, and people start you know, hoping that mueller hurries up this investigation and wishing maybe with fingers crossed that he finds something that's actionable, because this is not going to get better. this is who this guy is.

>> willie? >> let's read that "new york times" report that details a profanity laced phone call between trump and mitch mcconnell earlier this month. nbc news has not confirmed the report which says that "during the call initiated by trump august 9th from his new jersey golf club the president accused mcconnell of bungling the health care issue." according to the times republican sources briefed on the conversation say trump was more animated about the senate leader's refusal to protection him from investigations of russian interference in the 2016 election. reporter for cnn tweeted sources told him trump blew up and swore at mcconnell and not just the russia probe but also the russia sanctions bill that overwhelmingly passed congress and trump signed early this morning. according to "the times" mcconnell fumed over trump's regular threats against fellow republicans and criticism of senate rules. he questioned trump's understanding of the presidency in a public speech.

mcconnell has made sharper comments in private describing trump as entirely unwilling to learn the basics of governing. mcconnell mused whether trump will be in a position to lead the republican party into next year's elections and beyond, according to people who have spoken to him directly and this from billy piper, a lobbyist and former mcconnell chief of staff "the quickest way for him to get impeached so to knock off jeff flake and dean heller and be faced with a democrat-led senate." mcconnell says the senator and president have a lot of shared goals including tax infrastructure, funding the government, not defaulting on the debt and passing the defense authorization bill. joe? >> yes, jim vandehei, i usually will tell administrations that are coming in that have, that are in the majority, the most important person for you to get along with is the senate minority leader, in this case it should be chuck schumer but that

assumes you'll get along with the senate majority leader who is in your own party, and again, we've been doing this for a very long time, when we were much, much younger, milling around the speaker's lobby and this is basic stuff. i mean, this is not hard. if you want to pass bills, you have to persuade legislators, if you want to persuade legislators, you don't actively insult them. if you have 49 votes and you need one more vote, you don't insult the man that has the one vote you need. you don't insult jeff flake. you don't insult mitch mcconnell. this is basic stuff, and yet the president can't seem to grasp this basic stuff, and it should be his own supporters that are more concerned about this than even the media, because he's not going to get anything done

acting this way. >> well, also it's mitch mcconnell, here is a guy who never really criticized donald trump who tried to push through his health care bill, who basically supports every dimension of the trump agenda, and so this idea you've been talking throughout the program about all these self-inflicted wounds that are totally unnecessary, and he really has alienated himself, and it is linked i think down the road to the mueller probe. at some point he knows he's going to need people to have his back. there's nobody in town and increasingly not anybody on his staff who ultimately will have his back, if mueller acts, if he goes after him on obstruction of justice because he was talking to not just mcconnell about the russia probe but his driver and everyone serving him food. he would talk about it to anybody. mueller looks at what happened with comey and if he looks at conversations with other members of his cabinet, looks at what he said with people who had control over the probes in russia and

comes to the conclusion that that constitutes obstruction of justice, he's in a hell of a lot of trouble, and so there again, he didn't need to do any of that, and so every day we come on this program, we keep saying i can't believe he did that again. what he did in the speech last night to the media was despicable. we might be numb to it, but to say that the media is un-american, to say that they don't like the american heritage and that they're trying to take it away and saying it to a bunch of people who are angry about the direction of the country, he's playing with fire and when someone gets hurt because of the words that he says and the provocations that he makes, that's on him. >> the blood is -- if something happens to a reporter, the blood is completely on donald trump's hands. he's trying to whip his followers into a fury, and you're exactly right. we should never grow numb to that fact. heidi, going back to the mitch mcconnell story, if you talk to old hands in the united states

senate, democrats and republicans, they will tell you actually that what mitch mcconnell was able to do in pulling together 49 votes on the health care bill that only 17% of americans supported after the president had thrown republican house members under the bus, and showed that he had absolutely no loyalty to anybody that stuck their neck out for them, was pretty incredible. that mcconnell could get 49 votes for that bad of a bill. >> and it's not just the -- go ahead. >> he's an open -- yeah, i'm just saying he's now in open warfare with the most powerful guy on capitol hill who actually carried his water without complaining on the health care bill and almost did the impossible. >> and not complaining even though it wasn't just a bad bill, joe. the president himself helped undermine the process by if you remember calling the bill mean, by going after, retaliating as

well, sicking his interior intent on senator murkowski. just think like you are mitch mcconnell for a moment. think about the attacks on your members, think about the fact that you now have such a narrow path for moving any type of legislation, after the failure of health care and joe, based on my own reporting, the moment when i think mitch mcconnell realized that this is kind of the end of the road in terms of getting anything done with this president was charlottesville, based on my own reporting, he was just beside himself after that night when trump responded the way that he did to charlottesville, and knew that look, if this president may be taking himself down politically, but he's going to take down our party politically as well, and i think that is why there's no mistaking that you are seeing these sources speaking so freely to our newspaper, to the "new york times" about the situation right now, and there's also a personal dimension to this, joe,

based on my reporting. mcconnell was very upset that his wife was also dragged into this, standing next to the president at that moment during that news conference, which was originally supposed to be about transportation. >> so you've got a bit of a counter point, nick confessori you my be in the minority. >> the assumption around this table in washington is the ultimate aspiration of the president is to pass policy. i this i that's wrong for this president. i think his presidency is a theater of revenge and rage against enemies, and that is what he delivers to his constituents, and those people in that rallying hall. it's not a trade policy. it's not any policy. it's the posture and the performance of punishing the people that they hate. it's dangerous and toxic but i'm not sure it's not what they want to get, which as past president and if your job is to pass tax reform it's not gk to happen

this way. if your job is to fuel that anger and reflect it back to those people, he's very, very good at that, unfortunately, for the country i think. >> to nick's point, steve, donald trump didn't understand what was exactly in the repeal and replace proposal before the senate. he just wanted to get a win on it. it's even in this mcconnell piece in the "new york times" that the republicans were frustrated he wasn't involved and we no familiarity with what was inside the bill. he just wanted a victory. that's why he held that rose garden rally when it passed the house, not passed into law. >> if he can't get the win he's not going to do the traditional thing presidents do. we're talking how can he do this to mitch mcconnell, in the court of public opinion, have you seen a poll about mitch mcconnell even in his own state, unpopular. there is an aspect here of fighting against it and the one

cautionary thing i agree with what nick said, i think we have a very good handle about the legislative reality of this presidency. i think everything that's being said about donald trump's not being able to get anything done legislatively is spot on. i don't think we necessarily have as good a handle as we may think we do on how this is breaking in terms of public opinion. >> but steve kornacki, that's exactly what donald trump doesn't understand. mitch mcconnell doesn't care. mitch mcconnell isn't looking at his approval ratings in kentucky four years before he goes back and runs for re-election in a state in 2020 that he's been elected in, since the 1980s, since before donald trump even wrote "art of the deal," before donald trump even went bankrupt, before donald trump -- mitch mcconnell is going to be just fine, and that's what

presidents, not just this president, he's the worst example of it but that's what presidents for 200 years have thought when they come to washington they think i figured out how to crack this code, i'm the smartest guy that's ever been in the white house before. i'm going to show everybody how it's done. >> right, but i think what -- >> and they've been beaten down and they learn, they learn that people like mitch mcconnell is going to wait him out because mitch is going to be in washington, d.c., a lot longer than donald trump is. ride it down. he will. >> yes, i think i totally agree on the history of it. obviously the example you think of is jimmy carter. jimmy carter thought he could roll over tip o'neill and the democrats and jimmy carter found out otherwise. i think nick raised a crucial point about the fundamental nature of this presidency being different than every presidency that came before and again i think it's a bigger topic of conversation, but i think donald trump as a candidate and donald trump as a president in a way we

haven't seen before these are not battles that really are about capitol hill, they're not battles about mitch mcconnell and lining up votes. they are battles about culture. they're battles about american culture, about a vast divide. it's the one thing i don't think we fully have a handle on, it's the one thing i have this nagging feeling that the polls that we look at every day when we say 36% today, 38%, 34%, i don't think they're necessarily capturing the reality of that divide when it becomes a choice between donald trump and a choice, and the democrats, where donald trump and the media or donald trump and liberal culture. i don't think we necessarily know how that breaks and i think that's the great wild card. i agree with you totally on legislation. he's not getting anything through the way he's behaving but it's that divide. >> right, but right now that divide, willie, it a binary divide and people are still thinking if i don't support donald trump, then that means i'm supporting the media. or that means i'm supporting nancy pelosi or that means i'm

supporting hillary clinton or that means i'm supporting bernie sanders or that means i'm supporting black lives matters or that means i'm supporting liberals on college campuses. that's where the mind-set is right now. what happens when a real conservative who is tough that will take it to donald trump runs against him in a primary election? it completely changes that choice. one other thing, too, that's very important to remember, donald trump may be at 34%, 35%, 36%, and yes, he may whip these crowds into a frenzy, who just want to feed on resentment but i'll tell you who he's not going to whip into a frenzy and who is not going to go along with him. those are fund-raisers and a lot of mainstream republicans who are saying you know what? i'm going to stick it out with this guy because not only am i going to get a supreme court justice that i want, i'm going to get tax reform. i'm going to get regulatory reform. i'm going to get health care reform, the type of health care reform that's going to depend more on the free market than it is on government intervention. i'm going to get immigration reform that's sensible, that

focuses more on getting high skilled immigrants into this country instead of low skilled immigrants into this country. lot of people are thinking like that. the second they realize donald trump doesn't give a damn about passing their agenda the 36% becomes 32%, becomes 31% and good luck finding people that are going to contribute to donald trump if he's not going to pass their agenda and that's what it's looking like this morning, that he is running a remember pettule grievance machine and doesn't give a damn we will passes tax reform or anything else. >> a lot of people who voted for him, meghan, held their noses because they thought he was a deal maker, he could flip over the tables in washington and change the culture and get things done which is the sort of naive notion a lot of presidents have had coming in. i think donald trump more than anybody else. people i know who voted for him said i don't like all the personal stuff and some of the stuff he says but he's different. he's going to shake things up and change washington, none of that has happened. in fact his posture toward

congress has been the opposite of that. it's been the antithesis of a dealmaker, berating senators and putting them in a corner is not the way to get things done. >> he's changed washington, not quite in the way many of us expected i think of him coming in and why nick's point is profound. he's using the presidency as entertainment, as a bully pulpit, as the theater of range and revenge, completely at odds with mainstream republicans, call them what you will, who are most vested in things like immigration reform, particularly tax reform, pushing through things at the heart of the conservative agenda and have been at the heart of the conservative agenda for so long. we have-to-see what happens when we come back this fall. are people going to desert him in droves and make this fundamental break and give up the long held objectives. who is going to stand up to him in public?

is mitch mcconnell going to put everything we see in the "new york times" article on the record and stand up in front of people and say that's how he really feels? is paul ryan going to do that? are they going to sacrifice the attempts to do that to push through tax reform? i'm not so sure that coming back this fall we're going to see this courageous republican party stand up as they have so far failed to do. >> jim vandehei, joe was talking about principled conservatives standing up to donald trump and giving people a choice there. someone like john kasich, who flirted with the idea people around him flirted with the idea of primary. we've been through this. donald trump went up against jeb bush and other principled conservatives and if you look at polling today, it's early i know but he still beats those people by 30 and 40 points. he still enjoys 80% support among republicans so i think those are the numbers he's looking at when he gets up on a stage and talks the way he talked last night. he feels like his people are still with him. >> i think kornacki nailed it. if you take a clear look at the numbers, republicans are with him on what to do with these

statues that are getting torn down. they're with him in terms of his response of what happened in charlottesville, they're with him in terms of should you blame congress more than you blame trump. yes there's been some emotion in his numbers but it's still a small erosion and that base loves him, and there was that poll last week that said basically there's nothing that trump could do to lose probably two-thirds of his supporters, and that's why he's never going to drop below 35, never go above 44 and why he himself will never change and i don't think that the supporters are going to change it. they love the rage at the machine, they love the rage at the media, they love the fact we hyperventilate in response to it, they love his provocations with north korea, they love the tough talk about trade wars. they don't get all spooled up about the nitty gritty of whether anything is getting done and they listen to donald trump last night declare in the history of our fine country there's never been a more successful president in the first seven months. they buy that. some of them do.

>> jim vandehei thanks. still ahead on "morning joe" more of our "morning joe" exclusive, excerpt from hillary clinton's book of the moment she wanted to tell donald trump to "back up you creep" in the town hall debate last week. we'll bring in andrea mitchell who was at the debate. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. whoooo.

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and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost, so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. i don't have all the answers, and this isn't a comprehensive account of the 2016 race. that's not for me to write. i have two little distance and too great a stake in it. instead, this is my story. i want to pull back the curtain on an experience that was exhilarating, joyful, humbling, infuriating, and just plain baffling. writing this wasn't easy. every day that i was a candidate for president, i knew that millions of people were counting on me, and i couldn't bear the

idea of letting them down, but i did. i couldn't get the job done, and i'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. in this book i write about moments from the campaign that i wish i could go back and do over. if the russians could hack my subconscious, they'd find a long list. i'd also capture some moments i want to remember forever, like when my tiny granddaughter raced into the room while i was practicing my convention speech and what it was like hours later to step on stage to deliver that speech as the first woman ever nominated by a major political party for president of the united states. >> that was of course hillary clinton, and she's revisiting last year's losing bid for the white house in an excerpt from clinton's new book obtained exclusively by "morning joe" it's the first excerpt released anywhere. secretary clinton also addressed this moment from october, when donald trump stood directly

behind her, while the two candidates debated at washington university in st. louis. >> this is not okay, i thought. it was the second presidential debate and donald trump was looming behind me. two days before the world heard him brag about groping women, now we were on a small stage, and no matter where i walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. it was incredibly uncomfortable. he was literally breathing down my neck. my skin crawled. it was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, well, what would you do? do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, "back up, you creep!

get away from me! i know you love to intimidate women but you can't intimidate me, so back up!" i chose option "a." i kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off. i did, however, grip the microphone extra hard. i wonder, though, whether i should have chosen option "b." it certainly would have been better tv. maybe i have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue, digging my fingernails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while determined to present a composed face to the world. >> joining us now from washington, nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" here on msnbc, andrea mitchell. andrea good morning. >> good morning. >> you were in the room at the debate. it's jarring to see the video again how close donald trump was looming over her shoulder. >> indeed. >> now to hear her in her own

words talk about what was racing through her mind as she was trying to conduct a debate that night. >> and think about the context, that was the town hall debate where bannon and bacci and others from the trump campaign had done a facebook live event with paula jones and the other women who had been accusers of bill clinton and then they were seated in the front of the bleacher there is. this was the most incredibly tense moment, and here he was as you point out looming over her. it's hard at this point to separate that from the "snl" parity with kate mckinnon and alec baldwin and the "jaws" music as he kept circling around her. when you talk to people close to hillary clinton, she keeps revisiting that, because she's thinking about whether if she had stopped and said "back up you creep" would the events have changed and women can relate to this, i think.

she knows that clearly. this is a moment every woman has had an experience with a man that is that kind of threatening moment where you suck it up and clench your fists and dig your nails into your palms, and try to sort of carry on, and she represents that, and this is a signal moment. i'm told she came back to talk to her aides afterwards and she sank into a chair and she said, "boy, this has been hard but that was really hard." exhaled deeply. i think people will relate to this. this is a different hillary clinton, different kind of book obviously there's a lot of calculation in here but it's fascinating to hear her voice and most authors do not read their entire book. this is hard work, as joe knows and others who have done it. so this is a big moment. >> you know, it is. we were talking, mark halperin and i were talking about how this is different for the clintons who seem to be calculated from beginning to end

when they write books. hillary clinton's 8,000 page autobuy og know was almost unreadable because every page was calculated it seemed, but that stripped away here. >> yes. >> you're just kind of jarred regardless of what you think of hillary clinton when she says, you know, i knew i had a great responsibility, and i failed. it will haunt me for the rest of my life. this is not standard fare for political memoirs and yes, she'll be calculating i'm sure in this book and yes, she'll maybe blame others instead of herself, but a lot of self-reflection here, i think, that we're hearing that a lot of people are going to be really surprised by, andrea. it's going to make it very compelling. >> absolutely. you know, i've covered hillary clinton since the really tough days of the campaign in 1992. we remember all the new hampshire primary and the explosion and i'll never forget

a day in concord when she showed up in new hampshire after the debate over colonel holmes and the draft, and of course, jennifer flowers, and that's when they turned that around and turned second place victory into a real victory in new hampshire. we all remember that. i've never seen her this self-reflective, and that's what's going to be so compelling about this. and it also reminds you of the rick lazio moment with tim russert moderating the debate in buffalo when she was starting her political career running for the senate in new york, he kaca into her space and women all over new york state looked at that and that's when rick blasio lost the election against hillary clinton and where she launched her victory. there's a lot rolled up into this. when we look at that now that video, my memory becomes so vivid from that debate and donald trump and of course this coming, this being released to

you exclusively today in the context of last night's rally makes it ever more poignant. >> wow, yes. >> she talks about do overs. it will be interesting to see how deep she goes in to problems she may have had and problems her campaign may have had and the responsibility and blame they take. heidi, democrats look to move past to 16 your reporting on the party's first wave of recruits for the next year's midterms. what does this class look like? what kind of candidate are democrats recruiting for 2018? >> well willie it's important to understand what democrats have to do in order to take the house is not just win those districts where hillary clinton won that are represented by a republican. we talk about those all the time. they're never going to win all of those. they need to win in some of these districts where trump won, but obama won prior to that showing there is some play. i went to one such district in southern illinois, the 12th district of illinois, and what i found was actually a pattern, willie. what democrats are doing, it's

almost circa rahm emmanuel's strategy from 2006, to recruit these, their own version of outsider, people who don't have a lot of experience either in state legislative politics have never served in congress before, but here is the important distinction between what democrats are doing and what the republicans did in 2010, which is a lot of the tea party people didn't have any civic experience. these people have deep civic commitment in their communities. they are physicians. they are public prosecutors. there's one who is the former head of the ymca, cia operatives. many are people the democratic party has been nudging to get off the bench during the obama years. they couldn't get them to do it, but in many of these districts now, they are doing it. the district that i visited was brendan kelly, the st. claire county public prosecutor and it was interesting how even he wouldn't go too hard on trump, but he did say that he also wouldn't commit his vote to

nancy pelosi. >> joe? >> it would, of course, getting those people with deep roots in the community is so important for the democratic party to do well, and mark halperin we've been talking over the past several days how the dnc is not doing so well with fund-raising, but you were reminded and someone reminded you to remind me that actually the dccc is breaking records. >> historically the dccc and the senate committee have been fund-raising powerhouses in years where they're not doing well. heidi talked about the rahm emmanuel model of recruitment and some of that is hanging in the balance. in a lot of the races there will be democratic primaries, the dccc may be well funded but until they have nominees, unless they take real risks and pay for candidates in protested primaries they have to see and hope these nomination processes yield people who can actually win in some of these competitive

districts. there are a lot of districts in places like california, new york, pennsylvania, where democrats can pick up seats but if they're going to get the majority they're going to have to recruit the sunday school teacher, the businessperson, the veteran, the kind of person who will fit a district and allow it to win and obviously we talked about the senate train is so much tougher for the democrats if they'll get a majority in the chamber, the house right now is much more likely. >> thank you, heidi, for your reporting in "usa today" and andrea mitchell thank you as always very much. still ahead espn sidelines a play-by-play announcer because of his name. this is robert lee, that's on the right side of your screen. >> wow. >> robert lee, why the network is citing safety concerns apparently for shaking up its coverage for the university of virginia's first football game next month. again that's announcer robert lee in charlottesville. he won't be there because of his name. we'll explain, next.

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in the aftermath of charlottesville a couple weeks ago espn decided play-by-play announcer robert lee seen there

on the right will not be in the broadcast booth for next saturday's college football season opener in charlottesville between the university of virginia and the college of william and mary because of the similarity between his name and the famed confederate icon general robert e. lee i kid you not. in a statement espn said "we collectively made the decision with robert to switch games as the tragic events in charlottesville were unfolding simply because of the coincidence of his name. in that moment, it felt right to all parties. it's a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-lay for a football game has become an issue." steve kornacki the irony it wasn't an issue for anyone until this statement went out until that decision was made. >> yes. i'm trying to even imagine the scenario where it's kickoff time in charlottesville and there's robert lee, looks like about a 30-year-old sportscaster who clearly wasn't alive during the

civil war is in the booth, and anybody has any objection to that. there was this tweet last night, there's actually an anchor at espn named bob ley,'s been there for a long time, he tweeted with then broke "rather worried my employee i.d. pass may not admit me in the a.m. life as scripted by the onion." >> i read this story last night, gene, we often say not the ononbut i thought it was an onion story because it went so far. i guess this is the logical outcome of the culture we've created. >> actually it's not logical at all. >> the' not logical, maybe the outcome. >> it's the stupidest thing i ever heard. this is why donald trump has the 33% because look. i think that even the sort of mask wearing antifa anarchists are going to realize that's not the guy in the statue, and are going to cut him some slack, either they're not going to be

watching football or they're not going to care. so i just think it was really dumb. >> it is really dumb. in full disclosure i have family members including my sister and brother-in-law who work there, none of them had anything to do with this decision. coming up the wife of the treasury secretary apologizing after attacking an instagram user who criticized a use of a government jet to flaunt her designer wardrobe. it's not the first time her words have gotten her in trouble. we'll explain next on "morning joe." electric light orchestra ]

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she really, i feel like, overreact. she said a lot of things that were incredibly condescending and ill-informed and just ridiculous. it was really something that i had to read a couple of times in order to let it all soak in because it was so shocking that someone who has all the money

and all the time in the world decided to take some of that time to try to put down somebody who just lives her life. >> that was jenny miller yesterday on msnbc describing her reaction to an online attack by the treasury secretary's wife. miller had commented to a picture that louise lynn ton posted on instagram using a government jet as the backdrop to flaunt her designer labels. that's when lynn ton went off on a lengthy tirade which included her asking if miller had, quote, given more to the economy than her and her millionaire husband, steve mnuchin. lit ton has since released a statement through a publicly lists saying i apologize for my post as well as my response. it was highly inappropriate and insensitive. a treasury spokesperson says the nooup's will reimburse the government for her travel and she did not receive any compensation for plugging these

designer leflts. not the first time she has run into trouble. she ended up apologizing after her book was slammed by critics. while spending a gap year in africa. the self published africa was called in congo's shadow. he had editorial director for books. always good to see you. talk about the book in just a second but let's go back to the poles for a second. the height of con did he sengs when you have the wealthy wife pointing out the valentino shoes and the her me bag and all that and clapping back at a woman who is saying i'm glad taxpayers get to take care of your lavish trims. lynn ton said back to this woman your life looks cute i'm sure you have a cute family. just gross. >> not really on message, i think, for what the administration -- >> or for humanity. >> right. i mean, it was definitely very

strange. the original post strange, but then i think everybody who traffic in social media knows that when you put your foot wrong, engaging further down the rabbit hole is generally not a good idea and thals how it transpired for louise lynn ton. >> and she portrayed herself as a cartoon version of a rich person in america, speaking down to people who work hard every day. >> people were referring to it as a let them eat cake moment. that it is something that has come up in previous months with photos that ivanka trump has posted. different for her she is actually an official in the white house. but still, for the wife of the treasury secretary to present that message is obviously a little bit off tone. >> tell us about this book and how it fits into this. why is it important to this conversation? she wrote it last year, i guess, but it was about a gap year she

took after college many years ago. >> it was -- the firestorm about this book happened about a year ago. she had self published it in the spring and there was an excerpt in the telegraph, which is when it got people's attention. it was about a gap year she had taken in the late 90s in zambia and it was, you know, as kmen ters on the excerpt in the telegraph said full of stereo times about africa. it was factually incorrect about the history of the country. the zblam beian government actually stepped in and issued a complaint about it. and it was taken off of amazon. the telegraph pulled it off and retracted it. and she did apologize for -- >> why did it get that much attention, though? if we're talking about last spring, is she's not the wife of the treasury secretary. she's sort of a mid ling actress who may be familiar to some people, not a household name.

why so much focus on the book? >> you think back people have been writing mem worls for a long time, but we live in an era when it is very, very possible for people around the world to read something, this excerpt and spopd to it in real time and fact check in real time. and this was a manuscript that was hurtful to a lot of people because it presented an image of a country that was stereo typed and people got up in arms about it. i think sometimes -- it wasn't a big book. as you a, it was self published. it's not like it was coming out from a big publisher. but such is the world that we in, the sponlssiveness of social media and also the sensitivity of people saying, look, don't try to tell our story. people from zambia said you are presenting an image of our country that's true. and we have a voice to say

otherwise, so. >> and lynn ton actually at the time pulled the book from amazon. the telegraph retracted its piece and now she's apologized for that grotesque instagram post she made the other day. thank you. always good to see you. >> thank you. >> still ahead, more on the president's wild rally in phoenix last night, going after both of arizona's senators, threatening to shut down the government over the border wall, blaming the media for the country's racial divide and hinting at a pardon for a former sheriff accused of racial profiling. a lot to get to this morning. and we'll bring in the mayor of phoenix. all ahead on "morning joe." and live tv. the channels you love. your favorite shows and movies. making your iphone into more of a... oh my tv is ringing. hey...i'm in the middle of a...a second iphone from at&t? okay! right now when you buy a new iphone 7 from at&t you'll get a second iphone 7 on us. and power both with unlimited data and live tv.

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♪ for the most part, honestly, these are really, really dishonest people, and they're bad people. and i really think they don't like our country. i really believe that. and i don't believe they're going to change, and that's why i do this. if they would change, i would never say it. the only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news. >> welcome to "morning joe." it's what we were talking about yesterday morning. the president follows up a scripted speech one day with an absolute disaster the next, a rhetoric aldisaster not only for this country and also the political discourse but also, even though he just will never understand it, his long-term political health. frank lunts, republican pollster

for a very long time who spent a lot of time with donald trump during the campaign, he tweeted last night trump doesn't just criticize the media more than he criticizes neo-nazis, he criticizes them more than actual islamic terrorists. it's not just that. if you look at who he praised last night, brian fallon, hillary clinton's spokesperson got it right. he said trump tonight absolute a racist sheriff who is a convicted criminal and trashed a war hero who has brain cancer. of course, willy, this was donald trump at his worst, at his consistent worst. we knew this was coming. and i'm sure many people around him on his staff knew this was coming. a lot of times, it seems, that arizona brings out the absolute worst in him. but there's no doubt, this was a hateful, did he ricesive speech. it was a frightening speech.

he sounded like an auto accurate trying to dehuman eyes his allies. and actually of the media he talked about the "washington post" and "the new york times" and cnn, said they didn't love their country. >> yep. >> that's just path etic. >> yeah. i mean, i've got the abbreviated list here. he went after the media, the media's interpretation of his remarks about charlottesville. he left out a major part, the both sides, the many sides. we'll get into that. he went after the taking down of the statues as taking away our history. the border, of course, jeff flake, john mccain as you mentioned, sheriff joe ar pio. said he wouldn't pardon him today but he's really thinking about it. a lot to unpack there. really this is a distill lags of what you hear from people around the white house. he generally believes that he's not getting a fair shake with charlottesville. he believes how many times do i have to come out and condemn, strongly, he believes, nazis,

how many times do i have to condemn the kkkk. and he took a sheet of paper out of his pocket leaving the scripted remarks and read his own speeches over the last week. said here is exactly what i said. what else do you want from me? so we'll show you what he left out of those comments. with us we've got political writer for "the new york times" nick, national political correspondent for nbc news, steve, the editor of business "bloomberg" week mark hall per inand pugh litser prize winning. mika has the morning off. good morning, everybody. we are going to start with the president's night in the desert, but he want we want to mention coming up in 15 minutes we have the first excerpt anywhere from hillary clinton's upcoming book on the presidential race. she tackles a lot, including this moment from october 2016 when she and donald trump shared the debate stage. clinton says her, quote, skin crawled as the republican nominee stood behind her while

she considered how to react to him. >> well, what would you do? do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly back up, you creep, get away from me. i know you love to intimidate women, but you can't intimidate me, so back up. >> back up, you creep, says hillary clinton. we're going to play much more from those revealing excerpts of her new book exclusive, again, to "morning joe" in just 15 minutes. so you're going to want to stick around for that. let's begin with that fiery campaign rally. that was in arizona last night before thousands of supporters where president trump spoke for over an hour on a number of issues. he threatened a government shutdown over border wall funding for one. >> and we are building a wall on the southern border, which is

absolutely necessary. now, the obstructionists democrats would us not to do it, but believe me, we have to close down our government, we're building that wall. >> the president hinted that he might pardon controversial sheriff joe ar pio. >> was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? he should have had a jury, but you know what? i'll make a prediction. i think he's going to be just fine. okay? but i won't do it tonight because i don't want to cause any controversy. is that okay? but sheriff joe can feel good. >> sheriff joe held in criminal contempt for illegally holding undocumented immigrants to this country. it was the media, though, in its coverage of charlottesville that consumed about the first half the rally really. the president defended his

initial response to last week's violence and claimed the media mischaracterized the statements he made following the deadly protest. >> what happened in charlottesville strikes at the core of america. and tonight this entire arena stands united in forgsful condemnation of the thugs who perpetrate hatred and violence. but the very dishonest media, those people right up there with all the cameras, they don't report the facts. just like they don't want to report that i spoke out forcefully against hatred, bigotry and violence and strongly condemned the neo-nazis, the white supremacists and the kkk. they said everything. i hit him with neo-nazi, i hit

them with everything. i got the white supremacists, the neo-nazi, i got them all in there. let's see. kkk. we have kkk. i got them all. so they're having a hard time. so what did they say, right? it should have been sooner. he's a racist. >> so that's about where the president went off script. he read almost verbatim some of his remarks on charlottesville off a piece of paper in his pocket, but he left out the controversial claim that, quote, both sides were to blame for the violence there. here is what the president said the saturday after the charlottesville protests followed by what he said last night. >> we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. we condemn in the strongest possible terms in egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. on many sides. on many sides. so here is what i said really fast.

here is what i said on saturday. we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. this is me speaking. we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. that's me speaking on saturday. right after the event. >> he, of course, mark hall per in, neglected the equivocation where he talked about many sides, but i think we're digging in. you know, we can dig in and find all the lies, find all of his stal inist, anti-press statements. we can dig through that. he's done it before. he will do it again. but more the purposes of what really seems to be the big news coming out of this is this is a president who is going to -- claims he's going to shut down the government. if he can't build his wall. and yesterday evening "the new

york times" broke with a story about how mitch mcconnell and donald trump are basically in a blood feud. they're screaming at each other on the phone and donald trump constantly insulting him. donald trump not only going after jeff flake and insulting him in his home state, but insulting an american hero, a war hero who is battling brain cancer right now. and actually shows absolutely, absolutely no compassion, no humanity. that may not matter to some of the people that were in the audience last night. it matters to john mccain's colleagues. it matters to mitch mcconnell, and it matters if donald trump ever wants to pass legislation through the senate. and not just about mccain, but about flake, about mitch mcconnell. i don't see how this moved the ball anywhere but backwards for the president and his hopes of

getting anything done in congress this fall. >> welcomed in the heightened discipline and new direction of the john kelly era. the chief of staff was there, and that event, i think, exceeded the low expectations we talked about on the program yesterday about what he was likely to do, put in a state that brings out his worst instincts. if you take what he did last night and how that's going to be received in washington and by the media and if you take "the new york times" story about mitch mcconnell, yesterday, last night was a pretty bad moment if donald trump's goal is to get things done. his anger at the media is partly based on knowing that the base loves it and it's partly based on concern about both the russia investigation and his inability to bend congress to his will. and nothing he did last night that i see even as a bank shot makes it more likely that the very difficult legislative problems he faces in just a couple weeks are going to be easier to deal with.

>> willie geist, the lack of discipline is just simply extraordinary. you just have to stop and think and i was -- this is go sound personal. i don't mean it to be personal, but our children have more discipline than this man has. i've never met anybody in politics, i've never met anybody in business, i've never met anybody in athletics that more often did things that hurt themselves just because there was something just on the tip of their tongue or on the top of their head. and last night, again, we sort through it, and yes, we can be shocked and stunned and deeply saddened, but the bottom line of this is he's going to continue getting nothing done because of this extraordinary narrow casting. he is playing to one-third of the electorate and driving two-thirds of the electorate

away. >> well w it would be one thing if he were doing this in some constructive fashion, megan. the rhetoric is bad enough. we've heard it again. joe said it's extraordinary. of course it's extraordinary for a president, but it's not surprising to anybody who has been watching this long. but as you read through this front page piece in "the new york times," he's at war with mitch mcconnell. he's calling mitch mcconnell and berating him while he's in bedminster, new jersey. this is the guy, this is the most important guy in washington, and therefore, the most important guy to president trump to get his agenda through and yet he's picking public and private fights with him. >> it's almost a fundamental miscalculation of what he has to do to get things done. what i think is more surprising is that anyone wrote articles saying he had a presidential speech about afghanistan knowing we were likely to go to arizona and see exactly the kind of performance we saw last night. it's difficult to watch. let's just -- you know, things he says, we hit the kkk, we hit

the neo-nazis. who talks like that when someone has died at a rally by sifrp thighsers with that kind of abhorrent speechl. who talks like that about this kind of situation. this is the president. of course children are watching. what was so, i think, revealing about last night was exactly how unsurprising it was in terms of the tone and in terms of what he said. >> i would say who talks like that, but here is another question. who cheers at that? who cheers when a man speaks did he rice civil about an american war hero who has given his life to the people of arizona and to the united states of america and did so in a pow camp, is battling brain cancer, is going through chemotherapy and not only are they did he ris civil going along with donald trump,

but people are actually shouting that they want john mccain to die. now, john mccain is a tough guy. he can handle that. but willie, who are these people that act like they're cheering on a pep rally at a high school basketball game when he's saying some deeply, deeply offensive things about this country and about a lot of people that have given their lives to this country? >> yeah. and not much a reference, if any, unless i missed it to the ten sailors dead or missing on the "u.s.s. john mccain. you thought that might have come up in the state of arizona, steve. was this anything more than, i don't know, therapy or kathy arsz of some kind to donald trump? he seems to be his happiest and energized when he's at something

like this. i think this reminds him of his roseier campaign days. was there any point in this? was there any constructive as joe said he did to move the ball forward for his agenda, his administration. >> i think any politician who has a winning campaign is going to draw certain lens from that campaign about strategy in the future and i think the lesson that donald trump drew from 2016 was this works. what he did last night works. we're sitting here saying can you believe what he said about john mccain last night? one of the first things that donald trump said as a candidate for president of the united states was i prefer heroes who weren't captured. i think you're a hero if you didn't get captured about john mccain about two weeks in his campaign. and i remember when he said that. ible it was july or august of 2015. there were predictions from political experts that this would begin the decline of donald trump as a respected presidential candidate. and his poll numbers would now collapse and he would fade out by the fall.

that was the expectation. everybody who is supposedly smart in politics told him that and a few months later he was the republican candidate for president. people draw lens, politicians draw lens for what works for them in campaigns. >> still ahead on "morning joe," hillary clinton says what if she had turned around and confronted donald trump as he loomd behind her during a presidential debate last year. we'll play you exclusive excerpts from the former secretary's brand-new book. fist a look at the forecast. >> good morning to you. just heard from the national hurricane center. what will be tropical impression harvey starting at 11:00 a.m. east coast time this morning. a 100% chance that this is going to form. you can already see a tiny spin. just heading into the southern portion of the gulf of mexico. it has about 48 hours to intensify. that's the million-dollar question how strong can this storm get before it reaches the texas coast. all of our best super computers are heading up in the general

vicinity of southeast texas, and that's the area of concern. and then it stalls it out after this. and here is the big problem. that matter how intense the winds get we are going to deal with a huge rain maker. this is 7 inches in pink. that's a major flood from just north of corpus christy, all the way back to central louisiana. linger into monday or tuesday of next week. we'll watch that as things develop. we could see tropical storm or even hurricane watches for southeast coastal texas for later on this afternoon. the rest of the forecast looks really nice. we've cleared out the storms for a beautiful wednesday and should be a nice weekend for that portion of the country. new york city, you're included in that. looking great this afternoon. we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." knowing where you stand. it's never been easier. except when it comes to your retirement plan.

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welcome back to "morning

joe." we have obtained an exclusive excerpt from hillary clinton's new book, and for the first time we're hearing exactly what she thought about sharing a stage with donald trump. first, here is what the democratic nominee had to say about why she's revisiting last year's losing bid for the white house. >> i don't have all the answers, and this isn't a comprehensive account of the 2016 race. that's not for me to write. i have two little distance and too great a stake in it. instead, this is my story. i want to pull back the curtain on an experience that was exhill rating, joyful, humbling, infewer rating and just plain baflg. writing this wasn't easy. every day that i was a candidate for president i knew that millions of people were counting on me, and i couldn't bear the idea of letting them down. but i did. i couldn't get the job done, and i'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. in this book i write about moments from the campaign that i

wish i could go back and do over. if the russians could hack my subconscious, they would find a long list. i also capture some moments i want to remember forever, like when my tiny granddaughter raised into the room while i was practicing my convention speech and what it was like hours later to step on stage to deliver that speech as the first woman ever nominated by a major political party for president of the united states. >> in the excerpt we have secretary clinton also address this moment from october. you'll remember this, when donald trump stood directly behind her while the two candidates debated at washington university in st. louis. >> this is not okay, i thought. it was the second presidential debate, and donald trump was looming behind me. two days before the world heard him brag about groping women. now we were on a small stage and

no matter where i walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. it was incredibly uncomfortable. he was literally breathing down my neck. my skin crawled. it was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, well, what would you do? do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? or do you turn, look him in the eye, and say loudly and clearly, back up, you creep. get away from me. i know you love to intimidate women, but you can't intimidate me, so back up. i chose option a, i kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing with difficult men trying to throw me off. i did, however, grip the microphone extra hard. i wonder, though, whether i

should have chosen option b. it certainly would have been better tv. maybe i have over learned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue, digging my fingernails into a clenched fist, smiling all the while, determined to present a composed face to the world. >> so, joe, that book what happened comes out in just a few weeks on september the 12th. a lot of people are going to be interested for reasons like we just heard, some color behind the scenes but also just to see how much self analysis and reflection there is about how she could have lost this race to donald trump. >> well, certainly those excerpts really it seems like there was a good bit of self-reflection. and there was just -- that last excerpt we played was very powerful. and, yes, if she had gone with the second option, it probably would have made a very big difference in that debate, just like when george w. bush stared

at al gore when he was trying to invade his space. but i think what makes that so fascinating is we all do that. not, of course, on this huge stage that hillary clinton was on. but we all look back and say, well, gee, what if i had done something a little differently, what if i had gone in one direction instead of the other, when what sort of dinners might that have made? and actually, it is -- this will be good to see what hillary clinton was thinking. also, very moved by what she said at the beginning, that she was concerned through the entire campaign. there were so many people relying on her. and she said i was so worried that i was going to let people down and i did. that's just powerful writing. that is self-reflection. and i think that's exactly whether people who love hillary clinton and people want to study this campaign more are going to want to read.

>> and obviously, mark halperin the last seven months have been especially painful for her to watch. what might have been for her and what shelves she might have been able to prevent in donald trump over these first seven months. >> i've talked to several people who have read the book and they all say it's unlike previous hillary clinton books. it's unlike most books by politicians. and that it does run through and the two exclusive excerpts here make that clear. it does run through the campaign in a way that she's never done before. so i think it's already doing well on amazon and i think people are going to look at this book as a different kind of thing and as part of an historical record up like anything she's ever provided before. >> coming up on "morning joe," the mayor of phoenix joins us live following president trump's rally there last night. why the mayor urged the president to stay away. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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welcome back to "morning joe." gist minutes after president trump wrapped his speech last night the streets of phoenix erupted into chaos as protestors and police clashed following what had largely been peaceful demonstrations. a large crowd had gathered around the city's convention center and smoke bombs and

pepper balls were used. it is unclear who fired the tear gas right now. the city's mayor and police chief say some protestors threw rocks and bottles at officers. the chief says four people were arrested on charges, including aggravated assault of a police officer. officials stress that of the thousands of people gathered for the demonstrations, only a small number were involved in confrontations with police. joining us now from phoenix is that city's mayor, greg stin ton, who had urged the president not to hold last night's rally there. we appreciate you being up early and with us this morning after a busy night in phoenix. you had warned a couple of days ago that you thought the president's rally in phoenix might light a match to racial tensions in this country. do you think he did that with what he said last night. >> yeah. it's very unfortunate what occurred last night with regard to the president's speech. i had strongly stated that it wasn't the right time for a campaign rally here in phoenix

so shortly after the tragedy in charlottesville. obviously a young woman was murdered in that tragedy in charlottesville. the president failed to show real moral leadership after that incident. his words tended to divide the country, not unite the country. so to do a campaign rally here in phoenix in which he openly talked about pardoning sheriff joe and all that sheriff joe had done to terror eyes latino residents here locally. unfortunately the president last night gave a speech that did continue to divide this country. he did nothing to unite this country and did indicate he will be pardoning sheriff joe. he decided not to do it at the event last night but made it clear he was planning on doing it and that's a real tragedy for the people of phoenix. >> you wrote an on the part he had that president trump may take the opportunity to say i screwed up with charlottesville, here is the way i feel, here is what we have to do to pull this country together. did you really believe he was

going to say something like that in phoenix? >> no, i didn't actually believe he was going to do it, but we could difficult be hopeful. he blew it for himself and the people of charlottesville, the victims of the violence there, the young woman who was murlded there. he really blew it. however, there was still opportunity to come here to phoenix and look the people of phoenix in the eye and the people of the country in the eye and instead of talking politics or attack on the media or, you know, making it a campaign style rally, instead what he should have done is said this is a time for the country to come together. let's be united and he should have made it clear and unequivocal that he stands against any kind of hate groups or hate or white supremacy, et cetera. and i think he failed to do that again last night in phoenix. >> you were at the forefront of some of the concern about what might happen in the streets of phoenix when the president came given what we saw in chirlts veil and throughout the week that followed. are you pleasantly surprised by

the few injuries and the relatively low amount of violence that we saw? of course, it's a tribute to your police department there in phoenix. but this felt to a lot of people like it could have been a powder keg and we didn't see any major serious injuries last night. >> thank god that is the case. look, tens of thousands of people came to downtown phoenix last night to express their fist amendment rights. there were 10,000 people or so inside the convention center. sentences of thousands of people outside expressing the first amendment right outside and there really was a very tiny number of people that decided to throw rocks and bottles, maybe even gas canisters. it's all under investigation right now, at the police and they made a decision to disperse. i'm very thankful tonight that nobody got hurt as a result of that. one thing a great organization does is look in the mirror to see if we can improve.

we're going to be reviewing all of the facts and the video. the job of the police is to get people home safe, not only the people there were there to express their first amendment rights but the police officers themselves and in that regard we were successful last night. >> have the officers been able to tell you who was throwing the rocks, those gas canisters, because there are distinctions between protestors groups? was it some of the an arcist groups. >> look, we worked very closely with groups that were organizing groups downtown. those organizations had done training to teep them about none violence and be civil and peaceful. so i don't believe that the tiny number of people thoo engaged in that inappropriate activity were part of any of the kind of organized groups that were present last night. so i have no reason to believe that -- it is very, very unfortunate that a small number of individuals did march what was otherwise, you know, a celebration of our democracy. people having a chance to express their opinion. and so, again, the city of

phoenix is going to be looking very closely at that. we're going to be reviewing everything in this case. and as an organization if we can improve, we will improve. >> and as you mentioned, the president didn't grant a pardon to sheriff joe arpaio, but he alluded to the fact that he was seriously considering it, something he said earlier in the week as well. phoenix mayor greg stan ton, we appreciate your time this morning. thanks so much. coming up, arizona center stage for a new moment in american politics. trump rallying his base and taking on the state's two republican senators. are voters there supporting the president over his party? we asked some on the ground there. it's all ahead on "morning joe."

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and nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who is week on borders, week on crime. so i won't talk about him. nobody wants me to talk about

him. nobody knows who the hell he is. >> president trump did not have to mention him by name. it was clear he was talking about arizona he is junior senator jeff flake there. meanwhile mitch mcconnell is battling back against the president's attacks on incumbent senators. "the new york times" reports is mitch mcconnell is bringing senator flake to kentucky on friday for a fund racer. and yesterday the mcconnell backed senate leadership act released an ad kelly ward who donald trump has praised on twitter for running against flake. this ad claims she is not conservative and has crazy ideas. here is ward last night in phoenix offering complete loyalty to president trump. >> despite opposition from the left, from the mainstream media and from establishment republicans, he has still been able to accomplish a lot. but imagine what he's going to be able to accomplish when he has america first, house members and senators who are backing him up. >> our own lewis burgdorf got

that sound. he also got reaction from the crowd there on the president's open feud with the state's two republican senators. >> we voted for trump. why? because he was the one who gave us a chance to get out of the kwaug meyer which we were going to have if hillary was core natured. >> arizona is center stage for a new moment in american politics with president trump here rallying his base while taking on the state's republican senators. the question is do voters here support the president over their party? you've got john mccain and jeff flake both speaking out against president trump. >> yes. >> what are your thoughts on this? >> that's why i'm supporting him now. and i support john mccain. he's always been a maverick for the republican party. >> trying to get the obamacare taken care of. mccain, thumbs down. his fault.

>> john mccain in particular did not do what his supporters asked of him. >> i really appreciate the honesty from john mccain. >> i voted for both of them, but i don't like their lack of support for our president. >> i think that they're finally standing up to trump's rhetoric, and that's good for the state and good for the country. >> they don't really represent the republican party, i don't believe. >> jeff flash as far as i'm concerned, that gentleman needs to go back to snowflake and stay there. >> jeff flake and john mccain should really have a d after their name rather than an r. >> things got to change. if they don't change in a populist trump kind of way, they're going to change in a really messed up, bernie sanders social cyst kind of way like venezuela. so they'd figure it out quick because the country is dividing on different lines. they're not prepared to deal with.

>> our own lewisburg dov reporting there from phoenix last night. mark halperin both still with us. katy, let me start with you. you've got a book coming out in a couple of weeks about covering donald trump during the campaign. this looked like something you would have seen two years ago or -- >> you could have put it back in july of 2015, the first time he rallied in phoenix, arizona, where he went off and he rambled and he went on and on for over 70 minutes and people eventually walked out of the room. which happened back then. it doesn't mean they still don't support him. he proved last night that for

him everything is still a campaign. that's all he cares about. he's not trying to unite the country as he claims on stage. he's not trying to be a president for all of the many people here. he's not trying to be a republican president. he is a president to his base, to the trumpians, and going to continue to do this. this should not be a surprise. we've seen this movie before. this is a man who will always decide to favor the roar of the crowd rather than what his advisers want him to do, rather than what the republicans want him to do, rather than what this country needs. he's proving time and time again that this is all about, quote unquote, winning, all about hearing people clap. the issue is that he's not campaigning. he is the president. and he's failing to lead the country in the way that they need it, especially at this moment when we are so divided over race and we are so divided over politics and so divided over, you know, the vs and the

have wants, et cetera, et cetera. >> victoria, it's certainly no surprise, as katy says, but no less extraordinary to hear a sitting president of the united states go down the litany of grievances one by one over the course of 77 minutes like he was delivering a campaign speech and particularly to go after, again, republican senators in their home state. people whose votes he needs to get through the agenda that he allegedly wants to get through. . >> and just as striking, willy, the comments we just heard of why don't we put a d after the name of john mccain and jeff flake. i think there is a very real possibility that jeff flake loses the primary when it comes to time in arizona. i'm an arizona native. i've been tracking the politics throughout the years and what we're seeing is this concentration of very, very conservative folks, the folks that attend the trump rallies, but at the same time you see a growth, obviously in the la tee notice population, folks coming in from california, and this

growing population tends to vote more and more d, so we're going to see a purpling of arizona. and if trump pushes kelly ward to the front to where she can beat jeff flake, the d's have a real fighting chance. and all fingers are pointing at ker teen sin ma a sitting congresswoman right now. fantastic, young, energetic and there is a very real possibility that the democratic party can beat a kelli ward or a did he wit or a graham if flake loses the primary. so the d's should be sending a gift basket to trump. >> and that's the insanity here. by railing against jeff flake, president trump could potentially give up one of those -- the razor thin margin republicans have give up one of those seats. and why is he doing it? like so many things, it's personal. jeff flake was against him early on. jeff flake just wrote a book condemning donald trump. >> yep. >> it's because his feelings were hurt. it's because he doesn't like jeff flake. >> yeah. why is he doing it? honey badger don't care. that was steve bannon's appeal

to breitbart writers. it was the appeal of steve bannon's closing argument in the campaign. and it is clearly donald trump's attitude about the republican party, about a lot of other people in the country he doesn't care about. it's a honey badger presidency in that sense because it is not concerned with any of the obligations of the office. to katy's points, which are very important, donald trump is the ultimate political minority. 46% was a lower total vote share than mitt romney, who is not celebrated for being a political genius. that's a low vote share. now, in our electoral college constitutional system, it was enough to win and that's all that matters under the constitution. but we are witnessing someone who's going around -- is he building on that original 46%? that sub-romney mandate? no. he is clearly spending time with people that make him feel good and, as you documented on the show today and joe documented, misleading them as he presents them with a view of what happened in charlottesville that

is fundamentally misleading about one of the most important and painful parts of the original sin of racism in this country. >> yeah, as we mentioned, he omitted major parts of his remarks last week. as he pulled that piece of paper out last night in phoenix and read through his comments about charlottesville, he left out all the times he said both sides are responsible, many sides are responsible for the hate and the violence. mark halperin, what is president trump doing with an address like that last night other than feeling good? other than accepting the praise of the crowd? other than feeling like he's back on the campaign trail? is there any method to the madness as he heads back to washington, as congress comes back in september? >> i mean the only theory of the case would be that if he wants to fundamentally change the orientation of the republican party, you have to make republicans afraid of the trump coalition beating them in primaries. but that's not the game that's before him right now. doing what he did last night and the context particularly of "the new york times" story we've been

talking about, about the very bad relationship now between mitch mcconnell and the president, he's not going to rally republican senators to his side. they're not afraid of him because of his low approval ratings. they don't have a relationship with him. you look at bob corker speaking out as he did against the president when he was back home. as best i can tell, he's not faced any price for that. the president has not attacked him. and so you're seeing now a white house that does not seem to have a strategy. and again, can't say it enough, raising the debt ceiling, passing a budget, trying to get momentum on tax reform. those are all really difficult things to do. and i don't think the president helped his case last night one bit with his new chief of staff standing right there. >> bob corker, who was vetted to be vice president, was considered for the secretary of state job, saying last week president trump may not have the stability or the competence to hold the office. everybody sit tight. we're going to continue this conversation. the president admits to tweeting, of course, but just don't call them tweet storms. that's ahead. stay with us. and then you totaled him.

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>> well, you know, he said that they turned off the cameras and they weren't going to air it live, as they were airing it live, cnn and other networks were airing it live. he did that during the campaign too. he also talked about how they need to change the senate rules because if they did, then they would be able to get his legislation through. that wouldn't have changed health care. he still needed republicans onboard for that and he didn't have the republicans onboard for that. he's blaming the system, he's blaming the democrats, but ultimately it is his party that he can't get in line and rallies like this where he doesn't name the senators don't help him, as you were talking about and have been talking about all morning. >> go ahead, ari. >> what we're witnessing politically is the maintenance of an oppositional movement with federal power. and we think typically of oppositional movements as there was a rise up against bush, there was the anti-war movement against lbj by democrats, by liberals, and there's usually one. there's obviously an

oppositional movement in the resistance right now because it is larger than the trump supporter and that's a political fact that will matter when distributed out through votes. because more people voted for someone else than trump and a lot of people are excited to oppose him. but what you saw last night was he also continues to rally the grievance of an oppositional movement even as they have won the election and that's a powerful and rare force in american politics, two oppositional movements colliding. >> that's all he has because he doesn't have any wins under his belt really. >> victoria, make no mistake, donald trump got on air force one feeling good about himself. you could see it in his tweets and how he carried himself last night. he did in phoenix what he went there to do, which is to rally his base, to assure everyone it was okay despite what you're hearing in the press. he doesn't view this as having harmed him in any way. >> not at all. and one thing i found so interesting about last night is that immigration, the topic that i thought he was going to hammer the most being in arizona, was about maybe second or third. it was the media.

the media h has really gotten under his skin. we know he's always irk by that but that was topic number one. donald trump felt good about himself because he felt like he stuck it in the media, even though in the larger scheme of things he didn't move the ball forward in anything, legislatively, his policiepolic nothing. >> nick, what is the relationship and the piece in "the new york times" between trump and congress look like when everybody comes back to town? >> we're seeing a fight for the power levers in the gop. but the fight for the soul of the party is over and he won if the polls are any good. it is his party in soul and in attitude. >> mark halperin, final thoughts on this mcconnell/trump relationship, such that it is, and what happens when we get back from the recess? >> mcconnell is not looking for a fight necessarily but he's not looking to make things better. as i said before, he thinks the ball is in the president's court. someone around the president, i believe, thinks that things are going in the wrong direction.

let's see if they can influence him because what he did last night did not advance the cause of tax reform. >> mark halperin, victoria, thank you very much. ari, katy, nick, thank you as well. that does it for us this morning on "morning joe." stephanie ruhle picks up our coverage right now. >> thank you, my friend, willie geist. i'm stephanie ruhle excited to be back this morning because there is a lot to dig through, starting with president trump hitting the campaign trail in arizona and attacks critics and the media over charlottesville. >> i said everything. i hit them with neo-nazi, i hit them with everything. >> i hit them with neo-nazis. let that sink in. exclusive, the first excerpts from hillary clinton's new book. she tells us what she was thinking while trump stood behind her at that second debate. >> or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, "back up you creep. get away from me." >> back it up. and it is president trump