have a fantastic weekend, everybody. "morning joe" starts right now. what were you thinking at those moments? some of these flights clearly were to places that had commercial air possibilities. there's one flight to philadelphia. that you 4545 minutes to dull let's, you get on a private flight to philadelphia for $25,000. you take amtrak, you could be there in an hour and a half for 100 bucks. >> yeah, that particular trip we had a meeting that morning on the hurricanes that i needed to be at. and then we had a meeting in the afternoon at the white house. and again, these trips were approved through the normal process. so it was deemed appropriate. and that that was the necessary way to be able to make my other obligations within the department. >> health secretary tom price's job is up in the air. he claims to have the confidence of the president after a private jet scandal. so far president trump is staying quiet. now the number of cabinet members who use charter flights

is up to four. more than a week since hurricane maria directly hit puerto rico, growing frustration on the island over a lack of basic supplies. the trump administration is congratulating itself on the recovery efforts. we'll find out who's right there. deeply disappointing. that's how the vice chair of the senate intel committee described the presentation twitter made to the committee as we learn more about the social media company's role in russia's meddling in the 2016 election. the trump administration has made big promises on tax reform but new questions whether the final product will be able to live up to the president's word of a "middle class miracle." amid all the partisan rancor an emotional moment on the house floor as congressman steve scalise returned for the first time since he was shot and nearly lost his life three months ago. we'll cover all those stories and more. welcome to "morning joe" on this friday, september 29th. i'm willie geist along with the host of "deadline white house

4:00" on msnbc, former communications director for george w. bush, nicole wallace, good to have you here. donny deutsch is at the table, senior political analyst for nbc news -- >> all those stories and more. >> on a special edition of "morning joe." noah rothmann, chair of the department of african-american studies at princeton university. eddie glab jr. and "new york times" reporter. joe and mika off this morning. yesterday they were in boston for an event as part of their visiting fellowship at the harvard institute of politics. they'll be back on monday. so the food supply is reportedly dwindling in remote towns of puerto rico more than a week after hurricane maria struck the island, huge portions of the population lacking fuel, water and communications. and the trump administration is being pressed to step up assistance. the u.s. military has announced it's sending a three-star general to the island to help direct the recovery efforts. the white house was asked

yesterday why it took so long to make that move. a top homeland security adviser says the military had been involved from the start and it took time to realize that the local government couldn't handle all the lodge stijs of distributing the aid, that the general who helped turn around the government's response to hurricane katrina was not buying that. >> i don't know what the hell's going on back there. they're using words i don't understand. we never used words like without partners. no, i'm not your partner, fema, i'm a command that you give me a mission and say, take water, fuel, and save the people of puerto rico. that's what we operate off of is a mission. the military didn't get that mission until yesterday. >> i heard a conversation earlier today where they indicated that if the task force commander wanted to do air drops, he could make a recommendation. that's bull [ bleep ]. now that commander buchanan's on

the ground, he need to be given orders and figure out what rules need to be break to save lives. this bureaucratic response is not working, with all due respect to the white house, they try to put lipstick on this pig but this thing is moving too slow. >> that is lieutenant general russell honore, commander of the hurricane katrina effort. president trump has waived the jones act which restricts foreign ships from carrying cargo between u.s. ports but that waiver lasts only ten days. senators john mccain and mike lee are pushing a measure that would permanently exempt puerto rico from the jones act. president trump continues to defend the government's response, "fema and first responders are doing a great job in puerto rico, massive food and water delivered, docks and electric grid dead, locals trying really hard to help but many have lost their homes, military's now on-site and i will be there tuesday, wish press would treat fairly." also "puerto rico is devastated, phone system, electric grid, many roads gone. fema and first responders are amazing.

governor said, great job." so nicole, as usual, the president has to remind you he's doing a great job, despite what you may be hearing. he is right that it is a logistical question in puerto rico. we had the governor of puerto rico on the show yesterday and he said the president has been responsive, he's been dill adjacent, we've talked to him again and again, but all this aid sitting on the ground and no way to distribute it around the island. >> the people of puerto rico don't think the press is treating this unfairly. i think the people of puerto rico feel like the press has been the one jumping up and down since before the storm hit the island. the press reported what meteorologists reported which was this was going to be the worst storm in 90 years to hit puerto rico, this was the worst storm in 90 years to hit puerto rico. this was one of the hurricanes that came down exactly as forecast. it was predicted before the storm hit that the island would lose power, the island is without power. i think until the president takes himself out of the equation and puts the people of puerto rico in the center of it, i'm not sure decision-making

will flow from the west wing the way it needs to, to rectify the things that weren't in place before. jeremy bash who was chief of staff at the pentagon says the military douse logistics. the people are desperate to have people build cell tower, bathro bathrooms, cooling centers, some electrical grid thakoon replace the one that was demolished. it's not time for excuses and explanations and after action reports. the president talks about puerto rico like some bystander. he can actually fix it if he sort of puts the things in place and gives the military the power to do so. >> go ahead. >> it's even worse than that. if you truly had empathy as a human being or a leader, no matter how -- even if things were going in the right direction, you say, this is not enough. you see the pictures, you'd feel -- just this human being. i'm not able to clinically diagnose anymore but obviously this man sees this, yet will instead of doubling down, we need to do more, it's the opposite, i'm doing a great job. so the no matter what --

>> he can't take himself out of it. >> he congratulates himself out, so it's even worse than that. no matter what -- this is kind of almost a larger, more devastating example of what happened with the military family. where there's not an ability to empathize with the other side, other than how does it affect me? and it's tragic. >> so obviously the conditions on the ground, 100% of the electrical grid is down. more than half of the hospitals are out. they can't get clean drinking water. the reports not only from puerto rico but islands off puerto rico, they're running out of cash, they can't get fuel are. we know what's happening. the coverage has been there. is it fair to criticize president trump here? he's really been pretty engaged on this. as i said, we've heard from leaders in puerto rico who said, actually, president trump, we've talked to every day, we think he's doing all he can to get things here. but has he been a step too slow? or is the criticism fair? >> i think the criticism is fair now. i don't think it was fair when it began.

which was instantaneously. we heard perverse, wish fathering the thought, that this was the next katrina. obviously for political incentive. the notion that was purveyed across the media was the president was not engaged in this, which was false. there was no evidence to support that beyond the extend to which he wasn't tweeting about it. when he does tweet he talks about how shipping interests don't want this jones act, puts his foot in his mouth. when he's not talking about it i have more confidence that he's doing his jonathan when he is. >> it seems to me president trump's moral instincts aren't necessarily connected to the right thing. right? his instincts don't lead him to do the right thing immediately. his instincts are really about optics. how i'm perceived. >> press coverage. >> that's the first thing. the second thin is it seems to me that in the midst of the crisis that was happening in puerto rico, we were dealing with donald trump's culture war with the nfl players and his attack on steph curry and the like. and it seemed to me at that

moment, when 3.5 million people without power who are trying to rebuild their lives after a category 4, 5 hurricane devastated the island, it seemed at that moment president trump was supposed to use his bully pulpit to bring attention to the island. to bring all of our resources to bear. and thirdly, we must never forget puerto rico, these folks are americans. what we are witnessing, we are witnessing our fellow folks experiencing extreme suffering. and i think this has to be made very, very clear to all of us on the mainland, that these are, in fact, americans. i think president trump kind of failed in making that clear. >> that suffering is real and gets worse by the day as these areas can't get supplies like drinking water. >> st. croix was hit by the category 5. it doesn't have 3.5 million, but usvi, virgin islands, are

struggling as well. >> a guy we all know, a great television producer, is about the optics, bush at 9/11, we think back to obama after ferguson, after the execution of the dallas police officers. you felt them there. you saw them. they weren't doing it for optics, they were just there. with houston, a guy who is a television producer, for him not to be able to go down and at least produce for himself, forget the real reason to do it, he never even connected with human beings on screen. he fails miserably in these catastrophic, almost ready for tv moments for somebody to be presidential and it's odd he recedes in those moments. the revelations about expensive noncommercial travel keep coming for health and human services secretary tom price. the latest report from politico. price accompanied by his wife and top aides took military jets to major cities around the world, including a 95-minute flight from berlin to geneva that cost $16,000.

while other department staff flew commercial. to put this in context, kathleen sebeli sebelius, five years as hhs secretary under president obama, told politico she never took a military jet and always flew commercially overseas. according to politico, the combined cost of secretary price's noncommercial air travel tops $1 million since may. a white house official tells nbc that trips aboard military jets were approved because price had no deputy secretary to handle matters while he was overseas and he needed access to secure communications. in a statement earlier yesterday, secretary price said he will take no more private charter flights, "no exceptions." price avoided outright apology, said "all of my political career i've fought for the taxpayers, it is clear to me in this case i was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer." price promised to write a personal check to the u.s. treasury for the expenses of his private travel, "the taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes." price appears to have literally

meant seat, paying back a fraction of the cost. price was asked about all this last night. >> you say in a statement the taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes. but you're writing a check for, we understand, from your officials, $51,887. the total cost is estimated at more than $400,000 for the 26 flights since may. is that okay? >> well, as i said, there's an ongoing review being done bit inspector general. i think it's important that we wait for that review. all of the trips, as i mentioned, had been approved, approved by the legal department, approved by the administration department, within hhs. been deemed to be appropriate, official travel. and so we need to let the inspector general go ahead and act. >> secretary price also said he was "not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer." here are those very concerns in 2009 and 2010 after democrats in

control of congress approved buying private jets. >> i think we've made it halfway where we ought to, and that is cut it from eight to four jets. now we need to cut it from four jets to zero jets. this is just another example of fiscal irresponsibility run amok in congress right now. i want to say to the speaker, don't you fly over our country in your luxury jet and lecture us on what it means to be an american. >> so that was tom price, first eight years ago, the second bite seven years ago. how big a problem is this for tom price? does he survive? >> it's a big problem. if they can find someone else to take his job he probably won't survive it but it's not clear anyone wants that position to be confirmed. the mindset that would cause a cabinet secretary to do this, particularly one with a record of speaking out against government waste and protecting taxpayers, is just phenomenal. he can say it was approved all he wants. there's been very little reporting that i've seen about

who signed off on this, who generated these requests. but if you're an adult who understands how the world works and you're in the government and you get on that many charter flights, particularly some of the ones to philadelphia and nashville and places he owned homes, the level of bad judgment is, for many people around the president, disqualifying. >> is it really that big of an obstacle to get rid of somebody and just have an acting secretary? we don't have a nominee for dhs, nobody seems to even notice that dhs is headless. >> well, you could have an acting secretary for a while. but in the way the president thinks about these things, he wants smaller problems, not bigger problems. >> yeah, i guess noah's question is for president trump, who's let it be known through the press he's annoyed by this, he doesn't like the behavior of tom price. why let him continue to sit there? if you listen to tom price he sounded -- one of those apologies, i'm sorry there was so much concern about this. not necessarily, i'm sorry i wasted taxpayer money. >> if you're tom price you

should definitely worry about your job. the idea that the president is openly fuming against him. the idea the president is upset that this looks bad on him and the people he surrounds himself with. this is someone who built a campaign, president trump built this campaign on working class people on appealing to middle class people, on draining the swamp. then tom price now making -- having more and more headlines about how luxurious his travel was, the idea he's paying back $51,000 when the price tag could be something like that $1 million, it's not hard to understand there are people who are going to say, okay, really he's not actually making an apology. but i think the idea that president trump is letting him keep his job, at least for now, it goes back to the idea that the president is now already having to deal with the cultural issues, the cultural war issues with the nfl. he's having to deal with puerto rico. now he has to fire tom price, that to me i think in his mind, he's probably elongating the headlines and hoping this will go away. >> it's not just tom price.

it's scott pruett. we talked about him. steve mnuchin. >> vos. >> that's all under review. now a fourth senior member of the trump cabinet is acknowledging flights on expensive private and military planes. politico reports interior secretary ryan zinke has taken several chartered flights including a $12,000 trip to his hometown in montana, as well as flights to two caribbean islands. >> what is wrong with these people? >> a department spokeswoman said the trips were precleared by the ethics office. in most cases these are small government conservatives who talk about waste, fraud and abuse, protecting the taxpayer. i don't know. how do you begin to explain it? >> one word, richard painter. he was the ethics adviser during the bush years. i couldn't have had a soda with mark helprin without having to prove that i'd paid for my own soda. the idea that these people are getting on private jets -- here's the other thing. when donald trump says that i could shoot someone on fifth avenue and my base would forgive

me, he's largely correct. but that does not extend to his crony cabinet. they do not afford the cabinet the same latitude on ethics, on political incorrect language, on bad press. so he is the only person who can get bad press for his administration. he does not sort of have the latitude to take on water for his cabinet. >> it's the bad mindset of the people at the top. they shouldn't be even thinking of getting on these planes. how could the process exist within these departments that people in the legal affairs department, the ethics office, how could they possibly sign off on it? >> clear it. >> does ethics and stupidity -- if you talk to price, if you've gone from washington to philadelphia, forget the expense. to go to the airport, get on a private jet, get to philly, go back -- it's actually less time to take an amtrak. that's the ridiculous thing. just the efficiency of just how you manage your day that i need this largess.

so that's stupidity on top of moral corruption. >> you should probably recuse yourself in talking about private air travel. >> people told me these things, i don't know. >> have you been on the acela? >> i love the acela. >> that's the way to go. >> it's great. the little dishes they bring you, you meet people -- >> i don't think this is the set -- >> i bring my own dish and i put it on -- >> oh, i see. >> right, right, yeah. dishes? >> no it's the same thing. you get a sandwich and it costs 200 bucks more. >> that's what i'm talking about. >> it's a dish. >> we'll tell you all about it, donnie. >> by the way, i want to point out we mentioned betsy devos. she flies her own jet and pays for it herself, so she's not lumped in with the rest of them. we'll dig into the white house plan for tax reform and how the proposal might impact the president's own bottom line. jared kushner says he was "eager" to share information with members of congress. apparently that didn't involve

his reported use of private e-mail for government business. two top senators want to know why he didn't mention it. donnie got confused, he takes the regular amtrak because he likes to help the old ladies off the stops along the way. >> and the young ladies. >> knew that was coming. >> set him right up. we are watching a tropical depression trying to form near florida. sounds scary but it's not, like a nor'easter storm bringing rain, rip currents, making for an ugly weekend around florida. rainfall forecast 1 to 3 inches of rain from daytona beach through west palm, miami, through the keys. again, on and off rain, it's not going to pour all weekend. i'm happy to say this looks like a nice, quiet weekend. we're going to track some areas of rain. some showers in texas today. but most of the great lakes north east, mid-atlantic, southeast, a beautiful friday. as we head through saturday, the one little piece of ugly weather is going to be coming down through new england. saturday morning especially from upstate new york through massachusetts, connecticut, rhode island, it's going to be chilly.

temperatures in the 50s. a little windy. some showers. that will exit and make for a nice sunday. look at the middle of the country, just gorgeous stuff into saturday. and into sunday, finally there's your reward day. 60s and 70s through the mid-atlantic through the northeast. chicago looks great. and actually we look to warm up almost everywhere in the eastern half of the country through next week. there's a little cool spell, then it's right back to temperatures in the 70s and 80s. a little piece of gorgeous weather, nothing brewing in the tropics. finally we can get a little break and catch our breaths. ♪ ♪ i'm... i'm so in love with you. ♪ ♪ whatever you want to do... ♪ ...is alright with me. ♪ ooo baby let's...

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officials to staffers of the senate and house intel committees yesterday. following that meeting the top democrat on the senate committee, mark warner, slammed twitter for its presentation. >> the presentation that the twitter team made to the senate intel staff today was deeply disappointing. the notion that their work was basically derivative based upon accounts that facebook had identified showed enormous lack of understanding from the twitter team of how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and, again, begs many more questions than they offered. their response was, frankly,

inadequate on almost every level. and why their need to come forward in a public presentation and explain to the senate and to the american public become is ares all that more important. >> the top democrat on the house intel committee adam schiff also weighed in, "it is clear twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breadth of russian activity during the campaign. this additional analysis will require far more robust investigation into how russian actors used their platform as a part of their active measures campaign." you get the sense facebook, twitter, social media was totally clueless about what was happening on their sites during the 2016 campaign. >> it's worse than that, put google in there too, youtube is another one we're not talking about yet. if you look at how -- when there's a terrorist attack, there's always the smartest law

enforcement people around this table, they always talk about going to look for the digital footprint. that's because nobody takes down questionable material or activity until after the fact. the social media companies are sort of like the worst stereotype of a republican political organization. they're reactive, they're opa e opaque, they're defensive, they are very slow to understand the value of transparency. they're totally lawyered up, lobbied up. and they are as a culture, the hubris of thinking that they're all about the public good, when if you take a low-tech analogy, like someone got mugged in your backyard and their position is, well, it's not our problem, we just bought the lot on which the house was built, not our problem. >> the tech guys, the ones revolutionizing the world for betterment, the irony is if i want to take an ad out on nbc for laundry detergent, the things i go through to prove -- >> it has to work, it has to be real -- >> yet there is no regulation.

there is nothing more fortunate for people watching the show the next 10, 20 years as the regulation of these companies. they control the flow of communication. what's happening here -- >> i agree. >> i don't want to upset all the nbc people watching but what's happening here, as far as our power versus what's happening over here, multiply a thousand-fold and there is no difference. >> we have quality controls, we have standards. >> the fcc. >> they should be held to the same standards. they are essentially media companies operating as the dark internet. >> media companies a thousand-fold. >> you've got reporting about racially divisive russian ads on facebook? >> i found representative robin kelly essentially said facebook admitted to members of the congressional black caucus as well as the subcommittee on the house oversight committee, ads targeting black lives matter, targeting specifically the ethnic groups and allowing people to target not only for

russian influence but also target housing ads, employment ads. and that to mers when you get to the point there could have been federal laws broken. but essentially a lot of the members of the congressional black caucus are fuming because they're saying russia actually exploited a lot of the racial divisions that already exist in america and used both facebook and twitter in this way to essentially make people hate each other more. so the question is whether or not facebook and twitter actually understand what's going on. robin kelly wrote this letter to facebook essentially saying, we need you to engage more, we need you to be a lot more transparent. she said the company's done some adjustments when it comes to the housing and employment ads but when it comes to whether or not -- when it comes to understanding how russia influenced the presidential election, she wants to know a lot more and facebook essentially hasn't been doing that. it's very important when you see someone like mark warner talking about twitter to kind of not

understanding the scope of it, not understanding what's going on, it's because facebook for a long time said, oh, no, we don't think this is a really big issue. now you have the founder of facebook saying, you know what, i was wrong about that, i should actually have taken this a lot more seriously. >> noah, russian operatives have found in twitter and facebook the perfect hiding place, it seems. they get in easy, they can disguise themselves. people aren't who they say they are on social media, that's news to no one. but it's an easy way to disrupt an american election to the extent they did. what are these social media companies have to do right away? >> first you probably have to know russian intelligence is going to exploit anything they possibly can and do precisely what she was talking about. this isn't new, this is the kremlin playbook, they have been exacerbating racial tensions in the united states since there is a russian intelligence organization. as recently as 2014 r.t. talking about police tyranny, the ukrainian revolution that ousted the former ukrainian president

victorian covic. this is what russia does. if you're a media institution and you know moscow is going to target your audience, you have to be proactive and aware of that. as you say, you have gate keepers in most institutions. institutions that are not aware that they're going to be targeted are the most irresponsible, i would say. but i'm not sure that regulation is something that you can even entertain. this is about responsibility. >> it's a convergence of some interesting things. so we know, for example, that white nationalists have really taken advantage of social media. in fact, they've expanded their reach by taking advantage of the platforms of twitter and facebook and snapchat and a range of other things. and so here you have the kind of convergence of very hateful, mean-spirited people in our culture, right, using a platform. and then you have russian operatives coming in and exploiting what they're already doing. and so here -- then you're at the nexus of protecting our

democracy and protecting our commitment to free and open speech. and so these companies, when they try to kind of take the position of being high and mighty, they see themselves in some interesting sorts of ways as protecting the ability of folk to say what they need to say. but we see underneath it's all of this darkness, all of this lug are ugliness that can be exploited. >> there's interesting intellectual debates to be had to be sure. these companies are american companies making a lot of money, dominating our lives, hiding behind a lot of intellectual arguments. as the congressional members of both parties are saying publicly and privately, they are using lobbyists and pr executives and their own platforms to try to limit the disclosure they make to be accountable. american democracy is under siege and they are hiding behind intellectual arguments. >> it's ongoing. some of these russian-linked twitter accounts were involved last weekend in helping to sow hatred around the debate about the nfl. we're not at a forensic same

where we're going to look back at what they did in 2016, we're not even there yet. >> the bombs are still falling. >> right. >> we can regulate this. instead of the fcc and s.e.c., the federal digital communications -- there is a governing body there, regulatory body, that when something like this happens, the economic consequence, the penalties in the hundreds of millions. you hit them in the pocketbook, they'll figure it out. so we understand the numbers here, nfl football on the highest-rated show is 11 million viewers. we can find right now 20 idiots who are dancing on their head that have 40 million views on this thing. the numbers, the exponential difference of the reach versus traditional media is staggering. >> i suppose there's any number of ways in which the federal government could target an institution that is a media institution that provides a plat the form for the exercise of the first amendment. what is the limiting principle? at what point are we targeting speech we simply don't like? >> you can't yell fire in a

movie theet fer it's not true -- >> you can if it's on fire. >> the point on twitter is some of these things are not true. >> incentive to violence is one thing -- >> twitter and facebook -- money, we know when a dollar is real, when a dollar is counterfeit. there are groups trying to have social media companies have a water seal or verify the content -- president government shouldn't be the recourse at first, it should be boards of the companies. what's clear is we've only scratched the surface. we're just at the beginning of this problem. >> our kids are going to figure it out. >> they better get moving pretty quickly. coming up next, congressman steve scalise summed up his return to capitol hill with two worded, "i'm back." his colleagues were quite as succinct, giving the house majority whip an extended and well-deserved standing ovation. golfer phil mickelson captured a selfie for the ages. we'll take a look as they

brought together three former commanders in chief next on "morning joe."

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welcome back to "morning joe" along the sup comes up oaf

the capitol. house majority whip steve scalise is back for the first time after being shot during practice for a charity baseball game in june. scalise made his surprise return to capitol hill tweeting out this photo of him and his wife with the simple caption "i'm back." the congressman received a he hero's welcome as he walked onto the house floor using crutches. he was met with thundering applause and a standing ovation, a few of them. scalise thanked his fellow leaders for their support on his road to recovery. >> you have no idea how great this feels to be back here at work in the people's house. as you can imagine these last three and a half months have been pretty challenging times for me and my family. but if you look at the outpouring of love, of warmth, of prayer, my gosh.

jennifer and i have been overwhelmed with all of that outpouring. something else i saw firsthand wasn't a surprise to me. but it was the outpouring of love from you. my colleagues. both republican and democrat. it really does show the warm side of congress that very few people get to see. and so i want to thank each and every one of you for that. you don't know how much it meant to me. >> congressman scalise took time to thank the two capitol police officers serving on a security detail for saving his life. that's crystal griner and david bailey. he also thanked congressman westrup, the ohio republican, iraq war veteran, doctor who applied the tourniquet that saved congressman scalise's life and gave him a chance to get to the hospital where the doctors could finish the job. you were on capitol hill yesterday, what was the mood like? >> the mood was one of congratulatory. it was one that felt i think very much like, this is what america was based off of. it was based off this idea that

americans can rise above challenges, that even when political differences are put aside that people can be genuinely happy for each other and genuinely celebrate life and genuinely celebrate the privilege of being able to serve your country as being a lawmaker. so it was a beautiful thing to watch. it was a beautiful thing to see. it reminded me of john mccain when he walks around the capitol, how people look at him, even the people that might be his political opponents, and really see him as someone who's an american hero. i think in this case people were very much celebrating his return. even if democrats and republicans alike. >> i have to say we haven't seen steve scalise. he looked great. i mean, he's got the crutches, he's in physical therapy, he's going to need some help getting around, but he looked and sounded really good. >> i watched that story unfold on this show. you were all covering this live. you had interviews, you had information that was not available anywhere else. it was one of the more terrifying mornings in recent history. and to see -- then we all have the updates from his office,

they were pretty forthcoming about the medical setbacks along the way. so it really was sort of everything that you hope congress could be somen when overcomes a challenge. my god what a divisive time in congress. there are divisions on both sides within each party. so i hope that mood carries over as they begin debating some of the things in front of them. >> actually, the ish irony is that the looming shadow behind this moment is leader pelosi came out almost immediately afterwards to decry efforts by the house leadership to put forward legislation to loosen gun regulations, and particularly regulations around gun silencers. so here we have the celebration, the embrace of representative scalise. then underneath the shadow of partisan politics looms large. >> we had that moment on june 14th, the day of the shooting, the days after, where there was unity. we go through bursts of unity in congress, and they seem to

evaporate unfortunately pretty quickly. but i don't think people fully appreciate, maybe they did in the weeks after when we learned more, how close congressman scalise was really to losing his life. thank god for those capitol police officers, the officers there in virginia, and congressman wenstrop for saving he is life. >> how close we were to an epoch-defining moment in which we could have lost multiple republican members of congress by an assassin who was radicalized by politics. that would have been something that would have rocked this country to its core. we have no idea the trauma we escaped. >> crystal griner and david bailey, the capitol hill police officers who saved congressman scalise's life. golfer phil mickelson snagged this snapshot with presidents bill clinton, george w. bush, and barack obama at the presidents cup tournament at liberty national golf club in new jersey. i actually had the honor of introducing each of them at the opening ceremony. it was the first time three presidents have attended the tournament since it was launched in 1994.

the presidents cup airs on the golf channel today, continues all weekend on nbc. >> what was their mood? i mean, did they dish with you on their thoughts about anything going on in politics? did they look to be joking amongst themselves? >> no, they didn't get political. but what i was saying earlier is just watching them privately, not just the face they put on for the cameras, they get along. the three of them genuinely get along. the presidents club thing is real. >> it's real. >> and people that you meet -- maybe you're not sure does george bush really like barack obama, does barack obama really like george w. bush? the answer is yes. you know this as well, that they really have a respect for each other. president bush if all the types i've been around him privately in interviews always says the same thing, president obama's a good man, do we disagree on some things, of course we do, it's america, but he's a good man and a good guy. >> he loves you, if he's going to gossip with anyone. to president bush 41 had the first relationship with bill clinton, they teamed up during

george w. bush's presidency to raise money for the tsunami. so that friendship goes back almost two decades. i think michelle obama and michelle obama's mom mrs. robinson and george w. bush bonded during the transition. i think that friendship has been building for more than a decade now too. >> i would ask our viewers at home the visceral reaction when you saw those three figures. >> it's reassuring. >> the visceral reaction when you see our current president. three figures politically couldn't be more diverge ant, yet each one of them felt like comfort food when when you looked at them versus when donald trump comes on the screen and viscerally your body tightens up. >> trump's going to be there. where's donald trump? he's working, obviously, he's going to be there -- >> not obviously, sometimes he's clicking through the cables. >> maybe he's watching golf. there were chants in the crowd when they stood up expressing support for those three presidents. it was a cool -- it's a nice moment just to see those three men who are the most powerful men in the world and have different views on the world getting along so well. >> it's always so amazing for me to kind of step back and watch

those sorts of moments. because when you think about each one of them individually, i mean, they had to endure hell. so you think about what happened during the obama administration. the kind of political arena. what was going on during george w. burke's administration. what was happening during clinton's administration. almost each one represents an escalation of the dysfunction. now we see them and we go, oh! when in fact we lived through it, they were -- >> as compared to now. >> exactly. >> it's all reassuring. >> right. which is really amazing. >> and there's human decency throughout all three of those men. decent, decent. disagree with them politically, those are three incredibly decent human beings at their core. still ahead, jared kushner has been under the microscope for failing to disclose foreign contacts during his security clearance process. the senate intel committee says he may have forgotten to disclose something else.

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a new report says that during his closed session hearing from the senate intelligence committee in july. president trump's son-in-law jared kushner did not disclose his use of a private e-mail account for white house business. that's according to cnn. kushner's lawyer insists, quote, there is no issue here. but did not deny the report. lowell continued to see the e-mail account had fewer than 100 e-mails exchanged from january through august. meanwhile the white house has launched an internal probe of private e-mail use after politico reported that current and former senior advisers had used such accounts to conduct government business. id includes ivanka ivanka, gary cohn, reince priebus, and steve bannon. mark halperin, we don't know what's in jared kushner's private e-mails, but he didn't

disclose it. one more thing that slipped his mind when he was talking to senate investigators. >> here's the political reality for him now. he's the senior white house official and the president's son-in-law but that has not blocked a large number of people in the white house and on capitol hill who want to take him down now, including some republicans. >> why? >> there's some personal issues involved. there's -- some people don't believe he's played fairly with them on this and other issues. it's just become a thing. i heard it when i was in washington earlier in the week. he has a lot of enemies right now and the number of leaks and aggressive investigative theories on capitol hill about him dwarf what i hear about anybody else in the administration except for the president. >> is that consistent with what you're hearing around washington? that jared kushner is in the sights of congressional investigators? >> it's very clear that congress is looking at him, and looking at him as someone who is not disclosing what they want to

know. if you go before a committee and it's a closed door committee which means you're supposed to be talking about all the things you ask them to talk about and you don't disclose it, it looks bad. the other thing is when you have the white house looking at private e-mails, we all remember who had the private e-mail issue that lasted years and years and years, hillary clinton. donald trump the last thing he wants even if you're his son-in-law, even if you're someone in his family and that he's close to, this looks bad to his voters and base. that you have the same people who are going on and on about hillary clinton's e-mails dealing with this. i haven't heard jared kushner has more enemies than others, but i have heard this is an embarrassment to the president. >> i've heard from jarod is in a lot of trouble, and it all has to do with the 666 building. everything he's done since connected to office, many things done that are inappropriate that

wind back to him trying to salvage and save money there. i think as time folds out, we'll see more and more of that. >> you think the president will egret the day he installed his son-in-law in the west wing? >> i can't imagine he doesn't already. i'm not sure what jared kushner brings to the table. we know he had a big role in urging the president to fire james comey. it was a huge mistake. apparently he had a big role in telling him to endorse luther strange which was a hit. now there's this issue. you need to disclose everything and early. the guy is a burden. i'm not sure beyond his relationship to the president, what's going on there. >> in defense of jared kushner, the white house would tell you some of the success on foreign policy issues like the strengthening of ties between the u.s. and saudi arabia and

strengthening and renewed vibrance between the united states and israel and like the improved relationship between the u.s. and uae is largely to jared kushner's credit and his allies including hr mcmaster and dena powell and not secretary tillerson. >> i -- >> i think the inside dynamic is wider than his enemies on capitol hill who get a free flow of information from steve bannon. it is wider than the things we know in the public, and in private he gets a lot of credit for some of the relationships with foreign leaders that have improved under this president. >> he knows how to get things done the way the president likes to get things done. he does that -- add value. >> what is the thing that he's gotten done? you said he knows how to get things done. >> some of the things nicole mentioned. i'm not saying they came to

fruition, but he moves stuff around. he gets processes going, and then there are few other people in the white house who can do it. but he has more enemies than he realizes. he is not bother bed by things, but there are enemies all around. >> the enemies may get the last laugh. still ahead, we'll go back to hurricane ravaged puerto rico. frustration is mounting over a distribution bottle neck there. plus more on the new report from politico that details the $1 million in tax funded private flights taken by secretary price. he's offered to pay for it, but apparently it comes to 2 million. in the future, a nation's technology will determine its power. in its economy, in medicine, in science and in national security. one company designs and builds

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and it all starts with getting your fidelity retirement score. in 60 seconds, you'll know where you stand. and together, we'll help you make decisions for your plan... to keep you on track. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand. welcome back to "morning joe" at the top of the hour, 7:00 here on the east coast. beautiful picture of the washington monument in d.c. still with us here in new york donny deutsche, mark halperin, noah rothman, eddie glou junio., joe and mika have the morning off. let's begin this hour with the story we talked about last hour.

twitter says it shut down more than 200 accounts tied to the same russian operatives who bought political ads on facebook of the 450 accounts released by facebook as part of the investigation. twitter matched 22 of them to its own site. the disclosure by twitter followed a briefing by company officials to staffers of the senate and house intel committees yesterday. following that meeting the top democrat on the senate committee slammed twitter for its presentation. >> the presentation that the twitter team made to the senate intel staff today was deeply disappointing. the notion that their work was basically derivative based upon accounts that facebook had identified showed an enormous lack of understanding from the twitter team of how serious this

issue is. the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and, again, begs many more questions than they offered. their response was, frankly, inadequate on almost every level. and why their need to come forward in a public presentation and explain to the senate and to the american public becomes all that more important. >> the top democrat on the house intel committee adam schiff also weighed in on twitter's briefing to his committee releasing a statement that read in part it's clear that twitter has forensic work to do to understand the depth of the russian activity during the campaign. this analysis will require a more robust investigation in how russian actors used their platform as a part of their active measures campaign. so as we look at this we talked

a little bit last hour. we had a lot on facebook. it really looks like now if you scratch the surface and look into it, twitter may have been more active for russia and their operatives and getting into the election than facebook was. >> i wonder how much influence twitter had on the electorate. just anecdotely, facebook was more of a driver of the fake news starting from the very first state we went to, wisconsin. for focus groups, it was clear the information that was being driven from facebook was what, where the misinformation was coming from. >> i think what's important to know, more research done that when people take in a message from facebook or "the new york times" or the new york post, they do not distinguish any credibility gauge. all they remember is the message. so they literally present themselves with the same level of credibility as far as a message being received as the

most trusted news source. >> for some people, it's not that they're equal. it's more so. sharing things with who they think are their friends. i think we could fall into a debate about who was used more between facebook and twitter. i think in the end it will be facebook. but they both have a lot of soul searching to do. last hour we said both of them have the posture of disclose as little as possible to the public and try to get through it rather than work with the public, the government and the boards to solve the problem. >> how long can they get away with that? >> not long. >> i think we need to get to the bottom of it and understand the complexity of russian intervention at all levels. we're going to get into dicey issues with regard to how we navigate the ways in which information is given on social platforms in light of other commitments. we have to balance between our openness and commitment to values and protecting our

democracy and security. i think at the end of the day we need urgency on the part of the companies to figure out what happened and how they were used in what happened. >> and for some people, it will be for the federal government to put its hand down on the social media companies and regulate in some way. i guess the question is how do you do that to a social media company? how should they be regulated? >> the question for me is you shouldn't do that. it's a matter of personal responsibility. mark made a good suggestion when he said the companies should treat this infiltration like isis networks. they've done a good job of shutting isis out of the fields. that also raises the question of how credulous the audience has to be. if you look into the fake news stories, they're absurd. they're like congress has passed a resolution that hasn't. it takes you three seconds to find out the truth. there's nothing you can do to

stop people from believing what they want to believe. >> what i find offensive and hypocritical is the leaders of the companies have fashioned themselves as the do-gooders, we're going to change for the better in every way as mankind, we interact with each other, but there's not any passion, vigilance, human desire to fix this. and there's a lot of emperor's clothes going on. when sheryl sandburg talks about leaning in and making the world better, not just her, everybody, it's stunning their lack of passion for this issue when passion supposedly is driving their economic desire to change the world. >> i think the danger is we're seeing an end of the honeymoon period for the tech companies, and for what they brought into our lives. for so many years they've been unchecked and unchallenged just because there has been so much good coming out of sillicon valley. you're seeing the change in

sentiment. they have to navigate this carefully if they're going to avoid more pressure from the government on their industry. >> the industry of trump who has been brilliant at creating elite enemies. and if trump can turn this on its head and start to line up along with us media new york elites, the silicon valley elites. >> we have to be mindful. these social platforms are critical to the deliberative process. these folks are engaging and debating. it's been monetized. companies are making money off of something that's a crucial feature of our democratic life. we have to be careful how we step in it even though we know others are trying to manipulate it. >> outside agitators sought to divide us by coming into a moment like charlottesville.

there's a platform on facebook to say let's meet here and now. these people are doing this, making up stories about people and pushing buttons in our culture. >> the battle on capitol hill to overhaul the nation's tax code is underway. the estimated 2.2 trillion price tag has raised questions about how it will be paid for. there's been little noise from conservative deficit hawks in the house. it's a great talking point and we have an administration that's democratic led said mark walker of north carolina. chairman of the republican study committee. it's a little different now that republicans have both houses in the administration. steve mnuchin said yesterday it would more than offset its cost, quote, not only will the tax plan pay for itself but it will pay down the debt. there are doubts about whether the final bill will live up to the promises. even among administration officials like national economic council director gary cohn. >> if i'm hearing you correctly,

you can't guarantee that no middle class family will get a tax increase. there will be middle class families with a tax increase under your plan? >> there's an exception to every rule. >> so that's a yes in. >> look, i can't guarantee anything. you can always find a unique family somewhere. >> our tax plan is aimed at making sure we give middle class americans a tax cut. >> all of them will see a tax cut? >> as i said this morning, and i'll say it again, i could read my statement from this morning. i liked it so much this morning. i'd say it again. i cannot guarantee that. you could find me someone in the country that their taxes may not go down. >> and the truth of this is they don't quite know what the plan is yet. they put out a broad outline. if you look through it, it was in front of us yesterday. there are not a lot of numbers there. they can't guarantee it, but from what we know of it right now there will be some breaks for the wealthy, and it won't

benefit the middle class or be the miracle donald trump declared it. >> the fact he's not saying he can guarantee that a middle class won't see their taxes go up is in some ways a red flag for a lot of people hoping for a tax plan that was going to benefit working class people. when you see there is little detail much like there was little detail on health care, they're still talking through the large kind of ideas of this. but i think what's problematic for republicans is that after they built a brand on the idea they were going to be super concerned about the deficit and super concerned about government spending, now they have a tax plan that might end up increasing the deficit. if they do that, they'll have to offset. . i've talked to people on capitol hill and groups that say they'll play for it maybe by going after entitlement program and programs that help middle class families. if that happens, even if middle

class families don't see their taxes go up, they might see their benefits go down. they might see it costs more to repair their homes or to do other things that middle class families get. i think that's really where the kind of def in the details will be. >> mark, i don't know how we can believe anything gary cohn says. when you start at the top and the president says believe me, this will not benefit me. we do simple math. if we say donald trump is worth $10 million, the estate tax alone saves him 4 million. the pass through, smaller businesses within your businesses, 39 to 35%. how does he stand up there with a straight face and say anything with any credibility when he makes that statement compared to the reality of those stunning numbers? >> look, the original tax plan from the campaign was weighted heavily toward the wealthy. this one is, i think on balance

weighted less heavily toward the wealthy. the tests are clear toward the politics and policy. as changes get made, will the president support changes that make it less good for the wealthy and more for working class and middle class? there are people around him who have that instinct. steve bannon had that instinct, but gary cohn is being cautious. he doesn't want to be caught up in saying everyone is going to do better in the middle class, but that's the test. we've seen the lobbyists are there to try keep their industries from being here. will middle class people be protected by the president or not? >> my big problem is there is no simplification whatsoever. >> fewer brackets. >> slightly. you got this 80,000 page tax code. and what are they going to make it more simple? they can't explain their own plan to the american people.

>> the people who make the least in this country should get a tax cut and should have their taxes simplified in theory. >> well, for the lowest bracket. my understanding is that it takes it from 10% to 12 %, so it raises taxes on the poorest american. >> but doubles the deduction. >> yesterday was an incredibly poor showing in terms of public relations for gary cohn to get up there and to say with this extra $1,000 someone can renovate their kitchen, buy a car. the average american makes $100,000 a year inflating what the average american makes by a quarter, by 25%. it just shows the disconnect of this administration from the people they were supposedly coming to office to help. >> why i'm skeptical now is because i feel like this is shaping up to be the health care debate. we're not talking about what the true selling point is which is the corporate tax rate. you reduce it to 20%. you broaden the base and lower the rates. everybody benefits.

we get to talk about the us kate tax which we have talked about for years and we'll talk about it again. you have giant constituent groups. wealthy people and the finance people who manage their estates. everybody loves to play them against each other. it's easy and fun, but the reality of the plan will benefit the economy. nobody wants to talk about that. that's suggesting -- >> the answer the 2.2 trillion question of how do we make up that money, how do we pay for it is there will be growth in the economy because of the tax cuts this. the do you buy the argument? >> somebody has to make it. >> statistically gdp growth in the 70s and 90s was stronger than the gdp growth in the 80s when we had the new reagan -- so -- i can line up 20 economists that will defy the argument that this trickle down nearly works. >> in world war ii dividend is

over, but we had 3.1 growth. that's something you can build upon if somebody would say it. >> it seems to me -- we are encountering a gaggle of hypocrites. private e-mails or private planes. this is going to benefit rich folks. and this election was about every day working ordinary people out there catching hell, how they're going to pay for college for their kids. we see this is just the status quo. working class people who are working hard won't see much change in their lives. >> we want to get the puerto rico. the food supplies dwindling more than a week after hurricane maria struck the island. lacking fuel, water, and communication, and the trump administration is being pressed to speed up the assistance. the u.s. military announced it is sending a three star general to the island to help direct the

recovery efforts. a top homeland security adviser said the military was involved from the start and it took some time to understand local government couldn't handle the logistics in distributing the aid. let's bring in gabe gutierrez who has been down there for quite some time. what does it look like on the ground? >> reporter: good morning. well, you mentioned the shipping containers that are stuck in san juan's main port. the reason they're here is because of a logistics nightmare. there's no power or water for much of the island, and it's a telecommunications break down. many drivers are showing up and so supplies aren't getting to those in need. today the acting security homeland security is set to visit. the trump administration is pushing back hard against growing criticism that the federal government was caught off guard. this morning at san juan's main port critically needed supplies and thousands of shipping containers are sitting there and not getting to people who need

them in the wake of hurricane maria. a distribution bottle neck stifling relief efforts in. >> we have not scaled up quick enough. >> the former general who coordinated military relief efforts after katrina says maria is a bigger challenge and the trump administration isn't doing enough. >> we have to do better than now, otherwise we won't get this done and more people are going to suffer. >> the white house says there are now enough resources on the ground, including 10,000 federal relief workers and 7200 others. >> the president is behind you. >> the president tweeting fee in a and first responders are doing a great job in puerto rico. massive food and water delivered. docks and electric grid dead. elaine duke to flying to puerto rico today. >> are you satisfied so far with the federal response? >> i am satisfied. >> reporter: at the port we saw mounting frustration. thousands of evacuees standing

in heat for hours waiting to board a cruise ship headed to florida. this woman has been trying to get back to new jersey for days to see her kids. >> you literally cannot get off this island. >> reporter: celebrities like pit bull trying to help sending his private plane to take cancer patients to the mainland. many sick people here are in dire shape. hospitals in critical condition waiting for fuel. >> right now the island is working 100% dependent on power generators. power generators are not built to last forever. >> reporter: it's not sustainable? >> it's not sustainable. >> reporter: now, the army is delivering, helping to deliver fuel to the hospitals, and the military has appointed a three star general to oversee the relief effort. as you go around the island, communications are improving in some parts of san juan. the recovering is starting here.

but other parts of the island are still in desperate need of help. >> we see the frustration on the ground in puerto rico, and we hear the criticism of the trump administration. we had the governor of puerto rico on yesterday. he went out of his way to say that president trump and the white house have been diligent. they've been responsive. they talk to them all the time. maybe that was strategy to keep that going. how do you account for that where the leadership is saying the white house is doing a good job but on the ground people are crying for more. >> i really think this is all -- goes back to the communications breakdown. it is difficult on the ground to communicate with just anyone. we've been with fema search and rescue teams that had a difficult time communicating with each other with local officials and trying to figure out where the need is greatest. we have spoken with power crews several days ago that said they hadn't been able to communicate with head quarters. they were just clearing debris and not even fixing the lines

yet. so much of it goes back to the communications breakdown. until it gets solved, this is at a sand still. san juan's mayor says she appreciates the resources are coming in, but there's a lot of red tape, and there is some criticism on the ground that the federal government should have seen this coming. this is an island and difficult to get resources. it's on the ground with people devastated the most, there is a frustration that many of them have not seen that relief arrive to them just yet. >> we're glad you're shining a light. gabe in san juan. thank you. as we've been talking the president has tweeted about puerto rico. he writes this. puerto rico governor just stated, quote, the administration and the president, every time we've spoken, they've delivered. that's coming from president trump. he goes on, the fact is that puerto rico has been destroyed by two hurricanes, big decisions will have to be made as to the cost of its rebuilding. two tweets within the last

couple of minutes about puerto rico from president trump. we'll have much more on puerto rico ahead. we'll bring in the speaker of the city council in new york city who's mother is on the island and in desperate need of help. it's never a good thing when your boss kevin, meet your father. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. it's my decision ito make beauty last.

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welcome back to "morning joe." let's go to nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. good morning. health and human services secretary tom price facing some backlash, growing backlash, over the expensive trips on taxpayer dollars. what are you hearing from the white house? >> to be honest not a whole lot and what we do hear is not that great, frankly, for tom price. this is, to be honest with you, a situation for the health and human services secretary, publicly the white house is saying hey, listen, when asked

whether tom price will keep his job after all that pricey private plane travel, they say, well, we're going to let the reviews happen. nbc news asked president trump about this yesterday, he heard the question, turned around and walked away and then in my private conversations with folks inside the west bing people are not happy. it's coming up in conversation and they're sort of startled and dismayed this fiscal conservative would end up spending this kind of taxpayer money. all has tom price's career f you will allow me the pun, hitting some turbulence. listen. >> this morning, a pricey payback. >> we've heard the concerns. i've heard the concerns, i've heard the criticism the. >> reporter: health and human services secretary tom price doing damage control after days of questions about his expensive private plane travel. some $400,000 worth of charter flights, according to politico. trips that, at times, mixed government business with personal visits. and now, new word, price wrapped up another $500,000 by using

military jets on an overseas work trip along with his wife, the health agency says price reimbursed the government for her bill, with the white house official pointing to justification for the international military flights but underscoring the difference between those and the domestic charters that invite fair scrutiny. putting price in an uncomfortable spotlight. >> i look forward to regaining the trust that american people, some of the american people may have lost, in the activities that i took. >> reporter: the secretary now says he will only travel commercial, no exceptions. and will pay back money for his seat on those private planes. about $51,000. only part of the total cost. the controversy, threatening price's place in the administration. >> i work at the pleasure of the president. the president is a remarkable leader. i'm incredibly privileged to serve in his cabinet and work on behalf of the american people. >> reporter: but does he think the president has confidence in him? >> we're going to work through

this and as i think we've still got the confidence of the president. >> reporter: those comments coming after a flu shot for the health secretary. but no booster from his boss when asked later by nbc news. >> trump, price says he has your confidence, that is true? mr. president? >> reporter: silence from president trump. but his press secretary responding when pressed on whether price will keep his job. >> we are going through this process, we're going to conduct a full review and we'll see what happens. >> reporter: price's precarious position as head of hhs comes after repeated failures to reform health care. the president pushing past that to focus on what he hopes will be a win, tax reform. >> it's called a middle-class miracle. >> reporter: but new fallout now as his top economic advisors stop short of guaranteeing middle-class people will actually see a tax cut. >> i cannot guarantee that. you could find me someone in the country that their taxes may not

go down. >> reporter: so experts say the guarantees are hard because details on the tax plan are still limited and that is actually part of the issue, right, because the details of this is exactly, they are exactly what's going to be time consuming and controversial for lawmakers to figure out down the road. a senior administration official says the president will be delivering the speech to a group of manufacturers today with the policy backdrop of that tax cut plan, guys, so we will see how that goes. should underscore the distinction with tom price the military travel and then the private charter travel and folks inside the white house here telling me there is really a difference between overseas military travel when you need secure communications and then what one person described to me as the abnormal private domestic travel. >> hallie jackson at the white house, thanks as always. joining us is a member of the house budget committee, democratic congressman from massachusetts. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> what's your reaction to not just tom price, scott pruitt, rhine zinke, using private

travel so frequently. >> this was the administration supposed to train the swamp and it's as swampy as i've seen. this is corruption from the top to the bottom. and it's people who clearly are there without the public interest in mind. they're not there to be public servants. they seem to be there to serve their own interests. >> you and i were talking a second ago about the democratic party a little bit broadly, coming up on a year now since hillary clinton lost to donald trump. do you think the democratic party has learned the right lessons from her loss about where it should head moving forward? >> i'm not sure we have. we have to take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror and recognize that we've lost, not just in 2016, but in several elections before that. we're in the worst position we've been since the 1920s and the house, the senate, and the white house, we're not in a governing position at all. and if we don't realize that we are partly to blame for that, that we've lost touch with a lot of american voters, we've lost touch with voters who used to be on our side we're not going to be able to move forward. rather than just opposing the

trump administration and telling everybody about how awful the republicans are, let's show a vision for our own future. let's talk about what democrats can do for the country. let's talk about a democratic tax reform plan, a democratic national security plan, a democratic plan to build infrastructure. that's what we should be talking about. a real vision for the future. >> congressman f you came to me and said this what is we want to do, i would say to you, what's the message? that's great. and i agree with you. it can no longer just go trump sucks. what's the message? give me the message. i have to go back and do ads, make it tight for me. >> if i had the most brilliant message i probably wouldn't be here trying to answer this question. look, i think we've got to talk about how every american, everybody, no matter where you live, can have a role in the economy in the future. what's happening right now in america is an awful lot of people are losing their jobs not to immigrants, that's a scape goes, not because we're closing the coal mines, but because jobs are getting automated out of

existence. american workers are standing on factory floors not worried their job will be taken by an immigrant but a robot. rather than claiming that we're going to fix this going back into the coal mines let's talk about how we grow jobs in the new economy, jobs every american can have a role in. not just if why you live in a coastal city, if in silicon valley, but what are people in indiana, what role will they play in the new economy? that's what we should be talking about. there aren't easy solutions, but at least that recognizes the problem. let's talk about the future of work here in america. >> so why do you suspect, congressman, that the leadership of your party isn't going out and making that case? do you think democratic leaders at the national level are too focused on identity politics, for example? >> well, look, i think we're focused on a lot of things that just don't really matter to the voters that we've lost. >> like what? >> and -- well, you know, some people call it identity politics. there's nothing wrong with

identity politics. that's a false dichotomy. some of the fights that we have over the right to marry whom you love and what not, that's really important. i want my own brother to marry who he loves, right. but that doesn't mean you can't talk about the economy. that doesn't mean that democrats shouldn't have a plan to move this country forward. and i think what we need in the democratic party more than anything is just some new leadership. a new generation of leadership. i've been recruiting veterans to run in swing districts across the country. i've endorsed 12 candidates already. they're incredible people. i always introduce them saying thank god they're not running against me because they're impressive folks. a navy helicopter pilot in new jersey, she's just knocking the socks off people when folks see her. the best campaign out of amy in kentucky who is first woman to become an f-18 pilot in the marines. these are the kind of leaders that americans can trust, regardless of party label. if we get people like that in the democratic party, i think we can move this country forward. >> mark? >> should the corporate tax rate be lower?

>> you know, the corporate tax rate probably should come down a little bit for international competitiveness but here's the problem. when trump says he wants a 15% tax cut, a tax rate for corporations, the biggest corporations on earth, right here in america, are already paying lower than that. their effective tax rate is lower than that. what about the small businesses? the small businesses that actually drive innovation that grow jobs, that improve our small communities. they're the ones bringing that average up. if you don't close the loopholes that allow the biggest corporations in america to take advantage of our tax program and slap the taxes on small corporations it's not gshs. >> why should the corporate tax rate be lower? >> my point is this, the corporate tax rate should be lower for small businesses, for growing businesses. that's where job creation happens and where small towns thrive. it should not be lower for corporations for the biggest corporations on earth, you know, the walmarts of the world, that already pay a tax rate that's lower than small businesses across america. >> congressman, "the new york

times" is in washington with a question for you. >> hi, congressman. my question, what do you think of the nfl protests and the real message is behind the people choosing choosing to kneel. >> what's the real message, say it again? >> what do you make of the nfl protests and the real message behind people choosing to kneel? some are saying it's a conversation about the flag, but the players are also saying it's really a conversation about police brutality. what's your take? >> well, listen, i listen to the players who are kneeling and they're saying it's a conversation about police brutality. the problem is, that it's been distracted by this conversation about the flag. you know, the players have every right in the world to kneel in protest. that's a right defended by the constitution. i'm not sure it's the most respectful or best way to bring this issue to light. because rather than talk about police brutality all we're talking about is a offending the flag. i'm a veteran, i support the flag. it doesn't make me feel good to see people disrespecting the flag.

i also swore an oath to protect and defend the constitution both as a united states marine and a member of congress. i understand free speech is protected. make sure we're talking about the right things. >> congressman served four tours in iraq, one of the first platoons into baghdad. he knows of what he speaks and he also got married last weekend, romantic 36-hour honeymoon we're told and getting married last week elise jordan. >> wow. >> congratulations. >> not to each other. >> wow. >> important to point out. you had a question for the congressman? >> you're in the house armed services committee and i'm really concerned about the administration's strategy, specifically do they have one? are you reassured by briefings you're getting from the national security council and other officials. >> every time we hear from secretary mattis and chairman dunford, i feel renewed confidence. the problem is i don't think the president is listening to his

advisors and when you ask whether the administration as a whole has a strategy, i don't think so. here's what we should be doing. you know, we've got to have a credible military threat. not talk about armadas towards north korea when it turns out they're headed in the opposite direction. we have to strengthen our relationship with our allies. i went on an oversilgght tripp asia and they think we have a commander in chief we can't trust. we have to an opening for diplomacy. everybody admits there's no military solution here. and instead of providing an opening for diplomacy, what the president is doing, by ratcheting up tensions, is actually closing that window down. he's doing the exact opposite of what we need to do to help resolve this crisis. >> congressman, by, i do want to ask about a new generation of leadership in the democratic party. a lot of people that i talk to that everyone talks to privately who raises your name when they think about 2020. you will say it's too early and

you're not there yet, but at the core is to unseat donald trump. you need a democratic president to get the things done. is running for president something you would consider? have you been approached? >> you have i've been approached bulgts , but we have to remain focused on 2018. if he can win back the -- we can win back the house that's how we keep the president in check. >> i say i'm focused on 2018 not running in 2020. so much work to do we can't be distracted talking about 2020. we have these veterans running, new women candidates, the folks who represent the diversity of the democratic party. we can take back the house of representatives hold the president in check and be in a good position to run for 2020. >> keep recruiting veterans to run for office. that changes the discussion. keep doing that.

>> thanks for your time. congratulations on the wedding. >> thank you very much. into coming up on "morning joe" much more from puerto rico where the situation on the ground seems at adds with the president's claims of an amazing response to the storm. one of new york city's top officials who grew up there and is just back from touring the damage. you know who likes to be in control? this guy. check it out! self-appendectomy! oh, that's really attached. that's why i rent from national. where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. which makes me one smooth operator. ah! still a little tender. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

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"morning joe." joining us melissa, a speaker of the new york city council who visited puerto rico earlier this week and whose mother is still there. water, power and supplies, obviously, very difficult to come by as we've been reporting all morning. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> just an eyewitness account from the ground. you were there and got back on tuesday. what does it look like there? >> i mean, the puerto rico that we all knew is not the puerto rico today. i've been putting some images whatever i saw and this lush tropical island, people have made the equivalent of napalm, basically the life was sucked out of a lot of the vegetation and what you're seeing are literally dry forests and there is no shade and there is years of, obviously, recue per rags on that side of it. the response by this administration has been deplorable.

it's not as if anyone did not know a category 5 hurricane was on it ways to puerto rico. it's not as if anyone knew -- did not know it was going to be a direct hit. it's not as if anyone did not know that puerto rico is an island and would pose its own set of challenges. the fact it's take son long to get resources on the ground and they're still not sufficient. we only have 10,000 personnel on the ground between troops and relief workers. when you have the equivalent of 40,000 individuals having been sent to florida after irma or 30,000 to texas after harvey. it is just not sufficient and the lack of planning and preparation is literally costing lives. >> the argument that administration has made and, in fact, governor rossello made on our show yesterday is the aid is on the ground, it's just sitting in the trucks and trailers. it's not that government didn't get the aid there. they don't have the truck drivers and distribution net wooshg to get it around the island. what do you say to that. >> that would have been part of the planning.

if it's a catastrophic tomorrow storm that is going to affect the infrastructure of the island you have personnel ready to be deployed to set up an infrastructure you can deploy and get convoys set up and the supplies to where they need to be. there's a lot of issues here. you know, the issue of the jones act which is a conversation we've been having for years, those of us who believe it should not exist anymore has cost the island much, has contributed to a lot of the debt that exists on the island. and that's another conversation. the fact that the tweet that you referred to earlier that the president sent out is talking about costs of rebuilding at this time, there is a double standard of how puerto ricans are being treated and those on the u.s. virgin islands. they rely on the ports and relief that will come to them, comes through puerto rico. we need to ensure that we don't overlook both of these, but definitely we are being treated a second-class citizen. >> senator mccain legislation to

permanently waive the jones act. talk about the here and now and the response, what do puerto ricans need in this moment right now. >> all the help. the response from new york city and new york state, since we have such a large population in our history with the puerto ricoen community is very vast and goes over decades we've been providing personnel on the ground to set up emergency systems. we have people that have been deployed to the central government and people that have been deployed to the mayor of san juan to set up emergency infrastructure and we have been sending and receiving a lot of donations. so we have to now figures out how to get that on the island but setting up the infrastructure on the ground to get that to the more remote areas is important. puerto rico is a mountainous area. there's a lot of areas that are remote and difficult to access. it's 100 miles by 35 miles. but there have been roads that have been washed away, bridges and infrastructure that have been washed away. obviously the communications sets up a problem which is another area that probably in terms of the department of defense or other resources here kind of help set up some sort of

communications infrastructure. that does delay and set up challenges for the relief efforts. so there is just a lot. but, you know, literally as we speak here, there are lives that are being lost. you cannot have hospitals running endlessly on generators. they burn out. you run out of fuel. that's been happening. . . this is costing lives and the lack of preparation and really being able to react quickly is just not acceptable. >> that's just the hospitals that are still open. >> yes. >> right. >> i've witnessed the resiliency of folks on the virgin islands, st. croix and st. thomas. as we talk about what folks need and the failure of the president, could you say a little bit about what puerto ricans are doing right now to respond to the catastrophe on the island. >> my responsibility as a leader is to talk about the sense of urgency needed but there is a sense of resiliency and people coming together. when i was on the island and i went into a remote area in the

mountains and basically roads were obstructed and they weren't waiting for the government to help. they came together on their own and someone that had access to a bulldozer got on the bulldozer and was going through and making sure that the mud was separated so that people could pass and be able to visit their loved ones, right. people are coming together and that sense of resiliency is very much there and that spirit of wanting to help is there and overcome this. and we are not immune to adversity and we have that spirit and, obviously, the response here stateside not only from a puerto rican community but the broader community, to me has been very uplifting at a time that for me i feel deflated at times because this is where my soul is at, my mother still lives there, my family, i was born and raised there and i care very much about what happens and just don't find acceptable what is -- what we're going through at this moment. >> a lot of people watching want to know how they can help. what would you tell them? >> in new york city we continue

to collect -- i think we really would, i would encourage more of the monetary donations. we have a great relationship with hispanic federation and there's many others, but hispanic federation is the one we've been working with in the city of new york and the donations will be going to organizations on the ground directly throughout the island that will be providing relief directly to those affected. that's where i think our efforts need to be and this is a long-term process. we're not going to resolve this in a month or two weeks in a year. we are going to need the commitment of people who want to help in whatever ways. we have to set up -- and also the migration is coming. climate refugees. they will be coming to new york or they're going to be going to florida. we have to be prepared to be able to welcome them and help them adapt. >> we appreciate you putting the spotlight on this and being here this morning and hope your mom is doing okay. >> i appreciate it. thank you. >> speaker of the new york city council, thank you. still ahead this morning on "morning joe," north korea has a new insult for president trump calling him a, quote, old lunatic.

this comes as the regime accuses the u.s. of exploiting the death of otto warmbier who died after falling into a coma in a prison in north korea. we'll be right back. i was working for the c.i.a., d.e.a., pablo escobar, why else? the incredible true story of the c.i.a.'s biggest secret is now one of the best reviewed films of the fall. woo! barry, you gotta take care of this family. this is gunna be good for us. it's 100% thrilling. we are ordering you to land immediately. alright boys, let's land. tom cruise delivers his best performance in years.

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it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. coming up this weekend on my show "sunday today" on nbc my guest is astrophysicist neil degrass tyson at the museum of national history to interview him and we talked in the midst of all the hurricanes about climb change and the response to it. here's what he said about the lack of imagination in preparing for hurricanes. >> i'm tired of looking at photos of countless thousands of cars exiting a city because a hurricane is coming. where are the engineers and scientists saying, you know instead of running away from a city about to be destroyed from the hurricane, let me figures out a way top tap the energy of the hurricane to drive the power needs of the city that it's otherwise going to destroy. where are those people?

you need a culture where that becomes a natural state of how people think, rather than buy toilet paper and buy water and run. that's our current natural state. and i don't think that was the country i grew up in. i don't think so. >> his point is not that we can, as of right now, tap the cyclonic energy of a hurricane but we're not doing a good job in thinking about ways of being prepared for them and reacting for them rather than preparing well for them. the tip of the iceberg. he's enthusiastic. >> you were mesmerized. >> i'm not going to say it -- >> it was an hour and a half of that too. why he doesn't think we'll go to mars and all things. that's coming up this sunday on "sunday today" on nbc. we'll have much more on the troubled response to hurricane maria straight ahead. plus it's not just about presidential elections. russia is using social media to fuel controversy on all types of american issues and congress wants twitter and facebook to do

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because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. kevin, meet yourkeviner. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. what were you thinking at those moments? i mean some of these flights clearly were to places that had commercial air possibilities. there's one flight to philadelphia that you drive 45 minutes to dulles, you get on a private flight to fly to philadelphia for $25,000.

when you take amtrak you can be there in an hour and a half for about $100. >> that particular trip we had a meeting that morning on the hurricanes that i needed to be at and then we had a meeting in the afternoon at the white house and, again, these trips were approved through the normal process, so it was deemed appropriate and that that was the necessary way to be able to make my other obligations within the department. >> health secretary tom price's job is up in the air. he claims to have the confidence of the president after a private jet scandal but so far president trump is staying quiet and now the number of cabinet members who use charter flights is up to four. more than a week since hurricane maria directly hit puerto rico growing frustration on the island over a lack of basic supplies, but the trump administration is congratulating itself on the recovery efforts. who's right there. deeply disappointing the vice chair of the intel committee described the presentation twitter made to the committee yesterday as we learn more about

the social media's role of russia's meddling in the 2016 election. the trump administration made promises on tax reform but there are flu questions this morning about whether the final product will be able to live up to the president's word of a, quote, middle-class miracle. and amid all the partisan ranker an emotional moment on the house floor as congressman steve scalise returned for the first time since he was shot and nearly lost his life three months ago. we'll cover all those stories and more. welcome to "morning joe" on friday, september 29th. i'm willie geist. alongside the host of "deadline white house" at 4:00 on msnbc, communication director for george w. bush, nicolle wallace, good morning. >> thanks for having me. >> always good to have you here. donny deutsch at the table, senior political analyst for nbc news. >> all those stories and more. >> and more coming up. >> and more stories. >> on a special edition of "morning joe." associate editor of commentary magazine noah rothman, chair at princeton university eddie glad

jr. and new york times reporter al cinder is with us in washington. joe and mika off this morning. yesterday they were in boston for an event as part of their visiting fellowship at the harvard institute of politics. they will be back on monday. so, the food supplies reportedly dwindling in remote towns of puerto rico more than a week after hurricane maria struck the island. huge portions of the population lacking fuel, water, and communications. and the trump administration is being pressed to step up assistance. the u.s. military has announced it's sending a three-star general to the island to help direct the recovery efforts. the white house was asked yesterday why it took so long to make that move atop homeland security -- a top homeland security adviser says the military had been involved from the start and took time to realize the local government couldn't handle the logistics of the doctoring the aid but the general who turned around the government's response to hurricane katrina was not buying that. >> i don't know what the hell is going on back there. they're using words i don't

understand. we never use to win wars. with our partners. i'm not your partner, fema. i'm a chand you give me a commission and say take water, and fuel, and save the people of puerto rico. that's what we operate off, is a mission. the military didn't get that mission until yesterday. i heard a conversation earlier today where they indicated that if the task force commander wanted to do air drops, he could make a recommendation. that's bull [ bleep ]. on the ground, he need to be giving orders and figures out what rules need to be to save lives. this bureaucratic response is not working with all due respect to the white house, they are trying to put lipstick on this pig but this is moving too slow. >> that is lieutenant general russe russell honore. president trump waived the jones act which restricted foreign ships from carrying cargo between u.s. ports that lasts

only ten days. they are pu tweeting last night, quote, fema and first responders doing a great job in puerto rico, massive food and water delivered dox and electric grid dead locals trying hard to help but many have lost their homes military on-site and i will be there tuesday wish press would treat fairly. he also wrote puerto rico is devastated phone system electric grid many roads gone. fema and first responders amazing. governor said great job. so nicole, as usual, the president has to remind you he's doing a great job despite what you may be hearing. he is right it is a logistical question in puerto ricop president governor of puerto rico on this show yesterday and he said, the president has been responsive, he's been diligent, we talked to him again and again, but we have all this aid sitting on the ground and no way to distribute it around the island. >> the people of puerto rico don't think that press is treating this unfairly.

i think the people of puerto rico feel like the press has been the one jumping up and down, since before the storm hit the island. the press reported what meteorologists reported which was this was going to be the worst storm in 90 years to hit puerto rico. this was the worst storm in 90 years to hit puerto rico. one of the hurricanes that came down exactly as forecast. it was predicted before the storm hit, that the island would lose power. the island is without power. i think until the president takes himself out of the equation and puts the people of puerto rico in the center of it i'm not sure decision making will flow from the west wing the way it needs to, to now rectify the things that weren't in place before. jeremy bash, chief of staff at the pentagon, said that the military does logistics with these people in desperate need for, is for someone to land on puerto rico and build the quiv wlen lent of a base, cell tower, bathrooms, cooling centers, some sort of lectrygrid to replace the one that was demolished. it's not time for excuses and

explanations and after action reports. the president talks about puerto rico like a bystander. he can fix it if he sort of puts the things in place and gives the military the power to do so. >> go ahead, donnie. >> it's worse than that. if you truly had empathy as a human being or a leader no matter how -- even if things were going in the right direction you say this is not enough. you see the pictures and feel just as a human being, and, obviously, i'm not allowed to clinically diagnose anymore but this man sees this, but yet, will instead of doubling down we need to do more it's the opposite. i'm doing a great job. no matter what -- >> he can't take himself out of it. >> not only take out. congratulates himself on it. it's worse than that, no matter what, this is kind of almost a -- a larger more devastating example of what happened with the military family, where there's not an ability to empathize with the other side other than how does it affect me and it's tragic. >> so, obviously, the conditions on the ground there's 100% of

the electrical grid is down. more than half of the hospitals are out. they can't get clean drinking water. there are reports not only from puerto rico but islands like vijah cas off puerto rico running out of cash, can't get fuel. we know what's happening there. i mean the coverage has been there. is it fair to criticize president trump here? i mean he's really been pretty engaged on this. as i said we heard from leaders in puerto rico who said actually president trump we've talked to every day and we think he's doing all he can to get things here, but has he been a step too slow or the criticism fair? >> i think the criticism is fair now. i don't think it was fair when it began, which was instantaneously. we heard perers have wish thought that this was the next katrina. obviously, for political incentive. the notion per vaed across the media was that the president was not engaged in this. which was false. there was no evidence to support that beyond the extent to which he wasn't tweeting about it. and then when he does tweet he talks about how shipping interests don't want the jones act and put his foot in his

mouth. when not talking about it i have more confidence he's doing his job than when he is. >> eddie? >> well, it seems to me that president trump's moral instincts aren't necessarily connected to the right thing. right. his instincts don't lead him to do the right thing immediately. his instincts are optics. >> press coverage. >> how i'm perceived. the second thing is it seems to me that in the midst of the crisis that was happening in puerto rico, we were dealing with donald trump's culture war with the nfl players and his attack on steph curry and the like and it seemed to me at that moment, when 3.5 or 3.4 million people are without power, who are trying to rebuild their lives after a category 4 or 5 hurricane, basically devastated the island, it seemed to me at that moment president trump was supposed to use his bully pulpit, right, to bring attention to the island, bring all of our resources to bear and then thirdly, we must never

forget that puerto rico, these folks, are americans. so what we with are witnessing, we are witnessing our fellow folks, experiencing extreme suffering. and i think this has to be made very, very clear to all of us on the mainland, that these are, in fact, americans and i think president trump has kind of failed in making that clear. >> that suffering is real and gets worse by the day. >> by the day. >> as the areas just can't get the supplies that are there. >> i should say this, st. croix was hit by the category 5. it doesn't have 3.5 million but, you know, the u.s. virgin islands are struggling as well. >> a guy we know that is a great television producers about the optics, we think back to bush in 9/11, back to obama after ferguson, after the execution of the dallas police officers, you felt them there, they were just there. with houston, a guy who is a television producer for him not

to go down there and forget the real reason, never connected with human beings on the screen, he fails miserably in these catastrophic almost ready for tv moments for somebody to be presidential and it's odd he reseeds in those moments. >> the revelations about expensive noncommercial travel keep coming for health and human services secretary tom price. the report from politico, price accompanied by his wife and top aides, took military jets to major cities around the world, including 95 minute flight from berlin to geneva that cost $16,000. while other department staff flew commercial. to put this in context kathleen sebelius who spent five years as hhs secretary under president obama told politico she never took a military jet and flew commercially overseas. according to politico the combined cost of secretary price's noncommercial air travel tops $1 million since may. the white house official tells nbc that trips aboard military jets were approved because price had no deputy secretary to

handle matters while he was overseas and he needed access to secure communications. so in a statement earlier yesterday, secretary price said, he will take no more private charter flights, quote, no exceptions. price avoided an outright apology and instead said, quote, all of my political career i've fought for the taxpayers. it's clear in this case i was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer. price promised to write a personal check to the u.s. treasury for the expenses of his private travel. quote, the taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes. price appears to have literally meant seat, paying back just a fraction of the cost. price was asked about all this last night. >> you say in the statement the taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes, but you're writing a check for we understand from your officials, $51,887. the total cost is estimated at more than $400,000 for the 26 flights since may. is that okay? >> well, as i said, there's an

ongoing review being done by the inspector general and it's important that we wait for that review. all of the trips as i mentioned had been approved, been approved by the legal department, approved by the administration department, within hhs, been deemed to be appropriate official travel, and so we need to let the inspector general go ahead and act. >> secretary price also said he was, quote, not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer. here are those very concerns. in 2009 and 2010, after democrats in control of congress approved buying private jets. >> i think we've made it halfway where we ought to and that is cut it from 8 to 4 jets and need to cut it from 4 jets to 0 jets. this is just another example of fiscal irresponsibility run amuck in congress right now. >> well i want to say to the speaker, don't you fly over our country in your luxury jet and lecture us on what it means to

be an american. >> so that was tom price first eight years ago and the second bite seven years ago. mark halperin, how big a problem is for this for tom price. >>? >> it's a big problem. if they can find someone else to take his job he probably won't survive it. it's not clear anyone wants that position to be confirmed. the mindset would that cause a cabinet secretary to do this with a record of speaking out against government waste is phenomenal. and he can say it was approve aud he wants. very little reporting i've seen about who signed off on this, who generated these requests. but if you're an adult who understand how the world works, and you're in the government, and you get on that many charter flights, particularly some of the ones to philadelphia and to nashville and places he owned homes the level of bad judgment is for many people around the president, disqualifying. >> you mean -- >> is it really that big of an obstacle to get rid of somebody and have an acting secretary there? we don't have a nominee for dhs and no one seems to notice dhs

is headless. >> you can have an acting secretary for a while, but in the way the president thinks about these things, he wants smaller problems not bigger problems. >> i mean, i guess noah's question is, for president trump, who let it be known through the press he's annoyed like this, doesn't like the behavior of tom price, why let him sit there? if you listen to tom price yesterday he sounded one of those app byes i'm sorry there was so much concern about this, not necessarily i'm sorry i wasted taxpayer money. >> i think if you're tom price you should be worried about your job. the idea that the president is openly fuming against him, the idea that president is upset this really looks bad on him and the people that he surrounds himself with. this is someone who built a campaign, i should say president trump built this campaign on working class people on appealing to middle-class people, on draining the swamp and then you have tom price now making, having more and more headlines about how luxurious his travel was and the idea that he's paying back 51,000 when the price tag could be something

like $1 million, it's not hard to understand there are people that will look at that and say really he's not actually making an apology. but i think the idea that president trump is letting him keep his job, at least for now, it goes back to the idea that the president is now already having to deal with the cultural issues, the cultural war issues with the nfl, having to deal with puerto rico and now if he has to fire tom price, that's i think in his mind elongating the headlines and hoping this will go away. >> still ahead, north korea is weeks away interest an important anniversary in the country. if past years are precedent it could provide another opportunity for the regime to trigger more tensions around the world. long-time ambassador christopher hill straight ahead on "morning joe." but first, bill karins has a look at the forecast. hey, bill. >> finally, i can give you a weekend forecast without some death and destruction in it. a nice, quiet weekend. one area of low pressure to watch, maybe a tropical depression near florida. sounds scary when you put it

together, but it's a weak storm not going to get strong. bring florida rain, wind, rough surf and the worst of it. a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression. none of our computers had that becoming a hurricane or even a tropical storm that would be any problem whatsoever. it will bring some rainfall, though, about one to three inches and in florida that will not cause flooding concerns. but again, just a rainy weekend and not a good beach weekend for the east coast beaches of florida. so the rest of the forecast mostly all positive news. a little bit of rain there in texas. little bit of shower activity and new storm coming into the northwest and it's going to snow in the cascades as we go throughout the weekend. snow levels down to 5,000 feet. we are getting to the time of year where the northern half of the country and the mountains can get chilly and a raw saturday morning in areas of the northeast and new england. temperatures in the 40s and the 50s and we'll get a little light rain through and that will exit. the reward a fantastic sunday and the mid-atlantic from d.c. to atlanta to carolinas up through the northeast. i mean it's about as good a sunday as you will get. the morning will be chilly, afternoon perfect.

middle of the country starts to warm up and pretty much a fantastic sunday from dallas to chicago. as i mentioned just a little unsettled in the pacific northwest. washington, d.c., is one of those spots that was record heat as we went through portions of the earlier this week and you're looking -- look at the sunrise. that is gorgeous. enjoy a fantastic friday. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. can we at least analyze can we push the offer online? legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. the new app will go live monday?

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twitter says it has shut down more than 200 accounts tied to the same russian operatives who bought political ads on facebook. of the 450 accounts released by facebook as part of its investigation, twitter was able to match 22 of them to its own site. the disclosure by twitter followed a briefing by company officials to staffers of the senate and house intel committees yesterday. following that meeting the top democrat on the senate committee mark warner slammed twitter for its presentation. >> the presentation that the twitter team made to the senate

intel staff today was deeply disappointing. the notion that there work was basically derivative based upon accounts that facebook had identified showed an enormous lack of understanding from the twitter team of how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and again, begs many more questions than they offered. their response was, frankly, inadequate on almost every level. and why their need to come forward in a public presentation and explain to the senate and to the american public becomes all

that more important. >> the top democrat on the house intel committee, adam schiff, weighed in on twitter's briefing to his committee, releasing a statement that read in part, it is clear that twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breadth of russian activity during the campaign. this additional analysis will require far more robust investigation into how russian actors used their platform as a part of their active measures campaign. you do get the sense, nicole, that facebook, twitter, social media, was totally clueless about what was happening on their sites during the 2016 campaign. >> it's worse and you have to put google in there, because youtube is another one we're not talking about yet. if you look at how -- when there's a terrorist attack and they're always the smartest law enforcement people around the table and look for the digital footprint because no one takes down any questionable material or activity until after the fact. the social media companies are sort of like the worst stereotype of a republican

political organization, they're reactive, opaque, defensive, slow to understand the value of transparency, they're totally lawyered up, lobbied up, and they are, as a culture, the hubris of thinking they're all about the public good when if you take a low-tech analogy it's like someone got mugged in your backyard and their position is it's not our problem. we just bought the house on which the lot was built. >> these guys, because the tech guys, the young, are the ones revolutionizing the wold for betterment the irony if i want to take an ad out on nbc or anywhere else for a laundry detergent the things i have to prove it has 5% more blue crystals but nothing more important for us for people watching the show in the next 10, 20 years as the regulations of these companies they control the flow of communication. i don't want to upset all the nbc people watching this, but

what's happening here as far as our power versus what's happening over here, multiply a thousand fold and there is no regulation. >> one difference, though, is that we have quality controls, we have standards, we are -- >> the fcc. >> and they should be held to the same standards. they are media companies operating as, you know, the dark internet. >> media companies a thousand fold. >> you have new reporting for "the new york times" about the racially divisive russian ads on facebook we learned about. what did you find? >> i found that representative robin kelly essentially said that facebook admitted to members of the congressional black caucus and subcommittee on the house oversight committee there were ads targeting black lives matter and targeting specifically ethnic groups that they -- and allowing people to target not only for russian influence but also target housing ads, employment ads and that is where you get into the point where there could have been federal laws broken, but essentially a lot of the members of the congressional black caucus are fuming because they're saying russia actually exploited a lot of the racial

divisions that already exist in america and used both facebook and twitter in this way to essentially make people hate each other more. so the question is whether or not facebook and twitter understand what's going on. robin kelly wrote this lehrer to facebook essentially saying we need you to engage more and be a lot more transparent. she said that company has done some adjustments when it comes to the housing and employment ads, but when it comes to understanding how russia influenced the presidential election, she wants to know a whole lot more and facebook essentially hasn't been doing that. to, so it's very important when you see someone like mark warner talking about twitter and not understanding the scope of it and what's going on, it's because facebook, for a long time, said oh, no, we don't think that this is a really big issue and now you have the founder of facebook saying i was wrong about that, that i should have actually taken this more

seriously. >> coming up on "morning joe," secretary of state rex tillerson is arriving in beijing later this morning as the u.s. presses china to rein in north korea. but what are the chinese want in return? our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell joins us for that conversation, straight ahead on "morning joe." kevin, meet your father. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned.

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welcome back to "morning joe." secretary of state rex tillerson arrives in beijing this morning, his second official visit to china. of course coming as the administration continues its pushing of china to do more to control north korea's nuclear ambitions. meanwhile, north korea is personally insulting donald trump while accusing the u.s. of exploiting the death of college student otto warmbier. the regime described the president as a, quote, old lunatic and suggested america push the college student into the country breaking the laws there. he was convicted, was otto warmbier, of stealing a propaganda photo. he died in june after released from prison. he arrived back on u.s. soil on a stretcher in a coma. the president tweeted otto was tortured beyond believe by north korea. his parents said he had been

left deaf, staring blankly into space and his teeth appeared to be rearranged. the ohio coroner said it was unclear what led to his brain injury or whether he had been tortured. joining us now the dean of the school of international studies at the university of denver former u.s. ambassador to south korea, former assistant secretary of state for east asia, christopher hill and with us nbc news foreign correspondent keir simmons and in washington, nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and the host of andrea mitchell reports, andrew ya mitchell. you've been covering the story of otto warmbier for some time since his initial capture inside north korea. this has come to the forefront again this week. his parents have been on television describing the conditions he was returned to them under. and also, because now the president has tweeted about it and drawn a response from north korea. are we seeing now otto warmbier again at the center of this north korean fight with the united states? >> i wouldn't say at the center, but certainly the emotional reaction here in the u.s. and

certainly from the president from the white house, to what happened to this young man, has become symbolic of how terrible the relations are. i would say that the center, of course, is the nuclear standoff, the fact that north korea has been threatening the u.s. again all most recently in response to the president's very aggressive rhetoric in his speech to the united nations and his taunting of kim jong-un as rocket man and lil' kim and all the rest in that speech in alabama. the back and forth, the rhetorical escalation has been, you know, part of this conversation. the hope was that some progress might have been made, might still be made, on this trip to china but let me just tell you that this update today, this is a snake bitten trip already. the plane has broken down. this is the first time that the new secretary of state tillerson has taken the 757 that

secretaries of states since madeleine albright have been flying around the world, the larger plane. he took this plane for whatever reason and it has broken down. he is right now in tokyo. he's not in china. he's going to overnight outside of tokyo on an air base and then go to beijing tomorrow and try to resume his schedule. >> but he there is safely, andrea, in tokyo? >> absolutely. he's at an air base right now and they're getting some rest and i guess while they try to fix the airplane. so that said, china is still the key to all of this and china, as concerned as anyone else in the region, about this escalating rhetoric. chris hill, the expert on all of this, having negotiated most, you know, he is someone who has negotiated with the north koreans and all of the neighbors and dealt with the talks under president bill clinton. i interviewed madeleine albright yesterday and she was very concerned. i went to pyongyang with her in

october of 2000 when there was even talk of normalizing relations, and that, of course, is completely gone off the rails. >> ambassador, from where you're sitting where is the conversation with china? what is the best hope that rex tillerson can have when he sits down in beijing? >> first of all there is no conversation with the north koreans, which is quite right. the real action should be with china and it's been rather episodic. we haven't had the deep dive we need to have with the chinese. there have been the sort of vague knows we can outsource it or use them as a contractor. i'm not sure the chinese are prepared do that. i think it's an important trip and hope secretary tillerson gets his airplane fixed to get over there. a lot of stuff to get done. >> what is left for secretary of state rex tillerson in terms of pressure he can put on china? what's still out there? >> it's not just a matter of pressure. it's a matter of saying to the chinese, you don't want this, we don't want this, we need to strategy to make sure this isn't happening. and what we don't need from china is the sort of junior

college try where they say well, we tried and they still have nuclear weapons. we need an understanding that we cannot have this as an outcome after all, this country pointing nuclear weapons at us. first country that's tried to do that in some 50 years. secretary tillerson has his work cut out for him and he doesn't have much of a diplomatic team, just a few people, but i think he's really got to kind of work on this and work on it hard because when donald trump finally meets the chinese we shouldn't be hearing tweets or seeing tweets from donald trump, we should see him pulling a rabbit out of a hat an it's up to tillerson to start stuffing the rabbit down the hat and have an unchg of what we're going to do going forward. >> what people need to watch for, ambassador, i think, the movement of military assets. we get confused with all of this at times between the heat and the light if you like. the rhetoric. a lot of the rhetoric from the president and, indeed, from the leader of north korea, he's actually directed at a domestic audience. the real question is, at what

point does north korea begin moving military assets, the south koreans have suggested the u.s. might begin to do that. that's the kind of drumbeat of war that would make you begin to worry that we are heading towards a conflict. >> even if it's not a drumbeat of war, what it is, is a drumbeat leading to the great possibility of miscalculation. when you start moving these platforms around, you are looking at a very tough situation. especially with north korea, because you never really know how they're going to react to this kind of stuff. we need to be purposeful in things we say and things we do. and we can't just be blustering. this is not reality tv. this is serious stuff. >> so andrea, obviously, china does not want to destabilized north korea on the peninsula there. how willing are they to work with the united states in putting the pressure on north korea and turning the screws on north korea to take away the nuclear program? >> well, what china really wants as you point out is not to have the u.s. presence there.

>> right. >> and they really want to make sure that south korea, first of all, that there's no regime change and that there's not a reunification with the united states right there on their doorstep. but right now, what president xi wants, is not to have all of this interrupting his october party congress. that's what he's focused on. he's trying to consolidate his own power with this very important communist party congress coming up next month, and this is -- the last thing he wants is military threats, counter threats, with the u.s. and north korea. and exactly as ambassador hill just pointed out, the fact that there could be a miscalculation, there could be an accident, there have been before, wars have started that way, and the fact that we are now flying our bombers closer than ever to north korea in response to their threats and now they are threatening to shoot down one of our planes, something can happen either at sea or in the air, and

that's what we need to avoid both mattis and tillerson are trying to avoid that but they can't control the tweeting from the oval office. >> meanwhile, president trump has a little more than two weeks to announce if he will recertify the iran nuclear agreement which he has called the worst deal ever negotiated. he said last week that he was already decided on the question, but was not announced that decision yet. iran says it, too, will pull out if the united states withdraws. iran's foreign minister tells al jazeera iran has the option of withdraw and other options if washington decides to pull out of the deal. president trump temporarily recertified the deal in june. he now has until october 16th to make a decision. >> ambassador, what do we know about the status of the iranian nuclear program? >> well, from what we can understand from the international watchdog, iaea, the u.n. watchdog, they have been following scrupulously the letter of the law there. this was an agreement narrowly focused on the nuclear issue, where iran has not been

following the sort of spirit of the thing, is through kind of pull their people back in syria and this kind of regional troublemaking they've been engaged in and that's what we're concerned about. if we're concerned about that we should expand the scope of the agreement, not get rid of the part of the agreement that is working with respect to the nuclear issue. >> ambassador, i venture to say probably not one viewer that has ever been to north korea. to us it's this evil empire, this cartoon character at the head. what does it feel like over there when you walk in the streets? paint a picture if you will. >> rather than an evil empire think of it as an evil village. you look at the place stuck in some time warp. you look at the sort of industrial setup and it's kind of amazing. it's what you think of with really old eastern europe. really unwashed, unpainted, old industrial facilities. looks like a museum in that regard. people try to paint an air of being positive about you, because after all, you've been allowed to be there, but it

really speaks to the fact that any kind of bringing of north korea into the world, is going to be a very long-term project and when you look at the go go fabulous position of south korea, i mean go into that city of seoul, it's fabulous, and then you look at north korea, this is not west germany contemplating east germany. this is something quite different on an order of magnitude. >> you've spent a lot of time along that border of china and north korea. >> yeah. i guess i would add to that about the north koreans we have to be realistic about the effective pressure on the north koreans. this is a country in the 1990s that went to a famine where up to 3.5 million people died. there wasn't a revolution. they didn't overthrow the leader. nothing changed. this is a country where people, children when they learn math, one of the questions is, you know, there are three north korean revolutionary soldiers and 30 american soldiers they kill all the american soldiers equally, how many soldiers do each of the north koreans kill. that's the kind of

indoctrination you see in north korea. now we've got to be careful not to be, you know, just seeing them as aggressive because clearly, behind the curtain, there will be a lot of people who just want peace, but we should be realistic about the effect we can have on them. >> andrea, to skip back to the iran deal for a moment, you were alerting us there was some question about the translation from the foreign minister of iran in the al jazeera interview. what did you find. >> the foreign minister told people in new york yesterday that that's not the case. in fact, he had spent the last two weeks in new york telling all of us that they will not pull out, that their whole strategy is to isolate the united states, if the u.s. withdraws from the iran deal, all the other countries, the europeans, have said they will stay in and this will embarrass and isolate the u.s. they're not about to withdraw and that was apparently a mistranslation around al jazeera, rocketed around the world, picked up by reuters but he corrected that late yesterday in new york to a number of us.

the other piece of this is, of course, that if the u.s. does -- if the president does carry out his threats to pull out or put it back on congress, there are different legalistic ways they can try to not technically withdraw but try to change the deal, what is the signal to north korea and chris hill would know this better than anyone, what kim jong-un is looking at is, what is the advantage to negotiating with the united states, as tillerson and mattis want, and if he sees that we are canceling deals, that is a signal to north korea that you can't trust the u.s. and might as well just keep on the path to military power. >> andrea mitchell, thank you very much. we'll be watching "andrea mitchell reports" at noon today. ambassador hill and keir, thank you very much. coming up next, president trump likes to call north korea's leader rocket man but elon musk is giving him competition for the name. the billionaire's latest plan to colonize mars and in the not too distant future. that story next on "morning joe." ♪

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the new york stock exchange and cnbc's sara eisen joins us. gdp growth second quarter was up stronger than previously thought it would be up a little bit hitting a two-year high. what do the genius economists think revised that figure upward? >> well, it was a mix of custom consumer spending and business spending that sent us to economic growth in the second quarter. we have figures that show it may not have a lasting effect. personal incomes and spending in the month of august, coming in pretty sluggish 0.2 and 0.1%. it was as expected but suggests this is going to be a hard growth rate to maintain. that's the big challenge, getting an annual 3% growth. also, the effects of hurricane harvey, hurricane maria, also what we saw is going to slow growth a bit. this gets me to the president's tweet, he tweeted about the 3%

growth. certainly proud of it, saying that many people thought it would be years before that happened. we have just begun. the trick is getting to 3% annual growth because we've seen 3% growth many times during the obama years. now, let's get to the other rocket man, that would be elon musk who laid out more plans for his mission to mars in a presentation in australia. here's what we learned. the name of the vessel, bfr which stands for big f'ing can't say it on tv rocket. he will get to mars by 2020, cargo, by 2024 with people and the rocket can take people different places on earth in under an hour to shanghai in 39 minutes. we'll see. it's pretty ambitious. >> rocket commute. sara eisen, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> up next there has been a lot of discussion about how donald trump found his way to the white house but kwal equally if not more important to some what comes next. the authors of "one nation after trump" straight ahead on "morning joe."

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discuss how the country took such a sharp turn. you start with how we got here with the trump presidency, what is your diagnosis of how we ended up with president trump? >> two things. one is we have to recognize that we have something of a nonmajority tearian democracy. we can't forget the gap between the electoral and popular vote. and i think it shows that it is out of step. and secondly you had a confluence of social issues and economic issues. we spent a lot of time in the book on this debate, was it race, immigration and culture, our was it chicks. there is undeniably a huge role of racial issues and nativism, but this alled in the economic context. if you look at the places where trump won, they tended to be places where there sa lot of

economic anxiety. >> so what good donald trump know about america that the other 16 candidates didn't know and in the end hillary clinton didn't know? >> it was interesting because trump emerged as one of a large number of outsider candidates at a time when there was this immense outpouring of anger and disgust with washington. trump emerged when he really did pick up on this immigration issue and when he went after his own colleagues with some contempt. this inside that this is a the guy who can stand up to those te terrible dchl dchemocrats. and the roots of trump and trumpism go back decades. he didn't just emerge just as some of these other candidates did. you have 30 or 40 years of history building with a collapse of community and with the tribalism that we take directly to newt gingrich and the way he

managed to change the thousand win a majority in 1994. a lot of that was the ground work for trump. >> and we've had a political system, a national political system where suddenly it's not enough to get your opponent, you have to destroy your opponent. you've had 25, 30 years of a system of political system where people have lost little bits of their culture, their sense of america, their sense of neighborhood. you've had a system where in 1908 -- in 2008 and 2009 you've had huge numbers of people who suffered something politicians seem to only understand politically. so the question is, why has it taken so long to address the weaknesses of this system? >> i think what you saw -- you had this frustration building out there, and i think where the

attack on the elites really has bite is that there were places in the country that had been declining and it actually started in the innercity 35 year action go when deindustrialization started eating away at the he blue collar jobs where people got a decent wage. and that has spread slowly to other parts of the country. er erie, pennsylvania, places in michigan and wednesday which is. so now you have this ghap andap shouldn't have taken trump to remind us this was the case. but the other point is a real problem with trump where what you're seeing is a kind of tribalize td consumption of media where we can't agree on even the facts. and you have seen that in conversations with the health bill before congress right now. and you have the demonization of enemies which i think trump has taken to a whole new level. we had too much of that before, but trump has taken to another place. >> i would take it on to to a comment that mitch mcconnell

made, not the may fuss one that o famous one, but after they had the immense success in the 2010 midterm elections when he confessed that of course we couldn't cooperate. when you have that kind of permanent campaign philosophy and an outside media that contributes to the tribalism, you're creating a set of conditions that made a trump inevitable. >> i want to switch to the president's world view. how do you both see his speech at the u.n. fitting in with this relationship that he's built with his voters? >> i think to me it really was a speech directed more that the 35%, maybe the 25% who are his real diehards than it was necessarily at the people seated in the hall in the united nations. he made an appearance at a place that anathema to a large share of his audience and he wanted to reassure them that even if he

was saying some nice things, he was still going to stick with that nationalism and protect american sovereignty. and he used the kind of language, the rocket man language, that fit the political rally more than it did the diplomatic arena. >> yogi berra says prediction is difficult especially about the future. i'd like you to predict. after trump, what does america look like whenever that is? >> we have two potential paths. i don't believe the short term is going to be a very good one some rocky times over the next year and probably more. what i'm hoping is that people have been jolted in another way. the society could come a part at the seams, the divisions that people have, the sense that those on the other side are the enemy, the wracial divisions. if you don't start to have -- and we talk about empathy in this book. there are some people who have to be ice rated out. they are racists, neo-nazis that need to be called to account. very large numbers of people don't fit that cats goer.

they have really had horrible things in their lives and dislocation. if we can't create a dialogue that cuts across some of these boundaries, then we head down a very, very dark path. >> our thanks to norm ornstein and e.j. dionne. again, it's one nation after trump. and that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. thanks so much. good morning. i have a lot to cover today starting with a price check. the hhs secretary under serious fire for chartered private plane flights promising to repay his portion. new reports this morning of additional flights bringing the total taxpayer cost to more than $1 million. >> clearly we are sensitive to the taxpayer. >> no, you're not. all right. puerto rico, we have to cover because it continues to be in