thousands, you can be very proud. president trump visits puerto rico and tries out his personal touch with the victims by playfully tossing paper towels to the people in need. we are going to break down his trip. new details emerge about the las vegas gunman and the large amounts of cash he wired overseas. his companion is back on american soil this morning and officials have a lot of questions for her. we'll have the new information and mystery surrounding the massacre. just minutes away, an nbc news exclusive. rex tillerson went to texas and threatened never to come back. we have brand new reporting on what nearly drove the secretary of state to quit. the trump administration apparently at one point calling the president reportedly a moron. national political reporter, carol lee, joins us with those exclusive details first on

""morning jo "morning joe." >> first, before we get into the news, everyone was talking about all of the missteps that the president had yesterday in puerto rico. first of all, throwing paper towels at the victims of the hurricane like it was a game. i have never seen anything like that before. and then saying you are lucky you didn't face a real catastrophe. >> you should be proud. >> willie, the stories coming out of puerto rico every day really keep getting worse. drinking water, maybe over half the population doesn't have drinking water. people have been stranded up on hillsides for since the storm came through. >> no lec trisity. >> no lec trisity. it is a grim, exceedingly grim situation being faced by many

residents of that island. donald trump goes in and goes, you are lucky you are not facing a real catastrophe. >> if you watch that event from start to finish, it was truly bizarre. the tone and tenor of what was being said and the way it was being said was celebratory. it was like they were finishing a mission and there to celebrate and toast to it. there is devastation right outside the door where he was sitting. you could see some of the discomfort on some of the puerto rican officials. they were glad he was there and glad some of the aid was getting into puerto rico. >> it was go around the room and talk about what a great job we have done and let's make sure the cameras see it is much better than it is being reported in the media. give him credit for going and going and handing out aid and meeting some of the the people. it felt like a something he had to do. >> again, what he did throughout was inappropriate.

it was bizarre behavior. it was celebratory. when this is an island that is struggling. we see once again, john heilman, another example of what many have said about him, a basic lack of humanity. we saw with him whipping up a crowd into a frenzy to boo john mccain last week. we saw it over the weekend when the people of puerto rico were struggling and he was calling them basically ingrates. yesterday, he says, you are really busting our budget. would we like to go down the list how much his tax cuts are going to end up costing the country? it will cost the country. >> how about accommodating his family's private jets.

>> talk about his family's private jets. >> and his administration's private jets. >> it is staggering. >> the basic lack of humanity and the growing concern that's always been there. this man is disconnected from reality, at least in communications, the way one human being speaks to another human being. the way a president is supposed to speak to constituents and people in need. he is incapable of even the most basic things. >> it is a particular aspect of humanity. it is this thing. it is not the first time that anymore has said it. we have talked about it since he has come on the public stage. it is this particular quality of empathy that he lacks. he does things that are cruel sometimes in the case of john mccain. these are various issues. in this case, one of the most fundamental things you need to do as president of the united

states in a circumstance like this, when people are suffering and have been suffering, you play comparative games. this is worse than that. not to talk about yourself or boast about how well you are doing, it should be about these constituents and about, to use the famous clinton phrase, about feeling their pain. it is not that hard. >> it is not hard at all. >> it is not ha hard. >> great political talents and great presidents, some of them do it equhe can quiz sitly well. >> what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. you wonder where this 71-year-old man has lived his entire life? you wonder has he so insulated himself from human beings, has he so insulated himself from

suffering that he doesn't know how human beings react? of course, listen, we all know he always has had a harsh side. he has always had a bully inside of him. again, even the tweet, when he was trying to be comforter and chief. he said, i send my warmest condolences. nobody talks like that, nobody. let me underline, nobody. when there is a slaughter says, i send my warmest condolences. not knit-picking on that. you see this growing body of actions. this man is disconnected from

basic norms of social behavior. >> the empathy, the inspiration, the emotion for him mostly comes from wanting to defend himself. i athink you and john said it best. he finds himself in a moment where people are expecting a human, humane side from him. he wants to defend himself. he was most offended when he arrived in puerto rico that the mayor of san juan had been critical of his administration's efforts. he spent the bulk, if not all of that press conference, with a weird setup around the table with 30, 40 people in that auditorium praising him and the people around him. it is consistent with who he is. one can only pray he gets better. >> believe it or not, there is lots more to show you on this. let's just set the table here. also with us, we have washington

burrough chief f bureau chief with us. we begin with new information in the search for an answer as to why a gunman killed 58 people in las vegas. officials say they have recovered a total of 47 firearms from three different locations including the hotel room at the mandalay bay ho tell that stephen paddock used to seize the massacre. they also seized weapons at his home. the weapons were purchased in nevada, utah, california, and texas. officials also revealed that paddock had 12 stocks in the hotel room that would have allowed him to modify a semi automatic weapon to fire rapidly much like a machine gun. >> the question is, why are these legal? why can you get these for $40. i still haven't seen over the past 24 hours a good justification for these being legal when their sole purpose for their existence is to turn a

legal weapon into a weapon that performs like an illegal weapon, a weapon that has been banned. >> it is going to be fascinate tog see fascinateing to see if the president addresses this. >> i don't know if you saw the p.r. video donald trump jr. did promoting silenceers for a company. they are showing the aftermath of their raid on paddock's hotel room and slammed a german paper that posted them. it showed a busted door filled with bullet holes as well as a single weapon resting on a floor. two cameras were located in the hallway which allowed paddock to watch officers for security to approach his room. another camera was placed in the room's peep hole. the department has a three-minute compilation from

body cam footage. you can hear gunfire raining down as officers scramble to seek cover. officials revealed that paddock fired his weapon on and off for 9-11 minutes and hunkered down in his room as police converged. speaking last night, las vegas police officials discussed one of their own lost trying to pretext people from that gunfire. >> i want to mention one of those brave people was charleston hartfield, las vegas police officer. he was at the route 91 concert along with his wife when shots rang off. he was at the concert as a civilian, he immediately took action to save lives. in that moment, he was acting as a police officer. he ultimately gave his life protecting others. officer hartfield was an 11-year member of the lvn p.d., and

leaves behind a wife and two children. i'm very grateful for his sacrifice. >> also n thin that police brie, the clark county coroner revised the total to 58 noting the 59th person killed was the killer. the former roommate of stephen paddock has returned to the united states. this footage shows the 62-year-old danley at los angeles international airport being pushed in a wheelchair. she was escorted by fbi agents. it was not clear where she is going. >> this as we learn more details about where she has been. nbc can confirm that danley arrived in the philippines from japan on september 15th, more than two weeks before the assault took place. travel records indicate she arrived in hong kong for a four-day visit on september 22nd and then at about 10:00 p.m. last night, she arrived in los

angeles to manila. paddock wired $100,000 to his girlfriend's home country, not known whether it was for her or her family. her brother reacted to the news. >> the $100,000 for mary lou, that's the steve i know. that's something that makes sense. steve would have wanted to take care of mary lou. i haven't talked to her. >> if you listen to the sheriff speak, you could hear the frustration and heartbreak in his voice that no one picked up on what was clearly now a meticulously planned operation by this guy. this took weeks and months to buy all the weapons and get the money together and put cameras out in the hallway, to set up the way he set up, to have the

do not disturb sign on his hotel. i am not holding the hotel responsible because you don't go in the room if a sign is on the door. >> for nobody to have seen anything and been suspicious about what he was up to, it is tragic. >> this was meticulously planned. the girlfriend, how would the girlfriend not know that this guy is stockpiling an arsenal of weapons. what are we up to, 47? p. >> i think as the facts come out, we will all be more and more disturbed by it. she had some touch points over a period of time in my hometown of memphis, the girlfriend of paddock. there are no connections but i think the more this comes out, the days and hours go by, not only will that police police be.

i hope it frustrates members of the congress so they may want to act around gun safety. >> we did hear from lindsey graham and john thune who didn't know bump stocks were legal. that is a loophole that these weapons are illegal except in extreme cases but they suddenly become very accessible if you have to just buy a bump stock and put it on a semi automatic rifle. >> the president heads to las vegas. he has already said it was a miracle. we'll see if he says to the people in las vegas that they were lucky. >> back to the tragedy unfoeltdiunfoeltlding in puerto rico. >> the president says, you are really lucky this wasn't a

catastrophe. >> do you think he understands that more people will die as disease spreads and water is hard to come by and children get skin diseases and eye infections and people suffer because they are not working and they can't go to school. >> i don't think the infr infrastructure is whether he understands or not but whether he cares or not. for him, this is a twitter fight. for him, this isn't about the people down there. if it were, he wouldn't have behaved the way he did yesterday. that is a pretty objective fact that yesterday he went down to puerto rico, an island that is suffering, u.s. citizens that will continue to suffer for years from what's happened to them over the past several months. he somehow managed to make it all about himself. >> it's incredible. at the start of the visit,

he held a meeting with federal and local officials where he came face to face with the mayor of san juan. >> thank you, thank you, everybody. >> she had to apologize to him. she is out trying to deliver and take care of people in her city. >> you know how that goes. the president comes to your district. your people are facing enormous suffering and you just can't afford to upset the president. so whether it is he is wrong or not, you know that fema, the sba, every other agency many . r

for people that are outraged at her, they should be outraged at the president of the united states, because he lacks any humanity. he is the most graceless president to be in the oval office in our history. he turns his head and says nothing, because, at the end of the day -- >> it's about him. >> at the end of the day, he is utterly devoid of humanity or grace. >> a political person with humanity would have said we are going to get this done together and moved on. leading up to that point, i didn't expect much from him. when that mayor said, look, i apologize, this is not what it is about, she said it in the nicest and the most gracious of ways and he gave the silent

thank you and moved on. >> it is the perfect picture of an anonymous online twitter troll. the people that attack you on twitter are people who do these things, people that are vicious, they would never see those things. >> either he didn't recognize her, literally didn't recognize her, but for somebody he has been in a public battle with, he didn't recognize her or he knows who he is but doesn't do the gracious things. any politician would say, let's move past it. we are all in this together. it is the kind of behavior. it is easier if i can attack you from a distance, attack you on twitter, attack you on tv but if i come face to face with you,

let's move away. >> a lack of grace or just not man enough. if he is not going to be graceful, man enough to sit there and have a conversation but he wasn't man enough to do that. >> absolutely not. julia pace, this should be in terms of presidential optics, the easy part. this is about hugs. this is about warmth. this is about being the president coming in, swooping in, and saying that help is on the way. this is about making easy decisions about spending money in an area that is devastated. how is it that he is botching this so badly? >> i have been on countless trips with presidents to places that have been affected by natural disaster to communities affected by gun violence. there is sort of a rhythm to

these trips and presidents go into these trips knowing that they are there for really one purpose, to provide comfort to victims, to show empathy and show people on the ground they have the full attention and full support of the highest levels of the u.s. government. it is challenging for some presidents to do it. they tend to understand the role that they play in these moments. this trip was so out of step with all of those other trips that i have made with presidents and you really got the sense that for this president, the trip was not about the level of comfort he could bring to people still suffering. it was for him to be self-congratulatory and for him to get in a room on camera with officials and have them say positive things about him. it is a real lack of understanding about the power of the presidency and the impact you can make on a community by

showing up and showing empathy. >> out of step is an extremely kind way of putting it, julie pace. we will have much more,including what the president said. it is cringe worthy to watch and listen to. president trump's top officials had to beg rex tillerson not to quit the administration. what nearly pushed the secretary of state over the edge. national political reporter, carol lee, joins us with the exclusive details next on "morning joe." remember that accident i got in with the pole, and i had to make a claim and all that? is that whole thing still dragging on? no, i took some pics with the app and... filed a claim, but... you know how they send you money to cover repairs and... they took forever to pay you, right?

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politico reports that house speaker, paul ryan, tried to save the job of ousted health and human services secretary, tom price. >> why? >> according to two people with knowledge of the conversation, white house chief of staff, john kelly, made a courtesy call to the speaker moments before price's resignation was announced. ryan urged him to reconsider. >> let me ask the question a second time. why? >> ryan has long been an ally of price, dating back to their time in house minority. he considered the former gentleman jgeorgia congressman, a member of his jedi counsel. kelly made it clear to ryan that price was out and the call quickly ended. meanwhile, president trump and his national security team. >> hold on, hold on. if tom price is a member of your

jedi counsel, then you lost the war a long time ago. your guys have been taking out darth vader's trash for the last couple of months. >> i missed something. >> how could tom price be in anybody's jedi counsel. >> why would you defend him remaining in your jedi counsel based on what you know about his travel across the galaxy. >> what is it? >> stop it. >> star wars 8, is it like a star wars thing? >> yes. >> it is not like a thing in congress where they were working on something together. >> no. the thing that is real. he is in the middle floating around. fly too many jets. >> we have an nbc news ex xlu sieve exclusive to get to. president trump and his national security team appear to be -- we're going to talk about that in a bit.

>> they appear to be on opposite ends when it comes to the iran nuclear agreement. trump has called the historic agreement an embarrassment and the worst deal ever negotiated and vowed to withdraw the u.s. >> ladies and gentlemen, if you are sitting and going, what's going to come next? this is what the kids like to call the good cop, bad cop routine which by this point is getting a bit laborious. >> the good cop is the responsible administration official that says we are not going to blow up the world. if we made agreements, we are going to stick to them. that may not be trump. >> it's like in north korea. this is an important point so people can add context to all the things they see. north korea, donald trump. a little tiny dancer, i am going to blow up the world with little tiny dancer and then you have

rex tillerson negotiating so we don't blow up the world. >> he can talk to little livan all he wants. we are still going to blow up the world. that happens with north korea. >> you can insert any song you want. >> it is rocketman, actually. >> there is always good cop, bad cop. do they think the iranians are going, which one do we believe? the good cop is mattis. >> it sound like a job for the jedi counsel. >> it is either tiny dancer or homer simpson. however, appearing before the armed service committees, jim ma mattis and general joseph done ford offered a different view. >> the agreement right now, the one i testified to last week is

that iran is not in material breach of the agreement. i do believe the agreement to date has delayed the development of a nuclear capability by iran. >> do you believe it is in our national security interest at the present time to remain in the jcpoa. that's a yes or no question? >> yes, senator, i do. the point i would make is if we can confirm that iran is living by the agreement, if we can determine that this is in our best interest, then, clearly we should stay with it. i believe at this point in time absent indications to the contrary it is something the president should consider staying with. it is still under consideration in the executive branch and a decision has not been made. >> there is a good example. willie, explain to viewers that may not like the iran agreement.

i thought it was a stupid agreement. if we are trying to come up with an agreement to avert a nuclear showdown with north korea, this would be a bad time to break another agreement we made with another, i will say it, enemy of the united states. >> during the entire two years of president trump's campaign, he talked about ripping up the iran detail. he called it an embarrassing. he is on the record ripping the iran deal. to stay in it to some of his supporters would be to go back on a pledge he made earlier. your point about north korea is that you might not be around much longer if you keep this up. and tillerson says, we are talking directly on back channels to north korea. don't worry. we have this over here, while he says that over there. >> all of this brings us to

another of trump's secretaries. general kelly stepped in to make sure he did not leave. we are talking about secretary of state, rex tillerson. in a blockbuster, brand new exclusive report from nbc news, we are learning that he was on the verge of walking away from his post over the summer, only to be talked out of it by vice-president pence and generals kelly and mattis. th tensions came to a head around the time that president trump delivered that speech to the boy scouts of america, where tillerson once served as its president. one of the authors of this exclusive nbc news report, national political reporter for nbc news, carol lee, she joins us now. also with us from washington, columnist and editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. >> what was it about the boy scouts speech that finally was the straw that broke the camel's back. >> it was.

there were a number of things leading up to july, there was this spat between the president and tillerson over qatar where the president said they should resolve this and the president came out and backed saudi arabia, you had the iran nuclear deal and tillerson was arguing with the president to recertify. then, they had a series of meetings where after one of them in late july, tillerson was overheard afterwards talking with cabinet members and white house officials and referred to the president as a moron. he was clearly frustrated. you have this speech at the boy scouts of america to these young people. it was all kind of coming together at the same time. it was a real inflection point for the secretary. >> so he kept him there and mattis kept him there. obviously, he is very close to

general mattis, secretary mattis. what did they do to persuade rex tillerson to stay secretary of state when he has just been treated about as badly as any major cabinet secretary in recent history? >> i think they were trying to get him to stay on, things will get better. we will work this out. afterward, tillerson was in texas and he came back and vice-president pence had a meeting where it was described to us as them giving him a pep talk. in order to move forward, you need to get on board with the president's program here and figure out ways to do that. there was this broad attempt at this reset. as we have seen, it hasn't really stuck. >> he has been controlling him even with north korea openly. >> then, there was this incident at the end of august where tillerson responded and was asked about the president's response to charlottesville. he said the president speaks for himself. that really irritated the

president. >> he was publicly controlling rex tillerson this past weekend saying don't waste your time, rex. were your calls out at that point to get a response from the president? did the white house know this story was coming when he was trolling rex tillerson? >> we had been working on this story for a couple of month, basically since the end of july. >> you had made contact with the white house? >> we had made contact with them previously and then again on sunday. >> it will be interesting to see how the president reacts to this report, for someone who can't take criticism and let it go unanswered, being called ea moron. >> mika calls me a moron all the time time. that's not news. >> was it something specifically or broadly? >> we don't know exactly what that specific conversation was.

it came after this meeting this july 19th meeting in "the situation room" on afghanistan where the president shocked his advisers by comparing the process to the renovation of the 21 club. a meeting on july 20th -- >> that story ended up being false. not only was it an embarrassing comparison, it just never happened. the 21 club -- 2 . >> the next day, you have this other meeting at the pentagon where according to our sources it had the same tone. it didn't go very well. the president wasn't making a decision. so you can kind of put his remarks in that context. >> david ignatius was in washington with that reporting. the question i have is where this is going to go. obviously, there is a growing distance between the white house and tillerson over both policies and personalities over the last

weeks and your reporting says months. the president is a moron. to say in the cabinet, he is going to have to go to the white house and say, i never said that, sir. i don't believe that. he is going to have to make a show of loyalty pechlt . he is a different guy. do you think he will do that? he is very close to secretary mattis. they talk every day. mattis is his strongest defender. do you think if they try to move to push tillerson out, how is mattis going to react to that? >> you hit on the key word, which is loyalty. this is a president that values loyalty above all else. he is very likely to see this comment as a betrayal. it is how he reacts to that. we don't necessarily know but if you look at his past behavior, this is something that he would take personally, because it is

personal. it is very different. the policy disputes that we have seen these two have in the past. >> i'm curious just in the very short-term here, because of all these things that have been happening. you have the exchange over the north korean diplomacy. what's in this moment when trump goes after tillerson and cuts his knees out from under him over the weekend. does tillerson throw up his hands or is he saying, this is all a part of the game. he surprised them. their view is that he is over in china and saying things without clearing them with the white house, without giving anyone a

head's up and running them through the traps. that is what caught people off guard. that is something that above all has caused a lot of the friction. >> some reporting suggested that there might be clashes with jared kushner and secretary tillerson. has that complicated things even more? when did that happen with your timeline? >> the kushner spokesman will down play that. there may have been some friction in the past but that's not the case now. here is the thing about tillerson. if the president decides to turn on him, it is hard to see who is going to rally to his side. he has no big supporters in congress, in the white house, and even in his own state department. when you are in that sort of dynamic, it is hard to see who is going to try to come in and save him except for perhaps the two people that did it in july, which is kelly and mattis. >> is that a very articulate way

to say he is not part of the jedi council. >> i am going to defer to julie pace. julie, jump in. >> one thing i thought that was really interesting. i hope you can expand on it a little bit. there was a reference to pence having a conversation with tillerson about nikki haley and asking whether tillerson thought she was being helpful in the administration. can you talk about that dynamic between tillerson and haley and how that might be affecting his frustrations here? >> there are a lot of tensions between the offices of tillerson and haley because she is seen as the heir apparent if he leaves his post. that came with tillerson's top spokesperson, r.c. hammond. when i called him initially, he said, i don't know what happened in that meeting with vice-president pence. they talk about policy. he called me back. he said, you know, there was one meeting where they talked about

something other than policy, when the vice-president asked tillerson if he thought that haley was helpful or hurtful to the administration's policies. that was a very overt way of taking a shot at nikki haley. >> to read this entire nbc exclusive reporting on rex tillerson, go to nbcnews.com. carol will have much more and andrea will join us later this morning and nbc news and msnbc will have more developments on this exclusive reporting throughout the day. >> carol, thank you so much. we appreciate you joining us. when we come back, we will be talking to david ignatius, more about this and the chaos that has been going on in the white house, only for about 8 1/2 months. tom cole is going to be here. >> yes, he is. >> we are going to ask tom cole whether he has ever been invited to speaker ryan's jedi council

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with your permission, my master, i have encountered a vergeance in the force. >> a person? >> a boy. it is possible he was conceived by them. >> they find out the boy they are talking about is young tom price. >> i naught it was paul ryan. >> not only could he create anything, put anything together, really good with his hand, good with tools. later, he would become a doctor. >> what is the jedi council? this doesn't explain anything. >> is liam neeson playing

speaker ryan. >> who is samuel jackson? >> he was one of the jedi council. >> samuel l. jackson character is still alive. he gets pushed out the window. >> is there some kind of legislation they were pushing and they called themselves the jedi council. >> no. that's what happens when a bunch of guys get together. >> david ignatius. >> there is something missing. >> i see this picture of you both shirtless wearing volleyball. >> we apologize for you being a part of this. >> danger zone. >> stop singing the soundtrack to top gun. it has veered completely off course. >> let's talk, david, to get back on course, because you are a real smart guy and can maybe save us. first of all, have you been hearing about rex tillerson's

concerns regarding donald trump and how he was trying to navigate a job that actually he didn't even want but his wife said you have no choice. when your country calls, you have to serve your country. it has been good to you. you have to be good back. >> joe, i have been hearing this for many weeks. tillerson is an unusual figure in washington. he really is a diffident guy. his standoffishness in the press is reflected and his standoffishness toward congress. he doesn't try to pal around with the white house or talk to the people that recommended him for the job who were thought to be his mentors. he is kind of a lone guy. he wrote about him a few weeks ago. his basic ideas are, you can take this job and shove it. i don't need it. i think that's been central for him. in recent weeks, he has really gotten estranged from the president himself. the president think that is

tillerson is off on his own. the president felt dissed by tillerson's comment after charlottesville. the president only speaks for himself. till a tillerson got it badly wrong this last week in beijing. we try to communicate. we want to use diplomacy, not seeking nuclear war here. he didn't clear those words with the white house. white house was really furious. the spokesman thought, this is not a message from the president direct. this is a message to pyongyang. no. it was a message to rex. as i said in the earlier block with carol, i'm not sure where this is going to end up. tillerson is going to have to apologize directly or mattis is going to have to say, mr. president, we need him. he is my wing man. something has to happen now. >> what do you think trump's reaction is going to be to being called a moron in the next 24

hours by the secretary of state? >> you never know. >> i am just glad to hear that somebody in his administration actually feel that is way. >> in is the sort of thing that it is very easy for both side toss say, fakenews. the press got it wrong. >> right. >> rex never said it. i know rex. rex is a great guy. and that all depends on whether general mattis does need rex tillerson by his side. and whether all the generals say you need to keep tillerson here. >> they will say fake news. several senior administration officials all telling them they were in the meeting and heard it. >> all sourced. >> right. >> david ignatius, we need to go to break, but this is such an important point to make. this white house, even before they were in the white house, the trump team has been

skeptical, not only of the intel community but especially of the state department. if you talk to donald trump or anybody close to donald trump after the election, their entire goal was cutting the knees out from underneath a state department that they believed would do nothing but try to undercut their own agenda. >> you know, i think, joe, that they have this deep suspicion of the permanent government, the deep state, as people on the right sometimes say. the funny thing is that tillerson had that, too. you couldn't ask for a secretary of state who kept the bureaucracy at more distance than rex tillerson has done. but i do think that that suspicion is present. one interesting thing, if you look at mike pompeo, he has gotten the trust of most of his workforce in the way that

tillerson hasn't. often rumored to be the guy the president would bring into the white house if he could add another person. he seems to like him. that's an interesting comparison. pompeo has the president's trust, seems to get along with the workforce. tillerson not so much. >> also there was sort of a plan in the works along the edges to have jared really be the secretary of state de facto in some way. >> that certainly was the belief. >> oh, yeah. >> that they were going to run everything from either the white house or new york. they a that's changed now. and there is no interest in jared being the de facto secretary. >> david ignatius, thank you so much. the great bob schieffer will be here. >> is that all we get of david? we need more of david.

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julie pace, what are you working on today? >> the president is heading to

las vegas where he will be meeting privately with some of those who were injured in the shooting, family members of those who died and first responders. this is a chance for him to show some of that empathy, bring comfort to people who have just been through a horrific situation. i don't think if he handles today better that it wipes away what we saw yesterday. i think those images and remarks in puerto rico will have a lasting effect on his presidency. >> i think those will go down in history. >> i think you're right. >> julie, thank you so much. coming up, is it still too soon after the las vegas massacre to start discussing changes to u.s. gun policy? we'll talk to republican congressman tom cole plus the former governor of puerto rico on the president's tone deaf trip to san juan.

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council. >> what is the jedi council? >> first of all i'm taking over the jedi council. paul ryan says he has a jedi council. >> maybe it's like a team. >> just stop. willie, last night, wild card game, 162 games all lead to one game. win or go home. >> mike barnicle is here. >> george will is here. that's why we're talking about this. >> thank you. >> yankees go behind 3-0. and then storm back. >> one-game playoffs are terr y terrifying if your team is in them. you can have one bad inning and your season is over. looked like yankees would have that bad inning. recorded one out, gave up 2 home runs, twins go up 3-0. good relief pitching to settle it down in the bottom of the inning. aaron judge hit a home run. gardner hit a home run. yankees move on to play the indians. >> george, you talk about the record between these two teams. it doesn't bode well for the twins over time. >> the twins were something like

30-90 over the last 15 years or so against the yankees. doesn't happen in sports. the worst team in baseball meets the best team all the time, except that team. >> except that team. mike, you were there last night. any arrests? >> couple of close -- you know, close calls but i managed -- >> what a game, though. >> last night is proof baseball has to deal with the strike zone. last night's home plate umpire was consistent for both teams. he had a strike zone about that big. you're going to have five-hour games if it continues. we have to go back to the old strike zone 20 years ago where people swung. >> takeaway of a red sox fan after a glorious yankee win. the strike zone is too small. >> something went terrible he wrong after the top of the first inning. >> okay. enough about baseball. >> well except what national league wild card. >> rockies/d'backs.

>> fascinating. >> boom boom tonight. >> all right, meeka your jedi council is ready. later this morning, president trump is set to depart to las vegas. it comes on the heels of yesterday's trip to pewter reek o more than two weeks after hurricane maria struck. with power still out to 93% of the island, the president's trip came amid accusations that his administration had not responded quickly enough. during his four-hour visit, president trump met with families. i know. this really happened. affected by the storm. seen here, playfully tossing out paper towels to residents in need. at the start of the visit he held meetings with local and federal officials where he came face to face with san juan's mayor. after everyone was seated, the president held court.

>> it was a great trip and a beautiful place. and your weather is second to none but every once in a while you get hit. where is brock? brock long has been through a lot. brock has been unbelievable. elaine duke has been incredible. tom bossert is here some place. tom, great job. your governor has been, who i didn't know -- i heard very good things about him. he's not even from my party. right from the beginning, this governor did not play politics. he at any time play it at all. now, i hate to tell you, puerto rico, but you've thrown our budget a little bit out of whack. because we've spent a lot of money on puerto rico. every death say horror. if you look at a real catastrophe like katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, what is your death count as of this moment, 17? >> 16 people, sir. >> 16 people certificated versus in the thousands. where is our general kelly?

he likes to keep a low profile, sitting in the back. boy, is he watching. you have no idea. hundreds of millions dollars of worth of new airplanes for the air force. especially the f-356789 do you like the f-35? you can't see it. literally, you can't see it. it's hard to fight a plane you can't see, right? that's an expensive plane that you can't see. as you probably heard, we cut the price very substantially. something that other administrations would never have done. that, i can tell you. >> george will, donald trump went down to puerto rico to be comforter in chief. he tossed paper towels into the crowd like he was tossing crumbs to peasants. he said puerto rico was lucky that they didn't face a real catastrophe like new orleans did in katrina. he also said your weather is second to none and then scolded them for wreaking havoc on

washington's budget. the comforter in chief in full form yesterday. >> you may have said a moment ago that he was tone deaf. there's a different sensory deprivation to talk about. it's like explaining the color turquoise to someone who is color blind. he just doesn't get this part of the presidential function. and he's not going to. >> there's a lot of presidential function that he doesn't get. i think it's clear at this point. >> when he was doing that little thing at the table, going from one wise crack to another, it was a little bit like the catskills, going to a las vegas lounge act, he's warming up. but there's no one he's warming up for. >> this part of the presidency doesn't get it. seems to be part of human nature that he doesn't get. he lacks basic empathy.

he does not understand. he cannot put himself in the place of others who are suffering. >> it's not clear that he sees -- kind of a social autism but he doesn't connect with other people. again, there's no point in saying maybe he will acquire it. >> no. >> in is not part of his genetic makeup. >> if you can't acquire it in the midst of looking at devastation. >> he's 70 years old. >> of puerto rico, people who are starving, who have no drinking water, he will not get it, ever. >> they don't have electricity, drinking water. their infrastructure is ripped to shreds. >> they're just at the beginning of this disaster. >> this is a disaster of epic proportions in puerto rico. and donald trump told them yesterday they were lucky that they didn't face a real catastrophe. >> joe, you know that.

we know that. people who read and stay up with the news know that. it's been reported over and over and over. the president of the united states does not know that. standing up there doing three-point shots with brawny paper towels. you saw and heard it with your eyes and own ears, acting and behaving like the loud mouth at the end of the bar when everybody says when is he going to stop? is he still talking? what we have to do now is be concerned about has he forever changed the definition and the impression of the american presidency in people's minds and around the world? has he done that? is it eternal? is it forever? >> no. i don't think. >> david igna tchtius, you watc that event from start to finish, it almost has the feel of the rehearsal dinner where the groom was running the night.

coast guard, get up and say a few words. air force, get up and say a few words. meanwhile 93% of the island without power, death toll rising and it will continue to go up. actually if you look at the tape it only ended when general kelly leaned in and whispered in the president's ear maybe it was time to wrap things up and move along. what were your reflections as you watched that yesterday? >> i shared what everyone on the panel has said. with donald trump, there is a focus on me and mine that gets in the way of his connecting and sometimes seeing what's out there. it's one reason that i, honestly, if worried about the growing friction in his cabinet. the balance wheel in this administration, in terms of foreign policy, has been the bond between rex tillerson, the secretary of state, and jim mattis, the secretary of

defense. both of those key people are now, it seems, out of step with the president. the excellent reporting we've been talking about that nbc did has more -- tillerson calling trump a moron. we'll hear more about that. yesterday on the hill mattis saying he does not believe it's wise for the united states to withdraw from the iran nuclear deal. those are two key people. what comes next? i've described trump as the iron whim. he's like inflexible but it comes from dede. you have no idea what -- what happens next in this story? we're in a dangerous time. something closer to a nuclear confrontation than i can ever remember. the president flipping rolls of paper towels. >> it's interesting. you wonder, you have to look at this nbc news exclusive for what it is. there are still a lot of questions as to if secretary

tillerson believes that donald trump is a moron and perhaps some others in the administration do, the intentions of trying to keep him in -- >> i don't know. >> i think it's possible. >> general kelly, you served your country. you've given your all to this country. and you don't want to see all the things that you have fought for and your son has fought and died for and all the things you committed your life to being frited away over a four-year time period by somebody who is woefully ill equipped to be president of the united states. >> if you have someone who is unfit or a danger, which even "newsweek" was recently covering analysis of his behavior being dangerous, maybe there is a team

coalescing inside the white house. >> i don't think we're there yet. >> i'm just saying it's possible. >> we'll see. let's go to kasie hunt, obviously covering the president of the united states as always. fascinating. you've been doing it since the beginning of the campaign. somehow every day we manage to be surprise bid some other -- not political norm but societal norm that this man breaks. yesterday, chunking paper towels at people like he's at half time at a basketball game. people who are suffering being treated basically like peasants. here, a paper towel for you. here's a paper towel for you. >> i was thinking to myself, watching that video, trying to put myself in the position of one of those people in that room. you know, is their house destroyed? do they have family members who they haven't talked to in days because there's no power, there's no cell service?

the situation that many of the people in that room must be facing. i tried to put myself in the position of oh, there's the man across the room and i'm going to put my hands in the air and try to grab a paper towel. we originally thought it was toilet paper. i don't recall ever seeing imagery like this before out of the white house. and i talked to a couple of people on capitol hill yesterday. this happened a little bit late in the day and it was one of those moments where it didn't really matter what party i was -- of the person i was talking to. i think there was an equal degree of, in some cases, horror, even from people who are in the president's own party and frankly nobody knew what to say. >> harold, you know, you've seen when disasters come into your district, when they came into my district, that's when everybody began to work together and it stopped being about me, myself

and i. it stopped being about political divisions. i remember the first hurricane that came through our district early on in 1995. lawton childs, i had been badgering lawton childs nonstop. just poking him nonstop because he supported the president's health care in '93 and '94. did not like me at all. everybody got escorted back when the president was there. it was very clear that the president's people did not want me back there. lawton, who had never said a kind word to me turned around, grabbed me out of the crowd and said come on back, joe. this is your district. they need to -- basically saying they need to do things right. pulled me back. was very kind. he actually went in there, lawton childs was basically my protector and my defender. why? not because i had ever been kind to him. not because he personally liked me. but because there was a humanity

to lawton childs. there was a decency. and he understood this is where politics ends and this is where we're all working together. >> this is when adults have to rise. >> exactly. >> to an occasion. and i think the term used about social awkwardness or autism you see it happening. we said it earlier. i was shocked when the mayor of san juan, who was basically attacked during the press conference without her name being mentioned, the president sat her at the end of the table. she showed the gracefulness of the president saying my comments were not about politics. i hope you understand that. he didn't have the decency to look her in the eye and say we'll get through this together. he dismissed her as if to say that's what you're supposed to say. he's 70 some years old. it's questionable if he can. will republicans face more natural disasters like this

where the federal government, its presence will be called upon and tested, rather, in terms of his comforter in chief abilities which seem to be sorely lacking. >> like kasie just said, republicans are dismayed, disheartened by what's going on. there's nothing that the president has done that has disappointed him. he agrees with him on every policy. two things you know are not only untrue but disturbing to hear from paul ryan. >> they're tethered to him. >> why are they tethered to him? you were not tethered to republicans throughout your life. >> on the 2nd of june, 2016, paul ryan endorsed mr. trump and on the 3rd of june, i left the party. i said that's over because the normalization -- let me give you a theory. i think worse is better with regard to the president's behavior. one of the institutional, even

constitutional derangements that's afflicted this country is the cult of the presidency, the absurd inflation of that office. if he's not letting the air out of that balloon, it can't be left out. >> i don't know. let me -- we're going to get back to that. i would like to show the interaction between the president and the mayor of san juan. it's such an unbelievable lack of grace on president trump's part. we'll get to that a little later. it's incredible. we want to now move to the new information in the search for answers as to why a gunman killed 58 people in las vegas. officials say that they have recovered a total of 47 firearms from three different locations, including the hotel room at the mandalay bay hotel that stephen paddock used to stage the massacre. they also seized weapons from his home in mesquite, nevada, along with a third location. the weapons were purchased in nevada, utah, texas.

paddock had 12 bump fire stocks in the hotel room which would have allowed him to modify a semi automatic weapon to fire rapidly much like a machine gun. officials did note that bump fire stocks are currently legal. police say that two cameras were located in the hallway, which they say allowed paddock to watch officers or security approach his room. they say another camera was placed in the room's peephole. and the department has release aid three-minute compilation of body cam footage of officers arriving at the scene. you can hear gunfire rain down as officers seek cover and try to get civilians to safety. paddock fired his weapons on and off for nine to 11 minutes and hunkered down in his room as police converged. >> let's bring in republican congressman of oklahoma. having questions about gun safety. i want to start with the basic question that something i didn't know about and apparently some

members of the hill didn't know about. that's these bump fire stock gadgets that you can buy online for $40 that turn a semi automatic weapon into a weapon that acts, at least, like an automatic weapon. were you familiar with bump fire stocks? >> no, i wasn't. >> do you think that congress should look into that to see if perhaps they should be outlawed? >> i think there's no question we ought to look into that. automatic weapons -- when i saw the clips and heard the fire, i just assumed he had an automatic weapon. i did not know that there was technology capable that cheaply of transforming a semi automatic into an automatic weapon. yeah, i don't think there's any question we ought to look at that. >> willie geist, congressman. we've tried to be skukt constructive and specific in analyzing what happened in las vegas and what congress legislative could do to prevent something like that.

as we look at all the details, he bought these weapons legally across several different states and bump stock to bump those up to automatic weapons, what could be done and what are you looking at doing to prevent the next las vegas? >> the bump stock issue is something we should look at. people that know weapons better than i do tell me there are relatively simple things you could do yourself they wouldn't have the same effect, but certainly would be horrific. this is something we need to look at. in terms of the crime itself and from what i know, the investigation is still under way. it's just horrifying. there's not the normal signs you would see in terms of a disturbed personality, troubled history. there doesn't seem to have been personal circumstances that drove him over the edge. and, you know, it is an act of unspeakable evil. but it's not one that i've heard

any convincing explanation as to how it happened or much in the way of what we could do to stop it. the response was terrific. you hate to use superlatives in such an awful situation. people on the ground handled themselves as well as they could, first responders, police moved quickly. the guy was not actually in the facility effectively that he was shooting into. we're going to have to spend a lot of time looking at this. >> congressman, are you alarmed at all that he had 49 weapons that we know of now, that he was able to buy that volume of that semi automatic weaponry? >> i have friends that have that many weapons. that's not uncommon in my part of the country. i mean, i literally could tick off ten names right now of people that -- they're collectors. they're sportsmen. this is something they do. they're not a threat to anybody, quite the opposite. they're some of the most solid citizens in my state.

so, that doesn't surprise me. >> so, congressman, do you think this is just the price of doing business then to protect the second amendment? >> i'm not going to be that dismiss iive. i am fierce about protecting the second amendment. most of the people that own these weapons, like 99.99%, aren't a threat to anybody. so, to me, i'm from a state where we lost three times as many people by a guy using fertilizer and a truck. can you turn almost anything into a weapon of mass destruction if the evil of intent is there to do it. that doesn't mean we shouldn't minimize this. we must. i can't give you a quick, easy answer. >> some of your colleagues on the democratic aisle said again this is a wake-up call that a civilian doesn't need an ar-15 or semi automatic rifle. i assume you would be against banning that type of weapon?

>> i would. there's millions of them in circulation. they're used appropriately. they're not dangerous. they're -- >> they have been dangerous. >> again, so are trucks driving into crowds. again, i don't see that as the obvious answer. i don't think it would change -- we have 300 million guns in circulation legally now. are you going to go back and reclaim them all? i think there's not an easy ledgeslatigislative fix here an that suggest there is are not very persuasive in that regard. >> what do you recommend? people will listen and say here is another republican throwing up his hands in the wake of a mass killing in this country and saying there's nothing we can do. what would you do to prevent the next one? >> congress has done this over

the last couple of years, and that is mental health money. however this guy -- >> no signs. >> absolutely. gun siels in america is down. that doesn't excuse this it's down almost 50% since the early '90s. so it's not -- it's a question of culture and mental health as much as it is of weaponry. >> congressman tom cole. >> thank you, congressman. >> appreciate you coming on today. >> good to see you. >> george will, yesterday it was hard to get republicans to come out and say the sort of things that tom cole just said there. it does seem that americans want a fix. six out of ten americans want to ban assault-style weapons and

yet you look at every one of these incidents and wonder what impact would it have had? i'm one of those americans. i believe what the court said in heller. at the same time i think this has gotten far too extreme. >> well, americans want a fix. i want lobster lobsters to grow trees. there's a human reflex. it's not natural. it's cultural. it's learned to a now in the modern age if something is wrong in society, government can fix it if we're just clever enough. and you can't. there are 325 million people in this country. a small portion of them are stark raving mad or are going to be tomorrow. this guy was quite normal one day and then he wasn't. tragedy of human existence, there are tragedies to -- >> i disagree. michael sat down and watched a baseball game last night and said we need to deal with the

strike zone so we can deal with the time of the game. i don't disagree with you when people react and say they want government to do everything. but this happens so often, there's got to be something more we can do. this is not a once every ten-year phenomena. this is happening monthly it seems. when columbine happened it seemed like it never happened before, and now the number of times these incidents happened -- on this issue, there's something more. i agree with tom cole about the bump stock thing. he was a little flippant about anything could be turned into a weapon. when i use this pen correctly, it writes. when you use a gun correctly, it fires a bullet. there's got to be something more we can do. >> there's an element -- george alluded to, part of it is cultural. part of it is rooted in fear where that fear comes from, nobody knows. tom cole said he could name ten people off the top of his head

who own 49 weapons. why would you own 49 weapons? >> you can't go in the drugstore and buy razors, nasal medicine without showing i.d. i'm not saying people can't own 100 guns if they want but something -- what's at work here, whether it's cultural -- 59 people dead. 500 injured this morning. >> you could ban guns today and somebody who wants to kill people will get their hands on. >> 20 years to get rid of them. >> 200-year supply of guns in this country. we have two-year supply of ammunition. you want to ban something, regulate that. >> there's different ways of trying to get them -- get this under control. i don't know. i feel we should try. george will, thank you very much

for being on. >> thank you, george. appreciate it. we've got to ask, who do you think is going to win the american league? >> cleveland. >> national league? >> the nationals. >> over the dodgers? gutsy move. >> dodgers may not get past the diamondbacks. >> i agree. >> still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> that would be an incredible series. >> we're going to go live to las vegas where today president trump is set to meet with victims of the mass shooting there. nbc's kristen welker is standing by with a preview of what to expect. and kristen shares the byline of exclusive reporting on rex tillerson's near resignation from the state department. we'll ask her about that. also, nbc's andrea mitchell, foreign correspondent, joins the table as well. ron! something's going on at schwab. oh really? thank you clients?

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>> look, we have a tragedy. we're going to do -- and what happened in las vegas, in many ways, is a miracle. the police department has done such an incredible job. and we'll be talking about gun laws as time goes by. >> yeah. >> from las vegas, nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. the president will be there later this morning. what in the hell should we expect after yesterday? >> reporter: well, look, he is going to be on the ground here for about four hours. he will be meeting with victims recovering in the hospital and also with first responders. you're absolutely right. every word and action is going to be under intense scrutiny, particularly in the wake of what we saw yesterday in puerto rico. the president in puerto rico did have moments where he was reaching out to those who were dealing with the aftermath of this storm. he also raised some eyebrows

when he was tossing out supplies, for example, he started tossing paper towels as if they were basketballs. he praised the federal response. of course, he had this back and forth with the mayor leading up to the mayor yesterday about the federal response. she had been quite political. there was a moment of truce, it seemed. the two shook hands. in his comments he only talked about the governor. in the wake of his trip she said effectively he had not done a good enough job of communicating, reaching out to people on the ground. the fact that he compared the death toll to katrina and then joked about how much it was costing the government. so there is going to be a high bar today, i think, for the president, of course. this is going to be a different visit. i anticipate it will be more somber. but, again, every word, every action will be heavily scrutinized, mika and joe. >> yeah. kristen, you also share the

byline for the new nbc news exclusive report about rex tillerson nearly quitting the trump administration. what's the white house saying about that? and specifically about tillerson calling him a moron? >> reporter: the white house isn't commenting publicly on this. i can tell you i've been speaking to officials behind the scenes who acknowledge there were some real tensions there. let me set the stage for you. in our reporting we say that back in july the secretary of state came very close to effectively quitting. he was frustrated over a number of policy disputes with this president and frustrated over some of the language the president used in public comments, during that speech that was seen as widely polit political that he gave to the boy scouts. he was asked to stay by defense secretary james mattis and vice

president pence smoothed things over. it's not clear that that story ever made its way to the president when he called him a moron. it did anger those who were close to the president and really, i think, highlighted the fact that there are some real tensions here and those tensions were on display over the weekend when the president tweeted about secretary tillerson effectively under cut the way he's handling the crisis in north korea, saying diplomacy isn't working. have these tensions bk been completely worked out? it doesn't appear as though they have. although one official does stress that progress has been made. >> kristen, thank you. >> greatly appreciate it. >> i had a different thought about that. >> david ignatius is with us. let's bring in host of "andrea mitchell reports," andrea mitchell. what can you tell us about this relationship? >> you know, we've been reporting -- it's such a difficult relationship. tillerson came into government,

as you know -- you broke the story thaefs cot he was coming the new secretary of state, not knowing the president. was recommended by condoleezza rice and others. he came in, said he was going to try to cut waste. 30%. he accepted the budget recommendations of omb. and no previous secretary had ever done that. >> what's so strange about this -- >> lost support of the foreign service. >> he had his first day at the state department and he was widely praised. >> i did a story for "nightly news" saying this was a huge success. >> they were so excited. >> exactly. >> he is good friends with james baker. he was, as you said, recommended by condi rice and bob gates in a meeting with donald trump. >> it was mostly bob gates and condi who knew him from exxonmobil and the work they had done with the company. what we've been tracking is over iran, there's real tension over

iran. tillerson kept pushing back. when he did first recertify as the state department recommended, as the u.n. weapons inspector said iran was complying with the narrow terms of the agreement, it was done at quarter to midnight that letter went out. that showed right away that there was huge pushback from mike flynn and others in the nsc. and then still with mcmaster, that relationship fraught because of tension with the president's view on iran and qatar/saudi arabia dispute, which kushner and others had pushed and the president embraced, just undercutting. this weekend what happened with china, here, tillerson was on a quick trip to china, trying to placate the chinese in advance of the president's big trip to chiena telling them we're working on diplomacy. and the white house was furious that he said there was a back channel. >> the reporting of what we know

about this. when the vice president and general kelly beckoned him to stay, was that on behalf of the president? did the president send them to him or did they do that themselves? >> they did that on their own. the so-called grown-ups in the room trying to perfesuade tillerson that, first of all, they needed an ally. he worked closely, i should say, with john kelly, when he was at homeland security, on the immigration in mexico, disputes and trying to work with the mexicans after the president's insulting phone call. mattis and tillerson were working closely on all these issues. it was on their own behest to try to keep things square. can he afford another major departure? this would be the most high-profile one of all. >> it would. david ignatius you reported about the fact that rex

tillerson doesn't care what official washington thinks about him. he certainly hasn't courted the press. just ask andrea mitchell. and yet one history for me is that rex tillerson is good friends with james baker. just about as good as any of us have ever seen in working washington, d.c. condi rice and bob gates recommending him for this position. i've been wondering all these months, how does he stay in this position? how does he keep his head down when you know he's having conversations with these friends and associates? and i guess we learned in this story that perhaps it's not been as easy for him. >> maybe the president wants him to leave. >> as we believed. >> i can't help but think with a story like this, people around

the president who really want to send a message to tillerson. he is a very definite person. comes out of running this corporation, exxonmobil. he really doesn't care what members of congress think about him. he has not worked congress well. he certainly doesn't care what journalists think about him. as andrea and i know, can't remember a secretary of state that was harder to get to than this guy. >> john kerry was really very shy when it came to cameras. >> oh, wait. >> joking, mr. secretary. just joking. >> you could never get john kerry to say anything. >> no. >> except every other half hour. the relation between tillerson and mattis was so close, before every meeting the two of them figure out a common position,

that would carry tillerson through. the president understood this was his team. he was proud of his team. i assumed initially his comments in beijing where we had these back channels, i think he thought he was doing what the white house wanted and he got it wrong. the white house was furious. why didn't he talk to us before he made this statement? that's the kind of thing you're hearing. in a period where if he is going to stay he will have to feks this disconnect between himself and the white house, himself and congress and work at that very, very aggressively. that's really not the way he's put together. >> we have to get to mike barnicle. first let's go to our donald trump tweet desk. willie geist in hong kong, monitoring that. remote to willie right now. >> willie? >> as the president watches the tv, wow, so many fake news stories no matter what i do or so they will not write or speak

truth. the fake news media is out of control. one assumes that this story from nbc is among those that he's criticizing today. >> it reminds me of when they refurbished -- oh, wait. >> that's what puerto rico needs, that kind of work. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> the ceo aspect of rex tillerson is becoming increasingly obvious to a lot of people. andrea and david, after -- i've been told repeatedly by several people that the real split nine months into the trump presidency, at the top of the pr f trump presidency are those who serve the country, dedicated to moving the country forward as opposed to people who are there serving donald trump and his ego and lack of ideology. that's the split at the top of the house. >> i think it's all about loyalty and what really upset the president so deeply was that interview on fox news sunday.

he was asked by chris wallace, what about the president's comments on charlottesville? and rex tillerson said the president speaks for himself. >> stone faced. >> rather than falling all over himself for trying to make excuses for what the president said. rex tillerson is a man of values. and no one has had a more difficult relationship in the press corps but you have to respect the fact that this man lead a global company. he came to washington to serve. and if he didn't get it right because he didn't understand public diplomacy and the nature of the press corps and also the need to staff up and get people confirmed and create a team rather than the small unit he used to fly around the world with doing deals for exxonmobil, if he didn't get that right it wasn't for lack of patriotism. you really have to wonder how he could be treated so shabbily by the commander in chief. >> david ignatius, bit of

breaking news for the "morning joe" family. richard haas, president on council of foreign affiliations, tweeted this at 7:33 a.m. rex tillerson has been dealt a bad hand by the president and has played it badly. for both reasons he cannot be effective as secretary of state and should resign. i wonder if more people will be saying what richard haas said earlier this morning. >> well, i -- yeah. worryingly, many of those people may be in the white house. i think the point i would make is similar to what andrea just said. tillerson has really not been a success in any sense, in some parts of his job as secretary of state. he just is not a communicator. he is a smart, steady person in dealing with leaders around the world. deal iing with the putins and x jinping's of china in trying to find a way to resolve this dispute with kim jong-un in

north korea. the government, without tillerson's experience, will have a difficult experience, especially with so many crises going on. that concerns me. i hope it concerns the president. >> i second that. i certainly hope so. if anybody thinks this is a problem, you don't know what the replacement is. you don't know what's coming next. >> i think my instinct is that the president wants him to leave. david ignatius, thank you. >> mika, if you could that the president fire him, you could assure all of us that rex tillerson will be there for t the -- >> online now at nbc news.com. it is fascinating. coming up in another tweet this morning, president trump describes his trip to puerto rico as a great day. while criticizing the media on fake news, like the video of him

throwing paper towels into the crowd. maybe that's fake? >> it's fake. >> kind of hard to do that. >> kind of like that iran missile test. >> we faked the moon landing so we can fake him throwing out those paper towels. we'll talk about what is fake about the situation there and whether he's feeling lucky, the way the president said they should all feel lucky. disgraceful treatment to the mayor of san juan. that is straight ahead. >> when the president gets into the kind of controversy he does and the u.n. committee responds the way it does, it seems to say they begin to doubt whether we're living those values. >> i don't believe anyone doubts the american people's values or the commitment of the american government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values. >> and the president's values? >> the president speaks for himself, chris. ♪

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>> it's not about politics. >> thank you. thank you everybody. that was president trump's brief interaction with san juan's

mayor who he attacked on twitter during the height of the crisis there. joining us former governor of puerto rico. thank you for being on with us. >> pleasure. good morning. >> what do you make of how the president treated the mayor of san juan? >> i'm very sorry, mick i'm notg to get into politics, i care about re -- >> do you think it's about politics attacking her? >> we need results. we have people that desperately need help. as soon as we get the help we should not be talking about politics at this moment. i've been helping and bringing up people that are ill and need medical attention and not able to get it in puerto rico at this moment. we're talking about american citizens. >> are they getting the results that are so desperately needed? let's talk about that then. >> since general buchanan got to

puerto rico, all i hear and see is that indeed things are starting to move in the right direction. going up to the mountains where it's more difficult to get to and there's simply no power and water. no medical attention. what i hear since he got there, things are starting to move in the right direction but the devastation is so vast, this will take weeks if not months to even get to a point where people have access to basic services. >> governor, it's willie geist, good to see you this morning. one of the great frustrations a lot of puerto ricans have, a lot of supplies are there and have been there, sitting on trucks and they can't get moved around the island. why is that exactly? people don't understand why it is. the roads are blocked and don't have enough drivers. why haven't that relief material which has arrived isn't getting where it needs to go?

>> that's a great point. it's a number of reasons for it. one is road access, another one has been access to fuel for the truckers, third one is that trucker not being able to get to the port. however, again, since last week, when general buchanan got to puerto rico, he said if i close the -- this is not empty, i'm going to start emptying out. i have seen the data on those containers going out and that has doubled or tripled in rate. so he has made a difference. i was asking for more boots on the ground. that has occurred based on information that i have received and i believe that that has a lot to do with getting those containers out of the port. >> governor, you're in washington, so we understand you're remote from the island. >> i was there this weekend. >> the electric grid, is it a lack of utility workers or trees

down or poles down? what is preventing more of the electric grid being connected to light up that island. >> only 6% of the island has power right now and what happened was that we were hit by one mile per hour short of a category 5 hurricane. that's sustained winds for 12 hours. if you have been through a hurricane, i've been through two, it's scary. and it brings down poles and transmission lines as well and also you have situations where there were mudslides and the whole tower came down with the mudslide. it's very difficult and some areas it's a remote area where the work has to be done using helicopters most likely. that's really what's going on, transmission to a great degree based on information i gathered this weekend when i was there. >> former governor of puerto rico, thank you very much. >> thank you, governor. >> kasie hunt, we understand we

can expect news out of that. what are you hearing? >> that's right, so far the committee's message is stand by for news out of -- it's a press conference with the chairman and vice chairman, richard burr and mark warner. one piece of information that i would keep at the forefront of your mind going into this is remember how the president reacted to the intelligence committee assessments that concluded that russia was interfering in the election? that's something we may be revisiting today. the other -- the rest of it i'm told is going to be quote, sexy. my guess is the president will not think that it is because it has to do with the russia investigation but i guess we'll see. >> we'll wait for that. thank you very much. up next, new details emerged out of las vegas overnight about the weapons used in the attack and on the gunman's girlfriend whom police still consider a person of interest. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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if you look at the real catastrophe like katrina and look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds of people that died, what is your death count as of this moment, 17? >> 16. >> 16 people certified. 16 people versus in the thousands. you can be very proud. >> that is beyond inappropriate. >> president trump visits puerto rico and compares the disaster there to the quote real catastrophe of hurricane katrina. and he also tries out his personal touch with the victims by playfully tossing paper towels to the people in need. we're going to break down his trip. plus, new details emerge about the las vegas gunman and large amounts of cash he wire the overseas. his companion is back on american soil this morning and officials have a lot of questions for her. we'll have all of the new

information and new mystery surrounding the massacre. and just minutes away, an nbc news exclusive, rex tillerson went to texas and threatened never to come back. we've got brand-new reporting on what nearly drove the secretary of state to quit. the trump administration apparently at one point calling the president reportedly a moron. carol lee joins us with those exclusive details first on "morning joe". >> before we get into the news, everybody was talking about just all of the missteps is that the president -- >> got so many texts -- >> in purt reerto rico, throwin paper towels at the victims of the hurricane like it was a game. never seen anything like that before. >> ever. >> and then saying boy, you're lucky you didn't face a real catastrophe. >> you should be proud. >> when willie, the stories coming out of puerto rico, every

day really keep getting worse. you know, drinking water, what, maybe over half of the population doesn't have drinking water. people have been stranded up on hillsides for -- since the storm came through. >> no electricity. >> no electricity. it is a grim exceedingly grim situation being faced by many residents of that island and donald trump goes in and goes you're lucky you're not facing a real catastrophe. >> if you watch that event from start to finish, it was truly bizarre. the tone and tenor was celebratory, like they were there to celebrate and toast to it. as you point out there's devastation right outside the door where he was sitting. you can see the discomfort on some of the puerto rican official faces although they were glad they were there and that aid is getting into puerto rico. >> put in a horrible position.

>> it was go around the room and talk about what a great job we've done. and let's make sure these cameras see it's much better than it's being reported in the immediate ya media. give him credit for going and handing out aid but he left early and it felt like a pro forma visit, something he had to do. >> again, what he did -- >> throughout -- it was bizarre behavior, it was -- it was celebratory when this is an island struggling and we see once again john heilemann, that once again, another example over the past week, what many people have said about it, a basic lack of humanity with him whipping the crowd into a frenzy to boo john mccain and over the weekend when the people of puerto rico

were struggling and he was calling them basically ingrates and yesterday he goes there and says boy, you're really busting our budget. really? really? i mean, would we like to go down the list -- how much his tax cuts are going to end up costing the country? and it will cost the country. >> accommodating family's private jets. >> his family's private jets. >> and administration's private jets. >> it's really -- it's staggering. the lack of -- basic lack of humanity and the growing concern that's always been there, this man is disconnected from reality. at least in communications the way one human being speaks to another human being, the way a president is supposed to speak to constituents and people in need, he is incapable of even doing the most basic things --

>> i think it's a particular aspect of humanity, it's this thing and not the first time that anyone said it. we've talked about it since he's come on the public stage and particular quality of empathy he lacks. he does things that are cruel sometimes in the case of john mccain and these are various issues but in this case, one of the most fundamental things you need to do as president of the united states in a circumstance like this when people are suffering and have been suffering, is not to contemplate comparative games. not to talk about yourself and boast about how well you're doing, it should be about these constituents and about to use the famous clinton phrase, feeling their pain. it's actually not that hard. >> believe it or not, there's lots more to show you on this. we begin though with new information in the search for an answer as to why a gunman killed 58 people in las vegas. officials say they have recovered a total of 47 firearms

from three different locations, including the hotel room at the mandalay bay hotel that stephen paddock used to stage the massacre and weapons from his home in mesquite nevada, along with a third location. the weapons were purchased in nevada, utah, california, and texas. officials also revealed that paddock had 12 bump fire stocks which would have allowed him to modify a semiautomatic weapon to fire rapidly, much like a machine gun. >> why are these legal? >> why do you need this? there's no reason. >> why are these legal? why can you get these for $40. >> unless you want to murder people. >> i still haven't seen the past 24 hours, a good justification for these being legal when the sole purpose for their existence is to turn a legal weapon -- >> into an illegal weapon. >> a weapon that performs like an illegal weapon, a weapon that has been banned, except in the

most extreme circumstances. >> i don't know, side note if you saw the pr video that donald trump jr. did promoting silencers for a company. police are investigating the leak of photos showing the aftermath of their raid on paddock's hotel room and slammed a german newspaper which published them. the images showed a busted down door on the ground filled with bullet holes as well as a single weapon resting on the floor, positioned on a gun stand. police say two cameras were located in the hallway, which they say allowed paddock to watch officers for security -- or security approach his room. they say another camera was placed in the room's peephole. and the department has raised a three minute compilation from body cam footage of officers arriving at the scene of the shooting. you can hear gunfire rain down as officers scramble to seek cover and try to get civilians to safety. officials reveal paddock fired his weapon on and off for 9 to

11 minutes and then hunkered down in his room as police converged. las vegas police officials discussed one of their own lost, trying to protect people from that gunfire. >> want to mention one of those brave people was las vegas metropolitan police officer charleston hartfield. at the route 91 concert with his wife when shots rang out. even though officer hartfield was at the concert as a civilian, he immediately took action to save lives. in that moment, he was acting as a police officer. he ultimately gave his life protecting others. officer hartfield was an 11 member of the lvmpd and leaves behind a wife and two children. very grateful for his sacrifice. >> also in that police briefing the clark county coroner announced that the death toll has been revised to 58, noting

that the 59th person killed was the killer. breaking overnight, marilou danley has returned to the united states. this footage obtained by nbc shows the 62-year-old danley at los angeles international airport being pushed in a wheelchair. multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation confirm she was escorted by fbi agents. it was not clear where she is going. this has we learn more details about where she's been. nbc can confirm danley arrived in the philippines from gentleman fan on september 15th, more than two weeks before the assault took place. travel records indicate she arrived in hong kong for a four-day visit on september 22nd and then at about 10:00 p.m. last night she arrived in los angeles from manila. investigators revealed yesterday that pad dock wired $100,000 to his girlfriend's home country last week, though it was not known whether the money was for

her or her family or another purpose. yesterday paddock's brother reacted to the news. >> the $100,000 for marilou, what i said -- what i said before, that's the steve i know. that's what's -- that's something that makes sense. steve would have wanted to take care of marilou. i may be wrong for the day because i haven't talked to marilou. >> if you listen to the sheriff speak last night at the press conference, you could hear the frustration and even the heartbreak in his voice that no one picked up on what was clearly now a meticulously planned operation by this guy, that in took weeks and in fact months to buy all of the weapons, to get the money together, to put cameras out in the hallway, to set up the way he set up, to have the do not disturb sign on the door for three days. i'm not holding the hotel responsible because you don't go in if the sign is on the door.

from the girlfriend to anybody he came in contact with, for nobody to know what he was up to, it's tragic. >> this was meticulously planned. please, the girlfriend -- how would the girlfriend know -- >> stock piling all of these weapons. >> what are we up to? >> 47 weapons. >> i mean as the facts come out we'll be more and more disturbed by and she evidently had some touch points over a period of time in my hometown of memphis, the girlfriend of paddock. it's unclear there's no connection to anyone in memphis. the more this comes out the days and hours go by to willie's point, not only will that police officer be frustrated but hope it frustrates members of congress and senate and others and annoys them to the point they may want to act on some of the legislation around gun safety that clearly needs to be acted upon.

>> we did hear some early whispers from people like lindsey graham and john thune, didn't quite know bump stocks were legal and we need to take say look at that. that is in effect is a loophole that these weapons are illegal except in extreme cases but they suddenly become very accessible if all you have to do is buy a bump stock and put it on a semiautomatic rifle. >> it took a personal intervention from the vice president to help keep rex tillerson from walking away from washington. nbc news has exclusive new reporting on the near resignation of the secretary of state? >> those details are straight ahead. bill karins with a check on the forecast and new activity in the tropics. >> we've been trying to get bill karins to resign for some time. >> we actually need him. >> you guys would miss me, wouldn't you? unfor natalie the last two weeks we had a little break and had a break from hurricane activity. still in the peak of the season. now we're turning attention to

the western caribbean. this is the time of year we get storms that form in the western caribbean. and the hurricane center is out with the update from 8:00 a.m. they give six-hour updates that tell us if we have development possible and odds. now they are saying probabilities is up to 90% this area just north of panama. this is honduras and nicaragua. this will skirt the coastline of honduras and here's the five-day development zone. your eyes go up here to the gulf of mexico. our american computer, this goes out through monday, does take it near the coastline, just maybe close to cancun and up to the north gulf coast. that's why we have to pay attention to this. the water is very warm and sheer is going to be low. it's a matter of will the storm develop or not. if it does, there's not much that would stop it from becoming another strong storm. that's the concern and we have to watch this carefully, four

days from now is when it will possibly be somewhere near the northern gulf coast. we have time to watch it. no need for preparations or anything yet. so far as today goes, south trop ka, tropical wave, bad weather for you. the snowstorms that hit montana and colorado, already some of that winter fun is being had in the rockies. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ into the great wide open ♪ under the skies of blue oduct, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

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welcome back to "morning joe." now to a block buster report from nbc news where we're learning that secretary of state rex tillerson was on the verge of walking away from his most over the summer, only to be talked out of it by vice president pence and generals kelly and mattis. tensions came to a head around the time president trump delivered that politicized

speech in late july to the boy scouts of america, an organization where tillerson once served as it's president. the national political reporter for nbc news, kara lee joins us now. also from washington, columnist and associate editor for the "washington post," david ignatius. >> what was it specifically about the boy scout speech that finally was -- must have been the straw that broke the camel's back. >> there were a number of things in july, leading up to july, there was a spat between the president and tillerson over qatar where tillerson said should resolve this and the president backed saudi arabia and uae and the iran nuclear deal and recertification, tillerson was arguing with the president to recertify and not -- then they had a series of meetings after one of them in late july tillerson was overheard talking with cabinet

members and white house officials and referred to the president as a moron. he was clearly frustrated and you have this speech at the boy scouts of america to these young people and it was just all kind of coming together at the same time and he was just -- it was a real inflection point for the secretary. >> kelly kept him there and mattis -- obviously he's very close to general mattis, they talk every day. what did they do to persuade rex tillerson to stay secretary of state when he's just been treated about as badly as any major cabinet secretary in recent history. >> i think they were generally trying to get him to stay on, things will get better and we'll work this out and afterwards, tillerson was in texas and came back and vice president pence had a meeting with him where he gave him -- described to as a pep talk and basically also said, in order to move forward,

you need to get on board with the president's program here and you need to figure outweighs to do that. there was a broad attempt has a reset and it hasn't really stuck. >> been trolling him even with north korea openly. >> and then there was this incident at the end of august where tillerson responded -- was asked about the president's response to charlottesville and he said, the president speaks for himself and that really irritated the president. >> really quickly, i'm curious because he was publicly trolling rex tillerson this past weekend saying don't waste your time, rex. were your calls out at that point to get a response from the president? did the white house know this story was coming when he was trolling rex tillerson? >> we had been working on this story for a couple of months -- since the end of july. >> you made contact with the white house -- >> we had -- we had made contact with them previously and then again on sunday.

>> it will be interesting to see how the president reacts to this report from someone who can't take criticism, being called a moron. what was the context -- >> mika calls me a moron all the time. >> that's not new. was it something specific or broad? >> we don't know exactly what that specific conversation was but if you look where it came after, it came after this meeting, it was the july 15th meeting on afghanistan where the president really shocked his advisers by comparing the process to renovation of the 21 club. then you had a meeting on july 20th at the pentagon. >> by the way, that story ended up being false. not only was it an embarrassing comparison but it never happened. >> the next day you have this other meeting at the pentagon

a and it has the same tone, president wasn't making a decision. you can kind of put his remarks in that context. >> david ignatius has a question. >> great reporting, carol. the question i have where this is going to go. there obviously has been growing distance between the white house and tillerson over both policies and personalities over the last weeks and your reporting says months, but what happens now, specifically after this quotation of tillerson saying the president is a moron, to say in the cabinet, he's going to have to go to the white house and say i never said that so and he's going to have to make a show of loyalty. do you think he'll do that? and second, he's very close to secretary mattis as joe said earlier, they talk every day, mattis is the strongest

defender. do you think they try to move tillerson out, how is mattis going to react to that? >> you hit on the key word, this is a president that values loyalty above all us and he'll very likely to see this comment as a betrayal and it's how he reacts to that. we don't necessarily know but if you look at his past behavior, this is something that he would take personally because it is personal and it's very different -- >> i think he may. >> i'm thinking. >> and the policy disputes that we've seen these two have in the past. >> carol, thank you for your exclusive reporting now on nbc news.com. we'll go live to the white house as president trump heads to las vegas. plus, the big business of u.s. gun sales, brian sullivan is here with new numbers on an american phenomenon.

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>> it's a very sad thing, we're going to pay our respects and to see the police who have done really a fantastic job in a very

short time and they are learning a lot more and that will be announced at the appropriate time. it's a very, very sad day for me. >> it's a sad day for him. we're so glad to know that. >> president trump just moments ago making it about himself again as he departs for las vegas. joining me now, former moderator ever face the nation on cbs bob schieffer, the author of "overlo "overload" finaling the truth in today's deluge of news. every day they ask a question, how do we keep up? there's so much coming at us. and i always talk about context, context. we've got to put the deluge in context. even this morning the president has tweeted several times about fake news. this is a man who peddles more

false information, objectively than any president in american history. >> well, you know, i said so many times during the campaign, i've never seen anything like this, that it became a drinking game amongst the younger people at cbs -- >> must be drunk. >> never seen anything like it. >> have a drink -- >> luckily we had designated drivers i suppose, no injuries. i've never seen anything like it, joe. i'll say it again, i waiver, swear, i don't know anybody who has. >> what's remarkable, how in the world could this guy get elected and yet the person he ran against had even lower honest and trust worthy numbers which i suppose speaks to it's -- >> it speaks to the disconnect between washington and the rest of america. >> it's kind of what happens to our electoral system here. we're not getting the same talent pool anymore.

when you wind up with the choice -- the democrats came up with one candidate who had a national following and she was qualified and all of that but she's the only one? her main opposition was from a guy who's a socialist -- >> not even a democrat. then you have reality tv on the other side. there's something happening here when this winds up -- >> total breakdown. >> can you explain that about -- just the quality of the people -- i know mike can speak to that as well, just the quality of people from the time i left until now is remarkable. i could name ten senators who were giants on the republican side, on the democratic side. >> i can name more because i'm older than you. i came back -- >> and barnicle will go back -- >> he's -- the hayes administration and talk about the senators that worked with president hayes.

>> this is going to sound funny when i say this, here's what happened. when i was a little boy, my grandma thought i was going to grow up to be president of the united states and the reason she thought that is because that's what every grandmother thought about her grandson. you no i ask this question, how long has it been since you run into anybody who says i hope my kid grows up to a politician. it's become something that people have turned away from, the political class is reviled. and what's happened is our best and brightest are not running for political office anymore, joe. or even taking part in politics. i had a young woman working for me that started dating a congressman, a very nice young man and they had a couple of dates and she went home to tell her dad about it and he said, what, he wasn't interested if guy was a democrat or republican. he wanted to know what she was doing hanging out -- >> with a politician. >> absolutely. >> and you know, we've seen it

mike in recent years over the past decade or so. if you run for office especially with what's online, you will have your spouse being followed around in a grocery store with somebody with a video camera, which they will then link up to the internet. so there's so many people who are successful in their communities that would say maybe if i didn't have a wife and kids or a husband and kids, maybe i'd do it but i'm not going to put them through this. >> or scrape it down to basics. maybe if i had no element of a life i might think of going on the ballot. something in your background -- >> it doesn't even -- that doesn't even matter because they will make it up and put it on facebook and your kids will be explaining it to their friends. >> that gets to one of the larger points in your book, bob and the volume, the niagara of

news, we're news junkkys here, there's too much for us to consume. >> it's impossible to understand. we have access to more information than any people who have ever lived on earth. but are we wiser? or are we simply overwhelmed with so much information we can't process it? the answer is we're overwhelmed. and we're right at the beginning of this the coming of digital and internet is having as profound an effect on our culture as the invention the printing press it on the people of that day. while it took awhile for literacy to go across europe and good things that happened after the invention of the printing press, now this stuff is going around the world and back in a matter of seconds. once it gets out there, this fake news, you can't take it down. there's a percentage of people who still think barack obama was not born in the united states. how much fact checking do you have to do to get that out of

the -- >> facebook accounts for 50% of where people get news. i've been saying on this show for some time -- >> actually it's 62%. >> 62%. i always say if walter cronkite had 62% got their news from walter cronkite in the '70s and half of the stories were false, the government would step in, would regulate. if the russians were getting that news out there, at what point do we start asking tough questions about who edits facebook. >> that's a key question, we've asked it and gotten no answer from facebook. but the components of everything that you're talking about and everything we've been talking about now are all in bob's book. when you first began in the news business and i first began in the news business in the 1800s. the arc of the story -- >> write it with a quill.

>> the art of the story was critical. you're sitting in front of a type writer on a november day, mrs. oswald calls you and you transport her to dallas, you would have had to written for the online edition before mrs. oswald got into your car. i mean the way the business has changed. have we lost control of the arc of the story? are we now feeding more anecdotes along the way during the day? >> the good news organizations have not lost control. i mean, what the "washington post" has done, they have converted themselves from a newspaper company into a media company. they are like a wire service used to be. but here's the difference, here's where the trouble comes, you know, in what i call the gate keeper era, where there were three television stations and a newspaper in every town, we based our opinions on the

facts that those organizations were putting out, maybe we didn't agree with the editorial policy, but we were confident that they had at least checked out what they had a story about before they published. and the responsible organization still do, but those standards are not followed by everybody that follows a story on to facebook, which is a wonderful way to keep up with your neighbors and that sort of thing. it may be true and may be false and may be somewhere in between and then a lot of times now, what's also complicated this, we now have the russians and other people who are putting stuff online for just partisan political reasons who are really -- they've really figured out how to game the system. they know how to get the stuff out there and it's clearly just an effort to destroy the credibility of the american media. and the american media is crucial to our form of

government. you know, you can't have democracy unless citizens have independently gathered information that they can compare to the government's version of events and then st decide what to do about it. when people start undermining the press, i think they are trying to undermine the foundations of our democracy and i take that seriously no matter who does that. >> as the president has undermined the press over the last two and a half years since he launched his campaign, a lot of people in the media viewed that as license to push back in a way they hadn't previously with personal opinions and snarkxts that you see on twitter, a fact based story on the front page of a major newspaper then tweeting something snarky about the president or insulting the president that way. do you worry at all in the trump era about the media overreaching in the way it covers the president? >> i think we have to be careful about that. i think our job is to understand the difference in the

politicians' message and our message. the politician is delivering a message. our job is simply to question it, determine if it's true or false and report on what it's impact will be. >> so isn't it jarring for you, i know it is for me, been reading the new york times since i was a kid. i know that all of us have their own bias and i know they have their bias but i don't want to read an a 1 story on front page of the new york times or wall street journal and then see a reporter making some snarky comment about the president of the united states, even if i very publicly said i'm opposed to him. >> i agree with that. >> it makes the president's case for him and allows him to say they are against him. >> i was on "face the nation" for how many years, more than two decades, i can't remember. and i always did a commentary at the end but it said commentary across the bottom of the screen when i did that. and you know, i'm sure my bias creeped in from time to time,

sometimes we're better at that and controlling that -- >> really was horrible -- tcu, i wish you would stop with it. >> 4-0, right? >> exactly. >> i would like your commentary though, a long with millions of americans for most of my life, i turned to you for analysis and commentary and to understand things. and so i'm wondering what you make of this president. he has consistently lied. he has consistently bullied people from war heroes to news anchors -- >> the question about his moral and mental fitness. >> i don't understand this president. to answer your question, i don't understand what his strategy is if there is one. i mean, these comments about rex tillerson, you all were discussing this earlier talking -- he just cut the legs out from under his own secretary of state who's trying to get some sort of line of communication open with north

korea. i don't know what that game is. i don't see what the end is. i don't understand what he thinks he's going to gain by doing that. and so i find that many times during the campaign, i just don't know. >> you know, we've talked about the american culture for some time and everybody tries to trace it back, did it start with the clinton presidency? did it start with bourque's nomination, a guy who's very controversial on college campuses, charles murray, wrote a pretty incredible book about the decline of white culture in america. and which basically predicted the rise of somebody like donald trump. he puts the date at november 22nd, 1963, a date that mike references, maybe -- maybe we've

been too short sided. maybe the world we knew and order that we knew started that thread started being polled on january 22nd 1963 and maybe it has been one continual sort of cultural decline since then. >> you know, joe, that's a very interesting thought. i think that day when president kennedy was shot was the day that america lost its innocence. and i'm not sure we have ever really regained everything. we thought of the presidency, we thought of our presidents as being invincible and the office made demand, they grew larger and then this absolute loser came along and killed the president of the united states. someone who had never accomplished anything. and i think that shattered a lot of people's feelings and i'll tell you something else, that was the first time that americans that ever seen news being gathered up until that time, we saw the finished

product, the written story in the paper, edited story on television, and we discovered that it's not always an orderly process. people push and shove and sometimes they do things they ought not to do. and i think that raised questions about credibility of the press as well. but moving into the era now, i mean this political dialogue that we had during this last campaign, it was more like the thread on a blog post. somebody post something on a blog and somebody said no, that's wrong and somebody says, no, you're wrong and then somebody says, no you're an idiot and we go -- >> and the president tweets. >> and we go from the inane to the profane, one of the reasons people were drawn to trump, he talked like a blog threat and they were comfortable with that dialogue. >> it's a great book, finding the truth in today's deluge of

news, fascinating, bob schieffer, thanks very much. >> thank you, bob, great honor. >> don't tell anybody, but i watch you sometimes. >> we won't tell a soul. >> can you believe that? up next, the role of comforter in chief, the president attempted at that yesterday in puerto rico. what should we expect now that he's on his way to las vegas? we'll be right back. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes,

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peter, good morning, the president making comments heading out to las vegas to be with first responders and families in the victim of the mass shooting. what more can you tell us about his trip? >> i was on the south lawn and the president and first lady as they prepare to board saying this is a very sad thing, saying it's very sad for him personally, speaking about the fact that he was hoping to pay his respects to those there and praising the fantastic job in

his words of the first responders. if he can keep it in that strike zone, focusing on the sadness of this day and an effort to pay respects, i think many people in las vegas will appreciate it. obviously in the wake of what was a remarkable moment of a commander in chief trying to be comforter in chief where the president seemed to be focusing on praise for the federal response than empathy for survivors there. it does pose a challenge for the president on this day, the way he woke up this morning, getting on twitter, attacking the media as you have been talking about over the course of the last hour. he tweeted within the last hour, wow, so many fake news stories today and no matter what i do or say, they will not write or speak truth. the fake news media is out of control, given the reporting of our colleague and others about the secretary of state rex ti tillers tillerson, describing the president as a quote moron. i tried to get his attention on

that topic, he either didn't hear me or wasn't taking the bait. consider what he tweeted last night, retweeting a tweet from sean hannity, going after the media, tonight the truth and ho despicable the media and the left are in america today. i remind you just about 15, 16 weeks ago, this president spoke from here at the white house following the shooting that fortunately didn't take any lives but certainly did hit among others the congressman steve scalise. the president said we are stronger when we come together and find common ground. on this day when that should be the message, it appears he's focusing on some of the divisions in this country as well. >> let's hope he can keep it together in las vegas. peter alexander at the white house. peter, thanks a lot. coming up next, gun stocks shot up the morning after the las vegas massacre. what that says about the prospects of new gun policy after another national tragedy. that's next on "morning joe." it's thirty-four days since we first met.

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blown up six months ago that killed 50 marines -- >> yeah. >> would we -- >> it would be too soon. >> would it be too soon? i don't think so. i think we would talk about it then and there. >> let's take a cue from washington, too soon. >> out of respect for the families and until the facts are known, the nra has refrained from comment. >> within minutes we saw politicians run out and try to exploit this tragedy. try to push their political agenda. >> frankly i think the situation where the democrats have exploited this tragedy for political purposes. >> this is not the time to talk about politics. >> there's a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country. >> i think it's premature to be discussing legislative solutions, if there are any. >> we can have that discussion at another time, but it's a typical political tactic by some on the left. >> we'll be talking about gun

laws as time goes by. >> but it's not really like a typical tactic. >> when exactly is it a good time to talk about it? >> again, after 9/11 we talked immediately about what steps we could take to prevent the next 9/11. in fact the government went into action immediately. let's bring in brian sullivan, by the way, who has done -- you know what he's done? >> a documentary. >> a documentary on this. >> called "america's gun, the rise of the ar-15." >> done a lot of reporting on it. >> we can't talk about it because it's too soon. >> done a lot of reporting on it. but anyway, we're going to talk about it. >> yeah. >> because it's just a cop-out, what they're doing. they do this all the time. >> it's actually cowardice. >> this is a concern. >> here's the terrible paradox. >> i want to talk really quickly about stock prices. they always go up after a tragedy. 8.5% after orlando, 10% after

san bernardino, on and on. >> because that paradox i was going to reference. when we talk about gun control, people immediately run out and buy more guns. and we look at -- i don't know, about ten years ago there was probably about 3 million ar-15 style assault rifles out there. now there are estimated 8 million to 9 million of the united states. >> they have tripled in ten years? >> it's hard to know. there's two brands, but the majority of the gun industry is controlled by a private equity firm. a guy named steven feinberg who is very secretive, but he has basically bought all the companies, bushmaster, remington, and rolled them up into a company called the freedom group. >> tell us about steven steinbe steinberg, is that his name? >> feinberg. he's a reclusive guy, multi billionaire, lives in new jersey, drives a pickup truck. they were best known as part of

the chrysler bailout. that's where your audience might remember them from, but that's the situation. people go out and buy more guns. just quickly, one quick anecdote -- >> so let me just ask you, when children get slaughtered in sandy hook, stock prices go up and steven what's his name? >> feinberg gets richer, right? >> ostensibly. >> and when people get slaughtered going to a country music concert, what you're telling me is that he and his company get richer? every time americans are slaughtered by these weapons, steven -- what's his name again? >> steven feinberg. >> steven feinberg gets richer every time americans are slaughtered by these weapons, that he makes money off of. >> ostensibly if sales go up, they're going to get a slice of that. american outdoor brands. here's the weird paradox also, the other one. the nra is representing gun owners. the national shooting sports foundation is actually the group

that lobbies for the gun industry. and just bizarrely they are based in newtown, connecticut, sandy hook. i've been to their offices. >> yep, they're right there. >> there's 320 million guns in the united states. as you have said, joe, 95% or so of gun crime is committed by people with unlicensed firearms. so even if you have the legislation, i'm not pro or against, i'm saying even if you have it, what do you do about the 300 plus million weapons that are already out there. a gun well maintained will last a hundred years. >> and the huge percentage of people who rush out the door after situations like las vegas to buy more guns clearly don't know what we know, that the congress will do nothing. they run out to buy the guns because they're afraid someone will come and take the guns that they have. >> people say you're anti-gun, pro gun. my father is in the nra. i'll say this. if you get six speeding tickets, you lose your driver's license. but you can own 50 assault rifles. >> they would say because you're

speeding, you're breaking the law. owning a gun is not breaking the law. it's a constitutional right. >> correct. they have said it and they will. >> all right. >> that does it for us this morning. be sure to stay tuned because you really never know what happens next. >> i mean anything that happens. >> this year's episodes of america, starring donald trump. today donald goes to las vegas and we see if he replicates the horror show that was yesterday. >> truly a horror show. >> of his presidential performance in puerto rico. >> and that is where we find stephanie ruhle, who picks up the coverage right now from las vegas. indeed, donald goes to vegas and that's where we are. hi there, everyone, i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning the girlfriend of the las vegas shooter returns to the united states, as we learn more about the meticulous planning behind the attack and las vegas police release body cam footage of the chaos.