unplugged version of bob corker. that's exactly what the president got. we'll show you the retiring senator's stinging rebuke of the white house, which he compared to an adult daycare center careening toward world war iii. >> what bob corker was hinting before he decided not to run. of course, it's fascinating the president calling him up last week, begging him to run and saying it supported him and then, of course, pulling out. >> republicans are saying, and he's not holding back. this comes as the president hints, teases and toys with the prospect of nuclear anyeilation, alluding to the calm before the storm with north korea. former commander for nato for his reaction to that. >> do you remember a year ago when we had said it was august and we had general hayden on? >> yes. this is during the campaign. >> during the campaign. he framed it. >> how donald trump asked three specific times why can't we use

nuclear weapons? and we reported it here first. and the three were iran, as we said at the time. the second issue just generally, why can't we just generally? >> a desire to go to war. >> and the third was north korea. if we've got nuclear weapons, why can't we use them against north korea? you gave a very impassioned plea. republicans, americans, think about what you're doing. you're electing somebody who has a desire to use nuclear weapons and has talked to one of the most important people in u.s. foreign policy and has asked them three times in an hour briefing why we can't use nuclear weapons. >> it's frightening. >> that's where we are. >> it's frightening. and corker is now highlighting this concern with real insight from his position in washington. meanwhile, vice president mike pence makes a public show of turning his back on the nfl in a preplanned protest to players

taking a knee during the national anthem. and, of course, it costs taxpayers a lot of money to fly there, secure a stadium only to walk out for what looked to be a pr stunt. >> can you imagine how much -- >> how badly thought out that was. >> fans in indianapolis were inconvenienced, how you're always inconvenienced if a president or vice president comes to a game? how much secret service personnel were wrapped up at that time, if something serious had happened elsewhere, how much money that costs the american taxpayers just -- just to deflect away from what had happened with bob corker, just to deflect from everything else. this was a stunt. you call a stunt something that you know is going to happen and you go and you play it out. so he went there, knowing the 49ers were going to kneel. everybody in the nfl knew it.

>> yeah. he actually left his pool reporter outside and said i don't think i'm going to be here very long. >> warned him. >> they flew in all the secret service, did all the stuff, secured the stadium. on top of that, he came from las vegas to indianapolis and went back to california. >> how much money did that cost? >> a lot of money. >> a lot of money. >> we'll get to that. >> and inconvenienced a lot of -- the good people that went to the game there. >> that's right. >> a lot of people from indiana inconvenienced because of a short stunt. >> also this morning -- >> nothing conservative about that. >> nothing at all. >> trump told him to do that. >> you know, mr. president, i think i'll just put out a statement. that's going to cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. that's going to tie up secret service. that's going to require we use jets as recklessly as everybody else in this administration. we're going to have to fly back and forth. mr. president, that would be a very reckless thing to do.

but he didn't do that. >> harvey weinstein is fired from his company over rampant allegations of sexual harassment, we'll have more including the silence from hollywood and washington on this story. what the heck. >> you guys broke this on friday. it is the only thing -- i talked to some of the most powerful people in hollywood over the weekend. it is the only thing hollywood is talking about right now. they are transfixed. and they are all saying behind the scenes this guy is a sleazebag. he deserves it. he had it coming. and yet nobody will say -- >> in fact, almost didn't step down. >> rose mcgowan said something. lena dunham said something. who else? >> ashley judd. >> of course ashley judd. but nobody else. nobody. the silence is deafening. the presidents, who he's personal friends with, said

nothing. i'm not comparing this guy to trump. any time i said the silence is deafening this week, people said he's not president. well, i didn't say he's president. >> people who took mon fri him. >> whose children worked for him. partied out in the hamptons, the clinton. >> supported his lifestyle. >> not a word. not a word from the actresses who made millions. not a word from the directors. not a word from anybody out there. >> you know, it's amazing. it takes two things for these stories to come to light. the first is the most important, which is people who are victims who are willing to step up and speak publicly, whose stories allow journalists to tell these stories and second is journalist willing to find the stories and tell them and print them. we're beginning a sea change of culture in our business.

people are coming back, not standing back, allowing it to happen. until now it's true, harvey weinstein acres lot of people saw a value of staying in business with him for years and years and years and thought it was better to go along and tolerate this kind of behavior that they had heard about. but, you know, it takes people who are willing to come forward and talk about their experiences. that's the first critical ingredient. >> second one, though, is to have powerful people support them at whatever cost. >> right. >> if they don't get that support like where is hillary clinton? where are the democrats who took money from him? they're just returning it and giving it to the dnc? where are the powerful people in hollywood who should be supporting -- can you imagine the women we haven't heard about? given what we've heard so far? >> that's the only thing i heard. everything you've heard -- >> good lord. that's scratching the surface. >> -- is the tip of the iceberg. again, the guy at the center of

hollywood said it is so much worse on so many levels. it's astounding. and yet, steve, what is it? why won't people in new york that have known this was going on with harvey weinstein for such a long time, why won't the obamas, why won't the clintons and, most importantly, why won't be the people in hollywood stand up and speak out for the actresses who were abused in the past and who will be abused in the future? >> well, i agree with that. i'm in a slightly awkward position here. while i don't disagree with anything you're saying about harvey, he has been a friend of mine for more than 20 years, an incredibly loyal friend and has never done anything at all untoward me. i don't mean sexually but generally. he has been a loyal friend. icon dem what he has done. >> you find it appalling. >> it is appalling. in fact, harvey has said it's appalling. >> so why can't hollywood say that? this is not any left/right thing. how about going out and making sure that ashley judd and rose mcgowan and, you know, these few

women that have had the guts to step forward, how about not making them feel so alone in this? >> pull your business from him? >> i agree with you about that and some of the democratic politicians. some have been fine. i think they said immediately they'll return it, give it to women's groups and so on. some of the people you alluded to need to be heard on this. as i said, you can have been a friend of harvey's but still say this is appalling, unacceptable, disgusting behavior. >> i never met him. i had a book deal through his publisher and pulled it over the weekend. i feel he even pushed the story out there when i signed the deal. mika brzezinski signs three-book deal, women's empowerment. i feel he was using it. >> you met him before. >> once or twice. >> you mean socially? >> socially. i never worked with him, never been in an office with him. i did not know about this. but i do now and there's no way it could move forward.

and it felt like he was using the book series "know your value," about women's empowerment, as a cover. and i wasn't going to be part of that. and more people need to step up who have done business with him or taken money from him. i'm sorry. you can't do it now, you have some issues. so long with -- >> you just said no. >> i'm also going to write about it in my book so the company better be ready about that. >> he leaked it. >> he leaked it. >> against your will that he had signed you to a three-book deal. >> yeah. the book's not done and now harvey weinstein is going to be a big part of it. >> steve ratner and nick contosorri, we have david ignatius. that was just the tease. what a huge story this bob corker story is. >> the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee unloaded in a no holds barred

interview telling the new york time thats president's reckless threat koss set the nation, quote, on the path to world war iii. member of the senator's staff confirmed his comments to nbc news. corker said he was alarmed about a president who acts, quote, like he's doing the apprentice or something. and, quote, i know for a fact that every single day at the white house it's a situation of trying to contain him. corker referenced tweets that trump made on twitter about secretary of state rex tillerson's diplomatic efforts with north korea in which the president undercut tillerson, telling him save your energy, rex. corker said a lot of people think there is some kind of good cop, bad cop act under way but that's just not true. i know he has hurt, in several instances, he's hurt us as it relates to negotiations that were underway by tweeting things out. look, except for a few people, the vast majority of our caucus understands what we're dealing

with here, he said, adding that, of course, they understand the volatility that we're dealing with and the tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road. according to the times, corker would not directly answer when asked whether he thought trump was fit for the presidency, but he did say trump was not fully aware of the power of his office. quote, i don't think he appreciates that when the president of the united states speaks and says the things that he does the impact that it has around the world, especially in the region that he's addressing, he said and so, yeah, it's concerning to me. >> david ignatius, there is a parallel here with the weinstein story. powerful people in washington won't speak up about something that they're all talking about. >> and they know is happening. >> off the record and they all knew was happening. they won't speak out about it. by the way, corker was talking about this before, asking whether he was fit for office, making that suggestion long

before he decided not to run for office, even after donald trump begged him to run for re-election and said it would support him. there's a parallel here. republicans know what's going on in this white house and they know this president is not fit for office. they have known it for a very long time. as bob corker said all except for a handful are very, very concerned about this president being in the middle of a nuclear showdown and not understanding the stakes. >> joe, i think you said it exactly right. this is one of those rare moments that we always talk about, celebrate but happen too infrequently, where somebody speaks truth to power. bob corker has said flat out the things that people whisper about, worry about, the sort of inner concerns of washington that go to the president, the way he operates. these lines, adult daycare center could have been written by the great tweeter himself. they have an edge.

they're funny. but he's really getting at the question of the underlying stability of conduct of policy in washington under this president. >> and, david, when he talks about adult daycare center and then talks about somebody, obviously, wasn't making their rounds, there is a suggestion there. it seems that's not just a joke. this is a suggestion this man may not be fit for office. at least that's how i read it. >> you know, i think until he comes forward, or someone does, with additional details you have to be careful in parsing just what that means. over the weekend, joe and mika, i asked people at the pentagon how much of this luster we've been seeing since last friday, the calm before the storm, the sort of, whoa, that the president has been doing. how much of that is real. and i was told i don't think this will surprise anyone, that in terms of actual movements of

military assets of anything communicated to our allies, anything specific, my contact said we're not aware of anything. they said that when they're asked by foreign ministries of defense what's going on, what's this about, they basically reply this is messaging. you understand this president. so we have this weird situation in which we have red hot comments from the president but so far as i can tell underneath not yet plans for any specific military action. >> yeah. well, the fighting between president trump and senator corker kicked off on twitter sunday morning. president trump began tweeting about the senator, who recently announced he would not seek a third term in 2018. quote, senator bob corker begged me to endorse him for re-election in tennessee. >> wait. just stop. that was false. >> the president lies repeatedly. we are desensitized to it. >> invitation to you to have dinner with him. first sentence say lie. corker did not ask for his

endorsement. then i said no and he dropped out. also a lie, according to multiple sources. said he could not win without my endorsement. that also is a lie. he also wanted to be secretary of state. i know for a fact that was a lie because i was calling bob corker and begging him -- >> to be secretary of state. >> to be secretary of state and corker said that it was a possibility but he met with him and he said it was so awkward there was no way, bob corker said there's no way i could have worked with him, joe. i would have been glad to serve my country. it just wouldn't work out. told me that in real time. remember that awkward moment on the stage? he said i was backstage and, you know, i just had to tell him no thanks, it will never work out. >> said no to the president. someone should have told the president corker is not a stooge. he's not going to back down to your tweets. your going to shoot yourself in the foot time and time again as

you did all day yesterday. >> katty, this is the thing he doesn't understand. i mean this. the president is so out of it, he doesn't understand -- >> adult daycare center. >> -- that if you attack bob corker, a guy who started a business on his own, became unbelievably successful in his 30s, has always been a success, a mayor, two-term senator. you attack this guy, he's not scared of the president. and he's got nothing to lose. the damage that donald trump did additionally to his presidency yesterday is unspeakable. he also -- guess what, he has lost a vote on tax reform. he has lost a vote on just about anything. if impeachment does come up, i wouldn't be surprised if bob corker -- >> seeing the #25th amendment now. >> if susan collins, lisa

murkowski and jeff flake and all these republicans that he's going after, if he's, again, not sealing his own fate and, hopefully, there's one or two republicans out there that i haven't mentioned who said, you know what, this is just too dangerous for our country. i really don't think this man is stable and i do not think he's fit. and i think we need to start talking about other alternatives. all that unleashed by donald trump. >> since donald trump repeatedly seems to see the administration as just donald trump, he doesn't understand this concept of the idea that his success depends on more than just himself, whether it's rex tillerson, john mccain, bob corker, that he has to keep -- whether it's even the mayor of san juan, doing her job down in puerto rico. he sees it very much as himself and a reflection of himself. that is why he gets into this position of alienating other people and thinking there aren't

going to be consequences. i don't know whether bob corker was saying donald trump was fit mentally or not to be president of the united states. world war iii, the fact that he lies on twitter, that he runs the presidency like a television show. that's an image of somebody he thinks isn't fit to be running the white house. it certainly calls into question his fitness. >> katty, he also suggests that donald trump does not understand the reality that spins out of control after some of his tweets. and, nick, republicans have been warned so many times.

we warned republicans about donald trump asking one of the top foreign policy advisers three times if he could use nuclear weapons. we've got nuclear weapons. why don't we use them? he said basically the same thing with chris matthews on "hardball" before that. we warned them outright. there are dire consequences for -- and these republican senators, bob corker said they know. they see it behind the scenes. he's not fit to be president. we're in the middle of a nuclear showdown. after 3 million people die in seattle that's too late for the republicans to say, you know, maybe he's not fit to be president. >> right. look, just compare pence and corker in this last couple of days. if you want to understand the bargain that the republican party has backed itself into with this president. you have the vice president participating in what we all

recognize as theater, the culture theater he wants to wage instead of passing bills and then senator corker coming out saying no, this is lunacy. it's not the way you conduct business. it will be interesting if we'll see more or fewer corkers in the months ahead but it's clear he's channeling what people in washington are saying privately. >> first a lot of us -- i was very sorry when corker beat our friend harold ford. that said, corker has been a terrific senator. i worked closely with him on the auto rescue. he has a lot of friends on the democratic side of the aisle. he's highly respected, not some flake out of left field. when he says this stuff people take it seriously. to reinforce the point you made this has serious policy implications. he's leader of the senate and people respect him. >> david ignatius, the most powerful republican voice on foreign policy. >> the chairman of senate

committee, crucial in bargaining over the iran nuclear deal tochlt start this twitter war literal eye n the eve of launching your iran policy suggests a president who is so reactive and focused on these vengeance wars of people who criticize him. not thinking about what he needs to roll out his iran policy. he needs people in congress to say we support you, mr. president. he needs people who will communicate with other capitals where there's deep consternation about these policies. those people are getting blown off right now. >> nick, you know, a couple of "new york times" stories yesterday were fascinating regarding republicans.

one of them was frank bruni. saying all republicans know that bannon/trump are coming after them. they're going to find anybody they can to go after established senators. and so donald trump at some point is going to turn more than four, five or six republican senators against him. he is turning this into an all-out war with the republican party. i don't know what it means. maybe it means he just decided he doesn't want to pass legislation. he just wants to do pr stunts to gin up his 32%. sflt forces behind bannon and forces behind the president trying to reshape the party in his image.

they want it to be more like president trump not less. that's a legitimate struggle over what it means to be a republican. it will be a pitched battle. it's going to cost them support, distract them from what the president says he wants to do. tax reform is one of the hardest things to do in washington. >> it just got harder. >> you need everybody pulling in the same direction for a year to get that done. you can't also carry on a guerrilla war against your own party. >> it's just not going to happen. >> shows he's not fit. he doesn't even know how to do the math. >> it's just not going to happen right now. will corker support that tax reform? no. he was saying before all this that it's impossible to do. is he going to give him benefit of the doubt on really bad elements in this tax policy? no. it's not going to happen. >> also there's a lot of pushback on the state and local tax deduction elimination, principle source of revenue for the tax bill.

it's got policy problems as well as political problems. still ahead on "morning joe" with a wink and a nod, president trump plays with the prospect of nuclear war. we'll show you what he said and didn't say about north korea. plus, the president defends his outreach to puerto rico. my god. why he's blaming the media for not giving proper due to the, quote, beautiful, soft and very good towels he tossed out to hurricane victims. we'll speak live to puerto rico's governor. more on the fallout surrounding harvey weinstein and the radio silence from certain corners of hollywood and washington. what's going on there? have you noticed the media world, too? the silence from the media world? >> i don't get it. >> there's some corners of that media world that have been strangely silent. strangely silent. >> i totally agree. >> you're watching "morning joe." >> including a certain entertainment show held here every saturday night. you're watching "morning joe."

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revealing that he had engaged in decades of rampant sexual harassment. he announced friday he would take a leave of absence while an outside lawyer investigated the allegations. his lawyer threatened to sue the newspaper, claiming it was false and defamat rochlt. y. all-male board resigned the same day and lisa bloom, who previously said harvey was just a dinosaur and was raised in the

'60s and '70s. >> usually represents women in these situations. >> for some weird reason was defending harvey. i guess the pressure got too hot and she got out. and brooks barnes reports from thursday to saturday he called more than 40 entertainment industry players. >> wow! >> and almost all refused to speak for the record on the matter. barnes said some of them was because the publicist need to approve anything they say while others gave reasons that painted a picture of a community hobbled by fear, self interest and hypocrisy. democratic lawmakers are ridding themselves of the contributions from the mogul. chuck schumer and several colleagues announced they would give the money donated by harvey weinstein to women's groups and democratic women win elections and condemned all forms of sexual harassment and assault.

presidential nominee hillary clinton is being criticized for not publicly condemning weinstein n a series of tweets over the weekend, whose side is hillary clinton on, harvey weinstein or his victims? she continued, where is hillary clinton's condemnation of weinstein? even "the new york times" is criticizing her. his daughter even worked for harvey weinstein. mika, you made a decision, obviously. let's talk about it really briefly here. you had a three-book deal with the publication owned by harvey weinstein in which he leaked to "the new york post" a big book deal. but you said no. you walk add way from it. why? >> it's not worth it. what's the point? especially these books, educating women on how to

understand their value and communicate it effectively. these are really good books and they can't be funded by or can't be out of the company run by a guy who is alleged perverted activity, abused women over the course of years. it's just impossible. it's also a way of stepping up. i think more people should. katty kay, i'm surprised we're seeing such a lack of response. i mean, this is the age of trump. this is the age in which women who have any power, whether it's inconvenient or not, should be stepping up and pushing back to this behavior. i'm totally at a loss. >> yeah. you and i have been tweeting about this and texting each other about this all weekend, mika. i'm stunned at the silence. both from political types but also from men and women in hollywood. it shouldn't just be the women in hollywood. >> you're right. >> men should be speaking up about this, too. you asked me if i would retweet. saturday morning you asked me to retweet the story that i'm

pulling out of the deal. it took you less than a day to make that decision. we're now three days later and still getting silence out of hollywo hollywood. we haven't had a chance to talk about it directly. when you were making that deal did you hear anything about harvey weinstein? was there anything that people said? did you hear rumors going round? >> no. i worked publishers there, fantastic women who do great work and we've done great work, the first "knowing your value" that we're releasing in the spring. i've worked with these very women and we've had an inkr incredible time working together. i would have been sad to move way from the company but would have done it, absolutely. i never heard anything from inside the company. i don't hear much. he has invited us to many event s. we've never gone. we really never traveled in his circles. having said that, after everything that i read and that he has even admitted to, this was a no brainer on so many levels.

i also am stunned to hear that in this heated board meeting over the weekend that he thought this would blow over. like that is huberis, arrogance, someone who has been abusing for so many years that he has absolutely no sense of self awareness. joining us now, editor for the daily beast, sam stein. sam, you've done some reporting on this story as it concerns the rnc's response. tell us about that. >> first off, i applaud your decision, mika. and i find the weinstein company's reason for firing harvey weinstein a little dubious. they say new information just surfaced. if i read the first report correctly he had eight settlements. were those secret? did they not know about the settlements? i guess the publishing of those settlements is what did it, not new information. past information. anyways, putting that aside, over the week there was a lot of pressure put on democratic politicians, obviously, to return these donations that weinstein gave. and i think the dnc fed the

story instead of putting it away by only giving a portion of their donations from weinstein and giving them to political groups not charities. so they took the donations they had received in the past year from weinstein and gave them to groups that help women run for elected office. it was sort of a half measure. they got a lot of criticism for it and rightly so. it struck me as odd that people doing the criticism, primarily folks associated with the republican national committee. the republican national committee is there to promote, fund raise and take money from, in some cases, donald trump, who, as everyone knows, has multiple women having accused him of sexual advances, sexual harassment and so on. >> the rnc has allowed itself to be turned into an arm of donald trump, which usually happens. >> that's what happens, yes. >> but more so in this case. >> they fund raised with him this weekend in north carolina. >> no credibility. if this comes from the rnc, if this comes from a republican who

supports donald trump, there's absolutely no credibility whatsoever in that criticism. that's the pot calling the kettle black. >> i've been asking the rnc repeatedly, do you feel you're compromised in making this case? they just won't respond. they don't have to respond but it struck me as hypocritical. if you're a decent, normal human being and you feel intellectually consistent you should be able to say what harvey weinstein did is deplorable. the money he gave should be returned and people should condemn him publicly and quickly. and you should be able to say what donald trump did is deplorable and you shouldn't be associated with him if you feel like democrats shouldn't be associated with harvey weinstein. those are the consistencies here. >> that's fair. >> and i donjust think there is none. >> don't you think that women would feel comfortable speaking

out in a situation that is similar if people step up and speak out publicly? >> one of the reasons women don't speak out about abuse, they're accused of lying and they get no support. it was their fault in some way, what happened to them. this kind of silence we're hearing from hollywood, lack of support for ashley judd and rose mcgowan will not be very comforting to them and to other women looking at this story thinking, god, the titans of hollywood, meryl streeps and jennifer lawrences have not stood up publicly and spoken out in support of me. it makes it that much harder. if you are a young woman, so often young, vulnerable women who don't have much power, in their 20s, who can't speak out, like you can, mika. that's why we need to speak out. we need to give them voice as well. >> and it should be a lot easier. >> they're afraid they may lose money. >> yeah. >> i guess, katty. >> how much do they need? >> mika lost, you know, a lot of

money doing this. but it was an easy decision to make. what does gwyneth paltrow has to -- >> i don't even think it's money. >> what does meryl streep have to lose? >> nothing. >> kate winslet. all these people who have worked with harvey weinstein have to lose that they won't go out and say something in support of rose mcgowan, ashley judd and these women who have had the courage to speak out. >> by the way, the men, too, right, joe? >> the men. where are the men? >> it should be up to the male stars, too, equally coming out and saying this is not acceptable. now that he has been fired i suspect we might have more of them. but the time to do it was before he was fired. >> by the way, don't put your little ribbons on at the next oscar ceremony and don't --

nick -- >> these people are willing to get up on stage at the globes, oscars and attack president trump for this kind of thing. where were they over the weekend? where are they now? >> this was pretty easy. >> this was ease. >> i this one wasn't hard. no money is worth it. >> again, you've been a friend of his. you were in his wedding, right? >> yes. >> you condemned his actions. mika, you had a big financial deal, a book deal. but you walked away from it immediately. two people right here at the table, hollywood. this is not difficult. step out and just say what's right, what's not right. >> and speak for the victims of sexual harassment across the board and make a more comfortable environment for more women to come forward so we can change the way society functions here. >> or start in your corner in hollywood. >> do what you can do. president trump attacks the top senator after undercutting

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was he referring to military action when he said calm before the storm? >> as we said many times before, i know the president has, as i have from this podium on quite a few occasions, we're never going to say in advance what the president is going to do. as he said last night in addition to those comments you'll have to wait and see. >> calm before the storm comment? >> nothing to clarify. [ inaudible ] >> you'll figure that out pretty

soo soon. >> continued to saber rattle with north korea over the weekend. presidents and their administrations have been talking to north korea for 25 years. agreements made and massive amounts of money paid hasn't worked. agreements violated before the ink was try, making fools of u.s. negotiators. sorry but only one thing will work. >> what's that, stupid tweets or -- >> oh, my god. >> -- jangled foreign policy? >> corker is 1,000% right. you have reason to be concerned. we'll bring in admiral james tsavrides next on "morning joe."

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you like secretary tillerson. so do i. we have a very good relationship. we disagree on a couple of things. sometimes i would like him to be

atougher, but other than that, we have a very good relationship. >> sometimes you would like him to be a little tougher. sometimes he would like you to be a little less crazy. dean of the fletcher school of diplomacy. retired four star navy admiral. he is chief international analyst for msnbc, nothing i say during his introduction is a reflection of his personal views or opinions. first question to david in washington. >> i want to ask the admiral the thing i think we're all wondering. when the president of the united states, the commander in chief makes comments like these, we're calling them saber rattling, talks about the calm before the storm, what are his commanders, the people like you when you served as nato commander, what do you think? what do you say? what do you tell your allies when you go back to your

commands? >> i looked at the photograph of all of those military four star officers as david says, the combatant commanders at a dinner in the white house. i attended seven of those dinners over the years as a combatant commander both with president bush and obama. i can't imagine a moment where either of those presidents or any president would make kind of a leering comment like this is the calm before the storm and sort of make those military officers a prop in his own little theater. and then to follow it up with this whole idea of oh, you'll see what's going oh happen. this is absolutely not the way to conduct diplomacy and no way to run the presidency of the united states. it demeaned those officers, putting them in that position. >> admiral, if i could ask you one quick followup. i just want to ask what kinds of checks there are built in to our system so that the american

people can be comfortable, if that's the right word, that there won't be accidents or miscalculations driven by those seeming off the cuff comments from the president. >> well, good news and bad news. the good news is we've got fairly sensible people in the immediate environment of the president. and that would be general mattis and general kelly and general mcmaster. that's the good news. the bad news is our command and control system is built for speed. it is built to deliver lethal effect very rapidly. so i would be hoping that general kelly in particular, but also general mattis are being very close to the president these days so we don't end up in a situation where we stumble into an exchange of ordnance which can escalate very quickly into a full blown war, for example, on the korean peninsula. >> admiral, it's sam stain here.

it appears per reports that the trump administration is going to declare that iran has broken the nuclear agreement with the hopes that congress doesn't reimpose sanctions. a bit of a middle ground threading of the needle, if you will. is there any actual diplomatic geo political up side to doing something like that when our own military personnel say iran has livered up to the accord? >> i don't see any up side to that action. what we ought to be focusing on is keeping the deal that we have in place. we had a big debate about good deal, bad deal. it's a done deal. if we walk away from it, the europeans will walk away from us. what we ought to do instead is think about how we can meet the challenge of iran which is pushing hard in a variety of venues including ballistic missiles, enforcing terrorism, trying to take over other

nations like yemen and syria. so we've got work to do against iran. but this kind of dance with the diplomacy and the congress is not going to have much effect at all on iran. >> president trump just tweeted moments ago. it says this. our country has been unsuccessfully dealing with north korea for 25 years, giving billions of dollars and getting nothing. policy didn't work. katty kay, to you. >> admiral, when you read that tweet, saying only one possible thing will work with his comments, are you aware of moves within the pentagon, changes in war planning that might make you think that this is more than just tone and bluster, this is actually we are inching toward as the north koreans seem to think, we are inching toward some kind of military conflict with north korea?

>> katty, i don't see military operations beginning to unfold in a way that would lead me to believe we are setting the table for an actual full blown military strike. the thing to watch are the aircraft carriers. you'll read reports that an care craft carrier deployed this morning and it did. roosevelt deployed today on schedule. long-planned, a year planned. when you see two or three carriers moving toward the korean peninsula, that's setting the table. that's getting ready for the strike zone. i'm not seeing that, but these kind of tweets do more than inch us. we are starting to really sleepwalk toward a conflict on the korean peninsula. a million people are going to die, and we can still avoid that if we can hold ourselves back from this kind of impetuous behavior. >> admiral, thank you very much. and sam stain, thank you as

well. coming up, bob corker hits back after president trump trashes him on twitter. comparing the white house to an adult day care center. we are joined at the table about what corker's republican colleagues should do. >> senator richard blumenthal joins us after his visit to puerto rico. why he says the u.s. is on the verge of failing the island. >> and melania trump reportedly compares life in the white house to living in a venezuelan jail. "morning joe" is coming right back. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's monday, october 9th. steve rattner, new york times nick confisori. katty kay and david ignatius back with us. with us, we have elise jordan and former senior strategist for john mccain's 2008 presidential campaign, steve schmidt, and chief white house correspondent for the new york typeimes, pete baker. >> want to begin with corker? >> i do. john lennon would have been 77 today. >> wow. >> is that right? >> i think a little younger. >> 77?

>> born in 1940. >> that's 77. >> i went to alabama. >> he has lots of money. >> all right. the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee unloaded on president trump in a no holds bar interview on sunday night. the interview is 25 minutes long, but wow. bob corker of tennessee telling "the new york times" that the president's reckless threats could set the nation, quote, on the path to world war iii. a member of the senator staff confirmed his comments to nbc news. corker said he was alarmed about a president who acts, quote, like he's doing "the apprentice" or something. i know for a fact every single day at the white house it's a situation of trying to contain him. >> this is something, david ignatius, that's being said of our commander in chief by the most powerful republican on capitol hill. >> who has access to secrets and

says everything on the committee is saying the same thing. we move around in the community in washington d.c., and we've talked to military people. i won't speak for you, but i can say what corker is saying on the record is what people have been saying off the record to me for a long time. where do republicans on the hill go from here? >> joe, i think that there has been deep anxiety about the erratic moves of the president. it's been something people have talked about behind the scenes. been concerned about. what are the checks on it? i think washington feels that you have a bunch of people who are responsible. secretary of defense mattis, secretary of state tillerson, and hr mcmaster, and john kelly. and the hopes for containing the

behavior lies with those people. i want to add one thing this morning. countries around the world watch this inflammatory debate between our president and the chairman of the foreign relations committee and just wonder what to do. they want to interact with the united states. these are crucial alliances. they want to understand where our iran policy is going. what's going to happen in north korea. i think it's our allies, a particularly difficult time trying to figure out where policy is between this white house, this pentagon, this state department. >> what is happening to our strategic alliances? steve schmidt, in the times interview corker referenced tweets that trump made on twitter about secretary of state rex tillerson's diplomatic efforts with north korea in which the president undercut tillerson telling him save your energy, rex. corker said a lot of people think there was a good cop bad cop act underway, but that's just not true.

i know he has hurt us in several instances as it relates to negotiations that were underway by tweeting things out. look, except for a few people, the vast majority of our caucus understands what we're dealing with here. adding that, of course, they understand the volatility we're dealing with and the tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road. and according to the times, corker would not directly answer when asked whether he thought trump was fit for the presidency, but he did say trump was not fully aware of the power of his office. quote, i don't think he appreciates that when the president of the united states speaks and says the things that he does, the impact that it has around the world, especially in the region that he's addressing. he said, and so yeah, it's concerning to me. steve schmidt, let's -- i'm going to ask you to go there. he is questioning his fitness. >> of course he is. >> this is the senate of the

chairman of foreign relations committee. he knows what's going on in the white house and around the world, and he is deeply concerned. fair? >> whether he said it or not, the entire interview he demonstrates he questions his fitness as commander in chief. and manifestly so. when we consider the president's loose talk about nuclear weapons, about war on the korean peninsula, we should stop for a second and think about this. we have 40,000 troops in japan, roughly. 28,000 in korea. there are 12,000 ar titillery pieces that are ranged on the city of seoul. they believe they can deliver 500,000 of artillery and mortars in the first hour of the war. there are 230,000 u.s. military dependents in south korea. when you look at the response in puerto rico, i think there's

very serious reason to be concerned about our country's capacity to safely air lift the americans out of harm's way. when you look at the behavior across this administration, the lack of competence, the dishonesty, the lying, the indifference to american citizens, what we find through history is that leaders believe that they control events as opposed to being driven by events. we have a president who is clearly out of his depth. the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee has acknowledged it. foreign heads of state and heads of government understand it as well. we're at a dangerous hour in the world. i do think there is a real lack of imagination in this country for the magnitude of the type of tragedy we could have with this reckless and irresponsible president. and it is past time for members

of the united states senate, particularly in the republican party who know what's going onto speak out directly about it. to communicate truthfully to the american people. they didn't take an oath to the republican party. they didn't take an oath to donald trump. they took an oath to the constitution of the united states. >> and joe, isn't there a false sense of security that they have this team of mcmaster and mattis and kelly, that can somehow contain him. hasn't it been proven time and time again that that's impossible? he will do whatever he wants and if he wants to be a little crazy, he'll be that too. corker has made that very clear that this guy cannot be contained. >> if you bgo back and look at the warning of the republican party and the american people in early august of 2016 when we got word from a top foreign policy adviser that donald trump asked three times about the ability to use nuclear weapons against places like and he named north korea.

we have nuclear weapons. why can't we use them? we asked general hayden. >> the process. >> about the clear and present danger of donald trump. if we were president, and he had nuclear weapons or he was in the nuclear showdown, were there any checks? and general hayden chillingly said, well, unfortunately, that process is built for speed, not for checks and balances. and so as i said earlier today, all the warning signs are there. a lot of people have been warning about this for some time. specifically to nuclear weapons. and elise, as i said earlier this morning, here we are, three, well, former republican. are you a former republican? >> not yet. >> i'm trying to hang on. it's a struggle. >> this is a republican side -- by the way, i'm more conservative than 90% of the

jack people on capitol hill any way. as i said earlier today, when there's a nuclear incident and the million people in seattle or los angeles or san francisco die, 100,000 americans are slaughtered in day's worth of fight. at that point it's too late for republicans to say i get it. maybe i should have said this in front of the camera. we're talking about hollywood has a responsibility to talk about harvey weinstein. hey, republicans really have a responsibility to talk about the imminent threat they know because they've seen behind the scenes this man poses to the safety and the security to the united states of america. and by the way, it's october 9th, 2017. i'm holding it up. all right? i'm not saying this because i feel like saying it.

i'm not saying this -- i'm saying this because i'm going to show you this. when something really bad happens. and i'm going to ask you where you were, because you know, republicans on the senate, you know republicans in the house. because you've told me. this man is not fit to be president of the united states. so elise, too late for them. too late after 100,000 americans die. >> after a nuclear holocaust. >> or after a million die in seattle. >> that's where we are. this is not an exaggeration. >> i've worried about how donald trump would behave when given the power of nuclear weapons, and a nuclear arsenal. he has been fascinated for decades with nuclear weapons, and he has -- thinks he could be the great negotiator about nuclear weapons, and though we had all this noninterventionist talk during the republican primary, we've seen that it's basically hallow and shallow and

meaningless. i think he would have no compunction about going to war if it served a political purpose. he's known himself to be craven when it comes to using the oval office for his own political means. >> but to joe's point, we have a senator we all respect who spoke out strongly. but let's be honest. he's not running for reelection. >> here's the evidence, though, steve, that he wasn't just saying this because he's not running for reelection, even though donald trump begged him to run for reelection and said he would support him. senator corker said about the same thing a month or two ago questioning his stability. questioning his fitness for office. >> but he's gotten more outspoken. the point is we've all said people in hollywood should be speaking out about harvey weinstein. it's a serious matter. this is the future of the world. where are the republican senators and leaders of the party? >> we're not saying that you

can't do both things at once. that women being harassed in hollywood is not important just because a nuclear holocaust affects so many other people. but peter baker, it's an interesting position republicans find themselves in. you've heard a lot of the same things off the record. i'm tired of hearing things off the record that people won't put on the record when it has to do with the stability of the commander in chief. >> there's no question what senator corker said basically vented what many republicans in the senate think and have said privately. what's interesting here is if the president now is at war with the chairman of his own party's foreign relation committee, majority, for the next 18 months. that's going to be a very interesting position. this is a person who is in charge of a lot of things that matter to president trump. if iran sanctions are to be put back on, senator corker has a voice in that. if president trump were, in fact, to get rid of rex

tillerson, the next person who would go up would go through senator corker's committee. there's a lot of business to be done here. for the next 18 months senator corker is liberated. he no longer feels any compunction about saying what he thinks about this president. if he feels like he's going to take a different course, he has every freedom to do it. he's not running for reelection. i think president trump has earned himself an enemy in the last couple of days that's probably unhelpful to him. >> steve, corker clearly feels liberated. that might mean he acts in certain ways on tax reform, for example, maybe even on the iran deal that's not helpful to the president. how many people do you think are there who are not saying anything but would be prepared to vote in ways that would be a problem for this president on key elements of his agenda on the republican side? >> i think if you look at the republican party, generally, as a general proposition, i think you see members that are

terrified. they're terrified of being primaried. they're pterrified of the republican base which they don't understand at this moment where the coalition seems to be realigning. there's a lack of political courage where everything is subordinated to the prospects of reelection including the dangerous behavior of the president, and admirals are talking about the four star officers, the combatant commanders standing there being used as political props with all of this loose talk. the overwhelming majority members of congress on both sides know this is wrong. but there has been an absence of real arguments explaining to the american people why this is dangerous. how it's dangerous. how a tragedy unfolds. how a miscalculation happening on the korean peninsula. you look across not with this story, but look at puerto rico

this morning. the relief efforts are disastrous. we've seen donald trump's behavior and it's disgusted people. but now when you look at the incompetence of the administration, it's causing loss of life in places like puerto rico, and when you add on top of it the loose talk and war talk we're seeing from this administration, we could be on the edge of something much, much worse. >> and peter baker, also we're talking about how the senators and members of congress are concerned about what's going on in donald trump's head. they see the tweets yesterday, for instance, and these are the sort of things that we just forget about. right? after a while you're like okay, wait a second. yes, he lied 12 times in 140 characters talking about bob corker. he lied about bob corker begging him for an endorsement and when

he said bob corker begged to be secretary of state. corker said in realtime he couldn't do it. even when you talked about the iran deal, he said the only thing bob corker gave us was the iran deal. bob corker voted against the iran deal. if you're a senator and you see misinformation go out constantly, again, at what point do you say enough is enough? this man is not connected with reality? >> well, it is interesting. does there become a cascade effect where others feel liberated to speak the way senator corker has? we said repeatedly again, senator corker is not running for reelection. this is 52 republican senators. you lose one, two, and sudden lu you're no longer the governing party. this is a dangerous situation for the president, because you can't afford to lose bob corker. katty mentioned corker is an important player even on tax reform. he's troubled by the idea of

adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the budget. even tax reform, it comes outside of this president's reach. and so this is a big situation. that's why i think a lot of attention is being paid on this. it's not just john mccain putting his thumb down on health care and it's not just lisa murkowski or susan collins bolting from the party. bob corker is in the center of the moderate conservative side of the party, and where he is at this moment is where many of them are. >> and here's -- when you have the president blowing up bridges to tax reform, being sel self-destructive, suddenly, again, tax reform doesn't look like that's possible. health care reform isn't possible. so he forces his vice president to go to indianapolis to do a stunt that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, ties up

the secret service. inconveniences the good people of indiana, and we're left with the president who is nothing more than a reality tv guy doubling as a talk radio show host. >> and here's the real problem. 75% of your former and current party support president trump. they're with him. and the reason that bob corker can speak more freely right now is he's not running for election. the reason the other guys can't, is they're being primaried. a bigger problem is why has the way he does business found so much popularity among his party. it's three quarters of his party. that's a crisis. >> here's an associated press -- things going in the right direction among republicans. in june it was 60%. today it's 44 %. not create numbers. >> there's a clear reason why donald trump wanted that stunt to happen yesterday at the

football field. it really resonates with his base of supporters. he can have that one cultural issue, and he can hope that everything else is going to be ignored. but what can't be ignored right now is that republicans are having a tough time containing donald trump. >> and containing -- >> it's one thing when it's domestic policy. the foreign policy is out of control right now with north korea, and that's what we see with bob corker. >> the behavior. mental. >> they can't contain donald trump. that's obvious at the moment. i take nick's point about them being fearful about the reelection. we're talking about potentially nuclear war of some sort of another. you need people willing to stand up and say okay, there may be political consequences, but this can't go on like this. >> if this guy were running a company, he would be asked to leave and get help. >> a week after he got in. >> imagine if this was the commander of a ballistic missile

submarine and he comported himself. they would take him off that sub in a straight jacket in about 2.2 seconds let alone a public company ceo or a superintendent of schools or really any person in a position of leadership and responsibility. and i would just say to one thing that peter said. he referenced the republican party as the governing party. republican party may be the majority party. they're certainly not the governing party in this country. i don't think that's particularly lost on the american people as we see congressional approvals in the low teens. we see presidential approval in the low 30s. and we should not mistake intensity of support in a republican party that is shrinking as being the same thing as majority support for this president who continues to lose altitude week after week, month after month. >> and david ignatius, again,

just to show how significant these tweets are, this past weekend i was talking to a military person who had been around decades. and he said something i think that you've said on this show. you can't insult the leader of north korea. a man who is viewed as a god, and expect them to let that pass. they will not let that pass. donald trump, an insulting, the person he calls rocket man time after time after time is inviting a response. this isn't like the tenant that you're trying to drive out of your decaying hotel because you want to tear it down and build a skyscraper there. this is a guy who was born believing he was a god. his countryman believe he's a god, and if you insult that god, then they have to respond. and they have to respond in a

way that is going to be damaging, and provides a sort of retribution they believe is required in that setting. >> that's a final grim element of our discussion this morning, joe. what effect do the tweets have on north korea, our potential adversary. my best korea watcher sources say that the north koreans believe they need to do two more things to have their deterrent. they need to launch an icbm with flat trajectly across the pacific and need to test a hydrogen bomb in a way that's visible. >> either of the moves could trigger a sudden u.s. reaction, and then we're really in the actual latter of escalation. i don't mean words. i mean military moves. so people need to understand. this is a moving target. each word by the president may be heard and acted upon in north korea. >> peter baker, what are you working on today? >> you know, it's so early, we don't even know.

>> it changes by the hour. >> there will be something huge in an hour. >> exactly. every morning i get up thinking i know what the story is going to be, but almost every morning it's wrong. >> david ignatius, what about you? >> i'm going to try to followup some of the things we talked about this morning. i want to know for sure we said we don't think there are moouchts of military assets in response to the calm before the storm. i want to make sure that's true today. >> and katty kay? >> i have the task of trying to explain this to the rest of the world. you give that a go, joe. >> thank you to you all for being on the show this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," it looked like president trump cut a deal with chuck and nancy on immigration. now a new list of demands from the white house is calling that into question. big surprise. new details on that next on "morning joe."

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it's pretty incredible. we're talking about mike pence. think about him going and angering the people of indianapolis. and indiana. >> it's amazing. he took air force 2. full package of secret service from las vegas to indianapolis for a stunt, inconvenienced tens of thousands of colts fans to, again, use the flag and the anthem as a prop. and the greatest desecration of that flag is the assault on its foundational values which occurs every day with this administration with their attacks on the spirit of the first amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of expression.

appalling, wasteful, disgusting behavior from the vice president. he ought to be ashamed of himself. >> and people of indiana were welcoming pence back. >> it's sad. a native son who has made it big time going home and the whole state, i'm sure, wants to celebrate, and welcome him, and then they're just part of being a political prop. it's sick and sad and a waste of taxpayer dollars. >> and not for nothing. he then flies back to california for a fundraiser for someone who literally in the congress is vladimir putin's number one useful idiot. >> okay. >> shocking. >> this is wonderful. >> joe, by the way, on sunday as the vice president was flying home for this stunt, there were white nationalists marching in charlottesville. if you're going to fly somewhere to show your respect for the values of the flag and for american democracy, perhaps a better use of that time and

money would be spent flying to charlottesville. >> the white house is out with a list of demands for any deal to protect so-called dreamers including proposals that are drawing rebuke from some democrats. joining us now from the white house, kristen welker. i thought they had a deal with chuck and nancy. it was all going so well. >> reporter: that's right. it started off on strong footing, but the white house is saying this represents a compromise. democrats are saying this is a nonstarter. here's what we're talking act. the white house putting forth what they're calling a compromise package that would protect dreamers, the daca program, those who came here undocumented as children who are working, going to school, in exchange for a number of key policy proposals. let me just list the most controversial, funding for the border wall. this is a key campaign promise by president trump. something he has yet to fulfill.

this is a nod to the base. the proepposals call for toughe actions on undocumented minors, beefed up border security. and also a controversial proposal that democrats are pushing back strongly against. i've been talking to democrats and republicans on the hill about this immigration proposal. even republicans say the white house is asking for too much now. could this be a negotiating tactic? is it possible the white house is putting all the asks on the table and then they're willing to scale back? we'll have to wait and see. you even have republicans saying it's not realistic. put that against the backdrop of the faceoff with bob corker and the odds get even steeper this type of package is going to get through. >> kristen welker, thank you. >> what do you think? >> i think it's negotiations. chuck and nancy aren't going to get everything they want, and

republicans aren't going to get everything they want. you're not going to get money for the wall. you're not going to get some of the other provisions, but you may see some increased border security which he's talked about all along. i think a lot of democrats would go along with that. one thing, merit-based immigration. it makes a lot of sense to a lot of americans. those are two things that may be part of a deal that the democrats may not like. it could protect dreamers to not be kicked out of the country. >> and this piece in washington post describes how president trump up ended years of policy with venezuela. it came after the wife of prison came to the white house where the president praised her past appearances on reality television. after hearing her story, the president called for her husband's release going further than some diplomats hoped for. according to post the first lady

who was also in the room said she sympathized with the conditions her husband faced in jail because the white house often felt as confining as a prison. it's a point on which the president reportedly agreed. >> steve, i'm going to let you take this one. >> there's no words. you think about the white house. and the office of president of the united states, and the profound honor that holding that office must be. the understanding of the power and responsibility that's bestowed upon you by the american people to walk in a place where giants served. when i was in the west wing of the white house to understand that this is where fdr and churchill collaborated together to save the world, this is where

ronald reagan conducted himself with dignity and decency, that this is a hallowed place, and to see the serial disrespect by word and deed literally on a quarter hour basis is tragic and heart breaking and for every kid -- and we've talked about this. when i was a kid, rond reagan was the president. a 14-year-old, 11-year-old, 4 1/2-year-old and this is what they get to see. this is their model for the president of the united states? beyond awful. >> the white house is a place the president reportedly called a dump. even more than that, telling somebody that you can relate to their family member being jailed, being imprisoned by a

regime in venezuela and that you can relate to that because the white house seems confining seems to be so disconnected. >> he is disconnected. he's obviously completely insulated from the real world. he has no idea what's going on in any of these places. by the way, there's another piece of this which is he's making foreign policy on the fly with tweets. in other words, if you had -- >> because he likes a reality tv star. >> if you read something about something in venn lezuela and ha concern, you talk to people in the white house and -- he makes a tweet. >> there's talk about regime change. i know senator marco rubio has been influential in the policy shift. it's so opposed to donald trump on the campaign trail, the

noninterventionist which gives me more pause when it comes back to north korea. >> coming up, president trump's legal team is holding out hope that bob mueller with publicly clear the president of collusion. what started as a passion... ...has grown into an enterprise.

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i understood early that facebook was how donald trump was going to win. twitter is how he talked to the people. facebook was how he would win. >> and facebook is how he won? >> i think so. i mean, i think donald trump won, but i think facebook was the method. it was the highway on which his car drove on. we had their staff imbedded inside our offices. facebook employees would show up for work everyday in our offices. >> wait a minute. facebook employees showed up at the trump head quarters? >> they were there three or four days a week, five days a week. >> what were they doing? >> helping us get elected. i said i want to know every single secret, button, click, technology you have. i want to know everything you tell hillary's campaign plus some, and i want your people to teach me how to use it.

>> i think it's a joke when they involve myself. i know my own activities, and i know the activities of this campaign. i was there. it's a farce. >> it's a farce that you colluded with the russians? >> yeah. it's just a joke. >> so 60 minutes sat down with the man behind president trump's digital campaign. he says facebook was a key component to trump's win. the social media giant responded saying the company offered identical support to both campaigns. president trump's legal team is easing the resistance to robert mueller in the hopes he'll declare in the coming months that trump is not under investigation. more trouble ahead for the trump team. >> what we do know, especially given what happened this summer with respect to the fbi's intrusion into paul manafort's

condominium, in light of the revelations that we've seen about general flynn, i have a sense that there will, in fact, be indictments. >> joining us now member of the armed services and judiciary committees. richard blumenthal of connecticut and staff writer at the atlantic, julia loffe. good to have you both on senator. >> senator, we'll start with russia as we were bumping in here with the facebook involvement. i do think that on lower levels of the campaign they were using facebook just like any other campaign would use facebook. at the high levels of the campaign, though, there are questions about the connection with russia. where does the probe stand right now as far as you see it? >> we are looking at facebook adds. i've seen them and review them and certainly they are extremely sophisticated. the russian ads are a tableau of

very sinister as well as sophisticated use of social media. and the question is whether they were assisted, whether there was collusion with the trump campaign, and that is one of the focuses of our investigation. and we've reached no conclusion. the important point is the special counsel is reviewing that issue as well along with the obstruction of justice issue. >> and given that amidst of backdrop of this, is bob corker's comments in the past 24 hours about the president which gives you a sense not just of whether or not you think he's fit to lead, but what his moral code is in terms of the decisions he would make when he's running a campaign. the things he might do. are you all taking that into consideration? >> the moral issues are profoundly important, but the focus really has to be for us on the legal issues. whether there was obstruction of justice, our responsibility in the judiciary committee is

oversight over the fbi, the firing of jim comey, whether that was obstruction of justice. the misuse of the department of justice itself, but the facebook ads, i think, indicate an attack on our democracy. and that attack, if it was aided or abetted by the trump campaign indicates not only a moral failure but a profound violation of the law. because the russians are going to do it again if they don't pay a price this time, and anybody who colluded with them paying the price as well. >> senator, what strikes me in my own reporting on facebook and the trump campaign is that the russian effort, as we currently understand it, consisted in large part of using tools freely available to any campaign to any company in america, to me, to you. and they use those against us in our own election. is there a realistic possibility of any kind of regulation or

intervention that would actually make a bit of difference on this if it's so central to what these big companies do every day? >> great question, and the answer, yes, there is. in the form of disclosure. right now there is no transparency, no disclosure whatsoever. so i am helping to lead a measure that would require facebook to say in effect, the russians are paying for this message. >> right. >> coming to you straight from vladimir putin as part of a campaign to try to sew discord to undermine our democracy. it wouldn't say all that, but in effect, that would be what the message is to the american people, and it ought to be broader than just political campaigns. if vladimir putin is using facebook or google or twitter to in effect destroy our democracy, the american people should know about it. >> julia, elise jordan here.

yesterday was putin's birthday in russia, and protests all over the country, but in support of the opposition leader. how do you see this impacting the runup to the 2018 election? russia, if at all? >> well, if putin still announced if he's going to run. we don't know what he's going to do, but obviously he's going to run, and he's going to win. he's still largely popular. the thing about the -- i want to refer to what the senator said about facebook. it is widely available, and as we've thing about things like microtargeting ads, it's the wild wild west on these plat forms, and anybody who wants to misuse them can. traveling around the country during the campaign, most voters told me that facebook was their main source of news. and if you're russia and you've honed these techniques at home,

now is the perfect time or 2016 was the perfect time to export them, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out things like ferguson and racial tensions are going to be -- are going to be to your great benefit if you amplify them. >> facebook is a news source, whether they like it or not, right? >> it is. it is. and, look, i think we're on the front end of having a debate in this country about how big should these companies become? how powerful do we want to let them be? how much do we want them to effect economically the competitive landscape in the country? are anti-trust laws needing updating for the digital age in these companies? and i think that vladimir putin looked at us as a country, and he understood something about us, that we need to be honest with. he understood how easy it would be to get us at each other's throats, and one of the things

that is clear from this. this was not an attack on the democratic party. we'll find out if there's been criminal wrong doing, but there's been collusion as evidenced by the meeting with donald trump junior, jared kushner, paul manafort with members of the russian intelligence committee, and it's true in every single instance, 100% of the time, 100% of the people asked a question of this administration from the president, the vice president and down have lied to the american people about it. 100% of the time. >> we'll continue this conversation with julia next block. senator, before you go, the president was tweeting videos about what a great job he has done in puerto rico. somehow making that story about himself still. can you update us on the efforts there and exactly how would you characterize what president

trump has done in puerto rico? >> i went to puerto rico with a bipartisan group. there were five of us senators, and a number of congress people on the trip. we flew over the island, and it was a profoundly moving experience to look down on this beautiful island, part of america, with 3 .4 million americans, towns completely destroyed, flattened. community centers gone. thousands of homes decimated. and to hear that 90% of the transmission is down, half the island has no portable waters. a million meals a day have to be delivered, there's a humanitarian crisis, and america is on the verge of failing fellow americans, the great efforts and heroic work of fema and the military and our first responders are continuing the

triage, but essentially there's no plan, no strategy for long-term rebuilding which is so essential to the island, and where the president is lacking is in in leadership. there's no marshall plan, which is what we need, for rebuilding and recovery on puerto rico. and the consequence is that there is a growing outflow of talent, skills, brains, from puerto rico -- >> they're leaving. >> they're leaving. >> how could you stay? >> i'm meeting with a number of the families later today who are coming to the united states. they're going to be here needing education and other services, and we need to welcome them. but the fact of the matter is that a bipartisan plan is necessary, and the leadership has to come from the white house. so far, it has not. >> all right, in our next hour, we'll talk to puerto rico's governor about that. senator richard blumenthal, thank you so much. it's great to have you on the show. >> thank you. >> julia, stay with us.

more "morning joe" after a quick break. ♪

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so, julia, we've heard that moscow may actually limit access to u.s. media. is that correct? >> yeah. well, the thing is that this is all part of this wider tit for tat, and this is their tit for our tat with threatening to label russia today and sputnik foreign agents, right? >> right. >> so, this is the danger when you get into that. and you know, it's a great talking point for them that, look, this is american hypocrisy on full display. they talk about freedom of the press and their precious first amendment, and yet, any media they don't agree with they shut down or they force to, you know, label themselves as a foreign agent. of course, russia does this to all kinds of organizations at home, but this is a great play on their part geopolitically. >> so, julia, are you saying "morning joe" may not be available for st. petersburg viewers? this would be heartbreaking!

some of our biggest fans are from st. petersburg. by the way, did you -- >> yeah, vladimir putin is from st. petersburg. >> right. how could he -- how could he hurt people from his own town? it's like pence in indianapolis! it doesn't seem like -- >> maybe even worse. >> maybe even worse. so, julia, did you hear last week -- i'm just curious, did you hear last week the biden/putin exchange? joe biden, when he got the brazinski award, he told an interact with vladimir putin where he said he met him, said i'm looking to your eyes and i just want you to know i see no soul. vladimir putin says, so we understand each other, which is, i mean, it explains, obviously, what a tough character he obviously is, but also how this administration seems so overmatched against the leader of russia. >>er b yes, but the russians ar handling this really well, either.

things haven't gone great for them under this administration. they were hoping for so much and they got so little, and they're really not happy with how this has turned out. this reminds me of what former nsa chief michael hayden once said to me, which was, you know, sometimes a covert influence operation is so successful, you wish it hadn't been successful, like we thought it was a great idea providing arms to some guys in afghanistan, and look how that turned out. so, this has really backfired for the russians, too. so, they're overmatched, but it hasn't worked out well for them either. >> all right, thank you so much. greatly appreciate you dealing here. still ahead, he may not be running for re-election, but bob corker proved he is far from a lame duck senator. we'll talk about the damage donald trump is doing to himself and his agenda by going after the head of the foreign relations committee and one of the most powerful republicans on capitol hill. plus, new reaction from the president this morning after telling his vice president to walk out of yesterday's colts game, and it cost him about

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i enjoy working with senator corker. i think it's going to be fun to work with him, especially now that he nuanced he's not running for re-election, because i think it unleashes him and lets him say whatever he wants to say. >> white house budget chief mick mulvaney all but predicted the unplugged version of bob corker and that's exactly what the president got. we'll cover that this morning. we'll show you the retiring senator's stinging rebuke of the white house, which he compared to an adult daycare center, careening toward world war ii. >> and you know, this is actually what bob corker was hinting before he decided not to run. of course, it's fascinating, the president calling him up last week, begging him to run. >> mm-hmm. >> and saying that he'd support him, and then, of course,

pulling out. >> and he is saying what a lot of republicans are saying and is not holding back. meanwhile, vice president mike pence makes a public show of turning his back on the nfl in a preplanned protest to players taking a knee during the national anthem. and of course, it cost taxpayers a lot of money to fly there and secure a stadium, only to walk out for what looked to be a pr stunt, if you can believe it, at this point. >> can you imagine how much fans -- >> how badly thought out that was. >> -- in indianapolis were inconvenienced, how you're always inconvenienced if a president or a vice president comes to a game, how much secret service personnel were wrapped up at that time if something serious had happened elsewhere, how much money that cost the american taxpayers, just to deflect away from what had happened with bob corker, just

to deflect from everything else. this was a stunt. you call a stunt something that you know is going to happen, and you go and you play it out. so, he went there knowing the 49ers were going to kneel. everybody in the nfl knew it. >> and he actually left his pool reporter outside, said i don't think i'm going to be here very long. so they secured the stadium, flew in the secret service, did all that stuff, and on top of all that, he came from las vegas, to indianapolis and back to california. >> how much money did that cost? >> a lot of money. >> a lot of money. >> we'll get to that. >> and inconvenienced a lot of good people that went to the game there. >> that's right. >> a lot of people from indiana inconvenienced because of a short stunt. >> also this morning -- >> by the way, nothing conservative about that. >> nothing at all. >> and trump -- >> nothing conservative. >> -- told him to do that. trump told him to do that. >> you could have said, mr. president, we should just put out a statement because that's going to cost taxpayers

millions and millions of dollars, it's going to tie up secret service, it will require us to use jets as recklessly as everybody else in the administration. >> that requires you to speak up. >> we're going to have to fly back and forth. it's just, mr. president, that would be a very reckless thing to do. he didn't do that. >> also this morning, harvey weinstein is fired from his company over allegations of rampant sexual harassment. we'll get to that story in just a few minutes. joining us this morning, former treasury official steve rattner, political writer for "the new york times," nick convasori, washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay, and columnist and associate editor for the "washington post," david ignatius. and we'll start with the fallout on capitol hill after the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee unloaded on president trump in a no holds barred interview on sunday night. republican senator bob corker of tennessee telling "the new york times" that the president's reckless threats could set the nation "on the path to world war iii."

a member of the senator's staff confirmed his comments to nbc news. corker said he's alarmed by a president who acts "like he's doing the apprentice or something" and "i know that every single day at the white house it's a situation of trying to contain him." corker referenced tweets that trump made on twitter about secretary of state rex tillerson's diplomatic efforts with north korea in which the president undercut him, saying "save your energy, rex." corker said a lot of people think there is a good cop-bad cop act under way, but that is not true. "i know in several instances he's hurt us as it relates to negotiations that were under way by tweeting things out. look, except for a few people, the vast majority of our caucus understands what we're dealing with here," he said, adding that "of course they understand the volatility that we're dealing with and tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road." according to the "times," corker

would not directly answer when asked whether he thought trump was fit for the presidency, but he did say trump was not fully aware of the power of his office -- "i don't think he appreciates that when the president of the united states speaks and says the things that he does, the impact that it has around the world, especially in the region that he is addressing." he said, "and so, yeah, it's concerning to me." >> david ignatius, there is a parallel here with the weinstein story. powerful people in washington won't speak up about something that they're all talking about off the record. >> that they know is happening. >> and they all knew was happening, but they wouldn't speak out about it. these republicans, as bob corker said -- by the way, corker was talking about this before, asking whether he was fit for office, making that suggestion long before he decided not to run for office, even after donald trump begged him to run for re-election, said he'd support him. but there is a parallel here. republicans know what's going on in this white house. they know this president is not fit for office. they have known it for a very

long time. and as bob corker said, all except for a handful are very, very concerned about this president being in the middle of a nuclear showdown and not understanding the stakes. >> joe, i think you've said it exactly right. this is one of those rare moments that we always talk about, celebrate, but happen too infrequently, where somebody speaks truth to power. bob corker has said flat out the things that people whisper about, worry about, the sort of inner concerns of washington that go to the president, the way he operates. these lines, adult daycare center could have been written by the great tweeter himself. they have an edge, they're funny, but he's really getting at the question of the underlying stability of conduct of policy in washington under this president, and -- >> and david, when he talks about adult daycare center and

then talks about somebody obviously wasn't making their rounds, there is a suggestion there that it seems that's not just a joke. this is a suggestion this man may not be fit for office. at least that's how i read it. >> you know, i think until he comes forward, or someone does, with additional details, you have to be careful in parsing just what that means. what i did over the weekend, joe and mika, was to ask people at the pentagon how much of this bluster we've been seeing since last friday, the calm before the storm, the sort of, whoa, that the president's been doing, how much that was real. and i was told -- i don't think this will surprise anyone -- that in terms of actual movements of military assets, of anything communicated to our allies, anything specific, my contact said we're not aware of anything. they said when they're asked by foreign ministries of defense

what's going on, what's this about, they basically reply this is messaging. you understand this president. so, we have this weird situation which we have the red-hot comments from the president, but so far as i can tell, underneath, not yet plans for any specific military action. >> yeah, well, the fighting between president trump and senator corker kicked off on twitter sunday morning. president trump began tweeting about the senator who recently announced he would not seek a third term in 2018. "senator bob corker begged me to endorse him for re-election in tennessee" -- >> would you stop? that was false. first thing was false. >> the president lies repeatedly, and we are desensitized to it. >> this is the invitation for you to have dinner with him when he lied about that. first is a lie. corker did not ask for his endorsement. "then i said no and he dropped out," also a lie according to multiple sources. "said he could not win without my endorsement." that also is a lie. he also wanted to meet secretary

of state. i know for a fact that was a lie because i was calling bob corker and begging him to be secretary of state. >> to be secretary of state. >> and corker said that it was a possibility, but he met with him and he said it was so awkward, there was no way -- bob corker said there is no way i could have worked with him, joe. i would have been glad to serve my country. it just wouldn't work out. told me that in realtime. remember that awkward moment on the stage? and he said, i was backstage, and you know, i just had to tell him, no, thanks, it will never work out. >> no to the president. someone should have told the president, corker's not a stooge. he's not going to back down to your tweets. you're actually going to just shoot yourself in the foot time and time again, just as you did all day yesterday. >> and katty, this is the thing he doesn't understand, and i mean this. the president, he's just so out of it. he does not understand -- >> adult daycare center. >> -- that if you attack bob

corker, a guy who started a business on his own, became unbelievably successful in his 30s, has always been a success, a mayor, you know, a two-term senator. you attack this guy, he's not scared of the president. and he's got nothing to lose. the damage that donald trump did additionally to his presidency yesterday is unspeakable. he also, guess what, he's lost a vote on tax reform. he's lost a vote on just about anything. if impeachment does come up, i wouldn't be surprised if bob corker -- >> i'm seeing #25thamendment now. >> if bob corker and john mccain and susan collins and lisa murkowski and jeff flake, and all of these republicans that he's going after, if he's, again, not sealing his own fate. and hopefully, there's one or two republicans out there that i haven't mentioned who said, you

know what, this is just too dangerous for our country, i really do not think this man is stable and i do not think he is fit, and i think we need to start talking about other alternatives, all that unleashed by donald trump. >> yeah. and you know, it's interesting, donald trump repeatedly seems to see the administration as just donald trump. he doesn't understand this concept of the idea that his success depends on more than just himself, whether it's rex tillerson, whether it's john mccain, whether it's bob corker, that he has to keep -- whether it's even the mayor of san juan, you know, doing her job down in puerto rico. he sees it very much as himself and a reflection of himself, and i think that is why he gets into this position of alienating other people and thinking there aren't going to be consequences. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll go live to the white house on the heels of the vice president's public protest of the nfl. what the administration is saying about securing a stadium only to have him walk out

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♪ executive harvey weinstein has been fired from the studio he co-founded following revelations of numerous sexual harassment allegations. the board of the weinstein company made the announcement in a statement released yesterday, citing "new information about the misconduct by harvey weinstein." the move comes after "the new york times" investigation published on thursday revealing allegations of weinstein engaged in decades worth of rampant sexual harassment. following the "times" report, weinstein announced friday he'd take a leave of absence while an outside lawyer investigated the allegations. he issued an apology, while the attorney threatened to sue the newspaper calling the reports inflammatory. one-third of the board's male

members resigned the same day. and lisa bloom who said he was a dinosaur. >> usually represents women. >> but for some weird reason was defending harvey, but i guess the pressure got too hot and she got out. and brooks barnes reports that from thursday to saturday, he called more than 40 entertainment industry players and almost all refused to speak for the record on the matter. barnes said that some of it was because the companies' publicisted needed to prove everything while others painted a picture of a community hobbled by fear, self-interest and hypocrisy. amid the continued fallout of the bombshell report, democratic lawmakers are ridding themselves of contributions from the mogul and political donor. chuck schumer and several colleagues announced on friday they'll give their money donated by weinstein to women's charities groups that combat sexual violence. and the democratic national committee said it would give money to groups that help democratic women win elections and also condemned all forms of sexual harassment and assault. but the head of the republican

national committee is slamming former democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton for not publicly condemning weinstein. in a series of tweets over the weekend, ronna romney mcdaniel wrote "whose side is hillary clinton on, harvey weinstein's or his victims"? she continued "where is hillary clinton's condemnation of weinstein? even "the new york times" is criticizing him" with a link to a "new york times" opinion piece. former president obama also has yet to weigh in on the matter, despite the fact he and weinstein had a close relationship and his daughter even worked for harvey weinstein. mika, let me ask you, you made a decision, obviously. let's just talk about it really briefly here. you had a three-book deal with a company owned by harvey weinstein, which he leaked to the "new york post." it was a big, big book deal. >> mm-hmm. >> but you said no. you walked away from it. why? >> because it's not worth it. what's the point?

and especially these books, they're educating women on how to understand their value and communicate it effectively. these are really good books, and they can't be funded by or they can't be out of a company run by a guy who has alleged perverted activity, who has abused women over the course of years. it's just impossible. and it's also a way of stepping up. i think more people should. katty kay, i'm surprised that we're seeing such a lack of response. i mean, this is the age of trump. this is the age in which women who have any power, whether it's inconvenient or not, should be stepping up and pushing back to this behavior. i'm totally at a loss. >> yeah. you and i have been tweeting about this and texting each other about this all weekend, mika. i'm stunned at the silence, you know, both from political types, but also from men and women in hollywood. it shouldn't just be the women in hollywood speaking up. >> you're right. >> men should be speaking up about this, too. you asked me if i would retweet -- i think it was saturday morning you texted me

and said would you retweet the deal of i'm pulling out of the hashad deal? it took a day for you to make that decision and three days later we're still getting silence out of hollywood. but i wanted to ask you, and we haven't had a chance to talk about it directly, when you were making the deal, did you hear anything about harvey weinstein? was this something you heard at hachette? >> no, i worked with publishers there, fantastic women who have done great work, and we have done great work. the first "knowing your value" that came out that we're releasing in the spring, i worked with these women and we've had an incredible time working together. i would have been sad to move away from the company, but i would have done it, absolutely. i never heard anything from inside the company, and i didn't hear much because we don't really -- i mean, he's invited us to many events. we've never gone. so, we really never traveled in his circles. having said that, after everything that i read and that he's even admitted to, this was a no-brainer on so many levels.

i also am stunned to hear that in this heated board meeting over the weekend that he thought this would blow over. like, that is hubris. that is arrogance. that is someone who has been abusing for so many years that he has absolutely no sense of self-awareness. joining us now, politics editor for "the daily beast," sam stein. and you've done reporting on this story as concerns to the rnc's response. tell us about that. >> well, first off, i applaud your decision, mika, and i find the weinstein company's reason for firing harvey weinstein a little dubious. they say new information just surfaced. if i read the first report correctly, he had eight settlements. were those secret? did they not know about the settlements? i guess the publishing of those settlements is what did it, not new information, past information. anyway, putting that aside. over the week, there was a lot of pressure put on politicians,

obviously, to return the donations weinstein gave, and i think the dnc fed the story, instead of putting it away, by only giving a portion of their donations from weinstein and to political groups, not charities. so they took the donations they had received in the past year from weinstein and gave them to groups that help women run for elected office. and this is sort of a half measure and they got a lot of criticism for it, and rightfully so, but it just struck me as odd the people who were doing the criticism, which was primarily folks associated with the republican national committee. the republican national committee is there to promote, fund raise, and take money from in some cases donald trump, who as everyone knows has multiple women having accused him of sexual advances, sexual harassment and so on. >> but sam, the rnc has allowed itself to be turned into an arm of donald trump, which usually happens, but -- >> that happens, yeah. >> it's happened more so in this case, so -- >> they fund raised with him this weekend in north carolina, so you know -- >> right, so no credibility -- if this comes from the rnc, if

this comes from a republican who supports donald trump, there's absolutely no credibility whatsoever in that criticism. that's the pot calling the kettle black. >> yeah, and so i've been asking the rnc repeatedly, do you feel like you're compromised in making this case, and they just won't -- they won't respond. and i mean, they don't have to respond, but it just struck me as hypocritical. now, if you're a decent, normal human being and you feel intellectually consistent, then you should be able to say, what harvey weinstein did is deplorable, the money that he gave should be returned and people should condemn him publicly and quickly. and you should be able to say what donald trump did is deplorable. >> right. >> and you shouldn't be associated with him if you feel like democrats shouldn't be associated with harvey weinstein. those are the consistencies here, and i feel like there is none. >> that's fair! yeah. >> and katty, don't you feel more women would be comfortable speaking out in any situation which might be similar to this, which seems extreme, i hope, if

people step up and support what has happened publicly? >> yeah, absolutely. one of the reasons that women don't speak out about abuse, one of them is that they're accused of lying when they do, and the second is that they get no support, that they're somehow made to feel guilty about what happened to them. it was their fault in some way. well, this kind of silence that we're hearing from hollywood, lack of support for ashley judge and rose mcgowen, is not going to be very comforting to them and to other women who are looking at this story and thinking, god, the titans of hollywood, the meryl streeps and the jennifer lawrences have not stood up publicly and spoken out in support of me. that makes it that much harder. if you are a young woman, it's so often young, vulnerable women who don't have much power, who are in their 20s, who cannot speak out like you can, mika. that's why we need to speak out, because we need to give them voice as well. >> it should be a lot easier. >> they're afraid they may lose money, i guess, katty. >> how much do they need? >> mika lost -- you know, mika

lost a lot of money doing this. and again, though, but it was an easy decision to make. i mean, what does gwyneth paltrow have to lose? >> i don't think it's even money. >> what does meryl streep have to lose? >> nothing! >> what does -- i mean, kate winslet. what do all of these people who have worked with harvey weinstein have to lose that they won't go out and say something in support of rose mcgowen, in support of ashley judd, in support of all these women who have finally had the courage to go out and say something that people in hollywood have known about for 20 years? >> and by the way, the men, too, right, joe? >> and the men! >> it shouldn't just be up to the women. >> where are the men? >> it should be up to the male stars, too, equally coming out and saying this is not acceptable. now that he's been fired, i suspect we might have more of them, but the time to do it was before he get fired. >> by the way, don't put your

little ribbons on at the next oscar ceremony and don't -- nick -- >> these people are willing to get up on stage -- >> so self-righteous. >> -- at the globes and oscars and attack president trump for this kind of thing. where were they over the weekend? where are they now? nowhere. >> this was pretty easy. >> this is easy. >> this one is not hard. >> you don't have to think about it. >> no money is worth it. >> by the way, on the set, again, you've been a friend of his. you were in his wedding, right? >> yes. >> you condemned his actions. mika, you had a big financial deal, a book deal that you walked away from immediately. so we have two people here at the table, hollywood. this is not difficult. step out and just say what's right, what's not right. >> and speak for the victims of sexual harassment across the board and make a more comfortable environment for more women to come forward so we can change the way society functions here because it's really messed up. >> by the way, he's just starting, your corner in hollywood. >> do what you can do.

coming up on "morning joe," the governor of puerto rico joins us live as president trump defends his response to hurricane manager maria. are things getting any better? bp uses flir cameras - a new thermal imagining technology - to inspect difficult-to-reach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans can see them.

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welcome back to "morning joe." steve rattner, "the new york times," nick convasori, former aid to the george w. bush white house and state department's elise jordan and republican strategist steve schmidt are all back with us. we just had that conversation about the sexual harassment allegations against hollywood producer harvey weinstein, and we're talking about that muted reaction from -- >> said where are all the leading people in hollywood? >> some corners of the media as well, and hollywood. well, now, meryl streep is speaking out. >> that's a big one. >> reported in "the huffington post." her full statement reads -- "the disgraceful news about harvey weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed and those whose good and worthy causes he supported. the intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are heroes. one thing can be clarified, not everybody knew. harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperatingly but respectful with me in our working relationship and with many others with whom he worked

professionally. i didn't know about these other offenses. i did not know about his financial settlements with actresses and colleagues. i did not know about his having meetings in his hotel room, his bathroom, or other inappropriate coercive acts. and if anybody knew, i don't believe that all the investigative reporters in the entertainment and the hard news media would have neglected for decades to write about it. the behavior is inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar. each brave voice that is raised, heard, and credited by our watchdog media will ultimately change the game." >> so, mika, very good. very important, too, for anybody that is afraid to speak out. you have, you know, perhaps the most celebrated, successful actress -- >> i love it. >> -- in hollywood. >> good for her. >> has come out and spoken strongly about her beliefs. >> yeah, and this is at a time like this, we need to hear from powerful women who have aligned themselves, benefited from, gotten money from harvey

weinstein any way, whether it's political or hollywood related, because we then give voice to the women who don't have a voice. >> but we should also hear from men just as much, right? >> and men, and men, absolutely. >> exactly. >> you know, you're absolutely right, and i keep making that mistake. we need to hear from women and men. this is unacceptable. >> and elise, how important, again, that it comes from meryl streep, who is, again, one of the most celebrated actresses of our time, one of the greatest actresses of our time -- >> probably good friends with him. >> and obviously owes a lot to him. he owes a lot to her. that's exactly when you speak out, when it's not an easy thing to do. >> easy to do. >> but she just did. >> well, and it gives space to women who are questioning should they come forward. >> right. >> it gives them -- it helps give them the strength to know that they're being backed up and supported by the community. and mika, i give you huge props. three-book deal. you could take a financial hit. you're choosing to do the right thing because you do not

appreciate or respect the way that they, this company has treated women. >> no, well, not harvey weinstein. >> you came, you did it early. lena dunham did it early. her producer, jenny coner, did it early, which i really respect. they're putting their money where their mouth is. and women like meryl. and you look at someone like rose mcgowan, who had talked about for years an anonymous producer, a powerful mogul who had raped her, and she had had to endure this for years, and i think that women have a responsibility to come out and support other women. >> and i definitely -- you know, he's stepped down. i said i would not do the book deal unless he did. i have to say, though, i want more. i want to know that this company does not embrace sexual abusers, sexual harassers, and i want to have a conversation with them before i move forward, because this is step one. step two is having a wider conversation about the culture within an organization that, of course, starts at the top.

>> and again, you said, the people that you've worked with have been great. >> first of all, they're all women. i work with an all-female team, and they're incredible. and i look forward to working with them more, so i hope this works out. but for their sake and, quite frankly, this doesn't end with harvey weinstein stepping down. >> no. >> this is just the beginning. >> well, he didn't step down. he got pushed out, which says something about the company. >> and i think that we also need to just look at what gretchen carlson started by speaking out. and you know, amanda carpenter tweeted that it was the first time in her lifetime she can remember a woman speaking out about sexual harassment and not being judged for it, and i couldn't agree more with that. i can't think of a time before gretchen that a woman could come out and it wasn't somehow because of the way she dressed, the way she behaved, this and that. and gretchen kind of opened up a new era where more people are being open. >> it needs to happen in realtime, though. it needs to happen in realtime, and it needs to happen when it

is at a cost to you even. and women need to have a space to do that so they don't pay the ultimate price. we're not there yet. now to nbc news national correspondent peter alexander live at the white house. peter, the president is mosqutwg this morning, pushing back at the criticism of vice president pence, who walked out of that nfl game after some players knelt in protest of the national anthem. what's the latest on what most see as a very costly stunt, costly to the american taxpayers? >> reporter: yeah, joe and mika, good morning to you. it's certainly the latest chapter in what's become a divisive national debate, but this certainly escalates things. as you've been talking about, the vice president flying into his home state for this colts game, hosting the niners. many of the niners players taking a knee during the star-spangled banner. the vice president then tweeting out a picture, hand over heart, writing "president trump and i will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our flag, or our national anthem." trump later tweeted that he basically asked pence ahead of time to leave if anyone kneels, writing "i'm proud of him."

of course, as you noted, critics have pounced. democrat adam schiff calling this an expensive taxpayer-funded political stunt, making note of the questions now involving trump cabinet members' expensive travel habits. the vice president's team did not say how much the trip cost. i reached out last night, but the reimbursable rate -- and we checked on this -- for political travel aboard air force two would be just shy of $16,000 an hour to fly. so, take about six hours of flight from las vegas, where he was, to indianapolis, back to l.a. where he was heading back ahead of a political fund-raiser. the cost of that would be roughly $96,000. of course, it's not surprising that the 49ers would take a knee. their former quarterback, colin kaepernick, he began the whole protest last season to bring attention to police brutality and injustice. at the stadium, reporters traveling with the vice president were told to stay in the van because -- and this is a quote -- there may be an early

departure from the game. ahead of the game, the vice president tweeted out a picture yesterday with the caption that read "looking forward to cheering for the colts and honoring the great career of peyton manning," whose number was going to be retired at halftime. >> that's just disingenuous. peter, that's ingenuous. he knew -- he knew the 49ers were going to kneel. >> reporter: yeah -- >> before he went there. >> reporter: well, the bottom line was it would have been impossible not to know. the 49ers started this whole thing. the vice president says this has been in the works for a long time, that it was a last-minute flight to go out to vegas ahead of time for this. they're pushing back, saying it's the height of hypocrisy for liberal democrats basically to celebrate players who disrespect the flag and then to accuse the vice president effectively of, you know, engaging in his own first amendment rights of carrying out a political stunt. >> all right, thank you so much. >> wow. >> peter alexander. i'll tell you what the height of hypocrisy is -- >> how lame. >> the height of hypocrisy, steve, is tweeting out a photo -- looking forward to watching the colts play today,

when you've told everybody that's following you, hey, i am not going to watch the colts today, where in fact, we're going to have an early departure. >> this is embarrassing. >> they knew what was going to happen, and this isn't about first amendment rights. this is about a political stunt that's going to end up costing taxpayers maybe $250,000, that tied up secret service members. >> this is revealing about mike pence. >> that required the seeblcret service to go in and sweep the stadium probably the night before, the day of, that inconvenienced the good people of indiana that wanted to go to a football game and didn't want to be tools used in his political pr stunt. >> but they were tools used in a political pr stunt. >> they were. >> that's exactly what it was, but just -- >> have you ever sat in traffic outside of a stadium when there is a president or a vice president there? >> well, don't ask -- steve has not, but maybe elise has. >> have you done that before? i know you helicoptered the 50

yard line, gave you gray pupon and you were ushered up to the box. >> if you can imagine. >> all of us have done it, where we have had to sit in our cars and wait for hours because of the inconvenience of a president or a vice president at an event. >> everybody has to be screened, everybody has to go through the process. just one footnote on what peter was saying, though. the $96,000 for the air force two, if that's even the cost, is a fraction, a fraction of the cost. you have to send in advance people, you have to send in his car to get from the airport to the stadium. you have to pay for all the secret service. you have to get all those things back out again. the cost of moving the president or vice president is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> and on a separate note, can we just talk about not the smoothest operators with the photo and twitter? >> no. >> did they not think journalists were going to immediately google and find out it was an old image? covering their tracks is not -- >> and i wonder in indianapolis yesterday if there was a mom who was in labor who needed to get to the hospital. >> it's like bridgegate.

>> because the roads were closed for the vp's motorcade or if there was a police officer who couldn't respond to 9/11 as quickly or if there were ambulances tied up. when you step back from it, the abusiveness -- >> the abuse of power, yes. >> the abuse of power, that's what it's about. it's not about the first amendment. >> by the way, donald trump -- >> it's a great story. >> -- in private and in public loved talking about chris christie and bridgegate, loved talking about it. this makes shutting down a lane at the george washington bridge pale in comparison, because the secret service were involved, the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. this is so much worse than bridgegate! and donald trump would talk to anybody about bridgegate that would listen. >> and not for nothing, you want to talk about disrespecting the flag? this is somebody who stood in silence when his running mate, donald trump, attacked a gold star father and mother.

>> yes. >> and attacked prisoners of war to include my former boss, captain john mccaptain, u.s. navy retired, winner of the distinguished service cross and three awards of the bronze star and one of the silver star, and colonel bud day, recipient of the medal of honor, real heroes. >> yeah. >> doesn't say a word. so, he can spare us the sankt moany and the lectures and the hypocrisy here with his outrageous, profligated use of my tax dollars and all of yours. >> and again, the safety -- >> i think he thinks everyone is stupid. >> -- of the people of indianapolis. that's a very good question, who was delayed from getting to the hospital or who was delayed from doing their job, maybe just going to a shift -- >> responding to a 911 call. >> who was late to maybe the first job that they had? >> a fire. >> they probably might have gotten fired because -- i mean, we don't know. >> who missed a job interview? exactly. over the weekend, by the way, president trump defended his tossing paper towels to

hurricane victims last week during his visit to puerto rico. >> we did a great job, and we weren't treated fairly by the media because we really did a good job. i mean, one example. they had these beautiful, soft towels. very good towels. and i came in and there was a crout of a lot of people, and they were screaming and they were loving everything. and i was having fun. they were having fun. they said, throw them to me, throw them to me, mr. president! so, i'm doing some of the -- so, the next day, they said, oh, it was so disrespectful to the people. it was just a made-up thing. and also, when they had -- when i walked in, the cheering was incredible. >> the cheering was incredible. >> beautiful paper towels. >> because it is all about you. >> and yesterday he tweeted "nobody could have done what i've done for puerto rico with so little appreciation." >> not true. >> "so much work," along with a nearly nine-minute video of recovery efforts which he actually wasn't a part of. >> it takes work to be that bad. >> meanwhile, puerto rico suffered a setback in restoring

power. according to nbc news, the substation failure dropped the share of san juan residents with power from the electrical grid from 12% to almost 7%. the mayor of san juan tweeted "increasingly painful to understand the american people want to help. the u.s. government does not want to help." power collapses in san juan hospital with two patients being transferred out." >> we filtered out the mayor a long time ago. we don't have time for the political noise. the bottom line is, is that we are making progress every day in conjunction with the governor. and in regards to the power failure, we're restringing a very fragile system every day. as we make progress, simple thunderstorms pass through, knock the progress out. >> filtering out the mayor of one of the cities most hit. he also is the one who said this is the greatest, most difficult logistical operation the united states government has ever done. of course, talk to ike about

d-day or macarthur. >> they didn't think back that far. >> let's bring in the governor of puerto rico. governor, listen, we'll just stick to the facts. we'll handle the politics. we don't want to put you in a difficult position. i'd say i've been in your position -- >> you're in a difficult position. >> -- because four or five hurricanes went through my district. i've never been in your position. this is grim. so, let's just get some facts right now for americans, because americans need to give. americans need to give more to puerto rico in fact, than they gave to houston and florida, because you guys need it more right now. first of all, is that number accurate? right now do you have 7% of residents with power? >> it's a little bit higher now, joe. and thank you for the opportunity. it's about 12%, but notwithstanding, it just shows how fragile our energy grid is, and we can't be talking about just putting back the old grid again. we need to be talking about how we're going to innovate, how

this destruction gives us now a platform to not just rebuild but to transform puerto rico. >> right. >> that's one of the things that we're focusing on, how do we work with tesla, how do we work with other companies and innovate in puerto rico and make puerto rico stronger. >> so, governor, how about drinkable water? what percentage of the island, of people on your island have drinkable water? >> it's about 57% right now. the vast majority of the island has about 65% to 70%, but there's a corner in the northern part of the island where we're at about 23% clip. so naturally, all of the logistics and all of the efforts to get a potable water to those areas is focused on. and today we're powering one of the major outlets of water to the northern area, so hopefully, we can get that number up. >> so, what percentage of your hospitals are without power right now? what can you tell us about that? that seems to be such a critical

concern. >> it is a critical concern, and i want to caveat this. we do have hospitals powered. we have about 60 that are powered by generators or by generation. about ten of them are powered by direct generation. but the reality is, joe, this is a fragile system right now. it is dependent on a power grid that goes up, that goes down, that we need generators, that we need a constant maintenance and repair loop of those generators. we need to fuel them all the time. so, even though it's working right now and even though we've gotten assets such as the "uss comfort," which has, you know, space for about 1,000 patients that's going around the island, the truth of the matter is, we're going to need resources in the long run to make sure that we can re-establish normalcy in our health care system. so, our petition right now is to congress for us to take action right now in immediate relief. we're estimating in the immediate relief effort, $4.6

billion so that we can push forward, you know, what we lose in the economy and the immediate relief process. and of course, later on have a recovery package that's consistent with the damage here in puerto rico. and as you stated, this is a very big storm, it was a very big disaster. two category 4 and 5 hurricanes passing in the span of two weeks in one jurisdiction. >> wow. >> and essentially devastating the whole of puerto rico and its energy grid. so, it is -- we need a lot of work. a lot of effort has been going on. there has been great clar collaboration with the dod, with the federal government, with the state governments, but we need to do more and focus on the midrun and the longrun so we don't just put puerto rico back together again, we build it transform it better than ever. >> nick. >> governor, speaking of the long term, as you know, as we all know, puerto rico is laboring under a huge amount of public debt. the president has talked about wiping it out entirely.

is it time for congress as part of an aid package to ask the control board to forgive the island's debt in large part or in whole? >> well, right now what we're focusing on is on the immediate liquidity needs. we're working those with treasury so that we can meet those. and then whatever strategy is pushed forward in terms of the debt, you know, right now there's a lot of comments and opinions. we in puerto rico are currently in a legal process called title three. it's sort of a restructuring process. so, really, i can't comment on what should be done in that process because right now i'm in the middle of that proceding. >> all right, thank you so much, governor. >> governor of puerto rico, ricardo rossello. thank you so much. up next, trying to put this into perspective. we'll get insight from a man who's served in the last three republican administrations. keep it right here on "morning joe."

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looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? start here. or here. even here. and definitely here. at fidelity, we're available 24/7 to make retirement planning simpler. we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you'll always be absolutely...clear. ♪ time to think of your future it's your retirement. know where you stand. with us right now, worked for the reagans and both for the bush's administration. seeing trump through a glass darkly. >> "when i see so many

republicans defend mr. trump regardless of his action actions - invoking defenses that i am certain would enrage them if champions of a president hillary clinton had said the same things. i am convinced we are seeing a severe case. we need to emphasize a greater epistemological modesty on our side and a greater appreciation on our side. >> pete, you are sure to right. i don't know how all the words mean. if we talk about all the tribes that we don't understand. the people that get me elected.

v evangelicals. i have no idea how they can support donald trump right now. absolutely no idea. your column was fascinating, stop, listen, talk, try to understand. you are not guilty of the very thing that you are accusing trump's supporters being guilty of. >> that's right, it is easier to write than to do. i tried to do that. the most painful thing in this election during the trump's presidency has been absolutely rock solid support that christians given to donald trump. i think he's doing great damage and they have been quite hypocrite cal in their support because of the same standard they use to be critical of bill clinton, because of their support for donald trump. with that said, i have heard them and their arguments are that president trump would be

better than hillary clinton on the merits and policy grounds and gorsuch as supreme court nominee and abortion and everything. i get that argue, what i don't get is the enthusiastic support form and the unwillingness to challenge him. that's what's necessary to keep people in power and it is not happening in my estimation. trying to run out people in my old church that actually steve dare to question whether donald trump was the right choice for president, which was what the southern baptist tried to do. >> how concerned are you by what some call a creeping authoritarian not so much in function but in form that infected the conservative movement. the almost out of parody level,

the vice president's chief of staff and members of congress, talk about that a little bit. >> yeah, really does worry me a lot. i don't consider conservative anymore. these are not conservative tendency. there is a kind of authoritarian straight there. i am happy of the institute of america and the press of law enforcement withstood of president trump pretty well. within the conservative movement and the republican party, tlher is a malady and deeper than anticipated. it is a danger and it is something that i am not familiar with in all of my life as a

conservati conservative, i think it needs to be confronted. the people who have stood for conservative for the last few years are a different view of it needs to have the energy and fight and the breitbart people have. it seems to me that all the energy is on their side and if we care about these things, you have to have the energy to fight for that and articulate a vision of the moral goods that lifts people's hearts and capture their moral imagination. it is not easy but have to be done. >> pete, i am concerned of the erosions of norms that this has been ushered in of the era of president trump. how do we return back to respecting norms and laws and service to your fellow americans that does not paula ebben you are entitled to a private jet.

all these norms that are not law but it is going to make it so easy for both sides of the political spectrum to say well, they did it so we cannot now. how do we ever return to any kind of respect for these norms? >> yes, it is well put, i think the collapse of the norms and the shattering of guard rails is a real cost of the trump's presidency. look, i think and i hope that sometimes viruses are on anybody. sometimes it is stripping away of virtues and values and norms of what people took for grant it. when it is taken away, you begin to cherish them again. maybe there is an analogy of nixon and watergate and after that, there is a surge of politicapli political ethics. the american people by and large are not happy of what's

happening. by the time we are done with donald trump however how long he's in office, this country is exhausted by the experience. they're long and thirsting for something better and higher and deeper and it is up to politicians to give it to them. >> i could not agree more. >> pete, thank you very much. on that note, it ends for us, chris jansing picks it up right now. bob corker aims at president trump saying he treats the office like a reality show >> it is fun to work right now he announced he's not running for the election. >> mike pence dunks out of a