wikileaks -- this wick kin leaks stuff is unbelievable. it tells you the inner heart. you got to read it. >> it's been amazing what's coming out on wikileaks. did you see another one? another one came in today. this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. as i was getting off the plane, they announced new wikileaks, i didn't want to keep you finding. let me run pack into the plane and find out. this justcome came out, wikileaks. >> it's collusion. >> collusion. >> collusion. i got something in my throat here. >> direct message. president trump spoke loud and clear about his love for wikileaks. apparently it runs in the family. we will get those breaking developments. >> sometimes, hold on a second, willie geist and i -- >> are you gone do a picture? >> no, for most of our career,

in our 20s and 30, i don't know few knew this mike, willie and i -- >> are you checking -- >> sometimes we actually ran a private detective service. >> we did. >> sometimes you connect the dots. it's like hard to connect all the dots. as willie tells me, sometimes it's not. >> sometimes a straight line. >> sometimes there is a straight line. don jr. >> all the kid starting calling him louis clue seclueso. >> there is the bad from australia. >> for the first time in 30 years the senate will hold a hearing on the authority to use nuclear weapons. >> this seems to be a timely discussion. >> i think so. maybe a little late. and will the president spooem speak out on roy moore? much of the party has, it's

threatening to tear apart the gop. good morning, everyone, it is tuesday, november 14th. with us, we have mike barnacle, "new york times" reporter michael schmidt. schmidtty, columnist kristen -- >> ksa! >> what's wrong with you this morning? way too awake. please. >> we got legends. >> all right. president trump's eldest son, donald trump jr. corresponded during the election with wikileaks, the u.s. intelligence agency says is one of the outfits that russian military intelligence used to influence the race. yesterday, they reported from the "atlantic" on the private twitter messages of trump jr. and the wikileaks account believe to be by the founder julian assange, documents

earlier turned over to congressional investigators and last night trump jr. released the exchanges that gen on september 20th, 2016, 49 days before polls closed the wikileaks account warned about a new anti-trump website and gave trump jr. the password that wikileaks says it guessed. they wrote back 12 hours later, off the record, i don't know who that is, but i'll ask around. an anonymous source familiar with russian interference told the "atlantic" on the same day, trump jr. did ask around, e-mailing other senior campaign official, including the bannon, kellyanne conway, digital media director and jared kushner, kushner reportedly forwarded the e-mail. >> they're saying, thank you for that. >> oh my god, on october 3rd,

wikileaks asked trump jr. to push a story that hillary clinton wanted to drone asaj san him. it's amazing what you can get away, what's behind this wednesday look i keep hearing about? and that same week, roger stone tweeted, wednesday, hillary clinton is done, wikileaks did not respond four days later posted a trove of john pod effoestas e-mails? remember that? saying they were consistent with the message and motivation of russian-directed efforts as candidate trump publicly praised week ki leaks, the group wrote to trump jr. again suggesting how to get their followers to share their materials and find stories the press was missing. 15 minutes later, candidate trump tweeted.

>> 15 minutes later, after getting -- >> it's amazing. >> the direct message from julian assange or from wikileaks. >> very little pick-up of the dishonest media of the incredible information provided by wikileaks so dishonesting rigged system. >> two days later trump jr. shared the link, itself. wikileaks reached out to him this july, he did not respond. the lawyer says trump's son has been working voluntarily turned over thousands of documents and said any questions about hits messages with wikileaks had been answered on the appropriate forum. >> all right. so, willie. >> first of all, a littlescreen clean-up, harrisbu roger stone hillary clinton is done and

making like, the old timers, cease going to use podesto's importance message. the lines are starting to be drawn, here's again, donald trump winking to wikileaks, roger stone bragging about his connections with gucifer 2.0 which our intelliactions says are russian hackers. now this, against, those lines are starting to get connected and suddenly what a tangled web there was. >> they claim no coordination, boy, this sure looks like card nation. when you see all the pieces of the puzzle that move towing a little bit. when you have donald trump jr. contacted by wikileaks, donald trump's father out on the campaign trail touting wikileaks. remind our viewers, wiki sleex

what the intelliagencies was a vessel for russia to influence the united states' campaign. this does remind me, too, if terms of don jr. in that meeting in june of 2016, if you are contacted by russia saying they have dirt on hillary clinton or if you are contacted by wikileaks saying we have dirt on hillary clinton, few are in the middle of a campaign, you run in the other direction, you don't engage them and ask for more. >> the more this comes up, mike schmidt, the more you go back and look at past statement, past denies, false statemented drafted by the president of the united states to get actually which prosecutors kould would do to get state of mind, boy, obviously, they're at least covering this up publicly while it's happening. >> well, we started the discussion earlier this year when they were taking office about how there was no collusion, no coordinationed a all with the russians, with

wikileaks, with anyone, now that argument has moved into well, collusion is not illegal. that is true, there is nothing illegal about colluding. it may look unsavory, political, people would fought like it. the question is where would mueller come in on this and say okay you were doing something illegal. would they say don jr.s with a part of the scheme with the russians to do this. people think that would be a bank shot legally, while this may look really bad, it may not change a lot for the illegality and what those consequences could mean for the trump folks. >> michael, i agree with your assessment there, doesn't it raise the question of what else does the mueller investigation and the special prosecutors have? it clearly had these wikileaks leaks for some time, what else might they have? >> reporter: it's not clear that mueller has this, because what happened with the don jr. was

interviewed by the senate judiciary committee this fall. it was during that interview he made an off handed remark, which he said i have been in touch with wikileaks. it was only in recent weeks those messages were produced to the congressional committees. it's not always clear they have what mueller has, you'd think puler would have gone out with subpoenas an gotten stuff. there is no guarantee he has this information, himself. over the summer, when the time disclosed meeting that don jr. had had the previous summer with the russian, we don't think mueller knew about at that time. so he's still trying to piece things together as we in the media are trying to figure it out as well. >> the contacts between wi wikileaks and donald trump jr. contradicts directly what mike pence recorded in 2016.

>> some had suggested on the left all this bad stuff about hillary, nothing bad about trump, that your campaign is in cahoots with wikileaks. >> nothing could be further from the truth. i think all of us have, you know, have had concerns about wikileaks over the years. >> after the "atlantic's" report the vice president's office put out a statement the vice president was never aware of any1 associated with the campaign being in contact with wikileaks. >> it's a bubble. >> from a published report earlier tonight. it's nearly the same response pence used when another campaign official's undisclosed link became public in march. >> the story today that former national security adviser michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent. >> well, let me say, hearing that story today was the first i heard of it.

>> you are disappointed by the story? >> the first i heard of it. >> what are you doing there, anything? the latest disclosure is the latest tie has found his words contradicted by the actions -- what's with that? -- >> by the transition and the administration. let's take a look. >> general flynn has no involvement in the transition whatsoever. >> there is a transition e-mail. >> general, there is no involvement in the transition, whatsoever. >> was there contact between trump and the associates or cutouts they have? >> i joined this campaign in the summer and i can tell you that all contact was by the american people. >> reporter: did the president fire comey to impede the russian investigation? >> well, as you know, very clearly as been stated repeatedly and the president has been told he's not under

investigation. >> reporter: but intelligence officials say there is investigation into ties between campaign officials and russian officials? that's not what this is about. >> literally anything she interviewed on substance and concern, it turns out he says he knows absolutely nothing but he doesn't know what's going on either he's clueless and he joined this administration and put in ear plugs and put on blinders and is walking around completely incapable of hearing anything, is that possible? >> it's possible that they leave him out of the room when they're having these talks. >> why interview him? if he has no credible? >> i will say he is remarkably long at times about very important this i think so. >> he knows nothing. >> and the last thing he said about russia. no nobody talked to russians, seriously when they were wear look tick russian fur hats in july and speaking russian. >> he should have picked up on

that. >> he should have picked up on it. he thought that was a northern wisconsin thing, right? >> it could well be vice president pence is smart enough to leave the room? >> he could have been doing what gary cohn has been doing, you talk about russia, we're out of the room. no, maybe he's smart enough to always been in a position to deny viability. >> this is the way things go there. >> they're going as well there. from the boll choi ballet -- bolchoi ballet. i'm out of here. >> if you have been there many times, you like him. one time i'm working for you. >> i'm out of here. >> the alternative explanation kristen solstice anderson, is he does know what's going on, he sees how bad it is, he wants

nothing to do with it. he doesn't want to go down for donald trump jr.'s contact and he's carving out his own universe where he can have some deniability whether or not that's true. >> i think what you see mike pence do is prepare for a future universe where donald trump is either lost re-election or coming to the end of an eight-year presidency and mike pence would like to run for president himself, in order to do so, he will have to have been loyal enough to the president so that trump supporters within the party view pence as a natural heir to the trump throne while still distancing himself enough from the most unsavory pieces of this administration. i think eighth tough line to us, i think the level of loyalty that this president demands is not going to be thrilled with the level of zangs. i don't rae little known what this is, i have nothing to do with it within it comes to zangs yourself from the president's children.

>> his cluelessness is trumping whatever love of country he has. so that's not going to help him in a campaign. >> you know, owe. >> oh, yes. >> a lot of people walk out of the room and want plausible deniability. >> the vice president has no clue about any of this? >> i don't know. anybody think he has no clue about this? >> no. >> it's possible he has no clue. >> for two years to sit at the side of trump and have no clue there was no contact, there was no contact at a minimum with russia, that's impossible. >> if she choosing to have no care, he is choosing to have that with his future. >> if you believe the strong movements, you have to believe mike pence does know and is smart enough to leave the room so he does have plausible deniability, because he and more than a few of his people are always preparing right now for a pence presidency. right now. >> and mike pence also is,

kristen, mike pence is extremely popular with the republican base now, will se not even never trumpers, from never trumpers to people who are all in for trump, mike pence is a very popular figure within the party? >> fewer sure, when he was chosen to be the running mate, it was viewed as this olive branch to ideological conservatives who had big reservations against trump nominees, he represents the trump again da with a softer delivery, if you are the type of republican that likes what he is about or maybe wishes he would lay off the twitter or wishes he would stop be so brash and abrasivech that's mike pence for you the mild mannered guy on top of the make america grate again agenda, to the extent that he remains popular in the party that is linked to donald trump being popular in the party.

which long maintained i don't see this russia story being the thing that comes in, pence is strong enough to keep his distance as much as possible. >> it's been fascinating watching him overseas. he speaks of russia not the way donald trump speaks of russia. the way ronald reagan or your father would speak of russia. >> that is a very hard line. it's very interesting, there is this disconnect. >> so one more story here to get to, attorney general jeff sessions has taken what could be the first steps towards a possible investigation into alleged international dealings bearing bill and hillary clinton's name. nbc news obtained a letter to the chairman of the house judiciary committee from assistant attorney general steve boyd saying that sessions has asked top justice department prosecutors to look into certain issues recently raised by

lawmakers and evaluate whether a special counsel should be appointed. boyd's letter didn't specify the nature of the allegations against the clinton foundation, but in a letter calling for the investigation, he discussed wikileaks' disclosures foundation and its possibly unlawful international dealings. >> that includes the sale of canadian uranium interests to a russian company in 2010 while hillary clinton was secretary of state. there have been allegations that the deal resulted in donations being made to the clinton foundation along with republican lawmakers, some conservative media outlets have been raising the alleged issues for months, boyd would not confirm or deny whether the justice department is currently investigating the matters referenced, the letter was sent one day before jeff sessions is scheduled to testify before the house judiciary committee between the ties

between the campaign and russia. >> we can't believe how horrific this is, what a precedent this would set if donald trump goes after his political oloent, pressuring the justice department, the attorney general to do this, this is what happens, here's what stalin would do, this is what tyrants have done for years, is stick their people on the opponent the underlying charge hom how the clintons have an absence of malice moment where paul newman leans back in the chair and says prove it. they're not going to prove anything here. there's no smoking gun here. there's no nothing here that's going to prove that the clintons somehow got money, i mean, it

might look bad but putting a special prosecutor out there is going to uncover absolutely nothing and set a horrific precede precedent. >> you just indicated stripping the justice department of independence. they're supposed to be independent. they're not supposed to be reacting to what the president does with the attorney general. i'm very upset, i don't like the tomorrow that's tweeting. >> constant pressure for investigation against his political opponents. >> now it appears we will have one. so, michael schmidt, with regard to the justice department you know as you know the moral of that department is always a bit rocky, depending on who the attorney general is, over the past year given the conflict between the president and the attorney general, this is just really affects the justice department briefly. >> you have a very beleaguered

attorney general. he essentially resigned in may when mueller was appointed, because trump threw such a fit at him. he recuse himself and allowed mueller to be appointed. the thing here that i instruct most by is the fact that the president ten days ago basically said for the tomorrow to do this, before he was getting on a flight to go to asia he said, i'm very disappointed in sessions, these democrats need to be looked at. here we are ten days later with sessions basically telling congress, we will look at a special prosecutor on that. people find that to be extraordinary, especially in a case where there has been no indication that there is a lot of "there" there, it seems to be political and sexes is doing everything he can to save his job as he once again comes under pressure from trump as the russian investigation heats up. there has been a longstanding fear that as the investigation moved on as we seen with charges trump would once again put the

pressure back on sessions, go after sessions and publicly criticize him, we've seen that we've seen a response which democrats will certainly say, as they connect the dots is doing what trump wants. it's sort of the opposite of what trump was accused of in may when he was accused of asking comey to look past flynn, to end the flynn investigation. this is sort of another type of obstruction with democrats. >> michael, real quick, when you look down on your piece with maggie haberman, you wrote, people close to the white house believe mr. sessions can forestall the president from firing him by pointing a special counsel to investigate the uranium deal. are we looking at the possibility of a special counsel so the united states attorney general can face his job in the face of the president? >> reporter: the president is fixated on a special count sell, he says, look, this involves russia. this is a rur rainium one deal,

why doesn't it have a special count sell i have? i think the president would see this as distracting from the when he has to confront with his administration. >> there have been times in this troubled presidency that people have stood up and actually put the constitutional republic first. you sthau with jeff sessions recuseing himself, because it was the right thing to do. you saw that with rod rosenstein, accusing himself and appointing bob mueller, because this was the right thing to do, doing that, regardless of what all these guy versus done or will do, those were shining moments where they put the country and the constitution first. now it's game on in the justice department and it's time for those professionals inside the justice department to do the same thing, stands up to the rule of law. stand up to the constitution of the united states, stand up for constitutional forms and show the world why we are different tan tyrannical countries across the globe, whose leaders

prosecute their political opponents. >> michael schmiddle, thank you very much. still ahead, the "atlantic" brokeout story between secret correspondences between don jr. and wikileaks. plus, roy moore remains defiant, refusing to exit the alabama senate race amid a fifth accuser and now a flood gate of pressure -- >> they banned the guy from a mall apparently if gasden, alabama. >> the gasden mall. >> can i ask a question as we go to break? >> yeah. >> who was the gop oppo research? this guy has been a national candidate, they weren't letting him in the mall. >> a bun were of keystone cops. >> not some he running state wide, he has been a controversial national figure for 25 years. the aclu first sued him in 1995

and we're just learning about this now? goes around say figure you are gay, you loo tobacco grow horns and all this weird stuff happens to you. like where is -- now everybody in the state of alabama knows the dude is banned from going to pauls. >> but they knew it beforehand. >> say something. >> people are say figure you talk -- >> if you see something, say something. why haven't they said something yet? the republicans fixed this out when luther strange? >> make society sooner. good gracious. >> this guy is going around talking about jesus? i'm jesus' guy. jesus loves me, we don't like anybody else, you wait 30 years to tell us that this dude is not allowed in the gasden mall? holy mole. we get reaction on the ground next. what in the world willie? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance

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> . >> the backlash on roy moore after a fifth woman has come forward with sexual assault cardinals against him. beverly young nelson said when she was 16, 40 years ago, moore was a regular customer at a restaurant where she worked. she claims moore then 30 and district attorney once offered her a ride home but instead parked the car behind the business and assaulted her. last night, roy moore denied the allegation. >> people of alabama know me. they know my character. they know what i've stood for in the political world for over 40 years. i can tell you without hesitation this is absolutely false. i never did what she said i did. i don't even know the woman. i don't know anything about her. i don't even know where the restaurant is or was and if you look at this situation, you will see because i'm 11 points ahead or ten or 11 points ahead this

race being 28 days off, in this is a political maneuver. >> first of all, mike, i don't think he's 11 points ahead from who i've seen he's losing now. >> yes, he's at least dead even, probably is losing, what he just said, you can rebut that by the high school year book that he signed. and from the younger woman worked at a restaurant and you looked at that time high school teenager, he was 30. she said it was from him, where he wrote her, i don't know, when you were 30-years-old, were you signing girl's high school year books, he wrote roy moore, da. she talks about being an asemt tempted sexual assault.

he pulled away, he says, a imthe district attorney, nobody will believe you. it was in the year book of what he can do to her. go read her account. >> oh, absolutely gripping. kristen, again, i go back to the republicans, how do the republican establishment not know about in this, if everybody in gasden, bam pam knew about this and everybody in his hometown, where was -- where was mitch mcconnell's opposition research so republicans wouldn't find it? >> so the truth can come out earlier. i don't understand why it's taken this long for the truth to come out. >> well, do i feel like the last month or two have been a class for america in why sometimes we don't fine out about sexual harassment or sexual assault claims within they happen, why people take a long, long time

for them to get out and why sometimes people are uncomfortable sharing and discussing rumors, so whether it's harvey weinstein or roy moore, you know, this is a moment when a lot of this stuff is erupting in a way that it had been spoken about and hushed rumors before, now it's coming to the forefront. i don't look at this as this is some massive research failure, certainly it would have been better for republicans to have known this and brought it up in the primary, thank goodness you had cory gardner who said if this man wins, he should not be seated in the senate. the way so many people played footsie and fast and loose with what their values are and what is right in order for political campaign in the last years or two has been disheartening for me, watching somebody like senator gardner stand up and say, absolutely not was a bright light in a political world of darkness. >> i understand, womanly what

kristen is saying about the whispers against a serial assault, as in this case, though, again, when you have cops and other people saying, i don't, area, he was banned from going to the gasden small. when those were running for supreme court back in 2000. from the right thing has been done. >> if they had him back in the '70s and '80s, he was banned in the maul. they could have spanned people misery, the women could have come out a lot earlier if this hadn't come out in 2000. it's mind-boggling. >> again, banned from the gasden mall, not for smoking in the tower records, he had a penchant for picking up teenage girls, let's go to montgomery, alabama, we find vaughan hillier. good morning. we have been talking a little about the polls, how tight is race is, this idea of making this a national election when

mimp mcconnell came out and said roy moore ought to get out of the race, there was celebration on the ground for the roy more campaign. it allowed them to push book afence the boogieman and the washington establishment? >> reporter: exactly. this is, i haven't been to the gasden mall, i have been through montgomery in the suburbs of birmingham, if you are looking at this from a political race. you are mentioning the polls there the democrat doug jones has a good shot in this race. i talked to the gentleman that ran into the democrat he lost by three percentage points in that 2012 race. he was telling me if doug jones votes on this he calls this kitchen issues, jobs, education and health care, if he hoens in, he has to become palatable to republicans. donald trump had the highest vote total in republican presidential history, doug jones has to make the pitch he is a man from alabama and not

distracted by these things, he was supposed to go to a fundraiser in washington, d.c. with pamela harris, cory booker, i was talking to a campaign official, they've chance cemented those plans, he is staying here to focus as they said in talking to the voters and the issues that important to them here. >> if you listen to some of the people that support roy moore in alabama in the hours and days after all these allegations came out. they said, well, i don't love what i'm hearing from roy moore the alternative is to put a democrat in the united states senate to me, that's worse. is that the sort of vibe you are getting on the ground there? >> reporter: when i was in gallant over the weekend his home down u town there, one person after another, this is a small town, rural, wooded, less than 1,000 people there, one man said you could shoot obama in this town and they would vote for roy moore. several people, staunch republicans, cohen my thomas told me she's never voted for a

democrat in her life. the word she used is integrity, doug jones appears to be a man of integrity, roy moore is a lightning rod even for republican standard here, if it means voting for a democrat in this instance, she's willing to do it in this case, yeah. >> vaughan, what did the guy say in the town, i couldn't hear you clearly, if i shoot obama -- >> reporter: yeah, if roy moore were to shoot obama, we'd still vote for a democrat here. >> vaughan hilliard, thank you very much. >> so that kristen that appears, though, to be, thavg god, a minority opinion in the republican party even in the state of alabama. the state that donald trump brags, you know, he said if he lost the race, he would move to alabama, because they were his most loyal supporters, but, you

know, roy moore should even before these horrific allegations, roy moore caused frav concerns to a lot of republicans anyway and this was the steve bannonization of the republican party. you get somebody that has been, you know, thrown in jail on staten island. you get somebody like roy moore. you get people to believe in conspiracy theories in arizona, this is ultimately what happens. here have you in the reddest of red states, i think a democratic pickup so what does the republican establishment do? >> well, right now, i think voters are so ruled by negative partisanship. so we talk a lot about voters are in their camps. i'm wearing my team jersey and you wear your d jersey, it's not people love their own party.

it's they can't fathom the other party getting advanced. i used to hear conservatives think liberals are wrong. now liberals think the other side is evil plain and simple. that's why you see folks making these compromises. i completely get why roy moore is deciding he will be defiant and say none of this is true, even though there is now evidence, because we live in a political environment where people are willing to believe the other side can't possibly be right. they pub acting in bad faith. they must be lying, you know, it would not surprise me if roy moore gets elected to the united states senate. frankly if he does, he gets thrown out be i the republicans who choose not to seat him, he will go down as a martyr in some quarters who stood up to the establishment, was a disruptor, afternoon his own party didn't want him there, because they knew he was going to be a part of draining the swamp. those are tin centives, why roy

moore is doing what he is doing in the face of this evidence. >> i think it will be close, at the end of the day i i think he will lose, i think with todd aiken in missouri will happen to roy moore in the state of alabama, a state only going democratic in presidential race one time since 1960. coming up next, our next guest says american politics has gone off the rails. and there are six key events that helped us get to rock bottom. that's ahead on morning joe.

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. >> mike. >> i have a question for you, it's this, at the top level the d.c. republican party, what is the roy moore-steve bannon alliance is doing do you think to the core of the republican party? >> well, i think it'starying it up temporarily, because you have them coming out in the midst of the roy moore stories, oh, i have nothing to do with steve bannon. you have mercer, i have nothing

to do with breitbart. you see the republican party move away from bannonism the way they moved away from ted cruz and the government shut down crowd after 2013 when the chamber and others got involved in the alabama one race, which was in 2013, a special election which actually predicted the reemer vince of main stream republicans in 2013. this is a real threat to trumpism and the republican party because you looked a what happened in northern virginia, ed gillespie completely over performed when he ran three years ago for the united states senate. he rapid himself in trumpism and he got destroyed in northern virginia. we talked about women standing in the rain for hours and like going, no, we're not going

anywhere. >> right. >> you look at the women's march. you look at what happened like for instance eight out of ten federal judges have been appointed by donald trump or nominated. men. >> 75%. >> it's even, i think it's over 75%. you look at u.s. attorneys appointed by donald trump. the overwhelming majority, men. >> white guys. >> white men. you look at what's happened to roy moore now and what you will see is like you saw it in virginia. will you see women standing in line in mountain brooke, alabama. one of the most republican areas i have seen in my life to vote for democrats, you will see women standing in line in vestavia, in parts of mobile, in parts of montgomery. you are going to see, once again, women making the difference, women that never

voted for democrats before in their life saying, no, this is not my party. if republicans don't think i'm good enough to be in their government, then i don't thinker that good enough to be my government and i think this actually poses one of the gravest threats thus far to trumpism. i think we will see it play out in alabama. >> this is where we are, how did we get here? actionios is out with a new look at how they went crazy which hoens in on american politics, that steer id off the rails. joining us the ceo of actionios, jim vand high. >> if are you a pg 13 tv show, in the insanity of politics, if you think about your bram today, think about your program every day, we look at the fight moment

by moment, but the if you step back, one of the reasons that this gets worse not better is this is 25 years in the making it started with newt gingrich weaponizing politics, fox then televising it, fox news channel and incentivizing and cnn doing it 24/7. then when you had the explosion of the internet prior to ten year ago, if you had a silly opinion you can talk to thousands of fans, then you think about what happened in this last election. three things, one, trump, there was a precursor here. i think john mccain picking sarah palin took reality tv and merged it with politics. she was not a serious candidate. but it showed that a celebrity candidate can be a part of a major party ticket.

when you look at what happened on facebook, it was all about emotion and it was all about polarization. ization. the news was pumping at playing off things that got you most vac jacked up. if you had your head in the facebook machine. >> do you know how many times i had to tell friends, family members. >> no, that's actually -- >> that's not real. >> it remind me of having to call my mom or having to take calls from my mom in 2009 after every glenn beck shows, no moms the martian aren't eating the prans out of republicans. >> put muslim brains inside all white americans, no, mom, that's not true. it's like the very thing you are talking about t. sort of things that conservatives said, c'mon, cut it out.

actually you look at glenn beck, 2009, 2010, you look at survival seeds, facebook, you are right, it's like, and you can't convince people that isn't real. >> that's -- there's so much focus on fake news, but most people don't believe real news anymore. and while the problem i think is more acute on right, trust me, it's about to hit on the left because politics is all about incentives, if you want those facebook followers and people to pay attention on twitter and get on tv, if you want people to turn out at your town hall, there's no market for the middle anymore -- people thinking it gets better, i think it gets worse, unfortunately. >> a lot of democrats and a lot of people that watch our show, thank you for watching our show, don't like it when i bring this up. >> the president doesn't watch. >> you know, back when george w. bush was president, i couldn't walk down the street on the

upper west side where they didn't have pictures of bush as hitler and this and that. it was constant and nonstop. tirades against bush every night on this network were that were way over the line. and you actually had polls that showed i think i read in politico, 40% of democrats believed 9/11 was an inside job. there's a republican who's president so it's the democrats -- some of the extremists going crazy but you've got now crazy people on the right, even when their own person is in there. the pitch just keeps getting like louder and louder. >> and nothing is changing by the way. everything i just talked about remains unabated and probably gets worse. if you still go on facebook and look at your news feed, all it's doing is measuring what are you clicking on and what are friends clicking on. what gets you most jacked up?

and most people respond to emotionalism, whether it's real or not real. you have the chart up from pugh. people should click on that. it seems wonky but look i am perally how it's become. it's why it's almost impossible to govern unless you have all party rule. that's why conservatives should be livid with donald trump that he hasn't done more in a year. polarization is not rhetoric, it's a reality. >> and willie, at times i have sort of preached moral equivalency and crazy on both sides. right now there's no moral equivalency, on the right, it's donald trump's sort of machine propaganda machine whipping it up. it's not really even a close contest between the right and left and you have russians and russian bots that are weighing in every day as well. >> if roy moore survives and is

elected to the senate, if he survives the scandals in alabama, it will be because of the accumulation of the six things jim just laid out and distrust of the media because the people who support roy moore when you talk to them, it's not that they don't -- it's not that they are mad he did these things, it's that though don't believe them because they come from the "washington post." >> the piece is up on axios.com. >> thank you. >> not qualified the american bar association issues that unusual rating for one of president trump's nominees -- >> this guy, willie, what in the world? >> wait until you see his resume. >> we're back in just a moment.

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>> what in the world, willie? >> stop talking. >> coming up, we'll talk to the atlantic's julia ioffe who broke the story about don jr. plus, we'll preview the hearing that senator bob corker is leading today, that's taking a

look at the president's nuclear powers. "morning joe" is coming right back. whoooo.

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>> top of the hour. >> we have a guest on that's making a political statement with -- >> with fashion. >> insightful. >> kind of dressed like johnny cash, steve smith. you're wearing all black, why is that? >> every republican nominee can enter them all, i'm going to wear black. >> going to be a long time. >> you may be in all black for the next four weeks. >> right? >> stock up. >> it's such a good mall. can you believe that? this is bannon, this is where steve bannon has brought the republican party, isn't it? >> there's that photo maybe someone can find it, it's the apartment that he had leased and he destroyed it before he moved out -- >> and put acid in the bathtub. >> yes. >> one of mika's favorite

stories. >> why? why would you put acid in a bathtub? >> when i was running places, i always had the approach try to leave it nicer than you found it. >> that's what we tell our kids. >> if you smell cat or something. >> responsibility as a concept. but he's vandalized the republican party in presisly the same way. >> why would you clean a bathtub with acid? >> i don't know where you buy acid. >> you go to john heilemann's house, michael steele. >> michael. >> barnicle and as well as willie geist. >> oh, michael. >> what's up? that's how he says hello. >> that's awesome. >> but he did, i was just echoing him. >> there's a lot of what in the world stories today and let's begin with the president's son actually -- >> so we're talking about donald

trump jr. again. corresponded during the 2016 election with wikileaks which u.s. intelligence agencies say was one of the outfits that russian military intelligence used to influence the race. yesterday julia ioffe reported on the private twitter messages trump jr. and wikileaks account, the messages were among the documents that trump jr. turned over to congressional investigators. last night trump jr. released the exchanges that began on september 20th, 2016. 49 days before polls close, the wikileaks account warned about a new anti-trump website. and gave trump jr. the password that wikileaks said it guessed. trump jr. wrote back 12 hours later, off the record i don't know who that is but i'll ask around. an anonymous source familiar with the congressional investigations into russian interference told the atlantic

that on the same day trump jr. did ask around. e-mailing other senior campaign officials including steve bannon, kellyanne conway and brad pars cal and kushner, who forwarded the e-mail to press aide hope hicks. trump jr. replied already did that earlier today, it's amazing what she can get away with, adding what's behind this wednesday leak, i keep reading about? that same week former campaign adviser roger stone tweeted, wednesday, hillary clinton is done with the hashtag wikileaks. wikileaks did not reply to trump jr.'s message but four days later posted a trove of john positi podesta's e-mails and the same day director of national intelligence says the

disclosures with consistent with the methods and motivations of russian directed efforts. as candidate trump publicly praised wikileaks, the group wrote to trump jr. again suggesting how to get their followers to share their materials and find stories the press was missing. 15 minutes later, candidate trump tweeted, very little pickup by the dishonest media but credible information provided by wikileaks, so dishonest, rigged system. and two days later, trump jr. shared the link himself. wikileaks continued to reach out to him as recently as this july but he did not respond. trump jr. posted the messages on twitter after the atlantic report came out writing, here is the entire chain of messages with wikileaks with my whopping three responses which one of the congressional committees has chosen to selectively leak.

how ironic. >> let's bring in the author of that bombshell report, julia ioffe. good to see you. >> hi. >> walk us through this a little more. what exactly donald trump jr. did here and what he says he didn't do and how often he communicated with wikileaks. >> i think mika did a pretty good job of running through the nuts earn bolts of the story. what's interesting about donald trump jr.'s response that it's just a whopping three responses to wikileaks, sure, he only responded three times. but he did act on their request at least twice. and what's more interesting is that he didn't send them packing, it wasn't exactly a secret by september of 2016 who's interest wikileaks was trying to advance, which government they were very closely affiliated with. and the fact that he -- it's the same thing we saw with news of the trump tower meeting, the summer of 2016 when rob

goldstone reached out to trump jr. and we have a russian lawyer -- and says if it is what it is i think it is, i love it. instead of being like, that's a little weird, let me get in touch with the appropriate authorities or you know, to send these people packing. it's interesting that the trump campaign was clearly looking to get all of the help it could get including from the russian government we had candidate trump saying hey, russia, if you're listening, go out and find those 33,000 e-mails, kind of part of a pattern. >> i was going to say, that's a point we made last hour, that asking you because you've run for presidential campaign, if a foreign power or someone reported to represent a foreign power or known to be working on behalf of a foreign power in this case wikileaks, approached you with information, what would you do as the person running the campaign or working on the campaign? >> call the director of the fbi, full stop, period. >> everybody would. >> everybody that's ever run a

campaign would. >> what every loyal american does, period. this is a hostile foreign power interfering in our elections process. he met deliberately, premively from the russian government to get information to get dirt on hillary clinton. every sim i see donald trump jr.'s mug on tv, i immediately think about teddy roosevelt jr., the eldest son of the president of the united states, congressional medal of honor recipient, dozen other valor awards in combat. the first man as a brigadier general, the oldest man ashore on the first wave on d-day and only father who had a son who landed in the first wave in d-day, teddy roosevelt jr., his younger brother quinton roosevelt buried next to each other in the american cemetery in normandy, france.

it's shocking. these were sons of a president of the united states. i think about the bush daughters. i think about what megan mccain would do if a russian operative reached out to megan mccain. >> right. >> she's a loyal american. loyal americans don't do business with the russians in our election process. this is despicable beyond words. >> and julia, you added and reading a tweet of yours, we've updated our story with the great catch, that donald trump tweeted about the release of positidest e-mails 15 minutes after wikileaks reached out to don jr., so he may have only responded three times to people that are intel agencies believed were doing the russian's bidding but it's very obvious by the timing what's happening to these chain of e-mails and donald

trump is reading them and then responding 15 minutes after -- >> i mean it could be a consequence dense. >> no, 15 minutes after don jr. receives an e-mail about from wikileaks. >> so, we don't know exactly -- i don't want to speculate about what happened there -- >> that's why we're here, julia, you report, we speculate. >> go ahead. from what i hear, they might not have even been in the same time zone when that happened. but it is certainly an interesting coincidence. but i think what's more interesting is the fact that again, when donald trump jr. doesn't respond to wikileaks, it doesn't mean he's not responding in other ways, when on october 12th, 2016, five days after the department of homeland security and office of director of national intelligence put out a statement saying hi, all those hacks were orchestrated by the kremlin at the very highest

levels, five days later wikileaks direct messages the republican nominee's oldest son and compare surrogate and says, by the way, there's a lot of stolen documents we have and they don't put it in those words, but we have a lot of these stolen documents, here's a search tool we have. if your followers have the time to go through and find the stories that the mainstream media is missing, have at it. two days later, a week after that report, donald trump jr. tweets out this link, which is not exactly a straight forward link. it's not like wikileaks.com. it's like dot tk or something and saying exactly essentially what they said, which is if you have time, go through these, have at it. >> dig through the treasure trove. michael steele, you go back and it's really important for us, almost like everybody has been numbed by all of the lies that have constantly been coming at us every single day over the past year and a half, but you go

back to the middle of the campaign and you listen to the denials from the trump campaign, from the now attorney general no, we never spoke to the russians. from trump himself, from you know, trump saying no, no, nobody has talked to russians and at one point saying if michael cohen ever talked to russians i would have fired him and we find out that michael cohen is trying to do a deal -- to build trump tower in moscow. mike pence time and time again saying we didn't talk to russians. we talked to the american people. no, we never talked to wikileaks. you go back -- >> i'll tell you what, why don't we go back through the way way back machine and listen to mike pence earlier talking about wikileaks. >> all right. >> someone suggested on left that all of this bad stuff about hillary, nothing bad about trump that your campaign is in ka

hoots with wikileaks. >> nothing could be further from the truth. i think all of us have had concerns about wikileaks over the years. >> nothing could be further from the truth. >> except the truth. >> except the truth. same thing again about contacts with russians, you go back to the time they were making those denials in the middle of the campaign, we would address campaign staffers privately. what's going on with russia. >> we don't get it. we don't get it. what's going -- oh, nothing, absolutely, come on now, joe, mika, i mean, it just it keeps the web continues to grow, does it not? >> no, it does, and that's the problem, i still believe that at the core of this is the essential relationship between donald trump and business interests in russia. that is the first jump off point

and always has been. i think it's something that has lit a fire within the mueller investigation because it touches on so many other aspects of what donald trump has done. it's not just about, you know, a golf course here or a hotel there, it is an ongoing sustained relationship. a relationship by the way his sons bragged about, you know the russians are our biggest financers and finance our golf courses and our projects. so this idea that if the russians in this preexisting relationship decide they want to help the guy they've had this relationship with through their particular organ, wikileaks to pass on information, yeah, this all makes a lot of sense and the thing about it, joe and myka, there's more to come. the atlantic is just beginning to open up a narrative here in which i think we're going to find out there's a hell of a lot

more going on than what the vice president indicated. >> so steve -- >> can i say one thing. >> go ahead, julia. >> aside from what donald trump jr. and trump family and trump campaign did in these exchanges, i think it's just as important to focus on what wikileaks did. this exchange is far more damning for wikileaks than it is for anybody in the trump family. again, people who have followed russia have known about kickky leaks and julian assange's close ties to moscow since 2013 which assange's number two basically delivered edward snowden into russian hands. when they were still claiming to be a radical transparency organization, we'll just publish anything, trying to shed the light on the dark doings of this evil government, right? but you have -- why is a radical transparency organization on the eve of the election encourage gs the trump family to not concede

if they lose to challenge the election results and call them rigged? i mean, what interest does a transparency organization have in that? or that they are asking -- this was the most stunning part. that was the most stunning part but the most comical part, now that your father has been elected, can you please lean on australia and make assange the ambassador from australia to washington. what is going on there? there's no -- i think at this point there's -- i mean, there's nothing left of wikileaks' credibility. >> a lot of frightening really big questions there. steve schmidt, i want to go back to the point you made at the top of this block but first showing you the other instances, just a few of the other instances where mike pence was verifiably wrong. take a look. >> general flynn's son has no involvement in the transition whatsoever. >> he has an transition e-mail. >> he has no involvement in the transition whatsoever. >> was there any contact in any way between trump or his

associates and the kremlin or cutouts they had? >> i joined this campaign in the summer and i can tell you that all of the contact by the trump campaign and the associates was with the american people. >> did the president fire director comey to impede the russia investigation? >> as you know very clearly, as has been stated repeatedly and the president has been told, he's not under investigation. >> but intelligence officials have said there's investigation into potential ties between campaign officials and russian officials. >> that's not what this is about. >> the story today that former national security adviser michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent -- >> well, let me say, hearing that story today was the first i've heard of it. >> disappointed by the story. the first i have heard of it. >> okay, so steve schmidt, your point about presidential families that you named where if

sons or daughters were approached by a foreign entity, they would immediately call the fbi and it would be un-american to do anything else. at what point is it un-american when you're asked question and question about something obviously curious that's going on that pertains to russian meddling and you are willfully clueless. >> we don't talk enough about mike pence. for example, we have in puerto rico and virgin islands right now, we have american citizens suffering. we have a alleged kidnap plot involving the former national security adviser to kidnap from the united states and smuggle on to a private plane from turkey. we have a pedophile candidate in the alabama race. we have the justice department seemingly on the edge of prosecutor donald trump's political opponent, another giant leap towards banana republicism in this country but we don't talk enough about the vice president's nonstop lying also.

>> yeah, because being willfully stupid and not asking questions, why wouldn't you -- let's say you get -- >> clean it up. >> one of those questions on one of those instances, wouldn't you pick up the phone and say what's going on? wouldn't you care as an american who loves this country to say is this happening? >> absolutely. and i think that over these months the vice president's exposed himself as a titanic fraud. he can find -- when it comes to consensual relationships between gay americans, he's never tongue tied on that. we don't hear from him on roy moore. we don't hear from him -- >> gosh darn it, he doesn't know. >> the truth of the matter is and i've said this before and i'll say it again, 100% of the time, 100% of the people around this administration when asked a question about russia, the russian involvement in this election, they lie about it. not 99% of the time. not 99.9% of the time. 100% of the time. >> and here is the biggest

danger, you just outlined, the julia ioffe's story helps outline. it is this. the average american out today, their eyes are glizing over with this every day tsunami of rituals out of politics and pedophile running in alabama and wikileaks, sworn enemy of the united states, julian assange, sworn enemy of the united states. the collusion with the trump campaign for the presidency and justice diplomat being perverted, every day there's something new. and every day someone in our business, the media will write about this is the new normal that we have to deal with. this is not normal. this is not normal. and this is not what the united states is all about. >> and the problem is, willie, they are numb to it. i have so many people who even donate -- republicans who don't support donald trump will say to me, enough with the russian story. >> yes. >> they are just exhausted by it but again, that's that's what --

>> that's what he hopes for. >> that's what tyrants hope for. >> it's what happened in 2016 and how trump won 2016. you flood the zone with enough stuff where every -- people just get exhausted at being outraged and shocked that the real serious stuff kind of just slides right under it. what's interesting about what's happening with the russia gate thing as bad as it is for the trump administration, it's also perfect cover to pack the courts and dismantle the epa and do all kinds of crazy things with the justice department as we saw last night with the amazing "new york times" report about the special inquiry into the you'urm one deal, in some ways perfect cover. >> julia, great reporting. thank you so much. in "the atlantic". >> president trump wraps up his asia trip with a flurry of tweets on everything from trade to rand paul to his own sinking poll numbers. he's very proud of how bad they

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the way they've treated us, the respect that japan and china and south korea in particular because we went there was red carpet like nobody i think has probably ever received. >> made a lot of friends at the highest level, whether it's china and the incredible -- incredible opening they gave us, that unbelievable evening, people really have never seen anything like it. and japan likewise it was a tremendous rollout and we from the moment we walked off the plane and back onto the plane and south korea as you know, we made a speech.

i believe seldom has there been the opportunity to speak for somebody from the outside world in that -- and coming to the philippines was terrific. and coming to vietnam was terrific. vietnam treated us incredibly, as did the philippines, we could not have been treated nicer. >> he got to speak in the jedi chamber, you've got to be a jedi. >> it's all right there. >> the most incredible reception that anybody has ever seen in any of those countries. >> sounds like a good trip. completed the first asia trip en route to hawaii for a quick refuel. having a good deal of symbolism, but despite big trump on north korea and on trade, lacking some substance. joining us live from manila in the philippines, national correspondent peter alexander. good morning, what will be the

takea way for this trip from the white house? >> reporter: good morning to you, as you heard from president trump in his own words, not afraid to give himself high marks for this trip, describing it as incredible and reception was terrific, like nothing he's ever seen before. in his words it was tremendously successful. he says that the u.s. has explained in fact basically that the rules have changed for countries that want to do trade with the united states. but the bottom line is, i think it was heavier on symbolism than on super bo substance. there's no new sanctions on north korea. but white house officials are touting stronger relationships with america's allies across this region, not just the traditional like japan and south korea, but president xi in china who he called a great man and even rodrigo duterte in the philippines, accused of extrajudicial killings as part of a bloody crackdown on a drug

war here, responsible it's believed for thousands of deaths. the president said the two men have a great relationship. before leaving he touted his successes. >> we've accomplished a lot. i've enjoyed it very much. my press, i feel so sorry for them, they are exhausted. would you like to stop at another couple of countries? we can do that if you want. otherwise we'll go to the plane and take off and be landing in washington in about 22 hours. so i appreciate everybody and i very much appreciate the time. i know how hard you worked also. we all worked hard but i think the fruits of our labor are going to be incredible. >> reporter: for what it's worth, we're still working and be heading home soon to join the president for what he's describing as a major announcement back at the white house. later this week at some point to focus on trade and it's believed on north korea among the questions whether the president

will announce north korea declaring a state sponsor of terrorism. white house officials said that was something they were muling over and we'll be focusing on the remaining days of this week. >> fruits of your labor always incredible. >> always. >> yes, thank you very much. roughly one hour into the flight home the president tweeted out new poll numbers, appearing to brag about a 46% approval rating and writes one of the most accurate polls last time around but fake news likes to say we're in the 30s, they are wrong. some people think numbers could be in the 50s, together we'll make america great again. joining us now, senior correspondent tom brokaw. talk about the polls in a minute but your takeaways from the trip. >> i've been on a lot of those trips, asia and europe as well when we were trying to develop new relationships with the chinese and went to the philippines with president ford, all over europe with president nixon and other presidents as well. there's always a talk about friendship. this is not about friendship, not a personal relationship. in china and philippines, they

are going back right now and sitting down and saying, how can we deal with this country and what are our interests here. they are putting national interests first. we got along very well and it's going to be great between the united states and the philippines or wherever he happened to be, vietnam or china. these are very complex relationships and they are going to work it out on their terms, not our terms whether they feel like he's a guy i want to have a beer with or drink a cup of coffee. >> i sat through, there's such a disconnect from reality, we're talking about the possibility of trade deals with this countries. as you know from your years of reporting, it takes days, weeks, months of going at it day in and day out, having your state department and commerce department and having your white house staff, put together complex trade deals. donald trump does not have any staff members that can put together even the simplest of trade deal because we don't have

people in these positions. >> well, we owe it to him to wait and see how they do respond once they get back and what kind of architecture they put together for the relationships he describes as now very friendly. not very long ago he was hammering the chinese, but then they've met a couple of times at this point, bottom line is this is not just trying to become the most popular member of whatever the group has to be. the class of presidents or dictators around the world. it really is you have to look at it as an ordinary citizen certainly as a businessman and politician, all right, show me the proof. show me the fine print on these relationships and how they are going to turn out. china is an extraordinary -- not just a great, great economy but it is also as we have lettered among the shrewdest traders in the world almost overnight. they have learned how to play the game internationally and not going to base it on personal relationships, i get along well

with the president, let's give him a break here. it doesn't work that way. >> steve? >> i think when you step back and you look at the toe totality of this trip, what the president of the united states demonstrated to world leaders is the magnitude of his foolishness, over and over again, this notion that what an easy mark he is. how easily manipulated he is with a parade, with a red carpet, with the trappings that come with the head of state. there's an old saying in poker that if you're sitting at the table and you don't know who the patsy is in the game, it's you. it's donald trump. we see the astounding scene next to the ought cratic philippine ruler who is assaulting the american press and the president of the united states standing there laughing about it. he seems to have a fetish for these autocratic leaders, we saw

no defense of american ideals at any moment during this trip. we didn't hear him talk about human rights, human dignity. none of it. he seems not to understand it and seems not to understand the country that it's the great honor to lead. he doesn't understand the united states of america and our role in the world when you're standing there in china. i do think that the one thing that is clear coming out of this, the most powerful man in the world has been established. >> no doubt about it. >> and it's president xi of china after this trip. and i do think that we see this weak president going abroad and i suspect these other world leaders, our allies are aghast in our adversaries are laughing and smiling -- >> no question. >> and couldn't be more delighted seeing this foolishness play out. >> the trump presidency, has been -- i think bad for america

across the world stage but i don't know a single foreign policy expert that doesn't think it has been extraordinarily positive for the chinese. donald trump has made -- >> no doubt. >> made the chinese so much more powerful than they already were. >> what steve just said is entirely accurate, according to many, many more people much more knowledgeable about the global situation than i am, a big parade, red carpet, tons of applause, pick our pockets, easy to do. one person, tom, who realizes the extent of this lack of presence on the global stage is former vice president biden, who's out now with a new book, you've known joe biden for years. his role as vice president as a world traveler was remarkable in the obama administration and a real impactful role as well. >> i just reviewed the book for the "washington post" and it

will be coming out this week. i've known joe biden, both arrived in washington at the same time. joe is on both sides of the aisle so an engaging character, everybody likes him. he takes his role as public servant very seriously. it komds through in this book how he was dealing what turned out to be the death of his son beau from cancer and by the way, unless you have cancer, you cannot understand what a family goes through once they enter that extraordinary dark arena. and joe was there at every moment but he's also on the road in central america and talking with putin and by the way he said putin, i've looked at you and decided you don't have a soul because it goes back to what former president bush said. >> putin replied we understand each other. now we understand each other. so it's a very very good book about the political system, about what a family goes through with cancer and about joe's preparation to run for president last time around, right up to

the doorstep then decided with the help of his aides he couldn't do it because of his relationship with his son who at that point was in the final stages of his life and sets the table for if he wants to run this time. here's my criteria for being able to run. here's what i know and here's what i've done. don't know whether he's going to do it or not. i personally hope that he stays with moonshot, the big effort to do something about cancer. he really understands the issues and needs to get the country involved and he speaks about it very movingly and very articulately, he's right in on all of this. but to one degree or another he's going to be a player of some kind this time around, at any rate of all of the preliminapolitical books that come out recently. this very honest and instructive to people about what it's like to be in arena and have some trauma in your life like the family had. >> nbc's tom brokaw, we'll read your review of joe biden's new

book online in the "washington post." coming up, the president puts forward a federal judge nominee who has never even tried a case. and then there's the huge conflict of interest that was never disclosed as well. we'll explain it all straight ahead. let's get the big guy in place. the ford year-end sales event is here. i can guide you in? no, thanks , santa, i got this. looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand.

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there is growing controversy surrounding a president trump nominee to be a lifetime federal judge in alabama. 36-year-old brett tally, who received the rare not qualified rating from the american bar association has never tried a case and only been practicing law for three years. he's also previously ran a political blog called government in exile which has posts such as a call to arms it's time to join the nra, which was posted one month after newtown and once tweeted hillary rotten clinton might be the best trumpism yet. and now tally is facing fresh scrutiny after failing to disclose he's married to white house lawyer annie donaldson,

also white house counsel's chief of staff and also been interviewed by special counsel robert mueller. do we need more? tally was approved last week by the senate judiciary panel on a party line vote and heads to the senate for a confirmation vote. >> we sit, here and obviously we're distressed by this but there's a cost to all of this. >> oh, yes. >> by the way, the cost is -- >> lifetime cost. >> i'm only smiling because this is a morning show -- >> we focus on the cost to the republic. but the cost to the republican party, the cost to people that vote for people like this, the cost to the judiciary, the cost to all of these people who enable donald trump's worst instincts, it's just going to be devastating. >> and last a long time. >> saw it in virginia, seeing it alabama. you're going to see it in 2018.

republicans, we actually warned paul ryan the day he endorsed donald trump. >> these, this is much bigger -- >> been warning them in real time, wrote a column -- i'm going to say, in like august of 2016 for the "washington post" saying this man will destroy the republican party. the sign posts have been there from the start. >> in neon. >> and continue to march up. in february i asked, is this how the party of abraham lincoln dies? the sign posts are there. they are clear, how long will republicans continue to enable this pathetic form of leadership? >> this is just one appointment, probably it will be ratified by the united states senate, a young man unqualified, voted unqualified by the american bar association, unqualified for the federal bench. it's larger than a political

party. this is a lifetime appointment, it affects rulinging rendserred 10 and 15, 20 years from now. michael steele, in addition to that, thgs anothis is another appointment of an individual of a specific type of person, male, white, federal bench for life. how do you feel about that? 75% maybe more male white appointments to the federal bench, lifetime appointments. >> yeah, they took a turn away from the diversity corner, no doubt about that. there's not been a whole lot of interest in diversifying. >> big u-turn? >> yeah, we don't want to go down that block. no, that's scary. but the reality of it is, it goes to really what joe was touching on, what this means for the party but more importantly for the country when you present someone to the federal bench

that the legal individuals establishment if you will, those who have, you know, a role in sort of looking at these qualifications saying this person is unqualified, 36 years old, never tried a case, he's been a lawyer for three years. how do you get to the federal bench? oh, your wife works in the white house counsel's office and chief of staff to your legal counsel. that should not be the qualifier. and yet as joe noted, that's going to be all that it takes to get to the bench. >> and also, willie, a blog where he calls hillary clinton hillary rotten clinton. we can't even begin to talk about the lack of judicial temperament. >> worn his partisanship on his sleep, no question about it. 30-page questionnaire in which he could have disclosed his wife was a chief of staff to white house counsel don mcgan. i did want to ask while we had you here, someone who ran the

rnc, what you would be doing in face of the election happening with roy moore, feels like solidifying his position because establishment republican leaders mitch mcconnell saying he should step aside. raising money off of that, the liberal media and d.c. republicans don't want roy moore to shake up the system. how would you handle this? >> i would not be going down the road the party is going into right now. i would be pulling what little hair i have left out in trying to convince the white house to take a more aggressive stance to get the nominee to step down. i would certainly be doing everything i could with the alabama party. folks inside the party know whether it was county, state or national chairman, i've had certain candidates i've had to have the go to jesus conversation and the party will not be backing you, even if you are the nominee. that's what has to happen here. our republican party needs to take a step away from this and

make it very clear this is not the kind of candidate nor the kind the person that we would project to the country as a leader. and if it does not do this, the crap that flows from this will spew up all over us and it will be hard to get out of our clothing politically down the road. >> michael steele, thank you very much. still ahead this morning, is senator bob corker the only one who can save the state department? we're going to discuss that in today's hearing on the president's ability to launch a nuclear strike. we're back in just a moment. ♪

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and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger who's mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. and they do nothing. join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's political and start doing what's right. our country depends on it.

joining us now from capitol hill, member of the financial services and foreign affairs committee, republican congressman lee zeldin of new york. congressman, good to have you with us. my mom has a complaint about the paving on route 114 on shelter island. but we'll pick that up off the air. >> done. >> it's a great interview. >> let's talk about taxes. you oppose the house gop tax

bill. you say it's because of the is state and local tax deduction. you're bucking a lot of your party, as you know, by doing that. paul ryan says he thinks he has the votes to get tax reform through. what is, specifically, your opposition to this bill? >> well, the state and local tax deduction, for one, has been around for over a hundred years. i view taking it away as a geographic redistribution of wealth. you're taking more money from a place like new york to pay for deeper tax cuts elsewhere. there are good things that are in this bill, but, you know, when i look -- and i'm a new york congressman, i represent a new york congressional district, and i know if i'm not fighting for my home district, if i'm not fighting for my home state, i can't expect my colleagues from other states to do that for me. so taking away the state and local tax deduction is a big deal. the medical expense deduction, eliminating that is a big deal for people who count on that as well, to be able to afford some large medical bills. i would love to be able to get to yes, but not on this bill. i'm a "no" to this bill in its

current form. when they decided to keep the property tax deduction up to $10,000, that was progress. but just not enough progress for me. >> so, do you think this changes enough for you to get to it? i mean, there are a lot of people in the country who also object to this, as you call it, a redistribution. the taking away of that deduction. can it be changed enough for you to get to yes? >> in its current form, no. i'm not going to vote for this bill. >> but will they change it to meet you? >> we had a long meeting last night. majority leader mccarthy, whip scalise, chairman brady, some of my new york colleagues, that's what we're talking through. it's really, you know, a decision that needs to be made not just on the house side, but as this bill goes to conference, you have on the senate side, they're proposing to fully eliminate the state and local tax deduction. so what i'm seeing the fight for is to maintain a $10,000 property tax deduction coming out of conference, not to be fighting for a further protection of just hard working,

middle-income, long islanders and new yorkers. so, i would love to see it changed. at this point, i definitely don't see it happening before thursday, but i would love to be surprised. >> so, congressman, before we get back to the priority here this morning, the unpaved roads on shelter island, let me ask you about aspects of salt, state and local taxes on this bill. maybe you can help me out. they label this potential piece of legislation as tax reform. but if you look at the elimination of state and local taxes and where it impacts the most, half of new england, new york state, pennsylvania, eastern seaboards, california, stuff like that. it appears not to be tax reform, but tax revenge. because it goes against blue states more than any other states in the union. so my question to you is, mechanically, internally, how

does this happen? >> well, i think that -- you know, for one, there's a belief in other parts of the country that they are financing these states by having the state and local tax deduction. while it's been around for over a hundred years, it'staxation. it's one of the ways that abraham lincoln helped finance the civil war. and our state is a net contributor. when you look at overall tax policy, spending policy, we send more to washington than we get back in return. so that belief that they're subsidizing us somehow is not true. we're a net contributor, even with the s.a.l.t. deduction. and they also want to be able to finance some really important tax cuts. i mean, there are good aspects of this bill, and when you took out the proposal for the butter -- the border adjustability tax, that's over $1 trillion. so now their need to be able to

eliminate s.a.l.t. deduction became that much more important. when you get down to the raw numbers and start analyzing some middle-income families and other wage earners and how this impacts them, unfortunately, there's too much of a hit. now win understand the reason why our state and local tax deduction is as high as it is, is because our state and local taxes is as high as they are. so while we are having this debate about what the future of tax policy should be in washington, we really do need all levels of government to be doing whatever they can and provide tax relief, because i don't want to see new yorkers keep fleeing my state. and it's not just any one decision made at any one level of government. >> congressman lee zeldin, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. >> thanks, congressman. >> thank you. >> we'll get that road paved. >> yes, get it done. still ahead, we now know that wikileaks asked don jr. for help spreading damaging information about hillary clinton during the election and that don jr. complied. we'll discuss the new revelations and what they mean for bob mueller's investigation.

plus, we'll get a report on the ground in alabama, where democrats are saying "thanks, but no thanks" to outside help in the wake of the roy moore scandal. "morning joe" is coming right back. years running. but some people still like cable. just like some people like wet grocery bags. getting a bad haircut. overcrowded trains. turnstiles that don't turn. and spilling coffee on themselves. but for everyone else, there's directv. for #1 rated customer satisfaction over cable, switch to directv. and for a limited time get a $100 reward card. call 1-800-directv

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[ click ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ clacking continues ] good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours. now, this just came out. this just came out. wikileaks -- i love wikileaks! this wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. it tells you the inner heart.

you got to read it. it's been amazing what's coming out on wikileaks. did you see another one? another one came in today. this wikileaks is like a treasure-trove. you know, as i was getting off the plane, they were just announcing new wikileaks! and i wanted to stay there, but i didn't want to keep you waiting. let me run back into the plane and find out. boy, i love reading those wikileaks. this just came out. wikileak wikileaks. [ coughs ] >> collusion! i got something in my throat here. what was that? >> trump has been loud and clear about his love for wikileaks. apparently, it runs in the family. >> wow. >> we're going to get those breaking developments. >> the thing is, though, sometimes -- hold on a second. willie geist and i, i don't know if you knew this -- >> are you going to do a picture? >> no. but for most of our career, 20s and 30s, i don't know if you know this, mike, but willie and i sometimes -- >> are you connecting the dots?

>> no. sometimes -- we actually ran a private detective service. >> we did. >> i remember that. >> do you remember that? >> i do. >> and sometimes it's very hard to connect all the dots, but as willie likes to tell me, sometimes it's not. >> sometimes it's a straight line, from a to b. >> sometimes there is a straight line from a to b. you look at someone like don jr. -- >> -- started calling willie clouseau. >> clueless. >> we'll talk to the reporter who broke the story and actually has the information. >> there's, again, ambassador to australia. >> and will the president speak out on roy moore? much of the republican party has and it's threatening to tear apart the gop. we'll talk about all of that. good morning, everyone. >> so much to talk about. >> it is tuesday, november 14th. with us, we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. "new york times" reporter, michael schmidt. schmidty! >> schmidty dog! >> and columnist at the "washington examiner," kristen

s sultas. >> ksa! >> what's wrong with you this morning? way too awake! >> what are we going to do? >> we've got legend. we need to get -- all right, president trump's eldest son, donald trump jr., corresponded during the 2016 election with wikileaks, which u.s. intelligence agencies say was one of the outfits that russian military intelligence used to influence the race. yesterday, julia yafy of "the atlantic" reported on the private twitter messages that trump jr. and the wikileaks account, believed to be from julian assange. the messages were among documents that trump jr. had earlier turned over to investigators. and last night trump jr. released the exchanges that began on september 20th, 2016. 49 days before polls closed, the wikileaks account warned about a new anti-trump website and gave trump jr. the password that

wikileaks said it guessed. trump jr. wrote back 12 hours ladder, off the record, i don't know who that is, but i'll ask around. and another source familiar with the congressional investigators into russian interference told "the atlantic" that on the same day, trump jr. did ask around, e-mailing other senior campaign officials, including steve bannon, kellyanne conway, digital media director, brad parscal and jared kushner. kushner apparently forwarded the e-mail to press aide, hope hicks. >> who's saying this morning, thank, for forwarding that -- >> on october 3rd, wikileaks asked trump jr. to push a story that hillary clinton allegedly wanted to drone assange. trump jr. replied, already did that earlier today. it's amazing what she can get away with. adding, what's behind this wednesday leak i keep reading about? that same week, former trump campaign adviser, roger stone tweeted, wednesday hillary

clinton is done, with #wikileaks. wikileaks did not reply to trump jr.'s message, but four days later posted a trove of clinton campaign chairman john podesta's e-mails. remember that? and the same day, the department of homeland security and director of national intelligence said the disclosures were consistent with the methods and motivations of russian-directed efforts, as candidate trump publicly praised wikileaks, the group wrote to trump jr. again, on october 12th, suggesting how to get their followers to share their materials and find stories the press was missing. 15 minutes later, candidate trump tweeted -- >> 15 minutes later, after getting -- >> it's amazing! >> -- the direct message from julian assange -- or from wikileaks. >> very little pickup by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by wikileaks. so dishonest. rigged system! >> speaking of rigged. >> and two days later, trump jr.

shared the link himself. wikileaks continued to reach out to him, as recently as this july, but he did not respond. a lawyer for trump jr. said the president's son has worked cooperatively with each of the investigating committees, voluntarily turned over thousands of documents, and said any questions about his messages with wikileaks had been answered on the appropriate forum. >> all right. all right, all right. so, willie, first of all, a little cleanup, roger stone said "hillary clinton is done." and a couple days later, wikileaks comes out, right? >> right. >> so obviously he was say iing "hillary clinton is done," making like the old-time risotto. she's going to use podesta's new risotto recipe that's going to be contained inside of there. but also, almost as important as that is -- are the lines now that are starting to be drawn. and here's, again, you've got donald trump nodding and winking

to russians, to wikileaks. you have roger stone bragging about his connections with guccifer 2.0, which our intel agencies say are russian hackers. and now this. i mean, it's -- again, those lines really are starting to get connected and suddenly, what a tangled web they're weaving. >> and they've claimed no coordination. boy, this sure looks like coordination, when you see all the pieces of the puzzle, they start to move together a little bit. when you have donald trump jr. being contacted by wikileaks, donald trump, his father, out on the campaign trail, touting and celebrating the release of wikileaks. and let's remind our viewers, wikileaks is what the intel agencies, the intel agencies have said was a vessel for russia to influence the united states campaign. this does remind me, too, in terms of don jr., of that meeting he had in june of 2016, where if you're contacted from someone from russia saying they have dirt on hillary clinton or if they're contacted by wikileaks saying, we've got e-mails on hillary clinton, if you're in the middle of a

presidential campaign, you run in the other direction. you don't engage them and ask for more. >> and again, the more this comes out, mike schmidt, the more you go back and look at past statements, past denials, past lies, past, you know, false statements drafted by the president of the united states, to get actually, which prosecutors would do, to get state of mind. and boy, obviously, they're at least covering this up, publicly, while it's happening. >> well, we started the discussion earlier this year, when they were taking office, about how there was no collusion, there was to coordination at all with the russians, with wikileaks or anyone. now that argument has moved. it has moved into, well, you know, collusion is not illegal. and that is true. there is nothing illegal about colluding. it may look unsavory, it may look -- politically, people may not like it. but the question would be, where would mueller come in on this and say, okay, you were doing

something illegal. would they say that don jr. was part of a scheme with the russians to do this. and would people think that would be a bank shot, legally. while this may look really bad, it may not change a lot for the underlying investigation and the legality and the questions of what those consequences could mean for the trump folks. >> but, michael, i agree with your assessment there, but doesn't it raise the question of what else does the mueller investigation and the special prosecutor have? they've clearly had these wikileaks leaks for some time. what else might they have? >> well, it's not clear that mueller has this, because what happened was that don jr. was interviewed by the senate judiciary committee this fall, and it was during that interview that he made an offhanded remark, in which he said, look, i have been in touch with wikileaks. it was only in recent weeks that those messages were produced to the congressional committees. and it's not always clear that the congressional committees

have what mueller has. you'd think that mueller would probably have the most information, that he'd gone out with subpoenas and stuff and gotten stuff, but there's no guarantee that he has this information himself. over the summer, when "the times" disclosed the meeting that don jr. had had the previous summer with the russians, we don't think that mueller knew much about that, at that time. so he's still trying to piece things together, as we in the media are trying to figure it out, as well. still ahead on "morning joe," back in 2016, mike pence said nothing could be further from the truth -- >> come on, fellas. >> when asked about ties between the trump campaign and wikileaks. we'll look back at the vice president's many, many denials. just can't remember. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. here's the story of green mountain coffee roasters sumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good question. this is win. and that's win's goat, adi. the coffee here is amazing. because the volcanic soil is amazing. making the coffee erupt with flavor. so we give farmers like win more plants.

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the contact between wikileaks and donald trump jr. reportedly shared with another five top campaign advisers directly contradicts what vice

president pence claimed on october 14th, 2016. >> some have suggested on the left all this bad stuff about hillary, nothing bad about trump, that your campaign is in cahoots with wikileaks. >> nothing could be further from the truth. i think all of us have, you know, have had concerns about wikileaks over the years. >> after the atlantic's report, the vice president's office put out a statement. "the vice president was never aware of anyone in the campaign being in contact with wikileaks. he first learned of this news from a published report earlier tonight." >> this poor guy. >> it's nearly the same response that pence used when another campaign official's undisclosed links became public in march. >> the story today that former national security adviser michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent --

>> well, let me say, hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. >> you're disappointed by the story? >> the first i heard of it. >> i mean, what are you doing there? >> disappointed. >> the latest disclosure is the just the latest time pence has found his words contradicted by the truth. >> people don't tell him anything. what's with that? >> by the transition and the administration. take a look. >> i'd be disappointed. >> general flynn's son has no involvement in the transition whatsoever. >> he has a transition e-mail. >> well, general -- well he has no involvement in the transition whatsoever. >> was there any contact in any way between trump or his associates and the kremlin or cutouts they had? >> i joined this campaign in the summer and i can tell you that all the contact by the trump campaign and associates was with the american people. >> reporter: but did the president fire director comey to impede the russia investigation? >> well, as you know very

clearly, as has been stated repeatedly and the president has been told, he's not under investigation. >> reporter: but intelligence officials have said there's investigation into potential ties between campaign officials and russian officials. >> that's not what this is about. >> so, literally, every time he's interviewed on anything of substance and concerns, he knows absolutely nothing and it turns out that he says he knows absolutely nothing, but he doesn't know what's going on. so either he's clueless and he joined this administration and literally put in ear plugs and put on blinders and is walking around completely incapable of hearing anything. >> well, it is possible. >> it is possible. >> it is possible that they leave him out of the room when they're having the discussions. >> then, why interview him? like, he has no -- he has absolutely no credibility. >> i will say, he has been remarkably wrong -- >> remarkably. >> -- about very, very important things. >> he knows nothing. >> and the last thing he said about russia, nobody talked to russians -- everybody around him. seriously, when they were

wearing the russian fur hats in july and speaking russian -- >> he should have picked up on that. >> should have picked up on it. >> yeah. >> but he just thought that was a northern wisconsin thing. right? >> it could well be that vice president pence is smart enough to leave the room without being asked. >> he could, doing what dina powell and gary cohn reportedly have been doing lately. you speak russia, talk about russia, we're out of rothe room. so maybe he's smart enough to have always been in a position where there is plausible didn't. that -- >> mika's not buying that -- >> this is where we're at? >> i'm doing the best i can. >> kellyanne is credible because she plainly lies? >> if you have been lied to that many times? you lie to me one time and i'm working for you -- >> i'm out of here. >> the alternative explanation,

though, kristen soltus, is that he does see how bad it is and he wants nothing to do with it. he doesn't want to do down for donald trump jr.'s contacts with wikileaks, for general mike flynn and he's carving out his own universe where he can have some didn't where that's true. >> i think what you're seeing mike pence do is prepare for a future universe where donald trump has either lost re-election or he's coming to the end of an eight-year presidency and mike pence would like to run for president himself. and in order to do so, he will have to been loyal enough to the president so that trump supporters within the party view pence as a natural heir to the trump throne, while still distancing himself enough from the most unsavory pieces of this administration. but i think that's a really tough line to walk. i think the level of loyalty that this president demands is not going to be thrilled with the level of distancing and i don't really -- i don't know what this is. i had nothing to do with it. especially if it comes to

distancing yourself from the president's children. >> so his loyalty that he is showing or cluelessness is totally tromping over whatever love of country he has. so that's not going to help him in a campaign. >> well, you know -- >> oh, yes. >> a lot of people walk out of the room and want plausible deniability. i'm not saying that's the case -- >> the vice president has no clue about any of this? >> i don't know. anybody think -- anybody think he has no clue about this? >> no, i don't -- >> if he's choosing to have no clue -- >> choosing for two years to sit at the side of donald trump and say there was no contact, at a minimum, with russia. that's impossible. >> if he's choosing to have no clue, he does not care about this country and its future. >> well, if you believe some strong rumors in the district of columbia, you would have to believe that mike pence does know a lot about what's going on and is smart enough to leave the room, so he does have plausible deniability, because he and more than a few of his people are always preparing, right now, for

a pence presidency, right now. >> coming up on "morning joe," senate republicans have had enough of roy moore. and he hasn't even been elected yet. so whapsd t happens if he actua does win the race and ties the grand old party to man accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl? that conversation is straight ahead. but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good morning to you, mika and joe. all the bad weather is in the pacific northwest. yesterday, quite the windstorm. one fatality when a tree fell on a car, carrying a mother, her sister, who was seriously injured, and the 2-year-old in the backs. the 2-year-old is fine, but the mother died when the tree crashed down on the car vehicle. we also have about 180,000 people without power because of this wind storm. and winds were clocked at 60 miles per hour in seattle. and on top of the mountains, they were up there in the 80 to 90-mile-per-hour range. a cleanup day in the northwest. also, some of the rivers are running high. this amazing video was taken and those are salmon crossing the road in about 1 or 2 inches of

water. pretty amazing there -- there are some of them right there. look at that. let's get into the forecast today. today is round two. the second storm coming into the pacific northwest. it's still raining and snowing. we're going to get another 3 to 5 inches of rainfall in the olympics. that's where we could see some of the higher totals of the rain. and the highest of evaluations is where we're going to see the snow. here's the good part of this storm. this is going to be a little farther to the south. we'll get some of that snow down here into the mountains of california. it was only a month ago, a month and a half ago that we had all of those horrible fires in california. now we're getting some rain and starting the rainy system, starting to get one storm after another. this is good. we also have some foggy conditions out there this morning in chicago. i just checked out the airport, so far, so good, no delays. very warm and beautiful in texas. no problems in the southeast. and after a cold morning, the northeast is going to warm up. tomorrow, kind of a carbon copy of today with very similar, tranquil conditions throughout much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation. so new york city, one of those spots that's into a period of dry and pretty nice weather conditions. that's a nice sunrise for a

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alabama senate candidate roy moore, after a fifth woman has come forward with sexual assault allegations against him. in a news conference yesterday, beverly young nelson said when she was 16, 40 years ago, moore was a regular customer at a restaurant where she worked. she claims moore, then 30 and district attorney, once offered her a ride home. but instead, parked the car behind the business and assaulted her. last night, roy moore denied the allegation. >> people of alabama know me. they know my character. they know what i've stood for in the political world for over 40 years. and i can tell you, without hesitation, this is absolutely false. i never did what she said i did. i don't even know the woman. i don't know anything about her. i don't even know where the restaurant is or was. and if you look at this situation, you'll see that because i'm 11 points ahead or

10 or 11 points ahead, this race being just 28 days off, that this is a political maneuver. >> first of all, mike, i don't think he's 11 points ahead. from what i've seen, he's losing now. >> well, yes -- well, he's at least dead even, probably is losing. but what he just said can -- you can rebut that by the high school yearbook that he signed, from the young woman when she was a younger woman, who worked at a restaurant. and roy moore was in that restaurant, repeatedly, almost regularly. really, you looked at the high school year pobook, the signage the high school yearbook. >> she's a teenager, he's a 30-year-old district attorney, and she produced the yearbook yesterday, said it was from him, where he wrote her a -- i don't know, when you were 30 years old, were you signing girl's high school yearbooks? he wrote a "merry christmas" message, and wrote, roy moore, become a d.a. and in part of her account, he

talks about an attempted sexual assault, and she said no, and he pulled away and said, i'm a district attorney, no one will believe you. go read her account of what she said happened. >> absolutely gripping. and kristen, again, i go back to the republicans. how did the republican establishment not know about this? if everybody in gadston, alabama, knew about this and everybody in his hometown knew about this and everybody -- like, why -- where was mitch mcconnell's opposition research, so republicans wouldn't find themselves in this position -- >> where was the law. >> and so the truth could come out earlier. i don't understand why we're -- i just don't understand why it's taken this long for the truth to come out. >> well, i do feel like the last month or two have been a class for america in why sometimes we don't find out about sexual harassment or sexual assault

claims when they happen. why people take a long, long, long time for them to get out. and why sometimes people are uncomfortable sharing and discussing rumors. so whether it's harvey weinstein or whether it's roy moore, you know, this is a moment when a lot of this stuff is erupting in a way that even if it had been spoken about in hushed rumors before, now it's coming to the forefront. so i don't look at this as, this is some massive opposition research failure. certainly, it would have been better for republicans to have known this and brought it up during the primary. but i think now, thank goodness you have someone like cory gardner at the nrsc, who says, if this wins, he should not be seated in the senate. the way that so many folks in my party have played footsie and fast and loose with what their values are and what is right in order for political gain in the last year or two, has just been disheartening for me. and watching somebody like senator gardner stand up and say, absolutely not, has been -- was a bright light in a political world of darkness. >> and i understand, willie,

what kristen is saying about, oh, the whispers. the whispers against serial assaulters. in this case, though, again, when you have cops and other people saying, oh, yeah, he was banned from going to the gadston mall. >> yeah. >> i just wish that when this guy was running for supreme court back in 2000 -- >> yeah. >> the right thing had been done. >> if everybody knew back in the '70s and '80s he was banned from the mall and in 2017, they could have spared the people in this country a lot of misery and the women could have came out a lot earlier if this hadn't come out in 2000. it's just mind boggling. >> and again, banned from the gadston mall not for smoking in the tower records, but because he had a penchant for picking up teenage girls and parents didn't want him around. >> roy moore should -- even before these horrific allegations, roy moore caused grave concerns to a lot of

republicans, anyway. and this was the steve bannonization of the republican party. you get somebody that has been, you know, thrown into jail on staten island. you get somebody like roy moore. you get people that believe in conspiracy theories in arizona. and this is ultimately what happens. and here you have in the reddest of red states, i think, a democratic pickup. so, what does the republican establishment do? >> well, right now, i think voters are just so ruled by negative partpartisanship. we talk a lot about, voters are in their camps, i'm wearing my team "r" jersey and you're wearing your team "d" parties, it's not that they love their own party, but can't stomach or fathom the idea of the other party getting the advantage. i used to hear that liberals think conservatives are wrong and conservatives think liberals are evil. now both sides think the other

side is evil, plain and simple. that's why you're seeing folks making these kind of compromises. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> when you see these towns and see these thugs being thrown into the back of paddy wagon, you see them being thrown in, rough. i said, please don't be too nice. like, when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over -- like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody. don't hit their head. i said, you can take the hand away, okay. >> our next guest quit the administration, complaining that president trump appeared to condone police misconduct. we'll talk to the former acting head of the dea, chuck rosenberg, who served as jim comey's chief of staff. that's next on "morning joe."

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trouble. watch what happened on the golf course here. in the sand -- watch, almost up, and whoop! see it again, yep, whoop! that's right, for a whole three seconds, we didn't have the most embarrassing world leader. it was kind of an amazing moment. >> it's now national political reporter for nbc news, carol lee. also with us, chuck rosenberg. he's former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of virginia, a former senior fbi official and aid to both james comey and robert mueller. and until last month, he served as the acting administrator of the dea, until he stepped down in protest of the trump administration. he's now a law enforcement analyst for nbc news and msnbc. welcome aboard. thank you. good to have you on board with us. >> so just for our viewers who haven't heard this story, tell us why you felt the need to step away and resign? >> well, you know, there's a shelf life to how effective you

are in a place. and i wanted to make sure that when i was there, i worked hard and did my best every day and when i wasn't doing that anymore, i needed to go. >> and when did you figure out you just couldn't work there? >> you know, there were a couple of things, joe. one of them was the president's remarks about how he thought criminal defendants ought to be treated. that didn't wash over me particularly well. >> when he talked to police officers -- >> that's right. >> saying, basically, throw them against the car. >> yeah, we take an oath in law enforcement to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. and that means preserving, protecting with and defending the constitution. we obey civil rights, we obey constitutional rights, and if you don't get that and you don't talk about that and think about that in our line of work, then there are problems. >> yeah. carol, as we talk about investigations and bob mueller, let's talk about, sort of, the latest big revelation. there are so many every day, but the latest big revelation is the

possibility that donald trump's incoming national security adviser was working to -- i don't want to overstate this. i want to be careful, but some have suggested that he may have been plotting to -- >> right. >> is kidnapping too strong of a word? detain and -- >> somehow return -- >> -- deport -- >> ensure the return of -- >> -- of one of erdogan's -- so, why don't you say it. i don't want to over -- i don't want to overreach. >> let me try. so what we know is that robert mueller is looking into whether flynn, just weeks before the inauguration, had a meeting in which he discussed cutting a deal where he would somehow once in the white house facilitate the return of this cleric, a political rival of erdogan's to turkey. and if successful, in return, receive upwards of $15 million. so we know that the special counsel is looking into whether

that deal was cut by the incoming national security adviser. and whether there was this meeting at the 21 club in new york, in december of 2016, with senior turkish officials and flynn, where they discussed hatching this deal. >> and how was he going to be returned? any information there? >> so, there is a number of different -- it's -- it could have been any number of ways. the kidnapping had been one thing that's floated. the other idea is just pushing an extradition, getting -- using a national security adviser to somehow push that through. we do know that also the trump administration early on renewed the request for the justice department to look again at the turkey's extradition request for this cleric and the fbi have essentially said no, there's no new evidence. >> so, chuck rosenberg, any red flags here? >> well, the answer is, maybe. i mean, we need to know a whole bunch more, but i can tell you this. there's a process in this country for extradition. and it has a couple of pieces.

there's a judicial piece, right, a judge looks at it to be sure we're obeying all the rules and procedures. and then the executive branch, the state department looks at it. so the notion that somebody is going to trigger an extradition by themselves, kind of silly. but, you know, here's the thing. you don't have to be a successful criminal to be a criminal. you can be an inept criminal and still be a criminal. >> i was just going to say, mike, you talk about amateur hour. here you have, again, a guy that's coming in as national security adviser, that everybody warned, the trump team against. everybody that i know, warned the trump team against this guy. and mueller's investigating the possibility that this guy hatched a plan to get paid $15 million by the turkish government to return a dissident to erdogan, a couple of weeks before he officially becomes national security adviser.

again, it's just -- >> yeah, an illegal rendition. >> it's stupid. it's stupid to even think that you're going to be able to pull that off. >> but, the story itself, i think, you can just sense it leads to a larger issue that we deal with every day. and that's the polarization of the news media. in that anything that the special prosecutor, bob mueller does, is viewed as straight news, "wall street journal," carol lee, nbc news, "washington post," "new york times," straight news reporting. legitimate news reporting. and yet there is a wing of the news media that regards anything that bob mueller does as strictly political. this emanates from the references by the president of the united states himself, who implies, insinuates at several different levels of conversation that bob mueller is in the tank for the democrats. you worked for bob mueller. i know bob mueller. talk about bob mueller, his character, his mission, and the way he goes about his work. >> unkbeeimpeachable character.

i have never met a man like bob mueller. i had the privilege of working for him right after 9/11 after the fbi. he is smart, he's about the hardest working guy i have ever seen, mike. and i have never, ever questioned his integrity. he is apolitical. he's down the middle. he cares about facts and facts only. that's it. it's really that simple. and sometimes people have a hard time understanding that it can be that simple. no pretense, no pretext. >> and no leaks. >> no leaks. not a chance. >> so as we discussed early this morning, attorney general jeff sessions has taken what could be the first steps towards a possible investigation into alleged international dealings by the foundation bearing bill and hillary clinton's name. a special counsel investigation into the clintons would be red meat for the president's base, but could come with a political cost. during the obama transition back in 2009, the incoming president was reluctant to issue a broad inquiry into bush administration

programs, like domestic eavesdropping or the treatment of terrorism suspects, despite pressure from his liberal base. and there was reason. president obama actually amplified the drone program that he initially questioned as a candidate and domestic spying was running full steam during his administration. here on "morning joe," we noted back in 2009 that a broad investigation by obama could only imperil his own presidency and set a precedent for future administrations. and here we go again. >> yeah, because, it's all about setting precedents. if the obama administration, who was facing a lot of pressure to conduct what di-- i mean, talk about a witch hunt. the witch hunt was to go after george w. bush. the obamas basically admitted, they didn't run against john mccain. they ran against george w. bush. so if you're going to be political, carol lee, that would have made a lot of sense. but barack obama wisely backed away from it and as we said back

in 2008, 2009, if you investigate george w. bush, then you can expect your successor to investigator you, whether it's for a drone strike gone astray or something else. and so now we have donald trump pushing to investigate the previous administration and his political opponent, which means the next democratic president will feel free to investigate donald trump and his family until the day they die. a dangerous precedent. >> yeah. and i covered that in 2009 with president obama. and he took a lot of heat from his democratic base for not pushing ahead with prosecuting bush administration or, you know, looking further into those issues. and you know, when you look at what jeff sessions is doing, it just has this feel that he's just trying to please the boss and that he's -- you know, feels

insecure in his own role. so he's taking steps to try to get back in favor. and you're right, it does set a precedent. and this is -- and that was also something -- and i remember covering that with president obama, that they were very concerned about. not only being divisive, at a time when he was trying to unite the country, but also setting this precedent that a future president would also be able to do. >> chuck, i remember in 1993. i think it was 1993. a couple of clinton administration officials called over an fbi agent and i think it was about travelgate. a mini scandal that nobody watching here probably remembers. >> i do. >> but there was such an eruption on capitol hill, that they had actually discussed an investigation with the fbi. that republicans blew up about it for areas. and here you have the president of the united states openly pressuring the justice

department, openly pressuring the attorney general to conduct an investigation, a criminal investigation, of his political opponents. how dangerous is that? and can you ever recall that happening before in america's history? >> so, potentially, joe, very dangerous, because it makes us seem in some ways like a third world country, when we go after our political opponents. but -- and not to be pollyannish here. i think there is reason to hope, and let me explain it. i had the privilege of working the justice department for most of my professional life. i can tell you, it is about the most apolitical place i've ever been, at least in terms of the line prosecutors and the line agents. we don't talk about politics. we don't care about politics. and because the political layer in the department of justice is particularly thin, career prosecutors and career agents tend to whole sway in the long run. politicals come and go. >> right. >> but the career men and women

of the fbi, the atf, are always there. >> so you feel confident that the career men and women in justice will hold the line and do what's right and not bow to the pressure of outside political forces? >> i feel hopeful and confident. because those are the people i spent my life working with. and i actually -- i'm not telling you something i don't believe. >> right. >> i don't like the political interference, but politicals come and go. there is an ethos in the department of justice and the fbi and those law enforcement components of the department of justice that have been there a long time and are pledged to do the right thing. and these people will have the last word. >> chuck rosenberg, very measured. i feel safe. this feels -- i'm hopeful. >> it feels safe. >> yeah. >> because she feels -- i stir things up too much, chuck. i think you're a calming presence. >> carol, stay with us. very nice to meet you. thank you for coming on. >> great to have you here. up next, rex tillerson has a key ally in the senate in the form of bob corker.

but what happens to the state department when the tennessee republican heads for the door? we're going to brick ng in a for u.s. ambassador who's tackling that question. and on tomorrow's show, the very governor of new jersey phil murphy is our guest. is he going to do that when he comes here? >> i hope so. >> okay, we'll be right back with more "morning joe." [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything

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korea, what is it the president can do without any input from congress? i think people would be shocked to know what those things are. we've got some members like senator marky, he's concerned about what a president can do with launching a nuclear weapon in 120 seconds. so all of these things -- >> the chairman of the foreign relations committee senator bob corker on "morning joe" last month previewing today's hearing on the president's authority to use nuclear weapons. it's the first time since the height of the cold war that congress is raising questions about the president's authority to launch such weapons which, right now, is unlimited. our next guest says that senator corker should also work to stop the damage being done to the u.s. diplomatic corps. joining us now, former u.s. ambassador to the organization for security and cooperation in europe under president barack obama and current diplomat in residence at the university of

denver school of international studies, daniel bear. daniel writes in a new piece in "foreign policy" magazine entitled, can senator corker save the state department? quote, it's difficult to overstate how demonstrating this hemorrhaging of talent is for american security. not just for this year or next but for the coming decades. when this horrible chapter is over, we won't be able to just recreate diplomats with 25 years of experience. there is no grad school that gives you that qualification. i could not agree with your concerns more. >> mr. ambassador, i'd ask tom brokaw earlier how would this administration even put forward a treaty or a trade bill when the president goes on a foreign trip when you don't have any people in the state department putting that together. this is not something that you can do in an afternoon. it's something that takes month, sometimes years. >> that's exactly right, joe. i mean, that was the folly in

president trump's statement last week that he's the only one that matters, or the week before last. much of what we see celebrated when the president signs something, usually those things have month, if not years, of work by scores of diplomats to do the groundwork so an agreement can be made. >> mike barnacle. >> ambassador, we know this morning, the state department has been gutted over the last nine months. we know the attorney general of the united states is going to call for a special prosecutor to investigate hillary clinton. after pressure from the president of the united states. we know also that many people in this country study history in high school and know that there is a constitution and an executive branch and now senator corker is going to hold hearings on the president's chain of authority in handling nuclear weapons. do you worry, you concerned that this trump president i will

inatorably change the nature and definition of the presidency of the united states? >> i think one of the things we haven't focused as much open because we've been so busy stemming the damage is all of the second order effects. the way we are adapting to this cole lossally destructive presidency. and we're making changes to the way our bureaucracy workings to adapt to that. some we'll regret when we once again have a sane adult acting president because that president will want to have the powers of it is president and we will want that person to have the powers of the president. one of the downsides to all the adaptations which i think are necessary, and many of us are cheering them on, include things like secretary matt es taking a strong position in national defense that in some cases seems to supersede the president, you know, some of those things are things we will want to unwind at some point when we have a competent commander in chief. >> carol. >> ambassador, how much of the

concerns do you raise do you think are because of the president or because of secretary tillerson and what do you think secretary tillerson's legacy is going to be? >> you know, i think it's a combination of both. the president seems to see the state department as irrelevant except for rewarding his friends with plum posts. secretary tillerson has been in my view a colossal disappointment. i was actually hopeful he would bring his private sector management experience to government and be able to make an impact despite his lack of, you know, foreign policy experience per se. and really the biggest disappointment about tillerson is he's been weakest where he was supposed to be strongest. he's certainly been an accessory to democronald trump in terms o devastating effects on the foreign service. we saw just in the last few days he's set to start paying buyout to get foreign service officers out of the state department. he should be doing exactly the

opposite. there should be retention bonuses. foreign service officers are profession aals who serve presidents of both parties. they have language skills. you can't replace the experience of having run a prt in afghanistan or iraq and, and those skills are things that we're going to need as we face challenges down the road. >> all right, former u.s. ambassador daniel bear, thank you so much. appreciate you being with us. and make sure you read his new piece in "foreign policy" magazine. so mika, i want to underline what bob corker's doing today. i think it's very important. the hearing on donald trump's ability to unilaterally start a nuclear war is something that this congress, this senate, should look at. we had general hayden on after finding out from a foreign policy leader that donald trump is obsessed on the use of nuclear weapons and asked why can't we use them. and general hayden said

unfortunately the system's set up for speed and not safety. >> yeah, i think actually the way you started the show this morning was prophetic. everybody should connect the dots. it's a straight line. from one dot to the other on a number of levels with this president. >> carol lee, thank you so much for being here. >> as always, mike, we don't thank you. >> the let gend. >> that does it for us. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. >> thanks, mika. this morning disturbing new allegations. a fifth woman come also out accusing re ining roy moore of her in a locked car when she was just 16. >> i thought he was going to rape me. >> republican leaders are finally saying no more. >> i believe the women, yes. i think he should step aside. >> also ahead, the russia investigation, private messages between donald trump and wikileaks revealed sparking new questions.