the president and republican leaders in congress are like abbott and castello. the congressional leaders tell me to negotiate with president trump. president trump tells me to figure it out with republican leaders. negotiating with this white house is like negotiating with jello. when you sit with the president, this is the second or third time i've done this on an agreement. you can see he really wants to do it, but then a few hours later because of the right wing pressure he backs off. and what i would like to know who in the white house is a sort of moderating force who says, this is a good thing for you and the country and your party.

go for it? >> the president's heart is right on this issue. i think he's got a good understanding of what will sell. and every time we have a proposal, it is yanked back by staff members. as long as steven miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we're going nowhere. >> or as "the washington post" frames it, yet another period of trump-tulled tumult. not understanding the policy nuances of the negotiations. that's the quote. so we are now in day three of a government shutdown. this morning, all eyes are on the senate where there are now signs of a possible break in the log jam. good morning, everyone. it is monday, january 22nd. with us we have political writer for the new york times nick confessore. former aide to the george washington elise jordan. president of the council on foreign relations and author of the book "a world in disarray"

richard haase and historian john meech um is with us. and host of casey d.c. on msnbc, kasie hunt, who worked all weekend. joe, wow. it feels like the most organized thing that happened this weekend was not in washington, d.c. but on the streets of cities across the country where people protested peacefully and showed their resisting and their concerns about what is happening in this country. there are signs we're reporting of a possible break in the log jam this morning, but what truly can we trust at this point? >> well, you really can't trust anything coming out of donald trump's mouth. he's proven that. and in most things he's talking about but especially here.

if you just look at the tick tock laid out by "the new york times" this morning, i believe maggie wrote the article last year donald trump -- let me get the exact words, donald trump was calling d.r.e.a.m.e.r.s, these, quote, incredible kids. his staff members rushed to him and said stop speaking of them so sympathetically. it will hurt you to call these d.r.e.a.m.e.r.s incredible kids. then the president had a chinese dinner with democrats. talked once again about wanting to extend legal status to d.r.e.a.m.ers staff members quickly ran behind him again like he was some fool, like he's so bump kin, some idiot who doesn't know what he wants to do. rushed behind him, killed the deal again. and then two times this past week donald trump told democrats and republicans let's figure out

a way to do a deal. however you do it is fine with me but said again, let people know he wanted to extend legal status to d.r.e.a.m.e.rers then course there was the emergency meeting between president trump and chuck schumer. and the president this time kept staff members out of the room because they treat him like he's just a fool, like he's just an idiot, like he's a stupid, old, blubbery old man who doesn't know what he's doing. like he's the weakest leader on the planet. so donald trump said i'm just going to have chuck schumer come in and we're going to talk one on one and i'm not going to let these staff members treat me like i have predementia even though they all run around saying i have predementia. off doctor who says i don't have predementia. maybe i don't have predementia. i'll do this myself. so he brings in chuck schumer. they have the outlines of a deal. >> uh-huh. >> and guess what happens?

the staff kills it again, which leads "the new york times" to report, both sides have reasons to be confused. each time mr. trump is edged towards compromise with democrats he has been reigned in by his own staff. the result has been a paralysis not only at the white house but on capitol hill. and mika, this is what has led to the shutdown and also i've got to be confused. maybe it's just me. maybe i'm just a dumb country lawyer, but it sure does seem to me when i hear paul ryan and republicans talking about how democrats are trying to hold health care for poor children hostage and then you have a democrat go on the floor say, hey, i'm calling for unanimous consent, let's vote and let's pass c.h.i.p. today and let's give health care to the poorest children in america. >> right. >> it's the republicans who

immediately object. and they won't let democrats put that on the bill. republicans are concerned about what this is going to do for paying our troops. i've got an idea. why don't we pass a law that i passed in 2013, republicans, we can guarantee, we can guarantee that our men and women in uniform aren't hurt. here is the bill that worked in 2013. let's do it again. guess what happened? the republicans objected because they didn't want a vote on the floor that would pass that would take care of our troops. and you can go down the line. the republicans are stopping every one of these votes because they want to make a point. but they're not exactly sure what point they want to make, mika, because we have a president of the united states that is being led around by his staff who obviously think that he's not fit to be president of the united states because he

makes deals and they break them. so that's where we are this morning. and guess what, there are a lot of federal employees that are staying home and not working today. and there are a lot of children whose parents don't know whether they're going to get the health care that they so desperately need. and there are a lot of troops in harm's way overseas that don't know whether they're going to get their pay or not because republicans stopped claire ma kas kill's bill. they stopped the bill on c.h.i.p. from being voted on. because republicans, mika, republicans can't figure out what donald trump wants because every time donald trump figures it out, his staff undercuts him. that's where we are today. >> republicans can't figure out what he wants. they need to figure out that he's never going to give them what they want. he's always going to undercut them. you know that slipping sound you hear, that's our standing in the

world. joe talks about the actual impact this is having on real people, our standing in the world is slipping. our respect around the world is slipping. the concept that we actually have a leader who has all of his marbles is completely gone around the world. the question is when republicans are going to understand that they read the column that you wrote over the weekend, joe, i watched and listened to you writing it. it lists the staggering number of debacles that this president has found himself in because of his inability to have any discipline or even thought process that goes beyond the immediate. and here is where we are -- shut down. late last night senate majority leader mitch mcconnell scheduled a vote for noon today on a three-week extension tied to consideration of an immigration bill. here he is followed by democratic minority leader chuck schumer. >> when the democrat filibuster of the government funding bill ends, when it comes to an end,

the serious, bipartisan negotiations that have been going on for months now to resolve our unfinished business, military spending, disaster relief, health care, immigration, and border security will continue. it would be my intention to resolve these issues as quickly as possible so that we can move on to other business that's important to our country. however, should these issues not be resolved by the time the funding bill before us expires on february 8th, 2018, assuming that the government remains open, it would be my intention to proceed to legislation that would address daca, border security, and related issues. >> i am happy to continue my

discussion with the majority leader about reopening the government. we've had several conversations, talks will continue. but we have yet to reach an agreement on a path forward that would be acceptable for both sides. >> all right. so again, when you have chuck schumer, kasie saying that they're going to keep debating and then you have mitch mcconnell going down the list of things that they want to talk about, what's so interesting is all of those issues are very popular whether you're talking about health care for poor children or daca as we saw last week, that's a 9010 issue. now mitch mcconnell's assurances were enough for lindsey graham and jeff flake. what about other democrats? do we have the possibility of getting this log jam taken care of? >> it's actually a real nail biter, joe. it's one of the oftentimes we go into these kinds of things knowing ahead of time. that is not the case here. there is a universe of about 10 senate democrats, is how my

sources are putting it to me now. when you see mitch mcconnell on the floor this morning, i think that's going to be the audience that he is speaking to. chuck schumer left it open ended at this point, but they are really taking this period of time and that's why they didn't vote last night to talk to the democrats. they're split into what i would sort of describe as three factions. there's, of course, members from trump's states. a lot already voted with republicans on this, four of them who are really worried about this and didn't want it to happen in the first place. chuck schumer has an unruly bunch running for president. i don't think you'll see them move. the universe that could reopen the government today are people like chris coons of delaware don't want to see government be so broken at this point and who might be willing to say, okay, i'm going to cover for the rest of you.

we're going to vote for this. and there are people who jeff flake, lindsey graham, them switching, that might matter because they don't have cover from republicans anymore. if they do this again, it will be a democratic only shut down and that wasn't the case before. >> yeah. so nick confessore going back to the times lead story on this this morning talking about the chaos that's been going on inside the white house, the chaos that's been going on inside of capitol hill. let me read another line here -- all of this has raised questions not only about mr. trump's grasps of the issues that animated his campaign and energizes his core supporters but also his leadership. yes, this has been, boy, what poor leadership, what weak leadership when you have 32-year-old staff members leading a president around by the nose on an issue. and i guess the real problem for mitch mcconnell is he doesn't want to get too far out in front

of the president himself and pass something in the senate that then the president is going to attack like he did the health care bill. so, if you're mitch mcconnell, what in the world do you do if you can't get the president to sign on to anything? >> it's really unprecedented, joe. look, historically the white house is the center of gravity, the stable center of gravity in these negotiations. so the white house has their list and knows what they want and the hard part usually is the senate and the house. the herding of the cats. what you have here is different. you have like three houses or three senates, right? it's herding cats in the white house and also in the senate. >> yeah. >> so if the white house can't figure out what the white house's list of demands are and stick with it, it's very hard for the senate to do an even harder thing which is find a compromise there. >> richard haase, and then john meechum, i would love your historic perspective on this. but to watch what has happened

over the weekend, it's really hard not to be embarrassed at our process and how it's being abused by stupidity. it's not being politically abused for special interests or whatever. this is something i can't remember ever seeing anything like this before. >> remember the old line the whole world is watching? >> yeah. >> well, the whole world is watching and raises major questions. first of all, who would want to rely on the united states that goes through this? if you're an ally, it sends real messages that we can't be predictable. >> right. >> if you're a foe, why should you respect us? if you're a developing country, why would anyone want to emulate us? why would anyone want to adopt a democratic model. the russians are being very forceful in their foreign policy. the chinese are eating our lunch in asia offering a different political economic system while we're going through this. >> joe? >> well, and john meechum, we always ask you this and the answer is usually no these days.

but any historical parallels where you actually have a government shutdown, you have the president constantly agreeing on an issue with people on the hill, and then you have an aide, in this case a 32-year-old aide as lindsey graham said who takes a position that is extreme, that's an outlier and the president continues to back down from what he believes and lets his staff lead him around by the nose. any precedent that you can remember? by the way, what's so remarkable about it, john, is this is paralyzed government. the president agrees with the democrats. the president agrees with the majority of people in the senate. the president agrees with them on d.r.e.a.m.e.r.s and has stated it repeatedly and yet a 32-year-old aide has effectively shut down the government.

>> i can't think of a moment like this, but what i would urge the -- we keep talking about the white house, but as we've all been talking about it's very unclear what that means. there is no unified white house. what one problem i think for president trump in not understanding much of the past, which means what happened on friday, but in the broader sense is the presidents who are warmly remembered and you know this as well as i do are those who ultimately tell their political base that they're wrong and that they have to -- and that there's an act of leadership in which the president reaches out as opposed to keeping them close. so, what do we quote dwight eisenhower saying? we quote him saying the military industrial complex is troubling. a five-star general who actually believed there was a worry there. he spoke out against it. lyndon johnson, a white, southern democrat from a

segregated state undoes the dark legacy of reconstruction. richard nixon goes to china. ronald reagan, the great cold warrior ends the cold war. george h.w. bush votes for -- takes a risk on fiscal responsibility. these are people who tell their supporters on this one the right thing to do is not what you thought. and one of the reasons to go into politics is to be able to move the ball in that sense. and what surprises me -- i guess not surprises, but what's noteworthy here is he's the president of the united states. if he can't say no to stephen miller, god help us. >> oh my lord. >> to john's point, that would be the historical fantasy right now that president trump after all of his divisive rhetoric on immigration would swoop in and achieve some master bipartisan compromise and pull the country

together. and that is definitely fantasy land right now because what we're seeing is president trump still does not know what he wants. he cannot direct anyone on his behalf to act and to move the ball actually forward. and so, you see congress right now literally crippled, but i blame them just as much if not more than donald trump because they, the republicans were willing to gamble on donald trump and now that they can't bend him to their will, i just don't have much sympathy. >> they had so many warning signs. >> yes. >> there's so much more news to cover this morning. coming up, we're going live to jerusalem where andrea mitchell just spoke with vice president mike pence. she got netanyahu to weigh in on a tricky part of weighing in on foreign policy. plus the trump administration distances itself from a controversial ad. the catch, it's a trump campaign

ad. and john meacham has a new piece entitled 50 years after 1968 we are still living in its shadow. we'll talk to him about that in a moment. and speaking of volatile times and protest movements, we go to break with some of the powerful images from over the weekend as millions of americans gathered in cities and streets across the nation for the 2018 women's march. ♪ ♪ once in your life, you may get the chance to stand against a column of tanks ♪ >> what this president is doing is just so wrong. ♪ holding up your hand ♪ and once in your life >> we are all in this movement together. ♪ you may get the chance to

say ♪ >> we're not stopping. ♪ words like deep within your heart ♪ ♪ that change the outcome of the day ♪ >> we cannot have somebody like this in the white house. ♪ once in your life, you may dare hold out your hand ♪ >> resist the racism. ♪ to a stranger in me >> let's march on to the polls. ♪ whose world you cannot understand ♪ >> women have decided that they want to take back the conversation. ♪ and how the world turns violently we're battered by the savagery but we will not wake not on bended knees ♪ ♪ we will not go down quietly ♪ we will not go down silently

>> the motion is not agreed to. ♪ once in your life >> we can have a check on this president, i urge you to support democratic candidates all across this country. >> we stand at a place of history right here. >> we have this president celebrating his one-year anniversary. let's give him an "f" for his performance. >> fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> the powers of president will not be crushed. >> we also have people that were very fine people on both sides. >> the president said things which were hate-filled, vile, and racist. >> republicans in congress lunged head first into the trump shutdown. >> the trump shutdown is all your's. ♪ and though the world turns violently we're battered by the

savagery ♪ ♪ but we will not wake, not on bended knee ♪ ♪ we will not go down quietly ♪ we will not go down quietly ♪ we will not go down quietly ♪ we will not go down silently >> i want to show the american people we'll be right back at this tomorrow. hey, dustin. grab a seat. woman: okay. moderator: nice to meet you. have you ever had car trouble in a place like this? (roaring of truck) yes and it was like the worst experience of my life. seven lanes of traffic and i was in the second lane. when i get into my car, i want to know that it's going to get me from point a to point b. well, then i have some good news. chevy is the only brand to receive j.d. power dependability awards for cars, trucks and suvs two years in a row. woman: wait! (laughing) i definitely feel like i'm in a dependable vehicle right now.

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chuck schumer actually had the gal to look at the president and say i'm giving you everything you asked for the wall and when pressed admitted he wasn't doing it. that's the type of negotiation that mr. schumer has been engaging in with the president. at what point does it become profitable to continue to work with somebody like that. mr. schumer has to be more

honest with the president of the united states. >> they say you offered 1.6 billion in funding, which was in that budget. >> person who said it was not in the room. he does not know the truth. i do. >> how much did you offer the president for the border wall? >> i'm not giving you a number. he put a number on the table and we took it. >> you can authorize left and right. it's appropriating the money that makes a difference and that's one of the things no one has pressed mr. schumer. he wants to authorize the money but doesn't want to spend the money. >> the president demanded for months daca for wall. he demands the wall for the sake of compromises, for the sake of coming together, i offered it despite what some people are saying on tv and mind you these are folks not in the room during discussion that is exactly what happened. the president picked a number for a wall. i accepted it.

wasn't my number. it wasn't a number in the bills here. he picked it. now, it would be hard to imagine such a more reasonable compromise. all along the president saying, i'll do daca and d.r.e.a.m.ers in return for the wall. he's got it. can't take yes for an answer. that's why we're here. >> can't take yes for an answer. and that is exactly the problem of trying to negotiate with this white house, joe. >> well, mika, the article, "the new york times" article that was wrote this morning, they now have yet another example. mick mulvaney goes out and whether he deliberately lies or unknowingly spreads false information, he says that chuck schumer didn't offer him enough money. chuck schumer said how much do you want? the president gives him a number. he said okay. you want the number.

here is the number. let's go. and so they think they have a deal. chuck schumer goes back and he's thinking, hey, we're going to be able to open the government. and then a 32-year-old kid leads him around by the nose and tells him, a 32-year-old, as lindsey graham said, this is not me, lindsey graham and others have been reporting that a 32-year-old is telling the president of the united states what to do. he gets the minority leader of the senate and himself together. he gives the minority leader of the senate a number. the minority leader accepts the number. goes back and then it's blown up. you can't deal with that white house. and the biggest question -- listen, this government is going to reopen. i will tell you the real damage is leaders across the world are

seeing how weak and how pathetic this president can be as a leader, how he's one of the weakest presidents we've had 45 presidents. you would be hard pressed to find one of those 45 presidents ever allowing a 32-year-old to lead him around by the nose and actually undercut him with negotiations with senate leaders. would barack obama ever let a 32-year-old staff member -- never, not in a million years. barack obama was a strong leader. what we have here is a weak, weak, uninformed leader. micha micha michaelwolff was right. "the new york times" was right. we have a weak leader that he lets 32-year-olds lead him around and undercut him on negotiations. >> i just don't know why you wouldn't let me call him a tiny dictator because that's what he is. that little miller. he just -- you know that's the

word that works. and he is in charge. okay? don't say he's not in charge. >> but richard haase, it's hard to blame a 32-year-old when it's the president of the united states that has -- if i had a staff member telling me what to do, undercutting me, you know how many times they would undercut me before i told him to box up? get a box and get all their stuff off their desk? once, once. any strong leader would be that way. donald trump, what is the impact for the chinese, the russians, for the saudis for everybody across the world seeing how weak this man is as a leader? >> last i checked staff works for the president, not vice versa. it makes us look weak. we're distracted. and meanwhile, the world isn't waiting. there's no pause button for the world, joe. history is happening while we're going through this loosey in the

football stuff in washington. and you see the turks are suddenly attacking the very forces we've been working with against isis and the united states is ringing its hands. russia is doing what it's doing in ukraine and syria. china is getting more assertive in the south china sea. and again, here is the united states totally twisted in washington and essentially making its irrelevant. we're fast arriving at what many of us have described as a post-american world and it's not because of others. we're doing this to ourselves. >> kasie hunt, i mean, i'm not sure what you can add to this be beyond the fact that stephen miller appears to be helping pop pop trying to finish his sentences. >> the one thing i would add to this is the stunning reality that has emerged. i used to write for the associated press. i'm used to using the president and the white house as interchangeable phrases. the president says, the white house says. >> you can't. >> you can't. we are waiting on the one hand what's the president going to

say in his tweets. and on the other hand, what are -- what is john kelly going to say on the phone to chuck schumer about where things stand? they are not the same thing. and that is a stunning reality. and the lack of trust we have talked so much about this. it has been the main theme of the last year. you have seen it. this is the most stark and severe example, the government is now broken because none of our leaders trust that anyone else is going to follow through on their commitments. that is a very dangerous situation. >> this is going to have a staggering impact on so many different levels. joe, it starts with obviously the american people and how this affects them on a day to day basis, how this affects the way we put together a budget and agree on things in washington and the process in washington. but our standing around the world, our strategic alliances, the people who are working abroad for this country, our troops, are you kidding me? we haven't even spoken about

vice president mike pence and what he did over the weekend, which we'll get to in the next block. but we're on the cusp of a pretty bad time if we're not careful, if someone does not get control of this situation and this president. >> again, again, it's the president that has to get control of the president and he is utterly incapable of doing that again. we're talking about a government shutdown today. but the weakness that we have seen from him as a leader, the fact that he is so confused on issues that he will continually agree, you know, and constantly say we're in business. i mean, he is chauncey gardener. he doesn't know the issues well enough. he'll agree on issues and then he will bumble back into the white house and the staff members will say, no, mr. president. you can't agree on this. i remember in the worst days of reagan's bumbling supposedly at the end of his presidency.

>> good old days. >> we never had episodes like this. one time nancy whispered to him when he couldn't hear, we're doing everything that we can and ronald reagan repeated that and that was a news story for a week that he was losing it. here the president is talking to the top leaders on capitol hill expressing what his position is and then bumbling back into the white house and aides coming up to him going, no, mr. president. that's not your position. oh, okay, that's not my position. and then becoming indignant and cover up the fact that he's bumbling around by slurring the entire continent of africa, our countries across the caribbean. >> what's it going to take? >> it's an unprecedented time in the white house and it is dangerous because this goes beyond the shutdown. this goes to everything this president touches. he is clearly, as michael wolff wrote and you can see "the new york times" today, he is clearly, clearly not up to the task of being president.

and that should be news to absolutely nobody. >> all right. kasie hunt, thank you very much. great reporting. great work all weekend long. really appreciate it. coming up, vice president pence travels to the middle east during the shutdown and accuses democrats of playing politics with military pay. andrea mitchell joins us live from jerusalem ahead on "morning joe."

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mr. vice president, i've had the privilege over the years of standing here to welcome all of them to israel's capital, jerusalem. this is the first time i stand here and say those three word, israel's capital, jerusalem. >> thank you for the warm hospitali hospitality, prime minister. it is my great honor on behalf of the president of the united states to be israel's capital, jerusalem. i also am here hopeful, hopeful that we are at the dawn of a new era of renewed discussions to achieve a peaceful resolution to the decades-long conflict that

has affected this region. >> can you do it by next year, gentlemen? >> we'll do it by next week. thank you. >> by next week? >> that was vice president mike pence and his israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu earlier this morning. host of andrea mitchell reports, andrea mitchell is traveling with the vice president and she joins us live from jerusalem. andrea, let's start with what the vice president said about the capital and get to what he said about the shutdown. take it away. >> well, this was a very important moment for the vice president, but importantly for benjamin netanyahu. he wanted this to happen for years. this was just supposed to be a handshake. we were all hustled in there in his office, but he signaled to his people he wanted to speak. he wanted to pocket what he has achieved on december 6th when president trump announced that

they were moving the embassy to jerusalem. and there's been a lot going on behind the scenes, as you well know. candidates in both parties have always pledged they would move the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem and been persuaded once they became president by their national security and foreign policy advisers and secretaries of state to do that would completely abort any hope for a peaceful agreement for two-state solution between israel and the palestinians because jerusalem is the hardest of the issues and is claimed by all of the major abee ammic faiths and to decide whether muslims and christians and jews and what part of the holy sites they get is the most difficult negotiations. that would be at the end of the road, 40, 50, 60 years that's been the decision. but what donald trump has done is said as president the first american president to say so that he would move the embassy to jerusalem. the palestinians said they would

never meet. today mahmoud is in brussels trying to get a commitment from the europeans to a very different policy. there's a day of protests planned here by strike, a strike throughout the area by palestinians in israel, a work strike, to protest pence's arrival. this is very controversial. when i asked can you do it by next year? that's because we are hearing that they are accelerating the schedule and that there's going to be some chance to have actually move the embassy by next year, not three years down the road. >> richard haase. >> i think we're seeing the end of an era here. we're seeing a couple things going on. one we're seeing where the u.s. was central to the peace process, such as it was. that's over. the idea that we have come down so one sided in terms of the unilateral movement of the embassy to jerusalem, recognizes jerusalem as israel's capital, we have taken ourselves increasingly out of the game. second of all, i think the game

is also just about over. going back decades, the whole idea was to create some kind of a two-state solution. we're diterring. we're doing this kind of symbolic stuff. meanwhile, what you're seeing is the continued settlement activity. you're seeing the palestinians getting more radicalized, turning to europe, turning to the u.n. the saudis can't deliver anybody here. so the future is increasingly going to be one of israel that is sitting on all this territory, is sitting on all these people and it raises, i think, a fundamental threat to the future of israel as a secure, prosperous, jewish democratic state. we can say all we want. the vice president said we're about to enter a new era. it's not the kind of new era we want to be entering. >> andrea, you spoke with the vice president about the government shutdown. here is what he told you

followed by his address to troops. >> i think the american people know who is to blame for this government shutdown. and it's the democrats and the united states senates who decided to play politics with military pay and shut the government down over debate over illegal immigration. >> despite bipartisan support for a budget resolution, a minority in the senate has decided to play politics with military pay, but you deserve better. your president, your vice president, and the american people are not going to put up with it. we're going to demand that they reopen the government. in fact, we're not going to reopen negotiations on illegal immigration until they reopen the government and give you, our soldiers, and your families the benefits and wages you've earned. >> you know, andrea, the fact that vice president of the united states would launch a partisan attack against another

party in front of troops overseas is unspeakably bad and is corrosive. the fact that mike pence did that after claire ma kas kill tried to get her amendment on the floor to guarantee them that very pay and that republicans killed it by not allowing that vote makes it even more corrosive. i will ask you what i always ask jon meacham, is there any precedent for this sort of corrosive behavior? and if not, what is the impact? >> well, i can't recall any precedent for a president or a vice president speaking to u.s. troops, especially overseas, especially forward based. we were near the syrian border. these air force teams, these men and women, are flying everyday against isis in syria. so, i cannot recall another moment like this, frankly.

i defer to richard haase who was deputy secretary to a great former air force general. deputy national security adviser to brent skoe cough, whether this had been done before and i can't recall it and no one traveling with us can recall it. and i think the fact that they are focussing so clearly on military pay and national security as their argument against the democrats here shows that this is a political argument, but it was made in the wrong location is what the criticism is. >> i grew up in an era -- >> richard, yeah. >> politics stopped at the water's edge. when you went abroad, you spoke with one voice, idea was to show that the country was one in coming together. this shall we say is the opposite. it's using troops as props and it's taking our domestic divisions and essentially it's broadcasting them to the world. and it's again works against the

effectiveness of this country in the middle east and beyond that. >> i was in president bush's speech writing office. for these foreign trips there's always a lot of speeches that are prepared in advance, but when you're going to a base. >> carefully measured. >> yes. it is an address to the troops. it is not about your politics. it's about motivating the men and women on the front lines and thanking them for their service. it's not about you and your political ambitions at the given moment. >> it's incredible. andrea mitchell, especially given everything happening here at home. andrea mitchell, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. >> thank you. coming up, "the washington post" robert costca joins us efforts by a bipartisan group of moderate senators to end the shutdown. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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>> the office of management and budget is charged with running a shutdown. in fact i found out the first

time last night the person who shuts the government down is me -- which is kind of cool. >> you look at this government shutdown, the only reason they want to shut down government is to distract and stop his momentum. honestly, i think it's a good thing for us, judge, because people see through it. >> mulvaney said it's kind of cool, the shutdown, and eric trump said a good thing? >> well, and also, mika, you have to add on top of that the president of the united states back in the fall said "we need a good shutdown." so you have mulvaney saying it's kind of cool, you have eric trump saying this is a good thing for us and you have donald trump just a couple of months ago saying hey, you know what? let's shut down the government. i think we need a good government shutdown so they have what they wanted and now -- maybe there's a method to this madness. maybe that's why donald trump asks for a number, chuck schumer gives that number and they say no anyway.

maybe that's why donald trump makes an offer, the democrats accept it and then his staff blow it up. maybe, maybe they are loving this. >> those two people who said it was a good thing and kind of cool are people who will never, ever, ever have to worry about paying a bill in their life so how insulting to the american people? it could be kind of a problem resolving all of this when people like that and people associated with the trump white house kind of like what's happening. the white house released -- >> and, mika, of course, a lot of people are hurting right now. a lot of people are hurting. >> they were hurting before this. >> you can talk about the d.r.e.a.m.ers which donald trump says he wanted to pass, you can talk about children without health insurance, the c.h.i.p. program which democrats are trying to pass, the republicans stopped it this weekend. you actually had a senator, democratic senator, try to reopen the government for three days this week at the beginning of the week is they'd have time, people could go to work today, the republicans killed that.

you had claire mccaskell trying to ensure military families were taken care of. claire mccaskell, i think, voted to keep the government open and she said "o.k., if the government is closed let's at least take care of our military people." the republicans stopped that, too. the list is growing by the day. and while that's happening, you have donald trump, eric trump, and mick mulvaney saying shutting down the government is good. and yet there's all this suffering and all the attempts by the democrats to alleviate the suffering, all of them are being stopped is on camera in front of americans and they will not forget. an election is coming this fall. they will not forget who said no to protecting the military, who said no to protecting poor children without health care, who said no to the dreamers. they will not forget. coming up, the white house released photos over the week

end to show the president was working hard during the shutdown. >> oh, boy. >> are you kidding me? with that empty desk? are you kidding me? we have new reporting on how helpful he's been. plus, senator richard blumenthal joins the conversation from capitol hill. "morning joe" is coming right back. let me see that picture again. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] ♪ 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. these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here.

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talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know™. looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor. my name's dustin. hey, dustin. grab a seat. woman: okay. moderator: nice to meet you. have you ever had car trouble in a place like this? (roaring of truck) yes and it was like the worst experience of my life. seven lanes of traffic and i was in the second lane. when i get into my car, i want to know that it's going to get me from point a to point b. well, then i have some good news. chevy is the only brand to receive j.d. power dependability awards for cars, trucks and suvs two years in a row. woman: wait! (laughing) i definitely feel like i'm in a dependable vehicle right now. woman 2: i want a chevy now. woman 3: i know! ourselves in. when the democrat filibuster of the government funding bill >> when the democrat filibuster of the government funding bill ends, when it comes to an end,

the serious bipartisan negotiations that have been going on for months now to resolve our unfinished business -- military spending, disaster relief, health care, immigration and border security -- will continue. it would be my intention to resolve these issues as quickly as possible so that we can move on to other business that's important to our country. however, should these issues not be resolved by the time the funding bill before us expires on february 8, 2018, assuming that the government remains open, it would be my intention to proceed to legislation that would address daca, border security, and related issues. >> that was senate majority leader mitch mcconnell speaking

very late last night. he scheduled a vote for noon today, joe, to reopen the government, a three-week extension tied to consideration of an immigration bill. but how did we even get here? both the "new york times" and the "washington post" paint a picture of a president who is obviously in way over his head. from the "times" "the president was either unwilling or unable to articulate the immigration policy he wanted much less understand the nuances of what it would involve." thor from the "post" "pinging from one upheaval to the next, while clearly not understanding the policy nuances of the negotiation, trump clashed at different times with democrats and members of his own party who grew increasingly exasperated with the president." back to the "times" "it's raised questions not only about mr. trump's grasp of the issue that animated his campaign and energizes his core supporters

but his leadership." and in the "washington post" again "trump is a self-proclaimed deal maker who has struggled to close critical deals as president. an unreliable negotiator who seems to promise one thing only -- to renege days or even hours later." with us, we have nick confessore, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments elise jordan, president of the council on foreign relations richard haass, pulitzer prize winning historian jon meacham and joining the conversation, political reporter for the "washington post" and moderator of "washington week" on pbs, robert costa. joe, i want to clear some things, check here. republicans are in control of the white house, the senate, and the house, correct? >> yeah, that's correct. it's interesting, though, as historians look back at this period -- and they're going to look at everything that's happened over the first year, they're going to look at the claims in michael wolff's book

which is backed up by about a year of reporting, the same people that say that wolff somehow is not a great reporter will then in the next breath say "but everything he wrote we already knew anyway." >> right. >> there's no doubt -- everything that's been happening this past week confirms everything that he wrote in that book and what everybody said. that number one he is a terrible negotiator, one of the worst negotiators to be president of the united states in american history and the second thing is that he is completely overmatched so what happens as julia hirschfeld davis and maggie haberman write about in the "new york times" and we've also seen in the "washington post," what happens is you have washington running around in circles. leaders are confused. bob costa, i just heard the list that mitch mcconnell went down saying republicans will take care of these things. well, he talks about military spending, claire mccaskell tried

to take care of that early saturday morning and they wouldn't let her bring that bill to the floor. health care, the chip program, democrats tried to get that taken care of, tried to get a vote on it, republicans refused there. border security. donald trump himself came up with a deal with chuck schumer and then the deal got taken off the table when staff members ran to trump saying "no, no, no, you can't do that." daca, the same thing. trump promised to deal with daca with democrats and wants to and has been stopped and even the government being closed, tim kaine tried to get a three-day extension this week to keep the government open while the negotiations went on and republicans stopped that, too. there seems to be absolute chaos in washington right now and the building behind you. republicans can't seem to get a

consistent message. is it going to get any better? is there any theme thope that t president is going to be able to take a position without having 32-year-old staffers or chief of staffs undercutting? >> joe, last night was a revealing scene in the halls of the senate. senator jeff flake of arizona, senator lindsey graham of south carolina, two republicans trying to work out a deal, they both told me in the halls they have not spoken with president trump, he has not been involved in these last-minute deliberations. senator flake actually said it would be best if he doesn't get involved in the talks yet a few minutes later senator durbin, the number two democrat in the senate said the democrats want the president to get involved because they know leader mcconnell is a pretty crafty republican and they would like to see the president come out and make a promise on a d.r.e.a.m.er vote, something mcconnell hasn't done in concrete terms. so you see democrats asking president trump to wade in, republicans, some of them, at least, saying stay out. >> jon meacham, how

extraordinary we find ourselves in twee2018 where members of th president's own party don't want him to get involved because he'll only botch things up and confuse things even more. >> yeah, it's -- we talked last year about basically trump's takeover of the republican party being like one of the first recorded cases of a hijacker boarding a plane and the passengers side with the hijacker. and i think we're still seeing that unfold. i have a question for bob. can you describe for us who is negotiating? who in the white house, if they want to check something, if people on the hill want to check something at the white house, are they calling kelly. are they calling miller? who -- how is this working? >> the main point of contact has been legislative director mark short who's been a presence at the capitol. he's close with vice president pence who's, of course, traveling abroad. general kelly is in touch with

senator cotton and some of the more conservative hard-liners as well as the congressional leadership. the white house's position for now is that this is a congressional fight that has to be mediated between mcconnell and schumer. >> meanwhile, president trump's reelection campaign release add new online campaign ad accusing democrats of being "complicit" in murders committed by undocumented immigrants. take a look. [ bleep ]. >> that's illegal immigrant l s luiluis bracamades, president trump is right, build the wall, stop illegal immigration now. democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants. >> are democrats complicit? >> they're not helping keep the government open. >> are they complicit in murders? >> i just saw that, i don't know

if that's necessarily productive. it's no secret the president has strong views on immigration. >> well, you know that that ad is produced by an outside group. >> donald j. trump for president is an outside group. >> let me talk about -- >> wait. donald j. trump for president is an outside group. >> it's not done for people working in the white kock confe paul ryan should know better but he doesn't. democrats have done ads with paul ryan pushing grandmothers over chairs because he was trying to be fiscally responsible and talk about entitlement reform. paul ryan can't keep saying i don't want to talk about that. there's racism, there's bigotry, i don't want to talk about that. the president is a racist, he's a bigot, he said this, i don't want to talk about that. he tweeted misogynist comments, i don't want to talk about that. and here, mika you have donald

trump's campaign saying democrats will be responsible for murders and rapes and he is saying i don't want to talk about that? . >> i don't know how long they can put their hands over their ears and pretending they don't see what they see and hear what they hear. this will have long lasting impacts on every level. this is a president breaking down the norms of our society and is so shooting at the air like a machine gun with tweets and stupidities and bumbling moments that we are being desensitized between what is right and what is wrong and we are accepting along the way racism, we are accepting less than the best for this country on every level when this president is accepted, when he

does these things. nick, take it away. >> look, the ad is extremely harsh but it's also extremely in keeping with the president's own campaign message. it's not a surprise. and marc short is a very smart guy. he knows about outside groups because he ran one for the koch family for many years. he knows the campaign committee isn't an outside group. the campaign is the president and they are operating with his approval. this is the president's message. >> joe? >> yeah, well, and elise, this goes out -- here you have -- you have this scene, it's midnight friday night going into saturday morning, there's a government shutdown and you see democratic senators and republicans working furiously to keep the government open, doing everything they can. and while that happens you have sarah huckabee sanders putting out a statement calling the democrats who are working with the republicans trying to keep the government open, calling them obstructionist losers.

as we see them trying to work with republicans to get a deal done and while they're negotiating this ad goes out which, again, it's -- it appears that the republicans, or at least donald trump is begging for a government shutdown and loves that he has one. >> i think donald trump at the end of the day knows he skirts responsibility for the shutdown just like he does everything. i was surprised last year in april. it was at the 100-day mark when we were discussing a shutdown last year and in focus group after focus group voters said that they would blame congress, they would specifically blame republicans but they would also blame democrats in congress around they still hold up donald trump as trying to come in and disrupt the system so he probably politically is going to skirt through this fine but the damage he's caused to the republican party in the runup to

the 2018 election remains to be seen. >> joe? >> it's -- they're going to get savaged most likely in no and this only makes matters worse. bob costa, what is the mind set of the republicans and the democrats? i'm sure there's some democrats that are nervous right now. republicans who obviously know they're facing long odds already in the fall. measure for us, if you will what is your take on how both parties are feeling as we go into a work week? >> joe, there are two meetings to pay attention to this morning -- 10:00 a.m. outside of moderate republican susan collins' office, you will have a group of 20 centrists coming together saying this k they push the leadership in both parties to move forward at this noon vote and get a commitment from leader mcconnell, a firmer commitment on a daca vote and the democrats come along at 11:00 a.m., there's another

meeting. that t democrat senate democrats. pay attention to red state democrats. how much pressure do they put on leader schumer to get this bill, this cr, they call it, the short-term funding bill, passed today to reopen the government. what do they really need to hear from mcconnell on immigration in order to vote yes? >> jon meacham, your latest piece in "time" magazine is entitled "50 years after 1968 we are still living in its shadow." in it you write this "history shouldn't be a cultural zoloft, alleviating the pervasive depression of a time as dispiriting as our own in 2018. the past can, however, give us a sense of proportion, a framework in which to assess where our discontent ranks in terms of what haas come before and in that light there's an element of reassurance. in looking back on 1968 from the perspective of a half century, for all the unhappiness and

madness of the present, for all the tribal conflicts of the age of trump we are not at this hour anyway engaged in a consuming war and political violence is largely restricted to argumentative agitation." that's fair, that's the reality right now, jon meacham, but shouldn't we look at history as a warning? and what about what is happening right now gives you hope that we're not headed in a wrong direction? >> very little about now makes me think we're headed in the right direction but i do think it's a matter of context. 50 years ago dr. king was murdered in april, senator kennedy was murdered in june. there was a remarkable level of physical violence at the chicago democratic convention. tet was worse than a president tweeting and i think to some

extend understanding that the system is being tested in ways that we really would never have chosen here but the system by and large so far is working and the rule of law is working. one of the points of the country was to try to defend against the rise of the demagogue and we're living through that right now. a final point on this is to me the most prescient part of 1968 was the performance of george wallace, the alabama governor who carried five states in '68. won 13% of the vote and one of the disspiriting things of this half century is we've gone from someone like wallace being on the fringes to someone like wallace being president. >> richard haass, i saw a poll

last week that showed even in the republican party younger republicans, younger conservatives, younger americans want donald trump to have a challenger in 2020. inside the republican party. the split is quite stark but then you go to people 65 and older and they are all overwhelmingly supportive of donald trump and do not want him to have a challenger. and as we talk about 1968, i'm reminded of my own parents, especially my mom and her family who i grew up around. they were all fdr democrats. my grandmother never voted for a republican and never would until after 1968 and the assassinations and tet and the chaos and the droft dodgi draft people burning their bras on college campuses and chicago. all of that chaos led my grandmother and other life-long democrats, especially across

america to become republicans. and so we sit and we see how fox news's demographics tend to be older, rush limbaugh's older, bill o'reilly when he was on tv older. well there's a reason and so much of it -- john's right, it goes back to 1968, doesn't it? the chaos that these people saw, and they want somebody that's reactionary, they want somebody that will fight back against that perceived chaos that shook them so much in '68. >> it's exactly the same we're seeing in britain, joe, with the brexit vote where the older sorts are different from the younger ones, the younger ones want a future in europe, the older ones didn't, you have people of -- older people, more supportive of trump, younger ones not and if they get politically involved and motivated, this could be another watershed moment in american politics as you know better than

i do. support for the two established parties has been shrinking so the real question may not be somewhat space is there for challenge within the republican party, it might be whether this is finally the moment in american politics, particularly if the democrats go to the left, where the middle opens, where a vast plurality, conceivably a ma j majority of americans saying a plague on both your houses, this is not working for me, and we have to think about a realignment of american politics. i would not rule that out. >> jon meacham, i want to circle back to you. i know you will remember this being from the deep south. just as 1968 caused, i think, a pretty dramatic shift turning a lot of democrats into republicans for conservative reasons it's much like my

grandmoth grandmother and people that went through the depression in the deep south, we noticed my grandmother never left -- she was pretty skinny but she never left food on her plate and that was something we always talked about and noticed, that our grand parents never left anything on their plate because they would -- they just grew to believe during the depression they may not get another meal again for some time. >> right. the shaping of the life of the country in many ways goes from -- we live in a world still shaped by franklin roosevelt and 1932 when one out of four americans was out of work, there were riots in the midwest, roosevelt himself said the two most dangerous men in america were huey long who would lead a revolt from the left and douglas macarthur who could lead one

from the right. on the night he was sworn in, an aide came in and said mr. president, i hope you'll be one of the great presidents and roosevelt said "i just hope i'm not the last." so we went through an existential moment and what happened in '68, one of the moment wes don't talk about, that was the first time ronald reagan's name was put in nomination for president of the united states. he'd been governor for two years. and reagan and roosevelt are in conversation with one another when you think about our politics heading into the 20th century and this one. reagan voted for fdr four times, he used to call himself a hemophiliac liberal when he was in hollywood but he got hired of high taxes, he got worried about communism and he led a remarkable movement that in many ways took those new deal democrats who were upset by the chaos of the '60s and turned them into free market anti-communist conservatives and

we still live in the world, to some extent, that reagan created. >> jon meacham, thank you very much. bob costa, before you go, hong kong the day before us. we will have a deal? >> senate democratic sources, the top ones, say they still haven't come around in agreement on this noon vote to reopen the government, mika, so the impasse likely continues but negotiations continue this morning. bob, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," one of the united states senators who will be casting a critical vote today on the government shutdown, democrat richard blumenthal, is standing by. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom i was responsible. sadly, this is something the current occupant of the oval office does not seem to care to do and i will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger. and i have a message for cadet bone spurs. if you cared about our military, you'd so baiting kim jong-un into a war that could put 58,000 american troops and millions of innocent civilians in danger. >> yup. that just about summed it up right there. that was democratic senator tammy duckworth of illinois responding to president trump's statement that democrats are holding america's military hostage with the shutdown. joining us now, member of the arms services and judiciary committees, democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. very good to have you on board this morning, senator. >> thank you. >> how would you describe

exactly how this weekend went with the negotiations? >> there have been literally non-stop talks, discussions, negotiations involving all of us. i feel like i've lived in this building for the last three days and we are seeking to compromise and end in shutdown. there is no such thing as a good shutdown. only the president has talked about it as a good shutdown but what was offered last night by senator mcconnell on the floor seems clearly inadequate, an empty promise and transparent ploy. it has no guarantee of a vote that would make protection of the d.r.e.a.m.ers part of must-pass legislation. i have no confidence, zero confidence, that paul ryan will bring it to a vote in the house and that is part of what i think is necessary. >> joe? >> senator, how do you negotiate

with a white house, how do you negotiate with a republican party that doesn't know what their position is on this issue? you have mitch mcconnell saying he still doesn't know what the president's position is. you have democrats going over, chuck schumer going over, they strike a deal and then his staff members tell him he is not allowed as president of the united states to make that deal so how could any democrat in good faith strange any deal with mitch mcconnell when mitch mcconnell can't even figure out what the president wants? >> and mitch mcconnell has said, absolutely right, that he can't really take a position until he knows what the president's position is, which has been a changing mirage. the president was pulled back from the commitment that he made to senator schumer, or at least apparently an agreement that he would take the wall which many of us were reluctant to give him

in return for a path citizenship for the dreamers. but perhaps most importantly, the president is awol. he has to leave or get out of the way. that absence of leadership is really one of the key barriers we have to compromise which we're all seeking because there is bipartisan consensus behind many elements of this deal, adequate support for our defense, our troops as well as non-military needs, the c.h.i.p. program, children's health insurance and community health centers, pensions, veterans, disaster relief. this kicking the can down the road in three or four weak continuing resolution is destructive to our national defense. general mattis has said clearly and emphatically just that.

so we need to come together. >> it's obviously the ancillary issues can bog down negotiations for the bill so just for the record tell me what the organizement is on policy for why the daca problem should be fixed as part of the budget as opposed to a separate bill? >> it needs to be faced now, nick because the d.r.e.a.m.ers are in a state of complete uncertainty. families are reluctant to go for health care because they're afraid of being seized and deported. they're reluctant to take their kids to school. women who are victims of domestic violence are reluctant to seek protection from law enforcement and the date of march 5 is fast approaching. we are running out of time, literally days away, for the administrative steps that have to be taken and on top of it is all the need to take this protection part of must-pass

legislation. that's the only way we can be certain there will be, in fact, a vote in the house. you know, we've seen this movie before, you've covered it. the senate passed by an overwhelming majority, 68 votes, legislation on comprehensive immigration reform. i helped to work it and pass it then after it passed overwhelm. >> i there was no vote in the house. i have no confidence, zero, that paul ryan will bring it to a vote in the house so it must be part of these budget negotiations. >> all right. senator richard blumenthal, thank you very much. good luck. >> thank you. thank you. coming up, how far are foreign governments willing to go for back-door access to the administration? we have reporting from two new pieces in the "new yorker" and the "washington post." that's next on "morning joe."

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both china and russia widely seen by congress and the military as two of america's biggest competitors if not outright rivals, yet both countries saw real opportunity for their own self-interest as the trump administration took over the white house. and, like so much in the world, it came down to access.

joining us now, staff writer for the "new yorker" evan osnos who has new reporting on jared kushner's vulnerability as an intelligence target, particularly for beijing. also, investigative reporter for the "washington post" and msnbc contributor carol leonnig, she has reports on how russians and chinese business leaders were in the u.s. on inauguration day. evan, we'll start with you, you co-write a piece for the "new yorker" investigating jared kushner's business ties to china and in it you write in part this "according to current and former officials briefed on u.s. intelligence about chinese communications, chinese officials said that china's ambassador the united states and jared kushner in meetings to prepare for the summit at mar-a-lago discussed jared kushner's business interests along with policy.

some intelligence officials became concerned that the chinese government was seeking to use business inducements to influence kushner's views. "i never saw any indication it was successful" a former official said of chinese efforts to compromise kushner, but the intelligence reports triggered alarms that chinese officials were attempting to exploit kushner's close relationship with the president which could yield benefits over time. they're in it for the long haul, the former official said. so evan, how much of a concern could jared kushner be as a weak link here for intelligence to get in the wrong hands? >> what we discovered in this piece, i was working with adam entis is that jared kushner came into the white house with a plan to change the u.s./china relationship by taking a prominent role in the cove and that meant he would have a strong personal relationship with the ambassador so they meet

repeatedly. four times during the transition and campaign and have met more times during the administration than mr. kushner can recall and what concerned counterintelligence officials was that they were meeting often without area specialists, without the china specialists from the u.s. government in the room. in at least one occasion they met one on one. counterintelligence officials said this is a mistake because it leaves you vulnerable to the idea that the chinese can say whatever they want to say about what happened in the meeting and as we have in this case, we have an intelligence report that suggested they discussed mr. kushner's businesses and he denies it, says he never did it but it's hard to push back because there was nobody else in the room. >> richard haass? >> evan, it's well known that jared kushner's business around real estate dealings are in some need of a capital infusion. do you have a sense that the chinese have one way or another tried to use that or any other government matter as a way of influencing this administration? >> what we know is he has med

during the transition in november. is he met with a prominent chinese executive who was in a position as head of anbang insurance to provide a capital infusion. they were discussing the possibility of him putting a major investment into 666 fifth avenue, a building the kushner companies owned that has heavy debts. mr. kushner said this has no relationship to his policy-making role but when the chinese began to build this relationship with him it's clear they regarded this as two sides of one individual. this is somebody who has major business interests and has extraordinary access to the president so even though he may divide it in his own mind, on the chinese side the distinction was not as clear. >> now to the "washington post" piece that carol co-wrote which reports that powerful figures from russia attended donald trump's inauguration. "the attendance of members of russia's elite at trump's inauguration was evidence of the high anticipation in moscow for

a thaw in u.s.-russia relations following a campaign in which trump stunned u.s. foreign policy experts by repeatedly praising russian president vladimir putin. as questions about russia's interference in the 2016 election were beginning to percolate publicly prominent business leaders and activists from the country attended inaugural nasa testifestivity, t balls and receptions at times close to u.s. political officials. the "washington post" identified at least half a dozen politically connected russians who were in washington on inauguration day including some whose presence has not been previously reported." so, carol, i mean, we've all -- this narrative has been blatant, but what are you finding as you sift through the pages of what's behind this? . there could be a real threat and

could the threat be access to members of the trump family? >> we've found it interesting that these names kept copping up and in their own social media feeds but also in other ways we were learning that some of russia's most elite members and also people who had not inconsequential ties to president vladimir putin were coming to the inauguration and because there are foreign nationals they wouldn't have been able to donate to the inaugural committee so how did they get such great vip access? sort of the bruce springsteen pack stage pass? how did they obtain that? that was our question. and we were told often there was no way to determine how it was that they obtained these tickets, that ultimately the presidential inaugural committee didn't really keep very good records of how donors handled out these wonderful tickets.

it was striking that they basically had a front-row seat for a lot of important things and counterintelligence officials and russian experts told us these senior elite group -- this group would not be there without the blessing of the putin government. >> without that interest there. richard haass, you just got back from russia. take it to carol if you want. >> i just got back and all i can say is whatever investment the russians made or however much these tickets cost them, they don't feel they got a return on investment. they are as frustrated with this administration as ever. there isn't a u.s.-russian relationship right now. i came away saying at the height of the cold war when i used to go to russia all the time, the soviet union, there's more going on then tweern the two governments than now. and carol i don't know if you agree with that or if you sent that both sides now essentially are just scared and are staying away. >> i think you're absolutely

right in your general assessment and i think probably putin and his allies view whatever energy they put into meddling in the election that they feel that that was money wested or at least it backfired. that is what intelligence and counterintelligence excellences have been telling the "post" for some time, that it blew up in putin's face mostly because it's become very public, very controversial and the subject of multiple investigations. >> nick? >> it's nick confessore. a lot of our attention is focused on russia and russian entanglements. are we focusing too much at the expense of looking at how the chinese are trying to wire this government give than china is a rising power and possibly our greatest rival in the world stage? >> i think we're at the beginning of a new set of

questions that are going to be raised. partly because of the kinds of things that we describe in this piece, these kinds of improvisations in diplomacy. the reality is the same way russia looked at the trump administration and saw opportunity there, china saw opportunity of another kind. as jared kushner represents there were cases where he had obvious business interests in china, his sister in the spring of this year had to apologize after invoking his name when she was courting investors in china on behalf of the kushner companies so i think there is more ff us to learn there and the lesson comes down to the fact that the administration came in and said the state department in the best practices of the national security community don't apply. for us we'll do it our own way, we'll do it confidently and independently and in many cases confidentially. and i think we're beginning to see some of the consequences. >> carol, elise jordan here.

i have to go back to a detail from your story that i can't let go of, that these high-level russian official guests had vip tickets to the inauguration. those are tickets reserved for the highest level of gop donor, superconnected friends of the family. what worses within the u.s., do you have any sense, were the conduits f for providing this ll of access for one of the most highly coveted tickets of the year to have that prime setting at an inauguration? >> we've been told in one instance that alexi reppic, the pharmaceutical company in russia who has a home in san francisco, we're told he received tickets from a good family friend who happened to have a lot of business in russia, but keep in mind, alease, the amazing

difference difference between this presidential inauguration and one in the past. you can't have foreign money donated to inaugural committee so these were american donors and these tickets were then passed out almost like on ebay or to friends and there were no records kept of how the donors shared their riches and that lack of recordkeeping leaves us a bit in the dark about how all of them were handed out. >> carol leonnig, you reported in the "washington post," evan osnos, we'll read your piece in the "new yorker." thank you both for trying to untangle all of this. up next, new comments from the white house just moments ago essentially calling chuck schumer an amateur. an amateur ledgislator.

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i know sometimes members like senator schumer need help getting thr getting through policy negotiations like that. if they need help understanding it, we would be happy to send people to help him. >> do you want to be questioning senator schumer's knowledge of this legislation spp. >> if he's unclear of what the president has laid out, then possibly. >> joe. >> so the question is, does she really think americans are that stupid that you have not -- this is not about chuck schumer not knowing the president's position. this is about mitch mcconnell not knowing the president's position and stating it publicly. so i don't know who -- how stupid does she think everybody is? the president changes his mind all the time. he's led around by the nose by a

32-year-old. his staff thinks that he's a blubbery stupid man. he switched positions four or five times. he keeps saying he wants a d.r.e.a.m.e.r. deal. i don't know if sarah huckabee thinks we're stupid, i think it's sad that so many people in the white house have such little respect for donald trump that they won't let him stay alone in rooms with democrats because bad things happen. >> so what is the state of.mind for russian leaders for lavrov, for others, about moving forward with the u.s.-russian

relationship while we're in the middle of this scandal. >> so let me ask you, how dangerous is it for the united states not to have an active, ongoing relationship with the russians? yes, there are rivals. we don't see eye to eye on many things. but obviously, we need to have as good a relationship with them as possible. so what are the dangers now.? >> absolutely. they could have a tremendous impact on how successful we are with north korean sanctions, there's still the danger of eastern ukraine. again, the arms control, the nuclear competition is on the verge of potentially restarting. so, you know, russia may not be a great super power any more, but still, in the area of military, cyber energy, it is a formidable foe.

and so you say they're not a great super power, but -- and yet they have such tremendous influence in areas, some of the hot spots, whether it's north korea, whether it's syria, whether it's iran, whether it's obviously ukraine, their influence is vast in those areas for a lot of different reasons. >> well, yeah. they could be a major spoiler. as we saw in the middle east, a russia that's willing and able to use force in a determined way can totally change the scenario. we basically have grade yoes goals. the secretary of state articulated them the other day. but we have extremely limited means. russia, funnily enough, has modest goals, but puts significant means behind them. shockingly enough, they are more impactful than we are in the middle east as well as ukraine. still ahead, the government is expected to vote at noon to

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the president and republican leaders in congress are like abbott and costello. the congressional leaders tell me to negotiate with president trump.

president trump tells me to figure it out with republican leaders. negotiating with this white house is like negotiating with jello. when you sit with the president, this is the second or the third time i've done this on an agreement, you can see he really wants to do it. but then a few hours later, because of the right wing pressure, he backs off. and what i'd like to know is who in the white house is a sort of moderating force who says this is a good thing for you and the country and your party, go for it. >> talked with the president. his heart is right on this issue. i think he's got a good understanding of what will sell. and every time we have a proposal, it is only yanked back by staff members. as long as steven miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we're going nowhere. >> or as "the washington post" frames it, yet another period of trump fueled tumult, pinging from one upheaval to the next

while clearly not understanding the policy nuances of the negotiation. that's a quote. and so we are now in day three of a government shutdown. this morning, all eyes are on the senate where there are now signs of a possible break in the logjam. good morning, everyone. it is monday, january 22nd. with us, we have political writer for the "new york times," nick convasori, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department, alesse jordan, president of the foreign relations and author of the book "a world in disarray" and bulle pulitzer prize winner john meech y am is with us and casey hunt, as well. joe, it feels like the most organized thing that happened this weekend was not on washington, d.c., but on the streets of cities across the

country where people protested peacefully and showed their resisting and their concerns about what is happening in this country. there are signs, we're reporting, of a possible break in the logjam this morning, but what truly can we trust at this point? >> well, you really can't trust anything coming out of donald trump's mouth. he's proven that. and in most things that he's talking about, but especially here. if you just look at the tick tock laid out by the "new york times" this morning, i believe maggie haegerman wrote the article, last year, donald trump -- let me get the exact words. donald trump was calling d.r.e.a.m.ers these, quote, incredible kids. his staff members rushed to him and said, stop speaking of them so simpympathetically.

it will hurt you. then the president had a chinese dinner with democrats. talked once again about wanting to extend legal status to d.r.e.a.m.ers. staff members quickly ran behind him again, like he was some fool, like he's some bumpkin, like he's some idiot who doesn't even know what he wants to do. rushed behind him, killed the deal again. and then two times this past week, donald trump told democrats and republicans, let's figure out a way to do a deal however you do it is fine with me, but said, again, let people know he wanted to extend legal status to d.r.e.a.m.ers. and then, of course, there was the emergency meeting between with president trump and chuck schumer. and the president this time kept staff members out of the room because they treat him like he's just a fool, like he's just an idiot, like he's a stupid, old,

blubbery man who doesn't know what he's doing, like he's the weakest leader on the planet. so donald trump said, i'm just going to have chuck schumer come in and we're going to talk one-on-one and i'm not going to let these staff members treat me like i have predementia. i have a doctor that says i don't have predementia so maybe i don't have predementia. i'll do this myself. so he brings in chuck schumer. they have the outlines of the deal. and guess what happens? the staff kills it again. which leads the "new york times" to report both sides have reasons to be confused. each time mr. trump has edged towards compromise with democrats, he has been reigned in by his own staff. the result has been a paralysis not ohm at t not only at the white house, but

on capitol hill. and mika, this is what has led to the shutdown. also, i have to be confused, the maybe it's just me, maybe i'm just a dumb country lawyer, but it sure does seem to me that when i hear paul ryan and republicans talking about how democrats are trying to hold health care for poor children hostage, and then you have a democrat go on the floor and say, hey, i'm calling for unanimous consent. let's vote and let's pass c.h.i.p. today and let's give health care to the poorest children in america. it's the republicans who immediately object and they won't let democrats put that on the bill. when claire mccasskil says republicans are concerned about what this is going to do for paying our troops. i have an idea, why don't we passed a law that i passed in 2013. republicans, we can guarantee that our men and women in uniform aren't hurt. here is the bill that worked in 2013. let's do it again.

guess what happened? the republicans objected because they didn't want a vote on the floor that would pass, that would take care of our troops. and you can go down the line. the republicans are stopping every one of these votes. because they want to make a point. but they're not exactly sure what point they want to make, mika, because we have a president of the united states that is being led around by his staff who obviously think that he's not fit to be president of the united states. because he makes deals and they break them. so that's where we are this morning. and guess what? there are a lot of federal employees that are staying home and not working today. and there are a lot of children whose parents don't know whether they're going to get the health care that they so desperately need. and there are a lot of troops in harm's way overseas that don't know whether they're going to get their pay or not because

republicans stopped claire mccaskill's big from being voted on because republicans stopped the bill on c.h.i.p. from being voted on because republicans, mika, republicans can't figure out what donald trump wants because every time donald trump figures it out, his staff undercuts him. that's where we are today. >> republicans can't figure out what he wants. they need to figure out that he's never going to give them what they want. he's always going to undercut them. you know that slipping sound that you hear? that's our standing in the world. joe talk bs about the impact th is having on real people. our respect around the world is slipping. the concept that we actually have a leader who has all his marbles is completely gone around the world. the question is when republicans understand that they -- read the column that you wrote over the weekend, joe. i watched and listened to you writing it. it lists a staggering number of

debacles that this president has found himself in because of his inability to have any disciplined or thought process that goes beyond the immediate. and here is where we are. shut down. late last night, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell scheduled a vote for noon today on a three-week extension tied to consideration of an immigration bill. here he is followed by chuck schumer. >> when the democratic filibuster of the bill comes to an end, the serious bipartisan negotiations that have been going on for months now to resolve our unfinished business, military spending, disaster relief, health care, immigration and border security will continue. it would be my intention to resolve these issues as quickly as possible so that we can move

on to other business that's important to our country. however, should these issues not be resolved by the time the funding bill before us expires on february 8th, 2018, assuming that the government remains open, it would be my intention to proceed to legislation that would address daca, border security, and related issues. >> i am happy to continue my discussion with the majority leader about reopening the government. we've had several conversations, talks will continue. but we have yet to reach a path moving forward that would be acceptable to both sides. >> so when you have chuck schumer saying they're going to keep debating and then you have mitch mcconnell going down the list of things they want to talk

about, what is so interesting is all of those issues are very popular, health for poor children or daca, that's a 90/10 issue. mitch mcconnell's assurances were enough for lindsey graham and jeff flake. what about other democrats? do we have the possibility of getting this logjam taken care of? >> it's a real nail biter, joe. there is a universe of about ten senate democrats is how my sources are putting it to me now. when you see mitch mcconnell on the floor this morning, i think that's the audience that he's speaking to. chuck schumer left it open ended at this point, but they are taking this period of time to talk to the democrats. they're split into what i would sort of description as three fashions.

you have -- chuck schumer has an unruly bunch running for president who are listening to the progressive base in a real way, pam ra harri-- pamela harr corey among them. there are those who don't want to see government be so broken at this point and who might be willing to say i'm going to cover for the rest of you, we're going to vote for this. jeff flake, lindsey graham, that might matter because they don't have cover from republicans any more. if they do this again, he it's going to be a republican only shutdown and that wasn't the case before. >> so talking about the chaos going on inside the white house, the caseo inside capitol hill,

let me read another line here. all of this has raised questions not only about mr. trump's grasp of issues of his campaign and also his leadership. what weak leadership when you have 32-year-old staff members leading a president around by the nose on an issue. and i guess the real problem for mitch mcconnell is he doesn't want to get too far out in front of the president himself and pass something in the senate that the president is going to attack like he did the health care bill. if you're mitch mcconnell, what do you do? >> historically, the white house is the stability center of graphdy in these negotiations. so the white house has their list and knows what they want.

the hard part usually is the senate and the house. what you have here are three houses and three senates, right? so if the white house can't figure out what the white house list of demands are and stick with it, it's hard for the senate to do an even harder thing, which is find a compromise there. still ahead, a 32-year-old is tellinging the president what to do. more on how one of trump's advisers are helping blow up the chance of a compromise on capitol hill. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] ♪ 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.

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welcome back to "morning joe." we've been talking about the impact of government shutdown. not only on american workers, but also on the country's standing in the world. richard, you have some thoughts on that. >> you remember the old line, the whole world is watching? >> yeah. >> well, the whole world is watching. who would want to rely on a united states that goes through this? if you're an ally, it sends real

messages that we can't be predictable. if you're a foe, why should you respect us? if you're a developing country, why would anyone want to emulate us? why would anyone want to adopt a democratic motto? the russians are being very forceful in their foreign policy. the chinese are eating our lunch in asia. they're offering a different political economic system while we're going through this. >> joe. >> john, we always ask you this and the answer is usually no these days. but any historical parallels where you have a government shutdown, you have the president constantly agreeing on an issue with people on the hill, and then you have an aide, in this case a 32-year-old aide, as lindsey graham said, who takes the position that is extreme, that's an outlier. and the president continues to back down from what he believes

and let's his staff lead him around by the nose. any precedent that you can remember? and what is so remarkable about it, john, is this has paralyzed government. the president agrees with the majority of people in the senate. the president graems wiagrees w on d.r.e.a.m.ers and has stated it repeatedly yet a 32-year-old aide has effectively shut down the government. >> i can't think of a moment like this. what i would urge the -- and we keep talking about the white house, but as we've all been talking about, it's unclear what that means. there is no union fiesed whiuni position. the presidents who are warmly

remembered those who ultimately tell their political base that they're wrong and that there is an active leadership in which the president reaches out as opposed to keeping them close. we quote dwight eisenhower saying the military complex is troubling. he spoke out against it. lyndon johnson, a whooil white southern democrat from a segregated state undoes the dark legacy of reconstruction. richard nixon goes to chiend. ronald reagan, the great cold war your, ends the cold war. george h.w. bush takes a risk on fiscal responsibility. these are people who tell their supporters, on this one, the

right thing to do is not what you thought. one of the reasons to go into politics is to move the ball in that sense. what is note woshthy here is he's the president of the united states. if he can't say no to steven miller, go the god help us. >> to john's point, that would be the historical fantasy right now, that president trump, after all of his divisive rhetoric on immigration would swoop in in and achieve some master bipartisan compromise and pull the country together. that is definitely firsthandsy last right now because what we're seeing is president trump still does not know what he wants. he cannot direct anyone on his behalf to move the ball forward. so you see coming right now literally crippled. but i blame them just as much if not more than donald trump.

i just don't have the sympathy. coming up, how much of the government shutdown is based on policy like the border wall versus the politics of which power is in power. we'll break that down next. and as we go to break, a look at some of the memorable images from the weekend as americans exercise their hard fought freedom of speech. ♪ ♪

♪ >> we cannot have somebody like this in the white house. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> the motion is not agreed to. ♪ once in your life >> so we can have a check on this president, i urge you to support democratic candidates all across this country. >> we stand at a place of history, right here. >> we have this president celebrating his one-year anniversary. let's give him an "f" for his performance. >> fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> you also have people that were very final people on both sides. >> the president has said to a hate filled audience. >> the trump shutdown is als all yours. ♪ the world turns violently

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you can authorize left and right. it's appropriating the money that makes the difference. mr. schumer wants to authorize the wall to be built, but doesn't want to spend the money to get it built. >> the president campaigned on the wall, even though he said it would be paid for by mexico. and demands the wall. for the sake of compromise, for the sake of coming together, i offered it. despite what some people are saying on tv, and mind you, these are folks not in the room

during discussion, that is exactly what happened. the president picked a number for a wall. i accepted it. it wasn't my number. it wasn't the number in the bills here. he picked it. now it would be hard to imagine such a more reasonable compromise. all along the president is saying i'll do daca and d.r.e.a.m.ers in return for the wall. he's got it. can't take yes for an answer. that's why we're here. >> can't take yes for an answer and that is exactly the problem of trying to negotiation with this white house, joe. >> the "new york times" article that julie and maggie wrote this morning, they now have yet another example. nick mulvaney goes out and whether he deliberately lies or unknowingly spreads false

information, he says chuck schumer didn't offer him enough money. chuck schumer said, how much do you want? the president gives him a number. he says, okay. you want the number? here is the number. let's go. so they think they have a deal. chuck schumer goes back and he's thinking, hey, we're going to be able to open the government. then a 32-year-old kid leads him around by the nose and tells him, a 32-year-old. as lindsey graham says, lindsey graham and others have been reporting that a 32-year-old is telling the president of the united states what to do. he gets the minority leader of the senate and himself together. he gives the minority leader a number. the minority leader accepts it and then it's blown up. you can't deal with that white house and the biggest

question -- lisp, this government is going to reopen. but i will tell you, and richard hass can probably speak to this more, but the problem is leaders across the world are seeing how weak and pathetic this president can be, how he's one of the weakest presidents. we've had 45 presidents. you would be hard pressed to find one of those 45 presidents ever allowing a 32-year-old to lead him around by the nose and, actually, undercut him with negotiations with senate leaders. would barack obama ever let a 32-year-old staff member -- never. not in a million years. barack obama was a strong leader. what we have here is a weak, weak uninformed leader. michael was right. this "new york times" article is right. we have such a weak leader. he let's 32-year-olds lead him around and undercut him on

negotiations. never seen anything like that. >> i don't know why you would call him a tiny dictator. that's what he is, little miller. he is in charge, okay? don't say he's not in charge. >> but richard hass, it's hard to blame a 32-year-old when it's the president of the united states that -- if i had a staff member telling me what to do, undercutting me, you know how many times they would undercut me before i told them to get a box and get all their stuff offer their desk? once. once. and any strong leader would be that way. donald trump, what is the impact for the chun he's, the russians, the saudis, for anyone else across the world seeing how weak this man is as a leader? >> the last i checked, staff

works for the president, not vice versa. meanwhile, the world isn't waiting. there is no pause button for the world, joe. history is happening. you see the turks are attacking the very forces we've been working with against isis and the united states is ringing its hands. russia is doing what it's doing in ukraine and syria. china is getting more assertive in the south china sea. and, again, here is the united states totally twisted in washington and essentially making its relevant. we are fast describing as what many of us have arieft at and we're doing this ourselves. coming up on "morning joe," "the washington post's" ruth marcus is with us plus steve schmidt joins the conversation. whoooo.

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so president trump is again trying to pin the government

stalemate on the democrats. he tweeted moments ago, quote, the democrats are turning down services and security for citizens in favor of services and security for noncitizens. not good. and democrats have shut down our government in the interest of their far left base. they don't want to do it. but they are powerful which, of course, is very interesting because as i've said all morning, we know because anybody that watched tv this weekend and saw the senate in session saw that claire mccaskill tried to pass an amendment that would allow for full funding of the military just like she passed in 2013. republicans stopped it. they tried to pass funding for the c.h.i.p. program. republicans stopped it. tim kain tried to reopen the government for three days to give them the space to negotiate this week. they did that yesterday. republicans stopped it.

donald trump and chuck schumer got together, came up with a deal on daca and the staff stopped it. and that is what we're going to talk about right now. let's bring in columnist and deputy et ditorial editor ruth marcus and an msnbc political analyst steve schmidt. he's here with a new study on a loss of trust by merps. and stephanie rule whos has new report on the fact that the chief of staff and senior policy adviser steven miller have been playing a major role in breaking down the immigration negotiations and, stephanie, let's start with you. we've been talking about it all morning that democrats make a deal with donald trump, donald trump wants to move forward. he has talked about it for over

a year, that he wants to do a daca deal. yet these staff members are leading donald trump around like he has predmeementia or somethi. what's going on? >> and the fact that kellyanne conway is saying this morning president trump has been clear on where he stands on immigration. that is not the case. and it's not just democrats versus republicans. i spoke to senior leadership in the white house that said friday schumer did have a deal with president trump. trump wanted to zoom in, sign in and say i and i alone got a deal done. after meeting with chuck schumer and people in the white house said great, we're going to move forward. then he allowed, you keep mentioned it, 32-year-old steve miller and john kelly to get in the mix and say no, sir, that's not going to happen. a lot of people are in that white house are now blocked out of the conversation. on other negotiations, on other issues, the president asks a lot

of people. how are those other people going to get access to the president right now when john kelly is the one controlling that access? bear in mind, whether with you're talking john kelly or steven miller, neither of those men have ever negotiated a deal in business or politics. so for sarah huckabee sanders to say chuck schumer, he might not understand big policy making, that's a joke. and people inside the white house are saying that very thing. >> yeah. they are. and steve, let me bring you in here. you've been around republican leaders before and you've seen john mccain. you've also seen george w. bush up close. and you've seen them negotiate. would either of those two men be so weak, be such feckless leaders, be so pathetic in their grasp of.topics that they would allow a 32-year-old staffer or

even a chief of staff to undercut every single deal that they make and get to a point where they're afraid to even let the president go into the room? >> yeah, of course not, joe. and both men would have believed absolutely what they believed in. they would have known what they stood for. part of getting to an agreement in negotiation is being able to say yes to something, knowing what your position is. both george w. bush and john mccain would, a, know what their position is, but they would also heed the warnings of the secretary of defense who said this budget impasse is debilitating to our defense, to the united states military, and they would act responsibly, responsibly to keep the functions of the united states government moving forward so as not to make us look like a laughingstock on the global stage which is a worrisome part of this trust study that's just been completed that you mentioned a few moments ago.

>> yeah. ruth marcus, you've written two columns talking about the dangers of what's happened over the past year. i'm sure, not included in those columns, the danger of having a president who doesn't know what he believes and allows himself to be led around by the nose by a 32-year-old. i mean, we talk about all the dangers of donald trump, but there is an inherent danger of him being such a weak, weak, weak leader that he sends a message to china he's weak. he sends a message to russia that he's weak. he sends a message even to israel that he is weak and can be rolled by 32-year-old staff members. >> well, i totally agree and, you know, the president told us he alone can fix it. and, of course, no one in our institutional system can or should be able to fix something alone. but what we've seen over the last several days if not over the last year is that the

president is uniquely ill suited to fixing what's wrong because, in order to fix what's wrong, you need to know how the system works. you need to know how to work with others. and you need to know, and this goes to what you've been saying and what steve alluded to, you need to know what your bottom line is and where you want to go. the problem is not that we have overassertive aids in the white house. in some ways, previous white houses have been held back by having aides who were too much yes men to the president, who wanted everybody in the white house wants to tell the president what the president wants to hear. and it's hard to stand up to a president. you want people who have the power and the knowledge and the confidence to stand up to the president, but on the other side, what you need is a president who knows what he thinks and what his bottom line is. that's what's lacking here. >> that may be the biggest problem there. stephanie, i know you have to go prep for your show, but final thoughts from you. because i mean, i don't know what the argument is right now

about who in the white house really understands the process of dealing with congress and negotiating. we have john kelly in there. but who does and if there isn't anyone on top of that, i think the president has proved himself to be incapable of understanding the process or even the policies that are being debated. >> mika, this weekend the president was off tweeting tune into my son, eric trump, on fox. he was out there tweeting thank you to that fox contributor who gave me an a rating. an a rating during a shutdown and when eric trump goes on tv and says this shutdown is good for us and you've got don jr., again, saying if you are pro military, then you should support republicans. joe said it before, claire mccaskill wanted to support the military on saturday and there are people inside that white house right now saying the president doesn't want to hear from me. i'll put my pen down. but when he wants help, you can call us and we'll be there.

but they're not going to get in a fight with steven miller and john kelly. from their perspective, they think this could be the time when steven miller spins himself right out the door. >> my god. stephanie, thank you very much. nick, your thoughts. >> steve sch mi dt, talk to us from nbc's bureau out there about this trust study, trust braham tore and why our trust in our institutions and elites is in danger. >> well, edelman conducted this study for the last 18 years. it's one of the largest global studies that looks at trust in government of ngo media institutions in business. we did it across 28 countries, 33,000 interviews. and what we've seen is a decimation of trust in the united states, both amongst the american people but also a global audience. pre-cipitous drops. we're now viewed as somewhere

between spain and italy among formed elites. the people making the most money in the country with the highest levels of education. the view of the united states is now dead last out of those 28 countries. we see precipitous, calamitous drops amongst young people in the country, polarization politically in the united states in this age of trump. and i think it bears mentioning the corresponding of rise and trust in china, both at an international audience, but amongst its domestic audiences, as well. and going back to the point that richard haas made, the liberal global water of these post second world war was sustained by trust in the united states, trust in the american people, of their institutions, of their country. and we see that eroding very, very quickly. and the collapse of trust is not

flattening, it's accelerating. and when we lose trust in our institutions, we start to see a failure of trust in symptoms -- excuse me, in systems. systems like democracy, a democratic republic, free market american capitalism. so these are some very, very worrying trends that we've seen in this largest decrease in trust in a one-year period that we've seen over almost the last 20. >> thank you. amen. >> all right. steve is schmidt, thank you so much for bringing that study to us. ruth, i want to go to you because the president famously in 2013 blamed barack obama for the government shutdown. he said whoever is the president is the person at fault. the buck always stops with the president. yet comparing barack obama's leadership style to donald trump's, it's hard to ever imagine barack obama being so weak as a leader as donald trump has been that he would let a

32-year-old aide or even his chief of staff go back and undercut deals that he had already made. the compares yison of the weakn of donald trump to barack obama is staggering here. and i didn't even agree on a lot of barack obama's policies, as you know, but just leadership style. i can't believe how weak donald trump is compared to barack obama. >> well, and i think, you know, as we have discovered, the there is always a tweet for every situation and donald trump's tweets about how the buck stops with the president in terms of the showdown and that is the president's role in terms of shutdown, sorry, and that's the president's role to preventive, i think, is telling. and you know as a courtroom lawyer, you just say, did you say that tweet, can you read it to the jury? thank you. no more questions. asked and answered. i want to say one thing about

brand usa. steve knows more about branding than i do and his concerns and richard's concerns are really, really well taken and important. i just believe -- and this is what i've been trying to write over the last weeks, that the ua has a really resilient plan. because it's a great idea with great institutions and great values and one bad batch, which is what we've got with this president, i think causes damage to the brand, but the brand can recover. that's what we really need to keep our eyes on. >> i know, mika, you're very concerned about the long-term damage, but what ruth just said was confirmed by so many people in britain. we've talked about it on the show before. whenever we were talking with people and -- in london about the problems we were having, in the united states, they would say, you're america, you're going to get past this, this is just one man. and you will, you will get past it.

then they go on to say our problem is more systematic. >> i think you got to protect the brand. i think the brand is being threatened. but that's the difference of opinion that you and i have. ruth marcus, thank you very much. the election of donald trump motivated women to march, but his actual presidency motivated them even more. we're going to take a deep dive into the resistance next on "morning joe." growing up, we were german. we danced in a german dance group. i wore lederhosen. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't finding all of these germans in my tree. i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. the big surprise was we're not german at all. 52% of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com.

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so while we have this president celebrating his one-year anniversary, let's give him an "f" for his performance. >> okay, house minority leader nancy pelosi took a break from a stalemate on capitol hill to address a crowd of thousands in washington, one of dozens of cities to hold women's march over the weekend. among them, sunday's rally in las vegas dubbed power to the polls. aimed at galvanizing voters to elect more women and progressive candidates. it was proceeded the day before by hundreds of thousands of activists dressed in pink and carrying signs gathering in cities from los angeles to right here in new york. joining us now, professor of sociology at the university of maryland, dr. dana fisher, who's been looking at the impact and makeup of the weekend's demonstrations. so how did you do this? first of all, it's fascinating what you found. but how were you able to get this all together so quickly?

>> i've been studying protests since 2000. when there are large-scale protests, i take a research team, we go out into the crowd and basically identify where the staging area is, where people are lining up and there are teams of people who go out. it used to be with clip boards. now we have these pink tablets we take. if you ever see pink tablets in the crowd, it's my team. every fifth person, ask them to survey. we sample a field approximation of random samples throughout the crowd. this weekend, we got 205 people in washington, d.c. last year in washington, in 2017, we got 528 people's samples. >> joe has a question for you. joe. >> i was just going to say what seems different about this than other mars that i've seen in the past is a lot of times people go out and they march and that's the end of it. >> right. >> we said last year after the women's march, hey this is great, but you'd do much better knocking on doors or doing phone banks unless you're collecting

data at the marches. unless you're getting cell phone numbers. it appears that's exactly what they've done. it's caused some remarkable things to happen in virginia and alabama, right? >> the thing i think is really important is a third of the people at the women's march in 2017 actually were new and never protested before, they said they'd never come out before. they've come out again and again and again. they marched at the march for science. they marched at the people's climate march. they marched around a range of issues. and then they came back out last weekend to march all over the country. the estimation it it was 1.6 million or more people participated in the march. >> what was the most interesting thing you found? >> the most interesting thing to me is over 15% of people who were in the crowd this weekend actually self-identify as being moderates or right leaning. and that is substantially more than last year, which means that the resistance is expanding to bring in people who care about issues but are not your basic democrat, they're not clinton

supporters. >> wow. >> should republicans be concerned that they're losing educated women? >> oh, they're losing educated women but they're also losing educated men. only 86% of the people in the crowd were women so there were a lot of men there too. >> it sounds like what you found over the course of the studies was the first march pulled in a bunch of new people and they've stayed involved. >> yes. >> how much do we know about politics and voting behavior of the people who are being pulled in, you know, freshly to this movement? >> what we know is more and more of them are reporting contacting their elected officials, going to town hall meetings and doing all sorts of other -- democrats in their communities. they're starting to do all these other activities. they're all interested in the midterm elections. both those left leaning and right leaning in the moderates. >> dr. dana fisher, thank you. joe. >> well, i was just going to say, the impact's pretty incredible. you look at what's happened, the

new abc news/"washington post" poll out shows a gender gap, are you ready for this, for women, of plus 35 for democrats. democrats are leading republicans in a generic ballot test by 35%. you don't have to even say that's historic. there's nothing like that, mika. why don't you close by telling us why it's so historic. >> well, at this point, we're going to have to fight back any way we can as it pertains to women. this has been a devastating year on so many levels. but also the most inspiring year. as you can see, women across the country are galvanized to act. i will also say in closing, and then joe, i'll let you take it and throw it to break, republicans walking the plank for donald trump. i don't know what it's going to take. you're on the wrong side of history. you're on the side of wrong. and i'm, you know, not trying to be a character here, i'm very

concerned for this country and for the direction we are going in and you're on the wrong side of history. what is it going to take for you to act? joe. >> and they just -- they do what paul ryan just did. i don't want to talk about it. i don't want to talk about the racist comments. i don't want to talk about the campaign ads that are distorted while we're trying to bring this all together. i don't want to talk about claire mccaskill trying to get funding for troops and republicans shutting it down. other democrats trying to get funding for poor children for their health care and republicans shutting it down. i don't want to talk about tim kaine trying to keep government open for three days and republicans shutting it down. they don't want to talk about it. well, guess what, they're going to have to talk about it after they lose the house and the senate, because if they keep acting that way, this is what's going to happen. let's move now to stephanie ruhle who continues the coverage. >> thanks so much, joe, mika. hi there, i'm stephanie rule. this morning with a lot to cover. starting with america at a