and the emerging reports were not reflective of the individual who we had come to know. >> well, in his first on-air camera appearance from the white house podium, deputy press secretary raj shah did something that few in the administration have done so far, express a sense of regret over the troubled handling of a serious issue. meanwhile, the u.s. government was shut down while you were sleeping. the u.s. government is open this morning. because the house just passed legislation to reopen it. after another tense stand-off on capitol hill. good morning, welcome to "morning joe," it's friday, february 9th. with us, veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle. national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc, john heilemann. politics editor for the "daily beast," sam stein. republican strategist and political commentator, susan del

persio and washington news reporter for cbs america, catty kay and author of "the playbook" jake sherman. i want to get get to this capitol hill vote. but first, jon heilemann, raj shah, you always have to be very careful about what you say about anything in the white house. because it changes in 15 seconds. but i, i don't know -- read a little bit about his background. i listened to about 15 seconds of it, and i said, oh, my god this -- this guy is being respectful for the most part to reporters. and handling in a professional way. and it almost sounded like -- a normal whouts. -- white house. didn't get into back-and-forth fights. this is a job after all that has all the job security of being number three in al qaeda or a chelsea football coach. but that said, for one brief

shining moment in time yesterday, both mika and i were very impressed by his ability to function up there in a very difficult job. >> well, sure. yes. i agree i thought i did fine yesterday. we're addressing his composure and his manner from the podium. not the underlying circumstances that are going on right now on the story of the white house. >> exactly. >> and i just know that's the case and we're going to talk about the underlying circumstances in a moment. but i agree with you, i mean so much at this administration, we are always grading on the curve. so when someone gets up and behaves in a composed, respectful way and does not in any kind of glaring or gratuitous way lie from the podium, we say hey, that's fantastic. we're not used to that. wow, this is kind of a, we're "back to the future" way-back machine and got in a delorian

and we're back in another administration. i thought he did fine, dealing with some difficult and still murky facts around a very troubling issue. >> i'm drawing no comparisons whatsoever. my friends and foes on my twitter feed, please don't throw darts at me. but mike mccurry was put into a difficult political position time and time again. he had to go up through the press corps when the president of the united states was lying through his teeth, not just about monica lewinsky, but to other things. i'm not comparing this guy, raj to mike mccurry and i'm not comparing to sweatland ponies to lassie and i'm not comparing bill clinton to anybody. so you guys can just relax. all i am saying is he actually did a professional job yesterday. despite what he was talking about. so checkmark there. well i've just destroyed my twitter feed for the weekend. anyway, so the federal

government is actually going to reopen this morning after a funding fight on capitol hill. that fight led to another government shutdown. and the house just passed a budget bill by a vote of 240-186. it came about three hours after the u.s. senate passed legislation overnight. with bipartisan support. now the long-term budget is going to raise, get this conservatives, federal spending by about $300 billion over the next two years. guess what else it does conservatives? it calls for raising the debt ceiling and it will raise it through 2019. it includes $90 billion in disaster aid. and the reason for the last-minute drama was republican senator rand paul. who used a procedural tactic to block the senate from speeding up the vote. so that congress could meet the midnight deadline. paul wanted senate leaders to give him a vote on an amendment

that would keep budget caps in place. and he protested the large pricetag of the deal. >> i can't in all good honesty, in all good faith just look the other way, because my party is now complicit in the deficit. really, who is to blame? both parties. we have a 700-page bill that no one has read, that was printed at midnight no one will read this bill, nothing will be reformed. the waste will continue and government will keep taking your money and adding to a $20 trillion debt. >> so -- jake sherman, i tweeted yesterday that i hear rand paul is delivering a speech the way conservatives i guess last century used to deliver speeches. you don't vote for 700-page bills that you don't read that

are going to increase the federal debt, that are going to increase the deficit. that are going to do all the things that this is going to do. and yet the republican congress just passed it. >> yeah, you actually are underselling it a little bit. it's more than $300 billion. it's close to $400 billion in fresh spending, including close to $100 billion in disaster aid for florida, texas and several other states. puerto rico. listen, this was a strange moment because you kind of got the sense when rand paul was on the floor last night, if barack obama was in the white house, it would be an all-night filibuster by every republican senator and republican house members would be holding back their vote. it was a definite role-reversal. i want to hone in on one thing, house democrats went through a crisis of sorts last night as well. they were trying to whip up support against this budget bill. they had a long meeting, they wanted to hold paul ryan's feet to the fire on daca. they were unable to extract any promise on the immigration process. and a large number of their

members voted for this bill in the end of the day. so really, a kind of confused night on capitol hill as they funded the government and kept it open. >> for republicans, for conservatives, we've gotten so used to electing republican presidents with republican congresss. and watching them vote for things that republicans are not supposed to believe in. certainly that conservatives aren't supposed to believe in. we did it with george w. bush who took $155 surplus, turned it into a $1 trillion deficit. doubled the national debt. it's happening here even worse with donald trump. we're going to set records for the next four years. for deficits most likely, we've already in $20 trillion in debt, we're moving $30 trillion in debt and here it was, a republican president, a republican senate and a republican house -- that busted the spending caps, which by the way donald trump said were

disastrous. that's the only thing congress has done that's been disciplined on spending in 20 years. so here we go again. off to the races. higher deficits, higher debts. >> and it's amazing we're not even coming close to talking about entitlement reform so i kind of look at today as the day the tea party movement died. anyone, the majority of republicans in the house that have been elected since 2010 as part of the tea party movement, it's gone. there's no sense in saying you're a fiscally responsible republican when you vote for things like that. and especially when you don't even take a stand on entitlement reform this president has indicated he won't go there. which is going to create some real serious problems for us looking down the road. >> and sam stein, where was ted cruz? i would have expected ted cruz to be delivering that speech last night. that rand paul delivered. because ted cruz, after all, shut down the government in 2013

for far less than this. again, they busted the budget caps. we're now $20 trillion in debt. we're moving towards $30 trillion in debt. they just passed a massive tax cut that's going to blow another possibly $2 trillion in the national debt. more, more easy money with the markets already overheated. by the way,dy mention the stock market went down another 1,000 points yesterday? this is a time you would expect somebody who pretends to be a fiscal conservative, ted cruz, to step up and say something. >> you would think. >> it was left to rand paul. where are all of these 2013 stalwarts that shut the government down? >> well ted cruz happens to have an election. ted cruz happens to be in a surprisingly cloe for texas election. and this bill happened to have billions in disaster aid for texas. which adds up to voting for a

measure. it's pretty clear that the deficit scolding that we saw from republicans between 2009-2016 was predominantly a product of having a democratic president. like jake said, there is just no way to possibly imagine that a republican-led house or senate would have approved this bill if barack obama were in the white house. i'm also not totally surprised by this. it's not even a month ago. that they voted for tax cut package that was highly fiscally irresponsible. if you look at the cbo score. i thought it was 1.7, $1.4 trillion over the next decade. there's this whole notion that the republican party is the one of fiscal responsibility and they do talk a good game. but every time they've been in position of power now, at least over the last two decades, they have done things diametrically opposite to that. think we might need to rethink how we frame the parties here.

>> katty, as i said yesterday to mike barnicle, it seems the only time democrats are worried about deficits is when republicans are trying to pass tax cuts and the only time republicans are worried about deficits is when democrats are in the white house. >> joe, a question to you -- if we're, if these market tumbles really do presage a time when deficits are going to rise? >> donald trump has said, he called this -- he called the budget caps dangerous. which they're the opposite of dangerous. what is dangerous is you allow the debt continue to go up. and he promised he wasn't going to take care of the two programs that are doing the most to -- unfortunately to destroy america's economic future. social security and medicare. throw in medicaid there, these

entitlement programs have to be reformed. they have to be saved. but donald trump says he's not going to, not going to touch them. so, yeah, it's unbelievable. and you're right. what did everybody say, katty, about the tax cuts, they were talking about you don't cut taxes when you have full employment. you don't cut taxes when the economy is doing well. you don't overheat the economy. the republicans didn't listen. donald trump didn't listen. guess what, the markets collapsing now. and it's collapsing because what are people afraid of? high interest rates. because the economy could be overheated. it's unbelievable. also, katty, another big story, the white house fumbling around now we find out don mcgann knew repeatedly of these abuse charges against rob porter. and of course, general john kelly, not looking good at all as this story unfolds. >> a bunch of big stories this morning and the latest on this

really is the kind of reality tv white house. the continued questions about around what white house officials knew about the allegations of domestic abuse against one of president trump's closest aides, the "washington post" is reporting that white house counsel don mcgann knew about the accusations against staff secretary rob porter a year ago. but allowed him to remain in his post because he viewed him as a professional voice within the west wing. according to people familiar with the matter. those sources also tell the paper that mcgann did not change his position after the fbi flagged some of its findings to the white house last june. nor did he act in september when he learned that the domestic violence claims were delaying porter's security clearance. or in november when porter's former girlfriend, who works for the administration, contacted him about the allegations. one former white house official tells nbc news that chief of staff john kelly reportedly knew about the allegations of domestic abuse for months. kelly also reportedly knew porter would be denied a full security clearance by the fbi.

but allowed porter to remain in his role. kelly initially defended porter in a statement on tuesday, but after photos were published showing one of porter's ex-wife's with a black eye, kelly released another statement on wednesday night, saying he was quote shocked by the new allegations. but stood by his previous comments. yesterday white house press secretary raj shah was asked about kelly's changing statements. >> there's been some reports about the chief of staff. he became fully aware about these allegations yesterday. >> the statement change from john kelly yesterday morning to the statement yesterday evening, he said based on new allegations. but what changed yesterday absent a photograph in terms of new allegations? >> well i think what i just referenced, the reports had additional allegations, they had more information. >> to be clear what was so shocking that had changed? he said it was shocking what was he referring to? >> the full nature of the allegation, particularly the images. >> in wake of the allegations,

kelly sent a internal memo to the white house staff, condemning domestic abuse. porter said these allegations are simply false. porter resigned from the white house on wednesday. mike barnicle, it seems for john kelly, if you've got photos that your husband beat you and you've got a black eye, that changes the story. but if you just say that he beat you and you've got a black eye, that doesn't really count. >> katty, history is littered with people who went to work for donald trump and as soon as they went to work for him, they lost a piece of their reputation in his wake. this is so different. even though he is now president of the united states. the don mcgann story, which is one of the leads of the "washington post" this morning, is another example of what is so missing in this white house. the core of morality. they knew what rob porter had done and they didn't care. because they figured he could do the job that they wanted him to

do. but jon heilemann in this morning's "post" also there's a quote here from general john allen, retired four-star marine corps general talking about john kelly, his friend of four decades. he said this is a man who across the koerns for 40 years was considered to be the example of moral principle and integrity. a selfless servant in every possible way. a lot of personal courage, moral courage to do the right thing. his values were very powerfully formed and it's just difficult for me to find in my memory of my service with him a flaw. and yet here we are, today, this morning, and have been for several days, wondering what is wrong with general kelly? >> it is a moment of reckoning for people like general who have known him for a long time and are wondering whether he has changed in some profound way. or whether this is something that perhaps has been there all along. a blind spot. an element of moral obtuseness. in some cases elements of

coarseness when it comes to some issues related to race. a couple of days ago before we get gto into this story, we had him talking about dreamers, daca recipien recipients, being too lazy to get off their asses to file paperwork. one of the things that happens in the context of the military, obviously you were tested a million ways. but it's possible that in this circumstance, there are elements of general kelly's character that were not as evident in his service in the military. in this environment, not donald trump, but the environment, political environment, now the military touches on pretty much every issue in american life. >> but not politics. >> not politics. >> i think we've said many times about donald trump, when you get to be that age, you do not change. so i don't believe general kelly has changed because he's in the white house. what has happened is i think the context in which he's now operating has exposed things that perhaps were not visible to even some of the people closest to him through the course of his career.

>> in that coop tentext we have evidence nearly every day that general john kelly is inept. >> mike you and i have both known across the decades people that we have respected, that have been friends, that have gone into white houses. and have surrendered part of their soul. to be close to a president. to cover up his lies. to, to justify that what they are doing. in the worst of circumstances. they're just there to make it a better place and it's not as bad as -- everybody that gets into the white house it seems most justify what they do. and it seems that general john kelly is no different. and i think of course the porter story is just horrific. that he nye about it.

but also the fact that john kelly decided to attack dreamers, that he decided to suggest that some dreamers were too lazy to get off their asses. it's not, it's not the crudeness of that. that, that is the biggest concern. it's the fact that he chose immigrants to speak that way. and you could go back over john kelly's 40 years. i suspect he has not attacked other groups like that publicly but he was obviously playing for the president of the united states. that's what's so distressing. that he thinks that he can gain more power by saying that dreamers are too lazy to get off their asses and sam stein, for those of us who had always hoped that general john kelly was going to be a moderating

influence on donald trump and bring professionalism to the west wing -- certainly as people such as myself are starting to have second doubts. >> to a certain degree, it's the question, heilemann raised, which is the most pertinent one, which is how much of this was in him before he came to the white house and how much of this has been brought out of him by being in proximity to donald trump. i think at this juncture, the greatest hopes for the kelly era, which were premised on getting the white house to act competently, reining the president's worst impulses, maybe doing something functionally legislatively, haven't been achieved. and as far as i can tell from the reporting that's out there, there is growing frustration by the president over kelly's tenure. which was the most predictable thing we could possibly imagine. as soon as it got rough, the president would begin to ask why is he here?

what good is he doing? so you know, i do think that we're at a place now where we need to conceivably ask how much longer does kelly have running this ship and what will he get done in that time left? >> one quick thing, there is a thing in the "new york times," one of the pieces that appeared yesterday about kelly where it notes that he appeared as a character witness in a 2016 court-martial of a marine colonel accused of sexually harassing two female subordinates, mr. kelly praised the colonel as a superb marine officer. so perhaps in this instance it does not totally come out of some instances, before he got to the white house. >> i think there's a reason he was picked to be dhs secretary. it's not just because he was this outstanding general with a great reputation. i think they knew his general views on immigration prior to that selection. >> and they also know that he's inherent to the chain of

command. the chain of command. >> there's nothing wrong with being conservative on immigration issues. there is something wrong with race-baiting and playing to your boss's worst instincts and turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and this sexual abuse, spousal abuse of this sort. which is exactly what they did. jake sherman, though, donald trump doesn't want to get rid of general kelly because of these incidents over the last week or so. he doesn't like the fact that general kelly has severely restricted the flow of information to his desk and made his office actually run in a more disciplined manner. i mean even we hear reports that even some of general kelly's family members are angry and want him gone. because they don't have the unfettered access they once had. >> you get complaints from members of congress all the time that there are calls to general kelly go unanswered. and that's a problem actually.

i've had a lot of members of congress, republican members of congress who used to have access to the president, who don't any more, say i need to get in touch with somebody in the white house to talk about strategy, to talk about where we're going as a party. where we're going as a country. and they can't get in touch with the chief of staff. that's been a point of frustration. now the chief of staff has been a presence up here on capitol hill in recent weeks, but there's definitely a frustration up here. now i think there's been some buzz recently in the last couple of days that donald trump would turn to capitol hill for a chief of staff. which i would say there's some healthy skepticism that that's a good idea and there are some names floating around, very unverified. people have talked about mark meadows for chief of staff for the white house, he's brushed that away. people close to him have brushed that away. there's definitely a lot of frustration up here in getting in touch with the white house. >> all right. politico's jake sherman, thanks so much. appreciate you being here. and as we mentioned at the top of the show, the market, i think

you can officially say is now correcting, 10% down in the last week or so. let's bring in cnbc's dominic chu. the volume tiatility appears to here. i would guess when the bell rings this morning, there's going to be a lot of skittishness where you are. >> there is certainly going to be a lot of skittishness right now. like you said there's been an extreme lack of volatility in the stock market over the course of the last couple of years. the last time i can remember that we saw any kind of a deep pull-back like this was the end of 2015 into the beginning part of 2016. we had gone a record 404 trading days in the stock market where we did not see any kind of a 5% correction from record high levels. that by the way is a record amount of time. throughout the market history in the united states, we have not gone that many days in a row without any kind of a pull-back. so this volatility is a stark reminder of what happens in the

marketplace when things do go a little wrong. now we talked about the idea that interest rates drove a lot of this the reason why there's a concern about this is because you're unlocking what the administration has done here is unlocked a large amount of fiscal stimulus at a time when the nation is already at near full employment. now obviously there are pockets of america that aren't feeling that kind of optimism. but still, on the whole, america is doing much better. and at a time when you fear that growth is overheating, or that prices are going to start rising for things like milk and for gasoline and for food products, that stokes at least some fear that rising interest rates will really take a toll on tapping the brakes on the economy. the reason why it's also important, you guys spoke earlier in the hour about the idea that we will be borrowing a lot of money over the course of this year and the next couple of years to finance some of these deficits. if interest rates continue to rise, the u.s. government could stand to pay a lot more in interest payments on the debt it needs to finance these kinds of

deficits. all of these things are things that are reverberating through the markets right now. >> so i remember talking to somebody right after the first days' collapse, first drop. and i said, what's causing it? one of the smartest people i know on wall street, and he said, i don't know, none of us really know. maybe it's automatic trading. is there more of an understanding what we're in the middle of right now on wall street? are people starting to say wait a second, this is about primarily about x, y or z? or do a lot of people just think this is a natural correction, that will continue for a while longer? >> i would say that the smart folks on wall street echo exactly what your friend just said. nobody can pinpoint exactly what's to blame for what's happening in the marketplace. i would say this -- the market we know and we've been covering it on your show and our network and everywhere across all of our networks, the idea that the market is at record highs despite what president trump says about the mainstream media not covering the market.

this is a market that has gained a lot in market value. i mean just to put it in perspective, over the course past week and a half, the s&p 500, the biggest 500 companies in the united states have lost a collective $2 pin 5 trillion of market value. but the balancing point to that whole thing right now is even with that loss, since the election, we are still up about $3.5 trillion in terms of overall market value so as we talk about what causes these types of reactions, i can go into all kinds of explanations i've heard about whether or not people who are betting against a volatility, people who are in essence betting on the idea that the stock market would never go down, would always go up in a very consistent fashion, all of those guys got wiped out in the last couple of days there are all of these other factors about hedge funds that are maybe perhaps making wrong-way bets on the overall market. all of these factor in. interest rates and everything. but to pinpoint it on one thing is tough. the one thing i have heard a lot of experts say, guys, is this is one of those corrections that may be is healthy for the overall market and the reason

why they say that is because we have not seen this kind of fear spill over into other parts of the market that typically see this kind of fear when they kind of stuff happens. so for right now it appears as though things are contained. i would say this, joe, it looks like for right now if things hold, the opening bell should show the dow up 250 points. it's no near the 1,000-plus we lost yesterday. but it's still at least some sign of stability. >> some sign of stability and maybe, maybe the market is actually finding settling in to where the new normal is going to be at least for a while. cnbc's dominic chu. still ahead, mike pence said he only learned of the rob porter development this week. why does the vice president always seem to be out of the loop when it comes to problematic issues inside the white house? reporter asks him that question point-blank. and we'll show you his answer. and run through some of the

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comcast is grateful to all who have served our country, and we're proud to bring the 2018 olympic and paralympic winter games home to everyone. every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to president trump. it's everyone who has ever doubted donald. whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. it is the ultimate revenge, to become the most powerful man in the universe. >> i was haunted by tweets every single day. >> does anybody say to him what are you doing? >> i tried to be that person. >> should we be worried? oh, don't say that. oh. because we are worried, but i need you to say no, it's going to be okay. >> no, it's not going to be

okay. it's not. >> would you vote for him again? god no. never. never in a million years, never. >> what is the white house's reaction to comments made by former white house aide omarosa on "celebrity big brother" where she said quote she's haunted by the president's tweets she described the situation inside the white house as bad, and said it is not going to be okay. >> not very seriously. omarosa was fired three times on "the apprentice." and this is the fourth time we let her go. she had limited contact with the president while here. she has no contact now. >> all right. so that's omarosa's time in the white house. we'll talk about that coming up. also, new reporting from nbc's heidi przybilla on congress demanding the release of secret memo from the white house. that memo outlines the

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with us now, we've got

columnist for "the new york times" brett stevens and also nbc news national political reporter heidi przybilla. this morning heidi has new reporting about senator tim kaine's demand that the white house release a secret memo. the memo would outline president trump's interpretation of his legal authority to wage war. heidi, tell us about that memo. >> joe, we obtained a letter last night that went from senator tim kaine who sits on the armed services and foreign relations committee to secretary of state rex tillerson demanding that administration release this secret memo that was apparently drafted around the time that the u.s. dropped bombs on syria in april. it was not made public and it's prompted a number of lawsuits by outside groups trying to seek its release. why? because there's a strong suspicion by senators like tim kaine, that the administration is reinterpreting its constitutional authority to wage war rather congress's authority

to, to over the u.s.'s ability to wage war. so we obtained this memo last night, at the heart of it is the fact that you know we really never got a good legal explanation from this administration about why it was interpreting its ability to wage war and to drop its bombs on syria. syria is a sovereign nation, it's not considered part of the authorization that we gave to the, to the white house to the executive branch. to wage war on terrorists after september 11th. so there's a lot of concern on capitol hill that this could be a precedent. and in fact we also obtained a document from the department of justice, that shows that sessions was also briefed on this memo and he views it as a potential basis for explaining future military actions. so right now, as you saw on wednesday, we really amping things up in syria. dropping more bombs, we've got many in congress concerned about

the rhetoric out of this administration. about a possible bloody nose, first strike, option in north korea. and congress just wants more answers and it wants access to this memo. it says it is not, many pages of this memo are not classified. >> brett stevens, the more things change, the more they stay the same. there are many things that are abnormal in donald trump's washington, many things we've never seen before. this, though, sounds like, a continuation of a political battle between the legislative branch and the executive branch. trying to figure out how much power the executive branch has taken for declaring war. >> this is in my view, democratic politics at its worst and frankly at its dumbest. clinton attacked iraq multiple times in bombings and strikes. president bush senior invaded

panama. this is normal give and take in trying to define a president's constitutional authority to wage war, at least to conduct military actions on a relatively small scale. this is not the question of north korea. we're talking about syria, which is busy continuing to gas its own people. what i fear is there's kind of a political muddying of the waters here because on the one hand, we want to have a serious discussion about what the trump administration may or may not have done vis-a-vis the russians. that's a genuinely worrying thing. the idea that the executive branch of government is having a conversation with itself attempting to define the scope of presidential authority strikes me as totally normal executive office politics. and so saying this is a secret memo, a lot of stuff that happens in the executive is, and needs to be secret. that was part of hamilton and madison's design for the office so sort of suggesting that there's something really dark

and amiss here, plays to, plays to -- >> john heilemann, this happens time and time again. it's not just democrats who do this you have republicans from let's just say rand paul's sort of section of the republican party. a lot of libertarians and a lot of people on the left who have been complaining about this. and i think for good reason. legitimately. for decades now. again, it seems i guess guess what i'm say something sort of like what brett said, while this does seem to be a critical issue, this is an issue that we've debated time and time again and will continue debating it until the supreme court steps in and is more definitive of the war powers act. >> this seems to me not to take

too much conflict with what the president said. it seems to be this is the kind of argument we've had in administration after administration. this is just an argument about the legislative branch versus the executive branch. one of the things when a new administration comes in is everyone on capitol hill, but usually the opposition party. whichever the opposition party happens to be is trying to figure out how that executive, how that new president thinks of his ability to define his ability to wage war and this is one of the ways in which this gets teased out. so if you have barack obama in the white house, you have republicans on capitol hill trying to figure out how does he see, is it the military executive? does he think he has to go to congress to declare war? it feels like it's been debated every administration i've ever covered. >> this president doesn't have any experience with government with, understanding how these things work. and that's a big difference, that's why i think it would probably be a little curious to see how, how this was written for the president if it comes

out. he literally had no idea how to even start the process. >> given that this is a legitimate genuine issue between the legislative and the executive. release the memo. take the air out of the notion that it's secret. put it out there and let's have a discussion. >> all the more reason for the president to understand what exactly the limits of his power are. by the way, this is something democrats struggled with. when barack obama took action in libya. i mentioned clinton, you can go all the way back to lbj and the dominican republic. so let's try to understand where the president sees his constitutional authority. but not treat this as a potential additional scandal. so brett let's talk about the budget deal that passed. the republicans passed a deal that's going to add even more to the deficit, more to the federal debt. busted spending caps. donald trump who we've been saying around the show for years

now, is not a conservative. he is, he's been a democrat his entire life. he called the spending caps dangerous. he, he said he's not going to do anything to touch entitlement reform. do you agree with what somebody said earlier, this prap, that, that last night's deal really did drive the final nail into the tea party's coffin? there are no small government conservatives running washington any more. >> i hope that's true, and i hope that's true, because i hope it's the end of the era of congressional puritanism. which makes the country ungovernable. this was, you know, a las vegas buffet with extra shrimp for everyone. and maybe that's, actually a better recipe for governing the united states and having predictable budgets than the constant sort of succession of

shutdowns that we've lived with for the past few years. so if you're having to choose your poison between -- i don't want to say -- it's not corruption, but kind of pork barrel spending that makes everyone happy or stop-and-start politics where the united states is constantly in crisis, i think i'm going to take the former, right? and if it drives a stake into the heart of the tea party. that much the better. >> i have the images of excessive amounts of shrimp now. i think you're right. but we have to note that the time to do this type of stuff was when we were coming out of the recession, right? the stimulative spending we had in 2009 was great. but we've detracted a little bit and any economist would have said let's do this type of excessive spending now. i guess i slightly disagree with the timing. but to heidi, you are on the hill all the time. do you agree with brett that we're kind of going to get out of this notion of shutdown-to-shutdown politics? or are we going to still be back at it in a couple of weeks when

they have to pass an appropriations to fill out this budget that they've now agreed to? >> i think we've kind of been out of it since republicans took control of all branches of government effectively. and the democrats gave it a whirl it didn't last too long in terms of using immigration as a potential wedge to hold up government spending. what we saw was that their party is not mitch mcconnell's party in the same tactics don't work in terms of base politics. so i think that brett may be right. that what we've seen here is a deal that we would have never gotten under barack obama. i bring you back to the shackles that were put on him, which were dollar-for-dollar spending cuts. those days are gone and as long as republicans control all levers of power, they're going to want to give their president a good spending deal, a two-year deal and themselves also to get the spending deals off their chest, as well as the debt limit

fight. so that they can go into 2018 not having to deal with that. >> think about it. those days are gone. spending caps are gone when the deficit is higher than ever before. the federal debt is higher than ever before and it's only going to get worse. the trend line is all bad. heidi thanks so much for being with us. what are you going to be working on today? >> we're going to be tracking the signing of the spending bill and going forward, working on a few more features in terms of oversight on the trump administration. >> heidi, thanks so much for being with us. we're going to be reading all your new reports on nbc news.com. brett stevens thank you as well. appreciate you being here. and coming up, "the new york times'" peter baker is going to join us with his new reporting on who president trump is calling to vent his frustrations about john kelly. it's someone who very recently knows the job very well.

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>> the photo started circulating yesterday after trump's staff secretary rob porter was forced to resign. the photo is of porter and four other staffers who have all been fired from the white house in the past year. take a look. look at those five. all fired from the white house. everyone in that photo went straight from trying to cut employment benefits to trying to collect employment benefits. [ laughter ] but look at the five of them. that photo, it looks like an album cover for a band called "buffoon 5." still ahead, john kelly was supposed to be a calming force in the west wing but now, of course, he's found himself in the middle of a controversy. and the president's reportedly voicing some complaints. we're going to have a lot more on the fallout over staff

secretary rob porter's exit after the allegations of abuse, and we're going to go live to the white house for the very latest on that story. plus, democrats on capitol hill are now trying to rain on president trump's plan for a military parade. the "washington post's" eugene robinson has a new op-ed about the proposed parade and gene is going to tell us what he thinks the parade is really about. "morning joe" will be right back. directv has been rated #1 in customer satisfaction over cable for 17 years running. but some people still like cable. just like some people like banging their head on a low ceiling. drinking spoiled milk. camping in poison ivy. getting a papercut. and having their arm trapped in a vending machine. but for everyone else, there's directv. for #1 rated customer satisfaction over cable, switch to directv and get a $200 reward card. call 1.800.directv

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>> when he was on your staff, did you get any indication whatsoever about some of these issues in his past? >> no, we didn't and it's a matter of great concern to me. >> the fact that this man operated a year without a security clearance, i didn't understand that and still don't. what general kelly knew and when he knew it is important. >> if you want to serve the public and you want to lead by example and particularly if you want to be on the the staff of the president of the united states you cannot beat the hell out of your spouse. it is illegal and it is immoral. and stepping aside in my judgment, it was the right

decision by mr. porter. welcome back to "morning joe," it's friday, february 9. with us we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc john heilemann, politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein, republican strategist and political commentator susan del percio, washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay and joining the conversation, chief white house correspondent for the "new york times" peter baker, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" eugene robinson and mika will be back with us on monday. let's start, though, this hour with a continued question that surrounds the white house and what white house officials knew about the allegations of domestic abuse against one of president trump's closest aides. the "washington post" is reporting white house counsel don mcgahn knew about the accusations a year ago but allowed porter to remain in his

post because he viewed him as a professional voice within the west wing. according to people familiar with the matter, he let him stay on despite knowing this for a year. sources also tell the paper mcgahn did not change his position after the fbi -- yes, the fbi -- flagged some of its findings to the white house last june and warned them. nor did mcgahn act in september when he learned that the domestic violence claims were delaying porter's security clearance, or in november when porter's former girlfriend who works for the administration contacted him about those allegations. a lot for us to get our arms around. with us at the white house, nbc news national correspond dent pe peter alexander. the news not good for don mcgahn, not good for john kelly, not good for the white house. >> i think that's right. you talked about the new questions for this white house about white house council don

mcgahn. there are plenty of questions that are unanswered or the answers have been murky regarding chief of staff john kelly. a u.s. official telling nbc news that john kelly reportedly knew about these allegations of domestic abuse against porter for months. at least in november of last year if not before. kelly knew porter would be denied a full security clearance by the fbi but allowed him to stay in his role. kelly, you'll remember, initially defended porter. basically his right hand man behind the scenes in the president's inner circle. he did that, that defense, in a statement on tuesday calling him a man of true integrity and honor. but after the photo was published showing porter's first ex-wife with a black eye, kelly released a new statement wednesday night saying he was "shocked" by the new allegations but that he stood by his previous comments. where ed in the briefing room, for the first time, we heard from raj shah, the deputy press

secretary for sarah sanders and i pressed him about kelly's changing statements. take a listen. >> i know there's been reports about the chief of staff. he became fully aware about these allegations yesterday. >> reporter: the statement changed from john kelly yesterday to the statement yesterday evening. he said based on new allegations but what changed yesterdays absent a photograph in terms of new allegations? >> i think what i just referenced. the reports had additional allegations, more information. >> reporter: to be clear, what was shocking that had changed. you said the it was shocking. >> the full nature of the allegation, particularly the images. >> the full nature of the allegation. so at least what we take from that is that even if john kelly and other white house officials had known for months if not longer about these allegations, until they saw a photo, nothing really happened. in the wake of the allegations last night, kelly sent an internal e-mail to white house staff condemning domestic violence, i've read through that. it talks in part about the resources available to those

here at the white house if they have concerns or desire any type of counseling. it writes in part that you are not alone. porter has denied the allegations we should note, writing in a statement that these are "outrageous allegations," that they are simply false. he says "i will not further publicly engage with the coordinated smear campaign." he resigned from the white house, joe, on wednesday, was back briefly to pack up his things before he left for good. >> peter alexander, thank you so much, hope you have a great weekend. >> thanks, you, too. >> let's go to john heilemann now. john, the white house is expressing shock over these allegations and yet we find out in the "washington post" this morning that don mcgahn and the white house knew for for a year. the fbi, the federal bureau of investigation, warned the white house, gave them the heads up about this. they obviously ignored those warnings. they were approached by a former girlfriend about him being

abusive. they ignored those warnings. you just can't help but believe that this story is going to get much bigger before it ends. there's a lot more that we don't know about. >> yes, i think that's right. this is a situation where the story, particularly as it pertains to general kelly and the rest of the white house, does not really at this moment pass the smell test. having been familiar with people who have gone through security clearance vetting over the course of covering white houses for the last 30 years, i've never heard anything like this. the fbi would have known basically everything about this relatively soon after it started to look at him for security clearance. it seems clear that what happened here was probably most people at a senior level in the white house knew that this guy did not have a security clearance, had a temporary security clearance, was never going to get a security clearance and decided that for various reasons probably pertaining to his abilities as a

professional in other areas that they were going to look the other way and if they had not been called out on this, if this had not surfaced in the media they would have hoped to get through the entire first term without any of us knowing about this and i believe, you know, we saw a similar thing, it's happened before in this administration, around michael flynn, for instance, where it was not -- they were going to look the other way about michael flynn until media reports surfaced. so there's a disturbing pattern where the white house tries to look the other way. i want to ask peter baker about whether he basically -- i've written about this, there's a couple different pieces in the last day or so, whether that basically makes sense to you, my general assessment of the thing, and i really want you to focus on an element of your story with maggie haberman that i cited which suggest this is may be part of a pattern with general kelly related to a military member who he was accused of sexual abuse who he testified on behalf of in a court case back in 2016. >> that's exactly right.

he was, of course, a four star marine general asked to testify at a court-martial for a marine colonel accused of sexual misconduct with a couple different women and he testified to his character, he said he was a superb marine officer. you want to make a connection, the connection would be that he found this person to be a valuable part of his operation, certainly rob porter had been very valuable to general kelly as his right hand person, one of those few people in that white house that was seen across the board as being professional, competent, not particularly ideological, somebody who would get things done. he was an important conduit and guardian of information, somebody who got information to the president and kept information away from the president if john kelly thought it was something that should be kept away from the president. so he clearly had blinders on when it came to rob porter. he saw somebody valuable to him and chose not to look at the other information and this is not a complicated investigation.

all of this information was available months and months ago and either general kelly turned aside the information he was given or he chose not to go and look for it when he was given at least partial information. so there are reports, of course, that he's in trouble not just with democrats and liberals but he's in trouble with the president of the united states himself who's very upset. he was already upset with general kelly for other reasons, he's looking at this now and beginning once again to talk about whether or not there might be some other chief of staff, maybe mick mulvaney who is the budget director will take over. whether that will happen we never know with president trump but he's upset at what he's learning. >> i'll point out the gentleman in question who he testified on behalf of that gentleman subsequently peter, if i'm following the links on your web site, that gentleman has been rearrested, something general kelly would not have known about but he was arrested on seven felony warrants of indecent

liberties with a child sol that's the person john kelly testified on behalf of in 2016. >> all of the ramifications of the story are going to spill out over the next few days and weeks but at the core of the story it seems that there's a real truth to the trump administration that we sometimes allude to but never really get to and it is this. don mcgahn, the white house counsel, found out about this a year ago january six months before john kelly became chief of staff and because he was impress and the president of the united states was impressed with rob porter's professionalism and hiss ability to handle paperwork, security clearance or no security clearance they are impressed with the job that he could do, they didn't care about the difference between right and wrong. >> yeah. and there are, katty kay, just, so many systems that are lacking

inside the white house and they have been for a very long time i remember after the new hampshire primary talking to two people very close to donald trump saying that they believe they can win the republican nomination and they were panicked because nothing was in place. even that early other campaign organizations are already thinking about transition directors that was the case late in the campaign and then they fired chris christie and there was nothing in place. no systems in place. there are not professionals inside the white house that have worked at other white houses and say when this happens this is how you handle that deal. they have a bunch of rookies in the white house and it shows. and in this case a bunch of rookies who turned a blind eye to some deeply troubling and

immoral behavior. >> i think it's more than rookies and systems. this story is shocking because it gets to an attitude that seems to be somewhat pervasive amongst some people in this white house towards women and what's acceptable about women and it comes from the president who is himself, we should point out, accused by 22 women of incidents of sexual harassment. general kelly at one point said women should be revered and honored but was prepared to not give weight to reports that subordinates of his, whether it was in the military or the white house, actually acted violently against women and i think that attitude is worth exploring and worth acknowledging and don mcgahn also didn't seem to take domestic violence against women as being particularly serious. those are flaws of character and

morality and judgment not just systems. >> and gene robinson, it's not just systems, as i said before, it's also the immorality of this decision. i can't think of another white house where if the fbi calls up the chief of stand and says, "hey, you know this guy is accused of domestic abuse, he'll never get a security clearance" boom, that's it. it doesn't get to the president of the united states. instead they have people again that have never worked in any white houses. that's just like an r an hr at any major corporation. there's certain things you cross that line, you don't get a job. none of those protections existed here and you add on top of it some people that have retrograde attitudes about women and it is a combustible combination. >> i think those are basically the three issues.

have they ever worked anywhere? in any office, in any setting to get those sorts of reports. the fbi comes in and tells you about this and you do absolutely nothing and, in fact, by doing nothing you actively cover it p up. you go in everyday with this guy knowing this and knowing that you should have acted on it. that's one issue. the other is the inexperience, this would never happen, i think, in any other white house. and you just again wonder about that. i think katty kay is wright r right. there is a retrograde, i think would be the nice word, for the attitude about women in this

white house and we've seen enough now to say that, to say there is a problem with this very unenlightened white house living in the 1940s as opposed to the present day, this is disgusting, this is really disgusting. >> we go on top of that point that catty just made. joe when you talk about there's no one who ever worked in that environment before, it's because of this crazy twisted sense of loyalty this president has. if you said a cross word about him you don't get into the administration so that means he doesn't have veteran people in the state department, within the white house, people who know what they're doing and it's the same twisted sense of loyalty that he was willing to stand behind michael flynn. the same loyalty they say, oh, well the president likes this guy so who cares if he's a wife

beater, the president still likes him. and the other people loyal to him who doesn't have a security clearance is jared kushner. this white house is working with disregard to proper security protocols and that has to be a tremendous risk to this country. >> i want to say there is one through line here that cat katt illustrated. this is true of the rob porter situation. all the people said "he denied it to us, that's why we didn't dig into it more." it's true in this white house a man's denial is gold. maybe this is the one thread of positivity that comes from this. do we think the wives would have come forward if not for a general societal awakening about how women are treated in their homes and the workplace?

i am grateful that people like these two battered wives were able to come forward to talk about this. and this is a question for peter there are so few people of competence and stature who are in this white house or willing to work for this white house that are essential. here we have donald trump looking for ways to manage the situation and calling reince priebus, one of the few other people that he has worked with who has experience in washington, d.c. and i'm wondering, as you report around this administration, just how small is this universe of competent republican approximatals that this president feels he can rely on and to what degree is the smallness of this universe

contributing to the fact that we have people like jared who cannot have full security clearance and rob porter who has this cloud over him still maintain these critical federal jobs. >> absolutely right. such a small circle at this point. the turnover is so big, 34% according to a brookings institute study left in the first year. you don't leave a white house job after one year unless there's a reason and there's a lot of reasons why people are leaving, not just the situation with rob porter. 34% in the first year, twice as much as any president going back 40 years. it tells you about a place in which they have not had any kind of stability, not have any kind of month to month normal working operation where everybody is going their job and clicking on all cylinders. they have empty jobs, they can't find people to fill them. there are people that could fill them that won't come and people the president wouldn't have because, as we just said, that i might have said something in the

past about the president. this particular case is complicated because there's a soap opera quality to it, very personal as well as professional. hope hicks is in the middle of this. she's somebody the president considers a daughter, he's both upset for her because she was dating rob porter, he's upset that the staff would allow her to be dating somebody who might be dangerous and he's upset at her because she was busy rallying to the defense of rob porter and there's some reports in the paper he wasn't necessarily even aware of some of that defense early on and there's a kind of obvious conflict. so it's such a complicated situation. you can't imagine what it must be like that go to work in that west wing not knowing what will happen on any particular day and not knowing who you can rely on. >> peter baker, thank you so much. we'll be reading your reporting in the "new york times." now let's go to the early morning budget vote, the federal government is poised to reopen this morning after a funding fight on capitol hill led to

another government shutdown. the house just passed a budget bill by a vote of 240-186 that came about three hours after the u.s. senate with bipartisan support. the bill heads to the president's desk for his signature. let's bring in nbc news capitol correspondent and host of "kasie d.c. on msnbc, case msnbc. kasie hunt. kasie, this is very confusing but i would guess the least popular people on capitol hill is the one that told the truth about our fiscal woes and that would be senator rand paul of kentucky. get us up to date. >> very unpopular among the folks here. i talked to rand paul after he went to the senate floor to make these initial options and he

said everybody might want to go on vacation and they're going to be ornery when we do this at 1:002:00 in t xor 2:00 in the m that's what's going to happen. and he made this argument that is quite frankly honest a way that some others are not willing to go. he said look, i go home, i still go home and complain about these obama deficits and i'm going to sit here and vote for a bill that does the same thing? take a look at what he had to say. >> i can't in all good honesty, in all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits. really, who's to blame? both parties. we have a 700-page bill that no one has read that was printed at midnight. no one will read this bill, nothing will be reformed, the waste will continue and government will keep taking your money irresponsibly and adding to a $20 trillion debt.

>> two quick things here, joe. first of all, i think paul ryan made a slightly different argument here than rand paul and he said -- he acknowledged that this was spending republicans maybe didn't go along with but it was the deal they had to cut to get the funding for the military. that was how the sequester was set up all the way along and ryan said we need money for opioid funding and he pointed to the fact that the real deficit issue is entitlements and that's what congress needs to tackle. there's a lot of truth to that. this isn't a phton of money whe stacked up against our entitlement spending. but the other thing flying under our radar that is going to be important in the long term is that there were a lot of divisions among house democrats on this. this exposed the rifts inside the democratic party. at the end of the day there were enough democratic votes to get this across the finish line in the house but nancy pelosi was really in some ways out over her skis. she did this long eight-hour speech on the floor protesting this bill over daca and it

really led to some last-minute drama that raised questions about whether or not they could get on board with a deal that she had actually negotiated. so i think that dynamic is going to drive our conversations going forward. >> all right. kasie, thank you so much. we greatly appreciate it. you have rand paul complains about the obama deficits. that's rich because when george w. bush was elected president we had a $5.6 trillion national debt. he doubled the national debt. barack obama almost doubled the national debt. we're over $20 trillion, we have a $20 trillion national debt, it's skyrocket ing ing up, dona trump is going to have to borrow over a trillion dollars. the markets are noticing this. we are headed towards an economic calamity when you have right now all the money that washington brings in goes to

fund medicare, medicaid, and interest on the debt. we borrow everything else we spend on and guess what? about 10%, 11% of the budget are those programs that congress talks about cutting. the rest are entitlement programs, defense and interest on the debt. so let's bring in one of the house democrats kasie was just talking about, congressman brendan boyle of pennsylvania who serves on the budget committee. congressman, we could talk about saving the republic and entitlement spending, instead let's talk about what happened last night with the democratic party. was there a split that kasie reported on? >> well, i hate to disagree with my fellow eagles fan kasie but i don't think there is a divide within the democratic caucus. if we were in control of the house 100% of us would vote for daca, 100% of us would vote against a fiscally irresponsible plan that adds $2 trillion

deficit, double the size of the stimulus eight years ago. there was a disagreement in terms of tactics. there is a real challenge this is the minority and being in a deep minority where the other side has 47 more votes. so that's where the disagreement came in. if we were in charge, though, you wouldn't see a sort of divide in the vote and i think you would see 100% unanimous vote on things i talked about, daca as well as restoring fiscal s sanity. there's one other point i want to make about this and you've been alluding to it all morning. republicans deeply care about the deficit when there's a democrat in the white house but when there's a republican in the white house they couldn't care less. when you take the tax cut two months ago combined with this increase in spending this is a $2 trillion plan that is coming in the eighth year of an

economic expansion. this will spike inflation, this will spike interest rates and the markets already know it. >> congressman, this is gene robinson. did minority leader pelosi whip this vote? did she essentially guarantee the 73 however many democratic votes were needed to pass this spending plan? >> no, i don't think she guaranteed 73 votes to the majority. she spoke up as we saw yesterday for i think some eight hours, the longest speech in house history on behalf of dreamers, she was impassioned that we should be a no. at the same time, every single member is going to make up his or her mind. this was clearly a tough vote on both sides of the aisle. i know she respects that and so does every member of our caucus. >> all right, congressman brendan boyle, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. hey, gene, i love a parade.

>> don't we all. >> you love a parade. we all love parades. actually, i don't love a parade but i just thought i would say it. most people do love parades. it's very interesting. peggy noonan in the "wall street journal" says this morning "i love a parade, but not this one." you talk about your concerns with the trump parade. tell us about it. >> it's ridiculous. we don't have these kremlin-style military parades in washington very often. the last military parade we had was at the end of the first gulf war there was a victory to celebrate and so there was a para parade. president trump -- there's no victory to celebrate now. we're sending more young men and women into harm's way. even if you wanted to have it, it's a totally inappropriate moment to do this sort of thing but it's all about donald

trump's insecurity. it's about his desire to show that he has a bigger missile than kim jong-un. it's about his desire to be loved. he's a very unpopular president. he can't even go to great britain because he's afraid of protesters coming out so he stages a parade and the men and women of the armed forces who have sworn their oath to the commander in chief will walk by and salute him and he'll love it and that will make him feel good. >> make him feel good. a lot of these other dictators have a military parade to flex their muscles, to look intimidating. i don't think the united states has to do that. last time i checked we spend more on defense than the next 15 countries. i think people across the world have gotten the message already. gene, thanks a lot, really appreciate it. we'll be reading your column in the "washington post." still ahead on "morning

joe," it's tough to predict what's going to happen in washington. just an hour from now let alone in november's midterms but if anybody can read the tea leaves, it's jim messina. the former obama campaign manager will be with us again and look at the upcoming elections and try to sort them through for us next on "morning joe." (music) nathaniel: in moscow there's a program, nathaniel: they call them sparrows. trained to seduce and manipulate. nathaniel: that is what she is. she's out of your league. (music) you have a gift. (music) vanya: you see through people. take your life back. (music) i'll find a way. (music) vanya: you're always one step ahead. (music) dominika: you're right. (music) rated r. pain from chest congestion can make this... when you have a cold, ...feel like this. all-in-one cold symptom relief from tylenol®, the #1 doctor recommended pain relief brand.

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we have the president and ceo of t messina group. jim, we were talking about this 8,000 point spread, things are looking better for republicans and donald trump, of course, that's before the volatility in the stock market so we'll see what happens a week from now.

but i have a question, do those generic ballot tests, do they matter when in virginia, alabama and these specials, it's all about turnout and intensity because republican candidates are getting 97%, 98%, 99% of the vote, they're just more democrats motivated to go vote against trump. >> the generic ballots don't matter until august of the election year, that's what history teaches us. what you care more about is passionate intensity. when i ran president obama's campaign, the number i looked at everyday was intensity. are my voters more motivated than republican voters? in election after election, you saw it tuesday night where democrats in missouri of all places won a statehouse seat we haven't seen in a generation because our voters are more intense. that's what you saw in virginia and new jersey. you're seeing in the the deepest red states like oklahoma and

that intensity is what we want to watch. don't go generic. it's going to jump all over the place. joe, you know how i feel about public polls. i think all public pollsters should be shot. i think the whole thing is stupid. what we ought to do is actually have votes. >> radical suggestion. we've talked about politics over many years but i want to ask you about your time in government not as a political person but the period of time when you were the deputy chief of staff for operations in the obama white house report porter normally has a security clearance that is at the highest level. >> correct. >> so he can look at everything. >> right. >> with the temporary security clearance there are pieces of paper he would not be allowed to look at, correct? >> there are two positions in the white house that see everything that matters the, white house chief of staff and staff secretary, everyone else gets read into what they need to. he traditionally gets to see everything. but when you have a temporary security clearance and as deputy

chief of staff i approve those things you cannot see some things. >> so john kelly comes in to be white house chief of staff, he thinks he has a staff secretary. one of the things he has to learn is for some reason my staff secretary can't look at pieces of paper he needs to look at. >> can't do his whole job. >> so the notion they overlooked this because he was a consummate professional seems like an important part of his job he wasn't able to do and would not naturally kelly have asked the question why can't the staff secretary look at the top code clearance on his pieces of paper? >> on the first day he'll ask that. someone needs to hand the president those documents. who will that be? two days ago the white house press secretary said we didn't know about this, the report wasn't final. that's utter nonsense. the moment the fbi heard any allegation they are going to pick up the phone and call the white house and say we can't

give this guy security clearance and you have to decide what to do. they'll call that day. >> so not only do we not take it face value the notion kelly would not have fully known, you're saying just the way a white house operates he would have in fact fully known from his first day on the job about this? >> absolutely. and they weren't waiting for some holy grail. they decided that competence was more important than integrity and decided they were going to skip what is an absolute unbelievable transgression and it was okay because he was good at his job. >> i want to talk about omarosa -- >> do we have to? >> try go, sam. >> we're going to get highbrow. >> only if you whisper it. >> elevate the conversation. >> best and the brightest. >> it reminded me the episode of when david axelrod bent on "the great american baking show" and talking about his disappointments with -- obviously that never happened. i'm wondering if you're watching this stuff where omarosa is

going on reality tv and saying she's petrified of the tweets and can't honestly say she has faith this country is going to make it through this presidency, if you ever reflect back to your time in the white house and wonder did we overthink things too much? did we overreact it too much or are you watching it as baffled as everyone else is? >> i'm just watching it saddened. the white house, doesn't matter republican or democrat, it's the best and the brightest. you have people who want to do a great job. on the last day of the bush administration, his chief of staff said to me "all white houses are a reflection of the leadership at the top." and we were the no drama obama white house because we had a no drama guy. well they have a complete drama guy everyday and they hire incompetent people like omarosa who i thought that was a telling interview because for the first time she admitted that everyone is saying internally which is that none of them have confidence in this guy and things are falling apart around them. >> jim, it's katty in

washington. i take your point about intensity of feelings amongst democratic voters at the moment. are you discounting the possibility that donald trump could manage to do what he did last time around and pull out 100,000 votes in wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania, say, and tip himself over the edge just because of the nature of the electoral college? you think that's not possible? >> i think donald trump can be reelected. but we were talking about 2018 and 2018 is a non-presidential year when you have turnout that is lower than presidential years and in that scenario it matters how intense your voters are, it matter house excited your people are to come vote in an election that is not as big as the presidential campaign so that is why in these elections it matters. so two days ago -- >> but 2020 you think he can win? >> i do. we have to nominate a candidate who can move forward an economic

message that energizes the country and democrats should not be confident in our ability to beat donald trump until we can do this. two days ago i was in iowa speaking to a bunch of people -- you might have heard of iowa, it's an important state. >> never refer to iowa as anything but the great state of iowa. >> it's the great state of iowa. >> are you running? >> there are over 20 people currently considering running for president of the united states as a democrat and i had not seen excitement in iowa democratic voters since 2006, since before the 2008 election. but the other thing we haven't talked about because everyone focuses on the senate and house races, if you care about the presidential race, you care more about the governorships. if you look at the open seats for governor, places in florida, ohio, we have a reelection in michigan, those matter even more and that's where intensity really matters in some of these really close governorships.

>> jim messina, thanks a lot, we always love having you. up next, leadership in turbulent times, a new book says there are four things you never do, four things that people at the top never do and what bad examples they cannot set. well, with president trump batting a thousand on all four of those. "morning joe" will explain why when we we return. this is the story of green mountain coffee roasters dark magic told in the time it takes to brew your cup. first, we head to vermont. and go to our coffee shop. and meet dave. hey. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good, he asks? let me show you. let's go. so we climb. hike. see a bear. woah. reach the top. dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee

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>> just ahead of the olympics, kim jong-un staged a large military parade and gave a speech, basically this was his state of the un-ion address. and if you think we go over the top with our state of the union, wait until donald trump sees this. that's his wife, by the way, a rare public appearance by his wife. aren't they cute? they even wear the same pea coat from ann taylor loft i think sells those. and what a happy couple. look at those faces.

see, melania, it could be slightly worse. it could. >> okay. you know, mike pence says he wasn't aware of the rob porter developments until this week. that is a story the white house has known about for over a year but this is hardly the first time the vice president claims that he's been left in the dark. i suspect soon he will actually tell reporters that he didn't know his first name was mike. we'll break that down next on "morning joe." my experience with usaa has been excellent.

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katty, so obviously some more questions raised about what mike pence knew and when mike pence knew it or, more specifically, if they ever tell mike pence anything. >> anything at all. >> tell us about the latest. >> so vice president mike pence is overseas at the olympics and

yesterday during a stop in japan he was asked when he first learned about the allegations of domestic abuse against rob porter. >> i learned as i awoke this morning of those developments. so we'll comment on

hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. and i fully support the decision that president trump made to ask for general flynn's resignation. >> and on russia, the "new york times" reported last december that documents showed the transition team knew that flynn was going to be discussing sanctions with the then ambassador sergakey kislyak pu pence who was ahead of the

transition say repeatedly he did not know flynn's discussion on the cause with kislyak. >> they did not discuss anything having to do with the united states decision to expel diplomats or impose a sanction against russia. >> the degree to which mike pence doesn't know things, whether it's deliberate or not, maybe both politically and legally not such a bad position to be in this white house. maybe this is a white house you don't want to know too much. >> we heard the vice president speak to the duties and obligations of office that he is carrying out around the world. and keeps him a very busy individual. he just heard that from him. and also susan, we got to cut him a little slack perhaps because he is probably leading his own transition team. >> well, that's -- that could be true. what's interesting is that by him saying this and this story

kind of progressing, it is saying maybe he doesn't want to be part of it. maybe she is right. maybe it gives him great legal cover. does this white house, but does this president so disrespect the vice president that he's not kept in the loop. it seems like the polar opposite of what we saw with president obama and biden. it's a really stark reminder, the president works only in his own world and that world is even smaller to exclude the vice president. that's problematic for this white house. >> it's also problematic for the vice president that he's arguing as a man who ran the transition team, he didn't know what everybody else on the transition team knew regarding general flynn. it's also problematic for him to say he did not know that one of the people that was closest to the president of the united states that he couldn't get a clearance. that the fib had warned the white house about him.

that don mcgahn knew for a year that the chief of staff knew for a year. i at some point this pleading ignorance just strains. i don't know how you run the transition and don't know what everyone else on the transition teams now and how you're vice president of the united states and always left in the dark. >> you just said at some point it strain s kr s credulity. there's things going on that others and the vice president president is not speaking the truth about what he knows in these instances and trying to limit his downside vulnerability and exposure on some issues of controversy. the broader thing of course here is like almost everybody else, the one thing he has in common with general kelly and others is someone has a documentary out

now called everything trump touches dies and it seems as though, again, everyone who is associated themselves with donald trump is in a worse position reputationly than the day they met him and that's true of vice president pence. >> can the vice president is going to be sitting down with lester holt in south korea. that's going to be tonight on nbc nightly news. i'm sure lester will ask questions about this. still ahead on morning joe, what mike pence said he didn't know about rob porter developments until this week we're going to talk about the people who did know. >> plus, a bill to reopen the government is now awaiting the president's signature. we're going to be keeping an eye on that. we're also going to be watching the markets after the second thousand point drop this week. if you want to just look at pure numbers, the biggest drops, the two biggest drops, i believe, in market history were this week. you know what we're going to do,

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dealing with this situation. this was a rob porter that i and many others had dealt with. sara dealt with. others including the chief of staff dealt with. the emerging reports were not reflengtir reflective of the individual we have to know. >> deputy secretary did something few of the administration have done so far, expressed sense of regret over the troubled handling over a serious issue. meanwhile the u.s. government was shutdown while you were sleeping. the u.s. government is open this morning because the house just passed legislation to reopen it. after another tense standoff on capitol hill. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday. february 9. with us we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle. and msnbc john.

politics editor for the daily beast sam stein. republican strategist and political commentator. and on capitol hill senior writer ed politico and co-author of the play book jake sherman. the federal government is actually going reopen this morning after a funding fight on capitol hill. that fight led to another government shutdown. and the house just passed a budget bill by a vote of 240 to 186. it came about three hours after the u.s. senate passed legislation overnight with bipartisan support. now the long-term budget. it's going to raise get this conservatives federal spending by about $300 billion over the next two years. it calls for raising the debt ceiling. it will raise it through 2019.

it including $90 billion in disaster aide. the reason for the last minute drama was republican senator rand paul. the use of procedure tanctic to block the senate from speeding up the vote. so congress could meet the senate deadline. give them a vote on the teammate that would keep budget caps in place. he protested the large price tag of the deal. >> i can't in all good honesty and all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits. who is to blame, both parties. we have a 700 page bill that no one is read that was printed at midnight. no one will read this bill. nothing will be reformed. the waste will continue and government will keep taking your money irresponsibly and adding to $20 trillion debt. >> so jake sherman.

i tweeted yesterday that i hear rand paul is delivering a speech the way conservatives i guess last century used to deliver speeches. you don't vote for 700 page bills that you don't read that are going to increase the federal debt that are going to increase the deficit. that are going to do all the things this is going to do and yet the republican congress just passed it. >> you actually are underselling it a little bit. it's more than 300 billion. it's close to 400 billion in fresh spending. including close to 100 billion dollar in disaster aide. this was a strange moment. you kind of got the sense when rand paul was on the floor last night. if barack obama was in the white house, it would be an all night filibuster by every republican senator and republican house members would be holding back their votes. it was a definite rollover. you want to hone in on one other thing here. house democrats went through a

crisis of sorts last night where they were trying to whip up support against the budget bill. had a long meeting. fire on daca. unable to extract any promise on the immigration process and large number of their members voted for this bill in the end of the day. so really a kind of a confused night on capitol hill as they funded the government and kept it open. >> yes. susan, the speech to electing republican presidents with republican congresses and watching them vote for things that certainly the conservatives aren't supposed to be there. surplus. turn it into deficit. double the national debt. happening worse with donald trump. we're going to set records for the next four years for deficits

most likely and he's already in $20 trillion in debt. moving $30 trillion in debt and here it was. a republican president, a republican senate and republican house that busted the spending caps which by the way donald trump said we're disastrous. that's the only thing congress has done that's been disciplined on spending in 20 years. here we go again. off to the race is. hi higher deficits and higher debts. entitlement reforms. i kind of look at today as the day the tea party movement died. the republicans in the house now have been elected since 2010. part of that tea party movement. it's gone. it there's no sense of saying you're fiscally responsible. when you vote for things like that. especially when you don't take a stand on entitlement reform.

create real serious problems down the road. >> rand paul delivered because ted cruz shutdown the government in 2013 for far less than this. >> yes. >> they busted the budget caps. we're now $20 trillion in debt. we're moving towards $30 trillion in debt. they just passed a massive tax cut that's going to blow another possibly $2 trillion in the national debt. more easy money with the markets already overheated by the way did i mention the stock market went down another 1,000 points yesterday. what is left, 2018. shut the government down.

>> the ted cruz happens to have an election. ted cruz happens to be in a surprisingly close for texas election and this bill happened to have billions and disaster defenses which adds up to voting yes for a measure. pretty clear the deficit scolding we saw from republicans in 2009 and 2016 was predomin t predominantly a product of having a democratic president. like jake said. there is no way to possibly imagine that a republican led house or senate would have approved this bill if barack obama were in the white house. i'm also not totally surprised by this because it was.

how we think frame the parties here. >> they certainly aren't fiscally responsible and i said to mike barnicle, it seems the only time democrats are worried about deficits is when republicans are trying to pass tax cuts and the only time republicans worry about tax cuts are when democrats are in the white house. >> so joe, question to you. if we were in -- if these market tumbles really do press where there isn't free money anymore and interest rates are about to rise. are they going to get worried about deficits again? >> no. donald trump has said, i mean, he called the sequester. he called the budget caps dangerous. which they're the opposite of dangerous. what is dangerous you allow the

debt to continue to go up. he promised he wasn't going take care of the two programs that are doing the most unfortunately to destroy america's economic future. social security and medicare. throw in medicaid there. these entitlement programs have to be reformed. they have to be saved. donald trump says he's not going to -- not going to touch them. yeah, it's unbelievable. and you're right. what did everybody say, during the tax cuts. they were talking about you don't cut taxes when you're at full employment. you don't cut taxes when the economy is doing well. you don't overheat the economy. wi well, the republicans didn't listen. donald trump didn't listen. and guess what, the market is collapsing now. because what are people afraid of. high interest rates because the economy could be overheated. still ahead on morning joe, one of the other major stories we're following this morning. fallout inside the white house

after the chief of staff defended an aide despite reportedly knowing about violent background. we're going break down the serious questions surrounding john kelly and rob porter. you're watching morning joe. we'll be right back. finally. hey ron! they're finally taking down that schwab billboard. oh, not so fast, carl. ♪ oh no. schwab, again? index investing for that low? that's three times less than fidelity... ...and four times less than vanguard. what's next, no minimums? ...no minimums. schwab has lowered the cost of investing again. introducing the lowest cost index funds in the industry with no minimums. i bet they're calling about the schwab news. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. its technology was engineered (beeping). while its design was meant to be seen. experience the new 2018 lexus nx, and the nx hybrid. experience amazing, at your lexus dealer.

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continued questions about what white house officials knew against the allegations of one of president trump's closest aides. now reporting that white house counsel don mcgahn new about the accusations against rob porter a year ago, but allowed him to remain in his post because he viewed him as a professional voice in the west wing. those sources also tell mcgahn did not change his position after fbi flagged some of its findings to the white house last

white house last june. nor did he act in december or november when his former girlfriend who works for the administration contacted him about the allegations. one former white house official tells nbc news that chief of staff john kelly reportedly new about the allegations of domestic abuse for months. kelly also reportedly new porter would be denied full security clearance by the fbi, but allowed porter to remain in role. kelly initially defended porter in a statement on tuesday, but after photos were published showing one of porter's ex-wife's with a black eye released a statement saying he was shocked by the allegations, but stood by previous comments. yesterday white house secretary was asked about kelly's changing statements. >> there's been reports about the chief of staff. he became fully aware of about these allegations yesterday. >> the statement change from john kelly yesterday morning to the statement yet evening based

on new allegations. what changed yesterday. >> i think what i just referenced. the reports had additional allegations. they had more information. >> so to be clear, what was so shocking that had changed. you said it was shocking. >> the full nature of the allegation. particularly the images. >> so in the wake of the allegations last night, sent an internal memo to white house staff condemning domestic violence. porter has denied the allegation writing in a statement the outrageous allegations are simply false. i will not further engage publically with a coordinated spear campaign. porter resigned from the white house on wednesday. mike barnicle. seems like for john kelly if you have photos that your husband beat you and you got a black eye that kind of changes the story. if you just say he beat you and you have a black eye, that doesn't really count. >> history is livid with people who went to work for donald trump and as soon as they went to work for him, they lost a piece of their reputation in his wake. this is no different and even though he's not president of the

united states. the don mcgahn story which is one of the leads of "the washington post" this morning. is another example of what is so missing in this white house. a core of morality. they knew what rob porter had done and they didn't care because they figured he could do the job they wanted him to do. there's a quote from general john allen. talking about john kelly. his friend of four decades. he says this is a man who across the court for 40 years was considered to be the exemplar of moral integrity. he was a selfless servant in every possible way. a lot of personal courage and moral courage to do the right thing. values were powerfully formed and difficult for me to find in my memory in my service with him a flaw. here with are wondering what is wrong with general kelly.

it is a moment of recking for methamphetamine like the general who have known him for a long time and wondering whether he has changed in some profound way or perhaps this has been there all along. a blind spot. in some cases, element of courseness when it comes to issued related to race. we had him talking about dreamers, daca recipients as being too lazy to get up and file paperwork. not the first time he said things like that since he's been in the white house. i think one of the things that happens in the context of the military, obviously you are tested a million ways. it's possible in this circumstances there are elements of general kelly's character that were not as evident in service to military. this environment, not donald trump, but the environment. political environment touching on issues. military touches on every issue in american life, but not

politics. i think we said many times about donald trump. when you get to be that age, you do not change. i don't believe general kelly has changed because he's in the white house. what has happened i think is the contest in which he's not operating has exposed things that perhaps were not visible to even some of the people closest to him over the course of his career. >> within that context, joe, we have clearly evidence nearly every day that general kelly is politically inept. >> i guess so. you and i have both known across the decades people that we have respected that have been friends that have gone into white houses and have have surrendered part of their soul to be close to a preside president, to cover up his lies. to justify that what they are doing in the worst of circumstances. they're there just to make it a better place. it's not as bad -- everybody

that gets into the white house it seems must justify what they do. it seems that general john kelly is no different. and i think of course the porter story is just horrific. that he knew about it, but also the fact that john kelly decided to attack dreamers. that he decided to suggest that some dreamers were too lazy to get off their as. it's not the crudeness of that that is the biggest concern. it's the fact that he chose immigrants to speak that way. you can go back over john kelly's 40 years. i suspect he hasn't attacked other groups like that publically. he was obviously playing for the president of the united states.

and that's what's so distressing that he thinks that he can gain more power by saying that dreamers are too lazy to get off their as and sam stein for those of us who had always hoped that general john kelly was going to be a moderating influence on donald trump and bring professionalism to the west wing, certainly is people such as myself are starting to have second doubts. >> yes. i know to a certain degree the question is the most. how much of this was in him before hi came to the white house. and how much of this has been brought out of him by being in proximity to donald trump and reflecting the world view. i think it's fair to say at this juncture that the greatest hopes for the kelly era which were basically on getting a competent -- getting the white house to act competently and the president's worst impulses maybe

doing something to function legislatively. they haven't been achieved. as far as i can tell from the reporting out there, there is growing frustration by the president over kelly's ten your which was the most predictable thing we could possibly imagine. as soon as it got rough. the president would begin to ask why is he here. what good is he doing. so you know i do think that we're at a place now where we need to conceivably ask how much longer does kelly have running this ship and what will he get done in that time left and i don't know. coming up on morning joe, will the markets see another wild ride on wall street after yesterday's massive selloff. we're going be checking in with cnbc straight ahead. first, here's bill karins, he's got a check on the forecast. i wish i had better news for the weekend. some areas a washout and some heavy snows. one of the worst snowstorms of the season right now. chicago 4-5 inches on the

ground. right at the heart of morning rush hour. detroit 2-3 inches on the ground. going to snow for a good portion of your morning. additional snowfall. rounds of snow this weekend. notice it's blue. four inches of purple. six. could get you another six on top of the other five we've seen in downtown. detroit get you another six i remember inches. ski on. going to be a great ski weekend there. a little bit of light snow possible. kansas city finally a little bit of snow in colorado. now let's talk about the warm rainy side of the storm. drought conditions developing in the the southeast. take a dent out of that. through sunday. two inches is red color here. three is the pink. possibility of even seeing flooding rains in areas of tennessee. watch out in the appalachians. sunday is rainy day i-95 from boston to providence. new york city to philadelphia to d.c. that's a 1-2 inches. any slush that's out there will melt and we're going to get soaked on sunday. keep that in mind for weekend

forecast there in areas of the northeast. today is not a bad day out there. seeing decedent weather in many places. saturday and sunday the eastern half of the country will get a big storm. take the cold and sun over a rainy 40s any time. that's what is going to happen this weekend. you're watching morning joe. we'll be right back. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both.

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as we mentioned at the top of the show, the market, i think you can officially say is now correcting. 10% down in the last week or so. let's bring in cnbc dominic chew. volatility appears to be here for a while. i would guess when the bell rings this morning, there's going to be a lot of skiddi skiddishness where you are. >> there is certainly going to be. like you said, there's been an extreme lack of volatility in the stock market over the last couple of years. the last time i can remember we saw a deep pull back like this was the end of 2015 into the beginning part of 2016. we had gone a record 4040

trading days in the stock market where we did not see any kind of a 5% correction of any levels. that is record amount of time throughout the market history in the united states we have not gone that many days in a row with that kind of pull back. it's a stark reminder when things do go a little wrong in the marketplace. talked about the idea that interest rates drove a lot of this. the reason there's a concern about this you're unlocking what the administration does is unlock a large amount of fiscal stimulus at a time the nation is at full employment. obviously pockets of network that aren't feeling that kind of optimi optimism. still on the whole, america is doing much better and at a time when you fear that growth is overheating or that prices are going to start rising for things like milk and gasoline and food products. that's starts -- stokes at least fear that rising interest rates will take a toll on tapping the brakes on the economy.

the reason it's important you spoke earlier in the hour that we will be borrowing a lot of money over the course of this year and next couple of years to finance deficits if interest rates continue to rise the u.s. government could stand to pay a lot more in interest payments on the debt it needs to finance these kinds of deficits. all of these things are reverberating through the markets right now. >> thank you so much. greatly appreciated. coming up on morning joe, it's never easy running for public office. even harder when you're challenging vladimir putin. we're going to be talking to the russian journalist going head to head with the crekremlin's heav handed lead next on "morning joe."

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he likes to brag a bit about how the stock market is doing on his watch. >> stock market at all all-time high. >> stock market just hit a record high. >> the stock market is all-time high. >> historic high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. >> all-time high. think of it. no one even talks about it. >> i know, you should bring it up once in a while. >> nobody ever talks about it except for everybody who talks about it. let's bring if right now the author and nbc news political analyst and artist, also the co-founder of holdings, but we of course know him much better as money party dylan. and the professor in his story at harvard business school. nancy cane. her forthcoming book is titled

forged instead crisis. the power of courageous leadership in turbulent times. >> dale, the money party. what a money party it has been. dire straight saying money for nothing. and your chicking f inin ins fo we hate that misogynist language, but money for nothing. it isn't money for nothing. >> joe, we need to stop meeting like this. >> i know. >> there's so much more interesting things for us to talk about, but every time we show up it's a market meltoff. listen, here's the issue. it's obvious that leadership in the united states government not just the presidency, not just -- the whole thing. it's not very serious. we have serious issues. we have serious problems in this country and serious opportunities and we don't have serious leadership. that has not been reflected in the financial markets, joe, as you know for the past year. why not. because we have the republicans

in control of congress as well as the presidency. there's been expectation of large corporate tax cut which actually came in and happened and at the end of the day, the market isn't political they don't care. they're about money. they're looking at we have an unserious leadership issue with the government. we're about to get a huge corporate tax cut and corporate tax cut offsets the concerns about the lack of concern in the government. we now have the tax cut. and also have a market propelled by technology. highest philosophy it's ever had. all-time highs. offset to lack of seriousness in government is suddenly being priced into the marketplace, joe, in a way that is unavoidable. the thing that is sort of interesting to me is it's almost like we woke up and said how can we have such an unserious government and have the market at all time highs. doesn't make any sense. because the market was pricing in expert testimoctations of ta now the benefit of the republican policy benefits to

the market has been -- is done. and the unserious government is still in place. >> right. >> passing of a tax cut. >> or infrastructure investment. if i was republicans, i would go with infrastructure investment. >> you know, dylan used just said a phrase. they don't care. what i have found is there are many business owners, a lot of ceos, who who despise the very existence of donald trump two years ago, but now have basically told me they don't care. enmys of the press, autocratic speak. trying to delegitimize judging that rule against immigration policy. trying to delegitimize the fbi. not the whole fbi. just the part that is investigating him. they don't care because who knows, gdp may grow at 2% next

year instead of 2.9. you just wonder if the market keeps falling if suddenly, they care. >> i think a lot of the business and investor class in this country has been afflicted by what i would call the hamptons fantasy which is that you can build your own little island of wealth and privilege and you got your pool and you got your yard and nice house and bring everything in and it doesn't matter to you what the world is like beyond the house because you are self contained. and maybe they are waking up to your point to the realization that having a good portfolio without norms and trust between people is not a great plan. it's like being a rich investor in a very poor country actually. i think to your point, joe, about not caring, one of the most fascinating things we are living through right now is the rise of the right.

as the party of moral relati relativeness. and we're actually seeing the left with a lot of moral language around the me too movement. around a bunch of positions around identity politics and it's the right who is kind of like, we care about god, but we're also totally fine with a lot of marriages and sexual assault. we care a lot about small government and totally chill about big government if that's what we need to do, but we totally neutral between them and russia. this is post modern republican party kind of down with whatever. >> nancy, what i'm hearing here is we have a real crisis of leadership in this croountry an crisis of leadership. i want to read off four guides that you have in the book. things that effectively must never disclosure and acknowledgment form let me rip them off. one, make an important decision when your emotional temperature is high. two, throwing your friends and

former colleagues under the bus. >> trump, problem. >> three, crying or moaning publically about the hand one has been dealt. >> trump, constantly. >> four, agreeing to run an organization whose mission you're in opposition for. >> really. really big nos. >> these are all four. the president of the united states is in violation of all four of the key tenants. >> unquestionable. could the party that you were talking about dylan in terms of the stock market, the money party now be over. could the political and security and stability party now be over in the united states. i think that's the real question. and if you think about the different fronts in which the president and now some of his aides that we counted on like john kelly to be the stability and adulthood, if we think about what's now transpiring there, should we be worried. i think so.

the moment you can make the person. do you rise under great turbulence and great responsibility. or do you get smaller, more egotist cal or more base and more frightened. it's two roads in the woods and depends on which the leader travels. >> i was being semi facetious. if you want to combine the topics, what does president trump do in light of the relatively large downfall in the dough. the instability of the market. what would you advise if you had his ear for ten minutes him to do. >> advance. again, at the end of tv day, the benefit that the current government has is uniform leadership with one party. doesn't matter which party sit. any one party that's in control has the ability to advance. a split government has a much heard time doing that. infrastructure has been in need of investment.

we're dealing with assets in this country that are brilliant and wonderful, they've just timed out a little bit. meaningful investment in the country from an infrastructure bill would be the most effective thing so that would be the policy that i would recommend. if you really want to stabilize the markets and the psych of the country and increased level of syria. here's the thing. we've got opioid problem. border issues. these are real issues and trump's very good at identifying real serious issues that are facing this country, border, opioid, security, prisons, picket. his emotional response whether it's build a wall. that makes sense. i understand why they want to build a wall. i get it. reality is securing the border maybe more effectively accomplished with technology and talent. allowing the emotional sponresp to an issue is not necessarily the best policy answer. you have to be able to separate and the most significant thing

and biggest security risk to country is lack of seriousness in nature of dialogue especially at a time when the actual solutions opioids, prisons, borders, small farmers, you pick it are wildly available and well ti relatively easily discussed and employed they do not exist in the conversation because of the seriousness which does not stop with president trump by the way. exists in the democratic party as much as the republican party as a collective issue in the nature of the dialogue we're having right no. >> interesting in talking about infrastructure and all of the elements that do need addressing. >> that's an opportunity i would say we can address. i would rephrase that. >> but you can address it if you get to one element of what i would consider to be infrastructure, dealing with incompetence in government which we're surrounded right now. >> i'm fascinated by two things that extraordinary things that have not happened in this era. i want to ask you about one of them. the first thing that hasn't happened is the trump presidency that could have been, even if he

had run the way he ran, which was a deplorable way to run. even if he said all the crap he said he still could have come in and done infrastructure with his shallow personality. put his name on the bridges in america. he could have helped a lot of people. he could have forged deals on immigration because he's a free man. that never happened. the other extraordinary thing that didn't happen to you book is this seems like an extraordinary moment for courageous people to have stepped up. kind of moment you're talking about that normally forges courageous paul ryans and courageous republican senators. why did it not happen this time. >> it hasn't happened yet. history teaches us in crisis, in turbulen turbulence, leaders come out of the midst. no one had heard of abraham lincoln in 1854. he became president in 1861 and the world changed. keep our hopes alive. leaders all over the country get up and get going.

>> yes. all right. >> we'll see what happens. i'm afraid we're going to have four more crises ahead. there are people who i've disagreed with a great deal who have stepped up. rod rosenstein stepped up at the right time and appointed robert mueller. jeff sessions at the right time when we needed him to do it the most, recused himself. that was the only thing that he should have done, but the president wanted him to be lawless and wanted him to ignore basically every ethical inclination. he didn't do that. so let's hope as we move forward there will be some more people stepping forward and being courageous. we need that type of leadership. >> i think that title for your next song, lincoln in the midst. >> hear hear. >> i'll let you sing that one. adam, thank you so much. money party thank you.

>> nancy, always a pleasure. >> thank you. >> forthcoming book. forge instead crisis. now, our next guest has a recognition of having a 95% rating in russia, but does this challenger of vladimir putin really stand a chance? the russian presidential candidate is actually going to join us next here on morning joe. we'll be right back. but mania, such as unusual changes in your mood, activity or energy levels, can leave you on shaky ground. help take control by asking about your treatment options. vraylar is approved for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes of bipolar i disorder in adults. clinical studies showed that vraylar reduced overall manic symptoms. vraylar should not be used in elderly patients with dementia due to increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, or confusion,

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welcome back to morning joe. now for something completely different, but fascinating. >> this is interesting. joining us now is russian and n running against valdz mir putin for the russian presidency. thanks very much for joining the program. you made it clear it's very hard to beat president putin in a runoff against -- for the presidency of russia. why are you running? what's the point for you? >> i'm running to show to mr. putin that there are many millions of people in russia who do not agree that russia is putin. so i want to say that russia is not putin. there are many young people, a new generation who wants to live in different kind of country with liberal values, with open economy, with, you know, different international politics. so this is what i want to show. and if millions of people come and vote for me, this is kind

of -- those elections will show not all the people are for what's going on in russia. >> right. as you know, being an opposition politician in russia is a dangerous business. several of your opposition politicians have spent time in jail. you're out and about. you're even free to come to the united states to talk about this campaign and talk about your opposition views. some people have suggested that you're a convenient sparring partner for the president and nothing more than that. >> well, first of all, i want to have -- to say that i also had raids in my home. i had police coming to my home. i was also detained by police once and then the car of the people who work with me was burned and i get all the time booing and different kind of anonymous letters and phone calls. so this is what happened. but of course it's very difficult now when i'm in the spotlight of those elections to

do something with me just for three months. after 18 of march, i'll be in a difficult situation and i realize that. but now, you know, the spotlight keeps me away from problems and that's actually why i do this. that's why i think it's important to change the field and show we don't have any fear. >> the mechanics of running against putin in russia, how do you do it? how do you raise money? do you travel? do you go from city to city? you obviously feel a bit threatened? the mechanics of it? >> first of all, i'm a business woman myself. i'm self-made. i did my business without any governmental support. you can say it's something, you know, really relevant because it was entertainment business but it's a huge corporation i created. when i was fired from all the -- i recreated all my business once

between from scratch, in digital media, in restaurant business and things like this. so first of all, i support my company myself. and i'm quite sure if you really believe in what you're doing, you should put your money into -- >> so you fund your own campaign? >> yes, i fund my own campaign. and this is yn quite big funding. also i have sponsors which i will name right now when the registration is finished in russia. these are people, some of them, you know, we don't -- they have their pressure. others just want free russia to be there for their business to thrive, and they help me also with the campaign. these are people, fearless people who help me. >> ksenis sobchak, thank you very much. of course, her family had been quite close to putin.

her father i think was putin's boss at one point so it kind of makes for an interesting dynamic. >> very, very interesting, fascinating. thank you so much. as we go to break, we're going to show you some images of vice president mike pence at the winter olympics opening ceremony in south korea. now, the younger woman seated behind pence is the influential sister of north korean dictator kim jong-un. she is currently under u.s. sanctions for human rights violations. just to note, the vice president's going to be sitting down with lester holt tonight on nbc nightly news. excuse me, are you aware of what's happening right now? we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks... actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that.

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attract new customers. that's when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. yeah! now business is rolling in. get started at fastsigns.com. now for some final thoughts. john heilman. >> there's still more to know about this rob porter story. the next step is going to be who else in this white house is operating on a temporary security clearance and why have they not gotten their permanent security clearances. that's interesting. i'm going to see those pieces. >> i'm looking forward to the olympics. it has nothing to do with the trump white house. >> i never thought i'd say this but i'm going to be looking at the live stream of "big brother" to gain insights into what actually is going on inside the white house from omarosa. >> i'm with barnacle. i need some feel-good stories

from the olympics to kind of get through the weekend. >> hard not to conclude this is a white house that doesn't take domestic violence against women as seriously as they should. it's difficult to say that somebody has an upright moral excellent character when that's the kind of thing that they do. >> speaking of an upright moral character, you've heard it said that some of the most influential people in our lives are those who see things in us that we don't even see in ourselves. well, that person in my high school life when i entered a new school in tenth grade was sister margaret frederick. sister margaret immediately saw something in me that neither my family nor i did. and she inspired me to believe i could be better and be a better person than who i was. i learned this week that woman who inspired me throughout my life passed away at a cove nent in alabama. there are no words to express the debt that i owe her.

the only way i can ever start to ever repay that debt is to some day be the man she saw in me so many years ago. thank you, sister margaret. and thank you all for watching. that does it for us. now to stephanie ruhle. >> wow, there you go. all right, joe, thank you so much. have a great weekend. that was extraordinary. good morning, everyone. i'm stephanie ruhle. i'm starting with the government, which is open for business. after a dramatic all nighter and brief shutdown, congress passes a two-year spending bill, over fierce objections from the one and only rand paul. >> what you're seeing is recklessness trying to be passed off as bipartisanship. >> and a market correction. the dow plunges more than 1,000 points, putting it on the cusp of the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. but why? we're going to find out.