celebrating something he didn't actually get. >> morning joe starts right now. >> you know, i read maybe people don't want to work for trump and believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house. >> michael flynn has resigned. >> the white house communications director has resigned. >> press secretary sean spicer is out. >> anthony scaramucci resigned. >> confirming that bannon will be leaving. >> tom price resigned. >> the deputy national security advisor is now resigning. >> rob porter is resigning. >> hope hicks has resigned. the president's chief economic advisor gary cohn has officially resigned. >> they all want a piece of that oval office. they want a piece of the west wing. >> no. no, no, no. no, they don't.

everybody wants a piece of the white house? except for the steady stream of top officials who have backpac their bags and headed for the doors. >> it's record breaking in every way. the president now going to have three communications directors in a very short time, but no, the brain drain is extraordinary. >> some of these people were absolutely not qualified for their jobs but the latest, gary cohn, very qualified who is leaving. his impending departure is shaking the market this morning. >> and the wall street journal, here's the headline here. cohn quits and if you go inside and you look at the editorial, the wall street journal writes, mr. trump's increasingly self-damaging style of managing officials. it's a leadership fiasco that

cost mr. trump a key ally. it is a loss and this presidency cannot afford more like it. you know, mika, a lot of people last night were criticizing gary cohn saying well, gee, he should have left after charlottesville or he should have left after this or after that. gary cohn just for those that don't remember and we were critical of gary cohn and said he needed to speak out after charlottesville. he did speak out after charlottesville and anybody that knows how the white house works knows that that cost him most likely the fed chairmanship. and so he stated that he fought like good people staying in there and fight like secretary mattis and others, but yeah, just enough is enough. >> we're pretty close to people around this circle and i think his departure is a real sign that even gary cohn, who is

trying to stick it out, trying to be there as offensive duty, to try and help out felt he could not do anything anymore to reign in this president. >> obviously a lot of republicans from capitol hill that have been very concerned about donald trump, concerned about the fact that he's a lifetime democrat, that he's a lifetime liberal from queens who actually discovered birtherism, discovered racism as a way to get ahead in the republican primary, they're still concerned about his economic policies and gary cohn always seemed to be a person that calmed the waters for this queens democrat, but no more. what's the reaction going to be on capitol hill? >> he always was somebody who at least behind is scenes in meetings understood where he stood on the issues. for the most part they were all on the same page. i mean, cohn's style was one

that was more wall street than washington, i would say, but at the same time, he was a force and somebody they could rely on. this tariff decision, it is really, i think the first enormous policy break. republicans on the hill have felt up until now that while, yes, the president was a huge problem for them in so many ways, every news cycle was crazy. they didn't want to keep getting asked about the tweets. at the end of the day he was with them on tax reform, a whole host of other issues, even if he said in public that he wasn't they could get him to come around and they couldn't on this issue and cohn's resignation is reflective on his frustration on this issue and does not bode well. >> i still believe this issue is temporary. i think it's about pennsylvania 18, the pittsburgh special election that obviously has drawn trump's attention more than anything else and i think it will pass in the night just

like the transgender ban eventually. josh, the thing i've heard from people that have worked in the white house like you, that have been in that bunker have always said even in the best of times, even when you have everything running, going about as perfeperfec perfectly and efficiently as a white house can, there's always world war iii. there's always incoming. you're always in crisis mode there because there are always 100 crisis coming at you known stop that you've got to prioritize. how in the world does any white house function with this sort of turnover, with this sort of craziness? i mean, any other presidency would -- would have gone on meltdown mode last night when stormy daniels filed a lawsuit, a porn star. >> i almost forgot about that. >> not even being funny here,

that about the sixth or seventh story that a porn star filed a lawsuit against donald trump. how do they move forward with all of the chaos and without a personnel team in place that's consistent? >> yeah, well, joe, i think what's clear is this white house was not operating in a particular high level even when they were fully staffed. now they are anything but. and my experience in the white house is i often likened to the trade mill. it was always turning. some days it was moving fast, some days when it was moving slow. some days it was cranked up on an incline and you have to have a large capacity of people to deal with the incoming and also to deal with the things that haven't been planned. what are you going to do if there is an unexpected event whether it is some sort of global national threat, maybe something else that has a significant impact on the markets and i do think that the

downturn that we're seeing in the markets after the announcement of mr. cohn's departure is a sign of no confidence from the markets in president trump's ability to make those unpredictable decisions. >> leading the inner circle in a state department that is not staffed on yet another chaotic news morning here in washington, d.c. we have josh ernest and kassie hunt as well as willie geist. and former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst, good morning to have steve on. >> it is a great morning. before we get to any of that and gary cohn, we brought john on to talk about an issue even more pressing. something that has tortured him. >> it's going to be stormy. >> tortured him over the past few days suggesting that western civilization will not survive, but if it does survive it does

not deserve to survive because the way they treated a young woman on the bachelor a few nights ago. john? this -- for you, you can take stormy daniels, you can take the cohn resignation and you can take hitler's invasion of france, put those all together and none really challenge western civilization's foundations more than what happened on the bachelor. you want to explain? >> so i happened to watch the supposedly final episode of the bachelor. i guess monday night. due to my wife's control of the remote. >> always blaming your wife. >> she put it on. so i really was not expecting to watch this. so the quick story on the bachelor -- >> now he's apologizing for

watching something he watches every week. >> i'm apologizing for watching the bachelor because of what happened. so it comes down to two women, tells one he loves her, but he's going to pick the other one and she cries going home. then he picks the other one, the blond and the brunette. so he picks the brunette and then he proposes to her, gets down on one knee and then it goes to the host who says, but this is not the end of the story. so then the bachelor says he can't stop thinking about the blond. >> oh, my god. >> and then the brunette comes to spend the weekend with him in some house they rented for them in los angeles. and he sits her down and then they say, this is the most dramatic thing in bachelor history. we're going to show you unedited what happened. a camera on him, a camera on her and he says to her i'm breaking up with you. i have feelings for the other

one and for 20 minutes america watched becca, the brunette cry. >> oh, my god, stop. >> cry and cry and feel humiliated and cry and say go away and then he wouldn't go away. >> oh, my gosh. >> he wouldn't go away because somebody was whispering in the ear piece. >> stay there. >> can we just go to black and -- >> no. >> the whole point was it was 15 minutes of prime time of the humiliation of an individual person who was sandbagged by the show. humiliated, crushed, embarrassed, and abc just let this run. let it run. >> oh, my gosh. >> okay. you've got it. i'm shocked. >> there was something different about this. i think everybody who watched it

thought there was something qualitatively different. they hadn't handed her a script. they were whispering you're the best man i ever met. they said that to her in order to have us watch her degraded. >> that's an awful lot like the way president treated gary cohn while peter navarro was standing outside letting trump hedge his -- how's that for a segway out of that? catch his eye and listen -- trump would always listen to cohn but navarro was always out there hovering behind and a man who i also think played dusty eventually won out and -- >> if this wasn't so serious i'd be laughing. >> no, we're not -- by the way, it really was degrading, everything i saw on the bachelor.

it's like the truman show. they deliberately humiliated and degraded this woman. that was awful but again making the segway back to the trump white house, it really -- it really is unbelievable how trump really plays his staff members off of each other. he let i think anthony scaramucci go out and humiliate his chief of staff and so again, it's just absolute chaos. and it's meant for a reality show, but somebody needs to tell this president that actually the -- the livelihood of working class americans depend on his policies and he's pushing a policy that feels good, but it's going to end up making working class americans pay more for just about everything they buy. >> yeah, donald trump always actually speaks the thought bubble. he says the thing out loud that you're supposed to keep in your head.

at that joint news conference yesterday he was talking about his staffing and he said i like the conflict. i like pitting two people against each other, and then i make a decision off of that. it appears here that the nationalist won over the quote globalist, gary cohn. we were talking about the director of the office of management budget, mulvaney saying it was a well wish sendoff for gary cohn but he said as a founder of the freedom caucus i never thought i could get along with a globalist, but gary cohn was fine with me. he got what he wanted on the tax bill, but on tariffs he lost the argument, at least so far. >> yeah, that is certainly what happened. you have had this globalist and the one called the nationalist and gary cohn stood for very classic republican economics of free trade recognizing that while free trade isn't perfect and we made a lot of mistakes

from free trade on balance the country has done much better from free trade and i mean, allowed what they call the butler and the royal tenenbaum, peter navarro to sneak around and get into the oval office, get the last word in and you have this circus where they brought in the steel executives, trump had this meeting and then on the way out the reporters asked him what are you going to do and he announced this policy on the way out of a meeting when there was no policy. it hadn't been through the office of legal counsel and gary cohn is a process guy and i think he said to himself, what do i need this for? >> well, gary cohn was a big player in the white house. he was considered for chief of staff job a couple of times. president trump tweeted about this, and he said this. will be making a decision soon on the appointment of a new chief economic advisor. many people wanting the job, will choose wisely. as we discussed yesterday on the show, joe, i'm not sure a lot of

people want the job. i'm not sure anybody really wants to walk into that white house today thinking about potentially facing, you know, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees depending on what they get embroiled in. i think this is a very different white house and according to a friend i was talking to last night, this past year might be its best year, which is frightening. from the bachelor to reality, what do you think this latest loss, this latest departure, when you look at the long list of people who have left this white house in one way or another over the past year, it's mind numbing and now gary cohn is out. what do you make of this? what does this tell us about what is happening? >> well, so we have two different things going on. you have a bunch of these people who were fired because they were too amateurish even for the amateur hour that is this white house, and then you have a couple of people who are leaving

under their own theme either maybe like hope hicks precisely because of the legal and financial jeopardy in which they've been placed and the notion that maybe they need to get out before it gets worse or gary cohn, gary cohn is a relatively classic and conventional departure saying there was a policy dispute and he basically said to the president from what we understand, i cannot back you on this. you can't expect me to go on a sunday show and back a 25% tariff on steel. i can't do it. i don't believe in it. i've been fighting against it for a year, so you have this kind of like trying to deal with the chaos there. this is something more substantial and worse, i would say, than you know, alma rosa leaving because you have a hinge moment in which the president of the united states has decided to undertake a major economic

global macroeconomic shift and the person in his orbit who is the best suited to helping him make this decision has said this is a catastrophe, you cannot do it, and he's like, i'm doing it anyway. for 30 years i wanted tariffs, so i'm going to put tariffs on and cohn said i've got to walk. people have said for decades one of the problems in the united states is that people in positions of power often don't walk when their position is overturned by somebody else or -- and so i think this is a good thing in the sense that there will now be gary cohn on the outside who can maybe explain to us what is going on after he was in the precincts of power and explain why it's so bad. >> well, it was sort of a good thing, but i think on balance it's a bad thing because i think gary cohn probably won't explain to us what was going on in the

precincts of power. i think gary cohn is going to be loyal and low key and what you lose is an enormously -- i don't agree with gary cohn with a lot of things, the tax bill and whatever, certainly i do on trade, but he's a solid guy who knew what he was doing and to have him gone and the question of who's going to go and take that job not with standing trump saying everybody wants to work in the white house, whether you're going to get someone with gary cohn's caliber i think is questionable. >> it's going to be difficult to recruit people into this white house, the legal jeopardy, a lot of the people enter the white house and the lawyers that they have to hire eventually, what happens next here with this white house? what kind of person would step into the fray here? >> well, willie, i think the thing that's challenging about this, somebody touched on this, that gary cohn is a process guy, i think the reason anybody would be reluctant to take this job is

that gary cohn's departure makes it clear that he didn't have much of an opportunity even though he was the economic council director to influence this element of significant economic policy. this is an announcement that he made without a process. he announced it in a press spray and it's not just that gary cohn disagreed with the decision, he didn't have an opportunity to influence it and that's why i think if you're a serious person who wants to advise the president of the united states, why would you assume a role where it's clear you can't offer him advice that he will consider. whether or not he takes it in some ways is a different question. i can tell you from my experience in the white house that people like larry summers and others who held that job didn't agree 100% with everything that president obama concluded but i can tell you that he carefully considered that advice from those experts. >> and of course the disruption

also again causes real problems on the hill. you've heard talk of maybe kevin mccarthy becoming the president's chief of staff or other people going into the white house. it's got to be plainly obvious by now that even if you're one of the best economic minds in the world, the president is -- he's not going to listen to you. >> right. >> he's going to scratch whatever itch he has at the particular moment and he's had this -- this herbert hoover like obsession on trade wars and tariffs since the 1980s. so why would kevin mccarthy. why would anybody on the hill decide hey, i'd like to go work for donald trump? >> i think the theory is still, hey, give me a shot to influence it from the inside, give me, you know, maybe i can convince him to do -- >> you believe that? >> i -- that's the only thing that i can conceive of here. >> i can make the bachelor --

i'm the one the bachelor is going to give the rose to. >> the brunette thought she was the one. >> we're all the brunette these days with this president, aren't we? >> hey, careful. >> no -- >> i'm a brunette too. >> and by the way, the chaos doesn't end there. the president is still talking about wanting to get rid of other people in his administration. the attorney general, i mean, won't respond to that either. >> i think there is still a sense that among those who are dealing with this president, you know, leaders on the hill, they are doing a lot that we don't see to manage this president. and that they believe it would be worse if they didn't at least make those attempts. now, you know, we can -- reasonable people can argue about whether they should be doing more, like saying more outfront.

>> they should. >> but i think that principle applies to the question of why would a kevin mccarthy or a mark meadows want to go on the inside. i think it's easier to explain in the case of mark meadows. power is an aphrodisiac for these guys. >> still ahead, it is not just gary cohn warning about tariffs. secretaries mattis and tillerson say there are implications for international security. we'll explain. plus president trump promises to counter act russian meddlings in the midterms. but some say the u.s. isn't doing nearly enough. >> and also, elections last night. we'll look at the numbers and see if there was a big democratic turnout in texas and some other areas where people were predicting such a surge. >> but first, bill karins with a check on incoming winter storm. we're sick of it. >> it's march, bill. it's the middle of march.

>> d.c. and baltimore had a little bit of surprise snow but that was an appetizer. what's heading up north is going to be significant during the day and it will cause a lot of people to get stranded on the roads. it's going to snow that hard this afternoon. 42 million people under winter storm warnings. that's a lot of people home from work and school today. the snow is starting to break out now. around philadelphia and central new jersey. the heavier areas of snow. to let me give you the timing of it. you're not going to see much around the greater new york city area accumulating until we get the heavier snow into the afternoon. the blue is a very heavy snow, maybe even thunder snow. that's about 2 to 4 inches an hour that will be coming down. incredible rates. the plows won't be able to keep up. that's philadelphia up toward allentown late this morning. the new york city gets into that really dark blue. that's when we could have claps of thunder with incredible snowfall rates and then by the time we get to this evening we

take that really heavy snow and start to push it up into areas of southern new england. how much snow does this mean? i have philadelphia at 4 to 8 inches. new york city 6 to 10. boston a little too warm but just outside of boston you'll get nailed as you go throughout the 495 loop here. northern jersey once you get north of i-95, that's where someone will get 12, 18 inches of snow. it will be heavy and wet and just windy enough for a lot of power outages. primarily a big snow event. so new york city seeing snow flakes but it's 34 degrees so it's melting. it will snow so hard this afternoon that it will cool things down and that's when you'll get your 6 to 10 inches. we'll be right back. today, a focus on innovation in the southern tier is helping build the new new york. starting with advanced manufacturing that brings big ideas to life. and cutting-edge transportation development to connect those ideas to the world. along with urban redevelopment projects

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when we're behind on every single country, trade wars aren't so bad.

you understand what i mean by that? when we're down by 30 billion, 40 billion, 60 billion, the trade war hurts them. it doesn't hurt us. so we'll see what happens. >> there's a high level of concern about interfering with what appears to be an economy that's taking off in every respect. we are urging caution that this development is something much more dramatic that could send the economy in the wrong direction. >> clearly there is overcapacity dumping in transshipping of steel and aluminum by some countries, particularly china, but i think the smarter way to go is make it more surgical and more targeted. we want to make sure it's done in a prudent way so we can limit unintended consequences. >> so willie, you got -- >> what's going on? >> a ton going on here around this decision, a critical time. you've got the -- of course the

majority leader and the senate, the speaker of the house, you've got obviously our allies from canada to australia, the europeans, people across the globe. >> they're watching the markets. >> greatly concerned. you've got to look at the asian futures and make sure the sky is not falling, make sure that a lot of people's 401(k)s aren't wiped out this morning when the market opens and we understand in the midst of this -- of these trials and this tribulation that the president of the united states. >> up early. >> he's up early and he is tweeting. let's go to the willie tweet desk. it says new york but he's actually in hong kong. >> this is the president tweeting this morning about a new book from mark burnett who is the executive producer of the apprentice. his wife, he tweeted great couple, great book. row ma's got a new book out

today called box of butterflies. so there you go. >> and gary cohn right now is smiling. >> well, you know, he's actually -- he's like -- >> and weeping silently. >> no, he's like who was it? was it steve mcqueen that escaped? >> so playing the role of steve mcqueen this morning is gary cohn who actually has escaped. >> so reports suggest gary cohn is far from the only trump administration officials opposed to the tariffs. according to jim mattis and rex tillerson privately warned senior trade officials yesterday that the president's move on steel and aluminum could endanger the u.s. national security relationship with allies according to five people familiar with the meeting and the fallout over the president's decision with our european allies is already escalating.

european commission president announced on friday the block would respond with tariffs on nearly $3.5 billion worth of items including harley davidson motorcycles. >> hold on a second. hello, speaker of the house. >> bourbon. >> hello majority leader of the senate. >> and levi jeans. hello ted cruz. >> we're talking about places that make this stuff. i don't know who makes levi jeans. after that they're going after nancy pelosi. >> diplomats extended yesterday with a second batch of items. just more than $1 billion. that includes shirts, textiles, footwear, cosmetics. >> it really is extraordinary that you have the people that the president actually respects the most and certainly the secretary of defense. it can be saying this is going

to cause a real problem with our alliances in a time that we don't need additional problems and whether you're talking about secretary mattis, secretary tillerson, gary cohn. the most respected people in his administration all telling him not to do this and yet the president moving forward in a fit of anger because hope hicks resigned. >> yeah, that's the thing. >> hold on. somebody laughed when i said that? >> i laughed. >> i know. >> but here's why i laughed. >> but it's the truth. i mean, that's bizarre. >> and totally inappropriate. >> there was a policy reason that people in the conservative movement and the republican party opposed trump's nomination. it wasn't just his comportment and all of that. trade was the signature issue. he said he was going to do this. he's wanted tariffs since the 1980s. i mean, nobody has any right to be surprised.

it would have been a betrayal of his deeper self to not do this. >> but at the same time again, if you're going to do this, there is a process to it. if you're going to make a move that is going to offend your economic allies, your military allies, there is a process. you get people on the phone. you have mattis make calls, you have tillerson make calls. you have cohn make calls and you prepare it. you just don't have reports that did is raging around the white house late at night because hope hicks is leaving, and then suddenly blurts out i'm going to start a trade war. >> oh, my god. >> first in response to jon, yes, you're completely right of course but there are many precedents for candidates being one thing as candidates and doing a different thing in office. perhaps tariffs are not the way to solve it. buzz he's fulfilling a campaign

promise but then you come to joe's point which is the most bizarre way i've ever seen in watching these kinds of policy things come down for a long time to announce this massive, massive shift in our policy and by the way, it's probably in violation of wto rules, an obscure part of the trade law that's only ever been used in iranian oil imports and you've got this huge impact with tillerson and mattis and other folks have well articulated that this is going to deeply affect our ability to lead the world into a better place. >> joe, for people who are looking for some hope that maybe the tariffs don't happen, you said maybe this is about pennsylvania. there were a couple of stories that got buried a little bit. pressure from paul ryan and also steve muchen saying he believes that canada and mexico would be

exempted from these tariffs. that's not something the president has said. he had kevin mccarthy, the chair of ways and means on cnbc and he said he believes the president may well change course on the idea of tariffs, so i think republicans are not taking this as a done deal and even the president's own treasury re secretary, i don't know if he was authorized to say it, but this may not be what the president says it is. >> let's wait until after pennsylvania '18 and we can start judging on whether the president is going to move on this or whether it's going to be just like transgender ban in the military. you have fbi kicking down the front door of the president's former campaign manager and suddenly he sends out this tweet, distracted, we all chase after it and then it ends up that the ban --

>> what a frightening way to run a country. >> it's a bait and switch and it reminds me. i want to talk to jon who was watching the bachelor a few nights ago. >> thank you, i think. go ahead. it's choose your own adventure. white house legal edition. a porn star is suing the president. kellyanne conway broke the law twice. bob mueller has a new cooperating witness and trump lawyer may need to hire his own lawyer. we've got a former u.s. attorney on next to talk about it all. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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well, the russians had no impact on our votes whatsoever, but certainly there was meddling and probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals, and i think you have to be really watching very closely. you don't want your system of votes to be compromised in any way. and we won't allow that to happen. but you have to be very vigilant

and one of the things we're learning is it's always good, it's old fashioned but it's always good to have a paper backup system of voting. it's called paper. not highly complex computers. paper. and a lot of states are doing that. they're going to a paper backup and i think that's a great idea. >> all right. so can i just say something? >> sure. >> i completely agree with the president there. paper is a great backup and the reason why is you know, it is one of the things that have -- that i've had a little comfort in when we've talked about all of the ratings of the russians, the voting, i've completely lost my mind this morning, is we're so inefficient. >> right. >> this is one system for like for instance in florida there's 67 counties. there's 67 supervisors of elections. they have 67 systems for the

most part. the last thing we want to do is say we're going to have all the votes on computer. we're going to link it in tallahassee and link it in washington, d.c. that sort of system is the sort of system that's easily hacked. there is something to be said when it comes to voting, the inefficiency of the system. >> the bad might be the money that the state department has to look into russian meddling that just has not been spent. >> the president said he's not worried about russian interference in the midterms because his administration has been working very hard on counteracting everything that russia does. joining us now on nbc news national security analyst, have they been doing that, jeremy? working very hard? >> they have done precisely nothing to secure our election systems. >> just making sure. also joining us former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, very good to have you on the show this

morning. where do we begin? >> let's begin with what the president said. the president certainly went further though in that statement than he's gone so far. no impact on the outcome of the election. i suspect we'll find out maybe differently five years from now, but at least he's now saying they tried to meddle and suggested that the u.s. government needs to have a response. that seems to be a step forward. >> i don't think so. i actually think what he said there was yes, they meddled but so did others and maybe some individuals did as well. >> we're still talking about the fat guy in jersey. >> we're talking about the 400 pound guy in the basement. he's minimizing russia's role. notwithstanding the intelligence assessments i've received -- >> what do they have on him? >> notwithstanding all of that, i don't really buy it and therefore we're not going to fashion a comprehensive response against russia's activities in

the united states. >> the washington post is reporting that robert mueller who's requested documents and interviewed witnesses that incidents involving the president's attorney who long served in the organization, he's not said to be target of the investigation, but cohen was involved in discussions with trump tower project in moscow during the first months of trump's candidacy and brought a letter to trump for an attempt to sign in october of 2015. he later said that he reached out to vladimir putin's personal spokesman for help with the deal. during the first weeks cohen delivered a sealed proposal to the white house outlining a way to lift sanctions against russia which cohn described as a peace trea treaty. leakers know the special council

will not respond to set the record straight. that said the president's attorneys found themselves in the headlines the past couple of days and i'm not so sure that they're going to find much in this russian deal only because he sent it to a public -- he sent inquiry to a public address of vladimir putin's spokes person, but i do wonder, is he going to actually find himself in -- have bigger problems because of what he did in the stormy daniels case where you could have fec violations, she's now actually coming after him as much as trump. it seems that could cause a mess for cohen. what do you think? >> just as we saw with the blue dress and the white water investigation, some of this can be scooped up in all of it. i know president trump said it would be crossing a red line for robert mueller to look into his personal or business financial transactions but i disagree.

any responsible prosecutor looking into russian interference would necessarily have to look into all of the financial transactions -- >> especially people that have known donald trump for a long time believe his connections with russia goes back to atlantic city, financing in atlantic city, him being in trouble in atlantic city, how do you figure out what the connection is between donald trump and vladimir putin without looking at financial transactions because that's what moves the man to act. >> absolutely. and so if you want to determine whether anyone has leverage over the president or those who are close to him like michael cohen or family members i think you have to look at all of their financial transactions. >> on the question of what we're doing or not doing to combat russian interference in the upcoming election, in the 2020 election, what lessons we have or not learned from the 2016 election, we add mike rogers a week and a half ago saying he had not been granted the authority to do the things he needs to do, yet dan coats the director of national

intelligence testifying as well, putting a little more optimistic view on it. i guess my question for you is, what's standing between those agencies and what they need to do? if we know what the problem is pretty clearly at this point why isn't everything possible being done to stop it? >> presidential leadership. i mean it really comes from the top and if the president doesn't convene his national security team and say this is a top priority it simply won't get done and i think that's exactly what's happening. the president is sending mixed signals and his team doesn't know whether they have the running room to take on russia and if you just think about what russia's done in the last week, russia announced two new nuclear weapons. a new very aggressive strategy against the united states. even reports out of london that russia may have poisoned an alleged west spy. putin has crossed every red line and our government, our president is doing nothing about it. >> wow. can i jump in here and forgive

me for pulling us back to the conversation. michael cohen is such an integral part of president trump's life. i mean, he was somebody who was there every step, every campaign event, you know, i covered trump for the years before he was running for president. i mean, how is it that he could not end up entwined in the mueller probe? >> i think at the moment it appears he is more of a witness in all of this as opposed to a star target but that could change. >> and how do you make an attorney a witness? i mean, aren't they going -- isn't he going to claim attorney client privilege on just about every matter. >> that's a really good point but the attorney client privilege only pertains for communications for the purpose of getting legal advice. so as long as he's doing deals and acting as a representative, those would not be covered. >> what if he wasn't paid? >> that doesn't matter. even if he was seeking legal

advice, if he had an attorney/client relationship, the payment itself does not trigger it. so when he's out there dealing with russians and entering into transactions as more of a representative of the trump pri. >> jeremy bash, barbara mcquaid, thank you both very much. still ahead, hardball's chris matthews joins the table here in washington. plus, when it comes to tapping a new economic adviser, president trump promises he'll, quote, choose wisely. but so far many of his picks for top spots haven't exactly worked out. >> you chose poorly.

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we have a lot more still ahead on "morning joe." we'll be joined by foreign relations committee member senator chris murphy on the heels of a possible breakthrough with north korea. and republican senator ted cruz will also be our guest. he won his primary in texas last night. but could face a tough midterm

battle come november. >> we'll be talking to him about barbecue. >> and levi's jeans. when we come back, chris matthews joins the table. >> do they make the jeans in texas? >> no, but he wears them. >> as another top level trump official leaves the administration. we're back in just a moment live from washington.

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we see two travelers so at a comfort innal with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, "wow, maybe i'll glow too if i book direct at choicehotels.com". who glows? just say, badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com yeah. they'll be people. i'm not going to be specific, but there will be people that change. they always change. sometimes they want to go out and do something else. but they all want to be in the

white house. so many people want to come in. i have a choice of anybody. i could take any position in the white house and i'll have a choice of the ten top people having to do with that position. everybody wants to be there. >> you know, mika, very excited because she has chris matthews here. >> i'm stressed. >> last night, chris's opening was "screw loose". >> that was two nights ago. that's right. >> what was last night? >> i'll think of it. >> mika wanted to call you after the hope hicks resignation. >> i had some ideas. >> she wanted you to say. >> all hope is lost. >> that's an easy one. losing hope. there's so many -- >> oh, please. >> but i think it has been weird. how about having the chair there yesterday empty with his name on it, gary cohn at the press conference. what was the point of having the empty chair? >> so let me ask you a question, this is bad for the

administration, this is bad for politics. >> i'm not sure about that yet. >> but that's the general talk. it's been the general talk. what about in pennsylvania 18? i think he's going to at least talk about this until after the special election pennsylvania 18. does this help him there? >> well, it should. that would be the purpose of it. >> right. >> and i think that i've noticed that sherrod brown of ohio and joe manchin and bobby casey of pennsylvania have all come out for this because all politics is local. >> tariffs. >> if you're a retired person, a retired person in pennsylvania, erie or scranton, what do you want out of life? you don't have great hopes of something being different. you want social security, medicare and medicaid care for alzheimer's and kids to get jobs close enough to drive home. not go too far away. this is about trying to keep some of the jobs in pennsylvania. this is pat buchanan stuff. it's economic nationalism. it's the feeling people have

that trump said bill with you. imagine if he had gone the other way. this will not sell in new york and hillary country. >> this is pat buchanan's message in 1992. 25 years ago. >> we're still there. >> who is still there? >> the pennsylvania voters. >> are the jobs still there? >> well, their hope is still there. the culture is still there. this is a cultural issue as much as an economic issue. you've got to say, look at donald trump. the battle will be won or lost in 2020 in wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. it's not going to be fought in the high-tech areas of california or new york or massachusetts. >> a voter, though, understands even in pennsylvania, does he not, that if the factories come back, and there are a lot of factories that are still around pittsburgh, that the jobs don't come back? it's automated. >> i think there's a sense that the chinese are going to grab all the steel industry. they're going to take it. by the way, this sophisticated

terms of trade, this whole idea of least compare to disadvantage, we're all taught in graduate school about economics. that's great for new york and some of the big cities. but what are we trying -- china -- goes to africa and starts building coal refining plants because they have all this exchange. they can do anything they want with their tremendous trade advantage in the world. we have to do something about that. they're winning. >> so you're answering my question in the affirmative. this helps donald trump in pennsylvania. >> yeah. >> this helps donald trump in ohio. >> that's right. and it's because it's cultural and it's emotional. he's looking out for people that nobody else is looking out for. >> what about in wisconsin? what about in michigan? >> well, we're going to see. i think this thing is going to shake itself down. i'm listening to what mcconnell is saying and ryan are saying. they'll be much more surgical. it will end up with one message, donald trump looked out for us.

those in new york and their advanced degrees don't need steel to make a living. >> how many people talking in the last hour made any money with their hands? i'm sorry. >> i don't want to get into it. it's a long story. >> we should get into it because i think it's the point of view that comes from the gritty people out there in pennsylvania who are probably cheering this on. by the way, what do you think casey is for this or sherrod brown? they're smart politicians who want to get re-elected. >> speaking of sophisticates who have never done any work with their hands, it's sort of like that scene in trading places where she looks at dan aykroyd's hands and says you've never done an honest day of work in your life. we bring in sophisticate from boston, professor of international politics at the fletcher school of law. >> he's not liking this. >> the man to which george wallace came up with the term -- pointy-headed bureaucrat -- we give you boston red sox fan,

daniel dresner. >> he's going to punch you in the nose. >> in new york, mike barnacle who will probably agree with chris and also we have tv's own willie geist. dan actually brought you on to explain, if you will, that if there are people in pennsylvania that think this is good for them or are people in ohio think this is good for them, talk about the tradeoffs. how do these tariffs hurt working class americans when they go to buy things in walmart, in sam's club, in their grocery store, when they go to try to get a used car to give to their kids when they're about to drive off to college. >> so basically these tariffs hurt ordinary working class americans in two ways. the first is they're going to raise consumer prices. the price of every steel-using industry is about to go up, which even people like wilbur ross and peter navarro acknowledge. they claim, it's just a small text.

just a couple hundred dollars on a car which i guarantee you really important to a work class individual in pennsylvania. the second thing, by the way, is to push back on chris's point, the notion that this somehow just free trade just benefits intellectuals on the coast is absurd. the fact is the trade partnership produced the first analysis of what these tariffs will do suggests it will create a net loss of 150,000 jobs, primarily in the manufacturing industry and last i checked they're still using industries in pennsylvania, ohio, michigan and wisconsin as well. the idea this is somehow a net gain is absolutely absurd. it's dumb ass economics. >> well, oh, okay. >> sometimes he breaks -- he doesn't sound very -- does he? he's tough. >> dumb ass. that's a new one. >> you know better. that's all the people want to hear is we know better. that will solve all the problems. >> wow. >> mike barnacle, though, this

is not voodoo economics, it's witchcraft economics, and yes, it will help maybe 150,000, 200,000 people across america. it will hurt 300, 325 million people whose cost of living goes up, will it not? >> look, joe, dan just pointed out the facts. and those are the facts. but loss is the keyword. and what we're talking about here, what chris and i are talking about here, i think, is not just loss but it's nostalgia. it's the loss of so much over two or three decades that affected so many people. losses that are never coming back. but these are the same people who when the economy crashed in 2008 and 2009, many of them lost their homes. they lost their 401(k)s. they lost their hope in this country, what little hope they had left of the job down the corner, down the street, in the

same town that they grew up on. many of these people also are the people who risk losing their sons and daughters in a war that's been going on for 16 years now. so loss is the key and loss triumphs over facts. dan has facts. but loss is emotion. loss is nostalgia and loss sends people to the polls. >> casey? >> i think to a certain extent whatever the president may be doing here that has to do with p.a. 18 has z a hail mary. everybody i'm talking to thinks the republicans are going to lose this race at this point. the nrcc just dumped over half a million dollars, they spent millions trying to prop up their candidate. democrats have somebody who really fits the district. he's from there. he's a veteran. people who have seen him speak say, hey, this guy is really pretty impressive. so, i think the tide is really turning. >> conner lamb, 48%, rick

saccone 45%. this is a district 20% for trump. it is a republican district. this race should not be close and you know, i was going to even say the day after if the republicans only win by one or two points that's still going to be another example of massive underperformance by the gop in 2018. >> yeah. this is just the next data point. and obviously there's another week before the elections, so we'll see how it ends up. >> right. >> but it is clear that trump is playing politics with all of this. i think chris and mike are both making compelling points about the resonance of the politics. >> is that the new word, playing politics? how about winning elections. is that playing politics? >> we have higher expectations of our president. why don't we have a president out there looking out for our collective national best interest? it is not in our best interest to implement policies that have retreads of 25, 30, 40 years ago. >> this worked all these years for pennsylvania and ohio, it's

worked for them, huh? this free trade policy? >> i'm not saying that. we need to have a forward-looking trade policy that does benefit our economy in a more effective way. >> how do we keep steel? >> how do we keep steel? >> not all chinese production. >> what we're trying to do is create jobs. what we're trying to do is create jobs in the most effective way is to make sure we're letting the u.s. economy and all the advantages that we have here benefit working people. >> dan dresner, dumb ass politics, go. >> we don't have a problem with steel. steel production is actually up. we have a problem with steel jobs. and the reason is that the steel industry even in this country is so productive that even if you apply these tariffs i think the estimates suggest you're only going to create about 50,000 jobs, no less than 50,000. you're going to lose on the other hand $150,000 jobs. the problem isn't trade, it's productivity. we are so good at making stuff we don't need any workers.

quit saying that the steel industry is in trouble. the problem is workers in the steel industry are facing a challenge. and the answer to that is not boosting the steel industry. the answer to that is boosting other sectors where these people can get good jobs. the president proposed an infrastructure program. that's one way you could do this. >> so dan, if detroit could -- if detroit could somehow build all the cars that americans drive in this country, it wouldn't be like 1955, it wouldn't be like 1960. i heard some remarkable stat that if you just looked at the number of people that worked in general motors in the early 1980s, if you had more people employed then than you have in all these high-tech jobs in silicon valley that we rave about day in and day out. >> that's largely correct. what's happened essentially is manufacturing has gone the way of agriculture. you remember 150 years ago most

americans are farmers. no one thinks america is not a power house right now. 2% of americans work in that sector, the reason is that we're so productive at it. the idea that you'll somehow blame other countries for what is essentially a productivity revolution is absurd. i would add one other thing on this which is to say that donald trump somehow seems to think that running trade deficits is a sign of weakness, a sign that america is losing. there's one other economic block in history that practiced the notion that we only have to have sort of a complete trade balance which each participating country. that block was comicon led by the the soviet union. this policy will not benefit the united states and if it leads to a wider trade battle then frankly voters in pennsylvania might actually recognize that whatever small temporary advantage they've gotten from the tariffs have actually nonetheless caused larger widespread damage to the american economy. >> by the way, let me just say to the good people of pennsylvania, i love voters in

pennsylvania. >> yes. all right. but willie. >> covering your bases. >> a larger thoughts here. >> you always have to be careful. >> i'm watching the joe political strategy. >> it's interesting to hear people talk about pennsylvania like i've been in the south my entire life. >> i see a third party opportunity there. >> there is. >> a big one. >> there definitely is. >> willie geist, this did really cost the president a main player inside the white house. >> president trump spoken favorable about trade wars. gary cohn the chair of the chief economic adviser to the president has resigned. cohn's decision was in reaction to the abrupt rollout of new tariffs last week. a source close to cohn says he feels he circumvented the process. cohn considered resigning in the

wake of the torch-lit protest in charlottesville, virginia, a weekend that ended with a counterprotester killed. cohn was standing next to the president when trump blamed both sides and said there were, quote, very fine people marching alongside the neo-nazis. cohn's major achievement came four months later with a $1.5 trillion tax cut he advocated for. so, chris, we were talking about this earlier, this appears to be a victory for nationalists inside the white house. over what think call globalist gary around the west wing. >> yeah. i think it's a bad time for the jared and ivanka. they're all tied together. the family block. and i think they were tied in to gary cohn. i think you're right. but a weird thing, the president sort of keeps these balanced. he has kelly over there having i guess by subtraction a good week after a lot of bad weeks. but cohn apparently spoke to

stephanie ruhle of our network. that there is more to this, cohn wanted more, he wanted a bigger job, more to do, prestige. he didn't like the smaller role he had been given. again, he didn't get any electoral votes. the president got them. he makes the call. he was looking for something more. i understand his concerns. we all shared it about charlottesville. but i think this is more to it than just the trade issue. >> much more. >> just the final blow. >> yeah. >> mike. >> you know, chris, there was one other added element. i was told at mar-a-lago a couple times over the past five to six weeks people have wondered when donald trump was present at mar-a-lago wondered and asked him about gary cohn's future, talking about how valuable gary cohn was to his administration and how much certain people -- i was told by three people -- who valued his presence in the trump administration and the president visibly bristled each time, what's to great about him? i do more than him. i'm more important than him.

so kasie, this whole thing comes down to the president of the united states -- >> you got it. i completely agree with you. even we talk in the media about the last couple days "hardball" chaos, chaos, chaos. movable parts in and out, traffic management. in the end it says there's only one guy there that matters. and trump doesn't mind saying yeah these people are coming in, going, leaving, whatever. more are going to leave, more changes. it says there's only one person that matters here, me. it's a fascinating development here. i'm afraid he has it. >> i still have people i want to change, mike barnacle. >> mike, you have a question for kasie? >> i was wondering, as chris just eluded to, there's only one person in this administration. so the idea that we are talking about chaos today, the idea that a month from now, you know, who will gary cohn's replacement be, who will fill this or that slot,

we might be underestimating the amount of chaos that is there now compared to what it might be a month from now, six weeks from now, who knows. >> i mean, how many times have we sat here and thought how could this -- isn't this the end of -- how much further can we go? i feel like to a certain extent we have this conversation every single morning and every single night, you know, this president is chaos president. how many times have we read that headline and every time we add to that graphic where we're at the point i can't see the faces are too little of all the people that have left. there's so many of them. you know? >> this is not even all of them, by the way. >> okay. >> these are the main players. >> we have to make the faces smaller because we need more space for more people. >> put it in a scroll, right? >> we have to do a scroll, like credits. >> chris, your question about -- i think the question is going to be what happens if republicans start losing elections.

the reality is president trump won te election. and all of the republicans on the hill, they were saying privately beforehand they thought he was going to lose and quite frankly a lot of them wanted him to lose. and their lives and keeping their seats would be easier if hillary clinton were the president of the united states. so if there is a huge wave in november, i think the dynamics are going to change. >> i can see people voting for connor lamb, military guy, lawyer and everything else. also vote for trump, same voter. >> right. >> i can see voting for cob by casey and voting for trump next time. >> fair traders. >> they are. i mean, i have the scores to prove it from fighting for tpp in the obama white house. >> right. >> much of the opposition we faced was from democrats trying to move that across. >> this is democratic policy many ways this protectionism. >> that's certainly where the roots are. again, i think people on both sides have to figure out what we can do to turn this debate

around so that the point that daniel is making and daniel i want to go back to you on this, you're not a political strategist, but what is it that you think we can do as democrats. i'll just ask it from the perspective of my party, what is it that we can do as democrats to make sure the argument that you're making about how to strengthen our trade policies and make sure the benefits are enjoyed by working folks can actually be more resonant politically. >> you have to point out the management with which the trump white house rolled this out. which is to say, even if you think that protectionism is a good idea, they have somehow managed to enact this in the stupidest way possible in such a way that you've managed to al n allenuate allies. you have to say, yes, absolutely. trade creates winners and losers. there are a lot more winners in the united states than there are losers as a result of our trade policies the last 70 years. the question is how do you

change the policies so the people who are negatively affected, the people who haven't necessarily prospered nonetheless can find jobs where they actually manage to retain their sense of dignity and also enjoy all of the sort of benefits from higher growth that you get from free trade? >> right. >> hey, dan dresner, we appreciate you coming in this morning. dan is a big red sox fan. we all need to go out maybe on april 5th. >> opening day. >> watch the game together, opening day, because dan, i sure as hell is never going to sit next to you at a pirates or phillies game. let's watch the red sox. how are you feeling about the sox this year, dan? >> i'm really glad they signed jd martinez. i'm feeling a lot better now. >> mike? >> yeah, he filled a big hole. it's a very good team. a very good team. the whole year will come down to david price, though. which david price is going to show up this year. that's going to be the year. >> gentlemen -- and chris matthews, thank you for being

on. >> the eagles won, i think. i think they won. >> i heard that. >> i think philadelphia is the national championship city right now actually. >> the eagles. >> and tell josh we're all sorry about eric hosmer, but you know how to get to san diego to watch him, right? >> the weather is great down there and i have another excuse to visit san diego. i'll take it. it will be a couple lean years in kansas city for baseball. i'll be looking around. >> chris matthews, we'll be watching "hardball" tonight. >> we need to get dan to come on again with the lead of the steel workers and have a really good debate here. that would be great. leo gerard. >> i would debate the heck out of him. >> look at him. >> bring it on. >> everything i learned in grad school against everything the steel workers want. >> maybe get them together in d.c. or new york. that would be great. >> i'll tease your book. bobby kennedy, a raging spirit. >> 50 years ago next week. knowing that his brother had been killed by an assassin four

years before that going out martin luther king when he was killed went out in a crowd in indianapolis, went out against the gun owners out in oregon. the guy had guts. and he walked into the face of hell for that 80 days knowing he was probably going to face that kind of danger and he ended up dying because of that courage to run. it was really frightening what he faced. >> you know, one of the fascinating things about reading all these books on bobby. i absolutely love your's. but the beginning of that campaign and even thomas talked about it, it was chaos. bobby kennedy needed a bobby kennedy what bobby was to jack. he never had that. so there were all these people coming at him and actually sounded like the first year of bill clinton's administration where it was mass chaos and yet he did extraordinarily well any way. >> the voice that will grab people is that of richard nixon. when bobby announced for president nixon was in oregon

because he was going to be the nominee by then. he had beaten romney basically. and he turned off the tv set and after bobby just announced that march 16th on that saturday. turned off the tv set and kept staring at the blank screen, nixon. he's very weird. he had a weird connection to the american nervous system. he knew the american people better than anybody. and he said, forces will be unleashed what we cannot imagine. we do not know where this is going to end. he sensed that weird electricity the kennedys created, positively and negatively. people get a little weirdly wired when they get out there, the kennedys. maybe he saw it coming because he said so. >> wow. >> all right. >> it's a little weird, but weird connection with weird sometimes. >> the man who received more votes than any other politician in the history of american politics. >> yeah. and he was on the national ticket every time from 1952 to 1972 for 20 years with one

exception. he was on the national ticket everybody denies he was -- david would say, i'm not going to write about him again. >> about nixon? >> like some ridiculous kremlinologist. i'm sorry he was here. people voted for him. >> by the way, anybody who ever looks at churchill never said victory is never final and loss is never fatal. just look at richard nixon, 1962 he loses the governor's race two years after he loses the presidency and "time" magazine says that is the end. >> yeah. >> of richard nixon's political career. 1962. >> he heard all those announcements come on television nixon is finished phony liberals. how many times have you heard darkest hour yet? >> once. >> three or four times. have you seen it? >> four or five. i just keep staying up at night and watching it again.

i'm a s.a.g. member. >> you get the screeners. >> magical scene in the subway. >> magical scene. >> one of the great scenes in political -- even though it was fiction. a guy going into a subway and just listening to people and letting them say, do you want to fight hitler? they all said we're going to fight it. he decided to fight. great stuff. >> so chris. >> alex is saying don't tell us -- >> we have to go to break. >> how it ends, but i do think it was pretty incredible halifax's last line, what just happened? what did he say, he weaponized the english language and sent it off to war. >> you know where that line came from, ted sorenson wrote it for kennedy. >> did sorenson write that line? >> wow. >> yeah. >> what's the first line tonight on "hardball"? >> we decide that like screw loose. as i walk with the exception of the producer, man overboard. >> that was good. >> last night. man overboard.

>> tonight, tonight? >> you want to hear the ones we don't use. >> okay. all right. >> i want to hear that off tv. still ahead on "morning joe," we've been talking about pennsylvania politics, but texas just held elections that could paint a picture for the upcoming midterms. political guru steve kornacki is here. he's angry, screaming at the big board and is going to break it all down for us. you're watching "morning joe." we're going to be right back.

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you know what's not awesome? when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. the state of texas held the first primary of the midterm season yesterday. democrats continue to surge to the polls having one of their largest midterm primary elections in the state in more than 16 years, but far more republican voters showed up at the polls across the state than usual as well. joins us now national political

correspondent for nbc news and msnbc steve kornacki live at the big board. and in austin texas, professor at the lyndon b johnson school of public affairs at the university of texas msnbc contributor victoria defrancesca. steve, we'll start with you. what are your big take aways from texas? >> yeah. let's start on the issue with turnout. this is the first state-wide primary of the 2018 midterm election. were we going to see a big surge in the democratic side? maybe signs of not so much energy on the republican side. top of the ballot yesterday, the gubernatorial race, they weren't great primaries. you get a sense of how many ballots were cast on each side. 1.5 million republican ballots the most in primary history in texas. republicans broke their own record. democratic numbers over 1 million. that's up significantly from what democrats have been getting in the past. but if you look at that gap, it's about 60% of the ballots cast yesterday were republicans.

that wasn't supposed to happen. about 60% republican, 40% were democrats. historically what does that mean, that puts democrats in better shape sthan what they were in 2014 and 2010. those were very bad midterm years for them. not as good as 2006. that was a great midterm year. go back to 2002, 2002 democrats actually had more ballots cast than republicans in texas. that's one thing we're keeping an eye on. another thing we're looking at here, too, some of these congressional primaries democrats think they have a chance to knock off republicans, one in particular, this is in the seventh districts this is suburban houston, republican district. what was so interesting about this democratic primary, national democrats panicked about -- that wasn't supposed to happen. let me try that one more time. national democrats. >> this is you start breaking stuff. >> there we go. laura moser, national democrats tried to sink her campaign. look, she had been living in washington, just moved back to

the state. wrote disparaging comments about living in texas. well, there was a backlash to what the national democrats tried to do. now, look, there's runoffs in texas. she is going to be in the runoff. you look at the votes just cast yesterday on election day, she did much better than in the early vote. looks like clear signs of a backlash there. that's one to keep an eye on. marquee race, one of the closest nationally for the house. national democrats don't like this candidate but voters in the district may. you have the senate primary this fall. you'll have o'rourke, cruz, 62% for o'rourke in a primary he was supposed to win very easily. that number may not be as exciting as democrats were hoping for there. >> looks like reports we heard leading in talking about registration and early voting, democrats up 105%, republicans up 10%. looks like a lot of those reports about a big blue wave coming in texas once again over hyped. and i say once again because we've been hearing of the coming

blue wave in texas now for about as long as we heard about the coming read wave in pennsylvania up until donald trump's win. >> to date it's been the great white whale of democratic politics. the turnout is a sign of clear energy on the democratic side. for democrats in texas, that's a phenomenal number. again for republicans, that also shatters a record. i think the other lessen from this, too, though is look when we talk about the early vote, take it with a gigantic grain of salt in the future. this is one of the big lessons of the last few elections in texas. all those reports about early votes, one thing to keep in mind, the numbers are only counted when they do these early release totals. they're only counted in the runup to election day in the top 15 counties that's what you're usually seeing in the news, top 15 counties in terms of population. much more democratic. that will skew things. if you're a democrat and said you're going to get more than 1 million votes yesterday, i think you're happy. you're republican and broke the record, you're not sad about

that either. >> victoria, you're in austin texas and study texas politics closely. you know no democrat has won a state-wide race since 1994. because of democrgraphics that texas would turn blue. what's your take? >> it's all about the long game. what we saw last night is a ripple, not a wave, not a tsunami. it's about the long game. hillary clinton in 2016 lost the state by single digits. this time around we're not going to see a democratic governor. i think beto has a very slim chance of winning, but i think he'll come within single digits of ted cruz as opposed to the last senate race 16 percentage points. we need to keep the big picture in mind. democrats did turn out more. but again, this is a republican state. trump's approval ratings here among republicans 83%. texans are conservatives. even latinos tend to be more conservative than latinos

outside of the state. big picture, a little bit of momentum for democrats out of texas, but texas is unique. it's so conservative compared to the rest of the country. it's more like a southern state than a western state. >> and because it's texas, there's a bush on the ballot. george bush, george p. bush, land commissioner, pretty big job in texas. bush in a trump state now. how is that working out for them? >> so fascinating. the son of jeb bush, donald trump mers lousily ridiculed. george p. bush facing a primary job to keep his job as land commissioner. he aligned himself tightly with donald trump who then came in at the end with an endorsement of george p. bush. george p. bush wins outright, avoids the run off. he latches on to trump, maybe saving his political career by doing that. here is the flip side, the other side of trumpism, that seventh district where democrats are

excited having that primary that is go back half a century, the district where george h.w. bush launched his political career. he turned it red 50 years ago and may be trumpism that turns george h.w. bush old district blue. it could go in 18 potentially by latching on to trump. the next bush may survive. >> victoria, immigration always an issue in texas that's front and center because it impacts them directly along the border. 800 miles of border with mexico, big democratic turnout. how did it play last night and going forward? >> it's going to play very much so in terms of folks who have a direct linkage to folks who are undocumented. someone in your household or cousin or somebody who is a family friend. so it's very palpable. this is where will herd is in trouble. he is one of these moderate republicans, dying breed of the moderate republican. he has a very strong set of

challengers. we still don't know because there's going to be a runoff but likely going to be a female latina who speaks for that latino population but also a former intelligence officer. so, immigration is playing into the larger trump resistance. and other frustrations of metoo and the harvey response. so you put that all together and that's what's helping that ripple of democrats gaining the momentum in texas and nationally as well. >> victoria defrancesca soto. >> and steve kerr knacky, thank you very much. >> we'll speak live with senator ted cruz of texas. he has a warning for republican. he says his party could lose both houses of congress this november and what he calls the extreme left will try to impeach president trump. but first, cruz's democratic colleague senator chris murphy joins the table in washington. it's all coming up on "morning joe."

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our continued plunge into debt is unsustainable and represents a dire future threat to our economy and to our

national security. >> oh my god. wait, hold on. hold on. a republican sounds like a republican. >> no. >> that hasn't happened in about 30 years. >> stop it. a stark warning from the director of national intelligence dan coats about the security implications from america's economic mismanagement. that's one way of putting it. joining us now, member of the foreign relations committee, senator chris murphy of connecticut. good to have you back on the show. >> good morning, guys. >> senator, in richard haass, one of his previous books, he talked about how actually the national debt and our financial misfortune was actually a national security issue. >> sure. >> would be a national security issue and there you saw dan coats saying the same thing. how does tariffs, how do tariffs impact our key alliances across the globe?

>> well, listen, tariffs can be a really important tool to try to make sure the other countries know that they can't manipulate our economy. let's be honest, that's what china has been doing. dumping steel below the cost of raw material and that hurts our own industry. but when you announce tariffs without talking to our allies about it, allies that aren't dumping that product in the united states, you set off a series of consequences that are both economic and strategic. and that's what i worry about with respect to this announcement. you have a potential fissure between the u.s. and europe that comes at the worst time. that's what the russians are rooting for a breakup of the transatlantic alliance. there's a really important question about the timing of the announcement with respect to china, the primary target. we're desperately trying to get the chinese to work with us on getting tough on north korea. china is the key ultimately to getting north korea to the negotiating table in a meaningful manner, but when you

are putting this issue on the table with them and setting off a trade war, that makes it a lot harder to do something about north korea. talking about tariffs, i'm not somebody who says you never do them because there might be some consequence to the u.s. economy, it's just how you do it, how you notice our allies and the timing of it all. that's what is the mess here. >> kasie? >> one of your colleagues was arguing to me on this point that the president actually created some of this mess in the first place by the way he talked about tariffs on the campaign trail, that some places like china were concerned that he would actually make this move and so they started dumping steel into the market. do you buy that? do you think that's the correct way of looking at this? >> well, listen, i don't think there's anything wrong with acknowledging that we are in a trade war with china. it's just that they are fighting it. and we by and large have not been. and so i don't mind the fact that he talked about what is an open secret, the chinese use all sorts of manipulations in order to game our trade relationship.

yes, maybe that comes with consequences. i'm worried about the timing of this announcement and the inability of this president to work it out with the other countries that will be affected by it. >> how about within his own staff? there's that as well. is it legitimate question? are we certain that he's going to stick with this? >> yeah. i don't know who his staff is these days. seems like the place emptied out. a lot of what happens in the white house is internal games between different constituencies. steams like much of the white house is consumed with trying to figure out which wing of the white house wings out. and it's problematic for the president that he'll have two different messages coming out of the white house. he'll allow for some people to argue for the tariffs and some to argue against it. if you're going to do it, do it and have the whole white house behind it which is not what's happening now. >> willie geist. >> hey, senator it's willie in new york. different topic for you. today is three weeks since the shooting in parkland, florida, where 17 people were killed. there was a cry from republicans

and democrats that this time was different, that they had been inspired by the students speaking out and calling for change. you've been of course a long-time advocate for gun reform. has anything changed? what's the status of any legislation that would change anything about the gun laws in america? >> i'm not a believer that there's ever going to be a tipping point in this debate. what we are doing is slowly and methodically accumulating political power for the anti-gun violence movement such that one day it will be stronger than the nra. we're not there yet. but this is a meaningful moment. i think 2018 will be the first year in which on city innocence from the republican party will hurt them at the polls. i think president trump kind of gets that, which is why he got so far out in front of gun control at that white house meeting. but the republican party isn't ready yet. and so the question is what are we going to do? i worry that we're not going to do anything, that mcconnell is so afraid of this debate and so

afraid of having a debate on assault weapons or background checks that he's not going to even bring a single day of debate before the senate. if they do that, i think there will be consequences in 2018 and that might be the election when the republicans finally do a price for doing nothing in an election. that may end up getting something done. i hope to get something done in the next few days. listen, there's clearly no sense of urgency on the republican's behalf. >> mike barnacle? >> on that score, i would like you to pick an adjective to describe this terminal inaction, even something on bump stocks, practically so low a bar for bump stocks. pick an adjective to describe the inactivity? >> complicit is the word that i use. it makes republicans complicit in this mass murder. let's be honest, these are copy cat killers. it's not a coincidence that every single troubled young man is using an ar-15. they see the destruction the lethality, the efficiency of the weapon and use it dpen.

when they see congress do absolutely nothing, i really do believe this is an unintentional but quiet endorsement of this kind of mass murder. and so i think the republicans are complicit and anybody who does nothing are complicit if we don't actually act and use our power as legislatures to condemn this epic mass slaughter. >> so, help me understand this. the grip the nra has on the republicans. i was speaking with one of the most forceful advocates for a take no prisoner's approach to the second amendment after parkland and we had bumped heads on this, but i called him up. i said, hey, what do we do? you and i obviously -- you know, i agree with him on 80%. but on background checks and a couple of other -- bump stocks, ar-15s we disagree. what do we do?

and this guy, who again one of the most forceful advocates for most of the positions the nra takes said to me, joe, first of all, i don't understand why they don't pass something on bump stocks. the nra supports that. i don't understand -- he talked about you. i don't understand why they don't do what murphy and cornyn put out there. the nra supports that. that would be a great first step. this is a take no prisoners second amendment guy. >> yeah. >> who is even confused by the republican senate and house's inaction. >> so from what i understand the senate republicans caucused this behind closed doors, there was a sizable contingent of republican senators who opposed the fix nix act the nra endorsed measure that senator cornyn and i put forward that just simply makes sure that states report people to the background check system. >> why? >> so i think that there is a

brook no compromise element within the republican senate and republican house conference that feels as if you give an inch then you are ultimately going to have to give a mile. >> but the nra is supporting this. they could go to their so is there a difference between what the nra is saying publicly and what the gun lobby is saying -- >> why else would there be -- >> i know this. if there's a politician in northwest florida achbd if i were afraid of the nra and the nra said we support bump stocks, we support i would take it and run with it. >> so i think what they are worried about is to bring the bill before the senate would require having amendment votes on other things the nra opposes

that might pass, take for instance this idea to take weapons away from people that have had a court determine they are a danger to themselves or others. rubio, many others are pushing it. it might get 60 votes. they are saying boy, if that's ultimately a vehicle for things that we doenn't like to pass -- >> i wonder why there is such resistance. >> i'm with you. thank you. >> okay. we are going to break now. thank you for being on. >> still ahead. >> does it include jeff sessions or either of your secretaries? zb >> i don't talk about that. >> he says he doesn't talk ability potential staff shakeups but he does tweet about it. morning joe is coming right back.

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accused of violating ethics laws in 2017. if found guilty she could be forced to leave her job or even worse, stay. still ahead we are keeping an eye on the markets where wall street will be surely responding to the resignation of president tru trump's. also, senator ted cruz will join the table. we are coming back with a packed 8:00 a.m. hour of morning joe. ♪

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greatest finale you have ever seen. >> so you think i was the only one comparing the bachelor to what happens in the white house every day. >> it is wednesday, we are live on capitol hill. host of kcdc, where is my lightning rod? >> where is that? >> there you go. >> joining the table near washington, bless his heart, ted cruz from texas. he won his party's nomination of this crucial midterm season. very good to have you on the show. >> you did have the tweet of the

week. you said bless your heart. the actual picture of the barbecue. it is an admission against interest. >> the saddest are the little pickles on the side. that's a cry for help. that's a cry for help. >> that is -- >> that is really sad. >> ted cruz is funny. >> of course he is. >> speaking of a cry for help gary gary is left and a lot are looking at the president. i'm sure you lit him up on the campaign trail about democrats when it came to tariffs. i need to ask do you disagree? of course you do. what can you do to get in the way of it? >> i think it is a mistake. i think there are a lot more

jobs in this country. we'll end up costing more jobs than will be saved. that doesn't even factor in. it could hurt farmers, manufacturers. to be honest the president has heard from most senators on this. >> can you guys do anything in the senate? >> probably not. i think anything we tried to do i think the democrats would filibuster. very little is moving through the senate. i have tried to do what i can to encourage the voices that want to expand free trade. i it would be good for mexico and it would be great for texas and this country and produce thousands of jobs here.

>> so what's the impact? we had that debate before. what's the impact for a working class family of four going in walmart or trying to buy a new car. what is the long-term impact for people in texas struggling from paycheck to paycheck to get by. >> it depends on what actually happens. it depends on the substance. >> what if it goes with the numbers he is talking about? >> the details will matter a lot more whether it applies to everybody, to some, whether it's at the same numbers. ily s i will say we caught to be looking exactly, those are the benefits we have been working for. we are seeing the committecono g

booming. wages are going up. that's who we need to be responsive to. my hope is that either this did you want get implemented or it gets implemented a fairly small way. i disagreed with george w. bush but trump is not the first republican to do that. >> are you saying there's a chance he might change his mind on this because he might not be serious about it? >> i think the president has shown wide flexibility. >> bless his heart. bless his heart. >> this is apparently the final straw. a lot of people painted that might be behind why he left. what does it tell you about what is happening in this

administration? >> no doubt there has been change over. there was a lot of discussion he was likely to leave. >> i know but we have like 12 people leaving. who knows what tomorrow holds. >> this is an unusual time to put it mildly. >> jeb bush said that donald trump is a chaos candidate he will be the chaos president. do you agree with that assessment? >> the assessment i agree with is i think it's -- >> despite the chaos. >> despite the chaos and the approach i have tried to follow in the senate is to ignore the chaos. as i'm walking down the capital my sort of standard rule of thumb -- >> he is laughing.

>> i won't comment on tweets or the kmept of tcomment of the da. if you want to talk regulatory reform or obamacare or judges i'll talk that. i think despite the political circus of washington it's remarkable the tax cut was historic. repealing the obamacare individual mandate which i helped leave the effort to get done was a remarkable victory. >> let's talk abilityout a poli are talking about. that is the gains that have been made against isis in iraq and syria, the alliance that we have had with the kurds. will is united states of

america, will the united states senate stand shoulder to shoud aeroand not repeat the same mistake we made in 2011 where we withdraw the troops and allow isis to move back in again? >> i think that's a great question. i think america's treatment has been nothing less than shameful. >> it's been shameful. >> the fighting forces are effective fighters. they have stood with us against isis and saddam hussein. we have seen the american foreign policy establishment turn their backs because they don't want to dismay the sunnis. it's all of the different players. i am one who has called repeatedly for a free and in

independent but it would be ben official to america to have a strong and stable country in the middle east who is not an enemy. >> they were the boots on the ground that helped push back isis, that were reliable and had been reliable time and time again. >> that's right. we as a country have had a unique relationship over the years. i want to ask you about politics but not about this president. you have said that you think democrats will cruel over broken glass to vote and warned texas could turn blue. how much help do you think you'll need? is mitch mcconnell giving you

the help that you need? >> the help i need and the rest of us need is to keep delivering results. tax reform. regulatory reform and obamacare and judges. the degrees to which we succeed was remarkable. that's what i'm urging my colleagues to do. let's not take our eye off the ball. we may have a republican president. it did you waoesn't happen very. >> have you rebuilt your relationship? >> we have a very good working relationship together. at this point on tax reform, on obamacare both of us wanted to get the job establiaccomplished.

i'm in a fairly unusual position because i'm able to speak to credibility and to moderates, to the administration and to try to bring everyone together and say what's the common ground? >> it is a very different ted cruz that first showed up in the u.s. senate. >> a diekinder, gentler ted. >> and yesterday he actually ordered in brooklyn barbecue and sent it to his office. all he could it for a week. >> and it fit in a little baggy. >> i was d-- that was disgraceful. i want to talk about tariffs and saying effectively i don't

answer the tweet of the day and i don't talk about the scandal of the hour. the offhand kmecomment sent our allies cramable. it could set off a trade war. how do you make a distinction of what to believe? is it your position we ought not believe the first thing the president says? >> it with was a kmept the president made and it appears to be that the administration intends to follow tluchlt hroug. we don't know the details. >> things could change. >> they could change and there are a lot of good details. you take the tax cuts where i spent thousands of hours working on that tax cut. there are a lot of big conservative victories that are producing results. last week i was in the white house twice with the president working to get a resolution and

the system that is bankrupting refineries and costing tens of thousands of blue collar jobs. largest re finery on the east coast. we had a rally with 1,200 union members. they are not the type that typically show up and vote republican. their jobs are at risk. i want to commend the president and the white house. i think we are moving towards a win-win solution that will result in corn farmers selling more cornment that's positive to be able to get a win-win solution for everybody. >> do you see dismissing the president's comments as being offhand when the markets tanked. they don't take them as offhand comments. they say that's the president of the united states making a

statement about policy that's going to effect the world. i'm curious how you make the distinction about what to d dismiss as an offhand kmecommen. >> most of the democrats support tariffs. when they say i agree the markets collapsed. i don't think he should agree with the democrats on tariffs. i think tariffs kill jobs. a lot of people are nervous. i think it could be a good thing if we use it to open up the canadian and mexican markets. they do very well if we open up markets. if it is an excuse to set barriers to our markets and decrease trade it will hurt farmer and manufacturers. for my part i'm doing everything i can to convince the president

and administration to urge them to go the right direction. >> and you hope to work with the white house to think it would be a better position. >> i think it's an ongoing discussion and i'll continue to try to influence it in a positive way. senator, i have a gun safety question for you. do you think it makes any sense at all that in some states an 18-year-old is allowed to buy an assault rifle but not allowed to buy a handgun? >> different states have different laws. if you want to ask common sense what we ought to be asking is what actually stops violent crime. we had a so called assault rifle ban. the department of justice studied that so called ban and found it had no effect on violent crime. it is a great democratic talking

point. it is not a machine gun. machine guns are functionally legal. they have been for over 80 years. what that call an assault weapon is a scary looking gun. it doesn't make it anymore dangerous. if you want to stop crime -- >> wait. >> it actually, the studies show that weapons like the ar 15 are designed to be more lethal. there were actually -- i talked about an article a good bit. there was criticism because it was lighter and more of a killing machine. so it is designed to kill more effectively and more

efficiently. >> the lethality is distinguishable from many deer rifles. if you attach the plastic hamd hand it was a banned -- >> so deer rifles are just as lethal. zb if somebody takes a deer rifle into a high school in parkland that that deer rifle is going to be as lethal as an ar-15? >> any argument the twofold. going after the rights of law-abiding citizens doesn't work. >> so you know better than

anybody. you know what the second aem had. >> i represented 31 stales. >> so you know at least where it stands right now scalia said the second amendment means people have a right to keep and bear arms in their home. they have a right to have shotguns in their home. >> the home is not a qualifier. >> if you go from 2008 and the decision of 2010 all the way through now the supreme court has limitations an assault-style weapons, for limb statioitationt about everything. so having -- >> it was about a handgun which they said the second amendment

protected and the district of columbia couldn't ban. >> every american doesn't have a constitutional second amendment right to carry an ar-15. yes or no? >> i'm not going to debate that. >> but the courts have assessed it. >> they vice presiden >> they call it percolating. >> yes. >> senator, there are a lot of people, lawyers right now that are rolling their eyes at what you're saying. >> i don't need you to lecture me on what the supreme court does and doesn't do.

if the supreme court denies time and time again, and they have since 2010, and they have allowed connecticut's laws to stand in place that actually ban assault-style weapons right now the court is sitting back and they are allowing that to remain in place and allowing that. that is constitutional right now. there is not a constitutional right, and you know it, and you can talk down to me all you want to, but you know there is not a constitutional -- >> who is talking down to whom? you say lawyers are rolling their eyes at me. >> you said this is what you do. i understand that but i do understand this, even a dumb country lawyer like me understands that an ar-15 is not recognize as under the amendment. >> actually under the test the

supreme court laid out, whether an instrument of defense is incommon in popular usage, the ar-15 is one at most common. it is clearly praeotected. >> so you would think that the supreme court of the united states would accept one of these cases -- >> but -- >> and you were talking about what you want the law to be. >> no. >> i'm talking about what the law is. >> but the test scalia laid out is this a weapon that is commonly desired. it says the right of the people shall not be infringed. the right of the people is a term of art. your point about denying cert. they grant cert in 70 to 80 cases. it has no presidential value.

>> but if there is a constitutional right that is infringed upon that by at least four members of the court they will accept cert and listen to that. >> not if there's not a -- >> not even -- >> the number one determinate is it sharply divided and unable to resolve. >> i give you credit for swatting away what is legal reality. >> can i make the point that matters the most? if you want to stop violent crime this debate is dancing on the head of the pin. >> but hold on. i may agree with you, senator but the one thing that i think that is important -- >> what am i going to say? >> is that the immediate what gets the arguments around the second amendment wrong a lot of time but so do a lot of politicians that say i have a

god given right when that is not the law of the land right now. go ahead and make your point. >> mike asked about common sense and practicality. i spent a lot of time dealing with murders and violent criminals. we need to stop these mass murders. the toughest gun control laws, what is we fegtive is targeting vie len violent criminals. it is legislation i introduced in 2013. it got a majority vote in the senate. most bipartisan support. what did it do? it increased funding by school safety. the obama administration had cut that. if harry reid and the democrats hadn't filibustered it it could have been another police officer could have intercepted this gunman before he murdered those

teenagers. southerland springs, my home state of texas. it was the worst church shooting in history. i stood in that sanctuary and held those families, cried with nose families, prayed with those families. one of the most maddening things about southerland springs. it was already illegal for him to possess a firearm. he had a firearm because the air force under president obama failed to report the conviction to the background database. >> do you support what they trying to pass? >> i think it has due process problems on one side but more fundamentally it doesn't do nearly enough. it does much more to strengthen the background system. >> let me ask you this question, this is where i thought you were going. even michael bloomberg will say

banning assault style weapons won't cut down on the number of gun deaths in america. the problem has much more to do with handguns illegally moving around in areas like chicago. what do we do? what do we tell our children when it is obvious that there is an epidemic. there are people that are copy cats going and shooting up schools, shooting up churches. we are going to disagree on the practicality of banning assault-style weapons. what can democrats and republicans do to make sure that all of our children don't go to their schools or their colleges fearful they are going to be shot up. >> look, what we can do is pass grassly cruise.

it meant that it failed to prosecute felons that tried to illegally fire a firearm. 48,000 felons tried to illegally buy a firearm. out of those the obama justice department prosecuted 44 out of 48,000. i think it's unacceptable. they created a gun crime task force, funded prosecutors. in southerland springs it meant the year before he went in and checked no. i don't have a felony conviction or domestic violence conviction. those were separate felonies. if the democrats had nt

filibustered it he would pt vn murdering nept men, women and children. it won't be effective to give speeches demagoguing law-abiding citizens and gun owners. what is effective is target resources and put violent criminals in jail. you asked what we should do to make our schools safer, we should take up and pass it. ask them why they filibustered. >> so you've said that, boom, boom, boom. >> and i want to say that i do believe you're wrong on where we stand as far as rights with ar-sar ar-15s. i will say bless your heart. >> here here. >> thank you. >> appreciate you coming in. >> how do you put up with him

in. >> it is fun. it's a barrel of laughs. >> if you bring somebody working on the issue of the kurds, you know, it's a critical one. we went into iraq. a lot of people were exhausted. most americans wanted to sleep in 2011. it created the rise of isis. dope want to see that happening again. i'm glad to hear there are a lot of people concerned in the senate as well. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we should mention we hope to have you back for interviews as the campaign heats up. >> i look forward to it. >> thanks a lot. >> we'll have reaction from our political panel ahead and new reporting on the resignation of gary. could he have a second act? we'll be right back.

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states of emergency. the second one in a week for many of the same areas. 42 million people in our winter storm warnings. a lot of people home with their kids today. this afternoon the snow will come down so hard and so fast the plows will have a hard time keeping up with it. the storm is just forming tauf coastline for virginia and maryland and delaware. it will move towards new york city as we go towards the lunch hour. here is our latest additional snowfall. we have a red do lcoloring up i western connecticut. it is that band is where we'll have the chances of getting that thunder snow later on today. philadelphia still heavy around 4 to 8 inches. this is north and west of philly.

new york city i have 6 to 10. once you go across easily over a foot. to give you an idea of the timing, by the time we get to the noon hour the blue is where we could get thunder snow. new york city waits until 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 p.m. it shifts towards new england through this evening. so far just wet pavement, temperatures around 34 degrees. check back in and you'll see white conditions. you're watching morning joe. we'll be back in about three. ♪

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and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. stormy daniels just made some news. we'll show you what he said and bring in our political panel. >> do we care what he said? >> we do. >> we do. >> i said give me a break. give me a break. >> give me a break. >> give me a break. >> give me a break.

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did she have a sexual relationship with the president? >> yes. >> okay. she also says there were tangible items, photos, images and she won't turn them over. does she still have photos, images, text messages, documents that clarify this claim? >> that's a question she will have to answer. >> do you know the answer? >> i do and i'm not at liberty to disclose this. >> that was the attorney for stormy daniels on nbc's today saying that his cliept had a sexual relationship with donald trump.

joining us now is jake sherman, john mccomick, mike allen is with us and brian clops is with us as well. >> so we were talking about the big news here bha $130,000 contribution from trump's lawyer at the end of the campaign that was never reported. that actually is a violation of federal law. >> i'm not a lawyer, you are, but it would seem based on all of the available everyday this was done during the campaign to protect the president from potentially embarrassing story are if somebody he allegedly had an affair with.

>> so anything that went on that was exchanged in e-mails about this affair and this bob mueller would have. >> i think he has everybody's e-mails. >> edwards was prosecuted. again, i'm in the a lawyer but you have to look closely. >> there was one other piece where she asked her attorney, can you prove that the president of the united states or display that the president of the united states authorized the $130,000 payment. he said there are things that i can't say yet that we have information on and sort of let that hang out there c. he hasn't said whether it was directed by the president of the united states or what it was for

exactly. that may all come out in the e-mails. stormy daniels attorney may have contents and e-mails they ready to roll out. >> and he was telling the president that the president had not repaid him the $130,000. >> tell us about it. >> the president put in big screen tv, a chandelier and gary cohn said i'm only using about 20% of the my brain. i want something where i'll use 80 to 90% of my brain. what is that big job? the big job is the guy he was

having lunch with, john kelly, if the president was willing to make him chief of staff he probably would have stayed. the job is filled and you have the decision on tariffs and cohn was thinking about going last week but you have the departures. sources say he didn't want to pile on. so yesterday he told the president today is the day and this is first on morning joe they repeated the exchange. the president asked gary cohn whether or not he would be willing to come back. >> we know one area he is not going to go into if he wants to use more than 20% of his brain. >> no. i suspect everyone said everybody who goes into the white house is tarnished in some

way. gary is still widely respected. he'll find whatever job he wants. >> i think one of the few people that got out, you can add gary cohn. >> it is way worse than you have seen in previous administrations. they said that turnover is at 20%. it is far beyond where obama and bush were at. it is our reporting indicates it the likely mcmaster will leave. it was like home alone. there was no one doing anything

except for jared kushner and steven miller. >> they are still there. >> and what are they going to do about the tariffs? >> it sounds like nothing but they have the power to do something. the president is not going to take away his own authority. he said congress has the final say. let's use some partisan scrambling here. >> it will be embarrassing for those who have taken such a hard stance on tariffs. they don't believe they could do anything legislatively.

put the tariffs in place and put it back afterwards once he is calmed down and try to get them to walk them back. >> they don't believe they can change his mind at this point. he wants to do it on on the gary cohn front, i just got an e-mail from somebody who said this loss is different and it's going to hurt. >> wow. brian, there are some people that have been saying, you know, it's just trump being trump, he was just blowing off steam, he may not even follow through with it at the end of the day. a lot of people lost a lot of money on wall street yesterday. but more importantly, maybe you can speak to this from london, it seems that even if it's not his intent, donald trump just did vladimir putin another favor by driving a wedge between america and its european allies. >> that's right. so over here, the view of trump is worsening. there is a lot of allies who are shaken by these tariffs, they're

talking about retaliation. if you think about what putin's main goal has been for decades, it has literally been to turn europe and america against each other so that nato is weakened. trump is doing that work for him. after russia attacked the united states, the punishment has not been against russia. the economic costs are imposed on our friends. this is at a time of geopolitical uncertainty where we're trying to rely on our allies on a host of issues. can we still count on them? i'm not sure anymore. >> mike, let's follow up on that, look what's happening in syria, with the iran negotiations. you can go down the line. we need our european allies on our side. this just drives a wedge between us even more. >> it does, absolutely. joe, this is another reason that everything is worse than it looks. you add to shannon's "home alone" idea, it's not just quantity and volume. it's that there's only side of the house that's now being

recognized. we saw the president yesterday say that he likes to have his people fight it out. but there's not the other side now to fight it out, with the cohn wing depleted and the stephen miller wing ascend anan you only have one voice in the white house. as you head into the midterms and reelection, all the political incentives at home are for the president to be more nationalist and not concerned about those ally issues. >> willie? >> brian, you've been writing about the rise of authoritarianism and glimpses of it that you may see in the trump administration. he made that offhanded joke, he called it a joke, about china's president xi being president for life and that's what we ought to try in the united states. how do you see it?

>> this is what my "washington post" column is about today. i don't find it funny at all. you had the president cheering for a foreign autocrat grabbing power for himself and supposedly joking about doing the same. i didn't think it was funny when he called the press the enemy of the people, when he scapegoated ethnic minorities or when he filled the white house with cronies and family members. he is mirroring authoritarian practices. the rest of the world is taking notice. it's an amazing moment where the u.s. is no longer the foremost voice or model for democracy globally. that's going to have serious long term costs. >> he's praised autocrats in china, in turkey, in the philippines, across the world. it's an unmistakable message. how much of a loss is gary cohn

and dina powell and these others -- >> mcmaster. >> and mcmaster, how much of a loss is that for ivanka and jared? >> their inner circle has just dissolved over the past few weeks. hope hicks was an enormous ally of ivanka's. josh raffel, who was jared kushner's spokesman, jeremy katz, a number of peripheral people were supporting that. the new york democrats, as they were nicknamed going in, are really powerless at this point. it's stephen miller's world now and we're going to be living in it. >> also who would go into this administration? the subject of a federal investigation, why would i go into an administration that doesn't reflect republican ideology, the hill thinks. >> is gary cohn leaving because he lost this one battle or

because he knows there's worse to come? >> thank you all. >> thank you all so much. >> on tomorrow's show, senator claire mccaskill joins us here on set in washington. we'll be back in three minutes with more "morning joe." but one day we're sitting there and we decided that, something needed to be done about what was going on in our inner-city. instead of buying a house, we decided to form this youth league. these kids mean everything to me and i just want to make sure i give something positive to do. ♪ ♪ wow, that's amazing. that's a blessing right there. to know that someone out there cares and is passionate about what we're trying to do in our communities. you excited? yes. yeah, we're gonna to look good right? yup. awesome. alright come on, bring it in man. love these guys right here.

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communications director mike dubke has resigned. >> press secretary sean spicer resigning. >> white house communications director anthony scaramucci resigned. >> a senior administration official confirmed bannon will be leaving. >> health secretary tom price resigned. >> the deputy national security adviser is now leaving. >> rob porter is resigning. >> white communications director hope hicks has resigned. >> the president's chief economic adviser gary cohn has officially resigned. >> they all want a piece of that oval office. they want a piece of the west wing. >> yeah, they all -- >> no. no, they don't. >> willie geist is saying, they all want the west wing in their rearview mirror. >> it was shortly after that that gary cohn ran for the exits. john podoroff is set to do some more research on that

"bacheloret "bachelorette." >> my final thought is i need to watch "the bachelor" to understand the white house. >> the good news becca will be the bachelorette in august. >> okay. what a day. we're back here tomorrow. >> i think we all vote that dan dressner stays on the island. >> yes. >> dumbass economics. >> dumbass economics. did not sound like a northeast effete liberal. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. >> unfortunately, not here to discuss "the bachelor," because this morning we've got news in washington. >> believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house. 90 minutes later, after president trump says that, gary cohn, one of his top advisers, resigns, sending shock waves through the entire white house.