thank you as always so much for being with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. this morning, an nbc news exclusive. president trump irked by vladimir putin's nuclear build up tells aides not to talk about policy moves. an ousted va secretary david shulkin is taking on the white house in a series of interviews after being fired by the president. ♪

good morning, everybody. its friday, march 30th. we begin with president trump's relationship with russia and vladimir putin. multiple senior administration officials telling nbc news that trump has told his aides not to talk publicly about policy moves the white house implements against russia. his reasoning stems from his continued hope for better relations with vladimir putin in addition to his ongoing refusal to be seen as giving in to the media or critics who question his praise or his silence towards the russian leader. for instance, after it was announced the u.s. will supply weapons to ukraine, trump told his aides not to tout the decision publicly because it might acknowledge state putin. one white house official adds, quote, it is not something he wants to talk about. one white house official says it really got under the president's

skin and trump proceeded to call the presidents france, and the uk. in addition, according to officials, during trump's congratulatory call to putin last week, trump added, quote, if you want to have an arms race, we can do that, but i'll win and bragged about america's new defense budget. this may have played a in america's recent rollout of sanctions against russia. one official says trump pushed back on the sanctions by repeating his claim that russia did not affect the outcome of the election but relented after putin's speech and officials say trump's top advisers did not orally brief him before the putin call or they warned him in his briefing papers in all capital letters, quote, do not congratulate because they felt it would not make a difference. one official adds, quote, he

would say what he wants, anyway. with that as a back drop, russia's defense ministry released video of what it says is a new test of a heavy rcbm adding the test was successful. it is reportedly one of the new missiles trump flaunted during a speech earlier this year. it comes after putin announced retaliatory methods against the u.s. in keeping with what russia calls, quote, the principal of reciprocity, the kremlin is kicking out 60 american dip low mats in addition to closing the u.s. consulate in st. petersburg ordering it shut down by tomorrow. that's being seen as an escalation. in addition to being the oldest

american mission in russia. so far, 29 countries and nato, including georgia, which was previously part of the soviet union have announced the ex pulli expulsion of russian diplomates and they say this may be the tip of the iceberg. >> we reserve the right to respond. >> to respond to their response? >> correct. >> so, in other words, we could see an escalation beyond this? >> i'm not going to predict what will happen. we don't see this as a diplomatic tit for tat. russia is responsible for that attack. russia should be the be acting like a victim. their all begins with russia's irresponsible actions where they are showing that they're not serious about being a

cooperative world picture. >> i get the picture. russia clearly not interested in having good relations with other countries. >> president trump has yet to tweet or comment about the expulsions. savannah guthrie sat down yesterday with russia's new ambassador to the u.s. and he discussed russia's retaliation. >> if anybody slept your chick, your face, what will with be retaliation from your side? you will retaliate. >> catch more of savannah's interview on "today." attorney general jeff sessions told congress he will not appoint a second special counsel to investigate republicans allegations of political bias in the fbi favoring hillary clinton and abuse of the fisa process

against president trump. sessions told lawmakers that the matters are already being looked at by a career holdover from the obama administration, john huber. in a tweet last month, trump tweeted claiming he has no prosecutorial power and asked why not use justice department lawyers? in a letter to republican lawmakers yedz, sessions wrote that he had notified them in november that he already took such action and that huber will recommend whether any matters merit the appointment of a special counsel which sessions wrote is, quote, by design reserved for use in only the most detroit of circumstances. and david shulkin isn't staying quiet following his ouster from the trump administration. shulkin published an op ed in

the "new york times." he is defending himself after an internal watchdog report found he and his wife took a taxpayer funded business trip to europe last year. >> this was being characterized as a european vacation. it was far from that. this was official business on nights and weekends i went out, never used government money for that. the single expenditure spent was on a coach airfare for my wife who was officially invited. everything was preapproved by our ethics committee. when the inspector general didn't like the way my staff handled the approval, i wrote a check back to the government. so this was completely mischaracterized. there was nothing improper about this trip. and i was not allowed to put up an official statement or to even respond to this by the white house who told me they didn't want me responding. >> in his "new york times" op-ed, shulkin blames his ouster on people who want to put va

health care in the hands of the private sector. he writes the advocates saw me as an obstacle for privatization who had to be removed. at the event in ohio yesterday, president trump commented on his decision to fire shulkin. >> they're vets. they're great. they're our greatest people. and they'll be -- they've got a problem and it can be fixed. by the time they see the doctor, it's over. it's over. not going to happen. we're going to have real choice. that's why i made some changes because i wasn't happy -- >> and coming up on morning joe, david shulkin will be a guest. be sure to stick around for that. >> i'm sure that will be a very interesting conversation. as louis just mentioned, president trump went to ohio so on tout his plans for infrastructure. but from the get-go, his speechd veered into a campaign stump speech.

watch this. >> remember, you can't win unless you win the state of ohio, right? you can't. we have a very important election coming up and they don't like the wins we've been getting. they don't like that the economy, the democrats, the they don't like that the economy is so strong. they don't like that they don't have one vote on the tax cuts. not one vote. and they're all now saying, you know, those tax can can cuts are stuff. what they're saying to each other is not pretty if you're a democrat. and we should do well. believe me, if our party -- if we, altogether, if we didn't win, this economy would be a wreck. we can't lose that by getting hurt in the midterms. so we can't be complacent. we're a very important and respected in some circles democrat said we should get rid of our second amendment.

in other words, get rid of it. that's really -- >> tyranny. >> that's tyranny. could be right about that. >> so as kelly o'donnell has noted, this is a taxpayer funded, official white house event. typically that would mean policy oriented and not political or election focused which would be a campaign expense. let's talk more about about this. joining us from washington is daniel lippman. daniel, good to talk to you this morning. >> thank you. happy friday. >> happy friday to you. obviously, president trump was supposed to be on message and we've had this conversation many times before, but he definitely veered quite off me the message, talking a heck of a lot more about infrastructure. is this a sign that the white house has lost its direction? >> i think since day one the white house has been directionless because trump changes his mind a lot.

he pursues new initiatives without telling his staff. and i think what we saw yesterday was him coming out of his shell after a week where we hadn't seen much of him. he had almost been in like a spring hibernation because after stormy daniels, he didn't want to, you know, come out and get harassed by reporters asking questions. and so -- but he wants a lot of energy from those rallies all across america. and that is where his base is. he is talking to his base. i imagine the ethics people will probably be filing complaints about what happened yesterday. >> let's talk about david shulkin's departure here. he's obviously making the media rounds and then appearing on "morning joe" like we mentioned later this morning. what are some of the most surprising things that we're learning about his time serving this administration.? >> i think the most surprising thing for me has been that president trump called him a few hours before he fired him.

they had a good conversation, according to shulkin. he updated the president on what he was doing. and then a few hours later, without warning from the president, he was fired. and so that just indicates that trump is not -- he doesn't like to give people bad news. and so he let john kelly basically call him simultaneously with that tweet. but i imagine, you know, that future presidents may use this as an opportunity basically to fire people if they don't want to do so face-to-face with a tweet. so this is becoming the new normal in washington. >> i think we need to be clear that he doesn't like to give people bad news either to their face or over the phone instead via tweet or some other intermediary, it seems. pretty shocking, though, that they had a conversation and -- >> although everyone knew that he was probably on the chopping

block. >> yeah. we've been talking about it for a couple of months. daniel lippman, i'll talk to you again at the bottom of the hour. thank you. >> thank you. still ahead, an emotional funeral service for stephon clark. what reverend al sharp had to say in his powerful eulogy. and later, president trump takes aim at amazon. are his latest attacks true? those stories and a check on your weather when we come back.

♪ whether it's a big thing, small thing, or something unexpected, pnc will be right there when you need us. because when it comes to your finances, if you focus on today, tomorrow has a way of working itself out.

welcome back the extremely emotional service for stephon, clarked capped a week of high tensions as clark's family and civil rights leaders have called for justice in his death. the reverend al sharpton attended yesterday's funeral services delivering a really

powerful eulogy. watch this. >> yesterday, the president's press secretary said this is a local matter. no, this is not a local matter. they've been killing young black men all over the country. and we are here to say that we're going to stand with stephon clark and the leaders of his family. they are putting aside our differences. it's time for preachers to come out of the pulpit. it's time for politicians to come out of their office. it's time for us to go down and stop this madness. >> obviously, so much emotional there, which is very understandable. clark was fatally wounded after officers fired 20 shots at the father of two young children in the backyard of his grandparents' home. police were respond to go a 911 call reporting that a man was sh

smashing car windows. the police thought the cell phone in clark's hands was actually a gun. let's switch gears here. the legal time for adult film star stormy daniels may have suffered a temporary setback. a federal judge has denied a request by her lawyer to depose president trump as part of an ongoing legal battle. the judge said the motion was premature because some request questions may wind up being answered by a future petition from trump and his lawyer michael cohenen. avenatti says he will refile the motion seek to go desuppose president trump soon. let's get a check on your weekend forecast with bonnie schneider. >> good morning. we are looking for a wet portion of friday for the east. we're watching for early risks for flooding and that's mainly into some states where we're

getting rain like kentucky. but the rain will move offshore later. speaking of flooding, west virginia we have flood watches in effect. these are in effect through this afternoon. and i know we're in the spring season, but it's feeling like winter for the northern plains. winter storm warnings will go into effect for williston, across much of north dakota, we'll see that in effect later this afternoon and tonight into tomorrow for fargo. some of these areas could see blizzard-like conditions. minneapolis, green bay, all looking at the potential for snow. when we talk about accumulations, it's several inches. it's the winds that could create problems for visibility and that's a big problem for those traveling. that canadian air is on the move. it's really mild across the area. easter weekend, we'll see this

colder air push further to the east. that means by eastern sunday, temperatures are dropping. in paducah, kentucky, 44 degrees. 42 in oklahoma city. yasmin, winter is still hanging on even though we're in spring. >> i have memories of easter sunday being 70 degrees and sunny at times. >> in the southeast, but not here. mark barnacle, i guess, is still happy, having a really good week. all the highlights from the first pitch home run, my team coming up next. the roasted core wrap. 3, 2, 1... not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting.com today... for your chance to win a free treatment.

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bounty the quicker picker upper. i expect him the to take a pretty healthy cut. >> urena to happ and a drive to right. what were you saying? >> yes, sir. >> gone! whoa, baby. >> oh, my. >> the season has begun. >> welcome back. time now for sports. that was the chicago cubs lead-off hitter ian happ sending the very first pitch of the major league season out of the park. that one was gone. the cubs win the first game of the series. chicago first baseman anthony rizzo, a stone man douglas alumist and the cubs will host some of the survivors.

up in toronto, former marlins john carlos stanton giving the yankees the early lead against the blue jays. they had a 6-1 victory there. yasmin is extremely happy. also off to a great start was george springer who had had the lead-off home run to help houston with its defense with a 4-1 victory against the rangers. and a slug fest in kansas city as the white sox match an opening day record with six home runs in a 14-7 win over the royals, including three club by chicago's matt davidson becoming the fourth playing in major league history to homer thee times on an open onniing day. finally, if you're a reserve, beware. you never know when your hour or number will be called.

that's what happened to scott foster last night. the blackhawks turned to the 36-year-old accountant by day, forester who made his debut in a 6-2 win over the jets. he made 7 saves on 7 attempts. here is what he had to say after the game. >> what are you going to tell your buddies tomorrow? >> i made about 30 saves and a 1-0 win. >> did you get any advice before you went out? >> i don't think i heard anything other than put your helmet on. and then now i'm standing here. >> did you see joe just laughing as you were getting on the ice? >> i think i would, too. >> put your helmet on and get out there, kid. this is the first time this has happened in the nhl. back in november, the st. louis blues had a vending machine worker dressed up as a goalie. >> i like how he had a sense of humor about the whole thing.

it is tax season and since he's an accountant, he probably needed to blow off some steam. >> good thought there. still ahead, in a new interview, white house special counsel ty cobb is weighing in on the mueller probe. what hes has to say about this timeline of that investigation. plus, with rumors of retirement surrounding house speaker paul ryan, could we soon see a leadership battle on capitol hill? we're going to try to get that answer, coming up next. what does it take to make digital transformation actually happen? do you just flip a switch... and presto your business is magically transformed? not quite. it takes a ground-breaking company like dell technologies. a family of seven technology leaders working behind the scenes to make the impossible... reality. for instance, we're helping to give cars the power to read your mind from anywhere. ♪

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian along size louis burgdorf. it is the bottom of the hour. former veterans affairs secretary david shulkin is speaking out following his ouster from the trump administration. there are questions about whether the man tapped to replace shulkin has the experience to run such a huge agency. especially one that has been playinged by proble plagued by problems for years. >> president trump in ohio defending his latest staff shake-up, partially criticizing the va that he ip hearted. >> they had sadists that treated our vets horribly, worse than a movie. >> but new questions about the qualifications of the president's pick to replace david shulkin is white house dr. ronny jackson. >> jackson, who led an emergency medical unit in iraq has personal chemistry with the

president, but no background in big management. . >> the biggest unit he had managed was the 40 some odd medical people in the white house. he has his work cut out for him. >> if confirmed, jackson would take over the government's second-largest agency, a be heem yot that handles everything from health care to burials, chronically plagued with challenges. among the challenges, determining whether to allow the veterans more access to health care, but shulkin opposed saying it was a brutal power struggle in the va writing in the "new york times," it should not be this hard to serve your country. the va has seen improvements with average wait times for a primary care visit down. still, the number of veterans waiting for care nearly doubled as the number of appointments and patients like allison bush grows. >> it's not an easy wait, not when it's affecting your everyday life so badly.

>> thank you to peter alexander for that report. coming up, former va secretary david shulkin will be a guest. it's going to be a good interview, i'm sure. in an interview with vox, ty cobb talked about the trump's legal team's success in cooperating with the mueller investigation. quote, there have been no subpoenas, no grand jury subpoenas. you haven't heard any complaints from mueller and everything is negotiated heavily. cobb rejected criticism that he has misled the president about the length of the probe, predicting in august that it would be over by thanksgiving. quote, the reality is that i never actually said that it would be over soon. i said it could be over soon. it got baked into the narrative that i was somehow trying to apiece the president and that's just not true. i had hoped we could have gotten the document production done earlier, but i didn't have the staff or the support internally in the white house initially to get that done. and he goes on.

and mueller fully understood that and he's my audience, not anybody else. and i needed him to understand that i was working as hard as i could with whatever i had to meet his deadline. so mission accomplished as far as i'm concerned. and white house communications directions hope hicks has wrapped up her final day in the west wing. yesterday trump marked the occasion by bringing her out to the rose garden to see the press. the president said good-bye to his long time aide before departing to ohio. hicks announced her departure back in february. president trump stepped up his attacks against amazon yesterday. trump tweeted this. i have stated my concerns with amazon long before the election. unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state and local governments, use our postal

systems and put others out of business. however, trump claims that amazon pays no local and state taxes is misleading. the company does collect state tax from consumers in 45 states and the district of columbia. as for the usp s losing money because of their partnership with amazon, amazon's partnership is reviewed each year by the postal regulatory commission which requires the agreement to be profitable for the postal service. meanwhile, trump's campaign chief, brad parscow tweeted a conspiracy threat about the company yesterday tweeting, quote, do not forget to mention that amazon has probably ten times the data on every american that facebook does. all that data and own a political newspaper, "the washington post." once the markets figure out what a single usps rule change will crush amazon's bottom line, with we will see. doubt if the washington post will ever report the truth about

amazon's government subsidy. let's talk all about this. joining us now from washington once again is politico's daniel lippman. good to talk to you again. >> thank you. president trump once again taking aim at amazon, seeming like it's a personal vendetta that he has that he wants to see through. could we see him take on amazon on a different level beyond just twitter? >> he could instruct the justice department to look at anti-trust laws and whether amazon has too much of a monopoly. but that would be unprecedented because the white house is not supposed to get involved in investigations and tell doj to investigate companies tracking the president a's wrath. so that would not good for democracy. he think it's ironic because i bet jeff bezos has receipts from donald trump where he bought amazon products and shipped them

to trump tower. that might be a story i should look into today. >> that would be interesting. you should look into that. so we have retirement rumors continuing about paul ryan. we've been talking bit for quite some time now. it seems as if if majority whip steve scalise's name has been floated as majority pick. could there be a feasible leadership battle brewing over these two? >> yeah. i think paul ryan has given indications that he wants to retire. he hasn't announced that he is running for re-election. and if the gop loses the house in november, this would be a perfect time for paul ryan to depart and do something else. not being speaker in trump's washington is not the easiest job. we sure remind viewers that scalise would likely run, but he would not be speaker if democrats take control. so he would just be minority

leader. and even colleagues are calling him mr. speaker sometimes. they introduced him to a crowd at a fund-raiser. kind of in a joking manner, but this guy is clearly on the rise. >> lastly, hope hicks spent her last day at the white house yesterday. i have seen some reporting that there's a lot of people gunning for her job, which is pretty surprising considering what is happening at the white house right now. who do you think could replace her, daniel? >> we've heard kellyanne conway could be coms director or on an interim basis assume that title. mercedes schlapp is a contender and tony siag, the head of public affairs at treasury. but we should all keep in mind that the faster you rise in this white house, the sooner you will fall. so times it's better if you just stay below the radar. >> daniel lippman for us, good to see you. have a good weekend. >> you, too. during his speech in ohio yesterday, president trump

previewed his possible upcoming meeting with kim jong un and how the heavy demilitarized zone could be used here at home. take a listen. >> we're moving along very nicely with north korea. we'll see what happened. certainly the rhetoric has calmed down just a little bit. wouldn't you say? wouldn't you say? and we'll see how it all turns out. maybe it will be good and maybe it won't. if it's no good, we're walking. if it's good, we will embrace it. but it's going to be very interesting over the next period of time. look at korea. we have a border at korea. we have a wall of soldiers. we don't get paid very much for this, do we? you look at that. nobody comes through. but our own border, we don't take care of it. look, north and south korea. 32,000 soldiers. their finest equipment, barbed

wire all over the place. we prosecute protect that whole thing. nobody comes through. but our country, we don't do it. things are changing, folks. >> and defense secretary jim mattis met with president trump's new national security adviser john bolton at the pentagon yesterday and had fun with the rumors and talks surrounding bolton. >> so good to see you. >> thank you for inviting me. >> thanks for coming and good to finally meet you. >> absolutely. >> that's pretty funny. still ahead, one cable news host apologizes for taunting a survivor of the parkland florida scoot shooting after face ago mounting public backlash plus another check on the weekend forecast including the return of colder than average temperatures for the start of april. be right back.

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welcome back. fox news's laura ingram apologized yesterday for taunting a survivor of marjory stoneman douglas school shooting. up roar rose when ingram mocked 17-year-old david hogue's recent college rejection and his 4.1 gpa on twitter on wednesday. in response, hogan encouraged his followers to call ingram's top advisers to.drop her show. by thursday afternoon, seven companies confirmed they were pulling their ad dollars, prompting the fox news host to apologize tweeting this, in the spirit of holy week, i apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of parkland. as always, he's welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion. hogue was unimpressed by the apology telling the "new york times," quote, she only

apologized after we went after her advertisers. it kind of speaks for itself. as far as colleges, hogue says he's been accepted by three universities, but has not decided which school he will attend. let's get a check on your forecast now with bonnie schneider. kind of a rainy friday in the northeast. >> that's right. rain from washington, d.c. up towards buffalo, new york, and into bangor, maine. here is where we're watching for heavy rain across parts of west virginia. and it's not rain we're speaking of across the northern sections of the country, the upper midwest. snow, winter storm advisories posted, meaning we're going to see heavy snow at times and it could be blowing and drifting snow so visibility will be poor. this is responsibility to note if you're traveling to northern michigan or perhaps northern minnesota. by the time this system gets towards the buffalo area, cleveland, it will be rain. it will make for not the best travel situation. here is the forecast for snowfall totals through easter. we'll see the heaviest amounts

here into northern michigan. this is going to be a blast of winter in the spring. speaking of a blast of winter, the canadian chilly air plunging southward, today not feeling it as much. by saturday, we'll see those numbers start to shift as the colder air works its way southward, especially for the weekend for easter. eventually, the colder temperatures will work there way to parts of the mid south and the central plains. so your easter sunday forecast looks a lot colder, depending on where you are. paducah region 44 degrees. we'll see 34 in green bay. you should see snow on the ground by then. new york city, not too bad. close to normal. 55 degrees. if you're looking for warmer temperatures for your egg hunts, you'll find them a little further south into texas, alabama, and, of course, florida, and even into the carolinas. the this is the pocket of air where we're going to see milder temperatures for easter. yasmin. still ahead, scott pruitt

coming under fire yet again. the new controversy surrounding the e.p.a. chief that are once again raising ethics questions, coming up. and at our factory in boston, more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish,

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i know. find your phone easily with the xfinity voice remote. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. welcome back. new equityics scrutiny for e.p.a. at administrator scott pruitt. reports that he spent much of the first year in office in a

penthouse owned by a lobbyist. no one would tell how much rent he paid, but bloomberg reviewed a lease that he would pay $50 a nighter for nights he slept there. if pruitt paid below market rates, it could be considered a gift and a breach of ethics law. the lobbyist firm advocated for the export of liquified natural gas which brewit advocated for on a trip to morocco. according to a press release, the $16,000 airfare for pruitt and his first class trip to morocco is being probed along with his other military or chartered flights which cost taxpayers more than $163,000 in his first year alone. according to a -- clincluding, excuse me, a $14,000 flight from

western oklahoma to eastern oklahoma. those comments were made on a trip to new hampshire, a key presidential campaign state. the "new york times" recently reported that pruitt is believed to be eyeing a 2024 white house run noting that he took two trips in his first year to iowa. the district court will hear arguments from prosecutors on the motion to dismiss that case on april the 4th.

>> a look at this morning's one big thing from axios and coming up on "morning joe" the white house's crackdown on russia talk. her new reporting on president trump telling aides not to talk publicly about policy moves on russia. in a bid to knock anger plus more on the fallout of the firing of david shulkin who is speaking out. shulkin joins joe and mika on why he is not holding back when it comes to his degrgrievances against the president. e that it's safe. this is a diamond you can follow from mine to finger, and trust it never fell into the wrong hands. ♪ ♪ this is a shipment transferred two hundred times, transparently tracked from port to port. this is the ibm blockchain, built for smarter business.

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wut co welcome back, everybody. alexi, good morning to you. thank you for joining us. talk to us about axios' one big thing this morning. >> the stock market closed today because it's good friday and the numbers show that the dow jones industrial average and the s&p are down as well as facebook and

google and this matters for a lot of reasons but it matters for one reason and that's because trump has sort of become obsessed with the stock market in the same way he was obsessed with building a wall when he was running for president trump. he's tweeted about it more than 60 times since becoming president. >> it seems as if your reporting indicates that his yaws of twitter has played a pretty major role in the market's performance. >> trump tweets a lot and he often makes major white house staff shakeup announcements via twitter and often without much if any notice at all. and we've seen this in the past. when trump tweeted about amazon, stocks dipped. and also the major announcements that he's making through this

medium. >> why are they predicting that? >> it's because this economic volatility or the stock market volatility is happening now in the way that we haven't seen in the past year and that's again because of this uncertainty and these announcements that have these far reaching implications on the stock market and so while informs torrs were predicting that volatility would be a thing we've seen how this plays out. >> so you feel like volatilely will be a theme going out the year. >> trump is sort of the x factor in all of this. as corporate performance is doing well, trump is really unpredictable and i think investors are reck fliezing that and that's something they'll have to adjust to in years they haven't in the past.

>> so what are investors looking at from the white house right now? >> last year at this time the white house ultimately passed tax cuts. trump and the administration said they'd be focusing on infrastructure and that's not happening. there are no major polys or legislative actions moving forward and many economic experts are sort of saying they're not predicting anything from the white house. that would move the needle in a positive direction for the stock market. >> i want to talk about your new reporting as well regarding polling and the relationship the democrats have with the midterm elections and what they need to say and not to say on the election trail. >> yeah, it was advising democratic candidates in swing distributes to show a

willingness to work with brth. and we've seen more moderate dem democrats do well. but he sort of unleashed this far left wing of the democratic party who is wanting to do anything with donald trump. but this polling shows they should really talk about how the economy has improved under trump and not sort of make voters feel like they're out of synk with that reyal i. >> it looks as if they're looking to run a local race, especially when you consider connor lamb and husband win in pennsylvania. >> and also focusing on the economic benefits folks in their district are experiencing now because of trump. >> we'll be reading axios am in just a little while and you can

sign up for the newsletter axiom.com. "morning joe" starts right now. >> you saw those beautiful pictures and that wall looks good. i's properly designed. that's what i do is i build. i was always good at building. perhaps maybe better than being president, i was better at building. i think maybe we'll be better at president, that would be good. >> well, he's back. >> i'm confused. no, he says the wall looks good. it's properly designed. i mean, first of all he was angry he secondly mexico was going to pay for the wall. >> no, we're paying for it. >> actually the military is

paying for it. did he do that chant yesterday? i'm wondering who said they're going to pay for. the united states marine corps. >> president trump talks specifically about infrastructure and also rosea e roseanne. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday. who is glad it's friday? with us we have john heielman. and president of the council of foreign relations and author of the book "a world in disarray," richard haas. and national political reporter for nbc news bringing more news this morning, carol lee and it seems almost certain the