>> when i announced this new policy here in new york, i explained that the term "piling on" refers to a football player jumping on to a pile of other football players after the opponent is already tackled. i played football about 40 years ago so i like that metaphor. but last night, i learned the merriam webster dictionary uses a different meaning. it defines piling on as joining other people in criticizing someone usually in an unfair manner. i also have experience with that. so i am definitely against piling on, no matter which definition you use. >> that was of course deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, peeking there at the bloomberg leadership forum in new york. talking about cooperation between law enforcement agencies. now he didn't specifically mention the criticism that he's faced from the president, and some congressional republicans over the last several months.

but you heard there, his veiled reference to it, willie. and it seems that he's keeping a pretty good attitude about the chaos that's going on all around him. >> he's right in the middle of it. perhaps a reference to the president yesterday morning tweeting about a quote criminal deep state. good morning, it's thursday, may 24th, welcome to "morning joe," we've got msnbc contributor, mike barnicle, the chair of the african-american studies at princeton university, eddie glaube junior, former treasury director and economic analyst, steve rattner, columnist and associate editor for the "washington post" and washington capitals fan, a very happy fan this morning. huge game seven win and nbc news capitol hill correspondent, host of "kasie d.c." on msnbc, kasie hunt. >> i want to chime in that every time i hear this kasie

d.c./ac/dc thing. i think about the battle between westi westinghouse battle between when we should have ac current or d.c. current. >> holy moly, ladies and gentlemen, playing the role of jon meachum today, steve rattner. >> where we started, steve said, listen when you introduce kasie, i got something i want to say. i wonder what's coming in here. it was about thomas edison and westinghouse. >> i think we should devote 15 minutes of the show, it's been bothering me. >> mika is attending her daughter's college graduation, we look forward to seeing her back in a couple of days. >> big stuff, man, big stuff. of all the things yesterday that

concern me the most, and there's so many things that are concerning me, i think we need to talk to ignatius and ask him if he's going to be an apologist for russian conspiracy, that's being launched in washington, d.c. in front of our very eyes and they don't even apologize for it. or whether he's just going to take the win, i guess winning justifies everything, doesn't it in. >> four more games we're going to let the russian chief conspirator, the guy who has made it happen, alex ovechkin, the great greatest player of his generation, finally was able to put away the seventh game win and go into the stanley cup times, we're going to give him four more games to totally dominate. >> wow. >> it was a heck of a game. you have to understand the caps have been a lot of bad things in washington, our poor hockey team

and its perennial failure to get to the finals of the stanley cup has been bothering us, it's a happy city last night. >> you know, david, another aspect of the caps' win that we all should celebrate and there will be other stories i think this morning about owners of sports teams in another league, but the owner of the washington capitals, ted leonsis is one of the truly, truly decent people in american sports today. really and truly is. >> you're absolutely right. he's also the owner of the wizards basketball team. he has consistently supported the team. he paid enormous amount of money to get rights to ovechkin. for many years the caps have been the top team in hockey. haven't got ento the next step. and leonsis stayed with them. we like our owner, we like our team, but we really like ovechkin. a late development,

intelligence briefing for the bipartisan group of congressional leaders has been added for later today on the fbi's secret source during the 2016 campaign. but it will come after republican-only briefing for the president's appointees and congressional allies. the first meeting at noon will include president trump's chief of staff, john kelly, whom the white house earlier said would not attend. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, fbi director christopher wray, dni director dan coats and devin nunes and trey gowdy. the second meeting, scheduled for two hours later will have all the same participants with, the addition of congressman nunes' seven colleagues in the gang of eight intelligence leaders, including four democrats, adam schiff, mark warner, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. earlier pelosi and schumer wrote to rosenstein and wray that the briefing was improper in its proposed form, calling it the dissemination at the direction of the president of investigative information to the

president's staunchest defenders in congress and ultimately to the president's legal defense team. speaking to reporters on the south lawn, president trump describeds meeting as a necessary exercise in transparency. >> . >> i want them all to get together and i went them, because everybody wants this solved. but a lot of bad things have happened. we now call it spy-gate. you're calling it spy-gate. they'll sit in a room. hopefully they'll be able to work it out among themselves. >> they're going to all be in the room tomorrow, we're going to see what happens. what i want is i want total transparency. this issue supersedes the party. it supersedes republicans and democrats. so what i want from rod, from the fbi, from everybody, we want transparency. and you know what?

i think in their own way, they are obstructionists, but even the democrats, i really believe on this issue, it's supersedes i think they want transparency, too. >> and coming up on "morning joe," reaction from the ranking member of the intel committee in the house, adam schiff. joe, so this was added yesterday. after there was outcry from democrats on capitol hill. public outcry about this being the politization of intelligence. >> it's remarkable listening to the president of the united states going out there lying about quote "spygate" and saying that's what you all are calling it. nobody is calling it that. because there was no spygate. everybody knows what happened. and david ignatius, talk about, if you will, just how peculiar, how strange and i think many people would say how dangerous this is that the president of the united states has pressured the fbi and the department of

justice, to launch an investigation into the investigators, investigating wrongdoing that the president and his team may have committed and then making it a partisan exercise. >> joe, based on what we know, the president is taking the normal function, the normal counterintelligence function of the fbi, and the intelligence community, and treating it as if it's a criminal conspiracy. it's the strangest thing i can remember. this reference to our intelligence agencies as the criminal deep state. kind of language that frankly that the russians would apply to us, not our own president would. based on everything we know, there were credible reports of contact between people in the trump campaign, and people who were known to be russian intelligence operatives or contacts. and those were pursued. there was no implantation campaign but there were informants who gathered

information, it was sent in mid summer of 2016 and subsequently. that's the way our intelligence agencies operate. that's their job and the idea that it's now being criminalized, described as a conspiracy, is just a strange new turn in this. i think it's good that the gang of eight, the broad oversight body is going to have a chance to listen to this and set it in context as opposed to just cranking the right wing machine with devin nunes and the house republicans. >> so kasie hunt, how did this play out on capitol hill? obviously nancy pelosi, chuck schumer and others were not happy about the idea that devin nunes and trey gowdy were the only members of congress to get a look at this intelligence. what kind of pressure did they put on the white house? and how did the white house sort of cave to that in a way we don't always see? >> i think you heard a little bit from the president himself there, kind of indicating that perhaps you know, opening the door to this idea that democrats could want some transparency, i think, clearly the policies

behind the scenes at the white house can kind of change on a moment's notice, based on the president's own words. but the reality is this was so clearly being conducted outside the normal, normal lanes and protocols for how you do this. i mean senators bur and warner, who run the senate intelligence committee together have thought that this errand in a nunes has been on is basically a threat to national security. they didn't want to sign on to these document requests, because they are so typical careful about protecting they say, sources and methods, we hear it over and over again. sources is what devin nunes has been trying to expose. so they have tried to steer clear of this. until now of course, and the sense was, this was so outside the realm of the way the intelligence community and the oversight community on capitol hill works, that i think everybody took a step back and john kelly was very involved in this and back and forth throughout the day with mitch

mcconnell in particular. who was expressing some discontent. i mean the idea that this information would only be in the hands of devin nunes, to be presented to the american public in whatever way, only he was going to decide, was so clearly going to give a skewed view of what happened, that i think everybody in both parties quietly behind the scenes said uh-uh, we're not going to do it that way. >> carol, these two meetings were the big story of the day. but the extended damage done to the institutions being represented here, at these briefings, the fbi today, but the c.i.a. in the background, the national security agency, the constant damage being done to the institutions by the president's clearly intended deception campaign has got to be taking an enormous toll. >> this is the question is what is the long-term damage to these institutions, not just the fbi and the justice department. and the cia, but all sorts of institutions that the president has decided he's going to

challenge and try to undermine. i don't think we know. you know if you listen to director wray or anyone else who is in law enforcement will say that this is going to send a chilling effect out broadly and undermine this very significant tool that law enforcement has to try to gather information about investigations that are critical to national security. you know if you're thinking about becoming an informant or someone is trying to recruit you or groom you for something like that you're going think twice after seeing what could be possible in terms of having your name out there or whether the president with the blessing of some senior officials in congress could out you in that way. in terms of what comes out of the meeting, you know, if there's, you don't use an informant like this in a counterintelligence investigation, unless there's significant evidence so this could have the effect like the nunes memo of back-firing on the

president. it could show there was good reason to use this tool. and on the other side if every letter of the process wasn't followed to a tee, that could give fuel to republicans. >> you know, it's -- pretty unbelievable that steve rattner, you have the intel agencies before the election, saying to both campaigns, the clinton campaign and the trump campaign. there's been a multi-year effort by vladimir putin to try to influence our democracy. we're very concerned about it. if you see anything, if you have any suspicions, if they approach new any way, please notify us. because this is a direct threat to our democracy. it's very interesting that they only approached donald trump's

campaign and even after being given this warning, not only did donald trump and his campaign team not report those contacts, not report the meeting between the russian lawyer connected to vladimir putin who says i have dirt on hillary clinton, not only did they not do that. but you had other associates, of course getting information about wikileaks and getting information about cut-outs from russia. and they didn't say a word. so of course. when information came in that one of donald trump's foreign policy advisers, according to donald trump, was getting drunk and talking to the australian ambassador about their contacts with russia, and when other intel agencies get that information, that's, those are some very, very bright red lights.

and what intel agency worth its weight in salt at least, is not going to do something about that, and send people to check out these contacts? the correct answer is none. so the question is, why aren't we hearing more about this? >> why aren't we hearing more about why the trump administration just sort of let this sit? >> the fact is, they, they were told that they might be approached, and if they were approached, it was imperative that they say something. they were approached, they said absolutely nothing. in fact, donald trump is running around during the campaign, telling the russians publicly. hey, get some more information. hack some more of hillary clinton's emails, find the other 30,000 emails. i wonder how, how donald trump goes on the lawn and says, you know, talks about spygate.

how do republicans allow this to continue? >> i think two things, i think first, i think first when we get to the bottom of this and i think having more of these discussions and so on will lead to that. we're going to find out that the fbi and the other intelligence agencies acted entirely appropriately. as you just said. when you have a pattern of indications of bad behavior by the russians and so on, if you're the fbi, your job is to follow it up. i think with respect to why the trump administration didn't do anything about it. there are two possible explanations, one is just they were incompetent. they were amateurs, they didn't know what was going on. so it drifted by them in the heat of it all and the other is a much less benign explanation, which is that they full well knew what was going on and chose not to report it because they wanted this information, they wanted help from the russians, they wanted whatever they wanted. as far as the rest of the republicans, i think we all have a good idea of what's going on. there's not a lot of courage among the republicans on any of these kinds of related issues.

the ones who are still up for re-election are afraid of trump and what he might do to them on twitter and everywhere else. i think the person, i think the person whose conduct is most questionable in a way about this is paul ryan. because he's retiring. so why he would not choose this as a moment for a profile in courage, i've always thought paul ryan was a good guy. i don't really know. >> i have absolutely no idea what's happened to paul. but whatever it is. is not good for protecting america's constitutional norms. eddie glaude. if you see something, say something. that's what the fbi, that's what, the justice, that's what everybody told the trump campaign and the clinton campaign. they saw something, not only did they not say something, they started quietly setting up meetings between russians and their own campaign team. and then donald trump lied, i mean he concocted the lie on air

force one to try to cover up that meeting. i mean, again, this is so patently obvious, i guess if you see confusion in my eyes, it's just i can't believe that this is not so patently obvious that even republicans are embarrassed by this spectacle that donald trump is trashing our intel communities and the fbi and the justice department simply because he's been caught. so now he's investigating the investigators. >> joe, i think you're absolutely right in questioning the premise of donald trump's efforts to delegitimize the russia investigation. it seems that when we lend credence to what he's doing and we follow his direction, we find ourselves going down these rabbit holes. and this is not quite analogous. but i think it will help put, bring the point, make my point clear. remember when he said that the

obama administration wiretapped his campaign? and remember all of the stuff that happened as a result of that wildly ridiculous claim? how congress had to then try to figure out all of the machinery of government, followed him down that rabbit hole. and then we realized it was just nonsense. here we are with spygate. all of us know it's wildly ridiculous. not only are we seeing the flauting of democratic norms, institutional erosion. we're seeing orwellian double-speak send us everywhere. while donald trump is literally orchestrating the circus to distract our attention and delegitimize what we think, what we know is coming. >> last night i was speaking to a former intelligence operative who has briefed two of the last three presidents, not this specific president. and he got into one of the

detours, currently being taken by the present occupant of the oval office. each president learns things differently in their intelligence briefing. some liked to read at length, like president obama. others like george bush liked to have an audible briefing. but this is the first time when people try to present things to the president that the president does not care really about what they're presenting, he has an opposite version that he goes out and publicly deploys. it's truly more dangerous than anything we've ever encountered in this country, i think. >> he becomes hostile. he becomes hostile like he did when general mattis sat down with him, with another cabinet officials, and just told him the history of the united states of america, since 1945, and he

pushed back on his obvious stated facts, that's when rex tillerson got up, called him a moron. because he, he does not accept reality, if it doesn't line up exactly with what he's saying. and just to follow up with what eddie was saying. and by the way, mike, i'm sure you called that former intel official during the red sox wonderful comeback win against tampa bay. where there were 14 people in the stands watching the game. >> i called them before the first pitch. >> but you could look at what happened with obama, willie, wiretapping trump towers. and then that consumes three, four, five months. then you can look at, there's so many things you can look at where they have these conspiracy theories that are always disproven. remember the democrats' abuse of the fisa court process with the judges, ends up that all four judges were republican-appointed

when people looked more closely into it. four republican-appointed judges. and now here we have this, where donald trump is concocting something he's calling spygate. it's absolutely ridiculous and it will be disproven as well. >> that's the line that rod rosenstein is walking right now. how far do you follow the president to protect the doj, but also to not have a blow-up between the white house and the justice department? he's in the middle of it as we speak. as we mentioned, we'll talk live with congressman adam schiff ahead of his briefing today with top justice officials. with the senate intel committee, independent angus king. in september, paul ryan told workers at a harley-davidson plant that the new tax bill will help keep american jobs. 350 harley jobs just disappeared. the company's shareholders are having a much better ride. we'll talk about that, straight ahead. but first, bill karins has a look at the forecast. bill, what's it looking like? >> we're watching a system in

the tropics? how will it ruin your memorial day weekend? now up to 70% chance of development. it's looking more likely we're going to have a storm system, subtropical or tropical in the gulf of mexico. near the gulf coast of florida. come saturday night, sunday, maybe even into monday. here's the development zone, targeting anywhere from louisiana to the west coast of florida. if you're anywhere from new orleans to texas you're on the dry side of the system. it shouldn't be an issue. for today, this in the southeast, all the storms, typical afternoon stuff what you've been dealing with. noth associated with the tropical system down by cancun. new york, boston, chicago, st. louis. looking and feeling like summer across the board from coast to coast. now let's get into the holiday forecast. i think saturday afternoon and evening is when some of the moisture will show up, western portions of florida and on the northern gulf coast. you may get in a decent first half of your saturday. you're okay in saturday in areas of new england it should be warm. and afternoon showers and storms move into the beaches in the

mid-atlantic. sunday much cooler, new york city and boston. 70s and 60s in some cases, not beach weather for you and there's the heavy rain on sunday and finally for memorial day we linger with the heavy rain in the southeast. so it doesn't look like a good day at all for parades and beaches in the southeast. it doesn't look like a dangerous storm as far as winds and waves, but we'll have to look out for the flooding potential. washington, d.c. you're one of those areas over the next two, two and a half days, it's about as picture perfect as it gets. how is that view this morning? david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. that's it? everybody two seconds! "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program,

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work with some of the best media experts in the business. get started at comcastspotlight.com. sure. mom,what's up son?alk? i can't be your it guy anymore. what? you guys have xfinity. you can do this. what's a good wifi password, mom? you still have to visit us. i will. no. make that the password: "you_stillóhave_toóvisit_us." that's a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. you know, willie, it's so interesting, we predicted when the debate was going on about the tax cuts, that the way that the tax cuts were packaged, it's going to end up helping the

richest of the rich and the largest of the corporations, instead of reinvesting in new jobs and reinvesting in their employees and even higher wages, there are going to be massive stock buy-backs and it's going to benefit the corporations the most. it looks like that's exactly what's happened. and none other than paul ryan's home state. >> yeah, hundreds of american workers have been left stunned after the iconic company harley-davidson announced it's slashing jobs. the company says the move is an effort to stay competitive. despite expectations it will reap huge benefits from the new republican tax law. nbc's gabe gutierrez explains for us. >> this is a rear fender. >> tim primeau had worked for harley-davidson for 17 years when he got this stunning news. >> disbelief. a lot of people, you can see it on everybody's faces. they were, just -- in shock. >> the company told workers in january, it was shutting down this plant in kansas city. relocating hundreds of jobs to

pennsylvania. eliminating 350 jobs entirely. it's not the news primeau expected when president trump pitched slashing corporate taxes. >> i think it's going to be a tremendous thing for our country, for of the workers. >> house speaker paul ryan went to a harley plant in wisconsin. >> tax reform can put parly-davidson on a much better footing to compete in the global economy and keep jobs here in america. >> harley soon announced a nearly $700 million stock buyback plan to award shareholders. but the company says the buyback authorization and a separate decision to open a facility in thailand are unrelated to tax reform and calls the closing of its kansas city plant a tough decision. domestic sales are down and it was based on our need to address the excess capacity we have in the u.s. >> we got lost in the shuffle. they just -- just threw us out on the streets. >> the tax law has brought benefits, including companies announcing bonuses and raising minimum wages, but a cnbc survey found only 10 companies in the s&p 500 say they have specific

plans to use the savings to boost workers pay. >> corporate profits are much higher this year than they were last year. up about 25%. >> some workers say they feel left behind and primeau says he still supports the president. >> i believe the company more than the president. >> but he's looking for a new job. gabe gutierrez, nbc news. >> so steve rattner, $700 million buyback from stock. the corporate rate went from 35% to 21% under the republican tax bill. the company says those two things are not related. got rid of the jobs and bought back $700 million worth of stock. how do you explain this? what happened here? >> do you want me to sell you the brooklyn bridge? the tax bill was kind of a give-away to companies. i think we need to do something to reform our tax code there have been a lot of studies done of it morgan stanley did a study that shows that more than 60% of the tax bill is going to companies and 13% is going to

workers. harley-davidson said domestic sales are declining. i don't know that they mentioned they're building a plant in thailand. and the other ironic part of this is a little piece of what's motivating harley is the fear that trump is going to put tariffs on steel imports. you put tariffs on steel imports, then all their steel costs more. >> explain why buybacks work on behalf of shareholders, not workers. >> well, they don't. they work on behalf of shareholders, they raise a company's stock price by shrinking the number of shares, they don't do anything for workers. you can make an argument that that capital gets recycled in the economy and goes to other places, but this pattern of behavior is exactly what the critics of the tax bill said was going to happen, which was that companies were going to use the money for shareholders rather than workers. >> do you believe, steve, that the corporate rate coming down was a good thing generally speaking? >> i think we had to do something to reform our corporate tax code, we were

losing huge numbers of jobs, this will keep some jobs from leaving, having a lower corporate tax rate. there's a race to the boimg going on around the world. every country is trying to cut the corporate tax rate to keep jobs there. it's not great for the world, for people to see that this money is all going to companies, but this is the world we're living in. >> it didn't work out well in this case with harley-davidson. coming up, a sense of radio silence with some religious leaders about the current state of politics? is that changing? jon meachum and eddie glaude weigh in next. it can grow out of control,

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the yankees lost to the texas rangers last night. let's not dwell on that. we want to show you, joe, what happened up in the stands, a mascot version of former president george w. bush had to face some presidential heckling during the mascot race at last night's game, here is the 43rd president of the united states himself heckling himself. >>

. >> the w mascot would win the race between the mascot versions of nolan ryan and sam houston. >> that's about right, isn't it? >> we need that. still ahead, we'll bring in somebody who knows george w. bush very well, jon meachum. next on "morning joe." mom you called?

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about christian leaders calling out the heresy of trumpism. led in large part by bishop michael curry. a group of christians are going to be marching on the white house for a candlelight vigil and have released a joint declaration about the quote dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership at the highest levels of our government. the opening paragraph reads quote we believe the soul of the nation and the integrity of faith are now at stake. let's bring in pulitzer prize-winning historian jon meachum. he's the author of the new best-selling book "the soul of america: the battle for our better angels." eddie, there's a great find with ej's column, because it does appear there are some evangelical leaders that are willing to well, to paraphrase

jesus, to be the salt and the light of this world. >> yeah, joe, they are exemplifying what you've been talking about on this show for a while. those matthew 25 christians. here we have bishop curry and jim lawless of sojourners, to suggest that the way in which trump has, some evangelicals who support trump have enlisted, drafted jesus and his ministry to support his policies. to support his mean-spiritedness. actually represents in some ways an idol tri and they want to put forward a vision of jesus, a vision of christianity. that is concerned with the least of these. justice is what love looks like in public as a good friend of mine would say. so this is going to be a wonderful moment tonight i think it's a wonderful example of the diversity of american kristendom and it's a tip by some to take

back a certain understanding of what it means to bear witness to jesus' sacrifice. >> jon meachum of course there are always going to be disagreements in every faith community on policy. we may have disagreements on tax policy. we may have disagreement on immigration policy. protecting the borders. fighting wars. that's understandable. what is not understandable is the complete segregation between character and leadership. which evangelical leaders had always tried to bind together. and certainly let us know during the clinton administration that you could not have viable leadership without strong character. now you have many of these same people, i'll just start with franklin graham, who wrote long op-eds attacking bill clinton's moral failings. now saying that donald trump's personality, his hatefulness,

the fact that his very life, that he exemplifies, actually undermines every one of the beatitudes. if you don't believe me go, to jesus' sermon on the mount. his life seems to be the antithesis of it i've never known in the history of the evangelical movement, any evangelical leaders taking this position. >> it's to me it's a fascinating moment. it brings up, what, what profit a man to gain the whole world, if you lose your soul. the broad evangelical movement as we're describing it, basically has made a really shrewd political bet. but it is a political bet. they are playing a 40-year strategy at the expense of their integrity for four years. they, they, they're supporting president trump, for the supreme court. for the judiciary. and they want to get these young appointees, they want to get them for decades.

and they're willing to really, put their otherwise consistent views aside for that purpose. and i think eddie used the exactly the right word, it's idolatry, putting a temporal advantage ahead of spiritual integrity. the duty of a christian is not to succeed, but to fail cheerfully. i fail all the time. hesitate to cast the first stone here but they are in the arena, they put themselves out there. i think that ultimately they will have to have a reckoning about this. >> not to turn this into a race to the bottom. i think i win that. >> i will admit that. >> you can defer to me, thank you so much, jon, so kind of

you. but eddie, again, for, we're talking about this only so people who aren't evangelicals can understand. that at the base of our faith is the belief that anone of us deserve god's love or god's grace, it's only when we understand that and we come before god humbly, begging for forgiveness every day, because we will always fail. it is only then, that we are worthy of being called a christian. and yet, the evangelicals are worshipping a man, supporting a man, following a man who has literally said -- i don't need to be forgiven by god. i've never asked god for forgiveness. i try to be good. and there's nothing i need to

ask forgiveness for. this is, this is the antithesis of what evangelicals are taught from the time they are three years old. >> absolutely. joe. this is what happens when you, when you emphasize, how can we put this, when your core profits, when you're comfortable in the temple and understanding in some ways jesus' ministry. as in some ways a challenge to those who claim to hold the gospel. to hold the truth for themselves. and so when i see sojourners, when i see bishop curry and other evangelicals christians doing, right, is making a claim on the gospel. making a claim on what it means to be christian. and placing that squarely against what others are doing in their association with donald trump, who seems by any measure, joe, unchristian. that's kind of harsh, but by any

measure, someone who falls short that seems to me obvious, right? >> joe, you know, i believe this is exactly the kind of discussion we ought to be having on this morning and many other mornings. americans have always compartmentalized religion from politics. and yet, every day, politics and faith are on the front pages of our paper. if you have faith in a political system, you also have a private faith that you practice. and if you look at the papers, look at the topics we talk about, immigration, about the cutbacks in various programs aimed at helping the poor in this country. the least among us, that's faith, that's religion. that's what people live by. we certainly can look at our evangelical leaders and see if they're acting like pharisees and sagisees and describes and

see if they're more interested in staying in power than what they themselves describe as their beliefs through the years. blind support of a man who has again said that he has no need for god's forgiveness. he has no need to pray for god's forgiveness, and who acts everyday.

and we're seeing a political argument being made from the pulpit. speaking of politics, president trump's son-in-law jared kushner has been granted a permanent security clearance. according to the "washington post," this is an indication that kushner may no longer be under scrutiny by the special counsel who had been investigating kushner's foreign contacts and other activities. nbc news has learned kushner met with robert mueller's team for a second time. a source tells nbc the interview lasted more than six hours and focused on the campaign, the transition and some activities post inauguration including the firing of home, kushner worked with an interim security clearance for more than a year. that clearance was downgraded in february after procedures were revamped. kushner's attorney abbe lowell said kushner's permanent

security clearance went through the normal process, he went on the say "having completed these processes, mr. kushner is looking forward to continuing the process the president asked him to do." so is this actually an indication jared kushner has nothing to worry about or is it a matter of routine. >> it doesn't mean he's in the clear but it's good news for jared kushner because one of the things hanging over him was not just the security clearance but the fact that he is one of the most senior officials who had not yet sat for a significant interview with the special counsel so both of those things have happened and his lawyer is saying this went through the normal process, done by career officials and he's arguing this means there's nothing there, that he doesn't expect kushner to face criminal penalties.

however, that doesn't mean that's exactly the case and like everything with the mueller investigation, we don't know. we're hearing from kushner's lawyer and what he's able to say publicly and nothing from t special counsel's office. so while it's good news for kushner, there are questions that remain unanswered both in the special counsel's investigation and if you take the kelly piece and this -- they went -- had knocked heads over whether he should have a security clearance and that relationship will be interesting to watch, too. >> david ignatius, there are several levels. do we know what level was returned to him? we don't and there are compartments above top secret, the so called sci clearances and we don't know about that but we have to say that this is good

news for kushner. it's interesting to note that kushner's lawyers have generally taken the line that they ought to be forth coming with the special counsel in disclosure. some of the events we know about in this investigation like the famous meeting in july in trump tower in 2016 with the russian lawyer were as a result of jared kushner and his colleagues. so this is the argument in that if you stick with the documents that are requested maybe you get good news so that i think there's a positive. >> thank you very much. jon meacham with the number one book in all the land "the soul of america." good luck in your match today, john. see you soon. big tennis star down there. >> thank you, willie. >> by the way i want to thank

john.john morning crediting me with being the greatest of all among us. that was very kind of you. i want to support you in your work. it's one of those objective facts, you know? one of those objective facts. but congratulations. >> thank you. >> jon, we'll see you. still ahead, president trump rails against what he calls the criminal deep state but his secretary of state says he does not believe there is such a thing. we will play those remarks from mike pompeo. plus, we'll talk to the ranking member of the house intel committee, democratic congressman adam schiff, a member of the gang of eight who will attend today's bipartisan briefing on the russia investigation. plus, two members of the senate intel committee, independent angus king and republican james lankford. a packed hour of "morning joe" just ahead. whoever came up with the term "small business," never owned a business.

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nearly uniformly were aimed at achieving the president's objectives and america's objectives. >> thank you. that's your experience also when you interact with colleagues at the fbi and the department of justice as well? >> yes, there are always exceptions to every rule. i never led an organization that didn't have bad actors. >> so those democrat was ted li questioning mike pompeo on the heels of president trump's tweet storm yesterday about what he's calling -- i can't even say it without laughing. spygate and "not a laughing matter" the criminal deep state. pomp pompeo, secretary of state, says he's mean so such thing in all of his years in washington. welcome back to "morning joe." mika is attending her daughter's college graduation. congratulations to amelia but with willie and me, we have mike

barnicle, peggy noonan, columnist and associate editor for the "washington post" david ignatius, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and the host of kasie d.c. on msnbc, kasie hunt. oh, there it is, oh, yeah. and we're not even going to get into steve rattner's discussion about what he thinks about every time he sees that lightning bolt. we also have "washington post" reporter for the associated press and boston red sox fan jonathan lemire. david ignatius, seeing mike pompeo, new secretary of state of testifying there on capitol hill, i am struck by -- despite all of the concerns that we all have about the violations of constitutional norms that if you look at who is running the pentagon in secretary mattis and

you look at who is running state with mike pompeo and you look at who is running the cia, and, yes, a lot of people are concerned about gina haspel past but you talk to john brennan, you talk to john kerry, you talk to professionals in both parties they will tell you that the agency is in good hands. you look at those people, you will see donald trump put together a grade a foreign policy team. >> it's early in secretary povrppovrmike pompeo's tenure. he's doing some things to restore the state department. one thing that took off as he's been bashing the intelligence

community, the personnel who were working these agencies, they have not themselves split. the way in which the cia united around gina haspel put aside and the country's issues about interrogation policy to say this is a strong leader, we think we can unite behind her, the way in which chris wray, appointed by president trump to head the fbi has been a true leader for the bure bureau. the worst thing while the president is attacking these institutions is that they split and there's no sign of that whatsoeve whatsoever. >> and there's another thing that must be said. donald trump attacks the intel agencies, it's dangerous to attack the institutions that protect our constitution republic. at the same time he has put in

place chris wray at the fbi, he has gina haspel at the cia and there was a collective sigh of relief from professionals at the agency because she, too, will put the agency ahead of politics if attacked and the same can be set for dan coats who has always, always spoken straight when asked questions on the hill or behind closed doors about the intel community. peggy, i feel like i'm being too pollyannish, let's talk about locusts descending from the sky and tearing our constitution to shreds. obviously wiled spygate and having republicans being briefed by intel

committees or justice. deeply disturbing and i think it does great violence to just the traditional norms of washington and i think about the guy you worked with, ronald reagan and tip o'neill tunnel and reading richard reeves' biography of reagan and talking about how they had a rule that they fought like hell until 6:00 and at 6:00 they became fast friends and after beirut tip o'neill tunnel went and talked to the democrats who were ready to attack and said if you go after the commander-in-chief before i tell you you can go after the commander-in-chief, you won't have ronnie reagan to answer to, you'll have tip o'neill tunnel. we are americans first and democrats second. that's so missing from washington today. >> yeah, i think two elements that are missing from the history you recount is, one, an

leader of the opposition, the other is a very popular and secure president and that president, ronald reagan used his clout, his political clout in his negotiations with tip o'neill tunnel. it was very much a part of the picture but joe, i want to share with you something i received this morning, a text message that told me what i was already sensing and i think we all are that the president's accusations regarding the deep state are getting some traction. there's a text message from a woman i talked to throughout 2015 and 2016, a democrat who voted for trump. she was a former obama voter, she's a northerner who lives in the south. she said "good morning, what do you think about the deep state?" all caps. "and the systemic conspiracy against trump?

the abuse of power going on?" then she mentioned a fox news personality. "i think this person has it rig right. he said this is a threat to our country and our democracy." when i wake up to a text like that from her i kind of listen. i think the president is deliberately trying to brand those who are -- he perceives arrayed against him in the intelligence community, the mueller investigation, et cetera, and i suspect it's having some impact. >> unfortunately this reminds me what i would hear from my own mom in 2009. she would watch shows like glenn beck talking about sharia law coming to the united states and the things barack obama was doing to destroy the fabric of the united states and it was

daily and kept coming day after day after day after day and that unfortunately may be having an impact but it's not fact-based, even mike pompeo says it's not. so many other people. it's objectively not true and yet you have people churning out those lies day in and day out. >> it's a marketing campaign, we heard the president on the south lawn saying i'm calling it spy gate, you recall calling it spygate, addressing the media. no, the media isn't calling it spygate but by repeating a tweet he wrote yesterday he can say the media is using the term as well. he's trying to create a narrative, he's given it its own title. he used the term criminal deep state that mike pompeo shot down. he's trying to create a narrative like he would on a t show that diverts attention from the main ball game which is the mueller investigation. >> that's right and in our reporting today for the associated press we know earlier in the week when he learned

about this informant and was upset about it and believes this was a conspiracy against him that he told one ally, he's like i'm not going to call it an informant, i'm going to call it a spy. that's more of a negative term. that will carry more weight and that's part of what we see him do time and time again is about the branding, about trying to label something, the marketer in him. i'm also reminded of an interview i had with rudy giuliani when i asked him whether there would be a chilling effect to this idea of blasting an informant. would this be bad for the fbi or doj? would it make people reluctant to do that kind of important work for this country and his answer was i'm not concerned about that, my concern is the president. my concern is preserving his rights. and i think taking that step back, this is a president who is concerned about preserving his presidency and very little else. >> kasie hunt, this branding, this marketing jonathan is talking about has led to the justice department having to pursue it and that leads us to two separate briefings that will

take place at the white house. the first will have just devin nunes and trey gowdy along with the chief of staff and rod rosenstein and christopher wray. only the republican congressmen, the two, will be in there. the second briefing you bring in a gang of eight where you get four democrats. there is some reporting -- and you can help me confirm this or not -- that the president himself said, hey, let's let this gang of eight look at it so this narrative i'm creating get this is patina of legitimacy that it's bipartisan, that it's above board. >> you heard him suggest publicly yesterday that democrats might be interested and we know there was back-and-forth between mitch mcconnell's office that seemed to suggest it should be wider than devin nunes but to go back to what you and john lemire were talking about, it's more than just a diversion now. we have talked a lot about how the president would generate a new controversy or story to move

off one that was damaging. this is him executing what lesley stahl of "60 minutes" said to us, he said to her, i criticize and bash the media so when something comes out i don't like the people won't believe you. and that is an extension of what we're seeing play out here where he is causing our institutions to violate norms that have food for decades because he's trying to undermine the credibility of mueller's investigation. that's what rudy giuliani is doing. he may end up sitting down for this interview. it's clear they're trying to find a way that no matter what bob mueller finds, they find a way to undercut it. >> that's the ethos he's had, undercut the institutions to

discredit what their findings are. let's bring in a member of the intelligence and arms services committee independent senator angus king of maine. senator, just your reaction to the existence of these briefings. do you think they ought to have access to what bob mueller is looking senate. >> it is an odd situation where you have people involved in being investigated asking for access to the investigative material materials. it's hard to tell what the business is. if it's people checking on people with tieing to the russians, okay, let's see the facts and perhaps we can lay it to rest. it doesn't make much sense to me, the fbi was doing their job when they know there's people with connection to the russians working in a political campaign, who's ever, they'll track that down. if somebody in my campaign had

connections with some foreign power i would want to know it, not pretend they're trying to find my debate notes. >> do you think there should be a separate meeting? why not have one where you bring in the gang of eight. why have that first meeting where members of congress are only remember? >> well, i don't know what the sequence was by they announced the first meeting, i think from the public or -- >> couldn't they have had one? >> well, everybody ought to hear the same material otherwise they'll walk out saying i had a different view of what went on. i think it would be helpful to have all eight members there with the same information. >> senator, people have lives to lead so they don't concentrate on the fact that sources will be

revealed to people later today. they don't talk about collusion, but there has been damage done, would you think, yes or no, to certain institutions like the justice department, the fbi, the believe in our intelligence services? there has been damage done by this president already, do you agree with that? >> yes, and the deeper question is the corrosion of our underlying faith in our institutions whether it's the political party, media, justice department, judiciary. we americans tend to think the way things are is the way they always will be when in reality we're a 200 year anomaly in world history. this is a very important experiment but it is an experiment and it's guaranteed and it rests upon an underlying

confidence and trust of the public in their institutions. if you corrode that then you have a survival of the fittest. and it's just not a viable society. that's what worries me more than tax policy or immigration pol y policy. and peggy noonan read that tweet from the lady about the deep state. that's what we have to worry about. because if people don't trust the government, it all falls apart and i don't think the president is doing it deliberately but it's what's happening. >> the latest is the confusion between the two distinct separate meanings between spying and informing. that's what's feeding this. so in terms of the damage we're talking about here, how long do you think it will take to repair the damage trump has already

done? >> it's hard to say. i think you started your question by saying most people get up this morning and they aren't thinking about these issues. they're thinking about getting the work, getting the kids fed and dressed so i think it's not permanent. this is a great country, people are doing great things for the country so i hope it's not permanent or long-lasting but i think it's serious and i call it corrosion of faith in our institutions. people don't stop at stop signs because there's a cop on any corner. that i do it because you obey the law. same thing goes for paying your taxes. if people stopped paying voluntarily, we'd be in a hell of a mess. so that's what worries me is the underlying corrosion and confidence in the country's institutions and this goes beyond the structures of the constitution, this is a deeper

confidence and trust necessary for this place to work. >> senator, you said you don't think donald trump deliberately undermining the justice department or the investigation. >> no, i didn't -- i was talking about the broader point of the whole undermining of institutions. i think there is a campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the mueller investigation and the fbi. i think that's pretty obvious. >> do you not think he's undermining the institutions themselves by talking about a criminal deep state, by constantly attacking the justice department? by constantly attacking the fbi? >> now we're getting into psychoanalyzing the president. it's hard to tell what his motivations are but one of your commentators said he's thinking about the immediate needs of preserving his authority and

expanding his authority but not necessarily about a broader -- i don't think he's purposefully going about to undermine the institutions of the country, but that's a by-product of what's going on. >> senator, do you think it's a by-product? i don't think you have to be a psychoanalyst. it looks like he's trying to undermine things institutions in order to undermine the legitimacy of the investigation against him and his colleagues and if you destroy the credibility of the investigators then that by definition undermines the investigation. that seems year's in his head. >> i agree in this narrow case. i was talking more broadly as you go back over the past year, with attacks on the judiciary, democrats who don't stand and applaud are traitorous, the constant attacks on the media. i'm talking about the general undermining of a lot of institutions.

in the specific case of the justice department and fbi i think that is out of an air of wanting to delends mize the results of the mueller investigation, for example, wherever it goes before it happen happens. >> thank you so much, senator angus king, independent from maine. always graefe to have you with u us. david ignatius, i heard general michael hayden in an interview. mike morrell's great podcast and general hayden was talking about what the dangers of what donald trump is doing and not just attacking the leaders of the institutions but also attacking the institutions themselves. the courts, the justice department, the federal bureau of investigations. law enforcement, academia we

could go down the list, science. as general hayden said, all of the fact-based institution this is country has built its foundation on over the past several centuries. and i wonder if you do have to be a psychiatrist to figure out that that's donald trumps intent. >> i don't know if you have to be a psychiatrist or just a political analyst. he is going for the jugular. he's fighting as hard as he can to save himself and his presidency and he's attacking targets that let's be honest the public has had some suspicion for. the idea that there's a cabal of elitists in washington, that's something americans have felt for a couple centuries, this

suspicion toward washington and central pow er. it's the cynical way that it's being exploited that i find disturbing. we depend on these agencies for our security as a country and bashing them everyday the way the president does causes harm. and to bash the news media -- it was only a decade or so that the arrival of cnn to cover a demonstration or protest in eastern europe and georgia was is signal for the world watching, the power of news reporting in ukraine, you know, that was something that was transformati

transformative. that is what president trump is attacking. that will have damage also. >> kasie hunt, we haven't heard from or i haven't seen any quotes from mitch mcconnell of late. we have talked a good bit about our concerns that paul ryan allows devin nunes to continue the house intel committee, continues to ignore what the intel chiefs are saying, continues to ignore objective objectively verifiable facts, but where is mitch mcconnell right now? . whereby republican leaders on the hill from what you hear when the cameras are turned off about donald trump now upping the ante and talking about spy gate and a, quote, criminal deep state. >> i think mitch mcconnell is trying to stay as far away from everything as possible. if you looked at the handful of questions he answered at a briefing on tuesday, he had no thoughts about anything, including about his own senate

intelligence committee conclusion that they agreed where the intelligence community and contradicted devin nunes in saying that, yes, russia interfered and they were trying to help donald trump. his strategy with this president has been to keep his head down, stay out of it and focus on what he cares about, things like putting judges on circuit courts. the devin nunes question is one that i am continually -- not necessarily confused baby -- by, but i struggle to understand why paul ryan has let devin nunes do what he has done. they are long time friends. ryan -- this is one position that -- paul ryan has complete control over who has the chairmanship of the intelligence committee. but at the same time he has not put any of the -- any limits on devin nunes. you've seen him try to push back with trey gowdy.

that's why you see goudey invol -- him involved in these meetings. but this has spiralled out of control with consequences we don't understand. >> we've gone an hour and 24 minutes without mentioning the fact that it's your birthday, my friend. happy birthday. >> happy birthday! >> thank you. >> got you two briefings at the white house to cover for your birthday. >> never a dull moment. >> thanks, happy birthday. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump tweeted his birds eye view, complete with sound track, of new york city aboard marine one yesterday. up next, the city's mayor, democrat bill de blasio is standing by. he'll joined our conversation when we come right back. thanks for the ride-along, captain! i've never been in one of these before, even though geico has been- ohhh. ooh ohh here we go, here we go. you got cut off there, what were you saying? oooo. oh no no. maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years? is that what you wanted to say? mhmmm.

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joining us now, the mayor of new york city, democrat bill de blasio. mr. mayor, always good to have you with us. >> thank you, willie. >> i note as we sit here that there are one, two, three on remote and mike barnicle -- four red sox fans on a new york city

set. >> go sox. >> thank you, joe, mike, you're great americans. >> and lemire. >> stand strong, everyone. >> we have a quorum. >> and you have a competitive history on the softball field? >> you just reminded me of the ill fated city hall press corps versus the mayor's office. >> lemire plays hard. >> spikes up. >> all grit. all grit. >> so we have a bunch of new york city questions but i want to ask you about national news as well. the nfl's new policy yesterday on neil knekneeling, players ca in the locker room but can't kneel. >> un-american. just plain un-american. it doesn't make sense. we would not tolerate it if any other employer said their employee can't express their beliefs. i don't understand why the owners think they can get away with this but what they're doing is bringing more attention to

the cause of players who say things need to be addressed. by the way, i'm thrilled to see athletes care about something beyond themselves to say we want to see a different relationship between police and community. we're doing that in new york city. we have a neighborhood policing approach that's made us the safest big city in america. we're bringing down tensions between police and community. that's something we want to see everywhere. how do the owners have a right to tell players not to be civically engaged and do something they care about? i think it will backfire. >> this particular discussion happens against the backdrop of what happened to sterling brown in milwaukee, wisconsin. talk about what the national anthem protest refers to. it's about a particular nature of policing. a particular kind of policing. you've had to struggle with this. talk about what those protests

are about and how you've addressed them. >> they're an expression of pain. we have to understand the protests say we have something happen that doesn't conform to our american values and has to end and can end. and this is why i don't find it a hopeless situation. i think it's a hopeful situat n situation. in new york city, we had a long history of tensions between police and community. we've come a long way to heal that. we're the safest big city in america because we've gotten police and community more on the same page because we taught police officers to deescalate. the entire work force in new york city has been trained to deescalate. we're using implicit bias training to understand we're humans, we have biases, we need to think about those. arrests keep going down in new

york city, too. we had 100,000 fewer arrests and crime has gone down. why? police and community are communicating. we have neighborhood policing which means our officers are trying to build human relationships locally, get people thinking about each other on a first-name basis. so i think the nfl protests are about, unfortunately, the opposite. too many times we've seen the cell phone video of overt injusti injustice, someone killed who should not have been killed and this is not people saying this is america, how can we fix this? they're not being negative. how many cell phone videos do we have to watch before people recognize that status quo is unacceptable. >> police conduct is obviously a matter of great importance everyday om a major city. the subways here in new york city have run -- i'll spare you the talking point, run by the

state. the condition has deteriorated in the last few years. service in new york city has suffered. it's become a flash point in this year's gubernatorial reelection between andrew cuomo and his competitors, including cynthia nixon. can you weigh in what you think -- will you see on that race what you like about ms. nixon's candidacy, the governor's candidacy and how should the subways be part of this? >> what's happening is happening everywhere in the united states right now and i'm saying this as a democrat and a progressive. a big change is under way. it's been coming for a few years, we saw elements of this in the 2016 election but you can go back well before that. i got elected in 2013 as an outsider talking about change. not expected. the party is changing so i think the primary here in this state represents another example of that where a growing progressive core in the democratic party is speaking up and not accepting

the status quo that exist. this is where the democratic party is going because we became in the minds of too many americans the elitist party. to too many of those folks in wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania, we became the party that didn't care about them. those folks are young and white and black and old. i don't buy into this you're either talking about young people and people of color and women or white working class n men. i think it's a continuum of folks that felt let down and disconnected by the democratic party. >> who are you supporting? >> i'm not supporting yet. as a question of what's happening, why it's happening, it's consistent with what we see. >> but you will make an endorse. >> at some point i'll decide what to do. i'm also focused on winning back

the state senate in new york state. i think it's about to flip democratic. that has huge ramifications for the people in new york city. >> it's pretty clear that your world view, ideology, policy positions line up much better with cynthia nixon's than governor cuomo's? >> i'm not going to do analysis of how -- >> but just how you see the wor world. >> cynthia nixon has been an education activist, someone who has fought for a lot of the right things but electoral decisions are something i will make when i feel it's the appropriate time. the overall reality, and democrats should get used to it, is progressives in the party and grass roots won't accept the democratic party the way it was. it's in the process of change. it will be a long-term trend. >> can she win? can cynthia nixon win and does

the part of the party she represents and you align with, do they have the wind at their back this year? >> yes. absolutely yes. progressives and the change agents in the party and the people who do not accept the status quo have the wind at their back. there's great examples. i think stacy abrams is a great example in georgia this week but we've been seeing it all over the country. so there is not question. how did the virginia house of delegates happen? a group of activists organizing things beyond the traditional party structure almost under the way darr shocked us all alabama happened because of grass roots organizing. i think this is the think of things to come. progressive, activists, folks who can legitimately say i don't represent the status quo. >> do you think she can win? >> unquestionably in a race with

two prominent candidates at a time where people distrust the status quo anything can happen. >> mr. mayor, the president was joined by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen speaking yesterday on an event that focused on immigration, violence tied to the ms-13 gang and this morning the president weighed in on the renewed effort on capitol hill for immigration reform saying he wants a comprehensive package. let's listen to what he said this morning. >> there's some legislation moving through so-called moderates in the house to get daca back out there, get immigration going. it's not coming from leadership. have you, mr. president, been watching this take shape? where do you stand? >> we have four different bills. unless it includes a wall and i mean a real wall and unless it includes very strong border security there will be no approvals from me. chain migration is terrible, lottery is terrible. we have to get rid of catch-and-release. >> if a deal doesn't include those two things but has the

wall and daca, does donald trump do that deal? >> it's time to get the whole packag package. >> what does daca mean to new york city when you look at it? >> it means tens of thousands of yum people who are part of our community and contribute to our community and should be allowed to stay in their own country and what we're seeing is that the american people have spoken, they think dreamers should stay, they get it. you're brought here as a kid, it wasn't your choice, you become part of our society. i've talked to these dreamers. so many are tremendous go getters, they want to make an impact and the fact they've lived their life kind of on the edge, not knowing if they could stay has brought out drive and purpose. this is the kind of folks who want to help make america something better so there's no

question the american people are ready to receive the dreamers. but let's talk about the speech in long island. that was painful. i went over the transcript again because i couldn't believe it. it's not about ms 13. it's about an attempt to paint latinos as dangerous in our country. our police department rejects that. we became the safest big city in america because we worked with immigrant communities, they helped police make the city the safest big city in america. the last time we had this few murders in new york city the dodgers were playing at ebbett's field. that happened with immigration and police cooperation. here's the other irony willie. donald trump has told me repeatedly in conversation, he'll often say things are great in new york city, they're great, crime is down, things are great.

he'll acknowledge openly that new york city has gotten safer, then he'll turn around and attack immigrants and paint a very few disgusting gang members, don't get me wrong, i want to get them all in jail and deported but he'll paint them as the semi-particular of all latinos. that's what's going on and we shouldn't accept it because the facts speak against it. he knows this is a safe city and it's a city of immigrants. >> steve wanted me to ask you based on an announcement you made, can he openly smoke blunts when he walks around the upper east side? >> willie, steve rattner has been misunderstood. steve rattner is a hearing impairedpy. >> willie doesn't want to take the hit for this question. >> you told me to ask. >> he's a hippy waiting to come out. >> what the the law? >> the law in new york state is it is not legal to smoke

marijuana in public and that will continue to be the case. i think eventually you'll see in new york state legalization but that doesn't mean that will include the right to smoke in public. >> but you won't be arrested? >> what i want to see happen that we're working with the nypd is instead of arrests, go to summons. we don't want to saddle people, particularly young people, with a criminal record that haunts them the rest of their life. we want to address the issue, we can do that with a summons. and we've brought down crime, 100,000 fewer arrests than four years ago. arrest is not always the best way to get something done and our police leaders know that. >> that summons is pocket change for ratner. >> how about on the set of "morning joe"? is that okay? >> there is a legal carveout for the set of "morning joe." you are accurate. >> mayor bill de blasio, thank you. >> thank you. coming up. >> we'll talk to two senators,

one democrat, one republican, who are coming together to block a u.s. ally from receiving u.s.-made aircraft. we'll ask them why next. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪

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american pastor andrew brunson faces up to 35 years in

a turkish prison after being indicted in the country last month for charges related to terrorism and espionage which u.s. lawmakers say is a bonus attempt to use the u.s. citizen as a pawn in political negotiations likened to hostage taking. jailed in turkey since october of 2016, pastor brunson was ordered to remain behind bars during his second court appearance on may 7, while his case has been adjourned until mid-july. a pair of senators are leading a bipartisan effort calling for punitive measures against the nato ally over the imprisonment of pastor brunson and other americans unlawfully held in the country. republican senator james lankford of oklahoma and democratic senator jean shaheen of new hampshire join us now from capitol hill. senators, thanks so much for being with us. senator shaheen, i'll start with you. most americans are not familiar with the details of pastor brunson's case. can you lay it out why he is

being detained? >> he's being held hostage by president erdogan. erdogan has been so bold as to say i will trade him for your pastor for my pastor. fethullah gulen. the pastor has done nothing wrong, this is a blatant attempt to blackmail the united states. that's why senator lankford and senator tillis and i are doing everything we can to send a message to turkey that this is not acceptable. this is our nato ally, they're supposed to be on our side. >> senator lankford, we expressed concerns after the hostages taken in north korea came home, used as a bargaining chip and that being celebrated as positive behavior by north

korea. are we beginning to see hostage-taking by supposed allies and enemies alike as a new way to bargain with the united states and this administration? >> this is has been ongoing for a while. he has been held since october of 2016, pastor brunson has and the hostages in north korea have been held since 2016 and before as well. this is a long-term issue. i said on the senate floor last week i thought i would never say i want turkey to act more like north korea and release our hostages. that seems like an odd thing to say to a nato ally. you should see the transcripts for the trial itself. they're bringing in secret witnesses from prisons and saying someone else in my prison i heard say something about pastor brunson. there's no eyewitness testimony, there's no actual facts here and all of the people that pastor brunson has asked to be able to bring as witnesses, the court is saying those individuals are suspects as well and so we won't allow anyone to testify on your behalf so this is a completely invented kangaroo court to try

to prove some sort of point against the united states and, again, they've held him since october of 2016, they continue to be able to press this. >> let me throw this question to both of you. and it question about it. it has to do with our problem with turkey. five, six, seven years ago, many people believed turkey would be the bridge between europe and the middle east. there was great hope. but, the situation keeps getting worse. you talk about the religious persecution that you all are fighting, thank god you are, but also journalists are more repressed in turkey than any other nation on the face of the earth. you all know that turkey was the highway through which isis got into syria. what do we do with a problem like this when turkey is in such a critical place for american national security concerns. >> i think we need to do two

things. first, we need to send a strong message when they act inappropriately. that's why it's important for the president, secretary pompeo to let them know that human rights violations are not acceptable and we need to continue to work with them. as you point out, they are very important. we have a very important air base in turkey and we need to try and get them back into the fold. we need to also let them know when their actions are unacceptable. >> good morning, senator shaheen, peggy noonan here. >> good morning. >> you are on the foreign relations ch relations committee. as you hear what you hear and read what you read, how do you read him? what is he about? >> i think he was very shaken by the coup attempt in turkey.

he doubled down on his athortarian tendencies. if it goes through in july as we expect, he will be in pow until 2029. he has lashed out against the kurds, not just in turkey, where we also have concerns about some of their actions, but he was on a course to try to get a truce with them, which then he turned around and overturned. so, i think he has some concerns that we can appreciate about what's happening in his country, but his behavior is not acceptable to address those concerns. >> senator langford, you are using language to get the pastor out of this situation. you introduced a bill last month to block the sale and transfer of i believe 116 f-35s, lockheed

f-35s to be sold to turkey. what is the status of that and what pressure can you put on turkey right now? >> we are working with the house senate arms committee for the national defense authorization and make clear lines here. this is a nato ally that we have been close to, someone we have partnered with on terrorism. we understand they are in a tough neighborhood. they border syria. they have terrorists on the border. it is unacceptable what they are doing. we are putting sanlctions on th individuals trying to convict pastor brunson, naming them by name to put sanctions on those individuals. we are trying to cut off military sales to them and continue to put american pressure. as an american businessman right now, i would not recommend going to turkey for business. we have americans that are picked up, swept up, put in false charges and put in prison. i could not explain that to one

of my employees in the days ahead and to their families why i have an employee in turkey that's been swept up. turkey has changed over the last two years. we need to pay attention to that and not try to increase business and investment until we know who turkey is going to be and americans can be safe when they travel to turkey. >> senators, john thnathan here. switching gears, the president, in recent days, described the spike in an effort to infiltrate his campaign, accused the fbi and department of justice of misconduct. do you feel it's an appropriate measure and thing for him to say and what do you believe from the briefings today. it's an unprecedented step. should this be happening? do you agree with the president's steps? >> letting congress know what is happening and giving access to.cto

documents is okay. the department of justice said they are going to meet the requests. then the gang of eight wanted to see it. it's majority and minority in the house. those eight individuals see it. the other two chairmen are going to see it as well. the question is when did the probe start? that's what everyone is trying to get to as a key issue. i know the president calls it spygate and you can have all kind of terms, but the question is did the probe begin after individuals were looking at the campaign or suspicions that were there? the timing is murky. the key thing is to see the documents, when did this begin and how did it begin? >> i agree with senator langford that access of information by congress is important. the president has thrown out an allegation with absolutely no evidence to support it.

as part of that, he's attacked the fbi. he's attacked the justice department. he's attacked our intelligence agencies and he's really undermining the rule of law in this country. that is not acceptable and it's not in the interest of america. >> senator jeanne shaheen, thank you. joe? >> i just wanted to ask, quickly. senator langford, you are concerned about the president of the united states talking about a criminal deep state in defining the justice department, the men and women, the professionals there, the men and woman who wut their lives on the line at the fbi is a quote, criminal, deep state. does that concern you? >> it does concern me. i agree with senator shaheen. we have great people who work in the department of justice. we know people at home that work for the fbi and nationally. they do put their lives on the line for our families.

they do work against gangs, criminal networks. they do hard, difficult work every day. we are proud of them and what they do. if there are individuals in the mix that need to be addressed, we need to address those individuals. by and large, on the whole, they are great folks that are there. >> those attacks undermine the national security of this country. let's be clear about that. >> all right senators, thank you very much and thank you for the work you are doing on behalf of pastor brunson. keep us posted. much more on the briefings set today on the russia investigation. one is republican only, the second one is bipartisan. we'll talk to congressman adam schiff, the top democrat who is invited to attend the meeting. breaking news, north korea claims they have destroyed their one and only nuclear test site. what does that mean for the summit between president trump and kim jong-un? we'll go live to the pentagon.

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when i announced this new policy in new york a few weeks ago, i explained the term piling on refers to a football player jumping on a pile of other football players. i played football about 40 years ago, so i like that metaphore. last night, i learned the mer yam webster dictionary uses a different meaning. piling on is joining other people in criticizing someone, usually in an unfair manner. i also have experience with that. so, i am definitely against piling on, no matter what definition you use. >> that was of course deputy attorney rod rosenstein talking about cooperation between law enforcement agencies. now, he didn't specifically

mention the criticism he's faced from the president and some congressional republicans over the last several months, but you heard there his veiled reference to it, willie. it seems he's keeping a pretty good attitude about the chaos that is going all around him. >> he is right in the middle of it. perhaps a reference to the president this morning, tweeting of a deep criminal state. good morning. it is thursday, may 24th. welcome to "morning joe." we have mike barnicle, eddie gloud jr., steve rattner, reporter for nbc news, carol lee, columnist and editor for "the washington post" and washington capitals fan, a very happy one this morning, david ignatius. huge game seven win last year. nbc news capital correspondent,

casey. let's begin with the news. an intelligence briefing for the bipartisan group of congressional leaders added for the fbi's secret source during the 2016 campaign. it will come after republican only briefing for the president's appointees and congressional allies. the first meeting at noon include the chief of staff, john kelly, whom the white house earlier said would not attend. attorney general rod rosenstein, dan coates and devin nunes and trey gowdy. the second meeting, scheduled for two hours later will have the same along with devin nunes' intelligence leaders, adam schiff, mark warner, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. earlier, pelosi wrote to rosenstein it is improper, the

dissemination of the president of investigative information to the president's staunches, defenders in congress and ultimately to the president's legal defense team. speaking to reporters on the south lawn, a necessary exercise in transparency. >> i want them all to get together and i want them, cause everybody wants this solved. but a lot of bad things have happened. we now call it spygate. you are calling it spygate. a lot of bad things happened. they will sit in a room and hopefully work it out among themselves. >> mr. president, why won't you sigh -- >> they are all going to be in the room tomorrow. we will see what happens. what i want is i want total transparency. this issue supersedes the party. this supersedes republicans and democrats. so, what i want from rod, from

the fbi, from everybody, we want transparency. you know what? i think in their own way, they are obstructionists, but even the democrats, i really believe, on this issue, it supersedes. i think they want transparency, too. coming up on "morning joe," reaction from the ranking member of the intel committee in the house, adam schiff. joe, this was added yesterday, after there was outcry from democrats on capitol hill about this being the po litization of intelligence. >> the whole thing is. it's remarkable listening to the president of the united states going out there, lying about, quote, spygate and lying saying that's what you all are calling it. nobody is calling it that. it was not spygate. everybody knows what happened. david ignatius, talk about just how peculiar, how strange and many people would say how dangerous this is that the president of the united states

pressured the fbi and the department of justice to launch an investigation into the investigators investigating wrong doing of the president and the team may have committed and making it a partisan exercise. >> joe, based on what we know, the president is taking the norm normal function, the normal counter intelligence function of the fbi and the intelligence community and treating it as if it's a criminal conspiracy. it is the strangest thing i can remember, the criminal deep state kind of language that the russians would apply to us, not that our own president would. based on everything we know, there were credible reports of contact between people in the trump campaign and people who were known to be russian intelligence operatives or contacts. those were pursued. there was no implantation of the

campaign, but there were informants who gathered information said in midsummer of 2016. th that's the way the intelligence operations operate. that's their job. the idea it is being criminalized, described as a conspiracy is a strange new turn in this. it's good that the gang of eight that broad oversight body is going to have a chance to listen to this, as opposed to cranking the machine with devin nunes and the house republicans. >> casey hunt, how did this play out on capitol hill? nancy pelosi and chuck schumer were not happening gowdy was the only one to see this. what pressure did they put on and why did the white house cave? >> you heard a little bit from the president, himself, there, indicating that perhaps open the door to the idea democrats could

want some transparency, clearly the policies behind the scenes at the white house can change on a moment's notice, based on the president's own words. the reality here is that this was so clearly being conducted outside the normal lanes and protocols for how you do this. i mean senators burr and warner thought this errand that none es has been on is a threat to national security. they didn't want to sign on to the document requests because they are careful of protecting sources and methods. we hear it over and over again. sources is what nunes is trying to expose. they have tried to steer clear of this, until now. the sense was this is so outside the rem of the way the intelligence community is that i think everybody took a step back and john kelly is very involved

in this and back and forth throughout the day with mitch mcconnell who is expressing discontent. the idea this information is only in the hands of devin nunes to be presented to the american public in whatever way only he was going to decide was so clearly going to give a skewed view of what happened that i think everybody in both parties quietly said we are not going to do it that way. >> the two meetings are obviously the big story of the day. the extent of damage done to the institutions being represented here at the briefings, the fbi, today, but the cia in the background, the national security, the constant damage done to the institutions by the president's clearly intended deception campaign is taking an enormous toll. >> this is the question, what is the long-term damage to the institutions, not just the fbi and the justice department and the cia, but all institutions

the president decided he's going to challenge and try to undermine. i don't think we know. you know, if you listen to director rey or anyone else who is in law enforcement, they will say this is going to send a chilling effect out, broadly, and undermine this very significant tool that law enforcement has to try to gather information about investigations that are critical to national security. you know, if you are thinking about becoming an informant or someone is trying to recruit you or groom you, you are certainly going to think twice after seeing what could be possible in terms of having your name out there or the president with the blessing of some senior officials in congress could out you in that way. i think in terms of what comes out of the meeting, you know, if there's -- you don't use an informant like this in the counter intelligence unless there's evidence. this could have an effect to the

memo because it could show there was reason or good reason to use this tool. you know, on the other side, if every letter of the process wasn't followed to a "t," that could be for republicans. >> the fact is, they were told they might be approached. if they were approached, it is imperative they said something. they were approached, they said absolutely nothing. in fact, donald trump is running around during the campaign telling the russians publicly, hey, get more information, hack more of hillary clinton's e-mails, find the other 30,000 e-mails. i just wonder how donald trump goes on the lawn and says, you know, talks about spygate. how do republicans allow this to continue? >> i think two things. first, when we get to the bottom of this and i think having more of those discussions and so on will lead to that.

we are going to find out that the fbi and other intelligence agencies acted entirely appropriately, as you said. when you have a pattern of indications of bad behavior by the russians and so on, if you are the fbi, your job is to follow it up. why the trump administration didn't do anything, there are two possible explanations. one, they are incompetent, amateurs, had no idea what was going on. it drifted by them in the heat of it all. the other is a more benign explanation, they knew what was going on and chose not to report it because they wanted this information, they wanted help from the russians and whatever they wanted. as far as the rest of the republicans, we have an idea what is going on. there's not a lot of courage from the republicans on these issues. the ones still up for re-election are afraid of trump and what he might do for them on twitter and everywhere else. i think the person whose conduct is most questionable in a way

about this is paul ryan because he is retiring. why he would not choose this as a moment for a profile encourage, i thought paul ryan was a good guy. i don't really know. harley-davidson is shedding jobs despite the requarwards of tax cut. first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> thinlgs are developing more quickly with the tropical disturbance off the yucatan, drenching cancun. it is increased to 40% chance of development in two days and 80% chance in five days. they think we are going to have a tropical system in the central or northern gulf by the time they get to saturday night to sunday. now to moisture in south florida with clouds and showers, here is the five-day development. the most favored spot is close to the middle, drifting northward for georgia, alabama

and north florida. today's forecast, the whole northern half of the country from the pacific northwest to the great lakes, a banner day. showers and thunderstorms in the southeast. this is your typical afternoon. now, let's get to the holiday forecast. we'll eventually see the rain come in. i think the heavy rain, we may need to tail it back to saturday night. the system will be slow. sunday looks like a washout here. alabama, georgia, south carolina, portions of north florida. you are fine new orleans through houston. finally, for memorial day, the rain drifts northward, atlanta, charlotte, raleigh and much of north florida. we'll track the system for you. not a huge wind storm, not like peak of hurricane season but an annoyance for the holiday weekend. we'll leave you with a nice shot here. beautiful over lower manhattan. what a great day it's going to be. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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hundreds of american workers have been left stunned after the iconic company harley-davidson announced it is slashing jobs. the move is an effort to stay competitive. it will reap benefits from the tax law. gabe gutierrez explains for us. >> this is a rear fender. >> reporter: he worked for harley-davidson 17 years when he got the stunning news. >> disbelief. a lot of people, you could see it on everybody's faces. they were, just in shock. >> reporter: the company told workers in january it was shutting down this plant in kansas city, relocating jobs to pennsylvania, eliminating 350 jobs. it's not the news he expected when president trump pitched slashing taxes.

house speaker, paul ryan went to a harley prant in wisconsin. >> tax reform can put harley-davidson on better footing and keep jobs in america. >> reporter: harley announced the $700 million stock buy-back plan. they say the buy-back authorization and decision to open a facile any thailand are unrelated to tax reform and calls the closing of the kansas city plant a tough decision. domestic sales are down and based on the need for excess capacity in the u.s. >> we got lost in the shuffle. they threw us on the streets. >> reporter: it's brought benefits, bonuses and raising minimum wages. only ten companies in the s&p 100 say they have specific plans to use the savings to boost worker pay. >> corporate profits are higher, up about 25%. >> reporter: some workers say they feel left behind.

primo believes the president. he's looking for a knew job. gabe gutierrez, nbc news. >> the buy half back of stock, the corporate rate went down under the tax bill. the company says the two things are not related. they got rid of the jobs and brought back stock. how do you explain this? >> you want me to sell you the brooklyn bridge? look, the tax bill was a give away to companies. i think we need to do something to reform the tax code. there's been a lot of studies done. morgan stanley did one that shows 60% of the tax benefits are going to stock buybacks, f dividends and 12% or 13% going to workers. harley said domestic sales are declining. it is more expensive to make things here. i don't know they mentioned they are building a plant in

thailand. the ironic part, a piece of what's motivating harley is the fear that trump is going to put tariffs on steel imports. if you do, the steel costs more. explain buybacks for shareholders, not workers. >> they don't. they work on behalf of shareholders. they raise the price, they don't do anything for workers. you can say capital is recycled and goes to other places. this pattern of behavior is what the critics said was going to happen, the companies were going to use the money for shareholders, rather than workers. >> do you believe, steve, the corporate rate coming down was a good thing, generally speaking? >> we had to do something to reform. we were losing a huge number of jobs. this will keep some jobs from leaving, having a lower corporate rate. every country is trying to cut

the corporate tax rate to keep jobs there. it's not a great -- it's not great for the world, for people, to see that this money is going to companies, but this is the world we are living? s coming up, evangelical leaders stood by donald trump despite the stormy daniels saga. there may be a change under way. we'll talk about that next on "morning joe." introducing the world's first sthe new ego string trimmer. with powerload™ technology. feed the line. push the button. and get back to work. with an industry first, carbon-fiber shaft... lawn care has never been this easy... ...or this powerful.

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going to be marching on the white house for a candlelight vigil and released a declaration about the dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership at the highest levels of our government. the opening paragraph reads, quote, we believe the soul of the nation and integrity of faith are now at stake. let's bring in jon meacham. he's the author of the best selling book "the soul of america: the battle for better angels". jon, we will get to you in a moment. it appears there are some evangelical leaders that are willing to, well, to paraphrase jesus to be the salt and the light of this world. >> yeah, joe, they are exemplifying what you have been talking about on this show. those matthew 25 christians. we have bishop curry and jim wallace organizing a candlelight

vigil to suggest the way in which trump has and some e van jell cals who support trump, to support his policies and mean spiritedness represents, in some ways a kind of idolatry. they want to put forth a vision of jesus, christianity that is concerned with the least of these, justice and love. in fact, justice is what love looks like in public, as a good frepd of mine would say. this is going to be a wonderful moment tonight, i think. it's a wonderful example of the diversity of american christianism. it's to take back an understanding of what it means to bear witness of jesus as a sacrifice. john m jon meacham, we may have disagreements on tax policy and

immigration policy, protecting the borders, fighting wars. that's understandable. what is not understandable is the complete segregation between character and leadership, which evangelical leaders have always tried to bind together and let us know during the clinton administration you could not have viable leadership without strong character. now, you have these people, i'll start with franklin graham who wrote long op-ed's attacking bill clinton's moral failings, now saying that donald trump's personality, his hatefulness, the fact that his very life that he exemplifies actually undermines every one of the attitudes. if you don't believe me, go to the sermon on the mound. every one of the attitudes, his

life is it. i have never known in the history of the evangelical movement, any leaders taking this position. >> well, it's to me, a fascinating moment. it brings up, you know, what profit do you gain if you lose your soul. the evangelical movement made a shrewd bet, but a political bet. they are playing a 40-year strategy at the expense of their integrity for four years. they are supporting president trump for the supreme court for the judiciary and they want to get these young appointees, get them for decades and they are willing to really put their otherwise consistent views aside for that purpose. i think eddie used exactly the right word, it's idolatry. it's putting a temporal force, a

temporal advantage ahead of spiritual integrity. stephenson once said the duty of the christian is not to succeed, it's to fail cheerfully. i am the most cheerful christian. i hesitate to cast the first stone. they are in the arena and put themselves out there. i think, ultimately, they will have to have a reckoning about this. >> the evangelicals are worshipping a man, supporting a man, following a man who has literally said, i don't need to be forgiven by god. i have never asked god for forgiveness. i try to be good. there's nothing i need to ask forgiveness for. this is -- this is what evangelicals are taught from the time they are 3 years old.

>> absolutely, joe. this is what happens when you emphasize the kind -- how do you put this? when your court profits, when you are comfortable in the temple and understanding, in some ways jesus' ministry, a challenge to those who claim to hold the gospel, to hold the truth for themselves. so, when i see bishop curry and other evangelical christians doing is making a claim on the gospel, making a claim on what it means to be christian and placing that squarely against what others are doing in their association with donald trump who seems, by any measure, joe, unchristian. coming up, adam schiff will be one of the eight congressional leaders to attend a classified briefing on the russia investigation. before that, he joins us here on "morning joe," next.

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>> all you have to do is look at the basics and you'll see. it looks like a very serious event but we'll find out. when they look at the documents people are going to see a lot of bad things happened. i hope it's not so. if it is, there's never been anything like it in the history of our country. i hope, i mean, if you look at clapper, he admitted they had spies in the campaign, yesterday, inadd vvertently. i hope it's not true, but looks like it is. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't want to get into it yet, but after we look at the proof, would he know? i would certainly hope not, but i think it's going to be obvious after a while. >> that's president trump speaking yesterday after saying a look at classified documents

will prove a spy was embedded in his presidential campaign. joining us are a few people that will see the documents during a briefing with justice officials. the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, congressman adam schiff. congressman, thanks for taking time with us this morning. a number of questions for you, but let's start so our viewers understand what exactly you will see today in terms of classified documents, where they come from and how you get access to them? >> the answer is, i don't know. what should happen at the gang of eight meeting, first of all, there should only be one meeting, the gang of eight, not a premeeting with two that acted as donald trump's defense team. what i hope to hear is we have shared with you what we can without compromising sources and investigation. that's all we have to share with you at this point. when the investigation has run

its course, when we can be assured that our sources are protected, we will share more. that's what they should do to protect their equities, but i think they recognize, obviously, they are getting enormous pressure from the white house and that the whole purpose that you have this demand from nunes and gowdy is so the information can be provided as giuliani made overt to the trump legal team. that is improper and abuse of the president's power. >> i gather as long as there are going to be briefings, you want eyes on them. i understand why you want that so it's not just nunes and gowdy looking at the information. to take a step back, do you think briefings are appropriate? should anyone have a look at the briefings and do you need to see it at this point in the investigation? >> no, i don't think they are appropriate. the gang of eight meetings are designed and the sharing of the nation's most closely held

classified information, intelligence or counter intelligence when there is a need to know for the congress, not as a strategy for the president's defense team. that's what's happening here. this wasn't a gang of eight meeting convened fwi intelligence agencies. this is a gang of eight meeting and partisan briefing for the two other members insisted upon by the white house. that's not how this should come about. that's not an appropriate process in terms of handling that information but it is obviously, designed to circle the wagons around the white house. >> i have two questions. what should we expect publicly after reviewing the documents? are you going to be able to say anything about whether or not this was done appropriately or inappropriately? and second, i'm sewcurious if y see jared kushner getting

security clearance? >> in terms of what i'll be able to say after the meeting, i would only be able to speak in the broadest generalities, whether i thought it was appropriate or inappropriate, whether i thought the justice department and fbi are standing up for their investigative equities and to protect their sources or whether we are seeing yet another breakdown of the system of checks and balances. it is fairly breathtaking that in the face of the department and the fbi saying that lives could be risked here, the president and these republican members are saying we don't care. we want to access the information and all too often, the information provided to the gop made its way to fox news. profound concerns there. in terms of jared kushner, i can tell you this, there's no way anyone else in his circumstances who has had to revise their disclosures some 40 times, who has had undisclosed meetings

with a hostile foreign power get a security clearance. there's one way to do that, that is be maried to the president's daughter. i don't know that it sheds light on his legal jeopardy but it's the case that no one else would have got the security clearance. >> congressman, two questions for you. first, what is your degree of concern that the white house chief of staff, john kelly is going to be in attendance at both meetings today and the president, again, on twitter is talking about spygate, suggesting there was a spy in his campaign? how damaging is it, in your estimation, he labeling what is a common fbi practice in this way? >> well, first, in terms of chief of staff kelly, i did ask one of the heads of the intelligence agencies yesterday, who told me this would be a gang of eight meeting, whether there would be anyone from the white

house president. i was assured kelly would only be there to convene the meeting, then leave the room. there should be no one present from the white house. we shouldn't have the white house convene the meeting. it's how improper the meeting is that the white house is involved in pushing out materials from the department that are helpful, they believe, to the legal defense team. so, he should have no part in the meeting. we'll see whether those representations that have been made to me by this intelligence agency are accurate. in terms of what the president has been saying, look, the president said that there was wiretapping at trump tower. that was false. he said there was an unmasking conspiracy. that was false. he said there were political spies. that is false. this isn't spygate, but a form of liegate, false statements by the president. people are saying or we are being told. when you hear that preface by

the president, people have been saying or we have been told, the american people should know by now, what follows is going to be another false statement. >> congressman schiff, i have a question. is the house intelligence committee broken? >> it's not broken. you know, i think we are going to have a problem as long as mr. nunes is the head of the committee. i will say that for the nonrussia related work of the committee that has gone on in a nonpartisan way, even through the worst of times, but in terms of our interaction with the intelligence community, the intelligence community's confidence they can share information, which is essential to functioning, it's broken vis-a-vis the chairman. after the nunes memorandum saga where there was a blatant declassification of intelligence, they are wary of sharing things with us. but the members of the committee and myself included continue to do our jobs, recognizing the

additional hurdle we have given the chairman we have. >> congressman schiff, it's casey hunt. i have two questions for you. the first is this, do you have full confidence that the justice department in launching this counter intelligence investigation dotted every "i," crossed every "t" in a political manner? >> everything i have seen tells me yes, they acted appropriately, they did their job. indeed, given the information that was coming to their attention, it would have been negligent of them in terms of national security to ignore it and not pursue it because it involves people involved in the campaign. they did what the nation needs them to do. now, the inspector general will look into the handling of the clinton e-mail investigation and the conduct of parts of the trump investigation -- >> congressman -- congressman, do you think the d.o.j. acted

completely appropriately, ethically in investigating hillary clinton's e-mails? >> i think there was serious mistakes made by the fbi, made by director comey in treating the clinton investigation one way in wide open public sharing of information publicly and keeping the trump investigation confidential. i think it was a terrible double standard. both should have been kept confidential. if one was going to be exposed, the other needed to be as well. there were serious mistakes made by director comey, but i think that the agent's performing those investigations were acting appropriately, were acting apolitically. whatever their personal views may have been, and the whole suggestion that the president keeps repeating there's some secret society deep state within the fib is utter nonsense, but deeply damaging nonsense because it does erode public confidence in these institution that is we are so dependent on.

>> by the way, secretary of state pompeo said the same thing. congressman adam schiff, thank you so much. we look forward to hearing from you after the 2:00 p.m. eastern time intel briefing. coming up next, president trump gave an interview yesterday and used the same line when talking ms-13 gang members and nfl players who kneel during the national anthem. we'll play for you the staggering new remarks. plus, we'll go live to the pentagon after the claim from north korea it destroyed their only nuclear facility. people said it just made a mess until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. they thought someday it could become fuel and power our cars wouldn't that be cool? and that's why exxonmobil scientists think it's not small at all. energy lives here.

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president trump spoke yesterday on long island at an event focused on immigration and violence tied to the ms-13 gang. in a taped interview with fox news, the president had this to say. >> everybody knows what's going on. these are vicious killers and they shouldn't be allowed into the country. the laws are horrible. we're bringing them out by the thousands. as you know, we're setting records. this is a record that i'm not even -- i don't like talking about it because it's so ridiculous. they shouldn't be in the country. but we are doing from the standpoint of law enforcement, a great job. the democrats are sticking up for ms-13. you heard nancy pelosi the other day like trying to find all sorts of reasons why they should be able to stay. these are stone-cold killers. vicious killers. and when you hear families like that and see families, these are

incredible families, they lost their daughters in this case, some other people in the room, they lost sons. this should never happen. >> that's the president there talking about ms-13 gang members. that they're vicious killers. they shouldn't be allowed into the country. president trump also offered his thoughts on the nfl's new policy regarding the national anthem. >> i don't think people should be staying in locker rooms but still i think it's good. you have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn't be playing. you shouldn't be there. maybe you shouldn't be in the country. you have to stand proudly for the national anthem. and the nfl owners did the right thing if that's what they've done. i think the people pushed it forward. this was not me. i brought it out. i think the people pushed it forward. this country's very smart. we have very smart people. a and, you know, that's something ideally could have been taken care of when it first started. but if they did that, they're doing the right thing. >> let's just repeat what the president said about the nfl players who have chosen to kneel

for the anthem, quote, maybe you shouldn't be in the country. you don't have to agree with what the players are doing. you can disagree with their decision to kneel during the anthem, to recognize how staggering that statement is from the president of the united states. >> it's ridiculous. it's absurd. he sounds a lot like erdogan, doesn't he? he doesn't sound like the leader of the free world. i think at the heart of the issue with the anthem and black athletes, and it's particularly black athlete, is this racial issue tied to two things. there's a sense in which these multimillionaire athletes are ungrateful. they should just go out and play like laura ingraham told lebron, just shut up and play. or catch the ball or block or whatever. so you're ungrateful. and then the other thing is this, there's a sense, and i've said this before, there's a sense that whenever african-americans protest, there's a presumption that their protest reveals that they're

disloyal, that they don't love the country. so you get these selective patriots, right. there's some people that can protest according to this group and they're considered patriots. but you have someone take a knee in the name of principles to bring attention to, right, the brutality of the unequal application of the law and they're certainly viewed as someone, as traitors. you want to kick them out of the country. it's so profoundly undemocratic and predictive of a long history of racial problems in this country. >> one thing i can say for sure, we know no matter what happens in september, when these games start, when the regular season games start. the president will bring this up again. he feels this is a winner for him. last fall, let's remembers he spent far more time talking about these anthem protests then the devastating hurricanes that hit port rick doe and the south. this is something he feels like inflames his base. he thinks it's a political

winner. this will be something you hear him use ahead of the midterms. >> exactly. >> this is something he will go to time and time again. it is a culture war that he wants to fight. >> the protests will continue in one form or another. you had one owner say i will pay your fine if you want to continue to kneel. the president will have this as an issue going into the fall. president trump meanwhile yesterday once again weighed in on the uncertainty regarding the status of his summit with north korea kim jong-un, currently set for june 12th. >> well, we're going to see what happened on singapore. we're going to see. and it could happen. it could very well happen. but whatever it is, we will know next week about singapore. and if we go, i think it will be a great thing for north korea. some day, a date will happen. some day, a date will absolutely happen. it could very well be june 12th. we'll see. we'll know next week. >> this morning, north korea said it destroyed its previous testing site, although previous

reports indicated the site was no longer usable, as it partially collapsed. joining us live from the pentagon, nbc news pentagon correspondent hans nichols. hans, what more can you tell us about this? >> officials here are still assessing the intelligence. they're not going to make a formal declaration that this nuclear test site has, indeed, been decommissioned, perhaps until later today, maybe even tomorrow. you know, willie, i think the big shift we've seen here in the last 24 hours is the willingness of the pentagon to sort of pick a fight with china. you've seen a similar analog to that with what president trump has been saying, hinting that because kim jong-un had that second visit with xi jinping, there has been a change in north korea's behavior. the big move here was disinviting china from these biannual war games, these exercises. they really like to focus on interoperability and really make sure all these navies play by the same rules. disinviting them is a big deal. a few things to watch for. number one what does the

pentagon say about this site? but more importantly, what does secretary mattis do? he's scheduled, a week from now, to go to singapore himself. will he sit down and have a meeting with the chinese defense minister? i think that's a crucial meeting. that summit meeting, that sh shangri-la meeting in singapore previous to the big one. >> thank you, greatly appreciate it. seems to me if you look at the last 24, 48 hours, we should just start ignoring what both leaders of north korea and the united states are saying. because there will be a threat from north korea yesterday. today they invite journalists in to show they destroyed one nuclear site. donald trump will say something insulting one day and the next he'll say, ah, we're going to get together at some point. it seems that people are working behind the scenes to make this happen but the two leaders still throwing barbs at each other. >> i think that underscores the kind of upside down nature of this summit because usually you would get lower level meetings and then they would build up to

a leader meeting and here you have, it's kind of top down, where the leaders are expected to give the big reveal and then send all of the lower level folks out to do the work. there -- our understanding is there has not been a lot of substantive preparation for this meeting, which is even people who support it, that's always been their fear, that this white house wouldn't prepare enough to go into a meeting like that. i think, you know, despite what the president's saying, he still very clearly wants to have this meeting and sees it as a huge gain for him. so i think he'll try to do what he can to make sure it happens. >> and, follow up on that question, what are your birthday plans today? >> um, so -- >> happy birthday, what are you going to work on? >> we've got the summit today obviously on capitol hill. i have to say, like, in an incredible gift of fate, i'm a huge not so secret star wars fan. the solo movie comes out

tonight. so i'm going to go do that, yeah. >> that's big. i love it. it looks good. happy birthday to you. that does it for us this morning on "morning joe." thank you for being with us. we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. for now, stephanie ruhle picks up our coverage. >> hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle, with a lot to cover this morn, starting with dual briefings. the white house will allow some democrats to review highly classified documents relating to the russia probe. in a separate briefing, the president still pushing his absolutely nonsense unproven claim that some sort of spy infiltrated his 2000 campaign. that's the president lying to you. >> when they look at the documents, i think people are going to see a lot of bad things happen. we now call it spy gate. >> no, sir, you do, and it's a lie. only you and the base that you're speaking to irresponsibly do. and sidelines, the nfl