this is going to be a fascinating midterm election year. no matter what happens, it's just getting started. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." on th year. last word with lawrence o'donnell starts right now. >> maybe it's canceled, maybe it's nl. a u.s. delegation is on the you're korean peninsula trying to salvage president trump's summit with kim jong-un. we're live in seoul this morning. >> plus fulfilling his memorial day duties, the president pays tributes to the nation's fallen at arlington national cemetery but not before taking to twitter to pay tribute to himself. >> and tracking severe weather, tropical storm alberto makes land fall killing two people while historic city in maryland must now decide if it wants to rebuild. >> good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, may 29th.

i'm aman alongside yasmin and lewis burgdorf. we begin with the latest on the saga of president trump's summit with kim jong-un. a u.s. delegation is in talks with north korean officials in the korean border town of. a separate team is in singapore per the white house. you may recall thursday thank you trump sent kim a letter due to anger and hostility. >> trump tweeted, quote, we are having very productive talks with north korea about reinstating the summit which if it does happen will likely remain in singapore on the same date, june 12. and if necessary will extend beyond that date. and on saturday trump had this to say. take a listen. >> i just want to mention we're doing very well in terms of the summit with north korea. looks like it's going along very

well. i think there's a lot of good will. a lot of people are working on it. it's moving along very nicely so we're looking at june 12th in singapore. that hasn't changed. it is it's moving along pretty well. we'll see what happens. >> trump added on sunday, our united states team has arrived in north korea to make arrangements for the summit between kim jong-un and myself. kim jong-un agrees with me on this, it will happen. so, south korean president moon jae-in met with kim on saturday in a surprise summit on the north korean side of the dmz. his second face to face with his counterpart and their first meeting on the northern side. after the meeting moon said that north korea remains committed to a summit with the u.s. in addition to, quote, complete denuclearization. let's talk a little about this and go live to seoul, south

korea, with nbc news correspondent janice mackie frayer. good morning, janice. a lot going on and a lot of confusion to say the least. where do we currently stand on the trump/kim summit and what is happening, and what is the view from south korea on all this? >> reporter: well, it is tough to keep up and there is a sense of urgency around these working level meetings that are happening because there is still so much uncertainty on whether this can come together in such a short period of time. just two weeks. importantly are those talks that are happening at the dmz between u.s. officials and north korean officials because they are working on the agenda. it's being led for the u.s. by former u.s. ambassador to south korea sung kim, also a former nuclear negotiator. he has experience and he has history with the people he's meeting with. that said, to hammer out an agenda for a summit that will have, of course, the historic photo op, but is also supposed to produce a workable agreement,

that's going to be tough. and to do it in just a couple of days. the central issue remains trust and this seemed to be the driving reason behind that summit that kim and moon jae-in had on saturday. it was a complete surprise. but it was something that kim wanted to have in person, a discussion he didn't feel could happen over the hot line that the two had established recently. so, what we're seeing here is moon emerging in more of a mediator role and there is a lot of speculation today, yasmin, moon could be in the room if kim jong-un and president trump do meet. >> yeah, that would be very interesting to say the least. it is now just the count down really to june 12 and seeing if and when it actually happens. janice mackie frayer for us. thank you. >> meanwhile at least one republican senator remains kept c skeptical about the entire situation. >> we have a leader in kim jong-un who has almost an emotional attachment and a personal psychological

attachment to these nuclear weapons. they make him feel prestigious, they make him feel powerful. this is a man who has to figure out how to survive in power for 50 something years as a dictator and is afraid if he gets rid of these weapons at some point someone is going to take him out. ultimately i remain convinced he does not want to nuclear eyes in fact he will not denuclearize. >> senator rubio later followed that up with this tweet saying, for the sake of peace i sincerely hope i am wrong about kim jong-un not being serious about getting rid of his weapons, but so far i have seen no evidence that i am wrong. at real donald trump has handled this very well so far, but the most difficult part lies ahead. >> all right, let's switch gears here. president trump has taken the hunt for leakers into his own hands. the washington post reporting trump has recently been hunting for white house aides who have shared damaging information with journalists and that leakers be caught and be punished. according to administration

official, trump has privately confronted aides about leaks. questioned who the culprits may be and mused that quote, someone should be made an example of. trump's hunt for leakers has been motivated by a recent string of national security related disclosures as well as reports about communications aide kelly sadler's insensitive comment about john mccain's brain cancer. meanwhile axios reporting shortly after the comments trump gather sadler, mercedes and john kelly in the oval office according to sources familiar with the gathering. during that particular meeting in which the door to the oval office was actually left open, trump asked sadler who the leakers were and she said one of the worst was her boss, mercedes schlapp. she pushed back aggressively and defended herself against the allegations. >> and president trump also took issue with the quote provided by

the background communications office and aimed to discredit the reporters on saturday. the president tweeted the new failing "the new york times," quotes, a senior white house official who doesn't exist as saying even if the meeting were reinstated holding it on june 12 wouldn't be possible given the lack of time and planning needed. wrong again. use real people, not phony sources. but the source was, in fact, a senior white house official speaking to a large group of reporters in the white house briefing room. a briefing that nbc news took part in and recorded on the agreement that the official would not be named and the audio would not be broadcast. >> all right. so, president trump sent nine tweets over the weekend to attack special counsel robert mueller and the fbi's investigation of his campaign, including this odd tweet on sunday morning. quote, who is going to give back the young and beautiful lives and others that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony russia collusion witch hunt? they journeyed down to washington, d.c. with stars in their eyes and wanting to help

our nation. they went back home in tatters. the president's chief surrogate rudy giuliani continued the trump's mission to discredit the special counsel. >> we're more convinced as we see it that this is a rigged investigation. now we have this whole new spygate thing thrown on top of it. an investigation we thought was rigged was rigged from the very beginning. it never should have started. i'm not saying mueller is illegitimate. i'm saying the basis on which he was a pointed was ill legitimate. >> you think the mueller probe is legitimate? >> not any more, i don't. we're defending here -- it is for public opinion because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach, not impeach. members of congress, democrat and republican are going to be informed a lot by their constituents, our jury, as it should be, is the american people and the american people, yes, are republicans largely,

independents pretty substantially, and even some democrats now question the legitimacy of it. >> all right. republican senator cory gardener has warned president trump that the white house and congress need to act fast on immigration reform. the urgent message was delivered in a phone call earlier this month. gardener told politico he recalled telling the president the sweet spot for getting an ilt grags deal is now. certainly post election the more difficult it will be. if we wait longer the more difficult it becomes. they'll blame it on both parties at that point. gardener's warning comes as senators in both parties have begun to restart back channel talks across the aisle and with the white house in hopes that the chamber will be ready to act if the house or the courts throw the issue back to the senate later this summer. however, with a number of unresolved disagreements, lawmakers are increasingly concerned that the senate could be blind sided by a vote later this year. >> all right. joining us now from washington is politico's daniel lit man,

author the politico play book. good to have you with us on this tuesday. >> thank you. >> let's turn back for a moment to north korea with the u.s. team both in singapore and inside north korea preparing for a potential summit despite the mixed messaging coming out of the white house. it seems things have not changed. how are things progressing, do you think? are we going to see trump and kim jong-un turn things around or are we still to take the president that this summit is not going to happen? >> i think, you know, all bets are that this summit is going to happen. you know, trump had a little bluster late last week pretending that he was cancelling the summit and yet still sending the white house team to negotiate the summit's terms. but when the summit does happen, if it actually happens, we should be looking at what actually is accomplished. there was a big report about how this is not going to be a quick and dirty, you know, get rid of all the nuclear weapons in one

year. this is a 15-year process and that's according to a senior government advisor who is the most knowledgeable about these weapons. >> all right. let's switch gears here. i want to talk about this push to sort of bring the leakers out in the white house. president trump dialing up his hunt for the leakers inside the white house. what's behind the president's push on finding what he's calling traitors? >> he probably should look in the mirror first because he has leaked the most in the white house. the problem with the push is that he got a lot of blow back from criticizing "the new york times" for quoting his own white house senior official at a background briefing that the white house sanctioned. and so sometimes you can have unintended consequence and, you know, make journalism seem like it's fake when it's actually this was a common white house practice. but i think he's just tired of the negative news coverage and

he wants to kind of set an example of someone and fire someone to try to prevent leaks from happening in the future. >> and blame someone. >> yeah, it seems like all the leaks are always very critical of the president. it's something always embarrassing to some extent. it's not positive news. all right, daniel lit man live in washington. we'll touch base with you in about 30 minutes or so. stick around for us. >> thank you. >> let's talk memorial day. president trump began memorial day with a tweet that had the ring of his political rallies. happy memorial day. those who died for our great cunanan through will be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for blacks and hispanics ever, and women in 18 years. rebuilding our military and so much more. nice! trump then began tweeting quotes from fox news about the russia investigation. about an hour and a half after the president's tweet, retired army general and former joint chiefs chairman martin dempsey posted this. quote, this day, of all days of the year, should not be about

any one of us. no matter how prestigious or powerful, no matter how successful we perceive ourselves to be, rather this day should be about those who gave their lives so we could live ours in freedom. >> meanwhile, former president h.w. bush was at a hospital in southern maine. the 41st president and world war ii veteran tweeted out very much regret missing the memorial day parade today in kennebunk port and i'm forever grateful not only to those patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, but also the gold star families whose heritage is imbued with their honor and heroism. >> all right. still ahead, everybody, shocking weekend for some. the search continuing for a veteran washed away trying to help a woman in that massive flash flood in maryland . we'll have the latest on that. >> plus alberto makes land fall in florida. turns deadly forcing evacuation ands more floods. bill karins is back with the very latest.

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welcome back, everybody. officials in maryland are holding out hope the national guards man who was washed away in the devastating flash flood in maryland is going to be found alive. 39-year-old eddy hermand was swept away sunday while trying to help a woman find her missing cat. witnesses say they saw him go under the flood waters and never resurface. this is the second catastrophic flood to hit a historic ellicott city in two years. in 20162 it was called a thousand year flood only for it to happen again over this past weekend. one of the biggest questions now is whether the city founded in 1772 should once again try to rebuild. >> so there was a lot of weather stories to be tracking out there. we are also tracking tropical storm alberto which is threatening to bring floods to the southeast. for that we want to turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill? >> good morning. between 16 tornadoes yesterday,

hit 100 degrees in minneapolis, the ellicott city flooding, you just don't see pictures like that. you typically -- like ever. then alberto has been a very, very busy period over the weekend. these are the remaining pictures from ellicott city area. a lot people pay attention to one in 1,000 year flood. everyone is like how can you have two one in 1,000 year floods bhin twithin two years o other. there is a percentage every year of having a flood like this. this area, if it's a 1% chance of a flood like this, that would be one in every 100 years. this would be .001% chance going into every year. horrible odds. you look at the topography of the area, 7 inches of rain, in the mountains, you can see how it could happen if you look at a topographic map. let's talk about alberto. 50 miles west northwest of alabama. now heading toward montgomery.

it's weakened. the winds were never a problem. this is the path of the storm as we go throughout the rest of today, tonight, into tomorrow. along that path we still have a chance for flash flooding. it's been very wet in this areas as we are going to get another one to 3 inches of rain as much as 4 to 5. that will cause issues. we feel roughly 29 million people under flash flood watches from panama city up to louisville, kentucky even to the mountains hereof north carolina and virginia. you can see that path near the center as it spins its way up. that's where the heaviest rain is. that's one to 3 inches. isolated totals could be higherment we'll have to watch what areas to the west of montgomery this morning and the mountains of north georgia and mountainous areas, high terrain of south carolina later. i expect tornadoes, a few of them at least in areas of central kansas and oklahoma, those storms should weaken towards tulsa. at risk 5 million people at risk of severe storms. a lot of busy weather, and warms up in areas of the east. new york today 87.

>> thanks for that, bill. we have an incredible story of heroism here. they're calling him the spiderman in a dramatic video taken in paris on saturday. 22-year-old scales four stories in seconds to rescue a dangling four-year-old as two people in the adjoining unit struggle to keep him on the ledge. the boy had reportedly already fallen one story before he was saved. an undocumented immigrant arrived in france last year after crossing the mediterranean sea to italy. a dangerous route taken by thousands of african migrants every year. the french president manuel macron thanked him in person offering him citizenship. also given a gold medal and offered a job with the paris fire department. the child sustained minor injuries and is expected to recover. his father is being investigated for leaving him unattended. the paris prosecutor said the father had taken a long time to

come home because he decided to play pokemon go. >> wow. >> given the headlines we hear about migrants into europe and the negative, it was nice to see a positive story and this man given the credit he was due in french media by the french government. >> i'm glad that story is getting out, exactly. still ahead, everybody, outrage after the trump administration reportedly lost track of immigrant children after separating them from their parents. now the president is blaming democrats for the policy that his administration is enforcing. >> plus today is the day that starbucks is closing early to train every one of its employees on racial bias. we are going to tell you what you can expect next. can make you feel unstoppable. but mania, such as unusual changes in your mood, activity or energy levels, can leave you on shaky ground. help take control by asking about your treatment options.

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♪ ♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin alongside aman and louis burgdorf. let's start with the morning's top stories. we start with the saga of president trump's summit with kim jong-un. on saturday, two days african selling the summit due to recent, quote, tremendous anger and open hostility, trump had this to say. >> i just want to mention we're doing very well in terms of the summit with north korea. looks like it's going along very well. i think there's a lot of good will. a lot of people are working on it. it's moving along very nicely, so we're looking at june 12th in singapore. that hasn't changed. and it's moving along pretty well. so, we'll see what happens.

>> all right. joining us now once again live from seoul, south korea, nbc news correspondent janice mackie frayer. janice, good to have you with us. give us a sense if there is any explanation from the south korean side what led to the summit getting back on track after the signals we got from the white house. >> reporter: well, it's been tough trying to keep up with all of the diplomatic moves that are continuing this morning. a u.s. delegation is in singapore looking at the logistics of a june 12 summit. north korean officials are on the move. there are reports that the former spy chief for north korea was in beijing and is now on his way to new york. and, of course, this team of u.s. officials meeting with north korean officials at the dmz, they have the tough job. they need to hammer out the agenda for the summit. something that is going to produce a workable agreement. trust seems to be the central issue, at least for kim jong-un, and it's believed to be the reason behind him requesting that secret meeting with south

korean president moon jae-in on saturday. it came together literally overnight and it was an issue that kim obviously felt the two could not resolve over the phone hot line that had been recently established. on sunday, moon revealed that kim jong-un says he's committed to having a successful summit with president trump. says he's committed to denuclearization, but still we have no sense of what they mean by that. what is the north korean view. so, that will be the stumbling block ahead of june 12th. in the meantime, the u.s. saying there are reports saying that the u.s. will not introduce new sanctions against north korea until we know what's going on with the summit. aman? >> a lot of moving pieces to keep track. janice mackie frayer, thank you so much live in seoul, south korea for us this morning. >> trump is facing criticism over the revelation the department of health and human services lost nearly 1500 migrant children in the united states last year. "the new york times" first reported that steven wagner, the acting assistant secretary of hhs's administration for

children and families, disclosed that information during testimony before a senate subcommittee on april 26th. the paper reports that wagner told lawmakers that the agency had learned of the missing children after placing follow-up calls to the people who took responsibility for them when they were released from government custody, adding that we're unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of these kids. now, according to the times citing wagner's testimony, the children had arrived alone at the southwest border without their parents, according to government data. most of them are from honduras, el salvador, and guatemala and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse. the revelation comes of course as congress looks at new measures for the federal government to make sure chill kren childr children who show up alone are turned over to family and not traffickers. >> president trump falsely laid the blame for the policy separating children from their parents at the border on the democrats. the president tweeted out

saturday morning, put pressure on the democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from their parents once they cross the border into the united states. catch and release. lottery and chain must go with it and we must continue building the wall. democrats are protecting ms-13 thugs. despite the president's claim, the policy to separate kids and parents was one announced by his administration earlier this month under the new zero tolerance plan announced by attorney general jeff sessions, minors who are caught traveling with their family illegally across the border will be taken into the custody of the department of health and human services. now, under the previous policy, children were usually allowed to stay with their parents in shelters while awaiting those legal proceedings. >> and president trump's recent claims touting a drop in illegal border crossings appear to be more fiction than fact. in an interview on fox news as well as at an appearance on long island last week, the president claimed the border crossings were down 40% under his

administration. thanks to his tougher immigration policies. that's not actually the case according to the associated press. it found that trump's own benchmark to measure border crossings, the number of border patrol arrests shows the number of people coming across the border has actually increased by 20% since he became president. the a.p. says border patrol arrests did fall last year to the lowest level since 1971. >> all right. so, president trump claimed ignorance this weekend and complained about the fbi source that had contact with three of his kwcampaign advisors, quote, with spies or informants as the democrats like to call them because it's sounds less sinister but it's not, why didn't the crooked highest levels of fbi or, quote, justice contact me to tell me of the phony russia problem? but, in fact, senior fbi officials did inform president trump at one of his earliest briefings in the summer of 2016 that russians would try to infiltrate his campaign.

officials told nbc the cabinets were urged to alert the fbi about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns. >> and just days after allegations of abusing government resources at his office, first term republican congressman tom garrett of virginia announcing a tearful video he has a drinking problem and he will not seek reelection in november. >> because one area where i haven't been honest, the tragedy is that any person, republican, democrat or independent, has known me for any period of time and has any integrity knows two things. i am a good man and i am an alcoholic. this is the hardest statement that i have ever publicly made by far. it's also the truth. >> garrett a member of the house freedom caucus was the subject of a political report alleging that he and his wife used congressional staff to run errands and take care of their dog according to four former aides. it is a violation of the house ethics rules and federal law to

use congressional employees for anything other than official duties. congressman called the allegations a series of half truths and whole lies. garrett is the 48th republican to retire or announce they will not seek reelection to the house this year according to the house press gallery. >> let's go back to washington now with the coauthor of the politico book. pretty courageous statement. a lot of people out there need to get the help in fact he it seems he needs. aside from that, how does his departure impact republicans going into the midterms now with another loss of a seat? >> so, it makes that seat much more vulnerable for republicans to try to hang onto. and i think you're going to see democrats hammer home the theme of corruption by members of congress and by the trump administration. and the fact that a lot of democrats think that the

congress, the republican-led congress have not held trump accountable for what's happening in different agencies, and that they will do a better job of that. and so maybe not tom garrett doesn't play a huge role in that, but abusing your staff and apparently violating the law potentially, that does not help in the republicans' efforts to hold the house. >> daniel, let's switch gears to the president for a moment. he continues to say illegal border crossings have dropped under his presidency. that is actually not correct. we know the numbers actually increased. could we see these new numbers push the administration to get tougher on the border? >> so, it's hard for me to see how they could be tougher on the border, but you could see trump talk more about this issue. and i think he just wants to tell his supporters that he has been holding his promises to them, that he is getting rid of a lot of illegal immigrants. but you're going to see

republicans worried that if you can't reach a deal on daca because of the president's rhetoric, that makes it harder for them in november because a lot of the moderate suburban voters, they are turned off by trump and they want a more humane policy on immigration. >> daniel lip man for us. thanks, daniel. still ahead the atlantic hurricane season gets an early start with the first tropical system making its way onto land and leaving destruction and at least two people dead. >> bill karins will have the latest on the storm's path and when conditions will start to improve. stay with us. (vo) we came here for the friends.

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mess of debris. florida, alabama and mississippi have all issued states of emergency following alberto's wrath. people brave enough to squeeze in pool time in panama city beach, florida, were greeted with gusty winds strong enough to blow away this inner tube as you can imagine. in north carolina two journalists from an nbc affiliate station lost their lives while reporting on the deadly storm after a tree fell on their suv. anchor mike mccormick and photographer aaron smelz, r shared the news tweeting all of us at wyff news 4 are grieving. our thoughts and prayers with the families. heart breaking. >> such a sad story. let's get a check of your weather with meteorologist bill karins. bill, what can we expect for the storm? >> a little more on the two. they called the fire chief on the town they were in about the storms and about the rain to get advice for people to stay safe.

and then they jut -- the randomness of falling trees, horrible. so, my condolence to them and their family and friends and coworkers at the station, too. the storm itself has weakened to a subtropical depression. it was all about the rain. an ugly morning in montgomery. it is ba to get that way in birmingham. that's the worst of the rain from what's left of alberto. 27 million people still under flash flood watches because it's been so wet in the southeast, as alberto moves to the north we'll get bands and storms into areas of west virginia, virginia, the month untans of north carolina. but the primary concern is going to be montgomery to birmingham, and then through tennessee all the way back up through western kentucky through the central illinois. even chicago is going to get drenched by this. we're talking the pink and the purple and that's about 1 1/2 to 3 inches of rainfall right along that center path. then the mountains will squeeze out a little additional moisture in northern georgia and upstate

of south carolina. don't be surprised if we show you pictures of tornadoes tomorrow. it looks like a pretty classic set up here in areas of central kansas including wichita area enhanced risk of thunderstorms today. 6 million people at risk and it does look like at least a few tornadoes will be possible. how about the heat? yesterday it was 100 degrees in minneapolis. we've had five days in a row of 90s. today will be number 6 and that has never happened in may before in minneapolis. so quite the early season heat wave for the central and northern plains. >> all right. thanks for that, bill. still ahead, starbucks prepares to close thousands of its stores for antibias training in the wake of the arrest of two black men. >> plus get this. china hands ivanka trump a batch of trademarks in the trade talks between leaders there. and her father, the new conflict of interest questions, the move is raising. sleep plays a huge role in my life because no two days are alike. on my tempur-pedic, the sleep i get is better

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welcome back, everybody. this month china awarded ivanka trump seven new trademarks across a broadus collection of businesses that include books, house wears and cushion. the trademarks came around the same time trump vowed to find a way to prevent china tell kmu telecommunications zte from going bust. then on may 20 first, the country awarded her two more.

as president trump deals with beijing on issues like security and trade, his family and company are simultaneously trying to make money off their brand and china's potentially promising market. ivanka trump now has 34 trademarks in china that will allow her to build her brand in the world's second largest economy. quite a conflict of interest. >> quid pro quo, maybe? >> italy led to losses in european stocks. markets in the u.s. were closed for memorial day. cnbc's vilm joins us. what is spooking investors about italy's political uncertainty? >> so, louis, they have appointed a former director of the fund cottarelli. together more than 50% of the vote tried to form a government were ultimately foiled because their candidate for economics minister had secretly talked in the past about a plan to stop

using the euro in italy. that got investors, you can imagine, pretty spooked about these sort of situations. they are looking at the debt of the country as well as banking sector. we've seen sector. we've seen italian bonds and banking stocks drop precipitously in the last couple of days. the fbi has concerns with mallware that's affected internet routers. the mallware is able to block web traffic, collect information that passes through them and the fbi says the group behind it is the same group that targeted the dnc during the presidential election of 2016. >> unplug your router and plug it back in. one more for you, starbucks will close to conduct a companywide anti-bias training, responding to national outcry after the arrest of two barack men at a philadelphia location.

what does the company have to do to restore its image? >> today they're going to close all their 8,000 stores, hoping to teach 175,000 employees to open up about subconscious bias and stereotyping they might encounter with customers that might have a different racial background or gender. critics saying an afternoon of training is not enough to resolve these complex issues much but those involved are being consulted by starbucks say they've been surprised by how seriously the company is taking this issue. >> willem marks, thanks so much. louis, quickly, i have to unplug my router and then plug it back in? okay. okay. coming up, axios's jim vandehei

as a look at this morning's one big thing. and north korean officials hold talks ahead of a canceled meeting that may still be on. . plus more on the backlash over the president's memorial day tweet using the day's theme to praise the state of the country under his leadership believe it or not. the criticism he's now facing in what some are calling a tone-deaf gesture. (passenger) what are you doing? (driver) i can't believe that worked. i dropped the keys. (burke) and we covered it. talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ here's the story of green mountain

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joining us from washington, d.c. with a look at axios a.m., co-founder and ceo of jim vandehei, what is axios's one big thing for this morning? >> we've got a bunch, but jonathan swan had an amazing scoop over the weekend. looking at how the staffer that had criticized john mccain that we talked about in the past, who had poked fun of the fact that he was dying in a meeting and it got leaked out, it turns out the president himself hauled his

communications team inside the oval office to talk about that leak and wanted to stop the leaking. in it, asked her, says who do you think is doing the leaking? and she blames her boss, mercedes schlapp in front of the president of the united states. this gets leaked to axios via jonathan swan. and what it captures is just the snakepit that the white house can often be. with staffers turning on staffers. because the president likes it. he wants to know who the leakers are. what's most astonishing is, is kelly sadler, the woman who made the mccain remark and who then blamed her boss for the leaking still has a job at the white house. and we say this in almost every episode, but in any other white house she wouldn't have a job this wouldn't happen. >> what's interesting about all of this is that mercedes schlapp was one who defended kelly

sadler when she talked about the leaking. >> she did and is got a lot of public flack for it kelly thinks it was mercedes schlapp who might have been the person to leak it the reason these leaks matter, people roll their eyes, leaks who cares? it speaks to the chaos internally and the distraction the staffers feel. the communications team is not that big. the white house itself. domestic policy team, not that big. when they're engaged in the inward-looking stuff. it makes it harder to do all the big things simultaneously on trade, and iran and china. >> when you think about it, the president is considered one of the biggest leakers there is in the white house. is there anything this can be done to try to stop the constant flow of information coming from the top down? >> the president has been hauling staffer after staffer in to try to put an end to the leaking.

think we hired john bolton to run the national security council. they started to clean out people they suspected were leakers. you can do that, but it's such a loose white house and the president himself is so often loose in conversations with his friends and people he's on the phone with, that information has a way of almost always working its way out and organizationally, business leaders watching the show would get it is that the tone gets set at the top and when things are loose at the top. things tend to be loose at the bottom. when people are insecure at the top, it trickles down. this is now just part of the culture of the white house. >> i want to talk about how axios is looking at the record number of women running for office in the u.s. and how it is part of a larger global liberation movement what did you guys find? >> the top of mike's newsletter coming out in a couple of minutes. that takes a look at the me, too movement. a record number of win running as democrats and winning in the primaries as democrats and you

look overseas in ireland, you see 2- 1 majority largely powered by women overturning restrictions on abortion and in silicon val by, a number of companies say they're going to reverse their hiring patterns and make sure that 50% of employees are women. and i do think that these things aren't happening in isolation. that there is a sort of global movement, that really is empowering women in all of these different sectors and they're playing off of each other. >> jim vandehei, we see you in a little bit on "morning joe" and we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a little bit. you, too, can sign up for the newsletter at axios.com. that does it for us on this tuesday, i'm yasmin vossoughian, along side ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf, "morning joe" starts right now. good morning, it's tuesday, may 29th. welcome to "morning joe." with us we have national affairs

analyst for nbc news and msnbc, sand executive producer and co-host of show-time's "the circus" jon heilemann. president of the council on foreign relations and author of the book "a world in disarray" richard haass. nbc news national political reporter, heidi przybilla and co-founder and ceo of axios jim vandehei with us as well. lot to get to, hard to choose where to begin. there's a "new york times" lead story, a great story on trump embraces shadowy plots and eroding trustsz. this is something as the article points out, something that the guy did, obviously wasn't bound to the truth while he was working day in and day out. and there weren't great consequences, but jon, you look at the story and you look at his presidency and it really is he's brought conspiracy