♪ god bless america ♪ land that i love ♪ stand beside her ♪ and guide her ♪ through the night with the light from above ♪ >> what you're seeing is -- i think the athletes are showing patriotism through their community service. you know, the president is turning all this stuff into a political game and and a ratings game and, it's a blatant display of nationalism. i'm blown away by the irony of the eagles being disinvited. we have these military sing-alongs at the white house to show how patriotic we are, even though we don't know the words. it's just incredible. >> by we, he means president trump. just did not know the words. you saw it there welcome to morning joe. we start this way. on thursday, june 7th, with us

on the set we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc, jon heilemann ♪ stand beside her ♪ and guide her >> they could give him a prompter. politics analyst for the "daily beast." and the former aide to george w. bush white house and state department, elise jordan is with us. new poll numbers from nbc news melania trump makes an appearance after a long absence. and the president has some interesting tweets about that. >> interesting would be -- >> he was horrified that the thought that people were wondering. >> joe scarbrough had an interesting repast. >> i liked it. >> it was brassy. >> jon heilemann, it was shocking. donald trump is correct. i mean -- john, who in the world would be so cruel, so hateful, who would be so despicable, who would be so utterly lacking in

character, to suggest, to -- to make something up about someone having a facelift for the sole purposes of trying to damage or humiliate them. i know that i mean it's nice to finally be able to agree with the president, this guy that i've known for over ten, 11, 12 years, he's in the white house, i finally, he says something i agree with yes, you would have to be utterly despicable, a classless man, to say that about a woman. >> total scumbag. >> you have to be grotesque. >> repulsive, disgraceful, ridiculous, asinine person in the world. >> just a petty, low form of human life. >> but here's the thing. joe, i just like to ask you this question -- beyond, i mean it's the obvious hypocrisy of it,

given the history to which we're all alluding in an optically veiled way. it's amazing because i don't know that anybody in any respectable publication or anyone of note on twitter actually suggested that. >> they didn't. >> about melania trump. so this is not just -- >> it's not just hypocritical. but it also falls into the ever-growing category that i'll refer to henceforth as animals of trumpian rejection. >> what would be wrong with that? what's wrong with that? >> willie, it is, it is -- i don't understand why would donald trump, why would the first thing donald trump think of, the first bell he would ring, be that anybody in his family would be missing because of plastic surgery? nobody suggested that.

nobody, as jon heilemann said, i never read it. i didn't even know that anybody thought that until donald trump suggested that hateful despicable human beings were being, being unfair to the first lady by suggesting that, that she had plastic surgery. because certainly i read, i never read anybody suggesting that that's why she was absent. >> i should recuse myself, because i've had extensive work done from top to bottom. i go in every summer and have a full makeover done. >> i saw willie in the hall the other day, he was bleeding. >> badly. >> badly. >> there was bizarre focus on the whereabouts of melania trump. but i didn't see any mainstream outlet suggesting she was missing because of plastic surgery. you might have seen a twitter user or somebody at a dinner party suggesting that. but for trump to repeat the conspiracies in his tweet was a bizarre way to correct it. >> it was all very delicious and

it also points to what he reads. he must read a lot of gutter stuff in twitter. also ahead, we do have a lot to get to. far more important than this. but that was rich. trump blaming the wrong country for burning down the white house. during the war of 1812. vice president -- >> he doesn't know the words to "god bless america" but he does know his history. >> but wait, there's more. >> again about the "god bless america" thing, we're not even talking about, when you get to the heart of "god bless america." like willie, he starts stumbling on "land that i love." it's like he's -- at belmont this weekend it's not that he fails in the stretch, the gate opens and the horse just lies down. "god bless america" he's stumbling in "land that i love."

as far as the candidate thing goes, donald trump is a "south park" character come to life. the famous "south park" song "blame canada." he's, and there are actually some conservatives saying well you know that canada was actually a part of the british empire at the time and they bragged about burning down -- the british, the british burned down. but that shows you just how stupid some of trumpists defenders are. that they're actually striking out for anybody bringing up the fact that great britain, yes, great britain burned down the white house. and you can't defend donald trump. one guy quoted a smithsonian article that had in the body of it, that great britain burned down the white house. >> well canada wasn't a nation until 50 years later. i think it's important to point out, it was a british colony as you rightly say. the thing about the words, not

to get mired in his not knowing the words to "god bless america." but the fact that he arranged that event, expressly for the purpose of celebrating that song and patriotism. and using the united states army band and everything else. to make a point about patriotism, and he didn't know the words. >> we will sing songs of patriotism. and didn't know the words. >> it's painful. >> for all of those -- for those saying donald trump was right, canada burned down the white house. that's like saying yes, new mexico scaled the cliffs of n m normandy. they were a part of it. you talk about donald trump not reading, though. >> i'm serious. >> we're going to get to what rudy giuliani said and the ignorance of the things that rudy giuliani has said. and that just, the otherworpdlyness of the things

that rudy giuliani has said. we have a president of the united states that is not only insulted our closest ally, canada, but also gets on the phone and doesn't even know u.s. history about canada, saying well didn't you guys burn down the white house? >> joe, it's something that's so disturbing about the canada reference is now he's been living in the white house for a couple of years. and one of the most famous stories that you always hear is the picture that dolly madison saved of george washington during the war of 1812, you would think that by osmosis and living in the white house he would pick up a lot of this basic information. but he's not even picking up the history and it makes you wonder what he's not picking up about the wars that were involved in around the world. >> he's not interested. >> every kid that's gone to the white house is basically heard it. i mean yes, britain burned down

the white house, but dolly madison cut out the picture of washington, rolled it up and passed it out. that was like our big win. it was a bad night for us, we were like the cavs against golden state in that war. the only, the only heroic story we had was dolly madison was able to cut out the picture and put it through the window and boy, we sure did show the brits. of course, they burned the white house down to the ground. but we got the picture out of it. you're exactly right ifforry schoolchild that ever walks through the white house, how is donald trump so oblivious? >> think about all the sink f t synchofants who suck up to trump. the guy doesn't know history, he can't get the words to the song. our next story that we're

teasing, just teasing. >> our lead is about rudy giuliani. but we're teasing vice president mike pence who cannot help himself. he loves what donald trump does with water bottles. so when donald trump puts his water bottle on the floor. he will do that. too. oh, my god. this is where we're at, y'all. also ahead, epa chief scott pruitt, joe, loves chick-fil-a, i call it chick-a-fill, i love it. he loves it. >> i would like a franchise, too. >> i don't know why i call it that. anyway, that's a tease it took ten minutes to get to the

stories we're going to get to. but first get to our lead, it just is mind-boggling. >> mika, while this is going so well and everybody is talking, let me jump in to say i guarantee you today mike pennsylvania will come out today and he will, he will also say that it was canada and not great britain that burned down the white house and he will find articles like some trumpists last night -- of course articles saying yes, the canadians always said it was in retribution for the burning of toronto. well actually, no. even in those same articles, it's great britain burned down the white house. but expect a history lesson from mike pence today. >> if they could just get him the words to the song. but we begin this morning with the president's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani. it's a train wreck on fire. saying a lot while overseas in israel. we're less than a week away from president trump's historic

summit with north korea's kim jong un and yesterday we got new comments about the summit from rudy. >> well somehow north korea after he canceled the summit, because they insulted the vice president, they insulted the, his national security adviser. and also said they were going to go to nuclear war against us. they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. we said well we're not going to have a summit under those circumstances. well kim jong un got back on his hands and knees and begged us for it. which is exactly the position you want him in. >> jon heilemann, this is a man who wanted to be secretary of state. here we have the real secretary of state and the director of the c.i.a. and the secretary of defense and everybody sitting

around their tables trying to figure out how they develop a framework to begin talks to denuclearize the most dangerous country on the planet. and you have rudy giuliani insuting their leader, very touchy leader, by the way, who probably put rudy threw a paper shredder if rudy were in north korea right now. by shooting his mouth off like that, it's not a train wreck that guy is a runaway beer truck. and you know, getting in the way of us trying to stop war on the korean peninsula. >> he, he does seem in addition to the role that he's taken on as the president's tv lawyer, he does seem, it's not the first time in which he's strayed from that. area. and where he's obviously full bluster and says all kinds of controversial things, he's strayed into the realm of

foreign policy. this one given the short timeframe we have, the short window to try to get this north korean summit into a place where it's either successful or at doesn't do any damage. to have him as a loose cannon abroad, outside his own country, off the reservation, making these kinds of comments, there's too many metaphors, it's obviously not helpful. >> elise, let's take a step back from this and ask a larger question. why is rudy giuliani talking about the north korean summit? he's the president's personal attorney. if he wants to talk about stormy daniels, he has the right to do that. why is he commenting on this at all? if you're mike pompeo, what are you saysing to president trump today about this historic summit? >> during his brief tenure as the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani has felt very empowered to weigh in on all rounds of national affairs. remember the, he had said that the kidnapped americans were

going to be released. prematurely. he has made various proclamations about the iran nuclear agreement and about regime change in iran. and so if you're mike pompeo, you don't like this at all, but this is an administration that has no control over the message at all so of course it's going to continue to be par for the course to have rudy giuliani freelancing and saying whatever he wants. >> i think what you're trying to say is that rudy giuliani is not actually a lawyer. he's not the president's lawyer, he's the president's bull dog and he's the president's spokesperson and he weighs in on all of these extra topics that have nothing to do with the russia investigation. we reported that he got trump to endorse dan donovan out on staten island. that's not really the legal purview of a lawyer. people who are ostensibly engaged in diplomacy, like trying to not blow up a nuclear summit before it happens, in another case our ambassador to germany, do incredibly

undiplomatic things. they think that it's fine. they think there's no cost to what they say. but the costs here could be potentially pretty vast. >> i also found this staggering, we have other things to cover on rudy. but you mentioned stormy. so rudy giuliani also criticized stormy daniels. that's the porn star who claims she had an affair with president trump. he said first lady melania trump believes her husband. >> she believes in her husband, she knows it's not true. i don't even think there's a slight suspicion that it's true when you excuse me, when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump and -- beautiful women, classy women. women of great substance. stormy daniels? i respect all human beings, i even respect criminals, i don't respect a porn star the way i

respect a woman of substance. a woman what has respect herself as a woman and a person and isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation. stormy, you want to bring your case, let me cross-examine you. >> let's do that. let's do that. you misogynistic fool. are you kidding me? just look at stormy daniels? just look at yourself. are you kidding me? at this, in this moment where we are in history with women, you are going to tell us to just look at her? are you out of your mind? you know what, that's your only excuse. and i feel really sorry for you. that is the most -- he was incredibly degrading. on top of the fact that you are hurting the president's case on so many levels, so good on you, keep going, rudy. i'm sick about what i just saw. >> this is how trump talks about

women, also. during the campaign when he was accused of various allegations, he, trump would come back and say at rallies, she's not attractive enough. >> he laughs derisively. let me tell you something. stormy daniels could indeed bring down this president, so i hope you all just look at her. just look at stormy daniels. and just look at everything she has to say and just look at all the evidence she just might have. good job, rudy giuliani you've just emboldened stormy daniels and potentially any other woman who may have evidence against this president. i'm going to bank on the fact, that's the man who just made those comments, that's rudy giuliani in israel, waving his napkin at a bunch of women dancing around him. so i'm going to just look at that and tell you to wait. you just wait for the women who are pissed off at this president for the way they treated them, who may be didn't want to speak

out about the way he treated them or what about what happened between them or about perhaps the things that happened between them. while he was married to melania trump. you just wait. because right now, after you said that, rudy giuliani, i bet they might want to step forward. i bet they might want to think, you know what, just look at me. good luck with your case. >> mika, that's what happened when donald trump, and donald trump attacked the looks of his accusers, and more accusers came out. i agree with you, i think this is what rudy is encouraging. >> she's a mother and she's a woman with a voice. and she's going to use it. i hope she does. i'm waiting. >> joe. >> jon heilemann, you know michael avenatti well. it's interesting that donald trump has attacked absolutely everybody, it seems. and in the public.

that we know, every major figure, every republican, democrat it seems. that comes across his path. except stormy daniels. and michael avenatti, it seems to mow that there's not any question, that there's never been a denial that donald trump had a relationship with stormy daniels. and here you have rudy giuliani making that case, which donald trump obviously is concerned about. so much more difficult, passing himself off as you know, donald trump's lawyer, there's, there's another defamation lawsuit against donald trump. from a guy, from everything i can tell, seems to be one or two guitars short of molly hatchet. he's not all there. >> whoa. >> "just look at her." >> you don't need to do much to embolden michael avenatti and stormy daniels, they're pretty heavily emboldened already.

but this will fuel their, their aggression. in the legal realm. and as we've all noted, whatever you think about the merits of the stormy daniels case or what you think about michael avenatti's tactics, they've been effective and certainly seem to have unnerved the president, have silenced the president, been effective in almost every respect and you've got, an interesting parallel in one respect to the previous thing we were talking about with rudy, where he's interjecting himself in the realm of foreign policy to the dismay i'm sure of mike pompeo. at the same time the president has a very serious lawyer named charles harder, who works out in los angeles, who is handling the stormy daniels case. and that lawyer i'm sure feels a little bit like mike pompeo right now. which is to say -- rudy, you're not making my job any easier. my job is to deal with this matter and handle this in a serious way for the president. because of the stakes of it. and rudy giuliani is not just making, not just enraging women

across the country. but also making the job of president trump's actual lawyer on this actual case with respect to stormy daniels that much harder. >> so sam, i guess this raises the question, too, if it's so preposterous that donald trump would have slept with stormy daniels, why did his personal attorney pay her $130,000? >> it seems they had a relationship, of course. but for me, rudy is thrice married. trump is three times married. i think these guys should find a stronger ethical ground to stand on. the idea, i don't want to be so crass, "just look at her"? she is probably one of the most successful porn stars in recent history. a lot people have just looked at her. you can question her career choices, but i think she's made

a successful career for herself and she made her own choices and good for her. there's no ethical strong ground for rudy to stand on to make this case, he's not someone who has lived a virtuous life by the definitions he's applying to her. >> i will leave it there. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> mika, hold on, hold on. i'm shocked, i'm shocked. willie, do i get nothing for a molly hatchet reference? come on, you bring up -- you bring up a gator van like molly hatchet. you want at least one person to say "go gators" on set. >> i think to review the tape. to go through rewind, what could i have done better here, you'll hear that i gave awe little nod for it. where jon just left you hanging to dry. >> i was focused on substance. >> as one does, one does.

>> as paul mccarpetny would sing, that was your first mistak >> it looks like it's over, basketball. the cavs are done. >> the warriors won last night, it was close 'til the end. lebron put up another triple-double, kevin durant was too good, 43 points they're just a much better team, actually. kevin love has actually played pretty well so lebron has had one piece of help, but it's never going to be enough against the warrior who is now, if they don't do it in the next game, they'll do it at home in the game after that won three out of the last four championships. we tip our cap to lebron james who is proving that he's one of the two best players of all time. think after these playoffs. it's not enough. he doesn't have enough around him and hats off to the warriors. >> do you agree with the assessment that of all the great

things lebron james has done, perhaps the greatest achievement may be -- in terms of proving what an extraordinary player he is, even winning the eastern finals with basically a team that was -- was obliterated halfway through the season, they traded everybody, and yet lebron took them to the east, finals and won it. >> and that game seven against boston remember, he depart even have kevin love. he was almost literally playing alone against the boston celtics. and he's just so great he does so many things so well. and as i've said before, we're lucky to be sports fans in the age leave bron. by the way, the next game could be his last game in cleveland. so i think cleveland fans should hang on to dear life and enjoy that last game. >> where is he going? >> philly. >> philly, maybe they're saying if he wants to live in philly. i mean that because l.a. is one of the other choices. >> what does that mean?

>> because l.a. is another option, he may want to live out in l.a. >> let me -- can i, can i just say, willie -- it's not because mike checks every two weeks come from philly. all my bosses ultimately live in philly. i just absolutely love the city of brotherly love. and i can't believe that you, you suggested that somebody would not want to live there. >> it's a great town. what i meant by that is lebron, if he's looking to elevate, he's moved toward entertainment, he produces tv shows, he's in movies, he's looking toward the next chapter of his life and career, he may want to live in los angeles. >> he should come to the knicks, bring basketball back to the garden. >> i'm going to jump in here. i'm still stuck on stormy. my blood pressure went up. let me tell you something, sorry

to like rule, let me before we go to break i will just tell you -- think about, what did you mean, what did the president's attorney mean, when he said just look at her? and laughed derisively. let me finish. if women are finally going to break through from being judged solely on their looks, we need to step up today. every woman who is upset about this needs to step up and speak out. every woman who has an issue with this president in any way needs to step up and face it. and say it. every woman who has something to say about this needs to step up, for stormy. i swear to god. because saying "just look at her" and laughing derisively. says everything you need to know about this presidency and their attitude toward women. everything you need to know. it was about as disgusting as it gets. it was the worst thing that you could say actually, given the age of me, too. given the age of trying to get

to equity. given the moment in history that we're in, where we're trying to have women rise to the top and he says, just look at her, and laughs derisively and thinks that's okay to say as he tries to defend the president of the united states who is being accused of having an affair with her and paid her $130,000 for something. says he did. knows he did. the money went through. and the attorney's response is "just look at her." and he laughs derisively. this is women being judged by their looks and nothing else and that's where we are today? we need to step up. no one else is going to do it. we'll be right back. >> she believes in her husband, she knows it's not true. i don't even think there's a slight suspicion that it's true. when you -- excuse me, when you look at stormy daniels. i know -- donald trump and. >> beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance.

stormy daniels? i respect all human beings. i even have to respect criminals, but i'm sorry, i don't respect a porn star the way i respect a career woman, or a woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself and as a woman and as a person. and isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation. so stormy, you want to bring your case, let me cross-examine you. ♪ (woman) one year ago today mom started searching for her words.

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you know, mika, we have a lot to talk about today. we're going to be getting a lot of stories, about to do some polls. a couple of stories that caught my eye yesterday. and this morning. one had to do with more, more illnesses, brain damage, minor brain damage being suffered by, by u.s. diplomats in china and cuba. of course we all know about the

22, 23, 24 in cuba who suffered. but now it's spread to china and is really frightening. something we'll talk about later that we can dig into. and obviously attacks, are they attacks from china? are they attacks from cuba and china? are they attacks from russia? "the new york times" says some u.s. officials are wondering. and then other story, paul ryan yesterday, we have been asking where paul ryan is. yesterday paul ryan came out and things very important that he said. he said no man is above the law. and donald trump can't pardon himself. and actually, went after some of those conspiracy theories. i'm a big believer in giving credit where credit is due and i'm, i for one am grateful and thankful that the speaker of the house chose yesterday to

actually defend the federal bureau of investigations. it's time and i'm glad he did it. >> we're going to play that sound for you in a minute. but first, new polling says president trump is hurting republicans' chances this fall. the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll finds democrats with a ten-point lead over republicans with 50% of the voters saying they prefer democrats to take control of congress. and 40% wanting republicans to keep it. overall, those choosing the democrats are more enthusiastic about voting in november. 63% of them registering either a the or a 10 on a 10-point scale of interest. while just 47% of republicans said the same. the reason points to the president. 53% say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports the president on most issues. 48% of voters say they are more likely to support a candidate who will provide a check on trump, while only 23% said they

are less likely. at the same time, trump's approval rating has climbed to 44%, and 6 in 10 say they are happy with the economy. >> and there's some numbers, mika, on a russia probe as well. 37% of voters say based on what they've seen, read or heard, president trump's 2016 campaign did collude or work secretly with russia. 34% disagree with that idea. and 28% say, they didn't know enough to say. that's basically the same, since december. meanwhile 53% of voters say they either had some or a great deal of confidence that robert mule certificate conducting a fair investigation. 40% have little to no confidence. asked whether mueller's investigation should continue, 46% believe it should. while 36% believe the mueller investigation, joe, should be ended. >> yeah, a lot of things to go through right here. jon heilemann, first of all, just looking at these numbers,

plurality believe that there was actually collusion. so the president can keep tweeting "no collusion, no collusion." the plurality continue to believe by about ten points that he did collude with russia and that number remains consistent. a plurality actually want the mueller investigation to go on. by a pretty comfortable margin and a majority have confidence that robert mule certificate running a fair investigation. they have confidence in it. it's interesting, the president's numbers are going up. he's at 44%. but of course, the number that matters, that most people are looking at right now has to do with what's happening in congress and that's a generic ballot. which isn't really as important as intensity in these mid terms. and democrats have picked up three more points. they're up by ten points on the generic ballot. but again, jon, you look at the

intensity of the voters on each side. the democrats now are sitting where the republicans did at this stage in 2010 before the tea party explosion. there are two -- look at all of these numbers in the polls. it seems to me like they're two big stories here. one is that if you combine the polling you're just referring to, joe, with what we saw on tuesday in the primaries in various states around the country, is that democrats are playing a very strong hand heading into the mid terms. whether there is a blue wave coming. how big that wave is, we don't know. but right now there's every indication that the democrats are poised certainly to take back control of the house. and potentially take back control of the senate. all the data points in that direction. the second thing, though, on the donald trump side of the ledger, is that the president's approval ratings is up. if you look as you point out on everything related to the russia investigation, it is the case, you're pointing to pluralities on all those points. if you look at the numbers over

the course of the last six months or so, the support for the mueller probe is, is just a little down. the trend lines are in the president's direction right now. and as much as, as he's, he's not winning the argument exactly. but it's the case that the unrelenting drumbeat of attempts to try to discredit bob mueller, discredit the justice department, discredit the fbi, they are taking a toll. so you wonder why rudy giuliani is doing the things he's doing. he feels emboldened. because like him or not, absurd as he is, ridiculous, unhinged, dishonest as he is, all of this, this pounding that he's done, the president can point to small movements in the numbers that are headed in his direction on that front. and that's a cause for concern for those of us who want to stay with bob mueller. >> sam, we have two different forces at work. as we saw in the numbers. democratic energy, interest, enthusiasm up. but you also have the president's approval rating, which had been mired in the 30s,

now up in the mid 40s. how do those two things play against each other in the fall? >> well, first of all, i think that the approval rating is benefitting from republicans coming back home. people who are nervous about what the president is doing. not exactly fans of his twitter feed. maybe fearing that his actions in north korea are going to lead to some sort of nuclear confrontation. those fears are cooled down. that's benefitted his numbers. i would only add one thing to what jon said. which is that there's been sort of this conventional wisdom. and not wrong, i would say, that the trend lines are pointing more favorably in trump's direction and republicans' direction, but there is the context that i think is worrisome for republicans, which is this. north korea were on the brink of potentially a summit that could be successful for the. the jobs market has been humming along really nicely. the economics have been largely good. the conditions are really about as good as you can get if you're a republican right now. putting aside what the president is doing. and if that's the case, if

you're in this climate and the conditions are really good for you and you're still down 6 or 8 or 7 in the congressional generic count. if your president is minus 8 to 10 in his approval rating with all of this surrounding stuff, what happens when you have a world event that goes out of control? like a hurricane in puerto rico? what happens if the nuclear summit falls apart? i don't want it talk about this in strictly political terms. but if we're talking about the polling data. these aren't all rosy optimistic trend lines for republicans. >> we've seen where the trump administration could have a horrible response to a natural disaster, like the hurricane, look what's happening in puerto rico and it doesn't really impact him that much. it's almost as if he gets a pass when it comes to the basic competency tests that presidents are usually judged so harshly for. having worked for the bush administration during hurricane

katrina and we were rightfully slammed what seemed a slow response at the beginning and donald trump, the public just moves on. they move along with whatever his given narrative is. with the north korea summit, though, if donald trump, no matter what actually is achieved, if donald trump can message that he's done something, that's all that matters. and it could be a potentially huge win for him as long as he projects his given narrative. because if there's anything he can do, he can sell snake oil. >> joe? >> well you know, mika, with republicans losing ground in the generic ballot tests with, democrats still doing much better in terms of intensity, we're looking at more of the same. what we saw with barack obama, who won a massive landslide in 2008. but barack obama's popularity did not transfer in any way, shape or form to democrats. in 2010, won re-election in

2012. lost in 2014. could you go back and say the same thing about popular presidents like ronald reagan and bill clinton. what ronald reagan had was not transferable to republicans any more than what barack obama had was not transferable to democrats. and i think that's what we're seeing this morning, with the poll numbers that are coming out. donald trump can get away with things that mini me's trying to beat donald trump in their home district are not going to be able to get away with. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump gives a glowing endorsement to the single-most conflicted member of his cabinet. we'll show you his kind words about scott pruitt. plus the president has suggested the death penalty for drug pushers, yesterday he commuted the prison sentence of a woman convicted on cocaine charges. we'll look at that or who was

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still ahead, donald trump has been on the cover of "time" magazine several times.

this issue, and just look at him. might be his favorite. the latest cover story coming up on "morning joe."

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>> administrator scott pruitt, thank you, scott, very much. epa is doing really, really well. somebody has to say that about you a little bit. you know that, scott. but you have done -- i tell you, the epa is doing so well, so many approvals and disapprovals. if they don't qualify, they don't qualify but we don't have to wait 15 years to tell somebody they don't qualify and people are really impressed with the job that's being done at the epa. thank you very much scott. >> that is the president of the united states praising scott pruitt at yesterday's fema briefing as a growing number of republicans have decided they've had enough of pruitt's problems. according to politico, several republican lawmakers say their patience with the epa chief is running thin. politico reports many lawmakers are publicly questioning whether

pruitt can hang on to his job amid the unending stream of scandals. meanwhile, pruitt is speaking out on the latest scandal to engulf his tenure at the agency and whether he used his office to try to help his wife get a business opportunity, as he calls it, with chick-fil-a. >> with great change comes i think opposition. there's significant change that's happening across not only the epa but across this administration and it's needed. and my wife is a entrepreneur herself. i love, she loves, we love chick-fil-a as a franchise of faith and it's one of the best in the country so that's something we were very excited about. and we need more of them in tulsa and across the country. it's an exciting time. >> with great change comes opposition. now two of his most trusted aides reportedly have resigned. according to several reports, pruitt's senior counsel sara greenwalt and pruitt's director

for scheduling and advance are exiting, marking the latest in a growing list of appointees who left the epa. both greenwalt and hupp worked with pruitt since he was the attorney general in atlanta. hupp, who has been tied to many of the scandals dogging pruitt, was tired of being thrown under the bus by pruitt. the magazine says she also was weary of seeing her name appear in headlines about the agency. the "atlantic" says when it reached out to the epa spokesperson he would not comment other than saying "you have a great day, you're a piece of trash." that's how i refer to sam. most of my conversations with sam go that way. >> to listen to scott pruitt talking about the white house -- using the white house so much they asked him to stop coming, the way he views it is that he's

under siege and the victim in all this. >> very trumpian. i can't imagine another cabinet official i've covered who's had 12 investigations going on and all for self-inflicted wounds. staying with a lobbyist? trying to use your pat attorney get your wife a job. >> a used mattress. >> that's just weird. >> if you look at the e-mail trail, he's clearly broken the law. what he was doing on behalf of his wife with chick-fil-a is a clear violation of federal law. he should be indicted not -- it's not a gray area. >> any one of these would have gotten a cabinet official run out of town. i don't understand why trump sticks with this guy. he's hurting trump's image.

>> there are so many ethical scandals here. he had a sweetheart deal on lodging with lobbyists, he lied about it, then he lied about them having business before the epa. he got caught in lies. he had some bizarre situation where people had to come and kick down the door to his apartment in the middle of the day. he has that maxwell smart phone booth that costs like $43,000. as willie said, he demands excessive security details. wanted the sirens to be blaring while he was going through washington, d.c. he was told that wasn't protocol. he fired the guy who said that. he wanted the trump mattresses at a discount. this chick-fil-a -- i mean, thousands of dollars in silver pens. how could republicans ever run against a swamp as long as this guy is still working -- this guy is the worst example of swamp-like behavior since lbj

left washington, d.c. on january 21, 1969. >> how is it not crony capitalism when you are using your position as the head of the epa to try to broker a chick-fil-a franchise for your family? all of those other ethical transgressions and misuse of government funds were appalling and upsetting but this one just really takes the cake because it is just not even trying to mooch off the government and steal government funds for bedazzled pins, it's trying to get your own chick-fil-a franchise which i'm jealous about because i love chick-fil-a. >> amen. >> we love chick-fil-a. >> still ahead, we spent a lot of our first block discussing rudy giuliani's derisive, misogynistic comments about stormy daniels and it sparked a ton of conversation on twitter. we're putting our extended discussion up on the web. also, you can find out more

about this. you can watch this again, but we're going to do a debrief on this at knowyourvalue.com, my web site. we've also got four leading u.s. senators joining us today, richard blumenthal, cory gardner, elizabeth warren, and claire mccaskell. "morning joe" is coming right back. without all the bad stuff. yes! you can still stream your favorite shows. yes! with no annual contract. wait, what? it's live tv. yes! with no satellites. what? and no bulky hardware. no bulky hardware! isn't that great news? yes! nooooo! nooooooooooo! try directv now for $10 a month for 3 months. more for your thing. that's our thing. visit directvnow.com ♪ ♪ i love you baby applebee's 2 for $20, now with steak. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

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>> we'll explain why in just a moment. welcome back to "morning joe." it's thursday, june 7. still with us, we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc, john heilemann. >> -- former aide to the george w. bush white house, elise jordan. and joining the conversation, professor at tulane university, a great institution, walter isaacson. you want to explain the war of 1812? >> you know, we had meacham down -- >> he's so boring. he's so boring. >> he was doing the war of 1812 and carville was in the audience and carville stood up and corrected him about the battle of new orleans. >> corrected -- >> it was a debate that would have been perfect for this show. the question of counter history, what would have happened if they had won. >> we have counter history going on in realtime. >> i'm shocked james got himself into that conversation. >> i'm not. so president trump reportedly thinks that canada burned down the white house according to a report from cnn and confirmed by canada's cbc

news during a heated phone conversation with canadian prime minister justin trudeau regarding tariffs. trump asked "didn't you guys burn down the white house?" good lord. that was in response to trudeau questioning trump's use of national security as justification for massive steel and aluminum tariffs. trump was apparently referring to the war of 1812 which was fought against the british, the british burned down the white house, the original white house in 1814, the british. as to if trump's comment could have been a joke, cnn reports one source on the call said, quote, to the degree one can ever take what is said as a joke. which is true, joe. i remember when a bunch of talented speech writer, comedy writers, presented to him through top white house aides jokes for the alfalfa dinner and

they were really great self-deprecating jokes that would have just -- >> very funny. >> would have warmed him up to a very cold washington and he didn't crack a smile and the words he said after they read him all the jokes, which were hilarious because they were read to us and we were rolling were "i don't get it." he didn't get it. >> he said i don't get. >> it i don't think he was joking. >> you know what's fascinating, though, walter, we've been talking about the tariffs, donald trump attacking canada. this, of course, comes a day or two after we celebrated the anniversary of d-day where our canadien brethren ran with our troops up on omaha beach along with our other allies, scaled the cliffs of normandy. the story told so remarkably in your world war ii museum in new

orleans, so remarkably. but here you have a country that's been our closest not only geographic but often political ally, you have donald trump not only declaring they're a threat to our national security but then calling and insulting the canadian prime minister because canada burned down the white house in the war of 1812. that's -- again, i said it earlier. that's like somebody blaming new mexico for the normandy invasion, canada was a part of great britain but that was -- it was british troops that did it. >> i think not having an understanding of history can be a detriment but this is having a belief in fake history which is worse. i came back yesterday from a couple weeks in italy and spain where they're trying to grapple with this and you see a lot of the populist sentiment growing

up in europe but it's getting twisted around because if we don't have trade agreements with the europeans and canada then we don't have an alliance. these are our allies, it's been that way for quite a long time. >> so the state department on tuesday cited the d-day invasion as an example of america's great relationship with germany. >> this is one of my favorite things. >> dear god. >> this is fantastic. >> we have a very strong relationship with if government of germany. looking back in the history books, today is the 71st anniversary of the speech that announced the marshall plan. tomorrow is the anniversary of the d-day invasion. we obviously have a very long history with the government of germany and we have a strong relationship with the governmen government. >> willie -- >> yeah? >> see, here's the thing. it was the germans that were up on the cliffs -- >> so i've read, yes.

>> and they were shooting down at our guys that were trying to get up the cliffs and liberate europe from hitler's germany. the ignorance is spectacular. because you know from 1946/'47 through 1989, yes, the germans were -- west germans were remarkable allies but it is, again, a complete ignorance of history that suggests -- i'm glad you brought up the marshall plan but suggests people don't understand how normandy led to a post-war world where the united states and its allies freed the world not only from naziism but from soviet communism but they don't realize that because they apparently don't understand

history. >> i think donald trump doesn't understand history. i think heather nauert is an example of defending whatever happens that the president says, defending it at all costs, things like that come out when you know better than saying that and you're right, joe, canada as a national security threat, i'll quote chrystia freeland, seriously? canada is a national security threat to the united states of america? . you talk about d-day and the beaches juno beach, they were side by side us with germany and modern day iraq and affidavits. we shouldn't even have to say that outloud on television but these are the kind of things that come out of the administration because they find themselves chasing around and having to defend and contextualize what the president says. >> it ties right in. it ties into something you have been saying for a long time. if you want to take a lesson

from that period, it's that collaborationist and quiz lings who sit there and cower and have no moral backbone and won't stand up to somebody they know is lying and is corrupt and doing things wrong. that's what history judges. it judges germany and it judges even france by those who became quizlings, collaborationists and traders and those who stood up for moral authority. this is something that trump who likes to celebrate the military but has never been involved in any way doesn't understand what we fought for throughout the entire 20th century. >> well, we've been -- joe? >> and again because he doesn't understand, john heilemann, american history, if he did understand american history, you can go back to the beginning of this administration. he wouldn't have attacked australia the way he did the first six months to a year of his administration. the australians have been -- they have been with us in every single battle we have fought.

every single war we have fought over the past century, no one has been closer military allies than the australians. again, as i said, the germans, the west germans from 1945 through 1989 and even beyond that have been extraordinary allies. the french helped. they helped create the united states of america with their support. it goes without saying this special relationship and yet donald trump has trampled on every one of these relationships. i've got to only believe out of pure historical ignorance because no one that understood the sacrifices these countries made and stood by america when we made terrible mistakes, nobody would criticize these steadfast allies the way donald trump does. >> look. i find it just -- there's moments where there are a lot of things about this administration where we here in the realm of

the mind-boggling but the fact that we're having conversations like this, doing not even a.p. high school history lessons where we have to remind people like australia is one of our greatest allies, the canadians are not a national security threat. it speaks to the ridiculousness of having a president -- we've had presidents with varying the grise of intellectual prowess and historical understanding. having a president who doesn't know anything about american history, world history, diplomatic history, about any basic stuff that well educated american high school seniors understands is just -- you go okay, this is where we are now and i will point out one last thing to willie's point about why we're having this discussion, the state department having to make these comments about germany. it goes to the fact that we have an ambassador in germany who is

getting in trouble to the point where he's been there for less than a month and has already committed enough faux pas, there's suggestion of a degree of meddling in internal german domestic politics that there's a discussion about germany sending him back to the united states and saying this person is doing something no diplomat is supposed to do, intervene in our domestic politics so that is another reason why the state department spokeswoman is put in a position of having to say things that are -- it's like you've got one problem that creates another set of problems because we have the fact that we have people doing things that we've not seen ever before in our period of time in this business. >> i don't know her but i know she worked at fox, just interesting to point out. we've been showing many of the comments by rudy giuliani in israel yesterday and here he is making a number of new allegations against the mueller

russia investigation. >> they are a group of 13 highly partisan democrats that make up the mueller team, excluding him, are trying very, very hard to frame him, to get him in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong. comey is the real villain of the whole thing. i think in mueller's case it's more he's not taking control of these people that work for him and they're going around starting these new investigations. he has to have the discipline to put a stop to it or we're going to have to do everything we can including some things that i don't think we want to talk about right now to try to appeal to have it stopped. if they decide to follow those up, they'll be going on for three, four years, all to no avail and after millions and millions of taxpayers' dollars which is why i think we have the demand he put up or shut up because we can answer anything

he has. >> well, willie, put up or shut up. i hate to keep repeating myself, but this partisan witch-hunt that rudy is talking about has led already in one year's time historically -- and i know history doesn't matter to people like rudy giuliani, history doesn't matter to people like donald trump, but for donald trump supporters and everyone else, let those with ears hear that in a historically short amount of time this investigation has indicted 13 russian russians have indicted three russian companies. have indicted and got guilty pleas out of the president's national security adviser, has indicted and gotten guilty plea out of one of the president's top campaign managers, has indicted and gotten a guilty plea out of the president's --

one of the president's top foreign policy advisers according to the president when he was speaking to the "washington post" editorial board. has indicted several times over the president's campaign manager. the president told me he had to get him on his team if he wanted to win the republican nom nat n nomination. five guilty pleas, a lot of cooperation from donald trump's own team. this is, again, rudy giuliani pleading alternate facts, the president pleading alternate facts because as i said yesterd yesterday, mueller is on their trail. mueller knows what they did two summers ago and mueller is not going to stop. he's going to find the truth. and if the truth sets donald trump free, great. that's great news. but they're fearful he'll get to the truth. >> and rudy giuliani lecturing bob mueller about discipline was very rich. get some discipline, bob

mueller. >> wow. >> this is what chris matthews called on this show the other day the fog machine. just spray the fog out there. there are 13 angry democrats, just corrupt and indict in your own public way what is bob mueller is taking on right now and it's not going to work. not to be too dismissive of rudy giuliani, john heilemann, but bob mueller is not watching interviews conducted from tel aviv and then saying to himself, you know, rudy giuliani thinks i should speed this up and end it by september 1, i think i'll do that. the fact is, he is disciplined and that's his best trait. maybe donald trump is completely exonerated. mueller will do his job. >> i do not think it is going to stop robert mueller's investigation, it's not going to affect robert mueller's modus operandi. i do think the sustained assault on bob mueller, on the justice department, on the fbi at a time particularly when mueller himself is voiceless, when he's not out there making public defenses of what he's doing, i

think that this -- the reason why giuliani keeps doing it because s because they feel at least among their base is that it's reinforcing and buttressing a set of claims. they're going further everyday. the language now is not just that they're running an illegitimate investigation but that they're trying to frame the president. that's what the president's lawyer is saying and as they ratchet that language up, they are obviously doing damage to important american institutions but i think they are getting ready for an all out political war that will be waged on bob mueller when he comes forward with whatever he finds and i think it's having an effect on setting the stage for that political battle and hardening the opposition to mueller and the support for the president among a not insubstantial number of americans. maybe not a majority but a big minority of americans and that's a dangerous and troubling thing. let's bring in "time" magazine's washington bureau chief massimo calabrese, this week's new issue is "the war on

mueller." take us inside the cover story. i'm just looking at the cover, looking at him, it brings to my mind the image of the emperor with no clothes. are the clothes off yet, massimo? >> oh, no. >> not an image anyone wants to contemplate. the -- john is absolutely right. what's going on here, there are two wars going on. one is an intense war out of sight largely between trump's lawyers and mueller over whether or not trump will testify under oath. trump is famously undisciplined. he could waver from the truth if he testifies. on the other hand, if he doesn't, he could be subpoenaed. the public stuff with giuliani

claiming these increasingly broad powers is exactly to john's point. they are preparing the ground for the moment mueller issues his report on what he has found because ultimately this case is going to be tried in front of the public. trump probably will not be charged because of the constitutional issues surrounding indicting a sitting president but there will be, as there was under clinton, a public accounting of this and, in fact, what they're doing is running the clinton play book as clinton ran it against starr. but what's different this time is that trump in running those plays is claiming these increasingly broad presidential powers. >> massimo, it's walter, good to see you again. i was reading your cover and it

seems to me that historically the way these things can break is when people stand up and show some moral compass. history remembers margaret chase smith who did it back in the times of joe mccarthy. remember barry goldwater doing it back in the times of watergate with nixon. are we starting to see what paul ryan and some others the ability of the republicans to go back to the gerald ford sense of morality. i was just reading don rumsfeld's book on gerald ford where you have a rotaryian sense of decency and you stand up and say we have to tell the truth now? >> well, paul ryan did come out yesterday and supported congressman trey gowdy who came out and said the president's claims regarding this idea that a spy was implanted into his campaign were spurious and not

based in the truth but in general trump has been very, very successful at rallying the party to him and by and large republicans have fallen into line. his popularity with the republican party is second only to george w. bush after 9/11 looked over the last four decades. he's enormously popular in the republican party and further to john's point the numbers show that the attack on mueller is working. mueller -- the idea that the mueller investigation is a witch-hunt had been accepted by another 5% on the population over the last five months so by and large even if there are republicans who want to come out and take a stand, it's a very difficult environment for them to do it in. >> massimo calabresi, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," did trey gowdy start a trend on capitol hill? paul ryan echos the south carolina congressman in

defending the integrity of the fbi. we'll bring in a member of the judiciary committee, senator richard blumenthal, live from capitol hill. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. it took guts to start my business. but as it grew bigger and bigger, it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything. and that 2% cash back adds up to thousands of dollars each year... so i can keep growing my business in big leaps! what's in your wallet? i'm about to start the hair, skin and nails challenge. so my future self will thank me. thank you. i become a model? yes. no. start the challenge today. and try new tropical citrus flavor with collagen.

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>> mr. speaker, do you believe the president has the power to pardon himself? >> i don't know the technical answer to that question but obviously the answer is he shouldn't and no one is above the law. >> all right, house speaker paul ryan telling -- >> we need this. >> yeah, telling reporters that president trump shouldn't pardon himself despite trump's claim that he has the absolute power to do so. ryan went on to back congressman trey gowdy who last week seemed to rebuff the president's claim that the fbi used a confidential informant to spy on his presidential campaign. here's what congressman gowdy had to say last week followed by

speaker ryan yesterday. >> i am even more convinced that the fbi did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got and that it has nothing to do with donald trump. >> do you agree with trey gowdy? >> normally i don't like the comment on classified briefings. let me say it this way. i think chairman gowdy's initial assessment is accurate. i have seen no evidence to the contrary of the initial assessment that chairman gowdy has made but i want to make sure we run every lead down and make sure we get final answers to these questions. >> okay, joe? >> walter, we have around this set been very concerned republicans haven't spoken out enough. this is a critical time though in this challenge, this challenge to constitutional norms and i will be the first to say god bless paul ryan for speaking out and sending a

message as speaker to other republicans who don't believe it right now that no man is above the law and also defending trey gowdy in trey gowdy's defense of the men and women, the professionals that work in the fbi. >> you know, you grew up in a republican party in which people defended the rule of law and defended law enforcement agents and it's amazing that we're surprised that so few republicans will defend the fbi that no person is above the law, that becomes new when the speaker of the house says it. what disappoints me is that these are so much the exceptions as opposed to a whole lot of people -- especially those running for reelection. and here's where it gets dangerous, which is what john heilemann is saying. if you're running for reelection, this guy donald trump who has been corrupt, been

undermining faith in the rule of law is popular among the strong base and this is what's disappointing is that we don't have people taking courageous stands. >> guys, i want to -- can i just -- let's not give paul ryan too much credit in the sense that rudy giuliani on television last week said donald trump can pardon himself but he shouldn't do it because if he did he'd get impeached. that's what paul ryan said yesterday which is i don't know technically whether he can but he shouldn't do it because it would be a bad idea politically. it's not like he strayed that far from the reservation here to brush back the president. >> we'll take anything. >> and i think that is -- we will actual will i take anything. any sign of life, any sign that like the scenes in "idiocracy" where tae stop watering the grounds of the white house with gatorade and start using water

and they start to see little twigs sprouting from the ground, i will take any sign that i can see and paul ryan stating that no man is above the law and that donald trump shouldn't pardon himself is something that we should seize upon because right now the president of the united states believes that he is above the law. at least we know that the third most powerful constitutional law officer of the united states of america does not believe that. >> paul ryan's statement is a small baby step, a sprinkling of water on the lawn after all the gatorade, perhaps, but it's sad and says a lot about the times that just the speaker of the house stating that, no, it's not a good idea for the president to pardon himself is actually a reason for joy so i'm concerned that still republicans are being so wimpy approaching a basic question whether they believe the president is or is not above the law and they're responding

fairly t ll lly tepidly. when ted cruz was asked about the presidential pardon power, he had a very long pause and said he had not studied the issue even though the previous year he had written a law journal article on the issue as it pertained to obama's presidential powers. >> imagine if obama had been doing these things. emergency what fox news, imagine what republican leaders would do. but let me ask you quickly a question, which republican leaders would you call on right now that you have hope far are above this that should be speaking out in the next week or two? >> speaking out about what trump says? speaking out what giuliani says? politically/don't see why it's the best path for them to, when asked directly maybe but why go out of your way to dignify nonsense that rudy giuliani is spouting as if it carries weight

so i think it's a tricky calculus. >> i agree we don't need to rewrite "profiles in courage" but i'll give you a couple more examples. box corker and pat toomey have come out with legislation on the tariffs. a house bill on not lifting sanctions on zte, the telecommunications company out of china and chuck grassley and joni ernst have talked about scott pruitt saying he's as swampy as it get. >> and some have been consistent in in a way other republicans haven't been and approaeciated when one of them said we're better as a country than separating women and children. joining us now, democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. good to see you as always. we can go a million directs but let me start on the russia investigation and what we heard from rudy giuliani yesterday saying bob mueller is trying to frame the president of the united states. what do you make of that? >> we're seeing as has been

observed very pointedly only the barest signs of moral life from the republican party and someone should be standing up to rudy giuliani on that bizarre and completely unfounded statement. there have been five convictions and additional 13 indictments in this investigation and, yes, the president's legal foundation is crumbling and cracking but not because the special counsel is trying to frame him in any way, the special counsel is simply following the facts in the law and following the money and republicans ought to be pushing back against these kinds of attacks on him. >> do you think, senator, that bob mueller feels any pressure from the white house to expedite, as rudy giuliani has suggested, he's thrown out this arbitrary september 1 day to "wrap things up." we heard that from the vice president, wrap it up. do you think bob mueller hears any of that? >> he certainly hears it but

he's not going to heed it. it he's not going to reshape his investigation. he's a quintessential professional prosecutor and he has a team of really a-rated guys who have done this over many, many years and they know you cannot establish orb trumpcare deadlines for any investigation. i know in my own barely comparable work as a prosecutor, as a state attorney general as well as a federal u.s. attorney that arbitrary deadlines ill serve justice and fairness in an investigation. fairness to the potential defendants because they may be charged prematurely or unfoundedly because not all the evidence has been collected. >> well, you're absolutely right about that. i want to ask you about oral arguments starting today. you're the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit about president trump and the emoluments clause.

can you explain it to us? >> going back to this idea that no one is above the law, no president can defy the law, we're simply seeking to hold this president accountable for defying the constitution that says he cannot receive any payment benefit or gift without the consent of congress. presidents in the past have uniformly obeyed this provision of the constitution which applies to all federal officials. the president has been receiving from foreign governments payments for the trump hotel here in washington, payments for space in trump tower in new york, patented from the chinese government. the $500 million loan for an amusement park in indonesia associated with one of his major developments permits and approval from foreign governments around the world. we have a responsibility and we're the only game in town as

members of congress because we have a job to do to fulfill our responsibility to consent or disapprove these kinds of payments and benefits and that's why we're in court and only this judge in this case can tell the president of the united states he is not above the law. >> say, senator, it's john heilemann here. we've been talking around the table about the various green shoots or whatever you want to -- the metaphor is for occasional signs, flashes of independence on the part of republicans on the hill, people trying to throw up a stop sign around the things the president and his people are doing with his investigations. i'm curious as to whether you survey republicans in the senate and whether there is any sense that you have of a groundswell, however subtle, of support for some kind of actual tangible effort, measure, to protect bob mueller as we go forward here?

>> if i can take the green sprouts analogy. it's a little like watching grass grow. we're seeing it building but still nowhere near enough protest. behind the scenes, in private yes my republican colleagues are saying how can he even be talking about pardoning himself? he must no legally there's no basis. that issue was settled in 1974 under richard nixon when the department of justice told nixon you cannot pardon yourself but still as we observed at the beginning. giuliani is talking about him having that power. about framing and victimizing of the president. none of it has any basis in fact. it's alternative reality that only his base really believes but my republican colleagues

unfortunately -- here's the blunt truth -- are intimidated by that republican base and that requires some moral compass, some stretch, some backbone as was demonstrated under mccarthy when a lawyer said to him, sir, have you no sense of decency? no name is. >> senator richard blumenthal, thank you for being on the show. again, good to see you. still ahead, two more members of congress from opposite sides of the isle and they're working together on something. senators cory gardner and elizabeth warren join us next. greetings, sprint engineers. i've analyzed the data. these days all networks are great. yet some humans choose to pay so much more with verizon when they could be saving with sprint. don't forget we've got the best price for unlimited.

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all right. joining us now from capitol hill, member of the foreign relations committee, republican senator cory gard nevner of colo and member of the democratic leadership, senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts. it's great to have you both. >> great to be here. >> and you both on both sides of the aisle are teaming up on legislation. what are you getting done? >> what we're working on is a bill that will let states make their own decisions about dealing with marijuana. when state voters have stepped in, when state legislatures have set up rules we think that's the

place for the federal government to recede and let the states take the lead. >> and cory, i'll let you chime in. what are the stumbling blocks? this is one of the bigger medical issues of our time. there's a school of thought where this is incredibly useful and helpful but needs to be, what, controlled or done through a doctor? how does it work? >> well, this is one of the big eest opportunities to address and advance a federalism policy this country has seen when it comes to the medical use of marijuana. i've talked to dozens upon dozens of parent whose children are suffering from some form of epilepsy who have been able to receive treatment through medical marijuana and they've seen thousands of seizures a month drop to a dozen of seizures a month and so this is an advancement that states have decided to take into their own hands. 46 states have some form of marijuana legalization moving forward. on the medical side,

recreational side, cbd, hemp, those kinds of things. this is not a legalization bill. it's a states bill that says you can decide for yourselves what you would like to do. you can choose your own destiny. it's what our founders intended, laboratories of democracy. >> and the problem we've got right now is that the states can pass their own laws the way colorado and massachusetts have but the federal government hasn't changed its law so that means that anyone who is using marijuana legally under state law is still at risk under federal law and that creates all these crazy fallout pieces. for example, there are federal laws about not being able to put your money into banks if the money comes from illegal activities, well. so long as the sale of marijuana remains illegal at the federal level that means that marijuana stoirz that are perfectly legal in colorado or massachusetts or any of the other states have to

do an all cash business. it's dangerous and it's dumb. and this bill will fix that. if the state says it's legal, it's legal within the state. >> question for you both, senators. do you agree with the decisions in your own state that recreational marijuana should be legal? >> it's a great question. i oppose the legalization but the people of colorado spoke and i think if they spoke again they would agree with a large herb margin to legalize marijuana. this isn't going back. i spoke to president trump and he agrees this isn't going back so this is about providing states the opportunity to protect those states rights, federalism was something our founders intended. this is a great chance for us to do this. this is an intrastate solution. it fixes the conflict senator warren described with federal and state law and it allows states individually to determine for themselves what is is best. if you're a state like nebraska,

kansas, or oklahoma that doesn't want to go down this road, you don't to and nothing changes. >> senator warren? >> yeah. i think that's the right way to describe what's happening. i supported legalization of marijuana in massachusetts. we're just on the threshold of building that business. we'd already had marijuana for medical reasons. then we decriminalized. i think decriminalization was an awkward place for us to be. now we've gone for legalization for recreational purposes as well but i had a conversation a couple weeks ago with our governor in massachusetts who said if you don't fix this problem, we're already trying to work out how many brinks are going to try to move through the streets in boston and springfield and other cities around the commonwealth of massachusetts. he said come on, if the businesses are legal within the state let them get into the banking system, let's regularize this. >> and we're talking $2 billion

in colorado last year. so it's not just a little bit of pocket change. this is a lot of money out of the system in the shadows. it's trying to bring it out of the shadows into the system. >> senator gardner, this is sam stein in the daily beast. you stood up to attorney general jeff sessions on the marijuana issue basically saying you won't get anyone appointed to the department of justice unless you rescind this memo. i'm wondering if you will stand up to him on a separate issue, the issue of separating children from their parents who come here from other countries at the border. the administration says they are hampered by laws passed by democrats. i am unaware of the law they're citing and more importantly they have talked about the separation of children from others as a deterrent for immigration. do you think the administration should stop doing this? do you think they should keep families together and if so what are you willing to do about that? anything similar in the vein of what you did with respect to the attorney general's decision on

marijuana? >> i think senator warren and i are here to talk about a policy where democrats and republicans have come together for a solution on a significant challenge. what you've described is a significant challenge i hope democrats and republicans come together on. i was the only republican to support all four members that came up before the senate in february, the immigration debate we have. we have to have a solution. what you're talking about i think highlights the disaster we have right now with the conflicts in our immigration laws and why we need to have something that's bipartisan that addresses the future of immigration in this country so i look forward to working with the administration, with anybody on either side of the isle who is willing to have a solution but what you've highlighted is one more reason why we can't just sit back and let the broken system continue to collapse. >> and by the way, the legislation you are working on i'm glad you're doing this. i knew someone who was suffering deeply and marijuana was extremely helpful in a controlled situation but it's

difficult. elizabeth warren, i'd like to talk to you about something rudy giuliani said and it pertains to the issue of women and i'm going to play for you this soundbite. i'm curious what your response is and what your reaction is to the tone of it. take a listen. >> she believes in her husband, she knows it's not true. i don't think there's a slight suspicion that it's true when you're -- when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump and -- >> let's respect her. >> look at his three wives, right? beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance. stormy daniels? i respect all human beings, i even have to respect criminals. but i'm sorry, i don't respect a porn star the way i respect a career woman or a woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and as a person and isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation.

so stormy, you want to bring your case, let me cross-examine you. >> elizabeth warren, as a woman of substance, i wonder what your initial reaction was to that. it made my blood boil on so bh levels. >> this infuriates me. and this whole notion that rudy giuliani thinks that the way he is going to protect the president of the united states is try to demean and degrade a woman who has brought what appears to be a pretty credible charge against the president. and it's every aspect of what he had to say. it's the slurs he throws at stormy daniels but somehow suggests that, well, because donald trump has good looking wives that that means that he wouldn't be a serial abuser of women. every part of that is wrong. it is wrong and it's an insult to every woman in this country.

>> thank you. joe? >> senator gardner, cory, we have found ourselves thanking our political gods for small favors and i for one was i was heartened that paul ryan said no man is above the law. i was heartened that a republican was standing up for the fbi. we, cory, have been the party that has stood up for law enforcement, for the intel community until donald trump came into office. i'm wondering if you would associate yourself with those remarks that no man is above the law. the president, as the justice department said to richard nixon, just as no man can be his own judge and jury, no man can pardon himself, do you agree, no one is above the law? >> in is a country established on the rule of law. it's the rule of law that made

the country strong. no one man or woman is above the law. what i have said about this particular situation, let's get the american people the facts. let's get the information. let's complete the investigation. at the end of the day, the american people will have all the information and facts they need to make a determination of what did or didn't happen. the last thing we should be doing on this issue, we had interference in 2016 by foreign actor that was trying to undermine the united states. we need to have the information as soon as possible. we have another election coming up in a matter of months, in november. let's find out what happened. let's get the truth. let's get the facts. as the old saying goes, truth o out, get the information. >> senator, let me say quickly, senator warren, i have noticed while we have been concerned with a lot of statements republicans made out of the

house of republican zresentativ colleagues, republicans have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in support of the rule of law and most, from what i have heard, at least, have said let the investigation play itself out and let the facts fall where they may. is that -- is that what you have seen from your colleagues like chairman burr and others? >> as best i have seen it, it has been true on both sides of the aisle in the senate to say that a special counsel robert mueller should be able to complete his investigation wherever it goes, without interference from republicans or democrats, no political interference with it. let him finish his investigation and let him bring it to the american people. we know this is a serious investigation. it has already resulted in 19 indictments or guilty pleas. we want to let him complete that investigation, take that information to the american

public and then we'll assess where we stand. >> senator warren and gardner, i know you have to go. thank you both very, very much for being on this morning. we have another senator joining us this morning, senator claire mccaskill will be our guest ahead on "morning joe." you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed?m let's get someone to say it with a really low voice. carl? lowest price guaranteed. what about the world's lowest limbo stick? how low can you go?

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so, walter, it seems we have a consensus in the senate while rudy and donald trump and house members are pushing back against the rule of law, there seems to be bipartisan consensus in the senate that mueller should finish his job and let the chips fall where they may. >> i loved it when senator gardner said, as many republicans said, let the investigation be completed. we have to back that up saying we are not going to let it be stopped unofficially. history does not remember people

who are weaklings or collaborationists very well. they remember the people who kept their moral compass and stood up for it. i think, you know, we have so many issues in terms of corruption, in terms of the abuse of office from scott pruitt who is the worst swamp creature you can imagine after trump said he was going to come in and drain the swamp. we are going to have to focus on economic issues, including they are about to hit a trillion dollar deficit and we are about to have the full national debt going up to 11 trillion. these type of things, including prescription prices, everything else going up, gas prices, that is going to help shake things up later this summer. ahead on "morning joe," we have much more on rudy giuliani's comments. is he taking a page out of the president's playbook? donald trump has a history of attacking women for their looks.

giuliani seemed to do the same when asked about stormy daniels. "morning joe" will be right back. >> i don't think there's a slight suspicion it's true when you, excuse me, but when you look at stormy daniels. >> when you looked at that horrible woman last night, you said, i don't think so. >> stormy daniels? >> believe me, she would not be my first choice, that i can tell you. your plaques are always there at the worst times. constantly interrupting you with itching, burning and stinging. being this uncomfortable is unacceptable. i'm ready. tremfya® works differently for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. with tremfya®, you can get clearer and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks... stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections,

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and a ratings game. it's a blatant display of nationalism. i'm blown away by the egg althoughs being disinvited. these military sing-a-longs to show how patriotic we are, even though we don't know the words is just incredible. >> by we, he means president trump did not know the words. you saw it there. welcome to "morning joe." we start this way, on thursday, june 7th. with us on the set, we have john heilemann. they could give him a prompter. >> yeah. >> politics senator for the daily beast, when i say he doesn't read, he doesn't read. the former aide to george w. bush alease jordan is with us. we have a lot to get to. new numbers.

milania trump makes an appearance. he was horrified by the fact people were wondering. i like it. >> we all did. >> john heilemann, it was shocking. i mean, donald trump is correct, i mean, john, who in the world would be so cruel, so hateful -- >> right. >> -- would be so despicable, so utterly lacking in character to suggest -- to make something up about someone having a facelift for the sole purposes of trying to damage or humiliate them. i know, it's nice to finally be able to agree with the president, this guy i have known ten, 11, 12 years, he's in the white house. finally, he says something i agree with. yes, you would have to be

utterly despicable, a classless man to say that about a woman. >> total scum bag. grotesque. you have to be the most repulsive, disgraceful, ma tick louse, asinine person in the world. >> low life. >> here is the thing, joe. i'd like to ask this question, beyond the hypocrisy of it given the history we are all alluding in a veil way, it's amazing because i don't know that anybody, in any respectable publication or anyone of note on twitter suggested that. >> they didn't. >> -- about melania trump. it's not hypercritical, but falls into the ever growing category i will refer to as

animals of trumpian projection. >> by the way, what would be wrong with that? >> willie, it is -- it is -- i don't understand why would donald trump, why would the first thing donald trump think of, the first bell he would ring be that anybody in his family would be missing because of plastic surgery? nobody suggested that. nobody, as john heilemann said, i never read it. i didn't know anybody thought that until donald trump suggested that hateful, despicable human beings were being unfair to the first lady by suggesting that she had plastic surgery because, certainly, i read no one. i never read anybody suggesting that is why she was absent. >> i should recuse myself because i have had extensive

work done from top to bottom. i have a full makeover done. >> i saw willie in the hall, he was bleeding. >> badly. >> there was a bizarre, let's say focus on the whereabouts of melania trump, but i didn't see any outlets say she was missing because of plastic surgery. maybe a twitter user or somebody at a dinner party but for trump to tweet that was bizarre. >> it was all very delicious and points to what he reads. he must read a lot of gutter stuff in twitter. also ahead, we have a lot to get to, far more important than this, but that was rich. trump blaming the wrong country for burning down the white house during the war of 1812. >> yeah. >> the thing is, he doesn't know the words to "god bless america" but he knows history. >> there's more. >> i have to say, again, about the "god bless america" thing,

we are not talking about when you get to the heart of "god bless america." like, willie, he started stumbling on land that i love. it's like he's at belmont this weekend and it's not that he fails in the stretch, the gate opens and the horse lies down. he's stumbling in land that i love. as far as the candidate thing goes, donald trump is a south park character come to life. you know, the famous "south park" song? he's -- he's -- there are actually conservatives saying, you know, canada was actually a part of the british empire at the time and they bragged about burning down -- the british burned down -- that shows how

stupid some trumpist defenders are. they are actually striking out for anybody bringing up the fact that great britain, yes, great britain burned down the white house and you can't defend donald trump. one guy quoted a smithsonian article that had, in the body of it, great britain burned down the white house. >> canada wasn't a nation until 50 years later is important to point out. it was a british colony. the thing about the words, not to get mired in him not knowing the words to "god bless america" but the fact he arranged that event expressly for the purpose of celebrating that song and patriotism and using the united states army band and everything else to make a point about patriotism. >> we will sing songs of patriotism. we will sing them. >> it's painful, it really is. >> you know, mika, for all those trying to say canada actually, donald trump was right, canada

burned down the white house, that's like saying in new mexico scaled the cliffs of normandy. they were a part. anyway -- >> i was happy for the teams. >> you talk about donald trump not reading, though. >> yeah, i'm serious. >> we have to get to what rudy giuliani said and the ignorance of the things rudy giuliani has said and the other worldliness of the things rudy giuliani has said. but, we have a president of the united states that is actually not only insulted our closest ally, canada, but also gets on the phone and doesn't know u.s. history about canada, saying didn't you guys burn down the white house? >> joe, something that is so disturbing about the canada reference is now he's been living in the white house for a couple of years. one of the most famous stories that you always hear is the

picture that dolly madison saved of george washington during the war of 1812. just by osmosis and living in the white house, he would pick up the basic information. he's not picking up history. makes you wonder what he's not picking up about the wars around the world. >> he's not interested -- go ahead, joe. >> every kid that's gone to the white house has heard it. britain burned down the white house, but dolly madison cut out the picture of washington, rolled it up and passed it out the window. that was our win. it was a bad night for us. we were the cavs against golden state in the that war. the only heroic story we had is dolly madison was able to cut out the picture and put it through the window and, boy, we showed the brits. of course they burned, they burned the white house down to the ground. but, we got the picture out of

it. so, you are exactly right. if every school child that walks through the white house knows that, how is donald trump so oblivious? >> think about how oblivious he is and those who suck up to trump, take loyalty oaths and feel they do what he says he wants them to do, they will get ahead. it's incredible. the guy doesn't know his history. he can't even get the words to the song and our next story that we are teasing, just teasing because we need to get to the lead here. our lead is about rudy giuliani, but we are teasing vice president, mike pence, who cannot help himself. he loves what donald trump does with water bottles, so when donald trump puts his water bottle on the floor, he will do that, too. oh, my god. sam? put your water bottle on the ground, right now. this is incredible. and this is where we are at,

y'all. >> i cannot stop watching this. >> e.p.a. chief scott pruitt, joe, loves to -- i have been there, i love it. he loves it. >> i would like a franchise, too. >> i don't know why i call it that. >> i like tenders. >> anyhow, that's a tease. it took ten minutes to get through all the stories we are going to get through. first, we are going to get to the lead. it is mind boggling. >> by the way, mika -- >> yeah. >> while this is going so well and everybody is talking. i guarantee you today mike pence will come out today and he will also say that it was canada and not great britain that burned down the white house and he will find articles like some trumpists last night. of course articles saying, yes, they said it was in retribution

for the burning of prada. actually, no, in those same articles, it's great britain burned down the white house. expect a history lesson from mike pence today. >> if they could just get him the words to the song. that was the 25-second tease that our producer slated in the rundown. did we spend 11 minutes doing a tease? yes, we did. up next, the top story, rudy giuliani discussing foreign policy overseas serving at the president's personal attorney. why the comments attack the mueller investigation and the nuclear talks with north korea. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good morning to you, mika. we are watching storms in the middle of the country. how about this tornado in wyoming? so far, the tornado of the year as far as video goes. picturesque in the open farm fields. no damage, no injuries or deaths. there were a lot of storm chasers that got up close and

personal to the tornado. we are watching storms dying over nebraska, kansas and northern oklahoma. drive on i-35 south is not a fun one. later today, 1 million people at risk for severe thunderstorms in montana and sections or western south dakota and nebraska. today, we continue with the heat wave in texas from san antonio to dallas, texas. hot in st. louis, 94. the heat spreading to indianapolis. cool in the northwest and the northwest. let's talk about the weekend forecast. storms on friday. minnesota, heading down to the areas of wisconsin, chicago, milwaukee and unfortunately saturday we are going to do more stormy weather over areas like washington, d.c. and baltimore. by sunday, we shift those storms down to north and south carolina. more wet weather in d.c. new york city and the belmont for the triple crown may not be that bad on saturday. some of the storms may stay to the south. you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back.

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we are less than a week away from president trump's historic summit with north korea's kim jong-un. yesterday, we got new comments about the summit from rudy. >> somehow, north korea, after he canceled the summit because they insulted the vice president, they insulted his national security adviser and said they were going to go to nuclear war against us. they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. we said, we are not going to have a summit under those circumstances. kim jong-un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in. >> oh, my lord. no. >> you know, john heilemann, this is a man who wanted to be secretary of state, america's

diplomat. >> we talked him out of that. >> here we have the real secretary of state and the director of the cia and the secretary of defense and everybody sitting around their tables trying to figure out how they develop a framework to begin talks to denuclearize the most dangerous country on the planet and you have rudy giuliani insulting their leader, very touchy leader, by the way, who probably put rudy through a paper shredder if rudy were in north korea right now and by, you know, shooting his mouth off like that, it's not a train wreck, he is a run away beer truck and getting in the way of us trying to stop war on the korean peninsula. >> he does seem, in addition to the role that he's taken on as

the president's tv lawyer, he does seem, it's not the first time he's strayed from that area where he's obviously full bluster and says controversial things, this one given the short time frame we have, the short window to get the north korean summit in a place where it is successful or doesn't do damage to have him as a loose cannon abroad, outside the country, outside his own reservation making these comments, i mean, there are too many different metaphors, but it's not helpful, let's put it that way. >> take a step back and ask the larger question. why is rudy giuliani talking about the summit? he is the president's personal attorney. if he wants to talk about stormy daniels, he can do that. if he wants to talk about russia, he can do that. if you are mike pompeo, what are you saying to president trump about this historic summit you

have worked so hard to put together. >> during his brief tenure, rudy giuliani feels empowered to go on all rounds of national affairs. the kidnapped americans were going to be released, prematurely. he made various proclamations about the iran nuclear agreement and regime change in iran. if you are mike pompeo, you don't like this at all, but this is an administration who has no control over their message. it's going to continue to be par for course to have rudy giuliani freelancing and saying whatever he wants. >> you are trying to say rudy giuliani is not a lawyer, he is the president's bulldog and spokesperson. he weighs in on all these extra topics that have nothing to do with the russia investigation. he got trump to endorse dan on stanton island. that's not the per view of a lawyer. >> he steps out.

>> there is a theme that goes beyond giuliani. people who are extensively engaged in diplomacy, like trying not to blow up a summit before it happens do incredibly undiplomatic things. they think it is fine and there's no cost in what they say. the cost could be vast. coming up on "morning joe," senator claire mccaskill is standing by. we'll talk about her fight for re-election and the decision to cancel the august recess. the missouri democrat joins us. we're back in a moment. i'm a concrete mason. i had severe fatigue, went to a doctor.

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prof is coming from every major media outlet in the country. >> except yours. >> i'm speaking to you because i'm an american citizen and i don't like what these people are doing. >> when the government says something, you only have one question to ask, is it true? >> the search is under way to find those responsible. >> we write for people whose kids get sent to war. our readers need to know. >> the president is going to invade iraq. >> we are going to run comments or not? >> the president is lying. >> there's always something you don't see coming. >> they don't care about the truth. they want a war, they are going to get one. >> joining us now, acclaimed film director and emmy award winning actor, rob reiner. "shock and awe" credits journalists for getting the reporting right in the lead-up

to the iraq war. also, co-founder of spy magazine, kurt andersen. "fantasyland" is out in paper back. rob, there's a lot less of you. you look great. >> that's nice of you, mika. just a little bit. >> that's great, though. you are healthy. trying. >> semi. >> that's awesome. let's go to "shock and awe." >> yes. >> you put yourself out there politically and feel strongly about what's going on. what was the impetus of getting behind this project? >> i'm of that age where i was of draft age during the vietnam war and i couldn't, for the life of me, understand how we could go to war twice in my lifetime based on lies. so, when we were building up to the war in iraq, i felt like a

parent whose watching their child run into the street, knowing full well it is going to get hit by the truck and not able to do anything to stop it and certainly, what we all knew was going to happen, happened. i have been wanting for a long time to make this film. i finally figured out a way to get into it. initially, i thought maybe be a satire like "dr. strange love." when i saw this about four journalists from the news, i found my way into the story. these guys got it all right. >> wow. >> they got it all right, but couldn't breakthrough. it was tough. listen, you have it harder now. it's harder now for journalists to breakthrough with the truth. that is the job of a journalist, to find the truth and get it out to the public. >> truth now, where are we? you could say there are lots of different ways we got here to where we are today. where is truth now? >> well, that's -- >> in the age of trump. >> that's the problem. that's the problem.

this is the first time in american history where we have a president who is supported by essentially state run media with fox and breitbart and sin claire and alex jones. it's very, very tough. those people are cemented into their, their information bubble and hard to breakthrough. it's like what the russians were able to do, active measures. the disinformation campaigns. you just throw lies out and you confuse people and they can't see the truth, which makes your job even more difficult now. >> it's really tough. >> more now than ever, you have really have to stick with the truth and tell the truth. ultimately, that's the only thing that will save us. >> you would have thought the country learned from vietnam before it went to iraq and bought that story. do you see now, again, whisperers of what happened in iraq 13 or 14 years later now, 15 years later?

now, you see whispers of it on iran and north korea. because it is fresh on our minds, it's tamped down a bit or tamp tampered? >> iraq was specific. we were just attacked. 9/11. there was a patriotism. people were hellbent on what to do to make us safe. now you have the bush administration wanting to go to war in iraq, even before we were attacked, if you read the project for the new american century. they jumped on that and said, let's go to iraq. now, we don't have that scenario. we don't have that, but we do have tearing up a deal with iran and, you know, a president who may be in a bad situation in a year or two. i get scared. i get scared. but we have to hold power accountable. that's the only way to get through this. >> the whole thing is scary.

you have a president who is living in a fantasy land, who calls the mueller probe a witchhunt, even though it has everything to do with our national security and sanctity of our elections, yet 19 witches in this witch hunt have been indicted. how did america go haywire? please, don't take us back 500 years. >> i won't. i'll take you back a few years. we have had 20 or 25 years where the republican party went from my parents responsible, conservative party to getting closer and closer to propagating and normalizing all kinds of conspiracy theories. donald trump exploited a thing that was happening on the right. as the book makes clear, it's not exclusive to the right. there's lots of looney tunes post fact belief on the left as

well. it has been a lot more on the right and the kind of fantasy wing of the republican party is now in power in the white house and elsewhere. donald trump, after all, got into politics in 2011 by embracing the conspiracy theory that barack obama was born in kenya and the media and various government agencies had covered up that terrible truth. so, this is his version of politics and it synced, alas, easily with what had been normalized on the right, to say all these various conspiracy theories and alternative facts and here we are. >> behavior normalized on the left as well, that goes back several presidents that did lead to where we are now as well. >> yeah, but we have, with donald trump, who saw the opportunity to really brazenly

lie every day, small ways and big ways like spygate. that's, you know, such a difference in degree that i think it's a difference in kind. what you were talking earlier about paul ryan coming out and saying, well, no. spygate, that doesn't sound real. it is extraordinary that we have had or gotten into such a man bites dog version of the news where, wow, a dog bit a man. paul ryan said this is looney is news, right? maybe we are at peak fantasyland. maybe this is, we have reached or begun to reach some line. i have been hopeful before and disappointed. >> i'm worried. >> given this week and bill clinton's comments to nbc's craig melvin about his relationship with monica lewinsky, do you think that how the clinton's behaved in the aftermath of that, how democrats

behaved, how hillary clinton said it was a right wing conspiracy when in reality, it was a gross abuse of power by the president, how much do you think both sides brought us to this? >> i talk about that moment and hillary clinton's unfortunate use of that phrase and concept of the vast right wing conspiracy. i don't think there's any -- anybody is innocent. i mean, but, the right is -- it's not an equivalence. there's not an equivalent culpability here. we have seen it in all kinds of, starting with pat buchanan and robertson in 1992, this conspiracy that there's a deep state new world order kind of, that's the way the world works. that was much more and has been much more of a normalized way of looking at the world on the right than the left. >> both sides used propaganda. that that's just the way things work, either to sell a policy or

rational to go to war. the difference now is that the propaganda and the lies that are coming out of the white house are backed up by big chunks of media. that doesn't happen during clinton -- clinton got a lot of pressure and he pushed back in his world of propaganda. he wasn't supported by the mainstream media in that. maureen dowd went after him. a lot of people went after him. >> yep. >> this is different. this is different. >> absolutely. >> look at the active measures it soviets have done and now the russians. for years, this is what it looks like. it is feeding false narratives, false information and clouding us to the point where we throw our hands up. we don't know what the truth is anymore. he is now cemented 40% of this country in that thinking. >> that's exactly what a dictator wants. the movie "shock and awe" is

available exclusively on directv on june 14th and theaters july 13th. rob reiner thank you so much. great to have you back. kurt andersen, thank you as well. the book is "fantasy land" out on paperback. "morning joe" will be right back. plaque psoriasis can be relentless. your plaques are always there at the worst times. constantly interrupting you with itching, burning and stinging. being this uncomfortable is unacceptable. i'm ready. tremfya® works differently for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. with tremfya®, you can get clearer and stay clearer.

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because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. the united states has evacuated several americans from the u.s. consulate in the southern chinese city. it comes two weeks after the state department confirmed a u.s. employee was suffering from symptoms consistent with the illness that affected u.s. and canadian embassy employees in cuba in 2016. there are roughly 170 american diplomats or spk employees there, in addition to their families. the department adds the evacuated employees are being further evaluated as a task force set up by secretary mike

pompeo to investigate the situation. we are going to follow stories. very strange and possibly frightening. joining us now, democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri. good to have you on board this morning. >> thanks, mika, good to see you. >> yeah, good to see you, too. a lot to talk about. i'm going launch and ask you to comment, if you could or respond to something rudy giuliani said about stormy daniels. to me, the statement about women, overall. i'm going to play it for you. take a look. >> she believes in her husband. she knows it's not true. i don't think there's a slight suspicion it's true, excuse me, but when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump. >> let's respect her. >> beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance. stormy daniels? i respect all human beings. i have to respect criminals.

i'm sorry, i don't respect a porn star the way i respect a career woman or a woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and as a person and isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation. so, stormy, you want to bring a case, let me cross examine you. so, claire, when reached by nbc news over the past few hours, rudy giuliani stands by his statements and refuses to withdrawal them. what do you think of what he said? >> well, i think we have to stay focused on the bigger picture here and why was rudy giuliani brought in? you know, i have spent a lot of time prosecuting sex crimes cases, serious felonies and there are -- there's a strategy, sometimes employed, which is go after the victim or go after the police. i think what rudy giuliani is

doing is he is trying to use a megaphone to damage the rule of law in our country, which is particularly disappointing considering rudy giuliani's background. he knows that the fbi is not a criminally corrupt organization. he knows that robert mueller is trying to get to the facts. all this distraction about trying to get us, you know, off on to the moral character of stormy daniels, this is just part of his strategy, frankly, that is so damaging long-term to our country because the rule of law should be separate from politics. the fbi is not an instrument of this president. it's there to protect the constitution. i think it's really important and you saw this week a number of republicans standing up on various subjects and saying this is not the right way to do this. so, i hope the american people

will ignore all of this distraction and deflection and just be patient and wait for all the facts to come out. >> in this case, when it comes to the rule of law and the facts, the facts are that the president paid $130,000 through his attorney or fixer, michael cohen to stormy daniels. rudy giuliani appears to be completely avoiding those facts while dismissing this woman and judging her based on her looks and judging other women based on their looks and their value based on their looks, which i find to be so reprehensible. i'm not distracted. i'm focused on how women are treated by this white house, in this white house and how they are treated and exactly what the voice of this president is pertaining to women. i think it has been the most damaging thing i have seen in decades. >> i don't disagree with you.

i want to push back a little bit. one of the things that is hardest for me is, after doing 50 town halls in missouri, i tell you what is on people's minds in missouri, they are scared to death about their health care costs. they are scared to death about getting ripped off by air ambulances. they are scared to death to be able to afford to retire. they're worried their mentipens aren't going to be there, the pensions they have earned. the lack of respect that has been shown in some instances towards women by this presidency. but what i'm most worried about right now is what really matters to missouri families is totally being ignored. i mean, we are ignoring the crisis that is most near and dear to most people in my state and that is, will i be able to afford health care costs next year. and i hope that this august work period that mitch mcconnell announced, i hope this is the opportunity for us to finally be able to vote on the bipartisan

measures that are agreed to and compromised that will bring down costs in the exchanges, that will hopefully maybe address the pharmaceutical costs. i mean, we have -- this administration has totally folded in term also of standing up to big pharma. those are the things that i am so focused on and i want to be sure i stay focused on. >> i agree. i know you have a bill we want to talk about, which we are going to get to. i will push back again though and say the constant lying on the part of this president and his stooges, the undermining of the pillars of our democracy on a daily basis. the undermining of the attorney general on a daily basis. the bullying and the devaluing of people based on their race or their gender. i don't know how you get anything done in this atmosphere. how you can operate in this atmosphere, whether you're a democrat, you, claire mccaskill, or anybody in the republican

party who's too afraid to step up. how does anything move forward for this country, for the people of your state, in an atmosphere like this, which is breaking down the foundations that we were built on, that this country is supported by. >> well, we have to hope that our foundations withstand this onslaught. but the way i do it is i get up every day and i look across the aisle and i find somebody to work with and i try to actually find common ground and actually get things across the finish line. i've been able to do that. even under this president, i've been able to do that. that's what i think the people in my state want. when i do all these town halls and i'm going places where i'm not very popular frankly. parts of the state where the vast majority of the people are not going to vote for me. but i want to show respect and i want to listen and what -- when everybody's head starts nodding is when i said we need to stop standing on opposite sides of the room, you know, trying to score political points and come to the middle of the room and

just grind out the hard work. we have done that several times. whether it's a bill on protecting veterans or whether it's a bill to protect seniors from financial scams. but those things are not getting out to the public. because we are so fixated on the drama coming out of the oval office. >> senator, let me ask you this. john heilman, just to stay on that point a second. as you were out there in your home state, we obviously pay attention to the questions about bob mueller, around the russia investigation. we care about them because they're super important. i don't think you disagree about that. there's a lot of voters focused on needs they have. as you suggested. like health care costs. i'm curious, yuz travel around your state in a year where you're up for election, how much do you hear from people who talk about bob mueller, who talk about the fbi, who talk about the russian collusion or conspiracy case? what's the feel out in the state of missouri on that topic?

do you hear people say things like impeachment very often? >> not that often. i mean, people are more worried about making everything come out even at the end of the month. right now, people in missouri are very worried about the trade war. you know, one out of three rows of beans in my state go to china. this nation they're saving a chinese phone company that violated sanctions against iran, that they're going to give a lifeline to this company and -- because the president wants to save chinese jobs. in missouri right now, small manufacturing and agriculture is very worried about trade. they're very worried about health care costs. they're very worried about whether or not anybody is ever going to stand up to big pharma. because their costs of prescriptions, i'm talking about in the medicare program, is going up year after year, because this administration and, unfortunately, too many in congress, are refusing to say we

should do the basic step of negotiating for lower prices for the volume in the medicare program. that's what people in my state are talking about and that's what i'm focused on. >> i will say women across america are focused on getting these things are done as well. >> that's absolutely right. >> this is all part of the conversation that is going to be happening every day at knowyourvalue.com. using #knowyourvalue. >> want to ask you about a different topic, puerto rico. the president of the united states was at fema headquarters yesterday. had a long meeting. some of the audio was leaked out. there was only passing mention at fema headquarters of puerto ri rico. the only mentions were about how great a job fema had done last year in what was a busy and difficult year as the president and his staff put it. you are one of the leaders of the united states senate. why isn't more being done? why isn't there more of a sense

of urgency about puerto rico? especially with this new study that suggests there are more than 4,000 deaths down there? >> well, i think we've got to get to the bottom of what the facts really are. and i do think we have tried to put a large fema package in the bill that occurred last year, the spending bill. i think i was in puerto rico briefly and i could see there were some parts of puerto rico that were, in fact, getting recovery dollars, but many parts that weren't. so these are american citizens. i think people need to always be constantly reminded, that these are people that pledge allegiance to the united states. these are people that sing our national anthem. and these are people that we need to have the same concern for that we do for our american citizens in texas and florida. >> i agree with you on all that and yet they're dying. they don't have clean water or electricity now months and months and months, nine months after the storm. do you sense any urgency on

capitol hill about this issue? >> i think there is a lot of people that are focused on it. you know, especially in our caucus. i have yet to see a commitment on a bipartisan basis to do what is necessary to bring puerto rico from the brink as it relates to life's basic necessities. >> senator, elise jordan here. just to go back again to what mika was probing with you a bit. these issues of powerful men abusing their position with women, it's hit home in your state with the governor recently resigning after allegations of using revenge important and kidnapping a woman and then campaign finance violations also. he is seemingly just resigning. is that enough of a penalty for this kind of conduct? >> well, there still is one special prosecutor that is

looking in to the facts surrounding the encounter with his mistress, which was a consensual encounter, but based on her testimony has elements of it that i think would get the attention of somebody who was reviewing it for possible crimes. so i don't know how that will turn out. i know this, that the attorney general has failed to aggressively investigate the parts of this he should be investigating. the hiding of public documents. the use of a charity in a campaign inappropriately. the hiding of secret money. maybe the transference of secret money from one account to another account. those are all facts that have not come out. and just because he walks away, i mean, we don't forgive someone who has done wrong just because they quit their job. that's not how it works. he may have quit his job. and mo is now moving forward which is great. but that doesn't relieve law

enforcement from the obligation, particularly the attorney general, from continuing to look at what were the facts and how do we make sure that he's accountable and that this never happens again. >> all right, claire, so finally, be remiss if we didn't finish this interview by asking you about the st. louis cardinals, 3 1/2 games out. the brewers have slowed down a little bit. how does it look almost halfway through the campaign? >> well, i think we drafted a bunch of arms, which is great. we've got carlos back. they had a little rough outing their first night out a couple of nights ago. this week has not been a great week. but at the end of the day, i think we're always going to be in the thick of it. i'll be here talking about it hopefully in september and october. and i do want to take a minute this morning to recognize red shandies. he passed away. mr. cardinal. an incredible institution among cardinal fans.

such a class act, a wonderful man. i want to pay tribute briefly to him this morning because he will be sorely missed in st. louis and across the entire country and the world of major league baseball. >> an incredible institution not only to cardinals fans but to baseball fans everywhere. claire mccaskill, as always, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you, guys. >> all right, thank you. and that wraps it up for us. stephanie ruhle picks up coverage right now. who will be interviewing somebody we all know. >> indeed, thanks so much, joe. good morning, everyone. i'm stephanie ruhle with a lot to cover today. starting with shameless. rudy giuliani, former mayor of new york city, his defense of the president is getting ugly, personal and i'm going to call it disgusting. after a new lawsuit claims the former lawyer for stormy daniels was in cahoots with michael cohen, becoming, quote, a puppet for the president. >> i'm sorry, i don't respect a porn star the w