matter. a big scale, this stuff matters. you're talking about the north korea trade meeting, about nuclear, denuclearization of the peninsula. and the president saying, you don't need to do that much briefing. you go in there, you read the guy, you decide we can get a deal or we can't get a deal. most of the time it's more complex than that. >> it sounds like a scary thought to think of it like that. jim vandehei. thank you very much. we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a little bit. sign up for the newsletter by going to signup.axios.com. that does it for us this friday morning, "morning joe" starts right now. >> we have elements who are driving wedges between people on the basis of race. >> very fine people on both sides. >> income. >> i don't want a poor person. >> religion. >> total and complete shutdown of muslims. >> gender. >> grab them by the [ bleep ]. >> political affiliation. >> unamerican, someone said treasonous, i guess why not. >> you name it.

there is never a good outcome to that in a society. >> that was ben carson yesterday with a little creative input from our producers. in just about an hour from now, president trump heads to canada to come face to face with the american allies he's been attacking on twitter. back here at home, rudy giuliani just keeps on talking. and both the secretary of state and the first lady say they have heard enough. good morning, everyone and welcome to "morning joe," it's friday june 8th. along with joe, willie and me we have republican strategist and msnbc political analyst susan del persio, donnie deutsch is with us and co-founder and ceo of axios, jim vandehei and host of bbc america, katty kay.

>> while i loved the message, i think it's worth repeating, it was also one of those moments where i thought that all just happened, this week. it is the shock, the shocks keep coming. >> the shocks do keep coming and it is pretty remarkable. i remember when i first started writing for the "washington post," i asked gene robinson, i said when do you start preparing for this. he said well, used to be that i would come up with an idea a couple of days before and sketch it out. he said, he said as you're probably finding out, so much happens every day. that you literally have to wake up in the morning and write the day of the deadline. and you look at the column this week and you look at all the remarkable claims that were made by the trump white house, all the, constitutional claims that were made by the trump white house. everything that's happened, happened this week is really, it's quite stunning that the president's claim he can kill

investigations if he wants to. rudy giuliani's claim that he can kill fbi directors if he wanted to and the president wouldn't be indicted. as long as he was in office, that the president can pardon himself. what i did in the column is, i went back and took every one of those claims. showed how not only they were unconstitutional, had already been ruled unconstitutional. but also how so many of those claims had been undermined by donald trump and ruj's own words. for those that feel a sense of despair, i would only recommend you remember what jon meachum told us is that to go back and to remember our past, to study our past, is to be armed against despair against the present. i still believe charles pierce with "esquire" said we are forever redeemable as country.

we have to remember that and keep our heads down and do our jobs. >> having said that, let's go onto the next shocking day of news. president trump's attorney, rudy giuliani, has been talking a lot this week. we've been horrified by it. and now some trump administration officials and other republicans are pushing back at what he is saying as well. while in israel, giuliani stated that north korea's kim jong un begged on his hands and knees for a summit with president trump. >> well somehow north korea after he cancels the summit, because they insulted the vice president. they insulted his national security adviser. and they also said they were going to go to nuclear war against us. they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. we said, we're not going to have a summit under those circumstances. well 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.

>> giuliani later said to nbc news that his statement was a quote metaphor. here's how secretary of state mike pompeo responded when asked whether giuliani's comment could jeopardize negotiations with north korea. >> rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and the set of issues. >> yeah. no. also yesterday first lady melania trump pushed back at somewhat against these comments from giuliani on stormy daniels. >> 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 -- look at his three wives, 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. >> yesterday a spokesperson for the first lady said in a statement, i don't believe mrs. trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with mr. giuliani. >> well that's rather broad. >> that would keep it clear that they want nothing to do with his disgusting misogynistic, foolish statement. which we've talked about enough, but it's worth repeating, that this guy -- is as bad as it gets when it comes to his views on women and he represents the

president. republican senator -- >> hold on, hold it a second. willie geist, it does bear repeating rudy giuliani, look how this guy has improperly inserted himself, not only in the mueller investigation, saying things that are constitutionally inaccurate. and only hurt the president's cause, but also he interfered with the work of this president and the national security adviser and the secretary of state. by saying some stupid comments that again, they had to dissociate themselves with. and he's now inserting himself into his stupid comments, the president's marriage. and the first lady clearly it could not have been more explicit in saying that he doesn't speak for her. that she's never talked to him about quote anything. it bears reminding viewers and i know for those of us who spent a lot of time in new york, it

bears reminding viewers, that this is a guy who not only guided new york through 9/11 in an admirable, pretty remarkable way. but also as i wrote in one of my columns, a column that rudy giuliani attacked, called me stupid and reminded me much like humiliation, i had never been knighted by the queen of england, said one of the great policy achievements, one of the great governing achievements of the 20th century was the turn-around of new york city by giuliani and bill bratton. he's not even a shadow of himself now. >> yeah, he's not. and, the thing we have to remember is that he's doing this with the explicit or at least tacit endorsement of president trump. president trump could stop this any time. he could call rudy giuliani and say knock it off. he could pull him off tv. he could say rudy giuliani doesn't speak for me any more.

for all of our criticisms of the trump administration and the warranted criticisms, there are serious people trying to do serious things. and mike pompeo was one of them. he's been at the forefront of setting up this summit. trying to denuclearize north korea and to have rudy giuliani freelancing on a trip in tell a i veev and undercutting all the work that serious people are doing. it's not only bad for president trump, it's bad for the country. as i said, president trump could stop it. he likes this, he likes that the pot is being stirred. i know you it talked to rudy jed, jonathan. a lot of people have noted and donny can speak to this, too, is that rudy giuliani is just happy to be back on the stage. he's on shows like this, we're talking about him. that he's back in the middle of the conversation. >> there's a difference between what rudy giuliani is supposed to be doing and what he's actually doing. and the argument can be made that his mission, being out there as the president's legal attack dog, the republican face of his defense team is being somewhat effective.

the president wanted him to go out there and muddy the waters, undermine the credibility of those investigating donald trump, whether that's james comey or robert mueller. that he is out there moving and the goal posts of this investigation, making declarations like oh, the special counsel says this will wrap up by september 1st. or the interview will be limited in size and scope. robert mueller hasn't said those things. giuliani has seized upon that idea, there's a vacuum that he can fill. he's playing the public relations game trying to influence the public and lawmakers about this probe. but he keeps getting himself this trouble with comments like this about the first lady or the north korea negotiations. in our reporting the president to this point is still okay with giuliani being out there. but patience is wearing really thin elsewhere in the west wing. >> you know, donnie, you know pr, very, very well. if you keep making claims, when

you're running gm's account, if you said hey, listen, this car is fantastic, not only are you going to get 36 miles to the gallon but you press a button and the car flies, you can fly over traffic. you don't have to worry about the hutch, you can just fly right home and the ceo says that's not really true. and you make about ten different statements like that. this chevy car sarks fantastic car, it can take turns at 45 miles per hour, stays low to the ground and it reverses male pattern baldness. the ceo would have to come out and say well, no, actually you might need to get some rogaine. but this car won't -- it will like make that turn. but there's some things -- i mean at some point, donny, you become baghdad bob. at some point people tune you out. at some point you actually start hurting more than helping. because all of his claims don't scare robert mueller. robert mueller looks at him and says what we say -- my god,

think what this guy used to be. and now he's just a clown. i'm not saying that, i'm sure that mueller's team is saying that. but they've got to be looking at this guy going -- what has happened to rudy? he's turned himself into such a clown. >> dangerous clown and a pathetic clown and a piggish clown. in the last five days as you hinted, beyond even trump, what has come out of giuliani's mouth in five days is a lie about kim jong un, as far as him being on his hands and knees, putting that, you know summit at risk. basically in the most disgusting, vile way, talking about stormy daniels, that she doesn't rate as a woman because she chose a certain way to make a living. how dare you, you pathetic, misogynistic ugly man. and commenting on her looks, i love donald trump and rudy giuliani the arbiter of people's looks. rudy giuliani is actually difficult to look at and finally his comment that the president

can pardon himself. even if he shoots mueller. disgusting, reprehensible. the reason the ceo doesn't come down on his mouthpiece is because we know the ceo is the gold medalist versus the silver medalist at lying. you talk about advertising and pr. if i was doing ads for count chocula, i would have to go through so much more of an intense process of what i can and can't say, oh, no, you can't say that it's got 9% chocolate. if it's only got 8% chocolate. versus on a daily basis, basically other than what people do on shows like this, that giuliani and trump can continue to go out there, with actually no accountability. it's stunning. to your point about mueller, at the end of the day, none of this is going to matter in court and it is going to matter come this november election. because i do believe, although we see that 40% holding strong, that the american people are going to stand up and that's when the game is going to change. and also lose the senate. >> i think what's incredibly disturbing and susan, you worked

with him, i want to get you and katty in here. is that if -- if a company was negotiating a huge merger with another company, and one of the vice presidents or somebody in the company was like trolling the other company, and getting in the way of the negotiations, that person would be fired. the board would step up. everyone in the company, the ceo would get rid of the person who is creating trouble. >> only if the person, the ceo was upset with what that person was saying. that's the rub here. is that donald trump is very happy. i think that -- >> i'm actually making the point, though, and i want to hear about where rudy, what has happened to rudy giuliani's personality. that makes him capable of being so disgusting, and so openly vile and putrid as it pertains to women with a seemingly no care in the world about it. about what he's saying, but also being able to interfere in some

of the most critical foreign policy issues of our time. and not have president trump's entire staff of generals, chief of staff, mike pompeo, mattis, bolton, say this guy has to go. we can't do our work. this guy has to go, you need to get off your phone. this guy has to go. what is it that president trump has the ability to protect stupidity in the white house, to the point where we become an international joke? and literally, the pillars of our country are breaking down, because nobody has any right to say anything to this president. >> what's amazing is with everything you highlighted, the thing that probably is upsetting the president from what i hear the most is he got involved in his marriage. that he made the comments about melania. that's what's really causing a problem within the white house right now. with the president's -- >> melania trump pushing back at rudy. saying that she believes her husband. let's make that clear, we are

not sure she believes her husband. not that we want to know anything about their marriage. >> and the fact that she made a statement says a lot, because she doesn't come out like that the fact is that the mayor ran the city for eight years, he's been in his own business, he now -- >> was he like that? >> no. no. i mean i would love to see the old rudy as i've said before. i don't recognize this person. >> what do you make of this change? >> i think that he is used to calling the shots. he likes being in the spotlight again. and he's not used to answering to somebody else. this is what rudy would do a year ago, five years ago. when he would go out there, he would just speak. he's not recognizing that how he's representing not only his client, but the united states. he did this overseas, let's not forget that. so he needs to realize that there's more of an accountability process here than he's used to. that's a big reason why he's starting to get in trouble now. because he's forgetting that. he's speaking to the president a

lot. he feels like he's in you know the boys' club, having fun again. this is actually fun for him. >> the boys' club? >> well, it is the boys' club. that's what it is. >> katty, there are obviously serious ramifications to what not only the president does, but also what rudy giuliani does, today the g7 summit meeting. there's actually talk and i, i'm sure a lot of observers would not blame macron and the rest of the leaders there, if they drafted a communique' for the g 6 and not the g7. because for the first time since these countries and leaders started getting together, you have one country that is moving in the -- the opposite direction historically, as the other six. >> yeah. you know, the summit this time

of year ago was not great. the tensions were there in sicily when they met. but they did manage all seven thoex come up with a joint communique'. speaking to foreign diplomats going into this summit. they've never known relations between the world's biggest liberal democracies be this bad. and there is a very real prospect that the world, these other six members have now decided particularly the europeans, look, we've spent a year and a half trying to figure out how to deal with the united states. we feel we've acquiesced on things, we feel we've tried to play nice with donald trump and time and again we've been rebuffed. we were rebuffed over paris, we were rebuffed over iran, we were rebuffed over the embassy moving to jerusalem and now we're getting slapped with trade tariffs, as president macron of france put it clearly yesterday, our soldiers are fighting alongside american soldiers in syria. fighting alongside american soldiers in iraq. and french and allied soldiers are fighting alongside american

soldiers in africa trying to wipe out extremism. trying to defend democracy against the onslaught of extremism. where's the national security issue? the national security issue is to keep your allies on board so you can fight threats around the world. that's the issue of national security, it's not slapping tariffs of 25% on imports of steel and aluminum. you talk about those things, you try to negotiate them. and i think you know we are this summit in quebec is going to be very frosty and think you're starting to see europeans say we have to find a different way to deal with this president. >> willie, we've been talking about what would happen if ceos had a spokesperson that said intemperate, insulting things about others. the ceo would call the man and fire him. we don't see that happening with

the president of the united states here with rudy giuliani. but you know let's take it down to the most basic level and the one thing that i must admit, i don't understand a lot of people who worship donald trump and have children, this is the sort of behavior that we would not even tolerate with children. i would see you know, little league, when we're playing baseball. and you know, you hear all the coaches in the league, if players start shouting at the pitcher while they're in the dugout, the coach would say hey, look at the batter. don't attack the pitcher. we teach our children every day to live by certain standards, to be respectful, to work hard, i mean you've got those examples, whether it's rudy giuliani or donald trump saying no, he's not going to study for the most important nuclear summit since 1988. it seems that this administration undermines the

most basic values that we try to teach our children when they're five and six years old. >> the president is not thinking about values or being a role model. he doesn't have a grand vision of the presidency or the country or history. he's thinking about his own survival. i'll borrow again the chris matthews term, the fog machine. he has rudy giuliani out there spraying fog, saying the president can pardon himself. that this investigation is unconstitutional. whatever he can put out there to undermine whatever bob mueller comes out with. whatever he finds, whatever he does. donald trump likes that. for his own survival, not for the country, not to be a role mod toll our children. whatever it takes to survive. jim vandehei, i want to go to you on this, picking up on what katty was saying. you had about the g7, macron saying we're prepared to make this a six-country agreement. if need be, to make it the g6. the president announced he's going to bolt early. he's going to leave in the morning before the climate change and other economic conversations happen so he can

get out and get ready to go to singapore. but it's -- it's important i think sometimes to take a step back and just appreciate how extraordinary it is, the president tweeting again this morning about canada, this confrontational tone toward canada, not toward russia or syria or iran, but to canada and the uk, and france. this is something unlike we've ever seen before. >> it is. and i think we, we talk about is there a trade war? there are trade wars. we have multiple wars and almost all of them are with our allies. you're talking about the europeans who obviously we have differences with over different armed conflicts and stuff. in the past. but basically part of an alliance, alliance existed to offset china, i think that's what people keep losing the perspective on. is all of these moves run the real risk of making china more powerful and us weaker. because china is stepping in where we don't want to do a trade deal and say, we'll deal with you, come on over here.

we'd love to fill that vacuum. the way we used to offset china was to work with the europeans, form a bloc that used trade and trading power to make sure that the advancing the power of the globe that it isn't china running away with everything. so these things have real consequences. what's really frustrating people internally is, it's impossible to get contrary facts to the president now. you guys are talking about rudy. rudy is a mini me, he loves what rudy giuliani is doing, he would say look at the scoreboard. his favorable ratings, the president's, are so trump doesn't care what his national

security team thinks about it. he cares about whether or not he's getting the attendant result. and he's getting it. rudy speaks just like trump speaks. rudy speaks to trump more than almost anybody. the idea that there's friction between the two, he wouldn't be saying it if he wasn't being egged on. >> jim vandehei, thank you very much. we'll be looking at axios' reporting through the day. remember this story line from the 2016 campaign? >> you look at the inner cities, i just left detroit and philadelphia, you know you've seen me, i've befr all over the place, you decided to stay home and that's okay. but i will tell you, i've been all over. >> i think donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. and yes, i did. and you know what else i prepared for? i prepared to be president. and i think that's a good thing. >> donald trump didn't do much prep work for his first debate with hillary clinton.

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what are you doing to prepare for the summit with north korea? >> i don't think i have to prepare very much. it's about attitude. it's about willingness to get things done. but i think i've been preparing for the summit for a long time. as has the other side. i think they've been preparing for a long time, also. so this isn't a question of preparation. it's a question of whether or not people want it to happen. and we'll know that very quickly. >> president trump said yesterday he is not doing much to get ready for a meeting with the dictator of north korea. joining us now, senior adviser and korea chair at csis and an

nbc news, msnbc korea affairs analyst, victor cha. i think we should ask for your response to what you just heard from the president. >> well the president may not be preparing for this, mika, but the north koreans have been preparing for this meeting for 45 years. a meeting with the u.s. president. and you got to be prepared. i mean i don't know what else you can say about that. my understanding is that he has been briefed about this. the president has, at least an hour every day. so i guess that counts as preparation. but if you don't prepare there's going to be a lot of trap doors that the north koreans will lay open and we want to make sure he doesn't fall into them. >> what are some of those? jonathan lemere, take it away. >> aides have been focusing more than an hour a day. he's been resistant to it. he's told people he feels he can go on his gut. he has a sense of who kim jong un is. he compare it is to his time in the business world.

to get in the room and go mano-a-mano. and it obviously unnerves people around him and his allies. we saw prime minister shinzo abe at the white house yesterday. the japanese are very nervous about how the summit goes. the cyclen south koreans are a that the president is going to be so eager for the big headline. for the nobel peace prize, where he'll be willing to accept far less from the north koreans than his allies really want. that he'll be willing to make some deal that will get the headline and help legitimize pyongyang. >> katty kay, if you were reading to the president, what are some of the pitfalls you would be concerned about. and then you can take it to dr. cha. >> be prepared, having an attitude and understanding somebody are not mutually sclus exclusive. i spoke to jim clapper about this. and he said you know this is

about attitude and this is about understanding the guy and taking the temperature of the room. but i don't buy that. i don't think you can have that quality and also not have to read your briefs, right? it's better to have both if possible. but he's already given away the summit. i mean, this photo opportunity as victor was just saying, right, victor, they've been wanting this for decades. so in a way, north korea has made a major concession and although the president yesterday and the prime minister of japan was particularly keen to say those sanctions are still on, the pressure is still on, the president is not using the words "maximum pressure" and the chinese and the south koreans are looking at this and are they starting already to ease up a little bit financially? so in some ways you can already say north korea has got quite a lot out of this already, haven't they? >> i think katty is exactly right. it's great to have this attitude going in if you feel like you have all the cards in your hands. but i'm not sure that the president does any more. i mean if he talks about not

going back to -- he wants to go to maximum pressure if the summit doesn't work out. but the reality is that maximum pressure requires the chinese and the south koreans, they're not going to be there any more. they were there in the last part of 2017 and beginning of 2018, but they won't be able to put the same sort of pressure on the regime as they've done in the past. that's going to be a problem. >> let's bring in nbc news national military the reporter, courtney kubey, who has new reporting on how the china won't be technically at the summit. but they will be at the summit. obviously china has a great interest in what's going on here. how do they plan to be there in effect? >> well china of course has an extensive and very pervasive surveillance apparatus all over the world. but this is a case where they're going to want to know what's happening in the summit. the u.s. is preparing for that. we should say, this certainly wouldn't be the first time that u.s. meetings overseas or here

in the united states have had to be wary and american delegation has had to be wary of the fact that the chinese are probably trying to listen. this story that i put together with carol lee and andrea mitchell talks about past cases and what we can expect at the summit. so at president trump's meeting in beijing in november of 2017, there were friendship pins which showed flags from each country that the delegation, these could have listening devices and they might have tracking devices, so you should be wary of wearing them into any place that is a secure location and beware of what you're saying when you're wearing them. there are cases where the chinese are believed to have bugged credentials, hotel key cards of american officials that have been found to have microphones in them. of course american security officials in singapore right now preparing for it, are doing things to prepare. they're warning americans not to speak openly in bars and restaurants around the summit

location. it's possible that the chinese could have co-opted, or could have informants working in them. it's a pretty extensive and really interesting way that the chinese are trying to find out what's happening at the summit. despite the fact that they won't be at the table. >> some high-tech and old-fashioned spy craft there, fascinating report, courtney. dr. cha, china obviously will be vital if there's going to be any kind of deal here. any kind of deal that can be enforced by the united states. with north korea in terms of denuclearization. what role will china play, perhaps not tuesday, but in the days and weeks that follow? >> so it's a great question. i think there are two major roles, the first is if we actually start going down a denuclearization path and we need to freeze their program, suspend their program, the north koreans are going to want interim energy assistance, fuel, heavy fuel oil is what they were given in the past. i don't think donald trump is going to be willing to pay for

that. so the chinese are probably going to have to pay for that, as well as the south koreans and the japanese. if we move down the path to peace treaty or peace agreement ending the korean war, china was a signatory to the 1953 arm cities, they're going to want to be part of that discussion as well. that will most likely take place in what we call a four-party format, meaning the two koreas, the united states and china. so china has an important role to play going forward. if we go to sanctions again, so-called maximum pressure, without chinese pressure where 90% of north korea's external trade is with china, maximum pressure isn't going to work. it's hard to get around the north korea problem without chinese cooperation. and the president is going to need that going forward. >> victor cha, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. i want to talk to you about this issue of preparation. because i know you had a conversation with donald trump about the fact that you were concerned he didn't read. i think we pretty much feel he

doesn't read. and i know he's tweeting this morning, he's already had three tweets in the past 30 minutes. he's up around 5:00 a.m. and tweeted eight hours ago. he's tweeting at canada, tweeting at our allies, tweeting about tariffs. tweeting about obama, schumer and pelosi. back to preparation for these negotiations -- on denuclearization, and on one of the biggest foreign policy crises that we may face in our lifetime lifetime if we're not careful, how important is it for the president to be prepared? >> my gosh, this is again, this is the most important nuclear summit since reagan and gorbachev met at the end of the '80s, in 1988. and i just, again, i boil this all down. i hear that more republicans

support donald trump than ever before and we need to talk about that later on. we teach our children, americans teach -- my kids are going through finals week. we sit down and we talk to them. are you ready for your english test, are you ready for your math test? you've got to prepare. that's what we're taught. we're taught to work hard in this country. to prepare to do our best. donald trump mocks those the bea attributes and those american values every day. taking it to negotiations, henry kissinger always said, anyone who goes in and thinks that a winning personality is going to carry the day over facts and complicated negotiations is a fool. and it has been an article of faith among conservatives since 1945, that fdr gave up eastern europe, i mean of course it's

very -- debatable. but that fdr gave up eastern europe at yalta. because he believed his winning personality would carry the day over joe stalin. that he could somehow schmooze, he could somehow work, he could somehow deal with joseph stalin in creating a post-war europe. and whether he gave away eastern europe or not, again highly debatable, even fdr's allies would admit that yalta was a failure. and it was a failure because like donald trump today, fdr going into that summit believed that it was about personalities, it was about leading the other guy, convincing the other guy, persuading the other guy. it is not. these are complicated, really complex negotiations. with a leader from a regime that has fooled four presidents in a row. there are so many pitfalls, there's so many trap doors, so many ways that they can cheat on

verification, there's so many ways they can cheat on so many other areas. and donald trump is walking in there ignorant. so, just, if you just again, look at history, and let history be your guide, let facts be your guide, you will find that this is a losing formula for a successful summit. >> i would think he wouldn't want to be flip about it. still ahead, a week of new scandals for epa chief scott pruitt. monday, it was mattresses, tuesday, it was chick fill-a-. wednesday, two aides resigned. yesterday we learned he's had his security detail fetching his dry cleaning and moisturizer. what will it be today? the latest on his growing list of scandals. coming up on "morning joe." if you've been diagnosed with cancer,

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the alleged abuses of power by epa administrator scott pruitt continues to grow. with two new reports on his practices. according to the "washington post," pruitt had members of his

24/7 security team run errands for him. the "post" citing two two individuals familiar with the trips said it included picking up his dry cleaning and taking him in search of his favorite moisturizer. >> can we just stop on that? >> let's stop on that. a little-known fact, willie, anybody as i have explained on the show before, in the middle of sandberg's remarkable biography of abraham lincoln, what do you think abraham lincoln was doing the last 30 minutes before he delivered the gettysburg address, a speech that still lives with us -- what did the greeks always say? the most important, three things were before you deliver any great speech? moisturizer, moisturizer, moisturizer. this guy has his priorities straight. it goes back to the great greek poets, proven again by lincoln, now once again proven by the great scott pruitt. >> let's be clear, this isn't

just any moisturizer. the paper says on one occasion, pruitt directed agents to drive him to multiple locations in search of a particular lotion offered at ritz-carlton hotels. the "daily beast" is reporting on pruitt's habit of sending subordinates to fetch him his favorite junk and health foods. the site cites four different staffers sent to get protein bars, cookies, greek yogurt and other stuff. the source say pruitt is fond of finger food from dean and delucca and particular with his coffee. directing aides to brew him pour-over coffee. the continued onslaught of revelations about pruitt's habits is not sitting well with some republican lawmakers. >> the appearance of impropriety matters. the waste of taxpayer money matters. if you, if you can't use good

judgment and put taxpayers first, it's time to find another line of work. >> the hits keep on coming. and i think he's hurting the president and therefore, he's hurting the country. and i did, some of these things, that mr. pruitt apparently has done, i know some of them are allegations, some of them are facts. he is acting like a moron. and he needs to stop it. >> he is really abusing his position of power. and that is what i said. it's about as swampy as you get. >> let's turn to our high-end moistu moisturizer correspondent, donny deutsch. i know you moisturize from stem to stern every morning. >> he's lubricating the swamp, not draining the swamp. >> stop it! >> i want to know that the head

of the epa is moisturized, i think it's important for all of us. the thought of him having a little chafe, before we, joe, i now you can be rough on people. i want to step back and i'm serious, and the ritz-carlton thing, we were talking about, has a certain scent to it. so i think he wants to smell good. let us be a little more open and tolerant of people's grooming habits. >> you know, as somebody, willie, that came off the farm and fell off the turnip truck not so long ago i'm reminded of what vince lombardi told his player that celebrated too long in the end zone. he walked up to him and said, act like you've been there before. scott pruitt needs to act like he's actually been there before. and stop acting like this is a first time he's seen bright lights and the big city. this is the, this is just -- an embarrassment to the trump administration and also republicans are going to have to

answer to this guy in the mid terms. why is donald trump keeping him? >> well i think that horse is out of the barn. the bright lights and big city. that's over and the moisturizer is funny and all this stuff, the yogurt. but there are real ethical violations that have taken place. if he uses his position to try to get his wife a franchise of the chick fill-a-and to abuse his security detail to have them running all over town and turning on the fun lights and sirens because it made him feel like a big guy -- we're beyond moisturizer jokes, jonathan, this is serious stuff. >> these are legitimate ethical violations. to this point the president has defended him. he has told people around him, he doesn't want to appear that he's giving into pressure. he likes the job that pruitt is doing at the epa. he's carrying out his agenda. even though everyone around him in the west wing including the chief of staff is telling him you need to get rid of this guy. we can someone else who can carry your agenda, this guy is a distraction. the level of specificity of these details here, these leaks, which are remarkable and we're

having a great laugh about them. it goes to show you those are people very close to pruitt who are giving this information who are leaking this. and the knives are out. it's only going to get worse. it's going to be hard for him to survive. >> coming up -- oh, my god. is she going to be attorney general? >> no. >> come on! >> no way. >> judge jeannine of fox news wants to be attorney general. think about that. that's ahead on "morning joe." this is frank. sup!

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while president trump took questions from reporters at the white house today, he said he doesn't have to prepare for next week's summit with north korean leader kim jong-un because, quote, it's all about the attitude. [ laughter ] this brings to mind the iconic words of sir winston churchill before his pivotal meeting with josef stalin and franklin roosevelt.

i believe he said "i'll just wing it." [ laughter ] . it's good to see president trump prepare for this summit with the same energy we use for that job interview at dominos back in high school. >> yeah. what a joke. coming up, we're following developing news from the white house right now. president trump set to depart the white house at any moment for the g7 summit but with the u.s. battling major allies it seems more like g6+1 and that could become a reality. and right may be the face of donald trump's legal team in the russia investigation, but how is he viewed by the special counsel's office? bloomberg's shannon pettypiece joins us with her new reporting on that. "morning joe" is coming right back. your plaques are always there at the worst times. constantly interrupting you with itching, burning and stinging.

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well, somehow north korea after he canceled the summit because they insulted the vice president, they insulted the -- his national security adviser, and they also said they were going to go to nuclear war against us. they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. he said we're not going to have a summit under those circumstances. well, 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. >> i know rudy.

rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and this set of issues. >> 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 -- excuse me, but when you look at stormy daniels. >> and when you look at her. to that, a spokesperson for the first lady said in a statement "i don't believe mrs. trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with mr. giuliani." yeah. welcome back to "morning joe," it's friday, june 8. republican strategist and msnbc political analyst susan del percio is with us along with donny deutsch. white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lemire. washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay. and joining the conversation, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson is with us. also with us, white house correspondent for bloomberg news shannon pettypiece. both shannon and jonathan lemire

have new reporting on rudy giuliani. and, joe, i just wonder, just look at her. i'm wondering if we should just look at him. someone take a look at rudy giuliani. just look at him. >> well, i'd rather actually take a look at the associates around donald trump and see what they have to say about rudy giuliani. yesterday morning we called rudy giuliani out on this show and i didn't know whether it was going to be us again stating the obvious and people in the administration acting shocked and stunned and deeply saddened but they followed it up. pompeo saying rudy doesn't speak for us, i know him, sort of in a mocking way. i know him, he doesn't speak for the administration, doesn't speak for us on foreign policy and then i thought most interesting, you know, willie, there is a way to just swat away question

questio questions and politely answer questions and then there's a way to get into your monster truck and drive over a little car and crush it and go back -- that's what happened. melania trump didn't have to respond, her spokesperson didn't have to respond. instead, not only did they respond but they also said of rudy giuliani's claim that she doesn't believe donald trump had a relationship with stormy daniels. she says "i don't believe mrs. trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with mr. giuliani." and the sound that you hear is the monster truck crushing and compacting the little datsun four or five times. >> because it's not just her saying i don't speak to rudy giuliani nor have i ever spoken to him about anything, it's that what he said from tel aviv from the stage is not something i've

ever said. rudy giuliani said she doesn't believe the accusations. what i read is don't speak for me, mr. giuliani, especially when it comes to my marriage and what i believe my husband may or may not have done. so every once in a while a spokesperson comes up from the first lady and her office where you see how she feels about things and that was an awfully big one yesterday. >> no doubt about it. >> so shannon, by the way, is writing about giuliani in her latest reporting. you say "giuliani's impact on robert mueller's probe and the white house's defense strategy the not as significant as you might have thought." shannon reports "rudy giuliani has yet to genuinely affect the course of robert mueller's russia probe. he asserted public opinion related to mueller's probe has turned in trump's favor. if we have such a bad strategy, how do we turn public opinion with a hostile press, he said. giuliani asserted mueller could not indict the president.

if they had the power to indict it would be a different strategy. since i've been on the case i haven't been too impressed by them. much of the actual lawyering has been done by jay sekulow and his team of lawyers along with martin and jane raskin, a husband and wife team of defense lawyers brought in at the same time as giuliani." so shannon, we talked about this, bob mueller has his head down doing his job. he won't be affected by what rudy giuliani says here or in israel or anywhere else. but what's really happening with rudy giuliani is the softening of the ground for when this report comes out, president trump will be able to point to the things, untrue as they may be, that giuliani has said about the corruption of the investigation and discredit it. >> that's exactly right. when i and my colleague talked to current and former justice department officials about giuliani, there was a sense he wasn't much of a threat. they said we don't see him interfacing much with the

justice department, he's not writing legal briefs or reviewing case law or making legal arguments to the special counsel. however giuliani says he is playing a different game. he is playing this game in the court of public opinion and he argues that that is the only one that matters at this point, that this is not going to be a case that is fought in court over obstruction of justice or collusion or whatever because of these guidelines the justice department has now that you can't indict a sitting president. we don't know if robert mueller will follow those but those are the guidelines rudy is operating in. so when he looks at his job as the lawyer, he looks at it as turning the public against this investigation. he is very clear and open about that, that this is a public relations play and that if he can do that he's confident that congress will not impeach the president if there are some charges that the justice department ends up referring to congress to deal with. >> gene robinson, just to be very clear with americans that

are listening to these claims by rudy giuliani and by commentators that are horrified that this president believes he has such sweeping absolute power and same with giuliani believing that, again, it's just bad law. people need to understand that. it is a fog machine but also rudy giuliani is shamefully spitting out lies that go against history. you can take him saying that the president can pardon himself, we've all seen now the 1974, august '74 opinion by the justice department that echoes hundreds of years of english and american law, the president cannot pardon himself. rudy saying he doesn't have to abide by a subpoena. that goes against what existing law is, what it was when bill clinton was president of the united states and subpoenaed and what rudy giuliani said he had to do, he had no choice. you could also -- the president can't be indicted. here we have giuliani saying it again but in 1998 giuliani was

telling charlie rose and everybody else that when it comes to criminal law, no man is above the law and the president of the united states must be treated like every other citizen suggesting bill clinton could and should be indicted, the same, now, of course, with donald j. trump. >> absolutely, joe, before i get to what is left of rudy after monster truck melania ground him into the ground, let me congratulate my washington capitals rocking the red this morning who won a little thing called the stanley cup last night which is the first time in 44 years, alex ovechkin, the great 8, i'm so proud of him. so happy for him. the real difficulty is telling the difference between the shamelessness and incoherence bordering on dementia and he

kind of alternates. you can't tell what is what. clearly he has as willie said, he has the intention, he has a goal which is to play to public opinion to try to discredit the investigation. in the process of doing it, he says crazy things that don't make sense that maybe have -- are credible to portions of the trump base that are not true and are terrible law and is he doing the president any good on balance? i can't see that he necessarily is because i think he's reaching to the most committed part of the choir who never cracked a law book or red a page of history. and he sounds ridiculous most of the time. >> jonathan lemire, you talked to rudy giuliani and in your report giuliani revealed the

legal strategy toward robert mueller's investigation. here's part of it, "our strategy is when we weren't talking, we were losing giuliani told the associated press on thursday from israel. normally in a criminal or civil investigation the audience would not be the public but in this one it is. the former new york city mayor has repeatedly stated that mueller won't criminally charge the president, they have the capacity to report and so do we. we're reporting in realtime as we go, giuliani said. so whose report will the public step in who do they believe? we're looking to win that argument. trump told allies that despite some mistakes he's glad to have giuliani on board as an attack dog and dominating news coverage. we need to drive the story giuliani said, you have to go on and take the arrows, especially if you're going to deliver more arrows." and i would point that while he i think said egregious things as it pertains to the north korea negotiations, if i were any of the architects of that meeting i

would be livid and i would not work another day if that guy was allowed to speak that way but what he said about stormy daniels, i talked to so many people yesterday who were so upset by that who were immediately impacted by it, who found themselves shaken that men and women would speak about a woman this way or the president's wives this way multiple and to me i think giuliani could be emboldening some women to speak out. attorney michael avenatti has another case that he says is very close to going public where there may be another payment to another woman about an affair that the president had so rudy's words, which he may think when we're not talking we're losing, he may help the president lose big time in these cases where women were paid to be silent about their sexual relationship with the president. paid during the heat of a

campaign. >> this strategy of being so outspoken carries risks and you hit upon one of them, that he is opening up the idea that other women may come forward, that i may be emboldened. he is setting up -- he almost could have sidelined -- scuttled a nuclear summit on the korean peninsula for his undisciplined and not well thought out remarks about that. but to the -- this is what the president wanted. my piece and what shannon wrote are nicely dove tailed because giuliani is not part of the legal strategy. he is not one in the room dealing with mueller's team. he's the public face of this. his belief is this is not going to be tried in the courtroom, this is going to be tried in the court of public opinion. that eventually this will get referred to congress and those lawmakers will have to make a decision. do they move to impeach this president? who are they going to listen to? potentially their voters and that's who giuliani is trying to influence. he's trying to soften the ground, he's trying to undermine the credibility of those bringing the case against trump

and he has seen a vacuum where he knows the special counsel is operating in silence. they're not commenting on anything so giuliani is out there trying to set the goalpost of this investigation, believing that he can then impact public opinion in that way and we have seen in polling as much as americans want the special counsel to continue his mission there is a growing number of people who believe that it is a politicized event and you won't be surprised i went to the special counsel's office with this report, with this theory that, hey, rudy giuliani can say whatever he wants because you guys won't comment and they didn't comment. >> susan, i want to ask you a question. mika brought up as far as avenatti another woman is going to come forward and i'll bring this back to what giuliani said. my concern is even if there are five more women and even if trump has got a -- he has to get trump to admit he had an affair, what's baked in, and we know this based on the election is that i think a lot of this country, trump voters going

"okay, he has affairs, it's gross, we don't care." a separate issue with what giuliani said about stormy daniels, that's not about infidelity. that's about the denigration of women and that basically i as a man decide what is okay and not okay for a woman to do for a living. i as a man decide who is good looking and not and i think that hits a very different nerve with women. this is a guy asking a question. both of them are reprehensible behavior by men but one hits a different nerve to me with women and where we have come as a society. >> and in the latest nbc poll we see the biggest problem donald trump has is with white college-educated women so this this is going to be -- that does have consequences not just for the president but for the midterm elections when you have the president's spokesperson speaking like this, speaking of women like this. and i agree, that is something that could go forward but what i

wanted to ask jonathan was you talk about rudy wanting to comment in realtime. the problem is moourlt is six months ahead of anything that giuliani or the trump people know about. they're always getting caught off guard so it seems this pr strategy could be a big problem since they don't know what mueller has. >> they've been caught you have guard -- off guard a number of times. he's trying to get out ahead of the unknown to muddy the waters and that's why they're not making arguments on the legal facts, they're making arguments on public relations, trying to undermine the credibility of those involved as difficult as that is to impugn the integrity as someone as accomplished as robert mueller. >> as pr people, you don't go out there unless you know the facts. >> well, he's manipulating them. joe? >> katty kay, donald trump is in the middle of a tweet storm

again this morning and he says looking forward to straightening out unfair trade deals with the g7 countries. if it doesn't happen, we actually come out even better z. it's not -- that's nonsensical. it's a nonsensical tweet first of all. i literally -- it's not grounded in any fact but secondly, catty, if you look at the gross domestic product of countries across the world over the past 20 years, there is one country that consistently goes upward and that's the united states of america. it's actually quite extraordinary to compare america's gdp to the rest of the world's and how it has gone in a straight line upward for 20, 30, 40 years, again, with all the problems that we've had at home, all of the political chaos, our

economy has just kept roaring and it just proves that donald trump trying to deconstruct an international economic and diplomatic system that has benefitted the united states of america first and foremost is asinine, short-sighted and against america's best interests. >> yeah. and there are two people who benefit, two countries who seem to benefit from this infrastructuring of relations between america and its traditional allies of the last 70 years, china and russia. china seems to be getting better deals on trade than canada, the european union, mexico, the uk, all of those countries that america has stood with and russia is loving the fact that these western democracies, the biggest liberal democracies in the world are meeting in canada and they can't agree on fundamental principles of what underpins that system. so for the president to say well

this is going to benefit us, these are allies that stand with america not just on trading that helps american consumers and workers and helps the american agricultural industry, canada is the biggest market for american agricultural products, the second biggest for american dairy products, america needs these trading relationships but there's security implications here, too. because america needs these allies in the middle east, in africa, in the fight against islamic extremism and this hurts. you saw emmanuel macron and other european leaders make a big effort to reach out to president trump, to try to play nice with president trump, even when he pulled out of paris and the iran nuclear agreement, even when he moved the embassy to jerusalem and look at the tone of where we are today. it's quantifybly different and you get the sense that european leaders are snapping and they have got to a point where they're saying right if it's just us against america, that's the way it will be.

macron says we won't sacrifice everything just to get donald trump's signature on a piece of paper. >> so the president will leave the g7 summit early tomorrow morning so he can prepare for the north korean summit even though he's not preparing for it he says. is there anyone around him emphasizing how unprecedented and dangerous and irresponsible it is to attack our allies this way, to attack justin trudeau and canada, to attack emmanuel macron and france. you had larry kudlow saying yesterday oh, come on, this is just like a family quarrel but in family quarrels you laugh and hug at the end because you love each other. i don't see merkel, macron, theresa may and trudeau laughing and hugging at the end of this. >> that's something i've heard other white house officials say that we're good friends but sometimes friends fight. and sometimes friends do fight and after they fight sometimes it's never the same, sometimes families quarrel and when the quarrel is over they're no

longer at each other's throats but they're never the same. that's the risk i know the foreign policy community in this administration, the intelligence community in this administration has been raising alarm bells on. they have been trying to emphasize that these allies, they're like the friend you can call in the middle of the night to let you into your apartment. they are the ones you can call and ask for help without telling them why and they'll do it because they're your different and they've got your back and we have their back and that has been the exchange so that is what we risk losing, maybe the relationship doesn't completely fall apart but when we ask them to do something that might be against their interests are they going to immediately do it or are they going to push back and be hesitant? i know the president has heard this argument and he continues to pursue this strategy. >> shannon pettypiece, thank you very much. gene, stay with us if you can. still ahead on "morning joe," for the second straight day paul ryan was answering questions about the russia probe

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house speaker paul ryan said he supports the push by president trump's allies in congress to get more information on the fbi informant's contact with the trump campaign and also defended the president on russia. >> frankly, the sooner the department of justice complies with all of our document requests, which are legitimate document requests, the better this will be for everybody and had they complied with these

document requests earlier when we made them we probably could have spared the country of all this drama. in all of this, in any of this, there's been no evidence that there's any collusion between the trump campaign and president trump and russia. let's make that really clear. there's no evidence of collusion. >> he was doing so well. what happened? >> well, you know, i guess -- he heard two people complain and he -- like a tortoise, he stuck his head in the shell. >> backbone disappeared. >> i've known him since he was 22, like him so much but what paul ryan is doing is embarrassing himself, humiliating himself, making a fool of himself to say there's been no evidence of collusion. let's go through it again because the speaker of the house like donald trump drunt have time to study up on things, he wants to wing it maybe, go by attitude, i have no idea but 13 russians have been indicted in

robert mueller's investigation. three russian companies have been indicted in robert mueller's investigation. the president of the united states's national security adviser has been indicted and he is now cooperating with special counsel robert mueller's investigation. rick gates, one of the top lieutenants in the presidential campaign indicted, pled guilty, now cooperating with donald trump's investigation. the man donald trump said was one of his top two foreign policy advisers, george papadopoulos indicted, pled guilty and now is cooperating with robert mueller's probe. paul manafort, a man who, again, ran donald trump's campaign, indicted and is going to be tried and has just been recently caught trying to tamper with witnesses and is so thick in with russian oligarchs that many

people suggest he fears that his life may be in danger if he cooperates with special counsel robert mueller. of course we also know, willie geist, about the meeting at trump tower with don jr. we know about the fbi warning both campaigns -- the hillary clinton campaign as well as the donald trump campaign -- this it had been a two-year effort by vladimir putin to interfere with american democracy and if any contacts, any attempts were made from russians trying to contact either hillary's campaign or trump's campaign that they should notify the fbi immediately. they asked that of the trump campaign after they had been meeting with one of putin's lawyers who suggested that russia had dirt on hillary clinton and they wanted to pass it along. let's not even talk about roger stone's back channels with

wikipedia, we don't have time in this short three-hour show to go there. but paul ryan suggesting there's no evidence or any reason to suggest the trump campaign may have colluded with the russian government is a bald-faced lie. and paul ryan should go back to what he said two days ago that no man is above the law and let's have the investigation. let the chin chips fall where may. >> you laid it out pretty well. there's not much to add except that donald trump, the president of the united states, got confirmation in that lawyer, dictated the phony memo to cover up the purpose and intent of the trump tower meeting with russians so joining us now, ceo and founder of abrams tv, tv host, legal expert and, by the way, our old boss -- >> yeah, weird. >> -- dan abrams. >> hey, boss man. >> his new book written with david fisher is titled "lincoln's last trial, the murder case that propelled him to the presidency." we'll get to the book in just a moment. welcome back.

>> great to be back here. >> let's talk about what we've been talking about and where the russia investigation stands. where do you think it sits? we don't know what's happening inside the lock box of the mueller investigation. but where are we? >> we need to be clear about that. you have paul ryan talking as if congress has the same access to information as does robert mueller and that's not the case. this is an ongoing investigation. we don't know exactly what robert mueller has found or not found and for paul ryan or anyone else to come out conclusively and say this is what has been found, this is what mueller's team concluded, this is what mueller's team is going to do or not do, don't believe it. anyone out there saying mueller's team is going to blank, don't believe it. mueller's team has already decided to blank, don't believe it. we just don't know. >> joe? why would he do this? did he get a call from trump's

people or from trump saying you need to tell the american people the investigation needs to wrap up, you need to speak for me, you took an oath? because i don't understand why paul ryan, we know him, why would he do this? >> i can't read paul ryan's mind. i know he faced blistering criticism from trump hacks on capitol hill who have been lying about -- lying in defense of donald trump for some time who have been suggesting that donald trump is above the law. who are fearful of their base, who have been trying to undermine a gifted heroic marine hero like robert mueller who dedicated his life to public service. but i will tell you this, durnt really matter why somebody is lying. doesn't really matter why somebody shows such cowardice in the face of obvious facts. dan abrams, the fact is that the

trooupt is the truth in this case and as you said anyone sugge suggesting that robert mueller has no evidence on collusion or has enough evidence to indict donald trump on collusion only prove they have absolutely no idea what the actual facts are because as you've said he keeps the card so close to his vest. >> that's what was so interesting. remember the leak of the letter that the trump team sent to mueller with all of their legal conclusions about what mueller is allowed to do or not do. then you hear donald trump suggesting it came from the special counsel's office and i would have loved it if he said let's indict whoever leaked this. let's just indict whoever leaked this particular document. we're good with whatever the result of that is. they're not going to do that, they're not going to say that because of course it came from

the trump team. there's no question. there haven't been leaks from the mueller team. there hasn't been a single leak from the mueller team and as a result it's speculation as to exactly what they're doing. but this whole idea of undermining mueller in particular. think about if it had been reversed. what if there was a democrat at the top as opposed to a republican and 13 republicans working for -- the answer would be well, it's a democrat at the top. instead you hear forget about the guy at the top, let's talk about the 13 democrats supposedly working for him. mueller is in charge of the investigation. mueller is making the decisions here. he is a republican, has been, don't mean he's going to side with republicans but it means the idea of trying to undermine his credibility based on politics is not sense. >> and it shows a desperation. >> and that's been the job of rudy giuliani. dan, you know the law but you know new york city very well. you have two guys, donald trump and rudy giuliani working

together here. rudy giuliani is on tv wherever he can find a camera trying to do what you are describing, muddying the waters. >> but now you hear donald trump's voice coming directly from giuliani. that wasn't exactly what was happening when he started. when giuliani said it will take me time to get up to speed, what's happened is now we hear the voice of donald trump literally coming from rudy giuliani's mouth and that was i think particularly when we saw him talk about melania. >> no. that was incredible. and stormy daniels. >> and stormy daniels. >> disgusting comments. >> dan, your new book is lincoln's last trial, it offers a first hand account of his skill as a litigator through hand-written transcripts detailing a landmark self-defense case argued in the summer of 1859, just two years before he would become america's 16th president. tell us about it. >> we have the only transcript that exists of any trial lincoln's ever done and it was only found in 1989 in a box in

the garage of the great grandson of the defendant. and they're lincoln's own words as the defense attorney for this guy who was accused of stabbing his neighbor and friend. they'd been in a long time spat. the guy borrows a knife, he's smaller than the victim, he prepares for the possibility he's going to get attacked. this guy comes after him, he stabs him, stabs his brother, the community wanted a conviction. lincoln had everything to lose by taking this case. this is nine months before he gets the republican nomination. this is the last big trial he does. if he lost this case, if he performed badly in this case, if the community was angry at him, all of those things could have worked against lincoln. so it became an important case leading up to the presidency and i was just amazed at being able to see those words because transcripts didn't exist back then. people didn't take transcripts. >> that's fascinating. gene robinson has a question for

you. gene? >> dan, from the transcript do you get a sense of lincoln's style as an attorney? . was he kind of a country lawyer type or was he flashy and showy? what do you get from it? >> lincoln was the kind of attorney who was there to bond with the jurors, who could talk to jurors in a very common speak, so to speak. he was not the statutes guy. he was not the guy that was going to cite all sorts of law. he was the giep who was going to be able to talk to them but there is one particular incident that we cover in the back as part of this trial where you see an angry almost furious lincoln and you talk to lincoln experts and they'll say that's a very rare thing to find. he got so angry at one of the legal rulings against him which was a critical ruling in the context of the case and we have the quotes from the people who were there at the time describing lincoln's fury at this, this is coming near the

end of the case, i think one of the key reasons he took this case was because of this critical celebrity witness who was going to testify and the judge initially was ruling he wouldn't be able to testify and i think that's a side of lincoln we don't see that often that comes out in the book. >> the book is "lincoln's last trial, the murder case that propelled them to the presidency." fascinating. dan abrams, thank you very much. good to see you. >> nice to be back. still ahead, michael cohen once said he'd take a bullet for donald trump. but is that still true? . the former attorney for stormy daniels is talking to the feds. that means the pressure is growing for the president's fixer. "vanity fair's" emily jane fox joins with us her latest reporting next on "morning joe." her salon was booked for weeks,

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so some very sad breaking news breaking in right now. cnn is reporting that anthony

bourdain has died. according to that report, the emmy winning host committed suicide. he was 61 years old. bo bourdain was in france when his close friend found him unresponsive friday morning. this comes on the heels of designer kate spade's suicide earlier this week and it comes as suicide rates are up by 30% across the country. the only state without an increase was nevada which already had the highest rate in the country. this is so important. if you or someone you know and love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, the national suicide prevention lifeline is available 24 hours a day seven days a week always for you. the number is 800-273-8255.

that's 800-273-8255. and willie, i think we all face tremendous challenges from time to time and depression has never been one of those -- we all have our own challenges but when you look at something like this and you don't understand how something like this could happen with somebody who was so successful and at the top of his career. you can say the same thing about kate spade. depression really knows no demographic boundaries and for those of us who have had loved ones or friends struggling with depression, it's such an extraordinarily difficult battle and that's why it's so important that we bring mental health discussions out of the closet

into the light and focus on the mental health of those who live here. >> you don't know what people are carrying around with them. whatever they project publicly, whatever they project when you see them or meet them, you don't know what they're carrying around and that stat you pointed to, it's on the front page of the "new york times" today in 2016 there were twice as many suicides in america than there were homicides and anthony bourdain is a guy i had on my sunday show. we went to a food truck, a taco truck, we went to a korean barbecue place and i didn't think of anybody more full of life in that setting but it goes to your point where you don't know what's happening in the darkness of your private life and i'm so sad for him he was such a force and such a smart and funny and flawed guy and was so open about his flaws.

this is a big loss this morning with anthony bourdain. >> mika, as willie said like cancer, depression and other mental health challenges are so often hidden and, again, it's the most important thing to tell people this morning that we tell our loved ones, that everybody should tell their loved ones is that you need to talk about it, you need to confront it head on and you need to seek help. this is something we need to talk about today with suicide rates going up. we need to have that discussion. >> and you're talking about one of many diagnosed mental illn s illnesses which are very real and prevalent across the

country. another thing to put in here, though, is the need to stay connected with people. because a look at the suicide data from '96 through 2016 in the front page of the "new york times" report found that 54% of the people who killed themselves did not have a previously known mental health issue but had other factors including relationship stress, substance abuse and financial problems so we're dealing with two different problems, the prevalence of mental health issues and understanding them and learning about them and bringing them out of the shadows so people can be connected and help each other and understand what they're seeing. but also staying connected with the people you love, the people you care about because i think we can be so disconnected given technology and the way we travel and move around so much that you don't notice when someone is struggling. >> and mika, if you want to know

how powerful depression is, anthony bourdain, like kate spade, has a young daughter. she's either 10 or 11 i think and i thought about her immediately because when i interviewed him he talked about how she had changed him and changed his life. he had been very open about how he lived out loud and had struggles with drugs and alcohol but this beautiful young girl changed him and he talked about cooking in the kitchen and she was his best chef. that tells you the power of depression that you can think it better to leave this world than to stay in it with someone you love so much. >> anthony bourdain was 61. we'll be right back. there is no going back. everything's changed. we're not on an island anymore. genetic power has now been unleashed.

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we are a week away from michael cohen's legal team june 15th deadline coming through

documents seized back in april. joining us now, senior reporter at "vanity fair," emily jane fox. emily is out with new reporting in a piece entitled, "that spell may be starting to wear off." talking to the feds, michael cohen faces growing pressure. let's talk about that spell. what is the spell? by the way, do the trump women, are they under the same spell? >> i think a lot of people in president trump's orbit are under this spell. >> when i say trump women, i mean, daughter, wife and also anybody who works in the white house who is a woman. i don't know how they have their, nicolle wallace said, dead inside. >> ivanka trump, her ability to

co compartmentalize. >> what is the point of it? >> so she can survive. >> survive or thrive? >> both. i think as a child, it was about survival, getting through her parents public and ugly divorce to be a functional child and human being and grow up. now, she's using it to her professional advantage. >> i digress, but it's fascinating. >> emily, you and i speak to michael a lot. how would you describe his latest mind set? >> from all my reporting and conversations we have had, the pressure is mounting. it is not going to get easier for him. he has a legal deadline that is a week away. he's not getting support from anyone in washington. in fact, people in washington are saying things that are detrimental to him and his case. that puts someone on edge and doesn't make them feel like they have a lot of support. when you don't feel like you

have a lot of support, do you want to put your life and family on the line? >> he can't understand it. he knows what he knows. and he knows donald trump knows what he knows. so, he can't logic it out, how are they not behind me and i said this yesterday, he's an angry guy at this point. he feels he's been very loyal and that has not been shown back. i wonder from a gamesmanship point of view what trump is thinking, putting him in that position. it would seem suicidal. >> yeah. >> would michael cohen flip on the president? the question for me now is, how would he not flip? i mean, he's been totally abandoned, left here in new york on his own. is there a universe which he doesn't cooperate and work with mueller and the fbi? >> it's difficult to predict what happens in this universe in general.

thinking about it logically, for someone to go out and ruin their entire life for someone who is clearly not doing that for you does not seem like a logical step. you have the what's going on in washington and the lack of support and someone like keith davidson, who i reported last night was in new york to talk to prosecutors. the pressure is not just coming out of whatever he feels is disloyalty in washington, there's actual legal stuff that is happening and putting pressure on him. >> i wonder if he's surprised about the people who are flipping on him, who are talking about him? he was used to being someone who is an enforcer. i wonder how he feels about that and how many other people can come forward who he has done, you know, questionable things to. >> i think the unknown is probably the most difficult thing right now and that causes people to feel a little more helpless in the situation and could potentially lead to

movement going forward. >> it's incredible. emily jane fox. thank you for your reporting. i'm so excited about your book. it comes out -- >> june 19th. >> june 19th. >> i think it's going to be bigger than michael wolf's book. it's much juicier and because it's about the kids in their family, appeals to a wider group. >> every detail. president trump is set to depart the white house at any moment headed to the g-7 as he feuds with allies threatening to make it a g-6. the president is expected to leave that summit early for a meeting with kim jong-un and apparently, he plans to wing it. plus, rudy giuliani is checked by the secretary of state and the first lady's office. "morning joe" is coming back. ea. carl? lowest price guaranteed. what about the world's lowest limbo stick?

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face-to-face with the american allies he has been attacking on twitter. back here at home, rudy giuliani keeps on talking. both the secretary of state and the first lady say they have heard enough. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, june 8th. along with joe, willie and me, we have republican strategist and msnbc political analyst, susan. don a donnie deutsche is with us. jonathan la mere and jim vand hide and washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay joins us. before we begin, joe, i wanted to start the show pointing to your column in the "washington post" because, while i loved the message and i think it's worth repeating, it was one of those moments where i thought, oh, my god, that all just happened this week? it is the shock, the shocks keep coming. >> the shocks do keep coming.

it is pretty remarkable. i remember when i first started writing for "the washington post," i asked gene robinson, when do you start preparing for this? he said used to be i come up with an idea a couple days before and sketch it out. he said, as you are probably finding out, so much happens every day that you have to wake up every morning and write the day of the deadline. you look at the column this week and look at all the remarkable claims that were made by the trump white house, all the constitutional claims that were made by the trump white house, everything that's happened, that happened this week is quite stunning that the president's claiming he can kill investigations if he wants to. rudy giuliani is claiming he can kill fbi directors, if he wanted to and the president wouldn't be indicted as long as he was in office and the president can pardon himself. what i did in the column is went

back and took every one of those claims and showed how not only they are unconstitutional, it had been ruled unconstitutional, but also how some claims were undermined by donald trump's and rudy giuliani's own words. for those who feel a sense of dispair, i recommend you remember what jon meacham told us, which is to go back and to remember our past, to study our past is to be armed against dispair in the present. i believe the piece with "esquire" that said we are redeemable as a country and we have to remember that and keep our heads down and do our jobs. >> well, having said that, let's go on to the next shocking day of news. president trump's attorney, rudy giuliani, has been talking a lot this week. we have been horrified by it.

now, some trump administration officials and other republicans are pushing back at what he is saying as well. while in israel, giuliani stated that north korea's kim jong-un begged on his hands and knees for a summit with president trump. >> somehow, north korea, after he canceling the summit because they insulted the vice president, insulted the national security adviser and said they were going 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 on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is the position you want him in. >> he later said it wauz metaphore. here is how mike pompeo responded when asked if the comment could jeopardize negotiations with north korea.

>> i know rudy. rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and set of issues. >> yeah, no. also, yesterday, first lady melania trump pushed back at these comments from giuliani on stormy daniels. >> she believes in her husband, she knows it's not true. i don't think there's a slight suspicion it's true when you, excuse me, when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump. >> let's respect her. >> look at his three wives, 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 with 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. >> yesterday, a spokesperson for the first lady said in a statement, i don't believe mrs. trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with mr. giuliani. >> that's rather broad. >> that would keep it clear they want nothing to do with his disgusting massage nistic foolish statement, which we have talked about enough, but it's worth repeating that this guy is as bad as it gets when it comes to his views on women and he represents the president. republican senator -- >> well, hold on. hold a second. willie geist, it bears repeating about rudy giuliani. look at how this guy has improperly inserted himself not only in the mueller investigation saying things that

are constitutionally inaccurate and hurt the president's cause, but he's interfered with the work ott president and the national security adviser and the secretary of state by saying stupid comments that, again, they had to disassociate themselves with and inserting himself with his stupid comments, the president's marriage and the first lady clearly it could not have been more explicit in saying he doesn't speak for her. he hasn't talked to him about, quote, anything. it bears -- it bears reminding viewers and i know for those of us who have spent a lot of time in new york, it bears reminding viewers that this is a guy who not only guided new york through 9/11 in an admirable, i thought, remarkable way, but also, as i wrote in one of my columns, a

column that rudy giuliani attacked, called me stupid and reminded me i had never been knighted by the queen of england. one of the great achievements of the 20th century was the turn around of new york city by giuliani and bill braden. this is a guy who achieved great things. it's remarkable. he's not even a shadow of himself now. >> yeah, he's not. the thing we have to remember, though, he is doing this with the explicit or at least endorsement of president trump. president trump could stop this anytime. he could call rudy giuliani and say, knock it off. he could pull him off tv. he could say rudy giuliani doesn't speak for me anymore. for all of criticisms of the trump administration, there are serious people trying to do serious things. mike pompeo is one of them. he's at the forefront of setting up the summit.

to have rudy giuliani freelancing on a trip in tel-aviv and undoing the work serious people are doing, it is nottage bad for president trump, but for the country. president trump could stop this. he likes this. he likes it pot is being stirred. you talked to rudy yesterday, jonathan. a lot of people noted and donney can talk about this, too, rudy is happy to be back on the stage, back on tv all the time. >> there's a difference between what he's supposed to be doing and what he is actually doing. an argument can be made that his mission, the legal attack dogs, the republican face of his defense team is being somewhat effective. the president wanted him to go out and muddy the waters, undermine the credibility of donald trump, whether it's james comey or robert mueller. he is out there moving the goalposts of this investigation, making declarations like oh, the

special counsel says this will wrap up by september 1st or it will be limited in size and scope. mueller hasn't said those things. giuliani seized on these ideas, he's trying to influence the public and lawmakers about this probe. but, he keeps getting himself in trouble with comments like this about the first lady. in our reporting, the president, to this point is okay with giuliani being out there but patience is wearing thin elsewhere in the west wing. >> donny, you know pr very, very well. if you keep making claims, when you are running gms account, if you said this car is fantastic, not only are you going to get 36 miles to the gallon, but press a button and it flies, you can fly over traffic. you can fly right home. then, the ceo says, well, that's

not really true. then you make ten statements like this. this chevy, you get in the car, it's fantastic. it can take turns at 45 miles an hour, stays low to the ground. also, it reverses male pattern baldness. the ceo has to say, no, you might have to get rogain, but this car will make that turn, but there are some things -- i mean, at some point, donny, you become baghdad bob. at some point people tune you out. at some point you hurt. all his claims don't scare robert mueller. robert mueller looks at him and says what we say, my god, think what this guy used to be, now he's just a clown. i'm not saying that. i'm sure that mueller's team is saying that. they have to be looking at this guy going, what happened to rudy, he turned himself into a

clown. >> a dangerous clown, pathetic and piggish clown. in the last five days, beyond trump, what's come out of his mouth is a lie about kim jong-un being on his hands and knees. putting that summit at risk. in the most disgusting, vile way talking about stormy daniels that she doesn't rate as a woman because of how she is a woman. how dare you. also commenting on her looks. i love the ash tor of what is physically attractive, when you look at them. rudy giuliani is actually difficult to look at and the comment the president can pardon himself. disgusting, reprehensible. the reason the ceo doesn't come down on his mouthpiece, we know the ceo is the gold medalist, versus the silver medalist.

talking advertising and pr, if i was doing ads for count chocula, i would have to go through so much more intense process of what i can and can't say. oh, no, you can't say it's got 9% chocolate if it's only got 8%. based on what people do on shows like this, giuliani and trump can continue to go out there with no accountability. it's stunning. your point about mueller, none is going to matter in court. it is going to matter in this election. i believe, although we see the 40% holding strong, american people are going to stand-up. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> what are you doing to prepare? >> i'm well prepared. i don't have to prepare much. it's about attitude and willingness to get things done. >> our next guest says north korea is preparing for next week's summit and it's been doing so for 45 years. we'll talk about that straight

ahead on "morning joe." first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> mika, everyone in the mid-atlantic deserves a nice weekend. unfortunately, we are dodging the rain drops once again. three, four weekends in a row. fast forward. saturday, 7:00 a.m., we start out fine. look here. the showers and thunderstorms pop up over the nation's capital, richmond, pittsburgh. indianapolis, same for you. detroit dodging the rain drops. sunday, actually, is worse. we start out okay, kind of cloudy and cooler. look at the green and yellow on the map. that's rain and thunderstorms from cincinnati and pittsburgh and heading through the nation's capitol. keep that in mind from now to 4:00 p.m. saturday is the best in the mid-atlantic. heaviest rainfall, 1-2 inches. the rivers came down this week. today's forecast, severe thunderstorms. we are warm throughout the middle of the country. we dodge the typical afternoon

storms through southeast this weekend. this is saturday's forecast. notice 100 in kansas. we can't catch a break. a very warm may, now an extremely warm june. finishing up, sunday, more rain in the mid-atlantic. from philadelphia to new york city, you are dry all weekend long. that forecast changed a little bit this week. it was for you, much better improvement. new york city, one of those areas we are going to watch dry weather all weekend long. that means justify at the belmont will not be running on a muddy track this time. we'll have to see if he can get it done. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. your thing. get all the good stuff about tv 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.

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what are you doing to prepare for the summit? >> i think i'm well prepared. i don't have to prepare much. it's about attitude and willingness to get things done. i have been preparing for the summit for a long time as has the other side. they have been preparing for a long time, also. so, this isn't a question of

preparation, it's a question of whether or not people want it to happen and we'll know that very quickly. >> president trump said yesterday he is not doing much to get ready for a meeting with the dictator of north korea. joining us now, senior adviser and korea chair at csis and msnbc korean affairs analyst, victor cha. i think we should ask for your response to what you just heard from the president. >> well, the president may not be preparing for this, mika, but the north koreans have been preparing for it for 45 years, a meeting with the u.s. president. you have to be prepared. i don't know what else you can say about that. my understanding is he has been briefed about this, the president has, at least an hour every day. that counts as preparation. if you don't prepare, there are a lot of trap doors the north koreans will lay open. we want to make sure he doesn't fall into them. >> let's bring in a military

reporter, courtney has new reporting on how china technically won't be at the summit, but will be at the summit. good morning. good to see you. obviously, china has a great interest in what is going on here. how do they plan to be there, in effect? >> china has an extensive and pervasive surveillance all over the world. this is a case where they are going to want to know what is happening in that summit. the u.s. is preparing for that. we should say, this certainly wouldn't be the first time u.s. meetings overseas or here in the united states have had to be wary and american delegation have had to be wary of the fact the chinese are trying to listen. the story that i put together with carol lee and andrea mitchell talks about past cases and what to expect at the summit. at president trump's meeting in beijing in 2017, there were friendship pins which showed flags from each country.

they were warned, they could have listening devices or tracking devices in them. be wary of wearing them into any place that is a secure location and wary of talking when wearing them. there are cases where the chinese are believed to have bugged credential, hotel key cards of american officials that have been found to have microphones in there. so, you know, of course american security officials in singapore, preparing for it are doing things to prepare. they are warning americans not to speak openly in bars and restaurants around the summit location. it's possible the chinese could have co-opted or have informatst working in them. it's a way the chinese are trying to figure out what is happening at the summit. coming up on "morning joe," another day, another story about scott pruitt. this time, the e.p.a. chief is facing scrutiny over his favorite moisturizer. he wants it for free.

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pruitt continues to grow with two new reports. according to t"the washington post," he had members of the 2014 security team run errands for him sending two individuals familiar with the trips said that included picking up dry cleaning and taking him in search of his favorite moisturizer. >> can we stop on that? let's stop on that. a little known fact, willie, anybody, as i have explained to the show before, in the middle of sandberg's biography of abraham lincoln, what do you think he was doing before he delivered the gettysburg address? a speech that still lives. what did they say, the three most important things before you deliver a speech? moisturizer, moisturizer, moisturizer. >> that's it. >> this guy has his priorities straight.

it goes back to the great greek poets proven by lincoln and now pruitt. >> this isn't just any moisturizer. the paper says he directed agents to drive him to multiple locations in search of a particular location offered at ritz-carlton hotels. meanwhile, the daily beast is reporting they fetch him to get favorite things. he was known to send staffers on food runs to get protein bars. the sources say pruitt is fond of finger food from dean and deluca and particular about his coffee. pruitt often directed an aide to brew him pour over coffee as to run of the mill brewing methods. revelations about his habits are not sitting well with some republican lawmakers.

>> the appearance of inproprietary matters. the waste of taxpayer money matters. if you can't use good judgment and put taxpayers first, it's time to find another line of work. it keeps oncoming. i think he's hurting the president and therefore hurting the country. some of these things that mr. pruitt has done, i know some of them are allegations, some are facts, he is acting like a moron. he needs to stop it. >> he is really abusing his position of power and that is truly what i said. it's about a small issue. >> let's turn to the high end moisturizer correspondent, donny deutsche. you moisturize from stem to stern. >> before moisturizing, he's lubricating himself, by the way. we are not draining the swamp.

>> come on, stop it. stop it. >> before we mock this man, okay, i want to know the head of the e.p.a. is moisturized. i think it's important for all of us. the thought of him having a little chafe, before we -- i know you can be rough on people. step back. i'm serious, the ritz-carlton thing, it has a certain scent to it. >> we are going to talk about pruitt's moisturize ner a moment. we'll continue with that. we have breaking news, president trump on the way to the g-7 summit. he spoke to reporters outside the white house. we are going to play those comments for you right now. take a look. >> mr. president? >> it seems it's coming out on my birthday. maybe that's appropriate.

a very dishonest man. i have been saying it for a long time. i think i did our country a great fire, a really great favor when i fired him. we'll see what the report says. i guess it is coming out on june 14th. so, that will be maybe a nice birthday present, who knows. [ inaudible question ] >> we are going to deal with the unfair trade practices. if you look at what canada, mexico, the european union, all of them have been doing, it's many, many decades. we have to change it. they understand it's going to happen. >> what are you doing to do if they leave without you? >> we are going to do very well. now, if we are unable to make a deal, we will terminate nafta and have a better deal. if we are unable to make a deal, we will be better off. right now, we are not going to live with the deals the way they

are. european union treats us very unfairly. canada, very unfairly. mexico, very unfairly. with that being said, i think we'll probably very easily make a deal. go ahead. >> were you serious about not needing to prepare -- >> i didn't say that. i said i have been preparing all my life. i always believe in preparation. i have been preparing all my life. you know, these one week preparations don't work. just ask hillary what happened to her in the debates. so, i have been preparing for this all my life. frankly, it's just fake news because if you run, peter, just a little longer the clip, you would see i have been preparing all my life. i said that. but, the news doesn't pick that up because it's fake news. [ inaudible question ] >> it's very interesting they caught a leaker and very important -- it's a very important leaker.

so, it's very interesting. i'm getting information on it now. happened last night. it could be a terrific thing. i know i believe strongly in freedom of the press. i'm a big, big believer in freedom of the press, but also a believer in classified information, has to remain classified. that includes comey and his band of thieves who leaked all over the place. i'm a big believer in freedom of the press and a believer you cannot leak classified information. >> do you have a reaction to -- >> i think it's very sad. in fact, i want to extend to his family my heart felt condolences. i was very shocked. when i woke up this morning, anthony bourdain is dead. i enjoyed his show. he was quite a character, i will say. i just want to extend my

condolences and also to the family of kate spade. [ inaudible question ] >> maybe. you could call it anything you want. it doesn't matter. it doesn't matter what you call it. it used to be the g-8 because russia was in it. now, russia is not in it. now, i love our country. i have been russian's worst nightmare. if hillary got in, i think putin is going, man, i wish hillary won because you see what i do. but, with that being said, russia should be in the meeting. why are we having a meeting without russia in the meeting? i would recommend and it's up to them, but russia should be in the meeting and should be a part of it. you know, whether you like it or not, it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. in the g-7, which used to be the

g-8, they threw russia out. they should let russia come back in because we should have russia at the negotiating table. [ inaudible question ] >> what? [ inaudible question ] >> i may leave a little bit early, depends on the timing. i may leave a little bit early. it depends what happens here. look, all of these countries have been taking advantage of the united states. canada and dairy farmers, 270% tariffs. we don't charge them or if we do, it's like a tiny percentage. we have to straighten it out. we have massive trade deficits with almost every country. we will straighten that out. i'll tell you what, it's what i do. it won't be hard. in the end, we will all get along. they understand.

you know, they are trying to act like, well, we fought with you in the war. they don't mention the fact that they have trade barriers against our farmers. they don't mention the fact that they are judging almost 300% tariffs when it all straightens out, we'll all be in love again. [ inaudible question ] >> there will be more pardons. i thought alice yesterday was beautiful. i thought jack johnson, which was recommended by sylvester stallone and great boxers, i thought jack johnson was a great one. i'm thinking about somebody that you all know very well. he went through a lot. he wasn't very popular then. >> is it o.j.? >> he wasn't very popular? >> no, i'm not thinking about o.j. he's not -- only you could say o.j. he was, look, he was not very popular then. he certainly, his memory is very

popular now. i'm thinking about mohammed ally. i'm thinking about that very seriously and some others and some folks that have sentences that aren't there. but, i am thinking about mohammed ally. >> what will it take -- >> we are doing, right now, recommendations on, you know, frankly, we are doing recommendations on mohammed ally. say it peter, what? [ inaudible question ] >> no, no, i'm not above the law. i never want anybody to be above the law. but the pardons are a positive thing for a president. i think you see the way i'm using them. yes, i do have an absolute right to pardon myself, but i'll never have to do it because i didn't do anything wrong and everybody knows it. there's been no collusion. there's been no obstruction. it's all a made-up fantasy. it's a witch hunt. no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing. now, the democrats have had

massive collusion, massive obstruction and they should be investigated for what's happening. yeah? [ inaudible question ] >> i haven't even thought about it. i haven't thought about any of it. it's certainly far too early to think about that. they haven't been convicted of anything. there's nothing to pardon. it's far too early to be thinking about it. >> what will it take for you to get tired of -- >> scott pruitt is doing a great job within the walls of the e.p.a. we are setting records outside. he is being attacked viciously by the press. i'm not saying he is blameless, but we'll see what happens. >> are you not tired of him? [ inaudible question ] >> that's what i want to do. we have 3,000 names. we are looking at them. of the 3,000 names, many of those names really have been

treated unfairly. this is a group of 3,000 we have assembled. i would get more thrill out of pardoning people nobody knows, like alice, yesterday. i thought kim kardashian was great because she brought alice to my attention. she was so great. the way she left that jail and the tears and love she has for her family, i mean, to me, that was better than any celebrity that i can pardon. so, we are looking at it. but we are looking at, literally, thousands of names of people that have come to our attention that have been treated unfairly or where their sentence is far too long. >> lebron james and -- not coming to the white house. >> i didn't invite them. i didn't invite lebron james or instead of curry. we are not going to invite the teams. we have other teams coming. we had alabama national

champions. we had clemson national champions. we had the penguins last year. i think we'll have the caps. i mean, we'll see. if they want to be here, it's the greatest place on earth, i'm here. if they don't want to be here, i don't want them. [ inaudible question ] >> if you look at what paul ryan is saying, it didn't come out that way. the fact is, they had people in our campaign. they had people doing things that have never been done in the history of our country and it is a disgrace. frankly, that stuff is just coming out. [ inaudible question ] >> fire who? [ inaudible ] >> we'll see what happens. we'll see what happens. >> what do you think about saying you are a shoe in to win again. >> what? >> mitt romney saying you are

going to find it easy to win again? >> mitt is a straight shooter, whether you love him or don't, mitt romney is a straight shooter. he had nice things to say, i appreciate that. that's good. [ inaudible question ] >> i love canada, but they treat us very unfairly on trade. very, very unfairly. you see the numbers. almost 300% on dairy. so, they treat us very unfairly. are you guys all going? you better get going, peter. we'll leave without you. [ inaudible question ] >> i would only do a deal if i get it through congress. i wouldn't do like obama did. unfortunately, he wasn't able to get it through. he tried to get it through, the iran deal. he tried to get it through congress, failed, so he did it witho without, which is why i was able to break it up so easily.

iran is a much different country since i signed it out, iran is a much different country. [ inaudible question ] >> i really do. i support senator gardner. i know exactly what he is doing. we are looking at it. i probably will support that, yes. >> first lady is great. right there. she has to and she wanted to go. she can't fly for one month. >> why not? >> the doctors say. she had a big operation, close to a four-hour operation and she's doing great. right there. you know what? she is a great first lady. [ inaudible question ] >> terrible. we'll be talking to them, but that's terrible. any other questions?

[ inaudible question ] >> one of my lawyers. incredible that you can break into a lawyer's office. that's one thing i can say. i think that was unfortunate that they broke into a lawyer's office. not a good practice. [ inaudible question ] >> the democrats, this is a democrat bill. the democrats could end it quickly. all they have to do is sit down with us and negotiate a real deal that allows us to keep criminals out of this country. it's very easy. you know, schumer is a guy who complains but doesn't do anything. schumer is a guy who is an obstructer. he can't do anything but obstruct. call us and we'll draw a bill to give great border security and safety that is fair. i don't like the children separated from the children. i don't like it. i hate it. that's a democrat bill that we are enforcing. we can change it in one day.

all they have to do is come and see us. [ inaudible question ] >> i can't hear your question. too much competition. go ahead. you are not prepared. i can't believe she's not prepared. they are shocked, right? [ inaudible question ] >> we'll bring it up, yeah, we'll bring it up. [ inaudible question ] >> i have work. i have about 15 boxes of work. i will be able to work without being bothered by phone calls where you people are writing fake stories about me and we have to respond. seriously, i have a lot of work that's on the plane. >> are you worried about what rudy is saying? >> rudy is great. rudy is rudy. rudy is doing a very good job, excellent. [ inaudible question ] >> he said what?

[ inaudible ] >> i'm not going to disagree with him on that. i can't hear a word you are saying. >> dennis rodman invited to north korea? >> no, he wasn't, but i like him. great rebounder. dennis was a great rebounder and he wasn't that tall. that tells you, there's a rebounding, there's a genius for that. dennis rodman was a great rebounder. one thing we are thinking about, speaking of sports stars, the power to pardon is a beautiful thing. you have to get it right. you have to get the right people. i am looking at mohammed ally. those are the famous people. in one way, it's easier and people find it fascinating, but i want to do people that are unfairly treated, like an alice where she comes out into

something beautiful. what i'm thinking to do, you have a lot of people in the nfl, in particular, but in sports leagues, they are not proud enough to stand for our national anthem. i don't like that. what i'm going to do is, i'm going to say to them, instead of talk, it's all talk, talk, talk, we have a great country, you should stand for our national anthem. you shouldn't go into a locker room when the national anthem is played. i'm going to ask all of those people to recommend to me, because that's what they are protesting, people they think were unfairly treated by the justice system. i understand that. i'm going to ask them to recommend to me people that were unfairly treated, friends of theirs or people they know about and i'm going to take a look at those applications and if i find and my committee finds they are unfairly treated, then we will pardon them or, at least let

them out. >> will you invite them to the white house? >> you know, i don't have to do that. not looking to grand stand. we have enough grand standers in this town. i'm saying, for the leagues, if they have players or friends or people they know about that have been unfairly treated by the system, let me know. [ inaudible question ] >> you know, if you think about it, that becomes celebrity advocate. they know a lot of things that we are not going to know. they have seen a lot of abuse and they have seen a lot of unfairness. if they have, how do you like that idea, david? [ inaudible question ] >> i have the absolute right. i don't have to do it. never did anything wrong. you know that better than anybody. >> are you concerned about the -- >> i think you have a double edge. reporters can't leak.

you cannot leak classified information. at the same time, we need freedom of the press. you cannot leak, like hillary clinton did, like comey did, you cannot leak classified information. if you look at the dossier, he went to jail over not classified, a much lower level. it's very unfair he goes to jail and comey is allowed to do it all over. thank you much. i'll see you in canada. >> okay. that was president trump outside the white house. he's on his way to the g-7. members of his administration and cabinet watching with what appears to be concern on his faces as he goes through about a 20-point rant. i'll try to get the list. keep me real here. he talked about james comey, called him a dishonest man. he says it report is coming out june 14th, his birthday and

might be a birthday present for him. russia should be let back into the g-7 and it should be the g-8. russia is -- he is russia's worst nightmare. he is considering pardoning mohammed ali. you looked into that, may not be necessary. >> his conviction was overturned by the supreme court in 1971, so, it's not clear what he would pardon him for. >> he talked about pardons, kim kardashian coming to the white house. kim is great. he ranted on trade. he ranted against canada. he talked about freedom of the press and he believes in it and told all these reporters in front of him they report fake news. he says he has the absolute right to pardon. he says scott pruitt is doing a great job. he said something nonsensical about paul ryan. he was asked if he was going to

fire sessions or someone, he said we'll see what happens. he said mitt romney is a straight shooter. he talked about the iran deal and says since he pulled out of it, iran is now a completely different country. he said melania had a big operation and she was right there in the white house and she's doing great. he talked about michael cohen and how the feds broke into his office and how incredible it was the feds broke into his office. fact check there, they did not break into his office. >> they executed a search warrant. >> that is not accurate, correct. he accused reporters of writing more fake stories. he said rudy is rudy about his comments. rudy is great and he doesn't disagree about what he said about porn stars. joe, i could go on. that seems to -- >> there's so much here. we have all seen presidents come out saying we are keeping -- keeping these things under

advisement. this is pretty me markable. by the way, michael cohen, himself said he office wasn't broken into. the fbi treated him with great respect. i think it was interesting, willie geist, we also learned the president's feelings about dennis rodman and -- >> said he was a genius. >> he did slight lebron james and others, threw props to kim kardashian. he said also very interesting. i think this was donald trump attempting to reach out to some of these nfl players and try to defuse that situation. first he started by attacking the nfl and those players that wanted to kneel, but then interestingly enough said if they knew of anyone who had been unfairly treated or been abused in the criminal justice system, to send those names to him and actually said these nfl players that are protesting have, quote,

seen a lot of abuse and a lot of unfairness, and he would be glad to consider them for pardons. so willie, despite the fact there were all of these sort of fog machine effects that were thrown out there, the bottom line here is, the huge headline is that this president, this american president, who spent the past week attacking canada, attacking france, attacking germany, attacking our closest allies in the g-7, actually did the bidding for vladimir putin's russia, suggesting that they be admitted back into the g-7 and turn it back to the g-8. despite the fact they'd invaded ukraine, they've invaded georgia, they are poisoning dissidents on our ally's soil and doing nothing to justify

their readmitant into the g-7. so that will be the massive takeaway here. >> the president was almost ind indignat, asking the question. they were thrown out of the g-8 because they annexed crimea. that's why obama, other members of the g-8, said you can't be a part of our group if you're going to do things like that and it's only gotten worse since then for russia. let's go to peter alexander who you saw asking many of the questions in that extraordinary press gathering there. peter, russia will be the headline. president trump suggesting and actually asking that russia be readmitted to once again make the g-7 be the g-8. >> his exact language was why are we having this meeting without russia, we have a world to run. striking comments as he heads into this meeting with the g-7,

as there's significant tension over trade, over a variety of other issues. here he is now, again clashing with allies in europe and asia, suggesting that russia and vladimir putin should be reallowed back in. just to add to that laundry list of sort of headlines that we saw here, and i was among those peppering him with questions. you could hear him shout out fake news at one point. saying he never said i wasn't prepared, i've been prepared for this my whole life, he said. on scott pruitt, the epa administrator, he said he is doing a good job but he also said he'll not blameless. i was struck by what he said about mitt romney. he said he's a straight shooter. when we said to him, well, mitt romney said you were a con man just a couple of years ago. he said, well, i like what he's saying right now. this is president trump in his finest in effect, in his own

eyes, where he throws all sorts of little grenades all over the place and has everybody chase but i think russia will certainly be the headline out of it today. >> thank you, peter. >> susan glouser's latest speech is entitled, under trump, america first, is really turning out to be america alone. susan, just watching the president speak and trying to keep track with this tirade of topics, some of which were twisted and the others seemed to have an agenda. does it play into your article and the point you're making? >> as a longtime russia watcher, i spent four years in moscow, russian watcher's heads are exploding watching president trump make those comments this morning, demanding that vladimir putin be given his seat back at the table of the g-7. why is he doing that? because trump realizes he is

america alone at this moment in time. he's picked an extraordinary fight with america's closest allies. i have to say, you know, it's amazing to watch the fog machine at work. you know, we shouldn't be talking about kim kardashian, we should be talking about the fact that donald trump has in a very short amount of time, really, speaking, managed to blow up and severely damage america's relationship with its closest allies and partners. i reported in this article that germany is so worried that america might go from being friend to adversary, they've launched an effort to make their first ever america strategy. they need a plan for america as if it was like russia or china. obviously his fellow world leaders are not going to be inclined to agree. but it's an amazing statement this morning.

>> it really is. >> i'm just imagining macron, trudeau, sitting there, kind of smacking their heads saying, wow, we've got 45 minutes to digest the response, saying here is donald trump, saying russia should be allowed back into the g-7. they're all big economies but they're democracies as well. you could make the argument if anyone is allowed in, it would be china. how are these world leaders going to respond, susan, do you think? because i've got the impression from the statements they've made over the last few days, particularly emmanuel macron and justin trudeau, that they are thinking it's time for more robust public reaction to donald trump than they've had over the last year and a half. >> well, look, trump is amazing at changing the story. last night, he was basically in a twitter war with the president of france and the prime minister of canada. i think that they have decided

to push back more. one thing i think it strikes me that trump and his allies here in the u.s. have failed to understand is that where the politics here might be supporting trump or he thinks his base is cheering him on when he talks tough about other world leaders, he hasn't accounted for the politics of these fellow world leaders. guess what, donald trump is extraordinarily unpopular in france, in germany, in canada. those world leaders have a huge political incentive to finally stand up to trump. the problem is they seem to be more deeply invested in the american-led world order than the american president does. so that's part of the reason they haven't gone, you know, guns blazing at him despite a year and a half of insults and dignities. i just can't stress enough this is unprecedented. these summits have been taking place since 1975. there's never been anything like this. you have the american president basically seeking to blow up a

summit in which he has long played and is expected to play the leading role. >> wow, susan glouser, thank you so much. we'll be reading your latest letter online at the new yorker.com. we look forward to having you on fridays on "morning joe." >> yes, you've followed trump long enough to know for him he has an erratic personality and leadership style. the day before he was sworn in, he told his staff member, let's look at every day like it's a reality tv show. sometimes at the end of that reality show, donald trump doesn't fire who you expect him to fire. sometimes there's a surprise. the fact is, we really don't know what's going to happen. when he gets to canada, it could be the donald trump that pushes aside leaders of other countries to get in the center. or the donald trump that hugs macron all weekend like he did in washington. >> that's right, it changes moment to moment. it's always a short-term strategy with this president.

it's not just what's going to happen in canada. it's his next stop in singapore when he sits down with kim jong-un. with that sort of degree of unpredictability that we just saw on display there on the south lawn of the white house. that's what makes american allies so nervous. that's what makes macron, others, so anxious in canada. it's also why our allies are so nervous. >> joe, you remember when you asked me next week, as trump's antics, is america going to wear thin? you just said it was my very response. he can turn something like the g-7 and g-8 into what's going to happen. into intrigue. and an ththat is why we continu lean in and to susan's point, he is also a master. instead of the villain going with our allies, it's what is he saying about russia. he is literally producing a daily show that is, unfortunately, imminently watchable, but frightening. >> you go back to december 2015

where donald trump defended vladimir putin and we were shock and we continued pushing him on it. again, we've always said it doesn't make sense. that didn't make sense, this doesn't make sense. vladimir putin has something on donald trump. >> we'll leave it right there. because that's definitely the one -- >> bingo. >> -- deducement we can make from everything we heard. which is quite a medley of concepts and mixed up facts from the president of the united states. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. >> hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning, america first or america all alone. the president has some tough words as he departs the white house for the g-7 summit. >> if we are unable to make a deal, we will be better off right now. we are not going to live with the deals the way they are. >> but even before touching down, the president