"daily beast". >> hold on a second. hey, ayman. >> what? >> japan, man! >> just talking -- >> what happened? >> man a complete and utter collapse. >> japan? come over -- yeah. look at that. he's at the louis burgdorf hollywood desk. come over to husband. a pan of 2-0. second half. looked totally in charge to have a commanding 2-0 lead against belgium, 35 minutes to go in the game. >> insane. >> yeah. exactly. a complete collapse. at that level of the world cup, completely heartbreaking. to belgium's credit, they knew they had a fighting spirit. considered one of the fathe favd showed why. >> the last goal, amazing. >> here we are. i mean, it's judst -- japan goe up 2-0 at the half. >> the final goal is as close as you get to a soccer buzzer-beater.

literally in extra time, end of the second half with, like, four seconds to go, i think. and it just showed you again, right here. the final goal. if you look at the clock. >> oh, my lord. >> and it was just a complete capitulation by the japanese defense. charged too much. going for a big goal. should have played defensively. done what russia did playing for 90 minutes. >> two buses. the thing is, japan, saying it all along. a team that's played the same way, you know. always forward. always pushing. but an incredible match. supposed to be the best. belgium, ranked number one by a lot of people in the power rankings. >> yeah. calling this the golden generation of belgium soccer players. at least five or six players starting in top european flights, clubs, i should say and a lot of expecting them to make a run. have to play brazil. a tough road ahead of them. >> today -- >> england fan, watching all the pubs in new york f. you're an

england fan? what do you mean? we're all england fans. >> especially on independence day. right? >> especially. >> all right. thank you, ayman. >> anytime, guys. >> adorable. with us, president of formulations and author of the wang. >> i think he's adorable. >> of course. msnbc contributor emily jane fox is with us. and former chairman of the republican national committee now an msnbc political analyst michael steele, and nbc news national political reporter heidi is with us. great to you have all onboard and a lot of stories to cover. two of our top storied are tied directly to donald trump. >> that's a surprise. >> i know. >> i mean, seriously. >> closure. >> when have you heard that word? >> never. >> getting closer and closer. longtime league fixer michael cohen sending signals to both

prosecutors and the president and it comes down to loyalty. doesn't it always? plus, the president is telling germany to pay up or potentially say good-bye to american troops stationed in the country. in fact, angela merkel is one of several american allies to receive a tough letter from the white house just days before a high stakes summit. >> i'm sure that angela merkel is really shaken up. >> she is. she's -- she's one of those people that you can tell is just sort of -- got a lot of anxiety about donald trump. >> and richard haass, in fact, angela america's probably couldn't care less, other than probably rolling her eyes. i spoke with somebody -- >> doesn't like being laughed at. >> -- close to angela merkel early on and said how does she view donald trump? and this person said, the same way she views vladimir putin. she goes in. she says, oh, mr. trump, you're so this, you're so -- she --

basically she plays to their weaknesses. to their insecurities, but, yeah. i don't think she's concerned about a tough letter from that man. >> fighting for her political life right now. her three-party coalition is on the verge of unraveling. the last thing she needs is this. she basically is swatting it away. he wants to have a conversation about the russian threat. i think she's prepared to have that. >> yeah. she's prepared. we're going to bring in admiral james strabetus in a couple minutes to talk about that. first, michael cohen changing his tune from an unflinching defender of the president to waver iing under the threat of federal charges. his comments to abc news, given it's choice between protecting the president or his own family, "my wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will. i put family and country first."

"vanity fair" reports that cohen viewed the interview as a way of repositioning himself between trump and prosecutors. this as more than 1.3 million items in cohen's files seized by investigators in april and reviewed under court order were turned over to federal prosecutors yesterday. president trump stayed silent about cohen on twitter and the white house stonewalled against questions about cohen's interview. >> is the president worried after his comments this morning that michael cohen is going to flip and considered at all paying mr. cohen's legal fees? >> i'm not going to answer these questions and refer you to the president's outside counsel. >> can you say whether the president watched the interview this morning and how he feels about the idea that his former attorney said he would put his wife, his son, his country ahead of the president?

>> i'm not going to comment. >> the president comments on almost everything. even the most appropriate, and this, nothing. interesting. you have to wonder what exactly the dog whistle is? for a pardon? is it -- he mentioned family and country. that seems very -- pointed. >> yeah. so, emily, tell us. what exactly is the answer? we've heard a lot of people saying for some time that michael cohen was going to protect his family first. but is he sending a message to donald trump now, i want a pa pardon? a message to prosecutors. come on. give me a deal. >> a few things at play in the interview yesterday. there is a very small window of time in which he's no longer represented, or will not be by end of the week by a lawyer who refused to let him do press. a big reason you saw him speak on record. what he's said in the interview

he's said privately for friends for months. the fact he came out, said it publicly, is a huge deal. it is a signal, not necessarily for a pardon. that's not what my reporting shows. it is a signal he is finally ready to say publicly that this is basically what i am going to do. it is a huge shift. i interviewed him last august and he said i would take a bullet for the president. he said to me, he could not walk past trump tower basically without tears coming to his eyes because he misses the president and his family so much. >> how difficult to see one story after another after another reading that donald trump all along considered him to be a stucooge? didn't trust him to go to washington, to even do his campaign work up here. i mean, one story after another, donald trump saying horrible things about michael cohen behind his back when michael cohen's thinking they have a great bond? >> it's only going to get worse. another reason why he spoke up now. he had reason to believe that in

the coming weeks there was going to be an onslaught of people close to the president, around the president now coming after him, his business and character as they've been doing over the last couple of weeks. rudy giuliani making comments that would not help his case and the president saying hurtful things to him. the president was on the white house lawn and said i liked michael sown in the past tense, michael cohen heard that. michael cohen didn't like it and why you're seeing him give an interview saying this. >> and is michael cohen's family chiming in to him about how they feel about all this? because i would think it's got to be very hard for them to watch, and, you know, probably share a very deep concern that he's being taken advantage of and dumped? >> for months him family and closest friends have been saying, no one's looking out for you. you have to look out for yourself. interesting in the last couple of weeks, hearing people around him beginning to hammer in the

message that you could change the narrative from being a villain to a hero. and that is what gave him a little confidence. >> short of the john dean of this. >> exactly. go down in the history books like john dean did, as the guy who took this all down. i think having a lawyer who is not getting in his way. having that message sent to him, and knowing that there's going to be an onslaught against you in the next couple of weeks, in sis why we saw this interview happen on the record for the first time. >> not a word from the president. >> it's funny to me, i guess, that the presumption, we are all assuming it, that he has dirt. like he'll flip and good stuff to throw at trump and take him down. we don't know but suspect there is malicious stuff behind the scenes. realistically, we don't know. >> wait, wait. don't we know -- what is the level? because i know that -- >> about a payment to a porn star or is that not -- >> allegedly without trump's knowledge. just being honest. >> stop. >> it's not --

>> yesterday for the first time in the interview, two things i thought were particularly interesting. things i had heard from the orbit but on the record yesterday. two things that were in there. george stephanopoulos asked him a pointed question about whether or not he was directed. he said at the advice of counsel i'm not answering that. and at the advice of counsel's had den answer a question about the trump tower meeting with don junior and the russians as well. >> oh, that. >> those things in that interview were not an accident. >> let me be clear. i also believe he has a lot of good dirt. it's fun they we're all specula speculating. you would know this better than anyone else. if he wants to cooperate, why not just cooperate? >> there's a process. we're getting to the end of one end of this legal process, where the document review for privileged material was finishing up. it finishes up the end of this week and now we enter new territory. a new lawyer, came from the ndsy division and that's what

happens. >> usually you do this privately behind the scenes and work with attorneys. >> this is not a usual situation. a man who worked for a show man for a very long time and seeing a trumpian playbook at play here. >> at the same time, has to get the phone call from the southern district of new york. >> yes. >> so you're waiting. you don't just go down there and throw yourself and say, please, please -- >> no. >> let me -- >> i'm here for you. >> but, again, prosecutors sometimeless sit back and wait, because they're combing through, what, over 1 million documents? they don't know what they need him for. >> right. >> they don't know what blanks he can fill in. so they'll review and then go to him, and it's kind of great for them that you've got a guy out there that is squirming -- wants to do the deal as much as he does. they make y get a better deal o of him. >> a federal judge ordered former national security adviser mike's flynn to appear in court. first appearance since pleading

guilty to a felony of lying to contacts with a russian ambassador to the united states. the hearing set for next tuesday morning regarding a possible sentence date for flynn. according to politico, the repeated delays in flynt's sentencing led to speculation prosecutors believe his testimony could be useful at a future trial or that the sentencing process myself disclose some aspect of the investigation special counsel robert mueller still wishes to keep secret and news connected to ex trump campaign chairman paul manafort and his longtime aide who was referred to as "my russian brain" according to the "atlantic." >> he told me he was from westport. manafort said that guy's from west port. >> no. and now internal memos and other business records obtained by the associated press purport to show

hoe kilimnik indicted on witness tampering charges worked with manafort to advance russian interests. a reported 2004 memo from kilimnik to manafort details his dire forecast for russia after their failed attempts to manipulate political events in former soviet states. quoting from the a.p. report, records show kilimnik participated in an early manafort plan to influence western politicians and media outlets. a propaganda operation intended to target washington and european capitals and "train a cadre of leaders who can be relied upon in future governments" according to one memo. the records so kilimnik helped conceive strategies that manafort sold to clients and that he served as a key liaison between manafort and principal financial experts offering private briefings in july of

2016 serving as trump campaign chairman. >> is that the guy he owes like $19 million, $20 million to? >> yikes. >> that -- oh, i would -- be a russian oligarch . >> it happens. >> i don't know how but paul manafort does. michael steele, this story shows -- >> such serious allegations. >> i know. >> -- that paul manafort was more than a useful idiot for putin add the russians. i want to be careful with the word because i'm sure whatever word i choose will be freighted with legal significance but it's like he's an agent for them. technically was not, i know, but certainly a promoter of putin and russia's interests actively. >> i think the word promote sir a very good word, because it's apropos to a lot of what we're beginning to learn how manafort acted before he got to the campaign. what he brought in to the

campaign, and the fact that he -- he had connections that reached a lot further than we thought in terms of the relationships in russia and as well as the influence on the campaign. we saw it play out, joe. i remember being on the show back when the rnc changed its platform to reflect this sort of russian influence. all part of an ongoing strategy as indicated in the reporting to get friendly players inside government. to carry the water on behalf of russia. and one of the key operatives of that was paul manafort. >> and richard haass, during this time, you had putin aggressively trying to push back on any prospects of further nato expansion. and there was, not a cold war but certainly there were heated efforts to try to extend russian

influen influence as far as possible in this region, and obviously a lot of money was exchanging hands, and manafort was a recipient. >> yeah. i mean, putin's entire world philosophy was based on the idea that the loss of the cold war, the breakup of the soviet union was one of the great geopolitical calamities of the 20th century and nato enlargement, a humiliating kind of stick in his eye that nato tried to filled the vacuum and he basically made it his life's business to re-establish a russian fear of influence. >> and money passed around to get people to help expand russia's sphere of influence and paul manafort, clearly these documents and others show that paul manafort was actively working doing vladimir putin's bidding. can't say it more clearly. that the single most important thing to vladimir putin politically, paul manafort was

actually doing his bidding. running around and trying to help expand russian influence. >> running a presidential campaign. >> persons of influence, who would essentially take their lead from the creme likremlin. serious stuff. >> money passes from putin to the oligarchs. money passes from the oligarchs to paul manafort. these documents show, manafort's documents to promote russia. >> and a large-scale withdrawal of u.s. troops from germany, says president trump. >> oh, wait. this is interesting. >> help me. >> so donald trump -- >> yeah. >> wait. manafort was working against nato for vladimir putin's -- >> wait, wait. now donald -- >> hmm. >> he keeps attacking nato, too? >> everybody's going to have a summit with putin -- >> yeah, but he doesn't do well at -- because --

>> they like to talk off the side, between themselves. >> and nato, it goes badly. he always attacks our nato allies. doesn't he, richard? how weird is this? that paul manafort was doing putin's bidding, and now it looks like donald trump is -- i'm sure he doesn't mean to, but he's just bumbling into this. doing vladimir putin's bidding by constantly attacking nato allies, and constantly defending vladimir putin saying he should be in the g8. saying that maybe -- maybe russia should just -- we should recognize the invasion of crimea. >> what else donald trump seems to be missing is the idea that nato and american military presence and support for nato is not a favor we bestow on europeans. an act of strategic philanthropy. it's borne of historic lessons.

i won't say certain european countries shouldn't be spending more or differently on defense. of course they should, but this administration has not positioned itself as a friend of europe. we all face common threats and all should do more. to threaten we're tail our troops home if they don't do more against the backdrop is piling up. >> a great point. in our best interests, answering a question. somebody said in one of my first televised debates, somebody said we have responsibility as citizen of the world. i'm not taking an oath as the citizen of the world. i'm taking an oath as somebody that wants to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. i care about america. and then went on and talked about, you know, talk about the marshall plan, nato. these are -- yes. i would like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony. i would also like the united states of america to dominate

the world militarily, economically and in every other way. from the marshall plan forward to nato to everything we're doing in europe, we're not doing it because we're nice guys. we're not doing it because we're good people. we're doing it, because it's in america's best interests and has been in america's best interests, and i could show thaw chart again. it takes me a while. you know, i never took stats class, and -- but this is gdp. this is from '45 to 2018. this is what happened because of american policy. >> a steve radner-level chart. >> this is steve radner-level chart. this is what's happened to america in the post-war world we created with nato, with -- even the united nations. with all the things that we have done. we alone -- because there's no other country on the planet

whose economy has grown up like that nonstop since '45, other than us. >> quickly. what donald trump's bake view of t -- basic view of the world, what your xhart shchart is show we've actually enabled here at home. >> spending 3.5% on national defense. >> far below our cold war effort. >> far below. >> think that all in mind, the "new york times" reports president trump sent sharply worded letters to a number of foreign leaders lambasting them for failing to meet security obligations. the letters send in june went to the leaders of germany, belgium, norway and canada among others. in the note to chancellor merkel, "increasingly difficult to justify american citizens why some countries do not share nato

the collect live security burden why american soldiers continue to sacrifice their lives overseas." >> as do canadians, australians, as do the brits, as do -- >> don't get that letter. according to the "new york times" belgium's prime minister reacted tartly. telling reporters he was not very impressed by it. some might be laughing. two diplomatic sources tell the "times" a dozen letters may have been sent in all. >> and bring in supreme allied commander, a school of law and diplomacy at tufts university and retired four-star navy add meryl james stravitas, unfortunately, after the questions, we ran out of time.

so admiral. i'm sure your job, when you were doing what you were doing, was, yes. to worry about our nato allies, but as i was saying, your first responsibility was to, the united states of america, and what was in our best interests. talk about how nato has long been a -- long been in america's best interests and concerns you might have with these letters attacking our nato allies? >> start with the fact that during the four years i was supreme allied commander, i watched so many european troops die in afghanistan, under my command. alongside u.s. troops. so they are in this with us with blood and with treasure, as the saying goes. let's just kind of do the numbers on the defense spending thing. so the u.s. spent $600 billion a year on defense. china spends about $250 billion. less than half.

russia spends about $80 billion. how much do they free-loading european spend? almost $300 billion a year on defense. >> wow. >> the second largest defense budget in the world collectively. >> you're saying -- i'm sure this is a surprise to a lot of people. europe spends more on national defense, on the defense of their interests and our interests than china and russia? >> absolutely correct. >> wow. >> and we ought to just cheap in mind. now, as richard said and he's right, we want to see them come up to 2% of defense spendingthat would be a positive thing, but yelling at them publicly, which is essentially what we're doing with these letters, is not going to help that cause. what we should do is criticize privately and in public talk about the value of this alliance. by the way, when we talk about withdrawing u.s. troops from europe, we ought to -- again, do the numbers.

in the cold war we had 400,000 troops in europe. today we have 35,000. there's been a 90% decline. those troops are there operating on forward stations for our benefit to go into afghanistan, libya, the balkans. places where we have legitimate security interests. so this canard that somehow the europeans are freeloaders and not part of our most valuable asset in the world which is our network of alliances around the world, we throw that away at great peril, and these kind of letters just not helpful. >> and i have to believe on the hill this is certainly one policy of donald trump even the most steadfast trump supporters have to raise their eyebrows about and concerned about, have to understand that our european allies, our allies, are on our side and shouldn't be poked at

by donald trump. >> this is the traditional republican coalition. another stool of this. a leg of the stool getting kicked out from beneath the jgo. of course they're upset. it's part a disintegration of our allies. on the hill, you saw senator corker tried to get a coalition together to stop the president from imposing the tariffs and now at the same time that these letters, that the reports about the letters are coming out, we see that this trade war is really starting to escalate. just in the past week, we have china clapping back. we have the canada clapping back, and the biggest one of all that could really start to take this south is europe. now talking about getting together a coalition of trading partners to clap back at the amount of about $290 billion in trade, and, joe, we're not just

hearing from the traditional gop dissenters like jeff flake and bob corker about this. behind the scenes, there are a number of republicans from farm states, dairy states, folks like senator joni ernst, who have been quietly trying to lobby the white house. the committees of agriculture and finance have tried to appeal to him, but to no avail, and that's why quietly a number of them are saying, hey. it's really unfortunate, but maybe this is just going to take some kind of a jolt in the stock market or something to stop the president from escalating this further. >> admiral, heidi, stay with us. we want to continue this conversation and get the admiral's thoughts on the president's comments yesterday about his trade war. and emily jane fox, thank you very much for your reporting on michael cohen. >> thank! >> keep us posted. also, still ahead on "morning joe" last week we weren't getting clear information about the kids separated from their parents. now we're not getting any information at all.

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we are very close to making some very good trade deals. fair -- i don't want to say good. i want to say fair. fair trade deals for our taxpayer and for our workers abscess our farmers and a lot of good things are happening. i think the eu, we're going to be meeting with them fairly soon. i want to see if they can work something out, and that will be good, and if we do work it out that will be positive, and if we don't it will be positive also, because -- >> no. >> we'll just think about those cars that pour in here or something. >> no. we have to work something out. >> it will be positive. >> dutch prime minister at the white house yesterday bluntly saying no. when president trump suggested that failing to reach an eu trade deal would be a good thing. >> no. >> no. >> that would be the correct answer.

right? richard haass? >> yes. no would be the correct answer. >> counsel? >> we have compared to the previous story something of a two didn't prornged attack on or closest allies. further threat to take away u.s. forces in europe and a trade war with europe at one and the same time. >> you know, i -- you just got to say it. admiral, i know you're not a political guy, but, you know -- >> oh, boy. >> you fight on the battle field you're given, and right now, know, i have to ask you a political question -- well i don't know if it's even political. >> oh, boy. >> there has been this concern, certainly since we interviewed donald trump in december 2015 and he refused to criticize vladimir putin, said he was a strong leader and we needed that type of leadership in america. there's been a concern that he would never criticize vladimir putin. there's been a concern obviously through this investigation that

vladimir putin must have something on donald trump. i -- i firmly believe he does have something on donald trump, and that's why he's never criticized putin. that said, all of that aside, can you imagine any american president in your lifetime that could do things that were more in vladimir putin's benefit than what donald trump has been doing over the past two years? attacking nato allies. trying to withdraw troops. talking about withdrawing troops from europe. talking about withdrawing our commitment to nato. turning every nato conference into basically a very uncomfortable situation, and then going off. talking secretly to vladimir putin at the g20 last year,

setting up -- i mean, the list is endless. it just -- >> all in plain sight. >> it seems to be, yes. if there is a conspiracy, this conspiracy seems to be in plain sight. >> indeed. you just have to put yourself in the shoes of those european leaders getting ready to come to the nato summit. they must feel like the rest of us do getting ready for a root canal with a dentist. it just is going to be a painful experience. they know it's coming and then at the far end of it, who knows what's going to transpire in a potentially secretive conversation between the president of the united states and of the russian federation. it really is quite, quite shocking. let's go back to trade wars for a second. we're not quite in a trade war, but wars start with skirmishes and move into battles and then you're in a war. i think we're passing out of the squirmish phase and into that battle phase, and that is going to be bad geopolitics.

it's in my view also bad economics. any economist will tell you free trade generally speaking is the right answer. but when you couple that with the way putin is dividing the united states from europe, you add the lost economic benefits and you pile the geopolitical disadvantage on the united states, this is a bad combination of events staring us right in the face. >> it strikes me that the entirety of trump's trade policy, foreign policy, his view of america's position in the global world is that we are so -- so powerful and so indispensable that even if we shun our allies if we get out of these global agreements, other countries will have to do business with us, because they rely on us more than they rely on collectively each other. for instance, withdrawing from tpp. the fallback, well, we'll create bilateral trade negotiations with each of these countries in tpp. g7, same thing. nato, similar. we don't need them as much as

they need us. at some point theoretically the rest of the world can say, that's not true. we can deal with each other and put the u.s. to the side. i just don't know, and maybe richard does, when that point becomes more evident. where the world says, you know what? forget the united states and any global trade deal. we'll trade with each other. >> isolate -- >> richard, isn't that happening now? this is the thing. it's not 1999. right? germany can do energy deals with russia and can do other deals with china. i mean, there are so many options now. of course, the united states is still the united states, but if donald trump is going to make it impossible for us to deal with them, china has been working every day for the past 20 years to step into that void. >> oh, we are seeing -- one of these rare moments we're actually living in history.

normally you read about history in your high school or college textbook. no. we now have the experience of living in it. what we're seeing is history unfold, the daily bringing about of what people described, as the postamerican world. voluntarily giving up our position of advantage, supremacy, creating a level playing field where everybody essentially decides what deals they are going to make. either they have to defer to more powerful countries like a china or a russia, rather than being able to depend on a reliable united states, or they simply do what they think is in their own best interests. what this will be a world that's far messier, far less american influence, stability and ultimately less prosperity for us, but we are -- this is the foreign policy equivalent. be straight about it. the foreign policy equivalent of repeal without replace. we're repealing the american-led order that has done i, i think, extraordinarily well for 70 years, and in its place,

something much closer to an international free for all. >> let me share this one more time. by the way -- >> it's a great chart. it's a great arrow. >> go online. i'm serious. compare the united states from '45 until now. the american-led order that donald trump is trying to eviscerate, the american-led order that james mattis tried to explain to him in that meeting and said, i don't like it, at the end. then secretary of state called him an idiot. tillerson. >> it was moron. >> that's -- that's the -- the american way. people go, new world order? new world order? i hate to admit this on tv. that was the new american order. why we have a $19 trillion gdp. russians have like about a $2 trillion gdp, and -- michael

steele, we've all been focused on russia for a good reason. donald trump kind of makes it impossible not to focus on russia. but i guarantee you, 50 years from now when historians are looking back they're going to look at donald trump's decision to insult europe. donald trump's decision to pull out of tpp, which hillary clinton also said she was going to do. bernie sanders said he wanted to do it. you have to question the wisdom of american politicians in 2016-2018 anyway. history bookless show, if this is not corrected soon, that this is the time that china surpassed the united states as the most powerful economic force on the globe. because what donald trump is doing is seeding leadership of the world to the chinese who will gladly take that pole position. >> i couldn't agree with that more. what's disturbing for me and i

would love the views of the folks at the table. where's the -- where is the congressional and senatorial leadership? the push pback? the capitulation of our folks, the republican party in this regard is very surprising and i think very dangerous. in fact, it is em bonded and enabled the president to go down this road with the level of impunity that he appears to have. so the question becomes, is this the seeding control and authority? we know the president has the authority in these types of areas and in trade and the like, but at some point, given the breakup of the relationships with europe and our allies, where is the leadership in this country to say, wait a minute. do we really want to do this? particularly in light of that graphic that you put up, and the recognition of the role of the united states over the last 70-plus years in a post-world war ii europe and america, we

have led, and the chinese are sitting there on the sidelines, inching their way in to the game, and no one seems to care. and that, to me, is the most surprising part. >> mika, america firsters bitching and moaning about the marshall plan for 60 years. look how much money the marshall plan -- there were countries that probably would have gone communist, probably would have been swallowed up by, in stalin's fear of influence. he certainly wanted to do that. instead, we have built the largest, most powerful economy in the history of hthis planet. it's investment for our benefit. >> well, admiral, i guess, how at this point, how much is that investment in jeopardy? >> it's in extreme jeopardy, and we ought to remember, we're talking a lot about the post-1945 world. we ought to look at the

postworld war i world, because that's what's maying out in front of us. the united states rejects a role as a world leader. rejects the league of nations. the predecessor to the united nations, and erects massive trade barriers. h holly smoo holly-smoot, how did that work out? check out a new book "a warning" coming out. where we're headed if we don't pull back and reinvest in nato, these international institutions. they can work. we know how to do this. that's the right course for america. >> admiral james stafredis, thank you very much. still ahead -- >> byes wa the way, i'm going t heidi when we come back, once in a while they step forward. they did on zte. the chinese company. they stepped forward on russian sanctions. they need to step forward on

these tariffs that are going to wreck the economy. they're going to wreck the economy, and wreck our alliances with nato. republicans need to step in. >> still ahead, all the ways you can hack an election. we'll take a look at this morning's reporting from access yo -- axios on the 2018 midterms. ♪

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times when this republican congress, they've actually stepped up, and pushed trump back once, of course, with russian sakz sanctions, the next time with zte, the chinese company many believed to be a national security threat. you wonder, since republicans have always felt as strongly as they do about tariffs, why are they not stepping up now? why are they notintervening -- >> do we expect them to -- >> with our closest allies? >> absolutely banging on the door but don't know how to get through on the threshold's this. the initial attempt by senator corker with a strong committee

vote to try and just overhaul, cold stop the president on the tariffs. that didn't work. why? because senator mcconnell refused to bring it up for a vote. >> whew. what is that there? >> wait, wait. what has happened with mitch mcconnell? he is running -- he is running basically donald trump's operation? why? >> let me -- let me just finish that for a second, because he did ultimately allow a roll call vote and guess what happened? you have underneath this a coalition between people like mitch mcconnell, trying to protect the president. it's raw politics, as senator corker said, and some democrats, like senator shared brorod brow try to stop it.

as you no know, the canadians very, very offended we're invoking a national security clause against them. there's an attempt to try to modify that called the 232 national trade tariff act, and he'll try and modify that in committee and move it through. i think, honestly at this point, guys, probably what will have to happen is some kind of a shock, some kind of a jolt that will force gop leaders to step up and actually move this through. because it's not just about consumers any more. we talk about tariffs affecting the products we buy, it's not companies. this nail company which has already had layoffs. harley davidson talking about moving. even gm. this is quickly spiraling. >> still ahead secretary of state mike pompeo is making another trip to north korea. it comes on the heels of nbc's reporting that pyongyang is pushing ahead with its nuclear program despite the president

saying we can sleep well at night and everything is fixed. >> the nuclear deal -- >> no. the art of the deal. >> who could have seen that coming other than everybody on the planet. except donald trump. >> laughing even though it's quite frightening. we'll be back in a moment. >> quite frightening. ♪

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still ahead, president trump has sat down with four potential candidates for supreme court and there could be more meetings today. we'll go to the white house for the latest on that. two pieces of advice for democrats headed into the mid-terms. one from "the washington post" and one from you, joe. >> not so much. >> it's good. we'll read from both columns when "morning joe" comes back. the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock.

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♪ ♪ ♪ all right. welcome back to "morning joe". it's tuesday, july 3rd. that's actually theme of your column. so awkward. "saint elmo's fire." >> you know what doesn't make sense, sam. yesterday mika, you know what she says to me. she says you're getting old and fat. >> we're on the air now for real. >> she said that to me. you're getting old and fat. >> you're not old. >> thank you. so you're saying i'm fat. >> i didn't say that. >> it's okay. we can talk about this offline. >> does susan ever call you old

and fat? i'm curious. is this what people do when you get old and fat. >> that's what happens. >> what are you going to do about it, joe? >> exactly. >> get on treadmill. >> i'll say i'll exercise and become a vegan but i'm going to keep eating hamburgers and watching sports. >> we don't need to talk about this right now. >> doesn't smoking make you lose weight? does it? >> no. >> don't do it. >> what about cigars? i bet you smoke cigars. >> i stopped. >> i know it's a stressful time. >> when did you stop smoking cigars. did your wife tell your you look old and fat. >> cigars are rough on you. unless your winston churchill they are consistent with a long and healthy life. >> i kmov wanow what winston churchill's good friends said

when he died at 92 or 93. they said just imagine he could have lived if he didn't drink and smoke every day of his life. >> you know what he said when you ne they said you need more exercise. he said i get exercise when i'm a pall bearer at my friend's funerals. >> coffee is good news for you. people who drink coffee no matter how much or what kind are less likely to die over a ten year period than noncoffee drinkers. according to a new report. stop, stop. >> this is very limited. >> less likely to die, period. >> we have not totally flushed out this story. >> chocolate. red wine and coffee. your basic food groups. >> former chairman of the republican national committee

michael steele is with us. heidi przybyla april and we have associate editor of the "the washington post" analyst eugene robinson. also chief national correspondent for "new york times" magazine and the co-founder of axios, mike allen. wow. >> happy july 3rd. >> quite a panel we have. >> fourth of july eve. >> it is fourth of july eve. >> great panel. we have a lot coming up. scott pruitt and lotions and high salaries. >> he likes fancy lunches. >> and lotions. >> he likes -- >> that's coming up. >> he makes his staff members drive all around washington, d.c. to find fancy lotions. >> we have this lady asking him to resign and i'll sknd that

request. let's start with duelling "the washington post" columns. >> let's start with the pulitzer prize winner. >> the american left is in a panic. you and i disagree on this. you say camelot this is not. i would agree. neither are trump's wretched displays of crew aelt. the president's twisted view of constitutional norms has rightly fueled fears on the left that the madisonian's model future hangs in the balance. i draw comfort from sage insights philosopher billy hicks as portrayed in "saint elmo's fire." it's light that appears in dark skies out of nowhere while producing puffs of fire from

aerosol cans. we're all going through this, it's our time intelligent. many democrats campaigning across the united states understand that now is no time to panic. instead of being distracted by those electric flashes of light created by trump's motion machine they are knocking on doors, reaching out to neighbors, making facebook friends and organizing teams to drive their supporters to polling places. for those still distracted by the latest cable news calamity, remember the words of a union activist. before his death joe hill sent a friend instructions, don't waste any time mourning, organize. good advice at this time. >> now you don't have to read the column because mika just did. gene's is really good too. >> harry potter 14. >> we need to take a longer time to reflect on what's happening here. that's what this show does. >> as you know, sam i've noticed

in columns, on twitter, in commentary, especially over the past two, three weeks a lot of democrats, a lot of left of center commentators, but going into this, this is too much. everything is coming at us. actually from -- >> you're talking about me. >> some gifted columnists and mika and others are overwhelmed. trump wants you to be overwhelmed. i know you want a nick sabin analogy. you think about the next play. you don't look at the scoreboard. look at the next play. look at the blocking and tackling and in this case it's organize. knock on doors. put up yard signs. get your team together for election.

>> what's happened over the past two weeks and maybe i'm overstating or overgeneralizing, two things that hit democrats hard. one is the separation of policy, which has been morally difficult comprehend for obvious reasons. the second i think is the fact, is anthony kennedy's retirement. the reason that's been so psychologically debilitating for democrats you have a case where the president lost the popular vote, about 3 million votes. and will now have the ability to reshape politics for generations to come. also you have looming over all this an ongoing investigation whether he was legitimately elected or whether a foreign government interfered in his campaign and not so the unreal possibility that later this summer we'll be presented with fairly compelling truth that collusion did take place. should he have the right to

apoint a supreme court replacement. this is difficult for democrats to live in a system this man didn't get more votes but will reshape american politics for decades. to your point what you can do about it is simple. only one thing you can do about it. prepare for november. there are no other pressure points, really. there are no other ways to flip the script. even with respect to the supreme court battle. it all comes down to putting on enough pressure to elected officials specifically susan collins so that they vote no. >> michael steele, it's important for democrats instead of going back and trying to blame vladimir putin or susan sarandon, you go down the list, e-mail stories, "morning joe," at the end of the day anthony kennedy's retirement is going to

move the court even more in a conservative direction because for the last 20 years the democratic party, they have been losing their congressional majority with all the subtlety of a heddenburg crash. there's times when president trump's behavior leads to certain force in washington. but sometimes like kennedy's retirement and replacement of kennedy with another conservative that just happens because republicans are in the majority and democrats have forgotten how to win elections. >> that's the bottom line. the fact of the matter is i think a lot of democrats going back to even how they responded to republicans pushing against the obama administration was one of well, we're outraged, everybody should be outraged and that's somehow translated in the

votes. i'm sorry it's not a substitute for what you note in the article, getting on the ground and organizing and getting out there and getting that vote to the polls. so to sam's point i appreciate that donald trump got 3 million fewer votes than hillary clinton, but that's not how we elect the president of the united states. i appreciate the fact that democrats are now wailing and gnashing their teeth about the selection of another supreme court justice by this president. the republicans made that the number one issue. i don't know how democrats weren't clued into what this election would mean for the supreme court, what it would mean for other agencies. so all of this right now seems to be a little bit late to the game, and yet to your point, joe, on the ground democrats away from the national structure, away from the party organization are finding ways to win and push back against the system without making trump

necessarily the centerpiece of their anger and frustration but rather the question about what kind of america we want to be. >> i think we're going to find a lot of candidates that are going to be every bit as impressive as the 28-year-old woman who won in queens. a lot of people, fox, and a lot of people conservative commentators freaking out because she's so far left of center. guess what's going to happen? in the heartland if this is a wave tlee wave election you'll have women who are going to win. that's what happens in years such as these. but, joe, mark, again i talk about organizing because everybody has this view of barack obama as, you know, as he said i'm lebron, baby.

the guy can do whatever lebron can do on the basketball court he can do on the campaign trail opinion and he was extraordinary. as we found out with lebron this past year, sometimes just having lebron ain't enough to win the championship. the most impressive thing about barack obama's campaigning to me wasn't his speeches, it was who he put around him. and they were just natural born killers politically. they kept their heads down. they didn't get frustrated. they knew what they needed to do to win and they went out and organized. back in 2007 i remember a "new york times" article talking about all the money that barack obama was bringing in. and when i saw that he was invested in the ground game in iowa, i was like whoa. this ain't going to be howard dean's 2004 campaign, they've learned. >> right. although i do think it's worth pointing out that barack obama's organizing machine worked very

much in the service of barack obama. it didn't do a lot to, to bring up other democrats. there were some disastrous mid-term elections. what we're seeing now there's not a lot of seed corn in the democratic party. it's starting organically over the last several months. barack obama has turned out to be a pretty generous phenomenon and it remains to be seen whether democrats can get that going again. i think at this point the rolling news and the rolling story can be a distraction. >> they can be lessons learned. gene, in your piece in the "the washington post" entitled republicans are trying to make democrats self-implode. in it you write about cortez. predictably some democratic hand wringers are warning that the existence of left of center candidates such as cortez in the

bluest districts in the land will limit the party's potential gains in the house and imperil some democrats in the senate. the thing to do, these worry warts is to of a all candidates stick to bland centrist, saying nothing that anybody might disagree which is exactly what the gop wants. >> isn't that what the clinton campaign did last rather? >> if democrats concentrate on winning and manage to take control of both chambers which is what really ought to happen based on the republicans disgraceful performance, they will have difficulty reconciling the views of progressives and centrists, that's the kind of problem the party should want to have rather than its current problem of utter powerlessness. utter and complete. >> identify been saying for years and actually been saying it to my democratic friends on the hill, you got to make sure that your candidates match the district cultural.

>> talking about the republicans. >> maybe you have a pro life democrat in kentucky. maybe you have a pro life demonstrate in alabama. i'm just saying democrats need to be i want to. the opposite of that is true as well. if you are in queens and you are in a district that is very progressive, then, baby, go progressive. >> yeah. exactly. i thought this was like the election 101, right? you need to connect with the people you're asking to elect you. therefore, if you are way, you know, to the left or to the right of their views, they are not going to elect you. they are going to elect the other person. and that's one fewer seat that the party has. you know, people ask me all the time, worrying, democrats, who are we going to run in 2020? who is out there?

who will it be in 2020? i forbid them to think about that. i say don't think about that. you got to think about 2018. think about your district, your state. think about this election coming up. because as mark said, there needs be and has been this sort of grassroots democratic organizing, has been going on, some excellent candidates out there that have been -- that have come out of nowhere. a lot of them former military. a lot of them interesting, not your stereotypical democratic candidates out there in the country. and, you know, support them. get the vote toers to the poll. get some power back. then you have a right to complain and then you have leverage to do something. >> michael steele, you ran the republican national committee

when it did extraordinarily well and, you know, just not about ideology. again you look at cortez in queens. she's just a star. she's going to be a star for a long time to come, most likely. barack obama. nobody expected barack obama in 2007 other than mika to beat hillary clinton's campaign but he was just a superstar. ronald reagan was a punch line on "all in the family." he was archie bunker's candidate. even 1979, early 1980 republican establishment were horrified that reagan could take. you never know where your stars are going to come. so often it's not about ideology, it's about connecting with people and lighting up the campaign trail. >> joe, that's so fundamental to the core of it. i mean they talk about politics

101. it is recognizing the strength you have in your own backyard and sometimes that comes when you least expect it from places you least expect, from people you least expect. i think cortez as well as others are representative of that. look at the number of women around the country who are beginning to emerge not just in their own right as self-assured women they've always been but now stepping into a space they've never expected to be a factor in and they are becoming a factor. the question for parties, particularly republicans, how do you keep this coalition, how do you make it a part of your brand, how do you recognize its strength? you don't co-op it. you cooperate with it. you create avenues where that expression is played out in neighborhoods, in communities that translates into votes. that's how you brand. it's not top down, this is who we are, this is what we believe. everybody gets that innately. the question is how do you let candidates express that and

right now democrats have an advantage. >> axios is looking at the variety of ways to hack an election. what did you find out? >> this is the new butterfly ballot. the new butterfly ballot is the convoluted system we have across 50 state elections, flash drives and wireless connections and regular old e-mail. you look across how we physically vote and you see a lot of what my grandma used to call chewing gum and bailing wire. a system where we register to vote which can be hacked. the database that then is created of those registrations. look at the polling books that they have at the polling places, sometimes electronic. sometimes on paper. sometimes from third-party vendors that introduce their own vulnerabilities. look at the way we count it that's different in all these places often with no paper trail. and you add all this up, and you see that there's so many points

of failure that can be attacked from the outside. we know in the last election that outsiders went after these state elections. they didn't get in. think how easy it would be to change a voter registration database, not even have people know. on top of all that, ask president gore about human error, human confusion, you can see why there's so many different places that what we want to happen might not happen in this democracy. >> that was dark. thank you for that. >> we need to know. >> you know, not to bring it back to the previous conversation but i'm going to do that. one of the things that i feel like is being missed here a little bit is, and this goes the sense of despair i'm talking about is the idea that there are structural issues in our politics that supersede the

issue. democrats will win a majority of the vote nationally but still have a minority of the seats in the house and i think that's part of what is, what is pushing all this sense of discontent and frustration. >> but we republicans said for 20, 30 years that the electoral college was unfair because, remember, everybody said -- there's a solid blue wall and democrats automatically start with 250 electoral votes and there was no way republicans would ever win. >> sometimes you can get over the structural problems. doesn't mean the structural problems aren't there, the hurdles, not problems. you can, in fact, have an election in which the democrats will win back house to. my question -- >> if you have any questions about common household cleaning items ask him about that.

like how to fix a carburetor. >> how do you fix a carburetor? >> what's the next question. >> what you pick up in d.c. this immense of disdon't and frustration in anger towards democratic leadership. it seems pretty much coming to a head which a lot of democratic activists saying do something. stop this train from leaving the station. and really, if you think about it, there's not much they can do. you're in and around congress. you follow this story a lot. are we overstating the disconnect between leadership and the base or is there something there and could it be problematic heading in to the mid-terms? >> i think there is something there. it's more of a problem in congress at this point. i mean, look. democrats do have a way of getting side tracked. leadership fights at this point are premature and not what

democrats need be focused on. i think if you look at how -- if you look at how this might play out, i think it's very, very possible, if not likely that if democrats do win a majority in the house, nancy pelosi and hoyer could be in trouble. you'll have enough promises around the campaign trail who will say i'm not voting for this leadership team again. there's a disconnect. what you have is just like a mountain of news. i mean i think if you think about it two weeks ago all anyone on this show or other shows were talking about was the separation of parents and their kids at the border in the most carnal and humanistic matter. than few days later we had a supreme court va cassie and

other distractions. and so we're on to the next role. that was a really palpable issue and i think it does have a cumulative effect. that's what you're sort of seeing at the end of another week like last week democrats do feel frustrated and they have to blame someone. so it falls to chuck schumer when we're all strapped in for the same kind of dance where we watch collins and the whole roll out we've seen before. >> mark, just i did talk about "saint elmo's fire" and the flashes across the cash but i follow it with the charles krauthammer quote, which is don't lose your head. he gave the example of everybody spent the 1980s fearing the nuclear holocaust. it was imminent. best sellers were packed with the coming nuclear holocaust. people were in the streets. he gave the speech two years after the soviet union

collapsed. now we have as many missiles, nobody is talking about it now. he said it's not to suggest that nuclear weapons are still not a problem. they are. just don't panic about it. keep your head down and try not to rush from panic to panic. you know, since donald trump you've studied this town of washington, since donald trump has been elected everybody is projecting forward over the next 40 years what happened just that one night which even donald trump said himself if the election was held on 30 consecutive days i would only have won on one day. but the decline of the west. how democracies died. the rise of fascism. the death of liberalism. western liberalism. on and on. i wonder if now is not the time

to panic, time is for democrats to go knock on doors and get to work. >> trump has not been good for the keeping your head down industry insomuch as there is one. i was actually walking in here a little while ago and i still cannot get used to fact there's breaking news all over the wall after trump tweeted whatever he tweeted 20 minutes ago. we have a new tweet and, again, it is the opposite of keeping your head down. i think what we forget too at the beginning of the tea party election in early 2009 and 2010 everyone said these agitators on the far-right won't get any traction. same thing they said about the election in consequence. the tea party led a wave that swept republicans back into control of congress. you could see that again here. but, again, it's little by little, keeping your head down. >> and asking the questions

because we still don't know exactly what the status of these children are that have been taken from the border and being moved all over the country and being held away from their parents. >> like nuclear war that's something to be very, very concerned about. >> i agree completely. >> and fight about every die. but don't lose your head. >> mike allen, thank you. you can sign up for the axios newsletter at signup.axios.com. >> gene stay with us. still ahead on "morning joe" he isn't naming names but president trump may be zeroing in on his pick for the supreme court. we'll go live to the white house on where the search stands day. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back.

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it's a good thing we say good-bye to mark. >> breaking news. >> we'll mention some of those trump tweets. the president is all over the place. ricocheting widely. >> what is he saying? >> this is because michael cohen is driving him nuts. so he must of -- but of course not talk about stormy daniels or michael cohen because he couldn't do that. but he can do this. he started with quote crazy maxine waters -- >> he's gone from low i.q. maxine waters to -- >> the democrats and now north korea, a busy start to this morning's executive time. somebody needs to -- >> richard you were looking at the north korea quote which, again, we won't pay attention to the other quotes because they really are sound and fury

signifying nothing. donald trump has moved the goal post to just where showing up is a great gop political strategic success. >> it's an interesting tweet this morning. >> talk about what he says. >> two things. he said the critics, it's fake news. two real accomplishments. one is that north korea has continued its suspension of missile and nuclear tests now for roughly eight months. true. second of all that he gets credit all over asia for keeping us out of war. so no mention of denuclearization. no mention of getting rid of missiles. no mention of the north korea military threat. it seems again avoidance and keeping the testing suspension that's now the definition of success. if that's true as you said that's a significant moving of the goal post. >> unbelievable. he's calling the "wall street journal," fake news. because they are are along with nbc news, they talked about the

nuclear side development of it. you have "wall street journal" talking about them cheating also on missile technology and creating missiles that can be launched and carry a nuclear war head to the continental united states. so now what donald trump is saying with his tweet, if we are to believe that this is really his stated policy and why wouldn't it be, is that the north koreans can continue developing nuclear weapons, they can continue developing missile technology that can deliver a nuclear war head anywhere in the continental united states, but as long as we're not at war, then he's succeeded. of course it's like the immigration crisis. he creates the crisis, he amps it up. the threat of war. nobody is saying we're going to war under barack obama. said there was a problem. but, you know, attacking kim jong-un every day and talking about we're going to war and so

now he's supposedly gets credit for a hot crisis he created? >> don't get me wrong. no one in his right mind wants to go to war if it can be avoided. this means essentially what he's signalling we're now prepared to live in an open ended way with a large and growing north korea juan capability to hammer not just the region but also to reach the united states. that is a significant policy issue. if you're mike pompeo going over there, this does not help your bargaining position. >> that's what bothers him. >> i'm surprised if you read that tweet he attacks rupert murdoch's "wall street journal". >> it's not a joke. five days ago we had a newspaper shot up. okay. they are not tied to donald trump. five days ago we had a newspaper shot up. i would appreciate if he shopped using the moniker fake news and

it's not a joke. i'm tired of it and i'm sure a lot of other people are tired of it. >> president trump will meet with potential supreme court justice nominees as his administration races to find a candidate to replace justice anthony kennedy. joining us from the white house, nbc news national correspondent peter alexander. the president has conducted several interviews with potential nominees. who are we looking at here? >> reporter: let's walk you through that. the president describing those four candidates as very impressive people. each of their interviews lasting about 45 minutes here yesterday. the white house, the president is going to announce his pick six days from now. he's publicly touting each of their credentials. president trump zeroing in on his supreme court pick delivering a reality tv style tease about his short list without revealing any names. >> i interviewed and met with four potential justices of our

great supreme court. they are really incredible people. in so many different ways. academically. >> reporter: those first four interviews according to "the washington post" is amy kony barrett, brett okay va gnawing, raymond ketlledge. collins already saying she would oppose anyone who would overturn roe. top democrat chuck schumer in a new op-ed rallying public opposition by putting pressure on the senate to reject an extreme candidate forcing the president to pick a moderate instead. mr. trump during the campaign delivering this pledge. >> i am putting pro life justices on the court. >> reporter: now his aides deflecting questions about

whether the president wants to see roe overturned. >> i won't get into any specifics that we would be looking at. >> reporter: the private lobbying has ramped up in recent days with anti-abortion rights group favoring amy barrett. she has a pretty interesting bio. has seven children and member of people of praise where members swear a loyalty oath a covenant and as the "new york times" first reported last year held accountable to personal adviser called a head for men and a hand maid for women. all right. nbc's peter alexander. gene robinson, you know you have susan collins and others saying they won't vote for somebody that is going to overturn roe. well then susan collins just said she's going to vote no because the federal society will

not deliver anybody to donald trump for consideration that would not overturn roe v. wade. >> right. so susan collins, you know, for example on barrett, she might have some problem with the hand maid thing, which i think a lot of people would have problems with. but she says anyone who has demonstrated hostage untility to roe v. wade they will find sorry one of those candidates or somebody else who has not demonstrated such hostility. then that person will ultimately probably be confirmed. if they can pin a ruling or something the candidate has written that says i heat roe v. wade, if they don't find something like that, ultimately they've got the votes, and they will use the votes, i think.

you know, it's another one of these election, have consequences moments. democrats have to fight, schumer has to fight it. but let's be realistic. donald trump will get to name the next supreme court justice whether before or after the election. >> lisa murkowski and susan collins can both vote against this, whoever the nominee is. >> ah-ha. >> i find it hard to believe that joe manchin and heidi highcamp are going to go against donald trump's supreme court pick in a state that's overwh m overwhelmingly red and overwhelmingly for trump. they are trying to prove they are conservative democrats. >> yeah. could you also have a home state democrats, another democrat who is under some pressure because a nominee comes from his or her home state.

you got three at least or four possible gettable democratic votes depending on the candidate unless it's something way beyond the pale. i think he probably gets it through. and then roe v. wade really is up to chief justice roberts who becomes, i think, the closest thing to a swing vote on the court. and that's just going to be the reality. he's an institutionalist in that he wants to protect the court. he respects precedent. and he wants the court to move the nation to the right but not but not so fast. i wonder if push came to shove roberts would actually vote to overturn roe v. wade. >> eugene robinson, thank you so much. coming up, heidi takes us inside the new front for the democratic resistance. her new reporting is still to come on "morning joe". daddy!

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up next, this is the world cup ever? roger bennett says yes and he joins us next on "morning joe".

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>> exactly. >> i would like it a little louder. now nbc sports analyst. men in blazer and an american citizen. co-author of ency cycclopedia. soccer america's sport of the future. and a podcast at wnyc. first of all, let me say, you said it yourself you're now in the select company of john lennon. tracy chapman. scarface. yentil. a lot of people who came to these sandy shores. >> indeed. it's an honor to be an american. >> what was it like? >> to be in a line at being

sworn in at the courthouse where you are with 180 people from 47 countries have all dragged themselves, many through incredible struggles to become american. it was one of the things. the people in that room that i have ever been to, we all dreamt, we were all pulled here to these shores. it meant so much, all of our dreams, to become american and to actualize it. it is the greatest achievement in my lifetime, and i don't like being sincere and serious. >> i know you don't. >> it is something i never take for grant. and so many is my first july 4th. i will celebrate when we kicked the english, i can say that. >> yes. >> so my family, i'm going to burn my british passport. >> no, stop it. stop it, stop it, stop it. but you have always inspired me in the way you spoke about america, talking about touching down -- playithe plane touches

at jfk you can feel the energy coming back into you. well, anyway -- >> there's not a day i wake up in the morning and don't -- i'm not grateful i live in this country, that i live in new york city. what i am going to do sincerely on july 4th is think so positively about the things i adore about this country, which i think everyone will to for at least 24 hours, and enjoy world cup football. >> let's talk about world cup. >> please. >> i had a friend that called my deliriously happy yesterday, a japan fan and said, they're up 2-0. i said, i don't know what it means, but everybody that knows soccer says a 2-0 lead is the most dangerous in the game of football. >> it is. >> explain why it is. you think 1-0 is a more dangerous lead than 2-0, but after i said it we laughed and said it makes no sense. boom, belgium comes roaring back. >> belgium 22 games on the run they have won, japan was so happy to be on the guest list,

take a 2-0 lead. they say, "what can go wrong now." belgium punched in the mouth, but they answer. they come back. within five minutes of each other, look at this goal, look at this. a cute little header. i don't think he meant it. tiny japanese goalkeeper can't keep it out of the corner. it is like a piece of orgami. this guy is an angry sun flower. in the 94th minute, look at that. >> oh, my gosh. >> four men combining under the crucible of pressure to bring glory to belgium, destroying japanese hearts. when you watch this game, it made my lintels tingle to be candid. >> thank you for that. >> the joy of the world cup, for 90 minutes it makes you think that the world will be okay. it is not, but for 90 minutes you can -- >> thank you for that. >> it will be okay. >> yesterday morning i was struck by several things, and i will just say it. in the mexico/brazil match, i

was struck by how much better mexico is than the united states of america. >> true. >> it was depressing, because as i watched them keep up with brazil -- >> yeah. >> -- i was just saying, the way they were moving the ball, the way they were passing. >> so positive, so courageous. >> i said -- even mexico is light years asahead of u.s. soccer. >> that's true. they have gone out at the round of 16 for seven straight world cups now. >> i know. >> the round of 16 is their superbowl and they are the buffalo bills. they were undone by this little cartoon character come alive, neymar. he then gets on the shoulders of his teammates. they lift him up in glory. it is like yesterday was his bar mitzvah. today he is a man. >> he is such a diver. >> for mexico, who were courageous, they are now out again. i feel their pain. >> you say i'm far too optimistic about my england team, but that's what everybody

does. >> they play this afternoon. >> you always cheer for england, everybody expects england to move forward, and of course they collapse and break their hearts. that said, they're on the good side of the table. >> they play colombia this afternoon. >> by the way, this team doesn't seem filled with as many head cases as past. >> they've done something i have never seen in my lifetime watching england, they smiled while wearing an english jersey on the football field. they play colombia this afternoon. it could be one of the great rises and falls in english sporting history because they made the country believe and dream. i expect a game that will be a little bit like the retreat from dunkirk. made for a great movie, it will be even better as a football game. i think they're going to get crushed. i will enjoy every second as an american. >> are you serious, you think england will be crushed? >> i have watched england in my old identity for 40-something years. the amount of minutes i have had watching them happily, with positivity is incredibly few.

i will not be like charlie brown running at a football with lucy holding. >> you sound like a red sox fan, circa 2003. >> i will say -- >> you know what? i was about to make the comparison to this team and the red sox in 2004. they called them the idiots. you know why? because they were too stumpedpi know you can't come back from a 3-0 defeat. again, i think the managers and the players, these guys are not the head cases that when you had lampart and jerard and all of these people carrying the weight of the world. >> sometimes young footballers don't know to be afraid. i am imaging my own expectation. self-sabotage, doom. we used to have an empire, now we can't win football games. >> who wins the whole thing? >> anyone but england. if i had to put money on it, i would say america. >> no, no. >> that's it. >> you think brazil? >> yeah. you know what, vladimir putin,

russia. >> by the way, by the way let's -- let's admit it. you tweeted it. >> i'm not saying they're doping. >> but they are doping. they went 120 minutes, those 38-year-old guys not breaking a sweat. >> i've never seen a football team run far, as hard. >> we're dead serious here. >> they beat mighty spain on penalties. the result was as shocking as u.s. election. i think it felt like the results of a putin reaction, no surprise to them. fifa loves dictatorships. musollini's won it in 1934. will it happen again in i will not be surprised. not saying they're doping. >> here is the answer of the ballet following yesterday's match backstage. >> going to get them a bigger television. >> i have to say i was torn because, of course, i thought that the replay was absolute as you would say rubbish.

it was a penalty, two people tackled in the box. it was exciting to see the russians get that swept up. >> they have video replay now, and that video replay went right to the kremlin. he was making all of the decisions. >> it was putin. roger bennet, thank you. buy roger's book. >> it will tell you all you need to know. >> encyclopedia blazertania. it will change your life and reverse male pattern baldness. it will get you to the front of the line to immigrate to the united states of america. >> july 4th, hey, courage day. >> hey, courage. >> still ahead, michael cohen's legal fate in limbo. we're looking at new reporting trump's former fixer is thinking about where his loyalties should lie. plus, president trump targets some of america's closest allies again. he is warning members of nato to increase defense spending or els else. "morning joe" will be right back.

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now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia. ♪ good morning and welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, july 3rd. >> that japan match, wasn't it raise? >> soccer, soccer, soccer. now politics. with us we have politics editor for "the daily beast" sam stein. president of the council or foreign relations, richard haas. senior reporter at "vanity fair" and msnbc contributor emily jane fox. former chairman of the republican national committee

michael steele. always with us reporter heidi biswella. we will begin with trump legal fixer michael cohen. >> said he was going to take a bullet for the president. >> no, no, he changed his tune yesterday from unflinching defender of the president. >> take a switch? >> no, he's now wavering. >> a slight slap on the wrist? >> no. >> he won't even take that? >> no. wavering under the threat of federal charges. cohen's comments to abc news, that if given the choice between protecting the president or his own family, quote, my wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty. and always will. i put family and country first. "vanity fair" reports that cohen viewed the interview as a way of repositioning himself between trump and prosecutors. this as more than 1.3 million items in cohen's files, seized by investigators in april and reviewed under court order, were turned over to federal prosecutors yesterday. president trump stayed silent

about cohen on twitter and the white house stonewalled against questions about cohen's interview. >> is the president worried after his comments this morning, that michael cohen is going to flip and has he considered at all paying michael cohen's legal fees? >> as you know, i'm not going to answer questions on this topic and would refer you to president's outside counsel. >> can you tell us whether the president watched the interview this morning and potentially how he feels about the idea that his former attorney said that he would put his wife, his son, his family and country first, but not the president? >> once again, i'm not going to weigh into this issue. >> two things i noticed. number one, the president comments on just about everything, even the most inappropriate things. >> right. >> and nothing. so that's interesting. and then you just have to wonder what exactly the dog whistle is. is it for a pardon or is it -- he mentioned family and country, and that seems very pointed. >> yeah. well, so, emily, tell us, what exactly is the answer? we've heard a lot of people

saying for some time that michael cohen was going to protect his family first, but is he sending a message to donald trump now, i want a pardon? is he sending a message to prosecutors, hey, come on, give me a deal? >> i think that there were a few things at play in the interview yesterday. there is a very small window of opportunity in which he's no longer represented -- or will not be by the end of the week by a lawyer who refused to let him do press. so that is a big reason why you saw him speak on the record for the first time. what he said in the interview is what he has been saying privately to friends for months now, but the fact that he came out and said it publicly is a huge deal and it is a signal not necessarily for a pardon -- that's not what my reporting shows. it is a signal that he is finally ready to say publicly that this is basically what i'm going to do, and it is a huge shift. i interviewed him last august and he said, "i would take a

bullet for the president." >> right. >> he said to me he could not walk past trump tower without tears coming to his eyes because he missed the president so much. >> how hard is it for him though to see one story after another after another, reading that donald trump all along considered him a stooge, didn't trust him to go to washington, didn't trust him even, you know, to do his campaign work up here? i mean one story after another, donald trump saying horrible things about michael cohen behind his back when michael cohen is thinking that they have this great bond. >> but it is only going to get worse, and that's another reason why he spoke up now. he had reason to believe that in the coming weeks there was going to be an onslaught of people close to the president, around the president now who are going to come after him and his businesses and his character as they've been doing over the last couple of weeks. we have seen rudy giuliani on television, we have seen the president say things that were hurtful. when the president was on the white house lawn and said i

liked michael cohen in the past tense, michael heard that and didn't like it. that's why you are seeing him giving an interview where he is saying this. >> is michael cohen's family chiming in to him about how they feel about all of this? i would think it has to be very hard for them to watch and, you know, you would probably share very deep concerns that he's being taken advantage of and dumped. >> for months his family and closest friends have been saying to you, no one is looking out for you so you have to look out for yourself. what has been interesting in the last couple of weeks is i've heard people around him also starting to hammer in the message that you could change the narrative from being a villain to a hero, and that is what gave him a little bit of confidence. >> sort of the john dean -- >> exactly. you can go down in the history books like john dean did as the guy who took this all down. i think having a lawyer who is not getting in his way, having that message sent to him and knowing that there's going to be an onslaught against you in the

next couple of weeks, this is why we saw this interview happen on the record for the first time. >> not a word from the president. >> i'm just -- it is funny to me i guess that the presumption -- and we all are assuming it is that he has dirt, right? like he'll flip and there's good stuff he will throw at trump and take him down. we don't know but suspect there's malicious stuff behind the scenes, but realistically we don't know. >> whoa. >> don't we know about a payment to a porn star? >> allegedly without trump's knowledge. i'm being honest. >> stop. >> so how much do we know? >> yesterday for the first time in the interview there were two things i thought were particularly interesting, things that i heard, you know, from the or bit but they were on the record yesterday. there were two things in there. george stephanopoulos asked him a pointed question about whether or not he was directed and he said at the advice of counsel i'm not answering that. at the advice of counsel he didn't answer a question about

the trump tower meeting with don junior and the russians as well. >> oh, that. >> so those things in that interview were not an accident. >> i also believe he has a lot of good dirt. i'm saying it is a little funny we're all assuming it. >> what is fact and what is allegation. >> you would know this better than anyone else, but if he wants to cooperate why not just cooperate? >> there's a process. so we are getting to the end of one end of this legal process where the document review for privileged material was finishing up. it finishes up at the end of this week and now we enter new territory. he has a new lawyer who came from the sdny criminal division. >> true. but usually you do it privately behind the scenes and work with attorneys. >> this is not a usual situation. this is a man who worked for a showman for a long time, and you are seeing a little bit of a playbook at play here. >> at the same time he has to get the phone call from the southern district of new york. >> yes. >> so you are waiting, you don't just go down there and throw yourself and say, "please, please, let me" --

>> no, i'm here for you. >> again, prosecutors sometimes will sit back and wait because they're culling there over a million documents. they don't know what they need him for. >> right. >> they don't know what blanks he can fill in. so they'll review and then they'll go to him, and it is kind of great for them that you've got a guy out there that is squirming a little bit, that wants to do the deal as much as he does. they may get a better deal out of him. >> so a federal judge has ordered former national security advisor michael flynn to appear in court next week. this would be flynn's first court appearance since he pled guilty last december to a felony count of lying to investigators about his contacts with the russian ambassador to the united states. the hearing, which has been set for next tuesday morning, will be regarding a possible sentencing date for flynn. according to "politico", the repeated delays in flynn's sentencing have led to speculation that prosecutors believe his testimony could be useful at some future trial or

that the sentencing process might disclose some aspect of the investigation that special counsel robert mueller still wishes to keep secret. this morning there's also some news connected to ex trump campaign chairman paul manafort and his long-time aide klemnick who manafort would reportedly refer to as my russian brain, according to "the atlantic." >> he told me he was from west port. manafort said the guy was from west port. >> no, not from westport. >> not a connecticut guy. >> now internal memos and other business records obtained by the associated press report to show how he was recently indicted by the mueller probe on tampering charges worked with manafort to advance russian interests. a reported memo from him to manafort details his dire for russia after failed attempt to ma nip plate political events in former soviet states.

the ap reports that he participated in an early manafort plan to influence western politicians and media outlets. a propaganda operation intended to target washington and european capitals and, quote, train a cadre of leaders who can be relied upon in future governments," according to one memo. the report shows that he helped conceive strategies that manafort sold to clients and he served as a key liaison between manafort and principle financial backers, including russian oligarch to whom manafort reportedly offered private briefings in july of 2016 while he served as trump campaign chairman. >> now, is that the guy he owes like 19 or $20 million to? >> yikes. >> i would want to -- >> that's quite a plan. >> a russian oligarch. >> it happens, it happens. >> i don't know how it happens, but paul manafort -- michael steele, this story shows -- >> these are such serious allegations. >> i know.

>> that paul manafort was more than a useful idiot for putin and the russians. he was an active -- i want to be careful with the word because i'm sure that whatever word i choose would be frayed with legal significance, but it is like he is an agent for them. i mean i know he probably technically was not, but certainly -- he certainly was a promoter of putin and russia's interests. >> i mean it looks like that. >> actively. >> i think the word promoter is a very good word because it is apropos to a lot of what we're beginning to learn about how manafort acted before he got to the campaign, what he brought into the campaign. and the fact that, you know, he -- he had connections that reached a lot further than we thought in terms of the relationships in russia as well as the influence on the campaign. we saw it play out, joe. i remember being on the show back when the rnc changed its platform to sort of reflect this sort of russian influence. this is all part of an ongoing

strategy, as indicated in the reporting, to get friendly players inside government, to carry the water on behalf of russia. one of the key operatives of that was paul manafort. >> still ahead on "morning joe", president trump is foreshadowing some tough talks to come when he meets with american allies next week. he just fired off a series of letters to foreign leaders, accusing them of basically being deadbeats. we'll break down his ultimatum and why russia couldn't be happier with the fraying relations in the west. but first let's go to bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. >> good morning to you guys. the heat wave continues to be the big story through the 4th of july but we will be dodging thunderstorms too. we are starting out with 77 million people under heat advisories, areas in philadelphia, towards pennsylvania are under excessive heat warning at that time. that hasn't changed.

already, the heat index in areas like dallas at 83. already at this hour it feels like 90 in washington, d.c., right behind new york at 85. little relief in d.c. 95 for the high. could be 103 in dallas. notice some spots could get an afternoon thunderstorm cooling you off including new york city, may even get airport delays out of that. very busy travel day before the 4th toll. here is how hot it could get. kansas city, 106 will be the heat index. charlotte, 102. washington, d.c. should feel like 103. those are temperatures in the shade. when you are in the sun it is warmer than that. on the 4th of july ohio valley heats up from st. louis to columbus, 104 to 107. so you want to get to the pool or stay inside. make sure you are careful in the sun, running around. what is interesting is later in the week we say goodbye to the heat wave. baltimore, 89 and 82 on saturday. so the 4th of july forecast, we are looking nice in many areas of the country. we will be dodging rain along

the gulf coast. if anyone has a chance of being rained out, it would be around houston. looking good for fireworks display late in the day. a lot of the rain will end by the time we get to sunset. new york city under the excessive heat warning. we expect thunderstorms to cool you off later on this afternoon. you are watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ they appear out of nowhere.

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♪ "the new york times" reports that president trump sent sharply-worded letters to a number of foreign leaders, lambasting them for failing to meet security obligations. the letters, which were sent in june, went to the leaders of germany, belgium, norway and canada, among others. in his note to chancellor merkel, trump said it is, quote, increasingly difficult to justify to american citizens why some countries do not share nato's collective security burden while american soldiers continue to sacrifice their

lives overseas. >> as do canadians, as do australians, as do germans, as do the brits, as do a lot of others. >> okay. according to "the new york times", belgium's prime minister reacted tartly. last week the letter telling reporters that he was not very impressed by it. i think some might be laughing. two diplomatic sources tell the times a dozen letters may have been sent in all. >> let's bring in former nato -- >> it says it all. >> it really does. let's bring in former nato supreme allied commander, dean of fletcher school of law, and chief international security and diplomacy analyst for nbc news, retired admiral james travidis. after that introduction, unfortunately, no time for questions. thank you for being with us, admiral. >> what a pleasure. >> most importantly, he's from jacksonville. admiral, i'm sure your job when you were doing what you were

doing was, yes, to worry about our nato allies. but as i was saying, your first responsibility was to the united states of america and what was in our best interests. talk about how nato has long been -- a strong nato has long been in america's best interests and any concerns you might have with these letters attacking our nato allies. >> well, let's start with the fact that during the four years i was supreme allied commander i watched so many european troops die in afghanistan under my command, alongside u.s. troops. they are in this with us, with blood and with treasure as the saying goes. let's just kind of do the numbers on the defense spending thing. so u.s. spent $600 billion a year on defense. china spends about 250 billion, less than half. russia spends about 80 billion. how much do those free loading europeans spend? they spend almost $300 billion a

year in defense. >> wow. >> they are the second largest defense budget in the world collectively. >> so you're saying this -- i'm sure it is a surprise to a lot of people. europe spends more on national defense, on the defense of their interests and our interests than china and russia? >> absolutely. >> wow. >> correct. and we ought to just keep that in mind. now, as richard said, and he's right, we want to see them come up to 2% of defense spending which would be positive. yelling at them publicly, which we are doing with the letter, will not help the cause. we should criticize privately and in public talk about the value of this alliance. by the way, when we talk about withdrawing u.s. troops from europe, we -- again, let's to the numbers. in the cold war we had 400,000 troops in europe. today we have 35,000.

there's been a 90% decline. those troops are there operating on forward stations for our benefit, to go into afghanistan, libya, the balankans, places whe we have legitimate security interests. this kinard that the europeans are free loaders and not part of the most valuable asset in the world, which is our network of alliances around the world, we throw it away at great paeril. these letters not helpful. >> i have to believe on the hill this is one policy of donald trump that even the most steadfast of trump supporters have to raise their eyebrows about, have to be concerned about, have to understand that, you know, our allies, our european allies are on our side and shouldn't be poked at by donald trump. >> this is the traditional republican coalition, another stool of this, a leg of the

stool getting kicked out from beneath the gop. of course they're upset because it is part of a broader disintegration of our relations with europe right now, and all of our trade allies actually. on the hill as you saw senator corker tried to get some kind of a coalition together to stop the president from imposing the tariffs, and now at the same time that these letters -- that the reports about the letters are coming out we see that this trade war is really starting to escalate. >> coming up on "morning joe", president trump says it might not be such a bad thing if trade breaks down with the eu. the dutch prime minister respond in real-time saying, no. the latest on the white house's tariff policy next on "morning joe." ♪ (vo) this is not a video game.

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we are very close to making some very good trade deals, fair trade deals. i don't want to say good, i want to say fair. fair trade deals for our taxpayers and for our workers and our farmers and a lot of good things are happening. i think the eu, we're going to

be meeting with them fairly soon. they want to see if they can work something out, and that will be good. and if we do work it out, that will be positive. if we don't, it will be positive also. >> no. >> we just think about the cars that pour in here. >> we have to work something out. >> but it will be positive. >> dutch prime minister at the white house yesterday bluntly saying no when president trump suggested that failing to reach an eu trade deal would be a good thing. >> no. >> no. >> that would be the correct answer, right, richard haas? >> well, you have -- paired with the previous story, you have something of a two-prong attack on our closest allies. you have the threat to further reduce american military forces in europe and you have a frontal assault, a trade war with europe at one and the same time. >> yeah, but, you know, i just -- you just have to say it.

admiral, i know you're not a political guy but, you know -- >> oh, boy. >> you fight on the battlefield a given. right now, i have to ask you a political question. >> oh, boy. >> i don't know if it is even political. you know, there has been this concern certainly since we interviewed donald trump in december 2015 and he refused to criticize vladimir putin, said he was a strong leader and we needed that type of leadership in america. there's been a concern that he would never criticize vladimir putin. there's been a concern obviously through this investigation that vladimir putin must have something on donald trump. i firmly believe he does have something on donald trump, and that's why he's never criticized putin. that said, all of that aside, can you imagine any american president in your lifetime that could do things that were more in vladimir putin's benefit than

what donald trump has been doing over the past two years? attacking nato allies, trying to withdraw troops, talking about withdrawing troops from europe, talking about withdrawing our commitment to nato, turning every nato conference into basically a very uncomfortable situation, and then going off, talking secretly to vladimir putin at the g20 last year, setting up -- i mean the list is endless. >> it is all in plain sight. >> it seems to be, yes. if there is a conspiracy, this conspiracy seems to be in plain sight. >> indeed. you just have to put yourself in the shoes of those european leaders getting ready to come to the nato summit. they must feel like the rest of us do getting ready for a root canal with the dentist. it just is going to be painful

experience, they know it is coming. then at the far end of it, who knows what is going to transpire in a potentially secretive conversation between the president of the united states and of the russian federation. it really is quite, quite shocking. let's go back to trade wars for a second. we're not quite in a trade war, but wars start with skirmishes and they move into battles, and then you are in a war. i think we're passing out of the skirmish phase and into that battle phase, and that is going to be bad geopolitics. it is in my view also bad economics. any economist will tell you free trade, generally speaking, is the right answer. when you couple that with the way putin is dividing the united states from europe, you add the lost economic benefits, and you pile the geopolitical disadvantage on the united states, this is a bad combination of events staring us right in the face. >> you know, it strikes me that the entirety of trump's trade

policy, foreign policy, his view of america's position in the global world is that we are so powerful and so indispensable that even if we shun our allies, if we get out of the global agreements, other countries will have to do business with us because they rely on us more than they rely on collectively each other. so for instance, withdrawing from tpp, the fall back is we'll create bilateral trade negotiations with each of the countries in tpp. g7, same thing. nato, it is very similar. it is, well, they don't need them as much as they need us. at some point theoretically the rest of the world can say, you know what? that's not true. we can deal with each other and put the u.s. to the side. i just don't know -- and maybe richard does -- when that point becomes more evident, where the world says, "you know what, forget the united states and any global trade deal, we'll trade with each other and isolate the u.s. to the side." >> richard, isn't that happening now? this is the thing. it is not 1999, right?

germany can do energy deals with russia and can do other deals with china. there are so many options now. >> oh, we are seeing -- it is one of the rare moments where we're actually living in history. normally you read about history in your high school or college textbook. no, we now have the experience of living in it. what we're seeing is history unfold. what we are seeing is the daily bringing about of what people have described, fareed zakaria and others, as a post-american world. we are voluntarily giving up our position of advantage and primacy. we are creating a level playing field where everybody essentially decides what deals they're going to make. either they have to defer to more powerful countries like a china or russia, rather than being able to depend on a reliable united states, or they simply do what they think is in their own best interests. this will be a world that's far messier, far less american influence, far less stability and ultimately less prosperity for us.

but we are -- this is the foreign policy equivalent, let's be straight about it, this is the foreign policy equivalent of repeal without replace. >> coming up on "morning joe", scott pruitt likes fancy lotion. and also -- >> you know, he does. he does. it is just kind of -- it is a weird interest. >> such a weird dude. >> can you believe, he actually made his staff drive around all of washington to find fancy lotion? >> and a used mattress from a hotel. >> a used mattress from -- >> your tax dollars at work. >> he also likes six-figure paydays for his wife. new details on how the head of the epa is spending a lot of time and money protecting his own perks. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪

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hi. i just wanted to urge you to resign because of what you're doing to the environment in our

country. this is my son. he loves animals. he loves clean air. he loves clean water. we deserve to have somebody who actually does protect our environment, somebody who believes in climate change and takes it seriously for the benefit of all of us, including our children. so i would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out. >> epa administrator scott pruitt has apparently become the latest trump administration official to be confronted in public. a woman posted that video to her facebook page, that she says is of her publicly urging pruitt to step down while he was eating lunch yesterday. meanwhile, two of sot pruitt's aides reportedly provided congressional investigators with new details about some of the epa administrator's most controversial spending and management decisions. >> does this involve the fine lotion? >> the lotion? >> yeah, the fancy lotion. >> no. so according to "the washington post", the house oversight and government reform committee conducted the interviews last

week, citing lee individuals familiar with the matter. the post says the conversation shed fresh light on pruitt's willingness to use his position for his personal benefit while ignoring warning even from allies about potential ethical issues. the paper says pruitt pushed the aides to find a job for his wife, a job that earned $200,000 or more a year. it adds that pruitt initially asked one of the aides to contact the republican attorneys general association, which pruitt had once led, as part of the job search. the aide told investigators she declined to make that call to avoid any potential conflicts of interests. cnn is also reporting that -- >> a lot of pruitt news here. >> pruitt and his aides kept secret calendars and schedules to hide controversial meetings or calls. the report, citing a former agency official who is expected to testify to congress soon, says epa staff members often met in pruitt's office to scrub,

alter or remove numerous records from pruitt's official calendar because they might look bad. >> okay. >> just seems like -- >> a lot of news there. >> -- at some point -- yeah, there was a list. bell selling author eric bolling joins us know. tomorrow he will be hitting the road kicking off his bolling bus tour and launching his america tour. you can see there you can't speak america without eric. >> i like that. >> good branding. >> first of all, you can because you're -- you're going to my backyard, you can go to orange beach, alabama. going to be hanging out at florida/bama. >> yes. >> and daytona. >> we're going to the big nascar race on saturday. rewill we will be there friday and sunday. one of the things so amazing to me and my family in the opioid

chuck scarboroughis, j crisis, we have created so much awareness around the opioid epidemic killing so many people. there will be a big -- by the way, it will be televised by nbc saturday night at 7:00 or 7:30, and the opioid message will be around the racetrack for a good three hours. >> that's amazing, isn't it? >> yeah. >> how great that he's doing it and that the team is doing it. >> yeah. >> you know what is really interesting? i get a lot of response. i know you did too after you and dr. dave campbell were on talking about it. he was talking about the team solution. you were talking about a couple of simple messages, one that i took back to my kids. >> thank god. >> very simple. first of all, said it can happen to you. >> well, it is not -- >> it is not somebody else's kids. >> it is not my kid's syndrome. it is the parents' responsibility. >> secondly, the message to send to your children is -- >> one pill can kill. >> one pill can kill.

>> you never know when you put a pill in your mouth where it came from. you know, you can have all of the idea in the world, and it has happened four or five times in the past and you take one and it may be four or five grains of salt of fentanyl can kill a human being. >> that's unfortunately what kids don't understand. it is not like -- you know, i was explaining to my elder son when -- this was the beginning and a lot of his friends were having real problems and i said, you know, back when i went to school my friends would drink some beer, get in a big car and drive it into a ditch. i said, the stakes are so much higher now. just like you said, one pill can kill. you know, it is not kids from other families. it is kids from good families, from bad families, from white families. >> it is indiscriminate. >> from black families. >> black, white, rich, poor, muslim, catholic. >> these pills are smuggled in and, again, you just don't know

how laced they are. >> yeah. and you never know where they were made. a lot were made in china. they're coming across the southern border. there are a lot of things. there's the demand side of it, which i think we need to address a lot more. it is people -- addicts should not be treated as criminals. they should be helped. we need to spend more money helping addicts. the other side is the supply side, which i think the trump administration is doing phenomenally with, which is like, you know, close the borders, make sure we put drug dealers -- you know, high-level drug dealers in jail for life. you know, i agree with donald trump on his -- on some of the things on his immigration policy, which means these ms-13 gang members that are coming over, they're smuggling drugs over as women. these are hitting our streets as well. there are a lot of things about the immigration policy and reform that's going on right now in the administration i don't disagree with, but there are a lot of things i do agree with. >> you disagree with or don't. so let's talk, if you don't mind, let's move from every time we have you on the show we are

talking about the great work that you and your wife are doing. >> by the way, you guys, too. the awareness that came out of this show, i'm not sucking up to you, i'm being perfectly honest with you. >> don't start now. >> believe me, i won't. we'll butt heads on a lot of things, but what you guys have done, you've been friends to me, friends to my wife, and you created an insane amount of awareness to parents that have to have that discussion with their children. it has to happen. >> we've got six kids between us. it is deeply personal for us. we know you. >> let's go at it. what do you want to butt heads about? >> well, first of all wasn't to talk about -- we shared a lot about scott pruitt. the guy, whether he was running the epa for a republican administration or a democratic administration, this guy is just bad news. he has had one violation after another, trying to get chick-fil-a franchises, running his people around doing

everything. obviously not a good boss either because they're all running, snitching on him. isn't it just time for donald trump to give up the fwoes and s ghost and say, hey, find another conservative to run the agency, stop digging in your heels in? >> you pick something that i'm going to agree with you, joe. i agree with you. people can make a mistake. everyone deserves a second chance if you make a mistake, but if your body of work is mistake after mistake, and if all of the reports are true confirmed, you are a public servant. you are serving at behest of the president. i don't think anyone out there on either side of the aisle would say what scott pruitt has been doing is serving the public. sounds more like scott pruitt is serving scott pruitt. >> you are looking at another secretary, you have a story for nbc news that talks about betsy devos and her agenda. take us through it. >> reporter: all right. while all of the focus may be on pruitt, some of the biggest changes in this administration

actually affecting real people are happening in slow motion and somewhat behind the scenes. i took a look at what betsy devos has been up to and what she is on the verge of doing in terms of rolling back rules on for-profit schools, which primarily serve a lot of low income individuals. this is inviting a lot of lawsuits already by state of california, other states who say that betsy devos and mick mulvaney are asleep at the switch, that the oversight that is supposed to be taking place at the department of education is slipping. so you are seeing these lawsuits being filed. betsy devos about to roll back additional rules. she has done a lot of other things as well that have flown under the radar. for instance, dismantling a team that is supposed to be investigating abuses by these same for-profit schools who now have sent a bunch of officials that are actually working in tandem with devos. now, the department of education says that this is unfair, that they are actually pursuing a

number of compliance actions, that you need these for-profit schools in this economy, this evolving economy, these types of trade schools. but the experts on education that i talked to are very concerned, joe, because they say this is opening the flood gates to a whole new reliving of an era of waste, fraud and abuse by these schools, which we know a number of them have business model of going directly at some of the most economically distressed among us, low income students, single mothers, minorities, low income folks. >> so we're going to do a potpourri of issues. i want to bounce to another one. thank you for that, heidi. >> mick mulvaney, one of the most capable people in washington, d.c. i think any kind of attack on mulvaney is misguided. i think the man should be -- he is a true public servant. >> would you like to respond to

that? >> i'll -- let's move on to the potpourri, i think. >> okay. the potpourri. nobody is going to jump in on that one. let's talk about tariffs. my question is -- and it has been all morningmorning, why, w attacking canada? you know, the scuffed shoes and whatever that meant, why are we attacking germany, why are we attacking our nato allies? why are we starting these trade wars that are making the markets skittish? i saw anthony scarmucci was tweeting the other night what i've also heard in other news reports real concerns. i see you smiling. >> smiling about the -- scarmucci. >> when his name is mentioned, a smile comes. >> i'm just saying, he's not a guy you're used to saying hey, mr. president, this is wrong, pull back, because disaster could be coming. but he is concerned and markets are obviously concerned. >> -- wake up and watch "morning joe," which i do every day --

>> let me ask you a question. why don't republicans that believe in free trade stand up and fight for free trade? >> why is it that tile after time i wake up, i watch "morning joe" and i do, and then the market's down 300 points at the opening, okay, right after you guys come off the air. and every one on tv is saying see, this fight with china, this tariff situation, is awful, it's railing the markets. they don't know what to do with it. by the end of the day, the market's up. yesterday was a good example. >> i'm not talking about markets, though, what happens today, tomorrow, next week. we conservatives, i mean, you're a conservative, right? and i think most of the guys and women on the hill who are republicans claim they're conservatives. we conservatives have always fought democrats over the issue of free trade. do you believe in free trade? >> i believe in free trade. i don't think trade agreements are free trade at all. >> you don't think nafta has not been great for america? it's not been great for --

>> no, you know what a free trade agreement is? when we go to mexico and we say, mexico, here's our trade agreement with you, bilateral trade agreement with you. then we turn to canada. here's our buy level trade agreement with you. that's free trade. not when this group of politicians get together and say, america, you're the biggest customer in the world. a certain amount of these jobs and these deals you have to take or a certain amount of contracts you have to take. that's not free trade. >> you believe we should get out of all of our deals and just have bilateral agreements with each country? >> absolutely. freest trade possible. >> michael steele, i'll let you jump in here. do you think we should blow up? we've already blown up tpp. >> no, no, look. >> i don't think this is a traditional republican position. we have tried to get as many countries together to support

free trade. and support a trade policy through the years that have made -- it's made america a $19 trillion economy. >> that's the thing, i don't know how we slid off this free trade mountain, if you will, you know, during the reagan years, during the bush years and other times when the economy was growing and jobs were being created, you didn't hear this all of a sudden, our trade deals were bad and our partners in europe and around the globe were bad, unfaithful partners. so i don't get that. donald trump has been an anti-free trade guy forever. that isout side the republican mind set and arguments that we've made, as you've noted, over the last 30, 40 years. suddenly now we're all sort of on this idea of free trade versus fair trade. when you look at the growth of our gdp, you look at our place in the market, we are a consumer

marketplace. we're not a manufacturing marketplace as we once we were. i think we should be a little bit more manufacturing. there are other ways to do that besides blowing up these deals between ourselves and our partners i think. >> we'll let eric respond. but this is when we check in to get a look at the markets. >> trade has certainly created a lot of bumps in the markets. we're coming off of the dow's worst first half of the year, since 2010. but i will say u.s. stocks have held up a lot better than foreign stocks. for instance, china stock market is down 15% so far this year. the s&p 500 which is the broader stock market here is up 2%. so while it is creating some tensions around what happens next on trade, they're feeling it worse. it's not just china. it's places like emerging markets, south korea, you saw it enter the uncertainty and some of the manufacturing data there. perhaps that's president trump's

strategy, we can withstand more pain when it comes to tariffs than they can. the question is, if things get worse and start to escalate and we are expecting tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods coming from china to start on friday. will the retaliatory tariffs from china and other places start to really hurt american business? >> cnbc's sara eisen, thank you. eric. >> i'll respond to sara, sara, we're up 20% under the trump administration in the stock market. so, i mean, we may have had a rough first half of 2018 but for the better part of a year and a half now, it's been a phenomenal run in the markets. i'll respond to michael steel. free trade. how much better do you want? you have 3.8% unemployment. you have gdp growth that's off the charts. better than it's been probably since bill clinton's time. and these are all because of rolling back regulations -- >> i've got to say, so you are a champion actually of the obama

recovery? have you sent him flowers? >> the obama recovery? joe, the obama recovery? >> -- every single chart, eric -- >> of the insurance -- >> do you have my gdp chart i autographed for you? >> it's right here. >> i'll give you -- >> and i can tell you also -- >> that's not a -- >> can i have a pen? i'll fix it. >> okay, here's gdp under obama. straight across. 1.5% gdp annualized for the whole term of obama. donald trump is now averaging almost 3%. that's almost double. >> do you know what donald trump's omb said, mulvaney said our growth was going to be over the next decade? 2%. happy days are here again. so we get the marching band? >> i think we're going to approach 4%. what do you think of that? >> i think santa claus is going to come down and give presents to all of us. >> i want you to come back again

because i want to understand this bollins. and we'll talk to you again. that does it for us this morning. chris jansing picks up the coverage in three minutes. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia. with savings on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses and automatically adjusts on both sides, for effortless comfort. it's the 4th of july special. save up to $500 on sleep number 360 smart beds.

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10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels.e giving venture cardholders brrr! i have the chills! because of all those miles? and because ice is cold. what's in your wallet? good morning, i'm chris jansing, in for stephanie ruhle. this morning, trump versus everyone. the president awake and tweeting on north korea, immigration, i.c.e., the economy and maxine waters. what he's saying to our allies ahead of what's shaping up to be a contentious nato summit. >> they must feel like the rest of us do getting ready for our root canal with the dentist. it just is going to be painful experience. >> ouch. shortening the short list. president trump meets with potential picks to replace justice kennedy. >> i