>> barack obama in south africa. that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. this morning amid denouncing criticism in helsinki. the pressure was coming from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and inside the administration as well. at the same time former president barack obama issues a new warning against strong man politics. in the russian probe, paul manafort's trial is nearing. we are learning bob mueller is looking to give five potential witnesses immunity.

good morning, everybody, it's only wednesday, but it is july 8th. we are going to start with president trump, of course, yesterday, attempting to walk back his statements from helsinki, where he sided with the russian state over the u.s. government regarding moscow's interference in america's political system. let's watch it again. >> my people came to me, dan coates came to me and some others, they said they think it's russia. i have president putin, he just said it's not russia. i will say this i don't see any reason why it would be. i thought i made myself very clear by having just reviewed the transcript. it should have been obvious. i thought it would have been obvious. i would like to clarify, just in case it wasn't. in a key sentence in my remarks, i said the word "would" instead of "wouldn't." the sentence should have been, i don't see any reason why i wouldn't or why it wouldn't be

russia. so just to repeat it. i said the word "would" instead of "woots" the sentence should have been, i thought it may be unclear on the actual video the sentence should have been, i don't see any reason why it wouldn't be russia sort of a double negative some you can put that in and i think that probably clarifies. >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> full faith and support for america's intelligence agencies. i have full faith in our intelligence agencies. oops, they just turned off the lights. >> that must be the intelligence agencies him i accept our intelligence community's conclusion that russia's

meddling in the 2016 election took place for the people also. it's a lot of people out there. >> all right. so you may recall the president also blamed the u.s. for russian aggression and it took trump more than 24 hours to attempt this walk back. he did not try to clarify his remarks in his post-summit tweets. nor did he back down with the interviews he did immediately after the summit. last night, though, trump tweeted this. meanwhile a shot of the statement the president was reading shows he actually crossed out a line of brigg individuals who hacked america to justice, adding in his own handwriting, there was no collusion, in case he forgot to mention that i'm sure he wouldn't have. we are learning more about the

reasons why president trump attempted the walk back. reporter heidi briz biide pryzb. >> nbc news learned both vice president mike pence and secretary of state mike pompeo had a private conversation with president trump, urging him to clarify his remarks, according to a source with the conversation. right be every the president spoke, his top national security advisers convened at the white house for an unscheduled principles meeting regarding issue and the fallout from finland. a person with direct knowledge of the meeting tells nbc news and after initially announcing the president would receive an intelligence briefing yesterday the white house struck it from trump's schedule the night before. in addition, three sources familiar with the situation tell "vanity fair," in addition to pressuring the president to try to walk that back, chief of staff general john kelly called republicans on capitol hill and gave them the go ahead to speak

out against trump. on the other hand, a source tells "vanity fair," national security adviser john bolton was against clarification, thinking it would make trump look weak. president trump's walk back came off an onslaught of bipartisan criticism the president's attempt to clarify his remarks came after several members of the president's on party publicly rebuked his comments in helsinki. msnbc correspondent garrett haig has more reaction. >> reporter: president trump's comments in finland, republicans unwilling to follow the president in siding with putin. >> russia is a menacing government that does not shear our interests a pdz does not share our values. i think that should be made very, very clear. >> it feels like a dam is breaking. i'm glad to see people on both sides of the aisle condemning what happened yesterday strongly. >> i think it was a bad day for

the president. >> reporter: even fox news, a reliable source for the president, broadcasting disappointment instead. >> it was not a forceful presentation from president trump with putin standing next to him. >> that sets us back a lot. >> he should have defended us. he should have defended his own intelligence community. >> reporter: but beyond the beltway, president trump's supporters stood ready to offer him slack. >> i'm not sure he put faith if vladimir putin, myself. i think really he's maybe trying to reset things, try to get things off to a better footing for our country. >> i think it's all politics, the russian thing the cia the fbi, all that i think that's what it is. >> reporter: for even farther afield, the voice president trump likely ignored, barack obama speaking in south africa, sounding an alarm without mentioning trump or putin. >> strong man politics are askendant suddenly, they are

seeking to undermine every norm that gives democracy meaning. >> reporter: this morning they are calling the president's walk back yesterday too little too l.a. mark warner, the top democrat telling reporters, he gives it 24 hours before the president changes his tune on russia again. >> thanks for that report. >> heidi what do you make of the mixed messaging from john kelly who called xishlg hcapitol hill you can speak out. they are saying it makes the president look weak? >> just total lack of coordination here. the fact that this, none of this was planned. as we saw from the reporting going into this, all of his team was urging him to come out and make a strong statement on russia. this was a unilateral executive decision. he got up there before the entire global stage, made that decision on his own. just like you saw in the meeting, where he was kind of

striking out portions of what hit his staff wrote for him. >> at one point, he even said, there could be other people. he kind of went off script. >> here's the job, yasmin, it wasn't just one word. you can't correct this. newt gingrich told him to correct it. his staff told him to correct it. correcting it is not taking a piece of lumpy whiteout. it was the entire context of what he said. he trashed u.s. intelligence agencies and made many other comments that were all in the spirit of siding with vladimir putin. >> you bring up a good point. it's actually what i thought of yesterday when i saw this would, wouldn't explanation. multiple times during the press conference alongside vladimir putin wanted he said vladimir putin in that one strong byte had a strong denial. he says his own fbi is a disgrace. in the post interview he didn't explain. he had multiple occasions in which he could have walked back what he said.

>> that's right. >> he chose not to. >> two fox interviews with chris wallace and sean hannity, he said all the same things, it was not that vladimir putin did it or didn't he do it. it was the trashing of intu institutions, the trashing of the media. that's why the entire world was reeling after this, not just in the occupation. and also you saw the reaction from capitol hill yesterday was pretty swift as well, people were not buying it. senator flake, members of his on party came out and said, you can't blame the media for this. those words came out of your own mouth. >> i know we will talk more in the seconds half of the show, what is the fallout i guess from all of this? what happens with his base here? that's what it comes down to. does his -- is there any waning support because of this, you think? >> this depends entirely on how capitol hill chooses to responds

to this for the first time, we are seeing maybe republicans are willing to step up to the plate. we are seeing they are not willing to directly rebuke the president. i think they are scared enough by the combegs of this plus dan coates saying the warning lights are blinking, we need to do more to shore up our election security systems, maybe there will be some kind of a resolution of support for our intelligence actions, but perhaps, perhaps for the first time, we'll start to see some kind of a legislative response. for starters, we did confirm last night that secretary of state mike pompeo will be coming up to the hill to testify. that is long overdue. >> yeah. >> i will reminds you, this is the second dictator that the president met with privately where congress has not been briefed by the president's national security team. >> i notice trepidation the next time the president wants to have a one-on-one meeting with nobody

else involved. >> especially if his name is vlad. >> yeah. nbc news has learned that secretary of state mike pompeo will appear before the senate foreign relations next week. according to a republican aid, the initial request was made to go over president trump's meeting with north korea's kim jong-un the shaerg now expected to address the helsinki summit as well, the hearing has been scheduled for next wednesday. on monday, president putin said he would allow bob mueller to travel to moscow to question the hack in the 2016 election, but on one condition. he set the condition. watch this. >> we would expect that the americans would reciprocate and they would question officials, including the officers law enforcement and intelligence services of the united states, whom we believe have something to do with illegal action on the

territory of russia. >> what he did an incredible offer. he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. i think that's a great offer. >> a general office told sputnik it will send an official request to question a former ambassador, michael mcfaul, along with officials from the national security agency in the russia's pursuit, ceo bill prouder, pr b was pivotal in passing the ninskying a. it levelled sanction on putin and his allies. he accused browder of fun neling money to hillary clinton's campaign, it's similar to what was described and the talking

points that the russian lawyer brought up with her trump tower meeting in june of 2016, a meeting she obtained on promising damaging information as you remember about hillary clinton. a for in new hampshire is calling for a hearing, sheps the u.s. interpreter to uncover what trump and putin discussed privately. shaheen says this interpreter can help determine what the president shared or promised putin on our behalf. at the same time top senate democrats have santa letter to president trump demanding details of what he discussed. senator bob then menendez will next on "morning joe." air force one is getting a new look him we have details of the planned makeover. those stories and, of course a

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welcome back, everybody, the federal judge overseeing the first of two felony trials against former trump campaign chief paul manafort has denied his request for a change of venue. manafort's lawyers, they wanted the trial on bank and tax fraud charges actually moved from alexander, virginia to roanoke. they argue the negative media coverage and the fact thattal andrea voted for hillary clinton in 2016 would make it hard for manafort to get a fair trial. ts elliot wrote the pretrial publicity would be the same in roanoke or dallas. he wrote, a juror's political leanings are not, by themselves,

evidence that those jurors cannot fair lid and impartially consider the evidence. also yesterday, special counsel bob mueller asked for immunity for five potential witnesses, whose testimony he wants to compel the special count sell also wants to keep those names under seem and remain that way unless they testify. manafort is in jail on accusation of witness tampering the trial is set to start one week from today. nbc attorney general rod rosenstein leaving yesterday morning, hans nichols says he was summoned. he met with the president was still in the white house residence, press secretary sarah sanders said rosenstein did not meet with the president. he was at the white house for routine meetingles. they came four days after rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 officers in the mueller investigation.

meanwhile, bloomberg citing two people reports that rosenstein allowed president trump to decide when those indictments would be announced. the president gave the go ahead to make the announcement the friday before the putin summit, hoping it it would strengthen his hands in the talks. mishlgs crazy storm that swept through the northeast in new york yesterday, if you were leaving work around 4:00, you might have gotten wet. you were talking about warmth in the south this morning. >> reporter: hi there, louis, we had the heat, humidity, flash flooding, funnel cloud over new york city. we are left with a beautiful day in the northeast today. one place that could use relief from the heat would be the south. we are sweating and sweltering here. we have been for days. we will continue for the weekend. we have heat advisories, heat warnings and dangerous heat today. temperatures in the 100 degree mark, higher than that. we are tacking on a degree or

two over the next several days. wichita falls, 107 today, waco 104. san antonio 102. an angelo 105. dallas 10. item sa 100 degrees. we will be -- tulsa 100 degrees. dallas the record today 104, chasing records for tomorrow as well. lots of hot air in place. to the north we are watching storms in the central plains. >> in texas, that's for sure. thanks, michelle. still ahead, everybody, the best in baseball the mid-summer classic. we have all the all star highlights coming up next.

welcome back. time for sports and the mlb all star game, they use pure power for the scoreboard of last night's mid-summer classic. the national league of the american league combined for an all star game, record ten home runs shattering the old record of 6. yankee super star aaron started in the 2nd inning out to left center field. he followed that up in the next frame, doubling the al lead with a homer of his own. he answered in the top of the third on this wilson contraers all star game at-bat. the nl down by a pair,

cincinnati starter slammed a two-run shot over the fences, sendsing the game into extra innings. the astro's teammates homered on consecutive pitches, putting the game out of reach. the american league takes this one 8-6. amazingly all those runs were scored on a home run. it's the way an all star game should be, really exciting stuff. meanwhile, trade rumors against manny machado are beginning to take place. a trade deem is in place. several teams are in the mix when it comes to landsing the shortstop, including the phillies, brewers and diamondbacks the los angeles dodgers are widely viewed as the top contenders to pick him up. a roundup of nfl news in arizona the charges slapped general manager steve keim after he plead guilty to extreme dui on tuesday. according to police, test

results show his blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit after he was arrested on suspicion of dui in arizona on the fourth of july. the leak says it will not take disciplinary action. the nfl was reinstated, excuse me, dallas defensive end randy gregory on a conditional basis, allowing his limited participation when the cowboys convened for training camp in california next week. gregory missed 30 of the last season games for multiple violations of the league's substance abuse policy. still ahead, everybody, how leaders of both sides of the aisle are reacting to president trump walking back some of his controversial comments in helsinki, plus, what former president barack obama had to say on the very same day. we'll be right back. (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "cactus calamity".

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welcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. amid backlash from both sides of the aisle, president trump is walking back some of the comments he made in helsinki. he is now insisting he misspoke about president putin's denial of russian interference, national correspondent peter alexander has more on this. >> i thought that the meeting that i had with president putin was really strong. >> reporter: first the backlash,

now the walk back, president trump reading from prepared remarks delivering ahis attempt at a do-over, offering this explanation what he mane to the say in helsinki. >> and a key sentence in my remarks, i said the word would instead of wouldn't. the sentence should have been, i don't see any reason why i wouldn't or it wouldn't be russia. sort of a double negative. so you can put that in. i think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself. >> reporter: but here is what the world heard. >> they said they think it's russia. i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this i don't see any reason why it would be. >> reporter: the president accepting vladimir putin's denials of russian interference, expre expressing his whole faith in intelligence agencies he threw under the bus in the very next breath again casting doubt. >> i accept our intelligence

community's conclusion that russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place it could be other people also. there is a lot of people out there. >> reporter: it briefly interrupted when the cabinet room grew dark. >> i have full faith in our intelligence agencies. >> oops, they turned off the lights. >> that must be the intelligencing as. >> capturing a glimpse with mr. trump writing in the words, there was no collusion. a point he emphasized. >> there was no collusion at all. people have seen that and seen that strongly. >> still the clarification did little with the 68thing comments, side-by-side with putin, blaming russia and the u.s. for relations. >> i hold both countries responsible. i think that the occupation has been foolish. >>. >> reporter: again the president is refusing to denounce the

russian leader. >> will you publicly condemn president putin? >> reporter: a person with direct knowledge tells nbc news top national security officials tuesday morning huddled for an unscheduled meeting to address the fallout. >> thank you for that report. following president trump's walk back on his widely criticized comment in helsinki, senate democrats are demanding answers. and political reporter heidi pryzbilla is back with that. >> so unusual. we have no official record of the president's meeting with russia. now, six senator, including minority leader chuck schumer and intel vice chairman mike warner sent a letter to the president, saying american versus a right to know what they discussed in that closed door meeting. senators schumer and warner were

ones speaking out yesterday at capitol hill. >> president trump tried to squirm away from what he said yesterday. it's 24 hours too late and in the wrong place. if the president can't say directly to president putin that he is wrong, and we are right and our intelligence agencies are right. it's ineffective and worse, another sign of weakness. >> i give these comments about 24 hours before he once again slams the investigation, before he once again sides with authoritarian like vladimir putin. >> i'm just glad he clarified it. i can't read his intentions or what he mane to the say at the time. suffice it to say for me as a policy maker, what really matters is what we do moving forward. 2016 is now in the hands of this committee's work and obviously what mueller is doing. >> i'm glad he clarified his comments today. i didn't see it live.

i understand he clarified his comments. of course, i wish he said fit front of president putin and the world yesterday. if he misspoke, absolutely. the point is we need to be as one here pushing back. >> coming up on "morning joe," democratic senator bob menendez that sign thad letter to the president explains what he wants to hear regarding the helsinki summit. they voiced their concerns after his summit with russian president vladimir putin. >> it feels like a dam is breaking and that you know i was glad to see people condemning what happened strongly. >> corker the chair of the senate foreign relations committee, seized on the president's comments to renew his push to limit trump's tariffs. tweeting yesterday, quote the dam is breaking, thankfully, the president taxes americans with

tariffs, he pushes away our allies and further strengthens putin. it is time for congress to step up and take back our authorities. we have legislation to do just that. let's vote. >> heidi, what is the likelihood that we see in schumer and warner's request, that we see what was said between putin and the president. i feel it's unlikely. >> this is so unusual. we have no official transcript between the leader of the free world and a former kgb agent, president of rmpbl i think the only way is to subpoena that translatorch she was in there. one i don't think you can get republicans to go along with that. even if they did that translator is not necessarily schooled to have been able identify whether the president was also giving away classified information potentially. if you recall, the president had a meeting in the oval office and

there was a big uproar after that meeting. it was a day after he fired comey. he had a bunch of russians in the oval office the news reports afterwards was that he had given away classified information about israeli intelligence. is that translator schooled in knowing what is classified or not classified? she could give the bake contours, but a lot of that is just lost. >> is there precedence for something like this, for subpoenaing, issuing a subpoena for a translator in a one-on-one meeting? granted. there weren't many one-on-one meetings, there was one with obama. >> not that i know of. the precedence is to have your aids, your closest aids in the room with you. so not in modern times is there precedence. >> how eelse could we see affect the president? do you think this could fall on the shoulders of the scream court brett kavanaugh? >> we have some members saying a

president is under investigation and potentially with criminal implications for members of his staff, his campaign manager, now making a decision that will shape the court for the next 30 years. you also have kavanaugh's writings, that some people finds troubling about the extent of executive power and his respect for executive power that may be different from others on the court. i think democrats will use. that how big does it become? i think it plays out. >> he said on "morning joe '80s yesterday he believes almost certainly the russians recorded the conversation. i have no doubt we will see this leaked out? >> it will depend on the circumstance, it is a weapon, potentially a big one if their ars nam, depending on how trump behaves, certainly, they will view it as a leash around his neck to be tugged when they feel to do so. >> i'm sure the administration and the executive branch for

trump are very aware of that and careful ability the wordings he says going forward. >> they didn't tell him that going into it. >> always check the soccer ball. heidi will be joining "morning joe" in a bit, everybody. former president barack obama delivered a rebuke delivering the nelson mandela lecture in johannesburg. he never mentioned trump by name. he touched on the embrace of the russian president vladimir putin. >> the politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment began to appear. >> that kinds of pediatrics is now on the move it's on a move on a pace that would seem unimaginable a few years ago.

i am not being alarmist. i am simply stating the facts. look around. strong man politics are ascendant suddenly whereby elections and some pretence of democracy are maintained, the form of it, but those in power seek to undermine every institution or norm that gives democracy meaning. >> and the former president also called on people to not outrightly object with those whom they may disagree. a former gop congressional slot in become become, four term congressman martha roby in a two-21 victo1 -- 2-1.

she stalled trump's actions unacceptable. something her competition used against her last month. since then she won trump's loyalty, securing his endorsement via tweet right there. she will face off against her democratic omeant to november. still ahead, president trump once again weighs in on whether he will get involved in justice department investigations. plus, giving air force one a facelift? the top of the line plan to overall that plan, a detail on the story when we come back. ♪

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you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia. welcome back. in an interview taped on monday with fox news, president trump left opened the possibility of getting quote involved in justice department investigations, but that he

won't at the very moment because he's being told he is quote winning. >> my department of justice is the one branch, the one group that i'm very little involved and same with the fbi. am i disappointed that they're not looking at all ul over the crooked things taking place on the other side, yet they go after other people like there is no tomorrow. you understand that. i spoke to you about it before. as they said, you winning, don't get involved. i don't want people accuse me of anything. i stay very much involved. but am i allowed to be involved? totally. will i be involved? we'll have to see as it goes along. >> all right, air force one is getting a red, white and blue makeover as the department of defense announces the $3.9 contract to build two u.s. air force one planes, plans were confirmed by president trump to

cbs yesterday. according to a historian, the baby blue design was created with direct input from president kennedy, who chose the plane's 60 font. jackie kennedy designed the plane's interior down to the tiffany glassware. the new planes are expected to be completed by december 2024. michelle, what do you got for us? >> reporter: hi there louis, it seems like they were getting a makeover in the northeast according to the weather. we have that northerly flow from canada, which means it's a bit cooler and dryer later on today. we are looking at temperatures nice this time of the year. chicago 80 degrees, cleveland 78 degrees. as we go throughout the next couple days, we will drop more in terms of temperatures, erie in the upper 70s tomorrow with

super low dew points. it will feel very nice outside, 83 on thursday. then later this weekend, we will keep these nice temperatures in place. we will have a nice dry stretch of weather before we bring in showers by the end of the weekend. new york 83 on friday. sunday yee 83, finally a nice weekend. not the story the tale of the front that brought it to the northeast, lingering here, we will see rounds of rain as we go throughout the day. some could be gusty as well. the northeast is looking very nice today. >> thank you, michelle. still ahead the federal reserve chairman weighs in. the impact of president trump's trade war. the ends of an era, one of the biggest bangs, goldman sachs and the other stories driving your business day.

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welcome back. let's turn to business. the do you ram lid as the do you hit an all time high. jerome powells appearance on tuesday. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. it wasn't just jerome powell's comments, it was also netflix getting a 14% nosedive there. they've rebounded significantly yesterday. we also told you about jeff

besos becoming the richest pan in history, amazon set the prime day sales performed better than the year before. seemed very conversation about the long-time the u.s. economy and talked doesn't likely see it sticking with the current hike in interest rates and wasn't worried about trade and that economic impact. interesting coming out of that question and answer sayses. >> big shift in a letter to employees, goldman sachs, announcing retirement after 12 years at the helm. what can you tell us about his replacement, david soloman, someone already at the firm? >> yeah. he's already been the chief operating officer and president until now, for the last few years. not a huge surprise. he's going to take over in october, in the new year, and also take over chairman role as well as ceo.

he told my cnbc co-worker, he's a decent house deejay. of the "house rules" celt. >> began buy mixing in "the pink panther" theme. remember that? the bass line? ♪ >> yeah. very cool. >> always great to you have with us. >> oh. to only be at the club when that's going on. coming up on "morning joe," the president, of course, in full damage control mode. president trump does a 180 on his widely criticized comment over russia's meddling in the election and growing bipartisan condemnation for not backing his intelligence committee. senator bob menendez joins the conversation to discuss the

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welcome back, everybody. quite a treat today. joining us on set with a look at axios, co-founder in the flesh, good to see you. >> thank you. during that break everybody was doing the "pink panther" bass line. >> you want to pick it up, or no? >> leave that to the pros. >> talk to us about axios's "one big thing" today? >> the "one big thing" is president trump's mind controlled super power. so after that press conference, you saw it coming. we said, oh, this time is different. right? and we talked to republicans on the hill. they all said this is unacceptable. this is unexplainable. this is un-american.

but, of course, they didn't say that on camera. >> so why? is it the midterms? >> exactly. and their own political calculations. president trump is more popular in their states and their districts than they are. so privately they say, i can't believe this, and they would like to be saying more, but they think it would be political suicide to do more. we're told that president trump's cleanup yesterday was aimed at one audience only and that was capitol hill. it started to be some statements. saw leaders mildly stating the obvio obvious, that they believe american intelligence. the main audience for his cleanup act. >> you see lindsey graham speaking out as well, you can't help but think it's only the jeff flakes of the world, the paul ryans of the world, bob corker's of the world, people with nothing to lose at this point that are being most vocal

about this. >> you're right. the list, every lawmaker has in common, they're leaving the state. >> the second they leave they start speaking out. >> exactly. >> has this affected trump's base at all? >> yes, to well have increased it. he had 90% of republicans. we've shown that chart showing the highest own party approval rating for any president since world war ii, except george w. bush the day after 9/11. he has the republican party, the republican party is the trump party in a way no other president has, and they love it when the president is under attack. like, it's -- in most cases, it simply fuels him. you saw with this, when he'd thrown his own intelligence under the bus, thought there were some lawmakers who might move away from him what he did yesterday, the absolute bare minimum, face it, he had to do to try to turn that page. >> i know you spoke to specifically some gop senators

yesterday and their reactions. there was mixed reactions you got. some people said i can't stay onboard with this anymore, or for not much longer. who did you hear from? >> right. look at the people on the ballot. >> yeah. >> if they're on the ballot they're quietest. we called around and found anybody who was running was with trump, and so, like -- after charlottesville, after the gold star families, this is different. this is different. as we might have predicted. so far this is not different in the party. >> it's really become the trump party, not the republican party anymore. >> that's right. and in such a short time. as you look ahead to 2020, what are the trump lessons for someone who's trying to run on the democratic party? it's that you can change people's minds in a hurry. and he didn't spend a lot of money. he didn't have a lot of staff, and he is -- politically and policy-wise changed the republican party in a way nobody could have predicted. >> unbelievable.

mike allen, thanks so much. mike will be on "morning joe" in a bit. you don't want to miss that. also reading axios a.m. in a little while to viewers, you too can sigh up for the newsletter. signup.axios.com that does it for us on this wednesday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian, "morning joe" starts right now. the free press is under attack. >> cnn is fake news. >> barely hidden racial nationalism. >> destroying the culture of europe. >> utter shame among political leaders where they're caught in a lie and double down and lie some more. >> should have been, i don't see any reason why it "wouldn't" be russia. >> just not completely lying to people i think it's pretty basic. >> we won the electoral college by a lot. 306 to 223. >> strongman politics are ascendant. >> president putin was extremely strong and powerful. >> those in power seek to undermine every institution or

norm that gives democracy meaning. >> i hold both countries responsible. i think that the united states has been foolish. i think we've all been foolish. >> from south africa to europe, the world was presented with two very different visions of american presidents over the last several days. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's wednesday july 18th. joe and mika are off today. i'm willie geist alongside nbc news national political reporter heidi prprzybilla, mike barnicl and msnbc contributor eddie glove jr., and nick compasori and dean of the fletcher school of law and diplomacy at tufts universities and chief diplomacy analyst for nbc news and msnbc retired four-sta