that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow t night. we will see you again tomorrow night. it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. ♪ president trump launches another attack against attorney general jeff sessions, this time over the indictments of two of his earliest congressional supporters. plus, supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh's confirmation hearings begin today and senator richard blumenthal is warning sparks will fly. a hurricane warning issued as tropical storm gordon takes aim at the gulf coast. the storm has battered south florida take with heavy rain and wind. ♪ good morning. it is tuesday, september 4th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside

louis bergdorf. as the senate gets ready to hear testimony from the supreme court justice nominee, the president is blasting, two long running, obama-era investigations of two very popular republican congressmen were brought to a well-publicized charge, just ahead of the mid terms, by the jeff sessions justice department. two easy wins now in doubt because there's not enough time. good job, jeff. the justice department declined to comment when asked by "the new york times." the president's claim is false and "the insider" trading investigation of congressman chris collins stemmed from actions he is accused of taking five months after the trump administration began, including messages collins sent in june of 2017 while he was at the white house congressional picnic. a handful of republicans in congress reacted with dismay to the president's tweets. senator ben sasse of nebraska said the united states is not a

banana republican with a two-tiered system of justice. these two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the president was when the investigations began. senator jeff flake replied, this is not the conduct of a president committed to defending and up holding the constitution but rather a president looking to use the department of justice to settle political scores. through a spokesman speaker paul ryan responded to cnn saying, the department of justice should always remain apolitical, and the speaker has demonstrated he takes these charges seriously. always for the democrats, senate minority leader chuck schumer wrote, clearly the president does not think the law applies to him and the congressmen who supported him. in a new interview with the new yorker magazine, glrudy guilliani says they will file a

concluding report with rod rosenstein who has the option of releasing the report to congress and the public. guilliani pointed out a little-known aspect of the agreement that trump's original team struck with mueller and the white house reserved the right to object to the public disclosure of information that might be covered by executive privilege. the new yorker asked guilliani if he thought the white house would raise objections. i'm sure we will, he said, adding that the president would make the final call. in other words, the conclusion of the special counsel's investigation could be the beginning of a contentious fight over whether rosenstein is allowed the release a full report. he said refuting the findings is already 45 pages long. political consultant samuel pat to be pleaded guilty friday to failing to register as a

foreign lobbyist. according to court documents patton used a straw donor to make it look as if a $50,000 donation to the inauguration was coming from an american citizen when it was coming from a ukrainian and russian national. in court friday patton admitted he lied to the senate intelligence committee in january in an effort to cover it up. no evidence was presented to suggest trump's team knew about the scheme. the case was brought by the u.s. attorney's office in washington, d.c., but patton as agreed to cooperate with federal investigators in washington as well as in the special counsel's probe. he is accused of representing the interests of the same pro russian political party in ukraine paul manafort represented. manafort's second trial, which includes the charge of failing to register as a foreign agent as well, that gets underway later this morning. joining me onset, nbc legal analyst danny cevallos. great to have you with us on

this tuesday morning. let's talk about somewhat unusual charge that came out friday in the sense nobody had seen samuel patton on anybody's radar. how does it fit into the big picture of the mueller probe? >> that's the magic of the mueller probe is they always know a lot more than we know, and if we did know everything they were up to that would be bad for the mueller probe because it would tip off potential defendants. an example would be samuel patton. how does his charges, how do his charges affect the overall probe? well, it tells us we are inching closer and closer to connections with russia, which is the original mission of the mueller probe. and even though rudy guilliani argues that this isn't something trump would have known about individually or personally, this is just a contribution to the inaugural committee that samuel patton is accused of or convicted of funneling money into the inaugural campaign. these are just more pieces of

the puzzle , of the russia puzze that build a bigger picture about the circle of people involved. >> let's switch gears and talk about the story louis mentioned, part of the strategy of the president's legal defense team. guilliani saying to the new yorker they may try to suppress the findings of the mueller probe, try to exert some kind of executive privilege so it doesn't get published, doesn't get released. how likely is that to happen? is there a legal ground for something like that to happen? whose discretion will it be to ultimately say, you know what, overruled, it is getting released? >> mueller's required to submit his report to rosenstein. rosenstein apps you can imagine has that boss and that boss, of course, is president trump. so theoretically could the trump administration completely block the mueller report? all right. let's imagine that they can and they do. toss that leave y

does that leave you with a lot of questions about what michael flynn did, what george papadopolous did? no, because they're been indicted publicly and the facts are out there. the bell cannot be unrung. mueller is, quote, submitting his report on an ongoing basis by indicting people in public documents. that information is now out there. at the end of the entire probe, if mueller has indicted everybody he is going to indict and additionally there's some report submitted, let's suppose it is even blocked somehow as guilliani says he is won't t to, does it matter in the end if mueller has told the story through grand jury and public indictments? >> very good point. danny cevallos, great to talk to you. we will touch base in a bit. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh's long-awaited confirmation hearing is set to begin in a few hours. he is expected to undergo more than 17 hours of questioning about his views and questions

about his years on the appeals court. hours before the hearing a lawyer for former president george w. bush turned over an additional 42,000 pages of documents from kavanaugh's service in the bush white house. the move angered senate minority leader chuck schumer who tweeted, quote, this underscores just how absurd this process is. not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow. the senate judiciary committee responded a few hours later tweeting, the majority staff has now completed its review of each and every one of these pages, adding that committee chairman chuck grassley and his team are ready for today's hearing. switching gears and heading overseas for a moment, an american service member was killed on monday in what officials say was an apparent insider attack. another american soldier was

also wounded. it is the sixth american service member killed in afghanistan this year alone and the second which is being attributed to an apparent insider attack. according to a downreport from the pentagon, there have been 47 indianapolis dents of afghan soldiers turning on their own side this year. that is a 50% increase compared to last year. it comes as u.s. army general austin scott miller took over command of nato forces in afghanistan on sunday. he replaces general john nichollson who led the forces for 31 months and in that farewell speech he spoke to the soldiers saying it is time for the sworn afghanistan to end while calling on the taliban to accept the offer of ceasefire and enter into peace talks. keep in mind he criticized regional powers he said encouraged the fighting. president trump has yet to visit afghanistan more the american

troops serving there. president trump tweeted about trade making several false claims, quote, there's no political necessity to keep canada in the new nacht au deal. if we don't make a fair deal for united states after years of abuse, canada will be out. remember, nafta was one of the worst trade deals ever made. the u.s. lost thousands of businesses and millions of jobs. we were far better off before nafta. should never have been signed. even the vat tax was not accounted for. we make new deal or go back to prenafta. i love canada but that's taken advantage of our country for many years. we shouldn't have to buy our friends with bad trade deals and free military protection. as several republican senators pointed out, the president cannot unilaterally kill nafta without coming to congress since it was passed through the legislative branch, nor can he unilaterally modify it without

congressional approval which already has some senators skeptical. >> can the president unilaterally kill nacfta withou coming to congress? >> no, absolutely not. when he informed congress, it was for the purpose of reforming nafta. >> all of this comes as a new analysis from ak yoes that trump's trade wars could affect 11 million americans. . still ahead as the texas senate rate between ted cruz and o'rourke, an activist is reminding voters what donald trump had to say in 2016. we have our eye on tropical storm gordon as it heads towards the gulf coast. forecast forecasters say it could be a category one hurricane before it makes landfall. those and more coming up next. sl those and more coming up next. ♪

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welcome back. let's get a check on your weather now. an update on tropical storm gordon with nbc meteorologist michelle gross. what do you have for us this morning? >> we continue to track tropical storm gordon. it looks like it has winds at 65 miles per hour. so as of the latest advisory, it does continue to strengthen. we do expect it to continue to strengthen as we go throughout the day today, making landfall possibly as a category one storm. the current location, 230 miles east/southeast of the mississippi river, winds of 65 miles per hour. it is moving pretty quickly, that's the good news. we want the forward speed to be quick so it gets to the coast quick without gaining too much strength, although we do expect it to gain strength by 1:00, 75 miles per hour. weep in mind a category one storm is 74 miles per hour. so it is a weak category one but still a hurricane at that point. it makes landfall overnight somewhere along the mississippi valley. we are looking at the possibility of some very heavy rain, some gusty winds, some storm surge. if you haven't prepared yet, now

is the time. as we go throughout the rest of wednesday we will look at it weakening very quickly. here are the advisory. a tropical storm warning in the orange color, the red is a hurricane warning. this is where we expect the landfall and expect winds after 74 miles per hour. here is what it looks like on radar. right now over the gulf but soon it will make its way towards the gulf coast states. ayman. >> i was recalling apt the end of last week talking to bill about how it has been a relatively quiet hurricane season, we hope things don't change in the next few weeks. >> the peak is the 10th. we have a train of three coming so it may be a busy week next week. >> thanks for that. >> welcome. >> family and friends of senator john mccain spent this last week paying their goodbyes to the former leader. mccain was laid to rest sunday at the u.s. naval academy in annapolis memorial. a private memorial service was held and speakers included his close friends senator lindsey

gram, former cia director john petraeus at the senator's son. a horse-drawn carried the casket. he was buried next to his friend admiral charles larson. speakers at the cathedral in washington, d.c. including daughter meghan mccain along with presidents george w. bush and barack obama. president trump was not invited to the event. >> the america of john mccain is generous, welcoming and bold. she is resourceful and confident and secure. she meets her responsibilities. she speaks quietly because she is strong. america does not boast because she has no need to.

the america of john mccain has no need to be made great again because america was always great. >> above all, john detested the abuse of power. he could not abide bigots and swaggering decemb swaggering despots. there was something deep inside him that made him stand up for the little guy, to speak for for gotten people in forgotten people. >> soap of o much of our public and public discourse can seem small and mean and petty. trafficking in bombast and insult and phoney controversies and manufactured outrage. it is a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear.

john called on us to be bigger than that. he called on us to be better than that. >> switching gears and heading overseas with a judge in myanmar sentenced two reuters journalists to seven years in prison. they were investigating the killings of rohingya muslim villagers by myanmar's military which forced roughly 700,000 ro hinge ya' to flee to bangladesh. tens of thousands more are believed dead. reuters published an explosive report based on the journalists investigation in february. they were found in violation of myanmar's secrets act which dates back to more than 90 years when it was a british colony known as burma. last december during a meeting with police at a restaurant, they say police gave them documents and were immediately arrested for being in possession of the documents. a police witness told the court they were set up.

last week united nations investigators say myanmar's military leaders should go on trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes and that the mass killings of the rohingya muslims constituted genocide. park land school survivor david hog is helping raise $10,000 through gofundme to put a trump tweet on a billboard in texas. the proposed sign features a february 2016 tweet from president trump criticizing ted cruz as an all talk, no action criticism. two years after a fierce battle for cruz, trump is committed to campaigning for the senator. tweeting, he will be holding a major rally for cruz next month in the biggest stadium he can find. now, the endorsement comes at a time when several polls show cruz and o'rourke in a dead heat. even though the deep red state has not elected a democrat to the senate in three decades. the face of the kneeling protest of the nfl, colin

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nike, one of the nfl's top apparel partners. it makes him the face of the company's just do it campaign. nike reportedly plans to introduce the new kaepernick's you apparel and will donate to his know your rights campaign as well. also coming to kaepernick's defense is former iranian president ahmadinejad who offered his opinion on twitter yesterday, expressing disappointment over kaepernick's nfl roster, quote, even though he is one of the best quarterbacks in the league. turning to the college grid iron and a lousy showing for acc teams in the state of florida over labor day weekend after miami was shut out by lsu on saturday, in last night's debut for coach willie tag ert, number 19, florida state could only muster a field goal against 20th ranked virginia tech, defeating

the dem knolseminoles 24-3. maria sharapova's record has come to an end, defeated in straight sets by the 30th seeded spaniard. on the men's side john millman upset second seeded roger federer. federer double faulted ten times in the match. it concluded at nearly 1:00 a.m. this morning. i guess we will not see them after all. finally we turn to major league baseball and place in the record books for jacob degrom who has now strung together 25 straight starts of three or fewer runs. that matches an mlb record set more than 100 years ago in 1910 by cubs righty. >> so many things to break down

before colin kaepernick, roger federer. >> a lot of people shocked by federer being knock out. it is very uncharacteristic of him. he said he was hot, he just didn't feel right. there you go, things can happen. >> congratulations to kaepernick on the new nike add. still ahead, 60 days until the midterm elections and we are breaking down the candidates, the voters and cash being spent. plus president trump issues a warning to the syrian government about a grave humanitarian mistake. we will talk about what is next for the war-torn country and why the president is tweeting about it straight ahead. tweeting abo it straight ahead. yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. order your kit at ancestrydna.com

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welcome back, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis bergdorf. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories for you. president trump spent part of his labor day once again attacking attorney general jeff sessions, this time over the indictments of two republican congressmen. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker has the latest. >> reporter: with critical battles looming on the high court and campaign trail, president trump walked outside the house in golf gear and went back inside and into fight mode, attacking labor unions on labor day and lashing out at a familiar target, his attorney general jeff sessions, the president slamming what he called the jeff sessions justice department which indicted republican congressment duncan hunter for misusing campaign funs and chris colins for insider trading.

it all comes as president trump is gearing up to crisscross the country for critical gop seats, but he's also eyeing his own reelection, including this exchange with former secretary of state john kerry. >> are you going to run in 2020? >> i'm really not thinking about it. talking about 2020 right now is a total distraction and waste of time. >> reporter: the president pouncing, i see that john kerry is thinking of running for president. i should only be so lucky, although the field that is currently assembling looks really good, for me. another potential in that field, former vice president joe biden, who was pressed by nbc's mike memolee on his own political prospects during a labor day parade. >> it doesn't mean anything in my political future. i have been with these guys my whole life. >> reporter: a defining moment starts with the confirmation hearing for judge brett kavanaugh in the supreme court. in the spotlight, the battle over abortion rights, voting

rights and limits of presidential power. >> i never saw him lose his temper. he was very serious and very hard working. so i will be very surprised if he is rattled in any way. i think he is ready for anything they will throw at him. >> reporter: democrats are slamming the trump administration for withholding more than 100,000 documents related to kavanaugh's time serving in the george w. bush white house. officials argue the documents are protected by executive privilege. republicans though have a majority in the senate and don't need democrats to confirm kavanaugh. ayman. >> our thanks to kristen welker for the report. over the weekend president trump launched a new attack over a report about the warrants to surveilled former trump campaign aide carter page. the conservative watchdog group judicial watch reported on friday the justice department admitted that the foreign intelligence surveillance court held no hearings on the spy warrants targeting page. on saturday as you can imagine

the president tweeted about the report, quoting, the president of judicial watch who said in part it is astonishing that the fisa courts couldn't hold hearings on spy warrants targeting donald trump. it isn't about carpeter page, it is about the trump campaign. you have corruption at the doj and fbi. but according to a fact check from the law fare blog, they typically conduct the scrutiny through phone calls rather than formal hearings. in fact, trump defender tweeted out, in nearly 20 years as a prosecutor and hundreds of warrants, i never had a hearing to get a warrant. i had judges ted me know or tell me i needed to beef this up or that allegations with more solid evidence, but never an actual hearing. a new reporting from "the new york times" and the president's own tweet seems to contradict his claim of a deep state conspiracy to undermine his presidency. the times reports former british

spy christopher steele and the justice department top lawyer bruce ohr worked on an unsuccessful effort by the united states to flip russian oligarchs against vladimir putin. the paper reports the fbi tried to turn one into an informant on russian organized crime. according to officials of him, they saw information from the oligarch again, this time on possibly collusion between russia and the trump campaign. the times reports that deripaska was the subject of many of the contacts between steele and ohr between 2014 and 2016. now, trump has repeatedly claimed that the contact between ohr and steele proves there's a conspiracy against him, but even the president himself acknowledged in this tweet yesterday that the work between the two men began before he announced his candidacy. >> joining me onset, nbc legal

analyst danny cevallos. help me understand why the president would think that any kind of work between bruce ohr, who is officially tasked with investigating and tack manying russian organized crime, and christopher steele, a former british spy, makes the case for a deep state conspiracy but at the same time undermines the president's claim there is a team state conspiracy against him? >> prosecutors and law enforcement work hand in hand with criminals to catch other criminals. if anyone out there is saying, this is a shock to me or clutching their pearls, then i've got news for you, they've been doing it for a long time. if you ask the doj about it, they would say, well, yeah, you want us to catch all of the criminals, didn't you? that is how they do it. it is how they've done it for a long time. the courts have approved of it. the problem is it is a shadowy business, so that when you approach criminals and ask for information on other criminals

the information that comes from them might not always be reliable, especially when these are accused murderers, people accused of corruption, people accused of other very serious crimes. but like the courts have said, usually the only people who see crime are other criminals, and that's trump's accusation here. in a sense this will be helpful to his claim because if the law enforcement was unable to turn a criminal against other criminals, well, then that must mean there wasn't anything to see or it could equally be that the criminal is sticking to the rule which is don't snitch, don't inform on others or you -- there may be some crimes but the government doesn't have their theory quite right yet. >> they weren't incentivized enough to do something for the american government. let's switch gears for a moment because i want to ask about president trump continuing to get wrong this notion that there was no hearing for a fisa warrant application as we heard there. there usually isn't an actual

hearing. >> no, the fisa warrant application process is nothing like anything you would see in any other court and, in fact, the strange thing about it is while it doesn't have an actual hearing, instead what it has is arguably a more exacting process. as a criminal defense attorney you always want to hear and you want things to be in public but realistically with the warrant process and particularly with the fisa warrant process, that must be done in secret. people who apply for fisa warrants will tell you that the process requires a ton of approval up and down the chain of command. they work together almost with the judges' chambers and go back and forth with lots of questions, concerns, you have to fix this, you have to beef this up so that the final product, at least according to them, is highly vetted by both the judge, the judge's assistants, the doj, investigators, everybody involved. there's a lot of accountability even if it is all on one side of the prosecutor's side. >> yes, so much of intelligence

is it is done in secret. danny cevallos, great to have you with us. thanks, danny. >> ahead of the mid terms, this year's primaries have shown mid terms, including the election torpt, a historic year for women. voting in last tuesday's arizona was up. democrats are also out raising republican opponents in the house and senate according to the center for responsive politics. democrat house candidates have raised 150 million dollars, more than their republican opponents, and in the senate democratic candidates raised 110 million dollars or 42% more than their gop opponents. meanwhile, the number of women who won primaries to become nominees for major offices set a new record. there are 14 female nominees for governor, 24 for senate and 226 for the house. the surge may give democrats an

edge heading into november as the record number of women running for house seats are mainly democrats. all right. still ahead, president trump warning syria and its allies against attacking the rebel held province. cal perry will be with us to break down the next steps in the country's civil war. plus, the latest on tropical storm gordon as the gulf prepares for a potential hurricane. potential hurricane. you've tried moisturizer after moisturizer but there's one...

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welcome back, everyone. president trump's last labor day weekend tweet was about syria. quote, president bashar al assad of syria must not recklessly attack idlib province. the russians and iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this tragedy. hundreds of thousands of people could be killed, don't let that happen. idlib is the last province remaining under rebel control in syria and assad's regime is expected to prepare for a new

offensive to regain the area. reportedly with the aid of iranian troops and russian fighter jets. an estimated three million people, and civilians i should emphasize, live in idlib. joining me onset international correspondent cal perry. good to have you with us. talk to us about the situation on the ground and where the president's tweet fits into any of this. i mean is it anything other than a tweet? >> unclear. i mean, look, yesterday we have the iranian foreign minister in damascus. it could be prompted by that. clearly president trump has issues with iran. this is the last area rebels are in in syria. three million civilians there. about 1.5 million people actually fled from other places in syria. so about 1.5 million of those folks have already survived battles in places like aleppo. bottle lin bottom line, it is a slow-motion massacre. you have people caught in syria, unable to move to turkey.

so this slow-motion massacre continues. >> let's switch and talk to an issue affecting the palestinian refugees specifically. the trump administration announcing it is going to cut all funding for the u.n. agency that helps palestinian refugees, setback up in 1948. what is the significance of that, why and how can it be a setback for middle east peace issues? >> it seems the president believes it will push the region towards paeace. it is demonstrating that the right of return is off the table. you had palestinians forced from their home or left when israel was created. they believe the descendants of those people should be allowed to return to the plan that was palestinian land. you have those who rely on aid for food, shelter.

that aid will be cut off. the concern among palestinian officials and israeli officials is that will radicalize a great number of the palestinians you see right there who rely on this kind of aid to go to school. it is possible this will be participate of a push from kushner. >> but it seems now the president, at least by taking what he says taking jerusalem off the map, taking the refugee issue off the table, his vision for a peace plan will not be based on some of the same core issues we thought about when it comes to the conflict. >> the palestinian leadership has said president trump is trying to make us as miserable as he can make us to force us to the table. historically that has not worked. >> cal perry in from london. always appreciate having you onset. >> thanks for having me. >> let's get a check on the weather from meteorologist michelle grossman and a check on the track of tropical storm gordon. >> it is moving pretty quickly. we will see changes over the next several hours. this is what it looks like right

now on radar. you see most of the heavy rain over the gulf of mexico, those darker colors indicating the heavy rain. you see the northern edge of this clipping participate of panama, florida. we will see changes rapidly throughout the day. we have a tropical storm warning in the orange, we have hurricane warning in the red. this is where we expect gordon to make landfall. we will watch that closely at least this afternoon into the evening and nighttime hours. always we go throughout time here, we are looking at winds of 64 miles per hour. we expect it to make landfall at a weak hurricane of 65 miles per hour. it is moving west/northwest at 17 miles per hour. we want it to move quickly. we could still see up to six or seven inches of rain in some pots. >> thanks for the update. >> sure. still ahead, global markets start the market off on a mixed note over concerns of president trump's trade wars. plus, details on twitter ceo's

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welcome back. twitter ceo jack dorsey is ex peculiared to testify before congress tomorrow, shedding light on how the platform polices bad actors. according to new reporting from the "wall street journal", dorsey has taken a hands-on approach to the frustration of his employees. cnbc's villem joins us.

this stemming from him stepping in and the bannin punishing them as well? >> a good example. over the court of your long weekend, and that was one instance jack dorsey reportedly according to the jones reporting stepped in saying i don't like this idea to leave jones on. again, dorsey reports he's stepping to to say keep this guy around. not a lot of huge transparency how they police content but we know twitter experts users to report abuse, they look at it. whether that is following a fixed set of policies or not or have individuals like dorsey stepping in is a big subject of that capitol hill hearing later today. another giant in the news over the weekend subject to a big

"new york times" story is amazon. a tiny item labeled "other" that saw a huge surge in growing business. "new york times" reporting online advertising. now competing with google and facebook currently just over $2.2 billion a quarter and could go because of so much detail how you and i will shop. >> and the u.s. and canadian markets after a long weekend of failed nafta negotiations and turmoil in markets. what's the latest? >> yesterday a tough day in asian market trading that seems to be better today. in europe not seeing great numbers. one of the big stories we've followed here at msnbc, the strength of the dollar. ondoing story, moving higher against the pound and other global currencies. u.s. markets before they open in a few hours' time look like they will open higher than expected

overnight. interesting to see whether the u.s. stock market continues its surge. >> great to you have with us live from london. talk to you soon. coming up, axios's nicholas johnson has a look at "one big thing" and coming up on "morning joe," president trump ramping up attacks against the country of justice still. the latest on the president's labor day tweet storm over the prosecution of two of his congress' allies as he begins hammers attorney general jeff sessions. plus the race to the midterms enterers its final stretch. major races and issue s at play in his critical election year. "morning joe" just moments away, ladies and gentlemen. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if

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tell your doctor if your asthma worsens or if you have a parasitic infection. fasenra™ is a targeted treatment for eosinophilic asthma. that's important. ask an asthma specialist about fasenra™. >> jane ug from -- joining us from washington, d.c., from axios, what is the "one big thing"? >> the "one big thing" is

twitter's insane mind control pow perp we talk about facebook just for sheer size and billions of users but you can't overstate the power that twitter even though much small hear on what america's talk and think about and also try to censor. the latest example yesterday, labor day weekend when the "new yorker" announced proudly steve bannon could come to fer set of v -- the "new yorker" editor saying steve bannon wa no longer invited. he won't be there. another example of sort of the backlash can change what we tack about. a number of instances like this. journalists with job offers pulled by some publications after a twitter backlash. google changed some government projects its working on because of twitter backlash and best of all, president trump often setting the agenda on television shows each day with what he's

tweeting about and the massive response it creates. >> and twitter given the back it lash we se sometie sometimes on. when the twitter ceo joins several other tech executives this week to testify before lawmakers. give us a sense what we can expect to play out in the hearings? >> attacks before both side. sheryl sandberg from facebook and a google executive yet to be decided attacked from both republicans and democrats. all enter ing a dangerous area from platform to publisher. hiring engineers not journalist to police their content. now having to police content with people actually reading it and making these decisions. you mentioned earlier the firestorm surround are dorsey.

looking at censorship of conservative voices and democrats looking at policing some of the more damaging misinformation campaigns. there's going to be a firestorm of controversy concerning all three on the hill. >> speaking of twitter, president was tweeting over the weekend. what are they saying about the president's complaints and latest set of attacks against the department of justice and jeff sessions? >> republicans we've spoken to, attorneys, astounded the president would wade into ongoing legal investigations like this. republican senator ben sasse, at risk of becoming a banana republic he said. the president making a clear political connection over what his department of justice should be doing on criminal wrongdoing. >> talk about what this all means going forward. if jeff sessions does, in fact, exit or fegetfired, what the

president expects from an incoming attorney general, how could this complicate the semp f search for a successor? >> shows the needle that needs to be thread on this. the president wants the attorney general ho be loyal to him and a lot of people on the hill will defend that department's independence. an attorney general for the nation not the president. it's that key tension between the way the president views his lawyers and the way government lawyers tend to act. i think if attorney general does lose his job, after the midterm election, very difficult to replace him because of those competing viewpoints. >> and not to mention how the outcome is impacted. >> absolutely. >> reading axios a.m. in a bit. to all viewers out there, you can sign up for the newsletter going to signup.axios.com. that does it for us. "morning joe," everyone, starts right now.

so much of our politics are public life, our public discourse, can seem small and mean and petty. >> john called on us to be bigger than that. he called on us to be better than that the america of jp hoh mccain has no need to be made great again because america was always great f. we ever forget to grow weary of our cause and who we are john's voice will come as a whisper over our shoulder. we are better than this. america is better than this. >> as the former cab secretary veterans and senators remember john mccain, president trump was golfing. literally every power