right now. >> we are in this for our planet, for our future and we will fight back. >> we are tired of the shutdowns and the gridlock. >> we will meet lies and hate with the truth and a vision for the future. >> well, the field of democrats is taking shape, as senators warren and klobuchar are officially in while beto o'rourke is holding a counterrally to the president tonight. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, february 11th. we have with us mike barnicle, political analyst nick confessore, richard haas, former chief of staff and director of strategics communications for hillary clinton's campaign, now an msnbc contributor, adrienne

elrod and associate editor of "the washington post" eugene robinson will be joining us in just a moment. we've got a lot to get to. wow. new poll numbers in virginia. what it means more the state's leadership. it looks like the governor might stay but fairfax might go. plus saudi arabia denies any involvement in a blackmail attempt. and president trump sends a glowing tweet about north korea. no mention of that country's nuclear arsenal. we'll get to all of that. first, joe, another busy weekend for the presidential field of democrats. >> another busy weekend. it continues. michael bennett on "meet the

press" yesterday suggesting he may jump into the race, a colorado senator who recently took on ted cruz on the showdown of the government shutdown, with the showdown on the senate floor would be a very impress of candidate, certainly occupying a more centrist vision of what the democratic party should be going up against donald trump. but i'm just curious, nick confessore, why go with "the washington post" i think put it best that it was a curious selection for amy klobuchar to announce her run for president in 2020. how did she do? >> it was a truly minnesota moment there for amy klobuchar and true to form she powered right through. in some ways it was a photo-op for twitter, but the announcement previewed the themes that we'll see. she's going to run as a moderate progressive so to speak, a midwesterner, somebody who can

play nice with both sides but push for important priorities on the left, will be perhaps a little more bipartisan than some people on the left have been in the last few weeks. i think her lane is going to be sort of center left compared to some of these candidates. what has really struck me, i'm just going to say this, there are now a collection of candidates for this nomination and i think there's only a single straight white guy in the entire bunch, which is a real shift from any election past that we've seen a. >> for sure. >> another person announced this weekend, elizabeth warren. i'm just curious, adrienne, how do you think her announcement

was and am i the only one in a doesn't think the native american will continue to be a thing? >> i think you're right. she's stayed on message, bridging the gap between the middle class and wealthy, cleaning up washington and corruption has stood out in every one of her aspects for roll-out. your roll-outs really do matter. you have to communicate your message and hone in on what is causing and driving to you run for president. i think both amy klobuchar and elizabeth warren succeeded in that. and i want to give credit to amy klobuchar's advance team for putting things together in 4

degrees temperature. >> she may want a temporary roof. >> i liked it. it showed grit. >> it seems to me elizabeth warren needs to stop explaining what's mind her and stoort expla -- start explaining what's in front of her. let bloggers write about what she wrote on applications 25 years ago. tell americans where we're going to go. i've run a few times on a small level. voters are interested in their future, not so much your past. >> and she's got a solid past in terms of her work, her heart, her message, that saying i live by comes behind, doesn't trip offer what's behind you, move forward. we're starting off the week with a threat of another government

shutdown looming as a real tangible possibility. last friday aides and lawmakers appeared optimistic they could reach a deal by today. now negotiations has stalled. one of the main sticking points is the number of beds to give to immigration and customs enforcement to detain immigrants who come across the border. in interviews yesterday, senator richard shelby, the lead republican negotiator, didn't appear optimistic about the chances of reaching a deal ahead of friday's deadline. >> i think talks are stalled right now. i'm hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning because time's ticking away. but we've got some problem with the democrats dealing with ice,

that is detaining criminals that come into the u.s. and they want a cap on them. we don't want a cap on that. >> the thought is you have to make a deal and announce something by tomorrow. do you feel that's a deadline? how confident are you that you can reach a deal by tomorrow? >> chris that, is a deadline. i'm not confident we're going to get there. i'm hoping we'll get there. >> so is it fair to say whatever congress hands him, he'll sign. he just may not be enthusiastic about it? >> i don't think so. >> we cannot definitively rule out a government shutdown at the end of this week. >> you absolutely cannot. >> mike barnicle, a little confused here, which is nothing new, the democrats seem to have dra donald trump backing down on the number, how much money he wanted

for the wall and we started to hear a deal was going to be done. then sunday the democrats started about limiting the number of illegal immigrants that could be detained. the republicans asked for an exception for criminals and democrats said, no, 165,000 betbeds will be enough. it seems to me that's an easy political fight for democrats to win but now they're adding new conditions, suddenly it gets a lot murkier doesn't it? >> a lot murkier. at the end of the week if there is no deal, if we have another shutdown, in addition to the lives of the people who will be unemployed and going without paychecks, you're talking about the ripple effect within the national economy and the added incentive of people, average

voters, to say none of these people can govern and the lack of faith in the system of government which is already at an all-time low is going to increasingly dip. >> eugene robinson, sometimes you need to know when to take a win. giv again, just my opinion, it doesn't know like the democrats know how to take a win. if this government is shutdown offer donald trump's stupid, phony wall that is a fight that democrats win every day. if it's about democrats refusing the republicans' exception to be able to detain criminals who are illegal immigrants as well, i don't think that fares as well in the cross tabs. do you have any insight as to whether the democrats are going to shut down the government on

friday over that? >> i don't think the governments are going to shut down the government or being seen as shutting down the government. i do think when you say criminals as opposed to asylum seekers, i think there's a good and legitimate interest in curbing this administration's ability to arbitrarily put asylum seekers in detention when what they're doing is perfectly legal. if you talk about criminals and define that word, then obviously if they're criminals, they should be detained. but i read this whole thing as democrats seeing just how far they can push this. they know they're in a strong position, they have apparently republican negotiators talking about numbers that donald trump says are unimaginable, unimaginably low yet they're there.

republicans are not the only ones who can move the goalpost and see how far they can push things. i'm not convinced this breakdown in talks was so much a break down as a sort of last-minute wrangle. but we'll see. i've been surprised before but we'll see. >> and nancy pelosi is such a gifted legislator. it sort of reminds me what lbj said. he never wanted to win a vote with 75 votes. he wanted to withn with 53, 54 votes. maybe this is just a negotiating tactic and we see what happens but this government cannot be shut down given. -- again. >> nanother governor is pulling back members of states of its

national guard. california's governor will reveal plans to redeploy the troops to fight wildfires calling the praeoperation at th border a manufactured crisis, which it appears to be. >> of course it is. >> this comes days after new mexico' governor withdrew her state's troops while ordering services members from other states to leave new mexico. governor grisham said new mexico will not take part in the charade by misusing our troops. but this morning the president is sending more troops to the bored are. he's getting pushback from all sides, even where he's sending the troops.

senior military officers are voicing concerns that troops are not conducting the train willing needed for their regular missions while other military units must now pick up the routine duties on behalf of their deployed colleagues. >> so they're sending the troops to an imagery conflict and in doing so they're not getting the proper training and you have other troops having to fill in -- other troops on real missions that are trying to make do without all the troops down at the border. this a real readiness crisis and i'm glad some military officials are starting to speak up but it seems we need to hear testimony on capitol hill from or generals about the problems this is

causing. >> you've got the readiness angle. you've always good a third roughly of your actively forces there, you have a third who are prepared to be deployed and a third recovering from it. i think the worst is the politics of it, the idea that our men and women in uniform are essentially being used for political purposes rather than for real security purposes seats terrible precedent. the other thing that's really ironic here is if you these governors arguing a states right position, but you have democrats essentially taking their troops out of a federal mission saying a state mission is more important. it just another sign of just how our politics have been turned upside down this. >> in addition, the public, the

average citizen would be stunned by the cost of this mission. we are now talking hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy united states army troops, coast guard, whatever, to the border at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when -- it's crazy. it is really crazy. >> nick confessore, deploys troops to the border despite the fact that border crossings are at a 50 year low. >> the entire problem with this debate from the start, joe, it has been built on exaggerations and lies and not real problems. there is already a wall it southern border for a lot of the border. it possible the borer patrol would look to add a few more miles here and there, improm prove some of the text around

the soft border wall. but it not a crisis as we have in the past defined a crisis and the president has created one. i think the answer in the end for a budget shutdown and deal on the wall is going to be the same as it was six months ago, a year ago is that there's some money in there for some form of security on the border and the president can call it a wall or anything else and that is how you get out of this. >> we are sitting here talking about a president who is so conflicted and joe mentioned the data of the bored are crossings happening. the public, the polls show people don't want the walls. the general saying this is weakening the military, our readiness. the governors who are redeploying the troops are sending them back. at what point are we not talk

about our military readiness or the president's fitness. this president in terms of sending troops to the border to try to protect us from these incoming caravans the president is talking about, unless there's some reason for it, this president is pushing the boundaries, the norm, but the boundaries of his presidency, he's doing something political. >> i agree. what it going to take, mika, it would be for leaders in uniform or some recent lip retired military leaders to stand up and say just that, to basically say there's no legitimate, there's no pressing national security reason to do this, that it's hurting us, we ought to be keeping these troops in syria and thinking about other parts of the world where we have real security threats or just reduce the operations tempo on these forces. american troops have been stretched, they've been overdeployed for recent years,

families have paid an enormous price. so unless something really meets the test that it's essential and vital for these troops to be put in harm's way or put in the field, we ought to basically look for ways to restore the american military. it's going to take, i think, military leaders, active or retired to make this argument. >> gene, think about how bizarre this. the commander in chief is sending troops down to the border where military chiefs will tell you we don't need it. then you have donald trump saying, well, syria, we're going to remove troops from syria. russia, you know, we need to be allies with russia. just look at tapes of helsinki to say there's something seriously wrong with that relationship and this past

weekend north korea where donald trump talks about his economic miracle in the state of the union and then he talks about the economic miracle of kim jong un in a country that if you look at satellite photos is black at night compared to a very well lit up south korea. >> i know. about the border, this is a bigger deal than we have made it thus far. the president of the united states is using the military as a prop, as a political prop. and that is totally outrageous. that should never be done. they've been sent on a useless mission that they know is useless. it to it's totally unneeded. it's beyond absurd. it malfeasance of the worst kind because of what it does to these

military families. it using them as props. that's ridiculous. as for north korea, i'm just at a loss. i'm totally at a loss. whatever he says nice things about kim jong un, who executed his uncle with a missile in the middle of pyongyang and hundreds of other people -- >> also, gene, beat to death an american college student from the university of virginia whose parents in ohio have to listen every day that donald trump says he's in love with kim jong un. you wonder what they're thinking. >> again, fitness comes to mind. i mean, aren't we here? >> it's outrageous. it's crazy. they're going to have another summit. it will be in that sort of weird dimension in which north korea is actually cooperating and going to give up their nuclear weapons. but that's not our reality. that's never going to happen.

still ahead on "morning joe," virginia residents are split on whether government ralph northam should resign over the blackface scandal but a clear majority of black voters want hmm to say. plus a new white house leak shows president trump still has a lot of executive time on his hands. he says that's a good thing. first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> a very active week ahead. we have 17 million people under flash flood watches, it's already pouring, the area south of st. louis. we had ice and snow from dncht c. to baltimore. we have school delays in that region. we have about 80 million people with some sort of winter weather headlines. one storm is exiting. this one is going to spread snow this evening into iowa and washington. air travel will be very difficult tomorrow in the

northeast. this is 8 p.m. this evening. chicago, you're clear for your evening rush hour. overnight the snow is pretty good in wisconsin, i'd say ten central portions in michigan gets a good dose of snow. tuesday morning in areas of the northeast, 8 a.m., almost this time tomorrow, philadelphia, d.c. you're all rain, a heavy burst of snow, new york city from about 9 a.m. tomorrow until noon or 1:00 and the evening commute tomorrow boston will be getting some of that heavy snow. we are going to for the most part look at new york city, 3 to 4 inches, boston 4 to 6 inches of snow. tomorrow definitely travel concerns. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. i just got my cashback match,

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in has been a difficult week. i'm fine. it been mainly difficult for virginia and this country. yes, i have thought about resigning, but i've also thought about what virginia needs right now and i really think i'm in position where i can take virginia to the next level and it will be very positive. you know, we have a number of inequities in this country right now and in virginia and we're in a position to really stop talking so much and now to take action with policy. >> virginia governor ralph northam is vowing to remain in office despite repeated calls for his resignation. but during that weekend interview, he also said this. >> if you look at virginia's history, we're now at the 400-year anniversary, just 90 miles from here in 1619 the

first endentured serviants arrived on our shores -- >> also known as slavery. >> yes. >> he still doesn't get it, does he he? >> my words exactly. he still doesn't get it. this is embarrassing for the people of virginia that their governor is not resigning. it having implications on the democratic party nationally. i'm looking to 2020 here. democrats cannot afford to lose a state like virginia, especially when states like ohio are slipping further and further out of our hands. it's important that we reclaim some sort of control of the governorship but somebody who, you know, is ethically sound to

their constituents. i think ralph northam can no longer govern. he has no respect from his legislators and he is constituents. it's time for him to go and time for an entirely new slate of officers leading that state. >> who white washes slavery by calling it endentured servitude? >> he should look at the virginia history, virginia takes its history very seriously. their origin, their path to the

new world has been extensively studied and they were part of a slave ship cargo intercepted by british privateers and they were brought to virginia and bought by the columnists in exchange for food. i could go on and on and do a meacham on the subject. that aside, what a mess for the state of virginia. now you have the top three officials all with scandals, all with trouble and all vowing to stay in office and there seems to be very little the state of vac virginia can do about that. it's not even clear under the state constitution as rewritten in 1971, it not clear any of them can be impeached for activities that took place

before they took office. it's totally unclear. so they might be there for a while. >> and, mike, if you look at the "washington post" poll that came out this week, virginians are split on whether northam should leave. but black voters in virginia are not split. by a 21% margin, they believe northam should stay. the poll found a deadlock saying 5 58 democrats say he should stay. as for attorney general mark r herri herring, who admitted to wearing blackface in college, 60%

believe he should stay. 11% of residents have worn a blackface or know someone who has. the name not mentioned is the lieutenant governor, justin fairfax who gets more bad news this weekend and we have this bizarre scenario that at least it looked over the weekend like the white governor who started this scandal wearing blackface could survive and perhaps the lieutenant governor could be run out of office, which again would be a truly, truly bizarre scenario. >> you know, joe, the read of this story, the governor yesterday with gayle king and the torattorney general with th blackface issue, in a way it's so sad, so tragic, so deeply tragic that it's beyond politics and it gets to the culture of race in this country. and it not just virginia. it's nearly every state in this country. we still continually have race

as the third rail of american politics and american culture. and the sadness for the country at this point in our history, our time here, right now, is we have a president of the united states who constantly picks at the scab of division, of race and of class and that's not good for anyone. this is just another added burden. a virginia story is another added burden to our numbness when it comes to race and our inability to handle it. >> nick, it also is a layer of politics here that makes me really uncomfortable. we have the lieutenant governor, who is accused by two credible women of sexual assault and it feels like the reaction is different. i'm not saying the reaction is incorrect. i think that's to be debated as well. these are accusations. these are nonproven accusations, nonproven i say in the court of

law. that's a whole conversation in itself, but it appears there's a double standard at play in terms of the race issue and the me-too front in terms of virginia. i'm worried about it. i'm worried about it for democrats. >> it's certainly possible. an allegation of sexual assault in the hierarchy of terrible things is probably a little more terrible than wearing blackface -- >> and what woman would do it if it wasn't true. go on. >> it's a fascinating moment when our past is catching up to us and the sins of our past are catching up to us. these are men who wore blackface in college or high school when unfortunately that was a trope that was pop already in american culture and i was thinking back to "trading places," a movie in my youth that i had a fond thought of and dak akroyd is --d

is in blackface in that movie. and that is perhaps one silver lining here that we're finally reckoning with some of these issues that have simmered for people for a long time in this country and especially african-americans. >> they're all democrats but our next guest says there's at least one republican woman who may jump into the race. "morning joe" is coming right back. ing right back 25% of your mouth.

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the man in the white house is not the cause of what is broken, he is just the latest and most, tre extreme system of what's gone wrong in america. >> i don't have a political machine. i don't come from money, but what i do have is this, i have

grit. i have family, i have friends, i have neighbors and i have all of you who are willing to come out in the middle of winter. >> two of the senate democrats jumping into the presidential fray. joining us now author of a nonpartisan women's civic and political organization. we have a lot of women in the race. what differentiates their messages at this point? >> well, i think, you are know, you look at liz beaelizabeth wad a a a

amy klobuchar, i think if you're running for president, whether you're male or female, especially in this crowded primary, you have to find that one little sound bite that people think of you that allows you to stand out. >> what are the challenges these women will face? >> i think in a crowded field all the candidates are going to struggle for differentiation. i think every one of them has an extraordinary record of blackservice. -- public service. it's critical that you understand how governing works, that you have a record of serving the american people, which i think they're going to hit on over and over again and connecting to women who have outvoted men, black people are

most likely to show up at the polls than any other group of americans and these going to work hard to connecticut to people in a deep and personal way. it's going to be a remarkable thing to watch. >> mike barnicle, both women get hammered withing negative pres stories before their announcement. we have opposition research dumps already starting to move. you have the amy klobuchar story she's unkind to staff members and the elizabeth warren story that's been with her for quite some time. i've spoken to some people who think both of these stories are significant. i must tell you why they are both troubling in their own ways, i don't think they're going to have in the age of trump, i don't think those stories are going to be around

when that minnesota snow melts. >> joe, you gave elizabeth warren some free and great advice earlier this morning. it's about the future, not about her past. she has a record to run on, she has a voice that has to be heard. she uses that voice quite powerfully and she should stick with that rather than referring to anything that happened 30 years ago. with regard to amy klobuchar's issues, all of these young millennials, boo-hoo. all these millennials, she's mean to me in the office, i dropped a paper clip. move on. >> let me just say this right now. grandpa speaks for himself. he does he not speak for -- >> i agree with grandpa. >> can't wait to see the tweets from the 90 million millennials.

>> put your name on it. you got a beef with amy klobuchar, put your name on. >> exactly. >> actually, that is fair. if you have a beef with her, put your name on it. >> totally agree. >> i thought amy klobuchar did something brilliant. the thing i fond most remarkable about bill clinton's victory in 1992 and i couldn't believe as a republican because i had gotten used to republicans owning the middle of america, bill clinton won every state on the mississippi river. i mean, there was just a blue line that cut -- it was like a dagger in the heart of republicanism and amy klobuchar talked about the mighty mississippi starting in minnesota at a place where you can walk across it and took us through a journey down the mississippi river all the way down to new orleans and, my gosh, i've always thought if democrats are going to start

winning the white house again, that's how they do it. >> yes. >> clearly. and i think that's what she's counting on. she won by such extraordinary margins in minnesota. that's the core of why she's running and what her appeal will be, that she can connect with voters the democrats have largely not connected with over the last four to eight years. keep your eyes on sherrod brown. i suspect he's counting on a similar -- it's a game changer for american politics. there are 59 other countries that have elected women heads of state ahead of us. we somehow have been in the dark on this and having this many women changes everything about the way these women are going to get covered. they're no longer the only. it's a total game changer for all of them and it enables us to actually focus on their message,

the content of what they have to deliver. i go the way, we'-- by the way, got a media in a post me-too movement and i hope we're going to have a much more balanced and equity and thoughtful coverage of these women and not the same attacks on personality and -- >> amy klobuchar did something different. looking at her standing in subzero temperatures with the snow blowing down on her face and everyone freezing and wanting to be there for her, donald trump would no sooner stand in the snow with his bone speakers getting sore because of

the cold. >> he won't even stand in the rain. >> correct. it showed a vsh you'll that stood her up against trump right there that set her apart. i thought it was really cool. >> tough as nails. >> absolutely. >> coming up, ahead of another summit with kim jong un, president trump is praising north korea as a future economic powerhouse. we'll get richard haas's take on that next on "morning joe." >> the headlines this wook talk -- week talked about you are a pretty tough boss. >> i love our staff, look at this incredible event they put together. yes, i can be tough and i can push people and i know that. and i have high expectations and i push the people that work for

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they have great beaches. you see that whatever they're exploding their cannons into the ocean, right? i said, boy, wouldn't that make a great koncondo. you could have the beth real estate. you have south korea, china and they own the land in the middle. how bad is that? it great. >> that was a clip from a parity of what a president would say, wouldn't it, mika, or was it actually donald trump last year insong po in singapore? it's unbelievable. >> he wrote, "my representatives have just left north korea after a very productive meeting and an

agreed upon time and date for the second summit with kim jong un. i look forward to meeting with chairman kim & advancing the cause of peace! he may surprise some but he won't surprise me because i have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. north korea will become a different kind of rocket, an economic one. >> i'm not exactly sure americans would want him to go to vietnam this time because even his own aides say there's really no need for this summit. he's already been made a fool of once, talking about how we don't have to worry about a nuclear north korea anymore that, the missile issue has been taken care of when he was made a fool of time and time again after the

last summit. what's your take on this upcoming summit? >> the idea that north korea is going to become an economic powerhouse is a nonstarter. it's one of the poorest countries in the world. the reason it can't become a real powers house, that would mean market economic reform and that would man loosening the controls, and that's not going to happen. he's looking for a little sanction relief. the best we can look for a something for something, the north koreans will close certain nook clear facilities, we and others will give them sen economic benefits, the goal to get nuclear weapons will be aspirational. at the same time, inspectors

won't have access. for all i know on net they could stay even. they can get rid of some things but quietly develop other things. the idea that north korea will ever give up its nuclear weapons, i think the intelligence chiefs are spot on, it's a nonstarter. >> looking back from the start of the trump white house, are we in a better position in north korea or worse? overall? >> i'd say it's mixed. the good news is they're not testing the missiles and their new mexico. we have accepted the fact we're going to have nuclear weapons on missiles that will sooner or later be able to reach the united states. >> still ahead, amazon's ceo jeff bezos has accused "the national enquirer" publish er

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confessore, president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas, pulitzer prize columnst and associate editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson. you saw him on "saturday night live" and joining the conversation, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of " "kasie d.c." kasie hunt. >> hopefully eugene won't act like the character on "saturday night live." >> i won't. >> richard, you believe donald

trump will go ahead and allow the president to have nuclear weapons that have the ability to hit the united states homeland. is that in fact -- is that going to be donald trump's legacy on north korea? >> i think the united states had the opportunity if we wanted to to confront north korea, to basically say that would be unacceptable. that would have meant potentially risking a war and this administration, you can say it's wise, it's wrong, but essentially has decided that the risk of war is not worth it and will continue to talk about denuclearization but the reality is north korea will become a de facto nuclear weapon state with a degrgrowing number of nuclear weapons with increasing range and accuracy and that will be what he will hand off to the 46th president, joe. >> and with the ability to strike, that man will have the ability to launch nuclear weapons that can strike not on

the west coast but possibly by the end of donald trump's term, strike the heartland of america. >> if donald trump is a two-term president, most definitely. >> certainly at a time when he should be pushing back, he is embracing this madman, this tyrant, for some reason. and he's going to pass on a crisis to future presidents that is going to be untenable. kasie hunt, it seems the democrats were getting somewhere in the negotiations for the wall but now they're adding another condition. what is it? >> they're talking about limiting the number of bets that ic -- beds that ice, the enforcement agency can use, they want to cap that at 16,500 is what we're hearing from sources. the administration is arguing

that would mean they would have to potentially release criminals or limit the number of criminals that they are able to apprehend. there's some back and forth about that. the way the president is framing it, which is that democrats want to let murderers out into the streets not quite accurate, you won't be surprised to learn. there are numbers that show that about 89% of the people who are apprehended, who are undocumented immigrants, they have committed crimes. that could be from illegally crossing the border or creating a crime. the president is framing this as the democrats' first attempt to abolish ice. >> the democrats were winning as it pertained to the shutdown. why would they shift the debate

to now saying we want to limit the number of illegal immigrants that can be detained? we're not talking about asylum seekers? we're not talking about asylum seekers. the republicans put in an exception to expand beyond that number for criminals and the democrats said no. this does he not seem like a winning proposition. who is behind this push? >> the idea is that if they're going to give on border wall, on bare why are furier funding, wh have. they're not going all the way to the administration's position but they are going past that 1.6 billion, which was a line they had drawn in the sand. they're saying we want something in return. they view this as kind of the long-term fight. it very clear that nancy

pelosi's office is involved in these conversations, although everyone will say it's the conference committee. this is something immigration activists have been very concerned about all the way along, and frankly the enforcement policies of the trump administration have almost concerned those advocates more than the border wall. the border wall is sort of a figure leaf in a lot of ways and has become this kind of emotional symbol, but this kind of policy, and there a couple other things that would go with it, this is something that's very emotional and very important and they feel like the trump administration has overstepped its bounds in how they do this and if they give them more, they're going to be giving them more tools to do that. but you are right, this is the democrats making the decision. >> maybe you can help us drill down a little bit on the bed situation, which is kind of confusing.

16,500 beds. do we know approximately the geographical location of these beds? are they all along the border? >> i would actually like to consult my colleague julia ainsley on exactly where they are located. i can tell you there are about 48,000 right now beds that are funded by the department of homeland security, by ice, that congress has said fine. democrats want to cut that number to about 34,000 beds. they woont to reduce overall the number of people ice can hold at any given time, essentially to try to force them to prioritize. but they also want to add this cap on people who are caught inside the country and that's what's really causing the problem. >> okay. >> we're going to continue to follow this. also the fallout continues over amazon ceo jeff bezos's accusation that the publisher of "the national enquirer" tried to

black mail him. sources tell nbc news that source looking into whether ami violated its non-prosecution agreement with the southern district of new york. as a result of jeff bezos's allegations. that deal stems from the company admitting it paid a former play boy model $150,000 before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with donald trump. the agreement required ami to commit no crimes whatsoever for three years to avoid prosecution. if it broke the deal, ami could be charged with crimes.

and the lawyer for david pecker denied allegations of extortion and blackmail. >> i can't discuss who the source was. it confidential within ami. so i'm not going tos and who the source was. it was somebody close to boston bezos and miss sanchez. >> meanwhile, saudi arabia's foreign affairs minister is weighing in on the controversy after jeff bezos alluded to the kingdom in his article. he denied any connections between the saudi government and ami. >> he personally said, though, that the post's essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder was undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles. did the saudi government have anything to do with these leaks

to ami? >> absolutely not. it sound to me like a so opera. i've been watching it on television, this is between the two parties. we nothing to do with it. >> can you say that the saudi government or any of its employees or its contractors this they worked with, that they had no contact with ami? >> that's as far as i'm awire, we had absolutely nothing to do with this. >> that's exactly what he said about khashoggi and then of course last week the dreaded mistakes were made about a bone saw murder. there are so many questions there were a lot of people in the media asking when the first sweetheart plea deal was made with ami, why ami, "the national

enquirer" and david pecker got off scott free for committing a federal crime, unless he opened the vaults and gave us something, which most seriously doubt that happened. and then ask the question, why in the world after getting a sweetheart plea deal from the southern district of new york for doing donald trump's dirty work from the campaign would you then go out and do donald trump's dirty work going against a tech giant that nobody who reads the national inquirer cares about and spend, what, $400,000 chases jeff bezos, donald trump's enemy number one all over the country and then put ought -- then i'll ask you -- why in the world would

the southern district of new york continue to adhere to this plea deal when it appears that ami could have committed a crime during the campaign by giving political contribution in the final closings of the campaign without reporting it and now could have quite possibly committed another crime, extortion or blackmail just last week? what -- you start asking does he david pecker have pictures of people in the southern district of new york, too? i say that facetiously but this doesn't make sense. this guy has gotten off scott free for too long. >> the first rule of plea deals is don't break the plea del and don't embarrass the prosecutors and that is what pecker has done here. the question, if these facts are

true and it seems to be pretty much in black and white in the media posts about this, it seems like they engaged in an attempt to extort or blackmail the riches man in the world. if that's true, why? what we saw was some sort of a hint that the that perhaps that was part of it. it important to coop in mind america is having financial troubles. so one pock possible speculation said he is try to and this is a way of sucking up to people. >> i'll give you one answer and the question is who or what entity hacked the phones involved and gave that information to ami? was it a foreign intelligence

agency? who did it? how did it happen? >> and of course, gene, that question is being pursued right now. you also have to wonder, again, more questions than sanss right now that i suspect the southern district of new york has been focusing on a great deal but how desperate, how desperate did ami have to get to send that letter? it was an act of desperation and you do -- it does raise a question that bezos raised in that medium post, is this about saudi connection? is ami concerned about covering up even more crimes? >> yeah, perhaps the most amazing thing about this whole sordid episode is that ami put in writing its extortion demand

to jeff bezos. so is this just the way they do business, it didn't even occur to them that this would look like extortion and that they have this deal with the sdny that the sdny might not like the fact that they were trying to extort jeff bezos in the middle of this deal. did it just not occur to them or are they, as you said, so desperate about something, either the financial situation, the relationship with the saudis, their relationship with the president, something, that made them think they could go ahead and do it. i just want to emphasize one thing. ami's position is this was just journalism, i just want everybody who is watching to understand this is not journalism. this is not the way any reputable journalist operates. you don't threaten, you know, the subject of a story, a

potential subject of a story in that manner, i'm going to publish this unless you do that or stop doing that. it's just -- it's criminal is what it is. it's extortion. >> mike, they are appear to be doing something that looked like extension and actually had a specific demand, which is you must clear us of all of your previous charges and make a statement that you investigated and we did nothing wrong. again, i will say again, that is the act of a desperate lawyer and it appears to be the act of desperate company. >> what they did was easier to proceed with the extortion element of this case and negate the plea agreement that ami signed because they clearly went and looked up the definition of

extortion and then put it in letter form to jeff bezos. just amazing. dumb and tum eror of let's take look at some of the 2020 candidates that announced this past weekend. i want to ask you, richard haas, about foreign policy experience. it's been quite a while since we've elected a president that had foreign policy experience that, had foreign policy credentials before they got into the white house and some would suggest that has led to many problems that we've had over the past 18, 19 years. do you see anybody in the field yet that has foreign policy experience or any potential person that's talking about getting into the field that has policy -- foreign policy experience that you can actually put on a resumé and say this is what i have done in the past,

not just, hey, elect me, i'm going to be a strong leader? >> first of all, you're right. the last president who took the job who had significant the most obvious person who would would be the former vice president i'm struck so far, joe, with the lack of emphasis on foreign policy. these people are ld want to be the commander in chief. and i'll be diplomatic for a second. i'm surprised by the lack of emphasis on that whole set of issues, but i would think joe biden, bleich bloomberg, if he

were to get in, you nnsed before, senator i understand if a pollster is looking at what mattered to a republican base, foreign policy may not come up even in the top five. but it such a powerful be when you talk about american values generally. ronald reagan would talk about we're a sitting and a lot of people in the democratic party believe that donald trump has undermined america's standing across the globe. i know your father believed that before he died. there are a lot of people like your father, madeleine albright, others, democrats and democrat being being leaders who have we

do have a mission and that is to call out tur it rapping in north korea, we've seen democracy challenged in poll land, in hungry or western europe. drath hasn't done that. he's encominged anti-democratic forces. he's encouraged those high kants that have killed members of the president democratic primary voters in iowa, new hampshire, across america, they want to hear about that as well just like they want to hear about health care. it all part of a package of who we are as a country and what values we have at home abroad. >> i on a sta on the ground and

in the state department i think that's going to be a huge part of the 2020 election. in many ways, the women who have entered this 2020 race, this is not exactly where see after the weekend. >> i don't have a political machine. i don't come from money. but what i do have is this -- i have grit. i have family, i have friends, i have neighbors and i have all of you who are willing to come out in the middle of winter. >> so once he's gone, we can't

pretend that none of this ever happened. it won't be enough just to undo the terrible acts of this administration. we can't afford just to tinker around the edges, a tax credit here, a regulation there. our fight is for big, structural change. >> all right, kasie hunt, you've covered both of the senators, you know them, we know them. how do you think the roll-outs went? >> first, perhaps to amy klobuchar for announcing on who have and in the snow and throwing a little shade at the president jofr ward in? in the lanes they're going to occupy in this presidential field. aimee klobuchar positioning herself as somebody who could

win back the midwest for the party, o i think you that that from her. zob list ben warren, a much angrier tone, saying she's seen as a bankruptcy professor -- when she was on the trail in iowa last night, she told the audience she wasn't even sure donald trump was going to be a free person by the time to so that really stuck out to me as well as, mika. >> yikeand -- you know, there's

actually annin tire prp by people who worked illegally for donald trump. >> and how things changed when donald trump became president. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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reporting by "the washington post" shows his business continues to struggle with its own undocumented employees. now trump voters in a swing county are weighing in. nbc's vaughn hilliard reports from debuque, iowa. >> reporter: president trump's family business says it will start using an everify system after firing dozens of long it have erm woke. >> dave: it's pop have myself h htd. >> you may even get tired of winning! >> it's going to be so easy. >> aalone can fix it. >> tolerance for imlegal immigration is not compassionate. >> the stan is but two years into his presidency, his clubs

employed an untold number of undocumented workers who used bogus papers to keys that what i think bus. >> reporter: as a candidate trump railed against the economic impact of immigration. he specifically promised to crack down on emigration rye dla with, where the laws of the united states are enforced! >> reporter: we asked voters in debuque, iowa, a place that voted for obama twice and then back to trump about whether the controversy changes their view. >> it does surprise me. i voted for trump but i also find it extremely hypocritical.

>> this man is overlooking the world, overlooking his finances, his business. a lat east the people in the trump organization. and nrs ann benda ace she's moved a the. >> absolutely that's what happens. i feel like he's out for himself. >> bmc news, doo butte, iowa. >> david farn fee rin -- "a

pipeline of illegal workers for trump goes back years. what do you have in terms of reporting on this david? and any sign that trump knew exactly about all of this? >> well, what we found was you remember the trump organization's loin on this so far has been, well, this is just a few people who slipped through the cracks, one person here or there we missed. that's not the case at all. we found a town in coasta rica that was made up of people who went to work for donald trump. they're surrounded by neighbors who have told the same story. it's really an incredible thing and shows you how big the

companies use of undocumented workers has been. >> the dividing line seems to be those were the ones that didn't use e-verify. it's a free, relatively easy way for employers who want to take an extra step to screen all their boy plemployees. trump, he never enrolled in e-verify. >> so, dave, in your reporting on this, have your colleagues fond that the illegal immigrants working at these clubs were bringing with them drugs and crime and gang members or the various ills that the president says immigrants are bringing into this country over the border? >> not that we've seen.

the people we talked to they came here with children, or came here and had children and got married. we were with one of the them in their amounts and one had to leave to go pick up their kids at elementary school. we've seen no evidence of the criminal activity that the president is talking about. >> so the paychecks, david, that these people would receive from the trump organization went to prop up the villages they came from in costa rica? how much are we talking about? >> it's hard to give you a number. undocumented immigrants would come here, make not as much as they would if they were legal but they would take that money and go home and build a solid life for themselves. that's what you see in this town in costa rica. they thought that's how it

always worked. they were glad to come to work, make trump's money and go back to costa rica. >> still ahead, president trump is defending his executive time after another new leak of white house schedules. plus co-founder kara swisher joins the discussion. joins the discussion liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. great news for anyone wh- uh uh - i'm the one who delivers the news around here. ♪ liberty mutual has just announced that they can customize your car insurance so that you only pay for what you need. this is phoebe buckley, on location. uh... thanks, phoebe. ♪ only pay for what you need.

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>> axios has obtained four of the president's schedules from last week. they show that the president spent 50% of his time from last monday through thursday in nonstructured executive time. the president's secretary is calling the leak a disgraceful breach of trust. axios has confirmed the white house has launched an internal hunt to find the leaker. president trump writing "the media was able to get my work schedule, something very easy to do, but it should have been reported as a positive, not negative. when the term "executive time" is used, i am generally working

not relaxing. in fact, i probably work more hours than almost any past president. the fact is when i took over as president, our country was a mess. hi to work very long hours." and here's what mick mulvaney, who doesn't want to leave his job and get another job, had to say about executive time. >> there's a report that the president spends the majority of his time in executive time, that he's off tweeting away and gossiping and not working. >> i read that. i get those schedules. that's probably the closest thing to a blackskpublic schedu put out. it want thsn't that valuable of information. the phone calls start at 6:30 in the this morning and go until 11:00 at night. i can assure you the gentleman is working far more than what's on that calendar.

>> mooike barnicle, what a joke what an absolute joke. we've seen one person after another working for trump saying he often just hunkers down upstairs in the personal quarters, he spends of majority of his time watching table news, tweeting, yelling, staring at tv sets like an old man that is in a retirement home instead of a president of the united states who is supposed to be working 24 hours a day. i'm sure most older men in retirement homes live far more active lives than does he donald trump. but for these people to come out and suggest and for donald trump to suggest he's worked harder than most any president before him is just an absolute joke. >> well, there you go, joe. you put your finger on it. and who is surprised when you think about the following

reality, that this president of the united states that we have, this big, tough guy who walks back and forth on every stage that he's on, pointing his finger, ridiculing people, telling people that he's the hardest working president of all time, that past presidents were a disgrace and did nothing, they nearly got us into war with north korea, assorted other bogus charges and it turns out at the end of the day when his schedule is revealed, he turns into a snowflake, complaining about the exposure and that's not really the truth, the truth is i'm really upstairs in my assisted living facility, working very hard making phone calls, a total snowflake. >> a total snowflake. the funny thing is the guide go -- guy said when he was running for

president, he told us this, whenwhen i'm president, i'll never leave the white house, i'll work more than anyone else has. every lie that donald trump said about barack obama has been magnified by the number of golf outings this guy has taken, by number of times he's escaped to his country club on the weekend, by the number of times he's stayed upstairs late watching tv and just not wanting to come down ond and work. historians will record that when this presidency is over that donald trump was the laidiest president ever to okay my the --

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lovins lov lovinsky. let's talk about how things are today versus how your books are when it was first released. we have an independent judiciary pushing back on the president, we have an independent intel community pushing back on president and some of his claim. we have voters pushing back on the president, we have a democratic house of representatives pushing back on the president. how have the institutions held up? how is this democracy doing? >> i think it turns out the midterm elections were a decisive moment. with the election of president trump, a will the of people feel we're on our way to hungry or turkey single- -- we're in a situation where you elenssentia have deadlock and dysfunction.

so the systems are working but not as intended by our founder. >> the president is as unpopular as any modern president. polls show he's not trusted or believe. he got shellacked in the midterms. i'm asking you where do you see signs of further decline, exactly? >> the united states democracy is in respects very robust. one of the major differences between the united states and countries like turkey, hungry, poland, russia, we have a very strong opposition, civil society, opposition party, and as joe pointed out, all of these institutions have been pushing back, which is great.

but the underlying problems, which is the erosion of our core democratic norms, mutual toleration and restraint and the underlying polarization and radicalization of the republican policy, erosion that hasn't changed. they are hand festing themselves in different ways rather than one party dominating the other which was the fear a couple of years ago. we'll see as daniel said increasing and really pretty dangerous dysfunction. look, we've had less than two months of divided government. divided government is a key feature of our democracy. really important for our democracy. we basically have been living either under government shutdown or looming government shutdown the entire per of divided government. that's utter dysfunctionality. >> housh is donald trump not a cause but a reflex or a symptom. one thing we don't do any more is transmit our political dna. you can graduate from any university in this country, even

the best even like harvard and if you navigate your course requirements properly you will not have read the constitution or the federalist papers. how much of a problem is that? how do we change that? >> one of the things we've been talking about this book, we've been impressed, people sense there's a crisis on civic education. so this is something it's clear we need to realize we can't take democracy for granted. for too long all of us including ourselves thought american democracy worked on its own and automatically. that's not the case. we need robust vigilant citizens and we need to pay attention to this education to protect our democracy. >> so, i guess my question for you both is where are we a year after the publication of your book and watching the erosions you're talking about, the bursting through norms, all the

different things that have happened. is our democracy dying? >> i wouldn't say our democracy is dying. we wrote the book because as daniel said too many americans, ourselves included grew up taking american democracy for granted. and we thought that the warning signs are sufficiently serious that we need to think about how to identify them and how to respond. it's overstated to say our democracy is dying. but there's a lot to be concerned about, and a lot to learn from other democracy in the world that have faced crises. where do we stand? we're fortunate donald trump is a weak president. we're fortunate he's a pretty inept president. a lazy president as someone just said. and that he's not as popular as he might have been. in the event of a god forbid 9/11 type crisis he can do much more damage and be more

dangerous. the fact that the opposition party controls the house of representatives is a very positive thing but it doesn't put us in a better place but a different place and place where we may be completely unable as a society to solve some of the major problems facing us because of total dysfunction in congress and in our madisonian system of democracy. >> i want to go back to a point that richard raised. both of you teach at the world' greatest university, otherwise known as harvard university. but i would bet you if you walked, you know, off of mass avenue into the campus of harvard university and talked to any number of students, some of them, maybe not a majority, would have no idea, could not tell you who george marshall was and certainly that would extend down high school and grammar school. what kind of a problem is it

that we don't know, our kids really don't know the basics of one of the world's great stories, the foundation of the republic called the united states of america? >> again, i think it's not just college. first of all, i would defend my students. i think they are pretty well informed. but teaching a course on european politics we study george marshall. more broadly there really is a sense we need to educate people about the values of democracy. we can learn from around the world. i spend a lot of time in germany. germans after world war ii did a remarkable job of teaching students, young students about the values of democracy, given their own past that made sense. we're in a situation where we have not had to worry about this and think about this. one of the things that this whole experience over the last several years has made clear and when we go around speaking to people there are many students, high school students who come to us and ask us to sign their books and they are engaged. there's a hunger to know but we

don't have the curriculum to address this. people need to invest in this. >> what are the odds the harvard faculty would support a required course where every graduate would have to study american sivg civics. >> i would be in favor of that. tough haul. >> thank you both very much. the book "how democracies die" is now available in paper back. still ahead amy klobuchar jumps into the race for president while elizabeth warren makes her run official. we'll examine both campaign roll outs and beto o'rourke hasn't announced his plans for 2020 but we see how he matches up at a rally and counter rally in texas tonight. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ack in a moment

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with the truth and a vision for the future. >> well, the field of democrats is taking shape as senators warren and klobuchar are officially in while beto o'rourke is holding a counter rally to the president tonight. good morning and welcome to "morning joe". it's monday, february 11th, 2019. with us we have mike barnicle. political writer for the "new york times" and msnbc political analyst nick confessore and hird ha -- richard haass. and an msnbc contributor adrian elr elrod. and associate editor of the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. we got a lot to get to. wow. new poll numbers on how voters

in virginia are dealing with the controversies there, what it means for the state's leadership. it looks like the governor might stay, but fairfax might go. you never know. plus, saudi arabia denies any connection to an alleged blackmail attempt of amazon's ceo. we'll show you what the lawyer for ami, the "national enquirer's" public issue engineer says about the story. president trump sends a glowing tweet about north korea. no mention, however, of that country's nuclear arsenal. we'll get to all of that. first joe, another busy weekend for the presidential field of democrats. >> another busy weekend. it continues. michael bennet also on "meet the press" yesterday suggested he may jump into the race a colorado senator who recently took on ted cruz on the showdown of the government shutdown with the showdown on the senate floor would be a very impressive candidate. certainly occupying a more centrist vision of what the

democratic party should be going up against donald trump. but i'm just curious, nick confe confe confessore it was put best it was a curious, cures election, the ice planet had for amy klobuchar to announce her run for president in 2020. how did she do >> a truly madison onmoment for amy klobuchar. true to form she powered through. in some ways it was a photo open for twitter, but the announcement previewed the th s themes we'll see. she will run as a moderate progress javgs mi progressive, a mid-westerner who is more bipartisan than some people on the left have been in the last few weeks. i think her lane is going to be sort of center left compared to some of these candidates. what has really struck me -- i

have to say this. you know, there are now a collection of candidates for this nomination and i think there's only a single straight white guy in the entire bunch which is a real shift from any election past we've seen and a sign of the diversity in that party. >> it really is. and another woman announced earlier this weekend, elizabeth warren. i'm curious how her announcement was and am i the only person in america who thinks the native american controversy is something that probably will not last into the spring? >> yeah. joe, i think you're exactly right. elizabeth warren has done such a fantastic job of really staying on message. her message of, you know, bridging the gap between the middle class and at that wealthy, cleaning up washington,

cleaning up the corruption. that's something that stood out in each and every one of her aspects of her roll out. when you run for president especially in a very crowded field like we're facing right now your roll outs do matter. you got to make sure you communicate your message and really hone in on what is cause underground, what is driving you to run for president. both amy klobuchar and elizabeth warren exceeded in that and i want to give props to clob be clob's advance team for putting together the kind of event they did in 4 degree temperatures. that's pretty amazing. >> incredible. >> it was impressive. they may want to think about a temporary roof next time. >> i liked it. it had grit. it was great. >> it showed grit. i will say -- i will say, though, mika, again, you know, i'm never one to give unsolicited advice but why start now. elizabeth warren needs to stop explaining what's behind her and

start explaining what's in front of her for the country. she talked about this issue enough. let bloggers and people on twitter talk about what she wrote on applications 25, 30 years ago. tell americans where we're going to be 25, 30 years from now. i've run a few times on a small scale, on a small level and i can tell you, voters are interested in their future. >> yeah. >> not so much your past. >> she's got a solid past in terms of her work, her heart, her message and that saying i live by comes to mind don't trip over what's behind you. move forward. so let's do that. we're starting off the week with a athlete of another government shutdown looming as a really tanningib tangible possibility. but now negotiations have stalled. one of the main sicking points is the number of additional beds

to give to customer enforcement to immigrants coming across the border. democrats propose to reduce the beds arguing a more humane policy let asylum seekers without criminal records be released while they await their proceedings. in interviews-year-old senator richard shelby didn't appear optimistic about the chances of reaching a deal ahead of friday's deadline. >> i think the talks have stalled right now. i'm hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning because time is ticking away. but we got some problems with the democrats dealing with i.c.e., that is detaining criminals that come in to the u.s. and they want to cap them. we don't apartment cap on them. >> the thought has been you have to make a deal, you have to announce something by tomorrow.

do you feel that's a deadline and how confident are you, you can reach a deal by tomorrow? >> chris, that is a deadline. i'm not confident we'll get there. i'm hoping we'll get there. >> so is it fair to say whatever congress hands him he'll sign, he just may not be enthusiastic about it? >> i don't think so. >> we cannot definitively rule out a government shunned at the end of the week. >> you cannot. >> so, mike barnicle, a little confused here which is nothing new. the democrats seem to have donald trump backing down on the number, how much money he wanted for the wall. and we started to hear that a deal was going to be done. then sun democrats started talking about limiting the number of illegal immigrants that could be detained and, in fact, republicans asked for an exception for criminals and

democrats said no, 165,000 beds will be enough. if you're talking about donald trump's 13th century wall, seems to me that's an easy political fight for democrats to win, but now they are adding new conditions. suddenly gets a lot murkier doesn't it? >> a lot murkier and more dangerous than dynamite because the end of this week if there's no deal if we have another shutdown, in addition to the people who are unemployed and going without paychecks you're talking about the ripple effect within the national economy and the added -- the added incentive of people, average voters to say none of these people can govern. none of them can govern and the lack of faith in the system of government which already is at an all time low will increasingly dip. >> yeah, you know, eugene robinson, sometimes you need to know when to take a win and, again, just my opinion doesn't

look like the democrats right now know how to take a win. if this government is shutdown over donald trump's stupid, phoney wall, that is a fight that democrats win every day. if it's about democrats refusing the republicans exception to be able to detain criminals who are legal immigrants as well, i don't think that fares as well in the cross tabs. do you have any insight into what's going on. are democrats going add a condition and shut down this government on friday over that? >> i don't think democrats are going to shutdown the government or be seen as shutting down the government. i do think that when you say, you know, criminals as opposed to asylum seekers, right, i think there's a good and legitimate interest in curbing

this administration's ability to put asylum seekers in detention when what they are doing is perfectly legal. if you talk about criminals and define that word, then, obviously, the criminals should be detained. but i read this whole thing as democrats seeing just how far they can push this. they know they are in a strong position. they have apparently the republican negotiators talking about numbers that donald trump says are unimaginably low, they are there. so, you know, republicans are not the only ones who can move the goal post and see how far they can push things. we'll see how far this all gets pushed. i'm not convinced that this breakdown in talks was so much a breakdown as a sort of last minute wrangle. we'll see. we'll see.

i've been surprised before. but we'll see. >> still ahead on "morning joe" breaking news overnight. the governor of california says he will push back members of the national guard who have been deployed to the u.s. border. we'll have more on that announcement expected later. but first bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good monday morning. what an active week we'll have. we had already four inches of snow yesterday in seattle. their snowiest month in 33 years. that bad weather is heading to the east. this morning huge area of rain and flood problems from arkansas to ohio valley. some school delays in washington, d.c. and baltimore. second storm is loading up. this will spread snow and sleet later today into areas are of iowa and wisconsin. this is the beginning of a very messi period in areas of the great lakes. tomorrow morning at this time, snow over philadelphia, heading for new york city, a band of heavy snow over central pennsylvania up to buffalo to

rochester and syracuse. notice the rain in d.c. that's the trend. everyone in the northeast will get hit by a quick two to four inches of snow and a period of sleet and freezing rain. so by 6:00 p.m. as everyone is riding home heavy snow over boston, new york city is over to rain. the official snow totals for the most part in areas of the northeast and wisconsin area we're looking at four to six inches of rain and snow and the northeast new york city about three to four inches. boston about four to six. your biggest snowstorm of the winter. you only had two inches. not that much for you to shovel. new york city the timing of the heaviest snow 9:00 a.m. to noon tomorrow. that's when we'll have the most significant travel delays on the roads and the airports. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. ht back. from the very beginning ... it was always our singular focus, to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource, to fight cancer.

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president trump on a month's long deployment to the southern border another governor is pulling back members of his state's national guard. this morning california's democratic governor, gavin newsome will reveal plans to redeploy the troops to fight wildfires and assist the state's drug task force, calling the operation at the border a manufactured crisis, which it appears to be. >> of course it is. >> this comes days after new mexico's governor withdrew her state's troops wild ordering others to leave new mexico. the governor said new mexico will not take part in the president's charade of border fear-mongering by using our national guard troops. this month the president is sending more troops to the border as military officials warn that readiness for other operations will be damaged, so literally he's getting push back

from all sides even from where he's sending the troops. according to the "new york times" senior military officers are voicing greater worries that the border deployed troops are not conducting the training needed for their regular missions. while other military units must now pick up the routine duties on behalf of their deployed colleagues. >> so, richard haass, this is damaging readiness in so many ways. first donald trump, the commander-in-chief is sending our troops to an imaginary conflict. >> crazy. >> in so doing, they are not -- they are not going through their regular training. and by being down at the southern border, where donald trump has created this imaginary crisis you, of course have other troops trying to fill in for the troops -- other troops on real missions trying to make do without all the troops that are down at the border. this is a real readiness crisis

and i'm glad some military officials are starting to speak up but it seems we need to hear testimony on capitol hill from other generals about the problems this is causing. >> you've always got a third of your active force there's. we got a third who are supposed to be prepared to be deployed and a third recovering from it. this is taking numbers out of that mix. it's not a real mission. i think even worse in some ways than the readiness issue is the politics of it. the idea our men in uniform are being used for political purposes rather than for real security purposes. it's a terrible precedent. the other thing that's ironic these democratic governors essentially arguing a state's rights position that used to be province of republicans and conservatives. but you have democrats essentially taking their troops out of a federal mission saying a state mission is more

important. it's just another sign of just how our politics have been turned upside down. >> in addition, joe, the public, the average citizen would be stunned by the cost of this mission. we are now talking hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy united states army troops, coast guard, whatever to the border at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars at a time -- it's crazy. it is really crazy. >> nick confessore, deploying troops to the border despite the fact that border crossings at are at 50 year low. >> well the entire problem with this debate from the start, joe, is that it has been built on exaggerations and lies and not real policy problems. there's a wall at the southern border for a lot of the border.

it's possible that border patrol would like to add a few more miles here and there, improve the tech around the soft border wall but there's not a crisis in the sense that we have in the past find a crisis. and the president has created one and now he's in a box and where in his box of solving a problem he created. i think the answer in the end for the budget shutdown and for a deal on the wall is the same as it was six months ago, a year ago, that there's some money in there for some form of security on the border that democrats have voted for in the past and the president can call it a wall or anything else, and that's how you get out of this. >> coming up on morning joe the governor of virginia scrutiny for that blackface photo now faces backlash for its euphemsm for slavery. we'll talk about the deepening crisis in virginia ahead on "morning joe".

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week and, again, i'm fine. it's been mainly difficult for

virginia and this country, so yes, i have thought about resigning but i've also thought about what virginia needs right now. and i really think that i'm in a position where i can take virginia to the next level and it will be very positive. and, you know, we have a number of inequities in this country right now and in virginia and we're in a position to really stop talking so much and now to take action with policy. >> virginia governor ralph northam is vowing to remain in office despite repeated calls for his resignation. but during that weekend interview he also said this -- >> if you look at virginia's history we're now at the 400 year anniversary, just 90 miles from here in 1619 the first indentured servants from africa landed on our shores in what we now call fort monroe. >> also known as slavery.

>> yeah. >> adrian elrod, in some ways he still doesn't get it, does he? >> my words, my thoughts exactly. he just doesn't get it. look, this is embarrassing for the people of virginia that their governor is not resigning. this is embarrassing for the democratic party. this is having implications on the democratic party nationally. and, you know, i'm looking to 2020 here. democrats cannot afford to lose a state like virginia. especially when states like ohio are slipping further and further out of our hands. it's important that we reclaim some sort of control of the governorship by somebody who, you know, is ethically sound to their constituents. i think ralph north can no longer govern. he has no respect from his legislature leaders and his constituents. so it's time for him to go. in my view it's time for an

entirely new slate of officers leading that state. >> so, gene, forgive the word but who whitewashes slavery by calling it indentured certificate servitude in 2019. you almost expect him to talk about the war in terms of northern aggression. >> for the governor of virginia he should look at history of historic jamestown, he should look at the official history of virginia. virginia takes its history very seriously. the first africans to arrive. their origins. their path to the new world has been extensively studied. and they were slaves. they were part of the slave ship cargo that was intercepted by british privateers and brought to virginia and they were bought

by the colonists in exchange for food and that's as record by the secretary of the virginia colony. i can go on and on. i can do a meacham on the subject. that aside, boy what a mess for the state of virginia. because now you have the top three officials, all with scandal, all in trouble, and all vowing to stay in office. and there seems to be very little the state of virginia can do about that. it's not even clear that under the state constitution as rewritten i think it was in 1971, not clear that any of them can be impeached for activities that took place before they took office. that's totally unclear. so they might be there for a while. >> and, mike, if you look at the "washington post" poll that came out this week, virginians are split whether ralph northam should leave.

but black voters in virginia are not split by 21% margin they believe ralph northam should stay. the poll found, like i said a dead lock 47% saying northam should stay on, equal number believes he should step. again 58% of african-americans believe northam should remain, only 37% believe he should resign and virginia democrats are also in favor of northam staying in power, 57% to 40%. as for attorney general mark herring who admitted wearing blackface in college, six in ten virginia residents believe he should stay on. 34% think he should step down. the "post" -- the name not mentioned there is lieutenant governor justin fairfax who got more bad news this weekend and

we have this bizarre scenario at at least it looked over the weekend like the white governor who started this scandal wearing blackface could survive and perhaps the lieutenant governor could be run out of office which, again, would be a truly, truly bizarre scenario. >> you know, joe the lead of this story, the governor yesterday with gayle king and the attorney general, the blackface issue, in a way it's so sad, so tragic, so deeply tragic that it's beyond politics and it gets to the culture of race in this country. and it's not just virginia. it's nearly every state in this country. we still continually have race as the third rail of american politics and american culture. and the sadness for the country at this point in our history, our time here, right now, is we have a president of the united states who constantly picks at

the scab of division of race and of class and that's not good for anyone and this is just another added burden, the virginia story is another added burden to our numbness when it comes to race and our inability to handle it. >> coming up on "morning joe" federal investigators are looking into whether the publisher of the "national enquirer" violated its own nonprosecution agreement after those extortion allegations from jeff bezos. we'll have the latest on that next. i can't discuss who the source was. it's confidential within ami. so i'm not going to answer who the source was. it was somebody close to both bezos and miss sanchez. h bezos and miss sanchez

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amid the growing scrutiny over jeff bezos allegations against "national enquirer," the

ceo david pecker a long time friend of donald trump's. white house worked on friday to downplay the president's focus on the story. >> is the president aware of the bezos situation? >> i'm not sure if he's aware of it. we're not going to get into a conversation something between jeff bezos and a tabloid magazine. >> last month president trump wasted no time weighing in after "national enquirer" published a sorry about bezos' relationship saying he and his wife were divorcing. so sorry to hear the news about jeff bezos being taken down by competitor whose reporting. i under is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper. with us now we got the co-founder and editor-at-large, she's an msnbc contributor and her latest piece in the "new

york times" jeff bezos isn't afraid of total exposure. cara, you wrote this in part, by using a digital platform to bring his side of the story directly to the masses, mr. bezos has done something both admirable and also a little scary. rather than struggling with his media foes in the quiet back room of a law firm mr. bezos decided to do it the internet way and just said all out loud on media and twitter bypassing the traditional media he wrote a highly perm post alleging a shakedown. good for him. by pushing back -- so cara, let me ask you this question. i found your tweet very entertaining the night that this all happened. you actually said i'm not usually a big fan of all things jeff bezos in general but here good job. >> good job. i thought it was really interesting that he did this. it's unusual. this is the world's richest man. he runs one of the most powerful

companies on the planet and decides to go full board against a foe who he thinks acted badly. these allegations of a shakedown, blackmail and everything else seems highly unusual. in the old days that would have been down behind-the-scenes or in some other fashion or not at all, really. >> is this -- is this out of character for the jeff bezos that you know? >> no. no, it's not. not at all. it's a little bit more personal. he doesn't tend to talk about his personal life. in fact, in relation to president trump every time he tweets against bezos and calls at any time "washington post," he points to "the washington post". he very rarely responds. every now and then he does a tweet something like that but he doesn't. so it's been a relentless attack by trump on bezos and "the washington post" and he just ignores it completely. this was interesting. especially since he made a link to president trump in the post and also a link to the "national

enquirer" and the closeness between those two. >> the "national enquirer" also the saudis. >> yeah. >> isn't there a lot of saudi money in silicone valley generally? >> yes. i've been pushing against that too. enormous amount of money. there's a vision fund, $500 billion from the saudis. enormous amount of money. so, it's a crazy amount of money all over the place not just the saudis, dubai, all the middle eastern countries are funding silicone valley especially after the khashoggi murder, the brutal murder, it continues to be an issue. like uber has ton and tons of saudi money, for example. >> in normal times, obviously this would be extraordinarily embarrassing for jeff bezos, obviously parts of the story are extraordinarily embarrassing for jeff bezos. i'm curious how is his reputation after the median

piece in silicon valley, how is it with his board members, how is he faring. >> everybody liked it. he got support for doing it. a lot of people thought -- it's so hard not to use so many puns here because it's about his sexual parts. everybody thought it was bold and unusual to do. they cheered him on. i don't know about the board. he obviously must have informed them he was going to do that. they are going to be aggressive, their investigators to get to the bottom. it looks like something very simple the brother of the woman he's dating seems to have released it. that's one story that's out. other stories think it's more nefarious. it will go on and on. it's interesting he pulls back the curtain how american media work and how they do these essentially what are shakedowns. the question is, is it criminal? certainly awful and appalling

but not necessarily criminal. we'll see if he has the ability to do that. he's the world's richest man so he does have a lot of assets in order to do that. i don't know how else to say it. >> so two of us have written about silicon valley type billion injuries, sometimes critically. this is a real turning point or a certain moment at least in which the by lone injury tech ceo is the good guy and the hero and i'm curious if this is the beginning of something new or if it's pretty unique to the circumstance where's this guy is an actual victim of something pretty nefarious. >> i think it's unusual. if you noticed there's an anti-billionaire backlash going on right now. so i don't think that's going change. there's a lot of questions around the enormous wealth some of these people have. look, he's also fighting what's going on in long island city. there's some questions whether

the headquarters will go there and the gimmes amazon got. but a lot of people feel this guy was subject to unfair the way they conduct this and he's pushing back and people like that. i think they are going to be separate. i do think that backlash against the enormous wealth in places like silicon valley will continue and unabated through the election cycle. >> cara, prior to this, you know, jeff bezos was jeff bezos, the world's wealthiest man. now he's getting a lot of applause for standing up against ami. but prior to standing against ami what bothered you about jeff bezos and amazon? >> bothers me? they deliver things really well. no. i think the power. the enormous power of this company and what it can do and the impact on retail. they make the argument that they are just a small sliver of arrest but it's very clear all trends show what they are doing is powerful. you're still going to hear ideas

around antitrust. should any of these companies be broken up. . that will continue going forward. in fact, amy klobuchar talked about it when she announced. a lot of candidates, democratic candidates especially are talking about that. there's pressure from republicans about how these companies how they are formed and the influence they have. so, i'm not so sure this changes anything. it just makes it jeff bezos did something good in pushing back on something on his personal life and behavior by ami that was, obviously, disturbing and nefarious. i think they are separate things. so the things i don't like is i don't like concentrated power anywhere and i think tech companies really have power that we have to look at, not necessarily do anything about but have certain regulations to keep them in check and i think most people think that. >> that's an interesting question right there. it's obvious to anybody with eyesight and an automobile driving around the impact of

amazon on retail. but what would the regulations be? can you describe what regulations might assist local entrepreneurs, local store fronts? >> these store fronts, this started way back a long time ago with walmart. i was at the "washington post". i covered the end of all sorts of stuff. you can't just blame amazon. this is a trend that's been going on forever. amazon does provide lower price, convenience, their delivery is amazing. it's very hard to figure out what to do. the way antitrust is configured you have to prove consumer harm. a lot of people like amazon. it's not the same thing. we have to start to rethink how we think of not just amazon but all these tech companies. what is the remedy. what is the thing to do. do you break apart parts of facebook. do you not allow google told buy things. you have to figure it out.

regulators have to think hard so we don't push back on niefrgs. countries like china and others are pushing very hard into innovative technologies and if we do the wrong kind of legislation, innovation could be stunted. and right now start up creation is at its lowest point in 30 years, i think. that's a really troubling thing too. the question is how do we help small businesses and keep the powerful large businesses like amazon, google, facebook in check in some way. >> so help us understand this politics of this. a lot of people watch your show, obviously tune in and wanted to see, look at our take on amy klobuchar's announcement or elizabeth warren's announcement. we're going to be talking about presidential politics for the next year, year and a half. another thing we've talked about and talked about with you, is, again, having some checks and balances against companies like

facebook. democrats have been tech friendly traditionally over the past 20 years or so. bill clinton, barack obama. will there be a reluctance from democratic candidates running for president to rein in the power of facebook or rein in the power of amazon or do you think there are some democrats that would be willing to take on the excesses? >> i think there's a lot of democrats. since the russia stuff has nicked facebook there's tension between facebook and the democrats. but there's a lot of senators. senator warren, senator klobuchar, there's all kinds of very qualified people that figure this out. the question is what do you do? at the very least a national privacy bill is something that has to pass. there's relatively -- the bill

in california needs more teeth. stuff in europe is really stringent and with heavy fines. so there's -- something has to happen on a national level so we understand and protect consumers and rein in the excesses of these data hogs which is what they all are. that's the question. national privacy bill is the thing. there are republicans that do understand this very well. not as many as in the democratic side but still, i think it's something that should be thought about by everyone, a bipartisan issue around privacy at the very least. >> all right. as always, thank you so much for being with us. we love having you. coming up next, the president routinely mocked elizabeth warren by pocahontas. did he reference a chapter in history to mock her. brett hume said it's unlikely because the president's knowledge of history doesn't extend that far.

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those to divide us? the time we get to 2020, donald trump -- in fact, he may not even be a free person. >> that was democratic senator elizabeth warren in iowa yesterday. the first full day of the 2020 presidential campaign. the campaign launched a tweet from the president who wrote, in part, this -- today, elizabeth warren, sometimes referred to by me as pocahontas, joined the race. see you on the campaign trail, liz. saying the trail is a reference to the trail of tears, the forced relocation of native americans during which thousands died. that coincides with the work of our next guest.

he's the author of the new book called "the heartbeat of wounded knee." "native america from 1890 to the present." thanks so much for being with us. why don't you -- first of all, let's talk about your book first and then we'll get into the president's tweets later, but let's first start with the important thing and that is history of this shameful chapter and our country's history. >> the book itself isn't really a laundry list of sins, america's sins. it's much more than that. the point of the book is american indian folk, like me, airpo aren't just victims of history. we've been historical actors too. all men make history. they don't always make it with tool also of their choosing. they don't always make it as they wish. that's one of the big opponents of the book.

our relevance isn't only to the past that we're live and doing interesting things today. >> how warped is the view of most americans about indians, american indians -- >> it's warped. when my brother went to college, they asked where are you from? he said, i'm native, from minnesota. the woman said, well that can't be true. we killed all of you. he said, i'm standing right here. she said, i don't think so. >> what happened at princeton? >> a little culture shock going from the reservation to princeton. but i don't know, my mom raised a fire and i like to challenge so i was going to whip it. that was my plan. >> senator warren has talked about her heritage as an american indian and it seemed toll me that it spoke to what she had been learned order told was her family roots but it touches on the distance most of us have from this culture and

the history there. i wonder how you view it. her claims and work around this had been viewed as either offensive or meaningful or not? >> i can't speak for my community -- >> fair, sir. >> there's so much diversity of thought. a lot calling hearing out saying she's overstepping. a lot of native folk don't care. that's one of the things i try to communicate. there's no native american. there are only native american live. there's so much diversity of opinion and experience and so on. my opinion, she grew up in oklahoma hearing she's native. there's so many native people in oklahoma. she put it on the form when she was applying for the bar in texas. okay, fine, i don't care. to me, what's interesting about warren is her foreign policies. most native people suffer from poverty. so i don't want to talk about the heritage as much as i want to talk about her economic

policies because she's one of the only candidates who's actually trying to address the growing tax divisions in this country so i'm kind of sick of it, i don't really care. >> why is the culture so behind the reality when it comes to understanding who american, native americans are. and what they do and how they live. we are the most visible invisible minority in america. we're so central to america's idea of itself and we have been from the beginning, america's story of itself. its myths, its sense of who it is and what it is. and yet we make up a small portion of the population. many of us in remote areas where people aren't going to run into us so we're on the mind all the time but we're not in the lives of most americans. there's a huge disconnect. but one of the points of the book is you can't really understand this country unless you think about american indian history. america's first revolutionary

act when the colonists dumped tea in the harbor. since day one, america has upped itself in relation to us. it has grown in relation to us and america has practiced both its worse behaviors and its best behaviors in how it has dealt with us. shaped itself in relation to who we are and we've shaped the country and made it what it is. >> all right, david troyier, thank you. we greatly appreciate it. the book is "the heartbeat of wounded knee, native america from 1890 to the present," out now. let's have some final thoughts. mike barnicle, first to you. >> it's part and parcel of something we talk about. the fact so many of us, especially our children, just simply do not know the history of america. they just don't know it. it's tragic and it results in what we have today partially.

>> nick. >> i think mike should teach a basic course in civics at harvard for all incoming freshman and this show will pay for it. >> what a set you when he asked if he thought harvard faculty would support the teaching of civics to all students. you could see the left hook coming when he called harvard the greatest university in the world. barnicle does not hand out compliments like that. >> i thought the author that was just on put it best. which is he doesn't really care about elizabeth warren and what she said in the past. a lot of native americans don't care about that. but all americans care about where we're going in the future. what are your economic plans. how are you going to make this

country before. that the rich don't keep getting richer and the poor don't keep getting poorer. it's time to look forward. not just for elizabeth warren but for all the other candidates. focus on this country and where we take it from here. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. >> this morning, we're talking tick tock. lawmakers have until friday to avoid another government shutdown as negotiations fall apart. this time, it is not all it the wall. democrats are purposing to limit undocumented i eed immigrants dd by i.c.e. today the president will head to the border wall toll hold a rally. >> i don't think anybody has an appetite for a government shutdown. >> a shutdown entirely off the table? the