fascinating when people say, oh, he didn't lie. you have it there on videotape. and as his owners were saying this weekend at mar-a-lago, it's on videotape. it's on videotape yet he calls it fake. again, there are those who believe what they believe. let those who have ears hear. >> good morning. welcome to morning joe. it's monday, march 11th. happy monday. we have political writer and analyst nick confessore. the president and council on foreign relations, richard haas and former director for hillary clinton presidential campaign, now an msnbc contributor, adrienne elrod, and an msnbc

political contributor jake sherman. there's a lot to talk about at the start of the week. michael cohen and donald trump are accusing each other of being liars. >> you know what, they could both actually be right. >> they could. actually they are. on that point at least both of telling the truth. but we'll talk about the ongoing fight about presidential pardons and how it impacts everything. plus the president pencils in billions of dollars in the new budget for the border wall. that is the american budget, not mexico's, whom he repeatedly promised would pay for the wall. >> i guarantee it. >> yeah. and lots of new moves in the 2020 race, bernie sanders and julian castro are trading jobs at each other and keeyrsten gi l

gillibrand. >> and trump reportedly telling donors that democrats hate jewish people and their broad representation in the democratic party compared to republicans. three sources who were there but were prevented by security from recording the event tell axios that president trump made the comments while referring to the recent anti-semitism controversies with democratic congresswoman ilhan omar. trump said he didn't understand how any jew could vote for a chat these days. he talked about how much he'd done for israel, and trump said if he could run to be prime minister of israel, he'd be at 98% in the polls. a campaign spokesman did not dispute the comments as reported. this followed the president's

attempt to brand all democrats as being against jewish people due to the controversy around the minnesota freshman congresswoman. >> the democrats have become an anti-israel party, they've become an anty jewish party and that's too bad. >> however, jewish voters have swung even more to the democratic party in recent elections. exit polls in the trump era showed that jewish voters favored hillary clinton over donald trump 71% to 24%, the democrats downev democrats did even better in 2018. while members of congress who are jewish are overwhelmingly on the democratic side of the aisle. here's where we are, joe.

>> here's where we are. and the question is, jake sherman, is that what we're going to see over the next year or so if donald trump does in fact run for reelection? is this a preview? is he going to continue to paint democrats as the anti-jewish party, despite his own checkered past? >> yeah, for sure. the ilhan omar controversy in which she has made comments that have been interpreted as anti-semitic and she has apologized for one and democrats took action to rebuke her lightly in a way that republicans thought was a bit too light for their liking, they are trying to make the entire democratic party -- it's one of these moments where republicans behind the scenes have been saying for many years that the democratic party was drifting away from its previous staunch support of israel and things of that nature and republicans are saying it's finally coming home to roost. it's a convenient punching bag for the president quite obviously. he is making one of the first

muslim females in congress, he's putting her up on a pedestal in a sense and then knocking her down and saying she's emblematic of all democrats. "the new york times" has a fascinating story of net kneben netanyahu using trump as the main centerpiece in his campaign in israel and will get a fres te h test and i think we'll perhaps get an indirect test of what donald trump said, which is he would be at 98% in polls in israel were he to run for prime minister. >> again, we've said this before but nick confessore, you actually look at the record and, again, it's pretty remarkable that donald trump, the donald

trump of shacharlottesville, wh put a star of david over hillary clinton's face talking about how jewish money was going to buy the presidency, the trump republican party of kevin mccarthy, kevin mccarthy of course putting a tweet out before the election in 2018 basically saying that it's the je jews jew money that's going to take over and we cannot allow them to buy the election. and jim jordan, i could go on all day. jim jordan talking about tom steyer just last week and he's never done there with a gentile

but he replaces the "s" in steyer with a dollar sign. if we want to add up anti-semitic tropes, nick, republicans are going to win this one by a landslide. >> can you go further back to the 2016 campaign when david duke supported president trump and president trump was asked about it and republic fusfused e himself from david duke. if there is a anti-jewish sentiment, it is on the right. but not only on the right. if you talk to actual neonaziss, the thing you hear from them over and over again is trum the is making the ideas of the far right and neonazis more powerful in the mainstream and they see him as their guy in the mainstream american politicpoli.

there is plenty of anti-semitism in the world and omar has been dinged for her comments but it's ridiculous to say the democrats are the repository for all of these thing. netanyahu, it's mostly about him. >> richard haas, it is interesting what's happening in israel right now. netanyahu is embracing donald trump. donald trump did talk about moving the embassy to jerusalem and moved in that direction after presidents of both parties have been promising to do so for years. and yet of course the sentiment not only towards trump but netanyahu and the american jewish community is more than split. >> you're right.

the american jewish community is split. there's a percentage i think probably a minority that is strongly backing bebe netanyahu and will largely vote here on the policy towards israel and a large percent that will base on the whole range of political issues. but there is a lot of support. it's interesting what bebe netanyahu is doing, joe. it's not just the moving of the embassy to jum, it's alerusalem because of the so-called peace process, the idea of walking with the saudis and others. there's a real paralleling between bebe netanyahu's position on big issues and the trump white house. >> adrienne, the democrats, how are they going to respond not on to trump this past week but also to continued problems from freshmen members of their own class? by the way, this is not new.

we caused so much problem, in 1994 we came in and one of us was saying something stupid every day. when we weren't saying something stupid, newt gingrich was saying something stupid. at least democrats have nancy pelosi. but, you know, just this weekend aoc calls fdr racist, calls the new deal racist. you have a different anti-semitic remark coming every week. nancy pelosi and the democratic leadership, man, they are shoulder to shoulder, strong, speaking out against that anti-semitism. i'm just curious, though, what's their next play? what's their next act moving forward if this continues? >> part of the problem, joe, when you have more democrats in congress, there are more people in the party who are going to say things that may not be politically correct. we have a very diverse caucus. i'm not going to stand here and defend some of the comments by

aoc and some of the other members, but at the same time, these are women who have their own opinions and they have grown up in an age in politics where they -- and they were largely elected, by the way, to speak their mind. i'm certainly not defending that but they have earned the right to go out there and say what they believe. i thinks it's also important to note, some of these members are representing communities in their districts that have been large targets by donald trump. they're going to washington showing we're angry, we're here to represent constituents who have been largely persecuted since he's been in office and running for president. i have a little bit of a sympathy for these members coming in with a little bit more of a hard edge. but this is why we have leader pelosi. she can whip that caucus into shape like nobody else. i cannot imagine anybody else being the speaker right now to

unify people under these issues. >> a hard edge is certainly we understand. obviously, though, you have leaders -- you have members that are making nancy pelosi's job and any democrat who would want to defeat donald trump, making their job far more difficult with every reckless statement that they make. and i will tell you, another phenomenon that mirrors 1994, you know, we. freshman class could say something extraordinarily stupid. despite the fact we were back benchers, that's what the president would seize on and they would make us or whoever the radical was the face of the republican party. you now have the press doing that. aoc, i think she won her primary, which was basically her election. she got 15,000 votes. she won by 3,500 votes. she got 15,000 votes. hillary clinton got what, 63,

64, 65 million votes? i think the press needs to keep everything in perspective. >> i agree with that. >> i know they like to chase the latest fad, but they've done it with the republicans for years, focusing on stupid comments by back benchers. i think they probably need to keep this in better perspective. >> they represent their districts, their communities, but they also now have to work on a national level, working with other members of congress. they have a lot to learn. i think that's safe to say, some of these freshmen. >> now to this, yay jupiter, florida. a entrepreneur to founded massage parlors.

25-year-old lee yang has offered to sell access to the president and his family at mar-a-lago. yang founded their company in 2017. it's described online as an international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in america to establish and expand their brand image in the modern chinese marketplace. the company notes that its services also address clients looking to make high-level connections in the u.s. one page of the web site display as photo of mar-a-lago and claims activities for clients have provided them opportunities to meet with the president and other political fingers. the pcompany boasts it has arranged taking photographs with the president and can set up a white house and capitol dinner.

the miami "herald" broke the story, the web site for yang's consulting farm stopped functioning. lee yang no longer owns the massage parlor connected to robert kraufft's arrest. >> you have people like james fellows and owe ther respected voices say this sort of issue is very troubling. and the access to donald trump, the access to the chinese government, all a bit too tight for comfort. >> look, there's no question, first of all, that politics a rather eclectic, unsavory, star wars bar kind of crowd. people want to get close to power and be in there. we've all seen in my many years of fund-raising a lot of

characters you wish weren't there. i can't say i've come across or come near or even heard of any lying this whe like this for engagement with a foreign policy that we're not even on good terms with at the moment. it's hard to tell from the piece what she might or might not have done vis-a-vis china. it seems she has some connection to china, whether it's going to events and reporting back to people in china you never know. it's another example of trump somehow surrounding himself with some of the most iunsavory characters out there. >> news breaking this weekend president xi getting concerned about a summit in florida. he doesn't want to fly all the

way to florida to be embarrassed by the president pulling up stakes and bringing the summit to the end. certainly very understandable, just like it was very understandable that donald trump walked away in hanoi. >> everything's connected. it obviously caused problems for kim jong un, and it's linked to the reconstitution of this missile testing site in north korea. in the case of the chinese, though, this is a government that's already feeling pressure. the economy is slowing significantly, probably far more than the official statistics suggest. these trade talks are difficult enough on their merits. for what it's worth, it's not the worst thing that a foreign leader would say we're not going to have a summit unless it's totally wired. that should be our position as well. neither side would been fit for coming together and having, if you will, a reprise of the north

korea example. what we do in syria and what we do in hanoi, everything has implications for everything else. >> i would suggest that the president again walking away from the table in vietnam was probably a good signal to send not on to the north koreans and to the chinese but everybody else across the globe because he's got i don't know tten the he not, that he's an easy target. you just flatter him, he'll give you what you want. this actually may have been a good push back. at the same time we're hearing he is going to leave some troops in syria. >> i thought it was good he walked away from an agreement he thought was inadequate but in a strategic sense, we never should have gotten to that point. we never should have allowed this summit to take place with this degree of gap between our side and the north koreans where

the united states were still insisting on a positions were never going to be realized. why the two sides are so far apart is beyond me. there's fundamental questions now given what north korea seems to be doing about what it is we would do in response, what is it we are prepared to accept if we can't get what we say we need, which is denuclearization. i think after two years our north korea policy is meeting a truly decisive moment. >> yeah. mika, i want to take just a moment here of personal privilege just to thank everybody in pensacola, florida. we had -- we said good-bye to my mom this past weekend at my home, first baptist church in pensacola. and we want to thank barry howard, who is such a great friend and great pastor for my parents for so long and the new pastor there, dave snyder

invited us in, april loud llowe the church with open arms. all of mom's and dad as friends were there and it was great to see just everybody that meant so much to my parents. so much thanks to them. and it was great seeing a lot of relatives i haven't soon in a long time. >> it was lovely. you did a great job. still ahead on "morning joe," he's quite a household name. the south bend mayor just took a big step in introducing himself to american voters. we'll explain that ahead. a lot of 2020 news next on "morning joe." >> i'm in a different position in the other candidates because i'm the one candidate i don't want any of your money. i want your support but i don't want your money.

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upload your logo or start your design today want more from your entejust say teach me more. into your xfinice remote to discover all sorts of tips and tricks in x1. can i find my wifi password? just ask. [ ding ] show me my wifi password. hey now! [ ding ] you can even troubleshoot, learn new voice commands and much more. clean my daughter's room. [ ding ] oh, it won't do that. welp, someone should. just say "teach me more" into your voice remote and see how you can have an even better x1 experience. simple. easy. awesome. vice president would be a better or worse president than president trump?

z . >> does it have to be between -- >> i don't know. it's really strange. i used to believe he believed in these institutions and he's not corrupt. but then how could he get on board with this presidency? my understanding of scripture is it is about protecting the stranger and the prisoner and the poor person and that idea of welcome. that's what i get in the gospel when i'm in church and his has a lot more to do with sexuality and a certain view of rectitude. but even if you buy into that, how could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency? is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in donald trump?

i don't know. i don't know. >> i really like him. >> i got to say, i -- that is a question not for all trump supporters and maybe not even for the majority of trump supporters, but for some trump supporters, it does seem when you talk to some, i'm just talking about some people that i've known for a very long time, that they stopped believing in the scripture and the gospel that they always talked to me about growing up when they started believing in donald trump and things like the story of the good samaritan, what jesus said ultimately we would be judged by in matthew 25. all of these things, suddenly you talk to them about that and all they want to do is come back at you talking about federal judges. we're a long way from the sermon on the mountain. and if you don't believe me, whether you're a christian or

not, whether you're an evangelical or not, just today read matthew 5 through 8. that's it. it will take you ten minutes. read matthew 5 through 8. it will take you through gejesus sermon on the mount. you judge for yourself. the inconsistencies are the inconsistencies. >> pete, every time he opens his mouth, thing get better, they don't get worse. >> when he first came out, it was like kid.

>> beto was ten years older and -- >> he's still finding himself on the road. remember what i said about kamala harris, she was just a political athlete, she just had it and you could see it. that's the same thing about the mayor, mayor pete. he's gifted and he's more than just sort of this novelty act, more than sort of the young candidate. i think he's going to make some noise. >> i think so, too. i've been impressed with him and i'm sort of waiting to hear more and to see what happens. we have a lot of candidates out there, but each seem to have, you know, certain issues that pull them back. former vice president joe biden is concerned that his potential 2020 run could be facing a fund-raising roadblock. the associated press reports that those close to biden have told him he will be at a fund-raising disadvantage compared to his rivals who have

received a flood of early small donor donations. bide i don't knn may be forced large donors and he's been warned to be patient -- >> steve rattner, i want to go to you. things have changed a lot over the past decade. it used to be this was basically a closed contest for republicans or democrats alike, you get really wealthy people, you get bundlers and you're off to the races. at least with the democratic party now, small dollar donations play an important role, not an outsized role but certainly equalled to that of people that can raise money in large sums.

bernie sanders certainly showed that last year. but there is a concern, and i've heard it from democrats about joe biden and the fact that he just may not excite the base enough to be able to bring in the small dollar donors and he will be dependent on big donors and little else. >> i think there's a number of things in there, joe, i'll try to unpack quickly. first of all, as you said, the fund-raising dynamics in both parties i think but certainly in the party i know better have flipped around completely from a time when bundlers, individual givers dominated to now the online small donors dominating. what sanders did after his announcement of raising $6 million in 24 hours was stunning because you can do the math. how many 2,700 checks do you have to collect to equal that? there's a school of thought in

the party which i think has merit, that the candidates who can raise money that way, sanders, warren, kamala harris, possibly biden and possibly -- and certainly beto o'rourke if he gets into it will have a substantial advantage over the ones who have to go around collecting those $2,700 checks. bide i don't know biden's ability to do that on lien is questionab-- online is questionable. whether he has that same personality and ability to draw that money in is up in the air. and biden hates making those calls and going to those meetings. if he can't raise it online, he's going to be forced into that setting. so the fund-raising piece of it could be very dispositive in a field this large and you could see people literally not making it to iowa because they can't raise the $30 million or $40 million they need to be

competitive there. >> we're starting to hear reports for some big democratic donors, the hamlet act of joe biden is getting old. they want him to either jump in the race or announce he's ot utf the race so they know what he's going to do. you can see it was early december when he was rubbing his hands together trying to figure out what was going on. we're in the middle of march now. it's getting real. and yet we had a "des moines register" poll that showed joe biden and bernie sanders lapping everybody in the field, biden at 27%, bernie at 25%, elizabeth warren at 9%, kamala harris at 7%, beto at 5, cory at 3 and amy klobuchar at 3% and how much longer is joe biden going to keep the world waiting and is

the political world going to go on without him if he doesn't announce soon? >> presidential politics is about personality and authenticity. joe biden has been thinking about running in his entire life, ran twice and almost ran in 2015 and decided not to. a lot of people when looking at the field are forgetting about him. this is not a guy who has had a lack of time, a shortness of time to think about this decision. the field is taking shape without him. forget about the fund-raising for a second, but people are taking up oxygen. the field is taking shape, ideas are taking shape and he's nowhere. so it doesn't make sense, it

does not pass the straight face race -- >> are you suggesting he not jump in the race? >> no, he has to do it soon. people don't understand exactly what he's been doing. he's been thinking about this decision his entire life and he doesn't seem to be able to make a decision. if you're a democrat and you believe donald trump, as many democrats do, is destroying the country, what is taking so long is the sense that i get from a lot of democrats. >> nick confessore, one more question about this "des moines register poll," if jake is right, if a poll like this is about name irchl.d., why is it elizabeth warren is down at 9%? i was surprised she didn't rate higher. >> i'm surprised, too, joe. the honest truth is i'm not sure. i can't see the reason for why she's not doing better with

small donors where she has in the past. and she's the most idea centric candidate in the field. i can't explain it except maybe she is suffering from the same thing to some extent joe biden is. we're living in an era where mayor pete and kamala harris can raise money outside the structure of conventional politics. for biden especially, he is a candidate of the old school, of bundlers and name i.d., but there is a new kind of politics coming. aside from all the other factors that jake put in there, he has to find a way to live and work and succeed in this new era of politics. >> all right. and elizabeth warren sticking to

her message, she went after the big banks and now she's going after big tech. and now to this story, a female aide to kyrsten gillibrand has accused the senator of failing to act properly in the wake of the #metoo movement. a female staffer alleges one of gillibrand's closest male aides had repeatedly made advances toward her after being promoted to a supervisory role. after three weeks of the advances, the woman told gillibrand she was resigning because of the matter.

she wrote in part this, i trusted and leaned on this statement that you made. you need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay, none of it is acceptable. your office chose to go against your public belief that women shouldn't accept sexual harassment in any form and portrayed my experience as a s misinterpretation instead of what it actually was, harassment, and ultimately intimidation. politico reports no one in the office responded to the letter. gillibrand's office said the letter contained, quote, clear inaccuracies and was a major departure from the sentiments she shared with senior staff in the final days of her office.

writing "when allegations are made in the workplace, we must believe women so that serious investigations can actually take place, we can learn the facts and there can be appropriate accountability. that's exactly what happened at every step of this case last year." . since the aide's departure, politico reports it's found addition examples of accusations against malik. does this hurt her campaign? >> i do think it hurts her campaign. she has been a chief advocate of victims and victims of sexual harassment. it has been the platform of her

commonweal campaign. other candidates support fighting sexual harassment but she's really played this up and she's created policies from reforming sexual assault in the military to other aspects. and of course the al franken situation. she's led on this issue for a long time. i think when you have an issue like this that literally leads your campaign, it's very difficult to overcome a situation that you mishandle in your office. >> but did she? do you know these people involved? i know you know her. i do, too. she says she handled it well and that it sounds like she tried to carry out due process. >> it sounds like she did. i think there's a lot of questions that we still have and i think frankly she has to come out and give a statement and not just issue a statement to politico. i think she's got to address this publicly via press conference or a sitdown with a reporter. there's a lot of unknowns.

when you read the letter from one of the victims in the office, it's very well written in terms of what she's experienced. there's a lot of things we don't know at this point. at the same time it's very difficult when you are running for the presidency in large part on a platform to address sexual harassment and then something like this happens. sew i think the so i think there's a lot that we have to figure out here. oh, did you want to say something? >> yes. she has other issues that may be more significant or as significant as this particular issue in front of her. she hasn't been endorsed by one member of the new york delegation. in contrast, cory booker has been endorsed by every member of the delegation. it is very much about name

recognition but it's a little about also about the kind of roll-outs that these candidates have had. elizabeth warren has not had the best roll out with the the pocahontas stuff and how she handled that. in my world of fund-raisers and supporters seen as having member t -- momentum or not having momentum. >> it should be interesting to see how she handles this in realtime. jake sherman, thank you very much. coming up, president trump has tried just about everything to get a southern border wall. he shut down the government, he declared a national emergency and today he's expected to try something new. we'll explain that ahead on "morning joe."

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an ethiopian airlines flight

headed to the kenyan capital of nairobi crashed shoortly after take-off yesterday claiming the lives of all 157 passengers. among the passengers were eight americans. the same make and model jet crashed in indonesia last summer. >> reporter: a devastating scene, the aircraft ripped apart, pieces of the plane on a crash site the size of the football field, the point of impact, a huge crater. bodies and belongings strewn across the ethiopian skriside. long them, a lone shoe and napkins. grief stricken loved ones. radar shows the flight lost contact eight minutes after

take-off. the cause still unclear, though data from flight radar 24 showed the vertical speed, whether the plane was climbing or descending was unstable after take-off. >> it is one of the safest airlines in the world. at this stage we cannot rule out anything. >> reporter: the boeing 737 is the same model involved in the indonesian lion air jet crash in october, which also went down shortly after take-off in jakarta, killing 189 people. boeing said it's sending a technical team to work with authorities. in nairobi, this passenger was lucky to be arrived after missing the doomed plate. >> because of the delay from dubai, i missed the first flight. >> reporter: relatives from around the world wait for news, including one father said to have lost his wife and two

children. keir simmons, nbc news, london. >> our thanks to keir simmons for that report. the associated press saying ethiopian state media saying the black box has been recovered and that the box is partially damaged. steve rattner, the make and model seems to have had at least some bad history. >> it's a very recent model is part of the problem. it's the newest version of the 737, the 737 max and they made a lot of changes to it, particularly involving electronic system, which has the plane take over in the case something was happening. there is a way for the fights override it. the pilots weren't really familiar with how to do it because it was so new and that plane crashed. we don't know enough about this plane yet to know. i think the overarching point

here is automation can sometimes not be your friend. >> no. still ahead -- we'll follow this. still ahead, after puerto rico was devastated by hurricane maria, president trump made news for tossing paper towels to the storm survivors. we'll show you what he did on friday when he visited al btorn survivors in alabama. al btorna survivors in alabama sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough

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in the wake of the deadly tornado outbreak that devastated parts of alabama, president trump extended an unusual je gesture to first responders and survivors -- his autograph. they raised eyebrows by signing bibles for the residents that came out to see them. that has been done by past presidents. the president spent much of the

day touring people in lee, alabama, thanking people for their efforts. earlier last week, trump signed an emergency disaster declaration, authorizing federal aid for the area. the president going to a disaster area and dealing and helping grieving families is the right thing to do. >> very good. no doubt about it. and on the question of the bible, other presidents have signed bibles in the past, maybe not as boldly as this president basically signing across the front of bibles. eric eriksson chimed in saying do not let people autograph your bibles. that's creepy and gross. especially the front of them. >> maybe some asked him to, though. >> some of the more interesting parts of the circus when john heilemann and mark halperin asked him what his favor versus

were, were an old testament or old testament guy? e i like them both. at least he's close to bibles, if he would just open up the bible. it would be good. open it up, start reading it and let your life reflect it through your policies and i think america and the world would be better off. >> adrienne elrod, thank you very much for being on. >> and still ahead, the owner of the massage parlor where robert kraft was arrested takes a selfie with the president. >> new numbers show the republican party is losing the

jewish vote. "morning joe" is back in a moment. "morning joe" is back in a moment i wanna keep doing what i love,

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conversation, author and historian john meacham. >>y wr you've written a book on faith in this country. where do you come down on the president autographing bibles in a way that takes up over half the actual space of the front of said bible? >> well, you're one of the few people who will appreciate this, joe. at least he didn't do it in red ink. there is that. >> sure. >> but so, you know, the only thing i was thinking -- the only thing i can think of in my tradition with the book of common prayer, when you're conformed co confirmed or married, often you have the bishop sign it but i don't think you do it with the bible. >> on the front. >> he always makes the cover,

right? i think it's one more thing of experience 7,000 of why is it that people of great religion faith use "put their trust in this prince." >> this actually lends very well with something that a friend of mine -- an old friend of mine said this weekend and said that send they're sending e-mails because they wanted to make sure that i made it to heaven. and the e-mails were talking about -- i had not seen these e-mails thankfully, about how i needed to be more loyal and faithful to donald trump. lest you believe this is a new phenomenon in evangelical churches, i had a good friend at a ministry in a church who told me during the bush era that they had to actually bring

parishioners in and let them know that somebody could believe in jesus and accept jesus as their lord and savior and not support george w. bush 100% of the time. it is a strange, strange thing that has happened not in american politics but in american religion, especially among some evangelicals where they have decided to render all of their faith, all of their belief, all of their trust in cesar and let god take a back seat. you can believe in -- >> joe? >> yes. >> i think that's really important because and just at the risk of total self-parody at this pour, the reason for the wall metaphor between church and state was not to protect the state from the church but the church from the state. the original idea in the

american experience as so many people came across the atlantic, roger williams, john winthrop. the romans had their moment, they came here and established theocracies in places. you began to see religion essential and it was the scholars call it the first liberty. we were about liberty and the liberty of conscious first. the idea that you would trust the flaw, temporal world to be the center of your universe is, in fact, wrong headed. your fo your focus has to be on the next kingdom less so than the current

kingdom. it is not roe v. wade but it is the 1962 decision where conservatives who felt betrayed by eisenhower, they believed that a court took god and put him out of the classroom. wo we're still living in that world. >> we're still living in that world but it has accelerated. i do understand why evangelicals, why conservative christians responded the way they did against what they considered to be a revolutionary decade in the 1960s and even going into the 1970s. i do understand that. i do not understand, though,

putting faith and man above putting faith in god, especially when the man that so many leaders of the evangelical movement are putting their faith in is a man who, again, who his very words and his deeds and his actions every day, every single day shows that his life's work, his life example runs counter to every single lesson taught in jesus' sermon on the mount, which really does sum up in three versus the ministry of jesus christ and also matthew 25 where the disciples come to jesus and again this will be the end of the sermon, but the disciples come to jesus and say who's going to be seated at the right hand of the father. and jesus tells his disciples

that it's the prn that gives a cup of water in the masters' name and feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, takes care of the poor, visits the sick and those who are in prison and he goes on and on. and again, this is not a close call. you line donald trump's policies and what he's focused on up against matthew 25, the sermon on the mount and the story of the good samaritan. just line it up and make your own judgment. it's not a close call with those who have ears to hear. here and now let's go on to the budget. the fy-2020 budget. >> everyone said amen to that. i hope kasie hunt is with us. president trump is set to revive

the fight over funding for his border wall. the president will ask congress for $8.6 billion more to pay for the wall along the southern border. the administration will make the demand as part of its 2020 budget request, which it will send to congress today. the new funding figure is more than six times what congress has set aside for bored are proje-- projects and it's more than what trump was able to get by declaring a national emergency. and shum are and pelosi on trump's new wall funding demand "president trump hurt millions of americans and caused widespread kay oos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his

expensive and ineffective wall. congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. the same thing will repeat itself. >> there was nothing scientific, evidence based that the wall was going to be the best way to secure our borders. >> let's bring in kasie hunt. kasie, we've heard that the wall -- we've heard that the president's budget is dead on arrival from both democrats and republicans alike, it slashes domestic spending, it increases pentagon spending and of course asks for even more money on the wall, which the president's not going to get. was it just a political statement by the president? and how do we expect republicans and democrats to respond? >> basically. i mean, this reads like a campaign move to me, joe.

like this is part of the play book out of the 2020 campaign. you know as well as anybody, these documents, perhaps there was a time when they meant something but now it means very little m terms of real policy making. it means a lot in terms of the political message and statement that the administration itself wants to make about something like this. clearly they want to be seen picking another fight over this particular issue. the think the president wants to demonstrate to his base. he's telling audiences we are currently building the wall,and if you dig into the facts of that, we're repairing sections of the wall that exist as well as adding some 55 something meals of new fencing. but this really is completely dead on arrival. democrats control the house, they're not going to allow this to go forward. we're going to have to have another spending fight in

september heading into the primary season. you can expect this to get nasty once again. if this is really the hill the president wants to die on, if he's willing to shut down the democrat right before that yet again, it played into the democrats' hands last time. >> speaking of the president, last night he talked to donors at mar-a-lago, said the democratic party hated jews, was anti-semitic. how are democrats going to respond? >> he started down that road with white house reporters on friday saying he thought it was the anti-israel party, but then to say straight out democrats hate jewish people, the main very to ask is why are there so many jewish-elected officials in the democratic party? there's just a handful of jewish republicans in congress. i think the democrats clearly are grappling with this johnson

racialal change, this new divide, how to handle the new set of experiences that have come in to the party. they've got plenty of critics inside their own party of how nancy pelosi handled that particular incident. this strikes me as the president, you know, using his norm-breaking rhetoric frankly, going perhaps too far in trying to make a point and capitalize on divisions that do exist within the democratic party. i mean, we've seen that kind of hurt him, frankly, over the last couple of years. >> so we just of course for those that are listening to us and not watching, we just showed a graphic that showed, steve rattner, that 33 jewish members in congress are democratic to two who are republican. so quite a difference there. i'm wondering, steve, what your reaction is, though, to what's happened over the past week with some of the freshmen members,

obviously representative omar continues to make statements that many people consider, when youing members of the democratic caucus, powerful members of the democratic caucus believe that border on anty semitic tropes and you had aoc calling fdr a racist and of course also said ronald reagan was a racist but also said that the new deal was racist. what is nancy pelosi, what are front-runners in the democratic party going to do to somehow contain this from spreading? >> i think nancy pelosi is, first of all, i'm a great admirer. i think she's a fantastic speaker and her job is herding cats obviously. we have 60-some-odd new cats

arrive with this class of democratic congressmen. with any group like that, you're going to have some number who have swrout side vioutside views and her job is to keep the party together and to be willing to take a stand on that is completely antithetical not just to her voters and base but to all americans. about you there are always going to be a couple people. just like the republicans have steve king on one end, they have rand paul, who is not a racist but have some out of the boxx views and they have to try to manage that. she knows when to draw a line in the sand and say it's not acceptable behavior and when to try to bring them together. these happen to be the most vocal members of the party and i think has time goes on, the novelty of having them say these

things will be diminished and i think you'll see their presence diminish. >> a florida entrepreneur who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors, where new england patriots own are robert craft was arrested for soliciting prostitution has become the latest donor to draw controversy. according to a new report by mother jones, 45-year-old lee yang runs a consulting business that has offered to sell chinese clients access to the president and his family at mar-a-lago. yang and her husband founded their company in 2017. it is described as an international -- it's described online as an international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in america, to establish and expand their brand image in the modern chinese marketplace.

the company notes its services also address clients, looking to make high-level connections in the u.s. one page of the web site displays a photo of mar-a-lago and claims activities for clients have included providing them the opportunity to meet with the presidentoned other political figures. the company boasts it has arranged taking photos with the president and suggests it can set up a white house and capitol hill dinner. yang first came into the news last week when the miami hrld reported she had attended a super bowl viewing party. the same day the miami herald broke the story for lee yang no longer owns that massage parlor for --

>> david, what's the significance, the potential impact of finding out this former massage parlor owner is peddling access to the president? >> it seems like a standard pay-to-play situation where she and her close relatives have given over $50,000 to political action committees to donald trump and she's trying to get business executives to get close to donald trump, at least to get photos or maybe get a word in on something and these photos are used back in china to say, look, we're have influence to america and we're cles to and yet my colleagues wrote a story noting that this woman, cindy yang, is

on the board of two organizations that are connected to the communist party and the chinese government. so national security folks are raising questions about whether there's any espionage or influence here going on that should be looked at by u.s. officials. >> nick confessore. >> this is a great story. it kind of has it all. it's too on the nose, flesh peddling and influence peddling in the same story. i'm wondering if you and your colleagues have found any evidence of connection between the two lines of business, one that we know about and one that has been alleged in some press reports. >> well, we haven't. i mean, you're cinematic imagination can take you to that place very quickly. one persons who owns massage powers and who boasts about

having meeting with elaine cao and boasts connections with foreign policy. as reporters, though, we have to look at the facts and so far we haven't found those intersections. again, she has nut down the other web site in chinese that talks about peddling. every time the phone rings, a man picks up and says "i don't speak english" and hangs up. we have to know whether they're facilitating these business endeavors she's setting and influence peddling she's presenting to the government. >> i'm trying to figure out what

the possible yin and the yang is. do you have any suppositions on that? >> well, the interesting thing is finding out that she's connected to one of these groups, which is called the committee for promotion of peaceful reunification of kchin, meaning bringing taiwan into china, which is perhaps their number one policy goal. a lot of people study china and its influence on the united states and they've all done reports dtying this particular group to the chinese communist party and it's to advance their foreign policy around the world. so her connection there, again, you know, we don't have all the details because she's kind of gone underground here, but is very suspicious when you have

someone like that giving money to the republican party and getting access to donald trump and his family at mar-a-lago and elsewhere while she's connected to this group promoting china's number one foreign policy. >> we and we also know that he was one of donald trump's favorite guests at mar-a-lago. any evidence that these two crossed paths? i mean at mar-a-lago and not at former establishments. >> yeah. well, she owned -- she created the spa, didn't own it at the time, where he was busted. but she seems to have been in and out of marmara lot. we have a lot of pictures people have seen of her with donald trump, eric trump, elizabeth

trump grau, who is a sister of donald trump we don't know a lot about, keeps a low profile. she's one of those people, they come up to you quickly, post it online, they're happy to be there. she got into these meetings and insinuated herself into public circles while running a chain of pa saj parlers and being connected to at least two chinese groups tied to the republican party. it's rel pretty bizarre. no surprised sarah huckabee sanders at the white house has nothing to say about this. >> already thank you so much for

being with us. >> thank you. >> let's expand this out and again talk about china, the latest developments over the weekend, now talk that president xi is not going to be coming to florida or at least is considering not coming to florida because of the failure of north korea and donald trump to come to any agreement. those close to him say he doesn't want to be embarrassed by an abrupt ending there. what can you tell us about the current state of u.s./china relations? how bad is it getting? and also we've talked an awful lot about how farmers are impacted by donald trump's trade wars. how significant of an impact do those trade wars continue to have on china's economy? and does china have a reason to mo more? >> it's hard to imagine this is

just commercial opportunism. the chinese are trying to influence what's going on in this country. one of the growing stories of the yooears to come will be the use of hundreds of thousands chinese students, whether it's to steal technology or watch others. i would be surprised if she were just prelancing. there's not a lot freelance i don't know any economist who look at china to know that's the real number. the chinese economy has showed dramatically and this is putting real pressure on economy kmp and this has been the principal source of legitimacy for the communist party for decades. if you can't show real economic growth, why does the party, this

president, need to have the mondayfully of power that he and they enjoy? and there's really pressure on the chinese. and they do want an agreement but they don't want an agreement at any price. i think the real question is on us -- are we willing to settle for an agreement that doesn't solve the structural will be answer. are we willing to accept an agreement, reduces the trade imbalance, the chinese and i think the big question is more on this white house and there and some of his advisers are saying hang tough, let's be more demanding rather than subtle with the china, so let's ro.

and i asked john, i said what do the chinese want? at the end of the day what do the chinese want? he said they want and the communist party wants 9% growth. that's what they have to have for their legitimacy. and that's what you -- five years later that's what you're saying. and, boy, it ain't 9% growth anymo anymore. what are the long-term implications for china, for internal security they might say. >> the china economy now is too large, too ma sure. all the low-hanging fruit has been picked. so the question is if the chinese can have high levels of growth, how does this 90 million person outfit called the communist party justify itself?

some people are worried they're going to turn to foreign policy, be more aggressive on taiwan, more aggressive on the sotomayor china sea. in the meantime they're certainly be more repressive. they're worried about worker unrest. the real question is can they institute reform and set up a more market-oriented economy. they want the benefits of an open kme i spoke earlier about comments that aoc made. about fdr and talking about how fdr was a racist, how the new deal it was was racist, ronald reagan was racist. we'll leave ronald reagan to the side now only because we're talking about the democratic party. i'm just curious what your reaction is watching the

democratic party and the newer members of the democrat uk party starting to push back and in fact tear apart at the that has held this party together for some time. >> you don't have to mindlessly celebrate franklin roosevelt or any of the great figures of the past in order to appreciate what they did. i athink we honor people in the past if they honored the journey, not if they were perfect. executive order 9066 interred the japanese but he had a marvelous wife, eleanor roosevelt, who pushed him in the right ways and he ultimately shifted the entire relationship of the individual to the state,

with complicated results. but he did weave the safety net that president johnson and others were able to improve on and strengthen as well. so i think honestly judging peop people by our standards get very tricky very fast. without mindlessly celebrating the past, i think we have to take them all in all. and all in all, the country is better because franklin roosevelt was in the white house for 12 years. >> john, you bring up a great point about those southern democrats. f.d.r. had to work with the congress that was in front of him.

the fact that he accomplished what he did under those circumstances was nothing short of remarkable. and, mika, that's a member actually for new members of congress. to get things done, you have to work with the congress that's in front of you at that time. >> john meacham, thank you very much. and still ahead on "morning joe." >> well, would you call yourself a proud capitalist? >> oh, i don't know. you know, again, the labels, i'm not sure any of them fit. >> i'll break it down more. do you consider yourself a capitalist? >> the labels -- i'm a small business person. that part of the system you would call capitalist, i get it. >> so do you consider yourself a capitalist and does capitalism work? >> well, i think -- i don't look at myself with a label. >> not once, not twice but three

times former governor john hickenlooper running on his business record could not call himself a capitalist here on "morning joe." what it says about the party's presidential positions next on "morning joe." ♪ if you don't respect yourself, ain't nobody going to give a good kahoot ♪ ♪ hear those words...

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legends aren't born, this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. well, would you call yourself a proud capitalist? >> oh, i don't know. given, the labe again, the labels, i'm not sure any of them fit. but i do believe that ability to look at climate change and figure out how we're going to create a sense of urgency and get people together. methane is one of the worst

climate pollutants there is and we're so far the only state to address it aggressively. >> i'm break it down even more. do you consider yourself a capitalist? >> well, again, the labels -- i'm a small business person. that part of the system you would call capitalist, i get it, i understand. when we signed our first least, it was $1 per square foot a year. we worked 70, 80, 90 weeks to build a business and worked with other business owners to help build their system. is that capitalism? it's not all that it is. i served on 42 nonprofit boards and committees in that same

12-year period. >> so do you consider yourself a capitalist and does capitalism work? >> well, i think -- i don't look at myself with a label. i certainly think that small business is part of the solution. i think right now the way capitalism is working in the united states, it's not doing what it once did. it's really not providing security and opportunity for the middle class and for poor people. and i think as a country we need to step back and look at that and say how do we get america back to the place it was where if you worked hard enough, no mart where you started on the economic ladder, you would have a chance to go ahead and create your version of the american dream. >> that was friday's head scratching interview with democratic governor john

hickenlooper. joining us now, john harward and brett stevens, whose latest column is called "capitalism and the democratic party" in which he argues democrats who can't embrace the word capitalism are handing president trump the presidency. >> capitalism needs to be reformed to work for more americans but that wasn't the answer we got. brett stevens, i take it that you also, like me, do not believe it needs to be a hard question to answer where when al

and greensp alan greenspan said -- >> it's the history of reform, the history of creating social safety nets, it's the history of working against inequities in egalitarianisms, and all of this should have been really easy for governor hickenlooper to answer. i'm not sure if high objection is he's committing kind of moral and ideological malpractice or simple malpractice. this is a guy in the democratic race running as the moderate and he can't even embrace that side of his identity. >> john harwood, i think i'm starting to see with the democratic party that i used to see with the republican party. i used to complain the media

would pick out the noisiest voice and then say that's what republicans are. i almost sense that's wa we're now seeing with the democrat being party. some very loud, very compelling voices but saying that's the mainstream of the democrat being party where whether the polls you and i look at showed 65% of democrats actually want a moderate to be their presidential nominee in 2020. >> there's no question about it. and alexandria ocasio-cortez ge beat an incumbent democrat. these are people who have different profiles, different identities. but i think what you saw with hickenlooper is the disorientation of this democratic field to traditional guide posts of political

competitiveness. john hickenlooper is 66 years old. he grew up in an error where businesses had to prove they were produce, this that he showed ra and bill clinton favored the death penalty and was seen reinforcing his appeal with tradition voters. and candidates don't quite know how to respond to it. john hickenlooper had gotten burned when he got in the race and he said i'm going to go down and talk with mitch mcconnell and we're going to work things out. and people said wake up. have you not seen what happened during the obama administration? when he got your question on capitalism, he was like, whoa, i don't want to caulk walk if that

buzz saw again. >> it's interesting to joe's points about most democrats favoring a moderate but there's also polls showing democrats prefer socialism over capitalism. but there are at least four i can count, moderates who are either in the race or coming in the race. you have michael ben met from colorado, steve bennett and so the question is can any of that group of 4 or 5 get some traction against these louder voices going in the other direction. >> moderate democrats were the ones who were able to flip rab seats like people like orange county. but you have these modern democrats who aren't an eng day andered spees eed but they're

behaving like they're the because it always easier to argue m the from spbt as o po to people who say, listen, we have this huge and broad cy -- to mae it more available to the greatest number of people. it's not to preach fire and brimstone against and -- >> to pick up on that, there's such a difference in the

memories and perceptions of what socialism means. is the democratic party really grappling with that? i mean, it seems to me like most millennials and people that i know, when you say socialism, they think sweden and denmark. that sounds pretty nice. it's a democracy with traditional benefits where you have a comfortable life. they don't think about venezuela or the nazis and all the things that happened preechl in the century. >> no question about it. the word is for this generation as it was for the generation that came out of the second world war. hickenlooper is a very success democrat. it's not on the term saturday by aoc, think they're going to be talking about ways to try as

brett was indicating earlier and joe was as well to adrapt capitalism, to make it more nesk fif for different people. we've a 40-year problem with middle and working class being lef behind. if something isn't done to have more people participate in the sort of prosperity the support for capitalism is going to weaken in a more. thank you both for come on this morning. great conferring. stl ahead, democrats are wap manying up there one of their top priorities. we'll talk to a member of the house ways and means when we come back next on "morning joe." i'm 53.

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house democrats pass their legislative centerpiece making good on their midterm campaign friday. at 700 pages the for the people act includes proposals making election day a federal holiday. automatically registering citizens to vote. and restoring vote rights to those who have served felony sentences. among other things the legislation would also require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns. joining us now a member of the house ways and means and budget committee democratic chief deputy whip congressman of michigan and congress mapp, where do we stand to get a look at the president takes returns, and what do you think we might learn from them? >> well, it's hard to tell what we might learn because this president has been so opaque about his personal interests that he continues to manage, by

the way. we're going through the process. we had a hearing to establish clearly our legal authority acquire these returns which dates back to law that followed a scandal and laying the factual basis to make it clear there's a public interest in having access to these returns. chairman richie neal has been deliberate in this process. we know the president intends to fight it. within the near future that request will be made. we don't expect that they will respond affirmatively but we're ready to fight this. we think the public has an interest in knowing what the president's financial interests really truly are. >> so congressman, there's obviously a lot of public interest and appetite in seeing these tax returns. on the other hand, personal tax returns among the mofst sacrosanct documents. do you think the president is entitled to my peripherals on his documents if he chooses not

to release them publicly? >> he's certainly entitled to privacy. the question is whether his rights to privacy are in anyway modified by the public's right to know what his financial interests are and whether his interests affect his decision public make. that's why the law was crafted to va narrowly allow congress to gain access to these returns and then make a determination as to whether or not that information should be shared with the public and if so what aspects of it should be. yes. absolutely has some right to privacy. let's keep in mind this president broke nearly half a century of norms by not releasing those returns. something that presidents and presidential candidates have done dating back to richard nixon. so, if there's anyone who is out of step with the norms, it's the president himself who continues to hide his own financial interests. >> congressman, steve rattner will take you through his chart

today which takes a look at the impact of tariffs on farmers and steve, you can take it then to the congressman. >> twra >> the trade war that mr. trump is conduct is not going way. let's focus on china for a second and start with our imports from china. the president imposed some tariffs about a year ago and you can see here there's really not much of a discernible impact from those tariffs. our imports of cell phones, of computers, of apparel, thing that they make better that we don't even make in many cases any more seems to have very little impact of americans purchasing. let's remember these tariffs are not paid by china. they are paid by consumers and companies in america who are importing this stuff. they are no different than a tax. now china is retaliating. let's take a look who they are retaliating against. these are the states that china has targeted for his retaliatory

tariffs. what a surprise. all of these states are states that went for trump last year. so whether it's texas, which exports a lot of natural gas liquids and sorghum and things like that, whether it's michigan, alabama and south carolina which export autos, china has taken clear aim at those countries. then lastly, mika u-mentioned the farmers. let's look at the farmers because we sell about a third of our soybean crop to china and you can see pretty clearly what happened here when china -- when china started saying we're not going to be buying so many or any of those soybeans any more. soybean prices collapsed and just started to come back. we also have vast inventories of soybeans at the moment. so even if china resumed buying those soybeans it could be a good while before the soybeans come back. so congressman you're from michigan. you were one of those states that i just mentioned that was targeted by trump. how do you feel and what do you

think, if anything, you can do about it? >> well, i think this is a case where the president was in the right church but, again, in the wrong pew. i believe it was right to take on china on the specific question of its production of cheap steel, and, of course, on the structural problems that the chinese economy presents to its trading partners. but the president is not doing that at least not effectively. so what i see is growers in the michigan is and other parts of the country that were already dealing with relatively low prices for their products now have this additional pressure put on them. i think the president is fundamentally wrong in the sense that he believes that somehow these growers, these family owned farms especially can just start up again in a year or two after he removes the tariffs or there's some resolution to the china question. these farmers are operating on really thin margins. they are one bad season away from being able to continue these family businesses. he doesn't seem to see that. i think more troubling by his

policy is that he, as i said, right to take on china on some of its issues but by penaltyizing some of our strongest trading partners and allies he makes the trading situation worse. u.s. and canada has a great trading relationship. michigan and ontario have a great trading relationship. that's been affected by the way the president has been dealing with this question and not in a good way. >> you're soon going to have a vote on the new nafta, on the usmca. will democrats get behind and vote for this new trade agreement or prepared to see it go down? >> we have to see more detail. the one provision that troubles me the most is the provision on labor standards in mexico and the fact that mexico has failed to meet the already established deadlines to significantly reform their labor practices, causes me a lot of trouble. the problem is we don't know what the president will do. will he be willing to renegotiate elements of this new

nafta. will he cancel the previous agreement? it's very hard to read that. clearly, though, we needed this negotiation. we need a new nafta. no question about it. but the devil as is always is the days devil is in the detail. >> congressman, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. and coming up, democrats struggle to find unity last week during a painful fight for anti-semitism. and over the weekend president trump seized on that reportedly telling gop donors that democrats hate jewish people. plus it's been about nine months since the president signed an executive order meant to stop his administration's policy of separating families at the border but it's still happening. we'll talk about the latest on the crisis at the border ahead on "morning joe". biopharmaceutical researchers.

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>> what's so fascinating is that -- i love when people say oh, he doesn't lie. give me an example. you got it there on videotape and as his donors were saying that heard him say that this week at mar-a-lago, they are like it's on videotape. it's on videotape and yet he calls it fake. but, again, there are people that will believe what they believe but let those who have ears hear, actually hear. >> not sure why they chose that one to push against. good morning and welcome to "morning joe". it's monday, march 11th. happy monday, everybody. with us we have political writer for the "new york times" and msnbc political analyst nick n confessore. richard haass. adrian elrod.

and jake sherman. good to have you all on board. there's a lot to talk about at the start of the week. michael cohen and donald trump are accusing each other of being liars. >> they could both actually be right. >> they could. on that point at least both are telling the truth but we'll talk about the ongoing fight over presidential pardons and where that stands and how it impacts everything. plus the president pencils in billions of dollars in the new budget for the border wall. that, of course, is the american budget, not mexico's whom he repeatedly promised would pay for the wall. >> i guarantee it. >> and lots of new moves in the 2020 race. bernie sanders and julio castro are trading jabs at each other. kirsten gillebrand facing heat this morning over one of her key

platforms. we'll get to that in just a moment. we begin with president trump pushing the bounds of political rhetoric even further this weekend, reportedly telling a gathering of republican donors on friday night that democrats hate jewish people. something that stands in contrast to how jewish-americans vote and their broad representation in the democratic party compared to republicans. three source who were there, but were prevented by security from recording the event tell axios that president trump made the comments while referring to the recent anti-semitism controversies with democratic congresswoman ilhan omar. trump said he didn't understand how any jew could vote for a democrat these days. he talked about how much he had done for israel, noting his historic decision to move the u.s. embassy in israel to jerusalem. and trump said if he could run to be prime minister of israel, he would be at 98% in the polls.

a campaign spokesman did not dispute the comments as reported. this followed the president's attempt to brand all democrats as being against jewish people due to the controversy around the minnesota freshman congresswoman. >> the democrats have become an anti-israel party, they've become an anti-jewish party. that's too bad. >> however, jewish voters have swung even more to the democratic party in recent elections. exit polls in the trump era showed in 2016 jewish voters favored hillary clinton over donald trump by 71% to 24%. trump performing eight points worse than mitt romney and the democrats did even better in 2018 after the accomplishments president trump touted to donors winning 79% of the vote to the republicans, 17%. while members of congress who

are jewish are overwhelmingly on the democratic side of the aisle. here's where we are joe. >> here's where we are. the question is, jake sherman, is this what we're going to see over the next year or so if donald trump does, in fact, run for re-election? is this a preview? will he continue to paint democrats as anti-jewish party, despite his own checkered past? >> yeah, for sure. the ilhan omar controversy in which she's made comments that have been interpreted as anti-semitic and she has apologized for one and democrats took action last week to rebuke her lightly in a way that republicans thought were a bit too light for their liking, they are trying to make the entire democratic party -- it's kind of one of these moments where republicans behind-the-scenes have been saying for many years that the democratic party was drifting away from being, from its previous staunch support of israel and things of that nature

and republicans are saying it's coming home to roost. it's a convenient punching bag for the president. he's putting the congresswoman up on a pedestal and then knocking her down. the "new york times" has a fascinating story this morning of benjamin netanyahu using trump as the main centerpiece in his campaign in israel and will get perhaps a fresh test of what people think of president trump when it comes to israel's elections which are april 9th and netanyahu is struggling as he almost never has before to retain the prime minister role. so i think we'll perhaps get an indirect test of what donald trump said which is he would be at 98% in polls in israel were he to run for prime minister. >> again, we said this before, but nick confessore, you look at the record. again it's pretty remarkable

that donald trump -- that donald trump of charlottesville who talked about moral equivalency between neo-nazis and anti-fascist, the donald trump that put a star of david over hillary clinton face talking about how jewish money would buy the presidency. that trump republican party of kevin mccarthy. kevin mccarthy putting out a tweet before the election in 2018 basically saying it's the jews, the jew money that's going to take over and we cannot allow soros, bloomberg to buy in all caps this election. of course kevin mccarthy select three jews and george soros name. it's an old tired anti-semitic trope. let me continue. jim jordan, i ain't reading anything. i can go on all day. jim jordan talking about tom

steir last week. he never done this with a gentile but replaced the "s" in steir with a dollar sign. >> you can go further back, joe, to the 2016 campaign when david duke supported president trump and president trump was asked about it and refused to distance himself from david duke and said he wasn't familiar with david duke's views. there this a repository for anti-jewish sentiment in politics today it's chiefly on the right. not only on the right. if you talk to actual neo-nazis, the thing you hear from them over and over again is that trump is making the ideas of the far-right and neo-nazis more palatable in the mainstream and they see him as their guy in the

mainstream way, mainstream american politics. now there's plenty of anti-semitism in the world and omar has ben dinged for her comments. it's ridiculous to say the left is the repository for all these things. what we're seeing is the fight for rulers of israel and the current president of israel, netanyahu. it's mostly about him. >> richard haass, it is interesting what's happening in israel right now. netanyahu is embracing donald trump. donald trump did talk about moving the embassy to jerusalem. and moved in that direction after presidents of both parties have been promising to do so for years. and yet, of course, the sentiment not only towards trump

but netanyahu and the american jewish community is more than split. >> you're right. the american jewish community is split. there's a percentage, i think probably a minority that is strongly backing benjamin netanyahu and will largely vote here on the basis of policy towards israel. and there's, i think, a larger percentage of american jews that will vote on the basis of a whole range of political issues. there's support. it's interesting what benjamin netanyahu is doing. it's not just moving the embassy to jerusalem but the anti-iranian policy, essentially he's getting as close as he can to trump and also because of the so-called peace process the idea of working with the saudis. there's a real paralleling between benjamin netanyahu's position on big issues and the trump white house. >> adrian, the democrats, how are they going to respond not only to trump this past week but also the continued problems from

freshman members of their own class. you know, by the way, this is not new. we caused so much problem, a 1994 we came in and won of us was saying something stupid every day and when we weren't saying something stupid newt gingrich was saying something stupid. at least democrats have nancy pelosi. just this weekend, aoc calls fdr racist. calls the new deal racist. you have a different anti-semitic report seemingly coming every week. nancy pelosi and the democratic leadership, man, they are shoulder to shoulder strong, speaking out against that anti-semitism. just curious, though, what's their next play? what's their next act moving forward if this continues? >> part of the problem, joe, as you know is when you have more democrats in congress you're more apt -- more people in the party that will say things that

are not, that may not be politically correct. we have a diverse caucus. i won't stand here and defend comments by aoc and other members. at the same time these are women who have their own opinions and they have grown-up in an image in politics and elected to speak their mine. i'm not defending that. they certainly have earned the right to go out there and say what they believe. it's important to note some of these members are representing communities in their districts who have been large targets by donald trump. so they are going to washington showing, you know, we're angry. we're here to represent the constituents in our district who have been persecuted by donald trump since he's been in office and since he's been running for president. so i have a little bit of sympathy towards some of these members who are coming in more about a hard edge but at the same time this is why we have leader pelosi. she can whip that caucus into shape like nobody else and i can't imagine anybody else being

the speaker right now who can unify her caucus around these issues. >> still ahead on "morning joe" president trump flew halfway around the world only to walk away empty handed when it comes to north korea. china's president has no intention of doing the same. how trump's negotiating tactics with north korea are looming large over trade talks with beijing. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. fight cancer.

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clients access to the president and his family at mar-a-lago. yang and her husband founded their company in 2017. it's described online as an international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in america to establish and expand their brand image in the modern chinese marketplace. the company notes that its services also address clients looking to make high level connections in the u.s. one page of the website displays a photo of mar-a-lago and claims activities for clients have included providing them an opportunity to meet with the president and other political figures. the company boasts it's arranged taking photos with the president and suggests it can set up a white house and capitol hill dinner. yang first came into the news last week when "the miami herald" reported she attended a super bowl viewing party at

trump's west palm beach golf club where she took a photo with the president. the same day "the miami herald" broke the story the website for yang's consulting firm stopped functioning. she no longer owns the massage parlor connected to kraft's arrest. >> you have people like respected voices that actually say this sort of issue is very troubling, and the access to donald trump, the access to the chinese government, all a bit too tight for comfort. >> look, there's no question, first of all that politics attracts a rather unsavory "star wars" kind of power. we've seen a lot of issues that were there.

i can't say i've ever been across or come near or heard of anything like this where there's this potential for engagement with some foreign power who is not a foreign power that we're on particularly good terms with at the moment. it's hard to tell from this piece exactly what she might or might not have done vis-a-vis china. it seems clear she has some connections with china whether it's beyond going out and reporting back to other people in china it's hard to know. but it's yet another example of trump somehow managing to surround himself with southeast most unsavory characters out there. >> while we're talk about china, richard haass news breaking over the weekend president xi getting very concerned about the possibility of a summit in florida. he saw donald trump walk away from the summit in hanoi with north korea and doesn't want to fly all the way to florida to be embarrassed by the president, pulling up stakes and basically

bringing summit to the end. which certainly very understandable, just like it was very understandable that donald trump walked away in hanoi. >> everything is connected. and it, obviously, caused problems for kim jong-un and it's linked to the reconstitution of this missile testing site and north korea. in the case of the china, those this is a government that's already feeling pressure. the economy is slowing significantly, probably far more, joe, than the official statistics suggest. these trade talks are difficult enough on the merits and for what it's worth it's not the worse thing that a foreign leader would say we're not going to have a summit unless it's totally wired. that should be our position as well. neither side would benefit from coming together and having if you will a repeat of the north korean experience. but it's a reminder what the

president or our government does on one piece of the chess board you can't isolate it. what we do in syria or afghanistan or hanoi vis-a-vis north korea everything has implications for everything else. >> i would suggest the president walking away from the table in hanoi was probably a good signal to send not on through the north koreans and chinese but everybody else across the globe because egotten the reputation in the past couple of years, has he not. he's an easy target. flatter him. he'll give you what you want. this actually may have been a good push back. at the same time we're hearing that he's going to leave some troops in syria to push back against the russians and the iranians there. >> i thought it was in a tactical sense he walked away from an agreement he thought it was inadequate. but we never should have gotten to that point. we should have never allowed the summit take place with a gap between our side and the north

koreans where the united states was insisting on a set of positions that would never be realized. why the two sides are so far apart is beyond me. there's fundamental questions about what north korea is doing, about what is it we would do in response. what is it we're prepared to accept if we can't get what we say we need which is denuclearization. i think after two years our north korea policy is meeting a truly decisive moment. . >> coming up on "morning joe" just at 37 a mayor has only been eligible to run for president for two years but he's looking for a quick start. what the democratic contender just said about vice president mike pence on "morning joe".

i know what it means to have reliable support. i found a company who believes in me. they look out for me. and they help me grow my career. at comcast it's my job to constantly monitor our network, prevent problems, and to help provide the most reliable service possible. my name is tanya, i work at the network operations center for comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. do you think vice president pence would be a better or worse president than president trump? >> um -- [ laughter ] >> does it have to be between those two. >> politics is about choices,

you know that. >> i mean, i don't know. it's really strange because -- i disagreed with him on these things. at least he believes in our institutions and not personally corrupt. but then how could he get on board with this presidency. how could somebody who -- his interpretation of scripture is different from mine. my understanding of strip you're the is about protecting the stranger and prisoner and the poor person, that's what i get from the gospel when i'm in church. his has to do more with sexuality and certain view of rectitude. how could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star of presidency. did he stop believing in scripture when he started believing in donald trump? i don't know.

>> i got to say, that is a question, not for all trump supporters and maybe not even for the majority of trump supporters but for some trump supporters it does seem when you talk to some -- i'm just talking about some people i've known for a very long time -- that they stopped believing in the scripture and the gospel that they always talked to me about growing up when they started believing in donald trump, and things like the beatitudes, story of the good samaritan. what jesus said ultimately we would be judged by in matthew 25. all of these things suddenly you talk to them about that and all they want toto is come back at you talking about federal judges. we're a long way from the sermon on the mound. if you don't believe me, whether you're a christian or not, whether you're an evangelical or

not, just today read matthew 5 through 8. that's it. it will take you ten minutes. read matthew 5 through 8. it will take you through jesus' sermon on the mound and get you to a lot of things that mayor was talking about there. we'll get to the essence of the gospel of jesus christ and judge for yourself the consistent isis and inconsistencies and put it up against what the mayor just said. >> that was the mayor of south bend, indiana, presidential candidates pete buttigieg who had an impressive town hall last night. i feel like, i i feel like he's a real candidate. >> he's so talented. >> every time he opens his mouth things get better, they don't get worse. >> when he first came out, this kid -- >> i know. beto was ten years older and seems younger. sorry. >> he's still finding himself on

the road. >> still searching. >> you remember what i said about kamala harris, she was a political athlete. she had it. you could see it. that's the same thing about the mayor. mayor pete. >> i think so. >> he's gifted. and he's more than just sort of this novelty act. more of just sort of this young candidate. i think he's going to make some noise. >> i think so too. i've been impressed with him. i'm sort of waiting to hear more and to see what happens. we have a lot of candidates out there. each steam have certain issues that pull them back. coming up on "morning joe" it's a headline we've read before, the trump administration is responsible for even more separated children. jay job is one of the first reporters to bring the president's policy to light and he joins us next with new details. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

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a federal judge ruled on friday that the trump administration is responsible for potentially thousands of migrant children separated from their parents on the southern border even before it instituted its zero tolerance policy. joining us now to explain that is msnbc correspondent jacob soboroff. jacob, what's going on? >> reporter: i really think that this could end up being one of the most consequential moments in this two year long trump made disaster of the child separation policy. we know that 2800 kids were separated systematically by the trump administration and 2700 of them have been reunite sod far. earlier this year as we've talked about the depth of health and human service office of inspector general identified potentially thousands more children who were separated before the policy officially started during a pilot program out in el paso. the government had argued too

logistically difficult to reunite these kids. too time consuming. too many resources go into it. on friday night the judge ruled that that is not a suitable argument that the government will have to add those, again, potentially thousands of children to this list of separated children. i just want to read what the judge said in this ruling tawas it's pretty emphatic. he said the hallmark of a civilized society is measured by how it treats its people and those within its boards. the defendants may have to change course and under take additional avenues doesn't render the class. definition unfair underscores the questionable importance of the effort and why it's nae necessary and worthwhile. we don't know where those children are but this is the first step in figuring out who they are. >> so, jacob, is the judge saying they have to be reunited? how would that be possible?

just big picture, do we know how many children have been separated from their families and how many are still being held? do we know numbers, concrete numbers that, of course, the department of homeland security secretary was not giving in the hearings last week. >> reporter: no she certainly wasn't. i was thinking about that. she was deflecting, being untruthful about much of what she said. this court and this judge has been so much more effective in getting answers out of the trump administration by force of law. the number currently still separated from zero tolerance is 75. they say some are ineligible to be reunited but those children are still in orr facilities. the total number could end up being as much as 5,000, 6,000, 7,000. we don't know. i just got a text from an aclu lawyer that says what happens now because there's no order from the judge that's forcing the reunification of these

additional children. the aclu will ask the government to find and identify each of the children who were separated, give them a list of names and phone numbers for the aclu to start calling one by one by each of the families to see where these children are. it's a massive why aundertaking. it did not have to happen. >> jacob soboroff thank you very much. we'll be back in touch with you. keep us posted. joining us now to continue the conversation author and staff writer at the atlantic, david frumm. his new cover story for the magazine asks the question how much immigration is too much. also with us this conversation and contributing editor for the women's news website, alisha mendeza. david tell us about your piece and what do you mean by the question? >> you were just discussing now

the policy at the border where we face 76,000 illegal central american migrants crossing the border in a sing month. i want to widen it and ask a bigger question. we face a global crisis. in united states, europe, britain is about to crash out of the european union. every where we look the mode of force is something to do with immigration. if we lived in the 1930s we faced a global communist challenge. high unemployment. we better pay attention to unemployment. facing this challenge driven by immigration moments that have become unprecedentedly large in the past ten years. we look away. we chop the problem into little pieces. we need to think about it overall how many immigrants in the united states. answer is not zero zero but the present level which is in excess of million and a half a year,

that's unsustainably high. >> clearly, we're not just here because of the trump administration having this conversation about the challenges that immigration pose at our borders, and these numbers, it is incredibly complicated. it is incredibly divisive. but there's some clarity here about this administration and the approach it takes towards immigration, which seems to me to be bringing us back in time. >> right. and has a singular focus which is how you deter immigrants from coming to this country. david is asking a much bigger question, the type of question you would be asking if you have a conversation about comprehensive immigration reform than just deterrent. i want strikes me in light of the reporting that jacob soboroff of just sharing there's reporting out of the "new york times" suggesting that more than 200 families have been separated since the trump administration rescinded its policy nearly nine

months ago. so there are questions of what happened before. there are questions of what happened after. in the midst of all of that as david just said we have record high immigration levels right now at our border, february was a very high month and so what that would show to any reasonable observer is that these deterrence policies are not working. and yet at the same time president trump is expected today to ask for $8.6 billion in his budget for wall funding. he has a singular focus and that singular focus makes it hard to have the conversation that david is suggesting we need to have. >> david, economic confessore. obviously in the current era our debate on immigration tends to focus on intelligent cases and the easy cases. dreamers, you most americans support having the dreamers be legalized here. family separation, most americans think it's a bad practice. but are we having a broader debate right now over who

immigration policies should serve in the u.s. and how it should work? >> i'm hoping to start that. i'm a naturalized citizen myself. i was born one canada and became an american in 2007. i think about this question a lot. i don't think americans appreciate how new their situation is. between 1915 and 197560 years almost a human lifetime the united states took fewer immigrants than it took in the decade of the 1990s. the numbers are at staggering levels. the united states is about to pass the number of foreign born it had last before the first world war. and it's going to keep rising and rising under the present trajectory. economists tell us the economy needs it. but america is a society first and the question is can society bear it? what we're seeing mass immigration flows not just here but in europe are putting tremendous stress on democratic institutions. you're asking societies to cope with more pressure than they can bear. i think it's like unemployment

in the 1930s or crime in the 1960s. this is a problem that liberal minded people are looking away from but if they look away from it they leave it to the fascists to deal with it. >> if this is a problem as you outlined david and alisha you pointed out this deterrence isn't working, it would seem and frankly people in both parties acknowledge comprehensive immigration package is something the country needs. politically it's proved to be impossible. how do we get over that? >> i would push back a little bit and say that perhaps it's not as impossible as one would imagine. the question that david is asking it's not the first time it's been asked. it's not a new question. go back to the framework of something like mccain-kennedy for us who follow this issue in pretty recent memory. there are some basic framework and guidelines that need to be

answered if reasonable people are willing to come to the table and tackle. they've shown in the past they got close. never been able to cross the threshold. what's more challenging is taking this issue piecemeal. there's appetite among the public. is there bravery for it among members of congress. >> david, the last word goes to you. >> comprehensive -- in the past impressive immigration reform was code for more. now i'm in favor of doing these comprehensively. the answer america needs is less. >> david, thank you very much. we'll be reading your new cover story in the atlantic. alisha menendez thank you. now to a big aviation and business story developing this morning. china and indonesia are the latest countries to order their airlines to ground all boeing 737 max 8 aircraft that they

operate. this is on the heels of ethiopian airlines grounding its fleet of boeing's most popular jet one day after 157 people were killed when a 737 bound for kenya crashed shortly after takeoff. director of india as civil aviation agency said it's reviewing safety issues regarding that aircraft operating in its country. the jet was the same make and model as the plane crashed off the indonesia coast last year killing all 189 people on board. aviation officials and experts caused against rushing to link the two crashes. investigators have not determined the cause of sunday's crash but the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder have both been recovered. boeing shares have slid almost 10% in early trading on monday. the move if maintained through normal trading hours will cost

the dow nearly 200 points. up next growing alarm on capitol hill over an issue that affects us all. vaccines. immediate experts say some parents are listening to fear rather than fact when it comes to their children's health. that important discussion is next on "morning joe". i'm mildly obsessed with numbers. so, i started with the stats regarding my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. like how humira has been prescribed to over 300,000 patients.

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. health officials are on high alert urging americans to get

vaccinated as a measles outbreak tears across the country. according to cdc, there has already been more than 200 cases of measles this year in 11 states. experts say this could be the worst year for measles since 1992. that's not all. last week an unvaccinated 6-year-old in oregon almost died from tetanus. the cause to this healthcare was nearly $1 million and in congress, an ohio teenager told lawmakers last week about how he defied his mother's anti-vaccine beliefs and started getting his shots. when he turned 18. let's bring in a leading spine surgeon, author of the health newsletter "thrive," dr. david camm bell, what is the latest study on dr. dave? because there is so much fear about this? and this keeps coming up. >> the problem hasn't gone.

in 2000, the united states stated we had resolved the measle's problem. that's not the case. unfortunately as you stated, 11 states now have measles outbreaks and fortunately, the ability to capture that information that we are putting out as public health experts to prompt parents to get vaccinated, it really could catch on. but it's very important for doctors across the country to support to their own patients the need for vaccines. >> absolutely. casey hunt has a question four, dr. dave. >> dr. dave, how do you politicize this, dr. wall says it's a part of a world view to not require parents to do this. i remember asking chris christie about this years ago, it caused a furor when he suggested that was probably the root we should go. the reality is, right now under the law, parents have a way out of this. should that change?

>> well, just a couple days ago out of harvard, georgetown and ucla, a group of experts came out stating that their recommendation is for the federal government to get involved. senator paul, dr. paul's thoughts have more to do with the liberty than the science behind vaccinations. he agrees. he's been vaccinated. his children have been vaccinated and encouraging patients and their kids to get vaccinated is the key. whether, as dr. paul suggests, we should persuade them rather than mandate it is a different question than a medical question. >> let's bring in leading cardiologist and executive vice president of medicine at scripps research. dr. aaron topol, deep medicine, how healthcare can get human

again. he argues we are at a turning point of the intersection of medicine and technology that could revolutionize america's healthcare system. how can it make it human again? >> it's a kind of a paradox when you think technology can change. we are talking about the idea of taking away the burden on doctors and clinicians, giving patients more people youerment, making it a whole better situation, taking the problems of today so little gift of time to restoring the relationship using the future to give back the past. >> dr. dave, i'm curious, i am blessed with good healthcare and great doctors, but, i've noticed and my doctors spend the first five, ten minutes of each visit punching stuff into a computer,

updating. i wonder, is there a way in which analogy can be improved to have you know less data entry and more doctoring? >> absolutely. anything that can be done to provide more time to your physician or your nurse practitioner adds to the safety, quality and compassion of the visit. some of that's's obvious. but the part that is sin i insidious and isn't noticed is the time after your visit when the doctor and the nurse practitioner sitting on their keyboard for hours on end after all their patients are gone. if we can solve that, we will move very far forward. >> that's the exciting thing, dave, as you are pointing out, but key boards will be on their way out. there are over 20 countries using natural language processing to make that all voice recognition. and so over the next few years, we will see the waning of keyboards and bringing back the

eye content of doctors and patients. that's vital in order for us to restore the relationship. >> that have been eroding over decades. >> aside getting away from keyboard, what is the most exciting thing on the horizon or the innovation that will improve the doctor/patient relationship? >> the ability to train. the human vision can be surpassed through algorithms. so the fact that you can see things that humans will never be able to zay see because of training massive amounts of data, whether that's a gastroenterologist would miss of nodules on x-rays a radiologist would miss. across the board this remarkable speech recognition, this is the one time that technology could really be our best friend and instead of where we have been heading with the just diminution of empathy and care, you could actually get that pack if we go for this. >> all right.

dr. dave campbell, thank you, dr. aaron tool, thank you as well, the new book is "deep medicine, how healthcare can make it human again." thank you both. time for final thoughts. caskasie hunt, i'll start with . >> this week i'm watching the vote on the emergency declaration in the senate as the president is sending this budget that would try to put billions more towards his border wall. his own party is prepared to reject the national emergency declaration at the southern border and you know i'm looking to see how many republicans decide they're going to break with the president. we know he will veto it. it can be a potentially embarrassing week for him. >> i'm thinking of a topic we approached briefly at the top of the show, senator warren came out with a big tech proposal to break up tech monopolies and the data practice.

i think it sets a line in the sand for the democratic field. it really sets up a major fight with a traditional ally of the party. i'm very kur just to see how the rest of the field responds. >> all right. very good. as we close things out this morning, i want to mention the incredible honor that i had on friday. i got a chance to celebrate international women's day by spreading the know your value message to all the women of the women's alliance at fiat chrysler automobiles in detroit. it's an amazing incredible facility. i was so fortunate to share tips and strategies for the women there, learning how to advocate for themselves and communicate effectively. we shared stories. we laughed. we cried. it was really fun. everybody learned so much exchanging their experiences and learning new ways of working with their male allies and developing their networks of women throughout the company. i had so much fun.

i am still awaiting my tee-shirt. i am told one is coming in the mail. i can't wait to go back to find out more about my time in the motor city, go to knowyourvalue.com. we had a wonderful time. thank you for having me. you can get inspiring stories, tips, career strategies delivered straight to your inbox. text the word value to 68866 to sign up for your know your value newsletter. steph new ruhl picks up the coverage. >> hi, new border lines, president trump's bucket just delivered to congress asking for more than $8 billion bucks for the southern border wall setting up yet another showdown. >> so there will be another budget fight over the wall? >> well, i suppose there will be. i was going to stay with the border security. >> growing security concerns about an airplane used by