built again, but baseball is a mark of team. this field is game, it's a part of our past, ray. it reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. oh, it will come be ray. it will most definitely come. >> it's magic. it's magic, mike barnicle. that's a movie, that's a movie that i don't even dare try to show mika because the whole way through, like bush '41 she'd be saying "i don't get it, i don't get it." but what a movie and what a day. it is opening day across america. >> you know, i had to fight back a little tear in my eye listening to that introduction. >> oh my lord. >> baseball is part of us. it's like our faith.

you're born with it and you live with it and it every day. it's a constant. the days get longer, the weather gets warmer. it's a relief from the every day stress of things we talk about each and every day and it is back finally today. we will pursue it over the course of the next six or seven months each and every day, waking up every morning, did the red sox beat the yankees last night and you don't have to worry about what's happening in washington, d.c. because you worry about the american league east. >> baltimore is opening given t -- against the yankees in yang oos stadium, the washington and the mets, a couple of openers. you know something else, mike and mika, but like mike i

have -- i've been a dad for 85 years, had 47 kids and it doesn't matter whether they're 30 or 10, baseball is the constant and all of my kids are always on a text chain and more often than not all four of us -- all five of us were texting about baseball and trades even into off season. again, it's crazy but in this age of smartphones and in this age of "fortnite," it's still baseball that at least in our family brings all the generations together. >> absolutely, joe. it's a string that has played out across more than a century, just what you're talking about, this link of generations forged by baseball. in the last two weeks willie

geist has taken his two children, his son and daughter, to spring training game. nicolle wallace has brought her son to a mets spring training game. i don't care whether it's 40 years, 50 years or five years from now, those interactions with players going to sprin training with their parents, they will vividly, vividly recall it. >> also, joey and andrew made it down. we saw quite a few spring training games. i even thumped in jonathan lemire and we saw the red sox in fort myers, of course we got kicked out in the first inning for yelling at the red sox that they were blowing it.

one of the wonderful things about baseball is it's beautiful, there is a simplicity to it. it's interesting that people that aren't from america doesn't get it, which is very interesting. george mitchum always loves telling the story about how he was with queen elizabeth and they were at dinner the night she came to visit, i think it was in '89 or '90 and she had gone up to see the order nalls play and george mitchell asked her she put everybody at ease and she could not think of a diplomatic thing to say about baseball. instead the queen just replied, well, nothing much really happened out there, did it? >> not a thing. >> she anyway, so there is a beauty and a simplicity to baseball. not so much with health care as

we make our turn. and we go back to a lip from last year. drft -- after saying who easy it was going to be to reform health care during the cam pan suddenly figured out it's not so easy. ta take a look. >> we have come up with a solution. i have to tell you, it's an unbelievably complicated subject. nobody knew health care could be so complicated. >> nobody knew? actually, everybody knew, donald, that health care was too complicated. and yet you have wandered into it again. "the wall street journal" editorial board doesn't think that's the wisest move. they have a new piece on the

administration's latest obamacare lawsuit calling it, quote, a losing strategy, bad law and high-risk politics. this is what the journal editorial page says -- "and abiding mystery of why we cannot stand the pros parperityrosperi. and right on time, after its victory on russian collusion, the administration decided this week to elevate a legal fight over health care that it is almost sure to lose. as for politics, the white house calculation seems to be that a legal decision striking down the law would force congress to act. but the white house had better hope it doesn't have that debate after millions have lost tln influence in an election year due to a court case.

the gop couldn't degree on a plan to replace all of congress and many of the gop members most mojable about health care have retired. if there's some new emerging health care consensus, we haven't heard about it." this is the worst fight they can pick right now. now issue shows the intellectual rot than health care hp th. they have been trying to get rid of and stop obamacare for more than a decade and they still don't have anything to replace it. even when they do, it's going to cost them more seats in the house and the senate because braurk donald trump has made obamacare a very popular federal

program. >> well, it became popular even among those who might have within on the right because it actually gives people something they desperately need, which is which makes this so hard to understand. i keep thinking is this about why but he does get hung up on people. we've seen personally how hung up he gets on people and now he's pushing for complete elimination. take a look. >> obamacare's a disaster. so we're going to be departing -- and i said it yesterday. mean it 100%. i understand health care especially as well. we are going to be the republicans, the party of great health care. if the, we will have a plan that's far better than

obamacare. >> no, they wouldn't. >> no, he won't. they won't. >> that's why republicans on the hill and many members of his administration are so concerned because he doesn't have a plan. donald trump likes to make it up as he goes along. he doesn't like even reading sheets of paper. he likes to wing it. he is a day trader. unfortunately for donald trump and the republican party now, he just entered a fight that he cannot win. it's also a fight, as republicans remember all too well, that led to their first electoral loss. >> over 9 million, 10 million votes in the midterms. >> joe, you're being a little critical, so cynical. don't you remember, donald trump is going to deliver on health care and preexisting conditioning the same we he delivered on a middle class tax

cut, remember that? >> yup. those middle class are so rich. >> the thing i guess donald trump doesn't understand, he just can't point to other presidents. but he's doing, he's going to see clips of donald trump promising promising, promising this many better coverage and watching it get worse. promising. promising not to cut medicaid and looking at the cuts he's propose pd to lying well and that comes it an end when donald trump has video in 30-second ads that just show a what a liar he is when it comes to policy, just

like any other flip-flops approximately tgs and he promises to keep preexisting conditions. how can you argue getting rid of obamacare if you're keeping preexisting conditions? yet his own justice administration is supporting and arguing in favor of the court's ruling of eliminating obamacare. there's two things the report points out, one is servability, and that's the idea the supreme court would not overthrow an entire federal program based on one aspect of that program. the two is whether these 20 a.g.s have standing in obamacare because they're supposed to be an aggrieved party and or hurt by the decision and it's unclear to me. >> first let's go to some other stories making head lines. in a deal with federal prosecutors, the man behind the deadly car attack in shat lots

and he killed dozens when he drove into anti-racism counterpro tessers during the chaotic unite the right rally in august of 2017. . as part of the deal, prosecutors dropped the 30th charge, which carried a possible death sentence. fields was found guilty on all parts of his state trial, each count carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. british prime minister theresa may is offering to resign if parliament votes in favor of the brexit deal she struck with the european union. it is being viewed as a last-different effort to pass the peace agreement also yesterday parliament took

control of the brexit process from the prime minister for one day and in a series of non-binding votes, lawmakers adjusted eight alternative brks yesterday really exemplarifieds the british is elected a parliament that eight votes, eight nos. their answer is all know. >> the problem it's not an either-or. it state in with and i don't think anybody thought when brexit it started we were going to be arguing about the eye wish border. it gets into a very complicated

if -- if you want me to, i will. what theresa may did did yesterday was to win off enough support for a ps and it did succeed in getting a couple of the hardliners to take her side. appear that it's created enough votes for her plan yet and so the drama continues. >> and this next story also for steve, mika. >> it's been almost two weeks since the federal aviation administration grounded its 737 max jets and now boeing is previewing several fixes to the planes after two deadly crashes just months apart. boeing said yesterday the changes include and additional pilot training for the 737 planes temperaturecould take the

f faa. meanwhile, the faa acting administrator is defending the government's oversight of boeing, facing tough questions on capitol hill yesterday about the governor's certification process of theins. >> is there any justification for how slowly the federal government responded when every other country had moved to slidelines these planes when they actually knew why they were falling out of the sky? >> i think that piece of the story is quite interesting. it says, first, other kwis do t don't. there was a time when the faa was the gold standard and many, many or countries grounded these planes before we did.

the fachlt t. a fan and -- oh dear lord. >> i don't think didn't think that was a very good idea and i think there's a new appoint k e knee. >> just like,s mia, there's no justification for tell us about that. >> there are critics of this on both sides of the aisle. even rather with get on board with this being education secretary betsy devos defended the president's 2020 budget, planned to cut all funding to the special olympics writing. federal olympics is not n there

are dozen are worthy no that doesn't get a dime of ffd grant monies. but given our current realities, the gp. particularly one that receives robust support from private senator roy blunt and tom control is said specific pratt. >> so yamiche, this is given just like in the wall street george say teg top how unnecessary it was for donald trump to pick a fight he was going to lose. here betsy to loss to that has been a pa. we've all grown up being moved by the story of specialand then

bets see devos got very angry and said the media was twitting the but this is another fight that donald trump is going to lose because the republicans that are going to decide whether it gets funded or not will fund it. it's just, again, another short-sighted move by the trump administration. >> well, we often point out that a president's budget never actually gets passed. but in this case it's so clear what the priorities of this administration are. that's what these budget documents usually are, they lay out what's important to the administration. in this case, betsy devos nowhere in her statement did she point out what was wrong because nothing was wrong. the media pointed out and reporters said she's trying to zorro off if the to give millions to this program that

helps, this and instead betsy devos is saying why jnch and it says we're so close to republicans on capitol hill. this is an exact where you br you instead they didn't do that obviously because republicansin the orcase of the trump administration really not be in fapt when you think about this administration's policies and this budget, it shows where trump's heart is, whether it's separating children from their parents at the border or ripping health care away from people who desperately need it and can't afford it and can't afford,

therefore, diabetes medication, which costs some $1,500 a month to now harming the most week and the most defenseless, just because they don't feel like it. it seems to back up a theme in this presidency and i don't get it except it must all be about john mccain. that's the only thing that makes sense here. >> i don't know. it's actually about a president that yesterday mike barnicle talked about chauncey gardner. i think chauncey gardner was far, far wiser than donald trump ever could be. so we keep looking at donald trump as this political madman, this mad genius. the fact is, as we p wee said throughout the 2016 campaign and after the 2016 campaign, mike, that was more of a referendum on hillary clinton and 40 years of clinton/bush rule than it was on donald trump he plays basically

35, 40%. he's zeroing to. he's going after people's health care, he's separated mothers and children from each other at the borders. i know evangelicals that are just as concerned about this. i know catholics -- who are just as concerned about this. and at the end of the day, the one word in a really does tie all of these issues to the is heartless. like a true perot pr he just made his billionaire. >> joe, you've pretty much set out and established one of the constant themes of this trump

presidency. he has separated families at the border. he wants to cut off medicare funding. he has declared war on the poor. we now are in the prospects of work requirements for medicaid recipients. now let's cut the funding for special olympics. specs olympics. i have somebody i've been to a couple of special olympics, one in los angeles and one in texas temperature when you go after program like this, the people involved in programs like this, there's a lot of that is staggering. and the only thing that i can conceive of is is that the president the united states gives very lol thought to these people, as long as he is in the

center of the ring. and it doesn't matter whether he's taking punches, winning or losing because he has convinced himself in the center of that ring, his whether he wins loses he doesn't know because he is so unused to ordinarythink about it, too, donald trumpat the same time he has given boeing impacts and hundreds of millions of dollars, corporations just rolling in money after the tax cuts. i talked to some ceos.

jeffrey epstein, how much money did jeff are prp. from m n (i mean, how much did millionaire donald trump make off of the tax cuts? i mean that guy is worth at least 30, $40 million. >> and his kids? >> his kids worth at least more than $30 to psh pb i don't think donald's in vet which mouchl ate say. >> mmmies still making a will the of money on those tax cuts and yet he and his administration after giving away puns of balls in kaks puts to

doesn't have a little money to give to special olympics? i don't think that looks very good on donald trump or the republicans party going into 2020. >> and as we try and figure out what causes all of this because i don't even think some republicans can agree with the special olympic cuts, you just have to wonder and we'll wait, we won't surmise, what is in the mueller report, which we haven't seen yet. so there has been no mueller report. we've only seen the attorney general's version of it in a small, four-page contained summary. >> by the way, there's talk out there it might be 700 pages long. 800 pages long. massive. >> i spoke with the speaker of the house on the phone and they will be working hard to get every page of that public. i think it might help paint a picture of exactly what drives this pred p president he makes

bong the way. i know we got to go to break. yoon i mean, what's he afraid of? >> i don't know. we'll see it. we stnt haven't seen the mull. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll speak live with candidate amy klobuchar. and also an update on the fight to make the mueller report public. as i mentioned, i had a conversation with speaker of the house nancy pelosi yesterday about her strategy going forward. we'll tell you what we talked about and what her chairs are planning. plus, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> because you started the show insisting on baseball, i figured we night as well give the opening day forecast. we be outside today at yankee stadium. in is the end of march.

you could get snowy and windy ond eel air. milwaukee no problem, minneapolis should be nice, cincinnati should be good, 67 degrees, better than most april days. we should be nice for the cubs in texas. looks like pretty good for the white sock, in. her one ning that we have to deal with and a lot of people are complaining about this in the whole sorry half of the country, extreme pollism p enand we'll see pretty good weather from friday all through saturday. more "morning joe" right after this. >> i'm so happy that i showed up to this and my son can compete at this stage and people with disability can compete because no matter what your disability

is, you can compete. and if you train as hard as you have, you can compete and you have, you can compete and you can win gold just like i did.

have, you can compete and you can win gold just like i did. a business owner always goes beyond what people expect. that's why we built the nation's largest gig-speed network along with complete reliability. then went beyond. beyond clumsy dials-in's and pins. to one-touch conference calls. beyond traditional tv. to tv on any device. beyond low-res surveillance video. to crystal clear hd video monitoring from anywhere.

gig-fueled apps that exceed expectations. comcast business. beyond fast. well, the president, mika, is obviously watching the show. >> no, he never watches, don't worry. when we showed this crazy part of "hardball" last night, he won't watch it. >> so let's talk about health care. it's a very complicated issue. obviously it has been for a very long time. right now we're sort of in a purgatory and we have been for quite some time. nobody is trying to mend obamacare. donald trump now trying to end it. i don't think that's going to happen. so where do we find ourselves?

where do working class americans and middle class americans find themselves today when it comes to health care? >> the first thing to know is that obamacare is already in some peril, even before. we get to the matters at hand because many some of what the trump administration has done. if you take a look at the chart on enrollments -- these are enrollments through the exchanges, you can see enrollments through the exchang exchanges peaked at 12.7 million and have gone down to about 11.7 million. the people affected are the people who get their heck they

have cut off support in getting people to recognize them. and there was a penalty for not getting the insurance to zero so it in eeffect eliminated the personal mandate. so even before you and then we come to the current situation, and we should talk about because this is probably the most emotional issue that people face. they're there are about 25% of and it would prevent them from getting health care, potentially, if obamacare went away. these include general conditions like sleep apnea, like pregnancy. if you look at all the red bars up again, these are and these are the states that have the highest percent j that could

potentially lose health care under their plan. so it's really odd politics that trump would go and, joe, you made a point earlier in the show about the poll harassment because if you look over history, obamacare had its ups and downs, but it never had real popularity. if fact, it was distinctly unpopular. obamacare is now supported by a majority of americans for the first time. and so what's really odd about the administration's strategy is that they've gone into this case in texas on the side of the plaintiffs, arguing that not just the individual mandate but also preexisting conditions should be struck down and then most recently this week they've gone back in again and said all of obamacare should be struck down. and, as you pointed out, they've

done that without having any alternative plan whatsoever. when you said not much is happening, the democrats actually it's a very sensiblele, to provide some more premium support peep condition this contrast between the republicans on the one side trying to repeat a program that is not fufrm and presenting some sensible to it. >> and here we go, trying to get rid of it in a primary election,

it helps trump states disproportionately when you start talking about preexisting conditions. >> the thing i heard was sleep apnea or pregnancy, and there's this idea that women all over the country that republican nt and and they probably will also hear something very similar to what i and they say once weep get to the supreme court and figure out what's going on with this health care plan, we'll take it all away. most people will say that's not a plan and i don't want to do that. the white house and president trump aren't even acting like they is and i heard about kevin mccarthy calling up and saying you made a mistake. i've been hearing from the a.g.

baf and and do you have a plan? what do you say to all this reporting? >> the without has in be this is how the republican party has been operating for a deck but they jam jm and that suburban women, suburban voters. just look at the issues we talked about today, the taking away of preexisting conditions, the taking away of obamacare, the taking away of special olympics. we could go on and on. how is that going to play in the philly suburbs? how is that going to play in the

suburbs of des moines? how is that going to play in the i-4 corridor? not well at all and republicans have to know that. >> look, joe, i've been a critic of obamacare. i don't like a lot of provisions of obamacare but the republicans have not articulated an alternative plan. we're in a situation. it's a little like overthrowing a foreign government and having no replacement government, the result will be chaos. if we get rid of obamacare through a court order and have nothing to replace it, that is a life threatening condition it and it is truly put this many that they could lose their

insurance, which would not only bank but could also take their lives. i haven't heard it, i haven't seen, it maybe i could support it but i don't think we're going to get this done within the next two years. i've advocated for a -- actually it's some kind of a special commission to separate out decisions in health care and how. we structu-- and how we structu health care. >> i don't know if republicans knew this fight was coming. >> no, they didn't. >> and how many times did they want to put their hand on this hot stove? we'll see politically. still ahead, why one fox news legal analyst says there is likely some proof of a trump/russia conspiracy and obstruction to be ound in the full mueller report. we haven't seen any of it so we don't know.

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and no evidence of obstruction. >> you know, mika, judge in a politano has been such an incredible resource not only for fox viewers but for all of us through this entire ordeal. he also suggested that the report might be close to 700, 800 pages. that seemed actually to have not quite been confirmed by jerry nadler. >> a little bit. >> but looks like that's about right. >> the attorney general calls it substantial. >> right. as judge innepain in a politan

got reduced down. i want to say to my republican friends, don't overplay your hand. you're overplaying your hand right now. this is the bar leather -- we're in an interval right here. you've got the bar letter coming out. that's not going to be how you're going to be judged or donald trump is going to be judged at the end. we're going to see the 700 pages of the mueller report and it's not going to be the same as you're saying it is right now. so, you know, fools rush in. you've rushed in. you might want to take a couple of steps back. listen to judge innapolitano.

nancy pelosi is going to make sure americans see every page of that report. >> and as sarah sanders and others were using the day that the report was handed over, to use that news lead that day as a branding experience. it's what he does. he likes to take control of the wave and say it was a complete exoneration. one thing we do know the report said because the attorney general quoted it, it is not an exoneration, particularly as it pertains obstruction of justice.

and i spoke to nancy pelosi yesterday. she said "i defer to my six excellent chairs who have called upon the attorney general to release the documents, the underlying documents as well so to that extent we go through the normal channels here, that's an important use of leverage but now we're talking about a big issue, we're talking about the constitution of united states, about them undermining congress and the public understands that we have to see the truth. again, it's not about politics, it's not about partisanship, it's about patriotism, it's about honoring our oath of office and i intend to use the full force of the speaker's office to make sure we see those documents. joining us now, kurt bardella and legal professor jennifer

todd joins us. good to have you both. kurt, there's been demands for certain papers to be release, for documents, requests to talk to people in the administration and now obviously the mueller report is top of line for everybody. >> well, mika, the oversight committee, judiciary committee, really all of the committee chairs that were involved in investigating the administration, given a tuesday deadline to begin producing the underlying documents and evidence that that document was based on. it looks like the attorney general is sending a signal that's not going to happen. and they have the option to issue a subpoena to the justice department for that report. there's real support that we are headed towards a constitutional crisis if the attorney general and the trump administration do not release that report, do not

cooperate with the subpoena, that's going to create a situation where the house and you talked about this a little bit with the speaker, when she said use the full weight of her office, that means going to the court, suing the administration, filing a lawsuit to get that report just as, by the way, oversight republicans did for the attorney general eric holder back during the obama years. >> professor taub, you have a concern that in attorney general barr, donald trump has always found the lawyer he's always wanted there, that sort of ray cone enforcer. he spun this 700-page summary the best youhe could and you're hearing he's going to try to shut down and obstruct investigations at the southern district of new york and anywhere elsewhere prosecutors may be trying to get to the bottom of donald trump's dealings. >> joe, we have to use some

common sense here. we make a lot of purchasing decisions. when i think about the situation, i think if i were buying a used car and i paid an inspector to write a report and the seller wouldn't let me see the report and the lawyer gave me a summary and not on that the sum rich raimary raised these r and the lawyer tells me the inspector can't come to a determination one way or another as to whether the brakes actually function, i'd like to see the actual report. i would not buy that car. >> by the way, the brakes may not function and if you go over 35 miles an hour, the engine may blow up or may not blow up. as nancy pelosi said this is about the constitution of the united states and about the man who is president of the united states. did he obstruct justice, did he not obstruct justice? obviously mueller wanted congress to make that

determination and the attorney general, like roy cone would have done, stepped in and tipped the scales. >> joe, i agree. i only bring this down to earth and make lietd it have because i thi -- and make light of it because i think it makes it more clear. new fixer same as the old fixer. this is really a disgrace. >> and it really is surprising, kurt, that a guy like attorney general barr would do what he's doing with his reputation right now, that he's fighting transparency. those defending him are going to say, oh, we've got to protect it and make sure there's -- also that we can't let any grand jury testimony out. look at the 302s that they went

after for hillary clinton. not a court in the land would allow republicans to stay they're estopped from it because they went after and got the 302s from the hillary clinton investigation. that cow is out of the barn. we said cow, not horse. >> it was the republicans during the same benghazi investigation that went after every document, didn't care about what was classified, didn't care about what might be confidential, they went after every document. imagine if eric holder did what bar just did. republicans wouldn't have waited days or weeks to get it, they would have subpoenaed the report that day and the attorney general that day to answer what happened with this memo, how was it krapted, what decisions did

you make? was the white house involved in all that. >> these are questions that will have to be answered. >> yamiche, the democrats on some level want to call out this president and demand oversight and on the other talking about other issues important to americans because they don't want to hear just about this. that's clear. that's fair. but in terms of the media, this is a story that we haven't even begun to cover because this report has not been seen. i would say the only line that we have to be careful in drawing here is trying to understand and define exactly what attorney general bar wr was doing when h summarized it. there are some concerns he may be clouded by power, that he may be turning into a trump stooge

like many others around the president. we have to be careful not to overplay our hands about that. having said that, the question is legitimate because this president demands a loyalty oath from people, demands complete loyalty to the point where we have witnessed with our eyes and ears people lying for this president who worked for him in the white house. >> it's also important to remember that attorney general barr auditioned by saying the mueller probe was a witch hunt and it was something that shouldn't have happened. the president said if barr had been attorney general at the time that this whole investigation might not have happened. so i think there has been some issues with democrats. yes, they need to walk a fine line when it comes to investigations. and there's been reporting that people aren't asking about the mueller probe as much.

even if the narrative has been set by attorney general barr hand he's trying to have this memo live as the truth, even though mueller didn't make a decision on obstruction of justice, we want to see the whole report because we have no idea whether robert mueller says next time someone asks you whether or not donald trump jr. says you have this meeting, you shouldn't dictate false statements from air force i. there are all sorts of things that the mueller report could be talking about the behavior of the president that we should be able to see. >> thank you very much. jennifer taub and kurt bardella, thank you very much.

>> coming up, the president is awakened tweeting about several topics, including "empire" actor jussie smollett. we'll have the latest on that. and senator and 2020 candidate amy klobuchar is standing by. she joins the conversation at the top of the hour. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this. this and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair, while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it is thursday, march 28th. still with us, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, steve rattner, rick tyler, host of kcdc, kasie hunt and aimy

klobuchar. >> thanks, mika. >> amy, what's been the biggest surprise of the presidential campaign? i know everything goes awfully fast. you have one story coming at you one after another. everyone says that's the biggest surprise, how the pace quickens. you've been out on the road. what's the biggest surprise? >> the first was i announced in a foot of snow. >> no, no, that made you look tough. that made you look minnesota tough. >> okay. then we proceeded through many blizzards in various states but what's amazed me is with all these candidates running that people are just showing up in droves, asking good questions. as you've probably heard and i know kasie knows because she was out with me in new hampshire is people are veryer issues.

they were not asking about the mueller report in rye, new hampshire or in davenport, iowa. they have been asking about thing like their health care, thing like infrastructure, the floods coming to iowa. that's why i put out a major infrastructure plan today because these are the kinds of things that matter to people. it's also why i was so appalled by what the administration did talking about getting rid of the entire affordable care act when people are just hanging on to their health care. >> we'll get to infrastructure and health care in a second. i want you to tell people what it's really like on the inside of that. i don't know if you'd call it a bubble or let's say inside a tornado. do you join everything that's ever run for president before thinking that the press coverage is unfair, a little too intense, a too -- >> i grew up my dad a reporter.

if i did that, he's around, he's 90 years old, he wouldn't be happy with me. i tend to be someone that believes in the first amendment. do i believe every story is fair? no. but i believe it's part of the world that you go in. it's your job to try to explain things and make your case to the people and try to go on shows like yours whenever you can because i do think it's very important that we get out there. one of the things we learned from 2016 is donald trump just dominated the news, good, bad, whatever, that's all he did. it's really important for us to have an optimistic economic agenda for the people of this country. >> one final question and then we get to policy. looking back at the launch, do you think there would have been as many stories written about you and you being a tough boss on the hill and other places if you were a man? >> i have no idea -- thank you,

mika. there are a number of incredible women in this race. i ran a prosecutor's office, elizabeth warren ran the consumer's bureau and kamala harris also ran an office. you have to make tough decisions and deal with things that doesn't make everyone happy and it also describes the kind of skills you have to have when you're president of the united states. >> obviously donald trump is at war again with obamacare, wants to get rid of it, despite the fact in a republicans doesn't have a replacement for obamacare. if you're president of the united states, how do you -- do you mend obamacare? do you go to something completely different or just build on what was started during the obama years? >> the affordable care act was the beginning, not an end.

the last thing you want to do is create more chaos by throwing everything out and throwing people off their insurance if they have preexisting condition. i went to the floor and read a hundred letters from people and basically closed the senate down two nights ago about what would happen to them if they doesnidn have those protections. you build on it. you put in cost sharing reinsurance bills to bring the pre premiums down. the one glaring omission over the last decade where congress has done nothing is bring down the cost of pharmaceuticals, that means a bill that i have with senator grassley. in minnesota we can see canada from our porch and we see those cheaper prices and we want them in our country. >> senator, let's start with a

branding exercise from me and then deeper into policy and your plans for infrastructure. but first what is the 30-second message of your campaign about who you are, what you bring to the table and what you want to do that really defines you from all the other candidates in the field. >> well, i'm a heartland candidate. i come from the middle of the country. i'm someone that is focused on tonight and governing from opportunity and not from chaos. i'm also someone who is known as a person who gets things done. some people think that has g gotten out of vogue. i don't think people in the country think that's out of vogue. that's the kind of spirit that i'll bring to the white house, folcused on real things, challenges in front of us and

g getting things done? >> what's the strategy for beating someone like donald trump? >> finding common ground with people who voted against him and for him. i won 40-some counties that donald trump won. he won every county in 2016 practically in the rural areas, i come in in 2018 and win a bunch of them. i've won every congressional district in our straight three times in a row, including michele bachmann's. i do that by reaching out to people, going to small towns, spending time in the suburbs and figuring out what the common ground is. i believe you should go just not where it's comfortable but where it's uncomfortable. i was on fox news being interviewed three days after i announced and that's because i

believe you need to meet people where they are. >> good for you. it's important for people who don't remember the election results when you hear how well senator klobuchar did in minnesota, that's a state i believe donald trump came one point away from winning. the fact that she did so well means she won a lot of areas that donald trump won as well in 2016. >> and here's an area many unfulfilled ones. but senator klobuchar sharr, you're -- how is it going to be paid for, what do you pa and i think we need to move forward as a country. donald trump has put out a mirage. he claims he wants to do something on infrastructure and has identified maybe 200 billion at most. what i have done is, first of

all, put our focus on bridges, roads, rail, public transit, doing something about our water infrastructure, look at those floods in the midwest, our rocks and dams and then of course during something i this well, first of all, the republican tax plan went way too far it from 21% to 25%, you save about $400 billion you could it. you can bring in about $150 billion by changing that. and i have a number of other ways to pay for this that bring us to a california but $650 billion direct federal

the rest is done with bonds. one by senator warner and blunt and another so i've combined all of this. some my own ideas and some great ideas from other, to come up with the. >> what's your view of how democrats should handle the public release of the mueller report going forward? how much empa sis it is really important i just look at it from a national security perspective. .

and what do we do about social media what should we do about sanctions? all kinds of things. yet there are hundreds and hundreds of pages that not on has congress not seen but the public hasn't seen. so to me that is the number one reason to get that report. and also you've got 90% of the public saying we should see it and you've got something like i think 420 members of the house of representatives, democrats and republicans, voting the report should be made public. >> senator, we have a war in afghanistan, a war in iraq, in syria, but we also have a war on the poor here in america. the most recent evidence of that, the cut of the special olympic funding.

all of that seems to lead to further class groupings. what do you do as president of the united states, just addressing the issues of division in this country. the first is how you talk to people. this administration seems every day to find the divide after that horrendous occurrence in new zealand, instead of talking about support from the muslim community and talking about sensible gun violence legislation, he's going ranting and raving against john mccain. that happened. or whether it the latest move where they take on the special olympic, which by the way, the budget is equal to five trips back and forth to mar-a-lago. so, first of all, i would greatly change the rhetoric to the level that we'd like to have our kids be able to see when they're talking about what the white house is suppose to be about. and secondly, when it comes to

income inequality, i believe in capitalism but there always should be checks and balances. whether it and making sure in this economy, you can take your benefits with you. that makes sense to me, create an incentive for that, our company should invest in workers, not just machinery. these are things that literally we've been stagnant with a changing economy, making sure we've got better chald and it seems we've had chaos but no changes in policy that would help people so that they could have the same opportunities that our parents and our grandparents had. that's what i would change to get at it. >> senator, thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate it.

>> thank you. >> we look forward to you on the campaign trail. >> i'm very excited to be back and i'm going to see kasie, i hope, in new hampshire again. >> all right. thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. kasie, we heard the senator for some time talking about the issues that she hopes will propel her campaign forward. obviously not just senator klobuchar but a lot of the other senators that have jumped into this race other than bernie sanders, are first timers and are having a little trouble early on gaining moment it up. what does her campaign team see as her most effective way forward? >> joe, i think one thing that her campaign has going for it, baes spite the fact she's in

many ways in a a little but who else is really ind focused on the midwest, not necessarily talking about the far end of medicare for all but rather what can we achieve to guarantee that universal health coverage. and i think there is going to be some room for that in this field as it unfolds. when you talk to democratic strategists, that's really how they're thinking about this, who is in what lane, who is pulling from whose voters. and there's some real questions about whether joe biden would enter the race at the top basically and then with only down to wourt. i think you could potentially see more so i think that's a

real opportunity for the senator's campaign. during our trip to new hampshire, that's one thing i really will say, voters are concerned. yes, they're aware of what's going on with the mueller report, question, the liberal base is animated by the tension are kicking the presidential phase that are it's not that i don't care about it, it's rust it matters more what this person is going to do about their health care and other things so it's possible not who i mean, it's political pal prk 'tis, not on to democratic voters but most voters. >> the and that will be the case given in 2020. so how do these senators

separate themselves from the hess of the reeled? yeah, that's the challenge. and, casey, it's certainly right n not. and i was really impressed by her list of of and the question then is how do you break through in a field of 15 or more democratic candidates? we've never had anything like that. i would just as an asteriskq what kasie said, i think there are going to be others in her lane. you also have john hickenlooper coming, michael bennett coming, steve coming, all from the midwest and all from the same place philosophically as amy klobuchar.

they may or may not get traction. and it's hard when you're competing against people supporting irresponsible new ideas like the green new wall, so i personal. >> okay. we'll continue this conversation, but as we go to jump, president trump said pougs a and. >> still ahead on "morning joe," president trump suggesting in a tweet this morning the fbi and department of justice will review the case after prosecutors dropped charges for allegedly reporting a fake hate crime attack. we'll get to that and to admiral

james staff receipt -- stavridis joins the conversation here on "morning joe." we will be right back. - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this. this and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair, while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself.

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joining us now, former nato supreme allied commander james stavridis. he's chief analyst for nbc news and msnbc. >> thanks for being here. next month marks the anniversary for nato. the secretary-general is coming to visit the white house. what is the state of alliance today two years after president trump became president of the united states?

>> it's weaker than it should be. the secretary-general is going to historically address congress, which will be quite interesting. we can say one thing for sure, the alliance is still holding together. but if you think of it as a transatlantic bridge, can you hear that bridge creeking a little bit the president has been pressing the allies on defense spending, that's okay, they need to get up to 2% of gdp, but what worries me is the ongoing set of disagreements about syria, should we stay or withdraw, what can the alliance do, about the ar arctic and the high north and the sense of the two parties gradually diverging over iran, which is going to i think be the problem spot to watch going forward. >> despite all the president's rhetoric over the past few years, what is the relationship between the united states and nato right now?

is it markedly worse than it was in 2016 or is it like many things with donald trump, much more noise than actual impact on underlying policy? >> fortunately, joe, it's the latter. so think of it as a very rough surface at the top where there is constant motion but below that at the military-to-military fundamental level in this allian alliance, it still rock solid. i see general joe dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs constantly interacting with his counterparts, now 29 nations, four-star officers come together on the nato military council. even at the political level in between those generals in that top layer, there's a pretty fair amount of consensus going on in brussels within the council of alliance. worry about it but i think it's one we'll continue to rely on in

the 21st century and we're going to need to. >> on tuesday, it was talked about russia being an existential threat to the united states. he also talked about china and russia upping their game and being threats to this country. are those of us who are still looking at russia as an aging, declining military power living in the past? >> i think both sides of this conversation are correct as as follows -- only russia can wake up on a tuesday morning, launch a nuclear strike, destroy the united states and therefore destroy the world because we would respond to it equally, end game, apocalypse. on russia can do that because of the massive numbers, thousands of nuclear weapons. on the other hand, internally, joe, as you talk about, joe,

there is great degradation, population is declining, life expectancy is declining, high rates of alcoholism and drug use, the economy is a one-trick pony, john mccain used to say a big gas station. at a certain sense we got to worry more about russian weakness and the pressure that puts on that society and how someone like vladimir putin reacts to it, worry more about that internal weakness coupled with those thousands of nuclear weapons. that's why nato is so important as a bulwark and nato set of allies to deter russia. >> i ask anybody that comes on talking about russia, are you concerned more about vladimir putin in control of russia or what happens after vladimir putin leaves russia? because we remember the chaos

after 1991, the anarchy and the danger that that posed not on to the united states but to the world. >> we ought to think of russian leadership as follows: russia has always gravitated toward a strong, sink lagular, unitary dominating leader. when you do that, you roll the cosmic dice. you get peter the great and ivan the terrible, you get a stalin and those dice have landed on putin. it is unpredictable what comes next. coupled with the decline, we ought to be more concerned about the next stage of this. >> we want to expand this conversation, bringing senior fellow at the marshal fund, evel evelyn farcus is with us.

i texted ian this morning and said are you in the usa? because you're on the show so much. tracking our family. >> ian, i want to ask you the same question i just asked the admiral or get your reaction to the "washington post" report that the army chief of staff said that russia remains the one existential threat to the united states' security. true? >> thanks, joe. i think he has it spot right. russia today is the most urgent threat. it's attacking its neighbors, okay paying territory in georgia and ukraine, threatening the united states allies with nuclear weapons. it has some 4,300 nuclear

weapons so it can be immediate damage to the united states and it is the extension threat we face today. but china is an emerging threat. its economy is already bigger than the united states, $22 million gdp, it's becoming more assertive, not just the economic sphere but in the military sphere. but you do have to be concerned about russia today but keep your eye on an emerging china. >> evelyn, why do we keep having presidents who keep getting it wrong on russia? we could talk about donald trump in helsinki all we wanted but also george w. bush said he had looked into vladimir putin's eyes and seen his soul. 2008 putin invades georgia, hillary clinton takes out the reset button as barack obama's secretary of state and there's

an invasion obviously of ukraine. why do we keep getting russia so wrong? >> well, i think it's because we have wishful thinking, mirror imaging. we hope that they will see their interests the way that we see their interests, which is working within the international community, working closer with europe. but the reality is for someone like vladimir putin to hold on to power, he has to be, first of all, a nationalist now he's determined and he needs to do risky things vis-a-vis nato and most importantly vis-a-vis the united states. he wants the united states not to mount any resistance to russia and wants to be able to demonstrate to the russian people that russia can did whatever it wants, wherever it wants, including venezuela. we know they have forces in

there. not a big force but nevertheless, they have a mercenary force in there. let's take the newark cleuclear table but we know they're sill s -- still sitting on our energy grids. hopefully the united states has communicated to the russian tharussians that if they do anything to affect the energy grid, they will answer to us. >> wishful thinking aside, what are america's common interests with russia, with vladimir putin, what is the best way forward? >> this is an important point. we cannot afford to stumble

backward into a full-blown cold war. that's in nobody's interest. we have to confront where we must, ukraine, cyber intrusions, support for a war criminal like assad in syria, but we can cooperate with them in counternarcotics, counterterrorism, in the arctic, potentially in environmental issues, in afghanistan we share common interest. i'm with dr. farkas. when mccain was asked, hey, you looked in putin's eyes, did you see his soul? mccain said i saw thr-- "i saw letters, k.g.b." >> that's pretty clear. >> yeah, john mccain, i miss him every day. >> vladimir putin would take

that as a compliment coming from john mccain or anybody else. how do we move forward with somebody running russia who still sees the collapse of the soviet union in 1991 as one of the great tragedies of the 20th century? >> i think the first thing we need to do is recognize where our policies haven't been effective and it's been the bipartisan failure, the last administration, the carter administration and trying to count are russer russia with a of incremental iism. and russia invaded ukraine, some went to the baltics. we targeted arms companies that don't do business in the west. they still remain marginal

sanctions, our deployments aren't as robust and i think we're communicating a lack of community, lack of commitment and maybe even intimidation and that has only emboldened putin. we need a more determined deployment to forces to nato's front te frontier and we need to use our cyber capabilitiecapabilities, e his own political stature in his country. we did that in the cold war, we were successful. we can do it again. >> evelyn, we've misread vladimir putin before. where do we find common ground? >> first of all, we need to have

a strong, firm line against the russians, deterrence across the board from nuclear, all the way down to, as i mentioned, asymmetric. we need to strengthen our sanctions because they haven't worked. in november the russians seized three ukrainian vessels and took 23 ukrainian naval personnel prisoner and they've been holding them. unfortunately the international community has been able to do nothing, has been relatively silent on it. this is a bit of a ding on issue and they are working on indicting macedonia and that's good news. we need to keep the door open about conversations about the most dangerous weapons and most dangerous face-off that we have with russia so arms control on

the nuclear front. we need to try as much as we can to at least can't where the dangers lies. i think we need to be more forceful diplomatically and keep on this constantly because putin will -- mark my words, he's going to probe given, whethagai it's on the periphery of nato or somewhere else. he needs to show that russia is active, engaged and a big player. >> thank you all. ian, as you pointed out to me, the atlantic council is having a huge event next week on the eve of the 70th anniversary. we'd love to have you back to talk about that. >> coming up, new issues for the president's pick to serve on the federal reserve board.

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economic aide stephen moore, the president's pick to serve on the

federal reserve, the choice is a controversial one, with many questioning his understanding of economic policies and whether he only got the nod because of his support for the president. now we also learn that according to court records, stephen moore owes more than $75,000 in unpaid federal income taxes and other related pengalties from 2014. according to bloomberg, moore's wife says the issue stems from his 2014 tax return in which he accidentally claimed the sum of his alimony and child support payments when only alimony is deductible. what's your opinion on this pick? >> i'd like to back up and talk about the fed. the fed is one of our great institutions both in the way it operates and its importance.

the supreme court used to be like that. we had the brown board of education decided, roe v. wade and then you get to bush v. gore and 5i-4 and we all know what's happened since then. presidents have picked really sensible, thoughtful, serious, mostly nonpartisan conservatives to serve on it, very few dissents, very little acrimony and stephen moore would really be a dramatic break from that tradition. he would be the first person i can remember put on the federal really for political reasons because donald trump wants to punish jay powell, his own nominee, because he felt powell was too hawkish back in december. so we're now presented with a guy who is manifestly unpopular.

he's been wrong when he claims we're in deflation and we're not in deflation and you get to the personal integrity issues and it's really sad that a great institution that hasn't been politicized might be politicized if this goes through. >> rick tyler, how is this guy not seen as someone who is completely, well, loyal to trump beyond knowing the difference between right and wrong? i mean, he has what you wou-- i what you would define as a trump sycophant, isn't he? >> i agree that stephen moore was probably put on the federal reserve for political reasons, but being lo but, look, trump can put people

on the federal reserve that he wants to. he's the president. steve moore has a different view of the federal reserve and i don't dispute the fact that he did it to somehow punish jay powell. we'll have to see what kind of board member he makes and whether it's a wise decision or not. >> so much revenge and anger in many of these decisions, it seems. up next, new information in the jussie smollett case where the president announcing this morning a federal review of the controversial decision to drop the charges against him. we'll talk about that next on "morning joe." - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this.

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upload your logo or start your design today i can customize each line for soeach family member?e yup. and since it comes with your internet, you can switch wireless carriers, and save hundreds of dollars a year. are you pullin' my leg? nope. you sure you're not pullin' my leg? i think it's your dog. oh it's him. good call. get the data options you need, and still save hundreds of dollars. do you guys sell other dogs? now that's simple, easy, awesome. customize each line by paying for data by the gig or get unlimited. and now get $250 back when you buy a new samsung galaxy. click, call, or visit a store today. now to the jussie smollett case. they are le view the case after prosecutors dropped charges for allegedly reporting a fake hate crime attack. and just moments ago smollett's

attorney insisted that the actor has nothing to worry about. dave arronberg and attorney don calloway, he's founder of the international voter protection action fund dedicated to fighting voter suppression efforts nationwide. good to have you both. >> what in the world happened here? can you ever imagine striking this type of a deal and then letting somebody go with such a light slap on the wrist without them admitting their guilt? >> i'm as surprised as everyone. i mean, deferred prosecution agreements are standard for prosecutors but i'm not sure that even happened here in this case because you have the defense counsel saying there was no agreement, there was no deal. you have others saying this was a complete exoneration. i think there's one thing we can agree on, we may need a new 2019

definition of exoneration. >> big time. >> you have the first state's attorney saying he thinks smollett was guilty. so all this confusion surrounded by the fact that the case is now sealed out of the public's view so it's to surprise why they're so outraged. i mean, they were caught flatfooted in all of this so you have the public spectacle of the mayor and the police chief attacking the state's attorney which does happen behind closed doors but rarely if ever in public. >> but can you -- can you come up with -- with any scenario that would make sense for the state's attorney doing this? and throwing -- throwing this entire process into chaos and having like a jeffrey epstein type of closed deal so there's no transparency? >> those are big words when

you're comparing it to jeffrey epstein. that's a big deal because right now i think it's so early it's hard to know what really motivated the state's attorney. generally if something gets dropped 15 felony counts it would usually mean there's a credibility issue with the two brothers. so unless there's something that i'm not privy to, i'm shaking my head too. the fact that there's no federal oversight i think the public will become aware of what transpired here. >> yeah, we're also following the jeffrey epstein story and all the different details there that have been covered up. but you -- you say -- you're concerned there's some hypocrisy over what happened with jussie smollett. explain that if you could. >> nobody is happy about -- nobody thinks jussie is

innocent. nobody thinks this somehow exonerates him or he should be held harmless but for this to be the heel that ron emmanuel dies on it's laughable. the city of chicago has paid out $370 million in excessive force and police brutality claims to people of color who have been abused and terrorized by police. $100 billion in the city last year alone for police brutality claims. he wants to lay hit full outrage at the feet of jussie smollett. >> well, i want to push back a little bit on that because it seems to me that this would be a case that the mayor of chicago and the police chief would find deeply personal to the city of chicago, to the issue of race, and undermining the cops, the

issue of race wasting their time, lying and really at this point taking advantage of the system to utilize the political -- go ahead. >> nobody's proud of what jussie did. >> but he says he's innocent. >> nobody believes that. i don't believe that. i'm not a defender of justice, but i mean, let's keep it real here. nobody is defending jussie. but we're talking about expenditures of city resources. let's talk about $370 million paid out for police terrorism of black and brown people over the last six years all under rahm's watch and he has been silent about all of that. the city had to borrow mown the pay out police claims it's price, it's betsy jones, it's jose lopez. these are people whose lives

were taken. communities and families shattered and rahm has done nothing to address the systemic inequality. he's done nothing to stop these police practices to protect the brown communities. i can't believe and i'm frankly offended that this is the hill that rahm emmanuel chooses to die on. >> i think it's two issues. >> we'll bring rahm on to talk about that and dave, let's talk about transparency. you say we're going to -- to find out eventually what -- what's happened here and why this deal was struck? tell us how that looks. >> well, there's already apparently a federal investigation. you know, you have the national district attorney's association which i'm an officer coming out yesterday with an unusual statement. they rarely make these kind of

statements about pending statements or cases that are just resolved saying that for top prosecutors, you need to -- when you recuse yourself, make sure your entire office is also recused. you can't just recuse the top dog and have an underling make the decisions because the perception is the boss is still pulling the strings so you have all these entities from the federal government to the national district attorney's association which speaks for prosecutors nationwide in many cases coming out and saying these things and i think there will be that transparency that a lot of people are looking for even though the case has been sealed by the court. >> all right. dave arronberg and don calloway, thank you both for being on with us. we'll be following this. along with the jeffrey epstein story. it's unbelievable. >> the miami herald continues to do great reporting of the

jeffrey epstein story and all the powerful people he's known in the past including donald trump, the fact that prosecutors just swept that under the rug. federal prosecutors, deeply disturbing. still ahead. president trump is vowing to have a health plan that is far better than obamacare. so far republicans have no plan at all. plus we'll be joined from two senators from opposite sides of the oil. michael benefit and bill cassidy will be our guests. "morning joe" is back in a moment. e our guests "morning joe" is back in a moment while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself. what they eat and drink ise is likely acidic and then what's happening is the weakening of enamel. now is the perfect time for a toothpaste like the new pronamel repair. this toothpaste takes it to the next level. it takes minerals and it drives it deep into the tooth surface

so that we can actively help repair weakened enamel. i do think dentists are going to want to recommend the new pronamel repair toothpaste. it's such an easy answer and it will do exactly what their patients need. cancer, epilepsy, mental health, hiv. patients with serious diseases are being targeted for cuts to their medicare drug coverage. new government restrictions would allow insurance companies to come between doctor and patient.

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it's magic. it's magic, mike barnicle. that's a movie i don't dare try to show mika because the whole way through she'd be saying i don't get it. but what a movie and what a day. it is opening day across america. >> you know, i mean, i had to fight back a little tear in my eye listening to that introduction. >> oh, my lord. >> because it's all a part of us. it's like our faith. you're born with it and you live with it and it's every day, it's a constant. the days get longer, the weather

gets warmer, it's a relief from the everyday stress of things that we talk about each and every day and it is back finally today and we will pursue it over the course of the next six or seven months each and every day waking up every morning you know, the red sox beat the yankees last night. did the yankees lose last night and you don't have to worry for a few fractions of a second you don't have to worry about what's happening in washington, d.c. because you worry about the american league east. >> and of course baltimore is opening today against the yankees in yankees stadium. the mets are playing the nationals in washington, d.c. a couple of the openers. and you know something else, mike, that, and mika, i know you've seen, but like mike, i

have like been the dad for 85 years, had 47 kids and it doesn't matter whether they're 30 or 10, baseball is the constant and all of my kids are always on a text chain and more often than not, all four of us -- all five of us, we're texting about baseball. the trades deep into offseason and again it's crazy but in this age of smartphones and in this age of fortnight, it's still baseball that at least in our family brings all the generations together. >> absolutely, joe. and it's a string that has played out across more than a century. just what you're talking about, this link between generations forged by baseball. in the last two weeks willie geist has taken his two children, his son and his daughter, to spring training. nicole wallace has taken her son

to a spring training game. sent pictures of him meeting a couple f couple of mets players and i don't care how long it is from now, those interactions with players and going to spring training with their parents, they will vividly recall it. >> yeah, and jack and i especially but also joey and andrew made it down and we saw quite a few spring training games. i even bumped in to jonathan le lemire took his son and i took jack and we saw the red sox in fort meyers. we got kicked out for screaming at the the red sox, that they were blowing it. we were going to be in fifth place if they weren't careful the way spring training was being run. anyway, so no, baseball one of the wonderful things about baseball is it's beautiful. there is a simplicity to it. it is interesting that people

that aren't from america don't get it, which is very interesting. george mitchell always is telling the story about how he was with queen elizabeth and they were at dinner the night she came to visit. i think it was in '89 or '90 and she's gone up to see the orioles play. and george mitchell asked her, what do you think about our game, baseball? and he said the entire night she put everybody at ease. she could not think of a diplomatic thing to say about baseball and the queen just replied, nothing really happened out there, did it? >> which is why they're losing their empire. >> there is a beautiful simplicity to baseball. not so much in health care as we make our turn and we go back to a clip from last year where

donald trump says it would be easy -- after saying how easy it was going to be to reform health care during the campaign, suddenly figured out, it's not so easy. >> we have come up with a solution that's really, really i think very good. now, i have to tell you, it's an unbelievely complex subject. nobody knew that health care would be so complicated. >> nobody knew health care could be so complicated? >> no, everybody knew, donald, that health care was too complicated and yet you have wandered into it again. the wall street journal editorial board doesn't think that's the wisest move. they have a new piece on the administration's latest obamacare lawsuit calling it quote, a losing strategy, bad

law and high risk politics and this is what the journal editorial page says. an abiding mystery of the trump presidency is because you cannot stand the prosperities we were talking about yesterday and the administration decided this week to elevate a legal fight over health care which is almost sure to lose. millions of people in 201 now rely on the law for health insurance. it may be bad insurance but it is coverage. as for politics the white house calculation seems to be that a legal decision striking down the law would force congress to act. but the white house had better hope it doesn't have that debate after millions have lost their insurance in an election year due to a court case. the gop couldn't agree on a plan to replace obamacare when it ran

owl f a congress and many most knowledgeable about health care have retired. if there's a consensus we haven't heard about it and mika, as we talked about yesterday, this is the first fight for the president to pick right now because no issue shows the intellectual bankruptcy and the intellectual rot of the republican party more than health care. they have been trying to stop obamacare and trying to get rid of obamacare for a decade. and they still don't have anything to replace it. and even when they do, it's going to cost them more seats in the house and more seats in the senate because donald trump has done something that barack obama couldn't even do. donald trump has made obamacare a very popular federal program. >> it became copular even among

those that might have been on the right because it gives people something they desperately need, which usually it's a political win which makes this so hard to understand. i keep thinking, is this about john mccain still? are you still hung up on that? but he does get hung up on people. we've seen personally how hung up he gets on people and now he's pushing for complete elimination. take a look. >> obamacare is a disaster. so we're going to beat the part -- and i said it yesterday and i mean it. i understand health care now especially very well. a lot of people don't understand it. we are going to be the republicans, the parry of great health care. if the supreme court rules that obamacare is out we will have a plan that's far better than obamacare. >> no, he won't. >> that's why the republicans on the hill and many members of his

administration are so concerned because he doesn't have a plan. donald trump likes to make it up as we goes along. he doesn't like even reading sheets of paper. he likes to wing it. he is a day trader. unfortunately for donald trump and the republican party now, he has just entered a fight that he cannot win and it's also a fight as republicans remember all too well that led to their worst electoral loss in u.s. history. what, over 9, 10 million votes in the midterms. >> well, you're being a little critical. so cynical, i mean, don't you remember donald trump is going to deliver on health care and preexisting conditions the same way he delivered on a middle class tax cut right before the midterm elections in 2018. you remember that? >> yep, we sure do. >> yeah, also, the promises he promised -- >> those middle class are so

rich. >> i guess the thing that donald trump really doesn't understand, he just can't point to other presidents. what he's going to see donald trump is going to see clips of donald trump promising universal health care and then taking it back. promising lower premiums and then watching them rise. promising better coverage and then watching it get worse. promising not to cut medicare and watching the $845 billion cuts in medicare. promising not to cut medicaid and then looking at the cuts that he's proposed to medicaid as well. i mean, it is, enagain, what he's been able to get away with and wayne, that comes to an end when donald trump has video and 30 second ads that just show what a liar he is when it comes to policy and just like every other flip flopping politician. >> he promises to keep

preexisting condition, which is a core tenant of break, so how can you argue you're getting rid of obamacare if you're keeping the preexisting conditions yet his own justice administration is arguing in favor of the court's ruling of eliminating obamacare. hopefully there's two things. i want to sever ability and that's the idea that this supreme court would not overthrow an entire program based on that one program. and the a.g.'s actually have standing and they're supposed to be hurt by the decision and it's unclear how the attorney generals who are suing are hurt by obamacare. still ahead on "morning joe," from the u.s. senate michael bennett and republican bill cassidy join the conversation but first a look at some of the other stories making headlines today. from brexit's break down to boeing doing damage control. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ching "morn" we'll be right back. ♪ baby i'm not even in a gown

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let's go to some other stories that are making headlines. >> a deal with federal prosecutors the man behind the deadly car attack in charlottesville, virginia, has avoided the death penalty. he pleaded guilty to 29 hate crime charges for the killing of heather heyer and injuring dozens more when he drove into a crowd of anti racism counter protesters during the rally in august of 2017. as part of the deal prosecutors dropped the 30th charge which carried a possible death sentence. fields was found guilty on all counts during his state trial in december. each of the 29 counts fields pleaded guilty to wednesday, carries a maximum sentence of

life in prison. teresa may is offering to resign if parliament votes in favor of the brexit deal she struck with the european union. it is being viewed as a last ditch effort to pass the agreement which has been overwhelmingly rejected twice by parliament. also parliament took control of the brexit process for one day and in a series of nonbinding votes, lawmakers rejected eight alternative brex ill plans. >> steve, rattner, it is an absolute mess in britain. yesterday exemplified just how bad things are and how the british have elected apparelment that has no answers. eight votes, eight noes, their answer is always no. >> well, the problem is it's not a kind of either/or. it's not a stay in or go out.

it's a stay in with certain c conditions. it's go out with conditions or go out without conditions and this all comes down to the question of the irish border. i don't think anybody thought we would be arguing about the irish border but that's what it comes down to and it gets into a complicated chess game that i'm happy to go through but probably not. but what teresa may did yesterday was designed to try to win over enough support for her plan where britain would stay as part of a customs union and it did succeed in getting a couple of the hard liners to take her side but it does not appear that it's created enough votes for her plan continues. >> and this next story also for steve. >> it's been almost two wee faa

max jets and now boeing is previewing several fixes to the planes after two deadly crashes just months apart. boeing said yesterday the changes included software fixed, cockpit alert and additional pilot training for these 737 max planes. industry officials believe it could take the faa up to two weeks to certify the changes. if approved it could take up to 12 weeks before the jets could be air born again. meanwhile the boeing facing tough questions about the government's certification process of the company's aircraft. >> steve, is there any really justification for how slowly the federal government responded when every other country had moved to sideline these planes until they actually knew why they were falling out of the sky? >> i think that piece of the

story is quite interesting because it says two things. it says first, other countries don't respect our leadership. there was a time the faa was the gold standard. as you just said, starting with china, many, many other countries grounded these planes before we did. secondly the faa has not had a permanent administrator for 14 months. he tried to appoint his personal pilot to be head of the faa. >> good lord. >> and now there's a new idea who has yet to be confirmed so the faa was to some degree without a leader and that may have contributed to this as well. so no, there's no justification for why the faa took so long to do this. >> coming up, we talked a bit about the politics of health care but what about the policy itself? steve rattner breaks down the state of obamacare from enrollment to coverage of preexisting conditions.

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so steve rattner, let's talk about health care. it is a complicated issue.

it has been for a very long time and right now we're just sort of in a perg tootry. so where do we find ourselves? where to working class americans and middle class americans find themselves today when it comes to health care? >> the first thing to know is that obamacare is already in some peril even before we get to the matters at hand because some of what the trump administration has done. if you take a look at the chart on enrollments, these are enrollments through the exchanges you can see that enrollments peaked at 12.7 million right before trump was elected and it's gone down since then to 11.4 million. the yellow bars are people that get the exchanges in their home

states. the people who have been affected are the people who get their health care through the federal exchanges and the reason for that is because the trump administration has cut all advertising and support for getting people to enroll, telling them about it, encouraging them. secondly, in the 2017 tax bill, there was a provision that took the penalty for not getting insurance to zero so it eliminated the individual mandate so people no longer had an incentive to give health care so even before you start the current discussion there has been a decline in health care. you should talk about preexisting conditions because that is probably the most emotional issue that people face and the fact is that there are about 27% of adults today have a preexisting condition that would prevent them from getting health care potentially if obamacare went away. and these include benign conditions like sleep apnea,

like pregnancy so there's enor rous support for this provision and what's even more interesting if you look at the red bars up above, these are states that trump carried and these are the people that have the highest percentage of people that have preexisting conditions and could lose health care under their plan so it's really odd politics that trump would go after something that has done very well by his folks and then, joe, you made a point about the popularity of obamacare and the fact that trump has made obamacare popular, because if you look back over history, obamacare had its ups and downs but it never had real popularity. but most recently, since trump came in and since we've had this whole debate, obamacare is now supported by a majority of americans for the first time. so what's really odd about the administration's tragedy,

they've gone into this case in texas on the side of the plaintiffs arguing that not just the individual mandate but also preexisting conditions should be struck down and then most recently this week they've gone back in and said all of obamacare should be struck down and they've done that without having any alternative plan whatsoever. when you said not much is happening the democrats did introduce a plan this week. it's not medicare for all. it's not something kind of a bit out of the box. it's a very sensible set of policies designed to reverse some of the things i just showed you to get more people to enroll in obamacare, to provide more premium support for people who can't afford it and so you're going to have this contrast between the republicans on the one side trying to repeal a program that is now popular and the democrats actually proposing some pretty sensible fixes to it. >> well, here we go again for republicans who may make a

certain move in a primary election trying to get rid of obamacare that will hurt them in a general election because as steve just showed us obamacare is getting more popular by the day and it helps people in trump states disproportionately when you start talking about preexisting conditions. >> well, i think there are a couple of things going on. the first thing is steve really broke down health care in a lot of different ways. the thing that i heard was sleep apnea or pregnancy and there's this idea that women all over the country, suburban women in particular that republicans want to vote for the president and all down the ticket in 2020, they will hear something that i heard and hone in on the idea that women who are pregnant and people who have preexisting conditions that the republican party is going to take all this away and we take it all the way, we'll come back to you with a

plan. most people will say that's not a plan and i don't want to do that. the other thing that's remarkable is that white house and president trump aren't even kt aing like have a plan. all day yesterday i was saying that kevin mccarthy was calling up and saying you made a mistake. do you have a plan and what do you say to all this reporting and the white house had nothing to say because they don't have a plan and i think that's pretty remarkable. coming up on mr"morning joe around this time two months ago the federal government was shut down as president trump demanded taxpayer money for a border wall. >> how ludicrous it is that this government is shut down over a promise the president of the united states couldn't keep. and that america is not interesting in having him keep. this idea that he was going to

build a mid eve wall across the southern border of texas, take it from the farmers and ranches that were there and have the mexicans pay for it isn't true. that's why we're here. because he's now saying the taxpayers have to pay for it. that's not what he said during his campaign. >> we'll talk to senator michael bennett about the latest fight at the border, the mueller probe and much more. the colorado democrat joins us next on "morning joe." us next on "morning joe." - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this.

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joining us now, member of the senate finance and intelligence committee's democratic senator michael bennett of colorado. good to have you on the show this morning. >> thank you. >> i wonder how many of your

constituents are concerned about their health care coverage? >> they're deeply concerned. i was in jackson county colorado and of the 25 people, it's a rural county, of the 25 people there only three had health insurance and there was a guy who owned his own business, it was a restaurant with a bowling alley. he and his wife work 50 hours a week. i've got two slots i can hire people but i can't hire anybody because they'll lose their welfare. i said what do you mean by their well fofare welfare? and he said their medicaid. they don't have health insurance because they can't afford it and the people that would work there can't work there because they'd lose their health insurance so whether you are for the affordable care act which i was or whether you are against it, the american people are deeply unhappy with the way our health

care system intersects with our families and we should be fixing it but we're making matters worse -- or trump is making matters worse. the insecurity that people feel around health care is higher now than it's been in the ten years that i've been in the senate. >> so senator, the president obviously is trying to completely do away with the affordable care act now. democrats have a running for president and in the senate have a couple of different ways forit. many are talking about medicare for all. do you support that approach? >> i don't if you're talking about the legislation that bernie sanders has in the senate. that would take insurance away from people who get the insurance from their employer. it would take insurance away from every labor union in america and it would cost $30 trillion. i have a bill called medicare x that would create a true public

option for the american people. it actually starts in rural areas, because those are people that have the least competition and insurance and over three years it migrates everywhere and i think we've wanted a public option -- or i have since the affordable care act was passed. this gives the american people a choice. it doesn't force them into a plan. it gives them an option and creates competition for private insurance starting in rural areas like i said. i think that's much closer to where the american people are than wanting to have the government take over the entire health care system. >> so you support the affordable care act and reforming the affordable care act. just making some fixes that need to make it more accessible to all americans. correct? >> yeah, and actually i don't even think of it anymore as the affordable care act. i think of it as america's health care system. we have to cover everybody.

we haven't accomplished that. we spend 18% of our gdp on health care. our families therefore spend much more on health care than families in other countries do. we should be working in a bipartisan way to do that as well and we should make sure that the quality of health care is maintained. all of these things should be -- could be done in working congress and a working washington. none of this stuff can be done in the three ring circus that we have here. now, it's not possible -- i mean, donald trump has no idea what he wants to do with health care other than blow up the affordable care act and take health care away from millions of americans. you will remember, joe, i know you know this, that this whole plan, the affordable care act started as mitt romney's plan in massachusetts. he was republican. where are they going to go? they can't go to the right of this plan and create more health care for the american people. they're not going to go to the

left, it is ridiculous. >> yeah, so senator, can you explain to americans why it is that for some time the united states has spent more money per patient than any country in the world and yet we do it so inefficiently that, woing class americans and middle class americans don't see the result of that massive investment? >> it's because the incentives in the system make absolutely no sense at all. it's because we don't invest in primary care so that people are going customarily to their doctors to get a regular checkup so they can discover whether they're healthy or they're sick. it's because we do so much of this work even after the affordable care act in the emergency room where it's most expensive. it's because we have to

transparency, the government can't negotiate drug prices on behalf of medicare patients. it's all of these things and it all adds up to not only middle class families suffering from medical bills that nobody else in the world has to pay, but it also means that we, the united states, can't balance our budget. we can't invest in our infrastructure. we can't do all the things we could do if we were spending 6 percentage points less of our gdp which steve rattner understands very well on the future. and it has been the objective of the drug companies and the insurance companies and others who lobby washington all the time to keep it as obscure as possible so nobody can actually understand it. that's something we really need to change and i can't believe that there wouldn't be republican support as well as democratic support to make our

health care intentatives and really make a way to make it more affordable. >> the for the people act, tell us about it. >> it's a reform agenda for -- to reform washington, d.c. to put this place back in the hands of the american people. it makes it easier to vote, things like same day registration, it says we've got to overturn citizens united which we need to do and it adds tighter lobbyist reform which is something i've been involved with since i got here. the bill that i'm interested in is a bill that would say politicians shouldn't choose their voters. voters should be able to choose their partisans. there is so many things we could do around health care, around

climate, and infrastructure that are not going to be done until we clean this place up and i think this bill is the first attempt to try to do it. the house has already passed it and mitch mcconnell should put it on the floor. mitch mcconnell, he calls this bill a power graph. a bill to restore the government back to the american people, away from lobbyists, away from special interests. that's what mitch mcconnell is a power grab and in this case he means exactly what he's saying which is it's a power grabby the american people against the american people and the lobbyists. >> since i've already written an op ed basically saying you'd be the greatest presidential candidate since george washington, i'm curious, are you going to possibly run for office and either prove me to be one of the more insightful prognosticators or one of the worst? >> one of my worries is i don't

want to make you one of the worst, but i'm -- and i know that could easily happen because that's a very nice op ed, was certainly not deserved by me. i'm very inclined to do it and we're looking at it and i think look, the american people need somebody who's going to run and tell them the truth in 2020. we can't get anything done around here if we continue to do what we've been doing here for the last ten years. it's not just since trump arrived. you know, trump is a symptom of our problem and he's an accelerant of a lot of the problems especially the anti immigrant tone that he set in the country, but the cause of the problems is 40 years of economic immobility for 90% of the american people. stagnant wages for that period of time. we have to fix that. we have to address that. it's going to take us a

generation to do it and we -- we're going to have to fix our political system at the same time. like so many other places you guys were talking about the uk earlier, what's going on with brexit. in a democracy, you've got to have broad based prosperity. it doesn't work. so what a great project for the united states to come together and say we're going to address that here. and we're going to preserve this republic for another 200 years. >> and really quickly, just to clarify, there have been pundents saying you're waiting to see whether joe biden gets in the race or not. your decision i understand has absolutely nothing to do with whether joe biden gets in the race or not. is that true? >> it has nothing to do with the vice president's decision. >> all right. we'll leave it there. >> inclined to do it.

>> don't prove me wrong, senator. thanks so much for being with us. >> thanks, guys. >> kasie hunt for some time i've been hearing about michael bennett. i've never met the guy. i have heard more of him than any -- than just about anybody else over the past decade that he's one of the more thoughtful, one of the more articulate, one of the more capable senators in washington, d.c. when's been your impression of him and what kind of candidate would he make? >> i have actually known senator bennett covering the capitol for quite some time. so he is very thoughtful about the things he talks about. he knows how to win in a purple state because you know, frankly when he was first running for office colorado was less blue at

the time than it sort of has become. it's a mild mannered even keeled guy whose family is tied in with our institutions and establishments as well. it's a family that has been part of our public life, but you know, i think one of the things that's made him stand out and part of why we have taken such notice, that speech on the senate floor, just now his comments on health care, he seemed angry in the sense that people can relate to. it really does, you know, tell you something about how he really feels considering he normally isn't like that. >> all right. up next, breaking news just coming in, why the trump administration is charging facebook with housing discriminations. we'll go live to the new york stock exchange for that next on

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introducing the all-new 2019 ford ranger built for the strangest of all creatures. time now for business before the bell with cnbc's sarah eisen. what is going on with facebook? >> trump administration is suing facebook for the housing and urban development agency, alleging that facebook violated the fair housing act that the company had target advertising

that discriminated against people based on race and color. a statement from ben carson who is the secretary of hud says that facebook is discriminating against people based on who they are and where they live. he said using a computer to limit a person's choices on housing is just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone's face. the complaint allege that's facebook restricted who could see housing rementlated ads basn all sorts of factors. this has been actually an investigation that goes all the way whaback to 2016. the charges just announced this morning. i also want to bring you another facebook development. facebook now officially banning content on white nationalism and separatism from the social media account. of course, this is two weeks after that horrible tragedy in new zealand and when facebook came under even more pressure to try to crack down on violence

and hate. and it looks like they're going to use their resources including how they fight isis and terrorism to go after white nationalism and separatism which they say after they talk to experts really cannot be separated from some of the hateful and violent acts. >> wow. where does that draw the line between them banning white nationalism versus any other negative strains that could be running around on facebook and this advertising isn't it the same way others advertise? >> it's targeting ads they found after an exhaustive investigation that was specifically violating the fair housing act. so that's what this was about. that they were, in other words, facebook was showing ads to people based on race and based on income level and that is illegal and unfair.

it's unique because it comes over a computer through targeted advertising. yes, when it comes to banning content, obviously it's a slippery slope. and facebook has taken a long time to come to this decision because they also don't want to infringe on free speech and people's sense of identity. and when it comes to that, it's going to be a difficult decision. but they also have to crack down on the hate and the extreme violent acts. >> fascinating. thank you very much. let's now bring in member of the committee on health, education, labor, and pensions, republican senator dr. bill cassidy of louisiana. thank you very much for being on this morning. i guess i'll start off by saying are your constituents concerned about losing their health care? >> you know, no one wants to lose health care. but right now they're losing it because they can't afford the premiums or access to drugs because they can't afford the drugs. if i go to a town hall meeting that, is the principle complaint as regards to health care. we need to make health insurance

more affordable and accessible. that's what i hear. >> so, senator, the question is what happens next if donald trump gets what he wants? and the affordable care act, obama care is done away with? what does the republican health care bill look like and what would it mean for americans? >> well, it would look like is giving power to the patients. i think what president donal by empowering the patient, that's when you lower health care costs. this should be bipartisan. it would make it bipartisan it is more likely to stick. for example, price transparency. wouldn't it be great if you knew the price of something before you go in as opposed to getting the medical bill six weeks later? that's power to the patient. drug costs. wouldn't it be great to have the special deals that were struck under obama care which you can read about on the internet, if

those were altered so that record profits weren't accruing to pharma and patients couldn't afford the insulin but they could afford the insulin. >> what about -- what about universal health care? the president promised during the campaign universal health care. would this plan actually cause more people to be uninsured? >> well, first, what we can say about the cost of insurance now, the uninsured right now is that primarily related to the cost of he health insurance. it is the degree to which people can afford, number one. number two, the bill i introduced with susan collins allow states to do automatic enrollment f you're eligible, you can refuse but you otherwise be enrolled in an insurance plan. now auto enrollment would take care of the problem of those not insured by allowing the state to

auto enroll f you're asking me to write the plan, i would put the option for states to do that with safeguards and measurementes to make sure there is no abuse. >> rick has a question. >> senator, good morning. >> good morning. >> i'd like to ask you, how do you reconcile the president's pronouncements will he protect pre-existing conditions that they're agreeing with the courts on eliminating or overturning the law that protects people with pre-existing conditions of getting coverage? and, senator, if the court does overrule protecting people with pre-existing conditions, wouldn't the only option left be a public option which senator bennett is advocating? >> a couple things. if you have a lawsuit pertains to the individual mandate. if democrats want to collaborate with republicans to repeal individual mandate which so far they will not do so, then the

lawsuit goes away. so there is an easy settlement for. that i like it. it gives the power to the patient. i don't think democrats like it because they like the power over the patient. that said, if you get rid of the individual mandate and do the lawsuit, what do you do about pre-existing conditions? those are five pages in a 3,000 page bill. it's hard to justify thr3,000 ps based on five pages. it protects people with pre-existing conditions. i am a doctor. i work in the hospital for 30 years. introduce a targeted bill and hopefully that will be bipartisan. >> all right. senator, thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate it. and hope to talk to you again very soon. >> thank you. >> let's go final thoughts. what are your final thoughts this morning? >> i don't really know why they picked this battle right now. i guess trump picked it for

them. the concern is there is no plan. and they'll get rid of obama care. and a lot of people will be left hanging with no health care. that's my biggest concern moving forward and i don't understand politically why republicans would choose this battle now. >> kasie hunt? >> health care is just in credibly difficult. the fact they got obama care passed is unbelievable, like, show of force and will by democrats at the time and the political reality is if you break it, you buy it. the republicans lost the house based on this issue in 2018. and there is zero consensus in the party about how to fix it. i don't see how this is going to go forward. >> rick? >> let's just say if the mueller report was barred and the reason i know that, joe, and it's a sham, is because mueller would have written this report in a way that he would have had an executive summary and

conclusions on his own which would not have contained classified information and he would have as a function of writing the report sequester all the information from the grand jury or things that involve methods and national security so the fact this report isn't out yet is a sham. >> it is a sham. attorney general barr is looking worse with every day that passes by. he's trying to drag his feet. he's trying to ab instruct tobs mueller report in going through. we're going to see it tend. it's going to look so bad for donald trump. it's going to look so bad for barr. it's going to look so bad for all of the defenders. release the report. be transparent. you said you were going to. please, don't lie about this too. >> yeah. okay. we're sti wti