people. how do you explain he has managed to somehow break out early on in this crowd and get that kind of early fund-raising? >> also, if that momentum is going to last. >> i think there's just -- we always underestimate authenticity and just being normal. i think people are so tired of people being abnormal. here is a guy with a very impressive background, who is a great talker and just sort of connects in a people in a way other politicians aren't connecting right now. we look at different indicators online to see what spreads virally and we're seeing him get way more traction than other candidates. so it's real, at least for now. >> we're going to see you on "morning joe" in seconds. >> that does it for us on this tuesday morning.

i "morning joe" starts now. >> the lower 25% can't afford private. >> universal health care? >> i'm going to take care of everybody. i don't care if it costs me votes or not. >> are you going to make sure people with preconditions are covered. there's going to be a period when you repeal it before you replace it -- >> we're going to do it simultaneously. it's just fine. >> it an unbelievably complex subject. nobody knew health care could be so complicated. >> the republican party will soon be northeasteknown as the health care. >> i mean it, 100%. i understand health care now. a lot of people don't understand it. >> so four years of promises and donald trump says he understands health care now, but you won't see a plan for another 19 months. after boldly announcing the

impending overhaul of health care he's tweeting that the big vote will be taken right after the 2020 election. believe him! good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, april 2nd. with us we have former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner, washington anchor for the bbc catty kay, david ignatius and co-founder of axios, jim vandehei. before we launch into trump's promise, i put that in quotes, kamala harris, $12 raised. we'll talk about her big haul in, her big sweep in. weep know pete buttigieg made news by announcing he raised $7 million. mayor pete got a couple married 45 minutes before they had a c-section on the drop of a hat yesterday. we'll be talking about that and

what's going on with him. >> that's what america's new mayor does. >> he's so cute. >> and david ignatius, when i heard donald trump's promise, his secret plan to reform health care, which would be voted on after the 2020 election, i thought of richard nixon's secret plan to get us out of vietnam, which of course when david frost asked him after he was disgraced and out of office, what was your secret plan, nixon said somewhat disarmingly, oh, i never had a secret plan. >> trump has so little cr credibility on health care, the idea he's decided he's going to form the battle line on the issue you could predict with more confidence than any other will be trouble for hmm just tells you something about his political judgment.

the reports are those right-harm are basically aghast. yet the president moves forward. >> jim vandehei, this would be much like the democratic part deciding, you know what, in 2020 we're going to be the party of pro-life, we are going to go out and making pro-life our top issue. i mean, health care, again, it was a nightmare in 2018, the largest landslide ever in terms of vote totals. and donald trump has so many broken promises from 2016 that are going to be highlighted already that actually draw that fight there where he's broken -- well, he's lied about, you know, health care for all, universal health care. he's lied about not cutting medicare. he's lied about not cutting medicaid. he's lied about lower

deductibles, he's lied about lower premiums. he's lied about everything involving health care. how bad of a situation is this for republicans if that is where donald trump decides to fight? >> when you talk to republican leaders on capitol hill, it's really bad. it's not just the last election, it's almost every election if you had to bet on what topic is the most important topic, it's health care because it touches everybody. one of the simple rules of politics is when you take stuff away from people, that's really hard in politics. when people had coverage and doesn't have coverage, it's really hard to explain you're going to have a plan for two years. one of the things that's bedevilled republicans is they don't have a plan that would cover everyone, would cover preexisting conditions, would bring down your health insurance costs. they've struggled to come to a unifying position and they end up fighting about court fights, which is are basically taking away parts of obamacare, some of which people may not like but

some of which they do like, they like preexisting conditions are covered and they'd much rather fight where they feel they have superior policy. >> steve rattner, if you look at the numbers from 2018, i guess there is no place for republicans to run, there is no place for republicans to hide when it comes election time because think about all the lies donald trump was throwing out at voters and he was talking about caravans filled with people, saying there were people filled with leprosy and horrid conditions, talking about sending troops to the borders and trump republicans got absolutely demolished. there's no reason to think the same thing is not going to happen in 2020. think about this, steve, republicans have been attacking

obamacare now for a decade. a decade. they've had no response to obamacare for a decade. now we have a president, the head of their party, saying we're not going to even have a plan to replace obamacare by the time you guys go to vote next november. it's really -- it's staggering how bereft of ideas this party is. >> well, the whole thing on health care is quite incredible. as you know, the republican house voted to repeal obamacare something like 50 times under the obama administration, but they knew they could do that because the senate was never going to pass it so they didn't have a plan. so then they show up and actually start to put a plan through congress. you remember the american health care act. the house passed it. mccain famously voted against it, for which trump is now castigating them. it would have cost 23 million

people their insurance, gutted obamacare. and trump is castigating mccain even though trump was for it and it would have cost 23 million americans their health care. now he's saying we have no plan, we'll have a plan sometimes after 2020. every poll says this is the most important issue. he obviously doesn't have a plan because he can't have a plan. there is no republican plan anywhere within the republican ecosystem that would satisfy republicans' views of how health care should be implemented and still protect americans not just against preexisting conditions but have insurance all together. they're trying to play a game with the american voters of kicking the can past the election and fool americans that they have never had a plan and never will have a plan that people will like. >> it's much easier to make

false promises about a plan that does not exist. that's what will happen. as he has done before. house republicans are ramping up their fight to gain access to the full version of robert mueller's report on his russia probe. the house jacket has revealed plans to vote tomorrow to authorize spoon as for the roughly 400-page report and its underlying material. the move comes after lawmakers rejected a deal for william barr to hand over a version of the document. they are weighing subpoenas from five former white house officials related to that investigation. that includes former white house counsel don mcgahn, former white house chief of staff prince priebus, former white house communications director hope hicks, former white house chief

strategist steve bannon and former white house deputy counsel ann donaldson. meanwhile jared kushner is dismissing krconcerns over the authorization of his security clearances as a white house whistleblower raised red flags. elijah cummings revealed yesterday that trisha newbold met with committee staff to relay her issues about the dysfunction she says she's witnessed over the past two years. newbold has sfrd erved for both democratic and republican presidents, say that president trump overruled at least 25 denials despite concerns about black mail, influence and said

it could jeopardize national security and that coming forward marked her last hope to bring the integrity back into the office. chairman cummings said his committee will subpoena the person personnel head at the white house today and that more subpoenas may follow. >> so, david ignatius, first of all what are your concerns about the fact that 25 recommendations were overruled by donald trump and his administration regarding security clearances that this oversight panel felt should not be handed out? >> joe, i think this is a classic example, if it's proven to be true, of executive overreach and manipulation of decisions. the process of granting security clearances is one of the most serious and sensitive things that the government does. anybody who has to go through

the process knows just how detailed it can be. for there to be these cases that so troubled this career security official that she has decided to be a whistleblower, to come to congress to talk about it tells you the seriousness of it. in these cases, the allegation is that the normal review process led to questions or an outright refusal to grant a clearance that was overruled by the president and those closest to him. that is the kind of thing that drives the intelligence agencies crazy, for them, you know, this is the absolute foundation on which they do their business. they have to trust the people who receive the information. lives have been risked to get this information. so i think we're going to hear a lot more about this. the specific individuals who are going to be called by ef alija cummings, whose documents have been requested include jared

kushner, ivanka trump, we wrote this morning john bolton and others on that list. but this is one that people should take very seriously. >> katty, it's a dramatic story because of these 25, they raise specific concerns about some of them possibly being open to bla blackmail, bribery and other undue influences, that could impact decisions they made about america's national security. >> yeah, you may have during the course of an administration one or two of these instances come up in the course of a normal administration where somebody is putt poured for security clearance, the officials come back and say we have problems about it and there is a problem with that one individual. i think the issue is there are 25 here and that's a lot of

people put forward by the trump administration. you wonder why is the administration people putting forward people on a regular basis, amid that that they may have -- does that make you look at the process from the president downwards make you think things are being repeated and perhaps not taking things very seriously, the possibility of blackmail or conflict of interest. >> and speaking of patterns that mute raise eyebrows, the list of people ef alija cummings is calling to his committee to gather evidence about the trump administration, there was a former next to every name. former chief of staff reince priebus, former staffer hope hicks, former staffer steve bannon, former legal counsel, i

mean on and on. don mcgahn, these people owe donald trump no loyalty and they have seen, unless you're the president's son, what happens when you lie to congress. you get sent to jail. >> and also remember that a lot of this happened during the first year of the trump administration, which is when the president was having that particularly difficult time with intelligence community. as david points out, this is something that is going to raise a real red flag in the intelligence community. but i think the fact in a elijah cummings is calling these people, they're from the early days of the trump administration also reminds us of the friction that there was between the intelligence community and this office. it's almost as if the intelligence community says about these people, what the system says about these people, the system that is designed to protect our country, i want these people in anyway. so to hell with the intelligence community, i'm going to do it my

way. >> and that's really troubling. mika, by the way, those subpoenas i understand are actually from the judiciary and jerry nadler. >> got to get our subpoenas right here. >> let's move over to politics for a second. mayor pete raised $7 million. it was a big shock. he was not expected to do that well. and up also have big news coming out of kamala harris's camcampa. >> yeah, announcing she raised $12 million from 218,000 individual contributors in the first two months of her presidential bid. harris's campaign tells nbc news the average individual contribution in the first quarter was $55. that's higher than nor bernie sanders' ofaverage donation of 0 and beto o'rourke's average of

$47. kamala harris said 98% of her contributions are under $100. i think this is a big moment. >> yeah, this is great. this is a great moment. jim vandehei, there's suddenly, you know, it used to be who got the bundlers, who got the big money and now we're hearing who has the smallest donation. it's a race to the widow's penny. you know, nothing but poor widows in the back of the church weeping handed me a penny and you raise that to the and i rai -- that together and i raised -- >> what are you saying? it's a good thing. >> please, i hate to burst everybody's bubble and i hate to go against conventional wisdom because, my gosh, it sure is locked in on the left, but guess what money is -- money is money. it's not about money, it's about

money when you're running campaigns. so if somebody comes in and they raise $50 million a quarter and a lot of it comes from big money and bundler, that money spends like money. this is uncle joe's fireside chat in the morning about money, this obsession about it has to be small. yes, it's very impressive that bernie sanders it raise $14 trillion with an average of -- but in the end you know what you need? you need money, jim. >> i'm pretty clinical about this. to win elections, you often do knee money to run ads, to undercut your opponent, you often have to criticize them. so there's a lot to -- you now

have several candidates. you have beto, you have her, bernie sanders, mayor pete, all of whom have been very impressive early on in different areas of the democratic party. you're likely to have biden join in soon. he'll instantly be at the top of the poll despite the recent two allegations against him and all the coverage oflen is reporting michael bloomberg is rethinking whether he would run. he has something that joe was just talking about at scale, billions, literally has billions of dollars he could allocate if he's not going to get it in $25 incelts. from himself. >> hold on. on this equal pay day, let's talk about money because it is always about the money. i try and tell women that every day. but kamala harris making $12 million benchmark here, average

donation of $20 does show that she's hitting a nerve with people and in such a kroupd it had pao and it as big a news story as mayor pete's $7 million, maybe bigger. >> speaking of money, let's go to our money man steve rattner. first question, can i borrow some money? >> $20, absolutely. >> i think $20 million for kamala harris is great. bigger bundlers haven't jumped into the fray yet because hillary clinton raised much more, but in this crowded field, $12 million is a great number to put up on the board. steve rattner, though, we still doesn't know as many reports said last newt how much money

was spent going out to farm small donations. ben carson raised all of this money but a ton of it of the was and you're going to basically fishing for these small donations so you can turn around and say look at all the small donations i got. wee still don't know about $12 million, cam la harris, wouldn't you consider that to be pretty dan impressive? >> it's pretty dan impressive. every cycle is different and this one will be no as you implied, there are going to be bragging points if your donation size is small. that said, there will be a role for bundlers, but the candidates are trying to minimize that for fairly similar political reasons, but what's really happening here is candidates are going through the lane that they

can get through in terms of, raising a lot of small dollar money. bernie sanders raising all of his money in small dollars. kamala harris is being very clever. she's still raising a fair amount of money from bundlers, but she's also got a great online prs pence if you go through all of her math, you'll see you can divide it between o folks and so called offline folks. the guy who is going to surprise us i think is bernie sanders. he did say raising $900,000 from

2,000 contributors at $20. if you do the math, it $18 million dollars. >> bernie sanders remains the most underrated and underreported candidate. how can that be in. >> people don't take him seriously. >> people aren't talking about him as much. there's a flash over here that everybody follows. i will say it dpen. bernie sanders is the most underestimated, underreported candidate in this race, and i think steve is right with he releases his list of contribution ps, a lot of people that are going to be shocked that shouldn't shocked because bernie's been there all along. >> it's only tuesday but

candidate pete buttigieg has already had a busy woeek. just before 9 a.m. yesterday, the couple was hoping to get married before their baby was delivered and they wanted buttigieg to do the honors. so they showed up at his office. he wasn't expecting anybody and these people show up and he gets everyone on his staff to become witnesses and he favories them. just a monday. >> still ahead on "morning joe," we'll dig into the conversation surrounding joe biden right now. new york city columnist david brooks offered this perspective, quote, when i started covering politics,s by how often politicians made physical contact with voters and journalists. joe biden, who emerged in that era is one of the finest people i've ever covered, but there is clearly another viewpoint to

this story. we'll talk about all of it just ahead. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> good morning to you, mika. and we're actually lucky that this one is just far enough off the coast to be a glancing blow for a lot of people or we would have had a are the of headaches. doesn't tell you are friends in south carolina today, it's going to be windy and flading offer the next two. it's going to be increasing intensity a lot in the next 24 hours. obviously slow travel driving through those areas. this is 6 a.m. this morning. all of north carolina gets into the mess. we don't get a lot of wasn't, heading up the to beaches it will move into southern new england, its lated power outage

is ponl ms.le of the country looks fine and chicago is not bad. many people are wondering when will spring arrive and warm up? we start to warm things up as we head to p toward the upcoming weekend. new york city will just be brushed by the storm, not expecting much in the way of any rainfall in new york city and i have 60s, maybe even 70s in new york city. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. joe." we'll be right back. plants capture co2. what if other kinds of plants captured it too? if these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. carbon capture is important technology - and experts agree. that's why we're working on ways to improve it.

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a second woman has come forward to accuse former vice president joe biden of inappropriate contact that made her feel uncomfortable. 4 43-year-old former congress an

aide amy lapos says it happened while she was volunteering at a political fund-raiser in greenwich, connecticut in 2009. here she is telling part of her story. >> he came over and he just like slid his hands behind my neck and pulled me close and i was thinking i had like ten minutes of thoughts in like two seconds because i was thinking is he going to kiss me? you know, what is he doing? what's going on? are we about to kiss, are we going to make out. you know, like, i don't know, i just -- confused, you know. and our noses touched and then he rubbed noses with me for like ten seconds, 15 seconds. he was saying something to me, i don't remember what. and, yeah, it was uncomfortable. it was like a little weird.

>> lapos said i never filed a complaint, to be honest because he was the vice president, i was a nobody. there's absolutely a line of decency, there's a line of respect. crossing that line is not grandfatherly, it's not cultural, it's not affection, it's sexism or misogyny. she also adds this quote, if biden truly supports women and gender equality, he would step aside and support one of the many talented and qualified women running. >> the same goes for the other men who have thrown their hat in the ring. women are 52% of the population. we are not a minority, we are

the majority. it is time we are represented as such. who wants to talk about this one? >> there's a generational issue at hand with joe biden. sometimes there's a cultural issue. i remember famously jimmy carter at the opening of the j.f.k. library leaning over and kissing jacqueline kennedy at the cheek by saying in the north a gentleman does not kiss a woman in public or something like that. i forget. it was this cultural differentiates. and maybe with biden it is a gener generational difference, but i do have a feeling we're going to be watching candidates campaign far differently than they ever have before. you know, when i ran people wanted to hug me, man, i hugged them. and there was -- you never thought anything twice about it. in fact, those type of candidates that were, i mean, i

never rubbed anybody's nose or kissed them on the back of their head on the campaign trail, but those type of candidates were actually seen as effective candidates that could connect with voters. now you get the feeling the only safe thing to do if you're running for office is just like, hey, how's it going. and keep a safe distance. i'm not exactly sure what this development means not on for joe biden but also for campaigning in general. >> joe, the rules of politics are changing, as they are for most things. i think it's important to listen to the women who are expressing something they didn't say at the time, which is that they were uncomfortable about biden's behavior. a the "new york times" columnist michelle goldberg said it i thought just right in the head

headline is it's not that he's a sexual predator, he's out of touch. the old school touchy feely, give them a hug and a kiss, that's the way politicians behaved and it reinforces the sense that joe biden is a pretty old guy. we have a young are electorate and new ideas and tngss. for me we'll have to sort through what's being alleged and what isn't, but the thing that's clear and that biden can't escape is he's from a different generation and is that what america wants right now? >> well, a different generation. it does underline how old he is, mika. also, things have changed. even since he left the vice presidency three, four years ago, late-night comics would

show him swearing people in and people would laugh going, yeah, look at joe. it wasn't just creepy joe. >> he's affectionate and i'm just going to push back and i know i put myself at great peril here, there could be more, whatever. more of what? i want to ask. so far these two women have gotten national coverage for something they say was not sexual. so what was it? affectionate and they didn't like the affection? i don't know what line we're drawing here. and katty kay, you retweeted karen timilty's piece that basically taubes about how biden needs to change his behavior but the mob needs to cut it out, too. i'm worried about the mob here. this is not where me-too wants to go in my opinion. maybe thousands of women will come forward and prove me wrong. i don't think so.

i don't think me-too wants to take down striebl candidates but not sexual in their con tekt with women. this is not the line we want to draw ps, until her on is questioned and put in a position where he has to defend himself. you're on someone who supports the me-too movement until it's your son or husband who is needing to defend himself? we're getting tied up in a knot here in terms of what we're doing and what we're against. and it's equal pay day. this all does come down to money. this comes down to our ability to be an equal in the workforce, to be an equal in society. but to be equal, we have to be on the side of right and we have to support due process and do we really, catty kay, you know joe biden. is this really where we want to go with me-too? >> and joe biden has within a

champ women and women's led legislation recently during himself vice presidency. i think there's a lot of complicated things there. joe just talked about the that that he was on the campaign trail, i think women can distinguish between a hug that feels completely nonappropriate and something that feels inappropriate but they can't quite define way. i think that's what pao and i also agree a social movement like the me-too movement has to become more sophisticated and mature in its responses. in karen's piece, she was saying in way it deals with past transgressions and are there things that are seen as more extreme than the other. meanwhile, if we're going to

color each with the same brush, it's going to eat itself. democrats can understandably, and you've seen the number of people that have rallied behind joe biden in the last 24 hours has been impressive, both from the democratic and the republican side but democrats understandably can look at the allegations against joe biden and say hold on a second, we have a press and said things far, far worse and he got elected after that "access hollywood" tape came out. how is this fine for donald trump but joe biden perhaps can't even launch his campaign because of allegations that are far, far different than. >> i think karen timilty makes a rahal good point when sao says joe kwp if he does campaign, new day, new campaign cale, new

reality. >> well, i think that's sad. >> what's that? >> i think that's sad. i think the next time i see joe biden if he doesn't hug me and give me a kiss and hold my hand while we're talking to you, that's a new joe biden and that's not the he's not a predator and this is ridiculous. let me just say it, this is ridiculous. it's completely -- the whole thing -- the conversation has gotten out of control. and democrats and those on the left who want to tweet me today and go nut and get all, you're killing the very people who have been pushing women ahead, who been fitting, who have been doing everything they can to respect women m their lives and we're going to go after joe biden to being affectionate to women of all ages and to wom

womentoday marks six months s sin -- we're going to be talking to david ignatius about the state of u.s. slaush saudi relationships today. the president of the washington post did something he rarelies did. hugh put up tough on head. p tou. welcome to fowler, indiana. p tou. one of the windiest places in america. and home to three bp wind farms. in the off-chance the wind ever stops blowing here... the lights can keep on shining.

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we are learning more about how the kingdom of saudi arabia is attempting to influence outside opinion regarding the murder of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi at the hands of saudi agents. the post has learned that jamal khashoggi's children has received compensation in the form of multi-million dollar houses and monthly five-figure payments. those sources also say that

jamal khashoggi's two sons and two daughters may also receive much larger payouts, which could total tens of millions of dollars each. it's part of what's being called blood money negotiations, which reportedly are aimed at least in part ensure jamal khashoggi's children ensure -- >> in "the washington post," "sadly the most sub missive figure in this story is president trump. even after irrefutable evidence came to lie showing the saudis had lied about jamal khashoggi's

murd murder, trum of proclaimed mohammed bin salman a "great ally" and protested that the crown prince might well be innocent. trump seems all too willing to sell out america's principles. there is no artistry to the deal if you are willing to cave on the key terms. >> all right. so, you know, fred ryan brings up a great point. >> so many great points. >> donald is so strangely after arguing he was going to be a strong president and strength was really his watch word, he seems impotent whenever he's being confronted. whether it's him being impotent

when confronted by the saudis or being impotent when confronted at helsinki by vladimir putin and the russians or when confronted by the turks. it just constant. david ignatius, fred ryan is right. his response to this killing of your colleague has been impot t impotent. there's nothing of note to speak of. where is the u.s.-saudi relationship today six months after the killing of your colleague at the "washington post"? >> joe, i think the simplest way to describe it is that u.s.-saudi relations are frozen pending some accountability in the kingdom. prince mohammed bin salman must

take responsibility for actions done in his name by operatives of his government. fred ryan, our publisher, has really led our whole newspaper in trying to keep faith with the memory of jamaal. the first thing i would say six months later is we miss him. he was a very popular person in our newsroom and it's still a shock to us. i think as shocking as his murder is the sort of willful disdain the saudis have shown. they haven't released the names of those who have been charged in his murder, they've released almost no details. we don't even know to this day six months later what happened to his body. the saudis who disposed of it certainly know, but there's been no public statement whatsoever. and then finally, as fred ryan, our publisher said, president trump, the leader of the united states, has yet to speak up for america, our values, a journalist who was working for

an american newspaper. trump said at one point about mohammed bin salman, the crown prince, maybe he did it, maybe he didn't. that's just not acceptable for an american leader. so this is a day -- >> not acceptable at all. >> -- we're thinking back on somebody we felt was a colleague, was my personal friend. it's painful to remember but we're holding on to the values that he represented, which really is what journalism is all about anywhere in the world. >> katty, how has the murder of jamal khashoggi impacted relations with britain, france, the eu? >> there was some pressure to isolate mohammed bin salman. you had people not attending conferences in saudi arabia. you had perhaps even more importantly than that a renewed focus on the war in yemen and we saw resolutions going through

congress here as well as in the eu about the war in yemen and outside support for the war in yemen but six months on and worse predictably, that pressure has just died because it's not being led from the white house. if the white house had really championed this, i think we would have seen broader international support for some kind of punitive action against prince mohammed bin salman and his role in this. >> and border shutdown. president trump is threatening to shut the southern border this

week. some top republicans are urging caution, warning about the impact to the economy. steve rattner has charts ahead on "morning joe." ing joe.

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as new polling shows donald trump faltering in pennsylvania, today the suburbs of pittsburgh will vote in a special election for a vacant state senate seat, the first major bellwether since the 2018 midterms. national reporter josh leaderman reported from the district this weekend. >> pennsylvania, thank you. >> reporter: pennsylvania put donald trump over the top in 2016, but last year it took him down a notch when democrat connor lam flipped a republican house seat with a message of

unity. >> attack the problems, not each other. >> reporter: trump needs pennsylvania to win in 2020, but republicans are losing ground, dropping three congressional seats and 16 in the state legislature since trump's election. while a new survey shows trump losing pennsylvania to every democratic candidate, in some cases by double digits. and today another test in the industrial midwest, a special election in a district that went for trump by six points, then swung towards democrats last year. republicans hope to keep the seat with a first generation american who emphasizes his background and jobs. >> this is what i've done as a business ceo all my life. >> reporter: while democrats run a moderate, a long-time navy officer in the bush administration. >> we will falter if we don't start working across the aisle. >> reporter: both candidates are trying to nationalize the race while person ads link the democrats to alexandria ocasio-cortez. a battle for those swing voters

who will make or break the volt for tr -- vote for trump next year. >> josh, tell us what issues are important to them and how connected are they to identity politics? >> well, mika, clearly health care, education at the top of the list of issues that have been dominating this race. a lot of the races we're seeing on the ground. the democrat here, pam iovino clearly aware that while trump support may be eroding in the suburbs, he does have a lot of support that democrats can't aennatae aliena alienate. you see her trying to distance herself and running on the fact that she was a george w. bush appointee saying clearly i'm not that kind of democrat. i think there are lessons here, particularly as the republican in the race says that the brand of democrats in 2019 is

socialism, that when you have a primary that's going to be this long on the national stage and clearly the energy in the democratic base pretty far to the left, it's a green new deal, those kind of issues and mating t -- and i miimating the primari it's going to be really hard to pivot back to the center when it comes to winning back some of those centrist, moderate voters who are going to be so influential in picking the next president. >> where does health care come down in this? are they tuned into this renewed issue, renewed by the president? >> certainly. they're very focused on it. some of it is more on a parochial level, local battles between health care and nonprofits, how does this play out in my community. obviously different policies around medicaid and how some of the health care policies are

being rolled out. certainly health care the most frequent issue voters in this race seem to be talking about. >> nbc's josh lederman, thank you for being on the show this morning. it is just about the top of the hour this morning. we have former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner. washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay, joining the conversation, political reporter for "the washington post" and an msnbc political analyst, robert costa. he's the moderator of "washington week" on pbs. "usa today" opinion columnist and former senior adviser for the house oversight and government reform committee kurt bardella is with us and national correspondent for pbs newshour, omna badar. president trump gave a timeline

for the republican plan. here's the plan, it's going to come out in november of 2020, more than a year and a half away. there is no actual plan. that's when the plan is going to be announced. interesting. trump is also declaring the 2020 elections will be in part a referendum on health care. so it means he can make up all he wants about a plan that doesn't exist and then not follow through on his promises, repeating what he did the first time around, this despite congressional republicans telling reporters that they hope the president will drop the subject, fearing another democratic wave election in which health care was by far the most important issue to voters. in tweets posted after 10 p.m. washington time, the president writes "the republicans are developing a really great health care plan with far lower premiums, and deductibles than

obamacare. vote will be taken right after the election when republicans hold the senate and win back the house." >> this will be as if nancy pelosi flounced to democrats, hey, i've got a great idea, we're going to run as the pro-life party in 2020. donald trump bringing all this up of course, you know, reminds voters he promised universal health care on 60 minutes, he lied about that. he promised he wouldn't cut medicare. he lied about that. he promised he wouldn't cut medicaid, he lied about that. he promised that he had this great plan that was going to give everybody health care, cost him less money and less everything and here we are two years in and none of that's happened. republicans had never come up with a unifying being not on in

the administration but on the hill about republicans' response to donald trump making 2020 a referendum on health care? >> republicans on capitol hill have actually not been too skittish about the president's comments. they know the gop does not have a plan. they also think back to those comments the president made early on in 2017 about universal health care and they compare these recent comments and tweets. it's about politics now for president trump to try to signal to voters that the republican party does kaer even if they're not formally -- >> bob, can can you that the republicans have made opposition to obamacare their overriding policy position over the past 11 years or decade, past decade.

why is it that they still have been incapable of coming up with a unifying plan, an alternative to obamacare, and even now the president is saying they won't have one for the rest of 2019 or 2020. why is this issue been so hard for republicans to craft a response? >> it would be easy for people to say republicans are simply disorganized, but based on my reporting, they are making a choice. they choose not to address things like medicare or medicaid. they choose not to go after preexisting withins this but they know on these tricky, thorny health care issues, there's not a political appetite out there the country to so for

now, as they have before, they're talking about them but not pursuing them in an aggressive way on theare you still a republican? >> i am not. i am officially a democrat. >> organization so both of our former parties. >> what's left? >> this is like my support group right here. >> yeah. a lot of things about the republican party i liked, they were physically responsible, i liked at least my wing of the party's view on foreign policy. but we could never get our act together when it came to health care. so many of us ran against hillary clinton and then of course the tea party came in in 2010 running against barack obama's health care reform. why is it impossible -- why

can't republicans come up with a health care plan that can unite their caucus, unite their party and appeal to the american people? >> you know, i think, joe, a lot of it is easier to be against something and for nothing. for they took back the house in 2010 running against obamacare and continued to hold their majority in 2012 and 2014 and 2016. i think there is that mindset if it ain't broke, don't fix it. i everybody predominantly thought that donald trump would not become the president of the united states, therefore, it want their problem to fix health problems. they felt like they didn't need them to be mr. cost of why they

lost the majority of or mid term tell he is now ensured through husband tweet morm and the absurdity of saying i have a congratulate policeman and after you vote me back in. good luck with that. >> again, that was mika, richard nixon's secret plan to win in van in 1972, which he admitted to david frost later that he had no such plan. but again, the danger for republicans here should be obvious from their historic route in 2018 and they've got a president who in 2020 -- like i can tell you guys now, in 2020 donald trump is going to run and there are going to be clips of donald trump promising universal health care and lying about it. there are going to be hips there

are clips of him promising. they're going to be clips of all of the promises he made on health care and 33% of americans just won't give a damn but the majority. americans will and it will defeat donald trump and every republican that aligns with him. >> and the difference here is it not just word going out into the ethey are where he can brand things and then go, you know, move on and not even fulfill his promises like the wall, like the bored are. he's making accusations and promises that he will not keep and like health care during the campaign, he made promises. he didn't keep them. peep people who depend on some sort of health care to help pay for the incredible cost of their preexisting conditions.

they are they're scared. people are now lived through the. and i know a lot of americans just in general have become very frustrated because the president will spit out a series of lies in a day. >> exoneration. >> the president will say things like that are bigoted, that play on racism, that play on fear, that suggest he has no respect for the rule of law, that he has no respect for the independence of the federal judiciary. that he has no respect for the free press. i understand that. but the bill comes due. that's what americans have to understand. yes, he's -- >> republican need to understand it. americans are handing them t

thethere is not a referee that americans can listen to to say this is the truth, this but you look at what happens in this country every two years. that's when americans become the official and donald trump's lies, his bigotry, what happened at charlottesville, what happened with with his travel ban, what happened with his disrespect for judge judges, what happened with disrespect for the press. that bill came down do you know in 2018 in november and republicans suffered an historic loss, the likes of which no party has ever suffered before in terms of vote total.

that happens again in 2020 and there is no place do you want to hide behind his promises? here's another one. as prum continues his thread toseveral republicans who represent border states are urging caution. they're noting that mexico was the nation's third largest trading and disruptions it's estimated $5 billion in good crossed the border in trucks and trains last year. that doesn't include products shipped by air and sea. congressman michael mccaul of the president made that statement out of fran prp he's

going to actually shut off the border. and another texas republican, senator john cornyn said, quote, i understand the consequences of that i think would be bad for everybody. >> and senator it is my view that we've got to keep the legitimate trade and travel and cross-border commercial happening and steve rat are in, you have charts for us on the issue. take it away. what you got? >> we got some stuff sfchl the economic impact, which i do want to talk about what is going on out there. as this chart shows, after many years of decline and a number of illegal border crossings, they have in fact gone up a bit in these past 12 months. these are monthly numbers on a 12-year rolling basis.

you can see in the very small gray line they've jumped recent more. when trump threatens to close the border, more people show up. it important wreck mied who were trying to pass the under president braurk, illegal under the obama administration. why is it that border crossings are sky scoy rocketing against they were up in the $1.6 million range. they plummeted in part of he was

lbd and this happen when people think this be be now they're coming up because of a change in mix. that's what i'm going to show you on the next chart, that there's psh i i can answer your question. with you. . most were mexicans coming here looki lookingwhen you fast forward to february of 2019, they've dromd and have become a minority of people coming across. what is made up this.

i will talk about the terrorism and f so these are not the traditional immigrant to f so we have people fleeing their own country in order to be safe. they're very much like the syrians who left their country and went into europe a few years ago. >> steve, we've heard that donald trump is threatening to cut aid to el salvador. a lot of republicans and democrats alike say this would be a disaster because it would increase the flow of refugees north. is that your belief and is that the belief of nest poll we've been cutting edge to thos can i trump wants to cut it to zero. in el safl bore, i think of

expert in this area, which nm in mexico is our third largest trading partner after china and canada. and then as you can see, the other drop done wp and mika rad is that it's not just that we import finish good for mexico, we impore good that are in the ps car part often db assembled at the outset we get enormous amounts of fresh produce from mexico. it has to come on a realtime basis.

shutting down that border would be an major bum assaying they understand that. >> you've been on the ground covering this story. what's your reaction to what the president is saying and what steve rattner was saying. >> the closing and after five years, politicalin f. i've now been to texas, newark. as they were happen hending coming across the border. the other distanks is how have

coming across the bored nrmt so we need to add some new apps. in in most interesting me, tho had nrn and, yes, they are taxing the system in an unprecedented way. even the physical structures in the system. i'm talking about the places that the families and kid first get it and into itthese were meant to nshlt, it's really hard to process this is happening and unfolding in the united states and legally. on on top of that, you look at what's. you know, i talked to border patrol officials who tld me they

made specific requests for things that. it's also just for immigration violations. they're also keeping pim people on the other side of the border. in some ways the thing they're doing is taxing the system they're complaining is it. >> would be be awant to run away from or at last i did. do we expect that the border, the wall, border crossings, this rush of refugees will at the end of the day be the center piece of donald trump's 2020 reelection campaign? >> there's proof of it out on the campaign trail. over the weekend i was with vice

president ppts senator graham also well known in washington for his long work on comprehensive immigration reform. not a mention of that over the weekend with the vice president. not a mention of his work with the late senator john mccain on immigration. instead it was talk of build the wall, staving off primary challenges in the p these senate races. you have a reb party from senator graham down to the base activist, who is stul. >> catty, unchanged in the united states also of course what is going on with brexit? what is happening? >> drudge drives her net i

follow news from britain all the time. i just can't figure out why they outlasted things. >> so earlier in the from prp because there is in plan 15 different people have 15 different ideas and no one can agree on neg. we came up with this idea inafter voting in that referendum, we still doesn't know what we want that roo eegssome people in britain want to be more european, some people want to be moe and that

fundamental split shens. >> we don't know what we're going to be doing. we have until april the 12th to come up with a plan. so, joe, if you have one and you want to sell it to parliament and you want to bring it to tear's a. j jos. >> jessica: >> denis: this is a remarkable business kof it that one vote on one day has paraliesed fwrt and -- for three years and could impact it for the next 30 years where in the united states one vote does nothing. we have so many checks and

balances and it really does seem remark that the british just can't go back and vote again. why don't they vote again? >> they tried that last night in parliament. it was one of the four options and they could not get a majority for it. if we is learned anything. if you go to the country if do you want to be in the european union? do nont with would say after o. people are either more adamantly pro leave or they are more add

let me ask you, kurt, what are you looking at? what story are you looking at this week? >> oversight. >> well, today they will vote on improve one go had woman yesterday a when isle blow sfrm we're kroor frrm that should terrify everybody that people with the closest top secrets of national security are getting acts to them and this shouldn't be. it will be really revealing of what was on those forms that

concern these -- when that gets disposed, that's going to be a massive scandal. >> robert costa, what are you working on today? >> you got to keep an eye on capitol hill. in-house explosithe zrch kurt b la and roberts coulda pab and says the president's 2020 cam pan tam will n. >> among them --

>> new mexico, a state that trump loss. we'll talk a 2a dependwhen congressman ben ray lieuan joins the conversation. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ fly like an egg eggle i'm free! i'm free technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad, get e*trade.

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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. and deny access to individualized therapies millions depend on. call the white house today.

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>> good morning. yesterday i had the honor of announcing to the american people and my friends in nuke thatly be running for tpresiden. all that's been announced is if they're in power in 2020, they will try to do it again, going after people with preexisting conditions, young adults who stay on their parents' plans until they're 26. the notion that we finally got rid of hive lyme caps and notion that but i'm confident we'll get this done. as meche mcdonnell. and now we need to make sure we flip the senate so we can deliver or the fern people but we can't do that until we about

t the. new mexico blue, do you think you have a strong i don't think new mexico to those better border states. are you starting to look at new mexico and fch pfrm as we saw in many other parts of mrk. general grish some won with a great deal of supports. we cannot underestimate donald trump. we have to stay focused and stay active. but as you look at the turnout in texas and los angeles last cycle, as the former chair of the democratic campaign anxiety, we ticked up heats in airs and in both states. i believe that she has a chance of flipping both those states

but it's going to mean that we get the electorate exsiders and inspire voters and earn their krs experience the we'll in central america and mexico are no longer. what's your position on what we should do about it? should we let some of them in under asylum. as doing nn. whiles that going on, what's your position of how we should solve this problem? >> el with, first president donald trump's announcement that he was going to cut off aid to the three countries is the wrong decision. there's a reason why national security advocates are pushing

back against the president. what he should be doing is reaching out to work with those countries, to make investments so that we can address the violence, the very nature of why child to passed a come hence of reform package. and, number three, just as democrats led the issue to open up the government, when we led not with juster security but humanitarian investments. i went down in lordsesburg to see the why they're being treated and i traveled down children should not be torn away from their parents. we're seeing this administration double down on efforts putting

people in harm's way. pass what comprehensive immigration reform pack and, the president should walk away from setting up aid and bring the congress together. it's time to lead, mr. president, let's get this done together. >> congressman ben ray lujan, thank you very, very much for being on this morning. >> still ahead, as a massive retrump lashes out given at preekian leaders. >> i signed this bill for my daughter bus i about there are no limits to their frm their mothers and grand mothers never could have emergencyas today.

we mark equal pay day, highlighting the pay gap that still exists between working men and women. we will be marking equal pay day all week long and far beyond that with important knowing your number and advocating for yourself. to do that, her new book in and you can cub scribe to our newsletter by texting value to of 6866. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ack in a moment when you rent from national...

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now to some other stories making headlines this morning. a massive disaster relief bill that would provide emergency aid to victims of hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and more has been defeated in the senate.

democrats opposed to the legislation arguing that the $600 million proposed for nutritional assistance in storm ravaged puerto rico was not enough. president trump opposes sending any additional aid to puerto rico, apart from the food stamp money. after the senate voted down the disaster relief package, trump took to twitter, complaining about funding for the island and calling san juan mayor cruz a frequent critic, quote, crazed and incompetent. he has resumed his criticisms of leaders in puerto rico on twitter just a short time ago. >> and why should anybody be surprised? >> boeing says it has delayed the software update for its grounded 737 max jets by at least several weeks. the aircraft company decided further work was needed on the software fix before it was submitted to the federal aviation administration for

approve approximately boeing was hoping to submit the updat as early as this week. it is unclear what specific changes the company need to be made to the software. >> steve, we've read a lot of stories over the past few weeks on boeing and the software and what's happened. what's your take right now? what do our viewers need to know? >> look, what's going on right now is boeing has to make absolutely 100% no margin for error, no slippage, no nothing that this new system will work perfectly, and it's complicated. it's obviously a very sophisticated piece of software and they have to develop it, then they have to test it and they had a bunch of pilots out to seattle recently to start flying in simulators and see how it worked. they have to get feedback and then go through an approval process, not just with the faa but all around the world.

it's costing the ann looirs and inbut they're not going to let them fly until there's 100% srnity. when these airplanes do fly, they will be the safest airplanes in the sky, can i promise you that. >> also, admitting his ongoing defeats amid defense spending being president trump is hosting nato's secretary-general, all part of nato's 0th anniversary this wednesday. >> what a great signal to send all of our one so-called -- few things surprise me. i was shocked to see just how

badly erdogan lost not on in ankara but in some of. very places his power is set. >> erdogan has been one long power grap. he's repressed the press. he's attacked his political opponents. he's very in istanbul, and what had been seen as unthink is president erdogan actually. inthe invincible, the economy is doing badly, he is losing popularity and one of those strong men that president trump seems to have a close relationship with has just had a big political defeat. >> boy, mika, probably his

biggest political setback in his 15, 16 years of running turkey. >> well, we'll follow that. up next, we're going to bring in acclaimed sports journalist rick reilly for his enough book entitled commander in cheat. how golf explains trump. among s trump. amon don't count that, i was interfered with. >> yes, sir. >> by the way, what does mr. webb shoot? >> like 68, i think. >> i don't believe it. really? >> [ bleep ]. >> why don't you improve your lie a little, sir. >> yes, winter rules. er rules everyone's got to listen to mom.

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into the lake in trump jersey and his caddie told him he found it. >> was the caddie soaking wet when he found it? >> no, he was not. he was just like i got it, trum. >> gotcha. >> that was samuel jackson describing golfing with donald trump. according to our next guest so many caddies got used to seeing him kick his ball back into the fairway, that he called him pay lay. robert riley writes in his book "commander-in-cheat". he cheats when people are watching. he cheats when they aren't. he cheats whether you like it or not. he cheats because that's how he plays golf. that's how he learned it. that's how he needs it. whether you're his pharmacist or tiger woods, if you're playing golf with him, he's going to

cheat. rick, thank you so much for being with us. >> he did cheat tiger woods. he was playing in a match with tiger and dustin johnson anders playing with a guy named brad on his team and hits the second shot in the water and says to faxon throw me another one. he didn't see. he says what? faxon throws him another ball. he chunks that in the water. then goes in and drop and says he was putting for four. he should be putting for six. tiger hit for birdie so it didn't matter. that's the kind of golfer he is. >> that really explains when you walk into his office or old office in trump tower he would have all of the club trophies from his clubs. all the championships that he won and he would sit there pointing at every one of the club championships and he just sat there sort of smiling going, yes, i know how you won the club

championship at your own clubs. so talk about how golf explains donald trump. >> exactly. i used to be friends with arnold palmer. he never got in business with a guy unless he played a round of golf with him first. i asked why. in four hours you can't hide who you are. if he cheats on the course he'll cheat in business. if he's honest and fun on the course he'll be honest and fun in business. he said he won 18 club championships. i'm like you liar. because you told me how you did it when i played with you years ago. he said when he buy as new course he plays the first-round by himself and call that the club championship. so i started looking into, started calling around. people said yeah. one day he was at trump philly and we played the trump championship at bedminster and he called who won the championship. they said joe schmoo shot 76.

trump said i shot 73. make me the champion. when you walk into the clubhouse his name is instead of joe schmoo, it's trump. the thing that bothers me, okay, golf. but when he started campaigning on this as i'm a winner. i can close out. i've won 18 club championships against the best players. that bothered me. i don't know anything about politics. but i know about golf. you can do that. ten were super senior championships which is not the club championship at all. >> boy, you know, you see tweets from lindsey graham who goes out and golfs with him and other republicans and said really enjoyed a round of golf with president trump today. president trump shot a 73 in windy and wet conditions. yeah. now donald trump wouldn't shoot a 73 like on the top of the

rocky mountains on a par three course. >> a friend of mine asked me about that day, yeah 73. nobody putted out. putting out is the whole game. the pga senior championship was held at trump d.c. which isn't in d.c. at all. tom watson, none of them broke 76 in windy conditions from the same tees. so, would you rather have tom watson or donald trump playing your ball? i mean the lies are so crazy that it totally colors whatever he says to me about anything else. >> so, the most important thing about this steve is a window into his soul. like arnold palmer, if somebody is going cheat you over four hours of golf they will cheat you in business deals and in life. >> sure. in that vein you take a guy that's made a billion dollars or

more, but seems to think he has to have it be 10 billion. in golf people say he's not a bad golfer. he can hit the ball the long way. why can he settle for a decent score. why does it have to be everything you just said. >> i don't know. if you go on the index, look up his handicap it's 2.8. it took him eight years to post enough scores to get a handicap. he played 66 times last year. he's cherry picking his best rounds to stick in the computer. why? everybody who plays about him say he's a nine. why isn't that good enough? >> that's my question. >> he couldn't cover that 2.8 with chili. no way i would play for my house at a 2.8. he's a 10. 10 is good. he has a great follow through. he can chip. people have told me not only does he throw his bunker out of

the bunker he takes balls on the friends if you're not around and throws yours into the bunker. it's incredible that this guy passes himself off as a good golfer. he's not a great golfer as he wants you to believe. >> that is actually -- mika and i were asked to be on "the apprentice," whatever it was. and there was -- we did the golf round with him and i've been around a lot of really good golfers. he is a good golfer. but the guy does have a good swing. he's got a great follow through. he can hit the ball pretty darn hard. you're right. he's an eight, a nine, ten handicap. i've played with two handicaps. he ain't a two handy cap. >> like only 3% or 4% people over 70 are under a ten handicap. terrific golf game for his age. why microsoft you cheat?

golf is like bicycle shorts. it reveals a lot about a guy. what his game revealed in this book commander in cheat you might want to take a shower. >> rick riley, thank you very much. coming up after climbing the republican party will be the party of haik. the president punts the issue until after the 2020 election. and with the attorney general expected to miss today's deadline set by democrats to hand over the mueller report so everyone can see it finally, we could see subpoenas fly as early as tomorrow. "morning joe" is back in a moment. or are taking medicines that decrease

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well, he was already dancing-- locked eyes and continued dancing. i still have to like pinch myself and make sure i'm not dreaming. every now and then, i'm like, "wait, did that happen?" (gasps) i've got photos of it, it must have. (vo) get more music on us with vip tickets to the best shows, like shawn mendes and camila cabello. plus, save big when you switch. only on verizon. everybody has got to be covered. this is an unrepublican thing for me to say because a lot of times they say know the lower 25% can't afford private. but i'm going take care of everybody. >> your going to make sure that people with pre-conditions are still covered? >> yes. >> there's going to be a period, if you repeal it and before you replace it, when millions of people could lose -- >> we'll do it simultaneously. it will be just fine. >> unbelievably complex subject. nobody knew health care could be

so complicated. >> the republican party will soon be known as the party of health care. i understand health care now especially very well. a lot of people don't understand it. okay. so four years of promises and donald trump says he understands health care now but you won't see a plan for another 19 months. after boldly announcing the impending overhaul of health care he's tweeting the big vote will be taken right after the 2020 election. believe him. good morning. welcome to "morning joe". it is tuesday, april 2nd. with us we have former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner. washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay. columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius. and co-founder and ceo of axios, jim vannen hide. before we go into trump's promise we have big 2020 news.

kamala harris $20 million raised. we'll talk about her big haul in or sweep in. we know pete buttigieg made news by announcing that he raised $7 million. kamala harris is ahead of him. speaking of mayor pete, he got a couple married 45 minutes before they had a c section on the drop of a hat yesterday. we'll be talking about that and what's going on with him. so cute. >> david ignatius, you know, when i heard donald trump's promise, his secret plan to reform health care, which would be voted on after the 2020 election, i thought of richard knicks on's secret plan to get us out of vietnam which, of course, when david frost asked him after he was disgraced and out of office what was your secret plan?

nixon said i never had a secret plan. >> trump has so little credibility on health care. he decided he'll form the battle lines around 20 around the issue could predict with more confidence than any other will be trouble for him. tells you a little about his political judgment. reports are that republicans around him are basically aghast. this is such a terrible strategy. plays into the democrats era of strength. . but the president moves forward. >> you know, jim, this would be much like -- this is much like the democratic party deciding in 2020 we're going to be the party of pro life. we're going to go out and make, being pro life our top issue. health care, again, it was a nightmare in 2018. the largest landslide ever. in terms of vote totals.

donald trump has so many broken promises from 2016 that are going to be highlighted already, that actually draw that fight there where he's broken -- he's lied about, you know, health care for all. universal health care. he's lied about not cutting medicare. he's lied about not cutting medicaid. he's lied about lower deductibles. he's lied about lower premiums. he's lied about everything involving health care. so how bad of a situation is this for republicans if that is where donald trump decides to fight? >> i mean when you talk to republican leaders on capitol hill it's really bad because it's not just the last election but every election. health care touches everybody. one of the simple ruffles politics is, you know, when you take stuff away from people that's hard in politics. when people had coverage and don't have coverage it's hard to go and justify that or explain that you'll have a plan in two years.

one of the thing that's bedevilled republicans for some time they don't have a great plan that can cover everyone, cover pre-existing conditions, would bring down your health insurance costs, they struggled to come to a unified position. they end up fighting about court fights which is basically taking away parts of obamacare some of which people might not like but some do like. they like that their kids are covered. they do like pre-existing conditions are covered. that's the jam republicans feel they are put in and much rather fight about immigration and jobs, the economy, places that are much safer ground for republicans where they feel they have superior policy. >> steve rattner, if you look at the numbers from 2018, i guess there is no place for republicans to run. there is no place for republicans to hide when it comes election time because think about all the lies donald trump was throwing out at voters and he was talking about caravans filled with people like, you know, some of his

allies saying people with leprosy and botulism or whatever horrible diseases he was talking about. he was sending troops down to the border. he was talking about doing all of these dramatic things. his party just got -- the trump republicans got absolutely demolished. no reason to believe the same thing won't happen in 20. think about this. republicans have been attacking obamacare now for a decade. a decade. they've had no response to obamacare for a decade. now we have a president, the head of their party saying we're not going to even have a plan to replace obamacare by the time you guys go to vote next november. it's really, it's staggering how bereft of ideas this party is. >> well the whole thing on health care is incredible. as you know the republican house voted to repeal obamacare

something like 50 times under the obama administration. but they knew they could do that because the senate was never going pass it so they didn't have a plan. they show up and actually start to put a plan through congress. remember the american health care act and the house passed it. mccain voted again it for which trump is castigating him. that would have cost 23 million americans their insurance. trump is now castigating mccain for voting against it. so that happens. now he's saying we have no plan, we're going to have a plan sometime after 2020, he's been in office for two years. every poll says this is the most important issue. he obviously doesn't have a plan because he can't have a plan. there is no republican plan anywhere within the republican eco system that would satisfy republicans, views of how health

care should be implemented and still protect americans not just against pre-existing conditions but to have insurance all together and that's the conundrum they are facing. they are playing a game with american voters, kicking the can past the election and hoping to fool americans somehow some day they will have a plan when they never had a plan that people will like. >> it's much easier to make false promises about a plan that doesn't exist. and that's exactly what will happen. as he has done it before. house democrats are preparing to ramp up their fight to gain access to the full version of robert mueller's report on his russia probe. the democratic led house judiciary committee has revealed plans to vote tomorrow to authorize subpoenas for the roughly 400-page report and its under lyi underlining material. the move comes after william

barr said he would hand over a redacted report by mid-april. in addition to the mueller report lawmakers are also weighing possible subpoenas for documents from five former white house officials related to that investigation. that includes former white house counsel don mcgahn, former white house chief of staff reince priebus, hope hicks, former white house house chief strategist, steve bannon and former white house deputy counsel ana don'tson. a whistle blower is stepping forward. what she said happened behind closed doors when it came to granting top security clearance. you're moving "morning joe". we'll be right back. back.don't. yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely.

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jared kushner is dismissing concerns over the authorization of his security clearances as a white house whistle blower raised questions over that process. elijah cummings revealed yesterday that tricia newbold who works in the white house's personnel security office met with committee staff to relay her issues about the dysfunction she says she's witnessed over the past two years. newbold, an 18 year veteran of the security clearance process who has served in both republican and democratic presidents told lawmakers that the trump administration overruled at least 25 security clearance denials despite concerns about blackmail, foreign influence, or other red flags. she says that decisions to overturn those denials cou s

jeopardize national security. elijah cummings said his committee will subpoena the personnel security director at the white house during the first two year of the trump administration today and that more subpoenas may follow. >> so, david ignatius, first of all, what are your concerns about the fact that 25 recommendations were overruled by donald trump and i had administration regarding security clearances that this oversight panel felt should not be handed out? >> joe, i think this is a classic example, if it's proven to be true of executive overreach and manipulation of decisions. the process of granting security clearances is one of the most serious and sensitive things that the government does. anybody that ever had to go through the process knows just how detailed it can be. and for there to be these cases that so trouble this career

security official, tricia newbold that she has decided to be a whistle blower, to come to congress and talk about it, tells you the seriousness of it. in these cases, the eagles is that the normal review process led to questions or outright refusal to grant a clearance that was overruled by the president and those closest to him. that is the kind of thing that drives the intelligence agencies crazy. for them, you know, this is the absolute foundation on which they do their business. they have to trust the people who receive the information. lives have been at risk to get this information. i think we're going hear a lot more about this. the specific individuals who are going to be called by elijah cummings, whose documents have been requested including jared kushner, ivanka trump, we wrote this morning in the post, john bolton others on that list.

this is something people should take very seriously. >> again, it's dramatic story because of these 25, they raise specific concerns about some of them possibly being open to blackmail, bribery and other undue influences that could impact designates they made about america's national security. >> yeah. you may have during the course of an administration something that's different from the bush administration yesterday one or two of these incidents come up in the course of a normal administration where somebody is put forward for security clearance. the officials looking at that come back and say we have a problem with that, there's a problem with that one individual. the fact that there's 25 here, that's a lot of people who were put forward by the trump administration and it starts -- you start to wonder why is the administration putting forward people on a regular basis around whom there may be red flags that

they are susceptible to blackmail by some kind of foreign intelligence service or have conflict of interest around the foreign intelligence, in foreign countries and does that make you the process in the white house from the president downward, i think that these are things that are being repeated and, therefore, there's a pattern here in the white house of not taking these issues seriously. >> and speaking of patterns that might raise eyebrows, also the list of people elijah cummings is calling to his committee to gather evidence about the trump administration, there's a former next to every name. former chief of staff, reince priebus. reince priebus. former staffer hope hicks. former staffer steve bannon. former legal counsel. i mean on and on. don mcgahn. again, these people -- >> the turnover. >> they have seen what happens

unless you're the president's son what happens when you lie to congress, you get sent to jail. >> and also remember that a lot of this happened during the first year of the trump administration, which is when the president was having that particularly difficult time with the intelligence community. as david points out this is something that's going to raise a real red flag in the intelligence community but i think the fact that elijah cummings is calling these people, these people's names are up, from the early days of the trump administration also reminds us of the friction that there was between the intelligence community and this president right from the beginning, from the moment that he took office. it's almost as if the president is saying i don't care what the intelligence commune says about these people, i don't care what the system says about these people, the system that's designed to protect our country, i want these people in anyway. so to hell with the intelligence community i'm going to do it my way. >> coming up on "morning joe," kamala harris tells pete buttigieg i'll see your 7 and raise you 5.

what the senator's $12 million fundraising haul means in the democratic race for the presidency. "morning joe" is back in a moment. moment how do you determine the durable value of a business in the transportation industry without knowing firsthand the unique challenges in that sector. coming out here, seeing the infrastructure firsthand, talking with the people behind the numbers creates a different picture. once i know what a business is truly worth, we can make better informed investment decisions. that's why i go beyond the numbers. ♪

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let's move over to politics for a second because mayor pete raised $7 million. it was a big shock. he not expected to do that well. and you also have big news coming out of kamala harris' campaign. >> announcing she raised $12 million from 218,000 individual contributors in the first two months of her presidential bid. kamala harris' campaign says the average stricter was $55. that was higher than bernie sanders of $20 and beto o'rourke's orange donatiaverage leagues of $47. the average donation was 20 bucks. the campaign also said that 98% of her contributions were under $100. i think this is a big moment. >> this is great.

this is a great moment. jim, there's suddenly -- you know used to be who got the big money. now we're hearing who has the smallest donation. it's a race to the widow's penny. nothing but poor widows in the back of the church weeping handed me a penny and you raise it together with $5 trillion. >> what your saying >> this obsession on $27. >> it's good thing. >> you know what? please i hate to burst everybody's bubble and i hate to go against like, you know, i hate to go against conventional wisdom because my gosh it's locked in on the left. guess what money is? money is money. it's not about money. it's about money. when you're running campaigns. so if somebody comes in and they raise $50 million a quarter and a lot of it comes from big money and bundlers, you know how that

money spends? that money spends like money. this is uncle joe's fireside chat in the morning about money. this obsession about it. yes, it's very impressive that bernie sanders can raise $14 trillion with an average of $27. at the end of the day when you run out of moe and iowa is a week away. you know what you need? you need money, jim. that's what you need. >> it's not just the money. sort of the race sometimes to have a pledge you won't attack your candidates. i'm pretty clinical about this. to run campaigns you need money to run ads. to undercut your opponent you have to criticize them. there's a danger with these democrats that excite parts of the base early on that could hurt them down the road. that said kamala harris' fundraising total was impressive. you have several candidates, her, beto, bernie sanders, mayor

pete that have been impressive early on. you're likely to have biden join in soon. he'll instantly be at the top of the polls despite the recent two allegations against him and all the coverage of that. mike allen's reporting this morning that mayor bloomberg is rethinking whether or not he would run, especially if biden has troubles. he has something that joe is talking about as scale. billions, literally billions of dollars he would allocate to a race if he decided to run. he won't get it in $25 increments, he'll get it in billion dollar increments. >> coming up on "morning joe," susan page paints a remarkable new portrait of brass bush. we'll dig into the brand-new biography of the former first lady next on "morning joe". rnin" >> who knows somewhere out in this audience will be someone who one day follow in my foot

steps and preside over the white house as the president's spouse and i wish him well. [ laughter ] [ laughter ] no matter where you are in life or what your dreams entail,

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we learned to strife to be genuine and authentic by the best role model in the world. her authentic plastic pearls. not coloring her hair. she was beautiful until the day she died. the hugging of an hiv patient at a time her own mother wouldn't do it. standing by her man in the 1984 election. a thousand other ways brass bush was real and that's why people loved her and admired her so. >> joining us now washington bureau chief for "usa today" susan page. she's author of the new biography "the matriarch, barbara bush the making of an

american dynasty." also with us, john meacham. an nbc news and msnbc contributor. and katty kay is still with us as well. susan, i've been so excited about this interview. there's so much here revealed about this underestimated first lady. barbara bush. you know, some of the news that came out of it is that she left the republican party. she had a trump countdown clock. how much did people know about this? and was there an effort by the family to make sure that this doesn't become public? >> you know, the family members knew they would rue the day they would try to silence barbara bush. >> exactly. that's why i asked. >> those who were closest to her had no doubt, i think, about her views about president trump and the direction of the republican party. she made any number of public statements during the 2016

campaign that expressed her concern about what was happening. but then she had this in june of 2016 this health crisis. she called it her heart attack. jeb bush told her to have faith in the country and not to get so wind up about it to cause her that angst. they tried to take his advice and take a step back and just trust in the strength of the united states to pull through any possible difficulty and i think that's what she did, although i do think the idea that she had this trump countdown clock that someone gave it to her as a joke. she carried it back to houston so it could be there. >> you know, my father in his final year, i found that things happening politically were sickening to him as well. and so it is a little bit more stirring and it does give you pause when someone like barbara

bush or someone like my father has a reaction that's severe to what is happening. it's almost like whoa, wait a minute, let's take a look what's going on here. because this person has context. has been on the inside. how surprised were people around her about her concern or was it more oh, barbara, she was outspoken. >> she was outspoken but she was the face of the republican party for decades. i covered ten presidential campaigns. in seven of those campaigns barbara bush played a personal role. how many americans had a stretch of importance in american politics that matches that? so i think that her concerns were not something that were, should be dismissed or were dismissed by those around her. i think it was something that, that resonates. when i ask her, do you still think you're a republican just months before she died in february of 2018 and she said no

she didn't think so. i'm to say i found that to be shocking. >> yep. i do too. john meacham. >> susan, talk about the origin of the book. what was it about her that drew you in the first place? >> so i thought she was under estimated and i thought people thought they knew her. i have to talk about the origins of the book. there's a story in which you play a part which you don't know. >> oh, good. >> i was thinking about writing this book, and you, of course, had written a wonderful g.h.w. bush biography. we were both in aspen in summer of 2017 and i stalked you because i wanted to ask you about what you thought about doing a biography of barbara bush but i didn't you know that well to call you up. so you were on andrea mitchell's show at the pavilion in aspen and i happened to be lurking off the set when you came up and i said oh, you're john meacham i

would love to talk to you about an idea i have. do you even remember this? >> i don't. but i'm sure it's true. >> you took some time and you said which was very gracious of you, i said do you think barbara bush could sustain a biography and you said yes. >> there's clearly not a set up question to give critics. but thank you. also, i think folks need to know about the diaries. tell them the story of the diaries. >> you and i share a sacred trust. we were given permission to see barbara's diaries. what a treasure tropicana field. she started to keep these diaries in 1948. she made the last entry it in 12 days before she died. it was this wonderful contemporary account of what she was doing and what she was thinking and what a gift it was when she told me i could see them.

>> did you -- what i found was it was as though you were immersed in the highest levels of american politics over six, seven decades. with just a really, really smart and funny tour guide. does that resonate with you >> absolutely. i mean there were some hilarious things in there. there were some very touching personal things in there. you know, i was looking at them with a particular eye for a biography of barbara bush. historians can go back to those diaries when they are publicly availableab available. you can look at her observations about the foreign leaders she was meeting with, both when her husband was ambassador to the united nations, when he was vice president, then president. the diaries are a window into someone who had a very sharp, smart, observant eye about things. really a gift to historians. >> susan, i'm always fascinated

by how the spouses of presidents deal with that peculiar role of being first lady, particularly when like barbara bush they were smart and outspoken and had very strong opinions of their own. how did she -- how did she fit the mantle of that role? >> she fit her generation. she thought this was her role. she was not uncomfortable in that role the way i think maybe hillary clinton was who was a much more accustomed to a much more independent voice. barbara bush evers born in 1925, five years after women won the right to vote. her life spanned enormous changes in expectations and opportunities for women and she was comfortable in the traditional role of being the supportive spouse. now she became much more than that to george h.w. bush. she became the adviser he trusted the most. she became an outspoken adviser to her son. she was a voice in his ear raising questions about the iraq

war to george w. bush when he was president. but she was not, she did not bristle with the idea that people were underestimating her. she felt comfortable being underestimated. she didn't mind that. one of the things i wanted to do in "the matriarch" is explore how inconsequential she was that perhaps she didn't even acknowledge to herself. >> let's get to politics. the latest column for "the washington post" joe biden needs to cut it out and so does the mob. she writes what we're all learning is that we should respect women who have the courage to come forward about their experiences with unwanted physical contact. they deserve the benefit of the doubt both about their versions of events and about how they were made to feel. but it is also important and assigned that a social moment is

maturing in to a snoshl norm to recognize not every offense is of equal severity. also worth factoring in is whether an alleged perpetrator was acting with malevolence or just cluelessness. to lose that sense of proportions is to dishonor the victims of the worst kinds of sexual abuse. if biden runs for president is question is not whether his hands were in the right place but whether his heart is. it's a good column. susan page i expressed myself about this earlier in the show. i'm really concerned that the direction these allegations against joe biden are taking. >> i think karen has it exactly right which is not to dismiss the allegations that are being

made as unimportant or not to disbelieve the women who are involved but to try to see this in a three-dimensional way that recognizes changing times among other things. think about changes in public attitudes towards something like same-sex marriage, for instance and how much fault do you give to people who have changed their views as times have moved on and as our culture has come to have different expectations and believes. i do think the pitch that karen makes is exactly the one that we should think about. and because otherwise where in the world will we go in our politic? >> yeah. with our politics. how about with the me too movement as well. because if this movement is going to be successful, it has to consider everything involved. it can't be about katty kay, me too can't be about public career

executions. that can't be the only thing they are about. it's got to be about the challenges that women face as they are trying to level the playing field. today is equal payday. if this were easy it would not be a movement. we would not be having this conversation. but what do we do with men who need to change their behavior? what do we do when perhaps the complexities pertaining to male-female relationships are not as easy as a public career execution. for example, i don't think the ceo of times up should have stepped down because her son is on the defense all of a sudden she's not fit to lead times up? maybe she's most fit because she's seeing everything from both sides. where is due process in all of this. there needs be a place for it. there needs to be a place for a conversation. we have people talking about whether or not joe biden should not run for president because he rubbed noses with someone in a

hug. i'm serious. that's what we're talk about. this is the violation that joe biden may actually have his presidential campaign end on? are we really taking it to this level? >> look, i think this is going to be a generational question. all of the questions you raise about the me too movement are questions that need to be wrestled with by a social movement as it grows to some sense of maturity. that needs to happen because as you said before, mika, we can't sit here and play judge and jury. in a moment that person's career is ended. that's not fair and second it will come back to bite us. there will be a terrible backlash. we're seeing that against women, young women who aren't getting jobs because male bosses feel nervous of hiring young women and then going a meeting with them. in the case of joe biden we have to listen to these women and say look most women know whether a

hug is appropriate or feels kind of inappropriate. and that may be something where the definition of inappropriate has kind of changed with the generation. that 20 years ago when joe biden was coming up in politics that may have seemed totally appropriate, and today young women are saying to joe biden this is inappropriate. this is making me feel awkward. i think there's a degree to which that has to be listened to. >> john meacham what do you make of what's going on and is he blind sided? >> i don't know that he's blind sided. i think that there were a number of reasons he was delaying the decision, one was to get out of the first quarter or so. he didn't have to compare fundraising numbers. my own totally dataless gut on this was that he probably would not end up running and i'm always wrong about these things

until it's announced at 9:00. so if you want to break in right now go ahead and do it. an episode of "veep". my sense is if you could put him up against trump, if you could air drop him on to labor day 2020, it would be a donnybrook and a fight about the country and who knows what would happen. i think it's very hard demographically for a 76-year-old, 40 year senator, eight year vice president to run in the field and with the primary electorate that's there. and has history passed him by? i don't know how you can say that when you've had the remarkable life he's had. so i think everything that's unfolding is, dare i say it, predictable, because he's this huge -- he's like a float in the

macy's day parade. he's an enormous figure. and the world around hip has changed. how he shows his adaptation to that world will tell us a lot about whether or not he can go all the way this time if he makes the run. >> all right. and susan page, thanks very much for being. the book is "the matriarch, barbara bush the making of an american dynasty." john meacham thank you as well. john has a forthcoming book entitled "songs of america" co-written with tim mcgraw. up next amazon makes another move in hopes of dominating the retail industry. in the wake of that major college admissions scandal, the "new york times" asks is this the final straw for standardized tests? we'll dig into that question next on "morning joe". >> tech: at safelite autoglass,. we really pride ourselves on making it easy

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cut interest rates that's what moody's mark zandy says, you have modest wage growth. you've got that with mod real inflation getting closer to the targets, adding that an interest rate would be counterproductive and encourage mob to take on more dead, so not a good thing, so the fed should hold for the time being. groceries, by the way, guys, getting a lot cheaper at whole foods. the grocer owned by amazon.com says that starting tomorrow it's going to cut prices on hundreds of items by an average of around 20%. you don't even have to be a prime member to get those discounts. the discounts will be focused on produce items mainly. the last time they cut prices was back in november of 2017, so maybe inflation is getting lower for groceries. and we'll end on this,

guys -- fast-food customers getting a veggie option at burger king. the chain is rolling out meatless burger at around 59 stores in the st. louis, missouri area. meatless burgers. the whopper will have that option. it's going to cost i about $1 more than a regular whopper, but impossible foods is making these meatless burgers that has an additive made by yeast. it's a california-based company, and haz investors from google for bill gates, so a big lift if this meatless whopper goes big around the country. >> a meatless lopper. cnbc's dominic chu, thank you very much. >> you got it. now to a new documentary film entitled "the test and the art of thinking" that focuses on

the anxiety-provoking college entrance exams that over 3 million high school students take each year, that american rite of passage of source, along with the test prep industry that surrounds it is at the at the center of the debate. >> the s.a.t. is not a test of what you know, but a test of how you think. >> it's it's a get the answer test. >> in order to be efficient with the test, we essential set out to trick people. the test doesn't measure what you have learned in school. >> my mom forced me to go to think tank, four hours as today four times a week. >> you feel com ped to put this money into it. >> a lot of the pressure that comes on these students is that without this type of preparation

and ability, you will not live a good life. >> that's on the heels of a nationwide cheating scandal where some parents paid hundreds of thousands to raise their children's test scores in order to gain college admission to some of this country's best colleges. we recently spoke with someone who is featured in the film, the cofounder and former ceo of bell curves a test prep company dedicated to underserved and disadvantaged communities. we asked him how entrance exams favor the wealthy who take advantage of services to, quote, beat the test. >> with all these tests, i think one problem is that there's a misunderstanding of what they actually are, right? they're not he tests of anything innate. anything that can be tested can be learned. it helps expos people to what's on the test, how questions are

framed, what you need to know, what information you need to know, what you don't need to know and how to put it in context given the severe time limitation that most of these tests have. the more practice, the more exposius, the better you'll perform. clearly those with the time and money to do better will do better. that's been the case ever since education started. >> is 750 a good score because somebody is bright or well trained? these are not standardized tests. >> the claim to authority behind this test is deeply problematic. >> they did find the emperor had no clothes, instead of saying he's naked, they're like, hey, let's test more. kids are spending three months on test prep. >> everybody thinking it stands for something. >> if tests like this are not

the answer what should be done? and are you seeing any sort of colleges or universities move away from the s.a.t.? >> many are moving away from the s.a.t. there's over 1,000 colleges that are test optional. whether they completely don't look at the test or whether they allow a greater scope of tests to be used in the admissions process. one of the problems with testing is it's overused. even if there isn't a problem inherently with the test itself, to put outweighted amount of emphasis on a test is problematic. the predict favor validity doesn't correlate with the amount of information, if it gives you 10% of the information, why is it one third of the consideration? >> right. >> so that's one of the big problems. a lot of schools are starting to see that and minimize that in the process. >> there's a cottage industry around these tests, it's not

only the big books. it's the classes. how do you break through what is, in some ways, a vast market where people are making lots of money? >> that's one of the challenges of the entire process, right? the tests are used, a.c.t. and s.a.t., in ways they weren't intended to be used. things in the movie -- when i learned this watching the film is bond ratings for colleges are often tied to test scores, so the fiscal health of a university is based on its s.a.t. and a.c.t. scores? how does that make any sense whatsoever? so getting rid of the text is a far more complex issue than a simple we want to use it or not. >> the film, akil bela, thank you so much.

stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> hi there. it's deadline day. bill barr has until midnight to provide congress a full version of the mueller report or face a subpoena from house democrats, but there's no sign barr is going to comply. meanwhile, jared kushner defends himself after a whistle-blower reveals the white house overturned 25 security clearance denials. >> each t >> over the last two years i've been accused, and all throws things have been proven false. >> e we will take you live to the border with what leaders down there actually want the president to do. it is equal payday. if you think you know how pay disparity is, guess what? it is