to address this issue as soon as they get into office. >> alexi, thank you. to all of our viewers out there, you can sign up for the newsletter. that does it for me on this friday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. good morning! welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, may 3rd. along with joe, willie and me we have mike barnicle, branding expert and political commentator -- >> legend, legend. >> donnie deutsche. >> he's also the host of a new msnbc show called "saturday night politics," premieres tomorrow night at 8 p.m. tell your dads when they wake up because they had a little too much to drink last night. let them know that like

international council of funk songs, if you watch donny deutsch's political show, you will lose inches from your waistline and it reverses after three viewings, male pattern baldness. it will change your life, it will improve your backhand and ensure the boston red sox do not give up three runs to the lowly white sox in the ninth inning. >> enough about that. donny, you went into your branding factory and came up with the title "saturday night politics." >> number one, it tells people where to go. and it gives the vibe of the show. politics with a little saturday night barb. this is the first i think official "morning joe" spinoff. if you guys are "all in the family," i'm like "the jeffersons ou

jeffersons." >> "saturday night politics" does not tell me where to go. >> we have mayor pete in the first show. >> really? >> what does this mean going forward into the election? i start out every show countdown to the presidential election. we're going to have a lot of nonpolitical people talking politician. my friend steve madden who 20 years ago went to prison, i put him and michael cohen together to help him through this and we're going to talk about that. >> we're going to watch the show. you don't have to do the whole thing here, don. >> i'm intrigued. i actually might watch it. >> barnicle's showing up to help me out. >> by the way, one correction. we actually have had a spinoff already. "csi new canaan." it was a short run on fox but it was fascinating. we have republican strategist and msnbc political analyst susan del percio. she has already said for a

variety of reasons she refuses to ever appear on donny deutsch's show. and former chief of staff to the dccc, former director of communications for hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, adrienne elrod and she will have to make that decision on her own about donny. >> happy birthday, willie! >> thanks, mika! >> as you know, willie, we back in ancient times you would often have the jester of the court write a song for the king. >> sure. >> and i -- we did something yesterday for mika -- >> and that was so nice. thank you, everybody. >> oh, no. >> we wanted to take it up a notch and make it even more special. >> well, for willie. >> here it is.

>> oh, no. ♪ happy birthday ♪ happy birthday, willie ♪ happy birthday, willie ♪ happy birthday, willie ♪ happy birthday >> that's good. that's good. happy birthday, willie. >> 14 seconds you put into that means the world to me. thank you so much. >> it was from the bottom of our heart. >> was that from the iphone this morning or how did you do that? voice notes? >> i'm very emotional about it. i can't really talk about it right now. but what i can talk about, willie, is, i mean, donald trump, donald trump has made so

much fun of beto, hasn't he? maybe somebody here has, too. but donald trump has mocked and ridiculed beto. let's face it, he's had a really, really rough start to the campaign, right? >> mm-hmm. >> look at this. look at these polls right here. came out beto head to head -- >> wow! >> beating donald trump. all the things that he said about the blue shirt wearing, arm waving hands all over the place, standing on every car that he sees, standing on lunch counter, beto o'rourke just absolutely thrashing donald trump by ten points, 52 to 42! joe biden up by 6 points, 51 to 45, sanders up 6 points, 50 to 44, harris up 4 points, 49 to

45, mayor pete, who half the country don't even know yet, even he is beating donald trump 47 to 44 and elizabeth warren is in a statistical tie with donald trump. that's right, donald trump, the woman you've derided as pocahontas and made fun of for the past several years, she's tied with you. but as you peel back the numbers, willie, on a lot of these polls, one of the most interesting was a q poll that came out and had a gender gap that is just insurmountable. 34% of women, only 34% of women support donald trump. 62% disapprove. i'm not good at math but i think that is close to 28%, a jend are gap of 28%. that is remarkable. and if it stays that way, donald trump is going to get trounced.

>> that's even worse if that held up, joe, that's even worse than the gap he had with hillary clinton among women. think about that for just a moment, the woman who could have been the first female president of the united states, that's a terrible number. if you go back to that head-to-head poll, what's fascinating is beto is beating the president by ten points, which is pretty astonishing, but beto has to get to that race. he's polling at 4, 5, 6% in his own primary. joe biden's whole argument so far has been to go directly to the president and say i'm the one who can beat him. well, that may be true, but it turns out there are about seven other people who could make that case as well at this point in the race anyway. so i think joe biden is going to have to go on something on more than just electability, though a lot of people think they can beat him. turns out at this point, just about everybody running against donald trump could beat him on the democratic side. >> adrienne, you look at those numbers as a key player in the

democratic party, what do you see? >> i see a president who is in deep trouble, joe. these numbers are terrible. this is may before the election year in the off year and he's in the mid 40s. you never want to be in this position if you are an incumbent, no matter if you're sitting in the white house, or in any other position in government in elected office. you never want to be in the mid 40s at this stage of the game. so these numbers are great, the methodology of this polling, of this particular poll was spot on. there was a wide swath was voters. there are some polls that people are criticizing the methodology but the methodology of this particular poll was spot on. if i was donald trump, if i was brad pascal, if i was part of his team i'd be very nervous right now. >> a lot of his supporters on talk radio in the rnc have been whistling pass the graveyard talking about how donald trump's

opponents are too weak, americans don't want to be socialists, even the guy who has been screaming for 20 years, "i am a socialist!" is ahead by like five or six points right now. it's very interesting. they think they can disqualify their opponents. what they don't understand is those 34% of women that say they're going to vote for him and the 62% that say -- i mean, those numbers are pretty locked down. they've been consistently that way for some time. donald trump's going to have to do something different this time. disqualifies his opponent, which is what the pundits all say he has to do, wrong. he's not going to be able to do that in sufficient enough numbers. he's going to have to figure out how to grow his base, something he's never done before, something that's going to be difficult and that's his challenge over the next year. >> well, and it's going to be a very difficult challenge to meet because what we saw in 2018 were

women were coming out to vote, especially suburban women and. women. and they were coming out and you saw the results in 2018 that was just as much about donald trump as it was for the candidates they were supporting. now, donald trump has basically limited his strategy. he's not going to be able to grow his base much anymore. all he wants to do is basically suppress the other vote like he did last time, and he will go to that name calling and hopefully he will hope that people just won't turn out to vote and that his base will come out even stronger numbers than they did in 2016. i don't see it being successful, but then again, i was wrong in 2016. >> donny, it just won't work because, guess what, donald trump kept saying drink my coke, this is better than new coke, drink it, it's the best thing you've ever had. you drink this, it will -- all

the things that your show is going to do, it will make you a better person, it will save america and then you drink the coke and you find out there's racoon pee in it. >> oh, my god! joe! >> good morning, america. but you can't step back from that. and that's what he doesn't understand. running a second time is far different than running the first time. so donald trump's going to be trying to point to everybody else out there. it doesn't work. >> second time around now. >> this reelection for a president is -- it is a referendum on that guy right there. did he do a good job or do you need somebody else? has he exhausted you by his hatred? has he exhausted you by his bigotry? has he exhausted you by his tweets. do you really want to take a chance on another four years? i think people look at the coke, the new flavored coke and say, you know what, i'll just have

some water. >> joe, thanks for the tease from my show because we have a whole racoon ing segment on my show. >> that's why i did it. >> the other thing trump doesn't have going for him, he's not running against hillary clinton. that was the epicenter of the perfect storm for trump, he ran against a candidate that people pushed away from. the most important stat today is not even in that last cnn poll, it's the first par as far as the 30-point gender gap with women because you're not overcoming that. having said that, i want the democrats to be very, very, very, very skeptical about that poll. when i see a poll that says elizabeth warren would beat donald trump today, i don't believe that's true. if tomorrow people went to the polls, i don't know if that would willie's point is the rig point, we don't have to run against trump now because

everyone will beat him. wrong. the message is still why are we better than trump. it's good news for the democrats but for me it's concerning news because the worst thing they can do is in any way, shape or form feel confident. >> mika, the thing that pundits need to take note of, everybody's upset and enraged by what barr is doing, what trump is doing, he's getting away with this, he's getting away with that. we learned in 2018 in the historic midterms, the biggest lost ever for the republican party in terms of votes, the biggest loss in the history of the united states, you get away with nothing. and donald trump didn't get away with that then and he's not getting away with lying about the mueller report now. barr is making things worst, lowest rates ever in the morning consult poll. you're going to see after this performance by barr on capitol hill, you're going to see those numbers sagging even more. >> so i get that, i agree with you. i also think we're in a new

phase where you can take nothing for granted right now because some things have slipped by, have happened, have started passing by before our eyes without -- without any guardrails. but yesterday we saw something from nancy pelosi who has been very measured, mesh-yaasured wie concept of impeachment, measured with the president but a leader. but we saw something a little different, a little bit nancy pelosi, the leader, turning back into nancy de lahandra from baltimore. take a listen to how she described the way barr perform when he was testifying on capitol hill. >> madam speaker, did the attorney general commit a crime? >> he lied to congress. he lied to congress. if anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. nobody is above the law, not the president of the united states

and not the attorney general. being attorney general does not give you a bath to go say whatever you want and it is the fact because you are the attorney general. >> so, mike, i love that nancy pelosi just told the truth right there, didn't say, well, we've had some people, well, you know -- she said he lied. he did lie. he lied to congress. we've got at least one solid example of it that any of us would be thrown in jail. >> correct. >> for berge perjury. we'd all be in jail. he may have lied to chris van hollen. just depends how to grand jury would look at that but we would still at least be sent to a grand jury for saying what he said to chris van hollen. on the matter of the utmost public importance, the undermining of the justice department's purpose for

selecting a special counsel in the words of robert mueller himself. so he has committed perjury. and i personally believe they should start looking into impeachment -- an impeachment inquiry if the rule of law means anything at all. but i'm watching these pathetic hacks on the right, some of whom used to have respectable careers, they've turned themselves into nothing more than trump enablers talking about how what barr did was correct. you look at him lying before congress and match up what these pathetic hacks are saying about barr's lying and what they said about bill clinton's lying in 1998 and 1999 and suddenly they're sounding an awful lot like the man who said it depends on what your meaning of is is. they are engaging in legalistic

semantic games, the likes of which william f. buckley attacked bill clinton supporters for doing in 1998. >> well, you know, there's a couple of things going on here, joe, that are of interest. one is we've been talking about for over two years, how is it that so many people with past qualifications, past examples of character and leadership checked all of that at the door and go into just total succumbing to donald trump. it's a mystery as to how many people who know they will be tainted by trump by their association with him, just dive into the tank for him. the other aspect of it is unwittingly or wittingly but probably unwittingly what bill barr has done and what the white house has done, what emmitt flood did yesterday with the release of a letter which was a political document more so than it was a legal document, is that they keep this story going. they keep it going. there's going to be more hearings, there's going to be

months of hearings. instead of sitting back and saying the thing is over and responding with candid truth, the attorney general chose to, as you indicated and as many have indicated, as nancy pelosi just indicated, he lied repeatedly. he's going to keep this story going. this story is not going to go away for a long time now. >> well, i actually think she's laid down a marker. adrienne and susan both rapid fire real quick, what's next for democrats when the speaker of the house says he lied and that's a crime. that seems to be a marker of how to move forward. adrienne. >> you think she's made it very clear based on her comments yesterday what the path forward is. we'll see if impeachment does take place. at the very least, there should be be a censor regulation. if there are not any

repercussions based on the way the trump administration has handled a litany of issues, especially a.g. barr going in front of the committee this week and lying, then what are we going to do? it's going to set a precedent for future leaders and future administration officials that, hey, we can get away with anything and there's not going to be any sort of repercussion. >> and just to follow up on that is what are you going to do today, speaker pelosi, because that's where we are. we're at a point where empty chairs and fried chicken is not going to cut it. as adrienne said, you take away politics, you have a constitutional responsibility. move forward with the impeachment hearings now to show donald trump that you're not going to be rolled over. that is where she is. because eventually they're going to have to get to some form of hearing, bring in mueller, start the hearings, get it wrapped up and have a vote by the senate on the end of the year and then can you focus on 2020. because this drip, drip, drip and no strong action i think is

really hurting their case. >> meekika, i don't see how sper plea pelosi can do anything but proceed to impeachment. and kasie hunt gets credit for asking a direct question. >> that was a big marker. >> i can find you at least two dozen republicans saying during bill clinton's impeachment that he is the top law enforcement officer in the land and we cannot allow the top law enforcement officer in the land to commit perjury. i agree. i agreed. but i'll tell you what's even more serious -- when you have the attorney general, the top lawyer in the land who is responsible for deciding who the federal government is going to indict and who they're not going to indict, who they're going to

investigate and who they're not going to investigate. he lied. >> correct. >> not to a grand jury but to a co-equal branch of government. i can think of few things that would undermine the credibility of the attorney general and the justice department for which he works than committing perjury in front of americans while testifying to a co-equal branch of government. it's as bad as lying before the united states supreme court. i got to say again, a lot of democrats didn't like hearing me say this. i think you need to make him take a pass on impeaching donald trump. i think at this point it's a political battle between the legislative branch and executive branch, fight that out, let the voters decide. in this case, mika, i don't think the house has any choice. they have to impeach an attorney general who was caught on tape

in front of the american people on april 9th lying under oath to congress, committing perjury, which, yes, even in the age of trump is still a crime. >> so mark my words, nancy pelosi laid down a marker yesterday that this is where it all stops, this is where they're going to push back. and we'll watch that play out. other stories we're following this morning, the senate yesterday failed to override president trump's veto of a bipartisan resolution, which would have ended all u.s. military participation in saudi arabia's devastating war in yemen. the war has resulted in widespread civilian deaths including tens of thousands of children and has caused catastrophic famine and a humanitarian crisis. u.s. involvement has not been expressly authorized by congress. in a statement explaining his veto, the president said in part that the resolution is a, quote, unnecessary, dangerous attempt

to weaken my constitutional authorities. the bipartisan bill twice passed the senate and the house passed the measure last month after passing a similar resolution in february. it was the first time a resolution to end military action under the war powers act of 1973 reached a president's de desk. one of the victims of tuesday's shooting at the university of north carolina's charlotte campus is being praised at a hero. 21-year-old reilly howell, quote, took the fight to the alleged gunman, taking him, quote, off his feet before campus police officers arrived. ultimately giving his life to save others. according to the charlotte police chief and 19-year-old ellis parlier were both killed in the shooting. four others were wounded.

the suspect was identified as a former student. he has been charged with four counts of assault with a deadly weapon and murder. actor peter mayhew, known for playing the role of chubaca in "star wars" passed away in his north texas home with his family by his side. the 7'3" man wyhew was the man behind the mask in the original "star wars." he fought his way back from being wheelchair bound to stand tall and portray chewbacca once more in "star wars, the force

awakens." he was 74 years old. >> willie, very sad news coming before the release of the final saga, nine coming out i think this december. but he always -- he was just a critical part of the entire "stars wars" franchise. >> yeah. and still ahead on "morning joe," we've got two great reporters with two important pieces. michael schmidt has new details in "the new york times" about the fbi efforts to investigate the trump campaign. and nbc's heidi pryzbyla on what could be a big liability for bernie sanders among the democratic base. those conversations are just ahead. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ but i didn't know how. i was working the same job for a few years. i had a degree and some experience but no career.

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to better understand the

trump campaign's possible link to russia, the fbi in 2016 sent an agent posing as a research assistant to meet with a trump aide in london. the "new york times" reports that according to people familiar with the operation, the woman who was a government investigator reportedly set up a meeting to discuss foreign policy issues with then trump campaign adviser george papadopoulos and asked if the campaign was working with russia. the operation did not yield any fruitful information, but fbi officials have defended the bureau's activities in the months before the election saying they were both legal and carefully considered under extraordinary circumstances. those actions now are under scrutiny as part of an investigation by the justice department's inspector general, who could make the results public later this month. this new detail has become another political flash point among president trump and his allies that law enforcement agencies and intelligence officials spied on the trump campaign to undermine his chances to win. the fbi has denied that there's

been any conspiracy against the trump campaign. joining us now is one of the co-authors of that report, the "new york times" reporter michael schmidt. i want to get into some of the details of this piece because it is rich in those, but let me start with the central question on a lot of people's minds last night as they first read it and as they read it this morning, how is this not spying? >> well, i guess it depends on your definition of spying. the attorney general sort of saying the other day that he has an expansive view of spying, including legal spying in the way that if the government actually has the right to be doing it, that spying is not illegal. others have a different connotation of it and see it more nefariously. what this was was the fbi felt that it needed to have eyes and ears on the ground as it used a confidential informant to speak to two trump campaign officials. and what they did was is they installed a woman with this

professor in england who made these attempts to talk to these individuals and the woman herself spoke to at least one of them. what this showed to us was sort of how seriously the fbi was taking the problem, the lengths they were willing to go to to put a trained investigator, someone that knew how to collect information, knew how to collect evidence, could testify at a trial, putting them on the ground to be there to make sure that this informant didn't go off the rails. now, if you're a trump supporter or if you're trump himself, you look at this and you say, ah, see, this shows that the bureau was out to get the campaign, but if you're the fbi, you would say, look, this is a good thing, this prevented the operation from going awry and from going too far. >> what did they suspect of george papadopoulos, a guy, michael, as you know better than anyone has been at the center of

all this russia talk over the last couple of years. why did they zero in on him? >> they had learned from the australians that papadopoulos had had conversations with an intermediary about the russians having dirt, having hacked emails on hillary clinton. and there was a lot of concern at the time about what the russians were doing in general during the election, what was their hacking about, was there election interference? and then they learn about this -- that this campaign official may know something about what the russians have, you know, against the democrats and they're trying to figure out are there connections here, are there ties here and it was in that environment that they took the steps that they did to try and find out using these confidential informants, using a super secret operation here to try and find out more about what was really going on, was the trump campaign coordinating with the russians?

now, we know today after bob mueller's investigation that there was not direct coordination between the campaign and russia, but in the summer of 2016, the fbi did not know that. they just knew that there was a lot of smoke and that they needed to dive in and try to figure out what was going on. >> okay. so, michael, off of what you just said, what you just explained and off of the piece in today's "times," is it fair to say that the core of this story, the core of this story, is what was russia up to with regards to the american electoral process rather than any one individual, rather than papadopoulos, rather than the trump campaign, the absolute bottom line core that drew the fbi into the story was russian interference in an american election? >> correct. and you can stand today and say, well, why is it that the fbi did what they did? why was it that they threw a confidential informant, you know, with this investigator on the ground at the campaign

officials. the problem is is that in the summer of 2016, the fbi didn't know what it knows today. they just knew that there was a lot going on. they knew that the russian himself done a lrussians had done a lot of hacking, had great ambitions to weigh in in the election. they saw these odd connections between trump campaign officials and russia and they said, well, what's really going on here? and they took a series of aggressive investigative steps. now, in hindsight, the republicans and trump supporters are going to go after them and say that these measures may have been too aggressive. the inspector general at the department of justice is looking into this issue and will hopefully give some clarity to it and will sort of suss out, okay, these measures were warranted and these weren't. and then the folks on capitol hill can do whatever they want with it. >> people ought to read the piece, nytimes.com. there's so much detail in there. michael schmidt, a very busy

week for you. i hope you can sit back, unzip the sweater and have a cold drink tonight. >> that's not a sweater. >> one issue that will likely loom large in the 2020 election could also be a liability for senator bernie sanders. hide each pryzbyla joins us next with that new reporting. "morning joe" will be right back. woman: this is your wake-up call. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock. prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation

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i'm running for president because we must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country. weep ne we need to take on the nra and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons. >> that is vermont senator bernie sanders's current take on combatting america's gun violence problem. but political reporter heidi pryzbyla has been tracking his voting record that paints a different picture. she joins us with her new reporting on how sanders' past views on gun control could be a potential liability in 2020. heidi, tell us about it.

>> reporter: that's right. bernie is the top pick for young democrats but he's being greeted skeptically by gun safety advocates. nbc news has spoken exclusively with sandy phillips, the mother who lost her 24-year-old daughter in the aurora mass shooting, and she's said she's not forgiving bernie sanders for his vote the law that helped bankrupt her family because she had to pay the legal fees, not only her own, but the legal fees of the business that sold her

daughter ammunition without a background check. sanders did reverse his position but it wasn't until four days before the election and she's just skeptical and she's not alone. i spoke with shannon watts from moms demand action. they're skeptical given the late conversion that this will be a priority for him as president. >> these are the types of story that boggle the mind given the epidemic of gun violence we're seeing, adrienne. >> yeah, you're right, mika. i'm glad heidi uncovered the story. this was an issue we really focused on in 2016, especially when it came to white college educated suburban women. as we know, gun safety and stron stronger gun laws are of top of mind for a lot of these voters. it was hard often to get not only the media but frankly voters to take the issue seriously. my question for heidi is do you

think this time is different? do you think that bernie sanders now in a field of potentially 20, 21 candidates is an absolute top tier front-runner, do you think this is an issue that will be taken more seriously and might have more of an impact on his standing in the polls going forward? >> i do think there's more of an awareness. you know given the parkland student and marches there's more of an awareness of the gun issue but a lot of the young voters are not yet aware of bernie sanders's standing on this issue. there are many touch points here. this is also behind what's been holding up the sandy hook lawsuit by the families in newtown. now, they found a work around through the connecticut supreme court on this but this is a very emotional issue. you hear of folks from the brady campaign who say this law helped usher in a deadly era of gun

violence. to be fair to bernie, he has ultimately reversed many of his positions on guns but he's also left a very gray area here in terms of how hard he's going to advocate. i'll give you an example. there was a letter that went to support lindsey graham in the senate that said please take up the background check legislation that passed the house. this was historic. it was the first time in a generation that we had background check legislation. every single senator running for president signed that democratic -- democratic senator signed that except sanders. so there is still evidence that he is not in their minds fully advocating as hard as he can on this issue and so he will be pressed on it for sure. >> you know what's so important about this, mika, is that a lot of people that don't follow this closely may believe that the nra is still the king of the hill as far as contributions go. of course we're going to have a reporter who did an in-depth look at just how bad the

finances have been at the nra for years now, how the top three or four leaders in the washington, d.c. lobbying branch have actually possibly stolen or misdirected millions and millions of dollars from hard working, dues-paying nra members. we're going to talk about that next week. but one of the impacts of this is that the nra because of all the financial mismanagement by the washington lobbyists that run the national organization, they were outspent badly by gun safety groups in the 2018 campaign and they will likely be outspent again badly in 2020 by gun safety groups. and so issues like this matter more than ever, especially, of course, in the democratic primary. >> heidi pryzbyla, thank you so much. we'll be reading your new reporting at nbc news.com.

and still ahead there,'s an ongoing fight over the president's financial record. the new york state attorney general's office has subpoenaed deutsche bank and the house ways and means committee is still going over trump's tax returns. we're going to bring in a member of that committee, chief deputy whip dan kilde for more on that next on "morning joe." when you rent from national... it's kind of like playing your own version of best ball. because here, you can choose any car in the aisle, even if it's a better car class than the one you reserved.

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can you speak to the status of the investigation into the deutsche bank? >> we issued subpoenas to deutsche bank and we are collecting documents we had requested and we are reviewing them. >> reporter: deutsche bank says they are very cooperative. is that true? are they being very forward to give out the documents you require from them. >> let me say they were issued with a subpoena and they are complying with the law. >> that is new york state attorney general letitia james

yesterday on her office's investigation into deutsche bank. the congressional testimony of michael cohen spurred an investigation into president trump as finances and it is yielding information. joining us now, a member of the house ways and means and budget committees, democratic chief deputy whip congressman dan kilde. good to see you. >> thank you. >> let's talk about the tax returns, something you've long been pushing for. is it your sense that you or we, the public, will ever see those while he's president anyways? >> i think we, meaning the ways and means committee will. it will be a long fight. the president has made it clear he doesn't want to follow the requirement that they deliver the tax returns to the ways and means committee on request. ultimately i think we will prevail because the law is so clear and it not up to the

administration or some lawyer that he hires to determine a legitimate legislative purpose. we get to determine what is a legitimate legislative purpose under the constitution, and that's what the section 6103 relates to. so ultimately we'll get them, but that is a completely separate question. i think this is really important for people to understand. it's a completely separate question as to whether or not those returns will ever be made public. this is a specific am case of the law that allows the chairman of the ways and means committee to access returns to inform deliberations that the congress is undergoing on a specific question. we have some specific questions about whether the president is being subjected to the laws of the united states or whether somehow the irs is being influenced in that regard and we may address that legislatively. that's a completely separate question as to whether they would be released to the public. >> as the judiciary committee is learning now, the white house's policy is to stone wall, refuse subpoenas, to not show up to testify. they're putting that into play

with you all at ways and means. what recourse do you have if you say there is that section of the law that requires the president to provide it to the chair of house ways and means, he says, no, i won't do, it what's your next move? >> this is why we have the third branch of government. this is why we have a judiciary, to referee disputes between the legislative and executive branch. in this case we think the law is crystal clear. it has been used since it was written in the early 1920s. it's not some obscure provision. it's often referred to as an obscure or arcane provision of the law. that's patently untrue. it is used with regularity to inform congress on specific questions. it is unusual to have to do this to gain access to presidential tax records because for the last half century, presidents and candidates for president have been quite transparent. so we understand that. but in this case we think the law is fairly clear and it's going to ultimately be determined that congress's

authority is not subject to the whim or the comfort of the executive branch. >> congressman, you talked about the independent judicial branch and we saw this past week we have a very different type of man at the ed of the judicial branch. what and how could barr be an obstacle in this instance? we do not have your -- >> this is a pretty significant question. on many fronts our ability is access judicial review could be affected by the willingness of the justice department to do its job. and it's been the case for as long as we can remember that the attorney general is not the personal lawyer of the president of the united states. i mean, if mr. barr wanted to be michael cohen's successor, he should have applied for that job. he's the attorney general of the united states. >> yes, he is. >> and so ultimately where does the power all rest? it rests with the people. that's the ultimate jury in all

of this. and so we recognize that there may be a case where the administration essentially blocks our access to get to the judicial branch to try to defend ourselves and defend the constitution. ultimately the public is going to have a say in this. 2020 is right around the corner, both for the race for the white house and for control of the u.s. senate. >> congressman, at the heart of your district is flint, michigan. it's been five years now since the public was made aware of crisis and the outrage, that was the lead in the water there. there was $170 million bill passed through the congress to get rid of some of those lead pipes and provide health care for families affected by the led. where are we now with flint and is the water safe to drink there? >> the water's getting better. if you look at the testing, it is within the federal lead and copper rule range. there's the science and then there's sort of the social aspect of this. the people in flint i think

rightfully still don't trust the water. >> right. >> because it was the government and they don't distinguish between levels of government or individuals in government, it was the government that promised the people flint that the water was safe -- this is the state government -- when they knew the water was dangerous and the levels of lead was really dangerous for the development of children, when they knew that there had been deaths associated with the water as a result of contamination. so for people in flint, the science is one thing. it's going to take a long time for them to come back. >> why is it so hard to fix it five years on if we knew what was happening? today we say it's within the levels but not 100% clean. from the outside they say replace the pipes and get clean water into these people's homes. >> replacing the pipes takes time. the system was so damaged by the corrosion that simply flipping a switch to the new water source wasn't enough. this is a real warning for the rest of the country because at

the core, flint was not just about water. this was about when we allow our systems to become so atrophied, so compromised that they are one misjudgment away from going through what flint has gone through. the cost that flint has now borne, the 170 million i was able to get through congress is just a portion of what it's taken to help flint recover. now we have essentially sent a warning to the rest of the country, if we don't make the investments we need to make now, the cost of failure is so much greater. >> and this could happen anywhere. congressman dan kildee, thank you for coming on. >> coming up, the gene robinson joins us with his latest piece. plus joe biden facing criticism for downplaying china's economic threat to the united states.

cnbc's john harwood will explain that. and the latest democrat to make a run for the white house, senator michael bennett of colorado will be our guest this morning. about morning. oh, why's that? [bird speaking] my social security number is... 8- 7- 5 dash okay, i see. [bird laughing] is that your daughter? no, it's a macaw. and his name is timothy. timmy, want a cracker? timmy, do you want a cracker? [bird speaking] what do you think, kevin? no. sign up online for free. discover social security alerts. it's not small. but it's not just big either.

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i applied with a tap. and i start on monday. careerbuilder. work can work. bucket of chicken to give his opinion of barr's no show. >> a bucket of chicken won't get barr to come testify, but it will get president trump to congress. >> willie, would you like us to have a moving sell bragcelebrat? >> we have duelling birthdays. >> i think we should do it again. i spent hours retooling that

song to make it -- just make it fit like a glove. >> it was my birthday. >> you get in the studio once, you get in the studio again and again and again and again and you don't release it until it's right. that's how you approach music. >> exactly. you got to do it. and so of course we had sort of a take on stevie wonder's "happy birthday" but i completely changed it around. i went in and i said this has to be special. it can't be like mika's in any way whatsoever. this is what we came up with when the magic really started happening last night in the studio around 2 a.m. take a listen. ♪ happy birthday, willie ♪ happy birthday, willie ♪ happy birthday ♪ happy birthday, willie ♪ happy birthday, willie ♪ happy birthday

>> yeah. >> that sounded a little bit like you were dieing theying th you said "willie." thank you for putting in the extra time in the studio, joe, again. >> you know, sometimes -- >> he works hard. >> sometimes i give so much it hurts, willie. >> he makes our birthdays great. >> but it was great to hear their voices again. i'll say that. the independent council of funk. >> all for you. they all came together for you. >> mike barnicle is with us. >> so, mike, listen, i do my best to be optimistic in these times of trouble, but when the red sox blow, bleed, against the white sox, when they're coming off a three-game winning streak, it's hard to be positive. >> well, joe, i mean, the courage you have shown in the face of so many obstacles thrown down -- >> i know. >> the red sox disappointment

last night while you were working on the defining happy birthday piece for willie, there's not enough that we can say here about what you've done, just for us, for willie and for the red sox. hang in there. >> one eye on the game, one eye on the mixing board. it was a tough night. >> we also have with us the host of the new msnbc show "saturday night politics" premiering tomorrow at 8:00, donny deutsch. >> theme song provided by the bay city rollers. >> "saturday night politics." okay. >> tell us about it, man. >> interesting title for someone that's a branding expert. >> it's not as good as kasie d.c. >> and who came up with cakasie d.c.? >> helped with that. we got mayor pete on the first show, mr. barnicle here. i'm going to lens every show

strategically, what are the strategic implications. we built a wall for the show. trump wanted a wall so we built a wall for the show. >> that's hilarious. i like it. i like it. >> there's a lot of rock 'n' roll, the kids are going to like it. we're going to go to the google machine to get a lot of research in there. so there's going to be tweeting, snap chitting and all the modern stuff. >> okay, okay. so basically you kept your word, unlike donald trump, you told phil when this idea first originated, you said "we're going to build a wall and cnn is going to pay for it" and that they did. the only problem is republican strategists and msnbc political analyst susan del percio has already said she'll never appear on the show and is beginning her boycott. >> smart move. >> and associate editor and

msnbc political analyst eugene robinson, we have cnbc editor at large john harwood and senior adviser at moveon.org and an msnbc contributor corine jean pierre. >> less is more, don't try so hard, okay? >> ouch. >> let donnie donny be donny i doses. >> ouch. >> john harwood, i guess it says something fairly positive about at least one aspect of government in washington, d.c. in 2019, that donald trump's selections for the fed board both got sidelined because of so some. >> well, past whacky statements and also not exactly sterl qualifications for the federal

reserve board. well done. >> thank you very much. >> the president has made good appointment to the federal reserve board, like jay powell, who by all cultures has done a superb job, but late live he's gotten himself into one of these positions where he's decided to cater to his base and act impulsively and, you know, larry low recommends. steve moore is basically a tax cut guy and a political economic tateor. and both of them ended up crashing down for various reasons. now we'll see whether he nominates one of those very qualified types that he did earlier in his presidency or no political choice as we've done

lately. >> his politics, his economic view has changed dra dramatically as well as over the years. he became an advocate of droft. this is a who i knew in congress and after was like me a deficit hawk. the deficits mattered, that the debt mattered, that saving entitlement programs for newen racials mattered. he and can which is the biggest spending federal program ever. >> and he didn't really care about the deficit. it's not about the accounting, although the accounting

democrats who want to spend more money want to shrink it down. the bigger flip flop that he was complaining that loose money by the federal reserve and and now that we have an economy in the tenth year of recovery, pee. most conservatives that i came in with in '94 would see that as being reckless. and, mika, there was a time when republicans, when conservatives actually did care about accounting, did care about balancing the budget, did care about how big deficits and debt got. no more. >> no. and now to 2020 but since

defeating trump is a top priority for democratic voters, a new general election matchups is very interesting. in the poll, trump losss loses -- >> ngai i will but doesn't he make fun of that guy all the time in. >> i don't even -- >> he also loses by 6 points to joe biden. apparently joe biden can do that in his sleep. and bernie sanders, who takes 50% to trump's 44%. >> says he's crazy bernie and

he's losing to crazy bernie by 6 points. >> john: hold on a guy. who was that guy? was it crazy eddie? >> crazy eddie. and his prices are insane. >> this is crazy bernie and his positions are insane and he's still beating donald trump. >> and kamala harris is beating trump. buttigi buttigieg. >> that's within the margin of error. so it was bad. >> willie even the person he's derided as pocahontas that he's made fun of for three years, he's tied with her.

62% of women disapproving of donald trump. that has to be the largest gender gap in the history of american politics. and it's also -- it's a death nell for donald trump if he doesn't move those numbers. >> 18 months out, as i said last ho hour. as you look at those joe biden's making the case go for me because can i beat drft, but it turns out there's a long list of democrats who can beat drft. >> i think can you throw electability out of the window, when you look at those anything can happen approximately people

will go up, down. when i look at that as well, it not surprises because donald trump hasn't expanded his base. in fact, it shrinking looking at those numbers with women. we saw that in and so he is incredibly unpopular, historically unpopular for a president from day one. so you have democrats who want to run on a referendum on donald trump, you have donald trump talking about a choice, but this poll shows us democrats can win on either or both really. >> and in it gives the he can do the resentment thing, he can it

of 2% you get the feeling and ek debtly, that that number is sent in cement. >> you are right, that number is not going to move. the only hoping that they. if he can hurt bernie sanders with the socialist rap, he can hope the democratic opponent is not nearly as he's not running against hillary clinton, who was already wild but so you look at donald trump's approval ratings.

the one area where he's doing well is with the economy. and for voters and politicians and pundits who say "it the economy stupid," that is the one bright spot for donald trump. i know half of economists say we may be heading into a recession next year. time will tell, but if we're going into an election with unemployment under 4% and the economy doing. >> well hereby would have a pretty good shot if he is able to keep both of those things level. but the question is can he do that? we have everybody was shocked by this number in the first quarter, so that's good news for the president. the question is does that

indicate underlying strength. there are a lot of reasons why that number was higher than expected. still appears that the economy is on a trajectory to slow down and continue slowing down through 2020. but if they turn out to be right and that's sustainable, that is a much better situation for the president than many people imagined a couple months ago. >> while we're on the economy, here is former vice president joe biden talking about china and then trump's response. take a look. >> china is going to eat our lunch. come on, man! you know, they're not bad folks, folks. but guess what, they're competition for us. >> no one can compete with us. nobody can compete with us around the world. >> everyone's competition. i view everybody as competition. >> is he being naive about china? >> he is very naive about china.

tn just took advantage of our so badly. very, very big competition, china. astopped it but tore be, if bide i don't know actually said that, eight very sad statement. >> i'll tell you, what joyed that said he's contrasting himself with donald trump, who delivered one of the blakest ever inaugural addresses when he talked about american karn saj. you know, i sort of got the same attitude at joe biden. yes, china's a rival but are they going to beat us? no way. not if we come together and have a leader that actually know what is he's doing. do you think that's sort of reagan-style optimism that we'll

have them look at gdp per capita, look at gdp overall. look at military strength and global reach and everything. the united states is the united states. and china would like to be that maybe someday but it not close at this point china is trying to expand its influence around the world. but there's an enormous gap. and the idea that the united states is so diminished that it has to fear not just china it

ridiculous. it's absolutely ridiculous. >> me a break. this is a welcome prp, oh, the japanese are coming to eat our lunch, they are bought all of our golf courses, they bought pebble beach, they bought 30 rock. they can stop sending us chip, computer chips and we won't be able to guide our missiles. we're going to be nothing more than japan's grainerry 2 years. the world changed. the united states, we always set up the boogie man and then we run through it. and i'm not saying that china's not a challenge, but donald trump, he's trying to tell americans that china's better

than us and that mexico's better than us and we have something to fear from those countries. it's absolutely false. >> it's totally false. >> at least i think, gene. >> would you rather have the chinese banking system or the u.s. banking system? would you rather have, you know, you'd rather be paid in u.n. or in dollars? i mean, it just -- again, it not certainly yet the same league and -- but it's this at mmosphe and dread and american carnage that trump believes brought him this far and he has to double down on that constantly. everything's athreat. i alone can protect you. and that's what he thinks his base eats up and so he's going to keep dishing it out. >> it's ridiculous.

meekia anoth me mika, i know a lot of people that have gone to china to work and they come back and say i'm not taking my kids over there. the pollution is oppressive. would you rather breathe china's air or america's air? it's pretty simple when it comes to the rule of law, when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the quality of life, when it comes to work the only person who doesn't know that is the guy sitting in the white house. >> there is that. >> cnbc's john harwood, thank you very much. we'll be watching the latest installment of your speak easy series, you spoke with democratic candidate amy klobuchar. and mike pence said president trump would never, ever penalize anyone for their religious

beliefs. >> what? >> he must have forgotten about the muslim ban. we'll bring in walter isaacson and reverend al sharpton for that. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ about 50% of people with severe asthma have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells. fasenra is an add-on injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. fasenra is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra is proven to help prevent severe asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can lower oral steroid use. fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth,

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the american people and people of every faith in this country can be confident they have a champion and a defender of faith and religious liberty in president donald trump. it's true. from early in this administration president trump has taken steps to ensure that the federal government will never ever penalize anyone for their religious beliefs ever

again. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> so how does mike pence do that, joe? >> i don't know actually. i don't know because again -- >> blatantly disregard the truth. >> here's an example of a guy that has to know that he's going to have to have a job after donald trump leaves washington d.c. so why would he lie like that? who is going to want to hire a guy who reads a paper, lies on national television and everybody knows that he's lying on national television because the second he says that, i mean, the facts speak for themselves. everybody knows. not only did he have the muslim ban -- let's bring in professor

of history at tulane university, walter ice actionsosaacson and sharpton. walter, let's start with you. everybody knows that donald trump's campaign in december of 2015 was defined by a muslim ban saying that 1.5 billion people could not enter the united states of america because of the god they worshipped and then the first month of his presidency was completely torn apart and in utter chaos because of his so-called muslim ban. so how does mike pence stand up there and say that donald trump's championed religious freedom when just the opposite is true? >> you know, when they talk about religious freedom, they really are aiming it at christians and they try to call it a christian nation-type

thing. they're talking about religious freedom for, say, christian bakers who don't want to bake for gay weddings, but that goes right at the heart of what the first amendment is all about, which is you don't have a state establishment of religion. you don't say if you're muslim, you don't get religious freedom, but if you're a christian baker in colorado, we're going to give you certain types of freedoms. so it's a deep misunderstanding of what america's all about. >> a deep misunderstanding, reverend al. and of course the original sin in america was slavery, but when you get past slavery and look how other people have been treated, whether it was the irish, whether it was the germans, whether it was the japanese during world war iis are the internment camps, but as

far as religious goes, no one, no president has ever suggested that you ban an entire major religion from entering the united states of america. again, 1.5 billion or so followers. has there ever been a president that has ever been more intolerant toward religious faiths that he disagreed than donald trump? >> if there has been, we have never heard them verbalize it publicly as he has. you must remember to dig into your point, he didn't say let's ban people from certain countries that we consider terrorist leaning or supportive. he said ban them according to their religion or because of their religion, which is the exact opposite of what pence said that he would never do. and it comes from the basic premise that if you're other than us, you are really less than us.

so whether it's religion or whether it is race, you know, if you're not christian, it's not a real religion. so he wasn't talking about a real religion. and that is as bigoted and biased as you can get, which is a sin within itself. >> you know, corine, as i'm listening to mike pence, i'm reminded of what mika asked at the very beginning. how do you do it? how do you stand in the mirror and say i'm going to be asked to go out and say something that's so demonstrably false? i guess what mike pence is saying we will protect a religion as long as you practice the right religion. >> yeah, and it's coming from the administration, it's coming from the white house. you know, donald trump is supposed to be and clearly even vice president pence, they're supposed to be representing everyone, not just a small sector of people. they're supposed to be -- it's supposed to be expanding their

base. everyone should be feeling safe. everyone should be hearing from the president about how they're going to make our lives better, and we don't get that from this president or this administration. it's the constant doubling down of the other, of people who are not like them. and it's a dangerous, dangerous sentiment to be putting out there. what it does is it riles up his base. it riles up people who are thinking about, oh, these other folks are bad. and we see that. we see that with the increase of folks going out there and wanting to, you know, hurt other people and his political -- who he sees as his political enemies as well. so we're living in a dangerous time and to have a president of the united states and his administration leaning in on that is incredibly dangerous and scary. >> well, continuing with our theme on willful ignorance, earlier this week on msnbc, hillary clinton commented on recent statements by republicans including attorney general barr where they seemed to say that

using information from foreign powers in elections is permissible. to point out how absurd she finds that position, clinton offered a hypothetical about whether republicans would find it okay if democrats called on china to launch cyber attacks to uncover president trump's tax returns, mimicking donald trump's calls to hack her. males in -- emails in a 2016 news conference, which the russians immediately acted upon according to news reports. mike pompeo then claimed that the statement doesn't, quote, sound like something president trump would do. take a look. >> why should russia have all the fun? and since russia is clearly backing republicans, why don't we ask china to back us? not only that, china, if you're

listening, why don't you get trum trump's tax returns? let's have a great power contest and get the chinese in on the side of somebody else. >> i hadn't heard those comments before. they don't remotely sound like what ought to be done by america and they're certainly not what president trump and this administration is going to do. >> i mean, seriously, mike pompeo, you're the secretary of state and you're just lying. you're lying because you think what, only trump viewers are going to see that? i mean, how stupid do you think they are? why do you insult their intelligence, mr. secretary? we all remember, we all remember what donald trump did during the campaign, but since you don't, since you claim to have missed a major international news story that has remained a subject of intense interest for three years, and also, by the way,

also actually spurred the russians to start -- >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. let's see if that happens. >> walter isaacson, they're just bad liars. william barr lied, he good caught lying to charlie crist. he committed a crime in front of the entire nation and now he's claiming he didn't do so. mike pence lied to the american people, said that donald trump was the greatest protector of religious freedoms ever. that's a lie of course. in fact, no president has been as hostile towards people of

faith than donald trump, given what he said in december of 2015. and then you have mike pompeo there saying, oh my god, first of all, of course, they chopped up hillary clinton's interview and made it seem like that's what she was proposing when all she was doing was saying this is what donald trump did, what would republicans think we did this. but then pompeo lies to the american people clearly, knowing that he's lying, everybody knowing -- how do we sort through all of this, three of the most powerful people in the united states of america are liars, have lied to the american people and they know that the american people know that they're lying? >> i think that's one of the issues that is going to be really important in the next election is the overall corruption and stench that comes around the white house. and you take people who, you know, in previous positions in a pretty straight forward people like a william barr but people who spend their time sucking up

to donald trump is like sucking up to a skunk. you're going to end up smelling real bad. and this is what's happening. there's a stench coming out from all of these people who i think, you know, have gotten in that orbit of donald trump and they can't help themselves from trying to just please him and be obsequious and say things that aren't true. and what hillary clinton said, we always have to ask ourselves as she did, what would it be like if it had gone the other way, if the other side had done it? and when fox chopped up that interview to make it seem like she was calling for china to hack, that is degrading our discourse because it keeps us from that moral question of would i have been in favor of this type of activity if my opponents had done it? >> and, reverend al, it is --

we've had the word orwellian thrown around a lot through the years, but it is orwellian. it is the work of dictators to lie openly to their people when their people know that they're lying and they're trying to lie enough that the lie becomes truth. you look at pompeo. he knew he was lying. the person listening to him knew he was lying. the viewers knew he was lying. but he didn't care. he was trying to turn that lie into a truth. mike pence knew he was lying. he remembered the muslim ban, donald trump's proposed muslim ban. again, it's time and time again. just like barr. barr lied for the past several days, knew he was lying, he lied to charlie crist, he lied to the house, he lied to van who will i don't know -- van hollen, he lied to the senate, committed a crime. they just don't care. i'm not saying they're toe to

totalitarian, i'm saying this is ho totalitarian leaders work. >> before we had social media and youtube -- you can't get away anymore saying something, particularly if you're head of state and act like you didn't say it. i question how men and women who have worked their whole lives to establish some kind of stature and credibility would put all that on the line for somebody who has so lowered the bar of public service would end their career with that. there must be a self-esteem problem for to you have the kind of background they have and going and submit to someone that you know is pathological and that you can't even think on your feet to rationalize some outrageous lie he's told. the problem they have is they have to deny knowing it because there's no way you can make a

rationale out of the overt 180-degree turn that this president makes. for those of us that's known him as you and i know, that's who he is and he could care less about other people's reputation. the problem is do they care about their own. >> and the thing that they don't understand, mike -- what they don't understand is, again, he's going to be out of office in a year and a half and then they have the rest of -- mike pompeo, all the lies that mike pompeo has been told are going to be shouted from the mountaintops for the rest of his career. who's going to hire him? all the lies that mike pence have told, all of the compromises that he's made, shouted from the mountaintops for the rest of his life. he will be branded as someone who lied for donald trump for four years. so why do it? it remains a mystery. >> james comey wrote about it yesterday in the wall street journal, we've been talking

about it for two years, it goes on and on with the various cast of characters, the latest are pence, pompeo, bill barr. but at its core, joe, what we're talking about and it struck me during this segment, at its core and it been the core of this story since the day he came down the escalator at trump tower, at its core is his whole life and his campaign for the presidency and his behavior in the office is fear of the other. america, especially white guys out there, fear of the other. they're coming for your paycheck, they're going to endanger your neighborhood, they're going to endanger your children, fear of the other. and that's why back to that gender number that we showed earlier, the 62% of women who oppose -- disapprove of donald trump, that number is set in cement and he's playing with 41% of the people, maybe less than

41%, white guys. >> as we look at that poll, we showed another one a little earlier with head-to-head matchups potential between democrats and the president for 2020. one of the names on that list, mayor pete buttigieg, the mayor of south bend, indiana running head to head with the president of the united states. you had a chance to meet with mayor pete at sylvia's in harlem this week, with people's face pressed against the glass, what's your impression of mayor pete having spent some time with him? >> i think he's very impressive. he's thought you what he wants and what he wants to say. i was most impressed he's comfortable in his on skin. i think for anyone to ignore him or kamala harris, who i think had an amazing day the other day by methodical icallically break the attorney general in front of the world, i think anyone that counts them out in the name of

others and front-runners are only playing with themselves. people that trump and others haves did counted are not going to be discounted and their vote is not as predictable as people think. i think we're in for a season that we've not seen like this before. it's like there's climate change, there's political change so hold on to your hat. >> oh, my gosh. reverend al, walter isaacson, thank you both very, very much on this friday. >> coming up, a new wave of parents are being put on notice by prosecutors in the college tuition scandal. there's even reports that parents paid more than $6 million to get their child into a top school. plus, a look at a new documentary that follows four women who made history during the 2018 midterms by taking on the congressional establishment. that is ahead on "morning joe." ♪

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an update on the college admissions scandal that we've been tracking.

"the wall street journal" reports that a family from china paid $6.5 million to college counselor rick singer for help getting into stanford university, making the payment through a morgan stanley financial adviser. morgan stanley has since fired the adviser who claims he was misled by singer. the family claims the woman was admitted through normal channels weeks before the payment was made and that they believed it was a charitable donation. another kmchinese family paid singer $2 million to help get a young woman into yale university. >> embattled baltimore mayor katherine pugh has resigned. the mayor's resignation was effective yesterday. >> i am sorry for the harm that

i have caused to the image of the city of baltimore and the credibility of the office of the mayor. baltimore deserves a mayor who can move our great city forward. >> pugh is currently under investigation by the state of maryland for the hundreds of thousands of dollars she earned selling her healthy holly books to corporations that have done business in baltimore. federal agents executed search warrants at city hall, pugh's homes and so far she has not been charged and the scope of the federal investigation is unclear. >> amid mounting pressure to hold tech companies accountable for misinformation and hateful content, facebook said yesterday it has banned seven of its most controversial users from the platform, including the organization info wars and its founder alex jones, as well as black nationalist minister louis farrakhan. a spokesperson for the social

media company said in a statement, quote, we've always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology. the process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led to us our decision to remove these accounts. >> and tiger woods, who claimed his 15th major title and his first since 2008 with last month's victory at the masters will receive the presidential medal of freedom in a ceremony at the white house rose guard i don't know on monday. president trump announced he would honor tiger woods after the golfer earned his fifth green jacket saying, quote, because of his incredible success and comeback in sports and more importantly life. coming up, a look at four candidates who took on powerful incumbents during the 2018 midterms and helped to make history in the process. that's next on "morning joe." ros that's next on "morning joe. man: wow. plug that in for me. various: whoa! holy smokes!

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i grew up in poverty.

i was raised by a single mother and soy learned how to fight early on. now that myoeyes are open, i cannot and i will not close them again. the person i'm running against is complacent but i'm not. i myself can deescalate a person with a gun and i'm not a police officer so i wonder how come they can't do it. i'm running because of cory bush. i'm running because everyday americans need to be represented by everyday americans. >> it's time for ex- trornary people to do extraordinary things. >> that was a look at the new netflix documentary, "knock down the house" which takes you behind the scenes and into the grass roots campaigns of four

women who ran for congress in the midterm elections. two of the candidates featured in the film, amy who ran and cory bush who ran in missouri also with us, the documentary's writer, producer and director, rach rachel leers. i love this concept and it's getting a lot of buzz. rach rachel, you were going to take a break from political documentary and film making but yet something said deep inside of you, i have to act now. tell us the inspiration for this. >> i've been making films about politics and social justice or lo oncotime. i had a baby in 2016 and what i had taken a break for a few months so i was in between projects and looking for a new

project and after the 2016 election i felt i needed to continue making political projects. so i had heard about the groups that were recruiting ordinary working people to work for congress and build a pathway to power pr people who night not ordinarily have that opportunity. so through them i was able to come in contact with the four extraordinary women featured in this film running in congressional campaigns. >> sow eef got two of them with us. who are the two other women who are followed in this? >> so we have pall la jean and alexandria cortez based here in new york. >> so unbelievable access. cory bush, let me ask you, participating in this and also stepping up to run, what was the inspiration that you were showing in this film that, you know, came upon you to decide to

do this? >> so ferguson taught me a lot. as a ferguson activist, being a regular everyday person that just stepped up, you know, we just wanted to see justice in our neighborhood, in our backyard and seeing that just regular people stepped out and we were able to make a change by being diligent, by being fearless. we made change all across this country, but feeling like we weren't being represented on the ground, that's what hurt and so it was like, the only way to get the heart, the people that love the community into those things is to run. >> i want to point out that cory got 37% of the vote. that's pretty darn good for your first time out. amy, you were driven to run by the death of your daughter and the picture it gave you of the health care system in this country. what did you see? what holes did you see that you wanted to change? >> it became very clear to me after she died and before that i

felt like most people would be taken care of when you go the the emergency room. but i started researching and i realized there was 35,000 people a year dying from a lack of health care and understanding what happens in those rooms and understanding what was going on, i knew that the profit motive didn't belong in health care and we needed to do something to change that. as i learned in a very bring cat way, one needless death is one too many. it was heart breaking and it was even more heart breaking to know that so many people are dying every year. >> all right. thank you very much. the documentary is "knock down the house." it's available right now on

netflix. >> thank you for running for office. it's all how woman can overcome their fear of failure and get involved. you can join the conversation right now at "know your value.com." soming up, there a twitter war going on between sed cruz and the latest democrat to jump into the 2020 race m he tweeted bennett's campaign is a seinfeld come pain about nothing. he wept on to say he has done very little but he did stomp his foot and yell at me on the trumper floo. looks like it would kick off ted cruz if the i made it to debate stage and asked supporters to denote a dollar.

senator benet will be our next guest coming up on "morning joe" "morning joe." xt guest coming up on "morning joe" "morning joe."

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good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, may 3rd along with joe, willie and me, we have mike barnicle, branding expert and political commentator donny deutsch. >> legend. you know, donny is a legend. he's also the host of a new msnbc show called "saturday night politics." tell your dads when they wake up, all right, because they had a little too much to drink last night. let them know that like international counsel of funk songs if you watch donny deutsch's political show you will lose inch from your waistline and also it reverses after three viewings, male

pattern baldness. you're going to want to watch this show. it will change your life, improve your back hand and make sure the red sox will not give up -- >> enough of all that. >> you came up with the title "saturday night politics." >> number one it el it is me where to go and it gives the vibe of the show. it's a little politics b this is the official "morning joe" spinoff. i'm like the jeffersons, you know, so this is -- >> yeah, but saturday night politics doesn't tell me where to go. >> it's going to be before we got mayor pete on the first show and we lend everything what's happening in the weak strategically what's forward.

going to have a lot of nonpolitical people talking politics. i had my friend who actually to years ago went to prison. i put him and michael cohen to help michael through this. >> wow. >> we're going to watch the show. you don't have to do the whole thing. >> i'm intrigued. >> yeah, barnicle is showing up to help me out and by the way, one correction, one correction, we actually have had a spinoff already. we've got republican strategist and political analyst here. she has already said that for a variety of reasons she refuses to ever appear on donny deutsch's system. that's being woke for the right reason. also former chief of staff, the

dean ccc a former director of strategic communications, she'll have to make that decision on her own about donny. >> happy birthday, willie. >> thank you, mika. back in ancient times you would often have the jester of the court write a song for the king. and i -- i -- we did something yesterday for mika. >> that was so nice. >> that was nice. >> thank you, everybody. >> but no, we wanted to take it up a notch and make it erp more special for willie. >> here it is. "happy birthday". >> willie.

[ happen pi bathe di." >> -- the 14 seconds you put into that mean it is world to me. thanks so much. >> from the bottom of my heart, i -- >> how did you do that? voice notes? >> i'm very emotional about it. i can't really talk about it right now, but what i can talk about, willie, is -- i mean, donald trump has made so much fun of beto, hasn't he? he's -- maybe somebody here has too. but beto has add a really,

really rough start to the campaign. right? >> uh-huh. >> look at this. look at these polls right here. came out beto had their head beating donald trump -- now, all the things that he said about the blue shirt wearing armed waiving hands all over the place, standing on every car that's seen, standing on lunch counters, beto orourk. sanders up 6 points. 50-44. harris up 4 points 49-45. mayor pete who half the country don't even know yet, even is he beating donald trump. and elizabeth warren, a

statistical tie with donald trump. that's the woman that you derived his pocahontas and made fun of for the past several years? she's died where you but as you peel back the numbers on a lot of these polls once of the moes interesting was a q poll that came out and had a gender gap that is just insurmountable. 34% of women support donald trump. 62 kkt disapprove rges i'm not good in math but i think that is close to 28%, a gender gap of 28%, that is remarkable. and if it stays that way, donald trump is going to get trounced. that's even worse than the gap he had with hillary clinton.

if you go back to that head to head poll,' he is polling at 46% at his own poll. it turn out there are about seven other people who could make the case as well at this point in the race as well anyway so i think joe biden is going to have to go on something more than just electability because it turns out in this moment in time, just about everybody running against donald trump could beat him on the democratic side. >> you look at those numbers as key player in the 'em the cdemo party, what is do you see. >> >> these numbers are terrible. this is may were the election year in the option year and he's

in the mid-40s. you don't want to be in this position if you're sitting in any position in government in elected office, you never want to be in the mid-ho 40s at this stage of the game. this particular poll was spot on. there are some poles that people are criticizing the meth dodge was caught on. if i was brad part of husband team would be very, very nervous right now. >> you know, and susan, a lot of trump sup poerters are talk radio, online, in the rnc has been whistling past the graveya graveyard. americans don't want to be socialists, well, even the guy that has been screaming for 20 years, i am a socialist, he is ahead by like five or six points right now.

they -- if they think they can disqualify their opponents? what they don't understand is that those 34% of women that say they're going to vote for him and the 62% that say -- i mean, those numbers are pretty locked down. they 'been consistently for a long time. donald trump is going to have to do something different this time. disqualify his opponent which is what the pundents all say he has to do. wrong. he's not going to be able to do that in sufficient enough numbers. he's going to have to figure out how to grow his base, something he's never done before, something that's going to be difficult and that's his challenge over the next year. >> well, and it's going to be a very difficult challenge to me because what we saw in 2018 where women were coming out to vote especially suburban women and they were coming out and you saw the results in 2018 that was just as much about donald trump

as it was for the candidates that are we supporting. donald trump has basically limited his strategy. hoe's not going to be able to grow his base much anymore. all he wants to do is basically suppress the other vote like he did last time. and he will go to that name calling and hopefully that -- he will hope that people just won't turn out to vote and that his base will come out even stronger numbers than they did in 2016. i don't see it being successful but then again i was wrong in 2016. >> it just won't work because guess what? donald trump kept saying, drink my coke. this is better than new coke. drink it. it's the best thing you've ever had. you drink this, it will -- all the things that your show is going to do, it will make a better person, it will save america and then you drink the coke and you find out there's

raccoon people in it. good morning, america. >> joe. >> you can't step back from that and that doesn't understand, running a second time is far different than running the first time. so donald trump is going to be pointing to everyone else out there. it doesn't work. second time around, no. >> this re-election for a president is -- it is a referendum on that guy right there. did he do a good job or do you need somebody else? has he exhausted you by his hatred? as he exhausted you by his tweets? do you really want to take a chance on another four years? i think people look at the coke, the new flavored coke and say you know what? i'll just have some water. >> we have a whole raccoon pea segment on my show. so thank you. >> that's why i did it.

>> the other thing he's not running against hillary clinton. he ran against a candidate that people pushed away from. the most important stat is as far as the 30 point gender gap with women. i want the democrats to be very, very skeptical about that poll. when i see poll, this is elizabeth warren would beat down trump today, i don't believe that personally. i i don't know if that would happen. the worst thing the democrats can do and willie's point is the right place. we don't have to do that because any of them are going to be there wrong. the message for everyone is why are we better than trump and i think this is a little bit of an early head fake. to me it's the worst thing they can do at this point is in any way, shape or form feel

confident. still ahead on "morning joe," nancy pelosi accusing william barr of committing a crime. now the question is what are democrats going to do about it? that's significant new development, but first a check on the forecast. >> derby is this weekend. a rainy forecast for a lot of people. highest river level in over 150 years. i mean, that's how long they've been keeping the records there. pret i incredible stuff and we wish them the best as they begin a slow process cleaning upmost by because it's going to take a long time for the river to drop. >> a batch of rain right over the top of the derby today. it's pouring. later on this afternoon, watch out from waco to austin to san antonio and because it's been so wet this week we saw 19 million

people in flash flood watches. it will be anywhere that we get thunderstorm it is, we can quickly get some flash flooding. isolated storms d.c. and when we goat to derby, rain all through tennessee and kentucky. it's going to be hit and miss as we go through the afternoon. do expect a muddy track and by the time we get to sunday, apologies to the northeast, it looks like a soaking cold rain as we go throughout sunday afternoon. washington, d.c., you had a nasty line of thunderstorms roll through yesterday evening, off to a beautiful start today. just a few hit and miss showers and storms later on this afternoon. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. atching "mo" we'll be right back. welcome to fowler, indiana. one of the windiest places in america. and home to three bp wind farms.

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yesterday we saw something from nancy pelosi who has been very measured. measured about the concept of impop peachment but a leader. but we saw something a little different, a little bit nancy pelosi, the leader, very tough, very concerned around the direction of this country. how she described barr her formed when he was testifying on cal toll hill. >> did the noern general commit a crime? he lied to congress. nobody is above the the law, not the president of the united states and not the attorney general. beings attorney general does not give you a back to go say whatever you want and it is the thatch that you are because of the attorney general. >> so mike, i love that nancy

pelosi heard the truth right now. we've some hemobike -- he lied to congress. >> reporter: we've got at least one solid example of it, that would drn any of us would be thrown in jail. >> correct. >> for per perjury? we'll all be in jailing right? he may have lied to holland. but we would still all be sent at least to a grand jury for saying what he said to chris holland. on the matter of the utmost public sporns, the undermining of the justice's department's purpose for selecting a special counsel in the words of robert mueller himself. so he has committed perjury and i personally believe they should start looking into an

impeachment requirery if the rule of law means anything at all. but i'm watching these pathetic hacks on the right, some of them who have respectable careers. they've turned themselves. imagine what these pathetic acts are saying about barr's lying and what they said about bill clinton's lying in 199 # and 1999 and suddenly they're sounding an awful lot like the man who said, it depends on what your definition of "is" is. >> well, now know, there's a couple of things going on here.

how is it that so many people with past qualifications, passed example of character and leadership check all of that at the door and go into just total suck coming to donald trump. it's a mystery as to how many people who know they. >> reporter: tainted by trump, by their association with them, just dive into the tank with limb. the other aspect of it is unwittingly or wittingly, but probably unwittingly, what bill barr has done will 'em nit flood yesterday with the release of a political document more so than it was a legal document. they keep that story going. there's going to be more rarings. instead of just sitting back and saying the thing is over and responding with candid truth, the torn general chose to as you've indicated he lied repeatedly. and he's going to keep this

story going. >> man of the crime. >> this story is not going away for a long time now. >> i actually think she's laid down a marker. both rapid fire real quick. the speaker of the house says he lied and that's a crime. i mean, that seems to be a marker as to how to move forward. i'm sorry. >> i think she's made it very clear, mika, based on her comments yesterday what the path forward is and we'll see if immeechment dug take place. but if you look at congress's job which is oversight authority over the administration. it makes the path much more clear. a then what are we going to do? it's going to set a precedent

for future leaders and administration officials that we can get away with anything and there's not going to be any sort of repercussion. >> where exactly does bernie sanders stand on gun rights? it was an issue in 2016 and it's back in the spotlight today. heidi has now reporting on that. she joins us straight ahead. sir, you're a broker. what do you charge for online equity trades? uh, i'll look into it. (phone rings) lisa jones! lisa: (on phone) hey carl, what are you charging me for online equity trades? (nervous chuckle) lisa: and do i get my fees back if i'm not happy? like a satisfaction guarantee? ugh. schwab! lisa: oh right, i'm calling schwab.

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i'm running for president because we must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country. we must expand background checks and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons. >> that is vermont senator bernie sanders' current take, but heidi has been tracking his voting record that paints another -- a different picture. she joins us now with her new reporting on how sanders' past views on gun control could be a potential liability in 2020. >> that's right. bernie is the top pick for young

democrats but he's being greeted ske skeptically. nbc news spoke with andy fill low pressures who lost her daughter in the aurora mass shooting and she says she is not for giving bernie sanders' vote. listen to this. she was in her home moving out of her home because she says this law helped bankrupt her family because she had to pay the legal fees, not only her legal fees but the legal fees of the ammunition producer that sold her daughter's killer 4,000 rounds of ammunition over the internet without a background check. now, to be clear, sanders ultimately did reverse his position on this law but she

says upt wasn't until three days before the iowa caucuses when he was backed up against the wall and forced into doing it. he was being attacked by hillary clinton about it and she's just skeptical and she's not alone. i also spoke with shannon watts for moms demand action. they're ske they're kept skeptical. >> i'm glad that higheidi uncovd this story. this is something we really focused on in 2016 when it came to white college educated women. gun safety and it's hard often times to get not only the media but also, you know, frankly voters to really take this issue seriously. you know, my question for heidi is do you think this time is

differe different? do you think that bernie sanders in a field of potentially 20, 21 candidates, do you think this is an issue that might have more of an impact in his standing in the polls going forward? >> you know giving the parkland students, there's more of an awareness of the gunnish but a lot of these young voters is not aware of bernie sanders' record on the issue and to go back to this 2005 law, there are many touch points here. they've found a work around through the connecticut supreme court on this, but this is a very emotional issue and you hear folks like dan gross from the brady campaign who say it is this law that helped usher in a deadly era of gun violence. to to be fair to bernie, hae has

reversed many of his positions on guns he's also left a very gray area here in terms of how hard he's going to advocate. i'll give you an example. there was a letter that went to senator lindsey graham in the senate that said, please take up the background check legislation that passed the house. this was historic. it was the first time in a generation that we had background check legislation. every single senator running for president signed that except sanders. so there is still evidence that he is not in their minds, fully advocating as hard as he can on this sh shoe and he will be pressed on it for sure. >> thank you so much. we'll be reading your new reporting at nbc news.com. coming up, the latest democrat to jump into the presidential race. michael bennet of colorado joins the conversation next on "morning joe." ng joe."

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with the release of the monthly jobs report. let's go to sarah at the new york stock exchange. they are looking good. >> yes. 263,000 jobs created for the month of april. expecting only 185,000. check out that unemployment rate. 3.6%. continues to move lower. we are now at a 49 year low on the unemployment rate. the only miss was really there wages. wages growing oin.3%. there's more room to go up in wages. given we have such a low unemployment rate it's surprising we're not seeing workers getting paid more.

i'll give you some other color, it looks like the hiring was robust and broad based. saw it in health care and government also added more jobs. now, if you smooth it out, because sometimes jobs report is all over the place. remember february had that number where it barely grew jobs. it looks like over the last four months of the year the average job creation was 205,000 per month. very strong, very healthy. it's a bit of a slow down from what we saw last year, but we're in our ternth year of economic recovery. this is a feeling that businesses are feeling good and are hiring. >> trump's going to own these numbers. this is one area where he's got a strong political argument. >> i mean he's been in office for two and a half years.

he certainly was handed off an economic recovery, years of economic growth by barack obama but these are even stronger numbers so he -- you know, in so many other aspects of donald trump's presidency, you can say he took something good and made it worse. in this case it's hard not to argue even though there is income disparity, even though job wages are not growing as quickly as they should, among most voters you look at the unemployment rate and this is where donald trump can say i took something and i made it better. that's going to be a challenge for any democrat hoping to defeat donald trump in the fall of 2020 and speaking of that, let's bring in right now a member of finance and the intelligence committee democratic senator michael bennet of colorado. he launched his bid for president of the united states

and despite my op ed that it was the second coming of abraham lincoln and george washington we have wagner met before i don't think. >> i came all the way to new york and you're not here, joe. >> well -- >> so we're not actually meeting. >> well, close enough. i mean, seriously, if i had been in the same room with you, given my op ed i may have -- so maybe this is good. >> maybe you need a little bit of space. >> so let's talk about the news out today. unemployment rate is at 3.6%. wages aren't great but they're better than they've been. job participation rate is not great but it's better than it's been. how do you feed a president that has an economy spurring along at

4%. >> this has been growing almost in a straight line since 2009. when -- at the depths of the recession, barack obama took over, those job numbers are slightly better, but they've gone in a straight line. but i'll give credit for donald trump not screwing up the first two years he was here. the biggest problem is that for 40 years wages have been flat and you just heard it on the report that we didn't get the wage growth that we thought we would say and the result of that in my state, colorado, who has one of the most dynamic economies on the planet, they could not afford housing or higher education and people, that means people in my state and all across the country is not afford a middle class life that we used to take granted. i can't blame that on donald trump but it is something that we have to address as a country

if this democracy is going to survive and that's how i think you take donald trump on which is he is completely destroying and trashing the democracy. >> you talk about economic and political sclerosis. you talk about immobility that voters have felt through the years. what do you do that every other president over the past generation has not been able to do to bring an end not only to the economic chlorosis, but also the political sl-- >> so large actors that aren't producing jobs in the country and help small businesses to start. we could do a better job of small business formation.

in the meantime we could pass my bill, the american family act which would dramatically increase the child tax credit in this country giving middle class families a huge boost and reducing childhood poverty in america by 40%. president after president after president hasn't done that. by the way, it would cost 3% of what medicare for all would cost. 3% and you'd reduce childhood poverty in this country be 40%. two and a half times less than donald trump's tax cut for the wealthy. so these are the kinds of things on the economic side we could do. in terms of the political sclerosis that is a debate we're having in the democratic party. we are destroying our institutions in washington and there are some people who say we should go down that rabbit hole. my view is if you are not the

party that believes that government is the problem trying to destroy our country, going down that road is an invitation to the freedom caucus and for mitch mcconnell to say keep destroying our institutions. we have to rebuild those institutions and we have to serve people in my state that are understanding that they don't have the same opinion about everything, but they want to drive economic growth in this country that's broadly based. they want to do the right things for our kids and they want to do the right thing for this country's place in the world. i think that's what we need to do after this next election is over. >> when you got in the race yesterday you joined a long list of candidates. i believe we're at 22 now which means we can have a full pickup football game and there are many of your fellow senators in the race. there's mayors, a former vice president, so when persons look at that field, why should they sit up and pay attention to you?

what's different about you? >> first of all i want cory booker who is an all american tight end. >> good draft pick. >> a great guy. look, i think it's an amazing moment in the party's history to have this many people running. i think imactually the 22nd. i think it's amazing. the american people really don't know at this moment what the democratic party stands for. we have the chance now to have a real competition of ideas in the party. the country needs that competition of ideas. it actually needs it between normal republican party and the democratic party as well but among democrats we need to do it and i think i bring to it a certain experience in the senate over the last ten years of getting bipartisan results even when the place was cratering around us and i spent time in business and i've spent time

running the denver public schools as a superintendent in kids' schools and classrooms who were largely ignored. have been largely ignored for the last hundred years. i'd like to bring their voices to this conversation to make sure that we're driving opportunity for them instead of marooning them in schools that are not going to allow them to meaningfully participate in the economy. so i think everybody in this race has strengths and weaknesses and i hope people see that i have some of those too. >> the question of health care. another group of candidates including you who say medicare with a public option. an opt in. it's not for everybody but you've got the option to get in. why is that a better idea than medicare for all? >> what unites this field is we all believe in universal coverage. we all believe that america is spending too much on health care

and american families are spending too much on health care. what yunites this field is our health care and you would think every american would want that and to go back to my point, every republican in colorado wants that, not to mention democrats and independents. you have a president since the day he was in office has tried to take health care away. made it more expensive for americans, never delivered on the promise he made to have a beautiful health system that was going to cost so little and cover everybody. all lies. i believe my suggestion about medicare is a better alternative for medicare for all because i think medicare for all takes insurance away from 180 million people 80% of whom like it in the private market. if you were sitting in a living room and said we want universal coverage, we want to reduce

costs, we want to increase quality but we have to start by taking insurance away from half of you, the answer would be no, you're not going to start by doing that. do you have some other idea? and i think the other idea is a robust public option is a choice. i just went through a cancer operation and i can tell you having been through that and then my kid who's 14 years old had an appendectomy seven days after my surgery i felt very strongly. i wanted that option for my family. i think it makes it much more likely that it would ever pass. when barack obama said if you like your insurance you can keep it and several hundred thousand people lost it. we're still recovering from that and what we're saying now with medicare, if you like your insurance, we're going to take

it away from you? >> quickly, how is your health? >> i'm the luckiest guy in the world. i was -- they said i had cancer and then five weeks later i was free of cancer and you know, i thought a lot about what it would mean for me or anybody else to get a diagnosis like that and not have insurance? my operation cost $53,000. insurance paid for almost all of that. that would have bankrupted a lot of people who didn't have insurance and you you've got a president taking away insurance from people with preexisting conditions. we should fight that out during a primary and see who's successful. >> that's great news. >> i appreciate your asking. >> you mentioned schools and the school system in denver. we came in to this segment with an economic report.

let me ask you about the gross national product that is lost, creativity, imagination of kids in k through eight in school systems around this country who are not taught as well as taugh ought to be taught, no fault of the teachers, it's like a factory, in my view one of the most critical components of this country, the future of these children that are lost in class. >> i agree, no fault of the teachers. and secondly, no fault of the kids. the old philosophier's trick of imaging a society you're not sure when you're born, where you're going to end up. if you're born poor in this country, unfortunately it's a disaster. we have almost no decent preschool for kids living in

president oba po poverty. there are senators that would never send their kids to school. and then it's hard to afford to send kids to college. all of that sounds obvious, mike, like vanilla stuff. we're not doing it almost for any kids in many america, especially kids living in poverty. the loss in human potential, before you get to gdp, is enormous. i don't think there's anything more at war with who we are as americans than the idea of if you're more important your chances of getting a college degree are 9 in 100. which means 91 of our kids because of the savageness of the 21st century economy are constrained to the margins of the democracy, the economy for nothing they ever did. our system, just to finish the thought, was designed deep in the last century and in the

century before that. we have teachers all over the country that can't afford to live in the cities where they teach. denver has become one of those places. when i was superintendent, one of the great things about denver was teachers could afford to own houses and live in apartments there, that's no longer true. when you think about how we pay teachers, it is the same system we had when we had a labor market that discriminated against women and said you have two choices one is being a teacher and the other is being a nurse. since no one will hire you to be an astronaut or on msnbc or anything else we'll pay you this low compensation. you're going to stay here 30 years, which you won't anymore. we'll give you a pension, which sounded good back then because your spouse was going to die. today you're not going to be there 30 years, today you know

the pension isn't going to be funded. nobody is paying anybody in america like that. and in the old days we used that discrimination in the labor market which thank goodness doesn't exist in the same profound way it used to. we used that discrimination to subsidize our public education system and say kids you are going to be lucky enough to get the best english literature kid to teach you because we're not going let her do anything else except be a nurse, and those days have been over 50 years. yet we're still paying people this way. it's one of many illustrations of the change we need to make as a country. not just in washington. washington can't solve this problem. but all over the country if we're going to drive the kind of opportunity we need to drive. >> all right. senator michael bennett, thank you very much for being on the show. >> thanks for having me.

hope we'll see you next time. >> we definitely will see you. up next, joe biden learned the hard way that progressives weren't pleased with his praise of mike pence. four years earlier it was dig cheney he was praising. >> i like dick cheney, i get on with him. he's a decent man. >> how's that going on with the base, mieke? we'll talk about it when morning joe comes back. this awful pain in my chest. i had a pe blood clot in my lung. i was scared. i had a dvt blood clot. having one really puts you in danger of having another. my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®. to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again.

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the guy is a decent guy. our vice president, who stood before this group of allies and leaders and said, i'm here on behalf of president trump. and there was dead silence. dead silence. >> former vice president joe biden talking about current vp mike pence in february. the democratic base backlash quickly prompted biden to reverse course tweeting, there's nothing decent about being anti -- and another one when he described his affection for dick

cheney. walter mondale had a different view. >> i like dick cheney for real. i get on with him, he's a decent man. >> do you have views on dick cheney? >> yeah, a little bit different i would say. >> so, mike, here's the deal. you have to work with people with whom you disagree with, strongly. it may shock a lot of barack obama worshippers to know that he and his wife michelle like george w. bush. you can talk about the iraq war, republicans can talk about the 500,000 people who died in syria and say how can you be a friend of barack obama, we can play these games or have people who disagree working with each other, and helping us move from one white house to other. >> joe also likes mitch

mcconnell. the idea is how about less fighting going on in d.c. and more conversation. i think that's basically where joe biden is coming from. >> we need people who can disagree strongly with others and still get along with them personally. that's the only way washington works. >> it's the only way government works. i worked for rudy giuliani and andrew cuomo because i believed in government, and that's what dedicated people should be doing. >> no doubt about it. >> great week everybody. >> thanks for watching. >> what a week, right? happy friday. that does it for us this morning. chris jansing picks up the coverage now. mika, people have to read your interview. great coverage there. checks and imbalances it's washington at war as house democrats say they'll