reasoning of it, the propriety of that is going to be exciting to watch. >> moike allen, thanks for your time today, sir. all of you can sign up at the newsletter at signup.axios.com. >> i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside geoff bennett. "morning joe" starts right now. >> as a democratic governor of a state that trump won by 20 points, i don't have the luxury of just talking to people who agree with me. i look for common ground to get things done. that's how i was able to bring democrats and republicans to the. we needtrump in 2020 and defeat the corrupt system that lets campaign money drown out the people's voice. i'm steve bullock and i'm running for president. >> that was montana governor steve bullock declaring he is in the race for the white house with an announcement that highlights his red state roots

and law to reform campaign finance with 22 declared presidential candidates, there are now enough democrats to field both sides in a game of football. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, may 14th. joe is off this morning but along with willie and me we have mike barnicle, now an msnbc political analyst elise jordan and rick tyler and pulitzer prize winning columnist and political analyst eugene robinson. willie, there are so many democrats i guess i have to ask at this point when you have one democrat with such a resounding lead in the polls and so many other others trying to get air time, steve bullock, we like

him, i this i henk he's a very attractive candidate, he's been on "morning joe," he seems like he has a lot to offer but what bugs me in the back of high mind is that senate seat in his state is pretty important, too. >> you can say that in a bunch of other red states. steve bullock is name we've heard for a long time. we heard he was thinking about getting in. he's a very interesting candidate. as he said in that video, montana went for donald trump in 2016 by 20 points but steve bullock, a democrat there, won reelection. he's got strong progressive credentials. it is a red state but he's very progressive. when you talk to him, he almost looks at washington with confusion about the way they do business because, as he says, in montana democrats and republicans don't have a choice but to work to the. as you say, mika, 22 candidates, it's a long climb from the bottom up to where joe biden is

and bernie sanders and where mayor pete and others have paid their way. it's a long way to go, we don't know what's going to happen. 22 is a big number. we'll have to have two debates in june, for example, just to split them up. steve bullock is an having name democrats have been wondering whether he'd get in and this morning he is. >> as far as we've soon, he seems like a great candidate. anything can happen. we'll dig into this more a little later in the show. i wand ted to show you this. this is mayor pete on jimmy fallon. you know the whole "mad" magazine thing, jimmy fallon asked him about it. i just happen to love his answer. take a look. >> he called you alfred e. newman. >> yeah. >> what do you think? >> the president of the united states called you that. wow. what goes through your mind when that happens? >> we talk a lot about elevating the dialogue. i guess the fact that i inspired

him to make a literary reference possibly for the first time -- >> in the two answers i've seen him give to nicknames trump puts on people, the first one made trump seem old and out of touch where he said i guess it's a generational thing, i had to google it, i didn't know what it was about. now this, where he's like he's a dummy, doesn't even read. i guess we're glad he's talking about comic books. that's something on paper you have to look at and figure out. >> so we know that donald trump did read at some point in his life, probably as an adolescent and he read "mad" magazine. it was a good answer. it was funny. it was quick. mayor pete is clearly smart as a

whip and engaging and this and that. we'll see, as you said, he's got himself a perch in that sort of second tier behind biden and bernie, but it's a long -- it's still a long climb from where he is. so we'll have to see if he continues -- if he continues his ascent or if he gets stalled there. but we'll see. it was a great answer. >> front page of every newspaper in the country right now, a dive in the dow because of this trade war. more than a trillion dollars knocked out from global markets yesterday. the dow jones fell more than 2%. china announced it would retaliate by raising tariffs on a wide range of american goods. president trump commented

yesterday at the white house. >> we're in a very strong position. our economy has been very powerful. theirs has not been. we've gone up a lot since our great election in 2016. we're dealing with them. we have a very good relationship. maybe something will happen. this is a very positive step. i love the position we're in. so our farmers will be very happy, our manufacturers will be very happy and our government is very happy because we're taking in tens of billions of dollars. i think it's working out very well. so we're in a very good position and i think it's only going to get better. >> reporter: can you guarantee a trade deal with china by june 1st? >> we're in a great position right now no matter what we do. >> i also want to thank secretary steven mnuchin. steve. steve just got back from china. we'll let you know in about three or four weeks whether or not it was successful.

you never really know. >> president trump threatened to install 25% tariffs on the remaining $325 billion worth of chinese goods the u.s. imports each year. if that does occur, morgan stanley says the country could fall into a recession and goldman sachs warns it could result in a .4% hit to u.s. gdp. the president once again claimed china is paying for his tariffs. >> we're taking in right now hundreds of billions of dollars. we're taking in billions of dollars of tariffs and those tariffs are going to be tremendously, if you look at what we've done thus far with china, we've never taken in 10 cents until i got elected and now we're taking in billions and billions. it's in the form of tariffs or taxes. it had a tremendous impact. if you look at the first quarter, which is always historically the worst quarter we're at 3.2%. people were very surprised. a lot of that was the tariffs we were taking in from china.

we have tens of millions of dollars pouring into our coffers of the u.s. treasury. >> goldman sachs says the costs of u.s. tariffs have fallen, quote, entirely on american businesses and especially households with a greater impact on consumer prices than even expected. there currentlyin no indications that u.s. and china trade representatives are set to meet in the future. let's bring in cnbc's brian sullivan. let's be really clear about what a tariff is and what it does and who is impacted by it, not quite the way the president explains it. >> it's paid for by u.s. importers. you're china, i'm the united states, you sell me a good, i pay for it at the port of entry and theoretically pass it along to consumers. u.s. consumers pay. larry kudlow sid that as much on

an interview on sunday. right now it's mostly raw goods but this new round of tariffs could impact more of the stuff we buy directly at the store. if the third round kicks in, that's 25% on everything that we import from china that, is shoes, toys, household goods, that's the direct pass-on to the u.s. consumer. >> so, elise jordan, i'm trying to think of a way to phrase this but you just wonder is he deliberately trying to tank our economy? i mean, what would be the win for donald trump and the united states of america and the united states of america being co-equal with the president, what's the win here for the united states? >> you have to wonder if donald trump isn't a little bit spooked and knows that he's gotten too far ahead of his skis on this and risk tanking the economy.

he did admit in that press conference that there's going to be the need of yet another bailout of american farmers. brian, what do you make of that $15 billion proposed bailout for american farmers that donald trump brought up yesterday? he didn't say how he was going to pay for it but he did mention it and address that there is a need and that american farmers are hurt by these policies? >> you need to. here's the thing, we buy a lot from china. what we sell to china is actually not that much and it's most li agricultural products. so farmers in a lot of states, by the way, that president trump will need to win to win reelection, they're going to be hurt. he's sending out a little peace offering to them knowing soy beans and beets, the kind of stuff that china slapped tariffs on, if you look at the states that the republican candidate will have to win in 2020, those are the states, the

pennsylvanias, the wisconsins, the michigans probably like this tough talk as long as there's some kind of a resolution. right now the higher tariffs have not kicked in. there's a couple week grace period. maybe the president is banking on the fact these going to be able to make a deal. last night in china as we showed on my show this morning, there's starting to be some anti-u.s. stuff coming out talking about state-run media and how china has been through 5,000 years of fights and that this is not going to dissuade them. >> rick tyler, don't be afraid to correct me if i'm wrong on my assessment of what we've been talking about here this morning. you can go back 30 years and watch donald trump with johnny carson and he was talking about china. he was talking about tariffs 30 years ago. and it's clear that he still doesn't know what a tariff does to consumers in this country. and yet everything else that we've been talking about here

this morning, 22 people running for president, in the background the white house refusing to respond to any subpoenas from congress and yet if you go out in the country, there seems to be a sort of you know, these things are going on, doesn't affect my every day life. i'm wondering the impact on all of this on a narcoticized country. >> i will correct you that donald trump does no what a tariff is and who pays for it. he said we have not collected a dime in tariffs, that's not true. we collected $21 billion from china before donald trump put his tariffs in. there's an $18 billion dollar increase. we mostly export agriculture to china. and aviation, boeing stock was hit yesterday, went down 5%

because china is a big customer of boeing and now they're hitting them with tariffs. but this is a very high-stakes game. what would have to happen for the u.s. to win this is we would have to go to the wall. remember president xi isn't up for relebs because he doesn't have to go through reelection and donald trump does. and he is hitting farmers, essentially the red states. so if american companies try to resupply -- and they can do that, china isn't the only manufacturer in the world, vietnam, cambodia, india, they all want to replace china manufacturing. a tariff is a tax on the american consumer. you saw the chinese expose stocks yesterday get hammered. those were the stocks that lost every one of the dow industrials got hit yesterday. no one had any gains.

we'll see if that stabilizes today. >> but, mika, we shouldn't worry because president trump once told us that tariff wars are easy to win, right? >> they' >> oh my lord, here we go. i feel confident now. now to this -- the trump administration is reportedly entertaining a potential plan that would involve sending tens of thousands of troops to the middle east amid growing tensions with iran. according to "the new york times" citing administration officials during a meeting on thursday with president trump's top national security aides, acting defense secretary patrick shanahan presented an updated military plan that included sending up to 120,000 troops to the region. the "times" said the move would hinge on an iranian attack on american forces or if tehran accelerates work on nuclear weapons. the paper adds the plan does not

call for a land invasion of iran, which would require a large number of troops according to the "times," the changes to that plan were ordered by national security adviser john bolton, reflecting his influence as one of the trump administration's most severe iran hawks. bolton previously pushed for a military confrontation with iran more than a decade ago while serving under president george w. bush. the "times" says it's unclear if president trump who sought to pull troops out of mitt operati -- military operations in syria has been briefed on the details of the plan. elise, with your experience and your knowledge on this topic and having worked in the state department, this seems to me to be escalating tensions unnecessarily. you see john bolton's fingerprints all over this.

this is what we were worried about when he was chosen for the job. ne of the most shouldn't be hawkish advisers in washington is pushing donald trump along this path. and i think that we should be incredibly concerned any time that we're discussing moving over 100,000 troops into position because of escalating tensions. and i think i really cannot believe that we failed to learn anything from the first decade of this century and we are actually considering escalating with iran in a war that would further destabilize the region and unleash god knows what in terms of chaos in a very troubled region already. >> gene, that's the first thing i thought when i saw this headline was dear god, here we go again. this does have john bolton's name written all over it. he's been an iran hawk from the

beginning. it's one of the reasons that i think president trump liked him as he watched him on fox news. the piece says nothing is imminent. at this point they don't have this plan, they're developing a contingency if something should happen in the gulf. but we're talking about a number of troops that approaches the number that went into iraq at about 120,000. >> when you talk about 120,000 troops, everybody should be deeply concerned that this is even being talked about. this policy is clearly being driven by john bolton. he has, you know, to call him a hawk on iran is to understate dramatically what john bolton is. he wants regime change in iran. he doesn't want a change in the regime's behavior. he apparently doesn't think that's possible. we already got that, by the way, with the iran nuclear deal, which the president thinks that

john bolton has beabrogated and tossed out and refuses to follow. but bolton wants the regime gone. that's a very, very dangerous position to take. iran is a big powerful nation. it's not the united states obviously but when you talk about sending 120,000 troops to the region, that's a trip wire. it makes it much more likely that we blunder or bluster our way into some sort of conflict that gets totally out of hand. president trump has no idea what he's doing here. none. >> brian, there are so many elements of danger, potential danger in this story as we're talking about it, we could spend the whole three hours discussing it, but the principal point of danger that affects us is consumer danger, is it not? the potential rise in gasoline prices given the problems that

could occur with distribution of oil through the persian gulf. >> iran has threatened to basically shut down that 15-mile-wide stretch by threatening ships. if that happens, crude oil prices will smipike dramaticall. i know this, the average american household uses about 50 to 60 gallons of gasoline a month, two cars. the price of gasoline goes up a buck or two, that's going to make the tariffs look like small potatoes. there's no single greater outlay aside from our mortgage and food is gasoline. it disproportionately hurts the poor more than anyone else. there were four oil tankers effectively attacked or vandalized in that strait of

hormuz yesterday. if we see attacks on saudi tankers, we could see the u.s. military move in and i would expect you would see a great jump in the price of oil, even with u.s. oil production and saudi production up because there are few countries that dislike each other more than iran and saudi arabia. >> cnbc's brian sullivan, thank you very much for being on with us this morning. now to some other stories making headlines this morning. actress felicity huffman pleaded guilty to federal charges for her role in the college admissions scandal. yesterday huffman admitted to paying $15,000 to have wrong answers corrected on her daughter's s.a.t. exam. she broke down in tears while explaining she also had requested extra time for her daughter's test for legitimate medical reasons. the former "desperate housewives" charges include

conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. prosecutors recommend that huffman receive four months behind bars. a sentencing hearing is set for september. we're going to have a lot more later this hour with our legal analyst. willie? >> the supreme court cleared the way for apple uses are to proceed with a class action lawsuit for allegedly monopolizing the sale of apps on its iphone, forcing them to buy developers game and other software only through the app store while taking a cut of the store, generating an estimated $11 billion in revenue for apple in 2017. yesterday just brett kavanaugh joined the other justices. according to legal experts, the 5-4 rule be potentially opens the way for similar lawsuits against other giant tech companies with similar business

models to apple. >> and former president jimmy carter is recovering from surgery to repair a broken hip after falling at his home in georgia yesterday morning while on his way to go turkey hunting. the surgeon said the procedure was a success but according to carter's press secretary, the main concern for the 94-year-old former commander in chief is that turkey season ends this week and he has not yet reached his limit. a little humor there. we wish him the best, our prayers to the former president. >> in 2015 donald trump told "morning joe" he wanted a deportation force to move out millions of undocumented immigrants. four years later, a new reporting says the white house has a secret plan for mass family arrests. we'll get to that story. but let's go to bill karins for a check on the forecast.

>> good morning to you, mika. yesterday a tornado touched down in sections of east carolina. it was an ef-2 tornado, winds in excess of 150 miles per hour. still the story today is the northeast and how unusually cold, damp, raw and dreary it has been this spring. it continues this morning. we've had snow overnight in the mountains of northern new england. we still even have a winter weather advisory for the northern half of new hampshire where two to three inches of snow has fallen. here's a map i thought i put away but we had to bring it back out today. this is your wind chill map. it's 38 in boston, 37 in detroit, 38 in columbus. so it's widespread from the great lakes all the way through thorn new england. today will be raw. it's not going to warm up quickly today. on 44 in boston. it should be mid 60s this time of year. middle of the country is fine.

for everyone in the east, here is the silver lining. this is the six-to-ten-day forecast, above average, much warmer temperature, it will feel like summer in the eastern half of the country come next week. it's about time. we could use some dry, warm weather. i got to mow the grass sooner or later. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ your control. like bedhead. hmmmm. ♪ rub-a-dub ducky...

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i'm the 37-year-old mayor of south bend, indiana. i'm a rhodes scholar and veteran of afghanistan. i'm not going to spend all my time talking about president trump. i want to talk about you and the needs of every day americans.

>> oh, yeah. pete buttigieg wants to satisfy all your needs. ever since he's declared his candidacy, america been's all hot and pbothered for him and nw mayor pete's going all in. ♪ going all in he's ready and prepared for a primary battle ♪ he is name is worth 800 points in scrabble ♪ >> oh, my god. i love jimmy fallon's show. it's so good. more there from mayor pete's "tonight show" appearance. he did great. he was slow jamming the news with jimmy fallon. a new morning consult tracking poll of the democratic race was released overnight showing barely any movement from last week in the wide ranging field. joe biden continues to lead with 39%, 20 points ahead of senator

bernie sanders at 19%. senators kamala harris and elizabeth warren tied for a distant third at 8% each, narrowing those results down to the early contests in ohio, new hampshire, south carolina and nevada, biden maintains a commanding 20-point lead over sanders, 42% to 22% with warren moving up three points to third place with 9%. so, willie, a lot going on. there are so many candidates and i think we got one more this morning and i don't think it ends there. i think we're going to have another one by week's end. >> we got montana governor steve bullock jumping in the race at the top of our show. and new york city mayor bill de blasio said he'll announce his final decision about a potential run for president this week. >> you're considering a presidential run, nearly two dozen people are running, a lot

of them straight, white male, fitting your profile. why consider it given the profile of the party? >> i don't think it makes sense to speak to that until i've come to decision. i've been talking to my family. wie we'll make a final decision this week. until i make a decision, i don't think it makes sense to speak to that. >> gene robinson, we expect this announcement on thursday. i have a question, not necessarily about bill de blasio, but it might be, we can ask him on thursday. some of these candidates have no shot, okay? right? is that okay to say even in this climate where anything could happen. and is that it? what are they running on? by the way, some of them could be doing work for america in the senate and that is you could argue as important in the future or democrats. but what's the point? is it narcissism? is it anything could happen

because trump happened so i'm going to just throw my hat in there? they know they have no shot, right? >> they must know. first of all, i have a question -- >> what is it then? >> my question, first of all, is why do i never get to slow jam the news? i can slow jam the news. >> i know. i never asked either. i think joe could be an amazing slow jammer, too. it's so fun. >> but to your point, mika, some of them have no chance. but, you know, if you look -- what's the down side to them? they become better known, they get book deals -- >> so it's a p.r. thing? >> so it's a branding exercise for some of them. don't underestimate the ability of politicians at every level to delude themselves and to think they are the salvation of the

nation and the world and they are the chosen one and they need to be in this. but with, what, 22, 23 candidates, however many, two dozen candidates and with a handful clearly now sort of distancing themselves from the field and others polling at zero. i mean, polling at negligible levels. they're not going to be able to stan this for long, it's expensive to run for president. they're not going to get any money and they'll have to drop out. most of them will feel they're better off than where they started. some of these people should be running for senate. there's a possibility that, you know, just he's a good guy but john hickenlooper, who is not polling well in colorado, he could take on cory gardner in a senate race and he could win. he'd have a good chance of doing

it. you know,he senate may be i hate to say squandered, but is certainly lessened by the fact that some really potentially outstanding senate candidates are either running for president or sitting on the sidelines. >> willie, they're squandering the senate but there's also the fact that some of these names don't even come up. so it's not a branding exercise. it's not. you're not building your name. if you're one of two, three, four or five, that's a branding exercise because you're part of the conversation. but when you're like number 25 and you don't even get brought up in the conversation -- what is going on? why would anybody enter the race as a democrat right now? >> i think for most people in america who watch this, the race has not yet begun. it has for us of course but the debates next month on msnbc, all of these people will have a chance to have a moment and

maybe they'll pop in the poll a little bit. maybe it's the first time the country will stop and see all these candidates. i want to go back to the country, to the biden polls, he's up big nationally. the south carolina states in particular with eye popping this week where he's up by 31 points overall against bernie sanders and among black voters, he's up by 43 points in south carolina. >> and those kinds of numbers, we'll see if they hold, whatever, but potentially can be decisive. you have to do well with african-american voters if you hope to win the democratic nomination for president. and so far joe biden is doing much better than anybody else. south carolina is the first test of african-american support after iowa and new hampshire where there are very few black people.

if bide makes that sort of showing, he'll be very, very difficult to beat. i know it's early days and it's joe biden so anything can happen, but that's a very significant factor in his lead right now. >> yes, it is. anyone entering the race right now the question i will be asking is with so many candidates, what is so specific about you that you feel that you should be chosen among all these candidates? what makes you so different from all of them and there has to be an answer or get out. because at this point, we're getting to like levels that are ridiculous. >> coming up, from the trade war with china to escalating tensions with iran and north korea's continued missile tests we have a lot to talk about with richard haas and ambassador wendy sherman. that's next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪

the bottom line is iran has taken advantage of this country for years, iran is in big trouble in terms of the military. we ought to go in the next time they fire so much as a bullet at one of our ships, we should go in and take over their oil.

this country is acting so weak toward iran it's pathetic. >> that is donald trump in december of 1987 on the "today" show. joining us now the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas and form are undersecretary of state and policy coordinator on north korea, ambassador wendy sherman. she's also an msnbc contributor. let's hit the brakes on this story about iran here, front page of the "new york times." the headline is "white house reviews for iran plan for 120,000 troops if attacked." your first impression when you first read the story? >> it's not at all what 120,000 troops would do except get in trouble. iran is four times the size of iraq, twice the population of iraq, has really capable armed forces. if you're thinking about going

to war against iran you'd need a hell of a lot more than 120,000 troops. iran has an entire menu of ways to push back directly and indirectly with proxies, with cyber, with terrorists around the world. there's two thanksgiving we cou -- things we could do. one option would be do we target nuclear sites, again they could respond. and if iran is shown to be interfering with tankers, with shipping going through the straits of hormuz, that would obviously be unacceptable, but you wouldn't want to go to war with iran directly, you want to do things that make it possible for oil to move through the straits. >> if you put these pieces together, the president pulling these troops out of the iran deal and now this report that there's a plan being hatched to send 120,000 troops toward iran, what do you see? what are these crumbs leading to? >> i think these crumb are

leading to an escalating cycle that could lead us to war. i think this is john bolton's foreign policy. go to war but he likes d to talk tough. the last time we sent troops to the middle east, it didn't go so well. we had shock and awe and years of strife that have not been good for our economy. general mattis, the secretary of defense, left his post basically over disagreements with michael bolton. >> in fact, richard, at the end of this "new york times" piece, there's an anecdote from last

year when mortars hit an empty space, a field in the u.s. embassy in baghdad and john boatboat -- bolton wanted to respond against iran and secretary mattis said we're not going to respond to that. >> john has been an advocate for regime change there but the regime is not vulnerable. if there was any force against iran, there would be a real rally effect. it's not inconceivable they're going to push back. we've got to watch carefully on what they would do, using their proxies or others to put pressure on shipping, to put pressure on the saudis. the iranians may be looking and there again, if we have to respond, our goal should be to keep it limited. we don't need something big. people used to quote about tariffs and trade wars and not

easy to fight and all that. can you say the same thing with wars with i kris like iran. the whole history of the middle east, jerus experience in lebanon, our experience in iraq, it's a hell of a lot easier to get into into these than it is to -- >> that's not a lesson from history. that's a lesson from the president. we're still in those wars. we're going to take a quick break. we need to talk about china, the tariffs and north korea when we come right back. north korea whe come right back. this is the couple who wanted to get away

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welcome back to "morning joe." we're talking with ambassador wendy sherman and richard haas, president of the council on foreign relations. moving on to china. >> ambassador sherman, can you share any insight on what's happening behind the scenes with the negotiations over the trade war, or is it really being driven ostensibly from the top

and what we see is what we get and donald trump is just calling shots from twitter? >> unfortunately i think donald trump believes in tariffs. he thinks it helps us and hurts china. he's absolutely wrong about that. it's a tax on consumers. american workers are suffering already. and if indeed the new tariffs that were just announced last night that possibly could go into effect by june 17th or virtually thereafter, would be on virtually every product america gets at walmart, from sneakers to televisions. we've already done a lot of things that hurt the u.s. economy. we're workers and consumes are and both workers and consumers are getting hammered by these tariffs. he believes in this and i think he's in it for the long haul. the g-20 where he might see putin again doesn't happen until the end of june. i think we're in for quite a rocky time with the stock market. >> the or thing is this administration's attitude towards china is a shift towards

china. in one sense there's a sense that they've been vulnerable. we don't use the phrase cold war but for a lot of people in the administration and beyond, we are in a cold war, a strategic competition with china. their feeling is might as well be now. as a result there's a sense we got to force the state to remove the state from their economic model. it is a frontal assault on what china is. i think the chinese will push back but i believe that's what many in the administration are saying is inevitable and it might as well be now. >> so one of the factors in this is that basically china is a pay day lender to the united states. they own vast amounts of our treasuries. what happens if they decide to dump treasuries on to the open market? >> this is always the problem. the dollar is the reserve currency of the world but that can go away as we use our economic sanctions, as we use tariffs. one of the problems richard

mentioned all that china does to control its economy, none of the discussions in this deal that is supposedly getting created is about their industrial policy. the big centerpiece of any deal with china is a purchase agreement that they would purchase american goods. and although that would have a short-term effect, it doesn't deal with the underlying dynamics that richard talked about. so we will be right back to where we started unless we tackle -- we do need to be tough on china but this isn't the way to do it but we're doing it alone, as president trump is doing with so many other things, it's our way or the highway and he doesn't want anybody else on that highway. >> china is one of the two largest foreign holders of american debt. what comes to mind is when the united states leaned on britain in 1956 during the suez crisis where you used monetary policy to achieve foreign policy ends. that can be -- end up in a

bizarre situation where we couldn't meet some of our debt requirements and the treasury was forced to raise rates, not to slow an overheated economy, we don't have one, but in order to raise the necessary financing, we're racking up threat over a trillion dollars a year and whether -- >> ambassador, you spent a lot of your career thinking about and dealing with north korea. more ballistic missile tests from that country. where are we in relationship with that country right now? >> we are nowhere. the president in his last tweet when he said he's with kim jong un, i've got news for the president, kim jong un is not with the president of the united states. >> is he playing him? >> i think he's being played very badly. the special envoy was in north

korea that he would bible to sit down and begin a negotiation. there is no negotiating process. and i was for the president trying an unusual tabt by meeting with kim jong un because these are both leaders who think they're the only ons who matter. so i thought, well, maybe this will get us a breakthrough we haven't had in the past. but there was no team, no plan, no strategy. for the president everything in national security and foreign policy appears to be tactical without a strategy in place to pursue really the objectives we have for a national security security. >> there's another threat with north korea, with iran, with china, we are asking for everything. our goals are defined as absolute denuclearization for north korea, iran regime change, china economic model change. okay, we're not going to get it. >> you left out venezuela. >> is this president prepared to compromise? is he prepared to essentially -- do he not? you don't get everything but you

g get? right now we don't know. if we have all-or-nothing foreign policy, we will have nothing foreign policy and that gets expense of very fast. >> so far the policy looks like flattery of a north reason dictator. we appreciate. >> the "new york times"'s michael schmidt joins us with his new reporting. plus senator and foreign relations member chris coons joins you are conversation. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. oe." we'll be right back.

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refinance your student loans, and you could save big. ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, may 14th. it's spring. we have with us mike barnicle, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department elise jordan, rick tyler and pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" eugene robinson is with us. we begin this hour with sources telling "the new york times" that attorney general william barr has tasked the u.s. attorney in connecticut with investigating the origins of the fbi's russia investigation. trump appointee john durham, a

prosecutor with over four decades of experience will lead the investigation according to two people familiar with the matter. msnbc has not independently confirmed this report. durham is already heading up a probe of media leaks in connection with the russia probe, reportedly with a focus on the leak of the steel dossier. this follows incessant calls from president trump to, quote, investigator the investigators. >> it began illegally and hopefully somebody's going to look at the other side. >> there are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, bad things, i would say treasonous things against our country. those people will certainly be looked at. >> if we had done this to president obama, you'd have a hundred people in jail right now and it would be treason. we'll have to see how it all started but i'm going to leave

that to other people including the attorney general and others to mack that determination. >> however, the justice department had already been looking into the russia probe. the department's inspect or general, michael horowitz is expected to release a report in the coming weeks, while the u.s. attorney in utah, john huber, has been reviewing the surveillance and its handling of the clinton foundation for more than a year. and the "times" adds this note, quote, mr. durham's roll appeared aimed at side-stepping the appointment ofspecial couns counsel. help me understand.

i think the major prevailing concern is whether or not and how much the russians interfered in our election process and protecting our elections, our future elections to make sure they are secure. is the president looking for that in this move here with the connecticut judge? >> well, look, on the political side, the president has created a lot of questions about the fbi and the way that he has talked about this, raising the issue of whether this had been done legally. did when they surveilled his ka pawn this goes the back to 2017 when he was talking about how barack obama had wire tapped trump tower. now that mule are found what he

did and the president feels vindicated, he believes the origins of the investigation should be looked at. apparently bill barr agrees with him. many republicans on capitol hill agree with him. as we pointed out in the story there at least two currently on capitol hill -- i'm sorry, at the justice department without looking at and we do expect that report in the coming months. >> so nick let's talk about who john durham is. he's conducted special investigations like this for both democrat-appointed and republican-appointed attorneys general. what exactly is his mandate here from the attorney general, william barr in. >> that's not entirely clear. the justice department on does one type of investigation and

that's an criminal investigation. they would only be looking at that. they don't go out and do better business reviews or consulting reports or such. they really just look at l people broke the law and they charged crimes. that was the justice so here in this case you can only assume that this is a criminal investigation because that's what they do. now, the justice department has not said much about this. barr when he's spoken about it has cast it as, look, i'm going to have someone review this process but by taking a u.s. attorney, someone who is respected like durham is now, some have speculated this is just a a way az poozing the the

he had a special counsel, why is there not a special counsel to look at uranium one, in are so what some special late and keep him at bay and say we have this very respected u.s. attorney, he's taking a look at this. >> so, mike em, what happens when john durham givens hi and with your sources, what are they telling you about what happens when john durham collides -- obviously already undergoing from a very respected unexpector what happens then? >> we, i think that's something that oftenwhere there is an

inspector johnson's review that over lapse that that would be but what some would question and my guess is democrats on the hill would say this is that if you have an inspector general's review that has been looking at these issues for some time, for a long time and they have a track record that people respect and trust, they had looked it then why is it and was questioned about some of the surveillance that had gone on doo and he said he knew of no unlawful sur have a.

on thos prossies and on the this evening that most the other this evenings that offing that raise questions about decisions the fbi made. recall why are we sent an havingor in to approach john pop pom. >> so, michael smt mid, that n can. rick tyler, the politics of this? i mean, on the f and i know it was cancelled but rudy's trip to ukraine, i mean, all these things are done in plane sight

prchl some would say unamerican in the way we probablyi fear i'm scared of the answer here. this will work politically for president trump? >> well, mika, it looks look the whole feis a process. it is a very controversial process to begin with and we want to know that if to look at or surveil people. the question what it looks look to me no is this is a perpetrated against him and we're going to use resources at the justice department to look into the whole process of how this investigation got started, which is not all together clear on if the investigation got started or the complaint is that

we were looking or surveilling carter paige in particular and cart are paige doesn't seem to be very close to the campaign, he seems to be off doing his own this evening and ache tack so i'll al for a criminal probe ands that al this could be into no in light of the fact that you keks a pose that with you'll request as far as i could tell from the white house to lk at their insurancism the russians did breach vote and if you look at 2020 and i see people now who

are already aing the sex results snfrm and we are doing absolutely nothing about it. the russians, all they need to do is change voting machines in just a few counts. . while whool. meanwhile the president is sending tweets on the product, the dow jones shed more than 2.35% and the nasdaq more than 3%. it came after china raised tariff rates on a wide range of american goods. but that did not seem to worry the president yesterday. >> we're in a very strong position, our economy has been very powerful. theirs has not been. we've gone up a lot since our

great election in 2016. we're dealing with them, we have a very good relationship. maybe something will happen. this is a very positive fop is our manufactures will be very happy and our government is very happy because wooring so we're m a very good position and i think it only going to go. >> let's bring in editor at large john harrwood. the president using look, the president has two speeds with respect to controversies has

anyone ever been on a school playground? i'm going to kick your butt and you're not going to be able to lay a friend on me and he togs ls between those two. when and the impact on the u.s. economy and allles about pop he does not have a speed that involves patient strategy and so therefore we veer back and forth. i suspect in the end the president will be influenced by what he see on wall veet and those news that provide a report from and he send out more

tweets, china starts responding. then the room for china to accommodate him with compromise gets narrower. >> john, in that press avail yesterday, the president threw out quite a lot of facts. and really bombarded with his point of view -- >> they're not facts. >> and what was inaccurate? can you go through and break down what he said, what struck you as oobt tooully inaccurate? >> well, i don't have he happen ittually said china's paying billions, tens of billions, hundre hundreds that money is either absorbed to the bottom line of importers it may also hurt china by decreasing their exports and this is the point that larry

kudlow made over the weekend on television, it is obviously true that a trade war has economic fall i don't people who voted for donald trump and all of the bluster in the world can't conceal that fact. >> john, this is gene robinson. so is this priced in to the stock market already now, this uncertainty? you see the volatility going up again in the market. is it priced in? will this idea that was floated yesterday or are investors getting number to this, do you think? >> well, i think we're in a period of genuine uncertainty right now. the reason you you i think after

all the talk and all the baloney flying around, there would be a deal that didn't change all that much and it would be a face-saving situation for both sides. once those tariffs werelooks like markets are going to open a little bit high the but there is a sincere uncertainty, doubt that woof seen for the last 48 hours, that's where you could start having a real impact on the economic growth and continued impact on the financial markets. >> john harwood, thank you very much. and you next member of the senate foreign relations committee. chris coons weighs in on several big stories this morning. he joins us next. and as we go to break, it was

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welcome back to "morning

joe." joining us, a member of the judiciary and foreign relations committee, democratic senator from delaware, chris coons. if you had a committee member today, foreign relations, what would be top priority on the list? >> we do have a meeting today and i'm giving a speech on the council on foreign relations and china is the topic of both. on the committee we're hearing about 5g and the way we're in the ask thele, a very large chinese telecom company, imposes to our ability to securely communicate. this morning i'll talk about a recent trip that i led, a delegation to japan, south carolina, taiwan, i'm concerned

about the tariff war that let's be blunt. it a fax on the american consumer or manufacturer. he's getting very touch with the american consume and. >> so what is the impact of this but even more? at this point are you concerned the prz a and then i wonder is he being deliberately destructive? i don't see the up side of this. this president seems to be day trading on a very surface, surface level like somebody o reads literally headlines from 20 years ago and acts on them. >> well, the one consistent position donald trump has had over decades is that he's always been a protectionist, someone

who wanted to use tariffs to go after either our allies or our opponents who had trade imbalances with us. it not position that the republican party has bramsed in many decades and we get tough on china's intellectual property theft. but i strongly disagree with the way he's been swinging the club of tariffs wildly, hitting our closest allies, canada, the united kingdom, germany, mexico, japan, on his krout and has to issues with china, any trn are intermingled with this in any

way? >> nnt this is a president who has significant ongoing personal economic interests that, asas president you shouldn't be gaining benefit kmb i haven't heard can p it raised in relation to the foreign relations policy. >> let me ask you something, front page, new york city, above the fold, 120,000 troops the u.s. and it's very close over there. the authorization for use of military force was last enacted and amended i think in the year 2001. where is the united states senate? >> a great question. there was both in '01 and '02 authorization for the use of military force and we have worked and worked to try and

find bipartisan ground on an updated authorization for the wars we are currently in. and we have a real problem in the senate in that even on the foreign relations committee, we've got some folks who don't want to give any authorization to prum and others who want an authorization with no restrictions. it is, frankly, unconscionable that the senate has ceded so much of ielts power to determin when and how we go to war. democrats have requested classified briefings so that we can get up to speed on the president's strategy and what the intelligence is that would justify mobilizing for such a remarkable conflict in the middle east and we have not got i don't know th gotten that briefing yet. >> part of that eminates from john bolton, the national

security adviser, but the secretary of defense is also involved. he's relatively new to the position, he was acting secretary of defense. what's your level of confidence in the incoming or new secretary of defense? >> i've only met secretary shanahan a couple of times. i have not had the chance to hear confirmation hearings with him yet. he certainly is an experienced industry insider, but he's not an experienced mill leader. i had enormous confidence in secretary mattis, who i think was wildly and well respected, not just in the senate and our armed forces but globally. secretary mattis abruptly resigned when president trump

abruptly decided to withdraw all of our troops from syria. if we had a president who now equally planning to seasoned de 120,000 troops back into the region. we don't have a secretary of defense or national security adviser with comparable leadership experience. the president did benefit from such a team in his first couple of years and he did not launch any new wars. i'm greatly concerned that we've got folks who are encouraging or tolerating his bumbling forward in a major deployment into the middle east without a clear strategy. >> senator, we've been talking about this "new york times" iran story in the context of other moves made by this administration. a year ago the president withdraw the united states from the iran deal. just last week iran said it may withdraw itself from the iran deal with the other partners around the world.

we talked about moving a carrier group into the gulf. for people watching today at home, how concerned should we be about the steps we're hearing towards a conflict with iran? >> i think we should be significantly concerned. if we know one thing about president trump, he's an unconventional president. he's our first president with no prior military or elected leadership experience and he has now a history of taking conflicts and ramping them up very quickly and then sometimes ramping them back down equally quickly. his confrontation of kim jong un of north korea do the to the point where the entire world was tuning in to their televisions daily to see if there had been a missile launch. in the last year there's been this sort of uneasy truce where despite north korea's horrific human rights record, president trump routinely describes kim as

someone whose he likes and whose leadership he trusts. in that,er si exercise that cau secretary mattis to resign, we had jets in combat, allies from europe, the u.k., for example, that had their military activelyin gauged and they found out by tweet and by press report that our president had abruptly decided to withdraw from syria. i'm grateful a bipartisan group persuaded him not to do that. but it concerns me he's ramping up plans in the middle east. we had a stable situation there and it's become remarkably unstable again. >> senator, this morning the democratic chairman of five powerful house committees are demanding that the justice department provide an answer for

why it has decided to argue that the affordable care act is unconstitutional. so democrats question if the justice department overrode its own legal conclusions. the letter demands a response in two weeks, hinting a subpoena will follow. senator, beyond the fact that it just feels like a sledge hammer is being taken to our laws, our systems and our safety nets, you're on the judiciary committee. what's going on here? what's your take on william barr's moves here regarding obamacare? >> well, first, the most important part of obamacare, as you well know, mika, is the protection against preexisting conditions, that was the most significant step forward in the

affordable care act. it's streaking that attorney general barr may is overwri overwritten -- lots of republicans were running ads suggesting that they were going to defend the faffordable care act and preexisting conditions. more than a dozen states banded to sue to remove even this most fundamental protections and now that they would switch positions and be actively litigating to remove the last little bits of the aca is concerning. >> it is. thank you very much. we'll see you soon. gene, on this topic, some say this supersedes what barr has done with the mule aeller repor

that this is just staggering. >> it is staggering. william barr's tenure as attorney general is going to be -- so far it has been i would say a pretty unmitigated disaster. you know, with this new investigation of the mueller investigation maybe, maybe he's just nullifying trump on that with the decision to go after the affordable care act. that's extraordinary. i can't see how it's politically helpful for republicans. is this something that barr actually believes? is he again nullifying the president who wants to get rid of anything with president obama's name on it? it's unclear. but it's deeply disturbing, even if this ultimately fails, even if ultimately, you know, the aca

is upheld, it's destabilizing, it's got to worry all those tens of millions of people who depend hon those p on those productions. the republicans said they were going to retain and now they're going back on that. >> people should be really annoyed at this, when it says the house sends a letter to the attorney general demanding to know what he's doing with the aca and he's been given two weeks to respond. if you have a preexisting condition and you have to go to an emergency room, you, yourself or with one of your children, you don't get two weeks to respond. your entire income, your entire family's future could be gone in one moment in an emergency room and we give these clowns two weeks to respond to the potential destruction of an act that has saved hundreds of

lives. >> and they probably won't. you know, the answers the white house gives to any request for anything appears to be no every step of the way. i guess oversight needs to figure out how to push that through in realtime, how to get the answers that we, the american people, deserve. still ahead, the latest in the college admissions scandal. a tearful felicity huffman pleaded guilty yesterday to fraud/conspiracy in the wide-ranging scam. wide-ranging scam.

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mother's day, isn't that nice, mother's day, the day we honor the mother who fed us and raised us and paid bribes to get us into usc. it's a wonderful day. >> actress felicity huffman in court admitted to paying $15,000 to have wrong answers corrected on her daughter's s.a.t. exam. she broke down in tears while explaining she had also requested extra time for her daughter's test for legitimate

medical reasons. joining us now, state attorney for palm beach county dave aronberg. felicity huffman seems like the most -- what's the word -- in all these people charged in this scandal, she seems to completely admit -- remorseful, most remorseful. there are some who are trying to wangle their way out of this in other ways. so what's the outcome for peel like felicity huffman and lori loughlin, who taking a different approach. >> very different. aunt becky is doing the opposite, acting defiant. she didn't seem to take it too seriously. she was smiling and outside she

was posing for pictures and signing autographs. prosecutors see that, they notice that. they want to see a level of contrition. they want cooperation and assistance and they're getting it from felicity huffman, who will get the better plea deal as a result. but when it comes to lori loughlin -- there's an old saying that the horse is leaving the barn. your chinesances of a deal are slipping away. >> i think she and her husband paid $500,000 per child and had fake pictures of these kids in crew gear, rowing gear, whatever. this is clear. what could be the outcome beyond jail time for these -- i know

she's trying to say it was a big misunderstanding, that they didn't understand they were doing something wrong so therefore they can't be charged with these penalties. is that possible? >> ignorance of the law is no excuse. she and her husband are accused of paying $500,000 to get their daughter into usc on the crew team, even though neither of them have ever rode crew before. and now she and her husband are saying they can't understand what they did wrong. it's that type of elite attitude, that type of privilege that so infuriates americans and prosecutors read the same stories as everyone else. that could also prohibit a plea deal with aunt becky. >> i want to move on to bob kraft a kraft, a video allegedly showing the patriots owner involved in alleged sex acts cannot be used against him in the trial.

the court said the state did not do enough to minimize the consequences for innocent people caught on the tape participating in legal services. kraft pled not guilty in february to two misdemeanor counts of soliciting a prostitute. i guess my question is there's a certain i guess loophole or law that allows to you do a type of sufficiently like this but how is it that the surveillance also included innocent people? >> mika, as the head prosecutor in this case, i'm not allowed to talk about the facts of a pending case. but i can say we just received the court's order late yesterday and we haven't had a chance to discuss it yet. and one of the options available to us is to appeal the court's ruling. so later this morning i'm going to be meeting with my prosecutors to decide what to do next. as for the videos, there are two separate court records that

direct us not to release the videos and we'll abide those by rulesings. >> what would be the case for the videos in is teams like that's evidence that you need? >> after this case is over, i'd love to come back on and talk about it with you. >> i will follow up on it. last case we've been following closely, a federal judge has ruled that the coast guard officer accused of plotting a terrorist attack will remain in jail until his trial. this is -- i was very outspoken about this because joe was on this list, the u.s. district judge overturned an earlier decision by a imagine straight jud -- magistrate judge to release hassan, and the judge said although the charges are

unremarkable, his history and characteristics and potential danger to the community weighed in favor to blocking his release. he has pled not to drug and weapons charges. why are we even having this conversation? why is it possible this guy could have walked out thereof? >> kudos to the federal prosecutors to thread the needle. this was a high burden to overcome. generally a court will release someone pending trial unless you can show they're a danger to the community. here he's being charged with base ek weapons and drug charges but the prosecutor is focused on the history and characteristics of these dpies, this is a guy who poe tested an arsenals, had a men fasto and was a hit list and hooves actually looking at the adoctorses of people on his

hit list. ? why would you look up all these things could could be used to hunt people, not to mention the rifles that he had to he retrofitted to make sure they were extra pro size. i'm glad the court made this decision but it was tough for the prosecutors to get the court to do this because there is no federal statute against domestic trarism. oum glad they were able to do the right thing. >> thank you very much for being on this morning. >> coming up, fuelled by fear, our next guest looks at the trump era throughout the lens of the red scare. all those decades ago. best selling author david marinis has a personal connection to that story and joins the stable table with his new book next on "morning joe." .

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fear as a political weapon has been debated since the day he began his campaign in 2015. our next guest writes that the trump by fear, is a vivid reminder of the red scare of the 1950s and that, quote, unreasonable persecution by the government lives on now thanks to president trump. joining us, two-time pulitzer prize-winning journalist, associate editor for "the washington post," david maraniss, east the author of the new book, "a good american family: the red scare in my father," which is available and on sale today. great to see you, david. >> thank you, willie. >> this is an extraordinary book, because it's about your dad and his experience during the red scare. a guy who was a commander in world war ii and came home in the 1950s, found himself sitting before congress answering questions about why he was for the commies, effectively. tell me more about his story and whied y you wanted to take it o a book. >> my father is the center of the book, but it's really about what it means to be an american,

told through the one story of my family and all the characters that came together in 1952 in a hearing in the house on american activities, in a time where fear was being used as manipulation in the mccarthy area, when there were questions about patriotism and loyalty. and here my father is being questioned about whether he was american by a chairman of the committee, which had one been a member of the klan, and my father has been a member of the all-black unit in world war ii. that's what this book is about, sort of about that hypocrisy. >> david, what did you know about your dad when you were growing up in the 50s and early '60s and what did you find out that may have surprised you about your dad when doing this book? >> you know, by the time i was of political consciousness, my father had moved on. he was a progressive who taught me deeply to never fall for any rigid ideology and search for the truth, wherever it took me. so going back into his earlier life, when he was a radical, when he was writing for a

communist newspaper, all of that was new to me. but the real stirring moment for me in researching this book was when i went to the national archives and found the statement that he had written, that he wanted to deliver to the house and american activities committee, that they would not let him read unless he confessed and named names. and he did not do that. so while he was reading that statement, and i saw that he had typed it, a hunt and peck typer, probably like you are, mike, on an old typewriter, people don't even know what those are anymore, and the essence statement jumped up half a space, and it's when i saw that, that it washed over me for the first time, 63 years later, i really started to think about what my father had endured. >> elise, i want to read a part of the statement and then you take it. this is the statement that he wanted to make but was not allowed to make at his hearing. your father said this, didn't being a citizen of this country give him the freedom to affiliate with the politics of his choosing and to write and

speak his mind as long as he didn't betray his country as a foreign agent. that's what you're sort of summarizing your father's position. he never got to make the statement because they wouldn't let him do it until he named names, which he didn't. >> well, i love that you chose this as your latest book to write. also building on your terrific bio of president barack obama. >> thank you. >> and that was an american story. this is a story about an american family. but what do you see from -- what are the lessons that you take from how you studied president obama deeply, and how he ended up in this climate of fear when it was very much a climate of hope and thinking that also we had broken barriers as a society. >> you know, for the obama biography and the clinton biography, they started as strangers to me and by the time i was done, they became familiar. with this book, it started with someone who was intimately familiar with me and i was worried he would become a

stranger by the end. that didn't happen. what happened instead, i had a better understanding of my family, of my father, of this country, and sort of of the contradictions of american life. and so, you know, there's a figure in this book named charles potter, who was a congressman from michigan, who was a hero in world war ii, lost both legs fighting in the pocket, came home a staunch anti-communist, made his name on this committee, then went to the senate to work with joe mccarthy on his subcommittee. ten years later, heshame," abou what he felt were the excessing of what happened in the 1950s. and so the question today is, is it going to take another ten years for a republican to write a book called "days of shame" about today. >> david gene robinson is in washington with a question for you. gene? >> david, congrats on the book. my question, you started to get into it, what are the lessons for today, from your book? >> well, wiyou know, one strong

lesson is the power of the government to disrupt and destroy lives. another is the use of of the demonization of other, you know, of people who seem different, the way what america can be is defined by people in power, for their own uses. all of those lessons of the '50s are totally relevant today. >> the book is "good american family: the red scare and my father," it's about david's dad, but it's really about the country, as he said. david, congratulations. >> thank you all. >> still ahead on "morning joe," the trade war with china is ramping up. president trump says he'll meet with china's xi jinping next month, but many americans already are feeling the pinch from the tariffs now. plus, the white house reportedly is mulling a plan to send 120,000 troops to the middle east in the event of an attack by iran. we'll talk about that when "morning joe" comes right back. n "morning joe" comes right back mp when you need it. with licensed agents available 24/7.

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>> that was montana governor steve bullock declaring he is in the race for the white house, with an announcement that highlights his red state roots and law to reform campaign finance with 22 declared presidential candidates. there are now enough democrats to field both sides in a game of football. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe," it is tuesday, may 14th. joe is off this morning, but along with willie and me, we have msnbc contributor mooiike barnicle, elise jordan, republican communications strategist and an msnbc political contributor, rick tyler. and pulitzer prize-winning columnist and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. willie, steve bullock jumping in. there are so many democrats, i guess i have to ask at this point, when you have one democrat with such a resounding lead in the polls and then so

many others trying to get air time, steve bullock, we like him. i think he's a very attractive candidate. we've met him firsthand. he's been on "morning joe" and he seems like he has a lot to offer. but kind of like, what bugs me in the back of my mind is that senate seat in his state is pretty important too. >> and you can say that in a bunch of other red states, but i think steve bullock is a name we've all heard for a long time. he's officially in the race. we've heard that he was thinking about getting in. he's a very interesting candidate. as he said in that video, montana went for donald trump in 2016 by 20 points. but steve bullock, a democrat there, won re-election. he's got strong progressive credentials. it is a red state, but he's very progressive. and it's funny, when you talk to him, he almost looks at washington with confusion about the way they do business, because as he says, in montana, democrats and republicans don't have a choice but to work together. but as you say, mika, 22

candidates now, it's a long climb from the bottom to where joe biden is and bernie sanders and mayor pete and some others have made their way. but it's a long way to go. we don't know what's going to happen, but 22 is a big number. we'll have to have two debates in june just to split them up. but steve bullock is an interesting name that a lot of democrats have been wondering whether or not he would get in, and this morning, he is. >> and as far as he seems, he seems like a great candidate, but anything could happen, i guess. we'll dig into this more a little bit later in the show. but i wanted to show you this. did you -- this is mayor pete on jimmy fallon last night. you know the whole "mad" magazine thing with trump saying he looks like the guy on "mad" magazine. well, jimmy fallon asked him about and i jus happt happen to his answer. take a look. >> he called you alfred e. newman. >> yeah, what do you think? >> the president of the united

states called you that, wow. what goes through your mind when that happens? >> you know, we talk a lot about evaluating the dialogue, so i guess the fact that i inspired him to make a literary reference possibly for the first time -- >> so, i don't know, gene robinson, in the two answers that i've seen this candidate give to trump's sort of nickname or whatever puts on people has been amazing. the first one, basically made trump seem old and out of touch, where he said, you know, i guess it's a generational thing. i had to google it. i really didn't know what that was about. and now this, where, you know, he's like, he's a dummy. he doesn't even read, i guess we're glad he's talking about comic books. that's something on paper that you have to look at and figure out. >> yeah, yeah, so we know that donald trump did read at some point in his life, probably as an adolescent and he read "mad" magazine. it was a good answer.

it was funny, it was quick, he's -- mayor pete is clearly smart as a whip and engaging and this and that, and we'll see, you know, as he said, he's got himself a perch in that sort of second tier behind biden and bernie, but it's a long -- it's still a long climb from where he is. so we'll have to see if he continues -- if he continues his accent or if he gets stalled there. but we'll see. it was a great answer. >> mika, let's dive into the front page of every newspaper in the country now, a dive on the dow because of this trade war. more than $1 trillion wiped out from global markets yesterday and president trump's ongoing trade war with china. the dow jones and s&p both fell nearly 2.5% while the nasdaq dropped more than 3.4%. the latest market meltdown was triggered after china now announced it would retaliate for trump's latest tariff increases by raising tariff rates on a wide range of

american goods. president trump commented about the situation yesterday at the white house. >> we're in a very strong position. our economy has been very powerful. theirs has not been. we've gone up a lot since our great election in 2016. we're dealing with them. we have a very good relationship. maybe something will happen. this is a very positive step. i love the position we're in. so our farmers will be very happy. our manufacturers will be very happy, and our government is very happy, because we're taking in tens of billions of dollars. i think it's working out very well. so we're in a very good position and i think it's only going to get better. >> can you guarantee a trade deal with china by june 1st? >> we're in a great position right now, no matter what we do. i also want to thank secretary steven mnuchin, steve, thank you.

steve just got back from china. we'll let you know in about three or four weeks whether or not it was successful. you never really know, right? >> president trump yesterday again threatened to install 25% tariffs on the remaining $325 billion worth of chinese goods the u.s. imports each year. if that does occur, morgan stanley says the country could fall into a recession. and goldman sachs warns it could result in a 0.4% hit to u.s. gdp. meanwhile, the president once again claimed china is paying for his tariffs. >> we're taking in right now hundreds of billions of dollars. we're taking in billions of dollars of tariffs. and those tariffs are going to be tremendously -- if you look at what we've done thus far with china, we've never taken in ten cents until i got elected, now we're taking in billions and billions. it's in the form of tariffs or taxes and it had a tremendous impact. if you looked at the first quarter, which is always

historically the worst quarter, we were at 3.2%. people were very surprised. well, a lot of that was the tariffs we were taking in from china. so we have tens of millions of dollars pouring into our coffers, the coffers of the u.s. treasury. >> goldman sachs now says the cost of president trump's tariffs have fallen, quote, entirely on american businesses and especially households with a greater impact on consumer prices than even expected. there currently are no indications that u.s. and china trade representatives are scheduled to meet in the immediate future. president trump is set to meet with china's president xi jinping next month at the g-20 in japan. let's bring in cnbc's brian sullivan. brian, before we talk big picture, let's just be really clear about what a tariff is and what it does and who is impacted by it. not quite the way the president explains it. >> yeah. it's paid for by u.s. importers. you're china, i'm the united states, you sell me a good, i pay for it at the port of entry and theoretically pass it along to consumers. that's the idea. u.s. companies pay -- larry

kudlow, our former colleague, now in the white house, said that as much on fox news on sunday in an interview with chris wallace. but it's on the u.s. importer side. right now, guys, it's mostly raw goods, but this new round of tariffs could start to impact more of the stuff we buy directly at the stores. and if the third round kicks in, which it has not yet, that's 25% on everything that we import from china. that is shoes, toys, household goods. that's the direct pass on to the u.s. consumer. >> so elise jordan, i'm just trying to think of a way to phrase this, but you just wonder, is he deliberately trying to tank our economy -- i mean, what -- what would be the win for donald trump and the united states of america and the united states of america being co-equal with the president? what's the win here? for the united states? >> well, you have to wonder if donald trump isn't a little bit spooked and knows that he's

gotten too far ahead of his skis on this and risked tanking the economy, just because he did admit in that press conference that there's going to be the need for yet another bailout of american farmers. and so brian, what do you make of that $15 billion proposed bailout for american farmers that donald trump brought up yesterday? he didn't say how he was going to pay for it, but he did mention it and address it there as a need, and that american farmers are hurt by these policies. >> well, you need to, elise, because here's the thing. the majority of what we sell to -- we buy a lot from china, okay? what we sell to china is actually not that much and it's mostly agricultural products. so, yes, farmers, in a lot of states, by the way, that president trump will need to win to win re-election, they're going to be hurt. so he's sending out maybe a little peace offering to them, knowing that soybeans and beats and a lot of the stuff that china has slapped tariffs on, tha

they're going to get a pay back. i wonder if you look at the states that the republican candidate will have to win in 2020, those are the states, the pennsylvanians, the wisconsins, the michigans, that probably in some ways like this tough talk, as long as there's ultimately some kind of a resolution. right now the higher tariffs have not kicked in. there's a couple-week grace period. and maybe the president is banking on the fact that he's going to be able to make a deal. here's the thing, last night in china, as we showed on my show last night, there's starting to be some anti-u.s. stuff coming out talking about state-run media and how china has been through 5,000 years of fights and this is not going to dissuade them. >> still ahead on "morning joe," in 2015, the u.s. and iran struck a nuclear deal. today, they're threatening to strike -- each other. we'll talk about the rising tensions in that region. and the pentagon plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the middle east. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. when i was diagnosed with breast cancer,

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simple, easy and awesome. the administration is potentially entertaining a plan that would involve sending tens of thousands of troops to the middle east amid growing tensions with iran. to "the new york times," citing administration officials during a meeting on thursday, with president trump's top national security aides, acting defense secretary patrick shanahan presented an updated military plan that included sending up to 120,000 troops to the region. "the times" says the move would hinge on an iranian attack on american forces or if tehran accelerates work on nuclear weapons. the paper ads, the plan does not call for a land invasion of iran, which would require a

large number of troops. according to the times, the changes to that plan were ordered by national security adviser, john bolton, reflecting his influence as one of the trump administration's most severe iran hawks. bolton had previously pushed for a military confrontation with iran more than a decade ago, while serving under president george w. bush. "the times" says, it's unclear if president trump, who has sought to pull the u.s. out of military operations in afghanistan and syria has been brien e details of the plan. so, ith your experience and your knowledge on this topic and having worked in the state department, this seems to me to be escalating tensions unnecessarily. you see john bolton's fingerprints all over this. this is what we were worried about when he was chosen for the

job. >> well, and we shouldn't be surprised that someone who has a reputation as one of the most hawkish advisers in washington is pushing donald trump along this path. and i think that we should be incredibly concerned anytime that we're discussing moving over 100,000 troops into position because of escalating tensions. and i think, i really cannot believe that we failed to learn anything from the first decade of this century. and we are actually considering escalating with iran in a war that would further destabilize the region and unleash god knows what in terms of chaos in a very troubled region already. >> yeah, gene, that was the first thing i thought when i saw this headline was, dear god, here we go again. but this does have john bolton's name written all over it. he's been an iran hawk from the very beginning. it's one of the reasons, i think, president trump liked him as he watched him on fox news and then installed him as his

national security adviser. but we're talking about a number of troops here. and again, the piece says that nothing is imminent. at this point, they don't have this plan. they're just developing a contingency if something should happen in the gulf. but we're talking about a number of troops that approaches the number that went into iraq at about 120,000. >> yeah, when you talk about 120,000 troops, everybody should be deeply concerned that this is even being talked about. this policy is clearly being driven by john bolton. he has, you know, to call him a hawk on iran is to understate dramatically what john bolton is. he has been -- he wants regime change in iran. he doesn't want a change in the regime's behavior. he apparently doesn't think that's possible. we already got that, by the way, with the iran nuclear deal, which the president, thanks to john bolton, has abrogated and tossed out and refuses to

follow. but bolton wants the regime gone. that's a very, very dangerous position to take. iran is a big, powerful nation. it's not the united states, obviously, but when you talk about sending 120,000 troops to the region, that creates a trip wire. that makes it much more likely that we blunder or bluster our way into some sort of conflict that gets totally out of hand. and president trump has no idea what he's doing here. none. >> brian, there are so many almo elements of danger, potential danger in this story, as we're talking about it. we could spend the whole three hours discussing it. but the principle point of danger that affects us is consumer danger, is it not? i mean, the potential rise in gasoline prices, given the problems that could occur with distribution of oil through the persian gulf. >> 20% of the world's oil, mike,

goes through the straits of hormuz, that brings the persian gulf into the arabian sea. iran has threatened to shut down that 15-mile-wide stretch by threatening ships. if that happens, crude oil prices will spike dramatically. here's the thing, you guys with handle the military and policy side a lot better than i can, but i know this. the average american households uses about 50 to 60 gallons of gasoline a month, that's two cars, call it a 1 gall00 gallon gas, that goes up a few bucks, that's going to make the tariffs look like small potatoes. it disproportionately hurts the poor more than anybody else, because it's price indiscriminate. and if you covered this yesterday, i apologize. there were four oil tankers that were effectively attacked or vandalized in that strait of hormuz area yesterday. president trump saying it is likely iran, quote, or one of its proxies. if we see attacks on saudi tankers, we could see the u.s.

military move in and i would expect that you would see a great jump in the price of oil, even with u.s. oil production and saudi production up, because there are few countries in the world that dislike each other more than iran and saudi arabia. coming up on "morning joe," we'll go live to montana for reaction to governor steve bullock's newly announced presidential bid. "morning joe" is back in a moment. a moment

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on one condition. that you do everything in your power to preserve and protect them. with love, california. we've been on the road now for eight weeks, traveling to over 15 states, have held more than 150 town halls, running today the same way that we started. but i recognize, i can do a better job also of talking to a national audience, beyond the town halls that we're having. i hope that i'm continuing to do better over time, but we've been extraordinarily fortunate with the campaign that we've run so far. >> former congressman and 2020 white house hopeful, beto o'rourke speaking with rachel maddow last night, acknowledging that he has to do a better job at getting his message out if he hopes to break through a crowded democratic field. and it's a field that got even more crowded this morning, with

the entrance of montana governor, steve bullock. he will formally launch his campaign at a rally in his home state today and that's where we have nbc news political reporter, vaughn hillyard, live for us inform scenic helena, montana. vaughn, you spent some time with governor bullock earlier this year. tell us about him. >> reporter: yeah, good morning, mika. it was actually last summer, i was driving through iowa and i was talking with some longtime democratic activists up in dubuque, iowa. and they had told me that they had just met this governor from montana at a house party. they found the man relatable and that i needed to go find him. then it was some activists over in des moines that told me the same thing. that led me to meet up with steve bullock last week at the iowa state fair and right here to montana for a couple of days earlier this spring. >> governor steve bullock. >> don't kid yourself. the threats are real. we have to continue to build up

our voices, to be even louder. >> how do you become president when most of america doesn't even know who you are? i first heard about steve bullock last summer. >> all right, test, one, two, three. some folks in iowa told me to pay attention to him to the 2020 presidency. he was a different kind of candidate than they'd seen before. >> i got re-elected in 2016 in montana. president trump won the state by 20 points. >> he doesn't have the decades of name recognition like donald trump or the money or the political clout of other democrats in the 2020 field. >> nearly 30 leading democrats are said to be considering a run against president trump. >> reporter: but it's the root of what made him a success back home, and that's why we're here. could a montana man win the democratic nomination and then take on a new yorker, president donald trump? >> this is the community that i was raised in. like, delivered newspapers to the governor's house as a kid. i've been able to do progressive things in this state. and yeah, 25 to 30% of my voters

voted for donald trump. when you look at the dysfunction that's occurring in washington, d.c., montana and montanans have typically figured out a way to kind of rise above that dysfunction, still make government work. >> for most presidential candidates, it's about laying the groundwork. elizabeth warren, kirsten gillibrand, kamala harris, all visited iowa in the first week of declaring their 2020 candidacies. but that's nothing new for bullock. he's already visited the state four times in just the last year. and this is exactly how a long-shot democratic governor ended up winning the whole thing before. >> jimmy who? >> i don't know who he is. >> i heard he was a peanut farmer. >> reporter: and 16 years later, there was another relatively unknown governor, this one from arkansas. >> clinton has zero foreign policy experience, but the bigger question is whether he'll be perceived as too moderate by the liberal activists who dominate the primary process. >> reporter: sound familiar? governor bullock currently represents one of the country's most rural places.

just look at the 2016 race by county. the democratic nominee suffered cross rural america. so why do montanans like him? >> i think he does communicate well with ranchers and folks that you would think of as, on the average, being very conservative voters. >> when i tell you that steve bullock and potential candidate for president of the united states, you tell me? >> holy [ bleep ]! really? yeah, wow. >> reporter: do you think he could take on donald trump? >> no, i don't think so. >> reporter: for a guy new to the national scene, bullock still has much to answer. does he support medicare for all? u.s. troop presence in the middle east? as governor, he has expanded medicaid, called for universal background checks, and a ban on assault weapons. he's also been a strong public lands advocate for montana. >> the president does not understand the value of our public land and an attack on public lands anywhere is an attack on public lands

everywhere. >> how do you run against donald trump? >> i think that if anybody thinks the job is to outtrump trump, i think they're boldly mistaken. i think i can certainly stand up to him and offer something better. >> reporter: now, governor bullock has just one month to qualify for that debate stage, but to note, he has a strong stable of advisers. and over the last year, he's been getting key advice from jennifer palmieri, of course, hillary clinton's former communications director. he will announce this afternoon at his old high school, helena high school, before heading to iowa for a three-day swing on thursday. willie? >> vaughn, this is a name in our world that has been floated out there as a very interesting candidate, because, as you said, he was elected and re-elected in a red state, a state president trump won by 20 points last time around, but he does have progressive credentials on medicaid expansion, on education, on the environment, on campaign finance reform, things like that. i guess the question for him is,

as mika has been pointing out all morning, we're up to 22 candidates now with joe biden having a commanding lead at this point anyway. how does governor bullock fight his way up from the bottom? >> reporter: i think for bullock, it's contending that here in 2019, he was just able to pass medicaid expansion yet again, working with the republican legislature. it's him being able to say that he with the republican legislature is able to pass a ban on dark money here in the state of montana, essentially providing an alternative. look, he won in 2016 by four percentage points, donald trump won it by 20. and donald trump is going to say, look, i'm a younger version, i'm 53 years old, he served as attorney general, he served as governor, and he's going to make the case, just like as we noted, jimmy carter or bill clinton, that he's a younger alternative and he is going to be able to make that appeal to not only progressives, but also republicans, just as he did here across rural montana. >> all right. vaughn hillyard, thank you very

much. and by the way, governor bullock joins us here on "morning joe" this thursday. and gene, i'm going to ask you again, although, i mean, who am i to question somebody's dream, but governor bullock and beto, who we came in with, they would win for senate seats in their states. >> right. >> aren't they more needed there? >> well, in my opinion, they are. i mean, governor bullock could win a senate seat in montana. and beto o'rourke would have a good shot at knocking off john cornyn in texas. he might or might not win, but he came pretty close to knocking off ted cruz. so, again, is this the best use of their time? you know, and effort. and as for governor bullock's argument about appealing to republican voters, not all trump voters are the same. they're not all alike. and so, he can appeal to trump voters in a state like montana, but in a state like wisconsin

which is different, in a state like pennsylvania, which is different, those voters are different people who have different concerns, rust belt concerns, not, you know, great plains concerns. and i just don't -- you know, i don't see it. of course, anything can happen. we can be surprised and we'll see how he does. >> so, rick tyler, your thoughts? >> look, i think his entry into the race is actually very interesting. i think this field will whittle down rather quickly. i think we'll be to 12 candidates or less by the time we get to iowa. and that is even less than the republican candidate. because of the way the dnc has constructed the rules. bullock actually has a lot of great advantages. one, he's actually confirmed joe biden's theory of the race, and that is who can best beat donald trump. and he has laid out the case that he is a westerner, who can appeal to the type of voters

that he won in a state where donald trump won by 20 appoints. he's running a less ideological race. and that's why biden is winning right now, is because we talk about the democratic party being progressive and liberal, but the fact is, the democratic party is older and more conservative than a lot of the people who get a lot of attention. and joe biden is where the democrat party is, and bullock is now aligning himself as an alternative to joe biden of where the party is ideologically and who can best beat donald trump. i think it's a good entry to the race and he'll get a shot. i think coming in late was good for him, because it seems like everybody who comes in to get one shot at getting a lot of attention, so far, so good. and if he can get those 60,000 voters, because he has a short window to do it, and then the 1% in the national polls required by the dnc, he'll be on the debate stage. >> all right. ahead, apple is likely

keeping a close eye on the trade standoff with china, but also, a story here at home that is impacting the tech giant. what a new supreme court ruling means for the company's bottom line. that's coming up on "morning joe." line that's coming up on "morning joe. behr presents: outdone yourself. staining be done... and stay done through every season. behr semi-transparent stain. find it exclusively at the home depot.

live picture at 8:39 in the morning here in new york city, looking south down toward one world trade, somewhere in that fog. special edition, new york metro cards will pay tribute to first responders of the 9/11 terror attacks. the subway cards will feature four images of firefighters, police officers, and aid workers who trudge through that rubble and ash to search for victims in the weeks following the attack. 250,000 cards will be available tomorrow at ten subway stations near the world trade center in lower manhattan. the limited edition metro cards are linked to the upcoming

opening of the glade at the 9/11 memorial museum later this month. it will pay tribute to ground zero workers who are sick or who have died from exposure to the toxic debris from rescue and recovery efforts down there. joining us now, partner at law firm barish mcgarriy saulson and penson who represents victims impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as former reporter for the "boston globe," mitchell zuckoff, author of "fall and rise: the story of 9/11." i want to talk about this critical issue and this outrage we have every year to take care of these people. but let me start with the book. and i was just talking to you about it. i think there weresen people in my town in new jersey who died and young you've known everything about 9/11, reading over 18 years, until you read this sort of minute-by-minute account in what happened the

days before, the days after. what did you set out to do with this book that others haven't already told? >> thanks, willie. there was ant book like this. because nobody had tried to get the entire story down into one book, where you could take it through the timeline and tell it through the people. you knew people in your hometown. most people don't have that human connection to it. so since there wasn't a book like this, and since we have san entire generation without any of their own merpmories, their own connections to it. folks like us who were there, who remember it, we have the connection, but they're starting to fade. so the point was to, while the people are around to tell the story, to capture it all in one volume, where you can say, this is what it was like and this is what it felt like. >> i think we all have a story in our mind of 9/11 and what happened that day and what led up to that day and what happened after. what new light do you shed on here. was there some part of that narrative that you exposed and found a different story there? >> there are a number of stories

that i profile who have never spoken before about this. there were people who simply weren't ready in the aftermath because of what they had gone through, what they had experienced, what they had seen, or who they had lost. so there are a number of stories that have never been told and no one's ever, frankly, pulled together all of the communication failures beforehand, all the communication failures during. the inability of the government to speak to itself. the faa, not talking to the state department. the airlines not talking to the faa. the military, the reason why the military didn't have fighter pilots up in the air was because no one had told them what was happening. so to pull all of that together, that's something that had never -- >> you said no one told them what was happening. what do you mean, specifically? what happened that day? >> as the hijackings are taking place, the first hijacking, flight 11, second, nobody is communicating. and one of the characters in the book is a guy named major kevin asipny. and he's up in a little bunker waiting because their job is to sort of scour the skies for threats. nobody calls them.

finally, somebody in new hampshire, in the flight control office in new hampshire says, you know what, we should tell the military what's going on. there was no open line. now, fortunately, there's a 24-hour, seven day a week open line to the military. at the time, there was none. so kevin asipny is seeing this happening, but not understanding what's happening. no one's telling him what's going on. so he can't get the fighters from otis air force base up in the air. >> mike, this is a meticulously reported book. mike, you think you know the story until you read the rest of it here. >> until you read the book, 9/11, you mention 9/11 to people and they have a memory of it, a lot of them some of them, vivid memories of it, especially in this region, but mitchell has put a face on this story. you read people's -- as you just pointed out, mitch, people who have been affected by it, shanksville, pennsylvania, they have lived it for all of these years and now a face on the story. people like stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. this has a beginning, it has a

middle, but michael, there is no end. >> no, it's just horrifying, when they did the autopsy of my client, detective ed james roga, they found chromium, lead, benzene, ground glass in his lungs. think about that. and that was the evidence that nyosh needed to link what is now 68 cancers. we are seeing a veritable explosion of cancers. so while i appreciate mitch's book to keep this story from being told, it's far from over. and we're back in congress trying to convince them to extend the victim compensation fund. congress made us a promise. we will take care of the first responders. we'll take care of the students and the teacher who is we told, go back to school. the people in downtown manhattan, they were so anxious to re-open wall street. and as a result, i mean, not a day goes by without one of my clients dying of a 9/11-related cancer. it's horrifying. >> well, you mentioned that stat, as we were getting ready for this segment. and it really just gave me chills.

that there are so many individuals who are still dealing with these long-term repercussions. and why has this become a political football when there are so many congressional members who are quick to invoke 9/11 for their military intervention or for their own desired policy purpose, but they aren't taking care of these men and women. >> that's a great question. they love to wrap themselves in the flag on 9/11 saying, we will not forget, but many of them have forgotten. so please, i ask your viewers who live in florida, south carolina, north carolina, texas, please, call your senators and say, it's a moral imperative. do the right thing and take care of these guys. so the next time there's a tragedy or an attack, they don't hesitate for a moment. they will know that the government will take care of them. >> so michael, what's the pushback from the opposition to this, this is going to run out in december of 2020 again, we go through this ritual, it seems, where jon stewart has to go up to capitol hill with a bunch of

these great first responders from new york and the d.c. area. why won't these senator who is many times will wear the flag pin and say "never forget," why won't they support this obligation? >> well, look, we're making a lot of progress, as i said, we have enough members of the house now to vote for this, to get this through in june. there's going to be -- actually, jon stewart is coming to testify in june, but we need more senators. . and the pushback i'm hearing, unfortunately is, oh, another handout for new york city. >> come on. >> i swear, that is what i'm hearing. and what people fail to recognize is, i represent first responders and fema responders from every state who are sick. there's not one congressional district who doesn't have someone in the world trade center health program. so people have to recognize that this is a national health crisis and just like new york sent firefighters to katrina to help out, every state sent firefighters to new york. i was in chicago last week, i was in l.a. in november, talking to responders who are sick today, and there's a presumption that their cancers were kacause

by these toxins. please, i urge your guys, if anybody is watching, call your senators and say, this is necessary. >> mitch, as you worked on the book pain stakely for years, do you worry at all about the accelerated pace of our culture where things disappear in one news cycle and there are multiple news cycles now every day. >> just to find the reason to do the book. i'm sorry to interrupt you, mike. >> no, you didn't. >> no, that's exactly it. if we don't -- it goes to what michael is saying. if we don't remember, we're doomed to repeat it. and so with this fast news cycle, where there's one outrage after another and there's one crisis after another, but then we move on so quickly, we need to take a step back, especially for something as important as 9/11, and say, let's capture it. let's make sure while the people are here to tell these stories, let's make sure there's a place to -- a repository for them. and i know your wife is hugely involved with the 9/11 memorial. and the people there are doing

an amazing job. and i'm trying to, in a way, piggyback on that. because it's a human story, but it's one that affects all of us every day. we're still living in this -- we call it a post-9/11 world, but it's a current 9/11 world. we are living in the aftermath of these events. >> two guys who when they say "never forget" actually mean it. thanks for the work you both do. congratulations on the book. it's a must-read. it's called "fall and rise: the story of 9/11." mitchell, thank you. ahead, live to the new york stock exchange to how markets are reacting this morning to the trade war underway with china. ge trade war underway with china. ♪

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time for business before the bell with cnbc sara eisen. the dow drops yesterday because of the trade war with china. what do we expect this morning? >> the trade war is going in the opposite direction than where investors want to see. we were hoping for a resolution. as soon as a week and a half ago, that's fallen apart. and yes, the markets threw a fit about it yesterday. the s&p had its worst day since january. china retaliated against the tariffs that we put on on friday. china taxing at a higher rate, u.s. exports that go into china about $60 billion worth. the tensions are only escalating. we know the trump administration is now preparing a new list of

tariffs on the remaining $300 billion worth of chinese imports into this country. that would really affect u.s. consumers. we're talking about everything from iphones to apparel. it's unclear if we get to that step. clearly it's on the president's mind. he tweeted out listen to this. china will be pumping according to president trump money into their system and probably reducing interest rates as always in order to make up for the business they are and will be using. if the federal reserve ever did a match, it would be game over, we win. china wants a deal. it's contradictory. it puts the fed in a tough spot. they cannot respond to politicians and policy developments like a trade war to cut rates and if we're doing so well versus china, then we should not be cutting rates. you cut rates when the economy suffers. also wanted to hit apple. it has been caught up in this trade war. but it's really a one, two punch lately for apple. besides the china tensions, it also got a pretty big blow from

the supreme court yesterday which voted that consumers can move forward in a class action lawsuit against apple accusing apple in its an store of a monopoly. the case centers on how apple charges developers like spotify, messaging apps and everyone else commissions to be on their platform. consumers say it's just not fair. it's still plenty of legal challenges but the case can move forward, 5 to 4 ruling on that. >> sara, thank you very much. >> thank you. now to a new book from someone who has been described as one of the greatest thinkers and word smiths of our age. long time staff writer for the new yorker adam gofnik has a book "a thousand small sanities". the moral adventure of liberalism. he talks about how a stroll the

night of the 2016 election with his taken daughter culminated in a stirring defense of liberalism. thanks very much for being on. let me start by turning the question around. why is liberalism so challenged, and what are the challenges? >> well, i think at any moment in history when we're facing the threat of absolutisms of left or right, liberalism looks weak. it happens in the 1930s when the rise of fascism made liberal democratic values seem not strong enough to come back. i wanted to reinforce the power of liberal democratic values at a similar moment of threat. i think that's always the weakness of liberalism. it doesn't seem rhetorically strong, and the strength is there's a tradition of successful reform. radical change through humane measures. i wanted to tell my daughter and readers that.

>> so tell me about the stroll with your daughter. what happened? >> well, she was like so many smart kids, young women especially on the night of the election. totally traumatized and shaken by what had happened. i said let's just go for a long walk. we went outside. i put my arm around her, and i tried to fill her with human values and inspiring historical examples. i failed completely. as fathers always will do. but it stuck in my mind that i wanted to write a letter to her about the values that i believed in to convince her and persuade her, empower to believe these were not just fading things that older folks believe but that these were truly examples you could take from history. i wanted to give her heros she could believe in they were liberals, not radical and not authoritarian. >> what the moral adventure of liberali liberalism? >> for me it's the idea that we can make radical change to

humane measures. we can have huge ideas. the idea of emancipating women, emancipating slaves. the idea we can live in a fairer world. 40 years ago the idea of gay marriage was unthinkable. it wasn't just not asked. it was an unaskable question. we can make vast changes and campaign against cruelty again and again, but we don't have to do it through violence or remaking the entire world. we can do it through a thousand small sanities. we can do it through a program of activated and energized reform. that's the moral adventure of liberalism. >> let me ask you if you're still there, gene. >> i'm here. >> when people mention the word liberal, unfortunately today i think a lot of people think soft, squishy, you push them. they don't push back. but i'm wondering with that as a

background, why so many liberals now choose to call themselves progressives. i mean, have they given up? >> yeah. i think people have given up. i think some people think the word liberalism has been tarnished somehow. in that left right political sense. and a lot of people don't understand it, really, at all in the sense that adam is talking about, about liberal democracy. but it's a quick question for adam. where is the principle threat to liberalism right now? is it from the sort of china status model? is it from the viktor orbán hungary mod snl. >> it's from everyone at once. at home the chief threat to liberal values is the authoritarian right. you don't have to go far to europe to see it comes from the left. it comes from all sides. what we have to be able to do is seize that name without shame,

because we can look back at so many heroic people from jon stewart to biard ruston, a great organizer of the march on washington. me made it up -- he made it happen not by preaching alone. he was gay and black. arrested 25 times for being black. once for being gay. he made the buses run on time. he learned how you make enough sandwiches to feed people going to fight for civil rights. that's what i mean by -- call it a thousand small sandwiches. that's what i mean by a thousand small sanities. these are heros. we have to let them live again in our imaginations. >> what would be your great goal for liberalism going forward if there was going to be one issue that liberals should coalesce around to push for change? >> for me there are two things liberal need to revive

liberalism. be unashamed of patriotism. invest in the idea of the public realm. nothing is more important for liberalism than public education. if i were making a platform, i'd say the more we invest in pre-k education, those things matter. liberalism has to become public minded and patriotic for it to reclaim its central place in our imagination. >> all right. the book is 1,000 small sanities. the moral adventure of liberalism. is your daughter okay now? >> she's going to the right, though. i should tell you she's moving to the right as i move to the left. our children always go in the direction opposite to our own orbit. >> yeah, but they come home. no worries. >> she's an amazing kid. >> thank you very much. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the

coverage right now. >> thank you so much, mika. we have a lot to cover this morning. lucky you. we have a team of extraordinary nbc reporter here with brand new information on the most important stories of the day that you need to know about. starting with secretary of state mike pompeo meeting with russia's leader any minute now ahead of a sit-down with vladimir putin. one of iran's closest allies. this comes as the u.s. ramps up pressure on iran including an alarming new report that the acting defense secretary presented a plan which could call for sending 120,000 troops to the middle east. and how about this one? case open. new reporting attorney general bill barr has assigned a federal prosecutor to investigate