this morning lawmakers are demanding answers on iran. senators from both sides of the aisle want to hear from the administration about the white house's claim of rising threats. >> alabama governor signs the most restrictive abortion bill in the country. but acknowledges it's unenforceable. new york city bill de blasio is expected to announce a presidential bid today. good morning, everybody. it is thursday, may 16th. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside

nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. let's start with congressional leaders demanding answers from the trump administration on its plans regarding iran amid escalating tensions. lawmakers from both parties are calling for administration officials to brief them on the white house's claims of rising threats in the region. and its decision to pull non-essential staff from iraq yesterday. >> senate foreign relations committee is charged with writing the laws that towards the use of military force. and of the oversight of the state department and the safety of those who work there. and yet the trump administration has not provided any information to this committee on the intelligence behind their decisions or what they plan to do in iraq or iran. mr. chairman, i hope you'll join me in asking the inauguration to immediately provide this committee with a briefing on the decision to order the departure of embassy staff, intelligence on what iran may be planning to do and any plans to go to war

with iran. >> the president shot down the idea we're going to deploy 120,000 people. removing personnel from embassies and consulates is clearly a serious move by the state department. they feel the threat. and i would urge the state department and dod to come down here and explain to us what's going on, because i have no idea what the threat stream is beyond what i read in the paper and i think there are a lot of people in my shoes that will support standing up to iran but we need to understand what we're doing. >> so mitt romney joined his colleagues calls for a briefing on the matter. president trump weighed on his plans yesterday and we tweeted the fake news "washington post" and even more fake news "new

york times" are writing stories that there is in fighting with respect to my strong policy in the middle east. there is no infighting whatsoever. different opinions are expressed and i make decisive and final decisions. all views or covered. i'm sure iran wants to talk soon. >> alabama governor signed the most restrictive abortion guidelines into law yesterday banning the procedure in almost all case. she had been notably quiet about the controversial bill as it barrelled through the state legislature took a moment to call it meaningful but unenforceable. the law does not hold one criminally liable for seeking an abortion but punish health care provi providers could be jailed for 99 years for performing an abortion. now if unchallenged the new

restrictions would take effect in six months. reproductive rights activists across nation rallied or railed against the measure as alabama became the latest state to take direct aim at the now conservative leaning supreme court's position on abortion. >> joining us here on set, legal analyst danny cevallos. this is pretty incredible what took place in alabama yesterday. the governor signing this into law but at the same time saying this law is unenforceable it seams which is interesting. talk to me about that and why she said that. the legal reasons as to why she said that. also what we can expect with regard to court challenges hide. >> the governor sees this law for what it is. a vehicle to get this law and tissue of roe v wade before the supreme court. it's unenforceable because a lower federal district court will follow roe v wade and its following cases like planned parenthood v casey that holds a law like this would place an

undue burden on the right to dhoorks right to choose an abortion. for that reason to law will either be struck down or an injunction issued or something to prevent it from going into effect. the only court that does not have to follow roe v wade and its following cases is the supreme court. the supreme court can choose whether or not to apply sta stare decisis and choate down roe v wade. >> justice roberts cares deeply about the reputation of the court. could he be a bullwa rx against this? >> not the underlying justification, even people on both sides of the argument will concede roe v wade stands on

shaky legal justification. so while yon roberts has indicated that he may let precedent stand, there are occasions where precedent should not stand. if the social mores or customs or understanding of people's rights have changed over time then that is a reason to strike down precedent. on the other hand, if as is the case possibly with roe, people have come to rely on these rights and part of the fabric of our society, then even a case wrongly decided like roe as many people say, could remain as precedent. >> donald trump said as a candidate if he got two justices on the court he would overturn roe. >> he did indicate he would try to do that. justice roberts and justice kavanaugh are not slam dunks for overturning roe. gorsch maybe more so. all three of those justices indicated they have a healthy respect for precedent.

>> for these legislatures the whole point is take this to the supreme court. they say we will consider putting rape and incest into this law that you could get an abortion if the pregnancy was due to rape or incest but we won't consider that unless we see roe v wade overturned. >> you have lawmakers putting a law out there that they don't expect to be enforced that's really just used as a pretext to get roe v wade issue before the supreme court. this law is not going to be enforceable at least in the short term. it's going to be struck down by the lower district, the district court and likely the appellate court but only the supreme court can really decide whether or not this law can be the vehicle to challenge roe. >> we already heard challenges from planned parenthood yesterday saying we'll see you in court. we'll wait and see how this will play out. danny cevallos, thank you. the trump administration

continues its blanket defiance of congressional oversight informing the house judiciary committee they will not turn over records and staff testimony. quote congressional investigations are intended to obtain information to aid potential legislation not to harass political opponents or pursue a do over. judiciary chair jerrold nadler says congress will ultimately prevail. >> president trump is escalating his trade war with china by targeting telecom giant huawei. yesterday trump declared a national emergency by executive order by citing threats. it gives commerce secretary wilbur ross the power to block companies that are deemed a national security from doing

business in the u.s. no countries or companies are specifically mentioned shortly after the or was signed the commerce department announced it's putting huawei and its affiliates on a list which requires it to get government approval to buy parts and technologies from american companies. the move which has bipartisan support effectively bans huawei the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker from doing business in the u.s. multiple reports indicate that the trump administration is delaying the president's long threatened auto tariffs by up to six months. the white house faces a saturday deadline to decide whether to apply tariffs on imported cars and auto parts on national security grounds. bipartisan lawmakers and american automakers are weighing in against the plan. also yesterday treasury sector steve mnuchkin said the administration is close to an agreement with mexico and canada to roll back trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum. those were also imposed on

national security grounds and faced heavy bipartisan opposition as well. joining us from washington senior writer at roll call. neil, good to talk to you this morning. let's talk iran first. the trump administration is contending there are credible threats. however lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have not been informed as to what these threats are. we heard from lindsey graham a little bit earlier talking about the fact they could get behind the plan for iran but they don't know what they would be fighting here. so what is the intention here? why is the trump administration leaving so many lawmakers in the dark? >> i don't know yet why they are leaving lawmakers in the dark, and i think i would not want to be one of the members of the so-called gang of eight right now. those are the leaders of the intelligence committees in the house and senate as well as the party leaders in both chambers because there's a real possibility that if they become the only people who get briefed on whatever the intelligence is

that underscored the decision to pull the u.s. personnel out of the embassy in iraq, and whatever else is going on, i would not want to be someone who was privy to that, frankly, when none of my colleagues, if i'm a member of congress are able to get it. so there needs to be more briefings soon and that's probably why chuck schumer and others who may be in the know are starting to say we need to get more broad briefings soon. >> on a separate. ic there was a roll call headline that caught my eye. tell bus this latest reporting about the white house's request to reimburse taliban travel expenses. what's up with that? >> my colleague john donnelly reporting yesterday which was kind of remarkable is that the trump administration and the pentagon have proposed basically

giving the taliban money to pay for the cost of their transit and transportation expenses related to going to peace talks. this was immediately apparently panned by the house appropriations defense subcommittee. the statement was that this could possibly, you know, go against u.s. policies regarding giving money to terrorist organizations and so i don't think it's going anywhere but it was kind of a remarkable bit of reporting that this was even put on the table by the trump white house. >> we'll talk to you again in just a little bit. thank you. still ahead, everybody, new york city mayor bill de blasio is expected to declare his bid for presidency. but will he be able to stand out from all the other democratic candidate. >> mayor pete buttigieg's presidential campaign picks up an advertising firm with winning experience. those stories and a check of the weather when we come back. k.

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welcome back. new york city mayor bill de blasio is expected to join the field of 2020 primary candidates today according to a campaign spoebs person. de blasio will formally announce his bid later this morning and then travel to iowa and south carolina for multiple stops over next four days. now the mayor plans to highlight his liberal record in the nation's largest city including enacting universal prek and overseeing a drop in crime to an all time low. >> montana governor steve bull lobbying's campaign raised $1 million with contributions coming from all 50 states. the total puts bullock towards the middle of the pack when compared to his fellow contenders early fundraising totals. joe biden tops the list raising

$6.3 million in the first 24 hours of his campaign. the advertising firm that helped president obama rise to the national stage has joined pete pete buttigieg agency 2020 campaign. politico confirmed they signed on to the south bend indiana mayor's team. they told the paper that the firm had spoken to numerous campaigns before deciding to join pete buttigieg's, adding he has a really respectful touch with how he deals with people and has a really uplifting hopeful vision of where he would like to go. authors all thing that rekindle that excitement when i started to pay attention to president obama's run. the advertising firm ads to a growing list of obama alumni that joined but's campaign. >> senator kamala harris reportedly has no plans to appear in a fox news town hall. freelance journalist citing two

sours familiar with the matter reported in his newsletter harborry will not participate in a moderated event on the network. the campaign aide told hill fox news reached out but we haven't entertained it. harris' decision follows fellow candidate elizabeth warren's decision to decline the opportunity calling the network a hate for profit machine. >> kamala harris squashed continued talks within her party she would make a good vice presidential running mate. listen to this. >> if people want to speculate about running mates i encourage that because i think joe biden would be a great running mate as vice president he's proven he knows how to do the job and there are certainly a lot of other candidates that would make for me a very viable and interesting vice president. >> brushing rumors aside but politico reports that within her campaign it is no laughing matter. one conif i dan called the talks

infuriating as aides believe it diminishes her on candidacy. >> let's get a check on your weather. >> we're about to start a dangerous stretch here. peak of the tornado season right now in middle of may. throughout the next week we'll get into it. maybe four, five, six days in a row you'll hear about multiple outbreaks of severe storms and tornadoes. the reason, the culprit for it, this huge storm coming in from california. it poured last night in california. snowing in the mountains. this will head into the middle of the country. this afternoon and this evening this area of yellow is where we have our scattered risk of severe storms. it includes the quad cities, chicago, minneapolis. not many tornadoes today. the environment isn't favorable for that. but as we get towards the weekend that's when the tornado risk will increase. as we go into friday, we start to see it from nebraska into west texas. the most draws day where we could possibly have a tornado

outbreak would be on saturday and the area of greatest concern here is in areas of texas all the way from austin, waco, dallas area back over to shreveport. this area of orange where we expect numerous severe storms and possibility of tornadoes and that threat goes up to kansas city. that's why we have 36 million people at risk. by the time we get to sunday we continue with our severe weather threat and we're almost in pretty much the same areas here. again day after day we'll do this. the forecast for today, got a beautiful spring day on tap for you today. this is gorgeous. atlanta 83. humidity is still pretty low. enjoy it while it lasts. d.c. through the mid-atlantic. no, 71. finally in boston getting a little bit better back up to the 60s. heat is on in the middle of the country. any travel issues, maybe miami a stray thunderstorm or two. all the bad weather is on the west coast. a sneak peek at tomorrow we jump up into the 80s in areas like d.c. the warmth is on. going to feel like summer and

this weekend upcoming in the south, some areas will be in the 90s. it's on. >> it's on. >> still ahead one of president trump's former business associates who wrote a flattering book about him last year gets a presidential pardon. that story and more coming up next.

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years in prison after being convicted on charges of mail fraud and obstruction in 2007. after his release in 2012 black was deimportanted to canada and banned from the u.s. for 30 years. last year he wrote a book highlighting trump's successes. the white house statement calls black quote an entrepreneur and scholar who has made tremendous contributions to business as well as to political and historical thought. the white house also notes black wrote several biographies including on roosevelt and nixon but doesn't mention his book on president trump. emergency rescue is under way in downtown oklahoma city yesterday when two window washers were trapped on a lift that came loose and swung uncontrollably near the top of a 50 story building. the lift hits parts of a tower breaking glass. the two men stood upright holding on to the sides of the lift as it moved back and forth. it took fire crews about 45 minutes to rescue the workers

after assessing the situation. one of the men. may have had a minor injury from all of this. but both refused further treatment after being evaluated. president trump expected to unveil a new immigration plan. we'll tell you what's in the proposal and what was left out. plus attorney general bill barr tries to make a joke about how democrats vote to hold him in contempt of congress. what he said to house speaker nancy pelosi coming up next. nancy pelosi coming up next. is that for me? mhm aaaah! nooooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. [son loudly clears throat] [mom and dad laugh] bounty, the quicker picker upper. now with new prints featuring characters from disney/pixar's toy story 4 in theaters june 21.

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. it's the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top story. president trump will unveil a new immigration proposal during a rose garden speech this afternoon. the plan which has been spearhead by the president's son-in-law jared kushner will focus on making the u.s. immigration system merritt based instead of family based. meaning immigrants with specific skills or job offers would be prioritized over those with familiar inside the country. the proposal would also put new requirements on immigrants looking to enter the united states. in addition to mandated checks like health screening and background check immigrants would be required to pass a civics test and receive points based on age, english proficiency, offer of employment. senior officials telling nbc news when it comes to border security the plan calls for scanning improvements at ports of entry, construction of some border wall, a fund to continue

modernizing border infrastructure and modifications to stream line the process for those seek asylum. the proposal does not face a clear path forward in congress. it does not touch daca or the status of dreamers making it a nonstarter with democrats. it also doesn't address the 11 million undocumented people that are already inside of this country. the fight between treasury secretary steve mnuchkin and house democrats over president trump's tax returns continues to heat up. mnuchkin suggested he doesn't plan to comply with house to and ways and maens committee subpoena saying yesterday that the fight over six years of trump's tax returns would likely head to the courts. >> there is a difference in interpretation between congress and us and the department of justice around this law. this is why there are three branches of government. so if there is a difference of

opinion this will go the third branch of government to be resolved. >> the office of government ethics announced it's under review. >> bill finds humor in last week's vote by lawmakers for contempt subpoena for his failure to comply. barr and nancy pelosi crossed paths during the national peace officers memorable day event outside of the capital yesterday. a bystander telling nbc news barr approached pelosi, shook her hand and then said this. madam speaker, did you bring your handcuffs? that bystander says pelosi smiled and indicated the source heavyweight at arms was present at the ceremony should an arrest be necessary. that apparently got a chuckle out of the attorney general before he walked away. oh, what a time in washington it is. democrats are ionno rush in moving for a final vote.

steny hoyer said democrats are unlikely to schedule a contempt vote. the plan is to hold multiple trump officials to hold them in contempt at once. >> nancy pelosi are telling democrats to stay focused on their agenda and not fortunate and appears democrats are falling in line. "washington post" reports pelosi told democrats in a closed door caucus meeting wednesday morning to stick to their policy agenda ahead of the 2020 election rather than start impeachment proceedings. not a single lawmaker challenged her. this is all unfolding as house judiciary committee chairman jerrold nadler doubted they would ever take place. >> if the president can be impeached, only two things. only for misuse of presidential power while president. or for cheating in the election. that gave him the presidency.

other than that if he did something terrible before avenues president, he robbed a bank, it's not impeachable. >> do you believe he committed crimes while in office? >> yes, i do believe that. >> you believe he's committed crimes while in office? >> i do believe that. mueller lays out strong evidence of a number of obstruction of justice. those are crimes. >> when you say question of impeachment is down the road does it need to be this calendar year or not at all? >> it depends what comes out and what we learn, where the american people want to go that way. i don't want to make it southern we're heading for impeachment. probably we're not. >> you really believe that, probably not >> probably. i don't know. >> because what i hear is the reverse. probably we are but not yet. >> maybe. it's hard. i don't know. >> joining us again from washington senior writer at roll call. so, neil, look, there are though

dr. those 40 or so house democrats, they all say now is not the time for impeachment. making clear that nancy pelosi does not have the votes to move forward which is why she's trying to keep democrats focused on the agenda and away from they impeachment proceedings. help us understand what some of the pitfalls here are democrats think they might face if they go that route. >> that's the key right there. it's this contrast between what you hear from liberal progressive base, maybe from the democratic primary voters in the presidential race where you have senator elizabeth warren who is talking about how the house needs the to start impeachment proceedings versus the reality of the people who make the majority for nancy pelosi in the house democrats who are not going to be people who are going

to ever want to get on board with impeachment proceedings. you know jerrold nadler in that interview with john harwood is sort of -- it shows the box that they are in. it's not somewhere, where they want to go politically and something would have to come out that would be so overwhelming that those house demonstrate that won those trump districts would have a change of heart and right now i haven't seen it. >> let's talk about this immigration plan that we were just laying out a little bit earlier. what are you hearing ahead of this plan today how it will be received? >> it's going to be an effort to unify republicans. and whether or not that works is even going to be a question in the senate particularly because there are some senate republicans who want to do something to help the dreamers, to resolve the issue of people

who are undocumented, who are already in this country. it's like this is a one slice of a broader puzzle or one slice of a broader pie and the trump administration really sort of avoiding the rest of the question. so i think this as its own is a nonstarter but maybe, maybe it starts the conversation going forward. >> thanks for your time this morning. we appreciate it. >> good talking to you. the "new york times" is reporting the intelligence causing the increase and warnings about a threat from iran came from photographs of missiles on small boats in the persian gulf that were put on board by iranian parra military forces. in addition the "times" reports u.s. recently learned about conversations between iran's revolutionary guard and foreign militias regarding attacks on american troops and diplomats in iraq. while the paper notes those kind of talks are nothing new the

frequency of them and specifics appear. american officials say they have new intel iran may target commercial shipping in the region. this could indicate iran is preparing an attack held strongly by john bolton and secretary of state mike pompeo. however, there is a debate raging among the white house, the pentagon, the cia and america's allies over the level of alarm raised and even if the iranian moves are offensive or defensive in nature given the recent provocations from the trump administration. i find so interesting about this entire story usually it's the president's advisors who have to reign in some of his least informed impulse but at least when it comes to this iran story it's the president who sacramentoing as the guardrails against mover his hawkish advisors. >> i think we could have predicted this. we knew where john bolton stood when it comes to iran where he

was angling for regime change. bolton has been a hawk for quite some time. on the campaign trail the president was talking about pulling out the iran nuclear deal and he did that. nobody is surprised by the fracture within the white house that we're hearing b-the fact john bolton is angling for. seems regime change is going in for iran. here's what we do know. you talk about the non-essentials pulled out of iraq because of some kind of credible threat. . the u.s. is prepared to respond to any sort of attack on u.s. persons or u.s. entities in the region but they don't want to do it. the trump administration does not want to engage, they don't want to escalate to it that point. we saw an announcement which you saw from the white house yesterday this president will be coming to a meeting with the swiss president to talk about diplomatic relations and how they can get involved in talks

with iran. but iran doesn't want to sit down with the u.s. right now because they don't trust them because of the u.s. deciding to pulling out of the agreement. it's all a developing situation to say the least. >> some great reporting. still ahead the acting head of the faa gets grilled by lawmakers over its agencies approval process for the boeing 737 max. >> scary scene here in new york as a helicopter comes crashing down into the hudson river. and bill karins is back with another check on the forecast. stay with us. forecast. st wayith us

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old certification process by which company paid employees to inspect their own aircraft calling it a good system. throughout the two hours of questioning he also suggested the experience and actions by the flight crews in both the lion air and ethiopian airlines crashes might have contributed to the accidents. according to agency investigators, boeing is expected to soon submit a software fix that would keep the anti-stall system from activating based on errorneous data. but he gave no timetable for when the plane might be cleared to fly again. >> let's go that terrifying scene over new york city as a helicopter spun out of control before crashing into the waters of the hudson river. no one was hurt. ann thompson has more on this. >> reporter: it was a site no tourist expected to see.

a helicopter suddenly spinning out of control. plunging in to the hudson, missing the landing pad by a mere 150 feet. >> went sideways on him. >> saw a big splash. i think rotor just came off. >> reporter: the pilot was the only person on board. 34-year-old eric morales activated the floatation devices and escape and picked up by a passing boat with only a minor injury to his hand. >> he repositioned the land. the pilot felt the helicopter go down. >> reporter: the rescue scene recalling the miracle on the hudson in almost the same place ten years ago. all 155 people on board survived. >> that are thank you to ann thompson for that report. >> let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> taste of summer coming for many people. today we'll be in the 90s in

areas of nebraska and also in kansas. the area that are cooler than normal are areas out west. omaha up to 93. st. louis at 88. a lot of people cranking their air conditioner for the first time as we head into the warm season. by friday warmth begins to spread. we head to 88 in nashville. that's trend. much more warm and humid in areas of the southeast and mid-atlantic. look at this weekend. look at raleigh. 92 on saturday. 90 on sunday. washington, d.c. your warmest day should be sunday up to 86 degrees. areas of south carolina will be in the 90s too. still pretty mild. the exception is the northern half of the country. that's where it will stay cool. let's take a look ahead of your weekend forecast. again this is not an all day rain event in the northeast friday. we'll see pared of rain going through with a cold front. not a wash out. not like the last month of fridays. as we go throughout saturday kind of a similar thing. northern half of the country will be dealing with the rain.

there's our severe weather threat on saturday he areas in dallas and by the time we get to sunday that soaking rain heads up here into the great lakes, maybe some showers in the northeast. the big weather story is on saturday. the potential at least for tornado outbreak in areas of texas. so it's warming up. starting to feel and look like may. >> i have to ask jeff what he was going to do on sunday. stay inside. are you and inside kind of guy? >> we'll talk about that. we'll deal with that later. >> still ahead one fast food giant looks to ease the pain of being stuck in traffic. >> president trump fires the latest shot in his trade war with china targeting huawei. we'll have the stories driving your business day coming up next. your business day coming up next

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>> welcome back. donald trump declaring national emergency over technology and seeking a ban on u.s. firms doing business with huawei. cnbc joins us live from london. good to see you this morning. thanks for joining us. as the u.s. and china remain locked in a trade war, we've been talking about this for quite some time how will this announcement going impact markets? >> reporter: it's kind of the other side of the same coin in the sense that you had way has been a targeted by the trump white house. in the first place it was more about putting up obstacles and

them selling products in the u.s. this latest move could mean to struggle to get components for their smartphone. that could be very devastating in terms of the market impact. not seen not seen a massive slide in asian stock. in europe it's a bit of a down day. it looks like it could be a pretty flat open. we have seen an impact on the dollar, which is now weaker. the awful camp fire that killed 85 people late last year, the state of california said it's down to pacific gas & electric, pg&e, their electric transmission lines were at fault. >> there may be good news for west coast drivers. i used to live in l.a. i know how the 405 turns into a parking lot during rush hour.

apparently burger king just announced it's going to be delivering whoppers to drivers stuck in traffic. tell bus that. >> we had a camera on mike barnicle in the studio, that would be great because he's more shocked about that than any other news that's been delivered this morning. >> i suspect mike has spent time in that awful l.a. traffic. essentially burger king tried this in mexico city. they're looking to push ads at drivers stuck in traffic, in theories the orders turn up on motor bikes. they've tried that in mexico city. they're now rolling it out in l.a., shanghai. my recommendation, wet wipes and maybe some air freshener in the

glove compartment. >> it makes you look forward to sitting in traffic. can we get a camera on barnicle over there? >> in los angeles, if you try it in los angeles, you can no longer call it a drive through because you never go anywhere. >> that's a good point. >> special orders don't upset us? come on. >> thanks for weighing in, mike barnicle. >> coming up, axios' nick johnson has a look at this morning's "1 big thing." and coming up on "morning joe," more on calls from congressional leaders for the trump administration to brief them with escalating tensions. >> and newly announced 2020 candidate governor steve bullock and his fellow presidential candidate michael bennett will discuss their bids for the white

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joining us from washington with a look at axios am is editor in chief, nicholas johnson. what's axios' "1 big thing"? >> joe biden, the democratic front-runner, is planning to enough out his democratic opponents as quickly as possible in this election, maintain that aura of inevitability on his way to the democratic nomination. he's been leading in the polls since well before he even declared and has bolstered the lead since declaring the last month or so and he's trying to push that ahead, staying above the fray amongst all the other democrats and positioning himself as the only democrat who can truly go toe to toe with donald trump. that's something that even donald trump may be agreeing with. if you look at donald trump's

twitter feed and how the president's allies are attacking democrats, that's exactly what joe biden wants. he wants to be seen as the one person who can go up against donald trump with the focus taken away from all the other democrats. the 23 of them i think also in the field. >> 23. >> i may have overcounted but it's close to that it feels like. >> it's close. where can the strategy be tested, do you think? >> the key thing is not being faced up against directly democrats. the play book on this is not attacking other democrats, not making explicit policy proposals, staying above the free on the new green deal. others have a lit of specific proposals. joe biden has avoided that. debates will be the first opportunity next opportunity to challenge. joe biden has been in washington a long time and he's made a lot of statements and democrats may

try to hit on that. >> and action axios is looking s groups in key states. what are we learning from that? >> we haven't found a single democratic issue that's broken out from all the noise. is it income inequality, the green new deal, medicare for all? none of those messages have resonated or coalesced as the big thing that voters want. when democrats were successfully able to rally around health care and make that their issue, they were able to dominate republicans who failed to settle on one big thing. >> what seems to be the top thing do you think? health care topped the last for things voters were most concerned about and at the bottom of the list, interestingly enough, was economy and jobs. >> i think health care once again is going to be the really big issue.

in the polling we've seen, that has carried over from the mid terms. the question for democrats is how do they talk about it. the presidential candidates view this very much differently than it was viewed for nancy pelosi and democrats running for congress. when it was nationalizing and overhauling the health care system, talking about that at the focus group level we talked to, remember, it's very early. even when we look at name recognition and show people pictures of beto o'rourke and kamala harris, they're like who are these people? >> at what stage in the race do these things begin to shape up do, we really begin to see standout issues? do we really begin to see standout candidates? obviously right now we're still a year and a half away from the actual election. >> i think the early debate schedule is going to be a very, very important when they start next month, certainly for democrats. if there are singular candidates who can make a home run on an issue, can get in a really good line against joe biden to knock

him off his front-runner's pr perch, that can really bust through the noise. >> thanks for your time. you can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside geoff bennett. "morning joe" starts right now. >> in those days the deputy job was a lot different but i'll tell you now, the attorney general job was a lot different also. you like records. this must be a record of attorney general being proposed for contempt within a hundred days of taking office. >> attorney general william barr joking about the contempt resolution. now he seems to have more material. >> you saw what happened yesterday with barr and nancy

pelosi.