these big issues touching people's lives, we call them the table issues, pocketbook issues, they'll using them to send a message they care about you. president trump may be out bragging about the stock market and about jobs, but what about your reality? what about your family? what about your community? democrats think that that is a key message. >> making it local. >> mike allen, thanks for i don't -- your time. have a great weekend. >> that does it for us. i'm yasmin vossoughian along with geoff bennett. "morning joe" is on now. >> said trump, i love when things are merit based, just ask my presidential adviser, my daughter. >> i think it's pretty funny.

we had such a late night last night and i'm looking for someone here. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, may 17th. along with joe, willie and me, we have nbc news national reporter heidi pryzbyla. >> joe, get over here. >> joe is tardy. >> joe scarborough, rush chairman. nice to meet you. >> we don't want him. >> joe scarborough. glad to meet you. >> can you come sit down? >> a funny story about this jacket. >> the fireside chat. >> so larry mize very upset because i won in '87. >> sit down. >> people don't know the rest of

the story. but i actually borrowed this from tiger. >> he was up so late last night because literally -- >> i got really fuzzy around 4 a.m. >> he was in a bar screaming and singing way past bedtime. >> also with us -- >> please stop. >> please stop what? >> also with us, pulitzer prize columnist and associate of "the washington post", plolitical analyst eugene robinson. >> he spent the day yesterday at iheart radio. >> and mika had this big party. >> it was for daniela's book. >> kids from all over were outside.

this was like a k-pop concert. >> andre was there. >> that was a wonderful event. of course the senator came. >> i'm sure we have a picture of andre leon tally but there you go. and stephanie was there. it was so much fun. >> it was a nice crowd. >> it was put on by resident magazine, which did the whole cover. it was really fun. thank you for donny and flexing your muscles. >> you know i'm a fashion icon and i talked to donny. i said here's the deal. you get to a certain age, you actually look younger when you don't wear the baby gap. >> he broke out in the baby gap last night. >> what is the baby gap? >> he wears the baby gap t-shirt. >> it's not a muscle shirt?

>> here we go. >> i like to -- are we going to show this? >> yeah. look at donny's t-shirt. kind of hard to get the pictures actually up. he's in a little tight t-shirt. this is how he goes to parties, okay? seriously? >> festive. >> steve rattner commented -- >> rattner was wearing the same shirt. >> yeah, he was. and i mean -- >> but it didn't end there. so after this then you went to that bar prohibition and it was so late. it went late into the night. it was packed, it was fun. we're punchy and that's why joe is so late this morning. >> it was a lot of fun. we did a lot of sendiing alongs. my drummer wasn't there. so we broke into a lot of like "all you need it love." everybody was singing along. >> i was yesterday over at

sirius xm on the beatles channel. i said if joe was here, he would take you through the entire catalogue, song by song. >> i was at iheart radio. they said we want you to give you a quiz. which beatle is the oldest beatle? i said, oh, ringo. he was born on -- >> it's rainman. >> just call me up, stunt me. >> i'm telling you, you got to go over there. >> so we're punchy. a long week. >> i have a barry manilow question. >> you don't want to publicize that. >> the first song on his "trying to get the feeling" album going

again. >> mandy. >> it n's not mandy. >> we'll show you a poll about joe biden building a big lead in the democratic primary. >> the fox news poll puts joe biden at 35%, bernie sanders at 17% and every other contender in single digits. >> bernie is getting people taking from him from both side. some going to joe biden who want beat donald trump and elizabeth warren doing better and mayor pete. i think mayor pete's numbers are coming directly from the bernie category. it's one of the reasons why bernie has gone from the mid 20s in some polls into the teens. he's really getting it from all sides. >> and if you look at elizabeth warren, she's had a slow and

steady rise over the last month or so. she has come up and clearly her world view, her idea, many of her policies are shared with bernie sanders. but this is just another poll that shows joe biden with this commanding lead and it going to take an event of some kind, a gaffe by joe biden but joe biden is the runaway at this moment front-runner. >> solid. but, donny, listen, basic blocking and tackling works. you practice it and keep at it. in politics, it's the same thing. you have a message, you hammer that message home, you're consistent and work hard. elizabeth warren, great example. she's up five points in this poll. she's up in other polls. not enough to make it competitive yet. but you get rewarded for having a message, sticking to that

message, believing in that message and driving it home. >> her struggle will be between message and messenger. i was watching her the other night and it's boom jab, jab, jab, she's got it. the challenge she has, and this is as a brander and marketer, i just do not think she has the stuff to take on donald trump. >> i don't not? >> two reasons. at the end of the day if donald trump can paint anybody a socialist, whether you can use the s word -- you can't use that on biden, no matter how you slice it, you can't. i do think -- i want to get this the right word before mika attacks me. >> what? i'm always -- >> she's tough. bernie can get away with a certain strideness that is much more challenging. >> because he's man. >> it's not fair but it is. that's the challenge where i think senator harris' force as a woman and this just comes from a

lot of research, is much easier digestible for men and women. this is where we are in the year 2019. it n it's not fair -- >> why is it more digestible from kamala harris -- >> because we're still only 30, 40 years -- >> what is it specifically about her? >> oh, kamala harris? >> yeah. >> there's a certain -- >> it could be that she's a prosecutor and she had to play to juries all the time and might have more experience how to play to a crowd. >> it's tone and manner. once again, she's amazing. you got to give her everything. >> elizabeth warren. >> yes. >> i i'm just saying as voters, there's a factor there that's so much more challenging for women to navigate. >> we never know, though. everybody was saying this about donald trump.

and talk about de blasio's new york cover yesterday, it was totally mocking the guy. take it back four years. you could have put donald trump's name where bim debl-- b de blasio's name is and it will prove what was said, nobody knows nothing. >> nobody knows anything. we should keep that in mind. keep in mind what happened four years ago, where donald trump was, how people were writing about him and writing him off, this is a hoax, a joke, it's very funny, yada yada, and look where he is today. i am impressed with elizabeth warren as rise, with her staying power. she's kind of doing it, i don't know if it's the old fashioned way or a new fashioned way but she's doing it with policy and three yards and a cloud of dust but she's the sort of bear

bryant of this campaign right now, right? she just moves ahead, moves ahead, moves ahead and incrementally so. right now you've got to say she's got maybe a better chance than anybody else of being the first to leap or to climb her way up into that upper echelon, where you look at her against biden and bernie. and bernie's in trouble. and i don't think it's too early to say that bernie sanders is in trouble. you see his support leaking away from both directions. and warren, this is impressive. >> you know what else is impressive? >> no, joe. i don't want do this. >> the subtlety of "the new york post." >> i don't like this. >> they're behind de blasio, aren't they? >> no, i cannot. >> i can't wait to talk to him

here. black lives matter, cops, community activists and whoopi! if you're thinking about running for president, this is how you want to start your campaign. if you told me i would start my campaign this way or on the cover of "vanity fair", that's easy. i remember when we did scarborough country, "daily news" seems to be the pro de blasio tab. i like the commercial. and you know what, people that didn't, that's fine. but it's the first democrat i've seen that's had sort of that i'm going to take it to him, i'm going to pound him into submission, i'm a new yorker, we

don't put up with you know what. so i was pretty impressed. let's show the head-to-head matchups. >> can we? we were going to go right past that. let's see. and the fox news poll finds biden also thriving in a general election matchup. among all voters, biden leads president trump. turns out 41% was the most the president could muster when put up against other democratic candidates. and coming up on "morning joe" we will have bill de blasio. >> my main man. >> look at those matchups heidi. you're on the hill all the time. republicans have to know this. he's what 40% president. it didn't end well in '18. >> oh, is he going to get re-elected? he's a 40% president. he'll be 35% next week.

he's a 40% president. >> and that is why many view his path to reelection as elevating someone like a bernie sanders, joe, because what would happen in that event? it looks unlikely at this point. but to donnie's point about having someone with that socialist label, if you can tag one of those contenders, one of those democratic contenders other than biden, then you bifurcate the race. you open the lane for a more moderate third party candidate and you split that anti-trump vote. and that is his path to reelection. so that's why biden's riding so high right now because everybody knows it on the democratic side and the electability is when you poll people, the number one reason why they're backing joe biden because they view this as a break-the-glass election. >> you can't predict what's going to happen, just like we said with trump. but the one thing we do know is this, that donald trump is praying that someone he can call

a socialist will run against hmm and he should. we have unemployment like at 3.5%, wages are going up, the economy is growing. now is not a time when people will say let's just change america's economic system. >> and if you look at this poll, you see exactly why the white house and donald trump are focused on joe biden, why rudy giuliani is threatening to go to ukraine to investigate a made-up story about joe biden and his son. but taking it directly to trump, going right at trump and effectively baiting donald trump and the white house into talking about joe biden and elevating him almost to be the presumptive nominee, a fight joe biden wants to have. >> in a newly unsealed court filing from special counsel robert mueller's office, former national security adviser michael flynn says that people connected to the trump administration and to capitol hill contacted him to influence

his cooperation with the russia investigation. the filing says, quote, the defendant informed the government of multiple instances both before and after his guilty plea where either he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the administration or congress that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation. the filing says flynn even provided a voice mail reporting, which a federal judge ordered to be released in transcript form by may 31st. the judge also ruled to release a transcript of what flynn said in himself call with the russian ambassador in late 2016 after the obama administration and the judge further orded oral the parts of the special counsel as report be unredacted and reman

public over the next two weeks. rhett bring in ken dlan kran. ken, good to have you. tell us what thing is as soon as part of this flynn document had been released first in december. you'll remember there was great fanfare about it and then it landed and at that time there was great anticipation about and you read it, it just another example of how you there were efforts to influence the testimony of a key witness in the mueller investigation. why was no one charged with an obstruction of justice, he may well have been charged with obstruction. >> so when this comes to light, it sound like it just may be

witness tam pring, obstruction of justice. could somebody bring charges against the two parties that are revealed here if it is obviously ox? >> they certainly could, joe. another prosecutor could take a look at this. but the fact that the special counsel already investigated and knows far more than we do based on this filing and declined to file charges again anyone else feels like it argues against that happening. we've soon a the other teakaway, with the judge ordering things that were closed that can fall by the wayside almost immediately that a judge decides it's going to come out. we're going to see more of this. congress has subpoenaed the not

william barr and the justice about what woor going to see in this report. >> so it been, what, a couple months since the letter cap out in since we learn p learned that the mueller rofs are the why robert mueller didn't put a subpoena on the president and have him toof like ken starr did with bill clinton. or i this i he did. or why he didn't subpoena don jr. there were questions whether don jr. had lied to congress. in this case there was obvious witness tampering, obvious obstruction of justice. they cited ten instances of possible obstruction of justice. any idea why -- i mean, are you

hearing anything all these wieks later as to why mueller didn't step over that threshold? >> i've heard explanations, joe. they're not particular had the explanation on why he didn't subpoena the president, trump 's legal team put this out early on, and the american public needed answers and they couldn't afford a year-long court fight and a constitutional battle, which couldnd with the president taking the no you don't the defendant's state of mind by talking to the defendant. you talk to people who were around the president and it's unsatisfying hp so they're now

sort sort of relying on bob mueller. he's still a justice department employees. that can place more restrictions on his ability to come to congress. >> so, ken, looknes. if it was a personal attorney, rudy giuliani and sekulow said it wasn't then. who can it's a small group of people and giuliani and sekulow have denied doing that. this voice mail was actually

excerpted in the mule are report. it goes on to say this lepsly he was going to tell the president and the president wasn't going to be very happy. that was another example of what look like an attempt to influence the testimony of a key witness, willie. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much for being on on this friday morning. but what's happening there could have a big im tiks nationwide. >> actually, though, if you think about it, it could have doug jones again. >> more women have come up to me out of the blue to talk about what's going on there. there's new backlash to that state's abortion law and some of the criticism is coming from conservatives. we'll run through that just ahead. conservatives. we'll run through that just ahead.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it is 27 past the hour. house minority leader kevin mccarthy says alabama's new abortion law goes to far but declined to say whether it should be overturned. as republicans navigate the growing backlash over the nation's strictest abortion legislate, here's what he had to say. >> do you think that law goes too far? >> it goes further than i believe, yes. i defend my pro-life position for my whole political career. but i also believed in rape, incest or life of the mother. there were exception. that's what republicans have voted on in this house. that's what our platform says and i believe that's the point of what you find many of us of where we stand. >> it distancing comes as the

national party strug tolls make inroads with suburban women before their 2020 reelection campaigns while state republicans move to remove the rape and incest exception from their increasingly stringent anti-abortion bills to push the issue before the sport. >> gene, you know, fools rush in. they overreach. a lot of democrats were concerned when new york state passed abortion bills that i think 14%s are , 15% of america support it. now republicans have snatched defeat out of the jaws of political victory and have gone the other way and their extremism is scaring the hell out of a lot of americans who might even be pro-life and, you know, those educated, suburban,

republican women that started to move away from the republican party, they're in a full-out sprint now. >> yeah, think that's all this law is ever going to accomplish actually, is in the political sense to hurt republicans and to drive those women and men away from an extremist law that is -- the anti-abortion forces and i don't support them, but they have been doing well with an incremental approach to try to restrict abortion. you know, how many weeks and this and that. they've been doing well with that. this so far overreaches, i actually -- i'm not convinced it will ever get to the supreme court. i think it will be immediately enjoined, immediately struck down, struck down at the appeals

level and i don't think the supreme court wants to hear this case. this is a bad case. i don't think they will want to take it up. but mean while, it's there on the books and republicans are going to have to answer questions about it and they're going to have to say where they stand on it and it's going to hurt them. >> the property after several thames will deny certificate. the only thing this alabama home will do is set pack the pro-life issue for years. my gosh, planned parenthood will raise so much money. let's wait a week and see how much planned parenthood makes off of this extremist move. there was pure virtue signaling

by conservatives and they're going to pay for it. >> even among evangelicals, this doesn't crack 30% support. evangelicals. and what you're seeing now is all of these news stories coming out about 11 and 12-year-olds who have been raped and their little bodies weren't made to do this. that is what splashed across the country. and to your point about this being only political, if you're a republican in montana, california or massachusetts, you're still going to get labeled as being part of a party that pushed this forward. and, secondly, i think it's going to give democrats an opportunity to open a big are dialogue about what is pro-life because is pro-life forcing a law like this on to women and at the same time cutting funding for programs, for instance, that help prevent that, are scientifically proven to help

prevent teen-age pregnancy, cutting nutritional assistance to mothers and children, cutting medicaid, which we know helps babies and single mothers. and so it really will allow democrats i think to start to make that argument about morals and what really is pro-life and what really is supportive of mothers and children. >> i think kevin mccarthy speaks for a lot of pro-lifers in this country. you can see the frustration written all over his face as he answered that question, which is that they have a principled belief that abortion generally speaking is wrong and that a viable baby should not be terminated. and so when they hear this most extreme example of how abortion can be used, think again specifically about what they're saying, an uncle, a father rapes you, you must deliver the baby, a stranger attacks you, you must deliver the baby. >> and you're 12. >> what could be more barbaric?

of kous because of where we live, that example will be lifted up as the representative of the anti-abortion in the country. >> mika said before alabama is not a swing state. i should know, i've been there enough. doug jones won against a guy who was attacked for preying on young 14-year-old girls. he denied it but that was the attack. so, donny, add that on top of a bill that april lous an older man to rape a 14-year-old girl and she has to deliver the baby? that is very bad, even for alabama republicans. >> for everywhere. what won trump, won the rabs the election in 2016 was passion. they had the passion. you want to tush oaf charge passion on the democratic side, there is no prt way.

put this together with the passion of anty trump -- >> this is what the women's march warned us about. now a lot of people laugh of laughed at that and here we are. >>you look at north carolina, virginia, ohio, which is, pennsylvania. you look at the swing states and parts of florida, which is really a trump state right now, but there are a lot of these swing states, iowa, where it's not good for republican prosecutors. >> coming up, we've several examples was ignored by his closest advisers. now with a looming threat of we call it the mother standard of care.

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mr. president, are we going to war with iran? >> hope not. >> oh, my god. >> fingers crossed. >> hey, who knows. hey, que sera sera.

>> wednesday in the situation room, president trump told aides that he does not want to go to war with iran. that's according to reports in the "new york times," "the wall street journal," both citing multiple administration officials. nbc news has confirmed those reports. it comes amid threatening rhetoric from several members of the trump administration, especially national security adviser john bolton. and as the u.s. is ramping up military assets in the region, including a carrier strike group, two destroyers, bombers and missiles. >> david french's latest piece in "time" magazine, "congress must stop trump from blundering into america's most dangerous war." let's start here with iran. how does congress stop the president from blundering into

war? >> first, congress has to demand right now to see the relevant -- the relevant members need to see the intelligence that is justifying this pretty dramatic and immediate military buildup. one of the most disturbing elements to me in the recent news was lindsey graham, and this is a guy who has become a very close ally of trump saying i just know what i see in the papers. that's intolerable. you have to consider the fact that congress constitutionally should have the primary role and of course the president can order the self-defense by u.s. forces and should, but if you're going to talk about initiating military action here, that's got to be congress's role. congress should step up now and demand to see this intelligence as justifying this dramatic military buildup. >> david, we have nashville's favorite son, tv's own willie

geist. >> does he go over to meecham's house and put on a smoking jacket? >> you write about all the many, many down sides of a war with iraq and you point out this is not afghanistan and syria. a war with iran would be far more dangerous than any of those. >> that's right. you're talking about iran, which has proxy forces and militia forces in iran -- in iraq that we fought during the iraq war that are incredibly formidable, all of them that can strike american forces. it has the largest missile force in the region. it has an in tact military force, it can create an economic

shock. in war games in the early 2000s, it went so bad so the u.s. navy, that they had to stop the game and reset it. it is to say senator tom cotton, who knows better, reunderplayed the danger here when he told margaret hoover, it's two strikes, first strike, last strike. again, american forces would prevail but are the american for the economic shock that would result or the casualties we could see? they have to come forward and explain the case. they can't rely on unjustified intelligence. they need to be specific here. >> what tools does congress have if the administration does not

provide that intelligence. you're already seeing grumbling on both sides of the aisle, comments from both sides of the i'll that the white house is not authorized to launch another war, yet you have an acting department of defense secretary and you have folks secretarytory to who are really driving the train on this? what can and that's the rub, right? this is why presidents have exercised so much war making authority in the recent years. we don't have any like general mattis in the they can demand and try to attach conditions to funding but in the immediate short term, they don't have power over the president other than the power of trying to persuade. >> i think i repeat you about

who are time a but tell me why this isn't a disas trer political approach for the pro-life music. >> a lot of these this what a lot of pro-lifers like me have understood is that the incremental approach has no pro to the supreme court where -- >> but isn't the problem, david, that incremental approach has worked extraordinarily well for

the pro-life movement over the past decades because in some states, abortion has almost been regulated out of existence and the supreme court allowed that to stand and it always goes back to a baseball analogy, you never want to challenge flood's move. the supreme court will deny certificate. >> 100% of low are courts with current turn it the problems we have in and that were going to have passed them. there's not really anywheres to go and that incremental approach is not fundamentally attacked

row. i think it is time with a new court to fundamentally attack ro. >> i know you're going to get mad. that i've got to ask david a question. i think the one area we disagree on has to do with guns and supreme court precedent. i have to ask you, david, nogs national wiefd when they really don't speak for gun owners across america. >> i think what oo are seeing in the nra is symptomatic in something that we see in the broader conservative movement an awful lot and that is the used of issue to create a gift. you've seen an enorm ought am

ffrmt. >> actually $275 in one zena story in l.a. that's rivaling donny deutsch's wardrobe. >> yes. >> there is no problem. perfect gut frm. >> i was just this nrn on the small donor donations and and use it to finance the lifestyle. that's fundamentally incompatible with the mission, the bly we can also debate that. up next, you may be retired pu

prurp. >> so tell me more about the beard. >> well, you tell me about why are toupee. >> i've been waiting to use that loon for four years! >> oh, my god. willie brings us part of his interview with the late night legend. that's going to be amazing. a morning joe. >> we begin with new data this morning. e begin with new data ts morning. when you rent from national... it's kind of like playing your own version of best ball.

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up know, willie, i i had few idols growing up, paul mccarthy, the beatles, carson, loved carson, and david letterman. that guy was just an inspiration when he came on in i think '81. i've been fan ever since. he's incredible. >> i don't think we fully appreciate how he's informed so of the comedy that came after him.

>> oh, everything. >> if you talk to -- >> even will ferrell. you look at this comedy in the wes anderson film. all of them. >> david letterman is my guest today. he has the second season of his netfl netflix. i said come up, we'll go fly fishing. about an hour left of new york city, we did a little fly fishing and sat by the stream. >> just fly fishing with david letterman. >> another day at the office. of course he's been growing that beard out. >> yeah, why? no. >> since he left tv. so i asked him about that. >> no. >> tell me more about the beard. >> well, you tell me about your

toupee. >> you went right to it. >> i've been waiting to use that line for four years. >> i was just tired of shaving and now i'm just afraid to see what's up there. >> so that's it? >> that's it. >> not a statement, not a protest. >> no, no. it was i'm tired of shaving. the longer it went -- i wake up and i foregget that i have it honestly. >> as you stit heit here tonigh dave, do you miss doing late-night tv? >> you know, the first year i sure did. when the network lets you go, you'll get it. people are like you're not going to be the kid's best friend.

i look around and how much longer do i want to be around. i want to be the best friend. >> so harry as he moves into his tee teen years, he's not a teen and hanging out with his dad? >> that's right. at my age, this is no breakthrough and revelation, the most secure i ever feel is when i'm around my son. >> yes. >> since you left late night, whether or not you miss it, there's a new president of the united states you may have noticed. do you miss being on late night for that fact? >> no. first of all, the people who are in charge now do a really good job of it. and, as i've said before, it's like painting the golden gate bridge. as soon as you're done, you got to start all over. it would be the same night after night after night after night. as an american, i don't like

this man as a president of our country. i love being an american, but i don't feel he represents me and i don't like that. and even with other presidents that i've disagreed with politically, i felt like, okay, i can live with representati representation. i'm sick and tired of everybody wringing their hands about this. oh my god, did you hear what he did? let's settle this at the next election. let's stop yacking about what a goon he is. >> he makes very clear he doesn't like donald trump and wishes he wasn't president. he said all these people trying to figure out how to get him out of office before the election is a waste of time, he said get him out of there. >> stop wringing your hands, stop talking about russia, stop

talking about this. vote him up or vote him down. >> it's funny, he's been off the air for four years now and i asked him, what's your life like, what do you do? he talked about for 33 years all he did was wake up and go down the show. all he wanted to do was do a great show. he was only happy for that hour that he was on the show. you get the sense that four years ago he stepped out of the bubble and started to see the world and spend more time with his son harry, who is 16 now. he has a great story on sunday about going to costco for the first time. >> i want to hear that. he was like have you heard about this costco day? it's like he's living his life and i think he says he regrets not beginning to live it sooner than you did. >> you need to tell him he does want to see what's under there. >> he does not. >> this guy's show has become the a-list --

>> also ahead, mayor bill depalaceio jodde blasio joins us on his first full day and william hurd on the new immigration plan. "morning joe" is back in a moment. migration plan "morning joe" is back in a moment nothing says summer like a beach trip, so let's promote our summer travel deal on choicehotels.com like this: surf's up. earn a fifty-dollar gift card when you stay just twice this summer. or.. badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com hi, do you have a travel card? we do! the discover it® miles card.

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once i know what a business is truly worth, we can make better informed investment decisions. that's why i go beyond the numbers. ♪ i've been trying to get answers to questions and i found a lot of the answers have been inadequate. i have also found that some of the explanations i've gotten don't hang together. i think people have to find out what the government was doing during that period. if we're worried about foreign influence f influence, for the very same reason we should be worried whether government officials abuse their power and put their thumb on the scale. i'm not saying it happened but i'm saying that we have to look at that. >> wow. >> that was attorney general william barr attempting to justify his increased scrutiny

of the fbi's decision in the russia investigation, comparing russian interference in 2015 with what america's own justice department did. >> this is a continuation, willie, of donald trump agreeing with vladimir putin. >> good lord. >> you might as well just slap an ex-kgb badge on our attorney general. he's doing the same thing. the moral equivalency between, you know, america's intel community and russia continues. >> we're long past the point since attorney general's barr's testimony of wondering where he stands and whether or not he's just there to protect the president and whether that's true but now going out and doing interviews and questioning the justice department. if there are questions to be asked, ask them but he's aggressively going out there and -- >> we can go back to helsinki.

donald trump says he trusts an ex-kgb agent's assessment more than he trusts an appointee he put in place. and now we have the attorney general of the united states comparing the kgb to russia. >> you thought, okay, this will be the test, does donald trump corrupt every person around him automatically or are there some people, including our current fbi director, who have been able to keep their heads up high and state on the straight. i would have bet you large sums of money bill barr would have been somebody playing it straight, doing it good. it's stunning. >> eugene scott's here. >> yeah, i am. democratic lawmakers warned that

bill barr would do much of what he's done. so this actually isn't a surprise for everyone. this is exactly going according to script. >> people that have known him, democrats and republicans that have known him for 30 years in washington do seem surprised, walter, even though the democrats are exactly right. the democrats warned of this. walter, it's one thing for a guy that's never studied history, that spent his time running beauty pageants and casinos to not understand how the intel community works, what's so disgusting and disgusting is too kind of a word for what the attorney general is doing right now, what's so disgusting about barr is he knows better. he knows about all of the procedural safeguards. he knows about fisa judges, and knows they're selected by the chief justice of the supreme court, they're the best and

brightest and take their jobs seriously. and there are so many procedural safeguards to compare that to putin saying let's undermine american democracy and steal their election is about as contemptible a thing that anybody has done other said during this entire trump administration run. >> but there's something even deeper, which is that he knows full well that we have these institutions and we have certain norms and that's the way we survived for 300 years. we say, okay, this is the rules of our road and we're going to fight within those rules to tear down certain norms, like the independence of the judiciary, that's a big one, the independence of the fbi or intelligence agencies, to do it for disruptive or political purposes, that is something that will have lasting damage. i think we have to see how are we going to get out of this one?

we've driven into some real quick sand. >> we also have susan page with us joining us from washington. another national poll shows joe biden with a big lead. the fobs news pox news poll pla ahead of bernie sanders. bernie sanders at 17% and every other contender in single digits and among all voters, joe biden leads president trump. >> so fox news has donald trump losing by 11 points to joe biden. >> yeah. sanders has a lead over trump and it turns out 41% of the most the president could muster. >> elizabeth warren, who he mocks all the time, is beating

him. >> yup, she is. >> so, susan page, what we are seeing over the last month is elizabeth warren creeping up showly but surely, keeping her head down, doing town hall and what's your big picture analysis as we look at joe biden continuing with double-digit leads. >> she's doing something to bernie sanders and chipping away the support of the most progressive democrats. that is helpful to joe biden. joe biden has two advantages right now that probably won't persist. one is that bernie sanders and elizabeth warren are appealing to similar kind eventually one or two of them is going to break

through as the al tern toiv to biden. that will be a challenge for biden but at the moment he has the cut. so far he has run a much more disciplined campaign than he ever ran in the past. >> mika, you asked skill biden in philadelphia when you were at a book vant with her, you asked, whether that actually applied to joe biden. because joe biden, let's face it, walter, you remember '87 that was a runaway beer truck. what, you think you're not smart -- and he went talking this and that. when but it was have.

over and over again people have been hitting this guy for gaffes and every time he's done it, especially in the last tn years, you pause for a second and say, yeah, yeah, but he's right. >> some of stuff he says is right. some of it not -- >> on the campaign trail and holding in and not going for that joke. that's probably all he needs to do. he can hug people, he can be himself, he's a great guy. but the jokes are, you know, at the point there's no time for any -- >> although you don't want him to lose being the authentic guy who is too restrained. it happened to mrs. clinton, she got so restrained, she couldn't be authentic. >> there's another important piece of this that we haven't talked about earlier this morning, if you look at south carolina polling, how joe biden is doing with african-american voters. he is clearing the field, lapping them twice again.

that is going to be critical if he's going to win the nomination. >> and think there's two reasons why that's happening. many black voters in south carolina remember joe biden for his association with president barack obama. another thing that's worth mentioning, as much as we talk about black voters being such an important part of the democrat being base, and they are, there's this perception that they're more progressive and more close to the radical left philosophically than they actually are. >>they just aren't. >> they aren't. especially when you're talking about south carolina, you're talking about more moderate, socially conservative votes are and even fiscally conservative. and joe biden is right in line with their world view than more progressive voters. elizabeth warren, we saw in a focus group earlier this week that it shouldn't be surprising to see her go up in the polls because when presented with her

ideas, some trump supporters actually liked her ideas. so when we focus on ideas and not personalities, i think we're going to see democratic lawmakers or candidates i think do way better. >> let's bring in author of who i how the right lots its mind," charlie pysyks. and in those numbers, eight massive gap that fox news has found here. but you just can't help but look at what happened in alabama yesterday, even though that obviously happened after this poll came out of the field. but look at what donald trump says at his rallies when he talks about wrapping babies up, saying crazy things that everybody knows is a lie, the extreme statements that gin up a kud p crowd and allows him to go into the coliseum and have a lot

of people cheering for him. again, when people say, oh, is he going to win again? no. there's so much scar tissue. i just don't know house of representatives he gets to 46, 47, 48% because of all of his self-inflicted wounds. >> well, the way he does it, of course, is to make this a binary choice, to hope that the democrats put up somebody who is scarier than in fact he is. this is really joe biden's secret formula here. his return to normalcy. there's no drama there. he's a known quantity. i think that's something that's appealing to democratic voters. that poll is the strongest argument for joe biden. if you do not want another four years of donald trump and i actually think that donald trump has a chance to win this election given the economy, but if the democrats really want to win, they're going to be focused on those electability numbers. joe biden, it's very, very

early, does he have the staying power? i have no idea for old white guys on the show, this is going to be a grueling campaign. but again, donald trump understands that this is going to be fought out on the basis of these sound bites. he is stoking up the culture war, counting on the base turning up in big numbers and he continues to drive the narrative at this point. i certainly don't count donald trump out and i think that democratic voters, there's a kind of sobriety here they're going joe biden may not be the sexiest, may not be the new kid on the block but he may be the guy that can take out donald trump in november. >> you're talking about culture wars. let's talk about the alabama abortion law, the bulwark, a publication you know something about. it talked about how this is nothing more than conservative virtue signaling and that in a million years planned parenthood

could not have dreamed up a better fund-raising weapon than this alabama legislation that allows -- or tells 14-year-old gr girls, 13-year-old girls if you are raped by a stranger or by a member of your family, you have to carry the baby to term. >> no, look, the pro-life movement has been pursuing incrementalist strategy. what you're seeing is the abandoning of that incrementalist strategy. this is the most extreme, and now pro-lifers have to go around and touk about the laughs popular, talking about rape and incest. when is the so what a surprise.

but when you see people look pat robert&and ralph reed. when you've last pat robertson on extreme, you know you're really, really out there. and every republican in the country played a sound bite about kevin mccarthy about by you've already seen the 2020 candidates for president on the democratic side seizing on it you see republicans in many states, in six or seven state talking about infant.

but on the other hand, you have democrats eager to talk about a party who would not allow an exception and kevin mccarthy said one thing inaccurate. he said the prab and that is inaccurate. there was a debate off that in the ra if rape and incest. >> the last republican have not come out in support this law pushing back on it if viable the

supreme court would say those are right on the borderline, trying to say if a doctor can deliver them live, they have to deliver them live. that's an easier ground upon that when it comes to abog sprp 46% say they are pro-choice but only 21% of americans want roe v. wade overturned and only 15, 16% of americans support late-term abortions. so the americans are sitting on

and say, okay, how could we fix immigration, abortion i. the o. f makes it hard for the normal people to say, hey, we could get to some kpon ground here. >> president trump has set 2020 democratic candidate pete butte judge doesn't look presidential. >> and he does? i mean. >> and what himself candidacy means for a more inclusive frnl.

>> and it normal -- >> i think it absolutely fine, i do. >> isn't it a sign of great progress in the country that that's just -- >> yeah, i think at this time that sprazdid sp sfm you said it was. pap. some pop would not have a problem with it. whitey would have a huge problem got hund gap. from hooves scared. that was so soft. >> before who got noom a dsp (p

it's nothing personal. like this spent a lot of time with donald trump in atlantic city and he was perfectly okay with that. this whole anti-gay, anti-black, racist thing has been his -- anti-muslim. >> anti-muslim thing has been just the most cynical, sleazy political suit. >> success political we were talking about abortion.

he's been pro, i don't want to tack about pro from. >> he held raisers in his hotel, wh whenwhat am i supposed to say here to win evangelicals, what am i supposed to say to win conservatives? and he said yes. is there. from -- he told him cuss ert that he was, quote, very pro-choice kmch to very pro jail. >> you know, he has really -- one of the interesting thing in that position poll that you showed is solid (it because sfp

in his heart donald trump has solve the (sfchlt that he doesn't sao nm frnt. which is not impossible as you look had to the next year. >> whoever he's up gp, he is park. has we talk about thiesh esh prp you a lot of people have gone

along with him just for the reasons that susan lays out, including judges and not just the supreme court but across the country. how do you grapple with that as a conservative? >> susan's absolutely right. a lot of this is purely transactional. the situation with evangelical christians is fascinating. if you watch the way this he's done all kind of thanksgiving f so many many way now, the question about, okay, press for a n my question is at what price? unfortunately the priorities tag goes up all the time and some of us willing to make this mmm.

s sfm. the last time i interview her, she said she no longer considered himself a part of the election, part of the gop. she no longer felt she had a party. i think that is a view reflected in a lot of republicans like her who represent a more -- it not that she wasn't a conservative but especially you look at these cultural issues, she did not feel that donald trump spoke for her. >> you know, you wonder at what point do conservatives say, okay, but maybe pao can he maybe

we don't attack madsonian democracy day in and day out. it is a fousion car can moral norms, all for some judges. it's a faustion bag charles oo sykes and u june scott. pap new york city player bill doo flps plus new reaction nash in only one. it represented bay republican. congress will hurd, a reb on "morning joe." b on "morning joe."

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okay, we're back. it is it will past the hour. president trump has plans for a border wall with mexico. according to "the washington post," the barrier president trump wants to build a steel has condition troot. >> >> and the bullards or/cn,

too nrmt. >> it will be as if you're watching monty python and they're trying to mount the wall, fwrnl as he or she's was impaled on the spike. >> which this. rab congressman will hurd of texas. congressman, president trump has unveiled a plan to overall u.s. immigration frmnd the plan, imfrom from would have to pass a civics ts, and got points on their liberty, age, sflpt sflumt

he's laid out a merit-based system for imbrags. focusses more nrm with moss puerto ricans. . was listening. what do you care about the new proposals? >> the devil's in the details. the proposal has 500 pages. what's important to note is what mr. kushner and his tam played out that can ut montanaly

nothing in there about pr from so it was only a narrow issue. these seas going to be difficult to pass here in congress, the far right is upset with it because it doesn't decrease net immigration. the far left of course is upset with it because it doesn't do these other things. >> right. >> one of the things i appreciate about mr. kushner is true it but our long-term fix, we should be streamlining legal immigration when you're at 3 opinionle nmt i am. flchlt the humanitarian crisis we're dealing with at the border right now.

this plan doesn't do that. and so it is a conversation in trying to move forward ideas on how to transition to a merit-based system. but i think it's going to be that, a conversation piece. >> all right. walter. >> tng frrngs,be be sprn you're a dp pfrm fuchlt when you're looking at the problem woor evening. and for all of 2018, it was 400,000 people, border patrols overwhelmed, ice is over

whelmed, it. sflm. this not just a problem for the united states or members of congress co. it the. and o'peck is a u.s. entity that helps businesses. . we have a chance to plachl pmt hive opinion to if.

sfm p nfrmt. >> heidi. >> congressman, this is heidi. isn't this a significant movement for the president here? it showing that he's willing to kind of silence some of those critics on the right no are legislation. we know it can't can if the prz we were. . i don't think we should be so a that rk noozs is that is a new hampshi

hampshire. >> how concerned are you and americans be about the moves this administration is making toor iran? >> when you have our senior military decisions to move battle care i remember and that is based on intelligence. from what is called the iranian archive, this is these documents that the israeli ma sad all the monta montana. n woof got to be working with our allies in order to contain this threat. >> are you getting the intelligence that need from in

sfwhfr sfwhfrmt. >> all right. congressman welfare reform hard, thank you very much. and water isaac (to the event last night. >> we have to teach you the wave. >> the green wave. >> the best! >> savaged by the tabloids, he believes he can be elected for president in 2020. it appears donald trump and bill bloz ouns us be in "morning joe" is sponsored by land rover above and beyond. ro.

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i would be very surprised to see him in there for a long period.

it's not going to happen. if you like high taxes and you like crime, you can vote for him, but most people aren't into that. so i wish him luck. really it would be better off if you got back to new york city and did your job for the little time you have left. good luck. do well. >> so here's the thing, i mean, he can just say whatever he wants to say. and they're just lies. for instance, he said if you like high tax and crime. the "new york times" reporting last year that crime rates in new york city were so low that they had to go back to the 1950s before they actually had stats and true to estimate what year it may have compared to, the safety of new york city streets. and they said might be sometime in the 1950s. >> they don't even have records. >> don't federal budget.

they don't even have record to compare this past year two. and drld is look "in you like crime --." about the city's a disas it per bill deblassio doesn't get all the credit for that, mabb mun unrecognizable in terms of rye lent crime and the remember coming up here in '89, 90, 91, it was for the apache the bronx, pr woo said it before, god rest his soul, which he was still with us. 50 years from now when people forget how he made such a fool out of himself over the past

decade, would you the city counsel the jglers in times squa square and he was an extraordinary mayor, kept it there. de blasio, he came in. of course we were scared then. oh, my god, it's going to be crime, there's go be trash littered all in the street. he wasn't really good with snow plows in the parts the areas that had voted against him. but that happened once. he's made piece. jonathan lemire, say what you will but he has at least held

sa save. >> now we're gone justice a few 0018 million people. >> exactly. some of these are national trends, some of them are economic trends, the city is doing much better in ways that did it before. bow but so does pri which is why it is in some way doesn't want him to one.

>> it snm a few things. some think he's bored with his job. some ex-aides have told me he's done a few ice december and now he's frustrated, that elizabeth warren and toll i don't know has nch he's lacked the common man touch and has been aid saddled with a in he's frustrated driving 12 miles to the gym every day. >> that's the daily news reporter in you, by the way. we're talking about the presidential campaign but equinox in brooklyn, why are you taking the homelessness rate. >> sure.

hop lessness is the issue. incompany. but it gives you a sense about new yorker, he kind are. flmt nobody knows how anybody is going to do. you new york the new york post article kp kp did you say he was a clown some years ago? >> the post. >> what everyone is saying about bill de blasio today, they were saying about donald trump four years ago. >> it's it is an amazing tngs, thou and yet we have a president who

is mocked in the pairs. he's the mayor with the biggest city in the the country and yet he's being mocked in his own town. don't forget more recently the amazon deal and pulling out of the amazon deal, they wanted amazon to come to this city and build dropshe believes am gone end of the deal. om just a little more skeptical of making a comparison to de blasio and trump to because i think it going to be a heavier lift for him to walk in the same past. >> no question. he's a long shot. in a cp flm to pop around him,

downbe if sflrmt which is 8.6 million. debassio is approximately familiar positioned to combat him because i know him best. i reb his hometown. he doesn't stand for what morks are believe. he got an attack air force one video, which a dream for bladio. there are pop around the worse sfwhmt the trump attacks only

elevate biden to the prime candidate as if we're in the general election already. if he spends time going after de blasio, that's fine with tem. >> they want to distract 59-year-old. >> they do. >> jonathan, stay with us. look at the bird! putting aside donald trump and bill deblass yorks we're going to hear from another long-time new yorker, david letterman. also, we're talking to bill de blasio next hour. "morning joe" had be right back. jrz jr

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. hey, bill bratton. >> yeah, deserves a lot of

credit, too. overall the trump organization saw revenues decline last year. still making money. >> he's got revenue, though. >> didn't they hike the membership fees at mar-a-lago right after he became president? >> you have organizations come in all the time that have benefits.

it's how he ingratiated himself into the palm baeach community. they didn't like him having mar-a-lago. >> you spent a bit of time down there. >> i'm not a member. the nature of the businesses that spend their time and money at mar-a-lago has changed. >> it's like the nra. it's self-dealing. before it would be palm beach. >> it's more trump supporters who decide let's have our annual event at mar-a-lago now. they'll go and pay those fees. the revenues are down. in some way the trump brand has been tarnished but donald trump is still making money off the presidency, which remains a striking, unique moment in american history. governments a institutions and businessmen who

want to ingreeshuaatiate themse with the president. >> there was a story that broke yesterday that donald trump is thinking about cancelling his trip to ireland because he want to have the meeting at his golf course and they want to have a traditional diplomatic setting. >> he's going to be in london and he's going to use his -- the plan was to use his golf course in ireland as sorts of the base for his travel and he wanted to meet with officials at his golf course and they said why don't we do it at our nation as opposed to your golf course. the whole thing may fall through apparently he may set up shop at his golf course in scotland himself. >> it's not about the money, it's about the money. still ahead, polling continues to show joe biden leading the 2020 race but there are several

candidates that hold their own against president trump. in fact, even the candidate that he's made fun of and called pocahontas is beating him. that's got to hurt. plus one day after declaring his presidential bid. bill de blasio is going to join us and tell us why he jumped into the race. "morning joe" coming right back. "morning joe" coming right back. run with us. on a john deere z500 series mower. built to mow better, faster. because sometimes... when you take a look around... you notice... your grass is long... your time is short... and there's no turning back. ♪ ♪ nothing runs like a deere™. run with us. visit your john deere dealer today, to test drive a z500 or z700 series ztrak™ mower.

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gene simmons made an appearance in washington today and ent ended up speaking at the pentagon. take a look at this photo. trust me, if we have a normal president, that would seem weird. it would. but trump apparently trump was upset that the lead singer of kiss was taking attention away from his immigration plan and i think he got a little desperate trying to one up gene simmons. look at this. >> good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, may 17th. along with joe, well li and me we have national political reporter heidi. and. >> surprise winning columnist of

the "washington post." you gene robinson. >> biden at 35%. 18 pontos ahead of bernie sanders who dropped 16 points from march. so let's go back to that for a second. i want to go back for a second because you can look at bernie. i think bernie is actually getting people taking from him from both sides. you've got some going to joe biden who want to be donald trump and also elizabeth warren doing better and mayor pete. i think mayor pete's numbers are coming directly from the bernie category, so you look at that and it's one of the reasons why bernie has gone from the mid-20s in some polls into the teens because he's getting it from all sides. >> and elizabeth warren, she was sort of down in that lower tier. she has come up and clearly her world view, her ideas, many of

her policies are shared with bernie sanders, so you can see a split there which may be chipping at bernie but this is just another poll that shows joe biden with his commanding lead and it's going to take an event of some kind. it's going to take a gaffe by joe biden. there's a long way to go, but joe biden is the runaway at this moment. >> solid. >> so listen, i mean, basic blocking and tackling works. you practice it, you keep at it. in politics it's the same thing. . you have a message, you're consistent with it, you work hard and elizabeth warren, great example. she's up five points in this poll. she's jumping up in other polls. >> reporter: not enough to make it competitive yet but i'm telging you, you get rewarded for having a message, sticking to that message, believing in that message and driving it home. >> her struggle is going to be between message and messenger.

i was watching the other night and it's boom, jab, jab, jab, she's got it. the challenge she has is i just do not think she has the stuff to take on donald trump. >> why not? >> two reasons. i think that at the end of the day if donald trump can paint anybody a socialist. if he can use the s word, whether it's fair or not, you can't use that on biden. i do think -- i want to get this the right way before mika attacks me. >> and the fox news poll also shows -- >> bernie can get away with a certain strideness that it's much more challenging as a woman. it's not fair, but it is. that's the challenge where i think senator harris's force as a woman and this councilmans from a lot of research. it's much easier digestible for men and women. this is where we are for the

year 2019. >> i think you're right but why? >> because we're still only 30 or 40 years into women's true -- >> what is it about her? >> no, because -- >> oh, kamala? there's a certain --? it could be that she is ooea prosecutor and she might have more experience how to play to a crowd. >> it's once again, she's amazing. you've got to gift her everything. >> she is amazing. >> i'm saying as voteres and there's a factor there it's so much more challenging for women to navigate. >> we never know though. everybody was saying this about donald trump. you never know. it's so funny, it's how the bill de blasio new york post cover yesterday and had everybody laughing at de blasio running for president and he was totally

mocking the guy. take it back four years, you could put donald trump's name where bill de blasio's name is and it will prove what william golden says. nobody knows nothing. >> nobody knows anything and we could sheep that in mind. just keep in mind what happened four years ago, where donald trump was, how people were writing about him and writing him off as a joke, this is very funny, and look where he is today. i am impressed with elizabeth warren's rise, with her staying power. she's kind of doing it, i don't know if it's the old fashioned way or a new fashioned way but she's doing it with policy. >> and message. >> she's the sort of brei yanya this campaign. she moves ahead, moves ahead and

right now you've got to say she's got maybe a better chance than anybody else of being the first to -- or to climb her way up into that upper echelon where you look at her against biden and bernie. bernie is -- bernie is in trouble and i don't think it's too early to say that bernie sanders is in trouble because you do see the support leaking away from both directions. but warren, this is impressive. >> you know what else is impressive? >> no, joe, let me do this. pa. >> the press. >> i don't like this. that's not nice. >> it's such a subtle light touch. >> they're behind de blasio, aren't they? >> no, come on. >> i cannot wait to talk to the mayor here, because everybody black lives matter, cops, community activists and let me tell you something.

this is what you want. what you don't want is -- listen, kids, if you're thinking about reasoning for president, because everybody sels is so why shouldn't you? if you think about running for president this is how you want to start your campaign. if you told me i can start my campaign this way on the cover of vanity fair, i would say that's easy. it's an expectations game. it's hard to run for president, have expectations as low as -- i remember when we did scarborough country, daily news seems to be the pro de blasio. >> i liked the commercial and you know what? people that didn't, that's fine, but it's the first democrat i've seen that's had sort of that i'm going to take it to him, i'm going to pound him into submission. i'm a new yorker we don't put up with you know what and so yeah, i was pretty imprezzed.

let's do the head to head matchups. >> can we? because we were going to do that. and biden is also thriving in a general election matchup. biden leads president trump by 11 points, 39-48. sanders has a 5-point lead over president. 41% was the most the president could muster when put up against other democratic candidates and coming up on "morning joe" we will have new york city mayor bill de blasio. >> and look at those matchups, heidi, and you're on the hill all the time. republicans have to know this. he's a 40% president. that didn't end well in '18, it's nosogoing t going to end w people say oh, is he going to get re-elected? he's a 40% president. he's a 40% president. >> and that is why many view his path to re-election as elevating someone like a bernie sanders,

joe, because what would happen in that event? it looks unlikely at this point but things can always change but to the point with someone with that socialist labels, if you can tag one of those democratic con end thors other than biden then you open a lane for a more moderate third party candidate and you split that anti trump vote and that is his path to re-election. so that's why biden is riding so high right now because everybody knows it on the democratic side and the electability is when you poll people the number one reason why they're backing joe biden because they view this as a break the glass election. >> you can't predict what's going to happen just like we said with trump, but the one thing we do know is this. that donald trump is praying that somebody he can call a socialist will run against him and guess what, he should. because we have unemployment like at 3.5%. wages are going up.

the economy is growing. now is not a time when people are going to say, you know what, let's just change america's economic system. >> if you look at that poll you see why the house and donald trump are focused on joe biden. why rudy giuliani is going to investigate a story. but the biden campaign has played this well, taking it directly to trump, talking over the field and going right at trump and eeffectively baiting the president and elevating him almost to be the presumptive nominee. that's a fight joe biden wants to have. >> still ahead, rom nating roy moore cost republicans a u.s. senate seat in a deep red state called alabama. now that state's new abortion law could have a big impact in 2020. that conversation is coming up on "morning joe." on "morning jo.

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house minority leader kevin mcor thi says alabama's new abortion law goes too for but declined to say whether it should be overturned. the growing backlash over the strictest abortion legislation, here's what he had to say. >> do you think that law goes too far? >> it goes further than i believe, yes. i defend my pro life position in my whole political career. i also believed in race, increst or life of the mother. that's what republicans have voted in in this house and i believe that's the point of what you find many of us where we stand. >> distancing comes as the national party struggles to make inroads with suburban women

before their 2020 election campaigns while state republicans look to remove their rape and incest exceptions to push the bill before the supreme court. >> so gene, you know, fools rush in. >> yeah. >> they overreach. i know a lot of democrats were concerned when new york state passed abortion bills that i think 14, 15% of americans supported. now republicans have snatched as they often do, they have snatched defeat out of the jaws of political victory and have gone the other way. and they're extremist is scaring the hell out of a lot of americans who might even be pro life and you know, those -- those educated suburban republican women that started to move away from the republican party in '18, they're in a full

out sprint now. >> yeah, i think that's all this law is ever going to accomplish actually is -- is in the political sense to hurt republicans. and to drive those women and men away from an extremist law that is, you know, the anti abortion forces, and you know, i don't support them but they had been doing well with an incremental approach to try to restrict abortion. you know, how many weeks and it will be this and that, they have been doing well. i think it will be immediately injoined, immediately struck down. -- it will be struck down at the appeals level and i don't think the supreme court wants to hear this case. it's a bad case. i don't think they will -- they

will want to take it up. but meanwhile it's there on the books and republicans are going to have to answer questions about it and they're going to have to say where they stand on it and it's going to hurt them. >> the supreme court will deny, they won't listen to it. the only thing this alabama law will do is set back the pro life issue for years. and my gosh, planned parenthood will raise so much money. let's wait a week and see how much planned parenthood makes off of this extremist move. heidi, this is virtue signaling. we're used to accusing liberals of virtue signaling. this was pure virtue signaling and they're going to pay for it. >> i looked into the polling. even among evangelicals that

doesn't track 37% support. and what you're seeing now is all of these news stories coming out about 11 and 12-year-olds who have been raped and their little bodies warrant made to do this. that is what splashed across the country and to your point about this being only political, if you're a republican in montana, california, or massachusetts, you're still going to get labeled as being part of a party that pushed this forward. and secondly, i think it's going to give democrats an opportunity to open a bigger dialog about what is pro-life because is pro life forcing a law like this on to women and at the same time based on my own reporting, cutting funding for programs, for instance, that help prevent, that are scientifically proven to prevent teenage assistance, cutting medicaid which we know

helps babies and single mothers and so it really will allow democrats i think to start to make that argument about morals and what really is pro life and what really is supportive of mothers and children. >> i think kevin mcspeaks to the pro lifers. they have a principal belief that abortion is wrong and that a viable baby should not be terminated so when they hear this most extreme example of how abortion could be used, think again specifically about what they're saying an uncle, a father rapes you, a stranger rapes you. >> you're the you're pregnant. >> what can be more appalling than those scenarios. >> the president doesn't want a war with iran but did john bo

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>> are we going to war with iran? >> i hope not. >> oh, my gosh. what an -- >> fingers crossed. >> who knows? >> on wednesday in the situation room. president trump told including acting secretary that he does not want to go to war with iran. that es ooaccordi-- that's acco reports. it comes amid threatening rhetoric from several members from the trump administration especially john bolton and as the u.s. is ramping up military assets in the region including a carrier strike group, two destroyers, bombers and missiles. >>. >> let's bring there the columnist for "time" magazine

david french. congress must stop trump from blundering into america's most dangerous war. >> how does congress stop the president from blundering into war. >> reporter: congress has to demand -- the relevant members need to see the intelligence that is justifying this pretty dramatic and immediate military buildup. one of the most disturbing elements to me in the recent news was lindsey graham and this is a guy that has become a very close ally of trump saying i just know what i've seen in the papers. congress constitutionally should have the primary role and of course the president can order the self-defense by u.s. forces and should, but if you're going to talking about about initiating military action here that's got to be congress's role. congress should step up now and demand to see this dramatic military buildup. >> so david, we have nashville's

favorite son and this nashville themed segment. >> i think david or meacham are head to head for favorite son. >> does he go over to meacham's house and put on a jacket and smoke pipes? >> talk about buchanan's presidency. >> you writing this in a piece and another piece you wrote for the national review about all the many, many downsides about a war with iran and you point out this is not afghanistan or iraq or any of the conflicts that have consumed this generation. a war with iraq wyou say would e for more than these others. >> we fought during the iraq war that are incredibly formidable. it has the largest missile force in the region. it has an intact military.

it can close the straits where about 30 plus percent of the world's kruds oil experts go through. it can create an economic shock. in war games in the early 2000s it went so badly that they had to stop the war game and reset it which is not to say that that iran would win a war with the u.s. of course not, but it is to say senator tom cotton who knows better really underplayed the danger here when he told marg are the hoover, it's two strikes. that's underplaying the danger here. american forces would prevail but are the american people signing up to see american ships burning in the persian gulf? are they signing up for the kind of casualties we could see? that's again why the administration has to come forward and explain the case. it can't rely on unspecified intelligence to justify a really significant military buildup

here. >> what tools does congress have though if the administration does not provide that intelligence? because you're already seeing grumbling on both sides of the aisle. you're seeing comments from senators on both sides of the aisle that the white house is not authorized to launch another war and yet you have an acting department of defense secretary and you have folks like john bolton who are really driving the train on this. so what can congress do if they're not sufficiently briefed? i guess we'll find out in the next week whether they get sufficient information. >> well, that's the rub. this is why presidents have exercised such war making authority in the recent year is that congress doesn't have those immediate tools and we don't have flynn like general mattis right now with the stature in that inner circle to stand up to the president. so the question is what can they do? they the demand, but in the

immediate short term they don't have real power over the president other than trying to persuade. >> bill de blasio is attacking donald trump straight out of the gate. the president just returned the favor. we'll talk to mayor de blasio straight ahead on the opening leg of his 2020 campaign. >> plus, willie's interview with david letterman. we'll be right back. every day, visionaries are creating the future.

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new york maynor -- mayor bill de blasio announced his run for the president. >> that has worked very well for one rudy giuliani. >> has it? >> so really quickly, going into

the weekend your dad number eight. >> my dad's book number 8. >> that's one of the best story tellers of all time. >> that book is full of those studies. >> and you are right now at number 13 an amazon. >> we had the event last night. >> oh, my gosh. >> it was great until donny showed up. >> wearing the baby gap t-shirt and he's like earn dis. and we were like no, we don't want to take the drugs that were required. >> we should show that. >> yeah. >> wow. >> that's all you need to know. >> there's a lot that happened last night that we shouldn't be talking about. >> i had to hold donny down because he was showing his muscles. >> that should actually be his open shot.

that sums it up. >> he couldn't break free. >> a lot of people showed up. >> i love him. >> he's amazing. >> you know who i love? ? who? >> bill de blasio. >> he's with us in iowa. >> i have the first question. >> i have the first question. >> don't fight over the question, guys. >> i just want to say, i want to set this up because the new york post has been mocking you, late night comedians have been mocking you. everybody's been mocking you. my question is, and the new york post everybody hates debill. and the daily news escaped from new york you've got a patch over your eye. hi question is, how much did you pay everybody to lower expectations to such a point that they're saying the same thing about you this year that they were saying about donald

trump four years ago? >> joe, look, i youer ear sayia very important point here because when you look at who attacks it tells you so much. so what's happened the last 24 hours? the new york post has been attacking me and con don not only tweeted at me, he created his own video. >> just stop right there. what did i say yesterday? after we ran his tape, i said de blasio knows how to fight. we've already got the nickname and i like it, everybody #condon. >> listen, joe, why do i call him con don is important because as a new yorker i've watched this guy for decades. he's a con man. we've all watched what he's up to and he told working people in

this country in 2016 he was going on on their side and he was going to be there to make their lives better. he conned everyone. he has been the best president for the wealthy, for the corporations we've ever seen. biggest tax give away to the wealthest corporations in a generation. he's hurting farmers here in iowa. he's a con man. so i'm going to take it to him. i'm a new yorker. i know how to deal with this guy and i take it right to him and because i said con don, here he comes and he makes his own custom video to attack me. it's music to my ears. >> okay. >> let's show that right now. >> and then mika has a question. >> take a look. >> i can't believe it. i just heard that the worst man in the history of new york city and without question the worst mayor in the united states is now running for president. it will never happen. i'm pretty good at predicting things like that.

i would be very surprised to see him in there for a long period but it's not going to happen. if you like high taxes and you like crime, you can vote for him but most people aren't into that. so i wish him luck but really it would be better off if you got back to new york city and did your job for the little time you have left. >> that plane that the president was flying in, do you know what mayor de blasio calls it? >> what does he call it? >> con air. >> there you go. >> you can actually -- >> you beat me to it. >> you can use that. >> so twofold, first is nice, then not so nice. okay. so my brother just texted me and said like a year before my father passed away he said bill de blasio will run for president and he will be a remarkable candidate. those were my father's words my brother mark just told me but now i ask you, what makes you

remarkable. i want to know besides being really tall, what makes you feel like -- hold on. what makes you feel like you have to jump into this massive pool of candidates that you are so special that you must bring to the table. >> la guardia, we've got landing questions. >> that's it. >> listen, first of all i'm very moved by that kind segment you just -- that kind passage you just read and thank you for that and i appreciate your whole family. the fact is that when we talk about changing working people's lives and this is what this whole election should be about, working class people, middle class people struggling like never before, i'm clear about the fact that i put working people first in new york city and the work i've done, all the things that i've been suggesting need to be different in this whole country. we've done them in new york city. guaranteed health care for all

new yorkers including mental health care. prek for all children for free, paid sick leave, these are the kind of things that change working people's lives. i have a set of progressive ideas that help working people, that prove it can be done and i've actually done it. that's the difference here. we have to take on donald trump and if you're going to take on donald trump it sure helps to be able to fight back and understand how to deal with him. there's nothing about donald trump that intimidates me. i look forward to fighting him head on and you saw in that video, i'm already under his skin. and you need a candidate to take him on who knows his tricks and knows how to deal with them. i told you, i did a counter video by the way and i noted that his video was very low energy. i don't know if you saw that. very low energy. >> it was. >> and he's a little scared because if he wants me to go back to new york he doesn't want

to have me competing with him so i think it's about knowing how to take on the bully and take him down. >> so we're evolving now. now it's low energy con. >> low energy con air. >> con air. >> he's too low energy to even break out of prison. >> you have said that you were uniquely positioned to challenge donald trump because you represent the people who know him best, new yorkers and you say those new yorkers know him to be a con man, but that same rationale, the people who know you best, 73% of them in a recent poll don't want you to run if for president. explain that. >> yeah, it's very straightforward to me. new yorkers overwhelmingly rejected donald trump in the 2016 election. 80% of new york city voted against him. so the people who know him best didn't want him. the people who know me best made me mayor twice and i've been

able to make a lot of change in new york city. highest graduation rate we've ever had. somethings are moving forward for working people in the new york city and that's what we need in the whole country. poll sg not the same as elections. it doesn't matter where you start and i've been the underdog in every election. i've been in ten elections, i've won them all but i was always an underdog at the start. i'm very comfortable with that situation. the the bottom line is i'm going to show people all over the country that i have proven that these progressive solutions for working people actually work, that they can be done. that we don't need to have a country where the federal government is only on the side of the 1%. i say there's plenty of money in this world and there's plenty of money in this country. it's just in the wrong hands. that money needs to go back to the hands of working people. i've proven it can be done and i think when people see that they're going to feel there's

something important there. >> congratulations on entering the race. you're going going to campaign on this question of income and equality. it's a message bernie sanders, elizabeth warren and others have been pushing on the campaign trail, but as you know well in new york city, income and equality is a huge problem. there are a lot of really, really rich people and not enough in the middle. so do you agree it's a problem here in new york city and if you're president why would it be different for the country if we haven't gotten it done in new york. >> we've made a huge amount of progress in new york. we've licfted hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. we're giving families free afterschool, folks are a higher wage because of our city working to get that wage up to $15 an hour. there's a lot that's changing, a lot more affordable housing. guaranteed health care in new

york city. 600,000 people uninsured we're guaranteeing them direct access to health care including mental services so when you think about those things, it's not perfect. there sure are some really rich people all over this country. i want to see them get their fair share of taxes. i want to see trump's tax breaks repealed. i want to see money put back in the hands of working people and we've made serious progress in the last half decade in new york city and what i'm saying to the american people is, these things can happen and it's not a policy paper with me. it's things we've actually done. for 8.6 million people and i want to do it for all americans. >> you said before and you just said it a moment ago that you believe the money is in the wrong hands. that raised some red flags for people. what exactly do you mean by that? you want to redistribute wealth. how would you do it specifically? >> well, it's been for too many years government of and by before the 1%. going all the way back to the

beginning with ronald reagan and an unbroken chain for the tax cuts and more and more money in power, concentrated in the hands of very few. what's happening to working americans? they are stuck economically. they feel a lot of cases are going backwards. they don't feel like the next generation is going to be better. we signed up for a country that was fair. and i'm proving in my city. >> so how do you achieve that? how do you redistribute that wealth? >> first of all the money is in the wrong hands because the federal government policies favor the rich. let's repeal those tax breaks that trump gave to the wealthy and the corporations. by the way, when was the fairest most equal time in the country's history from the 1940s up to the

1960s including during the eisenhower administration when you had a much more fair higher tax level for the wealthy. where you had a huge amount of federal investment in higher education, infrastructure roads, the things that would move us forward, science, research, all of the things that helped make america great came from that kind of investment because we said to those who are wealthy, congratulations you've done well but you need to pay your fair share. it's been the other way rarnd. we can change that. >> you've made some big progressive changes in new york city but washington, d.c. has a lot of things that new york city doesn't including mitch mcconnell so how would you get profound progressive change working with mitch mcconnell. how would you work with mitch mcconnell on big bold progrszive change? >> thanks for the question.

first of all, when i went with my number one initiative was free prek for all the children. i had to get by our republican state senate in new york. they had to approve that too and it took a lot of work but we created a ground swell that made it so irresistible. there's so much public support, i think that's part of the key here. the things i'm talking about, we're going to build support all over this country so that we have a government that's on the side of working people and that working people are demanding the changes and so many red states, so many purple states, you see working people demanding higher minimum wage, medicaid expansion, so many things that are necessary so that people can live decent lives. there is a huge number -- a huge number of people in this country that if they heard real ideas that would change their lives, kitchen table things, this is where democrats really need to focus on economic issue, kitchen

table issues that people care about. if americans knew their kids could get free prek, if americans knew they would have june verse alhealth care they could depend on, if they got sick they could still get the day's pay and not have to choose between going to work and versus taking care of themselves or their family, a decent standard of living again. that's what the american people want. if we can rally people around that idea, it doesn't matter, they're going to have to respond to that too and that's how you make change. >> all right. thank you so much. and thank you. we have a hashtag with con don and also he flies around con air. >> con don is going to be reaching -- le's going to be tweeting at you now too, because you said con don. >> he tweets at me every day. whether he says my name or not. >> coming up, thank you, mayor

bill de blasio. >> okay. >> coming up -- >> he did say something about the red sox. >>. >> willie's interview letterman. we've got a special preview of "sunday today." >> tell me about your toupee. you know, i've been wanting to use that line for four years. use that line for fourea yrs i'm a migraine sufferer and i'm an emt. when i get a migraine at work, it's debilitating. if i call out with a migraine,

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willie, this is just. >> amazing. > we get to the talk to a lot of good people in our business, interesting people. every once in awhile you get to sit down and talk to somebody lo you grew up with. david letterman is my guest this weekend on sunday "today." he's been off late night for four years now but back with the second season of his netflix series. my next guest needs no introduction with guests that include kanye, ellen, melinda gates. >> does collette kanye interview himself? >> talks about kanye. >> check it out. we went fishing together, by the way. ♪ >> how is it going, dave? >> got about six. >> six what? >> i'm tired of catching fish. >> nothing yet, dave. >> don't worry. it will be that way for a couple of days.

>> so people who love you, you've been off the air four years now coming up here, just about four years. >> yeah. >> wonder what does dave do? what's his day to day. >> tell you something, willie, when i was on the air, i didn't really have a sense of any sort of greater experience than just being on the air. and since i stopped being on the air, people are really, really nice to me. and i find it so gratifying whether they're lying or not, it's just a wonderful thing to have people come up and express what i believe to be is semi realistic sentiment. and it's delightful. >> were they not previously nice to you? >> as i'm fond of saying, there used to be a lot of there he is, get him! get him! he's over there. you don't expect it to be a factor this far out. like today i got up early and started looking for a deal on

walk-in tubs. and now here i am with you. >> walk-in tubs. >> yeah. but the best part is, you know, i get to do stuff with my son who is now 16. ♪ >> since you left "late night," there's a new president of the united states you may have noticed. do you miss being on late night for that fact? >> no, because first of all, the people who are in charge now do a really good job of it. >> how would you approach it? my approach would have been head-on and probably inelegant, probably really inelegant. i would say things, the worst that can be happen is now you would have to say you would say thing for which you would have to apologize and i would never forgive myself if i said something so ugly that somebody would say you know -- you can't

apologize to this guy. >> let's talk about the show, the netflix show. season 2 coming back, incredible lineup the first time, president of the united states, barack obama, jay-z. tina fey. malala, howard stern, the whole list. who can we expect this season. >> tiffany haddish, a woman i did not know and found her to be delightful. >> yes. >> she was great, kanye west when i was done with kanye, i kind of felt like i wanted to, you want to kind of father him and i think he's in good hands. and i think he's so artistically smart. >> yes. >> wow. >> dave's got the kind of show where people across the spectrum want to come and talk to him. look at that first season within president obama and jay-z and ma la wa and this year he's got kanye and ellen and melinda gates and tiffany haddish. he's just a fun guy to watch talk to other people.

you want to watch his conversations. >> willie goist. >> he's always been my favorite and now he's my favorite guy that has a walk-in tub. >> walk-in tub. got a deal. >> we were talking off the air, you wonder he's been off the air for four years. does he still have it. he is. the whole daylightening quick mocking me throughout the interview. >> probably better. >> it was great. >> thank you, willie. another reminder. >> sunday "today." >> top ten book, get it on amazon or an independent bookstore near. >> you bill geist. >> mika, your book. tell me quickly. >> daniellia and you. >> up the charts again. >> what do readers get from this? >> the reason i think it's selling is it really guides women honestly through the first, second and third job in their career. daniella's story from undocumented immigrant to dreamer and best selling author

because the doors are opening for her, it's a great story for all women about lifting each other up. >> you know, that's what he nicolle said about you yesterday, that she wouldn't be where she is in tv without you. we've seen that time and time again. and heidi, it is important that mika always talks about women helping women. >> nicolle is not alone. as nicolle told her story, obviously, that's my story and the story of so many other women at this network and other places. the thing i think is really unique about this booking is this is a space that hasn't been claimed to team up two women, one who is really early in her career but has kicked down so many doors to get there. >> yes on her own. >> and another who has been through that, who has helped so many other women and to kind of offer those lessons. >> it's so clear. >> team it together. >> it will walk women through that first face of their career. you know they need to start more equally with their male

counterparts because they never catch up if they don't. >> jonathan, willie, beckham and i this weekend, we're going to the holiday inn 57th. of course, going to smoke a lot. >> you were doing so well. >> you know, the thing is. >> my thanks. >> don't tell anybody that i get tiger's jacket. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie rhule picks up coverage right now. >> i'm stephanie rhule. it is 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. we have a lot to get to the this morning. our team of nbc reporters is here with new details on the stories impacting your life today. starting with whoo flynn told mueller. new documents reveal michael flynn's claim that people tied to the trump administration and congress tried to influence his cooperation in the russia investigation. and the border battle just beginning. the president unveils an immigration plan that is drawing bipartisan backlash with house speaker nancy pelosi