here in new york. thank you so very much for being here with us and good night from our nbc news headquarters. as the raptors stun the gold state warriors taking home the

team's first-ever championship title. good friday morning, everybody. it is friday, june 14th. i'm yasmin vossoughian. so after president trump declared he's open to receiving information from foreign countries against his opponents in the 2020 election, and that he would only maybe let the fbi know about it democratic senator mark warner attempted to pass a bill that makes it illegal for campaigns not to report offers of foreign assistance to the fbi. but that bill failed to pass by unanimous consent yesterday when republican senator mash shah blackburn rose to object claiming the proposal would be too much of a burden on campaigns. while warner said her interpretation is incorrect. watch this. >> these reporting requirements are bizarre. any person who shares their views with a candidate would be

reportable. campaigns could have to report social media responses or interactions. you would report every non-u.s. citizen or dreamer who volunteers for their campaign or even knocks on the door of a foreign national. >> i would point out that her reading of my legislation is not accurate. the only thing that would have to be reported if an agent or foreign government or foreign national offered something that was already prohibited. in canada, and i'll take my colleague at her word, if there are ways to improve on this ledgislation i'm wide-open. >> majority leader mitch mcconnell blocked bipartisan security legislation passed through the house in march a

position he reaffirmed last night. >> i'm open to considering the legislation but it has to be directed in a way that doesn't undermine state and local control of elections. the democrat law would like to nationalize everything. they want the federal government to take over broad swaths of the election process because they think that will somehow benefit them. >> other senators on capitol hill reacted to the president's comments about accepting foreign help with a dim view towards calling the fbi. >> foreign agent approached me with anything, including but not limited to dirt on my opponent i would call the fbi. i think most people would and frankly i think the president would. >> my reaction is to reach out to the fbi. i think both parties and all candidates should agree. >> the appropriate action to take is to call the fbi. >> the first phone call i make

after i was contacted is the fbi. the second call is to corroborate the information. >> others attempted to redirect the comment to hillary clinton's presidential campaign. >> i think we need to be, we need to be extra careful because obviously there are foreign countries that are interested in influencing our elections. we saw that in the clinton example. >> i didn't hear equal outrage when hillary clinton and the dnc paid a foreign spy to gather information from russia. >> i hope my democratic colleagues will be equally offended this happened in 2016 where a foreign agent was paid for by a political party to gather opposition research. >> yet these claims are flawed.

the clinton campaign and dnc hired a firm which used british spy christopher steele to compile a dossier. when he uncovered what he believed was troubling information he reported it to the fbi on october 3, 2016 and notably clinton and the dnc hired fusion gps through a law firm and there's no evidence to date that the campaign knew of the work subcontracted by steele. house speaker nancy pelosi is slamming president trump over his comments that he would be willing to accept information on a political opponent from a foreign government. speaking at her weekly news conference yesterday the speaker said that she thinks that the president is involved in a criminal cover-up, but continued to throw cold water on calls by some in her party to begin impeachment. >> yesterday the president gave us once again evidence that he does not know right from wrong. it's a very sad thing.

very sad thing that he does not know right from wrong. i believe that he's been involved in a criminal cover-up. i said that before. our investigation is demonstrating that. what we want to do is have a methodical approach to the path that we are on and this will be included in that. but not any one issue is going to trigger oh, now we'll go do this because it's about investigating, it's about litigating, it's about getting the truth to hold everyone accountable and no one is above the law. >> joining me now from washington reporter for "the washington post" eugene scott. the house speaker didn't have a good day yesterday. didn't end the way she wanted her team not winning the nba finals. that's another conversation for another time. as the house speak are continues to dig in with regards to impeachment proceedings and

having a lot of caution with regards to moving forward with impeachment proceedings what's the state of talks surrounding impeachment within the democratic party right now? >> well, we know interest in impeachment is growing because polling showing more and more democrats would like the to see congress move in that direction. pelosi has indicated some trepidation with that in the past because she's not sure that democrats can actually make happen and she will find it to be divisive and fierce and lead trump to being re-elected. as more information comes from this trump white house showing just how differently the president governs and plans to govern in the future in the terms of how he'll respond to foreign aides in future re-election campaigns there's more frustration on those on the left with not only his leadership but nancy pelosi's response to it. >> so we've been talking a lot about the president's comments over the last 48 hours or so

since that interview he gave george stephanopoulos with regards to foreign help and accepting foreign help in the next election. are republican lawmakers on capitol hill, are they concerned how the comments about foreign assistance in elections are playing with voters? >> they don't seem to be. i mean we saw a very common and frequent response to trump from republican lawmakers, which is to disagree with frump without condemning trump and part of that is because many of them fear trump. they know if they push back on the president he'll get behind a primary opponent that could lead to that your unseating and end their political careers. what they end up doing i think is trying to reaffirm their constituents that they themselves would not do anything illegal, but they haven't pushed back on the leader of their party who has been very clear that he has no problem moving forward doing something that the fbi and other ethics heads have condemned in the past.

>> eugene scott, good talking to you. so the united states says iran is responsible for yesterday's attacks on two oil tankers in the gulf of oman. watch this. >> it is the assessment of the united states government that the islamic republic of iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the gulf of oman. this assessment is based on intelligence, weapons used, the level of expertise needed to carry out the operation, and the fact no proxy group operating in the area has the resources or proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication. iran is lashing out. our policy remains economic and diplomatic effort to bring iran back to the negotiating table the at the right time, to encourage a comprehensive deal that addresses the the broad range of threats. >> u.s. central command says mines were used in the attacks

and released this video which it says shows an iranian patrol boat removing an unplowed mine. a u.s. aircraft saw an iranian revolutionary guard boat in the vicinity of one of the attacks. this morning the owner of the japanese tanker said its crew saw iranian naval vessels nea y nearby. however he disputes the america's account of mines. saying the ship was attacked by a flying object and a bomb on the side of the vessel is something we're not thinking. u.s. command has released these images showing damage to that ship. and what it says is the likely mines still attached prior to it's removal. iran denies the allegations that it is responsible for the attacks with iran's foreign

minister saying they are conducting economic terrorism. after 23 months of white house press secretary president trump announced sarah huckabee sanders will be leaving her post at the end of june. her tenure has been marked by contentious confrontations by the media as well as her own misstatements. sanders told reporter that members of the fbi supported trump's firing of then fbi director james comey. when she was questioned by investigators about this description about the firing of james comey, sanders backed off the charge telling mueller's team the first time she made the statement it was a slip of a tongue. when she repeated it during an interview was in the heat of the moment. president trump remarked on the latest white house departure yesterday. >> she's going to be going back to arkansas where her great

husband and her family. phil, if we can get her to run for governor of arkansas i think she will do very well. i'm trying to get her to do that. >> the democratic national committee released a list of 2020 democratic presidential candidates who will face off in the first set of primary debates in less than two weeks. the lineup in alphabetical order includes pete buttigieg, julio castro, john delaney, kirsten gillebrand, kamala harris, amy klobuchar, beto o'rourke, tim ryan, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, miriam williamson and andrew yang. that's a huge crew to be included to the debate. candidates need 3% support or provide evidence of at least 65,000 unique donors with a minimum of 200 different donors in 20 states. the debates will take place over

two nights because of so many people june 26th and 27th. both nights will air right here on nbc as well as msnbc and t e telemun telemundo. coming up on "morning joe" you'll hear from tim ryan new york city mayor bill de blasio. house intel committee issues two subpoenas for michael flynn and michael gates. we'll ask danny cevallos why lawmakers are going after the former trump associates. plus president trump welcomes kim kardashian-west to the white house. details on a presidential policy the reality star is lending her support to. those stories and of course a check on your weather when we come back. searching for a way to help stop your cold sore?

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we even had a tornado touch down in new jersey. so as we move towards today we have another threat for more severe weather the threatno for today is in th central andth southern plains, including dodge city, amarillo. lookingam for damaging winds, hail, evenin heavy downpours. could see an isolated tornado also. saturday you see this expands more but the still includes the areas kind of under the bull's eyee for today. kansas city on saturday. des moines, wichita, down to a, oklahoma city, keep your eye to the sky and looking at some at severe weather. 9om million at risk for these storms. thises is what radar looks like right now. l busy already. busy overnight in this part of the n country. where you see the darker colors that's the heavier downpours. we even had severe thunderstorms earlier today. rainfall forecastie anywhere upo four inches in some spots and these are s spots that already d the heavyat rain in these areas. we'll watch thates over the nex several r days. your weekend outlook, we're looking at a nice day tomorrow

in the northeast and then a lot of rain for your father's day. >> stillhe ahead, it is a celebration. highlights from last night's final game toronto raptors take home their first title ever. we're back in a moment. cosentyxe with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis find clear skin that can last. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. how sexy are these elbows? ask your dermatologist about cosentyx.

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former inmates. kardashian-west joined trump and other criminal advocates announcing the initiative and announced a new transportation program that would provide gift cards for ride sharing services to former inmates to provide rides to job interviews and employment opportunities. kardashian-west is a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform and work with organizations to successfully free 17 inmates under the the drugs's first step act. let's turn to sports. for the first time in franchise history the toronto raptors are nba champions. dethroning the back-to-back title win, golden state warriors. qawhi leonard plays king slayer again, he led the san antonio

spurs over the two-time champion miami heat. leonard who averaged more than 28 points per-game in this year's finals scored 22 in last night's victory boosting his post-season total to 732 points which puts him only behind michael jordan for number three. he's expected to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the month. still ahead more on the backlash over president trump's comments on taking intel from foreign governments as mitch mcconnell weighs in on the matter. what the senate majority leader has to say about the president's remarks. plus a government watchdog calls for the removal of white house counselor kellyanne conway from the administration. the federal law she's being accused of violating multiple times. we'll be right back. you should be mad at forced camaraderie.

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welcome back. i'm yasmin vossoughian. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. speaking to fox news last night republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell shrugged off the president's comments, expressing openness to foreign help in the 2020 election. here's part of what the president said followed by mcconnell. >> your campaign this time around if foreigners, if russia, if china, if someone else offers you information on an opponent should you accept it or should you call the fbi >> i think maybe you do both. i think you might want to listen. >> you want that kind of sneefrs?

-- interference. >> do you have a problem with that answer because democrats are saying that see we told you so, now it's on to impeachment. >> they can't let got it, laura. i said weeks ago case closed. we got the mueller report. the only objective investigation that will be conducted, nobody has confidence that the democratic house will engaging any kind of appropriate oversight. the case is closed. let's move on. >> do you think the president made a mistake in the way he answered that question maybe i would, maybe i wouldn't. i would hear them out. would you answer that question that way. >> he gets picked at inry day. but the fundamental point is they are trying to keep the 2016 election alive and the investigation alive when the american people have heard enough. >> let's just say mcconnell didn't necessarily answer the question. so president trump is now trying to do damage control following his comments on accepting

foreign help. according to politico the president and his top aides are arguing that his comments in his interview with abc news were taken out of context but abc has released a full transcript of the interview which shows the network accurately represented the president' comments. trump also made false accusations against mark warner and adam schiff claiming they both took calls from alleged russia operatives about negative information on him. without calling the fbi. before that the president tried to revamp his remarks by drawing a misleading comparison between accepting dirt from a foreign agent and his recent conversations with world leaders. very different things. he tweeted this, i meet and talking to foreign governments every day. i just met with the queen of england, prince of uk, the pm of ireland and france and president of poland. we talked about everything. should i immediately call the fbi about these calls and

meetings? how ridiculous. i would never be trusted again. once again not the same. but there's an official in washington who finds fault with the president's comments. the chair of the federal election commission. he issued a blistering repudiation of the concept posting her statement to social media writing this. . i would not have thought i needed to say this citing federal law. let me make something 100% clear she says to the american public. it is illegal for any person to solicit, accept or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with the u.s. election. this is not a novel concept. our founding fathers sounded the alarm about foreign interest, intrigue and influence. they knew when foreign governments seek to influence american politics it's always to advance their own interests not america's and don't miss, by the way, ellen weintraubs interview. an independent watchdog

agency recommended that conbe removed from her job after she has purportedly violated the hatch act. the office of the special counsel sent a report to president trump calling conway a repeat offender who has violated that law multiple times. the report details conway violated the law by criticizing democratic presidential candidates during television interviews and on social media while acting as her official capacity as counselor to the president. the office writes in its report that if conway is left unpunished it would quote send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the hatch act's restrictions. the same government watchdog found conway violated the hatch act when she expressed support for republican candidate roy moore back in 2017. conway did not we ply to request

for comment and has dismissed the oec's past findings. transportation secretary elaine chow has sold her chairs in one of the largesse highway construction companies following a report she failed to relinquish her stake after joining the trump administration. she sold her shares of vulcan material on june 3rd. according to documents submitted to the office of government ethics. that's a week after the "wall street journal" published a story outing her not yet fulfilling her 2017 pledge to take a cash pay out by april of 2018. the company's shares rose more than 16% since then netting chow a gain of $50,000. chow sent a letter to the transportation department on wednesday alerting them to the sale and attributing the stock holdings to an inadvertent misstatement. this is the latest in a series of alleged ethical missteps to

mar the transportation secretary's role including a political report published this week which claims that chow helped her husband majority leader mitch mcconnell usher through at least $78 million in grant projects for his home state of kentucky. let's talk about some of this. joining me again eugene scott. eugene, could there possibly be any fallout, ethics fallout from chow's holding on her stake in the construction company? >> possibly. . we've seen lawyers speak out against what they consider a conflict of interest. the reality is that chow is over transportation policy and so for her to have business interests with a company that does business with the government certainly suggests that she hasn't been above reproach in this matter. . this is of high concern to people who really want to see an administration be the best interests of the people and the

american public and not their own pocketbooks and the reality is that chow along with mitch mcconnell had given americans reason to have concern for quite some time now. >> given the oec's language in its latest report with regards to kellyanne conway documents her repeated violation of the hatch act which i just ran through, could we see the white house take any action on this? >> i think it's doubtful. the reality is that in the trump administration the hatch act has been more of a theory than anything else and as you know previously this is not the first time conhas violated it. she's even gone so far to mock it publicly saying that she doesn't expect any consequences from it and she's right. her boss is the president himself who has repeatedly just pushed back on norms and policies when it comes to ethics and rules and continuing to violate them in ways that not only concern people who expect the president and his

administration to conduct things as normal, but people who really just want to see leadership move forward in a direction that leads to less conflicts like this. >> is there any damage control happening at the white house right now with regards to the president's comments over the last 48 hours? >> from inghimasi self we've seen him take to twitter to try to reshape what it is that he actually said but it's mainly gaslighting. it's really not the consistent with what he actually said in the interview regarding what he would do in term of receiving foreign aid and we don't expect to see him just walk back from that because he does have a history of doing those type of things. >> you gene scott, thank you. we'll see you in a little bit on "morning joe". presidential candidate beto o'rourke appeared on "morning joe" yesterday where he was asked what sets him apart from the current front-runner former vice president joe biden. watch this. >> if you stood next to him, why would you tell democratic voters you're a better candidate than

joe biden to become president? >> because you cannot go back to the end of the obama administration and think that that's good enough. >> is joe biden a return to the past? >> he is. that cannot be who we are going forward. we got to be bigger, we got to be bolder, we need to set a much higher mark. >> he later appeared on pbs news hour where he tempered those comments. >> what were the problems with the obama administration? >> let megyn by what i'm grateful forks which is the service of president obama. the greatest president of my lifetime. i understand the nostalgia around the vice president's candidacy. half steps, half measures, only half the country will not get the job done. >> you're saying that's what characterized the obama administration half measures? >> not at all. but some of the appeal of the

vice president's candidacy is a return to an earlier era. while we're grateful for that era, and certainly for the service of president obama, i think we need to be focused on the future. >> still ahead new developments in the water crisis in flint, michigan as prosecutors drop all charges against officials tied to that issue. details on where the case may be headed next. plus michele grossman back with another check on your forecast. your first look at morning joe is back in a moment. ent. sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough

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welcome back. prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against eight people in the deadly water crisis in flint, michigan and pledging to start the investigation from scratch into one of the worst manmade environmental disasters in u.s. history. the shocking decision from the newly democratic attorney general's office came more than three years after officials began looking into the roots of

the scandal that left flint's water system tainted with lead. 15 state and local officials including emergency managers who ran the city and a member of the governor's cabinet had been accused by state prosecutors of crimes as serious as involuntro slaughter. prosecutors left open the possibility of recharging some of those same people along with others. just shocking to say the least. let's get a check now on your weather once again with meteorologist michele grossman. >> we're looking at severe weather today in the middle of the country. that's going to extend on saturday. keep your eye to the sky in the central and southern plains. dodge city, amarillo, colorado, kansas, oklahoma down texas. we're looking at potential for damaging winds. some hail. also some gusty thunderstorms. this is saturday. you can see it expands. still includes a lot of of the

same areas. also to the north, desmoings, springfield, wichita into oklahoma city. 9 million at risk. tomorrow heat in place. damaging winds of 60 miles per hour or greater. we're watching the chance for isolated tornadoes. for father's day look good in some spots. a lot of green on the map. maybe some barbecue will be rained out. might be a good movie day for many. loving these names on the map. grove, pennsylvania 81 hours. grandfather, 72 in north carolina. my favorite bald head city, my husband is bald i can say that, 87 degrees. 84 in gardner, kansas. again a lot of movie watching on saturday or maybe we'll watch the u.s. open. rainfall forecast even up to four inches in some spots. these are a lot of the areas where we had rain. we have saturated grounds. potential for river flooding once again and isolated road flooding in some spots if we do

have those heavy downpours. otherwise a beautiful day in new york city today. little breezy but 75. with lots of sunshine. cannot complain. enjoy today. also on saturday before thing get rocky. >> i bought my husband a ticket to kingsford, arizona. you're on your way to kingman this morning. >> enjoy. >> still ahead oil prices continue to climb amid escalating tepgss in the middle east. target looks to take on amazon as it expands its same day delivery service. details on the stories driving your business day next.

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>> stocks closed higher yesterday. what are investors looking at this morning? >> that's right. huge 24 hours for the energy industry. oil speck 4% on news that two oil tankers had been atakds in the gulf of oman. if you look at that part of the world strategically 60% of oil shipments pass through the gulf of oman and particularly straits

of hormuz. any partial closure or escalating of conflict could have an effect on price of oil. however today oil is trading softer to the tune of 2.4% as people have come to terms with the fact this won lead to wider escalation though it does raise the probability of the conflicts and more conflicts happening from time to time with increasingly high frequency. the major question for oil investors here is what is happening on the and the concerns about global growth and oversee that as having an impact on -- oil, if you just take a step back from where we're trading yesterday, is actually at a five-month low, very close to that $50 mark. >> let's talk about target quickly here. they just announced they're offering same-day delivery on

some items, wanting to compete with amazon. what does this mean? >> target announced yesterday they will be offering same-day delivery service as long as you spend at least $35 on their web site, essentially. you can either get it for a flat fee of $9.99 or for free if you sign up to their app called shipp shipt. they acquired it in 017. it hasn't really taken off. it's also a means of competing with walmart and amazon who themselves have just recently rolled out same-day delivery as well. so there's an increasing amount of competition in that space. >> if companies want to compete to get items to us faster, it works for us. i'm all about it. thank you. good seeing you.

>> coming up, axios' nick johnson has a look at this morning's "1 big thing." and coming up, the white house races to do damage control from the president's remarks. as the president throws out a number of excuses over his comments amid a wave of criticism. plus two cabinets vying to take the president's job join the conversation. democratic congressman tim ryan and new york city bim ll de blao discuss their campaigns. "morning joe" just moments away. . "morning joe" just moments away. all money managers might seem the same, but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell.

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welcome back. joining me now with a look at axios a.m., editor in chief nicholas johnson who is on set with me. what a treat. >> good to see you. the "1 big thing" today is the

hill taking on reparations. this could be a big issue pulling in a back end of political discussion, income inequality has been a big deal. this will be a hearing to focus broadly on the legacy of slavery. a lot of witnesses have advocated for that in the past. we look for that to be a focus. >> did you know who is going to be involved mostly in this hearing? >> donald glover, an author who has written about the case. what's fascinating is putting this in the context among democrats about income inequality being one of the core issues motivating voters this time around. the legacy of slavery and possible reparations could be a key part of it. >> if you were advising a 2020 contender, you would advise to tune into something like this. >> we talked yesterday about how

some of the african-americans view some of the democratic candidates. >> sarah sanders will be resigning yesterday. i hear axios has reporting on who may be replacing her. >> keep an eye on stephanie grisham. she is the spokeswoman for melania trump, the president's wife. there are a lot of folks who are talking that name up, telling president trump that's someone they should pick. president trump said someone he likes and trusts. >> stephanie is someone he likes and trusts. >> he does like and trusts. she's one of the original folks from the campaign still in the white house. that kind of legacy can be very important here. nothing is official until the president tweets it so that can change. >> do you think that could be a quick replacement? will somebody be immediately in place? >> that's a good question. some become acting replacements. there's a lot of open positions right now.

this white house hasn't done a ton of white house press briefings so it's not a position you need out there. >> i'm trying to remember the turnover from sean spicer to sarah sanders. there was some lag time. >> and the communications director role as well could be somewhere stephanie goes. >> let's talk about privacy and anti-trust. there may be another big threat to technical companies coming from congress. >> one big thing legislators are starting to talk about is removing the exception that platforms have for not being responsible for what's posted on them. >> removing the exception. >> removing the exception. if you post something on twitter or facebook, it's not the platform's fault. legislators in congress are starting to think maybe that is too broad of an exception, we need to draw that in to make in a more responsible for what's happening on their network. >> i got to think that these platforms are fighting back on something like this. >> that would be a huge problem.

you make them legally responsible a liable for that. they hate this idea. >> what will be the process if they're pushing back on something like this? what does that even look like? this is not something that could just be instituted they could accept. >> all these big companies are realizing this is a big threat. they're trying to push on the hill and educate lawmakers on what their positions are. they're very open to political regulation. over a year they've been saying we want real regulation but they want an active role in setting what those are so they don't get rules they don't like. >> the stage was announced for the debate for two weeks from now. two individuals will be on "morning joe"? just a little bit, mayor bill de blasio being one of those people. what are you going to be looking for? >> who can break out. 20 people is a lot of people in two nights. the top line, bernie sanders,

joe biden, they'rin movabe the top line, bernie sanders, joe biden, they'rin movab unmov. >> nick johnston, thank you. we're going to be reading axios a.m. in just a little bit. that does it for me on this friday. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. >> i can speak to my own personal experience. i've heard to countless members of the fbi that are grateful and thankful for the president's decision. we may have to agree to disagree. >> anything times zero equals zero. 15 democrats can run, 19 are now running but if your message is zero, it's a big zero. >> okay. >> that was sarah sanders lying to the american people and kellyanne conway still there violating the hatch act. the white house press s