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 secretary is now heading for the door and a federal agency says the

presidential adviser should do the same. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is friday june 14th. we have national analyst john heilema heilemann, host of "saturday night politics," donny deutsch, susan del percio is with us and associate editor of "the washington post" eugene robinson and senior writer at politico and co-author of "the play book," joe sherman. joe, republicans are really avoiding things yesterday, except for one, but must of them were tippy, tippy, tippy, tippy toe around something so

obviously abominable. >> republicans have a choice to choose loyalty to their country or loyalty to donald trump and sadly, most of those republicans chose loyalty to donald trump and some of the things that were said and we'll get to it in a minute but by mitch mcconnell were just absolutely extraordinarily -- would be extraordinary but mitch mcconnell has proven -- proved long ago he's so cynical that what most of us consider -- what most conservatives have long considered to be in the best interest of the country is not something that concerns mitch mcconnell at all. and there is also -- there was this remarkable attempt by republicans to lie again about hillary clinton saying, well, yes, donald trump said he might get information from the iranians or the chinese or the russians or from foreign

governments to try to influence democracy, but hillary clinton did it, too. that's just obviously a lie. i expect unfortunately too many republicans on capitol hill to spread those lies. some friends of mine that i follow on twitter were doing the same thing yesterday. i think, mika, they probably were just ill informed and that's why we're here. let's give them the facts right now. >> okay. after president trump declared that he is 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 marcia

blackburn rose to object, claiming that the proposal would be too much of a burden on campaigns. >> these reporting requirements are overbroad. any person who shares their views with a candidate would be reportable. campaigns could have to report social media responses, our interactions, you would report every non-u.s. citizen or dreamer who volunteers for their campaign or knocks on doors 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 is if an agent of a foreign government or foreign national offered something that was already prohibited and, candidly, and i will take my colleague at her word, if there are ways to improve on this legislation, i'm wide open for

business. >> wow. but senate republicans have so far chosen not to work on the issue. majority leader mitch mcconnell has blocked bipartisan election security legislation passed through the house in march, a position he reaffirmed last night. >> i'm open to considering legislation, but it has to be directed in a way that doesn't undermine state and local control of elections. the democrat's law would like to nationalize everything. they want the federal government to take over broad swaths of the election process because they think that would somehow benefit them. >> john heilemann, how rich that rich mcconnell is saying that democrats want to take over broad swaths of elections when all we're doing is trying to stop russians. all we're doing, those of us in the media that are asking for this, those on capitol hill that

are asking for this, are just trying to stop vladimir putin or china or iran or turkey or any of our other adversaries at times, we're trying to stop them. isn't it fascinating the circle is actually -- has been completed now and here we end up with mitch mcconnell sending marcia blackburn on the floor for what we should call the vladimir putin relief bloc. this is the same mitch mcconnell who in 2016 actually was warned about russian interference, about vladimir putin's interference in american democracy. that's what donald trump's intel people would say a year and a half later that, yes, yes, they interfered with american democracy. while this was happening in 2016 it was who? mitch mcconnell who said no, you

can't go out and say that or i'm going to say you're partisan. mitch mcconnell is doing putin's work again. >> i listened to mark warner. >> good guy. >> making a straight forward point. there's a law that exists. the law says that foreigners can't give things of value to american campaigns. the warner bill would take that existing piece of law and say if a foreigner violates a law that's already on the books, the american campaign that is witnessing that violation of the law must now report it. that's what the warner bill said. and yet, you know, that part of american election law is already nationalized. that's a federal law. it exists already. presumably mitch mcconnell is not against the underlying law. so it's illogical and totally

off point to be talking about somehow further nationalizing election law. this is just basically adding a reporting requirement to an existing federal law that no one is arguing should be struck down, which makes the question what's mitch mcconnell's actual gain here? i think what it is is that everyone is looking at donald trump's behavior and saying if donald trump is still arguing that it's okay to accept stuff from foreign nationals, first of all, because his campaign tried to do it in 2016 and that there's a pretty high likelihood his campaign is going to try to do it again, is inviting it again in 2020. so to toughen these laws would be a legal trap for the president who apparently is signaling to all of us and every foreign adversary that he's totally open for business on violating that law again. >> so, willie geist, let's

clearly state where things are right now. you had a law that could have been passed yesterday, that would have required candidates to report anyi illegal acts, no somebody tweeting at you, would require candidates to report any illegal actions to the fbi and mitch mcconnell and marsha blackburn and the republican party of donald trump opposed that. let that sink in for a while. >> others in the house, too, kevin mccarthy saying oh, what the president said wasn't so difficult. you used the word sad earlier. it is sad for the country that these republicans in this case and others can't put the country over their feelity to donald trump and here's mitch mcconnell shrugging off the president's comments, expressing openness to

foreign help in the 2020 election. here's the president talking on fox news last night. >> if foreigners, if russia, if china offers information, should they accept it or call the fbi? >> i think you might want to do both. i might want to listen. >> you want that kind of interference in our election? >> i don't think it's interference. it's information. >> do you have a problem with that answer? >> they just can't let it go, laura. i said weeks ago case closed. we got the mueller report. the only objective evaluation in a will be conducted. nobody has any confidence that the democratic house is going to engage in any kind of appropriate oversight. the case is closed. why don't we move on? >> do you think the president made a mistake in the way he answered that question when he said maybe i would, maybe i wouldn't? i'd hear them out. would you answer the question

that way? >> he gets picked at every day over every aspect of it but the fundamental point is they're trying to keep the 2016 election alive and the investigation alive when the american people have heard enough. >> no, actually that's not what anyone's talking about right now. >> that's such a lie. willie, he's such a liar. i'm sorry, he's just lying through his teeth. let me tell you something, if mitch mcconnell were approached by the chinese with dirt on his opponent in 2020, he would call the fbi. he would call the fbi, every other liar on capitol hill that's claiming that what donald trump did was okay would call the fbi. they would all call the fbi. and mitch mcconnell wouldn't even answer that question because we know what the answer was to it. and him saying the president gets picked on too much and, quote, case closed, how sad!

i mean, listen, he's got to live with himself and he's going to have to live with himself into retirement. i hope he enjoys his legacy because this is it. this merrick garland, that's his legacy. >> and trump was asked what about the next time. have you learned anything? and he said no, i'm wide open, i think i would take it. we're not talking about the last election, we're talking about the next one. >> the thing when you watch the tape with stephanopoulos is how authentic he is. he continually shows himself -- >> very mob bossy, too. >> now that the republicans are becoming the nondemocracy party, this is the same guy that would not vote for $250 million to make our voting machines safer.

with all the money in our government, $250 million, let's safeguard our voting machines. no thank you, we don't want that bill. you were talking about mcconnell's retirement. we opened with sarah sanders leaving and kellyanne conway hopefully soon leaving, don't any of them understand that there is life after trump and this is a moment in time and do they not understand the toxicity and the cancer that stays with them after every single one of them, you don't have to be the most potent democratic strategist to understand that they will carry this legacy the rest of their lives. >> you know, they're going to have trouble getting jobs in washington, d.c. for the rest of their lives, especially these people that have been out lying without shame. but, you know, i wanted to -- it's very interesting, you were talking about how donald trump is doing this all in plain view.

and as somebody that has known him for a while, i want to have a quick discussion with you and get your thoughts on it because mika was saying when he did that, she said this guy is so bad, and others say he's so evil, he's so evil, well, yes, okay, i get what you're saying but wouldn't a truly evil guy have answered the question to lester holt, no, no, that's not why. wouldn't a truly evil guy say to george stephanopoulos, of course i would report it, in fact, i've hired three lawyers and they're going to be scanning throughout the entire government, we're going to have the toughest task force on foreign interference ever while he's actually calling china and calling russia and saying, hey, you got anything, you got anything? that's the thing about donald trump. no, let donnie answer because i know you're going to say donald trump's evil.

that's the thing about donald trump, it's all in plain view. this is a guy that just blurts out whatever is in the front of his head at the time. >> he's a bad dude but to your point, joe, it's interesting, it's almost child like -- did you take the cookie? no, i didn't take the cookie. he generally doesn't think it's wrong. that's how dimented he is that in front of the entire world, why wouldn't i? wouldn't everyone? you can almost say is he evil or just no moral compass? >> all right. >> there's no compass there to even look at. >> i just -- i want to take myself out of a box here. i never said he's evil and my reaction is not oh, he's evil. my reaction to what happened the other night when he said that is to george stephanopoulos was this is horrendous, horrendous

for our democracy. he is a national security threat. and what he does is not stupidity. what he do is not evil playing out before our eyes. what he does is he manipulates the truth. he desensitizes the american public and the world to what is right and wrong and does things in plain sight and the results are evil. what happens in a dictatorship, what happens when evil forces step in is this -- slowly chipping away at our values, slowly chipping away at our democracy and that, whether he knows it or not, whether he's planning it or not, whether he gives a damn or not, that's what's happening. >> well, just to clarify, mika. >> that's what i meant. the lawyer that i am, i did not say you said he was evil. >> i'm telling you what's happening. >> i said others said he was evil. i hear what you're saying.

i have a little different opinion about this, gene robinson. i could be wrong. i've been accused of being overly optimistic many, many, many times before and, as you know, i'm wrong every day. but in this case i think this is a temporary phase. i think these republicans have already paid a horrific price. in fact, i will say this, i was talking to mika and we were talking to they were showing clips of the helsinki summit. helsinki 2018. you know what happened in 2018? the biggest electoral rout ever in a midterm election democrats over republicans. i think he pays the price. i think people around him pay the price, but i think, again, for me at this point, i've discounted donald trump's constitutional attacks into it. right now i'm focused on the republican party and how shamelessly and how cravenly

they continue to allow these constitutional breaches or breaches of constitutional political norms to continue. they are the one who will be paying the price long after donald trump is goffilfing at mar-a-lago. >> i hope so because what republicans have done is sell their soul to donald trump. they have abandoned all their values, done a total 360 on positions they've held for decades. you are right that anybody -- mitch mcconnell, lindsey graham, any of them running a campaign if they were approached by a chinese agent orcampaign, of course they would call the fbi and of course they know that's what any candidate ought to do

and they won't say it because they're all in with donald trump. it is a trumpist party period. i do want to note what trump said he would do in the next election, he actually did do in the last election and i don't think we should forget that, he actually did welcome and encourage help from a foreign power to help him win an election. so i'm not terribly surprised -- i guess i'm surprised that he'll say it out loud. i'm certainly not surprised that he would do it. >> all right, we're going to sneak in a quick break. we need to get jake sherman into the conversation, get his reporting on the latest what about hillary take and nancy pelosi's takedown of the president. also a pair of presidential candidates and congressman tim ryan of ohio, new york city mayor bip de blasio join us. plus, we'll talk to the chairwoman of the federal election commission, who was stunned yesterday to have to remind the country that you can't accept foreign

interference in american elections. ellen weintraub joins as you ahead. as we go to break, one moment from -- >> the president obstructed justice or tried to obstruct justice. whether it's ten years or 20 year from now, we're going to look back at americans and say what tin the hell was wrong wit that president? that president and a dock with a boat, maybe. why haven't you started building? well, tyler's off to college... and mom's getting older... and eventually we would like to retire. yeah, it's a lot. but td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. great. can you help us pour the foundation too?

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fbi. >> my reaction would be to reach out to the fbi. i think both parties and all candidates should agree with that. >> the appropriate action is to call the fbi. >> the first phone call wb to the fbi. the second phone call would be to corroborate the information. >> others when asked to the president's comments about accepting foreign help, many stipulating that a call to the fbi would be prudent but others attempted to draw a false equivalency with hillary clinton's campaign. >> i think we need to be extra careful because obviously there are foreign countries that are interested in influencing our election. 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 democrat colleagues

will be equally offended to the fact where this happened in 2016 where a foreign agent was paid for by a political party to gather opposition research. >> but those claims are flawed, like the conservative news site free beacon did during the primaries, the clinton campaign and the dnc hired the american opposition research firm fusion gps, which then used former british spy christopher steele to compile a dossier. when steele uncovered what he believed was troubling information, he reported it to the fbi on october 3rd, 2016, according to "the washington post." and clinton and the dnc hired fusion gps through a law firm and there is no evidence to date that the campaign knew of the work subcontracted to steele. joe. >> yeah. there is no evidence chuck grassley, lindsey graham, anybody else trying to draw this parallel cannot reveal any

evidence that hillary clinton or her campaign or the dnc knew that the same washington, d.c.-based firm that was hired by the conservative web site free beacon to do the same thing that they subcontracted some of their work out to steele. but, susan del percio, my goodness, there's a much, much bigger point here. i'm sure in their need to spin as quickly as they could so donald trump would still invite them out to golf or perhaps sit down and have some milk of magnesia with them, in the case of the other senators, what they overlooked was the fact that christopher steele when he got information as a subcontractor to gps immediately reported all information to the fbi. he sat down and spoke with the fbi. he continued to keep them advised of everything that he was being told by foreign sources.

there's a big difference between that and don jr. going yipp yippee aye yay, i'm so excited the russians are coming to give me information and lying about it over and over and over again and some saying in 2019 we're not sure whether we would report it to the fbi or not. >> and i was going to say let's be clear that the e-mail to don jr. was a lawyer from the russian government. it was crystal clear it was coming from an adversary of this country. but let me just give you one whole number here for comparison. in 2018, in february of 2018 senator graham was at 41% approval rating. a year later he's at 74 and get

what percent approval and what he doesn't have to face now is a primary. so he looks at it and others see what he has done, he sold out his party, he sold out his country for his senate seat. so i don't know if that's worth something or not that should be reported, but it is clear that sucking up to donald trump and doing his bidding will let you keep your seat. >> jake sherman is our man on capitol hill this morning. i ask this not rhetorically but sincerely. why is this so hard for senators and congress people to come out and simply say of course if this happened i would call the fbi. why was mitch mcconnell spinning in such a pathetic way trying to cover the tracks of donald trump and explain away his comments to george stephanopoulos? is it the old saw of fearing a primary challenge? what is going on that they can't state the obvious to protect our elections? >> speaking broadly, i think initially when this all started, meaning the trump presidency, it

was because the politics in their states demanded that they protect the president and that they defend the president on capitol hill. i think that has almost become second nature, and i've noticed this from being on the hill every day, almost become second nature on the hill that when donald trump is attacked, no matter what the substance is, their inclination and reaction is to defend him. frankly, yesterday kevin mccarthy at his press conference, it was amazing, nancy pelosi had hers the 10:45, kevin mccarthy had his at 11:30 and kevin mccarthy brought up a lot of the hillary clinton stuff. he was asked if there was a bill to prevent or force members of congress to report foreign interference in the election, would you vote for it, would you pass it? he said yes. i do think if crafted properly, if there was some time spent on it, that bill would pass and donald trump would not be able to veto it because it would

definitely have veto-majoritys in both chambers. but what was done yesterday was a stunt. nothing look that passes immediately unanimously. >> is it right for the president to say he would listen if foreigners offered dirt on his political opponents. is that the kind of help you'd take? >> it's a hypothetical. >> i think you're skag hyasking hypothetical. >> he said those things and that concerns people. >> doesn't the president have to set a tone of what is right or wrong? >> i think the president has been clear, he does not want interference from a foreign government. >> he said he would welcome it.

>> we would like you to -- >> so no comment on his words yet? >> i think if you asked the president, he would be very clear about it, not allowing any foreign countries to interfere in our election. >> george stephanopoulos did ask the president and the president said the opposite of what kevin mccarthy just suggested. >> having written a book that mainly involved kevin mccarthy, kevin mccarthy sees it as his role to present who he wished donald trump was and what he wished donald trump would say. that's what you're seeing here. not making excuses for him. he yanks donald trump back from ledges that he wishes donald trump wouldn't jump off of and it sometimes comes across as cartoonish. >> he thinks who can do that after two and a half years? >> he doesn't think he can do it successfully, and i'm not making excuses but he feels it's his role to present the donald trump he wishes he was. it looks cartoonish at times.

in this instance you had dozens of opponents who now mckacarthy well, and he's just dancing around a question -- >> for republicans, this one should be easy, shouldn't it? even donald trump's base, they care about national security, and the president proved with his words that he is a national security threat. what would be then the reason for republicans to not take the easy road here and give the right answer, that that was wrong to say, the president is wrong, not the fbi director, and what is causing them to be such cowards and such enablers selling out our country, selling out our national security? >> it's all for the next

election. let's follow up on what susan just said. lindsey graham was sitting at 41%. he's now shamed himself time and time again. he's gone from saying that donald trump was a disgrace, that he was unfit to be president of the united states, that if the party nominated him, they would destroy themselves, they would be destroyed and they would deserve it and lindsey just decided he didn't want a primary opponent so for him actually getting re-elected next year is more important than doing the right thing. and, by the way, these are the sort of value judgments that, you know, i don't like to make but i think here, john heilemann, it's pretty safe to say if the president of the united states just said it was okay to take information from vladimir putin and possibly not report it to the fbi, i think we're in safe territory here to say that defending that action

and jumping in the what is aboutism pool in defense of donald trump shows just one of the lower points for this entire republican party. and by this point in 2019, that's saying a lot. >> certainly all of that is true. i just would go further and say that althoughy can't ma we can' conclusive assumption about the donald trump campaign, what they plan to do or will do in the 18 months between now and lebs day 2020, it -- election day 2020, it is now a legitimate question to ask every day whether the trump campaign is communicating with foreign adversaries and the president has to create a space

for himself to operate in that way. not just to excuse past behavior, which is clearly the case, he clearly wants to continue to say when his son and others accepted russian offers of dirt for hillary clinton, they took the meeting, et cetera, he clearly wants to say that was fine, but he's now creating a prospective situation where he says you should be on warning, america, that we're going to do it again. so if we're now on warning that they're going to do it again, we should be asking the question and every reporter on the campaign should be looking at the matter pause the president has hung a giant lantern on the thing and said this is my intent. >> yp has said that donald trump is dying to be impeached, you can definitely see that with these comments, if that's one strategy of how to understand what he said. but why is she still holding back, do you think? she is still being very careful not to go down that road. >> speaking of political calculations, the speaker

believes and her people around her believe pretty clearly and they will tell us to us all the time, if theyism people donald trump, they will lose the house and the white house. they don't believe, it's clear from my conversations with them, they don't believe the duty to impeach, they don't believe that rises above the politics of it at the moment. they don't believe the country is ready for it and they don't believe they have enough evidence solidly to impeach him. but here's what's change, nancy pelosi keeps saying the president is involved in a criminal coverup. if he's currently involved in a coverup, it's your duty to impeach him. i think now a lot of members, north of 60, in a caulk cuss of 240, 235, they want to impeach him and pelosi basically saying she will not impeach him right now but he is currently involved

in major crimes to cover up previous crimes. so those two things for a lot of members that i talk to every day, those two things do not compute. i don't know how she is going to last the next 15 months holding that position, meaning i don't know how it's possible. she might do it. the path to that is not clear to me. >> jake sherman, thank you. there's no question to me that she has a plan. can you get a sense of her strategic political mind and this calculus in my sitdown with speaker of the house nancy pelosi on headliners, this sunday at 9:00, 9 p.m. eastern on msnbc. it is absolutely fascinating. coming up, he's officially made the cut for the first democratic primary debate. congressman tim ryan is here it re, who had also be taking stage in less than tw weeks. we'll be right back. >> yesterday the president gave

us once again evidence that he does not know right from wrong. it's very sad thing. every sad thing that he does not know right from wrong. i believe that he himself been involved involved in a criminal coverup, i've said that before and our investigation is demonstrating that. r investigats demonstrating that ♪ ♪ award winning interface. award winning design. award winning engine.

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welcome back to "morning joe ou joe." it's the president's birthday. 73. >> 73, wow. >> congressman tim ryan of ohio joys us. good to see you. >> good morning. >> you're on the debate stage a couple of weeks from right now. >> yes. >> ten of you up there. >> yes. >> what is the industry strstra format? >> i think let them know who i am and where i'm from. when people know i'm from one of the forgotten places that donald trump made a lot of promises to but didn't deliver on. it's the epicenter of the

industrialization, epicenter of the opiate crisis, epicenter of infant mortality. >> you're talking about things that may not be sexy to people, emotional learning in school, a fascinating area to explore, creating the new economy. what's it like in youngstown when you go in and tell those men and women that the jobs that president trump told you are coming back are not coming back but here's something we can do. do they accept that? do they walk with you or do they say, no, i want the old job that donald trump promised me? >> they want a job. a lot of people don't care what it is but they want something that health insurance sustainability. they know the coal jobs are down, they want a plan. this is going to be a little bit more like 1992. you have to plane hexplain how

going to get from a to b to c. electric vehicles, we're going to make 30 million of them. where are we going to make them? the charging stations, who is going to make them? who is going to make them? wind turbines? communities of color have been left behind. can you do that with policy if the president wants to. i want to and i'm from there. that's going to be a big initiative for me, that industrial policy. >> what does it look like in your position, in the polls about 1%. >> i never thought i'd be excited about 1%. i'm an old athlete, i'm happy at 1%. we'll start at 1%. >> you're in the game, you're on the stage. when you look up and see joe biden at 30%, elizabeth warren climbing in the polls, bernie sanders up there, too, how do you see your climb, how do you get up out from where you are? >> i think of president howard

dean, joe lieberman and jeb bush. the person at the top never really makes it. that gives us inspiration. i think the climb is the economic argument. democrats want to win and they know we need to win western prchl p.a., ohio, michigan, iowa, potentially indiana. so i think people are looking to maybe shift the center of gravity for the democrats from the coast and from the ivy leagues to youngstown, ohio. i think if we do that, we completely jackpot the republicans and i think we can potentially put a lot of senate races in play, including mitch mcconnell, lindsey graham. imagine if the center of gravity is northeast ohio, things change for the whole party. >> i think it's great you're on the debate stage. i look at your friend seth molt molten, governor bullock, a very popular guy.

se seth, like you, a lot of people think he's -- >> why do you have to hurt my feelings? >> it seems like kind of a screwy system that those two guys, a proven win in the red state and one of the biggest rising stars are not on the debate stage. what do you think about that? >> i don't think we need to be win ownowing the field this ear. iowa, new hampshire, they should winnow the field. i don't think the small dollar donation idea is the best either. i think it's having a lot of unintended consequences to where people are raising lots of money and then spending 25 to 50, some are saying up to $75 to get a $1 contribution. so i don't think that's the way to do it. >> i'm not trying to lure you to attack the dnc, but you feel

this is a flawed system and that you'd like the dnc to have this thing be open or whatever? >> my opinion would be do three nights to have everybody on there, do seven, eight persons a night -- >> and give people more time and let it play out. >> we'll ask tom perez about that a little bit later in the show. i'm just listening to tim ryan here. joe and i really like your candida candidacy. donny deutsch, branding advice. don't give bad advice, give good advice, which you're good at. i'm thinking there's got to be a way to say while you all are thinking of how to outtweet donald trump, tim ryan is really thinking about the things that have to get done. >> during debate prep, congressman, i just listened to what you said a few minutes ago, everything is right on point but it not going to be enough. and the reality in the world,

you standing up there one of ten, throughout three hours having six or seven minutes. the one percenters, this is a strategic mathematical fact, if you go up there and do the blocking and tackling, that's not enough. i would challenge you if i was coaching you or advising you, you obviously can't create the moment, it's got to be authentic, but the same way you turned to him and said don't hurt my feelings, there's got to be a human moment. people have to fall in love with you a little bit, from the right side of their brain and not the left side of the brain. let it rip. it is a show up there, it is theater. people are kind of listening but they're feeling more than listening. you've got the policy stuff down. i need that human moment. and i would sit and strategy with you about how we get there. you may agree or disagree with this, in this viral world, it's

just not going to be enough to get your policy out there. what up say makes complete sense and in a different world with maybe two or three people but with ten and if you're not one of the top three and four, you need that kind of -- you do need a -- >> donnie -- >> bring it in for a win. >> i'm sitting here thinking, is he going to give me a bill for this? >> you're cleared for landing. you're paid for the hour, by the way, not the word. i'm joking. i totally agree. i will say, though, congressman, don't you feel it's important to be yourself, at the end of the day, that's who you are, you're that guy from youngstown, ohio, you're that guy who can talk straight. i don't want to see you get up there and turn cart wheels on the stage. >> well, to me it's about when people find out who i am, if you look at the polling, it's my name i.d. that's much lower, but i have a smaller number of people who know me and i'm doing

as well as people who are known by 50 or 60 or 70% of the electorate. that tells me this economic message about rebuilding the countries and remembering the forgot i don't kngotten cities going to go. you can go to tim ryan for m america.com, help me out. >> though if you could turn a cart wheel, that would be pretty cool. >> congressman, we have 23 candidates. as we speak, mitch mcconnell in the senate is passing through judges by the boat load, not just conservatives but far right idea logs who we're going to be stuck with for life, who are going to have a major impact on this country. it shows you how important the senate is. shouldn't some of the 23 because clearly not everybody is going to be the nominee, shouldn't some of them be running for the

senate for seats they can win in montana or colorado, potentially texas? wouldn't that be more of a contribution and a realistic contribution? >> i would encourage everyone that you mentioned in those states to go back home and run for senate. i think that would be a great idea. but i do think that would be important but i also think when we're talking about the broader election is to nominate somebody like from youngstown, ohio or akron, ohio, that can help win those senate races, too, who can go to kentucky and actually put the heat on mitch mcconnell, go to south carolina, we have a great candidate in jamie harrison in south carolina going after lindsey graham. if we shift the center of gravity from someone of this community, that shifts the brand of the democratic party and we can start playing in some of these other races.

yes, get great candidates in those races and have an economic message that's talking about getting the economy going in south carolina, in eastern kentucky, in north carolina. that's how you end up winning. and my humble opinion is not just because it's me but we need someone from one of these communities. that at the end of the day is how you're going to win. the brand of the party is about the workers, white, brown, gay, straight, still living paycheck to paycheck and still can't mandl a $400 emergency, those are the people we need to connect with. now you have a broader, deeper party who can start moving legislation. that to me is going to be the key. >> tim ryan, good luck. we'll see you soon. >> next hour, another democrat who just made the debate stage, new york mayor bill de blasio will be our guest. also ahead, the president appears to forget which questions he did and did not

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if you answer these questions to me now, why not answer them to robert mueller under oath? >> because they were looking to get us for lies, for slight misstatements. i looked at what happened to people and it was very unfair. very, very unfair. very unfair. >> you didn't answer questions on obstruction. >> wait a minute, i did answer questions. i answered them in writing. i answered a lot of questions. they gave me questions, i answered them in writing. >> not on obstruction. >> look, george, you're being a little wise guy, which is

typical for you. just so you understand, it's very simple. there was no crime. >> the president is 73 today. >> oh my god. >> only 73. >> you're being a little wise guy. >> yeah. >> and i answered questions. >> not on obstruction. >> well, i answered a lot of questions. >> it is a remarkable thing to behold. how old is the president today? >> well, 73. >> happy birthday, mr. president. >> abc news is out with their clips of president trump, which he appears to forget he did not submit to questions on obstruction. happy birthday. welcome back to "morning joe." we have the host of "saturday night politics" donny deutsch,

susan del percio, professor of history at tulane university, walter isaacson on the set with us and cnbc editor at large john hardwood is with us and reporter for "the washington post," eugene scott. great to have you all. joe, the president, i get it, there's funny aspects to it but we're in a situation where he, the president of the united states and i'll toss it to you this way, the president of the united states has proved himself to be a national security threat. that is the fact. >> i'm not saying it's funny. i don't know why you're saying it's funny, even though at times you just sit there and you laugh at what you're seeing on tv. >> okay, yeah. >> i want to get your response, walter, we've been talking over the last hour not the president saying he would take help from vladimir putin next time or

perhaps president xi or perhaps, who knows, pick your foreign dictator. we've really -- come on, we've really at this point figured out there's very little donald trump could do that could shock us. the capacity for being shocked, though, still has to be the republican response, mitch mcconnell saying, oh, they're just picking on him, there's nothing wrong with this, when, walter, you and i know as heinous as mitch mcconnell has acted in defense of donald trump over the past two or three years, if the iranians or the russians or the chinese came to mitch mcconnell and said, hey, let's just say, if a staff member came up to him with the same e-mail sent to don jr., mcconnell would go get to hell out of my office and if you bring that to my office again, i'm going to fire you and, by the way, send that to the fbi,

einstein. he would say that. everybody on the hill would. >> absolutely. and the most shocking thing is that breaking of norm happens every single day and we lose and have stolen from us our ability to be shocked by things that are just outrageous, whether it's kellyanne conway violating the hatch act and saying, hey, so what, so what, whether it's donald trump saying i'll take intelligence from foreign governments and even the head of the sec has to say, no, that isn't done. and i guess the reason we have gone off the rails, as you say, the main reason is we don't have any people with spine in the republican party who say no, no, no, you can't keep going there. and we've had that in the past, whether it was getting joe mccarthy off stage or richard nixon off stage, there's always been people who said we got to protect the country first.

>> we do have mitt romney, who again spoke out yesterday pretty clearly. >> thank god, yes. there were other people who spoke out and said it's not the thing that should be done. i believe john thune did that and john cornyn did it as well before throwing in the trying to muddy the water with the steele dossier parallel where we explained last hour there's no parallel whatsoever. but there were a few republicans that did that, not enough. once again, though, mitt romney was the one that spoke out the most clearly. >> here is a quick wrap of how many republicans reacted yesterday to the president's comments from wednesday welcoming foreign intervention in american elections. take a look. >> do you have a problem with that answer? because the democrats seem to be taking that and saying we told you so, now it's on to impeachment. >> they just can't let it go, laura. i said weeks ago case closed. we got the mueller report, the only objective evaluation that

will be conducted. nobody has any confidence that the democratic house is going to engage in any kind of appropriate oversight. the case is closed. why don't we move on? >> do you think the president made a mistake in the way he answered that question when he said maybe i would, maybe i wouldn't, i'd hear him out. would you answer the question that way? >> he gets picked at every day over every aspect of it but the fundamental point is they're trying to keep the 2016 election alive and the investigation alive when the pearn p american people have heard enough. >> is it right for the president to say he would listen if foreigners offered dirt on his political opponents? is that the kind of help you would take? >> you're talking about a hypothetical. >> the president said you're wrong -- >> i think you're skag hyasking hypothetical. >> he said those things and that concerns people. >> doesn't the president what

have to set a tone of what is right or wrong? >> the think the president has been clear he does not want foreign interference in our election. >> we would like you to please address -- >> i have addressed. >> so no comments on his words yesterday. >> i think if you asked the president, he would be very clear about it, not allowing any foreign countries to interfere in our election. >> i think we need to be extra kerrful pus obviously there are foreign countries that are there had interested in -- i didn't hear equal outrage when hillary clinton paid a foreign spy. >> this did happen in 2016 when a foreign agent was paid for by

a political party to gather opposition research. >> a fact check again on those plau flawed claims like. the clinton campaign and dnc hired the american opposition research firm fusion gps, which then used former british spy christopher steele to compile a dossier. when steele uncould have had whatty believed was troubling information, he reported it to the fbi on october 3rd, 2016. and clinton and the dnc hired fusion gps through a law pourm. >> john harwood, clearly somebody gave the republicans those talking points. of course there are no parallels. it's like you're watching the fox news primetime programming

where they're talking about hillary clinton. here we are three years lear and cover up the offenses of donald trump. >> that's right. and you notice that mitch mcconnell in that interview with laura ingram did not actually address her question about whether the president should have answered that question differently. he said, well, the president gets picked on. it is an attempt to deflect the substance of the issue as they sort of hunker down on the partisan basis to stand with the president, show their base that they're standing with the president and we're in an all-out tribal situation on the republican side where you have plain facts, the plain words of the president and they're not willing to accept them, as in that exchange that the president had with george, whereas george is telling him what he talked to the special counsel about, what

he didn't and trump says, well, you're just being a wise guy. no. concern. >> so there is one official in washington who finds fault from the president's comments. it's not often we hear from the chair of the federal election commission. ellen winetrack issued a blistering repudiation of the president's comments, writing, i would not have thought that i needed to say this, she writes let mei xiang make something 100% clear to the american public and anyone running for public office. >> it is illegal for -- this is not a novel concept, our founding fathers sounded the alarm about foreign influence. they know it is always to

advance their own interests, not mrk's. tellen wine straub will be or guest the. nd it should be obvious for anyone running for office if you look at that interview from mcconnell, they focus as if we've seen polling that supports that many americans do not have the confidence that their vote will matter m 2020 because they and the president has has sad if

it done happen, he might go ahead and accept that. >> speaker of the house nancy pelosi took trump to task over himself comments that he would be willing to accept information on political opponents from a foreign government. speaking at a weekly news conference yesterday the speaker said that she thinks that the president is involved in a criminal coverup but continued to throw cold water on calls pi some in his party to begin impeachment proceedings. >> 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 franc. i mo that he's been involved in a criminal can have to the path that we are on and had will be

included in that. but not any one issue is going to trigger. osh, no it's about litigating. it about getting the truth to everyone accountable and no one is above the law. >> i guess i understand the strategy. she needs republican support, right? >> which would make a lot of sense if she went from having the impeachment hearings or the investigation continue but this idea of protecting american democracy is certainly something she can get on top of and move the ball forward and really shame republicans into it. this is an issue i think if she made front and center would be a winning one, it would box donald trump in a corner and i think you can -- it would alleviate some of the heat she has from her conference because it gives them something substantial and certainly they can also attack the president on. >> joe. >> you know, donnie, i certainly

understand the speaker's political calculations and certainly i would never second guess it at all. i do think, though, on the other side of the issue, on the other side of the lenl are and you have to wonder about the judgment of history. it extraordinarily important that future presidents understand this is a cost and there are consequences it what's happened over the past two and a half years. and but to start an impeachment inquiry and let the facts lead them where the facts lead them and let history be the judge. >> i'm actually with the speaker. i threw out a couple of weeks

ago keep using the word "trump criminal investigation." convict him already. and if you notice she three times she said krg investigation and it's part of a bigger puzzle. so to me it doesn't mean you don't eventually impeach. this is a 19, 0-month game. keep putting it thesome po. >> i can't think of an historic parallel, walter isaacson. what's going on from your point of view? >> i think donnie is right. you say it's a criminal investigation, you get the word out. you're doing this for a reason. you're not going to remove him from office at the rate they're going with this type of thing. i think the main thing is for everybody in this country to be able to ask themselves the question, if say the iranians or

if the chinese wouldn't we all be upset? and we shouldn't turn this into a part has become something that that are kind of vaguely defending when they should be going nuts. >> yes, joe, this is easy. we care about our national security. our elections should be safe and sacred. what is wrong with these republicans who are acting howardly, enabling this wed president and. >> i can't answer that question other than what susan said earlier. what 2018 showed us is playing the short game o win why are

prime ares that certainly going to be a problem for many of has to candidates. mookia had said earlier there wasn't really a parallel for this and we saw a president the united states commit perjury again and grand jury testimony. and it seemed to me pretty simple that if the president of the united states did something that would have sent most americans to jail, then that was an impeachable offense and yet at the end of that process, as bill clinton left office, he was in the 60s, hike 60% approval rating and i've opinion wondering since whether we should have just, you know, had a vote on censure. and pe.

bill clinton was disbarred by the united states supreme court and the state before of himself when the rabs won the presidency in 2000 and they held the congress but, lock be so there was a pretext for it, a justification ff it f and in the

immediate moment 1998, it felt it sm are spm and some of the blackdecided that nancy pelosi m miscalculated. >> i brought up the point not to talk about bill clinton so much as to answer mika's question. this has happened before and bringing impeachment wasn't such a bargain for the part who, she wants to hold her majority, shoes got a bunch of democrats in trump friend hi seats that she's worried about creating. but i do think that democrats -- jerry nadler told me a couple weeks ago that he thought censure would be a toothless thing that would be ignored and not seen as i wanted o respond

within thick that go about you -- i think there is a sense within the republican party that they are under siege by changes in the countrynd that sense of being overrun is something action stk particularly blue collar white voters who feel that their kbrm is driving a lot of what republicans did fchblt

which seems inexplicable, at least at point to me is what about cab in the secretary the president sfm that our lkss can be interwhat is their duty at this time and, p, eugene scott, i'll throw it to you and ask what show would spb the ethics, not basedin their actions. secretary car it's annin ir. and -- squ so at this point one

possible mb because our country is being exposed. >> look at the tape of the cap in the, it was such app hour. spting sfb and eugene, i'll had the snmt right. sfmt but it the point recall why are, psh and follow n. i think bill barr is going pb pb

sfchlt i would think that sfchlt interfering in american elections, i think he's going to come out and say no. >> hoose dpachl he's had a long kroor among (eugene scott thank you, john harrwell, we'll check out your speak easy sireies, c pt and next week a special head hooin are with a sodlysfbl that

was 95% male. >> there were only 23 women members of congress. out 4525 there were only 23. every place i would go, they would stop me and say you can't go there, can't go there. you have to be a member of congress. i said i am a member of congress. i was looking for a vote, certainly for hiv/aids because that was my focus in my earlier days here. i started following one of my targets into the speaker's longy and i andion and one place you can't go or even want to go. >> you can kacht entire sit down

with prowse new hampshire she really is eat the center of the storm and there is no better person than nancy pelosi. this is headliners this sunday at 9:00 eastern on m -- >> the united states states iran is responsible for yesterday's attacks on two oil tankers in the ff. f as the drum beats are war continue it tram if the fmt if m

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it is the assessment of the united states government that the islam inic republican of ir are responsible for the attacks that occurred in amman today. this is based on recent similar iranian attacks on shipping and no proxy group in the area has the resources and efficiency to exact with such a high degree of sufficiency. >> this video has been released which shows an iranian patrol boat removing the mine from one the ships owned by a japanese company.

this morning the owner of the japanese tanker which was attacked twice said its crew also saw iranian naval vessels nearby. however, he disputes the american report that it was attacked by a flying object. u.s. central command has also released these images allegedly showing damage to that ship and what it says is likely a mine still attached prior to its purported removal by iran. iran denies the allegations that is responsible for the attacks, saying that, quote, the u.s. is conducting sabotage diplomacy and economic terrorism.

joining us david ignatius and james stevrides. >> they said they should understand they are not going to be safe. where does that leave us? >> we discussed this about a month ago, right, joe? may 12th we saw four tankers attacked, pretty clear, same technology. we also have attacks of drone attacks on saudi oil fields. flash forward to today in my view an even more brazen attack. i don't think this is unclear at all at this point. this is starting to look like casablanca, i'm shocked to find

there's gambling in the house. i'm not shocked to find the iranians trying to stop this. they're taking a page out of north korea. you think of north korea's ballistic missile tests and nuclear events, this is the iranian version of that, to show us they have real capability. they are hoping, as you said, to get relief on the sanctions. i don't think that's going to succeed as a course of action for them and i've spent half my life in the gulf of amman and in and out the strait of hormuz many times. we are on a collision course. i'm worried. >> i'm wondering what are your thoughts? if these attacks continue, does the united states have to respond militarily? >> we have to get this out of the u.s. versus iran and get it

into u.s. with our allies opposing iran because no one, no one other than maybe iran wants to see tankers blowing up and smoking and ultimately sinking. secondly, we've got to get the inner agency of the united states here. we can do more with cyber, we can do more with special forces. we can do a great deal more with our intelligence communities to foresee these attacks coming forward. and third and finally, joe, we need to get with the private sector because this is ultimately a big commercial challenge. 30% of the shipping that carries oil in the world kgoes through the strait of hormuz. if we're going to have set up an escort program, we better get on it. >> a lot of leaders view these statements out of the state department and this

administration can skepticism. they want to pump the brakes before we go any further with iran here. so how thud americans -- i find that video very compelling, also talking to my friends and sources who are inside the department very a-political, people like general joe dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs came out and read the lit any of whatever iran is doing. our sanctions are what are pushing this forward, i get that. we brought a carrier into the gulf. i get that. but no one else is attaching mines to international shipping, particularly tankers owned by our allies. we're going to have to respond. i'm all for pumping the brakes

for a minute here but iranian behavior is going to have to change. >> david ignatius, it walter isaacson up here. you've written a lot about the whole region of the gulf and how complex it's begun. >> to in which the it's swung very much toward the united states and saudi arabia. >> there's not a lot we could or would want them to do mill -- i think for iran it's in the dna of is lap, in a sense we are essential enemy. it's one thing we have to be careful about. there as a way in which it may

be the hard liners in tehran done their ps to and i think they've decided they need to break out of that the straight jacket, so it possible if the trump administration is smart and it doesn't broaden the coalition to european countries and say, hey, listen, the iranians, whatever you may this come join us in condemning their actions. i think there's an opportunity for the u.s. to do that now and isolate iran more. i think there's going to be a long game, not a slow one.

no desire on the part of the u.s., cent-com, the trump white house to be in a war with iran, but they know the squeeze is having an effect, i think that's what this -- the vants these last few days are all about. >> you know, just to -- >> sorry, jim. >> i was just going to agree with david and make an additional point, which is that crucial here is going to be kind of controlling the nair. and that will help us do what both david and i have indicated, which is broaden the coalition, get the europeans into this thing, turn this from a u.s.-iranian confrontation to a global confrontation with iran. this can help us do that and i agree, it's going to be a longer game. let's hope so because in the short term, i'd hate to see the

administration lunge for the ball here militarily. >> david, let me just play off that and keep going on it, which is how well equipped do you think the administration is do what you and staff rid is the president able to provide the kind of leadership a president would normally provide with the clarity you're talking about? what's the likelihood it will play out that way? >> i every pla we want to sit down and talk with iran. all we care about is the nuclear issue. that hole when shinzo abe, the prime minister of japan, went to

tehran, carrying a message from trump, inviting them to join negotiations and the ayatollah said no way, i'm not going to talk to you. the trump administration can say, well, abe tried to talk negotiations but they don't want to talk. they're working hard at the security council. brian hook, the state department representative, has been up there talking to all different members of the counsel. the final key point i think is that cent come or military command, admiral steve eedous they're coming from cent skom

this is the u.s. military, this is credible -- >> david ignatius and add mir staff reedus, thank you very much. and also, walter as coming up, our loon 200 mabb. how does he plan to maximize his time? that's nest on "morning joe." time that's nest on "morning joe. my experience with usaa

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donald trump, president of the united states, just spent saturday night attacking private citizens using language like "little donny deutsch, a total loser." barack obama wouldn't do that. no president would do that. most teenagers wouldn't do that. >> that was funny. that was joe biden earlier this week in all seriousness reacting to president trump's tweets targeting donny deutsch, which

is really just the man's not right. >> only we can target donny deutsch. this weekend he well cops senator amy klobuchar. i like the show. have you seen it? on sunday morning willie sits down with oscar nominee samuel l. skrk on "sunday today." that's amazing. >> and it just keeps going on sunday my interview with headliners nancy pelosi. bill de blasio, good to have you back on the show. >> good morning, mika. >> are you ready for the big stage? >> yes. >> you made the stage. that's good. there's so many candidates. you're tough on trump. you have no problem with that. >> i've been real blunt about

trump. i call him con don. i think too many times have been aghast at the things the president says and done. we have to confront him. people need to see -- i'm give you an example from new york city. when he put his executive order on immigration, that protects the city that is the number one terrorism target in america. i said we are not changing our policies towards immigrants, we took him to court and we beat him in court. you don't back down in the face of the schoolyard bully. that's what he is. >> i don't know where this stands in terms of egregious, but the, he said it himself. he's exposed america to being bought again and it april peers republicans still won't budge

from being cowardly on the issue of standing up to the president, which at this point would be standing up to forces of evil. so where are you on impeachment, understanding that of course obviously the math would add up that his behavior is wrong and there might be something that needs to be done, but you need republican support, you need public support. where do you stand on what should be done to deal with the problems this president has posed? >> i've said son, they need to focus on beating donald trump in an election, not can what he said was openly treasonous. it was an invitation to hostile

foreign governments to find information and give it as part of the del. s whatever putins did, he gets an affirmation from doctor we can no longer accept the notion of a president who openly inrout and i thousand there was plenty in there that interview said he has learned nothing pb medical rating. he has to be impeached. >> and the mule are report, if people can find the way to be partisan. these are the president's words,

we're open this business, i'm expogge and i don't care about this country more than i care about winning. >> what is sad and pathetic are can can he opened some criticism of the company krm sfrmt on the hide amendment. the same question we asked beto o'rourke yesterday, if standing in new hampshire or iowa, what contrast would you draw, why are you different are better than he is? >> all we want would hart

workfar frp is what's happening in prp are we actually going to be the party of work being people again? i at this say working people first. i you've. in everybody day people are not sure that the party is on the side of working people. too often joe biden has in the made clear that and how does it tack until june 2019 to figure out the hyde amendment is something that undermines the rights of women, sm i'm not sure he is connecting dmt that we're go tooing this nvl, are has a to

to actually chaj. and health care was the issue in the congressional heres how we're going to change their lives, but if we're the party afraid to mix it up, down trump could win again. >> part of the general election appeal to some voters is that he is more moderate than the rest of you. but you're suggesting he should be more than he is. >> if they look at any democratic nominee and say that person is the status quo.

we could have the highest turn out of our lifetime but i'll tell you something that i have learned going all over the country talking to every day people every day. democrats. they need to be motivated by the idea that real change will happen. not just donald trump is bad. another mistake the vice president is making is he is kind of going down that 2016 road. he is talking about donald trump is a bad guy and a bad character. >> you're saying he's a con man. >> donald trump is a con man. that's in our favor. working people feel they have been bamboozled. but i'm saying for the democratic nominee if every day people cannot identify that person as a change agent, someone that will disrupt a broken status quo and put money back in the hands of working people. >> joe biden isn't that guy? >> i don't see it. >> i'll ask you a pointed question because we had this conversation once and i assume that you're going to be consistent.

you said the democratic party is not going to nominate or shouldn't nominate a moderate, correct? >> yeah. >> joe biden is a moderate, correct? i want to ask you the question, bernie sanders not a moderate, right? no. >> elizabeth warren is not a moderate, right? >> this is the easiest quiz. >> i was asking for your assessment. you sort of ruled joe biden out. democratic party should not and will not moderate a moderate and joe biden is a moderate. >> i love it. it was videoed. >> you are at this table so i ask you who else falls into the category among these leading cap dates? kamala harris a moderate? >> i'm not here to go candidate by candidate. the underlying point -- >> it's like gladiator. are you not entertained? here's the bottom line. a moderate to me means someone that can accept the status quo

by and large. not just get rid of trump. see here's my concern, we get rid of trump but trumpism survives and people need to look at it, all of those angry negative dynamics that trump has unleashed i believe they're directly related to economic frustration and a sense of people being left behind and left out. a lot of history in the world. a lot of things that happened bad in world history started with people feeling like their society is no longer working for them. a moderate that said i will be the untrump. i'll leave in my view all the negative forces out there and leave a lot of frustrated people and we won't have real change. what we need is a candidate that says we are going to put working people first and change the rules of game. i say there's plenty of money in the world and there's plenty of money in this country, it's just in the wrong hand and when i say that audiences in all different demographics respond because they feel the country is unfair.

so the difference is a candidate that's a believable change agent. has the ability to draw out that base but if you're about change and actually rewriting the rules of the game, our base comes out. we can beat this guy and then do the things that will end trumpism which is a threat that will continue long after our orange-haired friend is gone. >> as a new york city mayor showing up on that debate stage in a coup of weeks, you have to differentiate yourself. a lot of people will be against donald trump but you keep saying working people first. what have you instituted in new york that you think would be relatable nationally instead of just being the big new york city that would be relatable and what's the policy that you would want if you only had one question to answer, what you had done in new york that would work around the country. >> when i talk to people about pre-k for all, it is universally appreciated, cuts across

ideological lines, rural areas, urban areas, the notion that this great country should be able to reach our youngest kids and help every child start at the same starting line and reach their god given potential and take that financial burden off working families. that's one example of something that resinates everywhere. paid sick leave. so someone that gets sick can maintain their pay and get well. if we're the party that recognizes that most americans can't afford to lose a day's pay and we're on their side, that's morally right in my view and it's a winning formula in the whole country. we're guaranteeing health care for all new yorkers that don't have it. that gives a huge response because health care is the number one issue and folks want to see there's a solution. right now we're guaranteeing that anyone that doesn't have health care insurance gets a health care card and primary

care doctor. all the states respond to the fact that that's change happening right now. do you want to know how i can do it? i've already done it. >> all right. mayor bill de blasio. good to see you. >> good luck. see you in miami. >> much more ahead this morning including one official speaking out against the president's sugge suggestion that he is open to political dirt from foreign governments. the chair of the election commission will be our guest following her blistering rejection of trump's comments. as we go to break, a special shout out to all the dads out there on know your value.com this week. we have a great line-up for father's day. i write about the big impact my father has had on me in my life through good times and bad. joe and willie share about their dads which is wonderful and how their dads supported them and lead by example. >> look at that shot.

>> that's so cute. >> he has the same look on his face on the show. >> it habsn't changed. >> anthony michael hall. >> iconic. >> we also have the great al roker that tells us what being a father means to him. head to know your value.com and join the conversation and we wish every dad out there a happy father's day. we'll be back in two minutes. thfaer's day we'll be back in two minutes uti. state-of-the-art technology makes it brilliant. the visionary lexus nx. lease the 2019 nx 300 for $359/month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. i'm and i'm an emt.erer when i get a migraine at work,

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kellyanne conway is still there violating the hatch act. the white house press secretary is now heading for the door and the presidential adviser should do the same. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it's friday june 14th along with joe, willie and me we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and host of saturday night politics on msnbc politics donny and susan is with us and pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor for the washington post and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. >> and also with us is jake sherman, an msnbc political contributor as well. and joe, wow, republicans were really avoiding things yesterday. except for one but most of them were like tippy toe around

something that is so obviously abominable. >> the republicans have a choice. they can choose loyalty to their country or loyalty to donald trump and sadly most of those republicans chose loyalty to donald trump and some of the things that were said by mitch mcconnell were just absolutely extraordinary -- would be extraordinary but mitch mcconnell has proved long ago he's so cynical that what most of us long consider to be in the best interest of the country is not something that concerns mitch mcconnell at all. and there was this remarkable

attempt to lie again about hillary clinton. yes donald trump said he might get information from the iranians or the chinese of the russians or foreign governments to try to influence democracy but hillary clinton did it too. that's obviously a lie. i expect too many republicans on capitol hill to spread those lies but friends of mine that i follow on twitter were doing the same thing yesterday. i think they were probably just ill informed and that's why we're here. let's give them the facts right now. >> okay. after president trump declared he is 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 marscha blackburn rose to object claiming it would be too much of a burden on campaigns. >> these reporting requirements are overbroad. any person that 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 that volunteers for their campaign or knocks on doors 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 is if an agent or foreign national offered something that was already

prohibited. and candidly, i'll take my colleague at her word, if there are ways to improve on this legislation, i'd wide open for business. >> wow, but senate republicans have so far chosen not to work on the issue. majority leader mitch mcconnell has blocked bipartisan election security legislation passed through the house in march. a position he reaffirmed last night. >> i'm open to considering legislation but it has to be directed in a way that doesn't undermine state and local control of elections. the democrats would like to nationalize everything. they want the federal government to take on broad swaths of the election process because they think that would somehow benefit them. >> how rich that mitch mcconnell is saying that democrats want to take over broad swaths of

elections when all we're doing is trying to stop russians. all we're doing, those of us in the media that are asking for this, those on capitol hill that are asking for this, are just trying to stop vladimir putin or china or iran or turkey or any of our other adversaries. we're trying to stop them. but isn't it fascinating that the circle has been completed now. >> yes. >> here we end up with mitch mcconnell sending marcsha blackburn on the floor for what we should call the vladimir putin relief block. and it's the same much mcconnell who in 2016 was actually warned about russian interference, about vladimir putin's interference in american democracy. that's what all of his intel people would say a year and a half later. that yes, yes they interfered with american democracy. while this was happening in

2016, it was who? mitch mcconnell who said no. you can't say that or i'm going to attack you as being partisan. and here we are. >> unlike you i'm not even a simple country lawyer. i'm not a lawyer of no kind. but i listen to mark warner yesterday. >> good guy. >> good or -- a straightforward point. there's a law that exists. the law says foreigners can give things things of value to existing campaigns. if a foreigner violates a law already on the books, the american campaign that is witnessing that violation of the law must now report it.

that part of election law is already nationalized. presumably mitch mcconnell is not against that law. so it's illogical and totally off points to be talking about somehow further nationalizing election law. this is adding a reporting requirement to an existing federal law that no one is arguing should be struck down which makes the question what is mitch mcconnell's actual game here and i think what it is is that everyone is looking at donald trump's behavior and saying if donald trump is still arguing that it's okay to accept stuff from foreign nationals, it's first of all because his campaign tried to do it in 2016 and that there's a pretty high likelihood that his campaign is going to try to do it again and is, in fact, inviting it in 2020 so to toughen these laws would be to create a legal trap frr t -- for the president who is signaling to us and every

adversary that he's totally open for business on violating that law again. >> let's state where things are right now. you had a law that could have been passed yesterday. that would have required candidates to report any illegal acts. not somebody working on your campaign, not somebody tweeting at you. would require a candidate or campaign to report any illegal actions to the fbi and mitch mcconnell and the republican party of donald trump opposed that. let that sink in for awhile. >> yeah. you had others in the house too. kevin mccarthy saying what the president said wasn't so bad. i don't know why this is so difficult. you used the word sad earlier. it is sad for the country that these republicans in this case and others can't put the country over their feelty to donald trump but they continue to do it

and here is leader mcconnell shrugging off the comments and expressing openly as part of the 2020 election. >> if russia, if china, if somebody else offers you information should they accept it or call the fbi. >> i think maybe you do both. you might want to listen. >> do you want that kind of interference in our elections. >> it's not an interference. they have information. i think i'd take it. >> do you have a problem with that answer? because the democrats seem to be taking that and saying see we told you so. now it's on to impeachment. >> they just can't let it go. i said weeks ago case closed. we got the mueller report. the only objective he value yev that will be conducted. the case is closed.

why don't we move on? >> do you think the president made a mistake in the way he answered that question. maybe i would, maybe i wouldn't. would you answer that question that way? >> he gets picked at every day but the fundamental point is they're trying to keep the 2016 election alive and the investigation alive when the american people have heard enough. >> no, that's not what anyone is talking about. >> that's such a lie. he's such a liar. he's just lying through his teeth and let me tell you something, if mitch mcconnell were approached by the chinese with dirt on his opponent in 2020, he would call the fbi. he could call the fbi. every other liar on capitol hill would call the fbi. they would all call the fbi and mitch mcconnell wouldn't even answer that question because we

know what the answer was to it. and him saying the president gets picked on too much and case closed? how sad. he is going to have to live with himself and he's going to have to live with himself into retirement. i hope he enjoys his legacy because this is it. i hope he's happy with it. >> still ahead on morning joe, republicans react to the president's comments on foreign meddling and somehow, some way, it's all hillary clinton's fault. you're watching morning joe. we'll be right back. you're watching morning joe. we'll be right back. ♪

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would and frankly i think the president would. >> my reaction he should reach out to the fbi. both parties and all the candidates should agree with that. >> the appropriate action to take is to call the fbi. >> the first phone call i made would be the fbi. second phone call would be to corroborate the information. >> other republican senators there went asked to react to the president's comments about accepting foreign help, many stipulating that a call to the fbi would be prudent but others attempt to draw a false equivalency with hillary clinton's presidential campaign. >> i think we need to be extra careful because obviously there's foreign countries that are interested in influencing our elections. we saw that in the clinton, dnc paid a foreign spy to gather

information for russia. >> i hope my democrat colleagues will be equally offended by the fact that this did happen in 2016 where a foreign agent was paid for a political party to gather opposition research. >> but the claims are flawed li. the clinton campaign and the dnc hired the american opposition research firm fusion gps which then used former british spy christopher steel to compile a dossier. when he uncovered information he reported it to the fbi and 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, joe. >> now there's no evidence.

in a anybody can't reveal that hillary clinton or campaign knew that the same washington d.c. based firm. there's a much bigger point here. i'm sure in their need to spin as quick as they could, what they overlooked was the fact that christopher steel when he got information as a subcontractor to gps immediately repo reported all information to the fbi. he sat down and spoke with the fbi. he continued to keep them advised of everything that he

was being told by foreign sources. there's a big difference between that and don junior going yippe mother and father i'm so excited that the russians are coming to give me dirt on hillary clinton and by the way, not only reporting it in 2016 but lying about it over and over and over again and some even saying in in 2019, we're not sure if we would report it to the fbi or not. >> let's be clear an e-mail to don junior was a lawyer from the russian government. it was crystal clear it was coming from an adversary of this country. but let me just give you one poll number or comparison. in 2018, in february of 2018

senator graham was at 41% approval rating and what he doesn't have to face is a primary. he sold out his party. he sold out his country for his senate seat. so i don't know if that's worth something or not but it's clear that sucking up to donald trump and doing his bidding will let you keep your seat. >> coming up, the empts to secure american elections may have just become much more difficult. we'll talk to the chairwoman that is learning political candidates not to accept help from foreign governments. she joins the conversation on the heels of the president's comments. next on morning joe. president's comments next on morning joe. we call it the mother standard of care.

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essentially you say there's nothing wrong with accepting dirt from russia or any foreign country. you have taken a lot of heat from the democrats regarding that since then. >> i think it was accurately stated and i've had a lot of support. >> well then clarify it. >> yeah. i've had a lot of support. first of all, i don't think

anybody would present me with anything because they know how much i love this country. nobody is going to present me with anything bad. number two, if i was and of course you have to look at it because if you don't look at it you're not going to know if it's bad? but of course you give it to the fbi or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that. but of course you do that. you couldn't have that happen with our country. everybody understands that. i thought it was made clear. in fact at the beginning i think i said i would do both. but if you don't hear what it is, you're not going to know what it is. >> how do you know it's bad if you don't listen to it. >> right. >> president trump doing more damage control this morning saying on fox news moments agatha of course he would report a foreign offer. as a quick reminder, here's what he told abc news this week.

>> this is somebody that says we have information on your opponent. oh, let me call the fbi. give me a break. life doesn't work that way. >> the fbi director says that's what should happen. >> the fbi director is wrong. >> also a note too when you're asking the question, he's not getting heat from democrats. he's getting heat from anybody that cares about this country first and it's national security. >> he also just said i don't know if this would happen to this country when in 2016 he said we have dirt on hillary clinton to which his son said if it's what you say it is, i love it. it seems like it already happened. >> a representative that said i'm from the russian government specifically. >> this is a serious time. the chairwoman of the federal election commission put out a tweet last night, quote i would not have thought that i needed to say this. followed by a statement saying let me make something 100% clear to the american public and anyone running for public

office. it is illegal for any person to solicit, accept or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a u.s. election. this is not a novel concept. our founding fathers sounding the alarm about foreign interference, intrigue and influence. it is always to advance their own interests and not americas. and fec chairwoman joins us now. thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. thank you for releasing that statement and putting out that tweet. can you give us a sense of what compelled you to feel like you needed to do that? >> well it's part of my job to make sure that all candidates and the american public are well informed on the laws that govern our campaign finance system and tells people who is trying to influence the folks running for

office there seems to be confusion on this point which confused me because it's a matter of law. it's pretty straightforward. anyone in the united states is not allowed to accept anything of value from a foreign national. particularly a foreign government in connection with an election. >> so the president's statement could have been to foreign governments. did that concern you at all? >> i don't want to m comeant about any individual candidates comments or their conduct. i'm just interested in making sure that everybody understands the law. i have been gravely concerned about the efforts of foreign governments to try to intervene in our election. and i think everyone in government should be speaking on this. this is not a part season issue. this is not a question of

foreign governments taking sides on behalf of the policy platforms of one party or another or one candidate or another. the foreign governments that we have seen very bad actions from in the past are not likely to cease their efforts going forward unless the entire american government speaks with one voice and says this is unacceptable and we're not going to put up with it. >> it's willie geist and we appreciate you coming on and explaining your memo from yesterday. i want to ask you about the idea of anything of value from a foreign national. because some have viewed that as a business deal. what about information? if someone reached out and said i have dirt on one of your opponents. would that be considered something of value? >> we'd have to consider that. we'd have to evaluate the value of the information but, you know, i'll put this to joe, you have a former candidate right here on the set with us.

would he have considered information to be of value to him in his campaign? >> i don't believe he's here at the moment. >> oh, we missed him, sorry. >> but i think he would say that and also say he would call the fbi right away if that had happened. we heard on the floor of the senate yesterday from one republican listing through and saying why she wouldn't support mark warner's bill on this. campaign volunteers that were foreign nationals. >> there's an exception for volunteer service and foreign nationals that volunteers on campaigns. >> what about campaign receiving social media responses or interactions. would that be illegal? >> rooi'd have to look at the fs on that one. i'm not sure what the parameters would be. >> do you believe there should be a law? something that strengthens what

you wrote about in your memo yesterday? that says there has to be a law against participating and working with a foreign government during a campaign. >> that's already illegal but there are a number of bills that have been introduced in congress that would strengthen our defenses against foreign intervention and i seriously wish all members of congress would adopt the provisions because we do need to strengthen our protections going into 2020. >> that law is on the books but you believe it needs to be strengthened. >> there's other laws that could help to sure it up. >> related to whether a candidate, hearing the views of a foreign national or a foreign

official whether that would be considered something of value. a candidate presumably could have a conversation with a foreign national to hear their views about a range of issues. that would be considered okay but very different from the kind of thing that is prohibited? >> yeah. i think that's right. >> okay. and the second thing i wanted to ask, you mention that you had great concern about foreign nationals trying to influence our elections. obviously i think that part of the reason, well, i'll ask you, is the reason why you were concerned about it because of the fact that there was an effort to influence an american election in 2016 and are you like the fbi director particularly concerned to do what they did try to do in 2016. if other countries saw they seem to have an effect or not but it

seemed to go on without any severe repercussions in 2016. this is not an attempt for someone outside of the country to exercise some right to voice their opinion, they're trying to undermine our democracy. they're trying to sow chaos and make americans feel disenchanted with our democracy and not bother to go to the polling stations in some cases. this is really dangerous stuff. >> yes it is. i won't have ellen comment on this but before you take it to her, you know, she brings up such a good point about the other foreign governments being told we're open for business and you have to look at the context. we know donald trump and what he said was a threat to our national security but it came at a time when his poll numbers

were looking bad. it's hard not to put two and two together. >> yeah. and, i want to just say that the question we have been asking all this morning is would mitch mcconnell take this sort of help? would any member of congress take this help? i'm so glad you're here this morning because what i have been saying is, you know, i served -- elected four times and probably served with 600 and 700 members of congress over that time period. i never heard that happening one time. i can tell you, the first thing i would say is we have to call the fbi. the second thing is my chief of staff, any one of my chief of staffs would have said hey, it's not only possibly illegal but it's an in kind contribution.

do you want to put that on your fec report. >> i would hope that every single member of congress if they were to get an approach from a foreign government that they would immediately report that to the fbi. >> i just want to find out whether i have been naive. does this happen all the time? do you hear of reports? do you have cases that have come across your desk that you have read of or any precedence where you have foreign nationals trying to influence campaigns this way? >> i can't comment on anything that could be on the enforcement docket but the big picture

answer is i don't think this is ram pa rampant and thank goodness it's not. is it also illegal for federal or state political parties to accept this kind of in kind contribution if you will? >> absolutely. >> so that should also be very clear in case the president or others are listening. you can't have your super pact use it either. >> no, absolutely not. we're in a whole new place that we have to explain these things and why they might be concerning to our country's safety. thank you for coming on the show this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> coming up on morning joe, we now know which democrats will be hitting the stage in miami this month for the first debate of the primary season.

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>> everybody knows joe biden doesn't have what it takes. >> what does that mean? >> it means mental capacity. it means a lot of different things. he never did have what it takes. until obama took it -- he ran two or three times. i used to call him 1% joe because he never got more than 1%. then obama came along and surprisingly took him off of i say the trash heap and ran, but everybody knows joe doesn't have it. now i see that pochahantus is doing better.

i'd like to run against her. i think it's probably those three. i don't see the other ones. i really don't see it. they talk about kamala. i don't see kamala. it's probably between the three of them. mayor pete i don't see at all. i think that's a joke. >> it's the president's birthday today. he's 73. >> yeah. good way to celebrate it. staying positive. that's sort of the president's version. i find it fascinating. everybody knows that joe biden is addeled. joe biden beats him by 13 points in recent polls. his own internal pollster gave the president very bad news that he got wiped out in the industrial states he has to win. every one of those candidates that donald trump was making fun

of, they're all pounding him into submission in the polls right now. if all americans know that joe biden is in such bad shape, what do they think about donald trump? >> i can't imagine. join the conversation. we have the host of msnbc's politics nation. reverend al sharpton. >> can't stop talking about it. we're going to have to do something. also tom perez. great to have you back on the show. you got your hands full. you have a lot of candidates looking ahead to the debates. how is this going to play out? how do you organize these folks? . later this morning we'll be at nbc and we'll do the draw. 10 one night and 10 the next

night. i think it's a world class feel. what all of the candidates have in common, all of those people are beating him in head to head polls. i thought that was interesting. our goal is to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to communicate their vision to the american people. we created the rules early. we're less than two weeks away. we're really excited to partner with all of you and i think the american people are going to see we have a deep bench and what i keep saying is i hope you fall in love. i hope you fall in love with multiple candidates. i predict you will and then when we get our nominee let's all fall in line together because this is the most dangerous president in american history. the most recent segment i was listening to, its scary, the notion that we have to educate people that you can't take information from a foreign adversary. that's really highlighting that. let's just invite foreign

adversaries again to do what they did in 2016. and let's invite them to do it to local election officials. we talk about the campaigns, but this is an invitation to continue to try to hack local election officials and really go after elections. the mueller report, one of the inindictments referenced the fact that there's an effort to go after election officials. but in the meantime i'm excited about the debates and the american people are going to see we have a deep bench. >> let me ask you. nobody is ever happy as you know, in your position. >> i'm kind of learning that one. >> whether you're a preacher or politician or the head of a political party. i'm sure that you'll be hearing this a lot over the next week or so. so you have 20 people there.

why not add two more. why not just add the governor after a red state. would it be that much harder to have one more on each night? >> having ten is going to be a limit. what we did is important from our perspective. we set these rules back earlier this year. we gave them all an ample amount of time. and 14 out of the 20 that qualified including all the women and all the candidates of color met all the grass roots fund-raising thresholds and it really shows the energy of all the campaigns and moving forward. they had a lot of time and a 1% bar, i think is a fair bar. it's hard to get a lower bar than 1%. and so we gave folks a fair

shake and i have great respect for the congressman and i have worked closely with governor bullock. i think they're wonderful people and it would not surprise me at all if they qualified for the debate stage next month but we set forth these rules that are fair. they're unprecedentedly inclusive. >> maybe you can just say if you bring a can of corn we'll let you talk on stage. thank you for being with us. i saw you last night. it was a pleasure. >> i like how you're setting this up. it's very fair. it's going to be a balanced approach that's going to let everyone see a good mix on both nights. thank you. we appreciate it.

i look at the numbers and i thought it was fascinating that if you look at rallies under the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place people in the democratic race right now, most of the people in those crowds are white. and i just wanted to ask, what does mayor pete and elizabeth warren and bernie sanders need to do to start attracting more black voters to their cause? >> well, i think it's very simple. that they must address core issues that effect black voters. one of the things that you and i have always agreed on joe is

that you can't go with the -- what i call liberal establishment who they surround themselves with who talk about their real concerns and i think if we see debates and it may not be who can get the best sound bite but who can convince the public and in this case black voters if you're trying to track us, who can convince them that you best understand our day-to-day life and you can best put that forward and if your successful you can deal with that and i think that many of them are talking to people that are around them that happen to be black rather than talking to the issues that are concerning the people on the ground. that is what donald trump did with a lot of the white blue

collar workers. where the intellectual cerebral conservative talking on the penthouse level, he was talking on the ground and unless democrats talk on the ground in the black community, they will not move the ground in the black community. >> 10 will be in washington d.c. next week to take part in a forum where they will face questions from americans. it's part of an event to address poverty and justice in the country. joining us is the president of repairers of the breach and co-chair of the national poor people's campaign. a national call for moral revival and will be co-hosting the forum. it's great to have you back on the show, reverend. >> thank you. >> what are you hoping to accomplish? this is a fantastic idea. what is the bigger goal? what do you hope to get out of these candidates during this

forum? >> well, one of the things that we look at in 2016 and even before that, we had all of these forums and not one of them focused on poverty, on systemic policy racism as a focus, ecologic ecological devastation and religious nationalism. we have been organizing tens of thousands of people. every race, creed and color. we've been in alabama with black and white women that don't have health care. first we have to shift this narrative. there's 140 million poor people in this country. 43.5% of this nation and there are 40 million more poor whites than there are poor african american in raw numbers. we have to address this. we cannot have any more anemic

conversation that don't deal with the 37 million people on health care. the fact that they die every year of poverty. one third of all the poor people are there in the south. if you look at nuth south particularly in the sunbelt, the states that engage in systemic racist voter suppression also high women poverty, attacking immigrants, denying living wages and denying health care. this is about pushing that to the center and having them listen to people asking questions from the perspective of poverty and low wealth. >> thank you for your text the other day. congratulations to your mother on retirement. >> thank you. >> you said to me in the text that you wanted to bring poverty forward with your co-chairs and i think that both has to be

intersected and you and i have worked together on that. at this forum, are you as you have these people that are of this kind of income level address the candidates? also looking for the candidates that wanted to specifically say how they're going to deal with closing the class gap short-term and long-term? >> yes, sir. and thank you. there's five that we must address simultaneous. policy racism. not cultural racism. but voter suppression, attack on immigrants, continued attacks on our native first nation people. resegregation, high poverty schools, mass incarceration but also the lack of health care and

the lack of living wages and you also must connect to ecological devastation. 4 million that get up in this country and can't buy unleaded water. then you have to address the military in the war economy and then you must address this false distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism that says if you are against guns or for guns and for prayer in the school and against women's right to choose and against gay people and for taxes that somehow that's a moral or godly position. all of these are interlocking injustices that must be addressed simultaneously. that's why at this congress we're having a forum on monday and then we're releasing a poor people's moral budget and an agenda. then on wednesday we're actually meeting with the house budget committee. not just telling their stories but telling the solutions from where they are and then we're

announcing a nine month mobilization tour and a poor people's assess bli and march on washington june 6th, 2020. >> that is what action looks like. reverend, thank you very much. you can watch the candidate's forum exclusively on msnbc.com this monday. >> so we hear a lot from donald trump and supporters of the trump administration that black unemployment is at record lows and yet, obviously there's still such a long way to go. what's the real deal on the ground. is it as real as what donald trump and his team says in. >> first of all, black unemployment is at an all time low. what happened is we have seen unemployment go down but blacks of scale facing the same race

gap they always did. it's like if you have a knife in my back six inches and pull it out three inches. i still have three inches a night he has not addressed how do we deal with closing the race gap. why are we still doubly unemployed? why are we working and not having the wages that can take care of our family and let us not forget that it was black unemployment going down under president obama he just continued the riding of a wave that he had nothing to do with creating. i'm talking about president trump, the genius. >> well, reverend al, we'll be watching politics nation each and every weekend here on msnbc. always good to see you. thank you. >> lift me up. >> lift me up is such a good song. >> it's a great song. we're going to do a lot with that. we're going to shift the culture with that one. >> i believe it. >> joe and me together. we're coming up with a plan. i like it. >> i love it.

>> so the attacks on tanker ships in the gulf has caused a spike in oil prices. we're going to get the economic impact of the increasing tensio tensions. we're back in 30 seconds. tensions we're back in 30 seconds ? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, i've done my job. call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. ♪ >> it is time now for business before the bell with cnbc's brian sullivan.

>> most people do buy gallons of gasoline. listen, there's still a lot of speculation out there. of course secretary of state pompeo saying this is iran's doing. it's going around. i'm sure that you guys have shown it. it looks like an iranian naval boat removing something from the side of the hull of a ship that was attacked. either way a couple of days ago the foreign minister told the german foreign minister at a conference that you can't wage economic war without compromising safety. >> thank you. it's time for final thoughts. joe, what a week. >> what a week it's been. john, what are your final thoughts? >> my final thoughts are i appreciate the dnc chair

permission about the fact that there were rules and there were questions about the polls that were disallowed that would have factored in but there's a couple of candidates who i think have pretty close to zero chance and to have a two-term governor that won lots of trump votes and one of the rising stars of the democratic party not on the stage is a mistake for the party. >> i agree. we'll give them 30 minutes on the two days that we're going to be down there and we'll have our own mini debate. >> as things in iran escalate i worry that this president is on his heels and may lash out in very dangerous and significant ways. i hope he winds up playing a lot of golf and listens to his advisers. >> he already has in some ways.

>> happy birthday mr. president to a far more peaceful year as we move forward and i just have to say to my former republican colleagues and friends put america first. americans first. >> it can't be said enough at this point. that does it for us this morning. stephanie picks up the coverage right now. >> you know we have a lot to get to this morning but we must start with the democratic debates because we're going to find out today which candidates will be on the stage for those big nights. last night the dnc named the 2020 contenders who have officially qualified so how could all of this play out on the stage? and what impact will it have on the very crowded field? we have two people here that know a lot about prepping