found but we don't have time for at that. >> that is what he found, excuse me. he found no collusion and didn't find anything under obstruction. >> a president cannot be charged with a federal crime. >> they made a ruling based on his findings and ne said no obstruction. >> if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. >> two different stories there. >> good morning and welcome. >> what car were they driving in? >> it's a beetle bug. >> i thought it was very small in the back seat. >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's a lot to carry. it monday, june 17th. >> it should seat two men comfortably if it's the presidential limousine. >> wait a second. i have to go back to that for a second. i think the president is leaning

in on george. they're going to show it again. >> see, he can lean. he can lean on his side maybe. he's leaning in. it like in the back seat when you're driving to california and your brother and sister keep going offer the center line. >> he's way over the center line. >> and your dad said get back over the center line or i'm going to beat the hell out of you. he's way over the center line. >> in more ways than one. >> we have jonathan lemire, nick confessore and yamiche alcindor is with us as well.

>> nbc obtained detaste frils f march internal polls that found trump trailing biden in 11 states. in four states where trump edged hillary clinton out by narrow margins that proved decisive in his victory, trump trails biden by double digits. in three of those states, wisconsin, pennsylvania and florida, biden leads sit outside the margin of error. trump also trails the former vice president by 17 points in virginia, 15 points in maine, 14 points in minnesota, 8 points in north carolina, 7 point in maine and 6 points in georgia and 1 point in ohio. he's losing. >> a long, long way to go,

jonathan lemire, iowa, a state he won by eight or nine points. >> i think nine. >> and georgia plus six. people have been saying for a long time georgia and texas are going blue at some point. don't know if this would be the year. all that being said, yes, it is early and trump always underperforms in polls. but we're going to be showing some fox news polls coming up that show considerable problems for the president as well. i'm curious, are you getting information out of the white house that the president is starting to understand this is a real concern, that he has a lot of work to do or does he still think he can go to rallies, ref -- rev up the base and still win. >> he's saying privately, he

keeps saying the polls don't make sense, he doesn't believe them. >> is there any reason why the president says -- as much of a show he puts on, we all know he's got an extraordinary gut when it comes to politics. is there any reason why he believes these polls are so far off? >> he believes the lk trelectors going to look like it was last time, that his support isn't accurately measured in the polls. he believes those people are still there. >> does he believe -- because it would be the opposite of what i believe -- does he believe his voters were at a low water mark? we all know black voting turnout went down for the first time in 20 years. i actually think that the obama coalition was at its lowest ebb that we'll ever see it i think in our lifetimes. >> these are real numbers.

there is certainly concern around the president and it's a couple things. not on do they have to hold on to those midwest battle grounds where they squeaked out victories in 2016 but they know those margins are so tight. they're desperate to try to expand the map. we're seeing the minnesotas, the virginia, the maines, there aren't many places trump can go to swing a blue state. and there are people around the president who are concerned. >> what does it say internally about the white house staff that there are these constant leaks aimed at weakening their boss, the president of the united states? the leaking of the poll? >> we don't know exactly where this leak came from but certainly at minimum, it's a message being sent, like you're in trouble here, you need to get to work. >> it's interesting the president believing these polls are nonsense because, you know,

2016, like i said, was everything had to break donald trump's way. everything from the comey letter ten days out to the comey letter one day out to black voting going down for the first time in 20 years. everything broke his way. as he told me, i could have had ten elections on ten days and probably would have lost nine of them but that one day, that was the day that the stars lined up for me. all that being said, considering everything that's happened over the past several years, i mean, i must say i'm completely at a loss at how he thinks he's going to get where he needs to go to get re-elected again while he still just keeps playing to that small base. >> it's hard to be a black swan president. if you won the first time by upping the expectations, by coming from behind, it easy to tell yourself you could do it again. i think what the polls tell us

is he's consistently unpopular, there are people who voted for him who look back and say, i'm not so sure about that anymore -- c >> can we talk about states quickly. as a guy who grew up cheering for republicans his whole life, can i tell you, republicans don't win wisconsin. like everything has to break just right for republicans to win wisconsin. republicans don't win pennsylvania. i've been calling pennsylvania fool's gold for 20 years. so he won it on that day but i don't think everybody understand what a huge uphill climb it will be for him to do that again. >> he might. >> he's an incumbent president, he is outspending his whole field combined of democrats on

fabz, facebook. it n it's not a referendum on him. it's going to be between two candidates and it's hard to know how it going to be. >> i believe it always a referendum on a sitting president and as far as all of the elections i've seen, we can talk about jimmy carter in '7 of in a second, but this feels a lot like jimmy carter a year before that leelection, a lot le it. >> but jimmy carter didn't carry one element of the bag and that this president is carrying and it's specifically women, women voters. pollsters say the underlying number on women who are clearly most eligible, most likely to vote are devastating against donald trump in terms of not voting for donald trump no matter what. huge number. >> but the only candidate the

obama coalition has come out for is barack obama. he's the first and last president that coalition came out for. >> except in alabama a special election, which is supposed to be extraordinarily low turnout, black voters in the state of alabama came out and voted at the same percentage that they came out to vote when barack obama was at the top of the ticket. that's extraordinary and suggests that donald trump is going to inspire a lot of people to get out and vote this time. >> well, of course the election you're talking about in alabama is doug johns. what we have to remember is doug jones had a long history of being interested in african-american issues, being interested in prosecuting the money responsible for the church bombing that killed those four girls in alabama and then of course you had roy moore, who was very much a child molester

banned from the mall, all sorts of issues. that being said, the president i still think has an advantage here, which is one that i think polls because of 2016, he can look at them and say, yeah, that's what they said last time, i still think i have this. also he has it as much as his presidential tenure as president has been a rollercoaster ride, he's also been consistent in who he is. he's been this wild card. he's been this person who is brash. there's this idea that evangelicals still like him, the economy is still doing well. i should say white evangelicals still like him. in the president's mind he's thinking i've consistently been myself and if i do that again, i can win. >> so the one thing the president does not have going for him this time is the element of surprise. i don't know how i stumbled across it but a trump supporter

put out a campaign where everybody in the media said donald trump will never be president and every democratic candidate said donald trump will never be president. ann coulter said donald trump had the best chance of being president on a show and the whole audience laughed uproarously. the mere suggestion of that donald trump could be elected president brought us and anybody else who said it under withering abuse. >> right. freak out. >> i remember poor, poor nate silver predicted that donald trump was going to win florida and he got absolutely eviscerated and magically his model switched to hillary clinton. so that's the element of surprise that he had. now if you don't think that this isn't like a political bunker

hill where everybody is standing and waiting till they see the whites of their eyes, they are and they're going to take nothing for granted. >> and the surprising evangelicals who support trump, i don't know what they're going to stand for beyond trump because the answer would probably be nothing, since they've let everything go in terms of what they believe in for this president. >> speaking as a guy who grew up as an evangelical, i this i the biggest danger for donald trump among evangelicals is undervote. he'll still win most white evangelicals. and after karl rove said they lost a big chunk of votes kept

that race to make it the nightmare that it was. >> in texas where a democrat being nominee hasn't won since president jimmy carter in 1976, trump leads by just two points. here's more of trump's reaction to those internal polls in a portion of abc news's interview that aired yesterday. >> even your own polls show they're hund rigbehind right no they? >> no, my polls say i'm winning everywhere. >> we've seen reports you're behind in 15 out of 17 states. >> nobody showed you those polls because those polls don't,ist. i ju -- don't exist. >> reporter: those polls results so irritating to the president, that a few seconds he had to call his campaign manager.

>> hold on for a second. just call brad. i want to ask him that question. >> fox news polls show the president trailing several candidates. senator elizabeth warren has a two-point edge. >> it gets a little more difficult, jonathan, when fox news is basically mirroring your own internal pollsters who you're firing are saying. just for everybody to know, this is great news for the president and it's great news for the white house because it finally does allow somebody to walk in and say, mr. president, you're losing, you're losing big, everybody saying it.

>> is there anything who has the guts to say anything to him in the administration right now? name one, somebody. >> he might listen to his daughter who is in there but no. that has been what's happened over the last year and a half, in particular, as the erosion of the guardrails -- >> there are none. >> mind you, it didn't always work. but it doesn't even work. mick mulvaney doesn't even try to empower him, he just tries to make it work. >> nobody who went in, not even ivanka. >> can i ask a question? you said he's not going to believe it. does he not believe it or does he just not admit it publicly -- >> he's not going to admit it

publicly. >> do you think he understands the trouble he's in? >> in 2016 this were moments that he knew he was under the gun and he had to reform. at this point he still believes in himself, he believes that are recreating the comeback narrative, he believes the economy is booming and that will be his vehicle to get re-elected. i think there's a sense he knows it will be close but he can do it. >> you just talked about a booming economy. can you believe any president have these numbers with the unemployment at 6.6% in the nine-year obama recovery? >> no, it's unprecedented with kind of economy. >> the question that i have has he not been shown those numbers before by his own staff? did they come as a surprise to him? that's a question for all of us. but as part of his reaction, his own staff won't show him the pad news. what you saw in the reaction to the nbc report is this ferocious

pushback, stupid, bad polls, old polls but they were real according to brad pascal, just -- >> the response to those poll numbers changed. oh, those aren't true. okay, they're true but they're old, they're bad. his staff, they know there's certain things they can't bring to him. he's a president he doesn't like to be confronted with bad news. they know he'll react, he'll explode. >> can you tell me the last time the president of the united states stood up and spoke exclusively and extensively about the single source, the potential source, of his strength, the american economy? >> no, he just doesn't do it.

he will do it as an aside to attack barack obama or do it as an aside to attack somebody else but, i mean, man, if i'm sitting there, this is all i'm doing. i'm not tweeting, i'm in the doing anything. i'm just going around from one factory to nor factory, to another entrepreneurial company to another. my gosh, the guy could be sitting at 50% with these numbers, but he gets in his way every day. >> he should be in a factory in ohio every day or some place where he can display the economy doing well. >> he can't actually care about that. >> still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> but that's the thing, it's in his on pebest interest. last week when he said -- i forg forget, what did he say?

>> he'd get help from a foreign country. >> everybody goes, he's evil, he's evil. while he's got three people in the back room sending e-mails to russia saying we'll kill him! >> a mr. magoo presidency. >> if he is completely oblivious to the train that's coming, then he's going to get run over. >> i think he's somewhat oblivious. still ahead, iran is stockpiling uranium and facing u.s. allegations of sabotage on the high seas. also, incredible images from hong kong, shows mass demonstrations making beijing very nervous this morning.

plus, new reporting suggests the president is hesitant to brief the president on u.s. cyber attacks on russia offver krns - concerns he might spill the beans to russia. that is bad news. >> over the weekend dallas got hit hard. we had 70 mile-per-hour winds reported in the area. this is time lapse photography. you could see the storm rolling through. 70 mile-per-hour wind gusts rolled through. as we go throughout this afternoon, we'll continue to watch what's happening here in areas of louisiana and then shifting up into the ohio valley. 42 million people at risk.

flash flooding is going to be be a problem here and we could get some service ear storms. washington out washington, d.c., philadelphia, baltimore, later this afternoon around 4 to about 7 p.m. is when the strongest storms will be in this region. then we'll do it against wednesday throughout thursday. it's not until friday that we finally see the rain exiting friday afternoon. it's a very stormy week ahead. if you have airport plans from d.c., philly, baltimore, especially today and to new york city tomorrow, we will have significant delays. we'll be dodging rain drops right through the next couple days. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. oe." we'll be right back. here are even more reasons to join t-mobile. 1. do you like netflix? sure you do. that's why it's on us.

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they're after my financial statement, the senate. at some point i hope they get it. >> you going to turn it over? >> i might. at some point i hope they get it because it's a fantastic financial statement. it's a fantastic financial statement. let's do that over. he's coughing in the middle of my answer. i don't like that. >> your chief of staff. >> if you're going to cough, leave the room. >> you want to do that a little differently then? >> yeah. we just changed the angle. >> so at some point i look forward to -- frankly, i'd like to have people see my financial statement. >> whoa. >> i mean -- >> that was on purpose. >> what was on purpose? >> he coughed on purpose. he didn't want him to continue going down that financial, you know, they're beautiful and --

>> i'm so sorry, mr. trump. >> you saw the flash of the president's temper, though. that is how he often deals with staff. a number of his aides say he will turn like that. he's mindful of television. and don't cough, later. >> that's what i do when i want to you be quiet. sometimes i just hit you. >> the contempt in his voice. imagine being in his core staff and having that go on all day. you have to treat your people well. >> i think this is the big story of the day. the u.s. is ramping up digital attacks on russia's power grid in an effort to deter future cyber activity. it was conducted under new cyber authorities citing currents and former government officials. two administration officials tell the paper they believed trump had not been briefed in any detail about the operation,

while pentagon and intelligence officials, quote, described broad hesitation to go into detail with the president about operations against russia for concern over his reaction. and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in syria to the russian foreign minister. after the "new york times" published that story, president trump accused the paper -- the paper -- off engaging in treaso. >> so he's saying it was a true story by saying it was treason. >> we should go over the definition of treason. yes, we should. he probably never watches but he does. trump lashed out in a pair of tweets on saturday night writing, quote, do you believe that the failing "new york times" just did a story stating

that the united states is substantially increasing cyber attacks on russia. this is a virtual act of treason by a once great paper so desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our country. he also called the story not true, adding anything goes with our corrupt news media today. they will do or say whatever it takes with not even the slightest thought of consequence. these are true cowards and kout doubt the enemy of the people. the "times" responded to trump writing accusing the press of treason is dangerous. he said they had spoken to his own national security officials and there were no concerns. >> jonathan, obviously the president says it's treasonous, suggesting that the story is true and then comes back and says it is yet another lie. but obviously so many concerns

here. the main one that the pentagon and intel officials for good reason understand that when they're running operations against russia, it's dangerous to talk to the president of the united states, who has long said he trusts the word of vladimir putin than his on military intel officers. >> right. there's a concern here that the president himself is a national security risk in terms of potentially leaking information to a hostile foreign power. going back to what we said last segment, there are certain subjects at the white house you know you cannot bring up to him, russia on the top of the list, that it will delegitimize his victory or they feel he will side with russia, like in helsinki. the concern that he is a

national security risk is a statement, the government said so himself by saying the government is open for business. wh what. >> what do you make of all this? >> i think the president is frustrated with the fact that people in his own government aren't trusting him with intelligence information. "the new york times," a great paper that he reads pretty regularly, his hometown paper, that they can get information out of people saying we're not sure if we can trust the president with information on russia must deeply frustrate him. and at the core, he's been making this argument that there's some sort of deep state against him. it says that there are people all around the president who are essentially trying to shield him

from information. if we look at the impact internationally, the president calling the media treasonous it, might not have a direct impact on american journalists, we'll keep doing our jobs but i think all around the world there are foreign governments looking at the president's words and then using them against journalists abroad. we're seeing journalists get killed, be jailed. i think it's still very, very dangerous, as "the new york times" said. >> this is just an aspect, an element of the continued assault he has waged against the intelligence community. this is not a surprise that the intelligence community would be hesitant about sharing vital information regarding russia with the president. and the other aspect of this story that is truly dangerous is the flippant use of the word treason, especially when applied to the news media. i believe if you look up the definition of treason, one element of that definition is it's punishable by death. and he uses it so flippantly

that it creates a huge amount of anger, resentment in his rallies towards the media. we've seen it over and over and over again. >> peter alexander brought that up to him and he said, yeah, yeah, and then went on to name comey and others. so you actually had a sitting president talking about the treason and the execution of members of the press, of an fbi director he didn't approve of, of fbi agents. it's important that donald trump supporters who suggest that this is all a bunch of fouhy and a whole lot of nothing really do focus in on the dangers of where we are and where we are going, whether they like the "new york times" or joe biden or elizabeth warren or "morning joe" or whatever. he's crossed so many lines. and calling for the death,

treason and by extension the execution of his political opponent and members of the press, i mean, that takes you to putin's russia. i kind of think that's what we were fighting against the soviets for, mika, for 50 years, 60 years. >> still ahead, secretary of state mike pompeo is blaming iran for the two tanker attacks that took place last week. we weigh in on the escalating tensions and the confusion next on "morning joe." my experience with usaa has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family

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these were attacks by the islam beiic republic of iran wi clear intent to deny transit through the strait. there is data and evidence. the world will see much of it. the iranians should understand very clearly we will continue to take actions to deter iran from engaging in this kind of behavior. >> that was secretary of state

mike pompeo assuring there is additional proof linking iran to attacks on two oil tankers in the gulf of oman last week. some u.s. allies, including japan and germany, have requested stronger evidence than the video released by the pentagon appearing to show an iranian patrol boat removing what is said to be an unexploded mine from one of the ships. meanwhile, the associated press reports this morning that iran says it will break the uranium stockpile limit set by the world deal in the next ten days. a spokesman for that country's atomic energy said they have a need for enriched uranium. the president pulled us out of the deal last year.

>> so, ben, a lot to talk to you about. what's the impact of iran breaking the uranium stockpile limits? >> it shows the european efforts over the last year since trump pulled out to keep iran in the deal are beginning to unravel in the face of trump stacking up sanctions on iran, designating the revolutionary guard as a terrorist organization. the europeans are trying to coax iran into staying in the deal i think at least through the u.s. presidential election. this shows you the political winds in iran are shifting -- >> is this because the economy continues to go down because the sanctions are having a big impact? >> yeah. the promised goal in president rouhani was to relief pressure on the economy. instead he got an even worse economy because of the sanctions that trump has stacked up since the deal. the problem is there is what we always said. up either have a nuclear deal

like the one we negotiated in place or you're stuck in a position where iran is escalating its nuclear program and we have to make the choice to use military action. unfortunately because of how trump has handled this, we're dealing with the situation completely isolated from our closest allies in the world. >> because of how trump is handling this but you look at how the iranians have been behaving and acting across the region, something that the president and you both said this nuclear deal is completely separate from their other actions, but what does it benefit iran to continue to stay outside the realm of the respected world community? at what point does somebody inside that country say let's try another way? let's work to get these sanctions lifted? >> the problem, joe, is that they tried that. so rouhani and the foreign minister, their argument was let's try another way, this program is not working. trump said that not only would

the iran deal put us in a stronger position to pressure them on the nuclear deal, he said it would change their behavior in the region. we've seen the opposite. they've continued or even escalated their actions in the reasonable and. you have a binary choice. do you try to negotiate a diplomatic agreement with iran or do you go down the pat of escalation that risks a very significant war? >> let me follow up with that question. yes, they agreed to the nuclear deal. at the same time, they were still causing trouble throughout the region, which leads to the bigger question, which i always love asking because nobody seems to have the answer. maybe you do. who is in charge of iran? >> the supreme leader is in charge of iran. the mismanagement that a guy like rouhani came into the presidency and was empowered to

negotiate this deal. for years we negotiate with other countries, all the major powers in the world the limits on the iranian nuclear program. if iran comes in with a new president and decide to break that, they say see, we were wrong to trust diplomacy and leaves allies fuming that we have precipitated a crisis that the iranian nuclear deal was supposed to avoid. >> there's a bizarre checks and balances system where you have rouhani, you have the supreme leader and then you have the revolutionary guard who sometimes seem to be independent players themselves. >> yes. what we saw we have the revolutionary guard over here and rouhani over here trying to pursue a path of engagement with the west. everything that trump has done has contradicted his aims because it's empowered the worst

people in iran who are quite comfortable being in an adversarial position with the united states. that's where they've been for the last 30 years. unfortunately again it leaves us would even worse options than we had before. >> so secretary pompeo and the trump saying iran is behind the attacks on the u.s. tankers. u.s. allies are saying they need more evidence. >> nobody should be surprised where we are. when we have an administration with this degree of a credibility gap, allies are not going to trust you. the reality is when trump pulled out of the iran nuclear agreement, he lied about it. he said iran wasn't complying. that was his rationale for months. he refused to certify the deal even though iran was complying.

so he has a credibility gap. if you want to pin the blame on iran, you're going to have to do extra due diligence and have some kind of international investigation. it means we're isolated in trying to pin the blame on the iranians. >> yamiche. >> the president said because he pulled out of the iran nuclear deal, it is effectively done. is the president right? >> he's right in the sense that the united states is not living up to our obligations under the deal. we are not providing the sanctions relief the iranians were supposed to get. the iranians have done everything they were supposed to do in terms of rolling back their nuclear programs, submitting to inspections, shipping out 98% of their stockpile. now what the iranians are doing after a year of europeans saying

with work with us, stay in the framework of this agreement, it's still technically on the books, right, it still exists as something that was negotiated among the six major world powers and the iranians and the iran i ians have apparently reached the limit of their frustrations. what's interesting is they're not just tearing up the deal, not kicking out all the inspectors, not restarting all of their centrifuges. we have to do something to respond to what trump has been doing for year so we'll start by testing the limits on this enriched uranium. i think it's a very dangerous place to be and escalation in the middle east can lead very quickly to shooting. >> put us in the white house, in the minds of president trump, pompeo and bolton, what is theirnd game? what do they think is going to be the outcome of the policies they are pursuing with iran? >> this is a very important

question because nobody knows, right? because bolton and pompeo, if you look at their history of the things they said before they were in office, it suggests they want a military conflict with iran, a regime change with iran and president trump has been very ballistic in his rhetoric with iran but says he doesn't want a war. we've had no second. by all reports, jim mattis, who was no softy on iran, he was blocking some of these more belligerent moves. ever since that secretary of defense chair was vacated, you've seen this rachething up of tngss. it seems they don't want somebody in the chair who is going to push back. in the situation room, the main story is you don't have a a second and haven't had one for six months. that's unprecedented in our history and doesn't get a lot of attention. that's allowing bolton and

pompeo to take over and comely drive this policy and i'm i'mafd that could lead to a real war. >> some fascinating developments in hong kong. we weren't sure how china or beijing would erespond brespond after apologies, protesters still spilling out into the streets. what's happening? >> i think this is inspiring and is good news. we've seen the chinese try to essentially eliminate the de facto economy in hong kong, eliminate civil liberties in hong kong. if i'm sitting in hong kong with relative freedom, i'm thinking the chinese could see my e-mail and i could end up in a chinese

prison. for all of house care about the contest between authoritarianism and democracy in the world, we learned human beings would rather be free, rather not have a boot on their throat. we should be supporting them. i don't hear that from president trump but i hope that we will. >> it's a great moment. >> ben rhodes, thank you very much. good to have you back on the show. still ahead, president trump has been focusing his recent remarks on joe biden but senator elizabeth warren made her name attacking wall street but can her economic plans set her apart in a crowded democratic field? we have more reporting on that next on "morning joe." ♪ hi. maria ramirez!

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a national poll shows a tightening race for second place, joe biden down 3 points while senator bernie sanders falls to 13%, just four points ahead of elizabeth warren. south carolina voters shows joe biden falling 9 points to 27% and senator elizabeth warren rising 9 points to 17%. those numbers why suggest why president trump's reelection team is reportedly turning its attention to senator warren. according to politico, trump's team cites warren's disciplined style, populous infused speeches and perceived ability to win over female voters for their concerns. one campaign pollster has

sounded the alarms internally saying that she threatens to undercut his support from the working class voters who propelled him to the presidency. joining us, sheila, with a piece "can elizabeth warren win it all? so can she? she's had a message from the get get-go and she's had a message her entire life and i do believe that makes a difference, especially now when it's the voters that are being let down that elizabeth warren has been fighting for her whole life. >> she's really an expert on the mied. s -- middle class. >> i believe one of her senior projects that she did at harvard

was on bankruptcy and she sat on bankruptcy court and looked at the people coming in and said these are real people who really tried. >> she could see family after family taking on all sorts of debt to compensate for the fact that someone had lost a job and their wages are not going up and she predicted what is going on economically that himself led us into this little pick that will we're in where you have a large group of people who feel they are just not getting ahead economically, mean child their extenses are going up. >> everyone i spoke to said she has the best idea, i love her message, she could never win and people are not saying that anymore. she conducted this really slow and steady and sub ststanctive

pa cam -- campaign. she is slowly winning people over. >> here base has been so far what we call high-information voters, more educated voters, white voters, more liberal voters. does she have a plan for attracting working class voters, for crossing over, for getting more of that biden vote and eventually in a general election some of the trump vote? >> one thing she pointed out to me during one of our interviews that a lot of what she says is similar to what steve bannon has been saying for a long time, that basically as long democrats and trump in his case are focused on economic issues that speak to middle class voters, they're going to win and she's really taken that to heart in a way. so she's been really ignoring all of the identity politics, the kind of social justice stuff that's dominated some of the other cam pans and she's just focused on day-to-day economic

challenges. >> yamiche has a question for you. >> you just said something really interesting, which is she hasn't been focused on the identity politics and social justice issues, but a big part of the democratic base is african-american women. can you talk to me about what connection she thinks she's forming with that group and whether or not she might pivot to talk about those things? >> i saw her address the al sharpton national action network conference here in new york, and it was really interesting, she spent her entire talk speaking about child care and she had a lot of data about how child care expenses especially affect african-american women. i could see she was really making an effort to connect with that group of voters. she said, listen, i have been there, i have been a struggling single mom, trying to find someone to take care of my kids. this is what's holding the african-american community back economically, the fact that women don't have access to

affordable, high-quality child care. she released a plan that's to promote investments to people of color. she is focusing on that. i don't know whether that group of voters are going to respond to her. we have yet to see. many of the campaign events i tended were in very homogeneous areas. iowa. >> the one thing we noticed about her is she just loves doing this. that's part of it. she will one voter at a time work them over and enjoy every minute of the conversation. we'll be looking for your piece in the latest issue of "the new yorker." sheelah kolhatkar, come back. president trump insists he never planned to fire special counsel robert mueller and that part of the reason was richard nixon. we'll play for you that piece of

sound. plus the trump campaign cuts ties with some of its pollsters after damaging internal numbers get leaked. trump says he's winning everywhere but the polling seems to say something else. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but dad, you've got allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. are you in good hands?

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back -- >> no, he didn't walk it back. >> yes, he did. he said he'd listen first and if the information was bad, he would take it to the fbi or attorney general. he also made it clear to stegeo stephanopoulos that he didn't see it as interference. dating bark to george washington, it's been said that foreign interference in our election is unacceptable. >> president trump believes that, too. i have nothing more to add. >> wow. >> if you're going to cross somebody, get you a list of people to cross, right? a journalist to cross, host -- chris wallace is not on that list. who is mike pompeo to say that chris wallace asks a ridiculous question when he's just stating

the truth? what a joke. and what a disgrace for mike pompeo to be given all the opportunities he's been given in life, to get the degrees, to be able to go to the best schools in the world and to use that ability, to use his talents, to use his background to make a fool of himself and lie for the president of the united states and excuse the president of the united states saying that, yes, there's nothing wrong with accepting information from foreign hostile powers. that's what the secretary just said. and he attacks chris wallace. administration officials need to figure out you just don't win when you do that. >> that question was an easy question with a simple answer, no. and until 2015 there is not a single secretary of state in american history who would have wondered what the answer to that

question was or doubted what the right answer was and that is a mark of the president's hold on his party and his staff that he can't be contradicted on this very basic thing. >> jonathan lemire, this guy is apparently running for senator or something? being a toty for the president of the united states doesn't work out well for you in the long run. what donald trump can get away with is no more transferable than what bill clinton could get away with, was not transferable to hillary clinton, just like what ronald reagan could get away with politically, you know, teflon, was not transferable to george h.w. bush. this is not transferlabltransfe. these people are going to get pounded when they leave trump's shadow. >> they come out tarnished in the end and their reputation

damaged and in tatters. even if the short term, it's about credibility. we were just talking the last segment about iran and secretary of state pompeo is supposed to be the voice of the american people, outline what the american government believes is happening there and yet the world watches this seeing him defend the president saying he would accept information from a foreign power to damage a political opponent. >> from several sources, not just one source, the secretary of state is a combination of arrogance and ambition that would have him setting his sights on something far higher than the senate seat from kansas. he thinks he could be president of the united states and who could blame him looking at who he works for and how who he works for operates. >> i know donald trump, donald trump was a friend of mine and mike pompeo, you're no donald

trump. seriously, if you think you can do what donald trump can do, that's a joke. the skills, the talents, whatever want to call it and i'm not talking about good or bad or whatever, this is a value-free political assessment of an athlete, none of these clowns can do what donald trump did. you can't play his game because you're going to lose. let's bring in tom nichols. come on, crank it up. >> what is that sound? it's awful. >> it's zeplin. >> i'm going to let it play a second time. >> no, i don't want to hear this. ♪ >> we're going to also bring you pulitzer prize winner for "the washington post" jonathan ca

capehart who asked we play a little brahms for him. >> where is it? >> you're asking me why i am not going to vote for any republicans until this nonsense ends. you have a secretary of state that explains why, a secretary of state as nick confessore said, the first secretary of state in the history of this great republic to not answer a question is it okay for a president to accept benefits from foreign adversaries. he could not answer the question. and of course attacks chris wallace. not a smart move on so many front. >> yeah, it's a real brain teaser on whether or not to accept foreign hem in an american election. it's mystifying and a stumper

for people in the republican party. one of the things going on is the president is clever. i won't say he's smart about this but there's a cleverness where he's saying he would do things in the future as a way of retroactively justifying something he's done in the past. so when he's asked would do you this, he's says, yeah, i will do it because he wants to be consistent because the question is going to come up again did you do it in the past? and i think he wants to say i did it once, if i do it again, it's not a big deal and he's acclimating people to getting used to it. and the problem is people like pompeo who ought to know better and i think does no better, they have no choice but to get on board with this and simply say that's the line from the boss, that's the line i have to defend because otherwise they fall out of grace and they're either fired or they have to walk out.

there really is nothing left of the republican party other than this cultive personality that has to clan up after the president every weekend. >> it's time to move on. let's play the game in a emergen -- that "morning joe"'s been playing since 1947. what would they say, right, what would republicans say if barack obama had said this? >> one year ago today you were in singapore right of a your ming with kim jong un and you told me that you trust him and ut put there's no longer a nuclear threat from north korea. but there is a nuclear threat, isn't there? >> it could change. there's been no nuclear testing,

except for very short range. i think we've made tremendous progress. i will let you know if it goes the other way and it can and it can happen instantly but we've done a very good job. >> do you think he's still building nuclear weapons in. >> i don't know. i hope not. he promsed me he wouldn't be. >> so you still trust him? >> i couldn't it will you that, it would be very insulting o him. but the answer is i believe he would like o do something. i believe he respects me. i get along with him really well. i think i understand him and i think he understands me. >> oh my god. >> charles nell san reilly, what would they say. mike barnicle. >> imagine if obama ever said

that about president rouhani. >> it's unbelievable. this blind spot is has boggled me. the president of the united states said he trs trusts me, he promised me so i'll this is how the president conducts foreign policy with thone-to-one person connections. >> i kind of watched his brain freeze. i couldn't tell if it was that he wasn't sure what the answer was. i can't tell if he's

pro-collusion or collusion curious now. if collusion is so good, he has spent a year denying he colluded and now he's like conclusion is no big deal. >> high said no penalty for whatever appearance of collusion that happened last time so why wouldn't you do it again? >> a new fox poll shows trump dealing self of -- senator bernie sanders leads trump by 9 points while senator blaurch has a two-point edge and kamala harris and pete buttigieg are up by one point.

npc on taund details from an internal poll that found trump trailing biden. in four states where trump edged hillary clinton by narrow margins that proved decisive in his victory, trump trails biden by double digits. in three of those states, virginia, pennsylvania and florida, biden leads sit outside the margin of error. trump trails the vice president by 17 points in virginia, 15 points in maine, 14 points in minnesota, 8 points in north carolina, 7 points in iowa, 6 points in georgia and 1 point in ohio. in texas where a democratic nominee hasn't won since president jimmy carter in 1976,

trump leads by just two points. >> jonathan lemire, that is what you would call a walloping and especially bad news considering the states -- i'm sorry, jonathan capehart. >> especially the states, wisconsin, michigan and florida, three state where he leads by -- biden leads by double digits, those are critical to donald trump. >> yeah, he can't be reelected president without those states. and i think what those numbers also show is there is a fatigue for the quarter, hourly chaos the country has been living through since he came down that escalator, what, three, four years ago yesterday.

my inlaws live in north korea, deep red state. they have a house moving business. thimgs a things are not going very well and we know that because of tariffs and the price of soy beans. the farmers out there are not doing well. i would love to see what are the president's poll numbers in those deep red states where it's assumed the president is going to win but maybe he's not going to win by much. the president decided to go outside of the safe space of fox news to give an interview for 30 hours to george stephanopoulos and it just sort of shows why those poll numbers are so bad. i can't remember who was talking about the president trying to figure out what he was going to say in answer to some of those questions but in watching the

president, i was taken you'll all the way back to that town hall that then candidate donald trump did with our own chris matthews, when chris pressed him on whether he thought women should be prosecuted if this had aborti abortion. as what we just saw in those clips that you played. in highly time around that table and anyone who is in any of the studios here in wap, isn't doing very well states that he needs to win shouldn't be a surprise to the president or his team. >> nick, jonathan talked about the safe confines of fox news. nothing is safe about the knocks

said he was ahead in all other states. we get the polls to show he's losing. he it fake news but then fox news comes out. fox news comes out and shows him getting walloped by joe biden double digits, losing to mayor pete, losing to elizabeth warren, losing to kamala harris, losing by 9 points to bernie sanders. >> the polls all say the same thing, the president is in trouble, he faces an uphill climb. i had a question for tom, though. putting these two things together, you have often criticized the white house as being a bit of a personal around the president where reality has to be bent around what he already believes.

what happens when that mentality heads over to the campaign team and the president can't be told news he doesn't want to hear and they start to build models for polling that reflect the reality that he would like to see? >> yeah, that's going to be a problem on the road but the president's argument i think is going to be that's what you told me the last time and that's what you guys tried to get me to do the the last on is he's not going to have the advantage of running against hillary clinton this time, where there was kind of a built-in back stop for a lot of voters who may have said i may not like trump but there's no way i'm voting for hillary clinton. almost any of these democrats are going to be a lot less unpopular than hillary clinton. my big concern here is also a

detachment on the democratic side where they may be rushing head long to in in and they may well be able to reorient him for he's getting deeper into denial in a way that he wasn't in 2016. >> let's look at the democratic polls really quickly. and when we had the fox news poll, ne also looked at the democratic polls. it's interesting, you have joe biden, mike barnicle, still doing very well. heeps at 32%. bernie sanders at 13%. what a gap.

blaurch elizabeth warren at 9%, mayor pete a 8%, kamala harris at 8, beto o'rourke at h4, and there' also a pole in south carolina. i would suggest it's the most important poll because disproportionately iowa and new hampshire are disproportionately white. south carolina is the first look, biden at 37%, elizabeth warren 17%, buttigieg 11, kamala

harris 9, sanders 9 and booker at 5%. >> it's going to be crucial for biden. >> that's why he has to stay aggressive and stay brief. >> if you are the front-runner and you only get three and a half minutes, six minutes, whatever you get for the entire night, it's pretty easy to put it in prevent. >> the other aspect of these polls that is truly interesting and you talk to a lot of democrats affiliated with different campaigns is the top four in the south carolina poll that we just saw and the matchup with trump and the other poll that we saw, those top four, joe biden, warren, buttigieg and kamala harris, they get back to tom's point about trump will not be running against hillary

clinton and those top four all have the capacity to in a one-on-one debate drive the president of the united states up the wall. bernie sanders not so much because he can do socialism, socialism, socialism. >> we keep forgetting. hillary clinton was the worst candidate to run against -- >> he'll mention her in his big rally. >> they still do lock her up. >> she had the second highest unfavorables ever. >> and some issues that made her incapable of attacking him where it counts. >> at the end of the day -- >> all these people can. >> hillary did not have a good campaign, didn't have a good message, they did al for rit s when she broke out on her own

and ran for the senate in 2000, it was like she was politically reborn. but all of that caught back up to her in' 16. these are going to actually be, other than biden, a lot of fresh faces for the democratic party. >> right. some of that bag and was you a some of that baggage -- it will be the subsequent debates where the field starts to narrow where biden, there's more potential for danger for him. >> it could be a wash. there could be so many candid e

candidates that nothing really moves the meter. elizabeth warren is not with the top-tier candidates. >> she's on night one. >> do you think it helps or hurts her? >>. >> as a lot of really imprsi wouldn't be surprise if we see some movement there, at the time, it going to. welfare reform, look, there's one clear thing from that south carolina poll, if senator warner, he is going to be the nominee. that has to change. the others are splitting the lefty/righty voters.

that is going to have to change at some point and somebody is going to have to beat the front-runner if they want to be the front-runner. >> we've been saying it for some time and you have, too, the most important votes are are not those in iowa and new hampshire and people in manhattan and washington tv studios. they are older black voters, women black voters. that is the back bone of the democratic party and if you're mayor pete, exciting everybody in manhattan and washington, d.c. but getting zero percent from black voters, well, enjoy your run. that's the challenge for all of them. >> that is why what percentage of thattin crease is what iowa

and new hampshire are disproportionately white, which is why the democratic party gave the third slot to south carolina because the electorate in south carolina is disproportionately african-american. if you can win in south carolina, then you stand a very good chance of maybe winning the nomination, especially when super tuesday, when a lot of the states in the south with big black electorates go out to vote, that sends a signal to them. there as a reason why joe biden is leading in south carolina, because of those african-american voters, it canly older african-american votes are who railroad returning his message to south carolina, perhaps his message is breaking through. as we see more polls coming out of south carolina as we get close to if because he is

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rising support to impeach trump. this is 48% say congress should not hold impeachment proceedings, a number that is steady from last month. yesterday the president tweeted almost 70% in new polls say don't impeach. so ridiculous to even be talking about this subject when all of the crimes were committed by the other side. they can't win the election fairly. gosh, he really talks about himself in all these tweets. it's really sort of exuding what's really happening on his end. joining us now, assistant speaker of the house, democratic congressman ben way lujan of new mexico, the highest ranking hispanic in congress and a candidate for the u.s. senate. great to have you back. >> our secretary of state was a dear friend of mine was in the primary and gary clark is the on announced republican in the race right now.

>> doidn't he work for trump? >> he did. he got in a little bit of trouble, plagiarism, didn't do so well in a statewide race. >> so what are your thoughts on impeachment right now? a lot of people pushing democrats to move forward on impeachment. the poll numbers while they're moving, they certainly doesn't seem to support it. >> what seems clear is everyone across the country, at least most people across the country want us to continue investigating, getting questions to answers that are still pending. there were some important victories in may where we were successful in court in being very clear that congress has oversight responsibilities and that they should not be impeded and at the end of may where the courts said that the financial document that president trump was trying to blanc wiock with

deutsche bank should not be blocked. that concern money land underin and other crimes that may have existed. that's what the six committees are doing. it's not just the investigations surrounding the president's behavior with those investigations, it's also how he's stonewalling the ability for us to look into the sabotage of the pay fordable care act, looking at what this committee is doing as a poll. >> but when you have the president actually saying in rool team a he would get reports from a foreign entity, which prove the mueller report every step of the way, you've got a problem, don't you? there are basic issues of right and wrong and threats to our national security. having said that, you still have so much work to do to get the

american public informed. is that really the conundrum when it comes to paechlt? it critically important that we continue to engage the person people. i would that if we believe were given to the campaign from the russians in the next lks, that he would kbladly this many. what they should be doing is saying mr. president, that's wrong, that's illegal, the staugs doesn't allow it, your oath of office doesn't allow it. it's horrible. >> ridiculous. 48% of americans say they don't want impeachment hearings to move forward but 51% of americans are saying, hey, we do want impeachment or keep

investigating. and in so doing or making not on the president but also republicans including mitch mcconnell look really out of touch for saying case closed. the american people don't think the case is closed. they don't think it's anywhere near closed. >> well, let's stipulate two things. first, let's stipulate that if this were any other president with a d after his name, republicans would have dashed far beyond anybody else to impeach and, you know, burn washington to the ground. i think on that are's but let's also stipulate the senate is never going to convict. so what is the value of an impeachment? increasingly the argument that's overtaking the expedient

argument, does it help, is it good or bad for the democrats? there's a larger argument that there has to be some fidelity to the constitution here. even if the senate for partisan reasons season isn't there has to be a single evident if you can't compete on these issues, this, you might as well just scratch it out of the constitution. so i think increasingly in that very nair spl in going through this exercise to finally air these issues and to get taught and to get it over with, rather than to avoid this constitutional duty just for,

paidensy. i don't think it's going to hurt the krarts as much as it would about why this should be done. i think what he said over the weekend, would probably be a stand-alone charge all by itself. but i think increasingly the argument has to be there is some good constitutional reason to do this even if the senate for its own reasons will never convict. >> switching gears to immigration, you're co-sponsor of the is he doing his job responsibly? what's going on here? >> absolutely not. mitch mc.

>> i think it's absolute will you irresponsible remember, wasn't too longing a where the senate passed a bipartisan there could be an effort to pass some legislation that we can get immigration reforms can the that's why they never passed. we got to got this done. >> mr. me ask lower premiums, it's going to be much better than obamacare. instead republicans are suing to try to take away even there are

lot pop, though, who can't and it's a life-or-death drug and if they don't get insulin regularly or the way they need it, enthrou enthrou enthroughcost for ins lynns is 1/10 of what it is in united stat stateswhat in the world is going to be done about health care? woor sit in -- why is it tn

times higher than america fmt woor going to get him, we're going to negotiate, it's going to be even better. why aren't we doing it? does big pharma own donald trump, too? >> i'm very concerned when the president makes a promise, he generally means the opposite of wa but it's also why when. >> it's imperative that mcalike fix this? i don't understand. r

reb. >> again, this is an area where we're going to give our republican colleagues a chance in the os that will lower the ks preask with the high ks. from. assistance speaker of the house sfsh and a spgs stronghold and democratic downturn that tn 2016. chris will join us next on "morning joe." ♪ sing my song

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the problem i have right now is that donald trump and the republican establishment supporting, that portion who

supports him, they're the kind of guys we grew up with in high school, who because they even had money or popular or were the big athlete, there weren't many of them, who thought somehow they were entitled to treat people differently. >> that was then vice president joe biden campaigning in dayton, ohio in the final weeks of the 2016 election. tonight chris matthews will hold a special town hall in dayton where he will speak with voters who could rewrite the map givag come 2020. chris joins us again. i love it. >> i hope tonight, mika, he'll go "where the rubber hits the road, let's play "hardball." >> i loved dean's list. the open needs to be two to three words, mean one, never more than three. never four. okay? >> oh, my gosh.

see, this is like "new york post" headlines stuff. >> dean's list! >> now that we told you how to start your show for the first three seconds, tell us what the other hour is going to look looloo like. >> how about let him talk. >> yes! >> i love it! >> john lemire, how about bar fight. >> bar fight, yes. >> chris, go. >> we talk about the working class, white working class and we don't hear from them. i think there's a chance for a little excitement, a little lightning to strike tonight because what i want to do is open the show with a bang and get people right out front. why do you like trump? why are you still with this guy? people who don't like him. most sides don't listen to each

other. i want people within two, three feet of each other. i don't want them yelling, necessarily, they can if they want. i want them to hear each other. that's something we haven't had in this country, a real country with some passion. we're all patriots here or we wouldn't be in this room tonight, we wouldn't be watching tonight. let's fight this thing out a little bit. that's what i think it's going to be like tonight. >> i'm sure you saw some of the polls, the polls that got the president's pollsters fired but also that showed the fox news polls that showed joe biden doing extremely well, way ahead. i know it's awfully early right now but what are your thoughts about the president losing by double digits in wisconsin, michigan and florida? >> mika, you and i watch these polls that show 89% backing president trump, if he's 89%, he

loses. you don't got to take the trump vote back, you just got to take back 20 points. a guide like biden can do it. warren, maybe. warren's always been a question mark for me, kamala harris or budg buttigieg. people vote for somebody like themselves. he's catholic, he's middle class, he seems moderate, he's patriotic. i liked him with obama. i can see with the things up front, the profile looks good. that'sbiden's challenge. can you be the guy from now until next november. that's a long road to get to there. i would ask questions like -- you would ask the same questions. what would it take for you to vote for a democrat? you're back and forth. what would take you back again. i think that's the question.

>> chris, what's interesting what you just said about what your intent is tonight and your encapsulation of joe biden in attempting to grab some of the trump vote is that there are some in the democratic field to. >> instead of realizing if you look around, a substantial percentage of people who voted for donald trump, guess where they live? next door, down the street. that's the interesting aspect i'm going to looking for in a dialogue for the people who have been left behind, nobody is speaking for us and that's why we articulated for trump. i'll be interested in hearing from them tonight. >> exactly what i think.

they know there is a great party going along with all the liberal ee let and hollywood buddies and they want invited. that's the attitude people have. a friend of mine once said, people don't like -- in relationships between men and women. people don't mind being used but they mind feeling discarded. the democrats have a lot of people who feel discarded. by the way, people look down their nose. it is one thing to disagree about a dorbortion rights. don't make fun of the other side. don't make fun of the prolife people and think they are low brows. they not only disagree with me, they look down on me. oh, trump played the life vote

brilliantly and he'll probably do it again. you got to be careful about whose feelings you may be hurting. >> we'll go to dayton and take a listen. >> people don't like the way he goes about doing it but that's trump, whether you like it or not. the bottom line, he's getting things done. >> economically for me, it seems to be 100% better. >> if i would want a preacher up in the white house, i would have voted a preacher guy in. >> i'm hearing that a lot too. with a lot of my friends and family members and others who just the things that bother us. him saying he would accept help from enemies to win elections just goes over the head of a lot of voters.

he's disrupting things. things are fine. again, talking about the economy. he talked about health care in the last block. he's done nothing on health care. he cut taxes for his richest buddies and not really helping people. >> i think it is a rationalization. i think there were people who voted for him hoping desperately that they were going to benefit somehow, which is a normal reason people vote. he turned out to be far worse than they expected. one of the things we used to hear in 2016. he's just an act. he's not really like this. this is something he's doing for the campaign. it turns out, no he reeally is like this. two years later, they are saying, it is the way he is. it doesn't really bother me. this is going back to thele

polling. this is the time in the campaign where people say, sure, i'm open to all kinds of ideas. once there is a nominee and once this becomes a two-person race, they dig in and say, i could have voted for the democrat but he is a communist, he should be in jail, he's terrifying. one of the things biden is doing that i think is clever but is annoying other democrats, he's trying to present himself as a nonthreatening alternative to that small number of people that might be willing to walk away. the 20% chris was talking about might be willing to walk away from trump. you can vote for me and nothing terrible is going to happen to you. >> hey jonathan. it is jonathan. we saw a clip there. other candidates who are more

liberal than he is. how do you think they will play in a place like dayton, ohio where the president could label them as socialists, which is what he hopes to do? >> this is a piece i've been dying to write and haven't found the time. we keep calling certain policies liberal or that they've been pulling the party far to the left. whi when you look at polling, they are not left at all. they are mainstream. background checks, access to abortion. the party is catching up to where the rest of the country is. as long as the democrats talk about these issues in ways -- and i think they are doing it. in ways that are not, not my liberal bonafida but what i'm going to do to help you.

you are still being ignored. here is what i'm going to do to improve your lives. i think joe just said, the president's tax cuts helped the president's friends but what about the farmers being hit hard by the tariffs and people working two and three jobs still at the current minimum wage working to make ends meet. everybody is be eing affected b this. all 24 of them are talking in ways that reach everybody in the party, in the country, i mean. >> chris, briefly. i know it is hard for you. >> back to the metaphor about the party that we weren't invited to. talk about the dangers of the huge chunk of the democrats on the left running against joe biden saying, hey, old man, go home, your ideas are in the

past. >> you know what, a columnist like you once said that people -- regular people, moderate democrats, working people. they don't show up in primaries. they show up in the election. i just hope the whole process of picking a nominee reflects the whole democratic party. i'm afraid the activists pick will not be the pick that sells to the whole democratic party. i don't know how you make that happen but if they pick a person that only reflects the left, they'll lose the general. that's a fact. you got to reach into those moderate democrats, many of them are prolife. they are not hip in political concerns. i want to hear people who vote democratic and voted for obama. weren't happy with hillary

clinton but would like to have a democrat who lives up to their goals of being a good society. i hope they yell. i want to hear their passion. >> chris matthews, we will be watching your special hour "hardball, the deciders" here at 10:00 p.m. thank you both for being on the show. still ahead, president trump says he's winning everywhere, his leaked internal polling and numbers from fox news say otherwise. we are digging into the numbers and a reporting from "new york times" says the u.s. is ramping up cyber attacks on russia. trump tweeting that that isn't true. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. my experience with usaa

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>> the russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system. >> mueller comes out, no collusion. >> there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. >> he said no collusion. >> he didn't say that. >> he said no collusion. >> we don't have time for that. we'll talk about that later. >> he found no collusion and he didn't find anything having to do with obstruction. >> under longstanding department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime. >> they made a ruling and said no obstruction. >> if we had confidence the president clearly had not committed a crime, we would have said so. >> two different stories there. >> what car were they driving in? >> a beetle bug. a beetle.

>> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." going to be unruly from the get go. i think the president is leaning in on george. it is like the backseat when you are driving to california and your brother and sister keep leaning over the center line. everybody has had that before. see ease over the center line. >> in more ways than one. with us, political reporter from the "new york times" and white house correspondent as well.

cutting ties with some polsters after internal numbers were leaked to the media showing joe biden leading in several key states. the move comes after nbc obtained details from a march internal poll that found trump trailing biden in 11 states. wisconsin, pennsylvania, florida and michigan, four states where trump edged clinton out by narrow margins, trump trails biden by double digits. in three of those states, wisconsin, pennsylvania and florida, biden's lead sits outside the margin of error and leads by 17 points in virginia, 15 points in maine, 14 in minnesota, 8 in north carolina, 7 points in iowa, 6 points in georgia a

georgia. >> a long, long way to go. but 17 points in virginia, 15 in maine, 14 in minnesota. eight in north carolina. iowa he won by what, eight or nine points? and georgia plus six. a long people, people are saying georgia and texas are going blue at some point. don't know if this is the year. yes, it is early and trump always underperforms in polls. we'll be showing some fox news polls that show considerably problems for the president as well. i'm curious, are you getting information out of the white house that the president is starting to understand this is a real concern, that he has a lot of work to do or does he still think he can go to rallies and

rev up the base and sneak out a win? >> he is saying publicly and privately that he doesn't like the poll or believe in them. >> is there any reason why the president given as much of the show he puts on. we all know he's got an extraordinary gut. is there any reason he believes these polls are so far off. >> he believes the electorate will look like last time and his support wasn't accurately supported or people who hadn't voted in a decade or never spoke to a polster. >> it would be the opposite of what i believe. does he believe his voters were at a low water mark. we know black voting turn out went down for the first time in

20 years. i think the obama coalition was at the lowest ebb we'll ever see it in our lifetimes. these are real numbers. there is concern. a couple of things. not only do they have to hold on to those midwest battlegrounds. they know those margins are so tight. they are desperate to try to expand the map. we are seeing some of those states there. there aren't many places the trump campaign can go to swing a blue state. >> what does it say internally about the white house staff that there are these constant leaks aimed at weakening their boss? the leaking of the polls. >> this poll, we don't know where the leak came from. from the white house or from the campaign side. at minimum, it is a message

being sent. look, you are in trouble here. you need to get to work. >> so nick, it is interesting the president believing these polls are nonsense. 2016 everything had to break donald trump's way. everything from the comey letter ten days out, to the comey letter one day out to black voting going down for the first time in 20 years. he told me, i could have had ten elections on ten days and lost nine of them but that one day, that was the day the stars lined up for me. that being said, considering everything that's happened, i must say, i'm completely at a loss of how he thinks he's going to get where he needs to go to get reelected again while he still keeps to playing to that small base. >> it is hard to be the

president. if you won the first time by coming from behind. it is easy to tell yourself you can do it again. what the polls tell us, he's consistently unpopular. there are people who voted for him who look back and say, i'm not so sure about that anymore. >> can we talk about states quickly. as a guy who grew up as a republican. i can tell you, talk about black swan. republicans don't win wisconsin. republicans don't win pennsylvania. he won it on that day but i don't think everybody understands what a huge uphill climb that will be. >> he might. >> look, he's not in favor -- he's in a bad position in these

polls. he has serious badges. he is the incumbent president. he's been raising money since the day he took office. bashing the democratic field. that is a real advantage in a long campaign like this. it is a chies between two and it is hard to know how hard it will be for him. >> i always believe it is always a referendum on the sitting president. as far as all of the elections i have seen, this feels a lot like jimmy carter a year before that election. a lot like it. >> jimmy carter didn't carry one element that this president is carrying, specifically women. women voters. i've talked to a couple of polsters who have said the underlying numbers on women, who

are most likely to vote are devastating against donald trump in terms of not voting for donald trump no matter what. huge number. >> the only candidate the obama kolition has come out for is barack obama. >> except in alabama, in a special election which is supposed to be extraordinarily slow turn out, black voters in the state of alabama came out and voted at the same percentage as when barack obama was at the top of the ticket. that is extraordinary and suggests donald trump will inspire a lot of people to get out and vote this time. >> of course, the election we are talking about in alabama is doug jones. he had a long history of being interested in african-american issues and prosecuting the men

responsible for the church bombing that killed those four girls in alabama and roy moore who was very much of a child molester, banned from the mall. that be egg said, the president has an advantage here, which is one that i think polls because of 2016, he can say, that's what they said last time. i still think i have this. as much as his tenure as president as been a roller coaster ride, he has been consistent in who he is. he's been this wildcard. he's been this person who is brash. his politics have always been something people turn their nose at there is an idea that evangelicals still like him. i should say white evangelicals still like him. he's thinking i've consistently been myself and if i keep doing

that, i'll win. >> the one thing the president doesn't have going for him is the element of surprise. a trump supporter put out a campaign where everybody in the media said donald trump will never be president and every candidate said that. and ann coulter said donald trump had the best chance of being elected. the whole audience laughed. everybody joked. i remember you and i and other people said he had a good chance of being elected. the mere suggestion of that brought us and anybody else who said it under withering abuse. i remember the man predicting

donald trump would take florida and being ee vis rated. now if you don't think that this isn't like a political bunker hill where everybody is standing and waiting until they say the whites of their eyes. they are going to take nothing for granted. >> evangelicals. the surprising evangelicals that support trump, i don't know what they'll stand for. the answer would be nothing since they've let everything go in terms of what they believe in as president. >> speaking as a guy who grew up an evangelical. i think the biggest concern is undervote. he'll still win most ee swran gel calls that go out and vote. he has to worry about an undervote like george w. bush in 2000 after his dui came out and

karl rove said they lost a good chunk of votes. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump fired his polsters. does that spell trouble for fox news whose poll also showed the president behind will run to the numbers next on "morning joe." i had a coach. math. ooh. so, why don't traders have coaches? who says they don't? coach mcadoo! you know, at td ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum- just to help you improve your skills. boom! mad skills. education to take your trading to the next level. only with td ameritrade.

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more on that internal polling that resulted in president trump cutting ties. in texas, trump leads by just two points. here is more of trump's reaction to those internal polls in a

portion of an interview that aired yesterday. >> even your own polls show you are behind right now, don't they? >> no. my polls show i'm winning everywhere. >> we've seen reports that show you are behind 15 out of 17 states. >> those polls don't exist. i just had a meeting with a polster and i'm winning everywhere. >> those poll results so irritating to the residence, a few seconds later, he has to go off the record to call his campaign manager. >> hold it off a little bit. call brad. i want to ask him that question. >> meanwhile, fox news poll finding that president trump is trailing several of his 2020 contenders. >> joe biden topping 49% to 39%. sanders leads by nine points and

senator warren has a two-point edge and kamala harris and pete buttigieg are up by one point. >> it gets a little more difficult when fox news is basically mirroring what your own internal polsters who you are firing are saying. >> this is great news for the president and the white house. it does allow somebody to walk in to the president and say, you are losing big. everybody is saying it. you are going to have to change. >> is there anyone that has the guts to say anything to him in the administration right now? anybody? name one. >> he might listen to his daughter in there. that has been what has happened over the last year and a half. what has happened is the erosion of the guard rails. remind you, it didn't always

work. those people don't even exist. his chief of staff just tries to empower him. he doesn't try to reign him in. >> i don't see who p would go in there. maybe ivanka. >> i think not. >> he's not going to listen to anyone who suggests he is losing. >> from everything you know about him. you said he's not going to believe it. does he not believe it or does he just not admit publicly? >> because he'll find a way to cheat. >> he's certainly not going to admit publicly. >> there are moments i think he did. moments he recognized. he was rather dissident on the trail. he knew he was under the gun and had to perform. in the recording we pieced together, he still believes in

himself and believes the economy is booming and that is his vehicle to be reelected. i think he knows it will be close but that he'll do it. >> do you believe any president would believe this with unemployment to be sitting at 3%? >> no. the question i have has he not been shown those numbers before by his own staff? do they come as a surprise to him? as part of his reaction, his own staff won't show him the bad news. what you saw in the reaction to the nbc report is this ferocious push back. stupid, bad polls, old polls. did he even know those polls existed. >> the response to those poll numbers changed. first it was, they aren't true

or they are true but they are old. his staff doesn't bring him bad news. they know not to. they don't say the word russia. this is a president that doesn't like to be confronted with bad news. he'll explode. >> coming up, polsters aren't the only ones who might be hesitant to tell the president the truth. turns out the pentagon and intel officials are hesitant to tell trump about intel about russian operations. that story is next on "morning joe." everyone's got to listen to mom. when it comes to reducing the sugar in your family's diet, coke, dr pepper and pepsi hear you. we're working together to do just that. bringing you more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all. smaller portion sizes,

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clear calorie labels and reminders to think balance. because we know mom wants what's best. more beverage choices, smaller portions, less sugar. balanceus.org >> the u.s. is ramping up digital attacks in an effort to detour future cyber activity. "the new york times" reports the campaign was conducted under cyber authorities granted by president trump and congress. two officials tell the paper

they believed trump had not been briefed in any detail about the operation while pentagon and intelligence officials, quote, described broad hesitation to go into detail with the president about operations against russia for concern over his reaction and the possibility that he might counter mand it or discuss it with foreign officials as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in syria to the russian foreign minister. after the "new york times" publiced th published that story, president trump accused the paper of tr treason. >> we should go over the definition of treason. trump lashed out in a pair of

tweets writing, quote, do you believe that the failing "new york times" just did a story stating that the united states is substantially increasing cyber attacks on russia. this is a virtual act of trezon by a once great paper. so desperate for a story. he called the story not true adding anything goods with our corrupt news media today. they will do or so whatever it takes with not even the slightest thought of consequence. these are true cowards, without a doubt the enemy of the people. the times responded, quote, accusing the president of treason is dangerous. it described the article to the government and spoke to national security officials and there were no concerns. then comes back and says it is

yet another lie they understand when they are running operations against russia, it's dangerous with the intel officers. >> the national security risk in terms of the hostile foreign power. there are people in the white house that know, there are certain subjects you can't bring up with him. russia at the top of the list because of some claim to the election in 2016 or they would feel he would side with the russian government over the u.s. intelligence agencies. certainly helsinki is an example of that. >> i would say concern he's a

national security risk. he is. he stated so himself by saying the government is open for business. >> tell us that the standards the president is outlining. he's outlining it carefully on our military. for help in the election campaign whachlt do you make of all of this? >> i think the president is frustrated by the fact that people in his own government aren't trusting him. the idea that he gave "new york times"s, a great paper, a paper he reads regularly that they can get information out of people saying, we are not sure we can trust the president must deeply frustrate him. he's been making this call that there is some sort of deep state against him. it says there are people all

around the president it might not have a direct impact. we'll keep doing our jobs. all around the world, there are foreign governments looking at the president's word and using them against journalists abroad. it is very, very dangerous. >> coming up on "morning joe." >> i came up to talk about foreign policy. the think the third time, you asked me about a piece of washington silliness that chased down what i see president trump do every single day. >> that is how the secretary of state describes the controversy of the president to accept dirt from foreign powers. we'll speak with congressman

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i have a phoney witch hunt. fuel mueller comes out, no collusion. people are angry about it. >> i think that is unfound. >> it is unfound. he found no collusion and didn't find anything to do with collusion because they made a ruling. >> he didn't examine collusion. >> are you trying to say there is collusion even though he said no collusion. >> he didn't say that. >> he said no collusion. >> he said he didn't look at -- >> george, the report said no collusion. >> did you read the report? >> yes. you should read it too. >> you call mueller honorable. why the switch? >> i'm not switching. i would hope he's honorable.

he gave us no collusion. that was a big thing. >> he did not say that. >> he did say that. >> is he didn't look at collusion. >> excuse. read the report. >> read the conclusion of the record. just read it. okay. >> sometimes i had false fights like the russian witch hunt. that's a made up hoax. >> the first line of his report said they had a systematic attempt to interfere -- >> they did. but not me. they said we rebuffed them. anything having to do with russia had nothing to do with our campaign. mueller said we rebuffed russia. we pushed them away. read the report. >> unbelievable. >> those shots in the car. it's car pool care okayy.

>> it is. one of my favorite episodes, trump don't you love that. have you read that? you should read it. i've read it. let's get out. >> more there from the interview repeatedly distorting the finds of the mueller report which said the evidence was not sufficient to charge members of the trump campaign with a conspiracy against russia. the report says the trump campaign welcomed help that was purported to be from russian government only they never received it. president trump denied ordering mueller's firing saying he did not want to be like richard nixon. he appeared to agree with nixon's famous phrase about the powers of the presidency. >> article two, i would be allowed to fire robert mueller assuming i did all of the things i said i want to fire him.

number one, i didn't. he wasn't fired. number one, importantly, article two allows me to do whatever i want. that would have allowed me to fire him. >> it sounds like -- >> you know why, i watched richard in this case son richard nixon go around firing everybody. a lot of great lawyers. that's the position of some of the most talented lawyers. you have to have a position like that because you are the president. without even bringing up article two which gives you every right. >> so a president can't obstruct justice? >> a president can run the country and that's what happened george, i run the country and i run it well. >> when the president does it, it is not illegal. >> i'm saying a president under article two, read it. >> article two allows me to do whatever i want. >> so much there to unpack. >> it reminds me of steven

miller when he said -- >> the powers of the presidency shall not be -- anyhow, joining us, a member of the house intelligence committee who might have a bit different opinion. congressman katie hill from california. >> you are on armed services committee. what are your thoughts about what is happening in the persian gulf and iran. >> i think the biggest concern i have is that we've seen step after step for this administration to try and lump what possible action they could take in with the almf they got from 2001. i'm concerned about how this could escalate quickly and the determination can't happen. they've pushed iran as far as they possibly can. bolton has said he wants to see an actual war with iran.

>> what do you say? bolton has that about iran. he probably said that about canada. >> do you think the raptors winning the title upset him? >> all right. >> you do have donald trump who has been very cautious about the use of the military. what is your read? >> right now, we saw the poll numbers. we know that i'm concerned that the president is going to take some kind of a dramatic action. when you are backed into a corner, you do some crazy things. there is no reason tofor me to believe he won't do something drastic to make those changes. >> you have a couple of indications, one of them that would heighten the tensions internationally and d

domestically. they are. still operating on that amendment. you have a concert of allies, united e unit united arab emirates. give me the read of the level of that toxic mix. >> i think it is really toxic. trump is someone you can't predict from moment to moment who he will listen to. it looked like he was headed towards military conflict with iran. then he pulled back. who knows what is going to happen. that's what we need to be concerned about. that's why our allies are concerned as well. what i would like to see and what we've been talking about through the ndaa process is a

mechanism in place to authorize some type of action. in 2001, they had taken that power away from us. it is time do something different. >> you sit on the oversight committee. this administration has thumbed its nose at the office repeatedly. the president was advised to fire kellyanne conway. he said he would not do that. is she going to show up? >> i'd be shocked if she does, to be honest with you. >> part of what we do is help to illuminate for the american people what is going on. if you ask people on the street, few people know what the hatch act is. we'll try to eliminate that. again, it's action after action by the trump administration and

all of the people he surrounds himself with that show he does not care about the law. he does not care about presidential norms. he believes he's above the law and that's why we need to make sure during this election process, we are rebooting that at every level. >> on your point, joe, one of the things i find could nfusing here, it is not like you need to prove that he's outside the law. even with his comments about taki taking money from foreign entities. he said it. i'm sure you can find tons more evidence to provide. >> it is all in plain sight. what is so fascinating is, every person who commits fraud in america, maybe they are going to take a tip from donald trump. he says it out loud, for some

reason, we don't assign as much weight -- >> or a consequence. >> or a consequence as when he says it quietly and somebody figures it out. he obstructed justice in plain sight. all of that being said, i'm sure your district like every other district. i talked to adam schiff about this. he said my district cares about health care and jobs. i would take it your district is the same? >> absolutely. i just did a health care tefl town hall and heard devastating stories of people who aren't taking their cancer medicine because it is too expensive. they are asking me for answers. it is heartbreaking. my answers are we are passing

things. we are passing a number of different fixes through the house and it is sitting at mitch mcconnells feet. he's not taking it up in the senate. we need to be just as concerned about the senate as the white house right now. whatever we do in the house doesn't matter if the senate doesn't hold him accountable. it doesn't help if we get trump out of the white house that we have a senate that will stop us. >> so you just got to congress? >> i did. >> she said she saw my picture. >> we are glad you are there. >> what is your biggest surprise? >> i think actually that people are listening to us as freshman. we have the ability to influence things. i see this as the beginning of a really important change in the way that we operate. it is exciting. it means we have a lot of work

to do. i know that this is just the beginning. i believe the american people are with us. >> i love it. congresswoman katie hill. thank you for your service. >> one last story before the break. golfer gary woodland won this year's u.s. open. he began the final round with a one-stroke lead and closed with a birdie on the final hole for a three-stroke victory. his four-day total was the lowest for the six u.s. opens played at pebble beach. brooks koepka came in second. >> you had to be upset, he broke your record at pebble beach. >> i don't have a green jacket like you do. my record had to fall. >> i was there? 1990 when joe lost by one stroke. >> that was awful. >> i think that was 1980. >> still ahead -- >> we can make things up.

why not, we are in the trump era. when we come back, i'll be telling you about the all-star game i won in 1983. >> we'll bring in an author with a new book with a title that says it all "i love you but i hate your politics. "that's next on "morning joe." i. oh man, it's got a mean face on it. it looks like a piece of candy. look at the interior. this is nice. this is my sexy mom car. i would feel like a cool dad. it's just really chic. i love this thing. it's gorgeous. i would pull up in this in a heartbeat. i want one of these. that is sharp. the all-new chevy blazer. speaks for itself. i don't know who they got to design this but give them a cookie and a star. i'm and i'm an emt.erer when i get a migraine at work, it's debilitating. if i call out with a migraine, that's one less ambulance to serve a community.

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and everyone i've ever opioloved away from me.thing everything. i blew my ankle out and i got prescribed pain pills by my doctor. if making my detox public is gonna help somebody i'm all for it. i just wish i would've had a warning.

joining us now a little help. a psycho therapist and author of the new book "i love you but i hate your politics, how to protect your intimate relationships in a poisonous partisan world." what a great topic. >> you've done it yourself. >> that's where it came from. >> a long time. tell the world about it. >> i am the world's foremost authority of this topic because i have survived 39 years of marriage to a conservative. >> yes. >> and a professional conservative. >> yes, national review conservative. >> absolutely. i became part of the national review world. i was a visitor and i learned a lot about being able to work across the aisle from that because these people were gracious to me. >> right. so now the question for you i guess to begin with on this is are things different now? it's one thing conservative, liberal, democrat, republican. isn't there something different going on here? >> i think it has gotten even

more insane. trump's election changed things far to the worse. >> it isn't conservative/liberal. it's something else. a third player in this. >> it is now trump/non-trump. by the way there are quite a few people at "national review" that feel as i do. i have people coming up to me and they go you used to be a conservative. no, no. i'm still a conservative. your definition of conservative has somehow changed to embracing vladimir putin and running record debt. >> well, not everybody believes that. my point is that you can talk to people even if they have different politics. because the fights that people get into are about psychology, not politics. >> ooh. >> what they're about, i have the magic key. >> all right. >> give it to us. >> which i learned by trial. i was the worst of the two of us by the way because i was always trying to change -- >> tell us who your husband is.

>> richard brookhiser. i change people's minds for a living so why shouldn't i change my husband's right? >> right. >> luckily i finally figured it out. it didn't work. >> okay. what do you do about this? i think it is a common problem that a lot of people have. if you're invited to a dinner party, on the rare occasion that i am invited, you go and just before the dinner party begins when people are having a drink someone says, why are you people, meaning the media, so against donald trump? how do you avoid talking about donald trump at a dinner party? >> say, very nicely, very graciously, we're here to have a nice dinner. let's leave politics outside of it. and be very serious about this. and refuse to talk about it. >> what if i just leave him out? >> well, everybody gets into it. >> yeah. >> i think you have to stand up and say, let's keep our relationships going and not do

this. >> we've all done that with our family. >> i've done that with family members, friends. and it's just something we've had to learn to navigate and also sometimes i just sit back and, you know, i went out to get coffee yesterday and i was surrounded by trump people and i just sat back and before i hit the chair, they started going crazy. >> what did you do? >> just sat and listened. i smiled. >> you are the exception. >> he wants to understand. >> come on, come on. keep talking. occasionally i go, you don't believe that, do you? >> see, they do believe it. but you are the exception. what you have to realize is you cannot change these people's minds no matter what you do. stop trying. >> and by the way, they can't change our minds. >> no. it doesn't matter ultimately. >> nobody changes a mind over coffee. >> that's right. or in the bedroom or any other place. but you can still have a decent discussion. you have to learn, first of all, some things not to do. >> mm-hmm.

>> would you like to know some things not to do? >> yes. >> don't raise your voice. as soon as you do the other person thinks you're shouting. it's all over. do not drink and talk politics. you would think people would know this. >> don't drink and drive. don't drink and talk politics. >> don't drink and trump. >> don't drink and trump. i like that. because if you do, you will start to raise your voice and then somebody will break somebody else's cell phone. that's what happened to a couple. i interviewed 50 people by the way, all kinds of relationships. same thing on the right and left. everybody makes the same mistakes. here is one people don't think about and almost everybody does. no article thrusting in the morning to your mate. >> right. >> do not do this. it never changes anybody's -- >> quite an article on the front page about the separations. see? it is hard not to get deeply -- >> yeah. >> yes. it is hard. but your relationships are worth it.

and your sanity is worth it. you don't want to break up a 60-year marriage or a wonderful relationship for years over politics. my point is you can stop it. >> unfortunately, jonathan, politics has become sport. right? it's what people do. it's so tribal. you know, we're waving our red pennants on our side of the stadium. they're waving the blue pennants on their side of the stadium and never the two shall mix and it is unhealthy how -- look at us. we talk politics for three hours a day and people watch news 24 hours a day. i mean, that's part of the problem. >> right. that has only accelerated it. politics are in every part of life now, particularly in the trump administration. my question is, do you see, when donald trump exits the stage as president whether two years or six years do you see some of this intensity receding or do you think this is the new normal? >> i'm afraid it's the new

normal. i really hope it's not. but since people get into this, politics has really replaced religion as our identity for so many people. that is not going to change back. >> i just wonder if this is really always about politics, though, in this specific time. i mean, do you talk to a family member and you just put it aside that your family member is a racist. >> racist gets difficult. >> but isn't that what -- wait a minute -- isn't that what our whole presidency is about? >> well, to some degree that's true. some people you are not going to be able to talk to. some people you'll have to say, look. you can't say this. >> i can't do it. >> i was at a function many years ago where one of the people there happened to be another therapist, called my husband a krypton nazi. >> that's a problem. >> he left because he is a sweet guy. i said, uh-huh. you can't do that. you have to defend your mate who disagrees with you. that is a very important thing. it surprises people. >> we'll need to talk more.

>> as difficult as it is to do instead of saying, you know, he's a racist or whatever, racially sensitive remarks that some people would believe are racist. it takes a few more seconds. it's important. >> we'll leave it there. the book is "i love you but i hate your politics." how to protect your intimate relationships in a poisonous, partisan world. jeanne safer, thank you very much. >> good luck. i hope people are inspired. >> stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. good morning. it is 9:00 a.m. on the east coast and there is a lot going on. we've got brand new numbers from our nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showing a shift in how voters feel about the top democratic candidates. speaking of polls, president trump preparing to officially kick off his re-election campaign in orlando tomorrow night. his early polling numbers do not look great for