there in the senate. and with that, that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. we thank you for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. ♪ president trump kicks off his re-election bid with a rally in orlando. but despite having dozens of democrat be challengers, the president seemed more concerned with past issues and repeated scenes from his 2016 campaign. plus, patrick shanahan drops out of the running for pentagon chief after allegations of domestic violence in his family's past. and former communications director hope hicks is scheduled to appear before democrats today but the white house is arguing that she is, quote, immune from being compelled to testify.

good morning, everybody. it is wednesday, june 19th, i'm yasmin vossoughian along with nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett. all right. president trump launching his re-election campaign in florida last night, but with no new announcements or a significant change in rhetoric. the president spent time discussing past problems. than the future. the orlando rally with a style of events. it was the seventh rally he's held in florida during his presidency. and the second one he's held in orlando. as "the new york times" put it, quote, by the end of mr. trump's 76-minute speech there were patches of blue seats visible across the rein florida. some supporters have left the rally early maybe because they have seen it before. >> this election is a verdict on whether we want to live in a country where the people who lose an election refuse to

concede and spend the next two years trying to shred our constitution and rip your country apart. you remember during one of the debates when crooked hillary said if i win, are you going to support me? but i must be honest, i didn't give her a great answer. that was a very -- that might have been my hardest question during the debates. our radical democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice and rage, they want to destroy you. and they want to destroy our country as we know it. >> president trump is waking up this morning in florida where he faces another daunting set of poll numbers. the quinnipiac university poll has former vice president joe biden leading president trump 50% to 41% in florida, while senator bernie sanders is up by

six points, 48% to 42%. senator elizabeth warren has a four-point edge over president trump, 48% to 42%. while the president is in with beto o'rourke, kamala harris and pete buttigieg. and stepping down from his role in consideration for a cabinet position, for more on this, we want to bring in heidi cristobal with this. heidi, this is huge. >> and our own nbc news telegraphing this about a week ago. of course, the announcement came in no other way than a feet. the president announced the move by patrick shanahan yesterday in tweets saying in part, shanahan had decided newt go forward with his confirmation process so he

could devote more time to his family and thanking him to his outstanding service. and the president announced he was announcing mark esperrer as the new secretarying secretary of defense. shanahan spoke to the post on monday and yesterday about the incidents which includes the arrest of his then wife in 2010 after she allegedly punched him in the face. as well as the separate arrest of his son in november 2011 after he reportedly hit his mother with a baseball bat. nbc news has not confirmed the post report which was based on interviews with shanahan, as well as court and police records. nbc news has also not reviewed any of the documents. in a statement, shanahan said it was, quote, unfortunate, that details from the post story were dredged up and said that continuing with the confirmation

process would harm his children. before departing the white house for his re-election kickoff, president trump spoke about shanahan's withdrawal and the revelations of the violent incidents. >> did you ask mr. shanahan to withdraw? >> no, i didn't, he walked in this morning and said it's going to be a rough time for him because of what obviously happened. but i did not ask him to withdraw. he presented me with a letter this morning. that was his decision. >> i had heard about it yesterday for the first time. i didn't know about it, i had heard about it yesterday. it's very unfortunate. very unfortunate. [ inaudible ]. >> no, we have very good vetting. you take a look at our cabinet and secretary is very good. we have great vetting for us. but this is something that came

up over a short period of time. and as you know, that was acting, so acting gives you much greater flexibility. a lot easier to do things. that's the way it is. too bad. >> and following the announcement of patrick shanahan's resignation, democratic senators were quick to condemn the outgoing acting secretary for failing to disclose information in his background. of course, we heard from senator blumenthal and other senators yesterday, yasmin, who said, look, we had hearings, they must have known about this because there were police reports and yet there was not a word. >> do we see an investigation into, do you think? >> there is calls for investigations by senator blumenthal but with all of the investigations swirling around that are being called for and not acted upon i'm not going to make a prediction. this won't ebe top of list.

>> there is serious question about the vetting process. yet again, we have another trump official who didn't make it that far who has issues in his background that someone should have known about. >> rob porter. >> of course, rob porter, a top white house official also had domestic violence allegations in his background. this is part of a broader narrative. we're not talking about a ton of people in the administration, but we're talking about very important people, top-level officials who have surprises in their backgrounds. and also a number of cabinet level officials who had to withdraw their nominations. this is not normal. >> are they going to be pushed to address the issue, with regard to background checks and the vetting process? >> there's an active investigation of security clearances on the hill right now which is kind of, i think, the ultimate example of why this is a big problem. because you have people who are very close to the president like

jared kushner with security clearances that are highly questionable. >> yeah. >> yes. >> from that perspective, i do think there will be a broader examination of the process through that lens. i don't see a separate investigation, if that's what you're asking, separate from that about the vetting process. >> is this whole shanahan mess an uncontinued process of having an unlimited number of people who want to serve in the trump administration? >> there is question about how many people are actually raising their hands after they've seen 2 1/2 years of turnover, and turnover in some parts the officials themselves wanteding to leave and in other ways officials being unceremoniously dismissed. you can go down, james comey. and does that winnow the field, does that question the process after six months or one-year stint in the white house, it is

possible that doesn't have some impact on people. >> and just the big picture of all of this, the acting secretary of defense stepping aside on the same day in which we have 2500 troops going to be in the middle east. >> yes. >> where we're in a moment where there's possible conflict with iran when you need a defense secretary. >> six months that job has been over since mattis left. >> heidi, good seeing you. >> thank you. >> we'll talk to you in a bit. patrick shanahan's resignation as acting secretary came just one day after it was announced 1,000 troops to the middle east. and after iran attacked allegedly in the gulf of oman. iran denies involvement. >> but at the same time of shanahan's announcement,

president trump said those attacks are very minor, claiming that the gulf of oman is not as strategically important for the u.s. as other places because some places get vast amounts of oil there, we get very little, trump says. trump also tells "time," it remains a question mark as to whether he would go to war over the attacks butted president said, quote, i could certainly go over nuclear weapons. the president was asked about it prior to leaving for his rally in florida. >> why should americans in the administration tell the truth about what's going on with iran, if we go to war, why should we believe you? >> well, we have iran, we've been talking to lots of people on lots of different sides. we'll see what happens with iran. we're very well set, we're very well configured. we have a lot of things going on with iran. i spoke with president xi of

china. we're looking at iran. we're very prepared for iran. we'll see what happens. let me just say this, we are prepared. regardless of what goes, we are very, very prepared. >> i think there is an overarching concern despite that they seem set in place, they're very prepared that there is not necessarily a plan and not a unified plan on what to do going forward with iran. and i think seeing patrick shanahan step aside as well kind of drives that home. still ahead, house democrats are set to question hope hicks this morning. but the white house has launched a last-minute bid to try and block her testimony. we're going to talk about that with our legal analyst, danny cevallos. plus, more than a decade after exonerated, president trump turns down a chance to apologize for the wrongfully convicted central park five.

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this morning former white house communications director hope hicks is scheduled to appear before the house judiciary committee for a closed-door hearing. it will be the first time the committee has heard from a white house official since the mueller report became public. but in a last-ditch effort to block her testimony, a letter sent to council stating that the president has instructed hicks not to answer any questions at her time at the white house. he argues that hicks is, quote, absolutely immune from being compelled to testify before congress with respect to matters occurring during her service as a senior adviser for the president. house speaker nancy pelosi was asked about the white house's attempt to block hicks' testimony, here's how she responded? >> should she not answer questions about times in the white house? >> obstruction.

>> let's go to danny cevallos. is she legally bound to follow the instructions by president trump not to talk about her white house days? >> in a world of legal question this one is relatively, not completely clear, but relatively clear. the executive branch loses considerable power to compel or refuse to allow ex-officials testify after they've left the executive branch. hope hicks is someone now in the private world. so the white house's power to prevent her from testifying is minimal at this point. however, hope hicks controls the privilege. she's the one who can decide whether or not to testify. if she's still aligned with trump, she will adhere to the issues and the white house will find out whether or not she truly has immunity. >> and hope hicks is the person who was there from the very start. she worked for ivanka trump in her fashion line. >> she has a very tight relationship. >> yeah. and donald trump doesn't use

computer or email. during the campaign when people would try to get messages to him, they would go through hope hicks. so she can talk about this committee, what happened during the campaign and perhaps the transition, right? >> absolutely. this is a common tool. don't necessarily go over the big fish right away. go after the assistant, the aide-de-camp, the body man, the person without personal liability. they're really just eyewitnesses. observers to events, not really participants. this is a very effective tool. so someone like hope hicks has a lot of information about the inner workings, about the innerthoughts of the president. with she was with him by all accounts, that's borne out by the mueller report which is frequently. she's seen a lot of things. the question is, noting that the mueller report says there's no criminality, the issue is, is there anything of criminal

import that she has to say, in all likelihood, the answer is no. >> why would she be forthcoming as she has no obligation. she has stayed and remained close to the trump family and to president trump himself. >> that's right, but she recognizes that she is at the middle of a legal battle. and she may not want this to go on any longer than necessary because she'll be caught in the middle. at the same time, as friendly as she is with the trump administration, two things we know are true, that can change very quickly when you're in the trump -- or having left the trump administration. and part two, the trump team doesn't know necessarily everything she's going to say under oath. and she may know that she has some information that could be damaging to trump. >> danny cevallos thank you. >> thank you. we're going to check on weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> once again, we're tracking severe weather overnight. we had a report of an

80-mile-per-hour gust, roofs torn off of homes. the line of the storm is through dallas, paris, texas, even joplin has a warning south of town. this line of storms, again, text arcan that, you'll be next in the line. then you get a new line. enhanced risk of storms possible. dallas and ft. worth. it looks to be 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. it will be later on this evening. those storms will have drifted to areas of arkansas, to tupelo to nashville. how about the soggy weather that continues in areas of ohio and ohio valley. it will be a little better in the northeast. we still have flood watches from philadelphia to scranton. the heaviest areas will be in ohio and northern indiana. 28 million under flash flood

watches. this is a setup right now. we have what we call a stationary boundary, this divides the super human gross air we have in place over the ohio valley and the mid-atlantic. yesterday, when you go outside, it was very gross, very humid. and this is the frontal boundary that will focus the storms today. this is the computer telling us where it thinks the storms will be from allentown to harrisburg to philadelphia. widespread storms from st. louis, indianapolis and northern portions of kentucky. we're still in this gross weather pattern. but we have a big pattern change and smiles will be abound on the anchor desk as we head towards the weekend. >> we're smiling. i'm only smiling because you said superhuman gross. >> i'm making up words as i go. >> thanks, bill. new details in the shooting of the baseball legend of david

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because you're better off healthy. [ laughter throughout ] it's funny what happens when people get together. we're there. so you can be too. holiday inn. holiday inn express. welcome back. dominican authorities have identified the man they believe paid a group nearly $8,000 to try and kill red sox icon david ortiz earlier this month. the officials say the fugitive suspect used a liaison who is now the tenth person arrested in the shooting case. six people, including the alleged gunman were arrested last week.

another three were later arrested for their alleged involvement, including two who are in prison for unrelated crimes, one of which according to court documents reached out to the liaison a week before the shooting, sending him a picture of the target to pass along to the hit man. ortiz was shot in the back in a bar in santo domingo, suffering damage to several organs. and after undergoing surgery at a dominican hospital, the red sox sent ortiz to boston. >> bred trump once again refused to apologize for past comments he made including calling for the death penalty for the group known as the central park five. the tunes were convicted of raping a woman in 1989. >> why do you bring that up? you have people on both sides of that, they admitted their guilt.

if you look at linda farrenstein and the prosecutors, they think that the city should never have settled the case. so, we'll leave it that the. >> in 1989, trump took out a four-page ad calling for the state to bring about capital punishment. the central five's convictions were vacated, after dna evidence linked a serial rapist to the crime and their confessions can thought to be coerced. the netflix series "when they see us" has generated outrage over all of this. still ahead, more from the president's 2020 kickoff rally in florida. he had plenty of support from the people of orlando last night. but not from the hometown newspaper, we'll explain that. plus, congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez is facing criticism from her

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories, four years after launching his first bid for the white house, president trump held a rally to formally begin his election bid in florida. the "orlando sentinel" that endorsed presidential candidates as recently as mitt romney back in 2012 is telling voters to

reject him writing after 2 1/2 years we've seen enough. enough of the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption, especially the lies. the told out of ignorance of laziness. and "the new york times" suggesting that the long closed hillary clinton email investigation could soon have a new chapter. >> if you want to know how the system is rigged, just compare how they came after us for three years with everything they have. versus the free pass they gave to hillary and her aides. so, lindsey graham, they delete and they acid-wash which is very expensive. nobody does it. they acid-wash those emails. never to be seen again.

but we may find them deep in the state department. 33,000 emails. but let's see what happens. >> and president trump is blaming the fact that he's never hit at least 50% in gallup approval polls on the mueller probe. during an extensive interview with "time" magazine as he prosecuted to kick off his 2020 election rally, trump said, quote, based on the economy, i should be up 15 or 20 points higher. arguing that he has a natural base of 45% or 46%. he adds from the day i came down the elevator, i've had a phony witch hunt against me. i think it's cost me. and mueller did not begin the investigation until four months into president trump's newly minted administration when his approval rating was sitting at 38%. he's the only president in history of gallup polling never

to earn approval rating for a single day in office. despite that, trump notes it's ignited the republican base saying, quote, it's made our people more resilient. and he hopes to fuel his 2020 campaign with that momentum. senate minority leader chuck schumer said the decision about whether or not to impeach president trump could be months down the road. schumer said yesterday that congress does not know all of the facts just yet. >> so, i think the strategy of getting as much of the facts out and then much down the road making a decision on impeachment or not is the right strategy. >> meanwhile, congressman adam schiff said the clock is ticking for robert mueller to come testify before congress. >> you know, i think time is running out. the best way to get a with the tons testify is to get them to testify voluntarily. particularly, with someone like bob mueller, making an appeal to his patriotism, sense of duty is

the right way to go. but at the end of the day he needs to testify. >> is august too late? >> yes, i think it is. i think we're reaching a point where if we can't reach an agreement, i hope we will, then we'll have to use a subpoena. bipartisan members of the senate appropriations committee have agreed on a $4.5 million transportation bill. let's go back to heidi przybyla. >> that's right. the hill indicates billions for aid, including the funds to support the hhs office of resettlement. the deal is expected to pass the appropriations committee and the full senate next week. meanwhile, negotiations continues in the house which could vote on its own version of a border spending bill next week. meanwhile, congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez stands by her comments comparing migrant detention centers on the southern border to concentration

camps. ocasio-cortez initially made the comparison during an instagram live on monday and was slammed by critics including active immigration and enforcement officer mark morgan. >> it's completely inappropriate. it's reckless. it's irresponsible, it's misinformed. and it's flat-out wrong. i urge people that there is so much oversight in these facilities. >> and senate lindsey graham also weighed in, writing people like aoc who are not lifting a finger to solve the problem, comparing the men and women serving our country to concentration camp guards do the congress and country a great disservice. however, the new york congresswoman defended the comparison in a tweet, linking an "esquire" magazine piece calling it quote, a concentration camp like system. saying she did not use those

words lightly. adding a presidency that creates concentration camps is sfafasci and it's very difficult to say that. this is obviously, guys, a situation where tensions are flaring. we've automatic 145,000 apprehensions in the board in may. we're waiting on this in june but this is serious. >> there's been so much regarding the detention centers, to freezing cold temperatures, to children showing up with issues as well. we're seeing that agency of late. what's going to happen going forward? could we feasibly see a bill to protection the detention centers? >> they have to pass a bill and they have to pass a humanitarian bill. even senator majority leader mitch mcconnell is calling this a gargantuan crisis. the question is how much of that goes towards humanitarian aid and the mass deportation effort

that the president is simultaneously teasing at his rallies and before he launches his campaign kickoff. so this is going to pass the senate. the question is its fate in the house. >> but there's been so much of a divide as to what the actual -- what's actually going on at these detention centers and what people are experiencing on a daily basis. so, that's what i'm confused about. as to the fact because of the divisiveness, how are they going to get something that's going to get passed to protect these immigrants? >> it feels like at this point it's just plugging the gap. in terms of a broader bill that addresses the humanitarian aspect of this, that would have to be something so much broader, yasmin, it goes back to addressing the root problems of why these people are coming here. of actually putting money into fighting the gangs that are terrorizing these families. because these are families. these are not from generations past. jung mexican men coming here to seek work.

these are families fleeing persecution. fleeing drug cartels, gangs. the money would have to go to creating better conditions at home. going after the coyotes who are profiting off of them and that's not happening right now. >> and yet it's this political fight you have republicans trying to attack aoc because they see a political upside on that, you have president trump talking about it over and over again because it influences the right politically. >> i would not expect this administration to go at the root problem at all. it's just like you said, plugging the gap until they hope trump policies start to work but so far we've seen the opposite. he's vowed to crack down on immigration and build a wall and we've seen a surge. >> they refuse to give money to countries like guatemala? >> they think that cutting the money would be a wise point and

that could, again have a reverse impact of drawing more people in. >> in the simple terms, like you said, when there's persecution and joblessness in countries what choice do they have? >> they say i'd rather starve in juarez then be murdered in my own country. >> heidi, thanks. >> we'll see you more on "morning joe." there are major changes at the international security council. "the washington post" reports that the national security adviser john bolton are willing to promote officials left over from him. while others officials are set to depart. officials say bolton wants his senior team in place to establish stability leading up to the 2020 election. still ahead, details of which the democrats' hopefuls will get that. plus, one of the hopefuls,

joe biden, he made a surprise visit to an iconic location in the gay rights movement. those story, bill karins with another check on your forecast. you're look at "morning joe" "first look" is back in a moment. n a moment ok i'll admit. i didn't keep my place as clean as i would like 'cuz i'm way too busy. who's got the time to chase around down dirt, dust and hair? so now, i use heavy duty swiffer sweeper and dusters. for hard-to-reach places, duster makes it easy to clean. it captures dust in one swipe. ha! gotcha!

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the most common side effect is nausea. quit smoking slow turkey. talk to your doctor about chantix. we now know who will be center stage for next week's democratic debate. based on who is leading in the polls. on the first night, elizabeth warren and beto o'rourke will be on the middle with john delaney on the outskirts. night two, with bernie sanders on center stage and the event is hosted by nbc news and telemundo and will be live across all three from 9:00 p.m. eastern on both nights. anchors, savannah guthrie, chuck todd and jose diaz-balart will

be live. former vice president joe biden made an announced campaign stop at new york's stonewall inn to honor the 30th anniversary of gray rights that helped spark the movement. watch this. >> we've got a long way to go. imagine the courage, imagine the courage it took 50 years ago to stand up and say i'm gay, i'm trans, i'm lesbian. when people had the courage to come out and say what they were, people realized, whoa, these people are just like me. >> biden and his wife jill spent nearly 45 minutes taking pictures at the greenwich village hangout. the former vice president was even seen behind the bar whipping out a credit card to pay for beers. >> let's get more with

meteorologist bill karins. >> has it been raining lately? >> no, it's been dry. >> one thing people don't realize with all of the climate change stuff it's not just change, but we get more downpours. since 1958 it shows the ohio valley and the northeast have a significant increase in the number of heavy rainfall events. have you noted thiced how much been raining over the last year and a half? right now, we have 58 cities right now top-ten wettest cities. this is on the heels of last year which is one of the wettest years we've ever had from the mid-atlantic to the ohio valley. that's the trend right now. you think of climate change and what's happening on the planet. it's not just the temperatures which it can be with the rainfall events. one reason we're having all of this green, the greenland block, that stops storms from north

america and canada and it slows them down. that's one of the reasons why we're dealing with wet weather and one of the reasons why it's been so wet over the past week. temperatures are cool, much cooler in many areas of the country. the forecast for today, more downpours. we're going to continue this trend from ohio valley to mid-atlantic for the next couple of days. a lot of times people think climate change, they only talk about temperatures. >> right. >> you know, if it means humid, warm and rainy -- >> we can expect that. >> i don't like that. >> i should have taken a picture, last night, i was trudging my kids through our neighborhood. i was drenched with a double stroller which is about 75 pounds. >> but were the kids dry? >> no, the kids were encased in plastic, totally dry eating ice cream sandwiches. >> not good mommy. great. that's parenthood. still ahead, reviving talks

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it's just another way we're working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. welcome back. president trump has revealed that he and china's president are scheduled to meet on the sideline of next week's g20 summit amid the ongoing trade war between the two countries. the president announced the sitdown yesterday in a tweet writing he had, quote, a very

good telephone conversation with president xi and respective talks will be held prior to the meetings. trump hopes that the meeting could prevent more tariffs from taking effect and bringing an end to the ongoing trade war. there is speculation, though, that the meeting could yield a plan for high-level talks and including u.s. tariffs on $300 billion on goods from china which could kick in as early as next month. for more on this, i want to bring in joe man na. how are the markets reacting? >> the market reaction is no bad news is good news. we saw wall street up 1.5%. and chinese equities up 1.5%. and at least for the time being

reduce the rhetoric going on. that doesn't mean we get a deal per se on the sideline of g20. i have to say for investors, today there that's taking place, the fed meeting, prepare the market potentially for a rate cut. the president is being quite vocal about what the feds should and should not do. something to keep your eye on. i want to put your attention on facebook, for launching their own version of cryptocurrency called libra that would be backed by the u.s. dollar, euro, et cetera, and facebook said they want to build the largest financial system in the world but not everyone was happy with that. already we have heard some push back from regulator, the g 7 committee has said they will need to put together high level forums to see the exact risk of

cryptocurrency. >> let's talk about google. they just announced they are investing $1 billion to boost home construction in the san francisco bay area to help with the housing affordability crisis, and good for them, because they are the ones that helped contribute to the housing crisis there. what are they trying to do here? >> that's exactly it. so a lot of the silicone valley companies feel that they have a vested interest in giving something back given they have been criticized for creating the housing crisis. they have pledged $1 billion, 750 of which comes from land they own for their offices for commercial space. they plan on re-purposing the land and making it into affordable housing. the ceo has said they will continue to work with local municipalities to support funds that allow residential developers to build quickly and

economically. trying to do their best in the san francisco bay area. >> san francisco has a huge homelessness problem. you have to see it with your own eyes to believe it. it's incredible to say the least. you think new york is expensive, talking about coastal living, go to san francisco. >> nothing compared. >> good talking to you. coming up, axios mike allen looks at this morning's one big thing. and on good morning joe, the president kicks off his campaign, and in battleground themes rehashing political battles as he makes the case for four more years in office. plus, the president loses his acting defense secretary in escalating tensions. jim himes. we discuss that and more. "morning joe" is just moments

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welcome back. joining us from washington, with a look at axios am, the cofounder, mike allen. >> good morning, and it's juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery. the axios one big thing is inside the oval, behind the scenes of patrick shanahan's departure as defense secretary nominee. we're told that white house officials have known for a month about the big divorce file for patrick shanahan, the acting defense secretary that caused him to withdraw yesterday, the very ugly allegations that we have seen here and documented encounters we have seen on the show. the president said that he just found out about it. jonathan swan found out exactly how it went down so on monday,

we were hearing rumors that this was going to happen. yesterday, patrick shanahan came to the oval office and told the president about what was being reported in the news, said he thought it was going to be a distraction. here's the interesting reporting. the president said he was not pressuring patrick shanahan to go. he said he would support him either way. patrick shanahan said he was going. that's when the president huddled with aides in the oval and said i'm going to make the secretary mark esper, the acting defense secretary, somebody i'm comfortable with. the president wording how he was going to announce it, and how do you think he decided? he was going to tweet. >> so the president according to the reporting is completely caught off guard by all of this, at least by the timing of it. >> that's what he said and that's going to raise real questions about vetting in the white house if reporters have known about this for a while. if other white house officials knew for a month, this is his

acting defense secretary, this is on the brink of worries of a war, why isn't the president told. people want to know, and people are going to want to know why this wasn't caught before he was named acting defense secretary and nominated for the permanent job. >> we have the shanahan news that broke yesterday. we also have the reelection rally that happened in florida. axios has reporting on why the trump team picked that battleground state for the event. >> orlando, florida, there were two reasons. the trump campaign knew they could get an overflow crowd, and the president started his remarks about bragging how lucky the people in the hall were to have gotten a ticket because they were so overbooked but here's the fascinating one, the trump campaign uses these rallies to vacuum up even more data than ever and this is

something that started under obama '08, you could go see a rally with oprah, but you would give them your text number, and campaigns have gathered more data from these rallies. now, the trump campaign, when you sign up to get a ticket, an electronic ticket, you give your basic info. when you arrive, when they scan your ticket, they ask you a few questions to try to gauge how excited you are about the election, your likelihood to vote, and that's why you go to orlando, florida, swing area of swing state. that's an area they want to, need to lock down. they want to vacuum up as much data as they can as early as they can. >> and of course people who go to these rallies don't necessary know their information is being used in that way, right? >> no, of course, and that's why they screen a little bit. of course, anybody can sign up to get a ticket, but this is a way that they have optimized

these, talk to somebody who went to a trump rally. and we always see those aerial pictures of the long lines outside, they say they were admitted very slowly so you keep getting the shot of the long line. >> great point. mike allen, thank you for your time. you can sign up for the news letter at signup.axios.com. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside geoff bennett. "morning joe" starts right now. remember joe biden comes out, well, if you elect me president, i'm going to cure cancer. wow. why the hell didn't you do that over the last 50 years, joe. >> we will come up with the cures to many many problems, to many many diseases including