slim, very slim, that we'll see another republican appointee like him any time soon." john paul stevens of chicago, illinois was 99 years old. and that is our broadcast on this tuesday night. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. ♪ after backlash over a series of tweets widely criticized as racist, house lawmakers vote to formally condemn president trump's remarks. plus while defending president trump, white house counselor kellyanne conway asks a reporter about an exchange. and remembering john paul stevens. he sat on the bench for nearly 35 years and has passed away at the age of 99. good morning, everybody. it is wednesday, july 17th. i'm yasmin vossoughian,

alongside my long lost co-anchor who has returned, ayman mohyeldin. we're so happy to have you back. >> great to be back. what have i missed? >> a lot to say the least. how's the baby? >> baby's doing great. sleeping through the night. there's a picture. he's sleeping. >> that was the end of your leave, right? >> yes. >> this is kind of the end of the beginning of your new life? >> because it makes it easier with the baby to wake up for a 4:00 a.m. show. >> it's super great to have you back. >> great to be back. >> we're thankful for geoff filling in for you, but he's probably sleeping. let's get started. the democrat-controlled house has passed a resolution condemning president trump for his, quote, racist comments about four progressive congresswomen of color. after a raucous debate on the

floor, four republicans and one independent lawmaker joined 235 democrats to vote in support of the measure. resolution condemns what it calls, quote, president trump's racist quotes that have legegi legitimized contempt. congresswoman justin amash, a trump credit hike left the republican party also voted in support of the measure. >> hours before that vote, president trump was on twitter defending his remarks, in fact, he wrote, in part, those tweets are not racist. i don't have a racist bone in my body. the so-called vote to be taken is a democrat con game. republicans should not show weakness and fall into their trap. >> and during a white house

gaggle, white house counsel kellyanne conway responded by asking a reporter about his own heritage. watch this. >> if the president was not telling these four congresswomen to return to their supposed countries of origin, to what countries was he referred? >> what's your ethnicity? >> why is that relevant? >> because i'm asking a question. my ancestors are from ireland and italy. >> it's not relevant. >> no, no, you're asking about, he said originally from. >> conway later tweeted she meant, quote no disrespect. she wrote this, we're all from somewhere else originally. i asked the question to answer the question and volunteered my own ethnicity italian and irish. like many, i'm proud of my

ethnicity and love the usa and grateful to god and to be american. >> and weighing in from republican lawmakers. watch. >> do you feel enough republicans have spoken up against the president? >> absolutely not. we just held a vote today. and not a single republican could bring themselves, no matter what their public statement or what their public gesture or public discomfort, they could not bring themselves to have the basic human decency to vote against the statement that the president made on the floor. >> what message does that send? >> the normalization of it, the fact that it's against our core values that they're choosing him over country. >> joining us now from washington and federal politics editor and senior reporter for the center for public integrity dave levinthaw. dave, thank you. from what we've seen kellyanne

conway doubling down on the president's tweets over the weekend with regards to the four freshmen congresswomen. on top of that, you have a lot of republicans pushing back as well, and not necessarily coming out and condemning the president and these racist comments that he put out on twitter. what do you make of it? >> doubling down or maybe even trimming or quadrupling down the congressional republican committee came out with a blast of emails of reporters and others calling members of congress, many members of congress, on the democratic side of the aisle deranged for going ahead and having this vote in the first place. the rhetoric is escalating. it's not tamping down. we're going to be hearing more of this, not less of this. the republican, mind you when donald trump was saying things back in 2016, even a couple weeks before the election, that video came out about him

grabbing women's genitals, there are many republicans saying he needs to get off the ticket. >> going into this yesterday, it was widely expected with the pass along party lines, we got a sense of what republicans were speaking. explain to us the democrats' political angle of trying to get house republicans on the record against the racist comments. >> this has been the democratic playbook ever since donald trump has really become president. and significantly more since the democrats have occupied the house in the leadership of that. so, you can expect that's going to definitely be the case. but the 2020 implications are certainly strong here. this is an opportunity for democrats to put everyone on record. to put every member of the house on record. the democrats want to retain the u.s. house. it's not all about the presidency.

it's about the house and senate, too. this is an opportunity for them to say, all right, all of you, you've got to go on record. you've got to say whether you support this tweet or not support this tweet. as you mentioned, only four republicans across the aisle, one independent, it's kind of awkward that we're talking about presidential tweets on the floor, but this is it now. john paul stevens who served on the supreme court for nearly 35 years died yesterday of complications following a stroke at the age of 99. stevens who retired in 2010 was it's longest serving justice in history on the supreme court. pete williams takes a look at his life and legacy. >> the supreme court's only gerald ford nominee john paul stevens arrived as a moderate conservative. >> i thank the president for the expression of confidence in me. >> reporter: but he quickly headed in his own direction

becoming the court's most prolific dissenter. he said he never varied in the courtship around him. >> i don't think i've changed. i consider myself quite conservative. >> reporter: he eventually supported in college admissions, he voted with the court's liberals to restrict police powers, give prisoners greater rights, keep a high law between church and state. though he never voted to declare the death penalty unconstitutional, he talked about its fairness. >> the fact that most judges who decide and often make the final life or death decision must stand for restriction creates a subtle bias in favor of death. >> reporter: stevens a decorated world war ii code breaker, and allowing a sexual harassment

suit to proceed against president clinton. stevens under way treatment and bypass surgery. he had four children and nine grandchildren and divided his time between washington and a home in florida, communicating with his law clerks electronically. >> it's amazing you can spend more time on the golf course. >> reporter: he remained fiercely loyal to his native chicago even showing out the first pitch at a cubs game as an 85-year-old right-hander. at age 90, justice stevens retired in 2009 after 35 1/2 years on the court. in 2012, barack obama presented him with the presidential medal of freedom as the third longest justice in history. the justice department will not bring federal charges against a white new york city police officer accused of fatally choking eric garner, the black man whose last words were,

quote, i can't breathe, sparked a movement over police brutality against the country. the decision was made by attorney general bill barr and was announced the day before the 35th instance of the encounter. >> to suffer as his family has tour follow has only compounded the loss. with these unassailable facts are separate and distinct from whether a federal crime has been committed. attorney general thoroughly considered his case and made a decision himself. >> barr rejected civil rights prosecutor's advice to file charges against the officer. and deciding that the widely circulated video of the botched arrest wasn't enough to make a case. eric garner's family vocally

disagreed with that decision. >> department of justice, they didn't do their job. so, now, i'm going to stand outside and i'm going to scream it. pantaleo needs to be fired. he needs to be fired. >> the officer who has been on desk duty since garner's death is still awaiting the results of a disciplinary hearing which could lead to his firing from the police force. still ahead, an attorney says a new victim has come forward and claimed she was abused by jeffrey epstein while serving time in florida. what this means for epstein's case. and later protests in puerto rico grow violent as governor rossello faces charges of scandal. those and more when we come back. stay with us. johnson & johnson is a baby company.

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forward to say she was abused by sex offender jeffrey epstein while he was on work release as part of his 2007 plea deal. a lawyer representing epstein's accuser said yesterday that the wealthy financier allowed to have visitors while he was supposed to be working during the 13-month sentence took advantage of the to engage in improper sex contact but added that they may not have been minors. >> he was in his office most of the day, and what i can tell you is, he had visitors, female visitors. i don't know that any of them were under age. and the female visitors were they're not for business. what he did on a daily basis is engage in these type of sex acts with young adults and children. what he did to make his money, i don't know. what he did legitimately outside of engaging in these sexual

misdeeds, i don't know. nor do any of the witness that we have ever deposed. >> all right. so, meanwhile, epstein's lawyers explain ed th explained that it shows epstein's photo with a different name while lifting his residence as saudi arabia. according to court papers filed yesterday, epstein's lawyers said the passport was for personal protection in event of traveling to dangerous areas only to be presented with hijackers or terrorists should violent episodes occur. adding that epstein is of jewish faith and that made him ample target in the middle east. and the passport expired more than 30 years ago. joining us here, nbc's legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, great to have you. let's talk about how it may play into epstein's strategy here, what's your take.

>> it plays to the government's strategy. u.s. attorney berman said if there are any accusers, call us. they read out the number right there at the press conference. so, it wouldn't surprise me if they found a new crime. if you saw a new indictment. a superseding indictment. because the charges current lly lodged against epstein. there are defenses not to mention the fact that his defense will be fighting tooth and nail in which what they regard as agreement not just with florida, but the southern district of new york. if they succeed, they could potentially have the charges thrown out in new york. >> danny let's talk about the passport. it's very perplexing to me. >> to the judge, too. >> you have the passport with epstein's photo on it, a different name, with his residence, which we know not to be true of saudi arabia. the defense saying the passport was for personal protection to

travel to areas only to be presented as potential hijackers or kidnappers or terrorists should violent episodes occur. this is the job of a defense attorney to come up with an explanation like that. what do you make of it? >> and i'm going to try to present both sides. on the one hand, the government will argue this is evidence he's going to flee. the defense says it's not evidence that he's going to flee. even the judge was perplexed by the existence of this passport. apparently, it's expired. >> what about the intention, even though it's expired, there's still intention involved? >> well, the fact that he still owned it. if it was something that he was concerned about during the hijackings of the '80s. those concerns haven't completely disappeared, but the '80s have passed. the question is why you would hold on to a document like that.

but i would also say the discovery of 70,000 $ and some loose diamonds. $70,000 wouldn't be a lot for somebody like epstein to go on the lam. it wouldn't be a lot for a person to go on the run and live out on the hawaiian islands. >> let's check out the weather with meteorologist bill karins. >> hey, buddy, great to have you back. i can't believe you said you're never going to complain about a weather forecast. >> let's see how this one goes, i'm tell you. >> hopefully good news. >> by the time of saturday afternoon, everyone will be complaining. we had what was left of barry to produced flooding in arkansas and tennessee got a little bit too. that rain went up through cleveland. heading up to erie, pennsylvania. detroit's had showers overnight. definitely some rain in western kentucky. not everybody is dry this morning, most of us are.

93 million people, 1 in 3 americans, under some heat advisory. everywhere in the bright eye pink is excessive heat warning. and it gets into dangerous category for people being in apartments without air conditioning, especially the elderly. so, you get it. it's the peak heating of summer. it's almost like what you get at the end of january with big cold waves, well, this is the opposite. 108 it feels like in oklahoma city. 108 in arkansas. those are 100 to 110 across the board from the midwest through the plains. on thursday, we see the heat cranking. savannah will feel like 107. philadelphia today, very hot and humid. you'll get thunderstorms which actually help on thursday. same for new york city. maybe travel delays or airplane delays because of the storms but at least it won't be as hot. when those storms are gone, it will crank up. washington, d.c. will feel like

104. i know i'm throwing a lot of numbers at you, but that was kind of the warmup act as we head into the weekend. anywhere in the pink, about 32 states, about 200 million people, the worst of it, the mid-atlantic region. these are the peak heated seasons. look at d.c., friday, 106, saturday, 110. new york on saturday, 109. >> very high. >> welcome back, my friend. >> welcome back. >> yep, going to have to stay indoors with a wet towel. >> i think everybody should stay indoors. >> in january, you stay indoors when it's freezing cold and now. >> yeah. >> it's just life, right? still ahead, the 2019 emmy nominations have been announced. we take a look at which shows are leading the pack this year. one that yasmin has not watched. they really appreciate the military family

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hbo is sitting on the emmy throne once again as "g.o.t." or "game of thrones" as they call it, the list was announced with the show picking up 32 nominations. setting the record for any show within a single year. the drama has already won three times for best drama. if it wins a fourth it would tie an emmy record. hbo led all networks, with a record-setting 1 tlen nominat13. yesterday was a big day for phoebe wallerbridge. 11 for flea bag, nine for killing eve. she was nominated for the best comedy series and best writing in a comedy series. and i guess i need to start

watching. >> you have time between now and the emmy to watch all seasons. >> by time you mean -- >> yeah, no excuses. >> in between the work, the kids and the sleep -- >> no excuses. and tweets targeting four democratic congresswomen and the chaos that broke out on the house floor after nancy pelosi called the president's tweets racist. plus, what senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has to say about whether the president's tweets were racist. we're back in a moment.

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ayman mohyeldin. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. tensions between republic and democratic lawmakers boiled on the house floor yesterday. and the gop rejection with house speaker nancy pelosi about president trump. >> these comments from the white house are disgraceful and disgusting. and these comments are racist. every single member of this institution, democratic and republican should join us in condemning the president's racist tweets. >> our would give the general speaker of the house to erase that comment. >> i've cleared with remarks with the parliamentarian. >> i order they be taken down. >> per house rules, members are barred from making unfavorable remarks about the president in that chamber.

following doug collins' rejections to pelosi's remarks, house leader steny hoyer said they were not in order and the comments should be stricken from the record. after a nearly two-hour delay, democrats in a party line vote allowed pelosi's remarks to remain since she had been found out of order, pelosi was temporarily barred from making comments on the floor for the rest of the day until democrats in another party line vote allowed her to resume talking. >> so the fight that ensued over speaker pelosi's comments on the president proved to be a breaking point for one democratic lawmaker. >> i came in here to try to do this in a fair way. i kept warning both sides, let's not do this hoping we can get through. but we don't ever, ever want to pass up it seems an opportunity to escalate. and that's what this is. i dare anybody to look at any footage to see if there was any

unfairness. but unfairness is not enough because we want to just fight. i abandon the chair. >> that was congressman emmanuel cleaver of missouri residing on the house floor amid the height of pelosi's remarks when he decided to abandon the chair. he made the decision weaver said, over the frustration with the childish rancor of our public discord. >> mitch mcconnell was asked to weigh in on the president's attacks against the democratic congresswomen, and once again, refused to condemn trump over his remarks? >> you're married to an immigrant and national citizen, if someone were to say to her to go back to her country wouldn't you consider that a racist attack? >> well, the transportation

secretary came back here legally and has realized the american dream. >> what you consider that -- >> look. i'm obviously a big fan of legal immigration. it's been a big part of my family for a quarter of a century. as i look around the country and watch the contributions that have been made by new arrivals and the children of new arrivals, it's been re reinvigorating america for years. >> it stops short of calling the president a race gist. >> well, the president is not a risis racist. >> while senate majority leader mitch mcconnell remained tight lipped, john lewis did not hold back talking about president trump's remarks while speaking with andrea mitchell yesterday. watch this. >> we all come from some other place. it doesn't matter whether we're

white, latino, asian-american or native-american, native-american were the only people here when we got here, it's just dead wrong. and we must use everything in a most nonviolent way to say it's wrong. we're not going back, here we're to stay. >> is what the president said racist? >> what he said and what he continued to say is racist. it is racism. you cannot hide it. >> let's talk 2020 here. former south carolina republican congressman mark sanford iswaying a potential 2020 run. in an interview with the post and courier, sanford said he would consider a challenge over president. he said the country's debt is a main factor for his potential run. adding sometimes in life you've got to say what you say, whether

there's an audience or not for that message, i feel convicted. he went on to say i think the republican party has lost its way on debt, spending and financial matters. in order to be on the 2020 ballot in an early state, sanford would have to convince his party of even holding a primary. mark esper was on capitol hill yesterday. warning of the, quote, growing concern of competitors. >> i'm an avid supporter of the national defense strategy and its clear out assessment. it warrants a refocus to high-intensity conflict across you aof the military services. the international rules-based order in the wake of world war ii is the order that's assured proper operator and security for 75 years. i'm fully committed to that. i think that's one thing certainly under threat from

russia and certainly china. china wanted to reorder the global order. >> esper also said he would resign if he was asked to do anything el legal. that hearing became heated an elizabeth warren questioned about his ties to raytheon, a top contractor for which esper was a lobbyist for before becoming the secretary back in 2017. esper sold his stock in raytheon last year and recused himself from duties related to the pentagon yesterday. but yesterday said he would continue that blanket refusal if confirmed as secretary of defense. >> joining us the senior reporter for the center for public integrity, dave levinyou that. let's talk about the possible interest if anything, because of esper's past lobbying work that eam ayman just talked about. that being raytheon. >> it's all about his ties to

raytheon, and he was a registered federal lobbyist for this contractor for much of a decade. what's the issue here, elizabeth warren was raising it saying, look, you still have financial considerations there. if you don't recuse yourself from matters that are dealing with raytheon, in the context of being secretary of defense, you could have a financial interest. you could be making decisions that benefit your former employer. and republicans push back to say, look, this is just a presidential campaign opportunity for elizabeth warren. this is a patriot who is going to serve his country well, and who in the past has served his country well. >> david, let's get to that. i want to get to the floor of the house. what do you make of nancy pelosi's fiery day there. her comments called trump's comments, quote, racist. >> i don't think anyone woke up

yesterday morning thinking they would going to have to go in to start reading thomas jefferson's manual for parliamentary procedure. but in this very situation, being very arcane and sometimes perplexing rules and policies of the u.s. house of representatives. ultimately, she was able to go forward. the vote was taken. a lot of people are wondering what does this even mean that the house has condemned donald trump for the tweets he put out about four memberses of the house on the democratic side. in practice, this is something that is simply a statement of the house. there's not going to be a penalty. there's not going to be some sort of sanction on donald trump. he's not going to have to pay a fine or go to jail. there are major many political implications. and you can kind of expect there are going to be a whole lot of campaign ads in the months to

come that reference back to what happened this week. >> thanks, dave. >> thank you. still ahead, the trump administration deals a new blow to venezuelans trying to flee that country's ongoing political turmoil. plus, puerto rico is facing its own political turmoil as violent protests erupt and call for the embattled governor to step down. and bill karins is back on with the forecast. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. (burke) at farmers insurance, we've seen almost everything,

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(a blend of quality probiotics new align whole food probiotic, and fermented whole food botanicals. expertly curated to naturally support your gut health everyday. go with align whole food blend. from the pros in digestive health. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein. the best combination for every fitness routine. welcome back, everyone. the trump administration is refusing to grant venezuelans temporary protection status, despite stating that the country is ruled by dangerous dictatorial regime. the administration has not explicitly rejected the status which grants temporary protection from deportation to venezuelans. however, in response to a request from 23 democratic senators and republican senator marco rubio for the protection the administration would only say that it is monitoring the

situation in venezuela. that, quote, there could be other immigration relief measures available. in a statement, senators dick durbin and bob menendez say, quote, president trump cannot do both. he cannot warn americans that venezuela is such a dangerous place that they should not travel there. and then tell the venezuelans in the united states they are forced to return. puerto rico governor ricardo rossello doubled down in a press conference yesterday refusing to step down after requests for his resignation turned violent on monday night. the protests come as rossello faces mutt tim scandals regarding chats and misogynous comments by the governor and some associates. as thousands marched in san juan on monday, police tried to disburse them with tear gas outside of the governor's residence which was protected by

barricades. authorities say about two dozen police officers were arrested during a massive protest. and protesters were arrest as a result of the demonstrations. lawmakers from rossello's progressive party have not started impeachment proceedings against the governor. instead, they're giving him a one-week deadline to reflect and prove that he can continue to governor. let's switch gears and bring in nbc's meteorologist bill karins with a quick check of weather. hey, bill. >> good morning, we still have what's left of barry, in arkansas and tennessee that did lead to flooding problems, too. there's even a chance that arkansas may have set their state record from the most rain fall for a tropical system. one system had 8 to 12 inches in arklat arklatex. and from boston, hartford, providence and even new york

city. here's the rain that will fall later today. the sthothunderstorms could givu tropical downpours. the blue is one inch, and the catskills, and berkshires, and through the southeareas of sout new england and will travel, especially through the evening as the storms come through. slight risk in areas of iowa, southern wisconsin, north of st. louis. but that does include the new york city and hartford. so if we do get the severe storms with the lightning and strong gusty winds, you know what that will do to the airports. again, the timing appears to be late afternoon from 6:00 p.m. to midnight is the window of when the storms go through. and before the storms go through, it's going to be hot and also very humid. d.c., 96, it will feel like 105. same for baltimore. all the way up to philadelphia. very hot in the middle of the country. dallas near 100 today. and that's not going to change

even as we go towards tomorrow. look at denver at 100 degrees. there's not a whole lot of humidity. not as oppressive in the midwest. as we mentioned after we get done with the rain and thunderstorm event in the northeast, we just dial the heat up over the weekend. >> august, here we go. >> thanks, bill. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, fed chair jerome powell hints of a raising interest rate. facebook gets grilled by lawmakers as it gets set to launch. and stories driving your business day coming up, next. johnson & johnson is a baby company. but we're also a company that controls hiv, fights cancer, repairs shattered bones, relieves depression, restores heart rhythms,

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welcome back. speaking in paris yesterday, federal reserve chair jerome powell repeated his promise to act appropriately to the existing economic expansion. and signalled that an interest rate cut could be on the horizon. but not due to president trump's constant criticism. cnbc's julia tatelbaum joins us live from london. what did the chairman say here? >> yasmin, he reiterated what he said in the past. president trump has been very vocal criticizing jerome powell, trying to pressure him to cut rates. now, it looks as though the fed is moving in that direction and

we're expecting them to cut rates at the july meeting. but the federal reserve chair was keen to emphasize, if they do cut rates, it's going to be because inflation remains at u.a trade war create a lot of uncertainty, and economic growth is sat risk as well. -- is at risk as well. it is not because of president trump and his push for them to cut rates and from president trump's side of things, in his recent commentary around this issue, he said that china is under no pressure from its central bank that president xi jinping is his own fed. there's no let up from president trump's side in terms of criticism. facebook coming under fire at the senate hearing yesterday. they are there for legislatures to air their concerns and ask questions around a number of things but in particular its new

cryptocurrency libra getting a huge amount of attention, and they raised concerns with some lawmakers calling the plans for the launch crazy and delusional, so at the moment we are in a bit of a wait and see mode, what comes next. it feels as though facebook is coming up with a constructive tone around negotiating with lawmakers and politicians but a huge number of concerns around this new area for facebook. guys. >> juliana tattlebaum. democrats take action to condemn the president over his racist comments. the latest from capitol hill, and debate over president trump's continued attacks against four democratic women of color. and hakeem jeffreys and congresswoman veronica escobar weigh in on this fight. and democratic hopeful, steve bullock joins the table with the latest on his campaign.

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welcome back, joining us from washington axios am cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vanheim. good morning to you. >> welcome back. >> sorry, i messed that up. he said welcome back. >> we're all family here. >> looking at president trump's premeditated racism, everyone wants to think he bangs out these tweets and does this improvisationally, when he tells women to go back home. this is part of his 2020 campaign. there's a lot of calculation to this. there's a lot more method than people realizes.

he know from watching fox news and getting data about what's moving the needle on social media, he's in a much better place if the democrats are defined by the so called squad than they might be by a centrist democrat. he knows that he's not going to win over sort of any persuadables and so he thinks a lot about how do i rev up my base. how do i try to create a definition of the democratic party that is further left than the democratic party might actually be so that by the time he runs in 2020, he might not need to worry about the nominee defining the democratic party. he thinks he can help define it in a way that will crank up that white vote and it's the only way that he feels he can win the election in the swing states that got him the presidency in the first place. sadly, i think you're going to see more of this, not less of this. >> jim, let me get this straight, the president is playing the race card, so to speak to crank up his votes. talk about the potential

backlash. if he thinks he has to flay the race card to get white voters out for him having a chance to win, could it have the backlash of mobilizing people of color on the other side to come out in large numbers. >> absolutely could. there's no doubt about it. he understands that his path to reelection is narrower. it might be hard to replicate his victories in michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania and continue to hold the south, and so this sort of all in on this us versus them campaign, which often has like overt or less overt racism, as part of it, and yeah, the downside of that could be that you crank up turn youou the other side. him, who thinks about the pageantry of politics, and how does he get the fox audience amped up, it's the clearest way to win reelection. >> on the other side of this you have nancy pelosi on the house

floor, what is her strategy standing up to the president. >> it's a no brainer, the position she took yesterday, most americans looked at that comment and said it's clearly racist, go home, think about what happened in the 60s, what's happened in the past to minorities. it clearly has a context that smacks of racism. and to her, derchfending her pa, defending these women is a no brainer, she is having this mini feud with them. there's not a downside for her even if there's a big hoopla on the house floor whether or not her remarks were appropriate. in terms of her base and her party, she's fine, right, and what's interesting is for years all republicans wanted to do was define democrats as the party of pelosi, and for trump, no, that doesn't work at all. i want to define it as the party of socialism or the party of people of color or the party of women, which all goes into that

us or them. that's what those women have in common, they're young, they're super liberal. they're people of color, all the things he wants to hit at, he watching fox and sees what happenings on social. >> u.s. versus them, the new reality of politics, jim vandehei, we're going to see you on "morning joe" and reading axios. sign up for the news letter at sign up @axios.com. >> that does it for us, i'm yasmin vossoughian, "morning joe" starts right now. what do you ydo, you make i to the general, he's lying, we're doing great, that's his brand, we're stronger than ever, he starts making fun of your age, your mental state, starts going after you. >> i say come on, donald, come on man, how many pushups you want to do here, pal. jokingly. you know, come on, run with me

man. >> in a new interview former vice president joe biden said he would challenge president trump to do pushups if trump criticized his age or mental state in a debate. if someone criticizes your mental state and your response is to do pushups, it's not a great argument in favor of your mental state. >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe," it's wednesday, july 17th. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc contributor mike barnable, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department, elise jordan, former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst, steve ratner, and senior news correspondent, kim atkins. >> i don't see what the problem is. every time we have nobel peace prize winning economists, we tell them, let's arm