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 wrestle.

>> of course there's that one time we took him down to do the mud wrestling down at the ice rink. am i right, willie? >> whenever someone challenges my intellect, the bent arm hang, the things kids couldn't do in elementary school. we've got a lot to cover this morning including newly found footage that we're going to show you of president trump partying it up with jeffrey epstein at mar-a-lago. this is video from back in 1992. >> he never liked him, right? >> yeah. so they're doing something here that kind of is relevant. we're going to explain what the president was doing back then with the man he now says he was not a fan of. >> willie was wearing that jean shirt. >> a lot going on there. >> you see who's behind -- this is very interesting. there's a lot of different

players here. >> guess what they're talking about mika. >> you're not going to believe what they're talking about. isn't that -- okay. >> i thought he didn't like him. >> we'll see. it looks like the whole set up is there. that's coming up in just a few minutes. we begin with the democrat controlled house. it's passed a resolution condemning president trump for his quote racist comments about four progressive democratic congresswomen of color. after a raucous debate on the house floor, just four republicans and one independent lawmaker joined 235 democrats to vote in support of the measure. the resolution condemns what it calls president donald trump's racist comments that have legitima legitimateized and increased fear and hatred. the four republicans who voted in support, will hurd of texas, susan brooks of indiana, and brian fitzpatrick of

pennsylvania. congressman justin amash, a trump critic who left the republican party to be an independent also voted in support of the measure. hours before that vote, president trump was on twitter. he lobbied for his republican colleagues to stand firm and vote against the resolution. writing in part, those tweets were not racist. i do not have a racist bone in my body. the so called vote to be taken is a democrat con game. so last night, president trump complimented republicans for sticking together tweeting out so great to see how unified the republican party was on today's vote concerning statements i made about four democratic congresswomen. the republican vote was 187-4. also this was the first time since 1994 that the speaker of the house was ruled out of order and broke the rules of the house. quite a day.

>> yeah. >> okay. so well, he's admitting the tweet is about the four congresswomen and it was racist, and we really are now covering it this morning where only four pitiful republicans could come forward and say that this was racist, and condemn it. really. that's incredible. thank god for these people. >> i think this is very helpful. it's very helpful for americans to look and see what members of congress actually will call racism racism. regardless of their party. i'm certainly proud of those four members of congress, not that they certainly care what i think but i know a lot of americans are proud for those who stood up. but willie, i think yesterday was really actually, i think, we talked about ground noise. we talked about the signal. yesterday was a silgnal and it will be a moment historians look back at the republican party, finally even capitulated on the

issue of white nationalism and racism. you had people running web sites like the daily stormer, praising the white nationalism of donald trump, and said this is why we white nationalists get behind donald trump when he was running for president, and also, i think, more telling, you have some so called conservatives, they're not conservative. i'm conservative. i have been conservative my whole life. i've got the voting record. i'm a conservative. but there are actually people who claim to be conservative, where willie, they actually went online yesterday and tried to write columns saying that what donald trump said was not racist. yesterday was a defining moment for the wing party of the future, the republican party, and only four republicans decided to condemn the statement where donald trump said go back to where you came from. of course they're from america, so it was clear that he was --

>> he's inviting them to stay? >> no, he's telling black women and muslim american women that they had no right to stay in america, and hispanic. >> well, of course the tweets were racist. of course the message behind them are racist. the president of the united states did something to this party long ago that was effectively codified yesterday, which was to twist them into knots and put them into a position to plead loyalty to plead loyalty to the president of the united states, come hell or high water, and that hell was defending racism plain and simple in the tweets and the messages he followed up with yesterday. the only african-american of the house will hurd voted for the measure. two of the other republicans are retiring, they don't face consequences coming out of this. it's amazing to think, kimberly atkins four days ago there was a war going on within the democratic party between nancy pelosi and some of the

progressives in that caucus. they unified on a party line vote with a historic vote, really, to condemn the president of the united states. they're unified again now against this president. >> absolutely. i mean, as early as yesterday morning, 24 hours ago, i was talking to some democrats on the hill who were not happy with this resolution. they wanted a stronger censure proposal put forward by congressman steve cohen to be brought to the floor and it became clear that it wouldn't, but it took this act particularly of speaker pelosi going and calling out donald trump for the racist tweet on the floor, spurring republicans to try to have her comments taken down. those two actions, together, quickly unified the democrats. they all came together, every single one to vote along with the four republicans that you mentioned and it was probably the most uniting point of the

week for the democrats heading into this. so in the end, the effort to try to -- if the president's efforts, one of them was to try to draw a division between these four congresswomen, and the rest of the caucus, it failed miserably. >> you know, willie, we talked about will hurd voting for this resolution, the only black republican in congress and the house. only black republican in the senate, senator tim scott also condemned this language. racially, incense ty language, and said it was deeply offensive. >> yeah, and a lot of the other republicans, excuse me, the insta small number of republicans who did condemn it, it was mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy were asked in separate press appearances to weigh in on the president's attacks against

the democratic congresswomen. >> you're married to an immigrant, u.s. citizen, if someone were to say, she should go back to her country because of the criticism of the federal policies, wouldn't you consider that a racist attack? >> well, the secretary of transportation came here at age 8 legally, not speaking a word of english and realized the american country. >> would you use the words go back to your country? >> 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 contributions that have been made by new arrivals and the children of new arrivals, it's been reinvigorating america a hundred years. >> but you stopped short of calling his comments racist. >> the president is not a racist. and i think the tone of all of this is not good for the country.

>> were the president's tweets that said go back racist, yes or no. >> no, and i do not believe the speaker of the house was racist when those individuals on her side of the aisle who are claiming the president is racist, when they claimed she was racist either. i do not believe that. i believe this is about ideology, this is about socialism versus freedom. >> joe, help our viewers understand this. you have been in the united states capitol, why is that a difficult thing for mitch mcconnell, arguably the most powerful man other than donald trump in washington right now to just say that's true, that these comments should not take place, we shouldn't hear them from the united states president. why is that so difficult and then move on. i don't understand it from either of those two men? >> i don't understand it either because i don't think mitch mcconnell should be punished for saying it's racially insensitive. kevin mccarthy is complete different. here's a man who said donald trump had been paid off by the russians until donald trump won

the nomination and now he's completely kowtowing to his. this plan of his and lindsey graham to take a racist comment and try to make it about socialism or in lindsay's absurd case to make it about communism is preposterous, the american people are not that stupid. will, you know, it's interesting, when you listen to mitch mcconnell there, the first half of what he was saying was lifted straight from ronald reagan's fair well address to america, immigrants reinvigorate america, that immigrants that come to america make this country better. that's exactly what ronald reagan said in his farewell address, and yet elise jordan at the end of it, when it turns to donald trump, suddenly that mitch mcconnell, that republican

party of the last 40 years disappears. and he becomes a sycophant for donald trump. >> it's really incredible to imagine being an elected official in the united states of america in 2019, who is completely unwilling to just call out racism, and i can't imagine what i would say to my children and grandchildren, 10, 20, 30 years from now, about my silence, and that i wasn't part of the four, that i wasn't justin amash, that i wasn't part of the right side of history. it's really breathtaking, the shortsightedness of all of these republicans just to, you know, fall down and kneel at the altar of trump rather than the american values of liberty that

we hold so dear. >> you know, mika, this has an impact. it has an impact on not only what members of congress do or don't do, but also on what members of the administration feel comfortable saying. >> yep. >> what racists from the daily storm or what racists that may be at more mainstream news sites are able to say, and yesterday and what really, i think, was extraordinarily revealing, and i won't draw any parallels with any fascist countries, but what happened yesterday in a press gaggle has nothing to do with the united states of america and in any other administration over the past 240 years, a person that did what kellyanne conway did yesterday would have been

fired on the spot. by the time she left the press gaggle and went back into the white house, they would have already packed up her belongings and would have told her leave by the back door and never talk to us again. >> that's a good tee up. the fact is that she's done other things that would have caused this as well. that's why she doesn't come on this show. this at this point is news. i'm going to tell you about that in just a second, to the point being made about these republicans and also about what we heard in terms of coming back at the democrats and nancy pelosi for being quote racist. it's really important, as we cover these spineless republicans who at this moment in history are incapable of calling out clear and present racism. you know, and it is a big story that they can't do that. this will be remembered. as joe biden said in the interview yesterday, this is damaging for our country. but to the young freshmen who

are really important to the democratic caucus, who are making waves, and also becoming a target of this president, and we want them to succeed, it's important what you say as well, don't play into these republicans' hands. that low below to nancy pelosi saying that she had racist overtones when she was talking about press whatever, that was a low blow, being used against you. don't trip over yourself, you're doing a great job. you got to not work on trending, don't day trade, don't make yourself the story, and don't play into these weak, spineless republicans who will do anything, anything to get you. don't give them ammunition against nancy pelosi. you know where she stands. you know where she stands on these issues. you know she's not a racist. to what joe was referring to. during a press gaggle yesterday morning, white house counselor

kellyanne conway responded to the president's tweets telling four congresswomen to go back to where they came from by asking a reporter about his own heritage. >> if the president was not telling these four congresswomen to return to their supposed country of origin, to which countries was he referring? >> what's your ethnicity? >> why is that relevant? >> because i'm asking you a question. my ancestors are from ireland and italy. >> that is not relevant to the question i'm asking. >> you're asking about, he said originally from. >> she's asking, mika, a jewish reporter who she knows is a jewish reporter. she's asking a jewish reporter what his ethnicity is about. now, i'm sorry, i'm not saying that this is germany 1934, 1935,

i'm not saying this is italy, 1930, 1931, but i would love for the administration to tell me when the hell that's ever happened coming out of the white house and the united states of america because i don't think it ever has. >> conway later tweeted that she meant no disrespect when she asked the reporter about his ethnicity. she wrote quote we are 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. love the usa. grateful to god to be american. earlier in the day, conway spoke about who those four congresswomen represented. >> they represent a dark underbelly in this country of people who are not respecting our troops.

who are not giving them the resources and respect that they deserve. >> so mike barnable, i don't know where to begin -- mike barnicle, i don't know where to begin. donald trump makes racist comments about four women that are women of color and she accuses them of being dark, the dark underbelly of america, and then she asks a jewish reporter, demands, really of a jewish reporter for him to tell her his ethnicity. please, tell me, mike, when has that ever happened in the united states of america before in a white house briefing. >> it has never happened before, joe, and you're right, what you said prior to this, she would have been fired on the spot before she got back to her desk in the west wing. she would have been fired. anyone would have been fired. not in this administration. you referenced a couple of minutes ago, perhaps what we're enduring is a nation as a defining moment for in

administration. we have multiple defining moments each and every week for this administration. you also mentioned earlier ronald reagan's farewell speech, which i happen to have read yesterday, again, and he gave it on january 19th, 1989, at a medal of freedom ceremony in the white house, in the west wing, and awarded the medal of freedom to one democrat and one republican, mike mansfield who fought in world war i in the navy and george schultz from the secretary of state and multiple other positions and fought in world war ii in the marine corps. and it's a node to immigration and what immigration does to provide more strength and resilience to this country. in part, here's what he said, since this is the last speech i will give as president, i think it's fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which i love, it was stated best in the letter i received not long ago when a man

wrote me and said, you can go to live in france, but you cannot become a frenchman. you can go to live in germany or turkey or japan, but you cannot become a german, turk or japanese, but anyone from any corner of the earth can come to live in america and become an american. republicans ought to reread that speech, january 19th, 1989. ronald reagan. everyone ought to reread that speech. >> a man they all claim to admire and hold up as a hero. they should read that. let's compare what kelly said yesterday to the op-ed written by her husband. the headline, trump is a racist president. conway writes this, president trump was boarish, dim witted, narcissistic and insensitive, a pathetic bully but an equal opportunity bully in his equally crass and crude manner.

he'll attack anyone he thinks is critical of him. no matter how much i thought him unfit, i gave him the benefit of the doubt about being a racist. no matter how much i came to dislike him, i don't want to think the president of the unite is a racial bigot, sunday left no doubt, nigh ef tee, resent -- nei the intent and effect would have been no less clear. what's just as bad is the virtual silence from republican leaders and office holders. they're silent, knowing how vindictive, stubborn, and self-destructive, they fear his wrath. none of that is good enough. what's at stake are the nation's ideals, its very soul. that's george conway attorney, and husband of senior adviser kellyanne conway. >> it is, and you know, that's

what so many republicans said who aren't in washington, d.c. believe and so many republicans that, well, used to be members of the party are saying all the time, this isn't difficult steve r ratner and yet there are people inside the white house, let's start with donald trump, who believe this is a good campaign strategy. yesterday, we're going to be talking to jim about this, jim vandehei about this, but yesterday, charlie cook wrote, that there was an intensity among democrats, i think it's like a plus 20 intensity of democrats who believe it is important to get donald trump out of office and they're energized to do that with their vote, compared to 52 or 53% of republicans who believe that it's important to get donald trump out of office and there's this intensity and what vahe's

reporting is donald trump believes this will gem up his base. the short side of this is that for every one racist it gems up, three people of color or women or college educated men or working class men or women who don't want a racist president. and it is so shortsighted, i cannot believe that the president is making this miscalculation because it will lead -- just, remember after charlottesville, his numbers went down. this is going to lead to nothing good for donald trump. >> well, joe, look, obviously we all hope that your analysis is right and certainly there have been a number of polls as well as a sense i get among my fellow democrats that the energy level and the commitment on the part of democrats to getting trump out of office exceeds that of the attitude toward george w.

bush in 2004 and other popular republican presidents, there's a commitment on the part of democrats, whether they succeed, we'll have to wait and see. i would simply observe, and you mentioned charlottesville, that the president has gotten past some things that i think any of us would have thought would have doomed any other politician, whether it's the access hollywood tape, or charlottesville, or a lot of other stuff he did. it takes it to a new level. whether it's enough of a level to change the game, i think we'll all have to wait and see. i would make a couple other point, i do think that what's going on in washington at the moment is going to feed the general public distaste for washington. i think it's a pretty unseamly scene, sorry for the combined words, the acrimony, the divisiveness, utter partisanship and so forth, and i'm not sure that's going to be a great outcome, and the other thing i worry slightly about for the democrats is that pelosi had

distanced herself, you know, ten days in the famous column from the so called squad, said they're just four votes. she has been cemented back to the squad, and so trump's strategy, obviously is going to be to keep her cemented to the squad to talk about socialists, certainly the dog whistles, maybe the overt racism, but the squad is not going to be helpful, frankly, to the democrats chances of taking back the white house, and pelosi is going to have to and the rest of the candidates are going to have to navigate their way through that. >> yeah, and they will but mika, again, this does not help donald trump. >> no. >> in the long run. >> this is day trading. any other president that had stayed away from this sort of hatefulness throughout his presidency, and i understand that as a political figure, that is central to his brand, but any

other president would be sitting above 50% with these economic numbers, would be leading his rivals or her rivals by over 10 points because he has peace and he has prosperity and yet in the midst of this, he chooses instead on a sunday to send out racist tweets and this is not donald trump being crazy like a fox. this is donald trump just being crazy. it makes no political sense. >> well, for him it does, deflecting and diverting and all of that, the three d's, that's the signal, that's his political campaign coming up. but it's also ground noise because he's trying to deflect. kimberly, i need you to help me understand the connection these republicans are making. could we see more? i can't imagine the nen amen an women in congress can't do math, simple math, one way or another, this president is going to let

them down. he has got connections to a sexual predator and had parties with 28 calendar girls. that story is brewing. you've got the southern district of new york and payouts to porn stars and other things waiting for him when he leaves office. you've got mueller testifying in a few weeks. i mean, you know this ends badly, right, the math is there. so what is it that has them so pitifully, spinelessly defending a racist? >> yeah, i think it's a combination of a few things. one, while, yes, it's very difficult for this president and for the republican party in general to bank on essentially white men as the future of the party given that we are a country that is becoming more diverse, not less. they are doing that. the president is holding on to one thing he does have is a pretty unilastic base of support

that did not go down. it hasn't gone down when he was calling countries s hole countries and so he feels emboldened to continue to hammer at this message really vilifying people of color and immigrants, frankly as a good campaign message. you also have republicans who see racism as some sort of third rail that they cannot address head on for fear that there will be some backlash. you see republicans, people like senator susan collins and senator mitt romney, going all the way around to say, well, the comments were over the line, and really refusing to engage on the issue of racism. you have mitch mcconnell who repeatedly just says the president is not a racist, and won't even take a personal note to react how he would feel if somebody slurred his own wife. for some reason, addressing racism is something republicans are terribly afraid to do, and

democrats are not. and i think in the long run, that's going to be the ultimate problem for republicans because they can't avoid this forever. certainly not right now at a time when there are racial divisions in the united states. they're at a high point, and people are feeling it. >> just seems like a basic human value. thank you very much. >> and by the way, speaking of mitch mcconnell's wife, mika, she stood behind donald trump as support after charlottesville. that tells you, really, all you need to know. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll show you the latest comments from the four congressional women disparaged by the president. plus we break down the latest fundraising numbers for democrats. up next, something you'll see first right here on "morning joe." newly found footage of president trump partying it up with jeffrey epstein at mar-a-lago back in 1992.

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at least one woman has come forward to say she was abused by sex offender jeffrey epstein while he was on work release as part of his 2007 plea deal. so that sweetheart deal had him offending again. a lawyer representing epstein accusers said yesterday that the wealthy financier who was allowed to have visitors while he was supposed to be working during the 13-month sentence took advantage of the arrangement to engage in improper sexual contact but added that the new accusers 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 underage, and the female visitors were there not for business. what he did on a daily basis is engage in these types 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 witnesses that we have ever deposed. >> so many questions here. meanwhile, epstein's lawyers explained the doctored passport in his home, which shows epstein's photo with a different name while listing his residence as saudi arabia. according to court papers filed yesterday, epstein's lawyers said the passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas only to be presented to potential kidnappers, hijackers

or terrorists should violent episodes occurred, adding that epstein's jewish faith and ample finances made him a target in the middle east. attorneys say the travel document came from austria and expired more than 30 years ago. so we want to show you now some footage from 1992 that our producers found in the nbc archives that shows donald trump with jeffrey epstein who is now a sex offender and accused sex trafficker, looking at and talking about women at a party. >> welcome to the southern white house. >> since becoming president, donald trump has branded mar-a-lago, the southern white house, a place that entertains foreign leaders, where military strikes are ordered and there's an open air situation room over dessert. >> we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you have ever seen.

>> in the 90s, mar-a-lago was donald trump's south florida party palace, one frequented by jeffrey epstein, who is facing charges for sex trafficking. he has pleaded not guilty. the president says his relationship with epstein was no different than anyone else in their elite circle. >> i knew him like everybody in palm beach knew him. he was a fixture in palm beach. i don't think i have spoken to him in 15 years. >> yet a tape in the nbc archives of a mar-a-lago party shows trump giving epstein his personal attention. >> the footage, shot in november of 1992 before trump opened the resort as a club, shows the future president surrounded by cheer leaders for the buffalo bills and miami dolphins, capturing trump's fun loving bachelor lifestyle for an appearance on faith daniels nbc talk show. >> we're going to get great ratings on your show. >> trump is surrounded by women

as music blares in the background. after a while, trump goes to greet three new guests, among them, the financier, jeffrey epstein. more than a decade before his guilty plea on state prostitution charges. later in the footage, trump is seen talking to epstein and another man as women are dancing in front of them. trump alternates between dancing and pointing out women to epstein and the other man, and telling epstein about the cameras. though exactly what they're saying is difficult to understand, as they discuss the women and their appearances, trump gestures to one and appears to say to epstein, look at her back there, she's hot. and then trump says something else into epstein's ear that makes him double over with laughter. but as the president says now, he never liked epstein. >> i was not a fan of his. that i can tell you. i was not a fan of his.

>> looks like a big fan of epstein's. >> i feel like i saw maxwell, the reported recruiter for jeffrey epstein and i thought she was in the background there. again, here's what donald trump said to new york magazine about epstein in 2002. i've known jeff for 15 years, terrific guy. he's a lot of fun to be with. it's even said that he likes beautiful women as much as i do, and many of them are on the younger side. no doubt about it, jeffrey enjoys his social life. >> and we certainly saw that there, willie. saw it very clearly. he and epstein there very much enjoying that party, and donald trump saying he never liked jeffrey epstein. once again, proven to be a lie. >> yeah, he says i was not a fan of his, that i can tell you. the president says that last week. obviously he was a fan. we can see it from the quote in 2002. he says the relationship broke

off about 15 years ago. the good news, elise jordan is that the southern district of new york is going to put all of this out into the open. there's going to be a trial, and we'll get to the bottom of this. we don't know if president trump or then businessman, tv host, donald trump is implicated in any way, but there are a lot of powerful people in new york and elsewhere that have reason to be nervous for what's happening downtown in the southern district. >> they should be, and epstein should be behind, you know, in prison right now, and i'm glad that these victims are finally getting to see a predator where he should be. again, kudos to julie brown and the miami herald for their persistence, sticking with this story. i am still just a little bit agh by that video we just saw of, you know, the two guys having the time of their life at mar-a-lago in '92, and you know, just yesterday there was an item in new york magazine referencing

a 2000 profile by maximum golf magazine and it talks about epstein and trump, how epstein hitched a ride with jizlaine maxwell, the fixer, the pitch, the copredator on his private plane. we know there's at least an eight year stretch where they were tight enough where donald trump was welcoming epstein on to his plane, and that seems pretty significant that it wasn't just a casual friendship, i mean, if i had a plane, i wouldn't let anyone on it. steve probably doesn't. >> jeffrey epstein, look, i think it's clear that they were obviously friends and close and all that, and they had this falling out in 2002 and there are various rumors about why they had it. there's a before and after part to the relationship between the two of them, which we will eventually get clarified. >> this is all so utterly depressing, thooes president of the -- he's president of the united states. >> utterly depressing and also,

when elise brought up julie brown and the fact that she and the miami herald have really made this come to light again, and demanded justice once again, you cannot help but go back to alan dershowitz and the letter that he wrote, alan dershowitz who's been accused of wrong doing, alan dershowitz's letter to the pulitzer committee arguing that the miami herald and julie brown should not receive a pulitzer. this for a man already accused and for a newspaper and a reporter who has done what, my god, nobody in the federal government or any state government has been able to do and that is to bring this man to justice. >> yeah, we should point out that professor jesuit has

counter sued on that accusation, denied it vehemently. the bottom line to your point about the miami herald. the miami herald is a newspaper, enemies of the state, enemies of the people as donald trump has referred to much of the media and without the miami herald, without julie k. brown writing doggedly over many many months about this story, none of this would have been exposed. >> that is for sure, and we will stay on this story as well. coming up, we have new polling out of new hampshire to show you. we're digging into the new numbers and that is straight ahead on "morning joe." numbers and that is straight ahead on "morning joe. this is the couple who wanted to get away

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president has done to our culture, to our civic discourse, you cannot unring these bells, and you cannot unsay what he has said and you cannot change that he is now in a very short time made it seem normal for schoolboy taunts and obvious lies to be spun out and in a

constant stream. i think this will do more lasting damage than richard nixon cea nixon's burglaries did. >> george will in an interview with the "the new york times" with that stark assessment of the effect of trump and his presidency and what it's having on our society. joining us now, cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vandehei. >> jim it's great to have you with us. i heard you say earlier, this what we have seen is part of donald trump's strategy. something i read yesterday from charlie cook and i'm going to give you the numbers. 52% of republicans think it's very important that donald trump get reelected. 73% of democrats think it's very important that trump loses. it seems to me that his racist tweets and his reactions only

hardens that 73%, maybe drives it to 75, 78%, while there are some in that 52% that think it's important that trump wins that actually may be discouraged by this sort of talk, this sort of language? i mean, 52% of americans are not racist. it's -- he's got a hard core 35 or 40%. doesn't this work against him in the long run? >> i think a lot of people even inside the white house think what you said is true. he doesn't. this idea, people sometimes want to write it off as this is just like an improvisation, he got worked up and sent out a tweet. this is very premeditated. the way that the looks at this election. he knows there's not many persuadable voters, he's going to persuadement he kno. he knows he's going to crank up white voters, more to offset what will be higher turnout.

he knows there's some hispanics, a small percentage but some hispanicings w hispanics who agree with him on immigration and will vote for him. he knows from watching fox and the data he's been fed from what's happening on facebook, if he can define the democratic party around the so-called squad, around aoc and others that they are lightning rods that that's what people want to talk about, that's what people want to share. that's what people want to pine on, he thinks that that helps him in cranking up the turnout that he needs and he knows deep down that his reelection path is narrower than they talk about in a public way. he knows it's going to be harder this time to win michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, understand that the demographics in the south are changing and so he is all in on this us and them. i think it trivializes what it did when you say it was improvisational or trump being trump. it is premeditated, he thinks a lot about this. as you know from talking to him over the years, there's lots of

madness in what he says, there's also a lot of method. he does think about the effect of the things he says. he does these things purposely because he feels like i can play a certain tune and get people to behave a certain way, and he's often proven right, even it is gross, racist, even if it flies in the way we have talked in public out for a generation. >> right, but, you know, what's interesting is i have also talked recently to people very close to him that are helping with this campaign, people high up in the administration who leave. they, at least, believe several weeks ago that they were going to do very well with black voters, do very well, i'm saying historically compared to how other republicans did with hispanics, i'm sure you heard the same thing, they are confident they're going to get in the double digits with black voters and do better than any republican has done in a very long time, same with hispanics,

this seems to blow up that strategy. so they are left looking for the aged white man, and how many more aged white men can they find that didn't vote in 2016. >> you have to still get inside the brain of donald trump that operates different than other political brains. he would say, yeah, but what i'm trying to do is brand the democratic party as socialist and i'm willing to take all this iciness if social is the face of the democratic party. remember he's always willing to do and say things that everyone else finds super uncomfortable if he thinks it helps him brand things the way he sets things up. i agree with you on this one, in particular, a lot of people in the white house that are like, what the hell are you talking about, how is this right, one thing, but then like how is it possible good politics. but you talk to people around

him. look at "the new york times" piece today where someone close to him is saying listen, all i'm doing now is gluing the four to the democratic party, much like he plans on doing to the democratic nominee while the democratic party is in the process of being defined which will probably last a year until they have a nominee, and so that is the calculation. the sad part is i don't think this gets better. i think it gets worse and it couldn't come at a worse time for the country. let's say you're a republican watching your show right now, and you don't like what democrats say on immigration. you have to still look at the reality of demographics, america under the age of 18 is majority, minority, most of people people came here, almost all of them, legally and appropriately. the country is changing because of the demographic patterns, because of where people came from over the last 50 to a hundred years. and the test for the country is well, how do you take advantage of that, how do you turn that into a massive asset instead of turning it into us against them,

but this is going to be very much a us against them election that i think will be exponentially worse in tone than the last time around if you can possibly imagine that. >> so willie, the timing of this couldn't be worse for the republicans, for the long-term health of the republican party because jim talked about the demographic changes and the demographic changes are coming, the demographic changes are here. and what the republicans are doing now seems ill suited to prepare for the future as anything they could possibly do. i firmly believe that what's happening, what happened yesterday, what's been happening the past two years, what's happened to my old republican party is going to consign them to irrelevant over the next two decade. >> think of john mccain, 2012, mitt romney, the push to move

where the country was to get some share of the latino vote, to get share of where the country was headed. boy, that is gone. that is evaporated. president is pretending he wants to get that, and kimberly atkins, whether or not it's a smart strategy, this is a fight the president is enjoying. it is not like he made one off tweets on monday and letting it go. he's going in for more and more. there's a reason that alexandria ocasio-cortez, a freshman congresswoman from the bronx is in mitch mcconnell's ads against amy mcgrath, they want to make her the face of the party, and that's why the president says explicitly in the tweets, the party is now wedded to these four women. >> yes, i mean, this is what we have seen donald trump do from the beginning is to engage in these cultural divisions to sort of push that as something that he thinks is effective for him. i think it's worth remembering

when it comes to donald trump himself, he of course has not made any indication that he's all that interested in the future of the republican party. the party sort of rallied behind him. he did not -- he's not pushing the party. he is interested in what is politically best for him, his administration, his reelection, and this is where he has staked it, and you know, polls from his -- polls that are out from within, gives him reason to believe this is true, the republican party, more than 90% united against him. his approval ratings have ticked up since he has sent those tweets from within, among his supporters. he thinks this galvanizes and energizes his base, and as long as he believes that he's going to do it, he's going to continue to engage in culture wars, identify enemies to rally against, it was barack obama, it

was hillary clinton, and now it is these four members of congress, these four women of color that are pushing this agenda. i don't think that that's going to end at all. >> all right. kimberly atkins, thank you very much. jim vandehei, thank you as well. and still ahead, we'll speak with a member of the house democratic leadership. congressman hakeem jeffries is standing by, after the house voted to condemn trump's racist comments aimed at four congresswomen of color. plus, montana governor and 2020 candidate steve bullock will also be our guest. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely.

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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 could get through, we don't ever want to pass up a change, an opportunity to escalate, and that's what this is. i dare anybody to look at any of the footage and see if there was

any unfairness, but unfairness is not enough because we want to just fight. >> house democrat emanuel cleaver had enough yesterday on capitol hill. ultimately, the house voted to condemn president trump's racist comments. as republicans tried to strip nancy pelosi's mark from the record, as one person said on twitter, so we're not allowed to call the president a racist but he's allowed to be a racist? welcome back to "morning joe," wednesday, july 17, this is where we are, still with joe, willie, and me. we have msnbc contributor, mike barnicle, former aid to the george w. bush white house and state department, elise jordan. former treasury official, steve ratner, and nbc news capitol hill, and host of caskasie dc,

msnbc contributor, karine jean-pierre. let's begin with what happened on capitol hill. >> it was a dramatic evening in the house, and it centered around comments that pelosi went to the floor to make, and considering how specific the rules are in the house which joe knows very well, it's important to point out, she was calling the president's tweets racist, she was not labeling the man himself a racist, but that did not stop republicans from insisting that she had broken the rules of decorum of the house, and asking for a ruling, and, you know, you saw at the end of the remarks she made, they started yelling over her. she started turning over and yelling at them back, and she actually said that she had cleared her remarks with the parliamentarian, the person who makes decisions about what's within the rules and what's not beforehand. but in the end, the parliamentarian sided with

republicans, and that actually has the unusual effect of silencing whoever it is that broke the rules for the remainder of the day. it's only happened once before with a speaker of the house in our history and it's a pretty remarkable thing, and republicans have really used that in a political way. i mean, you know, they had to have a vote basically to restore nancy pelosi's speaking rightinrights after they voted to make sure the remarks stayed as part of the congressional record, republicans are fundraising off of this, saying that democrats are voting with a quote unquote, you know, deranged person who's calling the president a racist. really kind of down way into the mud here, and you know, i think the overarching thing we should take away from this, obviously democrats did pass in the end a resolution to condemn the president's racist tweets, you know, that was what the house formally did. but republicans moved against it, and only a handful of them

stood up and said, and voted, i think we pointed out in the 6:00 hour, you know, what the president said is racist, and wrong, and we shouldn't stand with it. otherwise, i asked kevin mccarthy point-blank if he thought what the president said was racist, and he said no. >> kids if you're keeping score at home, the republican party of donald trump is raising money off of a debate where they defended the president of the united states making racist remarks and telling four americans because they were women of color to go back where they came from. and the republicans are actually trying to fund raise off of that. so good luck with that, wigs. we're going to get back with that in a second. willie, first, i want to show you a poll, get your thoughts. we got a poll out of new

hampshire, it's fascinating, a couple of weeks after the debate. joe biden at 24% in the university of new hampshire cnn poll. he's up 6 points, actually, from april doing 6 points better than before. elizabeth warren, this is a big story, 19. she's at 19. >> wow. >> up 14%. that's the headline. the second headline, the sub head is bernie sanders at 19%. he's down 11 points. he has been struggling over the past several months to find his footing. mayor pete down 5 percentage points to 10%. that of course is because he got a big bump after his announcement in april. so he'll take that 10%, i'm sure. kamala harris at 9%. she's up 5%. obviously off of a very strong first debate performance. cory booker sitting at 2%.

beto at 2%, both of them minus 1 since april. so here we are, willie, once again. this is a race for the nomination that at least if you look at the money and the polls in the early states, it's a fooifive person race, biden, warren, sanders, mayor pete and kamala. what's your take on the poll? >> it's an eye opener and another eye opener for elizabeth warren. she and bernie sanders are effectively tied with joe biden in the state of new hampshire. we talked about this progressive lane right here. bernie sanders owned it obviously because he was the only one in it in 2016. remind people, he beat hillary clinton by more than 20 points. >> in new hampshire. >> in the new hampshire primary. he dominated that state. now elizabeth warren, she's up 14 pianoints in three months. >> he no longer has that progressive lane anymore.

in 2016, when bernie sanders jumped in, he was exciting, the political revolution, it was something new, it was something that we really hadn't heard before, and it was a binary choice, now we're in a situation where you have elizabeth warren and others, elizabeth warren up by double digits, kamala harris coming up as well, and so what bernie needs to do, he needs to expand his base, his support, it's going to be very difficult for him to do that as we were just saying because of elizabeth warren and when you look at the, take a 30,000 foot view, yes, biden is leading, he is clearly the front runner, but japanese, elizabe -- but geez, elizabeth warren, they are exciting different parts of the base. >> steve, a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned how pro-business democrats, moderate democrats, they had sworn in the past they would never vote for elizabeth warren are actually giving her a second look, and perhaps thinking well, if she is the nominee, she's running a very

disciplined campaign, and maybe they could get behind her. >> yeah, i guess i maybe did say that, but i don't know that that will actually happen. look, i think there's growing respect for elizabeth warren, even among those who don't agree with the campaign she's run. it's been disciplined, focussed, the i've got a plan message has worked well, and you can see that reflected in this poll. i'm sure a lot of people do the same math i did, if you add 19 plus 19, you get 38 and 38 is a big number for the progressive wing to have in new hampshire, and so i think those of us of a more centrist mindset are still quite nervous about the possibility that we could end up nominating elizabeth warren and i don't think, put aside whether you agree or don't agree with her, i think from a sheer political matter, putting her up against donald trump i think has

a reasonable chance of not ending well for us, and that's pure political judgment, not necessarily a value judgment. the poll is interesting and it does, as you say, separate the five out from everybody else, but i can't say that yet i see a nominee who i feel a lot of confidence behind in beating donald trump. >> the most interesting part of the poll, joe is the bernie sanders number, i would submit. if you go to any of the rallies in new hampshire, i have been to a few in the past couple of months, what's interesting is that in a small sense, but it's writ large, bernie sanders still has the same signs that he had in 2015, 2016. still using the same signs, and the audiences that he has, it's almost as if the batteries don't work on the remote control, and they're watching the same program they watched three or four years ago. elizabeth warren, on the other hand, she is electric. i saw her in which she explained her child care proposal, she has

a plan for everything, and it resonated with the crowd and it was a substantial crowd that she had in new hampshire, this is about four or five weeks ago, and she is something that bernie sanders used to be, and it does not bode well for bernie sanders. >> well, you know, and mika, there was a discussion, in fact, a debate in bernie sanders campaign at the beginning, and he had people around him who wanted him to update the campaign and do several things that would make it look different and sound different from 2020 while still staying with his core objective and based on the reporting that i have heard bernie sanders and jane said, no, we're going into exactly what we did in '16. those advisers left and so we do still have the same campaign that worked well for him in 2016. but at that point, it was a choice between hillary clinton

and bernie sanders. >> yeah. >> this is a far different landscape, and right now it's a landscape that bernie is having a hard time getting his footing on. >> elizabeth warren is often, i think, underestimated. let's bring in the chairman of the house democratic caucus, congressman, hakeem jeffries of new york. he's also a member of the judiciary, and budget committees. thanks very much for being on the show. kasie hunt has the first question. >> congressman, it's great to see you this morning as always. the house devolved yesterday into infighting and we saw this emotional display on the floor from the speaker and of course from republicans who did not vote to condemn by and large, the president's racist tweets. my question for you is how do democrats rise above this debate? how do you get our discourse

back to a point where we talk about the issues that matter to all americans, voters, who are going to be picking a president in 2020. clear the president's goal here is to keep dragging this discussion into a really terrible place, so how do you move forward? >> well, the republican play book is to delay, deny and distract, and that's what we saw on full display yesterday on the floor of the house of representatives. the signature legislative accomplishment that they have achieved when they held power in the previous congress was to jam a gop tax scam down the throats of the american people, while 83% of the benefits went to the wealthiest 1%. they don't want to talk about that. the administration is currently trying to take away health care protection for more than 130 million americans who have preexisting conditions. they don't want to talk about that. there are currently children being held in cages in inhumane conditions by our government on the u.s./mexico border, they don't want to talk about that.

that's why we saw that abhorrent republican behavior on the floor. we appropriately and strongly condemned the president's soo xenophobic attack on the four women of color. tomorrow we will pass the raise the wage act because every american deserves a living wage and we want to make sure we increase pay for every day americans as we promised we would do, and we want to continue to work on lowering health care costs and fixing our crumbling infrastructure, kitchen table pocketbook issues. >> mr. chairman, it's willie geist, it's good to see you this morning. it was a few days before the president started attacking the four congresswomen that you were moderating a fight in your own party, between the speaker and the congressmen we were talking about, congresswoman ocasio-cortez accusing the speaker of the house of targeting them because they're women of color. what is the view of the dangers, the perils of your caucus with

that are inter-scene debate. >> we are an enthusiastic group, a diverse group, a passionate group, and sometimes there are differences in perspective. we are going to continue to move forward together. donald trump, once again, with his racist tweet reminded the american people that there's a cancer on the presidency, the progressives are not the problem, the new dems are not the problem, the blue dogs are not the problem. the birther in chief is the problem. that's a unifying theme not just for the house democratic caucus but the nation. the existential threat to our democracy, our way of life, our values is so severe. we're going to proceed forward together to execute on our for the people agenda. he's trying to divide the nation. we believe in prosperity in every single zip code and that's what unifies house democrats. >> do you agree with congresswoman ocasio-cortez that speaker pelosi targets them because they're women of colors.

>> not at all. and members of the congressional black caucus, myself included strongly disagreed with those remarks. she has been incredibly supportive of women of color throughout the house democratic caucus and throughout the nation and she will continue to do so. >> elise. >> congressman, the house is going to vote on almost doubling the minimum wage to $15. and it's unlikely to pass the senate. why is it such a big increase when disproportionately perhaps that might not actually -- it might harm rural areas with already high unemployment. >> well, of course it's a graduated increase, and many economists who have studied this issue on balance have concluded that a minimum wage increase at a level of $15 per hour will do things such as increasing consumer demand, increase purchasing power, allow the

american people to get more involved in the economy and at the end of the day, be beneficial. we also have to decide that in a country that is the wealthiest country in the history of the world, shouldn't every single american have an opportunity to robustly pursue the american dream? no american should ever have to choose between putting food on the table, paying the rent, paying the mortgage, sending their child to college, and getting access to increasingly high costing life saving prescription drugs. so an important step in that regard is to make sure that there's a living wage for every single american. that's why we believe this is a significant step in the right direction. >> congressman, hakeem jeffries, thank you very much for being on this morning. >> thank you. and still ahead on "morning joe," no matter how much the white house would rather distract us with drama, we remain focussed on what is actually happening along the border. particularly to migrant children

there. we're going to speak next with congresswoman veronica escobar of new mexico, indication on "morning joe." scobar of new mexico, indication on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ award winning interface. award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century.

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welcome back. u.s. customs and border protection officials have announced that 70 current and former border patrol employees are under investigation over a secret facebook group featuring posts mocking migrants and members of congress. customs officials on monday announced the probe into 62 current and 8 former employees. the move comes after pro publica reported earlier this month that it had obtained screen shots of several recent discussions from the facebook group called 1015,

cpb's code for aliens in custody. propubly p including jokes about the deaths of migrants, discussions about throwing burritos at latino members of congress, and a vulgar image involving congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. joining us now, a member of the judiciary committee, democratic assistant whip, congresswoman veronica escobar of texas and thank you so much for coming back on the show. so update us on your efforts to protect migrants at the border, to protect children, and to improve conditions. have you made any headway and what is the latest information from the border? >> well, thank you very having me on the program again, mika. it's wonderful to be with you this morning. you know, when we saw the debate about the border supplemental bill recently, the issue for democrats was not about money.

the issue for us was about standards and accountability and oversight, the very things that have been lacking at the department of homeland security for far too long. the things that create these conditions, including policy from this administration and so when our house bill did not make it to the senate, did not even get a debate on the senate floor, the speaker rallied us and we talked about how we could continue to push standards and oversight and accountability. so what we're going to see. we have made headway, and you're d going to see this week, mark up on two very important pieces of legislation. one of them will be to increase the humanitarian standards of those who are in our custody, migrants, vulnerable migrants in our custody. we'll be marking that up in the house judiciary committee, and then in the homeland committee, a bill that i first introduced in april that comes from folks on the ground and that has been

made better with the help of chairman benny thompson. it's an accountability bill, a homeland security improvement act bill. that will be marked up today as well. and hopefully we'll be voting on important pieces of legislation next week so we can increase the standards, it's not about resources. el paso, texas, a community with zero federal resources to address the humanitarian needs of migrants, we have done a far better job than the federal government with almost unlimited resources. so we're hoping that the democratic party, the house work, the standards and care that we believe in will make it through next week, and i believe it will. >> all right. karine jean-pierre has a question. >> hi there, congresswoman, thank you so much for fighting for these migrant folks who are coming over and it just feels so helpless, and so one of the questions that i have for you is you were talking about what

congress is going to do, the marking up of bills and the legislation, it almost feels like we should be having hearings every day, bringing forward head of i.c.e., hhs, dhs, and asking them the hard questions and holding them accountablement w accountable. why is that not happening? >> we saw two hearings in judiciary, oversight, we're going to keep having hearings. i've requested field hearings in el paso, texas, which has been ground zero for the president's abhorrent attacks on migrants, and you know, i will tell you, i think the american public has been so horrified and shocked by the images, by the sounds, by the information that's been coming from the border and at the hands of this administration that my hope is that we will finally see the senate wanting to take the same kind of action, and wanting to work with us in improving conditions because these conditions are not reflective of who we are as a

country. they shouldn't be. everyone should be condemning the standards or the lack thereof. and working alongside. this should be unifying the house and the senate. >> congresswoman, it's willie geist, it's good to see you as always. to karine's point, we have seen so much with our own eyes now, we have been hearing stories about it. people have come out and condemned it, most americans have, but it doesn't feel like anything is being done about it in the body you sit. what hope can you give people watching today that these conditions may stop sometime in the near future or end all together? >> willie that's a great question because it really will take the american public standing up and reaching out to their members of congress and to their senators. the house is leading on this issue, the house is taking action on this issue. the house is creating standards, accountability, and oversight that the american public is demanding. we need the senate to do the same. we need senator mcconnell, the

one person who has more power than he should on the senate side who is preventing these important debates and discussions about how we treat people humanely, and so the american public, we need you. we need you to call your senators. we need you to call mitch mcconnell, the action and the leadership being demonstrated by the house needs to be reflected in the senate as well. >> representative escobar, unlike all of us around this table, you live with the border each and every day. unfortunately the republican party has managed to sell the concept to large portions of the american public that democrats are weak on border control. so i'm going to ask you, i'm assuming that you are not for open borders, am i correct in assuming that? >> you're absolutely correct and i'll tell you, there's nobody in the country who more wants a safe and secure border community than those of us who live there. >> what's your plan to strengthen border enforcement?

>> here's the challenge with looking at it through that lens. we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on border enforcement. my community has a wall. it's had a wall for a decade. my community has been safe for two decades. communities all along the u.s./mexico border are safer than most communities in the interior of the country. this isn't about border security. we have more agents than ever before, more walls than ever before, more drones, you name it, we've got it on the border. this is about how we're treating asylum seekers who are arriving at our front door. we're treating them as a national security threat. i want our agents to go after the folks who are trying to do us harm. but as a country, we've got to separate that group from the families, the women, the children, who are seeking refuge, and asylum. they are not a national security

threat. >> congresswoman, veronica escobar of texas, thank you very much for being on the show this morning, and thank you for what you're doing. second quarter fundraising numbers are in. and five hopefuls are well ahead of the rest of the field. steve rattner has charts on the surprises, ahead on "morning joe." e surprises, ahead on "morning joe. don't miss your golden opportunity to experience our most advanced safety technology on a full line of vehicles. now, at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2019 es 350 for $379 a month, for 36 months, and we'll make your first month's payment. experience amazing. what do all these people have in common, limu?oug

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the democratic presidential candidates second quarter fund raidsi raising totals are in. steve rattner take us through the numbers, any surprises? >> a lot of surprises. if you're worried about income inequality, you'll see it in realtime first quarter fundraising numbers. let's look at the top raisers. what you'll see here is the five candidates that are at the top of the polls are also the top five when it comes to raising money. and these five candidates, buttigieg, biden, warren, sanders and harris, raised $96 million in that quarter, 3/4 of every dollar that was given to a democratic primary hopeful went to one of these five in the first quarter and then you can see after that, it does kind of

go off a cliff. booker, klobuchar and o'rourke were the next three, and you can imagine everybody else behind that. probably the biggest surprise here in a way is pete buttigieg who came into the race in the first quarter, raised about $7 million then, but did 25 million in the second quarter and topped the field. biden was not in the race in the first quarter, so his 22 million is his total so far, quite a good number, and then warren and sanders. if you look at the next chart, you can get a better sense as to where the money is coming from, and particularly the fact that for sanders and warren, the money is coming very heavily from small donors, sanders had nearly a million donors in the second quarter who gave him an average of $18 each, while warren also raised 67% of her money from small donors. and if you look at somebody like joe biden, where only 38% of his money came in small donation, he

held many many fundraisers during the quarter and raised money larger donors and one of the challenges for him is the fact that you can only give $2,800 and so they can't keep coming back the way they did for sanders and warren. and then lastly, we can take a look at where we stand at the moment now when you add all of this up, the first quarter, second quarter and what's spent. so not surprisingly, the people who have raised the most money are spending the most money and again, that's essentially our top five group. the darker green bars on the left is how much they have spent so far this campaign, and you can see sanders and warren followed by harris and biden, and then buttigieg have spent the most, and you can see even though they have spent the most, they still have the most cash on hand. and the important point in all of this is that the people further down simply cannot run the same kinds of robust campaigns and you can imagine the people below that, the kinds of campaigns that they're able

to run, and so i think as a money matter, the people have spoken, just as they have spoken in the polls and i think you'll start to see this reflected in how many candidates are in this field, and what kind of campaigns they can run. >> kasie, the money and polls definitely track. they go along with each other. if you look at some of the people in the body you cover every day, i'm thinking about senator booker and former congressman beto o'rourke, those numbers aren't pretty for them at this point. >> they're not, willie, and you know, i would really focus in on beto o'rourke in particular here because, you know, he only had 18 days in the first quarter to raise money, and his total was, you know, triple what he raised in a whole -- in the entirety of the second quarter. he has built, you know, a pretty professional apparatus. he's got some really top names, jen o'malley dillon who's running the campaign, that was a real get to have her come in. they're going to have to make tough decisions and i think you can really see that. the other point i would make

here is i just think it's really important to underscore that this is yet another way in which elizabeth warren is showing how strong she is and demonstrating that that strength is most likely durable. i mean, if you think about the way she's building out her campaign, it all fits together. yes, she had initial missteps but she hired in iowa, she's doing the organizing on the ground, if you talk to people working with her, she's doing, you know, the day-to-day things that you have to do in politics, sending thank you notes, making birthday phone calls to supporters, that it takes to actually keep this support and you know what, her finance director early on quit because, you know, they weren't on board with the strategy that didn't allow for traditional fundraisers and big money, and warren herself made that call and said you know what, that's not how i want to do this. this is an important litmus test. i want to do small donors and not waste my time doing big

fundraisers, and look who was right. >> i would add to that, you're totally right, what shocked me elizabeth warren's fundraising this quarter, is, you know, she didn't have the built in apparatus and the list that bernie sanders shrinked already, and watching her at the beginning of this campaign process, it seemed like she just had brought on such a huge staff. my question was much like some of her economic policies, how is she going to pay for this, and well, she's figured, indeed, how to pay for it. >> indeed she has. >> it's quite remarkable, i think. >> kasie, thank you very much, and coming up, the roster for the second democratic debate will be announced later today. montana governor steve bullock didn't make the cut last month, but he expects to be on the stage this time. he joins the conversation next, and as we go to break, it's another big week at knowyourvalue.com, it's all

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democratic presidential candidate and chair of the national governor's association, governor steve bullock of montana. governor, we teased the next debate, blah blah blah, i know it was very moving to you and the rest of the kids watching out there. so let's just get right to it. okay. as my grandma would say, let's

just take the rag right off the churn, are you going to be in the second debate? >> joe, i hit five different polls, i'm going to be in the second debate in two weeks. i'm really excited about it. i think when you look at it, a lot of that debate was disconnected from people's every day lives, i want to make sure that's part of the discussion. >> there were a couple like marion williamson, we were holding on to every word there, of course she should have been there instead of the guy that runs the national governor's association. did you ever figure out how that happened? how you were left out of that first debate when you're a governor in a red state that trump won easily. you're the head of the national governor's association, you got a national profile, and they don't have you on there. instead they've got an author, god bless her, i mean, great, you know, but she shouldn't have been on there. how did they keep you off? >> yeah, the only one that actually won in a trump state in this whole field, the only one that's governed with a divided

legislature. you know, it was, and i can't look backward too long, you know, i did get into the race late because my legislature was still meeting and had a job to do to get health care for a hundred thousand montanans, one of the polls that had me qualifying, they ended up not counting. i can't look backwards, i'm excited to be on the debate stage and provide a voice from outside of washington, d.c. that actually, you know, doesn't judge success by just speeches or tweets but actually what i have to do and get things done in people's lives. >> so you're sitting now about 2% in some polls, 1%, 2%, fundraising numbers came out. you raised 2 million, pete buttigieg raised like 5 trillion. how do you explain to donors, how do you explain to voters, hey, listen, take a deep breath, we're still seven months away before the first democrat can

vote. seven months, you know, in politics, the old saying is a week is a lifetime, seven months, man, anything can happen, so how do you keep people, potential supporters in the game? >> you bet, and i think you hit both sides of that, one of which was $2 million in half of one quarter, so i was pleased with where we started at the beginning, but we're also, you know, we're building out a great ground game in iowa. i got the highest statewide endorsee or highest statewide officer endorsing me, a legend of iowa, jan bauer and field staff, about 25. this will be my fourth trip there this weekend in the last four weeks, so recognizing that we are 200 days away from anybody expressing a preference and knowing that the early states are still going to winnow down this field. folks are coming on because i'm the only one who has won in a

trump state. we need to win back places we have lost. have been able to get meaningful things done through a republican legislature and taking on the fight of dark money like no one else does. i do have a lot to offer, and i have folks saying, we have to take a look at this bullock guy. >> great presidential candidates, candidates that have become president in history are the people who know how to synthesize the activist base with the rank and file, maybe the establishment base. reagan did it in 1980. he excited, you know, both the right wing base and he also excited main street republicans, of course bill clinton did it in 1992, barack obama did it in '08. how do you do that? because right now, of course, you have seen over the past week, a bit of a skirmish between progressives in the house, and nancy pelosi, you see

it online all the time. how do you bring both sides of the democratic party together. do you unite them under one banner with one goal in mind and that is sending donald trump back to mar-a-lago. >> and i think that's exactly it, is there's tremendous energy to make sure that donald trump's a one-term president, so any of the sort of intermural fights right now within the democratic party ultimately we will unite, but we've got to be giving voters a reason not just to be voting against him but to actually vote for us. when you look at 44% of americans, now 400 bucks in their pocket right now in case of an emergency, when you look at folks saying this government is not working out for me, i think we can get the more progressive wing along because they have been making progress in things like health care, in getting dark money out of our elections, in investing in education, protecting women's rights and we can turn around and say i don't get to give a speech or sponsor a bill that

goes nowhere other than a press release, so the things that we have been able to do, i know that i have to be able to deliver. >> so governor, you said at the beginning of the interview, as you were forced to watch the first debate on television like the rest of us, you watched a bunch of people talking about issues about issues that were disconnected from the real lives of people. what did you mean by that? >> look, we have to address immigration reform. the biggest problem right now when we talk about immigration policy, that's donald trump. he's literally ripping apart families and he's ripping apart our entire country by the way that he's using immigration as a wedge. so let's talk about areas like that where we can actually bring people forward or fights about what happened 40 years ago or getting rid of insurance. when you have 70% of americans that have employer-sponsored health insurance and they have expectations. yeah, the costs are too much, but completely up-ending everything we have, when i'm out in iowa, when i'm out just

talking to regular folks, they want to make sure that the economy is going to work for them. they want to make sure that their schools are going to stay open and their rural hospitals are going to stay open, not sort of the squabbling at times, the hunger games, if you will, at some level that doesn't connect with them. >> so you wouldn't have ravised your hand when they asked would you get rid of private health insurance as part of a medicare package. >> i would not have. i want a public buy-in, a public option. it's about time we start negotiating drug prices, get rid of out of network charges and surprise medical billing. the idea that 165 million people could wake up the next day at a cost of $30 to $40 trillion over the next decade, i don't think that's where most folks are. great respect for those people out there pushing it, but i don't think that's how we build on making sure that everybody has access to affordable health care. >> as we continue to give you a redo -- not a redo, your first shot at the questions from the debate, let me give you another

one. would you give undocumented immigrants to this country taxpayer-funded health care coverage for undocumented immigran immigrants? >> through immigration reform hopefully everybody can get health care. people are struggling right now. i met a teacher who had to take a second job just to pay for her insulin. so new york ci so, no, i would not give undocumented immigrants health care in this country right now. >> so just to dig into that a little bit, how under your health care plan, would the teacher better afford her insulin? >> when insulin costs are spiking so much higher than actually even inflation in other areas, the federal government is the biggest purchaser of drugs, the federal government, and we can't even negotiate reasonable drug prices. so i think once you get into that area, first of all, being able to negotiate drug prices, which i think is about 17% of the overall health care costs, just these drugs alone, i think that can lower it.

the ability of having a medicare buy-in or public option will add some additional competition along the way. so i think those things alone can make it so that hopefully this teacher can focus on teaching, which we want, not thinking about that second job just to pay for her monthly health care. >> it's great that we're actually getting into some issues. that's why we're glad you're here. so let me go back to immigration. i assume, i believe, and i'm sure you do too that the trump line is going to be the republicans -- the democrats are for open borders. what's your immigration policy? how do you think we should decide how many people we should let into this country, whether asylum seekers, refugees, or simply looking for a better life, how should we decide that and what should our border policy be? >> sure. look, i'm for border security. but you don't take an 18th century solution, which is a wall that mexico was supposed to

pay for. >> everybody says they're for border security. who do we let into this country? >> you need to look at the numbers and what works and here are the policies overall for asylum. we've taken about -- cut the aid to the central american countries by two-thirds over the last six years. so in some respects it's not a surprise that there becomes additional folks and pressure coming to the border. you have a broken system where 450 judges for 800,000 cases. so it's a bureaucratic mess and it's a moral nightmare but it's not something that you can turn around and just say no one from any other country should be coming in here. i'll work in the folks in setting the targets of what is reasonable. >> governor, so i'm going to fast forward to the general election for a second. as you know, donald trump is going to make the general election about a choice, right? he's going to put the label of socialism around the democratic

party. if you are indeed the nominee, and we'll know a year from now, actually know who the nominee will be, how will you take that on? how will you take on donald trump if you are the democratic nominee? >> look, donald trump turned around and said he's going to drain the swamp. look at what happened with this administration, swampier in d.c. than it's ever been. he said he'd be helping out the average folks. when 60% of america haven't had a pay increase in 40 years but you look at what his policies have done. a trillion dollars of stock buybacks didn't go to them. so what he promised certainly hasn't been delivered. most folks aren't better off. but more than just him, the connections to people that turn around and are saying -- almost 70% of people don't have a college degree. at the same time that we're all talking about should we get rid of all college debt. telling and working with people to say you ought to have a fair shot at a better life, that was always the promise of america.

this administration isn't delivering it and working together we will. >> thank you. >> so, governor, you hope to catch fire after this debate in a couple weeks and your campaign may grow and climb, but even you would concede it's a long climb when you look up at joe biden, elizabeth warren and the top of the field. there are a lot of people in the state of montana who like you. you were elected and re-elected in a red state and they would like you to go back and run against steve danes, the incumbent republican senator. would you rule out a run for the senate at some point? >> willie, i would. >> you'd rule it out? >> i have ruled it out. we have some tremendous candidates that can beat steve danes and i'm going to do everything that i can to make sure that they win. but we are 200 days away from even the first voter expressing their preference in this presidential race. i've got a lot of work to do along there. bill clinton didn't even get in until october the year before, so there's tremendous pressure

and excitement to get on to the general election, but i think voters are going to make the right decision, not the quick one. >> i'm not trying to run you out of the race by any means. but if you got to november and you are where you are now and somebody came to you and said you are the guy, governor, who could beat steve danes and help us take back the senate, which is almost as important as winning the presidency, you would still say no? >> it's not an either/or proposition. i have tremendous respect for our senators and making sure that we take back the u.s. senate. my whole experience has been on the executive side where i've been able to bridge some divides and get things done. i'll do everything that i can to support our candidate for the senate. that won't be me, though. >> governor steve bullock, thank you for being with us. by the way, rattner is right there. you need to get a lot of money from him. you need to tell rattner to take you out to dinner with a lot of

his rich friends. >> tell them to go to stevebullock.com. >> here's my advice to you. when you're talking to all of rattner's friends, look into the eye with the monicle and ask them to take the top hat off when you're sitting down to dinner. thank you for being with us, we greatly appreciate it. coming up, after a backlash over a series of tweets widely criticized as racist, because they were, house lawmakers vote for formally condemn president trump's racist remarks, but only a small handful of republicans joined with their democratic colleagues. plus newly found video shows two wealthy men laughing and partying together and looking at women and pointing at them and laughing in 1992. one of them is now president donald trump. the other is jeffrey epstein, who is now a sex offender, charged with sex trafficking.

>> by the way, drew catchem found this video. >> there's got to be a lot in the nbc archives. we'll show you more of this footage ahead on "morning joe." footage ahead on "morning joe. we call it the mother standard of care. it's how we care for our cancer patients- like job. when he was diagnosed with cancer, his team at ctca created a personalized care plan to treat his cancer and side effects. so job could continue to work and stay strong for his family. this is how we inspire hope. this is how we heal. we love you, daddy. good night. i love you guys.

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from mayhem... like me. ♪ what do you do, you make it to the general, you're on the debate stage, he's lying. he's saying 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 in ways that this is -- >> i'd say come on, donald, come on, man. how many pushups do you want to do here, pal? you know? jokingly. 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 during a debate. just a heads up, if someone challenges 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 barnicle, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department, elise jordan, former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst steve rattner, and senior news correspondent at wbur boston and msnbc contributor, kimberly atkins is with us as well. >> willie, i don't see what the problem is. every time we have a nobel peace prize-winning economist, we either tell him, hey, you think you're so smart, let's arm wrestle. >> that's right. >> of course there's that one time we took him out and did the mud wrestling thing down on the ice rink. am i right, willie? >> whenever somebody challenges my intellect, i do the bent arm hang. >> we did the arm wrestle. i always win that. we've got a lot to cover this morning, including some newly found footage that we're

going to show you of president trump partying it up with jeffrey epstein at mar-a-lago. this is video from back in 1992. >> hold on. he never liked him, right? >> yeah. so they're doing something here that kind of is relevant. we're going to explain what the president was doing back then with the man he now says he was not a fan of. >> willie was wearing that jean shirt, by the way. >> a lot going on there. >> do you see who's behind -- this is very interesting. there's a lot of different players here. >> guess what they're talking about, mika? >> you're not going to believe what they're talking about. but isn't that -- okay. >> i thought he didn't like him? >> we'll see. it looks like the whole setup is there. that's coming up in just a few minutes. but we begin with the democrat-controlled house that's passed a resolution condemning president trump for his, quote, racist comments about four progressive democratic

congresswomen of color. after a raucous debate on the house floor, just four republicans and one independent lawmaker joined 235 democrats to vote in support of the measure. the resolution condemns what it calls president donald trump's racist comments that have legitimized an increased fear and hatred of new americans and of people of color. the four republicans who voted in support of the measure were will hurd of texas, fred upton of michigan, susan brooks of indiana and brian fitzpatrick of pennsylvania. congressman justin amash, a trump critic who left the republican party to be an independent earlier this month also voted in support of the measure. hours before that vote, president trump was on twitter and he lobbied for his republican colleagues to stand firm and vote against the resolution, writing in part those tweets were not racist. i do not have a racist bone in my body. the so-called vote to be taken

is a democratic con game. blah, blah, blah. so last night president trump complimented republicans for sticking together, tweeting out so great to see how unified the republican party was on today's vote concerning statements i made about four democratic congresswomen. oh. the republican vote was 187-4. wow. also this was the first time since 1984 that the speaker of the house was ruled out of order and broke the rules of the house. quite a day. >> yeah. >> so, well, he's admitting the tweet is about the four congresswomen and it was racist. we really are now covering it this morning. where only four pitiful republicans could come forward and say that this was racist and condemn it? really? that's incredible. thank god for these people. >> i think this is very helpful. i think it's very helpful for americans to look and see what members of congress actually

will call racism, racism, regardless of their party. i'm certainly proud of those four members of congress. not that they certainly care what i think, but i know a lot of americans are proud that those four stood up. but, willie, i think yesterday was a really -- actually i think we talked about ground noise and talked about the signal. yesterday was a signal. it will be a moment where historians will look back on the day that the republican party finally, even capitulated on the issue of white nationalism and racism. you had people running websites like the daily stormer praising the white nationalism of donald trump and said this is why we white nationalists got behind donald trump when he was running for president. also, i think, more telling, you have some so-called conservatives, they're not conservative, i'm conservative, i've been conservative my whole life, i've got the voting

record. i'm a conservative. but there are actually people who claim to be conservative who, willie, they went online yesterday and tried to write columns saying what donald trump said was not racist. yesterday was a defining moment for the wig party of the future, the republican party. only four republicans decided to condemn a statement where donald trump said go back to where you came from. of course they're from america, so it was clear that he was -- >> he's inviting them to stay? >> no. he's telling these black women and this muslim american woman that they had no right to stay in america. and hispanic. >> well, of course the tweets were racist. of course the message behind them are racist. the president of the united states did something to this party long ago that was effectively codified yesterday, joe, which is to twist them into knots and put them into a

position to plead loyalty to the president of the united states come hell or high water. that hell yesterday was defending racism, plain and simple in those tweets and in the messages he followed up with yesterday. the only african-american member of the house, will hurd, voted for the measure. two of those other republicans who voted for it are retiring. they don't face consequences coming out of this. it's amazing to think, kimberly atkins that, just about four days ago there was a war going on within the democratic party between nancy pelosi and some of the progressives in that caucus. now they unified on a party-line vote with a historic vote really to condemn the president of the united states. they're unified again now against this president. >> absolutely. i mean as early as yesterday morning, 24 hours ago, i was talking to some democrats on the hill who were not happy with this resolution. they wanted a stronger censure proposal put forward by

congressman steve cohen to be brought to the floor and it became clear it wouldn't. but it took this act particularly of speaker pelosi going and calling out donald trump for the racist tweet on the floor, spurring republicans to try to have her comments taken down. those two actions together quickly unified the democrats. they all came together, every single one, to vote along with the four republicans that you mentioned. and it was probably the most uniting point of the week for the democrats heading into this. so in the end, the effort to try to -- if the president's efforts, one of them, was to try to draw a division between these four congresswomen and the rest of the caucus, it failed miserably. >> you know, willie, we talked about will hurd voting for this resolution, the only black republican in congress in the house. the only black republican in the

senate, senator tim scott, also condemned this language. racially insensitive language and said it was deeply offensive. >> yeah, and a lot of the other republicans -- excuse me, the small number of republicans who did condemn it, it was couched in something else. it was preamble, preamble, preamble, and, yes, these comments were unacceptable. let's listen to what some of the leadership, though, among republicans said yesterday. senator majority leader mitch mcconnell and house leader kevin mccarthy were asked in separate press appearances to weigh in on the president's attacks against the democratic congresswomen. >> you're married to an immigrant who's a naturalized u.s. citizen. if someone would say to her she should go back to her own country because of criticism of her policies, wouldn't you consider that a racist attack? >> well, the secretary of transportation came here at age 8 legally, not speaking a word of english and has realized the american dream. >> would you ever use the words "go back to where you came

from"? >> 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 reinvigorating america for hundreds of years. >> but you stopped short of calling his comments racist. >> well, the president is not a racist. >> but the comments -- >> the president is not a racist. and i think the tone of all of this is not good for the country. >> were the president's tweets that said go back racist? yes or no? >> no. and i do not believe the speaker of the house last week was racist when those individuals on her side of the aisle when they claimed she was racist either. i believe this is about ideology. this is about socialism versus freedom. >> joe, help our viewers understand this. you've been in the united states capitol. why is that a difficult thing for mitch mcconnell, arguably

the most powerful man other than donald trump in washington right now, to just say what's true, that these comments should not take place, that we shouldn't hear them from the united states president? why is that so difficult, and then move on? i don't understand it from either of those two men. >> i don't understand it either because i don't think mitch mcconnell would be punished for saying that it was racial low insensitive. kevin mccarthy is completely different. here's a man who said he thought donald trump had been paid off by the russians until donald trump won the nomination and now he's completely ckowtowing to him. and his position and lindsey graham, in lindsay's case making it about communism is just preposterous. the american people are not that stupid and they'll punish republicans because of it. but, willie, you know what's interesting is when you listen to mitch mcconnell there, the

first half of what he was saying was lifted straight from ronald reagan's farewell address to america about how immigrants that come to america reinvigorate america. that immigrants that come to america make this country better. that's exactly what ronald reagan said in his farewell address. >> yeah. >> and yet, elise jordan, at the ending of it, when it turns to donald trump, sudden low thly t mitch mcconnell, that republican party of the last 40 years, disappears and he becomes a sycophant for donald trump. >> it's really incredible to imagine being an elected official in the united states of america in 2019 who is completely unwilling to just call out racism. and i can't imagine what i would

say to my children and grandchildren 10, 20, 30 years from now about my silence and that i wasn't part of the four, that i wasn't justin amash, that i wasn't part of the right side of history. it's really breath-taking the shortsightedness of all these republicans just to fall down and kneel at the altar of trump rather than to the american values of liberty that we hold so dear. >> you know, mika, this has an impact. >> yeah. >> it has an impact on not only what members of congress do or don't do, but also in what members of the administration feel comfortable saying. >> yep. >> what racists from the daily storm or what racists that may be at more mainstream news sites are able to say.

>> yeah. >> and yesterday, and what really was extraordinarily reveali revealing. i won't draw any parallels with any fascist countries, but what happened yesterday in a press gaggle has nothing to do with the united states of america and in any other administration -- >> yeah. >> -- over the past 240 years, a person that did what kellyanne conway did yesterday would have been fired on the spot by the time she left the press gaggle and went back into the white house. they would have already packed up her belongings and would have told her leave by the back door and never talk to us again. >> that's a good tee up. the fact is that she's done other things that would have caused this as well. that's why she doesn't come on this show. but this point is news. i'll tell you about that in just a second. to the point being made about

these republicans and also about what we heard in terms of coming back at the democrats and nancy pelosi for being, quote, racist, it's really important as we cover these spineless republicans who at this moment in history are incapable of calling out clear and present racism, and it's a big story that they can't do that. this will be remembered, as joe biden said in the interview the other day, this is damaging for our country. but to the young freshmen who are really important to the democratic caucus, who are making waves and also becoming a target of this president and we want them to succeed, it's important what you say as well. don't play into these republicans' hands. that low blow to nancy pelosi saying that she was -- had racist overtones when she was talking about their press stuff, whatever, that was a low blow.

that was day trading and it's being used against you. don't trip over yourself. you're all doing a great job, but you've got to not try and work on trending. don't day trade. don't make yourself the story. and don't play into these very weak spineless republicans who will do anything, anything to get you. don't give them ammunition against nancy pelosi. you know where she stands. you know where she stands on these issues. you know she's not a racist. still ahead on "morning joe" we're going to play you that moment yesterday at the white house where a top advisor to the president questions a reporter's heritage. how kellyanne conway is now trying to explain that away. you're watching "morning joe" -- >> can you explain away asking a jewish guy what his heritages? good luck with that. we'll be right back. johnson & johnson is a baby company.

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during a press gaggle yesterday morning, white house counselor kellyanne conway responded to the president's tweets telling four congresswomen to go back to where they came from by asking a reporter about his own heritage. >> if the president was not telling these four congresswomen to return to their supposed countries of origin, to which countries was he referring? >> what's your ethnicity? >> why is that relevant -- >> no, because i'm asking you a question. my ancestors are from ireland and italy. >> kellyanne, my ownette nis tee is not relevant to the question. >> no, it is. he said originally from. >> she's asking, mika, a jewish reporter, who she knows is a jewish reporter. she's asking a jewish reporter

what his ethnicity is about. now, i'm sorry, i'm not saying that this is germany 1934, 1935. i'm not saying this is italy 1930, 1931. but i would love for the administration to tell me when the hell that's ever happened coming out of the white house of the united states of america, because i don't think it ever has. >> conway later tweeted that she meant no disrespect when she asked the reporter about his ethnicity. she wrote, quote, we are all from somewhere else originally. i asked the question to answer the question and volunteered my own ethnicity, italian and irish. like many, i am proud of my ethnicity, love the usa, grateful to god to be american. earlier in the day, conway spoke about who those four congresswomen represented. >> they represent a dark

underbelly in this country of people who are not respecting our troops, are not giving them the resources and the respect that they deserve. >> so, mike barnicle, i really don't know where to begin. she -- >> dark underbelly? >> donald trump makes racist comments about four women that are women of color, and she accuses them of being dark, the dark underbelly of america, and then she asks a jewish reporter, demands really of a jewish reporter for him to tell her his ethnicity. please, tell me, mike, when has that ever happened in the united states of america before in a white house briefing? >> it has never happened before, joe, and you're right what you said prior to this. she would have been fired on the spot before she got back to her desk in the west wing, she would have been fired. anyone would be fired. but not in this administration.

you also referenced a couple of minutes ago that perhaps what we're enduring right now as a nation is a defining moment for this administration. we have multiple defining moments each and every week for this administration. you also mentioned earlier ronald reagan's farewell speech, which i happen to have read yesterday again. and he gave it on january 19th, 1989, at a medal of freedom ceremony in the white house in the west wing and he awarded the medal of freedom to one democrat and one republican. mike mansfield, who fought in world war i in the navy and george schultz, former secretary of state and multiple other positions who fought in world war ii in the marine corps. and it's a node to immigration and what immigration does to provide more strength and resilience to this country. in part this is what he said. since this is the last speech i will give as president i think it's fitting to leave one final

thought, an observation about a country which i love. it was stated best in a letter i received not long ago when a man wrote me and said you can go to live in france, but you cannot become a frenchman. you can go to live in germany or turkey or japan, but you cannot become a german, a turk or japanese. but anyone from any corner of the earth can come to live in america and become an american. republicans ought to re-read that speech. >> coming up, newly unearthed video from 1992 shows donald trump and jeffrey epstein surrounded by women by mar-a-lago. trump now says he was never a fan of the sexual predator. the video suggests otherwise in a big way. >> mika, i think we saw -- >> i think i saw -- >> his pimp fixer? >> this is strange, because that would mean they were all hanging out together. >> that would be something.

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we want to show you now some footage from 1992 that our producers found in the nbc archives that shows donald trump

with jeffrey epstein, who is now a sex offender and accused sex trafficker looking at and talking about women at a party. >> welcome to the southern white house. >> since becoming president, donald trump has branded mar-a-lago the southern white house. a place that entertains foreign leaders, where military strikes are ordered and whose terrace serves as an open-air situation room over dessert. >> and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen. >> but in the '90s mar-a-lago was trump's south florida party palace, one frequented by jeffrey epstein, who is facing charges for sex trafficking. he has pleaded not guilty. the president says his relationship with epstein was no different than anyone else in their elite circle. >> well, i knew him like everybody in palm beach knew him. he was a fixture in palm beach. i don't think i've spoken to him for 15 years. i wasn't a fan.

>> yet a tape in the nbc archives of a mar-a-lago party shows trump giving epstein his personal attention. >> donald, donald, donald. >> the footage shot in november of 1992, before trump opened the resort as a club, shows the future president surrounded by cheerleaders for the buffalo bills and miami dolphins, capturing trump's fun-loving bachelor lifestyle for an appearance on faith daniels' nbc talk show. >> you're going to get great ratings on your show. >> trump is surrounded by women as music blairs in the background. after a while, trump goes to greet three new guests, among them the financier jeffrey epstein. more than a decade before his guilty plea on state prostitution charges. later in the footage, trump is seeing talking to epstein and another man as women are dancing in front of them. trump alternates between dancing and pointing out women to

epstein and the other man and telling epstein about the cameras. though exactly what they say is difficult to understand as they discuss the women and their appearances, trump gestures to one and appears to say to epstein "look at her back there, she's hot." and then, trump says something else into epstein's ear that makes him double over with laughter. but as the president says now, he never liked epstein. >> i was not a fan of his, that i can tell you. i was not a fan of his. >> looks like a big fan of epstein. >> i feel like i saw jaylene maxfield, the reported recruiter for epstein. he said i've known jeff for 15 years, terrific guy. he's a lot of fun to be with.

it's even said that he likes beautiful women as much as i do, and many of them are on the younger side. no doubt about it, jeffrey enjoys his social life. >> and we certainly saw that there, willie. saw it very clearly. he and epstein, they are very much enjoying that party. donald trump saying he never liked jeffrey epstein, once again proven to be a lie. >> yeah, he says i was not a fan of his, that i can tell you. the president said that last week. obviously he was a fan, we can see it there. we can see it from the quote in 2002 from "new york" magazine. he said the relationship broke off about 15 years ago. the good news, elise jordan, is that the southern district of new york is going to put all of this out into the open. there's going to be a trial and we'll get to the bottom of this. we don't know if president trump or then businessman tv host donald trump is implicated in any way, but there are a lot of powerful people in new york and elsewhere that have reason to be nervous for what's happening downtown in the southern district. >> they should be. and epstein should be behind --

he should be in prison right now. i'm glad that these victims are finally getting to see a predator where he should be. just yesterday there was an item in "new york" magazine referencing a 2000 profile by maximum golf magazine and it talks about epstein and trump, how epstein hitched a right with the fixer, the pimp, the co-predator on his private plane. so we know there's an eight-year stretch where they're tight enough that donald trump was welcoming epstein onto his plane. that seems pretty significant, that it wasn't just a casual friendship. coming up on "morning joe" amid all the president's ground noise, senator brian schatz is urging democrats to keep their eye on the ball. quote, just because they are racists doesn't mean they aren't trying to take away your health care. the hawaii lawmaker joins us next on "morning joe."

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this melting pot of impacted species. everywhere is going to get touched by climate change.

what do you say to people, and you have your critics too, who say that you all are also a distraction? >> the insinuation of that question itself is a distraction. i think he wants you to focus on that, and you should be asking why is it that we are being criticized. >> each of us bring our unique and authentic voice to this body. we govern in our own way. what we are, are four women who have an alignment of values, shared policy priorities. there is no insurgency here. there is nothing conspiratorial. >> the four congresswomen targeted by president trump in his racist tweets speaking with cbs news. joining us now for the first time on "morning joe" is democratic senator brian schatz of hawaii. he's the chair of a newly formed special committee to combat the

climate crisis, which holds its first public hearing this afternoon. we'll get to that in a moment. mike barnicle, elise jordan and karine jean-pierre are still with us as well. brian, i guess, first of all, congressman, we'd like to hear -- senator, sorry, your response to the way the president's racist tweets are emanating across capitol hill and these four congresswomen. we've heard from a few republicans who are calling on the president to pull that tweet down, who are saying it's racist. are you hearing anything from your counterparts, from your colleagues about rebuking the president in a bigger way? >> no. it's absolute radio silence from my republican colleagues. i think this just shows that the republican party has become the party of trump. it is devouring itself. it may be successful in the short run, but it is increasingly becoming a party that is dedicated to a minority

of americans ruling a majority of americans. that doesn't mean that we have to spend the next 18 months talking about the president's racism every day. >> i got it. >> i think most people wanting us to talk about health care and economics and especially corruption. but i thought yesterday was really important what happened in the u.s. house for the historical record, to decide what side of history you want to be on and whether you want to be on the side of the future or the past. whether you want to be on the side of racism or fighting racism. >> hey, snarenator, it's willie geist. one of your tweets, just because they are racists doesn't mean they aren't trying to take away your health care. who is the they? the republicans on the senate side? >> i'm talking about the white house in particular, i'm talking about the president's racist tweets and i'm talking about the president and his policy to eliminate health care for more than 20 million americans. you know that court case is

still pending in federal court. if they are successful, we're going to have a live issue in the next 45 to 90 days and the republicans are literally saying what they have been saying for the last ten years, which is, you know, we have a plan to replace the affordable care act and we will get back to you about what it is. but now it's really consequential because if the affordable care act is invalidated in federal court because of these conservative justices, now it actually impacts people and it will be laid bare that they have no plan. so i think it's important for the historical record. i think it's important for people of color and people who feel vulnerable to know that there are a lot of elected officials who have their back. but i also think it's important for us to talk to the whole country about health care, because that matters to everybody across the country, no matter what your ethnic extraction, no matter where you live and whatever your income level is. >> senator, there's another issue that's important to everybody across the country and that's climate. today the special committee on

climate crisis is holding its first-ever public hearing. it will certainly be a big topic in the upcoming presidential campaign, already is. so as a democrat, how do you convince ordinary americans, your constituents, constituents across all this country, that it's not some left-wing goober deal, that it's going to be good for jobs, good for growing the economy. how do you convince people of that? >> i think it's a really smart question and that's the purpose of this committee to sort of convey to the public that we get it. climate change is not just about birds and butterflies and not the province of coastal liberals who care with conservation, although that's totally important. it's also about farms in the midwest, it's about fires in the west, it's about floods, it's about fisheries, it's about the american way of life being impacted. and now -- unfortunately we don't have the luxury of talking about climate change like it's a future problem.

it is a now problem. it is a fiscal problem for state, local and the federal government. and it's also impacting the way our businesses can operate. now, the good news is what you were talking about, which is that in order to address this problem, we are going to have to create millions and millions and millions of jobs. one of the problems i think democrats have had in the past is when we talk about climate, we give sort of one sentence at the end to working people. and i think we have to flip that. we have to start with working people and make the argument that this is good for them. you know, a good friend of mine in hawaii always says paint a picture and paint me in it. when we talk about the solution set to climate change, we have to center it around regular people who are just trying to make a living. increasingly people understand that climate change is impacting their personal lives, their economic well-being, but we also have to describe a future where everybody benefits from climate action. >> hey there, senator, this is karine jean-pierre here. thank you so much for your

leadership. like you said, it's a crisis. it's such an important issue to talk about and it's just not breaking through. so here's my question to you. we have 20 some odd candidates in the democratic party running to be the next president. how do they make the climate change crisis a salient issue with their platform as they're pushing out their vision for this country? what do they need to do? how do they talk about this? >> karine, thank you for the question. i want to quibble a little bit. i do think in this election cycle for the very first time it is breaking through. it's polling enormously well. not just among primary election voters, but also among independents and even among republicans there's a majority of republicans that want climate action. but to your question, i think we have to talk about this not as though it's an elite project where we're going to sort of reconfigure the economy using a bunch of experts on wall street and on k street. i think this has to be talked about in kitchen table terms.

it's the moving of farmland, it's the flooding of communities, it's wildfires that are destroying neighborhoods and towns, it's floods in coastal areas, it's what's happening to communities across the country. and i think there's a broad recognition that we have to take action, but a lot of people feel sort of stuck about what the solution set is. part of the purpose of the special committee on the climate crisis is to convey that the cost of action is way lower than the cost of inaction. that the opportunities related to creating jobs in solar and wind and conservation and a national power grid are enormous and everybody can benefit from it. germany is doing this, china is doing this. lots of our competitors are doing this. our allies are doing this. if we don't create a new industrial revolution where everybody can benefit, we are going to be left behind. >> senator, switching gears a bit to the border, you've said that you advocate for the children who are caught in the

crosshairs of what's happening as if they're your own children, and it should be a bipartisan issue. can you talk about why there just isn't any -- why there's such inaction in the senate? it feels like this has been going on for years now, the horror stories that every week are just a little bit worse and more grim. why is nothing getting done? >> well, first of all, this is a moral crisis and this is a stain on our country. it's more than that. there are actual human beings harmed by the american government, especially through private contractors right now. there are a couple of things that we should be able to do on a bipartisan basis. first of all, i don't think anybody who is a for-profit contractor should be working in this space. i think they should all be not-for-profit contractors. we're paying $750 per person per day, which means they don't have an incentive to put them into

the community. second of all, the best way that we can keep these people safe in a humane situation but make sure that their asylum claims get adjudicated is what we used to do, which is essentially an ankle bracelet and get them to report for their asylum adjudication at the appropriate time. there's not a high recidivism rate. you get full participation and they can be in humane conditions while we determine whether or not they get to enter the country permanently. and finally, we have to allow these asylum claims to be applied for and adjudicated in the home country. that is the way you prevent this mass migration of individuals. the reason they're all coming up is because they can't figure out whether they're going to get asylum until they present themselves at the border. if they can do that in their home country, we can do it more humanely and efficiently. >> senator brian schatz, thanks for being on, come back. >> thanks very much. up next, it may have been the senator's first time on "morning joe" but our next guest has been on before and there's a

good reason why. best-selling author daniel silva is here with his 22nd novel. "morning joe's" self-proclaimed first fan is next. is next. li virtually helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. first fan is next. ways go for 1. ways go for 1. bring out the bold™

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to impose sanctions on those involved in the killing of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. joining us now, best-selling author daniel silva. his 22nd novel entitled "the new girl" was released yesterday. it's the latest stainstallment a spy series. good morning, daniel. >> good morning. >> i'm sure this is number one already. i'm so amazed that you sat down to write one book, and then the story of the murder of jamal khashoggi made headlines, and then you changed the direction were headed. >> i had been want to go write a book about this dynamic young saudi prince for a couple years and to explore the secret relationship that had developed between israel and saudi arabia. it is the most important, underreported issue in the middle east in a long time. in august i began the novel.

i wrote about 200, 250 pages. in the first week of october, i saw this little item on the internet that jamal was missing. of course, a few days later, we learned that he had been brutally murdered and dismembered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul. and a few days after that, we learned that the cia had concluded that mohamed bin salman had certainly given the order for it. what i had written simply did not hold up any longer. it would have seemed really out of place. so i threw it all in the trash can, was in the fetal position for about 24 hours because i do have very tight deadlines. i don't have two and a half months to throw away in my writing year. and i just locked the door, put my head down and started writing. and obviously, as i say in the foreword, many elements of the book are inspired by the

khashoggi hurtamurder and i did dedicate it to 54 journalists who were killed last year in the line of duty. he was one of 54. >> so the backdrop and inspiration for this, where do we find gabriel? >> we find gabriel facing one of the most difficult moral dilemmas that he's ever faced. the book begins with the kidnapping of a daughter of a man named kaled bin mohammad, the crown prince of saudi arabia. when she disappears and he receives a very chilling ransom note, he makes a rare, good decision. he turns to gabriel for help. what follows is sort of a "game of thrones" battle for control of the future of saudi arabia. and it deals with the rise of russia as a competitive power in the middle east. >> so the elements of gabriel's

story here in your latest novel, they play out every day in the news. and a lot of it surreptitiously, people sort of know about it, especially people in washington, the mosav, tel aviv, cia, russians. do you continue writing, or do you stop and take lunch and make a couple of calls? how does that play out? >> one of the challenges with this book, besides trying to catch history in the act, trying to catch lightning in the bottle, is making decisions personally about how i felt about this and how my character should react to this situation. and what should we do about saudi arabia? and i had the help from people inside the administration who were dealing with it, people in congress who are making decisions about whether to take

very stern actions against saudi arabia, people in israel that have a lot invested in this relationship. so while i was writing, i was talking to people constantly. >> do you think that nbs will ever face any consequences for his role in the murder of jamal khashoggi? >> i do not. i think in a perfect world, i think we would have quietly told the saudis to find someone else to be their next king. we would have imposed sanctions, real sanctions, against the people involved in it. we probably would have imposed sanctions on the top tier of saudi leadership, including the travel ban. you can't come here anymore. but this is not a perfect world. and if you look at that handshake in buenos aires at the g-20 summit, a handshake, high five, they look like they just scored the winning goal in the

world cup, those two. david himilibrand, the new secretary, called it the age of impunity where the old rules have been cast aside and rich and powerful men like vladimir putin and nbs can get away with murder quite literally. and, you know, he looks at putin who has carried out numerous extrajudicial killings, including inside the united kingdom, no sanction against putin, no personal sanction against him. why wouldn't he think he could get away with it? >> all right, daniel silva, it's always great to have you on the show. i know you and your wife were the first fans. the question is, are you still fans? >> the very first. >> are you still fans? >> of course i am. of course i am. >> yay. well, the book is "the new girl" and we thank you very much for being on the show this morning. >> my pleasure. thank you for having me. a lot going on today. of course, we're going to be

covering the ongoing political battle in washington, the racist comments the president made about the four freshman congresswomen and the reaction and lack thereof for some. and the newly uncovered video from the nbc archives that shows trump and epstein partying and leering at women, looking at them and talking. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thank you so much, mika. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle. you ready? just when you thought you saw it all, the government gives us something new, and not in a good way. the house ruled to condemn the president's twitter talks on our different lawmakers. the president praises it. why? the president has made it very clear he will take the political hit if it means successfully