friday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian with ayman mohyeldin. "morning joe" starts right now. good morning. welcome to "morning joe" on a beautiful friday morning in new york city. august 9. i'm willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. with us is john heilemann. the host of saturday night politics, donny deutsch. it's going to be a long morning as you can see. from commentary magazine and a contributor, noah rothman. from moveon.org and an msnbc contributor, karine jean-pierre and nbc political analyst, eugene robinson. they said in the makeup room when they saw you and me, all the freaks are out this morning. i think they have it right. >> let's not leave out gene robinson. >> thanks a lot, donny.

>> gene is bringing a little bit of dignity to the show. >> a little mean. >> mean, but accurate. that's what we strive for. >> freaks and geeks. >> i love any category that donny is in. >> a fair assessment. we have serious stuff to get to. police in missouri arrested a man yesterday after he brandished a loaded tactical style rifle inside a walmart. a 20-year-old man was taken in to custody within three minutes of police receiving panicked calls to the springfield missouri, walmart. he recorded himself walking through the store when the manager pulled the fire alarm. that's according to our local affiliate station and then the suspect made his way out the emergency exit where an off duty firefighter held him at gunpoint in the parking lot until police arrived. the suspect seen here was wearing a bulletproof vest. he had more than 100 rounds of ammunition on him. police still determining a motive. but say the man's intent was to quote obviously cause chaos. no shots were fired, thank god,

nobody was injured. charges of making a terrorist threat in the first degree are pending according to jail records. we don't know anything about the man's motive but we'll stay on that story. now to the pressure to pass new gun legislation. more than 200 mayors have signed a letter calling on the senate to return early from summer break to pass the background check bills already approved by the house. presidential candidate tim ryan has joined a caravan of protesters headed to mitch mcconnell's home state of kentucky to pressure him to act. while he has rejected the call to return to washington his tone has seemed to change when it comes to taking up any gun legislation at all. >> you're not calling people in early -- >> well, if we did that, we'd have people scoring points and nothing would happen. there has to be a bipartisan discussion here of what we can agree on. background checks and red flags

would probably lead the discussion, but a lot of other things have come up as well. what we can't do is fail to pass something. you know? by just locking up and failing to pass, that's unacceptable. >> leader mcconnell also said a ban on assault weapons likely will be among the proposals discussed although he expressed skepticism over an assault weapons ban. for leader mcconnell there a little bit of progress or some movement where he says we can't do nothing. what do you suspect he means by that? >> i suspect he means that we need to strike while the iron's hot. because that is what everybody wants. and in the event that they do not, which is what normally happens, the urgency for these sort of things dissipate and mcconnell and republicans generally feel the pressure lift. and don't have to ability. the problem that i see is that he's right. there's no consensus around some

sort of reform. stronger background checks to capture private individuals selling to private individuals. those are the only people who aren't captured by background checks. red flags are popular, they have concerns among the civil libertarians. so the specifics will bog down and august is the time when you can generate some enthusiastic in the grass roots for this sort of thing. so keeping members out of washington is beneficial to those interested in gun reform. bringing them back into washington you will see the hardening of positions, more debating of members and that things wouldn't move forward. >> universal background checks are popular with republicans and with democrats and a majority of nra supporters are for it, and expanding what they are. the red flag law has been supported in theory, john thune, lamar alexander, lindsey graham among them.

what did you hear in mitch mcconnell's voice yesterday? do you believe he's interested in doing something? >> i did not hear what noah said, we must strike while the iron's hot. i think that was the phrase at the top. i think he has zero interest of doing anything on gun reform. i think by keeping it at the moment when there's the most urgency to say we won't come back early despite the fact they're -- there's growing pressure on that direction, especially on the house side all i read there was we're not coming back in. saying the words we must do something and -- we'll talk about this and that is exactly how gun reform has died every time it's come up in the wake of every other mass shooting. he has no interest in passing a gun reform bill ever and the notion he wants to do something, i think what he's trying to do right now is stall and figure out if the president is going to move or not. and what happens between the president and the president of the nra. mcconnell's posture is if trump

won't sign it, i won't pass it and we have seen trump saying he's willing to do the background checks and the nra slapped him and then he capitulated to the nra. mcconnell said i won't get them near the senate and let's see what happens between trump and the nra and go from there. >> i think it's a moment in time. i think the democrats need to stand up at this moment. it's about assault weapons. yeah, it's so ridiculous to talk about -- i know it's oh, it's a move on background checks and that would not have stopped the shootings and the journal of trauma -- the surgeon at acute trauma have done a study that 70% of the mass shootings -- 70% would not have died if not for assault weapons. that's the game. what i don't understand now from both the human and political point is 70% support for a ban on assault weapons. democrats draw a line. the republican party you are the

party of assault weapons and we are against it. i find it ironic that the democrats will push for impeachment and go, we know it's not politically expedient but ideologically we have to stand by it but they won't do it when it comes to the assault weapons. every democratic candidate should say we're the party of protection and the republicans are the party of assault, not only assault weapons but assault on the truth, assault on wages, assault on universal health care. make them the party of assault. this is a moment in time that leaders step up -- i just find that we all go blah blah blah blah blah. it doesn't matter until we get the assault weapons. >> the laws are in now for the increased assault weapon bans. when democrats are in a room with each other -- >> 25 years ago, same-sex marriage was -- >> loopholes allowed weapons that are assault weapons in every form and function with the exception of some cosmetic

features allowed them to have exist. they want stronger language and nobody can capture assault weapons but not semiautomatics broadly. >> make the republicans be the party of the assault weapons. ask every politician -- not a slippery slope question, are you for or against assault weapons? >> and karine, a lot of the democratic candidates have come out for a long list of these things. we have been in this place before as you know where there's a terrible trauma in this country, a horrible incident. we say if not now, when? do you see this as being different than any time before, for example, sandy hook seven years ago? >> look, what i heard, willie, from that clip of mitch mcconnell talking about all of this, i think it's just bs. it's hog wash. he is stalling. he's not going to move on this and that's the most disheartening part of this because this is going on for years now. we have seen kids get gunned down and killed.

we saw moms and dads getting killed for shopping for their kids for school supplies. you know, we see people getting shot down. church goers at church. this has been going on for a long time and this is at the feet of mitch mcconnell. in february, the house passed a background check bill that could -- i think could get bipartisan support in the senate but they're on vacation is and mitch mcconnell refuses to bring them back. i kind of disagree on not focusing on the background check. because if you can save one life, then you should do it. if a bill can save one life, then move forward with it. it's a start. we cannot do not do nothing. to your question, willie, i think that nothing is going to happen. because this is on republicans. republicans in the senate need to move with mitch mcconnell leading the senate. like they have to start moving. and so with democrats this week it's in particular the 2020 candidates i think they have shown leadership. i think they are out there

talking about this in a real way, just in one of the democratic debates. we talked about gun reform. the first time we had a real conversation about it on the debate stage. so i think we are headed in the good place with democrats really fighting for this. but it has to be on the republicans. we have to keep pushing republicans. it is at their feet here. >> karine, let me -- i love you, you're one of my favorite people, but if at the end of the day, background checks would not have stopped any of the shootings what are we doing? >> we have -- we have to start somewhere. if it would save one life, it would do something. i think we move with something and we go further. we can't not do nothing. we can't. and one of the things that democrats did in the house, they tried to pass the most simplest things. the easiest things so that they can try and get bipartisanship. they can get republicans on board and they got that out of the house.

look what's happening in the senate. look what's happening. mitch mcconnell is doing nothing. he doesn't care. he wants the time -- he's not going to move. we have to continue to push. we have to continue to push. >> and gene, i'm reminded after sandy hook in 2013 the manchin/toomey bill that would have expanded background checks even after sandy hook where first graders were slaughtered in their classroom that went nowhere. donny mentioned the politico poll that shows 70% of americans support banning assault-style weapons in this country. >> yeah. and i agree with him, but that is the -- i mean, that's the issue. that's what we need and, you know, i'm always puzzled by the position that, well, it's impossible to decide what's on assault weapon and what isn't. well, no. you decide. you decide and then, you know,

you make a list, basically. and the list has to be modified and changed. gun manufacturers will try to get around it. you have to keep up with that. but it's not rocket science. it's not -- you know, this is not quantum physics. this is, you know, you have got these weapons of war that do incredible damage. talk to doctors about what these weapons do to a human body and how that differs from what -- you know semiautomatic handgun does to the human body. it's a stark and delaware stating -- devastating difference. i think this is the moment to push and to push and to keep pushing and, you know, maybe nothing will happen. clearly mitch mcconnell doesn't want anything to happen, but

that ought to be on him. and it ought to be on the republican party. and if, you know, we know a lot more about the nra now and its corruption and if that's the way you want to go, republican party, then you're going to have to stand up and go that way. >> gene, one thing about the nra and i threw this idea out earlier in the week as a business guy. it would be interesting if one democratic presidential candidate said on all of my donation forms, there's going to be a check you can put at the bottom if you want 10% of your donation to go to the fund called the assault on assault weapons, and if ever every democratic candidate put that in there we would raise almost half a billion dollars and on top of that we do the assault on assault. every democratic voter, put $5 into this. you could raise $1 billion. once again, you wouldn't hurt the democrats because it would be all equal. they would be all be putting

into the pot. this the time for out of the box thinking. >> and the nra is in the president's ear. he spoke with wayne lapierre, the president of the nra. he said you better not even do universal background checks. >> and the president is on the record is on -- on seven or eight occasions said he was going to be pushing for background checks. we'll get background checks. solid background checks. we'll have them. then in every instance -- where he has been then talked to by the nra by wayne lapierre, he's backed down and his support which is the crucial support in this sense that mitch mcconnell will not move legislation until donald trump blesses it. that's -- there's just the senate majority leader waiting for the president to in a declarative way and unbending way say what he will sign and what trump has done over and over again is suggest and come close to the notion he would sign background checks and get pushed away from that by wayne

lapierre. he's now open to it and the nra is brushing him back in a very public way. over the course of the last 48 hours. i'll just say this. just to go back to look at that wall the assault ban poll, right now we can't get the background check bill down even though it's at 97%. look at that number right there. the fact that the republican number on banning assault weapons is only 54%. from military grade hardware in the hands of civilians that number is going to have to be higher on the republican side. as long as republicans control the white house and the senate, that number is not good enough to move mitch mcconnell and donald trump because that is still a large chunk of republican base voters who against this ban on assault weapons and until that number on the republican side looks like the democratic side or democrats control the senate and the white house, that's not going to --

that's not going anywhere. >> i want to bring in jonathan swan of axios who covers the white house very closely. let me ask you a question that i asked a lot this week and i haven't heard a good answer. what happens if donald trump gets the phone call from wayne lapierre and says, screw you, i'm doing universal background checks. by the way, it's supported by your membership -- a majority of your membership in the nra. what's the cost in that to the president of the united states, the most powerful man in the world? >> well what donald trump has been doing this week is what he does every time which is poll -- effectively his way of testing a message is to sort of bite at it, nibble at it as heilman was saying. it's him testing the waters. what's the reaction going to be, am i getting torn up on fox news? what's the blow back, because he nibbles. his instinct is he wants

universal background check. he's a new yorker, he's not -- donald trump doesn't come from a culture of wanting to, you know, own guns and be sort of hyper second amendment. he developed this as a political tactic. he's probably the only politician in america that could actually shift this issue in the republican party because he has such a cult following in the republican party. such a hold over that party that if donald trump did come out in favor of a background check position, look there would be a lot of republicans that would defy him. but it would be quite hard for a number of others. the only interesting new factor here is that the nra is in complete disarray. it is an organization roiled by financial malfeasance. it is basically lapierre and a phone at this point in terms of their internal organization. now, they still have a huge grass roots donor base, money, but boy they have some problems. i wonder if that does add a new

little element into this conversation. >> they have been out shopping for homes for wayne lapierre in dallas. what happens if donald trump says i'm not listening to you anymore, wayne lapierre, your own membership is okay with universal background checks. why can't he just do that? that's not even a bold or a brave or a risky proposition. >> i mean, he sort of has. you have seen the fox news personalities move to his position, but that doesn't move members. it would take a democratic senator and a democratic congress and the manchin and the toomey bill failed. the background checks wouldn't have captured these killers. red flag laws might, but that requires a culture of personal responsibility in which individuals take responsibility for the people around them who are exhibiting these kind of behavior patterns that are disturbing. when you have an assault weapons

ban, weapons rifle is a defined thing and when you have a ruger mini14 isn't captured in this bill but the ar-15 is, it's not effective. the democrats and the republicans who are -- who put their names on the bills will care about the substance. >> we'll continue in a moment. also jonathan swan has new some reporting on the hamptons fund-raiser that's caused so much controversy among the patrons of soul cycle. we'll talk more about gun violence with lori lightfoot. but first here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> hey, this weekend is not fair for everyone. some will sweat it out. you expect it in the south but it's been very hot. last night outside of houston in galveston, the temperature never dropped below 87 degrees. the heat index never dropped below 100.

you have the feels like of 100 degrees and incredible stuff. we'll continue that way as we go throughout much of the day. heat index is 105 to about 115 as we go throughout the afternoon. the other area of concern here, little spot here in arkansas. we have a flash flood warning in ozarks and watching flash flood watches from tulsa. not too bad this morning. this will be dropping throughout the afternoon and some of the rain is trying to head for oklahoma city. let's talk about the good stuff. beautiful day today, beautiful in the ohio valley. new york not too bad. saturday and sunday is not bad in the north east. enjoy this. there's the hot stuff in the south. nothing brewing in the tropics right now which is perfect too. if you have outdoor plans this weekend from the great lakes to the northeast, you've got lucky. you chose well because it will be as nice as it gets for this time of the year. looking at new york city. we're talking about you this

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welcome back to "morning joe." president trump's re-election campaign has reportedly raised at least $10 million ahead of tonight's fund-raisers in the hamptons out on long island in new york. the trump victory committee a joint fund-raiser operation between the trump campaign and the rnc raised the hefty sum at the homes of joe farrell and miami dolphins owner stephen ross whose company owns equinox and soul cycle. dozens of celebrities and figures are boycotting ross' high end fitness chains but the 40-plus year friend of trump

continues to stand by the decision to host the event. jonathan swan has some new reporting on the backlash ross is facing. is it true that after the backlash he began to reconsider having the fund-raiser out there? >> it is. he privately expressed qualms about going ahead with the fund-raiser. this is a quote from a source familiar with the private conversations. he freaked out, he freaked out at the backlash. trump associates ultimately persuaded him to go ahead with the event at his southampton mansion and this is a paraphrase from -- i asked what the message was that the trump associates conveyed to ross. stay strong, it's not going to be that bad. he has described himself in his statement as a champion of inclusion, diversity, public education and environmental sustainability. he's torn between want -- he's got the brands, equinox and soul

cycle which have a progressive customer base and then he's a new york real estate developer. he has known donald trump for a long time. he's flapping around and he's ultimately going ahead with the fund-raiser. >> you know, stephen ross to me is the epitome -- this election comes down to guys like that and people saying, no. you don't get to say i'm for racial equality and all the good things, i disagree with him there, but i like his economic views. no. you own it. i think that's the message that's got to get out there. no, stephen ross. and no, a lot of my friends. you own it. you can't well, i like his -- you can't say, well, i like his economic policy. you own charlottesville. you can't do it. you get the whole package. that's what swing voters have got to understand. and be shamed into. you don't get to do that, steve ross. i'll take from column "e," but

i'll leave column "b" behind. you own the racism. >> gene, that's the line that so many people have tried to walk going back to 2015 and 2016, they didn't like hillary clinton, but privately, stephen ross not him specifically but others would say, you know what, trump is a clown, i don't like the guy, i don't like the tweets but he'll be good for the economy and trade and et cetera. et cetera. good for my bottom line essentially. >> yeah. i too know people who are walking that line. and donny is absolutely right. this is not an a la carte menu. you take the whole package. you can't separate the -- you know, the two or three things that president trump is doing that you approve of that are beneficial for you. like the tax cuts and preattend that all the rest -- and pretend that the rest isn't happening. it shouldn't be allowed to happen so i think people do have to be pressed on that and

reminded of that fact. then do whatever you want. you know? if you like the package, then support the package and have the fund-raiser. go to the fund-raiser, give the money, but it's the whole package. that's what you're signing up for. >> go ahead. >> you guys, i'm totally with you on the moral level but i don't know what you mean by you can't. this is what republicans have been doing for the last two years. i mean, this week has been horrific and we have all focused on the extent to which donald trump's rhetoric has fed into the informed the shooting in el paso in particular. but every republican who is like all of the big donors including this one we're talking about now, they have been doing this since charlottesville. how much clearer could it have been? charlottesville happened and many were against donald trump in 2016 mocked him privately

then and now, and have seen donald trump do things that manifest in demonstrations of his racism and at a minimum a sympathy for white nationalism and there's dozens of them. you know dozens of them, donny. i do not think -- we have been calling them out for two years. they're still there with them. >> i'm talking about the guy -- we have 40 seats after charlottesville. i'm talking about the suburban swing voters. i'm not talking about a multibillionaire. i'm using his logic to talk to the suburban women and talk to the women in the suburbs of philadelphia and go, no. you don't get to vote for them because you like his tax cut. no, to these guys no. but his explanation is the pathetic explanation i hear from so many people. that's where we push. >> jonathan swan, you're covering the development in the democratic field for 2020 which is this question that's being put to them and i think first by jacob soboroff live on msnbc to beto o'rourke in el paso.

is donald trump a white supremacist, going from racist to white supremacist and a lot of them are saying yes at in point. >> it's become the new litmus test questions and you have bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, pete buttigieg and beto o'rourke and kirsten gillibrand saying on the record, on camera, the president is a white supremacist. you have some demurring like joe biden and kamala harris and others. but it has become the new litmus test question. based on our reporting, what we're hearing and what i expect to see from the trump campaign and people associated with the president is for them to try to turn this as you're calling his supporters racist. so almost a revival of the deplorables comment in 2016. >> and karine, i guess as jonathan is reporting the trump white house doesn't mind this because they say if you're saying who anybody that supports

is racist or supremacist by association you're telling 63 million people who voted for donald trump or half the voters who voted for donald trump that they're racist and white supremacists and isn't going to play well. the white house may see this as an advantage, believe it or not. >> they're at least supporting the campaign of hate, the campaign of racism and of white supremacy. i mean, that's at the least that's what his supporters are doing. here's the thing, he was a white supremacist in 2011 when he decided to be the grand wizard of the birther movement. he was a white supremacist when he, you know, jumped into the campaign attacking mexicans and calling them drug dealers and rapists and donald trump is a white supremacist today looking at the hatred he ensues via twitter, standing behind the white house podium telling people to go back home. the anti-immigrant sentiments around just policies -- and just policies that he continuously

pushes out. this is donald trump's administration. this is what he does. day in and day out. that is what he's using to throw that red meat to a small percentage of his base. so this is where we are. so if you're supporting donald trump, that is what you're supporting. that is it. >> jonathan swan, we'll be reading your reporting all day at axios. thanks so much as always. the fallout after the mass immigration raids in mississippi this week. hundreds of people still in custody leaving many children without their parents. more on that story next. when i was diagnosed with breast cancer, there was no hesitation, i went straight to ctca. after my mastectomy, it was maddening because i felt part of my identity was being taken away.

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the country's number two intelligence official has announced her resignation adding to the uncertainty of who will lead the intelligence operations. sue gordon said she is stepping down the deputy director of the national intelligence. and added that it coincided with the intelligence director dan coats' retirement on august 15th which had been previously announced.

amid gordon's resignation the president announced he's naming joseph maguire as acting director of national intelligence. joining us now, the president of the council on foreign relations and the author of "a world in disarray" richard haass. what's going on here with sue gordon, highly respected in the intelligence community? anything behind this departure? >> everything is behind this departure. this is from day one, donald trump has been at war with the intelligence community. and -- it's a culture clash. the whole mission of the intelligence community is to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. they don't define loyalty in personal terms. they define loyalty in terms of facts, truth, analysis, basically tell people what they need to hear. donald trump wants people in the intelligence community who are supportive of his policies. don't for example highlight the fact that russia did what it did in 2016. and he made it clear that he did

not want this career professional to take dan coats' job and he didn't appreciate what coats did. >> he has a habit of installing acting directors or acting heads of cabinets, so that he can go -- no senate confirmation on those, but also that he can put somebody in place who will follow his lead. >> yeah. he just tried with the congressman ratcliffe. that didn't work so well. that lasted about 24 hours. no. what we're seeing is the systematic erosion to use a phrase of the deep state and it is now given way to what you might describe as a shallow state. where career professionals are leaving and they are being replaced by people who either don't have backgrounds, they're in acting positions and this is by people say like jared kushner, others at the white house, a lot of people at the state -- a lot of position at the state department are still unfilled. this is a way that you work around the bureaucracy. because the bureaucracy tends to be viewed with suspicion.

there's people who are careerists, have their own agenda. that's what this administration essentially does. >> so what is the state, richard, of our intelligence agencies? pompeo has proved himself to be a loyalist to donald trump, christopher wray perhaps not as much. speaking truth when he comes before congress, for example. is donald trump getting what he wants out of the intelligence agency? >> they're doing their job but he doesn't take the systemic briefings that his predecessors always did. i would say their role is dramatically reduced because people don't welcome hearing analysis and the rest that -- for example, in the last couple of days, you would have had people saying that no way that india would ever want the united states to mediate in kashmir. for decades india has said butt out this. this is between us and the

pakistanis. there's no way that the intelligence community has saying that has any chance of working or in north korea. the defense agency said, north korea has increased the weapons inventory by 12 weapons, it ain't working. so from issue after issue after issue, venezuela, maduro is not going anywhere. he's hearing things that don't jibe with his own view of the world or his own spin on things so when he does that -- when he hears that he pushes them away. >> let's go back to north korea. short range missiles were fired in defiance of trump and yet the line that comes out of the white house and the state department we're working on this. president trump flatters kim jong-un, he continues to do so. is there some underlying strategy that the rest of us don't see here? >> the short answer is no. not in any serious sense of the word strategy. the situation is getting worse. it is ironic the president gets credit for avoiding war in north

korea. well, the only reason war is seen imminent at one point is because the united states introduced the possibility we have backed down. and there's essentially as north korea continues to improve and increase the missile and the nuclear inventory the short range tests teach them things. they're amassing more nuclear material. the real question is whether we are willing to accept as a transitional or interim agreement something less than full denuclearization. they're not going to denuclearize and that's something that the intelligence community will say it. it's the question of whether pompeo and others are accepting half a loaf. some degree of limits on north korea's nuclear system in exchange for some degree of sanctions relief. i believe we get that kind of agreement. it may put a ceiling on it and there's a big difference. if we wake up one day and north korea has a hundred nuclear weapons on missiles that can reach the united states, so that would be incomparably worse than

the situation we have now. >> i want to turn to china and hong kong. the protests in hong kong have gone on for almost a month now. pretty effective and you have seen some evidence that beijing is willing to crack down on it. we haven't seen at a lot of the -- a lot of the democracy being promoted an that sort of dovetails with north korea. if you have a nuclear weapon, you're -- you are immune, absolved from being pressured to democratize. >> take saudi arabia. there again, we have ignored democracy and human rights at. this administration is a realist administration on steroids. it's amoral when it comes to -- we don't promote democracy. we don't speak out about human rights. i think whether it's turkey, philippines, china and hong kong, people feel they can act within immunity.

the chinese won't let the quote/unquote liberal virus take root in hong kong. if it means really strangling them or physically oppressing them, they'll do what it takes because they won't set a precedent in hong kong that can spread to the main land. >> gene robinson has one. >> richard, i have been following these protests in hong kong pretty closely. it really does seem to be building to what could be an awful clash because the people of hong kong are not backing down. i mean, they really see their freedoms, the agreement that gave them their freedoms as being picked away and constantly eroded and then this extradition law. they just saw it as kind of an existential threat. they want the beijing approved leader of hong kong to step down. they want people to -- you know, beijing to adhere to its

commitments. and they're not backing down. and i wonder if you think there is the potential for kind of a tiananmen redux. another really deadly and awful crash -- clash in hong kong. >> the short answer, gene, is yes. the hong kong protesters aren't backing down. if anything they're expanding beyond extradition. they want to make sure that the original handover principle of one country, two systems is honored. and on the main land, xi jinping is not going to honor it. he -- this is a guy who abolished term limits for the presidency. he's put over 1 million uighurs in internment camps. he won't liberalism and trends of democracy gain any momentum in hong kong and he's even willing to take the financial hit. the good news for the main land -- i mean sarcastically,

hong kong is not as central to china's fate financially so they'll pay an economic price. the biggest preoccupation of the communist party of china is that the communist party of china continues to rule on -- to dominate and his agenda is that china essentially one day takes hong kong, it keeps hong kong. and nothing happens that undermines either the authority of the party or the physical integrity of the country. there's no room for compromise. it can be tiananmen, it can be tiananmen plus. >> did you see daniel jones -- rookie quarterback last night? >> interrupted only by the elements, but -- >> future is bright. >> the future -- yankees on a streak. giants win last night. have you noticed, by the way, that certain people aren't around the set frequently anymore? not a single red sox so they -- i hear they're going to the

hamptons because they haven't gotten the word -- >> message to scarborough and barnicle. >> yes, the giants but we'll have a quarterback controversy. what do you do about eli given that mr. jones may be ready before people anticipated. >> looked good last night. an emotional story out of dallas. the remains of colonel roy a. knight jr. landed at dallas love airport, the same one where he said good-bye to his 5-year-old son brian more than 50 years ago. it was brian knight now a captain with southwest airlines who flew his father home. that amazing story when we come a right back. r home that amazing story when we come a right back johnson & johnson is a baby company.

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a busy dallas airport came to a stand still yesterday as travelers and tarmac workers stopped to salute a hero. nbc news correspondent anne thompson has the story. ♪

>> reporter: roy knight jr. finally came home. the air force colonel shot down over laos in 1967 during the vietnam war. initially declared missing, then killed in action, knight's remains were at last recovered and identified in june. his homecoming bringing dallas' busy love field to a stop as travelers paid respect and workers on the tarmac stood at attention. the air force was knight's career. the native texan loved to hunt and fish, but his life was anchored by patricia and their three children, roy iii, gay ann and brian. here on the family's last vacation together. 52 years after knight said good-bye to brian at love field, the little boy squinting in this photo, he flew his father home. roy iii met them. >> there's competing emotions. you know he's coming home which

is a good thing. and it is a very good thing but there's also the aspect of, you know, we're reliving the loss. >> reporter: the family will now go through the rituals denied them for half a century. mourning again their hero of the sky. >> and his son flew him home. it gives you chills. nbc's anne thompson reporting there. still ahead this morning, president trump set to begin his vacation with a series of unresolved issues on the table from the aftermath of the back-to-back gun massacres to iran, as the associated press puts it, trump heads for golf club holiday, but summer storms loom. we'll discuss what it all means for his bid for re-election. plus a new push to address the epidemic of gun violence taking a page from the playbook used to fight cancer. the chief medical examiner for washington, d.c. joins us to explain that. "morning joe" is back in a moment. moment johnson & johnson is a baby company.

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welcome back to "morning joe." i'm john heilemann, i'm national affairs analyst from msnbc and joe and and mika has taken the morning off and willie has disappeared. >> did you just introduce yourself? >> i don't know why -- they put it in the prompter. so i read it when it's there. i don't know. anyway -- so willie split. he's going to be back later. but until then i'm apparently holding down the fort which is like mad man at the wheel. here i am with the host of saturday night politic -- >> hi, i'm donny deutsch. previously i ran the deutsche advertising agency. i had a show on cnbc called "the big idea." >> what was your first internship? >> i tarred roofs in brooklyn. >> there you go. >> associate editor for commentary magazine noah rothman and senior adviser to moveon.org, karine jean-pierre.

joining the conversation at the table, host of "first look" yasmin vossoughian. i can barely say heilman -- >> i'm on every morning. >> i know you are. it doesn't make minimore able to pronounce it. presidential historian the one and only doris kearns goodwin and give people the freedom not to listen to me anymore. >> so the police in missouri arrested a man yesterday after he brandished a load cad tactical style rifle inside of a walmart. a 20-year-old man was taken into custody within three minutes of police receiving panicked calls to the springfield, missouri, location. the man was seen pushing a shopping cart. and recording himself walking through the store when the manager pulled the fire alarm. according to a local affiliate station, the suspect then made his way out of the emergency exit wearing off duty -- where

an off duty firefighter held him at gunpoint until police arrived there. the suspect was seen wearing a bulletproof vest and had more than 100 rounds of ammunition on him. the man's intent was to quote obviously cause chaos. no shots were fired and nobody was injured in the incident. charges of making a terrorist threat in the first degree are pending according to jail records. we'll bring you updates on the story as it develops. i want to go now to president trump leaving today for his august vacation amid tumultuous times to say the least. he'll spend the next ten days at the new jersey golf club. as jonathan lemire is reporting in the associated press this morning, the president is facing a series of crises at home and abroad as well. that could be consequential for his re-election bid. there is the aftermath of the latest mass shootings, both

outrage over passing the gun bill and tensions with both iran and north korea and jonathan writes the dark clouds are converging as the president's bid for a second term takes on new urgency. trump exudes confidence but as the two dozen democrats eager to take his job sharpen their attacks, the white house or for the next ten days the clubhouse in bedminster, new jersey l have to mount a multifront effort rooted in maintaining the base rather than trying to expand it. heilman, the president taking on a lot to say the least over the next ten days but the question is what is he going to deal with first? deal with stuff that resulted from the shootings over the weekend, deal with the iran -- as we have not been necessarily covering continuously for the last couple of weeks because of the shootings. but still, a lot of mounting situations in the middle east as well. >> there's -- i mean, the president has -- is off on

vacation with the fullest plate imaginable and with the critic still, doris, in a state of shock and anguish and with the dawning realization for a lot of people, despite the noise about gun safety and people talking about the house coming back in and pressure on mitch mcconnell, there's still a deep sense for a lot of people of kind of aching sense that maybe again we'll have another horrific mass shooting, in this case, two of them and nothing will change. >> i think it's a sad sense that people have. you keep hoping every time that one time this country gets mobilized, it's a tipping point. and people feel that this is the time when it's going to happen. i still maybe feel something will happen, maybe the background checks will take place. there's such an overwhelming majority for it. but what i keep looking back on this role that the president takes as consoler in chief it's an important role in our country and it's not simply for natural disasters. i mean, the interesting thing i found out which i hadn't known

before, the presidents didn't go to natural disasters. 2,000 people die in the johnstown national flood and the president didn't go. now all of the local areas have become nationalized. we watch them in realtime, you need that president to go and console and to reassure about action. you know when i think of fdr's first inaugural or lincoln's second, there were times of real sadness that we needed consolation, but they assured us they would act and that's the big thing that's left out, what are we going to do about this? >> a lot of things have changed over time, doris and the fact that the presidency is a totally televised job. part of what's changed here. the other thing that's changed in the case of donald trump you don't have those who talked constantly about their crowd sizes as trump did here. while visiting victims of last week's mass shooting, and he

compared the crowd sizes that he and beto o'rourke drew at political rallies this year. a cbs affiliate in el paso posted this video online. >> i was here three months ago, we made a speech and we had a -- what was the name of the arena? that place was packed, right? >> thank you. thank you. >> then you had the crazy beto, beto had like 400 people in a parking lot. >> that's a sociopath. he's in a hospital let's point out that the eight patients did not want to see him. that is sociopathic behavior to go into the hospital after a mass shooting where people are fighting for their lives and to be talking about your rallies and your competitors. that's a human being with no capacity to feel. >> i will say this, just to -- just to say one thing. i was down in el paso on the day that trump's rally -- and beto

o'rourke had the rally. there were about 10,000 people there. just to clarify i know that was reported widely but having been an eyewitness to it, it wasn't 4,000 or 4,000, it was about 10,000 people and i ask you, that gives us a window into donald trump's day in dayton and in el paso. in dayton he went, not allowed -- closed press. no reporters were allowed to witness anything he did. then he walked out the door and he started to talk the mayor of dayton. one of the ohio senators. and started attacking -- just tweeting away. went into attack mode in dayton. now he was in el paso attacking beto o'rourke. so i ask this to donny's point it's one thing to be bad at this part of this job and it's another thing not to make it through the day in which you're supposed to be consoling people and not going into attack mode yourself. >> the press wasn't invited into

the hospital room and then there was a video subsequently put out that was basically celebrating the president's visit to the hospital. that was very much put together by the white house as we well saw. my question though to noah is, how is this -- or will this affect his base? will this affect trump's base? will they see it as the fact that this president is not comfortable in the position as consoler in chief. he's not been empathetic to the victims of the horrific crimes that took place over the weekend. he is talking about himself inside of this hospital versus reflecting on what took place in this country over the last week. over the last years really and what has happened in this country. is this going to affect his base at all? is it resonating with them? >> probably some, but probably not for most. honestly for me the base is not the relevant question. because the base is a pretty small chunk of the electorate. it's not enough to secure re-election. what he needs to do is build on that. he lost the vote in 2016, presidents tend to expand on

that and we have seen little evidence to see that he's interested in expanding on his base. he is rescued in part by negative partisanship, but republican voters, conservative voters who are frustrated by the democratic party and their messaging. but the president himself is not making an affirmative case for himself. >> i think the real question at some point leaders have an ambition for self that gets transformed into the ambition for the greater good. we have seen that in all our presidents. when teddy roosevelt first went in, he was sort of arrogant, he saw what it was like to live in the slums and suddenly that empathy developed within him. after fdr's polio he became a much deeper person who wanted to deal with other people whom fate had dealt an unkind hand. you keep waiting and waiting for it here. >> is it reasonable to keep waiting? i think it's fair to say that many presidents have grown in office. but teddy roosevelt as far as i know, neither teddy or franklin

delano roosevelt was referred to as a sociopath as donny called him now. neither of them spent years in office and people saying they're mentally ill. is there any reason to think -- it seems like kind of a ridiculous hope that donald trump is going to change at all. >> well, the real problem is that the way you evolve in office is you get experience by seeing other people and learning about them. that means you have to go beyond your base. you would have to really see other people's lives and get an empathy and an understanding for where they're coming from. if you stay within your base, then it's not as likely. >> that means you have to be contemplative and self-aware which we haven't seen from this president. do you think the voters want empathy in a president? >> i think they do. we can't give up on what the voters want. empathy is a natural human trait, the most important human trait for my leader at any level. whether you're the head of a police organization, or the head of the university. and the fact that we want it, and it's not there i think it

becomes a gap right now. i think we're feeling it right now. >> gene scott, i want to get you in here from the point of view who someone who covers the white house and covers stuff in washington. this has been a kind of an extraordinary week and a sad week and anguished week. the president has been in the middle of the controversy as he often is. do the people around donald trump at the end of this week have him -- having looked at what the discussion was, the kinds of criticisms levelled against him, at the trip he made and the kind of extraordinary scene of him going to el paso and not wanting any of the victims -- having all of the victims saying they don't want to see him, do people around the president feel as though this week has been in any way a success for him? what's your view of how this all went for donald trump? >> well, i think from our reporting some of the people closest to the president do believe that this was somewhat well received by the people who are already on the trump train. as we communicated earlier on

the panel, the base is with him. they haven't criticized him when you look at the conservative media's response to how the president has handled this situation and so that's been a win for them because if you remember earlier, i believe it was in the spring there are people affiliated with the campaign, communicated that one of the main political strategies is turnout. keeping the base there. not so much as winning over swing voters but making the people who are already backing trump feel as if he's someone that is still with them. so for them that is very much a win. the president hasn't gone off script is significantly. most people have forgotten about the toledo/dayton mishap there. but overall, as we know, caring about what the base thinks and feels is not enough to secure a re-election and so whether or not they think this is a win or not is such a short sighted view of what it takes to be victorious in 2020.

they definitely need more than the people backing this president. >> karine, it will be the week that's remembered i think in one respect by history as the week when six democratic presidential candidates came out and said donald trump is a white supremacist. we have many people who call donald trump a racist. some a white nationalist. i'm saying he himself. this week we cross as rubicon, six in the presidential campaign, now labelling the president a white supremacist and we can talk about about this more over the course of the hour, i wonder what you think the political implications are for both sides as we kind of go barrelling into this re-election campaign. >> well, we see already what's happening with the other side with donald trump and what his folks are saying and using th that -- these candidates calling donald trump a white supremacist saying they're calling their supporters white supremacists as

well. racist as well. so we saw what's going on on our side. i think on the democratic side look we have come to a point that people can't take it anymore. it is really clear who donald trump is. it's been for a long while now. but what we saw this week, right, we saw this week is a president who couldn't rise to the occasion. right? in past years, we have seen democrat and republican presidents regardless not make this of politics. it wasn't partisan. but he wasn't able to just heal the country, to unify the country, to be the consoler in chief and i think that's what was missing today that allowed the democratic candidates to step into that leadership role. to call it what it is. to call out the racism, to call what donald trump truly is and to offer an alternative to say this is not who we need to be or have to be. we could be something different as a country. and i think that's where we are this week. i think that's one of the big changes and it plays into

calling him a white supremacist. because it's enough is enough. what we saw in el paso with that manifesto of the gunman that mirrored what donald trump has been saying, right, the invasion, the horrible anti-immigrant language, i think that's enough. it's enough for folks. people are -- 22 people died. so you have to call it what it is. you have to call what donald trump is doing what it is. and that's how you move in i think democrats have to go into 2020 fighting and calling it out. >> joe biden is an interesting case study in this this. he said, you want me to say the words, i won't. i won't call donald trump a white supremacist. i go around and i talk about the ways in which donald trump aggravated white nationalist sentiment, allowed for it to bubble up on the right and why

that's bad. you get a lot of push back from voters who say you're calling me a racist. you're saying i'm a racist. that makes them defensive and that's how you harden the 63 million votes. you want to get them to move, you say -- you give them an out. you give them plausible deniability. no, you don't approve of that in your heart that's not your fault, it's his fault. that's what you need to do. that's what joe biden is doing. >> go ahead, karine. >> but none of the democratic candidates said that they are racist. that the supporters of donald trump are racist or white supremacists. they're trying to make a clear case of if you support donald trump, you're supporting his racism, his xenophobia, all of it, the misogyny and the homophobia. we have seen it in the last two years the policies and the

hateful language from this president. that's what they're calling out. that's what they're trying to show his supporters and honestly like you said, you even said this, noah. the core supporters where are they are, but it's about the independents and about the suburban moms, the suburban kind of -- those districts that democrats have to win. as well as lift up their base. >> i think you're right. i think to some extent you want to be able to have even the core supporters feel that the rhetoric has really hurt us. that's an absolute understanding that we can't have this kind of rhetoric when it's magnifying itself on people's behavior. you start there and you build that. it's ridiculous, the whole idea what a leader is. in a good way, i mean, when franklin roosevelt we have nothing to fear but fear itself, he contagioned the country. that's what leadership can do. it can do it at the opposite

end. >> you don't want the voters to be culpable and defensive. >> and you want them to say this rhetoric is wrong. not what we believe. >> and eugene scott, is this about exciting the democratic base? if this is about exciting the democratic base getting the turnout in 2020, does there need to be total and absolute unification from the democrats, from the 2020 again to washington, when it comes to calling the president a white supremacist if that's what you think is to the impeachment inquiry? >> i think how different the democratic candidates have responded, demonstrates on what they believe the winning the white house nomination is. those closest to the base know they have to boldly call the president racist or white supremacist to turn out the base and turn out the people of color, to turn out the more activist liberals who are not in question about where the president stands when it comes to questions about issues of race. but the candidates are hoping to

be more moderate, who want to present another option, but definitely aren't trying to convince their supporters that they're going to move as far left as some of the progressives are a bit anxious about speaking that boldly and definitely want to make it very clear that they do not support the president's world view. but don't want to communicate that people who do are white supremacists. so i think we saw this in the last presidential debate when some candidates went out of their way to say, yeah, some people backed trump because of economic and that's why many supported trump. how people respond depends on who their own consultants and advisers say they need to listen to and thing they need to do to win the debates. >> "the washington post," eugene scott, thank you my friend. still ahead, immigration officials have released hundreds of people swept up in raids at food processing plants in

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that's where i want to be. i want to be on the front lines of implementation. welcome back to "morning joe." this morning, families in mississippi are still coming to grips with the impact with the largest ever immigration crackdown in a single state. joining us from morton, mississippi, gabe gutierrez. gabe? >> hi, good morning. ice agents picked up groups of workers suspected of being undocumented. they were bussed to the nearby military hangar to be processed and some have been released due to humanitarian reasons. but hundreds of others are now facing deportation. immigration and customs enforcement handcuffed hundreds

of immigrant workers and loaded them on to buses as co-workers and family members watched in disbelief. >> please. >> reporter: kids not knowing where their parents were being taken. this girl says her dad was among those detained. >> my dad -- >> reporter: jordan barnes opened up his gym to children with nowhere to go. >> the children should be the main priority. if we do what we can to help to make this as less painful as possible. >> reporter: the raids happened in six small towns near jackson, mississippi. the sweep had been in the works for months. according to federal officials about 600 agents fanned out across the food processing plants surrounding the perimeters to stop workers from escaping and later processing them for immigration violations. >> while we welcome folks from other countries they have to follow our laws. they have to abide by our rules.

they have to come here legally. or they shouldn't come here at all. >> reporter: in 2008, in the bush administration, 800 people were arrested and this unfolded on the same day that president trump visited el paso. the acting director of i.c.e. says there was no connection calling them a long term operation. this woman tells us her husband is among those still detained. she says she's been in the u.s. for 24 years. this church now a sanctuary for those in limbo like this 1-year-old girl. the priest here tells us that the mother is in custody and he's taking care of the baby as her father tries to find his wife. child protective services here in mississippi said it was not told about the raids beforehand. nearly 300 of those detained have been release and about 400

are still in i.c.e. custody and being held in facilities here in mississippi as well as louisiana. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez, thank you. let's bring in school superintendent, tony mcgee. he says at least 15 families in his district are affected by the i.c.e. raids and with the deputy director of the i.c.e. hub, sergio gonzales. thank you, both, guys for being here. tony, i want to start with you and just ask you whether anybody down there had any inkling this was coming, was this just a bolt from the blue? what's the impact not just for the families that are affected here, but more broadly in school districts that you're dealing with. >> yes, good morning. we had no prior knowledge that there would be any type of i.c.e. raid in mississippi or even in scott county. we initially found out that morning, somewhere around 8:30

that morning as parents began to come in to check boys and girls out of school. the parents called concerned about their children and we started to try to dig a little deeper, investigate what was going on and did find out that there had been an opportunity for i.c.e. raids at two locations within our county and school zones. so from there, we tried to secure places for boys and girls to go that afternoon. >> tony, must be incredibly disruptive -- obviously the families that are affected, this is incredibly disruptive for them. but more broadly for the rest of the district, just to see this activity, this action kind of unfolding in front of them, what do you do now going forward to try to cope with the fallout from this for the other kids in those schools and the parents affected. >> well, it has been very emotional for our teachers, for our staff, for all of our kids in the school district. especially our latino and

hispanic community but it's emotionally taxing on everyone. we had an opportunity to talk to university medical center and child's pediatrics about trying to provide some mental well-being for the students. gathering what resources we could bring to our district, to reach out to the families. not only to reach out to our latino and hispanic students but all of our students in the school district. making sure they understand, you know, school is a safe place for boys and girls. we want to be a harbor for children to be able to come today and feel good about school. >> sergio, i want to ask you about a new analysis and it finds incendiary terms are a frequent part of the president's vocabulary when it comes to him talking about the immigration. there's 64 of the trump rallies since 2017 and that the president has regularly embraced words like invasion, alien, killer, criminal and animal more

than 500 times, sergio. all while discussing immigration at his rallies and it says more than half of those utterances by trump came in the two months prior to the 2018 midterm election. underscoring how he views -- how the president views immigration as a central issue for his core supporters. how are you combating -- how are you working to combat this rhetoric coming from the white house? >> i think like you said we know that this president is interested in using immigration. he has from the very beginning of his campaign to rally his base. to stoke fear and panic in immigrant communities. and i think while he's riling his base with this it certainly is repulsing other people, whether it's latinos or suburban white women. they're turned off by this rhetoric because if they know a -- they know at the end of the day this president's policies and actions are dividing this country and are turning it

apart. they're not interest in the fixing our immigration system and there are problems that we need to fix. what they're interested in doing and what we saw in mississippi, right, are tearing children away from their parents. it's keeping hundreds of -- keeping thousands of immigrants in these detention centers and it's about, you know, causing chaos in these communities. >> superintendent mcgee, i want to talk more about how these children have been affected. i have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old at home. my 1-year-old son is turning 1 today so of course i see a picture of this young girl being taken care of by a church because the mother was taken, the father searching for the location of the mother and i can't help but think of my own 1-year-old child being at home and finding out i'm not going to be there tonight because i was taken by the government. how have you had -- if you had an opportunity to talk to the families, the parents or the children, how are they being

affected by this? how are they dealing with all of this? >> well, we started reaching out to families yesterday. we had about 154 students absent from school yesterday so we did a target to really start to focus on the families, calling the families, going by to see the families to make sure that the children were doing okay and moms and dads were doing okay. of course right now there's a fear of getting out and coming to school and being out in the community, those type of things. so we're reaching out to them to reassure them that, you know, we're here for them. and our school is here for them to wrap our arms around them and love them and take care of them. it is tough when you see small children that are crying because they're not sure where mom and dad is. you have, you know, adults, parents coming to school with fear on their face trying to pick their children up and so, you know, our job is as educators is to try to bridge that gap and make sure that boys and girls are safe whether they

go home with mom or dad or we try to find a place to go home in the afternoon. >> i don't have a question or an answer, this is not who we are. i know we have laws, i don't have a solution to this. if we were watching this france doing this, this is not who we are. and we're going in the wrong direction to have 600 i.c.e. workers, obviously these are great men and women, they're just doing their job. five days after or a week after people were slaughtered by anti-hispanic -- >> on the same day that the president is visiting the victims. >> i know we have to have laws but if watching that doesn't make you sick to your stomach, as an american, as a mom or a dad, i know -- once again i don't have an answer. but it needs to be said. this is no -- not who we are. >> this was in the making for months but how could they not have a more humane way of doing this? it's part of who we are, it's a

sense of a new turnover, but between el paso going to shop for their school, and these kids not knowing where their parents are while they're in school, we're disrupting the ritual of the everyday life for the children. the separation from a parent is probably the worst fear. you dream of that when you're a kid. you dream of -- i don't know where my mother is, where is she? >> i can't then but think about the timing of this, as donny brought up. there have been times where they have delayed these raids. >> many times. >> because it was politically motivated. because they felt, okay, we'll delay the raid. not the right time to do this for this or that reason. >> a few times when trump signalled it's about to happen. >> then they delayed it for some reason. but it seems as if now they didn't do that. this may very well about a day where that raid should have been delayed. considering what was going on in this country. >> right. or from the president's point of day that given everything else going on that the president thought he get away with this, which brings me back to sergio

gonzales. people have said over and over again, this is a historic raid so talk a little bit about -- given the scope of it, number one, why it is you think from all of the best you can tell why this went forward on the way it did and what we should expect next? is this as you look down the road, is this the beginning of a much more aggressive process of enforcement of this kind. are we about to see a major wave of the enforcement actions and if that's true, what should -- what do you guys plan on doing about it? >> i think unfortunately if you look back to the 2018 midterms for example and trump started getting ready -- president trump started to get ready for that election, you know, in the weeks before he manufactured a crisis at the border with the so-called, you know, caravan that he said was basically coming to invade the country. and as we get closer to the 2020 election, i think unfortunately what we'll see and what we're starting to see is the president starting to again make

immigration a centerpoint of his campaign and we'll see more of these raids just like we saw in mississippi a few weeks ago. the president tweeted about massive nationwide raids across tent cities involving 2,000 people. so unfortunately i do think that this is the reality that we are living in. it is important that people understand and immigrants understand they do have rights and they should seek legal council. i would say that this doesn't just impact immigrants but u.s. citizens and latinos. there was a case in texas a few weeks ago where a u.s. citizen was held by i.c.e. for almost an entire month. and he was latino. so this just isn't something that is causing fear and chaos and panic in immigrant communities. it is something that is impacting u.s. citizens across this country including those kids. i want to point out that, you know, oftentimes in these

households you have u.s. citizen children. so it's not just immigrant children who are being infected and who you know are going home to empty homes and being orphaned. it is u.s. citizen children who are as well. >> all right. that is the deputy director of the immigration hub sergio gonzales. thank you my friend and school superintendent tony mcgee. thank you as well, sir. coming up, the iowa state fair now under way. but our next guess says with so many democrats in the presidential race even die hard progressive activists are getting restless. we'll go live to the hawkeye state next. we'll lgoive to thee state next emu & doug ♪ mmm, exactly! liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice! but uh, what's up with your partner? oh! we just spend all day telling everyone how we customize car insurance because no two people are alike, so... limu gets a little confused when he sees another bird that looks exactly like him. ya... he'll figure it out.

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your own data. now you can share it between lines. mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. it's a different kind of wireless network designed to save you money. save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. plus get $250 back when you buy an eligible phone. click, call or visit a store today. in we build it, they will come. >> if you build it, he will come. the divine whisper of the iowa farmer played by kevin costner, commanding him to plow over the cornfields and build a baseball diamond and now major league baseball has said it will build

an 8,000 seat stadium in the ghost of smoky joe wood and it will host the yankees and the white sox for a 2020 regular season game. >> amazing. >> construction is expected to begin next week ahead of the game slated for next august. the stadium's design will mimic kaminsky park, home of the white sox from 1910 to 1990. it will be first ever major league contest played in iowa. that's -- >> an amazing -- 8,000 seat? >> the people of iowa who have had to drive to chicago for years to see major league baseball. to give them one chance at that field. >> the happiest thing we have about iowa. i love it. >> best news of the week. >> as a marketer, for major league baseball, one fell swoop, wonderful. >> but probably a hard ticket to come by. >> yes. >> check stubhub.

>> only donny will be able to afford it. >> you can go from one state to the other, have 8,000 people coming. happening right now in iowa is the iowa state fair which kicked off yesterday, host more than 20 of this year's democratic presidential candidates on the soap box including joe biden and bulluck. joe biden is continuing to maintain his lead according to the monmouth university poll. 28% of likely voters said they'd support the former vice president. elizabeth warren trails by 19% and kamala harris has 11% in third place. backing her run. up four points. bernie sanders has seen his supporter slip seven points since april. 9% saying they would vote for him if the caucuses were held today.

john heilemann? >> joining us now from urbandale, iowa, alexandra jaffe, why the iowa state fair is a must and why they're growing anxious about the growing democratic field. we'll talk about fried oreos in a second, but let's talk about something more important, are you seeing as your reporting seems to suggest in this very early state in iowa where people are political junkies, very active and very attuned to the rhythms of the race more interested and tuned in, are people looking at this big field and saying, enough. i'm ready to get this thing slimmed down to a more manageable number on the debate stage and in our living rooms? >> absolutely. i mean, if you think about it, these voters have been seeing candidates just about every weekend since at least march. so at this point they're not only getting lots of candidate events but getting calls from

candidates. i spoke with a voter who said they have stopped responding to texts from campaigns asking them to show up to events. they're getting fund-raising asks nonstop and it's affecting the most die hard activist in the state. i was speaking to one, who was concerned about the local races because after all of the presidential campaigns have hired out the best staff and they're not for the city council and for the state rep races. i think there's a pervasive concern that all of the focus on the democratic primary and the infighting takes your eye off of the ball. and may distract from the broader goal of defeating donald trump. now, these concerns may go away in the next month, we're expecting a number of candidates having to face the reality and potentially exit the race, but right now a lot of iowans want to see things calm down a little bit. >> you have candidate fatigue and anxiety, but you have a lot of the candidates who are hanging in there.

even though a lot of them aren't going to make this september debate. most of -- half the field is going away, but at this moment it looks like just judging from the attendance at the state fair right there, there's no one, like the lowest polling candidates are ready to give up yet on the iowa caucuses. >> absolutely. typically what you hear from them is, you know, iowa is the big decider. i think i am the guy for iowa. i'm uniquely suited to appeal to iowans. it's ironic that you hear that from the candidates but they think the retail politics that's so impactful in iowa is going to get them movement in the polls. i think once we see after a few months of campaigning and once their fund-raising dries up then the sort of harsh reality they can't continue will start to settle in. >> noah rothman, i want to get to the intan jiblts on the

ground. does it favor the more favorable candidates who have more energized bases. do you get the impression that there's a particular candidate who is doing better in that sense? you get the idea it's more bernie or bust for supporters, whereas elizabeth warren's supporters are more democratic stalwarts. do you see them winning the energy race? >> elizabeth warren has the strongest organization on the ground and you're starting to see that. there's some fruit for her. i think part of the reason you saw a big surge in the poll i go -- everywhere i go i hear from voters that they have heard from an elizabeth warren staffer. they have had -- they have seen the staffer at the local event, gotten phone calls from the staffers and they iowans like personal attention from the candidates. if they're getting phone calls from warren's team they're taking her more seriously. i think that has paid off. we have seen it paid off in polling and it will pay off on caucus night when you need them to turn out. >> i have been to a lot of iowa state fairs, i have seen the

butter cow and i have eaten the pork chop on the stick and the thing this year is the fried oreo. give me 20 seconds on why. >> what kind of question is that? have you ever had a fried oreo? it's the top of my priority list at the fair. you have to get out here and try one. >> i'm getting on a plane tonight. i'm going straight to the fried oreo stand. i'll meet you there. alexandra jaffe. the thing about that poll we saw the most incredible thing in it, bernie sanders who came within five or six votes of winning the iowa caucus in 2016, dropped six points and a long way from the lead. he would have been in many people's views the front-runner in the iowa caucus as the front-runner and the fact that he's falling while elizabeth warren is rising that appreciably tells you a lot about what's going on in this democratic primary and caucus contest. still ahead, last year the nra told physicians to quote

stay in their lane when it comes to gun policy. doctors across the country responded saying it is their lane. sharing personal stories about treating devastating injuries from assault weapons in emergency rooms they say are looking more like battlefield triage units. up next, the chief medical examiner for washington, d.c. will be our guest. keep it right here. .c. will be our esgut. keep it right here

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as debate over how to combat the gun violence epidemic, one organization saying the solution is through the use of the same tools that doctors use to combat problems like obesity, the opioid crisis and diabetes. joining us now, national spokesman for a firm the american foundation for firearm injury in medication. what are those tools and how can

they be applied to help us with this epidemic? >> well, the public health approach has the ability to garner multiple disciplines, whether it's discipline necessary education or jobs or delivery, health care delivery systems, prevention. the public health contract allows us to bring these tools for a multi faceted collaborative approach to solving problems. the american cancer society started trying to solve this problem at the turn of the century in 1913. by 1940, it had advocacy and education at its fingertips. the government wasn't supporting or funding cancer research or the effects of chemotherapy. this is an opportunity for those physicians to bring it forward. and so we're in a very similar situation right now where we're seeing all these deaths from gun

violence and we're understanding and we're trying to understand why it happens, what causes it, what will help, what won't help. well, research has to be added at the helm of it. >> core eveareen, go ahead. >> so you talked about the tools, the tools do deal with gun violence. can you explain to folks who might not be aware why gun violence is a public health crisis? >> first of all, people die and get injured from gun violence. so anytime someone dies or gets injured from anything, it is a health issue. we spend millions and millions of dollars in our trauma centers treating individuals from gun violence. there are mental health effects from individuals who suffer gun violence, both the victim and

their families. all of that makes it a public health issue. because health care is brought to bear to serve those that are victims and survivors of gun violence. so it becomes important for us to look at it that way. that doesn't take away law enforcement's role in intervention and deterrents, but what it does, it brings other tools to bear the full tool, the full house of medicine to deal with the problem. >> i think it's so important what you're doing. it goes beyond here are the guns, here is the violence, there is a sense of you bricking it together as a story. this is where the country is going to get strong again. lincoln was called a liberator. he said don't call me a liberator.

it's the anti-progressive movement that did it all. if citizens like you and, doctors like you begin to take more of a leading role, you've already done it. this will make us all feel like we're moving forward. and i think to have ordinary people doing it in their own way of not sticking in their lane, as you said at the beginning, i think it's great. >> well, this is the call to action. it's the 11-year-old koran brown who died on july 18th in the streets of washington, d.c. from a stray bullet, right? it's the progressive nature of my mayor, muriel bowser who is bringing the public health approach through the distinct of columbia through the office of safety neighborhood engagement. but it's the need for us to fully fund gun violence prevention research in this country. we know there's been a gag order functionally of this research for over 20 something years.

it's now time to support the efforts to fund nih and the cdc for gun violence prevention research. >> dr. roger mitchell, thank you for coming. there is literally no more important work being done than this work. this is a very urgent problem. still ahead, the president says he's opening gun background checks, but how long will that last now that the nra is warning him against it. plus, we'll talk to one of more than 200 mayors calling for the senate to cut its vacation short and get back to washington to address the gun violence epidemic. chicago mayor lori lightfoot joins us. "morning joe" is coming right back. us "morning joe" isom cing right back when did you see the sign?

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yof your daily routine.lf so why treat your mouth any differently? listerine® completes the job by preventing plaque, early gum disease, and killing up to 99.9% of germs. try listerine® and for on-the-go, try listerine® ready! tabs™ good morning. welcome to "morning joe." i'm willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. with us, we have john heilman, donny deutsch, noah rothman, carnne john pierre and eugene robinson. you know, they said in the makeup room this morning when

they saw the two of you and me, they said, oh, all the freaks are out this morning. >> and let's not leave out gene robinson. >> thanks a lot, donnie, thanks. >> gene is actually the one bringing a little bit of dignity to the show this morning. >> that's a little mean. mean but accurate. >> that's what we strive for. >> freaks and geeks. >> i don't want to be in any category donny is in. >> that's a fair assessment. police in missouri arrested a man yesterday after he brandished a loaded tractical style rifle inside a walmart. a 20-year-old man was taken into custody within three minutes of police receiving panic calls to the springfield, missouri, walmart. the man was seen pushing a shopping cart and recording himself walking through the store when the manager pulled the fire alarm. that's according to our local affiliate station. an off duty firefighter held him at gun point in the parking lot until police arrived. the suspect, seen here, was wearing a bullet proof vest.

he had more than 100 rounds of ammunition on him. police are still determining a motive, but say the man's intent was to, quote, obviously cause chaos. no shots were fired, thank god. charges of making a terrorist threat in the first degree are pending according to jail records. now to the pressure to pass new gun legislation. more than 200 mayors have signed a letter calling on the senate to return early from summer break to pass the background check bills already approved by the house. how congressman and democratic presidential candidate tim ryan has joined a cara van of protesters headed to senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's home state of kentucky to pressure him to act. while mcconnell has rejengted the call to return to washington, his tone has seemed to change when it comes to taking up any gun legislation at all. take a look. >> you're not calling people back in early to address this

gun legislation. >> well, if we did that, we would just have people scoring points and nothing would happen. there has to be a bipartisan discussion here of what we can agree on, background checks and red flags would probably lead to a discussion, but a lot of other things happen, as well. what we can't do is fail to pass something. you know? by just locking up and failing so pass. that's unacceptable. >> leader mcconnell said a ban on assault weapons likely will be among the proposals discussed, although he suppressed skepticism over the effectiveness of the 1994 assault weapons ban. so noah, i'm listening to leader mcconnell there. and for him, a little bit of progress there, perhaps. there's some movement where he says we can't do nothing. what do you suspect he means by that? >> i suspect he means that we need to strike while the iron is hot because that is what everybody wants. and in the event that they do

not, the urgency for these things dissipate and mcconsxl republicans generally do not have to act. the problem i say is that he's right. there is no consensus around some sort of reform, stronger background checks to capture private individuals selling to private individuals. red flags are popular among republicans. they have some concerns among civil libertarians. the aclu has said this is a problem. when we get into the specifics, things are going to bog down. august is the time you can generate some enthusiasm in the grassroots for this sort of thing. keeping members out of washington is beneficial. calling congress back, it's unlikely that things wouldn't move forward. >> universal background checks are popular with the american public, popular with republicans. the red flag law also, that has

been supported at least in theory by some senate republicans. john thune, lindsey graham, lamar alexander among them. what did you hear in mitch mcconnell's voice there yesterday? do you believe he's interested in doing something? >> i did not hear what noah heard which mitch mcconnell said we must strike while the iron is hot. i think mitch mcconnell has zero interest in doing anything on gun reform. by keeping at the moment when there's the most urgency by deciding too keep people -- to say we're not going to come back early, despite the fact that there's growing pressure on that direction especially on the house side. all i read there was we're not coming back. we're not coming back in. saying the words we must do something, we'll talk about this, we'll talk about that, is exactly how gun reform has died every time it's coming up in the wake of any mass shooting. i think what he's trying to do right now is stall and figure

out whether the president is really going to move or not and whether the president -- what's going to happen to the president of the nra. in the end, what we know is that mcconnell's posture is if trump won't sign it, i'm not going to pass it. right now what we've seen in the past is trump saying he's willing to do background checks, trump capitulating with the nra. i think mcconnell is trying to say i'll talk about some stuff. i'm not going to get our guys anywhere near the senate. and let's see what was between trump and the nra and we'll go from there. >> i think it's the democrats need to stand up at this moment and it's about assault weapons. it's so ridiculous. i know it's a movement of background checks and red flags where that would not have stopped these shootings. and the journal of surgery and acute trauma said that they had done a study between 2001 and 2017 that 70% of the mass shooting, 70% of them would not have died if not for assault

weapons. that's the game. and what i don't understand now for both the human and political point is 70% support for ban on assault weapons. democrats draw a line. the republican party, you are the party of assault weapons and we are against it. i find that ironic that the democrats will push for impeachment and go, we know it's not politically expedient, but idealogically we have to stand by it. yet they won't do that when it comes to assault weapons. every party should say we are the party of assault on wages, assault on universal health care, make them the party of assault. this is a moment in time that leaders step up and i just find that we all go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. it doesn't matter until we get the assault weapons. >> the legislative language exists now for red flag laws. there is no language for an assault weapons ban. when democrats are in a room with each other, they say say --

>> same-sex marriage -- >> -- loopholes correctly allowed weapons that are functionally assault rifles in every form and function allowed those to exist and didn't have any effect on them. they want stronger language. and nobody can capture assault rifles, but not semi automatics broadly. >> make republicans be the party of assault weapons. not a slippery slope question. make them the party of assault. >> and a lot of the democratic candidates have come out for an assault weapons ban. they have come out for a long list of these things. we've been in this place before, as you know, where there's a terrible trauma in this current, a potential incident. we say if not now, when? do things change now? do you see this being different than anytime before? for example, sandy hook from seven years ago? >> look, what i heard from that clip of mitch mcconnell talking about all of this, i think it's hog wash, it's just b.s.

he's stalling. he's not going to move on this. that is the most disheartening part of this. this has been going on for years now. we've seen kids get gunned down and killed. just this weekend, we saw moms and dads getting killed for shopping for their kids for school supplies. and we see people getting shot down, church goers at church. so this has been going on for a long time. in february, the house passed a background check bill that could -- i think could get bipartisan support in the senate, but they're on vacation and mitch mcconnell refuses to bring them back. and i kind of disagree on not focussing on the background check. because if you can save one life, then you should do it. it's a start. we cannot do nothing. and that is the tier question, willie, i think nothing is going the happen because this is on the republicans. republicans in the senate need

to move with mitch mcconnell leading the senate. like they have to start moving. with democrats this week, in particular the 2020 candidates, i think they have shown leadership. i think they are out there talking about this in a real way. just in one of the democratic debates. we talked about gun reform. the first time, we had a real conversation about it on the debate stage. so i think we are headed in a good place with democrats really fighting for this. but it has to be on the republicans. we have to keep pushing republicans. it is at their feet here. >> let me just -- and i love you. you're one of my favorite people on m.s. but at the end of the day, background checks would not have stopped any of these shootings, what are we doing? >> downey, we have to start somewhere. and it would save at least one life. i think we would -- it would do something, right? i think we move with something and we go further. we cannot do nothing.

we can't. one of the things democrats tried to do in the house, they tried to pass the simplest, the easiest things so they could try and get republicans on board and they got that out of the house. and look what is happening in the senate. look what is happening. mitch mcconnell is doing nothing. he doesn't care. he wants the time to pass. he's not going to move. and we have to continue to push. we've got to continue to push. there is a poll that we put up a minor ago that shows 70% of americans support banning assault-style weapons in this country. >> yeah. and i agree with donnie.

i'm always puzzled by the position that, well, it's impossible to decide what's an assault weapon and what isn't. well, no, you decide. you decide and then you make a list, basically, and the list has to be modified. the list has to be changed. gunl manufacturers will try to get around it. you've got these weapons of war that do incredible damage. talk to doctors about what these weapons do to a human body and how that differs from what, you know, an automatic handgun does to the human body. it's a stark and devastating

difference. and so i think this is the moment to push and to push and to keep pushing. and, you know, maybe nothing will happen. clearly, mitch mcconnell doesn't want anything to happen. but that ought to be on him and it ought to be on the republican party and if -- we know a lot more about the nra now. you're going to have to stand up and go that way. still ahead on "morning joe," there's big money surrounding donald trump's fund-raisers in the hamptons, and not just the millions of dollars he's bringing in. critics of the president are boycotting companies of the host of one of those events. that's next on "morning joe." that's next on "morning joe. ♪ ♪

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welcome back to "morning joe." president trump's re-election campaign has reportedly raised at least $10 million ahead of tonight's fund-raisers in the hamptons out on long island in new york. the trump victory committee between the trump campaign, the rnc, raised a hefty sum with tickets of both real estate executive joe ferrell and miami dolphins owner steven ross whose company owns equinox and soulcycle. dozens of celebrity members are boycotting the high end fitness chain, but the 40-plus year friend of trump's continues to stand by hosting the event. is it true that after all the backslash, he reconsidered having this fund-raiser out there? >> it is. he privately expressed concerns

about hosting the fund-raiser. he freaked out. he freaked out at the backlash. trump associates ultimately persuaded him to go ahead with the event at his south hampton mansion. this is a paraphrase from -- i asked what the message was that the trump associates conveyed to ross. stay strong. it's not going to be that bad. he has described himself in his statement as a champion of racial equality, inclusion, diversity, public education and environmental sustainability. so he's sort of torn between wanting to -- you know, he has these brands, equinox and soulcycle which has a progressive customer base. he's a new york real estate developer. he's known donald trump for a long time. he's flapping around and ultimately is going to go ahead with this fund-raiser. >> willie, steven ross, to me, is the epitome -- this election comes down to guys like that and people saying, no, you don't get

to say i'm for racial equality and all these good things and i disagree with him there, but i like his economic views. no. you own it. and i think that's the message that has to get out. no, steven ross, you can't say i like his economic policy but i disagree -- you own it. you own the blood that happens. you own charlottesville. you can't do it. you get the whole package. and that's what swing voters have got to understand and be shamed into. you don't get to do that. i'll take from column a but i'm going to leave column b behind. you get column b, also. you own the racism. >> and that's the line so many people have tried to walk going back to the 2015 and 2016. maybe part of it was they didn't like hillary clinton. but privately, people like steven ross, not him specifically, but others would say, you know what? trump is a clown. i don't like the guy. i don't like the tweets, any of

that stuff. but he's going be good for the economy and trade, etcetera, etcetera. good for my bottom line, essentially. >> and donny is right. you take the whole package. you can't separate the two or three things that president trump is doing that you approve of that are beneficial for you, like the tax cuts, and pretend all the rest is not happening. so i think people have to be pressed on that. if you like the package, support the package, go to the fund-raiser and give them money. that is what you're signing up

for. >> i don't know what you guys mean by that. this is what republicans have been doing for the last two years. this week has been horrific and we've all focused on the extent to which trump's style of rhetoric has fed into the shooting in el paso in particular. but every republican has been doing this since charlottesville. how much clears could it have been? much of the republican donor class were against donald trump in 2016, mocked him privately then, mock him privately now, have seen donald trump do things that have been manifest a demonstrations of his racism and at a minimum, sympathy for white nationalism and white supremacy and by some measures his inclusion in those ideologies. there's dozens of them. and i do not think -- we've been calling them out for two years. they're still there with him. >> i'm talking about this.

we've got 40 seats after charlottesville. i'm talking about the suburban swing voters. i'm not talking about a multibillion heir. i'm using his logic to talk to the swing voters, to talk to the suburban women, to talk to the people in the suburbs of philadelphia and go, no, you don't get to do that because you like his tax cut. but his explanation is what we hear from so many people. that's where we push. >> coming up on "morning joe," another shake-up inside the intel community as a leading official walks away. what it means for the mission to keep the country safe. the missio keep the country safe.

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the country's number two intelligence official has announced her resignation, adding to the uncertainty as to who will lead america's intelligence operations. sue gordon announced in a handwritten note to president trump she is stupg down as the director of national intelligence. her departure coincided with dan coats' retirement on august 15th which had been previously

announced. amid gordon's resignation, the president announced he's naming joseph maguire as acting director of national intelligence. joining us now, the president of the council on foreign relations and the author of a world in disarace, richard haas. good morning. good to see you. >> good morning. >> so what's going on with sue gordon, highly respected in the intelligence community. anything behind this departure? >> everything is behind this departure. from day one, donald trump has been at war with the intelligence community. and it's a real cultural clash. the whole mission of the intelligence community is to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. they don't define loyalty in personal terms. they define loyalty in terms of facts, analysis. basically you tell people what they need to hear. donald trump wants people in the intelligence community who are supportive of his policies, don't, for example, highlight the fact that russia did what it

did in 2016. and he made it clear that he does not want this career professional to take dan coats' job after he made it clear they didn't appreciate what dan coats was doing. >> he was oddly gracious on twitter, perhaps grateful to see her step aside. he has a habit of installing acting heads of cabinets so no senate confirmation on those, but also so that he can put somebody in place who will follow his lead. >> yeah. and he just tried with congressman radcliff. that didn't work so well. that lasted about 24 hours. what we're seeing is the systemic erosion to use a phrase of the deep state and it is now given away to what you might describe as a shallow state where career professionals are leaving and they are being replaced by people who either don't have backgrounds, they're in acting positions, or by people who say like a jared kushner, others at the white house, a lot of people at the state, a lot of positions at the state department are unfilled. this is the way you work around

a bureaucracy. a bureaucracy tends to be viewed with suspicions. that's what this administration essentially does. >> mike pompeo has proven himself to be a loyalist to donald trump. christopher wray, perhaps not as much. is donald trump getting what he wants out of our intelligence agencies? >> they're doing their job. hild say his role is dramatically reduced. people don't welcome hearing analysis and the rest that, for example, in the last couple of days, you would have had people saying there's no way that india wanted the people to do that. when the president meets with the pakistani prime minister and

announces this new policy, there's no way the intelligence community is going to agree with that. it ain't working. so from issue after issue after issue, venezuela, maduro is not going anywhere. he's hearing things from the intelligence community that don't jive with his own view of the world or with his own spin on things. so when he hears that, he pushes them away. >> so let's go back to north korea. report after report this week of missiles fired by south korea and the public line that continues to come out of the white house and the state department is that we're working on this. president trump flatters kim jong-un. he continues to do so. is there some underlying strategy the rest of us don't see here? >> the short answer is no. the situation is getting worse.

it's ironic the president avoided war in career. the united states introduced the possibility we have backed down and the result essentially is north korea continues to improve and increase its missile and nuclear capabilities. they're amassing more nuclear material. the real question is whether we are willing to accept something less than full denuclearization. that's, again, something the intelligence community will say. there's no way they're going to do it. so the question is whether mike pompeo and others, steve began who has the job, whether they are prepared to accept half a loaf, some degree of limits on north korea's nuclear system in exchange for some relief. it doesn't solve the problem and may put a ceiling on it. if we wake up one day and north

korea has 100 nuclear missiles that could reach the united states, that would be worse than the situation we now have. >> thanks so much. coming up on "morning joe," the mayor of chicago took issue with the way ivanka trump framed the gun violence gripping that city. the gun violence gripping that city

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welcome back to "morning joe." more than 200 mayors have signed a letter calling on the senate to return from the summer break to pass the background check bills approved in the u.s. house of representatives. also with us, my friend, the president of the national action

network, reverend al sharpton. mayor lightfoot, i asked you, you know, it's kind of amazing to me, there was a conference call the other day among house democrats where there was some kind of a split between them about, you know, what they should do. should they come back into session, should they try to pressure the senate to come back into session? the idea the democrats aren't unified on this front strikes me as amazing. >> all we need to say is gilroy, el paso, dayton, charlottesville, every major town across the united states is affected by gun violence. it's time for the senate to come back in and do its job. give us a clean bill, no poison pills, get the ondone. >> do you think mayor lightfoot, it was raised on this show earlier today that, you know, the background check bill,

although it would be a first step, there are an awful lot of these shootings that would not be stopped by that if it were in the law and, in fact, we need to go much further, at least as far as to the assault weapons ban if we're going to make a real dent in the problem. >> given the inaction, let's take the first step. the fact that we have a patchwork of state laws that have background checks, some do, some don't, we have to have a uniform system. let's start with universal background checks.

>> i've discovered this is a real complex problem in terms of dealing with the gun violence that you now are in charge of the city. and you combine that with the police brutality case, a case you challenge your predecessor on. and i think among any mayor, you have the balance of dealing with the broken community police relations and dealing with the gun problem. is that part of why you took on ivanka trump kind of miscasting what happened in chicago last weekend in comparison to el paso and dayton, ohio? >> first of all, if you really want to help, pick up the phone and call me. ask me what you can do from the platform that you have to really benefit city that's are in need. that's the number one thing. don't govern by tweet and don't get the facts wrong. that's why i really took issue with what she did. we have established a line of

communication. her staff is in contact with us on a regular basis. if you really want to make a difference, you don't do it via tweet, via facebook, you get down and you understand what the facts are and then you offer a path forward. >> mayor lightfoot, senate minority leader chuck schumer said he doesn't want to take up the bill that has red flag laws on it. red flag is currently in 17 states across the country. is that playing politics? >> i think if we have this moment where the republicans are saying they're willing to actually move forward, where mitch mcconnell isn't being a complete obstructionist, we have to take advantage of that moment. and i have a lot of respect for senator schumer, but now is the time to get something done. what we all need to ask ourselves is how many more people have to died before the congress puts aside partisan

bickering, their own desire to perpetuate power, how do we explain that to the young children, the young mothers and grandmothers that are affected every day by gun violence. >> how many people need to die until something is done. you had leader mcconnell on the radio yesterday saying i want bipartisaning legislation in place to know something is actually going to get passed. is it possible to even have bipartisan legislation in place that could get passed on something as controversial as gun reform? >> of course it is. the house has passed legislation that i think a number of senators would pass and send to this president. so, yeah, of course it's possible. but the politicians in washington have to pilt aside

their politics to get something done. we need the united states congress to step up and do its job. >> hey there, mayor. this is careen john pierre. i want to lean action bit more on mitch mcconnell. you said he was an obstructionist. if you were in front of mitch mcconnell right now, because he's really holding this up. as you know, he can bring back the senate, you know, and the recess, bring them back, have this vote. what would you say to him so that he can listen to you and his constituents and not the nra? >> i would tell him to think about the children who are suffering and giver me some tool to explain to them that the partisan ship and the obstruction should take precedence over their lives. he needs to strap it on, get in the game, bring the senate back and let's get something done. >> mayor lightfoot, i want to ask you this, just to widen this conversation a little bit and

talk a little bit about president trump. you know, we've gone rapidly in the course of on this week, it seems to me, from democrats saying -- laying a lot of the blame on what happened in el paso and in dayton at donald trump's doorstep to saying, first, that he is a friend of white nationalists to saying he is, in fact, a white nationalist. then from saying he is a friend of wheat spriemists to now saying he is a wheat supremacist. we've had six democratic candidates who have now come out and said donald trump, president of the united states, is a white supremacist. so i want to ask you whether you agree with that and if you agree with it, what is to be done with it for communities by and for communities of color, big cities like yours in which african-americans are such an important part? >> well, this continuing object suggestion with what donald trump is, what he says, what he does, as a mayor of a big city with a lot of challenges, it doesn't get the job done for my residents. i have to focus on the needs of my people.

the folks who are working class who get up every single day and are still worried about whether or not they're going to have a paycheck to be able to take care of themselves and their children. the niceties of the debate, that's a luxury that people in cities like chicago can't afford. we want to worry about good schools, a safe neighborhood, making sure that we have affordable housing. those are the things that matter front and center. and i've said this to every democratic candidate who has come knocking on my door. talk to the people whose lives are in the balance every single day. if you do that, you're going to have a winning formula. but if you constantly chase after every single tweet, every single thing that he does on social media, you're missing the point. >> the mayor i think did not answer my direct question and i'm not being critical of her. i think what she's saying is labels don't matter. i know you have been part of this debate for a long time and you just now off camera -- no, i -- >> you're marveling over the

speed by which this debate has moved on the subject of donald trump the and race. we are now in a place where it's becoming mainstream for democratic candidates who call him a white supremacist. what do you say about that? >> well, i think the speeds is what alarming. not the fact that -- >> alarming? >> larming in the sense that two months ago, it was controversial that i raised reparations at my convention to democratic presidents. now they're calling him a white supremacist. if i had said that a year ago, they would have said there's sharpton again. i don't think it's inaccurate. but i understand the mayor. there are those that have to function and get things done and whatever name calling is done, she should not engage in it. i think what we really have to deal with here, though, and i'd like to address this to the mayor, is that when we deal with banning of automatic weapons, this is, in my judgment, a pro police move. let's not forget, police are

running into active shooting spaces, risking their lives. people that debate me on when i call on justice for police that have stepped over the line, this is the 5th anniversary today of michael brown being killed in ferguson. you've dealt with lakwon mcdonald. people liable us wrongly as anti-police. but the most pro police among us are the ones saying ban these weapons because it is the police you are sending into these situations that are risking their very lives. police are among the many beneficiaries of banning assault weapons in your city and around the country, madam mayor. >> you're 100% right. that's why police unions all across the country have championed the cause of banning assault weapons. just one week ago in chicago, investigating a shooter, our police officers stopped the car, took these unbelievable assault

weapons with a 200 barrel loader as well as armor piercing bullets off of two people who wanted to do harm. the only reason you have armor piercing bullets is you're going after police officers. right now, i think you've got it 100% right. we need to ban assault weapons. >> mayor, chicago had a tough weekend. the country had a tough weekend. >> somebody coming from the outside who doesn't understand the nuance and texture of our neighborhood is going to be of limited or no help or worse, going to make conditions worse. we are working on building relationships between communities and the police that they serve. we have a plan and a strategy that is making progress. what we need is federal laws that do universal background checks so we can stop guns from floating over the border from

indiana, wisconsin and michigan. that's where the president could have impact. >> mayor of chicago, lori lightfoot, thank you so much for being on and giving us your wisdom. really, really helpful. it has a week of tough stories so we can all probably use positive news. and that's exactly what's in store for our next conversation. "morning joe" is back with that in a minute. ation. "morning joe" is back with that in a minute. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. neutrogena® most people think a button is just a button. ♪ that a speaker is just a speaker. ♪ or - that the journey can't be the destination. most people haven't driven a lincoln. discover the lincoln approach to craftsmanship

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it's been a very difficult week of news so we wanted to wrap up this friday morning with a story of inspiration. here is our recent interview with the great tony winner. >> joining us now, actress and singer who became history when she became the first person in a wheelchair to win a tony award. she won for best featured actress in a musical and joins us now. welcome. >> thank you. >> it's so amazing to meet you. i've heard so many good things about you. including the fact that you know willie like long before all this. >> i have known him for years. he played basketball for my dad in high school. i was probably seven or eight years old when i first -- my first memory on the basketball team. >> yes. was he any good? >> very.

very good. >> i've coached her well. she is a wonderful actress. her dad jim stroker was my basketball and football coach. great guy and great coach. we lived with ali and her brother jake from the time of their accident when ali was 2 years old. they were always with us, at practice all the time. they were an inspiration to us and now it is fun to see ali be an inspiration to the country and the world and have everybody see the light we've seen for so long. >> tell us how life has changed. what has the reception been since you won the tony? >> it's been incredible. people are so excited. for me and about it. because, you know, arriving at this moment in your career is such a big deal and there's also a whole other part of it. there is a social part of it, being the first person in a wheelchair to have received this award i think has meant a lot to anyone with a challenge to see

that you can achieve your dream no matter what, you know, what kind of challenges you're handed. >> tell us about what attracted you to the role in oklahoma. what you loved about the character. what was challenging? >> yeah. i received this audition about a year ago and i went in and i have grown up on "oklahoma" and known the music my entire life. but this production was going to be different. this was a revival where we were sort of playing against some of the stereotypes that "oklahoma" usually, you know, can fall into. this is a very physical role, and so i move in a very specific vocabulary with my wheelchair. we had to find that in the room and in the rehearsal process. >> what's that part of this journey been like for you to be such an inspiration for so many people and to show kids away? >> this part of it has been so special and i can see every night the wheelchair seating during my solo and i look up

every night and i see different people in chairs watching. and i remember what it was like as a kid to go see broadway shows and really be looking, is there anybody up there with any sort of physical challenges? because representation is so powerful for young people. to see themselves in someone who is doing what they are dreaming to do one day. and to get to meet them and hear their stories is really equally inspiring for me, because this job can get really hard. eight shows a week is really demanding. >> wow. >> but to know there are young people out there looking to me and coming to see the show and becoming inspired and motivated to achieve their dreams, to me, that is a part of the entire experience. >> most of the world met you for

the first time on that stage wearing that yellow dress giving that speech, looking down the barrel of the camera. they were inspired by you. i've known you for much longer than that. i know what's gone into reaching that point in your life. >> yes. >> and your career. talk a little bit about, if you can, about the journey to get here. >> i fell in love with theater when i was young, 7 years old. and the reason why i loved it so much was that i was very -- after i got injured when i was 2 i was very used to people coming up to me or people looking at me, staring, and when i got on stage it felt like i was able to feel powerful in that position when people were looking at me. and so that gave me confidence. this career, you know, in so many ways has given me not just an opportunity to achieve my goals and to feel powerful in the world but it's also allowed

me to heal and to become the best version of myself. and it's just been this perfect storm. >> willie starts every show with a song as well. not pretty. >> so you spoke very powerfully about being an inspiration for other people of disabilities. you also now have a platform where you can advocate for some political or social, cultural changes. talk a little bit about what things you are trying to highlight. >> yeah, well, first and foremost, accessibility is essential when it comes to equal opportunities, because someone can offer you a job but if you can't literally get into the door or get on that stage, doesn't matter what someone wants. the physical world needs to catch up. and we have done amazing work. i am a part of the a.d.a. generation. since i was injured the a.d.a. has existed. but it's so interesting as a

performer, so often the houses where audiences sit are accessible but the stages aren't. and so, you know, really following through to creating access everywhere to me is where i like to advocate. also, as a new yorker, as an adult, you know, arriving at a restaurant that i've been dying to try and then there being one stair, to me, that is a wall. and i have such a specific experience with my independence because i know what it's like to not have it. so for me, when those accommodations are there, i am able to feel my full freedom. >> ali stroker, thank you so much. congratulations. we hope to see you soon. >> thanks. nice to meet you. >> our thanks to my friend ali stroker. that does it for us this morning.

stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks so much, willie. hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it is friday, august 9th. here's what's happening this hour. the president will depart the white house for a summer vacation but this trip to his golf course comes just as a political storm looms in washington and across the nation. that storm includes a major shakeup at the top of the president's intelligence team. the deputy director of national intelligence sue gordon announcing her resignation just as the national intelligence director dan coats prepares to leave his post. escalating tensions with china over trade. the trump administration weighing new tariffs that could hit the u.s. markets and companies hard. then there is the new, sharper attacks from 2020 democrats as they converge on iowa to make their case to voters. but perhaps the biggest cloud hanging over the president as he leaves d.c., the debate over guns. the top democrat in congress asking the president to force the senate to take action as