professor at princeton university, eddie glog jr., senior adviser at move on.org, and msnbc contributor, republican communications strategist, and msnbc political contributor, rick tyler joins u. so what's the top story. that's sort of a trick question today. is it the trump administration pulling millions of dollars from fema to send to the southern border. is it the president reportedly promising to pardon aides who break the law by fast tracking the border wall for him. is it the president's push to host an international summit at his own struggling golf resort. is it the attorney general booking the president's hotel in washington, d.c. for a holiday party. is it the president's desperate attempt to keep deutsche bank from handing over his tax returns to house investigators along with family members tax returns. is it the soviet style bailout

to american farmers or is the new pictures showing north korea, maybe building a submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles could be the top story. what is the top story? all of the above. and the democrats race to replace donald trump as president. and on that front, joe biden maintains an 18-point lead among the crowded democratic primary field. according to a brand new usa today suffolk university poll just out this morning. 32% of democratic primary voters say they support biden's run, up two points since june. senator elizabeth warren follows in second place with 14%, and senator bernie sanders dropped three points to third place with 12% support. tulsi gabbard and top steyer, not reaching the threshold to qualify for next month's debate.

steyer could qualify if he reaches the 2% mark in a quinnipiac poll due out in a an hour. >> rick tyler, a campaign that you were involved in in 2016, there was a point in south carolina where a poll came out that actually showed ted cruz ahead of donald trump, and everybody sort of rolled their eyes, come on, that doesn't make any sense, not at that point. and it was obviously an outlier, i think we're looking at an outlier with this monmouth poll that made everybody breathless for 24 hours yesterday. you look at the morning consult poll, the poll that came out from usa suffolk, and every other poll, it still seems that joe biden is not only ahead, he is comfortably ahead right now in these national polls. >> this usa today poll sort of puts us back on track.

monmouth is a good polling company and its results have been reliable over the years, and it did seem like it might have been an indication that the race was shaken up. here we are this morning, and we're right back where we were. if you look at joe biden, he has the support of nearly his three closest competitors from pete buttigieg to elizabeth warren and bernie sanders combined. they combined have one more point than joe biden and i think it just, again, points to the comfort level people have with joe biden, but it also speaks to the fact that no one else in the democratic party has sort of electrified the entire democratic party. elizabeth warren clearly is electrifying the progressive base. she's getting huge crowds. i'm sure that's making the president nervous. she is really now dominating the progressive wing of the party, and joe biden continues to dominate the establishment of the party.

that's a classic setup and we'll see if it holds which will make the next debate all the more interesting. >> it is fascinating, sam. there is such a split between, of course, the rank and file democrats who obviously right now at least are lining up after two democratic debates. >> right. >> it ain't nothing. they're lining up very strongly behind joe biden and yet if you talk to influencers, if you talk to activists, they'll all say, i don't know a single person who's excited about joe biden's candidacy. it reminds us of the woman who barnacle will know her name, who famously ho famously told "the new york times" in 1972, i don't know a single person who voted for richard nixon. >> does barnacle know her name? >> to your point, i agree with you. >> i'm excited about biden. >> first of all, i do think there's some excitement about

biden. it's not obviously reflected in the press coverage but it's there in the polls. i think there are a lot of democratic voters out there who are just traditional democrats and to them, biden represents sort of the bread and butter of the party, obviously a continuation of the obama years which people in the democratic party look back incredibly fondly with nostalgia. it's not surprising that he maintains this lead. i will offer this one caveat, which is a fairly standard caveat here, national polls are not that important at this juncture. a lot can happen between now and iowa, and especially if biden were to slip in iowa in that first important caucus state. if that happens, it prompts a lot of people to rethink the race. a lot of them look at biden and say he could actually beat trump. if he loses a caucus, they have to have a recalibration.

things can go haywire, but i do think people are pining for him to be struggling pmore. >> five months until iowa. always a good reminder of that. at the same time, after two debates, after a long summer for all of these candidates kwhowhoe been running for a very long time, many for at least half a year. you look at joe biden, and with 20 candidates in the race, he's still pulling in, in most polls he's pulling in one out of three democratic votes. it does seem, even though he may not excite the activist base, there are a lot of democrats and i would suggest independents pining for a candidate who is a return to normalcy. >> there's not much done about that, joe, and what sam said is absolutely the truth. we're well away from anyone

voting or casting a ballot in a primary. if you look at the numbers we're looking at this morning, there are going to be more numbers indicated in about an hour. one of the points of contention in that poll, and it doesn't get much note, really, nationally is bernie versus elizabeth. and that's a real conflict, those two right there. the biden vote, the biden numbers, if you go into various primary states, eddie, and you listen to people as they talk about the various candidates they have seen, there's a longing among ordinary people out shopping in the shopping mall or putting gas in their car, to just calm everything down in this country, and i think that might be a point of strength for the former vice president. >> no, i think that's right. you combine that desire for normalcy with name recognition, with a recognition of the

success and excitement around the obama administration, which he is associated with, then the numbers make sense, and then you juxtapose that with the fact that many don't know the other folks as national figures. the numbers make sense. we're still in spring training. we may be getting ready for the opening season but it's still the beginning. i think also when we look at the sand skpe sanders and warren numbers, what we're seeing there is the split that's in the party. even though there's a desire to beat trump, there's an ideological battle happening in the democratic party, and it's playing itself out in the election, even as people know they have to end up getting trump out of office. and so the desire to return to normalcy stands alongside of a judgment that what's normal didn't work. and so those two things are running into each other

simultaneously during this campaign season. we have to see how it plays itself out. >> and what progressive democrats need to be very careful about moving forward, here's some unsolicited advice from a conservative former republican, so i know you're just leaning forward in a way, what's joe going to say, what's joe going to say. the most important thing, are you all ready, because here it comes from t comes, the desire for a return to normalcy while still moving forward and pushing forward and being progressive, you've got to make sure that barack obama doesn't end up in your political cross hairs like he did during the last presidential debate because that was joe biden's lifeline. he had two fairly rough debates but it's not surprising that one of three democrats in the democratic primary support this man when this man was the only

person steadfastly standing with the most popular figure in democratic politics still today, barack obama. nine out of ten democrats still support president obama, think he did a great job as president. the dynamics of the last race were actually perfect for joe biden because he said, you know what, obamacare was a big deal. we need to mend it, not end it. and yet joe biden got attacked for being barack obama's vice president not only on health care but on immigration, and on a variety of other issues. >> yeah. >> that was an understandable misstep for people who haven't run for president before, but as they prepare for the next debate, they've got to nuance their argument more. mika, we're talking about a return to normalcy, what is not normal, and this is something i can say as a conservative and a

former republican. when i first ran in 1994 and throughout my entire tenure in public office, property rights was extraordinarily important for conservatives, for small government conservatives, for all the people who voted for me who were probably voting for donald trump. and we were afraid the federal government was going to come in and seize land, and wouldn't provide adequate compensation. well, i know you heard the news because you talked about it, mika. donald trump actually is reportedly telling officials in his administration to seize land. >> oh, my god. >> to seize land and if it is against the law, he will pardon them. tell us about that story. >> well, he says he would pardon them if they have to break any laws to get a border wall built for the next presidential election. he'll just pardon them. this is the problem with having a shady real estate developer as president.

he wants to buy everything or get rid of everything. he just wants it done. officials involved in the border wall project tell "the washington post" that trump has directed aides to fast track billions of dollars worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules. trump has promised to complete 500 miles of fencing by november of 2020, which has stirred finish the wall at his political rallies. so far 60 miles of replacement wall has been built since he stepped into office. the president has told senior aids that a failure to deliver on this promise of his 2016 campaign would be a let down to his supporters and an embarrassing defeat. his little fence. >> it keeps evolving. >> mexico definitely not paying for it. >> that's a lie. >> blah blah blah. >> first, rick tyler, if you can, give me a big amen on

conservative, small government conservatives and property rights. it was balance the budget, you know, cut taxes and protect gun rights and property rights. that's in the paconservative values. a president talking like an autocrat, telling his aides, seize land, seize private property, do it illegally, i will pardon you. unbelievable and yet of course trump claims nine out of ten republicans support him. >> it's really remarkable. i mean, private property is one of the tenants and foundations of freedom to have property and not have the government steal it from you. that's in line with trade. the republican party used to be

a pro trade, anti-tariff party. it was a pro immigration party. we liked immigration, and now we seem to be not just against illegal immigration but against legal immigration, so you're absolutely right. one thing i wanted to pick up on what eddie glod said, return to normalcy, was actually the winning slogan for 100 years ago, warren harding's campaign was return to normalcy. he won the presidency 120 years ago on that very theme, return to normalcy. >> eddie, you can be inspired by warren harding's example. what an example for democrats to aim for. so carine, here you have the president of the united states talking about seizing properties, breaking the laws, breaking environmental standards, not worrying about it. this sounds an awful lot -- it

sounds awfully consistent with what the president, this president said over the past four or five days. ordering companies, i hereby order private companies out of china. i hereby, i mean, he does think that he's an autocrat. he has not obviously read the constitution lately. >> no, i don't think he's ever read the constitution, but look, this is a president who thinks that he's above the law, and he also believes everyone around him is above the law, and here's the thing. donald trump can tweet as much as he wants, not one mile of the wall has been built. not one. not one since he has been elected president, and remember, like mika said, he said mexico was going to pay for the wall. mexico is not going to pay for the wall. that is a "wall street journal" article from earlier in month that talked about how donald trump was stealing money from military retirement. from troops to try to get this wall done. i mean, this is where we are with this president. and all of it is about his ego.

all of it is about the reelection. this is where we are. we have a president that's above the law. >> we have so much more to get to. still ahead on "morning joe," the latest on tropical storm dorian, now taking aim at puerto rico, bahamas and florida. we're going to have the forecast on that straight ahead. plus, marco rubio thinks it's a great idea to hold the next g7 summit at the president's struggling golf club. "the washington post" david fahrenthold has been following the money. he joins us with his latest reporting. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. chair is just a chair. that a handle is just a handle. or... that you can't be both inside and outside. most people haven't driven a lincoln. it's the final days of the lincoln summer invitation event.

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they're very standard. we discussed nuclear. what we talked about are nuclear. those are short range missiles, sure, and a lot of other countries test that kind of missile also. i'm not happy about it, but again, he's not in violation of an agreement. we speak. i received a very nice letter from him last week. >> wow, okay. since president trump and kim jong un's impromptu meeting at the dmz back in late june, north korea has conducted seven tests of short range ballistic missiles all in violation of un sanctions. reports indicate that those tests include several new advanced missiles, which use solid fuel and mobile launchers with sophisticated in-flight maneuverability, and now, a new report from washington, the washington based think tank, beyond parallel reveals that

pyongyang may be constructing a submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles and may be preparing for a test. great, doesn't seem like it's under control. joining us now, one of the authors of that report, senior adviser, and korea chair at csis, and an msnbc korean affairs analyst. dr. victor cha. >> thank you so much for being with us. tell us what you know. >> what we're seeing is new imagery that's barely 24 years old in north korea, the shimpo submarine base. there's activity consistent with the construction of a ballistic nuclear missile, sorry a ballistic nuclear submarine that is confirming essentially what the north koreans boasted last july when mika was talking about all the tests they were doing, they had this picture of kim standing next to this huge submarine and experts look at that and tell you that's not the

old submarine they used to have. that's a new submarine from which they could potentially launch nuclear ballistic missiles. this is a game changer. a nuclear submarine with ballistic missiles on it, would be stealthy, it's not like the stuff they launched from the ground that's easily targetable, and this is all happening while donald trump says everything is under control. >> obviously the development of this nuclear submarine would put everybody in the united states at risk. would it not? >> yeah. >> if they had a submarine that could get within distance of guam or hawaii, their missiles, you know, this is probably going to be one of their 750 to 1000 mile range, what we call the k 11 missile. that would put all of u.s. forces in guam and hawaii that are the hub for the east asia

defense in jeopardy. again, this is not the state of the art ballistic missile submarine but for north korea, it's a significant advancement and it's a new capability that they have not yet developed. meanwhile, the diplomacy is supposed to be moving forward but north korea is just expanding their missile arsenal and their capabilities to deliver that missile. >> victor, on the diplomacy aspect of all of this, the president of the united states donald trump sitting down with kim jong un having this relationship with him, they're in love, he sends wonderful letters back and forth, as an expert on this, are you comfortable with the president of the united states, donald trump, sitting down with kim jong un? is this not a mismatch? >> oh, it's a terrible mismatch. i mean, i think, you know, the president deserves credit for really trying something outside of the box with north korea because we have never done these summits before, but we have now had three meetings between the leaders and they have achieved

absolutely nothing in terms of denuclearization. meanwhile, they're amassing and expanding and modernizing their capabilities right under the president's nose. we haven't even talked about the human rights violations in north korea, and when the president meets with a dictator like kim jong un who's the worst human rights violator today, he's essentially legitimizing all of north korea's human rights violations. this is a terrible mismatch. one could make the argument it would be worth it if we were making progress in terms of them giving up their weapons. they have not made any progress at all. the president wants a fourth meeting, for what purpose, it's not very clear. >> it's not at all. dr. victor cha thank you so much for your important work in this area, and for coming on to update us. we greatly appreciate it. and sam stein, we saw the president in two clips coming into this segment, talking about his wonderful relationship. >> right. >> with kim jong un.

he's been talking about his beautiful letters for quite some time, love letters, he's taken by the letters. and yet, what he hasn't said at the g7, what he hasn't said in sacrums outsi scrums outside of the white house, this north korean tyrant he loves so much has violated seven un resolutions. seven. he's in violation, the missile test of seven un resolutions and yet donald trump keeps apologizing for this tyrant. >> yeah, i mean, there's so many weird components to this. why trump feels the need to buddy up with kim is confounding to me. perhaps there was a larger geopolitical objective there,

but clearly it's not working as all evidence indicates. whether there is any philosophical foundation seems farfetched because at the same time, we're sending these love letters to kim, we blew up a nuclear nonproliferation agreement with iran. what i'm struck by here honestly is the absolute terd -- turd sandwich. it achieved very little if nothing at all. the next president will take office at some point, and they will have to decide, should they continue the diplomacy that trump started with kim or do they have to readjust, and at that point, it seems very likely kim will have further developed his arsenal, and that any adjustment to what trump is doing will be perceived as aggressive by the north koreans and so when you try diplomacy like this, if you don't get

anything back from the north koreans koreans, it puts your successor in a real bind and that's where we stand right now. >> the problem is, you look at these pictures of donald trump and kim jong un, and you have donald trump bending over backwards. >> yeah. >> being almost a sycophant to kim jong un, like he is with vladimir putin, allowing this guy to walk all over him, apologizing for the seven un violations since the first meeting. remember he said, we didn't have to worry about missiles anymore, we didn't have to worry about nukes anymore. >> look at that body language. >> at this pace, it's not a stretch to say that donald trump's most lasting legacy may well be writing what he calls love letters to a dictator in north korea who during his presidency is going to develop the ability to deliver nuclear

weapons to georgia, alabama, florida, seattle, los angeles. you name it, name the states, name the cities, that's going to be donald trump's legacy, and even while he is violating un resolutions, donald trump is still apologizing for him, so why isn't donald trump saying anything? because he didn't listen to any of the warnings. he's being made a fool of every day by the leader of north korea, and he can't admit it. so he'd rather just keep being made a fool of instead of admitting that he was disastrously wrong, and that he's made america far less safe because of his quote love letters with kim jong un. >> some sort of missing link there. the body language and his behavior with these dictators just so differs from other

relationships. another big story that we're following, purdue pharma and its owners, the sackler family are offering anywhere between 10 and $12 billion to settle over 2,000 lawsuits across the country against the company. the offer comes just one day after the landmark ruling in oklahoma where a judge ordered pharmaceutical giant johnson & johnson to pay more than $500 million for its role in the opioid crisis. the lawsuits allege that purdue and the sackler family are responsible for starting and sustaining the opioid crisis, calling their sales practices quote deceptive. two people familiar with the matter tell nbc news that under the terms of the potential settlement, the family would give up part ownership of purdue pharma and pay an additional $3 billion of their own money. purdue and the sackler family

have denied the allegations laid out in the lawsuits. the sacklers did not respond to a request for comment. karine, this in some ways makes cigarettes look like child's play, though they were deadly as well. this is incredible, and i think this is just the beginning of quite frankly, a domino effect of pharmaceutical companies being held accountable for the way they make money on people's lives. >> that's exactly right, mika. look, what we saw yesterday in oklahoma with the attorney general who was on the show with the johnson & johnson ruling is a c change, right, and it is about time that we start holding these manufacturers accountable. these are our communities that are being ripped apart by opioids. and so this is something that needs to continue and we're going to -- i think we're going to continue seeing these manufacturers come out and do this, right, offer billions and billions of dollars because they're coming after them.

and we need to see more attorney generals doing what the oklahoma attorney general hunter did in his state. >> and mika, the initial offer from the sackler family and purdue pharma of billions of dollars, at least $12 billion sort of gives you an indication of what they must be being told by their attorneys. >> right. >> that if they ever went to a jury trial, they would lose everything. not just 12 billion. they would lose evewhat, you kn know if we go out into the landscape of america, where opioids have destroyed communities, destroyed families, in each and every of the 50 states in this country, it would be well deserved to have everything taken from them. >> i agree. i hope that there's a lot learned from this in terms of being able to look at what's being put out in the market, and as information comes in about these products, being able to act a lot quicker before an

entire generation is destroyed by opioids, which is what a lot of communities are looking at. coming up, president trump was criticized last month for telling a group of democratic congresswomen to go back to where they came from. now his campaign is using very similar language to attack one of those same congresswomen again. "morning joe" will be right back. again. "morning joe" will be right back every day, visionaries are creating the future.

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campaign sent to supporters yesterday sounds a lot like the president's racist attacks against four congresswomen of color last month. the campaign e-mail read quote socialist rep alexandria ocasio-cortez recently called for the abolishing the electoral college. remind her that this country belongs to americans from every zip code, not just the coastal elites and liberal mega donors, this is our country, not theirs. that last line in the e-mail was underlined for emphasis.

>> by the way, eddie glaude, the anti anti-trump contingent has been in full force. we are at peak anti antitrump, because they can't defend donald trump, so they will write op-eds about greenland or scowling about how donald trump's being called a racist, and he shouldn't be called a racist. i was, for some reason, i don't know why, maybe netflix recommended it t i went back to see chappell's first show which of course is where chappell was a klan. >> yeah, yeah. >> and he used every racist stereotype against black people and he in this skit, what, 12, 15 years ago, he used the same

language, you know, go back home, they need to go back home where they came from. they sat there thinking this has been such a universally word used by racists and before that, fascists and still, neo fascists, that it's not even a close call, so we move from donald trump and then crowds chanting send they are back, to now the republican national committee saying of four congresswomen, this is not their country. very exclusionary. you know, the trump campaign, i mean. the trump campaign, not the rnc. it's the same thing, but the trump campaign. i could enlist historical parallels, but i won't. you just -- but now it's donald trump's campaign, basically

saying the same thing. not their country. >> yeah, you know, joe, i mean, i think it's part of a crucial strategy that donald trump has used since before he was president. is to stake his claim on the fact that this country belongs to white people, and particular white people, because it wasn't just simply, you know, the four congresswomen, it was liberals, limousine liberals in the east coast elites, this is our country, not theirs. it's predicated on this kind of division. this division that is deeply racialized, designed to play on our hates, fears and resentments. at the heart of it, he's trying to rip the fabric of the country apart. he's thrown away the illusion that somehow we are one out of many, and sit down on the underside of the country. >> his campaign and a

three-legged stool, race, resentment and fear. those are the three principal component of his campaign, and eugene scott, yesterday, i understand that you were, well, tell us about the joe biden meaning yesterday. >> sure. yesterday former vice president joe biden met with about a dozen journalists, specifically black journalists talking about his plan to offer a different alternative to black americans than what we're seeing from the trump administration and his reelection campaign, and one of the things that he said he would prefer to do if he is the eventual nominee is have a vice presidential candidate who is either a person of color of a woman, but he said more importantly than having those demographics represented on a ticket, he wants to have someone who is insync with him philosophically and politically with regard to his vision for america, and spoke about why he believes he's doing so well in

the polls specifically with black americans. he believes he's familiar with black america in ways many of his opponents, including obviously the president are not, and that black voters trust him, and that they believe that he will offer a clear alternative direction-wise to what the president is doing in terms of telling black americans and latino americans and other americans who are not white that they need to go back to where day came from, and that this country belongs to trump and his supporters and in the all americans. >> yeah, and you know, that's of course what we were just talking about regarding trump's campaign saying this is our country, not theirs. i saw yesterday you competentmen alabama's state republican party approving a resolution that called for the congressional delegation to have freshman ilhan omar expelled from congress. usa today reported the resolution cited previous controversial comments that omar made about israel and

terrorists. omar hit back at alabama's gop in a tweet writing in part, i was elected with 78% of the vote by the people of minnesota's fifth district, not by alabama party. maybe don't nominate an accused child molester as your candidate. that refers to roy moore, and eugene, you actually brought up another troubling statement that roy moore had made in the past, and once again suggested that the republican party of alabama get its own house in order before throwing stones at anybody else. >> absolutely. it was a fascinating statement from the alabama republicans accusing the representative of using antisemitic language. the fact is that more than 90% of republicans in alabama supported roy moore who in his most recent quest for the senate say that the last time america

was great was when black people were enslaved. that is certainly racist language, and we haven't seen a statement from alabama republicans pushing back on that. in fact, we have seen them supporting him, and it's very possible that they could support him again in next year's senate election. >> and rick tyler, here we go with the republican party again, i mean, here in the state of alabama, a state i know well and love, but you go around the country and you see the trump effect on one republican party after another, and it is truly distress distressing all in support of a president who says he's going to seize private lands and told his aides to do it illegally, and from a president who's ordering private companies to move out of other countries, a guy who's running at the biggest debt ever, some of the biggest deficits ever, and this is a guy that trump republicans are following over the cliff

politically. >> donald trump has a single largest operating deficit in american history, and you know, he passes budgets without really any negotiation at all to, you know, is what conservatives believe is try to get a smaller, more responsible limited government, he's gone in the opposite direction of that, these tariffs, which he lies about are taxes, they hurt the poor the most. when you start taxing food products at 25%, well, that doesn't mean anything probably to me and you, joe. we could probably afford that. but it means a lot to a lot of people who can't afford to maybe the difference between eating today or not, and, you know, on issue after issue after issue, the republican party's what it used to say it stood for, it doesn't stand for those things anymore. the republican party, as far as i can tell, is gone, dead and buried and it's probably never coming back. >> doesn't exist.

>> in the history of the republican party, and it's changed, many things have changed over the years, but it started as an abolitionist party, a freedom party, six of the nine planks of the original party were civil rights planks and the republican party was the civil rights party for its first hundred years, and it just somehow lost its way, and it's just tragic that it would end in this way, and democrats need a competitive party, in my opinion, and right now they don't really have one, not an ideological competitive party. >> eugene scott, we want to thank you for being on this morning. eugene scott from the "washington post." and coming up, they didn't get the trial they wanted, but they did get their day in court. we're going hear from some of jeffrey epstein's accusers. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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trafficker jeffrey epstein unleashed, decades worth of their previous silenced stories in a manhattan courtroom yesterday. while the defendant's chair remained empty, epstein may have denied his accusers of the justice they had hoped for after taking his life in a federal jail cell earlier this month, but the judge overseeing the late financier's now defunct federal case still allowed the women their day in court to detail the alleged crimes inflicted upon them as by jane doe. one woman arrived with her infant daughter in tow for the landmark day. many lent their voice to their personal stories, some of them for the very first time allowed, while others had lawyers read their statements. still, the impact remained the same. >> today is a day of power and

strength. >> it was both empowering and infuriating to know that the person who i needed to hear those words is not here to hear them. >> it's not how jeffrey died but it's how he lived and we need to get to the bottom of everybody who was involved with that. >> it makes me sick to my stomach that there's perpetrators out there that obviously helped him in many ways. >> i was recruited at a very young age from mar-a-lago, and entrapped in a world that i didn't understand and i have been fighting that very world to this day, and i won't stop fighting. i will never be silenced until these people are brought to justice. >> while epstein's federal case may have come to an abrupt end, his accusers are urging prosecutors to investigate enablers of his alleged crimes, and karine, there's so many questions left unanswered here, and so much pain that is unanswered here for young women

who were recruited like that young woman you heard there in the sound bite from mar-a-lago, from other communities, all with connections between epstein and people like donald trump, bill clinton, and other powerful men. there are questions about those connections. they're just questions. i'm just saying there are huge questions about the relationship between donald trump and jeffrey epstein and girls that were recruited on the property of mar-a-lago to be one of jeffrey epstein sex slaves. i don't know what else to call them when they're used to sleep with men at parties and they are under age. so i really hope, and i wonder what your thoughts are on this, i really hope these questions don't die with jeffrey epstein, whether he killed himself in a cowardly way or something else happened, there are too many questions left unanswered. >> mika, you are absolutely right. i mean, we have to ask those

questions. you are right on the money. we're talking about powerful men, powerful men like epstein who were able to recruit, recruit these young women and assault them. 14 years old, let me be really clear and repeat what i said because it's actually young girls, not young women, and they were silenced for too long. it was important for us to hear their stories. they were powerful stories. they were silenced first by epstein, then again, let's not forget, acosta and his plea deal for epstein, and these are stories we need to continue to hear. >> what was that. >> yes, and that is also incredibly troubling and we haven't gotten to the bottom of that. he should have to answer questions, acosta needs to answer questions to that as well. >> and getting promoted into the trump administration, secretary acosta. there's so many obvious quid pro quo questions, just questions but they are worth being answered. what was the connection between

jeffrey epstein and donald trump and was donald trump involved in any of this, seems like he was from the video that we have shown on this show of him partying with jeffrey epstein with young girls dancing around them. powerful men leering at them and talking about their bodies. what else do we need to see to know that there are questions here about donald trump and jeffrey epstein who hosted a party with calendar girls and just them years ago. there really isn't a connection between those two. are we stupid? are we going to let these women go through their lives and die without these questions answered? are we going to do that here in america? it's incredible. the questions must be answered. coming up, the poll earlier this week that wiped out joe biden's lead in the democratic primary is looking more and more like an outlier this morning. we'll have the new numbers in the first of two new polls out this morning. plus, new reporting on the trump administration's plan to use fema money to fund his

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welcome back to "morning joe." it is wednesday, august 28th, along with joe and me, we have msnbc contributor, mike barnicle, professor at princeton university, eddie glaude, jr., senior adviser as move on.org, karine jean-pierre and politics editor for the daily beast sam stein. joining the conversation former u.s. senator, now an nbc news, and msnbc political analyst, claire mccaskill joins us this morning. good to have you all on board. we begin this hour with joe biden maintaining an 18 point lead among the crowded democratic primary field according to a brand new usa today suffolk university poll just out this morning. 32% of democratic primary voters say they support biden's run up 2 points since june, senator elizabeth warren follows with second place, 14%. senator bernie sanders dropped 3 points to third place with 12%

support. and we expect a new quinnipiac university poll in less than an hour. so that should be an some interesting either comparison or support for what we're seeing. >> yeah, it certainly should be: claire, a lot of people talking about the monmouth poll yesterday. again, a good poll but a very small sample and seems to be out of step with most other democratic polls. let's put the numbers back up again shows joe biden, again, after two debates, and months on the campaign trail, with a lot of these candidates, getting one of three votes among democratic party members, and elizabeth warren and bernie sanders back in second and third place. but it is, it's a three-person race right now, any way you look at it between biden, warren and sanders. >> no question. the monmouth poll was interesting. i can't imagine running even for a statewide office and spending money on a 300 person sample.

that's a very low sample number for a poll, and the margin of error was six, and people forget that that margin applies either way, either if somebody could be up as much as 6 or down as much as 6. that's a huge swing, and i think what i would say is all of us, while we're very interested in the polling, especially those of us tar looking at -- us that are looking at donald trump's numbers in swing states right now, we've got to be really cautious here, keep our eye on the prize, try to unite behind our nominee whoever it ends up being because we counted this guy out in 2016, and we can't afford to do that this year. way too much at stake. >> way too much at stakes for many democrats and other americans who are following this closely. mike barnicle, we do, though, we have a joe biden candidate that doesn't seem to be inspire a lot of the activist base, but as we

said last hour, there is, wherever you go, a desire for a return to normalcy and i think it was a "new york times" op-ed by frank bruny, talking about the exhaustion factor which can't be underestimated. the exhaustion factor, donald trump, may end up being his undoing. and with boiden, people may seea guy, you know what, things weren't quite as crazy back when he was vice president, maybe we try him again. >> sure. and there's no doubt, joe, part of his numbers are because of familiarity. people know who he is as opposed to other people in the field running for president for the first time, with the exception of bernie sanders, but when they look at joe biden, and i know you've heard this, when you're out and around, i know you've heard this, we've all heard it,

i think, that a lot of americans just want to pump the brakes and the temperature of our politics. it is just so overheated, not occasionally, multiple times a day and this weekend is a perfect example of what people are trying to get rid of, this back and forth, when you have the president of the united states can barely remember where he is and what he said from moment to moment and changes his mind from moment to moment on things that are at their essence, quite dangerous, to not only world peace, to the world economy but to our system of democracy. >> i mean, the guy says he wants to buy greenland, then he says he doesn't want to buy greenland, and then we find out actually, he did want to buy greenland, and when denmark said he couldn't buy greenland, then he breaks off that meeting, and then he says that he can seize -- he can order companies to leave china. then he says that the fed chair is an enemy of the united states, then he says the

president of china is an enemy of the united states. then he says the president of china is a great guy. then he says that he has second thoughts about pushing tariffs and then he says, well, actually the only second thoughts i had were not pushing tariffs up even more. we can keep going. we now find out that he's seizing private property and in the seizing of private property, break any laws they need to break and he'll pardon them later. this is just over the past four or five days, and that's just exhausting to the american people, not just snowflakes on the left oris exhausting to rank and file americans. so karine, let's talk about what we're seeing on our tv screens daily and that isrowds of

4,000, 6,000, 10,000, 15,000, that is politically a leading indicator of things to come so long as she continues on this trajectory. joe biden may control one-third of democratic votes in most polls that we see, but elizabeth warren's charge is undeniable. >> that's exactly right, joe. look, one thing that we saw in the last, i think, like 12 hours is donald trump tweeting about elizabeth warren going back to his racial slur of her and why is that, is it because she is intimidating him with her crowds. donald trump really pays attention to crowds, and it is probably scaring him, and that's one thing that we are seeing. she is really connecting, she is running this almost pitch perfect campaign where she's talked about her policies as able to boil it down in a way that people could really understand. she's pressing the flesh, talking to people, doing things

that is really resonating. that's one thing you can say about the polls. it's not good to look at one individual poll, you have to look at the average of the polls. like you were saying, joe, we know we have three front runners, the tier one three people which is elizabeth warren who's moving up in the polls, joe biden is clearly the front runner and bernie sanders, his base is basically solidified, between 15 and 20%. i don't think that's going anywhere, and that is what we're seeing, if you look at the average of the polls, that's what we're seeing right now. >> right. and not only do you not count bernie sanders out, you know he's going to be there to the very end and let me ask sam and eddie their takes on bernie sanders and his candidacy. right now, he's not getting the buzz that joe biden's getting. he's not getting the buzz that elizabeth warren is getting, or even the buzz that bernie himself got back in '16. but here is a guy who is built

for speed. i mean, he's got a fundraising machine. he's got a grass roots organization. i still think you just don't count bernie sanders out under any circumstances. he is going to be a player in iowa and new hampshire, and beyond. >> you know, bernie may have stalled a bit in the polls but what people don't really recognize is just the extent of the grass roots fundraising but also grass roots volunteering operation that he has built there unparalleled in the democratic primary, and he can lean on them in ways that no one else can. those can be incredibly consequential in early voting states. also, he is a neighbor of new hampshire. he did exceptionally well there in 2016. you know, obviously elizabeth warren is a neighbor, too, and joe biden has history in new hampshire, but, you know, another early primary state where bernie has institutional support in history, could matter

greatly. so, you know, i wouldn't count out bernie. he'll still make a splash. but what strikes me about all of these polls, honestly, is just how boring this primary has been. you know, we're basically the at same numbers time and time again with biden in those low 30s, bernie and elizabeth warren kind of splitting teens, and then we have a few other people who are running at the top five -- rounding out the top five, and everyone else is marginal, and this has been the case for weeks and months and we're kind of trying to talk about it a little bit more and more, but what will happen is as we get closer to iowa, this thing will change in some direction, and when people actually vote, that's when things get really interesting. >> well, and it's really interesting, eddie, seeing how voters react to gaffes in the age of trump. dana mi dana milbank had quite an article, a litany of gaffes for

joe biden going back decades and i know after the first debate, i expected joe biden's numbers to fall fairly significantly. i wasn't so sure it wouldn't do after the second debate as well, but in the age of trump, everything, you put everything in context and suddenly what may have been disqualifying in 1988 or 2008 is rather boring by trump y trumpian standards in 2020. so joe biden just keeps keeping on. >> one of the interesting features of our current moment, joe, is the deformation of attention that our attention spans are short. we move fairly quickly, even more so because of social media, but you know, i was sitting theory thinking about something we have been talking about, and we talked about it the last segment, normalcy, a desire to return to normalcy, and the exhaustion that's underneath it, and i think there's a distinction we might want to make, joe, as we kind of think

about this as a motivating factor in the electorate. the desire for normalcy is not necessarily a desire to return to the past. it's a desire, perhaps, for someone who is thoughtful, who is reasonable, who has a set of policies that they're pursuing, who's governing in the interest of the country, who's statesman like, so the desire for normalcy is a desire for a politician, a leader that will stabilize the country, that will lead the country because i still think, joe, underneath our politics is the desire for change. we can't lose sight that trump is a reflection, is a reflection of deep dissatisfaction at the kitchen table across the country, of the precarty of workers across the country, of the feeling that america is in decline. trump was bubbled up, i like to say, vomited up, emerged as a result for change.

when we desire normalcy, it's not about going back, it's that we desire a leader who will actually lead the country. what the ideology is, we're not sure yet. >> right. >> and joe biden can't look back. joe biden must look forward, but you're right. that return to normalcy is really more of a return to stability. >> that's it. >> and barack obama got elected out of a desire for hope. people took a chance on a guy who was in effect an illinois state senator who had just got elected to the united states senate before he decided to run, and it was hope and change. donald trump all about change. what do you have to lose was really the most pressing question that he claimed was just for black voters but there are a lot of white voters that were saying the same thing, what do we have to lose, we've tried the bushes and clintons for the past 30 years. what has it brought us. what do we have to lose, so yeah, a return to normalcy as

far as constitutional norms, political enormounorms, but whe comes to ideology, when it comes to ideas, mika, joe biden and any candidate that wants to win has to promise change, and it has to be a change that they can actually implement that is not going to turn over all the tables and the temple, because donald trump has shown us that disruption alone is not enough.o implement that plan. donald trump doesn't have that, doesn't want that. >> let's try something new for a change. how about someone with experience. every time someone has experience, he might be too old. really? really? think about it. don't you want someone who's been there, who's been serving, who wants to go back to washington, which can be a horrible snake pit, and yet here's the pitch for joe biden, he's been there, he's done that, and he wants to go back and

serve and so does his wife jill, and guess what, he knows world leaders, he knows what our place on the world stage should be, and he knows how to get there because he's been there and done that. you know, all of these arguments about his age, they could be turned around in a second. don't you want finally someone with experience in governing. i loved barack obama, he symbolized a lot of things we wanted for this country, did he have experience or did he govern, pass executive orders and led to how things are happening today. who did he hand the keys to the white house to. i mean, joe biden at this point could take every criticism you have against him and turn it around into a positive. if you want to move forward, you actually have to have experience at doing these things, in foreign policy, in the senate, in the white house. who's got that in the democratic field, who's got that. nobody. >> i mean, you know, mike

barnicle, in the republican field, we have seen that inexperience of donald trump, the ignorance of history, the ignorance of the constitution, the ignorance of governing, we have seen what that has led to. it has been a day trader who has been smashing political norms while he's been smashing our alliances and hurting farmers and hurting working class americans with his tariff taxes. it has been, unless you are the richest of the rich, it's been a pretty rocky ride with donald trump. >> joe, you sounded almost as someone who has run for office before. that phrase that you just used, ignorance of governing, claire mccaskill, you just heard what i heard jose, and let me ask you, if you're out there, grocery shopping, you love to go grocery shopping where people come up to you, the fact is huge numbers of people seem to know

instinctively that this guy trump simply can't do the job, doesn't know how to do the job. you can take any issue, you can take his wall not being built. you can take what he's doing to american farmers, sending many of them into bankruptcy. you can go to foreign affairs and what happened over the weekend. they instinctively seem to know the guy can't do the job. >> yeah, and the thing that keeps coming up is also who he surrounds himself with. let's not kid ourselves, the job of the president of the united states is not an easy one, and you need to surround yourself with the best and the brightest and everybody needs to be rowing the same way. donald trump can't keep a team around him that is competent and credible, especially when it comes to issues of national security. he is all about the news cycle, the polling and the size of his crowds, and that's really it. he doesn't have an ideology that governs him, and i do think it's

important to remember that our primary, when this begins to distill down a little bit, you've got three people at the top that have all been in washington, and frankly, bernie sanders is older than joe biden. i think voters are going to begin to look at who has actually accomplished things in washington. it's one thing, you know, to throw a rhetoric bomb, it's one thing to say let's have a revolution. it's another thing to do the really difficult work in our constitution of finding consensus, and i think there's a lot of voters that i see at the grocery store that are looking for someone who wants to appeal to our better angels but also wants to get stuff done. >> so yeah, and donald, by the way, donald trump and his crowd size issue, claire, that you brought up, it's funny because he's even tweeting that

elizabeth warren gets more coverage for her crowd sizes. i can explain that. i can explain that because a lot of people have seen donald trump on the apprentice. he's been branding himself for years. he's incredibly good at it. and as a result, he gets crowds. yes, people want a marketer. now he's got the platform of the presidency, and he can market that. elizabeth warren, she has been working on her message since she's been in graduate school and since she has watched people suffer from bankruptcy and studied what has happened in the system of the american economy that has victimized these people and what is getting they are those crowds, mr. president, is because her message resonates is she has been working that message, and people want answers as to why they're suffering and they are drawn to her, thousands of them across the country, to hear what she has to say. i would just say that's far more impressive than having a hat that says make america great again and then literally destroying that message with

every policy you have put on the table. >> i think also it's a fascinating, if you want to draw a contrast between donald trump and the crowds he draws and elizabeth warren and the crowds that she draws and it's a generalization, but i think most people on both sides of the political spectrum would agree with this, donald trump attracts people with a show. it's about insults. elizabeth warren. >> but anger. >> attracts people with ideas. >> yeah. >> it's much easier to attract people with insults than with ideas, and even if i don't agree with all of the elizabeth warren's ideas, it's still pretty remarkable that she just keeps hammering away with her vision for america, her ideas, her policies, and that is what's drawing ten, 15,000 people out to her events. >> that's american politics at its best. >> it also, though, more than that, it suggests, again, all

things being equal, if she continues on this trajectory, it suggests a staying power throughout the primary campaign. >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe," tropical storm dorian will have the latest forecast with puerto rico now under a state of emergency. plus, money that fema should be using for disaster relief may be heading to the southern border instead. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. g "morning " we'll be right back. our patients- like job. his team at ctca treated his cancer and side effects. so job can stay strong for his family. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now.

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[ slap ] your nails! xfinity home... cameras. xfinity home... disarm the system. door's open. morning... welcome to the neighborhood. do you like my work? secure your home with x1 voice control. and rest easy knowing you have professional monitoring backing you up. awarded "top pick" by cnet. demo at an xfinity store, call or go online today. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. tropical storm dorian nears puerto rico this morning. let's get a check on the track of the storm's aim with meteorologist janessa webb. >> good morning, mika, we're also seeing a partial eye development starting now just outside of puerto rico as this storm system starts to move. now, we've seen a transition in this storm. you can see the track has taken a different path.

now, puerto rico, as it makes its way through today here, we're going to see the eastern side, see most of the moisture, forecasting potential up to 8 inches. it's not puerto rico, the intensity that we're really concerned about but the copious amounts of water, also the potential flooding, and storm surge that's going to be very vital in that area. then this system starts to really jog to the north here. it subsides a little bit, but by friday, we're really going to do that rapid intensification phase here. friday to saturday, look at that, we're going to see sustained winds, that's a constant wind speed of 90 miles per hour, and then potentially, mika, forecasting, a category 2 landfall for florida, even going to be impacting south carolina into georgia. this is labor day weekend and many folks are going to be traveling, so watching this very closely. >> all right. janessa, thank you very much. and this morning, president trump approved an emergency

declaration for puerto rico, which orders federal assistance to supplement local response efforts due to emergency conditions resulting from tropical storm dorian. that move comes after he tweeted yesterday, quote, wow, yet another big storm heading to puerto rico. will it ever end? congress approved $92 billion for puerto rico last year, an all time record of its kind for anywhere. we know that the figure president trump continues to cite for puerto rico relief is not accurate. congress has not allocated $92 billion for the american territory, the number is 42.7 billion and of that, less than 14 billion has made its way to puerto rico. >> so mike barnicle, i'll let you try to unpack donald trump's tweet. he's obviously been hostile towards puerto rico for a very long time. another big storm heading to puerto rico, he's shocked that

it gets a couple of storms in the tropics every few years. i mean 2004, florida, in fact, my part of florida i lived in got four hurricanes in one hurricane season. you do wonder why it is that donald trump is shocked when storms go there, but not when natural disaster hit other areas. >> joe, the tweets are pretty self-explanatory, they are shaped by donald trump, a guy fixated on puerto rico, doesn't believe they are part of america, that they are not american citizens, things like that, but it's the policies that people ought to pay attention to because more often than not, his policies, withdrawing money from puerto rico for the border wall are basically founded in a level of cruelty that is almost indescribable and it has to do not only with money meant for puerto rico that's now going to

be diverted to the wall. it has to do with what happens to children here in this country, children who have recently arrived in this country legally or illegally. the level of cruelty is just, it's mind boggling, and if more americans knew about the intentional cruelty of this administration, i think those poll numbers would show a drastic difference in his support. >> and it's very interesting, mika, let's look for a similar quote about the storm, if it does, in fact, go and is a category 2 that hits central florida in the i-4 corridor, we'll see if he posts a resentful tweet. >> really. >> about having to provide aid to the ultimate swing state for donald trump when it goes across and affects the space coast, when it affects orlando, when it affects tampa, which is of

course, that i-4 corridor determines who wins the state of florida in just about every presidential election, so we await his shock and disgust that the i-4 corridor is actually going to need some relief. perhaps he'll be as stingy in that relief as he is with puerto rico, but i seriously doubt it. >> yeah, meanwhile, nbc news has learned that the trump administration is planning to pull millions of dollars from fema disaster relief to send to the southern border. the administration's plan is to take 270 million in funding from the department of homeland security, which includes fema, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers who have been forced to wait in mexico. let's bring in the reporter of this exclusive story. nbc news correspondent julia ainsley. julia, it just, it's hard to believe. what more do you know about

this? >> it is hard to believe, mika. last year the administration did take a portion of fema funds to increase i.c.e. detention beds because they say congress isn't funding them enough. they want to go above 42,000 and hold 50,000 immigrants in detention. this year they're going a step further, taking $155 million just from the fema disaster relief fund and putting that toward temporary hearing locations for immigrants on the border. now, the whole reason why they need these hearing locations anyway is because of this policy where they turn immigrants back to mexico, and have them wait there for their asylum hearings, and they want to be able to bring them to the border whenever they need a court hearing rather than bringing them to the interior to send them to a court like arlington, alexandria, in the interior. another thing i wanted to point out in their justification, we have the document where dhs has to go through and justify why they are using each of these.

here's the quote, absent significant new catastrophic events, dhs believes the resulting disaster relief fund base is sufficient to support operational means. so a new catastrophic events you just talked about one, so it's hard to reconcile how absent new catastrophic events would allow you to dip into the very fund that's called the disaster relief fund and whien i have talked to critics about this, they underline the sentence right here. the thing is this isn't for congress to approve or disapprove. this is the notification and the transfer already began. >> right. so just by the way, i have gotten to know some of these great women serving in the u.s. congress and u.s. virgin islands, representative stacy plasket said the u.s. virgin islands is under a hurricane watch. please don't forget us, we won't in our coverage as we watch this

hurricane. claire mccaskill has a question. claire. >> julia, as you look at the transfers of money, we know he's doing the same thing in the pentagon budget for his wall. how uncomfortable are your sources with the president saying lawlessness is going to be embraced in this quest, that you can, you know, i mean, the two things he said over the last week is take the land and ordering american businesses to do things, which kind of is a stake in the heart of conservative ideology in this country. what are your sources within dhs and other places saying about their level of comfort of basically ignoring the law of the land in this quest for a pr stunt to replace wall and paint it black. >> that's a great question, do you know for congress when they get a notification for this, people can give their concurrence or nonconcurrence, that goes to the chair in

ranking x ranking committees on both sides. they are outraged that this goes around them. there's little they can do. advocacy community obviously outraged. within dhs, it's an interesting story, a lot of this was closely held, something i have been tracking for weeks, where this document was. and it was hard to get my hands on because a lot of people were worried about the backlash, and there were senior people within dhs worried about how this would be perceived and thought maybe they just needed to time it even though it had to become public at one point. i think where this comes from is the fear of saying no. people in dhs has lost their jobs for saying no to this administration, and specifically for saying no to stephen miller, when they see a need, and they want to go through very strong executive, very strong way that you could use executive powers to get that money, they don't want to be told no, so people have to come up with a way to get to yes. >> all right.

nbc's julia ainsley, as always, thank you for your great reporting. >> thank you. and coming up, the president insists there are quote, no bedbugs at his miami golf resort, where he wants to host the next g7 summit. it's one of two stories that are fuelling concerns that he is profiting from the presidency. we'll dig into that next on "morning joe." xt on "morning joe." okay, paint a picture for me. uh, well, this will be the kitchen. and we'd like to put a fire pit out there, and a dock with a boat, maybe. why haven't you started building? well, tyler's off to college... and mom's getting older... and eventually we would like to retire. yeah, it's a lot. but td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. great. can you help us pour the foundation too? i think you want a house near the lake, not in it. come with a goal. leave with a plan. td ameritrade. ♪ we really pride ourselves on >> temaking it easy for youass, to get your windshield fixed.

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it's right down the street from where i live, it's in florida. i think it's a great idea. a lot of concern, traffic right around the super bowl, potentially. >> and the president actually pitching his own, he would make a profit theoretically. >> i don't know. my sense is that those events probably end up costing more than they make. we're not talking about a large tourist event. it's a lot of security costs locally, and a lot of traffic, so, you know, yeah, i would love to have miami be featured. it's a great place, but, you know, and obviously i'm not sure it's a profit -- >> republican senator marco

rubio. >> oh, geez. >> of florida, when asked about president trump potentially hosting the next g7 summit at florida's golf club, saying he thinks it's a great idea and that his biggest concern is traffic. president trump is defending his florida golf club as a choice for the site of the next g7 summit. his endorsement on monday inspired critics to bring up a 2016 incident that according to the miami herald was later settled in a confidentiality agreement. >> a lot of bedbugs. >> sued after claiming he woke up with dozens of bites all over him. bedbug bites. >> awful. >> that he says he got while staying there. eww. >> that's awful. >> trump responded on twitter yesterday. >> i mean, i'm itching right now, thinking about bedbugs. >> i'm so itchy. >> that's gross.

he said no bedbugs at doral, radical left democrats hearing that the perfectly located doral miami spread that false and nasty rumor. he was sued over bedbugs. somebody went to court. >> they settled it with a confidentiality agreement. >> so the person was paid? >> i guess, but doral and bedbug, i mean, i'll never hear the word doral again without thinking of bedbugs. meanwhile in florida, local officials were surprised by the president's promotion. "the washington post" reports -- >> it does kind of make you itch when they say doral, doesn't it. >> i can't stop thinking about bedbugs, crawling all over your body when you're in bed apparently at doral. who would go to court, get a lawyer unless they were truly covered with bedbugs.

>> of course the organization apparently settled, but, you know. >> you settle, usually when you want it to go away. >> when there are bedbugs at doral, the post said if the summit came to doral. >> a lot of people would be itching. >> trying to turn the sprawling golf course surrounded by houses, busy streets. >> bedbugs. >> and a nearby airport into a walled off diplomatic bug-filled island, but nobody has told him he needs to make such plans. >> so mike, are you itching too? >> just don't go there. >> i got to leave and take a shower now. >> the bedbugs will find you, bedbugs in doral, let's talk about marco rubio first of all, any comments? i thought it was very fascinating yesterday that we've talked about the republican

party, and my former party, and in 30 minutes of each other, i read news breaking first of marco rubio saying it's a great idea for the united states commander in chief to promote his own private property for an international summit. nobody would have suggested that in the past, if barack obama had suggested that, there would have been calls for impeachment, obviously. it just, again, it's remarkable that what used to be considered inappropriate and extreme now is normal for the florida senator and i guess every other republican because nobody else is criticizing him for doing something that's clearly, if not outright unethical, clearly skirts the line, and then of course right after that, mike, we heard about the attorney

general booking a christmas party and putting $30,000 probably at the least in the president's pocket. this is of course donald trump's republican party. >> there is no more republican party. it's just the trump party and marco rubio is acting as the south florida chamber of commerce head as well as a principle suck up to donald trump along with a lot of other republicans. bill barr, we should point out that he's spending his own money, 30 grand for his christmas party. i bet it's going to be a great party, but, you know, joe, and i know you're going to get into it with our next guest, but the reporting on this is so vital, so critical to pointing out the truth to the american public because we're not going to get the truth about anything out of this administration. we know that. and one of the things that has worked very effectively for donald trump over the years is the whole fake news thing that's taken hold. you can't deny it. but when you get truth in the

"washington post" and other newspapers in this country, it is so refreshing. >> well, you know, yesterday, i found an old article, around six months old, that david fahrenthold had written about doral losing money, 65% in revenue over the past couple of years, and maybe it's because of the bedbugs, maybe that got around, if you go to doral, you get bit by bedbugs i don't know, but fahrenthold had said after tweeting that article, i said this guy is quickly becoming the indispensable reporter of the trump era, and sure enough, he and his colleague jonathan o'connell just an hour or two later broke a story that we're going to tell you about, but mike, it's extraordinary reporting on his part. >> and joe, people are not aware, nobody outside the business is aware, and we don't expect them to be aware, these things are not done in an hour

and a half, you know, not on deadline, at 3:00 in the afternoon, we needed a story by 5:30 or 6:00, you know, to make the first edition, it's not like that. in order to get the occupancy rate of doral and others in the area, in order to get the cost of a meal for a big party that bill barr is going to have at the trump hotel, it requires work. it requires digging. it requires sources. it requires accuracy and that's all encompassed in what the two people you just referenced, "washington post" david and his partner, each time we see this in the paper. >> let's bring in investigative reporter for the "washington post" and an msnbc contributor, david fahrenthold, david, the fact that you're an msnbc contributor is not why i was nice to you yesterday. just ask other msnbc contributors, i'm not a company man. i don't have to say that. david, before we get to the barr story, let's talk about doral,

obviously i re-tweeted a story from may of this year because donald trump has put it back in the center, but tell us about doral. you reported earlier this year that it's really run into some problems that go far beyond bedbug infestation. >> sure. one thing you have to keep in mind here is how important doral is to trump's overall financial health. it produces more revenue for him than any of his golf clubs or hotels, it has one of the biggest loans than any other property. it's very very important to him, and it's doing very poorly, profitability has fallen by 69% since 2015. revenues have gone down. they lost big events. they lost a strip clubs charity event earlier this year, and the reason they lost it, according to the trump's own representative is trump's brand. his brand is toxic, it's politicized, and she blamed that for their drop in revenue. >> and you talked about, though, somebody who obviously doesn't mind helping trump, despite his

brand is another guy that's part of that toxic brand and that's the attorney general of the united states. tell us about his christmas party coming up at a trump party. >> that's right, we got these leaked documents that show bill barr is holding what he called a family holiday better but it's bigger than probably your family holiday party or mine, more than 200 people. it's in the presidential ballroom at the trump hotel, which is quite big, used for embassy galas and that kind of thing, and the bill is going to be at least $31,000. we're told barr is paying for this himself. this is not justice department funds but it is, as you said, a remarkable instance of somebody barr, who's got this great position from donald trump now paying a lot of his money to donald trump's personal pocket. joe, i have to jump back to what you said earlier. i was thinking about these duel stories, and imagine a hillary clinton presidency in which a year in they decide to just throw some government contracts towards the clinton foundation.

imagine the uproar from republicans over what would be obviously a deeply unethical maneuver in that case. this is what we're witnessing right now, and so rubio's comments in particular were remarkable to me. but to david, with respect to the barr booking of the trump hotel, i get that the money is coming out of his pocket. you know, god bless us if we have bosses who spend $30,000 on office christmas parties, that sounds great. is it not true that the department of justice is in fact involved or at least looking over litigation that looks at whether the trump hotel in washington, d.c. is a violation of the clause or am i missing s something here? >> trump has been sued, he can't take emoluments or payments from foreign governments, a lot of foreign governments that book rooms or ballrooms at the hotel. doj is defending him in court. doj is asking as his law firm.

>> wow. david fahrenthold -- >> this is clear. >> go ahead, claire. >> quickly, i want to say, did you have a chance yet in your reporting, what i'm trying to capture is face on the person who walked in barr's office and barr said i want you to go out and tell them there's no other place we could have a christmas party in washington. on a sunday night. on a sunday night. this is remarkable in how bold this is. i'm assuming that someone's out there finding all of the available venues, you know, and it's the appearance of impropriety that the justice department has always hung its hat on, so it is startling to me that he used the apparatus of the justice department to put this information out that clearly is a big fat lie. >> well, yeah, that's what they told us, he looked at other places and just came to the trump hotel because nothing else was available. we tried to check that but the other hotels don't want to comment. >> david, the phrase you just used, could you draw it out a

little, doj is acting as donald trump's law firm. >> that's right. so the justice department often represents the president, when people sue the president but this is an unusual is an unusua because they're basically not defending the president's public conduct. his conduct as president which is the usual role doj plays. they are defending his private conduct, what he does in his side business as head of the trump organization saying basically that even though he takes payments from foreign governments and we don't know how many foreign governments pay him or what they pay him for, that's fine because all the constitution meant to ban is an outright bribe. you haven't proven anyone bribed trump. that's the argument they're making about his private conduct. that's what makes that unusual. >> david farenholt, thanks for your incredible reporting. still ahead -- president trump's longtime bank admits it has the tax records congress subpoenaed earlier this year.

now the question is will democrats finally be able to see the documents. why weren't they handed over? "morning joe" is back in a moment. this was me six years ago... and this is me now! i got liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. then i won the lottery, got hair plugs, and started working out. and so can you!

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awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. deutsche bank has informed a federal appeals court that it does have tax returns tied to donald trump that are currently being sought by two house committees. deutsche bank has lent trump's real estate company millions of dollars over the years. in april, as part of their investigations into alleged foreign influence on the u.s. election, the house intelligence and financial services committees subpoenaed the bank for financial records, including tax returns. belonging to trump and his adult children, don junior, ivanka and eric trump. the names are redacted, so it's unclear which member of the trump family the tax returns belong to. however, "the new york times"

notes that current and former bank officials have said that deutsche has portions of trump's personal and corporate tax returns for multiple years. we'll see what happens with that. still ahead -- we're now just moments away from a critical new poll that will determine if the next democratic debate will be one night or two. steve kornacki will be here to break down the numbers with us. plus, president trump so determined to get border wall that he's considering tactics that may be illegal and promising aides they'll be pardoned as long as it gets done. you know, there are a few people in jail right now that you might want to ask how that worked for them. that new reporting is ahead on "morning joe." ♪ i planned each charted course ♪ ♪ each careful step ♪ along the byway

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♪ all right. live shot of rockefeller plaza on this summer morning. welcome back to "morning joe." it's august 28th, wednesday. still with us, msnbc contributor mike barnicle, professor at princeton university, eddie cloud jr. senior adviser at moveon.org, karine jean-pierre. sam stein and former u.s. senator, now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst claire

mccaskill joining the conversation, national correspondent for nbc news and msnbc and author of "the red and the blue," steve kornacki. good to have all of you here. steve, you as well. and any moment we expect to get a new quinnipiac university poll on the democratic primary field. that poll will add to the picture we got this morning earlier today from a new "usa today"/suffolk university poll which showed that 32% of democratic primary voters say they support biden's run up two points since june. senator elizabeth warren in second. bernie sanders dropped to third place with 12% support. the q poll should be interesting, joe, trying to figure out the next debate. if one night or two and who is going to be on the stage. >> and we also -- quinnipiac has just come out and, steve kornacki, as we look at those numbers, you can compare them to

the emerson poll. but also, of course, we also had the morning consult poll that came out yesterday that showed also joe biden with a big lead. the quinnipiac poll, the first number that we have is a horse race number and it's joe biden just absolutely demolishing donald trump in the horse race. alex, what is that, 54 to -- >> 54 to 38 for biden. sanders tops trump, 53/39. warren tops trump, 52 to 40. harris has her beating trump 51 to 40. all of them beat him soundly. >> yeah, so we have biden up against, steve kornacki, 54 to 38 in the horse race. just absolutely crushing donald trump. once again, i'd suggest showing

that his strategy over the past month has just been bad. also, let me give you really quickly the head-to-head. biden -- not the head-to-head, but the democrats. biden is leading the pack with 32% of democratic voters and independent voters who lean democratic followed by elizabeth warren at 19%, sanders at 15%. harris gets 7%. mayor pete's 5%. andrew yang 3% and no other candidate tops 1%. if the 2020 presidential race were held today, 54% of registered voters say they'd vote for vice president joe biden. only 38% say they would vote for donald trump. steve kornacki, a lot to take in there. but it does seem that the poll -- i said emerson. i guess it was the monmouth poll appears to be an outliar if you take the polls that have come

out over the last few days. the head-to-head matchups between all the democrats but especially joe biden and donald trump, not even close. >> that was the question when the monmouth poll came out and biden fell to third place. the question was, is this going to be replicated other in polls? the start of a new trend or look like an outlier. a few days later we can say it looks like an outlier. the suffolk poll, quinnipiac poll. you have warren/sanders both in the teens in each of these polls. so you're seeing a consistency there as well. the other piece of news, though, from this quinnipiac poll, i'm looking at the other end of the poll on the democratic side. tom steyer. needs one more poll at 2% to qualify for the debate. did not get it in the "usa today" suffolk poll that came out earlier today. desperately needs it. he gets -- tom steyer, unless

there's a new poll between now and midnight that nobody knows about and has tom steyer at 2%, he won't make that debate stage in mid-september. the other name eliminated today it looks like is tulsi gabbard. she needed both of these polls this morning to put her at 2% to make the debate stage. that will happen for her in neither poll. that means if this holds, one night, one stage, one debate, ten candidates all going head-to-head. >> and, eddie, the last time we had a head-to-head mautchup tha showed donald trump getting trounced by joe biden and other democrats in the field, it's not about what happens a year from now because so much could happen a year from now, 15 months from now when we finally have the general election. but what these polls show us is donald trump's attempt to turn the election primarily into an

election about race, about the chance of sending them back. the racist chants of, go back to your home country." even what the trump campaign did yesterday. it's not their country. it's our country. that has failed miserably. donald trump has some of his lowest numbers yet and certainly getten beaten more badly than ever before. we can't say how that's going to impact what happens next year. we can say, though, what the last month of this race baiting has done for donald trump. it's done what a lot of republicans have feared it would do. it's caused his numbers to melt down. >> right. so we know that it had an effect in 2018. we doubled down on the question of immigration. it didn't have the sort of result or produce the sort of result he expected. we're seeing this in the poll numbers now. we can't be overconfident about it, joe. they have their turnout machine.

they can continue to appeal to resentment and fear and hatred. we can't get overconfident about this. what i'm interested in about the q poll is the question of electability cannot be a determining factor anymore. it seems we'll have to move beyond it because the data shows if it's biden, they're going to trounce him. if it's sanders, he's going to trance h trounce him. the question of electability has to be moved to the side now and we have to get into more substantive questions about what the vision is. this poll is fascinating in a number of ways. it reveals the race baiting that donald trump is doing isn't as effective as he thinks it is at this moment and the question of electability may not be the predominant issue we need to be concerned with as we make our way through this primary. >> you know, claire, the strategy of donald trump playing to his base will work in certain districts, will work in certain

states. you had constituents of yours that elected you twice that actually were concerned about the fiction that donald trump tried to whip up about these caravans of people and others talking about leprosy. just outrageousness. we're going to send troops to the borders. and there were some people in your state that actually bought into those lies. and in other states that bought into those lies. but, man, donald trump's numbers have melted down in the suburbs. they've melted down among college educated women. they've melted down among women who don't have a college education. he is now trailing with women who don't have a college education and you look at these numbers, and it is proving, his strategy of boiling down to its base is a disaster for donald trump. and a nightmare for republicans who are going to be running in '20. >> they think they can find more of these voters somewhere.

that's the trump 2020 ethos is we're going to find more of these voters. we're going to register more of them. they're going to vote for the first time. but the other shoe that's going to drop here, joe, are farmers. i don't think that's fully registered yet in the polls. but if you do the one-two punch of the tariffs and losing markets and now, take the land. there is nothing that strikes fear in the heart of a farmer in america than the government taking their land. that's why it's hard to do it. that's why it takes time. if you go along that border in texas right now, you see big openings in the fence. and when i was down there i said, what are these openings for? why isn't there any barrier in these gaps? and it's because there's still litigation over taking land, valuable farm land from ranchers in texas. and they're still tied up in court, for ten years. so if you start talking about taking the land, the government

taking your land without any due process, he is going to lose a lot of farmers in his base. >> i couldn't agree with you more that the farmers are a big issue. >> they are. not only are they talking about seizing the land. seizing the property. and trump says even if you have to seize it illegally -- >> i'll pardon you. >> even if you have to seize land illegally, i'll give you a pardon. so go ahead and do that. on top of that, because of his tariffs and everything else, he's now talking about -- not talking about, he's now got this socialist scheme to pay off huge agricultural interests who are impacted by, what? by his protectionism. by his tariff taxes. and as claire said, it's starting to upset rank and file farmers because, of course, all of that money, the majority of that money, of course, is not going to working farmers. it's going, not to farmers and

their families, it's going to the massive agricultural interests. the overwhelming majority of that money. so, yes, this is a big loser for donald trump, and he's starting to pay in the polls and, you know, as you know, even on the economy, the news is not good in these polls. >> that's a whole other layer. let's take a look at the polls released reading right from it for the first time since president trump was elected, more voters say that the national economy is getting worse rather than getting better. 37% saying it's getting worse. 31% saying it's getting better and 30% saying, it is staying the same. this compares to a june 11th, 2019 poll in which 23% of voters said the national economy is getting worse. 39% said it was getting better. 37% staying the same. people are feeling it. and so his words about the economy being stronger than ever aren't matching the reality that

they are seeing them. that is where voters -- that's where they -- that's where they veer away. >> and, sam, there's been a concern for some time among people inside the white house. over the past several weeks at least that a recession was probably coming or an economic downturn at the very least was coming and many people believe that's why the president has been acting so unmoored and why he snapped the way he did when china responded the way most experts would have predicted china was going to respond to its latest tariffs. >> that number was the one that jumped out to me immediately in this poll. the horse race numbers will go up and down. the democratic primary numbers will go up and down. but the view of trump on the economy changing like that has to be a big red siren inside the white house. and one of the things i think about in this case is some advice that stan greenberg, a

democratic pollster used to give to democrats. this was particularly true in 2010 about how to message on the economy. if you talk about the economy in too glowing of terms and say it's gangbusters, you risk offending those people who feel they've been left behind or feel like it's too uncertain for them. what trump has done is talked about the economy as the world's greatest economic engine, the marvel ever every world leader at the g7. an historic rebound. none of it's true but the big risk is if he talks about the economy in those terms, voters who don't feel the recovery, voters who don't feel the good economy, voters who don't have investments in the stock market necessarily are going to say, man, he's left me behind. in the q poll if it says one thing, voters are starting to feel like they're being left behind. the economy that trump touts really isn't getting better for him. if i were in the white house, it's not the head-to-head numbers. it's the economic numbers mika

mentioned. >> the numbers mika just read, once again, those numbers and the poll number that you're talking about here this morning prove the old axiom, people aren't stupid. they get it. because they lead a normal life. and for the past three weeks, millions of american families have been out shopping for back-to-school. and they havy to the president of the united states saying, china is paying for the tariffs, but they notice that sneakers cost $2 to $5 more a pair. made in china. they notice that the school bag they bought for their children costs maybe $3 more than it did last year. all sorts of school supplies made in china, shipped here, cost a little more. this is still a paycheck to paycheck economy. so they have doubts about the economy. okay? but those numbers that you're reading this morning, 54/38 biden in a matchup. biden ahead.

is there any way that you can ascertain or that we can ascertain how much are they set in cement as opposed to just disappearing over the next two weeks? >> yeah, that's the question. you think back to 2016, and one of the variables was that hillary clinton is the democratic nominee. her unfavorable rating went up and in the exit poll on election day it hit 55%. trump's was at 60%. trump was more unpopular than hillary clinton, but hillary clinton was at 55%. it was unpopular enough to create just a narrow enough path for donald trump to stitch together those three states. the question is, does biden's get to that level or does any democratic nominee's get to that level on election day in 2020? and if it does, the other thing you saw happen and the other thing trump needed in 2020 was the voters who didn't like either because there were a lot of them in 2016, broke trump's way. >> what is the odds that they can grow their base of angry old

white guys? >> growing the base doesn't look like it's happening. the question is, he got -- donald trump is president because a certain number of voters went into the voting booth and held their nose. they said already in 2016, i don't like him. i also don't like his opponent. i don't like her more than i don't like him. therefore, i'm going to vote for him. that's why -- the base, obviously, he had to have the base. the base alone wasn't enough in 2016. >> steve, we're, what, 13 months, 12 months away from the election. the general election. you see the horse race numbers of the democratic candidates. we see the 37% of how people feel about the economy. can you put that in historical context for us? have we seen anything like this before? what do you think this means for donald trump in 2020? >> again, it's tough -- the challenge with trump is you're always asking, is he the exception from what you've seen and what you know before. but, obviously, you can look at

past elections where if, and this is a big if heading into next year. if the economy were to take more of a turn in a negative direction, if assessments of the economy were to get worse, the most recent sort of example of a first term president facing re-election, 1992 is george h.w. bush against bill clinton. james carville putting that sign in little rock. it's the economy, stupid. think back 12 years before that. jimmy carter running against ronald reagan. dire economic statistics back then. that was the question ronald reagan asked in that final debate that maybe sunk jimmy carter. are you better off today than you were four years ago? and a week later, ronald reagan run 44 states. so the president, i think, is uniquely vulnerable on those assessments, on the economic conditions. that's a variable that wasn't there for donald trump in 2016. >> kareen, let me ask you your takeaway from the poll. a lot of data here. all the democrats trouncing or,

about four or five of the democrats trouncing donald trump. of course, joe biden by the biggest margin. but you look at the democratic field again. it does look like the monmouth poll is an outlier. and also, we've been showing it on our screen that more voters than not believe that the economy is actually not getting better. so what's your big takeaway from the polls we've shown today? >> the 37%, the economy, that's a big, big takeaway like many others have said. we have to remember that is the thing that trump's campaign has been hoping on, right, which is the economy pulling him through for the re-election. and when you have a 37% and we're 14 months away from his re-election, that's dangerous territory, but it's not surprising, right? the wheels are coming off the trump bus if you will. we have the economic policies

which are bad policy and stupid politics, right, with the trade war that he's led us into, with the trump tax cuts for billionaires. you name it. and also when you look at farmers, claire mentioned this. i just want to get back to this because donald trump can't win re-election without the midwest farmers. and farmers right now don't want a handout. they want to sell their crops. and donald trump is making that very, very difficult for them. and so this is where we are. when you look at that 37%, this is dangerous territory for donald trump and also the economy, the 37%, couple that with the doubling down on the racist kind of rhetoric. the racist campaign he's running. this is why we're seeing his numbers just dropping these last couple of weeks. >> yeah. so to button that up, and i want to toss to claire for final thoughts on this, but you make a great point. this is a guy whose brand was all about money. all about success. all about a better deal.

and so far, what people are seeing is a raw deal. and it just -- it goes directly to his so-called brand that many, you know, quite frankly, banked on. >> yeah, i think the cracking of the public perception of the economy is really the biggest takeaway of this poll. the other thing i want to point out is that money is not everything. tom steyer has spent millions and millions of dollars pasting himself all over tv screens of america for the last six months. and it couldn't even get him 2% in a poll. it is remarkable that the american people sometimes kind of get it. they get that just because a guy has made a lot of money doesn't mean that he is the one that we want carrying the flag. and i think it is interesting that we may be down to ten candidates on the debate stage

in just a few weeks. >> claire, let me ask you about that. for people who think that you can buy elections, obviously, what you said is true with tom steyer. he's having problems right now even getting up to 2% despite all the money and all the ads he's taken out. let's bring up another name we haven't heard in a very, very long time and that is howard schultz who was sure that he could come out and spend a lot of money and create an independent pathway moving forward. and i think most -- we haven't heard from him in months, and, you know, i know howard and have known him for a long time and like him, but, my gosh, it's hard to imagine a worse political campaign, a worse political launch, a more ill timed political launch, and a candidate who, again, might be a

nice guy. for those who know him, but just had a tin year. everything he did went badly. it proves you can't be a millionaire or billionaire and just buy the white house. it doesn't work that way. >> i think howard should have some coffee with tom steyer and talk about how they can use their resources to help us win the senate in 2020 which would do the most for climate change. would do the most for immigration reform, would do the most for stabilizing health care costs and that's where they could really be helpful here if they could help us win a few states in senate races next year. >> yeah, we might -- we haven't talked about howard schultz in a while, but, obviously, that went terribly wrong. didn't it? >> yeah, it did. to give howard schultz his due and compare him to tom steyer,

howard schultz at least built a business. he put together a really formidable business that is now international. so give him some credit there. tom steyer, he made his millions buying companies, selling companies, a lot of people, i assume, got laid off or cut. that's the way it goes in mergers and acquisitions, hedge fund guys. and you see, bottom line, no matter how much you spend and no matter where you spend it, you have to, if you're running for president of the united states, you have to convince people, listen, i can do this job. i'm ready to do this job. i can get it done for you, not for me. >> all right. steve kornacki and claire mccaskill. thank you both. what a fascinating discussion. still ahead on "morning joe," the immigration debate extends far beyond the border. it's shaping policy in washington. and sanctuary cities from coast to coast. our next guest is focussing on that part of the story, straight

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we'll bring the illegal -- i call them the illegals. they came across the border illegally. we'll bring them to sanctuary city areas and let that particular area take care of it, whether it's a state or whatever it might be. california certainly is always saying, oh, we want more people. and they want more people in their sanctuary cities. we'll give them more people. we can give them a lot. we an give them an unlimited supply. and let's see if they're so happy. they say we have open arms. they're always saying they have open arms. let's see if they have open arms. >> that was president trump in april attempting to clarify his tweets about reports that the white house sought to release, detained, undocumented immigrants only in sanctuary cities. joining us now, author and

immigrant rights advocate julisa. she has a new piece out entitled we need more sanctuary cities. and she joins us now. explain your article and exactly the president's policy as it stands no s now. >> i wrote this piece because earlier this month, ramon torres was detained, arrested on suspicion of a dui and ordered to be released the next day. and the ascension parrish police department did not release him for four more days because they wanted to confirm that, in fact, he was a u.s. citizen, even though he was carrying a driver's license from louisiana which is only given to people who are in the country legally. and so he was racially profiled and kept in jail for three days after the court ordered him to be released. and what it really brought into

question for me was what does happen to people who are undocumented who end up in local authority jurisdiction? and what happens to a lot of undocumented people is they get pulled over for a traffic violation and end up in local jail and get turned over to i.c.e. and get put into an i.c.e. detention camp or they get deported. and so what it really brought into question is what happens to these people and the need for more sanctuary cities that protects not only undocumented people from being turned over into i.c.e. for very minor crimes like a traffic infraction, but also that it would help to protect latino citizens from this type of racial profiling. >> hi there. this is kareen jean-pierre. i was just reading about your story. with everything going to on the southern border with kids being put in cages, families being separated, you came here when

you were 11 and you were undocumented, i believe, for 15 years. would love to hear a little bit about your -- how you got to where you got to if you can tell us and share that. >> sure. and thank you for asking about my own personal journey. i was very fortunate because i came to the u.s. on a tourist visa. and because of that, when i got married, i was able to adjust my immigration status. but i was undocumented for 15 years. and so i understand the fear. and one of the things i talk about a lot is having to drive without a driver's license because, in texas, where i grew up, undocumented people are not allowed to have driver's licenses or any type of formal state i.d. i remember getting in my car and driving and being so scared that any time i could get pulled over by police for doing, you know, maybe going a little bit above the speed limit or not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign

which we all do when we're in a hurry trying to get somewhere. and that fear of what happens to me if i get pulled over. the consequence for me wasn't, i might get a ticket. the consequence for me could be, i might end up in an i.c.e. detention center. that's why i advocate for immigrants now because i understand what that fear is like. i always say my story has a joyful ending. i'm now a united states citizen. i have had a really wonderful life here, which wasn't always that way, but now being on the other side of it, i want to advocate for our community and advocate for safer communities in the country that protect latinos and that protect immigrants. >> this is eddie. thank you for your piece. today marks the anniversary of the march on washington, august 28th, 1963. and during that march, there was a particular vision of america that was put forward, an idea of

who we are over and against the practices that really reveal the ugly underside of who we are. as you look out and you see donald trump's immigration policies, what vision of america is being represented through these policies. what will the call for more safe cities counter that vision? >> i've learned a lot from the civil rights movement of the 1960s. and it's very instructive to me in the work that i do now. i certainly do not believe that the america that we're seeing unfold at this present moment is the one that the civil rights leaders of the 1960s were fighting for. and in many ways, i think that donald trump has normalized this kind of behavior. when we talk about racial profiling, it's not anything new in this country, right? black men get racially profiled all the time. latinos get racially profiled

all the time. it wasn't very long ago that joe arpaio was found in contempt of court for profiling latinos because he suspected they may be illegal. and he was pardoned. and the reason he's emboldened to do that is because this president has normalized this kind of behavior. he's not only normalizing it but condoning it and he's the leader of that type of behavior. so certainly this is not the america that i would like to see. >> julisa, thank you so much. we definitely would like to have you come back and tell us more about what you're doing and your insights. we'll be reading your new piece on sanctuary cities. thank you very much. one other immigration story to tell you about this morning. incoming harvard student from

lebanon has been denied entry into the united states. 17-year-old ismael who is palestinian was turned away by immigration authorities after arriving in boston last week. according to the harvard crimson, he was allegedly asked about his religious practices and to unlock his phone and laptop. he told the crimson he was questioned for hours. he said in a statement after the five hours ended, she called me into a room and started screaming at me. she said that she found people posting political points of view that opposed the u.s. on my friends list. i responded that i have no business with such posts and that i didn't share or comment on them and told her that i shouldn't be held responsible for what others post. i have no single post on my timeline discussing politics. customs and border protection told nbc news that incoming freshmen -- the incoming freshman was deemed inadmissible

to the u.s. based on information discovered during the inspection and his visa has since been revoked. a harvard spokesperson said the university is working closely with the student's family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days. we will be following this. mike barnicle, your thoughts? >> well, a 17-year-old student incoming freshman at harvard university stopped at logan airport. he had a valid visa. stopped at logan airport. put on a flight back to lebanon because on his phone, on his social media feed there were apparently items from others, not from him, not friends of his, whatever, that the hearing officer disagreed with politically. so he's gone. this is just the tip of the iceberg in this problem because i.c.e., the matter what legitimate things that they, do and they do some legitimate things, a lot of legitimate things, they are now into

hospital emergency rooms. and if you're a refugee, if you're here illegally, you take your child to a hospital because the child has cystic fibrosis or an epileptic fit or anything like that, be wary. i.c.e. could be there and that kid and you, despite the illness, you're going back to where you came from. that's where we are in the united states of america. >> that's where we are. coming up -- what appears to be a crisis for the federal election commission which no longer has enough members to carry out its most pressing duties. we'll talk to the commission's chairman straight ahead on "morning joe."

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a long-serving gop appointee to the federal election commission, vice chairman matthew peterson is resigning.

the move announced on monday leaves what is supposed to be a six-member panel with just three commissioners and without a fourth person quorum needed to conduct business for the first time in 11 years. it comes as officials continue to sound the alarm over foreign interference in the upcoming election. joining us now, fec chairwoman ellen weintraub. thank you very much for coming back on the show. i think one of the concerns with this administration is that there are so many acting heads and temporary heads and unfilled positions in the state department. it's one of the ways leadership and order is diminished. what is going to be the impact of this void in the fec? >> thank you, mika, and thank you for your interest in the agency's functioning. i think what is really important for people to understand is that the agency will not be shutting down. we have a terrific staff of dedicated public servants who will continue to come to work every day and make sure the american people have access to

information about who is supporting the candidates and what they're spending their money on. we'll continue to follow the money. we will continue to pursue investigations that are ongoing. however, without a quorum of commissioners, we can't make decisions. we can't issue new rules. we can't issue advisory opinions. we can't conclude any enforcement actions. so if complaints are filed, the staff can accept those complaints and make -- prepare their recommendation memoranda for the commissions. tee it up so when we get a quorum we can pursue those complaints. however, nothing new is going to get initiated while we are without a quorum. >> ellen, hey. this is sam stein here. two things. you mentioned future complaints can get filed. they can't get adjudicated without a quorum, so can people just run rampant in their corruption until a fourth person is appointed?

and secondarily, what is the process for getting that fourth person and perhaps fifth and sixth appointed? is it about trump or about mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer putting together their list of appointees which is the traditional method where the democratic and republican senate leaders get their dhois fill out the six-party panel. >> the complaints get filed and the staff will, as i said, start the processing and there is a five-year statute of limitations. so no one should be under the delusion that because we are temporarily without a quorum that violations are not going to be pursued. it's going to add to our backlog of cases. we already have a backlog. i've been working very hard this year to try to reduce that backlog. and we were starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. so it's really frustrating now to find out that every week that goes by without a quorum, we're going to get further and further behind in our important enforcement mission.

so that is very frustrating to me and should be to the american people because, as they say, justice delayed is justice denied. in terms of the appointment process, no one is consulting me on this. the process is that the president nominates and the senate has to confirm. and they can do that very quickly if they are motivated to do so. commissioner peterson himself was confirmed only 12 days after he was nominated. and i think we have seen this year that the senate is quite capable in the judicial context of confirming a lot of people really quickly. so there is no excuse for the fact that the agency has been -- had two vacancies for as long as it has. one position has been open over two years. another for a year and a half, but if people get serious about this, they can make those -- the president can make the nominations. the senate can make those confirmations. and if it doesn't last too long, then the lack of quorum will not significantly impair agency

operations. it all depends how long it takes. >> how long have you been on the commission? >> a long time. since the end of 2002. >> so who appointed you? george w. bush? >> yes. >> so the difference between the activities of the commission between 2002 and, say, 2012 and the difference in the activities in the commission between, say, 2016 and today. what's the difference? >> well, when i first came to the commission and let me say, i'm not even in the top five of longest serving commissioners in the history of the agency, but when i first got there, there was really a much better attitude about commissioners reaching across the aisle and trying to find consensus on matters. trying to reach a four-vote consensus, even if nobody thought it was perfect. some place that four commissioners could land in order to get the important work done and make decisions that the regulated community and the public could trust and rely on and understand that this is what the rules are. this is what the law is.

and this is how to comply with them. and since 2008, things have gotten more polarrized on the commission. a lot less interest in working across the aisle. i'm sorry to say that. and the -- i have to say the other side has taken the position that they are not big fans of campaign finance law and if the three of them just stick together and vote no on a lot of things, then they can stop the agency from accomplishing very much. now it hasn't been uniform. we have had some good successes. and i look forward to working with anybody that gets appointed. and i'm hoping that they will come in with the right attitude looking to cooperate and have a collegial relationship in order for us to get our important job done. >> fec chair ellen weintraub, you are a plainspoken, practical and simply awesome. thanks for being on the show this morning. we'll be following this story. up next -- nba legend shaquille o'neal earned nearly

$300 million during his hall of fame career but it's his financial decisions after stepping off the court that's made him one of the wealthiest players are all time. now he's helping others grow their wealth. shaq, yes, shaq joins the conversation next on "morning joe." very exciting. and as we go to break what's happening at know your value.com. we're like on baby watch for kasie hunt. she's going to welcome her new baby to the world. we don't know if it's a boy or girl. and like a lot of working moms, kasie has a lot to think about. she's really busy. and she's paving the way for other women who have the job that she has and there hasn't been a mother doing capitol hill reporters. so we'll see how this works and support her every step of the way. we sat down for a wide-ranging conversation, including what i went through with my own new

family and how things worked and didn't work when i had my kids. go to know your value.com to read the piece and join the conversation. we'll be right back. every day, visionaries are creating the future. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. e-commerce deliveries to homes you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not, because you have e*trade whose tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad, get e*trade.

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today are held by contract workers, and that's had a huge impact on the current and future economy. joining us now is steady co-founder and ceo alan roseman, along with steady adviser and advocate, basketball hall of famer shaquille o'neal. the company is out today looking at data for one of america's fastest growing employment classes. and mike barnicle, i know you're having a shaq attack right now. >> he's one of the most insightful people to come out in professional athletics in my memory in any major league sport. i'm going to ask you about the gig economy and what steady is doing, and we're going to get to adam for the details on it, but

it's notoriously unstable, i think, for a lot of part-time workers. what are you doing and how is it helping them? >> it's very unstable. when i first met adam, he said, mr. shaq, how would you like to help people have a more sustainable income? i said, what do you mean? so he kind of taught me about the gig economy and i didn't know it had a title. i went back to my childhood where my father had to work two or three jobs. he was an army reserve, he was a truck driver and he worked as a coach in a gym to make ends meet. so when i met adam, i told him i would like to be an adviser. doing our research, we would like to go out -- me personally, i would actually go and sit with people and i would just explain. hey, it's tough out here in this economy, i can't get a job, i'm looking for gigs, i have to work two or three jobs just to pay house notes. or some people have jobs but they want to get a gig to do

extra stuff, like go on a vacation. so adam and his company, we want to help people, like i said earlier, build their sustainable income. >> tell us about the company and the root of the idea, how it took shape. >> the root of the idea is i grew up similar to shaquille with my single mother who worked incredibly hard to make ends meet for myself and my little sister. fast-forward 30 years and my father in retirement in savannah, georgia working very hard, right, to pay the bills, working long past his retirement years. so i started to dig into how prevalent were these challenges american workers were facing, and came to the conclusion pretty quickly that we've got a big problem on our hands. i think the latest statistic is 43% of the work force today has only one source of income, and that's supposedly in this wonderful economic climate, lowest unemployment we've ever had. but what do we have ahead of us? we have the uberization

enterprise where more technologies are being put in the hands of employers that are better able to meet supply and demand. what does that mean? the supply stinks. then you have the process of automation ahead of us. throw all of that into this potential end of this wonderful upturn, and the picture doesn't look so pretty. >> so you have all these folks talking about the lowest unemployment numbers ever for african-americans, you're talking about how great it is. how might steady help folk who are hustling out here stabilize their income? the picture is bleaker than what folks are saying. >> it absolutely is. it's a long road, right? so today you simply go to the app, you enter your zip code. you see a whole list of opportunities that you can make extra income, right? the issue is not unemployment, the issue is underemployment. that's what roughly 70 million americans are facing today. you also provide your bank account which provides us a

tremendous amount of data which helps us derive our gig data. all that data tells us how much people are earning, what audiences do they sit in in terms of a look-alike audience so we can tell people, here's the work you can best do to fill your income gaps. >> when i first teamed up with steady, i wanted to ensure that they made the app very, very simple. no complication, and we went through it many, many times and broke it down, having people come in and say what they would like to see on the app, and i think right now it's perfectamundo. >> my question is the flip side of eddie's question which is how do we make sure that workers are treated fairly in a gig economy? >> it's a very difficult question, right? the gig economy is a derivative of the advancement of technology. it's driving efficiencies. it's having labor become

realtime. when i look at the gig economy, most people think of it as uber and lyft and doordash. those are the technology first platforms. but if you look at walmart, you look at amazon, you look at home depot employees there are working on a more progressive basis in the same way you're working for a gig platform. their employment is becoming on demand but shrinking their hours. if you look at our million-plus members on our platform, roughly 35% of those who work for walmart also work at amazon. they're not getting enough hours at walmart and they have to pick up the extra hours. >> so with the app, you just go to the app store and type in steady? >> that's exactly right. >> it's as simple as you say it is? even i could understand it? >> even i could understand it. >> wow. well, this is great, and the only thing i know sam stein is a little concerned about is that his twitter handle picture is

yowm ing. should have be should have been shaq. but whatever. you can download the app for free from the app store and google shaquille o'neal. adam roseman, thank you very much for all your help and the story. final word this morning, should i give it to sam stein? >> why not? >> sam, go. >> you kicked me from one legend to another basketball legend. i was an amazing three-point shooter in the c league, so the segue seems natural. despite everything trump is talking about with this gangbusters economy, there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty out there. the quinnipiac poll this morning shows the forecast on the economy is bad news for the president politically, but it

also reflects a bigger amount of uncertainty out there for the american public. that is going to be causing a lot of tumultuousness in our society for the next couple months. >> well put as we look ahead. that does it for us this morning. chris jansing picks up the coverage right now. >> mika, thank you so much. i'm chris jansing in for stephanie ruhle. it is wednesday, august 28. here's what's happening. with only 12 hours before the official deadline, it seems like no other democrat will make it on the debate stage. ten have qualified, but two who were hoping would put them over the top will instead be wautchig from the sidelines. the polls show joe biden is still holding pretty steadily in the lead, even though elizabeth