is sort of both sides decide to de-escalate a little bit and punt it beyond 2020. not sure that would have the economic impact that the president wants. >> live in washington, d.c., jim vandehei. we'll be reading axios a.m. in a bit. you can go to signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. "morning joe" starts right now. we have budgets since we came into the administration, since the election, 2016, since january 20th of 2017. >> is he okay? just 19 words, but they seemed really tough to get out. >> i thought it was sort of like -- >> what's going on there? >> good morning, everybody. definitely not that. welcome -- >> that was random, but i liked

it. >> yeah. it was very wayward. it's tuesday, september 3rd. with us we have -- >> shouldn't we come in with like boston and more than a feeling for radio free tom? i woke up this morning and the summer is gone. >> the hurricane or perhaps the poland, congratulations, congratulations to poland. >> because there was a lot to congratulate them for donny deutsch. september 1st, you know, 1939, on that day for the next 50 years they were enslaved by nazis or communists so i can understand why the president said congratulations on the anniversary. >> that makes sense. a landmark day, something that the president would point to and be excited about. >> i guess the options weren't great. with us we have white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lemire. senior adviser at moveon.org and an msnbc contributor, karine jean-pierre. donny deutsch is here, preeminent branding and marketing expert. did he write that?

>> i made fun of the name. but saturday night politics they give him a summer run. knocks it out of the park. >> yeah. >> doubled cnn's ratings. >> in households, exactly. >> that's what -- that's what the older dudes look at, households. me, i'm like britney spears, right? sort of the '90s thing. how many britney spears fans -- but what a great run. a lot of weeks you're doubling our main competitor at cnn. i mean -- >> it was a great run. here's the thing. in the national interest i think after this summer it was too much. it was very disconcerting to the president. you know? he had tweeted about it a few times. it was unnerving to him, and sunday mornings were rough on him as it is. >> listen, we're doing the summer thing. we have been a ratings success. >> yes. >> let's just give him a couple -- >> give him a few weeks back. >> a breather. >> that's it. really in the national interest

and -- i feel very patriotic. >> also with us associate editor of "the washington post" and political analyst eugene robinson. >> eugene is very thoughtful. >> yes. >> so gene, i don't know -- do i warn your family in south carolina? i mean -- >> i don't know. >> warn my family in florida. do i warn mika's family in maine? this hurricane is crazy, isn't it? >> it is crazy. i have never seen one that just sat. i mean, you know, you look at -- i compulsively look into the national hurricane center's forecast and the last -- all day yesterday it was just stationary. i have never seen that. so everybody is waiting for it to make this sweeping turn to the right and go up off the coast. and it just seems not to want to do what the forecasters say it would do, which it doesn't seem to want to do anything. maybe it will follow that path

and the impacts on u.s. main land will not be that great. maybe. >> yeah. >> or maybe it will do something else. i'm not sure anybody is that confident in the predictions at this point. >> yeah. except of course the one man who is always confident in his predictions, bill karins. >> well, of course. >> how about we get a real meteorologist. >> yeah, we have been doing this for a long time, bill, you and me. >> and this was -- >> from the beginning, you have to credit meteorologists and, you know, people like yourself. you said from the very beginning this one would be impossible to predict and of course while parts of florida may be spared, tragedy, just absolute tragedy in the bahamas. the worst case scenario, historic cat 5 storm just sitting over -- >> nothing. >> never heard of it going 1 mile an hour. >> yeah, it's been in the same

spot -- this is a six-hour loop, but i could have it for 18 hours. it's shrinking and the storm is finally weakening, but 185 miles an hour winds down to 120 in 36 hours over great abaco and grand bahama. they don't have a whole lot left. so we'll see that. we haven't seen a lot of pictures from freeport yet because the storm has been too close to it. we'll hopefully see that later on today. here's the latest, 120 miles an hour winds, still a category 3 and still a major hurricane. might as well circle this, it's been that way for 24 hours, stationary. but today it is expected to drift. we don't have a lot of rain bands in florida. we expect this to stay off the coast so here's the forecast path. about 80 to 100 miles due east of the entire east coast of florida so we can get some strong gusts and scattered power outages but we won't see the high winds at the beaches. we will see some rain squalls

moving through here and there. storm surge could still be a problem. you have the big storm that will pile the water up. so if you have coastal interests and that's why they have a lot of evacuations taking place. it doesn't weaken much after this. over maine a pretty strong storm, all the way up to the south carolina coast. if you have interest in south carolina and eastern north carolina, you still have the possibility of a direct landfall from a category 2 hurricane which is nothing to sneeze at. you can get considerable damage, potential for storm surge and also a lot of heavy rain throughout the areas. then our friends up here in cape cod have been staring at this lately too. right now, only nantucket and cape cod is in the cone of uncertainty. maine is out of it and then it looks like it will into nova scotia next weekend. so we're not done with this yet. i know, it's one of those storms, it can't get out of here soon enough. when we see the pictures later

on today from the northern bahamas islands it will look like the towns in the mid wrest that got hit by a tornado. >> thank you very much. now to politics and president trump is doubling down on wrong information about the hurricane despite being publicly corrected by the national weather service. it started when he tweeted on sunday that alabama would quote most likely be hit much harder than anticipated. the national weather service tweeted that alabama will not see any impacts from dorian. we repeat, no impacts from hurricane dorian will be felt across alabama. the system will remain too far east. trump then went back to twitter to claim that what he posted about alabama was true. adding quote, under certain original scenarios it was in fact correct that alabama could have received some hurt. always good to be prepared.

i mean -- >> jonathan, so -- >> why would we even -- >> words matter when you're president of the united states. you just can't scare an entire state. >> no. >> the next great threat to alabama will be clemson if they play them again in the playoffs, that's it. >> hopefully for you it will go better this time. yeah, the second in my seventh geography beat, but i can put alabama on the map. there's some wind that will give alabama some trouble from the storm but this is a president who once again can never acknowledge any sort of error or mistake. it's what he says. everyone else is wrong around him. he has missed the point as you just said that like his words do matter. he's the president of the united states. anything he says or tweets can move markets, can influence global capitals and can scare residents or an entire state. after being told he was incorrect. he wouldn't back down. >> he's a low information guy, gene. facts don't matter to him. we are talking about the poland

tweet, congratulations to poland. he'll try to give a spin on that. but it was interesting after he was caught talking history he changed the subject to something he was more comfortable with. you know, he's just -- he doesn't know -- he's not good on facts. he's not good on history. he's not good on the constitution. >> no. >> and 40% of americans love him for it. >> yeah, 40% will stick with him no matter what crazy thing he says. i mean, it really is remarkable though because you know the national weather service had to issue a tweet, correcting the president's earlier tweet. saying no no no. alabama is not in danger and then after being corrected, after the record had been set straight, he insists on his first erroneous version of the truth of where the hurricane was going to go.

and i guess people get -- some people get numb to it. i don't know why anybody would like that in particular. especially residents of alabama. but why people would like that, i guess they just plain look past it. i had trump supporters say what does it matter? what does it matter that he lies all the time? >> but stuart varney -- >> makes my head explode. >> but he saw stuart varney on fox business probably saying that donald trump's never told a lie before in his life. so what's this? and we're trying to get to the first story but there's so much misinformation and i guess this is -- it sort of follows -- a good friend of mine was trying to tell me that 300 miles of wall have been built by donald trump. he's kept his word. he's building the wall. he said fox news even says that's not true. but you just can't talk to people about facts if they're in

for donald trump. but here's stuart varney and one of the more depressing clips of the weekend. >> i do believe he lies virtually every time he opens his mouth. >> give me an example. >> i believe, stuart -- i'll give you an example just from yesterday and even his staff, stuart, admitted that he lied this week when he said there were high level phone calls between the united states and china. trump said that repeatedly. his staff came out yesterday and admittedly admitted that the president of the united states lied to the world to manipulate the markets. i have a problem with that. >> they -- that's not a lie. let's not get technical. no, it's not a lie. if the man says and he did that high level talks had been held with china that is not a lie. they were held with china. >> stuart, he said there were

high level phone calls with chinese officials. his staff admitted that was not true. that he lied in order to manipulate the market. >> okay. give me another one. give me another one. that doesn't work. >> he said -- hey, stuart, really you don't believe that's a lie? >> no, i don't. >> you don't? >> i really object to you saying to me and you know it is, stuart. i do not know it is -- please don't bring me to your nonsense. >> stuart, do you believe this president lies? >> no. >> you don't believe he's ever lied? >> he exaggerates and spins. >> okay. do you believe he's ever told the american people a lie? >> no. >> i canceled my subscription to "the washington post" because they have it at 10,000. >> the thing is -- >> whoa. just to throw himself away like that? >> we actually -- i mean, we're old enough to remember that guy, cnn money. he was a respected money guy, and here this is like -- this is

like a comical version of 1984. if they decided to do 1984 the comedy, it would -- i mean, talk about double speak. >> you know, i'm not a psychologist. you just wonder a guy like that -- have they somehow delusionally talked themselves into it or is it the performance art? they do, this is what i do, this is not really news this is like theater? >> yeah, karine, i can't get my arms -- he knows he's lying and not only that, he knows that we know he is lying. i will go back and quote david geffen once again. the clintons when they lied, they were really good liars. you would say to yourself, we know they're lying, but i'm not exactly sure how they're lying on this one. they're hiding the ball, i don't know where it is. they keep moving the cups around so fast i can't pick up the right one. it's all so confusing. but you knew the clintons were lying.

and it took three or four years to figure out how they were lying. these people are really, really bad liars. >> well, i think it's for the audience of one, right? who watches consistently is donald trump. they are performing for donald trump. and they are also sold and bought in for donald trump. they are in the pocket of donald trump. a lot of it is because, you know, he does what he -- he does what they have been dreaming of. whether it is his policies that really -- you know, whether it's a tax cuts, whether it is the deregulating, there are things that they're happy about. that's the thing. they know that he is watching and they are performing for that is the bottom line for them. >> and gene, the problem is that for that audience of one, you have tens of millions of americans who believe it. you know, this is -- this gets so laborious. we used to do this all the time

when barack obama would do something and say if a republican did this, they would get killed. >> yeah. >> well, here we are once again now saying if barack obama had lied about calls with the chinese and the next day his staff admitted that they lied to try to sway markets, impeachment proceedings would start. mr. speaker, you have weakened our trust. the words of the president of the united states. >> yeah. >> and the good people of this country, it's market manipulation. i will tell -- i'm telling you, impeachment proceedings would begin that very day. and here, they're going, wait, okay he admitted he's lying but i'm not going to admit that they admitted he was lying. >> if barack obama had done like

one day's worth of the trump presidency, he would be so impeached. you know? they would have gone absolutely crazy. that stuart varney pitch was like the monty python dead parents sketch, you know? >> dead, dead? not dead. >> that bit, no, it's not. >> he's sleeping. exactly. well, you know, mika today is of course the day -- tuesday after labor day. >> right. >> summer's over. >> yeah. >> politics heats up. >> politics heats up. official start of the campaign. >> unofficial start of the election season. >> we are just one year and two months away from election day and president trump can only hope he fares better this fall than he did this summer. not a good summer. as "the washington post" noted over the weekend, many of trump's advisers and outside allies privately consider his summer to be a period of missed opportunity and self-sabotage and i would say that's probably putting it nicely. recent poll numbers appear to back all of this up.

the latest national quinnipiac poll shows joe biden, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, kamala harris and pete buttigieg all leading trump by significant margins in potential 2020 match-ups. all of them. last month's fox news poll also found the president trailing each democratic challenger by at least six points and biden by 12 points. as political analyst harry boyd points out no incumbent president has ever polled this poorly against his likely challengers at this point in the campaign. since at least world war ii. >> so you know, jonathan lemire, i will repeat it again for the thousandth time. it's just remarkable to me that donald trump could be running as -- on the economy. i mean, he could be running on low unemployment rate. he could be running on so many other things. but he just -- he can't stay out

of his own way. he has to pick fights and, you know, this is the summer of the send them back. the fascist chants from the audience, from the crowd, send her back. and that's -- i mean, any historian will tell you that's exactly what that was. and you can go through all of the chaos that you had to cover all summer. you just sit there and like we have been saying all along here, why doesn't the guy just keep his head down. talk about the economy. stop lying. stop provoking fights that he doesn't have to provoke. he would have -- he'd be in the 50s right now. >> those are the questions his advisers ask every day. the summer before the election so a year out that summer is a time for the president to start setting the narrative, start setting the agenda, start sending your message for the re-election campaign. >> now, were they planning to do that? i talk to his advisers, oh, this

is great, listen, we're going -- like when i spoke to their advisers during the summer, beginning of the summer, oh, we going to make inroads in the black community, in the hispanic community, we're spending all this time and money doing a, b, c and d and right after they tell me, that's when he starts his attacks on the four members of congress, women of color. >> that was the plan. the plan was to try to make inroads with certain groups and tout the economy. now, the economy has slowed down some and that's obviously a warning sign for this president going forward. but that's still a relative strength for what he can pitch for re-election. ty for this president to ever stay on message and he gets sort of sucked into petty feuds and tim >> but, you know, the debra messing thing, if you don't let the star of "will & grace" run

over you then no one in the g7 will respect you. can't go to doral, hold your head up high. >> joe, the economy is not just softening. every single sign of an inverted yield curve, manufacturing is down for first time people -- more people believe the economy is getting worse. here's another thing. copper down 13%. that is the ultimate tell because that's where all of the construction comes from. every single sign you see has gone backwards that's why you see a very disoriented and panicked donald trump. >> you know, karine, so the economy is softening, but he still could have talked about how strong the economy was over the past three years. he would be up in the 50s without picking all of the small petty fights and he would have used g7 instead of -- who did he attack at the g7? the bizarre tweets, all the bizarre attacks. that's when you get together with your allies and say, okay,

germany, your economy is slowing down. looks like our economy is slowing down. china we're in a trade war, what do we all do to work together to get the world economy rising? and he's just incapable of doing that. >> he's incapable of doing it. he doesn't at know how to be president. you know, in many ways when you think about the night of the election and how when he stood on stage and how surprised and shocked he looked, he didn't think he was going to win. and i think the problem is -- i remember, i'm still young enough to remember that republicans were telling me don't worry about it. you know, when it -- when the time comes, when he goes through that transition, he will become presidential. and unfortunately with him it never happened. he's gotten to the point, joe, where he's not even a president for his base. if you think about the trade war, if you think what's happening with farmers, he's not even helping his own base. yes, he's doing this like red meat all the time. and it's consistent.

that's -- i think that's where he's comfortable but his policies are actually hurting the very people who put him into office. >> well, jonathan, i mean, that's the thing that again i just wonder why a strong conservative walsh freedom is out there, but other than walsh freedom why somebody that's a sitting member of congress or a governor doesn't go out and say, hey, listen, i'm a conservative. and a good friend to joe scarborough, don't say that, that won't help. i'm for balanced budgets, free trade. i don't believe in tariffs. i'm going to help the farmers by opening up markets so they can sell their soybeans and their grain all over the world. i'm like ronald reagan i want free markets and yes, we're going to protect our border. nobody is going to come in here unless we want them to come in here. but we're not doing to stomp on

legal immigration, because as ronald reagan said that's our ticket forward. we'll be reaganite and we're going to push back on an ex-kgb agent. we're not going to let them even if mitch mcconnell wants them to, we're not going to let hem interfere with american democracy. that's not a hard message for a republican. a conservative, to deliver in the republican primary and they'd get 35%. >> a republican wouldn't make, but who could make a dent in this president as he goes into the general election. there would be an opening there. but no republican wants to step up for fear of the president's twitter account. for fear of his still extreme popularity among republicans where he's at 80, 85% sometimes. and this summer, the president is -- he has been flailing. because of the economy, because he has been sucked into the petty distractions and it ends appropriately where he canceled a trip to poland because he wanted to monitor this hurricane and instead, instead of projecting leadership --

>> he's golfing. >> yeah. alabama. >> he spent both of the last few days at his golf course in virginia for hours at a a time on the links. >> golfing and tweeting that the states that aren't going to be hit by hurricanes are going to be hit by hurricanes. still ahead on "morning joe" we have mentioned it a couple of times. president trump congratulates poland on the 80th anniversary of headlines like this. germans invade and bomb poland. britain mobilizes. we'll talk about his peculiar message on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of world war ii. and tomorrow we'll speak with former defense secretary james mattis here on set. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. creating the future. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work.

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what we need is action. we have a failure of supposed

leaders to act. >> we need to set a goal. my goal is we need to cut deaths by 80% from gun violence. that includes suicide, domestic violence, mass shootings, neighborhood shootings. and not rest until we have done it. >> the president has no intestinal fortitude to deal with this. he knows peter. even his instinct was to say, yeah, we're going to do something -- what is he doing? come on. this is disgraceful. >> authorities say the gunman who killed seven people in a west texas drive by shooting spree on saturday was on a long spiral of going down before being fired from his job on the morning of the shooting. according to officials, the shooter then made rambling phone calls to local police dispatch and to the fbi's tip line. he made no threats but made statements about some of the atrocities that he felt he had

gone through. 15 minutes later, the killer was pulled over in a traffic stop when the deadly rampage began. authorities have not said how the gunman obtained the ar-style weapon used in the shooting, but say he had previously failed a federal background check for the firearm. texas governor abbott tweeted that the gunman had a criminal history and didn't go through a background check for the weapon used in odessa. he did not elaborate and a spokesman referred questions to the texas department of public safety which didn't immediately respond. >> so how did he get this ar -- i guess it was an ar-15, how did he get the weapon, we don't know. we need to know. i wonder when the governor is going to let us know that. this is the same governor as texas continues to face one tragedy after another was upset several years ago and tweeted that he was upset that

california bought more guns than texans. so gene, these mass shootings, they have become an american epidemic. >> daily. >> yeah. >> and they have become tragically for the good people of texas they have become an epidemic in the state of texas while their politicians say we can't do anything to help. we can't do anything to help. >> yeah. >> i guarantee you if it was a muslim radical firing these ar-15s instead of white americans, they would be figuring out something to do other than offering bland statements. but this is -- this is an epidemic, american epidemic and the ar-style weapons are the carriers of this disease. look at a dozen or so of the shootings from odessa to sandy

hook all the way back to aurora. it's one ar-15 slaughter after another. you talk to people in the military, they will tell you there's only one purpose for these guns -- it's to slaughter human beings and that's what the guns are being used for. >> that's exactly right. you talk to doctors in those emergency rooms about what these weapons do to the human body and it's -- this is not like csi with the neat little entrance and exit wound. these guns are designed to rip bodies apart and that's what they do. the damage is just devastating. and so, you know, we talk about all of those killed in these mass shootings. those who are injured are -- suffer horrific injuries that often take years and years to

recover from. and sometimes are never the same. it's -- this is -- it is shocking that this society tolerates, that we tolerate this increasing pace of mass slaughter in public places all over the country. right now concentrated in texas. and we do nothing about it. this dam will break at some point and we -- >> we keep saying that. >> well, it actually is. >> but i don't know when. >> all three houses -- >> when we get all three houses. >> it is actually breaking, gene. you look at polls that show 90% of republicans, 89% of republicans support background checks. a majority of republicans support banning these military style weapons. a majority of nra members support these rational gun

safety laws. let's put up this full screen again. just look at these -- all of these slaughters in america. these are people being slaughtered in america while they're going to church, while they're going to country music festivals. >> schools. >> while they're going to school. while they're sending little first graders to school. while they're driving their 17-month-old babies down a highway. aurora, ar-15. dayton, ar-15. odessa, ar-15. >> yeah. >> orlando, ar-15. parkland, ar-15. las vegas, ar-15. tree of life, ar-15. sandy hook, ar-15. cc, ar 15. the texas church, ar-15. san bernardino, ar-15.

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so we have a couple questions -- of course barnicle

is here so we can talk about the red sox. first of all, first of all, though, mika keeps asking about the press. >> white house press office, what is it? that's an important function of the white house communicating with the american people. >> yes. yes, dear. yes. >> do they have one? >> they technically have one. it is rather limited in staffing and in scope right now. the press secretary is stephanie grisham who was appointed back in june. she has yet to hold an on camera briefing, she only has done a few televised meetings. >> any press -- >> there are a few deputy press secretaries who still communicate including one who tweeted yesterday in a strange tweeted suggested that the vice president is in ireland, meeting the prime minister there, who is openly gay and the tweet from the deputy press secretary for was for those of you who thinks mike pence is openly gay -- >> he's going to meet the leader

of the country that he's visiting. >> yeah. >> not breaking news there. that you're meeting the leader -- >> where is pence staying? >> we can talk about that too. >> quite a leading question by barnicle. troublemaker. >> he put it -- >> he's staying hours away. staying on the other coast. in ireland. >> yeah. here's why. he's staying at the president's golf resort, and dublin is in the east coast of ireland. he's flying back and forth because the president had suggested to him, this is according to pence's own staff on air force 2 talking to the reporters there the president had suggested he stay at his golf coast out west and the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the taxpayers. >> and the president is making a lot of money. >> he is. >> off of the trip. >> okay. so i'll fill in some details here. mike pence filled in for the president including this stop in ireland where he stayed at trump

property. as ben jacobs reported quote rather than spend the night in dublin, pence will stay at a trump owned resort on the other side of ireland and commute for the day on air force 2. while aboard the plane, the vice president's chief of staff -- >> can you believe this? >> do you know the cost of that? >> i know. >> -- was questioned about those travel decisions. he was asked, quote, did president trump ask vice president pence to stay at the property, short answer, quote, i don't think it was a request like a command. i think it was a suggestion. >> a suggestion from the president. >> the follow-up to that was quote, what does that mean? again, here's marc short's quote. it's like like well, he's going -- because that's where the pence family is like from. it's like, well, you should stay at my place. on sunday, poland -- >> hold on a second. but mike, so here you have the -- again, it's all out in the open. everything is out in the open here.

the lies are all out in the open. like i said the clintons, they worked to keep it -- keep it hidden. their lies. they weren't quite as obvious. but everything is out in the open. you have the attorney general going to -- going to have a christmas party at the trump hotel. $30,000 for a christmas party. those are some expensive hors d'oeuvres. and now get the vice president of the united states on official business being told by the president of the united states to stay at his hotel so he gets more money in his pocket and mike pence is flying air force 2 back and forth from meetings which costs the american taxpayers millions of dollars. >> yeah. it's probably i would estimate a 20 minute flight in the air. >> yeah. >> from the west coast of ireland to outside dublin. but the larger issue is look,

jonathan and other members of the washington press corps, the media in general, have done a very good job tracking the outrageous conflicts of interest in terms of money into the president's pockets. and yet, the country seems largely asleep on this level of corruption in a presidency. to me -- it's really surprising to me that you don't hear about it. >> so true. >> nobody says anything about it. it's as if it's another outrageous expectation that is just, oh, well, that's who he is. >> it's all about the money, gene. we have said it every day. everything he does is all about the money. his relationship with the russians, it doesn't make sense. he's bending over backwards for the saudis which you know all the countries that he said gave him hundreds of millions of dollars in the past are the countries he's nice to. you can talk about the philippines as well. a brutal dictator there and yet, he's -- he has got a close

relationship because he's got a property there and here we have him telling his vice president that instead of staying where the summit is and the meetings are, stay on the other coast in my hotel. >> right. and as you said, it's all about the money. you know what this -- okay. so this is just days after he -- he announced that he wants to have the g7 meeting this year at his resort in miami. at the doral, which also would put a bunch of money in his pocket. what these two things tell me is that there must be a real cash crunch in the trump organization. cash flow must not be good because he's out there not just drumming up business but actively giving business to his properties. and, you know, like you said it's all about the money and i think he's keeping track of the money and it must not be going very well for him to be going to these lengths to try to get cash

flow. >> well, as "the washington post" david fahrenthold has reported, you know, doral is losing a lot of money and it's one of the most important properties. >> bed bugs? doral bedbugs. >> was doral -- bedbugs? >> 2016. >> when i hear doral i think of bedbugs. >> that's very good. >> yes. so meanwhile, trump allies are spending money on targeting reporters. joining us now cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vandehei. what are you looking at this morning and who are they going after? >> yeah. a group of trump allies are raising $2 million to target very specifically reporters and editors at the "new york times," "the washington post" and other mainstream outlets with the stated purpose of trying to discredit these reporters in addition to the institutions

themselves. this is unusual. it is an escalation of what he's been doing in going after the media. this targets reporters -- >> can i stop you there? but isn't this what hillary clinton's ally did with media matters? i have heard about this story. it sounds a lot like media matters. >> media matters no doubt did this on the left and other conservative groups have gone after the media more specifically -- or more broadly. what's different here is when you read the fund-raising pitch it is really to go after the individual reporters and really try to damage their credibility in public. to work with what they call friendly media outlets. to get this information into the public's sphere during the election to help trump and to hurt those reporters. and it comes -- we also reported over the weekend that they plan to escalate their attacks not just on the reporters but also on the big social media platforms. that their polling is showing that these attacks of bias whether it's mainstream media or social media continue to stir up the base. and the problem with all of t s

this, the problem with the last couple years is you have a huge segment of the country who doesn't believe a damn thing that any reporter reports any longer and when you lose connection to the truth, like governance will be virtually impossible. it's not like the truth snaps back it's not like i believe everything. >> they deal a war on social media. so many of trump's supporters don't read newspapers. based on surveys they get their news from facebook. >> facebook. they do. al. >> i mean, according to surveys. i know a lot of trump supporters read newspapers but you can say that about people on the left too. far left. a lot of people just stay in their little cubbyholes ideologically and go to the -- >> where they want to go. >> to their corner of facebook where they want to go. >> look at the spending on facebook, trump is better at using facebook right now than the democratic contenders. spends a lot more money. knows how to use the precision

of the platforms so on the one hand, he utilizes it and spends a lot of money. but they're finding if they could say bias, bias, bias, everywhere you look, everything you listen to, everything you read and it's bias, believe nothing, believe nothing, believe nothing, the polls show it works. like if you pound a message that long into the heads of one party, suddenly you look at the polls and 60, 65% don't believe anything. i think that is going to be one of the lasting consequences of this era. how do you govern, how do you run a country when no one believes anything that doesn't amplify their own views? we have yet to really dig into like what are the root causes of that? how much is social media to blame, how much is to trump to blame, our stupid reading habits to blame? it will be hard to get things back on track. >> mike, this is something that -- this didn't start with donald trump. this is something that mika and i have been talking about to audiences for a decade now. that you wake up in the morning, they turn on the news channel

that reinforces all of their existing believes and prejudices, get in the car and talk on the talk radio station that does the same thing. when they get home from work or during work they go to the social media platform, in their corner of the social media platform. you're a liberal, that's the corner you're in. if you're a conservative, that's the corner you're in. by the end of the day, i have been saying this for a decade, by the end of the day, the person who thinks differently than you politically is not somebody who has different views than you on issues. they're your enemy. and this is -- this has been a long time coming. >> all of that is true, joe. with one stark, naked, dangerous difference. this time it's being led by the commander in chief of the united states of america. and he has injected a poison into our system and jim is absolutely right. i mean, some of the things that have occurred we talk about it a lot. how long will it take to undo the damage that's already been done?

a lot of it can probably be repaired by the next president within a couple of years, two or three years. one term, who knows. this is different. >> totally different. >> this is a virus that he has planted in our culture that is going to be long standing. it's been incredibly successful already and it will continue to be successful. >> but joe is talking about different views on issues. it's now different views on facts and your friend thinking that there's been 300 miles of wall built and this is a smart person. >> oh, stuart varney, one -- >> he's literally arguing fact. you need to take him to -- like what do we do at this point when you have a presidency and a whole personality cult arguing facts, not issues. i'm all for a huge debate on issues. i'd love that. but this is different. this is a poison. >> maybe saluting 1939 poland, because basically, the day we do not have a free press that isn't

in any way credible a lot of it starts to fall. that is it. >> it is i think one of the things that really does stagger me is there are so many people who were smart and educated and who will believe -- >> anything. >> the lies. >> anything he says. >> again, this example of our really smart, really good friend who swore that donald trump has built 300 miles of wall and he's building it fast and he's -- i mean, turn on fox news. fox news will tell you he hasn't built -- >> depends on who -- >> he hasn't built any of the wall. how do you combat that? >> you know what, that's a great question for jim vandehei. jim, we have to go, but why don't you think about -- >> i'll be back tomorrow. >> we'll get you next time. and are the brewers going to make the playoffs? >> they were a month ago, they're not now. hell no. the packers will win on thursday. >> what's that? >> the packers will win on

thursday. take what you can get. >> you take what you can get. >> jim, thank you. coming up "the new york times" has an important question for the democratic front-runner joe biden. does biden want to be doing this? mark leibovich joins us with the answer ahead on "morning joe." wednesdays. at outback, they're for steak and beer. walkabout wednesdays are back! get a sirloin or chicken on the barbie, fries, and a draft beer or coca-cola - all for just $10.99. hurry in! wednesdays are for outback.

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we now get to the most important story of today. the boston red sox. mark barnicle it's september. last year, lemire and i were complaining that we were on our way to becoming the best -- the worst, 108-win ball game because we had no pitching staff. cora cobbled it together, how is he doing to do it to this year? especially since we did nothing at trading deadline? >> the red sox are on track to win 24 straight games. and i'm assured -- i'm assured that they're going to win 4 straight games. they're going to overtake two teams. they're going to overtake the --

>> i can see where this is going. >> they're going to make the wild card and then watch out. >> so jonathan, you know, last year alex cora really just did an extraordinary job in september cobbling together a very bad bullpen. >> yes. >> he really did. and thus a historic run. this year, my gosh. we lost our two top relievers. they didn't replace him with anything. what do we do? >> it was a bad bullpen last year that happened to get hot in september and they -- >> you're wrong. it was a bad bullpen that was replaced by starting pitchers. >> right. supplemented by starters in the playoffs, that's right. this year we have seen a cataclysmic failure and you have to assume it hurt them in the clubhouse. it was a vote of no confidence. >> we lost seven games in a row and there was a reason, it was a vote of no confidence. mike, why did that happen?

>> well, it happened because of the general manager who fell down on the job, dave dombrowski. there's the truth. >> there we go. scapegoat. name it. >> it's true. it's true. and he didn't have a lot of people to trade. >> well, you know, the other problem they don't have a lot of money. look at liverpool, liverpool just -- >> by the way, can we say the yankees is great? can we give props to the yankees? thank you. >> what are you talking about? >> the yankees -- >> maybe that's the problem. brian cashman is great. >> thank you. >> i think what will be great is -- do you know who -- should we keep talking baseball? >> no, i'm going to organize my credit cards. you're boring me to death. >> you want to jump in on baseball at any time. >> gene must be excited about the nationals. >> gene -- >> i can't wait to talk. >> we'll get to the yankees in a second. one of the most exciting stories of the year -- the nationals

doing better after trading their prima donna to philadelphia. >> i know. i know. >> i'm all in not only for the cardinals but i'm all in for the nationals in the national league. >> i know. that's pretty sweet isn't it? >> it is sweet. >> bryce harper traded to philly he's not doing all that great and we're doing much better. look, it's going to be -- you know, the nationals have been on a tear. they have had a tremendous record the last 50 games say. and we can't make up any ground on the braves who are also on a tear. that's the frustrating thing. >> i know. >> be we -- but we're going to be if in on the wild cards, watch out in the playoffs. >> okay. >> i bet that bryce harper deal will be looking sweet in the 13th year. >> i have to say, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, you know what? people are going -- >> no. >> it's what lemire and i said about the sale deal. why did he give $125 million to a guy whose arm collapses every

july? we were asking that question, i still don't understand it. and bryce harper -- they give him all this money and it's not like -- i mean the guy had one 100 rbi season. one. he was bad in the field, not that great of a hitter and yet people threw money at him. >> he's bad in the clubhouse. >> and he's bad in the clubhouse. >> you can't have a guy who's not a team player. >> let's talk about the yankees. do you think the astros beat them in five or six? >> the problem is in the short series the astros are so tough with the three pitchers. they have three aces and the -- >> they're amazing. >> by the way, not losing off the fastball. >> the yankees are a great team. >> likeable team. >> they're a likable team. barnacle said it last year and we didn't talk to him for six months. i have the same question for the yankees as the red sox which is, yes, the yankees are doing much

better than the red sox. but you have to win in the playoffs. why didn't they add a pitcher for the playoffs? they are not built to beat the astros. >> by the way, cashman over the last 20 years incredible job he's done. i can't figure that out though. they end up winning 106 games. yes, they will not beat three aces the astros throw at you. you can lean -- you can see verlander seven times. >> you can lean it more in the playoffs but the starting pitching is an issue. and yankees/astros the home field advantage will matter. >> okay, we'll go to our bullpen and bill karins in a moment. but first the mclaughlin report right now. >> do you have to? i'm totally -- >> hold on a second. the astros and the dodgers who wins the world series? >> i don't care. >> correct. astros. >> correct. astros. >> okay. >> karine? >> wrong!

karine? >> how about tennis this saturday? amazing moment between naomi osaka and coco gauff? >> i know. amazing. >> the 15-year-old, she lost. and -- >> now i'm interested, thank you. actually interesting. but it is the top of the hour. actually it's a little bit past it. >> by the way, mika, the astros or the dodgers? >> actually, i'm going to talk about hurricane dorian. >> take a guess. >> we're not interested. >> i'm being told astros. >> astros here. okay. >> i have no idea. >> let's go to bill karins with a check on hurricane dorian. bill? >> you're organizing the credit cards, are you going to put the first one with the highest balance? >> i put joe's on top of them all. and today -- >> by the way, this is true. >> karine and i are going out after the show. >> this is true. the correct answer all the time when somebody calls and says how do we pay for this, just use joe's credit card. that's it. >> bill, give us an update, is

it moving? >> not yet. i have to show you -- we ought to save this forever. you're never going to see this again. this is 48 hours, two days. this is under 100 miles, this is the great abaco, so this is the beginning of the loop when it was the category 5, it kind of drifted and then all day yesterday it sat over grand bahama island and now we finally just lost the eye. so yeah, just incredible and when we get the pictures in and the survivor stories they're going to be insane. all right, so right now, 120 miles an hour winds and there it is. still stationary, but we expect it to drift and move. you can see on the radar it is beginning to inch itself northwards. you notice there's hardly any rain over florida. this is 80 miles off the coast, the east coast of florida. this is the 5:00 a.m. east coast advisory. the new one will come out at 11:00 this morning. again, safely away from florida from the wind and from any heavy rain. >> wow.

>> but we still could get some areas that have some problems with storm surge. that's why the hurricane center is saying, listen to your emergency manager, evacuate, get out of the way. we don't need any accidents at the beaches today or tomorrow. then this is what kind of changed overnight. a little bit closer here to the north carolina coast. you notice it's not like it weakens that much. still a category 2 hurricane. could make landfall here. anywhere from the south carolina to north carolina area of beaches from wilmington, wrightsville beach up to atlantic city, atlantic beach and then to cape hatteras. and then for anyone that has interest in cape cod, i know you were in the cone yesterday. you're still barely in the cone, nantucket, martha's vineyard and cape cod. it would being through into the extratropical cyclone and then it will slam into nova scotia. florida is not going to get a direct impact but will have to deal with storm surge and we have our eyes thursday on our

friends in the carolina coastal area. >> this was close to being the most delaware stating storm in u.s. history. it was a historic cat 5 three or four days ago. it was going straight into west palm beach. would have -- it would have brought the worst devastation since hurricane andrew. we are so fortunate -- what -- >> that's 100 miles and where it was at a category -- the strongest ever. 175 miles away from south florida, just being -- >> going straight in. >> can you imagine if this had stalled over west palm beach/ft. lauderdale instead? it wasn't that far away from that. five days ago we thought it was a possibility and when you see the pictures out of you know the freeport area and marsh harbour, it looks like a tornado went through for two days. >> oh, my gosh. all right. >> all right, bill, thank you. keep it posted. i appreciate your work. >> you know, i really do. i think we added john heilemann.

>> yes. john heilemann. >> speaking of hurricanes. >> speaking of hurricanes, we have an important question for you because you were left out of the question. astros or the dodgers? >> dodgers. >> wrong! >> i'm wrong, i'm a homer, what can i say? l.a. all the way. let's go. >> it will be a great series. >> it is. >> not that we're completely skipping past -- >> the playoffs. >> all the playoffs. >> the whole month of september. >> i think the yankees might have something to say about that. but the astros, man, are so good. >> very good. >> the dodgers are so good. rematch from a couple of years ago. okay, i think we're ready. >> okay, only six minutes late, it's fine. today is the tuesday after labor day which marks the unofficial start of the election season. president trump can only hope he fares better this fall than he did this summer. as "the washington post" noted over the weekend. many of trump's advisers and outside allies privately consider his summer to be a period of missed opportunity and

self-sabotage. and recent poll numbers appeared to back that up. the latest national quinnipiac poll shows joe biden, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, kamala harris, and pete buttigieg all leading trump by a significant margin in potential 2020 match-ups. last month's fox news poll also found the president trailing each democratic challenger by at least six points. biden by 12. >> three or four days ago, so yeah, when we say last month, it's three or four days ago. no, fox news was a while back, right? but quinnipiac poll was just -- >> a couple of days ago. political analyst harry enton points out no incumbent president has ever polled this poorly at this point in the campaign since at least world war ii and with a kind of a shaky sense of where the economy is going, some would argue that the president seems extremely nervous and unhinged, especially unpredictable. >> jonathan, that's the story

out of the white house. we were trying to figure out the president has gotten worse over the past couple of weeks. i remember after the mueller testimony and things calmed down and figured he had dodged that problem that he actually seemed to calm down for a while. people took note of that. but i guess with the news of the economy possibly going down, it's really set the president off and caused some real challenges for really him politically, but also his political team. who is trying to manage this and trying to grow the base past 40%. >> the end of the mueller investigation was supposed to be a real inflection point for this white house. then it shadowed then administration for two-plus years and it was finally over. he had largely -- the people around him of course many of them were indicted or some incarcerated but he had largely dodged the bullet and there was a sense around the white house, the summer begins, they can use the next couple of months to sort of set the narrative on the economy, start gearing up for

the re-election bid as democrats are busy fighting themselves. that did not happen. we saw the economy start to slow down and the president started to feel that pressure because that's the best argument for re-election. i have overseen this period of growth. obviously he inherited some from barack obama, but most measures the economy has been strong under his watch. instead he has been sucked into the number of cultural fights and some in part because he feels he can't run the economy he has to do it on the divisive race based issues. it has a chance to hurt the republican party. >> but the problem -- john heilemann, obviously the problem with these race battles that he's taken on, the very provocative racially based battles that he's taken on is that it -- it undermines him in the areas that he needs to grow the suburbs, where he's bleeding support terribly.

women, bleeding support terribly. even among women with less than a college education. >> right. >> that were overwhelmingly for him before. he was six or seven points down to all democrats in that poll. you could go down the list and the enduring mystery in the trump presidency is why this guy always looked at his 38% instead of his 50%. this summer, he could have just campaigned on unemployment below 4%. pretty historic there. an economy that's stronger than most economies in the world and high consumer confidence. of course the consumer confidence numbers are starting to go down now. but it does seem if you are a trump supporter that is looking at -- you know, what he could have done this summer, like a wasted summer. >> yeah. well, look, joe, i mean, i think it's an -- the key element here

of this notion of the enduring mystery although i think it's first the enduring feature of the trump administration has been that from day one, the president did not do what any normal president who won a narrow victory, lost the popular vote, won a narrow victory in the electoral college came in with 44, 45% of the vote. you come into office and try to expand your coalition. both to get things done in a matter of governance and to set yourself up for re-election. that's what george bush did and clinton did. they said i need more people to support me than the ones who voted for me on election day and donald trump hasn't done that, but he has sought to bolster his base and not cared about -- not, not just cared about, but sought to alienate everyone else. it's almost three years -- >> so we ask this question every day, why, why, why? it makes no sense at all. he had a great relationship with nancy pelosi. he gave her money. a great relationship with chuck

schumer. held fund-raisers for chuck schumer i think at mar-a-lago. gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the dnc. was a big contributor to rahm emanuel. he was closer to the democratic party in many ways and i'm not saying this -- this is not hyperbole. donald trump had a better relationship with leaders in the democratic party than barack obama. leaders in the democratic party found barack obama at times -- and they complained bitterly to anyone who would listen, found him to be aloof and he thought he was better than everybody in washington, d.c. so donald trump had a great relationship with the democrats because he had written them checks his whole life. why did he not try to figure out how to come to agreements on rebuilding america's infrastructure and, you know, immigration reform like he said he was going to do. health care reform. i just don't get it still.

>> well, i think first of all, i don't know. i think that a lot of the official democratic politics didn't look at donald trump as someone they had a warm relationship with, they looked at him as a donor which is a different thing than which will respect for him. but setting that aside, you're right. there were some open doors at the beginning of the administration if donald trump had been a different human being, not just a different president, but a different person, you could image an lot of alternative histories unfolding. but he ran a racist, divisive campaign and it worked for him. he won when everyone said he couldn't win. and so his attitude is if i won when everyone said i couldn't win and campaigning this way in 2016 i'm doing to show them, i'm going to do it again in 2020. that's my dimestore psychology. but in the end it doesn't matter why. i agree with you, it's an

enduring question but all we know now nearly three years into the trump campaign it won't change. he'll continue in the race baiting way, this divisive way. this attempt to just stoke his base and never reach across the aisle, never try to gain an additional vote. he thinks he can win that way. harry edens is right, there's no historical precedent for it. the democrats should take him seriously, don't let down your guard and realize you can pull two inside straights in a row. it's unlikely statistically but you don't want to give him an opening. but the way he's conducted himself in the three years i think it's potentially in the entire history in which we have numbers for for the presidency, again he could still win. but he's done nothing, nothing, not just nothing to help himself

but has made his situation worse virtually every day since he assumed office. >> just look at the numbers. >> it's interesting. there's a fatigue setting in. you get a sense of it. >> setting in? >> we were talking off break that people are just ready for some calm. they just had it. you put that together with the economic numbers which are really, really ominous. he does not have this. i don't see why things get better for him. a lot of reasons why they get reason. >> donny -- >> a lot of people believe so many lies. >> let me speak to you. well, you're not 39%, about something you'll agree with me on. how does it get better for donald trump? well, you have democrats getting worse. you have democrats saying we'll decriminalize crossing the border -- >> yeah. taking -- >> we'll take away health insurance from 160 million americans. you know what we'll do, we'll give health c cross the border illegally. you know what we we'll do --

>> everything is free. >> we're going to forgive all stud they're saying these things. you know what we're going to do, bernie said it we'll forgive all medical debt. you keep stacking that up and you get more people in the suburbs, more swing voters saying wait a second. >> calling them socialists, that's it. that's it. >> it's insanity. >> by the way, listen, i have said it. i want donald trump to get beaten. i don't -- i will vote for anybody that will beat donald trump. but the democrats moving in that direction give donald trump his own out. >> he can say look at the socialists. that's un-american. and that is the real warning sign for the democrats. >> great. now it's your turn. we can give you the next 45 minutes, do. >> so a couple of things, joe. i think that we have been talking about the summer of donald trump. the summer of donald trump has been incredibly bad for him. he's hurting himself with the suburban women and we talk about

locking up kids, separating kids from their family. locking them up in cages. >> what about what joe said about the democrats? >> look, we have seen polling match up polling, i know it's still early, where about five democrats beat donald trump. i mean, he is sinking really, really badly at his own peril. like he's doing this to himself. and so i think what -- look, i think what democrats are trying to do is like it's not about just beating trump. you have to give people -- what are they going to aspire to? what is the vision of this country going to look like? i think that's what democrats are trying to do. i agree about the socialist stuff. i think that we should not be labelling ourselves that way, that is problematic. i will agree with you. i do think there is -- there is a real conversation to have on how do you inspire people, what do you promise? how does -- >> let me ask you this. is it not enough to say we're going to build on what barack

obama did? what we're going to do -- you want to know our health care plan. well, joe biden was right. it was a big deal. and we're going to amend it, not end it. i don't see anything wrong with it. >> i don't see anything wrong with that actually either. >> and instead of attacking joe biden because of barack obama's immigration policy it's the perfect shield to say do you know that under barack obama illegal crossings were at a 50-year low and we did it humanely. we did it humanely. it's donald trump that has caused this spike in illegal crossings. but let's be democrats who like barack obama, had the lowest illegal border crossings and what's wrong with saying that? >> i agree to you to some extent. i think that president obama is the most popular political figure that the democrats have, on both sides in the country. i don't think attacking barack obama someone that i worked for in the administration on both his campaigns is a good idea. i think that's a bad, bad

politics. but there are certain things that democrats can talk about improving. which is immigration. i think there's a way to talk about it as things that even democrats have done poorly as presidents. we can do better now under their administration, whatever their administration would look like. so i do agree with you. attacking barack obama is the wrong thing to do. >> so let's also bring into the conversation senior writerpolit playbook jake sherman, an msnbc contributor. what is one thing you're>> well one what does it mean if democrats impeach the president? this is no longer an about tr t tract -- abstract idea. more than half of the house democrats say they want to start impeachment proceedings now. so how does nancy pelosi navigate that? she maintains that democrat -- that the country is not ready for this. and that's important. because we're going into the fall where there will be

tremendous pressure on pelosi to start impeachment proceedings from people like jerry nadler the chairman of the judiciary committee who has been up front about his desire to be more aggressive on this. number two, do democrats give the president a huge legislative victory in passing the free trade deal? his free trade deal with mexico and canada. i mean, that would be a huge boon politically and substant e substantively for the president. it's in the democrats' hands, they have the ability to do this or not do this. these are two things in the next 8 to 12 weeks we need to keep an eye on and look carefully and it could tell us a lot about what we need to know going into 2020. >> john? >> joe, just go back and long at that obama -- those trump polling numbers head to head numbers. the important number in all of those polls is the donald trump number. the number that has donald trump consistently really where his approval rating is at 28 or 39%. the democrats above donald trump

fluctuate based on how well people know who they are. it is true that a lot have leads over donald trump but i don't take those numbers seriously. i take donald trump's weakness seriously. i don't take the democrat -- the difference between kamala harris and joe biden or where bernie sanders stands, democrats can easily by nominating the wrong person running on the wrong things can create the opening for donald trump to win. so democrats got to take this seriously. no one can look at the numbers in september and say, we've got it in the bag. too many democrats did that in 2016. they can't make that same mistake again but look at that number consistent against all of them, 39% is historically bad and if the democrats run a good candidate and a good campaign they're in a position to win. >> jake sherman, how would you grade the president's summer? >> look at it on the facts, let's look at the issues in front of him. he's nowhere on the china trade deal, he's not made any progress

on gun legislation. in fact, he might have done himself harm on getting the gun legislation through. those are the two big issues. he hasn't made any progress on drug pricing or on the infrastructure bill. we don't have any idea what his priorities are. what does he want to get done and what does this presidency -- how does he want to use the presidency to achieve an end? we don't know the answer to that. >> what are they saying in the white house? what are they saying? the president's -- i'll ask jonathan after you. the president's legislative goals for the fall are -- fill in the blank. >> passing the trade deal and when he says something on the gun control, the white house scrambles to figure out what he means when he says things. that's no preparation or no there there behind it. it's passing the trade deal. listen, he stayed kind of far away from it so it does have a chance at succeeding but beyond that we don't know anything about what he wants to do or what he wants to pass through

congress because there isn't much there. i think jonathan would agree if you try to get an answer out of this white house, there is no answer to be had. >> so jonathan, let's expand the question, what about over the next year between now and the next election, what are the president's legislative goals, what does he want to pass? >> it's a scatter shot approach. he muses about drug pricing and gun control and it's largely right now about the economy, about the trade deals, it's about the usmca, and trying to hammer out an agreement with china. >> will he get the new nafta done? >> it's unclear how this will go forward. i don't think it's a guarantee that it will happen and china situation looms over this. that's a major part of dragging down this economy and there's no sign of the progress, the two teams can't agree on the next steps for meetings. despite the president suggesting there are phone calls between the leadership groups which it turns out there were not. if that continues, if there is

no step in that direction, no deal, there's no suggestion that the economy is going to pick up. that of course we know could potentially doom him next fall. >> the china situation is so complicated, with farmers in the midwest and the "wall street journal" said five weeks ago that leaders in beijing have put forward a list of guidelines on things that local officials need to do in hong kong to quell the protests so we could be facing disruptions there which will get in the way of any sort of deal between china and donald trump. >> chaos. jake sherman, thank you. still ahead on "morning joe" the vice president's office says donald trump didn't request that mike pence stay at a trump property in ireland, he only suggested it. where have we heard that before? >> you said, quote, mr. trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress. that's not how he operates, end quote. can you explain how he does

this? >> sure. it would be no different if i said that's the nicest looking tie i have ever seen. isn't it? what are you doing to do, fight with him? the answer is no. yeah it's the nicest looking tie i have ever seen. that's how he speaks. he doesn't give you questions. he doesn't give you orders. he speaks in a code. and i understand the code because i have been around him for a decade. >> it's your impression that others who work for him understand the code as well? >> most people, yes. >> tech: at safelite autoglass, we really pride ourselves on making it easy for you to get your windshield fixed. >> teacher: let's turn in your science papers. >> tech vo: this teacher always puts her students first. >> student: i did mine on volcanoes. >> teacher: you did?! oh, i can't wait to read it. >> tech vo: so when she had auto glass damage... she chose safelite. with safelite, she could see exactly when we'd be there. >> teacher: you must be pascal. >> tech: yes ma'am. >> tech vo: saving her time... [honk, honk] >> kids: bye! >> tech vo: ...so she can save the science project. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪

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from the day you're born your business is up and running, but is it going beyond fast? comcast business gives you high speed internet. we also have solutions like powerful wifi that gives your entire business more coverage and automatic internet backup that can keep your business running. and it all starts with our gig-speed network. so give us 10 minutes. if we can't offer you faster speed or better savings than your current internet service, we'll give you 300 dollars for your time. call now to get your comcast business 10 minute advantage. comcast business. beyond fast. all right. the u.s. coast guard tells nbc news they believe they have located the remains of 25 people after a commercial diving boat caught fire yesterday off the coast of california. nine people still remain missing as an active search for survivors continues. the 75-foot commercial vessel

was fully engulfed in flames when the coast guard received a mayday call at about 3:30 in the morning. the coast guard confirmed five of the six crew members who were on board at the time escaped by jumping into the inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel. according to the associated press rescuers initially recovered four bodies just off santa cruz island and 16 others were pulled from the water later in the day. the coast guard says five others had been found but not recovered due to unsafe conditions under the boat which sank about 20 yards from the shore. another check on the hurricane dorian, now a deadly category 3, remains stalled over the bahamas, about 100 miles east of palm beach. at least five are confirmed dead in the abaco island. and now the red cross says more than 13,000 homes have been ripped apart. a life threatening storm surge of up to 15 feet remains a threat there. meanwhile, the storm is creeping

closer to the united states with outer bands now reaching parts of florida. let's bring in the associated administrator for the office of response and recovery at fema. >> jeff byard, what's the latest? >> first of all, thank you for having us. we appreciate what the media does. dorian as you know basically is stationary so we continue to prepare in florida, georgia, south carolina and north carolina. we ask our citizens that are in the potential impacted area to make sure that you're still paying attention to the very slow moving storm. so here -- >> that's an important point, jeff. as obviously a floridian that's been through way too many of these, the storms don't always go the way they're supposed to go. when they're close to shore, they'll tick left or right. so while the forecasters right now are saying it's not going to hit florida or other states, of

course, just a few days ago it was going to be a direct impact. so are you trying to keep people alert and on guard against the possible changes? >> that's a very accurate assessment, you know? these storms, they are unpredictable as you well know. message out to their citizens and we're there to support, but, you know, fema will remain vigilant until this storm is well off our coast and nobody is in danger. we have got what we need to support again from north carolina all the way to florida. i have never seen a storm just basically, you know, be stationary. you know? so it's a very -- you know, a difficult task to keep your mind focused on that for as long as we have with dorian, but we're doing it. you are all doing a great job of continuing to get the preparedness message out. we really can't thank you enough for that. >> thank you. >> so jeff, given the stationary aspect of this storm unmoving practically unmoving for two

days now, as it batters the bahamas, the warnings that fema gave to people about withdrawals, even commandeered or phased withdrawals, what kind of an impact does that have on human nature, of people on the florida coast saying it's not as bad as we thought, it's not coming here. doesn't that make your job more difficult? >> you know, it can. it's very important to know that, you know, fema doesn't issue the evacuation orders. that is done at the local and state level. we're there to support that. but you're exactly right. we are -- you know, floridians and all of those on the coast are -- you know, unfortunately used to hurricanes but they're out there for a few days and then they hit, and then they go through the state of wherever that impact is and then we start the tough work of recovery. with dorian it's like groundhog day every day for the past couple of days. >> thank you so much, jeff. >> jeff byard, thank you. >> you talk to people obviously down in the affected area and

that's what everybody says. that it has been like groundhog day. >> so hard to predict. >> because it's been sitting off the coast and really until this morning this is the first morning where it really does look like it's going to go straight up. but it has been hovering right off that coast, a tick left causes an incredible impact. >> you know, bill karins is explaining to us earlier today the impact of what has been happening with the two or three days now. hovering over the bahamas, it's like sitting through a two or three day tornado. >> yeah. >> for all those people. by the way, bill karins has been on duty -- >> bill is great. >> two straight days. up next, congressional democrats reportedly plan to investigate donald trump's links to those hush money payments meant to silence two of his alleged mistresses. we are back in just a moment. wet is just a button.

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welcome back to "morning joe." 38 past the hour. house democrats plan to investigate president trump's alleged role in hush money payments to the two women back in 2016. the house judiciary committee is preparing to hold hearings and call witnesses connected to payments made to play boy model karen mcdougal and stormy daniels as soon as october. >> let me stop here. is this a good idea, john heilemann? we are talking about china and the other things and the democrats are going to put stormy daniels and karen mcdougal center stage there. aren't americans going to think that was so last year? i understand at least with stormy daniels there's a legal issue. a possible criminal issue there. i understand that. but mcdougal seems to be a bit of piling on.

>> i think the question is going to be how they proceed with this because i think for all of us who care about norms, the president -- in the case of daniels in particular and in some of the other instances some of them not -- the facts are not fully known, the president seems to have violated campaign finance law. he is an unindicted co-conspirator in new york in the stormy daniels case and he needs to be held accountable for the violation of the law. and then the question is how do you get precise about it. >> the answer is no, it does not work for the democrats. it sets him up as a victim again. it's not what people care about. it's tone deaf. obviously -- >> but donny, how is this not -- in the world that the president violates federal law f the attitude -- if our attitude is -- well, if people don't care. >> it's not a matter of not caring but what is relevant to people to win the election. >> but the flip side of the

coin, mike was talking earlier today. we see the president violating the emoluments clause, and mike pence and he's making hundreds of thousands of dollars and the most flagrant flouting and people don't care. we don't care. like is it not the other side of the same coin? why do people not care? how can we not ask them not to care about this violation? >> donny, democrats believe they have enough evidence to name president trump as a co-conspirator -- >> he has been named. >> in -- and obviously mike khouw -- cohen was indicted on. >> the more that the democrats focus on what matters to voters --

>> which is? >> which is health care. which is an economy that's going south. which is the divisive racism, which is a trade war that's destroying farmers. we have a dishonest president. >> they can't do both. >> i know karine, you want to get in. but let's focus on health care and not stormy daniels. >> but i'm sure this process is not happening without nancy pelosi's blessing as well and this is part of the process that the democrats are going through, which is trying to hold this president accountable. i think they should impeach him. that's neither here nor there. it shouldn't be a about the affairs it should be about individual one. someone who is an unindicted co-conspirator, did he break the law? did donald trump break the law to help him get elected. there's a campaign finance violation potentially. so the democrats have a right to -- this is not normal. we can't treat this like this is normal. we're going to get another president. we're going to get another donald trump down the road. so we have to stop it now.

>> let's bring in state attorney for palm beach county, dave aronberg. you have been saying for -- by the way, we see that hurricane behind you. i hope it stays away. but dave, you have been saying for some time that the southern district is -- you said it even during the mueller investigation it's the southern district that poses the greatest legal challenge to the president right now. so is -- do you believe that he is guilty of violating campaign laws and are democrats on the right path here? >> well, this is the type of thing that got john edwards. remember he was indicted for something very similar and although he was not convicted there were -- it was a hung jury on some of the charges there's precedent for going after a politician in a situation like this. and i have always said that trump's legal jeopardy is more with the southern district of new york than with the mueller investigation because the southern district of new york even though they stopped their investigation on the trump organization it's possible that

if trump is not re-elected that prosecutors could indict him for these crimes. because the statute of limitations will run and expire if he's re-elected and by the way that raises the stakes for to 2020 election. >> if he's indicted for the crimes what is the penalty he might face and in terms of the biggest threat to the president right now pertaining to the stormy daniels investigation? >> well, you see his alleged co-conspirator michael cohen is serving prison time for this. so it's possible he can face prison time. as far as what should or what will happen, there's a lot to predict there. but i can say this, part of the frustration amongst the house democrats is with attorney general bill barr who all of a sudden when he was sworn in as attorney general the investigation against the trump organization just seemed to go away. is that a coincidence or did he

put his finger on the scale? we don't know. >> and finally, looking at the hurricane behind you it does -- i saw you know a press conference a couple of days ago, obviously law enforcement, you and law enforcement -- other people in law enforcement were very concerned about the hurricane coming on shore. i would guess you're still telling the people of your county and other counties up and down the florida coast to remain vigilant. >> yes, joe. we have been through this before. we had hurricane irma in 2017 that forced the evacuation of 6.5 million floridians and our hearts and prayers are with the people in the bahamas. it's like the driver in the left lane the slow driver that is puttering around with his blinker stuck on. get moving and make that long-awaited turn. because it's stationary and hovering us on. >> like barnicle at the home depot. like circling the parking lot.

>> hey, i have a common sense question for you. if i'm a resident of palm beach county and you sent me a notice for jury duty today or tomorrow, does that take care of it? is it waived? >> it's a good question. i have been asked that a lot, mike. and the answer is courthouses are all closed to the public. but crime never sleeps. so i -- as soon as this interview ends i'm heading over to a small courthouse next to the county jail to do first appearance hearings which are the bail and the bond hearings. i'll be covering them themselves so prosecutors don't sleep either. >> crime never sleeps. >> but mike is -- that's all he cares about. >> always on the job. you know, that's great. we appreciate you being on this morning. >> thank you, dave aronberg. coming up, president trump has repeatedly shrugged off north korea's missile test but some intel officials are warning they shouldn't be ignored. in fact, experts say downplaying north korea's launches is allowing kim jong-un to improve his arsenal.

we'll talk about that next on "morning joe."

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comcast business. beyond fast. is kim testing you? >> i think it's very much under control. very much under control. short-range missiles, we never made an agreement on that. i have no problem. we'll see what happens. but these are short-range missiles, they're very standard. we discussed nuclear. what we talked about are nuclear. those are short-range missiles, sure. a lot of other countries test that missile also. kim jong-un has been pretty straight with me, i think. and we're going to see what's going on, we're going to see what's happening. he likes testing missiles, but we never restricted short-range missiles. we'll see what happens. many nations test those missiles. we tested a very big one the other day, as you probably noticed. >> since president trump and kim jong-un's impromptu meeting back

at the dmz in late june, north korea conducted seven tests of short-range ballistic missiles, all in violation of u.n. sanctions and which the president has downplayed, even comparing them to american tests. those tests actually include several new advanced missiles and now american intelligence officials and outside experts are telling "the new york times" that the missiles north korea has recently tested could overwhelm american defenses. let's bring in right now senior advisor and korea chair at csic and msnbc korean affairs analyst, dr. victor cha. he co-authored a report that north korea could be constructing a submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles and may be preparing for a test. you know, victor, we've been talking all morning about how president trump misstates facts in public. the president may be violating

emoluments clauses just in plain view of the public and the world. it appears, as it pertains to kim jong-un, he is letting him continue his advancement of missile technology that poses a direct threat to all of our allies and a lot of americans that are stationed by north korea. >> yeah, joe, that's exactly right. i mean these missiles range from 300 to put them -- they threaten u.s. families, u.s. community in korea and japan. that's a population the size of pittsburgh, pennsylvania, st. louis, missouri. so when the president says these things are not a threat to americans, you know, i just don't understand what that means. >> you know, david sanger and william broad also said more at

issue to the united states itself, this is the sort of technology that can be adapted to long-range missiles. that this isn't -- he's not developing this sort of technology just in a vacuum, that it helps kim jong-un and the north koreans advance their efforts to directly impact 300 million americans. >> yeah, that's exactly right. you know, the president says kim promised not to test long-range missiles. the fact of the matter is the long-range missiles are still in the development stage, so kim is basically promising not to test something that he hasn't developed yet. but these short-range missiles are already deployed. like you said, they are improving guidance, they are improving mobility, they are improving something called countermeasures, which is the ability to evade u.s. radar and missile defenses, and these can be -- you know, they start with these on the short-range missiles and they go, oh, this

actually works. we can evade u.s. radar. then they try to adapt it to long-range missiles. they also tip these missiles not with just conventional warheads but biological, chemical and nuclear warheads. if they can do that on the short-range missiles, they'll adapt it to the long-range missiles which then becomes a threat to the u.s. homeland. >> victor, listening to the clip we played coming in of the president's various statements about this situation with north korea, would it be a fair assessment to say that despite american intelligence sources briefing the president of the united states, that he remains ill-informed and willfully ignorant of the consequences, the dangerous consequences of what is going on in north korea given the fact that they are now easily within range of several american military facilities as well as tokyo and obviously south korea? >> yeah. i mean it's -- listening to

those clips you played, not only is he woefully ignorant, he's factually inaccurate in terms of the things that he's saying. i don't think that's because people are briefing him with the wrong information. i think they're giving him all the right information, but he is vested so much in this bromance, this love affair with the north korean leader that if he admits failure, he's admitting failure on the only diplomatic project he has undertaken in his term as president. there hasn't been any conventional diplomacy like this idea of trying to work with another country to resolve a conflict. he's been very confrontational in every other diplomacy. this is the only place he's tried it and it looks like it's blowing up in his face and he doesn't want to admit it. >> dr. victor cha, thank you so much. we appreciate you coming in. and it's the next best thing to one of those travel websites. mike pence was looking for a good place to stiay in ireland.

so his friends, donald trump, had a recommendation. stay at his own property. plus, as a navy veteran, congressman mikie sherrill is very familiar with assault weapons for military use. that's exactly why she's calling for an assault weapons ban. she joins the conversation ahead on "morning joe." we trust usaa more than any other company out there. they give us excellent customer service, every time. our 18 year old was in an accident. usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. all i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. if i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. we're the gomez family... we're the rivera family... we're the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. get your auto insurance quote today. woman: (on phone) discover. hi. do you have a travel card? yep. our miles card. earn unlimited 1.5 miles and we'll match it at the end of your first year. nice! i'm thinking about a scuba diving trip. woman: ooh!

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came into the administration, since the election of 2016, since january 20th of 2017. >> is he okay? just 19 words, but they seemed really tough to get out. >> i thought it was sort of like -- >> good morning, everybody. welcome -- >> that was random but i liked it. >> it was very wayward. it's tuesday, september 3rd. with us we have -- >> shouldn't we come in with like boston and "more than a feeling" for radio free tom? i woke this morning and the summer is gone. >> the hurricane or perhaps the poland congratulations. congratulations to poland. >> there's a lot to congratulate them for, donny deutsch. september the 1st, you know, 1939, that day for the next 50 years they were enslaved by

either nazis or communists, so i can understand why the president said congratulations on the anniversary. >> yeah, that makes sense. a landmark day, something the president would point to. >> with us we have white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan lemire, senior advisor at moveon.org, karine jean-pierre. donny deutsch is here a preeminent marketing and branding expert. did he right that? >> i made fun of the name. but saturday night politics, they give him a summer run, knocks it out of the park. doubled cnn's ratings, right? >> in households. >> in households, exactly. that's what the older dudes look at, households. me, i'm like britney spears fans. how many britney spears fans. but what a great run and fun show. a lot of weeks you're doubling our main competitor at cnn.

>> it was a great run. here's the thing. in the national interest i think after the summer it was too much. it was very disconcerting to the president. he tweeted about it a few times. it was unnerving to him. we thought sunday mornings are rough for him as it is. >> you thought you'd help. so you're like, okay, listen, we're doing the summer thing. we've been a ratings success. >> yes. >> let's just give him a couple weeks. >> give him a few weeks back and that's it. so really in the national interest and i feel very patriotic. >> also with us, pulitzer prize-winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson. >> so, gene, i don't know -- do i warn your family in south carolina? i mean -- >> who knows. >> warn my family in florida? do i warn mika's family in maine? this hurricane is crazy, isn't it? >> it is crazy. i've never seen one that just

sat. i mean, you know, you look at -- i compulsively click into the national hurricane center's forecasts, and the last -- all day yesterday it was just stationary, stationary, stationary. i've never seen that. so everybody keeps waiting for it to make this sweeping turn to the right and go up off the coast. and it just seems not to want to do what the forecasters say it would do. it just doesn't seem to want to do anything so maybe it will follow that path and the impacts on u.s. mainland will not be that great, maybe, or maybe it will do something else. i'm not sure anybody is that confident in the predictions at this point. >> yeah, except, of course, the one man who's always confident in his predictions, bill karins. >> well, of course. >> how about we get a real meteorologist? >> yeah, we've been doing this for a long time, bill, you and me. >> and this was -- >> and from the beginning you've

got to credit meteorologists and people like yourself who said from the very beginning this one was going to be impossible to predict. and of course while parts of florida may be spared, tragedy, just absolute tragedy in the bahamas. a worst-case scenario, a historic cat 5 storm just sitting over the bahamas. >> never heard of it going 1 mile an hour. >> this is only a six-hour loop. this is the eye and you can see it shrinking and disappearing here. so the storm is finally weakening. but 185-mile-per-hour winds down to 120 in 36 hours over grand bahama. so when you see all the devastation in the pictures, 75,000 people live on these combined islands and they don't have a lot left. we haven't seen pictures from freeport yet because we haven't been able to. we'll see that hopefully later today as the storm moves out. here's the latest from the

hurricane center. 120-mile-per-hour winds, still a category 3, still a major hurricane. there it is, you might as well circle this, it's been stationary. today it's expected to finally begin to drift. we don't have a lot of rain bands in florida. we expect this to stay primarily off the coast. here's the forecast path. it's about 80 to 100 miles due east of the entire east coast of florida. so we could still get some strong gusts, we could get scattered power outages but we're not going to see high winds at the beaches. we'll see some rain squalls here and there. storm surge could still be a problem. you still have a big storm that will pile the water up. if you have coastal interest, and that's why they had a lot of evacuations taking place. it doesn't really weaken much after this. they think it will remain a pretty strong storm all the way up parallel to the south carolina coast. overnight the one thing that did change, if you have interests in south carolina and eastern north carolina, you still have the possibility of a direct landfall from a category 2 hurricane which is nothing to sneeze at and will be considerable damage,

power outages, storm surge and also a lot of heavy rain throughout those areas. and then our friends up here in cape cod have been staring at this lately too. right now only in nantucket and cape cod is in that cone of uncertainty. maine is out of it. but it looks like it will slam into nova scotia next weekend. so we're not done with this yet. it's just been one of those storms that can't get out of here soon enough. when we see those pictures later on today from the northern bahama islands there, it's going to look like the towns in the midwest that got hit by a tornado. >> all right, bill, we'll be back in touch with you, thank you very much. now to politics. president trump is doubling down on wrong information about the hurricane, despite being publicly corrected by the national weather service. it started when he tweeted on sunday that alabama would, quote, most likely be hit much harder than anticipated. the national weather service then tweeted alabama will not see any impacts from dorian.

we repeat, no impacts from hurricane dorian will be felt across alabama. the system will remain too far east. trump then went back to twitter to claim that what he posted about alabama was true, adding, quote, under certain original scenarios it was in fact correct that alabama could have received some hurt. always good to be prepared. >> jonathan -- >> why would we even -- >> words matter when you're president of the united states. you just can't scare an entire state. >> no. >> i mean the next great threat to alabama will be clemson if they play them again in the playoffs. that's it. >> hopefully for you it will go better this time. >> hope so. >> i finished second in my seventh grade geography bee and i can put alabama on the map. there was nothing other than wind that would give alabama any

trouble. this is a president who once again can never acknowledge any error or mistake. it's what he says and everyone else is wrong around him. he has missed the point that his words do matter. he's the president of the united states. everything he says or tweets can move markets, can influence global capitals, can scare residents of an entire state. even after being told he was incorrect, he wouldn't back down. >> he's a low information guy, gene, facts don't matter to him. we were talking about the poland tweet, congratulations to poland. he'll try to get a spin on that. it was interesting after he was caught talking history, he quickly changed the subject to something he was more comfortable with. he just doesn't -- you know, he just -- he doesn't know -- he's not good on facts, he's not good on history, he's not good on the constitution. >> no. >> and 40% of americans love him for it. >> yeah, 40% will stick with him no matter what crazy thing he

says. i mean it really is remarkable, though, because, you know, the national weather service had to issue a tweet correcting the president's earlier tweet about alabama saying no, no, no, no, no, alabama is not in danger. and then after being corrected, after the record had been set erroneous version of the truth, of where the hurricane was going to go. and i guess people get -- some people get numb to it. i don't know why anybody would like that in particular, especially residents of alabama, but why people would like that. i guess they just plain look past it. i've had trump supporters say, well, you know, what does it matter? what does it matter that he lies all the time? it makes my head explode. >> but you saw stewart varney on fox business probably saying that donald trump has never told

a lie before in his life. we're actually trying to get to our first story, but there's so much misinformation and i guess this is -- sort of follows -- a good friend i've known for a long time was trying to tell me that 300 miles of wall have been built by donald trump, he's kept his word. fox news even says that's not true, but you just can't talk to people about facts if they're in for donald trump. but here's stuart varney. and one of the more depressing clips of the weekend. >> i do believe he lies virtually every time he opens his mouth. >> give me an example. >> i believe, stuart -- >> i'll give you an example just from yesterday and even his staff, stuart, admitted that he lied this week when he said there were high-level phone calls between the united states and china. trump said that repeatedly.

his staff came out yesterday and admittedly -- admitted that the president of the united states lied to the world to manipulate the markets. i have a problem with that. >> that's not a lie. let's not get technical. >> that's not a lie? >> no, it's not a lie. if the man says, and he did, that high-level talks had been held with china, that is not a lie. they were held with china. >> stuart, he said there were high-level phone calls with chinese officials. his staff admitted that was not true, that he lied in order to manipulate the market. >> okay. give me another one. give me another one. that doesn't work. >> he said that his -- stuart, really, you don't believe that that's a lie? >> no, i don't. >> you don't? >> and i really object to you saying to me, and you know it is, stuart. i do not know it is. please don't bring me into your nonsense. >> stuart, do you believe this president lies? >> no. >> you don't believe he's ever

lied? >> he exaggerates and spins. >> okay. do you believe he's ever told the american people a lie? >> no. >> i cancelled my subscription to "the washington post" because they have it at 10,000. >> whoa, that guy just threw himself away like that? >> we're old enough to remember that guy, cnn money, and he was actually a respected money guy, don donny. this is like a comical version of "1984." if they decided to do "1984 the comedy," talk about double speak. >> i'm not a psychologist. you just wonder, a guy like that, have they somehow delusionally talked themselves into it or is it performance art? this is what i do, i'm here, it's not really news. is it just like theater. still ahead on "morning joe" the latest on the mass shooting in west texas, which shares

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go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. authorities say the gunman who killed seven people in a west texas drive-by shooting spree on saturday was on a long spiral of going down before being fired from his job on the morning of the shooting. according to officials, the shooter then made rambling phone calls to local police dispatch and to the fbi's national tip line. officials say the gunman made no threats during either call, but made statements about some of the atrocities that he felt he had gone through. 15 minutes later, the killer was pulled over in a traffic stop when the deadly rampage began. authorities have not said how the gunman obtained the ar-style weapon used in the shooting, but say he had previously failed a

federal background check for a firearm. according to the associated press, texas governor greg abbott tweeted that the gunman had a criminal history and didn't go through a background check for the weapon used in odessa. he did not elaborate and a spokesman referred questions to the texas department of public safety, which didn't immediately respond. >> so how did he get this ar -- i guess it was an ar-15. how did he get the weapon? we don't know. we need to know. i wonder when the governor will let us know that. this is the same governor, as texas continues to face one tragedy after another, was upset several years ago and tweeted that he was upset that california bought more guns than texans. so, gene, these mass shootings, they have become an american

epidemic. >> daily. >> and tragically for the good people of texas, they have become an epidemic in the state of texas, while their politicians say we can't do anything to help. we can't do anything to help. i guarantee you if it was a muslim radical firing these ar-15s instead of white americans, they would be figuring out something to do other than offering bland statements. but this is -- this is an epidemic, an american epidemic and these ar-style weapons are the carrier of this disease. you look at a dozen or so of these shootings, from odessa to sandy hook, all the way back to aurora, it's one ar-15 slaughter after another. you talk to people in the military, they will tell you there's only one purpose for these guns, to slaughter human

beings. well, that's what these guns are being used for. >> yeah. that's exactly right. and you talk to doctors in those emergency rooms about what these weapons do to the human body, and it's not -- you know, this is not like csi with a neat little entrance wound and neat little exit wound. these guns are designed to rip bodies apart, and that's what they do. the damage is just devastating. and so, you know, we talk about all those killed in these mass shootings. those who are injured suffer horrific injuries that often take years and years to recover from. and sometimes are never the same. it's -- it is shocking that this society tolerates, that we tolerate this increasing pace of mass slaughter in public places

all over the country, right now concentrated in texas, and we do nothing about it. this dam will break. it will break at some point and we will get to the other side. it will, but i don't know when, i just don't know when and i don't know how. >> no, it actually is breaking, gene. you look at polls that show 90% of republicans, 89% of republicans support background checks, a majority of republicans support banning these military-style weapons, a majority of nra members support these rational gun safety laws. let's put up this full screen again. again, just look at these -- all of these slaughters in america. these are people being slaughtered in america while they're going to church, wheel they're going to country music festivals. >> school. >> while they're going to

school. while they're sending little first graders to school. while they're driving their 17-month-old babies down a highway. poway ar-15, aurora ar-15. dayton, ar-15, odessa, ar-15. rrl orlando, ar-15, parkland ar-15, las vegas, ar-15, tree of life, ar-15, sandy hook, ar-15, waffle house ar-15, the texas church, ar-15, san bernardino, ar-15. we'll be right back. we 'lwoman 1: i had no symptoms of hepatitis c.

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mike pence filled in for the president, including this stop in ireland where he stayed at a trump property. as ben jacobs reported, quote, rather than spend the night in dublin, pence will stay at a trump-owned resort on the other side of ireland and commute for

the day on air force two. while aboard the planes vice president's chief of staff, marc short -- >> do you know the cost of that? >> i know. >> -- was questioned about those travel decisions. he was asked, quote, did president trump ask vice president pence to stay at the property? short answered, quote, i don't think it was a request, like a command. i think it was a suggestion. >> a suggestion from the president. >> the follow-up to that was what does that mean? he's marc short. it's like when we went through the trip, it's like, well, he's going to doonbeg because that's where the pence family is from. it's like, well, you should stay at my place. >> hold on a second. but mike, here you have the -- again, it's all out in the open. >> my god. >> everything is out in the open here. the lies are all out in the open. the clintons, they worked to keep it -- keep it hidden. their lies weren't quite as

obvious. but with trump, everything is out in the open. you've got the attorney general going, i'll pay you $30,000, boss, and you're going to have a christmas party at the trump hotel. $30,000 for a christmas party. those are some expensive hors d'oeuvres. and now you've got the vice president of the united states on official business being told by the president of the united states to stay at his hotel so he gets more money in his pocket, and mike pence is flying air force two back and forth for meetings, which costs the american taxpayers millions of dollars. >> yeah, it's probably i would estimate a 20-minute flight in the air from the west coast of ireland to outside dublin. but the larger issue is, look, jonathan and other members of the washington press corps, the media in general, have done a very good job tracking the outrageous conflicts of interest

in terms of money into the president's pockets. and yet the country seems largely asleep on this level of corruption in a presidency. it's really surprising to me because you don't hear about it. >> so true. >> nobody says anything about it. it's as if it's another outrageous expectation that's just, 0e67oh, well, that's who is. >> it's all about the money, gene, we've said it every day. everything he does is all about the money. his relationship with the russians that doesn't make sense, his bendsiing over backwards for the saudis. all the countries that gave him hundreds of millions of dollars in the past are the countries he's nice to. you can talk about the philippines as well, a brutal dictator there. he's got a close relationship because he's got a property here. here we have him telling his vice president that instead of staying where the summit is and

the meetings are, stay on the other coast in my hotel. >> in my hotel, right. as you said, it's all about the money. and you know what this -- okay, so this is just days after he announced that he wants to have the g-7 meeting next year at his resort in miami at the doral, which also would put a bunch of money in his pocket. what these two things tell me is that there must be a real cash crunch in the trump organization. the cash flow must not be good, because he's out there not just drumming up business, but actively giving business to his properties. like you said, it's all about the money. and i think he's keeping track of the money, and it must not be going very well for him to be going to these lengths to try to get cash flow. coming up on "morning joe," joe biden is asked, quote, how badly do you want to be president?

his answer is definitely worth exploring. we'll do that just ahead on "morning joe." that's the only circumstance to which you would separate.

can't imagine doing it any other way. this is caitlin dickerson from the new york times.

this isn't the only case. very little documentation. lo que yo quiero estar con mi hijo. i know that's not true. and the shelters really don't know what to do with them. i just got another person at d.h.s. to confirm this. i have this number. we're going to publish the story.

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we'll give you 300 dollars for your time. call now to get your comcast business 10 minute advantage. comcast business. beyond fast. on sunday, poland marked the somber 80th anniversary of the nazi german invasion and the beginning of world war ii. poland lost about a fifth of its total population during the war, including most of its 3 million jewish citizens. after the war, the country remained under repressive communist soviet rule until 1989. president trump put it this way. >> do you have a message for poland? >> yeah. >> on the 80th anniversary of the second world war? >> i have a message for poland. we have mike pence, our vice president, is just about landing right now, and he is representing me. i look forward to being there

soon. i just want to congratulate polelanpol pole -- poland. it's a great country with great people. we also have many polish people in our country, it could be 8 million. we love our polish friends. >> congratulations, john heilemann, on the 80th anniversary of hitler and stalin invading your country. >> yes. and there may be 8 million of them here. that's a man who's looked at the wikipedia page right before that. >> the good news is they were free 50 years later. >> wow. >> that's good news. >> u.s. navy veteran and member of the house armed services committee, democratic congresswoman mikie sherrill of new jersey. great to have you with with us for this conversation. >> so how was your summer district work period? >> thank you, joe. i like how you put that. so many people call it an august recess. it's not quite as fun as it sounds, but it's great to be

back in new jersey. we've had numerous town halls and really gotten -- i feel like i'm reconnected with the district. >> i love the town halls. that's when you find out what's really on people's mind instead of what people say on shows like this. so what did you hear at your town hall meetings? >> well, we have just been through a tough period of time with our infrastructure. it's critical that we get the portal bridge and gateway tunnel funded. people are upset about the state and local tax reduction cap, health care issues come up, gun issues come up, issues of impeachment come up. it's really very broad throughout the district of what people are interested in and their views on those topics often range from -- on both sides. >> when they bring up guns, what do they say? what do you hear on that? >> i hear heartbreaking stories. a mother said her kindergartner had to change schools and she didn't want to go because she

didn't know where to hide. >> so people want to see legislation? >> yes, yes. >> okay. >> let me ask you about -- because you brought up something that i couldn't quite understand why california republicans were supporting the trump tax plan when it really impacted people in high tax states, whether it was california or jersey or connecticut or new york that really had an impact. what did basically the tax increase for the citizens of new jersey, what kind of impact did that have, not deducting the state income taxes. >> we hear from doctors and we hear from cops, we hear from teachers, we hear from just about everybody throughout the district how hard this tax deduction cap has been, how it's really harming their small businesses, how it's making it harder and harder for them to afford the cost of living in my state. here's a state that really invests in its citizens. we have one of the best public school systems in the nation. so to kind of punish us for being a state that really takes care of its citizens is

striking. >> now, you were in the military, obviously. most military people i talk to, whether they're republican or democratic or not even political will say civilians don't need ar-15s. civilians don't need military-style semiautomatic weapons. it's just too dangerous and there's only one purpose for those type of guns, to kill other people. we keep saying that. we put up a list earlier today, it continues. so if the majority of -- overwhelming majority of americans support legislation banning military-style assault weapons and if the majority of republicans and even a good number of nra members support it, what's holding that up? i guess the more pressing question is, there's 70%, 70% support the ban.

a majority of republicans support the ban on military style assault weapons. what's holding it up? >> i wish i could tell you. i am qualified as an expert in m-16, an assault style weapon. those are weapons of war. they are to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. they should not be found on our streets. and so the fact that we can't move forward as a nation on gun safety legislation is striking to me, especially after watching new zealand having one mass shooting, immediately statake ss to keep its citizens safe. texas having numerous mass shootings and actually loosening their gun safety laws. it's crazy to me. >> so the other question that i think everybody is asking right now as we come back from this work period/recess. >> thank you. >> is whether impeachment. there's a pretty big split in the house of representatives now. more democrats now are in favor

of launching proceedings than not, but there's a lot of candidates, sitting members who are in vulnerable districts, purple districts and red districts that are reticent. i'm just curious apart from what your own view is, which i'd love to hear at this point, having listened to your constituents in what was for a long time a republican district, where are people in your district on that question and where are you now and where do you think this thing should go? >> i think you find a broad array of opinions in my district. you have people at my town halls saying, mikie, we want you to vote for impeachment right now and you hear applause. and then you hear people say i think you shouldn't go and move on impeachment and you hear applause. when somebody said at a recent town hall of mine, mikie, i want you to impeach the president. somebody else said don't do it, sherrill. so it's a broad range of opinions. where i am right now is that the -- we have to conduct as congress our oversight.

we have to, that's constitutional responsibility and we're doing that. we have 29 investigations. it sounds like the judiciary committee is opening up a new investigation. we are taking that very seriously, but we also have to continue to legislate. we have to move forward on gun safety legislation. and i think the thing that i haven't conveyed as well as i should in my district is this idea that, you know, i care very deeply about this country. i don't like the direction the president is taking us. i don't like how he's moving this country forward in ways that i think are dangerous with our international relationships, with our economy, with the future of our values, but i think we have to be very careful in making sure we're making a case to all the american people. and i would love to see him, as somebody said, out of office the old-fashioned way. i would love to see people vote him out of office. >> congresswoman, i read a

statistic that said more americans died in mass shootings in august alone than u.s. troops serving in combat in all of 2018. as someone who served in the military, and thank you for doing that, and someone clearly in congress who believes that weapons of war should not be on our streets, what's the message that you have for people who disagree with us, people who don't believe that they should not have access to weapons of war on the streets and churches and synagogues? what do you say to them? >> you know, i say to them what about my kids? what about my four kids who i have to send to school this thursday who will be going through active shooter drills in their classroom, who will be hiding under their desks. what do you say to my kids? what do you say to people who want to go to church, want to go to a town fair, want to go to a festival and are afraid. want to stop at a stoplight in their town and not be afraid a

mass shooter will shoot them or their 17-month-old. this is what we're living under and this is not how we should live our lives here in this country. >> congresswoman, you have four kids, what do you say to them about that? you don't want to prepare th-- u want to prepare them, you don't want to scare them. >> the level of violence we're facing makes it so there's almost nothing we can say to them. how can you protect your kid other than just kind of becoming housebound and setting up a perimeter. i mean how can you live in this society and fully protect your children with this level of gun violence. >> so congresswoman, democrats took control of the house in 2018 because of wins in former gop districts in places like new jersey, virginia, even texas, california. so what does the democratic party need to do to ensure that people that won in 2018 in

districts that voted republican for decades will vote democratic again in 2020? >> i think people are realizing now that the chaotic economic policies of this president are harmful to this country and will be harmful to the economic future. what the democratic party has to do and democratic candidates have to do is present a different vision. so everybody in states like michigan and pennsylvania and wisconsin know that they're going to be part of a great economic future in this country. >> okay. >> congresswoman mikie sherrill, thank you for joining us. come back, it's always good to see you. >> thank you for having me. up next, joe biden's run for the presidency, is he doing it out of duty, passion, something else? we'll talk to mark leibovich about his new piece for "the new york times" ahead on "morning joe." if your gums bleed when you brush, you may have gingivitis. and the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums, and possibly... tooth loss. help turn back the clock

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it's imperative for this country to either move forward, that it can't stand still, or otherwise it moves backward. >> how badly do you want to be president? >> i think it's really, really, really important that donald trump not be re-elected. i really do think that he is a -- his attitude toward the constitution, his attitude in terms of dividing the american public, and his willingness to capitulate to every element of society that, in fact, he thinks is part of his base. i think at this moment in time, i'm the most qualified person to do it. could i die happily not having heard "hail the chief" played for me? yeah. i could. that's not why i'm running. the irony is the longer i've been around the less that appeals to me. >> that is joe biden's question to the so-called roger mudd

question. first of all, i was not concerned by biden's answer. was anybody? >> a hundred percent spot on. >> i think the reality is it is a slightly different question and not really fair to call it the roger mudd question. he is not asking why do you want to be president. the question was framed not as the right parallel. i think the notion of biden saying, it was one of the core elements why obama was a successful candidate was the notion, i want to be president but i'm a normal person. like if i don't get to be president my life will go on. i think for a lot of people that is more appealing than the egomaniacal, narcissistic, i must be president, i have the divine right of kings. the only way my life has meaning. >> donald trump must be stopped. that's why i'm doing this and might not be otherwise. >> i remember mika interviewed michelle obama in late summer of 2007 and michelle obama said, you got one chance to vote for him. he's going to run this time. and if you want to vote for him, this is your chance. if you don't want to vote for

him we're not doing this again. i think people actually -- i think you're right. >> people don't need -- especially with trump in office and the direct thing of i'm trying to stop donald trump but then the indirect thing which is the contrast between trump's meglomania versus biden saying i think i'm qualified. we must stop this man. i think i'm qualified but if i'm not president i would be fine. >> joining us now the chief national correspondent for the "new york times" magazine. his latest piece asks that question, does joe biden want to be doing this? what did you find? >> well, i found that he -- his answer to that question is basically donald trump. he has out sourced his mission statement to donald trump and how dangerous he thinks he is. the question i asked in addition to that is, is that enough? at one point i guess in south carolina last week i asked him, would you be running if a more conventional republican were running, say a jeb bush or mitt

romney? he said i honestly don't know the answer to that question. it is a perfectly legitimate answer. i wanted to explore, though, is the why of a candidacy that important? if you were talk to an elizabeth warren or bernie sanders supporter they would say exactly why their candidate is running, what they stand for. i think a lot of candidates would say, look. beating donald trump and wanting to and thinking donald trump is dangerous is the bare minimum here. obviously we all think he should be gone. what more -- what purpose are we bringing this to this enterprise? >> that is a fascinating question, why. the why of why joe biden wants to run. if you look at the presidents that we've had in this century, george w. bush was deeply conflicted about whether he was going to run or not. he was wringing his hands for a long time. said he was like a cork bobbing on a river, going down a river. wasn't sure if he wanted to or not. a lot of people said he did it to best his dad. you know, barack obama, after a

year or so in office, seemed ambivalent at best about being in washington, d.c. you only had to talk very close to the white house to tell you they did not like washington, d.c. or being there in particular and donald trump, my god, it was a branding accident that went horribly wrong for donald trump. he never saw that coming. so why is important. i just wonder how joe biden fits in with the preceding three presidents. >> here's what i would say. i think reluctance is a really interesting sort of notion and even a tool in politics. as john was saying it can be very powerful for a candidate to sort of come off like they don't really need the job. they don't really want the job. this is just too important. there have been people in both categories who have done this. ronald reagan was always like, i don't need this job. george w. bush as you mentioned, barack obama. but then there are people like bill clinton, who people assume was running for president since

he was in the crib. i would say joe biden probably was in that category for a long, long time. he ran for president twice. there's always been the idea that he has been thinking about this for a while. what is unique about this is that people, i think, generally thought he was done after 2016, and here he is. and the reason he keeps giving more than anything is the current occupant of the white house being so singular and so unlike anything the country has ever seen before. >> you spent some time with the former vice president in a couple different states i think. did you get the impression just watching him and listening to him, not interrogating him, not talking to him as you did, that he was a guy who unlike most of the other candidates in the democratic field hasn't been running for anything for most of the last three years? he's been doing other things that normal americans do.

he bought a house. he's had a couple bucks in his pocket for the first time. he's been spending a lot of time with his family, healing his family, in part. and he instinctively i think knows that a lot of americans have basically tuned out politics because of the tornado politics is and basically said to the candidates including joe biden, who still had the candidates' ear, leave me alone. wake me up on election day. do you think he senses all of that and thus gave you those answers? >> i think he does and it could be a very smart political strategy, calculus, whatever you want to say there. his supporters, the people who show up at his rallies and frankly the people who are giving him such a commanding and durable lead in the polls may be a lot of conventional, older democratic voters, a lot of african-americans, people who might not be as closely tuned

into politics as a lot of supporters, say elizabeth warren or bernie sanders rallies or for that matter donald trump rallies. there is a higher level, frankly, of passion. but look. people just want to kind of get on with their lives and in a weird way biden has this line on the stump he's been using for years, like my father, the old american promise of wanting to say, it's going to be okay. he is not promising to make america great again. he just wants to make it okay again. that might be enough. >> all right. mark, thank you so much. we'll read your piece online in the "new york times." thanks. >> thanks, guys. >> so i wonder, what do you think, is that enough? in the age of trump i want to stop trump. isn't that enough? >> and so, you know, i was just thinking we're not living in normal times, right? that is something that is really key here. and i agree. i think that if it wasn't donald trump in 2020 i don't know if biden would be running, right?

>> i don't think he would. >> clearly, he's been thinking about being president as mark said but i do think at some point that biden is going to have to say, why he is doing it. we understand the electability argument. we understand donald trump is president. and we got to get him out. most of the democratic electorate, majority of democratic electorate believes that but he has to figure out the why. he's really good about speaking from the heart. >> isn't that the why, to say, look. i probably wouldn't be doing it. we are at a crisis moment and i want to get this country back to calm. i'm the best guy to do it. >> a very real answer. a good enough why for other people. give us brilliance in 20 seconds. >> it is very rational to think that way but i will say, 2016, donald trump was the lighting a bottle candidate, became president of the united states. bro barack obama, lightning in the bottle candidate, became president. in this era the lightning candidate often wins. that is not joe biden. that is elizabeth warren.

>> it comes down to one thing. some candidate has to stand up and say, vote as if your country depends on it. >> he'll do it. he's got perspective. having such experience in life, lost a daughter at the beginning of her life, lost a son in the prime of his life, suffered a brain tumor, 50/50 chance of surviving. most qualified, bar none, and he needs to beat trump. he just needs to put it into words and his people do, too. they need to do a better job at that. >> all right. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. thanks so much, joe and mika. hi there. it is tuesday, september 3rd and here's what's happening now. hurricane dorian is the nightmare storm that just will not end. right now it is a essentially stuck in place over the bahamas where it has been pounding the northern islands for more than 40 straight hours. this is video from the abaco islands. as you can see the devastation is