>> hey, joe return said it of saying no with we can't, let's say yes we can. >> i represent president trump scoffed and said would like to see me making a deal with xi jinping. i'd like to see him making a deal with she jipg ping. >> we must and will defeat trump. most dangerous president in the history of this cousunt. >> now, president trump, you can go back to watching fox news. >> okay. good morning, welcome to "morning joe." it's frit 13th. are you feeling unlucky? >> no. some of the candidates last night were unlucky. >> a lot happened. >> a lot of planned quotes. >> planned lines. >> i've got to say -- >> planned, canned. >> i got to say the mayor pete line, i'd like to see donald trump make a deal with beijing this thaf was not planned that's why it was good. we have white house reporter jonathan lemire, jean yore adviser at moveon.org and msnbc

contributor careen jean pierre. former pressurery official and "morning joe" economist steve radnor and white house correspondent yamiche allison dore. what a night. >> willie, what was your takeaway. >> vinyl's back, i think we all knew that. get it on the record player and hit that, that was from the vice president. >> yes. >> but also that the very beginning of the debate vice president biden came out and really set that line in the sand of what we've been you can tag abo talking you about in the first debate which is on healthcare. liz baurp and bernie sanders plans go too far. this progressive dream of eliminating private insurance is a fantasy. i want to build on the legacy of barack obama and make that

better. he said that stage on the first time tonight with the two of them. >> yeah, there was a lot of incredible moments, joe, including -- well, i think a real low blow. i'm going to have to say it was matt gaetz level, castro versus biden, castro really went over the former vites presidece pres. he took him on over healthcare and castro imfliplied that bides senile. >> the difference between what i support and you support is that you require them to on the in and i would not require them to on the in. they would automatically be enrolled. they wouldn't have to buy in. that's a big difference. because barack obama's vision was not to leave 10 million people uncovered. he wanted every single person in this country covered. my plan would do that. your plan would not. >> they do not have to buy in. they do not have to buy in. >> you just said that -- you just said that two minutes ago. >> no. >> you just said two minutes ago

they would have to buy in. >> i said -- >> you said they would have to buy? >> if you qualify you would all theally be -- >> are you already for getting what you said two minutes ago? i can't believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy in and now you're saying they don't have to buy -- you're for getting that. >> i said anything but your grandmother who has no money. >> she would nooet need a healthcare system that automatically enrolls people regardless of whether they choose to on the in or not, if you lose your job for instance, his -- his healthcare plan would not automatically enroll you, you would have to on the in. mine would. that's the big difference. i'm fulfilling the legacy of barack obama and you're not. >> that will be a surprise to him. >> there were so many things wrong with that, joe. rookie, low blow, obviously so obsessed with joe biden that he was going after biden being proud of working in the obama administration but then not taking responsibility for what went wrong. i think julian castro worked in

the obama administration as well. maybe he forgot. the problem with castro's spite, as dan stein and mike memma lee point out, biden actually said the opposite. >> my healthcare plan does significantly cut the cost of the largest out of pocket payment you'll pay is $1,000. you'll be able to get into -- anyone who can't afford it gets automatically enrolled in the medicare type option we have. >> so there is so many things wrong with what julian castro said mika i want to go back to what you said before. if julian castro was so offended by barack obama's position on healthcare, which he is obviously. extraordinarily offended by barack obama's positions on healthcare. and if he was so offended by his positions on immigration, he was in the administration, why didn't he resign in protest?

i mean, this is -- willie, it's -- it's hard to imagine how julian castro could have looked much worse last night. first of all, of course obvious low blow, the ageism, saying you don't even remember what you said? then the problem is, that he got that wrong. maybe he has hardening of the arteries at 40 whatever, however old he is. that's what we used to call it at ott 7, hardening of the arteries. but it's outrageous because biden specifically said what he said he said. and castro i counted four, maybe five times going did you forget what you've said? i can't believe it. did you forget what you said? no, it was castro who was wrong. it was castro hurling out the insults on barack obama. was castro who forgot that he actually served in the obama

administration. and it was castro who got it wrong and threw the ageism insult at joe biden. >> if you're going to have your big moment on a big stage you better get your facts right and he just didn't have his facts right on that question. the idea too, eddy, that he's presenting himself as the inherit a inheritant of barack obama and not joe biden, and then frankly to good on tv afterward in interviews, julian castro, and say who he, who a, whoa, i wasng about his age. that was the point of his attack was to underline for the viewers that he's 76 years old. >> i think david axelrod captured in a tweet, he threw the long pass and overthrew it by a long shot. it seemed it was a calculated risk, it didn't work. i think it's going to hurt him. i think it's important that candidates like castro and

others, they can differently eight selves from obama, they can do that in a way without having to hurl themselves or undermine obama's legacy. but they can say i think elizabeth warren gave an indication of how to do it. obama set the stage, we can build on what he has done. and i think if we can go that route we'll be in a better position. but i don't think you go the route that castro tried. >> steve, this is the second democratic debate in a row where joe biden seemed to survive on the excesses of his opponents. he was at times shaky last night, but in the second debate he survived and actually probably ended up gaining politically because everybody decided they weren't going attack barack obama in the second debate. the third debate was a love fest. they overcorrected. everybody was talking about how much they love barack obama. that was awesome. but then castro attacks biden on his age, once again puts him in

a good position, makes him a sympathetic position and helps him win that skirmish. >> i think biden had a pretty good night. he did what he had to do? was it electrifying? maybe not. but he stayed calm, stayed on message and got it done. he got some good support from amy klobuchar in particular on the healthcare issue where he wasn't left out all alone to try to argue against medicare for all that elizabeth warren and bernie sanders were proposing. you know, had he some tricky questions but he was asked in previous debates about the deportations under obama and it is what it is and he got through that reasonably well. i think what was missing from the debate a bit was first of all, i continue to be surprised that no moderator has tried to identify the differences between sanders and warren. it would seem to be a simple question to say to elizabeth warren, what do you disagree with bernie sanders about and vice-versa. they kind of got a little bit of a free pass there. i think also the debate, the first third of the debate on

healthcare obviously got way into the weeds, very specific, we can talk about all of that. but a lot of the rest of the debate was more motherhood and apple pie in the sense there were issues that these folks pretty much all agreed on and wanted to go after trump and did go after trump and made some process, perhaps, toward the general election. but i think all in all i'm not sure the debate really identified some of the very fundamental differences among these candidates besides healthcare. like elizabeth warren's wealth tax proposal, whether the deficit matters anymore, all kinds of areas where i think there was substantial agreement we didn't get to those last night. >> really i am astounded just politically, i'm astounded this is the third democratic debate where they spent at least the first third of that debate pounding each other on technocrattic niceties regarding their healthcare plans. really. america doesn't care. let me say that again. twitter cares, policy analysts

care, but at the end of the day here's the deal. the democratic party supports universal healthcare as a right for all americans. donald trump wants to destroy your right to having healthcare as an american. a guarantee of that healthcare. he has spent every day in office republican attorney generals have spent every day over the past three years, republicans in congress have spent every day trying to strip away your guaranteed right to have coverage for preexisting conditions, to have coverage for your older children, to have the coverage that you were afforded under the affordable care act. and yet democrats tear themselves from limb to limb. you have castro accusing joe biden of losing his memory. you've got bernie sanders screaming until he's hoarse at other people about how he's the

only one who really cared. i mean, the insanity of it all that it -- that -- i mean, kamala finally got to the point where she said, hey, we all support universal healthcare. donald trump doesn't. >> yeah. >> okay. he doesn't. why don't we just focus here. and i just -- we're going to show that clip in a second, but willie, do you remember back in 2018 barack obama and hillary clinton had this huge fight on healthcare about i don't know what was it on the public option or -- >> yeah. >> on some other issue regarding healthcare. i forget the specifics of it. when barack obama was elected president, guess what? that debate was washed away and he did what he had to do to pass healthcare. these debates, i hate to break everybody's heart. they're not going to make a difference. medicare for all is not going to ever, ever, ever, ever, writing

this down? at least over the next four years medicare for all as posited by bernie sanders and elizabeth warren is never going to pass congress. it just never will. barack obama basically had to -- had to use every ounce of his mandate to get 50 votes to pass the affordable care act. so, willie, they're just shooting themselves in the foot and turning off a lot of americans and having them switch their tv sets, especially if they're on the west coast, back to "wheel of fortune". this is a waste of time for democrats. i like "wheel of fortune ". >> it was a good one last night. >> it was. trebek is back and this time it's personal. >> it's an interesting question. some of the sanders and warren policies, specifically the policy on healthcare, have been painted by joe biden and others as fantasy.

and it's okay to promise everybody the world and say you're going to get everything you want but it's not going it make it's way through a senate, not just a republican-led senate but probably a democratic-led senate at this point. and that's the question of taking away private insurance which a lot of people believe if elizabeth warren becomes the nominee that's going to come back to haunt her to say 150 million americans no longer get their private insurance. >> i'll say this about last night. i think that there was no ground that was broken at all when it comes to healthcare, right? we know where joe biden stands and we know where elizabeth warren and bernie sanders stand. and i agree with joe, i mean, everybody on that stage pretty much on the same page, right? universal healthcare. they want to make sure they increase coverage and make sure people pay less. and so i agree on that point, which is we should be talking about what donald trump is doing. he's literally in -- his administration is in court

trying to take healthcare away, aca away, which is we'll take it away from tens of millions of people. i think there is a miss there that they can be going in harder on because they basically all agree. and so -- so that's kind of the problem. look, last night the three hours of debate did not change what we have been seeing the last three months. the front runners are the front runners. the folks who were part of -- who are not part of the top three are not going to break into the top three. we are where we are and this is after the third debate and we will see what the numbers show. but i don't think anything has changed from last night. >> so senator kamala harris of california was really the only candidate on stage last night who framed the healthcare debate squarely about president trump. >> everybody on this stage, i do believe, is well intentioned and wants that all americans have coverage. at least five people have talked some repeatedly on this subject. and not once have we talked about donald trump.

so let's talk about the fact that donald trump came into office and spent almost the entire first year of his term trying to get rid of the affordable care act. we all fought against it and then the late great john mccain at that moment at about 2:00 in the morning killed his attempt to take healthcare from millions of people in this country. but let's focus on the end goal. if we don't get donald trump out of office, he's going to get rid of all of let's talk about coh. let's stop talk about the squabble and talk about the threat that 300 million americans face. that say president who wants to take away healthcare. >> senator harris made a calculation that she didn't want to get into debating about the details of and the ma nush ab of

some of the things that they agree on and she wanted to place her target and her attacks against the president, i think that's what a lot of democratic voters that i talk to want to hear. they want to hear someone that's going to be able to get on stage with president trump if they have to debate and take him down and really confront him on the policies that they think are hurting americans all over this country. and harris's attack was pretty timely because president trump was in baltimore literally mimicking john mccain around the same time she was talking about the fact that president trump is trying to take away healthcare for millions of people. that was the contrast that was on display, if you turned on your televisions yesterday and senator harris was doing that. and i think going forward senator harris is really going to be trying to focus on the fact that she can really sell herself as the most electable democrat, which is essentially what a lot of voters want to see. >> yeah. you know, i said before that donald trump wanted to take away healthcare. let me add one word to that. he wants to take away healthcare guarantees. a guaranteed right for americans

to that have preexisting conditions, a guaranteed right for americans who have children that are getting out of college and still may not be able to get healthcare. the sort of guarantees that were given in the affordable care act. and so there is -- there is this battle right now between donald trump and republicans who want to take it all away. then on the other side, those guarantees want to take them all away. then on the other side, of course, elizabeth warren and bernie sanders wing that a lot of democrats, independents, and republicans fear want to take away people's private healthcare insurance. because that's what they say that they want to do. what does that seen in i've got to agree with steve ratner, none of the moderators have done a good job at pushing them to move them beyond that fantasyland description. that to me is a small government conservative, former republican calling it fantasy tloond s tas

with a country that's over $22 trillion in debt spend $30 trillion on healthcare. not going to happen. as dana carvey would say, he hates george h.w. bush. let's talk about joe biden and what kind of night he had last night. i got to say, he's -- he helped himself, i think, a lot. you're a brooklyn guy. he helped himself with the brooklyn crowd. the fact that biden is going old school and he's an audio file, he's back to vinyl, as willie said, like, dude, that's back to the future in the coolest way. that description was hurt when he started going like this with his hand motion and he was -- vic releva victrola, i'm glad he didn't get to the top of the hand signals and say let's listen to it, you tell me, whether he's trying to make that victrola symbol with

his hands here. >> make sure every child does have 3, 4, 5-year-old children go to school, not daycare, school. we bring social workers into homes and help the parents deal with how to raise their children. it's not that they don't want hope, it's this they don't know quite what do. play the radio and make sure you have the record player on at night. make sure the kids hear words. a kid coming from a very poor school -- a very poor background will hear four million words fewer spoken by the time they get there. >> thank you so much. >> i'm going to go like the rest of them to do, twice over, okay. >> we're going to have actually -- >> i thought it was good. >> i thought -- >> i know what he was saying. >> i thought had he a good night. i will say, though, we're going to have a new segment on "morning joe" and it's going to be called adventures in syntax. >> stop it. >> we're going to have donald trump yesterday in the white house talking about melania's

son and mumbling the word together. >> maybe it is melania's son. >> it is melania's son. >> that's what he was saying, it was just her son. that's just what he said. >> let me get back to biepd because i don biden because i don't know what you're saying. >> he didn't remember baron's name or -- >> just stop. we'll let the tape play itself, okay? it's like george michael's very machine or whatever that was called, god rest his soul. but anyway, so lemire. >> yes. >> i loved the quote. i loved the quote in the "washington post," the headline. it was the best of biden, it was the biden of biden. >> yeah. >> joe bide hen son had some ve moments and he also had some bidenesque moments. go back to ada, very bidenesque moments as well. >> he did help himself in certain moments. there was the answer we're hearing about the record player, though it may have helped him with the hipsters in

williamsberg, brooklyn. it probably struck a strange note to other people. that question was about reparations and that's where he ended up on that. his answers about afghanistan and iraq, he got himself confused and turned around and it was difficult to follow what he was saying. and i think -- and certainly the castro moment came off too strong. he got his facts wrong, he almost seemed to be reveling in sort of calling out bide he fn forgetting. but cory booker who we'll have on later told cnn thin we're at a tough point because a lot of people are concerned about joe biden's ability to carry the ball across the end line without fumbling. it's a narrative that will pickup perhaps in the democratic field. but the one thing that didn't happen and there were second tier candidates had nice moments. o'rourke spoke eloquently about el paso. cory booker was good about guns. amy klobuchar had a few nice

moments. kamala harris had that stinger to donald trump on fox news. last night's debate was build as the first time that joe biden and elizabeth warren were going to be on stage at the same time together and there really were no fireworks there. >> nothing. >> elizabeth warren held her fire on the vice president. people around her that i talked to in the recent days, they're going to play it patient and not looking to have a castroesque moment with a sharp attack on stage at least not yet. but that dynamic, warren and biden is the one to watch going forward. not much change last night, though. >> biden, you have to stay for elizabeth warren she once again hit her marks. there was a time during the debate where she sort of disaped. l disappeared. sometimes it's good to just disappear. get the attention away from you, let other people fight, let other people make gaffs. i got to say beto did very well in have spots. democrats have made too much of a gain on the gun debate,

though, to start talking about confiscation and going into people's rooms and confiscating their guns. a loser for democrats politically. they've got 90/10 on background checks, they've got about 60 or 70/10 on assault style weapons. you talk about buybacks, voluntary buybacks make them offers they can't refuse. but you get over to confiscations democrats are going to lose the game. going back to elizabeth warren, it was a great night for her. just a great night for her. >> again. >> i keep saying it. she hits the mark every time. she was a winner of that debate last night. cory had a good night. >> mayor pete was good. >> amy had a good night. mayor pete. >> he's always good. >> and, again, we've been unfair to joe biden this first block because we just showed the victrola moment, he was much

better in the third debate than the was the first two debates. again, once again, like the second debate, biden was helped by the streams, the excesses of his opponents. >> so we've got much more ahead, including what the candidates have to say last night about gun reform. plus mayor pete's priceless reaction to andrew yang's cash giveaway. we've got four presidential contenders joining the conversation this morning, senators harris, klobuchar, and cory booker along with former congressmen beto o'rourke. morning know is back in a moment. beto o'rourke. morning know is back in a moment i get it all the time. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off.

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>> pete buttigieg. [ laughter ] >> that's great. [ laughter ] >> it's original, i'll give you that. >> presidential candidate andrew yang using his opening statement to announce the surprise that he had been teasing. it's part of the pilot program for his universal basic income plan which would give every citizen over the age of $181,000 a month. yang is already testing the program with two families using money from his own pocket. this next phase, however, is coming from campaign donations. msnbc contributor noah rothman is among those reacting. he tweeted, quote, literally giving away other people's money is what a republican parody after a democratic contest would look like. it was incredible. it's kind of a gimmick really. >> kind of a gimmick? kind of a gimmick?

that's like saying pet rocks was kind of -- kind of a phase. >> yes. it was a gimmick. and i'm not so sure why he did that. didn't help himself last night at all. he picked up enough momentum to at least be on the stage. he has a group of people who intensely follow him. and, again, why -- why put that gimmick out there? >> yeah, andrew yang walking out of the debate stage and making it rain for people peeling off bills. as long as it was coming out of his own pocket i think everybodiways okeverybody was okay with it. he's an interesting guy and entrepreneur. we showed that head to head this week where he's beating donald trump among a couple of other candidates doing that. so, yes, of course it's a gimmick and a way for him to get a little extra attention for a guy who's had trouble in this crowded field getting that attention, just a little of that. >>. >> wow. >> so steve ratner, let me ask you about the contributors -- the contributor class of the

democratic party and joe biden. it seems to me that many people believe that donors that have helped fund the democratic party over the past few decades believe that they're either going to have joe biden now or elizabeth warren, that's what i hear. of course we still have five months to go so we could all be shocked. remember in 2018 at this point rudy giuliani and hillary clinton were well ahead in first place. so, anything can change. but how did joe biden do last night? what are your friends telling you? >> i think the general consensus was he did well enough, that he didn't knock the cover off the ball and joe biden, the guy everybody completely comfortable about the issues that we've all been talking about. but i think he -- i think did he well enough. i think he played -- played the game pretty well. i think he was fortunate in that everyone else was trying to

cloak themselves this president obama the way they did. there was a bit less of them piling on biden as the front runner. he did make some of the mistakes that jonathan spoke about in the last block. but i think there was a sigh of relief in the biden world and the biden supporters that he did well enough in this to soldier on. and while i think warren had quite a good night, i don't think she had the chance to get in a lot of the other issues that she's -- that she's talked about, like the wealth tax and expose those differences which really need to be exposed. as i think many people, i think bernie sanders did not seem on his game at all last night. there was one tweet from somebody saying he was the relative, he didn't want to be seated next to at pass over. angry old man. and so i think when you put all that together, i think it was a good night for biden and i think that's what -- >> and how are democratic downers, wall street downers,

how are they coming to terms with the fact that they may be given a choice between elizabeth warren and donald trump come 2020? >> they're going through the five stages of grief on that one. there is enormous nervousness about the idea of elizabeth warren against donald trump. but let's be really clear. there are two sets of issues. one set of issues are her policies, which people that i know, democratic activists for the most part do not favor, the numbers don't add up. the ideas are well beyond our means, et cetera, et cetera. so there's a whole question of what she actually believes. but even if you get past that, there's the more fundamental question of whether she can beat donald trump. you said in the earlier block when we were talking about health insurance, you said everybody's for universal healthcare. i think there is a litmus test or divide between the democrats who are for medicare for all, take away your private insurance, and the democrats who

are four universal healthcare but we're not taking away your private insurance. i think if we democrats, my team, runs a candidate who says i'm for medicare for all and i'm going to take away your private insurance, i think that's a disas tru disastrous road go down. so there are two questions, what would she do when she got there and can she be elected? >> and right now the complication on the political side the best political athlete looks like elizabeth warren. >> she does. she was strong and if she came to her more she would have been able to be stronger. coming up, the republicans house retreat in baltimore was at the same time as the democratic debate and president trump used the opportunity to attack several of his rivals. we'll show you what he to say when we come back. we'll show you what he to say when we come back. as a struggling actor,

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african american and hispanic american unemployment have reached the lowest rates ever recorded in thet history o our country. i wonder if that will be mentioned tonight during the debate. i don't know. i have a feeling, what do you

think, steve? i don't know. i think african american unemployment is the lowest its ever been. and just leave the stage. it's so insane. but i don't want to talk about it, it's too early. i hit polka hahn tcahontas way . i thought she was gone. and now it looks like she could beat sleepy joe. he has no idea what he's doing or saying. >> are there any democrats debating tonight you actually respect? >> i respect all of them? >> all of them? >> i respect every one. let me tell you, it takes a lot of courage to run for office. i respect all of them. see that? i'm getting to be much better as a politician. you never thought you'd hear that answer. >> jonathan lemire, it was the best of trump. it was the trump of trump. [ laughter ] >> i mean, never saw that answer in the helicopter coming but actually he showed just a

glimpse of humanity there. >> just a glimpse. and then i sort of undermined it with sarcasm. he even joked that more people would be watching him at this republican event in baltimore than the debate itself, which is nonsense. but, you know, it was a moment for him too as well. this is his first trip to baltimore since his attacks on that city, his relentless attacks on that city and it's representative of elijah come ls where it was rat infested and has a lot of crime. he largely stood aside, but he promised a new tax cut but offered no details. he discussed the china trade deal but offered no details. then he went on the attack against these democratic candidates, you know, he was not watching the debate at that time. i suspect if we all look at our phones in the coming minutes and hours he'll start weighing in as he catches up this morning watching his favorite morning programs.

>> and, yamiche, your thoughts on the debate and who was strong and who was weak, but also when you watch president trump, you get the feeling viewers are watching thinking who can stand up to someone like this? >> well, there no doubt that electability is going to be at the forefront of democrats minds as they figure out who they want to support for their primary candidate. i think my overall idea of the debate was that i'm not sure how much is going to really change here. joe biden, as you said, was strong at times, not strong at other times. julian castro i think was a candidate likely going to be hurt by this when you come and shoot at the king, you really cannot be wrong and he was dead wrong there. i think senator harris really wanted to elevate herself out of that debate and on to a general election stage. she was really imagining herself on the stage she was speaking at times directly to the president saying you're essentially bad for this country and by the way you can start watching fox news now. she also called his ego fragile and said he was essentially

someone who was like the wizard of oz that once you pull back the curtain he's a small man. i think we saw people trying to have their moments and it was overall a debate that was substantive. but i'm not just sure how much of that is going to change the race. i think that a lot of things are set in place. the president, of course, is very much focussed on elizabeth warren, bernie sanders and joe biden. but i think senator harris is going to be someone that's going to have his attention likely this morning once he realizes what she said about him. >> and, you know, i think the question going out of the third debate is has anything changed significantly or is it still a race between joe biden, elizabeth warren and bernie sanders? and i would be really surprised if the polls showed anything different than what we've been seeing over the past couple months. >> still ahead, joe biden's emotional final answer last night. we'll be right back. nal final a night. we'll be right back. - how many people love you unconditionally?

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it's the theme from titanic. i don't know if you know, mika, but i was the stunt double. i was willie downstairs. willie, as you know, i was the stunt double not only for this movie, also for catch me if you ka. >> wow. >> yeah. when he to get on front of the boat and. >> the king of the world. >> do that scene. i was the king of the world. >> something like that, yeah. >> i mean, how much -- how much do you credit my stunt double work? for this opportunity. >> i don't have to give you

credit. leo has said it in interview after interview after interview. it's not me. he steps aside, leans out of the shot and there's joe scarborough borrow rig right there. >> he's a humble man, we appreciate it. >> you guys now how the titanic ended, right? [ laughter ] >> kids are waking up to this and, you know. >> trying to follow. >> learning something new about their "morning joe." anyway, so the kids also have gotten up for another reason, of course, as you know mom and dad shake the bed this time in the morning and they gore go, joey, wake up, tommy wake up, it's ratner's charts. >> after they play the record player. >> at some point i like steve ratner's charts to talk about elizabeth warren and bernie sanders healthcare costs. >> that would be very interesting. >> but that day is not today.

so, kids, you'll get that maybe next week. >> yes, as we've been discussion healthcare was center stage, two days after troubling new data reveals concerns about healthcare coverage across the u.s. steve, what do you have? >> obviously healthcare was front and center and with good reason. i think there are two parts to this. the first part as joe framed it before, is the democratic vision against the republican vision. unfortunately there we have some facts. if you look at what happens to healthcare coverage from a number of americans, you see before the pass aiming of the aca it was stable at around this 14% level. then we have the passage of the aca and down it goes. and then what won't be quite as clear on here but i'm going to give you a couple numbers is this the trump era over here. and for the last two years the percentage of americans for the first time since the aca percentage of americans without healthcare has actually gone up. last year 2 million fewer americans had healthcare than the year before.

and this can be traced to the efforts of the trump administration to kill the aca but do other stuff administratively that hurts it. let's look at the specific types of people who get hurt by it. interestingly enough, the change in healthcare coverage among both whites and blacks, number of uninsured did go up just a little bit. but here's where the real differences are. the real differences are over in some other groups among hispanics, foreign born, and among incredibly among noncitizen children who's uninsured rate went from 15.6% to 18.3%. the trump administration -- and these are mainly people who are on medicaid. trump administration was able to use all kinds of administrative actions to curtail access to healthcare to these groups that they are targeting obviously in so many ways. to joe's earlier point, there's a strong storyline in terms for the democrats to what's happened to healthcare. but where i think we need to be also careful is what healthcare

plan are democrats propose something you can say universal healthcare. we know this question about medicare for all, whether you keep your doctor. let's look at numbers that just came out at where people get their healthcare. almost exactly half of americans get their healthcare from their employers. that is a total of 156 million. now, elizabeth warren said last night she does not know anyone who likes their insurance company. on the other hand, there's a poll that says that 86% of americans between 18 and 64 who have health insurance are satisfied or happy with their health insurance. so i'm not sure they all hate their health insurance quite that much. and then you have another 20 million americans who buy their own insurance, mostly on the exchanges that came out under obamacare. these are the people who could lose their insurance -- will lose their insurance under the strict reading as amy klobuchar said last night on page 8 of bernie sanders bill, these are the people that lose their insurance. and then the balance of americans who have insurance are

insured under medicaid and medicare. there are still 28 million -- 28 million uninsured americans out there. everybody wants to do something about them. but i personally think that going into a campaign arguing that you can take away private insurance with half of americans is a winning argument seems hard to believe. >> it seems to me, though, that what we've heard last night from people like senator cory booker and even mayor pete is that there is a kind of -- there's a kind of third way here between those who are calling for medicare for all and those who are calling just simply to build on aca. and that is, you know, to think about a bridge to medicare for all, that, you know, senator cory booker made the point that he's for it, but he understands that we need to address the issues as they confront us right at this moment. and so it seems to me, steve, that it's imperative for biden and whomever who believe or support aca, that they actually state very clearly their aspirational value. what are they trying to achieve?

and if they're trying to achieve reducing costs and that everyone is covered, if they're trying to achieve the fact that every had the that healthcare is a universal right, then they need to state that explicitly and make a claim about how we will get there. so i think there's a way in which we can -- we can parse this debate where it's not just simply about taking away people's insurance, where it's about the universal right to healthcare, and really show that donald trump and republicans don't really care -- let me say it differently. that they are in some ways not committed to that view. i think last night it wasn't just a stark contrast. i thought we heard at least a couple of candidates finding a way in between the two extremes, it seems to me. am i wrong in that? >> yamiche, i was going to say yamiche, it does seem that that did happen. it took till the third debate but there did seem to be the emergence of a middle way that senator booker, senator harris,

and mayor pete brought out. and willie, i think, has spelled it out in a way that's politically inviting for a lot of americans, mayor pete especially saying that medicare for all, for those who choose to on the in. and he said as progressives we should welcome this sort of competition, that if what we believe is the right way forward, then americans -- basically said americans will vote with their feet and they will leave private health insurance plans and they will come to this public option. >> well, there has been this dynamic where democrats have been essentially being requested to make this decision between progressives who want to essentially blow up the entire system and start something completely new and democrats who say, look, let's be practical, let's not do too much here. there's this middle way happening. and i think last night what we saw was a theme emerge where

people realized after the last debate that trashing president obama's legacy, trashing his work was not going to be popular for a democratic base who was ignited and excited by president obama. so i think senator harris probably did it best in some ways in that about a minute and a half she said six things. she thanked obama for his contribution. she thanked person with nip for his contribution on the idea of medicare. she said then my plan is actually better. and then she pivoted to talking about the president and the fact that she was going to have to essentially give something to the american people that while the president was trying to take away healthcare from people. so i think what you saw was her really trying to balance that. i think we're going end up seeing more of that as this contest goes on. >> yamiche, thank you very much. and still ahead, we'll talk to four of the ten candidates on stage last night. kamala harris, amy klobuchar, cory booker, and beto o'rourke. "morning joe" is coming right back. eto o'rourke "morning joe" is coming right back you wouldn't do only half

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>> that's how the first lady got involved. she's got a son together that is a -- a beautiful young man. >> welcome back to "morning joe," it's friday, september the 13th. still with mika and willie. we have white house reporter for "the associated press" jonathan lemire. his syntax always -- >> spot on. >> spot on, crystal clear. also senior adviser of moveon.org careen jean tee, a. >> and joining the conversation, pulitzer prize winner umean it robinson. also contributing editor for the women's news, website bustle, elisia mendez. great to have you with us. instead of running away from the

obama legacy like many of the candidates did in their last debate, last night were sure to embrace the former president, especially on healthcare. >> we all owe a huge debt to president obama who fundamentally transformed healthcare in america. >> what i favor is something that what barack obama wanted to do from the very beginning. that say public option. >> i want to give credit first to barack obama for really bringing us this far. >> and of course we owe a debt of gratitude to president barack obama. i'm fulfilling the legacies of barack obama and you're not. >> i stand with barack obama all eight years, good, bad, and i different. that's where i stand. >> eugene robinson, i think after the second debate we were all talking about how attacking a guy with a 95% approval rating in the democratic party may not be the smartest thing.

i think that message was sent loudly and clearly from all corners of the political world and last night the presidential candidates decided not to take the ball peen hammer and hit themselves in the head repeatedly. >> exactly. they learn it eventually. and so last night we didn't hear them attacking the, you know, two-term president who's by far and away the most popular figure in the democratic party except for potentially his wife, michelle obama. you know, it was just insane what they did in the prior debates. and last night everybody embraced obama himself, the obama legacy. you saw the two people worked in his administration sort of vying to be the sort of anointed successor, i think biden had the best of that exchange.

it would be a surprise to him if he were not carrying on the obama legacy and if castro were. but, no, obama had a very good night. my -- perhaps he had a better night than anybody else in politics, including the president and all the candidates, obama was the winner. >> so the final question of the night was about the candidates' biggest professional setback over the course of their careers. and joe biden gave this personal response. >> the setbacks were the setbacks. and i think the most critical setback that can occur to anyone is to, um, lose, uh -- well, my dad had an expression. he said, joe, it's not a question of whether you succeed and get knocked down, it's how quickly you get up. right after i got elected my wife and daughter killed and my

two sons were badly injured and i had just been elect and not sworn in and i lost my faith for a while. i came back. then later whenthy son came home from iraq with a terminal disease and a year later, a year and a half later losing him was like losing part of my soul. but the fact is i learned that the way you deal with it is you deal with finding purpose. my purpose is doing ha i've always tried to do and stay engainie engaged in public policy. but there's a lot of people that have it it worse than i do, put one foot in front of the other that had it harder than i had. they're real heroes. >> joe biden at his best and this is what makes him a special candidate despite the mangled syntax from time to time that has followed him around since he first entered the united states senate back as i 30-year-old. >> yeah, joe biden is never better, sadly and unfortunately

than when sharing his own experience and the unthinkable tragedies he's suffered as a young senator who was yet to be sworn in and again losing another child just a few years ago. when he's out on the campaign trail we don't always see it a lot or show it a lot but when he commune with other people he's never better. and he finds a connection there. i think that was probably his best answer of the night. it came at the end of the debate but it was his best answer and he talked so eloquently about that painful time in his life. john joins us from houston. he was there inside the debate hall. you can take that answer from biden if you want to, but more broadly what did you see inside and who had a good night and who perhaps didn't have a good night? >> i think umean it and eugene talking about what i was thinking, what are the lessons? the first was don't attack

barack obama, people didn't do that and generally tried to support barack obama, that was good. they generally, with the exception of julian castro tried to learn the lesson which was don't attack each other. was kind of conspicuous when castro went after biden you had one of the big moments of the night when pruth saete buttigie they don't want to see us attacking each other, they want us to attack trump. thats is something they didn't do in the first two was take the critique to donald trump. so those three things, don't attack obama, don't attack each other and do attack donald trump, you saw a lot of that's that on stage and ghors simple but good lessons from the first two debates. i think joe biden did not have a sp spectacular night, but it was the best of his three debate performances. by that measure, not necessarily the highest bar in the world, but he managed to -- the classic phrase, he did what he had to do i think last night. in particular, not just that last answer, willie, but at the

very beginning of the debate he came out and pretty aggressively sort of offered a policy-based critique of the two progressives. >> yeah. >> in the top tier. went after bernie sanders on healthcare, went after elizabeth warren on healthcare. i think he was stronger at the top than he was really throughout the rest of the night. i think that worked to his advantage. i think sanders, it was i had poorest performance of the three. and although elizabeth warren did not dominate the stage in the way she did the first two debates, you'll remember she cleaned up in those first two, you can see that she's -- that her sort of free ride is coming to an end. people are starting to understand elizabeth warren is a candidate with a position of great strength. so she's starting to see some incoming. she did well last night. not spectacularly, but i think that top three remains the top three as we come out of this debate and head torts of the

next deba debate in ohio. >> with bernie sanders, it was his worst debate performance. he was hoarse and screaming. i know he's always loud and aggressive. >> it stood out more. >> a lot of yelling going on there. elizabeth warren, you started to see stories yesterday start to pick up about how she's using money from her senate campaign, people that gave her -- big donors who gave her a thousand dollars plus. and so you're going to hear a lot of stories in the coming weeks now about her conservative background, her conservative past, how she spent a good bit of her life as a conservative pro business republican. and that's another part of it. but, you know, when mayor pete did say this this is why people hate watching debates, there was a response from castro and some people on twitter, some hard-charging democrats on twitter who said but it's a debate. yes, it is a debate. but that doesn't mean that democrats that are tuning in

who, for three years, have seen donald trump as an existential threat to everything they believe in doesn't mean they want to tune in and watch democrats tear each other like to shreds over technocratic differences in healthcare that are all going to sort of be washed away by the reality of checks and balances that actually i think these democratic candidates, unlike donald trump, actually believe in. so -- so it was a good moment for mayor pete, not a good moment for castro and not a good moment for people saying, well, these are debates and the american people want to see democrats tearing each other to shreds for three hours over different healthcare plans when, again, the goal for democrats is universal healthcare coverage as a right. the goal for donald trump and republicans is to strip away whatever guarantees were given for preexisting conditions for

students and others under the affordable care act. >> well, there were a lot of people on stage still so it's hard to get an engaging conversation going on anything. and elizabeth warren, she performed well again. >> really well. >> she's unflappable during these debates. she comes off as very presidential, very in charge of the information. and i would say that the only problem with her last night is they didn't go to her enough. >> no. >> and that's just a reality that she couldn't control. on the topic of guns, a former texas congressman beto o'rourke took a bold stance on the confiscation of assault weapons. >> if it's a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield, if the high impact, high velocity round when it hits your body shreds everything inside of your body because was designed to do that so that you would bleed to death on a balt feed, not be able to get up and

kill one of our soldiers. when she see that being used against children and in odessa i met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an ar-15 and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that ar-15 in odes in mid tland weren't enough ambulances to get to them in time, hell, yes, we're going to take your ar-15, your ak-47. we're not going to allow it to be used against fellow americans anymore. >> we're going to have congressman o'rourke on in a little bit and asking about that. but jonathan lemire, boy, some i would say dangerous territory there when you start talking about the confiscation of guns. and i'll just say dangerous politically. well, let's just say dangerous politically. the democrats and a lot of rational independents have 90%

of americans supporting universal background checks with over 60% of americans supporting the banning of military-style se semiautomatic weapons like the ar-15 and support a lot of other gun safety legislation, but you start talking about the confiscation of guns, the federal government coming in and kicking down doors and confiscating guns, well, you're playing right into the nra's hand and it's just like noah rothman said about andrew yang's giveaway program. this is almost a parody of what republicans always say democrats want to do. >> right. the line -- the confiscation seems to be the change here. it's crossing that line. not just a ban. and certainly we have seen the polling supports and comments that support it. these are weapons of war, as congressman o'rourke said. these are not used for hunting deer. the argument could be made they're not sold anymore. but taking away guns that are

previously owned or somebody has that's going to be politically dangerous. that's an nra attack ad. a source texted me last night said that moment right there is going to be the opening seconds of a campaign ad from donald trump going forward. trying to energize the second amendment supporters and the nra and so on. but let's give congressman o'rourke some credit here. this is something he speaks occupation natalie about because of what has happened in his hometown in el paso. after he said that on the debate stage and his campaign put out the tweet saying they wanted the ban, a republican congressman briscoe kane tweeted in response my ar is ready for you. which the congressman o'rourke's campaign flagged as a potential death threat. >> that is a death threat. >> yeah. twitter then took down the tweet and i believe it's being looked into further. but it goes to show you not onlily is that grossly irresponsible by any measure, this is what an electrifying and polarizing issue this is going to be. obviously completely irresponsible from congressman kane. >> who was that again. >> briscoe kane.

>> state representative, yeah. so that clip will become iconic because that's been a long held conspiracy that the government is going to come take your guns and then beto o'rourke said it outloud. we understand his personal connection and the passion and energy around the the gun issue. the question, though, is what can washington do? what is it willing to do about guns? >> right now mitch mcconnell is doing nothing. and we have to be fair to what's been happening at the house, there's been bipartisan bills to address really key issues that the public wants to see, which is one of the main universal background check. and mitch mcconnell has not moved on that. look, we have a gun epidemic happening in this country, period. and going back to beto o'rourke, just think about it. this summer there were two mass shootings in texas. two mass shootings in texas. kids can't go to school, you can't do go to a mall, you can't go to church, you can't -- you know, go into a -- to the theater. and this is what's happening.

so i think what we're seeing right now is the beginning of a movement when we come -- when we talk about gun reform and we've seen these types of movements before. like you think about marriage equality. and it starts from somewhere. so i think what he's doing is he's pulling at the heartstrings. he's really sending a message. and he was, that was a strong moment for him when he talked about guns. and also when he talked about race. and so he it's one of his best debates. i think it's important conversation to have. remember, gun reform, democrats, it was -- it was toxic for them. they would never be talking about this at a debate. and now it's happening and it's an important conversation to be having. >> all right. senator elizabeth warren was also asked about gun control and she directed her response toward her push to eliminate senate filibustering. >> we have a congress who is beholden to the gun industry. and, unless we're willing to address that head-on and roll back the filibuster, we're not

going to get anything done on guns. i was in the united states senate when 54 senators said let's do background checks, let's get rid of assault weapons. and with 54 senators it failed because of the filibuster. until we attack the systemic problems, we can't get gun reform in this country. >> alicia, i'm an old man so forgive me for sounding like an old man. but i remember back in my days, i remember in '93 and '94 when bill clinton and the democrats controlled washington, d.c. i thanked god every day for the filibuster. in '95 and '96 when i was in congress and republicans controlled the senate, i cursed the filibuster every day and it goes that way. it goes back and forth. and, you know, republicans

suddenly love the filibuster again in 2009 and 2010. it just -- again, i don't know -- it's not in the constitution. it is not something that's been with us for 240 years. so if you want to change the filibuster you can change the filibuster, but that seems like legislative day trading to me because they will come. >> when you need it. >> when democrats need it again. >> well, i think what's so interesting about her bringing this up here, senator warren, is that it's part and parcel of her entire theory of political change. and that is so much of what we were watching last night. you can talk and say that the conversation about healthcare was technocratic, minutia. but what i was watching was a proxy conversation about whether or not these people on stage believe that you can create change through the systems that exist or if you need to have what senator sanders calls a political revolution. if you need to have what senator

warren calls building upon what has already been done. and that, to me, is the macro conversation that was having last night of which the filibuster was a part. but that's the debate that is going to continue to carry forward. that's the fundamental decision that the democratic primary voters are going to have to make, right? >> all right. let's go back down to the side of the debate in houston. that's where we find former texas congressman beto o'rourke, presidential candidate on the stage last night. congressman, good to see you. let's pick up the conversation we were having about you. we played your clip where you said hell, yes, we're going to take your ar-15 and your ak-47. let's get specific about what you mean there. is that federal agents knocking on doors taking the guns physically from americans? >> no, think it's expecting americans to follow the law. and i know that they will because i've listened to them. i've listened to gun owners and non gun owners alike. i've gone to a gun show in

arizona and met with those who are selling ar-15s and ak-47s and the folks who are buying them. not everyone agrees, but everyone that i met with was at least willing to have the conversation. and many of them offered that they've got kids in school and they're worried about what's going to happen to them next day. and their kids are worried right now. they know that what we're doing is not working. there are others who volunteered, i don't need this ar-15 to hunt or to protect myself. i'd gladly give it back or cut it into pieces. so folks get this. and i think it's the far outlier that is in any way going to be a challenge when it comes to this. i think most americans are going to comply with the law. >> so congressman you're talking about a willing giveback of a gun and americans saying, yes, you can have my ar-15 but what you said was hell, yes, we're going to take your ar-15. what would you do with the people who don't voluntarily surrender their semiautomatic rifles? >> i'm going to work with police

chiefs, with sheriffs, with law enforcement to make sure that we implement this in the most effective way possible. and actually this policy's informed not just by listening to shooting victims and survivors, bombs demand action, march for our lives, but also talking to and listening to police chiefs who don't want to go up against an ar-15 and ak-47. so we will craft something. working with members of congress and local law enforcement that makes the most sense. but it will by and large be dependent on people complying with the law. >> so just to underline it, it will be voluntarily, it won't be hell, ye r we's, we'll come get guns. >> nor, it is mandatory, it will be the law. you will be required to comply with the law. so, i mean, as with many of our laws we don't go door to door searching people's homes to see if they are in fact breaking the law. but we expect people to comply

with the law. >> but it's congressman, you know the law is that those guns are legal right now so how would they be breaking the law by owning those guns? >> well, because by working with congress and listening to the american people who i believe form a majority on this issue, buying back ar-15s and ak-47s we're going to change the law so it will no longer be legal to hold one of these. this is the logical process we need to follow. if every democrat on that stage agrees we should no longer be selling ar-15s and ak-47s because when you're shot with one of those high impact, high volunte velocity rounds, it blows a hole out your side the sides of april orange, shreds everything inside, why is it okay to leave 10 million of them on the street? if you agree it's a potential instrument of terror, if these mass shootings cause fear and terror across our country, why would you leave 10 million of

them out there on the street? i recognize the political difficulty of doing this and, you know, don't know how this will poll in the end. but i do know that losing 40,000 of our fellow americans every year to gun violence is absolutely unacceptable. and it's not just me saying that, it's not just those police chiefs i've listened to. it's these young students march for our lives who survived one of the most horrific mass shootings in this country. their peace plan calls for douse this as well. i think in moments of crisis and in moments of opportunity we listen to and follow the lead of young people. and this is one of those moments. >> and mika, i think a lot of americans, majority of americans probably agree with congressman o'rourke, it's just a question of how you go about making it happen. >> well, that's just the point. the ideas are there, aside from that one there are a lot of ideas that the polls show americans completely support. so it's about the will in washington. senator warren was talking about eliminating the filibuster, something that perhaps you might need on another day, as joe

pointed out. so how are you going to compel action in washington where there seems to be no movement on this every time something massive happens on a massive scale in terms of death and destruction in how do you -- what makes you the candidate to choose who will actually compel action in washington? what's different about you? >> i think part of it is going to the unlikely and the unusual places. that gun show in conway, arizona, the day after we proposed a mandatory buyback of ar-15s and be ak-47 easy. the first guy that comes to me says he not only agrees with me but he likes the policy proposal. others said i disagree but i've got kids in school and i recognize we have do something different. next week i'm in bland, virginia, in the southwestern part of the state. no presidential candidate goes to bland, virginia. very conservative, somewhat

rural part of the state. first question, guy owns an ar-15 says you know what? i agree with you, i would give up this ar-15. i think we might be surprised if we sit down and listen to people who voted for someone else for president than we did last time, we live in a different part of the country come to different conclusions on issues that there still may be some common ground out there. so as president not only would i work to elect democratic majorities, i would go to the places where people have elected republican majorities and listen and talk to them and bring them into the conversation. i think that's the way we get it done. >> but how does that conversation happen? because i think the democratic candidates, many of them, including you, do a great job explaining the problem. saying what you see. saying what you feel about what you see. everybody did a great job at that last night. but there are still lawmakers in washington who will not budge on this, despite the fact that there are many americans who say they do not need an ar-15 to hunt.

we're there in terms of the national will. but how do you move the will in washington? >> yeah, i see people doing it right now. and someone referenced this last night, but you look back at the civil rights movement, you look back to the a.n.t. forum sitting at that wool worth's lunch counter. they shocked the conscience of the country. how also does a white majority in 1964 pass the civil rights act, the next year the voting rights act? they just engaged the conscience of so many of our fellow americans, white and black, to put pressure on the members of congress to override the filler busters that were employed at the time. i think it's going to be someone like that. there's no one person as the next president of the united states that's going to make this happen. it's those grassroots groups like moms demand, march for our lives, it's those student walking out of classrooms like

they did in dirming ham who are forcing this conversation right now. and then you have somebody in the white house who reflects that deep urgency and desire for change. that's what i'm going to do. >> beto o'rourke, thank you very much. appreciate it. great job last night and we'll be right back with former senator claire ma cass skill mc continue the conversation. mccaso continue the conversation. y dif? listerine® completes the job y dif? by preventing plaque, early gum disease, and killing up to 99.9% of germs. try listerine® and for on-the-go, try listerine® ready! tabs™ "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick.

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we're a handful of bill airs control economic and political life of this country. and as president, i am prepared to take them on. >> why do they chain all their pens to the desk? who's trying to steal a pen from a bank? makes no sense. >> that's right, joe. status quo over ten years will be $50 trillion. >> i only accept coins. i'm not talking about fancy coins like dimes and quarters.

i just want nickels and pennies. >> that if a company's -- >> okay. joining us now, former u.s. senator now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskill. i'm glad you're back on today because i think joe was really hard on you yesterday. i didn't appreciate it at all. >> you told me -- that's such nonsense. >> mika said you were really good with claire yesterday, that was fun. >> no. >> you could tell you all were friends. >> she was fun. >> well, friend, how do you think yesterday went? last night went for the democrats? >> you know, i think barack obama had a great night and i think that nothing really changed. joe biden was strong particularly in the opening of the debate. he was very strong. and what happened last night i think will be interesting going forward because they really crystallized the healthcare debate. and joe got some help. i mean, had he both amy klobuchar and mayor pete kind of

piling on here that people deserve a choice. they ought to be able to keep their private insurance at work if they want to. but we also ought to give them a public option they can buy into or automatically enroll, whichever plan you're referring to. i thought going forward elizabeth warren is going to eventually have to answer the question what people are going to pay for this. and she is really being very deft at avoiding answering that question. but i think it's been set up now going forward that the medicare for all plan is finally think getting flushed out in a way that most americans can understand. >> i think it's been a real failure, john heilman, not only for the moderators of the first three debates, but also the candidates not to give specifics on how much this -- this monstrosity of a bill is going to end up costing. and the bill i'm talking about

financially. it sounds like a great idea, it sounds like something that a lot of people would like, like they want their college debt erased, like they want their healthcare to be erased, like they want andrew yang to give them a million dollars a year. there's a lot of things that people want. but there are also things in a country that's $22 trillion in debt cannot afford. and i'm sorry, there's not an economist respected economist in the world that can show us how those numbers add up for medicare for all, first of all. and secondly, you get into it and you start asking americans about having their healthcare plans taken away, it suddenly goes from being a great bumper sticker to being an unpopular bill. but elizabeth warren's never been pressed on it and bernie sanders has never been pressed on it on these debate stages. >> right. i think, joe, i think that's a little bit of a function -- one of the kind of structural failures of these debates and

really all three of them had this problem even though there was only one debate here in houston rather than two in the previous two debates. you've still got ten candidates on stage and that's an unwielding number and it prevents a lot of things. it prevents being able to go deep on these topics and it prevents the follow-through to get to the kind of answers that you're talking about. i don't think we'll start to see that kind of specificity until we get this number of candidates down where we're having five candidates, six candidates, four candidates on stage where you get a chance to go back to these various candidates, men and women, and ask them follow up, press them on these matters. i think claire mccaskill is 100% right about two important things. one of which is elizabeth warren has done, we've all said she was d dominating in the first two debates but she has managed to evade some scrutiny and testify questions on specifics in a

number of policy areas particularly related to healthcare. you started to see that come into focus. i do think if she continues to rise in the polls, more and more people are going to start to really ask tough questions of her that are going to force her to be more specific than she's been. and the second thing that claire said that i think is important was the way in which the moderate candidates, the candidate, the mainstream candidates, not just joe biden pressing sanders and warren, but also getting that help. amy klobuchar has had as good a debate last night as anybody had on stage. >> she was great. >> and a much better debate she had the first two times around. pete buttigieg too. all of those candidates in the middle were now for the first time last night trying to stake out positions that were like, wait, the progressives have the run of the table in the first two debates, we now are going to try to stake out some space as the alternative. and whether joe biden ends up being the champion for that space or if joe biden slips over the course of the months ahead, people like klobuchar and

buttigieg have started to position themselves. wert inheritors of that moderate vote. you finally started to see that happen last night on stage. >> it was the first time that you saw i won't even say the sensible middle pushback, the sensible middle left where you have somebody like mayor pete who -- >> yeah. >> center left, the sensible center left began to push back. and it wasn't a race to as far left as you could possibly go. which we saw in the first debate, especially. but when mayor pete said, mika, that, again, we're not going to take away healthcare insurance for 150 million americans. we can set up a medicare for all plan and if people decide to on the into it, they can on the into it. if people decide they want to keep their own healthcare insurance, they can do that as well. now, again, it's going to be very hard to get from here to there, but at least idealogically that gives americans choice. so they're not thinking i vote

for the democratic candidate instead of donald trump, i'm going to lose my healthcare insurance and i don't know what it's going to look like on the other side of it after the legislators, of at lawyers, after the bureaucrats end up with this sort of mangled healthcare plan that, again, we have no idea how it's going to look at the end. >> a lot of -- first of all, i agree with claire nothing changed, especially between biden and warren. i didn't hear enough from elizabeth warren. and loy lt of other candidates a good night. there was strong candidates on the stage. so maybe who counted themselves out last night? i would say julian castro definitely, andrew yang, just at some point these candidates aren't going to make it. what's your gut on who had a bad night? >> i'm not sure that anybody had a completely disqualifying

night. and even when you talk about andrew yang and the giving a thousand dollars a away to ten americans, i understand can it can sound gimmickally but having been on the trail with him, there are a lot of people who are frustrated who are focussed on one thing and that's affordability and the economy and they do see uvi as this -- we can have an entirely separate debate about whether that fixes the problem. but part whaf heof what he's sp to is this real experience that people are living, this frustration that they're having in the sense that the way the system is built zont doesndoesnr them. i think it's easy to look at this and say this is not practical, some of these things can't happen. but i'm not sure that that's necessarily how viewers at home are assessing what happened on that stage last night. >> well, and of course, alicia, you could look back to donald trump in 2016. >> right. >> everything was nonsense. everything was aspirational.

we're going to build a wall and mexico's going to pay for it. nobody ever thought that was going to happen. nobody with like three brain cells thought mexico was actually going to pay for the wall. but it was one of his greatest hits that i dialed up and people loved that. donald trump said he was going to give people universal healthcare, that their premiums were going to be lower, that their -- that their healthcare coverage was going to be more expansive. you can go down the list. >> right. >> it was all aspirational and that certainly didn't get in the way of him getting elected president of the united states. >> right. so two things there. onesy think the challen onesy think how they thread the needle between saying i need to get this done and move it through congress and seeming as they they have a big vision for america. because voters want both. the other point you're raising is the question we come back to is one about lecability aelecta

going toe to toe with donald trump. i'm not sure going toe to toe with donald trump by talking about knowing how to get things done is necessarily a winning strategy for democrats. >> alessicia menendez, thank yo very much. coming up, we'll talk to three more senators from last night's debate. amy klobuchar is standing by. "morning joe" is coming right back. standing by "morning joe" is coming right back welcome to fowler, indiana. one of the windiest places in america. and home to three bp wind farms. in the off-chance the wind ever stops blowing here... the lights can keep on shining. thanks to our natural gas. a smart partner to renewable energy. it's always ready when needed.

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♪ welcome back to "morning joe." beautiful live picture on a friday morning of the united states capitol. joining us now from houston, senator amy klobuchar from minnesota. good to see you. we've got good reviews last night for your performance. the case you made seemed to be boiled down to your line where you said, you know what? this race is full of extremes, there are people on the left, there's donald trump on the other side. if you find yourself somewhere in the middle you've got a home with me. that's sort of the space, though, that joe biden occupies

as well. so putting elizabeth warren and bernie sanders to the side for a moment, how do you sset yoursel aside from joe biden? >> i think is if you feel stuck in the middle between the extremes and you're tired of the noise and the nonsense. there's a lot of people in our own party, in the democratic party that feel like that. in addition to independent, moderate republicans. here's my thing. i'm from the midwest right next door to wisconsin which is such a key state and have that ability to win wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, iowa, key states that we lost in 2016. secondly, i'm one of only three women on that stage, which i think is important, and the final thing is i've been working through this trump era. and i've shown an ability to navigate it, which i can make the case to voters passing over 30 bills where i'm the lead democrat. but also, and i think this is the most important, i have seen the impact on regular people,

whether it's farmers that can't sell their soy beans who are closing the door and crying when the media's not there dealing me they don't think they're going to be able to keep their farm or whether it's immigrants who every day they go out there someone's coming after them because of the rhetoric from donald trump. >> let's say i'm a democratic voter and i'm thinking about you and joe biden because think you occupy a similar space in the sense that you're moderate and you don't support some of the ideas -- looks like he probably has a better slot at winning the nomination and beating donald trump. how do you answer that? >> i say people have to get to know me and that's what that debate last night was about. before we were all fragmented in these debates and it gave me an opportunity to make that case that i don't want to be a president for just half the country, i want to be the president for all the country. and taking it to some of these

ideas. i don't do it personally, i'm friends -- bernie and i came in together. we've worked together. as i pointed out last night on pharmaceutical issues. but, you know, you keep saying you wrote the bill, well i read that bill and on page 8 of that bill it says that we're going to kick everyone off their insurance, 149 million people in four years. and that's why i was the only one up on that stage that's in the senate that didn't sign on to that bill because i read it and i thought, man, this is not going to be what people need. we need bring down the cost of insurance with a public option which is a competitive nonprofit option. >> you know what's interesting, senator klobuchar. and i know you've seen this watching debates at home. you wonder why candidates don't have a certain retort back. and throughout the first two debates bernie kept saying, i wrote the damn bill an. and i kept wanting somebody to

go, yeah, that's the problem. you pretty much said it last night. you said you wrote the bill, but i read the bill and you said about the 149 million americans getting getting taken off their insurance plans and you said i don't think that's a bold idea think there it's a bad idea. are you surprised that moderators over the first three debates and other democrats on the stage have given elizabeth warren and bernie sanders the free pass that they've given them on this very expansive idea? again, if you're a progressive and you think we can afford that, god bless you. i think it adds to the debate and maybe helps find a more sensible middle ground. so that's their beliefs and i have great respect for them for having those beliefs. i'm just surprised that other than you there just hasn't been a lot of pushback on an unworkable plan that would

bankrupt america. >> well, i wanted to do it in the last debate, actually, and i don't think i got a question for 20 minutes. i kept saying hey, hey. and i think they decided well, they're going to go to congressman delaney and governor bullock and they tried. but i have a different perspective because i was there for the affordable care act debate. i got my start, as i noted last night, in politics because of what happened to me when i was kicked out of the hospital in 24 hours when our daughter was really sick in the hospital. and those things form my view of you've got universal healthcare, but you've got to do it in a start smart way that makes it more affordable. taking on the pharmaceutical companies, something i've been doing since i've been in the senate. and what happened last night was they seem to have monopoly saying this is a bold and exciting new idea and you guys don't have anything to offer.

a none of us came back and said that's not true. we have bold ideas, there's problems with your ideas. and that debate has to happen, but it doesn't have to be personal. >> you know, in talking talking colleagues about the democratic field your name always comes up as one of the stronger candidates, but you have a handful of candidates who are still beating you in the polls. so in terms of leadership skills, what differentiates you from joe biden, elizabeth warren, kamala harris, what makes you better? >> you can just look at the number of all of the candidates that are still in the senate. i have passed by far the most bills and that should matter. over 100 bills where i'm the lead democrat on things that are important like drug shortages and helping our veterans with the latest scoriurge coming outf afghanistan and iran, burn pits. taking a lead on infrastructure

pictures like row broadband. those are bread and butter issues which once the voters get to know me that i'm someone who doesn't just have plans, i actually get things done and i have deadlines. otherwise it is a case i will continue to make as well as bringing in and making that case, you don't just warrant someone that win, plemika. you want someone that can win big. when you look at the senate races up in colorado, arizona and alabama, you want someone with a track report of bringing people with them. that's what i have done. i have won the reddest of reds in my own state every single time, and that ability to speak on our voters has to be considered. they did it in 2018. they put up really great candidates able to win in states like wisconsin but we have to do

it again. that's a case i can uniquely make. >> senator amy klobuchar. thank you for being on the show with us. >> hi. amy. >> hi, amy, they wouldn't let me talk to you. >> hi say. >> thank you. see you. >> see you, jamie. jean robinson, jean -- gene robinson, we wanted to ask you about your latest peach. what did you mean by that? >> they're trying to say we're both impeaching donald trump. not really. we are investigating donald trump. they need to make up your minds. you saw what happened earlier this week, the house judiciary committee voted on guide looine for what some call an

investigation. immediately after the chairman of the committee says, you know, we are moving forward towards impeachment and nancy pelosi basically comes out and says, no, we're not. it has gotten more than old and kind of counterproductive. it is not as if you have to dig deep for evidence. you cut and paste from the mueller report and take this week's abuse of powers and this week's example of president corruption. you could write articles of impeach if you warranted to in a week, in a day, but they're dragging this out. this is something that nancy pelosi doesn't want to do. we need to say, look, we're not doing this or actually move

forward and do something. >> john, bee talked about the problem for the democratic party and the base. a lot of democrats believe it is the party's responsibility. they control the house of representatives, they should have an impeachment inquiry. another segment that nancy pelosi is trying to protect and defend obviously are a lot of the freshmen democrats that came in in swing districts in california, new jersey, that had been formerly republican. she knows she is speaker of the house not only because progressive democrats won there's but because of republicans who lost theirs and don't want to talk about impeachment. >> yes. it is the same argument we have had for six months. at this point it is a kabuki

dance. six months ago you could have a discussion about given what we knew at that point, whether the institutional responsibilities of the house were to take up an impeachment inquiry or impeachment i.t. itself. there's a limited number of legislative days on the calendar this fall and the notion at this stage the house democrats will take up the question whether to impeach the president is ridiculous. nancy pelosi has no yees tintenf taking it up for the reasons you have said. the bottom line is the democrats in the house of representatives probably think the president deserves to be impeached, but there's no reasonable window by which this is going to happen in the fall of 2019 and no one

thinks there will be a more politically palatable situation than in an election year to try to impeach the president. it is time to be clier and say, you know what, we minneapolised our window. we are not going to impeach the president though, it is up to the voters to impeach him. >> the white house welcomed the impeachment. they think it is good politics for them. as far as the counterturns more l relent lesley they will find out it is even sharper. impeachment did not come up at all last night, and i don't believe it has in any of the debates. there doesn't seem to be broad strokes with real moment up from the policy leaders, both pelosi and the time is running out as it was said. >> thank you both.

great to have you on. coming up we will talk to two more candidates from last night's debate sage, senators came cam kamala harris and cory booker. back in a moment. back in a momet johnson & johnson is a baby company. but we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you.

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you said they would have to buy in. >> they would not have to buy in. if they qualify for medicaid -- >> are you forget what they said. >> while bernie wrote the bill, i read the bill. >> let's be clear. i never met anybody that likes their health insurance company. >> for a socialist, you have more confident in corporate america than i do. >> no, i am easing -- i know a lot of doctors. >> hell, yes, we are taking your ar-15, your ak-47. >> instead of saying no, we can't, let's say yes, we can. >> i would like to see him making a deal with xi jinping.

>> we must and will defeat president trump, the most dangerous president in the country. >> now, president trump, you can go back to watching "fox news." >> good morning. it is friday, the 13th. are you feeling unlucky? >> no. some of the candidates were unlucky. >> it was an incredible night. a lot happened. >> a lot of planned quotes, a lot of planned lines. >> planned lines. >> of the best lines, i have to say the mayor pete line saying, i would like to see donald trump make a deal with beijing. >> it was not planned, that's why it was so good. we have jonathan lemire, and msnbc contributor careen john pierre. eddie claw jr. economic analyst and white house correspondent for sppbs news ho,

yamish. >> what was the take away? >> the big takeaway is vinyl is back. get it on the record player and hit that. it was from the vice president. also, that at the very beginning of the debate vice president biden came out and really set the line in the sand we have been talking about for the last couple of months. first debate on the question of health care, he says, elizabeth warren and bernie sanders' plan go too far. this progressive dream of medicaid for all, eliminating private insurance is a fantasy. i want to build on the affordable care act and make it better. he said it clear from the beginning, and on a stage for the first time in a debate with the two of them. >> there were a lot of incred ilk moments, joh -- incredible moments. i have to say it was matt gaetz.

the former housing secretary took him on over health care, and castro essentially implied biden is senile. >> the difference between what i support and you support, vice president biden, is you require them to opt in. i would not require them to opt in. they would automatically be enrolled. they would not have to buy in. that's a big difference because barack obama vision was not to leave 10 million people uncovered. he wanted every person in the country covered. my plan would, yours would not. >> they do not have to buy in. >> two minutes ago you have to buy in. >> your grandmother would not have to buy in. >> are you forgetting what you set -- are you alreaforgetting you said two minutes ago? i can't believe you said two minutes ago you had to buy in and now you are saying they don't. you are forgetting it.

>> i said anyone like your grandmother with no money. >> we need a health care system. >> -- you are automatically enrolled. >> -- that automatically inrolls people whether they opt in or not. if you lose your job, for instance, his health care plan would not automatically enroll you, you would have to opt in. mine would. i am fulfilling the legacy of barack obama and you're not. >> that will be a surprise to him. >> there were so many things wrong with that, joe. >> so many things. >> a rookie, low blow. obviously so obsessed with joe biden that he was going after biden being proud of working in the obama administration but then not taking responsibility for what went wrong. i think julian castro worked in the obama administration as well. maybe he forgot. the problem with castro swipe as "the daily beast" sam stein and mike emily point out, biden actually said the opposite. >> my health care plan does

significantly cut. the largest out of pocket payment you will pay is $1,000. anyone who can't afford it is automatically enrolled in the medicare type option we have. >> so there are so many things wrong with what julian castro said. i want to go back to what you just said before. if julian castro was so offended by barack obama's position on health care, which he is obviously. >> yes, very. obsessed with it. >> extraordinarily offended by barack obama's positions on health care, and if you are you so immigrant, he was in the administration. why didn't he resign in protest. willie, it is hard to imagine how julian crass trastro could looked worse last night. of course, the low blow, the

cheap shot, the ageism saying, you don't even remember what you said? the problem is he got it wrong. maybe he has hardening of the arteries at 40 or whatever the old he is. that's what we used to call an odd seven, hardening of the arteries. because it is pacific, and castro i counselted him four or five times, did you forget what you said? did you forget what you said? no, it was castro who was wrong. it was castro hurling out the insults on barack obama. it was castro who for got that he actually served in the administration. >> if you are going to have your big moment on a big stage you better get your facts right, and julian castro didn't have his facts right on that question.

the idea that he is presenting himself as the inheritor of the barack obama and not joe biden of whom barack obama said the best decision i ever made was making joe biden my vice president, is preposterous. and then to go on tv afterwards and say, whoa, whoa, i wasn't talking about his age. quite clearly it was the point of the attack, to under line for the viers that joe biden is 76 years old. >> i think david axelrod captured it well in a tweet. i think it was a calculated risk, it didn't work. i think it is going to hurt him. i think it is important that candidates like cass tros and others can differentiate themselves from obama and do it in a way without understand mining lig assy warrant. -- i think if we go that route

we will be in a better position but you can't go the route castro tried to go. >> you know, steve, this is the second democratic debate in a row joe biden seemed to survive on the excesses of his opponent. he was at times shaky last night, but in the second debate he survived and actually probably ended up gaining politically because everybody decided they were going to attack barack obama in the second debate. the third debate was a love fest. they overcorrected. everybody was talking about how much they love barack obama. that was awesome. but then castro attacks biden on his age. once again puts him in a good position, makes him a sympathetic figure and helps him win the skirmish. >> biden, all things considered had a pretty good night. did he do what he had to do. was it electrifying? maybe not. but he stayed calm and on message and got it done. he got good support from amy

klobuchar on the health care issue where he wasn't left alone to try to argue against medicare for all that elizabeth warren and bernie sanders were proposing. he had tricky questions that he was asked in previous debates about the deportations under obama and it is what it is, he got through it reasonably well. i think what was missing from the debate is i continue to be surprised no moderator tried to identify the differences between them to say, what do you disagree with bernie sanders are, and then to elizabeth warren warrens. a lot of the rest of the debate was more motherhood and apple pie in the sense there were issues these folks pretty much all agreed on and wanted to go after trump and did go after

trump and made progress towards the general election. i'm not sure during the debate that it identified some of the fundamental differences among the candidates except health care. all kinds of areas where i think there was sub stanstantial agre e we didn't get there last night. >> aside from oprah, no one gives things away like andrew yang. he triples down on his freedom dividends and mayor pete doesn't know what to say about it. you are watching "morning joe". we will be right back. ♪ bab joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you.

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call 1-800-501-6000 today. my campaign will now give a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to ten american families, someone watching this at home right now. >> pete buttigieg.

>> that's good. [ laughter ] >> it is original. i'll give you that. >> oh, my gosh. democratic presidential candidate andrew yang using his opening statement to announce the surprise that he had been teasing. it is part of the pilot program for his universal basic income program, which would give every citizen over the age of 18 $1,000 a month. yang is already testing the program with two families, from money with his own pocket. this next phase is coming from campaign donations. noah rothman is among those who kweted. literally giving away other people's money is what a republican parody of a democratic nominating contest would look like. it was incredible. kind of a gimmick ready. >> kind of a kimmingimmick? >> it is like saying pet rocks

was kind of a phase. yes, it was a gimmick. i'm not so sure why he did that. he didn't help himself last night at all. he picked up enough moment up to be on the stage. he has a group of people who intensely follow him and, again, why put that gimmick out there. >> yes, andrew yang walking out on the debate stage making it rain for some people, peeling off bills. as long as it was coming out of his own pocket everybody was okay with it. when you use tax money for it it is a different situation. >> he is an interesting guy, an entrepreneur. we showed it head-to-head where he is beating donald trump with other candidates doing that. it is a way for him to get extra attention for a guy with trouble getting extra attention. a little of that. >> steve radner, let me ask you about the contributor class of the democratic party and joe biden. it seems to me that many people

believe that donors that have helped fund the democratic party over the past few decades believe that they're either going to have joe biden now or elizabeth warren. that's what i here. of course, we still have five months to go. remember, in 2018 at this rudy guilliani and hilary clinton were ahead. things can change. how did joe biden do last night? >> the consensus is that he did well enough. he didn't block the cover off the ball, but he was joe biden that made everyone feel comfortable with the issues. i think he did well enough. he played the game pretty well. he was fortunate in that everyone else was trying to cloak themselves in president obama the weigh he did so there was less of the mall piling on

biden as the front-runner which worked in his advantage. he did make some of advertising, and he did well enough in this to soldier on. while i think warren had a good night, she didn't have a chance to get into a lot of the issues she has talked about like the wealth tax and expose those differences that need to be exposed. i think as many people observed, bernie sanders did not seem on his game at all last night. one tweet said he was the relative you didn't want to be seated next to at passover. you know, an openingry old maan. when you put it together it was a good night for biden. >> how were democratic donors, wall street donors, how are they coming to terms with the fact they may be given a choice

between elizabeth warren and donald trump come 2020? >> they're going through the five stages of grief on that one. there is enormous nervousness about the idea of elizabeth warren against donald trump, but let's be really clear. there are two sets of issues around that. one set of issues around that are her policies, which people that i know, contracting activists, which we do not favor. there's a whole question about what she believes. but if you get passed that there's the fundamental question whether she can beat donald trump. as you said in the earlier block, we were talking about health insurance and you said everybody is for universal health care. there's a litmus test for the democrats who are for medicare for all, take away your private insurance, and universal but

don't take iaway your print insurance. i think if i run and say i'm going to take away your chooice. >> coming up, two of the presidential candidates we saw on last night's debate stage, senators camera harrkamala harr bernie sanders coming up. la har bernie sanders coming up johnson & johnson is a baby company. but we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born

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racism exists. the question isn't who isn't a racist. it is who is and isn't doing something about racism. this is not just an issue that started yesterday. it is not just an issue that we hear a president that can't condemn white supremacy. we have systemic racism eroding our nation from the health care system to the justice system. we have more african-americans under criminal supervision today than all of the slaves in 1850.

we have to come at this issue, attacking systemic racism, having the courage to call it out and having a plan to do something about it. >> one of senator cory booker's moments on the debate page last need, and the senator johnen in now. jonathan lemire has the first question for you. >> good to see you. one of the comments last night was julian castro challenging biden with his forgetfulness of an answer. he turns out he didn't have it right. but afterwards you told cnn, we are at a tough point because a lot of people are concerned about joe biden's ability to carry the ball across the finish line without stumbling. do you believe he has the ability to withstand the rigors of this campaign and be president? >> i don't know, and i think it is something voters have to

decide on for themselves. if i felt he was the best person for the job i wouldn't be on the debate stage or in this campaign. i believe the nominee will have to be someone not only able to get across the end line, but this is a moment where we really need a candidate that can more than beat donald trump -- and i know it is the one thing that voters want, but to me it is the floor, not the ceiling. we need someone to unify the country, bring us together. that's why i'm running. i'm running because i believe i can unify the democratic party but more than that hopefully unify the country back to a sense of common cause and purpose. >> senator, let me press you on that. obviously you think you are the best candidate to be president. i am sure you have differences with all of the rest of the candidates but it is not what the quote says. let me ask you again, does the former vice president from the ability, mentally and

physically, to be president of the united states? >> again, i want to say it is up for all of us as voters to decide. i am in this race because i know i have the energy and ability to do it and to take on tough fights, as you know. as i said last night, there's an oscar-nominated documentary about me taking on one of the most political machines in america and overcoming it. as we have seen in the past, people leading in the polls from my party have never gone on to win the presidency. the people who do, help us in a national way overcome the lines that divide us and aspire to what ties us together as a people. that's the message of this campaign, what i'm making and running so hard. >> congratulations on another great debate last night.

a lot of people in the middle would think it was a positive. you said there's a point we are missing on the stage right now, which is the fact that donald trump's america-first policy is actually an northwesteamerica in america alone policy. donald trump has engaged in trade wars. he set up taxes that working classes disproportionately pay. the assumption is that people have to come back to us. they don't. as the eu leader said a couple of days ago, if donald trump wants to engage in trade wars we will deal with china. are you going to steakeout a

position going through the campaign that's currently more trade. are you going to stakeout on position on free trade, on opening america up to the world again after trade wars and tears that donald trump has damaged the international community pushing forward? >> look, first of all you notice this, when i much as i thought i knew this country what an enriching experience it has been. one of the things that it affirmed is that in my l. areas, . when i meet people who are salt of the earth farmers and complain about how donald trump is ruining farmers, from farmers to factory workers to even people, consumers in my community, his policies are really disastrous and it is not

a part shan sa thing. you need there in senate hallways or in the senate jim or in private conversations. there's a lot more agreement on the issues than disagreement. so i am a believer that america can compete and win. in fact, we have to. we are a consumer-based economy, and the overwhelming majority of consumers are outside of our country. we have to get out there and compete and yet a world where our number one competitor, china, where we are unifying democratic, free market people against this country that is violating international norms and taking on practices that, frankly, are undermining the ideals of free stayed. as long as we keep labor and the environment at the center of what we do and use our markets to leverage global change around these issues, i know but this guy is setting us back in so women he comes to trade and our

standing strong with other countries. >> i have always been a supporter of free trade. again, i want to say we have made mistakes in the past. when it comes to labor and labor rights in this country, we could have done a much better job. you know this from dealing with the kind of adjustments, the difficult adjustments to a globalized world we should be doing. i have been saying for a long time, i watched what companies are from switzerland to germany have been doing in terms of apprenticeship programs, preparing people for the 21st century job market, you see those countries have incredible programs for people mid career can shift over to apprentice training programs to get ready for the next jobs. we have to be ready globally, and keep labor and have the kind of security and a pathway to prosperity, and we have to make

sure we get people to shift to our labor terms and focusing on our concerns. i think we can do all of that. i think it is a liberation of the "and." >> good morning, corey. it is claire. how are you today? it is claire. i want to ask you a question -- >> hi, claire. how are you? >> i'm good. i wanted to get the smile out of you before i continued. one of the biggest challenges you have is the allure of fighting for an ideal which can be inspirational versus making promises that will not be kept. you are really trying to inspire. you said last night, the phrase that stuck out for me was, "we cannot sacrifice progress on the altar of purity." this is really hard what you are trying to do. you are trying to inspire people around the idea of incremental progress as opposed to fighting for an ideal that you and i both

know is not going to happen. speak to how you can inspire without making a promise you know is not realistic. >> you know, that is often my frustration as a guy who actually had to run something. i ran a major american city, the biggest one in my state, and i always had to have that balance. big, bold visions of where we can be because i needed to inspire people, but i have to deliver progress right away. i think you can do both. look, i hear things on the debate stage sometimes that make me think, okay, where is the realism in that, where is the pragmatism in that. that's why i am good at this and will be a good chief executive because i will be fiercely fighting for that pragmatic solution of bringing people together. unifying the party and the nation to get things done, but i am a visionary. i think it is important to inspire folks. you have to level with voters how we actually get to the i

deal and that's the line i am trying to walk in this election and try to keep us -- really what inspired me about our country was we had presidents that told us we could go to the moon or great leaders take told us we can go to the mountain top. but they still understood vulnerable communities that needed help right now and we're focused on delivering those results. >> senator, i wanted to ask a question about the way in which you responded to gun reform. you said that you were sorry that people had to wait to address this issue when it affected their communities. you spoke to the particular violence in your community, if newark where you live, and then you always added to that, you offered this kind of broadview that we can't simply understand racism as intention at prejudice but we need to understand its relationship environmental racism and the like. talk about what you were trying to do on the stage last night and making that sort of move to ask yourself fellow candidates

to link mothink more broadly on question of racism and these particular issues we face in the country. >> yes, i think we have a problem when we are at our worse. it is an impotency of empathy. when we are at our best, it is a courageous empathy. i have heard leaders on the senate floor, i'm now in favor of gay marriage because i have a gay child. come on. when you have a nation where 30% of gay children admit to missing school because of fear, what is wrong with your empathy that you cannot let that issue motivate you before you have it affect you directly in your life. when it comes to issues and race and racism, it is not just about charity or hurting as black folks, we are hurting as an economy. as the king said, injustice

anywhere is injustice everywhere. it is hard for a guy that sees up close and personal environmental racism, the criminal justice system and how literally i have seen lives and families destroyed for a marijuana charge. literally as we are having this conversation there are disproportionately black and brown kids for doing things that two of the last three presidents admitted to doing and they are in jail. i will be working no matter my career, what title i hold, to call upon that empathy. that we don't have to wait for something to visit on our family or neighborhood to understand we are in this together, we share a destiny, and we have to rise up to an empathy to solve problems and to seize the opportunities that exist when we raise everyone up. >> senator cory booker, thank you very much. great to have you on. >> good to be on. thank you. a snapshot from behind the scenes from one of our booking

producers, cory booker and kamala harris sharing a quick conversation a few moments ago. the california democratic is standing by and she will join the discussion next on "morning joe". ♪ johnson & johnson is a baby company. but we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company.

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simple. easy. awesome. welcome back to "morning joe". 8:42 here on the east coast. joining us presidential candidate senator kamala harris of california. good morning. good to see you. >> good morning. >> we sat and you visited with us in a restaurant in miami after that first debate where there was confusion about health care. you clarified that you misunderstood the question from lester holt that night. for a lot of people watching on this network who may be seriously considering voting for you, where you come down on the

spectrum from the elizabeth warren medicare for all corner of the party to joe biden's more moderate idea of improving the affordable care act, where do you put yourself on that spectrum? >> i appreciate the question, so thank you for that. i always have been for medicare for all, but bernie's plan is a good plan, i support it but i think we can do better. i came up with my own medicare for all plan. everyone will be covered including people with preexisting conditions but we will give people choice because, willie, i have heard from people and people have said resoundingly wherever they live, whatever their race and frankly whatever their political party, they don't want choice to be taken from them. my plan offers people can have either a public medicare for all plan or a private medicare for all plan. then we have the ability for people to have a longer transition period because i talked to our friends in labor,

many of whom negotiated lower wages for better benefits with their health care plan and i didn't want them to give that up. that's the difference. you know, in terms of the distinction between my plan and the vice president's plan, my plan would cover everyone. by the vice president's plan, its own description, 10 million people would not be covered under that plan. >> one of the fears i think a lot of voters have is they hear the headline and senator klobuchar made it again last night, made the point that 149 people under the medicare for all proposed, not by you but by bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, 149 million americans would lose their private insurance. can you say to the 149 million americans this morning that you can keep the private insurance under my plan? >> well, what they will have is that private insurers have the ability to compete in my plan, and the individual is going to have choice. they will have the ability to make the choice about whether they want to go with a private insurer or public insurer and that's what people want.

they want to have that kind of choice and i want to give it to them. i don't want to take it away from them. >> but there's a chance if i have private insurance and i enjoy private insurance that it cob taken from you? >> your insurer is going to have to compete, but here is the thing, willie. what will happen is under my plan your private insurer is no longer going to be able to charge you co-pays and deductibles. people in america right now are paying anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 deductible for their insurance. they don't want to do that. they want to keep their doctor, they want to know their employer is not dictating and their insurance company is not dictating the kind of coverage they receive, the kind of test they can have. under my plan we will put a stop to that and get rid of co-pays and deductibles. your private insurance, if they have the ability to compete you can choose them and go with the plan. i think what you want is your doctor and that when your doctor tells that you need a certain

test you can have it. >> hi there, senator. i saw you tweeted last night in a three-hour debate abc missed an opportunity to talk about women's issues. can you be more specific about that, what you were wishing that you were able to discuss on that stage last night? >> i mean there's so much. there's everything from choice. listen, i have been traveling our country. yet again, women's access to reproductive health care is under full attack in so many states in our country. you look at a state like alabama where the legislature passed a law that would criminalize and incarcerate a physician for assisting with a woman's exercise of choice, and that discussion needed to happen. when i talk to women across the country -- again, regardless of where they live, regardless of their age, their race, it is a huge issue and women are concerned because women rightly know with these restrictions on their access to reproductive health care, you know, there are

women who will die. in particular, poor women and women of color, it is a very clear issue. it should have been brought up last night, it wasn't. i'm glad we are talking about it now and i will continue to talk about it. there's a variety of other issues. i have plan to address the issue of equal pay. in 1963 our country passed legislation recognizing women were not paid equal to men for the same work, so we passed legislation saying everyone should be paid the same amount for the same work. fast forward to the year of our lord 2019, women are paid 80 cents on the dollar, black women 61 cents on the dollar, native american women 58 cents and latinas 53 cents. i have a plan to change that and put the onus on corporations to pay people the same amount or they will be fined. >> senator, i want to ask you about guns. you along with the other candidates, but you especially did a great job last night really talking about the impact of gun violence, which you have

see firsthand. i would venture to say americans are with you on this. the polls show they want change. the issue is getting it done in washington and getting republicans, who don't seem to see what americans want. how are you going to be able to impact change on this issue differently? because it hasn't been able to happen. i mean barack obama struggled with this, and we couldn't get the change that apparently americans are looking for. how will you do it differently? >> no, you're right, mika. that's why i have said and i'm fully prepared after being elected to give the united states congress 100 days to pull their act together on this and put a bill on my desk for signature. if they do not i'm prepared to take executive action and do three things. one, put in place a comprehensive background check requirement. two, put resources into the atf to take the licenses of gun dealers who violate the law. and you should know, 90% of the

guns associated with crime are sold by just 5% of the dealers. we need to enforce our laws and take their licenses. three, by executive action. i am prepared to put a ban on the importation of assault weapons into our country. to your point, the failure here is not the failure of good ideas. there are a lot of good ideas. my friends on the debate stage have a lot of great ideas i support. the failure is action and the failure of courage. if congress doesn't act i'm prepared to take executive action because every day in america during the course of that debate last night, eight people statistically would have died from gun violence. it is a very serious matter. it is affecting people in real-time every day and we need to take action. >> all right. senator kamala harris, thank you for being with us. >> thanks, joe. thank you all. >> we greatly appreciate it. you know, willie, if kamala

harris had given that answer a year ago, two years ago i would have talked about the constitutional problems with it. this is exactly what conservatives warned about. when donald trump declared an answer a year ago, it would have been an issue involving far less deaths than guns. the next president will be able to declare an emergency just like donald trump because he did that over an issue that is responsible for less deaths than guns. >> and we saw last night joe biden pushed bay on -- by on

congress. you don't want to just use executive action, we still have to expect the constitution. >> that is really the issue, is there anyone left in washington that is going to respect the founding framers of our constitution? you know it is a check and balance, we all learn about it when we grow up. and there is a reason we have the compromise in our country. it is the constitution. both parties are saying if we can't do what the constitution says we'll have to do something else. now this guy has gone to a whole new place on matters of appropriation that is absolutely embraced as requiring congressional action. i think this is dangerous for us

to say we don't need congress for anything, we have a dictator. still ahead "i want more focus on trump in this debate." that was the take last night from ed of the financial times and he joins us next on morning joe. joins us next on morning joe. but we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you.

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. there is that. the weakness of the democratic field, the battle for 2020, the challenger to president trump is now between warren and biden. i'm a big liverpool fan, when they go up against man city i don't want them to fight on the sidelines, i want to see them focused on the sidelines. once again they were pounding each other and ignoring donald

trump. >> yeah, one word that did not occur in last night's debate, impeach. this is kwiett extraordinary. trumpers succeed in blocking the secure elections act. they could try to drivel -- indicate that he would take research from a foreign country, why wouldn't he? he is as president right now pressuring the probern -- proper abortion. on the allegation that it helped hillary clinton's campaign. much needed aide, for the

ukraine, unless they open these investigations to help reelect trump. they're quite extraordinary by any president, even trump, and i think it merits more air time on the democratic presidential stage to talk about how do we secure a free and fair election in america. does he do what we expect him to do. >> telling the commander in cheer that russia is attacking american democracy. he does nothing, like you said, and you he is trying to get the most proreform leader in history and he is holding military aid as they go into negotiations

with pugh ttin. he is undermining democracy at home and abroad. >> yeah, i think partly they complain about it. this is not about foreign policy, this is about the election infrastructure of the united states. the integrity of the democratic exercise. and as commander and chief that not only doesn't respect the integrity, but he is inviting other entities to interfere with it in the way that the kremlin did in 2016. i think this is a huge issue. there has not been a single question in all of the debates so far about voter suppression. that is part of the same

discussion. >> it is part of the same discussion. and yes they relate. and the pressure continues there. the big question again is what is happening in the 2020 election and why don't they focus more on that in debates and protecting american democracy. >> ed, i'm wondering isn't impeachment happening through oversight? and isn't that the place it should be? they are there to give voters another option. that is another way to solve this problem. it seems to me they would be venturing into dangerous territory. >> i think nancy pelosi's judgment is probably the protect one. and the way that she won in the

midterms, was focusing on issues of every day. i think that is right, but i'm not sure that i'm peachment is happening by oversight at the moment. it has been a very slow process of discovery. we still don't have donald trump's tax returns. i think if you're going to argue impeachment you have to be more aggressive than we're seeing. >> ed, thank you very much. come back. >> i think vice president biden had good moments. you heard from castro last night, and booker today, does he

have the physical stamina he needs. >> trump will be unified with voters. >> vice president biden responded to the race question. i think third debate we're not going to see a lot of movement at the top with the three and we're going to go into the fall season as we are. >> for willy, joe, and me, that does it for us this morning. >> thanks, i'm stephanie ruhle, it is friday, september 13th, and here is what is happening now. there is one big question hanging over the democratic field. they talked health care, guns, and immigration, and what, and how they would be a better choice than the m