tv Morning Joe MSNBC May 29, 2020 3:00am-6:00am PDT
3:00 am
vaccine, imagine the melee in people trying to get their hands on the vaccine. ilene o'reilly, who covers epidemiology for "axios," found out the u.s. military is going to help distribute the vaccine when the doses become available. they're good at logistics. the president made a reference to it when he made a push for the vaccine. he said every soldier was to be involved in that. we dug into what that means. the vaccines will be prioritized first for first responders, and then the military will help get it to everyone else. >> mike allen, thank you, as always, my friend. i'll be reading "axios am" in a little bit. signup.axios.com. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, may 29th. along with joe, willie, and me,
3:01 am
we have white house reporter for the "associated press" jonathan lemire. host of msnbc's "politics nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. we have so much to get to on this friday morning. a lot of breaking news. we'll be starting in a moment with the very latest on the violent protests in minneapolis overnight. and the president's racially charged tweets. also, what is in president trump's executive order that could open the door for lawsuits against social media companies for the way they moderate content online? a lot going on with that. then there is this argument from the president against mail-in voting. that children will steal ballots from mailboxes. >> willie, we never knew this. it was those darn kids. all along, it was those darn, meddling kids on ""scoobie-doo."
3:02 am
they would vote harvest. young children, willie. vote harvesting all over america. >> there's no mischief a child loves more than going through mailboxes to steal mail-in ballots. everybody knows that from the beginning of time. stripped from "little rascals" and forward. unbelievable. >> you look at half the plots from "little rascals" through "leave it to beaver." the late eddie haskell, why did he love to do it? it drove ms. cleaver crazy. vote harvest. whatever. >> i never knew. also, joe biden points out two tweets from the same day in october. biden warning that the u.s. is not prepared for a pandemic, while trump was concerned about the button on the iphone. the latest from the campaign is ahead, as well. we begin with the breaking news from minneapolis. violent protests raged for a
3:03 am
second straight night following the death of george floyd, after being arrested by a minneapolis police officer. last night, protesters turned their attention to the city's third police precinct, the base of the four officers who were fired in connection with floyd's death. a police spokesman says officers evacuated the building after 10:00 p.m. local time after protesters forced their way in and set it on fire. here's how some of that played out live last night with msnbc's ali velshi on the scene. >> reporter: celebrating symbolically that they have taken control of the police station. here's the question we don't have an answer to, brian. we know there are, or were, to my count, at least five police officers that i could see. they might have been the same ones on the roof as were in the back. we don't know where the police officers are. but the front entrance, the main entrance to the police station is now in flames. there's no sign of police, and
3:04 am
there is more debris going on. there's firecrackers being put off by the protesters in all directions. they've lit firecrackers in the parking lot. you can see that. there's now a police presence on top of the building. miguel, you see that? these streets are completely clogged in all directions. the earlier fire was only one block over there, and they couldn't get there. it wasn't even in the center of things. without a very heavy presence, there is no chance. there are thousands of people on the street. i get your point, that to let a police station burn is symbolically an important matter for them to consider. there is no chance a fire truck is getting in at this point without a very heavy intervention by the authorities or the national guard. i keep emphasizing that, they're not here. we're not seeing that presence. we know the national guard is in town. i saw heavily armed vehicles on my way here earlier, but there are no police vehicles. there are no armored carriers.
3:05 am
there is no national guard in the vicinity. there are a lot of firecrackers. >> the mayor said later he made the call to abandon the building to cut the risk of injury and addressed the violence overnight. >> there is a lot of pain and anger right now in our city. i understand that. our entire city recognizes that. what we have seen over the past several hours and the past couple of nights in terms of looting is unacceptable. our communities cannot and will not tolerate it. >> minnesota's governor activated more than 500 national guard soldiers yesterday afternoon following the unrest and looting from wednesday night. when asked where the troops were when the police precinct was being overrun, the mayor of minneapolis said, many were stationed at essential businesses, like banks, grocery stores, and pharmacies, to help prevent looting.
3:06 am
we have live pictures right now, as the city still burns. >> the city still burns. the mayor is right when he says that it is unacceptable. the rioting, the looting. let's just go down the list. we will start with the images that we're looking at now. this is unacceptable. it is despicable behavior. it actually turns a lot of americans against the good cause. the cause of justice for all americans but especially, in this case, for black americans. and the governor of minnesota, i know he's called out the national guard. they need to get on the streets, and they need to take control of this city. they need to do it now. i know -- i understand a had the of times cable news networks will stay focused on one small part of the city. and you don't have to tell me the overwhelming majority of minneapolis and the twin cities
3:07 am
is safe and secure. i understand that. but the national guard needs to stop this looting. they need to stop these riots. they need to stop them and stop them now. the national guard needs to get on the streets. rev, i know you will agree with me, this only undercuts the more important cause. i want to read to you though something that was said yesterday that certainly upset a lot of people, not only in minneapolis, not only black people in minneapolis, but americans across the country. it's this, hennepin county prosecutor triggered an uproar at a press conference when he said, quote, there is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge. now, his office later issued a clarification, saying freeman only meant it is critical to review all the evidence. i understand reviewing all the evidence, but there is a balance here. i know that you always, you
3:08 am
always talk about the importance in these protests to premaremai peaceful. you always speak out against looting. you always speak out against this sort of violence. so let's first talk about what happened last night, how it can never happen again. authorities need to step in and take control. but then, let's talk about what started all of this, and it was the heinous killing of a black man who had a knee shoved in his neck for nine minutes as he was begging for help, saying he couldn't breathe, and was calling out for his dead mother. >> i spent yesterday in minneapolis, and i brought with me the mother of eric garner, who was killed in a police chokehold, saying the same words, "i can't breathe." >> rev, can i stop you for a second there? >> yes. >> eric garner was murdered. we said that on this show.
3:09 am
eric garner was murdered on staten island. again, while we're being clear about what has to stop in minnesota, let's also be clear about that. eric gardner was murdered. we saw murder in minneapolis. it is time for the prosecutors in that city, in that county, to start acting like they're more interested in law enforcement than covering their own assas. i i'm sorry. go ahead. >> i wanted to bring her to show the reason we're seeing this anger is this is not the first time this has happened, even on tape, even with the same exact words. that does not justify looting and violence. in fact, what we said to many of the people there yesterday is, we cannot become like the very things we are fighting. the context of it, we saw their protests spread all over the country. we saw in louisville, kentucky, where a young lady, brianna
3:10 am
taylor, was on my show, "politics nation," on this station two weeks ago. people are outraged, and just y justifiably so, about the criminal justice system. >> for good reason. >> the question is how do you deal with the outrage to where you're getting the results you're looking for, which is a fair criminal justice system. you don't do it by appearing to be criminal yourself. we are not the ones that inflict the pain. we are the ones that have been pained. our reaction must show that and highlight that. otherwise, people exploit that and change the focus into demonizing those that conduct themselves in a violent way, rather than those that are saying, as the floyd family is saying, we want justice. they've said very clearly -- i've talked to the floyd family, and they've said publicly and clearly, "we want to see justice.
3:11 am
we understand the outrage, but we don't want to see violence." the other thing i might add, joe, is as i walked around minneapolis yesterday, with some of the ministers and elected officials, some of the stores being damaged are black-owned stores. >> yeah. >> we cannot become so reckless that we are destroying each other in our rage. the rage is justified. there is nobody more angry than me, longer than me. the question is, am i angry enough to get something done about it, or am i going to play into those that are adversarial to what i'm trying to say and try to represent? >> let's be very clear here, very clear here. anybody in the media, anybody in the field of politics that tries to justify looting, that cries to justify violence, that tries to justify images that we saw last night, all you were doing was playing into the hands of people who will exploit this for
3:12 am
their own political gain, and to try to undermine the justice that the floyd family is seeking. willie, speaking of that last night, donald trump tweeted out -- first of all, let's talk about what a leader does in a time like this. this is when presidents get on the phone. this has happened -- this is how it works. presidents see images like that, maybe sometimes they're awakened at night, and you have presidents who are awakened. they get on the phone and call the governor. they say to the governor, governors who aren't in their party, "hey, what do you need us to do to help? let's coordinate this." they'll get the local law enforcement officials on the phone. you'll have leaders from the federal, state, and local, all working together to make sure peace comes to this city. well, that didn't happen last night.
3:13 am
instead, donald trump just sent out a tweet talking about shooting people. president of the united states, in the middle of the night, sending out a tweet talking about shooting people. of course, twitter marked that. >> pretty big news. >> it incited violence. that's what he did last night. it is so important, and it is just like the coronavirus, it appears that it is up to the governors. it's up to the local officials. the president is going to be posing. he is going to be saying inflammatory things. he is going to try to appeal to people by saying, like a dictator, that he is going to resort to violence. when the looting starts, the shooting starts. thank you. okay, very interesting approach there, mr. president. again, the president is not going to help, obviously. so it is incumbent upon local
3:14 am
officials to take matters into their own hands here, and to bring peace to those streets, to bring justice for the floyd family. >> yeah. and the president has conceded earlier in the day that what he saw in that video clearly was bad. what he saw the officer do to george floyd was pabad. when it turned to looting, violence at the police precinct we saw last night, the president believed he had license to say, again, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," while taking a shot at the mayor of minneapolis. there is another angle obtained by nbc news of the incident in the moment that killed george floyd. you see two other officers on the ground there on their knees, as well, with the one officer we've seen in the previous video here, which is very hard to watch. we ought to watch it, with his knee on the neck of george floyd, ultimately killing him. i was struck, joe, listening last night to police
3:15 am
commissioners. we've seen over the course of history, police officers, police departments circle the wagons here. not in this case. the commissioner of police in new york city, in los angeles, in houston, in washington, d.c., the police commissioner in d.c saying, this is nothing short of murder, what the officers did to george floyd. police unions, who protect officers, many condemning what they saw. so plainly, what happened in that video was so terrible and so awful and so beyond what any police officer ever should do. >> well, you know, also, not only that -- and let's go back to the video again. i know it is very hard to see, of the police officers. in the past, conservative outlets at times have circled the wagon, as well, and reflexively always defended law enforcement officers. i understand that instinct. that is my instinct. but, obviously, not in this
3:16 am
case. i'm seeing more and more conservative outlets outwardly condemning this, saying it's murder, saying that justice should be brought in this case. i'm so glad to see the same thing is happening from our law enforcement leaders across america, willie. they need to speak out because they know the truth. they know the truth. the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are people who are doing their best, putting their lives on the line every day, and protecting the rest of us. >> yeah. the video is just undeniablunde. nothing else to say about it. >> horrid. >> joining us, nbc news critical reporter shaquille brewster. what are you seeing on the ground? we saw the third precinct burning. we showed live pictures of
3:17 am
buildings, continue to burn this morning. what are you seeing where you are? >> reporter: it was another day of largely peaceful protests that then turned into the clashes. last night, we just saw open rioting here on the streets of minneapolis. for full disclosure, our team planned to be right there at the third police precinct where that fire happened. when we pulled up this morning, it was still a very active scene. there were still several buildings fully engulfed in flames. there was still a lot of people shooting off fireworks at different points in time. it was a very active scene. we just pulled out. we didn't feel safe being there, so we came about 6 miles back downtown to where we are now. what we do know, the mayor spoke overnight, just a couple of hours ago when you look at the time, around 2:00 a.m. we heard from the mayor who had tough words for the protesters. he also responded to what you guys were talking about, the tweet from the president. let's pull up that tweet one more time. the president first starts by saying that -- he's talking
3:18 am
about the situation. he's responding to the dramatic images. he says, i can't stand back and watch this happen to a great american city, minneapolis. he then goes into a full on attack on the mayor here, saying he is a radical, left-wing democrat. then he goes into the second tweet. it's the second tweet we have to note that twitter puts up a warner before you can see it. you have to acknowledge that it is a tweet that's sensitive before you can even view it when you're on the app. in that tweet, he threatens to send in the national guard, which has been already activated by the governor. we know 500 guardsmen have been activated. he writes, the thugs are dishonoring the memory of george floyd, and i won't let that happen. he says he had a conversation with the governor. then adds, any difficulty, and we will assume control. when the looting starts, the shooting starts. he says, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. that's a line that has a lot of
3:19 am
significance, even when put in historical context. the m mayor frey responded to that earlier. >> weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis. donald trump knows nothing about the strength of minneapolis. we are strong as hell. is this a difficult time period? yes. but you better be damn sure that we're going to get through this. >> reporter: i have to add that, in my conversations with protesters, they have all emphasized that, yes, they don't like the rioting that you're seeing, but their main priority is they want to see the officer who had his knee on the neck of mr. floyd, until he no longer was responsive and no longer had a pulse, according to the ems records, they want to see that officer arrested. that's their bottom line. until that happens, they plan on continuing to demonstrate. hopefully avoiding what we saw
3:20 am
last night, but they continue to plan -- they continue to have the plans for those demonstrations. willie? >> shaq, we were talking a few minutes ago about the hennepin county attorney, who says he has to move slowly and investigate all the evidence, which is his job. he also said, "there is evidence that does not support a criminal charge." he couched that later in a statement from his office. do we have any sense for what he's talking about there, that there is evidence that we have not seen, that does not support a criminal charge in the death of george floyd? >> reporter: no. he had to clarify that statement. let's just start with how unusual that is. we have the statement come and the press conference come from the fbi. remember, in this case, there is both the federal investigation and then this is also in the hands of the state investigators. either of those two bodies can go ahead and make charges and act on what they find. there was that press conference that was delayed for several minutes. it was about 90 minutes to two
3:21 am
hours, where the press conference was delayed. the attorney came out and said that one of the reasons why it was delayed is they thought they were going to have some other announcement they could act on. it is not clear what he was referring to. he came out and clarified his statements. it's just not clear exactly what happened with that. again, what the protesters continue to say is, that video, the ten-minute long facebook video that went viral, that is all you need to see. they say you don't need any more evidence beyond that. that should be enough to arrest the officers. that's the message they continue to say in my conversations with them. joe? >> shaquille brewster, thank you so much. be safe in minneapolis. >> great job. >> appreciate your reporting. >> reverend al, let's talk about this statement from the hennhenn county prosecutor. there is other evidence that does not suggest a criminal charge. rev, we have clear video from
3:22 am
two separate angles. again, we warn everybody, this is disturbing video, but we're going to show this video again. he says there is other evidence. you have a man lying on the ground for nine minutes, who is saying, "i can't breathe." who is talking, calling out for his dead mother. who obviously is being choked to death while this officer just stares at him. there is no guidelines, no police training guideline that would ever allow this. it's horrifying to see this officer doing it while three others just stand by and let him do that. you wonder, not just about their training, but you wonder about the lack of their humanity.
3:23 am
so, rev, what in the hell is mike friedman waiting for? we understand people being angry. they should be protesting. we also understand the governor needs to get control of the streets right now. he says he is. let's move to the county prosecutor. what else is there? you were in minneapolis yesterday. what else are they looking at? >> i think when you look at the fact he made that statement, that is what is underlining all the fears i heard from community residents and leaders yesterday, is that, does this prosecutor want to move forward? why would he say it it a press
3:24 am
conference -- i don't care how he couches it later -- that there is evidence that doesn't support a criminal charge? first of all, he is divulging something that no one knows is there. clearly, you have probable cause in the tape. you're not trying the case here. you know this better than anyone, joe. you try your case at just determine whether there is probable cause. the tape, the death, the fact the man was unarmed, so you couldn't have been defending yourself, is probable cause for an arrest. i spoke yesterday with the governor while i was in minneapolis. we had a long conversation on the phone. i said even before this statement from freeman, if there is distrust in the local prosecutor, vindicated by his actions, would you appoint the attorney general, keith ellison, to take over the case? i don't know that we can have confidence in the federal government that william barr is over.
3:25 am
he said, we'll entertain that once we get to it. i think after freeman said that later on that day, we have to look at, can freeman in an impartial way handle the case? what are he waiting on, and what was he trying the case on? quickly, when we see the president saying, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," it's the same president who told police while in long island, don't be nice when you're bringing suspects in by being gentlemen like, putting their heads into the car. he has advocated this kind of overaggression with police. now, we're seeing it, which is why i'm saying to those that choose to protest violently, and some of them are not protesters at all, by the way, but some that use violence, every fire you light, you are, in many ways, helping the re-election of donald trump. clearly, from that tweet, he
3:26 am
wants to bait this into an us sben against them, o so he plays lik he is the law and order candidate to restore order. law and order candidate acts equally for anybody and all, mr. president. in the trying to see who has the biggest gun. i think that we do need law and to establish order, we need law dispensed equally and fairly. >> it does need to be dispensed equally and fairly. that's why it is so important for the governor of minnesota to move aggressively today and get the national guard in places. work with county law enforcement officers and protect the city streets, protect small businesses that run by black sberp ne sbe entrepreneurs, asian entrepreneurs, white entrepreneurs. some of the businesses burned
3:27 am
had owners. they were small businesses who had owners who were black business owners. so it is complete insanity. and i will say, mike freeman, the county prosecutor, if he has any evidence, any mitigating evidence at all, any mitigating evidence at all that we don't see in a video where a police officer is putting on his neck, if he has mitigating evidence that will somehow defend one police officer putting his knee on the throat of a black man until he dies, while three other officers, who were supposed to be protecting, protecting the people of minneapolis, if they have any mitigating evidence for him, he needs to bring it forward this morning. he doesn't just blurt out that
3:28 am
he's got information that might show that he's innocent. because he doesn't. and you know he doesn't. he's covering his backside right now, and his city is burning. jonathan lemire, things are moving very quickly. the president says he tdid reac out to the governor, but was obviously in the middle of the night sending out a tweet, talking about shooting american citizens. i don't know. how do you do that? is it like kent state, do you shoot randomly into crowds? when the looting starts, the shooting starts? what does that mean, mr. president? what do you do, you just gun down people in a crowd? you do it like the mob did in louisville, that had seven people shot by, i guess, protesters? right now, they don't believe it was law enforcement officers that did that. when the shooting starts, the
3:29 am
looting -- or when the looting starts, the shooting starts. it's so extraordinarily reckless. what any president needs to do is bring down the temperature. maintain order. respect -- make sure that everybody respects the law. make sure the county prosecutor -- he needs to be putting pressure on the county prosecutor to stop covering his ass and start worrying about justice for mr. floyd. but talk about that tweet in the middle of the night, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." >> the tweet uses the racially charged word "thugs," and then says, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." inflammatory and reckless statement from the president in the middle of the night. taking a half step back here, the president has been noteworthy, often been relatively silent, slow to speak
3:30 am
when there have been previous incidents of african-americans being killed by police. he was a little quicker on this one the last couple of days. we heard the white house press secretary yesterday say the justice will be served. attorney general barr was looking into the matter. >> wait, wait, what's interesting, jonathan, is with eric garner, if i'm not mistaken, and somebody can fact-check me on this, but after eric garner was murdered in staten island, i didn't hear donald say anything about that. maybe i'm wrong. maybe he tweeted something about eric garner. i'll ask rev later. but i don't think he said a single word when that happened in his city, when eric garner was murdered, for selling cigarettes. go ahead, jonathan. >> no, no, you're right. garner's death, of course, came before president trump was in office. but i don't recall him speak at the time. in fact, since then, he has taken a lot of criticism because he's used the phrase "i can't breathe." he has said that a couple times
3:31 am
at campaign rallies when mocking political opponents, like mitt romney, choking, his words, in the 2012 election. so he has never shied away from touching upon these flash points, the third rail, if you will, of these things. so what happened yesterday though is sort of extraordinary. because the tweet last night also was immediately flagged by twitter. it comes just a few hours after the president signed an executive order that would look into a 1996 law that shielded these tech companies from liability, from what use errs m post. we'll see how that plays out in the days ahead. certainly, the tweet, a fight with twitter is not of the same magnitude of the violence we're seeing here in minneapolis and, of course, the tragic death of mr. floyd. but it also, for this president, to have his tweet be flagged just hours after the executive order, which comes, of course, just days after he posted reckless tweets about conspiracy
3:32 am
theories that, of course, include you, joe, as well as twitter flagging misinformation, fact-checking the president's tweets about mail-in paballotin this is only going to escalate. we'll see the president's response. we have not heard from him since the tweet that has been flagged, but this is a political fight his advisers want. he wants to go after twitter. at the same time, of course, we'll see what he says about the developing situation on the ground in minnesota. >> rev, this morning, you've condemned the violence and the looting and the rioting that you saw last night, and that's important because your voice carries a lot of weight, obviously, at moments like this. i think part of it, too, is, from people i talk to yesterday and were talking about their pain, they worry the focus on this rioting last night takes away from the real pain that so many people in our country felt watching the george floyd video, saying, "that's me under that officer's knee. that's my son. that's my dad under that officer's knee." can you speak to the collective
3:33 am
pain that was captured in that video, rev? >> the pain is the real issue that i think we have seen there. that's why i wanted eric garner's mother to go with me. because she has suffered that pain, and she -- when she spoke with the family by phone with me, can identify with them. the feeling that you trust law enforcement, and they were the ones to kill your son, your brother, and nothing is done about it. where do you go when you feel the cops and the robbers are against you? and i think that that is the pain that we've been trying to expose for a long time. you're seeing it explode with this violence. of course, you know, martin luther king used to say, riots is the language of the unheard. we understand the anger, but we're trying to say the anger should not be exploited in a wrong way. at the same time, let's remember
3:34 am
the violence started when that man put his knee on the throat of george floyd and killed him. that's when the violence started. let's not get away from what started this and the pain it caused, and redirect how we heal that pain, by doing justice and fairness. but i don't think anyone can explain how the floyds feel this morning, or the garners, and i could go on and on and on. one of the things we always tried to do at national action network is work with the families. long when the tv trucks are gone, the media is gone, they've got to live with the pain of knowing who they pay taxes to protect them took their loved one. in most cases, nobody did anything about it. we need to stop that with the floyd case. >> we certainly do. as you said, rev, the floyd family is interested in one thing, and that is justice.
3:35 am
they want justice for their family member, their loved one who was killed. for a possible counterfeit, for counterfeiting. who was strangled to death on the ground, begging for his life, gasping for air, saying he couldn't breathe. saying that he couldn't move. calling out for his dead mother. yet, that police officer who, by the way, has been cited numerous times before, that police officer stayed there, and three others continued just watching him kill that man. and if you want justice for mr. floyd, there is a way to do that. it is by pressuring the county prosecutor.
3:36 am
it is also to protest peacefully in the streets of minneapolis and come together as a community. because there are people of good will on both sides of the political aisle. on both sides of the political aisle that recognize this for what it is. the murder of george floyd. protest, do it in peace, and justice will be served. we'll have much more on minneapolis throughout the morning. plus, the general election scenario that democrats are treading of former top adviser to president obama explains. "morning joe" is back in a moment. stomizes your insurance, so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
3:37 am
the first and only full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel available over-the-counter. new voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement. and the brand-new iphone se you rule. new voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. now, at metro, get the iphone se for less than a hundred bucks when you switch. get the latest iphone at an incredible price at metro: the number one brand in prepaid. killer attitude. nevor hydration.... neutrogena® hydro boost. the #1 hyaluronic acid moisturizer delivers 2x the hydration for supple, bouncy skin. neutrogena®. the 2:20 back-to-back calls migraine medicine it's called ubrelvy the migraine medicine for anytime, anywhere a migraine attacks without worrying if it's too late or where you happen to be. one dose of ubrelvy can quickly stop migraine pain and debilitating symptoms in their tracks within two hours.
3:38 am
unlike older medications, ubrelvy is the first pill of its kind to directly block cgrp protein believed to play a role in migraine attacks. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. few people had side effects, most common were nausea and tiredness. a migraine can strike anytime, anywhere. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, across america, business owners are figuring things out. finding new ways to serve customers... connect employees... and work with partners. comcast business is right there with you. with a network that helps give you speed, reliability and security. and enough bandwidth to handle all your connected devices. voice solutions like remote call forwarding
3:39 am
3:40 am
3:41 am
not correct. it was wrong. >> oh, really? so when he sends out 28 million ballots, and they're in all the mailboxes, and kids go and raid the mailboxes and hand them to people signing the ballots down the end of the street, which is happening, they grab the ballots, you don't think that happens? there's ballot harvesting. you don't think they rip them out of mailboxes. you can read about it all the time. take a look. >> those meddling kids, mika. you know, and i know willie agrees with me. >> what is he talking about? >> when we were growing up in the mean streets where we grew up, willie, it was stickball, pinochle. >> hacky sack. >> we'd play wiffle ball. >> where are we? >> when i was in mississippi, big flats, new york, we always -- it's the summer, right? you go out at 8:00 in the
3:42 am
morning, get on your bikes, you play wiffle ball. that's always a lot of fun. we go down to the creek. you know, always fun. just throwing rocks at the creek, into the water. you're seeing how many times -- >> you skip them. >> -- you skip. i wasn't good. mine would go straight in. the third thing, of course, you would do, you would end the day -- i can't even say it with a straight face -- with ballot harvesting. kids just love to ballot harvest. you know, cyndi lauper was originally, "girls just want to have fun," would be, "kids just love to ballot harvest." i mean, really, seriously, his conspiracy theories -- >> he's not fit. >> -- about mail-in voting get crazy. i love yesterday, jonathan karl said, are you thinking of cancelling your twitter account? he said, i would if you weren't fake. jonathan karl goes, "i'm real, sir." >> that was cool. >> come on, man.
3:43 am
>> at what point -- >> some point, he just stopped trying, willie. he just stopped trying to be rational. >> everything is terrible and everything is deadly serious, but sometimes you have to stop and laugh at the absurdity we're witnessing from the president every day. >> it's kind of hard. >> which is the idea that kids -- and i like how he came back after, kids are stealing from mailboxes and turning them in, he said, which is happening, by the way. he wanted to underline that is a thing that's happening. >> is he coming up with the idea? for us, it was hopscotch, busting open a fire hydrant on a hot day, and stealing pa ining from mailboxes. it's what we did. >> president trump signed an executive order many people think he doesn't understand what he did. >> he doesn't understand. >> the eo could open the door for federal regulators to punish
3:44 am
social media company for how they regulate content online. twitter tagged his tweets last night. you can't read them, which is helpful. according to the "washington post," the new directive seeks to change a federal law that has spared tech companies from being sued or held liable for most content shared by users on their sites. tech giants herald those protections, known as section 230, as the bedrock of the internet. the order encourages the federal communications commission to rethink the scope of section 230 and when its liability protections apply. it seeks to channel complaints about political bias to the federal trade commission, which has been asked by the white house to probe whether companies content moderation policies are in keeping with the pledges of neutrality. he is going after twitter. twitter is pushing back a bit
3:45 am
overnight especially. >> yeah. so, you know, jonathan lemire, i don't know where to begin here. >> yeah. >> first of all, there is -- wlo whoever drafted this never read section 230. as david french and other conservatives said last night, there is nothing in there talking about how a website, online platform has to be politically neutral. if that were the case, it would wipe out 95% of blogs on the internet today. also, just the timing of it. i mean, there are a lot of people that want 230 reformed. i am one of them. some of the provisions are just, i think, outrageous, but we'll talk about that on another day. but the president of the united states -- a lot of conservatives were writing about this yesterday -- this looked like a totalitarian move. you actually have this
3:46 am
president, who really, if he could take the time this weekend, should read the constitution of the united states, because as kara swisher said, and a lot of people online, conserve tiatives said yesterday, the constitution of the united states does not allow the state, the centralized state, to swoop in and censor or control content of a private company. it actually stops congress from abridging free speech rights. i know it is radical for a president who grew up and spent most of his life giving money to liberals, but, actually, we conservatives actually think private companies should be able to run themselves the way they choose to run their private companies. that's one. number two, i don't know why
3:47 am
anybody didn't tell the president of the united states that if he succeeded in getting rid of 230, or dramatically cha changing 230, and removing this blanket immunity that 230 gives twitter and facebook, that, actually, probably, 50% of his tweets would be taken down. because right now, let's say the president, for instance, libelled the good name of a woman who had been dead for 19 years. or libelled other people. those people could not sue twitter today because of 230. pause there because there is a blanket immunity. all the people the president slandered throughout the year, they haven't been able to sue twitter because of 230. i don't know if donald trump
3:48 am
really wants 230 removed any more than he wants libel laws loosened up. because if he did, he would be spending the rest of his life in court, defending himself for all the libelist charges he spewed over the past several years. i know there is a short statute of limitations there. what he did yesterday was baffling, even to his conservative anti anti-trump followers. >> first of all, joe, the old dennis the menace cartoon would have a plot line of ballot harvesting once a week, to the point it became a cliche. in terms of the executive order -- >> mr. wilson was so tired of it. dennis coming over and taking out his mail-in ballots. go ahead. >> so in terms of the executive order, let's take a step back and a little reporting on how it came together. the president, earlier this week, was fuming, of course, about the twitter fact-checks, the little label that twitter
3:49 am
upheld to his tweets, in terms of the mail-in ballots. what we saw is that the president was coming back from florida for the aborted rocket launch earlier this week. according to our reporting, was in a rage and told advisers something had to be done. he felt humiliated and angry and wanted twitter to pay. that moment, the press secretary came to the back of the cabin and told reporters an execive o executive order would be issued about the companies. at the white house, no one knew what it'd say. it didn't exist. it was laying down a marker. they spent 24 hours, scrambling to come up with something. it didn't go through the usual channels when these orders are prepared. we saw the final result yesterday, an order that raised a lot of concerns by liberals and conservconservatives, as to this would be a mistake to follow through with this, if 230 were to be radically changed, to the point these companies could be sued. this is not so much -- and you
3:50 am
hinted at it -- this is not so much about the law. this is about politics. this is the president wanting to have this fight. though, some might say he was relatable yesterday, when he said he'd get off twitter if he could. i've had that thought a few times. that's not what this is about. it is his largest and best platform, he believes, of doing two things, of talking directly to his voters, fine, but also to inciting the media, to driving the headlines. i talked to a former senior adviser of his who once told me the president told him, "watch this," tweeted something, and within 30 seconds, the cable i lines changed. he knows he can distract, sometimes to make policy, sometimes to rattle lawmakers, republicans and democrats alike, with twitter. he's not giving that up. he wants to make it part of the campaign strategy, to, again, imply bias, just like he does with the media, but with the social media companies, so he can have this fight going
3:51 am
forward as we move to november. >> jonathan lemire, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. mika, jonathan's story about how the president blurted something out, press secretary gets to the back of the plane, says we'll have an executive order later, nobody in the white house knows about it. what a childish, chaotic way -- >> messed up white house. >> -- to run the white house, to run the government. >> it's -- >> again, putting, actually -- starting down a road that would be so bad for donald trump. because then the social media companies would be treated like regular companies. like other companies in the marketplace. if they publish something that was libelist, they could actually be sued, like every other business in america for their recklessness. it is just ten minutes
3:52 am
before the top of the hour. we want to turn to the president of the council of foreign relations, richard haass, whose book "the world, a brief introduction," is a best-seller. you've been trying to figure out what the trump doctrine is, in terms of his foreign policy. what is it? >> i think it is increasingly clear, mika. i call it the withdraw document. if you look at the pattern, the united states has pulled out of more international agreements than we have fingers on our hands. this has just been a pattern. ment in most cases, it is to make a point, but i can't find one instance where, at the end of the day, we're better off for having done it. >> richard haass, let me ask you specifically about what we've seen this week in china, where secretary of state mike pompeo had to declare publicly that it appears hong kong is no longer autonomous in its own way from china. it is under the thumb now, by law, of china.
3:53 am
what are we seeing there, and what would you recommend the united states do about it? >> look, willie, i'm actually, as you know, a critic of this administration. in this case, i think we're doing the right thing. hong kong has had special economic procedures, with the two systems, one country. the agreement where hong kong was returned to china, and this is interesting. chinese knew this was going to happen, and probably didn't care. may have decided we were too distracted, whether it is over the pandemic or otheri issuissu. i think they also decided that, right now, the economy is slowing in china. there's criticism of xi jinping over his initial mishandling of the pandemic. i think they decided, whatever price they had to pay for
3:54 am
eradicating democracy in hong kong, it was a price worth paying, lest any protests spill to the mainland. it was a cold, calculated decision. >> richard, there is so much the president does in the field of foreign policy that i think both you and i consider to be disastrous. many times, the disaster comes not from the policy that he wants to pursue but, rather, the way he goes about it. he is a day trader. he never plans forward. he stops and starts. he will praise president xi one day, attacking the next. talk about how great he is the next day, praise him for consolidating power like chairman mao, basically. let's talk about donald trump's instincts. what instincts over the past three years has he had that you would like to see the next president actually pursue, or at
3:55 am
least take some guidance from? >> well, in broad strokes, not too many, but some specific things. i think the president was right to confront china over its behavior in the trade front. since china became a member of the world trade organization 20 years ago, in many ways, it has gh gamed the system. to provide arms to ukraine, it was something the obama administration wouldn't do. to provide arms to ukraine, which is feeling russian occupation and threats, i think that made sense. there's two issues i would say, okay, the basic instincts of the president was right. in most cases though, quite honestly, joe, and coming back to this withdrawal idea, again, withdrawal can be fine, but only if you have something better to put in its place. i think the basic instinct of donald trump has been that the world he inherited, the foreign policy he inherited, he thought, in most cases, the costs far outweighed the benefits, and he
3:56 am
wants to disrupt. the problemdisrupted, pulled out of agreements, pulled out troops, but he doesn't have an alternative that is better. it is like he thought about the first move, to get out, but he hasn't thought about the second and third moves. that's why, in many cases, i think, we're worse off. >> richard haass, thank you very, very much. still ahead, four-word headline for gene robinson's latest column. quote, "black lives remain expendable." gene joins us ahead, along with the very latest from minneapolis. usaa was made for right now. and right now, is a time for action. so, for a second time we're giving members a credit on their auto insurance. because it's the right thing to do. we're also giving payment relief options to eligible members so they can take care of things like groceries before they worry about their insurance or credit card bills. right now is the time to take care of what matters most. like we've done together, so many times before. discover all the ways we're helping members
3:57 am
at usaa.com/coronavirus the first and only full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel available over-the-counter. new voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement. new voltaren is powerful arthritistenergy intolln a gel. whohelping others.eir to anyone helping and caring in their own way. thank you. like you, we're always on. we're proud to put our energy behind you. southern company
3:58 am
4:00 am
there is a lot of pain and anger right now in our city. i understand that. our entire city recognizes that. what we have seen over the past several hours and the past couple of nights, in terms of looting, is unacceptable. our communities cannot and will not tolerate it. >> the mayor of minneapolis speaking overnight. welcome back to "morning joe." it is friday, may 29th. along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of msnbc's "politics nation," and the president of the national action network, reverend al sharp ston. associate editor of "washington post" and msnbc politicalrobins.
4:01 am
and presidential historian doris occurren occur rens go go goodwin." >> what a great day to have doris on. rev, you were in minneapolis yesterday. let's start at the beginning. here is george floyd. the four officers that were there, as george floyd was choked to death, strangled to death, was killed. can you guys put up that video? it is so important. i know a lot of people are going this morning with the "if it bleeds, it leads" mantra. no. we are going to walk through this process. first, rev, you have an officer whose knee was on the neck of george floyd. correct me if i have facts wrong, for nine minutes, while the life was having strangled
4:02 am
out of this man, because these police officers got a complaint about counterfeiting. floyd was gasping, wheezing, begging for his life, saying he couldn't breathe, calling out for his dead mother. obviously, no threat to these four police officers. i say these four officers who should all be arrested this morning, not because of mob violence last night. they should be arrested this morning because of what the county prosecutor has had in his hands. that is a video tape of these police officers standing by while a fourth police officer kills a man. in plain sight of the world. did you hear me, mike freeman?
4:03 am
the world is watching. and the world is waiting for you to do your job. so i brought up mike freeman. as we look at george floyd, a man who was killed, who was strangled to death, that we can see on video, because of suspicion of counterfeiting. this is like eric garner being murdered because he was selling cigarettes illegally. are you kidding me? that's the first part of the story. reverend al, the second part of this story is the hennepin county prosecutor, mike freeman, actually coming out yesterday and lying, actually. if he is not lying, then, please, please prove us wrong. lying and saying that there is evidence that does not support a corr criminal charge. if he is not lying, if he is not just covering these officers'
4:04 am
backside, then he has the dut d to provide the evidence in a time of crisis. to let the people of minnesota know, let the people of the u.s. know, let the people of the world know why these four officers are not in jail. finally, we had protests last night. most of them were peaceful protests. you were there for most of them. but riots broke out. the mayor rightly spoke out against it, saying it was unacceptable. you had the governor of the state saying he was calling up the national guard. yes, he needs to call out the national guard. i want you to underline this fact, as we talk about justice for george floyd, i want you to underline this fact, that the
4:05 am
national guard coming out is not to protect the white people of the suburbs of the twin cities. they're going to be fine. they're going to be safe. it's to help, as you said, black-owned businesspeople, to protect their stores, to protect their property, to protect the property of all people in minneapolis. you were there yesterday. earlier today, you spoke out against the violence that we saw last night. you also talked about how the floyd family wants justice for george. they want that. they don't want the violence. but they do want justice for george. please, give us your reflections on everything you saw yesterday and last night, rev. >> first and foremost, as you just stated, in my talking with the floyd family, they want justice. clearly, the violence started when that officer put his knee
4:06 am
on george floyd's neck for nine minutes. and watched him die. narrated his own death, as someone said. the other officers stood around and did nothing. what gives to the anger and outrage that i've felt and i saw and talked to young people on the streets yesterday, is when you have a prosecutor like freeman, out of nowhere, saying, "oh, there is evidence that may lead to there being no crime." he cleans it up later, but is blurting it out, so here we go again. this is not the first police incident in minneapolis. the challenge is the outrage and anger must be channelled in a way to lead to justice and not become the down point for an excuse not to do the criminal justice way, in terms of guiding toward fairness. so you end up with those that will exploit it.
4:07 am
some are groups that will exploit the pain and the justified outrage of a lot of young people, black and white. this is a diverse crowd that's there. the majority of those protesters completely non-violent and completely wanting to see justice. others outraged and can be incited. they become the position that those that don't want to see reform use them rather than to keep focus on the fact that this man should be alive, and these policemen should be in jail. there is no justifiable reason, giving probable cause. we have a tape. we have a dead man who was unarmed, who clearly was no threat. there is nothing else needed in probable cause to make an arrest. the only reason those four policemen are not under arrest today is the prosecutor, for whatever reason, refuses to obey
4:08 am
the law, which is when you have probable cause, you make an arrest. you then let a grand jury decide whether there is indictment. then you let a trial jury decide if there is a conviction. you do not need to know everything beyond a reasonable doubt, until you get to a trial. you don't need it at this stage. so why, at this stage, is this prosecutor in any way prokro procrastina procrastinating? and why is the president explaining the weakness of some, saying "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," like we are in a schoolyard baiting each other with violence, rather than dealing with the pain in this family? it is time for us to grow up and change this criminal justice system, make it fair in the country, and stop saying, you can outburn or outshoot the other? it is time for this to stop. >> it is the language of an autocrat, to talk about shooting into crowds. that's what happened in louisville. seven people were shot last
4:09 am
night when there was indiscriminate shooting. the president suggesting he is going to have police officers and the national guard shoot into the crowd. they tried that at kent state 50 years ago. did not work well. it's just so irresponsible and so reckless. but, reverend al, gene robinson brings up a great point. by all indication, there is probable cause to charge these four officers. if this county prosecutor has any mitigating evidence at all, he must -- it is critical he gets it out this morning. but, of course, gene, that is a stretch, to say the least. we've seen the video. we've seen it from two different angles. i do not -- i find it hard to believe there is any mitigating evidence here. gene, you're a pulitzer-prize winner.
4:10 am
you write for one of the most esteemed newspapers in the world. you have worked all over the world, kleincluding running the london bureau. you are -- we'll just say, you are a -- top tier of polite society in american culture in 2020. and, yet, i still remember a conversation you and i had when this happened before. maybe it was trayvon. maybe it was eric garner. i don't remember when. but you told me about the pain that you felt, that even you, in your exalted state, because you are a black man, had to sit down and have the talk with your black sons. you had to sit there and say, "sons, listen, when you get pulled over by a police officer, i know it's not fair, but this
4:11 am
is what you have to do." i can't imagine how heartbreaking that was for you to have to have that conversation, but that is the reality we are still in in 2020. you and i both know, if this prosecutor in minnesota had a video of a black man with his knee on the throat of a white man for nine minutes, killing him, while three other black men looked on, they'd all be in jail this morning. >> they'd be under the jail, joe. >> they would be under the jail. >> on their way to a very speedy trial and conviction. you know, we have had this conversation too many times, you and i. and it's -- i get sick of it. i'm so angry, so angry this
4:12 am
week. at what happened to george floyd, what happened to ahmaud arbery, what keeps happening in the society. you know, black men walk around with a bull's eye on their chest and back. that's just the reality. you know, what makes it so worse, frankly, because it's not, like, this just started happening, but now, there's always video. we have video from several angles of this murder, and i'll call it a murder. certainly, you know -- >> it's a murder. >> -- technical a homicide, but i will call it a murder. we see it taking place. when you see that happening, and then you don't see the kind of action, swift and just action from a prosecutor, that
4:13 am
obviously must take place, you don't have probable cause there? you don't have reason to -- i mean, it's just obscene. you know, i will join reverend sharpton and everyone else, of course, we condemn rioting and looting and whatever, you know, wherever it came from. there are always -- these days, there are always provocateurs. remember, it started with peaceful protests. also remember, dr. king did say, rioting is the language of the unheard, the voiceless. and i don't know how you can watch that video without feeling anger. i can't. >> no. >> let's bring into the conversation the host of "am joy" on msnbc, joy reid.
4:14 am
grateful to have you in the conversation this morning. we've been talking a lot about pain, the collective pain felt by african-americans as they watch an all-too-familiar scene. the entire country watching a man die under the knee of a police officer in minneapolis. we have seen -- gene is not alone in calling this a murder. we have seen police commission aers i crocommissio commissioners across the country quickly call it murder, in a way i don't think we've seen. detro detroit, washington, d.c., houston, miami. this is something that happened in plain sight. this is something that is undeniable. this is something police commissioners across the country are calling murder. what are your thoughts this morning about that pain, the collective pain, that familiar scene we've seen, watching a man die? as he said, "i can't breathe," joy, i was moved by the fact he said, "i can't breathe, sir."
4:15 am
he thought, perhaps, one final show of respect to that police officer might save his own life, but it did not. >> he called for his mama. i mean, this was torture. not just for those of us who watched it on television, but think about the 17-year-old girl who shot that video. think about the young people. you could hear how young they are, as they're screaming, "please don't kill him. you're killing him." they knew there were witnesses. they knew they were being videotaped. remember, this was not even the first person we've watched die in just a couple of weeks. we watched ahmaud arbery in what looked like a game hunt, chased down. one of these was a former police officer. at first, prosecutors were like, i see nothing here worth arresting people over. so everyone black i know feels hunted, whether it's a police officer bursting into your home and you're a 26-year-old emt
4:16 am
named breonna taylor, and it is 1:00 in the morning, and the police lick off shots and you wind up dead. your boyfriend is frantically calling your mom, calling 911, while the police -- not saying who they are -- have busted in. you think a stranger has come in, and you are now dead. whether you're ahmaud arbery, you can't jog down the street. you get chased by not one but two cars. prosecutors at first go, "i see nothing wrong with that." or you're this man, this poor man in minneapolis. i can't imagine how terrifying it is, to die face down like an animal, treated like you're less than human, not one, not two, not three, but four adults leaning on you, leaning on your neck, making sure that you can't get up, then telling you, "get up." what kind of a game were they playing with this man's life?
4:17 am
the lack of empathy -- set that aside. the lack of sense that these are people. as black people right now, we feel hunted. everybody i know, white, black, every race that i know is angry. no one i know is sleeping. people are stressed. people are afraid. everybody black i know feels hunted. that is not the way we're supposed to feel in our own country. and i disagree with only one thing that was said. the word "riot." what happened in 1921 in tulsa, when black people were massacred just for having a nice neighborhood, that was a riot. that ain't a riot, what we're seeing right now in minneapolis. what we're seeing there is frustration and anger and rage and an uprising. it is the same thing that we saw in ferguson. it is the same thing that we saw in baltimore. because when people get good and sick of being killed for nothing, in their own country
4:18 am
and treated like sub-humans, in their own country, people get mad. people get sick of it. people are risking covid to explain to this country that we're fed up. just stop killing us. this is not a -- this is not a huge demand. black lives matter was a minimal demand. just acknowledge that we're people. now, we're just saying, stop killing us. whether it is police or ex-police or civilians. please, just stop killing us. >> so, doris, let's try to figure out -- we have talked about the county prosecutor. we talked about the police officers. and i've got to say, following up with what joy said, i think the police officer whose knee was on george floyd's neck, killing him, obviously was beyond horrifying. i'm also horrified by the fact that three other police officers stared at this happening, let
4:19 am
him do it, which we can see from the other video. let him do it. not one of them during the nine minutes tapped him on the shoulder and said, "hey, back off. hey, let's let him up." not one of them. let me tell you something, that is -- that's not just one officer out of line. that is a problem with culture in the police department. that is a problem with leadership in the police department. that there was not one good man there? one decent man to say, "hey, this is wrong. let's put the cuffs on him. let's put him in the car. let's take it to thim to the st" that's a real problem with a culture in that police department. it needs to be spoken to. speaking of a problem with culture, doris, we have a president last night that was advocating the shooting of people.
4:20 am
yes, it's looting. yes, a lot of people who don't give a damn about george floyd will use opportunities like this, to go in and loot stores. there are anarchists that follow around all of these sort of protests and thrive on causing chaos. but at the same time, the president of the united states should not be talking about randomly shooting people. i mean, again, the national guard is coming in. it sounds a little too much like kent state. so i just ask you your thoughts on the president advocating the shooting of people in the streets of an american city. again, i'll ask you what we ask jon meacham all the time, are there any parallels in american history of an american president doing this? >> i think the parallel that is breaking my heart right now is to think about -- and i was there -- in the '60s when we had
4:21 am
civil disturbances in newark and in detroit and in watts. there was a commission created by lbj. they thought, originally, it'd come out by saying they were provocateurs and agitators. instead, it had this conclusion, asking, what happened? why did it happen? what can we do to make it bet r better? >> we were moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal. it talked about the lack of right policing, the flawed justice system, poverty, condition in which people were living. this was 52 years ago. it makes me so sad as an historian and person, to realize we are still at a situation. we know what's happened during the covid situation, the disproportionate number of blacks and latinos who have been affected. and we ask the question why. it has to do with the conditions under which they're living, the overcrowded, the fact they're in
4:22 am
essential work operation, near freeways with pollution. that has to be addressed. systemic reform is necessary. that's what you need leadership for. not to blame the mayor of min yap a minneapolis. it's the problem we saw when president trump thought he was going to have responsibility for reopening. he made one of the more reflective statements. he said, it'll be the biggest decision i've ever made in my life, and i hope to god i get it right. now, he needs to show empathy toward the governors. he has to give leadership. if we're going to open, reopen safely, you're going to need masks. you'll need social distancing. where is the leadership? where is the leadership? that's what we need in a time of crisis. that's what we need now in minneapolis. we need everybody pulling together, not blaming one another for it. it's the worst thing we could do. it's heartbreaking to have lived through this. that's the trouble when you're my age. >> the president -- >> i wish i were younger and forgot -- >> the president saying when the looting starts, the shooting starts. let's go to minneapolis.
4:23 am
we find nbc news correspondent gabe gutierrez on the ground. good morning. what are you seeing around you this morning as the sun comes up in minneapolis? >> reporter: hi, willie. good morning. this was a powder keg, and it definitely exploded overnight. you can see behind me, this building is still on fire. actually, emerging crews and authorities are working really hard right now to douse the flames and prevent the fire from spreading. now, this is a change that we have noticed in the past few hours. you see this heavy police presence, the national guard and state troopers have been called in here. you see all the emergency crews and firefighters. take a look at this police line that has just set up a perimeter around this cowarea. you see more smoke in the backgrou background. this is a dramatic change from a few hours ago, willie. what has happened, police and firefighters, they'd basically retreated. you saw the dramatic pictures, horrible pictures of that police precinct burning. it had been evacuated. many of the protesters and
4:24 am
demonstrators had actually blocked off this area so that firefighters and police could not get in. now, there appears to be some order, as we see at first light, start to see some of this devastation. in the distance, i can see flames still burning. billowing smoke can be seen from miles away. it is the scene of utter chaos here, willie. the question is, what happens today? many of these protesters were furious that no charges have been brought against the four officers involved in the death of george floyd. we do not expect these protesters -- or we expect the protesters to continue throughout the day. there was looting in some parts of minneapolis. south minneapolis as well as st. paul yesterday, even in broad daylight. the hope here is that this violence does not continue to escalate. but with the national guard and state troopers coming in, there are questions about what will happen tonight. a lot of questions for authorities at this point.
4:25 am
willie? >> yeah. reverend sharpton has condemned the looting and violence we saw overnight. i want to ask you quickly, as you talk about charges not having been brought up against the four officers, despite their being fired, about a comment made yesterday by mike freeman, the county attorney, where he said, quote, there is evidence that does not support a criminal charge against these officers, despite what we have seen plainly in the video. do you have any sense for what he may be talking about? if you do, why hasn't it come forward? why hasn't he made it public? >> reporter: willie, that is certainly a huge question that these protesters have for authorities. y you'll remember, willie, many of us watched the news conference be announced yesterday. it was delayed more than an hour, almost two hours or so. when state authorities got there, including the fbi, they said they wish they had more to tell us, but they simply could not. leaving a lot of questions about what exactly did they plan to tell us, and why was that
4:26 am
somehow changed? why was that news conference delayed? now, the medical examiner had previously said that a report was due in about three weeks. willie, i've got to tell you, these protesters cannot wait three weeks. you saw what happened last night. it was a dramatic escalation. just look at this. this is an absolute chaos here in minneapolis. we spoke to a local resident here who said residents worked hard, very hard, over the past couple of years, to rebuild this community. a restaurant has been burned down. this business is a communications business. this is someone's livelihood right here that just went up in flames overnight. so the question is right now, what happens next? certainly, a lot of questions for authorities as this investigation is under way. willie? >> gabe gutierrez on the ground for us from minneapolis. we'll be talking to you throughout the day, gabe. thanks o mucso much. mi
4:27 am
mika? former vice president joe biden weighed in on the floyd case during a virtual fundraiser last night. in his remarks, he told attendees, quote, we can't ignore that we are in a country with an open wound right now. a wound far older and deeper than george floyd's. george floyd's killing and his brutal, brutal death captured on film. his final words, pleading for breath, "let me breathe, i can't breathe." it's ripped open anew this ugly underbelly of our society. he went on to say, i urge the protesters to exercise their rights peacefully and safely. but people all across this country are enraged, and rightly so. every day, african-americans go about their lives with a constant anxiety and trauma of wondering, will i be next? sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not. these tragedies, these injustices, cut at the very heart of our most sacred of beliefs. that all americans, equal in
4:28 am
rights and in dignity, are part of an ingrained systemic cycle of racism and oppression that is throughout every part of our society. gene, the contrast is so painful, between biden and trump here, but he touches on something that's so important. he doesn't give any excuse for the looting and for the violence. it's wrong. it should not be happening. >> right. >> at the same time, he validates the feelings of african-americans across the country, and those even burning down buildings in minneapolis, that their anger and rage is understandable. that their feelings of still being discriminated against are real. and, to me, that is, at least, moving forward in the conversation. >> it is moving forward in the conversation. you know, joe biden has the gene for empathy.
4:29 am
obviously, president trump does not. we know that. we'll get to render our verdict on that in november. you know, just one word about the police incidents, these killings by police. there is -- and i think joe may have said it earlier, someone said it earlier, there is obviously a problem in the culture inside that police department, an urgent problem. you know, that community, like all communities, needs and wants good policing. but policing is something that has to be seen as something done with a community, not to a community. those police officers acted as if they were an army of occupation in that community. they treated george floyd like, you know, worse than an enemy.
4:30 am
worse than an occupier would treat an enemy. they treated him really like an animal. and that's got to change. until that changes within those police departments that are still like that, these incidents, these tragic deaths and killings are going to continue to happen. it's got to be changed. the four officers were immediately fired. that's a start. but that's only a start. once we get past the arrests, there's a lot of work to do in that police department. >> reverend al, as we lock ok a these scenes and talk about the killing of another black man, it is hard to talk about any
4:31 am
positives that we've seen over the past several years in the age of trump. we live in an age where the majority of americans told pollsters repeatedly that they believe the president of the united states is a racist. 83% of african-americans believe the president is a racist. i will say, though, you and i have talked through so many of these incidents, so many of the tragedies from trayvon forward. i amano t noticing something am conservative bloggers and websites who reflexively defended george zimmerman in trayvon. over the past several years, have started moving in a different direction. now, are clearly calling what happened, not only to mr. floyd, but also to mr. arbery, as murders. there are also polls that are suggesting that the election of donald trump is not made america
4:32 am
more racist. it has emboldened those already holding racist views. maybe making people understand how far we still have to go to heal this racial divide. i'm wondering what you're seeing in one incident after another incident after another incident. how do you provide hope to black americans, that justice will be done, that their children will not be hunted by police officers, will not be targeted by police officers, will not be targeted by people in neighborhoods because they're looking at construction sites, jogging around a neighborhood ntd min the middle of the day? >> it is a real challenge to try to bring hope to people that, as professor joy reid said, feel
4:33 am
hunted, including me and my family. at the same time, i think that's where real leadership comes in. you have to tell people that we have got to not give up and keep fighting to make this right. because then we say that people like george floyd died and died for nothing, and we did nothing about it. one of the most haunting things in my life was when emeril, who is the daughter of eric garner's -- little child who is garner's grandchild, looked at me one day. i work directly with families. said, "uncle al, why did they kill my grandfather?" i couldn't explain it. she said, "what are y'all going to do about it?" that is something that haunts me, in the sense that i can't just be angry. i am angry. what am i going to do with my anger? that's why i appreciated joy's point. rioting and looters, those
4:34 am
uprising and angry, we have to direct that in the right way. but those people, let's remember in history, joe, the only time we've seen these uprisings is when the police kill somebody. if it was watts in the '60s, south central new englandin the ferguson in the 2000s, it's always when it is police. it is never around civilian violence or economic issues. why? it's because when the law is no longer there to protect you, that's when everybody falls apart. that is the problem that we've got to solve. let us make the law, uphold the law. criminal justice is the matter. that's when people lose it, when they say, "we have no protection, even by those sworn to uphold the law." the hope i have is that we can use this moment like we did with jim crow and segregation, like we did with slavery and abolition, to say, it's time to
4:35 am
come to terms with making the law work equally for everybody. equal protection under the law. that's not a lot to ask for. >> joy reid, before we go, you might want to make a final point about this. i also know you have a special on sunday night. tell us about it. >> first, i want to affirm my big brother, reverend al sharpton. amen. i'll give him an amen, though it is not sunday. every riot is related to police brutality. absolutely right. i also want to say to george floyd's family, condolences. your loved one should not be gone. i think all of us feel that pain. breonna taylor's family's pain. ahmaud arbery's. on and on and on. too many. this has to end. there are so many challenges that we have in this country, mika. you know, we started this last couple of weeks focused on the ways in which covid, that's
4:36 am
already disproportionately impacting black people, brown people, indigenous people, and also disproportionately impacting poor people, and how it's made this crisis, of something like 40 million americans, who are already low-wealth people, made them feel even more pain. so we decided to put together a special. this was actually the idea of bishop william barber, who came to msnbc. phil said yes, so we are doing this special called "poverty in the pandemic." we are going to take a look at poverty from the perspective people don't normally. poverty is not just black folks. it is also white rural people. it is also people who work at mcdonald's. people who have two, three fast food jobs. poverty is all around us. it is multi-racial. covid is making it worse. that is what we are doing. it is sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. i hope everybody will tune in. it is an important special. we're having really important conversations. congressman joe kennedy will be
4:37 am
a part of it. willie nelson will be a part of it. bishop barber and myself are co-hosting it. the poor people's campaign is behind it. thank you for allowing me to talk about that. >> fantastic. >> yeah. >> joy, thank you so much. we have more now on the pandemic. its impact on the economy and the impact both on the presidential race. our next guest says we are about to see the best economic data in the history of the country. it is going to play a huge role in the november elections. joining us is professor of economic policy at harvard university, jason verman. served as an economic adviser with president obama. also with us, former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst, steve rattner. >> well, you know, jason, let us hope that you are right. i've heard so many people at the beginning of this crisis, this pandemic, talk about a v-shaped
4:38 am
r recovery. the further we got into it, they started talking about it being more of a u-shaped recovery. it is going to take quite some time to get out of the economic crisis that we're in. but you disa gredisagree. tell us why. >> i think it will start out fast and then slow quite a lot. look at open table. open table went down 100%. in the last month, open table reservations have gone up infinity percent. it is the biggest increase ever in open table reservations. we're still 90% below where we were last year. a lot of this is the optics. you'll see 1, 2 million jobs a month created, but you'll still be 20 million jobs short. this is not a v-shaped recovery. it will just look like a "v" and described like a "v" from some of the enthusiasts. >> steve, take us through your charts, and also tell us about where you see the economy going,
4:39 am
when americans can hope to start seeing some sort of recovery. >> sure. i think my charts will give you a sense of the shape of the recovery, as well. i'm mostly focused on jobs because we had a new claims for unemployment number yesterday. we have a full unemployment set of numbers next week. jobs are connected to how people vote ultimately in the election. first, let me do level-setting for the viewers and try to explain. there are a lot of numbers floating around about people losing their jobs and how many and so forth. what we saw yesterday was a 2.1 million people filing for the first time for unemployment insurance. that was positioned, and it was, in fact, as you can see from the blue line at the bottom, as a decline in the number of people filing. when this first hit, a huge number of people filed. it looks like an improvement. in that sense, it is. but if you look at the top line, which shows the people receiving unemployment insurance at the moment, you can see that has been continuing to go up.
4:40 am
it is up to almost 25 million people. now, it did go down slightly in the last week to 21.1. that may turn out to be good news. when you compare that to the roughly 2 million people receiving unemployment up shurns befo insurance before this began, we have a long way to go to get back there. unemployment news is modest. we'll get numbers next friday. to the point jason was talking about, if you look at the next chart and what is going to happen going out into the future, we are going to have an enormous spike to unemployment. whether it goes to 20% or 25%, we can all debate. economists have different views. we're in unchartered waters here. it is a spike, and then it starts to come down. that's what jason was referring to, the numbers look better in relative terms. by the time you get to election day, as you can see from the red dot just after the spike period, we're somewhere in the 11%, 12% unemployment rate, probably. people are going to be going to the polls voting with that number in front of them.
4:41 am
yes, it will have declined from much higher numbers, but it is still vastly higher than the number any president has had to go to the polls and face. here's the worrisome thing bt. if you look at the congressional budget office, which is an impartial organization, they are looking for it to take years and years and years for unemployment to get back to anything looking like where we were before all this started. in fact, when you get out -- you have to get out to 2029 or 2030 to see unemployment rate even in the low 4%, according to the cbo. long way to go. we'll see how it unfolds. we could be looking at unemployment levels that we have not been used to for a very, very long time, for a very, very long time. lastly, let's look a the impat t on the election, potential impact, and what is happening in the states. the dark blue bar, third down, shows our current 14.7% unemployment rate. as i said, that will go up next month and at least probably another month after that.
4:42 am
you can see the battleground states and how they compare. michigan, which had to shut down its factories earlier, the 2%22 unemployment. wisconsin, florida, arizona, north carolina, slightly less. the states are all at or babove the national average and, therefore, likely to face that kind of trajectory. when we get to election day in these states, we'll still be looking at double digit unemployment. jason's argument is that the economy will look better. things will have looked like they improved. indeed, the third quarter gdp number, when it comes out, will show, potentially, actually, the largest increase in gdp in our history. the problem is, that number comes out on august 29th -- sorry -- on october 29th, four days before we vote on november 3rd. so you'll have an electorate that's looking at double digit employment coming down at the very end, a good gdp number. what does that translate to for voters when they get to the
4:43 am
ballot box? >> obviously, that's good news. you're referencing a problem for democrats as they look at the election. jason, as steve said, a week from today, next friday, we'll get the may unemployment numbers. most expectations are that it will climb to somewhere around 20%. not quite depression levels of 25%, but getting awfully close to that. as you look at the large numbers of stimulus packages that have been pushed out in the trillions of dollars and $3 trillion more proposed to go out in paycheck protection program, security act, everything else that's going into the compaeconomy as stimulus. is it having an impact, when 41 million people or so have lost their jobs in the last ten weeks? is that money getting where it needs to go? is the cash working? >> it is having a big impact. nothing is as big as the pandemic and the impact it's had on this economy. a lot of the reduction in
4:44 am
economic activity is people aren't going to go to restaurants. they're not going to travel. there's no economic policy that's going to handle that. you need testing. you need tracing. you need to have had a better response to all of this from the very beginning. we're going to get at 8:30 this morning the data on a nerdy series called personal income. it is likely to show that disposable personal income in april didn't fall very much. despite huge amounts of unemployment. why is that? people are unemployed, getting an extra $600 a week. a family of four got a check for 3 rk $3,400. if people were in a position to spend, a lot of people would have the money. too many people were left out. that's why it was really important the house bill expanded nutrition assistance, expanded help for health insurance. all of this comes to an end at the end of july. you'll have a major problem in the economy then, if it is not
4:45 am
extended. something that the house bill did. but families, many of them, have been protected so far from some of the very worst that would otherwise have happened. it is important we do more and continue it. >> jason furman and steve rattner, thank you both very much for being on the show this morning. we want to bring in mathe co-founder of latino decisions, the leading national polling and research firm among latino americans. you have some new polling to share with us, sir. how is the president fairing during this time? >> well, we looked, in particular, at the battleground states, some of you heard of. arizona and florida. we're finding that his numbers are down in latinos. not surprisingly, we've heard a lot of reporting, including on this network, that latinos are hit harder, not only on the health impacts but the economic impacts, in particular. his favorability is much lower am among latino voters when you
4:46 am
look at his favorability compared to biden favorability. here, florida, only 38% compared to 54% for biden. he is far behind where he was, really even in 2016, where president trump did make some connections to latino voters in the state like florida. >> what do you think is behind the numbers, when you look at them, and how much of a change are you seeing over the course of time? >> well, i think that early on in this pandemic, he was getting a little bit of the benefit of the doubt from the latino community. that has all changed as the unemployment numbers have come out, as the health impacts on the latino community. we're now seeing that trump is really being blamed for this, for not acting sooner, for delaying the crisis. and he's down. in particular, he's down among key groups like cuban americans. that was a key constituency for him in south florida. those numbers are going down because they're not seeing the recovery in the latino community. a little bit of the recovery you
4:47 am
heard us talking about, when is that coming? well, all of the national numbers are looking worse for latino americans, where the unemployment and health impacts are far more devastating than they are for the nation as a whole. trump is going to be in trouble because of that. >> i'm looking at your polling and another number jumped out at you, where you show the question of, does the candidate treat latinos with respect? 54% says joe biden does, yes. only 15%, 1-5, say that president trump does. what does that tell you about the way they may vote? >> i think you are exactly right. if you're looking at numbers in the state of florida, trump is low on items like treats with respect, understands people like me, cares about people like me. the numbers have been going down his whole presidency. that is a big problem for trump. that's an area where biden is very strong. we've seen talk about this. he is relatable. he can empathize with people. those are things that trump has a very hard time doing.
4:48 am
latinos care about those sorts of things. we care about those values. we think that that is hurting him, in particular, in the state of florida. a key battleground where he did okay with cuban americans in 2016. some of the numbers are slipping, and he is falling further behind here in 2020. >> matt, thank you very, very much. backing out to big picture, doris kearns good wiwin, how wo you characterize the state of this presidency right now, and what do you deduce is going on in the staff around him? >> it seems to me that the president and the staff around him should be preparing right now for the plans for what will happen, if as was just described, even if we have a short-term recovery, it's going to be many years, possibly, of fully recovering. this is what governor cuomo has been talking about. this is what history suggests. you have to then stimulate the economy in a different way.
4:49 am
what he's talking about, we need so badly and as once understood, is possibly bring people back to jobs, to repair our crumblining infrastructure. during the depression, people created dams, the laguardia airport, giving people the dignity of working and doing something about an infrastructure that we're so far behind the other people in the world. dams are breaking, and that produces flooding. we have a lot of dufrlt sifficu situations right now. it once was a republican and democrat desire. it is what president trump talked about when they came in. instead, they went for the repeal of obamacare. i don't see the planning for something like this right now. the only thing you can do from history that makes you feel you can get through the sacrifices and tough times is hope you'll come out in a better way. i mean, that's what fdr did in the depression. he not only put all those people to work in the forests, the young people, because he was afraid of a lost generation of
4:50 am
young people. we should be afraid of that for generation z right now. he also put people to work, as i say, repairing the infrastructure. we need forward-looking thinking right now. otherwise, have made and the social distancing, if the economy is not going to come back and small businesses are never coming back in some instances and corporations continue to lay-off the people they have, then the thing is going to go on for year after year after year. we have to correct the problems that were there in the first place, and then we will feel some hope. that's what history has to provide. i mean before i talked about the sadness of the commission and that 52 years from now we're still having the same conversation, and yet on the other hand when you look back at history, those pictures of what happened at selma, alabama, mobilized a country to create voting rights, civil rights. things can happen when we get mobilized as citizens. we need public sentiment to change how we feel about poverty, how we feel about the economy, how we feel about jobs. that's what lincoln said, with
4:51 am
public sentiment anything is possible. >> yes. >> anywhere we go is -- we have to take hope from history. >> thank you very, very much. of course, most experts believe the economy will start recovering when this health crisis is under control. so let's turn now to former fda commissioner dr. scott gottlieb. dr. gottlieb, it starts with masking, testing and then ultimately a vaccine. how would you assess where we stand on those three fronts right now? >> well, thanks for having me. we're making progress on the vaccine. all of the data demonstrates we should get a vaccine. probably mass vaccination is a 2021 event. heading through the fall, we have to get through one more cycle of the virus before we get a vaccine. on the other front, states are making progress on getting in place track and trace. on masking there's been incremental data that came out that showed if we get 60% of the population to wear masks that
4:52 am
are 60% effective we can end the epidemic, we will have a declining epidemic instead of an expanding one. the masks make a difference. the key is getting people the right masks and teaching how to wear them. >> all right. looking at hospitalizations and the death rate, what is the data telling us in terms of where we stand with this virus right now and concerns of a resurgence? >> well, the hospitalizations are what we're looking at because new cases are going to go up because we're testing much more. yes, there was the highest ever total of daily testing, almost half a million people were test. as we test more we will turn over more cases. hospitals are a more objective measure of what is happening nationally. they're going up. they went up last week. loose like they're going up again this week a little bit. after weeks of decline they started to tick up. not a lot, but they went up. we expected that as we reopen but we have to watch it very closely. i think the risk is not that we
4:53 am
have a very big resurgence heading into june, july and august, but we have persistent infection. where the summer should have been a back stop and we should have seen a seasonal effect and we should have seen infections dissipate, we see a slow burn through the summer. that sets up more risk for the fall. the other thing is you have to look state by state. only 60% of states report data. texas, for example, doesn't report state level data on hospitalizations, but when you look at some of the hospitals like texas medical center, independently reports data and just put it up on twister, they're showing a big increase in hospitalizations. we're not capturing what is going on because a lot of the states are not reporting state-level data. >> dr. gottlieb, it is willie geist. good to have you with us again this morning. there's been a sense of the states that have opened, obviously georgia and florida came under criticism by some people who thought they were opening too early, that the numbers haven't been so bad actually, that the number of hospitalizations haven't spiked the way some people predicted, that the number of new cases
4:54 am
haven't spiked the way some people predicted. do you agree with that assessment that the states that have taken steps to reopen actually haven't seen the kind of spikes some public health officials feared? >> i agree with that. i mean they've increased, the hospitalizations have increased, but they've increased as we expected. we expected cases to go up as we reopened, as we ended some of the social distancing. we expected to see an increase in cases and increase in hospitalizations, and that's why a lot of states were prescribing a staged reopening where they would reopen certain aspects of their economy, wait a period of time, look at the data and make sure there was not an untoward increase and then reopen other aspects of the economy. we expected to see some growth in cases, and, in fact, we're seeing that. i don't think anything that is happening is particularly surprising. we haven't seen a big spike in cases and i suspect we won't see that. think it will be largely successful in terms of trying to restart the economy because of the measured approach we have taken. what i worry about is the slow burn of infection through the
4:55 am
summer where we don't catch a break in july and august where cases drop off and we head into the fall with more risk. we might still see declines in july and august, remains to be seen, but if we head into september, october time period where we still have 200,000 cases a day in the u.s. -- and, remember, we are probably only reporting about one in ten cases right now. we are diagnosing about 20,000 cases a day, that's probably 200,000 cases a day. if we continue to see that level of infection going into the fall, it is a setup for more risk. >> and let me ask you, doctor -- joe scarborough here -- you talked about hospitals filling up across the country. "the new york times" talked about montgomery hospitals, icu units starting to fill up and that happening in other areas, other areas in middle america. talk about your concern there. is that a slow burn or do you fear that's something that could become more serious in cities like montgomery, alabama, or is this just something that we're
4:56 am
going to see actually over the next year and a half or until a vaccine is created? >> yeah, i think this is going to be life as usual. i think what we're going to see is isolated outbreaks and maybe, you know, epidemic spread in certain regions or certain cities. we will have to pulse resources into those cities, those states that are having spread. hopefully we don't have a national epidemic, but we're going to have isolated outbreaks and you will see local hospital systems get pressed. the states seem to have a plan for that, how they take pressure off local hospitals. it may not be big cities with the outbreaks, but could be small communities with at-risk areas. this is likely to be the fall. this is sort of the base case that what we see in the fall isn't a national epidemic, but these isolated outbreaks. that's what we're going to have to grapple with. >> final quick question. we've talked about 100,000 deaths. a lot of people talked about the
4:57 am
crossing of that terrible line. as you look back over the 100,000 deaths and the data that you are able to draw upon, what can you tell us about those 100,000 deaths in america? what percentage of those were seniors? what percentage of those were people with co-morbidities? what percentage of those people that had underlying health problems that led to that? >> yes, it skews very heavily older. it skews very heavily with people with co-morbid conditions. even when you look at the younger age population, so if you look at the deaths per day at 25 and above, on many days it was the leading cause of death in the united states even for people 45 and 55 years old. there were a lot of deaths in the younger age cohort, but mostly it was clustered over 65 and mostly clustered with people with serious medical conditions. remember, co-morbidities are predicted bad outcomes, things like diabetes, which was a big
4:58 am
predictor of poor outcomes. when you look at the number of people with co-morbidities that plea detectived worpredicted wo it ends up being a large diabetes population. up next, the latest from minneapolis as anger erupts after the death of george floyd. despite the gruesome video showing the life draining from his body while under the knee of a police officer, the county prosecutor says there is evidence that does not support a criminal charge. we'll discuss that straight ahead on "morning joe." aight ahead on "morning joe. hey, can i... hold on one second... sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! he's here. he's right here. - hi! - hi.
4:59 am
hey! - that's totally him. - it's him! that's totally the guy. safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. the first and only full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel available over-the-counter. new voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement.
5:00 am
5:01 am
reverend al sharpton. we begin with breaking news from minneapolis. violent protests raged for a second straight night following the death of george floyd after being arrested by a minneapolis police officer. last night protesters turned their attention to the city's third police precinct, the base of the four officers who were fired in connection with floyd's death. a police spokesman says officers evacuated the building shortly after 10:00 p.m. local time after protesters forced their way in and set it on fire. here is how some of that played out live last night with msnbc's ali velshi on the scene. >> celebrating symbolically that they have taken control of the police station. now, here is the question we don't have an answer to, brian. we know there are or were to my county think at least five police officers that i could see. they might have been the same ones on the roof as were in the back. we don't know where those police officers are, but the front
5:02 am
entrance, the main entrance to the police station is now in flames. there's no sign of police and there is more debris going on. there's fire crackers being put off by the protesters in all directions. they lit fire crackers in the parking lot, you can see that. there's now -- there's a police presence on top of the building, miguel, you see that? these streets are completely clogged in all direction. the earlier fire was only one block over there and they couldn't get there. it wasn't even in the center of things. there is without -- without a very heavy presence, guard, there's no chance. there are thousands of people on the street. i get your point, to let a police station burn is symbolically an important matter for them to consider but there's no chance of fire trucks get in here at this point without heavy intervention by the authorities or the national guard many i have to tell you, i keep on emphasizing that, they're not here. we're not seeing that presence. we know the national guard is in town. i saw heavily-armed vehicles on
5:03 am
my way here earlier, but there are no police vehicles, there are no armored carriers, there's no national guard in the vicinity, but there are a lot of fire crackers. >> the mayor said later he made the call to abandon the building to cut the risk of injury and addressed the violence overnight. >> there is a lot of pain and anger right now in our city. i understand that. our entire city recognizes that. what we have seen over the past several hours and the past couple of nights in terms of looting is unacceptable. our communities cannot and will not tolerate it. >> minnesota's governor activated more than 500 national guard soldiers yesterday afternoon following the unrest and looting from wednesday night. when asked where the troops were when the police precinct was being overrun, the mayor of minneapolis said many were stationed at essential
5:04 am
businesses like banks, grocery stores and pharmacies to help prevent looting. we've got live pictures right now as the city still burns. >> yes, as the city still burns. the mayor is right when he says that it is unacceptable. the rioting, the looting, let's just go down the list, and we will start with the images that we're looking at now. this is unacceptable. it is despicable behavior. it actually turns a lot of americans against the good cause, the cause of justice for all-americans but especially in this case for black americans. the governor of minnesota, i know he's called out the national guard. they need to get on the streets and they need to take control of this city, and they need to do it now. i know, i understand a lot of times cable news networks will stay focused on just one small part of the city and you don't
5:05 am
have to tell me that the overwhelming majority of minneapolis and the twin cities is safe and secure. i understand that. but the national guard needs to stop this looting. they need to stop these riots. they need to stop them and stop them now. they need -- the national guard needs to get on the streets because, rev, i know you will agree with me, this only undercut it is more important cause. i want to read to you though something that was said yesterday that certainly upset a lot of people, not only in minneapolis, not only black people in minneapolis, but americans across the country. it is this. hennepin county prosecutor mike freeman triggered an up roar at a thursday afternoon news conference when he said, quote, there is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge. now, his office later issued a clarification saying freeman only meant it is critical to review all of the evidence. i certainly understand, rev,
5:06 am
reviewing all of the evidence, but there is a balance here. and i know that you always, you always talk about the importance in these protests to remain peaceful. you always speak out against looting and you always speak out against this sort of violence. so let's first talk about what happened last night, how it can never happen again. authorities need to step in and take control. but then let's talk about what started all of this and that it was the heinous killing of a black man who had a knee shoved in his neck for nine minutes as he was begging for help, saying he couldn't breathe and was calling out for his dad and mother. >> i spent yesterday in minneapolis and i brought with me the mother of eric garner who was killed in a police choke hold, saying the same words, "i can't breathe." >> rev, can i stop you for a
5:07 am
second there? >> yes. >> eric garner was murdered. >> that's right. >> and we said that on this show. >> you did. >> eric garner was murdered on staten island, okay. so, again, while we're talking, being clear about what has to stop in minnesota, let's also be clear about that. eric garner was murdered and we saw murder in minneapolis, and it is time for the prosecutors in that city, in that county to start acting like they're more interested in law enforcement than covering themselves. go ahead. >> you're right. i brought that up and i wanted to bring ms. carr there to show the reason we're seeing this kind of anger is that this is not the first time we're seeing this happening on tape, even with the same words. that does not justify looting and violence. in fact, what we said to many of the people there yesterday is that we cannot become like the very things we're fighting. the context of it, we saw it
5:08 am
spread, their protest, all over the country. we saw in louisville, kentucky where a young lady, breonna taylor, her mother was on our show "politics nation" just two weeks ago. people are very outraged and justifiably so. >> for good reason. >> about the criminal justice system. the question now is how you deal with the outrage, to where you get the results you are looking for, which is a fair criminal justice system. you don't do it by appearing to be criminal yourself. we are not the ones that inflict the pain. we are the ones that have been pained, and our reaction must show that and highlight that. otherwise, people will exploit that and change the focus into demonizing those that conduct themselves in a violent way rather than those that are saying, as the floyd family is saying, we want justice. they've said very clearly -- i have talked to the floyd family,
5:09 am
and they've said very clearly and publicly, we want to see justice. we understand the outrage, but we do not want to see violence. the other thing i might adhere, joe, is that as i walked around minneapolis yesterday with ms. carr and some of the ministers and elected officials, some of the stores that are being damaged are black-owned stores. >> yeah. >> we cannot become so reckless that we are destroying each other in our rage. the rage is justified. there's nobody more angry than me, longer than me, but the question is am i angry enough to get something done about it or am i going to play into those that are adversarial to what i'm trying to say and trying to represent. >> and let's be very clear here, all right. let's be very clear here. anybody in the media, anybody in the field of politics that tries to justify looting, that tries to justify violence, tries to justify images that we saw last
5:10 am
night, all you were doing is playing into the hands of people who will exploit this for their own political gain and to try to undermine the justice that the floyd family is seeking. willie, speaking of that, last night donald trump tweeted out -- first of all, let's talk about first of all what a leader does. in a time like this, this is when presidents get on the phone, and this has happened -- this is how it works. presidents see images like that, maybe sometimes they're awakened at night, and you have presidents who are awakened, they get on the phone, they call the governor. they say to the governor, hey, governors who aren't even in their own party, hey, what can we do to help? what do you need us to do to help, let's coordinate this. they will get the local law enforcement officials on the phone and you will have the leaders from the local, the state and the national all talking together, all working together to make sure that peace
5:11 am
comes to this city. well, that didn't happen last night. instead, donald trump just sent out a tweet talking about shooting people. >> oh, my. >> the president of the united states in the middle of the night, sending out a tweet talking about shooting people. of course, twitter marked that because -- >> it is pretty big news. >> -- it incited violence. but that's what he did last night. and it is so important and it is just like the coronavirus, it appears that it is up to the governors, it is up to the local officials. the president is going to be posing. he is going to be saying inflammatory things. he is going to try to appeal to people by saying, like a dictator, that he's going to resort to violence. when the looting starts, the shooting starts. thank you. okay. very interesting approach there, mr. president. but, again, the president is not
5:12 am
going to help obviously. so it is incumbent upon local officials to take matters into their own hands here and to bring peace to those streets and to bring justice for the floyd family. >> yeah, and the president had conceded earlier in the day that what he saw in that video clearly was bad, what he saw the officer do to george floyd was bad. but when it turned to looting, when it turned to the violence at the police precinct that we saw last night, the president believed he had license to say again, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," while taking a shot at the mayor of minneapolis there. this is another angle, by the way, obtained by nbc news of the incident in the moment that killed george floyd. you see two officers on the ground there on their knees as well, with the one officer we have seen in the previous video here, which is very hard to watch but we ought to watch it, with his knee on the neck of
5:13 am
george floyd, ultimately killing him. i was struck -- >> despicable. >> -- listening last night to police commissioners. we have seen over the course of history police officers, police departments sort of circle the wagons here. >> yeah. >> not in this case. the commissioners, police in new york city, in los angeles, in houston, in washington, d.c., the police commissioner in d.c. saying it is nothing short of murder, what those officers did to george floyd. police unions whose job it is to protect police officers, many of them coming out and condemning what they saw because so plainly what happened in that video was so terrible and so awful and so beyond what any police officer ever should do. >> well, you know, also not only that -- and let's go back to the video again. i know it is very hard to see, of these police officers. but, you know, in the past conservative outlets at times circled the wagon as well and reflexively always defended law enforcement officers.
5:14 am
i understand that instinct. that is my instinct, but obviously not in this case. i'm seeing more and more conservative outlets outwardly condemning this, saying it is murder, saying that justice should be brought in this case. i am so glad to see the same thing is happening from our law enforcement leaders across america, willie. they need to speak out because they know the truth. they know the truth. the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are people who are doing their best, putting their lives on the line every day and protecting the rest of us. >> yes, and the video is just undeniable. there's no other thing to say about it. >> no. still ahead on "morning joe," when president trump isn't bragging about his following on twitter he is attacking the website for fact checking his
5:15 am
lies. we'll talk about that. plus, we have a live interview with robert de mere owe. de niro. he joins us straight ahead on "morning joe." de niro. he joins us straight ahead on "morning joe." where wide niro. he joins us straight ahead on "morning joe." will it be familiar streets? or perhaps unknown roads? wherever you may go, lexus will welcome you back with exceptional offers. find a lexus for every road at lexus.com. no payments for up to 90 days on all 2020 lexus models. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.
5:16 am
5:17 am
5:18 am
no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. i geh. common bird.e. ooh look! over here! something much better. there it is. peacock, included with xfinity x1. remarkable. fascinating. -very. it streams tons of your favorite shows and movies, plus the latest in sports news and... huh - run! the newest streaming app has landed on xfinity x1. now that's... simple. easy. awesome. xfinity x1 just got even better with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached. just say "peacock" into your voice remote to start watching today.
5:19 am
mr. president, you had said in one of your tweets that you would consider shutting down twitter and social media companies. did you actually mean you would want to shut down an american company? >> i think it is going to be -- i tell you what, i have so much, it seems, influence over twitter in the sense of people wanting to see -- go to twitter because of what i have. i have a vast number, we have a number of platforms as you know. we have millions and millions of people. i think this. if twitter were not honorable, if you are going to have a guy like this be your judge and jury, i think you should it down as far as i'm concerned. but i would have to go through a legal process to do that. >> how would you shut down an
5:20 am
american company? >> i don't know. i would have to ask the lawyers. i would have to go through a legal process. if it were able to be legally shut down, i would do it. i think i would be hurting it very badly if we didn't use it anymore. i mean we have other sites we could use i guess. or we would have to develop other sites. >> yes. >> president trump yesterday signed an executive order that a lot of people aren't sure he actually understands. >> oh, he didn't understand because -- >> i don't think he understood what he did. >> it makes no sense. >> because it could open the door for federal regulators to punish social media companies for the way they moderate content online. for example, they -- twitter tagged his tweets last night. you can't read them, which is helpful. according to "the washington post", the new directive seeks to change a federal law that has spared tech companies from being sued or held liable for most content shared by users on their sites. tech giants herald those
5:21 am
protections known as section 230, as the bed rock of the internet. the order encourages the federal communications commission to rethink the scope of section 230 and when its liability protections apply. it also seeks to channel complaints about political bias to the federal trade commission which has been asked by the white house to probe whether tech companies' content moderation policies are in keeping with their pledges of nutrality. he is going after twitter. twitter is pushing back a bit overnight especially. >> yeah. jonathan lemire, i don't know where to begin here. >> yeah. >> first of all, there is -- whoever drafted this never red section 230. as david french and so many other conservatives said last night, there is nothing in there that talks about how a website, an online platform has to be politically neutral. if that were the case, it would
5:22 am
wipe out 95% of blogs on the internet today. also, just the timing of it. i mean there are a lot of people that want 230 reformed, and i am one of them. some of the provisions are just, i think, outrageous but we'll talk about that on another day. but the president of the united states, a lot of conservatives were writing about this yesterday, this looked like a totalitarian move. you actually have this president, who really if he -- if he could take the time this weekend should read the constitution of the united states, because as swisher said and as a lot of people online, conservatives said yesterday, the constitution of the united states does not allow the state, the centralized state to swoop in and sensor content or control
5:23 am
content of a private company. it actually stops congress from abridging free speech rights. i know it is radical for a president who grew up and spent most of his life giving money to liberals, but actually we conservatives actually think private companies should be able to run themselves the way they choose to run their private companies. that's one. number two, i don't know why anybody didn't tell the president of the united states that if he succeeded in getting rid of 230 or dramatically changing 230 and removing this blanket immunity that 230 gives twitter and facebook, that actually probably 50% of his tweets would be taken down
5:24 am
because right now let's say the president, for instance, libeled the good name of a woman who had been dead for 19 years or libeled other people, those people could not sue twitter today because of 230, because there's a blanket immunity. all of the people that the president has slandered through the years, they've not been able to sue twitter because of 230. so i don't know if donald trump really wants 230 removed any more than he wants libel laws loosened up, because if he did he would be spending the rest of his life in court defending himself for all of the libellous charges he has spewed over the past several years. i know there's a very short statute of limitations there. what he did yesterday was baffling even to his
5:25 am
conservative, anti-anti-trump followers. >> well, first of all, joe, the old "dennis the men as" cartoon would feature a line about ballot harvesting to the point it became a cliche. >> mr. wilson was so tired of it. he was so tired of taking out his mail-in ballots. but go ahead. >> so in terms of the executive order, let's take a step back and a little reporting on how it came together. the president earlier this week was fuming, of course, about the twitter fact checks, the little label twitter put on his tweets in terms of the mail-in ballots. what we saw is that the president was coming back from florida for the aborted rocket launch earlier this week and according to our reporting was in a rage and told advisers that something had to be done, that he felt angry and humiliated and he wanted twitter to pay.
5:26 am
at that moment no one in the white house had no idea what the executive order would say. it didn't exist, just laying down a marker. they spent 24 hours scrambling come up with something and it didn't go through the usual channels when the orders are prepared. we saw the final result yesterday, an order that raised a lot of concerns by both liberals and conservatives. you just laid them out so i won't repeat them, as to why it would be a mistake to follow through with this if 230 were to be radically changed to the point these companies could be sued. this is not so much -- and you hinted at it. this is not so much about the law. this is about politics. this is the president wanting to have this fight, though some might say he was very relatable yesterday when he said he would get off twitter if he co. i know i have had that thought a few times but it is not what it is about. it is his largest and best platform he believes of doing two things, of talking directly to his voters -- fine -- but also to inciting the media, to
5:27 am
driving the headlines. i talked to a former senior adviser of his who once told me the president told him, watch this, tweeted something and within 30 seconds the cable chirons changed. he knows he can drive a story sometimes to distract, sometimes to make policy, sometimes to rattle lawmakers, republicans and democrats alike, with twitter. he's not giving that up. but he wants to be able to make it part of his campaign strategy, to again imply bias like he does with the media but with the social media companies, so he can have this fight going forward as we move towards november coming up, we will go live to the white house with nbc's hans nichols with the latest from there next on "morning joe."
5:28 am
5:29 am
click or call for a quote today. and its mission is to give you truly transformative sleep. so, no more tossing and turning... or trouble falling asleep. because only tempur-pedic uses proprietary tempur® material... that continuously adapts and responds to your body, to relieve pressure... so you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. all night. every night. the tempur-pedic summer of sleep starts now, with all tempur-pedic mattresses on sale, and savings up to $500 on adjustable sets.
5:30 am
5:31 am
♪ joining us now, nbc news correspondent hans nichols live from the white house. hans, starting off i guess the president and the white house is stepping up their attacks on twitter now by retweeting -- >> reporter: yes. >> -- reposting the president's pretty craven post on the official white house twitter? >> you say craven post, i mean, hans, this is a post where the president of the united states advocating the gunning down of americans. >> reporter: yep.
5:32 am
>> oh, my god. >> for property crimes. listen, we have spoken out against the looting. we have spoken out against any riots, but under -- under any circumstances law enforcement officers do not shoot down and gun down people for property crimes. that is what the president of the united states is advocating this morning. >> reporter: and he's escalating this fight and pouring more gasoline on the fire by not only having the white house official twitter account retweet it, right, which is retweet it with comment, which is what the twitter guidelines were. you couldn't simply like it, you had to really own the tweet. so he's retweeting from an official white house account. you also have the social media director dan scovino having hot language we can't say on a morning show. when you take a step back, it is so clear president donald trump likes these fights. it is so clear it is exactly weigh wants to do. it is a multi front war.
5:33 am
he is going after twitter. he is obviously having a fight with the community in minneapolis, taunting them, threatening violence as you say. we haven't even mentioned the latest on covid and what the president is saying there. and then the signaling for the past 24, 48 hours here at the white house is there would be an additional front in the president's wars, and that is he would be going after china and escalating it, a range of options for the president. yesterday he was talking about a press conference here at the white house today. oddly, it wasn't in the official guide, the schedule they put out. i'm losing track, guys, on how many different fronts the president is opening up, but you guys know as well as anyone, this is someone that relishes this and he's not afraid to cross the boundaries that you guys are talking about this morning. so i suspect today will be a day we look back on when things -- i would like to say really change at the white house, but not necessarily. it just seems like he is escalating, escalating, escalating. i don't know where this ends. guys. >> yeah. >> well, and, hans, of course,
5:34 am
so much of this as we've always said to our viewers, so much of this is a distraction from the 100,000 dead in a pandemic where the president of the united states had said it was one person coming in from china. that's we've been telling people this week when they called up asking, what is happening. i said, it is all a distraction. you've got to stay focused on what matters, the pandemic matters. of course, minneapolis matters now, but it is just like in the south carolina primary when nikki haley endorsed marco rubio, that's when the president of the united states picked his fight with the pope. now he's moved from the pope to twitter to cable news hosts. my, he's gone downhill quickly. >> reporter: look, guys, i don't know where today ends. i suspect we're in for a ride. again, you know, covid is obviously very serious, you know, the 100,000 dead
5:35 am
americans, a major, sad milestone. but when you talk to experts in the pentagon or in the national security community, one of the challenges is how you get the american relationship right with china. that's going to define the next 100 years. the president seems to be in a fighting mood, and we'll see what option he chooses today. obviously there are changes taking place in hong kong with the loss of autonomy, so it is decision day for the president. we just have to keep talking to all of our sources and trying to figure out what is going on and, hopefully, report as accurately as we can. guys. >> nbc's hans nichols. >> hans nichols at the white house. >> thank you. >> hold on -- go ahead, willie. sorry. >> thanks. i was going to say though a bit of history to sprinkle in here. when the looting starts the shooting starts, that phrase is not a creation or invention of president trump. that was used back in the 1960s by a police chief in miami. he coined that phrase, he used it to justify brutal crackdowns on what he called hoodlums in the slums during civil rights
5:36 am
protests as they turned violent in some cases. so the president, a call-back to the 1960s in a time of crackdown on civil rights protesters. >> reporter: it is a clear echo. again, we can argue about the propriety and have our opinions on what it means. what is clear is that the president thinks this helps him politically. he is willing to pour more and more gasoline on the fire. you guys remember back in march when he had the oval office address talking about covid, now is not the time for par sanship. he pledged to put partisanship aside. that was, what, 2 1/2 months ago. does anyone think there's less partisanship in the country than there was at the beginning of this crisis? you know, color me as not an optimist, but i don't suspect we are going to -- and the officials that i talked to don't give any indication that the president is going to de-escalate and this is going to get in any sort of healing situation. guys. >> all right. nbc's hans nichols live at the white house. the next time we see you, you
5:37 am
will be working for "axios." we look forward to that. congratulations. hans nichols, thank you very much. >> reporter: thanks, guys. thanks for having me. >> thanks, hans. >> see you soon. up next, an important discussion with faith leaders amid these extremely turbulent times on several fronts. we are back in a moment.
5:38 am
5:39 am
lips before it brings a tear to your eyes. my prayer for all of you is that day will come sooner rather than later, but i promise you it will come. and when it does, you know you can make it. this nation grieves with you. >> indeed. there is a profound amount of grief in this country right now. let's bring in some top faith leaders to discuss this more. russell moore is president of ethics and religious liberty commission of the southern baptist convention. father james martin is an american jesuit priest and editor at large of the jesuit magazine "america." rabbi matt guertz is an executive member of the coalition of hope and peace, and the president of the coalition of religious leaders for the state of new jersey. >> russell, let's begin with you. you and i talked a few days ago on instagram live about the pain
5:40 am
and the suffering, the loneliness brought about from coronavirus. we have to this morning, of course, stack on top of that people waking up to scenes of this terrible killing of a black man by four police officers in minneapolis, protests, riots, and then the president of the united states advocating for the gunning down of americans for property crimes. how do you sort through this? what do you tell americans about staying hopeful, staying positive moving forward? >> you know, i'm haunted by an interview that steven king, the author, did with terry gross a couple of weeks ago in which he said he felt as though his horror novels were becoming real when we look around at the pandemic and the institutions breaking down and the chaos all around us. he said, except that in his novels he had a rational and
5:41 am
orderly plot line. well, i think there is a plot line. i do think that god is alive, and so i think that we need to have hope in the fact that we -- the scripture gives us a dark side of reality. it tells us the truth about, as the old hymn puts it, many dangers, toils and snares. so i think it is right for americans and for people of faith to grieve and to lament and to see this is a situation in which we just don't know how to fix this very easily. >> rabbi, what do the scriptures offer us? what does the word of god, what does god's promise offer to those of us, what hope to the believers and, yes, even to those who may not believe? >> i don't know about you, but i'm feeling a bit of communal overload this morning. i went to sleep last night, like
5:42 am
i did in 1991 watching the l.a. riot, being scared to take my eyes from underneath the sheet and waking up this morning, again with communal overload. i'm just beginning to get my arms around the idea that this indiscriminate disease has killed 100,000 of our fellow citizens, and it is an extraordinary number, but the problem with such a big number is we don't know how to put our arms around it. all of these people die. we're not exactly sure how to connect to their narratives, and then there's a name that you know really well, this name of george floyd. the interesting thing about george floyd is we don't know a lot about him either. we know what we think he did. we certainly know by watching that video how it is that he died, and now we wake up to having all of us, all of us in this country scared of this indiscriminate disease that could take any of us, and if you are african-american you also wake up this morning scared to death of the indiscriminate disease called institution, endemic american racism. i want to say one other thing about hope.
5:43 am
you're hearing extraordinary comments about the idea that a vaccine could be ready in early 2021. that seems to me off the charts the idea that could happen, but if that's possible -- and we sent people to the moon when it was impossible -- why can't we also come up with a vaccine, an inoculation against american endemic racism? if we can fix a disease, why can't we fix a societal disease as well. >> we need to move towards that. it is so critically important. father, we see the words from our leaders that seem to be the antithesis of the words that you and i grew up reading in the gospels, the words of jesus christ. as i always tell people, you know, the red letters, just focus on the red letters. you know, blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy. blessed are the peace makers. blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
5:44 am
we don't see that from the people who are leading this land. what are we to do? >> well, i am afraid you are correct. i'm afraid that tweet from president trump is the antithesis of the beatitudes of the sermon on the mount. it is moving towards violence rather than peace. but i agree with russell moore and the rabbi, that the scriptures point us not only to hope, that the christian believes in the resurrection, that nothing is impossible with god. but the example of jesus shows us a way forward. you know, caring for the sick, working for the poor, you know, standing up for people who are on the margins, you know, as african-americans are in this country. pope john paul called racism the most persistent and destructive sin in our nation, and so we have a way forward. we not only are pointed towards hope, but we have a template of how to proceed in these
5:45 am
difficult times which is for the christian following the example of jesus who was always on the side of the poor and the marginalized. >> father martin, it is willie geist. it is great to have you all with us this morning. i wanted to ask you, father, these words that are surrounding u.s. right n us right now and have been for the last few months, of grief and anxiety, we see it with those who have lost their jobs and having their lives altered, we see it in over 100,000 dead, we see it with those sick of the disease, we see people of color watching a video where in broad daylight they see george floyd but also themselves, their sons and fathers on the ground being killed. how do you talk to people in your congregation? how do you talk to people about getting through this moment of fear and anxiety? >> those are good questions and i think russell moore is right, that we are aware of darkness and hatred and evil in the
5:46 am
world, including the evil of racism. in terms of the coronavirus, it is -- i think the question of why is this happening is almost impossible to answer. you basically accompany people, listen to their sadness, and also point them to signs of god in the world. i think the most prominent signs of god's compassion are in the work of the doctors and nurses and health care workers. so there is a sense of god's compassion being lived out through people. but, you know, essentially in these times it is accompany people and just listening to their feelings and helping them make meaning of it, but also helping them find god even in the midst of their suffering. >> i want to talk -- i'll offer this up to the rabbi and to russell. that's, by the way, a good podcast for you guys if you want to take it, "the rabbi and russell." >> a good idea. >> you know, we have this, obviously we are fighting a pandemic that's killed 100,000 people, but even before this
5:47 am
pandemic broke out there was an epidemic of loneliness in america. so many researchers, so many doctors, so many health care workers said that actually social media helped fuel this loneliness and this isolation, especially prone to teenage girls. >> young people. >> young people. but for all americans, young and old. we are going into a weekend. what do you tell those who are in their apartments alone still and they feel like they're isolated and they're not connected to people? what hope do you give them? rabbi, i'll start with you. >> you know what is interesting, joe, my wife said to me last week when the president said we have to close down all -- we have to open up, excuse me, religious institutions, she said, honey, what are you talking about? you have been open for ten weeks
5:48 am
already, meaning that as soon as the pandemic hit we became virtually connected to people in deeper ways, i would say, counter intuitively than we had ever been before. we would have 300 people on a friday night. now we have 1,000 or 1,500 people on a friday night virtually. i can go through the numbers, but the point, joe, is what we came into focus with is that the isolation, the anxiety and the loneliness was quietly sleeping. we knew about it, we read about it, and now it is way out in the open. what people are doing is saying, i want to connect, and we are doing it all the time through services, through teaching, through learning. so our message is be together as much as you can and say out loud, i need help, and others will be there to help escort you through these incredibly lonely and scary times. >> russell, you told me the same thing about the southern baptist church. so many southern baptist churches that didn't even have websites before and now they're streaming their services. you have actually noticed more
5:49 am
people connecting. tell me about it. >> yes. a lot of pastors are saying they were expecting, maybe we won't have many people even tune in to the live streams and they're having all of their people and a lot of other people in the communities. i think that's partly because people have a longing to connect. they know what they're missing. also, there's a sense of fragility, a sense of awareness of death. there are so many of us that lost people and we couldn't even go to the funerals, we couldn't even grieve together. so i think we know what we're missing. you think about the whole social media culture that's built upon image and artificiality, fake outrage and fake prestige. i think that this moment might be cutting through all of that and giving us an opportunity to have real, genuine community and communion. >> russell moore, father james martin, rabbi matt gewertz, thank you all for being on the show this morning. boy, did we need that. >> and we want to thank everybody for watching this week
5:50 am
and for watching today. we hope that you have a wonderful weekend. >> yeah. >> willie, there are obviously, willie, a lot of concerns as we are moving forward as a nation. concerns out of minneapolis. concerns in montgomery in emergency rooms. concern still in new york city. but we do have to use this time to come together. >> yeah, there's no question about it. i thought you cited paul mccartney's interview earlier this week. a couple of times where you said we've got them outnumbered. the good guys have the bad guys outnumbered when you look around. it's something i've said to my kids a lot lately. there's so much more light in the world than there is dark. and there are some dark times that we're living through right now. but i still believe, and as we just heard, that the light will prevail. we've still got more ahead on "morning joe." robert de niro joins us next on
5:51 am
the start of a ten-day digital film festival to benefit those suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. he's next on "morning joe." cust, so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ when you have depression, it can plunge you into deep, dark lows. and, can leave you feeling extremely sad and disinterested. overwhelmed by bipolar depression? ask about vraylar. not all types of depression should be treated the same. vraylar effectively helps relieve all symptoms of bipolar depression... with just one pill, once a day. elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts.
5:52 am
antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles or confusion, which may mean a life-threatening reaction, or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be permanent. side effects may not appear for several weeks. metabolic changes may occur. nausea, restlessness and movement dysfunction are common side effects. when bipolar depression overwhelms, ask how vraylar can help. among my patisensitivity as well tas gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. new sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. welcome back to "morning joe." with theaters around the world closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, international film festivals are joining together virtually to bring audiences together to create connections during this time. joining us now, academy award-winning oorkt and
5:53 am
co-founder of tribeca enterprises, robert de niro, along with film producer and fellow co-founder, jane rosenthal. they're here to announce the first truly global film festival "we are one" which begins today exclusively on youtube. good morning. welcome to you both. can't wait to talk about the "we are one" program you're doing through tribeca. robert, i want to ask your thoughts about these times we're living in right now. you've lived through a lot. you've seen a lot in this count country. 100,000 dead, 41 million out of work because of this coronavirus pandemic in the last couple of months and now the scenes we're seeing in the streets of minneapolis. what are your thoughts as you sit like the rest of us home watching it on tv. >> well, i -- you know, i always thought that -- i knew things would be strange with trump, but i never thought it would get to
5:54 am
this point. i always gave him the benefit of the doubt right after he was elected, and it just got worse and worse and worse and we're in a terrible situation. and anybody who doesn't face that or doesn't acknowledge that is not living in a real world. we could have avoided a lot of this. a lot of this. he had many, many, many warnings. this is just typical of a person like this. it's so upsetting. so upsetting that we are in this state right now. >> what signs of hope do you see? obviously, you're doing great work with tribeca. you've got this film festival coming up that begins today. what message of hope can you send about what may be on the other side of this terrible hill we're climbing right now. >> we'll get through it. we'll have ups and downs. more people unfortunately die
5:55 am
but we'll get through it. but we will -- and we will learn not to have this happen again. this kind of thing will always happen, historically. but it will -- it always mutates in a certain way. we had hitler. we have people -- we have trump. we have -- he was not -- he's not hitler, but it's a certain type of authoritarian virus. we have to find ways, and we will, to not let this type of thing happen again. though it will mutate into something nels 100 years, 200 years. and you have to be able to ready. that's what a democracy is about. that's it. it's that simple. we'll get through it. we'll get through it. that's the whole point. we will get through it. we've been put through a lot in all those people who died, their
5:56 am
families who have been affected by it. it's just unthinkable. and i don't understand how people like the -- how the republicans are allowing it. i just -- they're not -- they're just not -- one of my kids just ran in, sorry. it's -- i don't know what's going to happen. these people are going to be written about later on in the years to come and i don't know what their excuse is. i have no idea. >> so jane, let's -- >> anyway. >> let's talk about the film festival, "we are one." it was born -- tribeca film festival was born in the aftermath of september 11th in a way to help tribeca recover from that crisis. so talk about this film festival and why it's obviously so much different from the ones you've had over the years. >> well, when we established
5:57 am
tribeca in 2002, nelson mandela came to open tribeca. and one of the things he talked about was the unifying power of film and how he watched film when he was in prison. we need voices and comfort like mandela. what we can do as filmmakers, as storytellers is bring the international film festivals together and give people a new memory, something to look forward to in these days. so free on youtube starting today will be 100 hours of programming from film festivals such as cannes, mumbai, shanghai, tokyo, sundance, tribeca, new york film festival, toronto. it's an incredible collection of films and it's free. we're also raising funds for the world health organization. so we hope people donate and hope they watch. >> well, you guys are getting creative like everybody else and
5:58 am
doing a good job going about your business. the "we are one" global film festival begins today on youtube. robert, we can all relate to your kids running into the room when we're trying to do tv. thanks for being here. robert and jane, thank you both. joe and mika? >> so mika, what are your final thoughts as we go into this weekend? >> i'm just praying for america. i really am. i'm very -- as we all are, incredibly disturbed. the events over the past 24 hours in minneapolis and the anger and kind of hatred coming out of the white house, it's unspeakable. and i'm praying for our better angels and for the frontline workers and for the people stepping up. >> and i just -- i think as we go into the weekend it is so important, again, willie brought up that mccartney quote. maybe it was from 1985, 1986 where he said he was an optimist because i think the good guys have the bad guys outnumbered.
5:59 am
willie, i talked about it in the pandemic. the overwhelming majority of americans are acting responsible, loving their neighbors as themselves. doing everything they can to protect their families, respect their neighbors. people so respectful of others for the most part. you can say the same thing about minneapolis. the overwhelming majority of the demonstrations yesterday, the protests were peaceful. minneapolis for the most part peaceful. but there were some bad actors there. and, yes, they were bad actors. you can quote martin luther king all you want. rioting is not the way forward. violence is not the way forward. and i believe that the county prosecutor has to charge these officers with murder. if he has any mitigating evidence, show it to us now or forever hold your peace. they murdered this man. they need to be held accountable. >> the governor of minnesota has called a press conference for
6:00 am
later this morning. it will be interesting to see what he wants to talk about with the public. but i agree with you. i'm thinking, as we talk about minneapolis, about all of my friends, all of our colleagues, people of color across this country who again see themselves in the face of george floyd laying on the ground with a knee on his neck dying. they see themselves, their fathers. they see their sons. we need to empathize and share their pain right now. >> exactly. >> that does the it for us. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it's friday, may 29th. we begin with breaking news out of minneapolis. rioters mixed with protesters on a third night of violent and chaotic demonstrations over the death of george floyd. at the height of it, crowds broke into minneapolis' third police precinct and set it on fire. the mayor ultimately ordered police to evacuate the building. across the twin cities, police tried to break up crowds
298 Views
1 Favorite
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC West Television Archive Television Archive News Search Service The Chin Grimes TV News ArchiveUploaded by TV Archive on