mr. president -- >> this sucker is quick. >> how does it drive? >> how does it feel? >> would you buy one of these? >> i would. >> how does it feel to be behind the wheel, sir? >> it feels great. i tell you what -- i don't know if anybody had a stopwatch. i think we're going 0 to 60 in about 4.3. 4.4? >> right. >> 4 flat? >> well -- >> i should be quiet. >> how fast were you going? >> okay. i'm just gonna step on it and i'll come off at 80 miles an hour. okay? ready? >> mr. president, can i ask you a quick question on israel before you drive away. >> no, you can't. not unless you get in front of the car and i step on it. i'm only teasing. here we go. ready?

ready? >> president biden making an unscheduled stop during his trip to michigan to test drive the new all electric ford f150 lightning. i'm kind of excited about the electric lightning. i think i should get a truck for my next birthday. there we go. good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." it's wednesday, may 19th along with joe, willie and me, we have white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan lemire. willie, i think that we can get electric cars into the entire fleet at some point. it's very clunky. it's very hard. but it would be great for this country. but it's a long way off. >> it is. joe was going to get you scratch off tickets again for your birthday next year but you really raised the far asking for an f150 lightning. >> he did get me an f150. >> he did? wow. next time make it electric. >> joe, take note. you can also get her one of

those handsome "morning joe" fleeces you've been wearing this week. is that a new one? >> he wears them everyday. >> i have been wearing them everyday. it's interesting about this fleece, so, yesterday after the show, we have been talking about the middle east. this is an extraordinarily important story of our time. afterward i get a lot of calls, ambassadors from the region i spoke to right after the show. >> yeah. >> was on for about an hour, hour and a half and the calls kept coming in and i kept taking them. i talked to richard haass. we're all talking about middle east peace and how we get there from here. and i see -- i'm the middle of a call with one of these ambassadors. and it's donny deutsche. and i said, mr. ambassador, can i call you back? one of my experts in the area is call megaup. i has been on the phone with the ambassador. it was a good excuse. donny would provide me good

insight on the middle east peace. sad story. yeah, yeah, sad story. dude, can i just ask you something, what's your fashion strategy on the fleeces? strategy? you think i have strategy on what i wear? i wore the same sweater -- i wore the same sweater an entire winter. there's no strategy. i wake up. i see it. fit works one day, i wear it three more days. >> what's fun, joe, we can always track the week's male. there's lucky charms up here, cinnamon toast crunch down here. if it's a good day, avocado toast the middle somewhere. >> lucky me. >> that's fun just looking at the map of your meals is most fun. >> yes. it's the constellation of food that makes it all worthwhile, mika. so we'll see what donny calls us

about after today's show. okay. let's get to the news. the investigation into former president donald trump's business empire is expanding. the new york attorney general's office put out a statement last night saying the investigation into the trump organization is now considered a criminal matter. in addition to the on going civil probe. the statement reads in part, we have informed the trump organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. we are now actively investigating the trump organization in a criminal capacity along with the manhattan district attorney. new york attorney general latitia james has been at the forefront of legal action against trump's family business. her office offered no explanation for what prompted the change in its investigation. "the washington post" points out that the danger previously posed

by james' investigation seemed to be merely financial. the kind of lawsuit trump had faced from new york attorney's general before over trump university and his charity. now, however, james could also seek criminal penalties. an attorney for the trump organization declined to comment on the matter. trump and his representatives have repeatedly denied any wrong doing. joe? >> yeah. jonathan lemire, i've been growing impatient over the past months over leaks from the fbi and other prosecutors saying, oh, behind the scenes we hear this or that or whatever. i've now read 437 articles about how what happened today makes matt gaetz's situation worse. i keep reading about rudy giuliani. we got used during the trump era, a leak here, a leak there.

it happened back during the bush era. karl rove, every friday they would say, hey, make sure you're around to go to the tv studio. karl rove, this is the day we just heard from the fbi a leak that karl rove is going to go to jail. blah blah. this wasn't a leak. this actually was from the office. i don't know if that means anything. i'm not sure about why you announce we are now investigating him for criminal -- do your investigation. bring the charges or don't bring the charges. but, again, this really wasn't a leak. this is the office basically saying we're looking into criminal charges against donald trump. >> yeah, joe, you made your feelings about leaks well known in recent weeks. this is highly unusual if it comes from a spokesperson from the attorney general's office confirming that they are now looking into a criminal matter not just a civil one. that's not something we hear very often from offices like

this. but certainly it ramps up the pressure on the former president and his business, the trump organization. we know that this has been an investigation that's long in the works. that some of the president's closest allies have been interviewed in recent months including his adult children, eric trump and donald trump jr. who have been running the business while donald trump was in office. as well as some of the top officials at the trump organization, like michael cohen and allen weisselberg. so that evidence, those testimony, has been collected over the recent months. now, what exactly they're looking at here remains, of course, somewhat of a mystery. it's the trump organization's businesses. it's tax procedures. you know, these are the things that they are looking at. but to go a criminal matter inherently a far bigger deal than civil. now, whether this leads to charges or not, unclear. that doesn't say that. what kind of timeline, unclear. we know there are investigations

from vance, latitia james, long-time adversary of donald trump and the trump organization. we'll see where this leads. certainly admin mum we know the former president faces some legal jeopardy coming out of office and it's ramping up in new york. >> let's bring in a couple more legal voices to help us with this. kimberly atkins and also with us dannisy vol loes. good morning to you both. danny, why is this a significant announcement, if you believe it is? >> simply put it's more investigative power going into the criminal side of the investigation. now, the new york state attorney general like other attorneys general has a broader role than

say a district attorney's office because they investigate civil matters, such as charities that are not living up to their charitable status. they investigate all kinds of different consumer protection issues. they also are a law enforcement branch. so in that sense, they have a much more diverse set of interests. so, for the attorney general to add toits investigation a previously civil investigation that this is a criminal investigation, of course, they're still investigating violations of new york state law, just like the manhattan district attorney's office would be, but that tells you there's a lot more man and woman power going into this investigation now, this criminal side than previously thought. >> kimberly, looking at latitia james. she's been following problems that she's been seeing happening in the trump organization and toward the presidency for his entire presidency, could this branch out to family members? are there any indication as to

how widespread this is? >> yeah. so the answer is it could. we don't know yet. we only have this one brief statement that came out of the state attorney general's office. but the difference between a civil matter and what we saw, for example, with the trump charity where the charity was shut down, people involved in it were no longer able to run charities. with a criminal investigation, it brings in other elements as well. if there was criminality suspected base on what she has found, depending on who it is, you might get somebody who may be facing charges, who may be perhaps cooperate in advancing that investigation. we know as we already stated they have already talked to folks like michael cohen. so when you have a criminal investigation like that it can sprawl out as this investigation moves forward, so perhaps that was one reason for announcing this just to put people on

notice about that. but, you know, like we said, there's a broad ability here to -- with this expansion of the investigation, it's reported that it is not just what district attorney vance in manhattan is investigating, there is some overlap between these two but that they are separate. that could also mean there could be sharing of information between the manhattan district attorney's office and the state attorney. it's certainly a ramp up. we don't know exactly where it's going or how broad it is yet, but it certainly isn't good news for the trump organization. >> danny, let's deliberately get ahead of ourselves here. there's been some talk about the concept of extradition about the former president who of course faces legal scrutiny in a number of places, new york we discussed, also georgia, the district of columbia because of the events of january 6th. and there's been some thought that if he is, say, one of his homes whether it's florida, or

new jersey, that perhaps there would be an extradition effort to bring him back to new york if he were to eventually face charges. can you walk us through what this all means and how it would work if someone can stop extradition, whether it can happen or something we should be considering in the months ahead? >> it would work very easily for the government agency that is prosecuting someone if he's in the united states. former president trump would have to be in his house in saudi arabia or brazil for extradition to pose any barrier to the new york state attorney to bring him back. procedurally it's a simple process. someone is in florida, they're arrested, you want to bring them back to new york. there's a hearing in florida, relatively brief hearing. the defendant will not be able to oppose extradition in between states. all the united states has extradition treaties with each other and that treaty is you can have whoever you want because there really isn't any ability of a state to hold on to someone and keep another state from

prosecuting them. finding them, tracking them down, serving an arrest warrant on them in another state that can create procedural complexities nothing that a little interstate cooperation among law enforcement can't solve. >> danny cevallos and kimberly atkins, thank you all very much. we'll be following this. moving on now, a full house vote is expected today on creating a commission to investigate the deadly january 6th u.s. capitol riot. house minority leader kevin mccarthy came out against creating the commission yesterday, followed later by a formal recommendation by house gop leadership for members to vote no. the california republican issued a statement in opposition because the commission scope will be focussed on the attack on the capitol without including protest violence by black lives matter and antifa the previous summer. mccarthy's statement reads in

part, given the political misdirections that have marred this process and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort and given the speaker's short sided scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in america, i cannot support this legislation. if i may, eric swalwell has been trying to get kevin mccarthy to meet with a capitol cop who was injured that day just to hear his side of the story and kev doesn't have time because he's too busy trying to find other protests to mix in with this violent murderous, insurrection on our capitol that just -- this commission just wants to look at the truth and that is what he's afraid of. former president trump weighed in on another person he's afraid of, weighed in on the commission issuing the following statement, reading in part -- republicans in the house and senate should not approve the democrat trap of the january 6th commission. republicans must get much

tougher and much smarter hopefully mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy are listening and aren't they ever, joe. >> yeah. well, you know, you're looking right there at the guy who led the conspiracy to commit sedition, to have insurrectionists come to the capitol that day. the worst breach of the united states capitol since the war of 1812 and certainly the greatest threat and attack on u.s. government and what it does constitutionally since the american civil war. now, you've been seeing one member after another on the republican side lie and say, oh, it's just tourists coming. oh, it's just tourists. they, of course, are lying through their teeth. they know about the police officers that were beaten and bludgeoned, close to death. they've seen the interviews of police officers saying that they were sure they were going to die

and were begging people to stop because they had children. they've seen the pictures of police officers with their heads being smashed in doors and many being crush and didn't think they were going to live. they've seen many people going around chanting hang mike pence, looking for mike pence. they've seen all of that. and one member who said, oh, they were just tourists is one of the same members who was pushing a desk up against a door going into the house chamber. >> yeah. while the police had guns drawn to stop the insurrections from coming in and killing members of the house. yes, they're lying. they don't, kasie, want transparency. they don't want truth. and certainly they are following the ring leader of the conspiracy to commit sedition against the united states government and stop the counting of the votes that day and that,

of course, donald j. trump. so once again, they blindly follow. as somebody, kasie, who was there, you know full well as do all of these members who were lying to their constituents these weren't just tourists ambling through, taking pictures of statues and statutory hall or rubbing will rogers' shoe for good luck. they were there looking to find people, hurt people kill cops, almost killed quite a few. and, you know, put bear spray into cop's face who eventually died. >> and that member in congress had been in office all of three days when he helped barricade that door and now here a few months later out saying, oh, if you didn't know, this would just be like normal tourists visiting. having worked up there for 15 plus years on and off, i've

never seen a group of tourists act like this nor have any of us obviously. i think mika really asked the right question here which is, what is kevin mccarthy afraid of? what are republicans afraid of here? this was something negotiated between democrats and republicans, this commission. democrats gave republicans a lot of what they were asking for. i have spoken to people behind the scenes the criticism may be warranted she wanted the commission to have more democrats than republicans to be structured differently than the 9/11 commission that investigated those attacks. democrats agreed. an even number of republicans and democrat. we're going to choose members selected by republicans and democrats. but who are not currently in office or working for the government. they're going to have subpoena power. it's set up so ttffectily any member of the commission really any republican could veto a subpoena. that's something else that

republicans were looking for. democrats gave republicans all of that. i think that's what hakeem jeffries was talking about yesterday when he essentially said, hey, these guys can't even take yes for an answer. take a look at what he said. >> it seems reasonable that america should have a bipartisan commission to ascertain the truth and present it to the american people. it's hard to take kevin mccarthy seriously at this point. it's just hard. he can't take yes for an answer. >> so again, joe. what is mccarthy afraid of? mitch mcconnell so far has held his fire. there may be questions about the makeup of this, but he has not been the one that's been out there facing questions about whether he'll be subpoenaed in this investigation, whether he would be criminally liable or whether he would expose former president trump to criminal liability. mccarthy on the other hand

actually has because there are major questions about what he did on that day. >> well, and of course that's a problem with kevin. let me just circle back and say on this show, we were critical of the 7-4 breakdown between democrats and republicans and thought it needed to be bipartisan. felt republicans had a reason to call for straight down the middle bipartisan commission. that's where we are, willie. they got what they asked for, but of course the last person other than the two or three that probably were actively involved in this thing, the last person certainly in leadership that wants an investigation to move forward and wants the truth to be known is kevin mccarthy because he's been, you know, he would be caught lying in interviews about what he said to donald trump, what he told other members he said to donald trump, what he told groups of members he told donald trump, what he

told reporters off the record what he told donald trump. and that is his, of course, shouting at trump, telling him that they were his people there and that he needed to do something to help save members when, of course, the president refused to do anything. so, kevin mccarthy, of course, said a lot of things to a lot of people. the last thing he wants is to have an investigation to show people in his district just how angry he was at donald trump and just how much he blamed donald trump for the insurrection. >> that's it. the careful investigation of what happened on january 6th, what led up to january 6th would be very bad for many members of the republican caucus. so they were going to turn their backs to it. i guess we shouldn't be surprised by it, but they have shown no interest in the lie that led those people to the capitol on january 6th. now they're formally showing no interest in understanding what happened on january 6th. what exactly, who participated,

who aided, who abetted, why did that day, awful, awful day for democracy take place. jonathan lemire, you're in the early stages of writing a book about this called "the big lie." the argument from kevin mccarthy and from republicans who are now formally recommending that their members not vote for this commission is classic what aboutism but on a grand scale of what about black lives matter, what about antifa, what about what happened in portland. they say without an investigation of that, there cannot be an investigation of january 6th. >> well, first of all, willie, it's been entirely too long since we have been able to sit on the same set together. you've only grown more handsome in the interim. >> awkward now. >> so creepy. >> not just because you plugged my upcoming book. >> can i go? >> fall of 2022. you're right. that's one of the main talking points of republicans why aren't we investigating the other things that happened in 2020, protest and violence over george floyd's death, black lives

matter movement and so on, but it's because they don't want to talk about what happened in the run-up to january 6th and what precipitated it which of course was months and months if years worth of lies from president trump, planting the seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of the election, whipping up his base for the months ahead of time echoed by conservative media but certainly right before that riot at the capitol when he held that rally at the ellipse and all but said let's go to the capitol and even suggested he would go there with him and did not. the current president biden in the white house is certainly for this. white house press secretary jen psaki said they very much want this to happen. they'll leave the particulars to congress. they don't feel that's the president's place. as this commission takes shape and if it indeed happens we will see i think a lot of ugly truths

come out from republicans they've been trying to avoid for a long time. >> next hour, the chairman of the homeland security committee benny thompson thought he had a deal. we'll talk about where things stand now. we'll move to the middle east where israeli officials are reportedly moving closer to a cease fire agreement with hamas has violence between the two sides stretches into a 10th day. speaking under the commission of anonymity "the new york times" says a senior israeli official claimed israel was not ready for a cease fire yet but, quote, acknowledged that it might be soon. on the hamas side, an senior official said they were ready for a deal but israel was being, quote, stubborn. egypt and the u.n. intervene in hopes of bringing an end to the violence that killed at least 222 people so far, mostly palestinians. despite the reported moves toward peace talks, cross fire continued this morning according to local media.

hundreds of thousands of palestinian citizens went on a strike to protest their own treatment by israel. events turned violent in the west bank. three palestinian protesters were reportedly shot and killed when demonstrators began burning tires and throwing rocks at israeli police. joining me now long-time foreign correspondent martin fletcher, who is reporting for nbc news in tel aviv. martin, what is the latest? >> reporter: well, mika, the fighting continues on both sides. israel still pounding targets in gaza. the defense minister said that the army still has what he used the word thousands of targets still to hit. and hamas is firing back. but hamas is firing back far fewer rockets than before, about 50 rockets in the last 12 hours which is much, much less than in the past. and hamas's threats of bombing

jerusalem the last couple days and tel aviv in the last three days there's been no long-range rockets so it does seem hamas in terms of rocket firing is on their back foot. but at the same time now, there's more talk about the ceasefire. that's the key point i think from this morning. the fighting continued in both directions, but the real discussion is will there be a ceasefire? the israeli security cabinet we're told is scheduled to meet within the next 24 hours to discuss a ceasefire. the time that is being banded around possible ceasefire 6:00 local time tomorrow morning. israel is discussing with egypt. egypt is backed up by the european union and the united states. very serious associations but israelis are saying we're not in a hurry. we're going to finish what we need to do to keep our citizens safe. so, while that is giving themselves the green light to go on for some time, it's the same kind of language that they always use. bear in mind this is the fifth

outbreak of fighting between israel and hamas the last 15 years. at the end of it the israelis always say we will continue until our people are safe and then there's a kind of deal and then a few years later it breaks out again. the bottom line the emphasis at the moment is on the question will there be a ceasefire. it looks like it is happening within a day or two i would guess from what i'm hearing. mika? >> all right. martin fletcher, thank you very much. joe? >> thank you so much, martin. jonathan lemire, we're hearing out of the white house that joe biden is taking a firmer stand with bb netanyahu and hearing out of the white house and reading stories in the times this morning about very long, positive relationship that those two have had with each other despite the fact that biden has usually been on the other side on a lot of issues with the prime minister. but the message has been sent

basically that, he is just not going to be quiet for more than two or three more days. they've got to wrap this up. that seems to be where israel is going. that seems to be the message that hamas is sending. a lot of suggestions that this will be wrapping up very soon. >> yeah, joe, that is right. the white house publicly is saying from press secretary jen psaki that they've been practicing a, quote, quiet diplomacy here and what we're seeing is the movement behind the scenes. these back channels with the israelis to try to bring this to a close, to sort of embark on this cease fire soon. as we know, president biden said to prime minister netanyahu in their phone call on monday and the two men have a warm, personal rapport even if they have their differences president biden said i held my tongue to this point, i can't for much longer. i'm not going to give you cover on this for too many more days. then my colleagues and i on the

associated press through other channels they conveyed to the israelis. it's time to wrap this up. we have given you space. we have not out there publicly demanding a ceasefire. we said we want it. we haven't put our foot down and said you need to do that now but that's going to change soon. this needs to wind down. this is politically untenable for you the longer this goes. the administration convinced the israelis the worse it will be for your public image, support around the globe. this needs to end. it will be difficult for us to remain silent, to remain out of this. and, we report, that the israelis have conveyed they understood that and they would wind this down here in as martin just said the next couple of days with that exact time frame still a little bit uncertain. but there is a sense here that this should hopefully wrap up soon, mika, with the administration suggesting this has gone on long enough and president biden saying if you don't bring this down, i'll be publicly much more strong about this to make sure it does. >> all right, jonathan, thank you. actor charles groeten died

yesterday at his home in connecticut. he was 86 years old. the cause was bone bare row cancer, according to his son. grodin was done for his extremely dry, dead pan acting style. heart break kid in 1972. dave in which he played the accountant friend tasked with figuring out the nation's balance sheet. the 1978 film heaven can wait. midnight run. taking care of business. and the '90s family classic, beethoven. >> it just didn't add up. who does these books? if i ran my business this way, i would be out of business. >> just leave the dinosaur over there. just leave the dinosaur over there like that. i'm trying to tell you something. when i -- when i was a little boy -- you know, you touch the

dinosaur i'm going to kill you. why would you eat that? >> why? because it tastes good. >> but it's not good for you. >> why would you do something that you know the not good for you? >> because i don't think about it. >> that's living in denial. >> we drove all the way from new york. >> listen, take it, take the pecan pie we can share it. >> i don't want to share it. i promised my wife the pecan pie. bring the pecan pie for my wife. just bring me some coffee. >> oh. >> how are you? >> oh, god. >> oh my god. it's good to see you. you look good. >> you used to cheat off my in history. >> that's right. that's right. you got me into chicago community college. ♪♪ ♪ roll over beethoven ♪ >> no, no, no, no, no. no! ♪ roll over beethoven ♪

>> no! >> oh my god. so good. >> i mean, willie, first of all, no clips from heaven can wait there where he was just remarkable in heaven can't wait. but carson, a great example of a guy that carson just showed you what an unbelievable comedian he was, a gret dead pan median. he was so good, so good in heaven can wait. so good in dave. so good in these roles. one of the driest sense of humor and can just make -- one of these guys actually like carson where he could just stare -- do a dead pan face and get you laughing. i will say, though, yesterday when we heard the sad news that he had passed away, "the new york times" obit remembered him as the actor in beethoven. this reminds me of ed o'brien of radio head going on the beetles channel and asked what his favorite beetles song was, well,

i didn't really listen to them. i liked say say say with michael -- come on. >> oh, no. no. >> i'm going to burn all my radio head albums. here you don't lead with beethoven for charles grodin. just like you don't lead with say say say for paul mccartney and the beetles. >> i got to tell you, mid night run was on a couple weeks ago and i stopped and put it on. it's one of the funniest movies you'll ever see. de niro is the bounty hunter trying to get him back. he wants to forget about the money. how he eats, how he shouldn't smoke. those two in that movie doesn't get any better than that. you're right. i watched one of those carson appearances yesterday. and it's beyond dead pan. it's uncomfortable in such a funny way. and to the point where they're sitting there almost in silence and johnny, chuck, do you have a picture or anything you want to talk about? no.

i find that obnoxious when people come on and talk about the movie they're in. it's a bit. but they're digging and searching for something to talk about. that's how he always was with carson. his appearances with letterman were funny in a different way. they would end up screaming at each other by the end of it. he was just truly one of the funniest guys ever. he will be missed, charles grodin. >> a lot of books as well. and he's survived by his wife of over 30 years. and two children. still ahead on "morning joe," president biden's deadline for congress to reach a deal on police reform is approaching. we'll take a look at where those talks stand after a meeting between house and senate negotiators yesterday. plus, the debate over mask wearing hit the halls of congress as a group of republican lawmakers flout the rules and remove their masks on the house floor. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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the debate over the new cdc masking guidelines reached the floor of the house of representatives. yesterday several house republicans blatantly ignored the rules on the house floor by refusing to wear a mask, despite newly issued guidance by the centers for disease control and prevention says vaccinated people do not need to wear masks. house speaker nancy pelosi has not yet relaxed the masking rules. congresswoman marjorie taylor greene of georgia posted this photo with other maskless members. joining us now infectious disease physician and director at boston university school of medicine, an nbc news and msnbc

contributor and on june 1st will head the new boston university center for emerging infections diseases policy and research as its founding director. congratulations. that's incredible. really wonderful news and needed. so i've been all over washington over the past two days talking about this with people. and people are confused as to exactly what the rules are. i think that's one issue. in terms of the roll out of this new cdc guidance. and then i would just add that i don't think that this is a laughing matter. because this comfort level with people. dr. bhadelia do you think there's an issue with people still not vaccinated and young people who have yet to be vaccinated. >> yeah, mika, the story you just shared -- thank you, by the way, for the congratulations. we're very excited to jump in the fight.

so, the story -- the trouble here is the science behind the cdc guidelines are exactly right. the trouble is the road map between taking that science and implementing it in a reality where some people are vaccinated and others are not vaccinated is what businesses are finding difficult, families are finding difficult and apparently the house of representatives is finding difficult, which is if you cannot confirm if somebody is vaccinated, how do you manage to sort of ensure their safety when it's within the halls of your workplace or the congress. i just want to clarify one thing, though. with the vaccinated, the science is very clear. if you get the vaccines, you're less likely to get sick, your less likely to transmit and this goes with parents in households with kids that may not be vaccinated. the trouble is if there's enough people unvaccinated and they're close together they pose a risk to each other particularly if some of the unvaccinated start unmasking.

that's where i think struggling, some of the ways to handle that is one to wait until a certain number of your population has been vaccinated so you can reduce the case, potential risk to everybody who has been unvaccinated or require evidence of vaccination, which you know is itself fraught with both ethical and privacy issues and we have to navigate that. >> dr. bhadelia, congratulations. great news on the new center at bu. you mentioned kids. there's a lot of families with younger kids below the vaccination age of 12 right now, we talked to dr. fauci last week, his best guess it would still be to the end of the calendar year they may have everything approved for very young children to get them vaccinated as well, can you talk about how families with younger children should think about how they move around this summer, whether or not they go inside and have dinner, whether they mix with other families now that school is out and their pods

start to break up and they're exposed to camp and all those things. how should those families be thinking about the summer? >> willie, thanks for that. so, the one thing that we've seen is that in communities where there's high rates of vaccinations in adults and transmission actually goes down in kids as well. israel is seeing that. the children in israel aren't as vaccinated as the adults are. they have a huge rate of vaccination in adults. but you're seeing because the community transmission of disease is lower, less people are infected in the community overall. the kids are having less of a chance coming across somebody who is vaccinated. -- who is infected. so the best thing parents can do in communities can do is take increase adult vaccination. the way that kids -- the way to think about this is that has kids increase activities, outdoor activities remain safe as you have seen from the cdc guidance, play, outdoor play, if they are in schools, both cdc -- many of the states actually have looked at potentially until we

get these vaccines to continue masking and parents may want to continue masking in solidarity until we get higher rates of community vaccination from that perspective. that's the way i look at it. the other recommendation i would have and i wish that cdc made this caveat immuno compromised patients you may want to wear those masks in crowded indoor settings. i know i personally will continue to wear a mask during flu season and long travels particularly in crowded places for that reason is that with large groups, it's not so much that i'm worried about the vaccine it's that it's just helping us stay protected from all the rest of the respiratory viruses we have seen go down this year as well. >> good morning, doctor. it's jonathan lemire. congratulations again. to underscore some of the context of this debate about the house floor, there's been some reporting this week while 100% of democratic lawmaker on capitol hill have been vaccinated and about 92% of republican senators only 44% of republican house members have received the vaccine.

so certainly that's a significant percentage of folks who don't yet. but on the vaccine, i wanted to ask you this, we've heard for a while now the idea that you might need a booster for the covid-19 vaccine. maybe after as soon as six, eight, ten months or a year. well, the first who received the vaccine, first responders, doctors, nurses got so in december. we hit the six-month mark. in the months ahead it stands to reason they might need that booster. can you tell us the latest on the thinking of boosters when we will start receiving them and how necessary they may be. >> jonathan, the science is still evolving. it looks promising that the reason we say at least six months you're protected is because, as you said, that's how long the trials have continued, how long the earliest sort of data from use in essential workers has continued. so it may be that the protection lasts longer than that. i think that the reason the boosters are potentially on the horizon is some of the new variants do decrease the vaccine activity by a little bit.

still protect against severe disease. still protect against hospitalization and death. but it may be that we may notice that over time if the amount of antibodies goes down you may need a booster to protect against the variants or future variants. so the jury is still out. both moderna and pfizer have said they're working on these boosters. i don't think that we will know until we get a lot more both laboratory studies as well as population studies to see what those antibodies and immune responses are looking like in people who have already been vaccinated. jury is still out. >> all right, dr. bhadelia, once again, congratulations and thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. coming up, president biden is now poised to sign into law a bill to crack down on hate crimes against asian-americans, but lawmakers are still looking for a way forward on police reform. the reverend al sharpton joins us for that conversation next on

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no charges will be filed in the shooting death of andrew brown jr. he's the black man who was killed last month by a north carolina police while in his car. portions of never-before-seen body cam video were played by the prosecutor to justify the a trying to drive away, not very quickly, as police attempt to serve a drug-related arrest warrant. the prosecutor says police recovered no weapon on the 42-year-old brown, but says they were justified in shooting him 14 times because they viewed his car as a deadly weapon. >> even after backing into a corner with no escape but to maneuver his vehicle directly at the officers, brown continued the felonious assault by using his vehicle as a deadly weapon.

>> you're saying he was threatening them but backing away and the officers going for the car. >> okay. when you employ a car in a manner that puts officer's lives in danger, that is a threat. and i don't care what direction you're going. forward, back ward, sideways. >> brown's family released a statement calling the decision, quote, both an insult and a slap in the face. a federal civil rights investigation is on going. joe? >> yeah. let's bring in right now msnbc's politics nation host and president of the national action network reverend al sharpton who is taking politics live to houston saturday and minneapolis on sunday for the one-year anniversary of george floyd's tragic murder. rev, hey, can we see this video again really quickly of -- the

police officers showed. all right. he's backing away. he's driving between the police officers and he's getting shot 14 times. you know, rev, it's very clear when police officers tell anyone, tell my children, tell anyone to stop they need to stop. but as far as these police officers lives being at risk and justifying shooting him 14 times, unless north carolina has a law somebody can be shot 14 times for resisting arrest a lot of questions are raised here because again, while i understand the concern of the police officers and i understand the risks that they have to take everyday when they leave their families at home, seems to me

that it's an overstatement to say that their lives were at risk because this guy started his car, backed up and maneuvered through them within several feet apart and drove off. >> the situation is exacerbated by the fact that the andrew brown jr. was shot and killed with a bullet to the back of his head. so, the fatality was a police shooting at him while he was moving away clearly no threat to them. i certainly agree, no one justifies not obeying police orders. two wrongs does not make a civil right. you do not have the right to execute someone because they're not following an order. we're talking about the use of deadly force. we're talking about a d.a. who announced he's running for superior court judgeship which is why the family had related to

me and others when we came in i did the eulogy at brown's family, that they didn't have confidence in his d.a. and then for the d.a. to release the footage that clearly shows that brown was not a threat, he was moving away from the officers rightly or wrongly, not moving toward the officers, so how could that have been a threat when he was unarmed. now you're going to make a car moving away a weapon that was threatening them? i mean, i think the a. embarrassed himself. i hope the federal government that's doing the investigation will move forward and seek justice in this case. >> yeah. you know, willie, and i repeat, when police officers tell you to stop you stop. but resisting arrest does not justify deadly force. now, if the car is coming at these police officers, then, yeah. you have to shoot at it to slow it down. if that's the only way that you can protect yourself.

or if you think that other people are going to be in imminent harm, i suppose that's another justification. it would be great to have police officers on to look at this tape and talk through it. but just through the eyes of laymen, these police officers while in danger, always in danger, police officers are always in danger, they certainly did not seem to be at as much a risk as the spokesperson for the department said they were, willie. >> yeah. and we would like to see the entire tape not edited versions that are released for sure. this is obviously a topic of conversation. >> exactly. >> in washington. we're less than one week away from the anniversary of the death of george floyd, which is the deadline president biden gave congress to pass a compromised police reform bill. a vote still far away, but the senate and house negotiators are reportedly making some progress. senator tim scott of south carolina leading the effort on the republican side, waived off president biden's deadline.

he does not want to negotiate with anyone who will not vote on the legislation. karen bass said, the most important thing is that we have a bill that hits the president's desk, not the date that it does. rev, we've been talking about this for several weeks and months now that this does appear at least to be the one place in washington where there is some bipartisan work being done. are you hopeful there will be some kind of a deal that crosses party lines and what do you think democrats ought to be willing to compromise to get there? >> i'm hopeful and i've been talking almost daily to some in the senate, senator cory booker, and others about where this is going. congresswoman bass and relating that to george floyd's family as well as other families that are involved and my colleagues and civil rights leadership. and i think that there are some things that will not be come

promiezed. that is dealing with no knock warrants that is dealing with the registry of where policemen have been clearly using abusive or excessive force. so, they can't switch from one county to another 242 is on the table. i would hope, though, that we can deal with the fact that we want a bill with teeth. we may not get all we want. but we do not want a symbolic bill. we sent a letter. i sent a letter to president biden asking to meet with him about this because he set this deadline and we want to see a deadline, but we do not want to see a deadline that has to be reached meaning that we rush into a bill that has no real meaning. the families don't want that. the civil rights leadership doesn't. and we want to discuss that with the president. it is better to take another couple of weeks and get something that is real. we have the opportunity here to make the most important policing

bill in the history of this country. and we should not deal with a deadline while we're seeing it continue. we've had two or three police shootings since george floyd's verdict. i've done two funerals of police-related killings since the verdict of george floyd in terms of derek chauvin. we need to make sure this happens in a substantive way. >> so, kasie, we have a few different negotiations going on on capitol hill that if one were willing to remain hopeful that peace could break out at some point bipartisanship between republicans and democrats. you look at this police reform bill where senator tim scott and karen bass continue to work together and they continue to work towards a negotiated bill. we had roger wicker on, the republican senator from mississippi on friday and roger was talking about how they hoped

to be able to come to a deal on infrastructure. of course, defining infrastructure as infrastructure. and think they can get to a deal there as well. those would be if that could happen, those would be two really positive ste forward. and at le we're in the ballpark. at least, at least we're talking about it and republicans and democrats seem to be working in good faith together. >> they do, joe. and frankly it's a landscape i wasn't necessarily anticipating at this point in the year, especially in the wake of the insurrection on january 6th. but i think that you're right to point out that the politics and the ways that these two things are playing out are different. the dynamics are different. but they are two major pieces of legislation where instead of democrats just going it alone or the entire thing falling apart,

we're seeing people actually try to acknowledge that the country has a problem in each of these cases and that people need to get on the same page to solve it. so again, the dynamics changing. and i actually do have a question for reverend al on qualified immunity specifically in this police reform bill because, of course, the organization he leads and other organizations like his are a critical piece of this. and rev, i'm just curious, what's your red line on qualified, proposals from senator scott how to hold departments accountability. are you open to making those kinds of adjustments or in your view does that make the whole project not wort it? >> the view of the civil rights leadership varies there. and we are having open discussions, so where i would take a view with national action network, derek johnson at nacp may have a different view or sherlyn deal defense a different view and we're going to come to

a consensus if we hear where the senate is coming and have a united view. the clear part that we want to see is there be accountability in terms of where the police officers are accountable and we have the departments that are accountable because in many cases you have where you cannot hold anyone liable for the deaths or there is limitations there. so i think there's some discussions around that, but there will be a consensus of civil rights leadership and hopefully we can get a bipartisan consensus in terms of the senate on this part of the bill. but, what is not negotiable that this question is not dealt with and we do not have qualified immunity dealt with in a way that is fair for everyone. >> just a bit past the top of the hour now. jonathan lemire and kasie hunt and reverend al are all with us and joining the conversation we have msnbc contributor mike

barnicle and white house editor for politico, sam stein. >> mika, can i give you before you start -- can i give you breaking news that's really great for you. i know that you love to go to the south of france every other weekend in the summer. this breaking news that the european union is opening borders to those in the united states who have vaccines. >> okay. >> so europe is open to the united states. >> great. >> i do want to say -- again, yes, this is good news for you and the south of france, which actually she doesn't really like to go to the south of france. >> i do. >> that's actually more me. >> yes. >> but not every weekend. but, think about this, the united states for such a long time was seen as a joke, in europe there was one story after another that compared us

negatively to europe through covid. and now here we are on the other side of it. and actually it's europe who is -- remember, there's a time in the bahamas, the bahamas, no, thank you. we don't want your tourist money. no, please, stay away, americans. the bahamas. which now of course lives off of u.s. tourist money. now we're in a position as a country where the european union is saying, yes, americans please come back. it's something we probably wouldn't have expected even six months ago. and, yes, the logistics of the biden administration and what they were able to do, the trump administration was not able to do on logistics and getting shots into the arms of so many americans, plays a huge role in that. i'm also just going to say, the trump administration, donald trump, they made a lot of smart choices in the choosing of the vaccines. there is no doubt pfizer and

moderna are the best of the best. europe would love to have pfizer and moderna. if you're sitting out there and thinking, i'm not going to get a vaccine because this is like joe biden will take credit for it. no. operation warp speed got joe biden into the place where then he could use his extremely talented staff to get the logistics moving forward in a way that president trump wasn't as good at doing, clearly. so let's for once put our arms around this vaccine development. if you're a republican or democrat, if you voted for donald trump or joe biden, you have investment in this because the right choices were made on which vaccines to push forward. we made the right choices. europe wishes they had made our

choices last year. and now we have a president this year who has been able to get that shot in the arms of 150, 200 million people give or take, 10, 20, 30 million people. it's something we should all celebrate as a country. i know we don't like doing that anymore, celebrating together. this is something to celebrate about. we did something good. maybe it was ugly and clunky, but both sides did it. yeah team. go, usa. i'm proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free. >> yes, you are. >> you have to break out lee greenwood at the end of the statements. it's true. >> yes, it's true. and at the same time, there's still a global issue with the pandemic and the united states is now sending vaccines to other countries that need them, which can help. but we're not beyond this yet.

>> i didn't say we were. >> i know. i think it's important to keep in mind that i think we have yet to even scratch the surface of the conversation around the mental health damage that has happened just in our country alone, young people, school age, college age, all of us in light of this pandemic. that will be sort of the next challenge here as america looks to get back to whatever new normal there is. >> you bring that up. willie, mika brings up the mental health problem, the mental health challenges that we face. this is something obviously that we've been talking about for a long time here. i hate to sound like a broken record, but that's why state and local officials need to listen to dr. fauci. they need to listen to the cdc. they need to listen to people

like dr. scott gottlieb who is saying lift the mask mandates. get people back out in the world. this will help us. it won't help us completely alleviate the mental health crisis that we have, but it will get us moving. a lot of people have been isolated. we'll move back towards getting reintegrated into our society and make a big difference there. it is time for us to be aggressive. just as we said during the trump administration, we say during the biden administration, state and local officials, follow the science, follow the cdc, lift those mask mandates so you have credibility if you have to put them back on in the fall in the state here or there, great. you do that. but you don't have to right now. the cdc says you're good. >> with the exception of a couple places we talked about on the show yesterday, people are moving in that direction. governments, municipalities, states are moving in that direction. it will be interesting to see as we talk to dr. fauci last week, he said he hopes one of the ancillary benefits of this announcement that vaccinated

people don't have to wear masks anymore is that more people will go get vaccinated. so it will be interesting to see after last week's announcement if vaccination rates do go up. also, i want to pause and celebrate with you because i think you're exactly right. my 13-year-old daughter yesterday got a shot in her arm, 14 months after the world shut down. that was unthinkable that anyone would get a vaccine 14 months. and with operation warp speed and pharmaceutical companies and doctors and scientists working literally around the clock, 24/7, books will be written, documentaries will be made about this miracle and the effort of government, private companies and the brilliant minds in this country that got together to get that shot into my doctor's arm, my daughter's arm, i feel nothing but gratitude and awe for the people who made that happen. >> i completely agree. mike barnicle, let's bring you in here. this is really nothing short of a moon shot. you go back and you look at what

every doctor, every epidemiologist, every scientist, every developer of vaccines was saying a year and a half ago, rightly, rightly, saying, hey, sometimes it takes, five, six, seven years. we never got a vaccine for aids. this is going to take us years and even when we get it, it's probably going to have about a 50% efficacy rate if you look at what the flu shot has. it's only a 50% efficacy rate. well, all of that -- it seemed very logical and it was based on science. all of that ended up actually underselling it. here we are a year later, 14 months later and my gosh, we have four or five vaccines for pfizer. the efficacy rate is sitting at 95%. for moderna it's a little bit below that but not much. and again, those are the vaccines we chose to develop as

a country, that the trump administration chose to develop for this country and the biden administration figured out how to get it into the arms of 200 million people, that is a moon shot. historians will look back and say, you know, they were all crazy in 2020. they were crazy people in 2020. but they got this right. all of them. democrats, independents, republicans. all of them. >> you know, once again, joe, we're talking about right now it raises the question of what is wrong with us that we can't step up and be proud of what we've done as a country. that we can't talk about the great things that have happened in this country. the virus and what it did to the country, the pandemic, the 14 months, 15 months going into now 15 months, it did lasting damage. there's no doubt about that. there are many, many people still suffering. there's no doubt about that. but all we have to do as a country if we don't want to look

overseas where countries are stumbling through and being decimated by the virus, all we have to do is look north to canada. canada is still having terrible difficulty in gaining normalcy and distributing the vaccine and getting vaccines into people's arms. the toronto blue jay's baseball team i was watching a terrible baseball game last night the blue jays versus the red sox, they're playing in florida because they can't go home to toronto, canada. we did something epic in this country. we should be proud of it. and it was a fact of life that what has happened is proof that when you have effective people, efficient people, operating in government, government can help people. it certainly helped millions of americans. willie geist absolutely right. step up, be proud of what's happened. it's a wonderful thing. >> the mood at the white house i

was actually talking to some high-level officials there yesterday is certainly -- they're very pleased with how things have gone with this, but they're also very well aware of the road ahead. aside from the casualties of 600,000 people dead from covid, it's going to be the casualties in the months to come. the high school dropouts the children who haven't been educated, the mental health toll this has taken. and it's going to lead to bigger conversations about social and emotional training in school, type 067 dbt mainstreamed in the nation's schools. you'll see that and that will be a conversation we will be having in the months to come to try to bring these kids back in and help them out. our top story this morning was full house vote expected today on creating a commission to investigate the deadly january 6th u.s. capitol riot. house minority leader kevin mccarthy came out against creating the commission yesterday followed later by a

formal recommendation by house gop leadership for members to vote no. the california republican issued a statement in opposition because of the commission's scope will be focussed on the attack on the capitol without including protest violence by black lives matter and antifa the previous summer. former president trump issued a statement reading in part republicans in the house and senate should not approve the democrat trap of the january 6th commission. republicans must get much tougher and smarter. hopefully mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy are listening. joining us now democratic chairman of the house homeland security committee congressman benny thompson of mississippi who hammered out the details of the commission bill with republican ranking member john katko. also with us, member of the house committee on foreign affairs democratic congresswoman abigail spanberger of virginia.

benny thompson, curious is this commission going to come together? and when and how can we start addressing what happened at the u.s. capitol in realtime? >> well, i think it will come together. i think it's a matter of process. we'll take it up today on -- at the house we will make sure that we get a good vote. it will go to the senate. i'm optimistic at the senate. this is something, mika, that we have to have. you saw like millions of others what happened on january 6th. we're a better country than this, and one of processes to get better is to make sure that we look at it and come back with reasonable finding. we met republicans at just about every step of the way. kevin mccarthy was kept informed. and for four months john katko

and myself worked through this. so i'm very optimistic. i look forward to debate and discussion ultimate vote on the floor today. >> congress woman spanberger, it's willie geist. good to have you on this morning. i'm curious what you think the fact that they're whipping votes on the republican side to vote against this. first of all, is there any jeopardy that this does not pass through the house before it moves into the senate where mitch mcconnell sort of has stepped back a little bit. he said he's going to wait to see what comes across his desk, number one. number two, why do you believe this investigation, this commission is important? >> i think it's tragic that frankly after the tremendous work that chairman thompson and representative katko put into building a broad, bipartisan agreement on the need to understand what happened on january 6th that now we see republican leadership opposing that effort. it is deeply disappointing.

there are clearly questions that leader mccarthy just doesn't want answered. but as someone who was in the chamber of the united states house of representatives when our fellow americans who were attempting to violently stop the work of congress, were banging on the doors, were beating police, the idea that there would be any member of congress or frankly any american that wouldn't want to understand why that happened so we can protect ourselves, strengthen our democracy into the future, is just shocking to me. i was in the chamber when members of congress, members of the press were donning gas masks because there was a chemical irritant that was expelled. i was in the chamber when we were climbing over the railings, trying to make our way to one door we thought we could get out of. i was in the chamber when police were outside the united states capitol getting beaten and brutalized by these attackers.

i was in the chamber as we were lying between chairs because there was worry that there might be gunfire. it's extraordinarily just shocking to me that there would be any member of congress that wouldn't want answers about how that happened. but frankly looking back to leader mccarthy's statement on january 6th, and in the days following, it's clear he knew and knows some of what contributed to that day. and i think that is part and parcel of his opposition. but thanks to the good work of the chairman and to representative katko coming together on an agreement that is wholly bipartisan, i expect members will do their duty and seek the truth to protect our democracy into the future. >> chairman thompson, you know public opposition from kevin mccarthy and other republicans is that the focus is too narrow. i mean, it seems obvious to most of us you want to get to the

heart of what happened on january 6th, which is an important issue. they were trying to muddy this by saying what about black lives matter? what about rioting in the streets last summer? what about antifa in portland? how do you answer those criticisms flailing, though they may be? >> well, you know, the january 6th insurrection was an attack on our democracy. the capitol of the united states is the citadel of democracy. and when you saw that insurrection occur, you saw individuals who came up walls, through windows, knocking doors down and ultimately saying that they want the vice president, the speaker, any member of congress to do harm to them, we are a better country than this. and clearly what we have to do is uphold democracy otherwise

this example will permeate the rest of the country any time someone is upset over an election. can you imagine if every municipal or state election ended in this kind of chaos what our democracy would look like? so we have a fundamental principle to uphold. and that's our democratic way of government. and we don't really have a choice as members of congress. we have to get it right. part of getting it right is to look at everything that occurred, forget all the facts before an impartial body and let that body come back to us like the 9/11 commission did and we took that recommendation as members of congress and we got it right and to our credit and the credit of the 9/11 commission, none of the things that happened before 9/11 have happened since and that's because of the good work.

so, this is how we want it to run. we don't want the politics at play. we specifically prevented members of congress, government employees from being on this commission. we wantome of the best talent i commission. and do the work. they have until december 31 to complete the product. we did want it to get mired in next year's mid term elections. so, and the last thing, it's disingenuous for the minority leader at last moment after four months of negotiation and basically we met him more than halfway on everything he asked for. and at the end of the day, he tries to ambush it and to keep us from going forward with it. we have a saying in the south, god doesn't like ugly. and when you're ugly, there are

some penalties associated with it. and the penalty in this is we'll pass the commission vote today. >> so mr. chairman, why do you suspect kevin mccarthy and other republicans did that? why did they pull the rug out from under you all, going along for a time and changing the subject, at the end of the day this didn't have enough about black lives matter and didn't have enough about antifa? why do you think kevin mccarthy does not want a careful examination on what happened on january 6th? >> well, my humble opinion is there's some information that he would deem troubling for the republican party if it got out. and i think he will do everything possible to prevent that. >> all right. thank you so much, mr. chairman. it is always great to have you on. we greatly appreciate it. good luck moving forward.

we certainly need to have a transparent hearing. let's hope we'll get some cooperation. we will be watching. congresswoman, i wanted to ask you about the post mortem that was put out yesterday by sean, patrick maloney and/or at least we got reports of it yesterday. and his summary seemed to be a few things. one, the polling was horrible, but the truth is -- this is something we can't repeat enough. the polling was horrible in media polls. the polling was horrible on the democratic side. but i remember going into the weekend kevin mccarthy's own people were saying they had never seen republicans get slaughtered in polls going into an election like they were the weekend before. they were expecting to get trounced. so, yes, the polling was really bad, one. but also two, he did say, sean did say, that the defund the police lines by republicans,

this socialism lines by republicans, really took root and cost democrats a lot of seats. talk about that. >> you know, i think -- and joe you spent time in politics. as lawmakers, as legislators, as representatives we should be talking about the things that we are for. the things we want to achieve for the people that we represent. and we should be present and deep in communities. i had polls that showed things that i knew weren't true. this is not the feel on the ground. this is not representative of where people are. part of that challenge is because particularly amid a global pandemic, people were worried. people were deeply, deeply afraid for their family's health, for their economic security, for when they would be able to go back to work, their kids would be able to go back to school and regular

circumstances. and yet, so much of the swirling messages and attacks that democrats were taking focussed on issues outside of that. and i think than as i previously stated, there was at a national level not enough discussion of what it is that we're for. when we pass good legislation last congress for reforms in policing, good legislation for equality for all of communities. good legislation for voting rights. good legislation for bipartisan immigration legislation. and we've got to make sure that people know what we're doing. how we are working on their behalf on a day-to-day basis. and that takes work and that takes a lot of consistent effort at communicating the sometimes wonky and boring work of actual

governance and it doesn't fit in a bumper sticker or a slogan but it's why ultimately people elect us and i think it's or obligation to be very clear on what we are delivering and trying to deliver. >> so, what do you do differently in 2022? >> it's going to be different in a.o.c.'s district. it's going to be different in the majority of districts than it will be in yours and the 30, 35 districts out of 435 that determine whether kevin mccarthy will be the speaker next time or whether it will be nancy pelosi. what do you do this time when your opponent and every other opponent of the swing districts come at you and say you're a socialist, you support joe biden's socialist policies, you're for defunding the police, you're for nfl players kneeling on the sidelines, you hate the american flag, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. i say that and i know everybody in the audience is like, oh, come on. why are you saying that, joe?

i'll tell you why i'm saying tha because that worked in my county. it was a democratic political blood bath in miami dade. everything i said there including and i'm so glad you brought it up, including covid in miami dade, they thought it was taking the government too long to reopen and they were blaming democrats. so, how do you address that in 2022, those other issues? >> so, for me personally i'm going to continue to do what i've been doing. i was consistent. 1.18 points in 2018 and 1.9 in 2020. i've been consistent. it's just on going engagement. but my background, i'm a former cia peace officer, we routinely focus on in my old life what went wrong, what could have been better, what did -- what could we have done better, so i think

we as democrats should be looking at the places where we had members who lost or members who significantly underperformed biden. there's places where biden won a district and a democrat lost or biden won a district by double digits and a democrat did not. then there's other places where we outperformed the president. so i think we should be looking at where was the disconnect? what drives a voter to the polls to vote for biden and then says, no, i'm not so sure about at the congressional level. that isn't necessarily member specific. some cases it is. in many cases it's also what do people think we're delivering. and i think that we are doing the work of governing. we are passing good bipartisan bills every single day we're on capitol hill. they're not flashy, but they are important pieces of legislation. and the more that we can communicate to people, you know, the bills that we passed last week the bills that we're

passing this week, the meat and potatoes of governance which is what our voters expect, i think frankly the more important that will be not just from the electoral standpoint but also restoring a faith that voters have in their democracy, in their elected officials that we're working and doing the work of governing. and that's a lot more important to them than slogans or anything. >> right. you know, really quickly, we do need to move on but i just wanted to ask you this one last question because i think logistically it's important and it's something a.o.c. said afterwards she continued to knock and other people continued to knock on doors even the middle of pandemic they did it safely. for 27 years since i ran my first political campaign, people asked me, what do you need to do? 30 second ad is great, whatever. internet is great. you have to knock on doors. you have to shake people's hands. you have to get your people knocking on doors. you have to make those contacts and drag them out to the polls.

that's how you do it. and you stay in their face. and you keep reminding them, i really need your vote. it makes a huge difference. can you come out? i knocked on 10,000 doors. it's the only reason i won. democrats for the most part did not do that in 2020. we understand why. i'm just saying they didn't do that in '20. they didn't hold the town hall meetings because of covid and the pandemic. when are you getting back to holding town hall meetings? when are you getting back to knocking on doors and doing lit drops and get back to the business of doing the very things that help you get your message out and help you get re-elected? >> and just before i answer the question, the purpose of those things is to give people direct engagement with their representative or with their democracy. >> yes, yes. >> and as far as town halls there's nothing i love more than standing before voters for a contentious question or easier question and hearing directly

from people, seeing their facial expressions, seeing their reaction as they ask me a question and respond directly. because of covid, we moved to telephone town halls which frankly i have been surprised at the positive feedback that i've gotten because we are able -- people are able to cook dinner at the stove while they listen to the town hall. very, very soon this summer i'll get back to doing in-person town halls. in the 2020 election we did do, as we called it, contactless canvassing where we had people going out, leaving notes on the doors, we came. we didn't want to knock. but we want to make sure you know we're here. we tried to engage you personally and on an individual level. >> yeah. all right. congresswoman, thank you so much. always great talking to you. hope to see you again very soon. sam stein, you know, it was always interesting knocking on doors. you're surprised, people i expect them to be rude, you

know. because if somebody comes to your door and you're eating dinner, but i learned early on, they go, oh, you're running for something. come on in. you know, some people -- come and say, we're having dinner right now. i'm sorry. >> come in and sit down and eat with us. never pass up a meal when you're campaigning. so people love that interaction. it will be good for everybody to get out and do that again. >> jo joe, joe, joe -- >> politically. >> i'm trying to see if you randomly came and knocked on my door, i probably would not invite you in for a meal. >> what? >> chances are you probably wouldn't be on my voter list. they would mark you down as undecided at best. abigail was talking about what the democrats need to do. man, the republicans it seems to me based on your poll today that i want you to tell everybody about, what republicans need to do is hug donald trump tight, man. i mean, it's shocking but that

guy still has a grip on the party. and hard core republicans, they want their members to support donald trump. and do little else. >> lindsey graham was ridiculed when he mentioned a week ago when he says the party does not survive without trump. i think he's on to something. trump is instrumental in bringing voters into the party but also raising money for the party. we have a piece on politico about just how important his name is for small dollar donor fundraising. as you can see in our morning consult poll. 48% for trump, 13% for mike pence. one of the next highest ones is donald trump jr., 7%. that just -- you got to add that 7% on to the 48% because all the trumps are the same in this case. so we're talking about half the party basically saying we want a trump. we want a trump. if that's the starting point, you know this is a party very

much controlled, owned, operated by the ex-president. if you're a republican, there's some serious questions that you have. especially in the mid term elections. republicans do not perform as well when trump snot on the ballot. they don't get those trump voters out when he's not on the ballot. while the midterms historically look good for the republican party because joe biden is office, there might be concerns if you're a republican operative, how do we re-engage those trump supporters? might explain why kevin mccarthy, steve scalise and others say no we don't want to do this commission. they recognize their political fortunes are very much tied to keeping trump in the fold and his supporters in the fold. >> there's no question that donald trump's grip on the republican party, sam, has only grown tighter here. these poll numbers bear it out. he's going to be certainly the dominant force in the party through 22 and beyond. but, my question to you is in

terms of polling people you talked to and your reporters are talking to, we know the former president is not going to decide whether he's going to run in 24 until after the midterms. a lot of doubt in the people around him whether he actually will or not. until he makes a decision one way or the other this field is going to be frozen. how do republicans navigate this? we see there might be some who might try to do the anti-trump lane, although i'm stretching to think who would be a formidable contender out of that group but the hawley's and cruzs trying to be trumpish, embrace that part of his party, how do they go forward without knowing what he's going to do? >> well, that's a great question. what we saw in the nikki haley, for instance, said flat out she was not going to run if trump decides to. that's a remarkable standard from an ambitious politician. chris christie said he will run, doesn't matter if trump decides to. two very different tactics there. i get your point, jonathan. this is going to freeze the field far couple years.

it's going to cause some interesting calculations among prospective presidential candidates. i do think you'll ultimately get one never trumper who does announce if only because it raises a profile, helps with fundraising. likelihood of winning is almost at the floor but you never know. but, yeah. if you're perspective 2024 candidate you have to say to yourself, okay, i can't -- i have to probably saddle up as close to trump as humanly possible, hope for him to decide not to run and then maybe find a lane for myself after he bows out. that's the path. >> also want to point out that new politico morning consult poll president biden has an approval rating of 54%, 42% disapprove of the job he's doing. sam stein, joe is outside your front door right now and he is very hungry. >> oh, god. >> listen for the knock. he's acoming. >> someone call the authorities, someone. >> sam, good to see you, bud. back now the investigation

into former president donald trump's business empire. the new york attorney general's office put out a statement last night that reads in part, we have informed the trump organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. we're now actively investigating the trump organization in a criminal capacity along with the manhattan district attorney. the attorney for the trump organization declined to comment on the matter. trump and his representatives repeatedly denied any wrong doing. let's bring in former u.s. attorney for the northern district of alabama and msnbc legal analyst joyce vance. good to see you, joyce. we have the new york attorney general joining forces with the manhattan's d.a.'s office. what does this mean? how does this change the investigation? >> this is a relatively rare sort of partnership particularly in new york where the state attorney general has limited jurisdiction to engage on a

criminal investigation on her own. we know, willie, latitia james has been conducting civil investigations for at least two years. some piece of evidence or some coordinated evidence in her investigation has led her to cross that rubicon into a criminal case. and it's important to never underestimate the value of bringing two prosecutors together. it puts more pieces of the puzzle on the table. people who have been investigating from different directions may sometimes reach better conclusions when they work together. the focus here has -- appears to have always been on the manipulation of property values to achieve tax advantages. and that could be serious criminal trouble for at least in this case trump organization but perhaps for some of its principles and employees personally now that these two prosecutors appear to be working together. >> and mike barnicle, just to remind people, we're talking about things like tax fraud and

bank fraud, the inflation of value of properties, the deflation to lower tax burdens on president trump and his organization. >> yeah, willie. i was kind of surprised last night at the announcement by the new york state attorney general, but joyce, i would like to ask you -- you were just speaking about it, i would like to draw it out a little further. the manhattan district attorney according to news reports has been focussing largely on tax aspects of the trump family. the attorney general of the state of new york property taxes, no one i don't really know. what happens when you got two individual units, the attorney general's office and their investigators, the manhattan district attorney's office and his investigators and the umbrella of the southern district united states attorney's office, how do these units operate specifically the attorney general and the district attorney operate effectively in what appears to be now a single unit of

investigation? >> you know, it's a really important question. and of course, all businesses personal a lot of the success of these joint investigations depends on personal relationships. but here we have prosecutors in all three of those jurisdictions, both state and federal who have been remarkably focussed. latitia james, the new york attorney general took down trump's charitable organization, forced him to pay a penalty of $2 million. we've heard mostly leaks from the criminal investigations and of course we don't know what's on going in the southern district of new york, but what this coordination gives them the ability to do is to marshal their evidence and find which jurisdictions have the best laws to fit the patterns of criminality. maybe there's no indictment. maybe there is. the big question here i suspect is whether it's limited to a

corporate criminal case or whether individuals who will be prosecuted as well. >> so joyce, following that up, is it possible then to find criminal liability against the corporation and not seek criminal liability against the former president personally or any of the principles of the trump organization? >> it is possible. and you may recall, rev, that during the obama administration there was actually a policy issued inside of doj that required prosecutors to take steps to fully investigate individual culpability and not to simply rely on corporate accountability as a vehicle for prosecuting misconduct. so this is a very live consideration for prosecutors. and the determination is based largely on whether you have sufficient evidence in these

cases it's also state of mind, criminal intent and that will likely be the decision point here. >> well, we're going to come back to this story in our next hour. joyce vance, thank you very much for coming on this morning. rev, thank you as well. we'll be watching "politic's nation" this weekend live from minneapolis on sunday for the first anniversary of the murder of george floyd. still ahead on "morning joe," the coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on everyone, but some more than others. a new study finds that working women in particular have faced a perfect storm over the last year. we're going to take a look at why and what companies can do to help. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪♪ ♪ proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free ♪ ♪ but i won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me ♪ ♪ and i gladly stand up ♪ i gla♪

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women's careers, mental health and employer allies are for gender equality have all taken a huge hit during the pandemic. those are the key take aways from deloitte's annual woman at work survey. it gives a glimpse into the lives of 5,000 working women spanning 10 countries, including the u.s. who have been decimated by the pandemic's recession. >> it's the perfect storm of increased responsibility in the home and an increased workload. and the women that we have surveyed have told us that are fortunately this is dramatically impacted their optimism when it comes to their future careers. >> joining us now with more details of that new survey nbc news political correspondent ally vitale. this is everything know your

value is talking about. a lot of women have been just knocked out of their jobs and their businesses and their industries. and the question is, what can companies do to try and bring them back in? >> reporter: you're totally right, mika. knocked out of the work force, burnt out because they're burning the candles at both ends right now. they're overworked with their employers and overworked at home. their mental health is suffering. and all of these numbers are things that you and i might know about from our conversations with women and our reporting on this over the course of the pandemic, but this new survey from deloitte really hammers home these realities, even just look at the fact that 51% of women say they are less optimistic about their career right now than they were before the pandemic. 77% of the women that were surveyed here say they've had an increased workload over the pandemic just at work, not to mention the increase at care giving at home, which we know predominantly falls on women. and then 52% of them say they've

experienced harassment or non-inclusive behavior over the course of the pandemic. an example of that non-inclusive behavior can be things like criticized fir their communication style, that's something women of color reported more than the overall survey size here in the survey. what that leads to a lack of work/life balance and more women opting out of their careers. one in four women say they're considering leaving the work force all together. more than half say they have a plan to leave their current employer in the next two years. what that does is it sets women back at work, you know this well. what i did is i found a few women across the country who have experienced the hardships of the pandemic. these two women, julia and angelica, thankfully they say their employers supported them. it doesn't mean it's been easy. listen. >> i think at a lot of places employees and especially women have to take steps to make it seem like their family never gets in the way of their work

and vice versa. >> you need a culture, right? so you need the culture of the company to care about women, to realize that there's some difficulties going on. we need to push for change in policy. we need to push for change in the workplaces. we need to need to not give up. if we can, we need to not leave because when we leave, it's like a whole other generation of women are going to be coming in and starting from the bottom. >> those generational set backs, mika, are a big concern i have heard from economists over the last year. in this survey from delotte said 4% of the women they surveyed said they feel they are in a workplace. and talking about what companies can do going forward on this. it's not just policy. look. >> to me it's not about policies. of course, we all need policies but this is for working and the

norm and leaders embracing it. it's about knowing that working differently to what may be the norm is still successful and it's about not judging on output. >> mika, it's not surprising when you look at what women in this survey actually want to see happen. they're creating a road map here for employers. the women surveyed here said they need better childcare help and emotional support and they need flexibility from their employers. >> taking includable and flexible to a whole new level due to the pandemic. ali vitali, thank you very much. we're having a lot of conversations about this. now to longtime media executive and founder of cnbc and msnbc tom rogers. tom, you're looking at the relationship between corporate america and politics. and in your new column for "newsweek" you write in part, essentially i'm proposing creating a corporate initiative

to turn demography into political destiny for key swing states. if corporate america decided it would support a new corporate great migration to swing states of women, young and diverse employees, those most likely to vote against big lie candidates, especially when we're talking about the very thin voter margins for biden we saw in georgia, arizona and wisconsin, this could reshape the voter demography of those states in a short period of time. this is a somewhat radical proposal for a corporation to consider. but if corporations truly believe that the future of our democracy is at stake, is it really too radical to attempt? joe, what do you think? >> i think it's too radical to attempt and, tom, what i always say when people go, oh, this corporation shouldn't do this or oh, this corporation shouldn't do that or they shouldn't ban that sort of speech.

that's their call. it is called free enterprise and isn't their job, tom, first and foremost, not to affect social change or change political maps but to make money for their shareholders. but more importantly, to hire americans and make sure they remain profitability. i mean, things are tough enough out there without corporations moving their locations to affect 1,000 or 2,000 votes in a swing state here or there. >> well, joe, as i said, some will consider it too radical. but let's step back a minute. you had jeffrey on from yale who did a phenomenal job in organizing ceos to speak out about voting rights and voter participation and those efforts have had some effect. but it's very clear if we're going to pass something, it is not going to be the bipartisan effort that ceos would like to see. republicans push back really hard to get something at the

federal level. it's going to have to be over the filibuster rule. i don't really see ceos coming in and lobbying hard to overturn the filibuster rule to get voting rights through. so, i ask myself, what could be done that doesn't involve having to push state legislatures or engage with congress but could actually accomplish more? while you think it might be radical, we had great migrations in this country before. starting in 1916, the first great migration of african-americans from the south to the north and again starting in 1940 a second great migration and what was this really based on? racism, of course, which is at the heart of the big voting rights issues but what really drove it was northern labor shortages and companies in the north giving incentives to african-american employees to move to the north for those reasons. what we learned from the pandemic is corporate employees

can work from home. and you can easily have in the s&p 500, which employs 24 million employees in the united states, you can easily give incentives to people to move to florida, texas, north carolina to georgia, to arizona. nice weather, lower cost of living, lower taxes and in so doing probably accomplish a whole lot more in terms of demography and its ultimate impact without at all affecting profits of corporations which as you say is the main job number one of corporations. >> mike barnicle, i think we are having a great migration. i think there are a lot of republicans from the northeast that are moving down to florida and a lot of republicans or a lot of business people from california moving to texas and they are leaving liberal areas and, actually, i think they're probably going to be making florida a more conservative, more republican state and making

texas more republican in many ways, as well. even though the demographic changes seem to be shifting democratic there. >> yeah, joe, i don't know about texas. i assume you're talking about the tech companies moving personnel to texas around the austin area which is happening, obviously. but people moving to florida, the only people i know moving to florida or the people i read about, the groups of people moving to florida are going there to avoid taxes. i don't know what this does in terms of the development or democracy or larger voting blocs more moderate or liberal, tom. but were you not impressed from the number of ceos and heads of large companies which traditionally they think of anything involving politics as touching the third rail but many ceos signed on to and we can't

have voter suppression in this state or nationally is not good for america. and business finished second in that. do you not agree with that? >> i totally agree with what the ceos did and jeffrey was able to get 130 ceos together in a matter of a few days to come together and voice that sentiment behind kent frasier two most prominent black ceos in america who took this upon themselves to totally drive the ceo community. but the question is, has it been impactful enough to really get the job done? and while ceos wanted this to be a bipartisan issue, it doesn't look like it's going to be one. and i just don't see them coming in heavy guns to overturn the filibuster rule in order to get federal legislation to protect voting rights. so, what else can they do? and giving incentives to women,

younger employees, diverse employees who may well want to have this kind of change of lifestyle that moving to these other states may involve and at the same time, being able to more directly effect change in terms of not having the kind of slim margins where these state legislatures still using the big lie as a rationale setting up which could be a steal of election in 2024 by allowing state legislatures to overturn the popular vote. we have to do something and the question is, would this be a way for corporations to affect a more democratic end which in the end is all about capitalism, too. ceos came forward because at the heart of this, how do you protect american capitalism? >> good debate, tom rogers, thank you very much for your radical proposal. really appreciate it. coming up, fighting between israel and hamas enters its tenth day but there are signs that a cease-fire could be on the horizon.

we'll talk to diplomats from both sides. "morning joe" is coming right back. what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. get a strategy gut check from our trade desk. ♪♪ so you're finally supporting his rock star dream... because you know you have a plan to pay it off. buy now, pay later, with plan it. one of the many things you can expect when you're with amex.

another day, another chance. it could be the day you break the sales record, or the day there's appointments nonstop. with comcast business, you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses, and you can get the advanced cybersecurity solutions you need with comcast business securityedge. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. get started with a great offer, and ask how you can add comcast business securityedge. plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. call today. >> mr. president. would you buy one of these? >> i would. >> how does it feel to be behind the wheel, sir? >> it feels great. i tell you what, i don't know if

anybody has a stop watch but i think we're going zero to 60 in about 4.3, 4.4? four flat? >> mr. president, how fast were you going? >> okay. i'm just going to step on it and i'll come off at 80 miles an hour. >> mr. president, quick question? >> no, you can't. i'm only teasing. okay. here we go. ready. >> president biden making an unscheduled stop during his trip to michigan to test drive the all electric ford f-150 lightning. i'm excited about the electric

lightning. i think i should get a truck for my next birthday. there we go. welcome to "morning joe" wednesday may 19th along with joe, willie and me we have white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lameer. it is very clunky and very hard and great for this country but it's a long way off. >> joe was going to get you scratch-off tickets again for your birthday next year. but now you really raised the bar asking for the f-150. >> he did get me an f-150. >> he did. >> maybe next time make it electric. >> joe, take note. what else you can get her is one of those handsome "morning joe" fleeces you have been wearing this week. >> he wears them every day. they walk on their own. >> i have been wearing them every day. what's interesting about this fleece so yesterday after the show we have been talking about

the middle east. this is an extraordinarily important story of our time and afterward i get a lot of calls and ambassadors from the region that i spoke to right after the sh and the calls keping in and kept taking them and richard and talking about middle east peace and how we get there from here and i say i'm in the middle of a call with one of these ambassadors and it's donny deutsch and one of my experts in this area is calling up and i've been on the phone with the ambassador for an hour and it was a good excuse and i'm thinking donny will provide me some good insight on middle east peace. i picked up the phone and said, sad story. dude, can i ask you something, what is your fashion strategy on those fleeces? i'm like, strategy? you think i have strategy on

what i wear, donny? >> he wears them, rolls out of bed and gets on the show. >> wiwillie, you remember, i wo the same sweater an entire winter. there is no strategy, donny. i wake up and i see it and if it works one day, i wear it three more days. >> what is fun, joe, we can always track the week's meals. lucky charms up here and cinnamon toast crunch and lucky there's avocado toast in the middle. looking at the map of your meals. >> the constellation of food that makes it all worthwhile, mika. we'll see what donny calls us about after today's show. let's get to the news. the investigation into former president donald trump's business empire is expanding. the new york attorney general's office put out a statement last night saying the investigation into the trump organization is

now considered a criminal matter. in addition to the ongoing civil probe. the statement reads in part, we have informed the trump organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. we are now actively investigating the trump organization in a criminal capacity, along with the manhattan district attorney. new york attorney general latisha james has been at the forefront against trump's family business, her office offered no explanation for what prompted the change in its investigation. the "washington post" points out that the danger previously posed by james' investigation seems to be merely financial. the kind of lawsuit trump had faced from new york attorney's general before over trump university and his charity. now, however, james could also

seek criminal penalties. an attorney for the trump organization declined to the comment on the matter. trump and his representatives have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. joe. >> jonathan lemire, i have been growing impatient over the last month from fbi and other prosecutors saying this, oh, behind the scenes we hear this or that or whatever. i've now read 437 articles about how what happened today make matt's situation worse. i keep reading about rudy giuliani. a leak here, a leak there, they're sure to go. it happened back during the bush era. karl rove as i said before every friday make sure you're around to go to the tv studio. we just heard from the fbi a leak that karl rove is going to go to jail.

this wasn't a leak, this was from the office. i don't know if that means anything. i'm not sure about why you announce we are now investigating him. do your investigation, bring the charges or don't bring the charges. but, again, this really wasn't a leak. this is the office basically saying we're looking into criminal charges against donald trump. >> you made your feelings about leaks known in recent weeks. this is a highly unusual statement even if it comes out the front door of the office. not a leak but a planned statement from a spokesperson from the attorney general's office confirming they are looking into a criminal matter, but not just a civil one. that's not something we hear very often from offices like this. but certainly it ramps up the pressure on the former president and his business, the trump organization. we know this has been an investigation that is long in the works. that some of the president's closest allies have been interviewed in the recent

months. including his adult children who have been running the business while donald trump was in office. as well as some of the top officials at the trump organization like michael cohen. so, that evidence, that testimony has been collected over the recent months. now what exactly they're looking at here remains somewhat of a mystery. it's the trump organization businesses and it's tax procedures. you know, these are the things that they are looking at. to go through a criminal matter far bigger deal than civil. whether this leads to charges or not, unclear. that doesn't say that. what kind of timeline we're working on, unclear. we know there are investigations from the manhattan district attorney and former politician and long-time adversary of donald trump and the trump organization so we will see in the coming days, weeks, months where this leads but certainly at minimum we know the former

president faces jeopardy and it's ramping up in new york. >> let's bring in a couple more legal voices to help understand this boston globe columnist and appellate litigation attorney kimberly atkins and msnbc contributor and co-host of the sisters-in-law podcast along with jill and barbara all familiar voices and faces on this network and with us danny savalos. danny, let me begin with you just in plain terms, why is this a significant announcement, if you believe it is. >> simply put more investigative power going into the criminal side of the investigation. now new york state attorney general like other attorneys general have a broader role than say a district attorney's office because they investigate civil matters such as charities that are not living up to their charitable stats and investigate all kinds of different consumer protection issues. they also are a law enforcement branch.

in that sense, they have a much more diverse set of interests. for the attorney general to add to its investigation of previously civil investigation that this is a criminal investigation. they are violating new york state law just like the manhattan district attorney's office would be, but that tells you a lot more man and woman power going into this investigation, this criminal side than previously thought. >> kimberly, looking at latisha james, she's been following problems that she's been seeing happening in the trump organization and towards the presidency for his entire presidency. could this branch out to family members? any indication as to how widespread this is? >> yeah, so, the answer is it could. we don't know yet. we only have this one brief statement that came out of the state attorney generals office. but the difference between a

civil matter and what we saw, for example, with the trump charity where the charity was shut down. people involved in it were no longer able to run charities. with a criminal investigation, it brings in other elements, as well. if there was criminality suspected based on what she has found, depending on who it is, you might get somebody who might be facing charges and might be pressed to perhaps cooperate in advancing that investigation. you know, as we already stated they they have already talked to folks like michael cohen. so, when you have a criminal investigation like that, it can sprawl out as that investigation moves forward. so, perhaps that was one reason for announcing this just to put people on notice about that. but, you know, like we said, there is a broad ability here to with this expansion of the investigation, it's reported that it is not just what

district attorney in manhattan is investigating, that there is some overlap between these two. but that they are separate. but that can mean there could also be sharing of information between the manhattan district attorney's office and the state attorney general. it's certainly a ramp up. we don't know exactly where it's going or how broad it is yet. but it certainly isn't good news for all the trump organization. >> kimperly atkins and danny cevallos, thank you very much. coming up, the latest on the conflict in the middle east. we'll have a report from tel aviv ahead of our ongoing series of discussions featuring voices from the opposing sides. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. no-no-no-no-no please please no. ♪ i never needed anyone. ♪ front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪ those days are done. ♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪

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we're going to move now to the middle east where israeli officials are reportedly moving closer to a cease-fire agreement with hamas as violence between the two sides stretches into a tenth day. speaking under the condition of anonymity, the "new york times"

says a senior official says israel was not ready for a cease-fire yet but, quote, acknowledged it might be soon. on the hamas side, a senior official told "the times" they were ready for a deal but israel was being, quote, stubborn. these developments come as egypt and the u.n. intervene in hopes of bringing an end to the violence that has killed at least 222 people so far, mostly palestinians. despite the reported moves towards peace talks, crossfire continued this morning according to local media. hundreds of thousands of palestinian citizens of israel gathered in public squares yesterday going on a general strike to protest their own treatment by israel. events turned violent in the west bank. three palestinian protesters were reportedly shot and killed when demonstrators began burning tires and throwing rocks at israeli police. joining me now long-time foreign correspondent martin fletcher who is reporting for nbc news in

tel aviv. martin, what is the latest? >> mika, the fighting continues on both sides. israel pounding targets in gaza. the defense minister said the army still has he used the words thousands of targets still to hit and hamas is firing back. but hamas is firing back far fewer rockets than before. it has to be said about 50 rockets in the last 12 hours which is much, much less than in the past. and hamas' threats of bombing the last couple days and tel aviv in the last three days has been no long-range rockets. rocket firing is on the back foot. but at the same time now more talk about the cease-fire and that's the key point from this morning. the fighting has continued in both directions, but the real discussion is will there be a cease-fire? and the israeli security cabinet which is scheduled to meet within the next 24 hours to discuss a cease-fire, the time

that is being banded around is possible cease-fire 6:00 local time tomorrow morning. but, of course, still out for negotiations. israel is discussing this with egypt and egypt backed up by the european union and the united states. very serious negotiations but the israeli are saying we're not in a hurry. we're going to finish what we need to do to keep our citizens safe. while that is giving them selves a green light to go for some time. the same kind of language they always use. bear in mind this is the fifth outbreak of fighting between israel and hamas in the last 15 years. at the end of it they always say the israelis always say we will continue until our people are safe and then there's a kind of deal and then few years later it breaks out, again. but the bottom line is that the emphasis at the moment is on the question will there be a cease-fire and it looks as if it is going to be happening within a day or two, i would guess from what i'm hearing. mika. >> all right.

martin fletcher, thank you very much. and coming up, what do kevin mccarthy and donald trump have in common? they both oppose legislation to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the january 6th attack on the capitol. wonder why. "morning joe" is coming right back. i'm so glad you're ok, sgt. houston. this is sam with usaa. do you see the tow truck? yes, thank you, that was fast. sgt. houston never expected this to happen. or that her grandpa's dog tags would be left behind. but that one call got her a tow and rental... ...paid her claim... ...and we even pulled a few strings. making it easy to make things right:

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full house vote is expected today on creating a commission to investigate the deadly january 6th u.s. capitol riot. house minority leader kevin mccarthy came out against creating the commission yesterday followed later by a formal recommendation by house gop leadership for members to vote no. the california republican issued a statement in opposition because the commission scope will be focused on the attack on the capitol without including protest violence by black lives matter and antifa the previous summer. mccarthy's statement reads in part given the political misdirections that have marred this process and potentially counter productive nature of this effort and given the speaker's shortsighted scope of

political violence in america, i cannot support this legislation. if i may, eric has been trying to get kevin mccarthy to meet with the capitol cop who was injured that day just to hear his side of the story and kev doesn't have time because he's too busy trying to find other protests to mix in with this violent, murderous insurection on our capitol that this commission just wants to look at the truth and that is what afraid of. former president trump weighed in, another person he's afraid of, weighed in on the commission issuing the following statement reading in part, republicans in the house and senate should not approve the democrat trap of the january 6th commission. republicans must get much tougher and much smarter, hopefully mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy are listening and aren't they ever, joe. >> well, you know, you're looking right there at the guy

who led the conspiracy to commit sedition and have insurrectionist come to the capitol that day. the worst breach of the united states capitol since the war of 1812 and certainly the greatest threat and attack on u.s. government. what it does constitutionally since the american civil war. now, you've been seeing one member after another on the republican side lie and say, oh, just tourists coming. they, of course, are lying through their teeth. they know about all the police officers that were beaten and blungeened close to death and they've seen the interviews of police officers saying they were sure they were going to die and begging people to stop because they had children. they've seen the pictures of police officers with their heads being smashed in in doors and

crushed. many didn't think they would be able to live. they've seen people going around chanting hang mike pence looking for mike pence. they've seen all of that. and one member who said they were just tourists is one of the same members who was pushing a desk up against a door going into the house chamber. >> yeah. >> while the police had guns drawn to stop the insurrectionists from coming in and killing members of the house. so, yes, they're lying. they don't want transparency, they don't want truth and certainly they are following the ring leader of the conspiracy to commit sedition against the united states government and stop the counting of the votes that day and that, of course, donald j. trump. so, once again, they blindly follow. as somebody, kasie, who was there, you know full well as do all of these members who were lying to their constituents,

these weren't just tourists ambling through and taking pictures of statues and rubbing will rogers' shoe for good luck. they were looking for people, hurt people, kill cops. almost killed quite a few. and, you know, put bear spray into cop's face who eventually died. >> and that member of congress had been in office all of three days when he helped barricade that door and now here a few months out saying, if you didn't know, this would be like normal tourists visiting. having worked up there for 15 plus years on and off, i've never seen a group of tourists act like this nor have any of us, obviously. i think mika really asked the right question here which is what is kevin mccarthy afraid of?

what are republicans afraid of here? this was something that was negotiated between democrats and republicans. this commission. frankly democrats gave republicans a lot of what they were asking for. i mean, speaker pelosi took criticism and, you know, honestly, i've spoken to a lot of people behind the scenes in both parties who say the criticism may have been warranted that she wanted to have more democrats than republicans and structured differently than the 9/11 commission and democrats in the end did agree. we'll have an even number of republicans and democrats and we're going to choose members that are going to be selected by republicans and democrats but who are not currently in office or working for the government. they are going to have subpoena power. it's set up so that effectively any member of the commission, really any republican could veto a subpoena. that's something else that republicans were looking for. democrats gave republicans all of that. and i think that's what hakim jeffries was talking about when he essentially said, these guys

can't take yes for an answer. take a look at what he said. >> it seems reasonable that america should have a bipartisan commission to ascertain the truth and present it to the american people. it's hard to take kevin mccarthy seriously at this point. it's just hard. he can't take yes for an answer. >> so, again, joe, i mean, what is mccarthy afraid of? mitch mcconnell held his fire but he has not been the one out there, you know, facing questions about whether he'll be subpoenaed in this investigation and whether he would be criminally liable or expose former president trump to criminal liability. mccarthy on the other hand actually has because there are major questions about what he did on that day. coming up, back to the middle east and the ongoing violence there. we're joined by two diplomats from opposing sides of the

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call today. >> the only two ways to deal with them. you can either conquer them and that's always an open possibility or you can deter them and we are engaged right now in forceful deterrence, but i have to say, we don't rule out anything. that was israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu earlier today amid growing pressure to negotiate a cease-fire with hamas. the prime minister is giving no indication he will draw back attacks, even suggesting the violence could reach another level. joining us now ambassador and permanent observer of the state of palestine to the united nations dr. monsor and also with us for this interview we have columnist and associate editor for "washington post" david ignatius and chief foreign

affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" andrea mitchell. andrea, i'll start with you and then you can take it to mr. monsor. first, how would you assess the united states approach to this problem? >> well, joe biden very much believes that to embarrass or confront netanyahu, you know, head on will only backfire will only make it worse. so he is trying very carefully to give israel running room. now, the criticism is it's too much running room and giving israel, which has so much more power than hamas has too much ability to hit targets that are very often civilian targets. israel claims, of course, that these are hamas using, you know, using civilians as human shields. but that said with the media tower and other targets that have come down there have been horrible civilian casualties. he's now really under pressure

from, you know, democrats and not just the progressive democrats. tim kaine was on our show yesterday just really angry and upset that there was not a call for an immediate cease-fire. what the u.s. does in situations like this is call on both sides for an immediate cease-fire and that has not been done. i have called the white house and i don't know why that is not being done. >> mr. ambassador, how would you assess the united states, the administration's response to this problem so far? >> first of all, you know, thank you for having me on the show. and we welcome and appreciate any help by anyone in the international community by president biden, by secretary of state blinken to bring an immediate end. this aggression against our people in the occupied territory started in jerusalem, spilled over to gaza strip.

which in the gaza strip alone more than 220 people have been killed and half of them are children and more than 61, 36 women, 16 elderly and the destruction of more than 7,000 buildings, some of them high-rise buildings and 52 civilians running for their lives, taking shelters in schools and trying to be protected by the united nations. so, what we need is immediate cease-fire to save lives. every day we delay putting an end to this aggression, we have large number of civilians being killed, especially children and whole families are being destroyed and killed. mother, father, children, you

know, under the rubble. so, this situation has to end. and for the u.s. administration with president biden to show leadership, global leadership. you want to have cease-fire, deliver it. you cannot have cease-fire, why are you not allowing us to have something in the security council, something in the international community. the continuation of this killing is unsustainable. those who would think that after five rounds of fighting, doing the same wrong thin expecting different results is in denial. what we need is immediate cease-fire. what we need is humanitarian assistance of the palestinian people, particularly in the gaza strip. what we need is a serious

examination of the situation. it is not an accident to have an explosion occupy east jerusalem and all over the west bank and the gaza strip. among the two million palestinian israelis who some of them have been, and 800 of them have been arrested. 172 indictment. not a single one against a jewish individual in israel. all of them against palestinian citizens of the state of israel. this is the reality that we face. it cannot be resolved through security measures. it has to be resolved through justice and it has to be resolved by ending this occupation. enough is enough. 53 years of occupation stealing our land, building illegal

settlements and denial of our rights, 5,000 prisoner at any given time, 1 million palestinians have been -- >> dr. mansour. thank you so much. we greatly appreciate you being with us. we have a lot of people who want to ask a lot of questions and i certainly, i certainly understand that you needing to get that information out. certainly this is a tragedy. it is a tragedy on both sides disproportionately the killing has been on the palestinian side. we understand that. but we have quite a few people who want to ask some questions. let me ask you briefly. you are right. this killing is unsustainable on both sides. do you agree, also, that hamas continuing to fire rockets towards civilians is also unsustainable? >> the continuing of fighting is

unsustainable. what is sustainable is justice. what is sustainable is to put an end to the tragedy of the palestinian people. we do accept two-state solution from the borders of the port. the other side is refusing to do that. the other side is resorting one war after another war after another war denial of our rights and encouragement of extreme elements and to take to the streets like what we have seen in front of damascus and jewish group chanting death to the arabs and they do that in many other places. how much can we tolerate of this injustice? how much can we tolerate of denial of our right? always you talk about the rights of israel.

what about our rights? do we have the rights to resist peacefully? do we have the right to oppose illegal settlements? do we have the right to fight for our freedom to practice our religion or in the holy sepulcher? put yourself in our shoe. >> right. >> go ahead. >> that's exactly what we're saying. we understand, a human tragedy here that is unsustainable when we and people across the world see little children dragged out of buildings dead along with women and other people and we understand and we have brought up those issues throughout the week and questioning israeli officials and we will do that again today. i just want to confirm to you briefly because david ignatius is here and i just want to follow up with that question. when you say that this fighting is unsustainable, yoinclude in that firing rockets into israel, as well as israel continuing to bomb gaza.

>> you see, joe, first of all, we appreciate what you are doing and the individuals from the palestinian side. but if we go to the house of the united nations and then we are trying to isolate israel. that's not true. and when we go peacefully through the international criminal court to say come and investigate war crimes and against and the crimes against humanity. they tell us that this is anti-semitism. where should we go? we're seeking peace. they are pushing segments of our political and our people to move in a certain direction so that they can label us the things that they label us with.

why are you not positively responding to those who want to have peace but based on justice and fairness. and we hope that president biden and his administration could show some tough love with israelis, to be firm and say enough is enough. if you want cease-fire, you can really, you know, bring it to reality with israelies and the palestinian side ready for that. but just only to keep appealing and not allowing, for example, the security council to act is not decisive leadership. but you as leadership needs decisiveness, effectiveness and fairness so that they can assume the role that we hope that they will on bigger issues such as climate change, multilateralism and effectiveness of the united nations.

you have to be fair. you have to be fair and you have to be just and decisive. >> thank you so much, mr. ambassador. ambassador mansour, we greatly appreciate you being with us and we hope you will come back soon under better circumstances. let's turn now to israel's former ambassador to the united states, michael orrin. mr. ambassador, thank you so much for being with us. we have david ignatius with "washington post" here and he'll have the first question for you. david. >> so, i want to ask ambassador specifically what would israel like to see the palestinians offer as a reassurance that any cease-fire that's declared in the next few days, and there's a lot of talk here in washington that it's coming soon, that that cease-fire will be stable but we won't simply be in the same situation where we'll have another war recurring five or six years later. what specifically, michael, do

you want? >> hey, david, hi, good to see you and joe. good morning. listen, it is dedicated to israel's destruction and blames the jews for world war ii and it's not partnering peace and doesn't seek a two-state solution and it doesn't really carry much weight. the only thing that does carry weight is deterrence and convincing hamas and its leaders to fire 3,000 rockets at 4 million israelis is not a good idea. if they continue to do it, they'll pay a steep price for it. it would be ideal if the international community would join with israel and that hamas invest in schools and infrastructure and hospitals instead of making hundreds of miles of tunnels and bunkers and buying thousands of rockets to shoot at israeli civilians. that would be ideal.

that type of action, israel has to take whatever steps it deems necessary to restore deterrence for as long as it can possibly hold. >> so, mr. ambassador, obviously, hamas is not going to do that. we neither the israel or the united states have any say or any sway over hamas. so, they're not going to do that. the question is, what does israel do looking after israel's own best interest and would you not agree with many observers that it is not in long-term interest to continue bombing gaza and continuing unrest in your own country and continuing to see -- we're actually seeing for the first time real division between arab israelis and israelis in areas where they have been able to live together peacefully. i 20% of the population is arab

and isn't that a growing concern for you and a good reason to get a ses fire that is sustainable? >> it's a deep concern. i lived in one of those neighborhoods and i witnessed some of the violence. very disturbing to us, but it's linked to hamas. divisions within israeli societies right and left and arab and jews that have nothing to do with hamas and we had now four rounds of fighting with hamas in which there was no strife on israeli streets. yes, we have to address the causes for that violence. let's keep that aside from what we have to do with hamas. we just had a poll taken in the state of israel and the findings may surprise you. 80% of israelis are against a cease-fire. 80%. because they're tired of going from round to round and leaving hamas undeterred and leaving hamas unconvinced that firing of israelis isn't a good idea.ns

and most israelis as terrible as this is, again, we had 4 million israelis under rocket fire and kids are not in school and people aren't going out and this is after a year of corona people really aren't going out going o we've had death and trauma. israelis are willing to continue this fight until such a time as serious deterrence is established. >> mr. ambassador, i wanted to get your reaction, this is jonathan, to the reporting out of the white house over the last day or so including messaging from the administration, directly from president biden to prime minister netanyahu and officials and counterparts in israel basically saying this needs to end now. this needs to be wrapped up in a couple of days and we can't provide cover any longer. if this fighting continues for more than another 48 and 72 hours it will do irreparable damage to israel's standing in

the world. what is your take on what's coming from behind the scenes for the rhetoric from the white house? >> i fully expect it to happen, and i'm tlieted that it took so long that the biden administration stood by us even with the democrat to its stance. having said all that, at the end of the day, israel has to weigh a bad resolution and the security council would be very unpleasant, but having 3,000 rockets is a lot more unpleasant and israelis are aware of the price we pay in terms of our foreign relations and in terms of our relations with our ultimate ally with the united states of america and at the end of the day it's about our grandchildren. it's about our homes and our communities and we have to give priority to defending all that. as best i know no one ever died from bad security council resolution. >> andrew mitchell?

>> ambassador orrin, there are quoting israeli officials that a day or two that a cease-fire is in the offing, that israel is ready. are those reports not true? are you -- is israel planning to keep going until hamas stops first? and despite u.s. pressure and despite what is the clear signal that jonathan was just referring to the white house that that time really is up? >> i understand there are different voices coming out of the israeli government. >> exactly. >> nothing unusual about that. we just had another prime minister saying we should go in and basically conquer gaza and kick hamas out. there are different voices saying different things and it will be sensitive to israeli public opinion and it is overwhelmingly in favor of pursuing this conflict until such a time as serious deterrence is established. >> all right.

ambassador michael oren, thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate it and hope to see you soon and let us hope there is a cease-fire soon. >> david ignacious, his argument is very compelling. i've always said if there was one missile fired from mexico it would have 10,000 troops the next day in that country. that said, this is a cycle of violence and we've talked about this before. it hurts israel. at the end of the day, not just internationally, but domestically when you have arab and jewish nationals and 20% is arab-israeli. we're seeing what we've never seen before. when you talk to people in foreign policy circles, they say what's coming from gaza is nothing, nothing in the long run compared to what's being stirred up inside their own country and

they fear a coming civil war. >> joe, i feel watching this tragedy that israel does need to think about a different strategy. this idea that every five or six years you'll have a war with gaza and you'll get in on these terrible conflicts and israel will be criticized around the world and then you'll have another war five years later and just isn't producing the kind of stability and security that israel needs. the biden administration has a slogan, build back better and i would love to hear israelis talk about how after this war, this latest war they'll build something that's better in their relationship with the palestinians and hu they'll address the negotiations and the demands and the needs the palestinians have and how they'll work with other part years to do more.

there was that discussion after the last gaza war in 2014. how to get the palestinian authority into gaza, stabilize it and get foreign investment. that's the dialogue i'd like to hear right now. if we talk about the cease-fire, yes, what follows to make the cease-fire stable and durable. >> andrea, we're talking about a possible cease-fire and it is important to note for those who support israel that hamas is still firing rockets into israel and they aim at civilians hoping to kill civilians. so israel says it's hard, obviously, to call a cease-fire while that's still happening. at the same time you look on the other side where this dispute began, east jerusalem, the property disputes when they're evicted always heard in israeli court and they do not feel they get a fair shake.

you have the third most sacred mosque in islam being fired into by israeli security forces which they consider to be a provocative act. you can go down the list and disproportionate use of force in neighborhoods and the images of young children being killed. it is a tragedy for the palestinian people and yet the israelis have their own citizens having rockets fired into their country every day. how in the world do we get to a cease-fire and how in the world do the israelis stop civil unrest in the coming years? >> the only way is u.s. pressure. u.s. pressure and whatever pressure can be exerted on hamas through egypt and qatar and others in the region and the mosque was the precipitor.

requesting into the al aqsa mosque during holy time and evening prayer. who started it? who knows? the problem is you have a political vacuum in the palestinian authority, not hamas and the other palestinians in the west bank and a political vacuum existed in israel and i'm not sure that now exists because it's come back from the political graveyard through this and may have another shot at the prime minister's job which he did not have before this all started. >> andrea mitchell, thank you so much for your insight on this. david ignatius, thank you, as well. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after a quick, final break. shield got a chip, they wanted it fixed fast. they drove to safelite autoglass for a guaranteed, same-day, in-shop repair. we repaired the chip before it could crack.

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♪♪ ♪♪ hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is wednesday, may 19th and we

have ton of news to get to this morning. evernight we learned former president donald trump's business organization is now facing a criminal investigation on top of the civil investigation. that word coming officially from the new york attorney general. at the very same time dozens of house republicans may be on the verge for voting for a bipartisan commission to look into the january 6th attack on the capitol. that is despite opposition from their leader kevin mckarthy and guess who? donald trump. over in the middle east there's talk of a possible cease-fire between israel and hamas perhaps as early as tomorrow, but there is nothing official and for now the violence and the bloodshed continue. we are covering all of it with our correspondents spread out across the world. i want to talk about the escalation of the attorney general into the trump organization. going from civil to criminal. i want to bring