of the challenges to our democracy, but let's not forget, president biden heads overseas today to start doing some of the work with our allies that was so frankly damaged even if you listen to republicans on capitol hill during the trump administration. so, a pretty important shift under way here. thank you all for getting up "way too early" with us on this wednesday morning. don't go anywhere, "morning joe" starts right now. >> lester holt sat down with vice president kamala harris for an exclusive interview. when he was asked why she hasn't visited the border yet, you can tell she didn't quite have an answer prepared. listen to this. >> do you have any plans to visit the border. >> at some point. you know, we are going to the border. we've been to the border. so this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. we've been to the border. >> you haven't been to the border. >> and i haven't been to europe.

[ laughter ]. >> well, that escalated quickly. that's right. harris was not in the mood. don't be surprised if you see lester holt narrating his own episode of "dateline." started out as a normal interview. all right. we'll get to that answer from the vice president and the much bigger, much more complicated problems beyond the border coming up. but first president biden flies to the uk this morning, leaving behind infrastructure talks with republican senators that have now collapsed. he heads to europe to, as nbc news frames it, meet putin, a pandemic and skeptical allies. a lot to cover. as for covering the president on the trip, though, the plane carrying the white house press corp. to europe gets delayed after doing battle with cicadas. we'll get to the trip and the insects in a moment. but first, willie, the stalled infrastructure talks.

>> yeah, full collapse. president biden talks with a group of republican senators on a sweeping infrastructure package collapsed yesterday, shifting the debate on one of his key domestic priorities, on going meeting between president biden and shelley moore capito fell through after the two remained far apart on a total price tag for a big which projects should be included in whether to raise any new taxes. now, any hopes of a bipartisan deal falls on a group of senators that includes republican mitt romney and democrat joe manchin who met for three hours yesterday to hash out details of their own agenda. at the same time, democrats separately are laying the ground work to pass some or all of the package on their own through reconciliation. according to the white house, biden spoke with house speaken nancy pelosi and chuck schumer about launching the budget resolution process for senate votes in july. let's bring in senior white house reporter for nbc news digital, shannon pettypiece and

cofounder of punch bowl news anna palmer an msnbc contributor. good morning to you both. shannon, i'll start with you. so what happened here? senator capito seemed surprise yesterday when she got word from the white house that joe biden was frankly moving on to another option here. what went wrong? >> i think a lot of people involved in this process are surprised that this is how it ended. i know there's been a lot of skepticism from my colleagues on the hill that they would ever be able to pull something off, but folks i talked to in the administration in the white house, they were really hopeful i will say up until the last week or so they were going to get something through. what one official told me it really came down to is the fact that president biden wanted to see a lot of new money going into infrastructure and republicans were just mostly focussed on trying to reshift money in the baseline, money that had already been allocated to or things like covid relief or highway projects to shift that around where biden wanted

to see real new money come in. they couldn't agree as well how to pay for this. republicans obviously didn't want to touch the 2017 tax plan. the white house said, okay, let's try to find some other methods to pay for it, some other things we can do like increase irs enforcement, but that didn't seem to be catching on with republicans either. so, you know, i was told the white house just didn't want to spend more time in what they thought was going to be endless negotiations with republicans. they didn't appear to see -- be seeing eye to eye, so now i'll say they're not necessarily starting from square one, but they may be starting from square two or three. they're really going back to the beginning stages after weeks and i will say really hundreds of hours of talks between republican staff and the white house. >> so anna, this kind of confirms some of the suspicions of republicans who thought, many of them, not all of them, who thought the attempt at bipartisanship was theatrical and this was going to happen in the end, that democrats were going to go the way of maybe reconciliation. so was this outcome inevitable?

>> i don't know if it's inevitable. i think that both sides came to the negotiating table with a true desire to try to find a pathway forward. but they still are so far apart. they don't agree necessarily on what the definition of infrastructure is. and particularly when it comes to paying for it, i think as shannon just laid out, they are very stark differences between where republicans and democrats are. and now as we shift to this g20 as they like to call themselves, it just gets harder. it's one thing when you have one key negotiator from the republican side, one key negotiator the president on the other side trying to hash out a deal, but now you go into the senate and there's house members as well and trying to get all of those different constituencies to agree on anything is going to be extremely difficult. >> so anna, we're hearing that now the white house is moving on to a, quote, bipartisan discussion a lot of people say, wait, i thought this was a bipartisan discussion. so what happens from here?

what does that mean exactly? >> yeah, it's really tough. we're june 9th. so we're five months into this administration. when you look at the time, it's not on the sides of these bipartisan negotiations. right now you do see republicans and democrats on the hill finding this next path that they are going to try to talk about. i do think that this is going to -- we're going to kind of see whether or not they can come together on something in the next week or two. certainly before the july 4th recess. time is of the essence. and democrats particularly in the progressive side, have very little patience for this. i think from the beginning they've been very skeptical that republicans are going to do anything. right? one of the biggest sticking points has been how do we pay for this, right? republicans don't want to do anything except for shift covid money they think is unspenced to this effort. that's not going to do it for what democrats want. so basically you'll see senator bernie sanders, budget committee chairman, move on his own to try to enforce this other issue of reconciliation, a budget to go forward.

so you're going to see these two things happen in tandem. and at some point we're going to really be able to see pretty quickly, i think, whether or not any momentum comes out of this bigger negotiation. >> so, while all of this percolates back in the u.s., shannon pettypiece, let's talk about the president's first trip overseas. what are the clear goals in front of him? and how much of this trip is just going to be pressing reset from the past four years? and will that be challenging? >> well, he's certainly got a big task ahead of him. not only is there this global pandemic we have going on that's just up ended the world economy and the growing aggression from russia, the rise of china and their dominance, but in order to tackle all these challenges, president biden needs his allies, needs these western allies behind them. and so many of them are quite skeptical after what they've been through with four years of trump administration. you know, and going back through

some of the old stories about these g7 meetings, i was reminded of some of the things that went down like when president trump then stormed out to meet with kim jong-un early and lash out at justin trudeau on twitter. there was so much drama unfolded between the u.s. and these countries over the past four years that's really led to nerves and jitters about whether or not president biden is going to be just a blip on the radar before america returns to this america first nationalist style of foreign policy. and this question about whether the world can trust the u.s. on any international agreements it might enter into, like a paris climate agreement or an iran nuclear deal. so the administration acknowledges that that's priority number one, is to restabilize these relationships, to reaffirm america's place at the table, to overcome that skepticism. and then only with that, only with the united front from the allies can the u.s. and others start taking on these bigger

challenges like russia and china and ransomware attacks and climate change and everything else on the ambitious list of things that the president would like to accomplish. >> a lot to do. shannon, thank you. let's bring on the president of the council on foreign relations and author of the book "the world:a brief introduction" richard haass. richard, as shannon just framed out, senior white house official described the trip similarly. it's the first trip. it's a packed schedule. the goal of the trip is far more about america taking its place on the world stage. what does that mean, though, in terms of the foreign policy goals but also challenges in front of this president? >> well, you're right. and the 80% of life is showing up department. this is a bilateral set of meetings with the urk and g7, nato and european union. check, check, check, all the principled ally groupings we

have globally as well as in europe in large part it's a way of setting the foundation to deal with vladimir putin and also with xi jinping's china. look, the principle challenges of this year are not just these two great powers, china and russia, it's also these global issues. that's where covid comes in. that's where the global corporate tax comes in. that's where climate change comes in. and this administration's default option is to essentially do it with others. it's multilateralism. details to come. the president comes with some wind in his sails. you have the american response to covid, impressive by any and every standard. u.s. economy recovery, impressive by every standard. i think it's hurt, though, by the fact that we haven't had a serious coordinated policy about exporting vaccines to the rest of the world. and i think that will be one of the principle questions. can the united states and its principle global partners agree on a financial as well as medical approach to dealing with covid and the rest of the world.

>> so richard, the president leaves a couple hours from now. he'll be at the g7, nato summit but most people have circled the date on the kal ena week from today, the meeting with russian president vladimir putin. what should we expect there in contrast to the posture of donald trump? >> the theatrics will be different. this is not a summit. this is not a leader of the free world meeting the former head of the soviet union. this is the president of the united states in a somewhat different position, meeting vladimir putin ahead of russia. i think 90% of this is to agree to disagree. we'll put on the table what we can think and said we did. he'll push back. he won't give any ground whatsoever. putin gets up in the morning and he sees the united states that promotes democracy and human rights and the rule of law as out to get him. he sees us as inextricably opposed to what he wants which

is continued rule. we obviously disagree of locking up of political opponents and what he's doing in ukraine. i do think one thing, they'll come away a slightly better understanding and joe biden is not looking for a confrontation with vladimir putin. why? he wants to focus on things domestic. he wants to focus on china. if he can calm down the russia relationship a little bit, i think he'll be more than happy. >> the white house press corp. traveling to europe ahead of president biden was delayed because of cicadas. last night the a.p.'s jonathan lemire tweeted quote, the white house press charter, flying from dulles to europe ahead of president biden, has been delayed for hours, due to mechanical issues caused by cicadas. yes, those bulges. wheels up at 9:00 p.m., but the swarm of cicadas envaded the plane's engine delayed al 3:00

a.m. a new plane and pilot brought in from new york and ohio. the white house arranged for pizza and some hotel rooms for the journalists to wait out that delay. i can't even, willie. i can't even. >> yeah. we've heard of bird strikes but cicada strikes are something entirely new. glad they got off the ground safely, though. the latest on the pandemic, president biden's goal of getting 70% of american adults vaccinated with at least one shot by the 4th of july. as nbc news correspondent miguel almaguer reports that goal looking less and less likely. >> reporter: our nation is no longer on track to meet the president's 4th of july goal, now more likely to partially inoculate 67, not 70% of all adults and now the delta variant first identified in india is exploding across the uk and could threaten the young here at home. >> we cannot let that happen in the united states. >> reporter: the white house

says these are critical weeks, pushing to inject new enthusiasm into vaccinations. >> think of this when you think of vaccination. >> reporter: with states hungry to boost numbers, burgers and beers are being offered to holdouts. the golden state turning to green, offering cash payouts to the vaccinated. >> number 25. >> reporter: in west virginia they're giving away trucks and guns. washington state dispensaries offering joints for jabs. legal marijuana to inoculated adults. the former surgeon general tweeting, donuts, gambling, are cigarettes next? still incentives have worked though they may no longer be providing the same shot in the arm. >> we're getting desperate, we're giving weed to go get your vaccine. >> your timing is awful. you did it way too soon. >> i was a little early. but we were just discussing in this break here that we do have excess of vaccines.

we need more people vaccinated here. doesn't look like we're going to reach that 70% threshold at this point. the biden administration announcing we're going to share a lot of that vaccine with other parts of the world who desperately need it. what do you see in these numbers in america right now? >> well, that pause that was done on the j&j vaccine, we now have soon to expire supply. look this country the bottom line is we have an excess of supply of demand. rest of the world, mirror image. we should be much more forthcoming. i really don't understand why we held back. but even if we do all that, it's not even close to enough. we have 8 billion people in the world with a b. so an extra 25 million american vaccines is a drop in the bucket. we have got to come up with a plan and quite honestly, the administration's other plan isn't going to work. it's basically force the companies to make available all their intellectual property to get the w.t.o., the world trade organization to buy into that that will take years to do and the companies, we invested all

these years of money, why should we give it away for free? we need another approach to this and that's again i think the single most important thing to happen this week at the g7. >> so, richard mentioned the doses of single shot johnson & johnson vaccine that are about to expire, the buildup is because of the 11 day pause in the distribution due to safety concerns. ohio has 200,000 doses that will expire in two weeks. west virginia has some 20,000 that could expire. lead white house covid adviser andy slavitts says the fda is trying to figure out if it can extend the vaccine's shelf life and we have to get the world vaccinated. pfizer is expanding the vaccine testing trials in children under the age of 12. the study will enroll up to 4,500 children at more than 90 clinical sites in the u.s., finland, poland and spain after selecting a lower dose of the

shot in an earlier stage of the trial. for now, the company is testing its vaccine at lower doses in grade schoolers than adolescents and still lower doses in younger children. if those trials provide a safe and immune response, pfizer is expected to request federal authorization in september or october to provide the vaccine to children ages 5 to 11. and a little later in the fall for children even younger, which could help a little bit. and still ahead on "morning joe," senator joe manchin opposes one of the voting rights bills in congress. and now senator mitch mcconnell has come out against the other. what is the future of voting rights on the hill? we'll talk to the president of the national urban league, mark morial who took part in a meeting between civil rights leaders and senator joe manchin yesterday. plus, chair of the senate homeland security committee, senator gary peters will join

the conversation following the release of that bipartisan report on the capitol insurrection. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪♪ finding new routes to reach your customers, and new ways for them to reach you... is what business is all about. it's what the united states postal service has always been about. so as your business changes, we're changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide. same day shipping across town. returns right from the doorstep, and deliveries seven days a week. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting. welcome to allstate. ♪ ♪ you already pay for car insurance,

why not take your home along for the ride? allstate. here, better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands. click or call to bundle today. hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try using the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless. pick something we all like. ok. hold on. what's your buick's wi-fi password? “buickenvision2021.” oh, you should pick something stronger. that's really predictable. that's a really tight spot. don't worry. i used to hate parallel parking. [all together] me too. - hey. - you really outdid yourself. yes, we did. the all-new buick envision. an suv built around you... all of you. keeping your oysters business growing an suv built has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job

at indeed.com/promo my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. tremfya® is the only medication of its kind also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options. another day, another chance. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. 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.

as you look to what the majority leader has in mind for june, it's pretty clear the era of bipartisanship is over. >> welcome back. joe is off. not sure when the era of bipartisanship ever began. but okay. that includes for voting rights. as we reported senator joe manchin dashed hopes on sunday of passing a sweeping election overhaul bill that would guarantee universal access to mail-in voting and secure 15 days of early voting in every state.

the for the people act has the backing of top party leaders including president biden. despite his meeting yesterday with top civil rights leaders, the west virginia democrat remains unmoved. >> what we had was a great -- we had a respectful, we had a very informative and it was a very good conversation that we had and starting of a good relationship. it really was. >> manchin says he would back a different voting rights bill, but that too is facing serious obstacles. named after john lewis, it faces uphill climb to break a filibuster in the senate. senator majority leader mitch mcconnell made that clear again yesterday. >> there's no threat to the voting rights law. it's against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already. and so i think it's unnecessary. >> joining us now president and ceo of the national urban league who organized that meeting with senator manchin and civil rights

leaders yesterday. great to see you this morning. >> good morning, willie. >> take us inside the room but i think it was a zoom call so take us inside the zoom call we heard senator manchin using terms like respectful and courteous i'm not sure that moved the ball forward in the way you hoped it would. but what was the case you made for senator manchin. >> we thought it was important for senator manchin to hear directly through us, not through staff, intermedias, through media how important the for the people act is and how important the john lewis voting rights advancement act are to confronting the tsunami, the pandemic, the onslaught of voter suppression legislation which is sweeping across the nation. now, let's be clear, we asked senator manchin to reconsider his position on the for the people act and certainly we did not change his mind in this meeting. but we, i think, spent a good

deal of timesharing with him how outrageous, ridiculous, discriminatory and unnecessary many of these new laws and proposed new laws are in light of the record voter turnout and the flawless election we had in 2020. we also spent a great deal of time talking about the filibuster from the standpoint of its history, willie. the filibuster has been used for better than 100 years, but it has primarily been used to block civil rights legislation. yes, it's been used for other things, but its primary use over the years whether it's richard russell, straum thurman and others and now mitch mcconnell is, if you will, standing in that tradition. the tradition of richard russell and strom thurman saying he'll use a filibuster to block the

john lewis voting rights advancement act. i think it was a low moment. i know senator mcconnell. he has said to me on numerous occasions how proud he is of his record on civil rights. he just threw that away with his announcement yesterday. i think the american people need to be clear, he's smart enough to know that these voter suppression laws are discriminatory, they're intentionally discriminatory. they're designed to suppress the votes of black and brown people. and he set himself up as an obstacle, as a stone wall to what the majority of the american people want. so with senator manchin, we agreed to meet again. it was a starting point because from a civil rights leadership perspective, from a national urban league perspective, from my point of view, we are not going to give up. we're not going to give in fighting to pass these bills. this is a tough climb. we know it's a hard climb.

but it is something that has to be done. it's so crucial when you look. i looked this morning again at what is happening at the state level. if you look at these bills, willie, they sound like something out of soviet russia . if you look at what they seek to do. they're absurd, unnecessary, oppressive. >> let's underline senator mcconnell didn't just come out to opposition of the for the people act, which we knew, he also believed the john lewis voting rights bill is, quote, unnecessary. so you're not going to get to 60 votes that way. so, what did you say to joe manchin, who said, look, i'm for the john lewis voting rights bill. i just can't go as far as the for the people act? is that a compromise you would be willing to accept the people on that call yesterday, they said, look, we prefer for the people, but we'll take your vote on john lewis? >> we need both. it's not a compromise. the two work in tandem with each other. they're different legislative

instruments because of some constitutional requirements the build the particular record in the case of john lewis bill, but we need both. now here is what i think we can fairly characterize, joe manchin's objections as being procedural and political. they did not seem to be in large measure to the substance of the for the people act, although we did not get into a detailed discussion about that. this is really turning into a question of whether there are people in the republican caucus, a number of people in the republican caucus, who will follow in the tradition, the american tradition, on voting bills, whether it's the previous voting rights act, whether it's the voter registration act in the '90s or many, many other voting bills who will follow in the tradition that they have always been bipartisan. why now, why now has the issue of protecting democracy and

access to the ballot box become a partisan exercise because you're more interested in power than you are in american values? more interested in power and maintenance of power or reacquisition of power than you are in some of the fundamental principles upon which this nation has been formed and which many have fought to improve. john lewis, john lewis, we know his tradition. yesterday i think was a low day in the career of mitch mcconnell when he said, quote unquote, it's unnecessary. he knows better than that. he's a smart enough lawyer. he's playing intellectual games with the necessity of protecting democracy. and i think there's got to be a focus on the idea that he has now become the number one obstacle i think to this idea of bipartisanship in the united states senate.

because he is before you have hearings, before you have negotiations, before you have conversations, he's drawing lines in the sand. >> yeah. well, anna palmer, sort of he's shown who he is to an extent. i guess there's always hope for renewal. but i would like to ask you about joe manchin and just what are the sticking points here, or is this an impossibility and are we really at the point in our country where we can't improve voting rights legislation? we can't pass anything? >> i think it is going to be a very uphill battle. i mean, when you look at the voting rights issue, joe manchin is clearly the democrat that groups and others are looking to because they need him. but he's one democrat you're going to need at least ten republicans here. and mitch mcconnell said what a lot of republicans feel and where they are, they're not going to support any of this. when you look back at s1, a

fundamental bill for democrats that have -- they have said this is going to be their issue, chuck schumer said he's going to put this on the floor before the end of the summer which sliekly going to fail, but when it even came into the committee, you had both chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell, it's an existential crisis for both parties in the sense that democrats believe it is necessary and republicans are fighting tooth and nail on every issue when it comes to this. so i don't think that this is going to be something where you're going to find even a modicum of the ability for bipartisanship. you know, it just is -- the two parties are so fractured when it comes to this issue. >> and what about police reform? is there any hope on that front, anna? >> yeah. we were actually reporting this morning in punch bowl news our morning newsletter that actually they're starting to circulate some text here which is the first step. i would say i cautiously, optimistic when you talk to the

negotiators that they actually have found some agreement on these issues. so definitely they're looking to try to find a pathway forward here in the next two to three weeks to find out can they actually come to an agreement. but the fact that they're circulating text i think is very optimistic. one other note of optimism i feel like i often come on and very bearish about most deals but something we're watching really closely is immigration reform and you have some senator negotiators led by dick durbin meeting today on that. and that's been an issue that's really kind of been in the background. we haven't really seen a lot of progress on that but the fact that they're meeting is something that's noteworthy and something we'll be watching really closely. >> anna palmer, thank you. mark morial, thank you as well. we appreciate you both coming on this morning. and coming up, body guards jump in after a member of the public slapped the french president in the face yesterday. we'll show you that moment. plus, president biden's

first trip overseas will begin in the uk where he is scheduled to meet the british prime minister. but before he takes off, britain's beard to the u.s., karen pierce joins us straight ahead right here on "morning joe." ♪♪ e is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. dry eye symptoms again? inflammation might be to blame. time for ache and burn! over-the-counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. those probably won't touch me. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. xiidra,... ...noooo! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda- approved non-steroid treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease

one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra, wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. talk to an eye doctor about xiidra. i prefer you didn't. xiidra. not today, dry eye. obsession has many names. this is ours. the lexus is. all in on the sport sedan. lease the 2021 is 300 for $379 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. you're strong. you power through chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a month, ...each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. so, if you haven't tried botox® for your chronic migraine, ...check with your doctor if botox® is right for you, and if samples are available. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing,

...speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness... ...can be signs of a life- threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions... ...neck and injection site pain... ...fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions... ...and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. most patients may pay as little as $0 for botox®. so, text to see how you can save. botox® has been preventing headaches and migraines before they even start for 10 years. so, ask your doctor about botox® today. ♪ so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so, ask your doctor about botox® today. so you only pay for what you need. hot dog or... chicken? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

♪♪ welcome back to "morning joe." what a beautiful shot of new york city as the sun comes up this morning. it's 37 past the hour. french president emmanuel macron was slapped while visiting a small town in southeastern france. the president was greeting the public following a visit to a local high school when a man shook macron's hand and slapped him across the face. oh my god. body guards immediately moved in to protect the president, who

continued to greet others. authorities have detained the man and a friend who was with him calling the incident isolated. let me just stop right there. richard haass, what happened? >> the slap heard across the world. look, france is so polarized now. you have a presidential election next year and there's a whole slice of french society that essentially thinks macron represents this internationalist core that is somehow losing france to the muslims and so forth and you have the far right candidate challenging him. this is a truly divided society and my hunch is the slap is a manifestation -- >> wow, look at you. speaking middle school french. >> yes. >> well, i just hit the security team around him definitely needs to do a little better.

that is just terrible. that was scary. president biden embarks on his first trip overseas as president today. the eight-day visit will start in the united kingdom for a meeting with prime minister boris johnson and the g7 summit in cornwall. in a washington post op-ed last week the president discussed his trip writing, this is a defining question of our time. can democracies come together to deliver real results for our people in a rapidly changing world? will the democratic alliances and institutions that shaped so much of the last century prove their capacity against modern day threats and adversaries? i believe the answer is yes. and this week in europe we have the chance to prove it. joining us now, british ambassador to the united states karen pierce. thank you very much, madame

ambassador, for joining us. i do think the president's words are truly important and there are a lot of challenges not just in the u.s. but around the world. i guess first of all, how big a difference is it that it is joe biden joining the world stage on this trip rather than the former guy, and what are the challenges ahead that he's talking about, do you think? >> i think we're very delighted to welcome president biden and the first lady to the uk as the first stop on their european trip. there's a lot of interest in a new administration, and that's very helpful for some of these big themes. we shared the president's emphasis on open societies, open markets, liberal democratic values. i think we are in a struggle with authoritarianism and the g7 brings together the world's major democracies and industrially advanced countries. we have an opportunity to set

the agenda on the new threats confronting the world, whether they're from technology, whether they're from climate, whether they're from disease. and we have an opportunity to try and do that in a way that is more equitable and gives everybody, every citizen, a real stake in the outcomes we're looking at. so this will be a lot about vaccines. it will be a lot about economic recovery after covid. it will also be about open societies. >> ambassador pierce, thank you for being with us this morning. this trip has been framed including by president biden as a resetting of american relationships abroad and to just reach out, frankly, to allies and remind them who we are and of our relationships. but let's get a little more granular. what's the first item on the agenda when the prime minister sits down with president biden? what does prime minister johnson want out of this meeting? >> well, i think we're going to talk a lot about open societies. prime minister boris johnson really shares the president's emphasis on that. he shares the president's

interest in what freedom and democratic values can do for the ordinary citizen. they both have a very strong interest in how foreign policy and domestic policy are mutually re-enforcing and how also you can do what we call leveling up, bringing everybody to an equitable share in society, what tends to be called an america foreign policy for the middle class, but it's not just about foreign policy. it's about trying to give everybody a fair share of all the benefits that the modern economy can create. >> ambassador richard haass of the council on foreign relations is here with us and has a question. richard? >> good morning, madame ambassador. do you think the united states is seen in your country as a credible spokesman for democracy given what happened over the last four years, given january 6th, given what we've just been talking about this morning the inability to build majorities to pass legislation in this

country, how do people in britain now -- what do they see when they look at the united states? >> good morning, richard. there's tremendous affection and respect and admiration in britain for the united states. there's a lot of interest in president biden and most people in britain as the prime minister said, most people see the united states as a beacon for democracy and they look to the united states to be a leading force for good in the world, something we support, we want to problem solve, we want to burden share with that. i think there has been a bit of a trust deficit with the united states over the previous years. people were very distressed in the uk and europe about what they saw on 6th of january. but that doesn't shake the fundamental belief in transatlantic cooperation and fundamental belief that the united states is a champion of open societies. so i am quite hopeful on that

front. i think the president will set it out well. >> on a slightly different question, your prime minister has talked about the goal of vaccinating the entire world by the end of next year. are you confident coming out of the next couple of days, beginning in your country, going through the g7 and the eu meetings that there is consensus to do that? do you essentially think we have the financial and the manufacturing commitment to do just that? >> i think we will get there at the summit. it's a very important theme for boris johnson, as you say. very important theme for president biden. i think the other g7 leaders will come together and will be able to be a good package. manufacturing capability, i'm interested you raise that. i think that is an issue just because everybody, not just in the developing world started behind the curve on that, if you like. but i think most definitely the

will to try to get a really good package for the developing world and get closer to a more equitable distribution of the vaccine. >> all right, uk ambassador to the u.s., karen pierce, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. and still ahead, vice president kamala harris pushes back when pressed by nbc's lester holt on whether she plans to visit the southern border. how she later tried to clean up her very awkward answer and the complicated issues as it pertains to the border, that's all straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪♪

♪ ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa i'm here and suddenly... usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ...my migraine takes me somewhere else. where there's pain, and nausea. but excedrin pulls me back in a way others don't. and it relieves my symptoms fast for real migraine relief.

there's interest you accrue, and interests you pursue. plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com. (man) i've made progress with my mental health. so when i started having unintentional body movements called tardive dyskinesia... ... i ignored them. but when the movements in my hands and feet started throwing me off at work... i finally had to say, 'it's not ok.' it was time to talk to my doctor about austedo. she said that austedo helps reduce td movements in adults... ...while i continue with most of my mental health medications. (vo) austedo can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, behaviors, feelings, or have suicidal thoughts. common side effects include inflammation of the nose and

throat, insomnia and sleepiness. don't take austedo if you have liver problems, are taking reserpine, tetrabenazine, or valbenazine. austedo may cause irregular or fast heartbeat, restlessness, movements mimicking parkinson's disease, fever, stiff muscles, problems thinking, and sweating. (man) talk to your doctor about austedo... it's time to treat td. td is not ok. visit askforaustedo.com

♪♪ welcome back to "morning joe." 6:49 in the morning. beautiful live picture of our nation's capitol. vice president kamala harris, as you know, was on a trip. she's back in d.c. now to mexico and guatemala to talk about her role on the mexican border and

with immigration. she sat down with an exclusive interview with lester holt. here is how that exchange went. >> do you have any plans to visit the border? >> at some point, you know. we are going to the border. we've been to the border. >> you've -- >> so this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. we've been to the border. >> you haven't been to the border? >> and i haven't been to europe. i mean, i don't understand the point that you're making. i'm not discounting the importance of the border -- >> you need to see this. >> i care about what's happening at the border. i'm in guatemala because my focus is dealing with the root causes of migration. there may be some who think that that is not important. but is my firm belief that if we care about what's happening at the border, we better care about the root causes and address them. so that's what i'm doing. >> the vice president was pressed again later in the day about whether she would visit

the border. >> yes, i will and i have before. i think it's short sighted for any of us in the business of problem solving to suggest we're only going to respond to the reaction as opposed to addressing the cause. >> so richard, she has been to the border. she's a senator from california. obviously she's been to the border. but not terribly adept in that exchange with lester holt about saying whether she would go or not. you can do both things at once, address the root causes and visit the border i'm sure she will short order. >> yes, you have to do both things. it's like a layered approach. you have to deal with the root cause. the problem is that's generational work. that ain't going to help the masses of people at the border. you should be sending these people vaccines. you should get their economy going. that will help. but you do have to do things at the border and this administration ran into problems early on signaling people were more welcome. she tried to reverse this when

she said do not come this trip and immediately jumped on by the progressives. just shows what a mine field this. do we let people in so-called asylum thing while we're adjudicating their case while coming to the united states. historically yes, the previous administration said no. this administration is doing it again. but the numbers are overwhelming our capacities. the answer is there is no answer and i think that's what you saw there. >> so richard, though, here she is -- i get it. it wasn't the greatest answer. not defending that. but she's on these trips meeting with these world leaders, talking about the origins of why these people want to leave their countries and she's getting nailed on whether or not she's been to the u.s./mexico border. i get it. her answer could have been better, but isn't the question about what is happening on these trips? what are the tough conversations

that she's having with these leaders about why people want to leave and what do we know about what happened there? because that's the very difficult i would say almost impossible to navigate landscape when you're dealing with countries that have a lot of corruption that have a lot of reasons why people want to leave and she's going there and getting in their face. doesn't she deserve some credit for that? and what do we know about what came out of it? >> look, it's brutally difficult because you're right, mika. people want to leave because of drug cartels and crime. they want to leave because of lack of economic opportunity. there's enormous economic gap between their economies and what they see as the prospects in this country. i had a conversation yesterday with someone in peru. he told me that 100,000 people from peru have come to the united states. it's almost vaccine tourism. they come here. they pay for the flights. they come here to get these inexpensive shots and then they go home. but you have 100 different

dynamics that are leading people towards coming to the united states. and as a result, our policy has to have all these dimensions and it's politically just loaded. she's right when she says immigration policy cannot simply begin at the border. she's right. on the other hand, it's not going to succeed if we only try to, quote unquote, address the root causes. that's a 20-year proposition. you need it all. you need the full spectrum of responses and politically it's one of those radio active issues within her own party and between republicans and democrats. she has been put, i would argue, in a something between a difficult and an impossible position. she obviously didn't help herself with the way she answered that question. but even if she answered the question perfectly, this is not an assignment. my sense is that people who are cueing up to get from president biden. >> and mika, the point of lester's question there and of course he was there covering her trip and looking at the root causes of that, yes, we have to look at root causes but there's a crisis at the border right now

today. and you have to address that today while you look at the root causes down the road. >> i think also part of leading is optics and showing that -- and showing what you care about and what your goals are and going to the border would have made a big difference. this has been a discussion for weeks. i'm not sure why it hasn't happened. it's a lot easier said than done, but perhaps should have been a priority. coming up, infrastructure talks collapse between the president and a group of senate republican. kasie hunt joins us with her reporting on what's next for negotiations. plus, when asked, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell declined to directly answer whether the january 6th capitol attack was an insurrection. it was. we'll remind him what he said back in january when he said it was. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪♪ who goes right back to sleep after getting an alert

of an unusual charge on their credit card? you do. round the clock fraud protection. one of the many things you can expect when you're with amex. from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. one, two! one, two, three! only pay for what you need!

with customized car insurance from liberty mutual! nothing rhymes with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ hearing is important to living life to the fullest. that's why inside every miracle-ear store, you'll find better bedtime stories. you'll find a better life is in store at miracle-ear, when you experience the exclusive miracle-ear advantage. it starts with our free hearing assessment. plus innovative products that fit your needs and budget. with free service and adjustments for life. we're so confident we can improve your life, we're offering a 30-day risk-free trial. call 1-800-miracle today and experience the miracle-ear advantage for yourself.

call 1-800-miracle today and experience hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different.

oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this... your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee... yeah i should've just led with that... with at&t business... you can pick the best plan for each employee and only pay for the features they need. ♪ every bubble ♪ ♪ every scrub ♪ ♪ every spray ♪ ♪ every day ♪ ♪ dove and degree fund local youth programs. ♪ every day u does good ♪ unilever

♪♪ welcome back to "morning joe." it's just about the top of the hour on wednesday, june 9th. joe is off today. joining the conversation we have nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early" kasie hunt. white house editor for politico, sam stein. white house correspondent for politico and co-author of "the play book" eugene daniels he's an msnbc contributor and senior columnist for the daily beast matt lewis along with willie and me. a lot to get to this hour. president biden's talks with a group of republican senators on a sweeping infrastructure package collapsed yesterday, shifting the debate on one of his key domestic priorities. on going meetings between biden and west virginia senator shelley moore capito fell through after the two remained far apart on a total price tag

on which types of projects should be included and whether to raise any new taxes. kind of like everything. now any hopes of bipartisan deal falls on a group of senators including republican mitt romney and democrat joe manchin, who met for three hours yesterday hashing out details of their own agenda. so kasie, what do you make -- who is playing who here? what's the strategy that you see coming out of this? is everything going to fall apart? or does one bill have something to do with the other in terms of joe manchin and republicans who perhaps want to get something done? >> the reality here, mika is that president biden is running out of time if he wants to try to get anything else done besides this. he has to get moving. they set a memorial day deadline and have blown past that. i think it's important to talk to senator joe manchin.

he made clear he is willing to say no to being the 50th vote for what democrats need. so, here i think they at least have to give it a chance with him. they have to give him a little cover to say, hey, i tried. i tried to talk to republicans. perhaps we would have gotten there. but you know what, it just didn't work out in the end. so i think they are going to have to give that a little time here and maybe they'll get something small they can push through with 60 votes in a bipartisan manner. but the reality is this sweeping, these changes to the social safety net, the kinds of spending that the white house wants to do, i think it's pretty clear by now that they know they're going to have to do it with just democratic votes and the white house is pushing pretty hard behind the scenes to get senate democrats to set up the process to do that pretty quickly. >> so eugene daniels, senator capito said she was disappointed by this or little bit surprised that the talks were cut off. she thought they were having a conversation and perhaps now she

believes it was theatrical conversation for the purpose of projecting bipartisanship. but what happened at the end of the day here for the white house to pull out and move on to a new option? >> yeah. they just couldn't find common ground on some of the key, key issues. one being what infrastructure is, which we've been talking about for months since president biden outlined his plan originally. but they also couldn't decide and most importantly probably on the pay fors. republicans do not, have not, want to touch their 2017 tax cuts. they don't want to raise any of those rates on corporations, so that's something that they have put as a red line and that is what the white house wants to do. and president biden has been very clear that that's something that is the way that he wants to pay for it and that the white house wants this paid for. so that is something that's really important. and they talked about whether or not they want to do behind the scenes do this with some deficit spending and hopefully the

infrastructure, quote unquote, pays for itself. but that's not where it is. and i think what really happened is that progressives are just pushing biden to move on, right? he's moved on to another talk, but they want him to move on, stop doing all this talking because they say to us behind the scenes, reporters behind the scenes, we should have learned our lessons in 2009 when it comes to republicans and negotiating and trying to find so much common ground. they feel like they wasted their time a lot of time in the obama years trying to figure out what republicans wanted and feel like they pulled the republicans would pull the rug out from underneath them. so they're saying this is -- and i think representative who heads up the things in the house, she called it foolish, this moving on to the second round of talks. so, how long will they allow this to play out? like kasie said, they're just running out of time. biden knows that. people in the white house i talked to know that. they say that biden does want to get this bipartisan deal and at

the very least give joe manchin that cover. >> so, i mean, here is the backdrop and what republicans are left with for themselves if they don't want to work together. i mean, they've got a lot to speak for in terms of really just exactly how committed they are to anything. house speaker nancy pelosi notified democrats in the house yesterday that it will be pursuing its own commission to look into the january 6th attack on the capitol, something republicans will not admit was an insurrection. in a letter to house colleagues, pelosi signaled that if the senate fails to establish a bipartisan january 6th commission, then the house will pursue its own investigations. meanwhile, senate majority leader chuck schumer informed members of his caucus that he will force the senate to vote on a bill to establish a bipartisan january 6th commission again in the future. he's going to keep trying. but here we go.

when asked yesterday about the attack, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell declined to directly answer whether the january 6th capitol attack was an insurrection. >> would you define the events of january 6th as an insurrection. >> look, i've said a lot about that already. i said it on january 6th. i said it again february 13th. i've covered that comprehensively and i really don't think there's anything i can add. >> really? there's nothing to add. so he talks about the fact that he said what he said on january 6th. and he really, really doesn't want to say more. why? why doesn't he want to say more? why doesn't he want to validate that this was an attack on our democracy. that people were killed. that people were tortured. that laws were broken. that our democracy was interrupted in process. why? let's see. he did say that he said it on the 6th.

so, as the senate minority leader suggested, here is exactly what he said on the 6th and on both of those days he mentioned. >> the united states and the united states congress, have faced down much greater threats than the unhinged crowd we saw today. we've never been deterred before. and we'll be not deterred today. they tried to disrupt our democracy. they failed. they failed. they failed to attempt to obstruct the congress, this failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic. january 6th was a disgrace. american citizens attacked their own government. they used terrorism to stop a

specific piece of business they did not like. fellow americans beat and bloodied our own police. they stormed the senate floor. they tried to hunt down the speaker of the house. they built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. >> okay. thank you, mitch mcconnell, again. these are his words and he said these are his words you have to go look up for january 6th and the 13th. they tried to disrupt our democracy. you can see that happening. this is what he's talking about. these people storming the capitol. climbing in the windows. beating each other. using american flags as weapons. he says they failed. they failed to attempt to obstruct the congress. this failed insurrection only

underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic. that's from mitch mcconnell. so let me go to matt lewis. matt, i appreciate that he said these words. and i appreciate that he referred back to them. that he calls this what it is, an insurrection. but help our viewers understand why this can't be validated moving forward and investigated on every level, why we wouldn't want to put this behind us by knowing what it was and moving away from it. >> well, mitch mcconnell obviously doesn't want to bring it up because bringing it up reminds everyone that it was donald trump who incited this riot. and if mitch mcconnell does that, he will anger donald trump. we don't know what that would lead to. for mitch mcconnell's political future. we also mitch mcconnell doesn't

want to ever talk about january 6th because that could put in jeopardy republican's chances to take back the senate. so he's making a political calculation that it's best to move on and pretend this never happened. and he feels like he could check the box because he did as we just heard, at least once very eloquently spelled out what happened and condemned it, so he checked that box and can always say, hey, i said this was bad. and the problem is if you listen to what mitch mcconnell how horrific it is, anybody who really believes what he said wouldn't be content with just saying it once and never saying it again especially if nothing is being done to address it. if you believed american democracy was attacked on january january 6th, nothing

done to address it to make sure it wasn't happened again, you wouldn't say it once. you would continue to talk about it. so i think the honest truth here is that mitch mcconnell is putting his desire to move on and to succeed politically ahead of his desire to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again. and i think that's obviously an indictment on mitch mcconnell. >> well, and kasie hunt, we're going to be taking a look at a new morning consult politico polling that talks about how people feel about whether or not our democracy is being threatened. many of them do. it seems to me it would be everyone's job in congress, anyone who was there, to investigate what happened and learn from it and move beyond it in a positive direction if we

don't address it, what are the risks? >> well, it was their house. and what we're seeing right now is an attempt to essentially re-write what happened. mcconnell clearly doesn't want to engage in the re-writing of it. he's not taking back his words. he handled it in exactly how he handles these controversial things all the time, but we're talking about it now because how -- of how dramatic and significant that day was. and you know, yesterday i spoke to a member of the capitol police. we were just showing video of those protests -- of those rioters, the insurrectionists beating police officers with american flags. this sergeant he told me he was beaten with an american flag and many other things. let me show you a little bit of what he said. watch. >> it was unbelievable, unbelievable.

the crowd, they wouldn't listen to anything the police were saying at all. they continued to say we are here because our president, president trump, sent us here. we won't listen to nobody else but him. >> and that point, he heard them say that, president trump sent us here. we're only going to listen to him. he also told me that the rioters told him in that moment, in these moments that they were there for nancy pelosi. they were there for mike pence. they were there to try to overthrow what was happening inside, which was the certification of the election. it's a dictionary definition of an insurrection. they also called him a trader. somebody who served in iraq wearing u.s. army uniform before he started wearing the uniform of the u.s. capitol police. and you know, he also told me he's never been political before in his life. and he said, look, even these people who now are denying what

happened that day, if they were under threat, i would do my job. i would follow through with my oath. i would protect them. but he said that he was home on the couch. it was his second day back on the job yesterday because he was so badly injured in the riot he had to have foot surgery. he was watching media coverage of the day that the vote was held on the january 6th commission and watched brian sicknick, that police officer who died in the wake of the insurrection, he watched his mother go door to door pleading, pleading, with members of congress to please investigate what happened the day that her son died. and you know, sergeant said that could have been my wife. that could have been my child who was going door to door asking them to please, please find justice for me. and so he said, you know what, i can't stay silent anymore. we need to underscore he was speaking in his personal capacity. he was not speaking on behalf of

the police force. but these people are going to work everyday. they're protecting these members of congress every single day. they are doing their job. they are following through on their oath even as they now, many of them, try to say, nope. this actually wasn't an insurrection. >> yeah. there were traitors there that day but it was not the police officers. sam stein, you think about officer sick nick's mother going door to door, asking, pleading with a meeting with republicans to try to change their mind on that vote on a january 6th commission. you hear the testimony in an interview to kasey from the officer there, listen to interview with officer michael fanone on the ground beaten, pleading for his life, thinking about his father daughters and how they would go past this. i know we moved past this conversation, i just honestly don't know on a human level how you cannot take a meeting with officer sicknick's mother and not want to stop and pause just on behalf of the officers, if you can't do it for democracy,

can't do it for the benefit of the country, if you're really that trembling and scared of donald trump and what he might think to stop and just review the facts of what happened on january 6th, and review the facts of what led to that day so we have a full accounting and we make sure it never happens again. >> it's wild and depressing. obviously it's ironic, too. political party that aligned itself repeatedly with the police to a certain degree has resisted calls or ignored a faction of police asking for help and their attention. there's an irony there, too. this all makes me think back to a story that we did at huff post when i was there about seven years ago about mitch mcconnell. the title of the story was he's the ultimate machiavellian. i remember the story because mcconnell leaned into it, they thought it was a compliment.

they think that his -- the degree to which he strategizes and pursues power is a compliment. and in this case, he's made a very sort of machiavellian conversation that matt alluded to which is that if we can simply get this behind us, if we can leave the retrospectives to law enforcement, to the judiciary and not have members of congress have to do the dirty work of investigating and figuring what happened to our house and our chambers, if we can simply stop talking about it and move on, perhaps it would benefit the republican party for pretty obvious reasons. one is you don't want to have the footage we've been playing being played up to the lead-up of the 2022 elections, but two, very obviously, is that donald trump simly would go off on any republican who puts his or her fingerprints on a commission like this. it would be essentially a civil war within the republican ranks over the findings and

participation in this committee. so mcconnell made his calculation. it looks like it will hold. now the ball is in pelosi's court essentially. what will she do? will republicans bother to participate in that committee? there's questions if they want or will. what kind of powers or scope will it have? this thing will be investigated one way or another, i believe. it's just a question of how republicans want to handle it. >> we'll talk to senator gary peters of michigan in just a few minutes. he helped lead the senate investigation that looked a the role of the capitol police and how they weren't prepared that day. but there's so many other aspects that have to be looked at that weren't included in that report. sam, i want to ask about the politico morning consult poll that mika just mentioned, 77% of americans believe that our democracy probably or definitely is being threatened only 13% say it's probably or definitely not, but if you look at the cross tab, sam, it's fascinating.

82% of republicans believe democracy is being threatened. 77% of democrats. so in other words, more republicans than democrats believe democracy is being threatened probably on the other side of the ledger because they believe that the election, many of them, was stolen from them because of the lie they've been fed for the last several months. >> this totally jumped out at me for this precise reason. we've been living through a couple months of voter laws being passed in various states that have democrats worried, restrictive in nature, worried about the future of democracy. we are living in the aftermath of what happened in january 6th. donald trump's insistence it was fraudulent. democrats feel extremely threatened about the threat of democracy and has to polling numbers show they are, 77% is a lot. 82% of republicans to feel this way suggests there's a huge undercurrent of anger, anxiety

over what happened during the 2020 elections that is driving a lot of these laws in the states but it's also nationally, as you know, donald trump is feeding a beast. i'll just note one other data point from this poll which i think gets at it which is couple weeks ago there was fantasy talk of donald trump being reinstated in august. people were dismissive of it. we polled voter perceptions about whether something like that would happen. many, many voters thought not. 29% of republicans, 3 out of every 10 republicans, believe that donald trump is likely to be reinstated in august. it's alarming. it's absurd. but it gets to where we are sort of the psyche of a good chunk of the republican party right now. >> and i mean the fact that you had to ask that question says a lot. >> yeah. >> reinstated as president in august. my god. matt lewis, you look at these numbers from politico and morning consult particularly on

the republican side of it, it's important for our viewers may think, 29% think he'll be reinstated or think there's bamboo in the paper in arizona so they're having an audit of the votes there. there is an entire massive media ecosystem that is telling those stories as truth. and that's what they're absorbing. so while it may be shocking or may make you roll your eyes while you watch this show, there's a parallel universe where that is the story. >> absolutely. look, willie, if i took you for six months and everyday told you the sky is purple. >> yeah. >> or green, and everyone you met said the sky is green, then eventually you would also probably believe the sky is green. that's part of the story here is that we now have siloed ourselves, whether it's media consumption or whether it is the people we interact with, segregating ourselves in communities where people think

just like us. but basically we now have a world where it's entirely possible to live your whole life without really encountering a lot of diverse viewpoints and so basically you have people who get up and turn on fox news and maybe then they listen to podcasts or talk radio and they go to church where everyone agrees with them and they go to a school where everyone agrees with them and basically they're not encountering diverse viewpoints. and one day that wouldn't be a big deal, but over the course of years you eventually have people who believe crazy things, very deeply, and actually it's almost, you know, john edwards talked about the two americas. he had something else in mind. we now kind of have that kind of country. i don't know how we can stay together as a nation when we have completely different world views and not just arguments over opinions but arguments over what, in fact, is reality.

you know, i was a fan when conservatives were originally creating alternate media outlets, right? i felt like there is liberal media bias and it was healthy to have some different perspectives and diversity of opinion. i think what's happened now is not just alternate outlets but it's an alternative reality which is super scary. >> yeah. matt, we started this block by talking about infrastructure and talking about the different bills that both sides are working on and failing. and you know, you have to pull back and look at all of this as the backdrop. there's a reason why things aren't ever going to work in washington because we're not dealing with the same facts and we're not dealing with what happened at the very capitol in the very building where these bills and this legislation is being debated. it's ridiculous. we have to look at what happened at the capitol. we have to get the cancer out of

our politics and i'm sorry, it might be painful for some republicans who depend on trump's lies for their survival. it's the bottom line. you know. i wish it didn't have to be. >> i think that's right, mika. and i think it's informing our politics on things that, you know, let's take, for example, matt i know you mentioned infrastructure. but let's take the latest example where joe manchin is being attacked because he wants to preserve the filibuster and because he opposed, you know, hr-1, this voting rights bill. i think you can make a really compelling argument that joe manchin is well within his rights. he is a duly elected u.s. senator. he has a right to -- just because he's a democrat doesn't mean he has to -- doesn't mean he has to side with what democrats want. you can point out that joe manchin represents the state west virginia that donald trump won by 40 points. you could point out that the

hr-1 has -- is frankly a flawed bill just because we call it a voting rights bill doesn't mean it's good. there very well could be things in it that joe manchin disagrees with. go down the list. democrats if they really wanted to advance a more progressive agenda they could have done a better job of electing more democrats. maybe they should have won that race in maine or north carolina. go through and make all those arguments. i think they're utterly defensive and compelling and from joe manchin's standpoint he's operating in a world that views politics as normal. and he's a senator. he has every right to do what he wants. i think the reason he's getting so much pressure is partly, though, mika, because of the context that you just described. a lot of democrats around the country aren't looking at this as a normal time. they're not -- they're looking at -- >> it's not. >> as an existential crisis and they're saying, look, republicans just tried or at least supporters of donald trump

just tried to have an insurrection and overthrow our government. and therefore this isn't just a voting rights bill. this isn't just legislation. this isn't making sausage. this is an existential threat. and if joe manchin is not on our team, he's a democrat and we need him. and if he's not on our team, then he is a bad guy, he's a bad person. they're going to go out and call him a racist, they're going to talk about white supremacy. i think that's counterproductive, but ultimately, mika, i think that where we're at now is that our politics, we looked at that poll recently that showed people don't have faith in democracy. they fear that democracy is in jeopardy. that, i think, is now interfering in everything, including this what ought to be a kind of rational, political debate over say the filibuster. it's now viewed in the prism of an existential threat and i

think that is why the rhetoric is so heated right now. >> yeah. totally agree. matt lewis, thank you so much for putting it to -- articulating the issue here. still ahead on "morning joe," the chairman of the senate homeland security committee gary peters joins us. it was his committee that released yesterday's bipartisan report on the security failures around the january 6th capitol attack. plus, the work he's doing on the growing threat of cyberattacks against the u.s. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. open talenti and raise the jar. to gelato made from scratch.

raise the jar to all five layers. raise the jar to the best gelato... you've ever tasted. talenti. raise the jar. discover card i just got my cashback match is this for real? yup! we match all the cash back new card members earn at the end of their first year automatically woo! i got my mo-ney! it's hard to contain yourself isn't it? uh- huh! well let it go! woooo! get a dollar for dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover. this is power. so's this. you recognize it. but for the corporate special interests and billionaires buying our elections, dark money is power. billions spent manipulating elections. gerrymandering partisan congressional districts. and restricting our freedom to vote. exactly why we need the for the people act--h.r. 1. to finally ban dark money. ensure fair congressional districts. and protect our freedom to vote. because the real power is you. and it's time for the people to win. this is the epson ecotank color printer. and it's time no more buying cartridges. big ink tanks.

lots of ink. print about... this many pages. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. if you have this... consider adding this. an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn't... and let you see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. who accepts medicare patients. so if you have this... consider adding this. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. ♪ oh! don't burn down the duplex. terminix. from prom dresses to workouts don't burn down the duplex. and new adventures

you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. [sfx: thunder rumbles] [sfx: rainstorm] ♪♪ comfort in the extreme. ♪♪ the lincoln family of luxury suvs.

♪♪ welcome back to "morning joe." 7:31 on the east coast. more on the bipartisan senate investigation of the january 6th capitol insurrection that highlights the intelligence and personnel failures leading up to

and during the attack. the report details how ill equipped and under prepared the capitol police force was while defending the building and the people inside of it. for example, according to the report of the seven civil disturbance units deployed, only four had the protective equipment needed. some of which was locked in a bus. there is this line from the report, quote, an officer reported hearing a lieutenant repeatedly ask over the radio, does anybody have a plan? the probe also found neither the fbi nor dhs issued a threat assessment warning of potential violence targeting the capitol that day. joining us now the chairman of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee, democratic senator gary peters of michigan. his committee was one of two that released that report. senator, thanks so much for being with us this morning. before we dig into the report, i just want to take one step back and talk about what this investigation is and what it is not. there's been a lot of talk that it doesn't talk about president trump. it doesn't talk about all that led up to january 6th.

so, what was the scope of your investigation as you set out to take it on? >> well, i think it's a very important question. and to be clear, it is a limited scope. that was the intent right from the beginning was to look exactly what happened in terms of the attack that day, how the security presence was deployed, where there were gaps, talk about the intelligence, understanding better why it took so long for the national guard to respond. it was simply to take a look at that and the reason for that was that we knew we had to get recommendations out as quickly as possible that would help save guard the capitol to make sure another attack like what we saw on january 6th would not be successful on breaching the capitol and we wanted to get the renlss out quickly and that's why it was a limited scope. but clearly there are a number of other questions that we have. we need to have answers. the american people need to have answers. that's why it was so

disappointed that we aren't able to get a commission through the senate in a bipartisan way to do a deep dive into what inspired those folks to come and engage in an insurrection on the capitol. it's clear to me it was an insurrection. and we need to fully investigate that and get a better sense of what's happening in regards to that. but this particular report, this is the rules committee that oversees capitol police, my committee, homeland security with the department of homeland security, intelligence and looking at the national guard was to help those officers. i want to be clear, the men and women of the capitol police, the frontline officers, were heroic that day, and so many of them have pulled me aside as we've been working on this and said, senator, you know, leadership let us down. don't let this ever happen again. that's really the focus of the report. >> can't make that point strongly enough about the heroism of those officers let down without a plan. reports are, senator, that the departments of justice and

homeland security were not cooperative in your investigation. in fact, that you didn't hear back from the house sergeant at arms. number one, is that true. and number two, why not. >> well, it's the fbi and the department of homeland security have been cooperative, but not sufficiently cooperative. so, we need to get more information from them, particularly from the intelligence failure. it's something that my committee will continue to investigate, although we put out this report yesterday. that part of the investigation is not over. we saw significant gaps. there wasn't a formal intelligence warning that was put out to let local law enforcement know what they might be confronting that day. that's simply unacceptable. and it's particularly unacceptable because we all saw it coming. it was on social media. it was pretty clear what we were seeing on social media that people were going to come. we had the president himself say it's going to be wild. we knew folks were coming here. yet we heard back from both fbi and dhs that they weren't sure

what was a credible claim versus first amendment speech. that makes no sense to me. why didn't they think what they were seeing on social media as being credible. clearly it was because it manifested itself in a dramatic and horrible fashion on january 6th. but we want to know what they knew and when they knew it and who did they communicate it to or not communicate it to. we're still waiting for that information and we're going to continue to aggressively pursue it. >> having conducted these interviews and looked at all this evidence, senator, what is your read on why the capitol police were not better prepared? in your report you cite i think december 21st was the date when there was talk about weapons being brought to the capitol, that this was going to be much more than a political rally. that it would be much worse and of course tragically it was. so why with that space of a couple of weeks, why was security not beefed up? >> well, and it wasn't. there wasn't a formal wording but as i said, there were a lot

of -- there was a lot of information out there that you should be very concerned. and yet we did not see that actually play out in the preparations. in fact, what was really striking to me among many things was that when we asked the capitol police leadership, could you tell us where your officers were deployed on that day, the beginning as the rally was coming to the capitol, they couldn't tell us where their officers were deployed. at least they couldn't provide any information. that tells me there's definite wasn't a plan put in place to do that. you look at the longer or systemic issues, too, is the lack of training. most of the officers that were out there, they have had civil disturbance training but it was probably back when they just first became officers in their academy, they hadn't had any kind of refreshers of how to deal with a violent mob coming at them, certainly weren't equipped. you see from the images that most of those folks didn't have riot gear on, those are only select units that have it and not all of them had that gear. so they're out there basically

in their uniforms without training, current training, with people with fire extinguishers and beating them with flag posts. it was a horrible situation for them to be in. and we've got to correct that. we've got to make sure they have all of the equipment that they need in the future. we have to make sure that they have the training. and we have to make sure that there are comprehensive plans and that they actually exercise those plans and can be able to pull them off quickly and that includes the national guard as to make sure there are operational plans ready to go if another incident like this were to occur because it simply can't happen again. we can never let this happen again. >> senator, hey, it's sam stein here. i know this was not your per view, the per view was limited to law enforcement. i'm curious, two things. one is if there is one question that you would ask that you feel like you do not have the sufficient answer to, what is it? two, do you harbor any suspicions that sitting lawmakers may have played a role in either bringing people to the

event or giving people some sort of outlay of the congress and capitol building complexes? >> well, i don't -- i hope that's not the case. and i want to act on facts. i think we have to be very careful to make sure that this is all done based on facts. that's what we were very careful in this report as though it was fact-based and try to have a real wide eyed open view of those facts. so i'm going to continue to operate on that basis. but i think those are questions that we need to ask and that we need to try to seek out answers because it is important for us to better understand that. but i also think we have to better understand what's going on in our country and the polarization and the fact that i saw earlier the reports of folks are worried about our democracy. it is very real. i'm very concerned about the future for this country and the vibrancy of our democracy and folks who want to undermine that. we have to have an understanding of that. we all have to come together as a country and understand that people who know better have to

stop furthering and fostering this kind of behavior from individuals. that is something that we have to come to terms with as a country, which is why a commission, further investigations are absolutely essential and i'm really frustrated if i hear people think the report we did, well, that's it. let's move on. that's never been what we intended with this report. this is about immediate recommendations to help those men and women who are on the front line. it's an important step. i think it's a meaningful step. but it's not the only step we need to take. we have to take whole lot other steps and do it as quickly as we can. >> so let's talk about what those other steps are. if you look at the morning consult politico polling, 77% of voters think america's democracy is currently being threatened in some way, shape or form. >> these numbers are terrible. there are people who believe what you believe and saw what you saw and see it the same way you do because there's one way to see it. it was an insurrection, an

attack on our democracy. but when is the country going to get the validation it needs that we are a democracy and this is an attack on it from within. what exactly needs to happen to get lawmakers in washington on the same page with this? >> well, mika you're absolutely right. and we have to. and certainly the big lies how you undermine democracies. we see a template of how democracies are undermine and seen it in other countries and look at the backsliding of democracies around the world it's not from foreign threats. it's from within. it's the koe roesive powers from within those powers. you look at one of the fundamental ways democracy failed around the world it's because there's an attempt to undermine the credibility of elections. saying elections don't matter. and if elections don't matter, that's where an authoritarian can walk in and say i represent

the people and the elections don't matter because they're fraudulent, it's right out of a play book of what happens. we need to learn from the experiences around the country. and we all have to come together as democrats and republicans and as the american people to understand how this country can deteriorate if we are not careful. you know, i'm struck by george washington's farewell address. and i was asked a few years ago to read george washington's farewell address on the senate floor. and i was struck. here he is leaving the presidency. a rock star of all rock stars. they said, george, you can't leave. we'll make you king. don't leave. no, i fought the king. i'm going to leave. in his address he talks about how his concerns about this new young republic. i'm really concerned about factions rising. i'm afraid that folks will retreat into these factions and be focussed on their own self interests and on their own power

and when that happens, a demagogue will rise up and that is when this young democracy will fail. those are pretty powerful words by one of the founders of our country. we are in that moment right now. we have to look at this with clear eyes. we have to lean in. and we have to make sure that we stand up to those corrosive forces that are happening. >> eugene daniels has the next question. e eugene? >> senator, i'm curious all the conspiracy theories surrounding what happened that day, one, impact the ability to find further facts, actually do more investigations. as you said you want to do and the house is probably poised to do but the energy around this and whether or not any kind of bipartisan reports are going to land and mean anything? >> well, it is a concern and you're right about the energy out there from some individuals. that is intense. so those of us who believe in

this democratic republic and know how fragile it is, we have to show this same energy back and we have to be very aggressive in being -- in countering those narratives that are being put out there. and we have to continue to investigate. so i would hope that we will see other investigations. you know, i think it's important to remember that after the 9/11 attack, which was certainly a singular moment for this country as well where it was a real reckoning that foreign terrorism isn't about just overseas it can come to our shores. i think january 6th is another singular event and a reckoning that we have domestic terrorism and insurrectionists within our country as well and this should be a major wakeup call for us to all fully engage and after the 9/11 attack you had a number of investigations in congress, not just the 9/11 commission. i hope others will pick that up as well. >> yep. also yesterday, you heard from the ceo of colonial pipeline about the ransomware attack.

what have we learned about these typings of attacks? that attack and how the company dealt with it. >> well, it's -- ransomware attacks is an epidemic. everyday there are attacks of either large businesses or small businesses and it's particularly problem for small businesses, many of them don't survive as a result of these ransomware attacks. we have to strengthen our defenses. we have the ceo of the company yesterday before my committee. and it's interesting that the bad guys got in with a vpn network that wasn't disengaged. so it wasn't a particularly sophisticated attack. it just shows you what these folks will do. they'll look for the weakest link and then they exploit that weakest link and they can get in and cause a great deal of havoc. here in this case, this is a piece of critical infrastructure that provided energy to folks throughout the southeast part of our country. it shows how vulnerable we are.

they obviously need to do more and i think the federal government needs to do more to make sure we're getting more information, we're sharing information with companies as well. that's part of legislation that i'm working on in my committee. we've already been able to get some passed. i had legislation of mine put in to protect water infrastructure systems, make sisa our federal agency within homeland security have greater powers to help those water systems protect their i.t. systems. also incident to be able to allow the homeland security director to have a secretary to have a major incident powers. so we are making systematic steps to strengthen that. we're going to put out comprehensive legislation in the coming months as well with additional hearings. but i think it's also to remember even though this ransom and when it was paid and we strongly encourage more of this bad behavior, but when that was

paid and although their systems came online, they also said they're still months from fully recovering. this is not like you get a key back and you turn things back on. this is a significant damage. but i think what is really important for us to remember is we can't just keep putting on stronger locks. although we must. we have to keep putting on stronger locks. but we also have to go for these bad guys. we have to find them. we have to hold them accountable. and they need to be punished and that includes these criminal organizations as well as countries that knowingly harbor these criminal organizations within their country and allow them to operate. that simply cannot continue. >> chair of the senate homeland security committee, off lot on your plate. senator gary peters, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. and coming up, newly revealed records shows how top u.s. billionaires like jeff bezos and elon musk pay little to no federal income taxes. the secret irs files ahead on

"morning joe." ♪♪

now to a new report that offers an unprecedented look into how the wealthiest americans are able to work around the system and pay next to nothing in taxes. nbc news washington correspondent helen jackson has the details. >> reporter: they're the biggest billionaires in america behind brands like amazon and tesla. their personal fortunes enormous. but turns out their tax bills in some cases, are not. not even close. as newly revealed records show exactly how the ultra rich can work the system to pay nothing in income tax in certain years.

the new report produced by the nonprofit news organization propublica. >> what we've shown is that the system is upside down. that the ultra wealthy pay less in tax than the average person. >> reporter: in 2018, for example, elon musk paid no federal income tax. neither did jeff bezos in 2007 or 2011, the same year he claimed a $4,000 child tax credit and renowned investor warren buffett avoided the most tax. >> as shocking as it is, nothing they did is illegal. everything that they did is in keeping with our tax code. and the basic reason, we tax income, not wealth. >> reporter: rich people often grow their fortunes through stocks, real estate or compaies so they don't have to pay tacks until they sell. and they can offset their income in other ways, too. meaning it's legal to be worth a lot and pay a little.

>> this will start a debate that is well needed in america. >> reporter: propublica points out in some years the billionaires did pay hundreds of millions in taxes depending on their investments. bezos and musk did not respond to us for comment but buffett, who has called for more tax on the wealthiest now the treasury department is referring an investigation of the unauthorized disclosure of this confidential material to its inspector general, the fbi and the u.s. attorney for d.c. the report adding fuel to the fire for democrats like elizabeth warren, pushing for a wealth tax. >> what this shows is that it's only hard-working, middle-class families that actually pay income tax. the billionaires all keep their

money in wealth accumulation and pay no taxes at all. it's just not right. >> all right. joining us now, author of "winners take all," political analyst and publisher of the newsletter entitled the yank. and columnist for insider and host of kcrw's "left, right and center," josh barrow. good to have you both. how do we fix this problem? there's certainly some of those billionaires who would be perfectly fine paying the child tax credit, but they're not breaking laws, but yet perhaps the laws are being created in their favor because of a cycle that might need to be stopped. can you explain that? >> this is not a story of law breaking, as you say. it's a story of a social contract built on madness. when you tax regular people and their income, which is essentially a tax on working for

a living and you don't tax wealth, which is the core of income that rich people have, you end up with this outcome. to be very clear for folks, tax ing billionaires for their income is sort of like awarding medals in a pie-eating contest for shoe size. you're simply measuring the wrong thing. it's a made-up number they're able to conjure. warren buffett explained this to me many years ago in nebraska. i want my income to be $11 million, my net worth may be $so billion but i want my income to be 11 million this year or i want my income to be one dollar or like donald trump, i want my income to be negative this year. you can pick a number, find an accountant and they can set up trusts or do some kind of philanthropy thing, declare some loss or sell some debt stock, do any number of things and

literally get to whatever income number you want. we need to be series that wealth is the income that rich people have and should be taxed the same way that regular people's income is taxed if not higher. we're taxing the idea of going out of your house and working every day but we're not taxing the idea of sitting on top of mountains of money. >> at the same time this can be outrageous and completely unsurprising that rich people find ways not to pay taxes. what do you see in these numbers? >> i don't find the numbers surprising. jeff bezos is rich because he owns a bunch of stock in amazon. if he doesn't sell the stock, he doesn't owe capital gain that year. it's fine people pay tax on this stuff later. the problem is that they pay tax on it never. if you hold on to it until you die, you pass it to your heirs, and nobody ever pays income tax on that appreciation.

the point of wealth is that it generates income. it's throwing off income that is allowing these people to support a tremendous standard of living due to the philanthropies they do. the way we define income is not truly capturing all the income that these people are receiving. we can change the rules in order to do that. the biden administration is able to when die it's treated as though the stock is sold f jeff bezos died tomorrow there would be enormous capital gain. there's problems with the way we calculate charitable deductions. if you give way appreciated stock it's as though you get to deduct twice the appreciation of that stock. that's not the way the system should work. we should reign that in. i want a charitable deduction. i don't have a problem with billionaire philanthropy. i just don't want them to deduct it twice. if you look at welfare states, they have income taxes that have higher rates.

you could have higher rates especially if you tighten that stuff up around capital gains and made it harder to avoid ever paying the tax, making it economically feasible. the biden administration has proposed to take that all the way up from 43% from where it is in the low 20s. that would be feasible if you have these rules that force these wealthy people to sooner or later declare this income on their taxes. there are things we can do about it. >> do you think there's any energy? we're talking about a republican party that doesn't want to roll back its signature tax cut from 2017. is there any motivation am this congress to do what you just roll out? >> not in this congress, i don't think. democrats control any part of the federal government in 2025, they'll be able to force republicans to the table, much as obama did in 2013, when there were big tax increases in 2013 from the partial expiration of the bush tax cuts because barack

obama had been re-elected. they will have that opportunity in 2025 to say republicans can't keep all of this stuff on their tax cut and here are the things we want to do. >> richest man in the world pays no tacks, changes the dynamics at all in congress? >> i hope so because i think regular people who are paying thousands of dollars in taxes that hurt them, that cause them not to buy something for their children that they otherwise would have bought are seeing someone else not paying any and getting a $4,000 child credit. and some of the policies josh talked about are important but frankly we need to be more ambitious and forget what's plausible with this congress or that congress and first think about ideals. i think it is time for a wealth tax in america because none of the ideas mentioned or others that are floating will actually shrink these fortunes, will actually reduce the

concentration of capital at the top. that is turning this country into a plutocracy. warren buffett, who did speak to the propublica reporters said at least i would rather give my money away by my discretion than have it go to the treasury. that's actually not legitimate. a, you're claiming a tax deduction we're all paying for. but also with gates and others, when you do this big philanthropy as i argue in "winners take all" you are exerting even more power over public life. you are setting public health priorities, educational priorities. so we get screwed on milt levels. it's pillage economics when you're making the money. then you're making philanthropic decisions. you're reducing tax burdens and we're all working harder and paying your taxes. it's unsustainable.

>> josh barrow and adnan, thank you. what's next for infrastructure talks after the president and senate republicans were unable to strike a deal. plus nbc's jacob soboroff joins us with now the biden administration is struging to locate families as they try to reunite those separated under donald trump. the next hour of "morning joe" kicks off that very issue, immigration and the biden plan to tackle it. lester holt sat down with vice president kamala harris for an exclusive interview. and when he was asked why she hasn't visited the border yet, you could tell she didn't quite have an answer prepared. >> do you have any plans to visit the border? >> i -- at some point, you know, it -- we are going to the border. we've been to the border.

so, this whole thing about the border, we've within been to the border. we've been to the border. >> you haven't been to the border. >> and i haven't been to europe. >> well, that escalated quickly. that's right. harris was not in the mood. don't be surprised if you see lester holt narrating his own episode of "dateline." started out as a normal interview. >> we'll get to that answer from the vice president, and the much bigger, much more complicated problems beyond the border coming up. but first president biden flies to the uk this morning, leaving behind infrastructure talks with republican senators that have now collapsed. he heads to europe to, as nbc news frames it, meet putin, a pandemic and skeptical allies. as far as covering the president on the trip, the plane carrying the white house press corps to europe gets delayed after doing

battle with cicadas. we'll get to the trip and insects in a moment. first, willie, the stalled infrastructure talks. >> full collapse, president biden's talks with a group of republican senators collapsed yesterday, shifting the debate on one of his key domestic priorities. ongoing meetings between president biden and shelly moore-capito fell through. now any hopes of a bipartisan deal falls on republican mitt romney and democrat joe manchin who met to hash out details of their own agenda. democrats separately are laying the groundwork to pass some or all of the package on their own through reconciliation. according to the white house, biden spoke with house speaker nancy pelosi and senate majority leader chuck schumer about

launching the resolution process for senate votes in july. let's bring in senior white house reporter shannon pettypiece and anna palmer, an msnbc contributor. good morning to you both. shannon, i'll start with you. what happened here? senator capito seemed surprised yesterday when she got word from the white house that joe biden was, frankly, moving on to another option here. what went wrong? >> i think a lot of people involved in this process are surprised that this is how it ended. i know there's been a lot of skepticism from my colleagues on the hill that they would ever be able to pull something off. folks i talked to in the administration, the white house, they were hopeful, i will say, up until maybe the last week or so, that they were going to be able to get something through. one official told me it really came down to the fact that president biden wanted to see a lot of new money going into infrastructure, and republicans were just mostly focused on trying to reshift money the baseline, money that had already

been allocated to other things like covid relief or highway projects, shift that around. biden wanted to see real new money come in. they couldn't agree as well on how to pay for this. republicans obviously did not want to touch the 2017 tax plan. the white house said okay, let's try to find some other methods to pay for it, some other things we can do, like increase irs enforcement. that didn't seem to be catching on with republicans either. so essentially i was told the white house didn't want to spend more time in what they thought would be endless negotiations with republicans. they didn't appear to be seen eye to eye. so, you know, now i'll say they're not necessarily starting from square one but maybe from square two or three. they're really going back to the beginning stages after weeks and really hundreds of hours of talks between republican staff and the white house. >> anna, this kind of confirms suspicions of republicans who

thought this was theatrical and this was going to happen in the end. so was this outcome inevitable? >> i don't know if it was inevitable. both sides came to the negotiating table with a true desire to try to find a pathway forward. but they are still so far apart. they don't even agree necessarily on what the definition of infrastructure is and particularly when it comes to paying for it. i think, as shannon laid out, there are very stark differences between where republicans and democrats are. and now as we shift to the g20, as they like to call themselves, it just gets harder. one key negotiator from the republican side, one key negotiator from the president on the other side, trying to hash out a deal. now you go in the senate, and house numbers as well, and trying to get all those different constituencies to agree on anything will be

extremely difficult. >> the house is moving on to a, quote, bipartisan discussion. people are saying, wait, i thought this was a bipartisan discussion. what does that mean exactly? >> it's really tough. june 9th, five months into this administration. you look at the time. it's not on the sides of these bipartisan negotiations. right now you see republicans and democrats on the hill, finding this next path that they are going to try to talk about. i do think that this is going to -- you know, we're going to kind of see whether or not they can come together on something in the next week or two. certainly before the july 4th recess. time is of the essence. and democrats, particularly on the progressive side, have very little patience for this. from the beginning they've been very skeptical. the republicans are going to do anything. right? one of the sticking points has been how do we pay for this, right? republicans don't want to do anything except shift covid money they think as you know spent for this effort. that's not going to do it for what democrats want. basically you're going to see

senator bernie sanders budget committee chairman move on his own to try to force this other issue of reconciliation, budget to go forward. you're going to see these two things happen in tandem. and at some point we're going to be able to see pretty quickly whether or not any momentum comes out of this negotiation. >> so while all of this percolates back in the u.s., shannon pettypiece, let's talk about the president's first trip overseas. what are the clear goals in front of him and how much of this trip is just going to be pressing reset from the past four years? and will that be challenging? >> well, i mean, he certainly has a big task ahead of him. not only is there this global pandemic we have going on that's upended the world economy and the growing aggression from russia, the rise of china and their dominance, but in order to tackle all these challenges, president biden needs his

allies, needs these western allies behind them. and so many of them are quite skeptical after what they've been through with four years of the trump administration. and going back through some of the old stories about the g7 meetings, i was reminded of some of the things that went down, like when president trump then stormed out to meet with kim jong-un early and lashed out at justin trudeau on twitter. so much drama has unfolded between the u.s. and these countries over the past four years that's really led to nerves and jitters about whether or not president biden is going to be just a blip on the radar before america returns to this america first nationalist style of foreign policy. and this question about whether the world can trust the u.s. on any international agreements it might enter into, like a paris climate agreement or iran nuclear deal. the administration acknowledges that's priority number one, to restabilize these relationships, to reaffirm america's place at

the table, to overcome that skepticism. and then only with that, only with the united front from the allies can the u.s. and others start taking on these bigger challenges like russia, china, and ransomware attacks, and climate change and everything else on the enormously ambitious list on things the president would like to accomplish. >> a lot to do. shannon, thank you. let's bring in the president on the council of foreign relations and author of the book "the world: a brief introduction," richard haas. as shannon just framed out, senior white house official described the trip similarly. it's a first trip. it's a packed schedule. the goal of the trip is far more about america taking its place on the world stage. what does that mean, though, in terms of the foreign policy goals but also challenges in front of this president? >> well, you're right. 80% of life is showing up department, this say bilateral set of meetings with the uk, then it's the g7, it's nato and

it's the european union. check, check, check. it's basically all the principle allied groupings we have globally as well as in europe. in large part, it's a way of setting the foundation to deal with vladimir putin and also with xi jinping's china. the principle challenges of this year is not just these two great powers, china and russia. that's global issues, that's where covid comes in, global corporate tax comes in and climate change comes in. this administration's default option is to essentially do it with others. it's multilateralism. details to come. the president comes with some wind in his sails. you've got the american response to covid, impressive by any and every standard, u.s. economy recovery, impressive by every standard. i think it's hurt, though, by the fact we haven't had a series coordinated policy about exporting vaccines to the rest

of the world and i think that will be one of the principle questions. can the united states and its principle global partners agree on a financial as well as medical approach to dealing with covid and the rest of the world? still ahead the white house press plane is grounded by cicadas. the latest on that bizarre turn of events and yucky bugs. plus the biden administration has so far exceeded its goals on vaccines, until now apparently. an update on that effort to get 70% of the population vaccinated by july 4th. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. "morning jo" we'll be right back. facing leaks takes strength. so here's to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable long-lasting protection. because your strength is supported by ours. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. so, you have diabetes, here are some easy rules.

no sugar. no pizza. no foods you love. stressed? no stress. exercise. but no days off! easy, no? no. no. no. no. but with freestyle libre 14 day, you can take the mystery out of your diabetes. now you know. sir, do you know what you want to order? yes. freestyle libre 14 day. try it for free. (man) i've made progress with my mental health. so when i started having unintentional body movements called tardive dyskinesia... ... i ignored them. but when the movements in my hands and feet started throwing me off at work... i finally had to say, 'it's not ok.' it was time to talk to my doctor about austedo. she said that austedo helps reduce td movements in adults... ...while i continue with most of my mental health medications. (vo) austedo can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, behaviors,

feelings, or have suicidal thoughts. common side effects include inflammation of the nose and throat, insomnia and sleepiness. don't take austedo if you have liver problems, are taking reserpine, tetrabenazine, or valbenazine. austedo may cause irregular or fast heartbeat, restlessness, movements mimicking parkinson's disease, fever, stiff muscles, problems thinking, and sweating. (man) talk to your doctor about austedo... it's time to treat td. td is not ok. visit askforaustedo.com no, he's not in his room. ♪♪ dad, why didn't you answer your phone? your mother loved this park. ♪♪ she did.

the white house press corps was delayed because of cicadas.

jonathan lemire tweeted the white house press charter flying from dulles to europe ahead of president biden has been delayed for hours due to mechanical issues cause bid cicadas. yes, cicadas, those bugs. tuesday's flight was supposed to be wheels up at 9:00 p.m. the swarm of cicadas that invaded the plane's engines delayed it until after 3:00 a.m. a new plane and pilot had to be brought in from new york and ohio. the white house arranged for pizza and some hotel rooms for the journalists to wait out that delay. i can't even, willie. i can't even. >> yeah. we've heard of bird strikes but cicada strikes are entirely new. glad they got off the ground, though. >> yeah. president biden's goal of getting 70% of americans vaccinated with at least one shot by the fourth of july.

as nbc's miguel almageur reports, that is looking less and less likely. >> reporter: now more likely to partially inoculate 67, not 70% of all adults and now the delta variant first identified in india is exploding across the uk and could threaten the young here at home. >> we cannot let that happen in the united states. >> reporter: the white house says these are critical weeks, pushing to inject new enthusiasm into vaccinations. >> think of this when you think of vaccination. mmm. >> reporter: with states hungry to boost numbers, burgers and beers are being offered to holdouts. the golden state turning to green, offering cash payouts to the vaccinated. >> number 25. >> reporter: in west virginia, they're giving away trucks and guns. washington state dispensaries offering joints for jabs. legal marijuana to inoculated

adults. former surgeon general tweeting donuts, gambling, are cigarettes next? still, incentives have worked, though they may no longer be providing the same shot in the arm. >> you know we're getting desperate when we're giving weed to go get your vaccine. >> your timing is awful. >> i was a little early. we were discussing in this break we have excess of vaccines. we need more people vaccinated here. doesn't look like we're going to reach that 70% threshold at this point. the biden administration announcing we're going to share that vaccine with other parts of the world who desperately need it. what do you see in those numbers right now? >> the pause on the j&j vaccine, we have a soon-to-expire supply. we have an excess supply over demand. rest of the world, excess demand over supply. we should be much more forthcoming. i really don'tnd why we have held back.

even if we do all that, it's not close to enough. we've got 8 billion people in the world with a b. an extra 25 million american vaccines is a drop in the bucket. we've got to come up with a plan. quite honestly, the administration's other plan isn't going to work. it's basically force the company s to make available all their intellectual property to get the wto, world trade organization, apply for that. that's going to take years to do. we invested all these years and money. why should we give it away for free? we need another approach to this. that's the single-most important thing to happen this week at the g7. >> so, richard mentioned the doses of the single shot johnson & johnson vaccine that are about to expire. the buildup is mostly because of that 11-day pause in its distribution due to safety concerns. ohio has 200,000 doses that will expire in two weeks. west virginia has some 20,000 that could expire. lead white house covid adviser

andy slavitt says the fda is trying to figure out if it can extend the vaccine's shelf life. that's a big issue. we've got to get the world vaccinated. vaccine trials are extended in children under the age of 12. the study will enroll up to 4500 children at clinical sites in the u.s., finland, poland and spain. after selecting a lower dose of the shot in an earlier stage of the trial. for now, the company is testing its vaccine at lower doses in grade schoolers than adolescents and still lower doses in younger children. if those trials provide a safe and immune response, pfizer is expected to request federal authorization in september or october to provide the vaccine to children ages 5 to 11. and a little later in the fall for children even younger. coming up, how the best

leaders learn to let go. why the real power is giving it away. first, our next guest was among those meeting with joe manchin yesterday on voting rights. national urban league's mark moriel is our guest when "morning joe" comes right back. you ready? ready? ready. - ready. hold on. ready. are you ready? yeah! the dove beauty bar makes my skin feel fresh. i've encouraged serena my best friend to switch. feels moisturized and clean. my friend stefanie, her skin was dry. i'm like girl you better get you some dove. she hooked me up. with a quarter moisturising cream, dove cleans effectively and cares beautifully. there's interest you accrue, and interests you pursue.

plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. assets you allocate, and ones you hold tight. at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. and with the right guidance, you can get the financial clarity you need, and live a life rich in meaning, and gratitude. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com. dry eye symptoms again? inflammation might be to blame. time for ache and burn! over-the-counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. those probably won't touch me. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. xiidra,... ...noooo! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda- approved non-steroid treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation.

don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra, wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. talk to an eye doctor about xiidra. i prefer you didn't. xiidra. not today, dry eye.

when you're born and raised in san francisco, i pre you grow up't. wanting to make a difference. that's why, at recology, we're proud to be 100% employee owned with local workers as diverse as san francisco. we built the city's recycling system from the ground up, helping to make san francisco the greenest big city in america

but we couldn't do it without you. thank you, san francisco. gracias, san francisco. -thank you. -[ speaks native language ] let's keep making a differene together. as you look to what the majority has in mind for june, it's pretty clear that the era of bipartisanship is over. >> senate joe manchin dashed hopes of passing a sweeping overhaul election bill that would guarantee universal access to mail-in voting and secure 15 days of early voting in every state. the for the people act has the backing of top party leaders, including president biden. despite his meeting yesterday with top civil rights leaders, the west virginia democrat remains unmoved. >> what we have is a great, respectful, very informative, it was a very good conversation we

had. and it's the starting of a good relationship. it really was. >> manchin says he would back a different voting rights bill but that, too, is facing serious obstacles, named after john lewis, the legislation faces an uphill climb to break a filibuster in the senate. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell made that clear again yesterday. >> there's no threat to the voting rights law. it's against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already. and so i think it's unnecessary. >> joining us now, president and ceo of the national urban league, mark moriel, who orged that meeting with senator manchin and civil rights leaders yesterday. good to see thank you morning. >> good morning, willie. >> i was going to say take us inside the room but i think it was a zoom call. we heard senator manchin saying respectful and courteous. i'm not sure that moves the ball forward in the way you hoped it would. but what was the case that you

made to senator manchin? >> thank you, willie. we taught it very important for senator manchin to hear directly from us, not through media, not through intermediaries, not through staff, how important the for the people act is and how important the john lewis voting rights advancement act are to confronting the tsunami, the pandemic, the onslaught of voter suppression legislation, which is sweeping across the nation. let's be clear, we asked senator manchin to reconsider his position on the for the people act. certainly, we did not change his mind in this meeting. but we, i think, spent a good deal of timesharing with him how outrageous, ridiculous, discriminatory and unnecessary many of these new laws and proposed new laws are in light of the record voter turnout and the flawless election we had in

2020. we also spent a great deal of time talking about the filibuster from the standpoint of its history, willie. the filibuster has been used for better than 100 years, but it has primarily been used to block civil rights legislation. yes, it's been used for other things, but its primary use over the years, whether it's richard russell and strom thurmond and others. and now mitch mcconnell is standing in that position, saying will he use the filibuster to block the john lewis voting rights advancement act. i think it was a low moment i know senator mcconnell. and he has said to me on numerous occasions how proud he is of his record on civil rights. well, he just threw that away with his announcement yesterday. and i think the american people

need to be clear. he's smart enough to know that these voter suppression laws are discriminatory. they're intentionally discriminatory. they're designed to suppress the votes of black and brown people. and he set himself up as an obstacle, as a stone wall to what the majority of the american people want. so, with srpt manchin, we agreed to meet again. it was a starting point because from a civil rights leadership perspective, from a national urban league perspective, from my point of view, we are not going to give up. we're not going to give in vieting to pass these bills. this is a tough climb. we know it's a hard climb. but it is something that has to be done. it's so crucial when you look. i looked this morning again at what is happening at the state level. if you look at these bills, willie, they sound like something out of soviet russia or north korea if you look at what they seek to do.

they're absurd, ridiculous, unnecessary and it's oppressive. >> senator mcconnell didn't just come out of opposition of the for the people act. he believes that the john lewis voting rights act is unnecessary. you're not going to get to 60 votes that way. what did you say to joe manchin who said look i'm for the john lewis voting rights bill. i just can't go as far as the for the people act. is that a compromise you would be willing to accept, the people on that call yesterday did they say we prefer for the people but we'll take your vote on john lieu snis. >> we need both. it's not a compromise. the two work in tandem with each other. they're different legislative, to build a particular record in the case of the john lewis bill. we need both. here is what i think we can fairly characterize joe manchin's objections as being procedural and political.

they did not seem to be in large measure to the substance of the for the people act. although we did not get into a detailed discussion about that. this is really turning in to a question of whether there are people in the republican caucus, a number of people in the republican caucus who will follow in the tradition, the american tradition of voting bills, whether it's the previous voting rights act, when it's the voter registration act in the 90s or many, many other voting bills who will follow in the tradition that they've always been bipartisan. why now? why now has the issue of protecting democracy and access to the ballot box become a partisan exercise because you're more interested in power than you are in american values, more interested in power in maintenance of power or reacquisition of power than you are in some of the fundamental

principles upon which this nation has been formed and which many have fought to improve. john lewis, john lewis, we know his tradition. yesterday, i think, was a low day in the career of mitch mcconnell when he said, quote, unquote, it's unnecessary. he knows better than that. he is a smart enough lawyer. he is playing intellectual games with the necessity of protecting democracy. and i think there's got to be a focus on the idea that he has now become the number one obstacle, i think, to this idea of bipartisanship in the united states senate. because he is, before you have hearings, before you have negotiations, before have you conversations, he is drawing lines in the sand. >> yeah.

we showed you the moment at the top of the show when vice president kamala harris was pressed on immigration. we'll have more on that. jacob soboroff has new reporting on the effort to reunite separated families at the border. "morning joe" is coming right back. er "morning joe" is coming right back

centrum multigummies aren't just great tasting... they're power-packed vitamins... that help unleash your energy. loaded with b vitamins... ...and other key essential nutrients... ...it's a tasty way to conquer your day. try centrum multi gummies. now with a new look. welcome to allstate. ♪ ♪ you already pay for car insurance, why not take your home along for the ride? allstate. here, better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands. click or call to bundle today. discover card i just got my cashback match is this for real? yup! we match all the cash back new card members earn at the end of their first year automatically woo! i got my mo-ney! it's hard to contain yourself isn't it? uh- huh! well let it go! woooo! get a dollar for dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover.

as your business changes, the united states postal service is changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide, and returns right from the doorstep. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting. the lexus es. every curve, every innovation, every feeling. a product of mastery. get 0.9% apr financing on the 2021 es 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. wealth is your first big investment. get 0.9% apr financing on the 2021 es 350. worth is a partner to help share the load. wealth is saving a little extra. worth is knowing it's never too late to start - or too early. ♪ ♪

wealth helps you retire. worth is knowing why. ♪ ♪ principal. for all it's worth.

do you have any plans to visit the border? >> at some point. you know, we are going to the border. we've been to the border. so this whole -- this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. we've been to the border. >> you haven't been to the border. >> and i haven't been to europe. i mean, i don't understand the point that you're making. i'm not discounting the importance of the border. listen, i care about what's happening at the border. i'm in guatemala because my focus is dealing with the root causes of migration. there may be some who think that that is not important, but it is

my firm belief that if we care about what's happening at the border, we better care about the root causes and address them. and so that's what i'm doing. >> yes, i will. and i have before. i think it's short sighted for any of us who are in the business of problem solving to suggest we're only going to respond to the reaction as opposed to addressing the cause. >> little clean-up work there from vice president kamala harris. those answers yesterday when pressed about why she has not visited the u.s./mexico border. now as she's tasked to address the migrant cries. u.s. customs and border protections agents say they watched a young girl left alone at the border this week. video shows the girl running into the united states after agents say she was dropped off near the san diego border on monday. after picking her up, they were able to determine the girl is 5 years old.

and from guatemala. she reportedly told agents her parents are in the u.s., but she has no way to contact them. joining us now is nbc's jacob soboroff with a look being done to unite separated families. videos like that obviously take your breath away, of a 5-year-old being left at the border. this problem of separated families that you've written an entire book about persists even under the biden administration. >> no doubt about it. look, yesterday, watching vice president harris, it is very clear they came in office with lofty rhetoric, want people to believe they are creating a fair, humane immigration system and what they're realizing in practicality it's a lot more difficult doing that than just saying the right things on the campaign trail. that's catching up to this administration. that's one part of this. and the other part is what

happened in the previous administration and what they're going to do about it. yesterday the biden administration said 2100 families remain separated from that the trump administration zero tolerance policy. hundreds of them remain unlocatable. we embedded with ngo, small group of folks going door-to-door on that search and this is what it looks like. in san antonio, more than a year after beginning to track down separated families, a search that had been largely virtual is now physical. take you all the way cross country? >> pretty much. >> reporter: sandra allen all work for a nonprofit paid by the u.s. to find families after a judge ordered the government to offer mental health services because of what he called the severe trauma of separations. >> we're meeting in person. >> reporter: how is that possible? >> covid. >> reporter: what is it exactly that you're doing? social workers by training, did you ever think you would be

private investigators in practice? >> no. >> nope. >> never. >> reporter: we hopped in their jeep and set off for the first stop of almost 200. what is it exactly you're putting together there? >> this is a copy of our flyer and a little note saying we're trying to get in contact. >> were you separated from your family, from your kids when you came to the united states? >> right. >> reporter: before we made it, a detour. what did you spot? >> a restaurant. we're going to post this up. >> reporter: it is almost amazing to think about that this flyer right here at this restaurant on this random street, by just calling the phone numbers on there, could be the way they find one, if not more, of the separated families. seneca has already made contact with over 1,000 families and connected over 250 to services. after a short drive we made it to the first house based on the

last-known information provided by the government. good luck. >> thank you. >> reporter: to not start the family and protect their identity, we stayed behind. after a few tense minutes of waiting -- >> she went like this. i think that means -- >> reporter: how did it go? >> success. >> reporter: no way! what did you find? >> first attempt. >> mama's home. so she's interested in services. >> we have her number, the dad's number. >> yeah. >> i'm so excited. my heart is like pounding. i'm so happy. able to see her in person and them see us, that we're real, that we're here to help them. >> reporter: a lucky first try. 199 or so to go. they carried on, stop after stop after stop. by evening we made it to the outskirts of austin. and on the second day, the team

split up to cover more ground. what is it about this work that necessitates you guys going door-to-door like this? >> the work starts with the trauma this they suffered with the separation. >> reporter: what does that mean? >> parents feeling guilty for what happened, not being able to talk to their children about the experience they went through. >> reporter: how do you keep that optimism? >> just knowing that we're connecting them to services, that it's helping them. >> reporter: in a few days and over 500 miles later in new orleans, we met up again. chandra had been joined by two other colleagues. it's good to see the jeep again. we headed out from lake pontchartrain to baton rouge. how did you learn about seneca? >> translator: they called me on the phone, saying we want to

help you. what happened to us was very hard. because of the organizations and god, we are able to be together. >> reporter: after going through what you guys went through, did it help you? >> yeah. he told me to not think about the bad things, just the good things. >> reporter: a long healing process. only now just beginning. it was amazing to see on this trip alone, seneca made contact with over 30 different families for the first time. senior dhs official told me this week that the biden administration intends to extend seneca's contract and continue services for all of those families. seneca family of agencies or other nonprofits helping separated families, go to nbc news.com. willie? >> it's amazing. this is door to door to door. you're hoping you get one and that's a win. you laid out 121 children still separated only seven children have been reunited. it's an easy thing to do on the

campaign trail to attack the trump administration, zero tolerance, the trump administration owns that policy but it's much more difficult to fix the problem. >> both doing the process of putting these families together, which the biden administration promised. the president said twice to kristin welker it's criminal, it's criminal, during the last idea debate. he told geoff bennett there will be a thorough investigation policy through the doj. there's been none of that. that's not happened. not to mention that the border policies that this administration is continuing, like title 42, separating families in a different way. democrats don't want to hear that, but that is the reality on the ground. when you go there and see it for yourself, that's what you see. >> wow! >> only seven children found their families under this new administration. jacob, great to see you, my friend. mika? >> really great story telling. thank you, jacob, very much, for all of that. this campaign news crossing just this morning, moments ago, democratic congresswoman val demings made her senate bid

official, announcing she plans to challenge republican senator marco rubio for his seat next year. >> when you grow up in the south poor, black and female, you have to have faith, progress, and opportunity. my father was a janitor and my mother was a maid. she said val, never grow tired of doing good. never tire. work hard, not just for yourself, but for others. my mother told me when someone gives you the opportunity to do something big, do not disappoint them. i'm running for the united states senate because of two simple words. never tire. >> oh, yeah. demings is the former chief of the orlando police department. she was elected to the house in 2016 and rose to national prominence as an impeachment manager in donald trump's first senate trial.

demings was also on joe biden's short list for vice president, with the exception of barack obama in 2012, no democrat has won a statewide race in florida since 2010. and you know what? keep in mind, not only was she the chief of the orlando police department, she's a mother of four girls. politico sam stine is back with us. what do you make of her candidacy? >> the mother of four girls. >> right there. >> she's obviously qualified. >> yeah. >> what we saw in the 2020 elections when democrats got their hopes up, contesting it to see the state slip away, hispanic populations really slip away from democrats just underscores how tough this state actually is. demings is a good candidate. she's got a very strong résumé. her time as chief of police in

orlando really does endear her to a cross-section of voters. there are hurdles in florida that are becoming pronounced over time. marco rubio has a good fan base. he has a national prominence, too. she has an uphill climb, but i would imagine national and state democrats are probably extremely happy they got her to run. she's probably one of the best candidates to make this a competitive race. >> absolutely. thank you, sam. up next, we'll be joined by a former u.s. ambassador to the uk and sweden, as president biden heads to europe for his first foreign trip as commander this chief. keep it right here on "morning joe." it's coming back to you now... real pants. find amex offers to save on the brands you love.

one of the many things you can expect when you're with amex. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ oh! are you using liberty mutual's coverage customizer tool? sorry? well, since you asked. it finds discounts and policy recommendations, so you only pay for what you need. limu, you're an animal! who's got the bird legs now? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ so, you have diabetes, here are some easy rules. no sugar. no pizza. no foods you love. stressed? no stress. exercise.

but no days off! easy, no? no. no. no. no. but with freestyle libre 14 day, you can take the mystery out of your diabetes. now you know. sir, do you know what you want to order? yes. freestyle libre 14 day. try it for free. you're strong. you power through chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a month, ...each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine.

so, if you haven't tried botox® for your chronic migraine, ...check with your doctor if botox® is right for you, and if samples are available. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, ...speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness... ...can be signs of a life- threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions... ...neck and injection site pain... ...fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions... ...and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. most patients may pay as little as $0 for botox®. so, text to see how you can save. botox® has been preventing headaches and migraines before they even start for 10 years. so, ask your doctor about botox® today. ♪ hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try using the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless.

pick something we all like. ok. hold on. what's your buick's wi-fi password? “buickenvision2021.” oh, you should pick something stronger. that's really predictable. that's a really tight spot. don't worry. i used to hate parallel parking. [all together] me too. - hey. - you really outdid yourself. yes, we did. the all-new buick envision. an suv built around you... all of you. watch out for the cicada. it just got me. >> the president commenting on the cicadas, earlier we told you that the plane for the press corps was actually delayed for hours because of the insects. these gross, massive bugs. president biden and the first lady are en route to the uk now. it's the president's first trip abroad. he'll meet with british foreign minister boris johnson and attend the g7 summit.

then he's on to brussels to meet with nato leaders. finally, he wraps up in geneva where he will meet face to face with russian president vladimir putin for the first time since becoming president. joining us now former u.s. ambassador to the united kingdom and sweden, matthew barzen. he is also the national finance chair for president barack obama's re-election campaign and he's the author of the new book entitled "the power of giving away power. how the best leaders learn to let go," and i can't wait to talk about that concept of that book. i think it's brilliant, mr. ambassador, but first, let's talk about the president's first trip abroad. what do you think the challenges are in front of him to execute in this trip and -- and what's your gut on what the top priority is? >> first of all, mika, please call me matthew and --

>> i can't take it. >> one of your earlier guests talk about hitting the re-set button which i think makes sense given how our allies were treated in the previous administration and i would hope that president biden and prime minister johnson would hit a different kind of button which is kind of the get real button, because to your point, they have the climate to deal with -- they have the corporate tax issues to deal with, but right in front of us, this covid vaccination for the world and that seems to me, an opportunity where these countries can get together and deal with the medical and the logistical, and of course, the ethical components and financial to all of this, and that's what i'm hoping for and if they get real and do hard work together we can get stuff done. >> it's willie geist, great to

have you. i'm slightly distracted by your vinyl copy of johnny cash, one for the ages. let's talk about the state of british-american affairs. how much damage, if you believe there was real damage done to the relationship under the trump administration and what should be the job of this president in repairing it? >> yeah. look, i mean, i think six days after i arrived in the job in 2013 the special relationship between the u.s. and the uk was declared dead on the front page of the biggest newspaper in the country, so we tend to, i think, declare it dead. i think the strength of the friendship between the two countries -- we don't do hard things together because we're friends. we are friends because we have done hard things together, so that would be my hope with biden and johnson and the rest of the

g7 which is do this hard, meaningful work together. right now, get real, roll up your sleeves and then friendships -- look at your wonderful set. if you set out to be friends with someone, that usually doesn't work, but if you do hard work and do a great show together friendship emerges and i think the same is true with country. >> let me correct something. it's not friendly around that set. they're vicious. >> only to you, sam. only to you. >> good to know. >> only to me. on the topic of your book, "the power of giving up power," the tag line basically made me think, the administration is now at this juncture giving up power. they are vaccinating the world. they're taking our abundance of

supply and saying no, we can hand it to needy countries. can you talk about whether you feel like administration is making a legal gain by doing this or should they be doing more to the world as a way of creating these types of productive relationships that you're talking about? >> i think you just hit on the key which is productive and relationship, and so the publishers wouldn't let me have a longer title, give away power so you can get it back and that is how these things work. what we get tricked into often, there's selflessness or selfishness and those are the two choices. what i think you see in the realm of global affairs and personal affairs is there's this other option which is liberation or freedom together. that's the idea of america at

its best. that is multilateral cooperation at its best. it's not being selfless and it's not helping others and it's helping ourselves through helping others. >> so, matt, i love this concept, but i want to know how you can put it into play when you're dealing with a country with authoritarian tendencies or with a history of that, but even more so given your experience in sweden and the uk and around the world. when you're talking about is productive diplomacy. it could be the same thing, but what happens when it hits up against a country that doesn't see it the same way? >> yeah. you mentioned sweden. i remember when i was serving over there right before your brother i met this amazing woman at usaid, and i said why don't we do more coordination of foreign aid. here's the thing, matthew.

everyone likes coordination and no one likes to be coordinated and that really struck me as true. no one likes to be told what to do and if we find ourselves as a country doing that, we can expect the lack of engagement that will follow. i guess to your hard question about authoritarian regimes, i think weigh can start -- we have lost these habits of interdependence and here in america overseas and we should start just with our friends and allies, really practice this -- these habits of interdependence of making freedom together and covid gives us such a good opportunity to do that hard work together and setting that pattern and that tone among friends and allies can go a long way. it's an incredibly attractive force. >> the book is "the power of giving away power," how the best leaders learn to let go and matthew barzun, thank you so much. your example of how covid could

be the vehicle is a great one. thanks for coming on the show this morning. >> and that does it for us today, stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it's wednesday, june 9th. we start with breaking news. just minutes ago president biden took off aboard air force one leaded to the uk on his first big foreign trip and his first chance to shape foreign policy after working on behalf of other presidents when he was in congress and of course, as vice president. just before getting on the plane he laid out his number one goal for this trip. >> an alliance. making clear to putin and to china that europe and the united states are tight and the g7 is going to move. thank you. >> mr. president, do you expect to come out with