and trump trapss back from tulsa. >> right now the next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surgings. >> okay, mr. surging general. forget critical numbers, what about what really matters tv rating numbers. >> this just came out. trump rally gives fox news the largest saturday night audience in its history. >> lies from new york it's saturday night. why is america coo coo for covid? >> the reason we have more cases than other countries is because our testing is so much. >> any other possible cause? >> when do you testing you're going to find more cases. >> we get there, but surely -- >> you do more test it shows more and more cases. if we didn't test we wouldn't have cases.

testing, you're going to find more cases. >> quick, this calls for a distraction, lay that one on us. >> it's the biggest risk we have. the mail-in ballot. >> mail-in ballots are a disaster. >> there's tremendous evidence of fraud. whenever you have mail-in ballot. >> mail-in ballot who would ever do such a terrible thing. >> his campaign releasing this video of him signing his ballot, which the state of florida calls vote by mail. >> talk about mail privilege. this has been this week in covid history. this morning we find out he wanted to send those covid cases to gtmo. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." it's tuesday, june 22nd and donald trump is not our president anymore. alodge with joe, willy and me we have mike barnicle and here in washington, former chair of the republican national committee and an msnbc political analyst, michael steel.

and washington anchor for the bbc katty kay joins us. good to have you all. >> why don't we start with the supreme court decision yesterday on the ncaa, really quickly. it basically said that student athletes could actually be compensated in terms of computers, other school supplies, but brett kavanaugh, at the end wrote this, talking about where the court was probably going to go, brett kavanaugh said that, tradition alone cannot justify the ncaa's decision to build a massive money enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated. i know you've seen it, i've seen it at alabama over the past 40 years, usually these poor kids coming from rural alabama being recruited, making tens of millions of dollars for the university, they break an ankle,

something else, a knee gets busted and they're at the pigly wiggly for the rest of their lives, they get no health care, don't get compensated, nothing. it's been outrageous for a long time. >> it is. and it rocks the foundation of the ncaa theory's case what people love about college sports is the amateurism. but what's happening in college sports is people are making billions of dollars, and the head coaches and athletic directors are the highest paid officials in every state in the country and the players get nothing. it was a narrow decision that upholds a former ruling in a lower court. under current ncaa rules students cannot be paid, as you said, and the scholarship money is capped at the cost of attending school. now schools recruiting top

athletes can offer benefits for things like computers, paid internships, study abroad programs and scholarships. that's the narrow ruling about education in this case. but if you read that ruling, especially the concurrent opinion from judge kavanaugh. he says this opens the door to bigger questions in college sports about athletes being paid and in this 9-0 supreme court case, judge kavanaugh was the strongest saying it's time to look at your model, something something bigger, and it leads to the athletes getting bigger when jerseys are sold, faces and names are put on video games, when they're it evaluated to the status of professional athlete without a nickel, that's about to change and judge kavanaugh made that case yesterday. >> you have to look at the logic and say, where has everybody

been for so long. one of the most outrageous cases was several years ago, i think some kid at ohio state a star tried to sell his jersey and they tried to ban the school from existence, suck it down to a black hole. i don't remember the kid's name but he tried to sell a jersey, and he got in trouble. and yet, how much money did that university, how much money did the ncaa make off of kids in ohio and across america buying his jersey? they made tens of millions of dollars. this is such a scam, it's not a close call, i'm glad justice kavanaugh wrote what he did and i hope the court goes in that direction. >> you get to the core of the case when you read the decision, especially judge kavanaugh's majority decision. the core of the case is

inequity. they recruit all of these young people, young athletes, baseball, basketball, and football are the big draws in college sports in terms of attendance and money and everything like that. but you stack up the money that school after school after school makes off of these athletes, and especially if you get to go to a bowl game, they make millions, and as willy just pointed out, they pay head coaches millions and millions of dollars, far more than any faculty member makes and the young men and women recruited to play these sports get nothing. not only that but they put themselves in risk if they talk to the wrong recruiter at the wrong time. if they take a baloney sandwich for lunch for free, a car ride -- >> it's ridiculous. >> it's ridiculous. the ncaa has been behind the times for at least 40 to 50 years. it's about time they're going to be caught up into an equitable

relationship with the athletes they recruit. >> and the dam is breaking with this decision, the guy's name is terrell pryer, played in the nfl for a little while, and as you say he tried to sell his jersey, championship ring, got a tattoo that he said he paid for, but there's question if he got a discount and he had to sit out five games because he got a tattoo. they said you cannot use your likeness in the ncaa to get any benefit whatsoever. it's been preposterous for a long time and something changed yesterday profoundly. >> for sure. >> we know something about making money off of football at the university of alabama. and coach saban, i think he's the highest paid employee in the state of alabama and i'm supposed to be outraged by that? i'm not. i'm a capitalist. he makes millions and millions of dollars for the university of alabama. you walk across that campus and you see it in other buildings.

you see it all across the campus. so i'm fine with that. but if we're using that logic for coaches use it for players. if coach saban deserves the money because he's bringing in all that money, well, those players are bringing in all that money, too. so let's take care of them. let's take care of these kids and stop punishing these kids. >> i was going to say -- >> it's ridiculous. >> it is. what's interesting to see is the impact it has on women's sports. >> yep. >> now these young female athletes have another way to leverage up in the sport i think, which is going to be interesting given what's been open by the supreme court decision. >> for sure. >> speaking of leveraging up, have you all heard the news? >> what's that? >> i don't know but there may be -- there may be a new leader in the republican party, at least in the rank and file have you heard this? >> okay. >> no, i'm serious. >> this is good. >> let me give you some background really quickly.

yesterday we showed the pictures of mike pence getting booed. i have friends who were at the event and they told me, four people, there were 2,000 people there, there were four people there and those four people shouted and immediately got taken out, the other 2,000 people were very respectful of him. it was very interesting, though -- i can't talk while he's talking, it's distracting me, come on. >> but thank you. so we know what we're talking about. >> i can't talk while he's talking. it doesn't work. the mood is broken. but anyway, so he -- >> my god. >> so i asked, i said, how was pence received? they said, here's the deal. it was respectful. they know mike pence, they've loved him for 20 years. he got three standing ovations. but it was muted.

he would have had 15 standing ovations last year. he's had a long way to go, right. >> right. >> but then, this one person said, but my god, you should have seen the response for ron desantis. he was like a concurring king and this person who's been in republican politics for 40, 45 years said i haven't seen anything since reagan in '80. unbelievable. >> ron desantis. >> ron desantis. i keep hearing this. >> i have too. >> just rock star status. this guy is taking over the republican party. >> ron desantis. >> ron desantis. and i saw a poll yesterday, mika -- >> i was going to get to the critical vote on voting rights. let's pull this. >> the new king is the king. >> it's a straw poll showing republicans' top choice for their next presidential nominee. it's not who you might think.

florida president ron desantis topped donald trump in a poll taken in denver this past weekend. desantis saw his popularity rise among republicans during the pandemic for being one of the only governors to routinely reject cdc health guidelines. >> you could pick more than one, which candidates would you consider voting for, ron desantis in first place, donald trump the second place. and former vice president mike pence with the heckling and his refusal to overturn the 2020 election he polled at 22%. >> surprising, nikki haley also very low, i guess it's because she crossed donald trump for a day. but right now, right now -- isn't there -- i think i saw some -- even though online betting things where you bet for the presidents had desantis ahead of trump. like -- which is crazy.

so desantis now, michael, i know you've probably heard the same thing i've heard among washington activists, washington money people, they're already quietly. they don't want to say publicly because they don't want to upset the big man. >> they don't want to get an email. >> they don't want to get an email. >> is that what it is now? okay. >> but this town, not just this town, but also the activists, whether they're evangelicals or whether they're money people, they're all -- they're quietly moving towards putting their money on desantis. >> there's a reason for that, as one person put it to me, it's desantis is trump without the gold toilet. meaning you don't have the bling and the flash. what you've got is a governor who for a lot of the base stood in the breech against the cdc onslaught and requirements and showed his macho that way. and quite effectively was able

to leverage off of trump in some degree. and that's worked to his advantage. he's now built this relationship with this base in a way that puts him where we see in these types of pollings. you're going to see more of this over the next few months as we head to 2022. >> the other thing about desantis. he won. there's a liability with trump, he doesn't win. lost the white house, the house, the senate. so far desantis has managed to keep himself close to trump, running the ads adoring trump but won the governor of the state. that's the difference. >> that's where i question the republicans in congress and the senate who still cannot -- they cannot defy trump and, you know, okay it's a cult. that's great. but when he's losing, if you're saying it's political logic, they don't want to lose their races. but he's lost everything for

them. so why not walk away from this crazy man? >> but they don't have to, mika, in this case. >> why? >> because this is less and less about trump in that sense. in other words, what you're seeing is the base making the pivot. they're making a move off of trump, towards desantis. >> we're going from the political heroin to the political methadone. i'm moving from trump, i hear time and again, not that from republicans that go to faith and freedom conferences, but i hear the same thing over and over again, why do you love desantis so much? why do you think he's going to win? why is he the guy in 2024? they say he's trump with the things we love about trump and none of the liabilities so far. >> yeah. there's no question about it. you know better than anybody, joe, in republican politics in that state, while governor desantis has been criticized nationally for ways he's handled the pandemic, he gets high marks

inside the state of florida, viewed as a good governor, competent. and he fights all the same fights on issues and cultural questions that president trump fought and continues to fight but he does it without the exhaustion. you talk to the same people you were talking to over the weekend that were in the room they will vote for donald trump if he runs again, they liked him, they were exhausted by him though and they wanted him to get off the stage. desantis doesn't give them that feeling. he fights the fights but doesn't come with the personal drama that trump came with. he's viewed by many as a good, competent governor as one of the most important states in the country. >> and he checks all the boxes, too, he was captain of his baseball team at yale, went to harvard law school, fought in fa lieu ja. >> he has the pedigree. >> yes, he has the pedigree.

and he's somebody that republicans can support and again get the positives -- what they consider to be the positives of trump but actually move towards somebody that actually has lived the type of life they used to claim they wanted their politicians to lead. >> but more importantly can win back the white house, shore up the senate and the house, watch for governor desantis to play a role in 2022. as one of those leading republican figures that a lot of candidates are going to be calling on to come into their states. you think willy hit the right points about his governance in florida, you look at his polling there, it's strong. so the question for national republicans, whether it's mcconnell or mccarthy is how does that help us? that brand will help. you watch him play a role and donald trump less of a role from candidates asking can you come

to my state and help me win next november. >> no republican will say it here, but we've all heard it. i've heard it from every republican on the hill, in the senate, in the house that i talked to. like they want him gone. >> they do. >> i heard it yesterday -- >> they've been saying it the last four years they want him gone but didn't know how to get rid of him. >> they thought if they ignored him, everything would be fine and they lost everything. i talked to somebody yesterday high up in the southern baptist church who saw our discussion and said the miscalculation that preachers made for four years was they could ignore trump and it would just go away. they kept hoping it would just go away, it never went away, churches got divided, now there's qanon conspiracy theories going on, now they have to confront it because it

wouldn't go away. that's the calculation they made on the hill. but when this guy goes, he's on a life raft, nobody is going after him. this news about desantis is the best news that people like mitch mcconnell have heard. >> yes. almost every private conversation i have had, too, joe, ends up there. they voted for trump, would probably vote again if he runs in 2024 given the alternatives but they would love somebody to fill the void he left stepping off the stage and at this moment it looks like governor ron desantis of florida. it'll be interesting to watch as he's elevated by the party whether in public ways or private ways how donald trump takes that news. he wants everyone to believe he's still the leader of the party, he wants everybody to believe he's going to run again in 2024, at least have that threat out there. but as desantis' name comes up

again and again before republicans it feels like a matter of time before trump turns on him. >> i don't know. it seems like it's ron desantis' party. any other news? >> yes. the debate continues today -- >> he owns this place. why don't we just put mission accomplished up at the rnc. it's over. it is over. >> how does trump try and take it back? he's silenced. he's sort of impotent at this point he can't tweet, can't go out on facebook. >> no. he does emails but i don't know who reads them. >> i love the fact that -- >> it's over. >> joe, are you going to be okay. >> he propped up desantis, talked about desantis being his running made in 2024 and desantis may be calling him, will you be my cabinet

secretary. >> help me man. >> i think it's nikki. >> he gave desantis his start. >> enough. >> desantis wouldn't be here for him and now all these people are saying it's desantis' party. unfortunately for him it looks like desantis' party. >> it's starting to look that way in june of 2021. we'll see if the it holds up. >> we have to keep it together. >> we're going to move to other news now. a critical vote is set for today on whether to begin a debate on a sweeping voting rights bill that democrats hope will counter restrictive new voting measures being enacted in republican led states. the motion which needs 60 votes to pass is expected to fail in the face of unanimous republican opposition. but if democrats are united it could give more fuel to those who want to eliminate the filibuster. the person to watch is

democratic senator joe manchin who has come out against the bill in its current form. the west virginia democrat has proposed a compromise and now senate majority leader chuck schumer is trying to convince him to advance the bill as a way to begin making changes, senator manchin met with president biden yesterday. we'll keep you posted on that. and also, former president barack obama is the latest high profile democrat to back senator manchin's voting rights compromise. it expands early voting, requires voter id and allows election officials to purge voter roles. obama said it's not his ideal plan but it represents common sense reforms most americans agree on. >> i'll be honest, the bill doesn't have everything i'd like to see in a voting rights bill, it doesn't address every problem. and i want to also be clear, republicans in congress, in the

senate, have every right to offer their own proposals. >> so, you know, i'm not going to make this about myself because i hate making it about myself. but mika will tell you if i'm negotiating with you and give you everything you want, that's a bad sign because i'm testing you. because if you don't take that deal, put on a helmet. that's just it. that's how i've done it my whole life. i give people an offer they can't refuse. and if they show their bad faith, i just smile and i reach under the desk and i put on my falcons 1967 helmet with the bar right there, let's do it. >> right. >> joe manchin, all these idiots, joe manchin doesn't know what he's doing. joe manchin knows exactly what he's doing. here's another example.

michael, barack obama -- >> yes. >> -- is now supporting voter id. which most americans support. >> no democrat. >> it's racist, it's bigots, we had to show a voter id? this is jim crow 8.0. >> yep. >> barack obama saying, we support voter id, and he's right. most americans support voter id. barack obama is now saying, purge voter roles. again something the democrats would say, you just hate black people. you were born hating black people because you want the rolls to be purged. that's all democrats have said as long as these things have been brought up. barack obama, stacey abrams, you name it, go on and on, joe manchin and these progressives are playing this -- i got to say they're playing it brilliantly. and if republicans in the senate don't go along with this, they

are so exposed. their bad faith is so revealed. what i love about this is, this is how politics used to be played. this is like lets meet in the middle. if you don't come to the middle with me, i'm going to run over you, you're showing your bad faith. and joe manchin is showing the world right now, he's given the republicans a chance but showing what bad faith they're operating under. >> i think that's right. the question here, though, is if you figure out and know where this thing ends up with the vote today. remember, this is a vote to have a discussion about the bill. this isn't the bill, this is can we talk about the bill? >> yeah. >> you're right. in this case you'll see the republicans exposed in that vain. here's the rub for me, what comes next when they return after the fourth of july? >> only joe knows.

>> joe knows. so joe still has some leverage in this process. he's brought leading progressives, stacey abrams, barack obama with him. and now do you say, since the republicans don't want the big package do we serve up a bill that takes out the things they supposedly don't want? >> right. >> we'll see how that plays out. i think joe has worked this to his advantage at the moment. the question is whether the democratic party has the political strategy on the back end to close the deal. that gets into filibuster and other things, joe. >> it does. but you know, mike barnicle we've said here from the beginning on voting, joe manchin has reversed engineered this, we don't know how but he has. we're moving closer and closer to this is a great compromise position.

and then, you know, we heard last week the idea floated, okay. they went from 67 for a filibuster to 60 for a filibuster. maybe they go to 55 for a filibuster. this voting rights bill is going to pass. it's just republicans can figure out how painful they want it to be, but it's going to pass. manchin has figured that out. >> help me out here, all of you are in washington and you're stooped in washington lore and washington rules of order. how is this going to pass when the most important opponent of this bill and every other bill proposed by the biden administration or any democratic senator, the most important opponent is mitch mcconnell who simply does not care. doesn't care what we say. doesn't care what the editorials say. >> he doesn't care what people think. >> how does it pass when he's

standing in opposition? >> actually mitch mcconnell represents the republican caucus so he's doing what he thinks the republican caucus at large wants to do. that's his job. but there are five republicans, i'm sure. lisa murkowski, susan collins, mitt romney, and a couple others that for a voting bill that requires voter id and purges the rolls, i think there are five republicans that support that. >> that 55 filibuster rule is looking more promising at the moment, it was a week or two ago. not just voting rights but look at infrastructure. interesting you have two big bills being discussed at the moment by two bipartisan groups where it's looking like there could be movement if you can shift -- you're not going to get 60 on either of them. you could get to 55 on both of those. imagine that, if you can go to those moderate republicans and say, give us 55 as the

filibuster threshold and we can get somewhere on not just voting rights but on infrastructure too. it's interesting how things are panning out at the moment where you get some of the moderate republicans saying we want to legislate. >> imagine how popular it will be if within a couple of weeks of each of these bills passing, you pass a significant infrastructure bill and you pass a voting rights bill. there are going to be a lot of -- >> that's the rub right there. >> that isn't hard for mcconnell to carry on saying no when you have enough republicans saying we want this, we want to bring it to 55. >> this has happened before, i'm not saying it's going to happen here but if a great infrastructure bill is going to help people and a great voting rights bill that is a bipartisan bill with voter id and the purging of the rolls and it makes voting easier and talks about gerrymandering, if that bill goes, it's one of those

things will we get 54, 55, and then it's like 78 that voted yes, because people are like -- >> we've seen it. >> i've seen it happen where people are like, wait, i'm not going to get run over for newt. i'm going to protect myself in my district. >> you're having flash backs aren't you? >> yes. you heard it all the time, you say blank delay, blank newt and you go in and vote yes. it happens in every legislative body, hold the line, hold the line. you see the line is about to break. i'm not going to be left here going against a bill that 75% of americans support. >> that 55 filibuster is a rule change, they can do that easily. lower the number, the threshold -- >> by the way, important, they've done it before. they went from 67 to 60. so please, don't tell me that

this is the trashing of that. >> you haven't actually got rid of the filibuster, the democrats were saying don't get rid of it. >> and the second point, this is the juicy part, is that for mcconnell, to your earlier point about looking around at his caucus, he knows a couple things. he has more members on the line in 2022 than the democrats do. two, these two issues are huge drivers in those states for those 24 senators who are going to be on the line. so at a certain point this breaks down for him, the momentum moves against him. that's how joe manchin i think, to your point, has reengineered this thing. so he created a backwash of momentum around this idea, you now got the very thing that republicans already -- always held up as we're not -- you know, if you don't purge the rolls and give us id. all right, you can have it. >> here you go. >> you got them. >> that's what i said, that's

what you do. you want that? what else do you want? i'll give you that. willie, so michael is exactly right. this is not debated in a vacuum. you don't say no to bills that have 70, 75% approval rating when you have a contested race where republicans are vacating their seats, a senate seat in pennsylvania, in ohio, in north carolina, most likely in wisconsin, it depends on what the ouija board tells ron johnson. you have a race in arizona. no he is consulting the ouija board, you have to have the tinfoil hat on just right, get the paper clips, put them on the doorways, but if the signal is coming the right way, ron is probably not running either. so you have the swing states in america that are going to be open. does this party want to vote

against a voting bill and an infrastructure bill that seven out of ten americans support? >> that's the bet democrats are making. put out this bill that offers some compromise on questions like voter id and others, call their bluff. on the question of voter id we put up that 80% of americans support voter id. if you go to the poll yesterday, 84% of nonwhite voters support voter id. this is something they're putting out there. we have two lessons last week from stacey abrams, the leading voting rights activist in the country saying i can get on board with the manchin proposal and yesterday no less than president obama as we showed saying, let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good, take what we can get, this is a product of compromise, those are the words of president obama, and that is a good thing. we compromise, got a lot of what we wanted, we don't get

everything that's the way it works. take this deal president obama and stacey abrams saying to progressives. still ahead, fbi director chris wray said the bureau did not have advanced warning of the january 6th capitol riot, but a new court filing is raising questions about that. plus, new reporting about the trump administration's early handling of the coronavirus pandemic. including president trump's stunning suggestion for where to send americans who were infected with the virus. >> mar-a-lago? >> you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ht back. tonight...i'll be eating crab cakes with spicy aioli. (doorbell rings) thank you.

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all right. 38 past the hour, welcome back to "morning joe." we're about one week removed from president biden's first overseas trip. and that historic summit in geneva with vladimir putin. joining us now u.s. national editor at the financial times ed luce in his latest piece entitled america is back and wants everyone to focus on china. he lays out where european allies are giving biden a passing grade and in it you write this, prior to biden's first overseas presidential forray, there was speculation about where his strategic priority lay, was it the contest between democracy and autocracy, managing the new era of great power competition, reasserting u.s. led multilateralism or forging coalitions to tackle the

pandemic and global warming? the answer is, all of the above. by biden's trip conveyed what matters most his overriding preoccupation is china. biden's much hype summit of democracy has been put off until next year, no venue was specified. by contrast, the china challenge appeared three times in the g7 communique, and was for the first time cited by nato an alliance supposedly about defending the north atlantic. >> we need to work on your contacts. >> i'm over 50. >> the doctor would say reminded me of multilateralism in the -- so, ed, it's interesting the way you lay this out. i mean, biden got the allies

standing shoulder to shoulder, he -- i won't say he neutralized russia. >> he did a lot of things at once. >> russia decided trying to get along with the united states may be in our best interest right now so neutralized the russia threat perhaps if you believe what we're hearing out of russian state media. so now the focus is on china. so if that was his goal, you're right, he certainly accomplished it. >> nailed it. >> i want to hear more of your doctor imitation. >> they're fantastic. don't bring it back. it gets to the top of google. >> it was a good moment. >> it was not a good moment. >> my other favorite dr. ber dr. berzinski, i was telling mika to do something early on,

you know, i don't see you as a very smart man. mika, take the money. >> that was embellished? >> no, that was it, exactly. >> they're all embellished. but it's the legend. >> the reason i'm particularly not just because you do a very good imitation but because i think it's at play here. when biden calls putin a worthy adversary, when he called russia a great power, this is not language that is designed to please republicans. in fact, they would accuse biden -- many of them did -- of appeasing putin, why is he doing this? i think part of the reason is to stroke the russian ego which always needs reassuring which is built on geopolitical paranoia. >> why would you not do that? it's free. it's free. say they're a great power, talk

about how they helped us win world war ii, talk about -- that doesn't cost anything. >> if biden thought -- if the republicans thought biden was appeasing putin, what did they think trump was doing? i'm curious. >> there's a column for that. >> what the heck! >> and the idea that meeting somebody confers sort of unearned blessings, what was he doing with kim jong-un and putin, of course. >> but anyway, cost nothing. and it really had the desired effect. at least in the short run. >> we'll have to judge by the dogs that do not bark. you measure that success by the solar wind attacks that don't occur, the flights that aren't diverted tominsk. there are wedges the united

states and drive between russia and china. that china is treating russia like a little brother. screwing russia on the gas it's selling to china. its belt and road is going through central asia and many of america's allies, like india and france and japan, are trying to forge closer relations with putin in order to loosen its embrace with china. >> doesn't russia have a good bit -- they have more to fear from china than anybody else. >> historically russia has been pair enjoyed to its east and paranoid to its west. for the last years we've been stoking up that paranoia. and loosening up on that is smart geo politics. that's why biden didn't take the democracy versus autocracy thing about menu, but it wasn't at the

top of the menu. that's going to undermine his attempts to draw putin closer. >> katty kay? >> now that the summits are over when it comes to trying to deal with china, there are some differences still, some european sentiment there might be trade deals europeans want to do with china in a way that washington wouldn't like, there's still left in the white house with the conundrum how to deal with china, take on china, they united a front and what are they going to do with that front? >> that's a good question. as we know the germans sell more to china than the united states. >> french, wine. >> exactly. and that european desire to keep else ares with china good is going to remain. i think, though, what -- what a berzinski would think running this from the white house and

what jake sullivan the national security adviser today, is probably thinking, as long as you loosen up the russia/china relationship, contradictions can go on, the europeans can trade with china, the united states can move closer to russia. as long as you just cloud or confuse a bit that russia/china very close partnership, then you're winning geopolitically. >> all right. ed is staying with us. coming up, one of the nation's largest democratic super packs is hoping to counter act republican led voting restrictions, the chairman of priorities usa joins us with the details of that new effort, ahead on "morning joe." e. it's coming back to you now... real pants. find amex offers to save on the brands you love.

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joe." in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic last year, while the trump administration debated what to do with americans who had contracted the virus abroad, then president trump reportedly advocating for sending them to guantanamo bay, that's one of the revelations inside a new book. "the washington post" obtained a copy of the book ahead of its publication later this month. according to the authors in february of 2020, before the u.s. outbreak exploded the president reportedly asked, quote, don't we have an island that we own? what about gwon ton mow. he said we import goods we're not going to import a virus. aides were stunned and scuttled the ideas over a backlash of

detaining tourists on a base where they hold terrorism suspects. the book also describes another incident when president trump was speaking with alex azar, trump reported to have yelled this, quote, i'm going to lose the election because of testing. what idiot had the federal government do testing? azar then said, you mean jared? kushner vowed to take charge of a national testing strategy just days earlier. a lot to digest but the first story, the instinct of president trump in february of 2020, according to the books was to send american citizens who wanted to the come home but were sick with coronavirus to the same place that a reed shake mohammed now sits. >> now we know why he wanted to

buy greenland. you look, it's just example after example, going back over the past year, just the ignorance -- well, the feigned ignorance because it's interesting when he was talking to woodward, i believe it was in late february, early march, he knew that the virus was a killer, as he said. he knew it was five times as likely to kill you as the flu. he knew it was airborne, could impact younger americans. he knew everything on the take but suddenly in the white house, i guess he just feigned ignorance and idiocy. >> as we read and listened to that excerpt, we had the normal human reaction, i think all of us, we laughed. and yet when you think about it, how close did we come to something, a re-election of this man, donald trump, that would have absolutely destroyed the republic, the democracy that we're all a part of?

how close did we come? the department of justice revelations a couple of weeks ago, that they were wiretapping and basically seizing reporters' emails, a lot of people let that slide because a lot of people don't like the media, i get that. but it raised the question within the biden administration, i'm told, one large question that applies to nearly every department of the federal government. what else don't we know about what they did? we don't know the damage they've done. we know parts of it and we'll find out parts of it as we move along but what damage have they done? >> we'll find out and very little will matter to his supporters. if we want to talk generally about -- we could talk about going after reporters, other white houses have done that. but i don't know that -- i still haven't heard of any other white house actually using the justice department to go after people

who were actually investigating the president like they went after democratic members of congress, getting into their phone records, staff members phone records, kids' phones. just -- it's crazy. >> even the way they did it after reporters then making a gag rule in the news organizations so the reporters couldn't talk to the lawyers in the news organizations. everything was done that was possible to make donald trump happy and to make donald trump feel he was there legitimately and anyone perceived as an enemy of donald trump, he was using the power of the government to the maximum effect in order to try to prevent them from being able to investigate or attack him. and he felt that was right because he kept referring to it as my justice department or my generals. >> his lawyers. >> he had a view of government that they were his because that's what i guess he's always

done in the trump organization and he transferred that business model to the white house. the thing about gitmo, it was absurd, silly, it was never going to happen. but the thing about the testing and the repetition of the testing is alarming. lives were lost because america didn't test enough. because of that mistake people died. he must have known that what he was saying wasn't true, that you didn't get it because you tested. you got it and, therefore, you needed to test. but that refusal to accept that as a policy that you needed to test more in order to isolate people so they then didn't infect other people, that killed people. >> yes. >> it was so short sided, ed, and so stupid. >> we could see it happening in real time. >> at the end of the day, that was what a day trader would do. he didn't want the testing because he didn't want the numbers to go up. and, of course, without the testing things would have been even worse. we couldn't do the contact

tracing early on that we needed to do to keep the numbers lower because we had a president who hated the testing, because it revealed the people actually had covid and proved him to be a liar when he said it was only one person coming in from china and soon it's going to be gone. it's only 13 people, soon down to zero and all the lies he told. so he was desperate to keep sort of protecting the original lies and it just blew up in his face. >> i can't remember who said that the great saving grace of the trump administration is that its malevolence is outstripped by its confidence. if he agreed to proper contact tracing, testing, and to follow sensible public messaging on this epidemic, if he had taken dr. fauci's advice, then he might well have been re-elected. if he agreed to a stimulus last

fall, which some in his party were pushing but he wanted to -- basically didn't want to hear anything of it, $2,000 checks to people, he might have won last november -- >> if he followed fauci's advice and just talked about the economy, he would have won. >> he would have won. and prior to the pandemic -- >> right. still ahead, following several developments on capitol hill this morning, president biden ramps up his push for an infrastructure deal. and today's senate show down over voting rights. "morning joe" is coming right back. "morning joe" is coming right back

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republicans in the senate are lining up to try to use the filibuster to stop the for the people act from even being debated. think about this. in the after math of an insurrection, with our democracy on the line, and many of these

same republican senators going along with the notion that somehow there were irregularities and problems with legitimacy in our most recent election, they're suddenly afraid to even talk about these issues and figure out solutions on the floor of the senate. >> president obama jumps into the debate over voting rights as the senate prepares to take a key vote today that could also have implications on the future of the filibuster. welcome back to "morning joe," it's tuesday, june 22nd, mike barnicle and mike steel are still with us and we have kasie hunt. guy cecil joins us.

a critical vote is set for today on whether to begin debate on a sweeping voting rights bill, that democrats hope will counter new bills in republican led states. the motion is expected to fail in the face of unanimous republican opposition. but if democrats are united, it could give more fuel to those who want to eliminate the filibuster. the person to watch is democratic senator joe manchin who has come out against the bill in its current form. the west virginia democratic has proposed a compromise and now senate majority leader chuck schumer is trying to convince him to help advance the bill as a way to begin making changes. >> it's a vote on whether the senate should simply debate the issue of voting rights, the crucial issue of voting rights in this country. we shouldn't have to debate the

voting rights -- we shouldn't have to debate voting rights on the floor of the united states senate. these rights should be sacrosanct. but the events of the last few months compel us to have this debate now. i challenge you, republican senators, come to the floor, defend these policies. tell us how they secure the vote. tell us how they prevent nearly nonexistent voter fraud. so kasie, we heard the new name there -- >> it's a vote to talk. >> we heard a new name of a senator from west virginia joe -- how do you pronounce the last name? man cheen. >> in the last hour, i can't believe i'm saying this, i'm really impressed with the democrats. they're usually so bad at it but they said, okay, you want voter id, something the democrats have

hated for decade, okay. you wanted to purge the rolls, okay. you have stacey abrams out there saying it, barack obama out there saying it. it's almost like the republicans are being set up here to say no and at that point, joe manchin if he decides he wants to go to 55 like was floated last week for the filibuster, he's really taking away any good faith arguments republicans have. >> i think that's what joe manchin has set out to do in many ways. is to demonstrate -- he's said i want this to be bipartisan, any voting changes to be bipartisan. he looked at this and said republicans supported it in the past my compromise is, in theory, bipartisan. so it exposes, like you were saying, the fact that it's not necessarily about the policies or what they're doing. it's simply about opposition. and i think that's what manchin, if he's going to move at all, that's what he would need to

move on this. one of the central challenges here is that democrats have really gotten their base extraordinarily worked up over this, and it's going to be a disappointing day for them today and that's going to be a challenge for the biden white house as they try to keep progressives happy on other things but i think this is a longer-term play to change the conversation with progressives. >> speaking of progressives, i remember when we were the red hots on the white in the '94 class. we wouldn't let a day go by without raising hell, i've been really surprised by the discipline progressives have had, let's just sit back. we know what manchin is doing. don't agree with him. and you've seen them sitting back and going along with voter id and purging the voter rolls, two things they've always hated.

seems from bernie sanders, aoc, elizabeth warren, on these matters they've been disciplined the first few months. >> you mentioned voter id, that's significant evolution. a lot of these house members have won elections in states you have to give voter id to vote. they cannot win if the state is gerrymander, and the district is cracked. the nightmares they're working about. they're doing a gigantic bill that can't survive in full but a big ask that can be negotiated away. is it important for 2022 for republicans and their financing? not really they can raise money. so the parts they think are the most popular, that's how they've been acting, i found covering the left, the squad, the coverage of them and the efforts to make them into the freedom caucus, that's not how they play, they want bills to play

but worry if you start with a compromise. this started just ban gerrymandering, the republicans say we're not doing that. they're trying to get pieces taken out. >> bernie sanders needs to come out for the progressive base and he's worried about the progressive base and say, that's not enough for infrastructure, 1.2. we want $6 trillion, right. >> sure. >> yay, $6 trillion, that's great. they'll end up closer to $1.2 trillion, but it speaks to the discipline of the progressives in this sort of biden/manchin world we find ourselves in right now. >> and a recognition of the fact that politics in west virginia where the president won by huge margins is different than politics of a brooklyn house district or st. louis house district. and ultimately we have 49 to 50 votes on things. if we picked up an extra seat in

maine if kyle cunningham stopped sliding into dms, maybe we have an extra seat or two, that would solve some of the problems -- >> i'm, sorry, what? >> i know. >> you have that one in the blue column, my friend. >> yes. >> i'm glad to have you here. we'll go to willie in a second to continue this. i have a question, there are a couple of things about -- i'll ask both of you this, a couple things about 2020 i still don't get, other than the 75 million people that voted -- >> at least we're not talking 2016 anymore. i'll talk about whatever you want. >> i know. people would come up to me in church in connecticut, like conspiracy theories, talking about republican conspiracy theories then it was democratic conspiracy theories. you need to look at michigan behind the third door. please, just stop. >> i understand. >> i know you understand. but i want to talk for a second about susan collins, as somebody who's going to be playing a role in all of these things, if we go

down to 55, i think susan collins becomes a key player. how did susan collins win a state by nine that joe biden won by nine? that just doesn't happen anymore. have you figured that out? >> one of the biggest changes in the senate from 15 years ago is the number of senators that represent a party opposite of how they voted for president. a third of the senate used to represent a different party. now we're down to five. she went in with stronger numbers than her temporary polls indicated. i think she was more popular than the polls indicated she was at a 40% approval rating. made it a contest between the two people on the ballot and did things in the end to show the old susan collins independence. i think both sides ran good campaigns but she was stronger

than most people thought she was going to be. >> the word was, people that talked to her the weekend before i'm going to win. screw the polls i'm going to win. she knew she was going to win. nobody else knew she was going to win. >> democrats were starting to -- the period you were talking about, i was talking what they thought they would pick up and that was lower on the list. part of it was she got to cast that amy coney barrett vote and accentuate what she was trying to held voters in more hypothetical way. she doesn't need to face voters again until 2026 so she can do whatever she wants on the administration. if you voted for her wanting to work with biden sometimes, maybe infrastructure but yeah, it was -- we didn't cover the race as much as the other senate races but that was the outlier when people did believe in the biden and the moderate message

that that could work. >> an 18-point swing. and willie, she's going to be saying like with kasie, she's in the mix. you're going to have mitt romney in the mix. you're going to have, you know, four or five people in the mix. and if the filibuster goes down to 55, suddenly things may start moving. >> yeah, the question will be, are there enough votes to move that filibuster? kasie, we had kyrsten sinema last night with an op-ed in "the washington post," the democratic senator from arizona saying i'm not budging. you can ask me again and again, i'm not budging on the filibuster, a 60 vote filibuster is here to stay. joe manchin made that same point since january as well. no matter how many times he's asked i'm not getting rid of the filibuster so we go back to the question, which version of the voting bill has support from democrats and potentially a

couple republicans. how do they get anything through when republicans have said we are not going to support this. mitch mcconnell has called even the jon lewis idea, that proposal, quote, unnecessary. without filibuster reform which joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are not going along with, how do you get a voting rights bill passed? >> you don't is the reality. i think the reason kyrsten sinema came out with the op-ed today is she's -- for all we know she supports or she has said she supports the voting rights bill. so people are going to look at that and say this might mean she's open to changing the filibuster. i think she wants to say, no, i'm drawing my line in the stand. anyone can go on the floor and start a debate on the filibuster. she's in a tough position -- guy, i would be interested to know who you would identify in this group because we started to talk a lot about them, who are

these two covering for who are nervous about busting through the filibuster? >> compromise comes when two sides identify a problem and they may have different approaches to actually trying to solve the problem. so you come together and you negotiate those different approaches. that's not what's happening here. we have one side that identified a problem and is trying to solve it and one side trying to stoke the problem, make it worse, make it more difficult to work. so there's almost no chance the republicans are going to support any version of the jon lewis voting rights act. i think there are two or three democrats on the record saying they haven't made a decision around the filibuster. but the reality is if we got joe manchin and kyrsten sinema to change their position on filibuster reform or eliminating it you would have the rest of the democratic caucus there. >> sure. >> i don't get it. why would you say, i am going to throw like -- i'm going to draw

a red line in the sand other a procedure? >> right. >> i'm sorry, i've been on a ballot four times -- >> it makes no sense. >> people don't care about procedures like washington cares about the filibuster. i saw people walking in to vote, four times voting for me, they didn't go what did joe do on the motion to reconsider -- which people on the floor will say you will always pay on this motion to reconsider it will follow you. no. they don't care about procedure. why? >> because the senate is designed for the foreseeable future to be very close. it's going to be a 50/50, 51/52 seat in either direction. >> why not support the filibuster? >> if you disagree with your

party at times on issues, which both sides will do. it's more difficult to get to the 60 threshold. so the pressure you feel is much less because you're not dealing with ever getting to the 58th or 59th vote because the senate is so divided. if you're at 48, 49, and you only need 50, the pressure is always on you. >> what if it takes 55? >> do you think five senators are voting for s-1. >> not s-1. >> do you think five senators would vote for the equality act for an infrastructure bill that was over $1.2 trillion? >> no. but five will vote for a 1.2 trillion dollar bill, five will vote for a voting rights bill -- >> yeah. >> listen, if you put in voter id and purge voing rolls, you strip that bill down put in the basics and gerrymandering, i

would love to run against a republican that voted against this. everywhere they went i would call them captain gerrymander. what do you hate about voter id? my god, kids have to have an id and i repeat the republican arguments for 50 years. >> we did it in 2010. why do you think i got on a big red bus that ran around the country? >> you like big red buses? the. >> yes. i like big red buses that put the pressure back on those standing in the way on an issue that the country said we're not buying this. here's the question. so the filibuster is not about the policy, it's not about the legislation, it is about the process. so i don't understand what does kyrsten sinema think she's saving? >> she's saving her own self-on voting rights. she can vote yes, even if she's concerned on how it plays back home. take guns, different issue in

arizona and west virginia than many states. let's do an assault weapons ban, kyrsten sinema and joe manchin are suddenly nervous, there's a ton of pressure to get on board with those policies. they vote for those policies they probably go home and lose. >> i'm still going to use it against you and say, look, now it's even more -- we got to vote them out and everybody else out because she wants to take away your guns. >> it's tactics. >> i understand what you're saying. >> i'm saying if there's no filibuster then kyrsten sinema's op-ed has to be about the policy, this is why i'm voting no -- >> god forbid! >> you asked for an explanation. >> i know. >> i'm just explaining it. >> procedure, why are they like drawing lines in the sand over procedure? >> everything just talked about is not uncommon. there's states people vote for one thing when the governor of the other party is going to veto it. california with single health

care payer is a great example. what the base is pushing to do is say why are we in this voting discussion at all? because the supreme court ruled the way it did in citizens united and the human rights act. so look what happened to their base, susan collins, did she lose voters because of the decision to end the filibuster on supreme court nominees? i don't believe so. they're going to get stuck in an effect that judges can be admitted with a 51 vote. and democrats can't get over the hump and pass a bill. obviously that obvious doesn't convince kyrsten sinema but that's the issue here. they're now in a position where in order to override something a court did or a new law they need nine more votes. >> if nobody lost because harry reed killed the filibuster on

federal court judges and no republican lost because mitch mcconnell did the same with supreme court judges, why does kyrsten sinema think anybody is going to lose if you do that on voting rights? >> i think she has the op-ed, we should read "the washington post" and see what she thinks. >> let me broaden this out. why would anybody think they're going to lose a vote over procedure, because harry reed didn't, mitch mcconnell didn't. what conservatives think is the most important thing -- >> the bill -- >> there's a thought that we have a 19th centuries tool trying to solve a 21st century problem. which is that it is a rare exception to have bipartisanship. >> right. >> and the reality is, on most of the issues we've been talking about, there are not going to be bipartisan votes. there just aren't. >> no. >> and so the filibuster should be eliminated or reformed.

we couldn't even get -- i don't think a paired down covid package at the beginning of this year would have actually received republican votes. it gave them an excuse to go it alone. the reality is you're not going to have the votes. so their calculus, they say, is that if you eliminate the filibuster then you're going to have the senate look like the house and policy is going to move back and forth in these huge swings from one cycle to the next and it's unstable for the country. the example she gave this morning in "the washington post" column around issues like medicaid and medicare could be done on reconciliation with 50 votes so she's misinformed on that front. but that's the excuse or reason they give. i think it's not relevant to -- >> i think to your point, joe, and what you're saying is very much the case. the filibuster is used as a

wedge, a bill insider's game, tool, to sort of not have to deal with the big policy. rank and file americans out there, like can you get it done? our vote, we're watching states strip away our access to the ballot box, putting hurdles in front of us, can you address it? we're not asking for the federal government to control voting. we're asking can you create a platform that we can access voting in our own states. yet they're falling back on these procedural arguments as if people give a damn. it's not rocket science, it's common sense. >> let's talk about the 55 vote threshold it present from 67 to 60 for a reason. the senate had to do that to pass legislation. the past ten years there's not been a significant piece of bipartisan legislation.

the last six years of obama administration, republicans didn't meet in the middle. nothing got done the last six years on major legislation. four years of the trump administration, nothing bipartisan, a big republican tax bill and that's it for the decade. the senate is not working. the filibuster doesn't work in this environment anymore. and we've had this environment now for about a quarter of a century. so why not move it from 60 to 55 so the filibuster actually matches the political times that we're in instead of us looking back and saying, things should be like they were in 1961. >> i think you answered your own question. the senate is not working. will it work to get to 55, who knows. we've been talking about voting rights, a critical piece of legislation, yet we've glossed over, mentioned it, one of the real cores of the obama

administration is infrastructure. now dave weigel, i want to ask you, in terms of the infrastructure bill, in terms of passage of it, in terms of getting the democrats on board now we have ed markey and sheldon whitehouse, sliding away from the infrastructure package saying it's not big enough, 1.2 trillion ain't going to do it. and elizabeth warren working in the shadows as well. what happens with this? >> i wasn't picking up the audio. >> i'm sorry he was saying progressives are now pushing and saying they need more. sheldon whitehouse, bernie, and elizabeth warren are saying we need more. so mike was asking what happens now that progressives are saying 1. 2 is not enough? >> i think their bluff gets called in a lot of places. they want a promise that the climate legislation, which was more moderate than what bernie sanders could have passed anyway, they want some promise that is going to pass. you're not going to be in a situation where kyrsten sinema

and joe manchin and mark warn erand chris coons are bailing on another reconciliation package later in the year. they're trusting of democratic leadership, i think this has to do with nancy pelosi and her relationship with those folks. they know they're not going to get everything. >> kasie on infrastructure, does it end up looking like 1.2, 1.3 trillion, and does manchin call the republicans' bluff? what happens? >> i think if they can get this bipartisan package, the white house is betting it's worth waiting another week to do it and if they do, the number is lower than that. then there is a chance they will be able to convince joe manchin and kyrsten sinema to get on board because they'll point to the success of the bipartisan plan. i think that's alive. that's what the biden white house is thinking through right now. >> so that's infrastructure, what happens with voting rights? i still say they're going to get there. i don't know how they're going to get there.

joe manchin, he has his ways. how are -- what are you hearing? how are they going to get there? >> i -- i -- >> can you record that, that's going to be my ring, i -- i -- >> tell me how they get there. >> how do i handle this question politely? no, i don't -- i honestly -- >> gees. >> it's one of the great answers. >> i don't see it. i just don't see it is the reality. >> everybody agree? >> yes. it works. >> going to get there? >> no. not on any meaningful reform. i think that's the reason why we're spending $20 million on litigation. it's not because we think that this is going to be a huge success. it's because ultimately we think that if something passes it will be relatively small and the only way anything meaningful passes is if you eliminate or reform the filibuster. >> the only thing that can be

done is to win more senate seats. >> do you agree with them? >> they're different points. >> would you be with the point -- >> there's really more momentum for the voting part of this when texas has a special session. there are external events, the arizona audit coming back, because the republican push in the states, there's going to be fresh material, if that's the right word, for democrats to bring this up again and again, people to pressure manchin and cinema again. in arizona kyrsten sinema has democrats crying out for some relief from this. and that's going to keep happening. it might be august until arizona finishes that. so that's going to keep happening. does that move any minds? i don't know. but historically that's what's moved somebody off the fence, things get worse and activists telling them they need help. >> quickly, let me ask you, maybe because we're republicans, i'm saying if i'm joe manchin and i'm rolled on the 1/6

commission and i'm rolled on voting rights, and i'm rolled on -- >> yeah. >> -- i just -- i -- i roll over some people. >> yeah. >> and i just -- i go to them and say this is your last chance and then i roll them. and manchin has the power to do that anyway he wants to do that. he got elected in a state that trump got 69% in, i want to keep reminding people that think this guy doesn't have courage. after sandy hook he started talking every day about gun control in a state that is least open to gun control. i just -- i don't think he's going to allow mitch mcconnell and the republicans to roll him on everything. >> i don't think he is either. you know, i appreciate where the smart people who cover the hill are on this. >> we have them because they're smart. >> we have them because they're smart. but the i,e, that puts it all in context. and i think that context says to me, like you just indicated, that manchin has not just a plan

b but a plan z. i think he's thought this thing through, he gets the political realities and strategies on the hill and he's going to be probably leading the charge on a narrative on an issue like voting saying how dare we stand in the way of americans accessing their constitutional right. that play is there for him if he wants it. i think he wants it. >> dave and guy thank you for being on the show this morning. great conversations. still ahead on "morning joe," the fbi acknowledges in new court filings that trump supporters discussed starting a, quote, revolution before january 6th. but that seems to be in direct contrast to comments made by fbi director christopher wray. and nancy pelosi hoping to tackle america's growing inequality.

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welcome back to "morning joe," just about 7:33 here on the east coast. new documents reveal advance warning the fbi had of the violence that would ultimately ensue on january 6th. an fbi agent acknowledged in a february investigative report that angry trump supporters were talking openly in the days before the attack about bringing guns to the capitol she wrote users in multiple online groups and platforms discussed traveling to the capitol armed or making plans to start a revolution on that day. the document was entered into court records last week. it does not say whether the fbi's review of social media

posts was before or after january 6th. it clashes with director christopher wray and his comments that the bureau did not have actionable intelligence about the deadly capitol attack. this runs into this conversation whether it was online chatter that the fbi didn't have enough to go on or whether there were real threats to the capital that day and what agents knew about it. >> joining us congressman jim himes from connecticut. this new information, i mean, it also backs up the claim that some are refuting or ignoring that this was planned, that this was put together and this was pushed by trump and many who follow him to have a riot at the capitol, an insurrection. whether or not the fbi is still

trying to identify social media posts and facebook, which in a lot of cases, the advertisements disappear after they go out there. it's going to be hard to put together where all of this came from but they're slowly piecing it together. >> what does the intel show? >> at some level this is not surprising. we've known there were groups, the proud boys or these weird militia groups that acted, you can see that when you were watching the television, acted in military fashion. there was no question there were people hell bent on doing violence. there's a difference between we're going the take a gun and hurt people to we're going to have a revolution. >> they didn't have actionable intelligence the fbi director was saying. >> at some point in time that's absurd. whether that point in time is two days before, this is why we

need a january 6th commission to figure out if, in fact, they had intelligence and if so, what they did with it. but when there is a march on the capitol, you see thousands of people, that's a walk that takes 45 minutes or so. and in that 45 minutes what happened as well? that's a question we need answered. >> mike i'm reminded and i won't reveal the fbi director who told you this in the years after 9/11, but he told you if you saw what comes across our desk every day, you would crawl under your bed in a fetal position, talking about all the threats, right. >> that's correct. >> so it's always after the bomb goes off it's easy to find that strand that everybody can say, see, look at this, why didn't you act on it? when as your off-the-record conversation with the fbi director revealed, there is so much, quote, actionable intelligence they have to sort through and figure out what's real and not real.

>> yeah. the director at that point in time was talking about the intel reports, the overnight intel reports that he gets access to or got access to early in the morning prior to going to the white house. it's the same today, joe. we know that. the overnight intel reports about threats posed to the united states around the world are colossal in number. congressman himes, i wondering how you deal and speak with colleagues who, in this vain, knowing what happened on january 6th, refused to go forward with the ultimate commission that will tell us the roots of how it happened, who put it together, who was impacted by it, and the impact it had on the country and of you people who work in the capitol? >> it's very hard. it's very hard. you know, i sometimes say the american public didn't appreciate the extent that before january 6th, there were deep personal relationships across the aisle, unlikely ones. that began to change on january

6th. it wasn't the rejection of the 1/6 commission. it was watching our colleagues after an attempt on their lives, still file into the chamber to promote the lie that had led to that violence. that was beyond painful to watch. and then, as you point out, to say let's just put this behind us, that's what they're doing, inside the republican conference there are people appalled by donald trump but they don't want to talk about it. what they don't realize is if you don't talk about it, the questions we're asking this morning may not get answered and that means there's a higher probability it happens again and because of that those personal relationships i'm talking about have been badly damaged and they're going to take some time to rebuild. >> what do you do to rebuild that? as you say, people want to watch things get done and we're going to talk about one of the issues you're working on at this moment? but how do you sit across from

people, some of then cynically saying no, january 6th wasn't as bad as your eyes tell you. one member of congress from georgia who barricaded the door, knew what the threat was in addition that chamber, came out and said, they're just tourists on a visit strolling through statuary hall. how do you work with those people? give people hope, if there is some, that relationships can be repaired and things can get done instead of talking about why you guys are so split. >> it's very hard, willie. candidly, until the rest of the republicans in the conference uniformly reject the reshaping of history that you see out of a relatively small number -- the ones who said that was just a normal tourist day or it was the fbi or antifa, all the lies in an attempt to recast this away from donald trump. until the bulk of republicans reject that and say we know what

happened, that's not true. but it's going to be hard. i was elected to get things done i was elected by my constituents to improve the lives of people in connecticut, if that means i have to work with people that have done terrible things for the health of our republic, i'll hold my nose and do it. i was sent there to make progress for my consistents sometimes that requires holding my nose and having a gin and tonic to make it happen. >> you look at the senate and there is some bipartisan legislation getting passed in the senate and it's between people that didn't vote to undermine the election. so there are -- we always say here, there's three parties, republicans, democrats and insurrectionist party. it has to be frustrated to see some of those people that voted against certifying it and wants

to pretend it didn't happen. let me ask you about a project that nancy pelosi has put you in charge of. as a former constituent of your district, it seems very appropriate that she asked you. >> yeah, you're talking about the select committee on economic disparity and fairness and growth. it plays into the thing we were just talking about, which is disparity in this country, economic disparity is as bad as it ever has been. the top 1% is doing as well relative to everyone else as it has done. it becomes corrosive to our politics and economy and offends us morally at some point. >> my former district, a place i love, new cannon, that area, you represent constituents from greenwich to bridge port. >> that's right. >> and there are people that are in the top, top .01% and those

at the bottom of the economic ladder. >> ten minutes away. ten minutes away. here's why i'm excited. we were talking about bipartisan. it's not a blue problem. i see a form of disparity in fairfield county where you used to live go into appalachia, ruby red districts and you see huge disparity. >> middle america. >> rural america, represented by republicans. we're going to say folks this is a problem everywhere. and in the spirit of what we were talking about, no subject is going to create such an argument. i'm going to work hard to find even if it's a small overlap i'm going to find the area to address the problem. it's an american problem. >> congressman jim himes thank you very much for coming in this morning. coming up a look at where infrastructure negotiations stand on capitol hill. republican senator todd young

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all right. it is 47 past the hour. bipartisan infrastructure talks are ramping up as president biden steps into the fray. senators kyrsten sinema and joe manchin met separately with biden at the white house on monday to discuss the bipartisan infrastructure plan. here are the 21 republican and democratic senators working together on a yet-to-be-released plan. sources tell nbc news the senators are expeck to regroup again today before meeting with several white house advisers at the capitol. joining us one of the republicans working on that plan. senator todd young of indiana. >> senator thanks for being with us. you know, we talk about fear and

loathing and no bipartisanship et cetera, et cetera, what are we going to do? but you've already -- and chuck schumer, you guys already have given us a pretty good blueprint about how to pass significant bipartisan legislation. you did it a couple weeks ago and, of course, there weren't the big headlines about that. so let's talk about it. i wanted you to come on and talk about that. we'll talk about infrastructure too. but what you did regarding china pretty significant. >> i do think it provides a model for a lot of legislation. whether it's our bipartisan infrastructure talks which continue or additional national security legislation, which is what the endless frontier act was working with senator schumer and other democrats and republicans. look if there's one issue that clearly unifies republicans and democrats and everyone in between, it'ses the need to crack down on china's predatory economic practices. they've been stealing our

intellectual property and dumping goods into this country and that hurts rank and file americans. so we decided to choose one of those issues, cracking down on those sorts of practices, investing in 21st century technologies in a really bold fashion and preparing our workers to land those 21st century jobs that pay really well into the future. it required a year and a half of staff work, of consultation, of trust building but we got it done, 68-32 it passed out of the senate. >> when we talked about this, you brought up and it made a lot of sense to me, you brought up the comparison with how the united states responded to sputnik. >> that's right. that's right. post cold war, it was pretty clear that we faced an existential moment with the challenge that the soviet union presented. so we decided to use that moment not just to defeat the soviet union that wasn't our paradigm,

instead our paradigm was let's use this to become a better version of ourselves, let's stand up nasa and outgrow, outinnovate and compete the sov union. that's how we feel about china. >> it wasn't just about getting to the moon. it wasn't just about beating the soviets. it was like you said -- i'll say i'm a conservative, small government conservative. i've always been reluctant to get the federal government involved in private enterprise, but you look back at what happened post sputnik, and our government helped inspire, helped create a generation of scientists, engineers, people who not only helped nasa, but helped everything. the world changed radically after that. >> we stood up nasa, as you

indicated. we established and invested in a highway system, interstate highway system through president eisenhower and bipartisan leadership. all of these sorts of initiatives were designed to ensure that we grew at a more rapid rate. we used those resources to build the most powerful military in the world, and then ultimately, over a period of years of strategic patience and bipartisan cooperation, we got things done, ultimately defeating the soviet union. so i think that's a model we can harness. we should not let our many principle disagreements -- and they exist -- obscure our many areas of agreement. and that's what both senator schumer and i did as we negotiated this legislation, and i think that's a model for infrastructure and other issues. >> the soviets have infrastructure. this is an exciting move, republicans and democrats working -- i know this will shock you, i wasn't like a team player when it came to

leadership. i always love when things happen. >> i was aware. >> i love when things happen organically and members just say, member to member, if the leadership can't get it done, let's get it done ourselves. >> listen, joe -- i'm sorry, mika. >> no, go ahead. >> i'm a marine and i've got some scars to show it. there are times for that. but you lose credibility if all you do is brawl. you have to provide those opportunities, and there are many, to help one another get a bill done that serves all our constituents. infrastructure is a great issue. there have been ten republicans working with ten democrats. i think you just showed their faces on your screen. we immodestly call ourselves the g-20. this is the united states senate, right? >> so a $10 trillion bill and

how do you intend to pay for it? >> we like to say it's only $10 trillion. we've come together and identified pay-fors, areas of common agreement. repurposing some unneeded covid funds, revolving funds, which is the kind of stuff we've always used to pay for infrastructure. some public/private partnerships. all this stuff has proven to work, and we figured out how to add it all up to a trillion dollars and pay for this thing without increasing taxes. we can have the tax conversation later if others want to. but we don't believe you have to pay for our central core infrastructure with raising taxes. >> mike barnacle is next. mike? >> senator, it was good to hear you recite some of our history of bipartisanship. on this day in 1944, president roosevelt signed the g.i. bill which passed congress with big bipartisan majorities, and then

the national highway act you just mentioned, and when you worked at guerin, the first russian astronaut appeared in space. we got over that quickly and we were the first on the moon. so in terms of infrastructure today and bipartisanship, i get the sense that your number is just a little slightly less than $1 trillion, so my question to you is, i understand the concept of we can't afford to go more than a trillion, some republicans are saying that. my question to you is, what about the fact that we can't afford not to really go over a trillion and really repair. i mean, potholes have no partisanship. >> it's a great question. so i do think we have to invest what is necessary in order to grow our economy at a more rapid rate. the way i think about our national debt is if someone buys a $10 million house, and they tell you that, in the abstract

it's very difficult to decide if that's a responsible or irresponsible investment until you know what their assets are and their annual income is and so forth. if we can grow our economy at a more rapid rate by making targeted investments like a work force development, which incidentally the infrastructure frontier act does in talent appreciation. then we grow the economy at a more rapid rate. i think, as we make that call, and i'm not going to negotiate here on television, you'll understand, but as we make that call, we have to figure out whether any additional investments will cause our economy to grow at a more rapid rate and bring in more revenue for the federal government. >> michael. >> we started the conversation talking about the bipartisan work that you did and you led on with the china bill and getting 68 senators on board. what's the secret sauce here on infrastructure?

what is it that needs to happen inside that chamber to get republicans -- you've got 20 of you. how do you get everybody to understand exactly what this moment needs? >> here's what it takes. we're four-fifths of the way there. it takes development of trust over a period of time. we've done that with the so-called g-20 group. it takes a willingness to compromise. we've done that. none of us think this is a perfect framework but we like where we've ended up. the last thing it takes is presidential leadership. in the case of the endless frontier act, the president decided to stay silent, which was helpful, as we worked on this legislation, because frankly we had just been through a $1.9 trillion issue that created some consternation and upset on the republican side, so it was helpful that he was silent. he needs to lean into this package, this bipartisan framework that we've got. he needs to bless it and he

needs to encourage fellow democrats to support it. if he does that, i believe it's going to pass in both the house and the senate. the american people will have their infrastructure without an increase in taxes. >> so it helps overcome the filibuster issue? >> we can talk about that later. >> michael and i, former politicians, like former marines, you're never a former marine. you're a marine and still a politician. let's do a little work for you. we're going to get a vw bus and we're going to see the country this summer, michael, you and me. we want to go to indiana. tell me where we need to go in indiana this summer. where are some great places in indiana? >> you should go to french lake, indiana. there is a historic hotel there, a couple great golf courses if you want to bring your golf bags. it's a world class resort and word needs to get out. go to indianapolis and see an

incredible racing scene that we have there. we are the world's racing capital. and go to the most recent national park, which is in northern indiana right there on lake michigan up north. it's a beautiful place. it shows that nature and heavy industry can co-exist. so those are a few hot spots. >> i hope in french, they have a statue of larry bird somewhere? >> they do, they do. and if they don't, we're going to erect one. >> so a great resort in french lake. there you go. >> so nice to see you. up next a win for college athletes in a supreme court case with justice brett kavanaugh saying the ncaa's business model would be, quote, flatly illegal in any other industry. more on the big decision straight ahead on "morning joe."

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trump didn't just wow the crowd, he killed. the death toll now approaching 125,000. right now the next couple weeks will be critical in our ability to address those surgeons. >> okay, mr. surgeon general, forget critical numbers. what about what really matters? tv rating numbers. >> this just came out and people have to see this. trump rally gives fox news the largest saturday night audience in its history. >> lies from new york, it's saturday night. why is america so cuckoo for covid? >> the reason we have more cases than our countries is because our testing is so much. >> any other possible cause? >> when you do testing, you're

going to find more cases. >> we get that but surely there is a nuance. >> if we didn't test, we wouldn't have cases. >> quick, this calls for a distraction. lay that one on us, liberace. >> mail-in ballots are a disaster. there is evidence of fraud when you have mail-in ballots. >> mail-in ballots? who would do such a thing? >> the state of florida calls it vote by mail. >> this is "this week in covid history." >> and this morning we find out he wanted to send those covid cases to gitmo. good morning, everyone, and welcome to "morning joe." it's tuesday, june 22nd, and donald trump is not our president anymore. along with joe, willie and me,

we have msnbc contributor mike barnacle. here in studio, analyst michael steele. and washington anchor for the bbc, katty kay joins us. >> there is a lot to talk about. willie, why don't we talk about the supreme court decision yesterday on the ncaa. it basically said that student athletes could actually be compensated in terms of computers, other school supplies, but brett kavanaugh at the end wrote this, talking about where the court was probably going to go. brett kavanaugh said that tradition alone cannot enunciate -- justify the ncaa's decision

to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated. they break an ankle, they something else, a knee get busted, and they're at the piggly-wiggly for the rest of their lives, not compensated, they don't get health care, they don't get nothing. it's been outrageous for a long time. >> it is, and this rocks the ncaa's theory of the case. what people love about college sports is the amateurism. what's happening in college sports is a lot of people are making billions and billions of dollars, and the head coach and others get paid so much and the students get nothing. it was brought by a college player saying limits based on

education. so under current ncaa rules, students cannot be paid, as you said, and the scholarship money a college can offer is capped at the cost of attending school. now schools recruiting top athletes can offer tens of thousands of dollars in benefits for things like computers, paid education abroad and scholarships. >> where has everybody been for so long? i think the most outrageous case was several years ago. i think some kid tried to sell his jersey and basically banned the school from existence. he sucked it down into a black hole. it was ridiculous. that kid, i don't remember his name, but he tried to sell a jersey and he got in trouble, and yet how much money did that university, how much money did the ncaa make off of kids in

ohio and across america buying his jersey? they made tens of millions of dollars. this is such a scam. it's not a close call. i'm glad judge kavanaugh wrote -- justice kavanaugh wrote what he did and i hope the court goes in that direction. >> joe, you just get to the core of the case when you read the decision, especially judge kavanaugh's majority decision. the core of the case is in equity. i mean, they recruit all of these young people, young athletes. baseball, basketball and football are the big college draws in college sports in terms of money, things like that. but you stack up the money that school after school after school makes with all of these athletes, especially if you get to go to a bowl game, they make millions. as willie just pointed out, they pay head coaches millions and millions of dollars, far more than any critical faculty member

makes, and the women and men who recruit these sports get nothing. not only that, they put themselves at risk if they talk to the wrong recruiter at the wrong time, if they take a bologna sandwich at lunch for free from him, if they take a car ride. it's ridiculous. the ncaa has been behind the times for at least 40 to 50 years, and it's about time they're going to be caught up into an equitable relationship with the athletes they recruit. >> and the dam is breaking with this decision. the guy's name was tirrell pryor. he was a quarterback and he tried to sell his jersey, his championship ring, got a tattoo that he says he paid for, but there is a question if he got a discount. he had to sit out five games. they said, you cannot use your likeness and your name in the ncaa to get any benefit whatsoever. it's been preposterous for a

long time, and something changed yesterday profoundly. >> i go to school, we know something about making money with football at the university of alabama. coach saban, i think he's the highest paid coach in the state of alabama. i should be upset about that. guess what? i'm not. he makes millions and millions at the state of alabama. you see it on the buildings, you see it across the campus. i'm fine with that. but if we use that logic for coaches, let's use that logic for players. if coach saban gets that money because he's bringing in all that money, the players are bringing in that money, too. let's take care of these kids and stop punishing these kids. this is ridiculous. >> it is. what's going to be interesting to see is the impact it has on women's sports. now these young female athletes have another way to leverage up

in the sport, i think, which is going to be interesting given what's been opened by the supreme court decision. >> now, speaking of leveraging up, have you all heard the news? >> what's that? >> i don't know, but there may be a new leader in the republican party, at least in the rank and file. have you guys heard this? >> okay. >> i'm serious. i'll give some background really quickly. you know yesterday we showed the pictures of mike pence getting booed? i have friends who were at the event. they told me -- said there were four people. there were 2,000 people there. there were four people there, and those four people shouted and immediately they got taken out. the other 2,000 people were very respectful of him. it was very interesting, though. i can't talk while he's talking, it's distracting. come on! >> thank you. now we know what we're talking

about. >> i can't talk while he's talking. it just doesn't work. the mood is broken. but, anyway, so -- >> oh, my god. >> how was pence received? >> here's the deal. they were respectful. they know mike pence. they've known him for 20 years. he had three standing ovations, but it was muted. he would have had 15 standing ovations last year. but then one person said, but, my god, you should have seen the response for ron desantis. he was like a conquering king, and this person who has been in republican politics for 40, 45 years said, i haven't seen anything since reagan in '80. >> ron desantis. >> ron desantis. i keep hearing this -- >> i have, too.

>> just rock star. says this guy is taking over the republican party. >> ron desantis. >> ron desantis. i saw a poll yesterday, mika. >> i was going to get to the critical vote on voting rights, but let's poll this now. it's a new straw poll that shows republicans' top choice for their next presidential nominee. it's not who you might think. florida governor ron desantis topped former president donald trump in a poll taken at the western conservative summit in denver this past weekend. desantis saw his popularity rise with republicans during the pandemic for being one of the only governors to routinely reject cdc health guidelines. >> by the way, you can pick more than one. it was which candidates would you consider voting for? desantis in first place. donald trump in second place.

>> and given the heckling and his refusal to overturn the 2020 election, he polled at 74%. >> right now -- i think they're betting -- i think i saw those online betting things where you bet for the presidents had desantis ahead of trump, which is crazy. so desantis now, michael, i know you've probably heard the same thing i've heard among washington activists, among washington money people. they're already quietly -- they don't say publicly because they don't want to upset the big man. >> they don't want to get an e-mail. >> an e-mail or whatever. >> is that what it is now? okay. >> not just this town but the activists, whether they're evangelicals or whether they're money people, they're quietly

moving towards putting their money on desantis. >> there is a reason for that. because as one person put it to me, you know, desantis is trump without the gold toilet. meaning you don't have all the bling and the flash. what you've got is a governor who, for a lot of the base, stood in the breach against, you know, the cdc onslaught and the requirements and showed his macho that way. and quite effectively was able to leverage off of trump to some degree. that's worked to his advantage. still ahead, voting rights and the filibuster in the spotlight this morning as the senate takes up a key vote that will test both issues. and former president obama jumps into the mix, backing joe manchin's compromise on voting rights. where things stand heading into the vote, ahead on "morning joe." joe.

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a critical vote is set for today on whether to begin debate on a sweeping voting rights bill that democrats hope will counter restrictive new voting measures being enacted in republican-led states. the motion, which needs 60 votes to pass, is expected to fail in the face of unanimous republican opposition. but if democrats are united, it could give more fuel to those who want to eliminate the filibuster. the person to watch is democratic senator joe manchin manchin, who has come out against the bill in its current form. he as proposed a compromise and now senate majority leader chuck

schumer is trying to convince him to help advance the bill as a way to begin making changes. senator manchin met with president biden yesterday. we'll keep you posted on that. also former president barack obama is the latest high-profile democrat to back senator manchin's voting rights compromise. the manchin proposal expands early voting, eliminates gerrymandering, requires voter i.d. and allows elections to perjury voter rolls. it's not an ideal plan, but it represents common forms most americans agree on. >> i'll be honest, the bill doesn't have everything i'd like to see in a voting rights bill, it doesn't address every problem. and i want to also be clear, republicans in congress, in the senate have every right to offer their own proposals. >> i'm not going to make this about myself because i hate

making this about myself. mika will tell you if i'm negotiating with you and i give you everything you want, that's a really bad sign, because i'm testing you. because if you don't take that deal, well, put on a helmet. >> that's it. >> i give people an offer they can't refuse. and if they show their bad faith, i just smile and i reach under the desk and i put on my falcons 1967 helmet with that bar right there and say, okay, let's do it. joe manchin, for all these idiots who say, joe manchin, he doesn't know what he's doing, joe manchin knows exactly what he's doing. and here's another example. michael, barack obama -- >> yes. yes. >> -- is now supporting voter i.d. which most americans

support. but it's racist, it's bigoted. oh, my god, we have to show our voter i.d. this is jim crow, 8.0. barack obama says we support voter i.d., and he's right. most americans support voter i.d. >> that's right. >> barack obama is now saying perjury voter rolls. again, something the democrats failed to do. you just hate black people. you were born hating black people because you want the rolls to be purged. it's what the democrats have said as long as these things have been brought up. joe manchin and these progressives are playing this -- i guess i can say they're playing it brilliantly, and if republicans in the senate don't go along with this, they're so exposed. their bad faith is so revealed. what i love about this is this is how politics used to be

played. this is like, let's meet in the middle. if you don't come to the middle with me, i'm going to run over you. you're showing your bad faith. and joe manchin is showing the world right now, he's giving the republicans a chance but showing what bad faith they're operating under. >> i think that's right. the question here, though, is if you figure out and you know where this thing ends up with the vote today -- because remember, this is just a vote to have a discussion about the bill. this isn't about the bill, this is like can we talk about the bill. >> right. >> so you're right, in this case you're going to see the republicans exposed in that vein. but here's the rub for me. what comes next when they return after the fourth of july? >> only joe knows. >> only joe knows. so joe still has some leverage in this process. he's now brought leading progressives stacey abrams, barack obama and others to his

camp. and they're standing with him on the very points. now they're like, okay, since the republicans didn't want the big passage, do we serve up a bill that takes out the things they don't supposedly -- we'll see how that plays out. coming up, assessing president biden's first foreign trip abroad and signs that he actually did accomplish what he set out to do. "morning joe" is back in a moment. a moment you ready? ready? ready. - ready hold on. ready. are you ready? yeah! ♪if a man see me (oh my gosh)♪ ♪i guess you never know what you got 'til it's♪ ♪flow (oh my gosh)♪ ♪where man go (oh my gosh)♪ ♪if a man see me (oh my gosh)♪ ♪i guess you never know what you got 'til it's♪

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>> more -- we're now about one week removed from president biden's g-7 trip and that infamous meeting with vladimir putin. in his latest piece called "america is back," he lays out why european allies are giving biden a passing grade. you write this. prior to biden's first overseas

presidential foray, there was speculation about where his strategic priority lay. was it the contest between democracy and autocracy, managing the new era of great power competition, reasserting u.s.-led multilateralism or forging coalitions to tackle the pandemic and global warming? the answer is all of the above. but biden's trip conveyed what matters most. his overriding preoccupation is china. biden's much-hyped summit of democracy, which received rote citation from the g7, has been put off until next year. no venue was specified. by contrast, the china challenge appeared three times in the g7 communique and was for the first time cited by nato -- an

alliance supposedly about defending the north atlantic. >> we need to work on your wording. >> no, i'm just over 50. can you see anything? >> it's interesting how you laid this out. biden got the allies standing shoulder to shoulder. i won't say he neutralized russia. russia, it appears, decided, okay, you know what? trying to get along with the united states may be in our best interests right now, so neutralize the russia threat, perhaps, if you believe what we're hearing out of russia's state media. and so now the focus is on china. if that was his goal, you're right, he certainly accomplished it. >> i want to hear more of your dr. brzezinski imitation.

>> it always gets on google. >> that was not a good moment. >> no, it was not a good moment. >> the other thing, i was telling mika to do something, and he said, well, you know, i do not consider you to be a very smart man. mika, listen to him. take the money. it was an early negotiation. >> that story is in my book. actually, that was it. exactly. >> they're all embellished. but it's the legend. >> the reason i'm tickled, not just because you do a very good imitation, but brzezinski-ism, i think, is at play here. when biden calls putin a worthy adversary, when he called russia a great power, this is not language that's designed to please republicans. in fact, they would accuse biden, did many of them, of

appeasing putin. why is he doing this? i think part of the reason is to stroke the russian ego which always needs reassuring, which is built on geopolitical paranoia. >> if i may ask, why wouldn't you do that? it's free. say they're a great power, talk about how they helped us win world war ii, talk about -- that doesn't cost anything. >> if biden thought -- if the republicans thought biden was appeasing putin, what did they think trump was doing? >> there is another column for that. >> and the idea that meeting something confers sort of honor, what was he doing with kim jong-un? >> anyway, it costs nothing, and it really had the desired effect, at least in the short run. >> we will have to judge by the dogs that do not bark.

you measure that success by the tax, by the flights, the time to minsk, the poisonings that happened. there is a big difference between russia and china. there are wedges the united states can sort of drive between those two. china is treating russia like a little brother. it's screwing russia on the gas that russia is sending to china. china are building roads going through russia. and many countries like japan are trying to forge close relationships with putin in order to loosen its embrace with china. >> doesn't russia have a good bit more to fear from china than anyone else? >> historically russia has always been paranoid to its east and paranoid to its west.

in the last 20 years, we've been stoking up the russian paranoia. loosening on that a little, it's geopolitics. i think that's why biden didn't take this off the menu with the european counterpart, but it wasn't at the top of the menu. that's something that's going to undermine his attempts to draw putin closer. coming up, our political panel weighs in, including former obama speechwriter, john favro, it says it's time for democrats to call joe manchin's bluff. "morning joe" is coming right back. g right back

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know, i will not accept a smaller bill at the expense of something larger. >> welcome back to "morning joe." 38 past the hour. that was senator bernie sanders on pod save america saying he won't support the bipartisan infrastructure bill if it includes raising the gas tax or a fee on electric vehicles. joining us now, the co-host of "pod save america," john favro, white house correspondent of "washington week" on pbs, yamiche alcindo. she's an msnbc contributor as well. and his latest piece chronicles liz cheney's unlikely journey from gop royalty to republican outcast. and he'll get to that in just a moment. >> so, john, i want to hear from you first.

you caught our eye with a tweet. that's the way to get to us. i'm a pretty shallow guy. how sad, how pathetic. what a statement on me and our times. but your twitter thread was magnificent, talking about the democrats not really having a lot of options. you basically said manchin and the democrats need to call the republicans' bluff. >> it's pretty much what you were saying earlier, which is make them an offer they can't refuse. when this vote goes down today, i think the next step has to be joe biden getting out there and saying, okay, we have joe machb -- manchin that's come up with a compromise, we have the john louis voting rights act. you two get together. find ten republicans, ten democrats just like you have on infrastructure, come to the

white house and let's have a negotiation on what republicans will accept in terms of voting rights legislation. i think you have to call their bluff and make them look as unreasonable as possible. >> john, it's willie. what is your read of your former boss jumping into this conversation? he certainly has picked his spots in the last several years since he left office in terms of policy and backing this manchin proposal on voting rights. he talked about it being a compromise which is pejorative among progressives right now. what did you make of him jumping into this debate? >> i think voting rights and just democracy reform and protection of democracy has been one of his highest priorities. it was during the administration, it certainly has been since he left office. i think when manchin first came out with that compromise, there was some question of whether democrats and republicans would support that. the fact that barack obama stepped out to support it really

helped bring progressives and mainstream democrats on board with this proposal. and i think the reason obama did that is because he knows full well we're not getting hr-1 as it was originally written. that's not going to happen because you don't have manchin on that, so you need something joe manchin will support. that's just the math. i think the fact that obama and stacey abrams came out and because they have the bill weighing on them themselves. >> i keep talking about, and it's sort of surprising to me as a guy that when i was in congress, you know, we raised hell every day. we were constantly pushing our leadership. i've really been taken by progressives and the restraint they've shown, the discipline they've shown in negotiating.

these are people who are acting like they actually want to govern, know how to govern. they've sort of stood back and let everybody talk about manchin. they're choosing their shots, but president obama, stacey abrams coming out and supporting voter i.d., supporting purging the rolls every few years. that's really significant stuff, isn't it? >> i think it's very significant. look, i think one of the benefits of the specific voter i.d. provision that manchin wants to include is you can use an alternative i.d., you can use an electric bill or utility bill. this is what happens in west virginia which manchin represents, so i think it's easier to swallow than some that you see in the red states. i think everyone from bernie sanders to joe manchin understands that joe biden's success is key not just to joe biden's political future, but to

the whole country, and we just went through a trump presidency. we don't want to see something like that again, so all of us from the progressive left to the center left r investing to see that joe biden be a pleased and whyoe biden's agenda won't pass. >> yamiche, what's your feeling? >> this feeling among progressives, you can feel it getting to the point where democrats are really saying, we need to look at this not just as a moral ush u,moral issue, a hu issue, but now we're looking at voter nullification.

that's what i hear from the white house. that's also what i hear from progressives who want to push the white house. a couple democrats don't want to deal with the filibuster. they don't want to change it, but when i talk to people, they say there is going to be this big decision manchin has to face. do you let voting rights democracy be eaten away this it country, or do you say, here's a filibuster. many rich klieman has been talking about this for some time now if you look at the yorj george bill, cowan tweeted. why do people take pictures of their food? >> their workouts. >> don't do that.

like georgia, for instance. some of the provisions actually make it easier to vote in georgia, according to this study. but what's so troubling about the georgia bill? what's so troubling about the texas bill? what's so troubling about all these bills is where the legislature says, oh, by the way, we can take over after an election and we can nullify everything that local and state officials, other state officials, want to do. the power is in us -- those are the provisions, and it seems to me, we're talking voter i.d., et cetera, et cetera. those are the real provisions that are causing the real danger, not whether early voting is 7 or 9 or 12, because whatever the provision is in georgia or texas, i can show you one in new york. the real danger is the nullification of voters.

>> in an era where everything is nationalized, you can say republicans are trying to sweep away voting rights. but then you ask people, are you for an i.d. to vote, and the majority of people will say, yes, we should have some kind of proof of identification, which is a perfectly reasonable assumption to most people, but you inflate that with some provision in texas who can snap their fingers and say, no, we don't like that government, we want this one. so that's why it makes it complicated. >> and, john, look what's happening in arizona. why could that not happen in texas in 2024. why could that not happen in georgia in 2024 if the legislature is saying, we're

giving them the power to decide. >> it could. and what you guys are talking about, which is election subversion, is not currently in the for the people act. i don't know why it's left out, but i often think along with partisan gerrymandering, it's probably the most important provision to have in a piece of voting rights legislation. you have to make sure that republican county boards, republican state legislatures, even republicans in congress, can't just overturn the results of an election they don't like, so you should amend the laws so you can't nullify an election unless there is a supermajority which would require both parties to agree on that. otherwise you'll have partisan overturning an election as a threat. >> mark, your latest piece entitled "liz cheney's likely journey from gop royalty to public outcast," you write in part this. beyond the daunting politics,

ms. cheney's predicament is also a father-daughter story, rife with dynastic echoes and ironys. an unapologetic prince of darkness figure throughout his career, mr. cheney was always attuned to doomsday scenarios and existential threats he saw posed by america's enemies, whether from russia during the cold war, saddam hussein after the september 11 attacks or the general menace of tie pomerantz and terrorists. ms. cheney has come to view the current circumstances with mr. trump in the same apocalyptic terms. the difference is that today's threat resides inside the party in which her family has been royalty for nearly half a century.

she stood alone with the republicans. >> yes, they became friends with the cheneys. >> david kennerly sent me some great shots of my dad and khomenei. >> he doesn't eat a lot of steak these days. it was not a portmortem, it was not a wake. but i think what people miss in all the controversy with liz cheney and the position she's taken in the republican party is that her dad, who is as partisan and divisive a figure who has been in the gop for many decades, is right there with her. he has hz the most contempt with

any party that has broken with him. his daughter as a proxy has been very, very vocal on this. >> willie? >> mark, in your piece, there is a lot of talk that liz cheney is playing the belong game. that makes the sepgs that this that it is going away, and she's going to hang on and be there when it is all over as the person that was reasonable and perhaps be elevated to a bigger job. what makes her or people around her or the cheney people think this is going away, that trumpism is just a moment in time? >> they would see it in terms of they don't have a choice. after january 6th, quieter republicans, she's a more vocal republican, said i can't do this any more. it has to be a long game because the short term political expedience of something like this may not be tenable, may cost me my job and leadership

position. this is the line of demarcation. >> cheney's letter before january 6th. >> before january 6th, there was a lot of talk department of defense would somehow get involved in the election, certifying the election. elizabeth colbert busch cheney was instrumental getting her dad, former defense secretary and others to write a letter urging the pentagon and a lot of just basically anyone in government to not get involved in this. his name was out there. again, in a cheneyesque way, i think the events of january 6th elevated it. >> thanks very much for being on the show with us. >> thank you. >> new episodes of pod save america out monday and thursday wherever you get podcasts. thanks again for being on. concerns are growing in mostly sunny where experts say the highly contagious delta

strain of covid-19 is spreading rapidly through the state. particularly in smaller, rural communities, where vaccination rates are low. according to an nbc news review of data from a state sponsored project for the strain first detected in india is found in wastewater of at least ten counties. we will be following that. things are looking far better in new york city where yesterday mayor bill de blasio said positivity rate in five boroughs dropped to the lowest levels of the pandemic ever. a far cry from a year ago when new york city was at the center of the global outbreak. joining us now, former chief photographer for rolling stone. his new book is the city that finally sleeps. all 110 pages are black and white portraits of a quiet new york city, in the midst of the

pandemic. proceeds for the book benefit the new york cares charity and its covid-19 relief efforts. >> mark, this is such a moving book. one of the most haunting pictures, a picture of a playground with scattered toys abandoned. nobody in sight. >> yeah. i mean, i was activated to go out and document within a couple of days of lockdown, and i live in west village. and the city was in full bloom. you had like this kind of ironic moment where nature was in full bloom, yet there was nobody around. it just really became an emotional experience to cover that. >> mike, choice of black and white photos provides a stark,

emotional description that print can't even get to about that period of time in this city's history. everybody clearly remembers because it was only the snap of a finger. it was just yesterday. what happened to you emotionally, personally as you proceeded down the path from borough to borough taking these shots? >> well, you know, it was a moment of kind of melancholy for me, also a time for me to reset and find my way through things that i really always have been obsessed and passionate about, and that is photographing. so the city, you know, it reminded me of the first time i saw it coming to new york 30 years ago and being just taken by the city. it was really like a love letter to new york for me.

it was bittersweet. i was feeling the pain that the city was going through at the same time i was trying to document it so that we have something to hold onto down the road. >> mark, willie geist. great to have you on the show. this is an extraordinary book. i'm doing well. these images as a new yorker, just to remember those moments and days that feel almost long gone now when you step outside into new york city, i'm just curious, what caught your eye driving around? i think like a lot of us, you could be captivated by the idea of new york city quiet, sleeping, empty. then as you say in the book, you come up on a refrigerated truck and be snapped back into reality. what were you looking for as you drove around? >> well, i was very fortunate because we started to post photographs almost immediately and the response i got from people was they were just

thankful to be able to see their city in repose but still there. a lot of people exited new york and that was important to have a place. when i was driving through the city, i was kind of lawless. could stop in the middle of a bridge and photograph this experience. "vanity fair" ran a portfolio, and after that i was able to go to the javits center, found the refrigerated trucks which was extremely upsetting and haunting, but it was also like now part of the landscape. that was important to find those moments as well as hopeful moments. >> the book "the city that finally sleeps." thank you so much. again, all the proceeds from

sale of the book will support new york cares in their covid-19 relief efforts. mark, thank you so much. >> thank you so much, mark. >> let's go around the table and get final thoughts. big day on the hill today. what are you looking for? >> i am looking for whether or not we're going to see real movement. you're talking about january 6th. democrats, progressive democrats, are looking after january 6th and saying look what we are up against, look at the democracy that we have that is showing how fragile it is, how it can fray. i am watching to see where it goes in terms of voting rights and infrastructure. there are a number of white house officials going on the hill to get some good meetings through. if it happens, senators will come to the white house. >> the filibuster, this is the house that manchin built. >> can't top that.

>> new york is a big story today, the election there. on the hill, the voting rights conversation is ongoing. infrastructure looks like it could be an inflection point. a fair amount of bipartisan agreement and the biden administration is getting involved. >> i have been thinking of two main topics we have been discussing. voting rights bill on infrastructure. makes me wonder when the president of the united states is going to tap a couple of democratic senators, people like ed markey, sheldon whitehouse, elizabeth warren and more, have them to the white house, sit them down in the oval office, say here is how this works if you want to get something done for people. you don't always get what you wanted to have but you get what you need in the words of mick jagger. >> thank you, mick.

>> i didn't think jake was going to be able to pitch. thought his shoulder would be hurting. the guy does another five shutout innings. era, 0.50. if he follows through second half of the season, stays healthy, he has a season that competes or bests bob gibson in '68 and cofax in '66. >> historic what he is doing. >> may be the greatest season in the history of baseball by a pitcher. from the new york bureau, we have to talk briefly about the race today, the primary election here. we have rank choice voting for the first time. don't start to tabulate rankings until a week for today until the 29th. then come absentee and mail-in votes. should be sometime by labor day we will know who the next mayor of new york city is likely to be.

it is getting interesting. andrew yang, katherine garcia saying vote for us one or two, trying to undermine eric adams, clear frontrunner now. >> joe, final thoughts? >> you can't beat michael steele. >> we are all watching that house. that does it for us. stephanie ruhle picks up coverage right now. hi there. i am stephanie ruhle. it is tuesday, june 22nd. we have a dramatic start to the day. it's really a showdown over voting rights. republicans are standing firm. in hours, republicans are ready to block the bill from moving forward. stakes couldn't be higher with

former president obama now