community, outside of the city of good neighbors as the mayor said, coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us. >> the county sheriff calling the racist shooting rampage at a grocery store in a mostly black neighborhood of buffalo pure evil. this morning, we're learning more about the victims, the racist ideology that allegedly drove the suspect's hate, and the far-right voices that have made those beliefs mainstream. we have several guests to help us sort through this tragedy, including the mayor of buffalo who will join us in the fourth hour of "morning joe." plus, the latest from ukraine. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell leads a delegation of republicans to an unannounced visit to kyiv, even as one of his members slows progress on military aid that washington has been trying to fast track.

we'll tell you where that legislation stands right now. a key component of russia's propaganda machine is at risk as bloggers embedded with russian troops are fed up with the repeated failures and are now voicing concern. good morning. welcome to with the morn"mornin" it is monday, may 16th. we start with the very latest on that deadly shooting in buffalo over the weekend. the white house says the president and the first lady will visit the city tomorrow to, quote, grieve with the community. speak at the national peace officers memorial service in washington yesterday, president biden addressed what the department of justice is investigating as an act of racially motivated domestic extremism. >> a lone gunman, armed with weapons of war and hate-filled soul, shot and killed ten innocent people in cold blood. we must all work together to address the hate that remains a

stain on the soul of america. our hearts are heavy once again, but our resolve must never, ever waiver. >> we are learning more of the alleged shooter in the attack. police say an 18-year-old from conclin, new york, traveled 200 miles to the grocery store in buffalo, where he allegedly killed ten people and injured three others and livestreamed it. a law enforcement official told nbc news the suspect was investigated by new york state police last year for making a threatening statement in june when he was a minor. the threat was about wanting to carry out a shooting, according to a different senior law enforcement official. a state police spokesman, who did not release a name to nbc news, said the subject of the investigation had been transported to the hospital for a mental health evaluation at the time and was not charged

with a crime. in social media posts made before saturday's attack, which were reviewed by the "washington post," the suspect reportedly explained how he used census data to zero in on a neighborhood with a high percentage of black residents. of the 13 people shot, police say, 11 were black. the gun he reportedly used, a legally purchased semiautomatic that was modified with his father's power drill and a kit he purchased separately. according to the "new york times," it also had racial slurs written all over it in marker. we are also learning more this morning about the manifesto allegedly written by the suspect, which laid out the plans for his attack. the pdf which was posted on google doc just two days before the shooting has been reviewed by nbc news. in it are dozens of pages of

anti-semitic and racist remarks and repeated mentions of the so-called great replacement theory. that theory falsely claims, through immigration, interracial marriage, and violence, jewish conspirators are attempting to eliminate the white population. those beliefs have been pushed by a growing number of far-right commentators in recent years and cited by multiple mass shooters. one such incident in 2019 where a white supremacist killed 51 people at two new zealand mosques was mentioned repeatedly in the alleged manifesto of the buffalo suspect. in those documents, the suspect allegedly wrote he became radicalized while using the message board site 4chan when he was bored at the start of the pandemic. a senior law enforcement

official tells nbc news they are working to verify the authenticity of those writings. joe. >> fear locks our minds on the past, and it makes us anxious about future. fear allows us to hate people we don't know, and it even makes us forget the best in ourselves. once again, fear is a tool being used by media moguls and tyrants to target the weakness and most emotionally fragile among us. fear feeds on the dispossessed minds mired in lost causes like this. like faulkner's quinton, whose very body was an empty hall echoing with names. he wrote, it was a barracks filled with stubborn, backwards-looking ghosts. like hitler's germany, haunted by a shattering defeat after

world war i. russia's putin, a tyrant who has unleashed terror on an entire continent because he is still stricken a generation later by the collapse of the soviet union. or, yes, like that infected appendage still attached to the gop, the trump wing, fueled by white grievance and wild conspiracies. those conspiracies pushed by a former president, house republican leaders, social media monopolies, and a powerful cable news network. billionaires, they're leveraging that fear to make more money and to gain even more power, by preying on the aggrieved. working to turn white against black. white against hispanic. white against muslim.

white against jew. it is the most grotesque of marketing scenes that is killing, yes, literally killing those very americans whose existence is now being used as leverage by news networks and a political party to breed that fear, to make more money, and to win votes. it is sick. to talk about it, let's bring in nbc news reporter ben collins, who broke the story of the alleged manifesto written by the buffalo shooter. pulitzer prize-winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post," msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. host of msnbc's "politics nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. and the host of "way too early" and white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire.

you know, rev, you look at all the instances where white replacement theory, which has been pushed by house republicans, pushed by a powerful news network, pushed by people on social media, and you do see that it's whites. a white killing blacks in a mass shooting in charleston. then in new zealand. and then killing hispanics in el paso. killing blacks again in buffalo. killing jews in pittsburgh in 2018 in a synagogue. it is sadly, tragically, a conspiracy theory that has deadly, deadly impact. >> it is definitely a conspiracy

theory that has definite and clear impact. it continues to happen. we keep going to the scenes of these grotesque murders, like this is not becoming some continuity of political expression by some who may be weaker minded but are influenced by people that have now become the maintainers of the mainstream. let's not forget, joe, this young person that is being held as the shooter in buffalo is 18 years old. he was around 15, maybe 14 when charlottesville happened. when whites marched through the streets saying, "jews will not replace me." the then president of the united states said that there are fine people on both sides. in some way, to young, impressed

minds like that, it is saying there is nothing wrong with reading this manifesto. there is nothing wrong with having these feelings. they're not marginalized. i think we are beginning -- you and i are baptist in the best tradition. you reap what you sow. we have sowed these kind of hate seeds. they have allowed them to fester, and we've legitimatized or normalized them. we should not be surprised. the only question is what are we going to do about it? are we going to aggressively fight it? are we going to show empathy where we ought to show aggressive resistance? >> yeah. gene robinson, you, too, were in charleston with us after the tragic church shooting. it seems an understatement to say that this conspiracy theory

has only gained steam. as the rev said, it's become so mainstream, not only on a powerful cable news network, but you now have house republican leaders who are putting it in facebook ads. >> that's the thing. that's the thing, joe. two things. first of all, no one should call the person accused of this horrific and unspeakable crime a lone gunman. he had backup. >> yeah. >> he had backup from the killers who came before him in charleston, in el paso, in pittsburgh, in new zealand. he had that backup. he also had backup from those who are playing footsie with this replacement theory, in

order to win votes, to win television ratings, to grip the american public in a way that is just unconscionable. who are we talking about? rev, you said we have enabled this. what do you mean we? i mean, point the finger at those who are doing it. point the finger at people like elise stefanik, you know, who is in the republican leadership, who used to be just a kind of normal, small government, pro-business republican. saw that was not the way to power. then went completely maga. you know, wanted the party to burn liz cheney at the stake for being honest about what happened on january 6th. now, she's on facebook. she's playing with great replacement theory and putting

it out there in a way that is just unspeakable and unthinkable. but it's happening, and it's not just her. this is becoming part of the mainstream ideology of the republican party right now, and that is unacceptable. but it's happening. when and how is it going to stop? this is going to continue. this is predictable. it is going to continue. there are going to be more of these. >> yeah. ben, i guess that's what's so shocking. we've -- you've reported for years, and we're used to people putting up crazed manifestos on 4chan. crazed manifestos before killing. the killing in new zealand seemed like a crazed manifesto from a lone wolf. but here we are, years and years later, and it has become

mainstream. again, house republican leaders not only are using this in ads, but the silence is deafening. no one is criticizing tv hosts that are people on social media that are talking about great replacement theory. they aren't doing it. i mean, yeah, the highest ranking republican is, like, tweeting out her prayers in support for the very people who were killed by a theory that she was promoting on social media. >> yeah, joe. i want to make this clear, this was not a lone wolf. you can just take it from him. he was trying to remain alive in this shooting, what he wrote in his manifesto. he thought he had a community on the internet that he needed to still issue things to after he

was caught. that community is people like the killer of those in new zealand. the el paso shooter. the gilroy festival shooter. these are all people who ascribe to the same ideology. the idea that jews are trying to push in non-white immigrants to the united states, to marry whites, to eventually kill whites, generally take over the electorate. now, this is a large group of people. this is a community on the internet. it was a community that had more standing for this person, who is a child when he started to get radicalized, at 16 years old at the start of the pandemic on 4chan. he said he was radicalized out of extreme boredom at the start of 2020. he was 16 then. that's what happened. he found the community in the online space when he couldn't go outside, he couldn't meet people in real life. he is closer tied to the mass

shooters online than anyone in real life. then there were people in the mainstream who are seeing this as an opportunity. there are a lot of online people on the right who are young, who don't necessarily ascribe to old-fashioned gop ideology. they don't care about taxes. they think climate change is real, for example. this person, payton gendron, he was an eco-fascist. he thinks climate change is real. he thinks the degradation of our ecosystem is real. all that stuff is happening. pollution is real. his belief is you have to hoard stuff. you have to separate stuff by race. the race that should remain is white people. so this is a new kind of fascism. this is a -- in terms of ties to the mainstream right. but it is very real with young people. it is really happening. there are people, and i don't think we should be dancing around his name, there are people like tucker charlson who

are directly trying to preach to these people. there are people on 4chan who call him our guy, the only guy in the mainstream media who speaks up for them. that man is actively trying to appeal to these people. it is extremely dangerous. he is the highest rated show in cable news. extremely dangerous when he is actively trying to appeal to people who have this warped idea of reality based on white grieve yans. >> to your point, before we get to the president's plan, just two graphs from gene's piece, just to back this up. what we need to talk about is how politicians and thought leaders on the right are using the vile poison of replacement theory to further their own selfish ends. and we need to salk about how most of this demagoguery is coming from people who should know and probably do know what they're telling is complete

fiction. the buffalo killer chose a location where he knew the victims would be people of color. blame him for what he did, but also blame the prominent right-wing voices that egged him on. that's exactly who we're talking about today, whether it's politicians or people on television who use their platform in the most irresponsible way, to make money and to stoke hate on the most vile level. jonathan lemire, the president is making plans now, changing his plans and going to buffalo, along with the first lady. what is going to happen? >> that's right. the president yesterday spoke at the national peace officers memorial, denounced what happened in buffalo. he did as the department of justice announced they'll be investigating the shooting as a hate crime. the racist motives of the shooter. the president and first lady will be traveling to upstate new york tomorrow. actually, we'll be part of the

pool of reporters traveling with the president on air force one as he goes to pay respects to those lost, those who behaved heroically in trying to take down the shooter, and, of course, mourn with the grieving families. this came over a weekend of ter terrible shootings. this firearm was legally purchased, but it was illegally modi modified. yet, we have right now a republican party that not only has members nodding and winking at things like the great replacement theory, but also has shown firm opposition to any sort of gun control measures. what can the president, democrats do? >> democrats and the president should make this a real central issue, both. not one or the other but

both/and. both the gun control issue as well as the issue with how we deal with the question of hate crimes. one of the things that i did the evening that this became known to us, i got calls early before it hit the news from our national action network chapter in buffalo. i reached out to the head of the anti-defamation league and the latino community. all of us joined in with the national urban league and asked the president to call a white house meeting on hate crimes. also in that, we must discuss gun control. we're in the middle of a midterm election season. we need to make sure that a lot of those elections are determined by who takes a firm stand on what to do around hate crime enforcement and around gun control. we can't live in an era of buffalo and el paso and pittsburgh and act like we're a different era.

we must address the times in which we live, otherwise, you're not fit to hold office. >> reverend al sharpton and nbc's ben collins, thank you very much. ahead on "morning joe," we'll be joined live by the mayor of buffalo and the erie county district attorney. by the way, the buffalo shooting was one of a handful of shootings over the weekend. in southern california, an attack during lunch at a church left one person dead and five others injured. the victims at the geneva presbyterian church range in age from 65 to 92 years old. the sheriff's office says parishioners showed exceptional heroism and bravery by grabbing the gunman and hog tying him with electrical extension cords before officers arrived. the majority of the church-goers are of taiwanese dissent.

officials don't believe the shooter lives in the community, which is made up mostly of retirees. we'll also get a live report from california ahead in the fourth hour of "morning joe." ahead, despite russia's insistence that its invasion is going according to plan, there is growing evidence that moscow's forces continue to suffer on the ground. we'll go to clint watts on the maps. plus, in the race for washington governor, former president trump throws his support behind a republican candidate who has promoted false claims of a stolen 2020 election. what it means for pennsylvania's primaries tomorrow. also ahead, senator ted cruz mocks republicans who suck up to former president trump, huh? does he not see the irony? we will show that video ahead. and the latest on the baby formula shortage across the country.

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the gaming never has to end. slaying is our business. and business is good. unbeatable internet from xfinity. made to do anything so you can do anything. 27 past the hour. we turn now to the latest on the war in ukraine. despite russia's insistence that its invasion is going according to plan, there is growing evidence that moscow's forces continue to suffer on the ground. ukrainian officials say russian forces endured heavy losses last week after their troops blew up a key pontoon bridge in the luhansk region in the east. more than 400 russian soldiers were killed or injured in the attack, and over 80 pieces of equipment were destroyed. officials say the strike was a

significant blow to the kremlin's plans in eastern ukraine. the incident also led several pro-russian bloggers, some of whom are embedded with the troops on the frontline and have been making claims of russian successes, to publicly criticize their military. many of them posted on social media that they were, quote, shocked at what they called the russian military's incompetence. one of the bloggers with more than 2 million followers on telegram writes, quote, i've been keeping quiet for a long time, but when the same problems go on for three months, and nothing seems to be changing, then i personally and, in fact, millions of citizens of the russian federation start to have questions for the leaders of the military operation. joe, it definitely appears to be falling apart. >> well, it does appear to be falling apart. forgive me for reminding

viewers, but it is exactly what we've been saying right here for the past several weeks. if you have a military that has a terrible, terrible culture, that can't do the most basic of logistical operations, if that's happening in kyiv, you can move as many troops as you want east, but it is going to keep happening. you can't fix culture overnight. these disasters are going to just keep happening, as we've been saying repeatedly here. let's bring in national security analyst for nbc news and msnbc, clint watts. he's at the big board. also, the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. clint, you can't fix culture overnight. you fix it over, you know, a decade or so. i was speaking aouple weeks ago about the culture post vietnam, from '75 to '80. you talk to anybody that served

during that time, they will tell you, the recruits were of a lower quality, for the most part. there was a lack of discipline. it took five, six, seven years after vietnam for our military culture to snap back. that's not going to happen in six or seven weeks in russia. my god, talk about the impact that it's having in this war and the tragedy for the russians that happened on the eastern front. >> joe, when you lose telegram propagandists, and they are for the russians totally in the tank, imagine how bad it is on the ground for the russian soldiers. major developments all negative for russia, fairly positive for ukraine. what you see in the east is all of the battle here has moved in this direction. more importantly, it is the success that we're seeing from some of the ukrainian counteroffensives. i had doubts a few weeks ago they'd even be able to really

undertake counteroffensive because they needed to move troops, had to recover from kyiv. they're advancing. this map, we'll be updating it today. it looks like the ukrainians have advanced all the way into this area here. that is important. they're pushing into these supply and communication lines for this izyum access. we've been talking about this izyum access for two to three weeks now. separate and out here, there are convoys, essentially, logistical convoys that moven this, the russian military has to move back to reinforce this communication line. i think that speaks to the bigger problem the russians are having, just across the board. instead of going for the big area, izyum to donetsk, you're seeing them push through. the river crossing which was right here, this is essential for them.

they have to move from one end of the north to the south to develop this area, severodonetsk. they couldn't take the luhansk region. they were talking about losing 80 vehicles, one to two tactical troops. if they're losing that much troop and manpower, you can't get through the river now. there's so many vehicles destroyed there. how will they take this intermediate objective rather than the big one? in the was create a giant hook here to take all of donbas. this is what putin restated may 9th. he wanted all of donbas. this is the donetsk region of donbas. this is the luhansk region. you're seeing them do smalling envelopments. when you go to the south, it is another situation.

one has to ask, what was the plan of the russians? you're seeing them establish defensive positions in a lot of the locations in and around kherson. again, if the ukrainians were to counterattack, i think they could possibly take some of the towns back. kherson was the first major city the russians took. if they were to lose that, i really don't know where putin would go from here. he's running out of forces. the forces he does have, he's just cobbling them together. some are even private contractors tied in with military forces. the morale is breaking across all the prop propaganda channelt now. mercenaries are talking about how incompetent the troops are on the ground. it is a negative sign for the russians. i wonder what they'll do to keep this battle going. >> good morning. social media over the weekend full of successes for the ukrainian military, regaining territory. we heard from the british

ministry, saying russia lost one-third of its troops committed to the fight in ukraine. there has been talk about the terrain in the donbas. the muddy season is going to slow and bog things down. talk about how that is another factor contributing to what, halt this point, has been an ineffective offense. >> the russians, now that ground is get a little more solid, now they've had six weeks to really reposition from kyiv some of their forces, even when they move here from bel -- balgorod, this is where the generals were pushing to head to the south. what you're seeing are much more muted attacks. here, all trying to connect, but they're not getting far. it is small or incremental. they're taking massive losses.

what is important about this, what is the state of the ukrainian military? we see a lot of the russian losses because they're all over social media. we see the propaganda videos coming out of captured russian soldiers. we don't know the status of ukrainian forces. the one thing that is for sure, ukrainian use of drones, small and larger, and the use of artillery picked up. those indirect fires being employed here in the east, i think, are having a devastating effect on the russian military, both in the armored columns and even the videos your seeing of munitions dropped straight into trench lines. >> clint watts at the big board, as always, thank you for being with us this morning. we really appreciate your insights. giving us some great perspective on what is going on on the ground there. richard haass, some, i'd say, shocking, but not so shocking, because this russian army has been pathetic from the start.

still, i guess even worse than skeptics expected. what is the impact on vladimir putin? as we've said here for some time, not being able to roll up a win on the ground to allow himself to try to save face and go to the negotiating table without being shamed. >> joe, we're beginning to see some cracks in his information control. we saw some oligarch over the weekend question his health. putin's judgment. it hasn't reached a point of critical mass yet. what's interesting to me is what clint was talking about, whether at some point it reaches a tipping point. whether you would have a collapse. we don't appear to be near that yet. it is one thing not to succeed.

another thing to fail quickly. i don't see that happen. it could happen. the question for putin is whether he tries to hang tough. it is an interesting question of how good is the information he is getting of what was just described. does he decide to con sol tate consolidate and continue success down? that's been one of the patterns. he gets ever more modest in his definitions of success. conceive my, there's two other thing it is. putin does, if things get bad enough for him, choose to do something of a cease-fire. i'm spectacle. things would have to be bad. what is clearly apparent here, putin is not remotely in the zip code of winning. how bad is the losing?

how quick or does it accelerate? what are the political dynamics then? we don't know. we could be ending, if you will, one chapter and moving towards another. it is interesting, potentially positive and also dangerous. we don't know what a desperate putin who is virtually under no strain at home is tempted to do. >> it is what many have warned, yes. everybody wants the ukrainians to win. what happens if vladimir putin loses so badly and starts to sense he is losing power at home and has nothing to lose? then all of the talk of the use of nuclear weapons suddenly becomes something american leaders and the west have to consider far more. let's talk about nato. as bad as it is for ukraine to be a member of nato for vladimir putin, as much as he feared

that, he certainly has to be horrified at the prospects of finland, a country that shares 800 miles of border, and how long? maybe 2 hours from the finnish border to st. petersburg, his birthplace, one of the great cities in russia and europe. how horrifying for him, that finland and sweden now are going to be members of nato. i'm curious your thought on those developments over the weekend. also, how do we solve a problem like erdogan, as they sang in "the sound of music." he's now saying he doesn't want finland in. >> well, certainly, the irony 16 this is rich. people claim, to some extent, this crisis was brought about by nato enlargement. putin has done more to enlarge

nato than any other country. the strategic position of russia has given exposure to how poor their military is, the loss of men and women. the war has -- the word is debacle. this has been a geopolitical debacle for russia. mr. putin doesn't meet the genius standard. it's how many ukrainians lost their lives? this is a debacle for russia. the end of the day, i think mr. erdogan, who always has a narrow -- i'll be generous this morning -- sense of self-ser

interest. the political movement mr. put seems as a direct threat. he exaggerates it and misreads it to turkey. so i think he'll try to get them bargaining there. this is going to happen. what is also going to happen, joe, even before these countries come into nato formally, particularly if erdogan delays it, i think there will be an interim agreement. if you attack sweden and finland, we'll treat it as an attack on nato. >> richard haass, thank you for your insight. earlier, we mentioned the dangerous rhetoric. the third ranking republican in the house, elise stefanik, has been engaged in. we'll talk about her use of the phrase "pedo drifters."

the lawmaker who fought back joins the table. plus, the issue congresswoman stefanik was trying to respond to before going after the democrats. how long could it be to restock baby formula supply? amid the tragedy in ukraine, an inspirational moment for the war-torn nation. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪ ♪ ihoppy hour starting at $6 at 3pm

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an update on the ongoing rush for parents nationwide to find baby formula. abbott nutrition, a leading manufacturer plant in michigan, is still silent as it awaits fda approval to begin producing baby formula again. the plant was shut down after two infants died from a bacterial infection that may have originated in the formula produced at the plant. abbott says two months after the fda investigation, the agency still hasn't shown clear evidence linking its formula to the infants' illnesses and death. abbott nutrition wrote in a statement that once the fda clears the plant and production resumes, it will take about two months for formula to arrive on store shelves. the shutdown highlights the fragility of the infant formula supply chain. only four companies control 90% of the baby formula market, leaving the supply chain highly

vulnerable to massive disruptions, such as the one happening right now. we will keep you posted on that. gop conference chair, meanwhile, congresswoman elise stefanik slammed the white house for sending baby formula to immigrant fam -- migrant families at the southern border amid this nationwide shortage. tweeting, quote, the white house, house dems, and usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the american people that rather than present any plan or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending palettes of formula to the southern border. joe biden has no plan. her office later said she used the term in reference to the lincoln project. michigan state sensor mallory mcmorrow, who went viral for her passionate speech, slamming republicans after herself being

called a pedophile by her republican opponent, responded on twitter. in part, quote, anyone claiming to legitimately care about children should stop using rhetoric that will get people killed. boy, that's everything we're talking about this morning. rhetoric that you see on twitter, that you see on even some media and social media sites, and it's rhetoric that is just flying around. mallory, it's good to have you here with us. >> thanks for having me. >> appreciate your coming from your hometown, leaving your 15-month-old. this is where we are now. you've become, in a sense, a voice against this. where do you see this going, and why is it so difficult, do you think, for democrats to to find a voice to push back against this rhetoric? >> it is terrifying to see. i tweeted this response a few days ago, and we've seen the result of a horrific shooting,

targeting a black supermarket in a town far away from where this shooter lived. and this is the result of rising rhetoric. it sends a signal to people to take action and to start shooting. if we don't stand up and push back and say it is unacceptable and just hate out in the open. >> gene, there are going to be those who say, how can you blame us for what the 18-year-old shooter did in buffalo? how could you blame us for -- i mean, how did these words end up in those actions? they can separate it. but it's becoming kind of a grhink, to an extent. >> the other response is how do you sleep at night? free speech isn't free. speech has consequences. what they are doing, and they're doing it deliberately and knowingly, is they're going after votes, campaign contributions, television ratings, with rhetoric that they know is false, they know is

inflammatory, they know arouses passions, and they know is potentially deadly when it fills the ears and minds of susceptible, vulnerable people like this shooter in buffalo, who hear it as a call to action. they don't hear it as rhetoric. they don't hear it as entertainment. you know, infotainment, which is one of the ways you can describe a lot of the shows on fox, at least in the evening, as infotainment. that's not the way people are hearing this stuff. they hear it as a call to action. action, in this case, means killing people. >> joe, i want to carefully say, you and i both met elise stefanik at the very beginning. gene did, as well. but the change that has happened is fueled not just by powerful politicians on the far right, the maga right, but also by fox

or by other networks that not only give her a platform but lift her up. >> i think it's fueled by the fact she wants to be the next speaker of the house. i think it is fueled by the fact that she wants to get as close to donald trump as humanly possible, as close to that base as humanly possible. there are many people who said, close to trump, that kevin mccarthy will informer be speaker of the house. they've been saying that for a year and a half, since january 6th. so you take somebody who, again, another one of these harvard people. my god, what are they teaching at harvard? another one of these harvard people. >> poor harvard. >> they say the most bizarre, crackpot things. she knows better. you're right, we met her. really impressed with her. i had high, high hopes for her. >> yup. >> the weird thing is, and this is what -- you know, you look at

somebody like madison hawthorne. not to go too far afield here, but they can talk about taxes, smarter regulation, talk about a stronger military, a stronger nato. they could talk mainstream issues and be-elected in their districts for 100 years. i know. i know, because even a guy like me got re-elected by talking about these sort of main street republican issues. when somebody is racist, you call them out. when somebody goes far up field, you call them out. but she's made these bizarre choices, gene robinson, and just getting crazier and crazier by the day. and, again, you just wonder -- i don't mean to be naive about this, but what's worth it?

donald trump, is donald trump going to be loyal to you? we see how long donald trump's loyalty lasts. he throws people under the bus all the time. he did it again last week. >> exactly. i mean, that's what he does. so, you know, if you get close to trump, eventually, you'll get thrown under the bus. but, you know, with elise stefanik, it's obviously naked ambition. you're absolutely right. she wants to be the next speaker. she sees this as her path. she's gone completely overboard on it in a way that, again, i stress, it's dangerous and potentially deadly. we see the results in buffalo. you know, now i want to ask you about the state of michigan, where i went to school. in some ways, you know, it is one of the front lines of this sort of disinformation versus real information conflict. tell me about people who live in this alternative reality and how

you're trying to reach them. >> absolutely. i mean, michigan is everything all at once. this is a state that elected gretchen whitmer, jocelyn benson, but has more home-grown militia activity than any other state in the country right now. this is where timothy mcveigh trained before carrying out domestic terrorism attack, the likes of which we have never seen. and people are being inundated with this messaging. i get calls from constituents. a woman calls regularly, and you hear it in her voice. she fundamentally believes the 2020 election was stolen. she fundamentally believes that, quote, unquote, biological men are destroying girls sports. >> where is she gets her information? >> likely fox news and the michigan gop. if she is on the email list, we've seen the michigan gop has been replaced by fringe conspiracy theorists. traditional republicans are

falling in line and not being willing to let go of power or stand up against a takeover that is very likely going to lead to the end of us having free and fair elections. >> joe. >> didn't biden win michigan by 100 -- >> we had 250 audits of the election. it is not even close. >> this is happening toward the midterm. joe. >> senator, i'd love to get your insights since you're on the front lines in michigan here. it's been my belief since january 6th that, yes, the actions by these radical republicans, some of these radical republicans, is certainly more frightening than anything we've seen in american politics in some time. also, my belief, especially when i hear somebody like you pushing back and fighting back against this madness, my belief is that it actually makes them weaker politically. it makes them weaker statewide in wisconsin, in michigan.

you look at pennsylvania. the absolute crack pots at the republican party seem to be destined to nominate for governors race and the senate race. that makes them weaker in the fall, does it not? >> absolutely. but we have to be very clear about not being afraid to say so. the official republican nominee for secretary of state is a woman who said that yoga is a satanic ritual that the lgbtq community goes against god's design. we can't be afraid to weed into this and say, this is not normal. i'm very intentional with my con constituents, because i represent a lot of republicans, to say, this is no longer the traditional republican party. these are anti-government, fringe extremists. the choice right now is between people who want the government to work and people who don't. and we've got to get back to a place where we are debating tax

policy. a constituent says, i want it to be boring again. i don't want to pay attention to you guys every day. >> wouldn't we all? >> yeah. >> we appreciate what you are doing. michigan state senator mallory mcmorrow, thank you very much. good to see you. hope to see you again soon. still ahead, new details surrounding the suspect investigators believe caied out a racially-motivated mass shooting in buffalo, new york, over the weekend. it comes as the u.s. sees a dramatic spike in hate crimes in 8 of the largest 10 cities. what is driving the violence. plus, it is more difficult for moscow to hide its military failures in ukraine. retired master sergeant jason beardsley weighs in. we're back in just two minutes. ♪ emotion ♪

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lone gunman, armed with weapons of war and hate-filled soul, shot and killed ten innocent people in cold blood. we must work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of america. our hearts are heavy once again, but our resolve must never, ever waiver. >> president biden addressing the racist mass shooting in buffalo over the weekend that killed ten people inside a grocery store in a mostly black community of buffalo. the president and the first lady will visit the city tomorrow. we will speak with the mayor of buffalo and to the district attorney ahead of what's expected to be a slew of new charges against the suspect. we will also discuss the so-called replacement theory that the accused shooter espoused. and the voices on the far right that have normalized those beliefs. plus, the latest from

ukraine. russian war bloggers who have been key to moscow's propaganda machine now say they are, quote, shocked at their military's incompetence and are now speaking out publicly. breaking news. mcdonald's has announced it will end operations in russia. the fast food giant temporarily closed restaurants in russia after the invasion of ukraine but now says it will sell all of its restaurants and no longer allow use of its name, logo, branding, or menu. they are out of there. welcome back to "morning joe." it is monday, may 16th. good to have you all with us. we're going to start with the new information out of buffalo. in a moment, nbc's aaron gilchrist has more on what could be fueling the rise in hate crimes across the united states. first, nbc news correspondent

emile ikeda has more. >> reporter: new details on the stunning attack. authorities confirming this wasn't the suspect's first run-in with trouble. last june, state police say he made a threatening statement at his high school. school officials alerted police which resulted in a mental health evaluation. authorities say he was released shortly later. less than a year later, 18-year-old payton gendron is accused of killing ten and injuring another three, streaming his first steps on a gaming platform. twitch said the feed was removed within two minutes of the violence. what alarms you the most leading up to this incident? >> this person intended to have a broad platform livestreaming it, sharing his information, his ideas, his hatred online. there are others who know this now. that's what scares me. how far this virus is now spreading and how quickly. >> reporter: the suspect drove several hours from his home in conklin, new york, to reach buffalo. a day before, the suspect was

targeting a predominantly black area. authorities believe the suspect authored a manifesto, posted online two days before the massacre. the author referred to himself as a white supremacist and repeatedly referenced the mass shooter who killed 51 people at a new zealand mosque. >> he was doing recon since on the place. >> reporter: the officer was firm on the nature of the crime. >> this is a hate crime, no doubt about it. >> reporter: new york city on heightened alert after the deadly shooting in buffalo. police stepping up patrols around black churches. it comes days after three korean women were injured in a dallas shooting. police say it may be a string of shootings targeting asian businesses. they're investigating it into a

hate crime. >> we're learning to every citizen to keep an eye out and safeguard our city. >> reporter: the u.s. seeing a dramatic rising in eight of the nation's ten largest cities, an increase of 55%. the alarming trend continues. >> racially motivated violence is the greatest threat in our country today. >> reporter: saturday's shooting the latest in a string of violence. in 2018, a shooter targeted mexicans in walmart, hoping to drive them out of the u.s. in 2018, 11 people died when a shooter opened fire during service at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. experts say these hate crimes are fueled by rhetoric often online. >> we've never seen hate more mainstreamed than we see it today. we have to fight against these ideologies. >> my first thought was here we go again. >> reporter: nearly seven year ago, walter jackson jr. lost his

grandmother, suzy, and several relatives after a gunman opened fire at the mother emanuel a.m. e church in southern california. >> when you lose a loved one in a fashion such as that, by a white supremacist, by someone who is geared with hate just because of the color of their skin, it is going to be something you're going to be dealing with for a long time. >> reporter: jackson said it is a call to action for leaders to speak out against hate which fuel the attacks. message for buffalo? >> continue to love. this was a situation done out of hate, and it is easy for us to turn around and want to retaliate, do the same thing. continue to keep your peace. continue to make your loved ones proud. >> continue to love. continue to love. "politico's" jonathan lemire is still with us. let's bring in michael steele.

chief white house correspondent for the white house peter baker. at vanderbilt university, jon meacham. jon, in the past, we've had tragedies. oklahoma city, of course. the 16th street baptist church bombings. there was a revulsion by american citizenry. tha reaction to it, the tragedy of the 16th street baptist church, those bombings actually helped drive the civil rights movement forward. it woke up a lot of, as martin luther king would call them, moderate white americans. i'm curious, it seems we have one shooting after another, whether it's the targeting of jews at a synagogue in pittsburgh, the targeting of hispanics at a walmart in el paso, the targeting of black

americans at a supermarket in buffalo. i'm not really seeing any sort of positive reaction against that hatred. what i'm seeing are republican leaders and talk show hosts on other networks actually dive into it even deeper. where are we as a nation? >> you know, i think it's fascinating to me you'd use the civil rights movement as an example. i was thinking all weekend -- you know, i wasn't around in 1961 when there were pictures of the freedom riders bus. went around the world. they'd been firebombed. i wasn't around for the death of the four young women at the 16th street baptist church. the murder of the civil rights workers in philadelphia and mississippi. but all these images we look back on and we think, how could

people of good will, how could citizens devoted to a more perfect union, devoted to the declaration of independence, how could they let that stand in how could they let that happen? and we are living in precisely that kind of moment. we see almost weekly evidence of a broken american covenant. the idea that, you know, we're supposed to see each other as neighbors. i help you in the mornings, so you'll help me in the afternoon. we're not supposed to see each other reflexively as enemies and adversaries. otherwise, democracy is not going to work, right? this is not a homily or a breakfast table bible lesson. it's just the case. a democracy does not work without a moral climate in which we accept the notion, the

reality that we are in this together. if your rights are safe, my rights are safe. that's the way this works. what we're seeing again and again, and what i fear we're going to see more and more, because of technology, because the governor used the word "virus," and because this kind of evil and this kind of hate have moved from the fringes a little bit closer to the mainstream, and it just has. that's not alarmist. it's not some reflexive thing to say on msnbc of a morning, it's just the case. to me, the test of this time is are we going to be the kind of country that continues to let this unfold and not try -- we may not succeed, but at least try to do something about it.

i don't want the future to look back at these images and say of us what we say of the folks who are firebombing buses with non-violent folks like john lewis and nash on them. right now, that's where we are. >> among those killed in the attack was a retired buffalo police officer who was working as a security guard in the store after turning in his badge. 55-year-old aaron salter survived more than three decades as a cop but lost his life while reportedly defending the supermarket on saturday. according to several store employees and shoppers who were at the scene, salter confronted the shooter was the attack began. he fired at the suspect who was wearing an armored vest and was unphased by the bullets coming at him. michael steele, again, a good guy with a gun has absolutely no chance against a bad guy with a,

whatever, automatic weapon and all the gear he was wearing, also livestreaming it on his head. >> it defeats the ongoing narrative that you hear after crises like that. well, you know, if they were only armed. if people were armed with weapons, you know, they could have put it down. yeah, okay. this guy is fully body armored. unless everybody in the store is fully body armored, no, you're not going to be able to put it down in that instance. where we find ourselves right now is at an inflection point. when you stop and think about, you know, the journey from charlottesville, where they were chanting, you know, "jews will not replace us," to this moment where you have individuals who are pushing out this theory, this idea, that white folks somehow are going to be replaced by -- it's not just immigrants, it's me. my question to elise stefanik, i'm replacing you? it seems to me you replaced the

woman who was in the position you now hold. you want to talk about replacement theory? come on, let's be real about what it is we're concerned about here. we're not being honest about that. and the fact that, you know, you've got tucker carlson talking about, you know, we're trying to replace -- they're going to replace us with obedient voters from the third world. >> right. >> to this moment, the country has to look at that and go, this is who we are. >> right. joe, just -- i know i need to jump to you, but i'll cite "the new york times" here. no public figure has promoted replacement theory more loudly and relentlessly than tucker carlson, who made demographic change a theme of the show since joining the lineup in 2016. a "times" investigation published this month showed that in more than 400 episodes of his

show, mr. carlson has amplified the notion that democratic politicians and other assorted elites want to force demographic change through immigration. producers sometimes scoured the raw material from the same corners of the internet that the buffalo suspect did. it is creeping into every's daily viewing across america, fair to say. i don't know if -- i guess that's the mainstream. it is prevalent in a lot of very widely followed figures in media. >> well, i wouldn't call it creeping in. it is busting in the door. busting through the door. what was so fascinating about the story was that it was actually fox news executives who

were scouring the minutes and trying to push that sort of programming on day side, trying to move that sort of programming across all of the network. >> so you say scouring the minutes. what do you mean? just so viewers understand. they were looking at what? >> minute by minutes to see the ratings, what was working. the fox news executives were then trying to push that across the entire channel. this is not an isolated case. this is the murdochs and this is members of the board like paul ryan. this is their plan. they've quite deliberately -- if the reporting in the "times" is correct, if the people who worked at fox news are accurate in what they're saying, this is a network-wide plan.

from rupert murdoch down. if you read that story and believe that story, the plan is not to just keep it in primetime, but to spread it across the entire channel. that's what paul ryan on the board is obviously -- i guess he supports that. i knew paul very well. i didn't know -- sort of surprising, but that's what paul ryan, board member, must support. certainly what "the new york times" reports rupert murdoch supports. so it is fascinating. i want to go back to, though, what -- michael steel, you were talking about replacement. you? you replacing elise stefanik. let's think about the richness of this for a second. black americans, their ancestors came here in a most unhappy manner. they were enslaved and drug here. but if you were black and in

america, your ancestors actually stepped foot on this soil 400 years ago. >> yeah. >> there are a lot of irish-americans. there are a lot of italian-americans. there are a lot of italians with names like stefanik. there are a lot of americans who came from eastern europe, that didn't come for another 200 years. i guess -- when i heard replacement theory used against black americans, i said, i think we got that backwards. >> exactly. >> because -- because a lot of eastern europeans came to this country in the 1900s. irish came in the 1850s. so if you are irish, italian-american, if you're from eastern europe, if you're standing there going, oh, black people are replacing true

americans, what a joke. >> it is. >> ignorant, ignorant, dangerous, dangerous world view. >> but it plays to the central core of what you see emanating out of fox. what elise did with this information, she pedaled it. she grifted off of it. she fundraised off of it. instead of being a leader and standing up and saying, wait a minute, this is not who we are as a country, because of what joe just said. when you look at the history and the facts, that's the reality. for her, it was a matter of, i'm going to gain some cash on this. i'm going to raise money. i don't give a damn how it is taken in by the public out there. i don't give a damn how some 18-year-old kid sitting somewhere across america decides to get in a car and drive to another community and blow up people.

i don't care about that. the only thing i care about is i got paid. that's the leadership we have now inside the republican party. it's the kind of leadership that, yes, they want to con democrat liz cheney. the condemnation is at people like stefanik, who put this into the mainstream of the country because it is a good day to get grift, to be paid. the fact they don't care we have ten dead people. >> peter baker, this is declining our politics. there are parts of the republican party espousing this or at least nodding and winking. president of the united states goes to buffalo tomorrow. there will be calls for him to do more. what should he say about perhaps guns, but also about this, about this sinister dark replacement theory that has crept into the

republican party, a party that he thought he could work with? >> this is the problem for president biden. he wants to be a unifier. he talked about that. i think jon meacham helped him craft the eloquent words about bringing the country together. when you're seeing the hate in a city he leads, what do you say? how do you confront the hate that doesn't encourage the same politics and grievances out? will he be heard by people who are looking for reasons to foal feel put-upon. you're not getting something pause someone else is. they're taking something from do you. it's a popular strain for american politics, particularly

the last few years. biden, while confronting the hatred and reality, is a very, very tough challenge. >> you saw it last week, ultra maga world. he takes on more of a partisan edge for the midterm elections. people saying, wait a second, you're supposed to be president of unity. is unifying not realist? >> you have to unify by speaking truth to power. people of good will who are interested in the truth need to unify behind those who speak the truth. you know, that universe is getting smaller by the moment. jon meacham, let's put this in perspective. it is important when we talk about tragedies like this that we talk about -- you know, we brought up what had with the 16th street baptist church. it is important we put things into perspective.

there is reason to be hopeful. we talk about the 1960s and civil rights. there was a massive number of americans who still supported segregation and jim you laws. millions of americans would go to restaurants for whites only, who understood blacks had to go around the corner and go to restrooms elsewhere. there were millions and millions of good, respectable, so-called, you know, moderate whites who were offended when the first black person moved into their neighborhoods. the advances that have happened in our lifetime, in our lifetime, have been meteoric. so it is always important when we're talking about this to understand, to put it in context, that black americans have suffered horribly. they were third class citizens until 1964, 1965, and it's been

a fight ever since. things have improved. reverend al talks about it all the time. the last 50 years, things improved. i guess what is so shocking is that the quote that you talk about so much, the moral arc of the universe, that it seemed to be going in one direction. five years ago, took a wildly divergent path. i guess a question is, how do we find our way back to this sort of progress we were making before 2015? >> yeah. as yousay, look, you and i are two white southern men. things work out for us in this country. they tend to. >> yeah. >> so we stipulate that progress is a relative thing. the point about the theater parker line, which dr. king used, the arc of a moral line is

long but but it bends to justice. only if people are fighting for it to swerve, people like john lewis. people whose names we don't know. in the dialectic of politics and human nature, you need people who are insisting on radical, forward-meaning progress, because there are so many people who are reactionary and status oriented. they're anxious about their status, which is a huge part of what's unfolding right now. yes, you go back 50 years. we have the iconic moments of the civil rights movement. when peter and michael were talking, i was thinking, 100 years ago almost exactly, in the "great gatsby," here's how prevalent the white supremacist views are in america.

"the rising tide of color," the threat against worldwide white supremacy. hugely popular 100 years ago. when scott fitzgerald wrote "gatsby" he has tom buchanan cite it and say, "it is a very important book, and everyone should read it. it is scientific stuff. it's all been proved." that was a replacement theory that was part of this american struggle, and thank god it is a struggle because there are at least people trying to make real the promise of the country against these perennial forces of racism, nativism, extremism, and misogyny. i mean, it's just this perennial thing because it is a human struggle. because it is about us. it is about we the people. so i do think there's hope. because without hope, then we

should just close down the republic, you know, and we can't do that. we cannot cede the american experiment to these forces that are devoted to the will to power over the attempt to actually create prosperity and liberty for all of us. and the fact that in 2022 we have to say this is disspiriting. but this is the struggle. it is the struggle of our time, and we can't give up. >> well, it is disspiriting. in our next hour, we'll take a look at how it is pervading some campaigns, republican primary campaigns. jon meacham, thank you for being on this morning. we want to turn to the latest in russia's war in ukraine. there is growing evidence that moscow's forces continue to suffer on the ground.

ukrainian officials say russian forces endured heavy losses last week after their troops blew up a key pontoon bridge in the luhansk region in the east. according to the institute for the study of war, more than 400 russian soldiers were killed or injured in that attack. over 80 pieces of their equipment was destroyed. officials say the strike was a significant blow to the kremlin's plans in eastern ukraine. the incident also led several pro-russian bloggers, some of whom are embedded with the troops on the frontline and have been making claims of russian successes, to publicly criticize their own military. many posted on social media they were, quote, shocked at what they called the russian military's inincompetence. one of the bloggers with more than 2 million followers on

telegram writes, quote, i've been keeping quiet for a long time. but when the same problems go on for three months and nothing seems to be changing, then i personally, and, in fact, millions of citizens of the russian federation, start to have questions for the leaders of the military operation. joe, it's definitely getting back to russians through stories like this. of course, we've always talked about the russian mothers who don't get their sons coming home. they got to have a lot of questions at this point. >> a lot of questions. it is what we saw in afghanistan after many years, after russia was in afghanistan many years. it is what's happening, though, much more quickly. in part, because there are bloggers. you do have people that have millions of followers on telegram. information is getting back. cell phones out there where kids

can call their moms, call their family, call their loved ones and let them know things are going horrifically wrong. let's bring in retired master sergeant jason beardsley. thank you for being with us. you know, when you're watching a basketball game, an announcer says, you can't teach tall. if a guy is a foot taller than everybody, he'll dominate the boards. in this case, you can't teach culture, especially culture of an entire army, in a couple of weeks. their culture was rotten to the core in kyiv. their culture was rotten to the core during their retreat. still rotten to the core in the east. talk about the latest developments. i must say, even with our low expectations of what the russian military can do, it is shocking how incompetent they are. so shocking, even propagandists

are starting to attack them back in russia. >> really, it is about time. you're absolutely right, the culture undercurrents all of that. last week, it was very disappointing to see the video circulate where russian soldiers took aim at civilians walking away from them and shot them to death. this is an example, as you're talking about, of a military with no culture below it that is a professional military culture. they've fallen apart on so many fronts in the attack. they don't have the infantry to supply the armor. the pontoon attempt to cross the river there was a humiliating defeat. this is precisely what i've said zelenskyy and the ukrainians need to do, which is, find places where the russian forces are massing armor or other equipment, and take them out. in a case like this, that type of defeat is going to accelerate what has been happening in a slow form, the dissolution of this russian military.

it is happening. putin can't see it. propagandists, as you've said, are pretty much getting off the fence and realize this one isn't going the way they'd hoped. >> peter baker. >> exactly. what is the future line? is there still a chance you think russia can bring enough power to bear to turn this around and we'll all forget about three months of setbacks because, in the end, they'll have succeeded, or is it beyond their reach? are they no longer able to accomplish the goals they set out to accomplish? >> great question, peter. actually, it is, i would suggest, beyond their reach. in the military, you're fighting on the ground level with troops. i'm a soldier. you understand what is happening in the momentum phase of a be the battle. they've been losing momentum from day one. to reshape or change things takes dramatic action with

excellent leadership, excellent command and control, and troops that have the discipline and the know-how to actually affect the strategic plan. we haven't seen any of that. i'll take you back to iraq and afghanistan. we had the training and equipment, excellent leadership, and we were still unable to control the cities. it was a slow-burn loss. what you're seeing here is much, much different. the folks in the fight here, i they know that. which is why one of the things you're seeing is non-disciplined soldiers using their cell phones. easy for targeting. they mishandled this. the only way out is something to the negotiation table. to do that, ukraine has to hand a few more of these massive losses to the russians to force them outside this eastern province. not easy to do. this could go on for some time. >> retired master sergeant jason beardsley, thank you very much.

still ahead on "morning joe," senator ted cruz attempting to rewrite his own history on the campaign trail. he openly mocked republicans who suck up to donald trump to advance their political careers. plus, congress is expected to take a legislative action this week to address the growing bay formula shortage. but what are parents supposed to do in the meantime? we'll have the latest on what is being done to address the shortage. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. we are her teachers, her therapists, chefs... oh, that's why we're tired. it's because we're doing it every single day, all day. how do you like learning at home? i kind of don't like it. i kind of don't like it either. i just want you to have everything.

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there is an alarming new warning about how long it'll last. joining us from los angeles, nbc news business and tech correspondent jo ling kent. jo ling, what do you have? >> reporter: hey, mika. the fda saying there is going to be a big, new announcement later today about baby formula. this comes as worried parents are waking up this morning even more stressed out about this ongoing formula shortage. as some manufacturers are telling us, they've ramped up their production to the max with the white house promising that help is on the way. this morning, mounting concerns for panicked parents as the nation's baby formula shortage shows no signs of letting up. across the country, the out of stock rate is over 40%, a figure the white house disputes. >> we go to buy formula, everything is gone. >> reporter: the ceo of formula maker perrigo, one of the big four manufacturerermanufacturer this could go the rest of the

year. moms like katie miller turns to social media to find the formula she needs to feed her twin daughters. >> when you go to the stores in a 2-hour radius and can't find what you need and have to resort to other measures, it is really stressful. >> reporter: the biden administration vowing to import formula from countries like mexico, chile, and the irelands. congress taking action this week to immediately address the shortage. >> we have to be as fast as possible but as cautious so we have safety. >> reporter: this emergency, amp amplified in low-income communities, is shedding light on the industry, with doctors hoping this will be a wake-up call. >> many women in the country, even before this shortage, did not or could not reach their personal breast-feeding goals because of the lack of

resources, lactation counseling, access to pumps. >> reporter: experts advise family and friends in other states to ship it to you if they can find it. consider organic formula if you can afford it. ask your pediatrician for sample cans. now, the fda also telling our savannah guthrie this morning on the "today" show that they expect to approve the sturgis, michigan, plant reopening and it could reopen within two weeks. meanwhile, the university of michigan medical center tells me for everyone out there who is saying, just breast-feed, it is critical to remember many can't because of health or work conditions, paid leave, or access to things like a breast pump. this makes formula more important to millions of parents. >> jo, thank you. nbc's jo ling kent, thank you very much. coming up, we'll have more on the racially-motivated attack in buffalo, including the threats the suspected gunman

made almost a year ago that led to a police investigation. plus, the latest developments out of eastern europe as nato is on track to add two more countries, a move that russia has said would force it to retaliate. the prime minister of greece joins us next on "morning joe" ahead of his meeting with president biden at the white house today. we'll be right back. biden: we have a crisis: the price at the pump. our prices are rising because of putin's actions. we need to double down on our commitment to clean energy. building a made-in-america clean energy future will help safeguard our national security. it will help us tackle climate change. this is a challenge of our collective lifetimes. there's no more time to hang back or sit on the fence or argue amongst ourselves. so let this be the moment that we answer history's call.

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45 past the hour. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is in abu dhabi this morning as part of a high-profile american delegation to pay respects to the late president of the uae who died on friday. the trip comes a day after blinken attended the nato foreign ministers meeting in

berlin, where he said he was, quote, confident that finland and sweden can become members of the military alliance, despite turkey's concerns. last week, the turkish president expressed his opposition to the two nations applying for membership. president joe biden will meet with the prime minister of greece in washington later today. among other issues, the two leaders are expected to discuss the war in ukraine and the ongoing global energy crisis. the greek prime minister is also expected to raise the issue of turkey undermining the expansion of the nato alliance as it opposes possible membership for finland and sweden. the prime minister of greece, kyriakos mitsotakis, joins us now. how did i do? >> pretty well. >> pretty well? okay, good. >> good morning. >> good to have you with us. what are the top priorities for your meeting with the president today?

>> this is an important visit for me personally and for greece because it also marks the bicentennial since the beginning of the greek war of independence 201 years ago. it was supposed to take place last week, but because of covid, it was moved to this year. i'll have the opportunity to address a joint session of congress. it is a chance to celebrate the path of two vibrant democracies and to reaffirm our strategic commitment to each other. greece is probably the most reliable partner that the united states currently has in the turbulent part of the world. we'll talk about strengthening our bilateral relationship and the war in ukraine, and the implications it has for the european continent. >> right. of course, we brought you in talking about the nato bid by finland and sweden to become members. there's some concern turkey has about this.

what do you make of that? will you be discussing that with the president? why would anybody want to slow down a nato bid by these two countries at this point? >> you would probably have to ask the turkish president. greece supports the membership of sweden and finland into nato. it is their sovereign decision. i do expect, at the end of the day, there will be no serious objections to these two countries joining nato. i think this is not really the right time to use nato membership by these two countries to bargain for other maybe issues that someone may have on their mind. i do expect this issue to be resolved. >> peter? >> this war in ukraine, the russian aggression in ukraine, has brought europe together in a way it hadn't been in many years. the differences between nato members and european union members seem to be minimized to some extent. how long do you think that'll last? is there a worry that this -- eventually, the russians could

outlast european unity and wear it down, in effect, over time? >> europe has been extremely unified when it came to addressing the russian invasion into ukraine. we moved very quickly to implement very, very dramatic sanctions. i do expect to see european unity to last. at the end of the day, what is happening in europe is something completely inconceivable. borders are being redrawn by force. we thought after the 20th century, this would never happen in europe. what's at stake here is not just the sovereignty of ukraine. it is the security arrangement of europe as a whole. that is why i expect european unity, certainly, to be a given. at the same time, i do need to point out that there are issues regarding the price of energy, which need to be addressed at the european level. we have an extraordinary european council, which will take place at the end of the month of may, to address these issues. because when we impose sanctions

on russia, we want to be sure we don't shoot ourselves in the foot. we want to impose more pain on russia than our own citizens. >> how do you do that? >> you do that by reaching an agreement on how to intervene in the in the wholesale gas markets. i've been a big advocate into the gas market. i think the price of wholesale gas in europe do not reflect the fundamental forces of supply and demand. we are big buyers. we need to use our leverage as big buyers to bring down the prices of gas and this was used by prime minister draghi when he was in washington a few days ago, and we need to pool our resources to make sure we provide our citizens and households with additional energy. >> prime minister, the war shows no sign of ending any time soon, but it will some day. when that day comes how does

europe, how does greece re-engage with russia? how do you re-engage with president putin if he is still in power or do you not? >> that's a very, very difficult question. right now the first priority is for the war to come to an end, but of course, on terms acceptable to ukraine. right now there is a war being fought. we are supporting ukraine on this effort including greece and we are sending not just humanitarian, but military assistance to ukraine, and i think there's still a long way to go before this issue is resolved, unfortunately. >> mr. prime minister, in addition to your meetings with the president, you will be addressing congress. you will be meeting with the leadership. what is the message you want to convey to congress and to the american people not just about the alliance, and the relationship between greece and the united states, but people to

people? there's still concern about where -- to his point, there's still concern about where this ends up, how this ends up with ukraine and russia. what do you want people to know from your visit? >> the first thing i want american people to know greece as a country is back. we went through a very painful financial crisis ten years ago. we were still in -- in a bailout program. this has caused significant pain on the greek society, but since we came into power the economy has recovered. i think we've dealt with covid better than many european countries. many american companies are investing in greece. american tourists are coming to greece. we have many non-stop flights between the u.s. and greece this summer. so this is a dynamic economy, open for business and open to attract american investment and

for the u.s. a stable partner in a difficult part of the world. we have a role to play in the balkans. we have very good connections to the middle east. we want greece to be a regional energy hub, to bring in gas, maybe tomorrow hydrogen from the middle east into europe. so we want to leverage our important geopolitical position and the fact that we are a stable and thriving democracy, a member of the european union and member of nato. so we are a reliable partner to the u.s. and this is an opportunity when i speak to congress to celebrate this special relationship. >> it is definitely a special relationship, two relationships, eu and nato, that have found renewed strength in light of this war. with finland and sweden, fast tracking them into nato, if that were to happen, is there a discussion about the concern that this might prompt some sort of retaliation beyond ukraine's

borders? >> i'm sure there will be a lot of saber rattling, and i'm sure mr. putin is not happy about this decision, but at the end of the day, russia succeeded, quote, unquote, in uniting nato and giving it a new purpose and extending the alliance from 30 to 32 members. again, as i told you, this is a very important, it is a momentous decision if you think of sweden that's neutral for 200 years and sat out the second world war and the same is true for finland and we're talking about a new security arrangement, and i'm sure this is another unintended consequence of this very disastrous decision by president putin to invade ukraine. >> prime minister kyriakos mitsotakis, thank you for being

on "morning joe". what officials are calling a racially motivated mass shooting in buffalo, new york, but could the attack have been prevented? a violent threat made almost a year ago, abc's tom winter joins us with his new reporting plus we'll speak live with the mayor of buffalo as well as erie county's top prosecutor. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. joe" is back in just a moment he uses the same password for everything. i didn't want to deal with it. but aura digital security just dealt with it. what were we worried about again? shopping on public wifi is sketchy. but with aura digital security, my devices are protected in like 3 minutes. it's time to protect your life online with aura's all-in-one digital security. try for free today at aura.com what was that password anyway? ew. okay season 6! aw... this'll take forev—or not.

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♪♪ ♪♪ it's just about the top of the third hour of "morning joe." it's monday, may 16th. we continue to follow the deadly mass shooting out of buffalo. ten people killed in a racist attack at a grocery store in a mostly black neighborhood. president biden and the first lady are expected to visit the city tomorrow. later this hour we will speak to

the mayor of buffalo and to the district attorney who is prosecuting this case, but first, nbc's craig melvin reports from the scene after speaking with the wife of one of the victims. >> this morning, a city in anguish after a gunman opened fire at this supermarket in buffalo, new york, killing ten and injuring three others. >> evil came into my neighborhood, into my community. >> 11 of the victims were black. >> this is an absolute racist hate crime. >> survivors left shaken to their core. >> if we would have walked in three minutes later we probably would have been dead with them because everybody that was in the store, he killed them. >> police say 18-year-old payton gendron stormed tops market armed with multiple weapons, tactical gear and a camera to

live stream the massacre. the shooter later surrendered to police. he's been charged with first-degree murder pleading not guilty. officials also say the suspect wrote a racist 180-page manifesto that was posted online just two days before the attack. >> these people were just shopping. they went to go get food to feed their families. among the lives tragically lost, 86-year-old ruth whitfield who was in the store after visiting her husband at a nursing home. 77-year-old pearl young described by her loved ones as a woman of faith and a pillar of the community. >> she was just a friend to everyone she met. >> top security guard aaron salter, a 30-year-old veteran of the buffalo police force who tried to stop the gunman potentially saving more lives and then hayward paterson, a local driver and church deacon killed while helping a shopper

load groceries in his car. >> people loved him. the community loved him. they knew him since a teeny boy. >> what would you say to the accused gunman who did this? >> i would say, if it wasn't for god, i probably would have a lot of malice in my heart, but he teaches us to forgive, and i have to forgive him because if i don't i'm killing me. >> nbc's craig melvin with that report. let's bring in right now charles coleman, also msnbc news investigation tom winter. tom, obviously, the alleged gunman had problems in the past. somehow, though, he fell back off the radar after -- after some investigations. >> right. so our understanding of this and this comes on the record from the new york state police is that just a little under a year ago, joe, in june of 2021 somebody or several people had come forward had indicated that this person had talked about

committing acts of violence, perhaps even a mass shooting and then an investigation was undertaken. this was brought to their attention, and they actually went to his high school, payton, the person who has been charge here, 18, faces multiple homicide counts and remains to be seen whether or not he'll face federal hate crime charges, but we do know he was taken into custody at that time, taken to a hospital and admitted for a mental health evaluation, but after that, he was released. he was not ultimately charged, and then obviously now we're looking at him in a jump suit and a mask, an awful lot of police tape and ten liechs lost, joe. >> charles coleman, how would an investigation like this be put together? obviously, some of the concerns raised about this individual happened when he was a minor. >> mika, what they're going to do at this point is they're

going to be combing through that 180-page manifesto that is apparently linked online and apparently looking to see what are the steps that we can retrace in trying to determine how this individual went about setting up this crime and then committing it. they're going to look at how did they get this access to an extended clip and a modified clip to modify that assault rifle that he went into that store and executed those people using -- they're also going to be looking whether there are links to other groups to see whether they helped plan this, or see if he's connected to any organizations, fringe organizations that may support this notion of a domestic terrorist committing this horrific act. >> we've been talking this morning about how the racist replacement theory has reached the upper echelon of the republican party. a series of campaign ads placed by third-ranking house republican elise stefanik who said last week that she was

proud to be ultra maga is getting renewed attention. the ad ran last september ahead of a rally in support of those charged in the capitol attack, supporting those who committed the assault on the capitol. one version claimed, quote, radical democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet, a permanent election insurrection. their plan to grant amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants will currently overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent, liberal majority in washington. "the washington post" reports that a stefanik spokesman who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the ads were pushed at the time when new york city was debating a measure to allow non-residents the chance to vote in local elections, following the mass shootings, stefanik tweeted about the, quote, horrific loss of life in buffalo and about skyrocketing

violent crimes. she did not mention or condemn racial hatred. we've also seen this type of rhetoric in the u.s. senate race in ohio. here's part of a recent campaign ad from republican j.d. vance. >> they censor us, but it doesn't change the truth. joe biden's open border is killing ohioans with more illegal drugs and more democrat voters pouring into this country. >> as greg sergeant points out in "the washington post" opinion, it is a great replacement theory rhetoric. this idea which deposits a nefarious elite scheme to replace native-born americans with outsiders by a migration-enhanced democratic change comes in various forms. one form is explicitly race based and envisioning white

genocide which vance isn't necessarily employing. other version is more overtly partisan. it deposits that immigration is a plot by liberal and democratic elites to replace conservative voters with, quote, obedient voters from the third world. vance's formulation suggests democrat voters in the form of migrants are one factor killing ohioans. that's partly a reference to drugs crossing the border, but the hint at an apocalyptic democratic threat is obvious. joe? >> yeah. michael steele, it's fascinating. first of all, republicans can't have it both ways. first thing we hear is, of course, michael is that the white woke left has become so progressive that hispanics and black americans are voting more and more for republicans all the time, and donald trump and those

around him talked about how popular he was with hispanic especially hispanic men. how popular he was with black men. so this theory of theirs seems to go against their other theory which is that hispanic voters and black voters are moving towards republicans. that's the first thing. i mean, the second thing is it just is -- you -- you look at the theory, you look at what the republicans are doing with it and there's a reason, and if you look at a recent poll, almost half of republicans polled are concerned about the, quote, great replacement theory. like, this is -- this has gained a real foothold in the republican party. 47%, this is an a.p. poll, 47% of republicans believe in replacement theory and are

concerned about it. that's extraordinarily significant and frightening how much this theory has taken root because it's been pushed by republican leaders and people in the media. >> well, the last part is the most important part, joe, that has been pushed by the leadership in a way that has two effects. one is as we've seen with stefanik and jim vances of the party, it raises money and it raises profile and it gives them a platform from which to be a part of the latest conversation. the second impact is the impact it has on the actual voters who don't know and who don't understand, who look around them and see their communities changing. instead of contextualizing that change they vilify it and rail against it the. look, this is the same group of folks. i'm curious to see elise's view on the autopsy that the

republican party put out. did you think that was a load of crap at the time we put it out? was that replacement theory when reince priebus and the party pushed the idea that, you know, we need to embrace diversity? we need to move into and be a part of these communities? so what exactly is the view that we should have of the party's position on hispanics and african-americans and other groups in this country? what do you say to those -- those republican-leaning hispanic voters along the texas-mexican border. who say they're with us. well, really? because from what you're telling me, i think they're trying to replace you. so maybe that's why they're voting. they want to vote your behind out. you may want to take a look at that. so this is -- this is the lie that is being vetted among the american people in a way that results on what we saw happen in

baltimore. i'm sorry, you have to draw the line. you can't sit there and say that dot doesn't exist. we can't go there. you have to go there because when you pour the rhetoric into the bloodstream of the body politic, you're not only creating an infection. it's an infection that leads to someone getting killed and that's something that these folks have to account for and the voters have to hold them accountable for it. >> yeah. when j.d. vance talks about bringing in democrat voters. you can say democratic, it won't hurt you, again, as michael steele said, ask hispanics along the texas-mexico border how they feel. they're breaking republican. they're voting republican. democrats are scratching their heads trying to figure out why they're losing so many hispanic voters, not just along the texas border, but across america are trending more republican every

election. so again, this whole -- they're shipping in democratic voters doesn't really play so well. so -- so, you know, that's part of it, but jonathan, it's -- you go back and you look at a person that every one of these republicans probably talk about in their speech and say we need to go back to the age of reagan, we have to do this. ronald reagan, you talk about amnesty. ronald reagan led in what? 7, 8 million illegal immigrants because he believed that was the best way to take care of the crisis. ronald reagan also when he left office, one of his last speeches, i think it was the night before he left office it was a strong endorsement of immigration, and said that when we close off our country to

future immigrants, then we become older and weaker and less powerful as a nation. so again, i would love to know, does elise and all these other people believe that ronald reagan was an enemy and was helping along the great replacement of white people. >> the statue of libert often a touchstone for president reagan and even george w. bush, the republican president prior to trump at times had pro-immigration policies and this is a party that changed because of donald trump and who abandoned the autopsy as michael mentioned after the defeat of mitt romney to barack obama and this anti-immigrant strain, this nationalist fervor and that is what has inspired in some ways so much in the republican party from top officials from elise stefanik to powerful media figures like tucker carlson on

fox news and some of this rhetoric has been cited by people who have gone on to commit very dangerous acts including the shooter of the weekend and that's where i want to go with you, charles coleman, how do investigators pore through this? they're looking with investigators, of course, in terms of law enforcement, you how do they prevent this from happening again. tell us what can be done and how tall of a tank is that? >> jonathan, in a lot of ways investigators are looking for a needle in a hay stack because this killer posted his manifesto online and with the resources available to the federal government and the department of justice they'll be combing through that, with so much rhetoric being spewed across the world wide web it is very differ cult to pinpoint what threats are legitimate and what threats may ultimately be a problem and that's going to be a task ahead of investigators and something

they have to figure out. in this case because there is a manifesto, there is going to be a very deep comb through to see what's linked to that, to see who was following that and what were the sources this criminal got to put this together. so they do have some sort of crumbs to follow, if you will, in terms of putting this piece together and what is in a larger picture of stopping hate crimes of this nature and that's one of the tallest task that investigators have. >> tom winter, to sort of bring it back to the investigation itself unless there's something you want to add to the bigger conversation about the rhetoric that's flying around that feels very linked, but what's next in the investigation? >> i think the ultimate determination as far as the next step, mika, is any sort of federal charge that can be brought to bear here given the fact that we know about the racial and hate motivation at this point and what we've learned through that manifesto. this problem is not going away. this country has not dealt with

these incidents and what leads to it. we saw take out what is anti-black hate, white supremist speech we saw over the weekend from this person that shot up this supermarket on a saturday afternoon and replace it with some of the bizarre findings that we found by adam lanza in the newtown shooting that killed 27 individuals, most of them children a week before christmas. there was not a concerted -- i shouldn't say -- there was a concerted effort then to try to address this issue in this country, and it doesn't appear that we've made an awful lot of progress on it. there is, in new york state, an emergency risk protection order or what has been commonly referred to as a red flag order, mika, and that's something that folks have come forward and said, look, we know that someone might do something, this is a way for us to temporarily remove guns or prevent somebody from

purchasing guns, but assumes that that purchase is made at retail and it is the reporting of our colleague of jonathan dienst that at least one of the guns came from the secondary market and that's not someone where someone calls up and asks for a background check. this system continues to patch holes and it will apply concerted effort and brainpower and at this point we'll see if politicians and the public at large in the country have the wherewithal to go through that. >> tom winter with nbc news investigations, thank you so much. msnbc legal analyst charles coleman, thank you, as well. so peter baker, we have an op-ed in "the wall street journal" opinion page about the massacre in buffalo also murdoch owned and there's a line that says politicians and media figures have an obligation to

condemn it and such conspiratorial notions as white replacement theory. my question is have you heard any republicans or any media figures that have talked about white replacement theory actually coming out and condemning that conspiracy theory? have you heard any republicans condemning white replacement theory since this shooting? >> yeah. that's a good question. i haven't off the top of my head and i don't want to say that nobody has, obviously, but it's not resounding with great force out there. certainly the most prominent members of the party have been relatively quiet on that topic. just to continue our conversation about the republican strategy here which is remarkably -- you would think self-defeating strategy to say we are going to double down on the part of the electorate that is shrinking at the expense of competing in the part of the electorate that is growing.

people who come into the country aren't going to become citizens overnight and we're not going to bother to compete in them. they're not born democrats and republicans. republicans and democrats compete for their loyalty by offering a platform they can agree with or not agree and that's what george w. bush and ronald reagan understood and what the strategy here is saying we're not going to do that. we'll play to white grievance and we'll play to the sense that something untoward is happening when people come into the country. it worked for donald trump and that's his theory of the case even though he lost the popular vote twice and the question is over time, whether that's certainly what the autopsy said it was not. it was not a smart, long term strategy. >> peter baker, thank you for coming on. we will turn to the new developments with the war in ukraine. nbc news chief correspondent

richard engel has the latest. >> this weekend sweden followed finland to officially, press support for joining nato, a major shift after decades of nonalignment and response to russia's invasion of ukraine. it could change the western military alliance. the inclusion of both finland and sweden would significantly increase nato's positions around the baltic sea. russian president vladimir putin in a call with the finnish president this weekend said joining nato would be a mistake. russia has threatened to send troops to the finnish border, but russia is in a weak position to open a new battle front. it has suffered heavy losses in ukraine, faces economic sanctions and is increasingly isolated even culturally. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> ukrainian musicians, the orchestra turned their war-ravaged towns into sets for

the video for their song "stefania" mixing ukrainian folk with rap. the lyrics praise ukrainian mothers and ukraine as the motherland. stefania this weekend won the 66th annual contest in tyurin, italy. much of the video for stefania was film outside of the capital kyiv in areas where ukrainian forces drew out russian troops and ukrainians are rebuilding those neighborhoods. in bucha, where russian troops are accused of carrying out war crimes, the streets have been cleared. the mayor showed me his home. the russian troops found him here and he managed to trick them into believing he was just a guard. when the russians figured out they'd missed the player and let him go, they burned down the house. >> what is bucha doing now to

rebuild? >> they have destroyed our houses and our cities, but they can never kill our desire to live, rebuild and make our country and families flourish, he said. >> all right. nbc's richard engel with that report. joining us now, former senior operations officer with the cia. mark poliborapolis and amy mackinnon back with us. good to have you. mark, from what we are hearing about the embedded folks inside the russian army, putting out on social media about how badly the russian military is doing over the course now of months. what does that say to you? is that significant? >> i think it certainly is. these are bloggers who are certainly pro-russian and so it's interesting they're not saying things like we shouldn't have invaded ukraine. what they're saying is our

military leadership is incoverage tent and that will build over time because the russians have taken spectacular losses. as we see opposition inside russia to the war, i think it's going to be based on things like this where russians are coming home in body bags and not necessarily that they shouldn't have invaded ukraine, but much more so they're really an incompetent force. >> mark, speaking of incompetence, we've been shocked by how bad they are on the battlefield and one of the areas where vladimir putin was supposed to be a giant was in disinformation wars. you look from the beginning of this war, zelenskyy and the ukrainians have just absolutely crushed the russians on information war, and just look at this past weekend. you even have propagandaists for russians sending out a signal to 2 million followers how bad they're going and shocked by the military's incompetence in ukraine and the euro vision

contest where once again, europe and the western world all unite around ukraine. my god, i haven't seen -- i just haven't seen anything like this in my life time one country so massively using every bit of social media, every bit of information arteries across europe and the world to dominate an opponent like they're dominating russia. >> well, this is true. there is some irony here because, of course, what russia did to us in 2016 was pretty dramatic. they used these exact mechanisms in terms of disinformation operations and social mead why, our weakness in this. i think our allies certainly the united states, and our allies including the ukrainians have learned and turning the tables is something they think will be quite satisfying. certainly for the intelligence services of the west, but ultimately we're beating russia at their own game. >> jonathan lemire?

>> we've talked about poor russian troops morale and the health of vladimir putin and the poor leadership from russian generals on the battlefield. give us your assessment in terms of the russian military tactic, even as this war has constricted to the donbas, it doesn't seem like they're faring any better. >> no. several junctures during this war analysts have begun to talk about turning points and we now may be entering another phase in the war which is russia is -- you know, looks likely to have to scale back its ambitions even further. the initial was the attack on kyiv and that it would fall in three days and clearly, that did not go to plan and they analyzed that and shifted their focus the donbas and all estimations were that they were trying to take

control of the full luhansk and donetsk regions in the east and the russians are estimated to have lost as much as -- a huge portion of the troops, a third of the troops and they had a raid around ukraine ahead of the war. that's not necessarily deaths, that could be injuries, gone awol, a third of the force, and we're seeing a second phase in russia scaling back its operation. >> michael steele? >> i would like to go back to the point you were making about incompetence versus shouldn't have invaded ukraine among these bloggers. do you see the potential for that attitude changing where it does become -- why are we here? you see these bloggers now putting out a different narrative back in russia with their millions of followers or are they so entrenched themselves that their frustration is more focused on the fact that our guys can't seem to get out of their own way

versus, wow, they're incoverage tent because maybe they shouldn't be here in the first place? >> i think it's just the incompetence factor now. we've seen and it is always hard to judge the accuracy of opinion polls in russia, but even the ones we give faith to, the russian people are really behind this and this is interesting and this is something that will build criticism of the incoverage tense and take a look at what's happened with the russian intelligence service at the end of last week that vladimir putin has replaced the internal service who had the ukraine mandate and he's replaced them with russian military intelligence and he put in a senior russian paramilitary officer with a brutal track record to head up ukrainian operations and i don't know if that will have an effect on the battlefield and it doesn't portend well for future brutality and it is another sign that the russian military and intelligence service is not doing well. >> mark, he keeps shuffling

people in and out and he's more brutal than the last general, and my god, they do even worse and he finds himself in a position where all of the people, all of the cronies that -- that were around him before this war, that these relationships that he built up over 20 years as an autocrat, they've all dissolved. i mean, you look at whether it's military, whether it's intel, whether it's the oligarchs. my god, they've all fallen away. >> this, of course, is what happens to autocrats. so at the end of the day he's suffering from lack of information and terrible decisions making, but then i think we will see this continue. he will continue to shuffle different parts of the security apparatus until he gets it right, but so far it's not working. >> there's no possibility he isn't watching this closely.

>> no, but i think to go back to joe's question there is a common misconception about vladimir putin that he is some master strategist, that he's some kind of grand chess player and what this whole war in ukraine has demonstrated that that is absolutely not the case. when you look at finland and sweden now looking to join nato, the strengthening of nato's eastern flank, all of these kind of things vladimir putin has had nightmares about for the past few decades. >> they've become worse. >> he's made it come to fruition single-handedly himself and that goes to show he's not the kind of grand chess master that we all like to make out that he is. >> national security and intelligence reporter of foreign policy amy mackinnon and retired cia operations officer mark polymorapoulis. still ahead on "morning joe," replacement theory, it isn't the only dangerous rhetoric tied to elise stefanik and he also used the phrase pedogrifters in a

tweet. a michigan state senator for calling out republicans for using that kind of language joins us in the studio and we'll also have the latest on the investigation in buffalo. erie county district attorney john flynn joins us in just a few moments. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. 'll be righ. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. this is where i want to be. call your doctor about sudden behavior changes or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, confusion, stiff or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be life threatening or permanent. these aren't all the serious side effects. now i'm back where i belong. ask your doctor if latuda is right for you.

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make a better california for all of us. ♪♪ ♪♪ gop conference chair, congresswoman elise stefanik slammed the white house for sending baby formula to immigrant -- to migrant families at the southern border, amid this nationwide shortage, tweeting, quote, the white house, house dems and usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the american people that rather to press not a plan to address the baby formula crisis they doubled down on sending pallets of formula to the super border. joe biden has no plan. her office later said she used the term in reference to the lincoln project.

michigan state senator mallory mcmorrow who went viral for her passionate speech slamming republicans after herself being called a pedophile by her republican opponent responded on twitter in part, quote, anyone claims to legitimately care about children should stop using rhetoric that will get people killed and boy, that's everything we're talking about this morning. rhetoric that you see on twitter, that you see on -- on even some media and social media sites and rhetoric that's just flying around and mallory, it's good to have you here with us. >> thanks for having me. >> i appreciate you coming from your hometown, leaving your 15-month-old, but this is -- this is where we are now and you've become, in a sense, a voice against this. where do you see this going and why is it so difficult, do you think for democrats to find a voice to push back against this type of rhetoric?

>> i mean, it's terrifying to see. i tweeted this response a few days ago, and we've just seen the result of a horrific shooting targeting a black supermarket in a town far away from where this shooter lived and this is the result of rising rhetoric as it sends a signal for people to take action and to start shooting if we don't stand up and push back and say it's unacceptable and it's just hate out in the open. >> gene, there will be those how can you blame us for what the 18-year-old shooter did in buffalo. how did these words end up in those actions. they can separate it, but it's becoming kind of a group think to an extent. >> your response is how do you sleep at night? i mean, free speech isn't free. speech has consequences, and what they are doing and we're doing it deliberately and knowingly is they're going after

votes, campaign contributions, television ratings with rhetoric that they know is false, they know is inflammatory, they know arouses passions and they know is potentially deadly when it -- it fills the ears and minds of susceptible, vulnerable people like this shooter in buffalo who hear it as a call to action. they don't hear it as rhetoric. they don't hear it as entertainment, infotainment which is one way that you can describe a lot of the shows on fox as infotainment. that's not the way people are hearing this stuff. they hear it as a call to action and in this case it means killing people. >> joe, i want to say both you and i met elise stefanik and gene did, as well, but the

change that has happened is fueled not just by powerful politicians on the far right, the maga right, but also by fox or by other networks that not only give her a platform, but lift her up. >> i -- i think it's fueled by the fact that she wants to be the next speaker of the house. i think it's fueled by the fact that she wants to get as close to donald trump as humanly possible, as close to that base as is humanly possible and there are many people who have said close to trump that kevin mccarthy will never be speaker of the house. they've been saying that for a year and a half. they've been saying that since january the 6th, and so you take somebody who again, another one of these harvard people, my god, what do they teach at harvard? >> poor harvard. >> another one of these harvard that say the most bizarre crack pot things. she knows better.

you're right, you're impressed with her and had high hopes for her, and the weird thing is, and this is what -- you look at someone like madison cawthorn and not to go too far a field here. >> yeah. >> they can talk about taxes and smarter regulation, they can talk about a stronger military, abe stronger nato. they can talk mainstream issues and be re-elected in their districts for a hundred years. i know -- i know because even a guy like me got re-elected by talking about these mainstream republican issues and when someone's racist, you call them out. some someone goes far afield you call them out, but she's made these bizarre choices, gene robinson, and just getting crazier and crazier by the day,

and again, you just wonder, i don't mean to be naive about this, but what's worth it? donald trump? is donald trump going to be loyal? we see how long donald trump's loyalty lasts. he throws people under the bus all the time. he did it again last week. >> exactly. i mean, that's what he does, and so you know, if you get close to trump eventually you'll get thrown under the bus, but with elise stefanik, it's obviously naked ambition. you're absolutely right. she wants to be the next speaker. she sees this as her path and she's gone completely overboard on it in a way that, again, i stress it's dangerous and potentially deadly and we see the results in buffalo. now i want to ask you about the state of michigan where i went to school. it's -- in some ways, one of the

front lines of this sort of disinformation versus real information, a conflict. tell me about people who live in this alternate reality and how you're trying to reach them? >> absolutely, michigan is everything all at once and this is an election that elected dana witmer and has more homegrown militia activity than any other state in the country. this is where timothy mcveigh trained before a terrorist attack the like of which we have never seen and people are being inundated with this messaging. i get calls from a woman who calls fairly regularly, she fundamentally believes the 2020 election was stolen and she fundamentally believes that quote, unquote, biological matter is destroying girls sports. >> where is she getting her information. >> likely from fox news and the michigan gop. if she is on the email list we

have seen that the michigan gop has been replaced by fringe conspiracy theorists and traditional republicans are just falling in line and not being willing to let go of power or to stand up against a takeover that is very likely going to lead to the end of us having free and fair elections. >> didn't biden win michigan -- >> overwhelmingly, not even close. >> we had 150 audits of the election and not even close. >> coming up, we'll be talking to the top law enforcement officer in a new york county where a shooter gunned down ten people over the weekend. district attorney john flynn joins us with the latest on the investigation and the role of racism in the rampage. "morning joe" is coming right back. joe" is coming right back ohooooo!!!! w-o-o-o-o-o... yeah, feel the savings. priceline.

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just ahead about the victims, the investigation, and how the community there is responding. but first, joe, you have some thoughts this morning on a poison that is coursing through the country right now. >> fear locks our minds in the past. and makes us anxious about the future. fear allows us to hate people we don't even know. it could even make us forget the best in ourselves. fear is a tool that is used by media moguls and tyrants to target the most vulnerable among us and those that are priored in lost causes. like faulkner's quinton who is very body was an empty hall. echoing with sonarous defeated names, a barracks filled with stush yorn back-wards looking ghosts or like hitler's germany harmed by a shattering defeat in

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welcome back to "morning joe." it is just before 9:00 a.m. on the east coast and 6:00 a.m. out west. as we roll into the fourth hour of "morning joe." coming up, we'll have the laft on the developments out of ukraine where russia has now likely lost one-third of its ground forces and is struggling with, quote, low morale and reduced combat effectiveness. we'll speak with retired admiral james stavridis, but more out of buffalo, new york, where a community is on edge after the deadly mass shooting the a supermarket over the weekend. the white house said that the president and the first lady will visit the city tomorrow to,

quote, grieve with the community. it comes after ten people were killed and three more your injured in what authorities are calling racially motivated violent extremism. and we're learning more about the alleged shooter who wore tactical gear and a helmet camera during at tack. and he live streamed his attack. police say an 18-year-old from conklin, new york, traveled more than 200 miles from his home on saturday to that grocery store. according to the north carolina times, the gum he reportedly used was a legally purchased semi-automatic modified weapon with his -- he modified it with his father's power drill. and also a kit that he purchased separately. it also had racial slurs written on it in magic marker. joining us now, one of the key people overseeing the

investigation, eerie county district attorney john flynn. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> my first question, is do we know more about the gunman's intentions? had he not been stopped? >> well, we know that about a year prior to this, you know, he had made some comments where he lived there in broom county. the exact nature and where those comments were directed to we're drilling down on right now. but it appears that he had hatred in his heart long before he travelled to buffalo. >> okay. and what is the status of the investigation at this point. i'm just reading in my notes here that the buffalo police commissioner had said the suspect would have driven out of tops grocery store, the parking lot and continued down jefferson avenue looking for more black people to ki