them so we don't put parents in this difficult situation. >> when this story jumped onto the national radar, i think it shocked a lot of people that in the united states a mother couldn't get formula for her child. have you done any analysis on how we got here? >> two things. one is the plant that was shut down for contamination. we're very concerned about having safe food for babies. but also market concentration. when you only have two, three or four producers in any market, you have two big risks. one is that one of those producers will have a supply chain disruption. the second risk is they'll be able to price gouge because they have so much market

concentration. long-term the fix is making sure we have more producers and more competition in the market so we're not relying on just one company. >> it's so crazy, isn't it? we're talking about baby formula, which seems outrageous. we can't get parents baby formula? you just talked about it. there is such a market concentration throughout our economy. we're talking about this whether you're talking about baby formula, computer chips, during covid we couldn't get masks, we couldn't get medication because china was making 95% of the medicines. there is such a market concentration, this is literally a national security issue, isn't it? >> absolutely. particularly with food, we have long understood that we need to

be able to produce our own food. i think the exact same thing is true about other essentials including medication. the solution is to make sure there are not just one or two companies controlling things, but instead that we have a lot of different producers in different parts of the country. we have monopolies today in virtually everything. there is a bread monopoly, there's a cereal monopoly, beef monopoly. so we need to create this competition. it's going to help not only consumers, but small businesses wanting to enter these marketplaces. more competition is better for our economy, period. the only people who benefit from monopolies are the monopolists themselves. >> back to inflation as we close. how do democrats message on

this? americans are busy, they're looking at the cost of gas and groceries. i think there's a concern that democrats will say we have the solution. you can't have the solution to a problem that has so many conflicting factors to it, some of them uncontrollable. so within that reality, how do democrats message effectively on this? >> democrats need to be talking about inflation and show we are putting forth solutions and delivering on them. there's not just one bill, there's no magic thing to do about inflation, but there are steps we can take and we are taking them. what republicans are doing is just complaining about inflation. democrats are trying to do something about it. it's a complex process, but we are in action for the american people. that's what they need to understand. >> thank you for coming on the

show this morning. and we are three minutes into the fourth hour of "morning joe" here. pennsylvania's republican primary for the u.s. senate remains too close to call. trump backed dr. oz and hedge fund ceo dave mccormick are separated by less than 2600 votes. steve kornacki is standing by to break it all down. plus, a sign the justice department is widening its inquiry into the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol, requesting witness transcripts from interviews conducted by the house committee investigating the insurrection. also ahead, president biden and the first lady visited grief stricken buffalo yesterday to pay their respects to the lives lost and to meet with the victims' families. what the president had to say

about the ideology believed to be the motive behind saturday's attack. and the latest on the war in ukraine. finland and sweden both submit applications to nato. let's talk about last night in pennsylvania and elections across the country. a lot of people are looking to see whether donald trump still has a hold on his party. looking at some parts of pennsylvania suggest he does. other races, two out of three republicans voted against donald trump's person. you go to north carolina. he got a senate candidate that won. the most high profile race down there madison cawthorn lost.

in idaho, you have an extremist lieutenant governor backed by donald trump. she lost, as well as some other extremist candidates. you look at the pennsylvania governor's race and we have an election cycle that's shaping up horribly for democrats. republicans should wipe democrats out of a lot of seats and a lot of governorships in 2022. they are putting up a lot of candidates that are going to have trouble in the general election. at least it gives democrats some hope they can keep it close. >> much of the focus was of course on the state of pennsylvania. donald trump may still get both of his candidates through in the senate race and the governor's race. pennsylvania could determine control of the united states senate come fall. the battle between dr. oz and david mccormick still too close

to call. kathy barnette should finish third. democrats chose lieutenant governor john fetterman to be the nominee. in the gubernatorial race, far right election conspiracy theorist doug mastriano has won the republican nomination. state attorney general josh shapiro will take him on. steve, let's start with that republican senate primary. you're talking handfuls of votes here. >> yeah. the picture is starting to come into focus. you see dr. oz leading

mccormick, the margin .02%. it appears that the biggest single source of outstanding votes, of folks who went voted at the polled yesterday is allegheny county. it's the pittsburgh area and it is david mccormick's home county. you see mccormick is leading overall. that's the overall vote in allegheny county. if you look at the election day vote in allegheny, because we have about 7,000 election day votes in allegheny county that have not been counted. mccormick is winning those by about six points over oz. there's a pool there of between

6,000 and 7,000 votes of election day votes in allegheny county. that would be an opportunity for mccormick to knock into that oz lead statewide of 2500. where else are we looking at outstanding votes in pennsylvania? you can look at delaware county right outside of philadelphia. there are ten precincts in delaware county that have yet to report their election day vote. mccormick is leading the election day vote there, 34-33, over oz. those are the two main sources of election day vote that we've identified. we're trying to nail down to see if there are other areas in the state where there are outstanding election day votes.

when you get beyond the election day vote, what i think is going to decide this thing is mail-in ballots, vote by mail ballots. there are some counties in pennsylvania that have yet to even begin counting these. of course, there were ballots dropped off yet, ballots put in the mail yesterday. so we're trying to get a firm count on exactly how many that is. i think you could use as a baseline number about 20,000 mail-in ballots that are uncounted. that number should grow. you could probably add into that several thousand more that were put in the mail yesterday or delivered yesterday. the key on these mail-in ballots is that mccormick so far has been running nine points better than oz when it comes to the

mail-in vote. allegheny county in the outstanding vote and the advantage that mccormick has in his home county of allegheny county. say there were about 25,000 uncounted mail-in ballots, if they break at the same clip they've been breaking, about nine points for mcccormick, if you took that and added in allegheny county, you'd pretty much be dead even between the two candidates. we're trying to find out exactly how many mail-in ballots are left in this thing. it's a big variable here. does mccormick continue to win them at the rate he's winning them here? the scenario exists where mccormick could leapfrog oz and move back into first place on

the strength of mail-in ballots. >> we were talking about the frustration of the process in pennsylvania, which is by design, which is they don't open and begin to count the mail-in ballots until the polls open on election day at 7:00 in the morning. some counties haven't even begun this process. what is the margin for a recount in the state of pennsylvania? how likely is that looking right now? >> no matter how this lands, whoever ends up in first when they've counted up the same-day votes votes and mail votes, the trigger for a recount is 0.5%.

you can identify a couple of different pathways for mccormick to cut into this oz lead and maybe jump into the lead over him. whoever lands on top when this initial count is complete, there ends up being a recount as well. >> one of the story lines last night, sort of the mixed bag that former president trump had, all three of those candidates ran to be maga disciples. he backed dr. oz. he also gave a late endorsement to madison cawthorn down in north carolina, who lost. mastr >> we keep asking is trump deciding these primaries or having no impact.

for whatever it's worth, we took a look at how trump did in these counties the one time he ran in a contested republican primary in pennsylvania in 2016, the counties that donald trump did the best in in the 2016 republican primary, oz is winning those counties by four points. oz is winning the most strongly pro-trump counties by four points. the counties he did the worst in in the 2016 primaries, mccormick is winning those by two. it's not a huge gap between them, but you can see the best trump counties oz wins by four, the worst trump counties mccormick wins by two.

it's pretty much a sweep for doug mastriano here. one of the most interesting things about, because we're talking about the mail-in ballots in the senate race potentially being decisive, there's been this pattern in the republican primaries all spring where the candidate endorsed by trump or the candidate aligned by trump tend not to do that well with the mail-in ballots. then they get to the same-day vote and that's where the trump endorsed candidate really does well. this is the most dramatic example of it i have seen. doug mastriano was getting 10%

of the mail-in vote. he's got 51% of the same day vote. that adds up to 44% in a landslide statewide. again, this is what we see in republican primaries on dramatic display in pennsylvania. not a lot of republicans vote by mail. the number of democrats voting by mail warps the number of republicans voting by mail. the republicans who do vote by mail, there seems to be a trump/nontrump divide there. on the senate side, we're now talking about david mccormick, the non-trump endorsed candidate, are there enough mail-in ballots to pull back in front of trump's endorsed candidate in the senate race. >> there just might be. steve kornacki, thank you very

much. we're going to turn to a major development in the january 6th attack on the capitol. nbc news has confirmed that the justice department asked the house select committee investigating the attack to share transcripts from their closed-door interviews. congressman benny thompson says they cannot give full access to their work just yet and labeled the request premature. the justice department has already charged nearly 800 people in connection with the attack. more than 280 have already pleaded guilty. joining us now former assistant director for counter intelligence at the fbi and msnbc national security analyst frank figlusi.

>> indeed, this is large. we've got the most solid evidence yet that doj is indeed investigating not just the day of january 6th but the days, weeks and months leading up to it and the people involved in planning the violence of january 6th. we've had glimpses of this in the past. we've had attorney general garland saying he'll go where facts take him. then we have a prosecutor from maryland assigned to the grand jury to look at planning and preparation for january 6th. just last week a deputy attorney general lisa monaco participated in an event at the university of chicago where she said on the question of the strategy toward january 6th, she said we've got 800 people indicted and we move up from there.

very interesting comment. now solid evidence of that, there's a subtext going on underneath that which tells me that all of this tension and frustration we've sensed between the committee and doj may have been a deliberate effort by doj to stay out of the business of the committee to avoid any public perception that the committee is dictating to doj or vice versa. doj is allowing the committee to do their investigaive work for them, i don't think that's the case. can the committee say no? they have, but they haven't said hell no, they've said not yet. i think that's okay. but there's a negative side to that lack of coordination, which is we have doj now having to look anew at testimony that maybe they should have had

earlier. there's another subtext for people like mccarthy and jordan and other members of congress who may be on the fence about cooperating, they now know their statements will eventually go to doj. if they have criminal exposure, they're not going to be able to cut a deal with the committee, they are going to incriminate themselves. this is even more solid inclination that they will not testify before the committee. >> we were talking to dan goldman in our last hour who said the work of the commit see is critical, but at the end of the day it's a report. there are no prosecutions that come from it. does this show you that the scope is perhaps expanding in

its investigation into some of the people who may have participated in planning the day and also the pace is picking up a bit? >> yeah. there's no question with news of the grand jury being seated and we've learned this request came to the committee from doj a month ago. we're just learning this now. kudos to the secrecy with which doj has been doing this. i think the public chatter that this is too slow, that doj is not moving fast enough, i think they are, i think they've moving. i think they've been deliberate in this and i think they have locked it down in terms of leakage. they were ready a month ago to receive transcripts of everything. it was a general request, not just this person's testimony or that. it was give us everything. i think they're ready and poised to move on it in their own timing.

>> thank you very much for your insight. still ahead, finland and sweden officially submit their applications to join nato. moments ago the new objections from turkey that could derail everything. >> well, derail everything for now. plus donnie deutsche on why he thinks all the talk on replacement theory creates a branding theory for democrats. white supremacy is a poison that's been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes. no more. i mean, no more. we need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in america. e ideology of white supremacy has no place in america. until now. kisqali is helping women live longer than ever before

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you are our closest partners and your membership in nato would increase our shared security. the applications you have made today are an historic step. allies will now consider the next steps on your path to nato. the security interests of all allies have to be taken into account, and we are determined to work through all issues and reach rapid conclusions. >> that is the breaking news this morning, nato's secretary general as finland and sweden apply to join the world's largest my tail alliance after decades of neutrality prompted by russia's eninvestigation of ukraine. but a key hurdle does remain as

turkey's president is pressing them to drop their arms sales restrictions on turkey. the turkish president went after both countries for refusing to extradite 30 people accused of terrorism charges in turkey. the turkish nato ambassador has forced the alliance to postpone its initial decision to proceed with the two countries' applications. last hour we asked the swedish ambassador to the united states about those very developments. >> when it comes to turkey, we are looking forward to working with turkey in the alliance once we are a member. we already have close cooperation with turkey on so many matters. that's something we are looking forward to and strengthening the alliance and contributing to security in the north and all over the nato territory. when it comes to the issues that

you mentioned, diplomatic efforts are under way and we are in dialogue. >> we're going to have more on the latest from the war in ukraine when retired u.s. army general steph twitty joins us. president biden and the first lady visited buffalo, new york, yesterday in the wake of the mass shooting at a grocery store that killed ten people. the president declared evil will not win in america and said the nation must reject replacement theory espoused by the gunman. eugene daniels, it's great to see you. you have new reporting on president biden's decision not to name names over the buffalo shooting. he said we have to expose these people, but didn't name them. >> yesterday we saw the

president do two things. one is as the comforter in chief and calling out racism and talking about needing to root it out. as he was talking yesterday about the need to expose everyone who believes this racist replacement theory, like i said, he's not naming names. that is deliberate. it is more of a conversation that happened in the white house because the president is talking about institutions and he made references to people on tv shows and unnamed politicians. what they've decided to do at this point is not give any more attention to the replacement theory. they also don't want to get into a tit for tat with tucker

carlson or elise stephanic in this. the white house doesn't want to take from the substance of the issue where they feel like they want to be talking about the racism and how the country needs to come together. there are folks who do want to see the president call these folks out. i was told yesterday by one advocate that they want to see the president call a spade a spade. reverend al sharpton told me at the very least he and other civil rights leaders want to see the president call out fox news, for example, and other organizations and social media companies, who have laid back and allowed things to grow in those organizations.

that could change depending on the pressure the white house gets. >> happy to share the best looking byline in the business with you. the words tucker carlson put to the president on the tarmac yesterday in buffalo, he didn't touch it. he doesn't want to name names in that way, but there is a growing sense that he may have to at some point. the other moment of frustration we saw from the president and his ability to empathize and comfort on full display yesterday. we also saw real anger from him denouncing this racist theory but also in his call to get more guns off the streets. he acknowledged that's going to be very hard and he's not really sure what can be done.

>> they are under a lot of pressure and they're also frustrated in this white house, as you know, with the amount of things they can't do. they do want to see all types of pieces of legislation that the president has even told congress he'd like to see passed, but there are not the votes for that. they are talking about looking at what can they do to nibble around the edges because of the very thin split and margin of error they have in congress. so they're talking about continuing to find ways, what can the department of justice do? we weren't told what they promised, but we're told they're

going to continue to take this issue seriously. advocates are hoping that frustration will force the president to do some things that maybe aren't on the table now and they have been pushing this white house to do, most importantly have a summit at the white house on gun control. still ahead on "morning joe," great news from the u.s. women's national soccer team about equal pay. plus, a new report claims russia is suffering from, quote, specific resource problems in ukraine. in ukraine. also ahead, a major snack brand says it will stop advertising toward one of its key demographics. y demographics

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welcome back to "morning joe." you are looking at a lovely shot of los angeles at 6:38 in the morning there on the west coast. of course, mika, i don't know if you know it or not, but los angeles is german for -- well, i'll tell you after. >> let's save that for another day. it's time now for something really important. >> okay. >> let's get serious. it's time for donnie deutsche and which brands are looking good this week and whose are looking not so great. >> so let's talk. this is a branding issue, this is a really serious issue and it's important that people, whether it's democrats or republicans or independents,

whether it's liz cheney. what's the best way to push back on this hatred, this conspiracy theory that's based on a jewish international banker, it is so anti-semitic? they've slotted george soros in there trying to make the country browner and blacker. what's the best way to push back on that lie? >> you take this heinous platform and make the republicans own it. every republican politician, every candidate, ask them about it. they can't run from it because it's part of who they are at this point, as disgusting as that is. but make it the republican replacement theory, mainstream it. we don't have the economy on our side as democrats, so you have to scare the bejesus out of people.

this replacement theory is the republican platform. make them own it. democrats run from this fistfight. call out tucker carlson, call out the politicians and make them own it. this is a republican platform. it's the racist republican replacement theory. >> the thing is, i'm not so concerned at the end of the day about commentators as i am about politicians. if they're pushing politicians around, i'm concerned about all of it. i'm just saying, though, the goal should be to get republicans to actually condemn this. let's hope, if they put pressure on it, then you will start having republicans saying, listen, i'm off this train, i'm out of this, i'm going to speak truth to this power and i'm going to tell the truth. i'm going to do what liz cheney

did and i'm going to condemn it. i think that's actually the most important thing for these elected leaders to do. yes, i am concerned about commentators, but when you start having elected leaders -- we've always had crazy commentators, but when this is mainstreamed and house republican leaders are spitting this trash out, i think you're right, you need to call them out. you want to get republicans like mitt romney and others to call this out, say absolutely no, no place for it in the party. let's go to the american dream. we always hear the american dream is dead. you don't think so. >> gallup doesn't think so. this is encouraging. in a new poll 70% of americans think the american extreme is very much alive. 80% of millionaires in this

country are first generation people in this country. it's not just the money being passed down. 44% of all fortune 500 founders are either first generation or children of immigrants. so this whole notion that in some way the american dream is dead, it's quite the opposite. the american dream is very much alive. that's something for democrats to think about. >> 80% of americans millionaires, foreign and u.s. born, are first generation. also, 44% of fortune 500 companies have at least one founder who is an immigrant or a child of immigrants. 70% of u.s. adults tell gallup the american dream is still achievable. you look at silicon valley, the people who have changed that world, one company after another, it's run by immigrants. i know you hear this all the time. i hear it in new york, in

washington, when i'm talking to immigrants. they're the very people that buy into the american dream. they believe the american dream. they tell me all the time they don't think americans born in this country understand what an extraordinary country this is. >> we take it for granted. and we talk about the problems we have and there are many, but it's always driving toward a more perfect place. let's keep moving through your topics here. workplace identity crisis. >> this is sobering. 64% of workers don't think they can be their true selves at work. 30% said they can't talk about their political views. 36% said they can't talk about their family. people are taking on a different

posture in the workforce. as someone who ran a company, i think that's sad. en mass people are not feeling safe. willie, i know you harbor a lot of secrets in the workplace. >> there's darkness here. >> let it out. >> why are do they feel that? >> they think it's going to hurt their upward mobility. in this politically correct world, people have a different mask at work. sometimes people speak in a different work voice, a different cadence at work and that's a shame. >> hostess. >> we know how much your like your twinkies. hostess has come out -- >> what are you doing? my god. >> they're not going to advertise to 13 and younger,

which is interesting because that's who's eating this stuff. to fight childhood obesity, they've said we're only going to advertise to parents. >> come on now. >> let's give them kudos for at least trying to do something to step in the right direction. >> that's not a step in the right direction. that's stupid. >> willie, when i was growing up, breakfast of champions, i would get the twinkie, smash it up, put it on my captain crunch and pour mountain dew over it. i always found that gave me just the right amount of boost to get me through the morning. >> there's a crash that may come later, but when you hit that peak, boy do you hit that peak.

>> i'm more of a dunker of the twinkies into the mountain dew. >> thank you, donnie, i think. next on "morning joe," new developments out of ukraine, russia now saying it will investigate ukrainians who turn themselves in after weeks of fighting inside that mariupol steel plant. retired general steph twitty will join us. back in just a moment. back in just a moment. taking trulicity, and it looks like he's gotten into some new healthier habits, too. what changes are you making for your type 2 diabetes? maybe it's time to try trulicity. it's proven to help lower a1c. it can help you lose up to 10 pounds. and it's only taken once a week, so it can fit into your busy life. trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. it's not approved for use in children. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor

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world why the teams will also share equally any money u.s. soccer makes commercially. that is big news. willie? >> yeah. a long time coming. the end of a long fight for international women's stars getting equal pay they deserve. now the latest from ukraine. russia captured mariupol, the first ukrainian city moscow managed to occupy since launching the invasion almost three months ago now. richard engel has the latest from kharkiv. >> reporter: in ukraine, more evacuated fighters from the steel plant in mariupol. ukraine wants to swap them for russian prisoners but rub said they're investigating them and may designate them as a terrorist group. russia appears to be pressuring

ukraine and u.s. not to pursue russian soldiers or they could face similar charges. there's a key difference. evidence. when the ukrainian troops drove the russians back ukrainians told us how russian forces carried out executions, they uncovered mass graves. the bodies scattered in the streets. now more evidence coming to light in eastern ukrainian where ukrainian troops drive russian forces away from kharkiv. russian forces carpet bombed the village. nearly every house is destroyed or badly damaged. nickolai never left. what happened here? what did you see? the russians said they were lib rating us, he says. the russian didn't go house to house with executions.

instead residents say they encouraged ukrainians to leave. tatyana stayed but her husband did leigh. he found a job presumably safe and comfortable in russia. you are here now. do you think you made the right choice? when i looked at it and weighed the opgs i love my husband but i also love my land and my country so i stayed. it's this determination that's perhaps been the biggest surprise of the war for the russian president facing a country that won't give in and a nato alliance that appears to grow on the doorstep. >> from the ground in ukraine. a new report reveals russia could be suffering significant resourcing problems. the uk defense ministry said russia likely used chechnya fighters with auxiliary

personnel to overcome resy tans. the ministry reports the move demonstrates resourcing problems for russia and quote likely contributing a disunited command which continues to hamper russia's oepgss and now estimates russia lost 27,900 troops since the invasion began. joining us is retired staff general steph twitty. thank you for being with us. i want to go back to mariupol and the significance of russia after months of battling and fighting particularly around the steel factory taking that city that putin wanted to begin the move along the coast. how big is that for him to finally capture it? >> good to be with you this morning. this is a significant win for the russians and it is a win for

two reasons. number one, it cuts the ukrainians off to the sea of azov. this is a piece of a puzzle that russia needs in order to put that land bridge in crimea. if you look at over from kristen to mariupol, the russians have gained some success there. in fact they control the area and now mariupol. the decisive battle now ends up no doubt in the donbas. and so if the russians are successful in the donbas they complete the land bridge to crimea and restain the south in the east and then ukraine will essentially become a landlocked state. they have to get odesa but

essentially they cut the ukrainians off from the sea. so a significant victory in mariupol. >> yeah. as badly as they have been doing, how hard is it going to be for them to hold that land bridge? secondly, to achieve the begans they need in the donbas? >> great question, joe. i assess what we haven't seen yet there's going to be a significant uprising from the people. call it an insurgency that the russians have not seen yet. as you know there's been a lot of bombing going on. people are extremely angry and this is ripe for an uprising to come soon. now, the answer to the other question the donbas is extremely difficult for them. 30% combat power lost is

significant. they're meeting limited gains in the donbas. they can't get the act together logistically so i anticipate again a protracted war in the donbas with a give and take between both. >> general, drawing your attention to a "the wall street journal" editorial talk about a gop faction voting against ukraine and this is what the editorial page writers wrote. the growing gop isolation is a bad sign for the party and risks squandering the gains. what the editorial page says is that those republicans saying this isn't our fight, we need to focus more on building america and not helping the ukrainians, can you explain what we have at stake in ukraine and why it's so important that these republicans

understand we have to keep contributing to the ukrainian cause? >> absolutely, joe. this is no doubt a fight for democracy. so ukraine is just a piece of what putin is looking at. his next objective, who knows? as you know he has former soviet states such as estonia, latvia, lithuania and poland and could have eyes on who's next. we must all remember we are part of this alliance called nato. and as a part of that alliance which was created after world war ii, as you know, an attack on one is an attack on all so we have skin in the game but the greater piece is this attack on the western world is what we have to look at. in which we'll change our way of

life if we do not stand up for the ukrainians here and now and push the russians back. >> retired u.s. general twitty, thank you very much. we appreciate it. big morning. that does it for us today. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now. good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart. right now votes are still being tallied after a suspenseful election night. the battle is too close to call between dr. oz and david mccormick. lieutenant governor fetterman is the projected winner. sweeping every single county in the state. fetterman cast the vote from the hospital where he is still recovering after a stroke over the weekend and expected to make a full