mark halperin both still with us. katy, let me start with you.g the campaign. this looked like something you would have seen two years ago or -- >> you could have put it back in july of 2015, the first time he rallied in phoenix, arizona, where he went off and he rambled and he went on and on for over 70 minutes and people eventually walked out of the room. which happened back then. it doesn't mean they still don't support him. he proved last night that for him everything is still a campaign. that's all he cares about. he's not trying to unite the country as he claims on stage. he's not trying to be a president for all of the many people here. he's not trying to be a republican president. he is a president to his base, to the trumpians, and going to continue to do this. this should not be a surprise. we've seen this movie before. this is a man who will always decide to favor the roar of the crowd rather than what his advisers want him to do, rather than what the republicans want him to do, rather than what this country needs. he's proving time an

europeans have 2 million troops and it can be pressure but i think they will join us. >> admiral, mark halperint night that was both new compared to current policy and smart? >> we didn't hear much new, as you're well aware, mark. think i three bad options on the table, pull out, helicopters come over the embassy, we see the rise of ungoverned space. we can massively increases to the levels i just discussed no one has the stomach for that enormous middle east and central asian fatigue in the u.s. the on two new elements i heard which were mildly hopeful were conditions based. i think it is important we put this on a timeline and second the regional strategy but particularly bringing india actively, consciously -- that may work against us but conditions based on pulling at india both good ideas. will it chang the game? i don't think so. but we can stay in the game and hopefully over time we have a chance at pulling the taliban toward a negotiation. we've hoped that a long time. that's the best of three bad options. >> admiral, it's julie pace from the a.p. talking about pakistan's role is nothin

i'm not -- mark halperin, come on, mark. this is -- it just -- it just keeps going.his. this links back with something i said in yesterday's fun-filled episode of "morning joe," which was donald trump never thought he was going to win. >> that's it. that's it. >> this was all a money-making scam. he thought jeb bush was going to beat him. he never thought -- so he was going to take the money and run. let me use the position i'm in right now and try to get that tower in moscow. >> branding. >> branding. >> i don't know a lot about international real estate deals, but i don't think too many americans e-mail vladimir putin's spokesperson to try to get help with deals. i just don't think that's that common. this is obviously very similar to the don jr. meeting in trump tower. as all the scrutiny is taking place over the last year of the relationship between the trump world and russia, these guys were sitting on this stuff knowing full well -- >> they were lying over and over. >> they knew full well. >> no contact with russia. >> it's incredible to me. i believe we can re

with us senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc i'm not sure why he's here today, mark halperin. washington anchor for bb world news character, catty kay, jeremy pete soerp rson of the "k times" and the professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> good morning. >> washington senior politics reporter for the "usa today," heidi prisbella. >> is back. >> is back. i saw you in "the post" about the polls in the midwest. president trump obviously was the first republican in three decades this week, michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin but new polls nbc news show the president not doing so well in those three states and these three states are important states because if you talk to people on the inside, from the very beginning and i know gjerey you've heard this, too, they specifically from day one, from january the 20th said we're going to focus on michigan, we're going to focus on wisconsin and pennsylvania. those are the three states we're basically running in over the next four years. in michigan the president has

with us, we have senior political analyst for msnbc news and nbc on casual summer fridays for mark halperin. national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc, john heilemann. the soeshd editor of commentary magazine, noah rothman, republican strategist, susan del percio, and former governor of vermont and former chairman of the democratic national convention, howard dean. good to see you. we have two sets of sneakers. governor dean with a nice pair of vermont new balance kicks. that's not an outing, that's a showering of praise. and halperin with the casual friday and the complete cons. >> a classic con. >> and a cuffed khaki. it's all working for you this morning. a lot to talk about. a senior administration official tells nbc news, president trump is serious about his tuesday night threat of shutting down the government unless the spending bill includes funding for a wall along the mexican border. the president made a similar threat last spring, but relented on a short-term funding bill to avoid a shutdown at the end of his first hundred days. this as the white house repeatedly dodged whet

from reno, nevada the editor of the nevada independent and the dean, jon ralston and ms nbc news mark halperinay. a hop skip and a jump from monday's speech, he was tempered and mellow to phoenix on tuesday, he was his old campaign self and yesterday a bit more tempered. what is the temperature on donald trump right now on this day in nevada? >> well, it's not good. it's pretty low. his approval numbers are about the same as in a lot of other places right now t. only person who has worst numbers in nevada as donald trump is dean heller, they are now engaged in an incredible contest of one upsmanship who loves trump more attacking dean heller yesterday for being against the joe or payio proposed pardon somplt this is already starting right now in august of 2017, it's financial to be relentless, deep heller could easily lose that primary. >> it's a love-hate roller coaster with president trump and dean heller, president trump sort of mildly threatening him at times. is that the wise political move to hug president trump close? >> well, again, it's pretty early. here's the problem for heller. you

tuesday it all changes. >> they are. >> seriously, mark halperin, the democrats have lost over 1,000eat over the past eight years. they've lost the white house to a guy who nobody would'v even he as their ceo in a publicly traded company. more republicans control more house seats in the u.s. house of representatives than any time since i think 1928. republicans control more governorships since 1920. and the democrats still don't know who they are and they're still having trouble raising money. what is wrong with this party? >> it's always hard to compete with the megaphone of a president. when your party is lacking leaders, big ideas, and a strategy, it's impossible. and the president for all of his polling problems, for all of his legislative problems, he's such a dominant figure in the news. it takes an epic storm to white him off the front pages. but i don't think the democrats, if you look at what they've gotten done since election day, they're raising money for house races. they're recruiting somewhat successfully there. i don't think you can point to too many things beyond that

with us, we have senior political analyst for msnbc news and nbc on casual summer fridays for mark halperinews and msnbc, john heilemann. the soeshd editor of commentary magazine, noah rothman, republican strategist, susan del percio, and former governor of vermont and former chairman of the democratic national convention, howard dean. good to see you. we have two sets of sneakers. governor dean with a nice pair of vermont new balance kicks. that's not an outing, that's a showering of praise. and halperin with the casual friday and the complete cons. >> a classic con. >> and a cuffed khaki. it's

. >> mark halperin, victoria, thank you very much. ari, katy, nick, thank you as well. that does it for us this morning on "morning joe." stephanie ruhle picks up our coverage right now. >> thank you, my friend, willie geist. i'm stephanie ruhle excited to be back this morning because there is a lot to dig through, starting with president trump hitting the campaign trail in arizona and attacks critics and the media over charlottesville. >> i said everything. i hit them with neo-nazi, i hit them with everything. >> i hit them with neo-nazis. let that sink in. exclusive, the first excerpts from hillary clinton's new book. she tells us what she was thinking while trump stood behind her at that second debate. >> or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, "back up you creep. get away from me." >> back it up. and it is president trump versus republicans, specifically the most powerful republican in washington, mitch mcconnell, and an arizona senator, jeff flake, as the president threatens a shutdown over his pet project. you know what i'm talking about. >

>> i would want to echo mark halperin this morning.id there's a sigh boring with a head and a heart that's after trump and that's bob mueller. and what we see is his professionalism, we see his coordination. >> we just got the audio. let's go to this. >> because of this crisis and that is the resiliency of our fellow texans and our fellow americans. we went up to some homes of people who had their homes completely destroyed. they were sitting out front and they were just proud to be a texan and proud that we were there to help them out. we went to help remove debris from a lawn that was completely littered. and i had the chance to hold a two week old baby, a baby that was born just days before hurricane harvey hit our coast. and his mom was a prideful mom, beaming with that big motherly smile that you would expect as if the storm had never hit. but i want you to know, it has hit. it's hit the lives of the people all the way from new aces county to jefferson county and horrific flooding in between. and i am so proud of the way that the