he's hitting these voters right where they're at. >> brian -- >> mike barnicle, sorry, i wanted to haveke. you look at the state like ohio, which has gone deep red, right? >> mm-hmm. >> well, you have tim ryan who is a moderate to conservative democrat, who is doing very well. nine points ahead in the latest poll. in the same state, you have sherrod brown who is one of the more progressive members, who owns the state of ohio. so this isn't even about ideology, is it? >> no. in a sense, joe, it's about toughness and it's about reality for democratic candidates. tim ryan is talking about things that matter to people. tim ryan is talking about guns. he's linking his candidacy with the support for the police. in opposition to the de-fund the police this went on a couple years ago. he's talking about what happened when kids in ohio and everywhere else in this country lost maybe two formative years of public school education by not being able to go to school. brian, my question to you is, on a larger scale, the democratic candidates for office, the democrats in office today, what happened to

jonathan lemire, mike barnicle, katy kay still with us. new reporting on the 2020 election. four people familiar with the matter tell "the washington post" justice department prosecutors now have turned their attention to former president donald trump. two sources telling post in recent days, two top aides to former vice president mike pence were asked before a grand jury about their conversations with trump, his lawyers and others in his inner circle who took part in a scheme to replace certified biden electors with a slate of the former president's allies. according to the "post," vote, prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings trump led in december 2020 and january 2021. his pressure campaign on pence to overturn the election. and what instructions truv gave his lawyers and advisers about fake elects and sending electors back to the states. justice department investigators in april received phone records of key officials and aides in trump administration including former chief of staff, mark meadows according to

msnbc contributor mike barnicle is here. president of the national action network is here.ator and msnbc political and honest, karen. and associate editor of the washington post. let's get started. we begin with the president biden taking a direct for his inaction during the january 6 attack. >> every day we rely on law enforcement to save lives. on january 6, we relied on law enforcement to save our democracy. we saw it happen.

jonathan lemire, mike barnicle and katty kay is still with us.have been deleted. the lost messages are both from acting secretary chad wolf and acting deputy secretary ken cuccinelli. joining us now the reporter who broke the story. the pulitzer prize-winning reporter carol leonnig. let's talk about these text messages, who they come from and how they are with the secret service with the vanishing text messages around january 6th. >> first off, thank you for having me on to talk about the story and readers know what we're breaking because of you guys. we were sort of shocked at "the washington post" to learn that secret service texts were missing for a critical period in america's history, a calamitous, chaotic incident which is now under both multiple committee investigations and a criminal investigation by the department of justice, but on top of that in the course of our reporting we learned that the department of homeland security also had deleted all of the messages of the very top leaders of the department of homeland security. keep in mind

mike barnicle and i talked about this. about lemiere right now. >> as it should be. >> and the orange book. >> they're all over. >> i can't find them. >> there it is. now you're good. >> i'll hold it up there. "the big lie" john than lemiere incredible book on this topic. >> thank you. >> the big news this week, mike, what is the doj going to do? the committee laid it out, part of their purpose was political and part was legal. put the pressure on the doj. jonathan on my podcast said not just the white house but joe biden himself is frustrated at what he's seen out of the doj. let's go, guys. there's a case to be made here and now it appears according to the colleagues at "the washington post" and other reporting that it's actually happening. how monumental it is, the doj will finally put the bit between its teeth? >> first of all, there's so much more that we don't know about the department of justice investigation than what we do know. we know that it's been slow. it's been thorough. the cassidy news today is probably an

joining the conversation, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. the podcast "on brand with donny deutsch," donny deutsch. and opinion columnist at the "washington post," dana milbank. good to have you on board this hour. dana, in your piece "give biden the break," you write, here's the deal, democrats. you need to give joe biden a break. for weeks, democrats arrayed themselves in traditiontraditio circular fire formation, outraged about mass shootings, the supreme court's overturning of roe v. wade, and maga republicans assault op democracy. there's just one problem, with the too cool joe complaints, biden has been saying what he is accused of avoiding. democrats are habitually more self-critical than republicans, who remain silent as donald trump's election crimes pile up. there is genuine frustration more can't get done. that's the fault of another joe, joe manchin, not joe biden, and of a broken political system that protects minority rule. it's fair for democrats to ask whether in 2024 they should renominate a man in his 82nd year, but this go

mike barnicle, i'm going to ask you. president biden took a while to directly attack donald trump about this. it reminds me about how eisenhower didn't attack joe mccarthy for a long time and delayed, because he didn't want to give him any more sunlight. what do you think about how biden has finally come out with this? >> interesting comparison. resident eisenhower, president trump and president eisenhower at the peak of joe mccarthy's rage and seemingly popularity, he was trying to figure out how to get everyone back from korea. president biden has been consumed with ukraine and pulling nato together. what just said about the importance of what is going on in this country and the fact that a lot of people have underestimated it, because of the concern that a normal person has during the course of the day was still confronted with covid, the fact that your children met two -- missed two critical years of school. what is happening to this country politically? it is truly damaging to the soul of the country. i don't know a

along with msnbc contributor mike barnicle, who joins the conversation this hour. >> yeah, mike, i wantedbout merrick garland yesterday. quite a statement. he had come under criticism from a lot of democrats, a lot of commentators, i certainly, yesterday, questioned whether he was awake at the wheel. and i thought he gave a very impassioned, understated but impassioned defense of what he does and what the professionals at the department of justice do, saying, you know, federal investigations take a long time. we can't rush this. our goal is to make sure that we do it and we do it right. no man is above the law. he's asked again. he says, i don't know how many times i have to say this. alex told me we have it cued up. let me play it, mike. >> it's strong. >> i think it's strong, yeah. >> there is a lot of speculation about what the justice department is doing, what it's not doing, what our theories are, what our theories aren't, and there will continue to be that speculation. that's because a central tenant of the way in which the justice department investigates, a central tenant to the ru

if you want to see that crackling chemistry between mike barnicle and jonathan lemire you can see it tonight at the 92nd street y in new york, one of the great venues in new york or anywhere. it's sold out, i'm told. that's at 7:00 tonight. such a great place to host a conversation and two of the best doing it, assuming barnicle shows up. . >>> coming up next, the new developments in the ongoing elon musk twitter saga. >>> plus, at least one person in st. louis has died now after 8 inches of rain fell in the span of five hours causing massive flash floods. span of fiv, to balance out the risk. others want immediate gratification... and long-term gratification,toor they have their own interests, but at the end of the day there's nothing like being... a gold-owner. visit invest.gold to see why gold is everyone's asset. my mental health was much better. my mind was in a good place. flash floods but my body was telling a different story. i felt all people saw were my uncontrolled movements. some mental health meds can cause tardive dyskinesia, or td, and it's unlikely to improve without

i'll be talking about it tonight in conversation with the immortal mike barnicle. up. if you're not in new york, buy tickets, then buy a plane ticket, come to new york, we'll see you tonight. >> yeah, yeah. >> you can tell how excited mike is at this prospect. >> well, i can't top al sharmton. >> no. so there will be a better level of enthusiasm on the stage on every side, we promise. i appreciate, al sharpton and mike who we will talk to on "morning joe." >>> up next here on "way too early," what members of january 6th committee are saying about the growing concern of democrats meddles in the primaries. >>> and coming up on "morning joe," the latest in the justice department's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. we're joined by some of the "washington post" reporters who broke the news that the attention of federal prosecutors is now squarely on donald trump. >>> plus, we'll hear from congressman colin awlred about capitol hill from stopping the steal of future elections. and we've got two senators, gary peters and chris coons, they'll also join the conversatio

jonathan lemire and elise jordan are still with us and msnbc contributor mike barnicle joins the conversation sent you the picture of mookie and the all-stars i don't know about lemire, but i just turned off the light, pulled the covers over me and went to bed. i didn't watch the all-star game. were you able to watch the all-star game and watch all of our all-stars in other people's uniforms? >> you know, i hung in there five or six innings which started you in the game, the game to that point, joe, i think i told you this, each time i see mookie betts in dodger blue, i'm happy for him. he's a wonderful human being as well as an extraordinary ballplayer. i can't stand it, i just can't stand it the way we lost him, the way we allowed him to walk away from the boston red sox. anyway -- >> at least, jonathan lemire -- i can't even say it with a straight face -- >> come on, you idiots. >> at least we held on to chris sale. >> no, you didn't. >> we bet there to deliver a long-term contract. my 7-year-old son's favorite player and frankly favorite person is mookie betts, and it breaks his heart to

joining the conversation, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle.ouse bureau chief at "politico" and the host of "way too early," jonathan lemire. >> mike barnicle, let's bring you into this rolling conversation we have been having about the "wall street journal"'s lead editorial today. it's talking about donald trump and the midterms and brings up what michael steele brought up last hour, this is starting to possibly look like 2010, 2012, when republicans had a chance to do extremely well and they just kept nominating crack pots for the primaries. they appear to be doing it again. donald trump appears to be, as the "wall street journal" editorial page says, appears to be hurting republicans again. they ask their readers, they ask their conservative readers, they ask republicans, what do you make of the fact that joe biden has the lowest approval ratings in modern american history for a president? yet, he still loses to donald trump. >> yeah, you know, what jeffrey had to say about donald trump, i totally agree with. there's a part of donald trump t

and joining the conversation is msnbc contributor mike barnicle. move on, and if we can sneak this in before the news conference begins, i would love to ask you for your thoughts on what we just heard from the capitol police sergeant, his experience, and this feeling of aabandonment tht he still experiences today. >> to put it simple, mika, we listened to a man, sergeant gonell, 16 years in the capitol police force, iraqi war veteran, who did his duty all day long on that dangerous day of january 6th. >> yeah. >> he did his duty. he helped protect people who dropped their duty and are dropping their duty each and every day as we sit here. that's the vast majority of republican members of congress, republican members of the senate, who knew what happened, who saw what happened, who were threatened by what happened, and were saved only because of the actions and behavior of men like sergeant gonell. >> mike, thank you. >>> we have a new development this morning with the january 6th investigation, and a revelation from the committee. former president d