i'll let southern law president richard cohen describe the conditions on tin side instead. >> the conditionsric, sometimes like lord of the flies. >> do you think i would be a piggy? >> i don't know you well enough to say that but i think you would live in a little fear. in 1980 there were only 7,000 prisoners in alabama. today there are four times that number. we measure how a society is doing but how it treats its prisoners and by that measure we're doing pretty poorly unfortunately in alabama. >> do you think if i went in there i would come out a muslim? >> you're already muslim, how could you come out if you're already one. >> double down. you know what i mean? they have orthodox. they advocate for reform but change requires political solution, not so easy when just about every politician looks like this. that's right, republican. tiny attorney general jeff sessions republican, republicans who historically only felt one way about crime. >> all the candidates are talking about crime in alabama. >> thugs, criminals. >> lock 'em up. >> fighting crime. >> criminals on the run. >> they should

richard. and former secretary of defense cohen was just -- secretary of defense cohen was just on with me andhought the meeting with tillerson and in moscow was a success. what are your thoughts? >> well, it depends what kind of success. from one perspective, the media are all talking about russia/u.s. tensions. we're not talking about how the kremlin may have influenced the election to help get trump elected. that has been the narrative in the media for a long time. so, there are certainly benefits for trump and his inner circle to take a strong stance against russia right now. i'm not saying that tensions aren't real, but i think from a p.r. perspective that's certainly a success of one point. whether there will be progress made overseer i can't, that's a much harder issue. i think assad right now, not just after the chemical attack that the u.s. alleges which says it can prove which moscow says never happened. that just highlighted a problem, but even before that assad was becoming a liability for moscow. but moscow is in a strange position. vladimir putin is in a difficult position. even

we've got richard engel, msnbc national security contributor david cohen joins us, the former deputy director of the cia under president obama. thomas is a staff writer with the "washington post" as well as an afghanistan veteran himself. and john finer is here, secretary of state john kerry's chief of staff. thank you all for being with us. we've got a great cast of characters. i want to start with you if i can. and can sean spicer's briefing ju wrapping up. we heard him talk about the idea of a trump doctrine. and i wonder if some of this might be in response to the reporting that's been out there. we have a politico story as you might know about a big staff meeting where they all got together and they said international affairs would present a messaging challenge. because the president lacks a coherent foreign policy and went on to say there is no trump doctrine which is not what we heard frye sean spicer. >> right. the next one says how some long time trump aides, people who have been with the president since the campaign, were a little ticked off. they believe he has a strong po

cohen. welcome back to "morning joe." it's monday, april 17th. with us, former democratic congressman harold ford jr., richards" reporter jeremy peters. >> how was everybody's holiday weekend? >> great. >> with my kids. it was great. >> richard? >> family upstate. it was great. >> go golf? >> i did. >> did you really? >> i got out there. >> you and the president. >> actually, i would like to get out and golf. >> do you golf? >> i haven't played. my son and i dressed identically. >> cute. >> did you get some pictures? >> i did. >> i have to get pictures of my family. >> we've done the shaving cream tie dye, have you heard of this? >> no. >> you take shaving cream and put food coloring in and roll it around. >> my hens did six eggs over the weekend. can you imagine? three chickens over two days, six eggs. >>> after what north korea unveiled what appeared to be large missiles. launched a missile from a submarine that barely got off the ground before exploding. >>> at his trump -- at his resort in florida, the president celebrated easter. jim mattis released this statement, the president and his military team are

cohen pulled in around $75 million and steve bannon's income was about $2.5 million. let's get perspective on this financial snapshot. we're joined by timothy neftati, salena and richard richard, you first. what do the complex holdings of these millionaires mean for government ethics watchdogs? >> well, they are more like billionaires than millionaires. i'm not sure what they're going to do for the middle class. so for example, ivanka and jared are going to have to stay out of anything that has a direct or predictable impact on the real estate injury. the banks are lending money to real staeestate. dodd/frank repealed all of that. they need to stay out of tax reform. and they're both going to need to stay out of trade because ivanka is importi ining clothind putting her name on it. very big issues that both of them have to stay away from. >> also has a stake in the d.c. trump international hotel and if the president continues to or does invite others particularly out of states people to visit that hotel, does that create a new problem particularly for ivanka since she's now a federal employee and an adviser. richard? >> absolutely. the best solution is for both the pr

cohen, san francisco council of community housing organizations. looks like we'll have a smooth sailing on the agenda good commissioner vice president richards is go like, yeah. >> i'm here today to talk about the state density bonus we want to give you folks an update on work at the state level since this also entertaining commission hearing in september for 12th street was before you i think was difficult to watch all the commissioners ringing their hands is that happening and what can we do and deputy city attorney not saying nothing there is an opportunity working with the assembly member phil now a deal come out a few days and 8915 essentially a simple clean up bill for the state density bonus that has resolved what happens in san francisco as a result of being passed last year and now the decision three years ago to make that simile it it assures a local inclusionary let's prevented 15 percentage that's the inclusionary housing on a project no matter what the size whether a state density bonus or not or a partial but a leveling of inclusionary across the project you can negotiate for hire whether there is an up zoning and circumstances not p