we're going to bring in steve clemons, an editor-at-large and also an msnbc contributor. we have been talking to him following the capture of salah abdeslam. give us a sense of where you were when this unfolded. what did you see? >> i had just arrived at the brussels airport this morning. i was catching a flight back to washington. and the train is in the basement of the airport, it had come up and it was in -- it was going in the main hall, the bombing had already happened. i saw the smoke. people were rushing back. i had tried to sort whatever, but the police and the authorities -- they raided in and the people were pushing down. i was there literally minutes after the bomb blast had occur and saw the smoke, but more importantly just saw how tense everyone was and that situation. and while people were scared and they sent us back down to the plane, we went back to the brussels train station, we -- and everybody tried to sort out what was happening at this moment. i was in on the action, but i wasn't able to get in and of course many people seemed to have been killed. as

i'm joined by msnbc contributor steve clemons, editor at large for the atlantic.ve, as i understand it, you were at the airport, at the time of the attack. you're now back home safely in the u.s. describe for us what you saw, what the scene was like. >> well y had just arrived at just after the bombs had gone off in the terminal just beneath the air terminal and had gone up and was justib able to see somef the smoke, the glas, and the people running and being evacuated out. i was there for a few moments. there was no way to get closer than i did. i spent a lot of time sort of bonding with and talking to people who had been right on the edge of this horrible disaster. and then traveled with them back to another train station and then some of us who were at the airport to leave the nation then got on trains trying to get out of belgium. >> i know we actually recorded some of those conversations. we have some we can play now. >> we heard a bomb. it was a really loud sound. and we heard the glass coming down and the bus was shaking. >> i saw it was like smoke. smoke 1

msnbc contributor steve clemons was at the brussels airport this morning and he is with us now live. steve, what can you report? >> i can tell you from the time that i left this morning at brussels airport after an incredible amount of chaos, brussels has shut down, locked down, and even in holland, i was on the last train leaving brussels today, it's taken five different trains to get into the airport i'm at now because there's such a high security protocol they keep mixing the trains and checking them inside the neighboring nation. this morning when i arrived just after the bombs went off there was a great amount of fear, but people were very orderly. the police and security services really were there almost immediately, some have speculated that there were special operations people just staged at the airport because it really did evacuate very fast. i've interviewed three or four people on the train who were with me at the airport, all of whom have different stories. one was very close to the bomb attack and felt extraordinarily lucky, kept breaking out in tears talking about it. s

joining me to discuss this is steve clemons, msnbc contributor and editor at large it at the atlantic knows, it's not hard. you just cross borders. we came in, we couldn't fly into the airport here. so we went to amsterdam, drove in, no problem. explain to people just sort of the big picture about the border security issue here in europe and how it relates to terror. >> well, i think within europe, because of the -- what's called the schengen agreement, you can go through 28 different nations with very little border security or scrutiny. and even moments of high terror -- i was in the -- had just arrived at the airport just after the bombing from the train station below the departure hall. we were evacuated back out on to that train, went back to another train station. i got a ticket to amsterdam that morning. while it was complex and they had shut down the station just as i was leaving for amsterdam and closed borders, the fact was i was in the airport right after that bombing and i got out of the country. and that shouldn't really be able to happen. >> a day before the attacks in br

we have on the phone now i believe steve clemons he's an msnbc contributor. steve, as i say good morning to you, i understand you're actually at brussels airport this morning? >> reporter: yes, i have just arrived and i just came off the and just come up into the big hall. i didn't hear the blast that had happened just before i had come up. but i did see the smoke and i did see the rush of people back out and how the authorities sort of took control very quickly. began forcing to us evacuate the airport and go right back to where we came. >> steve, first of all, how are you doing? and second of all, what were people saying? did you hear, overhear anything from people who had witnessed it? who had seen the devastation? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, first of all, thank you, i'm fine. i'm definitely much better than some of the people that were injured. and tragically killed today. when i was there, i corresponded with a lot of the people that i was with. and when we were back going from the airport back to brussels north station which is the station that i had orig

trump's foreign policy ideas are, editor at large for the atlantic, steve clemons. >> good seeing youte, not isolationist, but i am america first. what exactly do you think this is? >> well, this has been growing in american politics for a very long time. we heard it in the candidacies of people in the past like pat buchanan, and generally, the view is that the architecture in the world, both the economic architecture and the national security architecture in places like nato of the wto have bekim places where other nations are ripping off america. that's one narrative. and what they're doing is essentially the old quid pro quo that used to exist that america was the global security guerarrr of last resort, those institutions provided a better way of life and provided jobs for average working americans. what trump is saying is somewhere along the line, that broke, and those institutions are now harming american interests, and we need to get back to our home base. now, there's a lot of incoherence in this extraordinary interview, which i recommend everyone read, as long as it is, but i

. >> steve clemons, you've had quite a journey. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you, andrea. >> our foreign editor. joining us from brussels. chris, you live in paris and you know so well how paris responded to the bataclan attacks, the horrendous attacks in november. brussels is now ground zero for these attacks. we know that isis has claimed responsibility. there's no way to confirm that now. but how do you see the response in brussels to this terror attack? >> reporter: well, you know, i think that i was talking to a counterterror expert today, french-based. he said, you know, the islamic state looks at europe and sees it as the soft underbelly of the west. it looks as belgium and looks the soft underbelly of europe. it's a disorganized country. it went through almost two years with no government. the security forces are badly organized. and you also have this very large immigrant population. it's not to put down brussels, not to put down belgium, but it provided a lot of opportunities for these guys to operate. clearly

. >> steve clemons calling after having witnessed different pieces of this attack. but way too close for any of us. thank you so much for that reporting. we want to bring in a correspondent from our nbc station here in new york, wnbc tv, he happens to be the chief investigative reporter, jonathan deanest, and he can tell us what the reaction has been here in new york. and we can take that as an indicator of how other cities are going to react. and amend their behavior in light of brussels. jonathan. >> yeah, for the nypd, it's all hands on deck for the counterterror division. more than 1,000 police officers, extra police officers being called in over the next 24 hours to handle stepped up security, stepped up patrols, and landmarks, at transportation hubs, along with the port authority police stepping up at the airports. all of this taking place as a precaution. police officials say there's no specific threat and they point to the numbers that pete williams has been talking about all morning. that in new york, or in the u.s., there's about 100, 150 isis followers, s

let's bring in washington editor at large of "the atlantic" magazine and msnbc contributor steve clemons. steve, i spoke to you in the last hour. i understand you caught the last train out of brussels. where are you now? >> i was able to validate that it was actually the very last and final train that got out of belgium. a very eerie feeling. they actually just stopped our train in the first town in the netherlands. i am now in rosendahl, holland, and they've taken us all off the train due to security protocols. we're going to go through some sort of process with those here and we're about to board another train to amsterdam. they're reviewing people that were on this train, including myself. >> steve, do you get a sense -- >> it's the last train out because i think they're shutting down the borders. >> do you get a sense that the authorities now going through that train, are they perhaps looking for somebody or perhaps doing it as a security precaution? >> i think they're doing it as a security precaution but i am speculating. i think they're treating everyone equally and being very pro

steve clemons. >> i can't believe the commissioner has to make zblents ted cruz did an interview withto you next. >>> up next, we'll show you the markets. terrorist attacks don't seem to have the effect they used to. "morning joe" back in a moment. oh, look... ...another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula. ...to visibly reduce wrinkles. neutrogena®. [engines revving] you can't have a hero, if you don't have a villain. the world needs villains [tires screeching] and viains need cars. ♪ >>> president obama spoke to people all over cuba yesterday telling them the procession of democracy isn't always pretty, but he's taking heat over attending a baseball game instead of going home to engage on brussels. our next guest says the president should also have engaged differently on iraq. more "morning joe" in just a moment. that's me. ♪ you should hire stacy drew. ♪ ♪ she wants to change the world with you. ♪ ♪ she can program jet engines to talk and such. ♪ ♪ her biggest weakness