he almostpt aed one in 2016 as an independent but then he endorsed hillary clinton.o witched republican party21. it worked. he may be close t for republican line he' close for the dem onis keysues. >> hi christie. >> let me jump in. >> please do. >> i think we should only have new yorkers running for president from now on. they're super entertaining. >> do you have a list of people who should run fort. pres >> i do. because i think if you can make anywhere.you can make it >> you can make it anywhere. >>. >> okay. >> so her are myes tions. up first rudy giuliani. >> he tried it didn't work. >> why not go f it again, er rudey. >> h we yogo. rk, new york. >> rudey tried, he failed. who's next. >> number two, cardi b. she has shown she has some fiscally conservative views. not really big taxes. >> she was ticked off aut taxes. >> which isunderstandable. >> do we know how old she is, lookgeg up her as we speak. >> i tnk about 30, 25. >> we're ten years away from a cardi b canned days. is judge judy >> okay. you know, every couple years someone say you should run. here's the problem, we han hour on

would not need to use the power of pardon and he believes that enquiry is a witch—hunt at other members of his republican partytion including paul ryan, the speaker of the house and he believes it is not a question of whether or not he could but whether or not he should.” of whether or not he could but whether or not he should. i do not know the technical and sir to that question but obviously he should because no one is above the law. you get a real sense of paul ryan and dismissing this. he has also been talking about some of the other things that donald trump has been tweeting about, specifically the idea that potentially there was a spy idea that potentially there was a spy sent by the fbi inside the trump campaign and whether or not the fbi we re campaign and whether or not the fbi were abusing their power by doing so. were abusing their power by doing so. paul ryan says there is no evidence for it, really contradicting what donald trump has been saying. you get a sense of the tensions in merger between the president and his party. —— emerging. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: remembering the life

witch—hunt. but other members of his republican party are being asked that question, including paul ryan, who is if he believes it is not about a question of whether or not he could use a pardon, but whether or not he should. i don't know the technical as to that question, but the answer is he shouldn't and no one is above the law. there you get a real sense of paul ryan trying to dismiss this. he has been talking about some other things that donald trump has been tweeting about, and asked specifically about those, specifically about those, specifically the idea that potentially there was a spy in a camp of the trump campaign sent by the vi, and whether the fbi were missed using their powers by doing so. “— missed using their powers by doing so. —— fbi. a senior republican has been looking at this issue and says there is no evidence for it, really contradicting what donald trump has been saying himself. get a sense of the tensions emerging between the president and his party. thank you very much indeed. thank you to being with us. stay with us if you can. there is much more to come on bbc news.

beyond that, he makes very clear that he believes that whole enquiry is a witch—hunt but other members of his republican partyestion, including paul ryan, the speaker of the house, and what's really interesting is he believes it is not about a question of whether or not he could use a pardon but whether or not he should. i don't know the technical answer to that question but i think, obviously, the answer is he shouldn't and no one is above the law. so there you get a real sense there of paul ryan trying to dismiss this. he has also been talking about some of the other things that donald trump has been tweeting about, and been asked specifically about those, specifically this idea that potentially there was a spy in the camp of the trump campaign, sent by the fbi, and whether or not the fbi were misusing their powers by doing so. paul ryan has been speaking to a senior republican who has been in one of the house committees that has been looking at this whole issue and he says that there is no evidence for it, really contradicting what donald trump has been saying himself. so you get a sense of the tensions th

party. let me play amy kramer. witch doctor mock-ups of president obama. it's not like something came along and the republicanrty changed. trump tapped into something that was there and people like steve schmidt and george will are the outliers it seems to me. this was amy this morning on cnn talking about this issue. >> every day in america children are separated from their parents because they commit crimes and the adults are incarcerated. we enforce the law on american citizens. why is it that we enforce the law upon american citizens but we should not enforce the laws upon people coming here illegally? tell me the difference. do they have more rights than we do? >> that is not something that trump produced in the republican party. it was in the republican party already. >> you and i have been friends for a loong time. i've been a republican for a long time until i stopped being one and voted for obama. the issue is there is a nixon southern strategy, as you've mentioned. i've been screaming for 25 years literally at the wind apparently to the republicans that you're going to have to change the way you tal

he did a phone call with the minnesota republican party tonight celebrating what he calls the accomplishments of his first 50. he said the russia probe is a witch hunt and that mueller's investigation is not even constitutional. giuliani tonight he said again the president is not going to pardon himself but papadopoulos' wife told tucker carlson her husband should be pardoned. watch. >> i know he did an excellent job. because of this his freedom is challenged. so i trust and hope that president trump will pardon him. >> the pardon power is comete and there is no limitation on i it. would somebody impose a practical limitation on it? absolutely. the practical limitation would be suicide rates because that's a political limitation. the practical one is you don't pardon in the case of an impeachment and that is what he will do. >> he won't do it. >> >> good. >> pardon doesn't get you off of impeachment. >> this battle comes in the conduct of an extraordinary 20 page memo sent to the special counsel back in january by two of the presidents attorneys, john dowd who is out, and jay sekulow, who is diligent, asserting the president won't obstruct just

witch-hunt. they were basically mimicking thesident's rhetoric. that is further way how the republican partyeasingly becoming the party of trump. the president is becoming a candcross the country. if you are with him, you will presumably do well. if you are against h you do in the seek re-election or your congressional career is ended like we saw with mark sanford. neil: it is a recurring theme. to your point, be friend of donald trump or risk losing your job. on top of that a inspector general report coming out already raising eyebr the president poised to use it as a reminder that it is a rigged game. that investigations that he has been getting toward his staffers and people, even during the campaign was unfair, was tilted and a witch-hunt. will this report go so far as to verify that? ly not. but you can bet the guy in that house will make a case that it does. and it will. after this. ♪ ♪ i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insul and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it comes

witch hunt he lies and says democrats are in fact prosecuting him they're not it's mostly republicans but he has been able to sort of muddy the waters and if you look at polls republicans the president's party they're starting to say that molar is not credible now that this is important because special counsel robert mueller before this before the president started talking about this tweeting about it on a daily basis he had wide support in the united states he was a former f.b.i. director who was serving during nine eleven he is. a veteran of vietnam he is reputation has been above reproach the problem for him is he can't talk back so he is answering back with indictments of the president like say no collusion his supporters believe there's no collusion i think it's always important to remember that twenty two people and companies have been indicted five people have pled guilty to lying to investigators and other charges so there is ample evidence in the court that something was going on in the trunk campaign let's not forget paul metaphoric the president likes to say he was barely hear you don't really know him he was in charge of his campaign for months so this is a very high level perso

witch hunt. >> what does it tell us about the president's legal strategy? former u.s. attorneyer will be here. >>> identity crisis. prominent republicans say they no longer recognize the gop. >> i think the republican party has gone dormant. >> with pivotal mid term elections looming what is the party's message to voters? fair trade? president trump hits u.s. allies with steep tariffs on steel and aluminum. >> i love canada. i love mexico but they take advantage of us economically. >> and sparks threats of retaliation. >> these tariffs are totally unacceptable. >> is the president risking a trade war? canadian minister of foreign affairs will be here. >>> hello i'm dana bash in washington in for jake tapper. the state of our union here is debating executive power. we are getting a new look inside president trump's legal strategy against the russia investigation in a confidential 20-page letter obtained by the "new york times" president trump's lawyers argue that the president cannot be compelled to testify in the russia probe and they say he has full authority over all federal investigations. the letter was submitted to the special counsel's team by the president's lawyers in january. it asserts in strik

witch hunt. >> what does it tell us about the president's legal strategy? former u.s. attorneyer will be here. >>> identity crisis. prominent republicans say they no longer recognize the gop. >> i think the republican partyhat is the party's message to

republican party celebrating the accomplishments of his first 500 days in office. listen. >> president trump: we have a lot of people against us and the phony russian witch hunt thats being discredited. that's what it is. discredited disgrace. it's not even constitutional in a lot of people's opinion, in my opinion, too. >> as you noted this battle of course comes in the context of the extraordinary 20-page mem row that is sent -- memo sent to the special counsel in january but two of the president's personal attorneys at the time. john dowd who is now out and jay sekulow who is still in. he says the president cannot assert justice but has the power to shut the investigation down when he wants. the memo says the president himself dictated a statement that turned out to bemisleadingn donald trump jr.'s 2016 meeting at the trump toweller with the russians. that conflicts with sarah sanders. and what jay sekulow last year said minimizing the president's role drafting the statement. i can tell you the former deputy to independent counsel ken starr says the memo is helpful to preside. wa >> it's the leaking of the letter which i believe had to have come from the camp o

enormously popular in the republican party and further to john's point the numbers show that the attack on mueller is working. mueller -- the idea that the mueller investigation is a witchion over the last five months so by and large even if there are republicans who want to come out and take a stand, it's a very difficult environment for them to do it in. >> massimo calabresi, thank you very much. >>> still ahead on "morning joe," did trey gowdy start a trend on capitol hill? paul ryan echos the south carolina congressman in defending the integrity of the fbi. we'll bring in a member of the judiciary committee, senator richard blumenthal, live from capitol hill. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. it took guts to start my business. but as it grew bigger and bigger, it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything. and that 2% cash back adds up to thousands of dollars each year... so i can keep growing my business in big leaps! what's in your wallet? i'm about to start the hair, skin and nails challenge. so my future self will thank me. thank yo

republicans on what he now regularly denounces as the partisan rigged unconstitutional machinations of mueller and his team. message to the nation, don't blame m if my party takes a beating in november. the witchpresidentens that prevailing winds may not be blowing in his favor, he has basically one response, trash the system. at the core of what mr. trump is selling is the idea that all of government in politics are culture and rotten. and only he can be trusted to get things back on track. but on those occasions when he fails to deliver, don't look to him to accept responsibility. he'll just find another reason to blame the system. he blames the system but he also deflects wildly and ubss race at times to deflect. so he either blames the system or he finds a shiny penny to wave in front of everybody. >> we saw it with the nfl yesterday. he and his lawyers took an absolute drubbing. the institutions pushed back. the smoke screene spews, you know, at the rule of law just bounces off the marble walls and goes back into his face, so then he changes his subject and race baits. "the new york times" brings up a great point, he trashes else institutions, from nato, the nfl, his own attorney general,