New york, new york the city that never sleeps just got one more thing to keep it up at night. Because yesterday the thinkable happened. Two years after a tawdry sexting scandal chased him from Congress Anthony weiner is begging for forgiveness again. He continued to send lewd messages and photos to one woman after he was forced to resign from congress. Even after the sexting scandal, turns out he learned nothing. Has this man never heard of snapchat . He has been told. By us. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. Its thursday, july 25, 2013. A lot to get to today including tragedies, another highprofile train accident takes 77 lives and closer to home iowa congressman stands by his comments comparing immigrants to drug mules despite from being under attack. Trayvon martins father on capitol hill yesterday and Edward Snowden still playing tom thanks, stuck in a russian airport. Boston a bit stronger this morning as the last injured victim from the april bombing left the hospital and is going home and kids you asked for it. We got it. Swings answer to the Anthony Weiner scandal. More difficult polling for obama care. The administration keeps talking about fake scandals and willie geist, that is a great place to start because the president went out yesterday on a speech that was, ill tell you what, it was more like a Campaign Speech than an economic reset. Hes given this speech before. Yeah, absolutely. Were still stuck, by the way on the answer to Anthony Weiner. Very exciting stuff. We haa great panel. President obama will head to florida to couldnt to sell his economic policies to the public. Yesterday the president urged americans to avoid the rhetoric of the right and they should focus instead on improving the lives of the working middle class. We now have to get back and focus on whats important. An endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phoney scandals cant get in the way of what we need to do and im here to say its got to stop. We got to focus on jobs and the economy and helping middle class families get ahead. I got 1267 days left in my presidency. And im going to spend every minute, every second, as long as i have the privilege of being in this Office Making sure that im doing every single that i can so that middle class families, working families, people who are out there struggling every single day they know that work can lead them to a better place. Hey, jim, im just a little confused here. Whats the president trying to do . If hes trying to elect democrats in 2014 you can check that speech off that makes a lot of sense. If hes trying to get things done in the washington its a complete failure because it sounds like a Campaign Speech. Doesnt matter whether the republicans deserve it or not, the fact is his Approval Ratings are done, congresss Approval Ratings are down, and pointing the finger to the other side doesnt get it done. His aides tell us hes trying to get his groove back. They feel hes in a slump. They have a hard time breaking through on any issue. The problem is, think about the this is more to set the mood . What else is he going to do. He cant do anything. Theres nothing that he wants to do that can get through this congress. He has no choice but to get out and essentially become a sailsman. The president cant figure out a single thing that he and the republicans can agree on . I dont know what congress youve been watching. What will he get through . The house, theres no proposal that the house will go with. Let me ask you this, nicole. Hold on a second. Nicole, i got a question. Nicole, its not like this Republican Party in 2009 supported tax increases. Its not like this Republican Party in 2009 when he became president supported higher regulations or bailouts. Everybody acts as if this group of republicans in the house were transported from mars to america in november of 2010. Its not like he couldnt see this coming. So all of this talk about oh, they are the most radical no. When Ronald Reagan was the president they said he was the the most radical rightwing president and now Everybody Loves him. Now people are saying you guys were reasonable, you worked with bill clinton. Because bill clinton met us halfway. Were hearing this again. What do the republicans stand for today that they havent stood for for 100 years . That might tie my brain in a knot. Obama has some openings to form alliances with republicans on immigration. Its not like obama hasnt slammed the door in the face of republicans who have been willing to form coalitions with him. He just passed an extension of his nsa phone monitoring program. Its not like there are theres not a wealth of republicans coming forward to sign on to his agenda because his economicened hasnt work. The wall street journal has a brilliant editorial saying no president has done worse by the middle class than president obama. This president has not had a lack of republicans who have been willing to band with him on issues like tax reform. There was tom could burn on immigration, john mccain on the phone with him every other day. There are republicans who have been willing to form alliances with this administration. Nicole, those are two members out of 535 members. A president doesnt need 535 members. His party runs everything. The president s party, if only they ran everything then they run everything. Nicole, nicole, you have a house of representatives that has just passed a set of spending bills budget you ask why is this more radical . I think the house republicans, the paul ryan budget policies which are the heart of any economic problem are more radical than anything thats been passed in the last 100 years. Paul ryan is Steve Rattner, i will get you clippings from 1995, 1996, 1997 that were saying the same things then that youre saying now. You know what bill clinton did . He sat down with us and said ill swallow a lot of things i dont want to swallow politically and you guys will do the same thing and we came to a budget agreement and there was a lot of hatred, a lot of acrimony, a lot of yelling. Bill clinton knew i have no choice. They own the house of representatives, they are carrying the checkbook. This is my greater frustration. Theres blame to go around on both side, republicans obviously in the house want to see the president fail. Thats fine. But they are in the house, they got the checkbook, and the senate will feel the pressure too. Theres got to be a deal that can be made out there somewhere, steve. I would love there to be a deal. We can debate what went on in 1997, youre right there was a deal. The deal that was made in 1997 makes what the republicans are proposing look like something that goes back to the 19thcentury. No, no. Thats just not true. We abolished in the house, we passed legislation to abolish four federal agencies. My plan to abolish the education bureaucracy in washington, d. C. , the department of education passed through john kasichs budget resolution. These republicans are proposing nothing as dramatic, sweeping and radical as we did back then and we still got to a deal. Right now you have a speaker of the house, im not saying this critically of him but more of his members who cant bring his members along. You had 98 of the bush tax cuts made permanent at the end of the last year without a majority of republicans support because he couldnt bring the people from who are the ideologic purists along. The fact is its not just john mccain, not just tom colburn theres a lot of people to deal with. This congress has done nothing. If you were to look back to 2007 which is only six years ago by this point in time the congress had passed 48 pieces of legislation. This congress has passed 19 pieces of legislation. They are not doing anything. Jim, lets talk about the substance of the speech. Forget the politics. Was there anything in there there wasnt a lot new in that speech. Was there anything in there, anything significant that there could be some movement with republicans on . Did he introduce a new approach to something . Almost nothing, no. Mears the fundamental problem. Joe talks about bill clinton. You have a president thats decidedly to the left of bill clinton. This house of representatives is much more conservative than the one that he served in. When joe was in congress there were 45 selfdescribed moderate republicans. There are probably two in this house of representatives. When you talk about deals that can be had with the tom colburn and john mccain you keep mentioning senators. If we had two power senators in the senate, the presidency all this stuff can get done. Its the house where you cant get stuff through. Joe is right. They didnt fool anyone. Go back and watch the campaign in 2010. You talk about the number of bills that were passed. 45 versus 19. They probably say 19 is too many. They didnt come here to pass laws. They are doing exactly what they set out to do. Joe, it would appear to me just from reading today and observing today and remembering when you were in the house, many members of your party but several members of the Republican Caucus in 94 and 95 today would represent hubert humphrey. You have a speaker, john boehner who is petrified of most of his membership they will cost him his job. You have a substantial percentage of his membership in the house who, i think their mission si think they define their mission, i may be wrong but define their mission not what they can do for the country but what they can undo in terms of government, existing government. Am i wrong . You know, first of all, i guess if we hadnt been called the same exact thing by the press that this group is being called by the press, i might not be quite so cynical on that. As far as undoing things, when i got into congress we had a 4 trillion national debt. Today we have a 16. 5 trillion national debt. When i got into congress, bob kerry and alan simpson were warning about social security, medicare and medicaid going bankrupt. That was in 1994. Right. All right. How long are we . 19 years forward. Nothing has been done other than george bush adding another 7 trillion in liabilities to medicare. And the population getting older. Were in such a serious situation here right now that actually undoing some laws doesnt sound like a bad idea. We passed so much legislation in 2009 and 2010 that expanded the scope of the federal government. I mean forget about the tea party members, forget about me, look at the national polls. Distrust in the federal government is exploding. So, you know, i really dont think this group is that much more radical than a group that passed legislation to abolish the department of education, the department of energy, hud and the commerce department. Thats what we did. We were pushing to balance the budget in four years, in five years. Wanted to abolish the united nations, wanted to abolish the irs. There was some really sweeping legislation that we passed actually through the house of representatives or came close. Everybody called us rightwing radicals and nuts. But then again thats what liberals called Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Heres the difference, mike. Bill clinton knew how to use our weaknesses against us. He knew how to make us look like idiots on national television. He knew what issues to pick out and he was skillful and he beat the hell out of us day in and day out. Eventually not only did bill clinton have to go to the center we had to go to the center because he was pounding us. This president sits in his white house, eventually hops out and gives a Campaign Speech, comes back home and he thinks hes going to reset the debate. It doesnt happen that way. Hes going to have to think more creatively. Yes, hes got people that want to kill him politically. Well, so did george w. Bush, and so did be bill clinton. And they figured out how to get things done. This president i dont think and maybe im wrong still hasnt figured out how to get things done. I have the same skill as bill clinton because i can make Mike Barnacle look like an idiot on national television. Im clintonian in that regard. Nice cover. Well talk more about this this morning. Some other news in new york city. Theres the New York Daily News, god help new york if hes mayor says the daily news. Fresh off revelations avenue sexting scandal. Anthony weiner is being dogged by journalists and by the competition. The circus that former Congress Member weiner has brought to the mayors race in the last two months has been a disservice to new yorkers. I have at the end of the day citizens are more interested in the challenge they face in their lives than anything that i have done embarrassing in my past. And, you know, im fine. I got an amazing wife and child upstairs. I have a comfortable life. This is not about me. As the former congressman tries to refocus his campaign theres new suing begs the worse is not yet behind him. In an interview with New York Times the website editor behind the new disclosure suggests theres more revelations to come. Its unclear what the fallout will be in the democratic prirm. The latest poll taken shows Anthony Weiner on top but Bill Thompson, before the latest revelations. In a runoff the poll projects Bill Thompson would beat weiner. Steve, this is kind of a field story for new york city. If youre in a cab and all these revelations are coming on and the cab driver is laughing out loud and shaking his need does new york city want its mayor to be a laughing stock . Well, first i have various dogs in this fight. Im friends with huma. I think shes terrific. Im an adviser and friend of chris quinn. Youre hedging your bets. Very republican of you, steve. Okay. Look, i just dont think that anybody votes for someone theres an old saying in politics if you end up being the butt of late night jokes its hard to get elected. Unfortunately whats happened here its just beyond the pale over the edge whatever you want to say and i cant imagine weiner will survive in this campaign let alone get elected. Those polls are hard to make any sense of. Theres a lot of name recognition. The race is very fluid. But the race is not going to include Anthony Weiner when this is all over. Lets take the internet out of this for a second because i think it makes it confusing and disorienting. This guy is a predatory flasher. If people started to look at his behavior as a more simple act of truly Walking Around the country and flashing women, then it becomes clear to people. I have talked to more democratic female friends in new york city who are flabbergasted he continues to be covered as a serious candidate. What hes done not just to his wife and son but all these women who were willing participants in sexting, sex conversations oh, stop that. Dont pretend. He makes a mockery out of his entire orientation as an online flasher. He makes light of it. Says thats in my past. Has nothing to do with me. Character is essential. Its no ones job to sit in judgment of someones personals life but he did this on the job. He did this after he resigned, after he confessed to his wife, after they went to therapy, while doing interviews about how much he changed his life. So who thinks this is the only sexting episode that will become public now. Joe i was going to say in his defense when he was in the People Magazine article seriously. No. He was in the People Magazine article, they were interviewing him they asked if it was in i had past and he said yes it was in his past. He really had not flash ad woman online since he had gone to the people bathroom right down the hall. He was sexting while huma was speaking the other day at the press conference. The definition of is is and this is the definition of past is. Lets see the next round ever polls, willie. I mean if you have the next group of polls showing him still in the hunt then hes got, i think hes got a really good chance in a three way race but i suspect we may see a bit of a collapse. Youre right. Youre riding in the cab, the guy is laughing at him. New yorkers dont apartment mayor thats a laughing stock. Quite a line in the therapist resume, i helped Anthony Weiner out. Sure never fine her. You made an important point. Which guy. Heres the front of the New York Daily News. Heres the back of the daily news. Who do you want to go away more. Which new york do new yorkers want to disappear from. I would think probably Anthony Weiner. Yeah. I would think so. Tweet us. Leapt us know what you think. The only defense he has is clearly hes mentally ill. Clearly. Its obviously a deeper problem and, therefore, he certainly shouldnt be running for office right now. Coming up on morning joe well talk to former governor howard dean plus chuck todd will join dfrgs and well reveal the new cover of Time Magazine and at that report from Richard Engel who gets a rare look at the cias spy tools. And the congressman who compares immigrants with drug mules. Good morning. We have our first storm for people that live in florida, up the east coast. This is dorian. Became a Tropical Storm yesterday. Heres the new advisory. Its heading to the west over the next five days. Not expected to become a big hurricane any time soon but going over very warm water the end of this forecast period. A lot of questions in what the intensity will be. It will be steered to the caribbean or west coast. Its in agreement that sooner or later dorian will be a brush with the east coast or head in this general direction. Its a beautiful morning in new england. Hopefully everyone is enjoying our break from summer. The clouds are on the increase from the east coast and well have rain out there, a little noreaster bringing cool weather from d. C. To boston. Middle of the country still hot, 99 in dallas but beautiful weather continues in chicago. Washington, d. C. , some clouds, a break from your summer heat, one of the coolest days youve had in nearly a month. 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