♪ obama ♪ obama obama obama ♪ >> got you. >> that is one way of doing it. good morning, everyone. it is monday, march 10th. welcome to "morning joe." i can't believe we are well into march already. what happened? with us on set, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. handgun? well, wooek. >>. >> turn off the phone right now. it's my children. yes, you should get one. don't start me. it's the whole iphone/samsung thing. former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner is here. finally, i get to see you. how are you? >> we are like ships passing in the night. >> yes, we are. joe, willie and me. your weekend good, willie? >> pretty uneventful. >> did you work? >> no, not this weekend. what about you? >> i love daylight savings, don't you all? get to get up an hour earlier. when you wake up at 2:30, it feels like 3:30. >> it hurts a little bit more. >> it's lighter later, though, so we can play basketball and stuff late into the night. won't that be fun? >> because that's what is wholesaler good at. >> or stick ball. >> that's what the kids do on my street. >> you live in the bronx in, lie, 1954? >> out there with willie mays. >> we are all a little tired but good to be here. a lot to get to. we are going to you about what is going on in ukraine. plxs to get to. why bob gates, crimea is already gone. >> already gone. >> we begin with the latest on that missing malaysia airlines jet. emergency crews are expanding their search for the plane and the 239 people on board. 40 ships and 22 aircraft, including some from the united states, are working as part of the search. officials believe the plane crashed somewhere in the gulf of thailand off the coast of vietnam. among the many theories that happened, speculation that an explosion or a hijacking may be responsible for the plane's missing status. over the weekend, interpol confirmed two passengers used stolen passports and officials are investigating the identities of two other passengers on the plane. flight officials are also looking into a recording of the radar which suggests the plane turned around from its scheduled root to beijing. a lot of theories here and a lot of concerns. red flags in what we know already this might be terrorism. >> steve, what i always tell people that are riding on a plane when it gets turbulence, we are fine. you get up there. i mean, i've seen -- >> highly unusually. >> where once it beams, you're all right? >> what is that? >> say anything. say anything. yeah, once it starts -- in fact, the numbers are pretty insignificant as far as crashes once you're at a cruising level, especially on a plane of this size. what in the world happened here? >> well, we don't know. but, look. yes, for a plane like this, a boeing 7777 there is almost no precedent for it falling out of the sky. landing, takeoff, in fact, that crash last summer of the asian plane was pilot error. they had to work to crash that plane but planes generally don't drop out of the sky. >> explaining to people at home who might not fly a lot and are scared, especially a boeing of that size with a major airliner. it is unprecedented for them just to fall out of the sky. turbulence doesn't do it. >> first of all, there probably wasn't any because the weather is what they called clear in the aviation world, but the closest was the france aircraft in 2009 which did fall out of the sky. it was an airbus, not a boeing and a combination of a instrument malfunction and terrible pilot error and that plane did just fall out of the sky. so it does happen once in a blue moon. >> i was going to ask you. in this day and age, how could we have no idea where the plane is from gps and transponders days in? >> seriously, we only have radar coverage a couple of hundred miles off of land. radar is land-based. there is no satellite radar coverage. the airlines have been reluctant to install you need for plane's locations so when you fly across the atlantic and pacific your pilots are communicating using technology is 40, 50 years old in terms of how they do. took two years to find the wreckage of the air france plane when it crashed off the coast of brazil. >> could it be possible the plane was off course and they are looking in the wrong place? >> possible, but unlikely. a lot of people say why wasn't there a distress call or why wasn't there anything? >> why isn't there debris. >> fly the plane first, figure out where you are and then talk to somebody. if you have some emergency that occurs, it would be normal -- >> okay, but if you're flying a 777, just put yourself in their position. you're a pilot. i mean, how were you not going to be able to communicate? i understand you go through other things first, but if you hit horrible turbulence or if you're dropping from, you know, 40,000 feet, you're going to have time somebody in there to communicate, unless there is a severe extreme event like a bomb. >> if you lose both engines and you're gliding down, you'll have 20 minutes or something like that to communicate. if you have an explosive decompression, not necessarily a bomb but if you lose cab bin pressure suddenly you have seven seconds or six seconds before you lose consciousness. look, the passport thing is -- >> it's like the golfer, payne stewart? >> yes. >> the passport thing is something that we have never seen before in all of these crashes, there has never been too mysterious passports that were stolen and one thing lead me away thinking something just happened to this plane. it's something you can't quite imagine who it would be, why people would bring down a plane filled with chinese people and why is nobody taking credit for it? >> they spotted from the air what they thought was a life raft and said a few minutes ago in a press conference it wasn't that. they have really seen nothing they can confirm is remotely related to this plane. >> you had everybody seizing on the two passports and talked to one anti-terror expert who said on a plane that size, you're going to find stolen passports on every plane because, you know, 500,000 were stolen or lost last year, something like that. i don't know if that is the case or not. >> one of the guys had flight connects to go to rome and one frankfurt. if you blow up a ticket, why not buy a one way ticket? >> you have to get a chinese visa and one other step on the passport chain that might expose them. they both bought the tickets from the same bureau in thailand. >> interpol has a database and they would check that before they let you on the plane and this airline didn't dou it. >> a flight like this will crash or disappear and a couple of that still bother me. now -- >> i know where you're going. >> you and my husband. oh, boy. >> lockerbie? >> the twa flight 8 hundred where that one supposedly broke up and fell out of the sky. >> they know what happened on that flight. >> what happened? >> a fuel tank that was too close to an electrical line and it blew up. >> i don't believe it. >> okay. there's a missile there. >> you're not alone. >> your husband. >> yeah. >> who does aviation and investigative reporter. >> he has the same feelings. >> that doesn't add up and i tell you what the u.s. air flight to the dr after 9/11 that doesn't add up. you know, sometimes turbulence behind a plane is like a rough wake and a wing will just fall off. no, that doesn't happen. those two flights, i'll telling you. >> steve is -- >> i don't want to sound like my dad, but after we are all gone, we will know what happened. >> where did the moon landing happen? burbank. >> it's a serious story, guys. >> you have those same questions about twa. >> a lot to get to this morning. >> the twa, a friend of mine led the investigation. he was convinced for the first few days after that plane exploded in the sky that, indeed, it was either a bomb or -- but after extensive investigation, it is what steve said it was. it was fumes and gas tank, electrical. >> paid off by the people at area 51 just to keep it quiet? i'm skeptical. the results are in. senator rand paul is the favorite from cpac for the second year in a row, the u.s. senator from kentucky won the conservative conference's annual straw poll. paul finished with 31% of the vote and nearly tripled tes cruz 11% and followed by ben carson and chris christie. if the straw poll is to be believed, senator marco rubio's stock has fallen in a big way after finishing in second place last year with 23% support, rubio came in seventh this time with around just 6% of the cpac vote. coming off his cpac victory, senator paul looked to differentiate himself from the runner-up. >> what do you think of ted cruz's practice of confronting, sometimes putting senate republicans, his colleagues, in tough situations? >> you know, i guess i would just say that everybody has their own style. my style is i stand to things and i think people don't question whether i stand for principle but i don't spend a lot of time trying to drag people down. i've been very splicomplimentar mitt romney. we can always get the party better particularly when we do not win but i don't try to criticize the people in the other party because i realize the party has to be bigger, not smaller. >> steve rattner tweeting this morning, not very nice! >> i thought it was nice. >> what? >> wow. >> holy cow. i can't believe mika is wearing that on national tv. >> that's not what that says! stop it! >> you have to sit next to her? >> is it bad? i think it's nice. i have eyes again so i'm covering my neck. >> why are you tweeting? >> a couple of followers. >> i did not tweet that. what i tweeted was that democrats should be delighted in rand paul gets nominated because he is just a whacko bird who doesn't sound like a whacko bird. >> wait. a whacko bird? >> wait a minute. a guy who wants cut 83% of funding from the department of education wants to abolish hud. >> and hole hillary clinton accountable for her husband's affair. >> i don't think so, joe. >> well, there you go. >> talking points? >> no. >> i looked them up all by myself. >> but you didn't forward them on to hillary 2016. what is your takeaway from cpac, willie? >> well, rand paul, i'm not terribly surprised he won. he won the straw poll last year. he is very popular there. >> his dad always won. >> that's right. i think chris christie, the reception he got there was interesting to look at. he got rousing ovations when i he began and left and christie, a moment there, reestablished himself among conservatives. >> i think the only message they have is what they said for six years. but that the party has to open up, you know, try and focus on winning and reframe its message to the point where they are open to different types of republicans, but, again, you're like, when you hear something like that, you realize that is what we have been saying around here. you've been leading the charge for years now and they are sort of just beginning to say it now. otherwise, everything they said made me snore. >> they are saying it, and rand paul actually, with all apologies to mr. park avenue here, silk stocking, billionaire, he is trying to bring the party to new direction. >> ted cruz said it too, actually. >> by the way, ted cruz. i've been complimentary of ted cruz as we have moved forward and i think he is trying to expand out and do it internally. you talk about how great he was speaking off the cuff and speaking off the cuff is a great thing to do if you can do it. but sometimes a word or two gets mangled. i know because i speak off the cuff all the time. >> really? >> boy, he really stepped into it and i don't think he meant to with bob dole when he said bob dole didn't believe in anything basically, and then john mccain said, you know, what deble id h believe of in italy. i know he didn't mean anything like that but you have to be careful when you're poking and prodding at people and you're the only self-righteous guy in the gang. he imagined to hit 2 out of 3 war heroes. >> did you read his staff's response to that? >> no, i didn't. >> basically, it was this is such a peripheral issue that we shouldn't even be dealing with it. >> no. >> his statement on bob dole was regarded by a member of his staff as a peripheral issue or some such word we shouldn't be -- >> that is something you clean up and move on. >> he has to clean it up. >> he has to and i don't know that anybody knows he meant that. listen. i write basically the same thing in my book that you win when you elect conservatives ideologically. ford and dole and mccain and he does need to clean it up. >> don't act like -- >> i have a question. the word conservative can mean being things and has many definitions but what does it say about cpac, where the most popular speaker they had and received the most rousing reception is a moron, sarah palin? i mean, she received a reception at that group that took the roof off the place. sophomoric. nearly libelist and not amusing. what does it say about that group? >> back to the ted cruz kerfuffle. in terms of saying something that doesn't -- >> apology for calling her that. >> ted cruz on the bob dole, i'd be trying to say something for 30 seconds. >> he gets the buzz and drives it. >> he should have let me talk because that bus wouldn't have been driven off the street. thank you, mike. >> go ahead. >> no. but ted cruz should have cleaned that up immediately. it was a dumb thing to say. we talk off the cuff here friday and that was ridiculous and i didn't make my point and it insulted veterans. first thing, i went on twitter and made an apology, it didn't make sense. the first thing you do is clean it up, exactly if you didn't mean it that way and ted cruz probably could have found an example. just clean it up and move on. why can't he say it? >> for saying that about sarah palin. >> i apologize to all veterans for what i said on friday. >> john mccain said he had a conversation with ted cruz on the senate floor the next morning about his comment. i would loved to have been privy to that conversation. >> i really want to see rattner's charts. you're hiding them. >> he must do long charts. on and on and on. >> they are important. >> i didn't see sarah palin. how did she do? pretty well? >> everybody was excited about her. >> she loved her there. >> i have to see it. i did not see that speech. >> you want to see it? >> it was a crowd pleaser. >> let's show everyone. >> it's a crowd pleaser. >> that's good. that's why they brought her along. >> now we are here and it's out there. not something we wanted to talk about but we will show it. >> it's cheerleading. >> you do that and rush came on a couple of years back. >> good performer. >> she is a great performer and you leave them smiling. so come on. >> it's entertainment. >> nobody will vote for her. it's entertainment. >> barnicle, you need to lighten up. kids are just having fun, okay? >> multimillion dollar moron selling a message? >> stop saying that. >> that extremes love to gobble up. >> she's a very smart woman. you think she's a smart woman? >> i think she is savvy in selling a message that makes a lot of money. >> this is very sad. >> very smart woman. >> very savvy and she believes what she believes even though you disagree with her. >> does she believe what she believes? >> a mom of five, professional. >> sure. coming up on "morning joe," the mayor of new york city bill de blass row is going to be here. >> i can't wait! i love his pre-k stuff. >> talking to u.s. senate candidate congressman tom cotton. i love him from arkansas. >> oh, no, i'll get beat up. >> and ian brzezinski. he is just back from ukraine. >> this is going to start a family fight at the dinner table. >> he sent us a picture from the barricades. he didn't tell his parents he was going because -- >> my dad and he disagree. >> they do but also where he went was pretty dangerous. coming up next the top stories in politico. first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good monday morning. we have a new tropical storm to talk about moving across the country. this one is going to bring significant winter weather to northern new england but that may be about it. this looks to be warmer and a lot of us would love some of that rain to clean things up. talk about today's forecast first. today is a beautiful day. d.c., what a stretch you had. a great weekend, especially saturday was nice. a great monday. even philadelphia too. further to the north still deep snow on the ground and won't be as warm and problem in northern new england a deep snow pack and hard to warm you up at this time of the year. seven day snow total estimates and isn't the official forecast but give you a general idea what our computers are painting. there will be snow on the ground from areas of northern ohio through central pennsylvania and southern new england but those areas more or less rain over to snow in the end. once you get north of the mass pike and the new york state freeway up around albany and burlington and maine and bangor area could have a significant snowstorm for you. the timing of it even from boston wednesday looks to be kind of a wintry mess for you. and then getting colder into snow. 25 degrees this time of year for a high during the daylight hours? it's a very cold day by march standards and what you'll deal with in boston. as far as the rest of the country goes, doesn't look like the storm will cause too much trouble with the exception of snow in montana and idaho and into montana. you're watching "morning joe." ♪ ♪ bring it home yeah bring it home ♪ (knochello? hey, i notice your car is not in the driveway. yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. that's hilarious. sorry. you shoulda taken it to midas. get some of that midas touch. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. next time i'm going to midas. high-five! arg! i did not see that coming. trust the midas touch. for brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling) ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today. let's take a look now at the morning papers. we start with the "los angeles times." 6.9 magdalene earthquake shook the west coast last night and 30 miles off the coast of eureka and felt from northern california to oregon. so far, no injuries or major damages have been reported. officials say there is no danger of a tsunami either. >> parents are their cameras rolling during a show during a musical at california high school but instead of capturing the performance they witnessed a terrifying moment. >> holy [ bleep ]! >> look! get out of the way! get out of the way! >> ruffle 250 girls from rosary high school were on the stage when it came crashing down. officials say the platform wasn't built to support that many people. i know football stadiums that weren't built to support that many people. more than two dozen students were injured and none of the injuries are considered life-threatening but you're right. why would they put that many people on a stage? >> poor girls and must have been frightening for everyone. lucky it wasn't worse. the "atlanta journal-constitutio journal-constitution". a new blood test will predict who will develop alzheimer's. th the only tests currently available is mris and more than 5 million people in the u.s. are living with alzheimer's. >> from "the washington times." the pope believes it's time for the church to study same sex civil unions. timothy dolan wants to determine why some people want to support the issue but st