The report of malaysian flight 370 today. Its unlikely to contain any Ground Breaking news. Thousands are marching through moscows square. Peace protests will be going on around the world today. Nba owners having a meeting to discuss the next steps in removing Donald Sterling as owner of the los angeles clippers. Tonight game six of their first round series. Thats going to wrap it up. Morning joe starts right now. Were learning more about the woman at the center of this scandal. A woman named v. Stiviano. The media showed up at her apartment. Look at this. She decided to do some Roller Skating there in the alley while everyone looked on. Instead of yelling at the camera guys outside her house, this is real. She offered them refreshments. You guys want some water . I have coconut water, aloe vera water, regular water, sparkling water. Thank you. Such a sweetheart. Shes got a team. You know what . Im suspicious of this woman for a lot of reasons, but number one now is who has four kinds of water and three varieties of oranges in their house . No wonder were having a drought. Shes got all our water. Good question. Good morning, everyone. Its thursday, may 1st. Beautiful. It does not feel like may. Not the may i used to know. With us on set we have the chairman of deutsch incorporated Donnie Deutsch. Look at that. Hes got the point. You got to have a thing. Thats your thing. Is that your signature . Msnbc contributor mike barnicle. Looks nice today. And in washington rolling the dice, baby. Rolling the dice. Does that work . That was great. Wow. Okay. And hi, jeremy. How are you . Good. And in nashville, historian jon meacham joins us. Gosh, what a great crew. Thats good. There you go. Thats the craps move. Paul newman thing. Listen. I think up to this point and i think well all agree here, that it was 50 50. You know what im talking about. No, it wasnt 50 50. On the bubble. Should he go to rehab, should he not go to rehab. I think, willie, i think rob
ford going to rehab. What a mess. Serious problem. Why do you say that . Was the crack pipe your first clue . Theres a new video from a newspaper that reports to show mayor ford with a crack pipe in his hand and smoking crack. So hes taking a leave of absence. So now its not funny. Now its not funny. Its funny until its not funny. But this guy got all he drank a lot of koolaid that the media gave him. May have been on crack before. Probably was. The clippers. Are you going to buy them . Im just under budget. Yeah, i am. How about you . I dont know. I think barnicle and i are going to be in a bidding war. I told you im not getting into a bidding war. But everybodys piling on. I got a price. I put it on the table. The list goes from Larry Ellison to frankie muniz. Im not making that up. Lets get to the news. A lot of Severe Weather to hit the south. Unbelievable damage. Heavy rains tore through several states leaving parts of the Florida Panhandle nearly two feet under water. That picture is right the streegt right across from my moms house. No and where we thats that street that we yes. My parents house where i lived for a long time. We have other picture. At least one death blamed on the flooding. Hundreds of drivers and residents trapped in the worst flooding in the state in 30 years. This is whats left of the scenic highway in pensacola. Oh, joe. Yeah. Thats right down the street. After it collapsed yesterday. And we have a photo back in pensacola that shows flooding everywhere in front of your old house. You can see the truck of the
home is buried near the water. Another photo shows extreme damage in the local neighborhoods there. That, actually, is believe it or not, that is from the front yard of the house where joey and andrew no. Grew up. Where we lived when they were growing up in pensacola. To tell you the truth, i have no idea where the water came from. We never even had any standing water in that area. Thats incredible. Its just a massive flood. Im so sorry. Theres lots more to report on this. Sarah daloff joins us with more. Sarah . Reporter good morning, guys. The worst of the storm may have passed, but the cleanup is going to take weeks. This is what used to be old cory field road. Now as you can see just a jumble of asphalt and cars. People actually had to be rescued, pulled from those cars. Luckily everybody is okay. And its not that pensacola isnt used to rain. Theyre one of the wettest cities in the country, but it is the amount. Nearly two feet in 26 hours. As you said, it has been deadly. At least one person killed. And there have been a number of dramatic rescues including that of a mother and her young son. They were in the attic of their home. The flood waters were rising and firefighters had to use an accident to break through the roof. They say they were about two feet of breathing room left when they got to them. And people who werent in such dramatic situations say they were quite afraid. Besides the heavy rain, there were also extreme winds and some very intense lightning. They say there were moments of terror in there when we talked to them. Some good news. The worst has passed. Well see rain today but nothing weve seen in the past few days. It will give people a chance to dry out and start to clean up. Back to you guys. Thanks so much. Lets go to bill kairns with more on this. Lets sum up this four days of destruction from a storm that we dont typically see. We can get storms that stick around for a day or two. But for four days this storm has lingered all the way from nebraska and this morning its still located over wisconsin. But its weaker now. So lets sum this thing up. This is going to be our first billiondollar weather disaster in this country. This is our first. 39 deaths reported attributed to the storm. Most of those from tornadoes. 79 tornadoes in all. Two of them are what we call ef4 tornadoes. Thats high on the scale. It goes to ef5. Those had 185 mileperhour winds. The event we showed you in pensacola, its a 1 in every 200year event for that city. No one alive has seen anything like it. By the way, in areas of south dakota they had a blizzard on the backside of this that didnt have a lot of attention. Two feet of snow. Incredible. All right. Bill, well be back in touch with you. Thank you. Thats like one final punch from this winter. One last punch right to the jaw. Just painful. As we mentioned at the top, rob ford is taking a leave of absence after reports of a new video allegedly showing him smoking crack. The toronto globe say two reporters recently viewed the video shot by a drug dealer in fords sisters basement saturday morning. Nbc news has not verified the authenticity of the videos, but you can see for yourself. Make your own decision. Ford is now acknowledging only that he has a problem with alcohol and that he will take a break from this diminished role in office to get help. He disputed he had a Substance Abuse problem last november with matt lauer on the today show. E the best excuse i heard you give for using that crack cocaine was i was in a drunken stupor. Im wondering, is that supposed to make anybody feel better . No, not at all. But show me video even according why does the video matter . I can barely remember it. I was very, very inebriated. I want to make sure we understand, youre not in alcohol treatment program. No. I have a weight issue. Ive been training every day. All i can say, matt, actions speak louder than words. I invite you to come back. Give me five or six months and if you dont see a difference, ill leave. Hard follow me around thing. Come back in five or six months. He only has a problem with alcohol, not crack, right . So i guess thats just to keep his weight down . I dont know. I think were done having fun over this. Thats pathetic. Its taken a turn. Its kind of like, you know the Media Attention was a drug to him as well. Lets move on. Bill clinton is defending his economic policies. Not just to shape his own legacy
but to neutralize criticism ahead of his wifes potential run. Speaking at georgetown university, the former president pushed back after the administration put Business Concerns over where the former secretary of state was looking at him from the front row, clinton reflected on how his budget helped boost education and pave the way for the Affordable Care act. Almost immediately we had several million children Getting Health Insurance who couldnt get it. I dont know how many times i have read from the left bitter criticism about what a slug i was to sign the balanced budget act of 96 lowering the Capital Gains rate from 28 to 20 . Youre afraid to decide that you think i made a mistake, but all the people that say, you know, what was bill clinton doing getting in bed with wall street and lowering the Capital Gains tax, he was getting 6 million
poor children Health Insurance coverage. You can say clinton was lucky. He caught the tech boom. Clinton was lucky, he came out of the recession. And all the socalled prosperity of the 1980s, only 77,000 of our fellow americans moved from poverty into the middle class. In the 90s, 100 times as many, 7. 7 Million People, did. That was policy. Clintons forceful defense of his economic legacy comes as progressive leaders including senator Elizabeth Warren criticized past policies that they say hurt the average american. Its a fine line to walk for Hillary Clinton who has been discussing income inequality while also Holding Events with Goldman Sachs and the carlman group. Several wall street figures would gladly open their wall et ceteras to Hillary Clinton. I dont know where to begin on that speech. Can we start with wow . Can we start with wow . I think thats a good place to start. Thats a good place to start. Second place to start, ive got to say this as a guy that was there at the time bill clinton vetoed every appropriations bill and said our plan to balance the budget in seven years would destroy the economy and throw Young Children out in the street. And he vetoed bill after bill after bill after bill after bill after bill and he only signed that balanced budget act after he was on the golf course with Michael Jordan and he got the horrifying news that if he didnt rush back to washington and sign it, the budget would balance itself. Didnt hear about that in the speech. But bill clinton fought us in welfare reform, said we were throwing Young Children on the streets. Said we were cruel. Now you read his memoirs, it leads it as his great accomplishments and hes still talking about it. So thats my little spiel in response. Why dont you tell me as a president ial historian what to make of bill clinton talking about his self yesterday. He is the best defense lawyer in america. Barack obama hired him last time. Hes apparently hired himself. Isnt he better defending somebody else than doing what he did yesterday . One of the things thats interesting when you watch that, i dont know about you, i had the sneaking suspicion thats not the first time hes said those lines. So it had a kind of rogue quality to it which is interesting bigraphically. President s off see as they wish to be seen. They look back claiming inspiration. Most of the time theyre looking for sanction. This is actually kind of automatic circle on this. Hes reshaping, hes arguing the history as its happening. And hes the first president , really, that i can think of that has a direct personal interest in arguing forward. Arguing the past in order to shape something for someone else. Except for george h. W. Bush who would never try to make a case about his own Administration Like this personally in this way. Jeremy peters, obviously Hillary Clinton was sitting front row right there. Fair or not, the legacy is lumped together with Hillary Clintons legacy. She was in the white house at the time. How much of what bill clinton is doing now is about actually his wife and her potential future . I think thats what this is all about. I think you look at Hillary Clinton now and shes taking a lot of heat from the left. Ralph nader who im sure democrats just love to have him sticking his nose back into
democratic president ial politics again. But ralph nader and another group of liberals wrote to her urging her to exercise more of her authority in persuading walmart. You have the Elizabeth Warren wing of the party thats getting a lot of attention lately. Lets remember Something Interesting about where Hillary Clinton and bill clinton are now visavis where they were when they entered national politics. They were making 35,000 a year when he was governor of arkansas. Now they have made in excess of 100 million on speeches. So they may not be in the eyes of Many Democrats the best messengers for the message of economic populism. You know 100 million . Theyve got a nice quote between the two of them. 100 million. Highest paid. Not bad. In listening to him just briefly, he spoke for two hours. No, he did not. Stop it, barnicle. Thats his First Convention he spoke at. That was horrible. He was up for two hours with charts and graphs. Dont tell me that. Tim didnt stay for the two hours. I was going to say i hope he took his iphone and played angry birds. One of the interesting aspects listening to the president , he can recreate in peoples minds, i think, a fondness for that period of time in the 1990s during the clinton administration. People forget a lot of the negatives. Theres a fondness for that period of time. Well, theres a fond even as youre kind of whats the word i want . Not mocking. Telling the truth . Just kind of jabbing, there is in our lifetime or certainly postronald reagan, there is not a figure, not a politician that comes on the screen and you stare and listen and lean in. So many politicians, youre leaning out. Theres no doubt. Theres a magic there that even i wouldnt go that far. Even as you were calling him on the mats, youre doing it with a smile on your face. Of course. Im just saying theres something about that guy. Its fun. Like every time i see him up there talking, i start laughing. Whether youre agreeing or disagreeing with what hes saying, you cant not love the guy. Plain and simple. I do not believe the same thing happens with Hillary Clinton. Actually, thats actually the takeaway here. I love hillary, that never happens with hillary. I do believe that obviously shes the possible front runner. I do believe there will be some clinton fatigue. The same thing im saying about him i dont know plays with her going forward. Time will tell. Coming up on morning joe, oklahoma senator tom coburn on his home states botched execution everyones been
talking about. Also why senator joe manchin says hes not giving up on his republican colleagues after they blocked on the vote to raise the minimum wage. And bob woodward is going to be here at 8 00. Were going to have a great discussion. For what bob called a fullblown governing crisis in the white house. Also there you see joanna coles of cosmo with the extreme way women can free up their careers. With woodward, well have al hine. Wow. Talk about lamp shades on the head. Wow. Are you kidding me . You dont like him . Michael is going to be here. I dont know who you guys book. Its amazing. Wow. Okay. But first, joe, whats the biggest factor that could keep Hillary Clinton from running for president in 2016 . Politico has the answer. Next on morning joe. Vo once upon a time there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water and castles were houses dragons lurked giants stood tall and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real avo whatever you can imagine, all in one place expedia, find yours or how ornate the halls are. Tall the building is,
it doesnt matter if there are granite statues, or big mahogany desks. When working with an investment firm, whats really important is whether the people behind the desks actually stand behind what they say. Introducing the schwab accountability guarantee. If youre not happy with one of our participating Investment Advisory services, well refund your program fee from the previous quarter. Its no guarantee against loss and other fees and expenses may still apply. Chuck vo standing by your word, thats what matters the most. All right. Its 21 past the hour. Time now to take a look at the morning papers. From our parade of papers, the dibenedetto union tribune. More than 700 firefighters are fighting a fire in Rancho Cucamonga in southern california. Mike allen says its perfect. The fire burned more than a thousand acres in the San Bernardino national forest. Officials say the blaze is fueled by winds and dry conditions. It also forced the evacuations of about 1600 homes. And from the richmond timesdispatch, a train explosion yesterday in virginia. Thousands of gallons of crude oil seeped into a river after cars derailed in lynchburg. Some of the cars quickly went up with flames filling the sky with fire and black smoke. Nobody hurt. And the New York Times on the Senate Republican successful filibuster on the plan to increase the federal minimum wage to 10 an hour. Democrats claim republicans are tone deaf to low income americans. I would say so. Lawmakers in the gop say the democrats are risking jobs. Just bob corker, republican of tennessee votes with the democrats. Front page story. I guess this is going to be the narrative for the democrats as they head into midterms and also the president ial elections. Thats absolutely right. Youre seeing this with a lot of other proposals that you put forward, calling their plan a fair shot for everyone. My question is do voters come out and vote on this . If you look at polling