Children before their parents got their green cards. Thats going to do it for a monday edition of way too early. Morning joe starts right now. Good morning. Its monday, may 19th. Welcome to morning joe, everybody. Look, it just might be a Beautiful Day. With us on set we have the chairman of deutsch incorporated, donny deutsch. Good morning. Pretty. No. Youre in trouble. Okay. Really . Well talk. Some people have excuses. And other people have excuses. All right. Msnbc political analyst and visiting professor of nyu, harold ford jr. Is here. Hello. The host of way too early, the
always joyful effervescent thomas roberts. Good morning. Youre always in a good mood. I try. I need some of that. Youre always in a good mood. Im a little bogged down by life. But theres no reason for that. Thats what you tell me. And in washington we have the ceo of politico, jim vandehei. Several stories developing right now. In california 47 homes are in ruins following an outbreak of wildfires around san diego. Crews battled flames on multiple fronts. Some families were spared while others lost everything. The entire state is facing a serious drought. And the governor is warning this years wildfires will be the worst. And relentless rain have left most of serbia under flooding. Massive evacuations is underway. The death toll sitting at 25 is expected to rise. The mers virus is spreading here in america. Now a third possible case in the u. S. Doctors say it could spread through something as simple as a hand shake. Well have a report from dr. Nancy snyderman in a few minutes. And the va admits 23 people have died because of delayed care. A new information points, though, to a far deeper problem. An ohio paper says delayed treatment is a factor in more than 100 deaths. Well be looking into that. And it was a packed house for fridays first know your value conference which donny missed in hartford. Hundreds of women took part in a wide ranging issues. Were going to show you some of the highlights coming up. Mea culpa, i was privileged
to be invited to judge yep. Celebrity judge. With yourself and mr. Scarborough. And i got plans. I got big footed because of you. Exactly. I was big footed because of you and i sat home friday night. Its always about the children. I got plans to come up to hartford and i was taking morning joe chopper 5 up there, and i have to be home at 4 00 on fridays when my kids get home from school. This is a true story. So its children first. Thats what happens. And once again the scarborough chopper 5 did not work. By the way, 500 women you know what i said when your chopper wouldnt go in the rain, they all went, please. Do you think id turn down 500 women . Thats a good excuse. How was the conference . It was amazing. Well have more coming up. You owe me some shoes. Let me get to the shoes. First heading into the heat of the election season. According to politico. Likely voters around the country would prefer a republican over a democrat by seven points. Nine in ten say the Health Care Law would be important in determining their vote. 60 of the voters say the Health Care Debate should not be over. But a number that perhaps could help democrats, 58 say a candidates stance on the income disparity between men and women will impact their decision in november. We have a story coming up connected to that. These numbers come as some of the toughest races will be decided tomorrow. Races playing out across the map from oregon to pennsylvania to
the deep south. Despite big money from the Senate Conservatives fund, Tea Party Candidate matt bevin trails Mitch Mcconnell. The Senate Majority leader is on Cruise Control. But the same poll shows mcconnell trailing democratic likely challenger Alison Lundergan grimes. David perdue seeming in the lead. But it would take both slashing, spending, and increasing revenue to take down the debt. Its what his opponents have jumped on. He never voted in a regular republican primary. Hes flipflopped on issues that are key to Republican Voters common core. And now we found out just this week that he seems to be a little bit soft when u it comes to not raises taxes. I use the word revenue. Revenue is a code word for taxes in politics, obviously. The point ive been making for over a year is weve got to get the economy going that will increase the tax base and help the crisis. Voter turnout is expected to be below 20 and at least three other candidates are in striking distance. The winner takes on Michelle Nunn. Then theres mississippi where Chris Mcdaniel is trying to unseat thad cochran. A blogger has been charged with felony for taking a picture and posting a photo online of cochrans wife who was in nursing home. What . The blogger Clayton Thomas kelly is a mcdaniel supporter. But whats the point of this . How would that not backfire . Politics these days has become more and more nonsense. Mcdaniel has condemns the bloggers actions. First of all, well be hearing from kasie hunt in the next hour. Big conversation on the midterms and whats going on with those primaries. But what do you make of those polls and how it looks its playing out on the campaign trail . Start with the politico poll. The important part there is the poll was just in competitive house and senate areas. Its not a national poll. Its where the elections will be decided and republicans have a decisive advantage. And the fact that 90 of people have very passionate feelings about health care shows you that is the singular issue of the campaign and does tilt the republicans way. Which is the reason they have that lead. You have that broader environment. Then inside of that, the big story of the campaign has been that the establishment has been able to get better candidates, to get more money in to support those candidates and beat back the most electable candidates in the races. We dont know whats going to happen in georgia. One of the most interesting things you said about the
georgia is less than 20 of voters are going to vote in that primary. Theres almost more candidates than there are people that will vote. But it does look like an establishmentbacked candidate will win. You come out of those with the candidate republicans want. Donny . Obviously your poll shows for health care a robust issue for republicans. But as we get close to the general election and as better and better news comes out for health care, is there a possible misstep waiting in the wings for republicans here . Thats always a possibility. In durability in Health Care Numbers i see on which people planning on voting do oppose the law work in the republicans favor. The other thing to keep an eye on is win back the senate, i would look at that poll youre talking about in kentucky where its really a dead heat for
whether or not Mitch Mcconnell can thought it was going to be down. Almost every poll ive seen shows hes up. This is still very much up for grabs. I think health care is going to be the issue which is why every outside group is pouring money into that issue. I think they can capitalize on income inequality. Are you surprised at the numbers . I think Alison Grimes is a better candidate. Have we underestimated her . The sense of those in the National Press are wrong. Ive met her. Ive wachd her. She has performed at a lel that democrats in that state are proud of. I watched matt bevin, a republican opponent for mcconnell, yesterday on one on the sunday shows. Even if he said he wouldnt support grimes, he said he
wouldnt support Mitch Mcconnell. If we know any kind of division amongst republicans could open a door for her to win narrow in this race. I give her a lot of credit for hanging tough. And obviously hanging well to beat the head bot with the error in news polls. Whether the president has been completely successful against the Republican Opposition or not. That is a fair shot. And the issue of equal pay within that, but the income disparity problem that we are seeing in this country. People like Elizabeth Warren who are heroes on the left and youve also, donny, got companies now stepping up realizing if people arent going to come around in washington, were going to do what we have to do. Were going to do what we can do. The Health Care Law worked better in kentucky than it did in other states. That could be one of the key factors to the extent the political poll is being decided. He opened up kentuckys
health care state exchange. Didnt rely on the federal government and they were able to get people in the special statewide program that other states could try to emulate. I think his opponent is shes not running on that. Portland, oregon, is pulling its money out of one of the biggest corporations. The city will no longer invest in walmart. The city has adopted socially responsible concerns. Wages is mentioned in this as well. By 2016 the city will have eliminated 36 million in holdings or about 3 of the citys portfolio. Its interesting. Particularly with millennials today, corporations behaving the right way has everything to do
with income inequality, so on and so forth. This also goes back to the health care thing and the Republican Party of no. Its all about populism today. As our nation, as these young people come up, they want income inequality across demographics. They want it across sex. They Want Companies to behave a certain way. And they Want Health Care for the masses. And i still believe that although on paper this health care argument seems to be juicy for republicans, as we get to november, the issue will backfire. I totally agree with you. And the argument against that is you dont want everybody to have health care, really . Its all the same blush. Its all about a populist nation. The story after story of walmart employees, mcdonalds employees getting food stamps or living below the poverty line. Its impossible in this country to say im against a minimum wage hike. Are you serious . The one thing weve seen from the issue with minimum wage and so many fast food worker strikes and thats ignited a fire worldwide about what that means for quality paywise. And women by the way. But we get the video, right . We get the video of the protests and we can see them really relate to what theyre trying to say, but donnys point to millennials and how they organize now. Its hash tag protests. Its social media. The fact two things that concern me about what democrats in the congress and white house have not been able to accomplish, number one is that. Number two, makes no sense why they have taxed private equity who are benefitting from the interest. They tax people over a quarter Million Dollars a higher rate. The thing they havent done to address one of the great
inequities that could create extra resources for Small Businesses who say if i raise minimum wage, it hurt this bottom line. The fact were not producing higher paying jobs is equally as shameful. In this mornings usa today, the front page dominates with the at ts purchase of directv for 48 billion. Its a huge challenge to cable and stands to reshape content on everything from mobile devices to tvs to tablets. To offer a single bill for cell phone, internet, and tv. That would be nice. It still needs to go through the fec. But if approved, the entertainment giant would serve 26 million people. Lets bring in david goust who wrote the story. What is it for the consumer in terms of when this could come to
pass and how it would change their lives . The Companies Say if this does come to pass, it would probably not show up on your bill until next year. What it could mean is the second largest wireless provider in the country would also then become the second largest paid tv provider. That represents part and parcel the big part in the entertainment industry. That is not done. My gosh. Its im trying to think of a bigger deal that obviously the comcast time warner deal was in this same vain. The end of the day, we want to watch our morning joe. So in the past whether it was a cable, now its a possibly device, whether its a telephone company. He or she who has content equals ie balls, equals winners. When it comes to how many devices you have to have around your house for sure. But david, what are some of the challenges going through. All these deals sound amazing in the headlines but anything could take it down to an extent. Regulators are in a bind. They want to compete with wire companies. They want more competition from comcast and very verizon. Theyre faced with not letting these Companies Get too big. A couple of major media and Technology Companies serving the vast majority of more thanes. There are already these pending deals. Comcast is trying to acquire Time Warner Cable. Sprint has made no secret of its ambition to take over tmobile. Regulators may have to step back and say what does the new landscape look like together before letting one of these go ahead. In every industry, the good news here versus take the pharmaceutical industry where youve got pfizer making a bid to astrazeneca, thats to move the money out of the country. As long as thats not hurt by this deal, i think its something the fcc should look favorably on. Thank you very much. All right. The u. S. Transportation department is ordering gm to pay 35 million for waiting a decade to recall 2. 6 million cars over defective ignition switches. That is the maximum penalty allowed. An internal investigation is focusing on how the legal team handled the safety issues. They released a report of words they were told to refuse using. Were shaking our heads. Instead of the word problem, employees were to say condition, issue, or matter. And they were urged to say does not perform to design instead of defect. Do you smell coverup . Other words they werent allowed to use, titanic, things like that. At least 13 deaths have been linked to the faulty ignition switches. It was the focus of a special documentary last night on cnbc called failure to recall. They asked us to investigate further to try to determine exactly what happened knowing we may never know the answer. Cooper hired an engineer, mark hood, who started testing cobalt ignition switches he bought from junk yards. When he compared older switches to newer ones, he discovered something shocking. When he put the replacements through the test protoll kal. He found they were almost three times stronger as far as the difficulty to turn the key. He said youre not going to believe what i found. I said what, he said they changed the switch. Cooper and hood realized gm had changed a part quietly. The s. E. C. And Justice Department are resurgeoning. The company, this is a terrible thing to say, but its true. The company were going after, that company doesnt exist anymore because it dissolved. Theres a new gm now. The liabilities dont follow the new company. Its a murky and dicey situation. It is a new gm today. Legally. Completely. And look. This is a serious problem, but this is a completely different organization. Theres a woman running General Motors now. Theoretically peeking, you couldnt have a different type of management. She knows the culture of gm that got them to this point. The big thing for anyone that has a gm, this is on you to figure out if this car is under this recall and figure it out. Because these things have caused deaths. Bankruptcy . The company, are you going to say its a new gm now . No. Dont misunderstand me. Where the recourse is. I think this is terrible. And there needs to be a fix to this. These families need to be taken care of. The thing ive not heard that ill likely hear from gm is this problem has been fiked and Going Forward you have nothing to worry about. I dont know how you trust that at this point if theyre telling to mislead people. Can you just declare bankruptcy. Is there a problem with the bankruptcy laws and just legally be completely of everything but also morally. Obviously not morally, clearly. I feel really sour for the first female president of a car
company. But this is unacceptable. Also, just before as we were doing that figure on friday for the cnbc report, there was a new gm recall that came out. So they have this litany of problems. Again, it is on the people who own the vehicle or people in the market looking for a vehicle to buy. Go to their website and figure if the vehicle is under recall. The New York Times has issued a more detailed statement explaining the reasons behind the firing of executive editor jill abramson. Equal pay for women is an important issue in our country, one that the New York Times often covers. But it doesnt help to advance the goal of pay equality to cite the case of a female executive whose compensation was not, in fact, unequal. I decided that jill could no longer remain as executive editor for reasons having nothing to do with pay or
gender. Jill is an outstanding journalist and editor but i concluded her management of the newsroom was simply not working out. You know, i wasnt here friday. I know you had a lot of this last week. Two points. Number one, ive had people in the same exact job at different pay scales because maybe their seniority is different. Thats number one. We have to be careful. It sounds like a lot of people in the New York Times says she wasnt doing a great job. Theres always a dangerous pay saying i was fired because i was a woman, because i was an africanamerican, because i was gay. And theres two sides to this sword. If you do a deep dive here, you are going to find out from her subordinates she was not well liked and she was very hard on the furniture. And, you know, its very easy to rush to, oh, she was fired because of gender. I think theres a level of potential reality to what youre saying. It might or might not be true. But its to be considered. Having said that, the numbers that were learning in erm thes of who was paid what and what she had to do to