Welcome back, everybody, to moore, oklahoma, as we come back to visit what it means for this town one year later after that devastating tornado where 24 people lost their lives as we drill down to talk people lost their lives. As we drill down the talk of some of the figures, nearly 175,000 tons of debris has been hauled away. As you see plaza towers behind me, this school is to reopen coming in the fall. The healing continues here in moore, oklahoma. Thats it for way too early. Morning joe starts right now. If we exceed the 14day measure for scheduling appointments, he says, the front office gets upset. He outlined a way to get around it. When patients called for an appointment, they were not booked into the computer until an appointment came up 14 days after the day. That way youre off the bad boys list. Any incident like this makes me mad as hell. Your mad as hell face looks a lot like your oh, were out of orange juice face. Maybe you can take a page out of australian describing dog interaction guy. They came bounding over. Now that guy gets things done good morning. It is tuesday, may 20th. Another pretty day in new york city. Welcome to morning joe. With us on set, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. Good morning. You look nice today. Thank you very much. Analyst Steve Rattner. I like the suit. Thank you. In washington, associate editor of Washington Post and msnbc political analyst Eugene Robinson. Willies here too and i cant
wait for a good talk with dad. Bill geist is going to be here in the next hour. Oh, my gosh, willie. This is going to be great. Ive taken a brief look at it because i got a sneak peek over the weekend. Yeah. We slipped you one. Well talk about it later on. Its me and my dad having awkward conversations. Your dad, longtime cbs correspondent. Apple did not fall far. Good writer too. We have a lot to get to today. We have a scene for you to show you right now. Thats one year ago today. As a massive tornado ripped through the town of moore, oklahoma. The f5 twister left a path of destruction that few towns have ever seen before. We were there the day after last year to witness that devastation. And Thomas Roberts is back there with how the community is doing one year later. Well hear from him coming up. Plus this is how the new york
city tabloids covered mayor de blasios wifes interview with new York Magazine. Huh . Did she say that . Not at all. I didnt think she said that. She said something that was brave and most women think. And true. Exactly. Were going to have that story coming up. The mayors reaction as well. But we begin with a big day for the battle to control the senate. Voters will decide which candidates head to the election in key battleground states. Mitch mcconnell looks confident against matt bevin. But his democrat Alison Lundergan grimes whos poised to present a tougher task. She came out swinging at a rally in louisville. I am a kentucky woman who my republican colleagues have so generally referred to as an empty dress that seeks to retireMitch Mcconnell. Mitch mcconnell fails to realize that its labor that has lifted millions out of poverty. As he says no to collective bargaining. As he says no to prevailing wage. You will have someone in the United States senate who says right to work for less is just another name for Union Busting and i will have none of it. Okay. For mcconnell, its not just about keeping his seat in the senate. Hes eyeing the role of majority leader should republicans take control. Theres only one thing we can do about it in 2014. In 2014 you can change the United States senate, make me the offensive coordinator instead of the defensive coordinator. Very different tone there. Gop candidates need six seats to shift the power. I say for you women in our
room, youll love our republican in oregon. Shes a female pediatric neurosurgeon whose slogan is, change your senator not your doctor. I guess thats opposed to shes a male. I think that might be just the word seemed awkward to me. Hes an awkward guy. Okay. So female webby, however, has faced a bruising end to the campaign with newly disclosed accusations she harassed her exhusband during their divorce in 2007. He called the police and claimed he pulled his hair, slapped him, and threw items at him. Another man, a former boyfriend accused webby of stalking him last year. If she wins today, shell go on to face democrat jeff merkley. Male willie, take over. Thank you, female mika. Thats quite a dump at the end of the campaign. Well see how it plays out. Lets go to, Eugene Robinson, about kentucky. What kind of race does this shape up to be . This is as tough as mcconnell has been challenged right now. But as you look at that poll, hes locked and worried about grimes. All the polls show this is a close race in november. Alison grimes from that clip is a formidable candidate. Shes, you know, a female candidate as Mitch Mcconnell pointed out. Hes a crafty politician. He knows kentucky. Hes got a lot of strings to pull. But hes in a really tough race and its a funny state, you know . Basically as solid red state,
but it could elect a democrat. Its not beyond the realm of possibilities. So this could be the fight of his of this phase of his political life. If memory serves me correctly, i think theres a poll within the past six or seven weeks that showed senator mcconnells internals were highly negative against him among republicans which was kind of an interesting dynamic. And i dont know whether his opponents seeming strength would account for the fact that suddenly after all of these years Steve Rattner, he seems to be traveling with his wife more often than not. Yeah. His wife is a very formidable character. She served in bushs cabinet as a secretary of labor and a force of nature. I think gives him a personality that may not always be present in his absence. So hes bringing a female. All right. Well, speaking of females my
god. I mean, its not like were talking about your horses or something. Its ridiculous. Did Mitch Mcconnell say female . Yeah. Can someone send him a note . Seriously. You. I dont think he wants one from me. Speaking of females, new york city mayor bill de blasio is defending his wife following a magazine profile where she discussed her struggles as a new mom. In an interview with new York Magazine, she spoke about the challenges of balancing a career with the responsibilities of being a mother. She says about her daughter in part, i was 40 years old. I had a life. The truth is i could not spend every day with her. I didnt want to do that. I looked for all kinds of reasons not to do it. It took a long time for me to get into, im taking care of kids, and what that means. The tabloids pounced. The daily news says the first lady, quote, didnt want to be a
mom. And the New York Post said i was a bad mom. Mayor de blasio was not happy. He called on the papers to apologize. I think it was inappropriate. It really suggests a tremendous misunderstanding of what it is to be a parent, what it is to be a mother. I think a lot of women are offended. A lot of hard working women in this city are offended. I think post the post and the daily news owes her an apology for misrepresenting what she said and for caricaturing a reality that i think so many women face. So i read the article. First of all, that part of it is this much in an article this big. It was much to do about her life as an advocate, as a ground breaker, as wife of a politician, but also a partner
who has a career in his own right and ideas in her own right and hopes and thoughts for her future in her own right. I found the headlines to be stunning. Is anyone what century is this that were in all of a sudden . I mean, we have this this week. All last week we were talking about jill abramson, you know Mitch Mcconnell uses female in that odd way. I mean, did i miss something . Did we just go back, like, a hundred years . What has happened . The New York Post went back. They decided to take a short part of an article, twist it around and put it on the front page. Because theyre after this mayor, shall we say. I wonder whats behind that. First of all, bill de blasio ought not use the word inappropriate. Its the most overworked word in the english language today. It was offensive to any young mother with children. I mean, you automatically, you cant help the feeling am i going to be handcuffed to the house the rest of my life. You love your child. Youre going to care for your child. But its okay to have those feelings. I will say that she says what so many women feel. I felt it, absolutely. And the guilt that she talks about, lived with every day. It starts to steam roll into something worse because you really feel pressured between what society thinks you should be which is completely in love with your kids 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Something is that is not applied to a man. And if you feel that way, is there something wrong with you as a woman . Because i didnt feel that way. But you are in love with your children 24 7 youre just exhausted because your husband isnt there. All she was saying was she worked since she was 14 years
old. That she knew how to do. What she didnt know how to do was be tied to the house running around after toddlers and almost being hostage to them. I think maybe youd agree to this especially with your first child. Your entire focus has been you and your career and goals and all these things in your life. Then this person shows up and you love them more than youve loved anything in your life, but its an adjustment. Thats all she was talking about. I dont think we should be surprise. Ed its on the cover of these papers. Thats what theyre in the business of being provocative. But this went too far. I feel she broke the taboo of what women feel by theyre not allowed to say. Some will say it but they arent married to a new york mayor. This is true. It will be interesting. Were going to talk to the author of new York Magazine profile coming up on morning joe. Were going to have a more broad conversation, bring other names and faces to the table as well. Speaking of offensive comments, the nba is officially moving forward with plans to strip Donald Sterling of his ownership of the los angeles clippers. He is accused of actions that continues to hurt the nba. The disgraced owner has until may 27th to respond to the charges. His lawyer has requested a threemonth delay which is unlikely to happen. Sterling will have the opportunity to make his case to fellow owners at a hearing on june 3rd. If 3 4 of the owners vote to uphold the charges, sterling will be forced to sell the clippers. As he should. So steve, Donald Sterlings argument is you cannot just strip a person of their property at will. There has to be a case. We all knew this was coming. He was going to sue back and fight. But theres no way that come Opening Night in october that Donald Sterling is owning the
clippers. Youve had players like lebron james saying if he own this clippers, i will not play next season. Theres going to be a big fight along the way. I think one thing about this that hasnt really come out and i think im right in saying this, theres a tax fight involved in this whole thing. Because he bought that team for nothing. If he dies with that as part of his estate, he gets a step up in basis. And he avoids paying a couple Million Dollars on that because of the way the team is sold. Hes not a well man, as also been reported. I think theres a little bit of a substance text here i need this in my estate because its going to cost me a lot of money if i die first. The contract between the nba and the owners seems clear. Theres other businesses where you can lose your license, lose your franchise, lose your rights if youre part of an organization and youve agreed to abide by its rules. Its been reprehensible for
so long. Just get it over with. Moving on, it was one of the most devastating tornadoes in american history. 24 dead, 400 hurt. And the town of moore, oklahoma, leveled. Morning joe is on the scene just hours after the storm hit. And Thomas Roberts has made his way back there. Mika, good morning to you. Good morning, everyone. It was a year ago that we all made our way here and it was amazing to come back yesterday to see exactly how far moore, oklahoma, has progressed in 12 months time. If we look at some of the numbers, 175,000 tons of debris has been removed over the year. We can see certain lots that have been leveled and the slow start of rebuilding. But it is amazing to think for 39 minutes last year, an ef5 tornado touched down destroying moore. It was pretty scary. Everybody was rushing everybody. And then i came out and i saw the cars and i saw the houses and i just started crying so
hard. Reporter morning joe traveled to the scene of the devastation just hours a the storm hit. The images were hard to comprehend. The scene behind us, its like from a postapocalyptic movie. Its hard to wrap your mind around what youre seeing. What youre seeing is a neighborhood behind us thats no longer standing. It was house, house, house, house. All thats left is foundations pip keep getting overwhelmed by these sights. This was a little girls room. You see the clothes still hanging. Reporter the tornado was a mile high at its base kicking up clouds of debris that stretch two miles wide. Winds at 200 miles per hour. The hospital became a symbolic image of the destruction throughout the neighborhood. And it was the last day of class as the plaza towers Elementary School. We had to sit like this and
the tornado started knocking on the ceilings, go up and down. And a light went down and it hit me in the head. And all the other girls were screaming and they were crying. I had to hold onto the wall to keep myself safe, because i didnt want to fly away in the tornado. It was coming, it was hitting, and everybody said put your heads down, put your heads down. Some people got hurt. Reporter while the trauma of the event is so clear in the voices of the children, the stories of survival went beyond the young. We had to pull a car out of the front hallway off a teacher. I dont know what that ladys name is, but she had three little kids underneath her. Good job, teach. It ripped our house up. Theres a little girl buried there. Reporter it was on the ground for nearly 40 minutes leaving thousands homeless. The winds were Strong Enough to rip the bark off trees. Families did whatever they could to find shelter. We had the three girls in the tub and we had couch cushions behind them. My husband and i were knelt down in front of them with a mattress over us and we all had helmets on and huddled together and locked arm. Just right there. Reporter can you believe you survived . You rode this out in the family bathtub . No. I only i think its a miracle. I mean, i dont i dont know how im standing here. Reporter even president obama seemed emotional during his visit to the storm ravaged community appearing to wipe away a tear while talking to a victim. The people of moore should know that our country will remain on the ground there for them beside them as long as it takes for their homes and schools to rebuild, businesses and hospitals to reopen, their parents to console, First Responders to comfort, and of
course frightened children who will need our continued love and attention. There are empty spaces where there used to be living rooms and bedrooms and classrooms. And in time, were going to need to refill those spaces with love and laughter and community. Reporter last month moore became the first city in the country to adopt rules specifically aimed at preventing extensive tornado damage with tough new residential building codes. Its now going to require new homes to withstand winds up to 135 miles per hour. But again, lets just remind everybody. The winds sustained here were over 200 miles an hour. And behind me this is plaza towers Elementary School. They are in the process of rebuilding the school to open in the fall. Youll recall when we were here, this is the Elementary School that had seven children die while trying to survive the storm. There was also another Elementary School that was damaged, but they didnt lose any of their students. And it was amazing to come back yesterday. Well show you video coming up later of where we were on the corner there of south telephone road and southwest 6th. That corner plot of land, that house and the debris, thats all gone. The slab doesnt eastbound exist anymore. Across the street where the moore hospital was, the medical facility, thats completely leveled. And there is a tent city of hospital Emergency Rooms there. Well show you that coming up as well. But its stunning to see the healing thats happened, but also stunning to see there hasnt been a bigger burst of rebirth in the areas where we focused on last year. And storm shelters in every school because its not a matter of if, its going to be when. Thomas, thanks very much. Well check in with you throughout the morning. Among your guests will be oklahoma governor mary fallon. We can ask her about that. Thomas, thank you. Coming up on morning joe, actor liam neeson makes his western debut. Why he took the role in the raunchy new comedy. Plus good talk, dad. The great bill geist will be here on set with the stories in their new book. Up next, the cia is giving up the spy tactic that helped end the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Well tell you what that tactic was and the reason theyre dropping it. But first heres bill kairns with the check on the forecast. Bill . So many memories being brought back from what happened there in oklahoma. For me was the odds of moore getting hit twice by an ef5 tornado twice. As far as the two storms, what was really incredible is the path of the storms. The blue line and the red line are the strong ef5s 14 years apart. They crossed paths and almost went in the exact same direction. The blue one was the one from
99. That went to the north side of moore. Then the last year one was on the south side of moore. The pic