Mcdonnell and his wife. The jury is made up of four women and eight men. The senate is expected to vote on the nomination of Robert Mcdonald to be the next secretary of on the next secret veteran affairs. To fix the troubled agency. Later, the rnc will hold their fire harry reid rally on capitol hill and aimed at getting voters to elect republicans to the senate in the upcoming mid terms. That is going to do it. A tuesday edition of way too early. Morning joe starts right now. Flares have turned night into borrowed daylight in the skies over the gaza strip. Today was supposed to be a ceasefire it didnt work. Intense fighting prevented investigators reaching the crash site of mh17 for the second day running. Much more substantial
sanctions will come into place across broad sectors of the russian economy. Two americans are fighting a for their lives. The spread of a dangerous illness like ebola is no longer somebody elses progress. Now threemonth examination by the New York Times clams that Governor Cuomos office deeply compromised the panels work. If you had watched the movie to the end, the name of the movie would have been independence. You named it interference. Donald sterling lost again today. Go clippers a victorious Shelly Sterling emerged from the courtroom and she can now move ahead with her plans to sell the Los Angeles Clippers. Stephen a. Smith addressing the fire storm he triggered with his choice of words. To say what i said was accomplish is an understatement. You hit somebody, they hit you back. Dont be surprised oh, we will get to that. That is a big debate here. Good morning, everyone. Its tuesday, july 29th. Welcome to morning joe. With us on set senior Political Editor and White House Correspondent for the Huffington Post is sam stein, sitting next to willie. Hi, willie. Managing editor for the news website bobby ghosh and Pulitzer Prize winning editor and with the the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson. You know what im talking about Whoopi Goldberg and stephen a. Smith controversy. They were fighting about this yesterday because of comments made. Have you been following that . I heard about it. I didnt get to see it but i look forward to it. We will lay it all out but its definitely one of the old debates renewed in a very different way. We begin this morning in the middle east where the crisis between israeli and hamas is now in its fourth week and the hopes for a resolution appear to be dwindling. Last night air strikes lit up the sky in the center of gaza
city as israeli hit key hamas locations. The targets including a tv station and the home of one of the groups top leaders. The strikes came as israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu delivered a national tv address. He warned of an extended conflict and said, quote, there is no war more just than this. Israeli and hamas are trading blame for an attack that left nine palestinian children dead and dozens injured. Palestinian Officials Say israeli air strikes hit a park as children were playing on swings. Israeli, however, says militants in gaza fired the rockets which failed to reach the intended targets and that brings the death toll to more than 1,100 palestinians, according to officials there. 53 Israeli Soldiers have been killed, including four yesterday, as well as three civilians in israeli. Joining us no from you gaza nbc news Foreign Correspondent ayman
mohyeldin. Reporter last night was a marked difference in terms of where we are here in gaza city. Its a scene we have seen throughout other parts of gaza but yesterday the fighting arrived in gaza city and 35,000 people live here. Late flares were dropped early in the evening 3 00 p. M. Local time and paved the way for a series of intense shelling that targeted, among other things, the gaza port, the house of hamas leader here in gaza, and others. There are also this morning, disturbing news about the humanitarian situation here according to the spokesperson who is in charge of the gaza electrical power tank, two fuel tanks belonging to that tank were hit and caught on fire and still burning well into the hours of this afternoon. As a result of that now, they say the representatives at the power plant a humanitarian disaster is going to unfold
here. 1. 8 million who depend on all types of electricity for water, sanitation, and other subinfrastructure needs are now wa without power and no place to store the fuel burning for the last couple of hours. A sense to what the palestinians are waking up to this morning. The death toll continues to find. Along the front lines, there is still fighting taking place. Hamas militants were able to, yesterday, fire at Israeli Soldiers and infiltrate across the border into israeli with some of these tunnels, so it shows you that the situation here is still very tense to say the least. Mika . Ayman, its willie. Good to see you this morning. Is there any changing pressure over the last four weeks inside among palestinians about what they should be doing here in terms of stepping back . As these civilian casualties mount, as they see women and children being carried into hospital and many of them dead
and some of them wounded. Have they thought twice now and said maybe we should step back from this or are they only emboldened by the ongoing attacks from israeli . Reporter here its important to make the distinction between hamas and palestinian factions and ordinary Palestinian People who are bearing the brunt of this. When you speak to ordinary palestinians they feel they are reaching a point of desperation. They feel the situation is very much out of their hands. The political factions and the military wings of these political factions still remain very defiant and emboldened and they say their backs up against the war and they have nothing to lose and living a life under siege the past seven years and for them this is now about fighting until the end and that end is a struggle for them and they want to continue the struggle to get the International Community for once and for all live the siege and that is how they are portraying it and how a lot of the palestinian factions and representatives we are speaking
to are saying that is what this struggle is about. Ayman, thank you. On capitol hill, Kirsten Gillibrand and ted cruz came together and announced a resolution criticizing using civilians. The Israeli Press is pushing a ceasefire that the reports claim would be more beneficial to hamas. Secretary kerry is standing by his actions. Make no mistake, when the people of israeli are rushing to bomb shelters, when innocent israeli and palestinian teenagers are abducted and murdered, when hundreds of innocent civilians have lost their lives, i will, and we will make no apologies for our actions. In a column that you entitled kerrys gaza blunder. In part you write this. Secretary of state john kerry has made a significant mistake how he is pursuing a Gaza Ceasefire and not surprising he has upset both the israelis and some moderate palestinians. Kerrys error has been to put so much emphasis on achieving a quick halt to the bloodshed that he has solidified the role of hamas, the unpopular Islamist Group that leads gaza, along with the two hard line nations that and in the process he has undercut not only the israelis but the egyptians and the Fatah Movement that runs the Palestinian Authority all of which want to see an end to hamas rule in gaza. David ignatius, i see what youre saying and im wondering how its possible to blunder something that has been devolving for decades. The gaza mess is not john kerrys fault but its a tragedy that has been going on as you say for so many years. I think the mistake kerry made
in seeking a ceasefire quickly in this intractable conflict without thinking about a pathway for the future so that the situation in gaza wouldnt simply revert to the status quo which we see means another war and another round of misery two years, three years ahead. Kerrys first effort was with egypt when he got to the middle east, he tried to use egyptian mediation to broker a ceasefire and that didnt work. So he then turned away from the egyptians who were right next to gaza who are angry at hamas, almost as angry as israeli itself is, and turn to the hamas friends in turkey and in qatar and try to use them as the mediamea meadmea mediators for the ceasefire. He then upset palestinians and moderate palestinians and others in the region who thought he was enfranchising the region who
were obstacles to peace. If one thing i hope secretary kerry can do is get back on the track of finding a more stable and permanent transition to a future where hamas is not the only dominant force in gaza. We are bringing this back to you. But, bobby, jump in and take it to david. When you listen to leaders on all sides of this conflict, it doesnt sound like there is a lot of room for negotiation. First of all, im not sure what you would hold off any call for a ceasefire for because they are not stopping and they are not pulling back. Rhetoric especially on the side, im sorry, of Benjamin Netanyahu seems to get tougher and tougher every day. Having said that, what do you think is possible at this point . Nothing until the shooting stops. Until the shooting stops, nothing is possible. I think that explains kerrys sort of sense of urgency. Its not like this was his first attempt as david pointed out. He did try to work through the egyptians. That did not work. The egyptians no longer under general, no longer have the
flun influence in gaza they used to. The position is now so small it might as well not exist. So its unlikely that youre going to get a immediate if egypt is a mediator. I can see the sense in trying to work through them. Obviously, there was something inarticulate in the way kerry presented his proposal, but the response from egypt has been beyond caustic and so counterproductive. This is a guy trying to solve a problem. There is a global uproar. President obama called netanyahu two days ago and called for immediate ceasefire, basically, the same thing kerry is saying. Stop the shooting now. Instead the israeli officials speaking many of them speaking off the record or speaking without attribution are mounting pile on top of john kerry who wants to just be ahead. Its difficult for americans
to accept something is beyond their reach, betweut isnt it possible this is a conflict, america despite its great power cannot exert its influence without two parties who want to come to the table and speak to each other . If history proves this is not a conflict that american can just solve. My view is and this is a view that has evolved over the years its just better to be involved than not involved. Just saying you guys are crazy, call us when youre ready to talk seriously, both of you. You know, thats a tempting position but, in fact, that doesnt work. That tends to make things worse. I think we need to be involved. My question for David Ignatius, turkey is a nato member, a major country. So why not work through turkey to try to resolve this, especially given, as bobby pointed out, the lack of
influence that egypt has right now . Of course, it used to under the Muslim Brotherhood but it certainly doesnt now. So why not go to a government like that of turkey to try to work something out with hamas . Well, its a reasonable question. Obviously, one that secretary kerry thought. If turkey could create working with the u. S. , a stable situation in gaza, if turkey could deliver negotiators among the gazan within hamas or any other faction that could negotiate the kind of ceasefire and longer term arrangements for gaza that would lead to stability, i would have no quarrel with it but there is no evidence that is possible. What is unfortunate here is that in april, secretary kerry recognized that in the agreement between fatah, the more moderate palestinian faction, and hamas,
for fatah and the Palestinian Authority to take control in gaza, which they agreed to do, was the opportunity to negotiate something longer lasting. I think my biggest regret, gene, is secretary kerry turned away from that sensible longer term program that would actually get at what is wrong and went for the very short term 24hour ceasefire which, as we have seen, is falling apart because there isnt a structure yet that can create stability. Okay. We are going to get to the other crisis, Foreign Policy crisis, the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 and russia now pushing back against sanctions and saying it will only embolden in a moment. I want to get to domestic politic as well. A followup to a story we talked about yesterday. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing back hard against allegations his office interfered with a Political Ethics Commission one he put in
place and stems from a front page article last week in the New York Times which alleges cuomos office squashed certain subpoenas that would have looked into the governors own dealings. The governor emphatically denies this and saying no proof. One to a media firm connected to new yorks democratic party. Now one of the firms three cochairs at the center of the times story fitzpatrick is claiming that the panel was, indeed independent. He says, quote, the bottom line is that nobody interfered with me or my cochairs. Governor cuomo quick to praise the press conference yesterday in a News Conference in buffalo. When you look at the facts, this Moreland Commission performed exactly the function they were supposed to perform. We passed a law that happen brought historic reform to the state. It was an overwhelming success and the commissioners have not gotten the credit that they
deserve. Independent. They were talking to people from the second floor. Of course, they were. Of course they were and they were talking to people from the senate and the assembly and the Good Government groups. Its not independence is will never talk to anyone, its that they exercised their independent judgment. But despite yesterdays denials, emails obtained by the times showed, quote, mr. Fitzpatrick had privatelily expressed frustration with meddling by the Governors Office and cuomo needs to understand this is an independent commission and needs to be treated as such. Yesterday, the governor disputed the times characterization of the remarks. Read it again. The second floor needs to understand this is an independent commission and needs to be treated as such. Okay. So what he is saying, at some
point in time, is larry is having a conversation with him and larry is advocating a point. That is true. Follow the movie to the conclusion. And what does chairman fitzpatrick say . No. Resoundingly, no. What does the chairmans actions show . No. Resoundingly, no because he rejected the request the rejection is ioion is ipso statement of independence because he said no. And he could, and he did. If you had watched the movie to the end, the name of the movie would have been independence. You named it inference. All right. So, sam, i special to Governor Cuomo. Most of it was off the record last night about this because he saw our very heated conversation here on the show. Also, we were sort of having a hard time getting through the quote, his very defensive quote about the commission that he created. But he says while the times is making a conclusion, that doesnt necessarily say its true and that they have gone too far in their conclusion. While it may look like you can make a connection, you actually cant. And even the members of the panel say that the commission was independent. Anybody . I mean, the question, i guess, is how much influence can you exert without the panel actually responding to your influence and does that matter . Cuomo is saying the panel was ultimately independent because they said no to the request but the request was still made and influencing meddling in its own
right. Why cant a request be made . It depends how you want to do you want the commission to be completely independent from the other parts of the government . And i think when you establish, most people when they establish an Ethics Commission, yeah, you dont want anybody meddling in their influences and you want them to investigate and not have any contact with the outside world. Boom. But cuomo is saying there is a gray area and that they do need to talk to other elements of government and they need to talk to other officials to do their work. I think part of the problem is cuomo has he is a secretive governor the entire time and now he is speaking out, people have a tough time sort of reconciling i will say my own personal, i would like i would love for him to come on. Its one thing to do a press conference really far away. I understand. We talked about the Different Reasons why he doesnt really want to do a lot of interviews right now. But im wondering if he should. You know . And it would help a lot because it seems incredibly defensive. Sort of pushing back saying, dont you understand what this looks like . This is someone who has tried to control the narrative around him from day one. And i think doing an interview in this form sort of counterintuitive everything he has done as governor and it shows. This is someone who did interfere in the broadest sense of the world in the Ethics Commission and that is someone who likes to have a control of the environs around him. Governor cuomo came into th