Get a check on the day ahead. Primary elections held in alaska and wyoming today. Voters will decide who will run against mark begich. Paul ryan is more focused on his partys image and we will have a chance to ask him about it when he join the set of morning joe tomorrow. That does it for way too early. Morning joe starts right now. Good morning, everyone. Its tuesday, august 19th. Welcome to morning joe. That is what t. J. Does. Hes into the glasses. Im glad someone does. I love those glasses. You have the situation with the last contact lens that falls and you just cant find them . I like them. Im telling you. Thank you, willie. I do. Its different when he says it in a way like he is not panting like t. J. Oh, yeah. Its different. Did he just wink at me and go is that bad . No. From the will meister . No. Morning joe contributor John Heilemann, what a weird start. He joins us. Usually youre the weird one, john. All right. Today, im innocent. Today, you are innocent and elegant. We also have an msnbc political analyst and columnist for the Washington PostEugene Robinson. In Washington White House correspondent for wall street journal carol lee joins us as
well. We have a lot to get to. Don pardo passed away. 38 seasons of snl. You know the voice . Of course we all know the voice. It was weird. But i went back on apple tv and i stumbled across saturday night live. The first season they have up right now. 96 years old. 75 and 76. Yeah. I went back. It was don pardo. For those who dont know the voice, listen to this. Its saturday night live willie, the guy was the voice of nbc for decades. As things change, some things are constant. The music on snl and his voice. Those two things. He had a lifetime contract at nbc. Started in 1944 doing radio and
went up until then. 1944 he started. That really is unbelievable. Almost as unbelievable as that moving montage that t. J. Put together of don pardo. There is more, right, willie . That was a little abrupt. Its spanning the world don pardo will tell us about our first items going up for bid on oil the price is right. White mink. A. H. im proud to present the star of jeopardy art fleming. But nobody got hurt tune in next time for spanning the world if there is a next time. Im don pardo. Ah. Don pardo passing away at the age of 96. A lot to get to this morning. A lot of political news this morning. First, we start in ferguson. So far, presence of the National Guard isnt stopping the violent protests in ferguson, missouri. Police fired several rounds of tear gas at demonstrators overnight ten days after Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager was killed by police. Last night, state Highway Patrol captain ron johnson says officers came under heavy gunfire but did not fire any shots in return. At least two civilians were wounded. More than 30 people were arrested. Captain johnson is urging those looking to protest peacefully to do so during the day so police can focus on those committing crimes after hours. Anyone who has been at these protests understands that there is a dangerous dynamic in the night. It allow the small number of violent agitators to hide in the crowd and then attempt to create chaos. The catalysts can be bottle strong, molotov cocktails and,
of course, shots fired. Protesters are peaceful and respectful. Protesters dont clash with police. They dont throw molotov cocktails. Right now Amnesty International has 13 observers an organizers on the ground in ferguson. It is the First Time Ever the group has sent that type of team to the United States. Joining us again this morning from ferguson, missouri, National Reporter for msnbc. Com trumaine lee. Good morning again. Reporter good morning. Tell us about last night. It looks like watching the pictures live last night, it looked like the better part of the evening Peaceful Protesters on one side and police kind of standing in line. A bit of a standoff but not much violence. Then something took a turn. I dont know. I guess around midnight or so and the tear gas started flying. What happened there . Once again, the peace here in ferguson kind of hung by a string. As you mentioned there was this standoff where protesters who
had been marching peacefully up and down along the side of the street decided to kind of gather in the center and link arms but they were loud but not overly aggressive. A few plastic bottles came flying into the air where a Police Officer was standing. Then something happened. Im not sure what happened, but the tear gas canisters were flung into the crowd. People were running and in further distance you could what sounded to be percussion grenades and punctuated again by gunshots. While the majority of the protesters had been peaceful, something happened. As captain johnson said there seemed to be a criminal element kind of buried within the ranks of those protesters. Gene robinson is with us and has a question for you. Trumaine, who are the violent protesters, the ones who are not demonstrating peacefully . Could you describe them . Young, old, female, male, from in town, out of town . Who are they . Reporter its still kind of
hard to tell because, again, they are kind of hidden in plain sight. Certainly some of the more aggressive agitators are young people, young men. But, again, according to captain johnson, among the 30 arrests were people as try sfaer as california and new york. A bunch of people, including Community Organizers, last night who helped keep the peace, said they are provocative within the crowd. The crowd is so thick its hard to identify who is a criminal and who is a professor. Trymaine, obviously, early on when the tear gas was flying when you had the local ferguson cops in charge, it caused a lot of unrest in the community. What has the response been since ron johnson has been out there, a son of ferguson . The tear gas is still flying at night when these people are
looking at and the small element breaking the law. But what is the reaction in the day . Is there just as much distrust of Law Enforcement or does this move make a big difference after nights like last night . Reporter captain johnsons presence has been, you know, marked a dynamic shift in the way the police interacted with the people. On any given day, you see captain johnson out there. He is hugging people and shaking hands. He is actually giving them time. Press is surrounding him. Residents are surrounding him and protesters are surrounding him barking questions at him, occasional insult. He handles it with grace and poise. There is a big difference. Also last night i would say there seemed to be a great deal of restraint before the tear gas is fired. Just days ago during one of the worst nights, i saw one bottle fly and heard it hit one of the Police Trucks and within 20 seconds they were unloading tear
gas canisters. Last night, there were several bottles thrown at officers and they used restraint. I think thats directly connected to captain johnson. He is of this commune. He sees himself as one of them and he has marched with these protesters and he understands he wants the community to move on. One person mentioned that something about mike brown is no longer here and can no longer go to college. He said i want to make sure all of the mike browns in this community have an opportunity. A big difference him being there and what we had before. Trymaine lee, thank you. We will cover the story throughout the day. Eric holder is going to ferguson tomorrow. Same story. President obama sent him there. He will oversee the federal investigation of Michael Browns shooting at a hasty press conference yesterday, the president spoke on the situation in ferguson. Okay, we dont have that bite. Thank you, t. J. Front page of the Washington Post. Gene, this is another one of those situations that this president , all president s find themselves in, but this president especially. So he sends eric holder so the right wingers are going to be angry he is sending eric holder. The left wingers are angry because he is not coming himself. If he doesnt send anybody, then everybody goes, this president is disengaged. Its a total no win situation. Its tough. But this is not a hurricane where he comes and he is welcomed by everybody. This is a tough situation that the president right. We have seen this with race before. This president has been extra careful when issues of race came around and in a way that frustrated a lot of civil rights leaders. Yeah. I think he has also done great things. No, im not being critical of him. Im just saying this is a really tough line for this president to hold. We saw it a couple of summers ago with, remember, the beer summit . No, absolutely. Whatever he says about race is wrong, right . Exactly. Its wrong for somebody. It goes too far, doesnt go far enough. He cant possibly say the right thing about race. This situation is complicated in terms of, you know, any potential president ial visit but what is involved in a president ial visit . Do you take the president ial entourage to a riot . That is generally not done. That complicates, you know, the sort of political social complications he already has when youre talking about race. The talk about being disengaged is something we will get to in a moment. Here is the president and that relates to this conversation. Take a look. Well, i understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown. Giving into that anger by looting or carrying guns and even attacking the police only serves to race tensions and sir chaos. There is no excuse for Excessive Force by police or any action
that denies people the right to protest peacefully. So to a community in ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call, once again, for us to seek some understanding, rather than simply holler at each other. Lets seek to heal rather than to wound each other. As americans, we got to use this moment to seek out our shared humanity. Are you considering going yourself . Is there more you personally can do, not just for ferguson but for communities that might also feel that kind of tension . I have to be very careful about not prejudging these events before investigations are completed. You know, the d. O. J. Works for me and when they are conducting an investigation, i got to make sure i dont look like im putting my thumb on the scales one way or another. Mika, i think that is a perfect call. And, again, people on the far right are going to hate him for
it and people on the far left are going to hate him for it. That is actually a reasonable approach. All right. I think its a very fine line he is walking. Its a dangerous situation on a number of levels, and sending eric holder, ive been in contact with eric holder over the past few months on other issues. Our kids wen to the same school, but we have talked about the issue of this. He talked about going to ferguson. Why are you laughing . No reason. Nothing, nothing. There was some other stories he was interested in. This is a very good move for eric holder. The neighborhood is all im thinking. What . You guys have dungshohping over for dinner. I want to live in that zip code the problem is, willie, eric, who we all like, i disagree with him on a lot of stuff but hes a lightning rod. Doesnt this seem like the smart move for the president to do . He handled it pretty well. But, gene, if you were watching online yesterday, many prominent africanamericans, most of them progressives were upset with that press conference. Many called it bloodless and wanted to see more from the president and called him cosbyism. What does that mean . Cosbyism is a pretty good thing to shoot for in this context, cosbyism, i think means africanamericans and this and that. Hold on. Lets just stop right here. You mean bill cosby, like, has no credit on the street . Is cosbyism a slur . Very controversial in the way he expressed his views which, in fact, have been expressed by everybody. Everybody, right. Including al sharpton was talking about rap culture a decade ago. Jackson has been talking about it for years and years and years. The interesting thing about the
president s reaction is that it was kind of bloodless and obviously deliberately so. He wants to know the facts of what happened. It wasnt personal in the way that he talked about trayvon martin, for example, and if i had a son, it would he would look like trayvon martin. It wasnt a personal suppression of ankguish and sorrow. It was reserved. And i think that was right. That was a smart way to be, because we we know what happened with trayvon, like immediately. We knew that this poor young man was walking through a white neighborhood and a guy chased after him and people said stay away from him. Because of we know what happened there. We still dont know what happened here. Thats what we need our president to do, to actually show some restraint in this situation. Sending the attorney general is a strong message. People on the right are going
to hate seeing eric holder out there too. I think the sweater that hurt cosby. You think so . The sweater, yeah. I thought i thought run dmz all wearing those cosby sweaters in 89. What is striking to me about the press conference if you think about where barack obama would have wanted to be six years into his presidency, having a press conference in which the two most searing issue is the american role in iraq and a race riot in the middle of america, it is just hard to imagine he could have ever thought this is where i will be six years into my administration. You know what is also hard to imagine . That in 2014, we are still having this happened and it seems to happen every year. We seem to have an issue like this every that shows that we still have, mika, this racial divide in america on some level and its pretty stunning. Well, its absolutely, for many people, its an everyday
rela reality. You see the president and the fine line and even on this show, you know, it is difficult actually to strike the right balance in the conversation without leaving someone out. Carol, you obviously cover the white house every day. What can you tell us from your reporting about the calculation that is going on behind the scenes in the white house about how much the president should say and who should go ferguson, et cetera . Well, what you saw yesterday was a really carefully crafted statement. It was no accident that the president tried to strike that balance that you guys have been talking about. The president of the United States, he is not looking to put his thumb on the scale. So he tried to issue a statement that, you know, sympathized with the frustration that people are having in ferguson but, at the same time, urging calm and more of a longer term perspective and letting the investigation play out. That might not be appealing to either side, but that is where they see that this president
needs to play things right now. You guys mentioned the 2009 press conference where the president said that Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting skip gates and that was a real moment for this white house and they still kind of see over that and are looking to never make that kind of mistake again where they felt like the president got out a little bit ahead. They dont want to do that this time. The other thing in terms of a president ial visit you know, theres so many things that go into when a president goes to visit somewhere. Number one is the white house is asking, like, what is the goal . And i dont think right now they see a conceivable, like, goal with there is an investigation going on. And so the president is trying to appear engaged by sending the attorney general there and offering his sympathies but, at the same time, let the investigation play out. Still ahead on morning joe, senator Claire Mccaskill joins us before she heads to ferguson, missouri, later today. Thats in our 8 00 hour. Also we have the front page of the New York Times story how obama is seen frustrating his own party. We need to talk more to carol about that and also Claire Mccaskill. Willie sits down with the top pro golfer, rory mcilroy. If youre wondering if there is anything taylor swift cant do. Is there anything she cant do . The answer is apparently nothing. We will show you her latest music video in hollyweird. Up next, how a couple of hot dogs beat the summer heat . What . Here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. What is going on . Bill . That looks like fun. Good morning, everyone. We are heading into the dog days of summer. Though some of us havent had any summer heat. It is on the way. The southern half of the country big changes. To this point this is the weather pattern all summer. Hot, dry out west and cooler than normal in the east. Here is the week ahead. We are watching the heat shifting from the west to the south especially. Its not so much going to be in the northeast. But definitely the deep south, the southeast, midatlantic into the tennessee valley. The hottest weather of the summer is on your way. Before we get there, we have strong storms today for you. Not so much in the st. Louis area of ferguson, but towards indianapolis, lafayette, ft. Wayne and detroit and strong storms this afternoon and some could clip chicago. Here is your forecast and look at the hot weather building. 90 in kansas city. 98 dallas. Yesterday was 101 in oklahoma city. One of the hottest days of the summer. Then watch as we head into wednesday. Everything spreads east. Kansas city there at 95. Ill show you the st. Louis forecast. That is kind of indicative of how hot its going to be. Notice 96 to 97 through the upcoming weekend with a heat index near 105 so its going to be very hot and steamy stuff there in the middle of the country. Time square in new york city, no such heat for you. Youre looking at nice summer weather right through the weekend. And i come home
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