Costs of fighting wildfires like this one in southern california. And keep the news out of ka lee coming. The red carpet awards that willy night in nbc. Your host this year, the very talented seth meyers. Thats going to do it for way too early. Morning joe starts right now. I was under the impression. I thought bruce said he didnt want his music played at youre vents because he didnt believe in your politics. No, youre wrong about that. Bruce has never asked me to do that. I saw bruce about a week and a half ago, and he had every opportunity to tell me not to. He didnt and he never has told me not to do it. Im pretty sure i know him and youre wrong. Youre now expressing your
politics. Youre now expressing your politics and your objection, thats fine. Dont put it in mr. Springsteens mouth. Put it in yours. If you have an objection to it, you object. You have every right to object to it. I know bruce and ive spoken to bruce and youre wrong. Speak your mind. Be angry or not, it doesnt matter to me. I have a job to do and im going to do my job the best way i know how to do it. If you object to it, thats okay. The question i thought i heard what you have to say. Weve got the idea. Seriously, when you start off by mischaracterizing. I didnt make it up. Im sure youre pretty sure. You have no place else to go with the story except to stick with the story you got. How about the story about the disabled. If you want to debate, run for governor and ill debate you. Im not debating you now. That went on and on and on. I kept waiting for it hes back good morning everyone. Its wednesday, august 20th. Welcome to morning joe. Thats a good sign because donny is over there thats terrible, hes such a bully. Im sitting there going hes doing really great. Okay. Onset, we have donny deutsch. You thought that was good . I thought that was great. Well talk about that in a second. You know what i think is great, also. Letting mika introduce people without interrupting her. We have a code on this show. We do . Whats the code . Dont interrupt. I didnt know about that code seven years in. Msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the Republican National committee Michael Steele. In washington, roll calls editor in chief christina bellantoni. Good to have you on board as well this morning. Also coming up, they did the mugshot of rick perry. What a stupid speaking of governors. Did he smile . He had a nice smile. Look at him. Hes a good looking guy. Its not exactly anything you know what . He looks good and has every reason to be happy right now. The democrats have over reached. From texas to virginia, Bob Mcdonnell on trial. Well have report on that as well. That is thats a tough one. Let me ask you about mr. Springsteen and mr. Christie. What did you think . I think the debate might have gone on a little long but im used to people going on long. Maybe thats why i related to it. You kept asking questions and as a reporter, she decided she was going to get into a debate, she had her springsteen information wrong and she started moving on
to other questions, and hes right. If they want to hear the reporter, the reporter should hold a town hall meeting. Theyre there to hear Chris Christie. Was that a reporter or constituent . I think it was a town hall it was a constituent. Same with a constituent. Sf they want to debate, the constituent can hold her own town hall meeting. I would much rather this happen than having him cowering in the corner going im sorry. Theres somewhere in between. Im not saying he should cower. He comes across as an obnoxious puj listic bully. Im looking as a human being, he looks like an unappealing, nasty human being. No, he doesnt. He looks like a guy theres a way to push back and move on. Weve seen thousands of politicians say thats unacceptable. Next question. No disrespect to these two people who i know personally and like personally. But in the age of hillary
clinton and jeb bush, a lot of people want to see that. In an age where washington, d. C. Is stuck in the mud and everybody has canned responses and nobody shows their real emotions and everything you say is market tested and poll driven, that breaks through, and thats why Chris Christie worked before, and i think thats why, if the investigations all go what i said from the getgo, he definitely broke away from the mold. He put himself out there in every way in a very honest way, a way that seemed extremely authentic. Willie is in jersey the authentic aspect is what resonates with people. Its authentic, but obnoxious. I go out to the hamptons in
my 100 million mansion every week end, maybe it comes out that way. I thought you werent going to its your house. You have to pay it. He tortures me weekend and week out in the hamptons and he said i might be out there this weekend, can i come hang . Were doing this because sweet little lewis is getting married and having an engagement party. Im going to stay at gatsbys mansion. Is it mick that lives there . Im like mick. Ill go there and watch you do all this profane stuff and sit there. Then i go back hell be in awe. I go back to the west end. You should see the green light. And joe will be dancing. Really quickly, youre a jersey boy. When they want to know what the kids are thinking on the streets of jersey, they ask willie geist. What do you think . Its an odd topic, whether or not Bruce Springsteen likes you. I dont think its as unanimously good as you might think it is in new jersey. Ive talked to people, they like the honesty, they like that kind of stuff. Beneath that stuff, when they look at some of the other things he does, they doesnt always love it. The numbers are good for a guy who has been through a scandal, whether you think its a big deal or not. I think whats important, if he has Big Aspirations is whether or not that plays outside of new jersey. Weve got a lot of news to cover. Isis continues to be a dark cloud that covers the middle east. I cant even show the front of
the new york post. But the daily news has a shot of they are absolute savages. I dont know what they think theyre proving, but all theyre doing is, theyre just setting themselves up to be killed, all of them. Everybody that acts that way, it never ends well for them when you do that to the united states. It just doesnt. Its not jingoism. Where is Osama Bin Laden now . I hope he enjoyed his day in the son. Where is Saddam Hussein right now . I hope he enjoyed it. Its not going to end well for isis. I will say this again thank you president obama for going against your base. This is a scourge that needs to be wiped out from the middle east. I say that with great trepidation after supporting the gulf war, great trepidation
after supporting the first gulf war, like about 70 of americans. That was, we found out later, an optional war. This fight against isis, theres nothing operational about it. They are a scourge that will continue to spread and find its way to americas doorstep. The reason i said we should get out of afghanistan four years ago is because the taliban didnt want to blow up buildings in the united states. These people, they want to kill us all, and if they stay in iraq and they stay get in control of an oil field and get money and get weapons, they will come to us and they will kill as many of us as quickly as they can. This is something the president cant ignore. I would like the republicans to salute them for stepping forward and doing what hes done over the past week or two. We can all go back and criticize what hes done i think democrats criticize what we republicans have done. And then we get nowhere. Going against the base is something that some pol politician haves a lot of fear about. So thats commendable for you to say. The big story here in the united states, attorney general eric holder will be in ferguson, missouri, in just a few hours, 11 days after the deadly shooting of an unarmed black teenager by police. Tense moments overnight between police and demonstrators after calm for most of the day. Peaceful protesters could be heard screaming not tonight as water and glass bottle ts were thrown at police. State Highway Patrol captain ron johnson is hopeful the violence may be declining. I think that was made by the clergy, the activists, volunteers, men and women of Law Enforcement partnered together to make a difference, but also those citizens took heed to what we talked about last night, not allowing criminals to mask themselves in a peaceful
protests. They protested early and went home early and allowed us to have a better look at those criminals and and staters roaming the streets for their own agenda. Captain ron johnson. Can you show the end of that clip again . Im just going to say it. Got to work around the clock because of this. You have one africanamerican Police Captain and i see white faces back there. Only 3 out of 50 it shouldnt be about race. Guess what . Its about race. This is about race. I dont know. That speaks to the problem that that community has. Thats the problem in ferguson, exactly. Lets go to ferguson. Nbc news correspondent craig melvin has been on the ground for several days. Its good to see you. We hear a relatively good night
last night but we heard that before so were leery of celebrating that. What is the mood on the ground and what you think now that youve been there for a couple days breaks this and brings the peace. Thats a good question, willie. Everyone seems to be in pretty much universal agreement that the one thing that would probably empty these streets fairly quickly is if there was some sort of indictments, charges brought against that officer. As you know, the grand jury convening about 9 00 this morning to start hearing some evidence, it was very interesting, as you just heard there, 47 arrests last night, no molotov cocktails, no shooting, no teargas used. There was pepper spray used. You can see that in one of the clips played there. But it was calmer. The crowd itself, i can tell you, was smaller last night than it had been. There also seemed to be a shift in police strategy. Captain johnson told me earlier in the day that we might see this and we did, in fact, see it
last night. In previous nights you saw those officers in riot gear wearing helmets, shields out. Shoulder to shoulder. Sort of a very offensive position. Last night you did not see that. You saw smaller groups of officers and they were mingling, so to speak, in some cases with these smaller groups of protesters as well that once again were being forced to make that lap around the main drag here in ferguson. We also saw those militarystyle vehicles. In previous nights, they had been right smack in the middle of the street again in sort of an offensive position. Nonetheless, an intimidating position. Last night those vehicles were not in the middle of the street. They were on the side as well. So there are a number of folks who have said said to me last night, that Little Things like that did, in fact, make a difference. Of course, as you know, captain johnson urged the Peaceful Protesters not to come out last
night and do their protesting in the day. By all accounts it looks like a lot of those protesters did just that. All right. Speaking with msnbcs tamron hall, ferguson mayor James Knowles looked to downplay suggestions of racial tensions within the community. Take a look. Theres not a racial divide in the city of ferguson. According to who . Is that your perspective or do you believe thats the perspective of africanamericans in your city . Thats the perspective of all residents in our city. There are people, with all due respect, there are people on air on any network, even if you dont watch this one, who disagree and live there. Im asking, with all due respect, are you listening to them . Absolutely. Theres 22,000 residents in our community. This has affected about a half mile strip of street in our community. The rest of our community, the rest of the africanamericans in our community are going through
out their daily lives, going to businesses, walking their dog. Kind of like saying after 9 11, look at new york. New york is fine. Whats wrong with new york. Thats perfect. What are you talking about . Nothing has happened in new york. Its a small strip of buildings at the island down there. The guy is clueless right there. He is absolutely clueless. For days people have been asking where is the Political Leadership in this town. They hadnt seen mayors or members of the city council. He comes out and hes clueless. You understand why folks in that community will pissed off right now. He looks like he just came back from vacation and has no idea whats going on. Theres three out of 53 members of the police force, his police force, right . Right. That are black. Not only that, mika. Out of 53 in a city thats 70 africanamerican. How can you let that happen when youre hiring and trying to figure out a force that represents the community. I know how you let that happen. You dont think theres a problem. Then to make matters worse, you say theres not a problem. You think because you say it that that means its the rule of law because you are clueless and youre not self aware. I dont know if this guy knows, willie, even the Egyptian Government is chastising for whats going on in ferguson. If the generals in egypt are criticizing you for your human rights record. The ayatollah in iran is tweeting about ferguson, missouri. There are things that happened in the moments after this young man was killed that have traumatized that area of town, that whole town. He was left lying in the streets for hours. He was not covered up. And there were children there were people so stunned at what they were seeing, they were videotaping it because they didnt know what else to do. They were traumatized that they saw this young man get gunned down and he laid there in the middle of the street, not surrounded, not covered. They didnt put they said they didnt want to tamper with the scene. My god, they certainly didnt tamper with the scene. They left the scene there for everyone to see to be traumatized for hours. Its the same thing in the trayvon case. The parents werent even notified that he was in the morgue for a couple of days. Again, the game we always play around this set is what if a republican president did this and in these cases you have to ask what if it was a white 18yearold kid shot in the middle of a suburban neighborhood . Its the same questions i asked
every day during hurricane katrina. If this has happened in an exclusive suburb of dallas, texas, would the president be looking down from 30,000 feet or Walking Around shaking hands . Its the same thing here. If this happened in a white neighborhood. It continues to stress the black community in particular in these areas that are suddenly thrust into this reality again. For them its every day. This is an everyday occurrence. This frustration has been going on for a long time. For the mayor to sit there and act like it isnt craig melvin, thank you very much. Still ahead on morning joe, how a grand jury investigation into the death of choke hold victim eric garner play out in a Staten Island courtroom . Well about to find out. Plus we deal in the unique, the unusual, barely legal, and we always get the deal. This is barely legal pawn. Just a few days away from this years emmy awards, we have this reminder of how brilliant the cast of breaking bad was. Up next from Vice President ial candidate to intellectual leader of the Republican Party, paul ryan is standing by. I thought that was me. No, joe, its paul. You took my mantle. I trademark that. He still looks like a sweet young man. You know who doesnt look like a sweet young man . Bill karins. Pretty amazetion stuff in arizona. We got trenched. It only happens a couple times every year. The flooding was pretty epic. North of phoenix they picked up about four inches of rain in a short period of time. Horses being rescued, running in the water, numerous accidents. And 17 was closed at one point. When it rainses that water goes wherever it wants. Thats over and done. The story now is the heat and humidity. The dew points measure how much moisture in the air. This is the most humid and hottest weve been across the country, especially in the southern half. Heat warning in st. Louis and heat advisories from memphis into southern illinois. How hot will it be . Not record shattering, when you add the humidity into this, it will feel like 105 today in st. Louis. That continues all week. Thats the thing about this. This is going to be a long duration, definitely as we go throughout the weekend and even into next week. Look at memphis, tennessee, near 100 all weekend long. The heat is with us and it figures it would arrive at the end of summer. As we go into next week, we could be watching something in the tropics heading for areas like the gulf of mexico. Its going to be a feeling of summer and the tropical season in the week ahead. We leave you with a nice, warm, beautiful shot of the capital in
washington, d. C. Well have more coming up here on morning joe. You know what he said thats why i put this on. He said they were getting itchy. Vernon jordan, seriously, every time i see him in the airport, he chases me down. And hes like, son, wear a tie. Stop looking like that. He would know, joe. Disgraceful. If i looked as good as Vernon Jordan every time i put on a coat and tie, id wear a coat and tie. I assumed when i saw that, thats what you put on when you got out of bed. Thats a faulty assumes. Thats what i wore to bed. The night is still continuing. With us onset, not only the house budget chairman, but also the guy that puts out the list of the worst dressed man in america, congressman paul ryan. Of wisconsin. Out with the way forward renewing the american idea. Good to see you. How are you doing . Doing well. How is the family. Sn. Great. Cross country practice began the other day. All three doing it. The young guy on nye knee, the first year of eligibility. Who is fastest . Oh, my daughter. A great hurdler, too. Were you a runner . Distance. Slow, not fast. Slow and steady gets it done. What were you . I was fast and short. On my Football Team i ran the
fastest, like eight yards. Out of the gates i still surprise my son and his friends, i explode very quickly. After about eight yards, i have to smoke a cigarette. Im joking kids. Daddy doesnt smoke. Paul, a lot to talk about here. I want to get to as much as we can. We certainly want to talk about the book. First lets talk about ferguson which sfeeds right into the book. We were having