When i picked those balls out, at that point, you know to me, they were perfect. I dont know what happened. I i have no explanation for it. I dont have no explanation for what happened. I was completely and totally unaware of any of this that were talking about in the last couple of days until monday morning. I was as surprised as anybody when i heard monday morning what was happening. Yeah, that was the most uncomfortable news conference. This is sad. This is the story. Good morning, everybody. Unbelievable. Mike richard, steve here. Shocked to find gambling
going on. Can we just admit that this whole thing, this whole bit of nonsense nonsense . Youve got Football Players who weigh 275 pounds that are weighted out that are on so many Illegal Drugs that they can run a 4640. When they hit a quarterback, it is the impact as willie always says as a car accident and nobody cares about that. But we have the media freaking out about whether a ball was inflated to 12. 5 11 12. 5 pounds per square inch 10. 5 . I mean can we just admit this is about the Great American sport of hating . No. Of hating . No. No, no no no of hating the new England Patriots. Because if the patriots had scored 35 points in the first half with a deflated balls, i would say, okay lets at least talk about it. But, mika when they played with regulation balls, they outscored the colts 350. One of the colts tweeted yesterday, tom brady could have been passing a bar of soap and they still would have beaten us. No you cant cheat. If Roger Goodell wants to start the year on a fresh note doing the right thing every time, he out to say the one game suspension. Oops, super bowl, sorry. Come on. He cheated. Its cheating. No. Mike is it cheating . First of all, this is increasingly ridiculous story. It is. So important, the nfl. Tom brady yesterday has the nfl investigated, spoken to you yet . No. Four days into the thing, no one has spoken to him . This is ridiculous. Mike does it make it easier
if you deflate the balls by two pounds for the quarterback . Obviously not. Why do they test . Why do they test . Mika obviously not because when the balls were deflated he didnt do as well. When the balls were at regulation size i just want to hear you guys talk about this. I want to get on the real news. Yeah. Seriously watching tom brady yesterday first of all, i got to say the spectacle of watching belichick throw brady under the bus and then brady throwing some some like unnamed equipment boy under the bus is a sore spectacle. But this seriously is much ado about nothing. Right here. Come on. Lord i just hold it up, mika. Hold it up mika. Yeah. Okay. He kept talking about him yesterday and said they were. Theres nothing wrong with them. All right. Telling the truth, football fans. Im sorry. Baseball pitchers are constantly scotching and babying. This is this is so run of the mill, is it not . If this werent the patriots if this werent the patriots nobody the patriots youre on to something there. Basically this is not a one off. Its a scenario of a team bending the rules in excellence. And that bugs people for good reason. The patriots are guilty until profit ven proven innocent. It is. Something, something happened. We dont know. You have 11 balls that are below the minimum. Something happened. Crack nfl investigating. So former jacksonville
quarterback who, i liked when he was a quarterback and i think hes a nice guy, Mark Brunelle was on yesterday. Seriously you would have thought the hindenburg had just crashed. I did not believe what tom had to say. Those balls were deflated. Somebody had to do it. I dont believe theres an equipment manager in the nfl that would, on his own initiative deflate a ball without the starting quarterbacks approval. I just i just didnt believe what tom brady had to say. You seem pretty emotional about this. Its disappointing because because my experience is listen, i started 151 games. There wasnt one game ball that i didnt put my hands on. You know what mika i think we need to move on. Pull yourself together. Why dont we talk about the king of one of the most powerful
countries dying. Fascinating. Leave this to the haters. Okay. Come on. Well get back to this. Weve got paul ryan coming up. Its fun watching all of these guys trying to dance around the words here. All right. But now to real news here. Thousands will bid farewell to a powerful u. S. Allies. A state funeral is being held this morn for King Abdullah following the muslim traditions the kings body will be buried in an unmarked grave. He ensured stability in his country despite the threats on Islamic State militants and arab spring revolt. The 90yearold died after being hospitalized with pneumonia. King abdullah is being praised for spending billions of dollars for modernize education in the country. The king opened up the economy and saw saudi arabia enter the world trade organization. He also ushered in reforms for women. Although critics say they didnt go nearly far enough. World leaders were quick to pay
tribute. President obama praised King Abdullah for being a candid leader who always had the courage of his convictions. And referencing iraqs invasion of kuwait in 1990 former president george h. W. Bush said he would quote, never forget the way saudi arabia and the United States stood together against a common foe. A longtime u. S. Ally he supported the countrys efforts to defeat al qaeda and crack down on extremism, but saudi arabia also faced questions in 15 of the 9 11 hijackers were from that country. Saudi arabia is the worlds top producer of oil and King Abdullahs death sent shock waives through market. Crude prices surged amid uncertainty the country would maintain production levels. His brother will take over the throne but he is 79 years old and there has been speculation he suffers from dementia. Well, thats a good person to put in charge of saudi arabia. Isnt it now . I dont have these i never
get these in the right order. But you know, when were talking about the kings record King Abdullahs record, he seems and the country still seems after the reforms and modernizations we hear ability, to fit churchills amazing phrase about the soviet union that says mystery wrapped in a riddle, or however you sort those out. Yes. There were some reforms and, yes, he was ally of the United States but he also and his government helped promote a hateful strand of islam that has caused the word unspeakable misery over the last decade. I thought what mika had to say was all true but it wasnt the whole story. Yep. He effectively ran the country for 20 years, formally for 10 ran it for 20. He was constrained because saudi arabia is all about the deal, deal between the political establishment, his family, and the relinl jous establishment,
education, religious training and so forth. During his time, yes, he did all those things. The society itself incredibly conservative still. Reforms were quite limited. Plus its teachings in religious academies continued to be what they were. Saudi arabia may have been by its standards slightly possessive but the country is still quite reaction their. A lot of whats going on in the arab world, a lot of the reactionary political thinking and so forth can be traced back to saudi arabia. So there are limits to what he would and could do in terms of being a reformist. We had this conversation lets bring in ayman mohyeldin. We had this conversation since paris time and time again. You brought up after the paris bombings that its not the paris shootings, its not an indictment so much on all of islam but a violent strand of islam, a reactionary strand of islam that doesnt represent the
greater religion the greater faith. You pointed out that saudi arabia was key in promoting that violent brand of islam. Well, it was certainly key in promoteing the ideology that gave birth of that violence and something what richard was saying there. It is because of the power structure of saudi arabia its very tribal. In cutting the elite between the ruling family and relinl jous establishment, there was for decades a push by saudi arabia to export this ideology first to some parts to serve the interest of the United States. For example, when they were fighting against the russians in afghanistan, saudi arabia was a huge supporter of that effort funneling millions of dollars. But at the same time get that ideology going to recruit people from around the world to fight what they were then describing as a jihad. But the problem is since then that ideology has continued to expand and morphed into a more militant strand that what weve seen and thats whats effectively given rise to that
ideology. Steve ratner lets talk about saudi arabias overall 1973, 1974 the oil shocks the oil embargo, the rise of opec. This is a country that has had such a say in the rise and fall of americas economy. Do we see where the passing of this king, the beginning of a new era of decreased saudi influence because whats happening in the United States . I mean we literally have people in the dakotas, in texas, i mean, across the United States who are struggleing today because weve gotten become so efficient in pulling oil out of the ground. Sure. Go back to 1973, one of the reasons why opec and the saudis were able to put the embargo in place was because all Oil Consumption was risen quickly and ours was declining so they had the power of the marketplace. Opec as a whole is Still Producing 40 of the worlds oil. All our Additional Oil is, in
fact replacing oil thats declining in other parts of the world. I just give maybe look at saudi arabia from their perspective. I went there in the late 70s when i was a oil reporter for the New York Times. And back then everybody was saying the saudis monarchy cant last, its archaic, you know, the place is going to crumble. Here we are now almost 40 years later and theyre still there. King abdullah put saudi arabia together in 1932 and basically ruled by six or seven of his sons, 22 wives, joe, and a lot of sons. 38 sons. 38 sons since then. The other way to look at saudi arabia is point to me when he said 22 . I pointed over there. I mean ive had two. Come on. 22 wives. Fair enough. At the same time. Only four at a time actually. The point is that for all of the talk of saudi being unstable and certainly there are issues
they have managed transitions from king to king pretty seamlessly. And dementia i think some people thought he had a stroke but theyve already put in place the younger son of King Abdullah as crown prince. So i think we are lucky in a way, put aside the geopolitical aspects. From the oil point of view we are lucky they have been so stable for so long. I want to ask richard about that and also how yum men plays into this which is a country now on the brink of chaos. Yemens president , Prime Minister, and cabinet resigned on thursday amid pressure from shiite rebels who had taken control of the president ial palace. Local government officials tell the Associated Press that president hadi resigned after respectre rejecting the rebels demands. The american backed the government with a key ally in the fight against al qaeda in the region and officials here in the u. S. Worried such disarray could complicate those e67 for thes. The state department has now responded by removing personnel
from the American Embassy in the capital city of a rising safety. Richard haass, this is chaos. Chaos in point. These are shiites. The rebels are even two points. If saudi arabia handled the immediate succession hes 79. The new crown prince is 69. They have not handled the longterm succession issue. As you move to the next generation i think theres real issues. The bigger question though is can they rule can they govern . Theyve got yemen to deal with the iran challenge, Nuclear Challenge, isis throughout the region. Icy in saude isis in saudi arabia . Islamic state. Whats the bullseye . Its got to be the country who oversees the two holy shrines of islam. How much unrest has there been in saudi arabia . Not much. Its incredibly buttoned down. The Eastern Province shia not sunnis, where the soil is. More broad any in the society. Why doesnt saudi arabia work more with the United States with clearing out western iraq . Youve got the iranians working on baghdad. I mean basically being a de facto ally of the United States in our fight. As we show the map you have iraq and syria. You have iran is actually working central iraq. As you look there where iran and iraqs border meets and baghdad is a little bit less of that. Youve got the iranians there. Youve got the kurds working the northern part. Why doesnt saudi arabia aggressively work on Anbar Province with us . I think they should. The question is why arent they . Focusing on the civil war in syria. In some ways some of groups they funded and fueled made the situation worse. Some of these groups are itology, may not be isil but theyre not people we would want to see in power. All im saying is the new
leaders of saudi arabia has as top an inbox as you can imagine and their ability to make decisions i think is going to be very constrained. Ayman, off of what richard was talking about, can you describe the threat posed to saudi arabia on the ground in the middle east in definition of the caliphate which is supposed to swing from Northern Iraq to saudi arabia. Saudi arabia is torn between who is their biggest enemy, isis right now or iran on their northeastern segment . Well, saudi arabia is facing several exostetiah threats. Also in the south its facing a very potent al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has made very clear, one of their aims is to overthrow the house of the roy roiial family in that kingdom. Not only are those two groups po tebt forces but you also have iran if you take a big picture approach has clearly
accomplished very strong footholds in four predominantly, if you will sunni countries, from lebanon to iraq to syria and now yemen. The result of that saudi arabia is seeing this if you will correctness, expression i used before, to surround it not only the shia the rise of she quiteiite groups but the militant groups like al qaeda an isis. This transition is going to be tested very early on. Lots to get to. A lot of political news. Get this one local story in and weve got the bloggers. I dont get it. Said to be a meeting but either jeb bush nor mitt romney blinked when they talked over lunch about the potential competing runs for president. Im going to go visit mitt romney. Its going to awkward. No, not at all. Governor jeb bush was upbeat as he landed at salt lake international. Whether he leaves with a smile is a real question. Im looking forward to it. Hes a great guy. This was set up a long time ago. Looking forward to meeting him. Is there any contention now that hes not at all. Thrown his hat into the ring . I respect him a lot. I admire him a lot. Hes a Great American. I look forward to seeing him. Slew of cameras and tweeted, this photo can stop with delta flight at tent dands apologizing for all the fuss. The New York Times reports there was no resolution about their plans to run which would split similar factions. The meeting in Salt Lake City was said to be cordial, touching on policy and the need for a strong republican candidate but made little headway beyond that. On sunday rand Paul Ted Cruz and marco rubeio will participate in a forum. A de facto first debate of the primary season. The entire field, no matter who the nominee, would enter the race as an underdog to Hillary Clinton should she capture her partys nomination. The latest poll shows her with a
double digit advantage over the Top Republican candidates. George w. Bush for a year before his race against al gore was ahead by 20 points. Those poll numbers obviously its going to be a tight race. You see these guys circling each other right now. And you know i think the Biggest Surprise has been mitt romney for me. That mitt had always said im not going to get in the race if jeb gets in the race. Jeb started the move to get in the race and i think he said no, wait a second, this is actually my time. Its fascinating. I think there was certainly a moment when mitt romney could say to himself, they should have picked me last time and out of everything i said whether it was russia whether it was this turned out to be right. The question is now, obama is doing better. The economy is doing a little bit better. I dont know whether that narrative of you should have picked me four years ago is telling. As you know, joe better than any of youve got the forces of the Republican Party, whether it the other would be candidates or the establishment all coming after him. All right. Still ahead on morning
joe, i dont know about this. Whats that . See this blogger thing . President obama what is this . I dont get this. I think he might become the first sitting president to be interviewed by a person wearing green lipstick. Big demo. Im not sure the millions of he was shy. I dont know. Ive got to ask the question as to whether or not the millions of youtube viewers that hes appealing to is worth it. I dont know. Were going to watch. Plus sports journalist bob ryan, tony danza, all our guests this morning straight ahead on morning joe. I was not expecting to get a ford. We went around the country talking to people who made the switch to ford. It felt nicer than my bmw. Good gas mileage. Ecoboost makes a four cylinder engine feel like a six cylinder. My dad went and turned in his lexus and got the exact same car as me. He had to have it. Im very happy with my escape. I dont know if ill ever not buy a ford. Make t