Good morning, welcome to morning joe. Its friday, march 25. Its good friday. Joe and mika have the morning off. Joining me on set, former Communications Director for president george w. Bush, nicolle wallace. Msnbc contributor mike barnicle, managing editor of Bloomberg PoliticsMark Halperin. The former governor of vermont and former chairman of the dnc howard dean also with us at the table. Good morning. Were going to talk about gary shandli
shandling, that was shocking. One of the greatest shows on tv, Larry Sanders. We have breaking news h th i morning. Overnight in belgium, prosecutors say theyve detained seven people after raids. The Prosecutors Office didnt provide details. Meanwhile french officials said last night that police there foiled another terrorist attack which they say was in an advanced stage of planning. Police raided a home outside paris after arresting a French National early in the day. Officials called it a major arrest but said there was no evidence linking that plot to the bombings this week in brussels or the attacks in paris last november. That coming as the manhunt continues for accomplice on tuesdays bombing. Including one attacker seen standing next to Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui. Laachraouis brother went before cameras yesterday and at his lawyers request they blurred his face. The brother said hes sad and overwhelmed and no one in the
family has heard from najim since 2013. The Family Warned Police when they learned he was in syria. The brother added he never sauna jet stream with any suspects in the paris or brussels attacks. Meanwhile, u. S. Officials are saying the names of the two brothers in the brussels bombings had been listed as potential terror threats in u. S. Databases before this weeks attacks. Belgian authorities have said ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui were known to them only for their past criminal behavior and not as potential terrorists. Belgiums interior and Justice Minister offered to resign yesterday amid mounting criticism over the countrys failure to prevent the attacks. They came under increased scrutiny after turkey said on wednesday it had deported Ibrahim El Bakraoui last year and warned belgium he was, in fact, a militant. However, Prime MinisterCharles Michel has asked both ministers to stay on. With all that in mind, lets go to brussels, belgium. Senior White House CorrespondentChris Jansing is there. Chris, i understand you have breaking news on american victim this is morning . Yeah, willie, its sad news. Just in the last hour, nbc news has confirmed two of the victims in the attacks here in brussels were americans. Two americans confirmed dead. We are not releasing any names. We are waiting to make sure that the next of kin have been notified. That leaves two more americans who are still missing. In the meantime, very active here. You mentioned the seven arrests, these ongoing raids, its because theres this increasing sense of urgency because officials simply dont know how many members of this terror cell may be still at large. It already is bigger than they first had thought and these links to paris and brussels getting deeper and deeper. And the overwhelming concern that because they saw that these attacks may have been moved up after the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, whoever is left in this terror cell may feel this sense of being hunted and feel as though they need to get whatever other attacks may be
under way. Where those attacks were planned, well, we got the first look at that. We saw pictures taken during the raid inside that apartment where the brothers and the bomb maker were staying. It mostly looks cleaned out. You see a simple ladder sitting there. At one point there was a broken what looked like an ipad on the counter. They took closeup pictures of that. Theres a number of rooms in disarray, but mostly they have been cleaned out. Its not clear whether officials took all of that as evidence or they were living this incredibly spartan life. Theres also a chilling look inside one of the subway cars, pictures that were taken in the moments after the deadly attack and you can see how smokey it is. You can see the devastation of that subway car. The ongoing concern which remains what else could they be planning . We know for them success equals recruits so every time they see
there is something that happened in paris, something that happened in belgium, they believe that gives them impetus to get more of those foreign fighters to join them. One final thing we want to tell you about to that point of concern, what else might be planned, officials are confirming the brothers had a camera set up outside the home of a Nuclear Scientist and recorded at least ten hours of video. They wanted to get to him and get his help in building a dirty bomb. Willie . High alert across europe. Chris jansing in brussels. As chris mentioned, two americans confirmed dead. Right now 12 americans are known to have been injured in the brussels terror attacks and several have yet to be accounted for. Brother and sister sasha and Alexander Pinczowski still missing. Husband and wife from kentucky are also missing. More than 300 people were wounded. Dozens suffering terrible injuries. I was in the metro and then the bomb how are you feeling . Quite good, im going home. That man saying he wanted to go home and see his kids. A german lawyer in brussels for business was able to escape tragedy twice. He says he was able to get a taxi from the airport only to be dropped off in maalbeek near the site of the metro explosion. I got off the taxi directly in front of the entrance to the metro. Exactly in the moment when i arrived and got off the taxi the second bomb exploded. Mike, a lot to sift through on this story but one of the interesting angles of u. S. Intelligence is they say these guys were known to them. On a list they had which conflicts with the information that came out of brussels and europe that says these guys were common criminals who were driven into jihadi activity. The recruitment pool being used in europe, theres common criminals by and large in places like maalbeek who are being recruited. The two brothers, one of the brothers arrested in turkey and sent back to the netherlands rather than directly back to belgium had been arrested low level times for low level criminal offenses. So its not a religious recruitment drive, its the low end of the pool looking for people, minor criminal offenses, nothing to do, no jobs, tend towards violence, tend towards armed robberies, come with us, we have something for you to do. And the prisons, as in this country, are places a recruitment school. But its so reminiscent of the process we went through where the walls between the fbi and cia didnt allow a flow of information and ive asked every Foreign Policy official if they think they will break down those walls, if f the process of connecting the dots will reform that system and no one seems particularly optimistic it will. Its astounding. Well, theres also theres great frustration, im told, within american intelligence sources and american intelligence officials that the dispensation of intelligence to belgium, not necessarily france so much but they dont know how its handled, how they hear it, what they do with it, theres multiple Intelligence Agency within belgium that handle it differently. Multiple police forces. Great language difficulties, french, german, flemish. After 9 11 this country overcame the bureaucratic resistance to integration, department of homeland security, its made a huge difference in america and europe hasnt gotten series. Individual countries in europe as a whole havent gotten serious about it. Theres also a big break between america and europe on this. I mean, we have constant problems with data on Airline Passengers being shared and this is stuff thats got to be fixed
otherwise this is going to continue. And one of the suspect bombers, laachraoui, you heard his brother say when he left for syria they went to the police and said this is not normal for him to have gone there. Then he returned. Which is exactly what you want family members to do. You real will can pinpoint where the beakdown happened. It wasnt the family. The cab driver. Thats right. So obviously politics is going to be injected in this domestically. With no public appearances until tuesday, donald trump is off the campaign trail but still active on twitter, he had a lot to say about National Security yesterday. He wrote in one tweet nato is obsolete and must be changed to additionally focus on terrorism as well as some of the things its currently focused on. We pay a disproportionate share of the cost of nato. Why . Its time to renegotiate, the time is now. He went on to write these politicians like ted cruz and Lindsey Graham who have watched isis and many other Problems Develop for years do nothing to make things better. Remember when i recently said
that brussels is a hell hole and a mess and the failing New York Times wrote a critical article. I was so wriright. He went on its amazing how often i am right. Illegal immigration, take the oil, build the wall, muslims, nato. He went on to say Just Announced that as many as 5,000 isis fighters have infiltrated europe. Also many in u. S. I told you so. I alone can fix this problem. I put this problem to Michael Steele and i said whats amazing is he does find that kernel of truth and thats how he hooks his supporters and can make this case but then as you see, if you read the transcript of the Washington PostEditorial Board, when he expands he usually is very sloppy with the facts but what he hangs on to and what his supporters gravitate to is this kernel of truth that he gets and finds people that affirm that yes, i
was right. Well, his initial tweet about nato goes direct to what you just said about how europe handles intelligence. They have to reform how they handle intelligence, we understand its difficult. Were dealing with sovereign nations. Its not like the collective 48 states, 50 all together but 48 contiguous states here where information is shared and goes up. This is one of the core problems that the e. U. Is facing. Not just about terror. They have got to integrate theyve either got to you know what or get off the pot here. They have to do real integration with they share intelligence, have a single Immigration Force as we do or theyre going to fall apart. So you agree with trumps analysis . I dont agree with anything that donald trump says. But thats the point. He takes a kernel of truth and were having a conversation about how to reform nato. Not nato. The e. U. Is a bigger problem. I believe if you dont study now again, ive said before there are going to be ph. D. Dissertations about this. If you dont look at why hes saying about nato and the chord its going to strike, youre underestimating him. Nato, is its on sleet in no, but does it need to reform its mission . Which is what he said. It needs to change the mission. So you have other politicians including Hillary Clinton and ted cruz saying oh, hes weak on defense, out of touch because he wants to change nato. On the politics and policy hes right. Nato needs to be looked at. Nato is oriented towards stopping russia from invading berlin rather than dealing with the threats that europe and the world faces and trump has figured this out and he wont stop. And he gets Richard Haass and Steve Rattner and others who say i hate to say this, trump is on to something. I wouldnt go so far to say hes right on the policy. I think its more accurate to say he gets a kernel of policy truth. Its more than a kernel. Im not saying hes right about the entire hinge but just like with the border, like we need to look at our security, there should be a robust debate about the role of nato. It would not happen if it werent for donald trump and now i think it will. Youll be in one of his tweets today. The congratulations, the great Mark Halperin says i was right. Eugene robinson joins us from washington. Gene, there are two schools of thoughts when a terrorist attack like this happens during this president ial campaign about donald trump. Someone that it helps him because he projects strength, hell crush isis. The other is these are serious times and hes not the man for the job. Where do you think this shakes out . Well, i think maybe because he i guess projects strength or makes a lot of noise. To that extent it helps him certainly with his supporters. It doubt it helps him with a lot
of other people, people who dont support donald trump. You see how high his negatives are, people who dont like donald trump really dont like donald trump. Im fascinated with nicolles analysis of the kernel of truth. Kernel is giving it more credit. A kernel is very small, gene. [ laughter ] a kernel is a little thing. A kernelcito. [ laughter ] a little nit of truth. The smallest thing in the bag. Shes all over the map. And when you look at policy you find that theres nothing there. You open that cupboard, the policy cupboard in Donald Trumps head and theres nothing there. You dont see read the Washington PostEditorial Board transcript. There is nothing there. Nato does need to be looked at. That has been true for a long time but when donald trump says that, is there any substance behind what hes saying . And i maybe there is but ive seen no evidence that there is. That he would sit down and tell you, for example, how nato might potentially be revamped other than were paying too much money for it. But, gene, youre right about everything you just said but most people are not reading the Washington Post transcripts and most people oh, but they must most people are hearing only nato and the tweet that they read going right past their ears and saying oh, yeah, hes probably right. Thats his genius. Look, i early and often ive said dont underestimate this guy, he has not only a gift but he has great instincts and
he does. But a lot of it is trial and error, too. I mean, because if you listen to donald trump in the course of a day or you follow his tweets hes all over the map, he will hit on something that resonates and something that has nicolles term of truth and then he runs with that. Another 10 minutes, generobinson, sad. [ laughter ] donald trump is off the campaign trail for 10 days and hes tweeting in his bathrobe on park avenue and were talking about him. Still ahead on morning joe, senator tom cotton. Plus best selling author William Cohan who says wall street is finally coming to terms with the republican frontrunner. Plus its not easy to tick me off. I dont get angry often. But you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids that will do
it every time. Donald youre a sniveling coward and leave heidi the hell alone. Ted cruz boiling mad after donald trump find a way to get under his skin on twitter. Well dig into that when well dig into that when morning joe comes right back. Hey hows it going, hotcakes . Hotcakes. This place has hotcakes. So why arent they selling like hotcakes . With comcast Business Internet and wifi pro, they could be. Just add a customized message to your wifi pro splash page and youll reach your customers where their eyes are already on their devices. Order up. Its more than just wifi, it can help grow your business. You dont see that every day. Introducing wifi pro, wifi that helps grow your business. Comcast business. Built for business. If you do get the nomination and if donald trump gets the nomination, do you look forward to debating donald trump. Hes the nominee i look forward to debating him, yes, absolutely. Because i actually think most voters when you start focusing on who can do the job, who can be president , who can be commanderinchief, what you stand for, what you say you will do, i think voters take that responsibility seriously and i look forward to debating him and trying to figure out where he stands on issues. Do you think he knows who, like, the Prime Minister of canada is . [ laughter ] no. But [ laughter ] thats, of course, Hillary Clinton on jimmy kimmel last night talking about donald trump. Another National Poll shows Hillary Clinton soundly defeating donald trump in the general election. The Monmouth University poll finds clinton beating trump by 10 point, 48 to 38 . She beats ted cruz by 5 and loses to john kasich by six points. The Ohio Governor taking 45 to secretary clintons 39 . The poll finds the two are the best known and most unpopular candidates. Trumps unfavorable 60 . Secretary clinton gets a favorable rating of 40 from voters and unfavorable of 51 . Governor john kasich, nearly unknown to a thursday of the electorate, rates the best with a 50 favorable rating. Meanwhile, donald trump and ted cruz continued to fight about their wives yesterday. Senator cruz reacted to a latenight tweet sent from trump that insulted the appearance of his wife heidi. Campaigning in wisconsin yesterday, cruz defended his family and would not say whether he would support trump in the fall, something he previously has committed to doing. Donald does seem to have an issue with women. Donald doesnt like strong women. Strong women scare donald. Let me be absolutely clear. Our spouses and our ch