Ma bobemma bananafanafofemma feefifofemma emma very good sweety, how do you feel . Good. Yeah . You did a really good job, okay . [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson johnson. Donald j. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States. Normally i do not comment on whats going on in the president ial election. I will take an exception today. This is not conservatism. I have a special rule as chair of the republican convention, i stay neutral and i support the nominee. Everything that you dont want is in that budget. I say, where was paul ryan . If he becomes the nominee of the party, will you support him . Yes, i will. Ill support whoever the nominee is. Remember the wheelchair pushed over the click when you had ryan as the chairman. Ku klux klan. I dont know david duke. If a person wants to be a nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. Paul ryan, i dont know him well. Im sure ill get along great with him. If i dont, hes go to have to pay a big price. I laughed out loud. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. Well cross that bridge when we get to it. Im a good natured guy, so i get along with everybody. I dont think automatically. I think youd have riots. To even address or hint to
violence is unacceptable. How do you like paul ryan . How do you like him . All right. Now you have a presumptive nominee donald trump, will you support him . Im just not ready to do that at this point. I didnt get paul ryan. I dont know what happened. Oh, its going to be fun today on capitol hill. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. A big day up there. With us weve got former Communications Director for george w. Bush miss nicolle wallace, legendary. I do say legendary. Epic. Veteran means old. Legendary means youre a legend. Youre still playing, in the game, a legend. Mike barnicle. This is cohost of with all do respect showing no respect. 6 00 a. M. On msnbc, John Heilemann and former advertising guru branding and marketing expert donald deutsche. Hes legendary, too. Youve got legendary and former something. Im former something. Did you work in the ad business. I did it well. It worked out. This is a great crew. It could be an excellent morning or one of those mornings where we have to issue an apology by 9 00 a. M. Well walk that line. Set up this day in washington. Pivotal for leaders of the Republican Party. Getting ready to meet with donald trump to hammer out differences you saw and forge a path ahead. Well give you live looks at action in washington, d. C. , all morning. Wow. Isnt that exciting . A live look in. Official agenda gets under way at 9 00 a. M. Tornado path. Rnc chairman Reince Priebus and paul ryan will meet at Republican National headquarters. At 9 30 trump and speaker ryan hold another meeting with house gop leadership. Also at the rnc that meeting
will include House Majority leader Kevin Mccarthy who is now a trump delegate. House majority whip steve scalise, republican chair Cathy Rodgers and Patrick Henry from north carolina. Ryan declined to specify which policy issues he wished to address but welcomed the opportunity to spend time with donald trump. I dont really know him. I met him once in person in 2012. We had a very good conversation in march on the phone. We just need to get to know each other. We, as a Leadership Team, are enjoying the fact we have a chance to meet with him. So id rather have a conversation in person than through the media, no offense. Joe, what are you expecting to see on capitol hill. Paul ryan has been out publicly for a week or so saying im not going to endorse. Every day he goes out and talks about what he wants from donald trump. Who gives and who takes for this
meeting . As long as the trump teams listens to what paul ryan says going into the meeting, respect what they are saying and understand you dont have to crumple to the earth and roll in agony, you win, donald, you win, i think everything will work out fine. Paul ryan has his own political future. Other politicians have their own political future. They have a time line that is not Donald Trumps time line. If hes patient and waits, paul ryan and others will do what Mitch Mcconnell did, they will get behind him. It just may not be on his timeframe. If he chooses to have a meeting with paul ryan and insult paul ryan afterwards because ryan doesnt immediately endorse him, then that will make the process longer and tougher. Theres a part of donald trump that says i dont need paul ryan. I dont need the republican
establishment. Anybody thats with me strengthens me in a way. If donald trump really does want to win, really does want to be president of the United States, really wants to govern, he needs the republican speaker of the house on his side. They should just play nice today. Its an old broadway music song getting to know you they need to get to know each other and good things will most likely come in the end. What is paul ryan hoping to extract from donald trump . Mitch mcconnell, its a tepid endorsement but said ill support donald trump. Paul ryan has not been willing to go that far. What could happen in that room to change paul ryans opinion and say ill get behind donald trump. I think anything can happen in the room today that is going to cause an immediate about face. The two of them on a huge number of issues of policy, ideology, they are divergent. They are never going to be on the same side. On issues like immigration,
entitlement, reform, ideology cal project that is ryanism. I do think tonaly they can get through the meeting and come out the other side if, as joe said, trump doesnt go on the war pathogens ryan. Have you a long walk through the woods. Again, if trump acts a way ryan thinks will maintain a House Majority, ryan could get comfortable with living with trump if not loving trump. They could forge a personal relationship if they dont agree on policy. Thats the most important thing. For trump its respect. Hes constantly felt disrused since he moved from queens to politics. Thats extended to politics. He wins it all, fees disrespected. Paul ryan is a great guy. Ive known him since he was 22 yeerds. He was very polite oneonone. Hell be polite today, too. Whether youre polite or not, if
youre a republican who comes out of the kemp wing of the Republican Party, its hard for you to just turn on a dime and support a guy who is on the wrong side of history as far as youre concerned on immigration, the wrong side of history on trade, as paul ryan is concerned, on taxes where hes changed his position over the past couple of days, on the minimum wage where hes changed his position the past couple of days, and on a bevy of other issues. He could love donald trump and still say, okay, how do i get behind this guy without destroying my own support when i run for president in 2020. Listen, paul ryan, as you recall, was cajoled into taking this job. One of the sort of conditions or endeavors of becoming gop speaker after the boehner period was that he would use the mantel to make the party the party of
ideas. Ideas are central to paul ryans entire speakership. I think its more than just disagreeing with the ideas, i think its tearing down the new tone. Paul ryan gave a speech about civility. Paul ryan cares about the future of the gop. Paul ryan doesnt want to talk about bringing women and more diverse republicans into the party, he wants to enact an agenda that attracts them. I think you have to look at this almost like two leaders of two different parties. I worked for bush when the bush and pelosi relationship was forged. This is almost like two important leaders of two different movements getting together and finding a way to collaborate. Also, willie, you look at their background, willie, its also two leaders from two completely different historical views. Paul ryan, like myself, weve seen the Republican Party lose the white house five out of the last six times in the popular
vote. Donald trump, well, you know, in 2008 was giving money and supporting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party. So for paul ryan, hes been fighting this his whole life. Hes been fighting the conservative cause his whole life. Donald trump has been fighting it since somewhere around 2011. So i dont think paul ryan is going to get swayed by threats. Certainly is not going to jump on Donald Trumps bandwagon simply because donald trump says its time. The day does not end with paul ryan for donald trump. A play by play, hell meet with Mitch Mcconnell, his team offices, majority whit john cornyn will also be there. Look at that. Those are war graphics. This is very impressive. This is big. Orrin hatch will be there, roger wicker of mississippi. Wicker is leading the effort to
retain republican majority last month informed vulnerable meches to stay away from the convention if it would be divisive. Two senators facing contests, roy blunt and portman in ohio will meet with trump, so will senators john brasso john thune of south dakota and shelly moore cap ito from west virginia. He requested the meeting and the agenda is him. Unlike mcconnell, ryans team said they are ready to work with trump. They do not wan to show disdain for voters who voted for trump. In an interview last night, trump was the one being deferential. Who is the leader, youre presumptive, not nominee, and speaker of the house paul ryan, so who is the leader . I would say paul ryan. I would really think that im doing very well. I think ive set the alltime record for votes gotten by a republican candidate, but i would say paul for the time being and maybe for a long time. Let me read you a line donald trump quoted yesterday and maybe in the New York Times, talking about changing his tone for paul ryan and everybody else. Quote, you win the pennant, now youre in the world series. Am i going to change . People like what ive been doing. Why should i bend for them . Particularly last few days swing state polls in a dead heat. Logically if youre donald trump or anybody else, wait, you keep telling me im doing this wrong and it keeps going right. The thing where ryan and trump where ryan will never be able to get fully on board is the word that you keep picking up is the tone. At the end of the day, look, youre for minimum wage, a populist view, not a traditional republican view. The vitriol, the muslim stuff, the wall stuff. If you notice every time even in your setup piece, every time ryan was coming after trump, it was not ideologicallideological
tone wise. If i was talking to donned, i still dont get this one thing, hes not going to lose a voter, hes not going to lose any of his testosterone if he just softens up a bit on those two hateful tonal messages. He can keep Everything Else the same. He can even say, you know what, when i was talking about a wall, i mean weve got to do something about it, this has got to change. Thats the one place if im paul ryan and i have a political future and i am, as he said, standard bearer of the party of lincoln, reagan, eisenhower, thats the piece thats got to shift before he can emotionally get on board. So, donnie, i see him backing off the muslim ban. The wall, hes not going to be able to back off of that. It was such a big part of his
rep repertoire. Would be like beatles in 1974 saying were going to play all our songs but not ooh im going to hold your hand. The metaphor itself. Mike barnicle, the muslim ban. This is something that will continue to give him problems throughout the fall. I think weve started to see movement there and i suspect we will see donald trump backing off that muslim ban. Thats something that caused paul ryan concern, caused me concern, caused a lot of republicans concern that has little to do with ideology and more to do with tone and more of an attitude towards, quote, the others. People who arent white, people who arent conservative, people who arent, you know, the standard basically what the Republican Party is looking like right now and has to change and has to grow. This muslim ban, yes, it will
lose him 1 to 2 of voters in america that are Muslim American but also a hell of a lot of suburban housewives outside of philadelphia and across america if he seems intolerant. A couple of things are pretty clear about whats going to happen. One, the coverage is going to be so over the top its going to be overwhelming. Were going to be covering Donald Trumps walk from one side of the capitol to the other the way we covered o. J. Simpsons white bronco. Their vision of the Republican Party is a bit different than donald j. Trumps vision is right now and their constituencies are different. Their constituencies are retention of the senate, the house and donalds is to become president of the United States of thats going to be the collision point. To tone is going to get to the day is going to go fine. No one is going to come out
saying i won the arm wrestling contest and he lost. 24 hours now is it going to be cryin ryan on the donald trump feed . Thats where the rubber meets the road. As trump pivots a bit to the general election, looks like he might be softening the rhetoric on the proposed muslim ban. It came as he responded to these comments from new london mayor sadiq khan. Trump could be the exception to the proposed ban of muslims to the u. S. Your views of islam are ignora ignorant. It is possible to be a muslim and live in the west. It is possible to be a muslim and to love america. If you look at this radical islamic terrorism all over the world right now, its a disaster whats going on. I assume hes denying that. I assume hes like our president thats denying its taking place. We have a serious problem. Its a temporary ban. It hasnt been called for yet, nobody has done it. This is just a suggestion until we find out whats going on. Have you decided whether you back off on the ban. I realize a temporary ban but with unlimited temporary period could go on forever. Sure, id like to back off of it. Id like to back off as soon as possible. We have exceptions. Again, its temporary. Joe, im not sure how much of softening that is exactly. Thats kind of what hes been saying all along. If theres a ban it would be temporary to find out whats going on. If he did soften further i dont know how you put the jeannie back in the bottle after saying again and again you think it would be a good idea to ban muslims coming to america. We showed a politico headline and it seems to me pretty obvious what donald trump is doing. Hes selecting Rudy Giuliani to head a commission on immigration. Giuliani will most likely come back with a plan that says,
okay, this is how were tough on immigration. This is how we allow some muslims in, but these are the restrictions we have on muslims that come from wartorn countries that help foster the growth of isis terrorists. So for instance, trump might donald trump might, nicolle, allow muslims to come in from other parts of the world but be restrictive in syria and other countries like that that are wartorn right now, where they cant do adequate background checks. When i saw the giuliani news, i think thats exactly what hes going to do. Hes going to come off the ban. Hes going to have americas mayor, a guy who is tough as nails, come up with a plan to limit refugees that are coming in and limit immigrants who are coming in to only those that we know arent a safety hazard to the United States. Yeah, and this is where donald trump successfully sort
of limits the conversation between himself and the general public and leaves the elites and pundit class scratching their head. It sounds backward to all of us. In a main line conversation where hes just main lining gut reaction and gut impulses to the general public, this sounds totally reasonable. Do something that offends a large group so you can catch a Smaller Group that threatens our safety. I dont think anyone is more associated with the narrow task of addressing the threat of radical islamic extremism than the mayor who responded to 9 11. But he sure spent a whole lot of months offending a larger group of people and leaving, again, that pundit class skrask their heads. Why take on all that water when you could have initially narrowed the focus and narrowed the target to the people who represent a legitimate and historic threat to america. Whats interesting is the two people hes appointed the last few weeks, christie and
giuliani. Hes doubling down on his brand, strength. Because of women. This is what he needs. This the issue they are most receptive to. I know we have to go to break. Can we pause and step back and consider who we are. Were the United States of america, and we have a potential candidate nomination for president one Major Political party basically suggesting we are going to put someone at the door to the United States of america saying, now, what faith are you before you enter . And someone inside the door saying you all have to leave. Thats where the wall they talk about making america great, the most unamerican things you can say. To nicolles point as we scratched our head, you look at exit poll after exit poll in republican primary, support for muslim ban works with the majority, perhaps not the general election. Still ahead on morning joe go ahead, joe. That was the most staggering exit poll i saw from one state
after another state. Some states were 40, 50, 60 of the people that voted in the republican primaries, by only a percentage of actual republicans in those states. But supported a muslim ban. If the question is why did donald trump do it during the primary but now is talking about changing to being a bit more expansive, as nicolle asked, sounds like its just cynical politics. He now goes to a general electorate who opposes a muslim ban. I think about 60 of americans oppose it. Now is the time. He told mika hes going to shift to the middle once he won the nomination. Weve seen it