Beau is feeling a little selfconscious, for those who know him. He said, dad, this memorial day, a day honor those who have give their last measure for their families, a day, dad, you and i should be at the bridge and grabbing all the gold star
mothers and telling them how much we appreciate all theyve done. Hey, tommy, i didnt see you sitting there. I apologize. And he would say, dad, not me. Not me today. I whispered back as i was leaving that hes right. Its memorial day, but everything here and everyone knows about beau, was he devoted his whole life to his family and other people. Vice President Biden remembering his son, the late beau biden. Biden marked memorial day in new castle, delaware where the National Guard headquarters there were named in honor of his son beau who died of brain cancer one year to the date of yesterdays ceremony. Beau biden enlisted in theNational Guard in 2003, and deployed to iraq five years later. He earned the legion of merited bronze star and later served two terms as delawares attorney general. Good morning everyone. Its tuesday, may 31st. Welcome to morning joe. With us on set we have former Communications Director nicole wallace, msnbc former democratic congressman harold ford, jr. Along with willie, joe, and me. Joe is here, he is. He will be. Can i Say Something, i was a College Classmate of beau biden. A lot of things you hear about him are true. Everything his dad said and his friends and family members said about him i loved having him my prayers go out to you. Everyone had a good memorial day weekend . Yeah. I was out on the west coast. Stepped away from work for a minute. Wow, west coast. I had graduations Birthday Party with 30 18yearolds. It was like herding chickens. Very big one. Like a day at the office, right . Im so tired. Im so glad to be here. Im so glad im here i wasnt sure how it was going to go. You survived. I survived herding massive, crazy chickens. So were going to get to the weekends developments and the president ial race in a moment. We got a lot of news for you. I just wonder, though, what you think of this zoo story. Its not really us but i asked you before the show started and you started talking. We all have kids that age. I will confess to have little object objectivity. I have a 4yearold kid and i was a crappy enough mother that my kid ended up in the enclosure. I would want them to do what
they did. The cincinnati zoo is defending its actions. After a child fell into the animals enclosure. I want to know how that happens. It happens because you have a 3yearold. I do, too. Everyone has to take some responsibility. I would take a little bit of responsibility. But i think they did the right thing. The zoos director said the gorilla had to be shot so authorities could rescue the 3yearold. This is obvious but now theres growing outrage over the incident. Blake mccoy reports. Reporter outrage over an incident at the cincinnati zoo when a 3yearold boy fell into the gorilla enclosure on saturday. For ten agonizing minutes onlookers watched including boys mother who cried out to him. At one point the 420male silver back named harambe grabbed the boys ankle and dragged him through the water. Zoo officials opened fire
killing the gorilla and rescuing the boy. Zoo keepers defended their decision. Naturally, we didnt take the shooting of harambe lightly. But that childs life was in danger. On social media a fire storm. People upset the gorilla was killed. Many blame the boys mother who runs a daycare center. An online petition urges she be charged with negligence. In a facebook post, the mother defended her herself. A subsequent statement thanked the zoo for its actions. Being a gorilla and unfortunately it paid the ultimate price for something that was not his fault. Reporter zoo Officials Say a tranquilizer would have taken too long and enraged the gorilla more. Theyre trying to figure out how
the boy got in the enclosure. Its followed by four feet of vegetation before a 15foot drop into a mote. Harambe he harambe heard splashing and jumped in. A small vigil outside the zoo where organizers Say Something is being lost in the blame game. In the middle of this fighting, the victim is being forgotten. Inside the zoo, flowers surround a gorilla statute as the exhibit remains closed. Yeah, i think so, mika. No. I cant believe anyone is complaining that the gorilla had to be killed. Im not sure why the enclosure involved something that a child could climb over with not another thing the child could not climb over yeah. Everyone is blaming the mom. Are you kidding me . You should not be able to get into a gorilla enclosure at the zoo. Maybe the animal people see it differently. Were all parents. What would im not defending them
i have a 4yearold who can easily climb over something. This is not a story. Its horrifying. That the gorilla had to be shoot. The zoo has a protocol that if theres a human and a gorilla and something happens thats it. I hate that gorilla was killed. Me too. A beautiful animal. And i hate the kid was able to get in. But anyone who has a 3 or 4yearold you turn your head for two seconds they wander away. Its up to the zoo to keep kids out. Agreed. Agreed. No debate here. Youre welcome. Youre welcome. That reminds me no, im serious. Do you see the lines on his face . How did luke olson get in there . Oh, come on all right. Can i please get to politics . Cant get away. On Hillary Clinton . Yes. The interesting thing is thatBernie Sanders match up from last week now trailing her 47 to 45. When it comes who voters think will win in november, clintons lead over trump has been whittled down to one point. Trump up four clinton down four. Bernie sanders, by the way, leading trump by 12 in the headtohead. And now trump wont debate him. He refuses. Because it would be inappropriate. Thats not true. Inappropriate. What . Donald trump . Doesnt take a challenge. No he didnt say that. Yes he did. I didnt watch the news. I dont have to. Donald trump is afraid to debate bernie sand ers . I dont know about afraid. He said he would and then he said he was joking. He said he would welcome it. I saw jimmy kimmel. Let me tell you what happened. He looked serious when he said it. He wont debate second place guy. He believes hillary is in there for the wrong reason. Based on the fact that the Democratic Office is totally rigged there you go. Like wise, the Networks Want to make a killing on these events. A be Bernie Sanders didnt take the news well. What . I would have loved oh, i know. First, he said he would do it. Then he said he wouldnt. Then he said he would do it. Then he said he wouldnt do it. So i would hope that if he changed his mind four times in two days, change it a fifth time. You know, trump claims to be a tough guy, pushes people around. Hey, donald, come on up. Lets have a debate about the future of america. [ cheers and applause ] and i say to donald trump, youre a big macho guy. If you have any guts, come on down and lets debate said it in north dakota when he clenched the nomination he stood before the group and said i would debate Bernie Sanders. Well raise money for charity and bernie accepted. Yeah. But apparently says he wont. He did elevate Bernie Sanders even more. To keep bernie around for awhile. Keep in the center of the conversation for a few days. This is the art of the deal and he wants the networks to give up the proceeds for the
night to charities. I think he likes having Hillary Clinton getting crushed from both sides. Yeah. And the presumptive nominee. He doesnt want to right now. Maybe hell change his mind. After all hes done he uses the word inappropriate. It would be abnormal. Yeah. All right. On sunday Weekly Standard editor bill kristol teased there would be a third party joining the 2016 race tweeting out this why would he tweet that if its not true . Is it true . Well, a real minute donald trump fired back an hour later. This preemptive strike. Trump went after kristol calling him a dummy. Thatll do it. And warning if kristol did manage to get an independent candidate to run, republicans could, quote, say goodbye to the Supreme Court. Trump continued to insult kristol while calling republicans to unify. Kristol responded to trumps outbursttweeting. Who has a bigger ego kristol or trump . All right. Is bill kristol serious . Trump Campaign Manager weighed in on the possibility of a Third Party Candidate. Third party run by any candidate is a complete disaster. Youre handing over the white house to the democrats. Which means four or five potential Supreme Court justices that Hillary Clinton would have a chance to appoint. If she does that you can say goodbye to the Second Amendment. If mitt romney decides he wants
to get in the race. Number one, hes a faced candidate. Number two, he failed twice. If he runs a third time, hell fail again. Hell allow a democrat to appoint four or five Supreme Court justices that will be devastating longterm to our country. Its a failure. You know first of all, do we think kristol is going to be doing this . I think we dont know. I think that the notion that it would be a spoiler is not the case. We dont know what would happen. Thats not the case. We have to explain because ive had conversation. You have to explain to people its not now about a Third Party Candidate that gets on 50 ballots. Its about something that kicks this to the house of representatives. Right. I think its the bridge that everyone that isnt following this minute by minute doesnt understand. You dont need to be on 50 ballots. So all the conversation around independent candidates has been about deadlines for ballot access. This is about a different
conversation and it is not too late. So you to stop the other ones to get to 270. To get enough electoral votes. If you get an electoral vote you get thrown into the house and suddenly if youre house members and voting for Hillary Clinton, donald trump, or mitt romney, youre going to have a lot of people in your party certainly a lot of your numbers for you if its mitt romney to vote for mitt romney. And look what happened over the past two or three weeks. Right. Hillary had a terrible, terrible time with all the new fbi information coming out. The new email information coming out. Donald trump had some of his roughest two or three weeks over the past two or three weeks. Their Approval Ratings keep going down. The poll last week had mitt sitting at 20 . And mitt got a lot of his votes from hillary supporters. There are a lot of democrats that dont want to vote for hillary. There are a lot of republicans
that dont want to vote for trump. This might be the time that a guy that is not all excitement. Weve seen what excitement has gotten, as some people may say. Lets go with a steady guy. Mitt romney, you know, he started at 20 . He could do something here, if he decided to jump in. Thats the model that mike murphy and other people have been talking about. Go steal a couple of states. You dont have to get on the ballot all over the country and try to win the election outright. If you win ohio, lets say three or four states. You focus all your time and resources and energy you could pull those out enough that nobody gets the 270 and it goes to the house of representatives. You need that person. Right. Who is that person who can win states that are tough to win . Who has a traditional reagan principles and confident and steady. I dont know who youre right. They have to find a person. Maybe combine five or six people
and get the person. What states do you win with romney . I hear perot did well in 92. He didnt win an electoral vote because he didnt win a race. I think Hillary Clinton gets stronger and whether its mitt romney or you pick mitt romney i dont know who it would be. I wasnt nailing him down but say its romney and say its trump. Do we honestly believe that romney takes enough im asking you, do you believe he takes enough democratic votes in 5, 6, 2, 3 even just one or two states. Hes 2535 i dont know hw low Hillary Clintons numbers go. Lets say its romney or somebody else. The states you look at. Utah is actually at the top of the list. One of trumps weakest states. An independent state. A state that republicans should win. States where they havent won
but could win. You look at states where republican governors win and democratic states and you look at wisconsin. Okay. You look at possibly michigan. You certainly would look at the upper midwest. You look at minnesota. You look at states like iowa. You look at states like oregon that have, like, sort of tough independent streaks. Thats good places to start. I would suggest, too, a guy like mitt romney would look south. Utah trump doesnt have support in utah because of the values voters. Right. They gave him a good run for his money. Im from the deep south. Ted cruz that is a guy that aint going to play statewide in the deep south. If mitt romney they knew how to hammer him in mississippi, arkansas, tennessee where real value voters. Thats a place where youre hammering the right way your
support bleeds. Trump bleeds into the low teens. You could. It just depends on who that candidate is. I dont disagree with any of the scenarios you mentioned. I dont see how this turns out not in favor of mrs. Clinton. Utah should be a republican state. Wisconsin, michigan, oregon. Youre right. If hes able to defeat her the plurality wins. You got to get to 270. If you win wisconsin, michigan, and oregon and youre mrs. Clinton. No, win statewide. Right but mrs. Clinton. Who does romney take votes from . From both. Right. Indi i understand but if mrs. Clinton beats them she wins. Right. I dont imagine democrats in wisconsin are saying am i going to vote for mitt romney or Hillary Clinton . A lot are saying i dont like Hillary Clinton. True. But once sanders exits the race and sanders, warren, and others are campaigning for hillary against sanders is going to campaign
for hillary . Hes not pulling out a Vice President ial slot. Hes already said he does not want to see trump be elected president. I can find before he spent three months. Its not mathematically possible for sanders to be the nominee. Hes been calling her things as nasty and damaging as trump has. So next week do you have credibility with the Democratic Base . Fair enough. Do you believe hes going to endorse donald trump . No. Lths make it easy. Its not an outside shot. But the thing that is fun is im not saying its not going to be romney. You look where romneys numbers are, he takes from hillary and trump. I would be surprised. If there is a candidate out there that has a little more of a populace streak or a tough populist run. Who is it . I dont know. You can have somebody general. The upper midwest then you
get a win like in ohio or florida. Or new mexico. Or new mexico. Or nevada. Yeah. Its a long shot. Someone that supports Hillary Clinton i welcome a mitt romney entrance into the race. When the question is asked whom are you putting opt Supreme Court, where do you stand on Climate Change . Thats all im saying. Is there any possibility . Bill kristol would not tweet this as the editor without it being true. Bills tweets are always true. Or palin. Hes coming next tuesday. Maybe hell announce it. Yeah. Still ahead on morning joe i stayed up watching. Steph curry came back from 31 in the serious series left for dead. Who won mvp. Of the series . I didnt see. Probably steph. It should have been clay. Clay thompson saved them. Yeah. And now cleveland this year has a full team now. They have kevin love and kyrie irving. Its going to be a good series. Jackson gruiffin is mourning sorry. A massive thunder guy. A huge thunder guy. Hes obsessed with the thunder. Thinking about you, brother. Hillary clinton is going back to california. Coming up the democratic frontrunner hoping to make a full pivot to the general. First, she has to prevent another upset from Bernie Sanders, which could happen. She could do it before california. Well explain that. Plus, the Senate Majority leader republican Mitch Mcconnell is here on set. His take on 2016 and how the top of the ticket could impact control of congress. But, first, here is bill kairns with a check on the forecast. A wild weekend. It was. The flooding in texas, the mid atlantic dealt with a tropical storm, and areas of the mid atlantic and jersey shore
yesterday. The most impressive video we saw from petes, colorado. Let me show you the tornado. This was over the top of that dirt road. Thats why it had an amazing picture. It was literally like a vacuum sucking up all the dirt into the bottom of if. And it extended to the north up to the cloud base. Pretty amazing stuff. One barn was destroyed. No injures. Theres the final picture of that. What was left of bonnie is spinning off the South Carolina coast. Thats exiting, unless youre at Marthas Vineyard a dry day in new england. Middle of the country dealing with strong storms on the border of kansas and oklahoma. A wet morning for much of minnesota. Over the next three days the worst will be in texas once again. Well see as much as 3 to 4 inches of rainfall across the state over the next three days. We have a lot of rivers in major to moderate flood stages. Theyll stay high until we stop raining in the lone star state. Another warm one today. Probably one of the warmest all week up the east coast and the
stormy weather in the middle and the heat is on in much of the west. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Trolling for a gig with