Oh, pretty morning. Good morning, its monday, july 11th. Welcome to morning joe. 11th. With us on set we have the host of politics nation reverend al sharpton and also has a National Action network and had a busy weekend but did watch soccer. I watched joe on twitter tell me what was going on on soccer. In between all the stuff i had. Joe was my connection. Thats nice. Msnbc political analyst and school of Public Policy, former democratic congressman, herald ford jr. Good morning. Morning. Man managing editor and cohost of with all due respect mark halperin. The circus returns with some good cameos. Are we showing some of that this morning . I wouldnt know. Lets regroup and make that
happen. Speaking of cameos, really quickly. Boy, wedding season. Mike barnicles son, colin barnacle, got married this weekend. Lovely, lovely wedding. He tried to do that to me and broke my back. But Mike Barnicle and ann and was something. There is of course, phil griffin and tim russert and luke russert. Senator kerry was there. And it was very, very nice break. I got to say, Mike Barnicle gave such a moving, moving talk. Oh, it was beautiful. Brought his seven children up and talked about how, you know, you have to let him go. You have to let them go. You raise kids to let them go and then at the end he goes, but, of course, as you know,
reverend, you never let them go. Even though they let you go, you never let them go. Im looking at ford. Anyhow. Congratulations, mike. But he should be back tomorrow, you would think. Anyhow. To the news now, president obama has cut short his trip to the nato summit in europe and will travel to dallas to give remarks at an inner faith memorial. He will be joined by former president george w. Bush for the service for the five Police Officers killed in thursday nights ambush. Iy lily latest i attack, Chris Jansing, what do we know . On friday we were sitting on set together and we were only getting the first sense of what happened and what this man behind the ambush was thinking. Over the weekend, the fbi was busy at the crime scene behind
me and they were just steps apart searching for evidence. Heres some of what we learned. Bombmaking materials and journals uncovered at micha johnsons home showed he was practice detonations. On the walls in the parking garage in the heart of dallas right behind me, they found these initials rb written in blood and police are still trying to figure out exactly what that means. While investigators have still not ruled out whether others were involved, they were very careful to say that the sophistication of the shooters tactical approach is unusual for most criminal subjects. President was such a spontaneous decision to march and we had to leap frog intersections to make sure they didnt run over by vehicles. We had to scramble to block intersections, which did expose our officers to this attack. And this, this suspect took
advantage of that and, once he was in a high perch position, officers did not know where the shots were coming from and we are learning some of the positions of our deceased officers and they were in a funnel. It ended up being a fatal funnel there and then the suspect continued to move and shoot from different angles. Really diagonally triangling our officers with his fatal fire. How he was laughing and mocking the officers during that standoff. He also confirmed that the shooter requested a black Police Negotiator as the night wore on. The chief also revealed that in the meet of that standoff immediately after his initial press briefing he was presented with a novel idea, using a robot and a pound of c4 explosives to end. An option he ultimately accepted. We negotiate would him for about two hours. He just lied to us, playing
games, laughing at us, singing, asking how many did he get and that he wanted to kill some more and that there were bombs there. There was no progress on the negotiation. Well, Police Believe these incidents in louisiana expedited his plans to attack police. Something that they very clearly planned for some time. Part of the streets will open today and that will close some businesses and county offices will reopen. I was saying, earlier, joe and mika, it will be anything but business as usual. Well check with you throughout the morning. Thank you, chris. On these type issues for the president , he can never win. You know, after minneapolis and baton rouge, a lot of people that didnt think he went strong enough. You read editorials the day after the dallas shootings, some
some sudly and not so subtly blaming the president on the Police Officers deaths. He has, some some time, tried to strike the right tone. Tried to explain how Police Officers, unfortunately, are often thrown into positions like social workers in the worst parts of america. And theyre not trained for that task and its not fair that we give them that task and, i mean, my point is, no matter what the president says, he gets attacked from both sides. Thats because theres at least five to ten kind of issues roving around this from race to policing to carry laws, even. Which well get to at some point in one of these stories. The Justice System, reverend al, is not just Black And White. You know, tension between Black And White. Theres a lot of now problems with our system that are now broken. Absolutely. I think part of what we wrestled with all weekend. Ive been on countless Conference Calls with other heads of National CivilRights Groups and with people that are on the ground. Families themselves. The families themselves. Raised sterling was on politics nation yesterday. Part of it is that many of the protesters come from our organizations, but many of them are white. You know, we say black lives matter. But thats more of a statement than just an organized group like nacp and many of them are white and many have different feelings and we need to sympathize, emps tathize. Everyone wants to make this so easily fitting in the same category. Weve got to deal with it as a
much more complex and a much more, in my opinion, its a lot more serious, but its a lot more complicated. Thats such a great point. The wall street editorial page said after the dallas shootings, its not that simple. The freddie gray case. Three of the six Police Officers were black. The judge that acquitted the cops that started the protest was a black judge. It is not a Black And White issue. It is, that plays a large role in it. Its a race issue, but not Black And White. Its a race issue. But i believe in minneapolis, the Police Officer was hispanic. Hispanic and asian. So, it is a race issue and a policing and black issue, but it is not simply a white and black issue any more. Exactly. See, one of the things and herald knows this, one of the
things that civil Rights Groups, at one level you have a lot of our members and myself and others protesting and calling for justice, but another if youre working with the families who want justice. They are not necessarily agreeable to a lot of the things that some of the extremes on both sides want to do. So, when you have some responsibility, you have to deal with that. I only raised that to say that the president has a responsibility to the citizens and Law Enforcement. Hes the commander in chief. So, imagine when he got off the plane last night what he has to deal with. Its easy for us to sit on cable tv or editorial movement and beat down on what he should have done. Hes got to deal with the fact that ive got to make all of this work somehow and the complexities of how it works. If you go too aggressively on one side, youre going to offend the other side. And the case some systemic problems here in terms of police detaining theJustice Systems and economics. Protests, speaking of what the president had to deal with. Protests continued in various cities over policeinvolved shooting deaths. Last night in memphis, black lives matter demonstrators shutting down an overpass. At the same time in baton rouge, 48 arrests so far as Police Clashed with protesters dawning gas masks. On saturday, 100 people were taken into custody furious over the death of alton sterling whose shooting was captured on video. Among the detained, one of the central figures in black lives Matter Movement. Freed with others on sunday morning. He tweeted one day ago and just last night, we saw police abuse their power and intentionally provoke protesters in order to create and exploit conflict. Police also say one of their own had teeth knocked down when someone from the crowd threw
asomething. And in st. Paul, minnesota, on saturday, protesters swarmed on to i94, not far from where castile was killed. More than 100 people arrested as Police Deployed smoke and tear gas. 21 officers were injured after demonstrators threw rocks, bottles, fireworks and bricks. One officer had a concrete block dropped on his head and suffered a broken vertbray. I want you to touch this badge and see the Significant Impact of a rock like this that gets thrown from a bridge and hits one of our officers with enough force to crack helmets and bend a piece of solid steel like this. Its really a disgrace. Protesters last night turn under tacr into criminals and im disgusted by the acts of some, not all,
but some. Herald ford, thats exactly what the president said. Any violence against Law Enforcement officers is unacceptable. And it is a crime. And they will be persecuted to the full extent of the law. As they should be. I want to salute my hometown, memphis, last night. No arrests. Theres no violence. In fact, the chief of police in memphis marched with the protesters across the bridge and shutting down the bridge and questionable on a legal act and yet the police recognize the outrage and hopefully a bigger conversation will happen there. The thing that struck me was an africanamerican women who was shot in dallas. I believe shot in the leg and she recovered and being released from the hospital. Mother of four. Thee thashe thanked the poli officers. Rightly so have talked about training and a lack there of training and how you can have more training for how you deal with communities and situations
as some of these incidents have shown. But i want to salute the training there in dallas. I think around the country when Police Officers are confronted. Law enforcement officers are confront would the kind of challenge they face there where every day citizens are threatened. These officers ran into the fold there. I saw a few politicians make stupid comments over the weekend about that matter. But the bigger issue is, Police Officers, when they do should be saluted and be thanked. The president tried his hardest to do that and did a good job at that. I was particularly moved with all the things about race and reunited but listen to that woman thank those officers on behalf of her family was a striking contrast with am of the things weve seen. While Police Officers were being shot down, this Police Officer ran after a lot ran into gunfire. She covered her 15yearold son and an officer helped her. You mentioned the president. Lets look at the president speaking in europe over the
weekend on the simmering Racial Climate in america right now. Whenever those of us who are concerned about fairness in the criminal Justice System attack Police Officers you are doing a disservice to the cause. Any violence directed at Police Officers is a reprehensible crime and needs to be prosecuted. In a Movement Like black lives matter, theres always going to be some folks who say things that are stupid or imprudent or overgeneralized or harsh. And i dont think you can hold well meaning activists who are doing the right thing and peacefully protesting
responsible for everything that is uttered at a protest site. As painful as this week has been, i firmly believe that america is not as divided as some have suggested. Americans of all races and all backgrounds are rightly outraged by the inexcusable attacks on police, whether its in dallas or any place else. So, mark, the political reaction. We hear from the president , Hillary Clinton and donald trump laying low. Donald trump had a pretty good instagram. Got a lot of views. Really well said. It showed an awful lot of restraint in a president ialstyle statement that came out on friday morning, i think surprised an awful lot of people. But talk about the reaction. Heartbreaking time for the
country athat requires leadership thats both emotional and intellectual. You know, you look what paul ryan said at the end of last week, Hillary Clinton, donald trump. 80 or more of what they all said is the same. But there now needs some programmatic change. Thats where the president s head is at. Hes a rational guy. He wants policies now to try to address this. In the short term i think tomorrow will be an extraordinary day for the country. President bush, president obama will appear together in dallas. Thats the emotional part. Symbolic. Really, this is where thea politics kick in. Wall street journal again on saturday had a front page article saying in a time of crisis, americans are showing unity. We did have in the midst of this bleakness, some positive signs. They quoted people from the far left and the far right all
sounding the same. Weve got to get past the divisions. We have to move forward. I agree that there were some dramatic signs of unity. Even Newt Gingrich made a statement, newt and i had to Work Together on education with the president bringing us together. But hes saying that it is Something Different to be black in america. For Newt Gingrich to say that. Normal white people cant imagine what it is like to be black in america. But i think we are spending a lot of time and i think largely the key point, reacting to the problem rather than saying how were going to solve the problem. Because were going to have a week, tomorrow will be a big day with the former president bush and president obama in dallas. But then were going to have the funerals, baton rouge and others in different, were going to have the funerals of the poli
policemen. So, this is going on this week. How are we going to go on dealing with the core problem of Racial Disparities and the core problem of how police feel secure without having a buildup of the militarization of police. I think we have to get to the hard work otherwise well be back here again. We had these conversations after ferguson and Staten Island and we just cant keep going from episode to episode. I want you to look at this. Donald trump responded to the president s comments yesterday. President obama thinks the nation is not as divided as people thinks. Trump called for the restoration of law and order on friday morning. Later, released a video statement in which he said racial divisions have gotten worse. A brutal attack on our police force is an attack on wbr id wbr11332 our country and an attack on our families. Every american has the right to live in safety and peace. b
the deaths of alton sterling in louisiana and Philando Castile make clear how much work we have to do to make every american feel that their safety is protected. Too Many Americans are living in terrible poverty and violence. Reverend al, not something you would have expected from donald trump, even a week ago. Absolutely wouldnt have expected it from him. But i also would expect somebody who wants to be president would tell me, therefore, what are you going to do about it . If im going to be president , this is how i would solve it. Notice what he says, i think the bar is so low with him when hes not saying something crazy, crazy, we say, oh, it was just crazy, not double crazy because notice what he said. He said the skikilling of casti and sterling. Most americans dealing with safety of their lives. What are you saying the deaths of castile and sterling was . It doesnt well, from his statement that he gave on friday and that, he first talked about the Police Officers and then he talked about those two killings. And said all americans should feel safe. And after that he was talking about too Many Americans living in poverty. Too Many Americans fearing for their lives. What im saying is, what are you saying that youre going to do to secure for all americans to feel safe . How do you deal with that . I think thats a question we need to ask the wbrid wbr12352 president , Hillary Clinton and everybody equally because right now it seems to me we dont have an answer. I have to say this to you, joe. When i was a kid. When i was 13 in 68 and we had a lot of social unrest. I mean much more. Youre not talking about demonstrating with rierateots a vietnam war protests. It led to Richard Nixon being elected. If the republicans had a more sober candidate, i would be very afraid about the elections as a democrat. Because all of this could skew toward a law and order type of candidate. I think donald trump, though, just doesnt fit the bill. Maybe his Vice