We have our divisions and they are not new. We have our divisions and they are not new. Around the clock news social sometimes amplify these decisions. We are about to enter a couple weeks where our political rhetoric tends to be more overheated than usual. That is why it is so important that everyone, regardless of race or Political Party or profession, regardless of what organizations you are a part of. Everyone right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further. We dont need inflammatory rhetoric. We dont need careiloless accusations to advance an
agenda. We need to temper our words and open our hearts, all of us. President obama yesterday after what happened in baton rouge. Good morning, its monday, july 18. Were live at flatterys irish pub in a very rainy cleveland, ohio, the site of the Republican National convention. The next five days they belong to donald trump. The firsttime politician is going to formally accept his partys nomination for president of the United States. Mika is going to get a new truck. Do you guys have a garage . Going to be a good show. It all comes on the backdrop of some serious issues for the nation. A three Police Officers this time in baton rouge. Another three officers were injured in what the citys mayor is calling an ambushstyle
attack. Well get into that straight ahead given that is the backdrop of everything were talking about. So, the 2016 Republican NationalConvention Officially gets under way today. You know what the theme is tonight, guys . Make america safe again. And the headliners include melania trump, the wife of donald trump. General Michael Flynn and joni ernst of iowa. Acceptance speech is thursday. Still many of the top spots are going to employees of the Trump Organization and not the party top officials. Paul explains the theme. Its going to be a very personal convention. Have his family speaking and friends who have known him speaking and people who worked with him inside of the company and outside of the company. So, youre going to see how he built his successful empire. How he has taken care of people, he just meets them through newspaper stories he reads about and has that sense of community and sense of philanthropy. Youre going to get a full perspective on the man. Joining me, joe and willie and msnbc contributor mike barnicle. Former chairman of the Republican National committee, Michael Steele. Managing editor of bloomberg politics, mark halperin. Good tahave you all on board. You look at the speaker list and it is not traditional. Something you would expect from an unconventional and when you think about the people that arent here at this convention, its remarkable. You compare it to the past. Mitt romney and john mccain and the sitting governor, the sitting republican governor of
the state hosting the convention john kasich will not be here. This is a different kind of convention. They wanted celebrities. As you look around, mark, and you Start Talking to Party Insiders, they talk about how ohio is at the back of the room. California and new york is at the front. They talk about the lack of organization. They go on and on and on about whats wrong with this convention before the Convention Even begins. Whats been your take and what have you been hearing since in cleveland . Not doing things that a convention would do. Thats the way donald trump won the nomination. Can he do that kind of thing . Hes not run a single tv ad. In a normal campaign, one side is running a lot of tv ads, the other isnt. We are in striking distance to win and well be fine. A million things like that. Theyre doing it differently. Political professionals look at
how theyre doing it and says, you cant win that way. That sounds like a real strategy. Michael steele, they cant get people and theyre bringing in people. Thats how it looks like to me. And a bunch of clebelebrity tha are not that well known. Can we just say it . Not the unconventional convention, but they cant get anybody. This is whats different. Mark said they cant get anybody. But he doesnt care. Its about him. Its about him. As paul metaphor said, a personal story. The family is going to be out front and center where they cant get anybody. You focus on that and this is Something Different than americans havent seen before. A different feel, a different vibe for a lot of people watching. Some for the first time. Theyre going to see this convention and hear a very personal side about donald trump and hear directly from the people who know him best. The last night they roll out the story of the nominee. Youre going to have each night as making america safe, making america strong, again. All these themes are going to have a family undertone to it and its going to be very different and they cant get anybody. Yeah, exactly. Look, it is what it is and it is what it has been since donald trump announced for the presidency. All him, all the time. Hes running the campaign where there are very few bundlers to raise money in state by state. Very few states organized along campaign lines. Speaking of untraditional. That roll out of mike pence, we havent had a chance to talk about donald trump. Mike, how are you doing . No. Let me tell you what ive done. I wouldnt be surprised if Donald Trumps favorite caddy introduced him thursday night. But, i mean, we should not be surprised. This is what again, its about him. Its all him. By the way, mika and willie when he ran, i mean, we were always talking about his campaign. You go into his campaign headquarters, there was donald trump, six people, wires coming down. A couple of stray dogs roaming the hallway and tumble weed, that was it. He blew the doors of 16 republican opponents. He did. I think as we start this week, its a good time to stop, pause, take note of how remarkable it is that were sitting here with donald trump as the nominee. Unbelievable. We have to do this every four years where we flirted with it and hes never going to run. He ran and he started winning and hes going to go away in the fall and on and on he went winning and winning and winning against the odds. I think, yes, this is a little strange, the convention. You have to stop and tip your cap to a guy who has never won for office. Its nothing short of
amazing. What i want to hear what youre looking for. Well hear from all these family members from who we heard from before. Every time they get to family and even donald trump has done this himself at town halls, they have said nothing. They have said nothing. Hes the greatest. And i want to hear something. If theyre going to be about family and this is going to be about donald trump, tell us something we dont know. Put us over the edge. You know what is going to be interesting. How much the family stuff sticks, but the interesting thing to me is how long are voters going to go along with the way trump has campaigned thus far. An amusement for a lot of people, a diversion for a lot of people. An excitement for a lot of people. But now its for the presidency of the United States. Do they switch. Do they start thinking, oh, i dont know. What are you looking for . To what mike said. Thats what everybody said in october, september, october, theyre just flirting. This is a summer romance, this is a fall romance and then they get in the voting booth and they voted for him. They voted for him more than people expected to vote for him. I think, actually, you cant underestimate what happened to Hillary Clinton over the past several weeks. The fbi political indictment. Devastating. Unlike any other president ial candidate has had to endure in the middle of the campaign and thats why you see people in the low, the low 40s and see their disapproval so high. I mean, you know, i think everybodys looking to see whether donald trump can pull this off. Whether he can run a convention over the next four days. Whether it can be organized. His roll out for the vice presidency was absolute chaos. The most important decision he had to make. He ended up selecting somebody he did not want to select. Questions of him going back and
forth the night before trying to change his mind. Whether thats true or not, i do not know. I do know he ended up picking up somebody that he is politically uncomfortable with and then he introduced him and he could tell that and talked about himself for 40 of the time and mike pence for 3 of the time and im not even being snarky. If you cant pull that off because you have everybody close to you like yammering at you, then how are you going to pull off a convention . A lot of personal feelings get involved in there. They did not pick the guy that was best for donald trump. Not going to get women. Not going to give them anything new. In fact, its going to make, marx halperin, the mike pence selection is going to make things even more difficult for the Republican Party in attracting women to vote. I think that is definitely a factor. I think of the people he left himself with in the end he did help his chances of winning
compared to gingrich or christie. He needs to reunite the Republican Party. Hes trashed the Republican Party, as recently as over the weekend. I think mike pence will help unite the party and help with some donors but will never be atrumps running mate. It will be about trump. Whether he can spend four days showing people there is a side he hasnt seen. There is a side that most people havent seen. There is. I guess that at the end, mika and willie, especially. Weve known donald for a long time and the donald that weve seen in front of the microphone is not the donald that we have known for a decade. I wonder if he dare shows show who he really is and stop with the bluster. Its a serious time. So, it would be good. Willie. Theyve seen one version. Where they buy the real donald trump. Which is the donald trump we know and like. Not the donald trump we see on stage. Will he be willing to show that . I think he will thursday
night. Lets move to some other news now. New developments another instance of deadly violence against police. Three officers in baton rouge, louisiana, are dead. Another three injured in what the citys mayor is calling an ambushstyle attack. Responding to a call of shots fired when they were gunned down. Gavin long of kansas city, missouri. He was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire. Yesterdays shooting came five days after president obama traveled to dallas to speak at the Memorial Service of another five officers. He found himself traeaddressing nation, again, yesterday. That killer would not be the last person to try to make us turn on each other nor will todays killer. It remains up to us to make sure that they fail. That decision is all of ours. Joining us from baton rouge, louisiana, Chris Jansing. What more do we know about the gunman and the status of the other three officers wounded . We know actually quite a lot about him from online postings. Online presence. It shows an interest in the sovereign Nation Movement where people believe that there are no laws that apply to them and they make their own laws and dont have to pay taxes. That a direct contraaddiction to other things that show about gavin long. He was a marine that served honorably achieving the rank of sergeant. Served in iraq for eight months getting a good conduct medal. He was married very briefly, according to public records for about two years. But recently online has shown these extremist views. He was a Data Information specialist in the military. Obviously, carried that over. Not only with a blog, but
podcasts. One of those podcasts he was expressing his anger with the shootings of black men by Police Officers posting very recently 100 of revolutions have been successful through fighting back through abloodshed. Yesterday he came here along airline highway in baton rouge. The crime scene has been cleared, but they have also investigated in kansas city where he is from. They went to the door of his house. Someone came to the door with a gun and taken into custody. He is being questioned. So, while we wait for a News Conference this afternoon to get the very latest, three men remain hospitalized. Three Police Officers, as you said. One remaining in critical condition. Willie . Nbc Chris Jansing in baton rouge, thank you so much. The three officers killed, one of them had two Young Children and veteran of the United States military, another had a 4monthold child and
another had four children and this was his last shift before he was headed out on vacation with his family. Another unspeakable tragedy for Law Enforcement officers in america. Michael steele, as the republican on the panel, i want to talk about president obama and the way he reacted. He has been attacked from the left and from the right. No matter what he said. I have thought in speaking to americans, i thought his tone over these last two tragedies, especially, i think its been Pitch Perfect. I think especially and this is, i say this is someone who has been very critical of him post paris and after a lot of other tragedies. I thought he was Pitch Perfect yesterday. I thought he was, too. Its hard because youre trying to deal with a lot of emotions. The range of emotions from extreme anger thats now really beginning to surface within the black community. I got a text message from a friend of mine out of baltimore
and he said, he said people just dont get it. These young people are angry. They are frustrated. They feel isolated and now the only thing they can do is lash back. Youve got that dynamic. Youve got the political dynamic at the president noted where you ahave a lot of hot rhetoric. For him to try to find that sweet spot where he can bring the country into that space to think about where we are as a nation. You know, after the first round of shootings, i hate taput it that way. Im thinking to myself, why are we so angry with each other . Why do we seem to hate each other so much . I think the president in the last few weeks have been trying to get to that question in a way that makes us think about as american citizens, not as a black man or a white woman or as a gay person or republican or democrat, but as an american, what are we doing to ourselves. What are we doing to ourselves that we treat communities of color a certain way who are now treating the police or responding to them a certain way. All of it in anger. All trying to deal with the backdrop of isis. Donald trump reacted to news of the baton rouge attack yesterday tweeting this. Were trying to fight isis and now our own people are killing police. Our country is divided and out of control. The world is watching. Trump also wrote, we grieve for the officers killed in baton rouge today. How many Law Enforcement and people have to die because of lack of leadership in this country. Thats ridiculous. We demand law aand order. Governor of louisiana, John Bel Edwards joins us live on morning joe. Mike, whose lack of leadership led to somebody, crazy, hateful person going out and shooting three people yesterday. Three Police Officers. Childish. Thats a very legit question, joe. We saw a clip from the president of the United States, no matter whether youre a democrat or a republican and no matter you voted for them or didnt. You should be glad he is the president of the United Statesbecause he sets the right tone each time he appears in a situation like that. He certainly has lately. Hes not set the right tone on isis, lets say, in my opinion. If you are looking at what happened in baton rouge, go back to see what he said in dallas. Well again yesterday. But now athe danger you mentioned, isis. They can isis with the Police Shootings. This was a deranged human being who set out yesterday to do what he ended up doing. And i dont know how you control that. I dont know how you police that. Willie, lets talk about conflating things now. You had somebody deranged yesterday that went out and tried to attach a political motive to what happened. You had the same thing happening on Great Britain on the eve of the eu vote. You had a deranged man that
everybody had known in town for years who just said he is a crazy guy going up and killing a member of parliament. Orlando, you had a deranged man a loaner. A guy that everybody had known for a while and then suddenly it gets attached to something bigger. The tragedy in nice. You know, that didnt come out of mosul. That came out of a deranged mans mind. A man that everybody had known as a crack pot in that community. Whats happening and i think we in the media really have to start asking ourselves, how much attention do we give to these deranged people who commit acts of terror. You have the same thing happening in nice. So, i wonder whether were trying to attach a universal meaning to an individual derangement. And i think whether youre
talking about orlando, nice, baton rouge, whatever, i think thats what a lot of us are trying to do to fill up time on cable news and i think were not only doing our viewers a great disservice, but were doing america and the world a great disservice. The mo has been and we saw in orlando, in particular, for an individual person to be inspired, perhaps, by what they read or heard from isis. In the process, in the case of oorlando, the shooter calling 911. There doesnt have to be any previous connection. Trained on a battlefield. They can retroactively attach to what theyre doing and think theyre going to be rewarded in the afterlife for it. Donald trump in his statement talked about a world out of control and thats a theme weve been hearing from him and mike pence, again,