By this weekends torrent, offensive and at times dangerous tweets aimed at the nfl, nba and Nuclear North Korea. Stop me if youve seen trump play out this vaudevillian act before. His foes explode in fury and both sides play into the plan to launch a mini war. They take trumps verbal bait. As John Podhoretz said trump is pavlov. We are the dogs. While thats going on, his cabinet secretaries march out to sunday shows, humiliating themselves in defense of indefensible idiocy. Whether you love him or whether you hate him,onald trump thrives on this sort of political tribalism. His attacks are going on as Health Care Reform is hanging in the balance, about to die. His treasury and hhs secretaries are mired in spending scandals regarding corporate jets and, oh, yeah, america continues to careen to a nuclear standoff. Obsessing about mens tennis during the cuban missile crisis. Justin shanes pointed that out. Who can forget that, when at the height of the cuban missile crisis, president kennedy was like, heres the problem with mens single tennis. We wont make that mistake here. Instead, were going to focus on the commander in chiefs aimed at nuclearized north korea, all the while america moves toward its most Dangerous Nuclear showdown in 55 years and all the while the president and his party, which is now experiencing record low approval ratings, are struggling once again to try to pass a Health Care Reform bill that will lock 20, maybe 30 million americans off of the health care roles. So, with that, we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. Senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc, mark halperin. Professor at the university of Michigan School of public policy, democratic congressn harold ford jr. And associate editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius and eugene robinson. Great group to talk about what really matters this morning. Lets do that. Do you want, really quickly, before let get a quick roundup from yesterday. Sure. Harold ford, what was your take on that . I listened to mnuchin and the president. Whatever you think of these young men and their approach to this peaceful protest, they have every right to do it. I found it odd that the president could find no good on that young side of these young men saying that some sort of talk about social injustice and racial inequality ought to be put forward. I was pleased to see robert kraft, steve kisch and other owners stand with their players and said were a league that tries our hardest to stand with everyone and these young men have every right to try to make their country better. Gene, what was your take of the eepts over the weekend . I was surprised at the power of the statements from some of the owners, particularly robert kraft, who gave President Trump a super bowl ring, who gave 1 million to the campaign. Yeah, but, you know, to keep it in perspective, though, he also gave Vladimir Putin a super bowl ring, right . Right, exacy. Thats true. N exactly sure how Vladimir Putin got that super bowl ring. That will be for another show. But, no, he was specifically critical of President Trump and i was frankly surprised at the degree of solidarity that most of the owners couple didnt say anything, jerry jones, included expressed with their players. So if the idea of President Trump was to play wedge politics here, im not sure exactly where hes driving the wedge. I dont think its between america and football. There are other issues with football. But i dont think he has driven that wedge. I think football pretty united. And that was my takeaway. And, mike, one of the more incredible comments that donald trump made over the weekend was that somehow football had become a game for patsies, that somehow the rules had made it too delicate. I stopped watching the nfl years ago for a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons was because i knew the people that were playing it were killing themselves, literally killing themselves with every collision. Tom landry told Jim Miklaszewski in his last year, this is not the sport i grew up in. Right. These are young men killing themselves. Aaron hernandezs scan was in the papers friday. He had the brain of a man in his mid 60s due to all the violent hits he has taken. But the president has encouraged violence. I have to tell you, i found this weekend, for many reasons, to be inordinately depressing. You had the odd juxtaposition of ken burns on vietnam, focusing on the events of the war we walked into backwards, lies and deception. When you have a president of the United States today taunting, taunting the leader of north korea. Perhaps triggering a mistaken launch of a missile. Then you have the president of the United States, in my estimation this is just my estimation. I want to be clear about that. Coming perilously close to race baiting on a friday night in alabama. And then through the weekend, majoring in division of this country rather than bringing the country together. He goes to bed one night, provoking the leader of north korea into a mistake. He wakes up the very next morning going after professional athletes, almost all of whom in some sports, the majority of them africanamerican. This is the United States of america. He does not understand the United States of america. He understands the worst of america. He doesnt understand the best of america. But he certainly does understand how to bait people. Whether its race baiting or political baiting or whatever baiting. He knew friday nht where this was going to end. And he got exactly what he wa wanted. I tried to stay away from it as much as possible. We dont want to talk about it because the more we talk about it got to talk about it a few minutes here. But the more we talk about it, the more were playing into his hand. If you were debating people people tried to start debating me over the weekend. If you do that, you are doing exactly what the president wants you to do. If you yell. If you fight. If you debate. If you get impassioned about this stuff. Thats what the president wanted. And he has the most grotesque part of this is that donald trump has now been equated with the American Flag. So, a protest against the American Flag is now yesterday was a protest against donald trump. Think about the men and the women who fought and gave their all in vietnam, what theyre thinking about that today. Theres a real and serious and passionate debate in this country where the president has some support on players protesting during the national anthem. And that debate, the president has support. When he escalates it to attacking steph curry, impugning people in the league or oppressing their rights, its not what president s normally do. It puts politics into sports in a wayhat isnt good for anyone. And he does know exactly what hes doing. If youre i mean, the president is putting this country in a horrible place. If you have any question in your mind as to whether or not he is race baiting at a certain point in time, think of charlottesville. It will give you some clarity. We have jareds emails to get to. First, like two little kids playing with legos, well talk about President Trump and north korea. An adjective to his nickname for king johnun as the leaders continue to trade personal insults amid a nuclear showdown. And we cant have madmen out there, shooting rockets all over the place. And, by the way, rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. Little rocket man were going to do it, because we really have no choice. Now hes talking about a massive weapon exploding over the ocean, pacific ocean, which causes tremendous, tremendous calamity where that plume goes, so goes cancer, so goes tremendous problems. Hes watching us like he never watched anybody before. That, i can tell you. That, i can tell you. And maybe something gets worked out and maybe it doesnt. Personally, im not sure that it will. Maybe something gets worked out, and maybe it doesnt. But i can tell you one thing, you are protected. Okay . You are protected. Those remarks presumably along with the president s threat to, quote, totally destroy the country, prompted this response from north koreas foreign minister at the united nations. He tried to insult the supreme dignity of my country by referring it to a rocket. By doing so, however, he committed an irreversible mistake of making our rockets visit to the entire u. S. Mainland inevitable all the more. And not letting that go without a response, President Trump took to twitter writing, quote, just heard foreign minister of north korea speak at u. N. If he echoes thoughts of little rocket man, they wont be around much longer. Meanwhile, u. S. Military bombers conducted a show of force. International air space but flew the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone by any u. S. Fighter or bomber aircraft in the 21st century. David ignatius, obviously the tensions keep ratcheting up. I suppose this could go worse, rhetorically. Im not sure how, though. Its hard for me to imagine the rhetoric getting much more nastier than this. We need to remember that this is a culture where shame and dignity matter. The president is deliberately trying to shame kim jongun, rocket man. Now hes little rocket man. And at some point you can goad people into action. Perhaps President Trump hopes to goad china into action with his fire and fury and threat of war. I dont know anybody who is watching this crisis as it heads into, really, the most dangerous phase that doesnt think this is a time for quiet talk and perhaps quiet action, not visible to us, but conducting this over the airwaves, as the president has, is taking this to a point where people almost have to react. You think of the great mistakes in history, the process that led to war world i. If we were to run this tape back for historians in the future, they would just shake their heads. David, he actually put north korea into a position where, again, talking about the destruction. We threatened to completely destroy north korea at the united nations. North Korea Threatens Nuclear annihilation of the u. S. Mainland at the united nations. Fortunately that threat from north korea is empty. United states remains overwhelmingly power. North korea is a Little Country thats Getting Nuclear Weapons capability. The question is, how do you seek to resolve this crisis . Do you see maturity, deliberation in the statements that are made by the president and in the last week weve seen the opposite. Mark halperin, theres also you provoke north korea also into not firing weapons at the United States, if theyre not able to do that, certainly selling Nuclear Technology to isis or any other terror group that would love nothing more to put a dirty bomb or something worse in times square or the mall in washington. One would hope theres quiet diplomacy and also a plan here. There may not be either. Theres not. In asia culture, this kind of language and taunting is just not a good idea. It puts the North Koreans in a place we dont want them to be, where they feel they have to act. I think that the president , speaking out publicly in a different way than past president s on this thorny issue, there may be something to that, but not these kind of insults. Plenty of people in the executive branch now who dont like what the president is doing, escalate this into personal terms rather than talk about American Values and in which the world is united. He has also done. Once he does the personal insults, as always, thats do we know where the Foreign Policy team stands on this . Theyre against the insult. Theyre against the insults . Of course. And harold, theyve warned against the insults for some time. Weve heard them talk about the importance of keeping this quiet, stay off twitter when youre talking about a Nuclear North Korea and one of the most dangerous situation since the cuban missile crisis. I agree with everything thats been said so far. Have you heard someone go before the u. N. And say that a strike is inevitable . We think its an empty charge but its still there. Two, there was a piece that said we are working with contractors, u. S. Government is, defense experts, to figure out how we gat isis increasing use of drones. Theyre using it against militias, our supporters in the middle east. Can you imagine if theres some sort of agreement between north korea and isis, to put those miniaturized heads on a drone . To your point, there was another piece over the weekend. Blane harden in the New York Times spoke of the quiet diplomacy that should be taking place, were going to have to engage in a long, drawnout cold war, back to negotiations between us and china, us and japan and have ambassador go to korea and their ambassadors come to the u. S. So wholly and so tragically, in many ways, over the weekend, because we were worried if the president was going to tweet something negative against steph curry or a football player. If action does have to be taken, the United States will be taking it alone, most likely, because the president s tweets, insults, childish behavior, has isolated the United States of america. And were talking about a nuclear war. Eugene robinson, im thinking about mattis, mcmaster, powell. Kelly. Working on north korea. How is there any possibility that theyre not sitting there going, our positive has completely lost his mind. What else would cross their mind at this point as theyre trying to carry out a Foreign Policy and the president is a loose cannon . I think theres a lot of forehead smacking and sleepless nights, frankly, among those officials and some others because i dont think the president has, you know, some sort of subtle, thoughtout plan here. No. We can bank on that, gene. Were good. I mean, he doesnt he may be betting that in the end north korea doesnt attack and so he looks tough and he looks like hes sort of talked them down. Although, to what end . Its totally unclear. Its a very, very dangerous game hes playing. Its a dangerous situation he inherited. He didnt create the situation but hes making it worse rather than better. Here is the problem. You mentioned sleepless nights, gene. The president of the United States has sleepless nights. Check out the twitter feed. Check the time code on the twitter feed. Wont be around much longer, tweet. 11 08 p. M. Friday night. Wakes up saturday morning, 6 15, 6 16 a. M. , attacking the nba and the nfl. And this is a president do you think he dreamt about that or woke up beforehand . I dont know. This is a president that clearly his staff, some wonderful people, general kelly, general mattis, general mcmaster, they have no control over the president of the United States, what he does, what he says, what he tweets. Not sure what its worth to them. Goading another country into firing a missile at us. This, at a time David Ignatius mentioned how world war i began, in tragedy, a mistake, takes a left instead of a right. Hes dead. World war i begin begins. In july and august, many saw this play out on television, july and august of 1964, two american ships in the gulf. Were they fired upon . We still dont know. But what we do know is there 58,000 names on a wall in washington, d. C. Because of a mistake. And here, in 2017, David Ignatius, were talking about a nuclear showdown. Were talking about the hottest of hot wars and a president w who i dont know exactly. Behaving irrationally. Like hes in a schoolyard. Behaving irrationally and in a way that suggests that he has some problems. No grasp of the fact that millions of peoples lives are literally at stake in north korea and south korea, eventually in seattle, san francisco, los angeles. And yet he appears determined to bait north korea into a nuclear showdown. And i do wonder at what point do those around him say enough . Joe, i think viewers should undetand that these taunting tweets, which weve all deplored, trying to bring china in as our principle ally and interlocking with north korea. Its having some success. Two u. N. Security Council Resolutions voted unanimously with Chinese Support and additional sanctions that have Chinese Support, something they said they would never do. A chinese statement that said they would work to use their banks to cut off funding to north korea. The danger is that the president popping off to show how tough he is, is going to i worry about the missiles being fired in some ways to the chinese deciding this is too radical for us. The question is, is the president himself going to undermine the strategy his aides have worked to construct . Still ahead on morning joe, an update on the health care fight with three senators in the thick of it. Mike rounds and Debbie Stabenow and Maria Cantwell. During the campaign, donald trump repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton for her use of private email. Certainly should. Nothing applies to the family. The law does not apply to this president or his family. You cant use private email. Scandalous. Unless youre in the trump family. What . What do you mean . If youre in the trump family, nothing applies to you and you can do whatever you want. What are you talking about . Hillary clintons not in the trump family. What are you talking about . Everyone will allow it, even the admin