Text, that is a joke. Is there a recall process for United States senators from wisconsin . Because people, not only around this country, but our enemies across the world heard a sitting United States senator say that he believed that there was a secret Society Inside the federal bureau of investigation that was planning a coup detat against the United States president. This thats big news. Its going to be very easy for us this morning to laugh at the stupidity of it all. Theres nothing funny about people using conspiracy theories to slur the men and women of the fbi. It used to be liberals that attacked Law Enforcement officers. Certain liberals. And we conservatives were proud to defend the c. I. A. We were proud to defend the fbi and the people who we believe defend us. Now it is republicans that are slandering and slurring the fbi at every turn. So with ron johnson, its clearly one of two things. Either he is of such limited intellect that he couldnt pick up upon reading those Text Messages, that it was a joke in the aftermath of the election and was literally written right after the aftermath of the election. Or its with malicious intent that he and others have combined, in a cabal who are the others . You had trey gowdy. And who was he standing next to talking about the, the secret society . Its a secret society. Were going to look into it. Who was it . You have elements of people on television, on cable netwo networks, with a concerted effort to destroy, the hope, the underpinnings the trust that people have in the fbi. Go ahead, willie and toss it to me. The republican senator from texas who was standing with trey gowdy. He gave a speech about the secret society and said i dont know if its true. Theyre putting donald trump ahead of the good of the country. And for what . Donald trump doesnt care about them. They get into a foxhole with a guy who will turn on them as soon as he gets a chance. Hes going to leave washington, mika. And when he leaves washington, the music is going to stop and there are going to be a lot of fbi agents and a lot of conservatives, and there are going to be a lot of Republican Voters who are going to be staring at them and say wait you did what to defend donald trump . You claimed that a coup detat was being undertaken . And you based it on a joke in a text . And you let people believe for 24 hours that was happening . I know you have to get to devin nunez and what hes done. Hes trying to release a memo that the Justice Department doesnt want released, that the fbi doesnt want released, that nobody wants released except wait for it, wait for it, wait for it the russians the russians are actually with the russian bots going Hashtag Releasethememo while Donald TrumpsJustice Department is saying, if you roo he lease this memo, the contents you dont even know about, you will damage United States intel gathering. And yet devin nunes is not listening to justice, hes following the russians and their bots. So along with joe, willie, Mike Barnicle and me we have columnist at the Washington Examiner and Washington Post columnist, and politics editor, oh, really just turned the screen orange can i say, can i just Say Something . Yeah. There are no finer people in this world than the technicians at morning joe. Did you bring them coffee . I wasnt going to say anything, i bought coffee for them on friday. And i got an email this morning from starbucks saying that alex coursen had not opened my coffee certificate yet. Now he throws me under the bus. Im just saying. Alex, can you turn him orange . Were working on it. Lets go to a neutral screen. I think we brought him back too soon. Three republican members of congress, each of whom chair powerful committees on capitol hill ran to the cameras earlier this week seemingly in a panic over secret societies, missing Text Messages and allegations of wrongdoing in the Justice Department. It is no coincidence in my opinion that were missing texts that run from when the Russian Investigation was launched, right up to the point where you have the Mueller Investigation being launched. Whats missing is important. But also, whats there is important. It is manifest bias, not just against trump, but against his kids, against his business interests. Theres a text where they hope that trump hotel fails. That is a level of bias that you rarely see and you never see from Law Enforcement officers. What this is all about is further evidence of corruption, more than bias, but corruption at the highest levels of the fbi. And the secret society, we have an informant thats talking about a group that are Holding Secret meetings offsite. Theres so much smoke here, theres so much suspicion here. Lets stop there. A secret society. Secret meetings offsite of the Justice Department. Correct. And you have an informant saying that . Yes. Anything more about that in. We have to dig into it. This is not a distraction. Again, this is, this is bias potentially corruption at the highest levels of the fbi. That is now investigating and now by the way, Robert Mueller used to run the fbi. He is in no position to do an investigation over this kind of misconduct. So i think at this point in time we probably should be looking at the special counsel to undertake this investigation. So, willie from his secret society, one text that was a joke, hes talking about corruption at the highest levels of the fbi. And says that because Robert Mueller bravely and honorably ran the federal bureau of investigation through the most harrowing domestic challenge of our time, 9 11, and because he did so admirably, ron johnson is saying that this vietnam highly decorated vietnam war hero is unqualified to, to do his job . He just laid out their case. He just laid out the republican case. That the fbi is corrupt, bob mueller used to run the fbi. Therefore bob mueller is corrupt. Therefore the outcome and the results and the findings of his investigation will in some way be corrupt. Based on a text about a secret society. You had john ratcliff, he said we learned information about a secret society. Im not saying they actually happened. Why are they putting it out there . If you have evidence, tell the country. But if you dont know what happen and youre speculating and are just throwing mud at the fbi thats a slur on the fbi. A separate congressional source has provided nbc news with the message between fbi lawyer lisa page and agent peter strzok who were romantically involved and discussed politics, sent within hours after trump won the presidency. It shows the couple expressing concern in texts, about what lies ahead. Seems kind ever depressing, maybe it should be the first yesterday, seeming to nervously walk back his earlier allegations. Watch him. Your informant confirm that these offsite meetings took place . Listen, i never i the term secret Society Comes from strzok and page. All i said is it didnt surprise me, we are the committee the whistleblowers come to to talk to about all kinds of problems throughout the federal government. I had heard of a group of people within the fbi Holding Secret offsite meetings. I was kind of connecting the dots. It didnt surprise me when i heard that term. But thats strzok and pages term, not mine. David ignatius, the conspiracy theories swirling around the fbi, the attacks, United States senator suggesting that theres quote corruption at the highest levels of the fbi. And that Robert Mueller is unqualified for the position which he holds. Several other attacks happening yesterday. The same day these republicans find out that Robert Mueller wants to interview donald trump. Can you talk about speaking of corrosive, just the corrosive effect that this has, not only on the United States, but also across the world . Well ive been talking to former fbi officials, a few current fbi officials in the last couple weeks. And this is taking a toll. They feel like theyre, being public target. Their professionalism, which is what they care about most is being attacked. If youre at the fbi, your one rule is stay out of politics. Every day they get dragged deeper in it. You have to think about whats going on here. The fbi has been asked to investigate a conspiracy by our principal foreign adversary, russia, to meddle in our elections and to protect the president in that investigation, republicans are now alleging a conspiracy inside the fbi that, if you listen to them, is a treasonous conspiracy against the country. Its an extraordinary charge. The best thing that happened yet yesterday was that the department of justice, trumps department of justice, in the person of assistant attorney general steven boyd, sent a letter to the House Intelligence Committee saying the attempt to disseminate this material without having it reviewed by the fbi, would be extraordinarily reckless. Those are his words, and further, that on the key area that these republicans have been alleging, conspiracy behavior involving the completion of fisa warrants, thats whats in the memo that nunes is trying to circulate. That the Justice Department finds no evidence, is not aware of any wrongdoing in the completion of that process. So you have the bureaucracy, thank goodness in a time when people are trying to intimidate them, pushing back, speaking out. Speaking for the department of justice, the integrity of the people there. That was one of the good events yesterday. It was. The campaign by johnson and the others extraordinary. And also, a deflection to whats really going on. That letter to congressman devin nunes renews the request by fbi director chris wray, that the chairman share the memo with the Justice Department for review. Either to them or the fbis inspectorgeneral, since they are unaware of the wrongdoing it alleges and would like to investigate first. The letter states it would be extraordinarily reckless to release classified memo which has been urged by the president s son, donald trump junior, as well as russian bots, according to the german marshall fund, a group that tracks their activity. So don jr. And russian bots want this means the Russian Intelligence Services, want us to release a highly classified memo. And republicans, devin nunes, the head of the intel paul ryan is the person who put him there. Paul ryan is the person who is responsible for absolutely everything that devin nunes does paul ryan. So nbc news reports that nunes has resisted sharing the memo even with the senate Intelligence Committee chairman. Richard burr. And last night, on msnbcs all in ranking democrat adam schiff described how the letter revealed how little the house intelligence members care what is actually in the document. Whats so astounding to me about the fbi doj letter is it reveals for the first time chairman nunes didnt read the underlying materials, after making this fuss and claiming all this conspiracy, he didnt bother to take the time to read the materials that he was characterizing in this memo. The only two member who is have read the underlying materials are myself and trey gowdy. And bear in mind mr. Gowdy is the same one who brought us those endless benghazi conspiracy theories, none of which proved to be true. So when i moved in the committee at the time the republicans voted to provide this flawed document to the house, i made a motion to allow the members to read the underlying materials before they voted on characterizing them in such a distorted fashion. They voted that down. I moved to let the wait a minute, they chose to not allow to read the actual underlying materials that are at issue that provide the ingredients for the memo . They actively chose to not read that stuff . Thats exactly right. To a person, the republican members voted against allowing themselves to read the underlying materials that they were characterizing. So kristen, everything is upsidedown now. You have evangelical leaders basically saying we dont care what the president does, the same ones that were skewering bill clinton are now perfectly fine with everything that donald trump does. And now you have republicans, conservatives supposedly, people who claim to be conservatives, constantly attacking our intel agencies. This is what we used to attack liberals for doing. With the church commission, and you know, constantly going after the c. I. A. , constantly attacking the integrity of the fbi. It seems like everything is reversed these days. I dont think anyone should be immune from criticism, because they wear a uniform, because theyre in a sector of our government that deserves respect, doesnt mean you should be shielded from criticism. If something bad is going on, and there is evidence of it, then by all means, criticize the fbi. But when i read that text, im a believer that sometimes the simplest explanation is usually the right one. To me that reads people setting up, a couple frustrated folks getting drinks it could be something more than that. It might not be. But to sow the seeds of kpirscy theory, is this more than a couple of people wanting to grab beers and vent their frustration . If we dont know that, why stir people up with that information. I dont think we shouldnt be looking into things. I dont think anyone should be immune from criticism and scrutiny. I think if youre going to criticize, you should have solid evidence that its deserved. Sam stein, jump in. This is not the first time that devin nunes has done Something Like this. You would have thought his credibility would have been burnt with the infamous unmasking scandal that happened earlier this year. And in fact he actually had to keep his distance from the investigation lets remind people that he held a press conference outside the Intel Committee. He said i am going to take information to the white house. Yes. That is disturbing. And then he got to the white house and had no information. And was then given information from the white house. And then went back out presented it to the president , acted as if it was revelatory. In fact chairman burr of the senate accused him of concocting an entire scandal. Would you think in normal times after that, your credibility would be irrevokably burned and no one would trust you again. But we live in interesting times. I would encourage viewers for a few minutes, at night, to turn on fox news to understand why this stuff persists. Because if you watch fox news in the evening lineup, they are having entirely different conversations relatively devoid of any logical underpinning. Its in that ether that we have things, like, a secret society, that gets credence. Every night there are new questions about the veracity of the robert Mueller Investigation. Which is ramping up and up. What did lou dobbs say a couple days ago . Something about deepstate people and yadda yadda. We have to go to war with the fbi. Yes. Its time to go to war with the fbi. Thats why, go to war with the men and women who protect americans. From terror attacks. Theyre on the front line that would be like us saying domestically, theyre on the front line. That would be like us saying we have to go to war with the United States marine corps. Imagine a good chunk of the populace is getting this message every single night and its only ramping up as muellers investigation winds down. So that explains a lot of this. Theres a huge chunk of our population who is just utterly convinced that the deep state is out to get donald trump. And its not bound to anything. Its bound to weird conspiracy theories that are floated by ron johnson. But its there. Is this why donald trump is there a method to the madness . Is this why donald trump has been attacking nonstop, the Intel Community, even before he got into office and the media, from the very beginning . Because he knew that this was coming . So off of that, joe, off of your observation, off of what David Ignatius just indicated, over the past couple of days, ive talked to four different people, two from the Intelligence Committee, two from the fbi, formerly from the fbi. And each of them have a similar strain of thought on whats going on. And it is this that a lot of what we read, a lot of what we end up talking about on cable tv, about these daily headlines, these daily stories, it seems every day we get two or three different eyepopping stories out of washington. Theres an element of distraction to all of them. Because at the root of this is an astounding fact, according to these intel people, and the former fbi people. And it is this that at the root of this, is russias role in manipulating an election in the United States of america. Russia. Not our friend, not our ally, russia. Still here, still actively pursuing disruption in our political system. And politicians from the president on down, say nothing about it each and every day. The answer to your question is of course, of course the reason he goes after the intel agencies and the media is to soften the ground for whatever is coming. He suspects something is coming and he does not want you to trust the source, whether it comes from the media or now even the fbi. I would point out it was what, a year ago, a little more than the year ago that the shoe was totally on the other foot. That it was democrats who didnt like the fbi because comey put out the memo that they believe it cost