Right now. Its not an order, the president s opinion. Are President Trumps tweets considered official white house statements . The president is the president of the United States, theyre considered official statements by the president of the United States. Wow. Good morning. And welcome to morning joe. Im confused. So confused. What is that line from the office . Universe, you win. Its thursday, august 2nd. And what a way to start the day. What a way. So, is it the official policy of the president or not . I think the most telling thing of the whole story is how much his lawyers freaked out immediately and started calling around immediately. He was just venting. Just like a baseball game. When hes actually doing what talking about what would start a constitutional crisis. Or Obstruction Of Justice. As brian clause pointed out yesterday is exactly what he did in turkey back 2013, 2014. Talk about fake news. You talk about deep state conspiracies. You fire prosecutors and you have a were getting close. With us we have Mike Barnicle and Jonathan Lamir and former fbi Special Agent and contributor clint watts and National Political reporter heidi. I say we are getting close and that may sound like an overstatement, but were understating what we are seeing every day. Ask someone like Madeline Albright whether what she sees here is the beginning of a very bad scene for this country that does not look like a democracy. A bad scene for a country, willie, if you dont have people pushing back. We talked about the commander
Former GOP representative Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski interview newsmakers, politicians and pundits about the issues of the day. Not subtraction. That hard core dwindling base. That spells real trouble for republicans. This fall. And real trouble for donald trump in 2020. Getting back to our top story. Three sources tell donald trump he is pushing for an interview with Robert Mueller. Good, he should. The Washington Post reports that special Counsel Robert Mueller sent the white house a letter on monday offering to limit the questions in order to secure a president ial interview. According to the post muellers team suggested that investigators would reduce the number of questions about potential Obstruction Of Justice. They would ask in person and, instead, seek some answers in written form. The Special Counsels office declined to comment. The legal team sought for months to narrow the questions about trumps actions in office and set conditions for an interview. The president s lawyer, rudy
giuliani, said the president discussed the latest response on tuesday night and wednesday morning, which would have been around the time he sent those tweets. According to giuliani, there was slight movement, not enough to answer the concerns, but enough at least to continue at least discussing for a short while longer. So, clint, its obvious. Donald trumps lawyers have no confidence in him. They dont think hes smart enough to sit across the table. Hes scared hes going to spew out something i would be insulted if i were him. He can hire the lawyers he wants to hire. What is at risk if he sits down with mueller . Theyre looking at the strategy now where at first it would be great to submit written answers first before i go in. What written answers can do it can put donald trump in a tough spot because he has to be able to attest to those answers. Trap situation and asking to end this probe even though sessions has recused himself but the mechanism would be there to end this if he wanted to. More Obstruction Of Justice. This comes after just days of reporting after we know that the mueller team is examining trumps tweets as exhibits possible evidence of obstruction. Not just to be looking at what he says Behind Closed Doors and trump being so transparent does that quite a bit. Were also by the way, i just want to say, we were talking about this with somebody yesterday and they said, well, is it a crime if he does it all in public . If i walk into a bank and there are 30 armed guards and i say stick up, give me all your money. That is still a crime. The fact that he continues to try to obstruct justice in
public, doing things that would have any other governors or mayors thrown in jail immediately, that doesnt lesson the impact that hes attempting to obstruct justice in the light of day. Its how its being received. The impact would be greater if it was uncovered in an email or text message instead of wide open for his 50 million followers to read. There is certainly a lot of this mueller pressure right now with the interview going on. We know yesterday morning he was watching the News Coverage of the Paul Manafort trial. He sees this as a significant step. As much as he downplays publicly what manafort did, he ran that convention. This is the closest it has come to him, to the white house and to his family. Even if these charges arent specifically about russia. Weve also seen him according to our reporting talking to advisors deduriuring the night
the last week just furious on how the media has covered this. But also the coverage of the Helsinki Summit and that he just feels like it is both the government, Jeff Sessions and the media conspiring against him. Manafort trial makes it very real. Hes watching this and seeing mug shots and testimony and crossexamination. Its all happening. Joe, as a lawyer, you know the tweet yesterday about, you know, end this now. Gets us something that prosecutors love to get to, his state of mind. State of mind. And you can trace that all the way back to his white house meeting where he kicked out all americans and all he had were russians in there and hes saying, i fired comey and now the pressures off of us. I mean, its really, its pretty remarkable that, again, he calls it a witchhunt. I would just say, again, for any Cable News Outlet that refers to
it as a witchhunt for any congressman that refers to it as a witchhunt, for any Talk Show Host that refers to it as a witchhunt, youre doing Vladimir Putins bidding. You just are. Because that quote, witchhunt, actually has evidence that the United States military and intel agencies picked up on, in black and white, forensic evidence. Youre no longer doing the bidding of donald trump. Youre doing the bidding of an ex exkgb agent. You were Aiding And Abetting enemy if you call it a witchhunt. Yesterday at the white house, maybe not for the first time, but Sarah Sanders referring to it as the witchhunt in shorthand as official statement from the white house podium. Can you imagine, can you imagine i just cant imagine any time in our past with theUnited States military, people at ft. Mead, the United States intel agencies discover that a hostile power is waging some form of war on the United States of america and elected officials and Sarah Huckabee sanders and Cable News Hosts are attacking that investigation. And demanding, okay, we just found out that, yes, they are trying to undermine american democracy. We now demand that you, that you close that investigation right when we start getting evidence that russia. Weve got the hard evidence. Why dont they want us to find out what else Vladimir Putins done. We had facebook coming out this week talking about more intrusions for 2018 and story for Wall Street Journal about russianis getting into the powe grid. To call it a witchhunt seems to
be a dereliction of duty. Youre Aiding And Abetting the enemy. How will senate react Jeff Sessions should stop this witchhunt right now. Here is the reaction. The president s tweet is unfortunate. Its inappropriate for him to be commenting on an ongoing investigation. I dont Think General Sessions can fire mr. Mueller. I think hes recused. Should the president be sending these tweets out . Youll have to ask the president. I think thats out of Jeff Sessions hands. He recused himself from the Russian Investigation because he participated in the campaign, as we all know. And i think that was appropriate for him to do so. Muellers going to finish his investigation. The truth is all going to come out and thats the best thing
that can happen for the president and for the country. So, heidi, is that consistent with what youre hearing on capitol hill . More stating of the fact that general sessions has, in fact, recused himself in all this. What is the feeling on capitol hill when the camera is off . Consistent with what im hearing, willie. Im so glad you played that because the question right now is how has this sentiment changed over the course of this investigation. I went back and looked. We have a great comparison here. Exactly about this time last year, trump was also beating up on sessions. And i pulled up an article from August 3rd Of 2017 and here was the response from congress. Quote, the blow back from congress to trumps public criticism of sessions was sharp and substantial. And his allies in the gop told the president to back off. What we saw was two separate bipartisan bills were introduced
in order to send a message to the president a shout and not even to think about taking any moves on the Special Counsel or Jeff Sessions. Under no circumstances will we be Holding Hearings over the break in order to confirm a new nominee. So, i just want to put that out there to contrast how much things have changed in terms of the sentiment in Congress Since last year when the exact same thing happened in terms of the president s attacks on sessions. Youre saying far more muted yesterday. Saying that he cant fire sessions, but not much more than that. They separated themselves a bit. Far more muted now. Kind of a downplaying of the president s comments. A discounting of them and an assumption that this investigation will go forward and just dont ask me about it. Discounting. Discounting of it where theyre just trying to push it away. But, jonathan, behind the
scenes, the senate republicans, at least, and paul ryan, also, are sending a message to donald trump saying, dont do it, right . Dont cross the line. This is a step too far. It would be disastrous not just because it would prompt a constitutional crisis but going into these midterms that theyre very concerned if the president were to act and take those steps to end this probe and bring it to a conclusion before mueller reports his findings to congress that it would be a disaster for republicans going into november. Publicly were seeing what theyre doing there. Theyre always afraid to fully defy this president. They know how popular, but theyre finding a way to do it and focusing on the Sessions Argument here. Hes not the one who can do it anyway. Communicating to the white house saying, look, this is a step if a far. Clint, follow up on exactly what the white house calling this Investigation A witchhunt means for Vladimir Putin. Talk about what a danger this investigation remains for Vladimir Putin. Talk about how exposed Robert Mueller, with the help of the United States military, the United States intel community, how much we have shattered russias belief that they can do whatever they want with the United States of america. Explain how a republican congressman trying to stop us in the middle of an investigation where the u. S. Military, the u. S. Intel communities are giving us more and more information about how putin has attacked american democracy in the past and how he wants to attack american democracy this year and in the future. Talk about how they are doing bidding and Aiding And AbettingVladimir Putin pie trying to kill this investigation. Beyond any one election or elected official, what they always want to do is grade democratic constitutions when you say that, putin when you hear witchhunt coming out of the president s mouth ythey say, youre right. They can build a bond with the president and work with the president as an ally to thwart democratic constitutions and democracy is a good system of governance. This is consistent. Having congressmen run around with secret leaks. This destroys the ability of our institutions of our leaders and appointed leaders to actually do their jobs, whether its sessions today, it will be Somebody Else tomorrow. You see this conflict playing out for 2018. There is no plan to deal with russian interference or any foreign interference going to into 2018. Is it fair to say that if someone is trying to end this Russian Investigation that theyre doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin . Is there any question that if a member of congress is trying to stop this Russian Investigationthat has already revealed so much that they are doing Vladimir Putins bidding . Not only by trying to stop it. If they were successful, it would create massive turmoil in this country. Thats what the kremlin would want. Just continuing this discussion extends the length of the investigation. Every day it goes on is another victory for Vladimir Putin. Not just the russia probe that the president is interested in shutting down, its also the federal government. What he just said about that possibility and why he thinks it will be a good thing for republicans and why he might need to finally go to sleep. Well be right back. Oh, milk. Another breakfast, another dilemma. Am i willing to pay the price for loving you . Youll make my morning, but ruin my day. Complicated relationship with milk . Pour on the lactaid. Its delicious 100 real milk, just without that annoying lactose. Mmm, thats good. Lactaid. The real milk that doesnt mess with you. And for chocolate lovers, try rich, Creamy Lactaid chocolate milk. On choicehotels. Com like this. Surfs up. Earn a 50 gift card when you stay just twice this summer. Or, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com
winning percentage and were trying to figure out whether the sox are going to lose seven of eight or eight of eight against the yankees. Thats how we think. Because when its august i see fourgame series against the yankees and you could take four games off. Were going to lose three of four at least. Its in our dna. Who is the next series . How could we start a new winning streak. You guys are on pace for one of the best, four, five seasons in baseball and if we can get a split, well be lucky. Tonight we open the series with a pitcher that i used in jacks game. All right. President trump is attempting you dont even care about the yankees red sox series. I like the red sox. Ive been watching. Its been fun. Up until now. It all ends now. Go ahead. Okay. Classic. Serious things are going on. President trump is attempting to put a positive spin on the potential for a Government Shutdown over his continued demands for funding his border wall, which always makes me think of Imfwragz Amigration an the separation of children from their family. When you think about it, President Trump, you bring up your border wall and horrendous, policy and when you bring up the wall, youre bringing up immigration. The president suggested that the federal government coming to a stop would actually help republicans ahead of the Midterm Elections. I actually think it would be a positive, like pulling teeth getting these guys to get it done is, and you have no idea how tough ive been. If you have a shut down, you have a shut down. The shut down can also take place after the election. I happen to think its a great
political thing because people want border security. But most republican lawmakers arent buying the president s optimism. Ron johnson of wisconsin said yesterday he reiterated the position of opposition of the president shutting down the government and border wall, heres what he said. The government is not going to build the wall, i dont believe. So, there you go. Sort of Lincoln At Gettysburg. I like that. Theres a big build up for a half second clip. I have no idea what ron said before or after that. I did love that clip. So lets talk about the red sox. I want to talk about the Wall Street Journal editorial a couple days ago. Okay. Where they said trump is probably thinking it is in my best interest to lose the house. Others have started saying that, as well. And, of course, i dont think he ever thinks that w