Wrapped up. Jim vandehide thank you so much. Our viewers can sign up for the news letter. Sign up. Axios. Com. Im Geoff Bennett alongside alex witt, morning joe starts right now. Theyre using multiple signs, freddy. Darn it. Ive never taken a heater in my life. Man, that was hard guys. Oh, that was unfair, freddy. Wow. It was a strike. Throw a strike. Swing the bat. That was a good take, freddy. Thanks, guys. I thought he was going heater there. Got in with a breaking ball, freddy, youre a for instance for doing that. Okay. You try hitting a Justin Verlander curve ball with your ear filled with joe buck. It aint easy. That is ugly stuff. Good morning and welcome to morning joe, its wednesday, july 10th, along with mika, willie and me, we have mike barnicle, National Correspondent for political news and nbc, author of the red and blue, Steve Kornacki, Washington Bureau chief, susan page and the cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vandeheit, what do you think about that. Trying to hit a Justin Verlander curve ball while youre yakking it up with joe buck. That was one of the most enjoyable games i have watched in years. Not only Freddie Freeman who is very funny, asking for the signs, but the three houston players in the field at the same time, all wired up, talking about how exhausted they were from running from first to third, it was spectacularly fun to watch. That was a great night for baseball. The game was close, 43, the American League won. You had kristen yelich, the brewers outfielder, chatting with the guys in the booth, the right fielder, a blast hit to left field, he would run and chase it down. Sorry guys, what were we talking about, as he threw it back in the infield. Great job by fox. All right. Were following a number of stories this morning. Mika. We have new reporting from nbc news, detailing how Migrant Children held in a border station in yuma, arizona, not only told government investigators about unsanitary conditions, but also Sexual Assault and retaliation by Border Agents. Well talk about that. A federal judge rejects the Trump Administrations bid to replace the team of lawyers involved in the dispute over adding a Citizenship Question to the 2020 census. A federal Appeals Court appears ready to deal a blow to former president obamas Signature Health care law. A new twist in the ongoing Michael Flynn sentencing process as government lawyers draw up plans for flynn to be the star witness at his former Business Partners upcoming trial. And day two of former Fighter Pilot amy mcgraths bid to unseat Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, her announcement on our show generated a lot of buzz, trending on twitter for most of the day, along with the hash tag, ditch mitch. We begin this morning with President Donald Trump saying hes quote not a fan of registered sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, a contrast from his comments in an october 2002 article in new York Magazine in which hes quoted as saying, i have known jeff for 15 years. This was back in 2002, terrific guy, hes a lot of fun to be with. Its even said that he likes beautiful women as much as i do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it, jeffrey enjoys his social life. Heres what trump told reporters at the white house yesterday. Anybody else . You said he was a terrific guy. I knew him like everybody in palm beach knew him. He was a fixture in palm beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I dont think ive spoken to him for 15 years. I wasnt a fan. A long time ago, id say maybe 15 years. I was not a fan of his. That i can tell you. I was not a fan of his. Well, willie, he was actually a fan of his for a very long time. In fact, one time trump shut down the entire resort and had calendar models come down, asked somebody to bring calendar models down for a vip event and when the organizer of it came down, he realized that the only two people in attendance at this event were donald trump and Jeffrey Epstein. They go back a long way. Yeah, that was in 1992 in maralago. Theres an excellent New York Times report that details the relationship between donald trump and Jeffrey Epstein. It does get into that night when it was you the two of them and a bunch of quote, calendar models at maralago. It sounds like there was a falling out was more over business than it was over anything personal. Meanwhile, there are calls for the resignation of labor secretary alex acosta, and they continue to intensify, but so far on the democratic side. Hes being newly criticized in his role for a 2008 nonprosecution agreement that allowed epstein to forego the possibility of a heavier jail sentence for sex Crimes Involving minors and served a 13 month jail term with much spent in work release. Multiple Top Democrats say acosta needs to go, including all the Senate Democrats who voted to confirm him in 2017. No republicans in congress have joined them. That includes senator ben sasse who vocally demanded an investigation into the Justice Departments handling of epstein but has refrained for calling for acostas resignation. The nonprosecution agreement looks like it protected people who were raping those little girls in palm beach. I dont want to comment about the particular people inside the chain of command in the department of justice ten years ago because theres an Ongoing Investigation that the office of professional responsibility is conducting and theyre going to be reporting back to us in the Judiciary Committee and then well have a lot more to say. Acosta weighed in on the latest charges against Jeffrey Epstein, writing in a series of tweets yesterday, quote, the crimes committed by epstein are horrific. Im pleased that new york prosecutors are moving forward with the case based on new evidence. With the evidence available more than a decade ago, federal prosecutors insisted that epstein go to jail, register as a sex offender and put the world on notice that he was a sexual predator. Now that new evidence and additional testimony is available, the new york prosecution offers an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice. Miami herald investigative journalist who spent two years interviewing women and girls who say they were sexually abused by epstein responded to acosta on twitter, writing, except the evidence shows you had the evidence, remember the 53 page indictment, the phone records, the trash pulls, the flight manifest, the witnesses who worked for epstein, so susan page, that is julie brown who really reopened this case as the attorneys in the Southern District of new york indicated two days ago at their press conference, they said new journalism, new reporting helped us along here. They met privately, kept it secret from the victims. Did things that were unconventional to put it mildly. Kudos to julie brown and the miami herald for pursuing this. This was a scandal in plain sight. This is something the administration could have done more to pursue when they were vetting mr. Acosta for the cabinet role. Its something that senators could have done more to pursue, particularly republicans who were controlling the senate, when they voted unanimously on the republican side to confirm him and now i think its all up to President Trump on whether he wants to take the heat for keeping mr. Acosta in his cabinet. He defended him yesterday, but it reminded me a bit of scott pruitt at the epa, defended by the president , kept in the job for a while until finally he was defended, then dumped. Jim, what is the future of alex acosta, listening to the president talk about him, say he felt badly for him, but you all are reporting at axios, theres not a ton of goodwill to begin with because of alex acosta, not because of this, but because of the way he has done his job as labor secretary. Its bad news, i think, for the acosta that you have so many people inside the white house leaking out that they werent happy with him before any of this. They claim he hasnt moved fast enough on regulatory fronts that they wanted him to move on. Mick mulvaney white house chief of staff thinks this is problematic, and its going to get worse. Its going to go back to the media. Theres going to be more and more reporting from the miami herald and others about what evidence did acosta have when he was making that decision. Its going to be revisited again. That continues to be a big story. Trump has no real loyalty to him. If he thinks hes problematic, hell dump him and move on. Thats why acosta got on twitter. Hes being told, you have to defend yourself. You look stupid here. If this doesnt go away, youre going away. Jim, you wonder how republicans could answer questions about acosta like do you think he should step down, if he had even half the evidence back in 2007 as julie brown reports, if he had half the evidence, how could a republican face the camera and say he should stay in his job. Heres what President Trump said yesterday about his embattled cabinet official. You know, i met secretary acosta when i made the deal to bring him into the administration. I can tell you that for 2 1 2 years, hes been an excellent secretary of labor. You know, if you go back and look at everybody elses decisions, whether its a u. S. Attorney or an assistantst attorn assistant attorney or a judge, you go back and look at their past decisions, you would wish they did it a different way. I do hear there were a lot of people involved in that decision, not just him. I can only say this from what i know and what i do know is that hes been a great, really great secretary of labor. The rest of it well have to look at. Well have to look at it very carefully but youre talking about a long time ago, and it was a decision made i think not by him but by a lot of people. I feel very badly, actually, for secretary acosta, because ive known him as being somebody that works so hard and has done such a good job. I feel very badly about what whole situation. If you go back and look at everybody elses decisions whether its a u. S. Attorney or assistant u. S. Attorney, or a judge, you go back 12 or jim, this is just incredible. Well let the president s comments sit there, and we can just, you know, wonder exactly who else on this planet who has served in the presidency would respond this way to a story like this, and someone in his cabinet under fire like this. But whatever. I digress. Talk to me about how republicans stand by quietly when this person is serving as a cabinet secretary who clearly, clearly made kind of a fool of process and in many ways protected epstein. Yeah, so far they have, by the way, very few if any have come out and said he needs to go. I think it gets a lot harder as time goes on because who the hell wants to be out there defending anything that has to do with the abuse of young girls. Its an awful situation. What epstein did was atrocious and anyone whos out there defending parts of it, even if you can make the case it was complicated and there are different pieces of evidence and other people involved in the process politically, i dont think its one republicans are going to want to make. What i was saying earlier, theyre getting clear signals from the white house that they dont want to stand behind and that people were fed up with him, even before this. So it will be interesting to watch over the next 48 hours, what you guys were saying earlier, that Trump Defends someone until he doesnt. He can say youre the greatest person now, and he could fire you on twitter 15 minutes from now. Its happened before. It will happen again. You know, steve, jim is so right on that. The president could Say Something completely opposite at 10 00 this morning to what he said yesterday. One of the nuggets in here that will move this case forward, the public case that were talking about occurred during the press conference the other day held by the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District here in manhattan, and they are clearly intent on looking at that nonprosecution agreement in florida. How is it made . Who made the deal . What were the aspects of the deal and that is going to be an even bigger story. I think thats the other element of this too. The story just in terms of the prosecution, the story in terms of the case against epstein and everything that went on a decade ago is going to stay in the news. Its not going to go away. Its not like theres an eruption this week and the things that are going to happen over the next few days. This story is going to keep popping up. Every time the story pops up, the same questions being asked now are going to be raised. The same questions about acosta are going to be raised. I agree with what seems to be the consensus here. We have seen this with trump before, we have seen a tepid vote of confidence, he leaves himself wiggle room there. Hes clearly trying to gauge the public realask public reaction. And i wouldnt be surprised if he hear something in a different direction. We have a lot coming up with julia aimsley. Steve kornacki, we lost ross perot passing away at the age of 89. Talk about his legacy and his impact on the elections. I think ross perot, he ushered in a new era of american politics, and an era that were living in now, and that ultimately produced a generation on donald trump. Ross perot in 1992, i think the historical significance of that election is, remember, thats the first post cold war president ial election. Thats the first election after the fall of soviet communism. I think there were new tensions and anxieties in the United States, sort of domestically that were coming to the floor that were going to define our politics. The media had evolved in a way that someone like ross perot could emerge. There was one cable news outlet. There was cnn. A decade old, and at 9 00 p. M. , you had larry king live, and larry king would have an old entertainer from hollywoods glory days and the next night, a business tycoon. Two days later, george h. W. Bush, won the New Hampshire primary but it was humbling, his opponent pat buchanan had got 40 . You had bill clinton. Paul songus was making noise, and larry king said would you think about running for president , i tell you what, if you the people are serious about it, you register my name in all 50 states and ill do it. It was taken as an empty promise, almost a nonanswer, and yet almost overnight, in an age before you had the internet like you have told. We didnt have a viral culture, a Grass Roots Movement did spring up. Eight weeks after that, they handed in 250,000 signatures in the state of texas to get ross perot on the ballot. By the late spring of 92, he was running in first place in the national polls, ahead of bush, ahead of clinton, there was serious talk that he could win the presidency, that he could win the electoral college. As the scrutiny intensified, things changed for per rot, the were a lot of precursors to what ended up happening with trump a decade later. We think about the years that changed politics. A lot of people obviously look back at 1966 for the beginning of the reagan revolution. 1974, the watergate babies as they were called. You can go through the years, but 1992, specifically that month that Steve Kornacki just talked about, 1992, a turning point in american politics, it really defines this era. Ross perot, launching his bid on larry king, and also pat buchanan, humbling george h. W. Bush. When i ran two years ago later, i found there was far more energy at the united we stand meetings, which is per rots grp than there was with the Republican Party. Most of the people who worked on my first campaign, a long shot campaign, were perot united we stand people, and i found out very quickly that the party of george h. W. Bush was no longer the party of bush. This was amalgamation of perot and buchanan, and i think it still is. I covered that 1992 race for news day and heres another lesson among the others that steve mentioned from that that apply today and apply to trumps surprise win in 2016. I dont think we took perot seriously enough as a credible candidate in 1992. It took a while for i think the news media to understand that if it was conceivable he could win, unlikely, conceivable he led for a while in june of 1992 and he represented something important we needed to Pay Attention to, and i do think it started a lot of the politics we see unfolding today. The populism, the concern about trade, the dissatisfaction and suspicion of the washington establishment. It wasnt new wu it got a lot more intense with new, it got a lot more intense with ross perot. He managed to tap it in a way that should have told us a lot about the coming days of donald trump. Steve perot got 19 in 1992. The bush family have long contended that ross perot cost george bush a second term. Do the facts, do the numbers bear that out . They dont. There was incredible personal animosity between the bushes and perots, theres a whole back story. The exit poll asked voters if perot werent on the ballot, the exact same number chose bush as clinton. You had a realtime experiment, from the middle of july until the start of october, perot wasnt in the race. You saw polling for a bush, c p clinton race for ten weeks. There wasnt a single poll where bush led bill clinton. Clinton led double digits when it was a headtohead race. When i mentioned p