Millions of americans. When she said, i pray for the president. I pray for the she may pray but she prays for the opposite. This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation. Adam schiff is a vicious, horrible person. And renewal for america. Say hello to the people of utah, and tell them, im sorry about mitt romney. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. I believe any person who asks for forgiveness has to be prepared to give it. So there we see wow. Donald trump painting William Jefferson clinton in shades of humility, shades of dignity, and well, shades of humanity pip looking preside humanity. Looking president ial. A master class difference between the difference of humility and hubris. Between just class and someone who is classless. It was remarkable. It was a remarkable day yesterday. It was donald trump, donald trump put on a freak show yesterday. Ah. And showed exactly why this race will always be close, even to the end. When things are going well, donald trump and his supporters and his family members are at their very worst. Good morning. And welcome to morning joe. We have finally gotten to friday. February 7th. Along with joe, willie and me we have Donny Deutsch with us. Former chief of staff to the dccc and former director of Strategic Communications for Hillary Clintons 2016 president ial campaign, Adrienne Elrod and historian author of the soul of america and rogers professor of the presidency at varnt Bilt University jon meacham, an nbc news and msnbc contributor. Great to you have all with us this morning. Willie, yesterday, the president. Ooh. He put on an absolute freak show inside the white house. He put on actually a blasphemous display inside the National Prayer breakfast. Actually mocking people who quoted the words of jesus christ. Yep. Mocking people there of faith who actually followed the orders of jesus christ in the sermon on the mount. It was quite a display by a president who actually somehow managed to stoop below the lowest of low. Yeah. The victory tour yesterday after the acquittal included a day at the National Prayer breakfast where he displayed again his complete lack of understanding of what it means to have faith. Ill play some of those clips and get into it later. Also the clips we just played of him yesterday, i thought, joe, a perfect distillation of the trump age in washington. Donald trump being who he is. We know who he is. Also in front of him his entire cabinet. The attorney general sitting there laughing and smiling and applauding while donald trump was ripping the russia investigation and ripping the ukraine investigation and Everything Else and then you had republicans, Congress Republicans clapping and laughing along and waiting for their names to be called, which sort of is the point of their jobs right now. To say and do the thing that pleases the boss, and yesterday he one by one went down the line and called out members of congress and then we saw yesterday afterward they would tweet out on social media the clip of the moment where he said a nice thing about them. I thought theres the whole ball game, yesterday, right there in the white house. Yeah. Yet shallow. Donald trump at his worst. Think about this. I mean, he is it is assuring, it is calming, that he is so predictable. What did he do the day after Robert Muellers testimony . He picked up the phone. Yep. He called ukraine. Invaded by russia. Said, im holding up your weapons until you dig up dirt on my political opponent. That was the next day. Donald trump was at his worst when he actually should have been at his best. When he should have been at at his well, most humane. He should have played the advantage. This man this man doesnt know how to make a deal and politically he just doesnt know how to play an advantage. Yesterday would have been a wonderful time for him, if he cared about ever getting to 50 , to do what bill clinton did. A man who left office, actually, i think in the 60s, but instead, he, rick wilson said, instead donald trump yesterday, he bellowed like a thirdworld warlord and in a display of political Performance Art that was almost unbearably grotesque and its a front to american values, american law and americas collecti ivive sanityd as willie said, mika. Yeah. The most grotesque part was not donald trump. Weve weve already priced that in to the stock. Its baked into the cake. The grotesque part were those people jammed in there and the people januaried into the Prayer Breakfast laughing along to this about b abhorrent behavior. Political norms, passed over, and more importantly cultural norms that donald trump shatters every day, and i will say as a, as someone who grew up in the evangelical church, a cut against basic norms that evangelicals once claimed to believe. Once held themselves to lived by. Once talked about inside the church, and inside Prayer Breakfasts, even though they are all sinners, at least they ascribe to follow the words of jesus christ, the best they could do. Yesterday a president of the United States was openly mocking the words of jesus christ. I mean, Franklin Graham or Jerry Falwell jr. Or Robert Jeffries, of any of these other religious leaders put in quotes did anybody to actually tell their flock. Wait a second. No. Dont listen to the president. Listen to the words of jesus christ . Well talk about all of this, a lot coming up but a shock poll agency they like to say, mika, coming out of New Hampshire last night. Well get to more of the president s day of rhetorical revenge . Just a moment. First that new poll this morning with good news for Pete Buttigieg and bad news for joe biden. In the boston globes daily tracking poll from New Hampshire, buttigieg is now closing in on Bernie Sanders, whos in first place at 24 . Buttigieg is right behind at 23 , up four points since yesterday. While sanders is down one. Elizabeth warren took the third place spot that biden held yesterday. Shes now at 13 . With biden at 11 . Thats where we are. Adrienne, two wings now. We have the top progressive and the top moderate. Thats Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. Thats how it played out in iowa. Then we have the second tier, progressive, and the second tier moderate, and that, of course, is Elizabeth Warren and joe biden, and it looks like some polls weve seen over the past couple of days are bearing that out again as it was in iowa. So it looks like it may be in New Hampshire. Oosh. Well see what happens on tuesday, joe. The first state where people are actually voting, not caucuses in the democratic primary process, but you know, think about this. Last week during, you know, sort of the fiasco that was monday night in iowa, youll recall mayor pete went out there pretty early on. Gave a really resounding speech. Took advantage of the vacuum that existed in the National Media while all the cable pundits all of us talking whats going on. When are the results coming in . All of this air time to fill. Mayor pete went out quickly and spoke to the audience and sort of declared victory. At least gave very inspirational, you know, i feel pretty good about where i am type of speech. I think that really helped him. Hes been really, you know, playing up his iowa results even though, of course, we still dont know definitively who the winner is. Its obviously very close between him and Bernie Sanders. The point, he capitalized and that moment and continued to capitalize it throughout the course of the week. Thats been very helpful to him. Again, were still, results are in but waiting for final tabulations. Mayor pete said i did really fwhel iowa. Message this effectively going into New Hampshire and i think thats one of the reasons you see him get a bounce out of a state that is still, you know, kind of chaotic and were still trying to figure out exactly what happened monday night. The bounce is bigger than our graphic indicates. Put up the poll again. Look how far people are up and down. Thats over one day bp this is a fourday tracking poll. Mayor pete up 12 points over the four days. Biden down 7 points since then. Joe biden off the campaign trail yesterday. Five days ahead of the vote back in wilmington with his Campaign Advisors figuring out what to do. They have a debate. If you were in that room what would you be saying to joe biden . Joe, now or never. Joe needs kind of a real breakout performance tonight. Interesting, its no surprise as biden goes down buttigieg goes up and kind of the antibernie thing. Nowhere else to go. Thats it. No other flavor in town, except i brought this up many timon on the show whos looming its Mike Bloomberg. The more this kind of becomes a i think 538 has Bernie Sanders 50 chance getting the election now. As more as that continues to happen, bloomberg becomes a very viable option. Hes doubled down. Hes at 2,400 gross points, a tv watcher means thats all you see. I will contest you will continue to see that rise. Theres really panic setting in now and as well there should be. This was the worst week in democracy in my adult life. Combine the acquittal. The scary thing is dysfunction in iowa gives trump a hand grenade from now until the election. If he loses the election, to say, always know what he was going to say. This is not a fair election. He has that hand grenade in his belt now, and to me it was just as devastating to democracy, what happened in iowa, as what happens with ukraine. Mika dont disagree. Sorry. Going to say, mika. Clear, too, joe biden knows theres a problem. A reason he came off the campaign trail. Trying to reset there. By the way, before he gets to South Carolina, which we keep talking about is his firewall, nevada. Theyve moved a bunch of ad money from South Carolina to nevada because they know he cant do poorly in iowa, potentially nevada and still count on South Carolina saving him. Bad start to say the least. Next block we bring in Steve Kornacki to break it all down. Right now back to the president s victory lap yesterday which started at the National Prayer breakfast. Conservative writer and thought leader Arthur Brooks spoke right before the president about the teachings of jesus christ to love your enemies. A message the president said he doesnt agree with. Ask god to give you the strength to do this hard thing. To go against your human nature to follow jesus teaching. You believe jeessus teaching, too, to love your enemies. Does god to take political contempt from your heart and sometimes when its just too hard, ask god to help you fake it. I dont know if i agree with you. But i dont know if arthurs going to like what im going to say. I dont like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do i like people whom say, i pray for you. When they know that thats not so. We did a Prayer Breakfast this morning and i thought that was really good. Ip had nancy pelosi sitting four seats away and im saying things that a lot of people wouldnt have said, but i meant everything. I meant every word of it. Theyre vicious and mean. Vicious. These people are vicious. Adam schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy pelosi is a horrible person. And she wanted to impeach a long time ago when she said, i pray for the president , i pray for the president , she doesnt pray she may pray but she prays for the opposite, but i doubt she prays at all and these are vicious people. You know, evangelicals, anybody thats grown up in a church, evangelical church, catholic church, Christian Church, understands the blasphemy there. They really do. You had donald trump first of all saying, i dont agree with you, arthur. Well, it wasnt arthur he was disagreeing with. It was the words of jesus christ. He was disagreeing with. But this is a man, and you know, Franklin Graham, you know this. This is a man that has said hes never had to ask jesus christ for forgiveness before. This is a man who never read the bible his entire life. He handed me a bible one time early fall of 2015 his mother gave him. Its obvious it hadnt been opened for 40 years. He talked about two corinthians, couldnt name a single book in the bible. He couldnt tell you the difference between the new and old testament, and yesterday he mocked the words of jesus christ. Now, listen, since Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell jr. , Robert Jefferies and all of these other socalled religious leaders are not telling those of you who werent raised in the church why it was so grotesque for people at the National Prayer breakfast and in the white house to be laughing at donald trump mocking the words of jesus christ, let a twice divorced backslidden baptist tell you. Let me read you the words that the president of the United States as a National Prayer breakfast was mocking yesterday. And how sad. Think about it. How sad. Not a single evangelical leader came out yesterday and stood up for the words in the gospel of jesus christ. Taken from the sermon on the mount. These arent footnotes from nahoom. Take it from the sermon on the mount, the centerpiece of the gospels. Jesus said this you have heard it said, love your friends and hate your enemies, but i tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons and daughters of your father in heaven. If you love only those who love you, what reward will you get . And do not even evil men do that . And if you greet only your brothers, only your friends, what are you doing more than others . Do not even pagans do that . Be perfect, therefore, as Arthur Brooks was saying yesterday, as your heavenly father is perfect. It is the centerpiece, jon meacham, whether you were a believer or not, it is the centerpiece of the gospels of jesus christ to love your enemies, to forgive those who have persecuted you, and to show mercy and kindness and meekness. That should be your goal, and yesterday at something called the National Prayer breakfast, donald trump mocked the words of jesus christ, and he got applause for it. Im marking yesterday as a dark day, not only in the history of this country, but in the history of the modern evangelical movement, because i heard nobody, nobody, that supported donald trump stand up for the words of jesus christ, and here i am, like i said, a guy whos been divorced twice. A guy whos a backslidden baptist, im having to do this . Where are the religious leaders of the day to do this . Or to talk about the Good Samaritan . Or to talk about why it is unchristlike to put children in cages . Or to talk about why its unchristlike to reward the richest of the rich while hurting the poorest of the poor . Where are these men . Well, all right. So at the top to stipulate, judge not lest ye be judged. Ill be very careful here. Because as you say, youre a backsliding baptist. Im an imperfect episcopalian which is redundant. So stipulate all that. Very redundant. Come from a family of episcopalians, jon, so my father was there all the time. I loveepiscopalians so go ahead. Only six of us left, so youll help our numbers there. So a couple of things. One is, what its going on with the evangelical movement is that theyve replaced the basic theological vision of the new testament, which grew, of course, out of the hebrew bible and the story of salvation with idolatry of temple power decided that judges, that access to the halls of power, that that is, in fact, more important than the incredibly difficult hard work of the message, of putting the message into action that youre talking about. Theyre violating a commandment in the psalms, to put not thy trust in prithsnces. The initial separation of the wall between church and state was not about initially protecting the state from the church, but the church from the state. The ancient thinkers worried about this. Roger williams, founder of rhode island, worried about this. Richard hooker, the anglcan worried about this. They were right. Looking for a more vivid example, youll not find a more vivid example of that than in the east room of the white house yesterday. You know, Abigail Adams used to hang her laundry in the east room and i dont think weve made much progress, given what unfolded. I think that the Central Point of the religious, the role of religion in politics, i believe, has been not to be a dominant force but to be an informing one. One. Great insights of the american experiment. That you cant banish religion from the Public Square. So you have to manage it and marshal it, and our best political eras have done that. And i wonder, i wonder this. Two things, really. One is, the culture that trump embodies and now perpetuates is the reason we need more of the religiously inspired values in the Public Square. The religiously inspired values of grace, generosity, humility. I may not have all the answers, what reinhold neeber called, the sad duty of politics