Morning Joe - Morning Joe 3/27/23

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

Trump attorney confronted over threats made to DA Bragg

And 2024 is the final battle. That's going to be the big one. If you put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again. If we don't win this next election, 2024, I truly believe our country is doomed. I think it's doomed. I will prevent World War Three, which we're heading into, which we're heading into. We're heading into World War Three, and this will be a war like no other. Donald Trump's dark messaging to supporters on Saturday in Waco, Texas. We're going to have much more from his rally, including his comments on the Manhattan DA's hush money investigation and his praise for Vladimir Putin. A lot of really creepy moments as well.

Meanwhile, the Russian president says he's making plans with an ally in the coming months that NATO is calling dangerous and irresponsible. We'll get expert analysis on what is happening in Eastern Europe from former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, Admiral James Tavridis. Also ahead, a live report from Mississippi following a deadly tornado outbreak that left a trail of devastation in one of the poorest regions of the country. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Monday, March 27th. With us, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House Bureau Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, the host of MSNBC's Politics Nation and president of the National Action Network, Reverend Al Sharpton joins us this morning and the founder of the conservative website, The Bulwark. Charlie Sykes is with us.

Well, you know, some of us are busy this weekend, but none more busy than Reverend Al Sharpton just taking apart Donald Trump's attorney bit by bit, piece by piece. Reverend Al, that was a masterclass on on how to cross examine an attorney who, let's face it, is has been trying to have it both ways over the past few years. No, I really I have a lot of respect for him in the past, the attorney, Tackle Pino. And I couldn't understand a man that fought for civil rights, that fought to get rapper Meek Mill and others out of jail, standing up for who I said to him is a racist and a bigot and who has really undermined not only the law, but put in real danger this district attorney. I mean, what he is doing is an absolute threat to this man and his family. We had a big prayer session for the district attorney in Harlem over the weekend, and he just won't stop. This former president continues to wave the danger banner over this man and his family.

And I was stunned that even his lawyer wouldn't even denounce that. He says, well, I can't take responsibility for what he says, but you can denounce it. I mean, you cannot continue to allow this man to be threatened like this or set up a situation where there could be some harm come to him and his family. Cause a black cause a black D.A., an animal. Here's the New York Post. Murdoch's New York Post. They've definitely moved on. Bat hit crazy for good reason. And I've got to I've got to say it's it's it is really surprising that you can't even call this out. This is this is so, so violent.

But that's but but we'll we'll we'll talk more about that, Mika. And Trump's in the middle of a sort of his very typical kitchen sink strategy where he is throwing everything at the world, trying to sort of distract and, you know, throw like different things to distract all over the place, which is what we saw out of Waco. Some really disturbing presentations by the president, just totally disturbing, anti-democratic. Charlie Sykes, we'll get into it in a second. But I mean, he's our this reminds me of like the 1960s when you would have people on the far left glorifying radicals into the 70s, glorifying radicals who committed active violence and bombings here. Here you have Donald Trump glorifying people who rioted, who beat the hell out of police officers, who tried to overturn an election in the most violent way possible. And that's now been stitched into the the the it's been stitched

into his presentation, along with QAnon anthems. No, you know, I was watching some of the videos over the weekend. And bear with me for a second. It's almost as if Donald Trump is concerned that he's been too subtle in making the various threats about death and destruction and retribution. And so he's upping the ante in case you hadn't gotten his message about the baseball bat with the prosecutors, his threats against other people investigating him. He holds this this rally

and chooses Waco as the venue. And then, you know, has that weird what you're showing there, that weird, you know, ceremonial embrace of the January 6th insurrectionists. If there was any doubt in anyone's mind what he was saying, the kinds of threats of violence, the apocalyptic rhetoric, if he's not elected, the nation is doomed. So for a lot of people who are particularly in the Republican Party, you're trying to look the other way, looking at their shoes, shuffling, thinking he's going to go away. I mean, look, here's the man who is increasingly, I think, likely to be the Republican nominee for president. And he is doubling down on the conspiracy theories, on the threats, on this this this cloud of violence and menace,

which he continues to feed. And not only is he not backing off from it, all you're getting now is the grievance and the threats. So in case anyone hasn't gotten the message, what he fully intends, that was on display in Waco. I mean, a lot of it was not new. It was same old, same old. But I don't think that we should overlook how, in fact, he is overtly escalating this. And what you're showing there is just truly extraordinary embrace. You know, there are those of us who have been saying, you know, the president is not only not backing away from January 6th, he is amplifying it. He is celebrating it. He is encouraging replays of it. Well, that's what you saw of people who stormed the Capitol and and and beat the hell out of cops for who died following the riots and celebrated it with with this crowd.

And again, it's it's a sign. It's a shrinking crowd. And it's again, he can have he can have all the these things he wants to have. But but every time he celebrates riots, let's take his face off the screen that please. Every time he celebrates riots, every time he celebrates the people who are are rioters, insurrectionists who got thrown in jail, He's just chasing off more voters really quickly. We just had to say really briefly this weekend, Jonathan O'Meara, something very strange happened. Mika Brzezinski actually watched a basketball game. It was so good. It was cheering loud for FAU and Miami. We have a South Florida I-95 series possibly coming up. What a final four.

Yeah, the most unlikely final four we've ever had. And I also made that choice, Mika, a choice for my own mental health and did not watch the Trump rally live Saturday night. I actually went to a hockey game, went to an Islanders game following the NCAA on my phone, did so again yesterday. And here's what we've got, Joe. We have a number nine seed FAU, Florida Atlantic, playing a number five San Diego State. A nine versus a five. That's one half. The other half, a five versus a four. Miami versus UConn. Now, UConn's a blue blood, right? They're a four seed this year, but they've won some championships in recent years.

They're the one team there that's not a surprise. The others, they're the three for all of them. This will be their first time in the final four, which is remarkable. So we have a three out of four chance for getting a first time champion. The games. Yeah, the games are great this weekend. And yeah, we could get a Miami FAU final, which would be, you know, Governor Ron DeSantis final, I guess. But it should be some good hoops regardless. Sunshine. So we'll just call it a Sunshine State final. Thank you.

But wow. I mean, it really was an incredible tournament. And I've got to say, Alabama game this weekend was about as frustrating as I've ever seen. No movement. They just stood there, let one guy drive to the basket, get rejected about 27 times. FAU did absolutely everything that Alabama did not. It was bad for Alabama from the top to bottom. I'm still trying to figure out that offensive scheme.

But FAU, man, and Miami, you just have to love Miami. What a team. And they've got such great team spirit. They all love each other. You can tell they do. What a comeback. But man, that FAU team, what a story. All right. We will have much more on all of this

in just a moment. That was look at that. That was incredible. It was so much fun. But we've got a lot of news to get to, including breaking news out of Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to halt his controversial judicial overhaul plan. Now, this is in response to mass protests that have erupted across the country. That is according, this plan to halt the overhaul is according to Israeli media. Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem yesterday following Netanyahu's decision to fire his defense minister. That official, Yoav Galant, had said that in a televised speech that the judiciary reform plan had created a rift in the country and posed a

security threat. He was the most senior leader to publicly call for the suspension of the legislation. The bill would give the Israeli government more control over selecting judges and deciding what laws the Supreme Court can rule on. Opponents say it will hurt Israel's democracy. Parliament was expected to vote on parts of the legislation this week. We will be following this story closely and getting a live report ahead on Morning Show.

These are live pictures right now. This is a huge story. And the people of Israel are definitely speaking their mind. Well, I've got to say, Charlie Sykes, you have seen some extreme right wing governments across the world move away from democracy and embrace nationalism. We actually saw something last week out of India where you had really Modi's last challenge.

And again, these are live pictures out of Israel right now. Modi continuing to consolidate gains by kicking out Gandhi from parliament. In Hungary, of course, we all the the sordid scene and how conservatives have embraced the illiberalism there and the hatred of Western democracy. You look at what's happened this weekend in Israel and democracy in that form of government in that country, very strong. The protests have just been overwhelming this weekend. Talking about shutting down the airports, all modes of transportation.

And the strikes have brought this country to a standstill in response to an indicted prime minister who basically wants to undermine the judiciary system so he can get away with whatever he wants to get away with. No, this is a genuine constitutional crisis. I don't think Israel has ever gone through something quite like this before. And, you know, there are people who believe that authoritarianism is on the march, that the Democratic forces are in retreat all over the world,

that they, you know, their time has passed. Well, here you're seeing the ability of a Democratic nation to push back against an attempt to undermine the rule of law. This is an attack on the rule of law, on the independent judiciary. And these peaceful protests have shown the ability of the Israeli people to push back against this. This is a huge humiliation for Benjamin Netanyahu. And it ought to be a warning sign to authoritarians throughout the world that if they tamper with the independence of the rule of law, that Democratic peoples will push back. Well, you know, Jonathan Lemire, there are so many parallels with Donald Trump, Netanyahu and Donald Trump, of course, extraordinarily close allies. And I think it was almost like Netanyahu thought he was he was going to school on Donald

Trump, but thought he might be able to do it somewhat better than Donald Trump. But it's getting pushback, just like Donald Trump did on January the 6th. Yeah, we can't overstate the size of these protests. The major unions in Israel have all have called for a general strike. That's about 800000 members, health care system, transit workers. The airports are shut. There's no way to get in and out of the country right now by air. Because of these protests, it was spontaneous. They lasted well into the night.

Bonfires set along the highways there in Tel Aviv. You're seeing now during the daytime, huge crowds gathered, more expected later. And a statement of strong condemnation from the White House in terms of some of the efforts here from Prime Minister Netanyahu's efforts to push through the courts. And the resignation of the defense minister certainly seems to have been the tipping point. The protests here have been simmering for a few weeks here at Joe and Mika. But we certainly in the last 24 hours or so, it has gone to another level. And there is expectation that Netanyahu, after firing his defense minister, will have to back down at least somewhat to his plan. We'll see what the day ahead brings. All right. We'll be following these live pictures out of Jerusalem and across Israel and

get a live report coming up. Let's turn now to Mississippi, where recovery efforts are underway after a powerful tornado devastated parts of Mississippi and also Alabama. At least 26 people were killed in Friday's storm. The EF-4 tornado had winds over 166 miles per hour. It flattened buildings and crushed vehicles. President Biden yesterday declared a federal state of emergency, freeing up funds to help with recovery and relief efforts. Joining us now from Silver City, Mississippi, NBC News correspondent Maggie Vespa. Maggie, what is the latest there? Well, Mika, first and foremost, I mean, you can see kind of the status of communities here in Mississippi and around Silver City.

I mean, we as you know, we've seen many a scene of devastation after a natural disaster. And we pulled up to what used to be a house, basically. And we all just gasped. I mean, you can see the kind of cinderblock lining of the foundation here. This is apparently looks like it used to be the garage of the house. That's a riding lawnmower kind of caught in the middle of a bunch of the debris, but it's just wrecked completely. We haven't seen anybody coming back up, you know, to see their property. We've been here for the last couple of days, but people here are just slowly starting to get a grasp of the damage. As you said, brutal weekend of severe weather across the South, starting with

Friday's tornado, now deemed an EF4 by the National Weather Service. Winds close to 160 miles per hour on the ground for more than 60 miles across Mississippi into Alabama. Here in Silver City, this little community of just 300 people, about 330, three people were killed in this tornado on Friday. The overall death count, as you said, now at at least 26. But as we know, search and rescue efforts are ongoing. So that number could rise. Federal officials were on the ground here looking at scenes like this yesterday, kind of getting a scope of the damage to kind of estimate the disaster relief that will be allocated to the worst, the hardest hit parts of this region after President Biden, as you said, declared that federal state of emergency. And amid all of this, by the way,

the weather just keeps on coming. We had another round of severe storms roll through this area with tornadoes touching down in Alabama last night. And it was just, I can tell you, a chilling round two for people here who are just praying that the weather lets up and that help comes soon. NBC's Maggie Vest, but thank you so much. We so greatly appreciate it. Just Reverend Al, just scenes of heartbreak. I remember post Hurricane Katrina going over the Mississippi every day. We spent Thanksgiving 2006 in Waveland, a city that was completely wiped off the map. And I'd never seen anything like Waveland before. Just again, everything just completely reduced. Hadn't seen anything like that till I saw scenes coming out of a town here that also practically wiped off the map in the poorest part of the poorest state in America.

What what a tragedy. The poorest part of the poorest state, that is what really, really makes it difficult to see how and how long it will take to rebuild this. I had a congressman, Benny Thompson, on Politics Nation last night from Mississippi, and much of the damaged area is in his congressional district. And he said, you must remember, these are people that had low income in the beginning. And now the little they had is gone. And you just don't know how the recovery is going to be able to take place and how long it will take. This is the worst you can imagine. Well, we'll be following the search and recovery efforts and still ahead on Morning Joe. Much more on the Manhattan D's probe. And to Donald

Trump, we'll take a look at House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer's argument for why the former president shouldn't be investigated. Plus the latest guy, by the way, that was that guy is. Oh, my Lord. I want to be careful with what I say. Let it speak. I'll let it speak for itself. But how embarrassing. The latest from Ukraine as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin says I want to be careful with what I say. Let it speak for itself. I'll let it speak for itself. It will speak for itself. How embarrassing. The latest from Ukraine as well. As Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow will station tactical nuclear weapons across the border in Belarus. And President Biden issues a new warning to Syria after last week's drone strikes against coalition bases housing U.S. personnel. We'll get expert analysis of both Syria and Ukraine from retired four-star Navy Admiral James Tavridis.

Also ahead, lawmakers in North Carolina have passed a bill to expand Medicaid in the state. Governor Roy Cooper will join us ahead of a signing ceremony this morning. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. It's not a miracle we need it. We know I wouldn't need it. Beautiful shot of New York City as the sun comes up. Oh, what a pretty sky this morning. So, Mika, help me out here. Yeah. Looking at my Twitter feed.

Yes. Your brother is at the top of it here. Yeah. And I just, you know, of course, you know I speak Polish, but I just want to make sure that they typed it correctly. Oh, this is a different... Unveiling of the plaque in memory of the Brzezinski family. All right, that's not the street.

In Poland. That's nice. Is that where you're... Is that the town where your father was born? Yes, Czemysz. Yes. Czemysz. That's wonderful.

And that's where all the refugees... Refugees are coming through. Many of the refugees cross through Czemysz. How crazy. Your dad was born there. Yeah. That's wonderful. And that's where all the refugees, many of the refugees cross through Chemish. Crazy. My dad was born there. That's nice. All right. New York City grand jury is expected to meet again today as Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg weighs whether or not to charge former President Trump over hush money payment he allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. On Friday, just hours after Trump posted on social media about death and destruction, if he were indicted, Bragg received a death threat to his office. The note reportedly said, quote, Alvin, I'm going to kill you. And it was sent along with

white powder, which was later deemed non-hazardous. Trump kept up his dark rhetoric during a campaign rally in Texas the next day. He was in Waco exactly 30 years after the infamous standoff there. For seven years, you and I have been taking on the corrupt, rotten and sinister forces trying to destroy America. And they've been trying to destroy it. They're not going to do it. But they do get closer and closer with rigged elections. They get closer and closer. We've been the ones in this fight standing up to the globalists and standing up to the Marxists and communists. That's what they are. We don't even talk about the socialists anymore.

I am your warrior. I am your justice. And I took a lot of heat for this one. But I only mean it in the proper way for those who have been wronged and betrayed, of which there are many people out there that have been wronged and betrayed. I am your retribution. I was asked the other day and I took a little heat for it. They said, who's our biggest threat? Is it China, sir? Is it Russia?

I said, no, our biggest threat are high level politicians that work in the United States government, like Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Schumer, Biden. First of all, it's a hilarious technique where he just makes stuff up and says, I was asked the other day, sir, sir, sir, a dog came up to me on the street and said, sir, a cat meowed to me, sir. What is our greatest threat, sir? And of course, because he's Donald Trump, because he hates America so much, because he has such a dark view of America, because he's always talking about how horrible America is when he's not running it. Because he always says he prefers Vladimir Putin to American presidents. Yes, he said that on our show because he always runs down our military when he's not in the White House. Of course, his answer is that President Xi and Vladimir Putin are brilliant, are great, are smart, did it again in this rally.

But Jonathan Amir, once again, he goes back to who's the greatest threat to Western civilization? America. Leaders in America. Same speech where he praises President Xi and he praises Vladimir Putin, once again saying they were brilliant. I mean, you can make about a thousand arguments about how what they've done over the past five years has been devastating for their countries. He then says they're not the greatest threat. In fact, she and Putin are pretty great in Donald Trump's eyes, always praising them. But it's Mitch McConnell. It's Nancy Pelosi.

And again, he names two people who aren't even majority leaders or speakers of the House anymore. He just throws names out to just say, yeah, it's America that's destroying the world. Yeah, there aren't too many voices in the United States these days that praise Vladimir Putin. But Donald Trump's one of them. And he does it consistently. And he's done it. Still doing it. He's done it for years.

He's done it while he ran for office back in 2015, 2016. We certainly know he did it while serving as president of the United States, siding with Russia over the U.S. intelligence agencies. And he continues to do it even now after Putin has turned into a global pariah for his invasion of Ukraine. And he's doing the same with President Xi as well, as tensions flare up to the highest level in decades between Beijing and Washington. This is Trump always playing to the strongman, always telegraphing which sort of leader he'd like to emulate. And, of course, attacking the forces, he says, in the United States that are out to get him.

And that's what this speech was. It was dark. It was scary. It was a condemnation at great length of the investigations into him, which he continues to truth social about as we speak. And it's once again him suggesting that, you know, he's going to side with Strongland, perhaps even over the top decorated veteran government officials here in the United States. Yeah. You know, I guess I suppose it could be dark and scary so long as it can be stupid at the same time. Politically stupid and stupid. What is dark, scary, stupid, moronic to be going around praising President Xi, to be going around praising Vladimir Putin, to once again blame America first. Always. He's a member of the blame America first crowd when he's not in the White House,

just like Republicans blame America first. Would rather have the Russian military than our military. Would rather have Russian intel than our intel. You name it. But again, the praise, the lavish praise for dictators, for people who go out and kill journalists, that people that go out and kill political opponents. That's who Donald Trump praises every time he gets a chance. It tells you, again, what type of leader he'd want to be.

And it tells you what he respects more than anything else. So but but again, it's all very short sighted because he spent most of this speech talking about himself. Yes, he spent most of this speech talking about, oh, poor, poor, pitiful me. It's just, it's a Linda Ronstadt song. He's just whining the whole time about how terrible his life is. He's such a triggered snowflake.

He does have a lot of legal problems. I know, but they're his. I would be. Yeah, but the thing is, suck it up, Donny boy. It's all your fault. But this is, this is what you've been doing.

You know what? It's all coming home. Have you is this is what you've been doing. You know what? It's all coming home. They're all coming home to roost like the documents case. The latest this weekend. Bad for him. The latest on January 6th insurrection. Bad for him. The latest in Georgia is bad for him. But he whines the entire time, makes it about himself. And then at the very end, he tries to wrap it in a little bowl and says, I am your retribution. I've talked to you for an hour and a half. And by the way, people started leaving halfway through his speech because like,

OK, he's just going to talk about himself and not our lives. So they leave. And then he wraps it up. They go, well, but don't worry. This is not about me. This is about you. I'm your right. No, no. People want to hear about the future. That's not going to scale. They want to hear. Exactly. They want to hear about how he's going to make their lives better, how he's going to make their jobs better, how he's going to make their country better. He's just not doing it. In an interview with CNN yesterday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called the Manhattan DA's probe a political stunt and explained why he felt Trump shouldn't be investigated. Take a look. What do you say to Bragg, who says you're trying to stop a charge from happening even before you

know of any evidence? Well, what the DA is trying to say is what you just quoted. He said, stay out of local investigations. The problem with that is this is not a local investigation. This is a federal investigation. He's investigating a presidential candidate, not to mention former president of the United States. Well, he's investigating, as I understand it, potential violations of state crimes. Even at that, look, let's just be honest here.

I mean, this is about politics. This is a presidential candidate. This is something that if it needs to be investigated or prosecuted, it should be done on the federal level by the Department of Justice. This is a presidential candidate. I don't believe that Bragg would be doing this if Donald level by the department of justice. This is a presidential candidate. I don't believe that Bragg would be doing this if Donald Trump were not running for president. And that's something that we would like to ask Mr. Bragg as well.

Would you be doing this if he weren't a declared candidate for president for president United States? Well, we will answer your question for you. And by the way, when you're lying through your teeth repeatedly, do yourself a favor. Don't say, let's be honest. No, don't say, let's just be honest. Cause you're lying through your teeth. You know, you're lying through your teeth. But does he, but does he, well, again, this, this is, this is one of the great things about, yeah, he does. This is one of the great things about Republicans though, he does. This is one of the great things about Republicans, though, that Trump is Republicans.

No, no, he does. This one knows very well. He knows a lot. This one. But anyway. Now, well, he knows a lot. He knows how to do a lot. But anyway, here.

Anyway, these Republicans. They come from a foreign distant land. They never had videotape when they were growing up. They don't realize that the images and the words that are said in the past can come back to haunt them. Because he said the only reason why he's doing this, well, he wouldn't be doing this if Donald Trump weren't running for president, as if he forgot all the times before Trump announced his latest run from the presidency,

everybody was predicting he would do it. Why? So his allies could claim, like Comer just did, that the investigations were politically motivated. Oh, they're only doing this because he's running for president. Oh, no, they would never do this if he weren't right. We said for a year that if Donald Trump ran and if he announced early, it would be so

he could say the four investigations that were currently moving forward were connected to a political campaign. Problem was, the political campaign wasn't going when these investigations were going. So Donald Trump gets out there very early. Remember, he couldn't even get his family members to go there with him, couldn't get his kids to be there. He had to get out there as fast as possible because he didn't know when the indictment was coming. And last summer, by the way, in a piece in Rolling Stone, it read this quote. In recent months, Trump has made clear to associates that the legal protections of occupying the Oval Office are front of mind for him. He wanted to get there to protect himself legally, just like Netanyahu in Israel.

Reporting in Salon read this, quote, it's pretty clear that Trump understands the presidency to be his get out of jail free card. Trump will announce his run if for no other reason than he craves the limelight and he thinks it would be harder for authorities to prosecute an active candidate. That was in June of 2022. Mr. What's the guy's name? Comer. He doesn't. Homer Comer. A report in The Guardian read this, quote, Trump has reportedly told advisers that declaring a run for the White House would not would allow him to strengthen

his argument that other criminal investigations against him in New York and Georgia are politically motivated. Mika, all of this again, what Comer's saying is such a lie, such a lie. Everybody saw this coming miles away and they're up there going, oh, this, this is only because he's a presidential, as if we didn't have videotape, as if we didn't have these articles saying, no, the reason he's going to run is so they can use this stupid argument after he runs. And by the way, here's what you said back in 2019. Take a look. I had been saying for some time, because people very close to Donald Trump had been saying a

couple of years ago, they did not think he would seek a second term. He wasn't enjoying the job. It was too ugly. Now, not only desperate, not only is he going to seek a second term to avoid a jail term, possibly, if you listen to the testimony yesterday, he's going to once again do a win at all cost campaign. It may even get uglier in 2020 than it did in 2016 because Donald Trump's freedom may be on the line. Think about that. We've got a guy that is running for reelection so he won't get indicted and be sent to jail. Speaking of other planets, I don't know where what planets we were on there. A lot of very blonde hair. Well, it was the lighting. The lighting was bad. Yeah, okay.

It looked like that really tall guy that goes around. But still, this has been something that has, oh, wow. Look at this. Who's that guy that was- I think I dipped my hair in some bleach. No, no, I think it was lighting. Took Donald Trump's COVID advice. Wow. Okay.

I have no idea what's going on there. Charlie. Charlie, we're going to forget our high school pictures there from just like six months ago. But, you know, bad things happen when you wake up at 3.30 every morning. It's true. But, Charlie, that prediction of mine, 2019. Yeah. That was four years ago.

You were saying the same thing. I'm a dumb country lawyer. It's not like that was original. Everybody was saying the same thing. He'll run for reelection to to try to avoid prosecution. Now, Comer stands up there like some idiot, like there's no such thing as videotape. Well, they're only charging him because he's running for president. What do you say to that? Well, Donald Trump has been consistent on all of these things because he thinks that obstruction of justice works because it's worked for him in the past. So now obstruction of justice has now become a central tenet for people like Representative Comer. By the way, save that videotape where he is saying that, well, this should not be a local prosecution. This should be the Department of Justice. Watch what he says when the Department of Justice moves against Donald Trump. What's interesting about these guys is that they will just simply shift their ground

any time that it's useful for them. So Republicans will be for states rights until they're not for states rights. They're for local control until they're not for local control. And these are the same folks, of course, who had no problem with the fact that Donald Trump could not be indicted when he was a sitting president. And now they're arguing that he can't be indicted when he's an ex-president or running for office. Look, there's nothing subtle about Donald Trump. There is a through line here. And what you're seeing is this this full on frontal attempt to obstruct justice by intimidating justice. By the way, when you were showing the rally down in Waco before, I really enjoyed the

fact that they have preprinted signs saying witch hunt. I mean, they actually printed up the sign saying witch hunt. So this has become central to the Trump campaign. He's making no bones about it. As you pointed out, Joe, he spent almost the entire speech talking about his own grievances, not talking about the future, not talking about other people's problems, all about his own problems and how he can use this candidacy to get out from under the, you know, being held accountable by the rule of law. There's also a piece here, everything you said, Joe, is absolutely right. And your predictions in 2019 are clear. But we are talking about Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor that a year ago would Trump for the reasons Trump says. He's the prosecutor that

was attacked by even his own staff. Two people left the office. One wrote a book saying we should have gone forward. So clearly there's evidence that has come to Alvin Bragg that made him go forward at this point. And the illogic of what his lawyers are saying, one on my show, another on Meet the Press, the same one on Meet the Press, is that Donald Trump did not give Michael Cohen, his lawyer, money back to cover up an election. It was because he was going to be embarrassed by his family. Then why did he pay in these installments, which clearly is to try to if you are audited or if FEC or someone with the elections come and look, it doesn't look like an election thing. His wife, Milana, doesn't come and audit his books. So the way it was paid is really leaning

toward this was to cover up an election reimbursement or for that purpose. Right. And again, whether you're talking about New York, whether you're talking about Georgia, whether you're talking about the documents case, whatever you're talking about, again, in 2022, in the summer of 2022, you had everybody talking about how Trump was going to run to avoid prosecution. We were saying it even back in 2019 when it looked like he was going to lose anyway. He had to run for reelection and he has to run for reelection again because he's going to get indicted at some point. And he knows he's going to get indicted if he would be going out just trying to make money, doing nothing but trying to make money right now in foreign countries all over the world if he didn't know that he was facing an indictment,

if he didn't know charges in Georgia, charges from the Justice Department, charges all over the place were coming down the pike. And as you said, this week, just this weekend, we get news, I think it was CBS, who Robert Costa. Well, yeah, Bob Costa broke the news this weekend that the investigation around January 6th is looking tough. And then on on on Friday, we got news that more bad news that you actually had a judge, Pierce, the attorney, client privilege, because it's obvious that a crime are likely. The standard is likely a crime was committed in that case with Trump and his lawyer. His legal fears were littered all over his presentation in Waco. Even the words, I'm your justice, I'm your retribution. What are you talking about? You're talking about yourself.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, the man Trump praised in his weekend rally, says the Kremlin plans to station nuclear weapons in Belarus. Putin claims the move would counter American deployments of nuclear weapons in European countries. NATO responded to Moscow's move, calling Putin's rhetoric dangerous and irresponsible. Let's bring it right now. Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, retired four star Navy Admiral James Trevides. He's chief international analyst for NBC News. I've been wondering for some time now, obviously, we keep letting Ukraine know going into Russia is a no-go. Why not Belarus? If they want to get engaged in this war, are the Ukrainians free to go into Belarus? Well, first and foremost, the Ukrainians called

this one. They said putting nuclear weapons there effectively makes Belarus a hostage in this crisis. And that's really what Putin is trying to do. You know, the Russian history here has over centuries coveted Belarus the same as it has Ukraine. This merely tightens the noose around the neck of that nation. It's led by a dictator who's as bad as Putin, a guy named Lukashenko. And the two of them, you know, kind of deserve each other. In fact, like Jerry Maguire, they complete each other. And so I feel for the people of Belarus here. Bottom line, though, is Joe and Mika, don't wake up this morning in great fear here. Putin moving nuclear weapons around is a sign of really desperation on his

point. He's trying to shake up the table. He's trying to convey a sense of how dangerous he can be. There's some truth to that. But the bottom line is he's not, in my opinion, going to use a tactical nuclear weapon because he knows it'll spook the herd. There goes China. There goes India. There goes Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil. No one's going to stand with Putin if he uses a nuclear weapon. So I look at this as more saber rattling than anything else. Well, it seems to me I've been looking at a lot of the moves over the past two or three months, even China's visit. She's visit to Moscow. It's just it seems to me everybody's positioning themselves for an eventual negotiation. And that includes moving nukes into

Belarus. He's trying to strengthen an extraordinarily weak hand that the Russians are holding right now. Absolutely correct. And, you know, Putin, we used to say about Putin that he was a good tactician, you know, sort of clever on his feet, maneuvering quickly, but a very bad strategist. Now we can say he's not only a bad strategist who's selling his country down the international rat hole here. He'll end up a very junior partner to China before this is all over. He's turning out to be a very bad tactician as well. This move is not going to help him. And back to the conversation we were all having earlier about leadership. And we saw on display in Waco, Texas, a leader dealing with fear and anger. And that's what Vladimir Putin does. You know, Napoleon, I love to quote Napoleon, Joe, for possibly obvious reasons, if you

see me in person. But Napoleon said a leader is a dealer in hope, not in fear, not in anger. Deploying those nuclear weapons, that's a leader not only in fear, but showing fear. Admiral Stavridis, good morning. I wanted to shift gears and get your take on what we saw in Syria the last few days. An escalation there, a couple of airstrikes hitting U.S. bases. A U.S. contractor was killed. Some service members injured. We heard from President Biden at the end of last week while he was up in Canada saying that the U.S. will act forcefully to protect Americans if something like this were to happen again. Give us a reminder, viewers who sort of maybe even forgot about the U.S. presence in Syria, where things stand and

what is your degree of concern that things could escalate to further violence? Yeah, can I say those words? We used to talk about them all the time. The Islamic State. It sounds so 2016 to bring them up, but they were in tanks driving toward Baghdad. They were just a few kilometers outside of the capital. They had taken huge chunks of terrain in Syria and, of course, in Iraq. So they were a forest fire. We stepped in alongside many other nations. There were 77

countries in the coalition against the Islamic State, and we stopped them. But here's the bottom line. It's like those forest fires out west. When the burning stops, you've still got embers on the ground that can kind of flare up. That's why it's smart to keep a few hundred U.S. special forces in Iraq, working with the Iraqis, putting pressure on the Islamic State. What you're seeing now is tit for tat back and forth with Iran entering the picture. And I'll close with this, Jonathan, all this happening concerningly with the backdrop of events in Israel, our greatest partner, ally and friend in real turmoil now about domestic politics. Not a good time for that to be happening while we are pressing in as we should be against

the Islamic State. Let me ask you really quickly, Admiral, about a package I saw last week. We showed last week Richard Engel out of Iraq. You brought up some troops in Iraq. We have a few in Syria as well. But Richard, who was an extraordinary reporter during the Iraq war, very tough on the United States for the many mistakes that we made and the tragedy of that war, he gave a really hopeful, a really hopeful report from Iraq, talked to a lot of young people who said we are free. It's not perfect here, but we are free. We have the freedom and the ability to hope and to do what we want to do. Far different than how things were before 2003. I'm just curious what you're hearing out of there. Out of this tragedy, is hope possibly coming out of this tragedy? Is hope possibly coming out of this tragedy? I think it is. And Iraq suffers from

many challenges, including divisions in their society between Kurds and Shia and Sunni. And Saddam Hussein held it together, but at enormous cost. An awful dictator in the worst possible sense, two psychopathic sons, Uday and Qusay, a complete hell in a big country. Yeah, they went through a lot of pain. We went through a lot of pain. But I think on the other side of this particular fire, Iraq can emerge. They're not beholden to the Iranians. They are making oil. They are controlling the Islamic State. There's a lot that is good going on in Iraq today. So perhaps some green shoots out of that particular forest fire. Let us hope so. Yeah. And you saw the American tourists there. Wasn't that interesting? Yeah. Retired Admiral James Tavridis, thank you very much. And Charlie Sykes,

thank you as well for being on this morning. Thank you. And coming up, the U.S. is preparing to announce a deal with Mexico to counter fentanyl coming across the southern border. NBC's Julia Ainsley joins us with her exclusive reporting next on Morning Joe. now to an nbc news exclusive the u.s is set to announce a deal with mexico to combat the massive amounts of fentanyl coming across the southern border let's get the details now from nbc news homeland security correspondent jul Ainsley. Julia, what can you tell us about this deal? Well, Mika, we know that a large amount of fentanyl that ends up in the U.S. comes first from China in the form of raw materials, is synthesized in Mexico and then makes its way to the U.S. And in fact, a lot of two cartels have become majorly involved in that business. Now, as a result of months of negotiations

between U.S. officials across the Biden administration and Mexican officials, we now expect a deal to be announced as early as this week that would allow Mexico to send more of its own law enforcement and military to try to disrupt some of the fentanyl manufacturing, go after the top leaders and to try to basically cut off finances that allow people to make so much money off of using fentanyl and cutting that in other drugs that are ending up in the U.S. But Mexico is getting something in return. During these negotiations that we understand were tense, Mexican officials told the U.S., look, yes, Americans are dying from fentanyl, but Mexicans are dying from firearms that come from the U.S. Look, yes, Americans are dying from fentanyl, but Mexicans are dying from firearms that come from the U.S. down to Mexico. So as a result, the Biden administration has now agreed to do

more controlling and tracking of firearms going south from the U.S. to Mexico. All right. NBC's Julia Ainsley, thank you very much for your reporting and still ahead on Morning Joe. We'll be joined by one of the many federal prosecutors who are condemning the violent rhetoric against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. And we'll have the latest on what is happening in Israel right now following a weekend of mass protests there. We're back in 90 seconds. I would like to go on record as saying, I think this is a colossal mistake if they bring these charges. Not this one. You know, I mean, yes, he's done a lot of bad things and I'm sure he did this. Everything they accuse him of done, he did. But first of all, it's not going to work.

It's going to be rocket fuel for his 2024 campaign. And it's just going to look to MAGA Nation like, oh, you know, you tried with Mueller, you tried with Ukraine, you tried with January 6th, now we go to the porn star? Really? You're down to that? Farid, we either have the rule of law or we have no rule of law. The rule of law does not take into account if that might make you a martyr to somebody. I'd much rather have the conversation be, what is the law? What exactly are we saying that he did? His lawyer went to jail for this same situation for a couple of years.

So what is the crime? Is it a crime? The reason people who say it's selective prosecution, that this would not... Everything is selective prosecution. The reason why Donald Trump became popular in the first place and the reason why these populist movements is that the citizenry have become fed up with the lack of accountability for those in power. Comedians Bill Maher and Jon Stewart giving two very different takes on a possible indictment for Donald Trump in the Manhattan DA's investigation into hush money payments. Welcome back to Morning Joe. Your thoughts on that? Well, I mean, my thoughts are, and Rev, I'll go to you on this one. We had the Mueller report, and in the Mueller report, he was not exonerated, and Mueller said he wasn't exonerated. That doesn't mean that Trump is lying. Even some of those writing in esteemed newspapers aren't lying and opinion pages by going, oh, it was a hoax and there's nothing. No. Mueller said time and again, may have committed obstruction of justice here,

may have committed this crime. We can't do anything because he's president of the United States. So their argument is Trump is you can't do anything because he's president of the United States. So their argument is, Trump, you can't do anything when he's president of the United States. You can't do anything when he's ex-president. You can't do anything if he runs for president again, knowing that the threat of indictment hangs over him. So basically, their argument is, you can never, ever hold Donald Trump accountable for breaking the law. I'm just clearly with Jon Stewart here. We either are a nation of laws or we're a nation of men.

And either no man is above the law or Donald Trump is the exception to that rule. And he is above it. Because again, I've said it before. I'll say it again. I can't even believe I'm having to say this. If members of Congress had done this, had used money and funneled money to a porn store they were having an affair with to keep it quiet a couple of days before an election, they'd be charged in a second. I saw members of Congress charged for so much less than this. So it's again, you either agree that we're all equal under the law or we're not.

And Donald Trump's argument seems to be there is forever, forever an exception to every law for me. That is really what is at stake here, is are we going to have a system where any and everyone is accountable or not? And that's clearly what we're dealing with here. And I think Jon Stewart raises the right point. Let us not forget that part of the reason that his lawyer, Michael Cohen, went to jail is on this very case. And clearly he couldn't have been allowed to plead or something that was not true, because then you'd have to turn around and say that, well, he went to jail for false reasons and the feds would have to correct that. But in the face of this, Joe, I can't emphasize enough, rather than Donald Trump trying to defend himself or trying to say this or that, he is literally threatening the prosecutor to repost a picture of him holding a bat to the

prosecutor and saying that death and destruction will come if I'm indicted is to stick his finger in our eye while we're talking about accountability. So you're not even dealing with anyone that is trying to even show some kind of reason. He is literally threatening the prosecutor saying this is what's going to happen and there'll be death and destruction if I'm indicted. I'm not trying to embellish what he said. That is exactly what he said. Well, and again, let's show the New York Post again to say that you're not embellishing it. Nobody on this show is embellishing it. Rupert Murdoch's New York Post calls Donald Trump, quote, deranged, deranged from the New York Post, deranged. Trump threatens violence against Bragg, who gets a death note. Bat hit crazy.

He has lost it. The New York Post even noting that.