Morning Joe - Morning Joe 7/18/22

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

Trump tells his team he needs to be President again to save himself from criminal probes.

Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Monday, July 18th. We have a lot to get to this morning. Quote, systemic failures and egregious poor decision making. That is just part of a new damning report criticizing the law enforcement response to the deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It comes as the city takes action against its chief of police. Plus, the next primetime hearing from the January 6th committee is set for this Thursday. Lawmakers want to lay out what former President Trump was doing during the attack on the Capitol. But the committee is hoping to have new evidence before then. And we'll explain that. And President Biden is back at the White House

following his first Middle East trip this morning. We'll go through what, if anything, was accomplished in his controversial visit with the Saudi crown prince. So we'll get to all of that. But first, let's dive into the top story this morning. It's sounding much more likely that an announcement from former President Trump for a 2024 election bid is more of a when, not an if. It's not just about avenging a loss, though. Four people with knowledge of the situation tell Rolling Stone that mounting legal issues are a motivating factor for Trump's desire to retake the White House. One of the sources who discussed the issue with the former president over the summer told the

magazine he says when, not if, he is president again, a new Republican administration will put a stop to the Justice Department investigation that he views as the Biden administration working to hit him with criminal charges or even put him and his people in prison. According to the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime. Now, the same is not true for a prosecution at a state level. However, that would possibly go to the Supreme Court. So let's bring in the host of Way Too Early and White House bureau chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, and former chief of staff to the DCCC, Adrienne Elrod. She was senior aide to the Hillary Clinton and Biden presidential campaigns. Good to have you both on board this morning. So, Jonathan, not a really big surprise.

A lot of people have been talking for some time about the fact that Donald Trump may seek reelection to avoid prosecution. It seems. And of course, you've got a new book coming out that goes through everything that Donald Trump has done. Certainly everything he did around January the 6th that now seems to be landing him in hot water, not just politically, as we heard from Mike Allen on your show, but it is impacting him politically, but also legally at the Justice Department. Talk about it. Yeah, there's no question that the investigative pressure on former President Trump has ramped up dramatically. hearings, of course, which we'll see in prime time on Thursday, which are laying out such a clear-cut case as to his dereliction of duty on the 6th itself, but also everything he did heading into that, that how he sowed the seeds of chaos that, of course, erupted into violence at the Capitol that day. But there are also prosecutions, the one in Georgia gaining steam. There's still matters in New York. Like, there's a lot happening here for the former president. And he is taking he is he and his aides are looking to potentially jump into this race, maybe even sooner than later,

maybe even before the midterm elections, much to the dismay of his fellow Republicans who feel like he would be a distraction because they believe two things. The Department of Justice, which, of course, has already been reluctant to move. They've been slow to move on Trump and his allies. They might even do be more so if Trump were a declared candidate. It's one thing to prosecute a former president, another one, a former president and favorite to be the nominee for his party again. And of course, as Rolling Stone reports, were Trump to win again, then that Department of Justice guideline, that legal counsel guideline about how a sitting president can't be charged for federal crime would come into play as well. We heard about all of that during Trump's first term. So yes, that's another reason why he and his aides are eyeing the Oval Office. But as you say, Joe, his political standing has weakened. He's still the loudest voice of the Republican Party,

but his grip on the GOP is not quite what it once was. Well, and Adrian, you go back to whether you look at the Mueller investigation where you have Robert Mueller basically saying in testimony that, yeah, he would have been indicted if he if he weren't the president. Ten examples of obstructing justice, examples of his actions with Russia that obviously would have caused real legal concerns for anybody not inside the White House. And you understand why he's thinking about running. But here we find Donald Trump once again talking about doing what's best for Donald Trump while undermining the Republican Party.

How much would Democratic candidates love to have Donald Trump back on the campaign trail, saying all the crazy things that he says every day and making the 2022 election about a referendum on Donald Trump again, just like 2018? Yeah, I mean, Joe, first of all, I've learned being on Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2015 and 16 that you should never underestimate Donald Trump. We thought when he initially announced that he was running that he was going to be in the race for three weeks. And then, of course, we know what history actually ended up being. But in this situation, I think Jonathan just laid it out perfectly. He is damaged goods in many respects in his party. I mean, he still has support, sure. But the fact that he's polling in, depending on which poll you look at, anywhere from 47 to 49 percent among Republican Party voters,

that is a dramatic difference from where he was even just two years ago. So I think the January 6th committee has certainly had a major impact. Obviously, the elections, the primary elections, he's not had a great track record. A lot of the candidates who he's endorsed have not gone on to win their primaries. So him getting in the race now, I mean, you know, again, we'll see how everything plays out. But I think it's going to end up being a net positive for Democrats, because as you laid out, I mean, he's going to go out there every day and say crazy things. We have not heard a lot from Donald Trump in the last year because he's not on

social media. He is not on Twitter. And I think he's going to be given him he's going to be given a platform again to to not only go out and say the crazy things that he says, but also give President Biden and other Democrats who are running in the midterm elections a contrast, somebody to contrast their message with and to show, hey, listen, you know, maybe Democrats aren't perfect, but look at what you may get if you don't support us. So I think it's probably going to end up being a net positive should he jump in the race relatively early, which is what he's saying. Well, and and Mika, you look at what's what's been happening in these Republican primaries and Adrian's right. Many of Donald Trump's picks have lost primary races.

But even worse news for Republicans, a lot of them have won. And as we say here, I mean, you can you can't really call them ultra conservative. I mean, so many of them have flip flop. J.D. Vance. I love San Francisco. I hate San Francisco. I love the tech community. I hate the tech community. I mean, and Dr. Oz. I mean, my God, what a bizarre story that is. You have, you look at Arizona, you look at Georgia, you've got, you've just got a lot of freaks and weirdos and insurrectionists who are running. And we're starting to see now what we saw in 2014 when the Republican establishment said, no more, no more, no more. This is ridiculous. We're not. These Tea Party people have turned the corner and they're just full on crazy now. And so they started funding more establishment candidates. I think we're starting to see that now in some of these key

pivotal races for the Senate where Republicans just aren't able to run, raise funds. Mike Allen earlier in way too early was talking about Ohio. That's just one of many examples. I think the backdrop, of course, is the economy, and that can always be a tough issue for the party in power, for the president in power to run on. Midterms are always tough for the sitting president's party. Having said that, you talk about freaks and weirdos and insurrectionists. I mean, those are stark. There are stark issues that back up those phrases. I mean, abortion, Roe v. Wade going down and women losing their right to an abortion. Being on the side of the shooter in mass shootings were 18 year olds by AR-15s.

That's a very extreme issue to be on that side of an insurrectionist. To be on the side of 18 year old people that have serious mental problems being able to purchase those weapons. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's there is so many of these shootings would never happen. But for extremists in the Republican Party who support people who are mentally deranged with absolutely being able to buy those guns, being able to buy those guns. being able to buy those guns. Yeah. And then the insurrection, that's it's interesting because obviously those who are extremely extreme Trump supporters are not even watching the hearings. But for those in power in Washington, D.C., to not be saying something right now, not to be able to answer a question

about January 6th, that's a problem. You're right. You can label them as insurrectionists and it will not be an exaggeration. We have something that frames this out a little bit as well, possibly, are some new fundraising numbers that show major momentum for Democrats in some key Senate races ahead of November's midterm elections. From April to June, Democratic candidates in high-profile contests around the country blew away their leading Republican challengers. In Arizona, Trump-backed Blake Masters brought in just over $800,000 last quarter, compared to more than $13 million for incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly.

In Pennsylvania, despite being absent from the campaign trail due to a stroke, Democrat John Fetterman raised nearly five times the amount of celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz in the spring. And in Georgia, although Republican Herschel Walker raised an impressive six point two million dollars. Wow. That did pale in comparison to the 17 million raised by Democrat Raphael Warnock. So those fundraising numbers tell a story as well, Joe. Yeah, they really do. Let's bring in right now. Co-founder of Axios, Mike Allen. Mike, you know, we've been talking for some time on this show about how the Republican Party getting crazier and crazier at some point. I mean, they've already lost the suburbs of northern Atlanta. They've already lost the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Certainly did in 20, and I suspect they will again in 24. 22, everything tilts their way. But despite the massive advantages they have going into 22, you write a fascinating story at Axios about how whether you're talking about Pennsylvania, whether you're talking about Georgia, whether you're talking about Arizona, even Ohio. I mean, these Democrats are out fundraising their Republicans who are supposed to just run away with the race this year. Yeah, Joe, this is a real canary in the coal mine, because you're right. We've been focused on the red wave, right, which we still think is coming in the House. But Republicans now recognize they could lose the Senate. And if we'd been a couple of months ago, we would have said that they looked likely to take the Senate. And if we'd been a couple months ago, we would have said that they looked likely to take the Senate.

But I'm told by Republicans to look for these fundraising deficits all across the country. These reports came in Friday night. And so we're just seeing all of them. Now, what Republicans will tell you, Joe, is that they would rather take the environment, how people are feeling about the direction

of the country and the economy, they'd rather take that over money, honey, any day. But this lack of money is really hurting these campaigns. We're seeing it in Ohio. You mentioned there, Tim Ryan, how far ahead he is of J.D. Vance. What's the consequence of that? This summer, like usually a time when

campaigns are sweeping, Tim Ryan's on the airwaves in Ohio, unanswered by J.D. Vance, saying that he's conservative friendly, that he can reach swing voters. He shows a sheriff in an ad. He has an anti-China ad. He hits J.D. Vance for being a hit at Washington cocktail parties, all possible because of this money disparity. We, of course, Jonathan, we remember in 2012, early fundraising and early ad buys by Barack Obama defined Mitt Romney by May, by June as an out of touch corporate raider. So all of this early spending that's going unmatched may have impact later on in the year.

But you know, Mike said the Republicans are telling him they'd rather go with the environment, sort of that environment of the wave, which again, they should be getting in 2022. But that said, fundraising is really the leading indicator of that environment. If somebody doesn't want to give you money, there's a reason. It's because they're watching TV and and on TV they're seeing these January 6th hearings. They're watching TV and on TV

they're reading news stories about 10 year old girls and having to be driven across state lines so they don't have a forced birth of their rapist baby in Ohio. They're looking at one school shooting after another. And it's not Democrats that are saying, please, let's do everything we can to keep AR-15s in the hands of 18 year olds. Please, let's do everything we can to stop universal background checks. so maybe these shootings can slow down a little bit. That's Republicans. So day after day after day after day, these extremist positions that Republicans are taking politically backfire against them. And my gosh, it just keeps getting worse. I mean, you now have Republicans in the state of Texas suing the Biden administration because they want mothers. They want the right to let mothers die on an operating table instead of

having a lifesaving operation when they're having extreme complications in pregnancy. I'm telling you, these are crazy, bizarre, extreme positions for Republicans, for independents for democrats and this is what the republican party of 2022 seems hell-bent on doing positions far out of step with the rest of the mainstream and certainly campaign strategists often believe that this summer is a time to define your opponent before the fall and the campaign season really ramps up, you can lay really important groundwork to sort of lay the groundwork for their attacks against your opponent, paint them as out of touch. The Obama team, not shy, they believe the 2012 election against Mitt Romney was won in the spring and early summer. So Mike Allen, certainly Republicans have said that they feel like the environment is good. By that, they mostly mean the economy, right? That

inflation is still surging. There's a thought that perhaps it has peaked too early to say. Gas prices have started to go down, but White House certainly acknowledges they're still way too high and that they could go back up. So there's that. But to Joe's point, those aren't, there seems like there are other matters in the news right now. And there was that New York Times poll last week that suggested what Americans are talking

about, what they're concerned about right now, are issues that actually might play towards the Democrats' strength. That is, of course, the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. That is the mass shootings. These are things that, should that continue, won't Democrats expect to only ramp up that fundraising advantage? Yeah, this could be a real contest is what the country is talking about when you have that Uvalde report showing those system failures there, when you have new revelations we expect Thursday. Every single time the January 6th committee has over-delivered. Jonathan, you know from your own conversations, they would not have asked the networks for time and prime time if they didn't have surprising findings that are going to drive more conversation this summer.

So it makes it harder for Democrats. What Republicans will tell you that in the end, people vote pocketbook. The signs there continue to be so bearish. Front page of yesterday's Washington Post saying gas prices could be back up again in the fall. Just the wrong time for Democrats. Goldman Sachs did a survey of their 10,000 small businesses ahead of a summit here in D.C. this week. 93 percent of entrepreneurs said they expect a recession this year. So that's where Republicans are banking. But what we're seeing there, Jonathan, is a little bit the fact that so many of these candidates are outside the Republican

mainstream, as Joe was pointing out. And so they don't have some of the traditional fundraising hookups that Republicans had. They're trying to do it with small dollar donations. And those are the very people who are hit by inflation. So that's a place inflation could hit Republicans. Mike Allen, thanks so much for coming on the show. Please come back a lot more. You know, you don't have you don't have to just go to Lemire's show like stick around and stay on ours, too. We love having you as always. So, Mika, that is that is a fascinating report. And I just want to underline again, these extreme positions that Republicans are taking in Washington and across across the country. They are extreme positions, even if you look where most Republicans are.

I mean, most Republicans don't believe like Texas Republicans believe that a mother should be allowed to die on an operating table. Instead of having the protections that the federal government's trying to have that says you can't let a mother die on an operating table if she's having severe complications from a pregnancy. Most Americans don't want a 10 year old girl who has been raped to have to cross state lines. Republicans just openly come out and say that if 10-year-old girls, I had a couple months ago, I think it was a Mississippi Republican Attorney General saying if a 12-year-old girl is raped, then he believes the centralized state should compel her, this 12-year-old girl, to have a forced pregnancy, to carry her rapist baby full term, a forced pregnancy, regardless of what complications also obviously would have an impact there. Guns every day. We see another example in Indiana

yesterday, I believe. I think they have I think I read they have open carry laws. Open carry laws are going all over the country. Republicans don't want to do anything about 18 year old crackpots being able to go and buy AR-15s. And we read the horror of the Evaldi story. And there is a horror, the bad decisions that were all made. All of that started with an 18-year-old being able to buy an AR-15. And get this, 400 so-called, about 400 so-called good guys outside. And they stayed outside because Republican lawmakers will not regulate the purchase of weapons of war. That's what it all boils down to. You know, Republicans, they shame themselves by talking about doors needing to be locked

and fences needing to be higher. No, all of that happened because an 18 year old who was mentally unstable was able to go out and purchase an AR-15, a weapon of war. And voters aren't stupid. They know it's the Republicans that are standing in the way of sane gun safety regulation, sane public safety regulation. And it's costing them. Well, I mean, I don't think it's going to take the testimony from the cops on the scene to find out what was going on in their heads while they were trying to figure out how to confront a young man with a weapon of war, knowing what that could do. They were it's very different when they outgun the gunman. But the ability with his weapon, what he was able to do, they just did not know what

the video is excruciating to watch. It really is. And it shows the problem. And Republicans, the problem is that Republicans believe across the country, Republicans believe in Washington, Republicans believe in state legislatures that 18 year old crackpots should have more firepower than police should have the right to have. That's what they stand with the shooter. When you hold that position, it's pretty simple. Look at the video as well and see if you really feel that way. And on abortion, do do most of these Republicans, would that apply to their daughters? No, of course not. Of course not. The House Select Committee is set to hold, and this is on the insurrectionist angle of it, what could be its final public hearing this week. On Thursday at 8 p.m. in primetime,

the panel will give a detailed account of what took place inside the White House while President Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol. Lawmakers are specifically looking at the 187 minutes between Trump's stop the steal rally on the Ellipse and when he finally tweeted out a video telling his supporters that he loved them and to go home. Meanwhile, the January 6th committee says it is hoping to have even more evidence by Thursday's hearing after subpoenaing the Secret Service for allegedly deleted text messages. The committee issued the subpoena on Friday following a briefing by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Earlier last week, the IG revealed that after requesting pertinent records from the Secret Service for a probe into the insurrection, the agency said texts from January 5th and 6th had been accidentally erased when the phones were reset

as part of a device replacement program. Yesterday, committee members expressed optimism that the messages could and would be recovered. We need them, and we expect to get them by this Tuesday. I was shocked to hear that they didn't back up their data before they reset their iPhones. That's crazy. I don't know why that would be. I think we're going to know more Tuesday. It is quite crazy that the Secret Service would actually end up deleting anything related to one of the more infamous days in American history, particularly when it comes to the role of the Secret Service. It is crazy. It's unbelievable. The Secret Service, for its part, continues to deny that the messages were deleted intentionally.

Whatever. In a tweet on Friday, a spokesman wrote that the Secret Service has been and will continue to be fully cooperative with investigations into the events of January 6th. And I don't argue that they're not being cooperative. I just am curious who would ask for a reset at this time? Who would ask for phones to be deleted at this time? Where did that order come from? That doesn't just happen randomly, does it? You don't back it up randomly? Jonathan O'Meara, that would be like people at Pearl Harbor Navy base shredding all documents on on December the 8th or a couple of weeks later. It's just insanity. It doesn't make any sense at all. And they know it. Yeah. I mean, the two Congress members we just heard crazy was used repeatedly in those video clips that it defies it defies believability that this that this would happen, that the Secret Service would conduct some sort of phone transfer then that would result in a loss of data and defies

believability that they wouldn't have that information backed up. These were significant dates, shall we say, in the history of the Secret Service. And certainly they would have to have known in that moment that they would become future used to investigations, congressional or otherwise. And we certainly know there's been a lot of reporting about this. Some pretty pro Trump, some sympathetic Trump figures within the Secret Service, an agency, of course, that does a hard job and does it well. But that needs to be made clear. And I think investigators in the panel feel like these texts will tell two important things. First, the actions of former President Trump in the days up to, and in particular on January 6th, including his effort to try to get to the Capitol after that rally on the Ellipse, as well as what he did afterwards, because there, of course, will be Secret Service with him at all times in the White House, but also the Vice President. Let's remember,

he has his own Secret Service detail, and he was at the Capitol, his life threatened by the pro-Trump mob, and he actually had a bit of an altercation with Secret Service agents who wanted to evacuate him from the Capitol. He said no. So the text messages about that moment also of great interest to the committee. All right. Let's bring in congressional reporter for The Guardian, Hugo Lowell. Hugo, what more can you tell us about these deleted text messages as we lead up to Thursday? I mean, it sounds like they're pretty convinced they will get them on Tuesday. The select committee, will they get all of them? Who is what's the hang up here?

Yeah, I mean, I just want to actually start on the timeline since we're talking about this. The Secret Service makes this big deal about how, you know, the Inspector General only requested these communications mid to late February. I think he said February 26th or February 24th or something along those lines. But the Select Committee has kind of realized in recent days that actually the first request for communications came from Congress. And it came January 16th, 10 days after the attack. And so I think committee members on Friday were kind of sitting around, scratching their heads, thinking, is it really the case that the Secret Service managed to erase a bunch of messages,

like from two of the most key dates, as Jonathan says, in the space of 10 days? It's just remarkable. And I think kind of coming off that, when they met with the DHS inspector general, the inspector general told them that the Secret Services explanation for why these text messages disappeared kept changing. First, there was like a software upgrade issue. And then when that got questioned and there was new questions about that, they switched to, oh, actually, it was a device replacement program.

And we were swapping the devices out in those 10 days between the first request for communication. So I think the January 6th committee is very, very skeptical of everything that's been happening. But they do expect, as you say, to get at least some of the communications. Tuesday, they sent that subpoena. Late on Friday night, they subpoenaed both the text messages as well as the after-action reports. And again, that's really interesting because the DHS inspector general told the committee

that he didn't believe the Secret Service did an after-action report. And part of the reason was because they said, oh, you know, you're doing your investigation, so we'll just cooperate with your investigation. But then when push came to shove, they decided to stonewall that inquiry by slow-walking the production of documents. That is just incredible. The Guardian's Hugo Lowell, thank you very much. It's unreal to look at these names on this trophy and then add mine. It's unreal. It's really, I'm lost for words.

Well perhaps you can tell us how you're going to celebrate tonight with the Clara Jug. I'm definitely going to find out how many beers fit in this thing, that's for sure. Cameron Smith after winning the 150th Open Championship yesterday, let's bring in our golf correspondent. He is golf correspondent. President of the Council on Foreign Relations and Richard Haass. I watched a little bit of that if you can believe it. I did. I like it.

She really did. I was supportive of the mullet. So what can you tell us about this man who sports the same hairstyle that you wore throughout the late 70s and early 1980s? The Haas mullet. That's good. What he did, this young Australian was stunning. Joe, you play golf. Thirty on the back nine 20 under the tied the best ever for a major if i'm not mistaken he took 12 putts only 12 putts on the back nine that is hard to imagine i've never seen anybody putt like that the guy who came in second cameron young uh he did enough to win 19 under 65 on the final round. And yet he lost. This is as good a performance under pressure on the final day as I've seen, as I've seen

in golf. Rory McIlroy came in third. He was the hometown favorite. But yesterday, the fact that Mika watch tells you all you need to know that's as good as it gets in terms of quality of play. Yeah, it really was almost compelling. Yeah, it really was quite a match. So I'm curious what you think, Richard, about President Biden meeting with the Saudi royal family. Of course, it created a firestorm here at home before the talks even began. And

this is the moment the critics seized on when when the president did the fist bump with MBS. What are your thoughts about the meeting, about what President Biden did? And is that something that any American president in his position would need to do strategically? Well, the reason President Biden needed to do it strategically, Joe, was because what candidate Biden said. By calling Saudi Arabia pariah and by isolating them, essentially putting Saudi Arabia, the crown prince, MBS in the penalty box for a year and a half, it made it impossible to have anything like a normal consultation or conversation with the Saudis. So the fist bump was probably better than a handshake, but it was the price the president had to

pay. He had to eat some crow. But that said, we have relationships with bad guys all over the world when U.S. interests are at stake, with China, with Russia, North Korea, what have you. And we do have to deal with the Saudis, not simply over oil, but I would say more importantly over Iran. That's coming to a crunch. And it's important that Saudi Arabia and the United States

be on the same page, both in terms of what we do vis-a-vis Iran. But also, we don't want Saudi Arabia feeling so adrift from the United States that the idea that they would need their own nuclear arsenal, that that somehow becomes a real option for them. So, again, I understand the critics, but I think the critics are wrong here. This is grown up foreign policy. You've got to sometimes deal with really objectionable people. And we'll see what comes. And this measure of deliverables, I think, is not right. You've got to look at this as an investment.

The real question is over the next year or two, do the United States and Saudi Arabia cooperate vis-a-vis Iran? Does Saudi Arabia begin to move closer to Israel? Does Saudi Arabia cool it in Yemen? Maybe you do get a little bit more oil output. So less focus on today, more focus over the next couple of years. Think of it as an investment in what really is an important relationship. So Richard, obviously a lot of people rightly offended by what MBS did, rightly horrified by the fact that he killed a Virginia resident, a Washington Post editorial writer. And and so what do you say to them? Obviously, you know, we deal with with Erdogan in Turkey because we have to deal with Erdogan in Turkey because we have to deal with Erdogan in Turkey. When it suits our interests, we deal with China, who they've enslaved two million of their own people,

and we'll continue dealing with China because we have no other choice but to deal with China. I mean, after 9-11, the Iranians were of help as far as intel goes explain explain you know it's it's ugly out there explain why you believe that the realists believe this is what uh joe biden and any president had to do remember uh you know hitler's um churchill saying that he would deal with the devil if that's what it took to defeat hitler FDR dealt with Stalin. You don't have the choice to be pure here. And so we have to deal with the Saudis. Doesn't mean we give them a pass.

Doesn't mean we don't raise our concerns. But you've got to put it in a larger context. Unfortunately, we can't bring Mr. Khashoggi back to life. What we can do is press the Saudis on what they do in the future. And we've got to just simply work with them for all with all their flaws, just like we now have to work with China, say the fact, as you pointed out, Joe, they've got millions of Uyghurs in camps, but we still need to deal with China, say, on climate change or economic issues or strategic issues or North Korea. That's what foreign policy is about. It's the lesson of

history, and we can't avoid it now. And the messaging, Adrian L. Rod, I would think the White House needs to focus on climate change and gas prices and how to tie it to the economy. I think the hardest thing is to explain this trip to Americans who are dealing with everyday issues and thinking, what is he doing? I mean, the fist bump is one thing. I don't know. You can read it a bunch of different ways. Some people do that rather than shaking hands. I think that's kind of an overblown issue.

I'd like to know about what came out of the meeting. And that I think is the challenge for the president and for the White House, which is explaining this to the American people in a way that makes sense and that means something to them. Yeah, that's right, Mika. I think it's really challenging for any president to explain why a really important relationship with a somewhat of an adversarial government is important to our economic interests back home. And I think President Biden has sort of laid out, you know, the fact that he's doing everything in his power, the executive branch to try to lower gas prices because Congress, of course, is not acting.

The Build Back Better agenda is now winding into a very small, thin reconciliation bill, which is probably not going to have a dramatic impact on gas prices ultimately, which is what we were hoping would happen when the broader package was introduced. But the bottom line is that is a challenge any president has to face. But I think it's his job now that he's back home in the United States is to explain, you know, further explain the trip, talk about the outcomes of that trip, of those conversations, and make it very clear that the United States, unfortunately, because we're not necessarily doing what we need to do at home, we do have to continue to rely on some of these international oil supplies. We do have the

domestic resources here at home, but we're not fully utilizing them because, again, Congress has not acted appropriately. So, you know, presents some challenges for sure. But I'm confident that President Biden this week will spend time talking about this trip, lay out what happened and talk about how hopefully some of the discussions will positively impact American families. President Biden, upon returning to the White House late Saturday, it was well after midnight, not having it with reporters questions about the fist bump and White House aides, Richard, say too much is being made of that. But there was one other angle the White House wanted to play in the Middle East, and that is also to try to make sure Saudi Arabia doesn't end up any closer

to China and Russia. Tell us about why that's so important, particularly at this moment, when the world facing rising fuel costs and fears that Russia could be cutting off gas further to Europe, which would just send things that much higher throughout the globe. Yeah, exactly. Really two reasons. One is, as you say, oil. Russia's interest is often restricting oil supplies. They want the price to go up. We do not want Saudi Arabia and the so-called OPEC plus relationship getting closer to Russia. Strategically, China and Russia are our two biggest competitors, what we're doing in the world. The idea that you have a security system in the Middle East that would be sensitive to Russian and Chinese interest rather than our own is, needless to say, not what we want. So what we're going to have, we also don't want them, by the way, getting all their arms from these countries. We want to have some influence there about what we do about Iran, what happens with Israel, what happens in Yemen, what happens

in other parts of the Middle East. And I think this also shows, Jonathan, that the desire of the United States to get out of the Middle East, that might be our wish, but it's not going to be the reality. It's like Godfather 2. It keeps bringing you back. We kept getting brought back into the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is one of the principal countries in that part of the world. If we want them to collaborate with Israel, to normalize with Israel, but also work with Israel against Iran, we've got to be in that conversation. We have got to be part of it. Those are the cards we're dealt in the Middle East. It's not always pretty. Again, I understand what the critics are saying, but this is reality, given what Iran is up to,

the energy situation, peace between Israel and Palestinians. Saudi Arabia might hold the key there. There's no other country that if it normalized with Israel could get something for with the Palestinians. So the measure of this trip is not today. The measure of this trip is in two, three, four years to come. That's what people should be thinking about. Look back on it. Richard Haass, thank you very much for your insight this morning. It's past the hour. Joe, Democrats are extremely upset with Senator Joe Manchin. You're reading an old script.

No, they're really upset this time. That's an old script. Nope, they're super upset this time. This time, they're really mad. Yeah, he's effectively torpedoed their hopes of acting on climate change. It comes after Manchin told Democratic leadership he is not willing to back major climate and tax provisions in President Biden's agenda, forcing Democrats to make a choice past the provisions he wants or drop the package altogether. Come on. Senator Bernie Sanders was especially upset over the weekend, suggesting Manchin never negotiated in good faith in the first place.

People like Manchin, Sinema, to a lesser degree, who are intentionally sabotaging the president's agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want. Nothing new about this. And the problem was that we continue to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not. This is a guy who is a major recipient of fossil fuel money, a guy who has received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires. So despite the recent record-breaking heat waves across the globe, climate change remains an issue with little political power. A recent New York Times-Siena

College poll found that just one percent of voters named climate change as the most important issue facing the country. The Times reports even among voters under 30, the group thought to be the most energized by the issue. That figure was 3 percent. This is President Biden's two trillion dollar climate plan appears to be dead, killed off by Senator Manchin, who worried how the deal would affect inflation. This comes weeks after the Supreme Court limited the EPA's ability to regulate climate warming carbon dioxide from electric power plants. Meanwhile, record breaking heat waves sweep the globe. Temperatures between 104 and 110 were common from Spain to Germany,

while Britain was forced to declare a national emergency and issue its first ever red warning for extreme heat. Yes, it exists. Portugal saw temperatures reaching 117 degrees as wildfires raged across the country. While the heat wave impacting Spain has killed at least 360 people so far, Joe, I mean, it does seem like, I would think in Joe Manchin's state, the percentage of people who don't support it would go even lower. But I'm surprised. I'm surprised at these poll numbers. Yeah, I mean, it's been this way for a very long time. And it doesn't really make a lot of sense.

I guess people only worry about what's right in front of them. But the numbers have been much lower on climate change than you would expect. But on the Joe Manchin front, I mean, I've said this for some time. Joe Biden needs to sit down with Joe Manchin and say, Joe, what do you want? Yeah. Stop your stop talking about crawfish in West Virginia or whatever. You know, you don't you don't you don't need crawfish like that. I mean, just just tell him to stop. Make him sit down and say, Joe, write the bill. Stop telling us what you're for. And then moving the goalposts.

Stop telling we need 50 votes. Tell us what you're for. Like, we should have come to the end of the road on this six months ago. But for some reason, Joe Manchin says, oh, I'm going to sit down and talk to y'all and we're going to figure that. No, I mean, I remember Joe Manchin saying he supported universal pre-k if they just do universal pre-k i'd support okay well sit down with the president they need to talk through it but just enough talking to other democrats enough trying to hammer things out because at the end joe manchin's just gonna tell you what he's against's not going to he'll say he's for something and then you'll say, OK, we'll take that bill and then he'll be against that as well. And so, Adrian, this is just not difficult. I don't think it's difficult.

I mean, I understand progressives that want to spend what I consider to be way too much money, especially during inflationary times, are going to be mad at Joe Manchin. Other Democrats will be mad at him. That's just irrelevant. The only thing that matters is, do you have 50 votes? And I just wonder if Joe Biden will invite Joe Manchin to the White House and say, Joe, write your bill right there. Write it and put it down right there. What's your best offer?

And if they can't sell it, they can't sell it and they move on. But seriously, I swear to God, how does this charade continue? How have Democrats allowed this charade to go on for almost two years now? Yeah, I mean, Joe, it's really frustrating for Democrats and there's a lot of it's frustrating for a lot of us on the sidelines to watch this process play out. Because, you know, look, the Senate's looking pretty good in the hands of Democrats right now. We may even pick up a seat, but it's still too early to tell. So what we do know now is between now and November, we do have enough votes to get some things done. So we've got to utilize that time effectively.

We don't have a lot of time left to be, you know, sort of seeing if this tactic works with Manchin and if this tactic works, we've got to actually make something happen. Let's also remember that the White House stayed out of these conversations because Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin said, you know what, we're going to work this out between the two of us or with a small cadre of Democrats. And, you know, the White House will let you know when it's time to come in. So, you know, maybe the White House should have come in a little bit earlier. But I think the president was was rightfully standing back because that's what he was told. But the bottom line is this. I mean, Joe Manchin, we don't know if he's acting in good faith when he's made some of

these decisions. He is you know, he made it clear a couple of months ago that he'd be open to some of the provisions that he just now rejected. What we do know now is that he may be able to, you know, support a prescription drug, a plan to lower the cost of prescription drugs. There may be a few other smaller things that we can get through reconciliation, but we don't have a lot of time left for sure. So we've got to get this done quickly. It looks like Schumer's putting a bill on the floor probably in the next few weeks, may go into August recess. But we do need to get

something done because the American people, American families are at stake and we don't have much time left that we can definitely ensure that Democrats will have control of the Senate. Well, you know, Jonathan Lemire, Joe Manchin said that he was for reversing the Trump tax cuts. I guess I guess he's not for that now. I guess he's against that now. But again, it just goes back to tell us what you're for, Joe. And instead of talking to Chuck Schumer and everybody else, have him write his bill, because, again, this just keeps going on. It's put up or shut up. What will you support? You love going around saying no you love talking about how everybody's just got everything wrong and nobody understands how to do that okay tell us what what

are you going to do write it down on a piece of paper say this is what i'm going to do and and then have his staff not in not another staff have his staff draft the legislation and then schumer can get it passed in the Senate. We can see if Nancy Pelosi can pass it in the House. But guess what? If she can't, she can't. If the squad says no, the squad says no. If progressives say no, progressives say no. But what Democrats have been doing over the past year and a half is just madness.

You don't allow somebody to go into what we used to call in college basketball, the four corners and just tell you what they're going to do and then say they're not going to do it and keep. I mean, that's been repeating itself over and over and over again, calling, say, write your bill. We'll sign it. We'll get the president to sign it after we pass it through the House and the Senate if we can. Yeah, Biden over the weekend signaled that he would support this skinny measure on Medicare negotiating drug prices and Obamacare subsidies. But it's a small bill. And despite him signaling that he wants this and therefore Schumer is going to take it to the floor, White House frustration levels with Manchin are off the charts, according to advisers that I speak to who are so tired of

him saying one thing in public, one thing in private, behind the scenes saying, yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll do that. And then public saying, no, no, no, I won't. And he is now Manchin said, well, we could revisit climate change and maybe provisions later this summer. No one in the White House thinks that will actually happen. They've heard this before. And also about the timing when he has said no. Let's remember last December when he officially pulled the plug on Build Back Better. How did he do so? On Fox News. This one where he says, no, I'm not going to be for this larger measure. When did he do it? When the president was in Saudi Arabia talking to the crown prince, a controversial visit about oil. And here is Joe Manchin back home killing climate change provisions.

So there is just a real sense here of just anger at Manchin and a sense of regret that Biden wasn't more personally involved all along, deferring too much to Schumer when he should have been one of the one perhaps in the in the room with Manchin having him write the bill. Wow. All right, Adrian Elrod, thanks for being on this morning. We appreciate it.