it's been replaced by this, a school building and a beautiful one. and while some of the architectural features of an old nightclub have been preserved there's nowhere to go there, nothing to see for those perhaps wanting a tactile or visual connection to the day 50 years ago to this day that changed the course of our country and of course politics in america. and with that that's our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. astonishing comments. the president's lawyer says north korea's leader kim jong un begged for a summit with president trump and that robert mueller's team is trying to frame the president. >> and stormy daniels files a new lawsuit claiming her former lawyer was a puppet for michael cohen and donald trump. >> and the cavaliers find themselves on the brink of elimination as the warriors take a commanding lead in the nba finals.

good morning, everyone. it's thursday, june 7th. i'm ayman. if new comment from the president's personal lawyer don't blow the whole summit up before it even begins. take a listen. >> well, somehow north korea after he cancelled the summit because they insulted the vice president, they insulted the -- his national security advisor and they said they would go to nuclear war against us, they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. we said, we're not going to have a summit under those su circumstances. kim jong un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it which is exactly the position you want to put him in. >> it's not the first time the president's personal attorney

weighed in here. despite being unclear if he has the proper clearances to be able to have that kind of information. >> i'm going to bet giuliani is not headed to singapore. >> giuliani has made a string of predictions about what special counsel bob mueller's office is thinking with no response from the russia probe investigators and during interviews yesterday while on a trip to israel as ayman was just talking about, new allegations mueller's way suggesting the investigation is a setup and threatening unspecified action. listen to this. >> they are a group of 13 highly partisan democrats that make up the mueller team excluding him, are trying very, very hard to frame him. to get him in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong.

>> comey i think is the real villain of this whole thing. i think in mueller's case it's more he's not taking control of these people that work for him. and they're going around starting all these new investigations. he's got to have the discipline to put a stop to it. or we're going to have to do everything we can including some things i don't think we want to talk about right now to try to appeal to have it stopped. >> if they decide to follow those up they'll be going for three or four years all to no avail and after millions and millions of of taxpayers dollars which i think we have a demand that he put up or shut up because we can answer anything he has. >> president trump's latest communication is one that conflicts with his administration's policies. trump commuted her life conviction for nonviolent

felonies but in policy, the trump administration has sought the most severe punishments for drug trafficking. attorney general jeff sessions last year ordered federal prosecutors to pursue the toughest possible charges against criminal defendants, reversing president obama's efforts to ease penalties in nonviolent drug cases. president trump has publicly endorsed this push along with repeated calls for the death penalty just three months ago. >> if we don't get tough on the drug dealers, we're wasting our time. just remember that. we're wasting our time. and that toughness includes the death penalty. >> all right. while all of his pardons so far have been related to celebrity or conservative causes a white house official told nbc news that dozens of pardons have been prepared for the president and he is considering him. >> and despite the claim he has

absolute power to pardon himself, house speaker told reporters yesterday he shouldn't do it. >> do you believe that the president has the power to pardon himself? >> i don't know the technical answer but he shouldn't and no one is above the law. >> and here's what congressman had to say followed by speaker ryan's new comments. >> i am even more convinced that the fbi did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got and that it has nothing to do with donald trump. >> do you agree with him? >> normally i don't like to comment on classified briefings. let me say it this way. i think his initial assessment is accurate. i have seen no assessment to the contrary. but i want to make sure we get

final answers no these questions. >> all right. so president trump reportedly thinks that burned down the white house. trump asked quote, didn't you guys burn down the white house referring to the war of 1812. that was in response to the questioning of using national security for massive tariffs on aluminum tariffs. it was the british that burned the original white house in 1814. in fact, it did not become a nation until 1867. meanwhile the state department on tuesday cited the d day invasion while discussing america's great relationship with germany. >> we have a very strong relationship with the government of germany. looking back in the history books today is the 71st anniversary of the speech that

announced the marshall plan. tomorrow is the anniversary of the d day invasion. we obviously have a very long history with the government of germany and we have a strong relationship with the government. >> stormy daniels has filed a new lawsuit claiming her former attorney betrayed her and became a quote, puppet for president trump and his personal attorney michael cohen. the new filing alleges that cohen hatched a plan and colluded with him to attempt to get her to go on fox news and falsely deny that she had an affair with trump more than a decade ago. cohen even refers to davidson as pal. this outrageously frivolous lawsuit is for avenatti to continue his publicity tour. this lawsuit has made that

happen. >> back to israel, yesterday's rudy giuliani criticizing stormy daniels and said first lady melania trump actually believes her husband. >> she believes in her husband. she knows it's not true. i don't even think there's a slight suspicion that it's truex cause me, but when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump and look at his three wives. right? beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance. stormy daniels? i respect all human beings. i even have to respect criminals but i'm sorry, i don't respect a porn star the way i respect a woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation. so stormy, you want to bring a

case, let me cross examine you. >> so daniels lawyer responded to those comments on twitter writing this. mr. giuliani is a misogymist. and melania trump made a public appearance yesterday after several weeks out of the spotlight. the first lady visited fema headquarters with her husband making her first public event since may the 10th, four days before she underwent a procedure for a benign kidney procedure. >> we have to start with our great first lady, melania. thank you, melania. she went through a little rough patch, but she's doing great and

she's proud of her. she's done a fantastic job. the people of our country love you, so thank you, honey. >> and hours before trump hit back at the media attention surrounding his wife's prolonged public absence the president tweeted the public media has been so unfair and vicious to my wife and our great first lady. she is doing really well. meanwhile the first lady's office announced that she would not join her husband for the g7 summit in canada this week or for the north korea meeting in singapore on june 12th. >> lots to break down. let's bring in you nene scott from the washington post. great to have you with us this morning. do you think we could see any backlash from paul ryan splitting with president trump on his assertion that his

campaign was spied on and that he should not be pardoning himself? it seems like paul ryan is slowly finding his voice as he -- >> i wonder why. >> yeah. his final couple months in office. >> i think we could find some backlash or see some backlash from the president because this is a narrative that he really wants to promote to further his argument and create more distance between the america people and their believe and the possibility that he's been treated fairly. but to ryan's point he said there's still more documents to be reviewed. there are questions to be asked. there's a lot of information not known there and so i imagine that trump is hoping that ryan could reverse his policy or position should i say, which ryan has been known to do in the past related to trump. >> let's talk about trump's legal strategy here with regards to the russia investigation. i want to play for you a comparison of rudy giuliani and then michael cohen talking to a

reporter back in 2015. take a listen. >> comey worked for the u.s. attorney's office and mueller worked under me in the justice department. he's got to have the discipline to put a stop to it or we're going to have to do everything we can including some things that i don't think we'd want to talk about right now. >> i'm warning you, tread very [ bleep ] lightly because what i'm going to do to you is disgusting. >> okay. so the reporter did end up going ahead and publishing that story with cohen's comments there. do you think the president's team thinks this is going to be more successful with mueller this strategy that they're taking now or do you think this is giuliani straight up channelling president trump? >> well, it's really interesting seeing the impact that giuliani's words could have not just on the investigation, but the voters. i mean, his recent comments about stormy daniels and women considering that the republican party has so many issues with

women voters right now doesn't seem particularly winsome, but giuliani has not revealed himself having any particular strategy beyond just saying what he thinks he wants to say and feels like saying and even having to walk back sometimes once he finds more information. and so how he thinks this could help his client at all just doesn't remain clear, but it seems like it's more harmful at this point than anything else. >> i think a lot of people are sharing that same sentiment as well. we'll touch base with you in a little bit. still ahead, what scott pruitt has to say about reports he tried to get a chick fil a franchise for his wife and what republicans are saying about pruitt. >> and the president and vice president pence that has the internet reacting. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. plaque psoriasis can be relentless.

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one source telling abc news that inspector general michael draft report on the fbi's investigation into hillary clinton's use of a private e-mail server while a secretary of state used the word insubordinate. the report also allegedly criticizing lynch for her handling of the investigation in the clinton's e-mail server the source said. the inspector general told lawmakers last month that a draft of the report was complete. the draft is subject to change. the final version is expected to be released in the coming days. let's get a quick check on your weather now with bill karins. >> good morning. yesterday a very picturesque tornado formed in wyoming over

the open land and a beautiful background behind it. a lot of storm chasers were out there on this storm and it lasted for a while too and there's a beautiful shot of it there. you can't get more picturesque than that and that was in the formation stage there just a little bit of a funnel sticking down. so today we're still tracking severe weather. overnight the strongest storms through nebraska and kansas. this line extends 4 to 500 miles at least. a half hour to an hour, those storms are going to come to you. kansas city, those storms dried up before they headed to you overnight. about 1.2 million people at risk for severe storms. much of montana and a little sliver here in colorado. denver not included. you should have a hot type day. the forecast should be high. still a lot of heat for early in the season and it's starting to shift a little bit.

st. louis you'll feel it at 94. indianapolis jumping up to the 9 # 0s. the weekend forecast, the storms are today in montana. tomorrow in areas of wisconsin and through areas of the great lakes. on saturday mid-atlantic and here we go again. the cold front sets over you, it's not going to rain all day but showers and thunderstorms throughout the afternoon, possibility of heavy rain. we have the belmont stakes saturday in new york. it's going to be a close call if it's over new york or south of new york and florida your typical storms and on sunday, still around in virginia and the areas in the mid plaek, the complaint box deserves to be full. >> come on, bill. can't we just get a clear weekend? one weekend that's clear, sunny, warm. >> d.c. has not been picturesque. during the week has been fantastic. >> while we're all at work here. thanks, bill. we got one more here. vice president mike pence keeps a close eye on president trump's actions and got noticed himself

for following the leader. he looks at his water bottle and places it on the floor and then pence immediately puts down his pen and places his water bottle on the floor. he's taken critical sim for his deference as people begin to notice his movements since back in the summer of 2016 and the new yorker wrote this about the stare he fixes on the president. pence has stood by the president mustering a denotional gaze rarely seen since the days of nancy reagan. >> i was getting a good laugh at it. >> maybe it's a baseball signal thing. >> secret communication? >> absolutely. come on, you know sports. >> it shows loyalty that he does everything that the president does. still ahead, golden state is standing on the doorstep of a dynasty as the 33 foot dagger

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citrus flavor with collagen. nature's bounty. starting with game 3 of the nba finals. down two games to none, the cavs look to get a win in their series on their home court and they started off hot leading as much by 12 during the first half. meanwhile steph curry and comp

son had a cold night. so a little opening there. lebron james amassed a triple double surpassing michael jordan for the most 30 point games in the playoffs but his efforts were overshadowed by kevin durant. he led the warriors with 33 points and a dagger late in the fourth that was reminiscent of game three of last year's finals. just unbelievable. the warriors go on to win this one 110-102 taking a 3-0 series lead here. golden state can sweep cleveland in game four at 9:00 p.m. eastern this friday and no nba team has ever come back to win a series 3-0. but then again no team ever came back to win 3 games to one until the cavs did back in 2016 so

we'll have to wait and see what happens. and while president trump cancelled the visit of the super bowl champ eagles instead of celebrating the american flag, the lynx didn't even get an invite. they despieded so spend some time doing some community service while in the nation's capital. warriors head coach was asked for game three of the nba finals about the recent divide between athletes and this current administration. take a listen. >> what you're seeing is i think the athletes are showing patriotism through their community service. the president is turning all this stuff into a political game and a ratings game and it's a blatant display of nationalism.

i'm blou i'm blown away by the eagles being disinvited. instead we have these military sing alongs at the white house to show how patriotic we are even though we don't know the words. it's just incredible. >> coming in hot there. >> yeah, steve kerr throwing some shade against the president. a lot of coaches as well greg popovich of the spurs. >> defending the players. >> and let's just hope the cavs do not get swept on friday night. that would be embarrassing. >> it's kind of over. >> never rule out lebron james but history is not on their side. no team has ever done it but if there is a team it's going to be one that has lebron james on it. still ahead, ivanka trump has largely stayed out of the russia probe but she's now facing new scrutiny this morning. >> plus, scott pruitt losing

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman and louis burgdorf.

>> nbc news national correspondent peter alexander. >> keeping up with the communication, 63-year-old alice johnson now a free woman released from an alabama prison. an emotional reunion with her family. president trump ending the great grandmother's sentence. just days after an oval office appeal from kim kardashian, johnson's daughter overjoyed. >> to be able to have a cup of coffee with my mom, little simple things that people take for granted, we have our mom back. >> after serving 21 years for heading up a drug ring with ties to the cartel, johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior describing her as a model inmate. kardashian on twitter cheering best news ever. >> you know, i think in life everyone makes mistakes and she really deserves a second chance. >> mr. trump's use of his pardon power fitting a pattern, most

rewarding political allies. >> i stand by my partner sheriff joe. >> it's my honor to do it. it's about time. >> and more may be coming. former trump campaign advisor george papadopoulus wife now begging the president to pardon her husband. >> i hope he will. >> a white house official says the president is considering dozens of additional pardons. recently floating martha stewart and house speaker paul ryan saying there's one person he should never pardon. >> no one is above the law. >> thanks to peter alexander for that report. >> so ivanka trump is coming under scrutiny for her alleged role in trying to facilitate a meeting between then candidate cambridge analytica a

donald trump, such a deal would have made the trump family millions of dollars and added their name to the russian capital skyline. sources say the president's daughter tried to set up trump's personal lawyer michael cohen with highly connected heavy weight who had offered to arrange the meeting back in 2015. cohen had a phone conversation and e-mails with the athlete after that introduction. president trump already under investigation for his business deals but sources say that both cohen and ivanka's e-mails have been reviewed by robert mueller's team and a senate intelligence committee. a spokes person says she does not know and never spoke with the russian athlete who offered to set up that meeting. >> let's talk about pruitt because he's still here. >> again. >> he's speaking out in the latest scandal to engulf his tenure at the agency and whether he tried to help his wife get a business opportunity with chick fil a. >> with great change comes, you

know, i think opposition. i mean, there's significant change that's happening across not only at the the epa but at this administration. and look, my wife is an entrepreneur herself. i love -- she loves, we love, chick fil a as a franchise of faith and it's one of the best in the country and so that's something we were very excited about. so we need more of them across the country. so anyway, it's an exciting time. >> okay. so while pruitt laughed off the latest allegations as you just heard of misusing his authority two of his most trusted aides have reportedly resigned. both are exiting marking the latest in a growing list of appointees who have left the epa. both had worked with pruitt since he was in oklahoma -- was the oklahoma attorney general,

according to the atlantic citing, one who has been tied to many of the scandals said he was tired of being thrown under the bus. and warry of seeing her name constantly appear in headlines about the agency. when it reached out to epa spokesman via phone he would not comment saying quote, you have a great day, you're a piece of trash. >> all right. and despite the numerous ethics and spending scandals surrounding scott pruitt -- excuse me. president trump has nothing but praise for his epa administrator. take a look at what the president had to say. >> scott pruitt, thank you, scott, very much. epa is doing really, really well, and you know, somebody has to say that about you a little bit. you know that, scott, but you have done -- i tell you the epa is doing so well, so many approvals and disapprovals, if they don't qualify they don't qualify but we don't have to wait 15 years to tell somebody

they don't qualify and people are really impressed with the job that's being done at the epa. thank you very much, scott. >> and the president's comments come as a growing number of republicans have decided they've had enough of pruitt es problems. several lawmakers say their patience with the chief is running thin. politico says there are many lawmakers now publicly questioning whether pruitt can hang on to the job amid the unending stream of scandals. speaking yesterday, hatch had a word of advice for the administrator. >> i think he has to be very careful because you know, it's important that people believe that he's a person that they can trust and will do the job without -- without influence one way or the other. >> all right. joining us now to talk more about this reporter for the washington post, eugene scott once again. thanks for being here. >> sure. >> we've got these nonstop

stories that we've been reporting on for months surrounding spending and ethics scandals especially involving scott pruitt. do you think that pruitt can lead as sort of an effective administration here considering all the scandals surrounding him? also do you think at this point he's really around to take the heat off of president trump? >> well, he's certainly doing a good job according to president trump and i think that is the person who he has to worry about most. it's often been said that these top officials, they work for a party of one and so how other people in congress even within his party feel about him, it's not -- as much a priority as it is how trump feels. in terms of attention off of trump there's a lot of attention on the ethics concerns of both trump and pruitt and i think that actually shows that there are bigger problems in this administration. pruitt is not an isolated case and the question becomes how much will voters care about this

moving forward in these midterms and in 2020 in terms of whether or not they want to see a new vision for this country and how people govern. >> let's -- i want to ask you about the support that pruitt is losing on capitol hill. he's obviously lost support among some of his own staff with these resignations but really the surprising thing that republicans on the hill have begun to turn on pruitt. is it unprecedented and see how an agency had remained in a role as long as their support publicly erodes especially on capitol hill? >> we have not seen something like this before and we certainly have not seen even the criticism from within a party towards an administration official of this magnitude and the person remain in place, but i think again, scott pruitt has a positive relationship with the president. he's not ironically embarrassing the president according to the president and i think there's something to be said there about what is it exactly that meets the grounds for actually 'em

brar rabar ra -- embarrassing the president. and certainly has met the qualifications for many of the staffers which is why many of them have left and say they no longer want to be associated with pruitt and perhaps the trump administration as a whole. >> anyone we've seen someone face scandals like this we've seen the president take a very direct turn especially on twitter starting to step away from directly supporting them and we haven't seen at all with scott pruitt. >> all right. good to have you on the show today. >> all right. still ahead, samantha b speaking out again over her crude comment of ivanka trump. >> and our daily reminder on why you don't want to annoy a 9 foot alligator. yes, that is actually -- >> yeah, probably not best. >> and bill karins will have a check on the forecast. you like dinosaurs?

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welcome back. samantha b made her return after a crude comment last week. >> you know, a lot of people were offended and angry that i used an epithet to talk about the president's daughter last week. this time i used it as an insult. i crossed the line, i regret it and i do apologize for that. >> all right. but some think that bee's apology was far from sincere instead using the moment to take some more jabs. >> i should have known that a potty mouth insult would be inherently more interesting to them that juvenile policy. i'm really sorry that i said that word but civility is just nice words. maybe we should all worry about the niceness of our actions.

>> she also jokingly introduced new mandatory sensors to alleviate her use of swear words. >> let's get a check on your weather now with bill karins. bill, i guess you're going to tell us about the timing of all the rain that's going to come this weekend. >> we're going to try. it has been fluctuating who's going to get the rain. we know it's going to happen the weekend on saturday. showers and thunderstorms. here's the storm -- excuse me. this is tomorrow. this is friday. this is the storm that's going to be responsible for the weekend periods of rain. then it's going to spread some rain towards chicago to the ohio valley. hit and miss showers and storms. not everyone gets a washout friday afternoon. but this little boundary, this warm front and cold front that's the focus for more storms as we go through the weekend. rainy morning for you in detroit. also southern indiana and then we'll watch the storms really

firing up as we go throughout saturday afternoon. as of now our computers are looking at pittsburgh, to d.c., to richmond and leaving philadelphia north wards dry. the model drenches philadelphia and new york instead. so it depends where you reasare that front. 5:00 p.m. coverage beginning on the triple crown. 79 degrees possible thunderstorms so depends on where those storms are. it may be a sloppy track or maybe completely dry. and the story through the weekend. kansas city, indianapolis, all in the 90s. friday we get 95 in nashville and if you want heat it continues right through the weekend all through the deep south. >> what's the name of the model that tells us it's going to be sunny and nice? >> that's the only one you want to hear about? >> yeah, if you don't have that

don't tell us about any other european models or anything else. >> we'll see which model is right when we're all said and done. >> i'm excited about the belmont stakes. >> it could be three races in the mud. >> this is a saying that you're very familiar with, don't mess with mother nature or you can say don't mess with an angry gator. an alligator had been roaming around the neighborhood. you can see the run trapper antagonizing the trapped beast before he and his colleagues were ready to load it on to the back of the pickup truck. a last ditch effort to escape, the gator head butts the trapper and he is done. he is just out. the trapper was knocked out for about three or four seconds as the animal makes his way back off the truck. >> yasmin vossoughian is laughing. >> what are you laughing at?

the poor guy. >> in all fairness, you look at one of the police officers, they're also laughing. >> do not antagonize an alligator. >> we always root for the animal in these cases. >> you've got to respect mother nature in all of this. >> he's also antagonizing the alligator. >> all right. there we go. >> i would be standing 900 feet away from that alligator, by the way. i would not be standing so close. >> the dow surging more than 300 points booking its best day in two months as the index climbs back up above the 25,000 mark. >> and could ups workers being heating up for a strike? that and other stories driving your business day coming up next. ways to lose stubborn belly fat. the northern percussion massage. not cool.

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. welcome back. let's turn to business, stocks rose wednesday, bolstered by bank shares to wall street having its most profitable day in two mondays. cnbc's willem marks joins us for more. >> as is often the case this is a lot to do with trade. we had some data out yesterday showing that the u.s. trade deficit fell to a seven-month low, that's a bit of a sign that the economic growth in the u.s. domestically is accelerating, certainly into the second quarter of the year. larry kudlow, we heard from him,

the white house chief economic adviser. he was saying that mr. trump will continue to talk tough on trade and tariffs, those are his words, but he would be talking. woe meet with justin trudeau of canada and emmanuel macron of france at the g7 summit. u.p.s., workers there more than 250,000 belong to the teamsters have voted to approve strike action if needed. spent the last couple of months negotiating over wages and benefits. u.p.s. at pains to point out this does not mean a strike is imminent. >> thousands of landlines were down after comcast experienced a nationwide blackout yesterday. who is affected and has the problem been resolved? >> this was our parent company's xfinity phone service going down in large parts of the country. thousands of businesses impacted. they still use landlines and in spoe cain county in eastern washington state, the police

department had problems, comcast said in a statement they apologized to customers affected by what they call the service interruption. willem marks, live from london. axios' nicholas johnston has a look at this morning's one big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," the president's legal team launching new attacks on bob mueller. accusing the special counsel's russia probe of being a set-up and threatening unspecified action. what it may suggest about president trump's next moves in the matter. joe and mika get reaction to the president's comments on his pardoning power from both sides of the aisle when senators richard blumenthal, cory gardner, elizabeth warren and claire mccaskill join the conversation. with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place.

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to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. to help protect yourself from a stroke. ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪ welcome back. joining us from washington, we look at axios a.m., editor in chief for axios, nicholas

johnston. thanks for joining us so early. talk to us about axios' one big thing today. >> get ready for the coming war over health care. if you thought that debate was over when republicans failed to repeal the affordable care act, you were wrong. it's driven by four pieces, the rising costs of prescription drugs, always a big issue. the precarious state of medicare. getting new data showing how it won't have enough money to survive long-term and rising premiums is a perennial issue every fall when new premium increases come out and the sleeper issue driving a lot of this debate is increasing out of pocket costs, deductibles are rising, people are feeling that. >> a quick question for you. how are democrats looking to seize on this hot-button issue as we move closer to the mid terms. some have called to make health care the central issue during the august recess that was canceled by mitch mcconnell. >> they'll be making a big issue of this. red state democrats in missouri, west virginia are using this as

a way to highlight the opioid epidemic and democrats are unified, saying this is something that the government needs to step into. there needs to be government action to on rising drug prices. this is the first mid term in a decade where republicans won't be running on repealing the affordable care act that shifts enthusiasm to the side of the democrats. >> let's look at the pardon by the president. we also have been hearing reports of many more pardons to come. what are those steps to getting pardoned? >> the pardon power that the president has is the one piece of a presidency that works exactly like president trump wants the presidency to work. he and he alone is the decider. if you look at the four steps for alice johnson. the publicization of the issue. there was a environment internet video of her condition that went on the internet and the celebrity involvement. kim kardashian west noticed that

video and took an interest. and she met with jared kushner with this at the white house and got an oval office popping and yesterday the papers were signed, four steps complete. >> let me hone in on one of those steps, the role of jared kushner, what is he playing in terms of handing out the pardons or getting them in front of the president's eyes? and more importantly, i know that one of the issues that he was tasked with is criminal justice reform are we seeing the administration make any steps on that? or are they just focused on these types of pardons? >> the president's sentencing vempl a sleeper issue that doesn't get a lot of attention. the way he views it is every time one of these issues gets to the forefront. i'm now on television talking about prison and sentencing reform. he uses it as a way to increase interest in this issue. >> and the president's pardoning power is the playing into the way he sees his leadership should be. really all it takes is the signing of his name and someone

is pardoned. >> 100%, the president doesn't like being overruled by congress. the president wants to be the president and in his view, the president gets to decide and on pardons and commutations, his power is absolute. >> what's on your radar for the rest of the week? >> a big weekend coming up for international affairs, the president is off to the g7, meeting with allies he's threatening trade wars with and leading up to the trip to singapore with the huge summit with the north korean leader. prime minister abe from japan arri arrives. must-see television this afternoon will be their press conference. >> it's a week for president trump to be on the international stage between that and the korea summit. nick johnston, thank you very much. to all of our viewers, you can sign up for axios' newsletter. that does it for us on this thus, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf, "morning joe"

starts right now. ♪ god bless america ♪ land that i love ♪ stand beside her ♪ and guide her ♪ through the night with the light from above ♪ >> what you're seeing is -- i think the athletes are showing patriotism through their community service. you know, the president is turning all this stuff into a political game and and a ratings game and, it's a blatant display of nationalism. i'm blown away by the irony of the eagles being disinvited. we have these military sing-alongs at the white house to show how patriotic we are, even though we don't know the words. it's just incredible. >> by we, he means president trump. just did not know the words. you saw it there welcome to morning joe. we start this