mark morial, ceo of national urban league and former mayor of new orleans and joe watkins, former white house aid to president george h.w. bush. gentlemen, there is a lot to talk about there. i'll let you go at it, beginning with you, joe. as i watched something like that, critics on the left, on the right, bashing wall street, big banks particularly, more diffusely income inequality or wealth inequality, what is going on here and what happened to the moderates in this country? >> well, it is never fair to broad bush any group of people, not fair to do it to businesses, be they large or small, not fair to do it to wall street. what is happening here is these candidates are speaking to the same numbers we talk about every month, the jobs department, we talk about the rate of unemployment, which happily is at 4.9%, a good number. but all the other indicators around that number are what these people talk to. the 6 million americans who are part time workers who are economic reasons to the more than 25% of the unemployed who are long term unemployed, to the 62.6 or 7% labor force participat

joining us now, mark moreial, former mayor of new orleans and joe watkins. gentlemen, welcome to both of you. >> great to see you. happy new year. one of our producers, jake novak, mentioned earlier today an interesting question. i pose it to you -- bless you over there whoever just sneezed. i'll get your response, too, mayor, and that is how do you have such a strong jobs market when you have such a relatively weak economy, one that may be slowing? is that sustainable or is there a disconnect there? joe, you first. >> well, you know, i don't know, you have to consider the fact that even though unemployment stays at 5% and we saw an increase in jobs, remember 73,000 of those new jobs created in december were in the business and professional services industry. not unusual at all for december, a month when people are spiking up because of the holiday, the holiday rush. so all the other numbers are pretty much the same that are -- and that are not very impressive. 9.9% for the underemployed workers. you've still got long-term unemployment numbers. if you look a

marc morial and joe watkins, thank you for being with us. >>> hillary clinton proposing the tax hit for companies. john harwood has an interview with her today at 4:00 p.m. on the closing bell from michigan. >>> new home sales tumbling, but existing home sales inching higher. and home flipping sky rocketing sparks concerns of another bubble. what is the real reed on real estate now. zillow's ceo tells us what he's seeing ahead. stay tuned. usiness expert? sure am. my staff could use your help staying in touch with customers. at&t can help you stay connected. am i seeing double? no ma'am. our at&t 'buy one get one free' makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers... ...and share promotions on social media? you know it! now i'm seeing dollar signs. you should probably get your eyes checked. good one babe. optometry humor. right now get up to $650 in credits to help you switch to at&t. came courtesy of james and patricia thompson. this tv? margaret and tom lee. the championship game ball? that was sebastian diaz. good guy. and all i had to do was ask for

joining us is mark morial and joe watkins. welcome. mayor morial, you're tight on time, i'll begin with you. do you think this jobs report is in any way an influencer of anybody? >> i think the jobs report particularly the increasing wages, the continuation of the addition of hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, we had 161,000 this past month. i think it is an indication that the job of the next president is to build on what president obama has done, to expand the economy, to tick up economic growth and also to deal with unemployment in those areas where it remains high. we evaluated both candidates plans. it was tough to evaluate the trump plan because he failed to respond to repeated requests for information. and all i can say from looking at the clinton plan is that it is a solid plan, it is a plan that would manage the deficit. it would promote economic growth and it would deal with high unemployment, whether in rural america, suburban america, or urban america. those pockets that still remain behind that haven't caught up aft

let's bring in joe watkins and rick tyler. gentlemen, with a good morning to you both. i'm going to pose the same question we heard in that clip we're going to play in a moment by going after delegates, is donald trump embracing what he has been attacking as a rigged system? could that hit his popularity with voters who like his outsider image? >> i don't think so. i think at the end of the day he doesn't take any kind of a hit for that. donald trump has defied most of the odds so far, i mean, we're been talking about him since his eninterest i into the race last year and i remember early on there was always about is this it for donald trump. how much longer you think he'll lastment we're looking at donald trump as the only candidate in the race still who has a path to 1237 before the convention. may not be a strong path but nonetheless he has a path to 1237. i don't think this impacts him negatively. >> can you ask about the new ap article that argues because of the large numbers of unbound delegates the pennsylvania is mainly meaningless. you're in pennsylvania. what

but he has a show to do it. >> joe watkins and rick tyler, good to see you both. thanks so much. >>> the backlash over a new hollywood film about ronald reagan. why comedian will ferrell backed out of that film. let's get mark his own cell phone. nice. send. brad could use a new bike. send. [google:] message. you decide. they're your kids. why are you guys texting grandma? it was him. it was him. keep your family connected. app-connect. on the newly redesigned passat. from volkswagen. unless you have allergies. flonase is the first and only nasal spray approved to relieve both itchy, watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. go ahead, embrace those beautiful moments. flonase changes everything. to folks out there whose diabetic nerve pain... shoots and burns its way into your day, i hear you. to everyone with this pain that makes ordinary tasks extraordinarily painful, i hear you. make sure your doctor hears you too! i hear you because i was there when my dad suffered with diabetic nerve pain. if you have diabetes and burning, shooting

for analysis, let's bring in joe watkins, former h.w. bush and patrick murray. can i say, patrick is here in studio. the two of us looked at each other during these sound boits and went, uh-huh, let's go with the big news, chris christie has given his endorsement to trump. this happened after saying things like this. >> donald has a lot of talents, he does, he has been a successful businessman. he has absolutely no ability in this area. it doesn't make him a bad guy. i think he's generally a good person. but, you know what, he has no business being president of the united nations and if i thought he did, i wouldn't be running. i'd be helping him. >> so, patrick, what's chris christie get out of this? and how does this affect any of your home states? >> i have been following chris christie's career, since forever. >> yes. >> since he was u.s. attorney, a decade ago. in new jersey we have been used to seeing a chris christie who always makes that political calculation, how can this best serve me? he has pretty much decimated the republican party in the state of ne

. >>> let's bring in joe watkins, republican strategist and a former aide in the bush white house. and with a good morning to you, joe, so the departure of marco rubio, does that leave donald trump with an open path to the 1237 delegates needed for the nomination, or not? >> his challenge has been that he has hant had great organization on the ground. he's not a huge following. he's got great momentum but he hasn't been as organized as ted cruz who has raised a lot of money and has people in every single state working for him. if trump had that he would have a clearer path to the 1237 he needs. >> republican strategist steve schmidt was on "morning joe" and this happened on thursday where he was talking about the republican establishment and says it has a case of so-called influenza. they don't understand the plight of america's blue collar workers and it doesn't get how to defeat donald trump. doesn't understand donald trump himself. do you think the gop establishment is out of touch? >> well, steve schmidt raises a good point. i said over and over again the reason why donald trum

and joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aide to president george h.w. bush. welcome. >> good morning. >> let's start with the tweet storm. hey. trump's barrage of tweets friday about former miss universe, alicia machado. people have been quick to call a lot of trump's previous controversies campaign killers. but do you think this one actually could be it? >> i do. the end is here. look, these -- this is the worst post debate spin in history. maybe -- maybe caligula had a worst debate spin in roman times. this is as bad as it gets. he could have survived his poor performance in the debate. now he's going on four, five days with the former miss universe. nobody cares about it. and he is just -- it's funny because the clintons are -- they have to be, the clinton camp has to be overjoyed with how they've been able to emotionally manipulate this man. they played right into his hands. and he has wasted four days, and -- and the biggest problem i'm sure we'll talk about is he's going to lose women. he's losing them big time. >> well, joe, what do you think? do you t

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. >>> let's bring in joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aide to president george h. w. bush, and rick tyler, msnbc political analyst and former national spokesman for the cruz campaign. so donald trump now says president obama was born in the u.s., but for hillary clinton, that admission is not enough. here's what she had to say at an event in washington yesterday -- >> he is feeding in to the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias that lurks in our country. barack obama was born in america, plain and simple. and donald trump owes him and the american people an apology. [ applause ] >> so joe, should trump apologize? >> well, he should, but he's not going to. if he really wanted to reach out to the african-american community, an apology would be in order. but even an apology wouldn't be enough. most african-americans, every african-american that i know is offended by his comments on the birther movement and the fact that he's continued them for so long. so i don't even think that an apology at this point would be enough. i mean, it's almost the midnight hour of the