Good morning. Happy Thursday to you!

Join Morning Joe today for the latest details on the church shooting in Charleston and more, we have: Willie Geist, Sam Stein, Rev. Al Sharpton, Clint Van Zandt, Bakari Sellers, Steve Rattner, Jim VandeHei, Richard Haass, Carl Quintanilla, Steve Schmidt, John Heilemann, Nancy Gibbs, Adam Scott, Naomi Scott, Donald Trump and more

BREAKING NEWS: Charleston church shooting: Multiple fatalities in South Carolina, source says. Several people were killed in a shooting at an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, a source close to the investigation told CNN.
The shooter is still at large.

The shooting took place Wednesday evening at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest AME church in the South.

Police haven't said how many people have been shot. But the source who spoke to CNN said several bodies were in the church that were yet to be identified.

"It's really bad. It's a very bad scene," local pastor Thomas Dixon said.

"Apparently the person just entered the church and opened fire. That part has not been fully articulated on what happened yet ... they are still looking for the suspect."

Search on for suspect
Police said the suspect in the shooting is a clean-shaven white man in his 20s, with a slender build. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and boots.

Soon afterward, news cameras showed officers taking a man matching that description into custody, but police said they were still looking for the shooter.

The department asked anyone with information to call 911 dispatchers

Historic significance
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was formed in 1816 when African-American members of Charleston's Methodist Episcopal Church formed their own congregation after a dispute over burial grounds.

Six years later, one of the church founders was implicated in a slave revolt plot. He wasn't convicted.

During the case, the church was burned to the ground. It was rebuilt in 1834.

Heavy police presence
Every Wednesday evening, the church holds a Bible study in its basement.

Corey Wessenger, who was standing across the street from the church, said the area was swarming with law enforcement.

"I just saw a group of about 40 people escorted by cops," Wessenger told CNN by phone.

Community members gathered in a prayer circle just down the street from the scene.

Patrick Wright, a reporter with WFMY News, tweeted, "We've been told not to leave our restaurant here in #Charleston for the time being. Helicopter still circling above."

In Political news, Hillary Clinton was visiting the area yesterday and Jeb Bush cancelled his appearance scheduled in the city for today.

Jeb Bush tells Pella crowd we need to fix things, not argue; Bush points to record, family and plan. GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush made his first campaign stop in Iowa Wednesday after formally announcing his campaign this week. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is checking off his presidential to-do list now that he's officially in the race, and that includes "slow jamming" the news with Jimmy Fallon. 

Bush held an event in Washington Wednesday morning and another in Pella on Wednesday night.

Bush told the Pella crowd of more than 500 he wants to fix things instead of arguing -- find bipartisan consensus to get things done.

"It's now our turn to fix a few big complex things and if we do it, watch America take off," he said.

He talked about his record, his family and his plan for what he wants to accomplish.

He also answered questions from the crowd during the event.

So far, Bush has just three employees in Iowa and has made only two trips here this year. Bush boasts blue chip donors, some of the best advisers in the campaign business and, of course, a famous political name.

But not all Republicans are sold just yet.

"I want to give everybody a fair chance to express themselves," said voter Shelley Buhrow. "Jeb comes from good stock. I'm hoping that he didn't fall too far from the tree."

Democrats say another Bush candidacy means more of the same from the former presidential family.

KCCI asked about Bush's appeal to the Latino community.

"It is understandable why Latinos would be drawn to a person like him," said Omar Padilla of the Iowa Democratic Party. "He says a lot of things that sound nice, but when you look at the record and really look, you all have the opportunity to ask him later today about his immigration policy."

On immigration, Bush said he supports provisional work permits.


Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement.
Donald Trump's big presidential announcement Tuesday was made a little bigger with help from paid actors — at $50 a pop.

New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list of background actors, seeking extras to beef up attendance at Trump's event.

"We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement," reads the June 12 email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. "We understand this is not a traditional 'background job,' but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought." 

The pay was listed as $50 for less than three hours of work. According to the email, Extra Mile was reaching out to potential extras in partnership with Gotham Government Relations and Communications, a New York-Based political consulting group that has worked with Trump in the past. Gotham GR had no comment.

Questions as to whether the Trump campaign had hired extras were first raised Wednesday by anti-Trump activist Angelo Carusone, who came across an Instagram photo showing a man he recognized as a background actor posing at the Trump event. Carusone screengrabbed the photo of the actor, Domenico Del Giacco, and published it in a blog post. The photo shows Del Giacco with a woman, identified in the now-deleted Instagram post as actress Courtney Klotz. (Del Giacco has since deleted his entire Instagram account.)

When reached for comment about the Trump casting call, a person who answered the phone at Extra Mile said, "We don't know anything about that." When pressed about whether this response was a denial of the story, the person said she couldn't comment further and hung up. Additional calls to Extra Mile went unanswered.

Asked if Trump paid anyone to attend the event, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said "no," and that he had never heard of Extra Mile or Gotham GR.

"Mr. Trump draws record crowds at almost every venue at which he is a featured speaker," Lewandowski told The Hollywood Reporter. "The crowds are large, often record-setting and enthusiastic, often with standing ovations. Mr. Trump's message is, 'Make America great again.' "

Del Giacco and Klotz did not respond to a request for comment.

In politics, "astroturfing" is when people are hired to attend a rally or event in order to lend the appearance of grassroots support. They are typically contracted out to political consulting firms, much like Gotham GR. The practice is unsurprisingly considered bad form.
Here's the full email from Extra Mile, with contact information redacted.

Hi there—
We are working helping one of are [sic] associates out at Gotham GR - http://gothamgr.com/ with a big event happening on TUESDAY 6/16/15.
This is an event in support of Donald Trump and an upcoming exciting announcement he will be making at this event.

This event is called “People for a Stronger America.” The entire group is a pro-small business group that is dedicated to encouraging Donald Trump and his latest ventures. This event will be televised.

We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement.

We understand this is not a traditional “background job,” but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought.

This event is happening LIVE and will be from 8:45AM-11:30AM. LESS THAN 3 HOURS

This will take place inside / interior.

The rate for this is: $50 CASH at the end of the event.
We would love to book you if you are interested and still available.

Please let us know and we will get back to you with confirmation.

(Donald) Trump did an interview with Joe (Scarbourgh) this week and they have shown excerpts of it again today. He says that the best POTUS in the last few decades was ironically said to be Bill Clinton. A Democrat. That conversation names, names in every regard too. He goes through to talk about the woes with every GOP candidate. He talks about whom he would name as a cabinet member referring to most of the current ones as being 'weak.' And honestly here, I may agree with that assessment. UPDATE: I think I just heard (I was in the other room) that Mika was also in on this interview and moreover, she literally stated to him or suggested I should say that it could be in his best interest to paraphrase her please, that he (Donald trump) stop referring to people as losers. That is brilliant stuff and i think his reply to how she suggested he phrase it,  was something along the along the lines of it being to long to say. Leave it to Mika to say that to him. 

Move over, Hamilton! Treasury to put woman on $10 bill. Usa Today reports that  A woman will appear on the $10 bill beginning in 2020, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.

Just which woman is up to you.
A USA TODAY mockup of a $10 featuring Rosa Parks

USA TODAY mockup of $10 featuring Harriet Tubman.

USA TODAY mockup of $20 bill with Eleanor Roosevelt.

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USA TODAY mockup of $10 featuring Betty White.

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Legally, the decision belongs to Jack Lew, but the Treasury secretary said he's seeking public input on which female historical figure should appear on U.S. paper currency for the first time in 119 years.

"We're going to spend a lot of time this summer listening to people," Lew said. A decision could come this fall.

But even then, it will take nearly five years for the new bill to see circulation. That's because of the intricate planning for a redesign that will incorporate new anti-counterfeit measures and tactile features for the blind.

Even then, Alexander Hamilton isn't going away. The first Treasury secretary played a leading role in developing the nation's financial system, and has been on the $10 since 1928. And there he'll remain, either on the reverse side or in a separate series of bills. Also, the 1.9 billion $10 bills now in circulation will likely last another 10 years.

The move spares Andrew Jackson, the 19th century Democrat who occupies the $20 bill. An online petition earlier this year urged the administration to replace Jackson with abolitionist Harriet Tubman by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. But Lew said the primary consideration was the security of the currency — and the $10 bill was next in line for an upgrade. Lew said the planning began even before he arrived at Treasury in 2013. President Obama endorsed the idea for a woman on paper currency last year, calling it "a pretty good idea,"

No woman has appeared on new paper currency since Martha Washington on a $1 silver note until 1896. Pocahontas was first, gracing a $20 note beginning in 1865.

By law, no living person may appear on a bill, and George Washington must always remain on the $1.

America wants Harriet Tubman on $20 bill and i agree with that and i agree with (Steve) Rattner whom said the same thing just now on Morning Joe. Alexander Hamilton helped create the Financial System whereas Andrew Jackson ruined our economy at that time.

There is a press conference being aired at the 7AM hour today about the tragic shooting down in Charleston, South Carolina. They will discuss the reward issued for any help to find the murderer and they are no doubt stating that it is indeed a 'hate crime.' But honestly, nothing is scared any more. You cannot feel safe in your own home of course. you cannot feel safe in movie theatres any more. You cannot feel safe in malls any more and most of all now, you cannot feel safe in your own school system any more and nor can you feel safe now in your own church any more. It is disgraceful that anyone would shoot anyone, let alone in places we should be feeling safe.

On an International front, Carter: US military can’t find enough ‘capable, motivated’ Iraqis to train against ISIS. US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has admitted to Congress that the Pentagon has not been able to find enough “legitimate” Iraqi recruits to fight off Islamic State extremists.
Reuters / Parwiz Parwiz
So far, the US military has trained some 9,000 Iraqi soldiers – far short of its 24,000 goal, Carter said.

Appearing before Congress on Wednesday, Carter said that efforts to train “capable, motivated, legitimate ground forces in Iraq and Syria” in order “to seize, clear, and hold” terrain from Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) has proven difficult.

“Our training efforts have been slowed in Iraq by a lack of trainees. We simply haven’t received enough recruits. Of the 24,000 Iraqi security forces we originally envisioned training at our four sites by this fall, we’ve only received enough recruits to train about 7,000 in addition to 2,000 counter-terrorism service personnel,” Carter said.

45 veterans sign letter urging drone pilots to stand down
He has insisted that only “motivated” Iraqi soldiers can ensure the defeat of the terrorist group, not American boots on the ground.

“Putting US combat troops on the ground as a substitute for local forces will not produce enduring results,” Carter said.

The anti-Islamic State coalition’s bombing campaign has produced results in “limiting ISIL’s movement, constraining its ability to reinforce its fighters and impeding its command and control,” Carter said. However, those efforts were chiefly designed to buy time and space to carry out the recruitment efforts and develop legitimate fighters, which is “a work in progress,” he added.

Islamic State forces still hold the city of Mosul, while last month its fighters took Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad, without a fight, despite being outnumbered more than 10 to 1.

Carter said after Mosul fell last June, Iraqi security forces were severely degraded, with four divisions dissolved from a combination of “disunity, deserters and so-called ghost soldiers, who were paid on the books but didn’t show or didn’t exist.” That greatly diminished local forces’ capacity, and then Ramadi fell, he said.

“What we saw in Ramadi last month was deeply disappointing – and illustrates the importance of a capable and motivated Iraqi ground force,” Carter told Congress.

That failure prompted President Barack Obama to send an additional 450 US soldiers to a base in Iraq’s Anbar province, and to step up efforts to recruit and train Sunni soldiers, who are underrepresented in the Iraqi army. In Syria, Carter thinks the situation is even more complex because of the lack of a “legitimate government partner” and competing forces. He said the US will continue launching airstrikes on Syrian territory, working with Syria’s neighbors to stop the flow of foreign fighters into the region.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the Obama administration for a failed six-year-long strategy to secure the Middle East, riven by failed and failing states.

No strategy coming from the White House will “change that trajectory,” Thornberry said.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the committee, acknowledged the problem posed by Islamic State but said deepening the US commitment there without a reliable partner in Iraq would be useless.

Carter ended his testimony to Congress by saying: “It will take time.”

Like Richard Haass said about this situation in Iraq, no one wants to fight for this administration and/or regime that are the leaders in Iraq. Every time whomever asked the USA for support, the US wanted to send it through Baghdad. People in those regions are not into it. For instance, to help the Kurds, for some reason, we tell them that we have to go through the Government in place in Baghdad. It make stupid sense. I also have a feeling this so called agreement with regard to the Nuclear deal that has a deadline of less than two weeks mind you, could be a bad one. Obama better watch out that he is not tagged with doing an awful deal. It comes down on us even though 5 countries are involved in those negotiations. It was also just confirmed that we would not walk away from this deal so we are stuck in this frustrated mode.

A Look At The “Trade” Votes That Will Happen Today In the HouseAfter a narrow and suspenseful 217-212 approval Thursday on a procedural vote, the House is scheduled today to have a series of debates and votes that could lead to passage of “fast track” trade promotion authority (TPA) for the still-secret Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and future trade agreements.

A trade bill involving sub-Saharan Africa already easily passed on Thursday. Votes on two more bills today will lead up to the big vote on fast track, which essentially preapproves the TPP.

Customs Bill
A bill on customs and trade law enforcement is being “loaded up” with amendments that will be attached to the fast-track TPA law, after (and if) fast track passes. These include amendments that would forbid the U.S. from doing anything through the trade agreement to address climate change, restrict actions to fix immigration laws or allow more visas, require trade laws to expand markets for Alaskan seafood, as well as other items intended to “buy votes” for fast-track TPA from reluctant Democrats. The customs bill also tries to get Democratic votes by undoing a provision that cuts Medicare in order to “pay for” trade adjustment assistance for workers who will lose their jobs if TPP passes.

Democrats who vote for the customs bill are voting to approve the ideological amendments added by Republicans. Many Republicans may choose to vote against fast-track TPA if the customs bill does not include the ideological amendments.

Trade Adjustment Assistance
Before the fast-track TPA vote there will be a vote on trade adjustment assistance (TAA). If TAA does not pass, many Democrats who have declared support for fast track could vote against it after all.

TAA provides job training and other limited assistance to workers directly laid off as a result of jobs forced out of the country because of TPP. You could call it “burial insurance” for those workers. It does not provide assistance to the people laid off from the supply chains providing materials to the closing factories, or to the people laid off from grocery, clothing and stores near closing factories, to the people who are laid off because of the grocery and clothing and other stores as the ripple effect of our trade policies hits communities.

Previous “trade” deals along the lines of TPP have had the effect of “deindustrializing” our economy, forcing factories to close and jobs to be “offshored.” Entire regions have been devastated by the results of offshoring from trade deals designed to lower wage and environmental costs and increase corporate profits. It is feared and expected that TPP will drive these policies home with a vengeance.

For example, TPP removes a tariff on imported shoes to benefit and reward Nike for pioneering the offshoring of shoe manufacturing. But New Balance has tried to retain manufacturing inside the U.S. Because TPP lowers this tariff, New Balance will be pressured to cease U.S. operations and the company’s U.S. workers will need assistance and retraining – so they can compete with still-employed workers for any remaining jobs inside the U.S., should there be any, thereby driving wages down further and increasing corporate profits.

Republicans are largely opposed to providing this assistance to workers laid off as a result of our “trade” policies. Such assistance keeps wages from falling, which keeps corporate profits from increasing faster as worker costs drop. It is expected that fewer than half of Republicans – not more than 50 or 100 – will vote for TAA. So TAA requires a large number of Democrats to support it.

The TAA bill has passed the Senate. Senate Republicans cut TAA funding by 21 percent from current levels, excluded public-sector workers from receiving any assistance and required that Medicare be cut to pay for what remains. Yet several Democrats agreed and voted for the bill. Now with the bill before the House, House leadership is trying to lure Democratic votes for the TAA bill by changing the funding from Medicare cuts in the sub-Saharan Africa bill, while retaining the ability to use the recorded TAA vote to cut Medicare against them in the coming elections.

The AFL-CIO has come out against TAA. Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, has stated his opposition to the TAA bill. Many Democrats who support fast-track TPA will find it political difficult to continue to do so without assistance for the workers who will lose jobs as a result of their support.

After the TAA vote comes the fast-track TPA vote.
If the fast-track process is approved, Congress will not be able to amend the TPP, whatever ends up being in it. Congress would be allowing itself only limited debate and would have to give it an up-or-down vote within a very limited timeframe, with no filibusters.

No other kind of treaty or law is granted an exclusion from the transparency and process requirements of the Constitution. So-called “trade” agreements, however, are believed to be unable to pass if the public and Congress is allowed to “meddle” and “interfere,” which could cause the agreements to need a more lengthy negotiation period.

Also, recent “trade” agreements involve several countries at a time instead of resolving trade issues that are particular to the U.S. and another country.

Not Really About “Trade” At All.
This is widely called a “trade” vote, but from what is known about the actual TPP agreement (it’s secret from the public) it is largely about things other than what would usually be understood as trade. For example, one provision called investor-state-dispute-settlement (ISDS) has been leaked to Wikileaks so it is known that it allows corporations to sue governments for laws and regulations that interfere with the corporation’s ability to collect current and “expected” profits.

Another leaked provision revives the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that Congress killed a few years ago. Yet another extends patents and copyrights far beyond what Congress has approved.

The Hill has been maintaining a “whip list” of who is for or against the fast-track bill. As of late Thursday, 118 Republicans and 20 Democrats were either declared or leaning “yes” votes. There were 44 Republicans and 135 Democrats declared or leaning “no.” That left 33 Democrats and 83 Republicans in the “undecided” column.


Especially the members who are undecided need to feel the heat from you to vote against fast track. If you have not made that call to your member of Congress, use our click-to-call tool to make that call now.

President Obama Should Make Rebuilding America His LegacyThe severe damage that President Obama’s obstinate pursuit of fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership did to his relationships with the labor movement and his progressive base, and his loss of face with the business community when an overwhelming majority in his own party turned against him on Friday’s trade votes in the House, are not irreparable.

He could go a long way toward repairing his legacy through a bold campaign to rebuild America’s infrastructure, starting – but by no means stopping – with a long-term surface transportation bill that is currently stuck in Congress.

The president has shown that he already gets the importance of ending the cycle of underinvestment in our transportation network, our water systems and our other public assets, plus our behind-the-times electric grid and broadband networks, largely privately owned but should nonetheless be treated as the essential public assets that they are.

But there are powerful forces in Congress that want to move the nation in an opposing direction, removing revitalization of infrastructure from a national priority and turning that task into a series of negotiations between state and local governments and private entities.

For example, today the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. – the man who pushed the idea of privatizing Medicare – is holding a hearing on how to address the chronic shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, between $10 billion and $15 billion a year, that is used to help finance road, bridge and public transit improvements. (The Senate Finance Committee is holding a similar hearing Thursday, featuring anti-tax activist Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation and Former Obama transportation secretary Ray LaHood.)

Ryan has ruled off the table any notion of increasing the gasoline tax that goes into the fund to close a , even though that tax hasn’t been increased since 1993. He’s also ruled out simply paying for the increased spending we need by borrowing more money – at the near-zero interest rates we still have but perhaps not for long – or closing tax loopholes that enable corporations and the wealthy to profit off our roads and bridges without paying their portion for maintaining and improving them. So he has constrained the debate over funding to what can be gained through public-private partnerships. His star witness at today’s hearing is Robert Poole, the director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank generally hostile to federal transportation spending and which has been pushing an agenda that would shift most of the federal role to the states and to private interests.

We already have a taste of that world, thanks to a gridlocked Congress. After a burst of Recovery Act spending early in President Obama’s first term, federal funding for transportation has been kept alive only by a series of short-term patches to the status quo, the longest lasting only two years. That’s not enough time for states and localities to plan and execute the kind of big projects that federal funding for transportation was envisioned to support.

With states left to their own devices, they are building more toll lanes, often with private financing schemes that too often go awry. A recent example surfaced in Virginia, born in the conservative administration of former Gov. Bob McDonnell, in which the state struck a deal for a private company to build a 55-mile toll road – but construction never started and the state is left trying to recoup $256 million the company received from the state.

For all of the outcry – some warranted – against the kind of bridge-to-nowhere projects that got greenlighted when Congress earmarked projects for federal dollars, the record shows that moving the backroom deals from the offices of elected representatives to meeting rooms with representatives of multinational corporations and state appointees doesn’t make it better, and often makes it worse.

The president has not elevated the debate to the extent that he should because he has allowed himself to be limited by the framing of austerity, the notion that we as a nation are unwilling or unable to rise to the need for investing in our commons if we understand the problem and appreciate the benefits of doing the right thing. Thus his proposal for bolstering the Highway Trust Fund involves taxing profits that corporations shelter overseas, but at a rate that essentially rewards corporations for their past deeds of tax evasion and sets the stage for substantial reductions in the corporate tax rate if Congress ever gets around to overhauling the corporate tax code.

It is true that both the president and Congress is concerned about an electorate that says it is deeply skeptical of government’s ability to take on big tasks and spend wisely. But what a good look at the polls we’ve aggregated on PopulistMajority.org also shows is that an overwhelming majority of Americans want the federal government to prioritize rebuilding America – 75 percent, according to one recent poll.

The president, having boxed himself politically into a corner by opposing an increase in the gasoline tax and putting his stakes on a flawed corporate tax scheme, could nonetheless give running room to members of Congress who have much bolder proposals, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and the House’s Progressive Caucus, and to the progressive activists ready to muster grassroots support. Both Sanders and the Progressive Caucus have put forward proposals that would spend big – up to $1 trillion over five years, in the case of Sanders – but reap even bigger rewards. The spending would go a long way toward closing the investment gap between our current spending and our actual need. The funding would create millions of badly needed, good-paying jobs, and would bolster the American manufacturers under siege as a result of our bad trade policy. And just as the investments in the Interstate Highway System started by the Eisenhower administration left us with the foundation for economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, a renewed national infrastructure that includes a greener transportation grid, high-speed rail, replacements to century-old water mains and all of our other public assets, will pay dividends for decades to come.


This cause needs a champion, and President Obama just might be able to restore his political standing and restore some common sense to this debate.

Regardless of it all happening already today, I will let the press conference happening in South Carolina play itself out. If there is any other news to talk about today, I will chime back in later on and so please stay in touch! PS: I am sure more excerpts from the Scarbourough/Trump Interview will be shown later on during the show today.