As you seek your way in the world, never fail to find a way to serve your community.

Use your education and your success in life to help those still trapped in cycles of poverty and

violence. Above all, never lose faith in America. It's false are yours to fix, not to curse.

America is a family. There may be differences and disputes within the family, but we must not allow the family

to be broken into warring factions.

From the diversity of our people, let us draw strength and not see weakness.

Believe in America with all your heart and soul, with all of your mind. Remember that it remains the last best hope of earth.

You are its inheritors, and its future is today placed in your hands.

That is Colin Powell's address to graduates at Howard University back in 1994, an incredible address,

especially given the times the university was going through racial tensions, and his words

had such meaning now and back then as well. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Tuesday, October 19th,

along with Joe, Willie and me, we have, Pollard Surprise-winning columnist and associate editor of the

Washington Post and MSNBC political analyst Eugene Robinson and former aide to the George

W. Bush White House and State Departments,

Elise Jordan, and columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius, joins us.

Thank you all for being on. We'll get to more on the passing of General Col and Powell in just a moment.

But first, former President Donald Trump has filed a new lawsuit against both the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection and the National Archives.

The suit, which was expected, seeks to block the committee from obtaining his administration's records from the archives.

In the 26-page complaint, a lawyer for the former president argues that the records must remain secret as a matter of executive privilege.

In a joint statement from the panel's chair, Benny Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney. The committee vowed to, quote, fight the former

president's attempt to obstruct our investigation. Meanwhile, the House Select Committee is laying

out its criminal contempt case against former Trump advisor, Steve Bannon. The committee sent a letter

...