Good morning. Welcome to Morning, Joe, a beautiful live picture of sunrise over New York City on this last day of May. It is Tuesday, May 31st, and today marks one week since the massacre that killed 19 children and two of their teachers in Evalde, Texas.

We'll go live to that grieving town as loved ones today begin to bury their dead.

Plus, new reporting on the Evalde School Police Chief, who made the call for officers not to rush

in immediately and to take down the gunmen. He was set to take his place on the city council there tonight.

We'll tell you what the town's mayor is saying about that. And the latest in the debate over gun reform,

more on what the key players are thinking and saying ahead of a Senate meeting that is scheduled for today.

Along with Joe and me this morning, we have former aide to the George W. Bush White House and State

Departments, Elise Jordan. She's an MSNBC political analyst and the host of way too early.

Jonathan Lemire, he is, of course, the White House Bureau Chief at Politico. Let us begin

with that bipartisan group of senators led by Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican John

Cornyn of Texas. That group will hold a remote meeting today in hopes of reaching a framework, at least, for gun reform.

Senator Cornyn said yesterday many gun issues should be discussed at the state level,

but said background checks, mental health, and red flag laws are things Congress can address.

After spending nearly four hours with the families

in Yuvalde on Sunday, the president returned to the White House yesterday and expressed some

optimism that, quote, rational Republicans will make a move this time. He decried easy access to

high caliber weapons while also discussing the limitations of his own power on this issue.

There's a constitution. I can't fix this stuff. I can do the things are done and then an

executive action I can take, I'll continue to take. But I can't outlaw a weapon. I can't,

you know, change the background stuff. I can't do that. So, Joe, we heard from

the president yesterday. We know that Mitch McConnell encouraged John Cornyn and other Republicans to

join that bipartisan group with Chris Murphy. On the other hand, it does feel like we've been

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