Good morning and welcome to morning, Joe. It is Wednesday, June 18th. We have a lot to get to this morning as the

situation in the Middle East continues to escalate with Israel's military announcing overnight

it struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran. We'll bring you a live report

from the region in just a moment. This all comes as President Trump is weighing his options on the

growing conflict. We'll go through the new reporting on how and why the president's perspective

on Iran has shifted over the past week. Meanwhile, new analysis of the president's

massive spending and tax bill is revealing more issues with its fiscal impact. Plus, we'll show

you the big moments from Democratic Senator Alex Padilla's speech on the Senate floor yesterday in

a response to being detained last week

by DHS.

Handcuffed.

Agents.

With us, we have the co-host of our fourth hour contributing writer at the Atlantic,

Jonathan Lemire.

NBC News, national affairs analyst and a partner in chief political columnist at Puck,

John Heilman, columnist and Puck, John Heilman.

Columnist and Associate Editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius, is back with us this morning,

and former chief of staff at the CIA and Department of Defense, Jeremy Bash is here.

Also with us, U.S. national editor at the Financial Times, Ed Luce. And we'll get right started right now as Israel and Iran trade fire for the sixth straight day. President Trump is calling for Iran's,

quote, unconditional surrender. He made the comment in a truth social post yesterday shortly after

meeting with the National Security Council

in the Situation Room. The president claimed the U.S. knows exactly where Iran's supreme leader

...