well, he's been doing this to democrats certainly as long as i've been around. the eight years that barack obama was president and now the nearly four years joe biden was president. democrats have to kind of get their minds around we like to project onto israel the kind of government we would like there to be in israel. we have the government that is, which is bibi netanyahu is beholden for his political survival to the most far right elements that has ever been in his coalition, and that's just the reality staring us in the face. >> the world as it is. ben rhodes, thank you for your time. that is our show for this evening. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. testimony wraps up in donald trump's criminal hush money trial without the former president taking the stand. we'll recap what happened in court yesterday and go through with the remaining time line for the case. also ahead israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu may soon give a joint address to

congress. we'll have the latest on the talks between speaker mike johnson and senate majority leader chuck schumer. and take a look at new polling which shows president biden making up significant ground in a swing state. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, may 22nd. i'm ali vitally in for jonathan lemire. testimony in president trump's hush money trial has officially finished. former president trump did not toifr in his own defense can spite telling the press multiple times he really wanted to. >> yeah, i would testify, absolutely. it's a scam. it's a scam. >> mr. trump, are you going to testify? >> yes. >> will the gag order stop you from testifying?

>> no, it won't stop me from testifying. the gag order is not for testifying. >> do you plan to testify in court? >> probably so. i would like. i would think so. >> when asked why he didn't testify the former president refused to answer. watch. >> why did you decide against testifying in your case? did you not want to take the stand? >> the i'm will now take a week long break for the memorial day holiday and then return next tuesday, may 28th, for closing arguments. judge juan merchan asked the jury to confirm if they'd be able to meet the following day wednesday for deliberations. wednesdays are usually an off day on the trial calender. he's not yet confirmed whether court will be in session that day or not. but the defense's final witness was attorney robert costello thawho took the stands for a second day yesterday to finish up his cross-examination by prosecutor susan haufen jr. costello testified about negotiating to represent michael cohen after the fbi raided cohen's properties in 2018.

during cross-examination costello came under fire for how he characterized his relationship with cohen, raising questions about his credibility as the prosecutor used his own words against him several times with e-mails to back it up. for example, haufenger asked whether he touted his ties during the rudy giuliani meeting. costello replied that wasn't true. he then showed him an e-mail he sent to cohen two days after their initial meeting where in he mentioned giuliani all without calling trump to testify and without using its testimony to refute any of the allegations against trump, choosing instead to mount its entire case on questioning cohen's credibility. and though he's not testifying, he's still talkingf. donald trump reunleashed a new line of attack against judge juan merchan upon leaving the courthouse yesterday. the former president accused the judge of hating him and having

bias against him because of, quote, where he comes from. >> the judge hates donald trump. just take a look. take a look at him. take a look where he comes from. he can't stand donald trump. he's doing everything in his power. >> judge juan merchan was born in columbia and moved to the u.s. when he was 6 years old. joining us now msnbc justice and legal affairs analyst anthony coley. former president trump did not testify in this own defense despite being adamant multiple times he was going to. i understand that's best legally but is there a down side for jurors not hearing from him? >> it's certainly his right. but i don't think anyone following this matter closely was surprised donald trump did not do what he said. on this issue of testifying, every time he testifies under oath, it doesn't work out to his

favor. i think back to the e. jean carroll matter where he tries to undermine her credibility. he says she's not mine type and misidentifies marl maple with his ex wife. prosecutors would have been aable to ask him about prior bad acts, the e. jean carroll defamation, they would have been able to ask about the fraudulent business practices for which he was found liable in the trump organization. for all of those reasons legally speaking donald trump was never going to take the stand, and he had the good sense to lirsen to his lawyers on this one. >> yeah, i was going to say it would be a question of listening to his lawyers or not. and of course when we talk about the e. jean carroll case we're talking about in that case depositions instead of closing testimony. >> still under oath. >> exactly. that's an essential point. but closing arguments are scheduled for next week here. kind of lay out the best case

scenario for both sides especially as we watch the very short time for the defense in this case calling again only two witnesses and saying let's rest. >> yeah, that was an interesting way to end -- end their defense, right? i mean you have a situation here where michael cohen really took some punches from the defense. right, we know that he was a convicted felon. we know that he was a liar, but we also learned based on this cross-examination that he was a thief. he stole from the trump organization, and so most criminal defense attorneys would have stopped there. instead they decided to put up robert costello to further undermine his credibility. that did not work out too well. he came off as you noted in this lead in as really like a two-timing friend who was carrying donald trump's water. this isn't surprising because documents really have been, ali, the star witnesses of this case. and he was -- he was completely

undermined by his own words. in terms of what next, i think we're going to hear from judge merchan by end of day thursday about what these jury instructions going to be, and then this trial will end up in the hands of the jury. they're going to hear closing arguments on tuesday, and it's going to be in their hands probably by wednesday. >> look, i'm glad you said documents are the stars of this trial because as someone who's covered trump world for a while it was always clear you never knew who was being honest and everyone was double timing everyone. so the fact you have the evidence in this case to back it up is so important because a lot of these characters are just that, they're characters. and i'm interested today see how they fare in front of a jury certainly as we go to deliberations here. msnbc justice and legal affairs analyst anthony coley, thank you for joining us. >> good to see you. donald trump was joined again in court yesterday by several lawmakers and for the

first time his son, donald trump jr. trump's son eric had been the only member to attend the trial. according to forbes at least 25 members of congress had been in court with the former president since the trial began. a lot of absences up here on capitol hill. don jr. and his father's allies held their routine conference outside the court to spread trump's false claims about the case. ethat's where one republican law make took flattering the new president to a new level, comparing him to pope. >> they don't want donald trump holding rallies because what happens at his rallies? this is five weeks sittingane courtroom where he should be reaching out to the courtroom and who shows up? tens of thousands of people show up at trump's rallies. the democrats hate it. there's not another person on the planet that can do that other than the pope, the pope. >> in fairness that sounds like the gakales we do with troy nels

on a regular basis on capitol hill. a trove of documents are offering insight into the president's handling of classified documents after he left the white house. we'll dig into those details. plus what senator leader chuck schumer is saying about a failed plan to bring the bipartisan border bill back to the floor for a vote tomorrow. those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. when we come right back

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and they're all coming? those who are still with us, yes. grandpa! what's this? your wings. light 'em up! gentlemen, it's a beautiful... ...day to fly. welcome back. newly unsealed court filings reveal donald trump's lawyers found classified documents in the bedroom of his florida home months after the fbi searched the same property. trump's attorneys discovered four classified documents and two folders with classified markings on them all while conducting a sweep of mar-a-lago in december of 2022. months earlier in august of that year the fbi executed a search

warrant on the property. that came after trump ignored a federal subpoena ordering him to return classified material that he'd taken with him upon leaving the white house. trump's lawyers also told authorities in june of 2022 that there were no classified documents at mar-a-lago after they were allegedly misled by their own client. the former president faces 40 felony counts relating to the matter, but there's no current trial date that's been set. in a court ruling the district court judge wrote that the government had, quote, sufficiently demonstrated that trump had obstructed the fbi search. trump and two of his associates also charged in had case have denied any wrongdoing. former obama advisor and pod save america co-host dan fifer is warning about a second trump term could have specifically on the supreme court. take a look at this. >> think about the stakes of the supreme court. if donald trump wins he will almost certainly get two more appointments. by the end of trump's term,

second term were he to win thomas will be 82, alito will be 78. >> they're definitely retiring. >> they're definitely retiring. >> if trump wins again. >> and justice sotomayor will be 74. so he will definitely get two appointsments. that means he would have appointed five supreme court justices all of whom will be around the age of 60 when he leaves office. that is a maga court majority that will rule for decades. we can win the next however many presidential elections and absent something sort of extraordinary happening, trump's fingerprints will be all over the supreme court. and so i think we should make this a big issue. and we know this works because in 2016 that vacant justice scalia seat he held open was one reason that republicans did not like trump at the last minute

were willing to hold their nose and vote for trump because they cared about the supreme court. so i think we can do that in reverse. >> the court certainly something that trump often talks about on the campaign trail especially in relation to the way that he was able to return the roe decision or rather the court was because of the people who he put there. meanwhile, at a weekly press conference yesterday senate minority leader mitch mcconnell was asked about a upside down u.s. flag outside the home of supreme court justice samuel alito, that in it days after the january 6th capitol attack. here's what mitch mcconnell told us as we were gathered at the capitol. >> it seems to me there are just nonstop attacks on the supreme court. week after week after week, and so i'm not going to dignify that with a response. we need to leave the supreme court alone, protect them from people who went into their neighborhoods and tried to do them harm. look out for the supreme court. that's part of the job of the

administration. >> and staying on the hill, senate democrats are moving ahead with a vote on the bipartisan border security package that was killed by republicans earlier this year. senate majority leader chuck schumer says he spoke with president biden and house speaker mike johnson urging them to support the bill. this comes as some republicans who originally said they would support the legislation are now saying they won't as they believe democrats are playing political games. remember this was a bipartisanly negotiated bill in the first place with many republican wins in it according to conversations i had at the time. take a listen, though, to schumer's argument as to why he believes now is the time to support the legislation or at least force republicans to vote against it again. >> for years our republican colleagues have insisted that the only real term solution to fixing the southern border was for congress to pass legislation. we democrats agree. congress must act.

we should not let this moment pass. border legislation is just about the hardest thing congress ever wrestles with. bipartisan border bills are rare opportunities here in congress. that's precisely why we have it in front of us this week. i urge everyone not to let the politics get in the way. still ahead we'll turn to sports with a look at the highlights from a thrilling game one in the nba's eastern conference finals. plus we'll show you a fan's attempt to catch a home run ball that cost them tragically their nachos. all of that and a check on the forecast when we come right back. forecast when we come right back - so this is pickleball? - pickle! ah, these guys are intense. with e*trade from morgan stanley, we're ready for whatever gets served up. dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. i'd rather work on saving for retirement. or college, since you like to get schooled. that's a pretty good burn, right?

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tatum trying to get free. throw it in the corner, fake brown fires up the three. bang, bang, jalen brown knocks down the three to tie the game.

>> jalen brown's tying three pointer in the final seconds of regulation brought the boston celtics back from 13 down in the second half and cept last night's series opener against the indiana pacers into overtime. jason tatum scored ten of his game high 36 points in that extra period as the celtics took advantage of 31 turnovers by the pacers to win game one of the eastern conference finals 133-128. thal series remains in boston for game 2 tomorrow night. the western conference finals, meanwhile, tip off tonight in minneapolis. the minnesota timberwolves fresh off a game 7 knock out of the defending champion denver nuggets will host the fifth seed dallas mavericks in game one. and turning now to hockey, the third round of the stanley cup playoffs opens tonight at madison square garden. the president's trophy winning new york rangers will host the florida panthers in game one of the eastern conference final. it comes as the first two rounds of the nhl post-season have been the most watched ever in the

united states. going into the conference finals the playoffs have averaged nearly 1.2 million viewers across television platforms. that's a 9% jump from last year. turning now to major league baseball, we begin in pittsburgh. pirates slugger oneil cruz became the first player to hit three balls with an exit velocity over 116 miles per hour in a single game. two of them eclipsed 120 miles an hour including his game tying double with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. the giants went onto beat the pirates in extra innings 7-6. to philadelphia where a philly fan lost a tray of nachos to a rangers home run ball. corey seager's eight run solo shot that sent it to the grass, tragic. the a's striking out ten batters over seven innings of work to improve to 9-0 and lead

philadelphia to its mlb leading 35th win, a 5-2 victory over the defending champion texas. and time now for the weather. let's go to meteorologist angie lassman for the forecast. angie, good morning. what do we got? >> good morning, ali. we've got more severe storms. tiz the season, right? no rest for the wearyp. we once again ramped up that weather forecast yesterday with more than 300 storm reports and and today we've got another chance of that. it's a lot quieter this morning as compared to yesterday morning. we had a chance to see the stronger storms developing from texas to new york. notice you see the brown and orange that's where we have the greatest chance to see some of those stronger storms, specifically teacup sized hail in that area. but the strong winds and cup of tornado also on the table here for 44 million people as we get through the day today. on top of that the heavy rain also centered across similar portions of of the country specifically the southern plains, dallas, little rock in

the potential to see some of that heavy rain leading to flash flooding as we get through the next couple of days. meanwhile, looking ahead to the weekend i know this is not what you want to see across the north east when it comes to the holiday weekend, but unfortunately we're going to see wet weather. places like new york low 80s. you'll have some sunshine to deal with, but the rain works back in just in time for memorial day. typical -- or similar i should say pattern for washington, d.c. rain both saturday and monday but dryer conditions sunday and that goes for boston as well and temperatures topping out in the upper 70s. chicago wet on sunday and mondays. saturday is going to be the sunniest of the three days that you're off work. we've got a similar story for st. louis. the heavy rains and strong storms are what you'll have to deal with as we wrap up the workweek. across the south triple dimgts on tap. the heat index values saturday will be really intense.

that summer-like heat is going to stick with us here. notice the temperatures as we roll into saturday and sunday. dallas will hit 97 degrees but have plenty of sunshine for folks there, lots of sunshine out west as well, ali. >> angie lassman, i'm getting real sick of packing my umbrella every weekend. >> i know. you and everyone else in the north east. >> you are all-powerful, my friend. you're going to fix it for us. >> i'll try. >> thank you. coming up new polling shows a tight race in seven key swing states ahead of november. we'll dig into those new numbers and what they could mean for the presidential election coming up next on "way too early." presidential election coming up next on "way too early."

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welcome back to "way too early." it's just about 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. i'm ali vitali ipfor jonathan lemire. new polling finds former president trump and president biden fighting in every sing state. in the latest bloomberg reporting consul poll trump leads in arizona, georgia, north carolina, and wisconsin while biden leads in igmichigan but after the survey showed trump up by 8 points in nevada last month, the new poll finds the two candidates tied. biden has cut trump's 6 point lead to 4 points while making similar gains in arizona and north carolina.

we should note all of these results are within the margin of error, and frankly i imagine that's how polls are going to stay for a while now. joining us now is senior washington correspondent for bloomberg news, soleah mosen. i wonder when you think when we talk about the polls because this race has been consistently tight, but what does it reveal about the state of it considering they're not just both neck and neck bought we're talking about battleground states when you talk about michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania and the like? >> absolutely. you know what's interesting about the polling we found is that in these key battleground states you just showed this chart on, half of the voters think that there's going to be some violence when the election results are coming in november. now, each of these candidates have run a really negative campaign on a lot of fronts, and that negativity combined with fears of another insurrection, of foreign interference in elections, and just the continued demonstrations around

the country that we're seeing on different campuses over the war between israel and hamas, that sometimes actually implode into violence, this is all making people a little bit nervous about what could happen in november. >> yeah, certainly a tense time, though, i think we should point out that negativity in campaigning isn't new, but it also doesn't mean an insurrection, certainly 2020 was the first time that we saw that. i take the point that voters are concerned about that, but you also examined in this polling the impact of tiktok and what banning it could do and what voters are saying about that. >> absolutely. in these swing states that the bloomberg morning consul poll took a temperature of, there's the view that a.i. and tiktok it's imploding, tiktok they're everywhere. but at the same time there's fear about what it could do across the states there. agreeing the tiktok legislation that the congress passed to get it out of china, get the

technology out of china, a lot of people agree with that, but there are concerns about a.i., so this speaks to the overall anxiety about the electorate, so you're absolutely right. negative campaigning is par for course, so this is coming from a really mixed bag of factors. >> senior washington correspondent for bloomberg fuse, thank you for joining us and helping us break down all these numbers. still ahead we'll go live to cnbc for an early look at what's driving the day on wall street as investors in the tech heavy nasdaq await a key burnings report. plus the federal reserve signals rate cuts could be coming soon. we'll tell you his thoughts on the latest inflation data and what he wants to see before supporting any changes to monetary policy. "way too early" will be right back. policy. "way too early" will be right back

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president biden went after donald trump yesterday for sharing a video that referenced a unified reich if the ex-president is re-elected to a second term. nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander has more on the fallout. >> reporter: president biden is touting his commitment to those who served announcing more than 1 million health care claims approved as part of the bipartisan pact act he signed to expand benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals. >> veterans, you are the solid steel spine of our nation. >> reporter: the camouflage colored appeals have become familiar for both president biden and former president trump who's repeatedly slammed the biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan. >> he failed on every single thing including afghanistan. >> reporter: mr. trump has won the military support twice but that support has eroded. he says president biden samore

unifying commander in chief. >> joe biden is the person that i identify more clearly with as a candidate. >> reporter: because? >> because of his staunch commitment to bipartisanship. >> reporter: a vietnam veteran argues president biden is leading the military in the wrong direction. >> they brought in the woke. it'll kill the military. >> reporter: meantime the former president is facing fierce criticism for this video shared on mr. trump's social media accounts. >> what happens after donald trump wins? >> reporter: the 30-second clip uses a term associated with germany's nazi government, referring to the creation of a unified reich. among official newspaper headlines covering a trump victory in november. the trump campaign telling nbc news the video was created by a random account and reposted by a staffer who they say did not see the word. the post removed this morning.

>> our thanks to mbs nfs peter alexander this morning for that reporting. and time now for business. for that let's bring in cnbc's carolyn ross live from london. stock futures a little changed as investors look ahead to a key earnings report due out this afternoon. talk about what we can expect. >> of course we're talking about nvidia here. good morning to you, ali. and it's really hard to overstate just how important nvidia is not just for the tech sector but for the broader market because keep in mind for the last 12 months or so nvidia's earnings have accounted for roughly 30% of the s&p earnings growth. and expectations going into the numbers today once again they're sky high. investors are expecting revenues for the quarter at roughly $24.6 billion. the whisper number is even higher at $26 billion. and nvidia has had a history of surpassing even the loftiest of expectations.

can it repeat that feat once again today? that remains to be seen. it is up a whopping 93%. that is pretty good if you compare that to the s&p, for example. just this month alone nvidia is up by 10%. so the market really waiting with bated breath here and ahead of the futures this is after we saw another record after after the close of the s&p and nasdaq yesterday. >> we'll be watching that. meanwhile fed officials say several more months of good inflation is needed before cutting rates. talk to us more about that. >> yeah, remember last week the market got all excited about that cpi precipitate for the month of april, 3.4%. that came in a little bit softer than expected, and everyone thought, well, september is going to be a done deal in terms of fed kicking off its rate cutting cycle. since then we've had a couple of fed officials coming out and saying, hey, wait a second, not too fast. we still want to see a couple of

really good data points in terms of good inflation that's not too hot when it comes to our decision to be cutting rates. so for example yesterday chris whaler, who was a pretty hawkish fed governor was on cnbc saying i want to see a couple of those data points and basically saying that patience is a virtue. but the good news, ali, he also said he's pretty much ruling out a rate hike because inflation has come down so fast at 3.4% in april. so overall we're pretty close to target. >> yeah, certainly a lot of people in d.c. looking at those numbers, too. and finally the largest seafood chain in the u.s. has been unable to regain its financial footing following the covid pandemic. what's the latest on that? >> so, of course we're talking about red lobster which is the seafood chain which brought unlimited shrimp to middle class americans, pretty affordable as well. but this -- the $25 all you can

eat shrimp deal, that really just wasn't making any money for the company, and it has been struggling for quite some time since the pandemic, so now yesterday red lobster has filed for bankruptcy, chapter 11. the company said it had more than $1 billion in debt and less than $30 million cash in hand. it plans to sell its business to its lenders now to oversee financing to stay afloat. in the meantime it will continue to close stores. it has 600 across the u.s. back over to you. >> cnbc's carolyn roth live from london, thank you for joining us. and still ahead the top lawmakers in the house and senate are mulling an invitation to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to give an address to a joint session of congress. democratic congressman greg landsman of ohio will weigh in on that when he joins the conversation next on "way too early." he joins the conversation next on "way too early. oh, yeah, man. take it from your inner child. what you really need in life is some freakin' torque. what?

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senate majority leader chuck schumer and house speaker mike johnson are in talks to invite israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to address a joint session of congress. yesterday johnson told reporters he's giving schumer until the end of the day to sign an invitation. here's what schumer told us when we asked him about it yesterday. >> do you support the idea of calling prime minister benjamin netanyahu and have him address a joint meeting of congress? >> yes. look, i'm discussing that now with the speaker of the house. and as i've always said, our relationship with israel is iron clad and transcends any one prime minister or president. >> this comes just one day after the international criminal court's chief prosecutor announced he's seeking an arrest warrant for the israeli prime minister, a move that's received criticism from both netanyahu and president biden. while schumer called the icc's decision in his words unfair, he's also voiced his strong opposition to netanyahu and his

actions on the war in gaza. in march schumer delivered a speech on the senate floor calling for a new election to replace the israeli prime minister. joining us now is democratic congressman greg landsman of ohio. congressman, thank you for getting up early with us. i first want to get your reaction to the prosecutor seeking arrest warrants. >> the plan was as i understood the prosecutor was heading to israel and decided not to board the plane and instead issued these arrest warrants. so i think most people who are watching this agree i'm glad the president was clear on that, you know, pursuing hamas as war criminals it's obvious what they did on october 7th, what they continued to do to innocent civilians and both palestinians and israelis and americans who

are being held hostage is one thing. but to go after after gallant and netanyahu is -- is only going to further cause division and undermines the negotiation and it also just undermines the credibility of the icc. >> but there is concern about the state of things inside gaza. i know i talked to even some of your democratic colleagues on the hill who are vocal about this. the u.n. has suspended food distribution in rafah and is warning that the floating pier for aid delivery may fail unless israel starts providing conditions for humanitarian groups to operate safely in that area. so how do you think a potential larger operation in rafah should be handled? and are some of those criticisms warranted of actions by the israelis in gaza? >> yes, certainly humanitarian aid is a top priority. it has to be a top priority. i was in israel a couple months

ago. that was the primary mission or objective of our trip to surge humanitarian aid, create those conditions. it is very difficult once you get aid into israel as the united states is finding out now to ensure that it's being distributed and getting to gazans. and that is a huge problem that it goes beyond what israel is or isn't doing, that it is hamas and others who are diverting these trucks. and so working with israel to create those conditions, those humanitarian corridors is critically important. the -- you know, the challenge obviously is that hamas has these hostages, refuses to release the hostages or agree to any cease-fire that's been proposed. and we need obviously for hamas to -- to agree to a cease-fire.

and if they don't for israel to pursue ending hamas, getting these hostages out in the most surgical and disciplined way possible. >> and congressman, i just want to switch gears briefly because while this is a key focus on the hill, the senate is also bringing up once again the bipartisan border package. do you think that's the right move here? i think we pretty much know how it's going to go in terms of the vote count. >> yeah, i think it's the right move, and my hope is that schumer and others continue to push what is a bipartisan border fix. it increases border patrol, it increases the asylum judges, and the threshold for seeking asylum, it will make a huge difference in this border crisis. and, you know, what the american people want is a bipartisan border fix. here we have it. the senate should vote on it. the house should vote on it.

the only reason it won't pass is because the speaker has been told by donald trump not to bring it to the floor. if he brings it to the floor, there are over 300 of us that will pass this bipartisan border fix. the american people know that and i think they expect us to continue to act. >> i think that's one of the worst kept secrets on capitol hill is why this deal fell apart. greg landsman of ohio, get some coffee. i'll see you on the hill in just a few hours. up next donald trump is now backtracking after suggesting he's open to states restricting birth control. we'll over reproductive rights as it continues to heat up. coming up on "morning joe," both sides have rested their cases in trump's hush money trial without the ex-president testifying. that despite saying he was willing to do so and saying so multiple times. we'll go over what to expect from closing arguments next week as the jury weighs trump's fate. also ahead, chris meloni live in the studio. "morning joe" is just moments

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former president trump is, quote, looking at supporting restrictions on a person's right to contraception. in a new interview yesterday, trump did not say no when asked about restricting things like the morning after pill. listen. >> so related to this is the whole issue of contraceptives. do you support any restrictions on a person's right to contraception? >> well, we're looking at that. i'm going to have a policy on that very shortly. and i think it's something that you'll find interesting. and it's another issue that's very interesting. but, you will find it i think very smart. i think it's a smart decision. but we'll be releasing it very soon. >> well, that's that suggests that you may want to support some restrictions? like the morning after pill or something? >> we are also -- you know, things really do have a lot to do with the states. and some states are going to have different policies than others. but i'm coming out within a week

or so with a very comprehensive policy which i'll get to you immediately. >> a lot of people going to be interested in that in a week. in response to the former president's comments the biden campaign put out a statement that reads in part, it's clear trump wants to go even further by restricting access to birth control and emergency contraceptives. it's not enough for trump that women's lives are being put at risk, he wants to rip away our freedom to access birth control, too. a short time later, trump wrote in a social media post, quote, i have never and will never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control and other contraceptives and neither will the republican party. joining us now is health reporter for the news outlet the 19th and my friend, new book titled "undue burden" life and death decisions in post-roe america just came out. in this book, you examine the domino effect that the fall of roe caused in this country.

you travelled to a lot of these states that is at the epicenter at this ping-pong match. what would it look like if trump wins in november and does move to make things more restrictive both on the contraceptive front and mifepristone seeing move through the courts? >> i think this is something that is very important. and we can't really overstate what significance the election would have for access to reproductive health, including abortion but also including birth control to your point. we have already seen massive reductions in access to care in states with abortion bans, close to half the country, including two of the largest states, texas and florida, have imposed very significant restrictions on the procedure. and what's happened is, we have seen people struggle to access healthcare in those states but also in neighboring states, in illinois, in new mexico, in some cases in places as far as california and new york because the reproductive healthcare system that we had is very fragile, very underfunded.

people are traveling long ways to get care and as a result the people who live in those states are waiting much longer wait times. sometimes several weeks to access health care. we're seeing flts unable to provide the services they normally would have like contraception, like basic online logical care because they don't have the band width anymore. what might happen in a coming election where we do see president trump back in the white house, he made clear who his advisers are. they are people who will restrict abortion, to restrict other family planning mechanisms that have been viewed by those in the anti-abortion movement as -- the anti-abortion move does oppose the morning after pill and i think it would be very, very unwise of us to not consider that those are, in fact, on the table in some form. >> espeshltly as the former president sort of dangles them as being on the table in interviews like that one. i want to read something that i read in your book. you said it wasn't until 1880

that every state passed laws criminalizing abortion, a shift that was less about religion and more a product of a campaign orchestrated by a male-dominated medical establishment. you say it's in part to consolidate power and weaken the credibility of the mid wives who were typically women who often helped people terminate their pregnancies. i'm interested in, as you dug into the history, on how these policies came to be. it wasn't gender from a biological standpoint, gender from a societal. >> this was so striking to me. the idea that abortion should be restricted didn't come from medicine, from religion, from politics. it really did come from what you often hear this narrative of control. this narrative of power. and abortion was seen as something quite normal in a lot of the 1800s in a lot of our country's history. the right to abortion is as old as our country itself, if not

older. that has stayed with me. this is something that has become a fight that seems inescapable in the past couple years, even in the past 50 years ever since roe was decided, there were efforts to overturn it. but for most of our time, it wasn't that way. it was something people did because they viewed it as a way to control their reproductive health and family planning destinies. >> one more quick question. people look at red states and say that's where the restrictions are, there's an impact on blue states here, too, right? >> that impact is so powerful. i think of so many physicians i spoke with who have seen real challenges in trying to provide care that they otherwise would have been able to. they have seen very long wait time. they cannot see every patient they want to and should. something like abortion, it's time sensitive. the longer you are pregnant the more pregnant you get the more expensive the more involved your abortion becomes. i know from talking to providers that they anticipate the strains they see growing especially with

florida's ban now in place. patients are already traveling to new york and in some cases even further north because that is the only viable, legal option for care. and as that continues, as we also see anti-abortion movement, more emboldened, more aggressively pushing for national restrictions, the implications no matter where you live will only become more significant. >> the new book, life and death decisions in post-roe america. you follow these stories on the ground really closely. thank you and congrats on the book. thank you for getting up way too early with us on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" kicks off right now. they don't want donald trump holding rallies. what happens at his rallies. this is five weeks sitting in a courtroom when she houb out reaching the american people and telling the american people what he would like to do for this country. who shows up? tens of thousands of people show up that donald trump rallies. the democrats hate it. there's not another person on